“Nothing has impressed me so deeply, as General Washington’s attacking and giving battle to General Howe’s army. To bring an army raised within a year, to do this, promises every thing.” Washington having received considerable reinforcements, took up a new position at White Marsh, about fourteen miles from Philadelphia. Here he threw up such intrenchments as to be able to challenge the British to attack him. He was also in a condition to cut off their foraging parties, and to prevent the tories from conveying into the city any provisions. There were two American forts, commanding obstructions on the Delaware, which prevented any vessels from ascending with supplies. These were called Mifflin and Mercer. Howe concentrated all the energies of fleet and army for the destruction of Mifflin. The conflict was terrible; American valor never shone more brightly than in the defense against fearful odds. Several times the advancing columns of the British were repulsed with great slaughter. In one attack they lost, in killed and wounded, four hundred men; while the Americans lost only eight killed, and twenty-nine wounded. Three British war vessels attempted to anchor, so as to open fire upon the fort. The _Augusta_ had sixty-four guns, the _Roebuck_ forty-four--both frigates. The _Merlin_ was a sloop of war, eighteen guns. There was also a well-armed galley. Many other vessels of the fleet were co-operating. Together they could throw a storm of iron hail upon the fort, which it would seem that nothing could resist. In struggling through the lower line of chevàux-de-frise, the _Augusta_ and _Merlin_ ran aground. A red-hot shot, from the American battery, set the _Augusta_ on fire. In a terrible panic the crew rushed to the boats. With a volcanic explosion, whose thunders seemed to shake the hills, the magazine of the majestic fabric exploded. Several of the crew had not escaped. No fragments of their mangled bodies were ever found. There was no escape for the _Merlin_. The British themselves applied the torch. The remaining vessels dropped down the river. This discomfiture led Howe to redouble his efforts for the removal of those obstructions which imperiled the very existence of his army. Gigantic efforts were made. Batteries were reared, which threw eighteen and twenty-four pound shot. A large Indiaman was cut down to a floating battery, armed with the heaviest guns. At a concerted signal the fire was opened. It was terrific. Ships, forts, gondolas, and floating batteries, opened their thunders at once. This tempest of war raged with deafening roar, such as never before had been heard on the shores of the New World. Hour after hour, through the long day, shot and shell fell like hailstones. Guns were dismounted, palisades shivered, parapets beaten down to the ground, and the slaughter of the heroic garrison was awful. Nearly every man of a company of artillery was killed. Most of the officers were wounded.