[199] It is quite clear that Knowlton and Leitch did not form two parties, as some accounts state, one moving against the right flank of the enemy and the other against the left. They acted as one body, the Virginians marching in front, having been ordered on to "reinforce" Knowlton. Thus Captain Brown writes that after retreating they "sent off for a reinforcement," which they soon received; and Colonel Reed confirms this in his testimony at the court-martial of a soldier who acted a cowardly part in the fight. "On Monday forenoon," he says, "I left Colonel Knowlton with a design to send him a reinforcement. I had accordingly ordered up Major Leitch, and was going up to where the firing was," etc. (Force, 5th Series, vol. ii. p. 500.) Reed's letters to his wife show that Leitch and Knowlton fell near him, within a few minutes of each other, which could not have been the case had they been on opposite flanks. The accounts of Tilghman, Marshall, the soldier Martin, and others, leave no doubt as to this point that there was but one flanking party, and that Knowlton commanded it.
[200] Judge Burnham refers to the flank attack briefly as follows: "Passing over we met the enemy's right flank which had been posted out of our sight on lower ground. They fired and killed Colonel Knowlton and nearly all that had reached the top of the height." This reference to the top of the height, taken in connection with Reed's statement that "our brave fellows mounted up the rocks and attacked them as they ran in turn," goes to confirm the selection of the spot where Leitch and Knowlton fell. Burnham states that he was within a few feet of the latter when he was shot.
[201] There appear to have been nine companies of Maryland troops engaged, three under Major Price, three under Major Mantz, and three others of Richardson's regiment. Among these were one or more companies of Colonel Ewing's as yet incomplete battalion. One of his officers, Captain Lowe, was wounded.—Force, 5th Series, vol. ii. p. 1024. Also Capt. Beatty's letter in Mr. Jay's Documents.
[202] Greene wrote at a latter date: "Gen. Putnam and the Adj. Gen. were in the action and behaved nobly." "I was in the latter part, indeed almost the whole of the action."—Gen. Geo. Clinton. (See his two letters in Jay's documents.) "Gen. Putnam and Gen. Greene commanded in the Action with about 15 to eighteen hundred men."—Stiles's MS. Diary.
[203] "A very smart action ensued in the true Bush-fighting way in which our Troops behaved in a manner that does them the highest honor."—Letter from Col. Griffith, of Maryland. Lossing's Historical Record, vol. ii., p. 260.
[204] "The General fearing (as we afterwards found) that a large body was coming up to support them, sent me over to bring our men off. They gave a Hurra and left the field in good order."—Tilghman's Letters, Doc. 29.
The Battle-field.—Recently gathered material seems to settle all doubts as to the several points occupied by the British and Americans during the action. Where did it begin and where did it end? As to the first skirmish, it began near the British encampment at Bloomingdale. Here was Howe's left, and, as Howe reports, Knowlton approached his advanced posts under cover of the woods "by way of Vandewater's Height." This was what we call Bloomingdale Heights. The original proprietor of the greater part of this site was Thomas De Key. From him all or a large part of it passed to Harman Vandewater and Adrian Hogeland, as the deeds on record show. In 1784 the property was purchased by Nicholas De Peyster. The position of Hogeland's and Vandewater's houses as given on the [accompanying map] is taken from old surveys which mark the location and give the names. The Bloomingdale Road at that time stopped at these farms. That part of it above One Hundred and Tenth Street, running through Manhattanville and continuing until recently to the King's Bridge Road at One Hundred and Forty-sixth Street, did not exist during the Revolution, but was opened a few years later. (Hoffman's Est. and Rights of the Corporation of New York, vol. ii.) A lane or road running from Hogeland's by Vandewater's connected the Bloomingdale with the King's Bridge road at One Hundred and Nineteenth Street. Washington himself gives us the general line. Before the battle of Long Island he ordered Heath to have troops ready to march to New York as soon as called for, and he describes the proper route thus: "There is a road out of the Haerlem flat lands that leads up to the hills, and continues down the North River by Bloomingdale, Delancy's, &c., which road I would have them march, as they will keep the river in sight, and pass a tolerable landing-place for troops in the neighborhood of Bloomingdale." (Heath Correspondence, Mass. Hist. Coll. for 1878.) From this topography and the records the position becomes clear: Howe camped around Bloomingdale with his advance posts along the Bloomingdale Road, perhaps as far as its terminus near Hogeland's. They were last seen in this vicinity the night before. Knowlton, next morning, marches out from Harlem Heights, reconnoitres "by way of Vandewater's," and comes upon the British posts on and along the line of the Bloomingdale Road. Then he falls back under cover of the woods and over fences towards the Point of Rocks, the enemy following him.
