Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 5.djvu/188

174 Whilst Washington manœuvred to prevent Howe crossing the Schuylkill above him, the English general crossed below on the 22nd of September, and thus placed himself betwixt Philadelphia and the American array. It was now necessary for Washington to fight, or give up that city; but the condition of his troops, deficient in clothes and shoes, owing to the poverty of the commissariat department, with wretched arms, and fatigued by their recent exertions, forbade all hope of maintaining even the defensive. He therefore fell back, and Cornwallis, on the 27th, advancing from Germantown, entered Philadelphia amid the welcomes of the loyal inhabitants. The Americans had vowed that they would not surrender the city without setting fire to it; but they contented themselves with the removal of the hospitals, the magazines, public stores, and much private property. The quakers, loyal to the extreme, were not to be compelled, by all the threats and coercion of congress, to support a war which, in their consciences, they did not approve. The leaders amongst them had been put into arrest on the approach of Howe, and twenty of them were sent close prisoners to Staunton, in Virginia, before Cornwallis's arrival; but the people at large still received the English cheerfully.

The congress retired to Lancaster, and next to York, beyond the Susquehanna, in their anger authorising Washington to seize, try by court-martial, and put to death, all persons within thirty miles of any town occupied by the British, who should pilot them by land or water, give them any intelligence, or furnish them with provisions, arms, forage, fuel, or stores of any kind. Before quitting Philadelphia, Washington ordered his youthful aide-de-camp, Hamilton, to demand a plentiful supply of blankets, shoes, and clothing for his army, which he rigorously enforced, being empowered with authority from congress to that effect. Amongst the multitudes who welcomed Howe to Philadelphia was Duché, the late chaplain of congress, who wrote to Washington, advising him to give up the ungodly cause. Cornwallis occupied the city with four regiments, but the body of the British army encamped at Germantown, ten miles distant.

But, though the Americans had evacuated the city, they still held the command of the Delaware below it, and thus cut off the supplies of the British army by sea, and all communication betwixt the army and the fleet, except by the circuitous course of Chester, liable to capture by the enemy.

Franklin, before leaving for England, had exerted his ingenuity to defend the mouth of the Delaware. He had had three rows of chevaux-de-frise, composed of immense beams of timber, bolted together, and bristled with strong iron spikes, sunk in the river a little below the confluence of the Schuylkill. The lowest of these obstructions was defended on the Jersey side at Billingsport by extensive but unfinished works, and the upper ones were defended by several floating batteries and armed vessels. On a low, flat island, called Mud Island, near the Pennsylvanian bank of the river, were thrown up other batteries. On the Jersey shore opposite lay a fort called Red Bank, and under its cover were fourteen row-galleys, each carrying one piece of ordnance, two floating batteries carrying nine guns each, several rafts with guns upon them, and a number of fire-ships.

Within a few days of taking Philadelphia, lord Howe