On this day 250 years ago in New York City, General George Washington wrote to John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress:
Our situation is truly distressing—The check our Detachment sustained on the 27th Ulto, has dispirited too great a proportion of our Troops and filled their minds with apprehension and despair . . . Our number of men at present fit for duty are under 20,000—they were so by the last returns and best accounts I could get after the Engagement on Long Island—since which Numbers have deserted . . . Till of late I had no doubt in my own mind of defending this place nor should I have yet If the Men would do their duty, but this I despair of—It is painfull and extremely grating to me to give such unfavourable accounts, but It would be criminal to conceal the truth at so critical a juncture—Every power I possess shall be exerted to serve the Cause, & my first wish is, that whatever may be the event, the Congress will do me the Justice to think so. If we should be obliged to abandon this Town, ought It to stand as Winter Quarters for the Enemy? They would derive great conveniences from It on the one hand—and much property would be destroyed on the other—It is an important question, but will admit of but little time for deliberation—At present I dare say the Enemy mean to preserve It if they can—If Congress therefore should resolve upon the destruction of It, the Resolution should be a profound secret as the knowledge of It will make a Capital change in their plans.
John Hancock replied the next day with express orders not to burn New York City, but on September 20 New York did burn. Historians have long debated whether the fire was set by the Americans to prevent the British from using New York as their Army’s winter quarters, but a recently published book speculates that General Washington ordered the burning of the town, and that he may have received secret orders from Congress authorizing destruction of New York City.
Sources: “George Washington to John Hancock, 2 September 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-06-02-0162. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 6, 13 August 1776 – 20 October 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase and Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1994, pp. 199–201.]; https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/did-george-washington-order-rebels-to-burn-new-york-city-in-1776-180982153/
