Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/283

 Rh journal of the Jäger Corps, “because every house that one passes is an advanced picket, so to speak; for the farmer, or his son, or his servant, or even his wife or daughter fires off a gun, or runs by the foot-path to warn the enemy.” On the 19th of June Sir Henry Clinton, who had just returned from Charleston with the Hessian grenadiers and detachment of chasseurs, the British grenadiers and light infantry, and the Provincial Queen's Rangers, reviewed Knyphausen's army. Preparations were made for an advance, and on the 23d, four German regiments besides the chasseurs, and six regiments of Englishmen and Tories marched out towards Springfield. For a time the Americans held their ground at Connecticut Farms, but soon they fell back to the battlefield of the 7th, and the English army was drawn up on the heights on this side of Springfield. The Passaic River lay between the opposing forces, and the Americans, under Major Lee, held the bridge. The Hessian chasseurs waded through the stream in the face of a brisk fire, while an English regiment charged on the bridge, and Lee was driven back to the heights beyond the town, where he joined a larger corps. The town of Springfield was occupied, and for an hour the chasseurs in the advanced guard were skirmishing with the enemy beyond it. Then the British set fire to the town and retreated. The chasseurs now formed the rear guard, and could hardly pass between the burning houses. The Americans pressed hard upon them and harassed their retreat. About two miles from Elizabethtown the chasseurs were relieved by an English regiment, and the retreat