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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: stance occurred, in which, great as the obstacles were against which he had to contend, an enterprise was either retarded or defeated for the want of proper preparations in the department of the Quartermaster-General. CHAPTER V. British retreat from Philadelphia. ? Greene strenuously advises an Attack upon the British Army. ? Battle of Monmouth. ? Joins General Sullivan and Count d'Estaing in Rhode Island. ? Attempt to draw the Enemy from Newport. As the season for action drew nigh, the attention of the American commander was turned to the movements of the enemy, and every means put into play, in order to penetrate their plans for the new campaign. Several concurring circumstances seemed to indicate an intention on the part of Clinton, who had recently been appointed in the place of Howe, to evacuate Philadelphia, but whether with the intention of returning over land to New York, or of engaging in some more dis- Vol. x. 5 tant enterprise, was exceedingly doubtful. At length, on the morning of the 18th of June, positive information was received that he had crossed the Delaware, and it soon became evident that he would direct his march through the Jerseys. Not a moment was lost in putting the army in motion; six brigades were pushed forward to watch and retard the movements of the enemy, and, by the 22d, the whole of the American force was once more on the eastern bank of the Delaware. Still great doubts were entertained as to the expediency of offering battle. General Lee, who seems never to have had much confidence in American soldiers, or to have placed too much in the prowess of the British, was decidedly opposed even to a partial attack, and the majority of the general officers, yielding to his authority, concurred in this opinion. To this degrading resolution Gr...