262 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

manded by Gen. Lord Stirling, was at the Red Lion Tavern, where Martense’s Lane enters the shore road. Along this lane, which cuts eastwardly through the Greenwood Hills, were stationed one hundred and twenty of Colonels Atlee's and Kichline's Pennsylvania musketeers and riflemen, who sheltered themselves behind stone walls and among the trees, rocks, and hollows of that locality, as their fancy or experience dictated. The left of this line rested, or was supposed to rest, upon the right of General Sullivan's command, consisting of Henshaw’s Massachusetts and Johnston’s New Jersey regiments, which formed the centre of the American line, at the junction of the Port Road with the Flatbush road, near the interseetion of the present Flatbush avenue with the city line. Here were the defences mentioned on page 261, and here it was supposed, from the previous demonstrations made by the Hessians, would be the main point of attack. At this point the range of hills formed an obtuse angle, forming two sides of an immense amphitheatre, looking down upon a broad and beautiful plain, upon which rested, in slumberous quiet, the villages of Flatbush, Flatlands, New Utrecht, and Gravesend; while in the further distance were to be seen the town of Jamaica and the blue waters of ocean. Sullivan's arrangement of his troops corresponded with the configuration of the summit of the hills upon which he had taken position; the regiment on his right stretching along the brow of the hill on either side of the Flatbush road, three or four hundred feet south of its junction with the Port Road (note, p. 261), and facing obliquely to them were the two regiments on the left, extending nearly a mile to the east of the Flatbush road, while Colonel Miles' First Pennsylvania regiment, with some Connecticut levies, continued the line still another mile further eastward, occupying the Bedford Pass (page 261) and the woods beyond towards the Jamaica Pass.1 It will be seen, there

1 An American officer of distinction in the battle writes the following to the Connecticut Courant (No. 673), as a corrective to some high encomiums which he had seen on Colonel Miles:

“The enemy were some days encamped at Flatbush, about 3 1/2 miles S. and E. of our lines. Within half a mile of the enemy is a ridge of hills, covered with woods, running from the narrows about N. E. toward Jamaica about 6 miles. Through this woods are three passes, which we kept strongly guarded, 800 men at each, to prevent the enemy penetrating the woods. The night before August 27, on the west road were posted C ol. Hand's regiment, a detachment from Penn. and N. Y.: next east were posted Col.