grin and mortification. "Every account," said he subsequently, in a letter to the President of Congress, "confirms the opinion I at first entertained that our troops retreated at the instant when victory was declaring herself in our favor. The tumult, disorder and even despair which, it seems, had taken place in the British army, were scarcely to be paralleled and, it is said, so strongly did the ideas of a retreat prevail that Chester was fixed on for their rendezvous. I can discover no other cause for not improving this happy opportunity than the extreme haziness of the weather."

So also Captain Heth, of Virginia, who was in the action. "What makes this inglorious flight more grating to us is, that we know the enemy had orders to retreat and rendezvous at Chester, and that upward of two thousand Hessians had actually crossed the Schuylkill for that purpose; that the tories were in the utmost distress and moving out of the city; that our friends confined in the new jail made it ring with shouts of joy; that we passed, in pursuing them, up ward of twenty pieces of cannon, their tents standing filled with their choicest baggage; in fine, everything was as we could wish, when the above flight took place.” *

No one was more annoyed than Wayne. "Fortune smiled on us for full three hours," writes he; "the enemy were broke, dispersed, and flying in all quarters-we were in possession of their whole encampment, together with their artillery park, etc., etc. A windmill attack was made upon a house into which six light companies had thrown themselves to avoid our bayonets. Our troops were deceived by this attack, thinking it something formidable. They fell

*Letter to Colonel Lamb in the Lamb Papers, N. Y. Hist. Society, and quoted in the Life of Lamb, p. 183.

back to assist the enemy, believing it to be a retreat, followed-confusion ensued, and we ran away from the arms of victory open to receive us.'

In fact, as has justly been observed by an experienced officer, the plan of attack was too widely extended for strict concert, and too complicated for precise co-operation, as it had to be conducted in the night, and with a large proportion of undisciplined militia; and yet, a bewildering fog alone appears to have prevented its complete success.

But although the Americans were balked of the victory which seemed within their grasp, the impression made by the audacity of this attempt upon Germantown was greater, we are told, than that caused by any single incident of the war after Lexington and Bunker's Hill.*

A British military historian, a contemporary, observes: "In this action the Americans acted upon the offensive; and though repulsed with loss, showed themselves a formidable adversary, capable of charging with resolution and retreating with good order. The hope, therefore, entertained from the effect of any action with them as decisive and likely to put a speedy termination to the war was exceedingly abated." t

The battle had its effect also in France. The Count de Vergennes observed to the American commissioners in Paris, on their first interview, that nothing struck him so much as General Washington's attacking and giving battle to General Howe's army; that to bring an army raised within a year to this pass promised everything.

The effect on the army itself may be judged from letters

* Reed's Memoirs, vol. i., p. 319.

† Civil War in America, i. 269.

written at the time by officers to their friends. "Though we gave away a complete victory," writes one, "we have learned this valuable truth, that we are able to beat them by vigorous exertion, and that we are far superior in point of swiftness. We are in high spirits; every action gives our troops fresh vigor and a greater opinion of their own strength. Another bout or two must make the situation of the enemy very disagreeable.

Another writes to his father. "For my own part, I am so fully convinced of the justice of the cause in which we are contending, and that Providence, in its own good time, will succeed and bless it, that, were I to see twelve of the United States overrun by our cruel invaders, I should still believe the thirteenth would not only save itself, but also work out the deliverance of the others." †

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Washington at White Marsh-Measures to cut off the Enemy's Supplies-The Forts on the Delaware Re-enforced-Colonel Greene of Rhode Island at Fort Mercer-Attack and Defense of that Fort-Death of Count Donop

WASHINGTON remained a few days at Perkiomen Creek, to give his army time to rest and recover from the disorder incident to a retreat. Having been re-enforced by the arrival of twelve hundred Rhode Island troops from Peekskill, under General Varnum, and nearly a thousand Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania troops, he gradually drew nearer to Phila

* Captain Heth to Colonel Lamb.

† Major Shaw. Memoirs, by Josiah Quincy, p. 41.

delphia, and took a strong position at White Marsh, within fourteen miles of that city. By a resolution of Congress, all persons taken within thirty miles of any place occupied by British troops, in the act of conveying supplies to them, were subjected to martial law. Acting under the resolution, Washington detached large bodies of militia to scour the roads above the city, and between the Schuylkill and Chester, to intercept all supplies going to the enemy.

On the forts and obstructions in the river, Washington mainly counted to complete the harassment of Philadelphia. These defenses had been materially impaired. The works at Billingsport had been attacked and destroyed, and some of the enemy's ships had forced their way through the chevaux-de-frise placed there. The American frigate "Delaware," stationed in the river between the upper forts and Philadelphia, had run aground before a British battery, and been captured.

It was now the great object of the Howes to reduce and destroy, and of Washington to defend and maintain, the remaining forts and obstructions. Fort Mifflin, which we have already mentioned, was erected on a low, green, reedy island in the Delaware, a few miles below Philadelphia, and below the mouth of the Schuylkill. It consisted of a strong redoubt, with extensive outworks and batteries. There was but a narrow channel between the island and the Pennsylvania shore. The main channel, practicable for ships, was on the other side. In this were sunk strong chevaux-defrise, difficult either to be weighed or cut through, and dangerous to any ships that might run against them; subjected as they would be to the batteries of Fort Mifflin on one side, and on the other to those of Fort Mercer, a strong work at Red Bank on the Jersey shore.

Fort Mifflin was garrisoned by troops of the Maryland line, under Lieutenant-colonel Samuel Smith of Baltimore; and had kept up a brave defense against batteries erected by the enemy on the Pennsylvania shore. A re-enforcement of Virginia troops made the garrison between three and four hundred strong.

Floating batteries, galleys and fire-ships, commanded by Commodore Hazelwood, were stationed under the forts and about the river.

Fort Mercer had hitherto been garrisoned by militia, but Washington now replaced them by four hundred of General Varnum's Rhode Island Continentals. Colonel Christopher Greene was put in command; a brave officer who had accompanied Arnold in his rough expedition to Canada, and fought valiantly under the walls of Quebec. "The post with which you are intrusted," writes Washington in his letter of instructions, "is of the utmost importance to America. The whole defense of the Delaware depends upon it; and consequently all the enemy's hopes of keeping Philadelphia and finally succeeding in the present campaign.

Colonel Greene was accompanied by Captain Mauduit Duplessis, who was to have the direction of the artillery. He was a young French engineer of great merit, who had volunteered in the American cause and received a commission from Congress. The chevaux-de-frise in the river had been constructed under his superintendence.

Greene, aided by Duplessis, made all haste to put Fort Mercer in a state of defense; but before the outworks were completed, he was surprised (October 22) by the appearance of a large force emerging from a wood within cannon shot of the fort. Their uniforms showed them to be Hessians. They were, in fact, four battalions twelve hundred strong