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$Pretitle{11}
$Title{Our Country:  Volume 3
Chapter LXX}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Lossing, Benson J., LL.D.}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{washington
british
army
troops
general
new
congress
cornwallis
delaware
thousand}
$Volume{Vol. 3}
$Date{1905}
$Log{}
Book:        Our Country:  Volume 3
Author:      Lossing, Benson J., LL.D.
Volume:      Vol. 3
Date:        1905

Chapter LXX

     Gates in the Northern Department - War-Vessels on Lake Champlain under
Arnold - British Fleet in the Sorel - Naval Engagements on the Lake - The
British Retreat - War with the Indians - Fort Lee Evacuated - March of
Washington and Cornwallis Across New Jersey - Bad Conduct of General Lee - His
Capture - Washington Beyond the Delaware - His Hope and Energy Effectual -
Flight of the Congress - The British Army in New Jersey - Capture of Hessians
at Trenton - Effects of the Victory - Washington a Sort of Dictator - Morris
Supplies Money - The Two Armies at Trenton - Battle at Princeton.

     WHILE important events were occurring near the city of New York, others
were in progress near the northern frontiers of the Union, where we left the
shattered army that came out of Canada with Sullivan, in June, as recorded in
Chapter LXVI of this volume.  That army, sick and dispirited, halted, as we
have seen, at Crown Point, whither General Gates was sent to take the command
of them, General Sullivan retiring.  Gates at once aspired to be chief of the
Northern Department, then under the command of General Schuyler, and his
pretensions were supported by a small faction in the Congress.  He began to
exercise authority which belonged exclusively to Schuyler.  The latter
resented the affront and referred the subject to the Congress, when a majority
of that body lowered the pretensions of Gates by a resolution which instructed
him that he was a subordinate in the Northern Department. He was greatly
chagrined and irritated and from that hour he continually intrigued for the
place of Schuyler, until he aspired to the more exalted position of
commander-in-chief, and conspired with others to obtain it, as we shall
observe hereafter.

     Satisfied that Carleton would attempt the recapture of the Lake
fortresses, so as to control the waters of Lake Champlain, the little army, by
order of General Schuyler, withdrew from Crown Point and took post at
Ticonderoga, where they began the construction of a flotilla of small
war-vessels.  By the middle of August, a little squadron was in readiness for
service at Crown Point, and General Arnold was appointed its chief commander.
It consisted of one sloop, three schooners, and five gondolas, carrying an
aggregate of fifty-five guns which Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point had
furnished.  The schooner Royal Savage was Arnold's flag-ship, and he had brave
commanders of other vessels under him.  With this little squadron he sailed
down the lake toward the close of August, almost to the present Rouse's Point,
and anchored.  Seeing British and Indian warriors prowling along the shores of
the narrow lake, he fell back to Isle la Motte, where his flotilla was joined
by other vessels, increasing it to almost forty sail.  With these he roamed
the lake defiantly.

     When Carleton heard of the ship-building on the lake, he sent about seven
hundred skilled workmen from Quebec to St. John, to prepare a fleet to cope
with the Americans.  In the course of a few weeks a considerable naval force
was floating on the Sorel, and a strong land force under Burgoyne were on Isle
aux Noix.  Ignorant of the real strength of the British armament, Arnold
withdrew to Valcour Island, not far south of Plattsburgh, and anchored his
vessels across the channel between that land and the western shore of Lake
Champlain, leaving the main channel free for the passage of the vessels of the
enemy.  This disastrous blunder was approved by Gates, who was as ignorant of
naval affairs as Arnold.

     Early on the morning of the 11th of October, the British fleet appeared
off Cumberland Head.  It was commanded by Captain Pringle.  It bore twice as
many vessels and skilled seamen against untutored landsmen, as the American
force presented.  The flagship - the Inflexible - was a three-masted ship,
carrying eighteen 12-pounders and ten smaller guns.  This formidable fleet
swept by Valcour Island without opposition, and gaining the rear of Arnold's
squadron, attacked it at noon.  The Carleton, Captain Dacres, assisted by
gun-boats, fell upon the Royal Savage and soon crippled her.  As she was
returning to the lines, she grounded and was burned.  Arnold and his men
escaped to the Congress galley, and in her fought desperately.  Arnold was
compelled to act as gunner, and pointed every cannon that was fired from the
Congress.  She was soon dreadfully bruised in every part - her mainmast was
splintered, and her yards shivered.  She was hulled twelve times, and seven
times she was hit between wind and water.  The Carleton, also, was badly hurt,
as were most of the vessels on both sides.  The British landed some Indians on
Valcour Island, whence they poured volleys of bullets, but without much
effect, upon the Americans.  Night closed the fight, after a contest of almost
five hours, without victory for either party.  More than sixty of the
Americans and forty of the British had been killed or wounded.

