risking more for its preservation than it was worth. We also lost
a galley, which was ordered down to cover the boats. She got
under way on her return the afternoon of the 18th. The enemy
began a severe and continued cannonade upon her, from which
having suffered some injury she was run on shore, which disabled
her from proceeding. As she could not be got afloat till late in
the flood-tide, and one or two of the enemy's vessels under
favour of the night passed above her, she was set on fire and
blown up.

Disappointed in our attempt on the other side, we may lose some
of the principal advantages hoped from the undertaking. The enemy
may re-establish the post at Stony Point, and still continue to
interrupt that communication. Had both places been carried,
though we should not have been able to occupy them ourselves,
there is great reason to believe the enemy would hardly have
mutilated their main body a second time, and gone through the
same trouble to regain possession of posts where they had been so
unfortunate. But though we may not reap all the benefits which
might have followed, those we do reap are very important. The
diminution of the enemy's force, by the loss of so many men, will
be felt in their present circumstances. The artillery and stores
will be a valuable acquisition to us, especially in our scarcity
of heavy cannon for the forts. The event will have a good effect
upon the minds of the people, give our troops greater confidence
in themselves, and depress the spirits of the enemy
proportionably. If they resolve to re-establish the post, they
must keep their force collected for the purpose. This will serve
to confine their ravages within a narrower compass, and to a part
of the country already exhausted. They must lose part of the
remainder of the campaign in rebuilding the works; and when they
have left a garrison for its defence, their main body, by being
lessened, must act with so much the less energy, and so much the
greater caution.

They have now brought their whole force up the river, and
yesterday they landed a body at Stony Point. It is supposed not
impossible that General Clinton may retaliate by a stroke (p. 019)
upon West Point; and his having stripped New York and its
dependencies pretty bare, and br