The Pennsylvania evening post — Philadelphia, Pa., 1776-11-14 00:00:00, page 2

molestation. About the fame time the enemy sent some light
parties along on the shore, as far' as New-Rochel and Maro
neck, but their main body, moved.very little#
On the evening of.the.22d, thirty-fix of the enemy were
taken, and next morning brought to Head Quarters. They
were Tory rangers, who had enlisted under the infamous
Major Rogers. One of them had been an officer in r.h'e New-
York service, and deferred from us not long since: Two or
three of them, I have been told,' were from Newtown in Con
r^etticwt. .
.On tye 23d there was much cannonading, and a smart en
gagement between a party of opr men and the enemy. The
epemy were beat, .leaving, thirteen H^ffians dead on the field,
whom our people but,ied, one wounded Lieut, who was taken.
Our people alio found a Major's commission in the field, but
whether it belonged to any of the slain or to some officer
who might ;be wounded and carried off, they could not de
termine ; in the action we had not one man killed on the
ground, and only fix or eight wounded, but one, it was
thought, mortally.
Friday the 25th, theyc was much firing from the ships, in
honpr to George 111. who came to the throne on the 25th
of October, and the enemy advanced a little into the coun
try, but with great precaution, having an advanced guard of
two thousand men or more, with a number of excellent field
pieces. At night they would halt on advantageous ground,
with their cannon well mounted round them ; and thus they
have come on only a mile or two in a day, in the most cauti
ous manner, with great art and generalship.
Sabbath day, 27th, the enemy sent up two ships to cut
off the communication between Fort Wallington and the
Jersey shore, but lay so much below Fort Wafliington, that
they could not fire on them to.good advantage; at the fame
time a general attack was made by the enemy on our lines at
Harlem, but they were repulsed three times successively, and
the last time went off in great confufion, and our troops pur
sued them some miles. It is laid they loft eight or nine hun
dred men, that our men were not able to bury them the next
day... The snips were soon so much mauled and damaged
by our cannon that they were obliged to flip their cables,
and fall down the river. They were, it is said, greatly da
maged, but neither of them funk.
, Monday 28th, we had intelligence that the enemy with
their whole body were advancing towards us ; the army were
immediately alarmed, and part of Gen. Wadsworth's bri
gade, with some other regiments, under the command of
Gen. Spencer, confiding in the whole of five or fix hundred
men, were sent out as an advanced party, to skirmish with
the enemy, and harrafs them in their march. We marched
on to a hill, about one mile and an half from our lines, with
an artillery company and two field pieces, and placed our
selves behind walls and fences, in the belt manner we could,
to give the enemy trouble. About half after nine o'clock
our advanced parties all came retreating in before the enemy,
and the light parties of the enemy, with their advanced
guard, confiding of two or three thousand, came in fight,
and marched on briskly towards us, keeping the high
grounds; and the lighthorfe pranced on a little, in the rear,
making a very martial appearance; as our light parties came
on to the hills and difeovered where we were, the enemy be
gan to cannonade us, and to fling shells from their hobits,
and small mortars. Their light parties soon came on, and
we, firing upon' them from the walls and fences, broke and
fca.tered them at once; but they would run from our front,
and ;get round upon our wings to flank us, and as soon as our
die uncovered where we were, the enemy's artillery would
570
at once begin to play upon us, in a mod furious manner.
We kept the walls till the enemy were just ready to surround
us, and then we would retreat from one wall and hill to
another, and maintain our ground there in the fame manner,
till numbers were just ready to surround us. Once the Hel
fian grenadiers came up in the front of Col. Douglals’s re
giffient, and we fired a general volley upon them, at about
twenty rods didance, and scattered them like leaves in £
whirlwind; and they ran off so far, that some of the regi*
ment ran out to the ground where they were, when we fired
upon them, and brought off their arms and accoutrements,
and rum, tha. the men who fell had with them, which we
had time to drink round with, before they came on again.
1 hey formed at a distance, and waited till their artillery and
main body came on, when they advanced in solid columns
upon us, and were gathering all round us, ten to our one ; CoL
Douglas's and Silliman's regiments fired four or five times °n
them, as they were advancing, and then retreated, but not till ch^
enemy began to fire on their flanks. Cols. Silliman, Douglas
and Arnold, behaved nobly, and the men gained much ap
plause. Col. Webb's, Silliman's and Douglas's regiments
had the principal ihare in the a&ion. Col. Webb had four
killed, and eight or ten wounded, Col. Silliman loft fix, and
had ten or twelve wounded, Col. Douglas had three killed,
and fix wounded. Cols. Brooks's, Smallwood's and Ritzma'i
regiments, who were drawn up on the hill near the lines, buf
fered considerably ; our loss in the whole may be feyenty or
eighty killed and wounded. It is said by all the deserters
and captives, who agreed in their Tories, that the enemy had
about three hundred killed and wounded. The feene was
grand and solemn, all the adjacent hills fmoaked, as though
on fire, anQbellowed;and trembled with a perpetual cannonade
and fire of field pieces, hobits and mortars. The air groaned
with streams of cannon and musket shot; the air and hills
finoaked and echoed terribly with the bursting of shells ; the
fences and walls were knocked down, and torn to pieces,
and mens legs, arms and bodies mangled with cannon and
grape shot, all round us. Iwas in the action, and under as
good advantages as any one man perhaps to observe all that
passed, and write these particulars of the action from my own
observation. No general action was designed on our part,
an d " believe one thousand men were never engaged at any
time with the enemy. They cameon to the hills opposite our
lines and halted; and after cannonading some time part of the
lines a short time, they became very still and quiet. On the
31st it was observed that they had near finished four or five
batteries which they had eroded against us, and as our ground
near the centre of the town at White Plains was not good
being overlooked by neighbouring hills, the Generals, last
night, drew off most of the troops from the lines there, and
this raorning the guards and sentries burned the town and
forage all round it, and came off about nine o'clock.
We had carried off all our stores, and planted our artiller
on the hills about a mile and an half back of the centre of the
town. The enemy advanced in the forenoon on to th.
ground we left, and as soon as they came over the hill, w
saluted them with our cannon and field pieces, and they ad
vanced no farther. Our sick and wounded are fentout eight
or ten miles. Our men are in good spirits, and with much
patience endure great hardfliips and fatigue. 1 believe the
main body of the enemy lie off against us, and that they hay
formed no lines across the country, as yet, below us. Thei,
lighthorfe may possibly scour across as far as the river, but
hewthat is, I cannot determine. All things seem to be quit
at Fort Washington." —