and warm; at length the Americans began to give way, and effected a retreat, with all their artillery. The morning was very foggy, a circumstance which had prevented the Americans from combining and conducting their operations as they otherwise might have done, but which now favored their retreat, by concealing their movements.
In this engagement, the British had six hundred men killed or wounded; among the slain were Brigadier-general Agnew and Colonel Bird, officers of distinguished reputation. The Americans lost an equal number in killed and wounded, besides four hundred, who were taken prisoners. General Nash, of North Carolina, was among those who were killed. After the battle, Washington returned to his encampment at Skippack Creek.[1]
But although the British army had been successful in repulsing the Americans, yet their situation was not comfortable; nor could they easily maintain themselves in Pennsylvania, unless the navigation of the Delaware were opened, and a free communication established between the fleet and army. The upper line of chevaux-de-frise, was protected by a work named Fort Mifflin, erected on a marshy island in the Delaware, called Mud Island, formed by an accumulation of sand and vegetable mould near the Pennsylvania bank of the river, and by a redoubt, called Redbank, on the Jersey side. At a small distance below Mud Island, and nearly in a line with it, are two others, named Province and Hog's Islands; between these and the Pennsylvania bank of the river was a narrow channel, of sufficient depth to admit ships of moderate draught of water. The reduction of Forts Mifflin and Redbank, and the opening of the Delaware, were of essential importance to the British army in the occupation of Philadelphia, In order, therefore, that he might be able more conveniently to assist in those operations, Howe, on the 19th of October, withdrew his army from Germantown, and encamped in the vicinity of Philadelphia.
He dispatched Count Donop, a German officer, with twelve hundred Hessians, to reduce Redbank. This detachment crossed the Delaware, at Philadelphia, on the evening of the 21st of October, and next afternoon reached the place of its destination. Count Donop summoned the fort to surrender; but Colonel Greene, of Rhode Island, who commanded in the redoubt, answered that he would defend his post to the last extremity. Count Donop immediately led his troops to the assault, advancing under a close fire from the fort, and from the American vessels of war. and floating batteries on the river; he forced an extensive and unfinished outwork, but could make no impression on the redoubt. The count
- ↑ Mr. Sparks, in recording this battle, speaks of the good effect of it upon the views of the Count de Vergennes, who remarked to the American commissioners in Paris, "That nothing struck him so much as General Washington's attacking and giving battle to General Howe's army; that to bring an army raised within a year, to this, promises every thing," From this, as well as other occurrences, it is evident that the French government narrowly scanned the military movements of Washington, and also, that, his being the commander-in-chief, had an important bearing upon their final decision to give aid to the American cause.
