Knowlton, on the 17th, was buried with the honors of war near the road on the hill slope, not far from the line of One Hundred and Forty-third Street, west of Ninth Avenue. Leitch died on the 1st of October, and is said to have been buried by Knowlton's side, where Major Thomas Henly, a Massachusetts officer, killed on Montressor's Island on September 23d, was also buried.[205] On the 22d, Captain Nathan Hale, "the martyr-spy," was executed in New York. Finding Washington anxious to have information of the enemy's numbers and designs, Hale volunteered to enter their camp in disguise. Captured at the last moment as he was on the point of escape, he frankly avowed his mission, and just before his execution, on the Rutgers farm, he told the spectators around him that he only regretted he had but one life to give for his country. The war saw no more courageous or unselfish sacrifice. Few worthier of a monument than he!
[Footnote 205: Heath states that Henley was buried by Knowlton's side, and the spot is indicated in the orders of September 24th: "Thomas Henley will be buried this P.M. from the quarters of Maj. David Henley below the hill where the redoubt is thrown up on the road." During the action of the 16th, troops were throwing up intrenchments across the island at about One Hundred and Forty-fifth Street. This was the first and most southerly of the three lines constructed on the Heights. Sauthier's map, the authority in the case, shows this line with a battery across the King's Bridge Road, just at the top of what is known as Breakneck Hill. It was on the slope of this hill that Knowlton and Henley were buried. Mr. Lossing puts his grave in one of the redoubts on the second line, afterwards included in Trinity Cemetery; but that line had not been thrown up when Knowlton died. (Silliman's letter of September 17th, P.M. Part II., page 55.) Mr. Jay and others have suggested the erection of a monument to Knowlton and Leitch. No finer site could be found than the spot where they fell in Morningside Park.
Respecting Major Henley, spoken of by Washington as "another of our best officers," see Glover's letter, _Document_ 35.]
The battle of the 16th was followed by inactivity on the part of the British, and Washington securely established himself on Harlem Heights. The chief excitement was the occurrence of the great fire on the night of the 21st of September, which broke out near Whitehall Slip, in New York, and destroyed a fourth of the city. In addition to accounts of the calamity already published and generally familiar, the experiences of Pastor Shewkirk, as given in his diary in the present work, will be read with interest.