Lee's division, under Sullivan, and the regiments from Ticonderoga, united with Washington on the 21 st. The increased pay of officers, the proffered bounties to the[[December, 1776]] soldiers, and the great personal influence of the commander-in-chief, had the effect to retain in the service, for a few weeks at least, more than one half of the old soldiers. The militia of Pennsylvania turned out with considerable alacrity; and on the 24th, between five and six thousand Americans were gathered around the standard of Washington. *** The commander-in-chief's head-quarters were at Newtown, a little village on a small branch of the Nesharning, two miles northeast from Bristol. **** There were about fifteen hundred Hesssians and a troop of British light horse at Trenton; these Washington determined to surprise. The posts at Mount Holly, Burlington, Black Horse, and Bordentown were to be attacked, at the same time, by the Pennsylvania militia, under Generals Cadwallader (v) and Ewing, the former to cross near Bristol, the latter below Trenton Falls; while Washington, leading the main body of the Continental troops in person, assisted by Generals Sullivan and Greene, and Colonel Knox of the ar- * Parliamentary Register, xi., p. 260, 362. ** Ramsay says that Colonel Rail, being under some apprehension for the safety of Trenton, applied to General Grant for a re-enforcement. That officer, partaking of the confidence of others, said to the messenger, "Tell the colonel he is very safe. I will undertake to keep the peace in New Jersey with a corporal's guard." *** By the adjutant's return on the 22d of December, the army of Washington amounted to ten thousand one hundred and six men. Of this number, five thousand three hundred and ninety-nine were sick, on command elsewhere, or on furlough, leaving an effective force of four thousand seven hundred and seven. To these must be added the effective men of Lee's division and the Pennsylvania militia. **** Washington occupied the house now (1848) owned by Dr. Lee, on the west side of the creek; General Greene was at the large brick house, now Hough's Hotel; and General Mercer was at Mr. Keith's, a little out of the town. It is related that on the morning of the day when the Americans marched to M'Conkey's Ferry, General Mercer told Mrs. Keith that he dreamed, the previous night, that he had been attacked and overpowered by a huge black bear. Mercer was killed by the British and Hessians at Princeton a few days afterward, and those who knew of his dream superstitiously regarded it, as a premonition of his fate.