From September to November, 1776 147 



drink, ' lay as a picquet all night, the heavens over us and the 

 earth under us, which was all we had, having left all our 

 baggage at the old encampment we left in the morning." The 

 next day, Saturday the eighteenth, the brigade withdrew to 

 the Mile Square, three miles distant, to the westward of the 

 Bronx River. 



This engagement has been called the Battle of Pell's Point, 

 and it is the most important, both from its effects and from the 

 number of men engaged, that took place within the Borough, 

 though part of the line of retreat is in the present village of 

 Pelham Manor, and the final position of the Americans is in 

 the present city of Mount Vernon; the beginning and main 

 part of the battle were within the present Pelham Bay Park. 



The American loss was six men killed, and Colonel Shepard 

 and twelve men wounded. At this time, no report of the 

 losses of the German mercenaries was made, except to their 

 respective sovereigns; but from the statements of deserters 

 who came into the American lines from different regiments and 

 at different places during the following week, and from both 

 official and unofficial sources, the British loss can be reliably 

 placed at between eight hundred and one thousand in killed, 

 wounded and missing. General Gage reported the entire loss 

 in killed and wounded at Bunker Hill as one thousand and 

 fifty-four; so that this battle, which many histories ignore, 

 was almost equally disastrous to the British arms. 2 



Further, it saved the American army ; for Howe had received 

 such a check as to convince him that he could not advance 

 into the county with impunity. He delayed his movements 



1 There was plenty of drinkable water along the way; but by "drink" 

 Glover evidently means rum, the almost indispensable beverage of the 

 yeoman class of which his command was composed. 



2 Dawson, in Scharf 's History of Westchester County ; William Abbatt 

 in the Battle of Pell's Point, and Avery's History of the United States. 



