ten o'clock
Most of the Americans were behind the breastworks they had thrown up , and the British were upon the hills below , on the opposite side of the Bronx . On the American side of the stream was an eminence called Chatterton 's Hill , and on the evening of the 27th Colonel Haslet was stationed on this height , with sixteen hundred men , in order to prevent the enfilading of the right wing of the army . Early the next morning McDougall was ordered to reinforce Haslet with a small corps and two pieces of artillery under Hamilton , and to assume general command . At ten o'clock the British army began its march toward the village , but before they reached it , Howe determined that Chatterton 's Hill should be the first point of attack , and four thousand troops under Leslie moved off to dislodge the formidable looking force on the height . Hamilton placed his two guns in battery on a rocky ledge about halfway down the hill , and bearing directly upon that part of the Bronx which the British were approaching . He was screened from the enemy by a small grove of trees . The Hessians , who were in the lead , refused to wade the swollen stream , and the onslaught was checked that a bridge might hastily be thrown together for their accommodation .