command he paid
horsemen out of his own purse to patrol the road, and that he
predicted the approach of the enemy by that road. Whatever inferences
may be drawn from this is not now to the point; but we have the fact
that upon the evening of the 26th he exercised the same authority he
had exercised in making other details, and sent out a special patrol
of five commissioned officers to watch the Jamaica Pass. Three of
these officers belonged to Colonel Lasher's New York City
battalion--Adjutant Jeronimus Hoogland and Lieutenants Robert Troup
and Edward Dunscomb; and the other two were Lieutenant Gerrit Van
Wagenen, a detached officer of McDougall's old regiment, and a
Lieutenant Gilliland, who with Van Wagenen had crossed to Long Island,
as a volunteer. What part this patrol played in the incidents of the
following morning will presently appear.

Thus on the night of the 26th the American outposts stretched along
the hills from the harbor to the Jamaica Pass, with unguarded
intervals, a distance of more than six miles, while in the plains
below lay the enemy, nearly ten times their number, ready to fall upon
them with "a sudden and violent" shock. During the night one change
was made in the picket guard. Colonel Hand's riflemen, who had been on
almost constant duty since the arrival of the British, were relieved
at two o'clock in the morning by a detachment from the flying camp,
which may have been a part of Hay's and Kachlein's men, and returning
to the lines, dropped down to sleep.[128]

[Footnote 128: Hand's letter of August 27th: "I escaped my part by
being relieved at 2 o'clock this morning." (Document 12.) See John
Ewing's letter and sketch.]

* * * * *

If we leave our outposts now upon the hills and pass into the enemy's
camp on the plain below, we shall find them on the eve of carrying out
a great plan of attack. The four days since the 22d had been given to
preparation. On the 25th, Lieutenant-General De Heister crossed from
Staten Island with the two Hessian brigades of Von Stirn and Von
Mirbach, leaving behind Von Lossberg's brigade, with some detachments
and recruits, for the security of that island. With this addition,
Howe's force on Long Island was swelled to a total of about twenty-one
thousand officers and men, fit for duty and in the best condition for
active service.[129] As disposed on the 26th, the army lay with the
Hessians and the reserves under Cornwallis at Fl