[131] Hardly more than a general statement can be made in regard to the attack on the pickets at the lower road. A part of them watched Martense Lane, where, it would appear from Ewing's sketch, Hand's riflemen were posted before being relieved. Major Burd's detachment, on the same authority, was probably on the direct road to the Narrows, both parties communicating with each other at the Red Lion Tavern, which stood near the fork of the roads. Grant's main column advanced by the Narrows Road, and possibly a party of the enemy came through the Martense Lane at about the same time. The skirmish Major Burd speaks of occurred in the vicinity of Thirty-eighth and Fortieth streets, on the Narrows Road, where former residents used to say the Americans had a picket guard stationed. When the enemy came up firing took place and some men were killed; and this firing "was the first in the neighborhood." The pickets retreated, though General Parsons was misinformed when he wrote that they did so "without firing a gun." There was firing, but no stand made.
[132] Parsons' Letters. [Part II.], [Document 5].
[133] Stirling to Washington, Aug. 29th: "About three o'clock on the morning of the 27th I was called up, and informed by General Putnam that the enemy were advancing," etc.—Force, 5th Series, vol. i., p. 1245.
[134] "Col. Huntington is unwell, but I hope getting a little better. He has a slow fever. Maj. Dyer is also unwell with a slow fever. Gen'l Greene has been very sick but is better. Genls. Putnam, Sullivan, Lord Sterling, Nixon, Parsons, & Heard are on Long Island and a strong part of our army."—Letter from Col. Trumbull, Aug. 27th, 1776. [Document 7].
[135] See references on Ewing's sketch, [Document 15]: "H. Fort Putnam where part of Colo. Hand's men commanded by Lieut C. [Lieutenant-Colonel] Chambers were detached from the Regt. to man the fort.—I. A small upper Fort where [I] was with the Colo the Day of the Engagement." Lieutenant-Colonel Chambers says: "We had just got to the fort, and I had only laid down, when the alarm-guns were fired. We were compelled to turn out to the lines, and as soon as it was light saw our men and theirs engaged with field-pieces." Nearly all the accounts put Hand and his battalion at the Flatbush Pass during the battle on the 27th. This, as we now find, is an error. The battalion was worn out by its continued and effective skirmishing since the landing of the enemy, and required rest; but of this it was to get very little, even within the lines.
[136] The writer is indebted to the Hon. Teunis G. Bergen, of Bay Ridge, L.I., for an accurate description and sketch of the Gowanus Road, as it lay at the time of the battle. His survey is followed in the "[Map of the Brooklyn Defences]," etc., Title,[ Maps]. [Part II.]
[137] Atlee's Journal. Force, 5th Series, vol. i., p. 1251.
[138] Probably the earliest of modern attempts to identify the site where Stirling formed his line was that made in 1839 by Maj. D.B. Douglass, formerly of the United States Army. Greenwood Cemetery, says Mr. Cleveland in his history of Greenwood, owes its present beautiful appearance largely to this officer's "energy and taste," Douglass having been one of the first surveyors of the ground. He located Stirling's position on what was then known as Wyckoff's hill, between Eighteenth and Twentieth streets; and tradition and all the original documents confirm this selection. This was a lower elevation in the general slope from the main ridge towards the bay. Stirling simply drew his men up in a straight line from the road towards the hill-tops, and beyond him on the same line or more in advance, was Parsons. The map in Sparks' Washington putting Stirling down near the Narrows is erroneous.
[139] The colonels and lieutenant-colonels of both these regiments were detained at New York as members of the court-martial which tried Lieutenant-colonel Zedwitz, of MacDougall's regiment, charged with treasonable correspondence with the enemy. They joined their regiments after the battle.
[140] This name appears in other accounts as Kichline or Keichline. It is properly Kachlein, being so spelled by other members of this officer's family.