cattered to
the rear towards the Post Road, and the enemy who landed and formed
rapidly were soon after them. Douglas himself, who was an excellent
officer, was the last to leave, and all but escaped capture.[183]
There was no collecting the brigade, however, in any new position in
the field, for the thought of being intercepted had created a panic
among the militia, and they fled in confusion.

[Footnote 181: "The first landing was of 84 boats with English
infantry and Hessian grenadiers under command of Lieut-General
Clinton. Commodore Hotham conducted this landing, under cover of 5
frigates anchored close before Kaaps [Kip's] Bay above Cron Point, and
maintained a 3 hours cannonade on the enemy's advanced posts in the
great wood. The signal of the red flag denoted the departure of the
boats, the blue on the contrary the stoppage of the passage, and if a
retreat should become necessary, a yellow flag would be
shown."--_Baurmeister._ "Sunday morning at break of day, five ships
weighed anchor and fell in close within a musket shot of our lines
quite to the left of me. I then moved my brigade abreast of them. They
lay very quiet until 10 o'clock and by that time they had about 80 of
their boats from under Long Island shore full with men which contained
about five or six thousand and four transports full ready to come in
the second boats."--_Col. Douglas._

Major Fish wrote September 19th that the enemy's ships of war were
drawn up "in line of Battle parallel to the shore, the Troops to the
amount of about 4000 being embarked in flat bottom Boats, and the
Boats paraded."--_Hist. Mag._]

[Footnote 182: All accounts agree that it was next to impossible to
remain under the fire of the men-of-war. Major Fish says that "a
Cannonade from the ships began, which far exceeded my Ideas, and which
seemed to infuse a Panic thro' the whole of our Troops, &c." Silliman
speaks of the "incessant fire on our lines" with grapeshot as being
"so hot" that the militia were compelled to retreat. Douglas's
description is as quaint as it is expressive: "They very suddenly
began as heavy a cannonade perhaps as ever was from no more ships, as
they had nothing to molest them." Martin thought his head would "go
with the sound." Lieutenant John Heinrichs, of the Hessian yagers,
writes: "Last Sunday we landed under the thundering rattle of 5
men-of-war."]

[Footnote 183: The enemy's boats, says Douglas, "got under cover of
the smoke of the shipp