The congress had before hurried away in the night of the 18th. After the adjournment of that day, the president received a letter from colonel Hamilton, one of general Washington’s aids, intimating the necessity of their removing immediately from Philadelphia; whereupon they left the city, and agreeable to a resolve of the fourteenth, repaired to Lancaster. The letter, the immediate hurry, and the alarm of the enemy’s being at Sweed’s Ford, threw the city into the utmost confusion, and at the same time roused all who wished to quit it, into a preparation for a speedy removal. On the 26th Sir William Howe made his triumphal entry into Philadelphia, with a very small part of his army, where he was most cordially received by the generality of the Quakers and a few other royalists; the bulk of his troops were left in and about Germantown, a village forming one continued street for near two miles. Gen. Washington’s army was encamped near Shippach-creek, about eighteen miles from thence. [Sept. 30.] The congress removed to York-town by the end of the month. Before they had quitted Philadelphia they had elected baron de Kalb major-general; and had entered upon their journals—“Whereas Mons. du Coudray, colonel-brigadier in the service of his most christian majesty the king of France, and commander in chief of the artillery in the French colonies in America, gallantly offered to join the American army as a volunteer, but in his way thither was most unfortunately drowned in attempting to cross the Schuylkill—Resolved, That the corpse of the said Mons. du Coudray be interred at the expence of the United States, and with the honors of war.” They also resolved, “That gen. Washington be authorised and directed to suspend all officers who shall misbehave, and to fill up all vacancies in the American army, under the rank of brigadiers, until the pleasure of congress be communicated; to take, wherever he may be, all such provisions and other articles as may be necessary for the comfortable subsistence of the army under his command, paying or giving certificates for the same; to remove and secure, for the benefit of the owners, all goods and effects which may be serviceable to the enemy; provided that the powers hereby vested, shall be exercised only in such parts of these states as may be within the circumference of 70 miles of the head-quarters of the American army, and shall continue in force for the space of 60 days, unless sooner revoked by congress.”