On the twenty-sixth, Howe put his whole army in motion to resume the offensive. Cornwallis, with the extreme right, was to gain the passes to Middlebrook. Four battalions, with six pieces of artillery, were to demonstrate on Washington’s left. Without further details, the action is outlined as follows: Cornwallis found himself confronted by Stirling. A lively skirmish ensued, near Westfield, now Plainfield. The Americans were overmatched in numbers, and lost nearly two hundred men in casualties and prisoners, besides three brass guns, but steadily fought on, while slowly retiring. Washington, comprehending the whole movement, retired Maxwell’s Division, without loss, and regained the passes threatened; and the prolonged resistance of Stirling delayed Cornwallis until too late for him to gain the American rear. On the afternoon of the twenty-seventh, Cornwallis, after a loss of seventy men, passed through Sampton unopposed, and joined Howe who had already retired from Washington’s front. The American Commander-in-Chief dictated the choice of battlefield. Howe, representing Great Britain, declined his terms. On the thirtieth, Howe crossed to Staten Island, and his last military operations in New Jersey came to an end. He afterwards claimed that his forces were numerically inferior to those of Washington; but both friends and critics, in the protracted controversy which afterwards arose as to this costly and fruitless march into New Jersey, admit that the disparity of force, in all respects, was with the American army. The simple fact remains unobscured, that as General Howe’s acquaintance with Washington’s methods matured, he better appreciated his qualities as a Soldier. CHAPTER XVII. BRITISH INVASION FROM CANADA.—OPERATIONS ALONG THE HUDSON. On the twentieth of June, Washington learned that Burgoyne was approaching St. John’s; and that a detachment of British and Canadian troops, accompanied by Indians, had been organized for the occupation of the Mohawk Valley, west of Albany, under Colonel St. Leger. This would enable them to court the alliance of the “Six Nations,” and to suppress the enlistment into the American army of the scattered white population of that region. On the same day, he ordered General Putnam to hold in readiness to move up the river, at a moment’s notice, four regiments of Massachusetts troops which were then at his headquarters at Peekskill, and also to hire sloops at Albany for their transportation northward.