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Howe now determined to make a general sweep of all the American works on the Delaware, and, preparatory thereto, he called in his outposts and concentrated his whole army near to and within Philadelphia. Two Rhode Island regiments, belonging to General Varnum's *** brigade, under Colonel Christopher Greene, garrisoned the fort at Red Bank, and
*So called in honor of Edward Byllinge, the purchaser of Lord Berkley's moiety of the province of New Jersey. Slight remains of this redoubt, it is said, yet remain.
** This cut, copied from an old print, shows the form of the chevaux de frisé. A is a profile view, and B a plan. The spikes were made of heavy timbers, about thirty feet in length. Partially filled with heavy stone, they presented a formidable obstacle to vessels. It is said that these obstructions were mainly planned by Dr. Franklin, and constructed under the immediate supervision of M. Du Plessis Manduit, a French engineer.
*** James Mitchell Varnum was born at Dracut, Massachusetts, in 1749, and graduated in the first class at Providence College in 1769. He afterward studied law at East Greenwich, became an active politician in Rhode Island, espoused the patriot cause, and joined the army in 1775. In February, 1777, he was commissioned a brigadier in the Continental service. He served under Sullivan in the operations on Rhode Island, in 1778, and the next year resigned his commission and left the army. He was a delegate to Congress in 1786, and the following year was appointed a judge of the Northwestern Territory. He died at Marietta, Ohio, January 10, 1790, aged forty-one. His brother, Joseph Bradley Varnum, was also an officer in the Revolution; a member, from Massachusetts, of the first Congress after the adoption of the Federal Constitution; was four years speaker of the Lower House, and succeeded Timothy Pickering as United States senator in 1811. He died on the 11th of September, 1821, aged seventy-one years.
The American Fleet in the Delaware.—Hessian Expedition against Fort Mercer.—Storming of the Fort.
about the same number of the Maryland line, under Lieutenant-colonel Samuel Smith, occupied Fort Mifflin, on Mud Island. The American fleet in the river, consisting chiefly of galleys and floating batteries, was commanded by Commodore Hazlewood. * It was quite as important to the Americans to maintain these forts and defend the river obstructions as it was to the British to destroy them. It was therefore determined to hold them to the last extremity, for it was evident that such continued possession would force Howe to evacuate Philadelphia.
Count Donop, with four battalions, consisting of twelve hundred picked Hessians, was sent by Howe to attack Fort Mercer, at Red Bank. They crossed the Delaware, and landed at Cooper's Ferry, on the 21st of October. The same evening they marched1777to Haddonsfield, in New Jersey, a little above Gloucester. As they approached Timber Creek, on their way down the river, the Americans took up the bridge, and the enemy were obliged to march four miles up the stream to a shallow ford. They arrived at the edge of a wood, within cannon-shot of Fort Mercer, on the morning of the 22d. Their appearance, full-armed for battle, was the first intimation the garrison had of their approach. Although informed that the number of Hessians was twenty-five hundred, the little garrison of four hundred men, in a feeble earth fort, and with only fourteen pieces of cannon, were not intimidated. They made immediate preparations for defense. While thus engaged, a Hessian officer, who was permitted to approach the fort with a flag and a drummer, rode up, and insolently proclaimed, "The King of England orders his rebellious subjects to lay down their arms; and they are warned that, if they stand the battle, no quarters whatever will be given!" ** "We ask no quarters, nor will we give any!" was the prompt reply of Colonel Greene. The Hessian and the drummer rode hastily back to Donop, and the assailants began at once the erection of a battery within half cannon-shot of the outworks of Fort Mercer. All was activity and eagerness for combat within the fort. The outworks were unfinished, but the redoubt was a citadel upon which the garrison placed much reliance. Skill and bravery were called to combat fierceness, discipline, and overwhelming numbers.
It was four o'clock in the afternoon when a brisk cannonade was opened from the Hessian battery, and at a quarter before five a battalion advanced to the attack, on the north part of the fort, near a morass that covered it. Finding the first advance post and the outworks abandoned, but not destroyed, the enemy imagined that they had frightened the Americans away. Filled with this idea, they raised the shout of victory, and, with the drummer just mentioned beating a lively march, rushed toward the redoubt, where not a man was to be seen. They were about to ascend the ramparts, to plant the flag of conquest upon a merlon, when, from the embrasures in front, and from a half-masked battery upon their left flank, formed by an angle of an old embankment, a shower of grape-shot and musket-balls poured upon them with terrible effect, driving them back to the remote intrenchments.
