The failure of General Washington to obtain information of the movements of the King's troops, of which so many instances have been seen, was nowhere more evident than in the instance now under consideration- -one of the reasonable results of the outrages to which the inhabitants had been subjected, by both the Congresses and the Committees, on the one hand, and by the unrestrained thieves, among both the Officers and the Privates of the Army whom General Washington commanded, on the other.

1 "General Howe thought it necessary to proceed with great circum- " spection. The progress was slow ; the march of the Army, close ; the " encampments, compact and well-guarded with artillery ; and the most "soldier-like caution used, in every respect."-- (Annual Register for 1776: History of Europe, *177.)

" The British continued moving up, but with great caution, theirrear "scarcely advancing, when they came to encamp again, much further " than where the advance had moved from."-- (Memoirs of Major-general Heath, 76.)

" The caution of the English General was increased by the evidences "of enterprise in his adversary. His object seems to have been to avoid " skirmishing, and to bring: on a general action, if that could be effected " under favorable circumstances ; if not, he knew well the approaching " dissolution of the American Army, and calculated, not without reason, " to derive from that event nearly all the advantages of a victory. He " proceeded, therefore, slowly. His marches were in close order ; his " encampments compact, and well guarded with artillery ; and the ut- " most circumspection was used, not to expose any part which might be "vulnerable." -- (Marshall's Life of George Washington, ii., 501.)