diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:19:41 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:19:41 -0700 |
| commit | 7c97e315babc5263e4e432fff8262587601c379a (patch) | |
| tree | e07b866f90c2b78bfc2d3863eb768abbf44a4700 | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 2704-0.txt | 6749 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 2704-0.zip | bin | 0 -> 148962 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 2704-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 166074 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 2704-h/2704-h.htm | 7757 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/2009-01-04-2704-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 141893 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/2009-01-04-2704.zip | bin | 0 -> 137341 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/2704-8.txt | 6770 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/2704-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 149087 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/wacia10.txt | 6149 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/wacia10.zip | bin | 0 -> 136259 bytes |
13 files changed, 27441 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2704-0.txt b/2704-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..334f601 --- /dev/null +++ b/2704-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6749 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of Washington and his Comrades in Arms, by George Wrong + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: Washington and his Comrades in Arms + A Chronicle of the War of Independence + +Author: George Wrong + +Release Date: July, 2001 [eBook #2704] +[Most recently updated: April 2, 2023] + +Language: English + +Produced by: Dianne Bean, Alev Akman, David Widger and Robert J. Homa + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES *** + + + + +Washington and His Comrades in Arms By George M. Wrong A Chronicle of +the War of Independence + +Volume 12 of the Chronicles of America Series + +Allen Johnson, Editor Assistant Editors Gerhard R. Lomer Charles W. +Jefferys + +Abraham Lincoln Edition + +New Haven: Yale University Press Toronto: Glasgow, Brook & Co. London: +Humphrey Milford Oxford University Press 1921 + +Copyright, 1921 by Yale University Press + + + +PREFATORY NOTE + + +The author is aware of a certain audacity in undertaking, himself a +Briton, to appear in a company of American writers on American history +and above all to write on the subject of Washington. If excuse is needed +it is to be found in the special interest of the career of Washington to +a citizen of the British Commonwealth of Nations at the present time and +in the urgency with which the editor and publishers declared that such +an interpretation would not be unwelcome to Americans and pressed upon +the author a task for which he doubted his own qualifications. To the +editor he owes thanks for wise criticism. He is also indebted to Mr. +Worthington Chauncey Ford, of the Massachusetts Historical Society, a +great authority on Washington, who has kindly read the proofs and given +helpful comments. Needless to say the author alone is responsible for +opinions in the book. University of Toronto, June 15, 1920. + + +Contents + + Washington and his Comrades in Arms + + Chapter Chapter Title Page + Prefatory Note vii + I. The Commander-In-Chief 1 + II. Boston and Quebec 27 + III. Independence 54 + IV. The Loss of New York 81 + V. The Loss of Philadelphia 108 + VI. The First Great British Disaster 123 + VII. Washington and his Comrades at Valley Forge 148 + VIII. The Alliance with France and its Results 182 + IX. The War in the South 211 + X. France to the Rescue 230 + XI. Yorktown 247 + Bibliographical Note 277 + Index 283 + + + +WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES IN ARMS + + + +CHAPTER I. THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF + +Moving among the members of the second Continental 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 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 +disputes about buying British stamps to put on American 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 inhabitants 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 colonies 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 Boston 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 diversion 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 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 batteries lying off +the shore. In the dark the American force of twelve hundred men under +Colonel Prescott marched to this neck of land and then advanced 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 commanded 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 +certain that when he liked he could, with his disciplined battalions, +brush away the besieging army. Now he saw the American force on Breed's +Hill throwing up a defiant and menacing redoubt and entrenchments. Gage +did not hesitate. The bold aggressors must be driven away at once. He +detailed 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 +sometimes 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 +charge against men helpless with empty rifles. This expectation was +disappointed. The Americans had in front of them a barricade and Israel +Putnam was there, threatening dire things to any one who should 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 uniforms, 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 they were more cautious. They began to work round to the weaker +defenses of the American left, where were no redoubts and entrenchments +like those on the right. By this time British ships were throwing shells +among the Americans. Charlestown was burning. The great column of black +smoke, the incessant roar of cannon, and the dreadful 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 floating 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 victorious 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 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 decided 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. Virginia, +next to Massachusetts, had stood in the forefront of the movement, and +Virginia was fortunate in having in the Congress one whose fame as a +soldier ran through all the colonies. There was something to be said for +choosing a commander from the colony which began the struggle and Adams +knew that his colleague from Massachusetts, John Hancock, 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 Hancock'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 he +had seen important service in the war with France. His position and +character commanded universal aspect. 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 +national 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 were traveling in +foreign lands, the strange manners and customs of the other colonies. +The journey, 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 Jersey, 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 his +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 years 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, 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 ownership 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 Declaration 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 attached 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 like 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 hogsheads 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 English. 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 repairing a hairpin for a ward. +He was a keen farmer, and it is amusing to find him recording in his +careful journal that there are 844,800 seeds of "New River Grass" to the +pound Troy and so determining 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 +Behaviour in Company and Conversation." In the 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 revelation +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 sometimes," 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 better 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 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 decision 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, Dinwiddie, who thought his vehemence unmannerly and +ungrateful. Gilbert Stuart, who painted several 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 lighter +than it really was. No doubt many of the rich aristocracy spent idle +days of pleasure-seeking with the comfortable conviction that they could +discharge 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 slavery, 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 +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 century 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 today 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 nothing 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 staggered at a residence +costing millions of dollars. Yet the Duke of Devonshire rivaled at +Chatsworth, and Lord Leicester at Holkham, Marlborough's building +at Blenheim, and many other costly palaces were erected during the +following 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 elaborate +furniture, of servants in livery, and much drinking of Port and Madeira, +among the Virginians. 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 country where one great landowner, Lord Fairfax, held 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 +infertile estate of Mount Vernon would hardly grow enough to pay +the taxes. When Washington desired a gardener, or a bricklayer, or a +carpenter, 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 Washington, 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 necessary. 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 regarded as +unfortunate accidents to be explained away in an era of good feeling +when each side 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 outside 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 discontented 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 +contempt for the amateur soldiers of whom Washington was one. In a wild +country where rapid movement was the condition of success Braddock would +halt, as Washington said, "to level every mole hill and to erect bridges +over every brook." His transport 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 Virginia. "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 resentment 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 +a 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 formal resolution on July 18, 1774, that they were descended +not from a conquered but from a conquering 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 walking +in what was to them the hard path of duty, Washington could say later +that "there never existed a more miserable set of beings than these +wretched creatures." + +The age of Washington was one of bitter vehemence 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 teaching 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 Washington 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, instead 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 +coercing of the colonies so resolutely pressed by George III and his +ministers. Posterity can also, however, understand that the struggle was +not between undiluted virtue on the one side and undiluted vice on the +other. Some eighty years after the American Revolution the Republic +created by the Revolution endured the horrors of civil war rather than +accept its own disruption. In 1776 even the most liberal Englishmen felt +a similar passion for 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 companies +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 Washington now saw it, expressed +the varied character 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 structures 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. In the +warm summer weather this did not much matter but bleak autumn and harsh +winter would bring bitter privation. The sick in particular suffered +severely, for the hospitals were badly equipped. + +A deep conviction inspired many of the volunteers. They regarded as +brutal tyranny the tax on tea, considered in England as a mild expedient +for raising needed revenue for defense in the colonies. The men of +Suffolk County, Massachusetts, meeting in September, 1774, had declared +in high-flown terms that the proposed tax came from a parricide 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 Lincoln, in a noble utterance which touched the heart of +humanity, could appeal to the days of the Revolution, when "our fathers +brought forth on this continent 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 Englander was a trader by instinct. An army had come +suddenly together and there was golden promise of contracts for supplies +at fat profits. 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 arts," 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 were +hunters from the frontier wearing the buckskin of the deer they had +slain. Sometimes there was clothing of grimmer material. Later in the +war in 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 sprinkling of lads of sixteen. +An observer laughed at the boys and the "great great grandfathers" who +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 +disparity 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 air from childhood. Most of the men supplied their +own uniform and rifles and much barter went on in the hours after +drill. The men made and 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 +unchanging conviction, and they and he saved the revolution. 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 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 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 conscription, even in free +Virginia. He had then found quite ineffective the "whooping, holloing +gentlemen soldiers" of the volunteer force of the colony 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 Cambridge 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 as to remain +supine during the process. But probably 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 Americans soon had privateers manned by seamen familiar with New +England waters and happy in expected gains from prize money. The British +were anxious about the elementary problem of food. They might have made +Washington more uncomfortable by forays and alarms. Only reluctantly, +however, did Howe, who took over the command on October 10, 1775, admit +to himself that this was a real 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 creation 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 in British hands. New +York, Philadelphia, Charleston 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 commanded no great waterway leading +inland. The sprawling colonies, from the rock-bound coast of New England +to the 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 increasing +difficulties from transport and supplies. Wherever 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 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 endured, however, of fear +of Canada. When, in 1774, the British Parliament passed the bill for the +government 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 under 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 extension 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 regarded 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 +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; +discipline was slack, for there was nothing to do. 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 Virginians or New Yorkers. They had been recently conquered +by Britain; their new king was a tyrant; they would desire liberty and +would welcome an American army. So reasoned Washington, but without +knowledge. The Canadians were a conquered people, but they had found +the British king no tyrant 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 corruption +and tyranny almost unbelievable. The Canadian peasant had been cruelly +robbed and he had conceived for his French rulers a dislike which +appears still in his attitude towards the motherland of France. For +his new British master he had assuredly 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 underestimated, 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 +Catholic Church of bigotry, persecution, murder, and rebellion. This was +no very tactful appeal for sympathy to the sons of that France which was +still the eldest daughter of the Church and it was hardly helped by +a maladroit turn suggesting that "low-minded infirmities" should not +permit such differences to block union in the sacred cause of liberty. +Washington believed that two battalions of Canadians 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 was 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 Maine 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 +sovereign. 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 distemper." No better were the men from New York, "the sweepings of +the streets" with morals "infamous." Of the officers, too, Montgomery +had a poor opinion. Like Washington he declared that it was necessary to +get gentlemen, men of education 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 competent 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 advance +through the wilderness from the seacoast of Maine and take Quebec by +surprise. News travels even by forest pathways. Arnold made a wonderful +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 Chaudière, which +discharges into the St. Lawrence opposite Quebec. There were heavy +rains. Sometimes the men had to wade breast high in dragging heavy +and leaking boats over the difficult places. A good many men died of +starvation. Others deserted and turned back. The indomitable Arnold +pressed on, however, and on the 9th of November, a few days before +Montgomery occupied 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 Quebec, 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 threats by Carleton's contempt, but never could he draw +from Carleton a reply. 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 attack from the west side of the +fortress. The advance 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 assailants not swept +down fled in panic. With the morning light the dead head of Montgomery +was found protruding from the snow. He was mourned by Washington and +with reason. He had talents and character which might have made him one +of 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 Boston. 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 +commanded Boston as critically from the south as did Bunker Hill from +the north. By the end of February 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 Dorchester Heights and +that if he would dislodge them he must make another attack similar +to that at Bunker Hill. The alternative of stiff fighting was the +evacuation of Boston. Howe, though dilatory, 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 powerful +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 +decided 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 +critic 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 masts, +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. If 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 from 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 sometimes used +violence. Then the Canadians became more reserved and chilling than +ever. In hope of mending matters Congress sent a commission to Montreal +in the spring of 1776. Its chairman was Benjamin Franklin and, with him, +were two leading Roman Catholics, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a +great landowner of Maryland, and his brother John, a priest, afterwards +Archbishop 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 arrived 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 Americans 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. + +Congress sent six regiments to reinforce the army which had fled from +Quebec. It was a desperate 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 attacked 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 annihilated. 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 together 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 into 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 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 afloat on Lake Champlain. Arnold, too, spent the summer 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 delayed 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 Ticonderoga. 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 Lake Champlain to the +Americans. + + +CHAPTER III. INDEPENDENCE + +Well-meaning people in England found it difficult to understand the +intensity of feeling in America. Britain had piled up a huge debt in +driving France from America. Landowners were paying in taxes no less +than twenty per cent of their incomes from land. The people who had +chiefly benefited by the humiliation of France were the colonists, +now freed from hostile menace and secure for extension over a whole +continent. Why should not they pay some share of the cost of their own +security? Certain facts tended to make Englishmen indignant with the +Americans. Every effort had failed to get them to pay willingly for +their defense. Before the Stamp Act had become law in 1765 the colonies +were given a whole year to devise the raising of money in any way which +they liked better. The burden of what was asked would be light. Why +should not they agree to bear it? Why this talk, repeated by the Whigs +in the British Parliament, of brutal tyranny, oppression, hired minions +imposing slavery, and so on. Where were the oppressed? Could any one +point to a single person who before war broke out had known British +tyranny? What suffering could any one point to as the result of the tax +on tea? The people of England paid a tax on tea four times heavier than +that paid in America. Was not the British Parliament supreme over the +whole Empire? Did not the colonies themselves admit that it had the +right to control their trade overseas? And if men shirk their duty +should they not come under some law of compulsion? + +It was thus that many a plain man reasoned in England. The plain man in +America had his own opposing point of view. Debts and taxes in England +were not his concern. He remembered the recent war as vividly as did the +Englishman, and, if the English paid its cost in gold, he had paid his +share in blood and tears. Who made up the armies led by the British +generals in America? More than half the total number who served in +America came from the colonies, the colonies which had barely a third +of the population of Great Britain. True, Britain paid the bill in money +but why not? She was rich with a vast accumulated capital. The war, +partly in America, had given her the key to the wealth of India. Look +at the magnificence, the pomp of servants, plate and pictures, the parks +and gardens, of hundreds of English country houses, and compare this +opulence with the simple mode of life, simplicity imposed by necessity, +of a country gentleman like George Washington of Virginia, reputed to be +the richest man in America. Thousands of tenants in England, owning no +acre of land, were making a larger income than was possible in America +to any owner of broad acres. It was true that America had gained from +the late war. The foreign enemy had been struck down. But had he not +been struck down too for England? Had there not been far more dread in +England of invasion by France and had not the colonies by helping to +ruin France freed England as much as England had freed them? If now the +colonies were asked to pay a share of the bill for the British army that +was a matter for discussion. They had never before done it and they +must not be told that they had to meet the demand within a year or be +compelled to pay. Was it not to impose tyranny and slavery to tell +a people that their property would be taken by force if they did not +choose to give it? What free man would not rather die than yield on such +a point? + +The familiar workings of modern democracy have taught us that a great +political issue must be discussed in broad terms of high praise or +severe blame. The contestants will exaggerate both the virtue of +the side they espouse and the malignity of the opposing side; nice +discrimination is not possible. It was inevitable that the dispute with +the colonies should arouse angry vehemence on both sides. The passionate +speech of Patrick Henry in Virginia, in 1763, which made him famous, +and was the forerunner of his later appeal, "Give me Liberty or give me +Death," related to so prosaic a question as the right of disallowance +by England of an act passed by a colonial legislature, a right +exercised long and often before that time and to this day a part of the +constitutional machinery of the British Empire. Few men have lived more +serenely poised than Washington, yet, as we have seen, he hated the +British with an implacable hatred. He was a humane man. In earlier +years, Indian raids on the farmers of Virginia had stirred him to +"deadly sorrow," and later, during his retreat from New York, he was +moved by the cries of the weak and infirm. Yet the same man felt no +touch of pity for the Loyalists of the Revolution. To him they were +detestable parricides, vile traitors, with no right to live. When we +find this note in Washington, in America, we hardly wonder that the +high Tory, Samuel Johnson, in England, should write that the proposed +taxation was no tyranny, that it had not been imposed earlier because +"we do not put a calf into the plough; we wait till he is an ox," and +that the Americans were "a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful +for anything which we allow them short of hanging." Tyranny and treason +are both ugly things. Washington believed that he was fighting the one, +Johnson that he was fighting the other, and neither side would admit the +charge against itself. + +Such are the passions aroused by civil strife. We need not now, when +they are, or ought to be, dead, spend any time in deploring them. It +suffices to explain them and the events to which they led. There was +one and really only one final issue. Were the American colonies free to +govern themselves as they liked or might their government in the last +analysis be regulated by Great Britain? The truth is that the colonies +had reached a condition in which they regarded themselves as British +states with their own parliaments, exercising complete jurisdiction in +their own affairs. They intended to use their own judgment and they were +as restless under attempted control from England as England would have +been under control from America. We can indeed always understand the +point of view of Washington if we reverse the position and imagine what +an Englishman would have thought of a claim by America to tax him. + +An ancient and proud society is reluctant to change. After a long and +successful war England was prosperous. To her now came riches from India +and the ends of the earth. In society there was such lavish expenditure +that Horace Walpole declared an income of twenty thousand pounds a year +was barely enough. England had an aristocracy the proudest in the world, +for it had not only rank but wealth. The English people were certain of +the invincible superiority of their nation. Every Englishman was taught, +as Disraeli said of a later period, to believe that he occupied a +position better than any one else of his own degree in any other country +in the world. The merchant in England was believed to surpass all others +in wealth and integrity, the manufacturer to have no rivals in skill, +the British sailor to stand in a class by himself, the British officer +to express the last word in chivalry. It followed, of course, that the +motherland was superior to her children overseas. The colonies had no +aristocracy, no great landowners living in stately palaces. They had +almost no manufactures. They had no imposing state system with places +and pensions from which the fortunate might reap a harvest of ten or +even twenty thousand pounds a year. They had no ancient universities +thronged by gilded youth who, if noble, might secure degrees without the +trying ceremony of an examination. They had no Established Church with +the ancient glories of its cathedrals. In all America there was not even +a bishop. In spite of these contrasts the English Whigs insisted upon +the political equality with themselves of the American colonists. The +Tory squire, however, shared Samuel Johnson's view that colonists were +either traders or farmers and that colonial shopkeeping society was +vulgar and contemptible. + +George III was ill-fitted by nature to deal with the crisis. The King +was not wholly without natural parts, for his own firm will had +achieved what earlier kings had tried and failed to do; he had mastered +Parliament, made it his obedient tool and himself for a time a despot. +He had some admirable virtues. He was a family man, the father of +fifteen children. He liked quiet amusements and had wholesome tastes. If +industry and belief in his own aims could of themselves make a man +great we might reverence George. He wrote once to Lord North: "I have no +object but to be of use: if that is ensured I am completely happy." +The King was always busy. Ceaseless industry does not, however, include +every virtue, or the author of all evil would rank high in goodness. +Wisdom must be the pilot of good intentions. George was not wise. He was +ill-educated. He had never traveled. He had no power to see the point of +view of others. + +As if nature had not sufficiently handicapped George for a high part, +fate placed him on the throne at the immature age of twenty-two. +Henceforth the boy was master, not pupil. Great nobles and obsequious +prelates did him reverence. Ignorant and obstinate, the young King was +determined not only to reign but to rule, in spite of the new doctrine +that Parliament, not the King, carried on the affairs of government +through the leader of the majority in the House of Commons, already +known as the Prime Minister. George could not really change what was the +last expression of political forces in England. The rule of Parliament +had come to stay. Through it and it alone could the realm be governed. +This power, however, though it could not be destroyed, might be +controlled. Parliament, while retaining all its privileges, might yet +carry out the wishes of the sovereign. The King might be his own Prime +Minister. The thing could be done if the King's friends held a majority +of the seats and would do what their master directed. It was a dark day +for England when a king found that he could play off one faction against +another, buy a majority in Parliament, and retain it either by paying +with guineas or with posts and dignities which the bought Parliament +left in his gift. This corruption it was which ruined the first British +Empire. + +We need not doubt that George thought it his right and also his duty to +coerce America, or rather, as he said, the clamorous minority which was +trying to force rebellion. He showed no lack of sincerity. On October +26, 1775, while Washington was besieging Boston, he opened Parliament +with a speech which at any rate made the issue clear enough. Britain +would not give up colonies which she had founded with severe toil and +nursed with great kindness. Her army and her navy, both now increased +in size, would make her power respected. She would not, however, deal +harshly with her erring children. Royal mercy would be shown to those +who admitted their error and they need not come to England to secure it. +Persons in America would be authorized to grant pardons and furnish the +guarantees which would proceed from the royal clemency. + +Such was the magnanimity of George III. Washington's rage at the tone of +the speech is almost amusing in its vehemence. He, with a mind conscious +of rectitude and sacrifice in a great cause, to ask pardon for his +course! He to bend the knee to this tyrant overseas! Washington himself +was not highly gifted with imagination. He never realized the strength +of the forces in England arrayed on his own side and attributed to the +English, as a whole, sinister and malignant designs always condemned by +the great mass of the English people. They, no less than the Americans, +were the victims of a turn in politics which, for a brief period, and +for only a brief period, left power in the hands of a corrupt Parliament +and a corrupting king. + +Ministers were not all corrupt or place-hunters. One of them, the +Earl of Dartmouth, was a saint in spirit. Lord North, the king's chief +minister, was not corrupt. He disliked his office and wished to leave +it. In truth no sweeping simplicity of condemnation will include all the +ministers of George III except on this one point that they allowed to +dictate their policy a narrow-minded and ignorant king. It was their +right to furnish a policy and to exercise the powers of government, +appoint to office, spend the public revenues. Instead they let the King +say that the opinions of his ministers had no avail with him. If we ask +why, the answer is that there was a mixture of motives. North stayed in +office because the King appealed to his loyalty, a plea hard to resist +under an ancient monarchy. Others stayed from love of power or for what +they could get. In that golden age of patronage it was possible for a +man to hold a plurality of offices which would bring to himself many +thousands of pounds a year, and also to secure the reversion of offices +and pensions to his children. Horace Walpole spent a long life in +luxurious ease because of offices with high pay and few duties secured +in the distant days of his father's political power. Contracts to supply +the army and the navy went to friends of the government, sometimes +with disastrous results, since the contractor often knew nothing of +the business he undertook. When, in 1777, the Admiralty boasted that +thirty-five ships of war were ready to put to sea it was found that +there were in fact only six. The system nearly ruined the navy. It +actually happened that planks of a man-of-war fell out through rot and +that she sank. Often ropes and spars could not be had when most needed. +When a public loan was floated the King's friends and they alone were +given the shares at a price which enabled them to make large profits on +the stock market. + +The system could endure only as long as the King's friends had a +majority in the House of Commons. Elections must be looked after. The +King must have those on whom he could always depend. He controlled +offices and pensions. With these things he bought members and he had to +keep them bought by repeating the benefits. If the holder of a public +office was thought to be dying the King was already naming to his Prime +Minister the person to whom the office must go when death should occur. +He insisted that many posts previously granted for life should now be +given during his pleasure so that he might dismiss the holders at will. +He watched the words and the votes in Parliament of public men and woe +to those in his power if they displeased him. When he knew that Fox, +his great antagonist, would be absent from Parliament he pressed through +measures which Fox would have opposed. It was not until George III was +King that the buying and selling of boroughs became common. The King +bought votes in the boroughs by paying high prices for trifles. He +even went over the lists of voters and had names of servants of the +government inserted if this seemed needed to make a majority secure. +One of the most unedifying scenes in English history is that of George +making a purchase in a shop at Windsor and because of this patronage +asking for the shopkeeper's support in a local election. The King was +saving and penurious in his habits that he might have the more money to +buy votes. When he had no money left he would go to Parliament and +ask for a special grant for his needs and the bought members could not +refuse the money for their buying. + +The people of England knew that Parliament was corrupt. But how to end +the system? The press was not free. Some of it the government bought +and the rest it tried to intimidate though often happily in vain. Only +fragments of the debates in Parliament were published. Not until 1779 +did the House of Commons admit the public to its galleries. No great +political meetings were allowed until just before the American war and +in any case the masses had no votes. The great landowners had in their +control a majority of the constituencies. There were scores of pocket +boroughs in which their nominees were as certain of election as peers +were of their seats in the House of Lords. The disease of England +was deep-seated. A wise king could do much, but while George III +survived--and his reign lasted sixty years--there was no hope of a wise +king. A strong minister could impose his will on the King. But only time +and circumstance could evolve a strong minister. Time and circumstance +at length produced the younger Pitt. But it needed the tragedy of two +long wars--those against the colonies and revolutionary France--before +the nation finally threw off the system which permitted the personal +rule of George III and caused the disruption of the Empire. It may thus +be said with some truth that George Washington was instrumental in the +salvation of England. + +The ministers of George III loved the sports, the rivalries, the ease, +the remoteness of their rural magnificence. Perverse fashion kept them +in London even in April and May for "the season," just 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 important 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 +Germain, 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. Germain 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 they 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 "perfectly justifiable in every possible political and moral +sense." All the world knows that Chatham 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 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. 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 +theologian, 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. + +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 taxation and he +understood Washington. The American 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 +independence. 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 +spasmodic declarations of independence were made here and there by local +bodies. When Congress 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 belligerents 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 sinister--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 +unwilling 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 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 Philadelphia 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 men, weak men, prejudiced men, moderate men who do not really +know Europe, may urge reconciliation, 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 to be forgiven. 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 hundred thousand copies were quickly sold and it brought decision +to many wavering minds. + +In the first days of 1776 independence had become 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 settlement, and +at last Virginia, in this as in so many other things taking the +lead, instructed its delegates to urge a declaration by Congress of +independence. 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 referred to a committee of which John Adams and Thomas Jefferson +were members. It is interesting 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 Independence. Adams related +long after that he and Jefferson formed the sub-committee to draft the +Declaration and that he urged Jefferson to undertake the task since "you +can write ten times better 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. "I 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 beginning 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 Lincoln. 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 "Flights 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 "introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies." 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 had 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 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 reverence +of a document which became a classic utterance 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 government 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 formal Declaration of Independence. The members did 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. It was a momentous occasion and +was understood to be such. The vote seems to have been reached in the +late afternoon. Anxious citizens were waiting 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 Declaration 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. 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 +Virginia. Washington had no illusions of security. He was anxious above +all for the safety of New York, commanding the vital artery of the +Hudson, which must at all costs be defended. Accordingly, 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 America. One of these we have already seen at +Quebec. 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 expeditions was to strike +at New York and, by a show of strength, bring the colonists to reason +and reconciliation. If mildness failed the British intended to capture +New York, sail up the Hudson and cut off New England from the other +colonies. + +The squadron destined 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 men under +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. Admiral Sir Peter Parker commanded the fleet, and 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 Parker drew off, with +two hundred and twenty-five casualties against an American loss of +thirty-seven. The check was greater than that of Bunker 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," one of them testified. Only one of Parker's ten +ships was seaworthy after the fight. It took him three weeks to refit, +and not until the 4th of August did his defeated ships reach New York. + +A mighty armada of seven hundred ships had 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 +Parliament for Nottingham and had publicly condemned the quarrel with +America 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, however, affects action. Howe had no belief that his +country was in the right in the war and this handicapped him as against +the passionate conviction of Washington that all was at stake which made +life worth living. + +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 by 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 Howe 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, however, 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 was a fighting sailor. Nearly twenty +years later, on June 1, 1794, when he was in command 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 in the annals of the +sea. + +By the middle of July the two brothers were at New York. The soldier, +having waited at Halifax 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 name¹; 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 addressed in +civilian style as "George Washington Esq." The King and his ministers +had no imagination to call up the picture of high-hearted men fighting +for rights which they held dear. ¹Trevelyan, American Revolution, Part +II, vol. I (New Ed., vol. II), 261. + +Lord Howe went so far as to address a letter to "George Washington Esq. +&c. &c.," and Washington agreed to an interview with the officer who +bore it. In imposing uniform and with the stateliest manner, Washington, +who had an instinct for effect, received the envoy. The awed messenger +explained that the symbols "&c. &c." meant everything, 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 Congress +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 +mainland 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 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 thousand well-trained soldiers, and +he could, in addition, 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 Washington was likely only +to qualify defeat. He was advised to destroy New York and retire to +positions more tenable. But even if he had so desired, Congress, his +master, would not permit him to 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 the city untenable. Accordingly Washington +placed half his force on Long Island to defend Brooklyn Heights and +in doing so made the fundamental error of cutting his army in two and +dividing it by an arm of the sea in presence of overwhelming hostile +naval power. + +On the 22d of August Howe ferried fifteen thousand men across the +Narrows to Long Island, in order to attack the position on Brooklyn +Heights from the rear. Before him lay wooded hills across which led +three roads converging at Brooklyn 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 overwhelming odds, had lost nearly +two thousand men in casualties and prisoners, six field pieces, and +twenty-six heavy guns. The two chief commanders, Sullivan 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 marsh three miles long. When he realized, on the 28th of +August, what Howe had achieved, he increased the defenders of Brooklyn +Heights to ten thousand men, more than half his army. This was another +cardinal error. British ships were near and but for unfavorable winds +might have sailed up to Brooklyn. Washington hoped and prayed that 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 move away or face the danger of losing every man on Long +Island. + +On the night of the 29th of August there was clear moonlight, with fog +towards daybreak. A British army of twenty-five thousand men was only +some six hundred yards from the American lines. A few miles from the +shore lay at anchor a great British fleet with, it is to be presumed, +its patrols on the alert. Yet, during that night, ten thousand American +troops were marched down to boats on the strand at Brooklyn and, with +all their stores, were carried across a mile of water to New York. There +must have been the splash of oars 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 of 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 British fleet +might have brought panic to the Americans 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 asking 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, withdrawn 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 performed this +maneuver as soon as they had a favorable wind. There was, we know, great +confusion in New York, and Washington tells us how his 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 an envoy to make peace. The British +victory on Long Island might, he thought, make Congress more willing to +negotiate. So now he sent to Philadelphia 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 Americans had the British quality +of becoming more 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 Congress seems to have thought that Howe was +planning treachery. John Adams, excepted by name from British offers of +pardon, called Sullivan a "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 stalwart Adams and the suave +Franklin were willing to be members of a committee which went to meet +Lord Howe. With great sorrow Howe now realized 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 regiments 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. + +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, invited 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 York soon took fire and one-third of the +little city was burned. + +After the fall of New York there followed a complex 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 together. 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 +autumn 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 +still on Long Island in ships which then sailed through the dangerous +currents of Hell Gate and landed at Throg's Neck, a peninsula on the +sound across from Long Island. Washington parried this movement by so +guarding the narrow neck of the peninsula leading to the mainland 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 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 retreat, +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, on the whole Washington's best +general, was in command 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 +hundred, but they took the huge fort with its three thousand defenders +and a great quantity of munitions of war. Howe's threat was not carried +out. There was no massacre. + +Across the river at Fort Lee the helpless Washington watched this great +disaster. He had need still to look out, for Fort Lee was itself doomed. +On the nineteenth Lord Cornwallis with five thousand men crossed the +river five miles above Fort Lee. General Greene barely escaped with +the two thousand men in the fort, leaving behind one hundred 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 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, Horatio 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 +thousand 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 received 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. He seems deliberately to have left Washington to face complete +disaster and thus prove his incompetence; then, as the undefeated +general, he could take the 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 rôle. 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 bestride 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 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 Sullivan 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 Philadelphia 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 issued 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. Philadelphia 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 despatch: "My center is giving way; my right is retreating; 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 probably 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 +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 Trenton, but this, as +Washington well knew, had not been done for Rahl despised his enemy and +spoke of the American army as already lost. Washington'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 Bordentown below Trenton, +the second at Trenton itself. These two attacks were designed to prevent +aid to Trenton. The third force with which Washington himself 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 boatmen +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 daybreak. 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 the more on the bayonet. He attacked Trenton in broad +daylight. There was a sharp fight. 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, however, 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 victory. +Now, instead, he was sent to drive back Washington. It was no easy task +for Cornwallis to reach Trenton, for Washington's scouting 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 reoccupied Trenton. +This time Washington had not recrossed 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 Cornwallis. That night he sharply cannonaded Washington'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 +compliment 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 history 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. Instead of taking the obvious course of again +retreating across the Delaware Washington decided to advance, to get +in behind Cornwallis, to try to cut his communications, to threaten the +British base 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, Washington'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 entrenchments. The fires +died down towards morning and the British awoke to find the enemy camp +deserted. 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 reinforcements coming to Cornwallis. He reached +Princeton and then slipped away northward and made his headquarters at +Morristown. He had achieved his purpose. The British with Washington +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 exception of some minor +positions near the sea. He had 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. + + + +CHAPTER V. THE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIA + + +Though the outlook for Washington was brightened by his success in New +Jersey, it was still depressing 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 prosecution of the war in America. These numbers were in fact +never reached, but the army of forty thousand in America was formidable +compared with Washington'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. + +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, Washington, in view of his own depleted force, in a +state of half famine, wrote: "If Howe does not take advantage 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 combination in action which was the +first condition of final success. He could have captured Philadelphia +in May. He took the city, but not until September, when to hold it had +become a liability and not 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 a low ebb. He had always the faith that +a cause founded on justice 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 interests 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 tomorrow 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 constantly 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 concealed, 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 service 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. 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 he to +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 coöperate 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 recently +captured, and Lee, as we know, told him 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 prevent 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 coöperate with +Burgoyne. First, however, he was resolved to have Philadelphia. +Washington watched Howe in perplexity. A great fleet and a great army +lay at New York. Why did they not move? Washington knew perfectly well +what he himself would have done in Howe's place. He would have attacked +rapidly in April the weak American army and, after destroying 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 +overwhelming 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 +saying that the fleet was about to sail for Boston. All these things +took time and the summer was slipping away. In the 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? Washington +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 Knyphausen, 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 sedition 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 hundred and twenty-nine ships set their sails +and covered the sea for miles. When they had disappeared out of sight +of the New Jersey shore their goal was still unknown. At sea they might +turn in any direction. Washington's uncertainty 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 hovering 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 intended 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 +of August, when the net was closing on Burgoyne, Howe was three hundred +miles away. His disregard 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 obstructions commanded by +bristling forts. The naval officers said truly that the fleet could not +get up the river. 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 Chesapeake Bay there was little to prevent +him from landing his army on the Delaware side of the peninsula and +marching across it. By sea it is a voyage 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 when a 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 of fighting he showed himself formidable. +When he had landed at Elkton he was fifty miles southwest of +Philadelphia and between him and that place was Washington with his +army. Washington was determined to delay Howe in every possible way. +To get to Philadelphia Howe had to cross the Brandywine River. Time was +nothing to him. He landed at Elkton on the 25th of August. Not until the +10th of September was he prepared to attack Washington barring his way +at Chadd's Ford. Washington was in a strong position on a front of two +miles on the river. At his left, below Chadd's Ford, the Brandywine is +a torrent flowing between high cliffs. There the British would find no +passage. On his right was a forest. Washington had chosen his position +with his usual skill. Entrenchments protected his front and batteries +would sweep down an advancing enemy. He had probably not more than +eleven thousand men in the fight and it is doubtful whether Howe brought +up a greater number so that the armies were not unevenly matched. At +daybreak on the eleventh the British army broke camp at the village +of Kenneth Square, four miles from Chadd's Ford, and, under General +Knyphausen, marched straight to make a frontal attack on Washington's +position. + +In the battle which followed Washington was beaten by the superior +tactics of his enemy. Not all of the British army was there in the +attack at Chadd's Ford. A column under Cornwallis had filed off by a +road to the left and was making a long and rapid march. The plan was to +cross the Brandywine some ten miles above where Washington was +posted and to attack him in the rear. By two o'clock in the afternoon +Cornwallis had forced the two branches of the upper Brandywine and was +marching on Dilworth at the right rear of the American army. Only then +did Washington become aware of his danger. His first impulse was to +advance across Chadd's Ford to try to overwhelm Knyphausen and thus +to get between Howe and the fleet at Elkton. This might, however, have +brought disaster and he soon decided to retire. His movement was ably +carried out. Both sides suffered in the woodland fighting but that night +the British army encamped in Washington's position at Chadd's Ford, and +Howe had fought skillfully and won an important battle. + +Washington had retired in good order and was still formidable. He now +realized clearly enough that Philadelphia would fall. Delay, however, +would be nearly as good as victory. He saw what Howe could not see, that +menacing cloud in the north, much bigger than a man's hand, which, with +Howe far away, should break in a final storm terrible for the British +cause. Meanwhile Washington meant to keep Howe occupied. Rain alone +prevented another battle before the British reached the Schuylkill +River. On that river Washington guarded every ford. But, in the end, +by skillful maneuvering, Howe was able to cross and on the 26th of +September he occupied Philadelphia without resistance. The people were +ordered to remain quietly in their houses. Officers were billeted on the +wealthier inhabitants. The fall resounded far of what Lord Adam Gordon +called a "great and 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 condemned 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 renewed their oath of allegiance to the King. +Washington complained that the people gave Howe information denied to +him. They certainly fed 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 Philadelphia 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 carried 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 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 brigade +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 + + +John 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 Christian, who, in spite of +many faults, had never forgotten 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 certain that a tailor stands with his +feet on the neck of the King of France. The decks of captured ships swim +with punch and are clotted with gold dust, and happy soldiers play +with diamonds as if they were marbles. The senators of England, 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 expected, 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 do 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 colonies had fought in alliance with the painted +and befeathered savages and had made no protest. Now either times had +changed, or there was something in a civil war which made the use of +savages 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 country. 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 to land 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. +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 commanding 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 necessity. He abandoned the untenable +forts and retired 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 +III of the fall of Fort Ticonderoga. The place had been much discussed. +It had been the first British 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 heartburning 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 depression 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 harassing 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 two 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 +equipment 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 England, 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 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 Edward 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 instructions 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 way 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 Bennington 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 +Germans 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 of allegiance, slipped round to +his rear and in the morning he was attacked from front and rear. + +A hot fight followed which resulted in the complete defeat of the +British. Baum was mortally wounded. Some of his men escaped into the +woods; the rest were killed or captured. Nor was this all. Burgoyne, +scenting danger, had ordered five hundred more Germans to reinforce +Baum. They, too, were attacked and overwhelmed. In all Burgoyne lost +some eight hundred men and four guns. The American loss was seventy. +It shows the spirit of the time that, for the sport of the soldiers, +British prisoners were tied together in pairs and driven by negroes +at the tail of horses. An 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 and mounted him on a horse also without +the left eye, in derision at the captive's misfortune. The British +complained that quarter was refused in the fight. For days tired +stragglers, after long wandering in the woods, drifted into Burgoyne's +camp. This was now near Saratoga, a name destined to be ominous in the +history of the British army. + +Further misfortune now crowded upon Burgoyne. The general of that day +had two favorite 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 British 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 Americans. With him were two men deemed potent in that +scene. One of these was Sir John Johnson who had recently inherited +the vast estate in the neighborhood of his father, the great Indian +Superintendent, Sir William Johnson, and was now in command of a +regiment recruited from Loyalists, many of them fierce and embittered +because of the seizure of their property. The other leader was a famous +chief of the Mohawks, Thayendanegea, or, to give him his English name, +Joseph Brant, half savage still, but also half civilized and half +educated, because he had had a careful schooling and for a brief day had +been courted by London fashion. He exerted a formidable influence with +his own people. The Indians were not, however, all on one side. Half of +the six tribes of the Iroquois were either neutral or in sympathy with +the Americans. Among the savages, as among the civilized, the war was a +family quarrel, in which brother fought brother. Most of the Indians on +the American side preserved, indeed, an outward neutrality. There was +no hostile population for them to plunder and the Indian usually had no +stomach for any other kind of warfare. The allies of the British, on the +other hand, had plenty of openings to their taste and they brought on +the British cause an enduring discredit. + +When St. Leger was before Fort Stanwix he heard that a force of eight +hundred men, led by a German settler named Herkimer, was coming up +against him. When it was at Oriskany, about six miles away, St. Leger +laid a trap. He sent Brant with some hundreds of Indians and a few +soldiers to be concealed in a marshy ravine which Herkimer must cross. +When the American force was hemmed in by trees and marsh on the narrow +causeway of logs running across the ravine the Indians attacked with +wild yells and murderous fire. Then followed a bloody hand to hand +fight. Tradition has been busy with its horrors. Men struggled in slime +and blood and shouted curses and defiance. Improbable stories are told +of pairs of skeletons found afterwards in the bog each with a bony +hand which had driven a knife to the heart of the other. In the end the +British, met by resolution so fierce, drew back. Meanwhile a sortie +from the American fort on their rear had a menacing success. Sir John +Johnson's camp was taken and sacked. The two sides were at last glad to +separate, after the most bloody struggle in the whole war. St. Leger's +Indians had had more than enough. About a hundred had been killed and +the rest were in a state of mutiny. Soon it was known that Benedict +Arnold, with a considerable force, was pushing up the Mohawk Valley to +relieve the American fort. Arnold knew how to deal with savages. He took +care that his friendly Indians should come into contact with those of +Brant and tell lurid tales of utter disaster to Burgoyne and of a great +avenging army on the march to attack St. Leger. The result was that St. +Leger's Indians broke out in riot and maddened themselves with stolen +rum. Disorder affected even the soldiers. The only thing for St. Leger +to do was to get away. He abandoned his guns and stores and, harassed +now by his former Indian allies, made his way to Oswego and in the end +reached Montreal with a remnant of his force. + +News of these things came to Burgoyne just after the disaster at +Bennington. Since Fort Stanwix was in a country counted upon as Loyalist +at heart it was especially discouraging again to find that in the main +the population was against the British. During the war almost without +exception Loyalist opinion proved weak against the fierce determination +of the American side. It was partly a matter of organization. The +vigilance committees in each State made life well-nigh intolerable to +suspected Tories. Above all, however, the British had to bear the odium +which attaches always to the invader. We do not know what an American +army would have done if, with Iroquois savages as allies, it had made +war in an English county. We know what loathing a parallel situation +aroused against the British army in America. The Indians, it should be +noted, were not soldiers under British discipline but allies; the chiefs +regarded themselves as equals who must be consulted and not as enlisted +to take orders from a British general. + +In war, as in politics, nice balancing of merit or defect in an enemy +would destroy the main purpose which is to defeat him. Each side +exaggerates any weak point in the other in order to stimulate the +fighting passions. Judgment is distorted. The Baroness Riedesel, the +wife of one of Burgoyne's generals, who was in Boston in 1777, says that +the people were all dressed alike in a peasant costume with a leather +strap round the waist, that they were of very low and insignificant +stature, and that only one in ten of them could read or write. She +pictures New Englanders as tarring and feathering cultivated English +ladies. When educated people believed every evil of the enemy the +ignorant had no restraint to their credulity. New England had long +regarded the native savages as a pest. In 1776 New Hampshire offered +seventy pounds for each scalp of a hostile male Indian and thirty-seven +pounds and ten shillings for each scalp of a woman or of a child under +twelve years of age. Now it was reported that the British were offering +bounties for American scalps. Benjamin Franklin satirized British +ignorance when he described whales leaping Niagara Falls and he did not +expect to be taken seriously when, at a later date, he pictured George +III as gloating over the scalps of his subjects in America. The Seneca +Indians alone, wrote Franklin, sent to the King many bales of scalps. +Some bales were captured by the Americans and they found the scalps of +43 soldiers, 297 farmers, some of them burned alive, and 67 old people, +88 women, 193 boys, 211 girls, 29 infants, and others unclassified. +Exact figures bring conviction. Franklin was not wanting in exactness +nor did he fail, albeit it was unwittingly, to intensify burning +resentment of which we have echoes still. Burgoyne had to bear the odium +of the outrages by Indians. It is amusing to us, though it was hardly so +to this kindly man, to find these words put into his mouth by a colonial +poet: + + I will let loose the dogs of Hell, + Ten thousand Indians who shall yell, + And foam, and tear, and grin, and roar + And drench their moccasins in gore:… + I swear, by St. George and St. Paul, + I will exterminate you all. + +Such seed, falling on soil prepared by the hate of war, brought forth +its deadly fruit. The Americans believed that there was no brutality +from which British officers would shrink. Burgoyne had told his Indian +allies that they must not kill except in actual fighting and that there +must be no slaughter of non-combatants and no scalping of any but the +dead. The warning delivered him into the hands of his enemies for it +showed that he half expected outrage. Members of the British House of +Commons were no whit behind the Americans in attacking him. Burke amused +the House by his satire on Burgoyne's words: "My gentle lions, my humane +bears, my tender-hearted hyenas, go forth! But I exhort you, as you are +Christians and members of civilized society, to take care not to hurt +any man, woman, or child." Burke's great speech lasted for three and +a half hours and Sir George Savile called it "the greatest triumph of +eloquence within memory." British officers disliked their dirty, greasy, +noisy allies and Burgoyne found his use of savages, with the futile +order to be merciful, a potent factor in his defeat. + +A horrifying incident had occurred while he was fighting his way to +the Hudson. As the Americans were preparing to leave Fort Edward some +marauding Indians saw a chance of plunder and outrage. They burst into a +house and carried off two ladies, both of them British in sympathy--Mrs. +McNeil, a cousin of one of Burgoyne's chief officers, General Fraser, +and Miss Jeannie McCrae, whose betrothed, a Mr. Jones, and whose brother +were serving with Burgoyne. In a short time Mrs. McNeil was handed over +unhurt to Burgoyne's advancing army. Miss McCrae was never again seen +alive by her friends. Her body was found and a Wyandot chief, known as +the Panther, showed her scalp as a trophy. Burgoyne would have been a +poor creature had he not shown anger at such a crime, even if committed +against the enemy. This crime, however, was committed against his own +friends. He pressed the charge against the chief and was prepared to +hang him and only relaxed when it was urged that the execution would +cause all his Indians to leave him and to commit further outrages. The +incident was appealing in its tragedy and stirred the deep anger of the +population of the surrounding country among whose descendants to this +day the tradition of the abandoned brutality of the British keeps alive +the old hatred. + +At Fort Edward Burgoyne now found that he could hardly move. He was +encumbered by an enormous baggage train. His own effects filled, it is +said, thirty wagons and this we can believe when we find that champagne +was served at his table up almost to the day of final disaster. The +population was thoroughly aroused against him. His own instinct was +to remain near the water route to Canada and make sure of his +communications. On the other hand, honor called him to go forward and +not fail Howe, supposed to be advancing to meet him. For a long time he +waited and hesitated. Meanwhile he was having increasing difficulty in +feeding his army and through sickness and desertion his numbers were +declining. By the 13th of September he had taken a decisive step. He +made a bridge of boats and moved his whole force across the river to +Saratoga, now Schuylerville. This crossing of the river would result +inevitably in cutting off his communications with Lake George and +Ticonderoga. After such a step he could not go back and he was moving +forward into a dark unknown. The American camp was at Stillwater, twelve +miles farther down the river. Burgoyne sent messenger after messenger +to get past the American lines and bring back news of Howe. Not one +of these unfortunate spies returned. Most of them were caught and +ignominiously hanged. One thing, however, Burgoyne could do. He could +hazard a fight and on this he decided as the autumn was closing in. + +Burgoyne had no time to lose, once his force was on the west bank of the +Hudson. General Lincoln cut off his communications with Canada and was +soon laying siege to Ticonderoga. The American army facing Burgoyne was +now commanded by General Gates. This Englishman, the godson of Horace +Walpole, had gained by successful intrigue powerful support in Congress. +That body was always paying too much heed to local claims and jealousies +and on the 2d of August it removed Schuyler of New York because he was +disliked by the soldiers from New England and gave the command to Gates. +Washington was far away maneuvering to meet Howe and he was never able +to watch closely the campaign in the north. Gates, indeed, +considered himself independent of Washington and reported not to the +Commander-in-Chief but direct to Congress. On the 19th of September +Burgoyne attacked Gates in a strong entrenched position on Bemis +Heights, at Stillwater. There was a long and bitter fight, but by +evening Burgoyne had not carried the main position and had lost more +than five hundred men whom he could ill spare from his scanty numbers. + +Burgoyne's condition was now growing desperate. American forces barred +retreat to Canada. He must go back and meet both frontal and flank +attacks, or go forward, or surrender. To go forward now had most +promise, for at last Howe had instructed Clinton, left in command at New +York, to move, and Clinton was making rapid progress up the Hudson. On +the 7th of October Burgoyne attacked again at Stillwater. This time he +was decisively defeated, a result due to the amazing energy in attack +of Benedict Arnold, who had been stripped of his command by an intrigue. +Gates would not even speak to him and his lingering in the American camp +was unwelcome. Yet as a volunteer Arnold charged the British line madly +and broke it. Burgoyne's best general, Fraser, was killed in the fight. +Burgoyne retired to Saratoga and there at last faced the prospects of +getting back to Fort Edward and to Canada. It may be that he could have +cut his way through, but this is doubtful. Without risk of destruction +he could not move in any direction. His enemies now outnumbered him +nearly four to one. His camp was swept by the American guns and his +men were under arms night and day. American sharpshooters stationed +themselves at daybreak in trees about the British camp and any one +who appeared in the open risked his life. If a cap was held up in view +instantly two or three balls would pass through it. His horses were +killed by rifle shots. Burgoyne had little food for his men and none for +his horses. His Indians had long since gone off in dudgeon. Many of +his Canadian French slipped off homeward and so did the Loyalists. The +German troops were naturally dispirited. A British officer tells of the +deadly homesickness of these poor men. They would gather in groups of +two dozen or so and mourn that they would never again see their native +land. They died, a score at a time, of no other disease than sickness +for their homes. They could have no pride in trying to save a lost +cause. Burgoyne was surrounded and, on the 17th of October, he was +obliged to surrender. + +Gates proposed to Burgoyne hard terms--surrender with no honors of war. +The British were to lay down their arms in their encampments and to +march out without weapons of any kind. Burgoyne declared that, rather +than accept such terms, he would fight still and take no quarter. A +shadow was falling on the path of Gates. The term of service of some of +his men had expired. The New Englanders were determined to stay and see +the end of Burgoyne but a good many of the New York troops went off. +Sickness, too, was increasing. Above all General Clinton was advancing +up the Hudson. British ships could come up freely as far as Albany and +in a few days Clinton might make a formidable advance. Gates, a timid +man, was in a hurry. He therefore agreed that the British should march +from their camp with the honors of war, that the troops should be taken +to New England, and from there to England. They must not serve again +in North America during the war but there was nothing in the terms to +prevent their serving in Europe and relieving British regiments for +service in America. Gates had the courtesy to keep his army where it +could not see the laying down of arms by Burgoyne's force. About five +thousand men, of whom sixteen hundred were Germans and only three +thousand five hundred fit for duty, surrendered to sixteen thousand +Americans. Burgoyne gave offense to German officers by saying in his +report that he might have held out longer had all his troops been +British. This is probably true but the British met with only a just +Nemesis for using soldiers who had no call of duty to serve. + +The army set out on its long march of two hundred miles to Boston. The +late autumn weather was cold, the army was badly clothed and fed, and +the discomfort of the weary route was increased by the bitter antagonism +of the inhabitants. They respected the regular British soldier but at +the Germans they shouted insults and the Loyalists they despised as +traitors. The camp at the journey's end was on the ground at Cambridge +where two years earlier Washington had trained his first army. Every day +Burgoyne expected to embark. There was delay and, at last, he knew +the reason. Congress repudiated the terms granted by Gates. A tangled +dispute followed. Washington probably had no sympathy with the quibbling +of Congress. But he had no desire to see this army return to Europe and +release there an army to serve in America. Burgoyne's force was never +sent to England. For nearly a year it lay at Boston. Then it was marched +to Virginia. The men suffered great hardships and the numbers fell by +desertion and escape. When peace came in 1783 there was no army to take +back to England; Burgoyne's soldiers had been merged into the American +people. It may well be, indeed, that descendants of his beaten men have +played an important part in building up the United States. The irony of +history is unconquerable. + + + +CHAPTER VII. WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES AT VALLEY FORGE + + +Washington had met defeat in every considerable battle at which he was +personally present. His first appearance in military history, in +the Ohio campaign against the French, twenty-two years before the +Revolution, was marked by a defeat, the surrender of Fort Necessity. +Again in the next year, when he fought to relieve the disaster to +Braddock's army, defeat was his portion. Defeat had pursued him in +the battles of the Revolution--before New York, at the Brandywine, at +Germantown. The campaign against Canada, which he himself planned, had +failed. He had lost New York and Philadelphia. But, like William III of +England, who in his long struggle with France hardly won a battle +and yet forced Louis XIV to accept his terms of peace, Washington, by +suddenness in reprisal, by skill in resource when his plans seemed +to have been shattered, grew on the hard rock of defeat the flower of +victory. + +There was never a time when Washington was not trusted by men of real +military insight or by the masses of the people. But a general who does +not win victories in the field is open to attack. By the winter of 1777 +when Washington, with his army reduced and needy, was at Valley Forge +keeping watch on Howe in Philadelphia, John Adams and others were +talking of the sin of idolatry in the worship of Washington, of its +flavor of the accursed spirit of monarchy, and of the punishment which +"the God of Heaven and Earth" must inflict for such perversity. Adams +was all against a Fabian policy and wanted to settle issues forever by a +short and strenuous war. The idol, it was being whispered, proved after +all to have feet of clay. One general, and only one, had to his credit +a really great victory--Gates, to whom Burgoyne had surrendered at +Saratoga, and there was a movement to replace Washington by this +laureled victor. + +General Conway, an Irish soldier of fortune, was one of the most +troublesome in this plot. He had served in the campaign about +Philadelphia but had been blocked in his extravagant demands for +promotion; so he turned for redress to Gates, the star in the north. A +malignant campaign followed in detraction of Washington. He had, it was +said, worn out his men by useless marches; with an army three times +as numerous as that of Howe, he had gained no victory; there was high +fighting quality in the American army if properly led, but Washington +despised the militia; a Gates or a Lee or a Conway would save the cause +as Washington could not; and so on. "Heaven has determined to save your +country or a weak general and bad counsellors would have ruined it"; so +wrote Conway to Gates and Gates allowed the letter to be seen. The words +were reported to Washington, who at once, in high dudgeon, called +Conway to account. An explosion followed. Gates both denied that he had +received a letter with the passage in question, and, at the same time, +charged that there had been tampering with his private correspondence. +He could not have it both ways. Conway was merely impudent in reply to +Washington, but Gates laid the whole matter before Congress. Washington +wrote to Gates, in reply to his denials, ironical references to "rich +treasures of knowledge and experience" "guarded with penurious reserve" +by Conway from his leaders but revealed to Gates. There was no irony in +Washington's reference to malignant detraction and mean intrigue. At +the same time he said to Gates: "My temper leads me to peace and harmony +with all men," and he deplored the internal strife which injured the +great cause. Conway soon left America. Gates lived to command another +American army and to end his career by a crowning disaster. + +Washington had now been for more than two years in the chief command and +knew his problems. It was a British tradition that standing armies were +a menace to liberty, and the tradition had gained strength in crossing +the sea. Washington would have wished a national army recruited by +Congress alone and bound to serve for the duration of the war. There +was much talk at the time of a "new model army" similar in type to the +wonderful creation of Oliver Cromwell. The Thirteen Colonies became, +however, thirteen nations. Each reserved the right to raise its own +levies in its own way. To induce men to enlist Congress was twice +handicapped. First, it had no power of taxation and could only ask the +States to provide what it needed. The second handicap was even greater. +When Congress offered bounties to those who enlisted in the Continental +army, some of the States offered higher bounties for their own levies +of militia, and one authority was bidding against the other. 