Public opinion, elated by the brilliant success of Gates, and rising into confidence with the ap•rent discouragement of the British ministry and nation, now loudly required that some effort should be made to surprise and storm the city. Invidious comparisons were openly drawn between the two commanders, by a strong party hostile to the general-in-chief. The triumph of the one and the comparative inactivity of the other, were traced to a difference in their respective characters and abilities. It was urged also that the rapid depre ciation of paper money would extinguish the national resources, unless confidence were revived by the striking of a decisive blow. The greatness of Washington's mind and his peculiar fitness for the times in which he was placed, were again wonder fully exhibited. Had he possessed in his tempera ment, the least mixture of personal vanity or envy, or had the firm resolution of his mind been capable of impression from the force of public clamour or private importunity, the independence of his country would, in all human probability, have been arrested or annihilated at. this crisis.
The two armies were about. equal in point of numbers; but the British were strongly intrenched behind a line of redoubts, extending from the Delaware, which covered the right of their posi tion, to the Schuylkill on the left, while their rear was protected by the junction of the rivers and the city of Philadelphia. A failure of the attack upon these intrenchments was fraught with consequences too dangerous to be hazarded, except in the last ex tremity: it was besides evident that Sir William Howe must either invite battle upon more equal terms, or confess timidity, in the face of the whole country. The diminished value of the continental paper was due to a bad system of finance, which had provided no adequate taxation to secure the immense emission, and was not to be remedied by the hazardous exposure of the main strength of the American cause. The prudent judgment of Wash ington prevailed over all personal 'considerations: he resisted the difficulties with which he was encompassed, and the award of history will shed an eternal lustre over his wisdom, while the clamours of the day have already sunk into obscu rity.
The correctness of Washington's foresight was soon proved. On the fourth of December 1777, Sir William Ilowe marched from Philadelphia with fourteen thousand men, with the declared intention of giving battle to the Americans. His first encampment was upon Chesnut Hill; the Americans occupied another range of hills opposite, but converging to the north towards that possessed by the British. On the seventh, Howe changed his position by moving along the hills and ap proaching within a mile of Washington's left. During these operations, sharp skirmishes took place, in which the British .loss was about one hundred men, and that of the continentals scarcely less, including DIajor Morris killed, and General Irvine severely wounded; but the attention of all was fixed upon the expected general .engagement,
for which the commander-in-chief had made the most active preparations. On the eighth, instead of the anticipated attack, Sir William llowe sud denly broke up his camp, and fell back with great rapidity upon Philadelphia.
The great severity the season now rendered it necessary that the army should be disposed in winter quarters. Accordingly, on the eleventh of December, the main body of the Americans com menced their march to Valley Forge, a good position about twenty-five miles from Philadelphia, on the western side of the Schuylkill, and equally distant from the Delaware above and below the city. Here, after a slight skirmish with a detach ment under Lord Cornwallis, a permanent camp was formed of log huts, with the interstices closed with mortar. In order to prevent all intercourse between the British army and the country, General Smallwood with his division took post at Wil mington. General Armstrong and the Pennsylvania militia were stationed at Whitemarsh; Colonel Morgan was in the lines on the west side of the Schuylkill, and the whole country was scoured by troops of cavalry.
On the twenty-second of December, when Wash ington was about to advance his troops upon Derby, for the purpose of disturbing the British in the removal of forage, it was ascertained that the last rations in the commissary department had been distributed to the forces. The calamities frequently arising from like deficiencies, had been the repeated subject of strong representations to Congress; but the system adopted tended rather to increase than to alleviate the difficulties of the army. The commander-in-chief was empowered to seize all provisions within seventy miles of head quarters, giving in return a certificate to be re deemed by the United States. No funds were, however, provided to meet these demands, and as Sir William Ilowe paid liberally in gold and silver for all that was conveyed into the city, invidious comparisons were naturally drawn, which tended much to diminish the popularity of the American cause. 'Washington immediately exercised his authority so as to collect such supplies as were absolutely necessary; but his conduct was loudly complained of by the people for its rigour, and by Congress for its lenity. In reply to new orders from the board of war, directing an increase of severity, he observed that such coercive measures . were only to be resorted to, when the alternative presented was the dissolution of the forces—that a present relief was thus provided at the certain ex pense of growing disaffection—and that the result would be ruinous, not only to the people, but to the army itself, in which a spirit of licentiousness and plunder must necessarily be generated.