It is to be hoped that his boast that
he had killed more Americans than all the King's forces is an
exaggeration. It may, however, be true that in the years 1776 and
1777 he destroyed more American soldiers than had, at that time,
fallen on the field of battle.
When an old building that had been used as a prison near the City Hall
was torn down a few years ago to make way for the Subway Station of
the Brooklyn Bridge, a great number of skeletons were found _in its
cellars_. That these men starved to death or came to their end by
violence cannot be doubted. New York, at the time of the Revolution,
extended to about three-quarters of a mile from the Battery, its
suburbs lying around what is now Fulton Street. Cornelius speaks of
the Bowery as about three-quarters of a mile from New York!
"St. Paul's Church," says Mr. Haltigan, in his very readable book
called "The Irish in the American Revolution," "where Washington
attended divine service, is now the only building standing that
existed in those days, and that is a veritable monument to Irish and
American patriotism. * * * On the Boston Post Road, where it crossed a
brook in the vicinity of Fifty-Second street and Second avenue, then
called Beekman's Hill, William Beekman had an extensive country
house. During the Revolution this house was the British headquarters,
and residence of Sir William Howe, where Nathan Hale was condemned to
death, and where Major Andre received his last instructions before
going on his ill-fated mission to the traitor Arnold.
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