Glass JELi4J_ THE BATTLE OF HARLEM HEIGHTS SEPTEMBER 16, 1776 READ BEFORE THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY FEBRUARY 5, 1878 WITH A PREFACE AND NOTES ERASTUS C. BENEDICT PUBLISHED BY A. S. BARNES & COMPANY NEW YORK 5 l Id THE Battle of Harlem Heights 7*7 SEPTEMBER 16, 1776 READ BEFORE THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY FEBRUARY 5, 1878 WITH A PREFACE AND NOTES ERASTUS C. BENEDICT A. S. BARNES & CO., Ill WILLIAM ST. NEW YORK. 1 i B.v Transfer PREFACE. This little monograph came in this wise. My grandfather, Rev. Abner Benedict, was a chaplain in the army at the bat- tles of Long Island, Harlem Heights and White Plains. In the traditions of the family, and in biographical and historical literature, the battle of September 10, 1776, was known as the Battle of Harlem Heights. Absence from New York pre- vented my being present at the very interesting and appro- priate celebration of the centennial anniversary of that battle. When the printed volume of the proceedings, with Mr. Jay's excellent oration, was put in my hands/ my surprise was ex- pressed that the name Harlem Plains had been used instead of Harlem Heights. A remark was made in reply that the battle was fought on Harlem Plains, which surprised me still more. I immediately set about a search for the historical truth. The result of my inquiries is seen in the following paper, which was read before the New York Historical Society, as an at- tempt to ascertain the proper name and the actual place of the battle. This inquiry is quite immaterial except for the pur- pose of that historical accuracy which seems to me to be al- ways important in questions of the early history of our revo- lutionary struggle. Before my paper was completed, I was informed that Mr. Johnston was writing on the subject for the Long Island His- torical Society, and supposing that he might have evidence which I had not seen, I invited him to give me an interview, which he kindly did, spending an evening with me at my house. I read to him the characteristic portions of my paper, as far as it was completed, and we conversed on the subject. His views differed from mine, as they did from the published accounts of all who had written before him. I derived not only pleas- ure, but profit, from the interview. After reading my paper iii the Society, Mr. John A. Stevens, who was at that time the Librarian of the Society, urged me to print it, and when I in- formed him that I could not at that time give it the necessary attention, he kindly offered to superintend the printing him- self, which I declined, the manuscript not being in a condition for printing. I had also determined not to print before hav- ing an opportunity to see Mr. Johnston's volume. That vol- ume proved to be a very valuable and interesting contribution to local revolutionaiy history. It did not, however, change my views. I then repeatedly invited Mr. Stevens to call on me and give me the benefit of his views. He always ex- pressed his willingness to do so, but was prevented from com- ing. I then determined to wait till Mrs. Lamb's unique, ex- cellent and popular history of the City of New York should be so far advanced as to embrace her account of the battle, knowing, as I did, that her views differed widely from mine. Soon after her account was published, I was informed that Mr. Stevens had in hand an article for the magazine of Ameri- can History. I determined to wait for that also. The publi- cation of that number of the magazine Avas unavoidably de- layed till the 29th of May last, and by that time my paper was in large part printed. That magazine article has rendered necessarj r a portion of this preface, and some notes which I have appended to my paper, which the reader is requested to look at. There are in the text a few r alterations and some new facts which I thought would more properly appear in the text than in foot notes. I had then before me the carefully prepared accounts of Mr. Dawson, Mr. Lossing, Mr. Jay, Mr. Johnston, Mrs. Lamb and Mr. Stevens, besides my owm, no two of them agreeing, except Mrs. Lamb's and my own, which, to my surprise, proved to be coincident in many parts, both in substance and in language. That coincidence happened as" follows : Soon after the celebration, in a conversation with Mrs. Lamb, I ex- pressed my views of the evidence as afterwards set forth in my paper, from which she expressed a prompt, positive and earnest dissent. I then dropped the subject with her, and went on with my inquiries. Several months afterwards Mrs. Lamb sent her secretary to me with a message that she had not been present at the read- ing of my paper, and asking me to allow her to read it. I cheerfully handed it to the secretary. I did not hear from it again till sometime after my return from Europe, in the Au- tumn of 1879, when she informed me that the number of her history containing her account of the battle, was eleetrotyped and ready for the press. I did not read it till after it was de- livered to the subscribers. A remark was made to me after the reading of my paper, by one who had taken much interest in the centennial celebration, that my views would destroy the value of that celebration. No mistake could be greater. That celebration was in every respect a complete and admirable success, and for it we are indebted lo Mr. Stevens. He suggested the celebration, and he was the master-spirit of the theory and of the arrange- ments by which it was carried forward with so much success. The place of that commemorative display was well chosen and appropriate — elevated, far-overlooking and central. Had the battle been then going on, Mr. Jay might have seen the smoke of battle as it rose wherever it was, and have almost heard the vollies and the cannon, mingling with the well de- served plaudits of his hearers. On his either hand would be the two commanders, at their headquarters, directing the move- ments. The objective point of both was the same, Harlem Heights, Howe to attack and Washington to defend — neither having a thought of Harlem Plains. It could be no one but Washington who sent out, Knowlton, and Reed, and Leitch, and Putnam and Greene, onthe Heights, and no one but Howe who sent off the Fifth British Regiment of Foot to trot three miles, double quick, to support and rescue Leslie, three miles away, and it could be no one but him who sent forward the 8,000 or 10,000 fresh British regulars, who were just coming- over the Bloomingdale hills when Washington ordered our jubilant troops to be called in. That Mr. Stevens and Mr. Jay should be mistaken in their judgment on some facts of locality and some movements, is neither important nor singular. A hundred years of decay and of the changes wrought by modern improvements, have im- paired the force of evidence, which was always scrappy, sketchy and scattered, and not so forcible before being collated and combined. Different minds would view it differently, some would give more weight to one thing and some to another, even if the whole testimony was before them, as it would not be. Much of it has been discovered since Mr. Jay's oration was delivered, and doubtless more will be dis- covered hereafter, during the quickened search of this centen- nial period. The whole subject is one of fair historical in- vestigation, without feeling or prejudice or pride of opinion. In referring to the evidence, I have inserted in the paper and in this preface, only verbatim extracts from each document and I have printed those extracts in italics, to give them a sharper outline and to make a more distinct and forcible, and at the same time more harmonious, presentation of the proofs. It should also be remarked that the references, Jay, 25, etc., are not to be understood as quoting Mr. Jay personally, but simply as a reference to the page of the Jay commemorative volume, the pages of that volume being numbered consecu- tively from the first to the last, including the appendix. Mr. Stevens has gone awkwardly out of his way to throw discredit on the history of Mrs. Lamb, now nearly finished, and to say that I am justly chargeable with leading her into topographical and historical error, and to say this for no other probable reason than that I have been compelled to differ with him respectfully on a matter of revolutionary history which is somewhat dim with age, and on which all other writers on the subject have come to conclusions differing from his own and from each other. He begins by suggesting that my view assumes that Wash- ington "committed such a blunder as to have neglected to hold the southern extremity of the heights on which his army was encamped." The reverse is expressly stated in my ac- count, and is true, that Washington held not only the south- ern extremity, but the whole of the Heights where his army was encamped. His strong pickets ran along the eastern brow of the Heights to the Point of Rocks, and along the northern brow of the Manhattanville hollow-way, to the North River. Immediately above them was the advanced guard of two brigades commanded bj' General Greene, and above them lay the brigades of which Colonel Silliman's command was a part — vide page 24. Washington held the whole of the Heights two months. I shall not now review all the errors of Mr. Stevens. I leave them to be compared with the proofs mendoned in my paper. His petty fault-finding manner is evidence that he may have been influenced by " private griefs" as much as by the love of historical truth. I must, however, mention a few characteristic instances to show how carelessly he makes his attack. Mrs. Lamb snys : Washington saw large bodies of the enemy upon Vie high grounds opposite. To this Mr. Stevens says : There is no direct evidence to any appearance of large bodies anywhere. Let us see. Washington himself distinctly says : About the time of the post's departure with my let- ter, the enemy appeared in several large bodies upon the plains, about 2% miles from here. (Date, Headquarters, Morris' House.) I rode down to our advanced posts to put matters in a proper situation if they should attempt to come on, when I arrived there 1 heard a firing, which I was informed was between a party of our rangers, under the command of Colonel Knowlton, and an advanced party of the enemy. — Jay, 40. He says again, in another letter: On Holiday morning last, several parties of the enemy appeared on the high grounds opposite to our heights, and some skirmishing hael happened between our troops and those of the enemy. — Jay, 44. Mr. Stevens thinks the second of these statements of Washington is correct — the other not ! They are the same statement — referring to the plains on the high grounds opposite — that is, Bloomingdale Heights. Colonel Silliman (date, Harlem Heights, Sept. 17th) says: Yesterday, at 7 o'clock in themorning, we were alarmed with the sight of a considereible number of the enemy on the pterins between us, about a mile distant. — Jay, 57. This fixes the time, 7 A.M. Colonel Reed says : Just after I had seeded my letter an ac- count came that the enemy was advancing in three large columns. —Jay, 47-49. Colonel Humphrey says : Next morning several parties of the i in my appeeired upon theplains in our front. General Wash- ington rode quickly for the outposts for the purpose of preparing for an attack if the enemy should come on. — Life of Putnam, 140. The enemy did not come on till a little before 12 o'clock, several hours later. — Jay, 57. Notwithstanding attempts which have been made to throw discredit on father Weems's story of the cherry tree and the hatchet, I think that with the testimony of these three officers, every one of them on the spot, and of the highest credibility, Mrs. Lamb had a right to consider Washington's character for veracity good. Again, Mrs. Lamb says: Before daylight Washington was in the saddle. His first important act was to send Knowlton with a picked company of '120 nn n to learn tin position of and take the enemy's advanced guard. Mr. Stevens says: For this also there is no authority. Let us see. A letter from an officer in the army to his friend, published at the time in the Connecticut Gazette, says: On Monday morning the General ordered us to go and take the enemy's ad- vanced guard; accordingly, we set out just before day and found where Hay were. — Jay, GO. This officer is well understood to have been Captain Oliver Brown, Knowlton's senior captain, who was appointed by Washington to the command of the rangei's on Knowlton's death. — Jay, 60. He was there in the battle, an officer of the 120 picked men. It was he who said My poor Colonel (Knowl- ton) was shot just by my side. I took bold of him and asked him if he wasbadly wounded, be told me he was, and as his life ebbed away he said : " I do notvalue my life if we do but get the day;" and it was he who ordered two of his men to carry the dying hero to the rear. It could be nobody but Captain Brown. — Jay, GO. He was a brave, patriotic and good man, recorded as distinguished attlie battle of Harlem Heights, White Plains, Princeton, Trenton, Brandywine, Gerrnantoiru and Monmouth. Better believe him, Mr. Stevens, as Mrs. Lamb does, and as I do. See his Epitaph in the Appendix, Note 4. Mr. S. says, that the statement of Mrs. Lamb that this bat- tle was evidently a part of the British plan to drive the Ameri- cans from the island has no basis in contemporaneous history. Let us see. General George Clinton says: It is witliout doubt, they had out on the occasion between 4000 and 5000 of their choicest troops, and expected to have drove us off the island. They an greatly mortified at their disappointment. — Jay, 54. A letter from headquarters to a gentleman in Annapolis, dated Sept. 17th says : We expect every hour that the general en- gagement will come on. — Jay, 02. In general orders of the lGth, General Washington says: General Nixon's and Colonel Sargeant's elivison, Colonel Weedon's and Major Price's regiments, are to retire to their quarters to re- fresh th< mselves, but to hold themsleves in readiness to turn out at a minute's 'warning. General McDougall to establish proper guards against his brigade upon the heights from Morris' House to General McDougaU's camp, to furnish proper guards to pre- vent et surprise, not less than twenty men from each regiment. General Putnam commands upon the right flank to-night. Gen- eral Spencer, from McDougaU's brigade, up to Morris House. Should the enemy attempt to force the pass to-night, General Put- nam is to apply to General Spencer for a reinforcement. — Jay, 65. Baurmeister, 24th Sept., says: The English Light In- fantry advanced too quickly on the retreat of the enemy. — Jay, 82. General Sir Henry Clinton says: The ungm-e enable impetu- osity of the light.troops drew us into Uds scrape. — Jay, 81. The light infantry who were the van of our army pressed too gal- lantly upon the rebels. — Jay, 80. The complaint is clearly that they were premature — they at- tacked too soon. It has been said that there is no evidence that at any time on the Kith, "a single Britisher succeeded in crossing or attempted to cross the Manhattan ville Hollow -way." Let us see: I suppose that Silliman's entrenchments across the Island were where they are placed by Mrs. Lamb, beginning about 153d street, near the bank of the Harlem River, and ending quite on the bank of the Hudson River, because there were no other entrenchments across the island to the river, and because Silliman says they took in three little redoubts which were there before, and are shown on the map. It is, however, for the present purpose quite immaterial whether they were there, or lower down, where two months later, Sauthier's map shows was another line of entrenchments beginning about half the distance from the Harlem River to the Hudson, and ending on the Hudson, apparently a stronger work than Silliman's. Now, Colonel Silliman says: About half a mile below us in the woods, we had two brigade s lying as an advanced guard. The enemy in a large body