XXV. numerous post-and-rail fences. Irretrievable dis- CHAP. order was the consequence; the divisions became mixed, and the line was broken. Macdougall1 1777. never got into the fight; and Greene was left with only the brigades of Scott and Muhlenberg. These entered the village and attacked the British right, which had had ample time for preparation. They were outflanked, and after about fifteen minutes 2 of heavy firing were driven back; and the regiment which had penetrated furthest was captured. Stephen with one of his brigades came up with the left of Wayne's division; Woodford, who commanded the other and was on the extreme right of the wing under Greene, strayed to Chew's house, which he found watched by a single regiment, halted there with his whole brigade, and took no part in the battle except to order his light field-pieces to play upon its walls. This new and unexpected cannonade was exactly in the rear of Wayne's division; they imagined it to be the fire of the British right; and throwing off all control, they retreated in disorder. Armstrong with his militia on the extreme right considered it his duty rather to divert the foreigners than to come in contact with them;"5 so he did no more than "cannonade them from the heights on the Wissahiccon." 6 Sullivan's men, with the eagerness of young troops and against the order of Washington, had expended their ammunition' often without 1 Walter Stewart to Gates, 12 October, 1777. 2 Sullivan to Weare. 3 Marshall, an eye-witness. Life of Washington, i. 167. 4 4 Armstrong to Gates, 9 October, 1777. 5 General Lacy's account. 7 Idem. Oct. XXV. Oct. CHAP. an object. The battalions from Philadelphia, advancing on a run, were close at hand. In the 1777. 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 renewal 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. treat. 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 works were untouched; and the forts on Red-bank 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 regiments of Hessian grenadiers and infantry, four companies 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 threepounders and two howitzers was brought up on the right wing, and directed on the embrasures. At 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 exposed to a terrible fire of small arms and of grapeshot from a concealed gallery, while two galleys, XXV. 1777. 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 Oct. 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. 66 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 |