They met at Murray Hill, and together galloped toward the
sound of firing, but before they reached East River were met by their
own troops fleeing before the British advance.
CHAPTER XV
WASHINGTON'S CHIEF RELIANCE
It was at the retreat of the Americans before the British, who had
landed at Kip's Bay, that the unique spectacle was afforded of both
Washington and Putnam acting in unison, both in a towering rage, and
both attempting with all their might to turn their cowardly soldiers
face-about to stand against the foe. But all their efforts were in vain,
though Washington, in his endeavors to stem the tide of retreat, came
near being made prisoner, and would have been, probably, if one of the
soldiers had not taken his horse by the bridle and turned him in another
direction.
In the actual retreat to Harlem Heights that then followed, brave Putnam
took the post of danger again, and, while nearly everybody else was
heading northward, he himself went the other way in search of his
detachment, which, fortunately, his aide-de-camp, Major Burr, had taken
the liberty of setting on the move.
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