advanced in the woods a little before 12 o'clock and began a heavy fire on those brigades. — Jay, 57. General Greene commanded those brigades. General Greene says in his letter to the Governor of Rhode Island— his State: "On tin 16th wt had a skirmish at Harlem Heights. A party of about a thousand came and attacked our advanced post, and Putnam and Reed took part in that right. — Jay, 55. In another letter General Greene says: " The enemy next day at Harlem Heights, flushed with the success of the day before, approached and attacked our lines where I had the honor to con, maud," Jay, 66. " General Putnam and the Adjutant-General were in the action, and behaved nobly." — Jay, 67. I have carefully studied the various accounts of this battle, and now, after all that has been said, I am compelled to say that I have not seen any evidence that after the eight rounds apiece of the skirmish between Leslie and Knowlton in the early morning, there was a shot fired below the American pickets along the brow of the Manhattanville Hollow-way, so clearly and truly represented on Mr. Johnston's map " Field of the Harlem Heights affair," at page 259 of his volume. The opinions of the writers, that all the fighting was below those pickets and so within the British picket lines, are very clearly given, but they all fail to state the evidence on which they formed those opinions, which opinions seem quite inad- missible. Mr. Stevens seems to suppose that where the facts are inconsistent with his theory, so much the worse for the facts, and that what he so often calls "The fair inference," " The natural inference," "The presumptive evidence" of his theory must prevail over the written statements of officers of high character who were on the spot. Of all the extraordinary statements of Mr. Stevens, the most extraordinary is this, that tht a shadow of authority for Mrs. Lamb's statement that Knowlton was discovered at sunrise and attacked by 400 of the British Infantry near Vandewaters Heights. In addition to the proofs quoted on pages 28 to 30, I invite attention to the testimony of Hall's Civil War in America, which distinctly and significantly furnishes the missing link which connects the parts of this story, stating where Knowl- ton's camp was, the place from which the Rangers " set out " before daylight, and the place 2% miles distant where they were discovered and attacked by Leslie a little later in the morning. Hall says: On the sixteenth in the morning, a body of the enemy (the Rangers) turned out of their lines on Morris Heights, and appeared * * near the. edge of a wood in front of our left flank, on which two companies of Light Infantry (Leslie) were sent to dislodge them. Now it is quite immaterial what route Knowlton took when he ''set out," or when he " came in " for re-inforcements. I must however insist that it is probable, as stated in my paper, page 27, that he went out by the low unobstructed shore of the river, out of sight and of hearing of both armies, and that he "came in" through the woods that covered the heights along the shore, pursued by Leslie, also in the woods. The point of Mr. Stevens as to the barracks, I presume would not have been made by him were it not that he makes 1 he basis of it a map which has no existence except in the gar- bled and "cooked" copy of a map substituted for and called the original Sauthier's map in the magazine article. What an idea to " cook " an old historical map into a made-dish and serve it as the original! The barracks built and burned by the Americans were the barracks near Fort Washington, burned by Colonel Lasher by the special order of General Heath. I invite attention to note 5 in the Appendix in which I make some remarks as to the maps and the barracks. At the time of the battle there were no barracks below Manhattanville— nor indeed anywhere else ; it was warm weather, September 16th, and the two armies had arrived on these fields only the night before, and it is not easy to see how Sauthier's map, not made till after November 16th, when barracks were necessary, could furnish evidence that the Americans were fighting within the British lines and had barracks there two months before. June 22, 1880. E C. BENEDICT. THE EVACUATION OF NEW YORK, AND THE BATTLE OF HAELEI HEIGHTS, IN SEPTEMBER, 1776. The Evacuation of the City of New York and the Battle of Harlem Heights, to which it led, are so nearly connected as to be one military event, and are so important as to deserve a more careful history than they have yet received. That battle was the first American victory of the Revolutionary War. This Society, on the centennial anniversary of the day of the battle, celebrated so important an event in an appropriate manner under the mistaken name of the Battle of Harlem Plains. Assembled thousands, convened from this and other States, on the high grounds overlooking northward the battle- field and the camp grounds of the preceding night, listened to a patriotic and eloquent commemorative oration by Air. Jay, our late Minister to Austria, which was published by the Soci- ety. In recommending the Society to celebrate the event, the Executive Committee very justly says: The action, though of minor importance, teas one of the most brilliant exploits of the Revolutionary War. In a close conflict, the most celebrated of the British regiments, after an unsuccessful effort to break the American lines, icere repulsed and driven back in confusion by lite Continental troops. This success restored confidence to the patriot forces, demoralized by the retreat from Long Island and the subsequent landing at Kips Bay. — Jay, 86. There was no large and general plan of attack, and at the end of the day each army kept the positions which it had before the attack was made (Jay, 52-76) ; and in the number of casualties, the battle was indeed of minor importance, but in historical results the affair was as important as it was brilliant, and was so esteemed at the time. It is the object of this paper to contribute some general views and some historical details which have hitherto escaped proper notice, and which serve to correct some statements, now shown by this further evidence to be erroneous. The chief of those errors are in regard to the proper historical name of the battle and the place where it was actually fought, both of which are important to the truth of history and to its com- memorations. Before considering the evidence in detail, some general views, which seem to me to have much weight, will be presented. THE MORAL EFFECT OF THE BATTLE upon the two armies was very striking and very important. The British were convinced that they had been in an unfor- tunate scrape. In a manuscript note by Sir Henry Clinton, in his copy of Stedman's History of the American War, he says: The ungovernable impetuosity of the light troops drew us into this scrape. — Jay, 81. In the British order book of the next morning the Com- mander-in-Chief disapproves the conduct of the Light Company in pursuing the rebels 'without proper discretion and without sup- port. — Jay, 77. Lieut, Harris, of the Fifth British Foot, a pari of the British reserve (Jay, 77), says: We were instantly trotted about three miles, without a halt to draw breath, to support a bat- talion of Light Infantry which had imprudently advanced so far icithout support as to be in danger of being cut off. This must have happened but for our haste. — Jay, 79. The Hessian General Donop says: General Leslie 7tad mads a great blunder in sending these bra ve fellows so far in adva nee in the woods icithout s uppori. — Jay, 82. General Howe found it necessary to recommend the corps u nder the command of General Leslie to be not only brave but more prudent. — Jay, 83. General George Clinton says of the enemy : They are greatly mortified at their disappointment, and have ever since been exceedingly modest and quiet, not having even patroling parties beyond their lines. I lay within a mile of them the night after the battle, ami never heard men work harder. I believe that they thought ice intended to pursue our advantage and attack them next morning. — Jay, 54-55. The brave Captain Gooch, writ- ing to a Boston merchant, says : The great superiority of num- bers, and every other advantage the enemy had, when considered, makes the victory glorious, and though but over a part of their army, yet the consequences of it are attended ivilh advantages very great, as they immediately quitted the heights all round us, and have not been troublesome since. — Jay, 60. Colonel Lamb was at this time confined in a British prison ship. After his release he told Dr. Stiles that an officer came on board on Lords-day evening (15 September), damning the Yankees for runaway cowards, and storming that tfiere was no chance to fight and get Iwnor and rise. He was in the Monday action also, and came again on board in tfie evening, cursing and damning the war, saying he had found the Americans would fight, ■ and that it would be impossible to conquer them. — Jay, 69. Lewis Morris, Jr., writes to his father: The impression it made upon the minds of our people is a most signal victory to us, and the defeat a con- siderable mortification to them. — Jay, 56. Colonel Sillimansays: Our people drove the regulars back from post to post about a mile and a half, and then left them pretty well satisfied with tlieir din- ner. Since which they have been very quiet. They have found now that when ice meet them on equal ground we are not a lot of people thai wdl run from them, but that they have now hud << pretty good drubbing. — Jay, 57. A British officer, in a letter from New York, dated September 23d, a week after the battle, says : I am pretty confident our General will not attack them in their advantageous situation with musquetry. He seems deter- mined to mafce no improper sacrifices. We have a noble train of artillery. — Upcott Collection. SirWilliam Howe, says Colonel Humphrey, not choosing to put too much at risk in attacking us in front, on the 12th of October, moved to Frog's Neck.— Humph- rey's Life of Putnam, 144. The British were humiliated. On the other hand, the Americans were overjoyed with their success. It was our first victory iu the war. Colonel Humph- rey says: An advantage so trivial in itself, produced, in event, a most surprising and almost incredible effect upon the whole army. Among the troops not engaged, who, during the action, were thro/r- ing earth from the new trenches with an alacrity that indicated a determination to defend them, every visage was seen to lighten and to assume, instead of the gloom of despair, the glow of anima- tion. — Humphrey, 142-3. Major Fish wrote to Mr. McKesson, the Secretary of the Convention: Our troops were in a most desponding condition before, hut now are in good spirits. — Jay, 59. Lewis Morris Jr. says: Our people consider it a most signal victory to us. — Jay, 56. George Clinton writes to the New York Convention: It has animated our troops, given them new spirits and erased every bad impression the retreat from Long Island, &e.,had left upon their minds, — they find they are able with inferior numbers to drive their enemy, and think of nothing now but conquest. — Jay, 52. Adju- tant-General Reed says: I assure you it has given another face of tilings in our army. You, can hardly conceive the change it made in our army. It has given spirits to our men. The men have re- covered their spirits, and feel a confidence which before they had quite lost. General Washington says: Our army seems to be greatly inspirited by it. — Jay, 45. This little advantage has i it- spirited our troops prodigiously. — Jay, 43. All seem to concur in the opinion that it was the result of the true character of our troops as patriotic and brave officers and men. Never did troops go to the field with more cheerfulness and alacrity, says an officer of the Maryland Regulars. — Jay, 61. It also destroyed the prestige of the British soldiers. They find, says Washing- ton, that it only requires resolution and good officers to make an enemy (that they stood in too much dread of) give way. — Jay, 43. General George Clinton says: They find they are able with inferior numbers to drive their enemy. — Jay, 52. Colonel Silli- man says: They have found now that when we meet them on equal ground we are not a set of people that will run from them, but they have now had a pretty good drubbing. — Jay, 57. General Knox says: They (the Americans ) find that if they stick to these mighty men, tliey will run as fast as other people. — Jay, 51. Captain Gooch says: I'm now rend)/ to give them the second part whenever they have an appetite, as I'm convinced whenever they stir from their ships we shall drub them. — Jay, 60. This self-reliance acquired in this battle went with our troops through the war, and it is here presented before examining the evidence, because it cannot fail to have an important influence in giving force to the evidence. After the retreat from Long Island came rest, reflection and forecast, till the plans of the commanders of the two armies were former). Then came the evacuation of the City and the retreat to Harlem Heights and the battle there, which entirely deranged the plans of Lord Howe and changed the plans of both armies. The plans of the British for northward and eastward conquest were then suspended and were never ac- complished. The military events of the 15th and 16th days of September doubtless mainly produced that result. THERE WERE TWO ENGAGEMENTS. What is called by Major Gardner the affair of Harlem Heights was made up of two separate engagements, distant from each other in time and place. The first— a skirmish — commenced in the morning, about daybreak, and the Ameri- cans, although fighting bravely, were compelled to retreat back to their camp for support, hotly pursued by the enemy. The second — the grand battle of the day— began about eleven in the forenoon. — Jay, 57. In this the Americans were com pletely successful in four hours of continued fighting, driving the enemy from post to post till three p.m., when General Washington ordered them to give over the pursuit and to return to their camps.— Jay, 48. This fact of two actions, both of winch were attacks by the British, is exceedingly im- portant in analyzing the evidence, and properly applying its parts respectively to the events and positions of the day and the field. THE AMOUNT AND CHARACTER OP THE FORCES engaged deserve particular consideration. There is no room for doubt as to the forces engaged in the skirmish, or first engagement, at early dawn. On the side of the British was a battalion of British Light Infantry, which was the van of 6 the British army (Jay, 80), about 400 in number, under General Leslie; and the Americans had 120 picked men, under Lieu- tenant-Colonel Knowlton, whose command was known as Hie Rangers. The number of troops engaged in the second action, which is more properly called the Battle, is important. Some officer — in every detachment engaged — mentions what troops of which he was part were in the battle. These are the de- tails on the American side. Col. Knowlton's men (Jay, 60) 120 Major Leitch'b men — three companies Virginia Rifles (jay, 44-63) say 120 Col. Griffith's and Col. Hichardson's Maryland Regi- ments and some detachments of Eastern troops (Jay, 45) say 500 Major Mantz' three companies of Rifles (Jay, 03) . . . .say 120 Remainder of that brigade (Jay, Gl) say 500 Weedon's Virginia regiment, Price's three independent companies Maryland troops, three other companies Maryland Flying Camp, a battalion of Virginians, and some Northern troops (Jay, 63) say 800 One regiment of Rhode Islanders (Jay, 61) say 350 Massachusetts Brigade, including Crary's Volunteers (Jay, 59) 900 American advanced guard, two brigades (Jay, 5?). . .say 1500 4910 These are estimated at the lowest figures, and amount to 4910 men. There were several field pieces on each side. — Jay, 52-54. Lieutenant Heinrichs, of Donop's Yagers, who was in the bat- tle, and was wounded about one o'clock, says the American force engaged was 4000 strong. — Jay, 83. Baurmeister says the same.