of proceeding to the Delaware, make a sudden movement up the Hudson,
it would be in their power, should Albany be left defenceless, to
destroy the valuable arsenal which had been there erected, and the
military stores captured with Burgoyne, which had been chiefly
deposited in that town.

Having, after repeated remonstrances, obtained an order directing
three brigades to the Delaware, Hamilton hastened back to Putnam, and
found the troops which had been ordered to join General Washington,
still at Peekskill. The detachment from New York had suggested to
Putnam the possibility of taking that place; and he does not appear to
have made very great exertions to divest himself of a force he deemed
necessary for an object, the accomplishment of which would give so
much splendour to his military character. In addition to this
circumstance, an opinion had gained ground among the soldiers that
their share of service for the campaign had been performed, and that
it was time for them to go into winter quarters. Great discontents too
prevailed concerning their pay, which the government had permitted to
be more than six months in arrear; and in Poor's brigade, a mutiny
broke out, in the course of which a soldier who was run through the
body by his captain, before he expired, shot the captain dead who gave
the wound. Colonel Hamilton came in time to borrow money from the
governor of New York, to put the troops in motion; and they proceeded
by brigades to the Delaware. But these several delays retarded their
arrival until the contest for the forts on that river was terminated.

{November.}

The preparations of Sir William Howe being completed, a large battery
on Province Island of twenty-four and thirty-two pounders, and two