On the twenty-seventh of October, the small force which had been left in Fort Independence, when General Heath's Division was moved from near Kingsbridge to the White Plains, 3 was ordered to remove the Cannon and Stores from that post to Fort Washington ; to burn the several Barracks which had been erected, there, with so much difficulty and at so great an expense ; and, " with all possible dispatch," to move, by way of the Albany post-road, as far as Dobbs's-ferry, to the White Plains ; * and, on the following day, without having removed the Cannon, three hundred stand of Small-arms, five tons of Bariron, and " a great quantity of Spears, Shot, Shells, " etc., too numerous to mention," which were within or near the Fort, and all of which were recklessly abandoned, 5 that small command, numbering not more than four hundred effective men, 6 joined the main body of the Division, 7 on the left of the line, at the White Plains. The enemy, who had occupied the entire lower portion of Westchester-county, since the American forces had been concentrated at the Plains, occupied the position, on the evening of the day on which Colonel Lasher had abandoned it. 8

At the time of which we write, judging from The General Returns of the Army, dated on the third of November, the Army commanded by General Wash-

" General McDougaVs Brigade, of which the Maryland Regulars is " a part, having laid in the woods for three nights,'' [preceding the day of the action on CJiatterton's-hill, that is to say, on the nights of the tiventyfifth, twenty-sixth, and twenty-seventh of October,] "two miles from this " place, and to the right of the main body, aa a covering party, was or- " dered to advance along the road, about a mile, near a place called the " Milestone, and there take post, which waB accordingly done." (Letter to a Gentleman in Annapolis, dated " White-Plains, October 29, 1776," re-printed in Force's American Archives, V., ii., 1284.)