ckily" came on the ground,
and the men were re-supplied for still a third attack, which was
threatened with the assistance of the Forty-second Highlanders; but
the British this time kept a safe distance, and Parsons and Atlee
remained on the hill, where they collected the enemy's dead and placed
their wounded under the shelter of the trees. Thus bravely and
effectively had this small body of Americans protected Stirling's
flank and dealt the enemy the severest blows they suffered at any one
point during the day, and this, as in the case of Stirling's men, with
but small loss to themselves. From behind fences and trees, and, if
tradition is correct, from the tops of trees as well, and from open
ground on the hill, they kept up their destructive fire and
successfully accomplished what they had been called upon to do.[144]
That the British did not intend at this hour to drive Parsons and
Atlee from their post is no detraction from the spirited fight made by
these officers and their men, who knew nothing of the enemy's
intentions, and who actually won the field from the troops they met.
All along this front, from Stirling holding the road on the right to
Parsons holding the left, with a long gap between them, the fighting
thus far had resulted most favorably to the American side. The main
line, as already stated, had lost not more than two officers killed
and three or four wounded, with a small number of men; while Parsons
and Atlee both report that in addition to the death of Lieutenant-Colonel
Parry they lost only one or two men wounded. But, on the part of the
British, Grant's two brigades, with the Forty-second Highlanders and
the two companies of New York loyalists, lost, according to Howe's
official report, two officers killed and four wounded, and among the
men twenty-five killed and ninety-nine wounded. The four regiments
alone which at different times encountered Parsons--the Seventeenth,
Twenty-third, Forty-fourth, and Forty-second--lost in the aggregate
eighty-six officers and men killed and wounded.

[Footnote 143: _Atlee's Journal._ _Force_, 5th Series, vol. i., p.
1251.]

[Footnote 144: Parsons' reference to this affair at or near "Battle
Hill" in Greenwood is as follows: "I was ordered with Col. Atlee and
part of his Reg't, and Lt. Col. Clark with Col. Huntington's Reg't to
cover the left flank of our main body. This we executed though our
number did at no time exceed 300 men and we were attacked three
sev