Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/102

 men with him. The march of the British across New Jersey was hardly opposed, though Washington retreated slowly before them, destroying the bridges. On the 8th of December he retired across the Delaware, removing all the boats for seventy miles to his own side of the river. There was a panic in Philadelphia, and Congress adjourned to Baltimore. Washington felt himself unable, with his small force, to prevent the passage of the British over the river. Howe was not the man, however, to pursue a winter campaign with vigor. He returned to New York, leaving Cornwallis, and afterwards Grant, in command in New Jersey. Bancroft tells us that the state was given over to plunder and outrage, and that all attempts to restrain the Hessians were abandoned, under the apology that the habit of plunder prevented desertions. “They were led to believe,” quotes he, from the official report of a British officer, “before they left Hesse-Cassel, that they were to come to America to establish their private fortunes, and hitherto they have certainly acted with that principle.” Washington, on the other hand, writes, on the 5th of February, 1777: “One thing I must remark in favor of the Hessians, and that is, that our people who have been prisoners generally agree that they received much kinder treatment from them than from the British officers and soldiers.”

It was the belief of Washington that active operations would speedily be resumed, and that the British