Well-attested tradition says that Colonel Rall and his troops were, as Washington supposed they would be, yet under the influence of a night's carousal after the Christmas holiday. On the morning of the battle, Rall was at the house of Abraham Hunt, who _traded_ with friend and foe. Hunt was sometimes suspected of being a Tory, but never of being a * The name of this officer is variously given. Washington in his dispatch to the President of Congress, wrote it Ewing; Marshall, in his Life of Washington, spells it Irvine; Wilkinson, In his Memoirs, has it Irvin; Botta, Irvin; and Gordon, Erwing. Ewing is the correct name. He was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 1736. He commenced his military career under Braddock in 1755, and was with that general when he was slain. He was a brigadier general of the Pennsylvania militia at the commencement of the Revolution, but did not enter the regular army. He was vice-president of the commonwealth, under President Dickinson, in 1782, and was several times member of the State Legislature. He died at his country-seat, in Hellam township in March, 1806, aged seventy years. ** The regiments which surrendered were those of Anspach, Knyphausen, and Rall. The flag here alluded to is in the possession of George Washington Parke Custis, Esq., of Arlington House, Virginia, who has deposited it, with the flag surrendered at Yorktown, and other relics, in the museum at Alexandria, Virginia. Drawings, with descriptions of these flags, will be found in another part of this work. *** At the head-quarters of Washington, at Newtown, the captive Hessian officers signed the following parole of honor. I copied it, with the accompanying signatures, from the original among Gates's papers, in the collections of the New York Historical Society. *** "We, the Subscribers, Hessian Officers, made Prisoners of War by the American Army, under Command of his Excellency, General Washington, at Trenton, on the 26th inst., being allowed Our Liberty, under such Restrictions as to place as may be from time to time appointed, do give Our parole of Honour, that we will remain at the place, and within the limits appointed for us by his Excellency the General, the Honorable Congress, Council of Safety, or Commissary of Prisoners of War, Peaceably behaving ourselves, and by no way Send or give Intelligence to the British or Hessian Army, or speak or do any thing disrespectful or Injurious to the American States while we remain Prisoners of War. [[[Colonel Rail's fatal Carousal.--Names and Signatures of the Hessian Officers attached to the Parole.]]] {230}true Whig. He had invited Colonel Rhall and others to a Christmas supper at his house. Cards were introduced, and play continued throughout the night, accompanied with wine-drinking. [Illustration: 0238]