taken for the purpose of
covering the country were abandoned; and the British force in New
Jersey was collected at New Brunswick, on the Raritan, and at Amboy, a
small town at the mouth of that river.

Feeble as was the American army, this movement was not effected
without some loss. On the evacuation of Elizabeth town, General
Maxwell attacked the British rear, and captured about seventy men with
a part of their baggage.

The American troops had been so diminished by the extreme severity of
the service, that it was with much difficulty the appearance of an
army could be maintained. Fresh militia and volunteers arrived in
camp, whose numbers were exaggerated by report. These additions to his
small remaining regular force enabled the General to take different
positions near the lines of the enemy, to harass him perpetually,
restrain his foraging parties, and produce considerable distress in
his camp.

{January 12.}

While, with little more than an imaginary army, General Washington
thus harassed and confined his adversary, he came to the hazardous
resolution of freeing himself and his troops from the fear of a
calamity which he found it impossible to elude, and which had proved
more fatal in his camp than the sword of the enemy.

[Sidenote: American army inoculated.]

Inoculation having been rarely practised in the western world, the
American youth remained liable to the small pox. Notwithstanding the
efforts to guard against this disease, it had found its way into both
the northern and middle army, and had impaired the strength of both to
an alarming degree. To avoid the return of the same evil, the General
determined to inoculate all the soldiers in the American service. With
the utmost secrecy, preparations were made to give the infection in
camp; and the hospital physicians in Philadelphia were ordered to
carry all the southern troops, as they should arrive, through the
disease. Similar orders were also given to the physicians at other
places; and thus an army exempt from the fear of a calamity which had,
at all times, endangered the most important operations, was prepared
for the ensuing campaign. This example was followed through the
country; and this alarming disease was no longer the terror of
America.

As the main body of the British army was cantoned in Jersey, and a
strong detachment occupied Rhode Island, General Washington believed
that New York could not be perfectly secure. His intelligence
stre