"
In accordance with Washington's suggestion as to the augmenting of the
number of his men, Putnam availed himself of the request of a wounded
British officer, who was his prisoner, that a friend in Cornwallis's
army might be sent for to make his will, to practise a ruse. It was in
Princeton, whither he had been ordered from Crosswicks. As he had but a
few hundred men, in order to prevent his weakness from being known to
the military visitor he was brought in after dark, all the windows in
the college buildings and private houses were lighted up, "and the
handful of troops paraded about to such effect during the night that the
visitor, on his return to the British camp, reported the force under the
old general to be at least five thousand strong!" In this manner the
shrewd but kind-hearted Putnam complied with his prisoner's request, and
at the same time turned it to his own and his soldiers' advantage.
Having failed in his attempt to "bag that old fox" (Washington), Lord
Cornwallis had scurried back to protect his baggage and communications
at New Brunswick, while Washington ensconced himself in the rugged
country about Morristown, and Putnam was left to protect the lowlands
and harass the enemy.
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