     Arnold consulted Waterbury of the Trumbull and Wigglesworth of the
Washington, and it was decided to attempt flight to Crown Point.  To guard
against such a movement, which the British expected, they had anchored a line
of vessels across the avenue for escape, from a small island a little south of
Valcour, to the main land.  The Americans did not attempt the impossible feat
of breaking through that compact British line, but took another course. The
night was dark and became tempestuous.  Under its cover, the shattered fleet
crept around the north end of Valcour Island, and taking advantage of a
stiffening north wind, had left the enemy far behind, when at dawn, the escape
was discovered.  Pursuit was immediately ordered.  The Trumbull had led the
way, and the Congress had brought up the rear.  At Schuyler's Island the
flotilla had stopped to make repairs, and toward evening the wind shifted to
the southward.  The better equipped British vessels overtook the Americans
early the next morning (Oct. 13, 1776), and soon compelled the Washington to
surrender.  Arnold, in the Congress, kept up a running fight for five hours.
Finally his vessel, with four gondolas, was chased into a creek on the Vermont
shore of the lake, where they were set on fire by their crews. Arnold remained
on his vessel until driven away by the flames, and was the last to reach the
shore.  He formed his men in good order in sight of his pursuers, and marching
through the woods to Chimney Point, reached Crown Point in safety.  He had
lost between eighty and ninety men, and gained nothing but renown for his
personal bravery.  All that remained of his proud little fleet were two
schooners, two galleys, one sloop, and one gondola.

     Governor Carleton, who was with his fleet, took possession of Crown Point
on the 14th of October.  Although he was within two hours' sail of
Ticonderoga, then garrisoned by only three thousand effective men, with
twenty-five hundred on Mount Independence opposite, he was too cautious to
attempt its capture.  At the beginning of November, he fled back to Canada,
with his troops, where he found himself about to be superseded in military
command by General Burgoyne.  He was soothed by the present of an order of
knighthood by his king.  Thence forward he was Sir Guy Carleton.  At about the
same time General Howe was created Sir William Howe.

     At this time the British king was trying to "bring on the inhabitants of
the frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an
undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions."  Lieutenant
Governor Hamilton, at Detroit, wrote to the ministry early in September (1776)
that he had employed "chiefs and warriors from the Ottawas, Chippewas,
Wyandots, and Pottawatomies," with the Senecas, to "fall on the scattered
settlers in the Ohio region, and this news seemed to be pleasant to Lord
George Germain, the successor of the more humane Dartmouth.  In the southwest
there was a dreadful conflict between the white people and the savages, who
had been incited to hostilities by British emissaries.  The authorities in
Canada had sent down messengers from the Six Nations, and tribes westward of
them, to stir up the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws to war, but
only the first-named nation felt inclined to listen favorably.  In an evil
hour for their people, the Cherokee chiefs, influenced by Stuart and Cameron,
Scotch emissaries of the crown among them, took up the hatchet and the war-
club, and fell with fury upon the settlers on the frontiers of the Carolinas
and southwestern Virginia.  Innocent men, women, and children were slain, and
the mountain ranges were illumined by the flames of burning dwellings.  Their
cruelties aroused the settlers, who organized into military bands, and so
gallantly fought and fearfully chastised the savages, that late in the autumn
they begged for mercy.  Germain had looked eagerly for news from his faithful
agents, of the success of the savages; and at the moment when the dusky
warriors were on their knees, as it were, before the exasperated settlers,
that minister wrote to Stuart, saying: "The Cherokees must be supported, for
they have declared for us; I expect, with some impatience, to hear from you of
the success of your negotiation with the Creeks and Choctaws, and that you
have prevailed on them to join the Cherokees.  I cannot doubt of your being
able, under such advantageous circumstances, to engage them in a general
confederacy against the rebels in defence of those liberties of which they are
so exceedingly jealous, and in the full enjoyment of which they have always
been protected by the king."  It was too late.  The chastisement had been
inflicted, and the Cherokees had been taught discretion by adversity.

