sisted an assault; to Knyphausen, who had come CHAP.

XI.

up, Magaw surrendered. The honors of the day 1776.

Nov.

belonged to the Hessians and the Highlanders ; Rall and Sterling were distinguished in general 16. orders; and the fort was named Knyphausen.

66

The killed and wounded of the German troops were more than three hundred and fifty, those of the whole royal army more than five hundred. The Americans lost in the field not above one hundred and forty-nine; but they gave up valuable artillery and some of their best arms, and the captives exceeded two thousand six hundred, of whom one half were well-trained soldiers. Greene would never assume his share of responsibility for the disaster, and would never confess his glaring errors of judgment; but wrongfully ascribed the defeat to a panic which had struck the men, so that they fell a prey to their own fears." The grief of Washington was sharpened by self-reproach for having yielded his own opinion and wish to the confident reports of the commander of the post, who had incomparably better opportunities than himself of forming a just judgment; but he took the teachings of adversity without imbibing its bitterness; he never excused himself before the world by throwing the blame on another; he never suffered his opinion of Greene to be confused; and he interpreted his orders to that officer as having given the largest discretion which their language could be strained to warrant.

CHAP.
XII.

1776.

Nov.

17.

CHAPTER XII.

WASHINGTON'S RETREAT THROUGH THE JERSEYS.

NOVEMBER 17-DECEMBER 13, 1776.

EARL CORNWALLIS, who on the third day of February, 1766, had voted with Camden, Shelburne, and only two others, that the British parliament had no right to tax America, obtained the command in New Jersey. His first object was Fort Lee, which lay on the narrow ridge between the Hudson and Hackensack rivers, and which was in the more danger as Greene, indulging his easy, sanguine disposition, had neglected Washington's timely order, to prepare for its evacuation by the removal of its stores. Drop after drop of sorrow was fast falling into the cup of Washington. On the seventeenth of November, the division under the command of Lee had orders1 to join; but

1"They had orders on the 17th of November to join, now more than a month." Washington to Congress, Dec. 20, in Sparks, iv. 239. I compared this with the manuscript copy of the letter and with the copy in

Washington's letter-book in the state department, and they agree exactly. The order itself, as far as I can find, has not been preserved. One or two official or semi-official letters of the adjutant-general to

XII.

1776.

Nov.

17.

the orders were treated as mere advice, and were CHAP. wilfully slighted. The army was melting away; while congress showed signs of nervousness and felt their want of resources. To obtain troops, they granted the states liberty to enlist men for the war, or for three years; after their own long delay had destroyed every hope of good results from the experiment, they forwarded to Washington blank commissions, which he was to fill up, and conjured him to recruit the regiments then in camp.

In the night of the nineteenth, two battalions of Hessian grenadiers, two companies of yagers, and the eight battalions of the English reserve, at least five thousand men, marched up the east side of the Hudson, and the next morning, about daybreak, crossed with their artillery to Closter landing, five miles above Fort Lee. The movement escaped Greene's attention; so that the nimble seamen were unmolested as they dragged the cannon for near half a mile up the narrow, steep, rocky road, to the top of the palisades. Aroused from his bed by the report of a countryman, Greene sent an express to the commander-in-chief, and having ordered his troops under arms, took to flight with more than two thousand men, leaving blankets and baggage, except what his few wagons could bear away, more than three months' provision for three thousand men, camp-kettles on the fire, above four hundred tents standing, and all his cannon, except two twelve-pounders. With his utmost speed he barely escaped being cut off; but

Lee seem to be missing; this order of the communications to Lee in was perhaps one of them. Several December are lost.

19.

20.

XII.

Nov.

20.

CHAP. Washington, first ordering Grayson, his aide-decamp, to renew the summons for Lee to cross the 1776. river, gained the bridge over the Hackensack by a rapid march, and covered the retreat of the garrison, so that less than ninety stragglers were taken prisoners. The main body of those who escaped were without tents, or blankets, or camp utensils, but such as they could pick up as they went along. While the Americans were in full retreat, Reed, the adjutant-general, ordered a horseman to hasten to Lee with an announcement of the day's disaster, and as the means of writing gave out, to add this verbal message: "I pray you to push and join us ;" and the horseman, without loss of time, fulfilled his commission.

Once more the army lay on a narrow peninsula, between the Hackensack and Passaic rivers, which meet in Newark bay. To avoid being hemmed in, while waiting for the junction of Lee, Washington 21. gave orders on the twenty-first for moving beyond the Passaic; and on the same day, he addressed a long and most earnest letter to Lee, explaining the necessity for insisting on his moving over by the easiest passage. Reed added a letter of his own.

22.

Halting on his march from Hackensack to Newark, from the bridge over the Passaic he reminded the governor of New Jersey that the enlistment of the flying camp belonging to that state, to Pennsylvania, and to Maryland, was near expiring, so that the enemy could be stopped only by the immediate uprising of the militia. At Newark, where he arrived on the night of the twentysecond, he maintained himself for five days; con

XII.

1776.

Nov.

22.

stantly devising means to cover the country, and CHAP. hoping to be joined by the continental force under Lee and by volunteers of New Jersey. But Lee, weakened by the return home of about three thousand of the Massachusetts militia, remained in idleness for sixteen days, pretending to defend a country which there was no enemy near to attack, indifferent to the "full and explicit" and constantly reiterated orders of Washington.

On the twenty-third, Washington sent Reed, 23. who was a native of New Jersey, to the legislature of that state then assembled at Burlington, and Mifflin to the congress at Philadelphia, to entreat the immediate reënforcement of his dilapidated army. Mifflin fulfilled his mission with patriotism and ability. Congress, in their helplessness, called on the associators in Philadelphia and the nearest four counties to join the army, if but for six months; begged blankets and woollen stockings for the bare soldiers; and wrote north and south for troops and stores. The state of Pennsylvania was paralyzed by anarchy, continuous revolution, and disputes about the new constitution, which the majority disapproved, and of which the complete establishment was effectually resisted for three months to come; but Mifflin successfully addressed the old committee of safety, and the new assembly; he reviewed and encouraged the city militia; with Rittenhouse in the chair, and the general assembly and council of safety in attendance, he spoke to the people in town-meeting with fervor, and was answered by unanimous acclamations. All this while, the British officers were writing home from New