[Sidenote:  May.]

These preparations were immediately communicated to General Washington, who was confident that the British general meditated an attack on the forts in the highlands, or designed to take a position between those forts and Middlebrook, in order to interrupt the communication between the different parts of the American army, to prevent their reunion, and to beat them in detail.  Measures were instantly taken to counteract either of these designs.  The intelligence from New York was communicated to Generals Putnam and M’Dougal, who were ordered to hold themselves in readiness to march; and, on the 29th of May, the army moved by divisions from Middlebrook towards the highlands.  On the 30th, the British army, commanded by Sir Henry Clinton in person, and convoyed by Sir George Collier, proceeded up the river; and General Vaughan, at the head of the largest division, landed next morning, about eight miles below Verplank’s.  The other division, under the particular command of General Patterson, but accompanied by Sir Henry Clinton, advancing farther up, landed on the west side within three miles of Stony Point.

[Sidenote:  June 1.]

[Sidenote:  Fort Fayette surrendered to the British.]

That place being immediately abandoned, General Patterson took possession of it on the same afternoon.  He dragged some heavy cannon and mortars to the summit of the hill in the course of the night; and, at five next morning, opened a battery on fort Fayette, at the distance of about one thousand yards.  During the following night, two galleys passed the fort, and, anchoring above it, prevented the escape of the garrison by water; while General Vaughan invested it closely by land.  No means of defending the fort, or of saving themselves remaining, the garrison became prisoners of war.  Immediate directions were given for completing the works at both posts, and for putting Stony Point, in particular, in a strong state of defence.

It is scarcely supposable that the views of Sir Henry Clinton in moving up the river, were limited to this single acquisition.  The means employed were so disproportioned to the object, as to justify a belief that he contemplated farther and more important conquests.  Whatever may have been his plans, the measures of precaution taken by Washington counteracted their execution; and before Clinton was in a situation to proceed against West Point, General M’Dougal was so strengthened, and the American army took such a position on the strong grounds about the Hudson, that the enterprise became too hazardous to be farther prosecuted.

[Sidenote:  July.]

[Sidenote:  Invasion of Connecticut.]