     We left Washington with his little army near Fort Lee on the Jersey
shore. He was soon disturbed by Lord Cornwallis, who, early on the morning of
the 20th of November, crossed the Hudson from Dobb's Ferry to Closter's
Landing, five miles above Fort Lee, and with artillery climbed a steep, rocky
road to the top of the Palisades, unobserved by Greene.  That officer was told
of his danger by a farmer, who awoke him from slumber.  Greene gave warning to
Washington, who ordered Lee to cross the Hudson immediately and join him.
Greene fled in haste from Fort Lee, with two thousand men, leaving behind
cannon, tents, stores and camp equipage, and barely escaping capture.
Washington covered the retreat of the garrison so effectually, that less than
one hundred stragglers were made prisoners.

     It was now suspected that the British would move on Philadelphia.
Washington, with his army led by himself and reduced to less than four
thousand men, marched toward the Delaware to impede the progress of the
invader as much as possible.  His force decreased at almost every step.  The
patriotism of New Jersey seemed to be paralyzed by the presence of a British
army on the soil. Hundreds of republicans - even men who had been active in
the patriot cause - signed a pledge of fidelity to the British crown.  During
the twelve days that Washington was making his way to the Delaware, so closely
pursued by Cornwallis that the rear-guard of the Americans often heard the
music of the van-guard of the royal troops, he was chilled by the seeming
indifference of the people.  He halted at points as long as possible, for Lee
to join him and so give him strength to make a stand against his pursuers; but
that officer, assuming that his was an independent command, paid no attention
to the order of his superior.  He was then evidently playing a desperate game
of treason. Daily messages to him, urging him to push forward with his troops,
did not affect him.  He lingered long on the Hudson, until many of his
soldiers had left him and gone home; and he tried to induce Heath to weaken
his force in the Highlands by assigning for duty under Lee, two thousand of
his men. Failing in this, he moved slowly as far in the rear of Washington as
possible; and finally (eleven days after the chief had reached the Delaware),
he took lodgings at Baskingridge in East Jersey, three miles from his camp,
and nearer the enemy.  There, on the morning of the 13th of December, he
suffered himself to be captured by a small British scout.

     Lee had habitually treated Washington with superciliousness; and in
letters to Gates and others, who would applaud his utterances, he would speak
with contempt of the commander-in-chief as "not a heaven-born genius," and
words of like import.  He had just finished a letter to Gates when the scout
appeared, in which he wrote most falsely: A certain great man is most damnably
deficient.  He has thrown me into a situation where I have my choice of
difficulties; if I stay in this province, I risk myself and army; and if I do
not stay, the province is lost forever," and so on.  This letter was not
folded when the scout came and summoned Lee to surrender.  He went out
unarmed, bareheaded, in slippers, without a coat, in a blanket cloak, his
shirt-collar open and his linen much soiled, and gave himself up.  In this
plight he was hurried on horseback to the camp of Cornwallis, and was
afterward sent to New York.  Sullivan, who was next in command, tool: charge
of the troops and pushed on to the Delaware.  Had Lee obeyed the orders of
Washington, Cornwallis could not have penetrated New Jersey further than
Newark, for the disobedient officer had four thousand troops under his command
when he crossed the Hudson, and might have joined Washington with them in less
than three days.

     On the evening of the 1st of December, Washington fled from New Brunswick
after destroying a part of the bridge over the Raritan there, and engaging in
a contest with cannon with his pursuers.  It was understood that Howe, who was
about to send a part of his army to take possession of Rhode Island, had
instructed Cornwallis not to pursue further than the Raritan.  So Washington
left Lord Stirling at Princeton with twelve hundred men, and with the
remainder of his little army (the New Jersey and Maryland brigades had just
left him): pushed on to the Delaware, at Trenton.  Having sent his baggage,
stores, and sick across the river into Pennsylvania, he turned back to oppose
the further progress of Cornwallis, when, on the morning of the 6th, he met
Stirling flying before a greatly superior force.  Howe had sent troops under
General Clinton to Rhode Island, borne by the ships of Sir Peter Parker, and
with a considerable force had now joined Cornwallis; making an army four
thousand strong.  With these they were pressing on toward the Delaware.
Washington was compelled to turn back and seek safety, with his little army,
beyond the river.  He crossed that stream on the 8th, and before the arrival
of the British on its banks, he had seized or destroyed every boat on its
waters and those of its tributaries, along a line of seventy miles.

