Lord Sterling who was taken prisoner by the enemy at the battle of Long Island, and subsequently, on the 7th of October, exchanged for Governor Brown, was now with the army of Whiteplains. He had previously been stationed with his brigade, in the vicinity of this last place, and was well acquainted with the country between it and the Sound. He had obtained accurate information of the post occupied by Rogers and Heathcote Hill and formed an extemporaneous plan for the capture or destruction of the Queen's Rangers, which was at once carried into execution. Seven hundred and fifty men of whom six hundred were Delawares and Marylanders, and the rest Virginians, were placed under the command of the redoubtable Colonel Haslet of the Delaware regiment, who had distinguished himself in the battle of Long Island, and was now selected to conduct

Chapter I

22 THE MCDONALD PAPERS

the enterprise against the enemy's post at Heathcote Hill. Lord Sterling had received the most accurate information of the position in which the Queen's Rangers lay. He knew, too, exactly where their sentinels were placed; and was ac-quainted with whatever precautions against surprise they had taken, as late as eight or nine o'clock at night. This, with his knowledge of the roads, enabled him to dictate the precise route to be taken by the detachment. It was late at night when Haslet started. His forces, pre-ceded by a corps of guides, marched in profound silence, along the road leading from Whiteplains to Mamroneck, until they came to Cornell's Fork; when they took the cross road leading to New Rochelle and passing by the Quaker Meeting House. They were now in the immediate and perilous vicinity of the position taken during the previous day by the right wing of the British army. Wheeling to the left, they marched along the road that conducts from the Quaker Meeting House toward the Sound, until they arrived within half a mile of the highway from New York to Boston.