orward, was on the
road before him, with that part of his regiment, about one hundred and
twenty men, not already on picket; and Huntington's Connecticut
Continentals, under Lieutenant-Colonel Clark (Huntington himself being
sick),[134] and Kachlein's Pennsylvania riflemen were soon after
started in the same direction. Meanwhile, within the lines, the
alarm-guns were fired, the whole camp roused, and the troops drawn up
at the forts and breastworks. Hand's riflemen, who had but just lain
down, "almost dead with fatigue," were turned out to take post in Fort
Putnam and the redoubt on its left.[135]

[Footnote 132: _Parsons' Letters._ Part II., Document 5.]

[Footnote 133: _Stirling to Washington, Aug. 29th:_ "About three
o'clock on the morning of the 27th I was called up, and informed by
General Putnam that the enemy were advancing," etc.--_Force_, 5th
Series, vol. i., p. 1245.]

[Footnote 134: "Col. Huntington is unwell, but I hope getting a little
better. He has a slow fever. Maj. Dyer is also unwell with a slow
fever. Gen'l Greene has been very sick but is better. Genls. Putnam,
Sullivan, Lord Sterling, Nixon, Parsons, & Heard are on Long Island
and a strong part of our army."--_Letter from Col. Trumbull, Aug.
27th, 1776._ _Document_ 7.]

[Footnote 135: See references on Ewing's sketch, Document 15: "H. Fort
Putnam where part of Colo. Hand's men commanded by Lieut C.
[Lieutenant-Colonel] Chambers were detached from the Regt. to man the
fort.--I. A small upper Fort where [I] was with the Colo the Day of
the Engagement." Lieutenant-Colonel Chambers says: "We had just got to
the fort, and I had only laid down, when the alarm-guns were fired. We
were compelled to turn out to the lines, and as soon as it was light
saw our men and theirs engaged with field-pieces." Nearly all the
accounts put Hand and his battalion at the Flatbush Pass during the
battle on the 27th. This, as we now find, is an error. The battalion
was worn out by its continued and effective skirmishing since the
landing of the enemy, and required rest; but of this it was to get
very little, even within the lines.]

When Stirling reached a point within half a mile of the Red Lion he
found, as Parsons had before him, that the enemy had met with little
opposition or delay at the outposts on that road, and were now on the
full march towards the Brooklyn lines. As there were still good
positions which he could occupy, he immediately made a disposition of