Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/233

 Rh near the Delaware, the latter being posted at Holland Ferry and Greenwich Point. While Washington's army at Valley Forge was suffering from want of almost all the necessaries of life, the British in Philadelphia had what they needed, and spent the winter in rest, health, and gayety. They were not crowded; many houses of absent rebels being used for barracks, and some of the soldiers being quartered on the inhabitants that remained in town. The service was light. Sir William Howe, who had already asked to be recalled, was gay and easy-going. The city did not seem very full of soldiers. The Americans only so far succeeded in cutting off provisions as to make them very dear. I pass over the skirmishes of the winter and spring, which were unimportant, whether Englishmen, Hessians, or Tories were engaged. The last, indeed, were principally interested in plunder. On the 18th of May, 1778, a farewell festival was given to Sir William Howe, and on the 19th and 20th that general made a fruitless attempt to capture a corps of twenty-five hundred men under General Lafayette, who had ventured near to Philadelphia. On the 24th Howe handed over the command of the army to Sir Henry Clinton. Before leaving America he sent a complimentary letter to Captains Ewald and Wreden of the chasseurs.