Page:Harris Dickson--The unpopular history of the United States.djvu/56

 Washington retired from White Plains because he had no dependable troops. The British on their return to New York incidentally captured Fort Washington with 2,000 American prisoners. General Washington was compelled to cross the Delaware with 5,000 troops because his militiamen were disbanding, and he was powerless to make even a show of resistance.

Yet on the 26th of December, by a brilliant surprise of the Hessians at Trenton, Washington with a force of 2,400, captured 900 prisoners without losing a man.

His victory at Princeton ended the campaign with a loss to the British of 400 killed, wounded, and prisoners.

My son, folks brag mightily on their Uncle Samuel for a sharp horse trader and tightfisted Yankee. Maybe so, maybe so, but it appears to me that in managing my army I have been saving at the spigot and losing at the bung. In 1776 I was paying a force of Continentals and militia numbering 89,661