Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/104

 but Cornwallis long afterwards told a committee of the House of Commons that Rall's brigade, at Fort Washington, had won the admiration of the whole army. The town of Trenton, then composed of about a hundred houses, lay on both sides of Assanpink Creek, near where that creek falls into the Delaware, the larger part of the town being on the western side of the creek. This was crossed by a bridge, over which the road led down the Delaware to Bordentown and Burlington. There were roads on both sides of the creek to Princeton. Of these, the one on the western side, passing through Maidenhead, was the shorter. There was also a road to Pennington, in a northwesterly direction, and two roads along the Delaware, going up stream, one near the bank and the other a mile or two from it. The last fell into the Pennington road a little way outside the town.

The regiments Rall and von Lossberg were quartered in the northern part of Trenton, the Knyphausen regiment in the southern part, on both sides of the bridge over the Assanpink. On this bridge a guard of twelve men was stationed. The soldiers in the town were scattered in the various houses, and in fine weather the guns were stacked out of doors, in charge of two or three sentries. Pickets were thrown out on the roads west of the creek. The main guard was composed of an officer and seventy men.

Colonel Rall was a dashing officer of the old school. He was said to have asked to be quartered at Trenton, considering it the post of danger. He had done very