USA > New Jersey > The history of New Jersey, from its discovery by Europeans, to the adoption of the federal Constitution > Part 37
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XXV. Once more at the head of a force with which he might attempt something, the general-in-chief resolved not to remain inactive. Inferior as he was to the enemy, he yet determined to employ the winter in endeavour- ing to recover the whole, or the greater part of Jersey.
With this view, he ordered General Heath, at Peck's-kill, on the North river, to leave a small detachment of troops at that place, and, with the main body of the New England militia, to move into Jersey, and approach tlie British cantonments. General Maxwell was directed to collect the militia, to harass their flank and rear, and to attack their out-posts. Having made these dispositions, Washington again crossed the Delaware, with his conti- nental regiments, and took post at Trenton. Here he exerted all his influ- ence to prevail on the troops from New England, whose terms of service ex- pired on the last day of December, to continue during the present exigency, and, with infinite difficulty, and a bounty of ten dollars, many were induced- to re-engage for six weeks.
The British were now (January, 1777) collected in force at Princeton, under Lord Cornwallis, where some works were thrown up; and, as they advanced a strong corps towards Trenton, and knew that the troops from New England were entitled to be discharged, it was justly expected they would attack the American army.
Generals Mifflin and Cadwalader, who lay at Bordentown and Cross- wicks, with three thousand six hundred militia, on the night of the first of January, joined the commander-in-chief, whose whole effective force, with this. addition, did not exceed five thousand men.
Lord Cornwallis advanced the next morning. About four o'clock in the afternoon, after some slight skirmishing with a small party detached to Maidenhead to harass and delay his march, his van reached Trenton, while the rear was at Maidenhead, about half way between Princeton and Trenton. On his approach, General Washington retired across the Assunpink, a creek which runs through the town, behind which he drew up his army. The British attempted to cross at several places, but the fords being guarded, they halted and kindled their fires. The American troops kindled their fires likewise, and a cannonade was kept up on both sides until dark.
The situation of General Washington was, now, again extremely critical. If he maintained his present position, it was certain that he would be attack- ed, next morning, by a force, in all respects, superior to his own; and the result would, most probably, bo the destruction of his little army. If he at- tempted to retreat over the Delaware, now covered with ice, which, in con- sequence of a few mild and foggy days, was not firm enough to march upon, a considerable loss, perhaps a total defeat, would be sustained. In any event, the Jerseys would once more be entirely in possession of the enemy; the public mind would again be depressed, recruiting be discouraged by his ap- parent inferiority : and Philadelphia would a second time be in the grasp of General Howe. It was obvious, that the one event or the other would deduct greatly from the advantages promised by his late success; and, if it should not render the American cause, absolutely, desperate, would very essentially injure it.
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XXII .. In this state of things, he formed the bold and judicious design of abandoning the Delaware, and marching silently in the night by a circui- tuous route, along the left flank of the British army, into their rear at Prince- ton, where he knew they could not be very strong. After beating them there, he proposed to make a rapid movement to Brunswick, where their baggage and principal magazines lay, under a weak guard.
A council of war having approved this plan, preparations were inme. diately made for its execution. As soon as it was dark, the bagenge was removed silently to Burlington; and about one o'clock in the morning of the third, after renewing their fires, and leaving their guards at the bridge and other passes over the creek, the army decamped with perfect secrecy, taking the Quaker road to Princeton. Here, three British regiments had encamped the preceding night, two of which commenced their march early in the morn- ing to join the rear of their army at Maidenhead. About sunrise," when they had proceeded about two miles, they saw the Americans advancing on the left, in a direction which would enter the road in their rear. They inn- mediately faced about, and, repassing Stonybrook, moved under cover of a copse of woods towards the Americans, whose van was conducted by Gene- ral Mercer. A sharp action ensued, which, however, was not of long dura- tion. 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. While gallantly exerting himself to rally his broken troops, General Mercer was mortally wounded, 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 the battle, and exposed himself to the hottest fire of the enemy. He was so well supported by the same troops who, a few days before, had served at Trenton, 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, and who, being, therefore, on the right, was nearest the rear division of the army under Lord Cornwallis, ro- tired to the main road and continued his route to Maidenhead. The fifty- fifth regiment, which was on the British left, being hard pressed, fied, in con- fusion, across the fields and great road, into a back road leading between Hillsborough and Kingston towards Brunswick. f The vicinity of the British forces at Maidenhead, secured Colonel Mawhood from pursuit, and General Washington pressed forward to Princeton. The regiment remaining in that place took post in the college, and made some show of resistance; but the artillery being brought up, it was abandoned, and the greater part of them were made prisoners. . A few saved themselves by a precipitate retreat to Brunswick.
