gage on board the packet for England. The brothers gave the secretary of state under their joint hands an assurance of the conquest of all New Jersey; and every one in New York was looking out for festivals on the investiture of Sir William. Howe as knight of the Bath. His flatterers wrote home that, unless there should be more tardiness in noticing his merit, the king would very soon use up all the honors of the peerage in rewarding his victories.

The day arrived for the concerted attack on the British posts along the Delaware; and complete success could come only from the exact co-operation of every part. Gates wilfully turned his back on danger, duty, and honor. He disapproved of Washington's station above Trenton: the British would secretly construct boats, pass the Delaware in his rear, and take Philadelphia; Washington ought to retire to the south of the Susquehannah. Eager to intrigue with congress at Baltimore for the chief command in the northern district, Gates, with Wilkinson, rode away from Bristol. Griffin, flying before Donop, had abandoned New Jersey; Putnam would not think of conducting an expedition across the river.

At nightfall General John Cadwalader, who was left in sole command at Bristol, marched to Dunk's ferry; it was the time of the full moon, but the clouds were thick and dark. For about an hour that remained of the ebb-tide the river was passable in boats, and Reed, who just then arrived from a visit to Philadelphia, was able to get over with his horse; but the tide, beginning to rise, threw back the ice in such heaps on the Jersey shore that, though men on foot still could cross, neither horses nor artillery could reach the land. Sending word that it was impossible to carry out their share in Washington's plan, and leaving the party who had crossed the river to return as they could, Reed sought shelter within the enemy's lines at Burlington. Meanwhile, during one of the worst nights of December, the men waited with arms in their hands for the floating ice to open a passage; and, only after the vain sufferings of many hours, returned to their camp. Cadwalader and the best men about him were confident that Washington, like themselves, must have given up the expedition. Ewing did not even make an effort to cross at Trenton;

and Moylan, who set off on horseback to overtake Washington and share the honors of the day, became persuaded that no attempt could be made in such a storm, and stopped on the road for shelter.

Superior impulses acted upon Washington and his devoted soldiers. From his wasted troops he could muster but twentyfour hundred men strong enough to be his companions; but they were veterans and patriots, chiefly of New England, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Among his general officers were Greene and Mercer and Stirling and Sullivan; of field-officers and others, Stark of New Hampshire, Hand of Pennsylvania, Glover and Knox of Massachusetts, Webb of Connecticut, Scott and William Washington and James Monroe of Virginia, and Alexander Hamilton of New York. At three in the afternoon they began their march, each man carrying three days' provisions and forty rounds; and with eighteen fieldpieces they reached Mackonkey's ferry just as twilight began. The swift and full current was hurling along masses of ice. At the water's edge the mariners of Marblehead stepped forward to man the boats. Just then a letter came from Reed, announcing that no help was to be expected from Putnam or the troops at Bristol; and Washington, at six o'clock, wrote this note to Cadwalader: "Notwithstanding the discouraging accounts I have received from Colonel Reed of what might be expected from the operations below, I am determined, as the night is favorable, to cross the river and make the attack on Trenton in the morning. If you can do nothing real, at least create as great a diversion as possible." Hardly had these words been sent when Wilkinson joined the troops "whose route he had easily traced by the blood on the snow from the feet of the men who wore broken shoes." He delivered a letter from General Gates. "From General Gates!" said Washington; "where is he?" "On his way to congress," replied Wilkinson. Washington had only given him a reluctant consent to go as far as Philadelphia.

At that hour an American patrol of twenty or thirty men, led by Captain Anderson to reconnoitre Trenton, made a sudden attack upon the post of a Hessian subaltern, and wounded five or six men. The alarm was sounded, the Hessian brigade

put under arms, and a part of Rall's regiment sent in pursuit. On their return, they reported that they could discover nothing; the attack, like those which had been made repeatedly before, was held to be of no importance. The post was strengthened; additional patrols were sent out; but every apprehension was put to rest; and Rall, till late into the night, sat by his warm fire, in his usual revels, while Washington was crossing the Delaware.

