A retreat was decided upon that very night!
Again the fleet horsemen were in the saddle. This time they bore orders for the requisition of all craft between Spuyten Duyvil on the Hudson and Hell Gate on the Sound; and by evening a huge fleet of all sizes and trims were gathered at the Brooklyn side of the river.
The enemy was so close that the sound of their sentries’ voices could be heard, and to move an army of nine thousand men from under their very noses was an appalling military task. And yet it was done. Company by company, regiment by regiment they embarked and under cover of the fog which still prevailed, they slipped across to New York. Horses, wagons, ammunition, provisions and artillery were also transported. By daybreak General Mifflin’s covering party also entered the boats; and in the last of these could be seen the tall figure of Washington, gazing back through the gray light of the morning toward the heights.
“It is what he feared from the first,” whispered George Prentiss to his brother. “They will mount the guns there that will drive him from Manhattan.”
CHAPTER XIX
DESCRIBES HOW GEORGE AND HIS FRIEND START
UPON A DANGEROUS MISSION
The next two weeks were filled with memorable events; they saw the execution of the daring young schoolmaster, Nathan Hale; they witnessed the thronging of the British war-ships into the Hudson, and the landing of Clinton’s heavy force on Manhattan Island at Kip’s Bay; and, also, they saw the massing of Washington’s battered army upon Harlem Heights.
Then began a series of desperate ventures with fire ships, sallying parties and raids in which the brutal Hessians had a chance to show their quality; Fort Washington was taken by Howe; and then began the terrible retreat across the Jerseys. Cornwallis, relentless as a bloodhound, hung upon the trail of the American army. At Newark, his advance guard entered the town as the American rear was leaving it; at Trenton the British reached the banks of the Delaware only to see the camp-fires of the patriots burning on the opposite side.
New Jersey now fell into a state of terror; the Hessians overran everything. Following the example of their leaders, they plundered left and right. None escaped them; Tories suffered as well as patriots; houses “protected” by the sign manual of Cornwallis himself were sacked; women and children were turned out into the winter cold with scarce enough to cover them. In a spirit of retaliation, the American troops on the west of the Delaware also entered into the game of pillage; for miles and miles they looted the homes of all suspected of being in sympathy with the British. This grew in extent until Washington posted most severe penalties for all engaged in plunder.
The knowledge of what was going on in New Jersey excited the most bitter hatred against the Hessians. But through it all, Washington, and those nearest him, remained calm; they watched and waited, and all the time they strove to get their forces into shape to strike a blow that would be at once quick and deadly.
The deeds of the Hessians brought horror to all who heard of them, but to none did the measure seem so full as to George Prentiss. When some fresh enormity reached his ears, there always flashed upon him a picture of a stately manor house in the possession of these lawless ruffians; he saw, also, a white-faced girl and a helpless old man, and none to lift a hand in their defense.