gdale." (_Heath
Correspondence_, Mass. Hist. Coll. for 1878.) From this topography and
the records the position becomes clear: Howe camped around
Bloomingdale with his advance posts along the Bloomingdale Road,
perhaps as far as its terminus near Hogeland's. They were last seen in
this vicinity the night before. Knowlton, next morning, marches out
from Harlem Heights, reconnoitres "by way of Vandewater's," and comes
upon the British posts on and along the line of the Bloomingdale Road.
Then he falls back under cover of the woods and over fences towards
the Point of Rocks, the enemy following him.

As to succeeding movements, if we can fix Washington's station and the
hill which all agree that the British descended, there is no
difficulty in following them after. Point of Rocks was the extreme
limit of Harlem Heights. There were our advanced posts overlooking the
country south. Washington states that he rode down to "our advanced
posts" to direct matters. Where better could he do so than at Point of
Rocks? And in a sketch of the field preserved in the Stiles Diary, and
reproduced among Mr. Jay's documents, Washington is given just that
station where an earthwork had been thrown up. To confirm this and
also to locate the next point, we have a letter from Major Lewis
Morris (Jay documents), in which he says: "Colonel Knowlton's regiment
was attacked by the enemy upon a height a little to the south-west of
Days's Tavern, and after opposing them bravely and being overpowered
by their numbers they were forced to retreat, and the enemy advanced
upon the top of the hill opposite to that which lies before Days's
door, with a confidence of success, and after rallying their men by a
bugle horn and resting themselves a little while, they descended the
hill," etc. In one of Christopher Colles's road maps (published in the
N.Y. Corporation Manual for 1870, p. 778), Days's tavern is put
directly opposite Point of Rocks on the King's Bridge Road, which
fixes the hill occupied by the enemy as the north-east bluff of
Bloomingdale Heights, or about One Hundred and Twenty-third Street,
between Ninth and Tenth avenues. They ran down this bluff to fences
and bushes at the edge of "a clear field." This was part of the
Kortwright farm, and the farm lines of 1812 show the same northern
boundary that surveys show in 1711. This northerly fence line is given
in the accompanying map, and it will be noticed that it would be the
natural line for the