Colonel Rahl, who was a brave officer, soon had the Hessians under arms, and prepared for an obstinate defence; but while endeavouring to form his soldiers, he was mortally wounded. The Americans were led by Washington; and they possessed full confidence in themselves; they pressed the enemy hard, and soon got possession of half their artillery. The Hessians being severely galled by the fire of the enemy, threw down their arms and surrendered themselves prisoners of war; but a considerable body of them, chiefly light-horse, retreated towards Bordentown, and made their escape. Not many Hessians were killed, and the Americans lost but two killed and two frozen to death, with three or four wounded. They took one thousand prisoners, six field-pieces, and one thousand stand of small-arms. On the 26th, Washington recrossed the Delaware with his prisoners, their arms, colours, and artillery.

This enterprise was completely successful, in so far as it was under the immediate direction of the commander-in-chief, and it had a happy effect on the affairs of America. It was the first wave of the returning tide. It filled the British with astonishment; and the Hessians, whose name had before inspired the people with fear, ceased to be terrible. The

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prisoners were paraded through the streets of Philadelphia, to prove the reality of the victory, which the friends of the British government had denied. The hopes of the Americans were revived, and their spirits elevated; they had a clear proof that their enemies were not invincible, and that union, courage, and perseverance, would insure success. The British troops in the Jerseys had behaved to the inhabitants with such a spirit of cruelty and rapacity, that they were everywhere ready to flee to arms, to revenge the insults, injustice, and oppression they had suffered.

The spirit of resistance and insurrection was again fully awakened in Pennsylvania, and considerable numbers of the militia repaired to the standard of the commander-in-chief, who again crossed the Delaware and marched to Trenton, where, on the 1st of January, 1777, he found himself at the head of five thousand men.

A strong detachment of British, under General Grant, marched to Princeton, and Lord Cornwallis, who was in New York with the intention of going to England with the news of the probable conclusion of the war, was recalled to the Jerseys, to commence active operations again in the midst of winter.

On joining Grant, Cornwallis determined to attack Washington at Trenton, and he accordingly pressed on with the greatest expedition, leaving Colonel Mawhood, with three regiments, at Princeton, and General Leslie at Maidenhead, with the same number of troops. General Greene was stationed about a mile from the American camp, to give notice of the enemy's approach and check them; but finding them in great force and advancing expeditiously, he managed to retreat in good order, on the 2d of January. Washington retired over the Assumpinck creek, which the British made several attempts to cross, but were foiled, and both parties kindled their fires, and kept up a cannonade till dark.

In the night, Washington determined, instead of waiting till morning to be attacked, to take a circuitous march to Princeton, and surprise Colonel Mawhood. After appointing guards

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for the fords, and advancing his sentinels, he ordered the fires to be kept burning brightly till daylight, and then marched off with his whole army. On the road to Princeton, he suddenly met Mawhood, who was advancing to join Cornwallis. Mawhood, ignorant of the number of his enemies, charged boldly, and threw the Pennsylvania militia into confusion; but Washington, by great personal exertions, succeeded in restoring order, when Mawhood discovered that he was engaged with more than a mere detachment, and that he was almost surrounded. Nearly sixty of his regiment were killed; but he broke through and escaped with part of it to Maidenhead. The fifty-fifth regiment also suffered severely; but part of it, with nearly all of the fortieth, which was not engaged, followed Mawhood.

Cornwallis had heard the firing, and instantly perceiving the state of affairs, finding that he had been out-generalled, and being apprehensive for his baggage, had posted back with the utmost expedition. He reached the Americans just as the rear had gotten into the Morristown road, and some firing ensued. Washington marched to Morristown, where he fixed his head-quarters; and the panic-stricken British retreated hastily to New Brunswick, without halting longer than to make passable the bridges over Stony Brook and Millstone, broken down by the retreating Americans.

The American loss in this affair was less than that of the British; but General Mercer, who led the van, was mortally wounded, and then severely bayonetted. He soon afterwards died of his wounds. The British lost about one hundred men in killed and wounded. Among the killed was Captain Leslie, son to the Earl of Leven, who was buried by the Americans with the honours of war. The Americans took some three hundred prisoners in this affair, which still further contributed to raise the spirits of their countrymen.

Assisted by Greene, Sullivan, Putnam, and the other brave spirits of the time, Washington had thus been enabled by a series of bold, well-directed, and fortunate movements, to almost rid the state of the enemy. East as well as West Jersey was

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overrun by his troops, and the British were almost as much panic-stricken at the name of Washington, as the American militia had been at the approach of the enemy, the year before. By this uncertain and partisan system of warfare, Washington deprived the British of all their conquests in the Jerseys, except Amboy and New Brunswick. The enemy's foraging parties and advanced posts were continually cut off, and their commanders found their numbers lessening insensibly, until they feared that they would be obliged to remain inactive during the next campaign, unless they were reinforced.

Thus terminated the eventful campaign of 1776, which witnessed the heroic defence of Charleston, in the south; the retreat from Canada in the north; and Washington in the middle states, first at the head of a respectable force in Long Island; subsequently defeated there and on York Island; his soldiers leaving him as soon as their terms of service expired; retreating through New Jersey, with what Hamilton has called the phantom of an army; compelled to cross the Delaware; turning when it was confidently expected by the British that all his army would be disbanded, and inflicting severe wounds on their widely-scattered forces; and in the end, acting on the offensive, and hunting them from place to place, until they are cooped up in New York, and one or two places in the Jerseys. True, the British were in possession of Rhode Island; but it was of no advantage to them then, nor at any period of the war; and they were compelled to weaken their armies for the purpose of keeping a garrison there. And finally, notwithstanding the joy of the British at the capture of Lee, the effect which they anticipated was not produced on the American people; and subsequent events showed them conclusively that they had not captured the American Palladium. That was the impalpable and inextinguishable fire of freedom, still burning in the hearts of the people, and destined still to clude the grasp of tyranny.

HE commander-in-chief plainly perceived, after his retreat through the Jerseys, that the British intended to take possession of Philadelphia, as soon as the river Delaware should be frozen over; and that city seemed to be inevitably lost. For greater

safety, Congress changed their place of meeting from Philadelphia to Baltimore, on the 12th of December. After retreating to that place, the members, instead of despairing of success, took the most effectual measures for a vigorous prosecution of the war. Being removed from the commanderin-chief, they deemed it necessary, in order to secure vigour in the operations of the army, to confer unlimited military powers upon him for a short time.

On the 27th of December, after declaring that "the unjust, but determined purpose of the British court to enslave these free states, obvious notwithstanding every insinuation to the contrary, having placed things in such a situation, that the very exercise of civil liberty now depends on the judicious exercise of military powers; and the vigorous and decisive conduct of these being impossible to distant, numerous, and deliberative bodies," they passed the following resolve, "That General Washington shall be, and he is hereby invested with full, ample, and complete powers, to raise and collect together in the most speedy and effectual manner, from any or all of these United States, sixteen battalions of infantry in addition