Not
always does fate appear so just in her strokes.
In December, though the position of Washington was very bad, all
was not lost. The chief aim of Howe was to secure the line of the
Hudson and this he had not achieved. At Stony Point, which lies
up the Hudson about fifty miles from New York, the river narrows
and passes through what is almost a mountain gorge, easily
defended. Here Washington had erected fortifications which made
it at least difficult for a British force to pass up the river.
Moreover in the highlands of northern New Jersey, with
headquarters at Morristown, General Sullivan, recently exchanged,
and General Gates now had Lee's army and also the remnants of the
force driven from Canada. But in retreating across New Jersey
Washington had been forsaken by thousands of men, beguiled in
part by the Tory population, discouraged by defeat, and in many
cases with the right to go home, since their term of service had
expired. All that remained of Washington's army after the forces
of Sullivan and Gates joined him across the Delaware in
Pennsylvania, was about four thousand men.
Howe was determined to have Philadelphia as well as New York and
could place some reliance on Tory help in Pennsylvania. He had
pursued Washington to the Delaware and would have pushed on
across that river had not his alert foe taken care that all the
boats should be on the wrong shore.
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