Although General Cadwallader had not been able to pass the Delaware at the appointed time, yet, believing that Washington was still on the Jersey side, on the 27th, he crossed the Delaware, with fifteen hundred men, about two miles above Bristol; and even after he was informed that the Commander-in-chief had again passed into Pennsylvania, he proceeded to Burlington, and next day marched on Bordentown, the enemy hastily retiring as he advanced. The spirit of the people was again fully roused in Pennsylvania, and considerable numbers of the militia repaired to the standard of Washington, who again crossed the Delaware, on the 29th, and marched to Trenton, where, at the beginning of January, 1777, he found himself at the head of five thousand men.
The alarm was now spread throughout the British army. A strong detachment under General Grant marched to Princeton ; and Lord Cornwallis, who was on the point of sailing for England, was ordered to resume his command in the Jerseys. Cornwallis, joining Grant, pressed forward expeditiously to Trenton. On his approach, Washington crossed to Assumpink Creek, and took post on some high ground, with the rivulet in his front.[1] The British troops advanced, on the afternoon of the 2d of January, and a cannonade ensued, which was kept up until night. Cornwallis, though urged to an immediate attack by some of his officers, concluded to wait till the next morning, when, he doubted not, victory would not be difficult of attainment.
It was a critical moment for Washington and his troops. To await the attack would be temerity; to attempt escape by crossing the Delaware, would be even more hazardous. A council of war was called, at which the bold design was adopted, of getting into the rear of the English, falling upon their magazines at Brunswick, and carrying the war again from the neighborhood of Philadelphia into the mountainous interior of New Jersey. No time was lost in putting the plan into operation. The superfluous baggage was sent down the river to Burlington; the watch-fires were kept up; the patrols were ordered to go their rounds; and still further to deceive the enemy, parties were sent out to labor at the entrenchments, within hearing of their sentinels. About midnight, the army silently denied from the camp, and marched off in a circuitous route through Allentown, towards Princeton.
Although it was the most inclement season of the year, the weather greatly favored the Americans. For two days,it had been rather warm, soft, and foggy, and great apprehension was entertained lest the roads should be almost impassable for a march requiring rapidity; but about the time the march commenced, there was a sudden change in the weather. The wind shifted; an
- ↑ Marshall, speaking of the importance to Washington, of obtaining secret intelligence of the plans of Cornwallis, states, that at that critical moment, Mr. Robert Morris raised on his private credit, in Philadelphia, five hundred pounds in specie, which he transmitted to the commander-in-chief, who employed it in procuring information not otherwise to have been obtained —"Life of Washington,," vol. i., p. 130.
