OZE6EL LEOX MT IS A 50 ALISHAA INNa ar er Pe er ns ee ee ee ah eh ob etal =) eeiat = en ee ee Se ees ee ee eiet et Fo! whe tw falethe tei miptel ee eS eel pacha ee ee eee is ~Aetwrihed-i< a | | WV = fedepalm ie 24m ee ee ee Set re ee eee teeta OP at eres Sant Rh Se Sa tt ae otk a ers Nien ahetaien e e eee ee ete = eck See en ea ee pipdiabdind de ees ee ee cnr renin SS thet) Sabie eed eet a a legteleten ieee ee tutta he ha Spe eS eee ebeesSe es aceattrt Pid “ PO te den , ad a ames one Gooey enny on ty Es Eo > “preys ' capitan aaa re ee eet ere a Taree) eee i fe : ; cH fi i ; i : areS ee oe ee ee ee eT ee ee et ee ee eee Deere Py onek «ra eter nea eer) : : bi . i ; I | ne EE to Fed dee tad ne weabons-Wyaep-aoas on gpeeeee pb bet har rurtte Ho tees Oe nme oO ROC eet 7 hohad ot ~ whet ~'- ae ee ee eT ark ke ele at fag ee aSerre Died as * Seen ee el bet atta (be bP besten, erumezite™ ed errr ee ea bie : i | i | } mee wn ce eusse ne ee ead co a Pe re ah eho eea ene ae Batcs i i if i iF } } . \ , q 5 a ee bh tine pension ene Sech Secon eaehel 5 sae Se ees Peete Sd Serank et Yefohorel- ee ee ee et eee ere et oe eeeABRAHAM LINCOLN EDITION VOLUME 12 THE CHRONICLES OF AMERICA SERIES ALLEN JOHNSON EDITOR GERHARD R. LOMER CHARLES W. JEFFERYS ASSISTANT EDITORS vl i Pa ‘ Hi ! ; ba i rie : beg re Let r b a! re eS a a4 i co J ai a Pe) a ) a Fs i 2 »t 5 } 4 if a H eA an #< 4g teehee odubeata hohe A oe 7 Dae peice Ree) ere pe ne Pe enemaswh et eent ee e i 1 | 1 Ny . : i 1 i i ' } ; a re se eee 5 ne eee a CSorabstie hansen eee ee aAnpraete ee bert ee eta ater 7 wrt Serer foro an Semen seem enon mer aewm ere ern ten ts steven western ans keen eme arene PP et etd ie Laat ae i ee ee ets a P Py rot Oe el] WJ - ie pars I 4 4 f 4 } mi t ae | } Ae a 1% = . ve . " ‘ r * Ss . ad ee eo . ear POP ee a tak ee ede pr Palate te Tacunt me sasnes ‘ bea .Dee ee eee Le ie ee ee ere ore ° eAmbebetal « -— ms a ok ae . ee ee ee ee wl 5 a et nn OG eet mar oe -"e ets ee es die beitieneetaiiiettia aL he ee oe ee een OT OE PP Poa Pe elm teraee he are . Ce ee - state nd ee ee eae J » e- er ae c : .Se Td Pi ee abies Reet o°4 eek el eee eee al reat ere cane rim th" i saied Se eens | eyes tye ee ee er abe grecre a r a ad pea en et haeaes ese ee ee NT eae ere te . eo a leer eel ged a es oe Pe ener ee ee pe ee | ees sree a) ee 7 i PEN e aE ee eee ee eT PP ete Pet eee or ee eres Oe Deere Seen ee “ oa rea rite Pui ie fort ar . “it . GEORGE WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE Painting by Charles Willson Peale. In the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. re i 7 f Aee ra ve i ih pa wat heist uate sal ot sek hgereec ate ter etceter lene ner eae Se ae mtn ttre et Beha “ea om a he ee ail ; " afte 4 i i vt o ike kasd enh ees a Sa an beaeeeeseslS oat ll Fen ter tenn cebas, ——WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES IN ARMS A CHRONICLE OF THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE BY GEORGE M. WRONG NEW HAVEN: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS TORONTO: GLASGOW, BROOK & CO. LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 192] rr = re co Rr rr PPh athe g(r 4 aM by Mette erro Fee ee deta p ee Lane ae hat pn een ee - ms pare bebe en ee rn et ahs vel et eee ee ee ee aaietenatelindind i _a pas aH died ne eee aaa a os tulrtseeenteicineenainier ead ots Py r} OD ee hot ee oT a (oulenpetiieideateetanteht meatier oe ren awtetebeILLUSTRATIONS GEORGE WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE Painting by Charles Willson Peale. In the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. BARON VON STEUBEN RICHARD MONTGOMERY Paintings by C. W. Peale. In Independ- ence Hall, Philadelphia. HORATIO GATES Engraving by H. B. Hall, in facsimile of a pencil drawing by John Trumbull. In the Emmet Collection, Print Department of the New York Public Library. BENEDICT ARNOLD Engraving by B. I. Prevost, after a drawing from life made by Du Simitier in Philadel- phia. In the Emmet Collection, Print Department of the New York Public Li- brary. NATHANAEL GREENE Painting by C. W. Peale. In Independence Hall, Philadelphia. MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE Painting by C. W. Peale. In Independence Hall, Philadelphia. Frontispiece Facing page 48a rer ae at ye pee : ated i ; ‘ 4 F H rs ‘ ive oa) ‘ : Hy - ; ; ; i " 5 ' a an eS {i ‘a 4 _ uy a Oe 7) 5 4 iy 4 t. Dy ie i +] d 4 | a \ | i ‘-) ay 4 i,’ ia i : i ag f 4 i - 5 rs ‘ uy ‘ .a Spee “ “ +, ILLUSTRATIONS THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR: NORTHERN CAMPAIGNS Map by W. L. G. Joerg, American Geograph- ical Society. JOHN PAUL JONES Marble bust by Jean Antoine Houdon. In the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. CHARLES, EARL CORNWALLIS Painting by Thomas Gainsborough. In the National Portrait Gallery, London, England. ALEXANDER HAMILTON Painting by Charles Willson Peale. Inthe collection of the New York Historical Society. THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR: SOUTHERN CAMPAIGNS Map by W. L. G. Joerg, American Geograph- ical Society. ~O w~ —THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 3 made the need of a leader more urgent. Boston was besieged by American volunteers under the command of General Artemas Ward. The siege had lasted for two months, each side watching the other at long range. General Gage, the British Commander, had the sea open to him and a finely tempered army upon which he could rely. The opposite was true of his opponents. They were a motley host rather than an army. They had few guns and almost no powder. Idle waiting since the fight at Lexington made untrained troops restless and anxious to go home. Nothing holds an army together like real war, and shrewd officers knew that they must give the men some hard task to keep up their fighting spirit. It was rumored that Gage was preparing an aggressive movement from Boston, which might mean pillage and massacre in the surrounding country, and it was decided to draw in closer to Boston to give Gage a di- version and prove the mettle of the patriot army. So, on the evening of June 16, 1775, there was a stir of preparation in the American camp at Cambridge, and late at night the men fell in near Harvard College. Across the Charles River north from Boston, on a peninsula, lay the village of Charlestown, and es Te . breast - arth tieatht : Ly aed pts Lem - - , ton ' erry er a a eee were ne Peerersr tL Pe het eae —ne etel Ad nig eka sete ete es meng men et neenee terry Tt 8 . eee ied eleted «* Hor betel 7 ies eA! oo bP al « 50 nlwlgkgigbe-> ‘ Pas at a aM Pid deep indie ntehetrendeied neste deeded eaten ant are ie eee ee omeeee Peet TP eee eT ee he OSPR oer Sar See he 2 Ne SI So aT ee ett et a a a= ied ee — es eee ee en ate . uf eee ee stand sib Tease steht = “ es epee ate eee eee s . st aera ee Na Lane ee Le Sete i . : “i ne ie : J \ if a | te ute tha + mene 7 4 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES rising behind it was Breed’s Hill, about seventy- four feet high, extending northeastward to the higher elevation of Bunker Hill. The peninsula could be reached from Cambridge only by a narrow neck of land easily swept by British floating batter- ies lying off the shore. In the dark the American force of twelve hundred men under Colonel Pres- cott marched to this neck of land and then ad- vanced half a mile southward to Breed’s Hill. Prescott was an old campaigner of the Seven Years’ War; he had six cannon, and his troops were com- manded by experienced officers. Israel Putnam was skillful in irregular frontier fighting, and Nathanael Greene, destined to prove himself the best man in the American army next to Washington himself, could furnish sage military counsel derived from much thought and reading. Thus it happened that on the morning of the 17th of June General Gage in Boston awoke to a surprise. He had refused to believe that he was shut up in Boston. It suited his convenience to stay there until a plan of campaign should be evolved by his superiors in London, but he was cer- tain that when he liked he could, with his disci- plined battalions, brush away the besieging army. Now he saw the American force on Breed’s HillTHE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 5 throwing up a defiant and menacing redoubt and entrenchments. Gage did not hesitate. The bold aggressors must be driven away at once. He de- tailed for the enterprise William Howe, the officer destined soon to be his successor in the command at Boston. Howe was a brave and experienced soldier. He had been a friend of Wolfe and had led the party of twenty-four men who had first climbed the cliff at Quebec on the great day when Wolfe fell victorious. He was the younger brother of that beloved Lord Howe who had fallen at Ticonderoga and to whose memory Massachusetts had reared a monument in Westminster Abbey. Gage gave him in all some twenty-five hundred men, and, at about two in the afternoon, this force was landed at Charlestown. The little town was soon aflame and the smoke helped to conceal Howe’s movements. The day was boiling hot and the soldiers carried heavy packs with food for three days, for they intended ‘to camp on Bunker Hill. Straight up Breed’s Hill they marched wading through long grass some- times to their knees and throwing down the fences on the hillside. The British knew that raw troops were likely to scatter their fire on a foe still out of range and they counted on a rapid bayonet chargeoe ee eet es 2 on 6 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES against men helpless with empty rifles. This ex- pectation was disappointed. The Americans had in front of them a barricade and Israel Putnam was there, threatening dire things to any one whoshould fire before he could see the whites of the eyes of the advancing soldiery. As the British came on there was a terrific discharge of musketry at twenty yards, repeated again and again as they either halted or drew back. The slaughter was terrible. British officers hardened in war declared long afterward that they had never seen carnage like that of this fight. The American riflemen had been told to aim especially at the British officers, easily known by their uni- forms, and one rifleman is said to have shot twenty officers before he was himself killed. Lord Rawdon, who played a considerable part in the war and was later, as Marquis of Hastings, Viceroy of India, used to tell of his terror as he fought in the British line. Suddenly a soldier was shot dead by his side, and, when he saw the man quiet at his feet, he said, “Is Death nothing but this?” and henceforth had no fear. When the first attack by the British was checked they retired; but, with dogged resolve, they re-formed and again charged up the hill, only a second time to be repulsed. The third time theyTHE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 7 were more cautious. They began to work round to the weaker defenses of the American left, where there were no redoubts and entrenchments like those on the right. By this time British ships were throwing shells among the Americans. Charles- town was burning. The great column of black smoke, the incessant roar of cannon, and the dread- ful scenes of carnage had affected the defenders. They wavered; and on the third British charge, having exhausted their ammunition, they fled from the hill in confusion back to the narrow neck of land half a mile away, swept now by a British float- ing battery. General Burgoyne wrote that, in the third attack, the discipline and courage of the British private soldiers also broke down and that when the redoubt was carried the officers of some corps were almost alone. The British stood vic- torious at Bunker Hill. It was, however, a costly ‘victory. More than a thousand men, nearly half of the attacking force, had fallen, with an undue proportion of officers. Philadelphia, far away, did not know what was happening when, two days before the battle of ‘Bunker Hill, the Continental Congress settled the question of a leader for a national army. On the het Ltt DA bon pa ee Pa! a eet brady bon Lae ae Share Ste ee te eer en nt ee ache oad oe Spice ete pet hte, ee ee Pen ee ce pone en ere ne eee eee* Seay Specs oer ath captain SOT Rote eh Sa bd tare “ Pear eet mraet beet te Se ee — _— seiition . =< wile ~ pe * ‘ ¢ “ eee fe oornee 8 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES 15th of June John Adams of Massachusetts rose — and moved that the Congress should adopt as its - own the army before Boston and that it should name Washington as Commander-in-Chief. Adams had deeply pondered the problem. He was certain . that New England would remain united and de- cided in the struggle, but he was not so sure of the other colonies. To have a leader from beyond New England would make for continental unity. Vir- ginia, next to Massachusetts, had stood in the fore- front of the movement, and Virginia was fortunate in having in the Congress one whose fame as a sol- dier ran through all the colonies. There was some- thing to be said for choosing a commander from the colony which began the struggle and Adams knew that his colleague from Massachusetts, John Han- cock, a man of wealth and importance, desired the post. He was conspicuous enough to be President of the Congress. Adams says that when he made his motion, naming a Virginian, he saw in Han- cock’s face “mortification and resentment.” He saw, too, that Washington hurriedly left the room when his name was mentioned. There could be no doubt as to what the Congress would do. Unquestionably Washington was the fittest man for the post. Twenty years earlier heTHE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 9 had seen important service in the war with France. His position and character commanded universal respect. The Congress adopted unanimously the motion of Adams and it only remained to be seen whether Washington would accept. On the next day he came to the sitting with his mind made up. The members, he said, would bear witness to his declaration that he thought himself unfit for the task. Since, however, they called him, he would try to do his duty. He would take the command but he would accept no pay beyond his expenses. Thus it was that Washington became a great na- tional figure. The man who had long worn the King’s uniform was now his deadliest enemy; and it is probably true that after this step nothing could have restored the old relations and reunited the British Empire. The broken vessel could not be made whole. Washington spent only a few days in getting ready to take over his new command. On the 21st of June, four days after Bunker Hill, he set out from Philadelphia. The colonies were in truth very ‘remote from each other. The journey to Boston was tedious. In the previous year John Adams had traveled in the other direction to the Congress at Philadelphia and, in his journal, he notes, as if he A o wr r ro re : " _ ot lt , anon 7 —— rm ae be be “47-4 uJ Pa rere tt tae pS ee | ee ern el De ahaa aan pret kate oe! . ’ ape pene re NT maha St ee Se a eneracecannrs= i pe - wi ymca caelel eel Sol te Wat Agr- stete~ne = =-» ~—s "= ES oe a 5 ae 7 — setae ee et See al Eel eed fe SO Od Se home et wt ered Bot art Dah pen nn oa aa r LO NB i pt “9 ed - ie eee . i vs - va iro) ie 2 fh Pred 10 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES were traveling in foreign lands, the strange man- ners and customs of the other colonies. The jour- ney, so momentous to Adams, was not new to Washington. Some twenty years earlier the young Virginian officer had traveled as far as Boston in. the service of King George II. Now he was leader in the war against King George III. In New Jer- sey, New York, and Connecticut he was received impressively. In the warm summer weather the roads were good enough but many of the rivers were not bridged and could be crossed only by ferries or at fords. It took nearly a fortnight to reach Boston. Washington had ridden only twenty miles on his long Journey when the news reached him of the fight at Bunker Hill. The question which he asked anxiously shows what was in his mind: “Did the militia fight?” When the answer was “Yes,” he said with relief, ‘The liberties of the country are safe.” He reached Cambridge on the 2d of July and on the following day was the chief figure in a striking ceremony. In the presence of a vast crowd and of the motley army of volunteers, which was now to be called the American army, Washington assumed the command. He sat on horseback under an elm tree and an observer noted that hisTHE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 11 appearance was “truly noble and majestic.”’ This was milder praise than that given a little later by a London paper which said: ‘There is not a king in Europe but would look like a valet de chambre by his side.” New England having seen him was henceforth wholly on his side. His traditions were not those of the Puritans, of the Ephraims and the Abijahs of the volunteer army, men whose Old Testament names tell something of the rigor of the Puritan view of life. Washington, a sharer in the free and often careless hospitality of his native Virginia, had a different outlook. In his personal discipline, however, he was not less Puritan than the strictest of New Englanders. The coming wears were to show that a great leader had taken his fitting place. Washington, born in 1732, had been trained in self-reliance, for he had been fatherless from childhood. At the age of sixteen he was working at the profession, largely self-taught, of a surveyor of land. At the age of twenty-seven he married ‘Martha Custis, a rich widow with children, though her marriage with Washington was childless. His estate on the Potomac River, three hundred miles from the open sea, recently named Mount Vernon,ed edie eal teeee e e —— we ee - es . — a at ce ah Sal Ss Se Sah pe ean net a ter Sd a bara ee ari pin—nd PP ee et ten ee ee ee tt ee ee Oe en ee Dee as Filtin m Polen i ing ote ~ ti phe Guhao tet apphat ng AW Pololotehsbalohteget=) ahoGs . Se heien eer eee G2 F- 2 ten ewe p= o> Ba art toe) Sa rah Sep ha ees al tee ee bade del te ee PTs rl te) rT lial eee ee een no a : ’ ; ri : ri - $y LJ ; n he J 4 . ‘5 Pm np : oF i of «4 12 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES had been in the family for nearly a hundred years. | There were twenty-five hundred acres at Mount Vernon with ten miles of frontage on the tidal river. The Virginia planters were a landowning gentry; when Washington died he had more than sixty thousand acres. The growing of tobacco, the one vital industry of the Virginia of the time, with its half million people, was connected with the owner- ship of land. On their great estates the planters lived remote, with a mail perhaps every fortnight. There were no large towns, no great factories. Nearly half of the population consisted of negro slaves. It is one of the ironies of history that the chief leader in a war marked by a passion for liberty was a member of a society in which, as another of its members, Jefferson, the author of the Declara- tion of Independence, said, there was on the one hand the most insulting despotism and on the other the most degrading submission. The Virginian landowners were more absolute masters than the proudest lords of medieval England. These feudal lords had serfs on their land. The serfs were at- tached to the soil and were sold to a new master with the soil. They were not, however, property, without human rights. On the other hand, the slaves of the Virginian master were property likeTHE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 18 his horses. They could not even call wife and children their own, for these might be sold at will. It arouses a strange emotion now when we find Washington offering to exchange a negro for hogs- heads of molasses and rum and writing that the man would bring a good price, “if kept clean and trim’d up a little when offered for sale.” In early life Washington had had very little of formal education. He knew no language but Eng- lish. When he became world famous and his friend La Fayette urged him to visit France he refused because he would seem uncouth if unable to speak the French tongue. Like another great soldier, the Duke of Wellington, he was always careful about his dress. There was in him a silent pride which would brook nothing derogatory to his dignity. No one could be more methodical. He kept his accounts rigorously, entering even the cost of re- pairing a hairpin for a ward. He wasa keen farmer, and it is amusing to find him recording in his care- ful journal that there are 844,800 seeds of ““New River Grass” to the pound Troy and so determin- ing how many should be sown to the acre. Not many youths would write out as did Washington, apparently from French sources, and read and reread elaborate “Rules of Civility and Decent a~= oh ede Sec bed uy ee eer TT ny te Lae oon oem se ee — lela an al me ern SS ~" sere ere—ene= = eee ee sie | a. ok ee ™ Ber pew eeaeeres emeresasameyen tree “al HaeSeach ener eR eee ers , rer ttt = ie -r an — pert weweces: ee - ESET either od foe sate ed hed ae eae ee eee eng Sal ne erent fad Pe eet a ~ re dlp ciietbetindh bean). aides oa oo - oh ie - a 14 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES Behaviour in Company and Conversation.” Inthe fashion of the age of Chesterfield they portray the perfect gentleman. He is always to remember the presence of others and not to move, read, or speak without considering what may be due to them. In the true spirit of the time he is to learn to defer to persons of superior quality. Tactless laughter at his own wit, jests that have a sting of idle gossip, are to be avoided. Reproof is to be given not in anger but in a sweet and mild temper. The rules descend even to manners at table and are a revela- tion of care in self-discipline. We might imagine Oliver Cromwell drawing up such rules, but not Napoleon or Wellington. The class to which Washington belonged prided itself on good birth and good breeding. We picture him as austere, but, like Oliver Cromwell, whom in some respects he resembles, he was very human in his personal relations. He liked a glass of wine. He was fond of dancing and he went to the theater, even on Sunday. He was, too, something of a lady’s man; “He can be downright impudent some- times,” wrote a Southern lady, ‘“‘such impudence, Fanny, as you and I like.” In old age he loved to have the young and gay about him. He could break into furious oaths and no one was a betterTHE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 16 master of what we may call honorable guile in dealing with wily savages, in circulating falsehoods that would deceive the enemy in time of war, or in pursuing a business advantage. He played cards for money and carefully entered loss and gain in his accounts. He loved horseracing and horses, and nothing pleased him more than to talk of that noble animal. He kept hounds and until his burden of cares became too great was an eager devotee of hunting. His shooting was of a type more heroic than that of an English squire spending a day on a moor with guests and gamekeepers and returning to comfort in the evening. Washington went off on expeditions into the forest lasting many days and shared the life in the woods of rough men, sleeping often in the open air. “ Happy,” he wrote, “is he who gets the berth nearest the fire.” He could spend a happy day in admiring the trees and the richness of the land on a neighbor’s estate. Always his thoughts were turning to the soil. There was poetry in him. It was said of Napoleon that the one approach to poetry in all his writings is the phrase: ‘‘The spring is at last appearing and the leaves are beginning to sprout.’’ Washington, on the other hand, brooded over the mysteries of life. He pictured to himself the serenity of a calm errs wh 4 = A; : eT —T pk eth Saat fea eS . " ee a eeghtunrerh brane ted tie SADDLE here eng h arene ee te eran eam qn tne hete ee rent OF Se Cea ire talon to eeoes ee eel et AS pt Slain kth ade ont iie be ko nln iq hese ds: Sate bel seep hualtetelecheaediete heetar deemdere rane eeanter rere EE ee ahd whey Ste Pee tee | | sap | a ernty yey “et a » I, SOE rs - a —ietee - 0 eer rt potent 4 $1 bate b= teen tere ne ts eres = » RT ee eee ee ae BE naa SL api ~ pete u be 7-4 +2 h Sac tee wieto'* whe ersten tee eo a end pe Sh rte eh ) waa re teen +o ; ae a) hi ie Pi ; | a a ’ re ia , 16 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES old age and always dared to look death squarely in the face. He was sensitive to human passion and he felt the wonder of nature in all her ways, her bounteous response in growth to the skill of man, the delight of improving the earth in contrast with the vain glory gained by ravaging it in war. His most striking characteristics were energy and de- cision united often with strong likes and dislikes. His clever secretary, Alexander Hamilton, found, as he said, that his chief was not remarkable for good temper and resigned his post because of an impatient rebuke. When a young man serving in the army of Virginia, Washington had many a tussle with the obstinate Scottish Governor, Din- widdie, who thought his vehemence unmannerly and ungrateful. Gilbert Stuart, who painted sev- eral of his portraits, said that his features showed strong passions and that, had he not learned self- restraint, his temper would have been savage. This discipline he acquired. The task was not easy, but in time he was able to say with truth, “I have no resentments,” and his self-control became so perfect as to be almost uncanny. The assumption that Washington fought against an England grown decadent is not justified. To admit this would be to make his task seem lighterTHE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 17 than it really was. No doubt many of the rich aris- tocracy spent idle days of pleasure-seeking with the comfortable conviction that they could dis- charge their duties to society by merely existing, since their luxury made work and the more they indulged themselves the more happy and profitable employment would their many dependents enjoy. The eighteenth century was, however, a wonderful epoch in England. Agriculture became a new thing under the leadership of great landowners like Lord Townshend and Coke of Norfolk. Already was abroad in society a divine discontent at existing abuses. It brought Warren Hastings to trial on the charge of plundering India. It attacked slav- ery, the cruelty of the criminal law, which sent children to execution for the theft of a few pennies, the brutality of the prisons, the torpid indifference of the church to the needs of the masses. New inventions were beginning the age of machinery. The reform of Parliament, votes for the toiling masses, and a thousand other improvements were being urged. It was a vigorous, rich, and arrogant England which Washington confronted. It is sometimes said of Washington that he was an English country gentleman. A gentleman he was, but with an experience and training quite 2 eons ee ewes es - a * ene peewee eee ea a eT heena rat he ta Ph ne oo ow oe ob gt Bla gt lace k eisai meron dyads io Lele sekedeenete Jageeos . taco TP A I I Tr Feet PPR es we eee or ~ - - : Ot ed Ser hoot net ee etal mal ee ol ae ee ee eel Seat rt i pir sad 18 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES unlike that of a gentleman in England. The young heir to an English estate might or might not go to a university. He could, like the young Charles James Fox, become a scholar, but like Fox, who knew some of the virtues and all the supposed gentlemanly vices, he might dissipate his energies in hunting, gambling, and cockfighting. He would almost certainly make the grand tour of Europe, and, if he had little Latin and less Greek, he was pretty certain to have some familiarity with Paris and a smattering of French. The eighteenth cen- tury was a period of magnificent living in England. The great landowner, then, as now, the magnate of his neighborhood, was likely to rear, if he did not inherit, one of those vast palaces which are to- day burdens so costly to the heirs of their builders. At the beginning of the century the nation to honor Marlborough for his victories could think of noth- ing better than to give him half a million pounds to build a palace. Even with the colossal wealth produced by modern industry we should be stag- gered at a residence costing millions of dollars. Yet the Duke of Devonshire rivaled at Chats- worth, and Lord Leicester at Holkham, Marl- borough’s building at Blenheim, and many other costly palaces were erected during the followingTHE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 19 half century. Their owners sometimes built in order to surpass a neighbor in grandeur, and to this day great estates are encumbered by the debts thus incurred in vain show. The heir to such a property was reared in a pomp and luxury undreamed of by the frugal young planter of Virginia. Of working for a livelihood, in the sense in which Washington knew it, the young Englishman of great estate would never dream. The Atlantic is a broad sea and even in our own day, when instant messages flash across it and man himself can fly from shore to shore in less than a score of hours, it is not easy for those on one strand to understand the thought of those on the other. Every community evolves its own spirit not easily to be apprehended by the onlooker. The state of society in America was vitally different from that in England. The plain living of Virginia was in sharp contrast with the magnificence and ease of England. It is true that we hear of plate and elabo- rate furniture, of servants in livery, and much drinking of Port and Madeira, among the Virgin- ians. They had good horses. Driving, as often they did, with six in a carriage, they seemed to keep up regal style. Spaces were wide in a coun- try where one great landowner, Lord Fairfax, held ¢ TT eed ee re ee te ee a ~~ pa — rt re) LL heen ere rn bene eee newt e emer ene nena Tete ad m4 oo -20 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES no less than five million acres. Houses lay isolated and remote and a gentleman dining out would sometimes drive his elaborate equipage from twenty to fifty miles. There was a tradition of lavish hospitality, of gallant men and fair women, and sometimes of hard and riotous living. Many of the houses were, however, in a state of decay, with leaking roofs, battered doors and windows and shabby furniture. To own land in Virginia did not mean to live in luxurious ease. Land brought in truth no very large income. It was easier to break new land than to fertilize that long in use. An acre yielded only eight or ten bushels of wheat. In England the land was more fruitful. One who was only a tenant on the estate of Coke of Norfolk died worth £150,000, and Coke himself had the income of a prince. When Washington died he was reputed one of the richest men in America and yet his estate was hardly equal to that of Coke’s tenant. Washington was a good farmer, inventive and enterprising, but he had difficulties which ruined many of his neighbors. Today much of his infer- tile estate of Mount Vernon would hardly grow enough to pay the taxes. When Washington desired a gardener, or a bricklayer, or a carpenter,THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 21 he-usually had to buy him in the form of a convict, or of a negro slave, or of a white man indentured for a term of years. Such labor required eternal vigilance. The negro, himself property, had no respect for it in others. He stole when he could and worked only when the eyes of a master were upon him. If left in charge of plants or of stock he was likely to let them perish for lack of water. Washington’s losses of cattle, horses, and sheep from this cause were enormous. The neglected cattle gave so little milk that at one time Washing- ton, with a hundred cows, had to buy his butter. Negroes feigned sickness for weeks at a time. A visitor noted that Washington spoke to his slaves with a stern harshness. No doubt it was neces- sary. The management of this intractable material brought training in command. If Washington could make negroes efficient and farming pay in Virginia, he need hardly be afraid to meet any other type of difficulty. From the first he was satisfied that the colonies had before them a difficult struggle. Many still refused to believe that there was really a state of war. Lexington and Bunker Hill might be re- garded as unfortunate accidents to be explained away in an era of good feeling when each side a “ ie ogee la * Perr eT hrs bet ben Leaver tae ae st reo eS ee ra: SLIT A Not Ststsse8 os Fe RELAY DA ba fl mb i ameter ETAT IEEE Ok t -~t* ele oid , ¢-+~oew ~ ee baat Seb ee a ee _22 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES should acknowledge the merits of the other and apologize for its own faults. Washington had few illusions of this kind. He took the issue in a serious and even bitter spirit. He knew nothing of the Englishman at home for he had never set foot out- side of the colonies except to visit Barbados with an invalid half-brother. Even then he noted that the “gentleman inhabitants” whose “hospitality and genteel behaviour’ he admired were dis- contented with the tone of the officials sent out from England. From early life Washington had seen much of British officers in America. Some of them had been men of high birth and station who treated the young colonial officer with due courtesy. When, however, he had served on the staff of the unfortunate General Braddock in the calamitous campaign of 1755, he had been offended by the tone of that leader. Probably it was in these days that Washington first brooded over the contrasts between the Englishman and the Virginian. With obstinate complacency Braddock had disregarded Washington’s counsels of prudence. He showed arrogant confidence in his veteran troops and con- tempt for the amateur soldiers of whom Washing- ton was one. In a wild country where rapid moye- ment was the condition of success Braddock wouldTHE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 23 halt, as Washington said, “to level every mole hill and to erect bridges over every brook.” His trans- port was poor and Washington, a lover of horses, chafed at what he called “‘vile management” of the horses by the British soldier. When anything went wrong Braddock blamed, not the ineffective work of his own men, but the supineness of Vir- yinia. ‘‘He looks upon the country,’ Washington wrote in wrath, “I believe, as void of honour and honesty.”” The hour of trial came in the fight of July, 1755, when Braddock was defeated and killed on the march to the Ohio. Washington told his mother that in the fight the Virginian troops stood their ground and were nearly all killed but the boasted regulars “were struck with such a panic that they behaved with more cowardice than it is possible to conceive.” In the anger and resent- ment of this comment is found the spirit which made Washington a champion of the colonial cause from the first hour of disagreement. That was a fatal day in March, 1765, when the British Parliament voted that it was just and necessary that a revenue be raised in America. Washington was uncompromising. After the tax on tea he derided ‘‘our lordly masters in Great Britain.”” No man, he said, should scruple for a2 ee eee Pee ee ee pale bering nn “ _ Seeder eee ae Ot ae Sent ette eee eh Sat ed Ss fe er a - - ae ean Ne Rt tag ~ 24 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES moment to take up arms against the threatened tyranny. He and his neighbors of Fairfax County, Virginia, took the trouble to tell the world by for- mal resolution on July 18, 1774, that they were descended not from a conquered but from a con- quering people, that they claimed full equality with the people of Great Britain, and like them would make their own laws and impose their own taxes. They were not democrats; they had no theories of equality; but as “‘gentlemen and men of fortune” they would show to others the right path in the crisis which had arisen. In this resolution spoke the proud spirit of Washington; and, as he brooded over what was happening, anger fortified his pride. Of the Tories in Boston, some of them highly educated men, who with sorrow were walk- ing in what was to them the hard path of duty, Washington could say later that ‘‘there never ex- isted a more miserable set of beings than these wretched creatures.” The age of Washington was one of bitter ve- hemence in political thought. In England the good Whig was taught that to deny Whig doctrine was blasphemy, that there was no truth or honesty on the other side, and that no one should trust a Tory; and usually the good Whig was true to the teachingWASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES IN ARMS CHAPTER I THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF Movine among the members of the second Con- tinental Congress, which met at Philadelphia in May, 1775, was one, and but one, military figure. George Washington alone attended the sittings in uniform. This colonel from Virginia, now in his forty-fourth year, was a great landholder, an owner of slaves, an Anglican churchman, an aristocrat, everything that stands in contrast with the type of a revolutionary radical. Yet from the first he had been an outspoken and uncompromising champion of the colonial cause. When the tax was imposed on tea he had abolished the use of tea in his own household and when war was imminent he had talked of recruiting a thousand men at his own lSgtanasarcsdntesres wtassoaa hea LM NL ame a, died = ppecunierieee Sean ees eee i , ie } ri - ii? Ae iO . eh ~ 29 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES expense and marching to Boston. His steady wearing of the uniform seemed, indeed, to show that he regarded the issue as hardly less military than political. The clash at Lexington, on the 19th of April, had made vivid the reality of war. Passions ran high. For years there had been tension, long dis- putes about buying British stamps to put on Ameri- can legal papers, about duties on glass and paint and paper and, above all, tea. Boston had shown turbulent defiance, and to hold Boston down British soldiers had been quartered on the inhabi- tants in the proportion of one soldier for five of the populace, a great and annoying burden. And now British soldiers had killed Americans who stood barring their way on Lexington Green. Even calm Benjamin Franklin spoke later of the hands of British ministers as “‘red, wet, and dropping with blood.” Americans never forgot the fresh graves made on that day. There were, it is true, more British than American graves, but the British were regarded as the aggressors. If the rest of the colo- nies were to join in the struggle, they must have a common leader. Who should he be? In June, while the Continental Congress faced this question at Philadelphia, events at BostonTHE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 25 he had received. In America there had hitherto been no national politics. Issues had been local and passions thus confined exploded all the more fiercely. Franklin spoke of George III as drinking long draughts of American blood and of the British people as so depraved and barbarous as to be the wickedest nation upon earth, inspired by bloody and insatiable malice and wickedness. To Wash- ington George III was a tyrant, his ministers were scoundrels, and the British people were lost to every sense of virtue. The evil of it is that, for a posterity which listened to no other comment on the issues of the Revolution, such utterances, in- stead of being understood as passing expressions of party bitterness, were taken as the calm judgments of men held in reverence and awe. Posterity has agreed that there is nothing to be said for the coerc- ing of the colonies so resolutely pressed by George IIT and his ministers. Posterity can also, however, understand that the struggle was not between un- diluted virtue on the one side and undiluted vice on the other. Some eighty years after the Ameri- can Revolution the Republic created by the Revo- lution endured the horrors of civil war rather than accept its own disruption. In 1776 even the most liberal Englishmen felt a similar passion for te apr iravery-d “he J ae bra ny-beabe Lee oe sinwensi Tac’ ee eee hla al ~os ener ane ene26 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES the continued unity of the British Empire. Time has reconciled all schools of thought to the unity lost in the case of the Empire and to the unity preserved in the case of the Republic, but on the losing side in each case good men fought with deep conviction.CHAPTER II BOSTON AND QUEBEC WASHINGTON was not a professional soldier, though he had seen the realities of war and had moved in military society. Perhaps it was an advantage that he had not received the rigid training of a regular, for he faced conditions which required an elastic mind. The force besieging Boston consisted at first chiefly of New England militia, with com- panies of minute-men, so called because of their supposed readiness to’ fight at a minute’s notice. Washington had been told that he should find 20,000 men under his command; he found, in fact, a nominal army of 17,000, with probably not more than 14,000 effective, and the number tended to decline as the men went away to their homes after the first vivid interest gave way to the humdrum of military. life. The extensive camp before Boston, as Washing- ton now saw it, expressed the varied character 27 oi tgrk eel — th ae rs —_ = ater See ee ee ee etenersiehen nate nae er EtS SS Pete t a 28 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES of his strange command. Cambridge, the seat of Harvard College, was still only a village with a few large houses and park-like grounds set among fields of grain, now trodden down by the soldiers. Here was placed in haphazard style the motley housing of a military camp. The occupants had followed their own taste in building. One could see struc- tures covered with turf, looking like lumps of mother earth, tents made of sail cloth, huts of bare boards, huts of brick and stone, some having doors and windows of wattled basketwork. There were not enough huts to house the army nor camp-kettles for cooking. Blankets were so few that many of the men were without covering at night. Inthe warm summer weather this did not much matter but bleak autumn and harsh winter would bring bitter privation. The sick in par- ticular suffered severely, for the hospitals were badly equipped. A deep conviction inspired many of the volun- teers. ‘They regarded as brutal tyranny the tax on tea, considered in England as a mild expedient for raising needed revenue for defense in the colo- nies. The men of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, meeting in September, 1774, had declared in high- flown terms that the proposed tax came from aBOSTON AND QUEBEC 29 yarricide who held a dagger at their bosoms and that those who resisted him would earn praises to eternity. From nearly every colony came similar utterances, and flaming resentment at injustice filled the volunteer army. Many a soldier would not touch a cup of tea because tea had been the ruin of his country. Some wore pinned to their hats or coats the words “Liberty or Death” and talked of resisting tyranny until “‘time shall be no more.” It was a dark day for the motherland when so many of her sons believed that she was the enemy of liberty. The iron of this conviction entered into the soul of the American nation; at Gettysburg, nearly a century later, Abraham Lin- eoln, in a noble utterance which touched the heart of humanity, could appeal to the days of