"General Howe committed a great mistake in not attacking General Washington's fortificaiions in White Plains on the 28ih instead of Chalterton's hill. He gained nothmg in taking that hill. After the works at Wliite Plains were comijleied, great loss to Howe's army must have attended their capture, and Washington's new position (above Mr. Miller's) appears to have been regarded as impregnable. Washington's policy at this time was, as he expressed it, ' to enirer.ch and fight with the spade and mattock.^ The experience at Bunker's hill had made the English cautious in attacking Americans behind entrenchments.»

" During the march of the two armies to White Plains frequent skirmishes occurred. On the 18ih, the vanguard of the British army were attacked by a detachment under General Sullivan, and the fight which ensued (near the road reaching from New Rochelle) has been always represented as very creditable to the Americans."

"On the 21st, Colonel Rogers, a celebrated partisan ofllcer in the French war, had accepted a command in the English service, and lay at Mamaroneck. An attack upon him was planned i)y Lord Sterling, and executed by a force under the command of Col. Haslet of the Delaware regiment. Rogers was completely surprised ; seventy or eighty of his men were killed or made prisoners, and a considerable quantity of arms, ammunition and clothing taken by the Americans. On the 23d of October, a spirited skirmish took place between Hand's Pennsylvania riflemen and a detachment of Hessian chasseurs, about 240 strong, in which the Hessians were routed. These harassing encounters of the Americans (attended invariably with success) tended to delay the advance of the British and lo make them cautious, while it cheered the desponding courage of the American soldiers, and above all, gave General Washington time to remove his stores and entrench himself where no army dare assail him.