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was, already on the western bank of the Bronx, and in position ; and it is not to be supposed that it would have been withdrawn from that important position to the eastern bank of the river, by way of the ford, and then moved to the western bank, again, at a place where the depth of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.

That Battalion of Hessians who formed the forlorn-hope continues to be, to us, a subject on which we need and seek for further information, especially since it was definitely and very reasonably stated in The Annual Register for 1776, (History of Europe, *178,) that it was one of the Battalions of the Brigade commanded by Colonel Donop ; in which The History of the War in America, Edit. Dublin, 1779, (i., 195), concurred, both of which statements are in entire harmony with our own conclusions, on that subject, at the present time.