On the twenty-seventh of October, the small force which had been left in Fort Independence, when General Heath's Division was moved from near Kingsbridge to the White Plains,^ was ordered to remove the Cannon and Stores from that post to Fort Washington ; to burn the several Barracks which had been erected, there, with so much difficulty and at so great an expense ; and, " with all possible dispatch," to move, by way of the Albany post-road, as far as Dobbs's-forry, to the White Plains ; * and, on the following day, without having removed the Cannon, three hundred stand of Small-arms, five tons of Bariron, and " a great quantity of Spears, Shot, Shells, " etc., too numerous to mention," which were within or near the Fort, and all of which were recklessly abandoned,^ that small command, numbering not more than four hundred effective men,^ joined the main body of the Division,' on the left of the line, at the White Plains. The enemy, who had occupied the entire lower portion of Westchester-county, since the American forces had been concentrated at the Plains, occupied the position, on the evening of the day on which Colonel Lasher had abandoned it.*

At the time of which we write, judging from The General Returns of the Army, dated on the third of November, the Army commanded by General Wash-

" General Ucnougal's Brigade, of which the Maryland Regulars is " a part, having laid in the woods for three nights," [preceding the day of the action oh Chatterton^s-hilt, that is to sny, on the nights of thettceniijfifUt, lirentii-airth, and twent;i-sevenlh of October,] " two miles from this " place, and to the right of the main body, as a covering party, was or- ** dered to advance along the road, about a mile, near a place called the "Mile-stone, and there take post, which was accordingly done." {Letter to a Gentlemnn in Annapolis, dated " White-Pi.aixs, October 29, 1776," re-print«d in Force's American Archives, V., ii., 1284.)