     Philadelphia was now trembling for its own safety.  The Congress, in whom
there was a growing distrust in the public mind, were uneasy.  Leading
republicans hesitated to go further.  Only Washington, who, at the middle of
December, when frost was rapidly creating a bridge across the Delaware over
which his pursuers might pass, had not more than a thousand soldiers on whom
he could rely, seemed hopeful.  When asked what he would do if Philadelphia
should be taken, he replied: We will retreat beyond the Susquehanna River, and
thence, if necessary, to the Alleghany mountains."  He had already conceived
the masterly stroke which sent a thrill of joy and hope through the desponding
heart of America, and toward that end he worked.  He sent Putnam to cast up
defenses around Philadelphia, and stimulated the Congress to vigorous action.
They sent forth a strong appeal to the people.  A thorough reorganization of
the army was begun according to the plan adopted by the Congress.  There was
to be one grand army, composed of eighty battalions of seven hundred and fifty
men each, to be raised in the several States. Liberal bounties were offered to
soldiers who should re-enlist, and a loan of ten million dollars from France
was authorized.  Placing almost unlimited control of Philadelphia in the hands
of Putnam, Congress, on the 12th (December, 1776), resolved to leave that city
and retire to Baltimore, at the same time delegating their powers to a
committee composed of Robert Morris, George Clymer, and George Walton to act
in their behalf during their absence. On their departure the loyalists became
bold, and there was much danger of a counter revolution in favor of the crown.

     Informed that nearly all the Pennsylvanians were loyalists, and looking
with contempt upon the scattered forces of Washington in that State,
Cornwallis had cantoned his troops in a careless manner in the vicinity of the
Delaware, left them in charge of General Grant, and returned to New York.  So
confident were the British leaders of their ability to capture Philadelphia at
any time, and end the rebellion by that single blow, that Cornwallis was
preparing to go to England, when events called him back to New Jersey.

     Lee's division under Sullivan, and some regiments from Ticonderoga under
Gates, joined Washington on the 21st of December.  Inducements offered for
re-enlistments had retained nearly one-half of the veterans.  The Pennsylvania
militia cheerfully responded to the call for help, and on the day before
Christmas, Washington found himself at the head of an army between five and
six thousand in number.  He now felt strong enough to execute a plan which he
had conceived, for surprising and capturing a force of the enemy stationed at
Trenton, fifteen hundred in number, composed chiefly of Hessian troops under
Colonel Rail.  Washington expected the Germans, as was their custom, would
have a carousal on Christmas day, and he fixed upon the succeeding night as a
favorable time for crossing the Delaware, and falling upon them during their
heavy slumbers before the dawn.  Rail, in his pride, had said: "What need of
entrenchments?  Let the rebels come; we will at them with the bayonet;" and he
made the fatal mistake of not placing a single cannon in battery.

     At twilight on the appointed evening, Washington had two thousand men at
McConkey's Ferry (now Taylorsville), a few miles above Trenton, with boats of
every kind to transport them across the river, then filled with masses of
thickening ice, for the weather was very cold.  With him were Generals
Sterling, Sullivan, Greene, Mercer, Stephen, and Knox, the latter
(commissioned brigadier-general two days afterward) in command of
artillerists, and about twenty pieces of cannon.  Arrangements had been made
for simultaneous movements against other British cantonments, especially' one
from Bristol, with about ten thousand men, which Gates was directed to lead.
With wilful disobedience, in imitation of Lee, Gates refused the duty, turned
his back on Washington on Christmas eve, and rode on toward Baltimore to
intrigue in Congress for Schuyler's place in the Northern Department.

     The perilous voyage across the Delaware amid the floating ice was begun
early in the evening, and it was four o'clock in the morning before the troops
stood in marching order, with all their cannon, on the New Jersey shore.  The
current was swift, the ice was thickly strewn in it, and the night was dark,
for toward midnight a storm of snow and sleet set in.  The army moved in two
columns - one led by Sullivan along the road nearest the river, and the other
commanded by Washington, accompanied by Generals Stirling, Greene, Mercer, and
Stephen.  It was broad daylight when they approached Trenton, but they were
undiscovered until they reached the picket lines on the outskirts of the
village.  The firing that followed awakened Rail and his troops, who were
hardly recovered from their night's debauch.  The colonel was soon at the head
of his men in battle order, but reeled like a man half-asleep.  A sharp
conflict ensued, lasting only thirty-five minutes, when the Hessians were
defeated and dispersed, and Colonel Rail was mortally wounded.  The main body
of his troops attempted to escape by the Princeton road, when they were
intercepted by Colonel Hand.  The affrighted Germans threw down their arms and
begged for mercy.  Some British light horse and infantry at Trenton escaped to
Bordentown.

