6o2 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



by a Hanking fire from the American galleys and batteries, and by sharp 

 volleys from the outworks. The latter, however, as had been concert- 

 ed, were quickly abandoned by the garrison. The enemy entered at two 

 places, and, imagining the day their own, the two columns pushed on 

 with shouts to storm different parts of the redoubt. As yet, no troops 

 were to be seen ; but as one of the columns approached the redoubt on 

 the north side, a tremendous discharge of grape-shot and musketry burst 

 forth from the embrasures in front, and a half-masked battery on the 

 left. The slaughter was prodigious; the column was driven back in 

 confusion. Count Donop with the other column, in attempting the 

 south side of the redoubt, had passed the abatis ; some of his men had 

 traversed the fosse ; others had clambered over the pickets, when a sim- 

 ilar tempest of artillery and musketry burst upon them. Some were 

 killed on the spot, many were wounded, and the rest were driven out. 

 Donop himself was wounded, and remained on the spot ; Lieutenant- 

 Colonel Mingerode, the second in command, was also dangerously 

 wounded. Several other of the best officers were slain or disabled. 

 Lieutenant-Colonel Linsing, the oldest remaining officer, endeavored to 

 draw off the troops in good order, but in vain ; they retreated in confu- 

 sion, hotly pursued, and were again cut up in their retreat by the flank- 

 ing fire from the galleys and floating batteries. 



The loss of the enemy in killed and wounded, in this brief but severe 

 action, was about four hundred men. That of the Americans, eight 

 killed and twenty-nine wounded. 



Washington Irving thus describes the attack made by the enemy on 

 Fort Mifflin and Mercer on the 22d of October, 1777 : — 



"On the forts and obstructions in the river, Washington mainly counted to 

 complete the harassment of Philadelphia. The defences had been materially im- 

 paired. The works at Billingsport had been attacked and destroyed, and some Of 

 the enemy's ships had forced their way through the chi vaux-ck -frise, placed there. 

 The American frigate Delaware, stationed in the river between the upper forts 

 and Philadelphia, had run aground before a British battery and been captured. 



It was now the great object of the Howes to reduce and destroy, and of Wash 

 ington to defend and maintain, the remaining forts and obstructions. Fort Miff- 

 lin, which we have already mentioned, was erected on a low, green, reedy island 

 in the Delaware, a few miles below Philadelphia, and below the mouth of the 

 Shuylkill. It consisted of a strong redoubt, with extensive outworks and batteries. 

 There was but a narrow channel between the island and the Pennsylvania shore. 

 The main channel, practicable for ships, was on the other side. In this were 

 Bunk strong chetwux-de-frise, difficult either to be weighed or cut through, and 

 dangerous to any ships that might run against them; subjected as they would be 

 to the batteries of Fort Mifflin on one side, and on the other to those of Fort 

 Mercer, a strong work at Red Bank on the Jersey shore. 



