208 HISTORY OF 



privates, and two of these were frozen to death. He 

 was at the cannonading of Trenton, January 2, 1777; 

 when the Americans were repulsed, "I ran," said the 

 veteran to us, in his ninety-first year, " lil^e a Hollander, 

 while the bullets whistled about my ears, and rattled 

 like hailstones against the fence." He was in the en- 

 gagement where there was a fearful odds in numbers and 

 tact against the Americans, when they had to contend 

 against Lord Cornwallis's troops, and reinforced by regi- 

 ments under the command of Colonel Maywood, at the 

 battle of Princeton, January 3rd, 1777; here the British 

 loss was more than one hundred killed, and rising of 

 three hundred prisoners taken. "But the victory was 

 by no means a bloodless one to the Americans; General 

 Mercer was mortally wounded. Col. Haslet, Col. Potter;, 

 and other officers of subordinate rank, were killed." 



He was with the American army at Morristown, in 

 winter quarters. Here Washington, not trusting to the 

 barriers nature had thrown around his position, sent out 

 detachments to assail and harass General Howe's troops; 

 and it was in these expeditions Dieffenderffer frequently 

 took part. 



In a skirmish at Monmouth, in the spring of '77, 

 Dieffenderffer was taken prisoner and shamefully mal- 

 treated by one of the British, who struck him in his 

 face with his musket ; a scar is still visible on his upper 

 lip ; blow upon blow would have been repeated, but for 

 the manly and timely interposition of a small Scotch- 

 man, he was treated as a prisoner. He, and twenty-five 

 or thirty fellow-prisoners, were conveyed to New York, 

 and confined in a sugar-refinery, covered in part with 

 tile. The sufferings they endured, excited universal 

 indignation, and will, everlastingly, reflect reproach on 

 the British commander. Many of them smik under 



