nable
intelligence was received that the British general was preparing to
march out in full strength, with the avowed object of forcing
Washington from his position, and driving him beyond the mountains.

[Sidenote: General Howe marches out to Chestnut Hill.]

On the 4th of December, Captain M'Lane, a vigilant officer on the
lines, discovered that an attempt to surprise the American camp at
White Marsh was about to be made, and communicated the information to
the Commander-in-chief. In the evening of the same day, General Howe
marched out of Philadelphia with his whole force; and, about eleven at
night, M'Lane, who had been detached with one hundred chosen men,
attacked the British van at the Three Mile Run, on the Germantown
road, and compelled their front division to change its line of march.
He hovered on the front and flank of the advancing army, galling them
severely until three next morning, when the British encamped on
Chestnut Hill, in front of the American right, and distant from it
about three miles. A slight skirmish had also taken place between the
Pennsylvania militia under General Irvine, and the advanced light
parties of the enemy, in which the general was wounded, and the
militia, without much other loss, were dispersed.

The range of hills on which the British were posted, approached nearer
to those occupied by the Americans, as they stretched northward.

Having passed the day in reconnoitring the right, Sir William Howe
changed his ground in the course of the night, and moving along the
hills to his right, took an advantageous position, about a mile in
front of the American left. The next day he inclined still farther to
his right, and, in doing so, approached still nearer to the left wing
of the American army. Supposing a general engagement to be
approaching, Washington detached Gist with some Maryland militia, and
Morgan with his rifle corps, to attack the flanking and advanced
parties of the enemy. A sharp action ensued, in which Major Morris, of
Jersey, a brave officer in Morgan's regiment, was mortally wounded,
and twenty-seven of his men were killed and wounded. A small loss was
also sustained in the militia. The parties first attacked were driven
in; but the enemy reinforcing in numbers, and Washington, unwilling to
move from the heights, and engage on the ground which was the scene of
the skirmish, declining to reinforce Gist and Morgan, they, in turn,
were compelled to retreat.

[Sidenot