[Carpenters Island, Pa.]
[October] 20th. Wind S.W. and the weather remarkably warm. At 4 this morning 12 Flat bottomed Boats and a whale boat arrived at Philadelphia from our Fleet after receiving abundance of Grape from the Fort1 and 2 Gallies below without any injury until they arrived near our Battery two medium 12 pounders, on the North point of Schuylkill2 where they were fired on (that Garrison not being apprized) and lost one seaman. At ½ past 10 this morning, the Engineers finished the Floating Bridge across Schuylkill upwards of 400 feet. Rebels fired a feu de joie from the Fort and Ships, &c. Commander-in-Chief3 visited the works. An officer and 6 mounted Jagers patroling near the Falls of Schuylkill were met by a troop of Rebel Horse and obliged to fly having one killed, but Plunket4 their Captain pursuing too far fell in with one of our Pickets and was wounded and taken with another. Arrived in the night as far as Blakely's House a 13 inch mortar and this night made greatest put [part] of its battery about 350 yards from the Rebel Fort. Communication open with the Fleet from the Batteries to Bow Creek, the road to Blakely's House. The effect of these Batteries were answered by driving off the Rebel Floating Batteries and Gallies and opening a kind of communication with our Fleet, they were also intended to annoy the Fort and set fire to the Buildings, which did not take place for the Instant the shells fell, they were immersed in the mire, that work being constructed in and on the mud.
Montresor, Journals, 468-69.
1. Fort Mifflin.
2. Webb's Ferry.
3. Sir William Howe.
4. Capt. David Plunkett, 4th Continental Dragoons.