with it,
giving directions to the fire. His position was an exposed one, and he
was repeatedly entreated to fall back; but all such entreaties were
useless when once he became heated in action.

The enemy were training a couple of cannon in the main street to form
a battery, which might have given the Americans a serious check; but
Captain Washington and Lieutenant Monroe, with a part of the advance
guard rushed forward, drove the artillerists from their guns, and took
the two pieces when on the point of being fired. Both of these
officers were wounded; the captain in the wrist, the lieutenant in the
shoulder.

While Washington advanced on the north of the town, Sullivan
approached on the west, and detached Stark to press on the lower or
south end of the town. The British light-horse, and about five hundred
Hessians and chasseurs, had been quartered in the lower part of the
town. Seeing Washington's column pressing in front, and hearing Stark
thundering in their rear, they took headlong flight by the bridge
across the Assunpink, and so along the banks of the Delaware towards
Count Donop's encampment at Bordentown. Had Washington's plan been
carried into full effect, their retreat would have been cut off by
General Ewing; but that officer had been prevented from crossing the
river by the ice.

Colonel Rahl, according to the account of the lieutenant who had
commanded the picket, completely lost his head in the confusion of the
surprise. The latter, when driven in by the American advance, found
the colonel on horseback, endeavoring to rally his panic-stricken and
disordered men, but himself sorely bewildered. With some difficulty he
succeeded in extricating his troops from the town, and leading them
into an adjacent orchard. A rapid retreat by the Princeton road was
apparently in his thoughts; but he lacked decision. The idea of flying
before the rebels was intolerable. Some one, too, exclaimed at the
ruinous loss of leaving all their baggage to be plundered by the
enemy. Changing his mind he made a rash resolve. "All who are my
grenadiers, forward!" cried he, and led his grenadiers bravely but
rashly on, when, in the midst of his career, he received a fatal wound
from a musket ball and fell from his horse. His men, left without
their chief, were struck with dismay; heedless of the orders of the
second in command, they retreated by the right up the banks of the
Assunpink, intending to escape to Princeton. Washington