October 1st she was at anchor in the channel between Harlem and Banian's orEldridge's Island. '

On October 3d General Heath, with Colonel Hand, made a reconnoisance as far as Throgg's Neck. The causeway between the village of Westchester and the Neck seemed to them to be a strong strategic point. The old mill then, and for many years afterwards, stood at the west end of the causeway, and there was a bridge of j)lanks there then, as there is now. A long range of cord-wood was })iled up on the village or west side of the bridge and was so advantageously situated that it seemed as though it had been placed there for the purpose of forming a breastwork. A detachment 1 of twenty-five picked men from Hand's regiment of I riflemen was sent to defend this position, with

1 Heath's Menu., 63-64. 3 Ward's Island.

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

instructions that in case the enemy should advance from Throgg's Neck, they should take up the planking from the bridge and have everything ready to set the mill on fire, but not to do so unless the advance of the enemy could not be checked. Another party was stationed at the head of Westchester Creek. This point must have been somewhere near the present station on the Port Chester Branch Railroad known as Timpson's.^ On the 12th eighty or ninety boats full of British troops went up the Sound from Randall's Island. They landed' at Throgg's Neck and at once pushed on for the village of Westchester. Hand's men opened fire and took up the planking from the bridge. The British then tried to turn the American flank by marching around the head of the creek, but Colonel Prescott's regiment and Bryant with a three-pounder, reinforced the riflemen at the village -- Colonel Graham, with a regiment of Westchester militia, and Jackson, with a six-pounder, assisted Hand's other men to hold the head of the creek.