of the outworks. But when the enemy were within a hundred yards or so of the fort, into which the soldiers had crowded, Magaw could not prevail upon his men to man the lines; and hence the whole force, nearly three thousand in number, and all the artillery, were surrendered into the hands of the enemy. "Washington,"— to use Mr. Irving's words—"surrounded by several officers, had been an anxious spectator of the battle from the opposite side of the Hudson. Much of it was hidden from him by intervening hills and forests; but the roar of cannonry from the valley of Harlem River, the sharp and incessant reports of rifles, and the smoke rising above the tree-tops, told him of the spirit with which the assault was received at various points, and gave him for a time a hope that the defence might be successful. The action about the lines to the south, lay open to him, and could be distinctly seen through a telescope; and nothing encouraged him more, than the gallant style in which Cadwalader, with an inferior force, maintained his position. When he saw him, however, assailed in flank, the line broken, and his troops overpowered by numbers, retreating to the fort, he gave up the game as lost. The worst sight of all, was to behold his men cut down and bayoneted by the Hessians, while begging quarter. It is said so completely to have overcome him, that he wept 'with the tenderness of a child.'"[1]
The surrender of Fort Washington rendered Fort Lee untenable. Washington accordingly directed it to be evacuated, and a removal of the stores to be immediately commenced. But before this could be effected, Lord Cornwallis landed on the Jersey side, six or seven miles above Fort Lee, with the purpose of enclosing the garrison between the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers. The retreat, consequently, had to be hastened, and the heavy cannon and military stores were left behind.
Washington was quite aware that he could not dispute the passage of the river; he therefore only made a show of resistance, until his stores could be removed, and then, crossing the Passaic took post at Newark. There he remained several days, making the most urgent entreaties for reinforcements from any and every quarter, and particularly pressing upon General Lee, whom he had left with a strong force at North Castle, to join him at the earliest possible moment.
It was a gloomy prospect which the commander-in-chief had before him at this date. With his army reduced to some three thousand men, who were dispirited and almost hopeless, badly furnished, with no means of entrenching themselves, without tents to shelter them from the approaching winter's snow and ice, and in the midst of a lukewarm if not hostile population, it required a power of 'endurance, such as few men possess, to bear up at all under such a pressure of adversity. The British army, more than twenty thousand strong, composed of veteran troops, were in excellent condition, and confident of an easy victory over the frag-
- ↑ Irving's "Life of Washington," vol. ii., p. 483.
