Washington surmised that Howe's scheme of sailing southward with an
army aboard his ships was for the purpose of luring him away from the
real point of attack, which was to be in the Highlands, so he wrote
Putnam to be on the alert and to send spies down to New York to
ascertain Clinton's plans. "If he has the number of men with him that is
reported, it is probably with the intention to attack you from below,
while Burgoyne comes down upon you from above." Thus wrote Washington in
August, but still the depletion of the perplexed Putnam's command went
steadily on. When he protested he was recommended to hurry up the
militia from Connecticut, or some other New England State, and thus
supply the place of the seasoned troops he had trained, with raw
recruits.
"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 aroused his military
ire," writes Washington Irving. This paragraph refers to one of
Clinton's spies, who was captured while gathering information in
Putnam's camp at Peekskill.
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