honor to the most honorable society
of midwives, and to them only." The purport was to keep at a distance
from the enemy, and annoy them by detachments. Lee, according to
Hamilton, was the prime mover of this plan, in pursuance of which a
detachment of fifteen hundred men was sent off under Brigadier-general
Scott, to join the other troops near the enemy's line.

Generals Greene, Wayne, and Lafayette were in the minority in the
council, and subsequently gave separately the same opinion in writing,
that the rear of the enemy should be attacked by a strong detachment,
while the main army should be so disposed as to give a general battle,
should circumstances render it advisable. As this opinion coincided
with his own, Washington determined to act upon it. Sir Henry Clinton
in the meantime had advanced to Allentown, on his way to Brunswick, to
embark on the Raritan. Finding the passage of that river likely to be
strongly disputed by the forces under Washington, and others advancing
from the north under Gates, he changed his plan, and turned to the
right by a road leading through Freehold to Navesink and Sandy Hook;
to embark at the latter place.

Washington, no longer in doubt as to the route of the enemy's march,
detached Wayne with one thousand men to join the advanced corps,
which, thus augmented, was upwards of four thousand strong. The
command of the advance properly belonged to Lee as senior
major-general; but it was eagerly solicited by Lafayette, as an attack
by it was intended, and Lee was strenuously opposed to everything of
the kind. Washington willingly gave his consent, provided General Lee
were satisfied with the arrangement. The latter ceded the command
without hesitation. Scarce, however, had he relinquished the command,
when he changed his mind. In a note to Washington he declared that, in
assenting to the arrangement, he had considered the command of the
detachment one more fitting a young volunteering general than a
veteran like himself, second in command in the army. He now viewed it
in a different light. Lafayette would be at the head of all the
Continental parties already in the line; six thousand men at least; a
command next to that of the commander-in-chief. Should the detachment
march, therefore, he entreated to have the command of it.

Washington was perplexed how to satisfy Lee's punctilious claims
without wounding the feelings of Lafayette. A change in the
disposition of the enemy's line of