The history of the rise, progress, and establishment of the independence of the United States of America, Vol. 2 (of 3) : $b Including an account of the late war, and of the thirteen colonies, from their origin to that periodGordon, William
History
The history of the rise, progress, and establishment of the independence of the United States of America, Vol. 2 (of 3) : $b Including an account of the late war, and of the thirteen colonies, from their origin to that period
Gordon, William
United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783
Gen. Howe admits that the loss in this affair, was 17 killed, and nearly
200 wounded and missing. But the Americans say, they have taken near 300
prisoners, of whom 14 are officers, all British. Capt. Leslie, the son
of the earl of Leven, who was killed in the engagement, was buried by
the Americans with the honors of war, not only as a British officer, but
in testimony of respect to his lordship’s worth. The American officers
commended the bravery of the troops under colonel Mawhood; one of the
generals, observing how they fought, exclaimed, “When will our men fight
like those fellows!” General Mercer met with hard usage, being bayoneted
in three places, of which wounds he is since dead. He was a deserving
character, and merited different treatment. Some may pronounce the
treatment that captain Philips, of the thirty-fifth grenadiers, has met
with, much baser; but not when they have the case properly
represented.—The captain, as he was returning from New-York, to join his
company, was surprised between Brunswick and Princeton, by a party of
militia, who threatened him in case he attempted to escape; regardless
of the threat, he clapped spurs to his horse and pushed forward, on
which they fired and killed him. General Gates, who is married to the
captain’s sister, blames the captain more than the men.
The eagerness of the royal army to reach and secure Brunswick,
occasioned their marching through Princeton with such expedition as to
divert their attention from either carrying off or destroying the
curious orrery belonging to Nassau college. It was contrived and made by
an original genius and self-taught astronomer, Mr. Rittenhouse of
Philadelphia. There is not the like in Europe. An elegant and neatly
ornamented frame raises perpendicular near upon eight feet. In the front
of which you are presented, in three several apartments, with a view of
the celestial system, the motions of the planets round the sun, and the
satellites about the planets. The wheels, &c. that produce the
movements, are behind the wooden perpendicular plane, on which the
orrery is fixed. By suitable contrivances, you in a short time tell the
eclipses of the sun and moon for ages past and ages to come; the like in
other cases of astronomy. It is said that lord Cornwallis intended to
have carried it over to Great-Britain; no man of conscience can blame
his taste, which may have preserved it from ruin, by securing to it that
protection while in the hands of the enemy, that might otherwise have
been denied. But the children of the _alma mater_, whose it is, triumph
in its preservation, though somewhat damaged. The college library did
not escape so well as the orrery; but suffered considerable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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