nine in the morning
The army started to march by the road . The next morning the English discovered that the Americans had disappeared . Captain Lutwych immediately set to work to destroy the bridge and boom , whose construction had taken the Americans nearly twelve months ' labor . By nine in the morning a passage was effected , and some gunboats passed through in pursuit of the enemy 's convoy . They overtook them near Skenesborough , engaged and captured many of their largest craft , and obliged them to set several others on fire , together with a large number of their boats and barges . A few hours afterward a detachment of British troops in gunboats came up the river to Skenesborough . The cannon on the works which the Americans had erected there opened fire , but the troops were landed , and the enemy at once evacuated their works , setting fire to their store-houses and mills .