Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/285

 Rh The lieutenant-colonel passed over Kingsbridge and continued on his march along Harlem Creek, sending a non-commissioned officer and ten men to explore the ruins of Fort Independence, which commanded his road. On reaching the heights on which the fort was built, Rübenkönig, the sergeant in command of the scouting party, saw men at a little distance. Unable to distinguish what they were in the gray of the morning, he advanced alone to meet them, and thought he recognized the blue coats and straw-colored trimmings of the Regiment von Donop, a part of which was with Emmerich's command. He had hardly wished them good-morning, when half a dozen men sprang at him, seized him by the hair and by the straps of his cartridge-box, and tried to choke him. Rübenkönig twisted himself out of their hands, and with cries of “Rebels! Rebels!” made off to his own party.

The advanced guard of the chasseurs was already in the narrow pass between the hill on which the fort stood and Harlem River. The men had to make their way back across the morass. The ground where the main body was drawn up was narrow and unfavorable, and the first assault on the Americans was repulsed, the Germans falling back in a disorderly mass. The cavalry then attacked without success, but the Americans retreated to the ruins of the fort, and the chasseurs had time to form properly and on good ground. The Americans were at last driven from their position, perhaps by the approach of reinforcements to the Germans, for Lieutenant-colonel von Wurmb arrived at about this time. They fell back to high ground, about one thousand yards off, and appeared