Johnston, whose study of the action on Harlem Heights has been exhaustive, says in this connection : It is enough to know that when we hear of tliem [the Rangers] a Httle later, they were at the most important point on the enemy's front. We hnd them stirring up their pickets on the left, that left which rested, as we have seen, somewhere on the Bloomingdale Road, not far above Apthorpe's (91st Street), between which and our pickets at the Hollow Way (Manhattanville) intervened the wooded and rolling ground of the two farms on Morningside Heights.

That wooded and rolling ground covered the enem}^ and concealed his possible movements on the western

176 The Hudson River

or North River side of the island. That was the reason for dispatching Knowlton and his Rangers. At 1 06th Street, west of the Boulevard, upon a knoll, stood the stone farmhouse of Nicholas Jones. The reconnoitring party reached this place about sunrise and appear to have used it as a cover, advancing cautioush^ in the manner that many of the American recruits had learned in Indian warfare. They had barely passed the farmhouse when they were discovered by the British pickets and a sharp skirmish ensued. The Rangers were composed of Connecticut men, and they still smarted under the taunts of cowardice that must have been their portion after the panic and retreat of the 15th. The honour of Connecticut was smirched and the Rangers, picked men, were eager to remove that stain. But the odds against them were too great, and after holding their ground valiantly for a while, losing about ten men, they fell back, the line of their retreat being along the old Bloomingdale road "As it was subsequently extended through Manhattanville to the Kingsbridge road above." Close to where Columbia University and Barnard College now stand the British light troops pushed the Rangers till they reached the site of Grant's tomb, where they halted.