the Revo- lution, when “our fathers brought: forth on this eontinent a new nation, conceived in liberty.” The colonists believed that they were fighting for something of import to all mankind, and the nation which they created believes it still. An age of war furnishes, however, occasion for the exercise of baser impulses. The New Eng- lander was a trader-by instinct. An army had come suddenly together and there was golden promise of contracts for supplies at fat profits. rn ia 5 are-e* er = ae Qi TT tee he hoe be 7? > a et Pale ee eee el eet oh eee Ne ee iba al vor tain elt ae <= rs ee ee er ee nen - tt an d clea eee ~ al SN etal eee - al30 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES ' The leader from Virginia, untutored in such things, was astounded at the greedy scramble. Before the year 1775 ended Washington wrote to his friend Lee that he prayed God he might never again have to witness such lack of public spirit, such jobbing and self-seeking, such “‘fertility in all the low arise: as now he found at Cambridge. He declared that | if he could have foreseen all this nothing would have induced him to take the command. Later, the young La Fayette, who had left behind him in France wealth and luxury in order to fight a hard fight in America, was shocked at the slackness and indifference among the supposed patriots for whose cause he was making sacrifices so heavy. In the backward parts of the colonies the population was densely ignorant and had little grasp of the deeper meaning of the patriot cause. The army was, as Washington himself said, “‘a mixed multitude.” There was every variety of dress. Old uniforms, treasured from the days of the last French wars, had been dug out. A military coat or a cocked hat was the only semblance of uniform possessed by some of the officers. Rank was often indicated by ribbons of different colors tied on the arm. Lads from the farms had come in their usual dress: a good many of these wereBOSTON AND QUEBEC 31 hunters from the frontier wearing the buckskin of the deer they had slain. Sometimes there was clothing of grimmer material. Later in the war an American officer recorded that his men had skinned two dead Indians “‘from their hips down, for bootlegs, one pair for the Major, the other for myself.”” The volunteers varied greatly in age. There were bearded veterans of sixty and a sprink- ling of lads of sixteen. An observer laughed at who > the boys and the “great great grandfathers’ marched side by side in the army before Boston. Occasionally a black face was seen in the ranks. One of Washington’s tasks was to reduce the dis- parity of years and especially to secure men who could shoot. In the first enthusiasm of 1775 so many men volunteered in Virginia that a selection was made on the basis of accuracy in shooting. The men fired at a range of one hundred and fifty yards at an outline of a man’s nose in chalk on a board. Each man had a single shot and the first men shot the nose entirely away. Undoubtedly there was the finest material among the men lounging about their quarters at Cambridge in fashion so unmilitary. In physique they were larger than the British soldier, a result due to abundant food and free life in the open airSet ee ete a ee eet eeaee ee Te Peer - . - enon ee yee ea ——_— - ichenacheher te tt tte nt bee it ot os - ne _ a ee = 32 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES from childhood. Most of the men supplied their own uniform and rifles and much barter went on in the hours after drill. The men madeand sold shoes, clothes, and even arms. They were accustomed to farm life and good at digging and throwing up entrenchments. ‘The colonial mode of waging war was, however, not that of Europe. To the regular soldier of the time even earth entrenchments seemed a sign of cowardice. The brave man would come out on the open to face his foe. Earl Percy, who rescued the harassed British on the day of Lexington, had the poorest possible opinion of those on what he called the rebel side. To him they were intriguing rascals, hypocrites, cowards, with sinister designs to ruin the Empire. But he was forced to admit that they fought well and faced death willingly. In time Washington gathered about him a fine body of officers, brave, steady, and efficient. On the great issue they, like himself, had unchang- ing conviction, and they and he saved the revolu- tion. But a good many of his difficulties were due to bad officers. He had himself the reverence for gentility, the belief in an ordered grading of society, characteristic of his class in that age. In Virginia the relation of master and servant was |BOSTON AND QUEBEC 33 well understood and the tone of authority was readily accepted. In New England conceptions of equality were more advanced. The extent to which the people would brook the despotism of military command was uncertain. From the first some of the volunteers had elected their officers. The result was that intriguing demagogues were sometimes chosen. ‘The Massachusetts troops, wrote a Connecticut captain, not free, perhaps, from local jealousy, were “commanded by a most despicable set of officers.” At Bunker Hill officers of this type shirked the fight and their men, left without leaders, joined in the panicky retreat of that day. Other officers sent away soldiers to work on their farms while at the same time they drew for them public pay. At a later time Washington wrote to a friend wise counsel about the choice of officers. ‘““Take none but gentlemen; let no local attachment influence you; do not suffer your good nature to say Yes when you ought to say No. Remember that it is a public, not a private cause.” What he desired was the gentleman’s chivalry of refinement, sense of honor, dignity of character, and freedom from mere self-seeking. The prime qualities of a good officer, as he often said, were authority and decision. It is probably true of 3 ‘ sree bid ee be ee ma Pe i“? ~ . eT ot bebe oe er a . S uae am, Peer tt ta ited 3 a teria alana ae - a ee a Le t4ath~ “ . -t~a"s ‘ . - ete ee s kd = eee eee eienheiaetind inated at eek ere ar} atttagtunte ha a—— peel os SE Pett —aed re Fs te had onthe later tat-oeeebtak Senegal ahr ook tet eerie tee ee eet Ea we pet mente Sat oe Sereda esas | St 3 trae - . wart~ ~h~ - ~* whe wee ao ere ¥ Sh Se eSene theta » 34 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES democracies that they prefer and will follow the man who will take with them a strong tone. Little men, however, cannot see this and think to gain support by shifty changes of opinion to please the multitude. What authority and decision could be expected from an officer of the peasant type, elected by his own men? How could he dominate men whose short term of service was expiring and who had to be coaxed to renew it? Some elected officers had to promise to pool their pay with that of their men. In one company an officer fulfilled the double position of captain and barber. In time, however, the authority of military rank came to be respected throughout the whole army. An amusing contrast with earlier conditions is found in 1779 when a captain was tried by a brigade court-martial and dismissed from the service for intimate association with the wagon-maker of the brigade. The first thing to do at Cambridge was to get rid of the inefficient and the corrupt. Washington had never any belief in a militia army. From his earliest days as a soldier he had favored conscrip- tion, even in free Virginia. He had then found quite ineffective the “whooping, holloing gentle- men soldiers”’ of the volunteer force of the colonyBOSTON AND QUEBEC 35 among whom “every individual has his own crude notion of things and must undertake to direct. If his advice is neglected he thinks himself slighted, abused, and injured and, to redress his wrongs, will depart for his home.” Washington found at Cam- bridge too many officers. Then as later in the American army there were swarms of colonels. The officers from Massachusetts, conscious that they had seen the first fighting in the great cause, expected special consideration from a stranger serving on their own soil. Soon they had a rude awakening. Washington broke a Massachusetts colonel and two captains because they had proved cowards at Bunker Hill, two more captains for fraud in drawing pay and provisions for men who did not exist, and still another for absence from his post when he was needed. He put in jail a colonel, a major, and three or four other officers. “New lords, new laws,’’ wrote in his diary Mr. Emerson, the chaplain: ‘‘the Generals Washington and Lee are upon the lines every day . . . great distinction is made between officers and soldiers.” The term of all the volunteers in Washington’s army expired by the end of 1775, so that he had to create a new army during the siege of Boston. He spoke scornfully of an enemy so little enterprising ek ehi hte wing Mee ara ee A - - as ba Sal AS ee aren: TL nl F Oe aera cele eee a bat) bape eben Le ap ot SS :- ma pee be a oot bret ar peruse cotaetepemtee til eT AOHT MLS pareey ery e" jure 4nme Sees cy TT eRe Le eet en cernee et ee ee ee ped se et - ° Dleeenl ene Senne Spire er Peet teat ete — Oe ed oe ae red FE bel Sad pare Foe mary = NS oe J RE eI ng iJ ee ee See ae Denne es a 7 - a 36 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES as to remain supine during the process. But prob- ably the British were wise to avoid a venture inland and to remain in touch with their fleet. Washington made them uneasy when he drove away the cattle from the neighborhood. Soon beef was selling in Boston for as much as eighteen pence a pound. Food might reach Boston in ships but supplies even by sea were insecure, for the Ameri- cans soon had privateers manned by seamen famil- iar with New England waters and happy in ex- pected gains from prize money. The British were anxious about the elementary problem of food. They might have made Washington more uncom- fortable by forays and alarms. Only reluctantly, however, did Howe, who took over the command on October 10, 1775, admit to himself that this was areal war. He still hoped for settlement without further bloodshed. Washington was glad to learn that the British were laying in supplies of coal for the winter. It meant that they intended to stay in Boston, where, more than in any other place, he could make trouble for them. Washington had more on his mind than the crea- tion of an army and the siege of Boston. He had also to decide the strategy of the war. On the long American sea front Boston alone remained inBOSTON AND QUEBEC 87 British hands. New York, Philadelphia, Charles- ton and other ports farther south were all, for the time, on the side of the Revolution. Boston was not a good naval base for the British, since it com- manded no great waterway leading inland. The sprawling colonies, from the rock-bound coast of New England tothe swamps and forests of Georgia, were strong in their incoherent vastness. ‘There were a thousand miles of seacoast. Only rarely were considerable settlements to be found more than a hundred miles distant from salt water. An army marching to the interior would have increas- ing difficulties from transport and supplies. Wher- ever water routes could be used the naval power of the British gave them an advantage. One such route was the Hudson, less a river than a navigable -arm of the sea, leading to the heart of the colony of New York, its upper waters almost touching Lake George and Lake Champlain, which in turn led to the St. Lawrence in Canada and thence to the sea. Canada was held by the British; and it was clear that, if they should take the city of New York, ‘they might command the whole line from the mouth of the Hudson to the St. Lawrence, and so cut off New England from the other colonies and ‘overcome a divided enemy. To foil this policy SE Pee tt Pale oad ees eae - Le bat tJ Pe oe if eee * SEE TRA Cale tew ee Ae al pn eern cenememenen nego pte pete r eae eh lars a as ree : rer ae bee NSE a a ne renting et meserarmialRed ne ee ee eer eet Papgen-data = aagh-Pshapr bath ae ha tete here ee eh eee ee een eee eee Ne tah alee esheets - et clereeens Geeeeeen ke ene PTE eee te tated Leet het ete - a Se a rear ephemeris en Leet PERE ternal ph bat od hart CI ao rPOrineamaed =e pele ee ~“< noes eee e eet aie - . At bhai betes Le . ‘ 38 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES Washington planned to hold New York and to capture Canada. With Canada in line the union of the colonies would be indeed continental, and, if the British were driven from Boston, they would have no secure foothold in North America. The danger from Canada had always been a source of anxiety to the English colonies. ‘The French had made Canada a base for attempts to drive the English from North America. During many decades war had raged along the Canadian frontier. With the cession of Canada to Britain in 1763 this danger had vanished. The old habit en- dured, however, of fear of Canada. When, in 1774, the British Parliament passed the bill for the gov- ernment of Canada known as the Quebec Act, there was violent clamor. The measure was assumed to be a calculated threat against colonial liberty. The Quebec Act continued in Canada the French civil law and the ancient privileges of the Roman Catholic Church. It guaranteed order in the wild western region north of the Ohio, taken recently from France, by placing it under the authority long exercised there of the Governor of Quebec. Only a vivid imagination would conceive that to allow to the French in Canada their old loved customs and laws involved designs against the freedom underBOSTON AND QUEBEC 39 English law in the other colonies, or that to let the Canadians retain in respect to religion what they had always possessed meant a sinister plot against the Protestantism of the English colonies. Yet Alexander Hamilton, perhaps the greatest mind in the American Revolution, had frantic suspicions. French laws in Canada involved, he said, the ex- tension of French despotism in the English colonies. The privileges continued to the Roman Catholic ‘Church in Canada would be followed in due course by the Inquisition, the burning of heretics at the stake in Boston and New York, and the bringing from Europe of Roman Catholic settlers who would prove tools for the destruction of religious liberty. Military rule at Quebec meant, sooner or later, despotism everywhere in America. We may smile now at the youthful Hamilton’s picture of “dark > > designs” and “deceitful wiles” on the part of that fierce Protestant George III to establish ‘Roman Catholic despotism, but the colonies re- garded the danger as serious. The quick remedy ‘would be simply to take Canada, as Washington ‘now planned. To this end something had been done before ‘Washington assumed the command. The British | Fort Ticonderoga, on the neck of land separating -40 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES Lake Champlain from Lake George, commanded the route from New York to Canada. The fight at Lexington in April had been quickly followed by aggressive action against this British stronghold. No news of Lexington had reached the fort when early in May Colonel Ethan Allen, with Benedict Arnold serving as a volunteer in his force of eighty- three men, arrived in friendly guise. The fort was held by only forty-eight British; with the menace from France at last ended they felt secure; disci- pline was slack, for there was nothing todo. The incompetent commander testified that he lent Allen twenty men for some rough work on the lake. By evening Allen had them all drunk and then it was easy, without firing a shot, to capture the fort with a rush. The door to Canada was open. Great stores of ammunition and a hundred and twenty guns, which in due course were used against the British at Boston, fell into American hands. About Canada Washington was ill-informed. He thought of the Canadians as if they were Vir- ginians or New Yorkers. They had been recently conquered by Britain; their new king was a ty- rant; they would desire liberty and would welcome an American army. So reasoned Washington, « but without knowledge. The Canadians were a Sete be Spee eer Peeters rea aol barb tne en teapiienaindeeisitiperent er a —— senattut ace Senos psibeitinbarhtenes cocci tas tetaah oe het La nD POP SE i we eta pal nt arma I oe aed 7 ce ed et eee in : i. te ie Pb reBOSTON AND QUEBEC 41 conquered people, but they had found the British king notyrant and they had experienced the paradox of being freer under the conqueror than they had been under their own sovereign. The last days of French rule in Canada were disgraced by corrup- tion and tyranny almost unbelievable. The Cana- dian peasant had been cruelly robbed and he had eonceived for his French rulers a dislike which appears still in his attitude towards the motherland of France. For his new British master he had as- Suredly no love, but he was no longer dragged off to war and his property was not plundered. He was free, too, to speak his mind. During the first twenty years after the British conquest of Canada the Canadian French matured indeed an assertive liberty not even dreamed of during the previous century and a half of French rule. The British tyranny which Washington pictured in Canada was thus not very real. He underesti- mated, too, the antagonism between the Roman Catholics of Canada and the Protestants of the English colonies. The Congress at Philadelphia in denouncing the Quebec Act had accused the Catho- lie Church of bigotry, persecution, murder, and rebellion. This was no very tactful appeal for sympathy to the sons of that France which was still Lae 0_b et ed ba Pe De oa eae 7“ * ae*e-e-y-: ed ot aa - ne . a eer rere tt eee * ~< ae ee nk anna a er rh sido td Soe en ene cere arer ame wte eet test scene - — — 5 . <4 er nT | rd ey Apa rr : a ; Re Cc eer ne eee taal42 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES the eldest daughter of the Church and it was hardly helped by a maladroit turn suggesting that “‘low- minded infirmities’? should not permit such differ- ences to block union in the sacred cause of liberty. Washington believed that two battalions of Cana- dians might be recruited to fight the British, and that the French Acadians of Nova Scotia, a people so remote that most of them hardly knew what the war was about, were tingling with sympathy for the American cause. In truth the Canadian was not prepared to fight on either side. What the priest and the landowner could do to make him fight for Britain was done, but, for all that, Sir Guy Carleton, the Governor of Canada, found recruiting impossible. Washington believed that the war would be won by the side which held Canada. He saw that from Canada would be determined the attitude of the savages dwelling in the wild spaces of the interior; he saw, too, that Quebec as a military base in British hands would be a source of grave danger. The easy capture of Fort Ticonderoga led him to underrate difficulties. If Ticonderoga why not Quebec? Nova Scotia might be occupied later, the Acadians helping. Thus it happened that, soon after taking over the command, Washington wasBOSTON AND QUEBEC 43 busy with a plan for the conquest of Canada. Two forces were to advance into that country; one by way of Lake Champlain under General Schuyler and the other through the forests of Mame under Benedict Arnold. Schuyler was obliged through illness to give up his command, and it was an odd fortune of war that put General Richard Montgomery at the head of the expedition going by way of Lake Champlain. Montgomery had served with Wolfe at the taking of Louisbourg and had been an officer in the proud British army which had received the surrender of Canada in 1760. Not without searching of heart had Montgomery turned against his former sover- eign. He was living in America when war broke out; he had married into an American family of position; and he had come to the view that vital liberty was challenged by the King. Now he did his work well, in spite of very bad material in his army. His New Englanders were, he said, “‘every man a general and not one of them a soldier.” They feigned sickness, though, as far as he had learned, there was “‘not a man dead of any dis- i'temper.” No better were the men from New York, “the sweepings of the streets”? with morals “‘in- > famous.” Of the officers, too, Montgomery had a ees Oe es ed 9k de oa : Re eer Te om bale J Faris pe tee ee aie tein ) mtr ere44 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES poor opinion. Like Washington he declared that it was necessary to get gentlemen, men of educa- tion and integrity, as officers, or disaster would follow. Nevertheless St. Johns, a British post on the Richelieu, about thirty miles across country from Montreal, fell to Montgomery on the 3d of November, after a siege of six weeks; and British regulars under Major Preston, a brave and com- petent officer, yielded to a crude volunteer army with whole regiments lacking uniforms. Montreal could make no defense. On the 12th of November Montgomery entered Montreal and was in control of the St. Lawrence almost to the cliffs of Quebec. Canada seemed indeed an easy conquest. The adventurous Benedict Arnold went on an expedition more hazardous. He had persuaded Washington of the impossible, that he could ad- vance through the wilderness from the seacoast of Maine and take Quebec by surprise. News travels even by forest pathways. Arnold made a wonder- ful effort. Chill autumn was upon him when, on the 25th of September, with about a thousand picked men, he began to advance up the Kennebec River and over the height of land to the upper waters of the Chaudiére, which discharges into the St. Lawrence opposite Quebec. There were heavyBOSTON AND QUEBEC 45 rains. Sometimes the men had to wade breast high in dragging heavy and leaking boats over the diff- cult places. A good many men died of starvation. ‘Others deserted and turned back. The indomit- able Arnold pressed on, however, and on the 9th of ‘November, a few days before Montgomery occu- pied Montreal, he stood with some six hundred worn and shivering men on the strand of the St. ‘Lawrence opposite Quebec. He had not surprised ‘the city and it looked grim and inaccessible as he ‘surveyed it across the great river. In the autumn gales it was not easy to carry over his little army in small boats. But this he accomplished and then - waited for Montgomery to join him. By the 3d of December Montgomery was with Arnold before Quebec. They had hardly more ‘than a thousand effective troops, together with a ’few hundred Canadians, upon whom no reliance could be placed. Carleton, commanding at Que- ‘bec, sat tight and would hold no communication with despised “rebels.” ‘“‘They all pretend to be _ gentlemen,” said an astonished British officer in » Quebec, when he heard that among the American officers now captured by the British there were a former blacksmith; a butcher, a shoemaker, and an innkeeper. Montgomery was stung to violent PN ee ee Pe a* . “3° eee abel hereaiea ail nhiel eich aa — 7 ml oat 144 | ee d J i rar aarti happiest teeten nett pete ae Seat whet ot mere = “ : eae 4 viindliaes i aie andldeciela 46 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES threats by Carleton’s contempt, but never could he draw from Carleton areply. At last Montgomery tried, in the dark of early morning of New Year’s Day, 1776, to carry Quebec by storm. He was to lead an attack on the Lower Town from the west side, while Arnold was to enter from the opposite side. When they met in the center they were to storm the citadel on the heights above. They counted on the help of the French inhabitants, from whom Carleton said bitterly enough that he had nothing to fear in prosperity and nothing to hope for in adversity. Arnold pressed his part of the attack with vigor and penetrated to the streets of the Lower Town where he fell wounded. Captain Daniel Morgan, who took over the command, was made prisoner. Montgomery’s fate was more tragic. In spite of protests from his officers, he led in person the at- tack from the west side of the fortress. The ad- vance was along a narrow road under the towering cliffs of a great precipice. The attack was expected by the British and the guard at the barrier was ordered to hold its fire until the enemy was near. Suddenly there was a roar of cannon and the assail- ants not swept down fled in panic. With the morning light the dead head of Montgomery wasBOSTON AND QUEBEC 47 ‘ound protruding from the snow. He was mourned by Washington and with reason. He had talents und character which might have made him one xf the chief leaders of the revolutionary army. Elsewhere, too, was he mourned. His father, an Irish landowner, had been a member of the British Parliament, and he himself was a Whig, known to Fox and Burke. When news of his death reached England eulogies upon him came from the Whig benches in Parliament which could not have been stronger had he died fighting for the King. While the outlook in Canada grew steadily darker, the American cause prospered before Bos- ton. There Howe was not at ease. If it was really to be war, which he still doubted, it would be well to seek some other base. Washington helped ‘Howe to take action. Dorchester Heights com- manded Boston as critically from the south as did ‘Bunker Hill from the north. By the end of Feb- ‘ruary Washington had British cannon, brought with heavy labor from Ticonderoga, and then he (lost no time. On the morning of March 5, 1776, » Howe awoke to find that, under cover of a heavy ‘ bombardment, American troops had occupied Dor- _chester Heights and that if he would dislodge, ow —s Glamaaed See tte: bask Mla gt aE aap Ast AS ALICAyEs hy kw init hedpeesd- Sate : ont tate eaeeneetat ei - SPE Se CE OO PE EE 0 ot nna eee ee os | teaees eat ae oh eos anes tt @ atlere barons meter pr EE D+ Dd a ae ans rs at ae ee el es See ee eee oes a ad, tes Sesezl gore hss seca aT 48 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES them he must make another attack similar to that at Bunker Hill. The alternative of stiff fighting was the evacuation of Boston. Howe, though dila- tory, was a good fighting soldier. His defects as a general in America sprang in part from his belief that the war was unjust and that delay might bring - counsels making for peace and save bloodshed. His first decision was to attack, but a furious gale thwarted his purpose, and he then prepared for the inevitable step. Washington divined Howe’s purpose and there was a tacit agreement that the retiring army should not be molested. Howe destroyed munitions of war which he could not take away but he left intact the powerfu! defenses of Boston, defenses reared at the cost of Britain. Many of the better class of the inhabitants, British in their sympathies, were now face to face with bitter sorrow and sacrifice. Passions were so aroused that a hard fate awaited them should they remain in Boston and they de- cided to leave with the British army. Travel by land was blocked; they could go only by sea. When the time came to depart, laden carriages, trucks, and wheelbarrows crowded to the quays through the narrow streets and a sad procession of exiles went out from their homes. A profane criticRICHARD MONTGOMERY. Paintings by C. W. Peale. In Independence Hall, Philadelphia. BARON VON STEUBEN TT rr ‘ ° t fee Oe ee Sie Sire pee ear ae er aiytathnse et. +e ap ee ene a meni nintrmenneeeaot meat 4 oto mbar epoeeie : é <3 f -€ «a a Rad eT od a ak ae. oe Pr ee a - eran) Roped ie alain Bae Ne aba ores oe Oe ae eer ot v eer gnen ped. tae ~ gear) so m J el - Le De Se nal rie aw oy 7 Pa i - MTT te ee er re J “ne ae oat ~~ i} ~ ae eT a heels othe tm seay al enelnat pad eet -? ee oy elil) - SS eee ee pet pot ot ET Sed bt yd oer ae ees ar a eee SNe ee ees sheeiensndenieee es “ye eee rete leet eeeo Peres 5 | read tari ead sues ; : | ; ; - : n Sx. ae ay an ' "i et a aw ‘ me a | Te » eat, a utr ee, + F ¢ + * : en | at ; . a 's ne ‘5 fi oa ao 0 ae ox. Te H Ue 148 f ae tg ; - a yea ; a et Eka bd ben be A ~4 . Or ee ee el as ee Per rd fro Rn * a C eT we pent ered ape ger eetotese geet er Fe pekews eae Sah e Peery tetetet et hat beatae aee Lee ene er oC . - ee on) eee 4 4 ms ) of - * oi ——— Pett et ernst teed tareag | es - Phar Od cep ete Lede ee eet en eed ad eet ieee ed 2 So t Seneyes- dl Se ee ras eeBOSTON AND QUEBEC 49 said that they moved “as if the very devil was , after them.’ No doubt many of them would have been arrogant and merciless to “‘rebels”’ had theirs been the triumph. But the day was above all a day of sorrow. Edward Winslow, a strong leader among them, tells of his tears “‘at leaving our once happy town of Boston.” The ships, a forest of rnasts, set sail and, crowded with soldiers and refugees, headed straight out to sea for Halifax. Abigail, wife of John Adams, a clever woman, watched the departure of the fleet with gladness in her heart. She thought that never before had been seen in America so many ships bearing so many people. Washington’s army marched joyously into Boston. Joyous it might well be since, for the moment, powerful Britain was not secure in a single foot of territory in the former colonies. {f Quebec should fall the continent would be almost conquered. Quebec did not fall. All through the winter the Americans held on before the place. They shivered trom cold. They suffered from the dread disease of smallpox. They had difficulty in getting food. The Canadians were insistent on having good money for what they offered and since good money was not always in the treasury the invading army 4 “ ole oe 5 Hee eee en mer rime Laas at ee ee lt etek ene mas rrr Maa bar Bote apomiyen tb aneee ee ee aaa bil ae - ee th ited ho See i a arate50 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES sometimes used violence. Then the Canadians became more reserved and chilling than ever. In hope of mending matters Congress sent a com- mission to Montreal in the spring of 1776. Its chairman was Benjamin Franklin and, with him, were two leading Roman Catholics, Charles Car- roll of Carrollton, a great landowner of Maryland, and his brother John, a priest, afterwards Arch- bishop of Baltimore. It was not easy to represent as the liberator of the Catholic Canadians the Congress which had denounced in scathing terms the concessions in the Quebec Act to the Catholic Church. Franklin was a master of conciliation, but before he achieved anything a dramatic event happened. On the 6th of May, British ships ar- rived at Quebec. The inhabitants rushed to the ramparts. Cries of joy passed from street to street and they reached the little American army, now under General Thomas, encamped on the Plains of Abraham. Panic seized the small force which had held on so long. On the ships were ten thousand fresh British troops. The one thing for the Ameri- cans to do was to get away; and they fled, leaving behind guns, supplies, even clothing and private papers. Five days later Franklin, at Montreal, was dismayed by the distressing news of disaster.BOSTON AND QUEBEC 51 Congress sent six regiments to reinforce the army which had fled from Quebec. It was a des- perate venture. Washington’s orders were that the Americans should fight the new British army as near Quebec as possible. The decisive struggle took place on the 8th of June. An American force under the command of General Thompson at- tacked Three Rivers, a town on the St. Lawrence, half way between Quebec and Montreal. They were repulsed and the general was taken prisoner. The wonder is indeed that the army was not anni- hilated. Then followed a disastrous retreat. Short of supplies, ravaged by smallpox, and in bad weather, the invaders tried to make their way back to Lake Champlain. They evacuated Montreal. It is hard enough in the day of success to hold to- gether an untrained army. In the day of defeat such a force is apt to become a mere rabble. Some of the American regiments preserved discipline. Others fell into complete disorder as, weak and discouraged, they retired to Lake Champlain. Many soldiers perished of disease. “‘I did not look ‘nto a hut or a tent,” says an observer, “in which I did not find a dead or dying man.”’? Those who had huts were fortunate. The fate of some was to die without medical care and without cover. By age : - ~ os é - 4 - - ee sek ae pe ek bed Oe bee ee Oe er ~ mh ~ 240d a - pot’ aed nee ee, ee ee ee bad Oe el bette rae Sie —— oe - oF aie pre tbe Lea ian -~ pet tt in aA een netenete a ae 5 lanes52 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES the end of June what was left of the force had reached Crown Point on Lake Champlain. Benedict Arnold, who had been wounded at Quebec, was now at Crown Point. Competent critics of the war have held that what Arnold now did saved the Revolution. In another scene, before the summer ended, the British had taken New York and made themselves masters of the lower Hudson. Had they reached in the same season the upper Hudson by way of Lake Champlain they would have struck blows doubly staggering. This Arnold saw, and his object was to delay, if he could not defeat, the British advance. There was no road through the dense forest by the shores of Lake Champlain and Lake George to the upper Hudson. The British must go down the lake in boats. This General Carleton had foreseen and he had urged that with the fleet sent to Quebec should be sent from England, in sections, boats which could be quickly carried past the rapids of the Richelieu River and launched on Lake Champlain. They had not come and the only thing for Carleton to do was to build a flotilla which could carry an army up the lake and attack Crown Point. The thing was done but skilled workmen were few and not until the 5th of October were the little ships afloatBOSTON AND QUEBEC 53 on Lake Champlain. Arnold, too, spent the sum- mer in building boats to meet the attack and it was a Strange turn in warfare which now made him commander in a naval fight. There was a brisk struggle on Lake Champlain. Carleton had a score or so of vessels; Arnold not so many. But he de- layed Carleton. When he was beaten on the water he burned the ships not captured and took to the land. When he could no longer hold Crown Point he burned that place and retreated to Ticonderoga. By this time it was late autumn. The British were far from their base and the Americans were retreating into a friendly country. There is little doubt that Carleton could have taken Fort Ticon- deroga. It fell quite easily less than a year later. ‘some of his officers urged him to press on and do it. But the leaves had already fallen, the bleak winter was near, and Carleton pictured to himself an army buried deeply in an enemy country and separated from its base by many scores of miles of lake and forest. He withdrew to Canada and left ake Champlain to the Americans.ee ee er . Yel eee yee een eee et Pee eee ee) eee Sindee eee - ep iN og ee a ssiedaibdsdal te telethdiens tatetente aerate dbp omer aelserr iaceabteemereneaioies . é e nat Pat a reed ~9etet new tal ne Oe ee ae ee Ce] ee SST eaeeeeadn BY a jnhet“an eee aa ee eeae - ed et Te ee ene 68 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES when in the country nature was most alluring. Otherwise they were off to their estates whenever they could get away from town. The American Revolution was not remotely affected by this habit. With ministers long absent in the country impor- tant questions were postponed or forgotten. The crisis which in the end brought France into the war was partly due to the carelessness of a minister hurrying away to the country. Lord George Ger- main, who directed military operations in America, dictated a letter which would have caused General Howe to move northward from New York to meet General Burgoyne advancing from Canada. Ger- main went off to the country without waiting to sign the letter; it was mislaid among other papers; Howe was without needed instructions; and the disaster followed of Burgoyne’s surrender. Fox pointed out, that, at a time when there was a danger that a foreign army might land in England, not one of the King’s ministers was less than fifty miles from London. They were in their parks and gardens, or hunting or fishing. Nor did they stay away for a few days only. The absence was for weeks or even months. It is to the credit of Whig leaders in England, landowners and aristocrats as they were, that theyINDEPENDENCE 69 supported with passion the American cause. In America, where the forces of the Revolution were in control, the Loyalist who dared to be bold for his opinions was likely to be tarred and feathered and to lose his property. There was an embittered intolerance. In England, however, it was an open question in society whether to be for or against the American cause. The Duke of Richmond, a great grandson of Charles II, said in the House of Lords that under no code should the fighting Americans be considered traitors. What they did was “‘per- fectly justifiable in every possible political and moral sense.’ All the world knows that Chat- ham and Burke and Fox urged the conciliation of America and hundreds took the same stand. Burke said of General Conway, a man of position, that when he secured a majority in the House of Commons against the Stamp Act his face shone as the face of an angel. Since the bishops almost to a man voted with the King, Conway attacked them as in this untrue to their high office. Sir George Savile, whose benevolence, supported by great wealth, made him widely respected and loved, said that the Americans were right in appealing to arms. Coke of Norfolk was a landed magnate who lived in regal style. His seat of Holkham was one of ant Toukeiecudde te he Ps a TTT ET et et ce pnt el ele eel e i Pern ’ 3 : eeeee Trt he ee eee ae ee UEteE Take Seas ertenes nese inee70 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES those great new palaces which the age reared at |. such elaborate cost. It was full of beautiful things | —the art of Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, and | Van Dyke, rare manuscripts, books, and tapestries. So magnificent was Coke that a legend long ran that his horses were shod with gold and that the wheels of his chariots were of solid silver. In the country he drove six horses. In town only the King did this. Coke despised George III, chiefly on account of his American policy, and to avoid the reproach of rivaling the King’s estate, he took joy in driving past the palace in London with a donkey as his sixth animal and in flicking his whip at the King. When he was offered a peerage by the King he denounced with fiery wrath the minister through whom it was offered as attempting to bribe him. Coke declared that if one of the King’s ministers held up a hat in the House of Commons and said that it was a green bag the majority of the members would solemnly vote that it was a green bag. The bribery which brought this blind obedience of Toryism filled Coke with fury. In youth he had been taught never to trust a Tory and he could say “I never have and, by God, I never will.”” One of his children asked their mother whether Tories were born wicked or after birth became wicked.INDEPENDENCE 71 The uncompromising answer was: “They are born wicked and they grow up worse.” There is, of course, in much of this something of the malignance of party. In an age when one reverend theologian, Toplady, called another theo- logian, John Wesley, “‘a low and puny tadpole in Divinity’’ we must expect harsh epithets. But behind this bitterness lay a deep conviction of the righteousness of the American cause. At a great banquet at Holkham, Coke omitted the toast of the King; but every night during the American war he drank the health of Washington as the greatest man on earth. The war, he said, was the King’s war, ministers were his tools, the press was bought. He denounced later the King’s reception of the traitor Arnold. When the King’s degenerate son, who became George IV, after some special misconduct, wrote to propose his annual visit to Holkham, Coke replied, ““Holkham is open to strangers on Tuesdays.” It was an independent and irate England which spoke in Coke. Those ‘who paid taxes, he said, should control those who governed. America was not getting fair play. Both Coke and Fox, and no doubt many others, ‘wore waistcoats of blue and buff because these were ‘the colors of the uniforms of Washington’s army. a ee MA et PL be ton fn ed pe a um ~ ribs, Dh Hy TAM ut oem aS bos ea nt Stn Pe Ne De) abate nai pe beheaGntei nee eerepent pee Pee toes Pe eee De ee Oe ey eee ae ee ee ee ee siadasatnta ented al sae tele tote tte eoette-e aries aera ee ei a ee el ee Se See ie et SE PES ~ Se eee ee an ee - - = ~ es Wieeetecurtaphate tonne ne ce ne Te Seo CO) Sed d to haere alien ard “ - ee > ~ u BALeprene aera . 4 n ' 3 Be a - 18 re oe i 72 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES Washington and Coke exchanged messages and they would have been congenial companions; for. Coke, like Washington, was above all a farmer and tried to improve agriculture. Never for a moment, he said, had time hung heavy on his hands in the country. He began on his estate the culture of the potato, and for some time the best he could hear of it from his stolid tenantry was that it would not poison the pigs. Coke would have fought the levy of a penny of unjust taxa- tion and he understood Washington. The Ameri- can gentleman and the English gentleman had a common outlook. Now had come, however, the hour for political separation. By reluctant but inevitable steps: America made up its mind to declare for independ- ence. At first continued loyalty to the King was urged on the plea that he was in the hands of evil- minded ministers, inspired by diabolical rage, or in > those of an “‘infernal villain”? such as the soldier, General Gage, a second Pharaoh; though it must be admitted that even then the King was “the tyrant of Great Britain.’”? After Bunker Hill spas- modic declarations of independence were made here and there by local bodies. When CongressINDEPENDENCE 73 organized an army, invaded Canada, and besieged Boston, it was hard to protest loyalty to a King whose forces were those of an enemy. Moreover independence would, in the eyes at least of foreign governments, give the colonies the rights of bel- ligerents and enable them to claim for their fighting forces the treatment due to a regular army and the exchange of prisoners with the British. They could, too, make alliances with other nations. Some clamored for independence for a reason more sinis- ter — that they might punish those who held to the King and seize their property. There were thirteen colonies in arms and each of them had to form some kind of government which would work without a king as part of its mechanism. One by one such governments were formed. King George, as we have seen, helped the colonies to make up their minds. They were in no mood to be called erring children who must implore undeserved mercy and not force a loving parent to take un- willing vengeance. ‘‘Our plantations” and “our subjects in the colonies” would simply not learn obedience. If George III would not reply to their petitions until they laid down their arms, they could manage to get on without a king. If England, as Horace Walpole admitted, would not take them eee Tn 4 et bee ae » a - bib Lae ee ee ee Te— Wiqweed GSCI ZEEE 74 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES seriously and speakers in Parliament called them obscure ruffians and cowards, so much the worse for England. It was an Englishman, Thomas Paine, who fanned the fire into unquenchable flames. He had recently been dismissed from a post in the excise in England and was at this time earning in Philadel- phia a precarious living by his pen. Paine said it) was the interest of America to break the tie with Europe. Was a whole continent in America to be governed by an island a thousand leagues away? Of what advantage was it to remain connected with Great Britain? It was said that a united British Empire could defy the world, but why should America defy the world? “Everything that is right or natural pleads for separation.’ Interested ek eT ee eee ee men, weak men, prejudiced men, moderate men who do not really know Europe, may urge reconcili- ation, but nature is against it. Paine broke loose in that denunciation of kings with which ever since the world has been familiar. The wretched Briton, said Paine, is under a king and where there was a king there was no security for liberty. Kings were crowned ruffians and George III in particular was a sceptered savage, a royal brute, and other evil things. He had inflicted on America injuries not bo ret er tat memento at ee tebe br bet en eo at brat ob par ne oiaed ent —* - nen eos 7 . . betcha tartan, ne Tet eee te eh bas ft ey , n i 7 7 ss ri fa es a 7? - Se eee ee “INDEPENDENCE 75 to beforgiven. The blood of the slain, not less than the true interests of posterity, demanded separation. Paine called his pamphlet Common Sense. It was published on January 9, 1776. More than a hun- dred thousand copies were quickly sold and it brought decision to many wavering minds. In the first days of 1776 independence had be- come a burning question. New England had made up its mind. Virginia was keen for separation, keener even than New England. New York and Pennsylvania long hesitated and Maryland and North Carolina were very lukewarm. Early in 1776 Washington was advocating independence and Greene and other army leaders were of the same mind. Conservative forces delayed the settle- ment, and at last Virginia, in this as in so many other things taking the lead, instructed its dele- gates to urge a declaration by Congress of inde- pendence. Richard Henry Lee, a member of that honored family which later produced the ablest soldier of the Civil War, moved in Congress on June 7, 1776, that “‘these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent States.” The preparation of a formal declaration was re- ferred to a committee of which John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were members. It is interestinget Teor eee ete) ee hectiriinieeas tence Soe ae tee ERS Saco hE em het Se ee ee é . eter Sr name : oa met -tliceuathikseee oie ~~ 5 nl i 7 ea sa nie ed teap’ He i 76 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES to note that each of them became President of the United States and that both died on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of In- dependence. Adams related long after that he and Jefferson formed the sub-committee to draft the Declaration and that he urged Jefferson to under- take the task since “‘you can write ten times bet- ter than I can.” Jefferson accordingly wrote the paper. Adams was delighted “with its high tone and the flights of Oratory” but he did not approve of the flaming attack on the King, as a tyrant. “T never believed,” he said, “George to be a tyrant in disposition and in nature.” There was, he thought, too much passion for a grave and solemn document. He was, however, the principal speaker in its support. There is passion in the Declaration from begin- ning to end, and not the restrained and chastened passion which we find in the great utterances of an American statesman of a later day, Abraham Lin- coln. Compared with Lincoln, Jefferson is indeed a mere amateur in the use of words. Lincoln would not have scattered in his utterances overwrought phrases about “death, desolation and tyranny” or talked about pledging “‘our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honour.” He indulged in no “FlightsINDEPENDENCE 77 of Oratory.” The passion in the Declaration is concentrated against the King. We do not know what were the emotions of George when he read it. We know that many Englishmen thought that it spoke truth. Exaggerations there are which make the Declaration less than a completely candid document. The King is accused of abolishing English laws in Canada with the intention of “in- troducing the same absolute rule into these colo- nies.” What had been done in Canada was to let the conquered French retain their own laws which was not tyranny but magnanimity. Another clause of the Declaration, as Jefferson first wrote it, made George responsible for the slave trade in America with all its horrors and crimes. We may doubt whether that not too enlightened monarch bad even more than vaguely heard of the slave trade. This phase of the attack upon him was too -much for the slave owners of the South and the ‘slave traders of New England, and the clause was - struck out. Nearly fourscore and ten years later, Abraham Lincoln, at a supreme crisis in the nation’s life, - told in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, what the Declaration of Independence meant to him. “I “have never,” he said, “had a feeling politically a re Ls be Ta aetna ppt tel er oe enone eres ~ ete ee ee rs ee, wry T ee. Ss id ee tetas nnSl SSat Penh tet Alas pte aca AR Ae tite hy tating hedpias “ >, eet nd ee feeder ee eee S et et net nt Shel ste taledeiets cteteteeeate toe tbieied eaten bebertal taleeeenetereietiaaie * ya Te ee pe Be ont Say Sor pb - . es Lr rae settle ark de med na re er. . rer 78 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES which did not spring from the sentiments in the Declaration of Independence’”’; and then he spoke of the sacrifices which the founders of the Republic had made for these principles. He asked, too, what was the idea which had held together the nation thus founded. It was not the breaking away from Great Britain. It was the assertion of human right. We should speak in terms of rever- ence of a document which became a classic utter- ance of political right and which inspired Lincoln in his fight to end slavery and to make “ Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” realities for all men. In England the colonists were often taunted with being “‘rebels.”’ The answer was not wanting that ancestors of those who now cried “rebel” had themselves been rebels a hundred years earlier when their own liberty was at stake. There were in Congress men who ventured to say that the Declaration was a libel on the govern- ment of England; men like John Dickinson of Pennsylvania and John Jay of New York, who feared that the radical elements were moving too fast. Radicalism, however, was in the saddle, and on the 2d of July the “‘resolution respecting independency”? was adopted. On July 4, 1776, Congress debated and finally adopted the formalINDEPENDENCE 79 Declaration of Independence. Themembersdid not vote individually. The delegates from each colony cast the vote of the colony. Twelve colonies voted for the Declaration. New York alone was silent because its delegates had not been instructed as to their vote, but New York, too, soon fell into line. [t was a momentous occasion and was understood to be such. The vote seems to have been reached in the late afternoon. Anxious citizens were wait- ing in the streets. There was a bell in the State House, and an old ringer waited there for the signal. When there was long delay he is said to have muttered: ‘‘They will never do it! they will never do it!’ Then came the word, “Ring! Ring!’ It is an odd fact that the inscription on the bell, placed there long before the days of the trouble, was from Leviticus: “‘ Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” The bells of Philadelphia rang and cannon boomed. As the news spread there were bonfires and illuminations in all the colonies. On the day after the Declara- tion the Virginia Convention struck out *O Lord, save the King” from the church service. On the 10th of July Washington, who by this time had moved to New York, paraded the army and had the Declaration read at the head of each brigade. a a a a sve? g-i~ "J he ts ms Se aoe eee et eee ot oe - AS oe PE PA tak DO Se seg i eee ce oT 7ple ee ee eT NS ed EEE EAS ES eh a oe | Sie elute. =~ ae hae ret # hepegedag, : 5 H Hi hie 3 ic i i ir. > Bs WEA) ae oa Jed yy B 7 re ee Pi oa fa re } rhe te ie 3 fa be. if bF i + aS a aS an PiU pn it heehee eet ieee ea So - a Sees . - vd 80 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES That evening the statue of King George in New York was laid in the dust. It is a comment on the changes in human fortune that within little more than a year the British had taken Philadelphia, that the clamorous bell had been hid away for safety, and that colonial wiseacres were urging the rescinding of the ill-timed Declaration and the reunion of the British Empire.CHAPTER IV THE LOSS OF NEW YORK WASHINGTON’S success at Boston had one good effect. It destroyed Tory influence in that Puritan stronghold. New England was henceforth of a temper wholly revolutionary; and New England tradition holds that what its people think today other Americans think tomorrow. But, in the summer of this year 1776, though no serious foe was visible at any point in the revolted colonies, a menace haunted every one of them. The British had gone away by sea; by sea they would return. On land armies move slowly and visibly; but on the sea a great force may pass out of sight and then suddenly reappear at an unexpected point. This is the haunting terror of sea power. Already the British had destroyed Falmouth, now Portland, Maine, and Norfolk, the principal town in Vir- ginia. Washington had no illusions of security. He was anxious above all for the safety of New 6 81 . .? owe * ‘ oe - par: Sn re oo a ee ete me c, ee th pte ies PVT a oh . parc sepa a eee82 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES York, commanding the vital artery of the Hud- son, which must at all costs be defended. Accord- ingly, in April, he took his army to New York and established there his own headquarters. Even before Washington moved to New York, three great British expeditions were nearing Amer- ica. One of these we have already seen at Que- bee. Another was bound for Charleston, to land there an army and to make the place a rallying center for the numerous but harassed Loyalists of the South. The third and largest of these expedi- tions was to strike at New York and, by a show of strength, bring the colonists to reason and recon- ciliation. If mildness failed the British intended to capture New York, sail up the Hudson and cut off New England * m the other colonies. The squadron de: —-d for Charleston carried an army in command of a fine soldier, Lord Cornwallis, destined later to be the defeated leader in the last dramatic scene of the war. In May this fleet reached Wilmington, North Carolina, and took on board two thousand. ~~ nder General Sir Henry Clinton, who had been sent by Howe from Boston in vain to win the Carolinas and who now assumed military command of the combined forces. Ad- miral Sir Peter Parker commanded the fleet, and Darter ech cert ee ne rt fete phd batt CI ——e a velieieaiitias al i . ar “ tarts ae eet nega Ot oS f ? ahi : ti ae « ’ A Kid 4THE LOSS OF NEW YORK 83 on the 4th of June he was off Charleston Harbor. Parker found that in order to cross the bar he would have to lighten his larger ships. This was done by the laborious process of removing the guns, which, of course, he had to replace when the bar was crossed. On the 28th of June, Parker drew up his ships before Fort Moultrie in the harbor. He had expected simultaneous aid by land from three thousand soldiers put ashore from the fleet on a sandbar, but these troops could give him no help against the fort from which they were cut off by a channel of deep water. A battle soon proved the British ships unable to withstand the American fire from Fort Moultrie. Late in the evening Par- ker drew off, with two hundred and twenty-five casualties against an American Inss of thirty-seven. The check was greater the Wi ut of Punker Hill, for there the British took the ground which they attacked. The British sailors bore witness to the gallantry of the defense: “‘We never had such a drubbing in our lives,” une of them testified. Only one of Parker’s ten sk’» » was seaworthy after the fight. It took kim t « ce weeks to refit, and not until the 4th of August d*d his defeated ships reach New York. A mighty armada of seven hundred ships had ovege . - at at th ed Se eed oo od ue be r o ro a Soe ere FO ee bet et Bet I ake ote Oe ee rl ede a 1 peer tt eras ptaoet — eer ee Pret Sa une ee en el eel i. a 7 aie nSod dep dadbiadtieteneeideteniekateleete So Se SP oat raat bate tot reat te fol Tor weet pee pctseah ee tase meee ———— : - f SP pete todo tent Ledeen Pere eet omeme one SE re ee eT re ee ee is = eee mide <4 we Om Gone ~o # satura hod a = - 4 saat iia niet ee tel tt Ld a and ee ee sitet ine ~-- ere Gt = - shy! wo ST ae PSP, oi “5 ws sd I = ae ee FR i od he ed — - =i ad ee 2 Ce ete be Wd i oe : —e = 9 wocehenmeg an” ee 84 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES meanwhile sailed into the Bay of New York. This fleet was commanded by Admiral Lord Howe and it carried an army of thirty thousand men led by his younger brother, Sir William Howe, who had © commanded at Bunker Hill. The General was an - able and well-informed soldier. He had a brilliant record of service in the Seven Years’ War, with Wolfe in Canada, then in France itself, and in the | West Indies. In appearance he was tall, dark, and : coarse. His face showed him to be a free user of wine. This may explain some of his faults as a general. He trusted too much to subordinates; he was leisurely and rather indolent, yet capable of brilliant and rapid action. In America his heart was never in his task. He was member of Parlia- ment for Nottingham and had publicly condemned the quarrel with Aneriica and told his electors that in it he would take no command. He had not kept his word, but his convictions remained. It would be to accuse Howe of treason to say that he did not do his best in America. Lack of conviction, how- ever, affects action. Howe had no belief that his country was in the right in the war and this handi- capped him as against the passionate conviction of Washington that all was at stake which made life worth living.THE LOSS OF NEW YORK 85 The General’s elder brother, Lord Howe, was another Whig who had no belief that the war was just. He sat in the House of Lords while his brother sat in the House of Commons. We rather wonder that the King should have been content to leave in Whig hands his fortunes in America both oy land and sea. At any rate, here were the Howes more eager to make peace than to make war and commanded to offer terms of reconciliation. Lord idowe had an unpleasant face, so dark that he was called ““Black Dick”; he was a silent, awkward man, shy and harsh in manner. In reality, how- ever, he was kind, liberal in opinion, sober, and beloved by those who knew him best. His pacific temper towards America was not due to a dislike of war. He wasa fighting sailor. Nearly twenty years later, on June 1, 1794, when he was in com- «and of a fleet in touch with the French enemy, the sailors watched him to find any indication that the expected action would take place. Then the word went round: ‘‘ We shall have the fight today; Black Dick has been smiling.”’ They had it, and Howe won a victory which makes his name famous nm the annals of the sea. By the middle of July the two brothers were at New York. The soldier, having waited at Halifax - a ~. > am “ TL oar be ™ = = wo~e. “ee a - a he ie — teen <= _ S itethel eh SS eS athe bali pera at a - - TL. iat pen beh) > es yaa ee le and boaramecs® ad tee ee , 4-arw os weuerataw id ba ee pe eee a86 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES since the evacuation of Boston, had arrived, and landed his army on Staten Island, on the day before Congress made the Declaration of Independence, which, as now we can see, ended finally any chance of reconciliation. The sailor arrived nine days later. Lord Howe was wont to regret that he had not arrived a little earlier, since the concessions which he had to offer might have averted the Declaration of Independence. In truth, however, he had little to offer. Humor and imagination are useful gifts in carrying on human affairs, but George III had neither. He saw no lack of humor in now once more offering full and free pardon to a repentant Washington and his comrades, though John Adams was excepted by name’; in repudiating the right to exist of the Congress at Philadelphia, and in refusing to recognize the military rank of the rebel general whom it had named: he was to be ad- dressed in civilian style as “George Washington Esq.” The King and his ministers had no imagi- nation to call up the picture of high-hearted men fighting for rights which they held dear. Lord Howe went so far as to address a letter to “George Washington Esq. &c. &c.,’’ and Wash- ington agreed to an interview with the officer who ‘Trevelyan, American Revolution, Part 1, vol. 1 (New Ed., vol. it), 261.THE LOSS OF NEW YORK 87 bore it. In imposing uniform and with the state- liest manner, Washington, who had an instinct for effect, received the envoy. The awed messenger explained that the symbols “ &c. &c.”” meant every- thing, including, of course, military titles; but Washington only said smilingly that they might mean anything, including, of course, an insult, and refused to take the letter. He referred to Congress, a body which Howe could not recognize, the grave question of the address on an envelope and Con- gress agreed that the recognition of his rank was necessary. There was nothing to do but to go on with the fight. Washington’s army held the city of New York, at the southerly point of Manhattan Island. The Hudson River, separating the island from the main- land of New Jersey on the west, is at its mouth two miles wide. The northern and eastern sides of the island are washed by the Harlem River, flowing out of the Hudson about a dozen miles north of the city, and broadening into the East River, about a mile wide where it separates New York from Brooklyn Heights, on Long Island. Encamped on Staten Island, on the south, General Howe could, with the aid of the fleet, land at any of half a dozen vulnerable points. Howe had the further ee a > o- , - TTT in oes a bed arr ee ee eee wie hot toa lad pp ribet hss pele eee nee bl pee TTT" pce > Fh ota pep pan a TT aerial88 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES advantage of a much larger force. Washington had in all some twenty thousand men, numbers of them serving for short terms and therefore for the most, part badly drilled. Howe had twenty-five thou- sand well-trained soldiers, and he could, in addi- tion, draw men from the fleet, which would give him in all double the force of Washington. In such a situation even the best skill of Wash- ington was likely only to qualify defeat. He was advised to destroy New York and retire to posi- tions more tenable. But even if he had so desired Congress, his master, would not permit him te burn the city, and he had to make plans to defend it. Brooklyn Heights so commanded New York that enemy cannon planted there would make thi city untenable. Accordingly Washington placed half his force on Long Island to defend Brooklyr Heights and in doing so made the fundamenta: error of cutting his army in two and dividing fi by an arm of the sea in presence of overwhelm ing hostile naval power. On the 22d of August Howe ferried fifteen thou sand men across the Narrows to Long Island, u order to attack the position on Brooklyn Height from the rear. Before him lay wooded hills acros: which led three roads converging at BrooklyrTHE LOSS OF NEW YORK 89 Heights beyond the hills. On the east a fourth road led round the hills. In the dark of the night of the 26th of August Howe set his army in motion on all these roads, in order by daybreak to come to close quarters with the Americans and drive them back to the Heights. The movement succeeded perfectly. The British made terrible use of the bayonet. By the evening of the twenty-seventh the Americans, who fought well against overwhelm- ing odds, had lost nearly two thousand men in casualties and prisoners, six field pieces, and twenty- six heavy guns. The two chief commanders, Sulli- van and Stirling, were among the prisoners, and what was left of the army had been driven back to Brooklyn Heights. Howe’s critics said that had he pressed the attack further he could have made certain the capture of the whole American force on Long Island. Criticism of what might have been is easy and usually futile. It might be said of Washington, too, that he should not have kept an army so far in front of his lines behind Brooklyn Heights facing a superior enemy, and with, for a part of it, retreat possible only by a single causeway across a marsi three miles long. When he realized, on the 28th of August, what Howe had achieved, he increased the CS lod bal bald betel bee 5% -4o - saan one ete wanes sterersce ern ie ee) = EB ja a ee et le hail oa = Jer Prea tears Se tenet ae teat < manetney” td ebay gato” f ee ak oe nee as test erwras ie ate : aa. 4“ are” ee - veer tere eer a909 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES defenders of Brooklyn Heights to ten thousand) men, more than half his army. This was another cardinal error. British ships were near and bil for unfavorable winds might have sailed up ti) Brooklyn. Washington hoped and prayed thai Howe would try to carry Brooklyn Heights by) assault. Then there would have been at least) slaughter on the scale of Bunker Hill. But Howe had learned caution. He made no reckless attack, and soon Washington found that he must mové away or face the danger of losmg every man of) Long Island. On the night of the 29th of August there wai clear moonlight, with fog towards daybreak. & British army of twenty-five thousand men waé only some six hundred yards from the Americal lines. A few miles from the shore lay at anchor # great British fleet with, it is to be presumed, ita patrols on the alert. Yet, during that night, tei thousand American troops were marched down ti boats on the strand at Brooklyn and, with all thet stores, were carried across a mile of water to New York. There must have been the splash of oar and the grating of keels, orders given in tones above a whisper, the complex sounds of moving bodies of men. It was all done under the eye olTHE LOSS OF NEW YORK 91 Washington. We can picture that tall figure moving about on the strand at Brooklyn, which he was the last to leave. Not a sound disturbed the slumbers of the British. An army in retreat does not easily defend itself. Boats from the Brit- ish fleet might have brought panic to the Ameri- cans in the darkness and the British army should at least have known that they were gone. By seven in the morning the ten thousand American soldiers were for the time safe in New York, and we may suppose that the two Howes were ask- ing eager questions and wondering how it had all happened. Washington had shown that he knew when and how to retire. Long Island was his first battle and he had lost. Now retreat was his first great tactical achievement. He could not stay in New York and so sent at once the chief part of the army, with- drawn from Brooklyn, to the line of the Harlem River at the north end of the island. He realized that his shore batteries could not keep the British fleet from sailing up both the East and the Hudson Rivers and from landing a force on Manhattan Island almost where it liked. Then the city of New York would be surrounded by a hostile fleet and a hostile army. The Howes could have performedse ee ee te Pe eee te eed et Se tate Sdedeerhenctuicnediiyairandeeenten wail —jed~ o= © : Sick epee Fd Se ne rng See earl te ne tebe nema al mh oy ~— srk Sac baw 92 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES this maneuver as soon as they had a favor able wind. There was, we know, great confusion in New York, and Washington tells us how hiy heart was torn by the distress of the inhabitants, The British gave him plenty of time to make plans, and for a reason. We have seen that Lord Howe was not only an admiral to make war but also ati envoy to make peace. The British victory on Long Island might, he thought, make Congress more willing to negotiate. So now he sent to PhiladeF phia the captured American General Sullivan, with the request that some members of Congress might confer privately on the prospects for peace. Howe probably did not realize that the Amerk cans had the British quality of becoming moré resolute by temporary reverses. By this time, too; suspicion of every movement on the part of Great Britain had become a mania. Every one in Com gress seems to have thought that Howe was plan- ning treachery. John Adams, excepted by name from British offers of pardon, called Sullivan 4 “decoy duck” and, as he confessed, laughed, scolded, and grieved at any negotiation. The wish to talk privately with members of Congress was called an insulting way of avoiding recognition of that body. In spite of this, even the stalwartTHE LOSS OF NEW YORK 93 Adams and the suave Franklin were willing to be members of a committee which went to meet Lord Howe. With great sorrow Howenowrealized that he had no power to grant what Congress insisted upon, the recognition of independence, as a preliminary to negotiation. There was nothing for it but war. On the 15th of September the British struck the blow too long delayed had war been their only interest. New York had to sit nearly helpless while great men-of-war passed up both the Hudson and the East River with guns sweeping the shores of Manhattan Island. At the same time General Howe sent over in boats from Long Island to the landing at Kip’s Bay, near the line of the present Thirty-fourth Street, an army to cut off the city from the northern part of the island. Washington marched in person with two New England regi- ments to dispute the landing and give him time for evacuation. To his rage panic seized his men and they turned and fled, leaving him almost alone not a hundred yards from the enemy. A stray shot at that moment might have influenced greatly modern history, for, as events were soon to show, Washington was the mainstay of the American cause. He too had to get away and Howe’s force landed easily enough. B ee ae! - ee . Sa am — eS ee ee eT nl madre tebe Let ‘ oars ney . 4 re eee ed me J rh eT hd ips SR wo. AS. - , ~ tee ee ar ere ere roy saw Z - . aathonna® a Se ee en eee Nr ern tb, nt pl pare. pa er Pe a teats94 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES Meanwhile, on the west shore of the island, there was an animated scene. The roads were crowded with refugees fleeing northward from New York. These civilians Howe had no reason to stop, but there marched, too, out of New York four thousand men, under Israel Putnam, who got safely away northward. Only leisurely did Howe extend his line across the island so as to cut off the city. The story, not more trustworthy than many other legends of war, is that Mrs. Murray, living in a country house near what now is Murray Hill, in- vited the General to luncheon, and that to enjoy this pleasure he ordered a halt for his whole force. Generals sometimes do foolish things but it is not easy to call up a picture of Howe, in the midst of a busy movement of troops, receiving the lady’s invitation, accepting it, and ordering the whole army to halt while he lingered over the luncheon table. There is no doubt that his mind was still divided between making war and making peace. Probably Putnam had already got away his men, and there was no purpose in stopping the refugees in that flight from New York which so aroused the pity of Washington. As it was Howe took sixty-seven guns. By accident, or, it is said, by design of the Americans themselves, New YorkTHE LOSS OF NEW YORK 95 soon took fire and one-third of the little city was burned. After the fall of New York there followed a com- plex campaign. The resourceful Washington was now, during his first days of active warfare, pitting himself against one of the most experienced of British generals. Fleet and army were acting to- gether. The aim of Howe was to get control of the Hudson and to meet half way the advance from Canada by way of Lake Champlain which Carleton was leading. On the 12th of October, when au- tumn winds were already making the nights cold, Howe moved. He did not attack Washington who lay in strength at the Harlem. That would have been to play Washington’s game. Instead he put the part of his army stil! on Long Island in ships which then sailed through the dangerous currents of Hell Gate and landed at Throg’s Neck, a penin- sula on the sound across from Long Island. Wash- ington parried this movement by so guarding the narrow neck of the peninsula leading to the main- land that the cautious Howe shrank from a frontal attack across a marsh. After a delay of six days, he again embarked his army, landed a few miles above Throg’s Neck in the hope of cutting off Washington from retreat northward, only to find . erat he Eh ye he bee PTET OO ey tn Lele Pet ee let atid mt en a ee | Re eae a) erent ee bee a aeeienate96 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES Washington still north of him at White Plains. A sharp skirmish followed in which Howe lost over two hundred men and Washington only one hundred and forty. Washington, masterly in re- treat, then withdrew still farther north among hills difficult of attack. Howe had a plan which made a direct attack on Washington unnecessary. He turned southward and occupied the east shore of the Hudson River. On the 16th of November took place the worst disaster which had yet befallen American arms. Fort Washington, lying just south of the Harlem, was the only point still held on Manhattan Island by the Americans. In modern war it has become clear that fortresses supposedly strong may be only traps for their defenders. Fort Washington stood on the east bank of the Hudson opposite Fort Lee, on the west bank. These forts could not fulfil the purpose for which they were intended, of stopping British ships. Washington saw that the two forts should be abandoned. But the civilians in Congress, who, it must be remembered, named the generals and had final authority in directing the war, were reluctant to accept the loss involved in abandoning the forts and gave orders that every effort should be made to hold them. Greene, onTHE LOSS OF NEW YORK 97 the whole Washington’s best general, was in com- mand of the two positions and was left to use his own judgment. On the 15th of November, by a sudden and rapid march across the island, Howe appeared before Fort Washington and summoned it to surrender on pain of the rigors of war, which meant putting the garrison to the sword should he have to take the place by storm. The answer was a defiance; and on the next day Howe attacked in overwhelming force. ‘There was severe fighting. The casualties of the British were nearly five hun- dred, but they took the huge fort with its three thousand defenders and a great quantity of muni- tions of war. Howe’s threat was not carried out. There was no massacre. Across the river at Fort Lee the helpless Wash- ington watched this great disaster. He had need still to look out, for Fort Lee was itself doomed. On the nineteenth Lord Cornwallis with five thou- sand men crossed the river five miles above Fort Lee. General Greene barely escaped with the two thousand men in the fort, leaving behind one hun- dred and forty cannon, stores, tools, and even the men’s blankets. On the twentieth the British flag was floating over Fort Lee and Washington’s whole force was in rapid flight across New Jersey, hardly 7 “ pa be be te Cee ee Lr rh et Lamy see en ae eee hadi i - eens f erat rizes, . wor aes SP deen en)98 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES pausing until it had been ferried over the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. Treachery, now linked to military disaster, made Washington’s position terrible. Charles Lee, Ho- ratio Gates, and Richard Montgomery were three important officers of the regular British army who fought on the American side. Montgomery had been killed at Quebec; the defects of Gates were not yet conspicuous; and Lee was next to Washington the most trusted American general. The names Washington and Lee of the twin forts on opposite sides of the Hudson show how the two generals stood in the public mind. While disaster was overtaking Washington, Lee had seven thou- sand men at North Castle on the east bank of the Hudson, a few miles above Fort Washington, blocking Howe’s advance farther up the river. On the day after the fall of Fort Washington, Lee re- ceived positive orders to cross the Hudson at once. Three days later Fort Lee fell, and Washington repeated the order. Lee did not budge. He was safe where he was and could cross the river and get away into New Jersey when he liked. Heseems deliberately to have left Washington to face com- plete disaster and thus prove his competence; then, as the undefeated general, he could take theTHE LOSS OF NEW YORK 99 chief command. There is no evidence that he had intrigued with Howe, but he thought that he could be the peacemaker between Great Britain and America, with untold possibilities of ambition in that réle. He wrote of Washington at this-time, to his friend Gates, as weak and “‘most damnably deficient.”” Nemesis, however, overtook him. In the end he had to retreat across the Hudson to northern New Jersey. Here many of the people were Tories. Lee fell into a trap, was captured in bed at a tavern by a hard-riding party of British cavalry, and carried off a prisoner, obliged to be- stride a horse in night gown and slippers. Not always does fate appear so just in her strokes. In December, though the position of Washington was very bad, all was not lost. The chief aim of Howe was to secure the line of the Hudson and this he had not achieved. At Stony Point, which lies up the Hudson about fifty miles from New York, the river narrows and passes through what is almost a mountain gorge, easily defended. Here Washington had erected fortifications which made it at least difficult for a British force to pass up the river. Moreover in the highlands of northern New Jersey, with headquarters at Morristown, General Sullivan, recently exchanged, and General Gates . - - Sas . - eyes sdtueeonca~yrnny 74 ph oe, be be a OO el ls bah aia ae he teen aed - ee ae eee ee hd ~ 7 Sa eh ad ~ ry artes foe ed a! ee Pe ee eh ie sar aebe at J snes em ones ee nearer eres Rl eel rae -100 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES now had Lee’s army and also the remnants of the force driven from Canada. But in retreating across New Jersey Washington had been forsaken by thousands of men, beguiled in part by the Tory population, discouraged by defeat, and in many cases with the right to go home, since their term of service had expired. All that remained of Washington’s army after the forces of Sul- livan and Gates joined him across the Delaware in Pennsylvania, was about four thousand men. Howe was determined to have Philadelphia as well as New York and could place some reliance on Tory help in Pennsylvania. He had pursued Washington to the Delaware and would have pushed on across that river had not his alert foe taken care that all the boats should be on the wrong shore. As it was, Howe occupied the left bank of the Delaware with his chief post at Trenton. If he made sure of New Jersey he could go on to Phila- delphia when the river was frozen over or indeed when he liked. Even the Congress had fled to Baltimore. There were British successes in other quarters. Early in December Lord Howe took the fleet to Newport. Soon he controlled the whole of Rhode Island and checked the American privateers who had made it their base. The brothers issuedTHE LOSS OF NEW YORK 101 proclamations offering protection to all who should within sixty days return to their British allegiance and many people of high standing in New York and New Jersey accepted the offer. Howe wrote ‘home to England the glad news of victory. Phila- delphia would probably fall before spring and it looked as if the war was really over. In this darkest hour Washington struck a blow which changed the whole situation. We associate with him the thought of calm deliberation. Now, however, was he to show his strongest quality as a general to be audacity. At the Battle of the Marne, in 1914, the French General Foch sent the des- patch: “‘My center is giving way; my right is re- treating; the situation is excellent: I am attacking.” Washington’s position seemed as nearly hopeless and he, too, had need of some striking action. A “campaign marked by his own blundering and by the treachery of a trusted general had ended in seeming ruin. Pennsylvania at his back and New Jersey before him across the Delaware were less than half loyal to the American cause and prob- ably willing to accept peace on almost any terms. Never was a general in a position where greater risks must be taken for salvation. As Washington pondered what was going on among the British as ne rr alae - 7 es . _ etd CP pe poke anne ee ears “ackieiods yeenee * eee_ ps Peres sey) ee ened wielcle Sa, cree S ey ~ bo a bene teete ioeieees Oe ete Pascoe tend pease ee ec Tw : Pn okt neo) La Ft fae neh ak tte cr i 102 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES across the Delaware, a bold plan outlined itself in his mind. Howe, he knew, had gone to New York to celebrate a triumphant Christmas. His absence from the front was certain to involve slackness. It was Germans who held the line of the Delaware, some thirteen hundred of them under Colonel Rahl at Trenton, two thousand under Von Donop farther down the river at Bordentown; and with Germans perhaps more than any other people Christmas is a season of elaborate festivity. On this their first Christmas away from home many of the Germans would be likely to be off their guard either through homesickness or dissipation. They cared nothing for either side. There had been much plundering in New Jersey and discipline was relaxed. Howe had been guilty of the folly of making strong the posts farthest from the enemy and weak those nearest to him. He had, indeed, ordered Rahl to throw up redoubts for the defense of Tren- ton, but this, as Washington well knew, had not been done for Rahl despised his enemy and spoke of the American army as already lost. Wash- ington’s bold plan was to recross the Delaware and attack Trenton. There were to be three crossings. One was to be against Von Donop at BordentownTHE LOSS OF NEW YORK 103 below Trenton, the second at Trenton itself. These two attacks were designed to prevent aid to Tren- ton. The third force with which Washington him- self went was to cross the river some nine miles above the town. Christmas Day, 1776, was dismally cold. There was a driving storm of sleet and the broad swollen stream of the Delaware, dotted with dark masses of floating ice, offered a chill prospect. To take an army with its guns across that threatening flood was indeed perilous. Gates and other generals declared that the scheme was too difficult to be carried out. Only one of the three forces crossed the river. Washington, with iron will, was not to be turned from his purpose. He had skilled boat- men from New England. The crossing took no less than ten hours and a great part of it was done in wintry darkness. When the army landed on the New Jersey shore it had a march of nine miles in sleet and rain in order to reach Trenton by day- break. It is said that some of the men marched barefoot leaving tracks of blood in the snow. The arms of some were lost and those of others were wet and useless but Washington told them that they must depend themoreonthebayonet. He attacked Trenton in broad daylight. There wasasharp fight. TT in elk el ee Pe - ha - vd pew J) peed Sinceceweveer ee @recwod Awe messes! Pee re “ 1 pada Shae. Ot oe + Mee lat bet 8 et Ne Pe Sn er eae eT : ch i. tae # td pa eran yh an Ta een104 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES Rahl, the commander, and some seventy men, were killed and a thousand men surrendered. Even now Washington’s position was dangerous. Von Donop, with two thousand men, lay only a few miles down the river. Had he marched at once on Trenton, as he should have done, the worn out little force of Washington might have met with disaster. What Von Donop did when the alarm reached him was to retreat as fast as he could to Princeton, a dozen miles to the rear towards New York, leaving behind his sick and all his heavy equipment. Meanwhile Washington, knowing his danger, had turned back across the Delaware with a prisoner for every two of his men. When, how- ever, he saw what Von Donop had done he returned on the twenty-ninth to Trenton, sent out scouting parties, and roused the country so that in every bit of forest along the road to Princeton there were men, dead shots, to make difficult a British advance to retake Trenton. The reverse had brought consternation at New York. Lord Cornwallis was about to embark for England, the bearer of news of overwhelming vic- tory. Now, instead, he was sent to drive back Washington. It was no easy task for Cornwal- lis to reach Trenton, for Washington’s scoutingTHE LOSS OF NEW YORK 105 parties and a force of six hundred men under Greene were on the road to harass him. On the evening of the 2d of January, however, he reoccu- pied Trenton. This time Washington had not re- crossed the Delaware but had retreated southward and was now entrenched on the southern bank of the little river Assanpink, which flows into the Delaware.. Reinforcements were following Corn- wallis. That night he sharply cannonaded Wash- ington’s position and was as sharply answered. He intended to attack in force in the morning. To the skill and resource of Washington he paid the com- pliment of saying that at last he had run down the “Old Fox.” Then followed a maneuver which, years after, Cornwallis, a generous foe, told Washington was one of the most surprising and brilliant in the his- tory of war. There was another “old fox” in Europe, Frederick the Great, of Prussia, who knew war if ever man knew it, and he, too, from this movement ranked Washington among the great generals. The maneuver was simple enough. In- stead of taking the obvious course of again retreat- ing across the Delaware Washington decided to advance, to get in behind Cornwallis, to try to cut his communications, to threaten the British base i Tr zi Akt agter sthri* - - rer ta " us 4 en tee - Per tents ne le rrr ee ~ nea hea aen ee eT ees a anedind -106 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES of supply and then, if a superior force came up, to retreat into the highlands of New Jersey. There he could keep an unbroken line as far east as the Hudson, menace the British in New Jersey, and probably force them to withdraw to the safety of New York. All through the night of January 2, 1777, Wash- ington’s camp fires burned brightly and the British outposts could hear the sound of voices and of the spade and pickaxe busy in throwing up entrench- ments. The fires died down towards morning and the British awoke to find the enemy camp de- serted. Washington had carried his whole army by a roundabout route to the Princeton road and now stood between Cornwallis and his base. There was some sharp fighting that day near Princeton. Washington had to defeat and get past the rein- forcements coming to Cornwalis. He reached Princeton and then slipped away northward and made his headquarters at Morristown. He had achieved his purpose. The British with Washing- ton entrenched on their flank were not safe in New Jersey. The only thing to do was to withdraw to New York. By his brilliant advance Washington recovered the whole of New Jersey with the excep- tion of some minor positions near the sea. He hadTHE LOSS OF NEW YORK 107 changed the face of the war. In London there was momentary rejoicing over Howe’s recent victories, but it was soon followed by distressing news of defeat. Through all the colonies ran inspiring tidings. There had been doubts whether, after all, Washington was the heaven-sent leader. Now both America and Europe learned to recognize his skill. He had won a reputation, though not yet had he saved a cause. 