On the 23d of October, a spirited skirmish took place between ll;i:;.:< Pennsylvania riflemen and a detachment of Hessian chasseurs, about 240 k:.-- -:-.•. in which the Hessians were routed. These haras;.-iug encounters of the Ainv:;. cans, (attended invariably with success,) tended to delay the advance of tl: • British and to make them cautious, while it cheered the desponding coura-.:e < '. the Americans soldiers, and above all, gave General Washington time to remov..- his stores and entrench iiimself where no army dare assail him,

"On the morning of the 23!;h of October, the British army marched froiii their camp in two columns-- the right commanded by General Clinton, the kf. by T>e JTn'ster, and came in sight of the American forces about 10 o'clock. On the 27th of October, two militia regiments had been sent over to throw u;> entrenchments on Chatterton hill; and ou the morning of the 2^th, Gcncn.: Washington ordered Col. Ilaslct to take command of the hill-- having under !i;j command his own (the Delaware) Regiment, the Militia, and part of the X:iryland troops. General McDougal soon followed him and took command. L'ul Haslet says, the enemy in the first place moved towards the fortiiications in the village-- they then halted-- the general officers had a council of war on horse!.>a';k in the wheat-fields, and the result was that their forces inclined tov.ards the Bronx. Fifteen or twenty pieces of artillerj' were placed upon the high gr v.iml opposite the liill, and commenced a furious cannonade upon McDougal's fvrce-. under cover of which fire the British built a bridge over the Bronx, and prepart d to cross.