Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/225

 upon our army much sooner, and before it was entirely under arms. But, as it was, our army attacked them, beat them out of the town, and put them to flight. They, thereupon, retired to their former camp, on Skibback Creek, leaving three hundred dead, six hundred wounded, and four hundred prisoners behind them. Our loss is, also, about four hundred killed and wounded; among the former General Agnew. Lord Cornwallis, hearing the firing at Philadelphia, immediately ordered three battalions of grenadiers to start. He, personally, arrived in time to take part in the end of the action, but the battalions came too late.”

It now became of the first importance to Sir William Howe to open the Delaware River, between Wilmington and Philadelphia, to his ships of war and his transports. On these he must in great measure rely for his provisions and communications. The river was barred some ten miles below Philadelphia by chevaux de frise, which were protected by Fort Mercer at Redbank, on the New Jersey shore, and by Fort Mifflin, on an island, near the opposite shore of Pennsylvania. Between the forts obstructions had been sunk in the channel, and these again were defended by galleys. Some boats with provisions had succeeded in slipping