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 +knowledge of the country. Another service ill-equipped was what we +should now call the Red Cross. Epidemics, and especially smallpox, +wrought havoc in the army. 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 crude. 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 hospitals 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 scandal, and much bitter invective +against British brutality is found in the literature of the period. The +British leaders, no less than Washington himself, were humane men, and +ignorance and inadequate equipment will explain most of the hardships, +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 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 uniformity 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 Washington'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 uniforms which gave them a sufficiently smart +appearance. 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. + +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 American 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's 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 American 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 ammunition +was scanty, but in time there were importations from France and also +supplies from American gun factories. The standard length of the barrel +was three and a half feet, a portentous size compared with that of the +modern weapon. The loading 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; 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 firearms. 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, however, 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 inventive spirit of America was +busy with plans to procure 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 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 with a +ramrod. A store of German Bibles in Pennsylvania 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 Washington 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 Washington 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 "continental 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 flinching, but he was at one with his men in their +sufferings, 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 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 +sometimes 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, desertion involved a double loss. On one +occasion some soldiers undertook for themselves the punishment of +deserters. Men of the First Pennsylvania Regiment 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 happened 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 and 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 Anglican 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 Washington which passed the winter so near and in acute +distress. The Pennsylvania Loyalists, with dark days soon to come, were +bitter at Howe's inactivity, 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 principle 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 no 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 Confederation were adopted. By the following midsummer 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 constitutional sanction during +the greater part of the war. + +The ineptitude of Congress is explained when we recall that it was +a revolutionary body which indeed 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 Massachusetts +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 attitude of deference +and courtesy which it did not always deserve. The ablest men in the +individual States held aloof from Congress. They felt that they had more +dignity and power if they sat in their own legislatures. The assembly +which in the first days had as members men of the type of Washington and +Franklin sank into a gathering of second-rate men who were divided into +fierce factions. They debated interminably and did little. Each member +usually felt that he must champion the interests of his own State +against the hostility of others. It was not easy to create a sense of +national life. The union was only a league of friendship. States which +for a century or more had barely acknowledged their dependence upon +Great Britain, were chary about coming under the control of a new +centralizing authority at Philadelphia. The new States were sovereign +and some of them went so far as to send envoys of their own to negotiate +with foreign powers in Europe. When it was urged that Congress should +have the power to raise taxes in the States, there were patriots who +asked sternly what the war was about if it was not to vindicate the +principle that the people of a State alone should have power of taxation +over themselves. Of New England all the other States were jealous and +they particularly disliked that proud and censorious city which already +was accused of believing that God had made Boston for Himself and all +the rest of the world for Boston. The religion of New England did not +suit the Anglicans of Virginia or the Roman Catholics of Maryland, and +there was resentful suspicion of Puritan intolerance. John Adams said +quite openly that there were no religious teachers in Philadelphia to +compare with those of Boston and naturally other colonies drew away from +the severe and rather acrid righteousness of which he was a type. + +Inefficiency meanwhile brought terrible suffering at Valley Forge, +and the horrors of that winter remain still vivid in the memory of the +American people. The army marched to Valley Forge on December 17, 1777, +and in midwinter everything from houses to entrenchments had still to be +created. At once there was busy activity in cutting down trees for the +log huts. They were built nearly square, sixteen feet by fourteen, in +rows, with the door opening on improvised streets. Since boards were +scarce, and it was difficult to make roofs rainproof, Washington tried +to stimulate ingenuity by offering a reward of one hundred dollars for +an improved method of roofing. The fireplaces of wood were protected +with thick clay. Firewood was abundant, but, with little food for oxen +and horses, men had to turn themselves into draught animals to bring in +supplies. + +Sometimes the army was for a week without meat. Many horses died for +lack of forage or of proper care, a waste which especially disturbed +Washington, a lover of horses. When quantities of clothing were ready +for use, they were not delivered at Valley Forge owing to lack of +transport. Washington expressed his contempt for officers who resigned +their commissions in face of these distresses. No one, he said, ever +heard him say a word about resignation. There were many desertions but, +on the whole, he marveled at the patience of his men and that they did +not mutiny. With a certain grim humor they chanted phrases about "no +pay, no clothes, no provisions, no rum," and sang an ode glorifying war +and Washington. Hundreds of them marched barefoot, their blood staining +the snow or the frozen ground while, at the same time, stores of shoes +and clothing were lying unused somewhere on the roads to the camp. + +Sickness raged in the army. Few men at Valley Forge, wrote Washington, +had more than a sheet, many only part of a sheet, and some nothing at +all. Hospital stores were lacking. For want of straw and blankets the +sick lay perishing on the frozen ground. When Washington had been +at Valley Forge for less than a week, he had to report nearly three +thousand men unfit for duty because of their nakedness in the bitter +winter. Then, as always, what we now call the "profiteer" was holding up +supplies for higher prices. To the British at Philadelphia, because they +paid in gold, things were furnished which were denied to Washington +at Valley Forge, and he announced that he would hang any one who +took provisions to Philadelphia. To keep his men alive Washington had +sometimes to take food by force from the inhabitants and then there was +an outcry that this was robbery. With many sick, his horses so disabled +that he could not move his artillery, and his defenses very slight, +he could have made only a weak fight had Howe attacked him. Yet the +legislature of Pennsylvania told him that, instead of lying quiet in +winter quarters, he ought to be carrying on an active campaign. In most +wars irresponsible men sitting by comfortable firesides are sure they +knew best how the thing should be done. + +The bleak hillside at Valley Forge was something more than a prison. +Washington's staff was known as his family and his relations with them +were cordial and even affectionate. The young officers faced their +hardships cheerily and gave meager dinners to which no one might go if +he was so well off as to have trousers without holes. They talked and +sang and jested about their privations. By this time many of the bad +officers, of whom Washington complained earlier, had been weeded out and +he was served by a body of devoted men. There was much good comradeship. +Partnership in suffering tends to draw men together. In the company +which gathered about Washington, two men, mere youths at the time, have +a world-wide fame. The young Alexander Hamilton, barely twenty-one years +of age, and widely known already for his political writings, had the +rank of lieutenant colonel gained for his services in the fighting about +New York. He was now Washington's confidential secretary, a position +in which he soon grew restless. His ambition was to be one of the great +military leaders of the Revolution. Before the end of the war he had +gone back to fighting and he distinguished himself in the last battle +of the war at Yorktown. The other youthful figure was the Marquis de La +Fayette. It is not without significance that a noble square bears his +name in the capital named after Washington. The two men loved each +other. The young French aristocrat, with both a great name and great +possessions, was fired in 1776, when only nineteen, with zeal for the +American cause. "With the welfare of America," he wrote to his wife, +"is closely linked the welfare of mankind." Idealists in France believed +that America was leading in the remaking of the world. When it was known +that La Fayette intended to go to fight in America, the King of France +forbade it, since France had as yet no quarrel with England. The +youth, however, chartered a ship, landed in South Carolina, hurried to +Philadelphia, and was a major general in the American army when he was +twenty years of age. + +La Fayette rendered no serious military service to the American cause. +He arrived in time to fight in the battle of the Brandywine. Washington +praised him for his bravery and military ardor and wrote to Congress +that he was sensible, discreet, and able to speak English freely. It was +with an eye to the influence in France of the name of the young noble +that Congress advanced him so rapidly. La Fayette was sincere and +generous in spirit. He had, however, little military capacity. Later +when he might have directed the course of the French Revolution he was +found wanting in force of character. The great Mirabeau tried to work +with him for the good of France, but was repelled by La Fayette's +jealous vanity, a vanity so greedy of praise that Jefferson called it a +"canine appetite for popularity and fame." La Fayette once said that +he had never had a thought with which he could reproach himself, and +he boasted that he has mastered three kings--the King of England in the +American Revolution, the King of France, and King Mob of Paris during +the upheaval in France. He was useful as a diplomatist rather than as a +soldier. Later, in an hour of deep need, Washington sent La Fayette to +France to ask for aid. He was influential at the French court and came +back with abundant promises, which were in part fulfilled. + +Washington himself and Oliver Cromwell are perhaps the only two civilian +generals in history who stand in the first rank as military leaders. +It is doubtful indeed whether it is not rather character than military +skill which gives Washington his place. Only one other general of the +Revolution attained to first rank even in secondary fame. Nathanael +Greene was of Quaker stock from Rhode Island. He was a natural student +and when trouble with the mother country was impending in 1774 he +spent the leisure which he could spare from his forges in the study of +military history and in organizing the local militia. Because of his +zeal for military service he was expelled from the Society of Friends. +In 1775 when war broke out he was promptly on hand with a contingent +from Rhode Island. In little more than a year and after a very slender +military experience he was in command of the army on Long Island. On the +Hudson defeat not victory was his lot. He had, however, as much stern +resolve as Washington. He shared Washington's success in the attack on +Trenton, and his defeats at the Brandywine and at Germantown. Now he +was at Valley Forge, and when, on March 2, 1778, he became quartermaster +general, the outlook for food and supplies steadily improved. Later, in +the South, he rendered brilliant service which made possible the final +American victory at Yorktown. + +Henry Knox, a Boston bookseller, had, like Greene, only slight training +for military command. It shows the dearth of officers to fight the +highly disciplined British army that Knox, at the age of twenty-five, +and fresh from commercial life, was placed in charge of the meager +artillery which Washington had before Boston. It was Knox, who, with +heart-breaking labor, took to the American front the guns captured +at Ticonderoga. Throughout the war he did excellent service with the +artillery, and Washington placed a high value upon his services. He +valued too those of Daniel Morgan, an old fighter in the Indian wars, +who left his farm in Virginia when war broke out, and marched his +company of riflemen to join the army before Boston. He served with +Arnold at the siege of Quebec, and was there taken prisoner. He was +exchanged and had his due revenge when he took part in the capture of +Burgoyne's army. He was now at Valley Forge. Later he had a command +under Greene in the South and there, as we shall see, he won the great +success of the Battle of Cowpens in January, 1781. + +It was the peculiar misfortune of Washington that the three men, Arnold, +Lee, and Gates, who ought to have rendered him the greatest service, +proved unfaithful. Benedict Arnold, next to Washington himself, was +probably the most brilliant and resourceful soldier of the Revolution. +Washington so trusted him that, when the dark days at Valley Forge were +over, he placed him in command of the recaptured federal capital. Today +the name of Arnold would rank high in the memory of a grateful country +had he not fallen into the bottomless pit of treason. The same is in +some measure true of Charles Lee, who was freed by the British in an +exchange of prisoners and joined Washington at Valley Forge late in +the spring of 1778. Lee was so clever with his pen as to be one of the +reputed authors of the Letters of Junius. He had served as a British +officer in the conquest of Canada, and later as major general in the +army of Poland. He had a jealous and venomous temper and could never +conceal the contempt of the professional soldier for civilian generals. +He, too, fell into the abyss of treason. Horatio Gates, also a regular +soldier, had served under Braddock and was thus at that early period +a comrade of Washington. Intriguer he was, but not a traitor. It was +incompetence and perhaps cowardice which brought his final ruin. + +Europe had thousands of unemployed officers some of whom had had +experience in the Seven Years' War and many turned eagerly to America +for employment. There were some good soldiers among these fighting +adventurers. Kosciuszko, later famous as a Polish patriot, rose by his +merits to the rank of brigadier general in the American army; De Kalb, +son of a German peasant, though not a baron, as he called himself, +proved worthy of the rank of a major general. There was, however, a +flood of volunteers of another type. French officers fleeing from their +creditors and sometimes under false names and titles, made their way +to America as best they could and came to Washington with pretentious +claims. Germans and Poles there were, too, and also exiles from that +unhappy island which remains still the most vexing problem of British +politics. Some of them wrote their own testimonials; some, too, were +spies. On the first day, Washington wrote, they talked only of serving +freely a noble cause, but within a week were demanding promotion and +advance of money. Sometimes they took a high tone with members of +Congress who had not courage to snub what Washington called impudence +and vain boasting. "I am haunted and teased to death by the importunity +of some and dissatisfaction of others" wrote Washington of these people. + +One foreign officer rendered incalculable service to the American cause. +It was not only on the British side that Germans served in the American +Revolution. The Baron von Steuben was, like La Fayette, a man of rank +in his own country, and his personal service to the Revolution was much +greater than that of La Fayette. Steuben had served on the staff of +Frederick the Great and was distinguished for his wit and his polished +manners. There was in him nothing of the needy adventurer. The sale of +Hessian and other troops to the British by greedy German princes was +met in some circles in Germany by a keen desire to aid the cause of the +young republic. Steuben, who held a lucrative post, became convinced, +while on a visit to Paris, that he could render service in training the +Americans. With quick sympathy and showing no reserve in his generous +spirit he abandoned his country, as it proved forever, took ship for the +United States, and arrived in November, 1777. Washington welcomed him at +Valley Forge in the following March. He was made Inspector General +and at once took in hand the organization of the army. He prepared +"Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United +States" later, in 1779, issued as a book. Under this German influence +British methods were discarded. The word of command became short +and sharp. The British practice of leaving recruits to be trained +by sergeants, often ignorant, coarse, and brutal, was discarded, and +officers themselves did this work. The last letter which Washington +wrote before he resigned his command at the end of the war was to +thank Steuben for his invaluable aid. Charles Lee did not believe that +American recruits could be quickly trained so as to be able to face the +disciplined British battalions. Steuben was to prove that Lee was wrong +to Lee's own entire undoing at Monmouth when fighting began in 1778. + +The British army in America furnished sharp contrasts to that of +Washington. If the British jeered at the fighting quality of citizens, +these retorted that the British soldier was a mere slave. There were +two great stains upon the British system, the press-gang and flogging. +Press-gangs might seize men abroad in the streets of a town and, unless +they could prove that they were gentlemen in rank, they could be sent +in the fleet to serve in the remotest corners of the earth. In both navy +and army flogging outraged the dignity of manhood. The liability to this +brutal and degrading punishment kept all but the dregs of the populace +from enlisting in the British army. It helped to fix the deep gulf +between officers and men. Forty years later Napoleon Bonaparte, despot +though he might be, was struck by this separation. He himself went +freely among his men, warmed himself at their fire, and talked to them +familiarly about their work, and he thought that the British officer was +too aloof in his demeanor. In the British army serving in America there +were many officers of aristocratic birth and long training in military +science. When they found that American officers were frequently drawn +from a class of society which in England would never aspire to a +commission, and were largely self-taught, not unnaturally they jeered +at an army so constituted. Another fact excited British disdain. The +Americans were technically rebels against their lawful ruler, and rebels +in arms have no rights as belligerents. When the war ended more than a +thousand American prisoners were still held in England on the capital +charge of treason. Nothing stirred Washington's anger more deeply than +the remark sometimes made by British officers that the prisoners they +took were receiving undeserved mercy when they were not hanged. + +There was much debate at Valley Forge as to the prospect for the future. +When we look at available numbers during the war we appreciate the +view of a British officer that in spite of Washington's failures and +of British victories the war was serious, "an ugly job, a damned affair +indeed." The population of the colonies--some 2,500,000--was about +one-third that of the United Kingdom; and for the British the war was +remote from the base of supply. In those days, considering the means +of transport, America was as far from England as at the present day is +Australia. Sometimes the voyage across the sea occupied two and even +three months, and, with the relatively small ships of the time, it +required a vast array of transports to carry an army of twenty or +thirty thousand men. In the spring of 1776 Great Britain had found it +impossible to raise at home an army of even twenty thousand men for +service in America, and she was forced to rely in large part upon +mercenary soldiers. This was nothing new. Her island people did not like +service abroad and this unwillingness was intensified in regard to +war in remote America. Moreover Whig leaders in England discouraged +enlistment. They were bitterly hostile to the war which they regarded as +an attack not less on their own liberties than on those of America. It +would be too much to ascribe to the ignorant British common soldier of +the time any deep conviction as to the merits or demerits of the cause +for which he fought. There is no evidence that, once in the army, he +was less ready to attack the Americans than any other foe. Certainly the +Americans did not think he was half-hearted. + +The British soldier fought indeed with more resolute determination +than did the hired auxiliary at his side. These German troops played +a notable part in the war. The despotic princes of the lesser German +states were accustomed to sell the services of their troops. Despotic +Russia, too, was a likely field for such enterprise. When, however, it +was proposed to the Empress Catherine II that she should furnish twenty +thousand men for service in America she retorted with the sage advice +that it was England's true interest to settle the quarrel in America +without war. Germany was left as the recruiting field. British efforts +to enlist Germans as volunteers in her own army were promptly checked by +the German rulers and it was necessary literally to buy the troops from +their princes. One-fourth of the able-bodied men of Hesse-Cassel were +shipped to America. They received four times the rate of pay at home and +their ruler received in addition some half million dollars a year. The +men suffered terribly and some died of sickness for the homes to which +thousands of them never returned. German generals, such as Knyphausen +and Riedesel, gave the British sincere and effective service. The +Hessians were, however, of doubtful benefit to the British. It angered +the Americans that hired troops should be used against them, an anger +not lessened by the contempt which the Hessians showed for the colonial +officers as plebeians. + +The two sides were much alike in their qualities and were skillful in +propaganda. In Britain lurid tales were told of the colonists scalping +the wounded at Lexington and using poisoned bullets at Bunker Hill. In +America every prisoner in British hands was said to be treated brutally +and every man slain in the fighting to have been murdered. The use of +foreign troops was a fruitful theme. The report ran through the colonies +that the Hessians were huge ogre-like monsters, with double rows of +teeth round each jaw, who had come at the call of the British tyrant +to slay women and children. In truth many of the Hessians became good +Americans. In spite of the loyalty of their officers they were readily +induced to desert. The wit of Benjamin Franklin was enlisted to compose +telling appeals, translated into simple German, which promised grants +of land to those who should abandon an unrighteous cause. The Hessian +trooper who opened a packet of tobacco might find in 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 different when reverses overtook British arms. Then many hundreds +slipped away; and today their blood flows in the veins of thousands of +prosperous American farmers. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE AND ITS RESULTS + +Washington badly needed aid from Europe, but there every important +government was monarchical 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 sorrowed 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 "insolent +nation" was always to him an inspiration. Vergennes, the French Foreign +Minister, though he lacked genius, was a man of boundless zeal and +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 England'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. Beaumarchais is known to the world chiefly as +the creator 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 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 Roderigue +Hortalez & Co., he sent vast quantities of munitions and clothing +to America. Cannon, not from private firms but from the government +arsenals, 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 Connecticut 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 +submission, 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. +He gave other promises not more easy of fulfillment. 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 colonel 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. + +France was, however, coy. The end of 1776 saw the colonial cause at +a very low ebb, with Washington 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 position in Philadelphia. It was known that the British +fleet had declined. With the best of it in America, France was the more +likely to win successes in Europe. The Bourbon king of France 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 improbable 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 +triumphs, 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 +ambassador in London told the British Government, with studied +insolence of tone, that the United 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 intervention 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 +restoration 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 frontiers of New England and +New York? If George III 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 nation," 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 did not wish to see a +great military power on the northern 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 patriots +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 observer 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 the intervention of France. No serious +person any longer thought that taxation could be enforced upon America +or that the colonies should be anything 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 Senate." 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 treaty 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, +actually introduced into Parliament a bill to prohibit gifts of money to +the Crown since this voluntary taxation gave the Crown money without +the consent of Parliament. The British patriot, gentle as he might +be towards America, fumed against 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. In a 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 Chatham, 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 +high that New York and Charleston had erected statues in his honor. When +the defeat of Burgoyne so shook the ministry that North was anxious to +retire, Chatham, but for two obstacles, could probably have formed a +ministry. One obstacle was 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 attacked his +American policy. "I will never consent," 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 in that +scene of famine; but by the springtime tension in regard to supplies had +been relieved and 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 supplies 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 give it up. 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, to shield himself; was clearly resolved to make +scapegoats of others. So, on May 18, 1778, at Philadelphia there was +a farewell to Howe, which took the form of a Mischianza, something +approaching the medieval tournament. Knights broke lances in 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. +Obviously the garrison of Philadelphia had much time on its hands and +could count upon, at least, some cheers from a friendly population. It +is remembered 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 a +spy, because entrapped in the treason of Benedict Arnold, who became the +husband of the other. + +On May 24, 1778, Sir Henry Clinton took over from 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 encumbrances. Moreover, to +embark the whole force, a march of forty miles to New Castle, on the +lower Delaware, would be necessary and the retreating 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 to New York in two days and missed the +great fleet of d'Estaing, carrying an army of four thousand 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 vulnerable to flank attack. In this type of +warfare Washington 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 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 position was difficult but +he was saved by Lee's ineptitude. He had positive instructions to attack +with his five thousand men and hold the British engaged until Washington +should come up in overwhelming 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 to +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 +deserters 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 +incredible. Two hundred ships waited at Spithead for three months for +convoy to the West Indies, 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 already 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. But it did not +come. The French admirals were often taken from an army command, and +d'Estaing was not a sailor but a soldier. He feared 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 hundred fine +soldiers, Sullivan had nine thousand New England militia, and d'Estaing +four thousand 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'Estaing +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, Clinton 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 shipping and stores but were devastating the country with +Loyalist regiments recruited in America. The French told the Americans +that they were expecting 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 extend +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. + +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 Gibraltar. 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 danger 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 resources 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 trader +and subsequently master of a West India merchantman, and on going +to America had assumed the name of Jones. He was a man of boundless +ambition, vanity, and vigor, and when he commanded 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 squadron +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 Flamborough Head and, after a desperate fight, +captured 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 commissioned officer in the navy of +the United States, but neutral powers, such as Holland, had not yet +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 ships 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 to enter the +port. Denmark and Sweden joined Russia in what was known as the Armed +Neutrality and 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 afterwards 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 +supremacy on the sea disappeared and it was only regained 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 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 removing some of +their burdens dreadful riots broke out in London. A fanatic, Lord George +Gordon, led a mob to Westminster and, as Dr. Johnson expressed it, +"insulted" both Houses of Parliament. The cowed ministry did nothing +to check the disturbance. 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 +Independence which, in 1782, England was obliged to 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 +and 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 mutiny 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 +New York. He sent La Fayette to France in January, 1779, there to urge +not merely naval but military 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 magnanimity +reciprocated nearly a century and a half later when a great American +army in Europe was placed under the supreme command of a Marshal 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 +Newport 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 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 revolutionary 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 political allegiance. Probably Boston was the most completely +revolutionary of American towns. Yet even in Boston there had been a sad +procession of exiles who would not turn against the King. The South +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 rebellion. Many a patriot +farmhouse was now destroyed and the hapless owner either killed or +driven to the mountains to live as best he could by hunting. Sometimes +even the children were shot down. It so happened that a company of +militia captured a large band of Loyalists marching to Augusta to +support the British cause. Here was the occasion for the republican +patriots to assert their principles. 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 restrain 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 +revolution. In the spring of 1779 General Prevost marched from Georgia +into South Carolina. On the 12th of May he was before Charleston +demanding surrender. We are astonished now to read that, in response +to Prevost's demand, a proposal 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 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, however, +Charleston did not surrender. The resistance 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 combined army numbered about six thousand. A siege +began which, it seemed, could end in only one way. Prevost, however, +with three thousand seven hundred 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. 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'Estaing sailed away and soon lost some of his ships in a violent +storm. Ill-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 +hospitable. Most of them, he says, made a visit to England at some time +during life and it was the fashion to send there the children to be +educated. Obviously Charleston was fitted to be a British rallying +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. Now in December, 1779, +he sailed from New York to make a renewed effort. With him were three +of his best officer--Cornwallis, Simcoe, and Tarleton, the last two +skillful leaders of irregulars, recruited 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, Tarleton surprised, in the night, three regiments of +American cavalry regulars at a place called Biggin's Bridge, routed them +completely and, according 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 +behaved 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 these 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 prisoners, 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 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 reestablish peace and good government." +"Wicked and desperate men" who still opposed the King should be punished +with rigor and have their property confiscated. 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 to 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 intending 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 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 disaster at Camden had only +a transient effect. The war developed a number of irregular leaders on +the American side who were never beaten beyond recovery, 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. 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 advanced into North Carolina, and +sent Major Ferguson, 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 retreat 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. Ferguson, harassed, outnumbered, at last took refuge +on King's Mountain, a stony ridge on the western border between the two +Carolinas. The north side 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. Ferguson 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.¹ ¹See Chapter IX, Pioneers of the Old Southwest, by +Constance Lindsay Skinner in The Chronicles of America. + +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 region that Washington had first seen +active service, helping to wrest that land from France. The country was +wild. There was almost no settlement; 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 frontiersman. 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 adventure. He had less +than two hundred men when he appeared a little later at Kaskaskia near +the Mississippi in what is now Illinois 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 indomitable 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 States. +Clark's exploit is one of the pregnant romances of history.¹ ¹See +Chapters III and IV in The Old Northwest by Frederic Austin Ogg in The +Chronicles of America. + +Perhaps the most sorrowful phase of the Revolution was the internal +conflict waged between its friends and its enemies in America, where +neighbor fought against neighbor. During this pitiless struggle 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 shoeblacks. 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, burn a village, carry off some Whig farmers, +and escape before opposing forces could rally. Governor 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 Benjamin Franklin and led him when the day came for peace to +declare that the plundering and murdering adherents of King George +were the ones who should pay for damage and not the States which had +confiscated Loyalist property. Lists of Loyalist names were sometimes +posted and then the persons 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 figure might be himself. A musket ball might come whizzing through +his window. Many a Loyalist 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 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. +Magistrates 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. Legislatures passed bills +denouncing Loyalists. The names in Massachusetts read like a list of +the leading 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 +exiles from their former homes. The self-appointed committees took in +hand the task of disciplining 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 Great Lakes, and there played +a part in laying the foundation of the Dominion of today. The city of +Toronto with a population of half a million is rooted in the Loyalist +traditions of its Tory founders. Simcoe, the first Governor of Upper +Canada, who made Toronto his capital, was one of the most enterprising +of the officers who served with Cornwallis in the South and surrendered +with him at Yorktown. + +The State of New York acquired from the forfeited lands of Loyalists +a sum approaching four million dollars, a great amount in those days. +Other States profited in a similar way. Every Loyalist whose property +was seized had a direct and personal grievance. He could join the +British army and fight against his oppressors, and this he did: New +York furnished about fifteen thousand men to fight on the British side. +Plundered himself, he could plunder his enemies, and this too he did +both by land and sea. In the autumn of 1778 ships manned chiefly by +Loyalist refugees were terrorizing the coast from Massachusetts to New +Jersey. They plundered Martha's Vineyard, burned some lesser towns, +such as New Bedford, and showed no quarter to small parties of American +troops whom they managed to intercept. What happened on the coast +happened also in the interior. At Wyoming in the northeastern part +of Pennsylvania, in July, 1778, during a raid of Loyalists, aided by +Indians, there was a brutal massacre, the horrors of which long served +to inspire hate for the British. A little later in the same year similar +events took place at Cherry Valley, in central New York. Burning houses, +the dead bodies not only of men but of women and children scalped by +the savage allies of the Loyalists, desolation and ruin in scenes +once peaceful and happy--such horrors American patriotism learned to +associate with the Loyalists. These in their turn remembered the slow +martyrdom of their lives as social outcasts, the threats and plunder +which in the end forced them to fly, the hardships, starvation, and +death to their loved ones which were wont to follow. The conflict is +perhaps the most tragic and irreconcilable in the whole story of the +Revolution. + + +CHAPTER X. FRANCE TO THE RESCUE + +During 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, Cornwallis, 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 problem in America with the insight of a trained leader. +Before he left France he made the pregnant comment on the outlook: +"Nothing without naval supremacy." About the same time Washington 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 Napoleon, 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 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 unfortunate 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 reports of their ennui +on the long voyage of seventy 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 inhabitants 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 beautiful, 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 +quantities of tea drunk by their friends and so do we when we remember +the political hatred for tea. They 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 Rochambeau 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 nothing. Washington longed +to attack New York and urged the effort, but the wise and experienced +Rochambeau applied his principle, "nothing without 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 blockading in Narragansett Bay the French +fleet which lay there. Had the French army moved away from Newport their +fleet would almost certainly have become a prey to the British. For +the moment 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 they 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 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 admirals afloat. Washington, with his army +headquarters at West Point, on guard to keep the British from advancing +up the Hudson, was looking 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 Camden 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 overwhelming discouragement, and, on the 18th of September, +Washington left West Point for a long 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 +Chesapeake. Washington concluded that the opposite was true and that he +was likely to be going northward. At West Point, where the Hudson flows +through a mountainous gap, Washington had strong defenses on both +shores of the river. His 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 up the 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 Benedict Arnold. No general on +the American side had a more brilliant record or could show more scars +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 property 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 Congress 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 indulgence. +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 pursued with great bitterness. +Joseph Reed, the President of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania, +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 26, 1780, he was acquitted of everything but the +imprudence of using, in an emergency, public wagons to remove private +property, and of granting 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 the reprimand in terms as gentle as possible, and when, +in July, 1780, Arnold asked for the important 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 reconciliation 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 surrender that vital post to the British. And now +on the 18th of September Washington was riding northeastward 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 anchored at Stony Point, a few miles below West +Point. On board the Vulture was the British officer 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 American 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 disasters at +Charleston and Camden might end the strife. Britain was prepared to +yield everything but 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 command 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 dress 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 summons from across the river. Within a few +minutes his barge was moving swiftly to the Vulture eighteen 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 military 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 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 working 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 religious. +Members praised the liberties of England and had declared that the +Declaration of Independence 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, +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 +Washington 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 defenses were weak they could drive +a wedge between North and South. If on the other hand they preferred +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 England in October gave the ministry an increased +majority and with this renewed determination. 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 to a 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 anxiously 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 began to turn. +Cornwallis 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. Steuben 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 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 discipline 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, confident 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, 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 northwest 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 without food, Cornwallis, +with less than two thousand men, attacked Greene's force of about +four thousand. 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 sending only enough men to Virginia to steal +tobacco. 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 +smashing 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 +securely. 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 Rawdon 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. 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 Virginia 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 Petersburg 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 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 formidable 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 inferior force, to fight Cornwallis, but he could +tire him out by drawing him into long marches. When Cornwallis advanced +to attack La Fayette at Richmond, 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 hundred miles northwest from Richmond, and Cornwallis conceived +the daring plan of raiding Charlottesville, 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 fighting and he nearly succeeded. Jefferson indeed +escaped by rapid flight but Tarleton took the town, burned the public +records, and captured ammunition and arms. But he really 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 intercepted 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 generals. +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 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. Yorktown +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 commonplace of romance that a pretty face +or a stray bullet has altered the destiny not merely of families 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 warships than the British could muster +at a given spot and time. Washington had urged in January that France +should plan to have at least temporary naval superiority in American +waters, in accordance with Rochambeau's principle, "Nothing 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 Hudson and at any rate +alarm Clinton as to an imminent 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 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. Washington 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 torrential 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 away 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 Princeton, 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 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 disembarked 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, mounted 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 hundred +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 them responded. A deadly +apathy in regard to the war seems to have fallen upon many parts of the +country. The Bay now in control of the French fleet was quite safe for +unarmed ships. Half the Americans 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 beyond 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. Washington 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 Washington 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 Philadelphia, 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 +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 +entrance 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 intended 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, the 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 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 British fleet, +crippled and spiritless, was hurrying to a protecting port and the +fleurs-de-lis waved unchallenged 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 +entrenchments 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 Yorktown. There was delay. +Later Clinton wrote that 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 unexplained, 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 +incessantly 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 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. "I thought it +would have been wanton and inhuman," 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 hundreds 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. +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 +Americans on the other, the French in full dress uniform, the Americans +in some cases half naked and barefoot. 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 entrance 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, were deserted by ships of war. Grasse had sailed, however, to +meet a stern fate. He was a fine fighting 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 returning to France +Grasse was tried by court-martial and, though acquitted, he remained in +disgrace until he died in 1788, "weary," as he said, "of the burden of +life." The defeated Cornwallis was not blamed in England. His character +commanded wide respect and he lived to play a great part in public life. +He became Governor General 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 the 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, exclaiming 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 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 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. For a 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 Commons 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 British 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 1st 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 +return to Hanover rather than yield the independence of the colonies. +Over and over again he had said that no one should hold office in his +government 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 independence 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. Rochambeau with his army remained in Virginia. Washington +took his forces back to the lines before New York, sparing what men he +could to help Greene in the South. Again came a long period of watching +and waiting. Washington, knowing the obstinate determination of the +British character, urged Congress 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 indifferent to further effort and +Congress was slack and impotent. The outlook for Washington's allies 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 negotiating +peace. Spain declared that she would never make peace without the +surrender of Gibraltar, and she was ready to leave the question of +American 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 basis 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 American Commission. The +austere Adams disliked 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 foreign 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 separate 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 furnish him with what he needed and to an amazing degree +succeeded in doing so. The self interest which Washington believed to be +the dominant 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 war ended. 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 Commissioners +agreed to ask the individual States to meet the desires of the British +negotiators, but both sides understood that the States would do nothing, +that the confiscated property would never be returned, that most of +the exiled Loyalists would remain exiles, and that Britain herself +must compensate them for their losses. This in time she did on a scale +inadequate indeed but expressive of a generous intention. The United +States retained the great Northwest and the Mississippi became the +western frontier, with destiny already 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 content 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 +magnanimity 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 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 captured 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 farewell 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 each of them. Then they watched him as +he was rowed away in his barge to the New Jersey shore. Congress was +now sitting at Annapolis in Maryland and there on December 23, 1783, +Washington appeared 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 protection 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 +estimate of himself, know that for a distant posterity his character and +his words would have compelling authority. What Washington's countryman, +Motley, said of William of Orange is true of Washington himself: "As +long as he lived he was the guiding 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 adjustments 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), The 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. III (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 Literary History of the American Revolution, 2 +vols. (1897), is a penetrating study of opinion. Fiske's The American +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 England in the Eighteenth Century, +chaps. XIII, XIV, and XV (1903), is impartial. The most elaborate and +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 +Fortescue, A History of the British Army, vol. III (1902), a scientific +account of military events with many maps and plans. Captain Mahan, U. +S. N., wrote the British naval history of the period in Clowes (editor), +The Royal Navy, a History, vol. III, 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 +supplemented 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). + + +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 1898). The general reader will probably +put aside the older biographies 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 +problems 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, The +Siege 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 contemporary 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 Shelburne, 2 vols. (1912), the Whig policy. Curwen's Journals and +Letters, 1775-84 (1842), show us a Loyalist 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); Carrington, +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 Letters and Journals Relating to the War of the American +Revolution (trans. W. L. Stone, 1867) and Anburey'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 account 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 +Revolution (1911), Corwin, French Policy and the American Alliance of +1778 (1916), and Van Tyne on "Influences 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). +Ross (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 Loyalists in the +American Revolution (1902), Flick, Loyalism 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 American +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 Campaign +(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 Encyclopœdia Britannica has useful references to authorities for +persons prominent in the Revolution and The Dictionary of National +Biography for leaders on the British side. + + + + + + +Index + +A + +Abraham, Plains of (QC), American army on, 50. + +Adams, Abigail, 49. + +Adams, John, in Continental Congress, 8; journey from Boston to +Philadelphia, 9-10; on committee to draft Declaration of Independence, +75-76; excepted from British offer of pardon, 86, 92; opinion of +Philadelphia, 120, 165; criticism of Washington, 149; sent to Paris on +American Commission, 270-271. + +Albany (NY), plan to concentrate British forces at, 133. + +Allen, Colonel Ethan, 40. + +André, Major John, at Philadelphia, 195; treats with Arnold, 241-242; +capture, 242-243; hanged as spy, 243. + +Annapolis (MD), Congress at, 275. + +Anne, Fort, 129. + +Armed neutrality, 206. + +Army, American, camp at Cambridge, 27-28; Washington reorganizes, 30-35; +food and clothing, 30-31, 32 153-156, 166; composition, 31-32, 43; +officers, 32-35, 43-44; after Canadian campaign, 51; desertions, 100, +159-160; plundering by, 111; pay, 111, 158-159, 209; in 1777, 112; +condition under Gates, 145; Washington wishes national, 151; needs +of engineers, 152; hospital service, 152-153, 166-167; weapons and +artillery, 156-158; religion in, 160-161; supplies from France, 184; +after Valley Forge, 197; mutinous, 209, 246. + +Army, British, food for, 36; press-gangs, 176; flogging, 176; relations +between officers and men, 176-177; difficulties of raising, 178; see +also Germans. + +Army, French, in America, 235-236. + +Arnold, Benedict, at Ticonderoga, 40; through Maine to Canada, 43, +44-45; at Quebec, 45-46; at Crown Point, 52-53; Coke denounces King's +reception of, 71; Washington's trust in, 110, 172-173; at Stillwater, +143; describes American Army, 155; treason, 173, 195, 240-243; at West +Point, 238; life at Philadelphia, 239; tried by court-martial, 239; +reprimanded by Washington, 239-240; in Virginia, 251. + +Articles of Confederation, 163. + +Assanpink River, Washington on, 105. + +Atrocities, 180, 212; see also Indians, Prisons. + +Augusta (GA), British take, 211-212; falls to Americans, 250. + + + +B + + + +Baltimore (MD), Congress flees to, 100. + +Barbados, Washington visits, 22. + +Barras, French naval commander, 261. + +Baum, Colonel, at Bennington, 131, 132. + +Beaumarchais sends munitions to America, 183-184. + +Bemis Heights (NY), battle, 143. + +Bennington (VT), battle of 131-132. + +Berthier, French officer, 231. + +Biggins Bridge, Tarleton's victory at, 216. + +Bordentown (NJ), Germans at, 102. + +Boston, defiance of British in, 2; seige, 3, 4, 35-36; Washington's +journey to, 9-10; American camp, 27-28; evacuated by British, 48-49; +effect of Washington's success 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 (PA) battle of, 119-120, 133, 148; La Fayette at, 169; Greene +at, 171. + +Brant, Joseph (Thayendanegea), 134. + +Breed's Hill (MA) 4-5; see also Bunker Hill. + +Broglie, Comte de, suggested as commander of American army, 185. + +Borglie, Prince de, with French armies in America, 232. + +Brooklyn Heights (NY), Washington on, 88-91. + +Buford, Colonel Tarleton attacks, 217. + +Bunker Hill, battle of, 4-7, 33; Washington learns of, 10; significance, +21; officers at, 33, 35. + +Burgoyne, General John, on British behavior at Bunker Hill, 7; ordered +to meet Howe, 68, 112, 113, 124-125; Howe deserts, 116, 130; life and +character, 123-124; at Lake Champlain, 125 et seq.; Indian Allies, +125-126, 138-140, 144; takes Fort Ticonderoga, 127; lack of supplies, +129-130; at Fort Edward, 129; 130, 141; and Bennington, 131-132; at +Saratoga, 132, 141, 143; learns of failure of St. Leger, 136; crosses +Hudson, 141; at Stillwater (Freeman's Farm), 142-143; surrender at +Saratoga, 68, 122, 143-147, 149; effect on France of surrender of, 186; +effect of surrender in England, 190, 192. + +Burke, Edmund, and conciliation, 69; and Independence, 190. + +Byron, Admiral, sent to aid Howe, 200. + + + +C + + + +Cahokia, Clark at, 223. + +Cambridge, American camp, 3, 27-28; Washington at, 10, 30-31, 34, 35, +146. + +Camden (SC), battle of, 219-220, 236. + +Canada, campaign against, 37, 38-47; Washington's idea of, 40 France +and, 188; Loyalists take refuge in, 227-228. + +Carleton, Sir Guy, Governor of Canada, 42; commands at Quebec, 45-46; +operations on Lake Champlain, 52-53; Howe and, 95; superseded by +Burgoyne, 124; commands at New York, 269; and Loyalists, 274. + +Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton, on commission to Montreal, 50. + +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 (PA), Washington at, 118, 119. + +Champlain, Lake, plan for conquest of Canada by way of, 43; operations +on, 52-53, 95; Burgoyne at, 125 et seq.; Arnold at, 238. + +Charleston (SC), on side of Revolution, 37; British expedition to, +82-83; Prevost demands surrender, 213-214; Lincoln at, 215-217; +surrenders, 217. + +Charlestown (MA), location, 3; burned, 5, 7. + +Charlotte (NC), Greene at, 247. + +Charlottesville (VA), Cornwallis 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, 236; at Charleston, 82, 215; at New York, +116, 130, 133; up the Hudson, 143, 145; succeeds Howe in command, 195; +march from Philadelphia, 196, 197, 198; retreats at Monmouth Court +House, 199; reaches Newport, 202; sails for Charleston, 217-218; +proclamation, 218; Rodney relieves, 237; and Cornwallis, 253; delay in +reinforcing Cornwallis, 262-263, 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 England, 55 et seq.; state of society in, 60; +population, 177-178; see also names of colonies. + +Continental Congress, Washington at, 1, 259; selects leader for army, +7-9; Howe's conciliation, 92-93; flees to Baltimore, 100; loses able +men, 110; hampers Washington, 100; Gates and, 142; repudiates Gates +terms to Burgoyne, 146; Gates lays quarrel with Washington before, +150; and enlistment, 151; at York, 162, 163; ineptitude, 163-164, 236, +269-270, gives Southern command to Gates, 219; Test Acts, 226; and +French alliance, 244; borrows money from France, 271; at Annapolis, 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 Hudson, 97; goes to +Trenton, 104-105; at Princeton, 106; and Howe, 115; at the Brandywine, +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; Yorktown, 254 +et seq.; surrender, 264-266. + +Countess of Scarborough (ship), Jones captures, 205. + +Cowpens, battle of, 172, 248. + +Cromwell, Oliver, as military leader, 170. + +Crown Point (NY), capture of, 52-53; Burgoyne at, 126. + + + +D + + + +Dartmouth, Earl of, Minister of England, 63. + +Deane, Silas, envoy to France, 184-185. + +Declaration of Independence, 75-80. + +Delaware Bay, British fleet in, 116. + +Delaware River, Washington crosses, 102. + +Denmark and armed neutrality, 206-207. + +Detroit, force to check Clark from, 223. + +Devonshire, Duke of, costly residence, 18. + +Dickinson, John, of Pennsylvania, on Declaration of Independence, 78. + +Dilworth, Cornwallis marches on, 119. + +Dinwiddie, Governor, Washington and, 16. + +Donop, Count von, at Trenton, 102, 104. + +Dorchester Heights (MA), American troops on, 47-48. + +Dumas, French officer with Rochambeau, 231. + +Dunmore, Lord, Governor of Virginia, 224. + + + +E + + + +East River, location, 87; British on, 93. + +Edward, Fort, St. Clair retires to, 127; Burgoyne at, 129, 130-141; +Indian raids at, 140; Burgoyne seeks to return to, 143. + +Elkton (MD), Howe at, 116, 118; American army at, 258. + +Emerson, chaplain, diary quoted, 35. + +England, in eighteenth century, 16-19; state of society, 19, 59; +Parliament votes tax on colonies, 23; politics, 24-25, 64 et seq., 268; +attitude toward the colonies, 54-55, 58; prosperity, 59; difficulties in +raising army, 178; France and, 182-183, 187-188, 191-192, 195-196, 206, +270; Whig attitude after French intervention, 189-190; 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 Delaware, 196-197; at +Sandy Hook, 200-201; at Newport, 201-202; at Savannah, 214-215. + +Eutaw Springs, battle of, 250. + + + +F + + + +Falmouth (Portland, ME), destroyed, 81. + +Ferguson, Major Patrick, 216; King's Mountain, 221-222; killed, 222. + +Fersen, Count, with French army, 232. + +Finance, value of continental money, 209; Franklin procures money in +France, 271. + +Florida returned to Spain, 273. + +Foch, general, quoted, 101. + +Fox, C.J., and carelessness of ministers, 68; urges conciliation, 69. + +France, French in Canada, 38; alliance with, 182 et seq.; and England, +182-183, 187-188, 191-192, 195-196, 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.; bibliography of alliance, +280. + +Franklin, Benjamin, on Lexington, 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 Hessians to desert, +180; sent to Paris, 185; and Loyalists, 225, 270, 271. + +Fraser, General, killed, 143. + +Frederick the Great, of Prussia, 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; discourages Washington, 103; against +Burgoyne, 142-145; intrigue, 149-151; menaces Clinton in New Jersey, +198; command in the South, 219; Camden, 219; Greene supersedes, 247. + +George III, American opinions of, 25; Hamilton on, 39; character, 60-62; +speech in Parliament, 62-63; Washington and, 63, 86; statue destroyed in +New York, 80; ready to give guarantees of liberty, 115; effect of news +of Ticonderoga on, 127-128; on taxing of America, 190; and Chatham, 193; +news of Yorktown, 267-268. + +George, Fort, Burgoyne's supplies from, 129. + +Georgia, British in, 211-212, 217. + +Germain, Lord George, failure to send orders to Howe, 68, 125; +instructions to Burgoyne, 112; plans campaign from England, 130-131; +censures Howe, 194; in Seven Years' War, 230; news of Yorktown, 267. + +Germans, hold line of the Delaware, 102; plundering, 111; at Bennington, +131-132; with Burgoyne, 144, 145; Steuben's part in Revolutionary War, +174-176; benefit to British, 179-180; desertions, 180-181, 199. + +Germantown, Howe's camp at, 121; battle of, 122, 148; Greene at, 171. + +Gibraltar, Spain besieges, 270; not returned to Spain, 273. + +Gloucester, Cornwallis holds, 263. + +Gordon, Lord Adam, on Philadelphia, 215; opinion of Charleston, 215. + +Gordon, Lord George, leads London riot, 208. + +Grasse, Comte de, commands French fleet, 256; at Chesapeake Bay, 260, +261-262; sails south, 265; Rodney captures, 266, 270. + +Great Britain, see England. + +Greene, General Nathanael, 110; at Bunker Hill, 4; advocates +independence, 75; commands Fort Washington, 96-97; harasses Cornwallis, +105; at Germantown, 122; at Valley Forge, 170-171; in Rhode Island, 201; +on Congress, 236; supersedes Gates in South, 247; Guilford 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 (NC), Cornwallis issues proclamation at, 249. + +Hobkirk's Hill, Rawdon defeats Greene at, 250. + +Holkham, Lord Leicester's residence at, 18; Coke's residence at, 69-70, +71. + +Holland joins England's enemies 206, 246. + +Hood, Sir Samuel, British admiral, 261. + +Howe, Richard, Lord, commands fleet reaching New York, 84, 86; Whig +sympathy, 85; personal characteristics, 85; letter to Washington, 86-87; +seeks peace, 92-93; takes fleet to Newport, 100; proclamation, 101; +and evacuation of Philadelphia, 196-197; expects naval flight off Sandy +Hook, 200-201; at Newport, 202; refuses to serve Tory Admiralty, 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 characteristics, 84; attitude toward 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, 112-113; at Trenton, +100; proclamation, 101, 111; goes to New York for Christmas, 102; +dilatoriness, 109, 110; takes Philadelphia, 109, 112, 120, 149; plan +for 1777, 112-113; sails for Chesapeake Bay, 115-116; at the Brandywine, +118-119, 133; and Pennsylvanians, 120-121; at Germantown, 121-122; +leaves Philadelphia, 194; Clinton succeeds, 195. + +Hudson River, advantages of plan to sail up, 82; location of mouth, 87; +British on, 93, 96-98; Washington guards, 209-210, 211, 236, 237-238, +see also West Point. + + + +I + + + +Independence, 54 et seq.; see also Declaration of Independence. + +Independence, Fort 127. + +India, France against British in, 206. + +Indians, allies of Burgoyne, 125, 133, 138, 139-140, 144; with St. +Leger, 134-136; aid loyalists in Wyoming massacre, 229. + +Ireland, Declaration of Independence, 208. + + + +J + + + +Jay, John, on Declaration of Independence, 78; opinion of Congress, 162; +on American Commission, 270. + +Jefferson, Thomas, and Declaration of Independence, 75-77; on Lafayette, +170; British plan to capture, 252. + +Johnson, Sir John, with St. Leger, 133-134, 135. + +Johnson, Samuel, quoted, 58. + +Johnson, Sir William, 134. + +Jones, John Paul, 204-206; bibliography, 281. + + + +K + + + +Kalb, Baron de, part in Revolutionary War, 173-174; killed, 220. + +Kaskaskia, Clark at 223. + +Kenneth Square, British camp at, 118. + +Keppel, Admiral, and London riots, 207. + +King's Mountain, battle of, 221-222. + +Knox, Henry,Washington values service of, 110, 171-172. + +Knyphausen, General, and Howe, 115; at the Brandywine, 118; effective +service, 179-180. + +Kosciuszko, in American army, 173 + + + +L + + + +Lafayette, Marquis de, 182, 230, 238; and Washington, 13, 168, 169; +and independence of America, 30; personal characteristics, 169-170; +volunteers through Deane's influence, 185; with Lee at Monmouth +Court House, 198-199; sent to France (1779), 210; as interpreter for +Washington and Rochambeau, 234; in Virginia, 251-252. + +Lansdowne, Marquis of, see Shelburne, Lord. + +Laurens, Henry, on American Commission, 270. + +Lauzun, Duc de, with French army in America, 231-232, 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; +captured, 99; and Howe, 99, 112-113; freed by exchange of prisoners, +173; personal