approach the British cantonments on that side.
General Maxwell was ordered, with all the militia he could collect, to
harass their flank and rear, and to attack their out-posts on every
favourable occasion, while the continental troops, led by himself,
recrossed the Delaware, and took post at Trenton. On the last day of
December, the regulars of New England were entitled to a discharge.
With great difficulty, and a bounty of ten dollars, many of them were
induced to renew their engagements for six weeks.

{1777}

{January 1.}

The British were now collected in force at Princeton under Lord
Cornwallis; and appearances confirmed the intelligence, secretly[52]
obtained, that he intended to attack the American army.

[Footnote 52: In this critical moment, when correct
intelligence was so all important, 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.]

Generals Mifflin and Cadwallader, who lay at Bordentown and Crosswix,
with three thousand six hundred militia, were therefore ordered to
join the Commander-in-chief, whose whole effective force, with this
addition, did not exceed five thousand men.

{January 2.}

Lord Cornwallis advanced upon him the next morning; and about four in
the afternoon, the van of the British army reached Trenton. On its
approach, General Washington retired across the Assumpinck, a creek
which runs through the town. The British attempted to cross the creek
at several places, but finding all the fords guarded, they desisted
from the attempt, and kindled their fires. The Americans kindled their
fires likewise; and a cannonade was kept up on both sides till dark.

The situation of General Washington was again extremely critical.
Should he maintain his position, he would certainly be attacked next
morning, by a force so very superior, as to render the destruction of
his little army inevitable. Should he attempt to retreat over the
Delaware, the passage of that river had been rendered so difficult by
a few mild and foggy days which had softened the ice, that a total
defeat would be hazarded. In any event, the Jerseys would, once more,
be entirely in possession of the enemy; the public mind again be
depressed; recruiting discouraged; and Philadelphia, a second time, in
the grasp of General Howe.