4 ae Pel a 4 ao “ws Ft bel habe tbe hele eee es een telueen amant ene parte Tena te teewnes Pb el u a rf] 7 es | A e et | eb a 5 * as pe i + ' je a t mm 2 ) i ‘ Te fe aa ea | | Ve i Pat | ei ay | rh 7] =CHAPTER V THE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIA TuoueGH the outlook for Washington was bright- ened by his success in New Jersey, it was still de- pressing enough. The British had taken New York, they could probably take Philadelphia when they liked, and no place near the seacoast was safe. According to the votes in Parliament, by the spring of 1777 Britain was to have an army of eighty-nine thousand men, of whom fifty-seven thousand were intended for colonial garrisons and for the prosecu- tion of the war in America. These numbers were in fact never reached, but the army of forty thousand in America was formidable compared with Wash- ington’s forces. The British were not hampered by the practice of enlisting men for only a few months, which marred so much of Washington’s effort. Above all they had money and adequate resources. In a word they had the things which Washington lacked during almost the whole of the war. 108THE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIA 109 Washington called his success in the attack at Trenton a lucky stroke. It was luck which had far- reaching consequences. Howe had the fixed idea that to follow the capture of New York by that of Philadelphia, the most populous city in America, and the seat of Congress, would mean great glory for himself and a crushing blow to the American cause. If to this could be added, as he intended, the occupation of the whole valley. of the Hudson, the year 1777 might well see the end of the war. An acute sense of the value of time is vital in war. Promptness, the quick surprise of the enemy, was perhaps the chief military virtue of Washington; dilatoriness was the destructive vice of Howe. He had so little contempt for his foe that he practised a blighting caution. On April 12, 1777, Washing- ton, in view of his own depleted force, in a state of half famine, wrote: “If Howe does not take ad- vantage of our weak state he is very unfit for his trust.” Howe remained inactive and time, thus despised, worked its due revenge. Later Howe did move, and with skill, but he missed the rapid com- bination in action which was the first condition of final success. He could have captured Philadelphia in May. He took the city, but not until Septem- ber, when to hold it had become a liability and not ot ERLE Soe Be bP a pl “7 Pe LEN bere On eee eee eT LE aoe eo apund nest (Tene Shes Taz! . - b — ad Ree bee eae ne ee re ep pee tee oe110 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES an asset. To go there at all was perhaps unwise; to go in September was for him a tragic mistake. From New York to Philadelphia the distance by land is about a hundred miles. The route lay — > across New Jersey, that “garden of America’ which English travelers spoke of as resembling their own highly cultivated land. Washington had his headquarters at Morristown, in northern New Jersey. His resources were at alow ebb. He had always the faith that a cause founded on jus- tice could not fail; but his letters at this time are full of depressing anxiety. Each State- regarded itself as in danger and made care of its own in- terests its chief concern. By this time Congress had lost most of the able men who had given it dignity and authority. Like Howe it had slight sense of the value of time and imagined that to- morrow was as good as today. Wellington once complained that, though in supreme command, he had not authority to appoint even a corporal. Washington was hampered both by Congress and by the State Governments in choosing leaders. He had some officers, such as Greene, Knox, and Benedict Arnold, whom he trusted. Others, like Gates and Conway, were ceaseless intriguers. To General Sullivan, who fancied himself constantlyTHE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIA 111 slighted and ill-treated, Washington wrote sharply to abolish his poisonous suspicions. Howe had offered easy terms to those in New Jersey who should declare their loyalty and to meet this Washington advised the stern policy of outlawing every one who would not take the oath of allegiance to the United States. There was much fluttering of heart on the New Jersey farms, much anxious trimming in order, in any event, to be safe. Howe’s Hessians had plundered ruthlessly causing deep resentment against the British. Now Washington found his own people doing the same thing. Militia officers, themselves, “generally” as he said, “‘of the lowest class of the people,”’ not only stole but incited their men to steal. It was easy to plunder under the plea that the owner of the property was a Tory, whether open or con- cealed, and Washington wrote that the waste and theft were “beyond all conception.”’ There were shirkers claiming exemption from military service on the ground that they were doing necessary ser- vice as civilians. Washington needed maps to plan his intricate movements and could not get them. Smallpox was devastating his army and causing losses heavier than those from the enemy. When pay day came there was usually no money. eee at ie Rn ear tl ares ee eet — ees | ee ned ne wet rs ane oe een we te nape tres « ry er a he ne ee NE hinaee S edenmenh tobe ae = oe ¥ teeeseien ae a ren tet ee SETAE ae tee terre eee rae w' 3 = a2 ed ane ae YO nr arin ; TO) f + fs , a ie ai Pd ar 112 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES It is little wonder that in this spring of 1777 he feared that his army might suddenly dissolve and leave him without a command. In that case he | would not have yielded. Rather, so stern and bitter was he against England, would he have plunged into the western wilderness to be lost in its vast spaces. Howe had his own perplexities. He knew that a great expedition under Burgoyne was to advance from Canada southward to the Hudson. Was heto remain with his whole force at New York until the time should come to push up the river to meet Burgoyne? He had a copy of the instructions given in England to Burgoyne by Lord George Germain, but he was himself without orders. Afterwards the reason became known. Lord George Germain had dictated the order to codper- ate with Burgoyne, but had hurried off to the country before it was ready for his signature and it had been mislaid. Howe seemed free to make his own plans and he longed to be master of the enemy’s capital. In the end he decided to take Philadelphia — a task easy enough, as the event proved. At Howe’s elbow was the traitorous American general, Charles Lee, whom he had re- cently captured, and Lee, as we know, told himeh | re | a i se | a] a BENEDICT ARNOLD wi = - “$= ~~ |= " qc bees pe rr Pate ee ee eee Len erates Ok seed tale taal babe Engraving by B. I. Prevost, after a drawing from life made by Du Simitier in Philadelphia. In the Emmet Collection, Print Department of the New York Public Library. Pind arr peer Peet - Me ar m ee ee pete = Tia ah ahr ers REET = ree oer os ul palit Te ete. cs bee te ee a ee 4 be en be at eae bee ea id _ bi a ee ene lied een r ‘ es au Pt hel ee et Bh eyeie «> ry Set eC ee ee ce a ee la ee ee Ps HORATIO GATES Engraving by H. B. Hall, in facsimile of a pencil drawing by John Trumbull. In the Emmet Collection, Print Department of the New York Public Library. een tsp dgueyeecotapegesen dies. OTS et ene et te . CRE nee en ee eae — : Bie Rr poe Nir Bl rs 4 Po atth den iudsiatsletthereahtete nema de-tdeierae smeared er et bd tae e Y Ee eed ete eee cas ee rs a Sy enpet Uhaeete eee oe nearer AE cal Mbt tetbnetents art —sho rie | a. ‘ o - eee rrr rrr eee a rs ee ame bee Pa ee ae i MITT rT eh ahead a hs cat ba ee) | a f H % a ‘ { i i : 5 , i eaesrSTee : ae eel ow a a annie ie -- Au a ort eed ee roe ear es Rhema yu erns erst eh ha be rh eh oe at Yrs ee gie eee Tet ea il oe *a eee) pl eet ot Tate i f , f : f f, hd ie Sebetslepteereadte letter deter aes Se ee rte ee ae tet ie en mes ae en, tn Sera ~ + Sag ewnsn ed a.THE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIA 118 that Maryland and Pennsylvania were at heart loyal to the King and panting to be free from the tyranny of the demagogue. Once firmly in the capital Howe believed that he would have secure control of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. He could achieve this and be back at New York in time to meet Burgoyne, perhaps at Albany. Then he would hold the colony of New York from Staten Island to the Canadian frontier. Howe found that he could send ships up the Hudson, and the American army had to stand on the banks almost helpless against the mobility of sea power. Washington’s left wing rested on the Hudson and he held both banks but neither at Peekskill nor, as yet, farther up at West Point, could his forts pre- vent the passage of ships. It was a different matter for the British to advance on land. But the ships went up and down in the spring of 1777. It would be easy enough to help Burgoyne when the time should come. It was summer before Howe was ready to move, and by that time he had received instructions that his first aim must be to codperate with Burgoyne. First, however, he was resolved to have Philadel- phia. Washington watched Howe in perplexity. A great fleet and a great army lay at New York. 8 er yee a o oe " Ds at at ait hg bee ~+ ed 6 «4° H - a ytgee 4 * - EP ee ea tet ae Pe 5 edith eae twrerea Stent OCRed ene ae "Ted baa bok elt kb pra 5 eereeetecdtes — ap sben Piet saat - as — ee eerie ene ee = Li . ul =yohns pont ane de ate haar len past” Po oa rena er ee ee er114 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES Why did they not move? Washington knew per- fectly well what he himself would have done in Howe’s place. He would have attacked rapidly in | April the weak American army and, after destroy- ing or dispersing it, would have turned to meet Burgoyne coming southward from Canada. Howe did send a strong force into New Jersey. But he did not know how weak Washington really was, for that master of craft in war disseminated with great skill false information as to his own supposed over- whelming strength. Howe had been bitten once by advancing too far into New Jersey and was not going to take risks. He tried to entice Washington from the hills to attack in open country. He marched here and there in New Jersey and kept Washington alarmed and exhausted by counter marches, and always puzzled as to what the next move should be. Howe purposely let one of his secret messengers be taken bearing a despatch say- ing that the fleet was about to sail for Boston. All these things took time and the summer was slipping away. Inthe end Washington realized that Howe intended to make his move not by land but by sea. Could it be possible that he was not going to make aid to Burgoyne his chief purpose? Could it be that he would attack Boston? WashingtonTHE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIA 115 hoped so for he knew the reception certain at Boston. Or was his goal Charleston? On the 23d of July, when the summer was more than half gone, Washington began to see more clearly. On that day Howe had embarked eighteen thousand men and the fleet put to sea from Staten Island. Howe was doing what able officers with him, such as Cornwallis, Grey, and the German Knyp- hausen, appear to have been unanimous in thinking he should not do. He was misled not only by the desire to strike at the very center of the rebellion, but also by the assurance of the traitorous Lee that to take Philadelphia would be the effective signal to all the American Loyalists, the overwhelming majority of the people, as was believed, that sedi- tion had failed. A tender parent, the King, was ready to have the colonies back in their former relation and to give them secure guarantees of future liberty. Any one who saw the fleet put out from New York Harbor must have been impressed with the might of Britain. No less than two hun- dred and twenty-nine ships set their sails and covered the sea for miles. When they had dis- appeared out of sight of the New Jersey shore their goal was still unknown. At sea they might turn in any direction. Washington’s uncertainty aT ¥ pe 7 ms 5 en ae ats ee iad Chern eee ee > Ph ae le ipa en ee weseeneeee ters! teed ee ets eee eer rr116 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES was partly relieved on the 30th of July when the fleet appeared at the entrance of Delaware Bay, with Philadelphia some hundred miles away across the bay and up the Delaware River. After hover- ing about the Cape for a day the fleet again put to sea, and Washington, who had marched his army so as to be near Philadelphia, thought the whole movement a feint and knew not where the fleet would next appear. He was preparing to march to New York to menace General Clinton, who had there seven thousand men able to help Burgoyne when he heard good news. On the 22d of August he knew that Howe had really gone southward and was in Chesapeake Bay. Boston was now certainly safe. On the 25th of August, after three stormy weeks at sea, Howe arrived at Elkton, at the head of Chesapeake Bay, and there landed his army. It was Philadelphia fifty miles away that he in- tended to have. Washington wrote gleefully: “Now let all New England turn out and crush Burgoyne.” Before the end of September he was writing that he was certain of complete disaster to Burgoyne. Howe had, in truth, made a ruinous mistake. Had the date been May instead of August he might still have saved Burgoyne. But at the end ofTHE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIA 117 August, when the net was closing on Burgoyne, Howe was three hundred miles away. His disre- gard of time and distance had been magnificent. In July he had sailed to the mouth of the Delaware, with Philadelphia near, but he had then sailed away again, and why? Because the passage of his ships up the river to the city was blocked by ob- structions commanded by bristling forts. The naval officers said truly that the fleet could not getup theriver. But Howe might have landed his army at the head of Delaware Bay. It is a dozen miles across the narrow peninsula from the head of Delaware Bay to that of Chesapeake Bay. Since Howe had decided to attack from the head of Chesa- peake Bay there was little to prevent him from landing his army on the Delaware side of the pen- insula and marching across it. By sea it is a voy- age of three hundred miles round a peninsula one hundred and fifty miles long to get from one of these points to the other, by land only a dozen miles away. Howe made the sea voyage and spent on it three weeks whena march of a day would have saved this time and kept his fleet three hundred miles by sea nearer to New York and aid for Burgoyne. Howe’s mistakes only have their place in the procession to inevitable disaster. Once in the thick ar Ter as ee “Er Ae ome ot hd be abet eee 3 i = a ee SI ed ala ae Petes fa oe bd De eel TTY ee ee Sorta been! ¢¢ 33 66 noble city,” “‘the first Town in America,” “one of the Wonders of the World.” Its luxury had been so conspicuous that the austere John Adams con- demned the “sinful feasts”? in which he shared. About it were fine country seats surrounded by parklike grounds, with noble trees, clipped hedges, and beautiful gardens. The British believed that Pennsylvania was really on their side. Many of the people were friendly and hundreds now re- newed their oath of allegiance to the King. Wash- ington complained that the people gave Howe in- formation denied to him. They certainly fedTHE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIA 121 Howe’s army willingly and received good British gold while Washington had only paper money with which to pay. Over the proud capital floated once more the British flag and people who did not see very far said that, with both New York and Phila- delphia taken, the rebellion had at last collapsed. Once in possession of Philadelphia Howe made his camp at Germantown, a straggling suburban village, about seven miles northwest of the city. Washington’s army lay at the foot of some hills a dozen miles farther away. Howe had need to be wary, for Washington was the same “old fox” who had played so cunning a game at Trenton. The efforts of the British army were now centered on clearing the river Delaware so that supplies might be brought up rapidly by water instead of being earried fifty miles overland from Chesapeake Bay. Howe detached some thousands of men for this work and there was sharp fighting before the troops and the fleet combined had cleared the river. At Germantown Howe kept about nine thousand men. Though he knew that Washington was likely to attack him he did not entrench his army as he desired the attack to be made. It might well have succeeded. Washington with eleven thousand men aimed at a surprise. On the evening of the 3d of tao be OT Va SA am ee ee ee a « nate Seewnnneren~ + ee rn te hia pei ry ache gt nt ae ra ' = me: ER era Se i nate aa pe en ern ee TE emitser A — ‘ aon) pe Pee ee ee i ee ee eee ee eta eteiaiete nce tee died ames alee eaobaieieieeoeameiionee ~S ate pe ae yer” BE Od ee ieee ee ee » a ae ot h~ » find ey pe nas SOs ear 122 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES October he set out from his camp. Four roads led into Germantown and all these the Americans used. At sunrise on the fourth, just as the attack began, a fog arose to embarrass both sides. Lying a little north of the village was the solid stone house of Chief Justice Chew, and it remains famous as the central point in the bitter fight of that day. What brought final failure to the American attack was an accident of maneuvering. Sullivan’s bri- gade was in front attacking the British when Greene’s came up for the same purpose. His line overlapped Sullivan’s and he mistook in the fog Sullivan’s men for the enemy and fired on them from the rear. A panic naturally resulted among the men who were attacked also at the same time by the British on their front. The disorder spread. British reinforcements arrived, and Washington drew off his army in surprising order considering the panic. He had six hundred and seventy-three casualties and lost besides four hundred prisoners. The British loss was five hundred and thirty-seven casualties and fourteen prisoners. The attack had failed, but news soon came which made the reverse unimportant. Burgoyne and his whole army had surrendered at Saratoga.CHAPTER VI THE FIRST GREAT BRITISH DISASTER Joun BurGoYNE, in a measure a soldier of fortune, was the younger son of an impoverished baronet, but he had married the daughter of the powerful Earl of Derby and was well known in London society as a man of fashion and also as a man of letters, whose plays had a certain vogue. His will, in which he describes himself as a humble Chris- tian, who, in spite of many faults, had never for- gotten God, shows that he was serious minded. He sat in the House of Commons for Preston and, though he used the language of a courtier and spoke of himself as lying at the King’s feet to await his commands, he was a Whig, the friend of Fox and others whom the King regarded as his enemies. One of his plays describes the difficulties of getting the English to join the army of George III. We have the smartly dressed recruit as a decoy to suggest an easy life in the army. Victory and glory are so 123 . errr ee Oe Seen ee a uit yuhhanaand Aes ee Ten -P - . eee ee bee ~T Pp " - —_ et pe Te ee Pa ee Pe eed ae) ee ee ete eee che deeer eevee etait s+ eel —Aety + Fd te Sadie ed dee etter Seti ode tal tee tah tener oe cee een neers 124 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES certain that a tailor stands with his feet on the neck of the King of France. The decks of cap- tured ships swim with punch and are clotted with gold dust, and happy soldiers play with diamonds as if they were marbles. The senators of Eng- land, says Burgoyne, care chiefly to make sure of good game laws for their own pleasure. The worthless son of one of them, who sets out on the long drive to his father’s seat in the country, spends an hour in “yawning, picking his teeth and damning his journey”’ and when once on the way drives with such fury that the route is marked by “‘yelping dogs, broken-backed pigs and dismembered geese.” It was under this playwright and satirist, who had some skill as a soldier, that the British cause now received a blow from which it never recovered. Burgoyne had taken part in driving the Americans from Canada in 1776 and had spent the following winter in England using his influence to secure an independent command. ‘To his later undoing he succeeded. It was he, and not, as had been ex- pected, General Carleton, who was appointed to lead the expedition of 1777 from Canada to the Hudson. Burgoyne was given instructions so rigid as to be an insult to his intelligence. He was to doFIRST GREAT BRITISH DISASTER = 125 one thing and only one thing, to press forward to the Hudson and meet Howe. At the same time Lord George Germain, the minister responsible, failed to instruct Howe to advance up the Hudson to meet Burgoyne. Burgoyne had.a genuine belief in the wisdom of this strategy but he had no power to vary it, to meet changing circumstances, and this was one chief factor in his failure. Behold Burgoyne then, on the 17th of June, embarking on Lake Champlain the army which, ever since his arrival in Canada on the 6th of May, he had been preparing for this advance. He had rather more than seven thousand men, of whom nearly one-half were Germans under the competent General Riedesel. In the force of Burgoyne we find the ominous presence of some hundreds of Indian allies. They had been attached to one side or the other in every war fought in those regions during the previous one hundred and fifty years. In the war which ended in 1763 Montcalm had used them and so had his opponent Amherst. The regiments from the New England and other col- onies had fought in alliance with the painted and befeathered savages and had made no protest. Now either times had changed, or there was some- thing in a civil war which made the use of savages —r a Sel aa Bk bet, ae be nd de me - ed mnt a a ot boue Pee ae Te, ea OL Nn eel el ema ate " a a ae ~* - vo ye rest) ot bd ~ eel eeeenhl pereee err enee eta te kt " mt fe ee PT ee eee ee CS elas win) See tet lst fabaseeeheic tebe aired area deer paaotNacaereeoeeieteamied a Sete ae r Set bl sen Scanlan barter ewer ree aed = aes += ph > Py 126 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES seem hideous. One thing is certain. Amherst had held his savages in stern restraint and could say proudly that they had not committed a single outrage. Burgoyne was not so happy. In nearly every war the professional soldier shows distrust, if not contempt, for civilian levies. Burgoyne had been in America before the day of Bunker Hill and knew a great deal about the coun- try. He thought the “insurgents’’ good enough fighters when protected by trees and stones and swampy ground. But he thought, too, that they had no real knowledge of the science of war and could not fight a pitched battle. He himself had not shown the prevision required by sound military knowledge. If the British were going to abandon the advantage of sea power and fight where they could not fall back on their fleet, they needed to pay special attention toland transport. This Burgoyne had not done. It was only a little more than a week before he reached Lake Champlain that he asked Carleton to provide the four hundred horses and five hundred carts which he still needed and which were not easily secured in a sparsely settled country. Burgoyne lingered for three days at Crown Point, half way down the lake. Then, on the 2d of July, he laid siege to Fort Ticonderoga.FIRST GREAT BRITISH DISASTER 127 Once past this fort, guarding the route to Lake George, he could easily reach the Hudson. In command at Fort Ticonderoga was General St. Clair, with about thirty-five hundred men. He had long notice of the siege, for the expedition of Burgoyne had been the open talk of Montreal and the surrounding country during many months. He had built Fort Independence, on the east shore of Lake Champlain, and with a great expenditure of labor had sunk twenty-two piers across the lake and stretched in front of them a boom to protect the two forts. But he had neglected to defend Sugar Hill in front of Fort Ticonderoga, and com- manding the American works. It took only three or four days for the British to drag cannon to the top, erect a battery and prepare to open fire. On the 5th of July, St. Clair had to face a bitter a ae sity. He abandoned the untenable forts and re- tired southward to Fort Edward by way of the difficult Green Mountains. The British took one hundred and twenty-eight guns. These successes led the British to think that within a few days they would be in Albany. We have an amusing picture of the effect on George ITI of the fall of Fort Ticonderoga. The place had been much discussed. It had been the first British OT POT retreat re Se on an OPT NEMO P ITE TST Sheed alta ptr peeem Rea a fe RA ARB re Dhan Bh Near ee eat) ” hea i pp arprn seats P * eet ab ated | es - " a a . ee Sa. Paar nenaSelena ere et =e pa eet et es Pa een en ee ee ” pd ie fader Ee et wee ad et ten iniai-tal toe heen eee aca aieeded enero enone 9 . eee Rar aeT Nees " CSS 128 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES fort to fall to the Americans when the Revolution began, and Carleton’s failure to take it in the autumn of 1776 had been the cause of acute heart-| burning in London. Now, when the news of its fall reached England, George III burst into the Queen’s room with the glad cry, “I have beat them, I have beat the Americans.” Washington’s de- pression was not as great as the King’s elation; he had a better sense of values; but he had intended that the fort should hold Burgoyne, and its fall was a disastrous blow. The Americans showed skill and good soldierly quality in the retreat from Ticonderoga, and Burgoyne in following and har- assing them was led into hard fighting in the woods. ‘The easier route by way of Lake George was open but Burgoyne hoped to destroy his enemy by direct pursuit through the forest. It took him twenty days to hew his way twenty miles, to the upper waters of the Hudson near Fort Edward. When there on the 30th of July he had communications open from the Hudson to the St. Lawrence. Fortune seemed to smile on Burgoyne. He had taken many guns and he had proved the fighting quality of his men. But his cheerful elation had, in truth, no sound basis. Never during the twotart or Sey ma er areree hh ae will 7 Te Pee tt ee hee red eT bem ee iy tt pn ae a ee aad Pee ae 7 neers er NATHANAEL GREENE Painting by C. W. Peale. In Independence Hall, Philadelphia. ; nnd es a, Fi en hae eal ee bt] ~ oa a n By ~ st f oe ag i roe i Co ee ik Pa ee re ee mn erence nee ne See Speen te a De res Spanner ee auras asaya qeess tee pared oop eh eae ee eT bak i . on rer eee ectarsers ee red eet “¥ mp eel ot oboe pre ee aw A Re ee ee ee ees Se ee ee ot yhot~Ye ~lofeheoref- Poet ee Fe at ie i. i. x if ry eee Sea an Seheihenetes 5 ws -5 eR NE ater ata -pheeyertens : a 3] | ai ct ; H 5 | “4 7 i ; } er ee an ore) 4 cern ta eee eee arte pe ae — Tere tbe det ee elated —_ or Pe Piet tt aha eed - Ne tet eden Je pmewrteset ate qees tye" ® TT la ae er aan S49 eagaee! ao et ns ole es A See a ee ee ee 1—he8~ } fy [ if | ares ct Rachie Peet erway >FIRST GREAT BRITISH DISASTER 129 and a half months of bitter struggle which followed was he able to advance more than twenty-five miles from Fort Edward. The moment he needed transport by land he found himself almost helpless. Sometimes his men were without food and equip- ment because he had not the horses and carts to bring supplies from the head of water at Fort Anne or Fort George, a score of miles away. Sometimes he had no food to transport. He was dependent on his communications for every form of supplies. Even hay had to be brought from Canada, since, in the forest country, there was little food for his horses. The perennial problem for the British in all operations was this one of food. The inland regions were too sparsely populated to make it possible for more than a few soldiers to live on local supplies. The wheat for the bread of the British soldier, his beef and his pork, even the oats for his horse, came, for the most part, from Eng- land, at vast expense for transport, which made fortunes for contractors. It is said that the cost of a pound of salted meat delivered to Burgoyne on the Hudson was thirty shillings. Burgoyne had been told that the inhabitants needed only protection to make them openly loyal and had counted on them for supplies. He found instead 9 oat et bd be yg ten Tei ee li pe Re - io pe eT ene ea rh ahh iene as tk ~~ fet a ete 7 4-4 j od et et hI i" 4 + o*6 - Sah rs te ~wers@este PPI Soi rd rac Sanne eT ar a a130 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES the great mass of the people hostile and he doubted the sincerity even of those who professed their loyalty. After Burgoyne had been a month at Fort Ed- ward he was face to face with starvation. If he advanced he lengthened his line to flank attack. As it was he had difficulty in holding it against New Englanders, the most resolute of all his foes, eager to assert by hard fighting, if need be, their right to hold the invaded territory which was claimed also by New York. Burgoyne’s instruc- tions forbade him to turn aside and strike them a heavy blow. He must go on to meet Howe who was not there to be met. A being who could see the movements of men as we watch a game of chess, might think that madness had seized the British leaders; Burgoyne on the upper Hudson plunging forward resolutely to meet Howe; Howe at sea sailing away, as it might well seem, to get as far from Burgoyne as he could; Clinton in command at New York without instructions, puzzled what to do and not hearing from his leader, Howe, for six weeks at a time; and across the sea a complacent minister, Germain, who believed that he knew what to do in a scene three thousand miles away, and had drawn up exact instructions as to the wayFIRST GREAT BRITISH DISASTER 131 of doing it, and who was now eagerly awaiting news of the final triumph. Burgoyne did his best. Early in August he had to make a venturesome stroke to get sorely needed food. Some twenty-five miles east of the Hudson at Bennington, in difficult country, New England militia had gathered food and munitions, and horses for transport. The pressure of need clouded Burgoyne’s judgment. To make a dash for Ben- nington meant a long and dangerous march. He was assured, however, that a surprise was possible and that in any case the country was full of friends only awaiting a little encouragement to come out openly on his side. They were Germans who lay on Burgoyne’s left and Burgoyne sent Colonel Baum, an efficient officer, with five or six hundred men to attack the New Englanders and bring in the supplies. It was a stupid blunder to send Ger- mans among a people specially incensed against the use of these mercenaries. There was no surprise. Many professing loyalists, seemingly eager to take the oath of allegiance, met and delayed Baum. When near Bennington he found in front of him a force barring the way and had to make a carefully guarded camp for the night. Then five hundred men, some of them the cheerful takers of the oath ences rank s7 pire MA ol fs re da a P Pi ee a eT et bret aye oh a = ee en ee ar ah a en nD a lente atthe a ad te = 2 —132 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES of allegiance, slipped round to his rear and in thi) morning he was attacked from front and rear. A hot fight followed which resulted in the cor) plete defeat of the British. Baum was mortall#) wounded. Some of his men escaped into th woods; the rest were killed or captured. Nor wat this all. Burgoyne, scenting danger, had ordereg; five hundred more Germans to reinforce Baum) They, too, were attacked and overwhelmed. Inallj Burgoyne lost some eight hundred men and fot) guns. The American loss was seventy. It shows} the spirit of the time that, for the sport of the sok. diers, British prisoners were tied together in pains. and driven by negroes at the tail of horses. Ai: American soldier described long after, with regret: for his own cruelty, how he had taken a British: prisoner who had had his left eye shot out ane) mounted him on a horse also without the left eye, in derision at the captive’s misfortune. The Brity' ish complained that quarter was refused in the’ fight. For days tired stragglers, after long wander | ing in the woods, drifted into Burgoyne’s camp: This was now near Saratoga, a name destined be ominous in the history of the British army. Further misfortune now crowded upon Bur: goyne. The general of that day had two favoritFIRST GREAT BRITISH DISASTER = 133 forms of attack. One was to hold the enemy’s front and throw out a column to march round the flank and attack his rear, the method of Howe at the Brandywine; the other method was to advance on the enemy by lines converging at a common center. This form of attack had proved most successful eighteen years earlier when the British had finally secured Canada by bringing together, at Montreal, three armies, one from the east, one from the west, and one from the south. Now there was a similar plan of bringing together three Brit- ish forces at or near Albany, on the Hudson. Of Clinton, at New York, and Burgoyne we know. The third force was under General St. Leger. With some seventeen hundred men, fully half of whom were Indians, he had gone up the St. Lawrence from Montreal and was advancing from Oswego on Lake Ontario to attack Fort Stanwix at the end of the road from the Great Lakes to the Mohawk River. After taking that stronghold he intended to go down the river valley to meet Burgoyne near Albany. On the 3d of August St. Leger was before Fort Stanwix garrisoned by some seven hundred Ameri- cans. With him were two men deemed potent in that scene. One of these was Sir John Johnson eT habe be keane total odoheas el either heeeee PTL bd 4 lt ba Ca be a, i i _ pa tm in A rl eee ee ee ee tinea aiehiahte ht adr ela mis a. < . ee a ee ee tet Pee pattie PFE ape o Me ane sazesassgecys acetate _ 7 152 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES of militia, and one authority was bidding against theother. This encouraged short-term enlistments. If a man could re-enlist and again secure a bounty, | he would gain more than if he enlisted at once for the duration of the war. An army is an intricate mechanism needing the same variety of agencies that is required for the well-being of a community. The chief aim is, of course, to defeat the enemy, and to do this an army must be prepared to move rapidly. Means of transport, so necessary in peace, are even more urgently needed in war. Thus Washington always needed military engineers to construct roads and bridges. Before the Revolution the greater part of such services had been provided in America by the regular British army, now the enemy. British officers declared that the American army was without engineers who knew the science of war, and certainly the forts on which they spent their skill in the North, those on the lower Hudson, and at Ticonderoga, at the head of Lake George, fell easily before the assailant. Good maps were needed, and in this Washington was badly served, though the defect was often corrected by his intimate knowl- edge of the country. Another service ill-equipped was what we should now call the Red Cross.AT VALLEY FORGE 153 Epidemics, and especially smallpox, wrought havoe inthearmy. Then, as now, shattered nerves were sometimes the result of the strain of military life. “The wind of a ball,” what we should now call shell-shock, sometimes killed men whose bodies appeared to be uninjured. To our more advanced knowledge the medical science of the time seems erude. The physicians of New England, today perhaps the most expert body of medical men in the world, were even then highly skillful. But the surgeons and nurses were too few. ‘This was true of both sides in the conflict. Prisoners in hospi- tals often suffered terribly and each side brought charges of ill-treatment against the other. The prison-ships in the harbor of New York, where American prisoners were confined, became a scan- dal, and much bitter invective against British brutality is found in the literature of the period. The British leaders, no less than Washington him- self, were humane men, and ignorance and inade- quate equipment will explain most of the hard- ships, though an occasional officer on either side was undoubtedly callous in respect to the sufferings of the enemy. Food and clothing, the first vital necessities of an army, were often deplorably scarce. In a land Lee eee nnn nn ieee rr. a Perens 7 Ply vi r , = rey “ 3 aa - sharennensy vi hs 7 “A Law fe ello . Bee ee ee te eee ery pig te a ee nee - EE de ee154 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES of farmers there was food enough. Its lack in the army was chiefly due to bad transport. Clothing was another matter. One of the things insisted upon in a well-trained army is a decent regard for appearance, and in the eyes of the French and the British officers the American army usually seemed rather unkempt. The formalities of dress, the uni- formity of pipe-clay and powdered hair, of polished steel and brass, can of course be overdone. The British army had too much of it, but to Washing- ton’s force the danger was of having too little. It was not easy to induce farmers and frontiersmen who at home began the day without the use of water, razor, or brush, to appear on parade clean, with hair powdered, faces shaved, and clothes neat. In the long summer days the men were told to shave before going to bed that they might prepare the more quickly for parade in the morning, and to fill their canteens over night if an early march was imminent. Some of the regiments had uni- forms which gave them a sufficiently smart appear- ance. The cocked hat, the loose hunting shirt with its fringed border, the breeches of brown leather or duck, the brown gaiters or leggings, the powdered hair, were familiar marks of the soldier of the Revolution.AT VALLEY FORGE 155 During a great part of the war, however, in spite of supplies brought from both France and the West Indies, Washington found it difficult to secure for his men even decent clothing of any kind, whether of military cut or not. More than a year after he took command, in the fighting about New York, a great part of his army had no more semblance of uniform than hunting shirts on a common pattern. In the following December, he wrote of many men as either shivering in garments fit only for summer wear or as entirely naked. There was a time in the later campaign in the South when hundreds of American soldiers marched stark naked, except for breech cloths. One of the most pathetic hardships of the soldier’s life was due to the lack of boots. More than one of Washington’s armies could be tracked by the bloody footprints of his barefooted men. Near the end of the war Benedict Arnold, who knew whereof he spoke, described the Ameri- can army as “‘illy clad, badly fed, and worse paid,” pay being then two or three years overdue. On the other hand, there is evidence that life in the army was not without its compensations. Enforced dwelling in the open air saved men from diseases such as consumption and the movement from camp to camp gave a broader outlook to the farmer'sphe nt bat a SE tet ee Poe tn it nde rar 5 tahedepantelatieiealcctetieaiet-emnteharhanieer imnceaamarenraenttneel peep Pee Sal” ie ey aan deb face a msg Soe ~—) oe at dae oa mk @ b 156 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES sons. The army could usually make a brave parade. On ceremonial occasions the long hair of the men would be tied back and made white with | powder, even though their uniforms were little more than rags. The men carried weapons some of which, in, at any rate, the early days of the war, were made by hand at the village smithy. A man might take to the war a weapon forged by himself. The Ameri- can soldier had this advantage over the British soldier, that he used, if not generally, at least in some cases, not the smooth-bore musket but the grooved rifle by which the ball was made to rotate in its flight. The fire from this rifle was extremely accurate. At first weapons were few and ammuni- tion was scanty, but in time there were importa- tions from France and also supplies from American gun factories. The standard length of the barrel was three and a half feet, a portentous size com- pared with that of the modern weapon. The load- ing was from the muzzle, a process so slow that one of the favorite tactics of the time was to await the fire of the enemy and then charge quickly and bayonet him before he could reload. The old method of firing off the musket by means of slow matches kept alight during action was now obsolete;AT VALLEY FORGE 157 the latest device was the flintlock. But there was always a measure of doubt whether the weapon would go off. Partly on this account Benjamin Franklin, the wisest man of his time, declared for the use of the pike of an earlier age rather than the bayonet and for bows and arrows instead of fire- arms. A soldier, he said, could shoot four arrows to one bullet. An arrow wound was more disabling than a bullet wound; and arrows did not becloud the vision with smoke. The bullet remained, how- ever, the chief means of destruction, and the fire of Washington’s soldiers usually excelled that of the British. These, in their turn, were superior in the use of the bayonet. Powder and lead were hard to get. The inven- tive spirit of America was busy with plans to pro- cure saltpeter and other ingredients for making powder, but it remained scarce. Since there was no standard firearm, each soldier required bullets specially suited to his weapon. The men melted lead and cast it in their own bullet-molds. It is an instance of the minor ironies of war that the great equestrian statue of George III, which had been erected in New York in days more peaceful, was melted into bullets for killing that monarch’s soldiers. Another necessity was paper for cartridges ee a bt ye oe be be Sn be a te he] “om - —2e Se a ~ ee ee a a ol hea ree ~ ~ sa dd ~~ TT , pa ee. elas ae Le ara genase Ait NS PEAS as rena enepne ener agen seme se rere Cal ten ae jar * ther” pe at Mer a - SaaS le coe dete eT ~ telat aee aang ans stem 158 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES and wads. The cartridge of that day was a paper envelope containing the charge of ball and powder. This served also as a wad, after being emptied of its contents, and was pushed home witk aramrod. A store of German Bibles in Pennsy]- vania fell into the hands of the soldiers at a moment when paper was a crying need, and the pages of these Bibles were used for wads. The artillery of the time seems feeble compared with the monster weapons of death which we know in our own age. Yet it was an important factor in the war. It is probable that before the war not a single cannon had been made in the colonies. From the outset Washington was hampered for lack of artillery. Neutrals, especially the Dutch in the West Indies, sold guns to the Americans, and France was a chief source of supply during long periods when the British lost the command of the sea. There was always difficulty about equipping cavalry, especially in the North. The Virginian was at home on horseback, and in the farther South bands of cavalry did service during the later years of the war, but many of the fighting riders of today might tomorrow be guiding their horses peacefully behind the plough. The pay of the soldiers remained to WashingtonAT VALLEY FORGE 159 a baffling problem. When the war ended their pay was still heavily in arrears. The States were timid about imposing taxation and few if any paid promptly the levies made upon them. Congress bridged the chasm in finance by issuing paper money which so declined in value that, as Wash- ington said grimly, it required a wagon-load of money to pay for a wagon-load of supplies. The soldier received his pay in this money at its face value, and there is little wonder that the “‘conti- nental dollar’’ is still in the United States a symbol of worthlessness. At times the lack of pay caused mutiny which would have been dangerous but for Washington’s firm and tactful management in the time of crisis. There was in him both the kindly feeling of the humane man and the rigor of the army leader. He sent men to death without flinch- ing, but he was at one with his men in their suffer- ings, and no problem gave him greater anxiety than that of pay, affecting, as it did, the health and spirits of men who, while unpaid, had no means of softening the daily tale of hardship. Desertion was always hard to combat. With the homesickness which led sometimes to desertion Washington must have had a secret sympathy, for his letters show that he always longed for that Tee nl ba et be lek, PS 7 a i ep a Ed bee re ba, bm - paren a Ree eee ee ee ae loot die a eae in te hog pat heh = ed O- ab gsateessene= sere a ; eee a e ake ee160 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES pleasant home in Virginia which he did not allow himself to revisit until nearly the end of the war The land of a farmer on service often remained untilled, and there are pathetic cases of families in bitter need because the breadwinner was in the army. In frontier settlements his absence some- times meant the massacre of his family by the savages. There is little wonder that desertion was common, so common that after a reverse the men went away by hundreds. As they usually carried with them their rifles and other equipment, deser- tion involved a double loss. On one occasion some soldiers undertook for themselves the punishment of deserters. Men of the First Pennsylvania Regi- ment who had recaptured three deserters, beheaded one of them and returned to their camp with the head carried on a pole. More than once it hap- pened that condemned men were paraded before the troops for execution with the graves dug and the coffins lying ready. The death sentence would be read, and then, as the firing party took aim, a reprieve would be announced. ‘The reprieve in such circumstances was omitted often enough to make the condemned endure the real agony of death. Religion offered its consolations in the army andAT VALLEY FORGE 161 Washington gave much thought to the service of the chaplains. He told his army that fine as it was to be a patriot it was finer still to be a Christian. It is an odd fact that, though he attended the An- glican Communion service before and after the war, he did not partake of the Communion during the war. What was in his mind we do not know. He was disposed, as he said himself, to let men find “that road to Heaven which to them shall seem the most direct,’ and he was without Puritan fervor, but he had deep religious feeling. During the troubled days at Valley Forge a neighbor came upon him alone in the bush on his knees praying aloud, and stole away unobserved. He would not allow in the army a favorite Puritan custom of burning the Pope in effigy, and the prohibition was not easily enforced among men, thousands of whom bore scriptural names from ancestors who thought the Pope anti-Christ. Washington’s winter quarters at Valley Forge were only twenty miles from Philadelphia, among hills easily defended. It is matter for wonder that Howe, with an army well equipped, did not make some attempt to destroy the army of Washing- ton which passed the winter so near and in acute It a et Agee ye — Pe. Te te ea pt oe eee _ 8 vue - en ne) panel eh nen penn 5 ah pe = ——_ 7 Satan a - S taaaia “4 ar : we 5+ ey ae Fon mer hog th* . " aed tk ile! - — ae pare TAs ee eT Ee eres pet a ania a . ; er in bah ae162 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES distress. The Pennsylvania Loyalists, with dark days soon to come, were bitter at Howe’s inactiv ity, full of tragic meaning for themselves. He said that he could achieve nothing permanent by attack. It may be so; but it is a sound princi- ple in warfare to destroy the enemy when this is possible. There was a time when in Washington’s whole force not more than two thousand men were in a condition to fight. Congress was responsible for the needs of the army but was now, in sordid inefficiency, cooped up in the little town of York, eighty miles west of Valley Forge, to which it had fled. There was as yet no real federal union. The seat of authority was in the State Governments, and we need not wonder that, with the passing of the first burst of devotion which united the colonies in a common cause, Congress declined rapidly in public esteem. ‘‘ What a lot of damned scoundrels we had in that second Congress”’ said, at a later date, Gouverneur Morris of Philadelphia to John Jay of New York, and Jay answered gravely, “ Yes, we had.”’ The body, so despised in the retrospect, had no real executive government, no organized departments. Already before Independence was proclaimed there had been talk of a permanent union, but the members of Congress had shown noAT VALLEY FORGE 163 sense of urgency, and it was not until November 15, 1777, when the British were in Philadelphia and Congress was in exile at York, that Articles of Con- federation were adopted. By the following mid- summer many of the States had ratified these articles, but Maryland, the last to assent, did not accept the new union until 1781, so that Congress continued to act for the States without constitu- tional sanction during the greater part of the war. The ineptitude of Congress is explained when we recall that it was a revolutionary body which in- deed controlled foreign affairs and the issues of war and peace, coined money, and put forth paper money but had no general powers. Each State had but one vote, and thus a small and sparsely settled State counted for as much as populous Mas- sachusetts or Virginia. The Congress must deal with each State only as a unit; it could not coerce a State; and it had no authority to tax or to coerce individuals. The utmost it could do was to appeal to good feeling, and when a State felt that it had a grievance such an appeal was likely to meet with a flaming retort. Washington maintained towards Congress an at- titude of deference and courtesy which it did not always deserve. The ablest men in the individual 4 - rrr) ayei™ 7 — ‘ F 7 eT. bel ot At El bn ee ee oe aiaien PT te ie cia pt ee . - . eer . ere dee Pht pit es aed ee A ae eee ee eee he i” me i en a PT np alee o ee eeTr arte P — ey pe A tye ees Pe ee ee eed een) Pe it ee Rea -idae ketene ede ya wef net cermsey teed ray ca eet Peo eeneiy OE een ip aaa eee osAT VALLEY FORGE 181 the wrapper appeals both to his virtue and to his cupidity. It was easy for him to resist them when the British were winning victories and he was dreaming of a return to the Fatherland with a comfortable accumulation of pay, but it was dif- ferent when reverses overtook British arms. Then many hundreds slipped away; and today their blood flows in the veins of thousands of prosperous American farmers. " | ’ & a { iu t i { a } : A, I J eratan ih et ee ne ee ee ees He eT ed i cao heee eerreat ont Wo eee Tee aan Poet eon nl ro i teteentee el kohon : eT - per oe Ba arb le = 4 “ fo ee Sten iadeiepeeeteet eee tnetete SS ree yor a et eo <1 - . - CHAPTER VIII THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE AND ITS RESULTS WASHINGTON badly needed aid from Europe, but there every important government was monarchi- cal and it was not easy for a young republic, the child of revolution, to secure an ally. France tingled with joy at American victories and sor- rowed at American reverses, but motives were mingled and perhaps hatred of England was stronger than love for liberty in America. The young La Fayette had a pure zeal, but he would not have fought for the liberty of colonists in Mexico as he did for those in Virginia; and the difference was that service in Mexico would not hurt the enemy of France so recently triumphant. He hated England and said so quite openly. The thought of humiliating and destroying that “inso- lent nation” was always to him an inspiration. Vergennes, the French Foreign Minister, though he lacked genius, was a man of boundless zeal and 182THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 183 energy. He was at work at four o’clock in the morning and he spent his long days in toil for his country. He believed that England was the tyrant of the seas, “the monster against whom we should be always prepared,” a greedy, perfidious neighbor, the natural enemy of France. From the first days of the trouble in regard to the Stamp Act Vergennes had rejoiced that Eng- land’s own children were turning against her. He had French military officers in England spying on her defenses. When war broke out he showed no nice regard for the rules of neutrality and helped the colonies in every way possible. It was a French writer who led in these activities. Beau- marchais is known to the world chiefly as the cre- ator of the character of Figaro, which has become the type of the bold, clever, witty, and intriguing rascal, but he played a real part in the American Revolution. We need not inquire too closely into his motives. There was hatred of the English, that “audacious, unbridled, shameless people,” and there was, too, the zeal for liberal ideas which made Queen Marie Antoinette herself take a pretty interest in the “‘dear republicans”’ overseas who were at the same time fighting the national enemy. Beaumarchais secured from the government money il . - ~ Fee r. “ ee - a Es mre. be ba oe De ee ele nee ehaeiniatal kh ee Oe ee oe Tee ne ot fat be ee eek eeeetg rnd een ke pees enae Sede fuera eters tei ee Laine Aa mt meter SS | » se te poe eee el Pale ee Sed A Seg ree eect baited “4 “ be) : aos weesear serve aor at eet ot Tat et Pane tee eet es : ; = i Pe eee ee eee eee Tet 184 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES with which he purchased supplies to be sent to America. He had a great warehouse in Paris, and, under the rather fantastic Spanish name of Rod- erigue Hortalez & Co., he sent vast quantities of munitions and clothing to America. Cannon, not from private firms but from the government arse- nals, were sent across the sea. When Vergennes showed scruples about this violation of neutrality, the answer of Beaumarchais was that governments were not bound by rules of morality applicable to private persons. Vergennes learned well the lesson and, while protesting to the British ambassador in Paris that France was blameless, he permitted outrageous breaches of the laws of neutrality. Secret help was one thing, open alliance another. Early in 1776 Silas Deane, a member from Con- necticut of the Continental Congress, was named as envoy to France to secure French aid. The day was to come when Deane should believe the struggle against Britain hopeless and counsel sub- mission, but now he showed a furious zeal. He knew hardly a word of French, but this did not keep him from making his elaborate programme well understood. Himself a trader, he promised France vast profits from the monopoly of the trade of America when independence should be secure.THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 185 He gave other promises not more easy of fulfill- ment. To Frenchmen zealous for the ideals of liberty and seeking military. careers in America he promised freely commissions as colonels and even generals and was the chief cause of that deluge of European officers which proved to Washington so annoying. It was through Deane’s activities that La Fayette became a volunteer. Through him came too the proposal to send to America the Comte de Broglie who should be greater than col- onel or general — a generalissimo, a dictator. He was to brush aside Washington, to take command of the American armies, and by his prestige and skill to secure France as an ally and win victory in the field. For such services Broglie asked only despotic power while he served and for life a great pension which would, he declared, not be one- hundredth part of his real value. That Deane should have considered a scheme so fantastic reveals the measure of his capacity, and by the end of 1776 Benjamin Franklin was sent to Paris to bring his tried skill to bear upon the problem of the alliance. With Deane and Franklin as a third member of the commission was associated Arthur Lee who had vainly sought aid at the courts of Spain and Prussia. ‘ Leet he ot | a Lae be oh . — 3 ese ee neh eaeeeenial septate t SR a eee sk Ere PF - a es - , abe ~ ot Ppa eS PN — iemerae trae neret a a ee) re el he pe ad eyes eereap neh echt bae eee oT et tees Poe ee ipl mig kalens: = Se ieee eee a eter ee er oo nnn es =v RA ane ey Si- eit Or Blietd ten chet eee ee tee os bak eae ne Reh ing AE eR S94 Ser iay Tew to 186 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES France was, however, coy. The end of 1776 saw the colonial cause at a very low ebb, with Washing- ton driven from New York and about to be driven from Philadelphia. Defeat is not a good argument for an alliance. France was willing to send arms to America and willing to let American privateers use freely her ports. The ship which carried Franklin to France soon busied herself as a privateer and reaped for her crew a great harvest of prize money. In a single week of June, 1777, this ship captured a score of British merchantmen, of which more than two thousand were taken by Americans during the war. France allowed the American privateers to come and go as they liked, and gave England smooth words, but no redress. There is little wonder that England threatened to hang captured American sailors as pirates. It was the capture of Burgoyne at Saratoga which brought decision to France. That was the victory which Vergennes had demanded before he would take open action. One British army had surrendered. Another was in an untenable posi- tion in Philadelphia. It was known that the Brit- ish fleet had declined. With the best of it in America, France was the more likely to win suc- The Bourbon king of France cesses in Europe.THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 187 could, too, draw into the war the Bourbon king of Spain, and Spain had good ships. The defects of France and Spain on the sea were not in ships but in men. The invasion of England was not im- probable and then less than a score of years might give France both avenging justice for her recent humiliation and safety for her future. Britain should lose America, she should lose India, she should pay in a hundred ways for her past tri- umphs, for the arrogance of Pitt, who had declared that he would so reduce France that she should never again rise. The future should belong not to Britain but to France. Thus it was that fervent patriotism argued after the defeat of Burgoyne. Frederick the Great told his ambassador at Paris to urge upon France that she had now a chance to strike England which might never again come. France need not, he said, fear his enmity, for he was as likely to help England as the devil to help a Christian. Whatever doubts Vergennes may have entertained about an open alliance with America were now swept away. The treaty of friendship with America was signed on February 6, 1778. On the 13th of March the French am- bassador in London told the British Government, with studied insolence of tone, that the United an P Lee babe ee be ere be a, rota Se Fee aa ta PL EO el hein nee eel fs ene a 7 7 4 4 Lasmroge gener eg gi RIS gs po TTUS ok MARCA yea dy Dat cyte de est bs ieee en aah ated ot tte tothe at Sah sol oe feted totes barbed? mera oer peepee eters ed ee leet oe es Pe Neier eres Sa ree ay ET a " - 27> wie eh 188 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES States were by their own declaration independent. Only a few weeks earlier the British ministry had said that there was no prospect of any foreign in- tervention to help the Americans and now in the most galling manner France told George III the one thing to which he would not listen, that a great part of his sovereignty was gone. Each country withdrew its ambassador and war quickly followed. France had not tried to make a hard bargain with the Americans. She demanded nothing for herself and agreed not even to ask for the restora- tion of Canada. She required only that America should never restore the King’s sovereignty in order to secure peace. Certain sections of opinion in America were suspicious of France. Was she not the old enemy who had so long harassed the fron- tiers of New England and New York? If George IIf was a despot what of Louis XVI, who had not even an elected Parliament to restrain him? Washington himself was distrustful of France and months after the alliance had been concluded he uttered the warning that hatred of England must not lead to over-confidence in France. ‘‘No na- tion,” he said, “‘is to be trusted farther than it is bound by its interests.” France, he thought, must desire to recover Canada, so recently lost. He didTHE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 189 not wish to see a great military power on the north- ern frontier of the United States. This would be to confirm the jeer of the Loyalists that the alliance was a case of the wooden horse in Troy; the old enemy would come back in the guise of a friend and would then prove to be master and bring the colonies under a servitude compared with which the British supremacy would seem indeed mild. The intervention of France brought a cruel embarrassment to the Whig patriot in England. He could rejoice and mourn with American pa- triots because he believed that their cause was his own. It was as much the interest of Norfolk as of Massachusetts that the new despotism of a king, who ruled through a corrupt Parliament, should be destroyed. It was, however, another matter when France took a share in the fight. France fought less for freedom than for revenge, and the Englishman who, like Coke of Norfolk, could daily toast Washington as the greatest of men could not link that name with Louis XVI or with his minister Vergennes. The currents of the past are too swift and intricate to be measured exactly by the ob- server who stands on the shore of the present, but it is arguable that the Whigs might soon have brought about peace in England had it not been for -" a as rarer 2 a Pe ree ale et wis iededoen pivnene wovecs ae ten 4 ts 19 HOES eer en hoe Rr ba el ret bs ped be am i} ymqet-4 ~ . ie es ee a ee ae oat et el eh le199 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES the intervention of France. No serious person any longer thought that taxation could be enforced, upon America or that the colonies should be any-' thing but free in regulating their own affairs. George III himself said that he who declared the taxing of America to be worth what it cost was ‘ ‘more fit for Bedlam than a seat in the Sen- 33 ate.’ The one concession Britain was not yet prepared to make was Independence. But Burke and many other Whigs were ready now for this, though Chatham still believed it would be the ruin of the British Empire. Chatham, however, was all for conciliation, and it is not hard to imagine a group of wise men chosen from both sides, men British in blood and outlook, sitting round a table and reaching an agreement to result in a real independence for America and a real unity with Great Britain. A century and a quarter later a bitter war with an alien race in South Africa was followed by a result even more astounding. The surrender of Burgoyne had made the Prime Minister, Lord North, weary of his position. He had never been in sympathy with the King’s policy and since the bad news had come in December he had pondered some radical step which should end the war. On February 17, 1778, before the treatyTHE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 191 of friendship between the United States and France had been made public, North startled the House of Commons by introducing a bill repealing the tax on tea, renouncing forever the right to tax America, and nullifying those changes in the constitution of Massachusetts which had so rankled in the minds of its people. A commission with full powers to negotiate peace would proceed at once to America and it might suspend at its discretion, and thus really repeal, any act touching America passed since 1763. North had taken a sharp turn. The Whig clothes had been stolen by a Tory Prime Minister and if he wished to stay in office the Whigs had not the votes to turn him out. His supporters would accept almost anything in order to dish the Whigs. They swallowed now the bill, and it became law, but at the same time came, too, the war with France. It united the Tories; it divided the Whigs. All England was deeply stirred. Nearly every important town offered to raise volunteer forces at its own expense. The Government soon had fifteen thousand men recruited at private cost. Help was offered so freely that the Whig, John Wilkes, actu- ally introduced into Parliament a bill to prohibit gifts of money to the Crown since this voluntary Nat ate aad TT bed ak ot bk bt on bee 7 eS oe oe he ae : Spel ba ms |e pee pena a a i tid as o— ae et eee ie bee ee aha eee ery te Sl A seer192 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES taxation gave the Crown money without the con- sent of Parliament. The British patriot, gentle as he might be towards America, fumed agains! France. This was no longer only a domestic struggle between parties, but a war with an age~ long foreign enemy. The populace resented what they called the insolence and the treachery of France and the French ambassador was pelted at Canterbury as he drove to the seacoast on his recall. Ina large sense the French alliance was not an unmixed blessing for America, since it confused the counsels of her best friends in England. In spite of this it is probably true that from this time the mass of the English people were against further attempts to coerce America. A change of ministry was urgently demanded. ‘There was one leader to whom the nation looked in this grave crisis. The genius of William Pitt, Earl of Chat- ham, had won the last war against France and he had promoted the repeal of the Stamp Act. In America his name was held in reverence so higk that New York and Charleston had erected statues in his honor. When the defeat of Burgoyne so shook the ministry that North was anxious te retire, Chatham, but for two obstacles, could prob: ably have formed a ministry. One obstacle wasTHE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 193 his age; as the event proved, he was near his end. It was, however, not this which kept him from office, but the resolve of George III. The King simply said that he would not have Chatham. In office Chatham would certainly rule and the King intended himself to rule. If Chatham would come in a subordinate position, well; but Chatham should not lead. The King declared that as long as even ten men stood by him he would hold out and he would lose his crown rather than call to office that clamorous Opposition which had at- tacked his American policy. “I will never con- sent,” he said firmly, “to removing the members of the present Cabinet from my service.” He asked North: “Are you resolved at the hour of danger to desert me?” North remained in office. Chatham soon died and, during four years still, George III was master of England. Throughout the long history of that nation there is no crisis in which one man took a heavier and more disastrous responsibility. News came to Valley Forge of the alliance with France and there were great rejoicings. We are told that, to celebrate the occasion, Washington dined in public. We are not given the bill of fare 13 ree Tre ee aigrenrg Qe a he paint pat = ee ste PETA TEASED LRAT LS hee gc petcerpena te memeqear teers eaten sigs ates o es akenenee en a a a Fe ee ee april > roe rer a eae wenee ato rnp artes hal ata mS PT a eerie194 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES in that scene of famine; but by the springtime tension in regard to supplies had been relieved an) we may hope that Valley Forge really feasted In} honor of the great event. The same news brought gloom to the British in Philadelphia, for it had the: stern meaning that the effort and loss involved in) the capture of that city were in vain. Washington held most of the surrounding country so that sup-' plies must come chiefly by sea. With a French fleet and a French army on the way to America, the British realized that they must concentrate’ their defenses. Thus the cheers at Valley Forge) were really the sign that the British must go. Sir William Howe, having taken Philadelphia, was determined not to be the one who should giveitup. Feeling was bitter in England over the ghastly failure of Burgoyne, and he had gone home) on parole to defend himself from his seat in the House of Commons. There Howe had a seat and he, too, had need to be on hand. Lord George Germain had censured him for his course and, te shield himself, was clearly resolved to make scape- goats of others. So, on May 18, 1778, at Philadel- phia there was a farewell to Howe, which took the form of a Mischianza, something approaching the medieval tournament. Knights broke lances mTHE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 195 honor of fair ladies, there were arches and flowers and fancy costumes, and high-flown Latin and French, all in praise of the departing Howe. Ob- viously the garrison of Philadelphia had much time on its hands and could count upon, at least, some cheers from a friendly population. {It is remem- bered still, with moralizings on the turns in human fortune, that Major André and Miss Margaret Shippen were the leaders in that gay scene, the one, in the days to come, to be hanged by Washington as 4 Spy, because entrapped in the treason of Bene- dict Arnold, who became the husband of the other?) On May 24, 1778, Sir Henry Clinton took over irom Howe the command of the British army in America and confronted a difficult problem. If d'Estaing, the French admiral, should sail straight for the Delaware he might destroy the fleet of little more than half his strength which lay there, and might quickly starve Philadelphia into surrender. The British must unite their forces to meet the peril from France, and New York, as an island, was the best point for a defense, chiefly naval. A move to New York was therefore urgent. It was by sea that the British had come to Philadelphia, but it was not easy to go away by sea. There was not room in the transports for the army and its - pane a) “ Peet tale re LR Re ae . r "1 ere et ed arses om ae eens ee: : _— ie eashwansteot™: ee eee er el i po Hee wrens a eee err oa eer 6 fa Se reed ‘“ a Se te ledoe ot rhe pee DT ee es te eee oe et) ot ie at ee ee er 2 eee er oe ewene eee. - = = " ee eee Pe ee a | pet wi ~ ees - i" = Sheheintstekteneiedh oteedihaelded rete deleer eaeeicteaerseneeeeabees saree aa Sa oa me he Sy Sat” in . a ag et ey 99 erat Drs Se Re Ps Ss dS haga ae 196 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES encumbrances. Moreover, to embark the whole force, a march of forty miles to New Castle, on thi lower Delaware, would be necessary and the re. treating army was sure to be harassed on its way by Washington. It would besides hardly be safe’ to take the army by sea for the French fleet might be strong enough to capture the flotilla. There was nothing for it but, at whatever risk. to abandon Philadelphia and march the army: across New Jersey. It would be possible to take by’ sea the stores and the three thousand Loyalists from Philadelphia, some of whom would probably) be hanged if they should be taken. Lord Howe; the naval commander, did his part in a masterly manner. On the 18th of June the British army: marched out of Philadelphia and before the day was over it was across the Delaware on the New Jersey side. That same day Washington’s army, free from its long exile at Valley Forge, occupied the capital. Clinton set out on his long march by land and Howe worked his laden ships down the difficult river to its mouth and, after delay by winds, put to sea on the 28th of June. By a stroke of good fortune he sailed the two hundred miles te New York in two days and missed the great fleet of d’Estaing, carrying an army of four thousandTHE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 197 men. On the 8th of July d’Estaing anchored at the mouth of the Delaware. Had not his passage been unusually delayed and Howe’s unusually quick, as Washington noted, the British fleet and the transports in the Delaware would probably have been taken and Clinton and his army would have shared the fate of Burgoyne. As it was, though Howe’s fleet was clear away, Clinton’s army had a bad time in the march across New Jersey. Its baggage train was no less than twelve miles long and, winding along roads leading sometimes through forests, was peculiarly vulner- able to flank attack. In this type of warfare Wash- ington excelled. He had fought over this country and he knew it well. The tragedy of Valley Forge was past. His army was now well trained and well supplied. He had about the same number of men as the British — perhaps sixteen thousand — and he was not encumbered by a long baggage train. Thus it happened that Washington was across the Delaware almost as soon as the British. He marched parallel with them on a line some five miles to the north and was able to forge towards the head of their column. He could attack their flank almost when he liked. Clinton marched with great difficulty. He found bridges down. Not zi ps + "bet ae ba bee om bade ee: ty eee RT bet keabe betes Leal fre Pe ee So ert rte te Teen iat eeteeiah ile mts” eed Ltt aoee ee ee - et el ee Sree - rede eye 2 Tate daant s 198 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES only was Washington behind him and on his flank but General Gates was in front marching from the north to attack him when he should try to cross the Raritan River. The long British column turned southeastward toward Sandy Hook, so as to lessen the menace from Gates. Between the half of the army in the van and the other half in the rear was the baggage train. The crisis came on Sunday the 28th of June, a day of sweltering heat. By this time General Charles Lee, Washington’s second in command, was in a good position to attack the British rear guard from the north, while Washington, marching three miles behind Lee, was to come up in the hope of overwhelming it from the rear. Clinton’s posi- tion was difficult but he was saved by Lee’s in- eptitude. He had positive instructions to attack with his five thousand men and hold the British engaged until Washington should come up In over- whelming force. The young La Fayette was with Lee. He knew what Washington had ordered, but Lee said to him: “‘You don’t know the British soldiers; we cannot stand against them.” Lee’s conduct looks like deliberate treachery. Instead of attacking the British he allowed them to attack him. La Fayette managed to send a message toTHE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 199 Washington in the rear; Washington dashed to the front and, as he came up, met soldiers flying from before the British. He rode straight to Lee, called him in flaming anger a “damned poltroon,”’ and himself at once took command. There was a sharp fight near Monmouth Court House. The British were driven back and only the coming of night ended the struggle. Washington was preparing to renew it in the morning, but Clinton had marched away in the darkness. He reached the coast on the 30th of June, having lost on the way fifty-nine men from sunstroke, over three hundred in battle, and a great many more by desertion. The desert- ers were chiefly Germans, enticed by skillful offers of land. Washington called for a reckoning from Lee. He was placed under arrest, tried by court- martial, found guilty, and suspended from rank for twelve months. Ultimately he was dismissed from the American army, less it appears for his conduct at Monmouth than for his impudent demeanor toward Congress afterwards. These events on land were quickly followed by stirring events on the sea. The delays of the British Admiralty of this time seem almost in- credible. Two hundred ships waited at Spithead for three months for convoy to the West Indies, - o Ce ee ee a . . withwenet see - u aoe eh a ee -_— oe! a en eI tT enema Pere eee200 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES while all the time the people of the West Indies, cut off from their usual sources of supply in America, were in distress for food. Seven weeks passed after d’Estaing had sailed for America before the Admiralty knew that he was really gone and sent Admiral Byron, with fourteen ships, to the aid of Lord Howe. When d’Estaing was al- ready before New York Byron was still battling with storms in mid-Atlantic, storms so severe that his fleet was entirely dispersed and his flagship was alone when it reached Long Island on the 18th of August. Meanwhile the French had a great chance. On the 11th of July their fleet, much stronger than the British, arrived from the Delaware, and anchored off Sandy Hook. Admiral Howe knew his danger. He asked for volunteers from the merchant ships and the sailors offered themselves almost to a man. If d’Estaing could beat Howe’s inferior fleet, the transports at New York would be at his mercy and the British army, with no other source of supply, must surrender. Washington was near, ‘to give help on land. The end of the war seemed not far away. Butitdid not come. The French admirals were often taken from an army command, and d’Estaing was not a sailor but a soldier. He fearedTHE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 201 the skill of Howe, a really great sailor, whose seven available ships were drawn up in line at Sandy Hook so that their guns bore on ships coming in across the bar. D’Estaing hovered outside. Pilots from New York told him that at high tide there were only twenty-two feet of water on the bar and this was not enough for his great ships, one of which carried ninety-one guns. On the 22d of July there was the highest of tides with, in reality, thirty feet of water on the bar, and a wind from the northeast which would have brought d’Estaing’s ships easily through the channel into the harbor. The British expected the hottest naval fight in their history. At three in the afternoon d’Estaing moved but it was to sail away out of sight. Opportunity, though once spurned, seemed yet to knock again. The one other point held by the British was Newport, Rhode Island. Here General Pigot had five thousand men and only perilous communications by sea with New York. Washington, keenly desirous to capture this army, sent General Greene to aid General Sullivan in command at Providence, and d’Estaing arrived off Newport to give aid. Greene had fifteen hun- dred fine soldiers, Sullivan had nine thousand New England militia, and d’Estaing four thousand a : a. rebel ri bn pat - ort ee phat pbb teint Le eta oa shit sbi ei Se ee ere re ieih eenee mae Ph tabet LAG La en ete asa areee202 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES French regulars. A force of fourteen thousand five hundred men threatened five thousand British. But on the 9th of August Howe suddenly appeared near Newport with his smaller fleet. D’Estaing put to sea to fight him, and a great naval battle was imminent, when a terrific storm blew up and separated and almost shattered both fleets. D’Es- taing then, in spite of American protests, insisted on taking the French ships to Boston to refit and with them the French soldiers. Sullivan publicly denounced the French admiral as having basely deserted him and his own disgusted yeomanry left in hundreds for their farms to gather in the harvest. In September, with d’Estaing safely away, Clin- ton sailed into Newport with five thousand men. Washington’s campaign against Rhode Island had failed completely. The summer of 1778 thus turned out badly for Washington. Help from France which had aroused such joyous hopes in America had achieved little and the allies were hurling reproaches at each other. French and American soldiers had riotous fights in Boston and a French officer was killed. The British, meanwhile, were landing at small ports on the coast, which had been the haunts of privateers, and were not only burning shippingTHE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 203 and stores but were devastating the country with Loyalist regiments recruited in America. The French told the Americans that they were expect- ing too much from the alliance, and the cautious Washington expressed fear that help from outside would relax effort at home. Both were right. By the autumn the British had been reinforced and the French fleet had gone to the West Indies. Truly the mountain in labor of the French alliance seemed to have brought forth only a ridiculous mouse. None the less was it to prove, in the end, the decisive factor in the struggle. The alliance with France altered the whole character of the war, which ceased now to be merely a war in North America. France soon gained an ally in Europe. Bourbon Spain had no thought of helping the colonies in rebellion against their king, and she viewed their ambitions to ex- tend westward with jealous concern, since she desired for herself both sides of the Mississippi. Spain, however, had a grievance against Britain, for Britain would not yield Gibraltar, that rocky fragment of Spain commanding the entrance to the Mediterranean which Britain had wrested from her as she had wrested also Minorca and Florida. Gf a ages oti pa Pe Pe et tae ona a at hh, EE RE o ed aad Sed + 4 al atin ° Lees te ee ean rete em en enet baad = i * wwe mompwrawes MATIN Soe ee eewt ae ewe t net eee TT ‘ . 