Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/284

 260 to Elizabethtown Point. Here the troops took up their old positions, but were, during the night, ordered to break camp and pass over to Staten Island. This was done, and the bridge of boats which had been built on the 11th between the island and the mainland was immediately broken up, one Hessian regiment remaining in the tête de pont on the Jersey shore until the operation was completed. At about three o'clock in the morning the whole army had crossed. The loss of the chasseurs during the day was considerable, twenty-four being killed and wounded at the attack on the bridge over the Passaic, and perhaps as many more beyond the bridge and during the retreat.

This expedition to Springfield was the last attempt made by Sir Henry Clinton to attack Washington's main army in New Jersey. The remainder of the year was uneventful in the Northern States, except for the treason of Arnold and the execution of André; nor was the first half of 1781 marked by any engagement in that region more important than a skirmish. On the evening of the 2d of July, 1781, the partisan Emmerich, with a hundred men, had marched out to the Phillips House. During the night word was brought to Lieutenant-colonel von Wurmb that the American army was approaching New York in force, and that its advanced guard had been seen at Sing Sing. A lieutenant-colonel, with two hundred chasseurs and thirty cavalrymen, was, therefore, sent out at dawn to bring in news and to cover Emmerich's