the ground he had intended to occupy Washington resolved to meet and
engage him in front.

Both armies prepared with great alacrity for battle. The advanced
parties had met, and were beginning to skirmish, when they were
separated by a heavy rain, which, becoming more and more violent,
rendered the retreat of the Americans a measure of absolute necessity.
The inferiority of their arms never brought them into such imminent
peril as on this occasion. Their gun-locks not being well secured,
their muskets soon became unfit for use. Their cartridge-boxes had been
so badly constructed as not to protect their ammunition from the
tempest. Their cartridges were soon damaged, and this mischief was the
more serious, because very many of the soldiers were without bayonets.

The army being thus rendered unfit for action the design of giving
battle was reluctantly abandoned by Washington and a retreat commenced.
It was continued all the day and great part of the night, through a
cold and most distressing rain and very deep roads. A few hours before
day (September 17th), the troops halted at the Yellow Springs, where
their arms and ammunition were examined, and the alarming fact was
disclosed that scarcely a musket in a regiment could be discharged and
scarcely one cartridge in a box was fit for use. This state of things
suggested the precaution of moving to a still greater distance in order
to refit their arms, obtain a fresh supply of ammunition, and revive
the spirits of the army. Washington therefore retired to Warwick
Furnace on the south branch of French creek, where ammunition and
muskets might be obtained in time to dispute the passage of the
Schuylkill and make yet another effort to save Philadelphia.

The extreme severity of the weather had entirely stopped the British