While this attack on Chew's house was in progress, General Greene had approached the enemy's right wing, and routed the battalion of light infantry and the Queen's Rangers. Turning a little to the right, he fell upon the left flank of the enemy's right wing, and endeavored to enter the village, not doubting that the Pennsylvania militia under Armstrong, upon the right, and the militia of Maryland and New Jersey on the left, commanded by Smallwood and Forman, would execute the orders of the commander-in-chief, by attacking and turning the first left and the second right flank of the British army. Neither of these detachments performed their duty. The former arrived in sight of the German chasseurs, but did not attack them; while the latter appeared too late for co-operation with Greene s movements. The golden opportunity was at that moment lost. The whole British army, as it appeared afterward, astonished at the valor of the assailants and ignorant of their numbers, were on the point of retreating, and had selected Chester, near the Brandywine, as the place of rendezvous; but General Grey, finding his left flank secure, marched with nearly the whole of the left wing, which was under the general command of Knyphausen, to the assistance of the center, then hard pressed in the village, where the Americans were gaining ground every moment. The battle now raged severely In Germantown, and for a while the issue was doubtful. Colonel Matthews, with a detachment of Greene's column, composed of a part of Muhlenberg's and Scott's brigades from the left wing, advanced to the eastward of Chew's house, assailed a party of English, took one hundred and ten prisoners, and drove the remainder before him into the town, whither he followed as far as the market-house. A thick fog, which began to form at daylight, now completely enveloped every thing, and the contending parties were unable to discover the movements of each other. Matthews, with his prisoners, was soon stopped at a breast-work near Lucan's mills. At the same time, the right wing of the enemy, after discovering that they had nothing to fear from the Maryland and New Jersey militia, fell back, and completely surrounded Matthews * Lieutenant Smith, of Virginia, who was an assistant of Colonel Timothy Pickering in the office of adjutant general.