post were evidently diligently employed in preparing to move to a new position -- an operation in which the great scarcity of teams added, very greatly, to the personal labor of the men 8 -- and, during the following nigbt, that of Thursday, the thirty-first of Octo^ ber, 9 the entire line of the Army, taking the extreme left of the line for the pivot, 10 swung back, from the lines which it had constructed, with so much labor, on the high grounds, above the Plains, until its rear rested on the more advantageous high grounds of Northcastle; 11 within a mile from the position which it had abandoned ; 12 and authoritatively described as " grounds which were strong and advantageous, and " such'as they," [the King's troops,"] " could not have " gained without much loss of blood, in case an '• attempt had been made." 13 A strong party was left in possession of the lines

8 Colonel Robert H. Harrison to ilie President of the Congress, " White- " Plains, October 31, 1776."

3 Chief-justice Marshall, (Life of George Washington, ii., 505,) stated, in harmony with what General Howe also stated in his despatches to Lord George Germaine, (vide page 272, ante,) that the American Army was withdrawn from the lines on the night after the engagement on Chatterton's-hill ; and that it was moved, a second time, during the night of the thirty first of October, to the high grounds of Northcastle, which he erroneously supposed to have been five miles from the White Plains.