I 7 7 7 Greene was Meanwhile, Greene had been advancing along Lime-kiln road to come up on Sullivan's left and so to form a continuous line directly in Howe's front. But Greene was more than half an hour late and, in the night, a British battalion had been moved forward, thus bringing him into contact with the enemy sooner than he expected. In spite of some confusion, he forced the enemy back to the market-place and attacked the British right under Grant; after heavy fighting, he was driven back and one of his regiments was captured. adam Stephen See fascing. While Greene was advancing on Lime-kiln road, Gen- 1 7 7 7 eral Stephen of his command heard the firing at Chew's The Day house. Stephen seems to have been so drunk that he is Lost abruptly left his line of march and, following the sound of battle, struck the rear of Wayne's brigade. In the fog and smoke, each party mistook the other for the British. Confused by this attack, Wayne's brigade fell back two miles, uncovering Sullivan's flank and forcing him to retreat. From Philadelphia, Cornwallis brought up English battalions, Hessian grenadiers, and a squadron of dragoons on the double quick. The day was lost and Washington gave orders to retreat. At Whitemarsh, Wayne posted a battery on the hill and checked the pursuit. The American loss was nearly eleven hundred. The British loss was five hundred and twenty-one, including General Agnew. Greene's delay and management have been much blamed and much defended. Early in October, Washington's army was in camp north of the Schuyl Private, Seventeenth Light Dragoons kill, on Perkiomy Creek and near (From original drawing by Harry A. Ogden) I 7 7 7 Howe's vessels. A regular siege of Fort Mifflin on Mud Island was then undertaken; after a brave defense, November 15 the garrison withdrew to Fort Mercer and the grenadiers of the royal guards occupied the island. Three days later, Cornwallis crossed into New Jersey. Washington sent Greene to take command of the troops there and to check his progress, but the British demonstration was November 20 SO formidable that Fort Mercer was abandoned and destroyed. As an incident of Greene's movement, Lafayette had a lively skirmish with a body of Hessians in the rear of Cornwallis's army and drove them back upon their supports. After several narrow escapes, Lafayette rejoined Greene with a loss of only one man killed and six wounded. On the first of December, he was assigned to the command of the division lately held by Stephen who had been dismissed from the army. Some of the American vessels in the river succeeded in running past Howe's batteries at Philadelphia; others were burned to prevent their falling into British hands. The obstructions in the river were removed and 1777 provisions and stores became more abundant in the city. About the end of October, Washington had taken up In Winter his headquarters at Whitemarsh; about the middle of Quarters December he went into winter quarters at Valley Forge; the route thither was tracked in blood as the men, many of them destitute of shoes and stockings, painfully picked their way over the frozen ground. Log huts chinked with clay were built as quickly as possible, but, before they were ready for occupancy, there was great suffering. Thus the campaign for Philadelphia closed with the royal forces in possession of the rebel capital. Germain's Difficulties CHAPTER IV S A R A T G A HE British plan of operations for the campaign. "had been maturely and copiously discussed by the British Cabinet, and had been hopelessly and grievously bungled." Ignoring Sir William Howe's scheme of forcing Washington to risk a battle in order to protect the capital of the confederacy and then crushing "the rebel regular army," Lord Germain had "conceived the ambitious hope of compensating for deficiency of numbers by brilliant and novel strategy.' Hence the triple plan outlined in the preceding chapter. Burgoyne was to come down from Canada by way of Lake Champlain, Saint Leger was to go up the Saint Lawrence to Lake Ontario and thence come down by way of Oswego and the Mohawk valley, while Howe was to force his way from New York up the Hudson toward Albany where the three columns were to converge upon the Americans-a "network of complicated and delicate manœuvres." Trevelyan pithily remarks that Lord Germain "exercised Lord Chatham's functions; but he had not mastered Lord Chatham's methods." We have seen that Sir William Howe contributed and Dangers nothing to the close coöperation that was necessary for the success of this plan. The reader of this chapter will do well to keep clearly in mind Howe's successive movements as recorded in the third chapter. But there were other difficulties and dangers that clung close to Burgoyne's line of march from Canada, such as poor |