pursued, Washington must lose his stores and artillery before he could cross the Delaware. General Howe replied that he would join him immediately; but he did not arrive till the sixth of December. At Brunswick, on the first, Washington had hoped to make a stand, but was again disappointed in his militia. Had they supported him with spirit, he could have prevented the enemy from passing the Hackensack. On the very day that he left that village, the time of service for the Jersey and Maryland brigades expired, and both of them abandoned him. Under the pressure of this discouragement, Washington wrote to Lee to hasten his march, or his arrival might be too late.

On the eighth, Lord Howe had arrived at the shores of the Delaware in his pursuit, with the intention of pushing a strong body across the river. Early in the morning, he halted with his rear division, within six miles of Trenton. The artillery were prepared to cover his landing, and the troops kept in readiness for day light. At the place chosen, about two miles below Corlyl's ferry, it was only twenty-eight rods to a ridge of sand, on the Pennsylvania side, on which a body was to be landed, and thence it was proposed to march up to Corlyl's ferry and take possession of the boats collected there by the Americans, and left under a guard of only ten men. With the boats thus obtained, the main body would have been passed over immediately. In the vicinity of the place, at which the attempt was to be made by the first party, there was a large flour boat, capable of bearing one hundred men, concealed beneath a bank. This had been overlooked, when Washington ordered the boats to be removed; but was providentially discovered, and brought off, in season to prevent the enemy from taking possession of it.

The fate of America, for a season, in all probability depended upon that incident. The very day before Washington crossed the Delaware, a return of his forces was made to Congress; which made it only thirty-three hundred; and when he crossed, he had but two thousand two hundred; from these, such constant and rapid deductions had been made, that in two days, he was reduced to less than seventeen hundred; and by his own letter of the twenty-fourth of December, to between fourteen and fifteen hundred, hourly diminishing.

Why Washington was not pursued when the shores of the Delaware afforded such an abundance of materials for the construction of rafts and pontoons, is one of those events which baffles all speculation, if it be not attributed to positive orders; but why those orders were given, still remains to be explained. Washington himself, declared in a despatch, written after he reached the Pennsylvania bank, that nothing could have saved him, but the infatuation of the enemy. The city of Philadelphia was only two days easy march from Trenton: a greater number of men than Washington commanded could have been advanced, and what part of the British fleet and transports were wanted, could have passed up to the city in one week, without en

countering any obstruction; for at that time, the Fort on Mud Island was not built, the chevaux-de-frize nor chain prepared; nor had they fire rafts in any place.

This retreat through the Jerseys, was one uninterrupted series of discouragement to the American people. It had been commenced, immediately after the loss of Fort Washington, and a fine garrison; and a large quantity of military stores, abandoned at Fort Lee. In a few days, the whole flying camp disappeared. This was followed by the disappearance of whole regiments, whose periods of service had alsc expired. Even the reinforcements, which had been sent from the Northern department, silently dissolved on the march, and General St. Clair, the commander, appeared in the camp of Washington, with only a few officers, for his relief. Every man had abandoned him. Even the few troops, under the command of Washington, were nearly useless from their wretched deficiency in necessaries. They were the garrison of Fort Lee, hurried away with such precipitation, as to leave their blankets and cooking utensils. He had no cavalry, except one troop, miserably mounted; and no artillery: yet under all these circumstances of distress and ill fortune, with his little band, a part of whom were literally barefooted, Washington had the address to consume nineteen days, in marching ninety miles before his conquerors, and then to give time for the militia to collect for his succour. As these the last hope of their country-fied before their pursuers, scarcely a man had the courage to strengthen them; while numbers were flocking to the royal standard, at every step of its progress. Appearance is every thing with the multitude. A gallant, well disciplined army, well officered, and well provided with all the furniture of war, with their banners, and horns and trumpets, were indeed a formidable trial to the constancy of the multitude; and all this, when contrasted with a feeble band of disorderly, tattered and emaciated wretches, who were flying from the haunts of men, like a troop of malefactors, caught abroad in open day light. So powerful was the effect of this contrast, that it operated, not only on the lower classes, but on the opulent and distinguished. Some of the leading men of New Jersey and Pennsylvania were terrified into submission by this pageantry.

"Capture of the Hessians at Trenton.-Washington had observed that general Howe, either to procure more commodious quarters for his troops in this rigorous season, or to impede the Americans in recruiting, or finally because he believed the war at an end, and his enemy no longer in a condition to act, had too far extended the wings of his army, which occupied the entire province of New Jersey and the left bank of the Delaware, from Trenton down to Burlington. Colonel Ralle, a Hessian officer of great merit, was cantoned in the first of these places, with his brigade of infantry and a detachment of English dragoons, the whole constituting a corps of fourteen or fifteen hundred men. Bordentown, a few miles below, was occupied by colonel Donop, with another brigade of Hessians; and still lower down, within twenty miles of Philadelphia, was stationed another corps of Hessians and English. Knowing the extreme weakness of their enemy, and holding him as it were degraded by his recent defeats, they kept a negligent guard. The rest of the army was lodged in places more distant, and principally at Princeton, at New Brunswick, and at Amboy. Washington having attentively considered the extent of the enemy's quarters, conceived the hope of surprising the corps that were nearest to the river, and too remote from the others to be succored in season. In order to make his attack with more order and effect, he divided

