w York, and a guard in Amboy, assembled
his army at Brunswick, and gave strong indications of an intention to
penetrate through the country to the Delaware, and reach Philadelphia
by land.

Believing this to be his real design, Washington placed a select corps
of riflemen under the command of Colonel Morgan, an officer who had
distinguished himself in the unfortunate attempt to storm Quebec, and
in whom those peculiar qualities which fit a man for the command of a
partisan corps, designed to act on the lines of a formidable enemy,
were eminently united.

He was ordered to take post at Vanvighton's Bridge on the Raritan,
just above its confluence with the Millstone River, to watch the left
flank of the British army, and seize every occasion to harass it.

[Sidenote: Sir William Howe moves out to Somerset Court House in great
force.]

Early in the morning of the 14th, Sir William Howe, leaving two
thousand men under the command of General Matthews at Brunswick,
advanced in two columns towards the Delaware. The front of the first,
under Lord Cornwallis, reached Somerset Court House, nine miles from
Brunswick, by the appearance of day; and the second, commanded by
General de Heister, reached Middlebush about the same time.

This movement was made with the view of inducing General Washington to
quit his fortified camp, and approach the Delaware,[59] in which
event, the British general expected to bring on an engagement on
ground less disadvantageous than that now occupied by the American
army. But that officer understood the importance of his position too
well to abandon it. On the first intelligence that the enemy was in
motion, he drew out his whole army, and formed it, to great advantage,
on the heights in front of his camp. This position was constantly
maintained. The troops remained in order of battle during the day;
and, in the night, slept on the ground to be defended. In the mean
time the Jersey militia, with an alacrity theretofore unexampled in
that state, took the field in great numbers. They principally joined
General Sullivan, who had retired from Princeton, behind the Sourland
hills towards Flemingtown, where an army of some respectability was
forming, which could readily co-operate with that under the immediate
inspection of the Commander-in-chief.

[Footnote 59: General Howe's letter.]

The settled purpose of General Washington was to defend his camp, but
not to hazard a general action on other