impossible, under such a variety of distressing circumstances, to conduct matters agreeably to public expectation.” CHAPTER XLI. THE ENEMY CROSS THE HUDSON—RETREAT OF THE GARRISON FROM FORT LEE—THE CROSSING OF THE HACKENSACK—LEE ORDERED TO MOVE TO THE WEST SIDE OF THE RIVER—REED’S LETTER TO HIM—SECOND MOVE OF THE ARMY BEYOND THE PASSAIC—ASSISTANCE SOUGHT FROM VARIOUS QUARTERS—CORRESPONDENCES AND SCHEMES OF LEE—HEATH STANCH TO HIS INSTRUCTIONS—ANXIETY OF GEORGE CLINTON FOR THE SAFETY OF THE HUDSON—CRITICAL SITUATION OF THE ARMY—DISPARAGING CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN LEE AND REED—WASHINGTON RETREATS ACROSS THE RARITAN—ARRIVES AT TRENTON—REMOVES HIS BAGGAGE ACROSS THE DELAWARE—DISMAY AND DESPONDENCY OF THE COUNTRY—PROCLAMATION OF LORD HOWE—EXULTATION OF THE ENEMY—WASHINGTON’S RESOLVE IN CASE OF EXTREMITY. With the capture of Fort Washington, the project of obstructing the navigation of the Hudson, at that point, was at an end. Fort Lee, consequently, became useless, and Washington ordered all the ammunition and stores to be removed, preparatory to its abandonment. This was effected with the whole of the ammunition, and a part of the stores, and every exertion was making to hurry off the remainder, when, early in the morning of the 20th, intelligence was brought that the enemy, with two hundred boats, had crossed the river and landed a few miles above. General Greene immediately ordered the garrison under arms, sent out troops to hold the enemy in check, and sent off an express to Washington, at Hackensack. The enemy had crossed the Hudson, on a very rainy night, in two divisions, one diagonally upward from King’s Bridge, landing on the west side, about eight o’clock; the other marched up the east bank, three or four miles, and then crossed to the opposite shore. The whole corps, six thousand strong, and under the command of Lord Cornwallis, were landed, with their cannon, by ten o’clock, at a place called Closter Dock, five or six miles above Fort Lee, and under that line of lofty and perpendicular cliffs known as the Palisades. “The seamen,” says Sir William Howe, “distinguished themselves remarkably on this occasion, by their readiness to drag the cannon up a very narrow road, for nearly half a mile to the top of a precipice, which bounds the shore for some miles on the west side.”[136]