of purchases; and the entrance into office of a
number of inexperienced men. The ultimate effect was to paralyze the
organization of this vital department; to cause delay and confusion in
furnishing and forwarding supplies, and to retard and embarrass the
operations of the different armies throughout the year. Washington had
many dangers and difficulties to harass and perplex him throughout
this complicated campaign, and not among the least may be classed the
"stumblings of Congress."

For several days Washington remained at Germantown in painful
uncertainty about the British fleet; whether gone to the south or to
the east. The intense heat of the weather made him unwilling again to
move his army, already excessively harassed by marchings and
countermarchings. Concluding, at length, that the fleet had actually
gone to the east, he was once more on the way to recross the Delaware,
when an express overtook him on the 10th of August, with tidings that
three days before it had been seen off Sinepuxent Inlet, about sixteen
leagues south of the Capes of Delaware.

Again he came to a halt, and waited for further intelligence. Danger
suggested itself from a different quarter. Might it not be Howe's
plan, by thus appearing with his ships at different places, to lure
the army after him, and thereby leave the country open for Sir Henry
Clinton with the troops at New York to form a junction with Burgoyne?
With this idea Washington wrote forthwith to the veteran Putnam to be
on the alert; collect all the force he could to strengthen his post at
Peekskill, and send down spies to ascertain whether Sir Henry Clinton
was actually at New York, and what troops he had there.

The old general, whose boast it was that he never slept but with one
eye, was already on the alert. A circumstance had given him proof
positive that Sir Henry was in New York, and had roused his military
ire. A spy, sent by that commander, had been detected furtively
collecting information of the force and condition of the post at
Peekskill, and had undergone a military trial. A vessel of war came up
the Hudson in all haste, and landed a flag of truce at Verplanck's
Point, by which a message was transmitted to Putnam from Sir Henry
Clinton, claiming Edmund Palmer as a lieutenant in the British
service. The reply of the old general was brief but emphatic:

"HEAD-QUARTERS, 7th Aug., 1777.

"Edmund Palmer, an officer in the enemy's service, was taken as a spy
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