But on the first day of January, 1777, the Commander-in-Chief did not pause in the use of the means just at hand. He realized that General Howe could not afford to remain passive under the new conditions which his own offensive movement had imposed upon the British army. Lord Cornwallis, on the eve of returning to England, was at once sent with a strong division to reoccupy Trenton. But Washington, instead of retaining his former position on the west bank of the Delaware, established himself behind the small river Assanpink, which enters the Delaware just south of Trenton, on the New Jersey side. It was a bold act. Below him, toward Philadelphia, were the forces of Cadwallader and Mifflin; and these he ordered to his support. Their arrival, thirty-six hundred strong, on the morning of January second, increased his command to about five thousand men. This little Assanpink River, swollen by the melted snow, was impassable except by a bridge near its junction with the Delaware. Along its steep and wooded banks, the American army was distributed for a distance of two miles. Watchful guards and several pieces of artillery were stationed at every available fording-place, and these were supported by some of the most reliable Continental troops. Behind the first line, and on a little higher ground, a second line was established. In order to secure ample warning of the arrival of the enemy and delay their approach, Washington established several small posts along the road to Princeton. The first, about a mile advanced, occupied rising ground well flanked by woods and supported by two pieces of artillery. Colonel Hand’s Rifles were pushed forward as far as Five Mile Creek; and even, off the road, a small supporting party held a defensive position at Shebakonk Creek, where heavy timber and broken ground afforded a good position for skirmishers to annoy an advancing force. General Greene was placed in command of these outposts. (See map.) So many writers have worried themselves and their readers in dealing with Washington’s movements during the first week in January, 1777, as so many revolutions of a lottery wheel of chance in which he was remarkably lucky, that it is desirable to understand his own plans, and how far he anticipated the contingencies which actually happened. His mind not only grasped possibilities which aroused confidence, at home and abroad; but embraced strategic conceptions which affected the entire war.