and Colonel Smith did not even think of surrendering: but the island
being attacked from an unknown passage, the works were assaulted from
the rear, and were obliged to be evacuated. Lord Cornwallis and five
thousand men having fallen upon the Jerseys, it became also necessary
to quit Red-Bank which the Americans blew up before leaving it:
General Greene, crossing the river at Trenton opposed, with a
precisely equal force, the detachment of Cornwallis.

Although M. de Lafayette's wound was not yet sufficiently closed for
him to put on a boot, he accompanied Greene to Mount Holly; and
detaching himself in order to reconnoitre, he found the enemy,
November 25th, at Gloucester, opposite Philadelphia. The booty they
had collected was crossing the river. To assure himself more fully on
this point M. de Lafayette advanced upon the strip of land called
Sandy Point, and for this imprudence he would have paid dearly if
those who had the power of killing him had not depended too much on
those who had the power of taking him prisoner. After having succeeded
in somewhat appeasing the terror of his guides, he found himself,
about four o'clock, two miles from the English camp, before a post of
four hundred Hessians with their cannon. Having only three hundred and
fifty men, most of them militia, he suddenly attacked the enemy, who
gave way before him. Lord Cornwallis came up with his grenadiers; but,
supposing himself to be engaged with the corps of General Greene, he
allowed himself to be driven back to the neighbourhood of Gloucester,
with a loss of about sixty men. Greene arrived in the night, but would
not attack the enemy. Lord Cornwallis passed over the river, and the
American detachment rejoined the army at its station at Whitemarsh,
twelve miles from Philadelphia. It had occupied, since the last month,
some excellent heights; the general's accurate glance had discerned
the situation of the encampment through an almost impenetrable wood.