He suspected his Tory guides of treachery, but he soon ascertained the truth and decamped, after being driven back from the causeway by Hand, with the aid of Prescott (the hero of Breed's Hill) and a three-pounder, under Lieutenant Bryant. (v) Howe crossed in his boats to Pell's Point, a little above,October 18 and marched over Pelham Manor toward New Rochelle.
After a hot skirmish with Glover's brigade, of Sullivan's division, in which the Americans were repulsed, Howe encamped upon high ground between Hutchins's River and New Rochelle village, where he remained until the twenty-first, when he took post upon the heights of New Rochelle, (v) north of the village, on the road to White Plains and Scarsdale. Knyphausen and his division arrived the next day, and encamped upon the land now owned by E. K. Collins, Esq., between New Rochelle and Mamaroneck.
* On the twenty-fourth of September, Colonel Jackson, with Major Henly (aid-de-eamp to General Heath), and two hundred and forty men, made a descent upon the British on Montressor's Island in flat-boats. They were repulsed with a loss of twenty-two men. Among them was Major Henly, who was shot while at the head of his men. He was carried to the vamp, and buried by the side of the brave Knowlton.
** These re-enforcements arrived on the eighteenth of October. The fleet consisted of seventy-two sail, having on board four thousand Hessians, six thousand Waldeckers, two companies of chasseurs, two hundred English recruits, and two thousand baggage horses.
*** The main body of the Germans landed upon Bauflet's Point, on the east side of Davenport's Neck, where, it is said, the Huguenot settlers of New Roehelle first touched our shores. Davenport's Neck is a beautiful fertile peninsula, jutting into the Sound near the village of New Roehelle. The view here given is from the high rocky bank at Bauflet's Point, looking southeast upon the wooded islands whieh here dot the Sound. The shores of Long Island are seen in extreme distance.
**** William Heath was a native of Roxbury, Massachusetts, near whieh some of his descendants still reside. He was appointed a provincial brigadier in 1775. The Continental Congress gave him the same commission, and on the ninth of August, 1776, made him a major general, together with Spencer, Sullivan, and Greene. He commanded near King's Bridge after the Americans left New York, and in the following year he was in chief command in the Eastern department. Burgoyne's captured army were in his custody. In 1779 he commanded on the Hudson, and there was the principal theater of his military life, until the close of the war. General Heath was a useful officer, but circumstances prevented his making much display. He published an interesting volume, entitled "Heath's Memoirs," which is now mueh sought after by collectors of valuable American books. General Heath died in 1814, the last survivor of the major generals of the Revolution.
* (v) Heath's Memoirs, page 67. For a sketeh of Colonel Prescott, see page 539, vol. i.