[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] lected and a skirmish ensued, in which the enemy had a number of men killed and wounded; our loss, two killed and two wounded." And on the 3d of October " Lieutenant Gill, of the dragoons, patrol-ing in Eastchester, found a superior force in his rear, and no alterna-tive but to surrender or cut his way through them. He chose the latter and forced his way, when he found a body of infantry still behind the horse. These he also charged, and on his passing them his horse was wounded aud threw him, when he fell into the enemy's hands. Two of the lieutenant's party, which consisted of twenty-four, were killed, and one taken prisoner; the rest escaped safe to their regiments." General Heath resumed his old headquarters at Peekskill on the 24th of October, three days after the final evacuation by the British of the forts at Verplanck's and Stony Points. Here, on the 28th of November, he received from Washington the appointment of com-mander of all the posts and troops on the Hudson River. About the same time that Sir Henry Clinton definitively aban-doned his schemes on the Hudson he also withdrew the large com-mand which, since the winter of 1770, had been in occupation of Rhode Island. One of his reasons for this move, as well as for his withdrawal of the garrisons from Verplanck's and Stony Points, was his apprehension that the French fleet of d'Estaing, which had sailed from the West Indies, would now unite with Washington in a siege of New York.