Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/222

 200 elated by recent victory. The officers had not drawn their swords. Captain Ewald, who had commanded the foremost detachment of Cornwallis's column all day, had left his men to rest, and, having nothing in particular to do, had ridden out with the grenadiers to have a look at the country. Suddenly, at fifty paces from the village, they were received by a brisk fire of musketry. General Maxwell and the American rearguard had thrown themselves into the village to cover Washington's retreat. A party of Americans were seen at the same time coming round the hill to take the English on their left flank. Ewald galloped back for assistance, and brought up two English regiments under General Agnew, which immediately attacked the Americans, and saved the grenadiers, who had been almost surrounded. Night presently put an end to the fighting. The English loss in this little affair was heavy; nearly half of the two battalions and the greater part of their officers fell, according to Ewald. After the British army had been disembarked at Head of Elk, the English fleet had left Chesapeake Bay. Meanwhile seven English frigates and fourteen transport ships, with provisions from New York, had entered the Delaware and gone up to Wilmington. Two days after the battle of the Brandywine, Cornwallis entered that town, thus securing a new base of supplies for the army.

The English advanced without meeting serious opposition, though there was continual skirmishing, and a party under General Wayne was surprised and beaten. On the morning of the 26th of September, 1777, Lord