81. A Brisk Little Fight
BY TENCH TILGHMAN
(1776)[203]
Head Quarters, Newtown 27th. Decemr. 1776.
Honored Sir
I have the pleasure to inform you that I am safe and well after a
most successful enterprise
against three regiments of Hessians consisting of about fifteen hundred
men lying in Trenton,
which was planned and executed under his Excellency's immediate
command. Our party amounted
to twenty-four hundred men, we crossed the river at McKonkeys ferry
nine miles above Trenton,
the night was excessively severe, both cold and snowy, which the men
bore without the least
murmur.
We were so much delayed in crossing the river, that we did
not reach Trenton till eight
o'clock, when the division which the General headed in person,
attacked the enemy's outpost. The
other division which marched the lower road, attacked the advanced
post at Phillip Dickinson's,
within a few minutes after we began ours.
Both parties pushed on with so much rapidity, that the enemy
had scarce time to form,
our people advanced up to the mouths of their field pieces, shot down
their horses and brought
off the cannon. About six hundred ran off upon the Bordentown Road
the moment the attack
began, the remainder finding themselves surrounded laid down their
arms.
We have taken thirty Officers and eight hundred and eighty-six privates among the
former Colonel Rahls the Commandant, who is wounded. The General
left him and the other
wounded officers upon their parole, under their own surgeons, and
gave to all the privates their
baggage. Our loss is only Captain Washington and his lieutenant
slightly wounded and two
privates killed and two wounded.
If the ice had not prevented General Ewing from crossing at
Trenton ferry, and Colonel
Cadwalader from doing the same at Bristol, we should have followed
the blow and driven every
post below Trenton. The Hessians have laid all waste since the' British
troops went away, the
inhabitants had all left the town and their houses were stripped and torn
to pieces.
The inhabitants about the country told us, that the British
protections would not pass
among the Hessians. I am informed that many people have of choice
kept their effects in
Philadelphia supposing if General Howe got possession that they would
be safe. So they may be,
if he only carries British troops with him, but you may depend it is not
in his power, neither does
he pretend to restrain the foreigners. I have just snatched time to scrawl
these few lines by
Colonel Baylor, who is going to Congress—
I am your most dutiful and Affectionate Son
TENCH TILGHMAN.
Head Quarters Newtown 29 Decemr 1776
Dear and Honored Sir
Yours is this moment put into my hands but you would receive
mine by Colonel Baylor giving
you a full account of the affair at Trenton a little after you dispatched
the messenger—We are just
going over to Jersey again in pursuit of the remainder of the Hessian
army who have left
Bordentown—The General waits while I write this much. My most
affectionate love to my sisters.
I am your most dutiful Son
TENCH TILGHMAN.
Head Quarters Morris Town 11th Jany. 1777.
Honored Sir.
It generally happens that when an opportunity to send to
Philadelphia offers, my time is taken
up with the public dispatches. Since our lucky stroke upon the enemy's
rear at
Princetown,[204] they have evacuated all
their posts in New Jersey except Amboy and Brunswick where they are
shut up almost destitute of provisions, fuel and forage.
Depending upon the whole province of New Jersey for
supplies this winter, they had
established no general magazine, but ordered small ones to be laid up
in and about the several
Towns; all these have fallen into our hands. We found most of the mills
on the Raritan full of
flour, laid up for the British Commissaries.
There is no good blood between the English and foreigners;
the former tax the latter with
negligence in the loss of Trenton, which they say is the cause of their
misfortunes.
I received a parcel of hard money from you for Hacket's son;
but as most of the prisoners
taken at Fort Washington are sent out, I think it likely that Hacket may
be among them; if so,
sending in the money would probably be to lose it. I will therefore keep
it till I hear more of the
matter. Whenever you write to or see my sisters remember me most
affectionately to them.
I am most dutifully and Affectionately Yours
TENCH TILGHMAN.
[[203]]
This piece shows what fighting in the field was
like during the Revolution.