As to succeeding movements, if we can fix Washington's station and the hill which all agree that the British descended, there is no difficulty in following them after. Point of Rocks was the extreme limit of Harlem Heights. There were our advanced posts overlooking the country south. Washington states that he rode down to "our advanced posts" to direct matters. Where better could he do so than at Point of Rocks? And in a sketch of the field preserved in the Stiles Diary, and reproduced among Mr. Jay's documents, Washington is given just that station where an earthwork had been thrown up. To confirm this and also to locate the next point, we have a letter from Major Lewis Morris (Jay documents), in which he says: "Colonel Knowlton's regiment was attacked by the enemy upon a height a little to the south-west of Days's Tavern, and after opposing them bravely and being overpowered by their numbers they were forced to retreat, and the enemy advanced upon the top of the hill opposite to that which lies before Days's door, with a confidence of success, and after rallying their men by a bugle horn and resting themselves a little while, they descended the hill," etc. In one of Christopher Colles's road maps (published in the N.Y. Corporation Manual for 1870, p. 778), Days's tavern is put directly opposite Point of Rocks on the King's Bridge Road, which fixes the hill occupied by the enemy as the north-east bluff of Bloomingdale Heights, or about One Hundred and Twenty-third Street, between Ninth and Tenth avenues. They ran down this bluff to fences and bushes at the edge of "a clear field." This was part of the Kortwright farm, and the farm lines of 1812 show the same northern boundary that surveys show in 1711. This northerly fence line is given in the [accompanying map], and it will be noticed that it would be the natural line for the British Infantry to take in opposing Crary's party. The soldier Martin speaks of their taking a post and rail fence with a field in their rear. General George Clinton, who gives a clear description of the fighting from this point, also mentions this field and fence, but appears to have been mistaken in stating that the enemy were driven back to that position. They ran down the hill and took up that position. Then, when driven back, they retreated in the general direction of their first advance—that is, towards their camp, passing through a buckwheat field, and orchard to the Bloomingdale Road, and not, as generally stated, to the high ground in Central Park east of Eighth Avenue. General Clinton says they fell back from the orchard "across a hollow and up another hill not far distant from their own lines," which doubtless refers to undulations on Hogeland's place, and possibly to the then hilly ground about One Hundred and Seventh Street and Eleventh Avenue. One of the Hessian accounts states that the Yagers who were sent to support the Light Infantry came into "a hot contest on Hoyland's Hill"—a reference clearly to Hogeland's lands; and this with the fact that the Yagers and Grenadiers afterwards bivouacked "in the wood not far from Bloomingdale," and that the British "encamped in two lines" at the same place, indicates the point where the action terminated—namely, near Bloomingdale, between Hogeland's and Apthorpe's.
In regard to the beginning of the action, General Clinton, in his account, starts with a locality called "Martje Davits Fly," and estimates distances from it. This name, more properly "Marritje David's Vly," strictly described the round piece of meadow at the western end of the Hollow Way close to the Hudson. It formed part of Harlem Cove. Old deeds, acts, and surveys give the name and site exactly. Clinton speaks of the "Point of Martje David's Fly" as if he had reference to a point of land in its vicinity, possibly the Point of Rocks, and from which he gives his distances.
The name of the battle appears perhaps most frequently in modern accounts as that of Harlem Plains. Greene and others speak of it as the action of Harlem Heights or the heights of Harlem. As the movements were directed by Washington from the Heights, and as the fighting was done practically in defence of the Heights, this seems to be the proper name to adopt. Heath says the fighting took place "on the Heights west of Harlem Plains," and Washington, Clinton, and others make similar references to the high ground, showing that the affair was not associated with the Plains.