memoir · by a contemporary

The Christian patriot

Hugh Maxwell (1733–1799), 1833

Named on the page for Battle of Princeton.

machine-read Machine-read (OCR) from a scanned book at the Internet Archive: expect misread words and names. The scan itself is at the library.

draft Matched to the battle automatically; not yet reviewed.

Passages that name the battle; the whole book is at Internet Archive.

3 January 1777

Battle of Princeton

PATRIOT.
After this my father was with the army, as it continued to retreat, to Westchester county, then across the North Hiver into New-Jersey, to Newark, New Brunswick, Princeton, Trenton, and across the Delaware into Penn- sylvania. This retreat took place in the month of November, and so rapid was the pursuit, that the rear of our army, pulling down bridges, &c., was often within shot of their pursuers. By the sudden retreat from New -York, and afterwards from Fort Lee, the troops had lost a great part of their baggage, tents, blankets, cooking utensils, dsc. Badly armed, worse clad, and in many instances bare-footed, they often marked their footsteps with blood on the

PATRIOT. 61
<' The out guards of the Hessian troops at Trenton soon fell back ; but kept up a constant retreating fire. Their main body being hard pressed by the Americans, who had already got possession of half their artillery, attempted to file off by a road leading towards Princeton, but were checked by a body of troops thrown

PATRIOT. 61
" The British had a strong battalion of light infantry at Princeton, and a force yet remain- ing in the Delaware, superior to the American army. Washington, therefore, in the evening of the same day, thought it most prudent t©

PATRIOT. 89
'• 11th. — His Excellency the Commander in Chief came down to West-Point, when a coun. cil of war was held at our General's quarters^ in which all the general officers on the ground, and all the colonels and commanding officers of regiments sat, to consider what measures were necessary to be adopted, with respect to the Pennsylvania line. After the council, by order of the Commander in Chief, our General issued orders for the forming of five battalions, by detachment from the several lines, to be held in the most perfect readiness to march on the shortest notice, with four days provisions cook- ed. The mutineers remained on the heights of Princeton, and two emissaiies were sent out to them from the enemy, with offisrs, in writing, promising to redress their grievances, by dis-

Public domain. Text from Internet Archive.