7 Tee ee ae ere ee Pend ata eepene) a ee nS ae re) . x ee eae a a peta newts 259 Septet Rls pt ORR Clyde tweet tesim ee ee eee Sala LD gS et tren e rege ene ee sone me sewn eeseen: y en me AY NY ay Ne 204 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES So, in April, 1779, Spain joined France in war on Great Britain. France agreed not only to furnish an army for the invasion of England but never to make peace until Britain had handed back Gibral- tar. The allies planned to seize and hold the Isle of Wight. England has often been threatened and yet has been so long free from the tramp of hostile armies that we are tempted to dismiss lightly such dangers. But in the summer of 1779 the dan- ger was real. Of warships carrying fifty guns or more France and Spain together had one hundred and twenty-one, while Britain had seventy. The British Channel fleet for the defense of home coasts numbered forty ships of the line while France and Spain together had sixty-six. Nor had Britain re- sources in any other quarter upon which she could readily draw. In the West Indies she had twenty- one ships of the line while France had twenty-five. The British could not find comfort in any supposed superiority in the structure of their ships. Then and later, as Nelson admitted when he was fighting Spain, the Spanish ships were better built than the British. Lurking in the background to haunt British thought was the growing American navy. John Paul was a Scots sailor, who had been a slave traderTHE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 205 and subsequently master of a West India mer- chantman, and on going to America had assumed the name of Jones. He was a man of boundless ambition, vanity, and vigor, and when he com- manded American privateers he became a terror to the maritime people from whom he sprang. In the summer of 1779 when Jones, with a squadron of four ships, was haunting the British coasts, every harbor was nervous. At Plymouth a boom blocked the entrance, but other places had not even this defense. Sir Walter Scott has described how, on September 17, 1779, a squadron, under John Paul Jones, came within gunshot of Leith, the port of Edinburgh. The whole surrounding country was alarmed, since for two days the squad- ron had been in sight beating up the Firth of Forth. A sudden squall, which drove Jones back, probably saved Edinburgh from being plundered. A few days later Jones was burning ships in the Humber and, on the 23d of September, he met off Flam- borough Head and, after a desperate fight, cap- tured two British armed ships: the Serapis, a 40- gun vessel newly commissioned, and the Countess of Scarborough, carrying 20 guns, both of which were convoying a fleet. The fame of his exploit rang through Europe. Jones was a regularly 7 ma a a z + n * . re ogy act aera pe aT ea htt ie set sai ae! ee aha ~ shears aN ros oatecene= rd eas = ey tee ee . "4 aad ne yer. he eae pn re eo eenementeienn re entail at seen teers eh enon aen tri — A ra a Dw nk a yt te rh gl Take den dpe enn awe shes tale eieteetalaniet heen det-oreieheeh dreary iaurtliragiereaceeaeiees vo a inte i Sh BP a et ee ee ard a Fr Se ha eet poy meme ter cae’ 206 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRAD<¢S commissioned officer in thenavy of the United States, but neutral powers, such as Holland, had not ye® recognized the republic and to them there was no American navy. The British regarded him as a traitor and pirate and might possibly have hanged him had he fallen into their hands. Terrible days indeed were these for distracted England. In India, France, baulked twenty years earlier, was working for her entire overthrow, and in North Africa, Spain was using the Moors to the same end. As time passed the storm grew more violent. Before the year 1780 ended Holland had joined England’s enemies. Moreover, the northern states of Europe, angry at British interference on the sea with their trade, and especially at her seizure of ships trying to enter blockaded ports, took strong measures. On March 8, 1780, Russia issued a proclamation declaring that neutral ship: must be allowed to come and go on the sea as they liked. They might be searched by a nation at war for arms and ammunition but for nothing else It would moreover be illegal to declare a blockade of a port and punish neutrals for violating it, unless their ships were actually caught in an attempt te enter the port. Denmark and Sweden joined Russie in what was known as the Armed Neutrality andTHE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE — 207 promised that they would retaliate upon any nation which did not respect the conditions laid down. In domestic affairs Great Britain was divided. The Whigs and Tories were carrying on a warfare shameless beyond even the bitter partisan strife of later days. In Parliament the Whigs cheered at military defeats which might serve to discredit the Tory Government. The navy was torn by faction. When, in 1778, the Whig Admiral Keppel fought an indecisive naval battle off Ushant and was after- wards accused by one of his officers, Sir Hugh Palliser, of not pressing the enemy hard enough, party passion was invoked. The Whigs were for Keppel, the Tories for Palliser, and the London mob was Whig. When Keppel was acquitted there were riotous demonstrations; the house of Palliser was wrecked, and he himself barely escaped with his life. Whig naval officers declared that they had no chance of fair treatment at the hands of a Tory Admiralty, and Lord Howe, among others, now refused to serve. For a time British suprem- acy on the sea disappeared and it was only re- gained in April, 1782, when the Tory Admiral Rodney won a great victory in the West Indies against the French. A spirit of violence was abroad in England. The hag Th ree he Oh he ord be a ee - or na ee Pe ee ed ES en eee eed eee hae al ppp An ah LE — oo —" fart ehwhne™w ee eres he Po RTE PTOI Tn ae sys sot be i Oe ry er el elaSee ee ee it a Sleiat ee ates & od ited ae Pe = o — — ee - ——= = a na WNT a hat byt nhl ang2 Steck Reseed be taal cghgaeeis ahedenl Kt ssdiylosesn cud ~ 208 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES disabilities of the Roman Catholics were a gross scandal. They might not vote or hold public office. Yet when, in 1780, Parliament passed a bill re- moving some of their burdens dreadful riots broke out in London. A fanatic, Lord George Gordon, led a mob to Westminster and, as Dr. Johnson ex- cc? pressed it, ““insulted’’ both Houses of Parliament. The cowed ministry did nothing to check the dis- turbance. The mob burned Newgate jail, released the prisoners from this and other prisons, and made a deliberate attempt to destroy London by fire. Order was restored under the personal direction of the King, who, with all his faults, was no coward.! At the same time the Irish Parliament, under Protestant lead, was making a Declaration of In- dependence which, in 1782, England was obliged t¢ admit by formal act of Parliament. For the time being, though the two monarchies had the same king, Ireland, in name at least, was free of England. Washington’s enemy thus had embarrassments enough. Yet these very years, 1779 and 1780, were the years in which he came nearest to despair. The strain of a great movement is not in the early days of enthusiasm, but in the slow years when idealism is tempered by the strife of opinion and4 ee aed i * arte’ banker ear “nit aig® Fs SE SS Se tne eel hl eben alah eed PT ed ee JOHN PAUL JONES Marble bust by Jean Antoine Houdon. In the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. w marenseste- dae ee Par ee age bales ns 7 os ee ae Pe sees ann 332 2 Gg j Li be er 7 a — s ee al “\ , £0 ee niin eats a os ee) 4 fo vets ial eee Sane tere Te eres Pe ae eT eal eusecrtatl A HS Janko het De ee ee ~e 1 pe iea esr neree er ee eed Se hee A ee one ne ah pee ne et ve ee te eee tt ets et ee oe ee i=me® ” eth Rt, era or ee \ r ) { H | fi » Ran ord eee AP Oe oe 4 ee eee Ser at pot seg hee ot ee ase os Bone weds tenth 8 eee ae SS chen Ube ee ee Ee oe ma eye ae 4 aGerprt-n- in ar Rn Siac nt fs bkiet nog Se nee tee tele A wher Poe DT bet he ete eee oe ee a 28 eee eee OF _ — ‘ H ‘a RY a i - t J < 4 + ne a a a elie bal bail ae =" ere Tne ee ores Pere Ct ee Lleee a ard ¥ ee eead a : Larne! woghed pegs <3 ee ted tone? . ie f ; : if fy ' } i Medi den habdeeeernne eee a seven ans 7 “ ~ ae ck a — ex Salaigts ey ee ee eeeTHE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 209 self-interest which brings delay and disillusion. As the war went on recruiting became steadily more difficult. The alliance with France actually worked to discourage it since it was felt that the cause was safe in the hands of this powerful ally. Whatever Great Britain’s difficulties about finance they were light compared with Washington’s. In time the “‘continental dollar’? was worth only two cents. Yet soldiers long had to take this money at its face value for their pay, with the result that the pay for three months would scarcely buy a pair of boots. There is little wonder that more than once Washington had to face formidable mu- tiny among his troops. The only ones on whom he could rely were the regulars enlisted by Congress and carefully trained. The worth of the militia, he said, “depends entirely on the prospects of the day; if favorable, they throng to you; if not, they will not move.” They played a chief part in the prosperous campaign of 1777, when Burgoyne was beaten. In the next year, before Newport, they wholly failed General Sullivan and deserted shamelessly to their homes. By 1779 the fighting had shifted to the South. Washington personally remained in the North to guard the Hudson and to watch the British in 14 eT eh in pe ba bebe be eI ee Pe yr SE hearers mee ee a a A ea ® epekewee «: Sat Senta te nan Dk ee eek el el aoe nd cae st - re epee ION mel nie terete ee SC my pan oa ~ i ee ww210 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES New York. He sent La Fayette to France in Janu- ary, 1779, there to urge not merely naval but mili-. tary aid on a great scale. La Fayette came back after an absence of a little over a year and in the end France promised eight thousand men who should be under Washington’s control as completely as if they were American soldiers. The older nation accepted the principle that the officers in the younger nation which she was helping should rank in their grade before her own. It was a magna: nimity reciprocated nearly a century and a hali later when a great American army in Europe was placed under the supreme command of a Marsha: of France.CHAPTER IX THE WAR IN THE SOUTH AFTER 1778 there was no more decisive fighting in the North. The British plan was to hold New York and keep there a threatening force, but to make the South henceforth the central arena of the war. Accordingly, in 1779, they evacuated Rhode Island and left the magnificent harbor of N ewport to be the chief base for the French fleet and army in America. They also drew in their posts on the Hudson and left Washington free to strengthen West Point and other defenses by which he was blocking the river. Meanwhile they were striking Staggering blows in the South. On December 29, 1778, a British force landed two miles below Savannah, in Georgia, lying near the mouth of the important Savannah River, and by nightfall, after some sharp fighting, took the place with its stores and shipping. Augusta, the capital of Georgia, lay about a hundred and twenty-five miles up the 211 al teeta tae ea re ete a teed aid ra pepe Oram e “ Pn ee ied pee ee ee alee Papa Se neS + \- . ih, lthadlii tind RAF DA De bes Fe bbe be oo wenn pa egagetiaeogen - : “y7t* ee ae re ee al ae » - |e i 7 manne e4-ew rn PLOT One cel a bee Seb Uren per eenter erat er - A aye ade ~ o ae mate retacseanwssuhe er 4 Sr tr el eatseky212 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES river. By the end of February, 1779, the British not only held Augusta but had established so strong a line of posts in the interior that Georgia seemed to be entirely under their control. Then followed a singular chain of events. Ever since hostilities had begun, in 1775, the revolution- ary party had been dominant in the South, Yet now again in 1779 the British flag floated over the capital of Georgia. Some rejoiced and some mourned. Men do not change lightly their politi- cal allegiance. Probably Boston was the most com- pletely revolutionary of American towns. Yet even in Boston there had been a sad procession of exiles who would not turn against the King. TheSouth had been more evenly divided. Now the Loyalists took heart and began to assert themselves. When the British seemed secure in Georgia bands of Loyalists marched into the British camp in furious joy that now their day was come, and gave no gentle advice as to the crushing of re- bellion. Many a patriot farmhouse was now de- stroyed and the hapless owner either killed or driven to the mountains to live as best he could by hunt- ing. Sometimes even the children were shot down. It so happened that a company of militia captured a large band of Loyalists marching to Augusta toTHE WAR IN THE SOUTH 213 support the British cause. Here was the occasion for the republican patriots to assert their prin- ciples. To them these Loyalists were guilty of treason. Accordingly seventy of the prisoners were tried before a civil court and five of them were hanged. For this hanging of prisoners the Loyalists, of course, retaliated in kind. Both the British and American regular officers tried to re- strain these fierce passions but the spirit of the war in the South was ruthless. To this day many a tale of horror is repeated and, since Loyalist Opinion was finally destroyed, no one survived to apportion blame to their enemies. It is probable that each side matched the other in barbarity. The British hoped to sweep rapidly through the South, to master it up to the borders of Virginia, and then to conquer that breeding ground of revo- lution. In the spring of 1779 General Prevost marched from Georgia into South Carolina. On the 12th of May he was before Charleston de- manding surrender. We are astonished now to read that, in response to Prevost’s demand, a pro- posal was made that South Carolina should be allowed to remain neutral and that at the end of the war it should join the victorious side. This certainly indicates a large body of opinion which ~ 1 i ni Peo Oe Af SSAA Pree oe pyle al eg tags ee ° a ee ee eee : Se dane semapanewahseenrscieernraeneint Ae a, AEA SS Ay SER ee, eee Eee en eT oy > aie nah eA ro . ee Toe ed eer | etal 4s Bb Oe. ed DIE HO Bs gee kr eter ee ee a ee rane oe meqauwzpeqere: sqee tae ssas tubdehgenteaeieh eeendaeeteeetea td ee Fre a as toe mR a te a pe Peet Tet toe) Pat Ot ee et PE eet Oe eed ae PEE Dt Sibi wh nthe ett tee teeta eee a ea eC nr wgay Saeint arsed Temes» 214 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES was not irreconcilable with Great Britain and seems to justify the hope of the British that the beginnings of military success might rally the mass of the people to their side. For the moment, how- ever, Charleston did not surrender. The resist- ance was so stiff that Prevost had to raise the siege and go back to Savannah. Suddenly, early in September, 1779, the French fleet under d’Estaing appeared before Savannah. It had come from the West Indies, partly to avoid the dreaded hurricane season of the autumn in those waters. The British, practically without any naval defense, were confronted at once by twenty- two French ships of the line, eleven frigates, and many transports carrying an army. ‘The great flotilla easily got rid of the few British ships lying at Savannah. An American army, under General Lincoln, marched to join d’Estaing. The French landed some three thousand men, and the com- bined army numbered about six thousand. A siege began which, it seemed, could end in only one way. Prevost, however, with three thousand seven hun- dred men, nearly half of them sick, was defiant, and on the 9th of October the combined French and American armies made a great assault. They met with disaster. D’Estaing was severely wounded.THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 215 With losses of some nine hundred killed and wounded in the bitter fighting the assailants drew off and soon raised the siege. The British losses were only fifty-four. In the previous year French and Americans fighting together had utterly failed. Now they had failed again and there was bitter recrimination between the defeated allies. D’Es- taing sailed away and soon lost some of his ships in a violent storm. IIl-fortune pursued him to the end. He served no more in the war and in the Reign of Terror in Paris, in 1794, he perished on the scaffold. At Charleston the American General Lincoln was in command with about six thousand men. The place, named after King Charles II, had been a center of British influence before the war. That critical traveler, Lord Adam Gordon, thought its people clever in business, courteous, and hospit- able. Most of them, he says, made a visit to Eng- land at some time during life and it was the fashion to send there the children to be educated. Ob- viously Charleston was fitted to be a British rally- ing center in the South; yet it had remained in American hands since the opening of the war. In 1776 Sir Henry Clinton, the British Commander, had woefully failed in his assault on Charleston. ar re be rt ee -“ en ed ree ett it bene Er ree an te bet = abe bo den Lobe iy te we it ere Ne el brine el | eee eee ae ome ehh ng = ot hme BE pa aS ee . pe Aparna Oe enerpag ae eee ot et een eed eee ee ee " , “ Se ere Te ty ee ane ee Pe eee 7 . ae ear eee PEO a ew ey ne teen ee Ee >> abit coe etbe repeat ene EN Bn oah Se —_ a St Aisired Se hareeheteeten cena testtentmetee) . OF a 3h ett he et 5 216 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES Now in December, 1779, he sailed from New York to make a renewed effort. With him were three of his best officers — Cornwallis, Simcoe, and Tarle- ton, the last two skillful leaders of irregulars, re- cruited in America and used chiefly for raids. The wintry voyage was rough; one of the vessels laden with cannon foundered and sank, and all the horses died. But Clinton reached Charleston and was able to surround it on the landward side with an army at least ten thousand strong. Tarleton’s irregulars rode through the country. It is on record that he marched sixty-four miles in twenty- three hours and a hundred and five miles in fifty- four hours. Such mobility was irresistible. On the 12th of April, after a ride of thirty miles, Tarle- ton surprised, in the night, three regiments of American cavalry regulars at a place called Big- gin’s Bridge, routed them completely and, accord- ing to his own account, with the loss of three men wounded, carried off a hundred prisoners, four hundred horses, and also stores and ammunition. There is no doubt that Tarleton’s dragoons be- haved with great brutality and it would perhaps have taught a needed lesson if, as was indeed threatened by a British officer, Major Ferguson, a few of them had been shot on the spot for theseTHE WAR IN THE SOUTH 217 outrages. Tarleton’s dashing attacks isolated Charleston and there was nothing for Lincoln to do but to surrender. This he did on the 12th of May. Burgoyne seemed to have been avenged. The most important city in the South had fallen. “We look on America as at our feet,’ wrote Horace Walpole. The British advanced boldly into the interior. On the 29th of May Tarleton attacked an American force under Colonel Buford, killed over a hundred men, carried off two hundred pris- oners, and had only twenty-one casualties. It is such scenes that reveal the true character of the war in the South. Above all it was a war of hard riding, often in the night, of sudden attack, and terrible bloodshed. After the fall of Charleston only a few American irregulars were to be found in South Carolina. It and Georgia seemed safe in British control. With British successes came the problem of governing the South. On the royalist theory, the recovered land had been in a state of rebellion and was now restored to its true allegiance. Every one who had taken up arms against the King was guilty of treason with death as the penalty. Clinton had no intention of applying this hard theory, but he was returning to New York and he had to establish a 7 Lee bd a ‘ SaGeewt ate te Sheers eewsrary thes ne ee hee eed ~ i i Teeny Beas rae eneqerereteountparsttsieianei rey . err gen A - pe et a ee ae Pap ee er eee DE ehhh eet eek et218 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES government on some legal basis. During the first years of the war, Loyalists who would not accept the new order had been punished with great severity. Their day had now come. Clinton said that ‘every good man” must be ready to join in arms the King’s troops in order “to reéstablish peace and good government.” ‘‘ Wicked and des- perate men” who still opposed the King should be punished with rigor and have their property con- fiseated. He offered pardon for past offenses, except to those who had taken part in killing Loyalists ‘“‘under the mock forms of justice.” No one was henceforth to be exempted from the active duty of supporting the King’s authority. Clinton’s proclamation was very disturbing to the large element in South Carolina which did not desire to fight on either side. Every one must now be for or against the King, and many were in their secret hearts resolved to be against him. There followed an orgy of bloodshed which discredits human nature. The patriots fled to the mountains rather than yield and, in their turn, waylaid and murdered straggling Loyalists. Under pressure some republicans would give outward compliance to royal government, but they could not be coerced into a real loyalty. It required only a reverse toTHE WAR IN THE SOUTH 219 the King’s forces to make them again actively hostile. To meet the difficult situation Congress now made a disastrous blunder. On June 13, 1780, General Gates, the belauded victor at Saratoga, was given the command in the South. Camden, on the Wateree River, lies inland from Charleston about a hundred and twenty-five miles as the crow flies. The British had occupied it soon after the fall of Charleston, and it was now held by a small force under Lord Rawdon, one of the ablest of the British commanders. Gates had superior numbers and could probably have taken Camden by a rapid movement; but the man had no real stomach for fighting. He delayed until, on the 14th of August, Cornwallis arrived at Camden with reinforcements and with the fixed resolve to attack Gates before Gates attacked him. On the early morning of the 16th of August, Cornwallis with two thousand men marching northward between swamps on both flanks, met Gates with three thousand marching southward, each of them in- tending to surprise the other. A fierce struggle followed. Gates was completely routed with a thousand casualties, a thousand prisoners, and the loss of nearly the whole of his guns and transport. The fleeing army was pursued for twenty miles by ~ - ee he nae ri . Th ht ~ I er res . ~ epee Gas re Sats pajdiedien eapdyand-enceteagheteandienanbumairsadnd eaibeetenid ae et pal a PU oy Do ber a] er ee eh baie | epee ee ee et a Li Ld B a) Ma Sepa ge eae eee nee neon en ner220 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES the relentless Tarleton. General Kalb, who had done much to organize the American army, was killed. The enemies of Gates jeered at his riding away with the fugitives and hardly drawing rein until after four days he was at Hillsborough, two hundred miles away. His defense was that he ‘proceeded with all possible despatch,’ which he certainly did, to the nearest point where he could reorganize his forces. His career was, however, ended. He was deprived of his command, and Washington appointed to succeed him General Nathanael Greene. In spite of the headlong flight of Gates the dis- aster at Camden had only a transient effect. The war developed a number of irregular leaders on the American side who were never beaten beyond re- covery, no matter what might be the reverses of the day. The two most famous are Francis Marion and Thomas Sumter. Marion, descended from a family of Huguenot exiles, was slight in frame and courteous in manner; Sumter, tall, powerful, and rough, was the vigorous frontiersman in type. Threatened men live long: Sumter died in 1832, at the age of ninety-six, the last surviving general of the Revolution. Both men had had prolonged experience in frontier fighting against the Indians.THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 221 9 Tarleton called Marion the “old swamp fox’ because he often escaped through using by-paths across the great swamps of the country. British communications were always in danger. A small British force might find itself in the midst of a host which had suddenly come together as an army, only to dissolve next day into its elements of hardy farmers, woodsmen, and mountaineers. After the victory at Camden Cornwallis ad- vanced into North Carolina, and sent Major Fer- guson, one of his most trusted officers, with a force of about a thousand men, into the mountainous country lying westward, chiefly to secure Loyalist recruits. If attacked in force Ferguson was to re- treat and rejoin his leader. The Battle of King’s Mountain is hardly famous in the annals of the world, and yet, in some ways, it was a decisive event. Suddenly Ferguson found himself beset by hostile bands, coming from the north, the south, the east, and the west. When, in obedience to his orders, he tried to retreat he found the way blocked, and his messages were intercepted, so that Cornwallis was not aware of the peril. Fer- guson, harassed, outnumbered, at last took refuge on King’s Mountain, a stony ridge on the western border between the two Carolinas. The north side a “ “*4*a very ' “5 - . . P De 5 2 Sete - ects ees — ee ~ beatae a. ee ee ee abrhnttny 17 es. "i eee ee ee ee eee ee perms eeepoet wre eer ee eee eer ee rn an ee ene ery —— — <= v8s8c~ - oo Ee Se ee ee See at og oe a sat ~ id = Se ee en hae err at ate enet tebe at nt sak ne tr bt eee teh eh iets oe or Savor fee a eee v H we a pate hain an) a bn ieeeenPeretet ate ie 25> 2 —_ Pee Saeed Sl arid = — ess 222 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES of the mountain was a sheer impassable cliff and, since the ridge was only half a mile long, Ferguson thought that his force could hold it securely. He was, however, fighting an enemy deadly with the rifle and accustomed to fire from cover. The sides and top of King’s Mountain were wooded and strewn with boulders. The motley assailants crept up to the crest while pouring a deadly fire on any of the defenders who exposed themselves. Fergu- son was killed and in the end his force surrendered, on October 7, 1780, with four hundred casualties and the loss of more than seven hundred prisoners. The American casualties were eighty-eight. In reprisal for earlier acts on the other side, the victors insulted the dead body of Ferguson and hanged nine of their prisoners on the limb of a great tulip tree. Then the improvised army scattered.’ While the conflict for supremacy in the South was still uncertain, in the Northwest the Americans made a stroke destined to have astounding results, Virginia had long coveted lands in the valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi. It was in this re- gion that Washington had first seen active ser- vice, helping to wrest that land from France. The t See Chapter IX, Pioneers of the Old Southwest, by Constance Lindsay Skinner in The Chronicles of Amerwa.THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 223 country was wild. There was almost no settle- ment; but over a few forts on the upper Mississippi and in the regions lying eastward to the Detroit River there was that flicker of a red flag which meant that the Northwest was under British rule. George Rogers Clark, like Washington a Virginian land surveyor, was a strong, reckless, brave fron- tiersman. Early in 1778 Virginia gave him a small sum of money, made him a lieutenant colonel, and authorized him to raise troops for a western ad- venture. He had less than two hundred men when he appeared a little later at Kaskaskia near the Mississippi in what is now LIilinois and captured the small British garrison, with the friendly consent of the French settlers about the fort. He did the same thing at Cahokia, farther up the river. The French scattered through the western country naturally sided with the Americans, fighting now in alliance with France. The British sent out a force from Detroit to try to check the efforts of Clark, but in February, 1779, the mdomitable frontiersman surprised and captured this force at Vincennes on the Wabash. Thus did Clark’s two hundred famished and ragged men take possession of the Northwest, and, when peace was made, this vast domain, an empire in extent, fell to the United ee eee et et oe eS - ee eel te tlk eel eee = ; - - E og Pre . “9 at weer -4 me J I es Nd ba Pe ee ee fe DA bs pe Sa ee ~ aoe en . - a Sr ee ee . ee ee eedpene LL Ty et eT Cee ee eee 7 - ae ares slate arteltaet atta del et eee ee ee © il ee eee ee ee . a oat Beto - pores mien, ~ Se Le ego — = Tee ESS She Roe ret Om mereslsares reste - _ 924 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES States. Clark’s exploit is one of the pregnant romances of history.’ Perhaps the most sorrowful phase of the Revolu- tion was the internal conflict waged between its friends and its enemies in America, where neighbor fought against neighbor. During this pitiless strug- gle the strength of the Loyalists tended steadily to decline: and they came at last to be regarded everywhere by triumphant revolution as a vile people who should bear the penalties of outcasts. In this attitude towards them Boston had given a lead which the rest of the country eagerly followed. To coerce Loyalists local committees sprang up everywhere. It must be said that the Loyalists gave abundant provocation. They sneered at rebel officers of humble origin as convicts and shoe- blacks. ‘There should be some fine hanging, they promised, on the return of the King’s men to Boston. Early in the Revolution British colonial governors, like Lord Dunmore of Virginia, adopted the policy of reducing the rebels by harrying their coasts. Sailors would land at night from ships and commit their ravages in the light of burning houses. Soldiers would dart out beyond the British lines, tSee Chapters III and IV in The Old Northwest by Frederic Austin Ogg in The Chronicles of America.en [n@e et ober - - er — r rd . arr yr eede nee To ee = ot Sere ee ‘ oe peer" aN eT teal acral tent kt net eal nee ented teenth hee neha and ed s . oes St ne anna diaet a babe hte bet a Aaa oe ae 7 pd CHARLES, EARL. CORNWALLIS otoes -a-7e74e9* Painting by Thomas Gainsborough. In the National Portrait Gallery, London, England. ~~" o Coo b 28 Bi ay an { oe S Bt | iY i t ; 3 ; a par ee ard C ‘- +, pn aye . Pre “te od " aa A Taian idahacnietiaeteatal ne . 4-@ 5 ye rola ee mee “¢ rere a ee etal Lad n (ia a eT Td bh eee rt aa bebe ae io afery ey * i ae: | et eee =r ee Wharetnbal a lletepe ‘ <4 i : ee i a is } : a) ui hese sit falsetto ten neared —— aire vee manent ms arma} hart om bows ne Rees tone, Scaateenett tenet ketie Ce nae +o~ iba at tie aR Se eet Sint meet f ae etc eid BD mee gel dan a aeduiternt niin bat oT, re?) er 4 Trt a ee ee ee el be eer ete rr, 204 SSeS aces ae ne Ome Fe em Pare aan ene tee — ata - ne ee a ae J . i a a 4 ie ' < CiTHE WAR IN THE SOUTH 225 burn a village, carry off some Whig farmers, and escape before opposing forces could rally. Gover- nor Tryon of New York was specially active in these enterprises and to this day a special odium attaches to his name. For these ravages, and often with justice, the Loyalists were held responsible. The result was a bitterness which fired even the calm spirit of Ben- jamin Franklin and Jed him when the day came for peace to declare that the plundering and mur- dering adherents of King George were the ones who Should pay for damage and not the States which had confiscated Loyalist property. Lists of Loyal- ist names were sometimes posted and then the per- sons concerned were likely to be the victims of any one disposed to mischief. Sometimes a suspected Loyalist would find an effigy hung on a tree before his own door with a hint that next time the fig- ure might be himself. A musket ball might come Whizzing through his window. Many a Loyal- ist was stripped, plunged in a barrel of tar, and then rolled in feathers, taken sometimes from his own bed. Punishment for loyalism was not, however, left merely to chance. Even before the Declaration of Independence, Congress, sitting itself in a city 15 Pe ba Pe Pa pajnetpetooes cewirsry sisi: i ne ae See nr Ne ee heen neal cae tts im sett Pee ar A a D ee ee tal ot eh eo pee es ie Seder ‘ re is aera ee ed biter ry a ean eae as a ee ee ee aadSeer a ee ietaceeee ha ta gm alah ob ee ot aL LT Se eee Poet tre ee ee “ “ e en en Sale we) mu kedemen re ee ee a ee re ey ae teil eT alee tal 996 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES where loyalism was strong, urged the States to act sternly in repressing Loyalist opinion. They did not obey every urging of Congress as eagerly as they responded to this one. In practically every State Test Acts were passed and no one was safe who did not carry a certificate that he was free of any suspicion of loyalty to King George. Magis- trates were paid a fee for these certificates and thus had a golden reason for insisting that Loyalists should possess them. To secure a certificate the holder must forswear allegiance to the King and promise support to the State at war with him. An unguarded word even about the value in gold of the continental dollar might lead to the adding of the speaker’s name to the list of the proscribed. Legis- latures passed bills denouncing Loyalists. The names in Massachusetts read like a list of the lead- ing families of New England. The “Black List” of Pennsylvania contained four hundred and ninety names of Loyalists charged with treason, and Philadelphia had the grim experience of seeing two Loyalists led to the scaffold with ropes around their necks and hanged. Most of the persecuted Loyalists lost all their property and remained ex- ‘les from their former homes. The self-appointed committees took in hand the task of discipliningTHE WAR IN THE SOUTH 227 those who did not fly, and the rabble often pushed matters to brutal extremes. When we remember that Washington himself regarded Tories as the vilest of mankind and unfit to live, we can imagine the spirit of mobs, which had sometimes the further incentive of greed for Loyalist property. Loyalists had the experience of what we now call boycotting when they could not buy or sell in the shops and were forced to see their own shops plundered. Mills would not grind their corn. Their cattle were maimed and poisoned. They could not secure payment of debts due to them or, if payment was made, they received it in the debased continental currency at its face value. They might not sue in a court of law, nor sell their property, nor make a will. It was a felony for them to keep arms. No Loyalist might hold office, or practice law or medicine, or keep a school. Some Loyalists were deported to the wilderness in the back country. Many took refuge within the British lines, especially at New York. Many Loyalists created homes elsewhere. Some went to England only to find melancholy disillusion of hope that a grateful motherland would understand and reward their sacrifices. Large numbers found their way to Nova Scotia and to Canada, north of the - 2 mire bas bo md a piu . Ay Oe eT en bet et oe a aT a eee rte alte ee eee oad alee Eade ae sere ie eer Sade te rah alten oe aT ee ere - “ p ee Oe at ree} Lal been He er Been STI ge ese me reeerep-aot pave TEP eat Pre ey ee | - a crwr ie m4 iinet tte tt ae ee aes sad tint tele tetenn teeta erted hel det orearheeh eer eearioeies mabeniedchae we, Li iF Pla S POS TF i. a ee ee ee Laetitia statin tsa tnw —soa wer ams She Te oS a ee » - 5 eee ee a ad ph ee Pe aera afr mittedCHAPTER X FRANCE TO THE RESCUE Durine 1778 and 1779 French effort had failed. Now France resolved to do something decisive. She never sent across the sea the eight thousand men promised to La Fayette but by the spring of 1780 about this number were gathered at Brest to find that transport was inadequate. The leader was a French noble, the Comte de Rochambeau, an old campaigner, now in his fifty-fifth year, who had fought against England before in the Seven Years’ War and had then been opposed by Clinton, Corn- wallis, and Lord George Germain. He was a sound and prudent soldier who shares with La Fayette the chief glory of the French service in America. Rochambeau had fought at the second battle of Minden, where the father of La Fayette had fallen, and he had for the ardent young Frenchman the amiable regard of a father and sometimes rebuked his impulsiveness in that spirit. He studied the 230FRANCE TO THE RESCUE 231 problem in America with the insight of a trained leader. Before he left France he made the preg- nant comment on the outlook: “‘Nothing without naval supremacy.” About the same time Wash- ington was writing to La Fayette that a decisive naval supremacy was a fundamental need. A gallant company it was which gathered at Brest. Probably no other land than France could have sent forth on a crusade for democratic liberty a band of aristocrats who had little thought of applying to their own land the principles for which they were ready to fight in America. Over some of them hung the shadow of the guillotine; others were to ride the storm of the French Revolution and to attain fame which should surpass their sanguine dreams. Rochambeau himself, though he narrowly escaped during the Reign of Terror, lived to extreme old age and died a Marshal of France. Berthier, one of his officers, became one of Napoleon’s marshals and died just when Napo- leon, whom he had deserted, returned from Elba. Dumas became another of Napoleon’s generals. He nearly perished in the retreat from Moscow but lived, like Rochambeau, to extreme old age. One of the gayest of the company was the Duc de Lauzun, a noted libertine in France but, as far as el mL bel ep fe Aye 9? “7 - - - “ Ee ee ena er aden be TA i Tk oe ee: ee rare — Pe eee Cel ee ee } a Ribas v. Pata oP ead eee232 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES the record goes, a man of blameless propriety in America. He died on the scaffold during the French Revolution. So, too, did his companion, the Prince de Broglie, in spite of the protest of his last words that he was faithful to the principles of the Revolution, some of which he had learned in America. Another companion was the Swedish Count Fersen, later the devoted friend of the un- fortunate Queen Marie Antoinette, the driver of the carriage in which the royal family made the famous flight to Varennes in 1791, and himself destined to be trampled to death by a Swedish mob in 1810. Other old and famous names there were: Laval-Montmorency, Mirabeau, Talleyrand, Saint-Simon. It has been said that the names of the French officers in America read like a list of medieval heroes in the Chronicles of Froissart. Only half of the expected ships were ready at Brest and only five thousand five hundred men could embark. The vessels were, of course, very crowded. Rochambeau cut down the space allowed for personal effects. He took no horse for himself and would allow none to go, but he permitted a few dogs. Forty-five ships set sail, ‘“‘a truly imposing sight,” said one of those on board. We have re- ports of their ennui on the long voyage of seventyFRANCE TO THE RESCUE 233 days, of their amusements and their devotions, for twice daily were prayers read on deck. They sailed into Newport on the 11th of July and the inhabi- tants of that still primitive spot illuminated their houses as best they could. Then the army settled down at Newport and there it remained for many weary months. Reinforcements never came, partly through mismanagement in France, partly through the vigilance of the British fleet, which was on guard before Brest. The French had been for generations the deadly enemies of the English Colonies and some of the French officers noted the reserve with which they were received. The ice was, however, soon broken. They brought with them gold, and the New England merchants liked this relief from the debased continental currency. Some of the New England ladies were beauti- ful, and the experienced Lauzun expresses glowing admiration for a prim Quakeress whose simple dress he thought more attractive than the elaborate modes of Paris. The French dazzled the ragged American army by their display of waving plumes and of uniforms in striking colors. They wondered at the quanti- ties of tea drunk by their friends and so do we when we remember the political hatred for tea. They —— .* mie Pe | ot Lene be s7e* -. ae eee Ee uae ht art 5) M v-bndne SA ie get Se BOE = ee cab a Ce een Pete eee en tre ee234 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES made the blunder common in Europe of thinking that there were no social distinctions in America. Washington could have told him a different story. Intercourse was at first difficult, for few of the Americans spoke French and fewer still of the French spoke English. Sometimes the talk was in Latin, pronounced by an American scholar as not too bad. A French officer writing in Latin to an American friend announces his intention to learn English: ‘‘ Inglicam linguam noscere conabor.”’ He made the effort and he and his fellow officers learned a quaint English speech. When Rocham- beau and Washington first met they conversed through La Fayette, as interpreter, but in time the older man did very well in the language of his American comrade in arms. For a long time the French army effected noth- ing. Washington longed to attack New York and urged the effort, but the wise and experienced Rochambeau applied his principle, “‘nothing with- out naval supremacy,” and insisted that in such an attack a powerful fleet should act with a powerful army, and, for the moment, the French had no powerful fleet available. The British were block- ading in Narragansett Bay the French fleet which lay there. Had the French army moved awayFRANCE TO THE RESCUE 235 from Newport their fleet would almost certainly have become a prey to the British. For the mo- ment there was nothing to do but to wait. The French preserved an admirable discipline. Against their army there are no records of outrage and plunder such as we have against the German allies of the British. We must remember, however, that the French were serving in the country of their friends, with every restraint of good feeling which this involved. Rochambeau told his men that there must not be the theft of a bit of wood, or of any vegetables, or of even a sheaf of straw. He threatened the vice which he called “‘sonorous drunkenness,” and even lack of cleanliness, with sharp punishment. The result was that a month after landing he could say that not a cabbage had been stolen. Our credulity is strained when we are told that apple trees with their fruit overhung the tents of his soldiers and remained untouched. Thousands flocked to see the French camp. The bands played and Puritan maidens of all grades of society danced with the young French officers and we are told, whether we believe it or not, that there was the simple innocence of the Garden of Eden. The zeal of the French officers and the friendly disposition of the men never failed. There had err ‘* pie We 5! ~% pe as! bot * " 1 ee ot bene ia ered het eth el ee ea oe eer eel ee oe ne eae aT —= Peete Lae nl ENB ee eed ee DOs Siegen ange = me epee ms intaat-tn toe Nbr sabe Sesh tel: ainvcdyt chr y-&a cary pe, aurea meee er ee ee ee - oe as er mitt recs eS rT ht Ser Po ere in it Eee ren Se eee — 236 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES been bitter quarrels in 1778 and 1779 and now the French were careful to be on their good behavior in America. Rochambeau had been instructed to place himself under the command of Washington, to whom were given the honors of a Marshal of France. The French admiral, had, however, been given no such instructions and Washington had no authority over the fleet. Meanwhile events were happening which might have brought a British triumph. On September 14, 1780, there arrived and anchored at Sandy Hook, New York, fourteen British ships of the line under Rodney, the doughtiest of the British ad- mirals afloat. Washington, with his army head- quarters at West Point, on guard to keep the British from advancing up the Hudson, was look- ing for the arrival, not of a British fleet, but of a French fleet, from the West Indies. For him these were very dark days. The recent defeat at Cam- den was a crushing blow. Congress was inept and had in it men, as the patient General Greene said, “without principles, honor or modesty.” The coming of the British fleet was a new and over- whelming discouragement, and, on the 18th of September, Washington left West Point for a longFRANCE TO THE RESCUE 237 ride to Hartford in Connecticut, half way between the two headquarters, there to take counsel with the French general. Rochambeau, it was said, had been purposely created to understand Washington, but as yet the two leaders had not met. It is the simple truth that Washington had to go to the French as a beggar. Rochambeau said later that Washington was afraid to reveal the extent of his distress. He had to ask for men and for ships, but he had also to ask for what a proud man dislikes to ask, for money from the stranger who had come to help him. The Hudson had long been the chief object of Washington’s anxiety and now it looked as if the British intended some new movement up the river, as indeed they did. Clinton had not expected Rodney’s squadron, but it arrived opportunely and, when it sailed up to New York from Sandy Hook, on the 16th of September, he began at once to embark his army, taking pains at the same time to send out reports that he was going to the Chesa- peake. Washington concluded that the opposite was true and that he was likely to be going north- ward. At West Point, where the Hudson flows through a mountainous gap, Washington had strong defenses on both shores of the river. His - OL per eam ee tH De be ra pe Ba Pe .. Stead ote wr ree * “ - —_— a let ee ee eek) leh ede eheenadd 3 por ae — Sienna ay rn he od be 2 . as . < ae .. Pees abe ee ee neta eet es238 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES batteries commanded its whole width, but shore batteries were ineffective against moving ships. The embarking of Clinton’s army meant that he planned operations on land. He might be going to Rhode Island or to Boston but he might also dash upthe Hudson. It was an anxious leader who, with La Fayette and Alexander Hamilton, rode away from headquarters to Hartford. The officer in command at West Point was Bene- dict Arnold. No general on the American side had a more brilliant record or could show more sears of battle. We have seen him leading an army through the wilderness to Quebec, and incurring hardships almost incredible. Later he is found on Lake Champlain, fighting on both land and water. When in the next year the Americans succeeded at Saratoga it was Arnold who bore the brunt of the fighting. At Quebec and again at Saratoga he was severely wounded. In the summer of 1778 he was given the command at Philadelphia, after the British evacuation. It was a troubled time. Arnold was concerned with confiscations of prop- erty for treason and with disputes about ownership. Impulsive, ambitious, and with a certain element of coarseness in his nature, he made enemies. He was involved in bitter strife with both CongressFRANCE TO THE RESCUE 239 and the State government of Pennsylvania. After a period of tension and privation in war, one of slackness and luxury is almost certain to follow. Philadelphia, which had recently suffered for want of bare necessities, now relapsed into gay indul- gence. Arnold lived extravagantly. He played a conspicuous part in society and, a widower of thirty-five, was successful in paying court to Miss Shippen, a young lady of twenty, with whom, as Washington said, all the