Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/475

]. The British general continued to press forward, and Washington had no alternative but to retire before him. "On the 7th of December," says Steadman, " our army marched from Brunswick, at four o'clock in the morning, and about the same hour in the afternoon arrived at Princeton. This place General Washington, in person, with Stirling's brigade, left not one hour before the British arrived. At Princeton, the British general waited seventeen hours, marched at nine o'clock in the morning of the 8th, and arrived at Trenton at four o'clock in the afternoon, just when the last boat of General Washington's embarkation crossed the river, as if he had calculated, it was observed, with great accuracy, the exact time necessary for his enemy to make his escape."

While at Trenton, a reinforcement of about two thousand men came in from Pennsylvania, the raising of which was principally due to the exertions of General Mifflin, in Philadelphia, Washington had thoughts of attempting something against the enemy, but learning that Cornwallis had received accessions to his force, he abandoned the idea, and, as just stated, on the 8th of December, placed the Delaware between himself and the British troops. He had taken the precaution of collecting and securing all the boats on the Delaware from Philadelphia for seventy miles higher up the river. Washington was also careful to secure all the boats on the south side of the river, and to guard all those places where it was probable that the British army might attempt to pass; so that the danger of an immediate attack was prevented. The British troops made demonstrations of an intention to cross the river, and detachments were stationed to oppose them; but the attempt was not seriously made. In this situation Washington anxiously waited for reinforcements, and sent some parties over the river to observe and harass the enemy.

Congress, on the 12th of December, deemed it prudent to remove their sittings to Baltimore, where they waited anxiously but firmly the progress of affairs.

While the commander-in-chief was retreating through the Jerseys, he earnestly desired General Lee, who had been left in command of the division of the army at North Castle, to hasten his march to the Delaware, and join the main army. But that officer, notwithstanding the critical nature of the case, and the pressing orders of his commander, was in no haste, to obey. Reluctant to give up his separate command, and subject himself to superior authority, he did not begin his march until the 4th of December, and then he advanced slowly to the southward, at the head of about three thousand men; but his sluggish movements and unwary conduct proved fatal to his own personal liberty, and excited a lively sensation throughout America. He lay carelessly without a guard, and at some distance from his troops, at Baskingridge, in Morris county, where, on the, 13th of December, Colonel Harcourt, who, with small detachment of light horse, had been sent to observe the movements of hat division of the American army, by