From a recent photograph by Miss Catharine Weed Barnes.

was finished it became his summer home for a long series of years-even to the end of his life. He had a commodious city residence in Chambers street, and the removal of his household and servants and effects from one house to the other every spring and autumn, was a proceeding of no little importance. Each of the three historic homes--of Bradhurst, Hamilton, and Lawrence-were located in conformance with the line of the Bloomingdale extended road built after the Revolution. The hill was exceedingly rough and steep near the Lawrence house, as may readily be inferred from the elevated situation of the old dwelling at the present time, as compared with the gentle descent of the well-graded boulevard. After the death of John B. Lawrence, the homestead was purchased by Cornelius W. Lawrence, who lived in it six or more years. He was the mayor of the city at the time of the great fire in 1835, was also president of the democratic electoral college in 1836, collector of the port of New York

under President Polk, and president of the bank of the state of New York for some twenty years. It was just to the east of this house, on what became afterward a part of its grounds, that Washington's advanced guard-two brigades-under the command of General Nathanael Greene, encamped on the night of the 15th of September, 1776, and were vigorously attacked on the 16th by a detachment of British troops numbering according to General George Clinton "about a thousand." They clambered up the heights as best they could, dragging their guns with them, but were met with determined resistance. Thomas W. Lawrence, a son of John B. Lawrence, says that several cannon balls were found at this point on the Lawrence estate, during his early life at the family homestead.

But the most notable battle-field of that memorable September day was beyond. The implements of war-cannon balls, pieces of shells, broken swords, parts of bayonets, and other interesting trophies-have been exhumed in such profusion from the site of Trinity Church Cemetery, and in the excavations for building, and the extension of streets in that immediate vicinity, that there would seem no reasonable excuse for doubts as to the place where the severest fighting occurred on the occasion of the much misunderstood battle of Harlem Heights. Wherever our first settlers in surveying the land found the debris of fish and oyster shells in abundance, they quickly decided that an Indian village once existed there. If in a similar manner they had discovered a crop of bullets and cannon balls, they would naturally have marked the spot as the scene of civilized combat. In Trinity cemetery alone enough relics of this character have been found to form a creditable collection, which Mr. Muller, the keeper of the grounds, has in his possession, and treasures with scrupulous care. The clasp of a sword-belt ornamented with the English crown and the letters "G. R" underneath, together with "XXXVIII Regt" in gilt lettering, a shield, a molding cup for bullets, a pair of huge army scissors, a saw, a drinking-cup, sockets of signal flags, the end of a sword, badges, British buttons, bayonets, broken shells, and prominently and chiefly cannon balls-which are not commonly rolled about for sport like marbies-are vouchers in themselves of some unusual proceeding. These cannon balls are of different dimensions-one is a twenty pounder-showing that the several field-pieces on the ground of which Silliman speaks in a letter to his wife, were of varied calibre. A six-pounder was recently in the hands of the writer, which Mr. Monteith has in his possession, and which was found by some workmen in 154th street, close by his house. Hon. Seth C. Hawley states, that in the summer of 1879 some laborers laying gas mains, found a cannon ball and the skeleton of a horse at the

north-east corner of 155 street and the boulevard, and they were in such juxtaposition as to favor the idea that the cannon ball killed the horse. Colonel Jacob M. Long, superintendent of the Harlem Gas Company, corroborates this, and adds that there was also found a bridle-bit and part of an iron stirrup. At another time his men discovered a cannon ball in digging a trench for gas pipes in 155th street, about one hundred feet west of 10th avenue. Near this spot, about two hundred feet west of 10th avenue, Rev. Dr. Charles A. Stoddard says a number of buckles, buttons, and bullets were thrown out while digging the foundation for his house.

These relics have been found more plentifully during the year 1888 than

heretofore, owing probably to the rapidity with which building and streets have progressed. On the chair, in the sketch, may be noticed a cannon ball and the fragment of a shell exhumed only a few weeks since near St. Nicholas Place and 153d street. These are in possession of Rev. Dr. Maunsell Van Rensselaer, who resides near by. Instances might be multiplied indefinitely—indeed there seems to have been cannon balls enough already garnered from this battle field with which to secure a very respectable victory should an enemy approach with hostile intent. And it is a noteworthy fact that specimens of actual warfare have been found nowhere else except at the places where it has been heretofore demonstrated, with tolerable exactitude, that the actual fighting on the 16th of September, 1776, took place. The chair of the picture is in itself a relic of interest, having been made from a tree that grew on the Watkins farm, where the battle raged, and the handsome scarlet broadcloth coat thrown across the chair, with its white silk linings, and gold trimmings and epauletts, belonged to General John Maunsell, B.A., and is also in possession of Dr. Van Rensselaer.

The families who had planted their homes on Harlem Heights prior to the Revolution, considered it the better part of valor to leave them before either army arrived on the scene. General Maunsell went to England, and on account of his American ties and family interests, was stationed at some inconsequential post there, until peace was established, and where his family joined him. Mr. Watkins removed his family to New Jersey. Colonel Morris and his wife retired into the country, but returned after the departure of Washington's forces, and resided in their beautiful home until the end of the war. These historic houses were occupied by American officers on their retreat from the city, September 15, 1776. Washington and his staff took possession of the Morris mansion.

It is no part of the purpose of this paper to narrate in detail the military events of that stirring period. A brief glimpse in passing must suffice. The battle of Long Island, as is well known, resulted in the retreat of the American army to New York, which was not a fortified city, and the enemy was already in her very doorway. There was nothing to prevent the British army from landing at any point, at any moment, or from cutting off all retreat from Manhattan Island. Like the cat with the mouse, delay, on the part of the trained warriors of King George, was chiefly the outcome of the assurance of power. The consternation of the New Yorkers may be imagined. As soon as it became generally understood that the city was to be evacuated by American soldiery, many of the inhabitants hurriedly prepared to go also. Probably nineteen-twentieths of the families

had already removed from the town, or had not returned from the summer retreats, but there were enough left to create great embarrassment. Saturday, September 14, was a black day for citizens and soldiers, who all worked together with marvelous energy. The most exasperating delays occurred through the scarcity of conveyances, for it was necessary that everything should be done at the same time. Wagons that were sent over the tedious. land route to Kingsbridge seemed

to carry very little in the way of military equipments and stores, however heavily laden, and the water-craft employed was wholly inadequate to such an emergency. Washington's headquarters were at the Apthorpe mansion, but he was constantly on the alert, and when a rumor reached him late in the afternoon of that day that 6,000 of the enemy were quartered on the islands near the mouth of the Harlem river, he sprang into his saddle and rode in hot haste to Harlem Heights to make observations. He had chosen this high ground, which from its conformation was a natural fortress, as the only avenue by. which he could withdraw his forces from the city to a more convenient field for action; it extended from Manhattanville to Kingsbridge, rising

from the Hudson and Harlem riv- [IN POSSESSION OF REV. DR. MAUNSELL VAN RENSSELaer.]

ers in rough, rocky, forest-clad From a recent photograph by Miss Catharine Weed Barnes, precipices, in the language of one

of our eminent scholars, "nearly a hundred feet in height, which, for well nigh three-fourths of its circumference, were almost inaccessible. These natural buttresses support an irregular plain, the surface of which rises towards the centre to an eminence two hundred feet above the Hudson river, and to another on the side of the Harlem river of about equal height, between which lies the most level part of the entire region." Washington did not intend to remain there long, but it might be made his castle