CHAPTER IX.

Measures to cut off the communication between the British
army and fleet.... Battle of Germantown.... Measures to
intercept supplies to Philadelphia.... Attack on fort
Mifflin.... On Red Bank.... The Augusta blows up.... Fort
Mifflin evacuated.... Fort Mercer evacuated.... The British
open the communication with their fleet.... Washington urged
to attack Philadelphia.... General Howe marches out to
Chestnut Hill.... Returns to Philadelphia.... General
Washington goes into winter quarters.


{1777}

{September.}

[Sidenote: Measures taken to prevent a communication between the
British army in Philadelphia and their fleet.]

Philadelphia being lost, General Washington sought to make its
occupation inconvenient and insecure, by rendering it inaccessible to
the British fleet. With this design, works had been erected on a low
marshy island in the Delaware, near the junction of the Schuylkill,
which, from the nature of its soil, was called Mud Island. On the
opposite shore of Jersey, at a place called Red Bank, a fort had also
been constructed which was defended with heavy artillery. In the deep