characteristics, 173; and training of recruits, 176; at +Monmouth Court House, 198-199; court-martialed, 199; suspended, 199; +dismissed from army, 199. + +Lee. R.H., and Declaration of Independence, 75. + +Lee, Fort (NJ) 96; Washington at, 97; falls to British, 97, 98. + +Leicester, Lord , costly residence at Holkham, 18. + +Lexington, Battle of, 2, 21. + +Lincoln, Abraham, quoted, 29; and Declaration of Independence, 76, +77-78. + +Lincoln, General Benjamin, at Ticonderoga, 142; southern campaign, 214, +215, 217, 264. + +Long Island (NY),battle of, 87-90, 91. + +Loyalists, Howe and Pennsylvania, 162; plundering, 203, 228; in South, +212-213; Clinton's proclamation to, 218; decline in strength, 224; +punishments, 225-226; Test Acts, 226; question of compensation of, 272; +gather in New York to claim British protection, 274; bibliography, 281. + +Luzerne, French minister, 258. + + + +M + + + +McCrae, Jennie, 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; Fersen friend of, +232. + +Marion, Francis, guerrilla leader, 220, 247. + +Marlborough, Duke of, costly residence, 18. + +Martha's Vineyard (MA), 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, 198-199; Lee at, 176. + +Montgomery, General Richard, expedition to Canada, 43; at Quebec, 45-46; +death, 46-47, 48. + +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 (NJ), American headquarters at, 99, 106, 110. + +Moultrie, Fort (SC), battle at, 83. + +Mount Vernon, Washington's estate, 20, 259, 275. + +Murray, Mrs., saves Putnam's army, 94. + + + +N + + + +Narragansett Bay (RI), British blockade French fleet in, 234. + +Navy, American, Jones and, 204-206; need for supremacy, 231. + +Necessity, Fort (PA), surrender of, 148. + +New Bedford (MA), Loyalists burn, 228. + +New England, question of leader from, 8; and Washington, 11; character +of people, 29; equality in, 33; on independence, 75; revolutionary, 81; +and Indians, 137; and Burgoyne, 145; States jealous of, 164-165. + +New Hampshire offers bounty for Indian scalps, 137-138. + +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, 53, 81 et seq., 108, 148; statue of King destroyed, 80; +burned, 94-95; Washington 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 (RI), 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, 190-191; George III writes to, 61; +seeks to retire, 192, 193; and news of Yorktown, 267; resigns, 268. + +North Carolina, and independence, 75; campaign in, 247-251. + +Northwest, United States retains, 273. + +Nova Scotia, Washington's belief of sympathy in, 42; Loyalists go to, +227. + + + +O + + + +Ogg, F.A. The Old Northwest, cited, 224. + +Oriskany (NY), 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 independence, 75; loyalty, 101; Howe plans to secure +control of, 113; "Black Lists" of Loyalists, 226. + +Percy, Earl, opinion of rebels in America, 32. + +Petersburg (VA), Arnold at, 251. + +Philadelphia, second Continental 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, 194-195; British abandon, 196; Loyalists hanged in, 226; +Arnold in command at, 238; French army reviewed in, 257-258. + +Pigot, General, at Newport, 201. + +Pitt, William, see Chatham, Earl of. + +Politics, see England. + +Prescott, Colonel, at Bunker Hill, 4; + +Preston, Major, British officer at St. Johns, 44. + +Prevost, General Augustine, at Charleston, 213-214. + +Prices, 167. + +Princeton, Cornwallis at, 106. + +Prisons, British prison-ships, 153; London riots, 208. + +Privateers, checked at Newport, 100; France and, 186. + +Providence (RI), Greene and Sullivan at, 201. + +Putnam, Israel, at Bunker Hill, 4,6; leaves New York, 94. + + + +Q + + + +Quebec (QC), Arnold and Montgomery 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, bibliography, 277-278. + +Rhode Island, British control, 100; Washington's campaign against, +201-202; 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, +179-180. + +Riedesel, Baroness, reports conditions in New England, 137. + +Rochambeau, Comte de, leader of French army in America, 230-231; idea +of naval supremacy, 231, 255; and Washington, 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 Neutrality, 206. + + + +S + + + +St. Clair, General Arthur, at Fort Ticonderoga, 127. + +St. Eustacius, captured by Rodney, 246. + +St. Johns, Montgomery captures, 44. + +St. Leger, General Barry, at Fort Stanwix, 133-134; at Oriskany, +135-136. + +Saint-Simon, French officer in America, 232. + +Sandy Hook (NY), French fleet at, 200, 201. + +Saratoga (NY), Burgoyne at, 132, 141, 143; Burgoyne's surrender, 68, +122, 143-147, 149, 186; Arnold at, 238; Morgan at, 247. + +Savannah (GA), British land at, 211. + +Savile, Sir George, opinion of the Revolution, 69. + +Schuyler, General Philip, goes to Canada by way of Lake Champlain, 43; +Gates supersedes, 142. + +Serapis (ship), Jones captures, 205. + +Shelburne, Lord, Prime minister, 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. + +Slavery, Washington as a slave-owner, 21. + +Slave-trade, Declaration of Independence makes King responsible for, 77. + +South, war in the, 211 et seq. + +South Carolina, neutrality proposed, 213; British control, 217. + +Spain, against England, 187, 203-204, 206; navy, 187; and Gibraltar, +270; and peace treaty, 272. + +Stamp Act, 69, 183, 192. + +Stanwix (NY), Fort, St. Leger before, 133-134. + +Staten Island (NY), Howe on, 86, 87, 115. + +States, Congress and, 163. + +Steuben, Baron von, service in Revolution, 174-175; in Virginia, 247. + +Stillwater (NY), American camp at, 141; Burgoyne attacks Gates at, +142-143; Burgoyne's defeat, 143. + +Stirling, Lord, prisoner, 89. + +Stony Point (NY), 99. + +Stuart, Gilbert, and Washington, 16. + +Sullivan, General John, takes prisoner at battle of Long Island, 89; +sent by Howe to interview Congress, 92; exchanged, 99; at Morristown, +99; and Washington, 110-111; 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, 219-220; 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 River, 51. + +Three Rivers (QC), attack on, 51. + +Throg's Neck (NY), Howe at, 95. + +Ticonderoga (NY), Fort, captured by Allen, 39-40, 42; Arnold retreats +to, 53; Burgoyne lays siege to, 126-127; Lincoln besieges, 142. + +Tories, plundering of, 111; see also Loyalists. + +Toronto (ON), Loyalists in, 228. + +Transportation, need of military engineers for, 152. + +Trenton (NJ), Howe at, 100; attack on, 101-107, 109; Greene at, 171. + +Tryon, Governor of New York, 225. + + + +V + + + +Valley Forge (PA) Washington at, 148 et seq.; Washington leaves, 196. + +Vergennes, French Foreign Minister, 182-183, 184, 197, 271. + +Vincennes, Clark at, 223. + +Virginia, choice of a commander from, 8; state of society, 19-20, 32-33; +on independence, 73; Convention changes church service, 79; Burgoyne's +force in, 146; covets lands in Northwest, 222; Steuben in, 247; +Cornwallis in, 251. + +Vulture (sloop of war), 241, 242, 243. + + + +W + + + +Walpole, Horace 59, 64, 73-74; Gates godson of, 142; quoted, 217. + +Ward, General Artemus, 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 +gentlemen, 17-20; wealth; 20, 56; as a farmer, 20-21; a slave-owner, 21; +with Braddock, 22-23; opinion of George III, 25, 63; not a professional +soldier, 27; reorganizes army, 30-35; favors conscription, 34; at +Boston, 36; plans against Canada, 40-43; mourns Montgomery, 47; hated +of British, 57-58; Coke and, 71, 72, 189; advocates independence, 75; +headquarters in New York, 82, 87; Howe's letter to, 86-87; at Brooklyn +Heights, 88-91; exposed to enemy in New York, 93; 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, 113-115, 118, 120, 142; and Burgoyne, +116; at the Brandywine, 118-119; Germantown, 121-122; at Valley Forge, +148 et seq.; religion, 161; relations with staff, 167-168; as military +leader, 170; volunteers come to, 174; distrustful of France, 188-189; +celebrates French alliance, 193; army occupies Philadelphia, 196; +follows Clinton across New Jersey, 197-198; Monmouth Court House, 199; +despair of, 1779-1780, 208-209; guards Hudson, 209-210; French under, +210; opinion of Tories, 227; and Rochambeau, 234, 236, 237, 255; +reprimands Arnold, 239-240; and Andre, 243; 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; influences upon future, +275-276; bibliography, 278. + +Washington, Fort (NY), held by Americans, 96-97; British take, 97. + +West Indies, conquests restored, 273. + +West Point (NY), fortification, 236, 237-238; Arnold in command, 238; +plot to surrender, 240-244. + +White Plains (NY), battle of, 96. + +Wight, Isle of, plan to seize, 204. + +Wilkes, John, introduces bill into Parliament, 191. + +Wilmington (NC), British fleet reaches, 82; Cornwallis in, 250. + +Winslow, Edward, quoted, 49. + +Wyoming (PA) massacre, 229. + + + +Y + + + +York, Congress at, 162, 163. + +Yorktown, Cornwallis surrenders at, 228, 247 et seq. + + + + +The Chronicles of America Series + + 1. The Red Man's Continent + by Ellsworth Huntington + 2. The Spanish Conquerors + by Irving Berdine Richman + 3. Elizabethan Sea-Dogs + by William Charles Henry Wood + 4. The Crusaders of New France + by William Bennett Munro + 5. Pioneers of the Old South + by Mary Johnson + 6. The Fathers of New England + by Charles McLean Andrews + 7. Dutch and English on the Hudson + by Maud Wilder Goodwin + 8. The Quaker Colonies + by Sydney George Fisher + 9. Colonial Folkways + by Charles McLean Andrews + 10. The Conquest of New France + by George McKinnon Wrong + 11. The Eve of the Revolution + by Carl Lotus Becker + 12. Washington and His Comrades in Arms + by George McKinnon Wrong + 13. The Fathers of the Constitution + by Max Farrand + 14. Washington and His Colleagues + by Henry Jones Ford + 15. Jefferson and his Colleagues + by Allen Johnson + 16. John Marshall and the Constitution + by Edward Samuel Corwin + 17. The Fight for a Free Sea + by Ralph Delahaye Paine + 18. Pioneers of the Old Southwest + by Constance Lindsay Skinner + 19. The Old Northwest + by Frederic Austin Ogg + 20. The Reign of Andrew Jackson + by Frederic Austin Ogg + 21. The Paths of Inland Commerce + by Archer Butler Hulbert + 22. Adventurers of Oregon + by Constance Lindsay Skinner + 23. The Spanish Borderlands + by Herbert E. Bolton + 24. Texas and the Mexican War + by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson + 25. The Forty-Niners + by Stewart Edward White + 26. The Passing of the Frontier + by Emerson Hough + 27. The Cotton Kingdom + by William E. Dodd + 28. The Anti-Slavery Crusade + by Jesse Macy + 29. Abraham Lincoln and the Union + by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson + 30. The Day of the Confederacy + by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson + 31. Captains of the Civil War + by William Charles Henry Wood + 32. The Sequel of Appomattox + by Walter Lynwood Fleming + 33. The American Spirit in Education + by Edwin E. Slosson + 34. The American Spirit in Literature + by Bliss Perry + 35. Our Foreigners + by Samuel Peter Orth + 36. The Old Merchant Marine + by Ralph Delahaye Paine + 37. The Age of Invention + by Holland Thompson + 38. The Railroad Builders + by John Moody + 39. The Age of Big Business + by Burton Jesse Hendrick + 40. The Armies of Labor + by Samuel Peter Orth + 41. The Masters of Capital + by John Moody + 42. The New South + by Holland Thompson + 43. The Boss and the Machine + by Samuel Peter Orth + 44. The Cleveland Era + by Henry Jones Ford + 45. The Agrarian Crusade + by Solon Justus Buck + 46. The Path of Empire + by Carl Russell Fish + 47. Theodore Roosevelt and His Times + by Harold Howland + 48. Woodrow Wilson and the World War + by Charles Seymour + 49. The Canadian Dominion + by Oscar D. Skelton + 50. The Hispanic Nations of the New World + by William R. Shepherd + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following +the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use +of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for +copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very +easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation +of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project +Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may +do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected +by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark +license, especially commercial redistribution. + +START: FULL LICENSE + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the +person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph +1.E.8. + +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the +Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when +you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country other than the United States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work +on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: + + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and + most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no + restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it + under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this + eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the + United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where + you are located before using this eBook. + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg™ License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format +other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain +Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +provided that: + +• You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation.” + +• You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ + works. + +• You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + +• You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of +the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set +forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you “AS-IS”, WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™ + +Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™'s +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at +www.gutenberg.org + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, +Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up +to date contact information can be found at the Foundation's website +and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without +widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular +state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. + +Most people start at our website which has the main PG search +facility: www.gutenberg.org + +This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + diff --git a/2704-0.zip b/2704-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..be65834 --- /dev/null +++ b/2704-0.zip diff --git a/2704-h.zip b/2704-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bd3d8e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/2704-h.zip diff --git a/2704-h/2704-h.htm b/2704-h/2704-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9678981 --- /dev/null +++ b/2704-h/2704-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7757 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Washington and his Comrades in Arms, by George M. Wrong</title> + +<style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align:justify;} + p { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + a {text-decoration:none;} + h1,h2 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + h3 { text-align: center; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + font-variant:small-caps; font-weight:normal; font-size:large;} + hr.main { width: 50%; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:2em;} + hr.break { width: 20%; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:2em;} + hr.tiny { width: 10%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + ins {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray;} + .smcap {font-variant:small-caps;} + .center {text-align:center; } + .pagenum { right: 1%; font-size: x-small; background-color: inherit; color: gray; + text-indent: 0em; text-align: right; position: absolute; + /* To remove the page-numbers, use the hidden visibilty feature */ + /* visibility:hidden; */ + border: 1px solid silver; padding: 1px 2px; + font-style: normal; + font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;} + td.right {text-align:right;} + td.chaptername {font-variant:small-caps;} + /* poem class */ + p.poem1 { text-indent:0; font-size:small; + margin-left:20%; padding-top:.5em; padding-bottom:.5em; } + p.letter1 { text-indent:0; font-size:105%; line-height:18pt; + margin:auto; + margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; } + div.contents { margin-right:5%; margin-left:5%;} + div.footer { border-style:solid; border-color:silver; border-width:thin; + border-top:none; border-bottom:none; + text-indent:0; text-align:left; + font-size:80%; padding-left:10%; padding-right:10%;} + div.titlepage { border-style:solid; border-color:blue; + padding-top:5%; padding-bottom:5%; + margin-right:15%; margin-left:15%; + text-align: center;} + div.chapterhead { padding-top:4em; } + div.letterdate { font-size:small; line-height:10pt; text-indent:0; + margin:auto; margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; + padding-top:1em;} +</style> + </head> + <body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Washington and his Comrades in Arms, by George Wrong</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Washington and his Comrades in Arms<br /> + A Chronicle of the War of Independence</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: George Wrong</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: July, 2001 [eBook #2704]<br /> +[Most recently updated: April 2, 2023]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Dianne Bean, Alev Akman, David Widger and Robert J. Homa</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES ***</div> + + <div class="titlepage"> + <h1>Washington and His Comrades in Arms</h1> + <h2>By George M. Wrong</h2> + <h3>A Chronicle of the War of Independence</h3> + <p> + Volume 12 of the<br /> + Chronicles of America Series <br /> + ∴<br /> + Allen Johnson, Editor<br /> + Assistant Editors<br /> + Gerhard R. Lomer <br /> + Charles W. Jefferys + </p> + <hr class="tiny" /> + <p> + <i>Abraham Lincoln Edition</i><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> + <p> New Haven: Yale University Press<br /> + Toronto: Glasgow, Brook & Co.<br /> + London: Humphrey Milford<br /> + Oxford University Press<br /> + 1921 + </p> +</div> +<p class="center" style="font-size:smaller">Copyright, 1921<br /> + by Yale University Press +</p> + + + + + <hr class="main" /> + <p> + <br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">vii</a></span> + <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2><a href="#Contents">Prefatory Note</a> + </h2> + <p class="letter1"> + The author is aware of a certain audacity in undertaking, himself a + Briton, to appear in a company of American writers on American history and + above all to write on the subject of Washington. If excuse is needed it is + to be found in the special interest of the career of Washington to a + citizen of the British Commonwealth of Nations at the present time and in + the urgency with which the editor and publishers declared that such an + interpretation would not be unwelcome to Americans and pressed upon the + author a task for which he doubted his own qualifications. To the editor + he owes thanks for wise criticism. He is also indebted to Mr. Worthington + Chauncey Ford, of the Massachusetts Historical Society, a great authority + on Washington, who has kindly read the proofs and given helpful comments. + Needless to say the author alone is responsible for opinions in the book. + </p> + <div class="letterdate"> + <span class="smcap">University of Toronto,<br /></span> + <span style="margin-left:3em;">June 15, 1920.</span> + </div> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr class="main" /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + +<div class="contents"><a id="Contents" name="Contents"></a> + <h2>Contents</h2> + <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Washington and his Comrades in Arms</span> + </p> +</div> +<table summary="Toc" style="margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;"> +<tbody> + <tr style="font-size:small;"> + <th style="text-align:left">Chapter</th> + <th class="center">Chapter Title</th> + <th>Page</th> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="right"></td> + <td class="chaptername">Prefatory Note</td> + <td class="right"><a href="#link2H_4_0001">vii</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="right">I.</td> + <td class="chaptername">The Commander-In-Chief</td> + <td class="right"><a href="#link2HCH0001">1</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="right">II.</td> + <td class="chaptername">Boston and Quebec</td> + <td class="right"><a href="#link2HCH0002">27</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="right">III.</td> + <td class="chaptername">Independence</td> + <td class="right"><a href="#link2HCH0003">54</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="right">IV.</td> + <td class="chaptername">The Loss of New York</td> + <td class="right"><a href="#link2HCH0004">81</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="right">V.</td> + <td class="chaptername">The Loss of Philadelphia</td> + <td class="right"><a href="#link2HCH0005">108</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="right">VI.</td> + <td class="chaptername">The First Great British Disaster</td> + <td class="right"><a href="#link2HCH0006">123</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="right">VII.</td> + <td class="chaptername">Washington and his Comrades at Valley Forge</td> + <td class="right"><a href="#link2HCH0007">148</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="right">VIII.</td> + <td class="chaptername">The Alliance with France and its Results</td> + <td class="right"><a href="#link2HCH0008">182</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="right">IX.</td> + <td class="chaptername">The War in the South</td> + <td class="right"><a href="#link2HCH0009">211</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="right">X.</td> + <td class="chaptername">France to the Rescue</td> + <td class="right"><a href="#link2HCH0010">230</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="right">XI.</td> + <td class="chaptername">Yorktown</td> + <td class="right"><a href="#link2HCH0011">247</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td></td> + <td class="chaptername">Bibliographical Note</td> + <td class="right"><a href="#Page_277">277</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td></td> + <td class="chaptername">Index</td> + <td class="right"><a href="#Page_283">283</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="height:2em"></td> + </tr> + +</tbody> +</table> + + + + <hr class="main"/> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h1> + WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES IN ARMS + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">1</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER I</a> + </h2> + <h3>The Commander-In-Chief</h3> + <p> + <span class="smcap">Moving</span> among the members of the second Continental 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">2</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 disputes + about buying British stamps to put on American 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 inhabitants 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 <q>red, + wet, and dropping with blood.</q> 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 colonies were to join in the struggle, they must have a common leader. + Who should he be? + </p> + <p> + In June, while the Continental Congress faced this question at + Philadelphia, events at Boston + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">3</a></span> + 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 diversion 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. + </p> + <p> + Across the Charles River north from Boston, on a peninsula, lay the + village of Charlestown, and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">4</a></span> + 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 batteries lying off + the shore. In the dark the American force of twelve hundred men under + Colonel Prescott marched to this neck of land and then advanced 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 commanded 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 certain + that when he liked he could, with his disciplined battalions, brush away + the besieging army. Now he saw the American force on Breed's Hill + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">5</a></span> + throwing + up a defiant and menacing redoubt and entrenchments. Gage did not + hesitate. The bold aggressors must be driven away at once. He detailed 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 sometimes + 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 charge + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">6</a></span> + against men helpless + with empty rifles. This expectation was disappointed. The Americans had in + front of them a barricade and Israel Putnam was there, threatening dire + things to any one who should 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 uniforms, 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, <q>Is Death nothing but this?</q> 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 they + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">7</a></span> + were + more cautious. They began to work round to the weaker defenses of the + American left, where were no redoubts and entrenchments like those on the + right. By this time British ships were throwing shells among the + Americans. Charlestown was burning. The great column of black smoke, the + incessant roar of cannon, and the dreadful 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 floating + 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 victorious 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. + </p> + <hr class="break" /> + <p> + 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span> + 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 decided 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. Virginia, next to Massachusetts, + had stood in the forefront of the movement, and Virginia was fortunate in + having in the Congress one whose fame as a soldier ran through all the + colonies. There was something to be said for choosing a commander from the + colony which began the struggle and Adams knew that his colleague from + Massachusetts, John Hancock, 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 Hancock's + face <q>mortification and resentment.</q> He saw, too, that Washington + hurriedly left the room when his name was mentioned. + </p> + <p> + There could be no doubt as to what the Congress would do. Unquestionably + Washington was the fittest man for the post. Twenty years earlier he + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span> + had + seen important service in the war with France. His position and character + commanded universal aspect. 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 national 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span> + were traveling in foreign lands, the + strange manners and customs of the other colonies. The journey, 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 Jersey, 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: <q>Did the militia fight?</q> When the + answer was <q>Yes,</q> he said with relief, <q>The liberties of the country are + safe.</q> 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 his + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span> + appearance was <q>truly noble and + majestic.</q> This was milder praise than that given a little later by a + London paper which said: <q>There is not a king in Europe but would look + like a <i>valet de chambre</i> by his side.</q> 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 years were to show that a great leader had taken his fitting place. + </p> + <hr class="break" /> + <p> + 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, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span> + 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 ownership 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 + Declaration 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 attached 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 like + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span> + 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 hogsheads of molasses and rum and writing that the + man would bring a good price, <q>if kept clean and trim'd up a little when + offered for sale.</q> + </p> + <p> + In early life Washington had had very little of formal education. He knew + no language but English. 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 repairing a hairpin for a ward. He was a keen farmer, and it + is amusing to find him recording in his careful journal that there are + 844,800 seeds of <q>New River Grass</q> to the pound Troy and so determining + 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 <q>Rules of Civility and Decent + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span> + Behaviour in Company and + Conversation.</q> In the 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 revelation of care in self-discipline. We might imagine Oliver Cromwell + drawing up such rules, but not Napoleon or Wellington. + </p> + <p> + 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; <q>He + can be downright impudent sometimes,</q> wrote a Southern lady, <q>such + impudence, Fanny, as you and I like.</q> In old age he loved to have the + young and gay about him. He could break into furious oaths and no one was + a better + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span> + 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. <q>Happy,</q> he wrote, <q>is he who + gets the berth nearest the fire.</q> 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: <q>The spring is at last appearing and the leaves are beginning to + sprout.</q> Washington, on the other hand, brooded over the mysteries of + life. He pictured to himself the serenity of a calm + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span> + 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 decision 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, Dinwiddie, who thought his vehemence unmannerly and ungrateful. + Gilbert Stuart, who painted several 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, <q>I have no resentments,</q> and his self-control became so perfect as + to be almost uncanny. + </p> + <p> + The assumption that Washington fought against an England grown decadent is + not justified. To admit this would be to make his task seem lighter + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span> + than + it really was. No doubt many of the rich aristocracy spent idle days of + pleasure-seeking with the comfortable conviction that they could discharge + 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 slavery, 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. + </p> + <p> + It is sometimes said of Washington that he was an English country + gentleman. A gentleman he was, but with an experience and training quite + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span> + 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 century 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 today 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 nothing 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 staggered at a residence costing millions of + dollars. Yet the Duke of Devonshire rivaled at Chatsworth, and Lord + Leicester at Holkham, Marlborough's building at Blenheim, and many other + costly palaces were erected during the following + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 elaborate furniture, of servants in livery, + and much drinking of Port and Madeira, among the Virginians. 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 country where one great + landowner, Lord Fairfax, held + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Washington was a good farmer, inventive and enterprising, but he had + difficulties which ruined many of his neighbors. Today much of his + infertile estate of Mount Vernon would hardly grow enough to pay the + taxes. When Washington desired a gardener, or a bricklayer, or a + carpenter, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span> + 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 Washington, 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 necessary. 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 regarded as unfortunate + accidents to be explained away in an era of good feeling when each side + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span> + 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 outside of the colonies except to visit Barbados + with an invalid half-brother. Even then he noted that the <q>gentleman + inhabitants</q> whose <q>hospitality and genteel behaviour</q> he admired were + discontented 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 contempt for the amateur soldiers of + whom Washington was one. In a wild country where rapid movement was the + condition of success Braddock would + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span> + halt, as Washington said, <q>to level + every mole hill and to erect bridges over every brook.</q> His transport was + poor and Washington, a lover of horses, chafed at what he called <q>vile + management</q> 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 Virginia. <q>He looks upon the country,</q> Washington wrote in + wrath, <q>I believe, as void of honour and honesty.</q> 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 <q>were struck with such a panic that they behaved with + more cowardice than it is possible to conceive.</q> In the anger and + resentment of this comment is found the spirit which made Washington a + champion of the colonial cause from the first hour of disagreement. + </p> + <p> + 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 <q>our lordly + masters in Great Britain.</q> No man, he said, should scruple for a + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span> + 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 formal + resolution on July 18, 1774, that they were descended not from a conquered + but from a conquering 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 <q>gentlemen and men of fortune</q> 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 walking in what was to them + the hard path of duty, Washington could say later that <q>there never + existed a more miserable set of beings than these wretched creatures.</q> + </p> + <p> + The age of Washington was one of bitter vehemence 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 teaching + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span> + 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 Washington 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, instead 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 coercing of the colonies so + resolutely pressed by George III and his ministers. Posterity can also, + however, understand that the struggle was not between undiluted virtue on + the one side and undiluted vice on the other. Some eighty years after the + American Revolution the Republic created by the Revolution endured the + horrors of civil war rather than accept its own disruption. In 1776 even + the most liberal Englishmen felt a similar passion for + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2><a href="#Contents">CHAPTER II</a></h2> + <h3>Boston and Quebec</h3> + <p> + <span class="smcap">Washington</span> 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 companies + 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. + </p> + <p> + The extensive camp before Boston, as Washington now saw it, expressed the + varied character + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span> + 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 + structures 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. In the warm summer weather + this did not much matter but bleak autumn and harsh winter would bring + bitter privation. The sick in particular suffered severely, for the + hospitals were badly equipped. + </p> + <p> + A deep conviction inspired many of the volunteers. They regarded as brutal + tyranny the tax on tea, considered in England as a mild expedient for + raising needed revenue for defense in the colonies. The men of Suffolk + County, Massachusetts, meeting in September, 1774, had declared in + high-flown terms that the proposed tax came from a + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span> + parricide 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 <q>Liberty or Death</q> and talked + of resisting tyranny until <q>time shall be no more.</q> 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 Lincoln, in a noble + utterance which touched the heart of humanity, could appeal to the days of + the Revolution, when <q>our fathers brought forth on this continent a new + nation, conceived in liberty.</q> The colonists believed that they were + fighting for something of import to all mankind, and the nation which they + created believes it still. + </p> + <p> + An age of war furnishes, however, occasion for the exercise of baser + impulses. The New Englander was a trader by instinct. An army had come + suddenly together and there was golden promise of contracts for supplies + at fat profits. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span> + 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 + <q>fertility in all the low arts,</q> 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. + </p> + <p> + The army was, as Washington himself said, <q>a mixed multitude.</q> 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 were + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span> + hunters + from the frontier wearing the buckskin of the deer they had slain. + Sometimes there was clothing of grimmer material. Later in the war in + American officer recorded that his men had skinned two dead Indians <q>from + their hips down, for bootlegs, one pair for the Major, the other for + myself.</q> The volunteers varied greatly in age. There were bearded veterans + of sixty and a sprinkling of lads of sixteen. An observer laughed at the + boys and the <q>great great grandfathers</q> who 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 disparity 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 air + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span> + from childhood. Most of the men supplied their + own uniform and rifles and much barter went on in the hours after drill. + The men made and 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. + </p> + <p> + In time Washington gathered about him a fine body of officers, brave, + steady, and efficient. On the great issue they, like himself, had + unchanging conviction, and they and he saved the revolution. 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span> + 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 <q>commanded by a most + despicable set of officers.</q> 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. <q>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.</q> 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 conscription, even in free + Virginia. He had then found quite ineffective the <q>whooping, holloing + gentlemen soldiers</q> of the volunteer force of the colony + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span> + among whom <q>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.</q> Washington found at Cambridge 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. <q>New lords, new laws,</q> wrote in his diary Mr. + Emerson, the chaplain: <q>the Generals Washington and Lee are upon the + lines every day… great distinction is made between + officers and soldiers.</q> + </p> + <p> + 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span> + as to remain supine + during the process. But probably 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 Americans + soon had privateers manned by seamen familiar with New England waters and + happy in expected gains from prize money. The British were anxious about + the elementary problem of food. They might have made Washington more + uncomfortable by forays and alarms. Only reluctantly, however, did Howe, + who took over the command on October 10, 1775, admit to himself that this + was a real 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. + </p> + <p> + Washington had more on his mind than the creation 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 in + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span> + British hands. New York, + Philadelphia, Charleston 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 commanded no great waterway leading inland. The + sprawling colonies, from the rock-bound coast of New England to the 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 increasing difficulties from + transport and supplies. Wherever 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 endured, however, of fear of Canada. + When, in 1774, the British Parliament passed the bill for the government + 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 under + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span> + 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 extension 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 <q>dark designs</q> and <q>deceitful wiles</q> on + the part of that fierce Protestant George III to establish Roman Catholic + despotism, but the colonies regarded the danger as serious. The quick + remedy would be simply to take Canada, as Washington now planned. + </p> + <p> + To this end something had been done before Washington assumed the command. + The British Fort Ticonderoga, on the neck of land separating + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span> + 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; discipline was slack, + for there was nothing to do. 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. + </p> + <p> + About Canada Washington was ill-informed. He thought of the Canadians as + if they were Virginians or New Yorkers. They had been recently conquered + by Britain; their new king was a tyrant; they would desire liberty and + would welcome an American army. So reasoned Washington, but without + knowledge. The Canadians were a + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span> + conquered people, but they had found the + British king no tyrant 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 corruption and tyranny + almost unbelievable. The Canadian peasant had been cruelly robbed and he + had conceived for his French rulers a dislike which appears still in his + attitude towards the motherland of France. For his new British master he + had assuredly 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. + </p> + <p> + The British tyranny which Washington pictured in Canada was thus not very + real. He underestimated, 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 Catholic Church + of bigotry, persecution, murder, and rebellion. This was no very tactful + appeal for sympathy to the sons of that France which was still + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span> + the eldest + daughter of the Church and it was hardly helped by a maladroit turn + suggesting that <q>low-minded infirmities</q> should not permit such + differences to block union in the sacred cause of liberty. Washington + believed that two battalions of Canadians 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 was + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span> + 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 Maine under Benedict Arnold. + </p> + <p> + 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 + sovereign. 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, + <q>every man a general and not one of them a soldier.</q> They feigned + sickness, though, as far as he had learned, there was <q>not a man dead of + any distemper.</q> No better were the men from New York, <q>the sweepings + of the streets</q> with morals <q>infamous.</q> Of the officers, too, + Montgomery had a + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span> + poor opinion. Like Washington he declared that it was necessary to get + gentlemen, men of education 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 competent 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. + </p> + <p> + The adventurous Benedict Arnold went on an expedition more hazardous. He + had persuaded Washington of the impossible, that he could advance through + the wilderness from the seacoast of Maine and take Quebec by surprise. + News travels even by forest pathways. Arnold made a wonderful 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 Chaudière, which + discharges into the St. Lawrence opposite Quebec. There were heavy + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span> + rains. Sometimes + the men had to wade breast high in dragging heavy and leaking boats over + the difficult places. A good many men died of starvation. Others deserted + and turned back. The indomitable Arnold pressed on, however, and on the + 9th of November, a few days before Montgomery occupied 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 + Quebec, sat tight and would hold no communication with despised <q>rebels.</q> + <q>They all pretend to be gentlemen,</q> 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span> + threats by Carleton's contempt, + but never could he draw from Carleton a reply. 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. + </p> + <p> + Montgomery's fate was more tragic. In spite of protests from his officers, + he led in person the attack from the west side of the fortress. The + advance 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 assailants not swept down fled in + panic. With the morning light the dead head of Montgomery was + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span> + found protruding from the snow. He was mourned by Washington and with + reason. He had talents and character which might have made him one of 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. + </p> + <hr class="break" /> + <p> + While the outlook in Canada grew steadily darker, the American cause + prospered before Boston. 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 commanded Boston + as critically from the south as did Bunker Hill from the north. By the end + of February 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 Dorchester Heights and that if he would dislodge + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span> + them + he must make another attack similar to that at Bunker Hill. The + alternative of stiff fighting was the evacuation of Boston. Howe, though + dilatory, 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 powerful 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 decided 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 critic + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span> + said that + they moved <q>as if the very devil was after them.</q> No doubt many of them + would have been arrogant and merciless to <q>rebels</q> 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 <q>at leaving our once happy + town of Boston.</q> The ships, a forest of masts, 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. If Quebec should fall the continent would be almost + conquered. + </p> + <p> + Quebec did not fall. All through the winter the Americans held on before + the place. They shivered from 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span> + sometimes used violence. + Then the Canadians became more reserved and chilling than ever. In hope of + mending matters Congress sent a commission to Montreal in the spring of + 1776. Its chairman was Benjamin Franklin and, with him, were two leading + Roman Catholics, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a great landowner of + Maryland, and his brother John, a priest, afterwards Archbishop 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 arrived 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 Americans 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. + </p> + <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span> + Congress sent six regiments to reinforce the army which had fled from + Quebec. It was a desperate 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 attacked 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 + annihilated. 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 together 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. <q>I did not look into a hut or a tent,</q> says an + observer, <q>in which I did not find a dead or dying man.</q> Those who had + huts were fortunate. The fate of some was to die without medical care and + without cover. By + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span> + the end of June what was left of the force had reached Crown Point on + Lake Champlain. + </p> + <p> + 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 afloat + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span> + on Lake Champlain. Arnold, too, spent the summer 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 delayed + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 Ticonderoga. 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 Lake Champlain to the Americans. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2><a href="#Contents">CHAPTER III</a></h2> + <h3>Independence</h3> + <p> + <span class="smcap">Well-meaning</span> people in England found it + difficult to understand the intensity of feeling in America. Britain had + piled up a huge debt in driving France from America. Landowners were + paying in taxes no less than twenty per cent of their incomes from land. + The people who had chiefly benefited by the humiliation of France were the + colonists, now freed from hostile menace and secure for extension over a + whole continent. Why should not they pay some share of the cost of their + own security? Certain facts tended to make Englishmen indignant with the + Americans. Every effort had failed to get them to pay willingly for their + defense. Before the Stamp Act had become law in 1765 the colonies were + given a whole year to devise the raising of money in any way which they + liked better. The burden of what was asked would be light. Why should not + they agree to bear it? Why this talk, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span> + repeated by the Whigs in the British Parliament, of brutal + tyranny, oppression, hired minions imposing slavery, and so on. Where were + the oppressed? Could any one point to a single person who before war broke + out had known British tyranny? What suffering could any one point to as + the result of the tax on tea? The people of England paid a tax on tea four + times heavier than that paid in America. Was not the British Parliament + supreme over the whole Empire? Did not the colonies themselves admit that + it had the right to control their trade overseas? And if men shirk their + duty should they not come under some law of compulsion? + </p> + <p> + It was thus that many a plain man reasoned in England. The plain man in + America had his own opposing point of view. Debts and taxes in England + were not his concern. He remembered the recent war as vividly as did the + Englishman, and, if the English paid its cost in gold, he had paid his + share in blood and tears. Who made up the armies led by the British + generals in America? More than half the total number who served in America + came from the colonies, the colonies which had barely a third of the + population of Great Britain. True, Britain paid the bill in money but why + not? She + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span> + was rich with a vast accumulated capital. The war, partly in + America, had given her the key to the wealth of India. Look at the + magnificence, the pomp of servants, plate and pictures, the parks and + gardens, of hundreds of English country houses, and compare this opulence + with the simple mode of life, simplicity imposed by necessity, of a + country gentleman like George Washington of Virginia, reputed to be the + richest man in America. Thousands of tenants in England, owning no acre of + land, were making a larger income than was possible in America to any + owner of broad acres. It was true that America had gained from the late + war. The foreign enemy had been struck down. But had he not been struck + down too for England? Had there not been far more dread in England of + invasion by France and had not the colonies by helping to ruin France + freed England as much as England had freed them? If now the colonies were + asked to pay a share of the bill for the British army that was a matter + for discussion. They had never before done it and they must not be told + that they had to meet the demand within a year or be compelled to pay. Was + it not to impose tyranny and slavery to tell a people that their property + would be taken by force if they did not choose to give it? + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span> + What free man + would not rather die than yield on such a point? + </p> + <p> + The familiar workings of modern democracy have taught us that a great + political issue must be discussed in broad terms of high praise or severe + blame. The contestants will exaggerate both the virtue of the side they + espouse and the malignity of the opposing side; nice discrimination is not + possible. It was inevitable that the dispute with the colonies should + arouse angry vehemence on both sides. The passionate speech of Patrick + Henry in Virginia, in 1763, which made him famous, and was the forerunner + of his later appeal, <q>Give me Liberty or give me Death,</q> related to so + prosaic a question as the right of disallowance by England of an act + passed by a colonial legislature, a right exercised long and often before + that time and to this day a part of the constitutional machinery of the + British Empire. Few men have lived more serenely poised than Washington, + yet, as we have seen, he hated the British with an implacable hatred. He + was a humane man. In earlier years, Indian raids on the farmers of + Virginia had stirred him to <q>deadly sorrow,</q> and later, during his retreat + from New York, he was moved by the cries of the weak and infirm. Yet the + same man felt no + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span> + touch of pity for the Loyalists of the Revolution. To him + they were detestable parricides, vile traitors, with no right to live. + When we find this note in Washington, in America, we hardly wonder that + the high Tory, Samuel Johnson, in England, should write that the proposed + taxation was no tyranny, that it had not been imposed earlier because <q>we + do not put a calf into the plough; we wait till he is an ox,</q> and that the + Americans were <q>a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything + which we allow them short of hanging.</q> Tyranny and treason are both ugly + things. Washington believed that he was fighting the one, Johnson that he + was fighting the other, and neither side would admit the charge against + itself. + </p> + <p> + Such are the passions aroused by civil strife. We need not now, when they + are, or ought to be, dead, spend any time in deploring them. It suffices + to explain them and the events to which they led. There was one and really + only one final issue. Were the American colonies free to govern themselves + as they liked or might their government in the last analysis be regulated + by Great Britain? The truth is that the colonies had reached a condition + in which they regarded themselves as British states with their own + parliaments, exercising + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span> + complete jurisdiction in their own affairs. They + intended to use their own judgment and they were as restless under + attempted control from England as England would have been under control + from America. We can indeed always understand the point of view of + Washington if we reverse the position and imagine what an Englishman would + have thought of a claim by America to tax him. + </p> + <p> + An ancient and proud society is reluctant to change. After a long and + successful war England was prosperous. To her now came riches from India + and the ends of the earth. In society there was such lavish expenditure + that Horace Walpole declared an income of twenty thousand pounds a year + was barely enough. England had an aristocracy the proudest in the world, + for it had not only rank but wealth. The English people were certain of + the invincible superiority of their nation. Every Englishman was taught, + as Disraeli said of a later period, to believe that he occupied a position + better than any one else of his own degree in any other country in the + world. The merchant in England was believed to surpass all others in + wealth and integrity, the manufacturer to have no rivals in skill, the + British sailor to stand in a class by himself, the British officer to + express the last word in + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span> + chivalry. It followed, of course, that the + motherland was superior to her children overseas. The colonies had no + aristocracy, no great landowners living in stately palaces. They had + almost no manufactures. They had no imposing state system with places and + pensions from which the fortunate might reap a harvest of ten or even + twenty thousand pounds a year. They had no ancient universities thronged + by gilded youth who, if noble, might secure degrees without the trying + ceremony of an examination. They had no Established Church with the + ancient glories of its cathedrals. In all America there was not even a + bishop. In spite of these contrasts the English Whigs insisted upon the + political equality with themselves of the American colonists. The Tory + squire, however, shared Samuel Johnson's view that colonists were either + traders or farmers and that colonial shopkeeping society was vulgar and + contemptible. + </p> + <p> + George III was ill-fitted by nature to deal with the crisis. The King was + not wholly without natural parts, for his own firm will had achieved what + earlier kings had tried and failed to do; he had mastered Parliament, made + it his obedient tool and himself for a time a despot. He had some + admirable virtues. He was a family man, the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span> + father of fifteen children. He + liked quiet amusements and had wholesome tastes. If industry and belief in + his own aims could of themselves make a man great we might reverence + George. He wrote once to Lord North: <q>I have no object but to be of use: + if that is ensured I am completely happy.</q> The King was always busy. + Ceaseless industry does not, however, include every virtue, or the author + of all evil would rank high in goodness. Wisdom must be the pilot of good + intentions. George was not wise. He was ill-educated. He had never + traveled. He had no power to see the point of view of others. + </p> + <p> + As if nature had not sufficiently handicapped George for a high part, fate + placed him on the throne at the immature age of twenty-two. Henceforth the + boy was master, not pupil. Great nobles and obsequious prelates did him + reverence. Ignorant and obstinate, the young King was determined not only + to reign but to rule, in spite of the new doctrine that Parliament, not + the King, carried on the affairs of government through the leader of the + majority in the House of Commons, already known as the Prime Minister. + George could not really change what was the last expression of political + forces in England. The rule of Parliament + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span> + had come to stay. Through it and + it alone could the realm be governed. This power, however, though it could + not be destroyed, might be controlled. Parliament, while retaining all its + privileges, might yet carry out the wishes of the sovereign. The King + might be his own Prime Minister. The thing could be done if the King's + friends held a majority of the seats and would do what their master + directed. It was a dark day for England when a king found that he could + play off one faction against another, buy a majority in Parliament, and + retain it either by paying with guineas or with posts and dignities which + the bought Parliament left in his gift. This corruption it was which + ruined the first British Empire. + </p> + <p> + We need not doubt that George thought it his right and also his duty to + coerce America, or rather, as he said, the clamorous minority which was + trying to force rebellion. He showed no lack of sincerity. On October 26, + 1775, while Washington was besieging Boston, he opened Parliament with a + speech which at any rate made the issue clear enough. Britain would not + give up colonies which she had founded with severe toil and nursed with + great kindness. Her army and her navy, both now increased in size, would + make her power respected. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span> + She would not, however, deal harshly with her + erring children. Royal mercy would be shown to those who admitted their + error and they need not come to England to secure it. Persons in America + would be authorized to grant pardons and furnish the guarantees which + would proceed from the royal clemency. + </p> + <p> + Such was the magnanimity of George III. Washington's rage at the tone of + the speech is almost amusing in its vehemence. He, with a mind conscious + of rectitude and sacrifice in a great cause, to ask pardon for his course! + He to bend the knee to this tyrant overseas! Washington himself was not + highly gifted with imagination. He never realized the strength of the + forces in England arrayed on his own side and attributed to the English, + as a whole, sinister and malignant designs always condemned by the great + mass of the English people. They, no less than the Americans, were the + victims of a turn in politics which, for a brief period, and for only a + brief period, left power in the hands of a corrupt Parliament and a + corrupting king. + </p> + <p> + Ministers were not all corrupt or place-hunters. One of them, the Earl of + Dartmouth, was a saint in spirit. Lord North, the king's chief minister, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span> + was not corrupt. He disliked his office and wished to leave it. In truth + no sweeping simplicity of condemnation will include all the ministers of + George III except on this one point that they allowed to dictate their + policy a narrow-minded and ignorant king. It was their right to furnish a + policy and to exercise the powers of government, appoint to office, spend + the public revenues. Instead they let the King say that the opinions of + his ministers had no avail with him. If we ask why, the answer is that + there was a mixture of motives. North stayed in office because the King + appealed to his loyalty, a plea hard to resist under an ancient monarchy. + Others stayed from love of power or for what they could get. In that + golden age of patronage it was possible for a man to hold a plurality of + offices which would bring to himself many thousands of pounds a year, and + also to secure the reversion of offices and pensions to his children. + Horace Walpole spent a long life in luxurious ease because of offices with + high pay and few duties secured in the distant days of his father's + political power. Contracts to supply the army and the navy went to friends + of the government, sometimes with disastrous results, since the contractor + often knew nothing of the business he undertook. When, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span> + in 1777, the + Admiralty boasted that thirty-five ships of war were ready to put to sea + it was found that there were in fact only six. The system nearly ruined + the navy. It actually happened that planks of a man-of-war fell out + through rot and that she sank. Often ropes and spars could not be had when + most needed. When a public loan was floated the King's friends and they + alone were given the shares at a price which enabled them to make large + profits on the stock market. + </p> + <p> + The system could endure only as long as the King's friends had a majority + in the House of Commons. Elections must be looked after. The King must + have those on whom he could always depend. He controlled offices and + pensions. With these things he bought members and he had to keep them + bought by repeating the benefits. If the holder of a public office was + thought to be dying the King was already naming to his Prime Minister the + person to whom the office must go when death should occur. He insisted + that many posts previously granted for life should now be given during his + pleasure so that he might dismiss the holders at will. He watched the + words and the votes in Parliament of public men and woe to those in his + power if they displeased him. When he knew that + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span> + Fox, his great antagonist, + would be absent from Parliament he pressed through measures which Fox + would have opposed. It was not until George III was King that the buying + and selling of boroughs became common. The King bought votes in the + boroughs by paying high prices for trifles. He even went over the lists of + voters and had names of servants of the government inserted if this seemed + needed to make a majority secure. One of the most unedifying scenes in + English history is that of George making a purchase in a shop at Windsor + and because of this patronage asking for the shopkeeper's support in a + local election. The King was saving and penurious in his habits that he + might have the more money to buy votes. When he had no money left he would + go to Parliament and ask for a special grant for his needs and the bought + members could not refuse the money for their buying. + </p> + <p> + The people of England knew that Parliament was corrupt. But how to end the + system? The press was not free. Some of it the government bought and the + rest it tried to intimidate though often happily in vain. Only fragments + of the debates in Parliament were published. Not until 1779 did the House + of Commons admit the public + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span> + to its galleries. No great political meetings + were allowed until just before the American war and in any case the masses + had no votes. The great landowners had in their control a majority of the + constituencies. There were scores of pocket boroughs in which their + nominees were as certain of election as peers were of their seats in the + House of Lords. The disease of England was deep-seated. A wise king could + do much, but while George III survived—and his reign lasted sixty + years—there was no hope of a wise king. A strong minister could + impose his will on the King. But only time and circumstance could evolve a + strong minister. Time and circumstance at length produced the younger + Pitt. But it needed the tragedy of two long wars—those against the + colonies and revolutionary France—before the nation finally threw + off the system which permitted the personal rule of George III and caused + the disruption of the Empire. It may thus be said with some truth that + George Washington was instrumental in the salvation of England. + </p> + <p> + The ministers of George III loved the sports, the rivalries, the ease, the + remoteness of their rural magnificence. Perverse fashion kept them in + London even in April and May for <q>the season,</q> just + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span> + 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 + important 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 Germain, 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. Germain 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. + </p> + <p> + It is to the credit of Whig leaders in England, landowners and aristocrats + as they were, that they + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span> + 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 <q>perfectly + justifiable in every possible political and moral sense.</q> All the world + knows that Chatham 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span> + 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 <q>I never have and, + by God, I never will.</q> One of his children asked their mother whether + Tories were born wicked or after birth became wicked. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span> + The uncompromising + answer was: <q>They are born wicked and they grow up worse.</q> + </p> + <p> + There is, of course, in much of this something of the malignance of party. + In an age when one reverend theologian, Toplady, called another + theologian, John Wesley, <q>a low and puny tadpole in Divinity</q> 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, + <q>Holkham is open to <em>strangers</em> on Tuesdays.</q> 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. + </p> + <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span> + 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 taxation and he understood Washington. The + American gentleman and the English gentleman had a common outlook. + </p> + <hr class="break" /> + <p> + Now had come, however, the hour for political separation. By reluctant but + inevitable steps America made up its mind to declare for independence. 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 <q>infernal villain</q> such as the soldier, General Gage, a second + Pharaoh; though it must be admitted that even then the King was <q>the + tyrant of Great Britain.</q> After Bunker Hill spasmodic declarations of + independence were made here and there by local bodies. When Congress + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span> + 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 belligerents 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 sinister—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 unwilling vengeance. <q>Our plantations</q> + and <q>our subjects in the colonies</q> 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span> + seriously and speakers in Parliament + called them obscure ruffians and cowards, so much the worse for England. + </p> + <p> + 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 Philadelphia 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? <q>Everything that is right or + natural pleads for separation.</q> Interested men, weak men, prejudiced men, + moderate men who do not really know Europe, may urge reconciliation, 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span> + to be forgiven. The blood of the slain, not less + than the true interests of posterity, demanded separation. Paine called + his pamphlet <i>Common Sense</i>. It was published on January 9, 1776. More + than a hundred thousand copies were quickly sold and it brought decision + to many wavering minds. + </p> + <p> + In the first days of 1776 independence had become 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 settlement, and at last + Virginia, in this as in so many other things taking the lead, instructed + its delegates to urge a declaration by Congress of independence. 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 <q>these + United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent + States.</q> The preparation of a formal declaration was referred to a + committee of which John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were members. It is + interesting + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span> + 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 Independence. Adams related long after that he and + Jefferson formed the sub-committee to draft the Declaration and that he + urged Jefferson to undertake the task since <q>you can write ten times + better than I can.</q> Jefferson accordingly wrote the paper. Adams was + delighted <q>with its high tone and the flights of Oratory</q> but he did not + approve of the flaming attack on the King, as a tyrant. <q>I never + believed,</q> he said, <q>George to be a tyrant in disposition and in nature.</q> + There was, he thought, too much passion for a grave and solemn document. + He was, however, the principal speaker in its support. + </p> + <p> + There is passion in the Declaration from beginning 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 Lincoln. 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 + <q>death, desolation and tyranny</q> or talked about pledging <q>our lives, our + fortunes and our sacred honour.</q> He indulged in no <q>Flights + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span> + of Oratory.</q> + 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 + <q>introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies.</q> 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 had 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. <q>I have never,</q> he said, <q>had a + feeling politically + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span> + which did not spring from the sentiments in the + Declaration of Independence</q>; 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 reverence of a document which became a + classic utterance of political right and which inspired Lincoln in his + fight to end slavery and to make <q>Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness</q> + realities for all men. In England the colonists were often taunted with + being <q>rebels.</q> The answer was not wanting that ancestors of those who now + cried <q>rebel</q> had themselves been rebels a hundred years earlier when + their own liberty was at stake. + </p> + <p> + There were in Congress men who ventured to say that the Declaration was a + libel on the government 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 <q>resolution respecting independency</q> was adopted. On + July 4, 1776, Congress debated and finally adopted the formal + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span> + Declaration + of Independence. The members did 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. It + was a momentous occasion and was understood to be such. The vote seems to + have been reached in the late afternoon. Anxious citizens were waiting 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: <q>They will never do it! they will never do it!</q> Then came the + word, <q>Ring! Ring!</q> It is an odd fact that the inscription on the bell, + placed there long before the days of the trouble, was from Leviticus: + <q><i>Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants + thereof.</i></q> 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 Declaration the Virginia Convention struck out <q>O Lord, save + the King</q> 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. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2><a href="#Contents">CHAPTER IV</a></h2> + <h3>The Loss of New York</h3> + <p> + <span class="smcap">Washington's</span> 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 + Virginia. Washington had no illusions of security. He was anxious above + all for the safety of New + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span> + York, commanding the vital artery of the Hudson, which must at all costs + be defended. Accordingly, in April, he took his army to New York and + established there his own headquarters. + </p> + <p> + Even before Washington moved to New York, three great British expeditions + were nearing America. One of these we have already seen at Quebec. 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 expeditions was to strike at New York and, by a + show of strength, bring the colonists to reason and reconciliation. If + mildness failed the British intended to capture New York, sail up the + Hudson and cut off New England from the other colonies. + </p> + <p> + The squadron destined 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 men under 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. + Admiral Sir Peter Parker commanded the fleet, and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span> + 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 Parker drew off, with two hundred and twenty-five casualties + against an American loss of thirty-seven. The check was greater than that + of Bunker Hill, for there the British took the ground which they attacked. + The British sailors bore witness to the gallantry of the defense: <q>We + never had such a drubbing in our lives,</q> one of them testified. Only one + of Parker's ten ships was seaworthy after the fight. It took him three + weeks to refit, and not until the 4th of August did his defeated ships + reach New York. + </p> + <p> + A mighty armada of seven hundred ships had + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span> + 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 Parliament for Nottingham and had + publicly condemned the quarrel with America 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, however, affects action. Howe had + no belief that his country was in the right in the war and this + handicapped him as against the passionate conviction of Washington that + all was at stake which made life worth living. + </p> + <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span> + 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 by 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 Howe had an + unpleasant face, so dark that he was called <q>Black Dick</q>; he was a silent, + awkward man, shy and harsh in manner. In reality, however, 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 was a + fighting sailor. Nearly twenty years later, on June 1, 1794, when he was + in command 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: <q>We shall have the fight today; Black Dick has been + smiling.