In an instant, again completely master of himself, he was building new plans in the hopes of saving his army.
The situation on Manhattan Island was this.

To the south was General Knox, in command of a fort known as Bunker Hill on an eminence of what is now Grand Street.

Near-by was General Israel Putnam--probably less known to posterity (above all, to youthful posterity) for his qualities as a commander than for the mad dash down "Put's Hill" at Greenwich by which he escaped the closely pursuing Red Coats.

With Putnam was Alexander Hamilton, in charge of a battery.

To the generals Washington sent word to retreat to the north in order to effect a junction of forces.