Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/96

 82 hard to him. Thereupon he said: ‘The Hessians make impossibilities possible.’ I then said to him: ‘General von Knyphausen is a hundred paces off. Come with me, on my safe conduct, and see if he will give you better terms.’ He was contented with this and went with me.”

To Knyphausen Magaw surrendered, in spite of a message from Washington, promising to attempt to bring off the troops, if he could hold out until night. The place, however, was untenable. The Germans lost fifty-six officers and men killed and two hundred and seventy-six wounded in the attack, the English more than one hundred and twenty. The Americans lost less than one hundred and fifty killed and wounded, but about twenty-eight hundred prisoners, among whom were some of their best soldiers. They also lost a good deal of artillery and many arms and accoutrements.

The quartermaster of the Grenadier Battalion von Minnigerode says, in speaking of this battle, that if it had not been for the prisoners, the loss of the Germans would have been far greater than that of the rebels, and that this is because of the manner in which the latter fight. They lie singly behind trees, bushes, stone walls, and rocks, shoot at long range and with certainty, and run away very fast as soon as they have fired. The Germans cannot shoot a third so far, and can still less catch them running, and the ground here is such that field artillery can seldom be brought up to an attack.

The Hessians are said to have given no quarter,