As soon as advised that the British were advancing, Washington ordered Sullivan to bring the entire right wing into position to oppose their progress. The woods were dense and the surface was rocky, so that three divisions must swing back and present to the British advance a new front, almost perpendicular to that with which they had previously faced the river. But it would bring them to the high ground, before noticed, between Birmingham Meeting House and the river. This movement, which practically involved one of the most difficult elements of Grand Tactics,—defined in the Preface as the “Art of handling force on the battlefield,”—was not within General Sullivan’s capacity. The best troops in the world would have found it slow of execution, while no less vital to success in the existing emergency. It required of the division commanders just that kind of familiarity with combined movements of brigades and divisions, which is required of regiments in a single brigade, or of companies in a regiment. Sullivan could not at the same time command the Grand Division, or Corps, and his own division proper, unless able to place that division in charge of a brigadier-general who was fully competent to command a division. It is also to be borne in mind that the woods, rocks, undergrowth, and suddenness of the order complicated the movement. Stirling and Stephen succeeded in gaining the new position, barely in time to meet the assault of Cornwallis, without time for intrenching to any effect. Sullivan’s Division fell into such disorder, that after sending four aides, and then a personal appeal, he gave up the attempt to rally his division. He says: “Some rallied, others could not be brought even by their officers to do anything but fly.” Only three of his regiments—those of Hazen, Dayton and Ogden, ever reliable—gained and firmly held the new position throughout the battle. The enemy, which had formed behind Osborne’s Hill, advanced rapidly, Cornwallis in the lead. The resistance was stubborn and well maintained, as General Howe admitted, from three o’clock until sunset. Sullivan, upon finding himself powerless to rally and move his own division, while he was responsible for the entire combined movement, went to the battlefield and was conspicuous for bravery during the day. The resistance of Stirling and Stephen was admirable; but the brigade of Deborre, a French general, broke and fled, in wild disorder. The absence of Sullivan’s Division left a gap on the American left of nearly half a mile, and Deborre’s cowardice shattered the right wing.