It Happened in the Revolutionary War: Stories of Events and People That Shaped American History by Michael R. Bradley

Author:Michael R. Bradley [Bradley, Michael R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Tags: Non-Fiction, History, War, United States, United Kingdom
ISBN: 9781493037230
Publisher: Globe Pequot Press
Published: 2002-09-30T14:00:00+00:00

THE POSTHUMOUS PRISONER OF WAR

The Patriot army was always in need of military supplies, and this was especially true in January 1777. Even so, one wagon of captured goods contained a powerful surprise.

The supply situation had improved some since December of the preceding year when Washington had led his tiny force across the icy Delaware River to attack the Hessians at Trenton. That victory had awakened some enthusiasm for the cause, and now Gen. George Washington had led his men across the river again.

To the British commander Lord Howe, it appeared Washington was merely revisiting the scene of his former victory, because the Patriot army was again in Trenton. Howe ordered Gen. Lord Cornwallis to move to Princeton, gather his troops, and advance on Trenton. On January 2, 1777, Cornwallis advanced with six thousand men, leaving three regiments to guard his base at Princeton.

All day on January 2, the Patriot troops fought as they slowly fell back on Trenton. By nightfall the British were in the streets of the village facing the Patriot position.

Washington had moved to the south bank of Assunpink Creek and entrenched his men on a ridge. From the front the position looked strong, but its right flank was unguarded. Even worse, the Delaware River blocked any line of retreat. It looked to Cornwallis that Washington had made just the sort of mistake one would expect of an amateur. Washington’s army was in a trap, and Cornwallis let it be known he was ready to bag the fox. The Patriot army was ready to fight from behind breastworks as they had done so well at Bunker Hill. Only this time the British would not oblige them by attacking head-on. Cornwallis planned to turn the unprotected flank and butcher the Patriots as they tried to flee across the Delaware River.

During the night, as Cornwallis fed and rested his men so they would be ready for the fox hunt the next morning, Washington’s army slipped away by its undefended flank, moving toward Princeton. Daylight revealed the Royal Army confronting only empty entrenchments. The fox had run instead of going to ground.

As dawn broke on January 3, Col. Charles Mawhood of the Seventeenth Infantry was moving toward Trenton to join other parts of the British army. Left in Princeton were the Fortieth and Fifty-fourth Regiments. Moving toward Maw-hood, each ignorant of the other’s presence, was a Patriot unit led by Gen. Hugh Mercer. As the two units converged on the hill known today as Mercer Heights, gunfire began. Following their usual practice, the Patriot riflemen aimed for the British officers. Among the first to fall was Capt. William Leslie of the British Seventeenth Regiment.

William Leslie was a son of Lord Leven of Scotland and a nephew of Gen. Alexander Leslie. As a member of one of the most famous military families in Scotland, William joined the Black Watch Regiment as a teen and served with that unit in Ireland. In 1776 William got a promotion and joined the Seventeenth Infantry.

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