passes
without some smart and hot skirmishes between different parties, in
which the success is sometimes one way and sometimes another. We are
in constant expectation of a general battle; no one can be here long
without getting pretty well acquainted with the whistling of cannon
and musket shot." Scarcely any particulars of these encounters[162]
are preserved, though one of them, at least, appears to have been
quite an important affair. The enemy had determined to approach the
lines by regular siege rather than hazard an assault, and late in the
afternoon of the 28th they advanced in some force to break ground for
the first parallel. The point selected was doubtless the high ground
between Vanderbilt and Clinton avenues, on the line of De Kalb. As to
what occurred we have but the briefest account, and that is from the
pen of Colonel Little. "On the morning of the 28th," he writes, "the
enemy were encamped on the heights in front of our encampment. Firing
was kept up on both sides from the right to the left. Firing on both
sides in front of Fort Putnam. About sunset the enemy pushed to
recover the ground we had taken (about 100 rods) in front of the fort.
The fire was very hot; the enemy gave way, and our people recovered
the ground. The firing ceased, and our people retired to the fort. The
enemy took possession again, and on the morning of the 30th [29th] had
a breastwork there 60 rods long and 150 rods distant from Fort
Putnam." It was this move of the British, more than any incident since
the battle, that determined Washington's future course.

[Footnote 162: In vol. ii. of the L.I. Hist. Society's "Memoirs," the
author, Mr. Field, devotes pages 254-258 to the skirmishing of some
Connecticut soldiers on the extreme right on the other side of Gowanus
Creek, which appears to him to have been rash and foolhardy, and
strangely in contrast with what also appears to him to have been an
exhibition of cowardice on their part the day before. The narrative
from which the incidents are taken (Martin's) shows no such singular
inconsistency in the conduct of these men. This was Colonel Douglas'
regiment, and, as Martin himself says, it moved promptly under orders
from the ferry to the right to cover Stirling's retreat. "Our
officers," he writes, "pressed forward towards a creek, where a large
party of Americans and British were engaged." They very properly did
not halt to help a company of artillerymen drag their pieces along.