Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/226

 204 by all these obstacles, but the free navigation of the river was essential to the British.

Colonel Karl Emil Kurt von Donop was one of the most distinguished of the Hessian colonels, and had been a personal aide-de-camp of the Landgrave, with whom he was a favorite. He had, in the previous year, held a separate command of some importance at Bordentown, and had now expressed a wish to be again detached. Sir William Howe consented to gratify him. He was sent to take Fort Mercer. Donop started on the 21st of October, 1777, with three battalions of grenadiers, a regiment of infantry, four companies of chasseurs, and twelve mounted chasseurs, all Hessians, eight field-pieces belonging to the regiments, and two English howitzers. He is said to have asked for more artillery, and to have been told in reply that if he could not trust himself to attack the fort, the English would take it. “Tell your general,” replied Donop to the officer that brought him the message, “that Germans are not afraid to face death.” The colonel then declared to those about him: “Either the fort will soon be called Fort Donop, or I shall have fallen.” He went on with his expedition, crossed the Delaware in boats, and spent the night at Haddonfield. At about noon on the 22d of October he arrived at Redbank, and rode forward to reconnoitre the ground. The fort was a five-sided earthwork, with a ditch and abatis. It had at first been constructed on too large a scale by the Americans, but Monsieur du Plessis de Mauduit, a young French officer, who had been sent by Washington to assist Colonel Christopher Greene in its defence, had reduced the size of the works which, in their