568 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



" During the march of the two armies to White Plains frequent skirmishes 

 occurred. On the 18th. the vanguard of the British army were attacked by a 

 detachment uuder General Sullivan, and the fight which ensued, (near the road 

 reaching from New Rochelle.) has been always represented as very creditable to 

 the Americans. " 



"On the 21st, Colonel Rogers, a celebrated partisan officer in the French war, 

 had accepted a command in the English service, and lay at Mamaroncck. An 

 attai k upon him was planned by Lord Sterling, and executed by a force under 

 the command of Col. Haslet, of the Delaware regiment. Rogers was completely 

 surprised ; seventy or eighty of his men were killed or made prisoners, and a 

 considerable quantity of arms, ammunition and clothing taken by the Ameri- 

 cans. On the 2:3d of October, a spirited skirmish took place between Hand's 

 Pennsylvania riflemen and a detachment of Hessian chasseurs, about 240 strong, 

 in which the Hessians were routed. These harassing encounters of the Ameri- 

 cans, (attended invariably with success,) tended to delay the advance of the 

 British and to make them cautious, while it cheered the desponding courage of 

 the Americans soldiers, and above all, gave General Washington time to remove 

 his stores and entrench himself where no army dare assail him. 



"On the morning of the 28th of October, the British army marched from 

 their camp in two columns — the right commanded by General Clinton, the left 

 by De Heister, and came in sight of the American forces about 10 o'clock. 

 On the 27th of October, two militia regiments had been sent over to throw up 

 entrenchments on Chatterton hill ; and on the morning of the 28th, General 

 Washington ordered Col. Haslet to take command of the hill — having under his 

 command his own (the Delaware) Regiment, the Militia, and part of the Mary- 

 land troops. General McDougal soon followed him and took command. Col. 

 Haslet says, the enemy in the first place moved towards the fortifications in the 

 village— they then halted— the general officers had a council of war on horseback 

 in the wheat-fields, and the result was that their forces inclined towards the 

 Bronx. Fifteen or twenty pieces of artillery were placed upon the high ground 

 opposite the hill, and commenced a furious cannonade upon McDougal's forces, 

 under cover of which fire the British built a bridge over the Bronx, and prepared 

 to cross. 



1. McDougal placed two field pieces upon a ledge of table rock, which did 

 great execution among the British artificers and soldiers. So soon as the bridge 

 would admit their crossing, they rushed forward and attempted to take the two 

 pieces by a charge up the hill — these two cannon were in charge of the late 

 Alexander Hamilton, (then a captain of artillery), and never did officers or men 

 do better execution. When upon the spot in after years, describing it to a 

 youthful friend, he was heard to say, ' For three successive discharges the advanc- 

 ing column of British troops was swept from hill-top to river ' The British fill- 

 ing this table rock inaccessible, inclined to the left down the river, and joined 

 the troops under General liahl, which had crossed about a quarter of a mile be- 

 low. 



"They now attacked McDougal, and attempted to turn his right flank. He 

 retreated, but contested the ground all the way up to the summit of the lull, 

 making as:. ry favorable point. At length the British cavalry gained 



the crest of the hill, and charging, cut to pieces the militia on McDougal's right. 