     The victory for the Americans was complete.  It would have been more
decisive had the co-operating parties been able to perform their duties.  They
could not; and Washington won all the glory of the victory which greatly
inspirited the patriots.  In the engagements the Americans did not lose a
single man, and had only two - William Washington (afterward distinguished in
the South) and James Monroe (afterward President of the United States) - who
were slightly wounded.  The spoils of victory were almost a thousand
prisoners, twelve hundred small arms, six brass field-pieces, and all the
German standards. The triumphant army re-crossed the Delaware at McConkey's
Ferry, and before midnight of the day of victory were back to their
encampment.

     This bold stroke of the American general puzzled and amazed the British
leaders, alarmed the Tories, and dissipated the terror which had been felt in
the presence of the Hessians, as invincible troops.  The faltering militia
soon flocked to the standard of Washington, and many of the soldiers, who were
about to leave the American camp, re-enlisted.  Cornwallis was sent back to
New Brunswick, where General Grant was in command of the main British army in
New Jersey, and the other cantonments in that province were broken up and the
troops concentrated toward Trenton.  Grant moved forward to Princeton, and
Washington, who had resolved to attempt to drive the British out of New
Jersey, boldly recrossed the river to the eastern side, and took post with his
army at Trenton, on the 30th of December, 1776.  The Congress, sitting at
Baltimore, had invested him with powers almost equal to those of a Roman
Dictator, for six months, authorizing him to reorganize his army appoint all
officers below brigadier-general to make requisitions for subsistence and
enforce them with arms, and to arrest the disaffected.  Intending to remain on
the eastern side of the Delaware, he announced to the Congress, while his army
was crossing that stream, his intention "to pursue the enemy and try to beat
up their quarters; and he directed McDougall and Maxwell to collect troops at
Morristown, as a place of refuge in case he should need one.

     The low condition of the military chest would not allow Washington to pay
the bounties agreed to be given, at the appointed time, and the commander-in-
chief wrote to Robert Morris, the great financier of the Revolutionary period,
for an immediate supply of hard money.  The Congress had just resolved to
issue bills to the amount of five million dollars immediately, but the credit
of that body was then very low, even John Dickenson refusing to take the
Continental money.  The credit of Robert Morris was high, and confidence in
him was unbounded.  The sum asked for was large, and the financier was
perplexed with doubts of his ability to obtain it.  In a despondent mood he
left his counting-room at a late hour, musing, as he walked in the street, on
the subject of the requisition, when he met a wealthy member of the Society of
Friends, who, at that time, were generally of the Tory faith in politics.  To
this Friend, Morris made known his wants. Robert, what security canst thou
give?" asked the Quaker.  "My note and my honor," Morris replied.  "Thou shalt
have it," the Friend answered, and the next day Morris wrote to Washington: "I
was up early this morning to dispatch a supply of fifty thousand dollars to
your Excellency."  Washington, in acknowledging its receipt, wrote that he had
engaged a number of the eastern troops to stay six weeks beyond their term of
enlistment, upon giving a bounty of ten dollars.  "This, I know," wrote
Washington, is a most extravagant price when compared with the time of
service;" but he thought it "no time to stand upon trifles."

     The main army of Americans, about five thousand strong, were encamped on
the south side of the Assanpink Creek at Trenton, when, toward evening on the
2nd of January (1777), Cornwallis approached from Princeton with a superior
force of British regulars.  They had engaged in a series of skirmishes on the
way, and followed the Americans, who had attacked them, to the margin of the
Assanpink.  After trying to pass the guarded fords of that stream, they halted
and lighted fires; and Cornwallis rested that night with the full assurance
that he would make an easy conquest of the republican army the next day.  I
will catch the fox in the morning," said the Earl to Sir William Erskine, who
urged him to make an attack that night.