— Jay, 82. Stewart speaks of one attack by 3000 men. — Jay, 78. General Howe also says his reserve was at- tacked by nearly three thousand men. — Jay, 77. The above estimate is clearly within bounds. We have not the same details of the British forces engaged. They are usually spoken of as superior to ours in numbers. General George Clinton, speaking with caution and correcting his original estimate, says : / did not think so many men were engaged; it is without doubt, however, they had out on the occa- sion between four and five thousand of their choicest troops, and expected to have drove us off the Island. — Jay, 51. Besides these there were about 8,000 or 10,000 concealed behind the hill. — Jay, 62. On a review of the situation and of the day, General Clinton, on our side, and Major Baurmeister, of the Ger- mans, and other officers on both sides, evidently believed that this battle was to have been but a continuation of the pursuit of the day before, and was intended to drive the Americans off the Island. With us, it was unexpected, extempore, and defensive. With them, it was part of their purpose to take the Americans unprepared, and to get possession of the northern passes to the interior and to the East. Washington's general orders of that day, after the battle, show clearly that he expected the British attack to be renewed.— Jay, 65. A Maryland officer writes on the next day : We expect every hour that the general engagement will come on. — Jay, 62. Up to this time the British Regulars had maintained their great historic character of invincibility. At Bunker Hill, at Long Island, and at Kips Bay, their record was unbroken. It is hardly to be believed, the character, policy, and position of Washington being considered, and his then remarkable feel- ing of discouragement, that he threw half his effective force more than a mile from the strong position of Harlem Heights into the face of a fresh and victorious army of British Regu- lars, ten to twelve thousand strong, with no hope, in case of retreat, but surrender or slaughter in the narrow Manhattan - ville pass, with its rocky and precipitous sides. Washington evidently did not intend to attack ; he thought only of defence. THE MORNING ATTACK OF THE BRITISH LIGHT INFANTRY. Another view. Stedman says, and so was the fact: The action was carried on by reinforcements on both sides. The enemy ( the Americans ), however , possessed a great advantage from the circumstance of engaging within half a mile of their entrenched ci/mj), whence they could be supplied with fresh troops as often as occasion required.— Jay, 80. At the time of this battle the Am- ericans had no entrenched camp below 101st street. The main body of the army was at Morris Heights and there the camp of the Rangers must have been. Half a mile below that, would be at about 151st street, between which and Manhattanville the main and final action must have been fought. The British General, Sir Henry Clinton, made a note in his own handwriting to this paragraph in a copy of Stedman's History: It was the ungovernable impetuosity of the Light troops that drew vs into this scrape. — Jay, 81. Scrape indeed it was! The scrape would have been on the other side, however, if the fight with the Light troops had been on Bloomingdale Heights where Knowltou's force that encountered them would have been in the jaws of death. But what was " the scrape," that the impetuosity of the Light troops led the British into? Major Shaw, writing to his father, September 18, says: The day before yesterday, a part of them attempted to force a passage through some woods, and to take possession of a number of heights, but were repulsed with loss, by an equal, if not inferior body of our troops, who behaved with as much bravery as men possibly could. — Jay, 64. The Light Infantry who are the van of our army, pressed too gallantly upon a very superior body of the rebels, and drove them off.— Jay, 80. It frustrated the plans of the British officers for the new pursuit of that day. It began ■ the battle prematurely, before they were ready, and in the wrong place too — in the upper part of Harlem Heights, where they could not be supported in time to prevent the Americans from beginning to drive the British, and, by the momentum and prestige of victory, keeping them going till they were driven off Harlem Heights, back to their own lines. What had the Light troops done? Lieutenant Harris, of the fifth Foot, says: They had imprudently advanced so far witliout support, as to be in great danger of being cut off. This must hare happened but fir our haste. — Jay, 79. They were engaged in n wood. — Jay, 78. They were advanced so far that the support was instantly trotted about three miles (without a hall to draw breath), to support them. — Jay, 79. Colonel Donop, with his Yagers, was also ordered to move up to sup- port Leslie (Jay, 81), and he moved up with his Yagers, and the Grenadier battalion of Linsingen. He says: But for my Yagers, two regiments of Highlanders and the British Light In- fantry would hate all, perhaps, been captured, for they were at- 1 a cltd by a force four times their number, and General Leslie had made a great blunder in sending those brave fellows so far in advance in the woods without support. — Jay, 82. And Major Baurmeister says : The English Light Infantry advanced too quickly on the retreat of the enemy, and if the Grenadiers, and especially the Hessian Yagers, had not arrived in time to help them, none of those brave Light Infantry would have escaped. — Jay, 82. DISCREPANCY IN RECENT ACCOUNTS. There is a remarkable difference as to the place and course of this battle in the various accounts of it, given by recent historical writers of respectability, no two of them agreeing. One supposes the battle to have begun about 124th street, between 10th and 11th avenues, and to have passed over the Lunatic Asylum grounds to 8th avenue and 109th street. An- other supposes the battle to have begun about 5th avenue and 110th street, where the Americans fell back towards their camp, till re-enforced, when they drove the British back across the plains to the woods, on the hills now included in tin- northern portion of the Central Park, the fighting being prin- cipally on the Harlem Plains, which he seems to have sup- posed justified him in calling it the battle of Harlem Plains. Another supposes the battle to have commenced near the south- ern extremity of the Bloomingdale ridge, whence the Ameri- cans retreated to the northernmost end of that ridge, to a gully or ravine between 10th and 11th avenues, at what he supposes was Matje David's Fly, where the fighting again began and moved onwards to the line of 118th street, east of the asylum grounds, which he supposes was the field of the principal battle. Since this paper was read before the Society, Mr. Johnston's " Campaign round New York in 1776," has been published. He places the whole battle below Manhattanville, beginning at 123d street and 9th avenue, and ending between 105th and 110th street and 11th and 12th avenues, on the banks of the 10 Hudson River. — Johnston, 258, 98, map. All these positions seem to me to be quite unsupported by proof, and such re- markable discrepancy should be reviewed and revised, in the interests of historical accuracy. As an appendix to Mr. Jay's oration, Mr. Kelby, the Assis- tant Librarian of the Society, lias sought out and for the first time published together contemporaneous written evidence in regard to these events from thirty -six American, eight British and five Hessian pens, written while the facts were recent, by men who participated in the events which they describe. In collecting and comparing them, we are constantly reminded of the importance of preserving every piece of evidence in rela- tion to the revolutionary period. The smallest scrap of paper which, by itself, seems to have no significance or value, is sometimes found to contain the missing link which unites greal and important chains of events. Such positive written, con- temporary testimony, by all the laws of evidence, is held to outweigh the gossip of hearsay and tradition, and the assump- tions of more recent date which lack written evidence. In studying these proofs we must remember thai the opera tions were quite extempore and occupied much time, and ex- tended over a large field of broken and irregular character, made up of forests, and woods, and rocks, and precipices and heights, and that the writers were some in one place and some in another, and all were absorbed in the stirring events of the right where they were respectively engaged. It would be strange, indeed, if we could not evolve a correct and true history from such materials. By first ascertaining such facts and localities as are certain, we never fail to show other facts and constructions to be necessary and therefore certain. These again influence others, till finally, as in putting together the parts of a dissected map, seeming incompatabilities vanish and the whole becomes certain and harmonious. It is, however, necessaiy always to remember that estimates of time and distance, in the midst of excitement and hurry, are so flexible and uncertain, that they may properly be so modified as to conform to facts that are certain, to localities that are fixed and to combinations that are necessary. 11 THE HISTORICAL NAME OP THE BATTLE. As I shall speak of it as the battle of Harlem Heights, it is fitting that I should show that to be its proper historical name, for that too has its influence in studying this evidence and giving its parts their true significance. For if the battle was at the time known as the battle of Harlem Heights, it would require very strong evidence to show that it was fought in either of these four places, no one of which was in the vicinity of Harlem Heights, nor could with any propriety be called Harlem Heights. There are very few original historians of unclassified details who, on a careful review" of what they have first written, have not been glad of an opportunity to correct some errors of their first impressions. In historical inquiries, there should be no place for pride of preconceived opinion, nor for prejudices formed from investigations which were necessarily one-sided, and may have been made too hastily. Inquiry will, at last, bring out that historical accuracy which all should desire. This battle was known in history, as the Battle of Harlan Heights (occasionally as the Battle of Harlem), and by no other name for three-quarters of a century after it was fought. Our whole army went to Harlem Heights as a strong place to be defended. Encamping on the heights southwest of Colonel Mor- ris', where they intended to form lines and make our grand stand. — Jay, 51. They did so, and held it for two months. Harlem Plains, at the time of this battle, consisted of cultivated fields, bearing harvests, which were still there more than two weeks after the battle, when our army attempted to appropriate them as forage. One of our officers says in a letter, dated October 3, seventeen days after this battle : These plains would afford an excellent field for a fight. — Jay, 70. Perhaps, no general officers of the army were more carefully correct in their military statements than General Greene and General Heath. An entry in General Heath's journal on the day of the battle, says it happened on the heights west of Harlem Plains and south of Morris" House. — Jay, 73. The western boundary of Harlem Plains, was about along the Ninth ave- nue, from Morris' House to 110th street, and any portion of 12 those heights along that western boundary, might be described as west of Harlem Plaint, but certainly, not as part of Harlem Plains, and below Manhattanville, it would not be described as south of Morris' House. General Greene, in a letter to the Governor of Rhode Island. under date of the 17th, the day after the battle, (he and Put- nam commanded the American forces after the fall of Knowl- ton and Leitch), says : On the 16th, we had a skirmish at Harlem Heights, a parly of about 1,000 came and attached our advance post. * * * The fire continued about an Twur, and the enemy retreated. Our people pursued them, andby thesplendid conduct of General Putnam and Colonel Reed, the Adjutant- General, our people advanced upon the plain ground without cover, and attacked them and drove them back. — Jay, 55. On the 4th of October, the same careful and correct officer says : The enemy next day, (lQth) at Harlem Heights, flushed with the success of the day before, approached and attacked our lines, where I had the honor to command, (Jay, G6) ; at the advance post, half a mile below Colonel Silliman's entrenching bri- gades. — Jay, 57. The action, or rather skirmish, lasted about tiro hours. Our people beat the enemy off the ground — Jay, 66. General Putnam and the Adjutant- General were in the action, and behaved nobly. — Jay, 67. Colonel Knowlton is recorded in the biographical history of the country as a brave officer, who lost his life in the Battle of Harlem Heights. Drake says of him: At the Battle of Harlem Height a. while ex- hibiting his usual intrepidity, he fell. Major Gardner, in the history of the Uniforms of the American Army, calls it the a fair of Harlem Heights. — 1st Mag. Am. His., 70. Spafford, in the first edition of his Gazetteer, 1813, p. 86, says: Har- lem Heights will long be remembered by Americans associated with important events of the Revolutionary War, as well as Feyrt Washington. Mr. Dawson, in his paper read before this Society and pub- lished, calls it the Battle of Harlem Heights, and makes that the title of his paper. Mr. Lossing, in his Table of Battles of the Revolution, mentions the Battle of Harlem Heights. Mr. John ston, in his Campaign round New York, gives the battle the 13 name of the Battle of Harlem Heights. The epitaph of Captain Oliver Brown, of the Massachusetts line, states that he bore a conspicuous part ett the battles of Harlem Heights, White Plains, &(-.— Mag. Am. Hist., June, 1879, p. 37G. I have not seen any evidence that there was any fighting, much less any battle on Harlem Plains. There could hardly be a greater misnomer than to call Bloomingdale Heights Harlem Plains. I confess to a great respect and affection for those names of the revolutionary period which have passed into history, and have become, as it were, classical and memorial names, and I therefore use the old, true aud descriptive name, Harlem Heights. THE TOPOGRAPHY OP THE ISLAND OP NEW YORK forms so important a portion of the evidence, that I shall give a brief description of it, using, however, such names of localities and landmarks as are familiar to us, since change and the progress of improvement have modified the landscape. The Roads.