Another division of the enemy, under the immediate command of the brave Donop, attacked the fort on the south side at the same time, passed the abatis, traversed the fosse or ditch, and some actually leaped the pickets, and mounted the parapet of the redoubt; but the fire of the Americans was so heavy and continuous that they were soon
* The following is a list and description of the American fleet: Thirteen galleys, one bearing a thirty-two pounder; two carrying each a twenty-four pounder; ten each an eighteen pounder. Twenty-six half-galleys, each carrying a four pounder. Two xebeques, each carrying in bow two twenty-four pounders; in stern, two eighteen pounders; in waist, four nine pounders. Two floating batteries (the Arnold and Putnam), one carrying twelve eighteen pounders, one ten eighteen pounders. One provincial ship, ten eighteen pounders. Fourteen fire-ships. The brig Andre Doria, of fourteen six pounders. One schooner-galley, in bow two eighteen pounders; in stern, two nine pounders. One brig-galley, in bow two eighteen pounders; in stern, two nine pounders. There were also a number of fire-rafts.
** De Chastellux, i., 262.
Repulse of the Hessians at Red Bank.—Count Donop.—Lieutenant-colonel Greene.—Monument at Red Bank.
forced back, and driven out with great loss. They retreated precipitately to Haddonfield, under Lieutenant-colonel Linsing, (Donop, and Mingerode, his second in command, being wounded), leaving between three and four hundred of their comrades behind. They were considerably galled, when first retreating, by the American galleys and floating batteries in the river. The conflict was short, but severe. The precise loss of the enemy is not known. Marshall estimates it at four hundred in killed and wounded. Colonel Donop, the commander of the expedition, fell, mortally wounded, at the first fire. After the engagement, while Manduit, the French engineer, who directed the American artillery on the occasion, was out with a detachment, fixing the palisades, he heard a voice among the slain, saying, "Whoever you are, draw me hence." It was the voice of Count Donop. Manduit had him conveyed into the fort, and the next day to Mr. Whitall's, where he attended him until his death, which occurred three days afterward. "It is finishing a noble career early" [he was thirty-seven], said Donop to Manduit, "but I die the victim of my ambition and of the avarice of my sovereign." * The loss of the Americans within the fort was eight men killed, twenty-nine wounded, and a captain taken prisoner while reconnoitering. The number killed by the bursting of the cannon, mentioned on a preceding page, is not known. So close was the combat at one time, that several Hessians were pierced by the gun-wads of the Americans. **
The conduct of Lieutenant-colonel Greene *** on this occasion was highly applauded, andNovember 4, 1777Congress ordered the Board of War to present him with an elegant sword.
This tribute was given to his family at the close of the contest, when Colonel Greene was no longer living to receive it. He had been basely murdered in his quarters, near Croton River, in Westchester county, New York, by a band of Tories, consisting of about one hundred and fifty dragoons, under Colonel Delaney, who surprised his post. Colonel Greene fell after his single arm had slain several of his assailants. They attempted to carry him off, but he died upon the road. Major Flagg, a meritorious officer, was killed at the same time; also two subalterns and twenty-seven men were killed or wounded. ****
In commemoration of the battle at Red Bank and the valor of Colonel Greene, a monument of blue veined marble, about fifteen feet high, was erected in 1829, just within the northern line of the outworks of Fort Mercer, and within a few feet of the margin of the Delaware. This tribute to the memory of valor and patriotism was made by some New Jersey and Pennsylvania volunteers. While it is a testimony of one of the most noble traits in human character, it bears an exhibition of the existence of another of the most detestable. In the inscription were the wordsNew Jersey and Pennsylvania, in a single prominent line. Some Jersey scoundrel almost obliterated the word Pennsylvania; and afterward some Pennsylvania Vandal, in the fierceness of his retaliatory zeal for the credit of his state, disgraced it, so far as insignificance could do it, by obliterating the words New Jersey. The whole line is destroyed; and that marble shaft perpetuates a remembrance of unknown barbarians as well as of honored patriots. (v)
* De Chastellux, i., 266.
