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whole world of mankind, which was oftentimes suspended under some of the dark clouds that passed over the head of Washington, and the cause of his country, in some of the gloomy hours of the revolutionary war. But we are led, in the fear of God, to admire the military skill and superior genius of our beloved Washington, over the martial prowess and discipline of so many brave lords and generals of the British army. Thus, fellow citizens, we are led to behold with gratitude and admiration the prudence, martial skill, and military manœuvres of Washington, with his small army, who finally obliged Lord Cornwallis, after he had almost overrun the state of New Jersey, to return to the neighbourhood of New York, and take up his winter quarters at New Brunswick, in the state of New Jersey. We still admire the patience and military skill of the American commander after being beaten in several battles, and he and his little floek hunted like partridges on a mountain for several months by the British army under the command of Lord Cornwallis. But the capture of a thousand of the royal army at Trenton, and three hundred more on his way to Princeton, in a great measure revived the almost desponding spirits of the colonies. When Washington had accomplished these two objects, he retired to Morristown, in East Jersey, with his army, into winter quarters. But as the small pox was, at that time, more or less spreading through the state of New Jersey, Washington caused those of his troops who had never had the infection, to be inoculated. After the recovery of his little army from inoculation, he remained free for the rest of the winter of 1777, from any apprehension of being suddenly surprised by Lord Cornwallis; therefore, he remained in this strong-hold, lest it might otherwise impede his military operations in the ensuing campaign.

About the last of May, 1777, Washington removed his army from Morristown to a place in New Jersey called Middlebrook, about ten miles from where the British army had their winter quarters. At this place the American commander strongly fortified himself. About this time, Sir William Howe left New York with some thousands of troops in order to join Lord Cornwallis at New Brunswick, to proceed through the state of New Jersey to Philadelphia. But as the sapient British generals did not wish to leave Washington in their rear, they undertook by several military manoeuvres, while they were in the neighbourhood of the American commander's quarters, to draw him out of them. But all their skill in endeavouring to draw him from his strong position proved ineffectual. Washington had the militia from the lower part of the state of New Jersey, and some of the counties of Pennsylvania, near the city of Philadelphia, called out, in order to watch the manœuvres of the English commanders, when Captain Hewson, being in the vicinity of Philadelphia, with his company, was ordered out on duty; and after the British generals had failed in several attempts to draw Washington from his position, and did not succeed, they, with their troops, returned back to New York; and after the militia had been upon duty about two months, they were discharged. In the early part of this summer, Sir Henry Clinton, who had at this time the command of New York,

was re-enforced with a few thousand fresh troops from England, under the command of General Robertson. These Sir Henry Clinton joined with all the disposable troops he had in the city of New York; and he and General Robertson ascended the North River, in order to form a junction with General Burgoyne, who about this time was proceeding from Canada, with an army of about ten thousand British troops, and a few parties of Indians. The grand object of this enterprise was to separate the northern from the southern states. Sir Henry Clinton, in conjunction with Sir William Howe, fondly hoped, with the possession of Philadelphia the ensuing fall, to put a final end to the revolted colonies. But the Lord, in his overruling providence, is wiser than men; even the wisest of the British generals: therefore, this junction with Clinton and Burgoyne finally miscarried.

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The above plate represents the darkest era of the revolutionary war, in the fall of 1776; when the minds and hearts of many of the friends of the cause of national freedom began to fail them, and many were fearful that Washington was about betraying the cause of his country, by an onerous bribe of British gold. But his capture of a thousand of the British army at Trenton, New Jersey, was the turning point of the independence of one of the greatest republican nations the world has ever known.