In this action, upwards of one hundred of the British were killed, and near three hundred were taken prisoners. The loss of the Americans in killed was somewhat less, but in this number was included General Mercer,
* " The march of the army 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 ren- dered as hard as pavement."
t " This account of the battle of Princeton varies, in some of its circumstances, especially in the manner of meeting the enemy, from that originally given. The papers in possession of the author do not state the relative situation of the armies when the action commenced. He is indebted for that information to a very intelli- gent friend, to whom he feels great obligation, which it gives him much gratification to acknowledge."-Murshall.
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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, brave and cacchein officers from Delaware and Pennsylvania; Captain Neal of the artillery, Captain Fleming, who on that day commanded the seventh Virginia regiment, and five other valuable officers, were also among the slain.
: On the appearance of daylight,* Lord Cornwallis discovered that the. American army had moved off in the night, and immediately conceived the plan of Washington. He was under extreme apprehension for Brunswick, where were magazines of great value, with the military chest containing about seventy thousand pounds. 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.
XXIII. General Washington was again 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 barefooted, and otherwise thinly clad; and he was eighteen miles from his point of destination. He was closely pursued by an enemy, much superior in point of numbers, well clothed and fresh, 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. He, therefore, wisely, determined to abandon the remaining part of his plan;t and breaking down the bridges over Millstone Creek, between Princeton and Brunswick, he took the road leading up the country to Pluckemin, where his troops were permitted to refresh themselves, and to take that rest which they so greatly required. Lord Cornwallis continued his march to Bruns- wick, which he reached in the course of that night. General Matthews, who commanded at that place, had been greatly alarmed; and while he took measures to defend himself, the utmost industry was used to remove the military stores to a place of greater safety.
The sufferings of the American army had been so great, from the seve- rity of the season, and the active service in which they had been engaged;
* " The time when this movement of the American army was discovered by Lord Cornwallis, is taken from the British accounts. In the United States it was under- stood that the firing towards Princeton gave him the first intimation of the skilful manœuvre of the preceding night. It was also generally said at the time, that in the preceding evening. when the British army reached Trenton, Sir William Erskine urged an immediate attack, but Lord Cornwallis was disposed to defer it until the next morning, as his troops were fatigued by their day's march from Princeton, and the Americans were so hemmed in by the Delaware, filled with ice, on one side, and Crosswick's Creek, which is navigable for sloops, in their rear, that a retreat was impossible, and he could make sure work in the morning. To this observation, Sir William is said to have rephed, " If Washington is the general I take him to be, his army will not be found on its present ground in the morning." The author has lately received this anecdote in a manner which induces him to think it worthy of more credit, than he had supposed it to be entitled to, while he received it merely as the report of the day."-MMarshall.
" It is also an additional proof of the secrecy with which this manoeuvre was exe- cuted, that some mulitia field officers who had retired into the rear, to get a good night's sleep, were, next morning, absolutely unable to say, what had become of the American army." -- Ibid.
t " A council was held on horseback, and some gentlemen advised that he should file off to the southward. On crossing the Millstone river at Kingston, the guides were directed to take the road leading to the northward. through Hillsborough, but before they reached Somerset court-house, many of the infantry, worn out with fa- tigue, fasting and want of rest, lay down and fell asleep by the way. But the object of Lord Cornwallis being to save Brunswick, he did not turn aside to molest the Ame- rican army."-Ibid.
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their complaints, especially on the part of the militia, were so loud, their numbers were reducing so fast, by returning home, and by sickness, that General Washington found it impracticable, further to prosecute offensive operations. It was, therefore, deemed absolutely necessary to retire to Mor- ristown, in order to put his men under cover, and to give them some repose.
The affairs of Trenton and Princeton were represented, and considered as great victories. They were believed, by the body of the people. to . vi- dence the superiority of their army, and of their general. The opinion that they were engaged in a hopeless contest, yielded to a confidence that proper exertions on their part, would be crowned with ultimate success.
This change of opinion relative to the issue of the war, was accompanied with an essential change in conduct; and although the regiments required by Congress were not completed, they were made much stronger than, before this happy revolution in the aspect of public affairs, was believed to have been possible.
