The officer in immediate command of this part of the lines had received the most peremptory BATTLE OF WHITEPLAINS, ETC. 53 Unable, however, to endure the bravado of the royal cava-liers, he directed two cannon to be discharged upon them simultaneously. One of these shots took effect in the midst of the enemy's squadron, killing or wounding one or two dragoons, and throwing another to the ground, whose rider-less steed, maddened with terror, ran into the American lines and was taken. A precipitate retreat of the cavalry was the immediate consequence. The officer by whose orders the cannon were discharged, on reporting the circumstances to General Washington, was readily excused. After Spencer's troops and the militia had given way be-fore the British dragoons, the Delaware battalion retired northerly along the summit of the hill, toward the Dobbs Ferry road, but was overtaken and charged by the enemy and three of its companies were driven from the field. The other companies and all the officers of the regiment remained firm and were stationed by Colonel Haslet behind a fence. Dur-ing the struggle thus made by the heroic Haslet, McDougall had witnessed the enemy's numerical superiority, and found himself assailed at once in front and flank. Perceiving that any further effort to hold his post would be unavailing, he retreated to the Dobbs Ferry road near Chatterton's bridge, where he halted the New York and Maryland troops for the purpose of extricating Haslet from the enemy's grasp. With the same intention, Webb's levies were place behind a fence near the foot of the hill, not far from Haslet's left. Very soon afterwards the Delawareans were attacked by the en-emy's chasseurs and light infantry, and by a troop of dragoons, which they repulsed twice. By this time the main body of the horseman having pursued the fugitive levies and militia over the hill, was returning and preparing for a charge.