Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/286

 262 to be some six or seven hundred strong. Emmerich and his party, meanwhile, had retreated across Spyt den Duyvel Creek, and were cut off from the chasseurs, as the bridge was in the hands of the enemy. The whole corps with the cavalry therefore advanced to clear the bridge, and the Americans retreated slowly. Wurmb having accomplished his first object, and believing that the enemy was trying to draw him into an ambuscade, halted his command and reported to headquarters. In the afternoon the American army advanced and encamped on Valentine's Hill, extending over Courtland's Reach to Spyt den Duyvel. The Hessian loss in the engagement was thirty men killed and wounded.

On the 6th of July, 1781, the French army, under Rochambeau, joined that of Washington before New York, and for more than a month a skirmishing warfare was kept up. Sir Henry Clinton expecting to be besieged in New York whenever the French fleet should arrive from the West Indies. At last, on the 18th of August, 1781, the enemy was reported to be crossing the North River. Still Clinton's eyes were not opened. In vain did Lieutenant-colonel von Wurmb of the chasseurs, who had permission to send out spies on his own account, warn the commander-in-chief that the allied army was on its way to Virginia. The lieutenant-colonel had two grounds for believing this. The first was that preparations had been made to provide the Americans and Frenchmen with food and forage on the road across New Jersey; the second, that the lieutenant-colonel had been informed that an