** Marshall. Ramsay. De Chastellux. Major Ward's Letter.
*** Christopher Greene, a native of Rhode Island, was a brave and accomplished soldier. When the battles at Lexington and Concord awakened the nation, he went to the field. After the battle of Bunker Hill he was appointed colonel of a Rhode Island regiment, and in that capacity accompanied Arnold through the wilderness to Quebec, and fought bravely under the walls of that city, when beleaguered by Montgomery. In the autumn of 1777, he was placed in chief command at Fort Mercer, at Red Bank, with his own and Angell's regiments, which formed a part of General Varnum's brigade. He there behaved with gallantry, and received marks of approbation from Congress. He continued in active service until his death, which occurred on the 13th of May, 1781, at the age of forty-four years. Lieutenant-colonel Greene left a widow, with three sons and four daughters. She was the child of J. Lippitt, Esq., of Warwick, Rhode Island.
**** See Heath's Memoirs. Bolton, in his History of Westchester County (ii., 391), says that the house in which Greene was quartered belonged to Richard Davenport, and is situated at the end of a narrow lane which diverges from the Pine's Bridge road, about a mile below the residence of William Smith. When he wrote (1848) the house was in the possession of Joshua Carpenter, a grandson of Davenport.
* (v) The following is a copy of the inscriptions upon the monument: South side.—"This monument was erected on the 22d Octo., 1829, to transmit to Posterity a grateful remembrance of the Patriotism and Gallantry of Lieutenant-colonel Christopher Greene, who, with 400 men, conquered the Hessian army of 2000 troops (then in the British service), at Red Bank, on the 22d Octo., 1777. Among the slain was found their commander, Count Donop, whose body lies interred near the spot where he fell." West side.—"A number of the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Volunteers, being desirous to perpetuate the memory of the distinguished officers and soldiers who fought and bled in the glorious struggle for American Independence, have erected this monument, on the 22d day of October, A.D. 1829."
Attack on Fort Mifflin.—American Flotilla.—Lieutenant-colonel Smith.
The firing of the first gun from the Hessian battery upon Fort Mercer was the signal for the British vessels to approach and attack Fort Mifflin. They had already made their way through the lower barrier at Billingsport, and the Augusta, a sixty-four gun ship, and several smaller vessels, were anchored just above it, waiting for flood tide.
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As soon as Fort Mercer was attacked, the Augusta, with the Roebuck, of forty-four guns, two frigates, the Merlin, of eighteen guns, and a galley came up, but were kept at bay by the American galleys and floating batteries. These galleys did good execution, not only upon the British vessels, but by flanking the assailants at Red Bank.
The attack upon Fort Mifflin was deferredOctober 23, 1777until next morning, when, the Hessians being driven from Fort Mercer, the whole power of the American flotilla was brought to bear upon the British fleet. A heavy cannonade was opened upon Fort Mifflin, and attempts were made to get floating batteries in the channel in the rear of Mud Island. Lieutenant-colonel Smith, * the commandant at Fort Mifflin, who was vigilant and brave, thwarted every attempt thus to outflank him (if the term may be used in reference to a garrison in a fort), and by a gallant defense essentially aided the American flotilla in repulsing the enemy. The fire was so fierce and incessant, that the British ships endeavored to fall down the river. A hot shot struck and set fire to the Augusta; and at noon, while lying aground upon a mud bank near the Jersey Monument at Red Bank. **
* Samuel Smith was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, July 27th, 1752. His education, commenced at Carlisle, was completed at an academy at Elkton, in Maryland, after his father made Baltimore his place of residence. He was in his father's counting-house five years, and then, in 1772, sailed for Havre in one of his father's vessels, as supercargo. Having traveled extensively in Europe, he returned home to find his countrymen in the midst of the excitements of the opening of the Revolutionary hostilities. The battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill had been fought. Fired with patriotic zeal, he sought to serve his country in the army, and in January, 1776, obtained a captain's commission in Colonel Smallwood's regiment. He was soon afterward promoted to the rank of major, and early in 1777 he received a lieutenant colonel's commission. In that capacity he served with distinction in the battles of Brandywine and Fort Mifflin, suffered at Valley Forge, and participated in the action on the plains of Monmouth. At the close of the war he was appointed a brigadier general of militia, and commanded the Maryland quota of troops in the "Whisky Insurrection" in Pennsylvania. He served as major general in the war of 1812, and commanded the troops assembled for the defense of Baltimore in 1814. During a riot in Baltimore in 1836, when the civil power was inadequate to quell the violence of the mob, the aged general, then eighty-four years old, appeared in the streets with the United States flag, placed himself at the head of peaceful citizens, and very soon restored order and tranquillity. In the autumn of that year he was elected mayor of the city, which office he held until his death on the 22d of April, 1839, at the age of eighty-seven years. General Smith was elected a representative in Congress in 1793, and served until 1803. He was again elected in 1816, and served six years longer. He was also a member of the United States Senate for a period of twenty-three years. The accompanying portrait is from an engraving by St. Memin, an artist who engraved a large number of the distinguished men of our country at about the commencement of the present century. The signature is from a frank, kindly sent to me by his son, General Smith, president of the Maryland Historical Society.
