rm the works; but he was unwilling to risk
the loss of life that must attend an assault, when the object might be
attained at a cheaper rate, by regular approaches. Checking the ardor
of his men, therefore, though with some difficulty, he drew them off
to a hollow way in front of the lines, but out of reach of the
musketry, and encamped there for the night.

The loss of the Americans in this disastrous battle has been variously
stated, but is thought in killed, wounded and prisoners, to have been
nearly two thousand; a large number, considering that not above five
thousand were engaged. The enemy acknowledged a loss of 380 killed and
wounded. The success of the enemy was attributed, in some measure, to
the doubt in which Washington was kept as to the nature of the
intended attack, and at what point it would chiefly be made. This
obliged him to keep a great part of his forces in New York, and to
distribute those at Brooklyn over a wide extent of country, and at
widely distant places. Much of the day's disaster has been attributed,
also, to a confusion in the command, caused by the illness of General
Greene. Putnam, who had supplied his place in the emergency after the
enemy had landed, had not time to make himself acquainted with the
post and the surrounding country. The fatal error, however, and one
probably arising from all these causes, consisted in leaving the
passes through the wooded hills too weakly fortified and guarded; and
especially in neglecting the eastern road, by which Sir Henry Clinton
got in the rear of the advanced troops, cut them off from the lines,
and subjected them to a cross fire of his own men and De Heister's
Hessians.

The night after the battle was a weary, yet almost sleepless one to
the Americans. Fatigued, dispirited, many of them sick and wounded,
yet they were for the most part without tent or other shelter. To
Washington it was a night of anxious vigil. Everything boded a close
and deadly conflict. The enemy had pitched a number of tents about a
mile distant. Their sentries were but a quarter of a mile off, and
close to the American sentries. The morning broke lowering and dreary.
Large encampments were gradually descried; to appearance, the enemy
were twenty thousand strong. As the day advanced, their ordnance began
to play upon the works. They were proceeding to intrench themselves,
but were driven into their tents by a drenching rain.

Early in the morning General Mifflin arrived i