</q> They had it, and Howe won a victory which makes his name famous + in the annals of the sea. + </p> + <p> + By the middle of July the two brothers were at New York. The soldier, + having waited at Halifax + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span> + 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 name¹; 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 addressed in civilian + style as <q>George Washington Esq.</q> The King and his ministers had no + imagination to call up the picture of high-hearted men fighting for + rights which they held dear. + </p> + <div class="footer"> + <a id="footer_86-1" name="footer_86-1"></a> + ¹Trevelyan, <i>American Revolution</i>, Part II, vol. I (New + Ed., vol. II), 261. + </div> + <p> + Lord Howe went so far as to address a letter to <q>George Washington Esq. + &c. &c.,</q> and Washington agreed to an interview with the officer + who + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span> + bore it. In imposing uniform and with the stateliest manner, + Washington, who had an instinct for effect, received the envoy. The awed + messenger explained that the symbols <q>&c. &c.</q> meant everything, + 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 + Congress agreed that the recognition of his rank was necessary. There was + nothing to do but to go on with the fight. + </p> + <p> + Washington's army held the city of New York, at the southerly point of + Manhattan Island. The Hudson River, separating the island from the + mainland 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span> + 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 thousand well-trained soldiers, and he + could, in addition, draw men from the fleet, which would give him in all + double the force of Washington. + </p> + <p> + In such a situation even the best skill of Washington was likely only to + qualify defeat. He was advised to destroy New York and retire to positions + more tenable. But even if he had so desired, Congress, his master, would + not permit him to 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 the city untenable. Accordingly Washington placed half his + force on Long Island to defend Brooklyn Heights and in doing so made the + fundamental error of cutting his army in two and dividing it by an arm of + the sea in presence of overwhelming hostile naval power. + </p> + <p> + On the 22d of August Howe ferried fifteen thousand men across the Narrows + to Long Island, in order to attack the position on Brooklyn Heights from + the rear. Before him lay wooded hills across which led three roads + converging at Brooklyn + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span> + 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 overwhelming odds, had lost nearly two thousand men in + casualties and prisoners, six field pieces, and twenty-six heavy guns. The + two chief commanders, Sullivan 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 marsh three miles long. When he realized, on the 28th of August, what + Howe had achieved, he increased the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span> + defenders of Brooklyn Heights to ten + thousand men, more than half his army. This was another cardinal error. + British ships were near and but for unfavorable winds might have sailed up + to Brooklyn. Washington hoped and prayed that 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 move away or face + the danger of losing every man on Long Island. + </p> + <p> + On the night of the 29th of August there was clear moonlight, with fog + towards daybreak. A British army of twenty-five thousand men was only some + six hundred yards from the American lines. A few miles from the shore lay + at anchor a great British fleet with, it is to be presumed, its patrols on + the alert. Yet, during that night, ten thousand American troops were + marched down to boats on the strand at Brooklyn and, with all their + stores, were carried across a mile of water to New York. There must have + been the splash of oars 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 of + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span> + 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 British fleet might have brought + panic to the Americans 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 asking eager questions and wondering how + it had all happened. + </p> + <p> + 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, withdrawn 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 performed + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span> + this maneuver as soon as they + had a favorable wind. There was, we know, great confusion in New York, and + Washington tells us how his 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 an envoy to make peace. The British victory on Long Island might, + he thought, make Congress more willing to negotiate. So now he sent to + Philadelphia the captured American General Sullivan, with the request that + some members of Congress might confer privately on the prospects for + peace. + </p> + <p> + Howe probably did not realize that the Americans had the British quality + of becoming more 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 Congress seems to have thought that Howe was planning + treachery. John Adams, excepted by name from British offers of pardon, + called Sullivan a <q>decoy duck</q> 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 stalwart + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span> + Adams and the suave Franklin were + willing to be members of a committee which went to meet Lord Howe. With + great sorrow Howe now realized 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 regiments 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. + </p> + <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span> + 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, + invited 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 York + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span> + soon took fire and one-third of the little city was burned. + </p> + <p> + After the fall of New York there followed a complex 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 together. 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 autumn + 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 still on Long + Island in ships which then sailed through the dangerous currents of Hell + Gate and landed at Throg's Neck, a peninsula on the sound across from Long + Island. Washington parried this movement by so guarding the narrow neck of + the peninsula leading to the mainland 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span> + 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 retreat, then withdrew still farther north among + hills difficult of attack. + </p> + <p> + 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, on + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span> + the whole Washington's best general, was in + command 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 hundred, but they took the + huge fort with its three thousand defenders and a great quantity of + munitions of war. Howe's threat was not carried out. There was no + massacre. + </p> + <p> + Across the river at Fort Lee the helpless Washington watched this great + disaster. He had need still to look out, for Fort Lee was itself doomed. + On the nineteenth Lord Cornwallis with five thousand men crossed the river + five miles above Fort Lee. General Greene barely escaped with the two + thousand men in the fort, leaving behind one hundred 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span> + pausing until it had been ferried over + the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. + </p> + <p> + Treachery, now linked to military disaster, made Washington's position + terrible. Charles Lee, Horatio 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 thousand 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 received 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. He seems deliberately to have left + Washington to face complete disaster and thus prove his incompetence; + then, as the undefeated general, he could take the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span> + 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 rôle. He wrote of Washington at + this time, to his friend Gates, as weak and <q>most damnably deficient.</q> + 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 bestride a + horse in night gown and slippers. Not always does fate appear so just in + her strokes. + </p> + <p> + 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span> + 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 Sullivan and Gates joined him across the Delaware in + Pennsylvania, was about four thousand men. + </p> + <p> + 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 + Philadelphia 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 issued + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span> + 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. + Philadelphia would probably fall before spring and it looked as if the war + was really over. + </p> + <p> + 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 + despatch: <q>My center is giving way; my right is retreating; the situation + is excellent: I am attacking.</q> 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 probably + 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 Trenton, but this, as Washington well + knew, had not been done for Rahl despised his enemy and spoke of the + American army as already lost. Washington'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 Bordentown + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span> + below Trenton, the second at Trenton + itself. These two attacks were designed to prevent aid to Trenton. The + third force with which Washington himself went was to cross the river some + nine miles above the town. + </p> + <p> + 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 boatmen 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 daybreak. 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 the more on the bayonet. He attacked Trenton in broad daylight. + There was a sharp fight. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span> + Rahl, the commander, and some seventy men, were + killed and a thousand men surrendered. + </p> + <p> + 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, + however, 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. + </p> + <p> + The reverse had brought consternation at New York. Lord Cornwallis was + about to embark for England, the bearer of news of overwhelming victory. + Now, instead, he was sent to drive back Washington. It was no easy task + for Cornwallis to reach Trenton, for Washington's scouting + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span> + 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 reoccupied Trenton. This + time Washington had not recrossed 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 Cornwallis. + That night he sharply cannonaded Washington'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 compliment of saying that at last he + had run down the <q>Old Fox.</q> + </p> + <p> + Then followed a maneuver which, years after, Cornwallis, a generous foe, + told Washington was one of the most surprising and brilliant in the + history of war. There was another <q>old fox</q> 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. Instead of taking the obvious course of again retreating + across the Delaware Washington decided to advance, to get in behind + Cornwallis, to try to cut his communications, to threaten the British base + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + All through the night of January 2, 1777, Washington'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 entrenchments. The fires died + down towards morning and the British awoke to find the enemy camp + deserted. 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 reinforcements coming to Cornwallis. He reached Princeton + and then slipped away northward and made his headquarters at Morristown. + He had achieved his purpose. The British with Washington 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 exception of some minor positions near the + sea. He had + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2><a href="#Contents">CHAPTER V</a></h2> + <h3>The Loss of Philadelphia</h3> + <p> + <span class="smcap">Though</span> the outlook for Washington was + brightened by his success in New Jersey, it was still depressing 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 prosecution of the war in + America. These numbers were in fact never reached, but the army of forty + thousand in America was formidable compared with Washington'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. + </p> + <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span> + 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, Washington, in + view of his own depleted force, in a state of half famine, wrote: <q>If + Howe does not take advantage of our weak state he is very unfit for his + trust.</q> Howe remained inactive and time, thus despised, worked its due + revenge. Later Howe did move, and with skill, but he missed the rapid + combination in action which was the first condition of final success. He + could have captured Philadelphia in May. He took the city, but not until + September, when to hold it had become a liability and not + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span> + an asset. To go there at + all was perhaps unwise; to go in September was for him a tragic mistake. + </p> + <p> + From New York to Philadelphia the distance by land is about a hundred + miles. The route lay across New Jersey, that <q>garden of America</q> 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 a low ebb. He had always the faith that a cause founded + on justice 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 interests 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 tomorrow 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 constantly + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span> + slighted and ill-treated, + Washington wrote sharply to abolish his poisonous suspicions. + </p> + <p> + 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, <q>generally</q> as he said, <q>of the lowest class of the + people,</q> 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 concealed, and Washington wrote that the waste and theft were + <q>beyond all conception.</q> There were shirkers claiming exemption from + military service on the ground that they were doing necessary service 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. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Howe had his own perplexities. He knew that a great expedition under + Burgoyne was to advance from Canada southward to the Hudson. Was he to + 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 coöperate 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 recently captured, and Lee, as + we know, told him + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span> + 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 prevent 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. + </p> + <p> + It was summer before Howe was ready to move, and by that time he had + received instructions that his first aim must be to coöperate with + Burgoyne. First, however, he was resolved to have Philadelphia. Washington + watched Howe in perplexity. A great fleet and a great army lay at New + York. Why + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span> + did they not move? Washington knew perfectly well what he + himself would have done in Howe's place. He would have attacked rapidly in + April the weak American army and, after destroying 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 overwhelming 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 saying that the fleet was about to sail for + Boston. All these things took time and the summer was slipping away. In + the 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? + Washington + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Howe was doing what able officers with him, such as Cornwallis, Grey, and + the German Knyphausen, 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 + sedition 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 + hundred and twenty-nine ships set their sails and covered the sea for + miles. When they had disappeared out of sight of the New Jersey shore + their goal was still unknown. At sea they might turn in any direction. + Washington's uncertainty + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">116</a></span> + 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 + hovering 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 intended to have. Washington wrote gleefully: + <q>Now let all New England turn out and crush Burgoyne.</q> Before the + end of September he was writing that he was certain of complete disaster + to Burgoyne. + </p> + <p> + 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 of + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span> + August, + when the net was closing on Burgoyne, Howe was three hundred miles away. + His disregard 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 obstructions commanded by bristling + forts. The naval officers said truly that the fleet could not get up the + river. 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 Chesapeake Bay there was little to prevent him from landing his army on + the Delaware side of the peninsula and marching across it. By sea it is a + voyage 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 + when a 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. + </p> + <p> + Howe's mistakes only have their place in the procession to inevitable + disaster. Once in the thick + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span> + of fighting he showed himself formidable. When + he had landed at Elkton he was fifty miles southwest of Philadelphia and + between him and that place was Washington with his army. Washington was + determined to delay Howe in every possible way. To get to Philadelphia + Howe had to cross the Brandywine River. Time was nothing to him. He landed + at Elkton on the 25th of August. Not until the 10th of September was he + prepared to attack Washington barring his way at Chadd's Ford. Washington + was in a strong position on a front of two miles on the river. At his + left, below Chadd's Ford, the Brandywine is a torrent flowing between high + cliffs. There the British would find no passage. On his right was a + forest. Washington had chosen his position with his usual skill. + Entrenchments protected his front and batteries would sweep down an + advancing enemy. He had probably not more than eleven thousand men in the + fight and it is doubtful whether Howe brought up a greater number so that + the armies were not unevenly matched. At daybreak on the eleventh the + British army broke camp at the village of <ins title="Transcriber's Note: Corrected Kenneth Square to Kennett Square."> + Kennett Square,</ins> four miles from Chadd's Ford, and, under General + Knyphausen, marched straight to make a frontal attack on Washington's + position. + </p> + <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span> + In the battle which followed Washington was beaten by the superior tactics + of his enemy. Not all of the British army was there in the attack at + Chadd's Ford. A column under Cornwallis had filed off by a road to the + left and was making a long and rapid march. The plan was to cross the + Brandywine some ten miles above where Washington was posted and to attack + him in the rear. By two o'clock in the afternoon Cornwallis had forced the + two branches of the upper Brandywine and was marching on Dilworth at the + right rear of the American army. Only then did Washington become aware of + his danger. His first impulse was to advance across Chadd's Ford to try to + overwhelm Knyphausen and thus to get between Howe and the fleet at Elkton. + This might, however, have brought disaster and he soon decided to retire. + His movement was ably carried out. Both sides suffered in the woodland + fighting but that night the British army encamped in Washington's position + at Chadd's Ford, and Howe had fought skillfully and won an important + battle. + </p> + <p> + Washington had retired in good order and was still formidable. He now + realized clearly enough that Philadelphia would fall. Delay, however, + would be nearly as good as victory. He saw what + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span> + Howe could not see, that + menacing cloud in the north, much bigger than a man's hand, which, with + Howe far away, should break in a final storm terrible for the British + cause. Meanwhile Washington meant to keep Howe occupied. Rain alone + prevented another battle before the British reached the Schuylkill River. + On that river Washington guarded every ford. But, in the end, by skillful + maneuvering, Howe was able to cross and on the 26th of September he + occupied Philadelphia without resistance. The people were ordered to + remain quietly in their houses. Officers were billeted on the wealthier + inhabitants. The fall resounded far of what Lord Adam Gordon called a + <q>great and noble city,</q> <q>the first Town in America,</q> <q>one of + the Wonders of the World.</q> Its luxury had been so conspicuous that the + austere John Adams condemned the <q>sinful feasts</q> 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 renewed their oath of allegiance to the + King. Washington complained that the people gave Howe information denied + to him. They certainly fed + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span> + 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 Philadelphia taken, the rebellion had at last collapsed. + </p> + <p> + 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 <q>old fox</q> + 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 carried 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span> + 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 brigade 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2><a href="#Contents">CHAPTER VI</a></h2> + <h3>The First Great British Disaster</h3> + <p> + <span class="smcap">John Burgoyne</span>, 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 Christian, who, in spite of many faults, had never forgotten 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span> + certain that a tailor stands with his feet on the neck of + the King of France. The decks of captured ships swim with punch and are + clotted with gold dust, and happy soldiers play with diamonds as if they + were marbles. The senators of England, 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 <q>yawning, picking his teeth and damning his + journey</q> and when once on the way drives with such fury that the + route is marked by <q>yelping dogs, broken-backed pigs and dismembered + geese.</q> + </p> + <p> + 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 expected, 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 do + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 + colonies had fought in alliance with the painted and befeathered savages + and had made no protest. Now either times had changed, or there was + something in a civil war which made the use of savages + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 country. He thought the + <q>insurgents</q> 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 to land 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. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span> + Once past this + fort, guarding the route to Lake George, he could easily reach the Hudson. + </p> + <p> + 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 commanding 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 necessity. He abandoned the untenable forts and retired + southward to Fort Edward by way of the difficult Green Mountains. The + British took one hundred and twenty-eight guns. + </p> + <p> + 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 III of + the fall of Fort Ticonderoga. The place had been much discussed. It had + been the first British + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span> + 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 heartburning in London. Now, when the news of its fall + reached England, George III burst into the Queen's room with the glad cry, + <q>I have beat them, I have beat the Americans.</q> Washington's + depression 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 harassing 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 two + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span> + 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 equipment 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 England, 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">130</a></span> + the + great mass of the people hostile and he doubted the sincerity even of + those who professed their loyalty. + </p> + <p> + After Burgoyne had been a month at Fort Edward 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 instructions 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 way + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span> + of doing it, and who was now eagerly awaiting + news of the final triumph. + </p> + <p> + 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 Bennington 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 Germans 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">132</a></span> + of + allegiance, slipped round to his rear and in the morning he was attacked + from front and rear. + </p> + <p> + A hot fight followed which resulted in the complete defeat of the British. + Baum was mortally wounded. Some of his men escaped into the woods; the + rest were killed or captured. Nor was this all. Burgoyne, scenting danger, + had ordered five hundred more Germans to reinforce Baum. They, too, were + attacked and overwhelmed. In all Burgoyne lost some eight hundred men and + four guns. The American loss was seventy. It shows the spirit of the time + that, for the sport of the soldiers, British prisoners were tied together + in pairs and driven by negroes at the tail of horses. An 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 and mounted him on a + horse also without the left eye, in derision at the captive's misfortune. + The British complained that quarter was refused in the fight. For days + tired stragglers, after long wandering in the woods, drifted into + Burgoyne's camp. This was now near Saratoga, a name destined to be ominous + in the history of the British army. + </p> + <p> + Further misfortune now crowded upon Burgoyne. The general of that day had + two favorite + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">133</a></span> + 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 British 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. + </p> + <p> + On the 3d of August St. Leger was before Fort Stanwix garrisoned by some + seven hundred Americans. With him were two men deemed potent in that + scene. One of these was Sir John Johnson + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">134</a></span> + who had recently inherited the + vast estate in the neighborhood of his father, the great Indian + Superintendent, Sir William Johnson, and was now in command of a regiment + recruited from Loyalists, many of them fierce and embittered because of + the seizure of their property. The other leader was a famous chief of the + Mohawks, Thayendanegea, or, to give him his English name, Joseph Brant, + half savage still, but also half civilized and half educated, because he + had had a careful schooling and for a brief day had been courted by London + fashion. He exerted a formidable influence with his own people. The + Indians were not, however, all on one side. Half of the six tribes of the + Iroquois were either neutral or in sympathy with the Americans. Among the + savages, as among the civilized, the war was a family quarrel, in which + brother fought brother. Most of the Indians on the American side + preserved, indeed, an outward neutrality. There was no hostile population + for them to plunder and the Indian usually had no stomach for any other + kind of warfare. The allies of the British, on the other hand, had plenty + of openings to their taste and they brought on the British cause an + enduring discredit. + </p> + <p> + When St. Leger was before Fort Stanwix he + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span> + heard that a force of eight + hundred men, led by a German settler named Herkimer, was coming up against + him. When it was at Oriskany, about six miles away, St. Leger laid a trap. + He sent Brant with some hundreds of Indians and a few soldiers to be + concealed in a marshy ravine which Herkimer must cross. When the American + force was hemmed in by trees and marsh on the narrow causeway of logs + running across the ravine the Indians attacked with wild yells and + murderous fire. Then followed a bloody hand to hand fight. Tradition has + been busy with its horrors. Men struggled in slime and blood and shouted + curses and defiance. Improbable stories are told of pairs of skeletons + found afterwards in the bog each with a bony hand which had driven a knife + to the heart of the other. In the end the British, met by resolution so + fierce, drew back. Meanwhile a sortie from the American fort on their rear + had a menacing success. Sir John Johnson's camp was taken and sacked. The + two sides were at last glad to separate, after the most bloody struggle in + the whole war. St. Leger's Indians had had more than enough. About a + hundred had been killed and the rest were in a state of mutiny. Soon it + was known that Benedict Arnold, with a considerable force, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">136</a></span> + was pushing up + the Mohawk Valley to relieve the American fort. Arnold knew how to deal + with savages. He took care that his friendly Indians should come into + contact with those of Brant and tell lurid tales of utter disaster to + Burgoyne and of a great avenging army on the march to attack St. Leger. + The result was that St. Leger's Indians broke out in riot and maddened + themselves with stolen rum. Disorder affected even the soldiers. The only + thing for St. Leger to do was to get away. He abandoned his guns and + stores and, harassed now by his former Indian allies, made his way to + Oswego and in the end reached Montreal with a remnant of his force. + </p> + <p> + News of these things came to Burgoyne just after the disaster at + Bennington. Since Fort Stanwix was in a country counted upon as Loyalist + at heart it was especially discouraging again to find that in the main the + population was against the British. During the war almost without + exception Loyalist opinion proved weak against the fierce determination of + the American side. It was partly a matter of organization. The vigilance + committees in each State made life well-nigh intolerable to suspected + Tories. Above all, however, the British had to bear the odium which + attaches always to + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">137</a></span> + the invader. We do not know what an American army would + have done if, with Iroquois savages as allies, it had made war in an + English county. We know what loathing a parallel situation aroused against + the British army in America. The Indians, it should be noted, were not + soldiers under British discipline but allies; the chiefs regarded + themselves as equals who must be consulted and not as enlisted to take + orders from a British general. + </p> + <p> + In war, as in politics, nice balancing of merit or defect in an enemy + would destroy the main purpose which is to defeat him. Each side + exaggerates any weak point in the other in order to stimulate the fighting + passions. Judgment is distorted. The Baroness Riedesel, the wife of one of + Burgoyne's generals, who was in Boston in 1777, says that the people were + all dressed alike in a peasant costume with a leather strap round the + waist, that they were of very low and insignificant stature, and that only + one in ten of them could read or write. She pictures New Englanders as + tarring and feathering cultivated English ladies. When educated people + believed every evil of the enemy the ignorant had no restraint to their + credulity. New England had long regarded the native savages as a pest. In + 1776 New Hampshire offered seventy pounds for + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">138</a></span> + each scalp of a hostile male + Indian and thirty-seven pounds and ten shillings for each scalp of a woman + or of a child under twelve years of age. Now it was reported that the + British were offering bounties for American scalps. Benjamin Franklin + satirized British ignorance when he described whales leaping Niagara Falls + and he did not expect to be taken seriously when, at a later date, he + pictured George III as gloating over the scalps of his subjects in + America. The Seneca Indians alone, wrote Franklin, sent to the King many + bales of scalps. Some bales were captured by the Americans and they found + the scalps of 43 soldiers, 297 farmers, some of them burned alive, and 67 + old people, 88 women, 193 boys, 211 girls, 29 infants, and others + unclassified. Exact figures bring conviction. Franklin was not wanting in + exactness nor did he fail, albeit it was unwittingly, to intensify burning + resentment of which we have echoes still. Burgoyne had to bear the odium + of the outrages by Indians. It is amusing to us, though it was hardly so + to this kindly man, to find these words put into his mouth by a colonial + poet: + </p> + <p class="poem1"> + <span style="margin-left:-1em">I will let loose the dogs of Hell,</span><br /> + <span style="margin-left:-1em">Ten thousand Indians who shall yell,</span><br /> + <span style="margin-left:-1em">And foam, and tear, and grin, and roar</span><br /> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span> + <span style="margin-left:-1em">And drench their moccasins in gore:…</span><br /> + <span style="margin-left:-1em">I swear, by St. George and St. Paul,</span><br /> + <span style="margin-left:-1em">I will exterminate you all.</span> + </p> + <p> + Such seed, falling on soil prepared by the hate of war, brought forth its + deadly fruit. The Americans believed that there was no brutality from + which British officers would shrink. Burgoyne had told his Indian allies + that they must not kill except in actual fighting and that there must be + no slaughter of non-combatants and no scalping of any but the dead. The + warning delivered him into the hands of his enemies for it showed that he + half expected outrage. Members of the British House of Commons were no + whit behind the Americans in attacking him. Burke amused the House by his + satire on Burgoyne's words: <q>My gentle lions, my humane bears, my + tender-hearted hyenas, go forth! But I exhort you, as you are Christians + and members of civilized society, to take care not to hurt any man, woman, + or child.</q> Burke's great speech lasted for three and a half hours and + Sir George Savile called it <q>the greatest triumph of eloquence within + memory.</q> British officers disliked their dirty, greasy, noisy allies + and Burgoyne found his use of savages, with the futile order to be + merciful, a potent factor in his defeat. + </p> + <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">140</a></span> + A horrifying incident had occurred while he was fighting his way to the + Hudson. As the Americans were preparing to leave Fort Edward some + marauding Indians saw a chance of plunder and outrage. They burst into a + house and carried off two ladies, both of them British in + sympathy—Mrs. McNeil, a cousin of one of Burgoyne's chief officers, + General Fraser, and Miss Jeannie McCrae, whose betrothed, a Mr. Jones, and + whose brother were serving with Burgoyne. In a short time Mrs. McNeil was + handed over unhurt to Burgoyne's advancing army. Miss McCrae was never + again seen alive by her friends. Her body was found and a Wyandot chief, + known as the Panther, showed her scalp as a trophy. Burgoyne would have + been a poor creature had he not shown anger at such a crime, even if + committed against the enemy. This crime, however, was committed against + his own friends. He pressed the charge against the chief and was prepared + to hang him and only relaxed when it was urged that the execution would + cause all his Indians to leave him and to commit further outrages. The + incident was appealing in its tragedy and stirred the deep anger of the + population of the surrounding country among whose descendants to this day + the tradition of the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span> + abandoned brutality of the British keeps alive the old hatred. + </p> + <p> + At Fort Edward Burgoyne now found that he could hardly move. He was + encumbered by an enormous baggage train. His own effects filled, it is + said, thirty wagons and this we can believe when we find that champagne + was served at his table up almost to the day of final disaster. The + population was thoroughly aroused against him. His own instinct was to + remain near the water route to Canada and make sure of his communications. + On the other hand, honor called him to go forward and not fail Howe, + supposed to be advancing to meet him. For a long time he waited and + hesitated. Meanwhile he was having increasing difficulty in feeding his + army and through sickness and desertion his numbers were declining. By the + 13th of September he had taken a decisive step. He made a bridge of boats + and moved his whole force across the river to Saratoga, now Schuylerville. + This crossing of the river would result inevitably in cutting off his + communications with Lake George and Ticonderoga. After such a step he + could not go back and he was moving forward into a dark unknown. The + American camp was at Stillwater, twelve miles farther down the river. + Burgoyne + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">142</a></span> + sent messenger after messenger to get past the American lines and + bring back news of Howe. Not one of these unfortunate spies returned. Most + of them were caught and ignominiously hanged. One thing, however, Burgoyne + could do. He could hazard a fight and on this he decided as the autumn was + closing in. + </p> + <p> + Burgoyne had no time to lose, once his force was on the west bank of the + Hudson. General Lincoln cut off his communications with Canada and was + soon laying siege to Ticonderoga. The American army facing Burgoyne was + now commanded by General Gates. This Englishman, the godson of Horace + Walpole, had gained by successful intrigue powerful support in Congress. + That body was always paying too much heed to local claims and jealousies + and on the 2d of August it removed Schuyler of New York because he was + disliked by the soldiers from New England and gave the command to Gates. + Washington was far away maneuvering to meet Howe and he was never able to + watch closely the campaign in the north. Gates, indeed, considered himself + independent of Washington and reported not to the Commander-in-Chief but + direct to Congress. On the 19th of September Burgoyne attacked Gates in a + strong + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">143</a></span> + entrenched position on Bemis Heights, at Stillwater. There was a + long and bitter fight, but by evening Burgoyne had not carried the main + position and had lost more than five hundred men whom he could ill spare + from his scanty numbers. + </p> + <p> + Burgoyne's condition was now growing desperate. American forces barred + retreat to Canada. He must go back and meet both frontal and flank + attacks, or go forward, or surrender. To go forward now had most promise, + for at last Howe had instructed Clinton, left in command at New York, to + move, and Clinton was making rapid progress up the Hudson. On the 7th of + October Burgoyne attacked again at Stillwater. This time he was decisively + defeated, a result due to the amazing energy in attack of Benedict Arnold, + who had been stripped of his command by an intrigue. Gates would not even + speak to him and his lingering in the American camp was unwelcome. Yet as + a volunteer Arnold charged the British line madly and broke it. Burgoyne's + best general, Fraser, was killed in the fight. Burgoyne retired to + Saratoga and there at last faced the prospects of getting back to Fort + Edward and to Canada. It may be that he could have cut his way through, + but this is doubtful. Without risk of destruction he could + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span> + not move in any + direction. His enemies now outnumbered him nearly four to one. His camp + was swept by the American guns and his men were under arms night and day. + American sharpshooters stationed themselves at daybreak in trees about the + British camp and any one who appeared in the open risked his life. If a + cap was held up in view instantly two or three balls would pass through + it. His horses were killed by rifle shots. Burgoyne had little food for + his men and none for his horses. His Indians had long since gone off in + dudgeon. Many of his Canadian French slipped off homeward and so did the + Loyalists. The German troops were naturally dispirited. A British officer + tells of the deadly homesickness of these poor men. They would gather in + groups of two dozen or so and mourn that they would never again see their + native land. They died, a score at a time, of no other disease than + sickness for their homes. They could have no pride in trying to save a + lost cause. Burgoyne was surrounded and, on the 17th of October, he was + obliged to surrender. + </p> + <p> + Gates proposed to Burgoyne hard terms—surrender with no honors of + war. The British were to lay down their arms in their encampments and to + march out without weapons of any kind. Burgoyne + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span> + declared that, rather than + accept such terms, he would fight still and take no quarter. A shadow was + falling on the path of Gates. The term of service of some of his men had + expired. The New Englanders were determined to stay and see the end of + Burgoyne but a good many of the New York troops went off. Sickness, too, + was increasing. Above all General Clinton was advancing up the Hudson. + British ships could come up freely as far as Albany and in a few days + Clinton might make a formidable advance. Gates, a timid man, was in a + hurry. He therefore agreed that the British should march from their camp + with the honors of war, that the troops should be taken to New England, + and from there to England. They must not serve again in North America + during the war but there was nothing in the terms to prevent their serving + in Europe and relieving British regiments for service in America. Gates + had the courtesy to keep his army where it could not see the laying down + of arms by Burgoyne's force. About five thousand men, of whom sixteen + hundred were Germans and only three thousand five hundred fit for duty, + surrendered to sixteen thousand Americans. Burgoyne gave offense to German + officers by saying in his report that he might have held out longer + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span> + had + all his troops been British. This is probably true but the British met + with only a just Nemesis for using soldiers who had no call of duty to + serve. + </p> + <p> + The army set out on its long march of two hundred miles to Boston. The + late autumn weather was cold, the army was badly clothed and fed, and the + discomfort of the weary route was increased by the bitter antagonism of + the inhabitants. They respected the regular British soldier but at the + Germans they shouted insults and the Loyalists they despised as traitors. + The camp at the journey's end was on the ground at Cambridge where two + years earlier Washington had trained his first army. Every day Burgoyne + expected to embark. There was delay and, at last, he knew the reason. + Congress repudiated the terms granted by Gates. A tangled dispute + followed. Washington probably had no sympathy with the quibbling of + Congress. But he had no desire to see this army return to Europe and + release there an army to serve in America. Burgoyne's force was never sent + to England. For nearly a year it lay at Boston. Then it was marched to + Virginia. The men suffered great hardships and the numbers fell by + desertion and escape. When peace came in 1783 there was no army to take + back to England; Burgoyne's soldiers + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">147</a></span> + had been merged into the American + people. It may well be, indeed, that descendants of his beaten men have + played an important part in building up the United States. The irony of + history is unconquerable. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">148</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2><a href="#Contents">CHAPTER VII</a></h2> + <h3>Washington and His Comrades at Valley Forge</h3> + <p> + <span class="smcap">Washington</span> had met defeat in every considerable + battle at which he was personally present. His first appearance in + military history, in the Ohio campaign against the French, twenty-two + years before the Revolution, was marked by a defeat, the surrender of Fort + Necessity. Again in the next year, when he fought to relieve the disaster + to Braddock's army, defeat was his portion. Defeat had pursued him in the + battles of the Revolution—before New York, at the Brandywine, at + Germantown. The campaign against Canada, which he himself planned, had + failed. He had lost New York and Philadelphia. But, like William III of + England, who in his long struggle with France hardly won a battle and yet + forced Louis XIV to accept his terms of peace, Washington, by suddenness + in reprisal, by skill in resource when his plans + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span> + seemed to have been shattered, grew on the hard rock of defeat the flower + of victory. + </p> + <p> + There was never a time when Washington was not trusted by men of real + military insight or by the masses of the people. But a general who does + not win victories in the field is open to attack. By the winter of 1777 + when Washington, with his army reduced and needy, was at Valley Forge + keeping watch on Howe in Philadelphia, John Adams and others were talking + of the sin of idolatry in the worship of Washington, of its flavor of the + accursed spirit of monarchy, and of the punishment which <q>the God of + Heaven and Earth</q> must inflict for such perversity. Adams was all + against a Fabian policy and wanted to settle issues forever by a short and + strenuous war. The idol, it was being whispered, proved after all to have + feet of clay. One general, and only one, had to his credit a really great + victory—Gates, to whom Burgoyne had surrendered at Saratoga, and + there was a movement to replace Washington by this laureled victor. + </p> + <p> + General Conway, an Irish soldier of fortune, was one of the most + troublesome in this plot. He had served in the campaign about Philadelphia + but had been blocked in his extravagant demands for promotion; so he + turned for redress to Gates, the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">150</a></span> + star in the north. A malignant campaign + followed in detraction of Washington. He had, it was said, worn out his + men by useless marches; with an army three times as numerous as that of + Howe, he had gained no victory; there was high fighting quality in the + American army if properly led, but Washington despised the militia; a + Gates or a Lee or a Conway would save the cause as Washington could not; + and so on. <q>Heaven has determined to save your country or a weak general + and bad counsellors would have ruined it</q>; so wrote Conway to Gates and + Gates allowed the letter to be seen. The words were reported to + Washington, who at once, in high dudgeon, called Conway to account. An + explosion followed. Gates both denied that he had received a letter with + the passage in question, and, at the same time, charged that there had + been tampering with his private correspondence. He could not have it both + ways. Conway was merely impudent in reply to Washington, but Gates laid + the whole matter before Congress. Washington wrote to Gates, in reply to + his denials, ironical references to <q>rich treasures of knowledge and + experience</q> <q>guarded with penurious reserve</q> by Conway from his + leaders but revealed to Gates. There was no irony in Washington's + reference to malignant + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span> + detraction and mean intrigue. At the same time he said to Gates: + <q>My temper leads me to peace and harmony with all men,</q> and he + deplored the internal strife which injured the great cause. Conway soon + left America. Gates lived to command another American army and to end his + career by a crowning disaster. + </p> + <p> + Washington had now been for more than two years in the chief command and + knew his problems. It was a British tradition that standing armies were a + menace to liberty, and the tradition had gained strength in crossing the + sea. Washington would have wished a national army recruited by Congress + alone and bound to serve for the duration of the war. There was much talk + at the time of a <q>new model army</q> similar in type to the wonderful + creation of Oliver Cromwell. The Thirteen Colonies became, however, + thirteen nations. Each reserved the right to raise its own levies in its + own way. To induce men to enlist Congress was twice handicapped. First, it + had no power of taxation and could only ask the States to provide what it + needed. The second handicap was even greater. When Congress offered + bounties to those who enlisted in the Continental army, some of the States + offered higher bounties for their own levies + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">152</a></span> + of militia, and one authority + was bidding against the other. 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 knowledge of the + country. Another service ill-equipped was what we should now call the Red + Cross. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">153</a></span> + Epidemics, and especially smallpox, wrought havoc in the army. + Then, as now, shattered nerves were sometimes the result of the strain of + military life. <q>The wind of a ball,</q> 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 + crude. 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 hospitals 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 + scandal, and much bitter invective against British brutality is found in + the literature of the period. The British leaders, no less than Washington + himself, were humane men, and ignorance and inadequate equipment will + explain most of the hardships, though an occasional officer on either side + was undoubtedly callous in respect to the sufferings of the enemy. + </p> + <p> + Food and clothing, the first vital necessities of an army, were often + deplorably scarce. In a land + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">154</a></span> + 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 + uniformity 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 + Washington'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 uniforms which gave them a + sufficiently smart appearance. 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. + </p> + <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">155</a></span> + 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 American + army as <q>illy clad, badly fed, and worse paid,</q> 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's + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">156</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 American 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 ammunition was scanty, but in time + there were importations from France and also supplies from American gun + factories. The standard length of the barrel was three and a half feet, a + portentous size compared with that of the modern weapon. The loading 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; + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</a></span> + 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 firearms. 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, however, 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. + </p> + <p> + Powder and lead were hard to get. The inventive spirit of America was busy + with plans to procure 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">158</a></span> + 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 with a ramrod. A store + of German Bibles in Pennsylvania 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + The pay of the soldiers remained to Washington + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">159</a></span> + 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 Washington 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 <q>continental dollar</q> 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 + flinching, but he was at one with his men in their sufferings, 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">160</a></span> + 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 sometimes 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, desertion + involved a double loss. On one occasion some soldiers undertook for + themselves the punishment of deserters. Men of the First Pennsylvania + Regiment 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 + happened 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. + </p> + <p> + Religion offered its consolations in the army and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">161</a></span> + 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 Anglican 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 <q>that road to Heaven which to them shall seem the most + direct,</q> 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. + </p> + <hr class="break" /> + <p> + 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 Washington which passed the winter so near and in acute + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">162</a></span> + distress. + The Pennsylvania Loyalists, with dark days soon to come, were bitter at + Howe's inactivity, 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 + principle 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. <q>What a lot of damned scoundrels we + had in that second Congress</q> said, at a later date, Gouverneur Morris + of Philadelphia to John Jay of New York, and Jay answered gravely, <q>Yes, + we had.</q> 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 no + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">163</a></span> + 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 Confederation were adopted. By the following + midsummer 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 constitutional sanction + during the greater part of the war. + </p> + <p> + The ineptitude of Congress is explained when we recall that it was a + revolutionary body which indeed 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 Massachusetts 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. + </p> + <p> + Washington maintained towards Congress an attitude of deference and + courtesy which it did not always deserve. The ablest men in the individual + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">164</a></span> + States held aloof from Congress. They felt that they had more dignity and + power if they sat in their own legislatures. The assembly which in the + first days had as members men of the type of Washington and Franklin sank + into a gathering of second-rate men who were divided into fierce factions. + They debated interminably and did little. Each member usually felt that he + must champion the interests of his own State against the hostility of + others. It was not easy to create a sense of national life. The union was + only a league of friendship. States which for a century or more had barely + acknowledged their dependence upon Great Britain, were chary about coming + under the control of a new centralizing authority at Philadelphia. The new + States were sovereign and some of them went so far as to send envoys of + their own to negotiate with foreign powers in Europe. When it was urged + that Congress should have the power to raise taxes in the States, there + were patriots who asked sternly what the war was about if it was not to + vindicate the principle that the people of a State alone should have power + of taxation over themselves. Of New England all the other States were + jealous and they particularly disliked that proud and censorious city + which already was accused of + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">165</a></span> + believing that God had made Boston for + Himself and all the rest of the world for Boston. The religion of New + England did not suit the Anglicans of Virginia or the Roman Catholics of + Maryland, and there was resentful suspicion of Puritan intolerance. John + Adams said quite openly that there were no religious teachers in + Philadelphia to compare with those of Boston and naturally other colonies + drew away from the severe and rather acrid righteousness of which he was a + type. + </p> + <hr class="break" /> + <p> + Inefficiency meanwhile brought terrible suffering at Valley Forge, and the + horrors of that winter remain still vivid in the memory of the American + people. The army marched to Valley Forge on December 17, 1777, and in + midwinter everything from houses to entrenchments had still to be created. + At once there was busy activity in cutting down trees for the log huts. + They were built nearly square, sixteen feet by fourteen, in rows, with the + door opening on improvised streets. Since boards were scarce, and it was + difficult to make roofs rainproof, Washington tried to stimulate ingenuity + by offering a reward of one hundred dollars for an improved method of + roofing. The fireplaces of wood were protected with thick clay. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">166</a></span> + Firewood + was abundant, but, with little food for oxen and horses, men had to turn + themselves into draught animals to bring in supplies. + </p> + <p> + Sometimes the army was for a week without meat. Many horses died for lack + of forage or of proper care, a waste which especially disturbed + Washington, a lover of horses. When quantities of clothing were ready for + use, they were not delivered at Valley Forge owing to lack of transport. + Washington expressed his contempt for officers who resigned their + commissions in face of these distresses. No one, he said, ever heard him + say a word about resignation. There were many desertions but, on the + whole, he marveled at the patience of his men and that they did not + mutiny. With a certain grim humor they chanted phrases about <q>no pay, no + clothes, no provisions, no rum,</q> and sang an ode glorifying war and + Washington. Hundreds of them marched barefoot, their blood staining the + snow or the frozen ground while, at the same time, stores of shoes and + clothing were lying unused somewhere on the roads to the camp. + </p> + <p> + Sickness raged in the army. Few men at Valley Forge, wrote Washington, had + more than a sheet, many only part of a sheet, and some nothing at all. + Hospital stores were lacking. For want of straw + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">167</a></span> + and blankets the sick lay + perishing on the frozen ground. When Washington had been at Valley Forge + for less than a week, he had to report nearly three thousand men unfit for + duty because of their nakedness in the bitter winter. Then, as always, + what we now call the <q>profiteer</q> was holding up supplies for higher + prices. To the British at Philadelphia, because they paid in gold, things + were furnished which were denied to Washington at Valley Forge, and he + announced that he would hang any one who took provisions to Philadelphia. + To keep his men alive Washington had sometimes to take food by force from + the inhabitants and then there was an outcry that this was robbery. With + many sick, his horses so disabled that he could not move his artillery, + and his defenses very slight, he could have made only a weak fight had + Howe attacked him. Yet the legislature of Pennsylvania told him that, + instead of lying quiet in winter quarters, he ought to be carrying on an + active campaign. In most wars irresponsible men sitting by comfortable + firesides are sure they knew best how the thing should be done. + </p> + <p> + The bleak hillside at Valley Forge was something more than a prison. + Washington's staff was known as his family and his relations with them + were cordial + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">168</a></span> + and even affectionate. The young officers faced their + hardships cheerily and gave meager dinners to which no one might go if he + was so well off as to have trousers without holes. They talked and sang + and jested about their privations. By this time many of the bad officers, + of whom Washington complained earlier, had been weeded out and he was + served by a body of devoted men. There was much good comradeship. + Partnership in suffering tends to draw men together. In the company which + gathered about Washington, two men, mere youths at the time, have a + world-wide fame. The young Alexander Hamilton, barely twenty-one years of + age, and widely known already for his political writings, had the rank of + lieutenant colonel gained for his services in the fighting about New York. + He was now Washington's confidential secretary, a position in which he + soon grew restless. His ambition was to be one of the great military + leaders of the Revolution. Before the end of the war he had gone back to + fighting and he distinguished himself in the last battle of the war at + Yorktown. The other youthful figure was the Marquis de La Fayette. It is + not without significance that a noble square bears his name in the capital + named after Washington. The two men loved each other. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">169</a></span> + The young French + aristocrat, with both a great name and great possessions, was fired in + 1776, when only nineteen, with zeal for the American cause. <q>With the + welfare of America,</q> he wrote to his wife, <q>is closely linked the + welfare of mankind.</q> Idealists in France believed that America was + leading in the remaking of the world. When it was known that La Fayette + intended to go to fight in America, the King of France forbade it, since + France had as yet no quarrel with England. The youth, however, chartered + a ship, landed in South Carolina, hurried to Philadelphia, and was a + major general in the American army when he was twenty years of age. + </p> + <p> + La Fayette rendered no serious military service to the American cause. He + arrived in time to fight in the battle of the Brandywine. Washington + praised him for his bravery and military ardor and wrote to Congress that + he was sensible, discreet, and able to speak English freely. It was with + an eye to the influence in France of the name of the young noble that + Congress advanced him so rapidly. La Fayette was sincere and generous in + spirit. He had, however, little military capacity. Later when he might + have directed the course of the French Revolution he was found wanting in + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">170</a></span> + force of character. The great Mirabeau tried to work with him for the good + of France, but was repelled by La Fayette's jealous vanity, a vanity so + greedy of praise that Jefferson called it a <q>canine appetite for + popularity and fame.</q> La Fayette once said that he had never had a + thought with which he could reproach himself, and he boasted that he has + mastered three kings—the King of England in the American Revolution, + the King of France, and King Mob of Paris during the upheaval in France. + He was useful as a diplomatist rather than as a soldier. Later, in an hour + of deep need, Washington sent La Fayette to France to ask for aid. He was + influential at the French court and came back with abundant promises, + which were in part fulfilled. + </p> + <p> + Washington himself and Oliver Cromwell are perhaps the only two civilian + generals in history who stand in the first rank as military leaders. It is + doubtful indeed whether it is not rather character than military skill + which gives Washington his place. Only one other general of the Revolution + attained to first rank even in secondary fame. Nathanael Greene was of + Quaker stock from Rhode Island. He was a natural student and when trouble + with the mother country was impending + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">171</a></span> + in 1774 he spent the leisure which + he could spare from his forges in the study of military history and in + organizing the local militia. Because of his zeal for military service he + was expelled from the Society of Friends. In 1775 when war broke out he + was promptly on hand with a contingent from Rhode Island. In little more + than a year and after a very slender military experience he was in command + of the army on Long Island. On the Hudson defeat not victory was his lot. + He had, however, as much stern resolve as Washington. He shared + Washington's success in the attack on Trenton, and his defeats at the + Brandywine and at Germantown. Now he was at Valley Forge, and when, on + March 2, 1778, he became quartermaster general, the outlook for food and + supplies steadily improved. Later, in the South, he rendered brilliant + service which made possible the final American victory at Yorktown. + </p> + <p> + Henry Knox, a Boston bookseller, had, like Greene, only slight training + for military command. It shows the dearth of officers to fight the highly + disciplined British army that Knox, at the age of twenty-five, and fresh + from commercial life, was placed in charge of the meager artillery which + Washington had before Boston. It was Knox, who, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">172</a></span> + with heart-breaking labor, + took to the American front the guns captured at Ticonderoga. Throughout + the war he did excellent service with the artillery, and Washington placed + a high value upon his services. He valued too those of Daniel Morgan, an + old fighter in the Indian wars, who left his farm in Virginia when war + broke out, and marched his company of riflemen to join the army before + Boston. He served with Arnold at the siege of Quebec, and was there taken + prisoner. He was exchanged and had his due revenge when he took part in + the capture of Burgoyne's army. He was now at Valley Forge. Later he had a + command under Greene in the South and there, as we shall see, he won the + great success of the Battle of Cowpens in January, 1781. + </p> + <p> + It was the peculiar misfortune of Washington that the three men, Arnold, + Lee, and Gates, who ought to have rendered him the greatest service, + proved unfaithful. Benedict Arnold, next to Washington himself, was + probably the most brilliant and resourceful soldier of the Revolution. + Washington so trusted him that, when the dark days at Valley Forge were + over, he placed him in command of the recaptured federal capital. Today + the name of Arnold would rank high in the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">173</a></span> + memory of a grateful country had + he not fallen into the bottomless pit of treason. The same is in some + measure true of Charles Lee, who was freed by the British in an exchange + of prisoners and joined Washington at Valley Forge late in the spring of + 1778. Lee was so clever with his pen as to be one of the reputed authors + of the Letters of Junius. He had served as a British officer in the + conquest of Canada, and later as major general in the army of Poland. He + had a jealous and venomous temper and could never conceal the contempt of + the professional soldier for civilian generals. He, too, fell into the + abyss of treason. Horatio Gates, also a regular soldier, had served under + Braddock and was thus at that early period a comrade of Washington. + Intriguer he was, but not a traitor. It was incompetence and perhaps + cowardice which brought his final ruin. + </p> + <p> + Europe had thousands of unemployed officers some of whom had had + experience in the Seven Years' War and many turned eagerly to America for + employment. There were some good soldiers among these fighting + adventurers. Kosciuszko, later famous as a Polish patriot, rose by his + merits to the rank of brigadier general in the American army; De Kalb, son + of a German peasant, though + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">174</a></span> + not a baron, as he called himself, proved + worthy of the rank of a major general. There was, however, a flood of + volunteers of another type. French officers fleeing from their creditors + and sometimes under false names and titles, made their way to America as + best they could and came to Washington with pretentious claims. Germans + and Poles there were, too, and also exiles from that unhappy island which + remains still the most vexing problem of British politics. Some of them + wrote their own testimonials; some, too, were spies. On the first day, + Washington wrote, they talked only of serving freely a noble cause, but + within a week were demanding promotion and advance of money. Sometimes + they took a high tone with members of Congress who had not courage to snub + what Washington called impudence and vain boasting. <q>I am haunted and + teased to death by the importunity of some and dissatisfaction of others</q> + wrote Washington of these people. + </p> + <p> + One foreign officer rendered incalculable service to the American cause. + It was not only on the British side that Germans served in the American + Revolution. The Baron von Steuben was, like La Fayette, a man of rank in + his own country, and his personal service to the Revolution was much + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">175</a></span> + greater than that of La Fayette. Steuben had served on the staff of + Frederick the Great and was distinguished for his wit and his polished + manners. There was in him nothing of the needy adventurer. The sale of + Hessian and other troops to the British by greedy German princes was met + in some circles in Germany by a keen desire to aid the cause of the young + republic. Steuben, who held a lucrative post, became convinced, while on a + visit to Paris, that he could render service in training the Americans. + With quick sympathy and showing no reserve in his generous spirit he + abandoned his country, as it proved forever, took ship for the United + States, and arrived in November, 1777. Washington welcomed him at Valley + Forge in the following March. He was made Inspector General and at once + took in hand the organization of the army. He prepared <q>Regulations for + the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States</q> later, in + 1779, issued as a book. Under this German influence British methods were + discarded. The word of command became short and sharp. The British + practice of leaving recruits to be trained by sergeants, often ignorant, + coarse, and brutal, was discarded, and officers themselves did this work. + The last letter which Washington wrote before he + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">176</a></span> + resigned his command at + the end of the war was to thank Steuben for his invaluable aid. Charles + Lee did not believe that American recruits could be quickly trained so as + to be able to face the disciplined British battalions. Steuben was to + prove that Lee was wrong to Lee's own entire undoing at Monmouth when + fighting began in 1778. + </p> + <hr class="break" /> + <p> + The British army in America furnished sharp contrasts to that of + Washington. If the British jeered at the fighting quality of citizens, + these retorted that the British soldier was a mere slave. There were two + great stains upon the British system, the press-gang and flogging. + Press-gangs might seize men abroad in the streets of a town and, unless + they could prove that they were gentlemen in rank, they could be sent in + the fleet to serve in the remotest corners of the earth. In both navy and + army flogging outraged the dignity of manhood. The liability to this + brutal and degrading punishment kept all but the dregs of the populace + from enlisting in the British army. It helped to fix the deep gulf between + officers and men. Forty years later Napoleon Bonaparte, despot though he + might be, was struck by this separation. He himself went freely among his + men, warmed himself at + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">177</a></span> + their fire, and talked to them familiarly about + their work, and he thought that the British officer was too aloof in his + demeanor. In the British army serving in America there were many officers + of aristocratic birth and long training in military science. When they + found that American officers were frequently drawn from a class of society + which in England would never aspire to a commission, and were largely + self-taught, not unnaturally they jeered at an army so constituted. + Another fact excited British disdain. The Americans were technically + rebels against their lawful ruler, and rebels in arms have no rights as + belligerents. When the war ended more than a thousand American prisoners + were still held in England on the capital charge of treason. Nothing + stirred Washington's anger more deeply than the remark sometimes made by + British officers that the prisoners they took were receiving undeserved + mercy when they were not hanged. + </p> + <p> + There was much debate at Valley Forge as to the prospect for the future. + When we look at available numbers during the war we appreciate the view of + a British officer that in spite of Washington's failures and of British + victories the war was serious, <q>an ugly job, a damned affair indeed.</q> + The + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">178</a></span> + population of the colonies—some 2,500,000—was about one-third + that of the United Kingdom; and for the British the war was remote from + the base of supply. In those days, considering the means of transport, + America was as far from England as at the present day is Australia. + Sometimes the voyage across the sea occupied two and even three months, + and, with the relatively small ships of the time, it required a vast array + of transports to carry an army of twenty or thirty thousand men. In the + spring of 1776 Great Britain had found it impossible to raise at home an + army of even twenty thousand men for service in America, and she was + forced to rely in large part upon mercenary soldiers. This was nothing + new. Her island people did not like service abroad and this unwillingness + was intensified in regard to war in remote America. Moreover Whig leaders + in England discouraged enlistment. They were bitterly hostile to the war + which they regarded as an attack not less on their own liberties than on + those of America. It would be too much to ascribe to the ignorant British + common soldier of the time any deep conviction as to the merits or + demerits of the cause for which he fought. There is no evidence that, once + in the army, he was less + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">179</a></span> + ready to attack the Americans than any other foe. + Certainly the Americans did not think he was half-hearted. + </p> + <p> + The British soldier fought indeed with more resolute determination than + did the hired auxiliary at his side. These German troops played a notable + part in the war. The despotic princes of the lesser German states were + accustomed to sell the services of their troops. Despotic Russia, too, was + a likely field for such enterprise. When, however, it was proposed to the + Empress Catherine II that she should furnish twenty thousand men for + service in America she retorted with the sage advice that it was England's + true interest to settle the quarrel in America without war. Germany was + left as the recruiting field. British efforts to enlist Germans as + volunteers in her own army were promptly checked by the German rulers and + it was necessary literally to buy the troops from their princes. + One-fourth of the able-bodied men of Hesse-Cassel were shipped to America. + They received four times the rate of pay at home and their ruler received + in addition some half million dollars a year. The men suffered terribly + and some died of sickness for the homes to which thousands of them never + returned. German generals, such as Knyphausen and Riedesel, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">180</a></span> + gave the + British sincere and effective service. The Hessians were, however, of + doubtful benefit to the British. It angered the Americans that hired + troops should be used against them, an anger not lessened by the contempt + which the Hessians showed for the colonial officers as plebeians. + </p> + <p> + The two sides were much alike in their qualities and were skillful in + propaganda. In Britain lurid tales were told of the colonists scalping the + wounded at Lexington and using poisoned bullets at Bunker Hill. In America + every prisoner in British hands was said to be treated brutally and every + man slain in the fighting to have been murdered. The use of foreign troops + was a fruitful theme. The report ran through the colonies that the + Hessians were huge ogre-like monsters, with double rows of teeth round + each jaw, who had come at the call of the British tyrant to slay women and + children. In truth many of the Hessians became good Americans. In spite of + the loyalty of their officers they were readily induced to desert. The wit + of Benjamin Franklin was enlisted to compose telling appeals, translated + into simple German, which promised grants of land to those who should + abandon an unrighteous cause. The Hessian trooper who opened a packet of + tobacco might find in + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">181</a></span> + 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 different when reverses + overtook British arms. Then many hundreds slipped away; and today their + blood flows in the veins of thousands of prosperous American farmers. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">182</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2><a href="#Contents">CHAPTER VIII</a></h2> + <h3>The Alliance with France and Its Results</h3> + <p> + <span class="smcap">Washington</span> badly needed aid from Europe, but + there every important government was monarchical 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 sorrowed 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 <q>insolent nation</q> was always to him an inspiration. + Vergennes, the French Foreign Minister, though he lacked genius, was a + man of boundless zeal and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">183</a></span> + 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, <q>the + monster against whom we should be always prepared,</q> a greedy, + perfidious neighbor, the natural enemy of France. + </p> + <p> + From the first days of the trouble in regard to the Stamp Act Vergennes + had rejoiced that England'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. Beaumarchais is known to the world chiefly as the creator 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 <q>audacious, unbridled, shameless people,</q> + and there was, too, the zeal for liberal ideas which made Queen Marie + Antoinette herself take a pretty interest in the <q>dear republicans</q> + overseas who were at the same time fighting the national enemy. + Beaumarchais secured from the government money + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">184</a></span> + 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 Roderigue Hortalez & Co., + he sent vast quantities of munitions and clothing to America. Cannon, not + from private firms but from the government arsenals, 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. + </p> + <p> + Secret help was one thing, open alliance another. Early in 1776 Silas + Deane, a member from Connecticut 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 + submission, 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. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">185</a></span> + He + gave other promises not more easy of fulfillment. 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 colonel 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. + </p> + <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">186</a></span> + France was, however, coy. The end of 1776 saw the colonial cause + at a very low ebb, with Washington 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 position in Philadelphia. It was known that the British fleet + had declined. With the best of it in America, France was the more likely + to win successes in Europe. The Bourbon king of France + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">187</a></span> + 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 improbable 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 triumphs, 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 ambassador in London told the British + Government, with studied insolence of tone, that the United + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">188</a></span> + 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 intervention + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 + restoration 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 frontiers of New England and New York? If + George III 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. <q>No + nation,</q> he said, <q>is to be trusted farther than it is bound by its + interests.</q> France, he thought, must desire to recover Canada, so + recently lost. He did + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">189</a></span> + not wish to see a great military power on the northern + 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. + </p> + <p> + The intervention of France brought a cruel embarrassment to the Whig + patriot in England. He could rejoice and mourn with American patriots + 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 observer 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">190</a></span> + the intervention of France. No serious person any longer thought + that taxation could be enforced upon America or that the colonies should + be anything 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 <q>more fit for Bedlam than a seat in the Senate.</q> 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 treaty + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">191</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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, actually introduced into + Parliament a bill to prohibit gifts of money to the Crown since this + voluntary + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">192</a></span> + taxation gave the Crown money without the consent of Parliament. + The British patriot, gentle as he might be towards America, fumed against + 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. In a large + sense the French alliance was not an unmixed blessing for America, since + it confused the counsels of her best friends in England. + </p> + <p> + 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 Chatham, + 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 high that New York + and Charleston had erected statues in his honor. When the defeat of + Burgoyne so shook the ministry that North was anxious to retire, Chatham, + but for two obstacles, could probably have formed a ministry. One obstacle + was + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">193</a></span> + 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 attacked his American policy. <q>I will never + consent,</q> he said firmly, <q>to removing the members of the present + Cabinet from my service.</q> He asked North: <q>Are you resolved at the + hour of danger to desert me?</q> 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. + </p> + <hr class="break" /> + <p> + 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">194</a></span> + in that scene of famine; but + by the springtime tension in regard to supplies had been relieved and 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 + supplies 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. + </p> + <p> + Sir William Howe, having taken Philadelphia, was determined not to be the + one who should give it up. 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, to shield himself; was clearly resolved to make scapegoats of others. + So, on May 18, 1778, at Philadelphia there was a farewell to Howe, which + took the form of a Mischianza, something approaching the medieval + tournament. Knights broke lances in + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">195</a></span> + 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. Obviously the garrison of + Philadelphia had much time on its hands and could count upon, at least, + some cheers from a friendly population. It is remembered 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 a spy, because entrapped in + the treason of Benedict Arnold, who became the husband of the other. + </p> + <p> + On May 24, 1778, Sir Henry Clinton took over from 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">196</a></span> + encumbrances. Moreover, to embark the whole force, a + march of forty miles to New Castle, on the lower Delaware, would be + necessary and the retreating 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 to New York in two days and missed the great + fleet of d'Estaing, carrying an army of four thousand + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">197</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 vulnerable to flank attack. In this type of + warfare Washington 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">198</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 position was difficult but he was + saved by Lee's ineptitude. He had positive instructions to attack with his + five thousand men and hold the British engaged until Washington should + come up in overwhelming force. The young La Fayette was with Lee. He knew + what Washington had ordered, but Lee said to him: <q>You don't know the + British soldiers; we cannot stand against them.</q> 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 to + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">199</a></span> + 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 <q>damned poltroon,</q> 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 deserters 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. + </p> + <p> + These events on land were quickly followed by stirring events on the sea. + The delays of the British Admiralty of this time seem almost incredible. + Two hundred ships waited at Spithead for three months for convoy to the + West Indies, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">200</a></span> + 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 already 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. But it did not come. The French admirals + were often taken from an army command, and d'Estaing was not a sailor but + a soldier. He feared + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">201</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 hundred fine soldiers, + Sullivan had nine thousand New England militia, and d'Estaing four + thousand + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">202</a></span> + 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'Estaing 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, Clinton sailed into Newport with + five thousand men. Washington's campaign against Rhode Island had failed + completely. + </p> + <p> + 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 shipping + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">203</a></span> + and stores but + were devastating the country with Loyalist regiments recruited in America. + The French told the Americans that they were expecting 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. + </p> + <hr class="break" /> + <p> + 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 extend + 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. + </p> + <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">204</a></span> + 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 Gibraltar. 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 danger 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 resources 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. + </p> + <p> + Lurking in the background to haunt British thought was the growing + American navy. John Paul was a Scots sailor, who had been a slave trader + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">205</a></span> + and subsequently master of a West India merchantman, and on going to + America had assumed the name of Jones. He was a man of boundless ambition, + vanity, and vigor, and when he commanded 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 squadron 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 Flamborough Head + and, after a desperate fight, captured two British armed ships: the + <i>Serapis</i>, a 40-gun vessel newly commissioned, and the <i>Countess of + Scarborough</i>, carrying 20 guns, both of which were convoying a fleet. The + fame of his exploit rang through Europe. Jones was a regularly + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">206</a></span> + commissioned officer in the navy of the United States, but neutral powers, + such as Holland, had not yet 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 ships + 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 to enter the port. Denmark and Sweden joined Russia in what was + known as the Armed Neutrality and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">207</a></span> + promised that they would retaliate upon + any nation which did not respect the conditions laid down. + </p> + <p> + 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 afterwards 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 supremacy on the + sea disappeared and it was only regained in April, 1782, when the Tory + Admiral Rodney won a great victory in the West Indies against the French. + </p> + <p> + A spirit of violence was abroad in England. The + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">208</a></span> + 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 removing some of their burdens + dreadful riots broke out in London. A fanatic, Lord George Gordon, led a + mob to Westminster and, as Dr. Johnson expressed it, <q>insulted</q> both + Houses of Parliament. The cowed ministry did nothing to check the + disturbance. 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 Independence which, in + 1782, England was obliged to 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. + </p> + <hr class="break" /> + <p> + 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 and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">209</a></span> + 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 + <q>continental dollar</q> 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 mutiny 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, + <q>depends entirely on the prospects of the day; if favorable, they throng + to you; if not, they will not move.</q> 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">210</a></span> + New + York. He sent La Fayette to France in January, 1779, there to urge not + merely naval but military 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 magnanimity reciprocated nearly a + century and a half later when a great American army in Europe was placed + under the supreme command of a Marshal of France. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">211</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2><a href="#Contents">CHAPTER IX</a></h2> + <h3>The War in the South</h3> + <p> + <span class="smcap">After</span> 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 Newport 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">212</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Then followed a singular chain of events. Ever since hostilities had + begun, in 1775, the revolutionary 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 + political allegiance. Probably Boston was the most completely + revolutionary of American towns. Yet even in Boston there had been a sad + procession of exiles who would not turn against the King. The South had + been more evenly divided. Now the Loyalists took heart and began to assert + themselves. + </p> + <p> + 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 rebellion. Many a patriot farmhouse + was now destroyed and the hapless owner either killed or driven to the + mountains to live as best he could by hunting. Sometimes even the children + were shot down. It so happened that a company of militia captured a large + band of Loyalists marching to Augusta to + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">213</a></span> + support the British cause. Here + was the occasion for the republican patriots to assert their principles. + 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 restrain + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 + revolution. In the spring of 1779 General Prevost marched from Georgia + into South Carolina. On the 12th of May he was before Charleston demanding + surrender. We are astonished now to read that, in response to Prevost's + demand, a proposal 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">214</a></span> + 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, however, Charleston did not + surrender. The resistance was so stiff that Prevost had to raise the siege + and go back to Savannah. + </p> + <p> + 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 + combined army numbered about six thousand. A siege began which, it seemed, + could end in only one way. Prevost, however, with three thousand seven + hundred 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. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">215</a></span> + 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'Estaing sailed away and soon lost some of + his ships in a violent storm. Ill-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. + </p> + <p> + 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 hospitable. + Most of them, he says, made a visit to England at some time during life + and it was the fashion to send there the children to be educated. + Obviously Charleston was fitted to be a British rallying 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. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">216</a></span> + Now in December, 1779, he sailed from New York + to make a renewed effort. With him were three of his best officer—Cornwallis, + Simcoe, and Tarleton, the last two skillful leaders of irregulars, + recruited 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, Tarleton surprised, in the night, + three regiments of American cavalry regulars at a place called Biggin's + Bridge, routed them completely and, according 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 behaved 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 these + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">217</a></span> + 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. <q>We look on America as at our feet,</q> 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 prisoners, 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">218</a></span> + 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 <q>every good man</q> must be ready to join in arms the King's troops in + order <q>to reestablish peace and good government.</q> <q>Wicked and desperate + men</q> who still opposed the King should be punished with rigor and have + their property confiscated. He offered pardon for past offenses, except to + those who had taken part in killing Loyalists <q>under the mock forms of + justice.</q> No one was henceforth to be exempted from the active duty of + supporting the King's authority. + </p> + <p> + 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 to + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">219</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 intending 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">220</a></span> + 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 <q>proceeded + with all possible despatch,</q> 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. + </p> + <p> + In spite of the headlong flight of Gates the disaster at Camden had only a + transient effect. The war developed a number of irregular leaders on the + American side who were never beaten beyond recovery, 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. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">221</a></span> + Tarleton called Marion the <q>old swamp fox</q> + 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. + </p> + <p> + After the victory at Camden Cornwallis advanced into North Carolina, and + sent Major Ferguson, 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 retreat + 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. Ferguson, + harassed, outnumbered, at last took refuge on King's Mountain, a stony + ridge on the western border between the two Carolinas. The north side + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">222</a></span> + 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. + Ferguson 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.¹ + </p> + <div class="footer"> + <a id="footer_272-1" name="footer_272-1"></a> + ¹See Chapter IX, <i>Pioneers of the Old Southwest</i>, by Constance + Lindsay Skinner in <i>The Chronicles of America.</i> + </div> + <p> + 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 region that Washington had first seen active + service, helping to wrest that land from France. The + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">223</a></span> + country was wild. + There was almost no settlement; 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 frontiersman. 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 adventure. He had less than + two hundred men when he appeared a little later at Kaskaskia near the + Mississippi in what is now Illinois 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 + indomitable 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">224</a></span> + States. Clark's exploit is one of + the pregnant romances of history.¹ + </p> + <div class="footer"> + <a id="footer_224-1" name="footer_224-1"></a> + ¹See Chapters III and IV in <i>The Old Northwest</i> by Frederic + Austin Ogg in <i>The Chronicles of America</i>. + </div> + <p> + Perhaps the most sorrowful phase of the Revolution was the internal + conflict waged between its friends and its enemies in America, where + neighbor fought against neighbor. During this pitiless struggle 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 shoeblacks. 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, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">225</a></span> + burn a village, carry off some Whig farmers, and escape before + opposing forces could rally. Governor Tryon of New York was specially + active in these enterprises and to this day a special odium attaches to + his name. + </p> + <p> + For these ravages, and often with justice, the Loyalists were held + responsible. The result was a bitterness which fired even the calm spirit + of Benjamin Franklin and led him when the day came for peace to declare + that the plundering and murdering adherents of King George were the ones + who should pay for damage and not the States which had confiscated + Loyalist property. Lists of Loyalist names were sometimes posted and then + the persons 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 figure might be + himself. A musket ball might come whizzing through his window. Many a + Loyalist was stripped, plunged in a barrel of tar, and then rolled in + feathers, taken sometimes from his own bed. + </p> + <p> + Punishment for loyalism was not, however, left merely to chance. Even + before the Declaration of Independence, Congress, sitting itself in a city + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">226</a></span> + 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. Magistrates 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. Legislatures passed bills denouncing Loyalists. + The names in Massachusetts read like a list of the leading families of New + England. The <q>Black List</q> 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 exiles from their former homes. The + self-appointed committees took in hand the task of disciplining + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">227</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">228</a></span> + Great Lakes, and there played a part in laying + the foundation of the Dominion of today. The city of Toronto with a + population of half a million is rooted in the Loyalist traditions of its + Tory founders. Simcoe, the first Governor of Upper Canada, who made + Toronto his capital, was one of the most enterprising of the officers who + served with Cornwallis in the South and surrendered with him at Yorktown. + </p> + <p> + The State of New York acquired from the forfeited lands of Loyalists a sum + approaching four million dollars, a great amount in those days. Other + States profited in a similar way. Every Loyalist whose property was seized + had a direct and personal grievance. He could join the British army and + fight against his oppressors, and this he did: New York furnished about + fifteen thousand men to fight on the British side. Plundered himself, he + could plunder his enemies, and this too he did both by land and sea. In + the autumn of 1778 ships manned chiefly by Loyalist refugees were + terrorizing the coast from Massachusetts to New Jersey. They plundered + Martha's Vineyard, burned some lesser towns, such as New Bedford, and + showed no quarter to small parties of American troops whom they managed to + intercept. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">229</a></span> + What happened on the coast happened also in the interior. At Wyoming in + the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, in July, 1778, during a raid of + Loyalists, aided by Indians, there was a brutal massacre, the horrors of + which long served to inspire hate for the British. A little later in the + same year similar events took place at Cherry Valley, in central New York. + Burning houses, the dead bodies not only of men but of women and children + scalped by the savage allies of the Loyalists, desolation and ruin in + scenes once peaceful and happy—such horrors American patriotism + learned to associate with the Loyalists. These in their turn remembered + the slow martyrdom of their lives as social outcasts, the threats and + plunder which in the end forced them to fly, the hardships, starvation, + and death to their loved ones which were wont to follow. The conflict is + perhaps the most tragic and irreconcilable in the whole story of the + Revolution. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">230</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2><a href="#Contents">CHAPTER X</a></h2> + <h3>France to the Rescue</h3> + <p> + <span class="smcap">During</span> 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, Cornwallis, 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">231</a></span> + problem in America with the insight of a trained leader. Before he + left France he made the pregnant comment on the outlook: <q>Nothing + without naval supremacy.</q> About the same time Washington was writing + to La Fayette that a decisive naval supremacy was a fundamental need. + </p> + <p> + 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 Napoleon, 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">232</a></span> + 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 unfortunate 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. + </p> + <p> + 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, <q>a truly imposing sight,</q> said one of + those on board. We have reports of their <i>ennui</i> on the long voyage + of seventy + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">233</a></span> + 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 inhabitants + 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 + beautiful, and the experienced Lauzun expresses glowing admiration for a + prim Quakeress whose simple dress he thought more attractive than the + elaborate modes of Paris. + </p> + <p> + The French dazzled the ragged American army by their display of waving + plumes and of uniforms in striking colors. They wondered at the quantities + of tea drunk by their friends and so do we when we remember the political + hatred for tea. They + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">234</a></span> + 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: <q><i>Inglicam linguam noscere + conabor.</i></q> He made the effort and he and his fellow officers + learned a quaint English speech. When Rochambeau 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. + </p> + <p> + For a long time the French army effected nothing. Washington longed to + attack New York and urged the effort, but the wise and experienced + Rochambeau applied his principle, <q>nothing without naval supremacy,</q> + 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 blockading in Narragansett Bay the French + fleet which lay there. Had the French army moved away + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">235</a></span> + from Newport their + fleet would almost certainly have become a prey to the British. For the + moment 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 they 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 <q>sonorous drunkenness,</q> 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">236</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <hr class="break" /> + <p> + 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 admirals afloat. Washington, with his army headquarters at + West Point, on guard to keep the British from advancing up the Hudson, was + looking 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 Camden was a crushing blow. Congress was inept and had in it men, as + the patient General Greene said, <q>without principles, honor or + modesty.</q> The coming of the British fleet was a new and overwhelming + discouragement, and, on the 18th of September, Washington left West Point + for a long + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">237</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 Chesapeake. + Washington concluded that the opposite was true and that he was likely to + be going northward. At West Point, where the Hudson flows through a + mountainous gap, Washington had strong defenses on both shores of the + river. His + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">238</a></span> + 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 up the Hudson. It was an anxious leader + who, with La Fayette and Alexander Hamilton, rode away from headquarters + to Hartford. + </p> + <p> + The officer in command at West Point was Benedict Arnold. No general on + the American side had a more brilliant record or could show more scars 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 property 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 + Congress + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">239</a></span> + 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 indulgence. 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. + </p> + <p> + Malignancy was rampant and Arnold was pursued with great bitterness. + Joseph Reed, the President of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania, 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 26, 1780, he was acquitted of everything but the + imprudence of using, in an emergency, public wagons to remove private + property, and of granting 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">240</a></span> + the reprimand in terms as gentle as possible, and when, in July, + 1780, Arnold asked for the important command at West Point, Washington + readily complied probably with relief that so important a position should + be in such good hands. + </p> + <p> + 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 reconciliation 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 surrender + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">241</a></span> + that vital post to the British. And now on the + 18th of September Washington was riding northeastward into Connecticut, + British troops were on board ships in New York and all was ready. On the + 20th of September the <i>Vulture</i>, sloop of war, sailed up the Hudson + from New York and anchored at Stony Point, a few miles below West Point. + On board the <i>Vulture</i> was the British officer 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 American + 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 disasters at + Charleston and Camden might end the strife. Britain was + prepared to yield everything but + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">242</a></span> + separation; and America, Arnold said, could now make an honorable peace. + </p> + <p> + 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 + command 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 <i>Vulture</i>, 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. + </p> + <p> + It was uncertain how far the <i>Vulture</i> 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 dress + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">243</a></span> + 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 + summons from across the river. Within a few minutes his barge was moving + swiftly to the <i>Vulture</i> eighteen 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 military law. Forty years later the bones of André + were reburied in Westminster Abbey, a tribute of pity for a fine officer. + </p> + <p> + 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">244</a></span> + 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 working 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 religious. Members praised the + liberties of England and had declared that the Declaration of Independence + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">245</a></span> + 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 Washington 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; <q>Money will go farther than arms in + America.</q> If the British would concentrate on the Hudson where the + defenses were weak they could drive a wedge between North and South. If on + the other hand they preferred 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. + </p> + <p> + In the autumn of 1780 the British cause did, indeed, seem near triumph. An + election in England in October gave the ministry an increased majority and + with this renewed determination. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">246</a></span> + 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 to a 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. <q>These people are at the end + of their resources,</q> 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 anxiously watching on the Hudson. It was the dark hour before + the dawn. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">247</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2><a href="#Contents">CHAPTER XI</a></h2> + <h3>Yorktown</h3> + <p> + <span class="smcap">The</span> critical stroke of the war was near. In the + South, after General Greene superseded Gates in the command, the tide of + war began to turn. Cornwallis 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. Steuben 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">248</a></span> + 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 discipline 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, confident 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. + </p> + <p> + 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, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">249</a></span> + 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 northwest 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 without food, Cornwallis, with less than two thousand men, attacked + Greene's force of about four thousand. 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 sending only enough men to Virginia to steal tobacco. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">250</a></span> + 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 smashing 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 securely. 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 Rawdon 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. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">251</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 Virginia 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 Petersburg + 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">252</a></span> + 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 formidable British general. Cornwallis said cheerily that + <q>the boy</q> was certainly now his prey and began the task of catching + him. + </p> + <p> + An exciting chase followed. La Fayette did some good work. It was + impossible, with his inferior force, to fight Cornwallis, but he could + tire him out by drawing him into long marches. When Cornwallis advanced to + attack La Fayette at Richmond, 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 hundred miles + northwest from Richmond, and Cornwallis conceived the daring plan of + raiding Charlottesville, 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 + fighting and he nearly succeeded. Jefferson indeed escaped by rapid flight + but Tarleton took the town, burned the public records, and captured + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">253</a></span> + ammunition and arms. But he really 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 intercepted + 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 generals. 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">254</a></span> + 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. Yorktown 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 commonplace of romance that a pretty face or a stray bullet + has altered the destiny not merely of families 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 warships than the British could muster at a given spot and time. + Washington had urged in January that France should plan to have at least + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">255</a></span> + temporary naval superiority in American waters, in accordance with + Rochambeau's principle, <q>Nothing without naval supremacy.</q> 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 Hudson and at any rate alarm + Clinton as to an imminent 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">256</a></span> + on, and joined + their American comrades along the Hudson early in July. + </p> + <p> + 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. Washington 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 torrential 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 away + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">257</a></span> + from New York southwestward + across New Jersey, and still only the two leaders knew whither they were + bound. + </p> + <p> + 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 Princeton, 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 + <q>immense</q> with its seventy-two streets all <q>in a straight line.</q> + The shops appeared to be + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">258</a></span> + 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 disembarked + 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, + mounted on chairs, delivered in advance mock funeral orations on + Cornwallis. + </p> + <p> + 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 hundred + 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 them + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">259</a></span> + responded. A deadly + apathy in regard to the war seems to have fallen upon many parts of the + country. The Bay now in control of the French fleet was quite safe for + unarmed ships. Half the Americans 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 beyond 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. + Washington 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 + Washington 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 + Philadelphia, 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">260</a></span> + were French, was besieging + Cornwallis with seven thousand men in Yorktown. + </p> + <p> + Heart-stirring events had happened while the armies were marching to the + South. The Comte de Grasse, with his great fleet, arrived at the entrance + 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 + intended to be back in the West Indies before the end of October. + </p> + <p> + 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, the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">261</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 <i>Terrible</i>, 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">262</a></span> + 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 British fleet, crippled and spiritless, was hurrying to a + protecting port and the fleurs-de-lis waved unchallenged 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 + entrenchments 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 Yorktown. There was delay. + Later Clinton wrote that + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">263</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + On the 5th of October, for some reason unexplained, 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 incessantly + 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">264</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. <q>I thought it would have been wanton + and inhuman,</q> he reported later, <q>to sacrifice the lives of this + small body of gallant soldiers.</q> 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 hundreds 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. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">265</a></span> + 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 Americans on the other, the French in full + dress uniform, the Americans in some cases half naked and barefoot. 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, <q>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.</q> + </p> + <p> + 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 + entrance 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, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">266</a></span> + were deserted by + ships of war. Grasse had sailed, however, to meet a stern fate. He was a + fine fighting 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 + returning to France Grasse was tried by court-martial and, though + acquitted, he remained in disgrace until he died in 1788, <q>weary,</q> as + he said, <q>of the burden of life.</q> The defeated Cornwallis was not + blamed in England. His character commanded wide respect and he lived to + play a great part in public life. He became Governor General of India, and + was Viceroy of Ireland when its restless union with England was brought + about in 1800. + </p> + <hr class="break" /> + <p> + 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">267</a></span> + the 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. <q>As + he would have taken a ball in the breast,</q> he replied; <q>for he opened his + arms, exclaiming 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.</q> 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. <q>The + King writes just as he always does,</q> said Lord George, <q>except that I + observe he has omitted to mark the hour and the minute of his writing with + his usual precision.</q> It needed a heavy shock to disturb the routine of + George III. The King hoped no one would think that the bad news <q>makes the + smallest alteration in those principles of my conduct which have directed + me in past time.</q> Lesser men might + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">268</a></span> + change in the face of evils; George III + was resolved to be changeless and never, never, to yield to the coercion + of facts. + </p> + <p> + Yield, however, he did. The months which followed were months of political + commotion in England. For a 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 Commons 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 British + 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 1st 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 return to Hanover rather + than yield the independence + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">269</a></span> + of the colonies. Over and over again he had + said that no one should hold office in his government 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 independence was acknowledged. <q>Did I lower my voice when + I came to that part of my speech?</q> 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. + </p> + <p> + In America, meanwhile, the glow of victory had given way to weariness and + lassitude. Rochambeau with his army remained in Virginia. Washington took + his forces back to the lines before New York, sparing what men he could to + help Greene in the South. Again came a long period of watching and + waiting. Washington, knowing the obstinate determination of the British + character, urged Congress 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 indifferent to further effort and Congress was slack + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">270</a></span> + and impotent. + The outlook for Washington's allies 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 negotiating peace. Spain declared that she would never make + peace without the surrender of Gibraltar, and she was ready to leave the + question of American 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 basis of + dividing the Thirteen States, leaving some of them independent while + others should remain under the British King. + </p> + <p> + 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 American Commission. The + austere Adams disliked + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">271</a></span> + 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 foreign 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 separate 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 furnish him with + what he needed and to an amazing degree succeeded in doing so. The self + interest which Washington believed to be the dominant + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">272</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Thus it was that the war ended. 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 Commissioners agreed + to ask the individual States to meet the desires of the British + negotiators, but both sides understood that the States would do nothing, + that the confiscated property would never be + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">273</a></span> + returned, that most of the + exiled Loyalists would remain exiles, and that Britain herself must + compensate them for their losses. This in time she did on a scale + inadequate indeed but expressive of a generous intention. The United + States retained the great Northwest and the Mississippi became the western + frontier, with destiny already 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 content 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 magnanimity 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 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">274</a></span> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 captured 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. + </p> + <p> + It was fitting that Washington should bid farewell 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 each + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">275</a></span> + of them. Then they watched him as he was + rowed away in his barge to the New Jersey shore. Congress was now sitting + at Annapolis in Maryland and there on December 23, 1783, Washington + appeared 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 <q>the gallery + was filled with a beautiful group of elegant ladies.</q> With solemn + sincerity Washington commended the country to the protection 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 + <q>magnanimous king and nation</q> 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 estimate of + himself, know that for a distant posterity his character and his words + would have compelling authority. What Washington's countryman, Motley, + said of William of Orange is true of Washington himself: <q>As long as he + lived he was the guiding + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">276</a></span> + star of a brave nation and when he died the little children cried in the + streets.</q> 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 adjustments + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">277</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2><a href="#Contents">Bibliographical Note</a></h2> + + <p> + In Winsor, <i>Narrative and Critical History of America</i>, vol. VI + (1889), and in Larned (editor), <i>Literature of American History</i>, + pp. 111-152 (1902), the authorities are critically estimated. There are + excellent classified lists in Van Tyne, <i>The American Revolution</i> + (1905), vol. V of Hart (editor), <i>The American Nation</i>, and in Avery, + <i>History of the United States</i>, vol. V, pp. 422-432, and vol. VI, + pp. 445-471 (1908-09). The notes in Channing, <i>A History of the United + States</i>, vol. III (1913), are useful. Detailed information in regard + to places will be found in Lossing, <i>The Pictorial Field Book of the + Revolution</i>, 2 vols. (1850). + </p> + <p> + In recent years American writers on the period have chiefly occupied + themselves with special studies, and the general histories have been few. + Tyler's <i>The Literary History of the American Revolution</i>, 2 vols. (1897), + is a penetrating study of opinion. Fiske's <i>The American Revolution</i>, 2 + vols. (1891), and Sydney George Fisher's <i>The Struggle for American + Independence</i>, 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, <i>A + History of England in the Eighteenth Century</i>, chaps. XIII, XIV, and XV + (1903), is impartial. The most elaborate and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">278</a></span> + readable history is + Trevelyan, <i>The American Revolution</i>, and his <i>George the Third</i> and + <i>Charles Fox</i> (six volumes in all, completed in 1914). If Trevelyan leans + too much to the American side the opposite is true of Fortescue, <i>A + History of the British Army</i>, vol. III (1902), a scientific account of + military events with many maps and plans. Captain Mahan, U. S. N., wrote + the British naval history of the period in Clowes (editor), <i>The Royal + Navy, a History</i>, vol. III, pp. 353-564 (1898). Of great value also is + Mahan's <i>Influence of Sea Power on History</i> (1890) and <i>Major Operations + of the Navies in the War of Independence</i> (1913). He may be supplemented + by C. O. Paullin's <i>Navy of the American Revolution</i> (1906) and G. W. + Allen's <i>A Naval History of the American Revolution</i>, 2 vols. (1913). + </p> + <hr class="break" /> + <h2> + CHAPTERS I AND II. + </h2> + <p> + Washington's own writings are necessary to an understanding of his + character. Sparks, <i>The Life and Writings of George Washington</i>, 2 vols. + (completed 1855), has been superseded by Ford, <i>The Writings of George + Washington</i>, 14 vols. (completed 1898). The general reader will probably + put aside the older biographies 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, <i>George Washington, Farmer</i> + (1915) deals with a special side of Washington's character. The problems + of the army are described in Bolton, <i>The Private Soldier under + Washington</i> (1902), and in Hatch, <i>The Administration of the American + Revolutionary Army</i> (1904). For military operations Frothingham, <i>The + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">279</a></span> + Siege of Boston</i>; Justin H. Smith, <i>Our Struggle for the Fourteenth + Colony</i>, 2 vols. (1907); Codman, <i>Arnold's Expedition to Quebec</i> (1901); + and Lucas, <i>History of Canada, 1763-1812</i>(1909). + </p> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. + </h2> + <p> + For the state of opinion in England, the contemporary <i>Annual Register</i>, + 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, + <i>Correspondence of George III with Lord North, 1768-83</i>, 2 vols. (1867). + Stirling, <i>Coke of Norfolk and his Friends</i>, 2 vols. (1908), gives the + outlook of a Whig magnate; Fitzmaurice, <i>Life of William, Earl of + Shelburne</i>, 2 vols. (1912), the Whig policy. Curwen's <i>Journals and + Letters, 1775-84</i> (1842), show us a Loyalist exile in England. Hazelton's + <i>The Declaration of Independence, its History</i> (1906), is an elaborate + study. + </p> + <h2> + CHAPTERS IV, V, AND VI. + </h2> + <p> + The three campaigns—New York, Philadelphia, and the Hudson—are + covered by C. F. Adams, <i>Studies Military and Diplomatic</i> (1911), which + makes severe strictures on Washington's strategy; H. P. Johnston's + <q>Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn,</q> in the Long Island + Historical Society's <i>Memoirs</i>, and <i>Battle of Harlem Heights</i> (1897); + Carrington, <i>Battles of the American Revolution</i> (1904); Stryker, <i>The + Battles of Trenton and Princeton</i> (1898); Lucas, <i>History of Canada</i> + (1909). Fonblanque's <i>John Burgoyne</i> (1876) is a defense of that leader; + while Riedesel's + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">280</a></span> + <i>Letters and Journals Relating to the War of the American + Revolution</i> (trans. W. L. Stone, 1867) and Anburey's <i>Travels through the + Interior Parts of America</i> (1789) are accounts by eye-witnesses. Mereness' + (editor) <i>Travels in the American Colonies, 1690-1783</i> (1916) gives the + impressions of Lord Adam Gordon and others. + </p> + <h2> + CHAPTERS VII AND VIII. + </h2> + <p> + On Washington at Valley Forge, Oliver, <i>Life of Alexander Hamilton</i> + (1906); Charlemagne Tower, <i>The Marquis de La Fayette in the American + Revolution</i>, 2 vols. (1895); Greene, <i>Life of Nathanael Greene</i> + (1893); Brooks, <i>Henry Knox</i> (1900); Graham, <i>Life of General + Daniel Morgan</i> (1856); Kapp, <i>Life of Steuben</i> (1859); Arnold, + <i>Life of Benedict Arnold</i> (1880). On the army Bolton and Hatch as + cited; Mahan gives a lucid account of naval effort. Barrow, <i>Richard, + Earl Howe</i> (1838) is a dull account of a remarkable man. On the French + alliance, Perkins, <i>France in the American Revolution</i> (1911), + Corwin, <i>French Policy and the American Alliance of 1778</i> (1916), + and Van Tyne on <q>Influences which Determined the French Government to + Make the Treaty with America, 1778,</q> in <i>The American Historical + Review</i>, April, 1916. + </p> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX. + </h2> + <p> + Fortescue, as cited, gives excellent plans. Other useful books are + McCrady, <i>History of South Carolina in the Revolution</i> (1901); + Draper, <i>King's Mountain and its Heroes</i> (1881); Simms, <i>Life of + Marion</i> (1844). Ross + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">281</a></span> + (editor), <i>The Cornwallis Correspondence</i>, 3 vols. (1859), and + Tarleton, <i>History of the Campaigns of 1780 and 1781 in the Southern + Provinces of North America</i> (1787), give the point of view of British + leaders. On the West, Thwaites, <i>How George Rogers Clark won the + Northwest</i> (1903); and on the Loyalists Van Tyne, <i>The Loyalists in + the American Revolution</i> (1902), Flick, <i>Loyalism in New York</i> + (1901), and Stark, <i>The Loyalists of Massachusetts</i> (1910). + </p> + <h2> + CHAPTERS X AND XI. + </h2> + <p> + For the exploits of John Paul Jones and of the American navy, Mrs. De + Koven's <i>The Life and Letters of John Paul Jones</i>, 2 vols. (1913), + Don C. Seitz's <i>Paul Jones</i>, and G. W. Allen's <i>A Naval History + of the American Revolution</i>, 2 vols. (1913), should be consulted. + Jusserand's <i>With Americans of Past and Present Days</i> (1917) + contains a chapter on <q>Rochambeau and the French in America</q>; + Johnston's <i>The Yorktown Campaign</i> (1881) is a full account; Wraxall, + <i>Historical Memoirs of my own Time</i> (1815, reprinted 1904), tells + of the reception of the news of Yorktown in England. + </p> + <p> + The <i>Encyclopœdia Britannica</i> has useful references to + authorities for persons prominent in the Revolution and <i>The Dictionary + of National Biography</i> for leaders on the British side. + </p> + <hr class="main" /> + + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">283</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2><a href="#Contents">Index</a></h2> + <h3>A</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + Abraham, Plains of (QC), American army on, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.<br /> + Adams, Abigail, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.<br /> + Adams, John, in Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>; + journey from Boston to Philadelphia, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>-<a href="#Page_10">10</a>; + on committee to draft Declaration of Independence, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>-<a href="#Page_76">76</a>; + excepted from British offer of pardon, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>; + opinion of Philadelphia, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>; + criticism of Washington, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>; + sent to Paris on American Commission, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>-<a href="#Page_271">271</a>.<br /> + Albany (NY), plan to concentrate British forces at, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.<br /> + Allen, Colonel Ethan, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.<br /> + André, Major John, at Philadelphia, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>; + treats with Arnold, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>-<a href="#Page_242">242</a>; + capture, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>-<a href="#Page_243">243</a>; + hanged as spy, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.<br /> + Annapolis (MD), Congress at, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.<br /> + Anne, Fort (NY), <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br /> + Armed neutrality, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.<br /> + Army, American, camp at Cambridge, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>-<a href="#Page_28">28</a>; + Washington reorganizes, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>-<a href="#Page_35">35</a>; + food and clothing, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>-<a href="#Page_31">31</a>, + <a href="#Page_32">32</a> + <a href="#Page_153">153</a>-<a href="#Page_156">156</a>, + <a href="#Page_206">166</a>; + composition, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>-<a href="#Page_32">32</a>, + <a href="#Page_43">43</a>; + officers, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>-<a href="#Page_35">35</a>, + <a href="#Page_43">43</a>-<a href="#Page_44">44</a>; + after Canadian campaign, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>; + desertions, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, + <a href="#Page_159">159</a>-<a href="#Page_160">160</a>; + plundering by, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>; + pay, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, + <a href="#Page_158">158</a>-<a href="#Page_159">159</a>, + <a href="#Page_209">209</a>; + in 1777, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>; + condition under Gates, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>; + Washington wishes national, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>; + needs of engineers, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>; + hospital service, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>-<a href="#Page_153">153</a>, + <a href="#Page_166">166</a>-<a href="#Page_167">167</a>; + weapons and artillery, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>-<a href="#Page_158">158</a>; + religion in, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>-<a href="#Page_161">161</a>; + supplies from France, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>; + after Valley Forge, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>; + mutinous, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.<br /> + Army, British, food for, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>; + press-gangs, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>; flogging, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>; + relations between officers and men, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>-<a href="#Page_177">177</a>; + difficulties of raising, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>; <i>see also</i> Germans.<br /> + Army, French, in America, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>-<a href="#Page_236">236</a>.<br /> + Arnold, Benedict, at Ticonderoga, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>; + through Maine to Canada, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, + <a href="#Page_44">44</a>-<a href="#Page_45">45</a>; + at Quebec, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>-<a href="#Page_46">46</a>; + at Crown Point, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>-<a href="#Page_53">53</a>; + Coke denounces King's reception of, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>; + Washington's trust in, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, + <a href="#Page_172">172</a>-<a href="#Page_173">173</a>; + at Stillwater, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>; + describes American Army, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>; + treason, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, + <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, + <a href="#Page_240">240</a>-<a href="#Page_243">243</a>; + at West Point, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>; + life at Philadelphia, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>; + tried by court-martial, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>; + reprimanded by Washington, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>-<a href="#Page_240">240</a>; + in Virginia, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.<br /> + Articles of Confederation, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.<br /> + Assanpink River (NJ), Washington on, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.<br /> + Atrocities, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, + <a href="#Page_212">212</a>; + <i>see also</i> Indians, Prisons.<br /> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">284</a></span> + Augusta (GA), British take, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>-<a href="#Page_212">212</a>; + falls to Americans, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>. + </div> + <h3>B</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + Baltimore (MD), Congress flees to, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.<br /> + Barbados, Washington visits, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.<br /> + Barras, French naval commander, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.<br /> + Baum, Colonel, at Bennington, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.<br /> + Beaumarchais sends munitions to America, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>-<a href="#Page_184">184</a>.<br /> + Bemis Heights (NY), battle, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>. <br /> + Bennington (VT), battle of <a href="#Page_131">131</a>-<a href="#Page_132">132</a>.<br /> + Berthier, French officer, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.<br /> + Biggins Bridge (SC), Tarleton's victory at, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.<br /> + Bordentown (NJ), Germans at, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.<br /> + Boston (MA), defiance of British in, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>; + seige, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, + <a href="#Page_35">35</a>-<a href="#Page_36">36</a>; + Washington's journey to, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>-<a href="#Page_10">10</a>; + American camp, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>-<a href="#Page_28">28</a>; + evacuated by British, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>-<a href="#Page_49">49</a>; + effect of Washington's success at, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>; + Howe feigns setting out for, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>; safe, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>; + Burgoyne's force at, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>; + Loyalists in, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.<br /> + Braddock, General Edward, Washington with, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>-<a href="#Page_23">23</a>.<br /> + Brandywine (PA) battle of, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>-<a href="#Page_120">120</a>, + <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>; + La Fayette at, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>; Greene at, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.<br /> + Brant, Joseph (Thayendanegea), <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.<br /> + Breed's Hill (MA) <a href="#Page_4">4</a>-<a href="#Page_5">5</a>; <i>see also</i> Bunker Hill.<br /> + Broglie, Comte de, suggested as commander of American army, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.<br /> + Borglie, Prince de, with French armies in America, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.<br /> + Brooklyn Heights (NY), Washington on, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>-<a href="#Page_91">91</a>.<br /> + Buford, Colonel Tarleton attacks, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.<br /> + Bunker Hill (MA), battle of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>-<a href="#Page_7">7</a>, + <a href="#Page_33">33</a>; Washington learns of, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>; + significance, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>; + officers at, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.<br /> + Burgoyne, General John, on British behavior at Bunker Hill, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>; + ordered to meet Howe, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, + <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, + <a href="#Page_124">124</a>-<a href="#Page_125">125</a>; + Howe deserts, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>; + life and character, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>-<a href="#Page_124">124</a>; + at Lake Champlain, <a href="#Page_125">125</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + Indian Allies, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>-<a href="#Page_126">126</a>, + <a href="#Page_138">138</a>-<a href="#Page_140">140</a>, + <a href="#Page_144">144</a>; + takes Fort Ticonderoga, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>; + lack of supplies, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>-<a href="#Page_130">130</a>; + at Fort Edward, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>; + <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>; + and Bennington, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>-<a href="#Page_132">132</a>; + at Saratoga, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, + <a href="#Page_143">143</a>; + learns of failure of St. Leger, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>; + crosses Hudson, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>; + at Stillwater (Freeman's Farm), <a href="#Page_142">142</a>-<a href="#Page_143">143</a>; + surrender at Saratoga, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, + <a href="#Page_143">143</a>-<a href="#Page_147">147</a>, + <a href="#Page_149">149</a>; + effect on France of surrender of, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>; + effect of surrender in England, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.<br /> + Burke, Edmund, and conciliation, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>; + and Independence, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.<br /> + Byron, Admiral, sent to aid Howe, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>. <br /> + </div> + <h3>C</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + Cahokia (IL), Clark at, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.<br /> + Cambridge (MA), American camp, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, + <a href="#Page_27">27</a>-<a href="#Page_28">28</a>; + Washington at, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, + <a href="#Page_30">30</a>-<a href="#Page_31">31</a>, + <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.<br /> + Camden (SC), battle of, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>-<a href="#Page_220">220</a>, + <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.<br /> + Canada, campaign against, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, + <a href="#Page_38">38</a>-<a href="#Page_47">47</a>; + Washington's idea of, <a href="#Page_40">40</a> + France and, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>; + Loyalists take refuge in, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>-<a href="#Page_228">228</a>.<br /> + Carleton, Sir Guy, Governor of Canada, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>; + commands at Quebec, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>-<a href="#Page_46">46</a>; + operations on Lake Champlain, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>-<a href="#Page_53">53</a>; + Howe and, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>; + superseded by <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">285</a></span> + Burgoyne, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>; + commands at New York, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>; + and Loyalists, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.<br /> + Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton, on commission to Montreal, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.<br /> + Carroll, John, on commission to Montreal, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.<br /> + Catherine II advises England against war, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br /> + Catholics, Quebec Act, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>-<a href="#Page_39">39</a>, + <a href="#Page_41">41</a>; + disabilities in England, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.<br /> + Chadd's Ford (PA), Washington at, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, + <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.<br /> + Champlain, Lake (NY), plan for conquest of Canada by way of, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>; + operations on, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>-<a href="#Page_53">53</a>, + <a href="#Page_95">95</a>; + Burgoyne at, <a href="#Page_125">125</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + Arnold at, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.<br /> + Charleston (SC), on side of Revolution, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>; + British expedition to, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>-<a href="#Page_83">83</a>; + Prevost demands surrender, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>-<a href="#Page_214">214</a>; + Lincoln at, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>-<a href="#Page_217">217</a>; + surrenders, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.<br /> + Charlestown (MA), location, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>; + burned, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.<br /> + Charlotte (NC), Greene at, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.<br /> + Charlottesville (VA), Cornwallis plans raid of, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.<br /> + Chatham, William Pitt, Earl of, and conciliation with America, + <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>; + political status, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.<br /> + Cherry Valley, massacre, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.<br /> + Chesapeake Bay, Howe on, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, + <a href="#Page_117">117</a>; <i>see also</i> Yorktown.<br /> + Chew, Benjamin, house as central point in battle at Germantown, + <a href="#Page_122">122</a>. <br /> + Clark, G.R., expedition, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.<br /> + Clinton, General Sir Henry, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>; + at Charleston, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, + <a href="#Page_215">215</a>; + at New York, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, + <a href="#Page_133">133</a>; + up the Hudson, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>; + succeeds Howe in command, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>; + march from Philadelphia, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, + <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>; + retreats at Monmouth Court House, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>; + reaches Newport, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>; + sails for Charleston, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>-<a href="#Page_218">218</a>; + proclamation, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>; + Rodney relieves, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>; + and Cornwallis, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>; + delay in reinforcing Cornwallis, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>-<a href="#Page_263">263</a>, + <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.<br /> + Coke, of Norfolk, wealth, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, + <a href="#Page_69">69</a>-<a href="#Page_70">70</a>; + and Toryism, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>-<a href="#Page_71">71</a>; + on American question, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>-<a href="#Page_72">72</a>; + and Washington, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, 189. <br /> + Colonies, attitude toward England, <a href="#Page_55">55</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + state of society in, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>; + population, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>-<a href="#Page_178">178</a>; <i>see also</i> names of colonies.<br /> + Continental Congress, Washington at, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>; + selects leader for army, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>-<a href="#Page_9">9</a>; + Howe's conciliation, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>-<a href="#Page_93">93</a>; + flees to Baltimore, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>; + loses able men, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>; + hampers Washington, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>; + Gates and, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>; + repudiates Gates terms to Burgoyne, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>; + Gates lays quarrel with Washington before, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>; + and enlistment, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>; + at York, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>; + ineptitude, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>-<a href="#Page_164">164</a>, + <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>-<a href="#Page_270">270</a>, + gives Southern command to Gates, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>; + Test Acts, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>; + and French alliance, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>; + borrows money from France, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>; at Annapolis, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>. + Conway, General, and Stamp Act, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br /> + Conway, General Thomas, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>; + <q>Conway Cabal</q> against Washington, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>; + leaves America, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.<br /> + Cornwallis, Lord, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>; + at Charleston, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, + crosses Hudson, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>; + goes to Trenton, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>-<a href="#Page_105">105</a>; + at Princeton, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>; + and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">286</a></span> + Howe, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>; + at the Brandywine, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>; + goes to Charleston, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>; + at Camden, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>; + in North Carolina, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, + <a href="#Page_247">247</a>-<a href="#Page_248">248</a>; + proclamation, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>; + Guilford Court House, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>; + advance down Cape Fear River, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>; + in Virginia, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>-<a href="#Page_252">252</a>; + and Clinton, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>; + Yorktown, <a href="#Page_254">254</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + surrender, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>-<a href="#Page_266">266</a>.<br /> + <i>Countess of Scarborough</i> (ship), Jones captures, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> + Cowpens (SC), battle of, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.<br /> + Cromwell, Oliver, as military leader, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>.<br /> + Crown Point (NY), capture of, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>-<a href="#Page_53">53</a>; + Burgoyne at, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.<br /> + </div> + <h3>D</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + Dartmouth, Earl of, Minister of England, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.<br /> + Deane, Silas, envoy to France, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>-<a href="#Page_185">185</a>.<br /> + Declaration of Independence, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>-<a href="#Page_80">80</a>.