_A._ I have already said that the whole had an abattis before it. [He produces an actual survey of the lines.]... _Q._ If any one of these redoubts were taken, did not they flank the line in such a manner to the right and left that the enemy could not remain in the lines? _A._ I have already said, that they could not be taken by assault, but by approaches, as they were rather fortresses than redoubts."--_A View of the Evidence Relative to the Conduct of the American War under Sir William Howe_, etc.; second edition; London, 1779. _Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York_, 1870, p. 884. The maps in the early London editions of Gordon's and Stedman's histories of the war, each put _five_ fortifications on the line from the Wallabout to Gowanus Creek.] FORT COBBLE HILL.--Passing to the remaining works on Long Island, we find a redoubt on the crest of a cone-shaped hill, which stood alone near the intersection of the present Court and Atlantic streets, and which was known by the Dutch inhabitants as _Punkiesberg_. As it does not appear to have been called Cobble Hill before this date, the reasonable inference may be drawn that it was so named by Greene's troops because of its close resemblance to the Cobble Hill which formed one of the fortified points in the siege of Boston, but a short distance from Winter Hill, where Greene's brigade was posted. In the orders of the day, the redoubt is known as "Smith's barbette," Captain William Smith, the engineer whom Lee brought with him, having it in charge. The work mounted four guns, and, from its central interior position, could have prevented the enemy from securing a foothold on the peninsula in the rear or flank of the main line in case they effected a landing back of Red Hook or crossed Gowanus Creek above. This hill was long since cut away.[44] [Footnote 44: One of Greene's orders refers to this fort as follows: "_Camp on Long Island, July 19, 1776._--The works on Cobble Hill being greatly retarded for want of men to lay turf, few being acquainted with that service, all those in Colonel Hitchcock's and Colonel Little's regiments, that understand that business, are desired to voluntarily turn out every day, and they shall be excused from all other duty, and allowed one half a pint of rum a day." Two guns fired from Cobble Hill were to be the signal that the enemy had landed on Long Island.] REDOUBT AT THE MILL.--Near the corner of the present Degraw and Bond streets, a small battery or breastwork, in the form of a right angle, mounting one gun, was thrown up to cover the narrow passage over a mill-dam which here crossed Gowanus Creek. It stood at the extremity of a long low sand-hill, and the dam connected this point with a tongue of land on the opposite side, on which two mills were built, known as the upper or yellow, and lower mills. The upper mill was immediately opposite the redoubt, and it was here that the Port Road came down to the edge of the creek.