The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn Part 10

BRIGADIER GENLL LESSLIE.

2d Batn Lt. Infty. 3d Brigade[103] Lt. Infty. 1st Batn Lt. Infty.

[Footnote 103: An error, evidently, for Battalion.]

Major of Brigade Lewis.

BRIGADIER GENLL CLEVELAND.

2nd Brig. of Art'lly. 3d Brigade of Art. 1st Brigade of Art.

Major of Brigade Farrington.

FIRST LINE.

[Transcriber's Note: The following table has been split into two parts for readability.]

M.G. Pigot. M.G. Agnew.

Cavalry. 5th, 35th, 49th, 28th. 23d, 57th, 64th, 44th.

2d Brigade. 6th Brigade.

M.B. Disney. M.B. Leslie.

B.G. Smith. M.G. Robertson. M.G. Mathews.

Cavalry. 43d, 63d, 54th, 23d. 15th, 45th, 27th, 4th. Guards.

5th Brigade. 1 Brigade. 2 Battalions.

M.B. McKenzie. M.B. Smith.

SECOND LINE.

LIEUT GENLL. EARL PERCY.

M.G. Grant. B.G. Erskine. M.G. Jones.

17th, 46th, 55th, 40th. 71st Regiment. 37th, 52d, 38th, 10th.

4th Brigade. 3 Battalions. 3d Brigade.

M.B. Brown. M.B. Erskine. M.B. Baker.

CORPS DE RESERVE.

LIEUT GENLL EARL CORNWALLIS.

Major Genll Vaughan.

2 B. Grendrs 4th B. Grendrs 3 Batt. Grendrs 1st Battln Grendrs

42 Regmt. 33d Regt.

HESSIAN DIVISION.[104]

[Footnote 104: The arrangement of the Hessian troops, as here given, is compiled from Von Elking's work, Baurmeister's Narrative, and the Hessian map in vol. ii. of the Long Island Historical Society's _Memoirs_.]

LIEUT-GENERAL DE HEISTER.

MIRBACH'S BRIGADE.

MAJOR GENERAL VON MIRBACH.

REGIMENTS.

Kniphausen. Rall. Lossberg.

STIRN'S BRIGADE.

MAJOR-GENERAL VON STIRN.

REGIMENTS.

Donop. Mirbach. Hereditary Prince.

DONOP'S BRIGADE.

COLONEL VON DONOP.

GRENADIERS.

Block. Minegerode. Lisingen.

YAGERS.

LOSSBERG'S BRIGADE.

COLONEL VON LOSSBERG.

REGIMENTS.

Von Ditfurth. Von Trumbach.

When and where, now, will these two armies meet? Or rather, the question was narrowed down to this: When and where will the British attack? With Was.h.i.+ngton there was no choice left but to maintain a strictly defensive att.i.tude. The command which the enemy had of the waters was alone sufficient to make their encampment on Staten Island perfectly secure. As to a.s.suming the offensive, Was.h.i.+ngton wrote to his brother, John Augustine, on July 22d: "Our situation at present, both in regard to men and other matters, is such as not to make it advisable to attempt any thing against them, surrounded as they are by water and covered with s.h.i.+ps, lest a miscarriage should be productive of unhappy and fatal consequences. It is provoking, nevertheless, to have them so near, without being able to give them any disturbance."

Earlier in the season an expedition had been organized under Mercer, in which Knowlton was to take an active part, to attack the enemy's outposts on Staten Island from the Jersey sh.o.r.e, but the weather twice interfered with the plan. All that the Americans hoped to do was to hold their own at and around New York. Was.h.i.+ngton tells us that he fully expected to be able to defend the city.[105] Even the pa.s.sage of the Rose and Phoenix did not shake his faith. None of his letters written during the summer disclose any such misgivings as Lee expressed, respecting the possibility of maintaining this base, and in attempting to hold it he followed out his own best military judgment.