<br /> + Delaware Bay, British fleet in, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>.<br /> + Delaware River, Washington crosses, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.<br /> + Denmark and armed neutrality, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>-<a href="#Page_207">207</a>.<br /> + Detroit (MI), force to check Clark from, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.<br /> + Devonshire, Duke of, costly residence, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.<br /> + Dickinson, John, of Pennsylvania, on Declaration of Independence, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.<br /> + Dilworth, Cornwallis marches on, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.<br /> + Dinwiddie, Governor, Washington and, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.<br /> + Donop, Count von, at Trenton, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.<br /> + Dorchester Heights (MA), American troops on, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>-<a href="#Page_48">48</a>.<br /> + Dumas, French officer with Rochambeau, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.<br /> + Dunmore, Lord, Governor of Virginia, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.<br /> + </div> + <h3>E</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + East River (NY), location, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>; British on, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.<br /> + Edward, Fort, St. Clair retires to, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>; + Burgoyne at, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, + <a href="#Page_130">130</a>-<a href="#Page_141">141</a>; + Indian raids at, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>; + Burgoyne seeks to return to, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.<br /> + Elkton (MD), Howe at, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, + <a href="#Page_118">118</a>; + American army at, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>.<br /> + Emerson, chaplain, diary quoted, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.<br /> + England, in eighteenth century, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>-<a href="#Page_19">19</a>; + state of society, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>; + Parliament votes tax on colonies, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>; + politics, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>-<a href="#Page_25">25</a>, + <a href="#Page_64">64</a> <i>et seq.</i>, + <a href="#Page_268">268</a>; + attitude toward the colonies, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>-<a href="#Page_55">55</a>, + <a href="#Page_58">58</a>; + prosperity, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>; + difficulties in raising army, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>; + France and, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>-<a href="#Page_183">183</a>, + <a href="#Page_187">187</a>-<a href="#Page_188">188</a>, + <a href="#Page_191">191</a>-<a href="#Page_192">192</a>, + <a href="#Page_195">195</a>-<a href="#Page_196">196</a>, + <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>; + Whig attitude after French intervention, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>-<a href="#Page_190">190</a>; + and Spain, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, + <a href="#Page_203">203</a>-<a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>; + navy in 1779, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>; + domestic affairs, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>; + treaty of peace, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>; <i>see also</i> Army, British. <br /> + Estaing, Count d', French admiral, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>; + at the Delaware, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>-<a href="#Page_197">197</a>; + at Sandy Hook, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>-<a href="#Page_201">201</a>; + at Newport, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>-<a href="#Page_202">202</a>; + at Savannah, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>-<a href="#Page_215">215</a>.<br /> + Eutaw Springs (SC), battle of, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.<br /> + </div> + <h3>F</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + Falmouth (Portland, ME), destroyed, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.<br /> + Ferguson, Major Patrick, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>; + King's Mountain, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>-<a href="#Page_222">222</a>; + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">287</a></span> + killed, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.<br /> + Fersen, Count, with French army, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.<br /> + Finance, value of continental money, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>; + Franklin procures money in France, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.<br /> + Florida returned to Spain, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.<br /> + Foch, general, quoted, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.<br /> + Fox, C.J., and carelessness of ministers, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>; + urges conciliation, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br /> + France, French in Canada, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>; + alliance with, <a href="#Page_182">182</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + and England, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>-<a href="#Page_183">183</a>, + <a href="#Page_187">187</a>-<a href="#Page_188">188</a>, + <a href="#Page_191">191</a>-<a href="#Page_192">192</a>, + <a href="#Page_195">195</a>-<a href="#Page_196">196</a>, + <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>; + treaty of friendship with America (1778), <a href="#Page_187">187</a>; + and Canada, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>; + and Spain, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>; + promises soldiers to Washington, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>; + help in 1780, <a href="#Page_230">230</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + bibliography of alliance, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.<br /> + Franklin, Benjamin, on Lexington, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>; + on George III, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>; + member of commission to Montreal, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>; + on committee to meet Howe, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>; + satirizes British ignorance, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>; + in Congress, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>; + induces Hessians to desert, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>; + sent to Paris, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>; + and Loyalists, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, + <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.<br /> + Fraser, General, killed, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.<br /> + Frederick the Great, of Prussia, estimate of Washington, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>; + urges France against England, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.<br /> + </div> + <h3>G</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + Gage, General Thomas, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>; + at Boston, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>-<a href="#Page_5">5</a>.<br /> + Gates, General Horatio, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, + <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>; + in command of Lee's army, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>-<a href="#Page_100">100</a>; + joins Washington, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>; + discourages Washington, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>; + against Burgoyne, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>-<a href="#Page_145">145</a>; + intrigue, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>-<a href="#Page_151">151</a>; + menaces Clinton in New Jersey, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>; + command in the South, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>; + Camden, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>; + Greene supersedes, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.<br /> + George III, American opinions of, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>; + Hamilton on, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>; + character, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>-<a href="#Page_62">62</a>; + speech in Parliament, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>-<a href="#Page_63">63</a>; + Washington and, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>; + statue destroyed in New York, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>; + ready to give guarantees of liberty, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>; + effect of news of Ticonderoga on, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>-<a href="#Page_128">128</a>; + on taxing of America, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>; + and Chatham, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>; + news of Yorktown, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>-<a href="#Page_268">268</a>. <br /> + George, Fort (NY), Burgoyne's supplies from, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br /> + Georgia, British in, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>-<a href="#Page_212">212</a>, + <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.<br /> + Germain, Lord George, failure to send orders to Howe, + <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>; + instructions to Burgoyne, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>; + plans campaign from England, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>-<a href="#Page_131">131</a>; + censures Howe, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>; + in Seven Years' War, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>; + news of Yorktown, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>.<br /> + Germans, hold line of the Delaware, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>; + plundering, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>; + at Bennington, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>-<a href="#Page_132">132</a>; + with Burgoyne, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>; + Steuben's part in Revolutionary War, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>-<a href="#Page_176">176</a>; + benefit to British, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>-<a href="#Page_180">180</a>; + desertions, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>-<a href="#Page_181">181</a>, + <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.<br /> + Germantown (PA), Howe's camp at, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>; + battle of, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>; + Greene at, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.<br /> + Gibraltar, Spain besieges, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>; + not returned to Spain, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.<br /> + Gloucester, Cornwallis holds, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.<br /> + Gordon, Lord Adam, on Philadelphia, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>; + opinion of Charleston, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.<br /> + Gordon, Lord George, leads London riot, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.<br /> + Grasse, Comte de, commands French fleet, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>; + at <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">288</a></span> + Chesapeake Bay, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, + <a href="#Page_261">261</a>-<a href="#Page_262">262</a>; + sails south, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>; + Rodney captures, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.<br /> + Great Britain, see England.<br /> + Greene, General Nathanael, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>; + at Bunker Hill, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>; + advocates independence, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>; + commands Fort Washington, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>-<a href="#Page_97">97</a>; + harasses Cornwallis, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>; + at Germantown, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>; + at Valley Forge, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>-<a href="#Page_171">171</a>; + in Rhode Island, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>; + on Congress, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>; + supersedes Gates in South, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>; + Guilford Court House, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>; + at Hobkirk's Hill, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>. <br /> + Grey, Sir Charles, Howe and, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.<br /> + Guilford Court House (NC), <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.<br /> + </div> + <h3>H</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + Hamilton, Alexander, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>; + and Washington, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>; + on Quebec Act, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.<br /> + Hancock, John, desires post as Commander-in-Chief, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.<br /> + Harlem River (NY), location, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.<br /> + Hastings, Marquis of, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>; <i>see also</i> Rawdon, Lord.<br /> + Henry, Patrick, speech, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.<br /> + Henry, Cape (VA), naval battle off, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.<br /> + Herkimer, General Nicholas, battle of Oriskany, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.<br /> + Hessians, <i>see</i> Germans.<br /> + Hillsborough (NC), Cornwallis issues proclamation at, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.<br /> + Hobkirk's Hill (SC), Rawdon defeats Greene at, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.<br /> + Holkham, Lord Leicester's residence at, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>; + Coke's residence at, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>-<a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.<br /> + Holland joins England's enemies <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.<br /> + Hood, Sir Samuel, British admiral, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.<br /> + Howe, Richard, Lord, commands fleet reaching New York, + <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>; + Whig sympathy, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>; + personal characteristics, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>; + letter to Washington, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>-<a href="#Page_87">87</a>; + seeks peace, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>-<a href="#Page_93">93</a>; + takes fleet to Newport, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>; + proclamation, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>; + and evacuation of Philadelphia, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>-<a href="#Page_197">197</a>; + expects naval flight off Sandy Hook, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>-<a href="#Page_201">201</a>; + at Newport, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>; + refuses to serve Tory Admiralty, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.<br /> + Howe, General Sir William, at Bunker Hill, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>; + succeeds Gage in command, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>; + evacuates Boston, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>-<a href="#Page_48">48</a>; + and Burgoyne, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, + <a href="#Page_116">116</a>-<a href="#Page_117">117</a>, + <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>; + personal characteristics, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>; + attitude toward Revolution, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>; + lands army on Staten Island, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>; + battle of Long Island, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>-<a href="#Page_90">90</a>; + in New York, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>-<a href="#Page_95">95</a>; + plans to meet Carleton, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>; + battle of White Plains, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>; + Fort Washington, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>-<a href="#Page_97">97</a>; + takes Fort Lee, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>; + and Lee, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, + <a href="#Page_112">112</a>-<a href="#Page_113">113</a>; + at Trenton, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>; + proclamation, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>; + goes to New York for Christmas, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>; + dilatoriness, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>; + takes Philadelphia, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, + <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>; + plan for 1777, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>-<a href="#Page_113">113</a>; + sails for Chesapeake Bay, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>-<a href="#Page_116">116</a>; + at the Brandywine, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>-<a href="#Page_119">119</a>, + <a href="#Page_133">133</a>; + and Pennsylvanians, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>-<a href="#Page_121">121</a>; + at Germantown, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>-<a href="#Page_122">122</a>; + leaves Philadelphia, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>; + Clinton succeeds, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.<br /> + Hudson River (NY), advantages of plan to sail up, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>; + location of mouth, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>; + British on, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, + <a href="#Page_96">96</a>-<a href="#Page_98">98</a>; + Washington guards, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>-<a href="#Page_210">210</a>, + <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, + <a href="#Page_237">237</a>-<a href="#Page_238">238</a>, + <i>see also</i> West Point.<br /> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">289</a></span> + </div> + <h3>I</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + Independence, <a href="#Page_54">54</a> <i>et seq.</i>; <i>see also</i> Declaration of Independence.<br /> + Independence, Fort <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.<br /> + India, France against British in, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.<br /> + Indians, allies of Burgoyne, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, + <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>-<a href="#Page_140">140</a>, + <a href="#Page_144">144</a>; with St. Leger, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>-<a href="#Page_136">136</a>; + aid loyalists in Wyoming massacre, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.<br /> + Ireland, Declaration of Independence, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.<br /> + </div> + <h3>J</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + Jay, John, on Declaration of Independence, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>; + opinion of Congress, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>; + on American Commission, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.<br /> + Jefferson, Thomas, and Declaration of Independence, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>-<a href="#Page_77">77</a>; + on Lafayette, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>; British plan to capture, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.<br /> + Johnson, Sir John, with St. Leger, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>-<a href="#Page_134">134</a>, + <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.<br /> + Johnson, Samuel, quoted, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.<br /> + Johnson, Sir William, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.<br /> + Jones, John Paul, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>-<a href="#Page_206">206</a>; + bibliography, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.<br /> + </div> + <h3>K</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + Kalb, Baron de, part in Revolutionary War, + <a href="#Page_173">173</a>-<a href="#Page_174">174</a>; + killed, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.<br /> + Kaskaskia (IL), Clark at <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.<br /> + <ins title="Transcriber's Note: Corrected Kenneth Square to Kennett Square."> + Kennett Square (PA),</ins> British camp at, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.<br /> + Keppel, Admiral, and London riots, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.<br /> + King's Mountain (SC), battle of, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>-<a href="#Page_222">222</a>.<br /> + Knox, Henry,Washington values service of, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, + <a href="#Page_171">171</a>-<a href="#Page_172">172</a>.<br /> + Knyphausen, General, and Howe, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>; + at the Brandywine, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>; + effective service, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>-<a href="#Page_180">180</a>.<br /> + Kosciuszko, in American army, <a href="#Page_173">173</a><br /> + </div> + <h3>L</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + Lafayette, Marquis de, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, + <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>; + and Washington, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, + <a href="#Page_169">169</a>; + and independence of America, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>; + personal characteristics, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>-<a href="#Page_170">170</a>; + volunteers through Deane's influence, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>; + with Lee at Monmouth Court House, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>-<a href="#Page_199">199</a>; + sent to France (1779), <a href="#Page_210">210</a>; + as interpreter for Washington and Rochambeau, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>; + in Virginia, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>-<a href="#Page_252">252</a>.<br /> + Lansdowne, Marquis of, <i>see</i> Shelburne, Lord.<br /> + Laurens, Henry, on American Commission, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.<br /> + Lauzun, Duc de, with French army in America, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>-<a href="#Page_232">232</a>, + <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.<br /> + Laval-Montmorency, French officer in America, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.<br /> + Lee, Arthur, on commission to Paris, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.<br /> + Lee, General Charles, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>; + Washington writes to, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>; + at Fort Washington, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>; + disobeys Washington, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>-<a href="#Page_99">99</a>; + letter to Gates, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>; captured, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>; + and Howe, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>-<a href="#Page_113">113</a>; + freed by exchange of prisoners, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>; + personal characteristics, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>; + and training of recruits, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>; + at Monmouth Court House, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>-<a href="#Page_199">199</a>; + court-martialed, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>; + suspended, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>; + dismissed from army, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.<br /> + Lee. R.H., and Declaration of Independence, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.<br /> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">290</a></span> + Lee, Fort (NJ) <a href="#Page_96">96</a>; Washington at, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>; + falls to British, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.<br /> + Leicester, Lord , costly residence at Holkham, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.<br /> + Lexington (MA), Battle of, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.<br /> + Lincoln, Abraham, quoted, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>; + and Declaration of Independence, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, + <a href="#Page_77">77</a>-<a href="#Page_78">78</a>.<br /> + Lincoln, General Benjamin, at Ticonderoga, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>; + southern campaign, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, + <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>. <br /> + Long Island (NY),battle of, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>-<a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.<br /> + Loyalists, Howe and Pennsylvania, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>; + plundering, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>; + in South, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>-<a href="#Page_213">213</a>; + Clinton's proclamation to, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>; + decline in strength, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>; + punishments, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>-<a href="#Page_226">226</a>; + Test Acts, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>; + question of compensation of, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>; + gather in New York to claim British protection, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>; + bibliography, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.<br /> + Luzerne, French minister, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>.<br /> + </div> + <h3>M</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + McCrae, Jennie, carried off by Indians, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.<br /> + McNeil, Mrs., carried off by Indians, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.<br /> + Maine, Arnold's expedition, + <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.<br /> + Marie Antoinette, Queen, zeal for liberal ideas, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>; + Fersen friend of, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>. <br /> + Marion, Francis, guerrilla leader, + <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.<br /> + Marlborough, Duke of, costly residence, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.<br /> + Martha's Vineyard (MA), Loyalist refugees plunder, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.<br /> + Maryland, and independence, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>; + Howe plans to secure control of, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.<br /> + Massachusetts, Suffolk County defies England, + <a href="#Page_28">28</a>-<a href="#Page_29">29</a>; + North and constitution of, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>; + list of Loyalists, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.<br /> + Minorca returned to Spain, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.<br /> + Mirabeau, French officer in America, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.<br /> + Mississippi River becomes western frontier of United States, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.<br /> + Monmouth Court House (NJ), battle of, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>-<a href="#Page_199">199</a>; + Lee at, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.<br /> + Montgomery, General Richard, expedition to Canada, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>; + at Quebec, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>-<a href="#Page_46">46</a>; + death, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>-<a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.<br /> + Montreal, Montgomery enters, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>; + Commission sent to, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>; + evacuated, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>; + St. Leger reaches, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.<br /> + Morgan, Captain Daniel, at Quebec, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>; + with Greene, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>; + at Cowpens, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.<br /> + Morris, Gouveneur, opinion of Congress, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.<br /> + Morristown (NJ), American headquarters at, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, + <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.<br /> + Moultrie, Fort (SC), battle at, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.<br /> + Mount Vernon (VA), Washington's estate, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, + <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.<br /> + Murray, Mrs., saves Putnam's army, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.<br /> + </div> + <h3>N</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + Narragansett Bay (RI), British blockade French fleet in, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.<br /> + Navy, American, Jones and, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>-<a href="#Page_206">206</a>; + need for supremacy, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.<br /> + Necessity, Fort (PA), surrender of, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.<br /> + New Bedford (MA), Loyalists burn, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.<br /> + New England, question of leader from, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>; + and Washington, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>; + character of people, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>; + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">291</a></span> + equality in, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>; on independence, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>; + revolutionary, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>; + and Indians, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>; + and Burgoyne, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>; + States jealous of, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>-<a href="#Page_165">165</a>. <br /> + New Hampshire offers bounty for Indian scalps, + <a href="#Page_137">137</a>-<a href="#Page_138">138</a>.<br /> + New Jersey, Washington's flight across, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, + <a href="#Page_100">100</a>; + Lee retreats to, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>; loyalty, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>; + Howe's proclamation, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>; + Washington recovers, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>; + Howe moves across, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>; + Clinton crosses, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.<br /> + New York, on independence, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>; + Howe's proclamation, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>; + Howe's plan to hold, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>; + acquires Loyalist lands, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.<br /> + New York City (NY), on side of Revolution, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>; + Washington plans to hold, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>-<a href="#Page_38">38</a>; + loss of, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a> <i>et seq.</i>, + <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>; + statue of King destroyed, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>; + burned, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>-<a href="#Page_95">95</a>; + Washington plans march to, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>; + for naval defence, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>; + Loyalists take refuge in, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>; + French army moves toward, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>; + Washington returns to, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>; + Washington bids farewell to army at, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.<br /> + Newgate jail burned, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.<br /> + Newport (RI), Lord Howe's fleet at, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>; + British hold, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>; + French fleet sails into, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>; + French army leaves, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.<br /> + Noailles, Vicomte de, on foot from Newport to Yorktown, + <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.<br /> + Norfolk (VA), destroyed, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.<br /> + North, Lord, Prime Minister, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>-<a href="#Page_64">64</a>, + <a href="#Page_190">190</a>-<a href="#Page_191">191</a>; + George III writes to, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>; + seeks to retire, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>; + and news of Yorktown, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>; + resigns, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>.<br /> + North Carolina, and independence, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>; + campaign in, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>-<a href="#Page_251">251</a>.<br /> + Northwest, United States retains, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.<br /> + Nova Scotia, Washington's belief of sympathy in, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>; + Loyalists go to, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.<br /> + </div> + <h3>O</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + Ogg, F.A. <i>The Old Northwest</i>, cited, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.<br /> + Oriskany (NY), battle of, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>. <br /> + </div> + <h3>P</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + Paine, Thomas, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>; + <i>Common Sense</i>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.<br /> + Palliser, Sir Hugh, and British naval quarrel, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>,<br /> + Panther, Wyandot chief, shows scalp of Miss McCrae, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.<br /> + Parker, Admiral Sir Peter, before Fort Moultrie, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>-<a href="#Page_83">83</a>.<br /> + Pennsylvania, and independence, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>; loyalty, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>; + Howe plans to secure control of, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>; + <q>Black Lists</q> of Loyalists, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.<br /> + Percy, Earl, opinion of rebels in America, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.<br /> + Petersburg (VA), Arnold at, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.<br /> + Philadelphia (PA), second Continental Congress at, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, + <a href="#Page_7">7</a>-<a href="#Page_9">9</a>; + Washington sets out from, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>; + on side of Revolution, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>; + Paine in, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>; + Howe plans to secure, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>; + loss of, <a href="#Page_108">108</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>; + Howe leaves, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>; + Mischianza in, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>-<a href="#Page_195">195</a>; + British abandon, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>; + Loyalists hanged in, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>; + Arnold in command at, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>; + French army reviewed in, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>-<a href="#Page_258">258</a>.<br /> + Pigot, General, at Newport, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> + Pitt, William, <i>see</i> Chatham, Earl of.<br /> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">292</a></span> + Politics, <i>see</i> England.<br /> + Prescott, Colonel, at Bunker Hill, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;<br /> + Preston, Major, British officer at St. Johns, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.<br /> + Prevost, General Augustine, at Charleston, + <a href="#Page_213">213</a>-<a href="#Page_214">214</a>.<br /> + Prices, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.<br /> + Princeton (NJ), Cornwallis at, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.<br /> + Prisons, British prison-ships, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>; + London riots, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.<br /> + Privateers, checked at Newport, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>; + France and, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.<br /> + Providence (RI), Greene and Sullivan at, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> + Putnam, Israel, at Bunker Hill, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>,<a href="#Page_6">6</a>; + leaves New York, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.<br /> + </div> + <h3>Q</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + Quebec (QC), Arnold and Montgomery before, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>-<a href="#Page_46">46</a>, + <a href="#Page_49">49</a>-<a href="#Page_50">50</a>, + <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, + <a href="#Page_238">238</a>; + Morgan at, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.<br /> + Quebec Act, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>-<a href="#Page_39">39</a>, + <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.<br /> + </div> + <h3>R</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + Rahl, Colonel, at Trenton, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>; killed, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.<br /> + Rawdon, Lord Francis, at Bunker Hill, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>; + at Camden, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.<br /> + Reed, Joseph, charge against Arnold, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.<br /> + Revolutionary War, bibliography, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>-<a href="#Page_278">278</a>.<br /> + Rhode Island, British control, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>; + Washington's campaign against, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>-<a href="#Page_202">202</a>; + British evacuate, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.<br /> + Richmond, Duke of, opinion of Revolution, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br /> + Richmond (VA), Arnold burns, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.<br /> + Riedesel, General, at Lake Champlain, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>; + effective service to British, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>-<a href="#Page_180">180</a>.<br /> + Riedesel, Baroness, reports conditions in New England, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.<br /> + Rochambeau, Comte de, leader of French army in America, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>-<a href="#Page_231">231</a>; + idea of naval supremacy, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>; + and Washington, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>; + on American situation (1781), <a href="#Page_246">246</a>; + goes to Yorktown, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>; + in Virginia, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.<br /> + Rockingham, Marquis of, Prime Minister, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>.<br /> + Rodney, Admiral, arrives in America, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>; + captures St. Eustatius, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>; + captures Grasse, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.<br /> + Russia, British endeavor to get troops in, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>; + Armed Neutrality, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.<br /> + </div> + <h3>S</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + St. Clair, General Arthur, at Fort Ticonderoga, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.<br /> + St. Eustacius, captured by Rodney, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.<br /> + St. Johns, Montgomery captures, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.<br /> + St. Leger, General Barry, at Fort Stanwix, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>-<a href="#Page_134">134</a>; + at Oriskany, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>-<a href="#Page_136">136</a>.<br /> + Saint-Simon, French officer in America, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.<br /> + Sandy Hook (NY), French fleet at, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> + Saratoga (NY), Burgoyne at, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, + <a href="#Page_143">143</a>; + Burgoyne's surrender, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, + <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, + <a href="#Page_143">143</a>-<a href="#Page_147">147</a>, + <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>; + Arnold at, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>; + Morgan at, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.<br /> + Savannah (GA), British land at, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.<br /> + Savile, Sir George, opinion of the Revolution, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br /> + Schuyler, General Philip, goes to Canada by way of Lake Champlain, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>; + Gates supersedes, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.<br /> + <i>Serapis</i> (ship), Jones captures, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> + Shelburne, Lord, Prime minister, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>.<br /> + Shippen, Margaret, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>; + marries Arnold, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.<br /> + Simcoe, General J.G., with Clinton at Charleston, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>; + Governor of Upper Canada, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.<br /> + Skinner, C. L., <i>Pioneers of the Old Southwest</i>, cited <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.<br /> + Slavery, Washington as a slave-owner, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.<br /> + Slave-trade, Declaration of Independence makes King responsible for, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.<br /> + South, war in the, <a href="#Page_211">211</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> + South Carolina, neutrality proposed, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>; + British control, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.<br /> + Spain, against England, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, + <a href="#Page_203">203</a>-<a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>; + navy, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>; and Gibraltar, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>; + and peace treaty, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.<br /> + Stamp Act, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, + <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.<br /> + Stanwix (NY), Fort, St. Leger before, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>-<a href="#Page_134">134</a>.<br /> + Staten Island (NY), Howe on, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, + <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.<br /> + States, Congress and, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.<br /> + Steuben, Baron von, service in Revolution, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>-<a href="#Page_175">175</a>; + in Virginia, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.<br /> + Stillwater (NY), American camp at, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>; + Burgoyne attacks Gates at, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>-<a href="#Page_143">143</a>; + Burgoyne's defeat, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>. <br /> + Stirling, Lord, prisoner, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.<br /> + Stony Point (NY), <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.<br /> + Stuart, Gilbert, and Washington, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.<br /> + Sullivan, General John, takes prisoner at battle of Long Island, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>; + sent by Howe to interview Congress, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>; + exchanged, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>; at Morristown, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>; + and Washington, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>-<a href="#Page_111">111</a>; + at Germantown, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>; + at Providence, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> + Sumter, Thomas, guerrilla leader, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.<br /> + Sweden, Armed Neutrality, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.<br /> + </div> + <h3>T</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + Talleyrand, French officer in America, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.<br /> + Tarleton, Colonel Banastre, raids, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>; + at Camden, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>-<a href="#Page_220">220</a>; + and Marion, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>; + King's Mountain, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>; + takes Charlottesville (VA), <a href="#Page_252">252</a>-<a href="#Page_253">253</a>; + in Yorktown, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>; and Cornwallis, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.<br /> + <i>Terrible</i> (ship), <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.<br /> + Test Acts, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.<br /> + Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant), <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.<br /> + Thomas, General, on Plains of Abraham, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.<br /> + Thompson, General, attacks Three River, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.<br /> + Three Rivers (QC), attack on, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.<br /> + Throg's Neck (NY), Howe at, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.<br /> + Ticonderoga (NY), Fort, captured by Allen, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>-<a href="#Page_40">40</a>, + <a href="#Page_42">42</a>; + Arnold retreats to, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>; + Burgoyne lays siege to, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>-<a href="#Page_127">127</a>; + Lincoln besieges, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.<br /> + Tories, plundering of, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>; <i>see also</i> Loyalists.<br /> + Toronto (ON), Loyalists in, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.<br /> + Transportation, need of military engineers for, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.<br /> + Trenton (NJ), Howe at, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>; + attack on, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>-<a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>; + Greene at, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.<br /> + Tryon, Governor of New York, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>.<br /> + </div> + <h3>V</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + Valley Forge (PA) Washington at, <a href="#Page_148">148</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + Washington leaves, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.<br /> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">294</a></span> + Vergennes, French Foreign Minister, 182-183, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, + <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.<br /> + Vincennes, Clark at, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.<br /> + Virginia, choice of a commander from, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>; + state of society, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>-<a href="#Page_20">20</a>, + <a href="#Page_32">32</a>-<a href="#Page_33">33</a>; + on independence, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>; + Convention changes church service, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>; + Burgoyne's force in, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>; + covets lands in Northwest, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>; + Steuben in, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>; + Cornwallis in, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.<br /> + <i>Vulture</i> (sloop of war), <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, + <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.<br /> + </div> + <h3>W</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + Walpole, Horace <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, + <a href="#Page_73">73</a>-<a href="#Page_74">74</a>; + Gates godson of, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>; quoted, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.<br /> + Ward, General Artemus, and siege of Boston, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.<br /> + Washington, George, at second Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, + <a href="#Page_259">259</a>; + champion of colonial cause, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>-<a href="#Page_2">2</a>, + <a href="#Page_23">23</a>-<a href="#Page_24">24</a>, + <a href="#Page_59">59</a>; + chosen Commander-in-Chief, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>-<a href="#Page_9">9</a>; + journey to Boston, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>-<a href="#Page_11">11</a>; + personal characteristics, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, + <a href="#Page_13">13</a>-<a href="#Page_16">16</a>, + <a href="#Page_109">109</a>; + life, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>; as a landowner, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>; + education, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>; + contrasted with English country gentlemen, + <a href="#Page_17">17</a>-<a href="#Page_20">20</a>; + wealth; <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>; + as a farmer, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>-<a href="#Page_21">21</a>; + a slave-owner, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>; + with Braddock, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>-<a href="#Page_23">23</a>; + opinion of George III, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>; + not a professional soldier, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>; + reorganizes army, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>-<a href="#Page_35">35</a>; + favors conscription, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>; + at Boston, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>; plans against Canada, + <a href="#Page_40">40</a>-<a href="#Page_43">43</a>; + mourns Montgomery, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>; + hated of British, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>-<a href="#Page_58">58</a>; + Coke and, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>; + advocates independence, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>; + headquarters in New York, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>; + Howe's letter to, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>-<a href="#Page_87">87</a>; + at Brooklyn Heights, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>-<a href="#Page_91">91</a>; + exposed to enemy in New York, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>; + and Congress, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, + <a href="#Page_163">163</a>-<a href="#Page_164">164</a>; + Lee and, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>-<a href="#Page_21">99</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>; + retreats across New Jersey, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>; + attack upon Trenton, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>-<a href="#Page_107">107</a>, + <a href="#Page_109">109</a>; + on Howe's dilatoriness, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>; + in New Jersey, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>; + and Sullivan, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>; + policy toward Loyalists, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>; + on plundering, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>; need of maps, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>; + and Howe, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>-<a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, + <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>; + and Burgoyne, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>; at the Brandywine, + <a href="#Page_118">118</a>-<a href="#Page_119">119</a>; + Germantown, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>-<a href="#Page_122">122</a>; + at Valley Forge, <a href="#Page_148">148</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + religion, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>; + relations with staff, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>-<a href="#Page_161">168</a>; + as military leader, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>; volunteers come to, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>; + distrustful of France, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>-<a href="#Page_189">189</a>; + celebrates French alliance, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>; + army occupies Philadelphia, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>; + follows Clinton across New Jersey, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>-<a href="#Page_198">198</a>; + Monmouth Court House, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>; + despair of, 1779-1780, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>-<a href="#Page_209">209</a>; + guards Hudson, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>-<a href="#Page_210">210</a>; + French under, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>; + opinion of Tories, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>; + and Rochambeau, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, + <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>; + reprimands Arnold, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>-<a href="#Page_240">240</a>; + and Andre, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>; + plan differs from French, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>; + march to Yorktown, <a href="#Page_255">255</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + and Carleton, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>; + believes self-interest dominant in politics, + <a href="#Page_271">271</a>-<a href="#Page_272">272</a>; + bids farewell to army, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>; + gives up command, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>; + at Mount Vernon, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>; + influences upon future, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>-<a href="#Page_276">276</a>; + bibliography, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>.<br /> + Washington, Fort (NY), held by Americans, + <a href="#Page_96">96</a>-<a href="#Page_97">97</a>; + British take, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.<br /> + West Indies, conquests restored, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.<br /> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">295</a></span> + West Point (NY), fortification, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, + <a href="#Page_237">237</a>-<a href="#Page_238">238</a>; + Arnold in command, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>; + plot to surrender, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>-<a href="#Page_244">244</a>.<br /> + White Plains (NY), battle of, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.<br /> + Wight, Isle of, plan to seize, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> + Wilkes, John, introduces bill into Parliament, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.<br /> + Wilmington (NC), British fleet reaches, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>; + Cornwallis in, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.<br /> + Winslow, Edward, quoted, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.<br /> + Wyoming (PA) massacre, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.<br /> + </div> + <h3>Y</h3> + <div class="letterdate"> + York (PA), Congress at, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.<br /> + Yorktown, Cornwallis surrenders at, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, + <a href="#Page_247">247</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> + </div> + <hr class="main" /> + <div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2><a href="#Contents">The Chronicles of America Series</a></h2> + <ol style="list-style-type:decimal; font-size:small; margin-left:8%;"> + <li>The Red Man's Continent<br /> by Ellsworth Huntington</li> + <li>The Spanish Conquerors<br /> by Irving Berdine Richman</li> + <li>Elizabethan Sea-Dogs<br /> by William Charles Henry Wood</li> + <li>The Crusaders of New France<br /> by William Bennett Munro</li> + <li>Pioneers of the Old South<br /> by Mary Johnson</li> + <li>The Fathers of New England<br /> by Charles McLean Andrews</li> + <li>Dutch and English on the Hudson<br /> by Maud Wilder Goodwin</li> + <li>The Quaker Colonies<br /> by Sydney George Fisher</li> + <li>Colonial Folkways<br /> by Charles McLean Andrews</li> + <li>The Conquest of New France<br /> by George McKinnon Wrong</li> + <li>The Eve of the Revolution<br /> by Carl Lotus Becker</li> + <li>Washington and His Comrades in Arms<br /> by George McKinnon Wrong</li> + <li>The Fathers of the Constitution<br /> by Max Farrand</li> + <li>Washington and His Colleagues<br /> by Henry Jones Ford</li> + <li>Jefferson and his Colleagues<br /> by Allen Johnson</li> + <li>John Marshall and the Constitution<br /> by Edward Samuel Corwin</li> + <li>The Fight for a Free Sea<br /> by Ralph Delahaye Paine</li> + <li>Pioneers of the Old Southwest<br /> by Constance Lindsay Skinner</li> + <li>The Old Northwest<br /> by Frederic Austin Ogg</li> + <li>The Reign of Andrew Jackson<br /> by Frederic Austin Ogg</li> + <li>The Paths of Inland Commerce<br /> by Archer Butler Hulbert</li> + <li>Adventurers of Oregon<br /> by Constance Lindsay Skinner</li> + <li>The Spanish Borderlands<br /> by Herbert E. Bolton</li> + <li>Texas and the Mexican War<br /> by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson</li> + <li>The Forty-Niners<br /> by Stewart Edward White</li> + <li>The Passing of the Frontier<br /> by Emerson Hough</li> + <li>The Cotton Kingdom<br /> by William E. Dodd</li> + <li>The Anti-Slavery Crusade<br /> by Jesse Macy</li> + <li>Abraham Lincoln and the Union<br /> by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson</li> + <li>The Day of the Confederacy<br /> by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson</li> + <li>Captains of the Civil War<br /> by William Charles Henry Wood</li> + <li>The Sequel of Appomattox<br /> by Walter Lynwood Fleming</li> + <li>The American Spirit in Education<br /> by Edwin E. Slosson</li> + <li>The American Spirit in Literature<br /> by Bliss Perry</li> + <li>Our Foreigners<br /> by Samuel Peter Orth</li> + <li>The Old Merchant Marine<br /> by Ralph Delahaye Paine</li> + <li>The Age of Invention<br /> by Holland Thompson</li> + <li>The Railroad Builders<br /> by John Moody</li> + <li>The Age of Big Business<br /> by Burton Jesse Hendrick</li> + <li>The Armies of Labor<br /> by Samuel Peter Orth</li> + <li>The Masters of Capital<br /> by John Moody</li> + <li>The New South<br /> by Holland Thompson</li> + <li>The Boss and the Machine<br /> by Samuel Peter Orth</li> + <li>The Cleveland Era<br /> by Henry Jones Ford</li> + <li>The Agrarian Crusade<br /> by Solon Justus Buck</li> + <li>The Path of Empire<br /> by Carl Russell Fish</li> + <li>Theodore Roosevelt and His Times<br /> by Harold Howland</li> + <li>Woodrow Wilson and the World War<br /> by Charles Seymour</li> + <li>The Canadian Dominion<br /> by Oscar D. Skelton</li> + <li>The Hispanic Nations of the New World<br /> by William R. Shepherd</li> + </ol> + <hr class="main" /> + <div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2><a href="#Contents">Transcriber Notes</a></h2> + + <p class="letter1">This document was transcribed from the <i>Abraham + Lincoln Edition</i> of Volume 12 of the Chronicles of America series, but + more closely matches the <i>Textbook Edition</i>. The <i>Abraham Lincoln</i> + edition has eight pages of photos and two maps depicting the northern and + southern campaigns of The Revolutionary War. The <i>Textbook Edition</i> + of <i>The Chronicles of America</i> series omits the illustrations available + in the <i>Abraham Lincoln Edition</i>. The illustrations have not been + scanned in, so consider this book the equivalent of the <i>Textbook + Edition</i>. We have also transcribed the index and added hyperlinks to + the pages for ease of use. You will not see the page numbers in epub + or Kindle books, but the anchors should still remain.<br /> + <br /> + <a href="#Page_289">P289</a> - The author misspelled Kennett Square, PA. + The mushroom capital of the world was the home of Hall of Fame baseball + pitcher Herb Pennock, who was in the starting rotation for the Boston Red + Sox when this book was written, but not yet a star. Pennock earned his + Hall of Fame stripes starting for the Murderer's Row Yankees. The + left-handed pitcher was nick-named <i>The Knight of Kennett Square</i> + because his descendants migrated with William Penn. The author spelled + the town Kenneth Square. + </p> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following +the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use +of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for +copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very +easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation +of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project +Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away—you may +do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected +by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark +license, especially commercial redistribution. +</div> + +<div style='margin-top:1em; font-size:1.1em; text-align:center'>START: FULL LICENSE</div> +<div style='text-align:center;font-size:0.9em'>THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE</div> +<div style='text-align:center;font-size:0.9em'>PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person +or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the +Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when +you share it without charge with others. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country other than the United States. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work +on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: +</div> + +<blockquote> + <div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most + other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions + whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms + of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online + at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you + are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws + of the country where you are located before using this eBook. + </div> +</blockquote> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg™ License. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format +other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain +Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +provided that: +</div> + +<div style='margin-left:0.7em;'> + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation.” + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ + works. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works. + </div> +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of +the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set +forth in Section 3 below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™ +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, +Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up +to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website +and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread +public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state +visit <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/donate/">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Most people start at our website which has the main PG search +facility: <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. +</div> + +</div> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..363272d --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #2704 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2704) diff --git a/old/2009-01-04-2704-h.zip b/old/2009-01-04-2704-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8cc4343 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/2009-01-04-2704-h.zip diff --git a/old/2009-01-04-2704.zip b/old/2009-01-04-2704.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..981c5eb --- /dev/null +++ b/old/2009-01-04-2704.zip diff --git a/old/2704-8.txt b/old/2704-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..795bd72 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/2704-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6770 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Washington and his Comrades in Arms, by George Wrong + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost +no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use +it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this +eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Washington and his Comrades in Arms + A Chronicle of the War of Independence + +Author: George Wrong + +Posting Date: January 10, 2009 [EBook #2704] +Release Date: July, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: windows-1252 + + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES +*** + + + + +Produced by Dianne Bean, The James J. Kelly Library Of St. Gregory's +University; Alev Akman, David Widger, and Robert J. Homa + + + + +Washington and His Comrades in Arms By George M. Wrong A Chronicle of +the War of Independence + +Volume 12 of the Chronicles of America Series + +Allen Johnson, Editor Assistant Editors Gerhard R. Lomer Charles W. +Jefferys + +Abraham Lincoln Edition + +New Haven: Yale University Press Toronto: Glasgow, Brook & Co. London: +Humphrey Milford Oxford University Press 1921 + +Copyright, 1921 by Yale University Press + + + +PREFATORY NOTE + + +The author is aware of a certain audacity in undertaking, himself a +Briton, to appear in a company of American writers on American history +and above all to write on the subject of Washington. If excuse is needed +it is to be found in the special interest of the career of Washington to +a citizen of the British Commonwealth of Nations at the present time and +in the urgency with which the editor and publishers declared that such +an interpretation would not be unwelcome to Americans and pressed upon +the author a task for which he doubted his own qualifications. To the +editor he owes thanks for wise criticism. He is also indebted to Mr. +Worthington Chauncey Ford, of the Massachusetts Historical Society, a +great authority on Washington, who has kindly read the proofs and given +helpful comments. Needless to say the author alone is responsible for +opinions in the book. University of Toronto, June 15, 1920. + + +Contents + + Washington and his Comrades in Arms + + Chapter Chapter Title Page + Prefatory Note vii + I. The Commander-In-Chief 1 + II. Boston and Quebec 27 + III. Independence 54 + IV. The Loss of New York 81 + V. The Loss of Philadelphia 108 + VI. The First Great British Disaster 123 + VII. Washington and his Comrades at Valley Forge 148 + VIII. The Alliance with France and its Results 182 + IX. The War in the South 211 + X. France to the Rescue 230 + XI. Yorktown 247 + Bibliographical Note 277 + Index 283 + + + +WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES IN ARMS + + + +CHAPTER I. THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF + +Moving among the members of the second Continental 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 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 +disputes about buying British stamps to put on American 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 inhabitants 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 colonies 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 Boston 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 diversion 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 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 batteries lying off +the shore. In the dark the American force of twelve hundred men under +Colonel Prescott marched to this neck of land and then advanced 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 commanded 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 +certain that when he liked he could, with his disciplined battalions, +brush away the besieging army. Now he saw the American force on Breed's +Hill throwing up a defiant and menacing redoubt and entrenchments. Gage +did not hesitate. The bold aggressors must be driven away at once. He +detailed 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 +sometimes 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 +charge against men helpless with empty rifles. This expectation was +disappointed. The Americans had in front of them a barricade and Israel +Putnam was there, threatening dire things to any one who should 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 uniforms, 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 they were more cautious. They began to work round to the weaker +defenses of the American left, where were no redoubts and entrenchments +like those on the right. By this time British ships were throwing shells +among the Americans. Charlestown was burning. The great column of black +smoke, the incessant roar of cannon, and the dreadful 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 floating 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 victorious 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 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 decided 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. Virginia, +next to Massachusetts, had stood in the forefront of the movement, and +Virginia was fortunate in having in the Congress one whose fame as a +soldier ran through all the colonies. There was something to be said for +choosing a commander from the colony which began the struggle and Adams +knew that his colleague from Massachusetts, John Hancock, 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 Hancock'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 he +had seen important service in the war with France. His position and +character commanded universal aspect. 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 +national 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 were traveling in +foreign lands, the strange manners and customs of the other colonies. +The journey, 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 Jersey, 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 his +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 years 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, 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 ownership 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 Declaration 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 attached 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 like 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 hogsheads 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 English. 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 repairing a hairpin for a ward. +He was a keen farmer, and it is amusing to find him recording in his +careful journal that there are 844,800 seeds of "New River Grass" to the +pound Troy and so determining 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 +Behaviour in Company and Conversation." In the 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 revelation +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 sometimes," 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 better 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 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 decision 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, Dinwiddie, who thought his vehemence unmannerly and +ungrateful. Gilbert Stuart, who painted several 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 lighter +than it really was. No doubt many of the rich aristocracy spent idle +days of pleasure-seeking with the comfortable conviction that they could +discharge 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 slavery, 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 +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 century 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 today 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 nothing 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 staggered at a residence +costing millions of dollars. Yet the Duke of Devonshire rivaled at +Chatsworth, and Lord Leicester at Holkham, Marlborough's building +at Blenheim, and many other costly palaces were erected during the +following 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 elaborate +furniture, of servants in livery, and much drinking of Port and Madeira, +among the Virginians. 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 country where one great landowner, Lord Fairfax, held 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 +infertile estate of Mount Vernon would hardly grow enough to pay +the taxes. When Washington desired a gardener, or a bricklayer, or a +carpenter, 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 Washington, 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 necessary. 