— The Island above the City was intersected lengthwise by three great thoroughfares. First, the Eastern or Old Road, was the grand highway through the Island. It made its way from Broadway at the Park, up what are now Chatham street, the Bowery and the general line of Third avenue, till bearing West of the Fifth avenue by a crooked way through McGowan's Pass, it crossed Harlem Bridge. It was sometimes called the Old Post Road and the Old Boston Road. It led to New England. Second. The Bloomingdale Road, which was a continuation of Broadway, leading off to I he westward from Madison Square, and pursuing the line of the present Broadway, along the course of the Hudson River, nearer or more remotely, through a changing region of low r hills and winding vales towards the valley which is now called Manhattan ville. The region in its whole breadth quite up to Manhattanville, was known by the beautiful descriptive name of Bloomingdale, which gave its name to the road. It was sometimes called the Kingsbridge road. This road, as a legal highway, terminated at Adrian Hoog- land's house, near the river, at about 115th street, It was con- tinued as a farm-road through his farm. It, however, was 14 connected, near Hoogland's, by another public road, nearly al right angles with the Kingsbridge road, and with it passed over Harlem Heights to Kingsbridge. The Middle Road started from Broadway and led up the Fifth avenue, and between the Fifth and Sixth avenues to and through McGowan's Pass, where it also joined the Kings- bridge Road and the Old Post Road. On the most eastern of these roads, the Old Boston Road. I here were milestones from which localities and distances were described and measured from the City Hall, afterwards called Federal Hall, in Wall street. The distances are now measured from the present City Hall. The 8th milestone was at 125th street, on the Old Post Road, north of the village of Harlem. These great thoroughfares were intersected and connected at different angles by local roads from one side of the Island to- wards the other, and by farm-roads and lanes for agricultural convenience. Harlem. — The township of Harlem embraced all the Island of New York north of a line from the southern point of Har- lem Cove, at Matje David's Fly. to the western channel of the East River near 76th street. The village of Harlem was then a small village at about the junction of Second and Third avenues and 123d and 125th street on the shore of Harlem River, on the margin of Harlem Plains. Harlem Plains was an alluvial flat which extended from the shore of Harlem River southwardly and westwardly to the high grounds which swept in a sort of crescent from Morris' house, at 161st street, to near the East River at about 90th street. The Heights. — The surface of the Island rose at intervals to considerable elevations, which were known under the general designation of Heights. Such were the Heights of Inclenberg, now Murray Hill, the highest point, at 41st street and Fifth avenue, being 88 feet above tide. Observatory Place. — The highest point being at 89th street and Fifth avenue, 108 feet above tide. Btoomingdale Heights, extending along the river from about 112th street to Manhattanville, the highest point being at Hoog- land's Hill, about at 125th street and Twelfth avenue, 173 feet above tide. — Cozzen's Geological Map. And 15 Harlem Heights, extending from Manhattanville to near Kingsbridge, rising at the highest point near Fort Washington to 271 feet above tide. The most southerly point of Harlem Heights was known as the Point of Bocks. It was at about 127th street and Ninth avenue. Between the Point of Rocks and Kingsbridge were several heights among which was Morris Heights, about 250 feet above tide at 161st street, where were Washington's head- quarters and his first entrenchments. While the region of Bloomingdale was a pleasantly wooded rolling country of charming landscape, well deserving its beautiful name, Harlem Heights was of a very different char- acter, a wild, rough, rocky and precipitous region, extending from Manhattanville to Kingsbridge. I here borrow the fine description of Mr. DeLancey, read before this Society: It rose from the Hudson and Harlem Rivers in rocky, forest clad preci- pices, ant i'Iji a hundred feet in height, which, for ivell nigh three- fourths of its circumference, were almost inaccessible. These natural buttresses, support an irregular pled n, the surface of which rises towards the centre, to an eminence two hundred, feet above the Hudson River, and to another on the side of the Harlem River of about equal height, between which lies the most level part of the entire region. — <2d Mag. Am. Hist., 67. This is the plain on the Harlem Heights, as the plains of Abraham are on the Heights of Quebec. This plain was in- terspersed with rocks which cropped out in ledges and ridges, and it contained higher heights and smaller hills. The sides and tops of these heights toward the Hudson River were thick- ly wooded, and known as The Woods. Between these hills and down the sides of these heights, were smaller valleys with little rivulets leading down to the river, and terminating in the small plains or dales which con- stituted its low marginal shore at the base of the heights. This part of the island was a natural fortress, and for that reason, was chosen by Washington as the place where he intended to form lines and make our grand stand on the de- fensive (Jay, 51), the ground being naturally strong and easy to he strengthened by fortifications. General Heath, with his division, was engaged fortifying his position at Kingsbridge. 16 Below his lines, there were at the time of the battle, no in- trenchments except some beginnings of a few days' work at about 161st street, and two or three redoubts between 153d street toward the North river and 158th street on Harlem river. With only such exceptions, these naturally fortified Harlem Heights lay, distinguished from their primeval condition only by the buildings, farms, fields and fences of the few inhabi- tants sparsely scattered along the roads. The Avhole island between Kingsbridge and Canal street, was a purely agricul- tural region, with farms, and orchards, and wheat, and buck- wheat fields, with a large proportion of woods and forests. matje david's fly, or vly. Hostilities began very early in the morning of the 16th, by a skirmish near the point of .Matje David's Fly. — Jay, 54. That point is the key to the localities of the battle. For more than 100 years before that time, that was a well- known landmark, referred to in patents, deed-;, surveys and Acts of the Legislature, and laid down with precision by ac- tual survey at the waterside, at the base of high grounds which declined towards the Hudson river. It was a meadow, on the marginal shore of the Hudson river, on the southside of Har- lem Cove, not a mnr&Jiy streamlet which, rose in the plain and emptied its waters into the East river. Fly is a contraction of the Dutch word, valei, meadow. In the two Nichol's patents of May and October, 1668, and in the Dongan patent of March, 1686, it is called The Round Meadow near or adjoining to the Hudson's river. In the report of the State Commissioners for riving the Har- lem line, May 30th, 1774, the line is laid down as beginning on the east side of the Hudson rirer, on the south side of the bay, lying before a certain piece of meadow commonly Tcnown by the name of the Hound Meadow or Matje David's Fly. In the Act of the Legislature of April, 1775, the line is adopted in the same words, as surveyed by Francis Marschalk in the presence of the Commissioners. Adrian Hoogland's farm lay along the river bank from about 107th street to the Harlem line, at Matje David's Fly. His executors conveyed it to Nicholas Depeyster in 1774, describing it as beginning on the east side of the Hudson 17 rider, at a place commonly called Matje David's Fly, and run- ning thence /war a due south course, somewhat easterly, as the fence now stands, about 31 chains, tlien (around the farm to 1 07tli street, by a great number of courses) to the hunks of the Hudson river, then along the said river to Matje David's Fly, the place of beginning on the river bank at Manhattanville. There was then a new road laid out in 1774-5, by law, from the Kingsbridge road, near the Point of Rocks, to the Fly continuing the Harlem Lane to the Hudson river side, where at the time of this battle, it probably connected with the farm- road through Adrian Hoogland's farm to his house at about 115th street, where it connected with the Bloomingdale road, of which it was probably made a continuation at a later period when that road was extended to the Kingsbridge road at Brad- hurst's place. This new road is probably referred to by Wash ington in Ins letter to Heath, daied August 22d, 177G, where he says : There is a road out of Harlem fat lands, that leads tip to the Mils, &c. Between 106th and 123d streets, were the high grounds of the Vandewater and Hoogland farms, originally one farm, being sometimes called Vandewater Heights and Hoogland Heights, extending up to Matje David's Fly. Hoogland Heights were separated from Harlem Heights by a valley de- scending from the 11th avenue to the Hudson river on one side, and to the 8th avenue on the other. The high grounds each side of it, were about 300 to 400 yards apart, and com- manded large panoramic views It was often called a hollow way. There were other such valleys. The valley of Canal street was one, Olendenning valley, running from about 100th street and 8th avenue to Striker's Bay, was another. There was another at about 154th to 158th street, through which a stream made of several small streams, found its way in a winding descent, and emptied into the river about the Audubon Park at 155th and 156th streets, draining the water shed west of 10th avenue, and there were others further up. At the base of the wooded heights along the shore was a narrow marginal level shore, made by the wash and debris of the hillsides and valleys, from a few feet to a few rods wide. At Matje David's Fly. the 18 Fly or meadow on the shore was in a round form, and took the name of the Round Meadow. It was several acres in extent. There was a Matje David, a member of the Dutch Church, in 1G8<>, from whom, probably, the Fly took its name. as her property. THE EVACUATION OF THE CITY, was a necessary consequence of the retreat from Long Island. General Washington, in a letter to Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia, says: Our retreat from Long Island under the peculiar circumstances we then labored, became an act of prudence and necessity, and the evacuation of New York was a consequence re- sulting from the oilier. II was a military necessity. For some days before the evacuation the American Army was on New- York Island in three divisions; the right under Putnam with rive brigades held the city; the centre under Spencer and Greene, with six brigades, was at Stuyvesant's Cove, Kip's I Jay, Turtle Bay and Horen's Hook, and the left consisted of two brigades, and was at Kingsbridge, under Heath. The British Army was on Long Island, hovering over the city, and a Meet of British ships of war was in the harbor. A council of officers, on the 12th September, determined to abandon the city. Spencer and Greene, with their brigades then along the East river, were ordered to Harlem Heights, and Putman was ordered to evacuate the city, and to join them on the Heights, where the Americans intended to form lines, and to make our grand stand. — Jay, 51. On the 4th of September, the British evacuated Blackwell s Island and the other Islands, and the Americans immediately occupied Blackwell's Island in force, and so strongly that the British outposts, on the main shore of Long Island, were ex- posed to a continual tire which their great battery at Ilallett's Point could not silence. On the 8th, after a desperate attack and a wholly unexpected and obstinate resistance, the English dislodged the Americans from all the Islands. — 1 Mag. Am. Hist., 35. Washington had directed lines of light breastworks to be hastily thrown up along the shore at Kip's Bay. They were 19 manned by a brigade of new levies, and commanded by only a State Brigadier. It would be difficult to perceive why such fortifications, with such a force, were thus placed, were it not quite certain that Washington had no thought that the British intended to land at that place. The object of Howe, however, was to land first at Kip's Bay a sufficient force to cut off Putnam's retreat, and afterwards to take possession of Harlem Heights. The escape of Putnam to Harlem Heights, by strengthening the force on the heights, deranged the plans of Howe, and prevented his occupying the heights, below Heath. The battle of Harlem Heights, unex- pected and decisive, induced him soon to throw his forces into Westchester County, with a view to cut off Heath from the mainland, capture his position, and thus secure a pre-emptive right to the passes of the Highlands, to the interior of this State, and to the Eastern States, and possibly to end the war by capturing the army under Washington. THE CANNONADING AT KIP'S BAY, AND THE LANDING OF THE BRITISH TROOPS. On the morning of Sunday, the 15th, the cannonading by the British ships gave notice of their intention to land on the Island of New York, and Putnam immediately commenced his hurried retreat to unite with the forces under Washington, at Harlem Heights. He was accompanied and encumbered by many citizens, with their baggage. The retreat was covered by Colonel Sargeant's Brigade, forming the rear of the retreat ing column. This retreat was covered by Colonel Small- wood's regiment, of Maryland Regulars, stationed on the high ground by McGowan's Pass, having that pass in their rear. — Jay, 76. The British General had given indications of landing at Stuyvesant's Cove, at Turtle Bay, at Horen's Hook, at Harlem. at Morrisania, and upon the Hellgate Islands, with a view Id weaken the Americans by distracting their attention, dividing their forces, and misleading them. Major Baurmeister, of the German troops, says: This morning, 15$., !l the loss of baggage, artillery and works in which they had been taught to place great confidence, lag upon their arms, covered only by the clouds of an uncomfortable sky. * * * * The regiments that laid been least exposed to fatigut that pug, fur- nished the necessary picquets to secure the army from surprise. — Humphrey, 138. THE POSITIONS OF THE TWO ARMIES. On these Harlem Heights made for defence, the army, un- der Washington, consisting of about 8,000 effective men, many of them new levies, besides the sick and wounded, was en- camped on the night before the battle of September Kith, dis- pirited and discouraged by the recent military events. Wash ington rarely wrote with so much discouragement as at this time, lie felt that his militia could not be relied on, and were at best a temporary force. The Brisish army, under Howe, consisting of a larger number of veteran British Regulars, fresh from rest after victory, and elated with the possession of the City and of the Island to above the 8th milestone, lay in the charming region of Bloomingdale, below and upon Bloom* inffdale Heights. The evacuation of the City was a hurried 25 retreat, with the loss of baggage and cannon, and the move- ments of the British were a rapid pursuit. The American ar- my had reached its destination, and was wholly on Harlem Heights, without any serious encounter, and with hut trifling loss, and at a late hour when they went to rest, the two armies with their respective pickets placed on the sides of the Man- hattanville Valley, were in position, in force, face to face, af- ter the labors, the mortifications, the disappointments and chagrins of that weary and eventful day. In plain sight of both lines of pickets, Harlem Plains was spread out on the east, its fields covered with the fruits and harvests of early autumn. The position of the armies at this time is a great fact about which there is no dispute, and it has a most important bearing in relation to the place of the battle. It controls many others. Where the American army was, there it was attacked, and there it was successfully defended. General Washington's headquarters was the Morris House, at 161st street. His army was, of course, in front of him. The picket lines of his army extended along the eastern brow of the heights, overlooking the plains, to the Point of Rocks, and thence along the heights overlooking the Manhattanville valley, to the Hudson River, at Matje David's Fly. The " Paint of Rocks " which skirted the road leading to Kingsbridge was our most advanced picket toward New York. — Jay, 75. Our army consisted of the reserve, the main body and the advanced guard, all in front of headquarters. The reserve would be encamped nearest headquarters. The main body lay about one-quarter to one-third of a mile further south, and the advanced guard of two brigades, commanded by General Greene, lay still further down in the woods (Sauthier's Map), on the western portion of the heights. — Jay, 55-66. General George Clinton says : Our army lay at Colonel Morris s, and so southward to near the hollow-way which runs across from Harlem Flat to the North River, at Matje David's Fly, about half tcay between which two places our lines run across to the river, which, indeed, at that time, were only begun, but are noio (2lst) in a very defensible state. — Jay, 53. These entrenchments were thrown up during the day by Colonel Silliman's entrenching brigades. 