With that purpose in view, the main body of the Royal Army was ordered to rest on its arms, on the Plain, within a mile, and in open sight, from the American lines ; orders were issued for a Battalion of Hessians to pass over the Bronx-river, 1 supported by the Second Brigade of British troops, composed of the Fifth, Twenty-eighth, Thirty-fifth, and Forty-ninth Begiments of Foot, commanded by Brigadier-general Leslie; and by the Brigade of Hessians, composed of Linsing's, Mingerode's, Lengereck's, and Kochler's Begiments of Grenadiers and his own Begiment of Chasseurs, commanded by Colonel Donop -- the last mentioned Brigade to be taken from the right of the Army, where it had been posted -- for the purpose of assaulting the position on Chatterton's-hill, in front ; and Colonel Ball was ordered to move the Brigade which he commanded, on a charge, on the right of the Americans, simultaneously with the movement of the Hessian forlorn-hope and its supporting parties, on their front. 2

1 General Howe to Lord George Germaine, " New-York, 30 November, "1776."

General Howe did not state which particular Battalion of Hessians was thuB employed; and we have not found, in any of the contemporary authorities, anything which throws any light on the subject.

Bancroft, who has enjoyed unusual opportunities for acquiring information on the subject of the German mercenaries, has said, (History of the United Statee, original edition, ix.,181 ; centenary edition, v., 444,) that that forlorn-hope was composed of the Lossberg Battalion ; but if, as he has conceded on another page, that Battalion was a portion of the Brigade commanded by Colonel Kail, it was, already on the western bank of the Bronx, and in position ; and it is not to be supposed that it would have been withdrawn from that important position to the eastern bank of the river, by way of the ford, and then moved to the western bank, again, at a place where the depth of water made the passage much more difficult, as a forlorn-hope ; while it could have acted as such a forlorn-hope, had that been desired, by simply marching up the Mill-lane, and climbing up the side of the hill, without the unnecessary labor and risk of passing and re-passing the river.