my, sustained their fire until
the brigade had formed; but finding we could not possibly prevent
their crossing the swamp, I ordered my detachment to file off to the
left and take post in a wood upon the left of the brigade."[137]
General Parsons says: "We took possession of a hill about two miles
from camp, and detached Colonel Atlee to meet them further on the
road; in about sixty rods he drew up and received the enemy's fire and
gave them a well-directed fire from his regiment, which did great
execution, and then retreated to the hill."

[Footnote 137: _Atlee's Journal._ _Force_, 5th Series, vol. i., p.
1251.]

This advantageous site, where Stirling had now drawn up his brigade to
dispute Grant's progress, was the crest of the slope which rose
northerly from the marsh and low ground around "Blockje's Bergh," and
which to-day is represented by about the line of Twentieth
Street.[138] Here was an elevation or ridge favorable for defence,
and here Stirling proposed to make a stand. On the right, next to the
road, he posted Smallwood's battalion, under Major Gist; further along
up the hillside were the Delawares, under Major MacDonough;[139] and
on their left, in the woods above, Atlee's men formed after falling
back from their attempt to stop the enemy.

[Footnote 138: Probably the earliest of modern attempts to identify
the site where Stirling formed his line was that made in 1839 by Maj.
D.B. Douglass, formerly of the United States Army. Greenwood Cemetery,
says Mr. Cleveland in his history of _Greenwood_, owes its present
beautiful appearance largely to this officer's "energy and taste,"
Douglass having been one of the first surveyors of the ground. He
located Stirling's position on what was then known as Wyckoff's hill,
between Eighteenth and Twentieth streets; and tradition and all the
original documents confirm this selection. This was a lower elevation
in the general slope from the main ridge towards the bay. Stirling
simply drew his men up in a straight line from the road towards the
hill-tops, and beyond him on the same line or more in advance, was
Parsons. The map in Sparks' _Washington_ putting Stirling down near
the Narrows is erroneous.]

[Footnote 139: The colonels and lieutenant-colonels of both these
regiments were detained at New York as members of the court-martial
which tried Lieutenant-colonel Zedwitz, of MacDougall's regiment,
charged with treasonable correspondence with the enemy. They joined