26 Washington's army thus occupied about a mile and a half north and south. The enemy s main army was encamped between 1th and 8th milestones. — Jay, 65, 97th and 115th streets. General Hoice's headquarters at one Mr. Apthorp's. — Jay, 65. The two headquarters were three miles apart. Half way between them was the Manhattanville valley. Lieutenant Harris, of the 5th British foot, say s: After landing at New York, we drove the Americans into their tcorks beyond the 8th milestone from New York, and thus got possession of the best part of the Island. We took post opposite to them, and placed our pickets. — Jay, 79. This was on the 15th. The British had their pickets along the brow of the heights, south of Harlem Plains, to the Bloomingdale Heights and Hogeland Heights, on the North Rive!-. Above Howe's headquarters was his army, 10,000 or 12,000 strong, in two columns, one British and the other German troops. Such an army could not be arranged in less extent than the smaller army of Washington — a mile and a half — and most probably it reached to about 115th street with its reserve and main body; and the Van, or advanced guard, composed of Donop's Yagers and some English troops, must have reached to about 120th street, and the extreme Van, being Leslie's British Light Infantry, would be a little further up, while their pickets were on the southwestern brow of that hollow- way, Graydon says, only separated from the American pickets by a valley a few hundred yards over. — Jay, 75. General Mc- Dougall's letter to the convention, 7th Oct., 1876, says the same, 1 Rev. Papers, 487. On the morning of the 16th, Colonel Silliman, with a force of 1,000 officers and men, with at least another brigade, com- menced lines of entrenchments, and before night had thrown up lines across the Island at about 153d street, where there were already three redoubts placed at intervals across the Island. — Jay, 57. Sauthier's Map. the morning skirmish "near the point op matje david's fly." At early dawn on the morning of the 16th, there was a skirmish between small portions of the two armies, in which 2? the American party was compelled to retreat a long distance before a much superior force. The impetuous General Leslie, whose light infantry was the van of the British army, prob- ably supposed, from the events of the last few days, that they had been pursuing not merely a retreating force, but a timid, cowardly and flying enemy, and that an early and rapid move- ment might strike a successful blow. He accordingly, with- out orders and without any proper arrangements for support, or for possible retreat, set out before daybreak with a battalion of light infantry— 400 men — to endeavor to surprise and cap- ture the American advance guard, which lay in the woods at about 133d street to 140th street and Eleventh avenue. Before reaching them, however, he encountered the brave Colonel Knowlton, who, with his rangers, had been sent by General Washington at that early hour, as a reconnoitring party to gain intelligence, if possible, of the disjwsition of the enemy (Jay, 40), and to go and take the enemy's advanced guard, Captain Brown, —Jay, 60. Colonel Knowlton set out from his camp near headquarters just before day (4 or 5 a. m.) with 120 picked men, and proba- bly took the route of the unobstructed low shore of the river to below Matje David's Fly, and opposite the left flank of the English advanced guard, say about 120th street, where he in- tended to mount up Hogeland's or Vandewater's Heights and cut off that detachment of the enemy. The British General, apparently, determined to take the same course also, by the descent of the same heights, to the river — both parties proba- bly supposing that the woods that covered all those heights along the shore, would protect them from observation on their secret expedition — the Americans relying upon the fancied se- curity of the British— and the British trusting to the imagi- nary timidity of the Americans. The two parties discovered each other at the same time at daybreak, and took the order of battle without hesitation, and the British marched up within six rods of the Americans. After a brief engagement, the British — being more than three to one of the rangers — made a movement to outflank and surround them, when Knowlton, after having given them eight rounds apiece, ordered a retreat and took to the woods in good order, to come in for support. 28 With a seeming intention of retreating to the main body, he retired into the interior part of the woods (Jay, 80), closely pursued by the British, also in the woods. Lieutenant Harris, of the 5th British foot, says: After landing on York Island we drove the Americans (Putnam's divi- sion) into their ww'ks beyond the eighth milestone from New York, and thus got ]Jossession of the best half of the Island. We took post opposite to them, and placed our picquets. — Jay, 79. On the lGth the light infantry (Leslie) were sent out to dislodge a party of the enemy, which had taken possession of a wood on the left of the British. — Stewart, Jay, 78. On the morning of the 16th September, a detachment teas sent out from tJie main body of the Americans, to a icood facing the left flank of the English army. Three companies of our light in- fantry were despatched to dislodge them, tlie enemy with a seeming intention of retreating to the main body, retired into the interior part of the woods. — Stedman, Jay, 80. The Hessian account corresponds in substance — correcting the German rendering of proper names. On the 16th September, quite a brisk fight took place on York Island; the Americans on the morning of this day sent from their camp a strong detachment which came out of the woods and at- tacked our left wing. * * General Leslie, who was in com- mand of the British, soon encountered a severe resistance. * * Colonel Van Donop received orders to move up to their support. He moved up with his Yagers. The Yagers who swarmed for- ward, soon came to a hot contest on Hoyland's (Hogeland's) Hill. The Americans retired. — Hessian account, Jay, 81, 82. Hoge- land's Hill was near the shore near the point of Matje David's Fly. The English Light Infantry advanced too quickly on the retreat of the enemy, and at Bruckland Hill (Hogeland Hill) fell into an ambuscade, &c. — Baurmeister, Jay, 82. On the 16th, in tlie morning, a large party of the enemy having passed un der cover of the woods near to the advanced post of the ar- my, by way ofVandewater's Heights, the second and third battalion of light infantry, supported by the 4%d regiment, pushed forward and drove them back to their entrenchments. — General Howe, Jay, 77. Their nearest entrenchments at that time were at head - quarters at lGlst street, a mile and a half or two miles distant. 29 The enemy finally supposed that Knowlton's retreat was in- tended to draw them into an ambuscade of 3,000 men, in the woods, Hessian account, Jay, 81, referring to our advance guard under Greene, which they afterwards encountered. We have thus from three high British authorities, in language substantially alike, a statement of the morning affair between Knowlton and Leslie, on the left wing of tlie British advanced post. The Americans, on the morning of this day sent from their camp a strong detachment, which came out of the wood and at- tacked our left icing.— Hessian account, Jay, 81. An officer of Knowlton's rangers, probably Captain Brown, gives, from actual participation, the American account of the unsuccessful attack by Knowlton on the left wing of the ene- my's advanced post. On Monday morning the General ordered us to go and take the enemy's advanced guard. Accordingly, we set out just before day and found wliere they were. At daybreak we were discovered by the enemy who were 400 strong, and we were 120. They marched up within six rods of us, and then formed to give us battle, which we were ready for, and Colonel Knoidton gave orders to fire, which we did, and stood theirs till we perceived they were getting their flank guards round us. After giving them eight rounds apiece the Colonel gave orders for retreating, which we performed very well, without the loss of a single man while retreating. * We retreated tioo miles and a half, and then made a stand and sent off for a r : e-inj "or ■cement. —Jay, 60. General Reed, who had gone down and met Knowlton's party, says of the retreat: The enemy advanced upon us very fast. I had not quitted a house five minutes before they were in possession of it. Finding how things icere going, I went " over " to the General to get some support for the brave fellows who had behaved so well. By the time I got to him tJie enemy appeared in open view, and in the most insulting manner sounded their bugle horns, as is usual after a fox chase. — Jay, 48. Lewis Morris, Jr., gives substantially the same account of this morning affair of Knowlton, placing the attack upon the Rangers as on a height a little to the southwest of Dayes's Tavern, which would be on the left flank or wing of the 30 British van or advanced guard, on Hogeland's or Vandewa- ter's Height — Jay, 56. This is the account of the engagement soon after day-break, between Leslie and Knowlton, from which Knowlton retreated to headquarters for re-inforcement. This early morning skirmish between Knowlton and Leslie, near the point of Matje David's Fly, was no part of the Battle of Harlem Heights. In it the Americans were defeated. It was an un- fortunate affair, to be concealed rather than to be dwelt upon, and we accordingly find hardly a mention of its details, except in the letter of an officer, doubtless Captain Brown, Knowl- ton's successor, to his friend in New London. — Jay, 60. The place of that skirmish is nowhere mentioned, except in Gen- eral Clinton's letter to Dr. Tappen, Jay, 53, which letter con- tains no details of the skirmish in the morning, but is mainly devoted to the battle several hours later in the day, in which Knowlton was killed. THE BATTLE OF THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY, CALLED THE "ACTION" OR "BATTLE." We come now to the principal battle of the clay, the Battle of II* trlem Heights, which began at about eleven o'clock in the morning, and ended about 3 p. m. There were at that time no fortifications across the heights below Morris' House, except three little redoubts in about a mile, Jay, 57, from about 153d street, North River, to about 158th street, at Macomb's Dam, Harlem River. Before Washington had occupied Morris' House as headquarters, the troops already there had begun to throw up entrenchments above that house ; Avhen it became headquarters those entrenchments were neglected as of no present utility, and on the morning of the 16th, the brigades of which Colonel Silliman's command was a part, were or- dered to connect those redoubts and strengthen them by en- trenchments quite across the Island, about a quarter to a third of a mile below headquarters and about half a mile further down, say about 135th to 140th street; in the woods ice had two other brigades lying as an advanced guard, Jay, 57, commanded by General Greene.— Jay, 66. This is where the action first bega n, which was called the Battle of Harlem Heights. Note 1. 31 In the American general orders after the battle, the same day, the arrangement for the night upon the heights commanding the hollow-way from the North River to the main road leading from New York to Kingsbridge, General Clinton teas ordered to form next to the North Rver, and extend to the left. General Scott next to Clinton on the left, and Colonel Buyer next to Scott. — Jay, 65. General Clinton says : That night I commanded the right wing of our advanced party, o r picket, on the ground the action first began, where a party of about a thousand came and at- tacked our advanced post, Greene, Jay, b5—ichere the enemy next day, at Harlem Heights, flushed with the successes of the day be- fore, approached and attacked our lines where I had the honor to command, Greene, Jay, 66, and it was to our advanced post that his excellency sent and ordered a timely retreat, Greene, Jay, 56, when the British rout became general. — Jay, 68. General Washington, in his letter to Congress, dated at Morris' House, September 18th, says: About the time of the post's departure with my letter, the enemy appeared in several large bodies upon the plains, about Z% miles from here. I rode down to our advanced posts to put matters in a proper situation if the enemy should attempt to come on. Wlien I arrived there I heard firing, which I teas informed was between a party of our Rangers, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Knowlton, and an advanced party of the enemy. — Jay, 41. In his letter to the New York Convention, dated the 23d, he describes the same events as follows: On Monday morning last several parties of the enemy appeared on the high ground opposite to our heights, and some skirmishing had happened between our troops and those of the enemy. — Jay, 44. He thus, in one letter, calls the locality tlie plains about 2% miles from here, and in the other he calls it the high ground opposite to our heights, evidently meaning by the plains about 2% miles from here, not Harlem Plains, but the plains (the open grounds) on the high ground of Bloomingdale Heights, below Manhattanville hollow — Bloomingdale Heights, opposite to Harlem Heights. From Colonel Silliman's letter, it is appar- ent that General Washington, when he rode down to put matters in a proper situation in case the enemy should attempt to come on (Jay, 41), had ordered under arms our brigades, not only those 32 commanded by Sillinian, but the two brigades lying half a mile below in the woods, as an advanced guard, commanded by General Greene, and directed them to be ready to resist any attack which should be made. The enemy did not then attempt to come on, and General Washington returned to headquarters. Silliman's brigades then grounded their arms and took spades and shovels and went to work. — Jay, 57. They, Silliman's brigades, were not called to arms again, but were throwing earth from the new trenches, during the action, with an alacrity that indicated a determination to defend them. — Humphrey, 143. The enemy on Blooming- dale Heights had probably heard the firing between Knowlton and Leslie, and were now waiting to learn what had become of Leslie with his detachment of light troops, which had disappeared, and was then silently pursuing Knowlton through the woods on his way back to headquarters for a reinforce- ment. At ten or eleven o'clock they may well have heard the bugle horn of Leslie and the firing at the feint, and the unfor- tunate flank attack in the woods at about 153d street to 158th street. Then they immediately came on, apparently to the rescue of Leslie, and a little before twelve o'clock encountered the advanced guard of two brigades under Greene lying in the woods at about 135th to 140th streets, and began a heavy fire on these two brigades, who, according to the directions of Washington, maintained the fire obstinately for some time. Then they were reinforced by several regiments, and the fire con- tinued very heavy from musketry and from field pieces about two hours. — Jay, 57. General Clinton says tbat the enemy received a very considerable reinforcement and made their second stand; our people also had received a considerable reinforcement, and at this place a very brisk action commenced, which continued for near two hours. — Jay, 54. Thence we drove the enemy 200 paces south east, when they rallied. We then drove them about 400 paces, probably to our