CHAPTER XXX. PUTNAM’S MILITARY PROJECTS—CHEVAUX-DE-FRISE AT FORT WASHINGTON—MEDITATED ATTACK ON STATEN ISLAND—ARRIVAL OF SHIPS—HESSIAN REINFORCEMENTS—SCOTCH HIGHLANDERS—SIR HENRY CLINTON AND LORD CORNWALLIS—PUTNAM’S OBSTRUCTIONS OF THE HUDSON—THE PHŒNIX AND ROSE ATTACKED BY ROW GALLIES AT TARRYTOWN—GENERAL ORDER OF WASHINGTON ON THE SUBJECT OF SECTIONAL JEALOUSIES—PROFANE SWEARING PROHIBITED IN THE CAMP—PREPARATIONS AGAINST ATTACK—LEVIES OF YEOMANRY—GEORGE CLINTON IN COMMAND OF THE LEVIES ALONG THE HUDSON—ALARMS OF THE PEOPLE OF NEW YORK—BENEVOLENT SYMPATHY OF WASHINGTON—THE PHŒNIX GRAPPLED BY A FIRE-SHIP—THE SHIPS EVACUATE THE HUDSON. General Putnam, beside his bravery in the field, was somewhat of a mechanical projector. The batteries at Fort Washington had proved ineffectual in opposing the passage of hostile ships up the Hudson. He was now engaged on a plan for obstructing the channel opposite the fort, so as to prevent the passing of any more ships. A letter from him to General Gates (July 26th) explains his project. “We are preparing chevaux-de-frise, at which we make great despatch by the help of ships, which are to be sunk—a scheme of mine which you may be assured is very simple; a plan of which I send you. The two ships’ sterns lie towards each other, about seventy feet apart. Three large logs, which reach from ship to ship, are fastened to them. The two ships and logs stop the river two hundred and eighty feet. The ships are to be sunk, and when hauled down on one side, the pricks will be raised to a proper height, and they must inevitably stop the river, if the enemy will let us sink them.” It so happened that one Ephraim Anderson, adjutant to the second Jersey battalion, had recently submitted a project to Congress for destroying the enemy’s fleet in the harbor of New York. He had attempted an enterprise of the kind against the British ships in the harbor of Quebec during the siege, and, according to his own account, would have succeeded, had not the enemy discovered his intentions, and stretched a cable across the mouth of the harbor, and had he not accidentally been much burnt. His scheme was favorably entertained by Congress, and Washington, by a letter dated July 10th, was instructed to aid him in carrying it into effect. Anderson, accordingly, was soon at work at New York constructing fire-ships, with which the fleet was to be attacked. Simultaneous with the attack, a descent was to be made on the British camp on Staten Island, from the nearest point of the Jersey shore, by troops from Mercer’s flying camp, and by others stationed at Bergen under Major Knowlton, Putnam’s favorite officer for daring enterprises.