3 " Colonel Kali . . . took possession of it. with great alacrity, to " the approbation of Lieutenant-general Heister, who wasacquainted with " this movement by Sir William Ei-skine," the (Quartermaster-general of the British .\rmy. -- (General Howe to Lord George Gerniaine, "New-York, " 30 November, 1776.")

It will be seen, from that paragraph, that the action of Colonel Rail, in thus occupying a position on the right flank of the Americans who were occupying Chatterton's-hill, received the favorable notices of both the British and the German Generals, commanding ; we shall see, hereafter, how important that action was, in the subsequent engagement.

of the enemy's line of march, the two columns continued their movements toward the American lines, "as if they meant to attack us, there," as General Washington's Secretary subsequently described the movement * -- indeed, General Howe subsequently stated that " an assault upon the enemy's " right, which was opposed to the Hessian troops, " was intended." * The Army was formed, evidently, for a general movement on the right and center of the American lines, with its right resting on the road which led from the White Plains to Mamaroneck, about a mile from the center of the former, and its Left on the Bronx-river, about the same distance from the extreme right of the American entrenchments ; ^ and what appeared to have been the decisive hour in which the future of America was to be determined, by the arbitrament of arms, had, at length, been reached. But the bright designs of God, concerning America, were widely different from those of men ; the future of those thirteen new-born members of the community of nations, in His purposes, was not dependent on the result of an assault on the improvised lines of defense, on the high grounds, in the vicinity of the AVhite Plains ; and the powerful arm which was already uplifted and ready to strike a crushing blow on that which God had predestinated for other ends, was restrained by an unseen power, a power before which the King of Great Britain and all his Armies were as nothing, by the same power which had restrained the same arm, uplifted, at Gravesend and before Brooklyn, at Kip's-bay and on Throgg's-neck -- the handful of American troops, on the summit of Chatterton's-hill, a phantom which seemed to augur ill for the left flank and rear of the Eoyal Army, was seen by General Howe ; the further advance of the main body, toward the American lines, was stayed: the uplifted arm fell, without having struck the blow which was intended ; the right and center of the American line remained, unharmed ; and another opportunity for the determination of the great dispute, between Great Britain and America, was lost, never to be be regained.