** This view includes the monument, a portion of the Delaware, and the mouth of the Schuylkill, on the western shore.
Successful Defense of Fort Mifflin.—Preparations for another Attack.—Plan of the Fort.
shore, she blew up. The engagement continued with the other vessels until three o'clock in the afternoon, when the Merlin also took fire and blew up, near the mouth of Mud Creek. The conflict now ceased; the Roebuck dropped down the river, and passed below thechevaux de frisé* at Billingsport, and the Americans remained masters of the Delaware forts for a short season. **
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It was, indeed, cut a short season that quiet possession of the river was vouchsafed the patriots. Although repulsed, his ships beaten back, and his mercenary allies decimated, Howe was not discouraged; and he labored eagerly and hopefully to dislodge the Americans from their strong posts upon the only avenue through which his army could receive food and clothing, and his magazine supplies for the winter.
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A timely re-enforcement from New York enabled him to act with energy. He took possession of Province Island, lying between Fort Mifflin and the main, and at different points works were thrown up to strengthen his power and annoy the patriots. This was on the 1st of November; and from that time never, was a garrison more harassed than that at Fort Mifflin; and never was patience and courage more nobly exhibited than was then shown by Lieutenant-colonel Smith and his compatriots.
Old Fort Mifflin was upon the lower end of Mud (now Fort) Island, having its principal fortification in front, for the purpose of repelling ships that might come up the river.
On the side toward Province Island (a low mud bank, nearly covered at high water, and separated from Mud Island by a narrow channel) the fort had only a wet ditch, without ravelin or abatis. This part was flanked by a blockhouse at each of its angles. These were not strong. When the Americans saw the enemy take possession of Province Island, and begin the planting of batteries to bruise their weakest points, they were sensible that Fort Mifflin would be untenable if the British completed their works. Such, too, was the painful conviction of Washington, and from his camp at Whitemarsh he put forth all his energies to prevent the evil. But, weak in numbers, and deficient in every thing which constitutes the strength of an army, he was obliged to see the enemy, day alter day, rearing his battle-works, without being able to interpose. He had sent anxious requests to General Gates to forward re-enforcements from the North, Burgoyne's invading army being cap-
* The Merlin, like the Augusta, had got aground, and stuck so fast that it was impossible to get her off. The obstructions which the Americans had placed in the river had caused such a change in the channels, that the pilots of the British vessels were completely at fault.
** On the 4th of November, ten days after the battle, Congress honored Lieutenant-colonel Smith and Commodore Hazlewood, by voting each an elegant sword.—Journals of Congress, iii., 374.
*** Explanation.—A, the inner work or redoubt; bbb, a high, thick stone wall, built by Montressor, with indentations, where the men boiled their kettles. This wall was pierced with loop-holes for musketry. cccc block-houses, built of wood, with loop-holes, and mounting four pieces of cannon each, two on the lower platform; ddd, barracks; eee, stockadoes; fff trous de Loup; g g, ravelins. On the southeast side were two strong piers, and a battery mounting three cannons.
Washington's Efforts to Re enforce his Army.—Conduct of Gates and Putnam.—Second Attack on Fort Mifflin.
tured, and no other formidable enemy requiring a large force in that quarter; but that officer, doubtless willing to see hisrivalunsuccessful, gave no heed to his orders until longer non-compliance would have been positive disobedience. * To break up the encampment at Whitemarsh, and move the army to the west side of the Schuylkill, would be to leave depositories of stores and hospitals for the sick within reach of the enemy. It would also leave the fords of the Schuylkill in the custody of the royal troops, and render a junction of the expected Northern forces with the main army difficult, if not impossible. Furthermore, it might bring on a general engagement, which, with his weakened forces, the commander-inchief knew might be fatal. Thus situated, Washington viewed the progress of the enemy in his designs upon Fort Mifflin with intense anxiety.
