he total loss did not exceed one thousand.
About eight hundred, including ninety-one officers, were taken
prisoners; not more than six officers and about fifty privates were
killed; and less than sixteen officers and one hundred and fifty
privates wounded. No frightful slaughter of our troops, as sometimes
pictured, occurred during the action. It was a field where the
American soldier, in every fair encounter, proved himself worthy of
the cause he was fighting for.

[Footnote 158: See note at the close of the chapter.]

* * * * *

To those who fell in the engagement we may render here a grateful
tribute, though something more than this is due. Their services and
sacrifices are deserving of remembrance rather by a lasting memorial;
for men died here who showed not less of individual worth and heroism
than others who are immortalized on victorious fields. Thus at the
Flatbush Road we find Philip Johnston, colonel of the Jersey
battalion, which formed part of the guard there during the night. He
was the son of the worthy Judge Samuel Johnston, of the town of Sidney
in Hunterdon County. In his youth he had been a student at Princeton,
but, dropping his books, he took up the sword for the colonies in the
French war, from which he returned with honor. The troubles with Great
Britain found him ready again to fight in defence of common rights and
his native soil. Parting from his wife and child with touching
affection, he took the field with his regiment, and when attacked on
Long Island he showed all the qualities which mark the true soldier. A
gentleman of high principle, an officer of fine presence, one of the
strongest men in the army, he fought near Sullivan with the greatest
bravery until he fell mortally wounded. That August 27th was his
thirty-fifth birthday.

Equally glorious and regretted was the death of Lieutenant-Colonel
Caleb Parry, of Atlee's regiment, which occurred, as already noticed,
at an earlier hour and in another part of the field. He too was in the
prime of life, and eager to render the country some good service. A
representative colonist, descended from an ancient and honorable
family long seated in North Wales, and a man of polish and culture, he
stood ready for any sacrifice demanded of him at this crisis. Parry
came from Chester County, Pennsylvania, leaving a wife and five
children, and crossed with his regiment to Long Island four days
before the battle. Under wh