''"Our Army is decreasing, fast: several gentlemen who have come " to Camp, within a few days, liave observed large numbers of Militia " returning home, on the different roads." -- {Colonel Robert H. Harrison to the President of the Congress, " White-Plains, October 31, 1776.")

"It" [o reinforcement,] "will arrive, very seasonablj', and in part "make up for the deficiency occasioned by daily desertions of our men, " who are returning to their homes in the most scandalous and infamous " manner. The roads are crowded with them." -- {Colonel Robert H. Harrison to Governor Trumbull, "White-Plains, November 2, 1776.")

' " The General, in a ride he took, yesterday, to reconnoitre the " grounds about this, was surprised and shocked to find both Oflficers *' and Soldiers sliaggling all over tlie country, under one idle pretence "or other, when they cannot tell the hour or minute the Camp may be "attacked, and their services indispensably necessary. He once more "positively orders that neitlier Officer or Soldier shall stir out of Camp, "without leave:. . ."{General Orders, " Head-qvarW.rs, White " Plains, October 31,1776.")

post were evidently diligently employed in preparing to move to a new position -- an operation in which the great scarcity of teams added, very greatly, to the personal labor of the men^ -- and, during the following night, that of Thursday, the thirty-first of October," the entire line of the Army, taking the extreme left of the line for the pivot,'" swung back, from the lines which it had constructed, with so much labor, on the high grounds, above the Plains, until its rear rested on the more advantageous high grounds of Northcastle ; " within a mile from the position which it had abandoned ;'^ and authoritatively described as " grounds which were strong and advantageous, and " such as they," [<Ae ICing's troops,^ " could not have " gained without much loss of blood, in case an " attempt had been made."" A strong party was left in possession of the lines