The British erected five batteries on Province Island, of eighteen, twenty-four, and thirty-two pounders, within five hundred yards of Fort Mifflin. They also brought up, by the new channel made between Hog Island and the main by the changing of the current by thechevaux de frise, a large floating battery, mounting twenty-two twenty-four pounders, within forty yards of an angle of the fort. They also brought to bear upon the fort four sixty-four gun ships, within nine hundred yards, and two forty gun ships. Altogether the enemy had fourteen strong redoubts, and these were well manned and furnished with heavy artillery. On the 10th of November, the enemy opened their batteries on land and water, and for six consecutive days poured a storm of bombs and round shot upon the devoted fortification. With consummate skill and courage, Lieutenant-colonel Smith directed the responses from the ordnance of the fort. The artillery, drawn chiefly from Colonel Lamb's regiment, were commanded by Lieutenant Treat, who was killed on the first day of the siege, by the bursting of a bomb. On that day the barracks alone suffered, but on the morning of the 11th the direction of the enemy's fire was changed; a dozen of the strong palisades were demolished, and a cannon in an embrasure was disabled. The firing did not cease until midnight, and many of the garrison were killed or wounded. Colonel Smith, the commander, had a narrow escape. He had just gone into the barracks to write a letter to General Varnum, when a ball passed through a chimney. He was struck by the scattered bricks, and for a time lay senseless. He was taken across to Red Bank, and the command devolved on Lieutenant-colonel Russell, of the Connecticut line. That officer was disabled by fatigue and ill health, and Major Thayer, of the Rhode Island line, volunteered to take his place. Major Henry, who sent daily reports to Washington of the progress of the siege, was also wounded on the 11th, but he continued with the garrison. On the 12th, a two-gun battery of the Americans was destroyed, the northwest block-house and laboratory were blown up, and the garrison were obliged to seek shelter within the fort. The enemy continued to throw shells at night, and fearful indeed was the scene. At
* Gates had ample stores and a formidable force; and had he acted with the energy of true patriotism, he might have re-enforced Washington, by which the Delaware forts could have been saved, and the enemy driven out of Philadelphia. But he was vainly expecting soon to supersede Washington in the chief command, and he treated his orders with indifference. So tardy were his movements, when he concluded to comply, that Washington sent Colonel Hamilton to hasten his march. When Hamilton arrived at Albany, he found Gates reluctant to part with any of his troops; but, after much persuasion, he consented to send Morgan's corps and some thin brigades to the commander-in-chief. Hamilton was indignant, and by plain speech caused Gates to send a stronger re-enforcement. These, on their march down the Hudson, encountered a check from Putnam, who, dreaming of glory to be derived from an attack on New York, had actually detained a part of the force sent forward by Gates, and had marched them to Tarrytown, while he had himself advanced to White Plains. Thus, by tardy movements in Congress, and the undutiful ambition of subordinate officers, Washington was often foiled. Hamilton, by advice of Governor Clinton, assumed the authority of issuing a peremptory order to Putnam to put the Continental troops in motion for Whitemarsh.
* I now, sir," he wrote, "in the most explicit terms, by his excellency's authority, give it as a positive order from him, that all the Continental troops under your command may be immediately marched to King's Ferry, there to cross the river, and hasten to re-enforce the army under him." The Massachusetts militia and some new recruits were to replace the Continental soldiers thus sent away. So much did Hamilton censure Putnam when he returned to head-quarters, that it was thought a court martial would arraign the veteran; but the matter was passed over without notice, obedience having followed the peremptory order of Washington's representative.
Gallant Defense of Fort Mifflin.—Destructive Effects of Cannons and Bombs.—Plan of Operations on the Delaware
sunrise on the 13th, thirty armed boats made their appearance; and during that night the heavy floating battery was brought to bear upon the fort.