XXIV. The firmness manifested by Congress throughout the gloomy and trying period which intervened between the loss of Fort Washington, and the battle of Princeton, gives the members of that period a just claim to the admiration of the world, and to the gratitude of their fellow citizens. (n- awed by the dangers which threatened them, and regardless of personal safety, they did not for an instant admit the idea, that the independence they had declared was to be surrendered, and peace to be purchased by return- ing to their ancient colonial situation. As the British army advanced through Jersey, and the consequent insecurity of Philadelphia rendered an adjourn- ment of Congress from that place to one further removed from the seat of war, a necessary measure of precaution, their exertions seemed to increase with their difficulties. They sought to remove the despondence which was seizing and paralyzing the public mind, by an address to the states, in which every argument was suggested which could rouse them to vigorous action. They made the most strenuous efforts to animate the militia, and impel them to the field, by the agency of those whose popular cloquence best fitted them for such a service.
. f
When reassembled at Baltimore, their resolutions exhibited no evidences of confusion or dismay; and the most judicious efforts were made, by- col- lecting, as soon as possible, a respectable military force, to repair the mis- chief produced by past errors.
Declaring, that in the present situation of things, the very existence of civil liberty depended on the right execution of military powers, to a vigorous direction of which, distant, numerous, and deliberative bodies were entirely unequal, they authorized General Washington to raise sixteen additional regiments, and conferred upon him, for six months, powers for the conduct of the war, which were almost unlimited.
XXV. And that no doubt might be entertained among foreign nations, and, particularly, in France, whose aid they were soliciting, Congress de- clared their determination, to listen to no ternis founded on their resumption of the character of British subjects: but trusting the event to Providence, and risking all consequences, they resolved to adhere to the independence they had deelared, and to the freedom of trade they had proposed to all nations. Copies of these resolutions were sent to the principal courts in Europe, and proper persons appointed to solicit their friendship to the new formed states. These despatches fell into the hands of the British, and by them were pub- lished; a circumstance, by no means, unacceptable to the Congress, who were persuaded, that an apprehension of an accommodation with Great
* Marshall.
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Britain, was a principal objection to the interference of foreign courts, in what was represented to be no more than a domestic quarrel. A resolution, -adopted in the worst fortune, that Congress would listen to no terms of re- union with the parent state, would, it was believed, convince those who wished for the dismemberment of the British empire, that it was sound policy to prevent the conquest of the United States.
XXVI. The favourable change in the affairs of the Americans, was in no -place so sensibly felt as in New Jersey, where the people suffered all the horrors which could flow from a licentious and almost unrestrained soldiery. When the royal army entered Jersey, the inhabitants, pretty generally, remained in their houses, and many thousands received printed protections, signed by order of the British commander-in-chief. This event, in the lan- guage of Governor Livingston, " enabled the patriots more effectually to distinguish their friends from their enemies. - It winnowed the chaff from the grain. It discriminated the temporizing politician, who, on the first appear- ance of danger, determined to secure his idol-property, at the hazard of the general weal, from the persevering patriot, who, having embarked his all in the common cause, chose rather, to risk, rather, to lose that all for the pre- servation of the more inestimable treasure Liberty, than to possess it upon the ignominious terms of tamely resigning his country and posterity to perpetual servitude." But it did more, "It opened the eyes of those who were made to believe that their impious merit in abetting the persecutors, would exempt them from being involved in the common calamity."* Neither the proclamation of the commissioners, nor protections, saved the people from plunder, or in- sult. Their property was taken and destroyed without distinction of persons. They exhibited their protections, but the Hessians could not read and would not understand them, and the British soldiers deemed it foul disgrace that the Hessians should be the only plunderers. Discontents and murmurs increased every hour with the ravages of both, which were almost sanctioned by ge- neral orders, f and which spared neither friend nor foe. Neither age nor sex protected from outrage. Infants, children, old men, and women, were left naked and exposed, without a blanket to cover them from the inclemency of winter. Furniture which could not be carried away, was wantonly destroyed; dwellings and out-houses burned, or rendered uninhabitable; churches, and other public buildings consumed; and the rape of women, and even very young girls filled the measure of woe. Such miseries are the usual fate of the conquered, nor were they inflicted with less reserve, that the patients were rebellious subjects. But even the worm will turn upon the oppressor. Had every citizen been secured in his rights, protected in his property, and paid for his supplies, the consequence might have been fatal to the cause of independence. What the varnest commendations of Congress, the zealous exertions of Governor Livingston, and the state authorities, and the ardent supplications of Washington could not effect, was produced by the rapine and devastations of the royal forces.
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The whole country becanw instantly hostile to the invaders. Sufferers of all parties rose as one man to revenge their personal injuries. Those who. from age and infirmities were incapable of military service, kept a strict watch upon the movements of the royal army, and from time to time, con-
* Livingston's Address to the Assembly, 28th February, 1777.
t The orders of General Howe to Count Donop, directed that "all salted and meal provisions, which may be judged to exceed the quantity necessary for the subsistence of an ordinary family, shall be considered a magazine of the enemy, and seized for the King, and given to the troops as a saving for the public." Under such an order, the pickling tubs, and garners of every Jersey farmer became lawful prize; the captor being judge of the necessary quantity for the family subsistence.
