Nov.

CHAP. landers led the way in boats through a galling fire; XI. they landed under cover of a heavy cannonade 1776. from Fordham heights, struggled up the steep path 16. with a loss of ninety killed or wounded, and pressed forward across the island. To prevent being caught between two detachments, Cadwal ader ordered his party to retreat; which they did, but in such confusion that they lost more than a hundred and fifty prisoners to Sterling, and the rest, instead of rallying on the grounds outside of the fort, huddled together within its narrow enclosure.

While this was going on, the Hessians at the north, clambering over felled trees and surmounting rocky heights, gained on the Americans, who in number were but as one to four or five. Rawlings and Otho Williams were wounded; the arms of the riflemen grew foul from use; as they retired, Rall with his brigade pushed upward and onward, and when within a hundred paces of the fort, instantly sent a captain of grenadiers with summons to the garrison to surrender as prisoners of war, all retaining their baggage, and the officers their swords. Cadwalader received and favored the message; Magaw, to whom it was referred, asked five hours for consultation, but obtained only a half-hour. It was late in the afternoon; during the truce, a messenger from Washington, who was looking on from Fort Lee, brought a letter to Magaw, promising that if he would hold out for a few hours an effort should be made during the night to bring off the garrison. But the treaty had gone too far; nor could the place have re

XI.

sisted an assault; to Knyphausen, who had come CHAP. up, Magaw surrendered. The honors of the day belonged to the Hessians and the Highlanders; Rall and Sterling were distinguished in general orders; and the fort was named Knyphausen.

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.

1776.

Nov. 16.

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

the orders were treated as mere advice, and were CHAP.

XII.

Nov.

17.

wilfully slighted. The army was melting away; 1776. 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 was perhaps one of them. Several

of the communications to Lee in
December are lost.

19.

20.

XII.

1776.

20.

CHAP. Washington, first ordering Grayson, his aide-decamp, to renew the summons for Lee to cross the Nov. 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