HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 263

fore, that while Sullivan’s right rested, but imperfectly, upon Stirling’s left, his own left wing was entirely unsupported, or, as the military phrase is, “hung in air.” Yet, both the officers who planned and the men who held these positions, seemed entirely unconscious of the appalling danger which menaced them if the enemy should turn their flank. As we have before remarked, it is hardly probable, from the extremely limited force which could be employed to occupy so widely extended a line, as well as from the comparatively slight nature of the fortifications thrown up at different points, that Washington intended that the Mount Prospect ridge should be held otherwise than as a picket-line, from whence the men were to fall back upon the fortified works at Brooklyn, without risking any very serious engagement with the enemy.

Beyond and to the eastward of this range of hills was a flat country, traversed by several roads, reconnoitred by mounted patrols under Colonel Wyllys of Connecticut. In addition to these, General Woodhull, former president of the New York Convention, had charge of the local militia, who were occupied in removing the livestock to Hempstead and destroying forage, in order to prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy.

Thus, on the evening of the 26th of August, in the impenetrable shadow of the woods which crowned the summit and slopes of the Flatbush hills, these few regiments of raw, undisciplined troops awaited the coming of their foe, whose tents and camp-fires stretched along the plain beneath them, in an unbroken line, from Gravesend to Flatlands.

The position of the British army was now as follows: the left wing, under Gen. Grant, rested on Now York Bay; the Hessians, under De Heister, formed the centre, opposite to Sullivan’s position, at Flatbush Pass; while the right wing, which was designed to bear the brunt of the coming battle, and was composed of the choice battalions under Gen. Clinton and Earls Cornwallis and Percy, stretched

Johnson of Jersey and Lieut.-Col. Henshaw of Mass.; next east were posted Col. Wyllys and Lieut.-Col. Wills of Conn. East of all these Col. Miles of Penn. was posted toward Jamaica, to watch the motion of the enemy and give intelligence. Col. Miles’ guard on the east of the woods, by some fatality, what I don’t know, suffered the enemy to march their main body to the east of the woods and advance near two miles in rear of our guards in the woods without discovery.”