oon,"
he says, "I left Colonel Knowlton with a design to send him a
reinforcement. I had accordingly ordered up Major Leitch, and was
going up to where the firing was," etc. (_Force_, 5th Series, vol. ii.
p. 500.) Reed's letters to his wife show that Leitch and Knowlton fell
near him, within a few minutes of each other, which could not have
been the case had they been on opposite flanks. The accounts of
Tilghman, Marshall, the soldier Martin, and others, leave no doubt as
to this point that there was but one flanking party, and that Knowlton
commanded it.]

It was right here, now, just on the crest of the ridge, and when our
gallant advance was turning the tide against the enemy, that we
suffered the loss of those two noble leaders whose memory is linked
with this day's action. In a very short time after the first rush,
Leitch was severely wounded not far from Reed, having received three
balls in his side in as many minutes; and in less than ten minutes
after a bullet pierced Knowlton's body, and he too fell mortally
wounded. We can identify the spot where the fall of these brave
officers occurred as on the summit of the Bloomingdale Heights below
One Hundred and Nineteenth Street, and about half way between the line
of Ninth and Tenth Avenues. The site is included within the limits of
the proposed "Morningside Park," which will thus have added to its
natural attractiveness a never-fading historical association.[200]

[Footnote 200: Judge Burnham refers to the flank attack briefly as
follows: "Passing over we met the enemy's right flank which had been
posted out of our sight on lower ground. They fired and killed Colonel
Knowlton and nearly all that had reached the top of the height." This
reference to the _top of the height_, taken in connection with Reed's
statement that "our brave fellows mounted up the rocks and attacked
them as they ran in turn," goes to confirm the selection of the spot
where Leitch and Knowlton fell. Burnham states that he was within a
few feet of the latter when he was shot.]

Leitch was borne to the rear to be tenderly cared for until his death
at a later day. In after years the Government remembered his services
by granting his widow a generous pension. Knowlton met his fate with a
soldier's fortitude and a patriot's devotion. "My poor Colonel,"
writes an officer of the Rangers, who without doubt was Captain
Stephen Brown, next in rank to Knowlton, "my poor Colonel, in the
second attack, w