wick, in Jersey, in the beginning of the year 1777,
during the American war, I had charge of the outermost
end of the picket line near Raritan Landing, on
the Boundbrook road. This post could only be held
through great watchfulness, and on account of the love
and good-will of the chasseurs to myself. We were
daily skirmishing with the Americans, for we were only
about a mile apart. One morning towards spring, the
Americans, under cover of a thick fog, crept so near to
one of my outposts that they reached one of my pickets
at the same moment with a patrol I had sent out,
and routed it. They rushed in on me so quickly as to
get within about two hundred yards of me.
Fortunately, there was a sunken road between us, into which
I threw myself with sixteen chasseurs, calling to
Lieutenant Hinrichs to cover my right flank with the rest
of the men until Captain Wreeden could come up with
his company. Just as I reached the sunken road I
received the brisk fire of a regiment of light infantry,
under Colonel Buttlar, whereupon my men, who were
usually brave fellows, lost their heads and ran away.
Astonished, as you may readily believe, I called after
them, ‘You may run to the devil, but I'll stay here
alone.’ At this moment I perceived that one man,
Jäger Bauer, had stayed by me. He answered, ‘No, you
shall not stay alone,’ and he called after the chasseurs
that were making off: ‘Boys! stop! a scoundrel runs
away.’ After he had shouted out these words a few
times they all came back and fought like brave fellows.
The Americans, who had kept up a continual fire all
this time, had not been aware of this frightful scrape I
had been in. Captain Wreeden, and the light infantry
Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/129
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THE WINTER OF 1777.
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