American officers were in love. Malignancy was rampant and Arnold was pur- sued with great bitterness. Joseph Reed, the President of the Executive Council of Pennsy]l- vania, not only brought charge against him of abusing his position for his own advantage, but also laid the charges before each State government. In the end Arnold was tried by court-martial and after long and inexcusable delay, on January 96, 1780, he was acquitted of everything but the imprudence of using, in an emergency, public wagons to remove private property, and of grant- ing irregularly a pass to a ship to enter the port of Philadelphia. Yet the court ordered that for these trifles Arnold should receive a public reprimand from the Commander-in-Chief. Washington gave rt ba Pa De! i n Ee ee tint ee oR eee ean pe wTET ema FETE ee Tens Se Serwmrsr se eT ce ag eae eae ee rte en — - ne bes id bel be Bd be oe be fe ee eee re 4 im Pt , oie Te eae PN Fe PEL TE PT Te DE POT a ah etm feet Depa naan Se ae atti enbenel Aa pra een eeepine pa ee oT Tet eee Pot ae ee Ty ee ee Poon ee eS ey a eee ce ory Sianeli SS ae ret ee ede ah na Lhe i at are hs 240 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES the reprimand in terms as gentle as possible, and | when, in July, 1780, Arnold asked for the impor- tant command at West Point, Washington readily — complied probably with relief that so important a_ position should be in such good hands. The treason of Arnold now came rapidly to a head. The man was embittered. He had rendered great services and yet had been persecuted with spiteful persistence. The truth seems to be, too, that Arnold thought America ripe for reconcilia- tion with Great Britain. He dreamed that he might be the saviour of his country. Monk had reconciled the English republic to the restored Stuart King Charles II; Arnold might reconcile the American republic to George III for the good of both. That reconciliation he believed was widely desired in America. He tried to persuade himself that to change sides in this civil strife was no more culpable then to turn from one party to another in political life. He forgot, however, that it is never honorable to betray a trust. It is almost certain that Arnold received a large sum in money for his treachery. However this may be, there was treason in his heart when he asked for and received the command at West Point, and he intended to use his authority to surrenderALEXANDER HAMILTON Painting by Charles Willson Peale. In the collection of the New York Historical Society. ee ok Oe ee ee rn Le ee ee hd oP wrt 7) ee ar a Fee ee er ee oe a - 4 ee etre er rr “ton attgednds Ee a Ee etd el : nenenges =e dah Cet bake ne re eaten er es = : r) ¥ [aT Try ek be ene eee fe ea Ge.. « a Sub eeeers yi ws fe Mag 7 7” 4 26 e pen aaa eee 2 ager - - oa nie eT ar he be ree Se | el etn) i tah eee eerie — fim Sap ww - -_" ee eres \-2"8 ere +2 5° ee ee pe ened ob | _ 0 } a + xt Hy ict a} ; i I .a el ee tae re ee " ee es a vdeo pe. Sn ee a eT eee Pet eee re eee) Se ier ee r pre he Se eer vo = fefel'= fo i i / i } H 5 f i al a % + Hi A SSE ne) Sek tener ae ere aeaan 4 Se Eeewe tesa te Sane ; a rss . aU fi i i> ‘ i ' fie) .. ay ce eno As Bi " by i. m a) et ty tk % : ee . i | Ce ey | be i ret <2 ' 3 Loive a 7] a9)! ee 1 Pe ee kL Lie PE ra hd ees en ded vib 4b FADE oreo taySe eee ee SO” ee | } : i i i H H ae ne et Pe Al a eed te eee en tee eee ene ae nar te eras a : ee ee aro) ee ee eeFRANCE TO THE RESCUE 241 that vital post to the British. And now on the 18th of September Washington was riding north- eastward into Connecticut, British troops were on board ships in New York and all was ready. On the 20th of September the Vulture, sloop of war, sailed up the Hudson from New York and an- chored at Stony Point, a few miles below West Point. On board the Vulture was the British of- ficer who was treating with Arnold and who now came to arrange terms with him, Major John André, Clinton’s young adjutant general, a man of attractive personality. Under cover of night Arnold sent off a boat to bring André ashore to a remote thicket of fir trees, outside the Ameri- can lines. There the final plans were made. The British fleet, carrying an army, was to sail up the river. A heavy chain had been placed across the river at West Point to bar the way of hostile ships. Under pretense of repairs a link was to be taken out and replaced by a rope which would break easily. The defenses of West Point were to be so arranged that they could not meet a sudden attack and Arnold was to surrender with his force of three thousand men. Such a blow following the dis- asters at Charleston and Camden might end the strife. Britain was prepared to yield everything but 16 Pe Pi “ ™ ern - ~ i eel biel eeeane phn dale aes SS ~~ a tal Pied hed bel Be bt bol oe bee rh ie ee tt ere ee alee - ban ee err te tT eee H pa mh ers hah oe eT heerlen242 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES separation; and America, Arnold said, could now make an honorable peace. A chapter of accidents prevented the testing. Had André been rowed ashore by British tars they could have taken him back to the ship at his com- mand before daylight. As it was the American boatmen, suspicious perhaps of the meaning of this talk at midnight between an American officer and a British officer, both of them in uniform, refused to row André back to the ship because their own return would be dangerous in daylight. Contrary to his instructions and wishes André accompanied Arnold to a house within the American lines to wait until he could be taken off under cover of night. Meanwhile, however, an American battery on shore, angry at the Vulture, lying defiantly within range, opened fire upon her and she dropped down stream some miles. This was alarming. Arnold, however, arranged with a man to row André down the river and about midday went back to West Point. It was uncertain how far the Vulture had gone. The vigilance of those guarding the river was aroused and André’s guide insisted that he should go to the British lines by land. He was carrying compromising papers and wearing civilian dressFRANCE TO THE RESCUE 243 when seized by an American party and held under close arrest. Arnold meanwhile, ignorant of this delay, was waiting for the expected advance up the river of the British fleet. He learned of the arrest of André while at breakfast on the morning of the twenty-fifth, waiting to be joined by Washington, who had just ridden in from Hartford. Arnold received the startling news with extraordinary composure, finished the subject under discussion, and then left the table under pretext of a sum- mons from across the river. Within a few minutes his barge was moving swiftly to the Vulture eigh- teen miles away. Thus Arnold escaped. The unhappy André was hanged as a spy on the 2d of October. He met his fate bravely. Washington, it is said, shed tears at its stern necessity under mili- tary law. Forty years later the bones of André were reburied in Westminster Abbey, a tribute of pity for a fine officer. The treason of Arnold is not in itself important, yet Washington wrote with deep conviction that Providence had directly intervened to save the American cause. Arnold might be only one of many. Washington said, indeed, that it was a wonder there were not more. In a civil war every one of importance is likely to have ties with both wis, -etdore en Se en eta a cd del cae er eee a = i ee el ef aa ee lal ret ba ee bn ee be Pe a par rac wer mabe eta ter eensger MET*SITN TE 5 LU , ost nate eer tals = te) ete eee Tee - Pe ees = rr ee a be et ek - Se i letSree Ct te . a ewok tsgusawablel paseats toca sacl eens. het kCesan boat get =~ » 2 es een w Pd ap nn yb at eee hn en, ie ae . or ce ca Pdi 7? Soe Sabgdatbel tudiyilovetn tutetorio ty? etnceceowtnteanswesesy on , 244 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES sides, regrets for the friends he has lost, misgivings in respect to the course he has adopted. In April, 1779, Arnold had begun his treason by expressing |: discontent at the alliance with France then work- ing so disastrously. His future lay before him; he was still under forty; he had just married into a. family of position; he expected that both he and his descendants would spend their lives in America and he must have known that contempt would follow them for the conduct which he planned if it was regarded by public opinion as base. Voices in Congress, too, had denounced the alliance with France as alliance with tyranny, political and re- ligious. Members praised the liberties of England | and had declared that the Declaration of Inde- pendence must be revoked and that now it could be done with honor since the Americans had proved their metal. There was room for the fear that the. morale of the Americans was giving way. The defection of Arnold might also have military results. He had bargained to be made a general in the British army and he had intimate knowledge of the weak points in Washington’s position. He advised the British that if they would do two» things, offer generous terms to soldiers serving in the American army, and concentrate their effort,FRANCE TO THE RESCUE 245 they could win the war. With a cynical knowledge of the weaker side of human nature, he declared that it was too expensive a business to bring men from England to serve in America. They could be secured more cheaply in America; it would be necessary only to pay them better than Washing- ton could pay his army. As matters stood the Continental troops were to have half pay for seven years after the close of the war and grants of land ranging from one hundred acres for a private to eleven hundred acres for a general. Make better offers than this, urged Arnold; “Money will go farther than arms in America.” If the British would concentrate on the Hudson where the de- fenses were weak they could drive a wedge between North and South. If on the other hand they pre- ferred to concentrate in the South, leaving only a garrison in New York, they could overrun Virginia and Maryland and then the States farther south would give up a fight in which they were already beaten. Energy and enterprise, said Arnold, will quickly win the war. In the autumn of 1780 the British cause did, indeed, seem near triumph. An election in Eng- land in October gave the ministry an increased majority and with this renewed determination. 2 rs p D Ms ee oe el -_ ee ee aed Bo el246 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES When Holland, long a secret enemy, became an open one in December, 1780, Admiral Rodney descended on the Dutch island of St. Eustatius, in the West Indies, where the Americans were in the habit of buying great quantities of stores and on the 3d of February, 1781, captured the place with two hundred merchant ships, half a dozen men-of- war, and stores to the value of three million pounds. The capture cut off one chief source of supply to the United States. By January, 1781, a crisis in respect to money came toa head. Fierce mutinies broke out because there was no money to provide food, clothing, or pay for the army and the men were in a destitute condition. ‘“‘ These people are at the end of their resources,’ wrote Rochambeau in March. Arnold’s treason, the halting voices in Congress, the disasters in the South, the British success in cutting off supplies of stores from St. Eustatius, the sordid problem of money — all these were well fitted to depress the worn leader so anx- iously watching on the Hudson. It was the dark hour before the dawn.CHAPTER XI YORKTOWN THE critical stroke of the war was near. In the South, after General Greene superseded Gates in the command, the tide of war begantoturn. Corn- wallis now had to fight a better general than Gates. Greene arrived at Charlotte, North Carolina, in December. He found an army badly equipped, wretchedly clothed, and confronted by a greatly superior force. He had, however, some excellent officers, and he did not scorn, as Gates, with the stiff military traditions of a regular soldier, had scorned, the aid of guerrilla leaders like Marion and Sumter. Serving with Greene was General Daniel Morgan, the enterprising and resourceful Virginia rifleman, who had fought valorously at Quebec, at Saratoga, and later in Virginia. Steu- ben was busy in Virginia holding the British in check and keeping open the line of communication with the North. The mobility and diversity of the 247 Tx yls ae 4 7 : 4 . hell Pe et ee are ree Seeree . y " ae oh pre pet OE tend eb eet he ene oe oe ee fen ent Pee ye ent tet etal ed har Wat nts pe sek ne cal tate Soe ee ad So Sa eee ee peepee ot one SPs er > es i eee RE Re Oe SST Bete eee pied eth REET ten Pe ee et ete oe oe . val eres ae ee ape Ar cs rw 4 rear 2 elo ee ee 248 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES American forces puzzled Cornwallis. When he marched from Camden into North Carolina he hoped to draw Greene into a battle and to crush him as he had crushed Gates. He sent Tarleton with a smaller force to strike a deadly blow at Morgan who was threatening the British garrisons at the points in the interior farther south. There was no more capable leader than Tarleton; he had won many victories; but now came his day of defeat. On January 17, 1781, he met Morgan at the Cowpens, about thirty miles west from King’s Mountain. Morgan, not quite sure of the disci- pline of his men, stood with his back to a broad river so that retreat was impossible. Tarleton had marched nearly all night over bad roads; but, con- fident in the superiority of his weary and hungry veterans, he advanced to the attack at daybreak. The result was a complete disaster. Tarleton himself barely got away with two hundred and seventy men and left behind nearly nine hundred casualties and prisoners. Cornwallis had lost one-third of his effective army. There was nothing for him to do but to take his loss and still to press on northward in the hope that the more southerly inland posts could take care of themselves. In the early spring of 1781,YORKTOWN 249 when heavy rains were making the roads difficult and the rivers almost impassable, Greene was luring Cornwallis northward and Cornwallis was chasing Greene. At Hillsborough, in the north- west corner of North Carolina, Cornwallis issued a proclamation saying that the colony was once more under the authority of the King and inviting the Loyalists, bullied and oppressed during nearly six years, to come out openly on the royal side. On the 15th of March Greene took a stand and offered battle at Guilford Court House. In the early afternoon, after a march of twelve miles with- out food, Cornwallis, with less than two thousand men, attacked Greene’s force of about four thou- sand. By evening the British held the field and had captured Greene’s guns. But they had lost heavily and they were two hundred miles from their base. Their friends were timid, and in fact few, and their numerous enemies were filled with passionate resolution. Cornwallis now wrote to urge Clinton to come to his aid. Abandon New York, he said; bring the whole British force into Virginia and end the war by one smashing stroke; that would be better than sticking to salt pork in New York and send- ing only enough men to Virginia to steal tobacco. ere cteeet ae “ af bbe et neh eeeteehnine hiah meine in pi pet ta eos a) rh oF - am pO Pen PPFD Ds tL De ON OT oe hed oo cl . Meee : . ae ehewaeats ee ee aaa hintaan FM : poy ee tits cade ape a “3 See eases ese ermn 0250 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES Cornwallis could not remain where he was, far from the sea. Go back to Camden he would not | after a victory, and thus seem to admit a defeat. So he decided to risk all and go forward. By hard marching he led his army down the Cape Fear River to Wilmington on the sea, and there he arrived on the 9th of April. Greene, however, simply would not do what Cornwallis wished — stay in the north to be beaten by a second smash- ing blow. He did what Cornwallis would not do; he marched back into the South and disturbed the British dream that now the country was held se- curely. It mattered little that, after this, the British won minor victories. Lord Rawdon, still holding Camden, defeated Greene on the 25th of April at Hobkirk’s Hill. None the less did Raw- don find his position untenable and he, too, was forced to march to the sea, which he reached at a point near Charleston. Augusta, the capital of Georgia, fell to the Americans on the 5th of June and the operations of the summer went decisively in their favor. The last battle in the field of the farther South was fought on the 8th of September at Eutaw Springs, about fifty miles northwest of Charleston. The British held their position and thus could claim a victory. But it was fruitless.O KN A X 1erN- é Eutaw Springs bas e =e 78 ™ Pi plage Anna hiss 22 Sa “Nie S bs iY WZ er “ wy 7x. THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR SOUTHERN CAMPAIGNS Seale 1: 4,750,000 2040 60 80 _100Miles CAMPAIGN ROUTES British In red American In blue French In black 18 JULIUS BIEN, LITH, N.Y.ee eee Saat) = er ne op ESAS CAtvin he Solel eked PP etl et are rae { i ks H i | 5 4 4 e 4 iH { H i Cee) Beeler lege an ° Se ee ee eee c oe _ en he tee en eer - pM eee wie : . ‘ ’ osYORKTOWN 251 They had been forced steadily to withdraw. All the boasted fabric of royal government in the South had come down with a crash and the Tories who had supported it were having evil days. While these events were happening farther south, Cornwallis himself, without waiting for word from Clinton in New York, had adopted his own policy and marched from Wilmington northward into Virginia. Benedict Arnold was now in Vir- ginia doing what mischief he could to his former friends. In January he burned the little town of Richmond, destined in the years to come to be a great center in another civil war. Some twenty miles south from Richmond lay in a strong position Petersburg, later also to be drenched with blood shed in civil strife. Arnold was already at Peters- burg when Cornwallis arrived on the 20th of May. He was now in high spirits. He did not yet realize the extent of the failure farther south. Virginia he believed to be half loyalist at heart. The negroes would, he thought, turn against their masters when they knew that the British were strong enough to defend them. Above all he had a finely disciplined army of five thousand men. Cornwallis was the more confident when he knew by whom he was opposed. In April Washington had placed La ; a ae on ’ p - —r ee ee Neen lt ethene ees peal > Pd cule meee “ ft A an DREAD SEs IE sendne NT nn ee eee ne at vs - tne ee gar pee S . sbcte _ phot ~be eS ee a eS o > - a - “es [nee-hoeber pantaeagerebepameenaetet geeks 6 = Pd tate hacerlo ee deri a Gehan Sa hm "ming he St ha hen fap Sater Pa be te ee w a en wept ee eer et Sa he ~ ¥ 252 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES Fayette in charge of the defense of Virginia, and not only was La Fayette young and untried in such a command but he had at first only three thousand badly-trained men to confront the for- midable British general. Cornwallis said cheerily that “‘the boy” was certainly now his prey and began the task of catching him. An exciting chase followed. La Fayette did some good work. It was impossible, with his in- ferior force, to fight Cornwallis, but he could tire him out by drawing him into long marches. When Cornwallis advanced to attack La Fayette at Rich- mond, La Fayette was not there but had slipped away and was able to use rivers and mountains for his defense. Cornwallis had more than one string to his bow. The legislature of Virginia was sitting at Charlottesville, lying in the interior nearly a hun- dred miles northwest from Richmond, and Corn- wallis conceived the daring plan of raiding Char- lottesville, capturing the Governor of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, and, at one stroke, shattering the civil administration. Tarleton was the man for such an enterprise of hard riding and bold fight- ing and he nearly succeeded. Jefferson indeed escaped by rapid flight but Tarleton took the town, burned the public records, and capturedYORKTOWN 253 ammunition andarms. But hereally effected little. La Fayette was still unconquered. His army was growing and the British were finding that Virginia, like New England, was definitely against them. At New York, meanwhile, Clinton was in a dilemma. He was dismayed at the news of the march of Cornwallis to Virginia. Cornwallis had been so long practically independent in the South that he assumed not only the right to shape his own policy but adopted a certain tartness in his despatches to Clinton, his superior. When now, in this tone, he urged Clinton to abandon New York and join him Clinton’s answer on the 26th of June was a definite order to occupy some port in Virginia easily reached from the sea, to make it secure, and to send to New York reinforcements. The French army at Newport was beginning to move towards New York and Clinton had inter- cepted letters from Washington to La Fayette revealing a serious design to make an attack with the aid of the French fleet. Such was the game which fortune was playing with the British gen- erals. Each desired the other to abandon his own plans and to come to his aid. They were agreed, however, that some strong point must be held in Virginia as a naval base, and on the 2d of August — i ok bel et bet at) r r mb, sya - -; PS col peste om " , Denying h ent , Se ee oe ee ben a Se SO tete sPesette te gta l Siete ce mnataeernnere newer ep arersmeenatent te * > See oe Fe a ee i TT hk ei emtinheelr eins AY ; ied qhevn Anse lel ee se-254 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES Cornwallis established this base at Yorktown, at the mouth of the York River, a mile wide where it flows into Chesapeake Bay. His cannon could command the whole width of the river and keep in safety ships anchored above the town. York- town lay about half way between New York and Charleston and from here a fleet could readily carry a military force to any needed point on the sea. La Fayette with a growing army closed in on Yorktown, and Cornwallis, almost before he knew it, was besieged with no hope of rescue except by a fleet. Then it was that from the sea, the restless and mysterious sea, came the final decision. Man seems so much the sport of circumstance that apparent trifles, remote from his consciousness, appear at times to determine his fate; it is a com- monplace of romance that a pretty face or a stray bullet has altered the destiny not merely of fami- lies but of nations. And now, in the American Revolution, it was not forts on the Hudson, nor maneuvers in the South, that were to decide the issue, but the presence of a few more French war- ships than the British could muster at a given spot and time. Washington had urged in Janu- ary that France should plan to have at leastYORKTOWN 255 temporary naval superiority in American waters, in accordance with Rochambeau’s principle, “‘Noth- ing without naval supremacy.” Washington wished to concentrate against New York, but the French were of a different mind, believing that the great effort should be made in Chesapeake Bay. There the British could have no defenses like those at New York, and the French fleet, which was stationed in the West Indies, could reach more readily than New York a point in the South. Early in May Rochambeau knew that a French fleet was coming to his aid but not yet did he know where the stroke should be made. It was clear, however, that there was nothing for the French to do at Newport, and, by the beginning of June, Rochambeau prepared to set his army in motion. The first step was to join Washington on the Hud- son and at any rate alarm Clinton as to an immi- nent attack on New York and hold him to that spot. After nearly a year of idleness the French soldiers were delighted that now at last there was to be an active movement. The long march from Newport to New York began. In glowing June, amid the beauties of nature, now overcome by intense heat and obliged to march at two o’clock in the morning, now drenched by heavy rains, the French plodded : pwr" * “++ . * - oy a angen - eT Se a ke a+e* 9-5 mil a~% too ee eh e bate La hae =e my met 7 - - oe and ee oe ee lene atieiahiaiil mt oy” ae Nee halted eeheneneitaiadiien iain a256 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES on, and joined their American comrades along the Hudson early in July. By the 14th of August Washington knew two things — that a great French fleet under the Comte de Grasse had sailed for the Chesapeake and that the British army had reached Yorktown. Soon the two allied armies, both lying on the east side of the Hudson, moved southward. On the 20th of August the Americans began to cross the river at King’s Ferry, eight miles below Peekskill. Wash- ington had to leave the greater part of his army before New York, and his meager force of some two thousand was soon over the river in spite of tor- rential rains. By the 24th of August the French, too, had crossed with some four thousand men and with their heavy equipment. The British made no move. Clinton was, however, watching these operations nervously. The united armies marched down the right bank of the Hudson so rapidly that they had to leave useful effects behind and some grumbled at the privation. Clinton thought his enemy might still attack New York from the New Jersey shore. He knew that near Staten Island the Americans were building great bakeries as if to feed an army besieging New York. Suddenly on the 29th of August the armies turned awayYORKTOWN 257 from New York southwestward across New Jersey, and still only the two leaders knew whither they were bound. American patriotism has liked to dwell on this last great march of Washington. ‘To him this was familiar country; it was here that he had harassed Clinton on the march from Philadelphia to New York three long years before. The French marched on the right at the rate of about fifteen miles a day. The country was beautiful and the roads were good. Autumn had come and the air was bracing. The peaches hung ripe on the trees. The Dutch farmers who, four years earlier, had been plaintive about the pillage by the Hessians, now seemed prosperous enough and brought abundance of provisions to the army. They had just gathered their harvest. The armies passed through Prince- ton, with its fine college, numbering as many as fifty students; then on to Trenton, and across the Delaware to Philadelphia, which the vanguard reached on the 3d of September. There were gala scenes in Philadelphia. Twenty thousand people witnessed a review of the French army. To one of the French officers the city seemed ‘‘immense”’ with its seventy-two streets all ‘“‘in a straight line.”’ The shops appeared to be I Noe ti ear = 5 . pad - oe el be pe eee) oP Pa ~ Pe eee PU bee pala eer Latent tik ar anbet s d SO ~ oe oars oa" “4 ee eee Ph Nia canst ne reese ab a emcee258 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES equal to those of Paris and there were pretty women well dressed in the French fashion. The Quaker city forgot its old suspicion of the French and their Catholic religion. Luzerne, the French Minister, gave a great banquet on the evening of the 5th of September. Eighty guests took their places at table and as they sat down good news arrived. As yet few knew the destination of the army but now Luzerne read momentous tidings and the secret was out: twenty-eight French ships of the line had arrived in Chesapeake Bay; an army of three thousand men had already dis- embarked and was in touch with the army of La Fayette; Washington and Rochambeau were bound for Yorktown to attack Cornwallis. Great was the joy; in the streets the soldiers and the people shouted and sang and humorists, mount- ed on chairs, delivered in advance mock funeral orations on Cornwallis. It was planned that the army should march the fifty miles to Elkton, at the head of Chesapeake Bay, and there take boat to Yorktown, two hun- dred miles to the south at the other end of the Bay. But there were not ships enough. Washington had asked the people of influence in the neighborhood to help him to gather transports but few of themYORKTOWN 259 responded. A deadly apathy in regard to the war seems to have fallen upon many parts of the coun- try. The Bay now in control of the French fleet was quite safe for unarmed ships. Half the Ameri- cans and some of the French embarked and the rest continued on foot. There was need of haste, and the troops marched on to Baltimore and be- yond at the rate of twenty miles a day, over roads often bad and across rivers sometimes unbridged. At Baltimore some further regiments were taken on board transports and most of them made the final stages of the journey by water. Some there were, however, and among them the Vicomte de Noailles, brother-in-law of La Fayette, who tramped on foot the whole seven hundred and fifty-six miles from Newport to Yorktown. Wash- ington himself left the army at Elkton and rode on with Rochambeau, making about sixty miles a day. Mount Vernon lay on the way and here Washing- ton paused for two or three days. It was the first time he had seen it since he set out on May 4, 1775, to attend the Continental Congress at Philadel- phia, little dreaming then of himself as chief leader in a long war. Now he pressed on to join La Fayette. By the end of the month an army of sixteen thousand men, of whom about one-half < mi bok Pt ha Se Be | ‘ \ a nn, ak Wri bnr eb tae Saag eee - eet ee OPS TA CL pe ehewen ee niece cent enegeneqe get tate - ry le a ST ee eden ae a : L eet ee a ee pi nS I ate alien naaoe eet) Tete ee ee eee rt ret tor rt oe = Peer seth lentehediet seh tetney ietiecbeserane eaten po oy rea hy DG LT Pee a ea ee eee ee pee ae net set meee Sop Serene eaten ne sete oh Sap ed par arnt Sts - oe 260 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES were French, was besieging Cornwallis with seven thousand men in Yorktown. Heart-stirring events had happened while the armies were marching to the South. The Comte de Grasse, with his great fleet, arrived at the en- trance to the Chesapeake on the 30th of August while the British fleet under Admiral Graves still lay at New York. Grasse, now the pivot upon which everything turned, was the French admiral in the West Indies. Taking advantage of a lull in operations he had slipped away with his whole fleet, to make his stroke and be back again before his absence had caused great loss. It was a risky enterprise, but a wise leader takes risks. He in- tended to be back in the West Indies before the end of October. It was not easy for the British to realize that they could be outmatched on the sea. Rodney had sent word from the West Indies that ten ships were the limit of Grasse’s numbers and that even fourteen British ships would be adequate to meet him. A British fleet, numbering nineteen ships of the line, commanded by Admiral Graves, left New York on the 31st of August and five days later stood off the entrance to Chesapeake Bay. On the mainland across the Bay lay Yorktown, theYORKTOWN 261 one point now held by the British on that great stretch of coast. When Graves arrived he had an unpleasant surprise. The strength of the French had been well concealed. There to confront him lay twenty-four enemy ships. The situation was even worse, for the French fleet from Newport was on its way to join Grasse. On the afternoon of the 5th of September, the day of the great rejoicing in Philadelphia, there was a spectacle of surpassing interest off Cape Henry, at the mouth of the Bay. The two great fleets joined battle, under sail, and poured their fire into each other. When night came the British had about three hundred and fifty casualties and the French about two hundred. There was no brilliant leadership on either side. One of Graves’s largest ships, the Terrible, was so crippled that he burnt her, and several others were badly damaged. Admiral Hood, one of Graves’s officers, says that if his leader had turned suddenly and anchored his ships across the mouth of the Bay, the French Admiral with his fleet outside would probably have sailed away and left the British fleet in possession. As it was the two fleets lay at sea in sight of each other for four days. On the morning of the tenth the squadron from Newport under Barras arrived ray lah ph eee oe - a Ne pe tnt eae tt ee a enn ne tee helene eee mt” reer ~— ow a . pe et ee eas a ps ern pee eh sel pS ara oP Es iene262 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES and increased Grasse’s ships to thirty-six. Against such odds Graves could do nothing. He lingered | near the mouth of the Chesapeake for a few days still and then sailed away to New York to refit. At the most critical hour of the whole war a Brit- ish fleet, crippled and spiritless, was hurrying to a protecting port and the fleurs-de-lis waved un- challenged on the American coast. The action of Graves spelled the doom of Cornwallis. The most potent fleet ever gathered in those waters cut him off from rescue by sea. Yorktown fronted on the York River with a deep ravine and swamps at the back of the town. From the land it could on the west side be approached by a road leading over marshes and easily defended, and on the east side by solid ground about half a mile wide now protected by redoubts and entrench- ments with an outer and an inner parallel. Could Cornwallis hold out? At New York, no longer in any danger, there was still a keen desire to rescue | him. By the end of September he received word from Clinton that reinforcements had arrived from England and that, with a fleet of twenty-six ships of the line carrying five thousand troops, he hoped to sail on the 5th of October to the rescue of York- town. There was delay. Later Clinton wrote thatYORKTOWN 263 on the basis of assurances from Admiral Graves he hoped to get away on the twelfth. A British officer in New York describes the hopes with which the populace watched these preparations. The fleet, however, did not sail until the 19th of October. A speaker in Congress at the time said that the British Admiral should certainly hang for this delay. On the 5th of October, for some reason unex- plained, Cornwallis abandoned the outer parallel and withdrew behind the inner one. This left him in Yorktown a space so narrow that nearly every part of it could be swept by enemy artillery. By the 11th of October shells were dropping inces- santly from a distance of only three hundred yards, and before this powerful fire the earthworks crumbled. On the fourteenth the French and Americans carried by storm two redoubts on the second parallel. The redoubtable Tarleton was in Yorktown, and he says that day and night there was acute danger to any one showing himself and that every gun was dismounted as soon as seen. He was for evacuating the place and marching away, whither he hardly knew. Cornwallis still held Gloucester, on the opposite side of the York River, and he now planned to cross to that place with his best troops, leaving behind his sick and — : pe hb Det ra eam ene (eee TESA eRe Pee oes erp rte Lee Se 5 ew acer eneeraveP as etersmee stan ene at A rh hand Ss ~ = Seis See es tenet cele ed wen ter on a ha 7 ee ee Pee SS ek peek bem erent or ceed ae264 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES wounded. He would try to reach Philadelphia by the route over which Washington had just ridden. The feat was not impossible. Washington would have had a stern chase in following Cornwallis, who might have been able to live off the country. Clinton could help by attacking Philadelphia, which was almost defenseless. As it was, a storm prevented the crossing to Gloucester. The defenses of Yorktown were weakening and in face of this new discouragement the British leader made up his mind that the end was near. Tarleton and other officers condemned Cornwallis sharply for not persisting in the effort to get away. Cornwallis was a considerate man. “T thought it would have been wanton and in- human,” he reported later, “to sacrifice the lives of this small body of gallant soldiers.”” He had already written to Clinton to say that there would be great risk in trying to send a fleet and army to rescue him. On the 19th of October came the climax. Cornwallis surrendered with some hun- dreds of sailors and about seven thousand soldiers. of whom two thousand were in hospital. The terms were similar to those which the British had granted at Charleston to General Lincoln, who was now charged with carrying out the surrender.YORKTOWN 265 Such is the play of human fortune. At two o'clock in the afternoon the British marched out between two lines, the French on the one side, the Ameri- cans on the other, the French in full dress uniform, the Americans in some cases half naked and bare- foot. No civilian sightseers were admitted, and there was a respectful silence in the presence of this great humiliation to a proud army. The town itself was a dreadful spectacle with, as a French observer noted, “‘ big holes made by bombs, cannon balls, splinters, barely covered graves, arms and legs of blacks and whites scattered here and there, most of the houses riddled with shot and devoid of window-panes.”’ On the very day of surrender Clinton sailed from New York with a rescuing army. Nine days later forty-four British ships were counted off the en- trance to Chesapeake Bay. The next day there were none. The great fleet had heard of the surrender and had turned back to New York. Washington urged Grasse to attack New York or Charleston but the French Admiral was anxious to take his fleet back to meet the British menace farther south and he sailed away with all his great array. The waters of the Chesapeake, the scene of one of the decisive events in human history, _ wk bal Pb Seto o | 7 b og be Pree et tale ~ ° el cab ote ene eel cepressey” pp artat aire - —_ wt a es ee eee ore erne Ph nt ta apn tn PO te266 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES were deserted by ships of war. Grasse had sailed, however, to meet a stern fate. He was a fine fight- ing sailor. His men said of him that he was on ordinary days six feet in height but on battle days six feet and six inches. None the less did a few months bring the British a quick revenge on the sea. On April 12, 1782, Rodney met Grasse in a terrible naval battle in the West Indies. Some five thousand in both fleets perished. When night came Grasse was Rodney’s prisoner and Britain had recovered her supremacy on the sea. On re- turning to France Grasse was tried by court-mar- tial and, though acquitted, he remained in dis- grace until he died in 1788, “‘weary,” as he said, “of the burden of life.” The defeated Cornwallis was not blamed in England. His character com- manded wide respect and he lived to play a great part in public life. He became Governor Gen- eral of India, and was Viceroy of Ireland when its restless union with England was brought about in 1800. Yorktown settled the issue of the war but did not end it. For more than a year still hostilities continued and, in parts of the South, embittered faction led to more bloodshed. In England theYORKTOWN 267 news of Yorktown caused a commotion. When Lord George Germain received the first despatch he drove with one or two colleagues to the Prime Minister’s house in Downing Street. A friend asked Lord George how Lord North had taken the news. ‘“‘As he would have taken a ball in the breast,” he replied; “for he opened his arms, ex- claiming wildly, as he paced up and down the apartment during a few minutes, ‘Oh God! it is all over, words which he repeated many times, under emotions of the deepest agitation and distress.”’ Lord North might well be agitated for the news meant the collapse of a system. The King was at Kew and word was sent to him. That Sunday evening Lord George Germain had a small dinner party and the King’s letter in reply was brought to the table. The guests were curious to know how the King took the news. “The King writes just ee as he always does,”’ said Lord George, “except that I observe he has omitted to mark the hour and the minute of his writing with his usual precision.”’ It needed a heavy shock to disturb the routine of George III. The King hoped no one would think that the bad news “‘makes the smallest alteration in those principles of my conduct which have directed me in past time.” Lesser men might Pe eke oe rl oe oe «o ienh ti teqwnaneed Gt ateeesce trea Shore LSet eer iia aa aceite bs 4 air nt ee268 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES change in the face of evils; George III was resolved to be changeless and never, never, to yield to the coercion of facts. Yield, however, he did. The months which followed were months of political commotion in England. Fora time the ministry held its majority against the fierce attacks of Burke and Fox. The House of Commons voted that the war must go on. But the heart had gone out of British effort. Everywhere the people were growing restless. Even the ministry acknowledged that the war in America must henceforth be defensive only. In February, 1782, a motion in the House of Com- mons for peace was lost by only one vote; and in March, in spite of the frantic expostulations of the King, Lord North resigned. The King insisted that at any rate some members of the new ministry must be named by himself and not, as is the Brit- ish constitutional custom, by the Prime Minister. On this, too, he had to yield; and a Whig ministry, under the Marquis of Rockingham, took office in March, 1782. Rockingham died on the Ist of July, and it was Lord Shelburne, later the Marquis of Lansdowne, under whom the war came to an end. The King meanwhile declared that he would re- turn to Hanover rather than yield the independenceYORKTOWN 269 of the colonies. Over and over again he had said that no one should hold office in his govern- ment who would not pledge himself to keep the Empire entire. But even his obstinacy was broken. On December 5, 1782, he opened Parliament with a speech in which the right of the colonies to in- dependence was acknowledged. ‘‘Did I lower my voice when I came to that part of my speech?” George asked afterwards. He might well speak in a subdued tone for he had brought the British Empire to the lowest level in its history. In America, meanwhile, the glow of victory had given way to weariness and lassitude. Rocham- beau with his army remained in Virginia. Wash- ington took his forces back to the lines before New York, sparing what men he could to help Greene intheSouth. Again came a long period of watching and waiting. Washington, knowing the obstinate determination of the British character, urged Con- gress to keep up the numbers of the army so as to be prepared for any emergency. Sir Guy Carleton now commanded the British at New York and Washington feared that this capable Irishman might soothe the Americans into a false security. He had to speak sharply, for the people seemed in- different to further effort and Congress was slack ease ee Te eee Se tt ne eee ee ee 1 eerot hate ett St aoe to Ot eet eee ttt ee tere Poet ee a wi " re tee ay Ee pt arse ~ = ae ree ich teapots inne area at-delety han teaser peeeieanee ale ON a AE BP PS Dlr tn le ane ence He Ka Antabn > a eit ernie ie be Sore 270 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES and impotent. The outlook for Washington’s al- lies in the war darkened, when in April, 1782, Rodney won his crushing victory and carried De Grasse a prisoner to England. France’s ally Spain had been besieging Gibraltar for three years, but in September, 1782, when the great battering- ships specially built for the purpose began a furious bombardment, which was expected to end the siege, the British defenders destroyed every ship, and after that Gibraltar was safe. ‘These events naturally stiffened the backs of the British in nego- tiating peace. Spain declared that she would never make peace without the surrender of Gibraltar, and she was ready to leave the question of Ameri- can independence undecided or decided against the colonies if she could only get for herself the terms which she desired. There was a period when France seemed ready to make peace on the ba- sis of dividing the Thirteen States, leaving some of them independent while others should remain under the British King. Congress was not willing to leave its affairs at Paris in the capable hands of Franklin alone. In 1780 it sent John Adams to Paris, and John Jay and Henry Laurens were also members of the Amer- The austere Adams disliked ican Commission.YORKTOWN O71 and was jealous of Franklin, gay in spite of his years, seemingly indolent and easygoing, always bland and reluctant to say No to any request from his friends, but ever astute in the interests of his country. Adams told Vergennes, the French for- eign minister, that the Americans owed nothing to France, that France had entered the war in her own interests, and that her alliance with America had greatly strengthened her position in Europe. France, he added, was really hostile to the colonies, since she was jealously trying to keep them from becoming rich and powerful. Adams dropped hints that America might be compelled to make a sepa- rate peace with Britain. When it was proposed that the depreciated continental paper money, largely held in France for purchases there, should be redeemed at the rate of one good dollar for every forty in paper money, Adams declared to the horrified French creditors of the United States that the proposal was fair and just. At the same time Congress was drawing on Franklin in Paris for money to meet its requirements and Franklin was expected to persuade the French treasury to fur- nish him with what he needed and to an amazing degree succeeded in doing so. The self imterest which Washington believed to be the dominant “y= . att ek om Jo be ra] va " - tee tt on oe Sp Pe SL re let ahi a ebae sorte hele ee a ere err ; ot i a ened aa per a weet to en ee272 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES motive in politics was, it is clear, actively at work. In the end the American Commissioners negotiated directly with Great Britain, without asking for the consent of their French allies. On November 30, 1782, articles of peace between Great Britain and the United States were signed. They were, however, not to go into effect until Great Britain and France had agreed upon terms of peace; and it was not until September 3, 1783, that the definite treaty was signed. So far as the United States was concerned Spain was left quite properly to shift for herself. Thus it was that the warended. Great Britain had urged especially the case of the Loyalists, the return to them of their property and compensation for their losses. She could not achieve anything. Franklin indeed asked that Americans who had been ruined by the destruction of their property should be compensated by Britain, that Canada should be added to the United States, and that Britain should acknowledge her fault in distressing the colonies. In the end the American Commis- sioners agreed to ask the individual States to meet the desires of the British negotiators, but both sides understood that the States would do noth- ing, that the confiscated property would never beYORKTOWN 273 returned, that most of the exiled Loyalists would remain exiles, and that Britain herself must com- pensate them for their losses. This in time she did on a scale inadequate indeed but expressive of a generous intention. The United States re- tained the great Northwest and the Mississippi became the western frontier, with destiny al- ready whispering that weak and grasping Spain must soon let go of the farther West stretching to the Pacific Ocean. When Great Britain signed peace with France and Spain in January, 1783, Gibraltar was not returned; Spain had to be con- tent with the return of Minorca and Florida which she had been forced to yield to Britain in 1763. Each side restored its conquests in the West Indies. France, the chief mainstay of the war during its later years, gained from it really nothing beyond the weakening of her ancient enemy. The mag- nanimity of France, especially towards her exacting American ally, is one of the fine things in the great combat. The huge sum of nearly eight hundred million dollars spent by France in the war was one of the chief factors in the financial crisis which, six years after the signing of the peace, brought on the French Revolution and with it the overthrow of the Bourbon monarchy. Politics bring strange 18274 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES bedfellows and they have rarely brought stranger ones than the democracy of young America and the political despotism, linked with idealism, of the ancient monarchy of France. The British did not evacuate New York until Carleton had gathered there the Loyalists who claimed his protection. These unhappy people made their way to the seaports, often after long and distressing journeys overland. Charleston was the chief rallying place in the South and from there many sad-hearted people sailed away, never to see again their former homes. The British had cap- tured New York in September, 1776, and it was more than seven years later, on November 25,1783, that the last of the British fleet put to sea. Britain and America had broken forever their political tie and for many years to come embittered memories kept up the alienation. It was fitting that Washington should bid fare- well to his army at New York, the center of his hopes and anxieties during the greater part of the long struggle. On December 4, 1783, his officers met at a tavern to bid him farewell. The tears ran down his cheeks as he parted with these brave and tried men. He shook their hands in silence and, in a fashion still preserved in France, kissed eachYORKTOWN Q75 ofthem. Then they watched him as he was rowed away in his barge to the New Jersey shore. Con- gress was now sitting at Annapolis in Maryland and there on December 23, 1783, Washington ap- peared and gave up finally his command. We are told that the members sat covered to show the sovereignty of the Union, a quaint touch of the thought of the time. The little town made a brave show and “the gallery was filled with a beautiful group of elegant ladies.’” With solemn sincerity Washington commended the country to the protec- tion of Almighty God and the army to the special care of Congress. Passion had already subsided for the President of Congress in his reply praised the “magnanimous king and nation ” of Great Britain. By the end of the year Washington was at Mount Vernon, hoping now to be able, as he said simply, to make and sell a little flour annually and to repair houses fast going to ruin. He did not foresee the troubled years and the vexing problems which still lay before him. Nor could he, in his modest esti- mate of himself, know that for a distant posterity his character and his words would have compelling authority. What Washington’s countryman, Mot- ley, said of William of Orange is true of Washing- ton himself: “As long as he lived he was the guiding A rs Dae, eo ed pe - ~ ri a a ene ee cecilia eee eee tae ~ pap artnne Sr S| eerwtar yest eget cetaseepesre tt 4d ~ a er : s ae tie pee276 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES star of a brave nation and when he died the little children cried in the streets.”’ But this is not all. To this day in the domestic and foreign affairs of the United States the words of Washington, the policies which he favored, have a living and almost binding force. This attitude of mind is not without its dangers, for nations require to make new ad- justments of policy, and the past is only in part the master of the present; but it is the tribute of a grateful nation to the noble character of its chief founder.BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE In Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America, vol. vi (1889), and in Larned (editor), Literature of American History, pp. 111-152 (1902), the authorities are critically estimated. There are excellent classified lists in Van Tyne, The American Revolution (1905), vol. v of Hart (editor), Fhe American Nation, and in Avery, History of the United States, vol. v, pp. 422- 432, and vol. vi, pp. 445-471 (1908-09). The notes in Channing, A History of the United States, vol. 111 (1913), are useful. Detailed information in regard to places will be found in Lossing, The Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution, 2 vols. (1850). In recent years American writers on the period have chiefly occupied themselves with special studies, and the general histories have been few. Tyler’s The Liter- ary History of the American Revolution, 2 vols. (1897), is a penetrating study of opinion. Fiske’s Fhe Ameri- can Revolution, 2 vols. (1891), and Sydney George Fisher’s The Struggle for American Independence, 2 vols. (1908), are popular works. The short volume of Van Tyne is based upon extensive research. The attention of English writers has been drawn in an increasing degree to the Revolution. Lecky, A History of Eng- land in the Eighteenth Century, chaps. x11, xiv, and xv (1903), is impartial. The most elaborate and 277278 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE readable history is Trevelyan, The American Revolution, and his George the Third and Charles Fox (six volumes in all, completed in 1914). If Trevelyan leans too much to the American side the opposite is true of For- tescue, A History of the British Army, vol. 1 (1902), a scientific account of military events with many maps and plans. Captain Mahan, U.S. N., wrote the Brit- ish naval history of the period in Clowes (editor), The Royal Navy, a History, vol. 11, pp. 353-564 (1898). Of great value also is Mahan’s Influence of Sea Power on History (1890) and Major Operations of the Navies in the War of Independence (1913). He may be sup- plemented by C. O. Paullin’s Navy of the American Revolution (1906) and G. W. Allen’s A Naval History of the American Revolution, 2 vols. (1913). eee + " a A ee eee ee Gi eee ee Se 8 ee ale ao oo Oe ee CHAPTERS I AND II Washington’s own writings are necessary to an understanding of his character. Sparks, The Life and Writings of George Washington, 2 vols. (completed 1855), has been superseded by Ford, The Writings of George Washington, 14 vols. (completed 1893). The general reader will probably put aside the older biogra- phies of Washington by Marshall, Irving, and Sparks for more recent Lives such as those by Woodrow Wilson, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Paul Leicester Ford. Haworth, George Washington, Farmer (1915) deals with a special side of Washington’s character. The prob- lems of the army are described in Bolton, The Private Soldier under Washington (1902), and in Hatch, The Administration of the American Revolutionary Army (1904). For military operations Frothingham, TheBIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 279 Srege of Boston; Justin H. Smith, Our Struggle for the Fourteenth Colony, 2 vols. (1907); Codman, Arnold’s Expedition to Quebec (1901); and Lucas, History of Canada, 1763-1812 (1909). CHAPTER III For the state of opinion in England, the contempo- rary Annual Register, and the writings and speeches of men of the time like Burke, Fox, Horace Walpole, and Dr. Samuel Johnson. The King’s attitude is found in Donne, Correspondence of George III with Lord North, 1768-83, 2 vols. (1867). Stirling, Coke of Norfolk and his Friends, 2 vols. (1908), gives the outlook of a Whig magnate; Fitzmaurice, Life of William, Earl of Shel- burne, 2 vols. (1912), the Whig policy. Curwen’s Jour- nals and Letters, 1775-84 (1842), show us a Loyal- ist exile in England. Hazelton’s The Declaration of Independence, its History (1906), is an elaborate study. CHAPTERS IV, V, AND VI The three campaigns — New York, Philadelphia, and the Hudson —are covered by C. F. Adams, Studies Military and Diplomatic (1911), which makes severe strictures on Washington’s strategy; H. P. Johnston’s “Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn,” in the Long Island Historical Society’s Memoirs, and Battle of Harlem Heights (1897) ; Carring- ton, Battles of the American Revolution (1904); Stryker, The Battles of Trenton and Princeton (1898); Lucas, History of Canada (1909). Fonblanque’s John Burgoyne (1876) is a defense of that leader; while Riedesel’s " ¢ mart “s he Pas pam, ap edew sd h=eene ey rem at Be, ee eret = eae hers en ent e ames omega mene fare ee ens Te Sere ee SET aienatl enw e Re eee ey ee ee ed a ahaha PS ae -"™e olka + Ge baneio De PO tet oo 280 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Letters and Journals Relating to the War of the Ameri- can Revolution (trans. W. L. Stone, 1867) and An- burey’s Travels through the Interior Parts of America | (1789) are accounts by eye-witnesses. Mereness’ (editor) Travels in the American Colonies, 1690-1783 (1916) gives the impressions of Lord Adam Gordon and others. CHAPTERS VII AND VIII On Washington at Valley Forge, Oliver, Life of Alexander Hamilton (1906); Charlemagne Tower, The Marquis de La Fayette in the American Revolution, 2 vols. (1895); Greene, Life of Nathanael Greene (1893); Brooks, Henry Knox (1900); Graham, Life of General Daniel Morgan (1856); Kapp, Life of Steuben (1859); Arnold, Life of Benedict Arnold (1880). On the army Bolton and Hatch as cited; Mahan gives a lucid ac- count of naval effort. Barrow, Richard, Earl Howe (1838) is a dull account of a remarkable man. On the French alliance, Perkins, France in the American Revo- lution (1911), Corwin, French Policy and the Amert- can Alliance of 1778 (1916), and Van Tyne on “In- fluences which Determined the French Government to Make the Treaty with America, 1778,” in The American Historical Review, April, 1916. CHAPTER IX Fortescue, as cited, gives excellent plans. Other useful books are McCrady, History of South Carolina in the Revolution (1901); Draper, King’s Mountain and its Heroes (1881); Simms, Life of Marion (1844). RossBIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 281 (editor), The Cornwallis Correspondence, 3 vols. (1859), and Tarleton, History of the Campaigns of 1780 and 1781 in the Southern Provinces of North America (1787), give the point of view of British leaders. On the West, Thwaites, How George Rogers Clark won the Northwest (1903); and on the Loyalists Van Tyne, The Loyal- ists in the American Revolution (1902), Flick, Loyal- ism in New York (1901), and Stark, The Loyalists of Massachusetts (1910). CHAPTERS X AND XI For the exploits of John Paul Jones and of the American navy, Mrs. De Koven’s The Life and Letters of John Paul Jones, 2 vols. (1913), Don C. Seitz’s Paul Jones, and G. W. Allen’s A Naval History of the Ameri- can Revolution, 2 vols. (1913), should be consulted. Jusserand’s With Americans of Past and Present Days (1917) contains a chapter on “Rochambeau and the French in America”’; Johnston’s The Yorktown Cam- paign (1881) is a full account; Wraxall, Historical Memoirs of my own Time (1815, reprinted 1904), tells of the reception of the news of Yorktown in England. The Encyclopedia Britannica has useful references to authorities for persons prominent in the Revolution and The Dictionary of National Biography for leaders on the British side.neal ea OeA Abraham, Plains of, American army on, 50 Adams, Abigail, 49 Adams, John, in Continental Congress, 8; journey from Boston to Philadelphia, 9- 10; on committee to draft Declarationof Independence, 75-76; excepted from British offer of pardon, 86, 92; opinion of Philadelphia, 120, 165; criticism of Washing- ton, 149; sent to Paris on American Commission, 270- 271 Albany (N. Y.), plan to con- centrate British forces at, 133 Allen, Colonel Ethan, 40 André, Major John, at Phila- delphia, 195; treats with Arnold, 241-42; capture, 942-43; hanged as spy, 243 Annapolis (Md.), Congress at, 275 Anne, Fort, 129 Armed neutrality, 206 Army, American, camp at Cambridge, 27-28; Wash- ington reorganizes, 30-35; food and clothing, 30-31, 32, 153-56, 166; composition, 31-32, 43; officers, 32-35, 43-44; after Canadian cam- paign, 51; desertions, 100, 159-60; plundering by, 111; pay, 111, 158-59, 209; in INDEX 283 (65 22 O84 22 6.1 1777, 112; condition under Gates, 145; Washington wishes national, 151; need of engineers, 152; hospital service, 152-53, 166-67; weapons and artillery, 156- 158; religion in, 160-61; supplies from France, 184; after Valley Forge, 197; mutinous, 209, 246 Army, British, food for, 36; press-gangs, 176; flogging, 176; relations between off- cers and men, 176-77; difficulties of raising, 178; see also Germans Army, French, in America, 235-36 Arnold, Benedict, at Ticon- deroga, 40; through Maine to Canada, 43, 44-45; at Quebec, 45-46; at Crown Point, 52-53; Coke de- nounces King’s reception of, 71; Washington’s trust in, 110, 172-73; at Stillwater, 143; describes American army, 155; treason, 173, 195, 240-43; at West Point, 238; life at Philadelphia, 239; tried by court-martial, 239; reprimanded by Washing- ton, 239-40; in Virginia, 251 Articles of Confederation, 163 Assanpink River, Washington on, 105 Atrocities, 180, 212; see also Indians, Prisons rete? erg) ee PP eT ee et int Be 2 - rn eee teehee ieee ii al alee bel al a ; ays a" ae " . _ et etal ie ae eat + re pe a eee er ro ee ae oe st ee a as a eennamintheeee] err a" ee weep aie hedess a poate Peet et ee eer . 4 aa eda - ee ee a ae haat ret etait Stat erat Untie ol be wo onsen Meets arr -~— sik Gace te ™ ae 284 INDEX Augusta (Ga.), British take, 211-12; falls to Americans, 250 B Baltimore, Congress flees to, 100 Barbados, Washington visits, 22 Barras, French naval com- mander, 261 Baum, Colonel, at Bennington, 131, 132 Beaumarchais sends munitions to America, 183-84 Bemis Heights, battle, 143 Bennington, battle of, 131-32 Berthier, French officer, 231 Biggin’s Bridge, Tarleton’s vic- tory at, 216 Bordentown, Germans at, 102 Boston, defiance of British in, 2; siege, 3, 4, 35-36; Wash- ington’s journey to, 9-10; American camp, 27-28; evac- uated by British, 48-49; effect of Washington’s suc- cess at, 81; Howe feigns setting out for, 114; safe, 116; Burgoyne’s force at, 146; Loyalists in, 212 Braddock, General Edward, Washington with, 22-23 Brandywine, battle of, 119-20, 183, 148; La Fayette at, 169; Greene at, 171 Brant, Joseph (Thayendane- gea), 134 Breed’s Hill, 4-5; see also Bunker Hill Broglie, Comte de, suggested as commander of American army, 185 Broglie, Prince de, with French army in America, 232 Brooklyn Heights, Washing- ton on, 88-91 Buford, Colonel, Tarleton attacks, 217 Bunker Hill, battle of, 4-7, 33; Washington learns of, 10; significance, 21; officers at, $$, 35 Burgoyne, General John, on British behavior at Bunker Hill, 7; ordered to meet Howe, 68, 112, 1138, 124-25; Howe deserts, 116, 130; life and character, 123-24; at Lake Champlain, 125 et seq.; Indian Allies, 125-26, 138- 140, 144; takes Fort Ticon- deroga, 127; lack of supplies, 129-30; at Fort Edward, 129, 130, 141; and Benning- ton, 131-32; at Saratoga, 132, 141, 1438; learns of failure of St. Leger, 136; crosses Hudson, 141; at Stillwater (Freeman’s Farm), 142-43; surrender at Sara- toga, 68, 122, 143-47, 149; condition of army, 144; effect on France of surrender of, 186; effect of surrender in England, 190, 192 Burke, Edmund, and concilia- tion, 69; and Independence, 190 Byron, Admiral, sent to aid Howe, 200 C Cahokia, Clark at, 223 Cambridge, American camp, 8, 27-28; Washington at, 10, 30-31, 34, 35, 146 Camden, battle of, 219-20, 236 Canada, campaign against, 37, 88-47; Washington’s idea of, 40; France and, 188; Loyal- ists take refuge in, 227-28 Carleton, Sir Guy, Governor of Canada, 42; commands at Quebec, 45-46; operations on Lake Champlain, 52-53; Howe and, 95; supersededCarleton, Sir Guy—Continued by Burgoyne, 124; com- mands at New York, 269; and Loyalists, 274 Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton, on commission to Montreal, Carroll, John, on commission to Montreal, 50 Catherine II advises England against war, 179 Catholics, Quebec Act, 38-39, 41; disabilities in England, 208 Chadd’s Ford, Washington at, 118, 119 Champlain, Lake, plan for con- quest of Canada by way of, 43; operations on, 52-53, 95; Burgoyne at, 125 ef seq.; Arnold at, 238 Charleston (S. C.), on side of Revolution, 37; British ex- pedition to, 82-83; Prevost demands surrender, 213-14; Lincoln at, 215-17, surren- ders, 217 Charlestown (Mass.), location, 3; burned, 5, 7 Charlotte (N. C.), Greene at, 247 Charlottesville (Va.), Corn- wallis plans raid of, 252 Chatham, William Pitt, Earl of, and conciliation with America, 69, 190; political status, 192, 193 Cherry Valley, massacre, 229 Chesapeake Bay, Howe on, 116, 117; see also Yorktown Chew, Benjamin, house as central point in battle at Germantown, 122 Clark, G. R., expedition, 223 Clinton, General Sir Henry, 230: at Charleston, 82, 215; at New York, 116, 130, 133; up the Hudson, 143, 145; succeeds Howe in command, INDEX 285 195; march from Philadel- phia, 196, 197, 198; retreats at Monmouth Court House, 199; reaches Newport, 202; sails for Charleston, 217-18; proclamation, 218; Rodney relieves, 237; and Corn- wallis, 253; delay in rein- forcing Cornwallis, 262-63, 265 Coke of Norfolk, wealth, 20, 69-70; and Toryism, 70-71; on American question, 71- 72; and Washington, 71, 72, 189 Colonies, attitude toward Eng- land, 55 et seqg.; state of society in, 60; population, 177-78; see also names of colonies Continental Congress, Wash- ington at, 1, 259; selects leader for army, 7-9; Howe’s conciliation, 92-93; flees to Baltimore, 100; loses able men, 110; hampers Wash- ington, 110; Gates and, 142; repudiates Gates’s terms to Burgoyne, 146; Gates lays quarrel with Washington before, 150; and enlistment, 151; at York, 162, 163; in- eptitude, 163-64, 236, 269- 270; gives Southern com- mand to Gates, 219; Test Acts, 226; and French alli- ance, 244; borrows money from France, 271; at Anna- polis, 275 Conway, General, and Stamp Act, 69 Conway, General Thomas, 110; ‘‘Conway Cabal” against Washington, 149, 150; leaves America, 151 Cornwallis, Lord, 230; at Charleston, 82; crosses Hud- son, 97; goes to Trenton, 104— 105; at Princeton, 106; and eee ne eee a en en eo pa ree we EERE See eden eee erent— — ™ weed neeaohekede ss? + bs : Se iedentenbettinee eee ie Pet NS Be ty Se ee femme tae ite eet ee neta Se SOE enna tte et 286 INDEX Cornwallis, Lord—Continued Howe, 115; at the Brandy- wine, 119; goes to Charleston, 216; at Camden, 219; in North Carolina, 221, 247- 248; proclamation, 249; Guilford Court House, 249; advance down Cape Fear River, 250; in Virginia, 251- 252; and Clinton, 253; York- town, 254 et seq.; surrender, 264-66 Countess of Scarborough (ship), Jones captures, 205 Cowpens, battle of, 172, 248 Cromwell, Oliver, as military leader, 170 Crown Point, capture of, 52- 53; Burgoyne at, 126 D Dartmouth, Earl of, Minister of England, 63 Deane, Silas, envoy to France, 184-85 Declaration of Independence, 75-80 Delaware Bay, British fleet in, 116 Delaware River, Washington crosses, 102 Denmark and armed neutral- ity, 206-07 Detroit, force to check Clark from, 223 Devonshire, Duke of, costly residence, 18 Dickinson, John, of Pennsyl- vania, on Declaration of Independence, 78 Dilworth, Cornwallis marches on, 119 Dinwiddie, Governor, Wash- ington and, 16 Donop, Count von, at Trenton, 102, 104 Dorchester Heights, American troops on, 47-48 | } Dumas, French officer with Rochambeau, 231 Dunmore, Lord, Governor of Virginia, 224 E East River, location, 87; Brit- ish on, 93 Edward, Fort, St. Clair retires to, 127; Burgoyne at, 129, 130-141; Indian raids at, 140; Burgoyne seeks to re- turn to, 143 Elkton, Howe at, 116, 118; American army at, 258 Emerson, chaplain, diary quoted, 35 England, in eighteenth cen- tury, 16-19; state of society, 19, 59; Parliament votes tax on colonies, 23; politics, 24— 25, 64 et seq., 268; attitude toward colonies, 54-55, 58; prosperity, 59; difficulties in raising army, 178; France and, 182-83, 187-88, 191- 192, 195-96, 206, 270; Whig attitude after French inter- vention, 189-90; and Spain, 187, 203-204, 206; navy in 1779, 204; domestic affairs, 207; treaty of peace, 272; see also Army, British Estaing, Count d’, French admiral, 195; at the Dela- ware, 196-97; at Sandy Hook, 200-01; at Newport, 201-02; at Savannah, 214- 215 Eutaw Springs, battle of, 250 F Falmouth (Portland) (Me.), destroyed, 81 Ferguson, Major Patrick, 216; King’s Mountain, 221-22; killed, 222Fersen, Count, with French army, 232 Finance, value of continental money, 209; Franklin pro- cures money in France, 271 Florida returned to Spain, 273 Foch, General, quoted, 101 Fox, C. J., and carelessness of ministers, 68; urges concilia- tion, 69 France, French in Canada, 38; alliance with, 182 et seq.; and England, 182-83, 187- 188, 191-92, 195-96, 206, 270; treaty of friendship with America (1778), 187; and Canada, 188; and Spain, 203; promises soldiers to Washington, 210; help in 1780, 230 et seq.; bibliog- raphy of alliance, 280 Franklin, Benjamin, on Lex- ington, 2; on George III, 25; member of commission to Montreal, 50; on committee to meet Howe, 93; satirizes British ignorance, 138; in Congress, 164; induces Hes- sians to desert, 180; sent to Paris, 185; and Loyalists, 225, 270, 271 Fraser, General, killed, 143 Frederick the Great, of Prus- sia, estimate of Washington, 105; urges France against England, 187 G Gage, General Thomas, 72; at Boston, 3, 4-5 Gates, General Horatio, 98, 110, 172, 173; in command of Lee’s army, 99-100; joins Washington, 100; dis- courages Washington, 103; INDEX Clinton in New Jersey, 198; command in the South, 219; Camden, 219; Greene super- sedes, 247 George III, American opinions of, 25; Hamilton on, 39; character, 60-62; speech in Parliament, 62-63; Wash- ington and, 63, 86; statue destroyed in New York, 80; ready to give guarantees of liberty, 115; effect of news of Ticonderoga on, 127-28; on taxing of America, 190; and Chatham, i193; news of Yorktown, 267-68 George, Fort, Burgoyne’s sup- plies from, 129 Georgia, British in, 211-12, 217 Germain, Lord George, failure to send orders to Howe, 68, 125; instructions to Bur- goyne, 112; plans campaign from England, 130-31; cen- sures Howe, 194; in Seven Years’ War, 230; news of Yorktown, 267 Germans, hold line of the Delaware, 102; plundering, 111; at Bennington, 131-32; with Burgoyne, 144, 145; Steuben’s part in Revolu- tionary War, 174-76; benefit to British, 179-80; deser- tions, 180-81, 199 Germantown, Howe's camp at, 121; battle of, 122, 148; Greene at, 171 Gibraltar, Spain besieges, 270; hot ret#rned to Spain, 273 Gloucester, Cornwallis holds, 263 Gordon, Lord Adam, on Phila- delphia, 120; opinion of Charleston, 215 Gordon, Lord George, leads London riot, 208 Grasse, Comte de, commands against Burgoyne, 142-45; intrigue, 149-51; menaces French fleet, 256; at Chesa- Oe ae pt -+* Se en a a heehee enna i mr hat fen a] acu ‘ ~ Se nt cote Fe re eS a etn aenabertae uaa + aSereres ~ 42a al reer ee ele - ae Fe ine aeons Pe eer boats en eer ee— — one ee Sse von te hehess a = re eT See os ae ee ade a. ane ee =e ee ee ad - 2 Seer hearer ee Te a nel na me A ayn TRE Py Ne Sa a red wees bey er ee ee ee | ie eer 288 INDEX Grasse, Comte de—Continued peake Bay, 260, 261-62; sails south, 265; Rodney captures, 266, 270 Great Britain, see England Greene, General Nathanael, 110; at Bunker Hill, 4; ad- vocates independence, 75; commands Fort Washing- ton, 96-97; harasses Corn- wallis, 105; at Germantown, 122; at Valley Forge, 170- 171; in Rhode Island, 201; on Congress, 236; supersedes Gates in South, 247; Guil- ford Court House, 249; at Hobkirk’s Hill, 250 Grey, Sir Charles, Howe and, 115 Guilford Court House, 249 H Hamilton, Alexander, 238; and Washington, 16, 168; on Quebec Act, 39 Hancock, John, desires post as Commander-in-Chief, 8 Harlem River, location, 87 Hastings, Marquis of, 6; see also Rawdon, Lord Henry, Patrick, speech, 57 Henry, Cape, naval battle off, 261 Herkimer, General Nicholas, battle of Oriskany, 135 Hessians, see Germans Hillsborough (N. C.), Corn- wallis issues proclamation at, 249 Hobkirk’s Hill, Rawdon de- feats Greene at, 250 Holkham, Lord Leicester’s residence at, 18; Coke’s res- idence at, 69-70, 71 Holland joins England’s ene- mies, 206, 246 Hood, Sir Samuel, British ad- miral, 261 Howe, Richard, Lord, com- mands fleet reaching New York, 84, 86; Whig sym- pathy, 85; personal charac- teristics, 85; letter to Wash- ington, 86-87; seeks' peace, 92-93; takes fleet to New- port, 100; proclamation, 101; and evacuation of Philadel- phia, 196-97; expects naval fight off Sandy Hook, 200- 201; at Newport, 202; re- fuses to serve Tory Ad- miralty, 207 Howe, General Sir William, at Bunker Hill, 5; succeeds Gage in command, 5, 36; evacuates Boston, 47-48; and Burgoyne, 68, 112%, 116- 117, 130, 142; personal char- acteristics, 84; attitude to- ward Revolution, 84; lands army on Staten Island, 86; battle of Long Island, 87- 90; in New York, 93-95; plans to meet Carleton, 95; battle of White Plains, 96; Fort Washington, 96-97; takes Fort Lee, 98; and Lee, 99, 112-13; at Trenton, 100; proclamation, 101, 111; goes to New York for Christmas, 102; dilatoriness, 109, 110; takes Philadelphia, 109, 112, 120, 149; plan of 1777, 112- 118; sails for Chesapeake Bay, 115-16; at the Brandy- wine, 118-19, 133; and Pennsylvanians, 120-21; at Germantown, 121-22; leaves Philadelphia, 194; Clinton succeeds, 195 Hudson River, advantages of plan to sail up, 82; loca- tion of mouth, 87; British on, 93, 96-98; Washing- ton guards, 209-10, 211, 236, 237-38; see also West PointINDEX 289 I Independence, 54 et seqg.; see also Declaration of Inde- pendence Independence, Fort, 127 India, France against British in, 206 Indians, allies of Burgoyne, 125, 133, 188, 139-40, 144; with St. Leger, 134-36; aid Loyalists in Wyoming mas- sacre, 229 Ireland, Declaration of Inde- pendence, 208 J Jay, John, on Declaration of Independence, 78; opinion of Congress, 162; on Ameri- can Commission, 270 Jefferson, Thomas, and De- claration of Independence, 75-77; on La Fayette, 170; British plan to capture, 252 Johnson, Sir John, with St. Leger, 133-34, 135 Johnson, Samuel, quoted, 58 Johnson, Sir William, 134 Jones, John Paul, 204-06; bibliography, 281 K Kalb, Baron de, part in Re- volutionary War, 173-74; killed, 220 Kaskaskia, Clark at, 223 Kenneth Square, British camp at, 118 Keppel, Admiral, and London riots, 207 King’s Mountain, battle of, 221-22 Knox, Henry, Washington values service of, 110, 171- 172 19 Knyphausen, General, and Howe, 115; at the Brandy- wine, 118; effective service, 179-80 Kosciuszko, in American army, 173 L La Fayette, Marquis de, 182, 230, 238; and Washington, 13, 168, 169; and independ- ence of America, 30; per- sonal characteristics, 169- 170; volunteers through Deane’s influence, 185; with Lee at Monmouth Court House, 198-99; sent to France (1779), 210; as inter- preter for Washington and Rochambeau, 234; in Vir- ginia, 251-52 Lansdowne, Marquis of, sce Shelburne, Lord Laurens, Henry, on American Commission, 270 Lauzun, Due de, with French army in America, 231-32, 233 Laval-Montmorency, French officer in America, 232 Lee, Arthur, on commission to Paris, 185 Lee, General Charles, 150, 172; Washington writes to, 30; at Fort Washington, 98; disobeys Washington, 98- 99; letter to Gates, 99; cap- tured, 99; and Howe, 99, 112-13; freed by exchange of prisoners, 173; personal char- acteristics, 173; and training of recruits, 176; at Mon- mouth Court House, 198- 199; court-martialed, 199; suspended, 199; dismissed from army, 199 Lee, R. H., and Declaration of | Independence, 75 r ~ . , 4 Seen ene ee are as ee Cece we eet er ee eee eee290 INDEX Lee, Fort, 96; Washington at, | 97; falls to British, 97, 98 Leicester, Lord, costly resi- dence at Holkham, 18 Lexington, battle of, 2, 21 Lincoln, Abraham, quoted, 29; and Declaration of Inde- pendence, 76, 77-78 Lincoln, General Benjamin, at Ticonderoga, 142; southern campaign, 214, 215, 217, 264 Long Island, battle of, 87-90, 91 Loyalists, Howe and Pennsy]l- vania, 162; plundering, 203, 228; in South, 212-13; Clin- ton’s proclamation to, 218; decline in strength, 224; punishments, 225-26; Test Acts, 226; question of com- pensation of, 272; gather in New York to claim British protection, 274; bibliography, 281 Luzerne, French Minister, 258 M McCrae, Jeannie, carried off by Indians, 140 McNeil, Mrs., carried off by Indians, 140 Maine, Arnold’s_ expedition, 43, 44 Marie Antoinette, Queen, zeal for liberal ideas, 183; Fer- sen friend of, 232 Marion, Francis, guerrilla leader, 220, 247 Marlborough, Duke of, costly residence, 18 Martha’s Vineyard, Loyalist refugees plunder, 228 Maryland, and independence, 75; Howe plans to secure control of, 113 Massachusetts, Suffolk County defies England, 28-29; North and constitution of, 191; list of Loyalists, 226 Minorca returned to Spain, 273 Mirabeau, French officer in America, 232 Mississippi River becomes western frontier of United States, 273 Monmouth Court House, battle of, 198-99; Lee at, 176 Montgomery, General Rich- ard, expedition to Canada, 43; at Quebec, 45-46; death, 46-47, 98 Montreal, Montgomery enters, 44; Commission sent to, 50; evacuated, 51; St. Leger reaches, 136 Morgan, Captain Daniel, at Quebec, 46; with Greene, 247; at Cowpens, 248 Morris, Gouveneur, opinion of Congress, 162 Morristown (N. J.), American headquarters at, 99, 106, 110 Moultrie, Fort, battle at, 83 Mount Vernon, Washington’s estate, 20, 259, 275 Murray, Mrs., saves Putnam’s army, 94 N Narragansett Bay, British blockade French fleet in, 234 Navy, American, Jones and, 204-06; need for suprem- acy, 231 Navy, British, condition in 1779, 204; factions, 207 Necessity, Fort, surrender of, 148 New Bedford, Loyalists burn, 228 New England, question of leader from, 8; and Wash- ington, 11; character ofNew England—Continued people, 29; equality in, 33; on independence, 75; revolu- tionary, 81; and Indians, 1387; and Burgoyne, 145; States jealous of, 164-65 New Hampshire offers bounty for Indian scalps, 137-38 New Jersey, Washington's flight across, 97, 100; Lee retreats to, 99; loyalty, 110; Howe’s proclamation, 110; Washington recovers, 106; Howe moves across, 110, 114; Clinton crosses, 196, 197 New York, on independence, 75; Howe’s proclamation, 101; Howe’s plan to hold, 113; acquires Loyalist lands, 228 New York City, on side of Revolution, 37; Washington plans to hold, 37-38; loss of, 52, 81 et seqg., 108, 148; statue of King destroyed, 80; burned, 94-95; Wash- ington plans march to, 116; for naval defence, 195; Loyalists take refuge in, 227; French army moves toward, 253; Washington returns to, 269; Washington bids farewell to army at, 274 Newgate jail burned, 208 Newport, Lord Howe’s fleet at, 100; British hold, 201; French fleet sails into, 233; French army leaves, 253 Noailles, Vicomte de, on foot from Newport to Yorktown, 259 Norfolk (Va.), destroyed, 81 North, Lord, Prime Minister, 63-64, 190-91; George Ill writes to, 61; seeks to retire, | 192, 193; and news of York- town, 267; resigns, 268 North Carolina, aud indepen- INDEX 291 dence, 75; campaign in, 247- 251 Northwest, United States re- tains, 273 Nova Scotia, Washington’s belief of sympathy in, 42; Loyalists go to, 227 O Ogg, F. A., The Old Northwest, cited, 224 (note) Oriskany, battle of, 135 P Paine, Thomas, 74; Common Sense, 75 Palliser, Sir Hugh, and British naval quarrel, 207 Panther, Wyandot chief, shows scalp of Miss McCrae, 140 Parker, Admiral Sir Peter, before Fort Moultrie, 82-83 Pennsylvania, and _ indepen- dence, 75; loyalty, 101; Howe plans to secure con- trol of, 113; “‘ Black List”’ of Loyalists, 226 Percy, Earl, opinion of rebels in America, 32 Petersburg (Va.), Arnold at, 251 Philadelphia, second Con- tinental Congress at, 1, 7-9; Washington sets out from, 9; on side of Revolution, 37; Paine in, 74; Howe plans to secure, 100, 101; loss of, 108 et seq., 148; Howe leaves, 194; Mischianza in, 194-95; British abandon, 196; Loyal- ists hanged in, 226; Arnold in command at, 238; French army reviewed in, 257-58 Pigot, General, at Newport, 201 Pitt, William, see Chatham, Earl of 5 een ee hd eared ameoweeeccemtrewesya rit sheryl (oes a eeeead = 292 INDEX Politics, see England Prescott, Colonel, at Bunker Hill, 4 Preston, Major, British officer at St. Johns, 44 Prevost, General Augustine, at Charleston, 213-14 Prices, 167 Princeton, Cornwallis at, 106 Prisons, British prison-ships, 153; London riots, 208 Privateers, checked at New- port, 100; France and, 186 Providence (R. I.), Greene and Sullivan at, 201 Putnam, Israel, at Bunker Hill, 4, 6; leaves New York, 94 Q Quebec, Arnold and Mont- gomery before, 45-46, 49- 50, 82, 98, 238; Morgan at, 172, 247 Quebec Act, 38-39, 41 R Rahl, Colonel, at Trenton, 102; killed, 104 Rawdon, Lord Francis, at Bunker Hill, 6; at Camden, 219, 250 Reed, Joseph, charge against Arnold, 239 Revolutionary War, bibliog- raphy, 277-78 Rhode Island, British control, 100; Washington’s campaign against, 201-02; British evacuate, 211 Richmond, Duke of, opinion of Revolution, 69 Richmond (Va.), Arnold burns, 251 Riedesel, General, at Lake Champlain, 125; effective service to British, 179-80 Riedesel, Baroness, reports conditions in New England, 137 Rochambeau, Comte de, leader of French army in America, 230-31; idea of naval suprem- acy, 231, 255; and Wash- ington, 234, 236, 237; on American situation (1781), 246; goes to Yorktown, 258; in Virginia, 269 Rockingham, Marquis _ of, Prime Minister, 268 Rodney, Admiral, arrives in America, 236; captures St. Eustatius, 246; captures Grasse, 266, 270 Russia, British endeavor to get troops in, 179; Armed Neu- trality, 206 S St. Clair, General Arthur, at Fort Ticonderoga, 127 St. Eustatius captured by Rodney, 246 St. Johns, Montgomery cap- tures, 44 St. Leger, General Barry, at Fort Stanwix, 133-34; at Oriskany, 135-36 Saint-Simon, French officer in America, 232 Sandy Hook, French fleet at, 200, 201 Saratoga, Burgoyne at, 132, 141, 1438; Burgoyne’s sur- render, 68, 122, 143-47, 149, 186; Arnold at, 238; Morgan at, 247 Savannah (Ga.), British land at, 211 Savile, Sir George, opinion of Revolution, 69 Schuyler, General Philip, goes to Canada by way of Lake Champlain, 48; Gates super- sedes, 142INDEX 293 Serapis (ship), Jones captures, 205 Shelburne, Lord, Prime Minis- ter, 268 Shippen, Margaret, 195; marries Arnold, 239 Simcoe, General J. G., with Clinton at Charleston, 216; Governor of Upper Canada, 228 Skinner, C. L., Pioneers of the Old Southwest, cited, 222 (note) Slavery, Washington as a slave-owner, 21 Slave-trade, Declaration of Independence makes King responsible for, 77 South, war in the, 211 ef seq. South Carolina, neutrality pro- posed, 213; British control, 217 Spain, against England, 187, 203-04, 206; navy, 187; and Gibralter, 270; and peace treaty, 272 Stamp Act, 69, 183, 192 Stanwix, Fort, St. Leger before, 133-34 Staten Island, Howe on, 86, 87, 115 States, Congress and, 163 Steuben, Baron von, service in Revolution, 174-75; in Vir- ginia, 247 Stillwater, American camp at, 141; Burgoyne attacks Gates at, 142-43; Burgoyne’s de- feat, 143 Stirling, Lord, prisoner, 89 Stony Point, 99 Stuart, Gilbert, and Wash- ington, 16 Sullivan, General John, taken prisoner at battle of Long Island, 89; sent by Howe to interview Congress, 92; ex- changed, 99: at Morristown, 99; and Washington, 110-11; at Germantown, 122; at Providence, 201 Sumter, Thomas, guerrilla leader, 220, 247 Sweden, Armed Neutrality, 206 T Talleyrand, French officer in America, 232 Tarleton, Colonel Banastre, raids, 216, 217; at Camden, 219-20; and Marion, 221; King’s Mountain, 248; takes Charlottesville (Va.), 252- 253; in Yorktown, 263; and Cornwallis, 264 Terrible (ship), 261 Test Acts, 226 Thayendanegea(Joseph Brant), 134 Thomas, General, on Plains of Abraham, 50 Thompson, General, attacks Three Rivers, 51 Three Rivers, attack on, 51 Throg’s Neck, Howe at, 95 Ticonderoga, Fort, captured by Allen, 39-40, 42; Arnold retreats to, 53; Burgoyne lays siege to, 126-27; Lin- coln besieges, 142 Tories, plundering of, 111; see also Loyalists Toronto, Loyalists in, 228 Transportation, need of mili- tary engineers for, 152 Trenton, Howe at, 100; attack on, 101-07, 109; Greene at, 171 Tryon, Governor of New York, 225 V Valley Forge, Washington at, 148 et seg.; Washington leaves, 196 re ied (Ti yt vet g~ a ee ve “7 - : o) o*- * Sears eta Ae ee ne ne ST lel ele hitebn nt ae ee PU retin baa tt aoe ~ iu ae eee eae = - - . ic ae einen a ne einebobant - Poe ee ee 294. INDEX Vergennes, French Foreign Minister, 182-838, 184, 187, 271 Vincennes, Clark at, 223 Virginia, choice of a comman- der from, 8; state of soci- ety, 19-20, 32-33; on inde- pendence, 75; Convention changes church service, 79; Burgoyne’s force in, 146; covets lands in Northwest, 222; Steuben in, 247; Corn- wallis in, 251 Vulture (sloop of war), 241, 242, 243 Ww Walpole, Horace, 59, 64, 73- 74; Gates godson of, 142; quoted, 217 Ward, General Artemas, and siege of Boston, 3 Washington, George, at second Continental Congress, 1, 259; champion of colonial cause, 1-2, 23-24, 59; chosen Commander-in-Chief, 8-9: journey to Boston, 9-11; personal characteristics, 11, 13-16, 109; life, 11; as a landowner, 12; education, 13; contrasted with English country gentleman, 17-20; wealth, 20, 56; as a farmer, 20-21; a slave-owner, 21; with Braddock, 22-23; opin- ion of George III, 25, 63; not professional soldier, 27; reorganizes army, 30-365; favors conscription, 34; at Boston, 36; plans against Canada, 40-43; mourns Montgomery, 47; hatred of British, 57-58; Coke and, 71, 72, 189; advocates inde- pendence, 75; headquarters in New York, 82, 87; Howe’s letter to, 86-87; at Brooklyn Heights, 88-91; exposed to enemy in New York, 98; and Congress, 96, 146, 163- 164; Lee and, 98-99, 199; retreats across New Jersey, 100; attack upon Trenton, 101-107, 109; on Howe’s dilatoriness, 109; in New Jersey, 110; and Sullivan, 111; policy toward Loyalists, 111; on plundering, 111; need of maps, 111; and Howe, 113-15, 118, 120, 142; and Burgoyne, 116; at the Brandywine, 118-19; Germantown, 121-22; at Valley Forge, 148 et seq.; religion, 161; relations with staff, 167-68; as military leader, 170; volunteers come to, 174; distrustful of France, 188-89; celebrates French alliance, 193; army occupies Philadelphia, 196; follows Clinton across New Jersey, 197-98; Monmouth Court House, 199; despair of, 1779- 1780, 208-09; guards Hud- son, 209-10; French under, 210; opinion of Tories, 227; and Rochambeau, 234, 236, 237, 255; reprimands Arnold, 239-40; and André, 248; plan differs from French, 255; march to Yorktown, 255 et seq.; and Carleton, 269; believes self-interest dominant in politics, 271- 272; bids farewell to army; 274; gives up command, 275; at Mount Vernon, 275; influence upon future, 275- 276; bibliography, 278 Washington, Fort, held by Americans, 96-97; British take, 97 West Indies, conquests re- stored, 273INDEX 295 West Point, fortification, 236, 937-38; Arnold in com- mand, 238; plot to surrender, 940-44 White Plains, battle of, 96 Wight, Isle of, plan to seize, 204 Wilkes, John, introduces bill into Parliament, 191 Wilmington (N. C.), British fleet reaches, 82; Cornwallis in, 250 Wins'ow, Edward, quoted, 49 Wyoming (Penn.) massacre, 229 Y York, Congress at, 162, 163 Yorktown, Cornwallis surren- ders at, 228, 247 et seq. el . ais Ranked re -" Ee a bt duhimaei dee oS ee Phan . weodwernracied roe" a pian a ee ee eed f a a | a qf re a} i 2 re af a ae. a eae! 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