advanced guard then engaged with the enemy in the woods, when came on the grand fight of several hours between the two armies, both increased by repeated reinforcements to several thousand on a side, in a buckwheat field on the top of a hill on Bradhurst's farm, whence they retreated the third time towards their lines, we pursuing till we were called 33 off because of the bad make of the ground and the approach of a large body of the enemy just behind the brow of Bloom- ing-dale Heights. — Jay, 52. Knowlton, as I have said, came in to camp, made a report to "Washington and asked for a reinforcement. The enemy's light troops soon made their appearance. One hundred of them coming out of the woods on the high grounds opposite the Americans' camp (Jay, 40), blowing their bugle horn in notes of triumph or bravado, and took post on the brow of the western heights at the side of the 158th street hollow-way, west of Eleventh avenue, leaving three hundred of their party concealed in the woods in their rear. Adjutant-General Reed had ridden down to our advanced guard to see the condition of things, and he went over to head- quarters and begged Washington to reinforce Knowlton. Washington, after a little hesitation, complied with the double request of Reed and Knowlton, and directed Reed to accom- pany the reinforced party, principally Southern troops, com- manded by the brave Major Leitch. Washington was.to make a feint of attacking the British in front from the north, while he gave Leitch and Knowlton orders to get in their rear, and surround and capture them. This was attempted. A depar- ture, however, from Washington's directions, brought on an unfortunate flank attack, instead of an attack in the rear. THE UNFORTUNATE FLANK ATTACK. It has been suggested by Mr. Dawson, that General Putnam was probably justly chargeable with this departure from the orders of General Washington. The proof is clear that it was an inferior officer, the impetuous and brave commander of the Virginia troops, that was guilty of that indiscretion which called for the pointed rebuke of General Washington after the battle, and was the cause of his positive order on the next day providing against such another occurrence, in which he says : The loss of the enemy yesterday, undoubtedly would hare been much greater if the orders of the Commander-in-Uhief had not, in some instance, been contradicted by some inferior officers, who, however well they may mean, ought not to presume to direct. It in therefore ordered that no officer commanding a 34 party, and having received orders from the Commander-in-Chief, depart from them without counter orders from the same author- ity. — Jay, 66. Adjutant-General Reed was to guide the party that was to reinforce Knowlton and Leitch. It was one party to cut off the retreat of the enemy, and not two parties to fall on his two flanks. Knowlton and Leitch were together. They fell near each other, and near where Knowlton was buried. The falling on the enemy's flank was -the great blun- der of the day. The party consisted of three companies of Virginia, Riflemen, and Colonel Knowlton, with his Rangt /w,who were directed by Washington to endeavor to get in the rear of the enemy while their attention should be attracted by a feint to attack them on their front. — Jay, 44-45. The enemy consisted of two portions. The smaller portion, about 100, in open view, were probably those who had blown the hunter's horn, and the other, about 300, lay concealed. It is not unlikely that Major Leitch led the party far enough down to cut off the retreat of the smaller and exposed party, and attempted to do so, by Avhich premature movement he came upon the flank of the enemy's right flank, posted out of our sight on lower ground (Johnston, 254, note 1), instead of the rear of the larger party of 300 concealed in the woods, which immediately changed front and gave them an unex- pected and hot reception, to which Leitch and Knowlton fell victims. A movement was made by the feint which diverted the Virginia regiment and caused it to disobey its orders and attack the enemy on the flank. Adjutant-General Reed says: An unhappy movement was made by a regiment of ours which had been ordered to amuse them, wJiile those I icas with expected to take them in the rear, but being diverted by this, the Virginia regiment with which I was, went another course. Finding there was no stopping, I went with them the new way, and in a few minutes our brave fellows mounted up the rocks and attacked them. The Virginia-Major, Leitch, who went up first with me 'teas wounded with three shot in less than three minutes. — Jay, 48. He stood the field with the greatest bravery till the third shot, when he was obliged to fall. — Jay, 62. Colonel Knowlton, about the same time, fell with a mortal wound. The loss of those two heroic officers may be consid- 35 ered as justly attributable to that departure from bis orders by Major Leitcb. Tbeir men under tbeir captains and subal- tern officers went in with characteristic bravery and spirit, maintained their ground and continued the engagement with the greatest resolution, driving the enemy first 200 paces and then 400 paces as has been stated. Washington says: Finding that they wanted a support I advanced part of Colonel Griffith's and Colonel Bichardson's Maryland regiments, with some detachments from the Eastern regiments who were nearest the place of action. These troops charged the enemy with great intrepidity and drove them from the wood into the plain or open ground. Leitch and Knowlton fell within a few minutes of each other, almost at the feet of Adjutant-General Reed, who assisted Knowlton off his horse, and be repeats his heroic words as he fell. When gasping in the agonies of death all his inquiry was if we had drove the enemy. — Reed, Jay, 48. Captain Brown says: My poor colonel was shot just by my side; I took hold of him, asked him if he was badly wounded. He told me he icag, but says he, I do not value my life if we do but get the day. I then ordered two men to carry him off- * * Se seemed as unconcerned and calm as though nothing had happened to 7iim.—J&y, 60, 61. And Leitch received three balls through his body in less than three minutes. Tie stood the field with the greatest bravery till the third shot when lie was compelled to fall; after he fell he was in good spirits. — Jay, 62. Adjutant-General Reed mounted him (Leitch) on his horse and brought him of. In the spot where Knowlton fell, at least within four rods round him, lay 15 or 16 of the enemy dead, with five or six of our own people. — Jay, 61. How heroically they intended to repair the blunder of that flank attack! Of the ten men which the Rangers lost in the whole action five or six fell within a few feet of where Knowlton was wounded, and 15 or 16 of the enemy, dead, lay there also. -Jay, 61. Knowlton was carried by two of his men to a neighboring redoubt, and there he was buried the next day with the honors of war. — Note 2. Mr. Dawson and Mr. Lossing agree within a short distance as to the place of his burial. Mr. Dawson says on 154th street, and Mr. Lossing on 156th street near the 36 Hudson River. Mr. Nelson Chase, a respectable lawyer of this city, who has resided for more than forty years in the Jurael House, formerly the Morris House, and who was on the most familiar terms with Colonel Burr while he resided there as the husband of Madame Jumel, says that Colonel Burr in- formed him that Kuowlton fell about 153d street and 11th avenue, and that he was buried in 150th street near 10th ave- nue, and that Knowlton's camp was quite near to Washing- ton's headquarters. Major David Henley was at that time Deputy-Adjutant-General, and must have had his quarters near the Commander-in-Chief, Major David Henley and Major Thomas Henley were brothers. The body of Thomas was taken to his brother's quarters and was, the next day, the 24th, buried from there by the side of Kuowlton, with military honors. — Heath, 60. Colonel Burr was one of the aids of General Putnam, and was doubtless in the battle. Note 3. After the loss of these officers the command was taken by General Putnam and General Greene with about 1,500 to 1,800 men of their divisions, our whole force engaged being at that time probably 4,000 men — the enemy having a larger number, General George Clinton thought between 4,500 and 5,000 of their choicest troops. It was by the spirited conduct in gener- alship, activity and command, of Putnam and Greene and Reed, that the day was so signally and so beneficially saved to the American cause. — Jay, 50. Reed's horse was shot under him. — Jay, 50, Note 2. They behaved nobly. — Jay, 56, 67. An officer of the Maryland line the day after the battle says: Yesterday mom ing the Regulars came within half a mile of our lines (the Maryland lines) and made a stand. A few of our scouts who we're out attacked them and drove them off. In two hours after, 2,000 of them returned. General Beal sent out three companies of riflemen, under Major Hants, who attacked tin in. Immediately General Washington reinforced them with the remainder of our brigade, together with General Weeden's regiment from Virginia, Major Price's three independent com- panies, and one regiment of Rhode Islanders. Never did troops go to the field with more cheerfulness and alacrity, when there be- gan a heavy fire on botli sides. It continued about an hour when our brace Southern troops dislodged them from their posts. The 37 enemy rallied, our men beat them a second time. They rallied again, our troop* drove them a third time and were rushing on them, but the enemy had got on an eminence and our troops tcere ordered to retreat, the General considering there might be a large number of the enemy behind the hill concealed, which was the case.— Jay, 61. Captain Beatty, another Maryland officer, writes to his father: On Monday last the enemy thought to drive our troops farther, and sallied out and were attacked by Major Mantz with the three rifle companies of our batallion under Ms com- mand, and Major Price with three of the independent companies of Maryland troops and three other companies of the Maryland Flying Gamp, and a batallion of Virginians, and some Northern troops. The attack icas wry sharp on both sides for an hour and a half, then the enemy retreated a mile and a half to their lines. — Jay, 62. We now turn to other important original proofs as to the positions, purposes and operations of the two armies during this 16th day of September. On the morning of that day, before the battle, General Washington wrote to the President of Congress: We are now encamped with the main body of the army on the Heights of Har- lem, where I should hope the enemy would meet with a defeat in case of an attack, if the generality of our troops would behave with tolerable bravery. Buc experience, to my extreme affliction, has convinced me that this is rather to be wished for than expected.— Jay, 40. And on the 20th he wrote to General Schuyler, dated at " Colonel Roger Morris' ": The British army lies en- camped about 2 miles below us * * * * and we are putting ourselves in the best position of defence that time and circum- stances will admit of (Jay, 43), and General Knox says shortly after the battle : The grounds on which we now possess are strong. I think we shall defend them. If we don't, I hope God will pun- ish us in this world and the world to come if the fault is ours. — Jay 58. Washington evidently expected to be further pur- sued and attacked, and had chosen this strong position on Har- lem Heights where he might make a stand and hope to defeat any attack of the enemy. He had no thought himself of at- tacking. This fact sheds light upon the whole affair. It was throughout a defence. 38 THE PEN AND INK PLAN OP BATTLE. There is a rude pen and ink topographical sketch of the field of battle, extending from Washington's headquarters to the British picket line below Manhattanville on the parallel of Harlem Village about 123d to 125th street, made soon after the battle, and apparently by or under the dictation of General George Clinton.— See copy plan, Jay, G8. This is a most im- portant piece of evidence. It was furnished to John Sloss Hobart, who was then a member of the first New York State Convention, which sat in Harlem from July 29th to August 29th, 1776, less than three weeks before the battle. He had also been a member of the four provincial Congresses of New York sitting in New York, and was subsequently a member of the State Convention for framing a constitution and was on the committee to prepare it. He was a Judge of the Supreme Court for 21 years, a member of the State Conven- tion for adopting the Constitution of the United States, a Sen- ator of the United States, and finally District Judge of the United States till his death. He was thus a man of the high- est respectability, of the most reliable character, and of much experience and intelligence in public affairs, and doubtless was familiar with the localities. Mr. Hobart gave this sketch to the Rev. Dr. Stiles, who was the next year appointed Presi- dent of Yale College, and was a great patriot and kept a jour- nal of public events.— Jay, 68-69. On that sketch the action is laid down as beginning near the Hudson River about the 10th milestone, and ending about the 8th milestone. The milestones are marked on the plan. At that time the 8th milestone on the old road was on 125th street in the Village of Harlem, and the 10th milestone would be about two miles further up, say at about 164th street, a short distance above Washington's headquarters, where some in- trenchments were begun. There was another eighth milestone on the other road half a mile further down at about 115th street and 7th avenue, placed there because that road just be- low had run at right angles to the main road for about half a mile. As Judge Hobart, as member of the State Convention, had spent the previous month in Harlem Village where the 39 8th milestone stood on 125th street, it is probable that that 8th milestone was the one intended on the sketch, it being placed about on the parallel of Harlem Village. The buckwheat field, in which the hottest and much the largest part of the action was fought, is laid down on this sketch and was at about 145th street. The British, after one or two hours' hard fighting at that place broke and ran. — Jay, 59. They pre- tended to rally at an orchard at about 121st street and 9th avenue. As their ammunition was exhausted, the halt was only a pretence, and after a brief rally they fled across and up a hill to near their own lines (camps). There, Adjutant Reed and Colonel TiJghman called off our troops, a retreat being ordered by General Washington, who thought, as proved to be the fact, that a heavy British force was coming on over the Bloomingdale hills, threatening attack, which could hardly fail to lead to a general action for which he was then unpre- pared, especially as the ground was disadvantageous as well for fighting as for a retreat.