The Virginia Gazette

Extract of a letter from Philadelphia,

General Washington's army having been considerably reinforced, and enabled to act offensively against the foes of freedom, has relieved the Whig inhabitants of this city from a disagreeable state of anxiety; and, on the other hand, this happy reverse in our affairs makes the poor despicable Tories look quite chop-fallen! Glorious intelligence has this day arrived from Jersey. Every countenance, a few of the wretches aforesaid excepted, seems to sparkle with joy. The substance of the information I have received is, that our army, after a long conflict with a very formidable body of the enemy, are in possession of Princeton, and driving them with the utmost precipitation, insomuch that it is not doubted but a total rout of this part of the grand British and foreign army will gloriously close the winter's campaign. In addition to this, we have reason to believe that the first news we hear from New York will be that it is in possession of the New England troops. A gentleman from New England, at the coffee house, offers to lay any body 500 to 100 guineas, that they will have it by this evening; for he says 5000 troops, in one body, at Poughkeepsie, in Duchess county; that the New Englandmen were all in arms, and that their object was New York. I have great pleasure in informing you that troops from the country are continually coming into this city, on their way to join general Washington, and in such numbers as would really amaze you; that 3000 are, this day, to march to Bristol, headed by the gallant general Putnam; and col. Heming's battalion of 600 or 700 continental troops, from the Eastern Shore of Virginia, it is expected, will be in town this evening. To the lasting honour of the New England troops, who came across the North river with general Lee, and joined general Washington in this state, whose time of service expired the first of January, it may be told, that every man of them, considering the critical situation of his country, nobly and cheerfully consented to stay with their beloved commander in chief six weeks longer. A respectable young gentleman, of the city of Philadelphia, who lately went to Bordentown with a flag, was politely entertained by the Hessian commandant, at the house of a continental delegate at that place, with whom he supped and dined in the company of that arch traitor Jo. Galloway, and parson Odell of Burlington. The Pennsylvania refugee studiously avoided political conversation, knowing there was a gentleman at table who despised him: but the unworthy Levite anxiously and impudently wished for a bridge of ice, that he and the army might visit and be visited by their acquaintances on this shore, thus proving himself, what Churchill expresses, "by cruelty a priest." To your list of miscreants may be added, Tench Coxe, Edward Shippen, jun. Peter Campbell, and many others, whose names shall hereafter be sent to you. Just as I was about to put a period to this hasty scrawl, fresh news arrived, that our brave troops have, by the favour of Heaven, been crowned with victory on the plains of Princeton. I am so much affected with joy for my country's safety and honour, my anxiety for my friends, who may now, perhaps, be numbered with the dead, is such, that I can only add my fervent prayers that the Almighty may speedily put an end to the calamities of war, and grant us that peace, that liberty, and safety, which have been denied us by ungrenerous Britons.