ot only discontent but open mutiny had begun
to manifest itself. Hence Knyphausen was secure from danger, though,
in the month of January, Washington detached Lord Stirling to Staten
Island, to act on the offensive. Stirling crossed over the ice from the
Jersey shore, surprised a small post, and took some prisoners; but he
was obliged to quit the island, and in his retreat lost some of his
own men, who served to exchange for the prisoners he had taken. This
expedition was followed by another on the part of the British, to drive
the Americans from a post at Young's House, in the neighbourhood of
the White Plains, which was attended with greater success. The post
was stormed and carried; forty of the enemy were killed, and about one
hundred taken prisoners. Nothing further was attempted by Knyphausen
during the continuance of the frost; but in the month of June,
encouraged by the weakness and distress which still prevailed in
Washington's camp, he detached a considerable force, under Brigadiers
Mathew and Stirling, to make an attempt to re-establish the ancient
government in New Jersey. Mathew and Stirling marched up the country
towards Springfield, but they were disappointed in their expectation of
the people joining them, and were obliged to retreat to Elizabethtown.
A few days after this Sir Henry Clinton arrived from Charlestown, and
though he did not approve of the movement which Knyphausen had ordered,
as the soldiers were at Elizabethtown, and as Washington had come down
to the hills near Springfield to protect the Jerseys, he resolved to
attempt to bring him to action. Mistaking some of the movements made by
the British, Washington marched towards Pompton to defend West Point,
and in his absence Sir Henry Clinton defeated General Greene, who was
left at Springfield for its protection, and reduced the town to ashes.
Washington, however, could not be brought to action, and Clinton,
expecting the arrival of the French armament, returned in haste to New
York. In the meantime, Lafayette, who had returned to France to quicken
the exertions of his countrymen, presented himself in the American camp,
with a promise from his sovereign of speedy assistance. Encouraged by
this promise, congress, who had recently neglected Washington's army,
probably from the feelings of despair, made an extraordinary effort to
give his troops some appearance of respectability before the arrival of
their French allies. These allies arrived in Ju