howitzers of eight inches each, opened, early in the morning of the
10th of November, upon fort Mifflin, at the distance of five hundred
yards, and kept up an incessant fire for several successive days. The
block-houses were reduced to a heap of ruins; the palisades were
beaten down; and most of the guns dismounted and otherwise disabled.
The barracks were battered in every part, so that the troops could not
remain in them. They were under the necessity of working and watching
the whole night to repair the damages of the day, and to guard against
a storm, of which they were in perpetual apprehension. If in the day,
a few moments were allowed for repose, it was taken on the wet earth,
which, in consequence of heavy rains, had become a soft mud. The
garrison was relieved by General Varnum every forty-eight hours; but
his brigade was so weak that half the men were constantly on duty.

Colonel Smith was decidedly of opinion, and General Varnum concurred
with him, that the garrison could not repel an assault, and ought to
be withdrawn; but General Washington still cherished the hope that the
place might be maintained until he should be reinforced from the
northern army. Believing that an assault would not be attempted until
the works were battered down, he recommended that the whole night
should be employed in making repairs. His orders were that the place
should be defended to the last extremity; and never were orders more
faithfully executed.

{November 11.}

{Fourteenth.}

Several of the garrison were killed, and among them Captain Treat, a
gallant officer, who commanded the artillery. Colonel Smith received a