CAPTURE OF FORT LEE, AND RETREAT OF WASHINGTON.
Immediately after this success, Lord Cornwallis crossed the North River, and drove the Americans from Fort Lee, which was nearly opposite Fort Washington, and took all their artillery, provision, and stores. This advance induced the American general to quit his post on the Croton, and fall back upon the river Delaware. Cornwallis penetrated to the remotest parts of East and West Jersey, and on the 24th of November, having received some reinforcements, he marched for Brunswick. He was now within two or three marches of the Americans, who fled before him in dismay; but when he arrived at Brunswick he was ordered to halt. He did not receive orders to advance till the 16th of December, and then it was too late for him to overtake the enemy. When he arrived at Princetown in the afternoon of that day, the last of the Americans had cleared out, and on pursuing them the next morning he reached Trenton only in time to see Washington’s last boats crossing the river. At that time the forces of the American general scarcely amounted to 3000 men, for numbers of them had deserted, and those that remained were chiefly unsteady militia. Beyond the Delaware, indeed, Washington’s force lost all appearance of an army; and the men still continued to desert, though often brought back forcibly to the camp. Lord Cornwallis now desisted from the pursuit, and put his division into winter-quarters, between the Delaware and the Hakensack.