This position was constantly maintained.

The troops remained in order of battle during the day; and, in the night, slept on the ground to be defended.

In the mean time the Jersey militia, with an alacrity theretofore unexampled in that state, took the field in great numbers.

They principally joined General Sullivan, who had retired from Princeton, behind the Sourland hills towards Flemingtown, where an army of some respectability was forming, which could readily co-operate with that under the immediate inspection of the Commander-in-chief.
[Footnote 59: General Howe's letter.] The settled purpose of General Washington was to defend his camp, but not to hazard a general action on other ground.

He had therefore determined not to advance from the heights he occupied, into the open country, either towards the enemy, or the Delaware.
The object of General Howe seems to have been, by acting on his anxiety for Philadelphia, to seduce him from the strong ground about Middlebrook, and tempt him to approach the Delaware, in the hope of defending its passage.