— Jay, 52. The British being on the rising and high grounds of Bloomingdale Heights, the Americans, if they continued the pursuit, must charge up a hill with an exposed valley with rocky cliffs and narroAV passes in their rear. The American army, with the exception of Heath's troops at Kingsbridge, lay at Morris Heights and so southward to near Manhattan ville. There were no entrenchments south of Morris house at the time of the battle. At 161st street, there were entrenchments thrown up before Washington arrived there with the main army. During and after the battle on the same day entrenchments to connect and strengthen three little redoubts were commenced about 153d to 155th streets and completed by the 21st in a very defensible state. — Jay, 53. These entrenchments were where Colonel Silliman lay with his com- mand which was part of what he calls our Brigades. About half a mile below in the woods lay two other Brigades as an ad- vanced guard, these were under the command of General Greene. — Jay, 55 and 66. Colonel Silliman says under date of the 1 7th — Yesterday a little before noon, the time when by all accounts the main battle began, we heard a strong firing about half a mile below us, where we had two brigades lying 40 as an advanced guar J. The enemy, in a large body, advanced in the woods a little before 12 o'clock and began a Jieavy fire on those two brigades who maintained the fire obstinately for some time and then they were reinforced by several regiments and the fire continued very heavy from the musketry and the field pieces about two hours, in which time our people drove the regular* hack from post to post about a mile and a half and then left them.. — Jay, 57. This is a description of the whole main battle, with time and place, written on the spot the next day by one of the most reliable officers in the army, and it is not possible to doubt that the fighting of which he speaks was on Harlem Heights, within the American picket lines, Capt Gooch, of the Massachusetts line, confirms this account fully. — Jay, 59. This covers the time from a little before noon to three o'clock. What had been done before that ? General Clinton, says : On Monday morning the enemy at- tacked our advanced party commanded by Colonel Knowlton, near the point of Matje David's Fly. General Washington says : I heard a firing which I was informed was between, a party of our Rangers under the command of Lieutenant- Colonel Knowlton, and an advanced party of the enemy. Neither of these describe the engagement, or mention the loDg retreat of our force and the pursuit by the enemy, but pass immediately to the events of the main battle and its triumphs, several hours later in the day. Colonel Reed, who was present says : Our men behaved well, and stood and returned the fire till overpoirered by numbi rs they were obliged to retreat (Jay, 47-48), and were pursued. Reed went over to the General to get some support for the brave fellows who laid behaved so well. — Jay, 48. By that time Knowlton had also come in and asked for a reinforcement. Before the reinforcement could be arranged the pursuing enemy appeared and blew the hunter's horn of triumph, which Reed heard with deep mortification. The party of the enemy in sight must have been 100, as the men who " came in " in- formed General Washington that the body of the enemy amounting to 300 kept themselves concealed. — Jay, 41. This could have happened but at one place — near the head- quarters of Washington and his military family, including Colonel Reed the Adjutant-General, and near the camp of 41 Knowlton, sometimes called General Washington's body guard, 1% miles above Manhattanville. The lines of an army are sometimes its pickets— its line of pickets. The word lines is often used in many other senses also— a line of march— a line of battle— a line of fortifications — a line of entrenchments— a line of encampment, On the night of the 15th, before the battle, the American picket, lines ran from the Point of Rocks north-westward to the Hudson River, along the face of the north side of the Manhattanville valley, and northeasterly along the south- eastern face of Harlem Heights to Harlem River. The British picket lines extended from Horen's Hook, on the East River, at 90th street, along the high grounds to and at Mc- Gowan's pass, to the end of the high grounds on the south side of the western end of the Harlem Plains at 125th street. So are the authorities, and it is quite apparent that the two sides of that valley could not fail to be made picket lines, because of the panoramic view they furnished of the neigh- boring localities. The field is the place where the battle is fought, some- times meaning the whole range of hostilities, and sometimes the mere place of a local encounter. Mifflin says : We lost about 100 killed and wounded, and beat the enemy from the field of battle.— Jay, 67. Mr. Ellery says : With equal numbers, we drove the enemy from the field. — Jay, 69. Gordon says : The parties behaved with great bravery, and being supplied with fresh troops, beat the enemy fairly from the field. — Jay, 70. General Greene says: The enemy nextday,at Harlem Heights, flushed with the sueeesess of 'the day before, approached and attacked our lines where I had the honor to command. The action, or rather skirmish, lasted about two hours. Our people beat the enemy off the ground. — Jay, 66. Major Fish says: Our advanced guard is posted a mile from our lines. Here it was (at the advanced guard, half a mile below Colonel Silliman) that our brave and heroic Marylanders, Virginians, &c, made a noble and resolute sta nd against the efforts of the enemy on Monday, the Wth, drove them back, pur- sued and forced them to retire. — Jay, 58. 42 General Greene again says: Th< enemy retreated, our people pursued them, and by the spirited conduct of General Put man and Colonel Reed, the. Adjutant-General, our people advanced upon the plain ground, without cover, and attacked and drove them back. — Jay, 55. The plain ground is the open ground — not woods. Colonel Silliman says: Our people drove the regulars back from post to post, about a mile and a half, and then left them. General Knox says: Our people pursued them nearly two miles. — Jay, 57. Captain Drown, of the Rangers, who succeeded to Knowl- ton's command (Humphrey, 142), says: We retreated, two miles and a half, and then made a stand and sent off for a reinforce- ment, which we soon received, and drove the dogs near three miles. — Jay, 60. This is extremely significant. The Rangers who w T ere attacked near the point of Matje David's Fly, retreated from there two miles to headquarters, received reinforcements, and then turned upon their pursuers and drove them near three miles. There is no mistaking the place and the manner of these movements. A Maryland correspondent says: Our brave Southern troops dislodged them from their posts. The enemy rallied and our mi it heat them the second time. They rallied again, our troops drove tliem the third time, and were rushing on them, but the enemy had' got on an eminence, and our troops were ordered to retreat. — Jay, 61. The proof is overwhelming that after the engagement at daybreak between Knowlton and Leslie, wherever the battle was fought, we were attacked on our own ground, which we maintained, and drove the enemy back entirely off from it. That we drove them from the place where the Rangers, after their retreat, were reinforced, near three miles. — Jay, 60. It only remains to state to what place we drove them. Colonel Smallwood and Captain Beatty, of the Maryland Regulars, bravest of the. brave that day, fix that beyond all dispute. Colonel Smallwood says: We drove them back Co their li/us. — Jay, 63. Captain Bpatty says : The attack was very sharp on both 43 aides for an hour and a. half, and then the enemy retreated one mile and New York, June IStJi, 1880. ) Honorable E. C. Benedict : Dear Sir, — In digging the foundations for my house on 155th street, west of Tenth avenue about two hundred feet. ten years ago, a number of revolutionary relics, such as buckles, buttons and bullets were thrown out ; and at a public meeting held in the church on the corner of that street some years since, one of the speakers stated that a direct ancestor of his fell by a British shot, on or near the place where the church now stands. Very respectfully yours, CHAS. A. STODDARD. [Letter of Humphrey Jones.] Address on the envelope " Erastus C. Benedict, Esq., N. Y. University, N. Y. City." Postmark, February 8, 1878, Toledo, 6. Dear Sir, Historical Society. — Reading in the Herald, of reminiscences of the battle of Harlem Heights— perhaps I can 51 give you some insight as to where it was. My father was an old soldier at that time, and fought with Lafayette at Brandy- wine, and I was with my father to see the general at the old hotel near Trinity Church, and sat on his knee when he was in New York on his last visit. My father at one time lived at Manhattan ville, and he has shown me the battle-ground. It commenced on the hill near the asylum, and the Americans drove the British up the road and down the hill, often called by the name of Breakneck Hill. The old gentleman used to say that was the reason they called it Breakneck Hill. Yours very respectfully, HUMPHREY JONES, Toledo, O. Born N. Y., May 3, 1812, No. 11 Roosevelt street. Lived in Manhattanville the time of the yellow fever, I think 1821 or 1822. Father was known as Tom Jones, fighting quaker of La- fayette's army. Please to excuse me as I am no letter writer, only a farmer. Respectfully, H. J. In the copy I have corrected the spelling. It is a brief and imperfect account, but shows quite clearly that according to the fighting cmaker of 177fi, hostilities commenced on the left of the British advance guard about 11th avenue and 120th street (now the asylum) the Americans passing under cover of the woods by way of Vanderwater Heights, (Jay, 77) from near the point of Matje David's Fly, and ended in the precipi- tate retreat of the British down the precipitous Breakneck Hill. Mr. Stevens says: Our best local authority, Colonel Thomas F. Devoe, sets at rest this story of Mr. Jones, and shows that the name Breakneck Hill originated, not in this retreat of the British, but in an accident to the Northern Coach. Colonel Devoe's statement on this subject is found in the Magazine of American History, for May of this year, page 386, in whic 52 lie gives an extract from the N. Y. Journal, June 20, 1795, stat- ing that as the Harlem Stage was coming clown Harlem Hills, the horses took flight, and two men were killed in attempting to get out. Not a word about the Northern Coach or Breakneck Hill. It was the Harlem Stage coming down Harlem Hills which the facile pen of Mr. Stevens has converted into the Northern Coach, which would, of course, be coming down the Kingsbridge Road, the grand northern route of public convey- ance while the Harlem Stage plied between New York and Harlem on the great eastern route. To this Colonel Devoe adds the gossiping story of a Mr. McGowan living on the cast side of the town, that ever since that accident this hill has borne the name of Breakneck Hill. Now, this statement was made to Mr. Devoe only two years ago, while Mr. Jones' information was received from his father, the fighting quaker of Lafayette's army, in 1822, fifty- six years before that of Mr. McGowan, and both Mr. Stevens and Mr. McGowan are set at rest by an old deed, dated May 4, 1786 (Lib. 52. page 330), which makes mention of Breakneck Hill as an apparently well known land mark at that time, nine years before the accident on the Harlem Stage. Mr, Stevens probably had not seen this ancient deed, and naturally enough adopted Mr. McGowan's hearsay statement in his desire to bolster up his entirely inadmissible account of this battle. Note II.— Page 35 and 3G. It has been supposed that after Knowlton fell, Colonel Reed mounted him on his (Reed's) horse and took him from the field. This is evidently a misapprehension. At first look Reed seems to say so. It is, however, Leitch of whom Reed is speaking, and whom he brought off. The sentence, Knowl- ton also fell mortally wounded, is a parenthetic sentence. Knowl- ton was past being mounted on a horse when gasping in tlie agonies of death. Captain Brown says: I then ordered two men to carry him off. — Jay, 60. Note III.— Page 36. Knowlton, who fell on the 16th, was buried on the 17th, with military honors. — Heath, 61. Major Thomas Henley, who 53 fell in the unfortunate attempt on Montressor's Island on the morning of the 23d, was buried by his side on the 24th, with military honors.— Heath, 60. Major Leitch lingered till Octo- ber 1st, when, as is said, he was buried there also. There does not seem to be any reasonable ground for doubt that these three brave officers lie side by side near the north margin of Trinity Cemetery. Note IV.— preface Page VI. CAPTAIN OLIVER BROWN. I copy the following epitaph from the Magazine of Ameri- can History, Vol. 3, page 376. Captain Oliver Brown, of the artillery of the Massachusetts line, Revolutionary war, bom in Lexington, Mass., 1752. He stood in front of the first cannon fired by the British on the Ameri- cans in the affray at Lexington, witnessed the tea party, Boston Harbor, was at the Battle of Bunker Hill, commissioned by Con- gress, nth January, 1776. Commanded the party that bore off the leaden statue of King George from the Battery of Wew York, and made into bullets for the American army. Bore a conspicu- ous part in command of artillery at the battles of Harlem Heights, White Plains, Princeton, Trenton, Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth. After serving his country he enlisted in the armies of the Son of God, and surrendered to the last enemy on the 17th of Febru- ary, 1846, in full assurance of a never ending peace. This is the officer of our army whom Mr. Stevens seeks to discredit with the unfounded and unworthy slur that he was only the author of an anonymous letter, which he was not. As a Captain of artillery in the Massachusetts regulars he, of course, had his cannon at his camp, on Morris Heights, from whence a couple of field pieces were brought to bear on the enemy, which fairly put them to flight, with two discharges only. George Clinton. — Jay, 54. The British had a noble train of artillery. When they moved up the road and down the hill, as the letter of Mr. Jones says, nothing would be easier than to take cannon with them along the main road to the Point of Rocks, and then by the new 54 road, the continuation of the Harlem Lane, up to 131st and 133d street and lltli avenue, to the attack on Green's advanced guard, or they might as easily go by the road along the brow of Vanderwater's Heights, distinctly laid down on the true Sauthier Map, as the route of the Hessian Column substan- tially along 11th avenue across the Manhattanville Hollow- way to 133d street. This ought to relieve the doubts of Mr. Stevens about the artillery and how it got into the fight. That it was in the fight effectively, is free from doubt. Gen >ral Cliuton and Colonel Sillitnan so state specifically, and Sir Wm. Howe in general orders desires to return thanks to the battalion (of infantry) and the officers and men of tlie artillery; and the finding the relics by Mr. Deering at this place, and by Colonel Long at 155th street, show the presence of both those arms of the service in these two principal attacks. I am also informed by Mr. Hawley, whose letter is given in note I, and who has long resided at Carmansville; that up to the last year, 1879, the course and the remains of an old revo- lutionary road were plainly visible, leaving the Kingsbridge Road at about 104th street, and by a crooked and irregular course descending westward ly to the river at about the Audu- bon Park — a road which might well be used by Knowltou and the Rangers when they set out before day. I have copied the epitaph of Captain Brown on page 53, to vindicate the character of that gallant officer, and also as ad- ditional evidence that this battle was known historically as the battle of Harlem Heights all along through the years of our revolutionary history. To it may be added that Paulding, one of the captors of Andre, is said to have been made a prisoner at the battle of Harlem Heights. The Magazine of American History for August, 1880, page 142, furnishes another piece of evidence as to the name and place of the battle. It says: In the Newark news, published in the Pennsylvania Evening Post for October, 1776, is an account of the skirmish on Harh m Heights on the 16t7i, September. When we turn to the Pennsyl- vania Evening Post we find the following: We hear that the English troops attacked part of our army near 55 the Blue Ball last Monday about 4 o'clock in the afternoon; tJiat the enemy was twice repulsed, and beat back near two miles. This is neither very specific nor very certain. It is hearsay. It is, however, evidence that the battle was on the upper part