     Washington's army were now in a very critical situation.  A council of
war was held, when it was decided to withdraw stealthily, at midnight, take a
circuitous route to Princeton, gain the rear of the British and beat up their
quarters there, and then fall upon their stores at New Brunswick.  But the
ground, on account of a thaw, was too soft to allow an easy transit for their
forty pieces of cannon.  This gave Washington much anxiety.  While the council
was in session, the wind turned to the northwest, the temperature suddenly
fell, and by midnight the ground was frozen as hard as a pavement. Along the
front of the American camp, fires had been lighted, and the British supposed
the republicans were slumbering.  Great was their surprise, mortification and
alarm, when, at dawn, they discovered that the American camp-fires were still
burning but the army had departed, none knew whither. All was silent and
dreary on the south side of the Assanpink, when suddenly there came upon the
keen wintry air, from the direction of Princeton, the low booming of cannon.
Although it was a cold winter's morning, Cornwallis thought the sound was the
rumbling of distant thunder.  The quicker ear of Erskine decided that it was
the noise of artillery, and exclaimed: "To arms, general!  Washington has
outgeneralled us.  Let us fly to the rescue at Princeton!"

     The American army, after sending their baggage to Burlington, had marched
from Trenton at one o'clock in the morning of the 3rd, leaving patrols to make
their accustomed rounds and men to keep the camp-fires blazing until near the
dawn, when they hurried after the retreating army.  By a circuitous march the
troops reached the neighborhood of Princeton before sunrise. Crossing Stony
Brook, the main army wheeled to the right to take a back road to Princeton,
while General Mercer, with about three hundred and fifty men, was sent to
break down another bridge that spanned the stream.  Two regiments of Colonel
Mawhood's brigade had just started to join Cornwallis at Trenton, and the one
in advance, led by the colonel in person, accompanied by three companies of
dragoons, first discovered Mercer.  The two parties, whose numbers were about
equal, tried to gain a vantage ground upon an eminence near.  Each had two
field-pieces; and a sharp engagement was begun by Mawhood by attacking Mercer
with his cannon.  The firing was returned with spirit by Captain Neal with his
two pieces, while Mercer's riflemen sent deadly volleys from behind a hedge
fence.  They were soon furiously attacked with British bayonets, and fled in
disorder, the enemy pursuing, until, on the brow of a hill, they discovered
the American regulars and Pennsylvania militia, under Washington, marching to
the support of Mercer.  In trying to rally the troops, Colonel Haslett of
Delaware, and Captains Neal and Fleming, were killed, and General Mercer,
whose horse had been disabled under him, was knocked down by British clubbed
musket, mortally wounded and left for dead.

     Just at that moment Washington appeared, checked the flight of the
fugitives, and intercepted the march of the other British regiment.  He was
assisted by the fire of Moulder's artillery placed in battery.  When Mawhood
saw Washington riding from column to column and bringing order out of
confusion, he halted, and, drawing up his artillery, charged and attempted in
vain to seize Moulder's guns.  The Pennsylvania militia, who were first in
line, began to waver at this onset, when Washington, to encourage them and set
an example for all his troops, rode to the forefront of danger.  For a moment
he was hidden by the smoke of the musketry on both sides, and a shiver of
dread lest he was slain, ran through the army; when he appeared, unhurt, a
shout of joy rent the air.  At that moment Colonel Hitchcock came up with a
fresh force, and Hand's riflemen were turning the British left, when Mawhood
ordered a retreat.  His troops (the Seventieth regiment) fled across the
snow-covered fields and over the fences, up Stony Brook, leaving two brass
field-pieces behind them.  The Fifty-fifth regiment, which had attempted to
reinforce them, were pressed back by the New England troops under Stark, Poor,
Patterson, Reed and others, and were joined in their flight toward New
Brunswick by the Fortieth, who had not taken much part in the action.  A
portion of a British regiment remained in the strong, stone-built Nassau Hall
of the College at Princeton, which had been used for barracks.  Washington
brought cannon to bear upon the building, and the troops within soon
surrendered.  One of the cannon-balls entered a window and passed through the
head of a portrait of George the Second in a frame that hung on the wall of
the Prayer-room.  A full-length portrait of Washington by Peale, now occupies
that frame.

     In this short but sharp battle, the British loss in killed, wounded and
prisoners, was about four hundred and thirty.  That of the Americans was
light, excepting in officers.  Colonels Haslett and Potter, Major Morris and
Captains Shippen, Fleming and Neal, were slain.  General Mercer was taken to a
house near by, where he was tenderly nursed by a Quaker maiden and a colored
woman at the house of Thomas Clarke.  There he died nine days afterward in the
arms of Major George Lewis, a nephew of Washington.