reinforcement. The Americans repassed through the English encampment,
and the action ended by a complete defeat. Many men were lost on both
sides. General Agnew, an Englishman, and General Nash, an American,
were killed. The Americans had some dragoons under Pulaski, the only
one of the confederated Poles who had refused to accept a pardon. He
was an intrepid knight, a libertine and devotee, and a better captain
than general; he insisted on being a Pole on all occasions, and M. de
Lafayette, after having contributed to his reception in the army,
often exerted himself to effect a reconciliation betwixt him and the
other officers. Without waiting for his wound to be closed, M. de
Lafayette returned to head-quarters, twenty-five miles from
Philadelphia. The enemy, who had fallen back upon their lines,
attacked Fort Mifflin, upon an island, and Fort Red-Bank, on the left
side of the Delaware. Some _chevaux de frise_, protected by the forts,
and some galleys, stopped the fleet, magazines, and detachments which
had been sent from the Chesapeak. Amongst the skirmishes which took
place betwixt small parties of soldiers, the most remarkable one was
the surprise of a corps of militia at Cevoked-Billet,~[22] in which
the English burnt their wounded prisoners in a barn. Such was the
situation of the south, when news was received of the capitulation of
Burgoyne. That general, when he quitted Canada, had made a diversion
on his right; but Saint Leger had failed in an operation against Fort
Schuyler; and he himself, by advancing towards Albany, appeared to
have lost much time. Gates was constantly adding numerous militia to
his continental troops. All the citizens being armed militia, a signal
of alarm assembled them, or an order of state summoned them to march.
But if that crusade were rather a voluntary one, their residence at
the camp was still more dependent on their own inclination: the
discipline was suitable to the formation of the corps. The
continentalists, on the contrary, belonged to the thirteen states, of