traordinary hardships; but the Americans underwent the greatest. Many of these were without shoes, though marching over frozen ground; which so gashed their feet, that each step was marked with blood. They were miserably deficient in blankets, and almost wholly destitute of tents. Yet, in this situation, the American army, which, after the affair at Princeton, had retired to Morristown, were inoculated; and, as very few, either of the officers or privates, ever had the small-pox, the disorder was nearly universal. It had previously spread amongst them in the natural way, and proved mortal to many : but, after inoculation was introduced, the fatality was small; and the effect so gentle, that, from the beginning, there was not a single day in which they could not have exchanged the situation of invalid for that of soldier, and appeared in arms against the English.

The campaign of one year had not ended, until carried into the first month of the succeeding. For some time, however, there had existed a state of comparative inactivity. Since the battle of Princeton, the operations extended not beyond a few skirmishes; unimportant in themselves, yet productive of future benefit. At Springfield, a small party of Germans were beaten by an equal number, of Jersey militia, under colonel Spencer. Near Somerset court-house, general Dickinson, with four-hundred of the same description and fifty Pennsylvania riflemen, defeated a large foraging party, and got possession of their convoy. Colonel Barton, desirous of retaliating the capture of general Lee, embarked with forty militia, in whale-boats, surprised general Prescott at his quarters between Newport and Bristol ferry, in Rhode Island, and brought him to the main land. General Putnam was eminently useful, in guarding the army against surprise; and so much vigilance was every where displayed, that Sir William Howe was confined to limits so narrow, as would not, had a purchaser been found, have re-imbursed the expense of the attainment.

Hitherto, the Americans were deficient in arms and ammunition, as well as in men: but in the spring, they received from France twenty-thousand stand of arms and a thousand barrels of powder.

Before the royal army took the field, in prosecution of the main business of the campaign, two enterprises, for the destruction of American stores, were undertaken. At Peekskill, about fifty miles from New York, they captured or destroyed a considerable quantity of necessary articles; which had been collected there, notwithstanding the orders given by general Washington to the commissaries, not to allow a large accu

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mulation of provisions near the water. At Danbury, the Americans lost sixteen-hundred barrels of pork and flour, twothousand bushels of corn, and seventeen-hundred tents. On returning to their ships, the British were attacked, at Ridgefield, by a party hastily collected, under generals Wooster, Arnold, and Silliman, and suffered a loss, in killed and wounded, of two or three hundred men. The Americans had twenty killed; amongst whom, was the brave general Wooster who, though seventy years old, behaved with the vigour and spirit of youth. Not long after, colonel Meigs, one of the intrepid companions of Arnold in the expedition to Canada, led a detachment of one hundred-and-seventy men, in whaleboats, to Long Island; burned twelve British vessels, with a large quantity of forage in Sagg-Harbour, killed six soldiers, and brought off ninety prisoners, without losing a single man. As the season advanced, the American army in New Jersey was reinforced by the successive arrival of recruits; nevertheless, at the opening of the campaign, in the beginning of June, it amounted only to seven-thousand men.

General Washington, having left his winter quarters at Morristown, took a strong position at Middlebrook. Sir William Howe marched from Brunswick, and extended his van as far as Somerset court-house; but, in a few days, was constrained to resume his former station. He then endeavoured to provoke General Washington to engage; leaving no manœuvre untried to induce him to quit his post. At length, fully convinced of the impossibility of compelling a battle, on equal terms, and aware of the danger of crossing the Delaware whilst the Americans were in his rear, he proceeded to Amboy, and thence passed over to Staten Island; resolved to pursue the objects of the campaign by another route. His real designs were involved in obscurity. Washington was much embarrassed. The enemy seemed, at one time, moving to the south; at another, to the north. At last, their main body, amounting to sixteen-thousand men, departed from Sandy Hook, and were then reported to steer to the southward. A letter from Sir William Howe to general Burgoyne, then stationed in Canada, was intercepted, which mentioned that they were steering to New Hampshire. But the decep. tion was so superficially veiled, that, in conjunction with some particulars attending the embarkation, it removed the uncertainty from the mind of Washington, instead of misleading him to an opposite direction. Within an hour after receiving the letter, he gave orders for marching to the south. But he was yet so much impressed with a conviction that it was the true interest of Howe to form a junction with Burgoyne, that

he ordered his army to halt for some time at the Delaware; suspecting that the southern movement was a feint, intended to draw him further from the Hudson.

The British fleet was a week at sea, before it reached Cape Henlopen. Here, Sir William Howe, being informed that the passage of the Delaware was obstructed, gave up his original intention of reaching Philadelphia by ascending that river, and resolved on a circuitous route, by the Chesapeake. From Henlopen, he had a tedious passage. Though the distance, in a direct line, is only about forty leagues, twenty days elapsed before he entered the capes of Virginia. He proceeded up the bay with a favourable wind, and landed his troops at Turkey Point. The American army was immediately put in motion to oppose them. Its number, on paper, amounted to fourteen thousand: but its effective force, on which dependence might be placed in the day of battle, did not much exceed eight thousand men; many of whom were without shoes. Its several divisions were commanded principally by Greene, Maxwell, and Stephens, Stirling, Sullivan, and Wayne. The enemy advanced with boldness, until within two miles of the Americans; who were then posted near Newport. Washington soon changed his position, and halted on the high ground near Chadd's ford, on Brandywine creek; with an intention of disputing the passage. It was the wish, but by no means the interest, of the Americans, to try their strength in an engagement. Their regular troops were inferior, not only in discipline, but, in numbers, to the royal army. Popular opinion, however, imposed a degree of necessity on the general, to keep his troops in front of the enemy, and risk an action for the security of Philadelphia; though, had he taken the ridge of mountains on his right, the British, ignorant of his army's weakness, must have respected his numbers, and would probably have followed him into the country. By this policy, the campaign might have been prolonged; whilst the Americans would have been strengthened, and the invaders wasted, by delay. For once, however, Washington relinquished his usual policy, and hazarded a disadvantageous action.

