CHAP. XXIV. BATTLE OF TRENTON. 905 masses of thickening ice, for the weather was very cold. With him were Generals Sterling, Sullivan, Greene, Mercer, Stephen, and Knox, the latter (commissioned brigadier-general two days afterward) in command of artillerists, and about twenty pieces of cannon. Arrangements had been made for simultaneous movements against other British cantonments, especially one from Bristol, with about ten thousand men, which Gates was directed to lead. With wilful disobedience, in imitation of Lee, Gates refused the duty, turned his back on Washington on Christmas eve, and rode on toward Baltimore to intrigue in Congress for Schuyler's place in the Northern Department. The perilous voyage across the Delaware amid the floating ice was begun early in the evening, and it was four o'clock in the morning before the troops stood in marching order, with all their cannon, on the New Jersey shore. The current was swift, the ice was thickly strewn in it, and the night was dark, for toward midnight a storm of snow and sleet set in. The army moved in two columns-one led by Sullivan along the road nearest the river, and the other commanded by Washington, accompanied by Generals Stirling, Greene, Mercer, and Stephen. It was broad daylight when they approached Trenton, but they were undiscovered until they reached the picket lines on the outskirts of the village. The firing that followed awakened Rall and his troops, who were hardly recovered from their night's debauch. The colonel was soon at the head of his men in battle order, but reeled like a man half asleep. A sharp conflict ensued, lasting only thirty-five minutes, when the Hessians were defeated and dispersed, and Colonel Rall was mortally wounded. The main body of his troops attempted to escape by the Princeton road, when they were intercepted by Colonel Hand. The affrighted Germans threw down their arms and begged for mercy. Some British lighthorse and infantry at Trenton escaped to Bordentown. The victory for the Americans was complete. It would have been more decisive had the co-operating parties been able to perform their duties. They could not; and Washington won all the glory of the victory which greatly inspirited the patriots. In the engagements the Americans did not lose a single man, and had only two-William Washington (afterward distinguished in the South) and James Monroe (afterward President of the United States) who were slightly wounded. The spoils of victory were almost a thousand prisoners, twelve hundred small arms, six brass fieldpieces, and all the German standards. The triumphant army re-crossed the Delaware at McConkey's Ferry, and before midnight of the day of victory were back to their encampment. This bold stroke of the American general puzzled and amazed the British leaders, alarmed the Tories, and dissipated the terror which had been felt in the presence of the Hessians, as invincible troops. The faltering militia soon flocked to the standard of Washington, and many of the soldiers, who were about to leave the American camp, re-enlisted. Cornwallis was sent back to New Brunswick, where General Grant was in command of the main British army in New Jersey, and the other cantonments in that province were broken up and the troops concentrated toward Trenton. Grant moved forward to Princeton, and Washington, who had resolved to attempt to drive the British out of New Jersey, boldly recrossed the river to the eastern side, and took post with his army at Trenton, on the 30th of December, 1776. The Congress, sitting at Baltimore, had invested him with powers almost equal to those of a Roman Dictator, for six months, authorizing him to reorganize his army; appoint all officers below brigadier-general; to make requisitions for subsistence and enforce them with arms, and to arrest the disaffected. Intending to remain on the eastern side of the Delaware, he announced to the Congress, while his army was crossing that stream, his intention, "to pursue the enemy and try to beat up their quarters ;" and he directed McDougall and Maxwell to collect troops at Morristown, as a place of refuge in case he should need one. The low condition of the military chest would not allow Washington to pay the bounties agreed to be given, at the appointed time, and the com CHAP. XXIV. HOW BOUNTY-MONEY WAS FURNISHED. 907 mander-in-chief wrote to Robert Morris, the great financier of the Revolutionary period, for an immediate supply of hard money. The Congress had just resolved to issue bills to the amount of five million dollars immediately, but the credit of that body was then very low, even John Dickenson refusing to take the Continental money. The credit of Robert Morris was high, and confidence in him was unbounded. The sum asked for was large, and the financier was perplexed with doubts of his ability to obtain it. In a despondent mood he left his counting-room at a late hour, musing, as he walked in the street, on the subject of the requisition, when he met a wealthy member of the Society of Friends, who, at that time, were generally of the Tory faith in politics. To this Friend, Morris made known his wants. "Robert, what security canst thou give?" asked the Quaker. "My note and my honor," Morris replied. "Thou shalt have it," the Friend answered, and the next day Morris wrote to Washington: "I was up early this morning to dispatch a supply of fifty thousand dollars to your Excellency." Washington, in acknowledging its receipt, wrote that he had engaged a number of the eastern troops to stay six weeks beyond their term of enlistment, upon giving a bounty of ten dollars. "This, I know," wrote Washington, "is a most extravagant price when compared