Bancroft  quotes  this  letter  to  prove,  out  of  Greene's  own  mouth,
that  he  fell  under  Washington's  frown  at  Germantown,  although
the  letter  says  no  such  thing.  Why  did  he  not  quote  the  fol-
lowing passage  ?  "I  covered  the  retreat  at  Brandywine,  and
was  upwards  of  an  hour  and  a  quarter  in  a  hot  action,  and  con-
fessedly saved  the  park  of  artillery,  and,  indeed,  the  army,  from
the  fatal  effects  of  a  disagreeable  rout."  Would  Greene,  in
writing  to  Henry  Lee,  who  was  in  the  battle  of  the  Brandy-
wine, advance  an  unfounded  claim  to  so  conspicuous  a  ser-
vice ?  Or  is  it  "  irrelevant  and  unhistoric  "  to  name  a  Major-
general  in  connection  with  the  part  performed  by  his  division
in  an  important  battle  ?

Of  Mr.  Bancroft's  paragraphs  concerning  Germantown  I  am
at  a  loss  how  to  speak,  without  using  language  which,  however
just  in  itself,  and  almost  imperatively  called  for  by  the  facts,
would  hardly  become  the  pages  of  a  literary  journal.  He  has
no  condemnation  for  Washington's  protracted  discussion  before
Chew's  house,  the  injudicious  summons  which  cost  the  life  of
the  gallant  Smith,  the  time  wasted  in  attempting  to  beat  down
its  solid  walls  with  light  field-pieces,  and  the  delay  which  all
this  occasioned  in  the  advance  of  the  right  wing  ;  but  upon  the
attack  upon  it  made  by  Woodford,  under  justifying  circum-
stances, he_  dwells  with  minute  complacency,  as  a  blunder  caused
by  a  blunder  of  Greene;  of  the  different  circumstances  under
which  the  two  halts  were  made,  he  is  silent.  He  cites  Marshall
to  prove  that  this  "  windmill  attack  "  was  made  by  a  part  of  the
left  wing,  and  speaks  of  this  part  as  having  "  strayed  to  Ohew's
house,  ....  halted  there,  ....  and  taken  no  part  in  the
battle,"  except  to  "  play  upon  its  walls  with  light  field-pieces."
Marshall's  words  are  :  "  While  rapidly  pursuing  the  flying  enemy,
Woodford's  brigade,  which  was  on  the  right  of  this  wing,  was
arrested  by  a  heavy  fire  from  Chew's  house  directed  against  its
right  flank."  Having  thus  boldly  travestied  Marshall's  account
of  Woodford's  movement,  he  with  equal  boldness  ignores  Mar-
shall's statement  that  that  part  of  the  wing  which  was  "  led  by
€h-eene  in  person,"  "  pressing  forward  with  eagerness,  encountered


500  APPENDIX.