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 regarded as +unfortunate accidents to be explained away in an era of good feeling +when each side 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 outside 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 discontented 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 +contempt for the amateur soldiers of whom Washington was one. In a wild +country where rapid movement was the condition of success Braddock would +halt, as Washington said, "to level every mole hill and to erect bridges +over every brook." His transport 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 Virginia. "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 resentment 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 +a 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 formal resolution on July 18, 1774, that they were descended +not from a conquered but from a conquering 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 walking +in what was to them the hard path of duty, Washington could say later +that "there never existed a more miserable set of beings than these +wretched creatures." + +The age of Washington was one of bitter vehemence 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 teaching 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 Washington 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, instead 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 +coercing of the colonies so resolutely pressed by George III and his +ministers. Posterity can also, however, understand that the struggle was +not between undiluted virtue on the one side and undiluted vice on the +other. Some eighty years after the American Revolution the Republic +created by the Revolution endured the horrors of civil war rather than +accept its own disruption. In 1776 even the most liberal Englishmen felt +a similar passion for 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 companies +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 Washington now saw it, expressed +the varied character 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 structures 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. In the +warm summer weather this did not much matter but bleak autumn and harsh +winter would bring bitter privation. The sick in particular suffered +severely, for the hospitals were badly equipped. + +A deep conviction inspired many of the volunteers. They regarded as +brutal tyranny the tax on tea, considered in England as a mild expedient +for raising needed revenue for defense in the colonies. The men of +Suffolk County, Massachusetts, meeting in September, 1774, had declared +in high-flown terms that the proposed tax came from a parricide 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 Lincoln, in a noble utterance which touched the heart of +humanity, could appeal to the days of the Revolution, when "our fathers +brought forth on this continent 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 Englander was a trader by instinct. An army had come +suddenly together and there was golden promise of contracts for supplies +at fat profits. 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 arts," 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 were +hunters from the frontier wearing the buckskin of the deer they had +slain. Sometimes there was clothing of grimmer material. Later in the +war in 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 sprinkling of lads of sixteen. +An observer laughed at the boys and the "great great grandfathers" who +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 +disparity 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 air from childhood. Most of the men supplied their +own uniform and rifles and much barter went on in the hours after +drill. The men made and 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 +unchanging conviction, and they and he saved the revolution. 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 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 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 conscription, even in free +Virginia. He had then found quite ineffective the "whooping, holloing +gentlemen soldiers" of the volunteer force of the colony 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 Cambridge 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 as to remain +supine during the process. But probably 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 Americans soon had privateers manned by seamen familiar with New +England waters and happy in expected gains from prize money. The British +were anxious about the elementary problem of food. They might have made +Washington more uncomfortable by forays and alarms. Only reluctantly, +however, did Howe, who took over the command on October 10, 1775, admit +to himself that this was a real 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 creation 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 in British hands. New +York, Philadelphia, Charleston 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 commanded no great waterway leading +inland. The sprawling colonies, from the rock-bound coast of New England +to the 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 increasing +difficulties from transport and supplies. Wherever 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 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 endured, however, of fear +of Canada. When, in 1774, the British Parliament passed the bill for the +government 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 under 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 extension 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 regarded 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 +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; +discipline was slack, for there was nothing to do. 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 Virginians or New Yorkers. They had been recently conquered +by Britain; their new king was a tyrant; they would desire liberty and +would welcome an American army. So reasoned Washington, but without +knowledge. The Canadians were a conquered people, but they had found +the British king no tyrant 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 corruption +and tyranny almost unbelievable. The Canadian peasant had been cruelly +robbed and he had conceived for his French rulers a dislike which +appears still in his attitude towards the motherland of France. For +his new British master he had assuredly 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 underestimated, 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 +Catholic Church of bigotry, persecution, murder, and rebellion. This was +no very tactful appeal for sympathy to the sons of that France which was +still the eldest daughter of the Church and it was hardly helped by +a maladroit turn suggesting that "low-minded infirmities" should not +permit such differences to block union in the sacred cause of liberty. +Washington believed that two battalions of Canadians 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 was 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 Maine 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 +sovereign. 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 distemper." No better were the men from New York, "the sweepings of +the streets" with morals "infamous." Of the officers, too, Montgomery +had a poor opinion. Like Washington he declared that it was necessary to +get gentlemen, men of education 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 competent 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 advance +through the wilderness from the seacoast of Maine and take Quebec by +surprise. News travels even by forest pathways. Arnold made a wonderful +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 Chaudire, which +discharges into the St. Lawrence opposite Quebec. There were heavy +rains. Sometimes the men had to wade breast high in dragging heavy +and leaking boats over the difficult places. A good many men died of +starvation. Others deserted and turned back. The indomitable Arnold +pressed on, however, and on the 9th of November, a few days before +Montgomery occupied 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 Quebec, 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 threats by Carleton's contempt, but never could he draw +from Carleton a reply. 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 attack from the west side of the +fortress. The advance 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 assailants not swept +down fled in panic. With the morning light the dead head of Montgomery +was found protruding from the snow. He was mourned by Washington and +with reason. He had talents and character which might have made him one +of 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 Boston. 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 +commanded Boston as critically from the south as did Bunker Hill from +the north. By the end of February 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 Dorchester Heights and +that if he would dislodge them he must make another attack similar +to that at Bunker Hill. The alternative of stiff fighting was the +evacuation of Boston. Howe, though dilatory, 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 powerful +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 +decided 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 +critic 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 masts, +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. If 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 from 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 sometimes used +violence. Then the Canadians became more reserved and chilling than +ever. In hope of mending matters Congress sent a commission to Montreal +in the spring of 1776. Its chairman was Benjamin Franklin and, with him, +were two leading Roman Catholics, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a +great landowner of Maryland, and his brother John, a priest, afterwards +Archbishop 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 arrived 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 Americans 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. + +Congress sent six regiments to reinforce the army which had fled from +Quebec. It was a desperate 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 attacked 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 annihilated. 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 together 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 into 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 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 afloat on Lake Champlain. Arnold, too, spent the summer 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 delayed 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 Ticonderoga. 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 Lake Champlain to the +Americans. + + +CHAPTER III. INDEPENDENCE + +Well-meaning people in England found it difficult to understand the +intensity of feeling in America. Britain had piled up a huge debt in +driving France from America. Landowners were paying in taxes no less +than twenty per cent of their incomes from land. The people who had +chiefly benefited by the humiliation of France were the colonists, +now freed from hostile menace and secure for extension over a whole +continent. Why should not they pay some share of the cost of their own +security? Certain facts tended to make Englishmen indignant with the +Americans. Every effort had failed to get them to pay willingly for +their defense. Before the Stamp Act had become law in 1765 the colonies +were given a whole year to devise the raising of money in any way which +they liked better. The burden of what was asked would be light. Why +should not they agree to bear it? Why this talk, repeated by the Whigs +in the British Parliament, of brutal tyranny, oppression, hired minions +imposing slavery, and so on. Where were the oppressed? Could any one +point to a single person who before war broke out had known British +tyranny? What suffering could any one point to as the result of the tax +on tea? The people of England paid a tax on tea four times heavier than +that paid in America. Was not the British Parliament supreme over the +whole Empire? Did not the colonies themselves admit that it had the +right to control their trade overseas? And if men shirk their duty +should they not come under some law of compulsion? + +It was thus that many a plain man reasoned in England. The plain man in +America had his own opposing point of view. Debts and taxes in England +were not his concern. He remembered the recent war as vividly as did the +Englishman, and, if the English paid its cost in gold, he had paid his +share in blood and tears. Who made up the armies led by the British +generals in America? More than half the total number who served in +America came from the colonies, the colonies which had barely a third +of the population of Great Britain. True, Britain paid the bill in money +but why not? She was rich with a vast accumulated capital. The war, +partly in America, had given her the key to the wealth of India. Look +at the magnificence, the pomp of servants, plate and pictures, the parks +and gardens, of hundreds of English country houses, and compare this +opulence with the simple mode of life, simplicity imposed by necessity, +of a country gentleman like George Washington of Virginia, reputed to be +the richest man in America. Thousands of tenants in England, owning no +acre of land, were making a larger income than was possible in America +to any owner of broad acres. It was true that America had gained from +the late war. The foreign enemy had been struck down. But had he not +been struck down too for England? Had there not been far more dread in +England of invasion by France and had not the colonies by helping to +ruin France freed England as much as England had freed them? If now the +colonies were asked to pay a share of the bill for the British army that +was a matter for discussion. They had never before done it and they +must not be told that they had to meet the demand within a year or be +compelled to pay. Was it not to impose tyranny and slavery to tell +a people that their property would be taken by force if they did not +choose to give it? What free man would not rather die than yield on such +a point? + +The familiar workings of modern democracy have taught us that a great +political issue must be discussed in broad terms of high praise or +severe blame. The contestants will exaggerate both the virtue of +the side they espouse and the malignity of the opposing side; nice +discrimination is not possible. It was inevitable that the dispute with +the colonies should arouse angry vehemence on both sides. The passionate +speech of Patrick Henry in Virginia, in 1763, which made him famous, +and was the forerunner of his later appeal, "Give me Liberty or give me +Death," related to so prosaic a question as the right of disallowance +by England of an act passed by a colonial legislature, a right +exercised long and often before that time and to this day a part of the +constitutional machinery of the British Empire. Few men have lived more +serenely poised than Washington, yet, as we have seen, he hated the +British with an implacable hatred. He was a humane man. In earlier +years, Indian raids on the farmers of Virginia had stirred him to +"deadly sorrow," and later, during his retreat from New York, he was +moved by the cries of the weak and infirm. Yet the same man felt no +touch of pity for the Loyalists of the Revolution. To him they were +detestable parricides, vile traitors, with no right to live. When we +find this note in Washington, in America, we hardly wonder that the +high Tory, Samuel Johnson, in England, should write that the proposed +taxation was no tyranny, that it had not been imposed earlier because +"we do not put a calf into the plough; we wait till he is an ox," and +that the Americans were "a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful +for anything which we allow them short of hanging." Tyranny and treason +are both ugly things. Washington believed that he was fighting the one, +Johnson that he was fighting the other, and neither side would admit the +charge against itself. + +Such are the passions aroused by civil strife. We need not now, when +they are, or ought to be, dead, spend any time in deploring them. It +suffices to explain them and the events to which they led. There was +one and really only one final issue. Were the American colonies free to +govern themselves as they liked or might their government in the last +analysis be regulated by Great Britain? The truth is that the colonies +had reached a condition in which they regarded themselves as British +states with their own parliaments, exercising complete jurisdiction in +their own affairs. They intended to use their own judgment and they were +as restless under attempted control from England as England would have +been under control from America. We can indeed always understand the +point of view of Washington if we reverse the position and imagine what +an Englishman would have thought of a claim by America to tax him. + +An ancient and proud society is reluctant to change. After a long and +successful war England was prosperous. To her now came riches from India +and the ends of the earth. In society there was such lavish expenditure +that Horace Walpole declared an income of twenty thousand pounds a year +was barely enough. England had an aristocracy the proudest in the world, +for it had not only rank but wealth. The English people were certain of +the invincible superiority of their nation. Every Englishman was taught, +as Disraeli said of a later period, to believe that he occupied a +position better than any one else of his own degree in any other country +in the world. The merchant in England was believed to surpass all others +in wealth and integrity, the manufacturer to have no rivals in skill, +the British sailor to stand in a class by himself, the British officer +to express the last word in chivalry. It followed, of course, that the +motherland was superior to her children overseas. The colonies had no +aristocracy, no great landowners living in stately palaces. They had +almost no manufactures. They had no imposing state system with places +and pensions from which the fortunate might reap a harvest of ten or +even twenty thousand pounds a year. They had no ancient universities +thronged by gilded youth who, if noble, might secure degrees without the +trying ceremony of an examination. They had no Established Church with +the ancient glories of its cathedrals. In all America there was not even +a bishop. In spite of these contrasts the English Whigs insisted upon +the political equality with themselves of the American colonists. The +Tory squire, however, shared Samuel Johnson's view that colonists were +either traders or farmers and that colonial shopkeeping society was +vulgar and contemptible. + +George III was ill-fitted by nature to deal with the crisis. The King +was not wholly without natural parts, for his own firm will had +achieved what earlier kings had tried and failed to do; he had mastered +Parliament, made it his obedient tool and himself for a time a despot. +He had some admirable virtues. He was a family man, the father of +fifteen children. He liked quiet amusements and had wholesome tastes. If +industry and belief in his own aims could of themselves make a man +great we might reverence George. He wrote once to Lord North: "I have no +object but to be of use: if that is ensured I am completely happy." +The King was always busy. Ceaseless industry does not, however, include +every virtue, or the author of all evil would rank high in goodness. +Wisdom must be the pilot of good intentions. George was not wise. He was +ill-educated. He had never traveled. He had no power to see the point of +view of others. + +As if nature had not sufficiently handicapped George for a high part, +fate placed him on the throne at the immature age of twenty-two. +Henceforth the boy was master, not pupil. Great nobles and obsequious +prelates did him reverence. Ignorant and obstinate, the young King was +determined not only to reign but to rule, in spite of the new doctrine +that Parliament, not the King, carried on the affairs of government +through the leader of the majority in the House of Commons, already +known as the Prime Minister. George could not really change what was the +last expression of political forces in England. The rule of Parliament +had come to stay. Through it and it alone could the realm be governed. +This power, however, though it could not be destroyed, might be +controlled. Parliament, while retaining all its privileges, might yet +carry out the wishes of the sovereign. The King might be his own Prime +Minister. The thing could be done if the King's friends held a majority +of the seats and would do what their master directed. It was a dark day +for England when a king found that he could play off one faction against +another, buy a majority in Parliament, and retain it either by paying +with guineas or with posts and dignities which the bought Parliament +left in his gift. This corruption it was which ruined the first British +Empire. + +We need not doubt that George thought it his right and also his duty to +coerce America, or rather, as he said, the clamorous minority which was +trying to force rebellion. He showed no lack of sincerity. On October +26, 1775, while Washington was besieging Boston, he opened Parliament +with a speech which at any rate made the issue clear enough. Britain +would not give up colonies which she had founded with severe toil and +nursed with great kindness. Her army and her navy, both now increased +in size, would make her power respected. She would not, however, deal +harshly with her erring children. Royal mercy would be shown to those +who admitted their error and they need not come to England to secure it. +Persons in America would be authorized to grant pardons and furnish the +guarantees which would proceed from the royal clemency. + +Such was the magnanimity of George III. Washington's rage at the tone of +the speech is almost amusing in its vehemence. He, with a mind conscious +of rectitude and sacrifice in a great cause, to ask pardon for his +course! He to bend the knee to this tyrant overseas! Washington himself +was not highly gifted with imagination. He never realized the strength +of the forces in England arrayed on his own side and attributed to the +English, as a whole, sinister and malignant designs always condemned by +the great mass of the English people. They, no less than the Americans, +were the victims of a turn in politics which, for a brief period, and +for only a brief period, left power in the hands of a corrupt Parliament +and a corrupting king. + +Ministers were not all corrupt or place-hunters. One of them, the +Earl of Dartmouth, was a saint in spirit. Lord North, the king's chief +minister, was not corrupt. He disliked his office and wished to leave +it. In truth no sweeping simplicity of condemnation will include all the +ministers of George III except on this one point that they allowed to +dictate their policy a narrow-minded and ignorant king. It was their +right to furnish a policy and to exercise the powers of government, +appoint to office, spend the public revenues. Instead they let the King +say that the opinions of his ministers had no avail with him. If we ask +why, the answer is that there was a mixture of motives. North stayed in +office because the King appealed to his loyalty, a plea hard to resist +under an ancient monarchy. Others stayed from love of power or for what +they could get. In that golden age of patronage it was possible for a +man to hold a plurality of offices which would bring to himself many +thousands of pounds a year, and also to secure the reversion of offices +and pensions to his children. Horace Walpole spent a long life in +luxurious ease because of offices with high pay and few duties secured +in the distant days of his father's political power. Contracts to supply +the army and the navy went to friends of the government, sometimes +with disastrous results, since the contractor often knew nothing of +the business he undertook. When, in 1777, the Admiralty boasted that +thirty-five ships of war were ready to put to sea it was found that +there were in fact only six. The system nearly ruined the navy. It +actually happened that planks of a man-of-war fell out through rot and +that she sank. Often ropes and spars could not be had when most needed. +When a public loan was floated the King's friends and they alone were +given the shares at a price which enabled them to make large profits on +the stock market. + +The system could endure only as long as the King's friends had a +majority in the House of Commons. Elections must be looked after. The +King must have those on whom he could always depend. He controlled +offices and pensions. With these things he bought members and he had to +keep them bought by repeating the benefits. If the holder of a public +office was thought to be dying the King was already naming to his Prime +Minister the person to whom the office must go when death should occur. +He insisted that many posts previously granted for life should now be +given during his pleasure so that he might dismiss the holders at will. +He watched the words and the votes in Parliament of public men and woe +to those in his power if they displeased him. When he knew that Fox, +his great antagonist, would be absent from Parliament he pressed through +measures which Fox would have opposed. It was not until George III was +King that the buying and selling of boroughs became common. The King +bought votes in the boroughs by paying high prices for trifles. He +even went over the lists of voters and had names of servants of the +government inserted if this seemed needed to make a majority secure. +One of the most unedifying scenes in English history is that of George +making a purchase in a shop at Windsor and because of this patronage +asking for the shopkeeper's support in a local election. The King was +saving and penurious in his habits that he might have the more money to +buy votes. When he had no money left he would go to Parliament and +ask for a special grant for his needs and the bought members could not +refuse the money for their buying. + +The people of England knew that Parliament was corrupt. But how to end +the system? The press was not free. Some of it the government bought +and the rest it tried to intimidate though often happily in vain. Only +fragments of the debates in Parliament were published. Not until 1779 +did the House of Commons admit the public to its galleries. No great +political meetings were allowed until just before the American war and +in any case the masses had no votes. The great landowners had in their +control a majority of the constituencies. There were scores of pocket +boroughs in which their nominees were as certain of election as peers +were of their seats in the House of Lords. The disease of England +was deep-seated. A wise king could do much, but while George III +survived--and his reign lasted sixty years--there was no hope of a wise +king. A strong minister could impose his will on the King. But only time +and circumstance could evolve a strong minister. Time and circumstance +at length produced the younger Pitt. But it needed the tragedy of two +long wars--those against the colonies and revolutionary France--before +the nation finally threw off the system which permitted the personal +rule of George III and caused the disruption of the Empire. It may thus +be said with some truth that George Washington was instrumental in the +salvation of England. + +The ministers of George III loved the sports, the rivalries, the ease, +the remoteness of their rural magnificence. Perverse fashion kept them +in London even in April and May for "the season," just 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 important 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 +Germain, 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. Germain 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 they 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 "perfectly justifiable in every possible political and moral +sense." All the world knows that Chatham 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 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. 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 +theologian, 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. + +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 taxation and he +understood Washington. The American 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 +independence. 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 +spasmodic declarations of independence were made here and there by local +bodies. When Congress 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 belligerents 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 sinister--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 +unwilling 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 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 Philadelphia 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 men, weak men, prejudiced men, moderate men who do not really +know Europe, may urge reconciliation, 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 to be forgiven. 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 hundred thousand copies were quickly sold and it brought decision +to many wavering minds. + +In the first days of 1776 independence had become 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 settlement, and +at last Virginia, in this as in so many other things taking the +lead, instructed its delegates to urge a declaration by Congress of +independence. 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 referred to a committee of which John Adams and Thomas Jefferson +were members. It is interesting 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 Independence. Adams related +long after that he and Jefferson formed the sub-committee to draft the +Declaration and that he urged Jefferson to undertake the task since "you +can write ten times better 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. "I 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 beginning 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 Lincoln. 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 "Flights 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 "introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies." 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 had 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 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 reverence +of a document which became a classic utterance 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 government 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 formal Declaration of Independence. The members did 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. It was a momentous occasion and +was understood to be such. The vote seems to have been reached in the +late afternoon. Anxious citizens were waiting 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 Declaration 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. 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 +Virginia. Washington had no illusions of security. He was anxious above +all for the safety of New York, commanding the vital artery of the +Hudson, which must at all costs be defended. Accordingly, 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 America. One of these we have already seen at +Quebec. 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 expeditions was to strike +at New York and, by a show of strength, bring the colonists to reason +and reconciliation. If mildness failed the British intended to capture +New York, sail up the Hudson and cut off New England from the other +colonies. + +The squadron destined 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 men under +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. Admiral Sir Peter Parker commanded the fleet, and 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 Parker drew off, with +two hundred and twenty-five casualties against an American loss of +thirty-seven. The check was greater than that of Bunker 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," one of them testified. Only one of Parker's ten +ships was seaworthy after the fight. It took him three weeks to refit, +and not until the 4th of August did his defeated ships reach New York. + +A mighty armada of seven hundred ships had 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 +Parliament for Nottingham and had publicly condemned the quarrel with +America 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, however, affects action. Howe had no belief that his +country was in the right in the war and this handicapped him as against +the passionate conviction of Washington that all was at stake which made +life worth living. + +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 by 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 Howe 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, however, 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 was a fighting sailor. Nearly twenty +years later, on June 1, 1794, when he was in command 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 in the annals of the +sea. + +By the middle of July the two brothers were at New York. The soldier, +having waited at Halifax 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 addressed in +civilian style as "George Washington Esq." The King and his ministers +had no imagination to call up the picture of high-hearted men fighting +for rights which they held dear. Trevelyan, American Revolution, Part +II, vol. I (New Ed., vol. II), 261. + +Lord Howe went so far as to address a letter to "George Washington Esq. +&c. &c.," and Washington agreed to an interview with the officer who +bore it. In imposing uniform and with the stateliest manner, Washington, +who had an instinct for effect, received the envoy. The awed messenger +explained that the symbols "&c. &c." meant everything, 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 Congress +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 +mainland 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 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 thousand well-trained soldiers, and +he could, in addition, 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 Washington was likely only +to qualify defeat. He was advised to destroy New York and retire to +positions more tenable. But even if he had so desired, Congress, his +master, would not permit him to 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 the city untenable. Accordingly Washington +placed half his force on Long Island to defend Brooklyn Heights and +in doing so made the fundamental error of cutting his army in two and +dividing it by an arm of the sea in presence of overwhelming hostile +naval power. + +On the 22d of August Howe ferried fifteen thousand men across the +Narrows to Long Island, in order to attack the position on Brooklyn +Heights from the rear. Before him lay wooded hills across which led +three roads converging at Brooklyn 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 overwhelming odds, had lost nearly +two thousand men in casualties and prisoners, six field pieces, and +twenty-six heavy guns. The two chief commanders, Sullivan 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 marsh three miles long. When he realized, on the 28th of +August, what Howe had achieved, he increased the defenders of Brooklyn +Heights to ten thousand men, more than half his army. This was another +cardinal error. British ships were near and but for unfavorable winds +might have sailed up to Brooklyn. Washington hoped and prayed that 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 move away or face the danger of losing every man on Long +Island. + +On the night of the 29th of August there was clear moonlight, with fog +towards daybreak. A British army of twenty-five thousand men was only +some six hundred yards from the American lines. A few miles from the +shore lay at anchor a great British fleet with, it is to be presumed, +its patrols on the alert. Yet, during that night, ten thousand American +troops were marched down to boats on the strand at Brooklyn and, with +all their stores, were carried across a mile of water to New York. There +must have been the splash of oars 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 of 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 British fleet +might have brought panic to the Americans 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 asking 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, withdrawn 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 performed this +maneuver as soon as they had a favorable wind. There was, we know, great +confusion in New York, and Washington tells us how his 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 an envoy to make peace. The British +victory on Long Island might, he thought, make Congress more willing to +negotiate. So now he sent to Philadelphia 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 Americans had the British quality +of becoming more 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 Congress seems to have thought that Howe was +planning treachery. John Adams, excepted by name from British offers of +pardon, called Sullivan a "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 stalwart Adams and the suave +Franklin were willing to be members of a committee which went to meet +Lord Howe. With great sorrow Howe now realized 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 regiments 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. + +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, invited 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 York soon took fire and one-third of the +little city was burned. + +After the fall of New York there followed a complex 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 together. 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 +autumn 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 +still on Long Island in ships which then sailed through the dangerous +currents of Hell Gate and landed at Throg's Neck, a peninsula on the +sound across from Long Island. Washington parried this movement by so +guarding the narrow neck of the peninsula leading to the mainland 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 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 retreat, +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, on the whole Washington's best +general, was in command 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 +hundred, but they took the huge fort with its three thousand defenders +and a great quantity of munitions of war. Howe's threat was not carried +out. There was no massacre. + +Across the river at Fort Lee the helpless Washington watched this great +disaster. He had need still to look out, for Fort Lee was itself doomed. +On the nineteenth Lord Cornwallis with five thousand men crossed the +river five miles above Fort Lee. General Greene barely escaped with +the two thousand men in the fort, leaving behind one hundred 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 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, Horatio 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 +thousand 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 received 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. He seems deliberately to have left Washington to face complete +disaster and thus prove his incompetence; then, as the undefeated +general, he could take the 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 rle. 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 bestride 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 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 Sullivan 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 Philadelphia 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 issued 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. Philadelphia 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 despatch: "My center is giving way; my right is retreating; 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 probably 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 +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 Trenton, but this, as +Washington well knew, had not been done for Rahl despised his enemy and +spoke of the American army as already lost. Washington'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 Bordentown below Trenton, +the second at Trenton itself. These two attacks were designed to prevent +aid to Trenton. The third force with which Washington himself 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 boatmen +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 daybreak. 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 the more on the bayonet. He attacked Trenton in broad +daylight. There was a sharp fight. 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, however, 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 victory. +Now, instead, he was sent to drive back Washington. It was no easy task +for Cornwallis to reach Trenton, for Washington's scouting 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 reoccupied Trenton. +This time Washington had not recrossed 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 Cornwallis. That night he sharply cannonaded Washington'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 +compliment 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 history 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. Instead of taking the obvious course of again +retreating across the Delaware Washington decided to advance, to get +in behind Cornwallis, to try to cut his communications, to threaten the +British base 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, Washington'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 entrenchments. The fires +died down towards morning and the British awoke to find the enemy camp +deserted. 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 reinforcements coming to Cornwallis. He reached +Princeton and then slipped away northward and made his headquarters at +Morristown. He had achieved his purpose. The British with Washington +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 exception of some minor +positions near the sea. He had 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. + + + +CHAPTER V. THE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIA + + +Though the outlook for Washington was brightened by his success in New +Jersey, it was still depressing 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 prosecution of the war in America. These numbers were in fact +never reached, but the army of forty thousand in America was formidable +compared with Washington'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. + +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, Washington, in view of his own depleted force, in a +state of half famine, wrote: "If Howe does not take advantage 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 combination in action which was the +first condition of final success. He could have captured Philadelphia +in May. He took the city, but not until September, when to hold it had +become a liability and not 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 a low ebb. He had always the faith that +a cause founded on justice 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 interests 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 tomorrow 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 constantly 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 concealed, 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 service 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. 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 he to +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 coperate 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 recently +captured, and Lee, as we know, told him 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 prevent 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 coperate with +Burgoyne. First, however, he was resolved to have Philadelphia. +Washington watched Howe in perplexity. A great fleet and a great army +lay at New York. Why did they not move? Washington knew perfectly well +what he himself would have done in Howe's place. He would have attacked +rapidly in April the weak American army and, after destroying 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 +overwhelming 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 +saying that the fleet was about to sail for Boston. All these things +took time and the summer was slipping away. In the 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? Washington +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 Knyphausen, 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 sedition 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 hundred and twenty-nine ships set their sails +and covered the sea for miles. When they had disappeared out of sight +of the New Jersey shore their goal was still unknown. At sea they might +turn in any direction. Washington's uncertainty 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 hovering 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 intended 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 +of August, when the net was closing on Burgoyne, Howe was three hundred +miles away. His disregard 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 obstructions commanded by +bristling forts. The naval officers said truly that the fleet could not +get up the river. 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 Chesapeake Bay there was little to prevent +him from landing his army on the Delaware side of the peninsula and +marching across it. By sea it is a voyage 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 when a 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 of fighting he showed himself formidable. +When he had landed at Elkton he was fifty miles southwest of +Philadelphia and between him and that place was Washington with his +army. Washington was determined to delay Howe in every possible way. +To get to Philadelphia Howe had to cross the Brandywine River. Time was +nothing to him. He landed at Elkton on the 25th of August. Not until the +10th of September was he prepared to attack Washington barring his way +at Chadd's Ford. Washington was in a strong position on a front of two +miles on the river. At his left, below Chadd's Ford, the Brandywine is +a torrent flowing between high cliffs. There the British would find no +passage. On his right was a forest. Washington had chosen his position +with his usual skill. Entrenchments protected his front and batteries +would sweep down an advancing enemy. He had probably not more than +eleven thousand men in the fight and it is doubtful whether Howe brought +up a greater number so that the armies were not unevenly matched. At +daybreak on the eleventh the British army broke camp at the village +of Kenneth Square, four miles from Chadd's Ford, and, under General +Knyphausen, marched straight to make a frontal attack on Washington's +position. + +In the battle which followed Washington was beaten by the superior +tactics of his enemy. Not all of the British army was there in the +attack at Chadd's Ford. A column under Cornwallis had filed off by a +road to the left and was making a long and rapid march. The plan was to +cross the Brandywine some ten miles above where Washington was +posted and to attack him in the rear. By two o'clock in the afternoon +Cornwallis had forced the two branches of the upper Brandywine and was +marching on Dilworth at the right rear of the American army. Only then +did Washington become aware of his danger. His first impulse was to +advance across Chadd's Ford to try to overwhelm Knyphausen and thus +to get between Howe and the fleet at Elkton. This might, however, have +brought disaster and he soon decided to retire. His movement was ably +carried out. Both sides suffered in the woodland fighting but that night +the British army encamped in Washington's position at Chadd's Ford, and +Howe had fought skillfully and won an important battle. + +Washington had retired in good order and was still formidable. He now +realized clearly enough that Philadelphia would fall. Delay, however, +would be nearly as good as victory. He saw what Howe could not see, that +menacing cloud in the north, much bigger than a man's hand, which, with +Howe far away, should break in a final storm terrible for the British +cause. Meanwhile Washington meant to keep Howe occupied. Rain alone +prevented another battle before the British reached the Schuylkill +River. On that river Washington guarded every ford. But, in the end, +by skillful maneuvering, Howe was able to cross and on the 26th of +September he occupied Philadelphia without resistance. The people were +ordered to remain quietly in their houses. Officers were billeted on the +wealthier inhabitants. The fall resounded far of what Lord Adam Gordon +called a "great and 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 condemned 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 renewed their oath of allegiance to the King. +Washington complained that the people gave Howe information denied to +him. They certainly fed 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 Philadelphia 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 carried 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 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 brigade +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 + + +John 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 Christian, who, in spite of +many faults, had never forgotten 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 certain that a tailor stands with his +feet on the neck of the King of France. The decks of captured ships swim +with punch and are clotted with gold dust, and happy soldiers play +with diamonds as if they were marbles. The senators of England, 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 expected, 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 do 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 colonies had fought in alliance with the painted +and befeathered savages and had made no protest. Now either times had +changed, or there was something in a civil war which made the use of +savages 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 country. 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 to land 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. +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 commanding 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 necessity. He abandoned the untenable +forts and retired 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 +III of the fall of Fort Ticonderoga. The place had been much discussed. +It had been the first British 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 heartburning 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 depression 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 harassing 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 two 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 +equipment 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 England, 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 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 Edward 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 instructions 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 way 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 Bennington 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 +Germans 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 of allegiance, slipped round to +his rear and in the morning he was attacked from front and rear. + +A hot fight followed which resulted in the complete defeat of the +British. Baum was mortally wounded. Some of his men escaped into the +woods; the rest were killed or captured. Nor was this all. Burgoyne, +scenting danger, had ordered five hundred more Germans to reinforce +Baum. They, too, were attacked and overwhelmed. In all Burgoyne lost +some eight hundred men and four guns. The American loss was seventy. +It shows the spirit of the time that, for the sport of the soldiers, +British prisoners were tied together in pairs and driven by negroes +at the tail of horses. An 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 and mounted him on a horse also without +the left eye, in derision at the captive's misfortune. The British +complained that quarter was refused in the fight. For days tired +stragglers, after long wandering in the woods, drifted into Burgoyne's +camp. This was now near Saratoga, a name destined to be ominous in the +history of the British army. + +Further misfortune now crowded upon Burgoyne. The general of that day +had two favorite 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 British 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 Americans. With him were two men deemed potent in that +scene. One of these was Sir John Johnson who had recently inherited +the vast estate in the neighborhood of his father, the great Indian +Superintendent, Sir William Johnson, and was now in command of a +regiment recruited from Loyalists, many of them fierce and embittered +because of the seizure of their property. The other leader was a famous +chief of the Mohawks, Thayendanegea, or, to give him his English name, +Joseph Brant, half savage still, but also half civilized and half +educated, because he had had a careful schooling and for a brief day had +been courted by London fashion. He exerted a formidable influence with +his own people. The Indians were not, however, all on one side. Half of +the six tribes of the Iroquois were either neutral or in sympathy with +the Americans. Among the savages, as among the civilized, the war was a +family quarrel, in which brother fought brother. Most of the Indians on +the American side preserved, indeed, an outward neutrality. There was +no hostile population for them to plunder and the Indian usually had no +stomach for any other kind of warfare. The allies of the British, on the +other hand, had plenty of openings to their taste and they brought on +the British cause an enduring discredit. + +When St. Leger was before Fort Stanwix he heard that a force of eight +hundred men, led by a German settler named Herkimer, was coming up +against him. When it was at Oriskany, about six miles away, St. Leger +laid a trap. He sent Brant with some hundreds of Indians and a few +soldiers to be concealed in a marshy ravine which Herkimer must cross. +When the American force was hemmed in by trees and marsh on the narrow +causeway of logs running across the ravine the Indians attacked with +wild yells and murderous fire. Then followed a bloody hand to hand +fight. Tradition has been busy with its horrors. Men struggled in slime +and blood and shouted curses and defiance. Improbable stories are told +of pairs of skeletons found afterwards in the bog each with a bony +hand which had driven a knife to the heart of the other. In the end the +British, met by resolution so fierce, drew back. Meanwhile a sortie +from the American fort on their rear had a menacing success. Sir John +Johnson's camp was taken and sacked. The two sides were at last glad to +separate, after the most bloody struggle in the whole war. St. Leger's +Indians had had more than enough. About a hundred had been killed and +the rest were in a state of mutiny. Soon it was known that Benedict +Arnold, with a considerable force, was pushing up the Mohawk Valley to +relieve the American fort. Arnold knew how to deal with savages. He took +care that his friendly Indians should come into contact with those of +Brant and tell lurid tales of utter disaster to Burgoyne and of a great +avenging army on the march to attack St. Leger. The result was that St. +Leger's Indians broke out in riot and maddened themselves with stolen +rum. Disorder affected even the soldiers. The only thing for St. Leger +to do was to get away. He abandoned his guns and stores and, harassed +now by his former Indian allies, made his way to Oswego and in the end +reached Montreal with a remnant of his force. + +News of these things came to Burgoyne just after the disaster at +Bennington. Since Fort Stanwix was in a country counted upon as Loyalist +at heart it was especially discouraging again to find that in the main +the population was against the British. During the war almost without +exception Loyalist opinion proved weak against the fierce determination +of the American side. It was partly a matter of organization. The +vigilance committees in each State made life well-nigh intolerable to +suspected Tories. Above all, however, the British had to bear the odium +which attaches always to the invader. We do not know what an American +army would have done if, with Iroquois savages as allies, it had made +war in an English county. We know what loathing a parallel situation +aroused against the British army in America. The Indians, it should be +noted, were not soldiers under British discipline but allies; the chiefs +regarded themselves as equals who must be consulted and not as enlisted +to take orders from a British general. + +In war, as in politics, nice balancing of merit or defect in an enemy +would destroy the main purpose which is to defeat him. Each side +exaggerates any weak point in the other in order to stimulate the +fighting passions. Judgment is distorted. The Baroness Riedesel, the +wife of one of Burgoyne's generals, who was in Boston in 1777, says that +the people were all dressed alike in a peasant costume with a leather +strap round the waist, that they were of very low and insignificant +stature, and that only one in ten of them could read or write. She +pictures New Englanders as tarring and feathering cultivated English +ladies. When educated people believed every evil of the enemy the +ignorant had no restraint to their credulity. New England had long +regarded the native savages as a pest. In 1776 New Hampshire offered +seventy pounds for each scalp of a hostile male Indian and thirty-seven +pounds and ten shillings for each scalp of a woman or of a child under +twelve years of age. Now it was reported that the British were offering +bounties for American scalps. Benjamin Franklin satirized British +ignorance when he described whales leaping Niagara Falls and he did not +expect to be taken seriously when, at a later date, he pictured George +III as gloating over the scalps of his subjects in America. The Seneca +Indians alone, wrote Franklin, sent to the King many bales of scalps. +Some bales were captured by the Americans and they found the scalps of +43 soldiers, 297 farmers, some of them burned alive, and 67 old people, +88 women, 193 boys, 211 girls, 29 infants, and others unclassified. +Exact figures bring conviction. Franklin was not wanting in exactness +nor did he fail, albeit it was unwittingly, to intensify burning +resentment of which we have echoes still. Burgoyne had to bear the odium +of the outrages by Indians. It is amusing to us, though it was hardly so +to this kindly man, to find these words put into his mouth by a colonial +poet: + + I will let loose the dogs of Hell, + Ten thousand Indians who shall yell, + And foam, and tear, and grin, and roar + And drench their moccasins in gore: + I swear, by St. George and St. Paul, + I will exterminate you all. + +Such seed, falling on soil prepared by the hate of war, brought forth +its deadly fruit. The Americans believed that there was no brutality +from which British officers would shrink. Burgoyne had told his Indian +allies that they must not kill except in actual fighting and that there +must be no slaughter of non-combatants and no scalping of any but the +dead. The warning delivered him into the hands of his enemies for it +showed that he half expected outrage. Members of the British House of +Commons were no whit behind the Americans in attacking him. Burke amused +the House by his satire on Burgoyne's words: "My gentle lions, my humane +bears, my tender-hearted hyenas, go forth! But I exhort you, as you are +Christians and members of civilized society, to take care not to hurt +any man, woman, or child." Burke's great speech lasted for three and +a half hours and Sir George Savile called it "the greatest triumph of +eloquence within memory." British officers disliked their dirty, greasy, +noisy allies and Burgoyne found his use of savages, with the futile +order to be merciful, a potent factor in his defeat. + +A horrifying incident had occurred while he was fighting his way to +the Hudson. As the Americans were preparing to leave Fort Edward some +marauding Indians saw a chance of plunder and outrage. They burst into a +house and carried off two ladies, both of them British in sympathy--Mrs. +McNeil, a cousin of one of Burgoyne's chief officers, General Fraser, +and Miss Jeannie McCrae, whose betrothed, a Mr. Jones, and whose brother +were serving with Burgoyne. In a short time Mrs. McNeil was handed over +unhurt to Burgoyne's advancing army. Miss McCrae was never again seen +alive by her friends. Her body was found and a Wyandot chief, known as +the Panther, showed her scalp as a trophy. Burgoyne would have been a +poor creature had he not shown anger at such a crime, even if committed +against the enemy. This crime, however, was committed against his own +friends. He pressed the charge against the chief and was prepared to +hang him and only relaxed when it was urged that the execution would +cause all his Indians to leave him and to commit further outrages. The +incident was appealing in its tragedy and stirred the deep anger of the +population of the surrounding country among whose descendants to this +day the tradition of the abandoned brutality of the British keeps alive +the old hatred. + +At Fort Edward Burgoyne now found that he could hardly move. He was +encumbered by an enormous baggage train. His own effects filled, it is +said, thirty wagons and this we can believe when we find that champagne +was served at his table up almost to the day of final disaster. The +population was thoroughly aroused against him. His own instinct was +to remain near the water route to Canada and make sure of his +communications. On the other hand, honor called him to go forward and +not fail Howe, supposed to be advancing to meet him. For a long time he +waited and hesitated. Meanwhile he was having increasing difficulty in +feeding his army and through sickness and desertion his numbers were +declining. By the 13th of September he had taken a decisive step. He +made a bridge of boats and moved his whole force across the river to +Saratoga, now Schuylerville. This crossing of the river would result +inevitably in cutting off his communications with Lake George and +Ticonderoga. After such a step he could not go back and he was moving +forward into a dark unknown. The American camp was at Stillwater, twelve +miles farther down the river. Burgoyne sent messenger after messenger +to get past the American lines and bring back news of Howe. Not one +of these unfortunate spies returned. Most of them were caught and +ignominiously hanged. One thing, however, Burgoyne could do. He could +hazard a fight and on this he decided as the autumn was closing in. + +Burgoyne had no time to lose, once his force was on the west bank of the +Hudson. General Lincoln cut off his communications with Canada and was +soon laying siege to Ticonderoga. The American army facing Burgoyne was +now commanded by General Gates. This Englishman, the godson of Horace +Walpole, had gained by successful intrigue powerful support in Congress. +That body was always paying too much heed to local claims and jealousies +and on the 2d of August it removed Schuyler of New York because he was +disliked by the soldiers from New England and gave the command to Gates. +Washington was far away maneuvering to meet Howe and he was never able +to watch closely the campaign in the north. Gates, indeed, +considered himself independent of Washington and reported not to the +Commander-in-Chief but direct to Congress. On the 19th of September +Burgoyne attacked Gates in a strong entrenched position on Bemis +Heights, at Stillwater. There was a long and bitter fight, but by +evening Burgoyne had not carried the main position and had lost more +than five hundred men whom he could ill spare from his scanty numbers. + +Burgoyne's condition was now growing desperate. American forces barred +retreat to Canada. He must go back and meet both frontal and flank +attacks, or go forward, or surrender. To go forward now had most +promise, for at last Howe had instructed Clinton, left in command at New +York, to move, and Clinton was making rapid progress up the Hudson. On +the 7th of October Burgoyne attacked again at Stillwater. This time he +was decisively defeated, a result due to the amazing energy in attack +of Benedict Arnold, who had been stripped of his command by an intrigue. +Gates would not even speak to him and his lingering in the American camp +was unwelcome. Yet as a volunteer Arnold charged the British line madly +and broke it. Burgoyne's best general, Fraser, was killed in the fight. +Burgoyne retired to Saratoga and there at last faced the prospects of +getting back to Fort Edward and to Canada. It may be that he could have +cut his way through, but this is doubtful. Without risk of destruction +he could not move in any direction. His enemies now outnumbered him +nearly four to one. His camp was swept by the American guns and his +men were under arms night and day. American sharpshooters stationed +themselves at daybreak in trees about the British camp and any one +who appeared in the open risked his life. If a cap was held up in view +instantly two or three balls would pass through it. His horses were +killed by rifle shots. Burgoyne had little food for his men and none for +his horses. His Indians had long since gone off in dudgeon. Many of +his Canadian French slipped off homeward and so did the Loyalists. The +German troops were naturally dispirited. A British officer tells of the +deadly homesickness of these poor men. They would gather in groups of +two dozen or so and mourn that they would never again see their native +land. They died, a score at a time, of no other disease than sickness +for their homes. They could have no pride in trying to save a lost +cause. Burgoyne was surrounded and, on the 17th of October, he was +obliged to surrender. + +Gates proposed to Burgoyne hard terms--surrender with no honors of war. +The British were to lay down their arms in their encampments and to +march out without weapons of any kind. Burgoyne declared that, rather +than accept such terms, he would fight still and take no quarter. A +shadow was falling on the path of Gates. The term of service of some of +his men had expired. The New Englanders were determined to stay and see +the end of Burgoyne but a good many of the New York troops went off. +Sickness, too, was increasing. Above all General Clinton was advancing +up the Hudson. British ships could come up freely as far as Albany and +in a few days Clinton might make a formidable advance. Gates, a timid +man, was in a hurry. He therefore agreed that the British should march +from their camp with the honors of war, that the troops should be taken +to New England, and from there to England. They must not serve again +in North America during the war but there was nothing in the terms to +prevent their serving in Europe and relieving British regiments for +service in America. Gates had the courtesy to keep his army where it +could not see the laying down of arms by Burgoyne's force. About five +thousand men, of whom sixteen hundred were Germans and only three +thousand five hundred fit for duty, surrendered to sixteen thousand +Americans. Burgoyne gave offense to German officers by saying in his +report that he might have held out longer had all his troops been +British. This is probably true but the British met with only a just +Nemesis for using soldiers who had no call of duty to serve. + +The army set out on its long march of two hundred miles to Boston. The +late autumn weather was cold, the army was badly clothed and fed, and +the discomfort of the weary route was increased by the bitter antagonism +of the inhabitants. They respected the regular British soldier but at +the Germans they shouted insults and the Loyalists they despised as +traitors. The camp at the journey's end was on the ground at Cambridge +where two years earlier Washington had trained his first army. Every day +Burgoyne expected to embark. There was delay and, at last, he knew +the reason. Congress repudiated the terms granted by Gates. A tangled +dispute followed. Washington probably had no sympathy with the quibbling +of Congress. But he had no desire to see this army return to Europe and +release there an army to serve in America. Burgoyne's force was never +sent to England. For nearly a year it lay at Boston. Then it was marched +to Virginia. The men suffered great hardships and the numbers fell by +desertion and escape. When peace came in 1783 there was no army to take +back to England; Burgoyne's soldiers had been merged into the American +people. It may well be, indeed, that descendants of his beaten men have +played an important part in building up the United States. The irony of +history is unconquerable. + + + +CHAPTER VII. WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES AT VALLEY FORGE + + +Washington had met defeat in every considerable battle at which he was +personally present. His first appearance in military history, in +the Ohio campaign against the French, twenty-two years before the +Revolution, was marked by a defeat, the surrender of Fort Necessity. +Again in the next year, when he fought to relieve the disaster to +Braddock's army, defeat was his portion. Defeat had pursued him in +the battles of the Revolution--before New York, at the Brandywine, at +Germantown. The campaign against Canada, which he himself planned, had +failed. He had lost New York and Philadelphia. But, like William III of +England, who in his long struggle with France hardly won a battle +and yet forced Louis XIV to accept his terms of peace, Washington, by +suddenness in reprisal, by skill in resource when his plans seemed +to have been shattered, grew on the hard rock of defeat the flower of +victory. + +There was never a time when Washington was not trusted by men of real +military insight or by the masses of the people. But a general who does +not win victories in the field is open to attack. By the winter of 1777 +when Washington, with his army reduced and needy, was at Valley Forge +keeping watch on Howe in Philadelphia, John Adams and others were +talking of the sin of idolatry in the worship of Washington, of its +flavor of the accursed spirit of monarchy, and of the punishment which +"the God of Heaven and Earth" must inflict for such perversity. Adams +was all against a Fabian policy and wanted to settle issues forever by a +short and strenuous war. The idol, it was being whispered, proved after +all to have feet of clay. One general, and only one, had to his credit +a really great victory--Gates, to whom Burgoyne had surrendered at +Saratoga, and there was a movement to replace Washington by this +laureled victor. + +General Conway, an Irish soldier of fortune, was one of the most +troublesome in this plot. He had served in the campaign about +Philadelphia but had been blocked in his extravagant demands for +promotion; so he turned for redress to Gates, the star in the north. A +malignant campaign followed in detraction of Washington. He had, it was +said, worn out his men by useless marches; with an army three times +as numerous as that of Howe, he had gained no victory; there was high +fighting quality in the American army if properly led, but Washington +despised the militia; a Gates or a Lee or a Conway would save the cause +as Washington could not; and so on. "Heaven has determined to save your +country or a weak general and bad counsellors would have ruined it"; so +wrote Conway to Gates and Gates allowed the letter to be seen. The words +were reported to Washington, who at once, in high dudgeon, called +Conway to account. An explosion followed. Gates both denied that he had +received a letter with the passage in question, and, at the same time, +charged that there had been tampering with his private correspondence. +He could not have it both ways. Conway was merely impudent in reply to +Washington, but Gates laid the whole matter before Congress. Washington +wrote to Gates, in reply to his denials, ironical references to "rich +treasures of knowledge and experience" "guarded with penurious reserve" +by Conway from his leaders but revealed to Gates. There was no irony in +Washington's reference to malignant detraction and mean intrigue. At +the same time he said to Gates: "My temper leads me to peace and harmony +with all men," and he deplored the internal strife which injured the +great cause. Conway soon left America. Gates lived to command another +American army and to end his career by a crowning disaster. + +Washington had now been for more than two years in the chief command and +knew his problems. It was a British tradition that standing armies were +a menace to liberty, and the tradition had gained strength in crossing +the sea. Washington would have wished a national army recruited by +Congress alone and bound to serve for the duration of the war. There +was much talk at the time of a "new model army" similar in type to the +wonderful creation of Oliver Cromwell. The Thirteen Colonies became, +however, thirteen nations. Each reserved the right to raise its own +levies in its own way. To induce men to enlist Congress was twice +handicapped. First, it had no power of taxation and could only ask the +States to provide what it needed. The second handicap was even greater. +When Congress offered bounties to those who enlisted in the Continental +army, some of the States offered higher bounties for their own levies +of militia, and one authority was bidding against the other. 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 +knowledge of the country. Another service ill-equipped was what we +should now call the Red Cross. Epidemics, and especially smallpox, +wrought havoc in the army. 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 crude. 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 hospitals 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 scandal, and much bitter invective +against British brutality is found in the literature of the period. The +British leaders, no less than Washington himself, were humane men, and +ignorance and inadequate equipment will explain most of the hardships, +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 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 uniformity 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 Washington'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 uniforms which gave them a sufficiently smart +appearance. 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. + +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 American 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's 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 American 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 ammunition +was scanty, but in time there were importations from France and also +supplies from American gun factories. The standard length of the barrel +was three and a half feet, a portentous size compared with that of the +modern weapon. The loading 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; 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 firearms. 