, with his men,
rushed into the little town, and almost before they knew what had
happened, a thousand Germans were made prisoners. The rest escaped
to tell Lord Cornwallis how the Americans had beaten them. When
Washington was driven out of New York, many Americans thought he
would be captured. Now they were filled with joy. The battle of
Trenton was the first battle won by the Continental Army.

[Footnote 23: See map in paragraph 135.]

139. Our victory at Princeton, New Jersey; the British take
Philadelphia; winter at Valley Forge; Burgoyne beaten; the king of
France agrees to help us.--Washington took his thousand prisoners
over into Pennsylvania. A few days later he again crossed the
Delaware into New Jersey. While Cornwallis was fast asleep in his
tent, he slipped round him, got to Princeton,[24] and there beat a
part of the British army. Cornwallis woke up and heard Washington's
cannon. "That's thunder," he said. He was right; it was the thunder
of another American victory.

[Illustration: WASHINGTON ON HORSEBACK.]

But before the next winter set in, the British had taken the city
of Philadelphia, then the capital of the United States. Washington's
army was freezing and starving on the hillsides of Valley Forge,[25]
about twenty miles northwest of Philadelphia.

But good news was coming. The Americans had won a great victory at
Saratoga, New York,[26] over the British general, Burgoyne.[27] Dr.
Franklin was then in Paris. When he heard that Burgoyne was beaten,
he hurried off to the palace of the French king to tell him about
it. The king of France hated the British, and he agreed to send money,
ships, and soldiers to help us. When our men heard that at Valley
Forge, they leaped and hurrahed for joy. Not long after that the
British left Philadelphia, and we entered it in triumph.

[Footnote 24: Princeton: see map in paragraph 135.]

[Footnote 25: Valley Forge: see map in paragraph 135.]

[Footnote 26: Saratoga: see map in paragraph 135.]

[Footnote 27: Burgoyne (Bur'goin).]

140. The war at the South; Jasper; Cowpens; Greene and
Cornwallis.--While these things were happening at the north, the
British sent a fleet of vessels to take Charleston, South Carolina.
They hammered away with their big guns at a little log fort under
command of Colonel Moultrie. In the battle a cannon-ball struck the
flag-pole on the fort, and cut it in two. The South Carolina flag
fell to the ground outside the fort. Serg