The roads were very bad, and the artillery had difficulty in following. Nevertheless, the two armies marched in perfect order, observing the strictest silence." The troops were disposed so as to cover the proceedings of the two generals, who, with the greatest deliberation, attended by a corps of engineers, traversed the country in front of the British position from river to Sound, noting every place and object that might be of importance in connection with future operations. Their movements were directed by the Fordham guide, Andrew Corsa. " He used to relate that when the allies, marching from the east near the Bronx and passing oxer the high grounds around Morrisania house, came in sight of the enemy, the fire which the British artillery opened upon them from the fortifications at Randall's Island and Snake Hill, from the batteries at Harlem, and from the ships of war at anchor in the (Harlem) river, were terrible and incessant; and, obeying the instinct of self-preservation, which became suddenly predominant, he urged his horse forward at full speed and rode for safety behind the old Morrisania Mill. Here he pulled up, and, looking back, saw Washington, Rochambeau, and the other officers riding calmly along under the fire as though nothing unusual had occurred. His self-possession now returned, and, ashamed at having given way to an impulse of fear, he at once pricked back with all the rapidity to which he could urge his horse, and resumed his place in tin1 order of march; while the commanding officers, with good-natured peals of laughter, welcomed him back and commended his courage."1 " This reconnoisance," says a French writer, " was made with all the care imaginable. We had been exposed to six or seven hundred cannon-shots, which cost the Americans two men. We had taken twenty or thirty prisoners from the English, and killed four or five men.