of Harlem Heights. The Blue Ball or Blue Bell was between Morris Heights and Fort Washington. And this is still further evidence: Louis McLaren, in an oration delivered before the artillery of Wilmington, Bel., July 5, 1813, thus alludes to the heroic battles of the war of Independence: The exploits of our heroes are almost as numerous as the hills of our country, and eclipse all theme- turns of Greece and Rome; cast your eyes over the extent of our territory and proudly dwell on the splendor of your national feats, Bunker Hilt and the Heights of Harlem, Saratoga and Trenton, Princeton and Monmouth, Stony Point and Yorktoicn are the proud monuments of your heroes' deeds, and your country's glory, — Magazine of Am. History for June, 1880, p. 457. In his Battles of the United States by sea and land, Mr. Daw- son called this battle the Battle of Harlem Plains. A few years later he corrected the error in his Battle of Harlem Heights, a paper read before this Society and published under that title. Other historians have also been glad, on new evidence, to cor rect their mistakes and set themselves right, rather than to leave it to others to do it for them. I shall not omit to say, on this opportunity, that Mrs. Lamb has shown the true spirit of the impartial historian in this matter. Assuming, originally from Mr. Stevens, that his view of this battle was the correct one, she wrote a paper presenting this passage of American history under that aspect, and with the name Harlem Plains, which was published with illustrations, and was extensively circulated. It was that paper which led to the conversation with her mentioned in my preface at the foot of page IV. When subsequent re-examination of the question on contem poraneous original evidence, some of which she sought with labor and expense in a neighboring State, as she has recently informed me, convinced her that she had been in error; she without any pride of opinion, adopted the truth of the newly discovered evidence, and incorporated it into her history as 56 the Battle of Harlem Heights, without any allusion to the mis- taken accounts of herself or of others. It is, perhaps, not surprising that Mr. Stevens has looked with disfavor on her change of opinion. Mr. Stevens says that Mrs. Lamb's statement that at evening the armies occupied the same relative position as before the battle, their pickets icithin speaking distance of each other, across the Manhattanville valley, where they remained for upward of three weeks, is also erroneous ! Let us see : General George Clinton says: Since the above affair noticing material has happened. The enemy keep close to their lines. Our advanced parties continue at their former station; we are daily throwing up works to prevent the enemy advancing. — Jay, 52-3. Graydon says: I was on guard at the Pointof Rocks. This was our most advanced picket towards Neto York, and only sepa- rated from that of the enemy by a valley of a few hundred yards over. — Jay, 75. Our advanced sentries are icithin 300 yards of each other. — General McDougaM. Colonel Reed says: I assisted in calling off our troops when they had pursued the enemy as far as was thought proper. — Jay, 49. These troops charged the enemy with great intrepidity and drove them from the wood into the plain, and were pushing them from thence, having silenced their fire in a great measure, when 1 judged it prudent to order a retreat, fearing the enemy, as I have since found was really the case, were sending a large body to sup- port their party. Washington to President of Congress (Jay, 41), and to N. Y. Convention. — Jay, 45. Our troops still pressed on and drove the enemy about a mile and a half, till the General ordered them to give over the pursuit, fearing the whole of the enemy's army would advance upon them. They retreated in very good order. — Reed, Jay, 4S. A large column of the enemy's army being at that time discov- ered to be in motion * * * our party was ordered in. — Clin- ton, Jay, 52. We retired to our first ground. — Clinton, Jay, 54. His Excellency sent out and ordered a timely retreat to our ad- vanced post , for he discovered, or concluded, the enemy icould send 57 a large reinforcement. — Green, Jay, 56. We were ordered to re- treat. — Jay, 59 and CI. The General fearing (as we afterwards found) that a large body was coming tip to support them, sent me over to bring our men off. They gave a hurrah, and left the field in good order. — Tilghman. And in addition to these brigades of Earl Percy there were close at hand the 8,000 or 10,000 fresh British regulars, whose approach over the hill caused Washington to call in our vic- torious troops. They lay there till about the 29th October, when General Green, in a letter from Fort Lee, informs General Washington that the British troops which advanced upon Harlem Plains, and on the hill where the Monday action was, have drawn within their lines again. — Force. Let those who can, believe with Mr. Stevens, that Washing- ton did not call in his troops, as he and all these officers assert that he did, but left them exposed below his farthest pickets, without a trench or a breastwork, or lines of fortifications to protect them ! and that, up to the surrender of Fort Washing- ton, the American army held all the ground between Mc- Gowan's Pass and the Point of Rocks, living in barracks under the guns of the noble train of British artillery, and under the guns of the strong British fortifications from that Pass to the river, thrown up the night after the battle (Jay, 55), — held and manned by Lieutenant-General Earl Percy and his English and German brigades, who did not move till the lGth November. I must here advert to some singular slips of the pen, if such they be. Mr. Jay says , page 22 : Passing over the ridge which we have described as the Bloomingdale Heights, then known as Vande- water's Heights {they are so described in Sir William Howe's dis- patch). Instead of describing the Bloomingdale Heights as the Van- dewater Heights, Sir William Howe, whose army lay on Bloomingdale Heights, says : On the l&h, in the morning, a large party of the enemy having passed under cover of the woods near to the advanced posts of the army, by the way of Vande- water's Heights. This surely is not describing Bloomingdale Heights as Vandewater's Heights, but quite the reverse. The 58 Hessian account, Jay, 81. — Stewart, Jay, 78. — Stedman, Jay, 80, — all concur in describing Vandewater's Heights as in or near the woods on the left of Bloomingdale Heights — left wing — left flank of the British army. It ought to be remarked also, here, that while Knowlton's approach was incontestably on the left wing or flank of the British advanced post, all these various and inconsistent averments place the approach on the British right. Another and more important, and quite as inexcusable error is found in the next succeeding paragraph, page 23, where it is stated, and said to be on the authority of General Reed's ex- press statement, that the American advanced guard was pick- eted on the plain below the Point of Rocks, before the morn- ing skirmish of Knowlton. If true, it would be a most im- portant piece of testimony; but, in fact, Colonel Reed says no such thing. I bring together Mr. Jay's statement and Colonel Reed's, for comparison. Mr. Jay says: Adjutant- General Joseph Reed, as he himself informed lis, was sent to the front to learn the truth, and went down to the most advanced guard picketed on the plain below the Point of Rocks. He here fell in with the party of Knowlton, who had been driven from the hill, and tohile Reed was talking to the officer in command, the enemy sJioiced themselves and opened fire at a distance of fifty yards. The Americans behaved well; stood and returned the fire till, over- powered by numbers {ten to one is Reed's estimate), they retreated, the enemy advancing with such rapidity that they were in posses- sion Of THE HOUSE IN WHICH REED CONVERSED WITH THE officer, five minutes after he left it. Colonel Reed says: An account came that the enemy were ad- vancing upon us in three large columns. We have so many false reports that I desired the General to permit me to go and discover wJiat truth there was in the account. — Jay, 47. / accordingly went down to our most advanced guard and fell in with the above party. — Jay, 49. While 1 was talking with the officer, the enemy advanced and the firing began at about 50 yards distance; as they were ten to one against our party, we immediately retreated. — Jay, 49. The enemy advanced upon us very fast. I had not 59 quitted a house five minutes before they were in possession of it. — Jay, 48. Not one word about being picketed on the plains below the Point of Rocks. All the words in small capitals have been interpolated into Reed's statement more than 100 years after it was written by Reed in a letter to his wife. Mr. Jay's oration was printed under the direction of Mr. Stevens, and I do not attribute these interpolations to Mr. Jay. Note V. Colonel Humphrey gives the following account of the flank attack: Lieutenant Colonel Knowlton's Rangers (a fine selection from the Eastern regiments), who had been skirmishing with an ad- vanced party, came in and informed the General that a body of British were under cover of a small eminence at no considerable distance. His Excellency, willing to raise our men from their de- jection by the splendor of some little success, ordered Lieu tenant- Colonel Knowlton with his rangers, and Major Leitch with three companies of Weedon's regiment of Virginians, to gain their rear while appearances should be made of an attack in front ; as soon as the enemy saw the party sent to decoy them, they ran precipi- tately down the hill, took possession of some fences and bushes and commenced a brisk firing at long shot. Unfortunately, Knowl- ton and Leitch made their onset rather in flank than in rear. The enemy charged their front, and the skirmish at once became close and warm. Major Leitch received three balls through his side, and icas borne from the field, and Colonel Knowlton icas mortally wounded immediately after. — Life of Putnam, 140. General Washington thus describes the same flank attack. Some of the enemy's light troops had advanced to the extremity of the high ground opposite to our present encampment * * Colonel Knowlton and Major Leitch were detached with parties of riflemen and rangers to get in their rear, while a disposition was made to attack them in front. By some unhappy mistake the fire was commenced from that quarter rather on their flank than in their rear. 60 Washington to Patrick Henry, dated Headquarters, Heights of Harlem, October 5th, 1776, and his letter to the President of Congress, September 1 8th, also from headquarters, — Jay, 41 ; and Chief Justice Marshall gives the same account, which he received from the Virginia officers commanding the companies that were engaged. — Jay, 72. The earliest map of the field is the pen and ink sketch to which reference has been made, of which a copy is given. — Jay, 68. That sketch represents that action to have begun near the Hudson river, between Washington's Headquarters and the high ground on the river bank, directly opposite to an en- campment, about one-third of a mile from headquarters south- westerly. Mr. Stevens says this sketch is not such a drawing as an engineer like Clinton would send to a public body. But General Clinton was not an engineer. The sketch is indeed rude, but perhaps all the more significant and important, because it was evidently a fresh off-hand draught made with no other purpose than to show, in a prominent and striking manner, the locality and course of the battle of the day and afternoon after the flank attack. I shall only put a double mark of wonder after the assertion of Mr. S., that this sketch represents Wash- ington as standing during the action at the Point of Rocks !! when in fact it places him on Morris Heights, a little below the 10th mile stone, and nearly two miles north of the latitude of Harlem village and the Point of Rocks. It shows the flank attack and the second attack, 150 yards further down, and the actual buckwheat field still further down, in which an action ensued for \% hour, when the enemy fled, or in the blunter language of Captain Gooch, broke and ran, and took momentary refuge in an orchard below the Point of Rocks, whence, hurry-scurry, they made for their camps, just as our troops were called in . The sudden and lamented death of my uncle, the author of the foregoing pages, left this appendix incomplete. He visited the rooms of the Historical Society, in reference to it, on the day before the fatal attack of the disease which ended his life. After his death a few memoranda were found, which he 61 had apparently made in the preparation of Note V, and which have been put in print as they were left. Their incomplete- ness is the more to be regretted, because the author, as will be seen by the close of his preface, invited special attention to this Note V. I venture to add one single suggestion of my own to what he has written. The affair of September 16th, 1776, began with an engage- ment about ten in the morning, between a small party of Americans, and a larger party of British troops. It ended about three o'clock in the afternoon, with the withdrawal of the American forces, each party occupying substantially the same ground as before. Between ten and three, the British troops having advanced about a mile and a half, were driven back by the Americans over two miles. Now it is entirely in accord with human nature that each party should bring into prominence that part of the day in which it was successful. The British would speak of the first skirmish and the final withdrawal, while to the Americans the main feature of the day would be, that they drove back the British, after their advance. And so we find both Lord Howe and Captain Hall mention- ing the retiring of the Americans (obliged them to retire, says Howe ; The latter obliged to retire, says Hall), as the main feature of the day ; while Washington and Clinton and Silli- man, and in fact all the American authorities dwell on the fact that the British were driven back. (These troops charged the enemy with great intrepidity, and drove them from the wood into the plain, and were pushing them from thence.— Washing- ton. A very brisk action commenced, which continued for near two hours, in which time we drove the enemy. — Clinton. About two hmirs—in which time our people drove the regulars back from post to post about a mile and a half. — Silliman. Drove them back, -pursued and forced them to retire.— Fish. Drove the dogs near three miles. — Brown.) It is equally in accord with human experience, that each party, bringing into prominence its own success, should con- nect with it the name of the place where that success was 62 achieved. It was therefore to be expected that Lord Howe and Captain Hall, who mention the British success, should mention Vandewater's Heights as the scene of it, which it was. It would be equally natural that every one on the American Bide, who spoke of the American success, should have given it the name of the Batlle of Haarlem Heights, if that was the place where the American success was achieved. And the fact that it did bear that name for three-quarters of a century is very strong evidence that Haarlem Heights was the place of the American success. Mr. Stevens brings forward Captain Hall's map as conclusive evidence against the views of the author of this pamphlet. For one, I fail to see how the fact that Captain Hall, a British officer, marks Vandewater's Heights on his map as the place of what he calls the Skirmish on Vandewater's Heights, between the Light Infantry, the 42d Eegiment, Hessian Company of Chasseurs, and the Rebels, the latter obliged to retire within their works with loss, is any authority on the question, whether the success, of which the Americans speak, was gained on Haarlem Heights or Haarlem Plains. ROB'T D. BENEDICT.