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municated information to their countrymen in arms. Those who lately de- «lined all opposition though called on by the sacred tie of honour, pledged to each other in the declaration of independence, cheerfully embodied, when they found submission to be unavailing for the security of their estates. This is not to be attributed wholly to the victories of Trenton and Princeton. In the very moment of these actions, or before the results were known, indi- viduals, ignorant of Washington's movements, concerted insurrections to re- venge their peculiar injuries. The contest had its source in the unrighteous claim of the British statesmen, to appropriate the property of the colonists against their consent. It was reanimated by a new and direct application of the principle by the British army. Men who could not apprehend the con- sequences of British taxation, nor of American independence, could feel the injuries inflicted by insolent, and cruel, and brutal soldiers. The militia of New Jersey, who had hitherto behaved shamefully, from this time forward, generally, acquired high reputation; and throughout a long and tedious war, conducted themselves with spirit and discipline scarce surpassed by the regu- lar troops .* In small parties they now scoured the country in every direc- tion, seized on stragglers, in several slight skirmishes behaved unexceptionably we !! , and collected in such numbers as to threaten the weaker British posts, with the fate which those at Trenton and Princeton had already experienced. In a few days, indeed, the Americans had overrun the Jerseys. The enciny was forced from Woodbridge; General Maxwell surprised Elizabethtown, and took near one hundred prisoners with a quantity of baggage; Newark was abandoned, and the royal troops were confined to New Brunswick and Amboy, judiciously selected for the double purpose of again penetrating the country, and of keeping up a safe communication with New York. Within four days after the affair at Princeton, between forty and fifty Waldeckers were killed, wounded, or taken, at Springfield, by an equal number of the same Jersey militia, which but a month before, had abandoned all opposition. This enterprise was conducted by Colonel Spencer, whose gallantry was re- warded with the command of a regiment. On the 20th of January, General Dickenson, with about four hundred militia, and fifty of the Pennsylvania riflemen, defeated near Somerset court-house, on the Millstone river, a forag- ing party of the enemy of about equal number, and took forty wagons, upwards of one hundred horses, and many cattle and sheep, which they had collected. They retreated so precipitately, that he made but nine prisoners, but many dead and wounded were carried off in light wagons. The general received much praise for his courage and conduct; for though his troops were raw, he led them through the river middle deep, and charged with so much impetuosity, that the enemy, notwithstanding he had three field pieces, gave way and left the convoy. About a month after this affair, Colonel Neilson of New Brunswick, with a detachment of one hundred and fifty militia, surprised and captured Major Stockton, (one of the numerous family of that name, who, from his treachery, was called "double Dick,") at the head of fifty-nine privates, refugees, in British pay.
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The three months which followed the battle of Trenton, passed away without any important military enterprise, other than we have described. Major-general Putnam took post at Princeton, in order to cover the country in the vicinity. He had only a few hundred troops, though he was no more than eighteen miles distant from the strong garrison of the British at Bruns- wick. At one period, he had fewer men for duty, than miles of frontier to card. The situation of General Washington at Morristown, was not more eligible. His force was inconsiderable, compared with that of the British;
* Ramsay.
2 G
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but the enemy and his own countrymen believed the contrary. Their de- ception was cherished and artfully continued by the specious parade of a numerous army. The officers, in positions difficult of access, by a constant communication with each other, secured themselves from insult and surprise.
XXVI. While the enemy was thus surrounded, and harassed by an al- most imaginary army, whose parts disappeared at the approach of any con- siderable force, but instantly presented themselves when that force retreated, General Washington came to the hazardous, but judicious, resolution, of de- livering himself and his future force from the dread of a calamity, which he could not elude, and which had been more fatal in his camp, than the sword of the enemy.
The small-pox, of all the agents of death, was the most painful and hideous. Inoculation had not yet in America, stripped it of its terrors; nor vaccina- tion rendered it impotent. In despite of the utmost vigilance, it had pene- trated to the northern and middle armies, and impaired the strength of both. In the northern, especially, its havoc had been so great, that the delay, re- quisite to obtain the command of Lake Champlain, alone, prevented the Bri- tish army from reaching the Hudson. To neutralize the virulence of the pest, inoculation was now resorted to. With all possible secrecy, prepara- tions were made to give the infection to the troops in camp, at Philadelphia, and other places; and thus an army was procured exempt from a calamity, the very fear of which endangered the most important operations.
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