Thus we may see, by askancely glancing the eye of the human mind over the history of the actions and schemes of men, how true it is, the Lord often taketh the wisest of men in their own craftiness. But to return to the warlike operation of Sir William Howe and the British. After his return to New York, he planned a second expedition with a fleet of transports, and men of war, to the number of about two hundred and fifty sail, and nearly twenty thousand troops, in order to get possession of the city of Philadelphia; and having his expedition in complete readiness, he embarked his armament of land and sea forces at Sandy Hook, about August, 1777. He then sailed for the Chesapeake Bay, and landed his army at the head of Elk River, in the state of Maryland. As soon as Washington re

ceived information of Howe's route, he was at once convinced that the occupation of Philadelphia was the main object of the British general's destination. Washington, therefore, put his army immediately in motion; in order, if possible, to save the city from falling into the enemy's hands. About the 11th of September, 1777, the two armies drew near each other, on the banks of the Brandywine, when a severe engagement took place, which lasted nearly the whole of the day. In this battle General La Fayette was wounded. The British succeeded in crossing the Brandywine, and the American army had to retreat, with the loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners, of more than a thousand men. The next day the van of the two armies drew near each other, near the Warren Tavern, on the Lancaster road, where they began skirmishing with each other: but an overruling Providence, which the clouds of heaven are always in willing readiness to obey, sent down from its portentous atmosphere a heavy rain, which rendered the ammunition of the British army wholly unfit for action: so that by a special dispensation of Providence, Washington and his retreating army were saved from an entire overthrow; for if Howe had pursued the Americans the next day, he might either have taken or dispersed nearly the whole of Washington's army. But instead of Sir William Howe exercising the martial judgment of a consummate British officer, "He, like Joab in the days of David, king of Israel, who fought against Rabbah, and took the royal city, even the city of waters," being over anxious to get Philadelphia in his possession, let the American army entirely escape out of his power. Sir William Howe, after this, had easy ingress to the city of Philadelphia, the capital of the state of Pennsylvania, in North America, with a part of his army, leaving the rest of his troops at a long village about six miles from Philadelphia, called Germantown. Howe having the entire possession of the city, immediately turned his attention to the getting his ships of war and transports up to the city; on board of which were his provisions, clothing, artillery, and other ordnance, and munitions of war, in order to fortify and secure himself and his army during the winter. By this time, about the 4th of October, 1777, Washington's army having been somewhat recruited, the American commander seized an apparent opportunity of attacking a division of the royal army which Sir William Howe had left at Germantown. But after a severe action, the Americans were repulsed, with the loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners, of more than a thousand men. This was another of the dark hours of poor Washington and his country's cause; and his mind was somewhat excited, in consequence of this repulse; as it turned out so contrary to his military calculations. The ultimate failure of this action, was not the want of warlike skill and martial judgment of the American commander-inchief; but might be principally attributed to the inexperience of his new troops, and the darkness of the night, accompanied with a heavy fog; so that many of the American soldiers mixed with those of the enemy. The British had possession of this long village full of large stone houses, which their troops occupied as small castles; out of the windows of which, they destroyed the American troops by hundreds.