"The night," writes Thomas Rodney, "was as severe a night as ever I saw;" the frost was sharp, the current difficult to stem, the ice increasing, the wind high, and at eleven it began to snow. It was three in the morning of the twentysixth before the troops and cannon were all over; and another hour passed before they could be formed on the Jersey side. A violent north-east storm of wind and sleet and hail set in as wind they began their nine miles' march to Trenton, against an enemy in the best condition to fight. The weather was terri ble for men clad as the Americans were, and the ground slipped under their feet. For a mile and a half they had to climb a steep hill, from which they descended to the road that ran for about three miles between hills and through forests of hickory, ash, and black oak. At Birmingham the force was divided; Sullivan continued near the river, and Washington passed up into the Pennington road. While Sullivan, who had the shortest route, halted to give time for the others to arrive, he reported to Washington by one of his aids that the arms of his party were wet. "Then tell your general," answered Washington, "to use the bayonet, and penetrate into the town." The return of the aide-de-camp was watched by the soldiers; and hardly had he spoken when those who had bayonets fixed them without waiting for a command.

It was now broad day. The slumber of the Hessians had been undisturbed; their patrols reported that all was quiet; and the night-watch of yagers had turned in, leaving the sentries at their seven advanced posts, to keep up the communication between their right and left wings. The storm beat violently in the faces of the Americans; the men were stiff with cold and a continuous march of fifteen miles; but now that they were near the enemy, they thought of nothing but

VOL. V.-7

victory. Washington's party began the battle with an attack on the outermost picket on the Pennington road; the men with Stark, who led the van of Sullivan's party, gave three cheers, and with the bayonet rushed upon the enemy's picket near the river. A company came out of the barracks to protect the patrol; but, astonished at the fury of the charge, they all, including the yagers, fled in confusion, escaping across the Assanpink, followed by the dragoons and the party which was posted near the river bank. Washington entered the town by King and Queen streets, now named after Warren and Greene; Sullivan moved by the river-road into Second street, cutting off the way to the Assanpink bridge; and both divisions pushed forward with such equal ardor as never to suffer the Hessians to form completely. The two cannon which stood in front of Rall's quarters were from the first separated from the regiment to which they belonged. The Americans were coming into line of battle, when Rall made his appearance, received a report, rode up in front of his regiment, and cried out: "Forward, march; advance, advance," reeling in the saddle like one not yet recovered from a night's debauch. Before his own regiment could form in the street a party pushed on rapidly and dismounted its two cannon, with no injury but slight wounds to Captains William Washington and James Monroe. Under Washington's own direction, Forest's American battery of six guns was opened upon two regiments at a distance of less than three hundred yards. His position was near the front, a little to the right, a conspicuous mark for musketry; but he remained unhurt, though his horse was wounded under him. The moment for breaking through the Americans was lost by Rall, who drew back the Lossberg regiment and his own, but without artillery, into an orchard east of the town, as if intending to reach the road to Princeton by turning Washington's left. To check this movement, Hand's regiment was thrown in his front. By a quick resolve the passage might still have been forced; but the Hessians had been plundering ever since they landed in the country; and, loath to leave behind the wealth which they had amassed, they urged Rall to recover the town. In the attempt to do so, his force was driven by the impetuous charge of the Americans

farther back than before; he was himself struck by a musketball; and the two regiments were mixed confusedly and almost surrounded. Riding up to Washington, Baylor could now report: "Sir, the Hessians have surrendered." The Knyphausen regiment, which had been ordered to cover the flank, strove to reach the Assanpink bridge through the fields on the southeast of the town; but, losing time in extricating their two cannon from the morass, they found the bridge guarded on each side; and, after a vain attempt to ford the rivulet, they surrendered to Lord Stirling on condition of retaining their swords and their private baggage. The action, in which the Americans lost not one man, lasted thirty-five minutes. One hundred and sixty-two of the Hessians who at sunrise were in Trenton escaped, about fifty to Princeton, the rest to Bordentown; one hundred and thirty were absent on command; seventeen were killed. All the rest of Rall's command, nine hundred and forty-six in number, were taken prisoners, of whom seventy-eight were wounded. The Americans gained twelve hundred small-arms, six brass field-pieces, of which two were twelve-pounders, and all the standards of the brigade.

Congress by its committee lavished praise upon the commander-in-chief. "You pay me compliments," answered Washington, "as if the merit of that affair was due solely to me; but, I assure you, the other general officers, who assisted me in the plan and execution, have full as good a right to your en comiums as myself." The most useful of them all was Greene.

Until that hour the life of the United States flickered like a dying flame. "But the Lord of hosts heard the cries of the distressed, and sent an angel for their deliverance," wrote the præses of the Pennsylvania Lutherans. "All our hopes," said Lord George Germain, "were blasted by the unhappy affair at Trenton." That victory turned the shadow of death into the morning.