** Mrs. Chew informed me that, several years after the war, and soon after her marriage, while a young man named White was visiting her father-in-law, the old gentleman, in relating incidents of the battle in Germantown, mentioned the circumstance that a Major White, an aid of General Sullivan, and one of the handsomest men in the Continental army, attempted to fire the house for the purpose of driving out the British. He ran under a window with a fire-brand, where shots from the building could not touch him. He was discovered, and a British soldier, running into the cellar, shot him dead from a basement window. The young man was much affected by the recital, and said to Judge Chew, "That Captain While, sir, was my father." Mrs. Chew pointed out to us the window, near the northwest corner of the house, from which the shot was fired. [[[Battle of Germantown.--The Americans, deceived, abandon the Field.--Washington's Chagrin.--The Loss.]]] {318}and his party. This division of the enemy was composed chiefly of the fourth brigade, under General Agnew, and three battalions of the third. The prisoners were rescued; and Matthews, after a desperate defense, and when most of his officers and men were killed and wounded, was compelled to surrender, with his little remnant of about one hundred men. This event enabled two regiments from the enemy's right to march to the relief of Musgrave in Chew's house. These regiments attacked and repulsed a party of Americans who had just entered Germantown in flank. The patriots, unable to discern the numbers of the enemy on account of the intensity of the fog, retired precipitately, leaving a great many of their friends dead and wounded, but taking their artillery with them. General Grey, now having absolute possession of the village, hastened to the aid of the right wing, which was engaged with the left of Greene's column. Sullivan's division, with a regiment of North Carolinians, commanded by Colonel Armstrong, and assisted by a part of Conway's brigade, having driven the enemy to School-house Lane, in the center of Germantown, found themselves unsupported by other troops, and their ammunition exhausted. They could dimly perceive through the fog that the enemy were collecting in force on the right. At that moment, hearing the cry of a light horseman that the enemy had surrounded them, and perceiving the firing at Chew's house, so far in the rear, the Americans became panic-stricken, and retreated with great precipitation. * The divisions under Greene and Stephen were the last that retreated, and these were covered by Count Tulaski and his legion. The prize of victory was abandoned at the moment when another effort might have secured it. ***