Washington moved out on the Lancaster road as far as Warren tavern. Howe, watching his keen adversary, advanced toward Westchester, and both armies prepared for battle. Howe made a partly successful attempt to throw the American army back upon the Schuylkill River, and both armies were prepared for action; when a heavy rain which nearly ruined the ammunition of the Americans, and “directly in the faces of the British troops,” as reported by Howe, averted battle. Washington left Wayne, however, with fifteen hundred troops, in a strong position at Paoli (Wayne’s birthplace), with orders to fall upon the British rear so soon as it should break camp, and then moved to Yellow Springs and Warwick; but upon finding that Howe did not intend to attack Reading, recrossed the Schuylkill at Parkes’ Ford, and encamped on the Perkiomy, September seventeenth. On the twentieth, Wayne allowed himself to be surprised at night, through the treachery of the country people, his old neighbors; and left more than three hundred of his force as prisoners in the hands of General Gray, although saving his guns and most of his baggage. General Smallwood’s brigade, left by General Washington for Wayne’s support, and encamped but a mile distant, failed to be in time to render aid during the night attack. This disaster took all pressure from Howe’s army, and he moved on. Washington reports as to Howe’s movement: “They had got so far the start before I received certain intelligence that any considerable number had crossed, that I found it in vain to think of overtaking their rear, with troops harassed as ours had been by constant marching since the Battle of Brandywine.” Colonel Hamilton was sent to Philadelphia to force a contribution of shoes from the inhabitants, as “one thousand of his army were barefooted.” The simplest possible recital of these days of active marching, sufficiently indicates the character of those brave troops whose confidence in Washington seemed as responsive to his will as if his nervous activities embraced theirs as well. A small portion of the British left wing crossed at Gordon’s Ford on the twenty-second, and the main body at Flatland Ford, on the twenty-third, reaching Germantown on the twenty-fifth. On the twenty-seventh, Cornwallis entered Philadelphia. Colonel Sterling of the British army was sent to operate against the defences of the Delaware,—and the fleet of Admiral Howe was already on its way to Philadelphia.