This success was followed by the capture of Philadelphia: at the same time the army occupied a position near _Germantown_, and the FIFTH had its post in the right wing of the line. The troops at the head of the town were attacked by the enemy in force at daybreak on the morning of the 4th of October, when the FIFTH was ordered forward to their aid. The enemy had already gained some advantage, and the Fortieth regiment, which had thrown itself into a stone building, was surrounded by an American brigade, when the FIFTH and Fifty-fifth regiments, advancing from the right, opened their fire with good effect, and being seconded by several other corps from the centre and left, drove back the enemy and pursued them through some woody grounds and strong enclosures with signal bravery. The FIFTH lost on this occasion, 1 drummer and 9 men killed; also Lieutenant-Colonel Walcott, Captain Charlton, Ensign Thomas, Ensign Stuart, 5 serjeants, and 37 men wounded: Lieutenant-Colonel Walcott died of his wounds six weeks afterwards. On the 18th of October the army quitted Germantown and encamped in the immediate vicinity of Philadelphia, until after the capture of two forts on the river. In the mean time the enemy formed a strong camp at White Marsh, fourteen miles from Philadelphia; and in the early part of December the FIFTH took part in several operations and skirmishes designed to bring on a general engagement; but the enemy remaining behind his trenches and _abbatis de bois_, the regiment returned to Philadelphia on the 8th of that month. After the retreat of the King's troops, the enemy removed to Valley Forge, where he built huts and passed the winter in the woods, while the British lay in comfortable quarters in the capital of Pennsylvania, where the want of strict discipline during the period of a temporary repose produced several evil consequences, particularly the estrangement of many persons previously in the interest of the royal cause. [Sidenote: 1778]