ddle of October that the impediments were so far removed as to
afford a narrow and intricate passage through them. In the mean time,
the fire from the Pennsylvania shore had not produced all the effect
expected from it; and it was perceived that greater exertions would be
necessary for the reduction of the works than could safely be made in
the present relative situation of the armies. Under this impression,
General Howe, soon after the return of the American army to its former
camp on the Skippack, withdrew his troops from Germantown into
Philadelphia, as preparatory to a combined attack by land and water on
forts Mercer and Mifflin.

After effecting a passage through the works sunk in the river at
Billingsport, other difficulties still remained to be encountered by
the ships of war. Several rows of chevaux-de-frise had been sunk about
half a mile below Mud Island, which were protected by the guns of the
forts, as well as by the moveable water force. To silence these works,
therefore, was a necessary preliminary to the removal of these
obstructions in the channel.

{October.}

[Sidenote: Attack upon Red Bank.]

[Sidenote: Colonel Donop killed and his party repulsed with
considerable loss.]

On the 21st of October, a detachment of Hessians, amounting to twelve
hundred men, commanded by Colonel Count Donop, crossed the Delaware at
Philadelphia, with orders to storm the fort at Red Bank. The
fortifications consisted of extensive outer works, within which was an
intrenchment eight or nine feet high, boarded and fraized. Late in the
evening of the twenty-second. Count Donop appeared before the fort,
and attacked it with great intrepidity. It was defended with equal
resolution. The outer works being too extensive to be manned by the
troops in the fort, were used only to gall the assailants while
advancing. On their near approach, the garrison retired within the
inner intrenchment, whence they poured upon the Hessians a heavy and
destructive fire. Colonel Donop received a mortal wound; and
Lieutenant Colonel Mengerode, the second in command, fell about the
same time. Lieutenant Colonel Minsing, the oldest remaining officer,
drew off his troops, and returned next day to Philadelphia. The loss
of the assailants was estimated by the Americans at four hundred men.
The garrison was reinforced from fort Mifflin, and aided by the
galleys which flanked the Hessians in their advance and retreat. The
American loss, in killed and