: but the tired
men cheerfully assisted the tired horses, and the little army made
great progress. The morning of Friday, January the 5th, dawned clear
and cold, with the ground covered with hoar frost. About sunrise the
army, with Washington again in the lead, reached the bridge over Stony
Brook about three miles from the village of Princeton. Leading the
main body across the bridge, they struck off from the main highway
through a by-road which was concealed by a grove of trees in the lower
ground, and afforded a short cut to the town.

General Mercer was an old friend and comrade of the commander-in-chief;
he had been a companion of Prince Charles Edward in his romantic
invasion of England in '45, a member of Braddock's unfortunate
expedition, and wounded when that general's army was annihilated; and
sometime commander of Fort Du Quesne, after its capture by General
Forbes. He was detailed, with a small advance party comprising the
remnants of Smallwood's Marylanders, Haslet's Delawareans, and
Fleming's Virginians, and a small body of young men from the first
families of Philadelphia, to the total number of three hundred, to
continue up the road along the brook until he reached the main road,
where he was to try and hold the bridge in order to intercept fugitives
from Princeton, or check any retrograde movement of the troops which
might have advanced toward Trenton. The little band had proceeded but
a short distance on their way, when they unexpectedly came in sight of
a column of the enemy.

It was the advance of the British, a part of Von Donop's leading
brigade, _en route_ for Trenton to assist Cornwallis in bagging the
"old fox" according to orders,--the Seventeenth Regiment, under Colonel
Mawhood. Mercer's troops being screened by the wood, their character
was not visible to Mawhood, who conjectured that they must be a body of
fugitives from the front. Under this impression, and never dreaming of
the true situation, Mawhood promptly deployed his regiment and moved
off to the left to intercept Mercer, at the same time despatching
messengers to bring up the other two regiments, the Fortieth and
Fifty-fifth, which had not yet left Princeton. Both parties rushed for
a little rising ground on the edge of a cleared field, near the house
of a peaceful Quaker named Clark. The Americans were nearer the goal
than their opponents, and reached it first. Hastily deploying his
column, Mercer sought shelter behind a