CHAP. an object.

XXV.

1777.

The battalions from Philadelphia, advancing on a run, were close at hand. In the Oct. fog, parties of Americans had repeatedly mistaken each other for British. At about half-past eight, Washington, who, "in his anxiety exposed himself to the hottest fire," seeing that the day was lost, gave the word to retreat, and sent it to every division. Care was taken for the removal of every piece of artillery. "British officers of the first rank said that no retreat was ever conducted in better order," and they and the German officers alike judged the attack to have been well planned. Greene on that day "fell under the frown" of the commander-in-chief. Had the forces intrusted to him and the militia with Armstrong acted as efficiently as the troops with Washington, the day might have been fatal to Howe's army. The re

newal of an attack so soon after the defeat at the Brandywine, and its partial success, inspirited congress and the army. In Europe, it convinced the cabinet of the king of France that the independence of America was assured.

To stop the sale of provisions to the British army, congress subjected every person, within thirty miles of a British post, who should give them information or furnish them supplies, to the penalty of death on conviction by court-martial; and a party of militia under Potter watched the west of the Schuylkill so carefully that the enemy suffered from a scarcity of food and forage. Could Washington obtain a force sufficient to blockade Philadelphia by land and maintain the posts on the 1 Burke's Correspondence, ii. 204.

XXV.

Delaware, there was hope of driving Howe to re- CHAP. But Pennsylvania would not rise; the contest was on her soil, and there were in camp only Oct. twelve hundred of her militia.

Between the fourth and the eighth, the fleet of Lord Howe anchored between Newcastle and Reedy island. It was the middle of October before they could open a narrow and intricate channel through the lower obstruction in the river. The upper

works were untouched; and the forts on Red-bank and on Mud island were garrisoned by continental troops, the former under the command of Colonel Christopher Greene of Rhode Island, the latter under that of Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Smith of Maryland. Meantime, Sir William Howe, from the necessity of concentrating his force, ordered Clinton to abandon Fort Clinton on the Hudson, and to send him a reënforcement of "full six thousand men." 1 He removed his army from Germantown to Philadelphia, and protected it by a line of fortifications from the Schuylkill to the Delaware.

On the morning of the eighteenth, a messenger arrived in camp bringing letters from Putnam and Clinton prematurely but positively announcing the surrender of the army of Burgoyne. Washington received them with joy unspeakable and devout gratitude for this signal stroke of Providence." "All will be well," he said, "in His own good time." The news circulated among the Americans in every direction, and quickly penetrated the camp

1 "Full six thousand men." Clin- 1777; in Albemarle's Rockingham, ton to General Harvey, 13 October, ii. 337.

1777.

CHAP. of Sir William Howe. "The difficulty of access to XXV. Fort island had rendered its reduction much more 1777. tedious than was conceived;" under a feeling of

Oct.

exasperated impatience, he gave verbal orders to
Colonel Donop, who had expressed a wish for a
separate command, to carry Red-bank by assault if it
could be easily done, and make short work of the
affair. On the twenty-second, Donop with five regi-
ments of Hessian grenadiers and infantry, four com-
panies of yagers, a few mounted yagers, all the
artillery of the five battalions, and two English
howitzers, arrived at the fort. Making at once a
reconnoissance with his artillery officers, he found
that on three sides it could be approached through
thick woods within four hundred yards. It was a
pentagon, with a high earthy rampart, protected in
front by an abatis. The battery of eight three-
pounders and two howitzers was brought up on the
right wing, and directed on the embrasures.
the front of each of the four battalions selected for
the assault stood a captain with the carpenters
and one hundred men bearing the fascines which
had been hastily bound together. Mad after glory,
Donop, at half-past four, summoned the garrison
in arrogant language. A defiance being returned,
he addressed a few words to his troops. Each
colonel placed himself at the head of his division,
and at a quarter before five, under the protection
of a brisk cannonade from all their artillery, they
ran forward and carried the abatis. On clearing
it they were embarrassed by pitfalls, and were ex-
posed to a terrible fire of small arms and of grape-
shot from a concealed gallery, while two galleys,

At

XXV.

1777.

Oct.

which the bushes had hidden, raked their flanks CHAP. with chain-shot. Yet the brave Hessians formed on the glacis, filled the ditch, and pressed on towards the rampart. But Donop, the officers of his staff, and more than half the other officers were killed or wounded; the. men who climbed the parapet were beaten down with lances and bayonets; and as twilight was coming on, the assailants fell back under the protection of their reserve. Many of the wounded crawled away into the forest, but Donop and a few others were left behind. The party marched back during the night unpursued.

As the British ships of war which had attempted to take part in the attack fell down the river, the "Augusta," of sixty-four guns, and the "Merlin" frigate grounded. The next day the "Augusta" was set on fire by red-hot shot from the American galleys and floating batteries, and blown up before all her crew could escape; the "Merlin" was abandoned and set on fire. From the wrecks the Americans brought off two twenty-four pounders. "Thank God," reasoned John Adams, "the glory is not immediately due to the commander-in-chief, or idolatry and adulation would have been so excessive as to endanger our liberties."

The Hessians, by their own account, lost in the assault four hundred and two in killed and wounded, of whom twenty-six were officers. Two colonels gave up their lives. Donop, whose thigh was shattered, lingered for three days; and to Fleury, who watched over his death-bed with tenderness, he said: "It is finishing a noble career early; I die the victim of my ambition, and of the avarice of

XXV.

1777.

CHAP. my sovereign." This was the moment chosen by Howe to complain of Lord George Germain, and Oct. to ask the king's leave to resign his command; and he added that there was no prospect of terminating the war without another campaign, nor then, unless large reënforcements, such as he knew could not be furnished, should be sent from Europe.

On Burgoyne's surrender, it became the paramount duty of Gates to detach reënforcements to Washington; but weeks passed and even the corps of Morgan did not arrive. The commander-in-chief, therefore, near the end of October, despatched his Nov. able aid, Alexander Hamilton, with authority to demand them. This was followed by the strangest incidents of the war. Putnam for a while disregarded the orders borne by Hamilton. Gates, in his elation, detained a very large part of his army in idleness at Albany, under the pretext of an expedition against Ticonderoga, which he did not mean to attack, and which the British of themselves abandoned; he neglected to announce his victory to the commander-in-chief; and he sent directly to congress the tardy message: "With an army in health, vigor, and spirits, Major-General Gates now waits the commands of the honorable congress." Instead of chiding the insubordination, congress appointed him to regain the forts and passes on the Hudson river. Now Washington had himself recovered these forts and passes by pressing Howe so closely as to compel him to order their evacuation; yet congress forbade Washington to detach from the northern army more than