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Pulaski, was too feeble to cope with any considerable force, while the country presented an admirable field for the movements of horse.

The next day Captain Lee took twenty-four more prisoners. Five days after, Cornwallis, while advancing with his column, was suddenly assailed by Maxwell's regiment, thẹ riflemen of which, having formed a sort of ambuscade, poured in a deadly fire upon him. But swept by the artillery and pressed by the formidable masses of the enemy, this brave regiment was compelled to retire with the loss of forty killed and wounded. The British reported their loss to be twenty-two, though a woman from their camp next day said she saw nine wagon loads of wounded brought in. They doubtless suffered more severely than they acknowledged; in fact, as a rule, it was always safe to multi ply the current account given by the enemy of their loss by three. The two armies had continued to draw closer together, and now stood front to front, and a battle was daily expected. Philadelphia was the prize to be struggled for, and Howe and Washington both determined that the conflict should be a decisive one. The latter took position behind Red Clay Creek, directly across the route leading to the city. Howe then advanced, and being joined by General Grant, made a feint to attack the Americans, but instead of concentrating his forces at the assailing point, extended his lines far away to the American right. The two armies were now only two miles apart, and threatened momentarily to come in collision, when Howe ordered a halt. Washington, whose experience during the last campaign had taught him to distrust every movement of Howe, soon discovered that a flank movement was being made to cut him off from

Previous to this there had been no officer in the cavalry of higher rank than colonel. Reed, after being made brigadier, was offered the command, but declined. It was then given to Count Pulaski, a Polish officer of great distinction and bravery.

Philadelphia, and hem him in on a narrow tongue of land from which escape would be impossible, and where he would be compelled under disadvantageous circumstances to fight a decisive battle. He therefore, after carefully reconnoitering the enemy, passed the order quietly through the camp to march, and at two o'clock in the morning of the 9th of September withdrew his army toward the Brandywine, and crossing the river, took possession of the hign grounds on the opposite side, near Chad's Ford.

While Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland were gazing with mingled expectations and fears on the two armies under Washington and Howe, as they slowly closed on each other, and the whole country was filled with conflicting rumors, agitating and cheering by turns, the works were rapidly going up at Saratoga, from which was to recoil the veteran army of Burgoyne. Stark had dealt him a staggering blow by his victory over Baum at Bennington, while Gansevoort's gallant defense of Fort Stanwix, had frustrated his plans in that direction. From every valley and mountain slope the sturdy yeomanry went pouring in to Gates, their patriotism kindled into brighter glow by the shouts of victory that came rolling from Vermont, and down the Mohawk from Fort Stanwix and the bloody field of Oriskany; and their rage redoubled to see the enemy with his ruthless savage allies in the very midst of their autumnal fields, and ravaging the firesides of the innocent and the helpless. Washington's anxiety for the fate of the northern army was equal to that for his own, and he listened with as deep a solicitude for the reports that might reach him thence, as he did to the thunder of the enemy's cannon in his front. In the meantime, Burgoyne finding himself cut off from the assistance of St. Leger by way of the Mohawk, and a dark storm-cloud gathering in his rear, extinguishing the last hope that illumined the weary wilderness he had traversed, and seeing a mighty army rising as it

were from the very earth before him, surveyed with a stern and gloomy eye the prospect that surrounded him. The second crisis in the American Revolution had come. With the simultaneous defeat of the northern and southern armies the nation would be prostrated, and the last hope of securing the alliance of France extinguished. Two such calamities would darken the land with despair, and fill the friends of freedom every where with despondency and gloom.

CHAPTER IX.

Battle of Brandywine-A new account of the loss of the British, found among General Clinton's papers-Washington again offers Howe battle-Defeat of Wayne at Paoli-Philadelphia taken-Fortifications erected at Mud Bank and Red Bank-Tenacity of Washington-Battle of Germantown-Cause of the Defeat of the Americans.

On the morning of the 11th of September the American army, eleven thousand strong, lay stretched along the Brandywine, whose shallow bed at that time, the stream being very low, furnished frequent fording-places. Washington concentrated his main force against the most important of these, called Chads' Ford. The right wing, composed of the three brigades of Sullivan, Stirling, and Stephens, extended up the river, to look out for the fords in that direction, while Armstrong with a thousand militia guarded Pyles' Ford, the only one below. At daybreak Howe put half of his force under Cornwallis, and accompanying it in person, took a road running nearly parallel with the Brandywine, a few miles inland, for the purpose of ascending the stream beyond the farthest outposts of the American army, and crossing it unperceived, come down on Washington's flank. This extraordinary movement, by which an army was separated seventeen miles, a movement similar to one which, but from mere accident or treachery, would have overthrown the allies at Waterloo, here also, by a strange fatuity, was destined to be completely successful. It was a foggy morning, and a dense forest darkened the bank of the stream, on the side where the British lay, almost the entire distance. About nine o'clock Knyphausen, with the other division of the army, took up his line of march directly for Chads' Ford, where Wayne commanded. The fog soon lifted and

rolled away, and the long lines of gleaming bayonets looked like streams of light through the forest, as in beautiful order, and to the sound of fife and drum the columns pushed their way to the river. But the woods as they proceeded seemed alive with Americans, who, concealed by the thick foliage, kept up an incessant attack upon the advance parties and strewed the green uniforms thickly under the greener arcades. Maxwell, who commanded them, made such havoc with his sharp-shooters that a strong corps was sent against him, which forced him back upon the Brandywine. Here, met by reinforcements, he turned furiously on his pursuers, driving them before him till they closed in with the main column. Knyphausen then sent a large detachment to take Maxwell in flank, but the latter detecting the movement, ordered a retreat and recrossed to Wayne. Having cleared the woods of the enemy, Knyphausen moved forward and drew up his division on the bank and began to plant his cannon. The Americans were in high spirits, and several detachments boldly dashed into the stream, and securing a footing on the farther side, fell with loud shouts on the working parties and those detailed to guard them. Knyphausen, enraged at these constant and bold attacks, ordered forward a large force, which advancing to the charge forced the Americans to a rapid retreat. They came on a run through the water which was dashed into spray by the shower of bullets that fell around them. In the meantime Knyphausen opened a heavy cannonade on Wayne, who returned it with spirit, and to all appearance the main effort was to be made at this ford. The former manoeuvered his troops so as to convey the impression of a much larger force than he possessed, while at the same time he was apparently making extensive preparations for an immediate assault on Wayne's battery. While Washington was watching the effect of this heavy cannonade, Sullivan, who had been ordered to take care of the

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