places, but finding all the fords guarded, they halted, and kindled their fires. The American troops kindled their fires, likewise, and a cannonade, which had commenced on their first appearance, was kept up on both sides till dark.

The situation of General Washington was now again extremely critical. If he maintained his present position, it was certain that he should be attacked, next morning, by a force in all respects superior to his own; and the result would most probably be, the destruction of his little army. If he should retreat over the Delaware, the passage of that river was now so difficult, being filled with ice, which, in consequence of a few mild and foggy days, was not firm enough to march upon, that a considerable loss, perhaps a total defeat, would be sustained; and, in any event, the Jerseys would once more be entirely in possession of the enemy; the public mind would again be depressed, and recruiting discouraged, by his apparent inferiority; and Philadelphia would once more be in the grasp of General Howe. It was obvious that the one event or the other would deduct very greatly from the advantages promised from his late success; and, if it did not render the American cause absolutely desperate, would very essentially injure it.

In this state of things, he formed the bold and judicious design of abandoning the Delaware, and marching

marching silently in the night, by a circuitous route, along the left flank of the enemy, into their rear at Princeton, where he knew they could not be very strong. After beating them there, it was his intention to make a rapid movement to Brunswick, where their baggage and principal magazines lay under a weak guard. He had sanguine expectations that this manoeuvre would call the attention of the British General to his own defence, in which event, very great objects would be accomplished; Philadelphia would be saved for the present; great part of Jersey recovered; and not only the appearance of a retreat avoided, but the public mind encouraged by active and offensive operations. If he should even be disappointed in this expectation, and, contrary to every calculation, Lord Cornwallis should proceed to Philadelphia, nothing worse could happen, in that quarter, than must happen should the American army be driven before him; and, in the mean time, he would lessen that calamity, by expelling the enemy completely from Jersey, and cutting up all their parties in that state by detail.

The council of war approved the plan, and preparations were immediately made for its execution. The baggage, as soon as it was dark, was removed silently to Burlington; and about one o'clock, after renewing their fires, and leaving their guards, at the bridge and other passes over the creek

which runs through Trenton, to go the rounds as usual, they decamped with perfect secresy, and took a circuitous route through Allen's Town to Princeton. At the latter place, three British regiments had encamped the preceding night, two of which commenced their march early in the morning, to join the rear of their army at Maidenhead. About sun-rise they fell in with the van of the Americans, conducted by General Mercer, and a very sharp action ensued, which, however, was not of long duration. The militia, of which the advanced party was principally composed, soon gave way, and the few regulars attached to them were not strong enough to maintain their ground. General Mercer was mortally wounded, while gallantly exerting himself to rally, his broken troops, and the van was entirely routed. But the fortune of the day was soon changed. The main body of the army, led by General Washington in person, followed close in the rear, and attacked the enemy with great spirit. Persuaded that defeat would irretrievably ruin the affairs of America, he advanced in the very front of danger, and exposed himself to the hottest fire of the enemy. He was

*The march of the enemy had been rendered much more expeditious than it could otherwise have been, by a fortunate change of weather. On the evening of the second, it became excessively cold, and the roads, which had become soft, were rendered as hard as pavement.

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also well supported by the same troops who had, a few days before, saved their country at Trenton; so that the British, in turn, were compelled to give way. Their line was broken, and the two regiments separated from each other. Colonel Mawhood, who commanded that in front, forced his way through a part of the American troops, and reached Maidenhead. The fifty-fifth regiment, which was in the rear, retreated, by the way of Hillsborough, to Brunswick. The vicinity of the British forces at Maidenhead secured Colonel Mawhood from being pursued, and General Washington pressed forward to Princeton. The regiment remaining in that place saved itself, without having sustained much loss, by a precipitate retreat to Brunswick.

In this action, upwards of one hundred of the enemy were killed on the spot, and nearly three hundred wereta ken prisoners. The loss of the Americans, in killed, was somewhat less, but in this number was included General Mercer, a very valuable officer, from Virginia, who had served with the Commander in Chief in the war against the French and Indians, which terminated in 1763, and was greatly esteemed by him. Colonels Haslett and Potter, two brave and excellent officers, from Delaware and Pennsylvania; Captain Neal, of the artillery; Captain Fleming, who on that day commanded the seventh Virginia regiment;

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and five other valuable officers; were also among the slain.

On the appearance of day light, Lord Cornwallis discovered that the American army had moved off in the night, and immediately conceived the whole plan which had been formed by Washington. He was under extreme apprehensions for Brunswick, where magazines of great value had been collected, and where, it has been understood, the military chest, containing about seventy thou sand pounds, was deposited. Breaking up his camp, he commenced a rapid march to that place, for the purpose of affording it protection; and was close in the rear of the American army, before it could leave Princeton.

General Washington now again found himself in a very perilous situation. His small army was exhausted with extreme fatigue. His troops had been without sleep, all of them one night, and some of them two. They were without blankets; many of them bare-footed, and otherwise very thinly clad. He was closely pursued by an enemy very much superior in point of numbers, well clothed, not harassed by loss of sleep, and who must necessarily come up with him before he could accomplish his designs on Brunswick, if any opposition should there be made to him. Under these circumstances, he very wisely determined to abandon the remaining part of his original plan; and, hayss 2

ing