his force to offer resistance. The road here ran in a winding course
along the line of the present Third Avenue, but a short distance from
the bay, with here and there a dwelling which together constituted the
Gowanus village or settlement. Where the present Twenty-third Street
intersects the avenue there was a small bridge on the old road which
crossed a ditch or creek setting up from the bay to a low and marshy
piece of ground on the left, looking south; and just the other side of
the bridge, the land rose to quite a bluff at the water's edge, which
was known among the Dutch villagers as "Blockje's Bergh." From the
bluff the low hill fell gradually to the marsh or morass just
mentioned, the road continuing along between them.[136] Right here,
therefore, the approach by the road was narrow, and at the corner of
Twenty-third Street was confined to the crossing at the bridge.

[Footnote 136: The writer is indebted to the Hon. Teunis G. Bergen, of
Bay Ridge, L.I., for an accurate description and sketch of the Gowanus
Road, as it lay at the time of the battle. His survey is followed in
the "Map of the Brooklyn Defences," etc., Title, Maps. Part II.]

[Illustration: [signature: Jed Huntington]

COLONEL SEVENTEENTH REGIMENT OF FOOT (CONN.) BRIGADIER GENERAL 1777.

Steel Engr. F. von Egloffstein N.Y.]

According to his own account, and from our present knowledge of the
topography, Stirling evidently came to a halt on or just this side of
"Blockje's Bergh." Seeing the British not far in his front, and taking
in the situation at a glance, he ordered Atlee to post his men on the
left of the road and wait the enemy's coming up, while he himself
retired with Smallwood's and Haslet's to form line on a piece of "very
advantageous ground" further back. Atlee reports this preliminary move
as follows: "I received orders from Lord Stirling to advance with my
battalion and oppose the enemy's passing a morass or swamp at the foot
of a fine rising ground, upon which they were first discovered, and
thereby give time to our brigade to form upon the heights. This order
I immediately obeyed, notwithstanding we must be exposed without any
kind of cover to the great fire of the enemy's musketry and
field-pieces, charged with round and grapeshot, and finely situated
upon the eminence above mentioned, having entire command of the ground
I was ordered to occupy. My battalion, although new and never before
having the opportunity of facing an ene