his troops with fresh courage; he persuaded them that they had not shown themselves at all inferior to their adversaries; and that at another time they might decide in their favor what was left in doubt at the Brandywine. He gave them a day for refreshment, in the environs of Germantown; but took care to send out the lightest and freshest corps upon the right bank of the Schuylkill, as far as Chester, in order to watch the motions of the enemy, to repress his excursions, and at the same time to collect the dispersed and straggling Americans. As to himself, he repaired to Philadelphia, where he had frequent conferences with the Congress, in order to concert with them the measures to be pursued for the reestablishment of affairs. But the fifteenth he returned to camp, and repassing, with all his forces, from the left to the right bank of the Schuylkill, proceeded on the Lancaster road as far as the Warren tavern, with the intention of risking another engagement. Conjecturing that the enemy must be much incumbered with their sick and wounded, he ordered Smallwood to hang with his light troops on their flank or rear, as occasion might require, and do them all the harm he could. At the same time, the bridge over the Schuylkill was ordered to be loosened from its moorings, to swing on the Philadelphia side; and general Armstrong, with the Pennsylvania militia, was directed to guard the passes over that river, for the defence of which M. de Portail, chief of engineers, constructed such sudden works as might be of immediate

use.

General Howe, having passed the night of the eleventh on the field of battle, sent the following day a strong detachment to Concord, commanded by general Grant, who was joined afterwards by lord Cornwallis. They marched together towards Chester, upon the bank of the Delaware, as if they intended to surprise Philadelphia. Howe, with the main body of his army, advanced to gain the Lancaster road, and had arrived on the sixteenth near Goshen, when he received intelligence that Washington was approaching with all his troops to give him battle, and was already within five miles of Goshen. With great alacrity both armies immediately prepared for action; the advanced parties had met, when there came up so violent a fall of rain, that the soldiers were forced to cease their fire. The Americans, especially, suffered exceedingly from it in their arms and ammunition. Their gunlocks not being well secured, many of their muskets were rendered unfit for use. Their cartridgeboxes had been so badly constructed as not to protect their powder from the severity of the tempest.

These circumstances compelled Washington to defer the engagement. He therefore recrossed the Schuylkill at Parker's Ferry, and encamped upon the eastern bank of that river, on both sides of Perkyomy Creek. But as this retreat left general Smallwood too much exposed to be surrounded by the enemy, general Wayne, with

VOL. II.

9

his division, was detached to the rear of the British with orders to join him; and carefully concealing himself and his movements, to seize every occasion which their march might offer, of engaging them to advantage.

The extreme severity of the weather entirely stopped the British army, and prevented any pursuit. They made no other movement than merely to unite their columns, and then took post at Tryduffin, whence they detached a party to seize a magazine of flour and other stores, which the republicans had deposited at Valley Forge. Howe discovered by his spies, that general Wayne, with fifteen hundred men, was lying in the woods in the rear, and not far from the left wing of his army. Suspecting some scheme of enterprise, he determined to avert the stroke, by causing Wayne to experience the check he destined for him. Accordingly, in the night of the thirteenth, he detached general Grey, with two regiments and a body of light infantry, to surprise the enemy. That general conducted the enterprise with great prudence and activity. Stealing his way through the woods, he arrived undiscovered, about one in the morning, before the encampment of Wayne. Having forced his pickets without noise, the British detachment, guided by the light of their fires, rushed in upon the enemy, torpid with sleep and chilled with terror. In the midst of this obscurity and confusion, a shocking slaughter was executed with bayonets. The Americans lost many of their men, with their baggage, arms, and stores. The whole corps must have been cut off, if Wayne had not preserved his coolness; he promptly rallied a few regiments, who withstood the shock of the enemy, and covered the retreat of the others. The loss of the English was very inconsiderable. When this attack commenced, general Sinallwood, who was coming up to join Wayne, was already within a mile of the field of battle; and, had he commanded troops who were to be relied on, might have given a very different turn to the night. But his militia, who were excessively alarmed, thought only of their own safety; and having fallen in with a party returning from the pursuit of Wayne, they instantly fled in confusion.

Having thus secured his rear, the British general resolved to bring the Americans to action, or to press them so far from Philadelphia as should enable him to push suddenly across the Schuylkill, and turn without danger to his right, in order to take possession of that city. To this end he made such movements upon the western bank, as to give the enemy jealousy that he intended to cross higher up, where the river was more shallow, and after turning his right flank, to seize the extensive magazines of provisions and inilitary stores, which had been established at Reading. In order to oppose so great a mischief, Washington retired with his army up the river, and encamped at Potts Grove. Howe, on intelligence of this change of the enemy's position, immediately crossed the Schuylkill without opposition; a

part of his troops being passed at Gordon's Ford, and the rest lower down at Flatland Ford. On the night of the twenty-third, the whole British army encamped upon the left bank; thus finding itself between the army of Washington and the city of Philadelphia.

It was now selfevident that nothing could save that city from the grasp of the English, unless the American general chose to risk a battle for its rescue.

But Washington, more guided by prudence than by the wishes and clamors of the multitude, abstained from resorting to that fatal experiment. He deemed it a measure of blind temerity to commit the fate of America to the uncertain issue of a general engagement. He daily expected the arrival of the remaining troops of Wayne and Smallwood, the continental troops of Peek's Kill and the provincial militia of New Jersey, under the command of general Dickinson. The soldiers were less fatigued than worn down by continual marches, bad roads, want of food and sufferings of every denomination. A council of war being assembled, and the condition of the army considered, it was unanimously decided to remain on the present ground, until the expected reenforcements should arrive, and to allow the harassed troops a few days for repose.

