The first solicitude of the American commander-in-chief was the security of Chatterton Hill, to which place Colonel Rufus Putnam, the self-taught engineer, at the head of a detachment of militia, had been sent, early in the morning, with directions to throw up some entrenchments. Pursuant to order Colonel Haslet, with the Delaware regi-ment, marched immediately for that post and took until the arrival of a general officer, the temporary command of it and the militia there stationed under Colonel Putnam. Sev-eral of the enemy's field-pieces were now directed against the Americans upon the hill. The second shot fired wounded one of Colonel Putnam's militia-men in the thigh; upon which, says Colonel Haslet, "the whole regiment broke and fled

46 THE MCDONALD PAPERS immediately, and were not rallied without much difficulty." Shortly afterward Haslet was superseded by Brigadier-general McDougall, who came up with his whole force. This last officer had, for several days, been stationed in the woods near Barnes's or Hart's Corner, about two miles southwest of Whiteplains, in order to cover the retreat of General Lee's division. Lee had broken up his camp at Milesquare. His forces had been put in motion to join Washington, on the morning of the 25th. Bad roads, the proximity of the King's army, and want of draft-horses for the baggage and artillery, had rendered his march an extremely slow and arduous opera-tion. It was not until this moment that his rear-guard passed into the encampment, behind the troops on the hill, but in full view of the enemy. McDougall's brigade consisted of five regiments; that is to say, the remains of the First and third New York regiments under Colonel Ritzema, Smallwood's Marylanders, Webb's levies from Connecticut, and Brooks' Militia of Massachusetts. These regiments had been so materially reduced from the combined effects of hard service, sickness, and casualties, that the aggregate forces under McDougall on Chatterton Hill, including the Delawareans and Putnam's militia, did not much exceed sixteen hundred men.