officers whom General Sullivan had sent out
the evening before to patrol this pass had stationed themselves at
this time, now between two and three o'clock on the morning of the
27th, a short distance east of Howard's house, apparently waiting for
sounds of the enemy on the line of the road. Evidently they had no
thought of his approach "across lots" from the direction of Flatlands,
or they could not have left the pass unwatched by one or more of the
party. For most of them, this was the first tour of military duty of
so responsible a nature, and whatever mistakes they made may be
referred to their inexperience or ignorance of the relative situation
of the roads in that vicinity. Who had charge of the party does not
appear. So far as known, only one of them, Lieutenant Van Wagenen, had
seen any considerable service; but although something of a veteran,
having entered the army in 1775 and charged with Montgomery upon
Quebec, he could have known nothing of the country he was now
patrolling. Lieutenants Troup and Dunscomb were young Columbia College
graduates of two years' standing, who had eagerly taken up the cause
of the colonists in the midst of adverse associations. Gilliland may
have once been an officer in McDougall's regiment, and Hoogland was
adjutant of Colonel Lasher's battalion. Had these officers, who
without doubt were all mounted, been patrolling at the pass or nearer
the lines, the events of the 27th might have worn a far different
aspect. As it was, the British by coming into the road at Howard's had
put themselves in the rear of the patrol, and its capture was quickly
effected. Captain William Glanville Evelyn, "a gallant officer" of the
Fourth Infantry, or King's Own, and a descendant of the eminent John
Evelyn, of England, led the British advance this night, and it fell to
his fortune to surround and capture all five American officers and
send them immediately to Clinton, who commanded the leading column.
Here was a blow inflicted upon us by the British, the real importance
of which they themselves even were ignorant of, for they had made
prisoners of the only patrol that was watching the Jamaica route from
the pass down to the very lines themselves!

Clinton "interrogated" the prisoners upon the spot, and ascertained
from them that the pass had not been occupied by the Americans. He
then attempted to obtain information of the position at Brooklyn and
the number of troops now there, by pressing the offi