Washington resolved to proceed in every point with extreme circumspection, holding himself ready to seize the occasions which Heaven might offer him for the glory of its own cause, and for the good of the republic. Philadelphia was therefore abandoned as a prey which could not escape the enemy.

When it was known in that city that the violent rain which fell on the sixteenth, had prevented the two armies from coming to action, and that Washington had been constrained to retire behind the Schuylkill, Congress adjourned itself to the twenty-seventh, at Lancaster. At the same time, the public magazines and archives were evacuated with all diligence; the vessels lying at the wharves were removed up the Delaware. About twenty individuals were taken into custody, the greater part of them Quakers, avowed enemies to the state; having positively refused to give any security in writing, or even verbal attestation, of submission or allegiance to the present government. They were sent off to Staunton, in Virginia, as a place of security.

With unshaken confidence in the virtue of Washington, as a sufficient pledge for the hope of the republic, the Congress invested him with the same dictatorial powers that were conceded him after the reverses of New Jersey. At length, the rumor of the approach of the English increasing from hour to hour, they left the city. Lord Cornwallis entered Philadelphia the twenty-sixth of September, at the head of a detachment of British and Hessian grenadiers. The rest of the army remained in the camp of Germantown. Thus the rich and populous capital of the whole confederation fell into the

power of the royalists, after a sanguinary battle, and a series of manœuvres, no less masterly than painful, of the two armies. The Quakers, and all the other loyalists who had remained there, welcomed the English with transports of gratulation. Washington, descending along the left bank of the Schuylkill, approached within sixteen miles of Germantown. He encamped at Skippach Creek, purposing to accommodate his measures to the state of things.

The loss of Philadelphia did not produce among the Americans a particle of that discouragement which the English had flattered themselves would be the consequence of this event. The latter, on finding themselves masters of that city, erected batteries upon the Delaware, in order to command the whole breadth of the river, prevent any sudden attack by water, and interdict to the republicans all navigation between its upper and lower parts. While they were engaged in these works, the Americans, with the frigate Delaware anchored within five hundred yards of the unfinished batteries, and with some smaller vessels, commenced a very heavy cannonade both upon the batteries and the town. They did not, however, display the judgment which their knowledge of the river might be supposed to afford; for upon the falling of the tide the Delaware grounded so effectually that she could not be got off, which being perceived by the English, they brought their cannon to play upon her with so much effect that she was soon obliged to strike her colors. The same fire compelled the other vessels to retire up the river, with the loss of a schooner which was driven ashore.

The Americans, under the apprehension of what afterwards happened, that is, of not being able to preserve Philadelphia, had, with great labor and expense, constructed all manner of works to interrupt the navigation of the river, in order to prevent the British fleet from communicating with the troops that might occupy the city. They knew that the army of Washington, when it should have received its reenforcements, would soon be in a condition to take the field anew, and to cut off the enemy's supplies on the side of Pennsylvania; if, therefore, unable to procure them by water, the English must in a short time be compelled to evacuate the city. Pursuant to this reasoning, the Americans had erected works and batteries upon a flat, low, marshy island, or rather a bank of mud and sand which had been accumulated in the Delaware near the junction of the Schuylkill, and which from it nature was called Mud, but from these defences, Fort Island. On the opposite shore of New Jersey, at a place called Red Bank, they had also constructed a fort or redoubt, well covered with heavy artillery. In the deep navigable channel, between or under the cover of these batteries, they had sunk several ranges of frames or machines, the construction of which we have already described in a foregoing book. About three miles lower down, they had sunk other ranges of these machines, and were con

structing for their protection some considerable and extensive works, which, though not yet finished, were in such forwardness, as to be provided with artillery, and to command their object, at a place on the Jersey side, called Billings Point. These works and machines were further supported by several gallies, mounting heavy cannon, together with two floating batteries, a number of armed vessels and small craft of various kinds, and some fire-ships.

The English well knew the importance of opening for themselves a free communication with the sea, by means of the Delaware; since their operations could never be considered secure, so long as the enemy should maintain positions upon the banks of that river; and accordingly they deliberated upon the means of reducing them. Immediately after the success of the Brandywine, lord Howe, who commanded the whole fleet, had made sail for the mouth of the Delaware, and several light vessels had already arrived in that river, among others the Roebuck, commanded by captain Hammond. That officer represented to general Howe, that if sufficient forces were sent to attack the fort at Billings Point, on the Jersey shore, it might be taken without difficulty; and that he would then take upon himself to open a passage for the vessels through the chevaux-defrize. The general approved this project, and detached two regiments under colonel Stirling, to carry it into effect. The detachment, having crossed the river from Chester, the moment they had set foot upon the Jersey shore, marched with all speed to attack the fort in rear.

The Americans, not thinking themselves able to sustain the enemy's assault, immediately spiked their artillery, set fire to the barracks, and abandoned the place with precipitation. The English waited to destroy or to render unserviceable those parts of the works which fronted the river, and this success, with the spirit and perseverance exhibited by the officers and crews of the ships under his command, enabled Hammond, through great difficulties, to carry the principal object of the expedition into effect, by cutting away and weighing up so much of the chevaux-de-frize as opened a narrow passage for the shipping through this lower barrier.

The two regiments of Stirling returned, after their expedition to Chester, whether another had been sent to meet them, in order that they might all together form a sufficient escort for a large convoy of provisions to the camp.

Washington, who had not left his position at Skippach Creek, being informed that three regiments had been thus detached, and knowing that lord Cornwallis lay at Philadelphia with four battalions of grenadiers, perceived that the army of Howe must be sensibly weakened. He determined, therefore, to avail himself of this favorable circumstance, and to fall unexpectedly upon the British army encamped at Germantown.