The First American Army - Bruce Chadwick [72]
Sgt. White, howling at the top of his lungs and running next to Monroe, turned and saw him fall as the crackling of the Hessian muskets filled the chilly air. White, now leading the attack, his adrenaline flowing, started to scream even louder, waving his sword wildly above his head. “I was the first to reach the [cannon]. One man was . . . tending. ‘Run, you dog!’ I yelled. He looked up and saw [sword] and ran. We put in a canister of shot and fired [at the fleeing Hessians].”13
The battle did not begin for Greenwood and his regiment, moving slowly west of Washington’s divisions, until just after 8 a.m. as their artillery group reached the northern end of town. A Hessian six-pound cannon fired wildly into the snow and a cannonball exploded just in front of Greenwood’s cannon caisson. He would recall, “The ball struck the fore horse that was dragging our only piece of artillery, a threepounder. The animal, which was near me, as I was in the second division on the left, was struck in its belly and knocked over on its back. While it lay there kicking, the cannon was stopped and I did not see it again after we had passed on.”
Everything after that seemed a blur to Greenwood. He noted, “It was dark and stormy so that we could not see very far ahead; we got within two hundred yards of about three or four hundred Hessians who were paraded two deep in a straight line with Colonel Rall, on horseback, to the right of them. They made a full fire at us, but I did not see that they killed anyone.”
Greenwood moved toward the Hessians, proud that he was brave and forlorn that he was risking the loss of a perfectly good suit and brand new shirt, with lacy ruffles on the shirt, folded up in his backpack (the men never retrieved the packs). He was also distressed that the snow and rain had rendered their muskets useless; none were able to fire. As he contemplated the loss of his shirt and soaked musket, Sherburne ordered them to rush the Hessians in front of them and to use their bayonets for weapons.
“And rush we did,” said a grim Greenwood, noting that only one in five men had bayonets. The rest waved their swords and simply ran and yelled as loud as they could. “Within pistol shot, they fired point blank at us; we dodged and they did not hit a man, while before they had time to reload we were within three feet of them,” he wrote. The Hessians, with the howling Americans right in their faces, turned and stumbled backwards. “They broke in an instant and ran like so many frightened devils into the town. We went after them pell-mell,” Greenwood added.
Some of the Hessians had given up and were herded inside a building by the Americans. Others had been cornered in a home and seemed about to surrender. Greenwood kept moving toward the sounds of the battle with others. “I passed two of their cannons, brass six-pounders, by the side of which lay seven dead Hessians and a brass drum. This latter article was, I remember, a great curiosity to me and I stopped to look at it, but it was quickly taken possession of by one of our drummers, who threw away his own.”
Greenwood bent over and pulled a sword out of the sheath of one of the dead Hessians. As he rose he saw George Washington, on his horse, moving slowly down the street. “March on, my brave fellows, after me,” the commander in chief told the men, apparently looking right at Greenwood. Greenwood described how his regiment moved down the street in remarkably calm order for men in a heated battle. They saw five hundred Hessians on their right and, in columns of two, marched down the road and turned to face them, just a few yards away. The men raised their guns and prepared to fire directly at the Hessians. Suddenly, Greenwood said, as the muskets were lifted, someone yelled out, “They have no guns! They have no guns!” Others shouted the same warning.
Greenwood