But the God of nations was not yet done with Washington, nor the final freedom of mankind; although, like the bush which Moses saw enveloped in a flame of fire, but not consumed; even so the Lord preserved his servant Washington. But notwithstanding this defeat of the Americans at Germantown, the British general could not as yet get his shipping up to the city, on account of two forts on the Delaware that still remained in the possession of the Americans, by the names of Red Bank, and Mud Fort. General Howe having a number of his officers dining with him in the city, expressed a wish for the capture of those forts; one count Donop, a Hessian colonel, replied to Howe that if he would furnish him a body of six hundred Hessians, he would take the fort at Red Bank the next day. Howe was so well pleased with the colonel, that he observed there were fifteen hundred Hessian troops in the south part of the city; and he might have them all, if he thought he could capture the fort at Red Bank; count Donop was full of glee at the offer, and replied to Howe that it would only be a morning's repast for his Hessian troops; early the next morning, colonel Donop, at the head of his fifteen hundred men, crossed the Delaware from the city with his men, mostly smoking their pipes: and marched down on the Jersey side of the Delaware, about nine miles to the fort. Colonel Green, the American officer who had the command of the fort at Red Bank, let the Hessian colonel and his men get within the outer works of the fort, and reserved the fire of his cannon in an inner redoubt until the outer works were full of the enemy; and then opened his concealed artillery upon them, charged with grape shot: and in less than twenty minutes, mowed down about six hundred of the poor Hessians, that cost King George the Third about thirty guineas a head, also their colonel, count Donop, and several Hessian officers; the rest fled back to the city to inform Sir William Howe how unkindly the Jersey troops served them. About this time, a British sixty-four gun ship was blown up by a ball from one of the forts; but there still remained a small fort on Mud Island, called Fort Mifflin, about nine miles below the city of Philadelphia; which, if not taken from the Americans, neither Sir William Howe, nor Admiral Lord Howe his brother, could get a single ship up to the city; as this small fort was the most powerful obstruction on the Delaware, against all the British ships of In consequence of which the ship channel of the Delaware lay so very near the island, and there were two large piers strongly built in the middle of the ship channel opposite the fort; and a passage between the piers just sufficient to admit a single ship to pass through at a time; and the rest of the channel entirely closed up on both sides with piers, and large chains, booms, and sinking chevaux-defrise, so that any vessel of war attempting to pass through would be destroyed in a few minutes. Notwithstanding the apparent strength of Fort Mifflin, there was a shallow passage of water between the Island and the Pennsylvania shore, of nearly a quarter of a mile in breadth, and not more than eight or ten feet water in ordinary tides; so that the Americans never thought it expedient to fortify the back side of the island. But in consequence of the many obstructions

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placed in the main channel of the river, it caused a greater rush, or stronger current of the water to pass through the shallow channel of the river that lay back of the island, on which Fort Mifflin was erected. The rush of water through this shallow passage had worn it to a depth of from fourteen to sixteen feet. This being discovered by some of the old pilots of the Delaware, who were friendly to the king's cause, they acquainted the English admiral of the same; who immediately sent them to New York with secret orders to have one of the old seventy-four gun ships cut down to her lower gun deck, and made in every other respect to draw as little depth of water as possible: and bring her up the Delaware with all possible expedition; this was all executed with the utmost secrecy: so that the Americans never heard of it, till they saw the floating battery behind the fort early in the morning. About the 15th of November, 1777, after the works had been destroyed by the cut down seventy-four gun ship, Fort Mifflin was entirely abandoned. Soon after, the capture of the fort took place. All that now remained in the possession of the Americans on the banks of the Delaware, was Fort Mercer, or Red Bank, under the command of General Green, who did every thing in his power to defend the fort against a large body of British troops from New York, and landed a few miles below Red Bank, on the Jersey shore. But General Green not receiving the expected re-enforcements from the continental government, it was abandoned in pursuance of the advice and counsel of his officers. After the fall of the forts on the Delaware, all the vessels and galleys fell into the enemy's power, in the several conflicts of the Americans with the enemy, to prevent the British from obtaining the navigation of the Delaware: they sustained severe loss of men, shipping, and nearly all their galleys. The British, on the other hand, lost upwards of a thousand men, with two ships of the line; and after several weeks' hard fighting and labour, they finally succeeded in obtaining the command of the river, and getting their shipping up to the city. A few weeks after this, early in December, 1777, Howe sent several of his generals out of the city to a place called White Marsh, and made some military manœuvres to draw Washington into an engagement. But he did not venture to attack him in his position: although the American troops were in a most deplorable condition, being in want of shoes, stockings, blankets, and almost every other article of clothing. After viewing Washington in his position, the British officers returned to Sir William Howe in the city; where he and they found very snug quarters for the rest of the winter. After this, Washington moved his little army to a place of greater security, called Valley Forge, a position embracing almost every advantage, in obtaining provisions and forage for his army, in the surrounding country. In this place, Washington took up his winter quarters, about sixteen or seventeen miles from Howe and his army in the city of Philadelphia. Thus terminated the campaign of the winter of 1777 and 1778.

Here the humble amanuensis will take the liberty of placing a few serious thoughts before his fellow citizens: first, this was one of the most military master-pieces in the character of Sir William and Lord

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