April, 1775, to September, 1776 129 



Messrs. Reginald P. Bolton, Edward Hagaman Hall, and W. L. 

 Calver carefully excavated the ground within the old redoubt 

 and were rewarded by finding remains of brick fireplaces and 

 other military relics, including regimental buttons of privates 

 of the 13th Pennsylvania Regiment and the following British 

 infantry regiments: 4th, 10th, 17th, 26th, 28th, 44th, 52d, 

 54th, 57th, 64th, and 71st Highlanders, and also an officer's 

 button of the 17th British. 



Though there were eleven of these redoubts, the British 

 numbers ran only to eight, as several of them had special 

 names, or were of such small size as not to merit special men- 

 tion as they were attached to the larger fortifications near 

 them. 



Numbers Six, Seven, and Eight were small redoubts com- 

 manding the Harlem River from Fordham Heights, and strung 

 along to the southward as far as the present Burnside Avenue. 

 Of these, Number Eight was the most famous, as Colonel De 

 Lancey's cantonment was under its guns for protection from 

 the American attacks; it also protected the pontoon bridge 

 which connected the mainland with Manhattan near Fort 

 George, over which the British cowboys drove their cattle, 

 wood, forage, and other products of their raids. The daring 

 American partisans were not deterred by the proximity of the 

 fort, however, but made affairs in this vicinity hot on numer- 

 ous occasions, as we shall see later. 



Lossing says: 1 "Before leaving these heights [Fort Washing- 

 ton], consecrated by valor and patriotism, let us turn toward 

 the distant hills of West Chester, where almost every rood of 

 earth is scarred by the intrencher's mattock, or made memo- 

 rable by deeds of daring and of suffering." 



The reference here is chiefly to the "distant hills" of North 



1 Page 623, Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution. 



