Through the gap in the hills ran the Military Road, which connected the American garrison at Mount Independence on Lake Champlain with sites on the Connecticut River. American forces used this road as their escape route during their retreat from Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence. In this gap, American pickets fired on British scouts at about 5 a.m. on the morning of July 7, 1777, marking the beginning of the battle. Down the valley below, the Military Road crossed Sucker Brook, where sick and wounded soldiers had encamped the night before the battle under Colonel Nathan Hale, who had been left in charge of this group of invalids, while the main part of his 2nd New Hampshire regiment was encamped to the west. Heavy fighting started at about 7 a.m. when Major Robert Grant and an advance British force attacked the Americans encamped near Sucker Brook, where Grant was killed. Some of the Americans who had gone down into the valley to assist the soldiers encamped there retreated back to the top of the hill.