d his riflemen had been tardily
detached, he having met them on the march near New Windsor on the
morning of November 2d. Putnam, he found, was busy with the project of
an attack on New York; and Gates was full of reasons why more troops
should not be despatched southward, claiming that there was no
certainty that Sir Henry Clinton had gone to join Howe, and that there
was a possibility of his returning up the river. If his army were
depleted, Albany would be exposed, New England left open to the
ravages of the enemy, and his own contemplated movement against
Ticonderoga abandoned. It was with the greatest difficulty that
Hamilton induced Gates to detach the brigades of Poor and Patterson to
the aid of the commander-in-chief. Washington would not have received
a man, he declared, if the whole could have been kept at Albany with
any decency. Governor Clinton, Hamilton found, was the only general
officer who appreciated Washington's position, and disposed to promote
the general good, independent of personal considerations. Putnam who,
unlike Gates, was innocent of intrigues against the commander-in-chief,
was still so bent upon his favorite scheme of an attack on New York,
that only Hamilton's positive orders, as from Washington, to send the
Continental troops under him southward, retaining the militia, brought
the bellicose veteran to a reluctant compliance. Washington, in a
letter to Putnam, reprimanded his tardiness, concluding with, "I could
wish that in future my orders may be immediately complied with, without
arguing upon the propriety of them." The intrigues in progress around
him made it necessary for Washington at this moment to assert his
superior command, although he acquitted Putnam of any part in them.]

In the meantime, Sir William Howe was following up the reduction of
Fort Mifflin by an expedition against Fort Mercer, which still impeded
the navigation of the Delaware. On the 17th of November, Lord
Cornwallis was detached with two thousand men to cross from Chester
into the Jerseys, where he would be joined by a force advancing from
New York. Apprised of this movement, Washington detached General
Huntington with a brigade, to join Varnum at Red Bank. General Greene
was also ordered to repair thither with his division, and an express
was sent off to General Glover who was on his way through the Jerseys
with his brigade, directing him to file off to the left towards the
same point. These troops, with such m