the mountains and hills of Pennsylvania, with their supplies on pack horses. A number of men deserted and went home. Their food supply was stretched out by hunting game in the woods. In February the regiment staggered into Quibbletown, New Jersey and went into camp. Within a short time, one-third of the regiment was on the sick list and 50 men died, including both senior officers, Mackay and Wilson. The unit was in action near Rahway, New Jersey on 23 February during the Forage War. In the brilliant Battle of Spanktown, the Americans surprised a reinforced British brigade under Charles Mawhood and chased it back to Amboy. On 27 March Colonel Daniel Brodhead transferred from the 4th Pennsylvania Regiment to take command of the 8th. Butler was promoted to lieutenant colonel and Mackay's son-in-law Stephen Bayard was appointed major. The 8th Pennsylvania fought at the Battle of Bound Brook on 13 April 1777 under the command of Butler. In this action the 8th formed the main part of a 500-man outpost under the command of Major General Benjamin Lincoln, together with militia and an artillery detachment from the Proctor's Pennsylvania State Artillery Regiment. These troops observed the 8,000 British and Hessians in and around Brunswick, New Jersey, only away. On the 13th, Lord Charles Cornwallis attempted to envelop Lincoln's small outpost. Though the password was supposed to have been compromised, surprise was achieved mainly because the militia pickets were not alert. Cornwallis and Major General James Grant with 3,000 to 4,000 troops marched along both banks of the Raritan River. Colonel Carl von Donop led the center with two Hessian grenadier battalions. Two battalions of British light infantry and one of grenadiers advanced on the left, while the Hessian jägers, Sir George Osborn's grenadier company of the Brigade of Guards, and the light cavalry moved up on the right. The plan miscarried when Captain Johann von Ewald's jäger company was pinned down under "murderous fire" and Donop's troops were committed before the enveloping columns could get behind the Americans. Lincoln's men fought well and the bulk of them evaded the trap. Henry Knox admitted losing six killed and 20 to 30 captured, while the British claimed to have taken 80 prisoners. The light cavalry seized three brass 3-pound cannons from the Americans. The loss of their senior officers and the defeat at Bound Brook apparently caused "distracted" behavior in the