The presence of this
immense fleet did not prevent the proper reception of the immortal
_Declaration of Independence_, proclaimed by the Continental Congress at
Philadelphia on the 4th of July, 1776, and which was read to the troops,
amid loud acclaim from officers and common soldiers, on the 9th.
[Illustration: Israel Putnam.
From a painting by Trumbull.]
The arrival of the vast fleet, the subsequent landing of an army of
nearly twenty-five thousand men, and the warlike preparations which the
British were feverishly making looking to the capture of the city, did
not alarm Old Put, with his total force of scarcely seventeen thousand.
He went on as calmly and as determinedly as though himself commander of
the larger army, for the hero of Bunker Hill never anticipated defeat.
He always fought to the last, after making every needful preparation for
whatever event, and at New York, although the chances were all against
him, he did his utmost to bring about success. He had fortified
Governor's Island and Red Hook in order to prevent the enemy's ships of
war from ascending the Hudson; he now sank several old hulks in the
channel for the same purpose; but, notwithstanding, two war-vessels
succeeded in getting up the North River, which they afterward descended,
without injury to themselves.
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