upon our army much sooner, and before it was entirely
under arms. But, as it was, our army attacked them,
beat them out of the town, and put them to flight.
They, thereupon, retired to their former camp, on
Skibback Creek, leaving three hundred dead, six
hundred wounded, and four hundred prisoners behind
them. Our loss is, also, about four hundred killed and
wounded; among the former General Agnew. Lord
Cornwallis, hearing the firing at Philadelphia,
immediately ordered three battalions of grenadiers to
start. He, personally, arrived in time to take part in
the end of the action, but the battalions came too
late.”[1]
It now became of the first importance to Sir William Howe to open the Delaware River, between Wilmington and Philadelphia, to his ships of war and his transports. On these he must in great measure rely for his provisions and communications. The river was barred some ten miles below Philadelphia by chevaux de frise, which were protected by Fort Mercer at Redbank, on the New Jersey shore, and by Fort Mifflin, on an island, near the opposite shore of Pennsylvania. Between the forts obstructions had been sunk in the channel, and these again were defended by galleys. Some boats with provisions had succeeded in slipping
- ↑ MS. Journal of the Jäger Corps. Ewald says that the attack on the chasseurs was evidently a feint, and that, therefore, Knyphausen did not support them, but hastened to the assistance of the right wing.— “Belehrungen,” ubi supra. The Americans opposed to the chasseurs were Pennsylvania militia under General Armstrong.—Bancroft, vol. ix. p. 424. The chasseurs were the only Hessians heavily engaged, but the Leib Regiment and Regiment von Donop were also under fire. The former had four men wounded.
