The two generals remain where they are for two days, while Howe reinforces the position on Chatterton Hill, and Washington organizes his army for retreat into the hills.

With the arrival of additional Hessian and Waldeck troops under Lord Percy on October 30, Howe plans to act against the Americans the following day.

However, a heavy rain falls the whole next day, and when Howe is finally prepared to act, he will awakens to find that Washington has again eluded his grasp.

Washington had withdrawn his army into the hills to the north on the night of October 31, establishing a camp near North Castle.

Howe had chosen not to follow, instead attempting without success to draw Washington out.

On November 5, he had turns his army south to finish evicting Continental Army troops from Manhattan, a task he accomplishes with the November 16 Battle of Fort Washington.

After the Hessians under Knyphausen enter the fort, the American officers attempt to placate the Hessian commander, Captain von Malmburg, who is in charge of the surrender.

They invite him into their barracks, and offer him punch, wine, cake, with compliments.

As they leave  the fort, the Hessians strip the American troops of their baggage and beat some of them.

Their officers intervene to prevent further injuries or deaths.

The British capture thirty-four cannons, two howitzers, along with many tents, blankets, tools and much ammunition.

The British and Hessians suffer eighty-four killed and three hundred and seventy-four wounded.

The Americans lose fifty-nine killed, have ninety-six wounded casualties, and two thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight men captured.

Under the usual treatment of prisoners of war in the American Revolutionary War, only eight hundred will survive their captivity to be released eighteen months later in a prisoner exchange; nearly three-quarters of the prisoners will have died.

The British have established a chain of outposts stretching from Perth Amboy to Bordentown and, with the campaign at an apparent conclusion for the season, enter winter quarters.

They control much of New York and New Jersey and are in a good position to resume operations in the spring, with the rebel capital of Philadelphia in striking distance.

Howe detaches General Clinton with six thousand men to occupy Newport, Rhode Island as a base for future operations against Boston and Connecticut (Clinton had occupied Newport in early December without opposition.)

Howe now sketches a campaign for the coming year in a letter to Lord Germain: ten thousand men at Newport, ten thousand for an expedition to Albany (to meet an army descending from Quebec), eight thousand to cross New Jersey and threaten Philadelphia, and five thousand to defend New York.

If additional foreign forces are available, operations can also be considered against the southern states.

Washington, while worrying over how to hold his army together, has organized attacks on the relatively exposed British outposts, which are as a result continually on edge due to ongoing militia and army raids.

German commanders Carl von Donop and Johann Rall, whose brigades are at the end of the chain of outposts, are frequent targets of these raids, but their repeated warnings and requests for support from General James Grant are dismissed.

Beginning in mid-December, Washington plans a two-pronged attack on Rall's outpost in Trenton, with a third diversionary attack on Donop's outpost in Bordentown.

The plan is aided by the fortuitous presence of a militia company that draws Donop's entire two thousand-man force away from Bordentown to the south that results in a skirmish at Mount Holly on December 23.

The consequence of this action is that Donop will not be in a position to assist Rall when Washington's attack on Trenton takes place.

Thomas Paine, living with Washington's troops, had on December 23 begun publishing The American Crisis, containing the stirring phrase, "These are the times that try men's souls."

Washington had ordered the first issue of The Crisis read to his troops on Christmas Eve, then at 6 p.m. on Christmas Day, all twenty-six hundred of them march to McKonkey's Ferry, ...

...cross the Delaware River, and land on the New Jersey bank at 3 a.m.

The fifteen hundred Hessian troops under the command of Col. Johann Rall, camped in and around Trenton, are surprised at 8:00 AM by Washington's troops.

The Hessian regiments had supposedly let their guard down to celebrate the Christmas holiday, and Rall himself had been misled by John Honeyman, a spy of Washington who had convincingly posed as a loyalist.

The American Continental Army decisively defeats the Hessians, taking nine hundred and forty-eight prisoners while suffering only five wounded.

Rall, according to one account, was busy playing cards/chess the night before the attack at the home of Trenton merchant Abraham Hunt when he was handed a note from a local Loyalist who'd seen Washington's forces gathering.

Then, after receiving the message, he placed in his coat pocket without reading it.

While leading his troops in retreat from the battle of Trenton, Rall is struck by a musketball.

He dies later that day from his injuries.

The note informing the general of the attack is later found in his coat pocket.

Four thousand British and Hessian troops under the overall command of Cornwallis march from New Brunswick to make a multi-pronged surprise attack.

The right flank, under the command of Major General James Grant, consists of the Hessian jäger corps, grenadiers from the English Brigade of Guards, and a detachment of British light dragoons.

While most of this column advances from Raritan Landing (opposite New Brunswick on the left, or Bound Brook side, of the river), two companies of light infantry go further right, aiming to cut off the main road from Bound Brook to the Continental Army camp at Morristown.

The center, under the command of Hessian Colonel Carl von Donop, consists of the Hessian grenadier battalions von Linsing and Minnigerode, and the left, commanded by Cornwallis, consists of two battalions of British light infantry, the 1st battalion of grenadiers, and another detachment of light dragoons.

Donop's column advances up the right bank of the Raritan, aiming to gain control of the bridge directly at Bound Brook, while Cornwallis takes a longer route to ford the river above Bound Brook and thus cut off the possibility of retreat in that direction.

The Continental Army response is immediate; Washington sends a large force under Major General Nathanael Greene to reoccupy Bound Brook.

The British have already left by the time they arrive; Greene sends a detachment to harass their rear guard.

This detachment catches up with the British near Raritan Landing, where they kill eight and capture sixteen.

General Howe reports that about thirty Americans have been killed and eighty to ninety have been captured, while General Lincoln reports that sixty of his men have been killed or wounded.

Howe claims no deaths and seven wounded among the British and Hessians.

Washington reports that "[t]he enemy lost the post at Eleven O'Clock the same day, & our people took possession of it again", and that the army's losses were "trifling and not worth mentioning".

He did, however, also report that between thirty-five and forty killed or captured, and the loss of three field cannons.

In a report to the Board of War, Washington admits the capture of two cannons, two officers and twenty men from Colonel Proctor's Regiment.

General Greene reports to his wife, "The British Generals breakfasted and I [dined] at the same house that day".

Washington, concerned that the attack presages an early start to the campaign season, worries that his troops are not yet in place to deal with major British movements.

Johann von Ewald and a few of his jägers are in the vanguard of Grant's column and engage the American sentries to the south of Bound Brook.

Unaware that this is supposed to be a feint, Ewald drives the sentries back nearly to the main redoubt where the outpost's cannons are located.

By sunrise he is nearly surrounded; the timely arrival of von Donop's column just over the river, and the attack by Cornwallis's column prompts the Americans to begin abandoning the post.

The surprise is very nearly complete; the Pennsylvania artillery company, which had been manning the redoubt, is severely mauled, with numerous killed and captured.

Colonel von Donop reports that General Lincoln "must have retired en Profond Négligé" ("profoundly undressed", or naked), and Lincoln's papers are taken.

The British plan is marred by the early skirmishing involving Ewald, and the too-late arrival of the companies sent to cut off the road to Morristown; Many Americans escape via this route.

The British capture also cannons, ammunition, and supplies, and loot Bound Brook, but return to New Brunswick later in the morning.