Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/90

 76 come to their assistance. One lieutenant and six men were wounded, of whom four afterwards died of their wounds. This is the German account in Eelking's book. I will now give that of General Washington's aide-de-camp in his report to the President of Congress: “On Wednesday there was also a smart skirmish between a party of Colonel Hand's riflemen, about two hundred and forty, and nearly the same number of Hessian chasseurs, in which the latter were put to rout. Our men buried ten of them on the field, and took two prisoners, one badly wounded. We sustained no other loss than having one lad wounded, supposed mortally.” This is about as near as such reports usually come to each other.

On the 28th of October, Sir William Howe found Washington's army advantageously posted behind the village of White Plains. It numbered somewhat more than thirteen thousand men, of whom about fifteen hundred occupied Chatterton Hill, on the extreme right of the American position, and were separated from the main body by the river Bronx. Sir William determined to attack this right wing. One English and two Hessian regiments, supported by the Hessian grenadiers, forded the Bronx and scaled the steep and rocky sides of the hill. The regiment Von Lossberg was obliged to charge through a burning wood, and to face the heaviest American fire. Its loss in killed and wounded was not far from fifty men. The result of