162 THE SERVICES OF LIEUT.-COLONEL FRANCIS DOWNMAN, R.A. 
went Captain Moncrieffe 1 2 of the Engineers, by whose activity and 
cleverness the fire was extinguished. So far from any other soldiers 
than artillery taking the ship, there was not one man to assist at the 
guns; many of the townspeople did, and were very serviceable. The 
ship taken was the Delaware, a rebel frigate of twenty-two 12 pounders 
and 152 men. The other ship carried 20 guns, some of them 18 
pounders. The galleys had each an 18 or a 24 pounder. 
I have the honor to be, etc., etc., etc., 
Feancis Downman, Captain Royal Artillery. 
CHAPTER II. 
The attack on Germantown . Preparations to attack the Fort on Mud 
Island. The rebels attack the battery at Province Island. The 
attack on Red Bank. News of General Burgoyne. 
September 28th, 1777. —General Howe came to town to-day. Lord 
Cornwallis commands in town. Our chief commands the army en¬ 
camped. Washington, it seems, is hovering about us, but is afraid to 
venture near. A gTeat number of the inhabitants have remained in 
town. I don’t know how their hearts are disposed but they carry 
pleasure in their faces. Mr. Rocher, a clergyman, was taken into cus¬ 
tody to-day just as he came out of church; he has been preaching 
against the King, and influencing the minds of the people for this 
three years, and this morning had the barefaced impudence to preach 
for His Majesty. His finesse would not do. A great number of the 
rebels desert to us every day. 
From this day to October 3rd nothing very particular has happened. 
No vessels have attempted to pass the town. Colonel Sterling with 
his regiment the 42nd, and the 10th, was sent to Chester; from thence 
he crossed the Delaware with the assistance of our men-of-war, 
took and destroyed Billingsport, a fort of eight cannon on the Jersey 
side, and then returned, A good deal of firing from the galleys at 
our ships that are trying to move the chevaux-de-frise 2 sunk in the 
1 This able officer performed such meritorious services during the war, that it is of interest to 
give the following particulars. Sir Henry Clinton thus mentions him in connection with the siege 
of Charlestown, May, 1780:—“But to Major Moncrieffe, the Commanding Engineer, who planned, 
and, with the assistance of such capable officers under him, conducted the siege with so much judg¬ 
ment, intrepidity, and laborious attention, I wish to render a tribute of the very highest applause 
and most permanent gratitude; persuaded that far more flattering commendation than I can bestow 
will not fail to crown such rare merit”. 
Of this officer it may be remarked, that he was not more happy in the possession of superior 
talents, than fortunate in occasions to display them. The successive sieges of Savannah [October, 
1779] and Charlestown furnished him with opportunities of exemplifying his skill in the two princi¬ 
pal branches of his profession; the art of defence and that of attack; in both, his masterly designs 
were crowned with success; nor is it easy to determine in which of them his great attainments in 
his profession shone with highest lustre. Steelman’s History of American War, Vol. II, page 187. 
2 The chevaux-de-frise consisted of three rows of immense beams of timber, bolted and fastened 
together and stuck with spikes. It was sunk across the river a little below the place where the 
Schuylkill empties itself into the Delaware. The upper line was flanked by a fort on Mud Island 
and the works at Red Bank; the lower, by works on the Jersey shore at Billing’s Port. When the 
fort was taken; Captain Hammond in the Roebuck,' made an opening in the lower line. Stedman, 
Vol. I, p. 296. 
