r-like fashion, and they had to a man volunteered to remain with
him for six weeks longer, or as much more time as was necessary to
enable him to complete his campaign before he went into winter
quarters. He was at last able to pay them their long deferred salary
out of the fifty thousand dollars sent him by Robert Morris, which
Seymour and Talbot that day had brought him; and for their future
reward he cheerfully pledged his own vast estate, an example of
self-sacrifice which Greene, Stark, Talbot, Seymour, and others of the
officers who possessed property, at once emulated. The men were put in
good spirits by a promise of ten dollars' bounty also, and they were
ready and eager for a fight.

Reed, attended by six young gentlemen of the Philadelphia Troop, had
been sent out to reconnoitre. Up toward Princeton they had surprised a
British outpost composed of a sergeant and twelve dragoons; the
sergeant escaped, but the twelve dragoons, panic-stricken, were
captured after a short resistance; and Reed and his gallant young
cavaliers returned in triumph to headquarters. Valuable information
was gained from this party. Cornwallis had joined Grant at Princeton,
and with seven or eight thousand men was assembling wagons and
transportation, preparing for a dash on Trenton. Confirmation of this
not unexpected news came by a student from the college, who had escaped
to Cadwalader and been sent up to General Washington. The situation of
Washington was now critical, but he took prompt measures to relieve it.
Cadwalader from the Crosswicks, and Mifflin from Bordentown, with
thirty-six hundred men, were ordered forward at once. They promptly
obeyed orders, and by another desperate night march reached Trenton on
the morning of the first day of the year.

There was heavy skirmishing all day on the second. Cornwallis,
advancing in hot haste from Princeton with eight thousand men, was
checked, and lost precious time, by a hot rifle fire from the wood on
the banks of the Shabbakong Creek, near the road he followed in his
advance. The skirmishers under Greene, seconded by Hand, after doing
gallant service and covering themselves with glory by delaying the
advance for several hours, giving Washington ample time to withdraw his
army across the Assunpink and post it in a strong defensive position,
had retired in good order beyond the American line. In the skirmish
Lieutenant Von Grothausen, he who had galloped away with the dragoo