his army which consisted almost entirely in the militia of Pennsylvania and Virginia, into three corps, the first and most considerable of which was to pass the Delaware at Mackenky's ferry, about nine miles above Trenton. The commander-in-chief, accompanied by generals Sullivan and Greene, had reserved to himself the conduct of this corps, to which a few pieces of artillery were attached. It was destined to attack Trenton. The second division, under the command of general Irwin, was directed to cross at Trenton Ferry, about a mile below the village of this name, and having reached the left bank, to seize without loss of time, the bridge over the little river Assumpink, in order to intercept the retreat of the enemy when he should be dislodged from Trenton by the division under Washington. Finally, the third corps, commanded by general Cadwallader, was ordered to pass the river at Bristol, and proceed to take post at Burlington. The night of Christmas was appointed for the expedition. The dispositions being made according to the plan above mentioned, the Americans proceeded with admirable order and silence towards the Delaware. The chiefs exhorted their soldiers to be firm and valiant, to wash out the stains of Long Island, of New York, and of New Jersey; they represented to them the necessity, the glory, and the brilliant fruits of victory; they incessantly reminded them that this night was about to decide the fate of their country. An extreme ardor manifested itself throughout the ranks. The three columns arrived in the dusk of evening at the bank of the river. Washington had hoped that the passage of the troops, and transportation of the artillery, might have been effectuated before midnight, so as to have time to reach the destined points by break of day, and to surprise the enemy at Trenton. But the coid was so intense, and the river so obstructed with floating ice, that it was impossible to cross and to land the artillery earlier than four in the morning. All the troops having at length gained the left bank, the first corps was parted into two divisions, one of which, turning to the right, marched towards Trenton, by the road which runs along the river; the other, guided by Washington in person, took the upper or Pennington road. The distance, by their route, being nearly equal, it was hoped that the two columns might arrive at the same time. It was enjoined them to engage in combat without any delay, and after having driven in the outposts, to fall immediately upon the main body of the enemy, at Trenton, without giving him time to recover from his surprise. They exerted all their efforts to arrive before day; but a thick fog, and a mist mingled with sleet, which rendered the road slippery, retarded their march. The two divisions, however, reached Trenton at 8 o'clock. Notwithstanding so many obstacles, and the hour already late, the Hessians of colonel Ralle, had no suspicion of their approach.

the river, as to render the passage absolutely impracticable. This part of the Hessians, therefore, had the facility of retiring in safety to Bordentown. General Cadwallader was not more for tunate in the attempt he made to cross lower down, and to take post at Burlington, pursuant to the plan of attack. When a part of his infantry had reached the left bank, it was found impossible to advance with the artillery; unable, therefore, to act with any effect, and finding himself in a perilous situation, he repassed to the right bank of the Delaware. Thus the design of the commander-in-chief was accomplished only in part; but the event demonstrated, that if the rigorous cold of this night had not prevented its entire execution, all the royal troops that were stationed in the vicinity of the river, would have been surrounded and taken. The loss of the Hessians, in killed and wounded, amounted only to thirty or forty, but the number of prisoners was at first upwards of nine hundred, and even exceeded a thousand, when all those were collected who had concealed themselves in the houses. After having obtained this success, Washington paused; not willing to lose by imprudence the advantages he owed to the wisdom of his measures. His forces were not sufficient to cope with those which the English generals could have assembled in a few hours. A strong corps of light infantry was quartered at Princeton, a town only a few miles distant from Trenton; to this might easily have been joined the brigade of Donop, and other battalions that were cantoned in the neighboring places. The Americans consequently evacuated Trenton, and passed over to the right bank of the river, with their prisoners, and the trophies of their victory. Their generals resolved to make the most of it, in order to revive the courage and confidence of the dispirited people. They caused the captive Hessians to defile, with a sort of triumphal pomp, through the streets of Philadelphia, followed by their arms and banners. And yet such was the terror inspired by the very name of these Germans, that even at the moment in which they traversed the city as vanquished and prisoners, many of the inhabitants suspected it was only a stratagem of their own leaders to animate them; so impossible it seemed to them that warriors from Germany should have been overcome by American soldiers. The English appeared to them far less formidable, because they knew them. Man is naturally disposed to fear most those objects of which he has the least knowledge; the uncouth language, the novel manners, and even the dress of the German soldiers, inspired a certain dread. But when they were satisfied that the spectacle they beheld was not an illusion, words cannot describe their exultation at so unexpected a success; having at first rated the Hessians far above the English, they now held them as much below. And, in effect, this affair of Trenton had so changed