At day-break, on the 11th of September, the royal army moved forward in two columns, commanded by Kniphausenand Cornwallis. The first kept the direct road to Chadd's ford, and made a show of passing it, in front of the main body of the Americans: the other column came up on the west side of the Brandywine, to its fork; crossing both its branches, and then marching down on its east bank, with the view of turning their adversaries' right wing. This, they accomplished after a series of endeavours throughout the entire

day, the Americans were broken, and every exertion to ral ly them was ineffectual. The retreat soon became general, and was continued to Chester; with the loss of twelve-hundred men killed and wounded.

Two distinguished foreigners served under the American banners at the Brandywine; the Marquis De La Fayette and count Pulaski; the one, a native of France, the other, of Poland. Animated by the love of liberty, La Fayette, a nobleman of high rank, had left the country of his birth, and offered his service to congress. While in France, and only nineteen years of age, he espoused the cause of the Americans, with the most disinterested and generous ardour; and, having determined to join them, communicated his intentions to their commissioners at Paris. His offer was gratefully received. They justly considered, that a patron of so much importance would be of the utmost service to their cause. Before he embarked, intelligence arrived in Europe, that the American patriots, reduced to two-thousand men, were flying before a British force of thirty-thousand; under which circumstances, the commissioners thought it their duty to dissuade him from the present prosecution of his dangerous enterprise. But their candour was expressed in vain. His zeal to serve a struggling country, was heightened, not abated, by her misfortunes. His personal risk was not the only one which might have deterred him. He hazarded his large fortune, by the laws of France; and also imprisonment, in case of capture when on his way to the United States: for, his sovereign having forbidden his proceeding, despatched orders to the West Indies to have him, if found in that quarter, confined. He was appointed a major-general in the American army; an honour, of which he showed himself in the highest manner deserving. Though wounded in the late battle, he continued in the field; exerting himself, not only by his voice, but his example, to rally the broken troops. Pulaski was a thunderbolt of war." It was he, who, a few years before, carried off king Stanislaus from his capital, though the monarch was surrounded by a numerous body of guards, and by a Russian army.

The situation of his troops precluded Washington from long impeding the enemy's advance. After a few days, he was compelled to leave them in undisturbed possession of the roads leading to Philadelphia. His troops were worn down by a succession of severe, duties; a thousand of his men were barefooted; and, to increase his misfortunes, a number of Wayne's regiment, encamped near the Paoli tavern, were attacked in the night by general Grey, and put to death.

It was no longer safe for congress to remain in Philadelphia. This august assembly, which, after a short residence at Baltimore, had returned, were obliged, a second time to consult the public interest, by flight. They retired, first to Lancaster, and afterwards to York.

Sir William Howe, having left the greater part of his army in Germantown, a village about six miles northward of the capital, entered Philadelphia on the 26th of September; where he was received by many with a real or apparent wel

come.

The possession of the largest city in the United States, together with the dispersion of that grand council which had hitherto conducted their affairs, was viewed by the short-sighted as decisive of their fate. But, in the present contest for Sovereignty, the result was not in the power of a single ruler, or a body of rulers, nor was it to be determined by the possession, or the loss, of any particular place: it was the public mind, the sentiments and opinions of the people, that were to decide. Indeed, it was conceived by the more discerning politicians, that the luxuries of a great city would so far enervate the British troops, as to indispose them, like the conquerors of Cannæ, for those active exertions, to which they were compelled, whilst inconveniently encamped in the open country. This speculation was inculcated in France by Dr. Franklin, with his characteristic humour. To remove the impression which the British progress might have made in that country, and place a modern Capua in view, he observed, that, "Instead of saying Sir William Howe had taken Philadelphia, it would be more proper to say that Philadelphia had taken Sir William Howe."

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One of the first objects of the English, after they had obtained possession of the city, was to erect batteries for the purpose of commanding the river and protecting the town from insult by water. On the other hand, the British shipping were prevented from ascending the Delaware, by obstructions sunk at Mud Island; on which had been erected a battery, and a fort, called in honour of general Mifflin. Opposite to this, on the Jersey shore, there is a height called Red-bank; where, also, a battery was erected: and between the two fortresses, which were about half a mile distant from each other, the American naval armament for the protection of the Delaware made its harbour of retreat.

The flattering anticipations, cherished by the continental patriots, that effeminacy would forfeit the acquirements of the sword, were not sufficiently powerful to check the accustomed vigour of the field. Such refinements enter not amongst