0308m
It opened with terrible effect on the morning of the 14th, yet that little garrison of only three hundred men managed to silence it before noon. Hitherto the enemy did not know the real weakness of the garrison; on that day a deserter, in a boat, carried information of the fact to the British, who were seriously thinking of abandoning the siege, for they had suffered much. Hope was revived, and preparations were made for a general and more vigorous assault. At daylight, on the 15th, the Iris and Somerset, men-of-war, passed up the east channel to attack the fort on Mud Island in front. Several frigates were brought to bear on Fort Mercer; and the Vigilant, an East Indiaman of twenty twenty-four pounders, and a hulk with three twenty-four pounders, made their way through a narrow channel on the western side, and gained a position to act in concert with the batteries on Province Island, in enfilading the American works. At ten o'clock, while all was silent, a signal-bugle sent forth its summons to action, and instantly the land batteries and the shipping poured a terrible storm of missiles upon Fort Mifflin. The little garrison sustained the shock with astonishing intrepidity, and far into the gloom of evening an incessant cannonade was kept up. Within an hour, the only two cannons in the fort which had not been dismounted shared the fate of the others. Every man who appeared upon the platform was killed by the musketeers in the tops of the ships, whose yards almost hung over the American battery. Long before night not a palisade was left; the embrasures were ruined; the whole parapet leveled; the block-houses were already destroyed. Early in the evening Major Thayer sent all the remnant of the garrison to Red Bank, excepting forty men, with whom he remained. Among those sent was the brave Captain
* Note. Explanation of the Map.—This shows the main operations upon the Delaware between the middle of October and the close of November, 1777. Fort Mifflin is seen on the lower end of Mud Island. A, B, two British transports; C, the Experiment; D, the Vigilant frigate; E, the Fury sloop; F, a passage opened through the stockadoes; G, American fleet burned at Gloucester; H. the village of Woodbury and Cornwallis's encampment on the 21st of November, 1777; I, camp on the 24th, between the branches of Timber Creek; J, a battery of two eighteen pounders and two nine pounders; K, fort at Billingsport, Colonel Stirling's corps, and Cornwallis's camp on the 18th of November; L, redoubt on Carpenter's Island; M, on Province Island, to cover the bridge in the direction of Philadelphia; N, a battery of six twenty-four pounders, one eight-inch howitzer, and one eight-inch mortar; 0, a battery with one eight-inch howitzer and one eight-inch mortar; P, a battery with one thirteen-inch mortar; n, two twelve pounders; o, one eighteen pounder; S, stockadoes in the channel in front of Fort Mifllin; a, a small vessel; b. wreck of the Merlin; c, the Liverpool: d. Cornwallis galley; e, the Pearl; f the Somerset; g, the Roebuck; h, wreck of the Augusta; i, the Iris; j. ship sunk; k, the Vigilant; l, the Fury; W, the Whitall house, just below Fort Mercer. The parallelograms around Fort Mercer denote the attack bv Donop, on the 22d of October. The small island between Red Bank Island and the Jersey shore is Woodbury Island, on which the Americans erected a small battery. The creek, just below Fort Mercer, is Woodbury Creek, a deep and sluggish stream, near the Delaware.
Retreat of the Garrison.—Destruction of the Fort.—Movements in New Jersey.—Fort Mercer Abandoned.
