History of Westchester County, New York, Vol. I
Very closely after the Twenty-eighth and Thirty-fifth, the Fifth and Forty-ninth Regiments also lorded the Bronx ; and moved to the positions which had been assigned to them, respectively ; and climbed up the side of the hill ; ' and assaulted the position which was occupied by " The Blue Hen's Chickens "--the Regiment of Delaware troops, commanded by Colonel Haslet -- " foemeu worthy of their steel." That Kegiment numbered very few, if any more, than three hundred fighting Officers and Privates ; and yet, singlehanded -- the two Regiments on its right were already engaged, with assailants on both their front and flank ; and the First New York Regiment and the Regiment of Connecticut troojis, the latter commanded by Colonel Charles Webb, were also employed in opposing Colonel Donop's Brigade of Hessians, who were " ascending the height, with the greatest alaci'ity and "in the best of order" -- that single regiment bravely sustained the attack, until after the Regiments which had covered its right had given way, when " part of " the first three Companies of the Regiment also rc- " treated, in disorder," with considerable loss.* The left of the Regiment, however, with the greater number of its Otticers, notwithstanding the retreat of the Regiments on its right and that of its own three Companies had exposed its right to the combined assaults of, at least, the Hessian Battalion who had been the forlorn-hope and two of the British Regiments and Colonel Rail's entire Brigade, while two other British Regiments were on its front, fell back only far enough to occupy " a fence, on the to]) of the hill,'' a position which it continued to occupy and defend, successfully . until the two Regiments which covered its left had also given way, when, it, also, " retired," the last of the Americans who remained on the hill, and that resolute force, small as it was, who held back the successful assailants, then eager to become pursuers, and covered the retreat of those who, then, remained of the defenders of Chatterton's-hill."'