СНАР. LV. 1777. In this divided state of the British army, a plan was formed by Washington to fall upon it unawares, and by a sudden blow recover Philadelphia. Marching all night in several columns, his troops appeared before Germantown at sunrise of the 4th of October. On they came, charging with their bayonets fixed. The British, taken by surprise, were thrown into great disorder, which the Americans hoped to improve to a complete victory. But as it chanced, the fog was so thick-and it grew thicker from the firing—as to cause confusion and uncertainty among themselves. Several of their regiments mistook one another for British; they were seized with panic and fled with precipitation, leaving their opponents masters of the field, and victors of the day. Besides, on such occasions, it was natural that raw levies should suffer other little accidents from which more regular troops are free. Thus, we are told of one American Colonel in this battle that, as he was riding one way and looking another, his horse ran away with him and carried him under a cyder press, where he was so much squeezed and hurt as to unfit him for further service.* In this battle of Germantown, the King's troops had about five hundred dead or disabled. Of the other side, Washington states, "Our loss in the "late action was, in killed, wounded, and missing, Letter from Colonel John Howard, in the Appendix to Washington's Writings, vol. v. p. 469. "about one thousand men; but of the missing, CHA P. many, I dare say, took advantage of the times, "and deserted. . . . In a word, it was a bloody day. Would to Heaven I could add that it had "been a more fortunate one for us.' ""* Yet defeat though it was, this battle brought no discredit, but the contrary, to the American troops, and the American Commander. It showed that neither their spirit, nor their strength, had been broken by the reverses they had sustained. It displayed them not merely willing to stand firm merely behind entrenchments or stone walls, but prompt and eager in the open field, engaging of their own accord, not as at Trenton, and at Princeton, against scattered divisions, but against the main body of their adversaries. It proved them to want only that discipline and self-confidence which longer warfare was certain to produce. When, a few months afterwards, the American Commissioners, at Paris, were discussing a Treaty of Alliance with the Count de Vergennes: "Your troops," said the latter," have behaved well on several occa 66 sions; but nothing has struck me so much as "that General Washington should have attacked, "and given battle to General Howe; to bring an "army raised within a year to this, promises every thing." + After the battle of Germantown, Washington * Letter to John Augustine Washington, October 18. 1777. † Life of Washington by Sparks, p. 259. LV. 1777. LV. 1777. CHAP. retired with his army to Whitemarsh, a strong position, fourteen miles from Philadelphia. The two Howes, Admiral and General, were thus left free to pursue their designs against the Delaware Forts. The first attack, on Redbank, by the Hessians, was unsuccessful, one or two hundred of the assailants having fallen, and their commander, Count Donop, being taken prisoner.* He was mortally wounded, and expired in the Fort a few days afterwards, carefully tended by another gallant European in the opposite ranks, Duplessis de Mauduit, a French officer of Engineers. The last words of Donop to De Mauduit might well sink deep into the minds of the petty Princes of Hesse, those sellers of their subjects' blood. " My career "ends early," said the German; "I shall die the "victim to my own ambition, and to the avarice of my Sovereign!" 66 In the attack of the Delaware defences the British fleet did not at first thrive any better than the British army. Two large ships, the Augusta and the Merlin, ran aground; next morning, the former took fire, and blew up with some of her crew; and all attempts to float the latter failing, The precise loss of the Hessians in this attack, as reported by the American officer at Redbank, to General Washington, was of eight officers and near seventy privates killed, and of four officers and above seventy privates wounded and prisoners. (Oct. 23. 1777.) But Washington, on repeating this intelligence two days afterwards, magnifies the total to 400. (Writings, vol. v. pp. 112. 115.) Another instance of the rule of doubling, as laid down explicitly in his letter to Putnam. LV. she was abandoned, and burned also. Several CHA P. weeks, the last and best of the campaign, were employed in further preparations. At last the position of the Americans in Fort Mifflin being turned, and a heavy fire being opened upon it, they were compelled to retire; and on the approach of Earl Cornwallis, they likewise relinquished Redbank. The works and entrenchments were in great part dismantled; the chevaux-defrise were with much difficulty weighed; and thus, all these toils accomplished, the Delaware was opened between Philadelphia and the sea. It so chanced, that some years afterwards, after the fortune of the war had wholly changed, several French officers, among whom was La Fayette, came to visit the scene of these achievements. The narrative of their excursion, which one of the party gives us, is remarkable as showing incidentally, and as it were unconsciously, the ill-treatment of the loyalists by the ruling powers; the spoliation of their property, (sometimes requisite, but never requited,) having grown so common and habitual that the spoilers expected nevertheless to be warmly welcomed! "As we landed at Redbank," writes the Frenchman, "our friend, De Mauduit, "who led the way, proposed to us to stop at the "house of a Quaker, only half a musket-shot from "the ruins of the Fort. 'That man,' said De "Mauduit to us, is something of a Tory; I felt "it my duty to demolish his barn, and to cut "down his fruit-trees, but he will be glad, I am 1777. CHAP. "sure, to see M. de La Fayette, and will give us LV. 1777. 66 6 66 a good reception.' We took him at his word, "but never were expectations more deceived. "We found our Quaker seated at his fire-side, and busy in dressing some herbs. He recognised "M. de Mauduit, who named to him both La Fayette and myself, but he would not condescend 66 to lift up his eyes, nor to answer any of the dis 66 "course of our introducer, a discourse which began with compliments, and ended with scoffing." 66 Early in December, on the reduction of the Delaware defences, Howe mustered his whole army, and sallied forth towards Whitemarsh, to give battle to Washington. The American General was determined not to be drawn from his strong position, though ready to maintain it, if attacked. There were some slight skirmishes, in which, according to the American accounts, "the 66 Maryland Militia behaved well, but the Penn"sylvania Militia greatly disgraced their country, "running away at the first fire from half their "number." There were also some skilful manœuvres on the part of the British General, but these failing to bring down the enemy into the plains, Howe returned to take up his winter quarters at Philadelphia. Winter quarters, by this * Voyages du Marquis de Chastellux, vol. i. p. 216. ed. 1786. † Elias Boudinot to President Wharton, December 9. 1777, as printed in Reed's Memoirs. |