HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 275

with blood. The unequal fight was maintained by the heroic band, with all the ferocity of despair, from nine o’clock until twelve, when

knew, from its direction, that the flanking movement had succeeded, lie formed quickly for the attack. In front were the grenadiers, in three divisions, and in front of them, as flankers, a company of yagers under Capt. Wredon. The brigade von Mirbach covered the left flank. The troops advanced bravely, with martial music sounding and colors flying, and ascended the hills in the best order,—the men dragging the cannons with the greatest caution through the dense forest. When, with but little loss by the enemy’s (American) artillery, the troops had reached the crest of the bill, the line was formed with as much care as on the parade-ground. The Americans (rifle skirmishers) were quickly driven back by the advancing flankers—many were killed or captured while the Hessian regiments followed with closed ranks and shouldered muskets. ‘The enemy,’ wrote Col. von Heeringen to Col. von Lossberg, ‘had almost impenetrable thickets, lines, abatis, and redoubts before him. The riflemen were mostly pierced by the bayonets to the trees. These terrible men deserve more pity than fear,—they want nearly fifteen minutes for loading their pieces, and during that time they feel our balls and bayonets.’ The yagers of the left wing, eager for the combat, rushed forward so rapidly that their captain could not restrain them. They penetrated the works of the American encampment, and saw it on their left , a redoubt to their right. The Americans, surprised by the sudden appearance of the Hessians, rallied into groups of fifty to sixty men; but having no time to form, were shot down, dispersed, or captured. This happened in view of the garrison within the enemy’s lines.

“The Americans supposed that the Hessians would not give quarter. Every one of them tried to sell his life as dearly as possible, or to save it by flight, while the Hessians grew more exasperated and angry in consequence of this apparently obstinate and useless resistance. Therefore ensued a violent contest, here in larger or smaller crowds, there in wild and irregular rout. A part tried to escape into the woods, but a great many fell into swamps and perished miserably, or were captured. Only a small number succeeded in cutting their way through and reaching their lines. The Hessians fired only once, and then attacked with their bayonets.”

Lord Percy writes from the camp at Newtown, Sept. 4: “It was the General’s orders that the troops should receive the rebels’ first fire, and then rush on them before they had recovered their arms, with our bayonets, which threw them into the utmost confusion.”

The Hessian account also mentions that “in this first battle in which the auxiliaries were engaged in the New World, all the German field-officers and aids were on foot, as their own horses had not been brought over from the old country, and new ones had not yet been provided. Col. Donop’s aid thus writes in his diary: ‘Almost all the officers of the staff and the subaltern officers were on foot, their cloaks rolled up on their shoulders, and a large canteen, filled with rum and water, suspended from their sides. I had to do the same, although I acted as an aid; and whenever my brigade general, Col. von Donop, wished to send a dispatch, he alighted and gave me his old but good steed, which he had brought over from Hessia.’ Another novelty was that many officers, while marching or fighting, had their rifles over their shoulders. Col. Donop himself carried one, and would have probably been lost without it. During the skirmishing a rifleman near by aimed at him, but he, anticipating him, shot him through the head. The officers of skirmishers also carried muskets and bayonets, and the privates were allowed to do what their discipline had previously forbidden, viz., to carry their sabres across their breasts, in order to unbutton, in the unaccustomed beat, their costs, made of a coarse, heavy cloth.”