(afterward Commodore) Talbot, of the Rhode Island line, who was wounded in the hip, having fought for hours with his wrist shattered by a musket ball. At midnight, every defense and every shelter being swept away, Thayer and his men set fire to the remains of the barracks, evacuated the fort, and escaped in safety to Red Bank. Altogether it was one of the most gallant and obstinate defenses made during the war. In the course of the last day, more than a thousand discharges of cannon, from twelve to thirty-two pounders, were made against the works on Mud Island. Nearly two hundred and fifty men of the garrison were killed and wounded. The loss of the British was great; the number was not certainly known. *
Fort Mercer was still in possession of the Continental troops. Howe determined to dislodge them; for, while they remained, the obstructions in the river could not, with safety, be removed. While a portion of his force was beating down Fort Mifflin, he was busy in fortifying Philadelphia. He had extended intrenchments across from the Delaware to the Schuylkill. Having received more re-enforcements from New York, he sent Cornwallis to fall upon Fort Mercer in the rear. That officer, with a detachment of about two thousand men, crossed the Delaware from Chester to Billingsport, where he was joined by someNovember 18, 1777troops just arrived from New York. Washington had been apprised of this movement, and had detached General Huntington's brigade to join that of Varnum in New Jersey. He also ordered Major-general Greene to proceed with his division to the relief of the garrison, and to oppose Cornwallis. That able officer, accompanied by La Fayette, who had not yet quite recovered from a wound received in the battle on the Brandywine, crossed the Delaware at Burlington, and marched with a considerable force toward Red Bank. He expected to be re-enforced by Glover's brigade, then on its march through New Jersey, but was disappointed. Ascertaining that the force of Cornwallis was greatly superior to his own in numbers, General Greene abandoned the plan of giving him battle, and filed off toward Haddonfield. Colonel Greene, deprived of all hope of succor, evacuated Fort Mercer, leaving the artillery, with a considerable quantity of cannon-balls and stores, in the handsNovember 20of the enemy. Cornwallis dismantled the fort and demolished the works. His army was augmented by re-enforcements, and, with about five thousand men, he took post at and fortified Gloucester Point, whence he might have a supervision of affairs in Lower Jersey. Morgan's rifle corps joined General Greene, but the Americans were not strong enough to venture a regular attack upon Cornwallis. A detachment of one hundred and fifty riflemen, under Lieutenant-colonel Butler, and an equal number of militia, under La Fayette, attacked a picket of the enemy three hundred strong, killed between twenty and thirty of them, drove the remainder quite into the camp at Gloucester, and returned without losing a man. General Greene soon afterward withdrew from New Jersey and joined Washington, and Cornwallis returned to Philadelphia. The American fleet, no longer supported by the forts, sought other places of safety. On a dark night, the galleys, oneNovember 21, 1777brig, and two sloops, crept cautiously along the Jersey shore past Philadelphia, and escaped to Burlington. Seventeen other vessels, unable to escape, were abandoned by their crews, and burned at Gloucester. ** The American defenses on the Delaware were now scattered to the winds; the obstructions in the river were removed; the enemy had full possession of Philadelphia; Congress had fled to the interior, and the broken battalions of the patriot army sought winter quarters on the banks of the Schuylkill, at Valley Forge.
Gloomy indeed were the November twilights of 1777 to the eye and heart of the patriot, for there were no brilliant omens of a pleasant to-morrow. Not so was the bright sunset and radiant twilight of that November evening in 1848, when we left the ruins at Red Bank and sought a waterman to convey us back to League Island. There was no cloud in the heavens; an orange glow suffused the chambers of the west where the king of day had gone to his couch, and promises of a fair to-morrow were revealed in the clear sky.
* Gordon, ii., 276. Botta, ii., 51. Washington's Letters.
** See plan on the preceding page.
Ancient Philadelphia.—The "Slate-roof House" and its Associations.
"New streets invade the country; and he strays,
Lost in strange paths, still seeking, and in vain,
For ancient landmarks, or the lonely lane
Where oft he play'd at Crusoe, when a boy.
"All that was lovely then is gloomy now:
Then, no strange paths perplex'd him, no new streets,
Where draymen bawl, while rogues kick up a row,
And fish-wives grin, while fopling fopling meets."
William Elliott.
"But all are passing fast away;
Those abstruse thinkers too—
Old churches, with their walls of gray,
Must yield to something new.
Be-Gothic'd things, all neat and white,
Greet every where the traveler's sight."
Elizabeth Oakes Smith.
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ET us stroll through ancient Philadelphia this clear frosty morningNovember 28, 1848ing, and visit the few fossil remains of the primitive period that lie amid the elegant structures and "be-Gothic'd things" of the present, like trilobites in secondary limestone. We shall have little to do with the great town stretching away to the Schuylkill; it is near the banks of the Delaware that we must seek for the places hallowed by the remembrance of
"The deeds of our fathers in times that are gone;
Their virtues, their prowess, the fields they have won;
Their struggles for freedom, the toils they endured,
The rights and the blessings for us they procured."