with the time of service;" but he thought it "no time to stand upon trifles." The main army of Americans, about five thousand strong, were encamped on the south side of the Assanpink Creek at Trenton, when, toward evening on the 2d of January (1777), Cornwallis approached from Princeton with a superior force of British regulars. They had engaged in a series of skirmishes on the way, and followed the Americans, who had attacked them, to the margin of the Assanpink. After trying to pass the guarded fords of that stream, they halted and lighted fires; and Cornwallis rested that night with the full assurance that he would make an easy conquest of the republican army the next day. "I will catch the fox in the morning," said the Earl to Sir William Erskine, who urged him to make an attack that night. Washington's army were now in a very critical situation. A council of war was held, when it was decided to withdraw stealthily, at midnight, take a circuitous route to Princeton, gain the rear of the British and beat up their quarters there, and then fall upon their stores at New Brunswick. But the ground, on account of a thaw, was too soft to allow an easy transit for their forty pieces of cannon. This gave Washington much anxiety. While the council was in session, the wind turned to the northwest, the temperature suddenly fell, and by midnight the ground was frozen as hard as a pavement. Along the front of the American camp, fires had been lighted, and the British supposed the republicans were slumbering. Great was their surprise, mortification and alarm, when, at dawn, they discovered that the American camp-fires were still burning but the army had departed, none knew whither. All was silent and dreary on the south side of the Assanpink, when suddenly there came upon the keen wintry air, from the direction of Princeton, the low booming of cannon. Although it was a cold winter's morning, Cornwallis thought the sound was the rumbling of distant thunder. The quicker ear of Erskine decided that it was the noise of artillery, and exclaimed: "To arms, general! Washington has outgeneralled us. Let us fly to the rescue at Princeton!" The American army, after sending their baggage to Burlington, had marched from Trenton at one o'clock in the morning of the 3d, leaving patrols to make their accustomed rounds and men to keep the camp-fires blazing until near the dawn, when they hurried after the retreating army. By a circuitous march the troops reached the neighborhood of Princeton before sunrise. Crossing Stony Brook, the main army wheeled to the right to take a back road to Princeton, while General Mercer, with about three hundred and fifty men, was sent to break down another bridge that spanned the stream. Two regiments of Colonel Mawhood's brigade had just started CHAP. XXIV. BATTLE OF PRINCETON. 909 to join Cornwallis at Trenton, and the one in advance, led by the colonel in person, accompanied by three companies of dragoons, first discovered Mercer. The two parties, whose numbers were about equal, tried to gain a vantage ground upon an eminence near. Each had two field-pieces; and a sharp engagement was begun by Mawhood by attacking Mercer with his cannon. The firing was returned with spirit by Captain Neal with his two pieces, while Mercer's riflemen sent deadly volleys from behind a hedge fence. They were soon furiously attacked with British bayonets, and fled in disorder, the enemy pursuing, until, on the brow of a hill, they discovered the American regulars and Pennsylvania militia, under Washington, marching to the support of Mercer. In trying to rally the troops, Colonel Haslet of Delaware, and Captains Neal and Fleming, were killed, and General Mercer, whose horse had been disabled under him, was knocked down by a British clubbed musket, mortally wounded and left for dead. Just at that moment Washington appeared, checked the flight of the fugitives, and intercepted the march of the other British regiment. He was assisted by the fire of Moulder's artillery placed in battery. When Mawhood saw Washington riding from column to column and bringing order out of confusion, he halted, and, drawing up his artillery, charged and attempted in vain to seize Moulder's guns. The Pennsylvania militia, who were first in line, began to waver at this onset, when Washington, to encourage them and set an example for all his troops, rode to the forefront of danger. For a moment he was hidden by the smoke of the musketry on both sides, and a shiver of dread lest he was slain, ran through the army; when he appeared, unhurt, a shout of joy rent the air. At that moment Colonel Hitchcock came up with a fresh force, and Hand's riflemen were turning the British left, when Mawhood ordered a retreat. His troops (the Seventieth regiment) fled across the snow-covered fields and over the fences, up Stony Brook, leaving two brass field-pieces behind them. The Fifty-fifth regiment, which had attempted to reinforce them, were pressed back by the New England troops under Stark, Poor, Patterson, Reed and others, and were joined in their flight toward New Brunswick by the Fortieth, who had not taken much part in the action. A portion of a British regiment remained in the strong, stone-built Nassau Hall of the College at Princeton, which had been used for barracks. Washington brought cannon to bear upon the building, and the troops within soon surrendered. One of the cannon-balls entered a window and passed through the head of a portrait of George the Second in a frame that hung on the wall of the Prayer-room. A full-length portrait of Washington by Peale, now occupies that frame. In this short but sharp battle, the British loss in killed, wounded and |