On the ninth of October, the frigates _Phœnix_ and _Roebuck_ safely passed the forts as far north as Dobb’s Ferry. It became evident that General Putnam’s methods would not control the Hudson River route of British advance. Sickness increased in the camps. The emergency forced upon Washington the immediate reorganization of the medical department; and he ordered an examination of applicants before allowing a commission to be issued and rank conferred. Such had been the laxity of this necessary class of officers, that General Greene reported his surgeons as “without the least particle of medicine”; adding: “The regimental surgeons embezzle the public stores committed to their care, so that the regimental sick suffer, and should have the benefit of a general hospital.” Washington issued an order, after his own very lucid style, deploring the fact that “the periodical homesickness, which was common just before an anticipated engagement, had broke out again with contagious virulence.” The want of discipline, however, was not wholly with the rank and file. Adjutant-General Reed, in writing to his wife, expressed his purpose to resign, for he had seen a captain shaving one of his men before the house; and added: “To enforce discipline in such cases, makes a man odious and detestable, a position which no one will choose.” And Colonel Smallwood, afterwards General, and one of the best soldiers of the war, in writing to the Maryland Council of Safety, complains of “the ignorance and inattention of officers who fail to realize the importance of that discipline which is so excellent in the Commander-in-Chief”; adding: “It would be a happy day for the United States if there was as much propriety in every department under him.” At this period, General Howe again wrote to Lord Germaine, that he “did not expect to finish the campaign until spring”; “that the Provincials would not join the British army”; and called for more foreign troops, and eight additional men-of-war. The monotony of these frequent requisitions of the British Commander-in-Chief makes a tiresome story; but like the successive appeals of Washington—to Congress, Provincial Councils and Committees of Safety—they form an indispensable part of the narrative of those facts which tested Washington’s character as a Soldier. Having observed increased activity of the British shipping in the East River, and indications that Howe would abandon a direct attack upon his fortified position upon Harlem Heights, Washington prepared for the contingency of more active duty elsewhere, and announced October eleventh as the day for a personal inspection of every company under his command. [Illustration: Operations near New York.] CHAPTER XIII. WASHINGTON TENDERS, AND HOWE DECLINES, BATTLE.—HARLEM HEIGHTS AND WHITE PLAINS.