During General Washington's retreat through the Jerseys, he wrote for General Lee, who was left to command on the east side of the North River, with about ten to eleven thousand men, most of whose enlistments are now expired, or near it. He obeyed the summons, and brought with him about three thousand men; with whom he followed the enemy's rear, but was obliged to make slow marches, as his people were in great want of shoes, stockings, and other necessaries, which he was obliged to collect from the tories in the neighborhood of his route. After he had passed a place called Chatham, near Elizabethtown, he lodged at a farm house. Some treacherous villain gave notice to the enemy, and the General's ill fate, or some other cause I am not acquainted with, delayed him there, until near 10 o'clock on Friday morning, his army having marched, and their rear about three miles from him, when he was surprised by about seventy light horse, who made him prisoner, and bore him off in triumph. This is an event much to be lamented. I sincerely pity Lee, and feel for the loss my country sustains; his abilities had frequently been immensely useful; the want of them will be severely felt. The command of this party devolved on General Sullivan, who continued his route, fell in with General Gates, with five hundred men, returning from the Lakes, and both joined General Washington yesterday. This junction is what we have long impatiently wished for, but still I fear our force is not equal to the task before them, and unless that task is performed, Philadelphia, nay, I may say Pennsylvania, must fall. The task I mean, is to drive the enemy out of New Jersey, for at present they occupy Brunswick, Princeton, Trenton, Pennytown, Bordenton, Burlington, Morristown, Mount Holly, and Haddonfield, having their main body about Princeton, and strong detachments in all the other places, it is supposed with a design of attacking this city, whenever they can cross the Delaware on the ice, for they have only been kept from it, by our sending up the gondolas and bringing off, or destroying, all the boats along the Jersey shore.