Major-General William Heath, on the left of the American army, wrote: This advance brought the armies within range of each others’ cannons. Ensign Henry Stirke (light infantry company, 10th Foot) wrote: “At half after 9 o’clock we got under arms, and pushed into the village of the White Plains, which the enemy had just abandoned, and the army advanced at the same time”. Instead, the British advanced and occupied the Americans’ former entrenchments. He later explained that the Americans’ actions “plainly” indicated a “desire to avoid coming to action,” and added “I did not think the driving their rearguard further back an object of the least consequence.” Lieutenant-General William Howe opted not to attack this “rearguard”. However, as the British were not particularly eager to attack the American lines in the first place, there was undoubtedly some sense of relief. The British concluded that the rest of Washington’s men had fled even deeper into the hills, which meant that their attack plans had gone to naught. Major Stephen Kemble wrote of this force, “ suppose them to be about 7,000 strong”. When they rode forward they could see American forces encamped on a line of hills to the north, but the American army had been so reduced by sickness and other causes, that they thought this force was no more than a rear guard.
The British officers looked with surprise on the burning buildings and empty defensive works.
“This morning our guards come off and leave the lines in the centre of the town called White Plains, and to distress the enemy burn all the barns of hay and grain and houses, where the inhabitants had stores of wheat and corn and also stacks and barracks of hay and grain.”
Chaplain Benjamin Trumbull (5th Connecticut State Battalion) noted in his journal: In the early morning hours, the last of the Americans in the entrenchments pulled back.
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