A glance at the map indicates that the long range of hills between Brooklyn and the sea had four openings available for approach by the British troops; the first, and shortest, along the bay by Martense Lane; the second, in front of Flatbush and the American intrenchments; the third, by road northward from Flatbush, to Bedford and Newtown; and a fourth, by road past Cypress Hill, which extended to Flushing, but crossed the Bedford and Jamaica road about three miles eastward from Bedford. General Stirling, who had been awakened at three o’clock on the morning of the twenty-seventh, commanded the extreme American right. In front of Flatbush there were intrenchments, and one redoubt, with one howitzer and three field-pieces. General Sullivan, second in command, was, he stated after his capture, “to have commanded within the lines; but went to the hill near to Flatbush, to reconnoitre, with a picket of four hundred men, when he was surrounded by the enemy who had advanced by the very road he had paid horsemen fifty dollars for patrolling by night, while he was in command.” Miles’ Pennsylvania Rifles and Wylie’s Connecticut were at, or near, the Bedford Pass. The Jamaica road had been overlooked, or neglected. Putnam, already somewhat impaired in physical vigor, and wholly unacquainted with the outposts, made neither reconnoissance nor change of pickets, upon receipt of Washington’s orders. Instead of feeling for, and finding, the enemy, he awaited their arrival. Without full details, the following incidents occurred before Washington arrived and took command in person. The British left wing, under General Grant, crowded Stirling and his small command of seventeen hundred men back nearly to the Cortelyou House; but they made a gallant fight near the present Greenwood Cemetery. The battalions of Smallwood, Haslet, and Atlee covered themselves with honors. Stirling heard the firing at Flatbush, and hastened his retreat. Cornwallis, upon his first landing, on the twenty-second, moved toward Flatbush, but finding it held by the American advance works, dropped down to Flatlands. De Heister, however, moved directly upon Flatbush, and commenced cannonading the redoubt and intrenchments, where Sullivan, being incidentally present, was in command. This advance of De Heister was in effect a _feint_ attack, to be made real and persistent at the proper time. On the British right, General Howe, with Clinton, Percy, and Cornwallis, gained the Jamaica road undiscovered, rested their forces until half-past eight in the morning, and were soon directly in front of the American works, in the rear of Sullivan and cutting off his retreat. Cornwallis gained position near the Cortelyou House, in the line of Stirling’s retreat. De Heister, advised by Clinton’s guns that the British right had accomplished its flank movement, advanced promptly upon both Sullivan and Stirling, and captured both, with a considerable portion of their commands.