One of the most interesting buildings in Philadelphia is the "Slate-roof House," on the southeast corner of Norris's Alley and Second Street, a little south of Chestnut Street. It was built about 1690 for Samuel Carpenter, and was occupied by William Penn as his city residence in the year 1700. * There was the birth-place of John Penn, the governor of Pennsylvania when the Revolution broke out, the only child of William Penn born in this country. From that circumstance he was called "the American." There, in 1702, Lord Cornbury, then governor of New York and New Jersey, was magnificently entertained, with his suite of fifty persons. James Logan, William Penn's agent, also entertained him at Pennsbury, in a style quite in dissonance with the plain character of Quakers. This house was sold to William Trent, the founder of Trenton, in 1703. For nearly fifty years afterward it was occupied by some of the first men of Philadelphia (among whom was Deputy-governor Hamilton), when it became noted as a superior boarding-house. There General Forbes, the successor of Braddock, died in 1759. In 1764 it was rented by the Widow Graydon, mother of Captain Graydon, the author of "Memoirs of Sixty Years' Life in Pennsylvania." Captain Graydon describes the house as "a singular, old-fashioned structure, laid out in the style of a fortification, with abundance of angles, both salient and re-entering Its two wings projected to the street in the manner of bastions, to which the main building, retreating from sixteen to eighteen feet, served as a curtain. It had a spacious
* Penn had a fine eountry residence, sometimes called "The Palace," in Bucks county, on the bank of the Delaware, nearly opposite Bordentown. It was constructed in 1683, at an expense of $35,000.
Loxley's House.—Mrs. Darrah and the British Adjutant General.
yard half way to Front Street, ornamented with a double row of venerable, lofty pines, which afforded a very agreeable rus in urbe in the heart of the city." *
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John Adams and other members of the first Continental Congress boarded in theSlate-roof House; and there many British officers had lodgings while the city was in possession of the royal troops in 1778. A young ladies' boarding-school was kept there at one time, in which a daughter of General Wayne was educated. ** General Arnold occupied it as his residence while military governor of Philadelphia in 1778; and there were given those splendid entertainments before and after his marriage with Miss Shippen, which contributed to involve him in those debts that aided in producing his defection to the American cause.
Strolling down South Second Street, I came to an antiquated building, at No. 177, known as "Loxley's House." Its gallery in front was sometimes used as a preaching-place by Whitefield. The house was then out of town, over "the Second Street Bridge." In front of it was a gentle hill, whose slopes afforded a fine resting-place for the immense audiences who listened to the great missionary. On that hill Captain (afterward General) Cadwallader used to drill his "silk stocking company." ****
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Mr. Loxley, the first owner of the house, was a lieutenant of artillery under Braddock, and was present at the defeat of that general at the Great Meadows.
During the Revolution, the Loxley House was the residence of a Quaker named William Darrah, or Darrach, whose wife, Lydia, was a true heroine and patriot. While the British had possession of Philadelphia, the adjutant general made his quarters at Darrah's; and it being a secluded spot, the superior officers of the army used frequently to hold their confidential meetings there. On one of these occasions, the adjutant general ordered Mrs. Darrah to make the upper back room ready for the reception of his friends, who were expected to stay late; "And," he added, in giving his order, "be sure, Lydia, your family are all in bed at an early hour."
His manner was emphatic; and Mrs. Darrah, fearing to disobey, prepared for their reception. The order impressed her quick perception with curiosity, and she resolved to know the purport of the meeting. When the officers came the family were in bed, Lydia alone being up to receive them. This done, she retired to her own couch without undressing. She was restless, and at length a higher impulse than mere curiosity determined her to become a listener. Softly she stole from her room, and, without shoes, traversed the passage to the door of the apartment where the officers were assembled. She applied her ear to the keyhole, when, after a few minutes of silence within, a voice read distinctly an order of Sir William Howe for the troops to quit the city the next night, and march out to an attack upon Washington's camp at Whitemarsh. Lydia had heard enough, and, gliding back to her room, she threw herself on her bed, but not to sleep. In a few minutes there
* Memoirs, page 53.
** Watson's Annals of Philadelphia, i., 163.
*** This view is from Second Street. The building is of imported brick, except the modern addition between the wings, which is now occupied as a clothing store by an Israelite. The house is suffered to decay, and doubtless the broom of improvement will soon sweep it away, as a cumberer of valuable ground.
**** Watson, i., 412.
Information sent to Washington's Camp by Mrs. Darrah.—Disappointment of the British.
was a rap at the door; she knew its meaning, and feigned deep slumber. At the third knock she arose quickly, and let the adjutant general and his friends depart.
Mrs. Darrah now possessed a momentous seeret. She was a true friend to her country, and she felt that she had a duty to perform, and that quickly. In the still hour of the night she sent up a silent petition for heavenly guidance, and at dawn she was astir.