On this hill, an angry George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Armies, met his second-in-command, Major-General Charles Lee, and demanded to know the reason for the confusion and retreat. Washington had sent Lee with twelve cannon and 5,000 men to stage a hit-and-run attack on the rear of the British Army, but a British counterattack with 10,000 men forced Lee to withdraw. As Washington led the main body of the army toward the Spotswood Middle Brook bridge, he encountered a disorganized retreat in which frustrated officers leading the withdrawing battalions did not know why they were retreating. There had been little fighting, only a skirmish and some artillery fire, and one officer complained, "By God! They are flying from a shadow." The failed attack on the British rear was becoming a political disaster. With the British only fifteen minutes away, Washington acted decisively, sending Brigadier General Anthony Wayne to fight a delaying action, asking Lee to further slow the enemy advance, and then riding back across the bridge to organize the main army on the Perrine Farm.