It was almost breast-deep, and half filled with ice; yet the soldiers obeyed, and, in their mail of frozen clothes, hastened on toward Princeton. When near the town, the advanced guard was brought to a halt by the discharge of an iron thirty-two-pounder, which the enemy had left on a temporary breast-work at the west end of the village. ** Cornwallis, apprehending that Washington had determined to make a stand at Princeton, halted his column, and sent out reconnoitering parties of horsemen. In the mean while, a large detachment approached the
* Major Kelley continued cutting away a portion of the bridge while the balls of the enemy were menacing his life. He was cutting away a log on which some of the timbers rested, when it gave way sooner than was expected, and he was precipitated into the stream. His men, supposing him to be lost, fled to Princeton. He got out of the water; but his frozen clothes and exhaustion so retarded his progress, that he was made a prisoner by the enemy.
** This cannon is now in the center of the Campus, in the rear of the College of New Jersey, at Princeton. It was one of the pieces which Washington was unable to carry away with him.
*** This substantial stone bridge, over Stony Brook, is upon the site of the wooden one destroyed on the 3d of January, 1777. The old mill on the left is now owned by Josiah S. Worth, a son of the proprietor during the Revolution. This sketch was made from the road on the bank of the stream, along which Mercer and his detachment marched to secure the bridge.
Disappointment of the Enemy.—The Loss sustained.—Washington's Pursuit.—Fatigue of the Americans.
battery cautiously, intending to take it by storm. These movements delayed them an hour, and when they arrived at the breast-work and the village, great was their astonishment and chagrin to find both deserted, and not a rebel in sight! Washington, with his little army and prisoners, was far on his way toward the Millstone Enver, in hot pursuit of the fortieth and fifty-fifth regiments.
The battle at Princeton and its results, following closely upon the brilliant affair at Trenton, produced a strong impression upon the public mind favorable to the commander-in-chief and the patriot cause.