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, however, 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 inventive spirit of America was +busy with plans to procure 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 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 with a +ramrod. A store of German Bibles in Pennsylvania 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 Washington 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 Washington 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 "continental 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 flinching, but he was at one with his men in their +sufferings, 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 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 +sometimes 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, desertion involved a double loss. On one +occasion some soldiers undertook for themselves the punishment of +deserters. Men of the First Pennsylvania Regiment 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 happened 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 and 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 Anglican 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 Washington which passed the winter so near and in acute +distress. The Pennsylvania Loyalists, with dark days soon to come, were +bitter at Howe's inactivity, 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 principle 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 no 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 Confederation were adopted. By the following midsummer 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 constitutional sanction during +the greater part of the war. + +The ineptitude of Congress is explained when we recall that it was +a revolutionary body which indeed 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 Massachusetts +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 attitude of deference +and courtesy which it did not always deserve. The ablest men in the +individual States held aloof from Congress. They felt that they had more +dignity and power if they sat in their own legislatures. The assembly +which in the first days had as members men of the type of Washington and +Franklin sank into a gathering of second-rate men who were divided into +fierce factions. They debated interminably and did little. Each member +usually felt that he must champion the interests of his own State +against the hostility of others. It was not easy to create a sense of +national life. The union was only a league of friendship. States which +for a century or more had barely acknowledged their dependence upon +Great Britain, were chary about coming under the control of a new +centralizing authority at Philadelphia. The new States were sovereign +and some of them went so far as to send envoys of their own to negotiate +with foreign powers in Europe. When it was urged that Congress should +have the power to raise taxes in the States, there were patriots who +asked sternly what the war was about if it was not to vindicate the +principle that the people of a State alone should have power of taxation +over themselves. Of New England all the other States were jealous and +they particularly disliked that proud and censorious city which already +was accused of believing that God had made Boston for Himself and all +the rest of the world for Boston. The religion of New England did not +suit the Anglicans of Virginia or the Roman Catholics of Maryland, and +there was resentful suspicion of Puritan intolerance. John Adams said +quite openly that there were no religious teachers in Philadelphia to +compare with those of Boston and naturally other colonies drew away from +the severe and rather acrid righteousness of which he was a type. + +Inefficiency meanwhile brought terrible suffering at Valley Forge, +and the horrors of that winter remain still vivid in the memory of the +American people. The army marched to Valley Forge on December 17, 1777, +and in midwinter everything from houses to entrenchments had still to be +created. At once there was busy activity in cutting down trees for the +log huts. They were built nearly square, sixteen feet by fourteen, in +rows, with the door opening on improvised streets. Since boards were +scarce, and it was difficult to make roofs rainproof, Washington tried +to stimulate ingenuity by offering a reward of one hundred dollars for +an improved method of roofing. The fireplaces of wood were protected +with thick clay. Firewood was abundant, but, with little food for oxen +and horses, men had to turn themselves into draught animals to bring in +supplies. + +Sometimes the army was for a week without meat. Many horses died for +lack of forage or of proper care, a waste which especially disturbed +Washington, a lover of horses. When quantities of clothing were ready +for use, they were not delivered at Valley Forge owing to lack of +transport. Washington expressed his contempt for officers who resigned +their commissions in face of these distresses. No one, he said, ever +heard him say a word about resignation. There were many desertions but, +on the whole, he marveled at the patience of his men and that they did +not mutiny. With a certain grim humor they chanted phrases about "no +pay, no clothes, no provisions, no rum," and sang an ode glorifying war +and Washington. Hundreds of them marched barefoot, their blood staining +the snow or the frozen ground while, at the same time, stores of shoes +and clothing were lying unused somewhere on the roads to the camp. + +Sickness raged in the army. Few men at Valley Forge, wrote Washington, +had more than a sheet, many only part of a sheet, and some nothing at +all. Hospital stores were lacking. For want of straw and blankets the +sick lay perishing on the frozen ground. When Washington had been +at Valley Forge for less than a week, he had to report nearly three +thousand men unfit for duty because of their nakedness in the bitter +winter. Then, as always, what we now call the "profiteer" was holding up +supplies for higher prices. To the British at Philadelphia, because they +paid in gold, things were furnished which were denied to Washington +at Valley Forge, and he announced that he would hang any one who +took provisions to Philadelphia. To keep his men alive Washington had +sometimes to take food by force from the inhabitants and then there was +an outcry that this was robbery. With many sick, his horses so disabled +that he could not move his artillery, and his defenses very slight, +he could have made only a weak fight had Howe attacked him. Yet the +legislature of Pennsylvania told him that, instead of lying quiet in +winter quarters, he ought to be carrying on an active campaign. In most +wars irresponsible men sitting by comfortable firesides are sure they +knew best how the thing should be done. + +The bleak hillside at Valley Forge was something more than a prison. +Washington's staff was known as his family and his relations with them +were cordial and even affectionate. The young officers faced their +hardships cheerily and gave meager dinners to which no one might go if +he was so well off as to have trousers without holes. They talked and +sang and jested about their privations. By this time many of the bad +officers, of whom Washington complained earlier, had been weeded out and +he was served by a body of devoted men. There was much good comradeship. +Partnership in suffering tends to draw men together. In the company +which gathered about Washington, two men, mere youths at the time, have +a world-wide fame. The young Alexander Hamilton, barely twenty-one years +of age, and widely known already for his political writings, had the +rank of lieutenant colonel gained for his services in the fighting about +New York. He was now Washington's confidential secretary, a position +in which he soon grew restless. His ambition was to be one of the great +military leaders of the Revolution. Before the end of the war he had +gone back to fighting and he distinguished himself in the last battle +of the war at Yorktown. The other youthful figure was the Marquis de La +Fayette. It is not without significance that a noble square bears his +name in the capital named after Washington. The two men loved each +other. The young French aristocrat, with both a great name and great +possessions, was fired in 1776, when only nineteen, with zeal for the +American cause. "With the welfare of America," he wrote to his wife, +"is closely linked the welfare of mankind." Idealists in France believed +that America was leading in the remaking of the world. When it was known +that La Fayette intended to go to fight in America, the King of France +forbade it, since France had as yet no quarrel with England. The +youth, however, chartered a ship, landed in South Carolina, hurried to +Philadelphia, and was a major general in the American army when he was +twenty years of age. + +La Fayette rendered no serious military service to the American cause. +He arrived in time to fight in the battle of the Brandywine. Washington +praised him for his bravery and military ardor and wrote to Congress +that he was sensible, discreet, and able to speak English freely. It was +with an eye to the influence in France of the name of the young noble +that Congress advanced him so rapidly. La Fayette was sincere and +generous in spirit. He had, however, little military capacity. Later +when he might have directed the course of the French Revolution he was +found wanting in force of character. The great Mirabeau tried to work +with him for the good of France, but was repelled by La Fayette's +jealous vanity, a vanity so greedy of praise that Jefferson called it a +"canine appetite for popularity and fame." La Fayette once said that +he had never had a thought with which he could reproach himself, and +he boasted that he has mastered three kings--the King of England in the +American Revolution, the King of France, and King Mob of Paris during +the upheaval in France. He was useful as a diplomatist rather than as a +soldier. Later, in an hour of deep need, Washington sent La Fayette to +France to ask for aid. He was influential at the French court and came +back with abundant promises, which were in part fulfilled. + +Washington himself and Oliver Cromwell are perhaps the only two civilian +generals in history who stand in the first rank as military leaders. +It is doubtful indeed whether it is not rather character than military +skill which gives Washington his place. Only one other general of the +Revolution attained to first rank even in secondary fame. Nathanael +Greene was of Quaker stock from Rhode Island. He was a natural student +and when trouble with the mother country was impending in 1774 he +spent the leisure which he could spare from his forges in the study of +military history and in organizing the local militia. Because of his +zeal for military service he was expelled from the Society of Friends. +In 1775 when war broke out he was promptly on hand with a contingent +from Rhode Island. In little more than a year and after a very slender +military experience he was in command of the army on Long Island. On the +Hudson defeat not victory was his lot. He had, however, as much stern +resolve as Washington. He shared Washington's success in the attack on +Trenton, and his defeats at the Brandywine and at Germantown. Now he +was at Valley Forge, and when, on March 2, 1778, he became quartermaster +general, the outlook for food and supplies steadily improved. Later, in +the South, he rendered brilliant service which made possible the final +American victory at Yorktown. + +Henry Knox, a Boston bookseller, had, like Greene, only slight training +for military command. It shows the dearth of officers to fight the +highly disciplined British army that Knox, at the age of twenty-five, +and fresh from commercial life, was placed in charge of the meager +artillery which Washington had before Boston. It was Knox, who, with +heart-breaking labor, took to the American front the guns captured +at Ticonderoga. Throughout the war he did excellent service with the +artillery, and Washington placed a high value upon his services. He +valued too those of Daniel Morgan, an old fighter in the Indian wars, +who left his farm in Virginia when war broke out, and marched his +company of riflemen to join the army before Boston. He served with +Arnold at the siege of Quebec, and was there taken prisoner. He was +exchanged and had his due revenge when he took part in the capture of +Burgoyne's army. He was now at Valley Forge. Later he had a command +under Greene in the South and there, as we shall see, he won the great +success of the Battle of Cowpens in January, 1781. + +It was the peculiar misfortune of Washington that the three men, Arnold, +Lee, and Gates, who ought to have rendered him the greatest service, +proved unfaithful. Benedict Arnold, next to Washington himself, was +probably the most brilliant and resourceful soldier of the Revolution. +Washington so trusted him that, when the dark days at Valley Forge were +over, he placed him in command of the recaptured federal capital. Today +the name of Arnold would rank high in the memory of a grateful country +had he not fallen into the bottomless pit of treason. The same is in +some measure true of Charles Lee, who was freed by the British in an +exchange of prisoners and joined Washington at Valley Forge late in +the spring of 1778. Lee was so clever with his pen as to be one of the +reputed authors of the Letters of Junius. He had served as a British +officer in the conquest of Canada, and later as major general in the +army of Poland. He had a jealous and venomous temper and could never +conceal the contempt of the professional soldier for civilian generals. +He, too, fell into the abyss of treason. Horatio Gates, also a regular +soldier, had served under Braddock and was thus at that early period +a comrade of Washington. Intriguer he was, but not a traitor. It was +incompetence and perhaps cowardice which brought his final ruin. + +Europe had thousands of unemployed officers some of whom had had +experience in the Seven Years' War and many turned eagerly to America +for employment. There were some good soldiers among these fighting +adventurers. Kosciuszko, later famous as a Polish patriot, rose by his +merits to the rank of brigadier general in the American army; De Kalb, +son of a German peasant, though not a baron, as he called himself, +proved worthy of the rank of a major general. There was, however, a +flood of volunteers of another type. French officers fleeing from their +creditors and sometimes under false names and titles, made their way +to America as best they could and came to Washington with pretentious +claims. Germans and Poles there were, too, and also exiles from that +unhappy island which remains still the most vexing problem of British +politics. Some of them wrote their own testimonials; some, too, were +spies. On the first day, Washington wrote, they talked only of serving +freely a noble cause, but within a week were demanding promotion and +advance of money. Sometimes they took a high tone with members of +Congress who had not courage to snub what Washington called impudence +and vain boasting. "I am haunted and teased to death by the importunity +of some and dissatisfaction of others" wrote Washington of these people. + +One foreign officer rendered incalculable service to the American cause. +It was not only on the British side that Germans served in the American +Revolution. The Baron von Steuben was, like La Fayette, a man of rank +in his own country, and his personal service to the Revolution was much +greater than that of La Fayette. Steuben had served on the staff of +Frederick the Great and was distinguished for his wit and his polished +manners. There was in him nothing of the needy adventurer. The sale of +Hessian and other troops to the British by greedy German princes was +met in some circles in Germany by a keen desire to aid the cause of the +young republic. Steuben, who held a lucrative post, became convinced, +while on a visit to Paris, that he could render service in training the +Americans. With quick sympathy and showing no reserve in his generous +spirit he abandoned his country, as it proved forever, took ship for the +United States, and arrived in November, 1777. Washington welcomed him at +Valley Forge in the following March. He was made Inspector General +and at once took in hand the organization of the army. He prepared +"Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United +States" later, in 1779, issued as a book. Under this German influence +British methods were discarded. The word of command became short +and sharp. The British practice of leaving recruits to be trained +by sergeants, often ignorant, coarse, and brutal, was discarded, and +officers themselves did this work. The last letter which Washington +wrote before he resigned his command at the end of the war was to +thank Steuben for his invaluable aid. Charles Lee did not believe that +American recruits could be quickly trained so as to be able to face the +disciplined British battalions. Steuben was to prove that Lee was wrong +to Lee's own entire undoing at Monmouth when fighting began in 1778. + +The British army in America furnished sharp contrasts to that of +Washington. If the British jeered at the fighting quality of citizens, +these retorted that the British soldier was a mere slave. There were +two great stains upon the British system, the press-gang and flogging. +Press-gangs might seize men abroad in the streets of a town and, unless +they could prove that they were gentlemen in rank, they could be sent +in the fleet to serve in the remotest corners of the earth. In both navy +and army flogging outraged the dignity of manhood. The liability to this +brutal and degrading punishment kept all but the dregs of the populace +from enlisting in the British army. It helped to fix the deep gulf +between officers and men. Forty years later Napoleon Bonaparte, despot +though he might be, was struck by this separation. He himself went +freely among his men, warmed himself at their fire, and talked to them +familiarly about their work, and he thought that the British officer was +too aloof in his demeanor. In the British army serving in America there +were many officers of aristocratic birth and long training in military +science. When they found that American officers were frequently drawn +from a class of society which in England would never aspire to a +commission, and were largely self-taught, not unnaturally they jeered +at an army so constituted. Another fact excited British disdain. The +Americans were technically rebels against their lawful ruler, and rebels +in arms have no rights as belligerents. When the war ended more than a +thousand American prisoners were still held in England on the capital +charge of treason. Nothing stirred Washington's anger more deeply than +the remark sometimes made by British officers that the prisoners they +took were receiving undeserved mercy when they were not hanged. + +There was much debate at Valley Forge as to the prospect for the future. +When we look at available numbers during the war we appreciate the +view of a British officer that in spite of Washington's failures and +of British victories the war was serious, "an ugly job, a damned affair +indeed." The population of the colonies--some 2,500,000--was about +one-third that of the United Kingdom; and for the British the war was +remote from the base of supply. In those days, considering the means +of transport, America was as far from England as at the present day is +Australia. Sometimes the voyage across the sea occupied two and even +three months, and, with the relatively small ships of the time, it +required a vast array of transports to carry an army of twenty or +thirty thousand men. In the spring of 1776 Great Britain had found it +impossible to raise at home an army of even twenty thousand men for +service in America, and she was forced to rely in large part upon +mercenary soldiers. This was nothing new. Her island people did not like +service abroad and this unwillingness was intensified in regard to +war in remote America. Moreover Whig leaders in England discouraged +enlistment. They were bitterly hostile to the war which they regarded as +an attack not less on their own liberties than on those of America. It +would be too much to ascribe to the ignorant British common soldier of +the time any deep conviction as to the merits or demerits of the cause +for which he fought. There is no evidence that, once in the army, he +was less ready to attack the Americans than any other foe. Certainly the +Americans did not think he was half-hearted. + +The British soldier fought indeed with more resolute determination +than did the hired auxiliary at his side. These German troops played +a notable part in the war. The despotic princes of the lesser German +states were accustomed to sell the services of their troops. Despotic +Russia, too, was a likely field for such enterprise. When, however, it +was proposed to the Empress Catherine II that she should furnish twenty +thousand men for service in America she retorted with the sage advice +that it was England's true interest to settle the quarrel in America +without war. Germany was left as the recruiting field. British efforts +to enlist Germans as volunteers in her own army were promptly checked by +the German rulers and it was necessary literally to buy the troops from +their princes. One-fourth of the able-bodied men of Hesse-Cassel were +shipped to America. They received four times the rate of pay at home and +their ruler received in addition some half million dollars a year. The +men suffered terribly and some died of sickness for the homes to which +thousands of them never returned. German generals, such as Knyphausen +and Riedesel, gave the British sincere and effective service. The +Hessians were, however, of doubtful benefit to the British. It angered +the Americans that hired troops should be used against them, an anger +not lessened by the contempt which the Hessians showed for the colonial +officers as plebeians. + +The two sides were much alike in their qualities and were skillful in +propaganda. In Britain lurid tales were told of the colonists scalping +the wounded at Lexington and using poisoned bullets at Bunker Hill. In +America every prisoner in British hands was said to be treated brutally +and every man slain in the fighting to have been murdered. The use of +foreign troops was a fruitful theme. The report ran through the colonies +that the Hessians were huge ogre-like monsters, with double rows of +teeth round each jaw, who had come at the call of the British tyrant +to slay women and children. In truth many of the Hessians became good +Americans. In spite of the loyalty of their officers they were readily +induced to desert. The wit of Benjamin Franklin was enlisted to compose +telling appeals, translated into simple German, which promised grants +of land to those who should abandon an unrighteous cause. The Hessian +trooper who opened a packet of tobacco might find in 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 different when reverses overtook British arms. Then many hundreds +slipped away; and today their blood flows in the veins of thousands of +prosperous American farmers. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE AND ITS RESULTS + +Washington badly needed aid from Europe, but there every important +government was monarchical 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 sorrowed 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 "insolent +nation" was always to him an inspiration. Vergennes, the French Foreign +Minister, though he lacked genius, was a man of boundless zeal and +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 England'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. Beaumarchais is known to the world chiefly as +the creator 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 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 Roderigue +Hortalez & Co., he sent vast quantities of munitions and clothing +to America. Cannon, not from private firms but from the government +arsenals, 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 Connecticut 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 +submission, 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. +He gave other promises not more easy of fulfillment. 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 colonel 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. + +France was, however, coy. The end of 1776 saw the colonial cause at +a very low ebb, with Washington 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 position in Philadelphia. It was known that the British +fleet had declined. With the best of it in America, France was the more +likely to win successes in Europe. The Bourbon king of France 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 improbable 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 +triumphs, 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 +ambassador in London told the British Government, with studied +insolence of tone, that the United 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 intervention 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 +restoration 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 frontiers of New England and +New York? If George III 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 nation," 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 did not wish to see a +great military power on the northern 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 patriots +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 observer 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 the intervention of France. No serious +person any longer thought that taxation could be enforced upon America +or that the colonies should be anything 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 Senate." 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 treaty 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, +actually introduced into Parliament a bill to prohibit gifts of money to +the Crown since this voluntary taxation gave the Crown money without +the consent of Parliament. The British patriot, gentle as he might +be towards America, fumed against 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. In a 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 Chatham, 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 +high that New York and Charleston had erected statues in his honor. When +the defeat of Burgoyne so shook the ministry that North was anxious to +retire, Chatham, but for two obstacles, could probably have formed a +ministry. One obstacle was 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 attacked his +American policy. "I will never consent," 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 in that +scene of famine; but by the springtime tension in regard to supplies had +been relieved and 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 supplies 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 give it up. 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, to shield himself; was clearly resolved to make +scapegoats of others. So, on May 18, 1778, at Philadelphia there was +a farewell to Howe, which took the form of a Mischianza, something +approaching the medieval tournament. Knights broke lances in 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. +Obviously the garrison of Philadelphia had much time on its hands and +could count upon, at least, some cheers from a friendly population. It +is remembered still, with moralizings on the turns in human fortune, +that Major Andr and Miss Margaret Shippen were the leaders in that gay +scene, the one, in the days to come, to be hanged by Washington as a +spy, because entrapped in the treason of Benedict Arnold, who became the +husband of the other. + +On May 24, 1778, Sir Henry Clinton took over from 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 encumbrances. Moreover, to +embark the whole force, a march of forty miles to New Castle, on the +lower Delaware, would be necessary and the retreating 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 to New York in two days and missed the +great fleet of d'Estaing, carrying an army of four thousand 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 vulnerable to flank attack. In this type of +warfare Washington 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 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 position was difficult but +he was saved by Lee's ineptitude. He had positive instructions to attack +with his five thousand men and hold the British engaged until Washington +should come up in overwhelming 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 to +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 +deserters 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 +incredible. Two hundred ships waited at Spithead for three months for +convoy to the West Indies, 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 already 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. But it did not +come. The French admirals were often taken from an army command, and +d'Estaing was not a sailor but a soldier. He feared 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 hundred fine +soldiers, Sullivan had nine thousand New England militia, and d'Estaing +four thousand 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'Estaing +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, Clinton 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 shipping and stores but were devastating the country with +Loyalist regiments recruited in America. The French told the Americans +that they were expecting 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 extend +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. + +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 Gibraltar. 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 danger 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 resources 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 trader +and subsequently master of a West India merchantman, and on going +to America had assumed the name of Jones. He was a man of boundless +ambition, vanity, and vigor, and when he commanded 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 squadron +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 Flamborough Head and, after a desperate fight, +captured 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 commissioned officer in the navy of +the United States, but neutral powers, such as Holland, had not yet +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 ships 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 to enter the +port. Denmark and Sweden joined Russia in what was known as the Armed +Neutrality and 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 afterwards 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 +supremacy on the sea disappeared and it was only regained 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 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 removing some of +their burdens dreadful riots broke out in London. A fanatic, Lord George +Gordon, led a mob to Westminster and, as Dr. Johnson expressed it, +"insulted" both Houses of Parliament. The cowed ministry did nothing +to check the disturbance. 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 +Independence which, in 1782, England was obliged to 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 +and 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 mutiny 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 +New York. He sent La Fayette to France in January, 1779, there to urge +not merely naval but military 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 magnanimity +reciprocated nearly a century and a half later when a great American +army in Europe was placed under the supreme command of a Marshal 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 +Newport 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 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 revolutionary 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 political allegiance. Probably Boston was the most completely +revolutionary of American towns. Yet even in Boston there had been a sad +procession of exiles who would not turn against the King. The South +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 rebellion. Many a patriot +farmhouse was now destroyed and the hapless owner either killed or +driven to the mountains to live as best he could by hunting. Sometimes +even the children were shot down. It so happened that a company of +militia captured a large band of Loyalists marching to Augusta to +support the British cause. Here was the occasion for the republican +patriots to assert their principles. 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 restrain 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 +revolution. In the spring of 1779 General Prevost marched from Georgia +into South Carolina. On the 12th of May he was before Charleston +demanding surrender. We are astonished now to read that, in response +to Prevost's demand, a proposal 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 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, however, +Charleston did not surrender. The resistance 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 combined army numbered about six thousand. A siege +began which, it seemed, could end in only one way. Prevost, however, +with three thousand seven hundred 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. 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'Estaing sailed away and soon lost some of his ships in a violent +storm. Ill-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 +hospitable. Most of them, he says, made a visit to England at some time +during life and it was the fashion to send there the children to be +educated. Obviously Charleston was fitted to be a British rallying +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. Now in December, 1779, +he sailed from New York to make a renewed effort. With him were three +of his best officer--Cornwallis, Simcoe, and Tarleton, the last two +skillful leaders of irregulars, recruited 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, Tarleton surprised, in the night, three regiments of +American cavalry regulars at a place called Biggin's Bridge, routed them +completely and, according 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 +behaved 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 these 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 prisoners, 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 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 reestablish peace and good government." +"Wicked and desperate men" who still opposed the King should be punished +with rigor and have their property confiscated. 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 to 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 intending 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 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 disaster at Camden had only +a transient effect. The war developed a number of irregular leaders on +the American side who were never beaten beyond recovery, 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. 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 advanced into North Carolina, and +sent Major Ferguson, 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 retreat 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. Ferguson, harassed, outnumbered, at last took refuge +on King's Mountain, a stony ridge on the western border between the two +Carolinas. The north side 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. Ferguson 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. See Chapter IX, Pioneers of the Old Southwest, by +Constance Lindsay Skinner in The Chronicles of America. + +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 region that Washington had first seen +active service, helping to wrest that land from France. The country was +wild. There was almost no settlement; 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 frontiersman. 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 adventure. He had less +than two hundred men when he appeared a little later at Kaskaskia near +the Mississippi in what is now Illinois 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 indomitable 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 States. +Clark's exploit is one of the pregnant romances of history. See +Chapters III and IV in The Old Northwest by Frederic Austin Ogg in The +Chronicles of America. + +Perhaps the most sorrowful phase of the Revolution was the internal +conflict waged between its friends and its enemies in America, where +neighbor fought against neighbor. During this pitiless struggle 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 shoeblacks. 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, burn a village, carry off some Whig farmers, +and escape before opposing forces could rally. Governor 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 Benjamin Franklin and led him when the day came for peace to +declare that the plundering and murdering adherents of King George +were the ones who should pay for damage and not the States which had +confiscated Loyalist property. Lists of Loyalist names were sometimes +posted and then the persons 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 figure might be himself. A musket ball might come whizzing through +his window. Many a Loyalist 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 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. +Magistrates 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. Legislatures passed bills +denouncing Loyalists. The names in Massachusetts read like a list of +the leading 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 +exiles from their former homes. The self-appointed committees took in +hand the task of disciplining 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 Great Lakes, and there played +a part in laying the foundation of the Dominion of today. The city of +Toronto with a population of half a million is rooted in the Loyalist +traditions of its Tory founders. Simcoe, the first Governor of Upper +Canada, who made Toronto his capital, was one of the most enterprising +of the officers who served with Cornwallis in the South and surrendered +with him at Yorktown. + +The State of New York acquired from the forfeited lands of Loyalists +a sum approaching four million dollars, a great amount in those days. +Other States profited in a similar way. Every Loyalist whose property +was seized had a direct and personal grievance. He could join the +British army and fight against his oppressors, and this he did: New +York furnished about fifteen thousand men to fight on the British side. +Plundered himself, he could plunder his enemies, and this too he did +both by land and sea. In the autumn of 1778 ships manned chiefly by +Loyalist refugees were terrorizing the coast from Massachusetts to New +Jersey. They plundered Martha's Vineyard, burned some lesser towns, +such as New Bedford, and showed no quarter to small parties of American +troops whom they managed to intercept. What happened on the coast +happened also in the interior. At Wyoming in the northeastern part +of Pennsylvania, in July, 1778, during a raid of Loyalists, aided by +Indians, there was a brutal massacre, the horrors of which long served +to inspire hate for the British. A little later in the same year similar +events took place at Cherry Valley, in central New York. Burning houses, +the dead bodies not only of men but of women and children scalped by +the savage allies of the Loyalists, desolation and ruin in scenes +once peaceful and happy--such horrors American patriotism learned to +associate with the Loyalists. These in their turn remembered the slow +martyrdom of their lives as social outcasts, the threats and plunder +which in the end forced them to fly, the hardships, starvation, and +death to their loved ones which were wont to follow. The conflict is +perhaps the most tragic and irreconcilable in the whole story of the +Revolution. + + +CHAPTER X. FRANCE TO THE RESCUE + +During 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, Cornwallis, 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 problem in America with the insight of a trained leader. +Before he left France he made the pregnant comment on the outlook: +"Nothing without naval supremacy." About the same time Washington 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 Napoleon, 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 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 unfortunate 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 reports of their ennui +on the long voyage of seventy 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 inhabitants 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 beautiful, 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 +quantities of tea drunk by their friends and so do we when we remember +the political hatred for tea. They 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 Rochambeau 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 nothing. Washington longed +to attack New York and urged the effort, but the wise and experienced +Rochambeau applied his principle, "nothing without 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 blockading in Narragansett Bay the French +fleet which lay there. Had the French army moved away from Newport their +fleet would almost certainly have become a prey to the British. For +the moment 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 they 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 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 admirals afloat. Washington, with his army +headquarters at West Point, on guard to keep the British from advancing +up the Hudson, was looking 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 Camden 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 overwhelming discouragement, and, on the 18th of September, +Washington left West Point for a long 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 +Chesapeake. Washington concluded that the opposite was true and that he +was likely to be going northward. At West Point, where the Hudson flows +through a mountainous gap, Washington had strong defenses on both +shores of the river. His 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 up the 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 Benedict Arnold. No general on +the American side had a more brilliant record or could show more scars +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 property 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 Congress 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 indulgence. +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 pursued with great bitterness. +Joseph Reed, the President of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania, +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 26, 1780, he was acquitted of everything but the +imprudence of using, in an emergency, public wagons to remove private +property, and of granting 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 the reprimand in terms as gentle as possible, and when, +in July, 1780, Arnold asked for the important 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 reconciliation 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 surrender that vital post to the British. And now +on the 18th of September Washington was riding northeastward 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 anchored at Stony Point, a few miles below West +Point. On board the Vulture was the British officer who was treating +with Arnold and who now came to arrange terms with him, Major +John Andr, Clinton's young adjutant general, a man of attractive +personality. Under cover of night Arnold sent off a boat to bring Andr +ashore to a remote thicket of fir trees, outside the American 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 disasters at +Charleston and Camden might end the strife. Britain was prepared to +yield everything but separation; and America, Arnold said, could now +make an honorable peace. + +A chapter of accidents prevented the testing. Had Andr been rowed +ashore by British tars they could have taken him back to the ship at +his command 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 +Andr back to the ship because their own return would be dangerous in +daylight. Contrary to his instructions and wishes Andr 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 Andr 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 Andr's guide insisted that he should +go to the British lines by land. He was carrying compromising papers and +wearing civilian dress 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 Andr 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 summons from across the river. Within a few +minutes his barge was moving swiftly to the Vulture eighteen miles away. +Thus Arnold escaped. The unhappy Andr 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 military law. Forty years later the bones of +Andr 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 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 working 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 religious. +Members praised the liberties of England and had declared that the +Declaration of Independence 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, +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 +Washington 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 defenses were weak they could drive +a wedge between North and South. If on the other hand they preferred +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 England in October gave the ministry an increased +majority and with this renewed determination. 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 to a 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 anxiously 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 began to turn. +Cornwallis 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. Steuben 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 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 discipline 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, confident 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, 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 northwest 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 without food, Cornwallis, +with less than two thousand men, attacked Greene's force of about +four thousand. 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 sending only enough men to Virginia to steal +tobacco. 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 +smashing 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 +securely. 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 Rawdon 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. 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 Virginia 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 Petersburg 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 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 formidable 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 inferior force, to fight Cornwallis, but he could +tire him out by drawing him into long marches. When Cornwallis advanced +to attack La Fayette at Richmond, 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 hundred miles northwest from Richmond, and Cornwallis conceived +the daring plan of raiding Charlottesville, 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 fighting and he nearly succeeded. Jefferson indeed +escaped by rapid flight but Tarleton took the town, burned the public +records, and captured ammunition and arms. But he really 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 intercepted 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 generals. +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 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. Yorktown +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 commonplace of romance that a pretty face +or a stray bullet has altered the destiny not merely of families 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 warships than the British could muster +at a given spot and time. Washington had urged in January that France +should plan to have at least temporary naval superiority in American +waters, in accordance with Rochambeau's principle, "Nothing 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 Hudson and at any rate +alarm Clinton as to an imminent 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 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. Washington 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 torrential 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 away 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 Princeton, 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 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 disembarked 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, mounted 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 hundred +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 them responded. A deadly +apathy in regard to the war seems to have fallen upon many parts of the +country. The Bay now in control of the French fleet was quite safe for +unarmed ships. Half the Americans 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 beyond 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. Washington 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 Washington 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 Philadelphia, 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 +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 +entrance 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 intended 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, the 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 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 British fleet, +crippled and spiritless, was hurrying to a protecting port and the +fleurs-de-lis waved unchallenged 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 +entrenchments 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 Yorktown. There was delay. +Later Clinton wrote that 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 unexplained, 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 +incessantly 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 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. "I thought it +would have been wanton and inhuman," 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 hundreds 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. +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 +Americans on the other, the French in full dress uniform, the Americans +in some cases half naked and barefoot. 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 entrance 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, were deserted by ships of war. Grasse had sailed, however, to +meet a stern fate. He was a fine fighting 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 returning to France +Grasse was tried by court-martial and, though acquitted, he remained in +disgrace until he died in 1788, "weary," as he said, "of the burden of +life." The defeated Cornwallis was not blamed in England. His character +commanded wide respect and he lived to play a great part in public life. +He became Governor General 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 the 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, exclaiming 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 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 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. For a 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 Commons 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 British 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 1st 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 +return to Hanover rather than yield the independence of the colonies. +Over and over again he had said that no one should hold office in his +government 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 independence 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. Rochambeau with his army remained in Virginia. Washington +took his forces back to the lines before New York, sparing what men he +could to help Greene in the South. Again came a long period of watching +and waiting. Washington, knowing the obstinate determination of the +British character, urged Congress 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 indifferent to further effort and +Congress was slack and impotent. The outlook for Washington's allies 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 negotiating +peace. Spain declared that she would never make peace without the +surrender of Gibraltar, and she was ready to leave the question of +American 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 basis 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 American Commission. The +austere Adams disliked 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 foreign 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 separate 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 furnish him with what he needed and to an amazing degree +succeeded in doing so. The self interest which Washington believed to be +the dominant 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 war ended. 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 Commissioners +agreed to ask the individual States to meet the desires of the British +negotiators, but both sides understood that the States would do nothing, +that the confiscated property would never be returned, that most of +the exiled Loyalists would remain exiles, and that Britain herself +must compensate them for their losses. This in time she did on a scale +inadequate indeed but expressive of a generous intention. The United +States retained the great Northwest and the Mississippi became the +western frontier, with destiny already 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 content 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 +magnanimity 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 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 captured 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 farewell 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 each of them. Then they watched him as +he was rowed away in his barge to the New Jersey shore. Congress was +now sitting at Annapolis in Maryland and there on December 23, 1783, +Washington appeared 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 protection 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 +estimate of himself, know that for a distant posterity his character and +his words would have compelling authority. What Washington's countryman, +Motley, said of William of Orange is true of Washington himself: "As +long as he lived he was the guiding 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 adjustments 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), The 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. III (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 Literary History of the American Revolution, 2 +vols. (1897), is a penetrating study of opinion. Fiske's The American +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 England in the Eighteenth Century, +chaps. XIII, XIV, and XV (1903), is impartial. The most elaborate and +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 +Fortescue, A History of the British Army, vol. III (1902), a scientific +account of military events with many maps and plans. Captain Mahan, U. +S. N., wrote the British naval history of the period in Clowes (editor), +The Royal Navy, a History, vol. III, 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 +supplemented 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). + + +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 1898). The general reader will probably +put aside the older biographies 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 +problems 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, The +Siege 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 contemporary 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 Shelburne, 2 vols. (1912), the Whig policy. Curwen's Journals and +Letters, 1775-84 (1842), show us a Loyalist 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); Carrington, +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 Letters and Journals Relating to the War of the American +Revolution (trans. W. L. Stone, 1867) and Anburey'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 account 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 +Revolution (1911), Corwin, French Policy and the American Alliance of +1778 (1916), and Van Tyne on "Influences 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). +Ross (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 Loyalists in the +American Revolution (1902), Flick, Loyalism 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 American +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 Campaign +(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 Encyclopdia Britannica has useful references to authorities for +persons prominent in the Revolution and The Dictionary of National +Biography for leaders on the British side. + + + + + + +Index + +A + +Abraham, Plains of (QC), American army on, 50. + +Adams, Abigail, 49. + +Adams, John, in Continental Congress, 8; journey from Boston to +Philadelphia, 9-10; on committee to draft Declaration of Independence, +75-76; excepted from British offer of pardon, 86, 92; opinion of +Philadelphia, 120, 165; criticism of Washington, 149; sent to Paris on +American Commission, 270-271. + +Albany (NY), plan to concentrate British forces at, 133. + +Allen, Colonel Ethan, 40. + +Andr, Major John, at Philadelphia, 195; treats with Arnold, 241-242; +capture, 242-243; hanged as spy, 243. + +Annapolis (MD), Congress at, 275. + +Anne, Fort, 129. + +Armed neutrality, 206. + +Army, American, camp at Cambridge, 27-28; Washington reorganizes, 30-35; +food and clothing, 30-31, 32 153-156, 166; composition, 31-32, 43; +officers, 32-35, 43-44; after Canadian campaign, 51; desertions, 100, +159-160; plundering by, 111; pay, 111, 158-159, 209; in 1777, 112; +condition under Gates, 145; Washington wishes national, 151; needs +of engineers, 152; hospital service, 152-153, 166-167; weapons and +artillery, 156-158; religion in, 160-161; supplies from France, 184; +after Valley Forge, 197; mutinous, 209, 246. + +Army, British, food for, 36; press-gangs, 176; flogging, 176; relations +between officers and men, 176-177; difficulties of raising, 178; see +also Germans. + +Army, French, in America, 235-236. + +Arnold, Benedict, at Ticonderoga, 40; through Maine to Canada, 43, +44-45; at Quebec, 45-46; at Crown Point, 52-53; Coke denounces King's +reception of, 71; Washington's trust in, 110, 172-173; at Stillwater, +143; describes American Army, 155; treason, 173, 195, 240-243; at West +Point, 238; life at Philadelphia, 239; tried by court-martial, 239; +reprimanded by Washington, 239-240; in Virginia, 251. + +Articles of Confederation, 163. + +Assanpink River, Washington on, 105. + +Atrocities, 180, 212; see also Indians, Prisons. + +Augusta (GA), British take, 211-212; falls to Americans, 250. + + + +B + + + +Baltimore (MD), Congress flees to, 100. + +Barbados, Washington visits, 22. + +Barras, French naval commander, 261. + +Baum, Colonel, at Bennington, 131, 132. + +Beaumarchais sends munitions to America, 183-184. + +Bemis Heights (NY), battle, 143. + +Bennington (VT), battle of 131-132. + +Berthier, French officer, 231. + +Biggins Bridge, Tarleton's victory at, 216. + +Bordentown (NJ), Germans at, 102. + +Boston, defiance of British in, 2; seige, 3, 4, 35-36; Washington's +journey to, 9-10; American camp, 27-28; evacuated by British, 48-49; +effect of Washington's success 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 (PA) battle of, 119-120, 133, 148; La Fayette at, 169; Greene +at, 171. + +Brant, Joseph (Thayendanegea), 134. + +Breed's Hill (MA) 4-5; see also Bunker Hill. + +Broglie, Comte de, suggested as commander of American army, 185. + +Borglie, Prince de, with French armies in America, 232. + +Brooklyn Heights (NY), Washington on, 88-91. + +Buford, Colonel Tarleton attacks, 217. + +Bunker Hill, battle of, 4-7, 33; Washington learns of, 10; significance, +21; officers at, 33, 35. + +Burgoyne, General John, on British behavior at Bunker Hill, 7; ordered +to meet Howe, 68, 112, 113, 124-125; Howe deserts, 116, 130; life and +character, 123-124; at Lake Champlain, 125 et seq.; Indian Allies, +125-126, 138-140, 144; takes Fort Ticonderoga, 127; lack of supplies, +129-130; at Fort Edward, 129; 130, 141; and Bennington, 131-132; at +Saratoga, 132, 141, 143; learns of failure of St. Leger, 136; crosses +Hudson, 141; at Stillwater (Freeman's Farm), 142-143; surrender at +Saratoga, 68, 122, 143-147, 149; effect on France of surrender of, 186; +effect of surrender in England, 190, 192. + +Burke, Edmund, and conciliation, 69; and Independence, 190. + +Byron, Admiral, sent to aid Howe, 200. + + + +C + + + +Cahokia, Clark at, 223. + +Cambridge, American camp, 3, 27-28; Washington at, 10, 30-31, 34, 35, +146. + +Camden (SC), battle of, 219-220, 236. + +Canada, campaign against, 37, 38-47; Washington's idea of, 40 France +and, 188; Loyalists take refuge in, 227-228. + +Carleton, Sir Guy, Governor of Canada, 42; commands at Quebec, 45-46; +operations on Lake Champlain, 52-53; Howe and, 95; superseded by +Burgoyne, 124; commands at New York, 269; and Loyalists, 274. + +Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton, on commission to Montreal, 50. + +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 (PA), Washington at, 118, 119. + +Champlain, Lake, plan for conquest of Canada by way of, 43; operations +on, 52-53, 95; Burgoyne at, 125 et seq.; Arnold at, 238. + +Charleston (SC), on side of Revolution, 37; British expedition to, +82-83; Prevost demands surrender, 213-214; Lincoln at, 215-217; +surrenders, 217. + +Charlestown (MA), location, 3; burned, 5, 7. + +Charlotte (NC), Greene at, 247. + +Charlottesville (VA), Cornwallis 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, 236; at Charleston, 82, 215; at New York, +116, 130, 133; up the Hudson, 143, 145; succeeds Howe in command, 195; +march from Philadelphia, 196, 197, 198; retreats at Monmouth Court +House, 199; reaches Newport, 202; sails for Charleston, 217-218; +proclamation, 218; Rodney relieves, 237; and Cornwallis, 253; delay in +reinforcing Cornwallis, 262-263, 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 England, 55 et seq.; state of society in, 60; +population, 177-178; see also names of colonies. + +Continental Congress, Washington at, 1, 259; selects leader for army, +7-9; Howe's conciliation, 92-93; flees to Baltimore, 100; loses able +men, 110; hampers Washington, 100; Gates and, 142; repudiates Gates +terms to Burgoyne, 146; Gates lays quarrel with Washington before, +150; and enlistment, 151; at York, 162, 163; ineptitude, 163-164, 236, +269-270, gives Southern command to Gates, 219; Test Acts, 226; and +French alliance, 244; borrows money from France, 271; at Annapolis, 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 Hudson, 97; goes to +Trenton, 104-105; at Princeton, 106; and Howe, 115; at the Brandywine, +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; Yorktown, 254 +et seq.; surrender, 264-266. + +Countess of Scarborough (ship), Jones captures, 205. + +Cowpens, battle of, 172, 248. + +Cromwell, Oliver, as military leader, 170. + +Crown Point (NY), capture of, 52-53; Burgoyne at, 126. + + + +D + + + +Dartmouth, Earl of, Minister of England, 63. + +Deane, Silas, envoy to France, 184-185. + +Declaration of Independence, 75-80. + +Delaware Bay, British fleet in, 116. + +Delaware River, Washington crosses, 102. + +Denmark and armed neutrality, 206-207. + +Detroit, force to check Clark from, 223. + +Devonshire, Duke of, costly residence, 18. + +Dickinson, John, of Pennsylvania, on Declaration of Independence, 78. + +Dilworth, Cornwallis marches on, 119. + +Dinwiddie, Governor, Washington and, 16. + +Donop, Count von, at Trenton, 102, 104. + +Dorchester Heights (MA), American troops on, 47-48. + +Dumas, French officer with Rochambeau, 231. + +Dunmore, Lord, Governor of Virginia, 224. + + + +E + + + +East River, location, 87; British on, 93. + +Edward, Fort, St. Clair retires to, 127; Burgoyne at, 129, 130-141; +Indian raids at, 140; Burgoyne seeks to return to, 143. + +Elkton (MD), Howe at, 116, 118; American army at, 258. + +Emerson, chaplain, diary quoted, 35. + +England, in eighteenth century, 16-19; state of society, 19, 59; +Parliament votes tax on colonies, 23; politics, 24-25, 64 et seq., 268; +attitude toward the colonies, 54-55, 58; prosperity, 59; difficulties in +raising army, 178; France and, 182-183, 187-188, 191-192, 195-196, 206, +270; Whig attitude after French intervention, 189-190; 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 Delaware, 196-197; at +Sandy Hook, 200-201; at Newport, 201-202; at Savannah, 214-215. + +Eutaw Springs, battle of, 250. + + + +F + + + +Falmouth (Portland, ME), destroyed, 81. + +Ferguson, Major Patrick, 216; King's Mountain, 221-222; killed, 222. + +Fersen, Count, with French army, 232. + +Finance, value of continental money, 209; Franklin procures money in +France, 271. + +Florida returned to Spain, 273. + +Foch, general, quoted, 101. + +Fox, C.J., and carelessness of ministers, 68; urges conciliation, 69. + +France, French in Canada, 38; alliance with, 182 et seq.; and England, +182-183, 187-188, 191-192, 195-196, 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.; bibliography of alliance, +280. + +Franklin, Benjamin, on Lexington, 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 Hessians to desert, +180; sent to Paris, 185; and Loyalists, 225, 270, 271. + +Fraser, General, killed, 143. + +Frederick the Great, of Prussia, 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; discourages Washington, 103; against +Burgoyne, 142-145; intrigue, 149-151; menaces Clinton in New Jersey, +198; command in the South, 219; Camden, 219; Greene supersedes, 247. + +George III, American opinions of, 25; Hamilton on, 39; character, 60-62; +speech in Parliament, 62-63; Washington and, 63, 86; statue destroyed in +New York, 80; ready to give guarantees of liberty, 115; effect of news +of Ticonderoga on, 127-128; on taxing of America, 190; and Chatham, 193; +news of Yorktown, 267-268. + +George, Fort, Burgoyne's supplies from, 129. + +Georgia, British in, 211-212, 217. + +Germain, Lord George, failure to send orders to Howe, 68, 125; +instructions to Burgoyne, 112; plans campaign from England, 130-131; +censures Howe, 194; in Seven Years' War, 230; news of Yorktown, 267. + +Germans, hold line of the Delaware, 102; plundering, 111; at Bennington, +131-132; with Burgoyne, 144, 145; Steuben's part in Revolutionary War, +174-176; benefit to British, 179-180; desertions, 180-181, 199. + +Germantown, Howe's camp at, 121; battle of, 122, 148; Greene at, 171. + +Gibraltar, Spain besieges, 270; not returned to Spain, 273. + +Gloucester, Cornwallis holds, 263. + +Gordon, Lord Adam, on Philadelphia, 215; opinion of Charleston, 215. + +Gordon, Lord George, leads London riot, 208. + +Grasse, Comte de, commands French fleet, 256; at Chesapeake Bay, 260, +261-262; sails south, 265; Rodney captures, 266, 270. + +Great Britain, see England. + +Greene, General Nathanael, 110; at Bunker Hill, 4; advocates +independence, 75; commands Fort Washington, 96-97; harasses Cornwallis, +105; at Germantown, 122; at Valley Forge, 170-171; in Rhode Island, 201; +on Congress, 236; supersedes Gates in South, 247; Guilford 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 (NC), Cornwallis issues proclamation at, 249. + +Hobkirk's Hill, Rawdon defeats Greene at, 250. + +Holkham, Lord Leicester's residence at, 18; Coke's residence at, 69-70, +71. + +Holland joins England's enemies 206, 246. + +Hood, Sir Samuel, British admiral, 261. + +Howe, Richard, Lord, commands fleet reaching New York, 84, 86; Whig +sympathy, 85; personal characteristics, 85; letter to Washington, 86-87; +seeks peace, 92-93; takes fleet to Newport, 100; proclamation, 101; +and evacuation of Philadelphia, 196-197; expects naval flight off Sandy +Hook, 200-201; at Newport, 202; refuses to serve Tory Admiralty, 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 characteristics, 84; attitude toward 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, 112-113; at Trenton, +100; proclamation, 101, 111; goes to New York for Christmas, 102; +dilatoriness, 109, 110; takes Philadelphia, 109, 112, 120, 149; plan +for 1777, 112-113; sails for Chesapeake Bay, 115-116; at the Brandywine, +118-119, 133; and Pennsylvanians, 120-121; at Germantown, 121-122; +leaves Philadelphia, 194; Clinton succeeds, 195. + +Hudson River, advantages of plan to sail up, 82; location of mouth, 87; +British on, 93, 96-98; Washington guards, 209-210, 211, 236, 237-238, +see also West Point. + + + +I + + + +Independence, 54 et seq.; see also Declaration of Independence. + +Independence, Fort 127. + +India, France against British in, 206. + +Indians, allies of Burgoyne, 125, 133, 138, 139-140, 144; with St. +Leger, 134-136; aid loyalists in Wyoming massacre, 229. + +Ireland, Declaration of Independence, 208. + + + +J + + + +Jay, John, on Declaration of Independence, 78; opinion of Congress, 162; +on American Commission, 270. + +Jefferson, Thomas, and Declaration of Independence, 75-77; on Lafayette, +170; British plan to capture, 252. + +Johnson, Sir John, with St. Leger, 133-134, 135. + +Johnson, Samuel, quoted, 58. + +Johnson, Sir William, 134. + +Jones, John Paul, 204-206; bibliography, 281. + + + +K + + + +Kalb, Baron de, part in Revolutionary War, 173-174; killed, 220. + +Kaskaskia, Clark at 223. + +Kenneth Square, British camp at, 118. + +Keppel, Admiral, and London riots, 207. + +King's Mountain, battle of, 221-222. + +Knox, Henry,Washington values service of, 110, 171-172. + +Knyphausen, General, and Howe, 115; at the Brandywine, 118; effective +service, 179-180. + +Kosciuszko, in American army, 173 + + + +L + + + +Lafayette, Marquis de, 182, 230, 238; and Washington, 13, 168, 169; +and independence of America, 30; personal characteristics, 169-170; +volunteers through Deane's influence, 185; with Lee at Monmouth +Court House, 198-199; sent to France (1779), 210; as interpreter for +Washington and Rochambeau, 234; in Virginia, 251-252. + +Lansdowne, Marquis of, see Shelburne, Lord. + +Laurens, Henry, on American Commission, 270. + +Lauzun, Duc de, with French army in America, 231-232, 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; +captured, 99; and Howe, 99, 112-113; freed by exchange of prisoners, +173; personal characteristics, 173; and training of recruits, 176; at +Monmouth Court House, 198-199; court-martialed, 199; suspended, 199; +dismissed from army, 199. + +Lee. R.H., and Declaration of Independence, 75. + +Lee, Fort (NJ) 96; Washington at, 97; falls to British, 97, 98. + +Leicester, Lord , costly residence at Holkham, 18. + +Lexington, Battle of, 2, 21. + +Lincoln, Abraham, quoted, 29; and Declaration of Independence, 76, +77-78. + +Lincoln, General Benjamin, at Ticonderoga, 142; southern campaign, 214, +215, 217, 264. + +Long Island (NY),battle of, 87-90, 91. + +Loyalists, Howe and Pennsylvania, 162; plundering, 203, 228; in South, +212-213; Clinton's proclamation to, 218; decline in strength, 224; +punishments, 225-226; Test Acts, 226; question of compensation of, 272; +gather in New York to claim British protection, 274; bibliography, 281. + +Luzerne, French minister, 258. + + + +M + + + +McCrae, Jennie, 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; Fersen friend of, +232. + +Marion, Francis, guerrilla leader, 220, 247. + +Marlborough, Duke of, costly residence, 18. + +Martha's Vineyard (MA), 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, 198-199; Lee at, 176. + +Montgomery, General Richard, expedition to Canada, 43; at Quebec, 45-46; +death, 46-47, 48. + +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 (NJ), American headquarters at, 99, 106, 110. + +Moultrie, Fort (SC), battle at, 83. + +Mount Vernon, Washington's estate, 20, 259, 275. + +Murray, Mrs., saves Putnam's army, 94. + + + +N + + + +Narragansett Bay (RI), British blockade French fleet in, 234. + +Navy, American, Jones and, 204-206; need for supremacy, 231. + +Necessity, Fort (PA), surrender of, 148. + +New Bedford (MA), Loyalists burn, 228. + +New England, question of leader from, 8; and Washington, 11; character +of people, 29; equality in, 33; on independence, 75; revolutionary, 81; +and Indians, 137; and Burgoyne, 145; States jealous of, 164-165. + +New Hampshire offers bounty for Indian scalps, 137-138. + +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, 53, 81 et seq., 108, 148; statue of King destroyed, 80; +burned, 94-95; Washington 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 (RI), 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, 190-191; George III writes to, 61; +seeks to retire, 192, 193; and news of Yorktown, 267; resigns, 268. + +North Carolina, and independence, 75; campaign in, 247-251. + +Northwest, United States retains, 273. + +Nova Scotia, Washington's belief of sympathy in, 42; Loyalists go to, +227. + + + +O + + + +Ogg, F.A. The Old Northwest, cited, 224. + +Oriskany (NY), 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 independence, 75; loyalty, 101; Howe plans to secure +control of, 113; "Black Lists" of Loyalists, 226. + +Percy, Earl, opinion of rebels in America, 32. + +Petersburg (VA), Arnold at, 251. + +Philadelphia, second Continental 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, 194-195; British abandon, 196; Loyalists hanged in, 226; +Arnold in command at, 238; French army reviewed in, 257-258. + +Pigot, General, at Newport, 201. + +Pitt, William, see Chatham, Earl of. + +Politics, see England. + +Prescott, Colonel, at Bunker Hill, 4; + +Preston, Major, British officer at St. Johns, 44. + +Prevost, General Augustine, at Charleston, 213-214. + +Prices, 167. + +Princeton, Cornwallis at, 106. + +Prisons, British prison-ships, 153; London riots, 208. + +Privateers, checked at Newport, 100; France and, 186. + +Providence (RI), Greene and Sullivan at, 201. + +Putnam, Israel, at Bunker Hill, 4,6; leaves New York, 94. + + + +Q + + + +Quebec (QC), Arnold and Montgomery 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, bibliography, 277-278. + +Rhode Island, British control, 100; Washington's campaign against, +201-202; 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, +179-180. + +Riedesel, Baroness, reports conditions in New England, 137. + +Rochambeau, Comte de, leader of French army in America, 230-231; idea +of naval supremacy, 231, 255; and Washington, 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 Neutrality, 206. + + + +S + + + +St. Clair, General Arthur, at Fort Ticonderoga, 127. + +St. Eustacius, captured by Rodney, 246. + +St. Johns, Montgomery captures, 44. + +St. Leger, General Barry, at Fort Stanwix, 133-134; at Oriskany, +135-136. + +Saint-Simon, French officer in America, 232. + +Sandy Hook (NY), French fleet at, 200, 201. + +Saratoga (NY), Burgoyne at, 132, 141, 143; Burgoyne's surrender, 68, +122, 143-147, 149, 186; Arnold at, 238; Morgan at, 247. + +Savannah (GA), British land at, 211. + +Savile, Sir George, opinion of the Revolution, 69. + +Schuyler, General Philip, goes to Canada by way of Lake Champlain, 43; +Gates supersedes, 142. + +Serapis (ship), Jones captures, 205. + +Shelburne, Lord, Prime minister, 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. + +Slavery, Washington as a slave-owner, 21. + +Slave-trade, Declaration of Independence makes King responsible for, 77. + +South, war in the, 211 et seq. + +South Carolina, neutrality proposed, 213; British control, 217. + +Spain, against England, 187, 203-204, 206; navy, 187; and Gibraltar, +270; and peace treaty, 272. + +Stamp Act, 69, 183, 192. + +Stanwix (NY), Fort, St. Leger before, 133-134. + +Staten Island (NY), Howe on, 86, 87, 115. + +States, Congress and, 163. + +Steuben, Baron von, service in Revolution, 174-175; in Virginia, 247. + +Stillwater (NY), American camp at, 141; Burgoyne attacks Gates at, +142-143; Burgoyne's defeat, 143. + +Stirling, Lord, prisoner, 89. + +Stony Point (NY), 99. + +Stuart, Gilbert, and Washington, 16. + +Sullivan, General John, takes prisoner at battle of Long Island, 89; +sent by Howe to interview Congress, 92; exchanged, 99; at Morristown, +99; and Washington, 110-111; 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, 219-220; 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 River, 51. + +Three Rivers (QC), attack on, 51. + +Throg's Neck (NY), Howe at, 95. + +Ticonderoga (NY), Fort, captured by Allen, 39-40, 42; Arnold retreats +to, 53; Burgoyne lays siege to, 126-127; Lincoln besieges, 142. + +Tories, plundering of, 111; see also Loyalists. + +Toronto (ON), Loyalists in, 228. + +Transportation, need of military engineers for, 152. + +Trenton (NJ), Howe at, 100; attack on, 101-107, 109; Greene at, 171. + +Tryon, Governor of New York, 225. + + + +V + + + +Valley Forge (PA) Washington at, 148 et seq.; Washington leaves, 196. + +Vergennes, French Foreign Minister, 182-183, 184, 197, 271. + +Vincennes, Clark at, 223. + +Virginia, choice of a commander from, 8; state of society, 19-20, 32-33; +on independence, 73; Convention changes church service, 79; Burgoyne's +force in, 146; covets lands in Northwest, 222; Steuben in, 247; +Cornwallis in, 251. + +Vulture (sloop of war), 241, 242, 243. + + + +W + + + +Walpole, Horace 59, 64, 73-74; Gates godson of, 142; quoted, 217. + +Ward, General Artemus, 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 +gentlemen, 17-20; wealth; 20, 56; as a farmer, 20-21; a slave-owner, 21; +with Braddock, 22-23; opinion of George III, 25, 63; not a professional +soldier, 27; reorganizes army, 30-35; favors conscription, 34; at +Boston, 36; plans against Canada, 40-43; mourns Montgomery, 47; hated +of British, 57-58; Coke and, 71, 72, 189; advocates independence, 75; +headquarters in New York, 82, 87; Howe's letter to, 86-87; at Brooklyn +Heights, 88-91; exposed to enemy in New York, 93; 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, 113-115, 118, 120, 142; and Burgoyne, +116; at the Brandywine, 118-119; Germantown, 121-122; at Valley Forge, +148 et seq.; religion, 161; relations with staff, 167-168; as military +leader, 170; volunteers come to, 174; distrustful of France, 188-189; +celebrates French alliance, 193; army occupies Philadelphia, 196; +follows Clinton across New Jersey, 197-198; Monmouth Court House, 199; +despair of, 1779-1780, 208-209; guards Hudson, 209-210; French under, +210; opinion of Tories, 227; and Rochambeau, 234, 236, 237, 255; +reprimands Arnold, 239-240; and Andre, 243; 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; influences upon future, +275-276; bibliography, 278. + +Washington, Fort (NY), held by Americans, 96-97; British take, 97. + +West Indies, conquests restored, 273. + +West Point (NY), fortification, 236, 237-238; Arnold in command, 238; +plot to surrender, 240-244. + +White Plains (NY), battle of, 96. + +Wight, Isle of, plan to seize, 204. + +Wilkes, John, introduces bill into Parliament, 191. + +Wilmington (NC), British fleet reaches, 82; Cornwallis in, 250. + +Winslow, Edward, quoted, 49. + +Wyoming (PA) massacre, 229. + + + +Y + + + +York, Congress at, 162, 163. + +Yorktown, Cornwallis surrenders at, 228, 247 et seq. + + + + +The Chronicles of America Series + + 1. The Red Man's Continent + by Ellsworth Huntington + 2. The Spanish Conquerors + by Irving Berdine Richman + 3. Elizabethan Sea-Dogs + by William Charles Henry Wood + 4. The Crusaders of New France + by William Bennett Munro + 5. Pioneers of the Old South + by Mary Johnson + 6. The Fathers of New England + by Charles McLean Andrews + 7. Dutch and English on the Hudson + by Maud Wilder Goodwin + 8. The Quaker Colonies + by Sydney George Fisher + 9. Colonial Folkways + by Charles McLean Andrews + 10. The Conquest of New France + by George McKinnon Wrong + 11. The Eve of the Revolution + by Carl Lotus Becker + 12. Washington and His Comrades in Arms + by George McKinnon Wrong + 13. The Fathers of the Constitution + by Max Farrand + 14. Washington and His Colleagues + by Henry Jones Ford + 15. Jefferson and his Colleagues + by Allen Johnson + 16. John Marshall and the Constitution + by Edward Samuel Corwin + 17. The Fight for a Free Sea + by Ralph Delahaye Paine + 18. Pioneers of the Old Southwest + by Constance Lindsay Skinner + 19. The Old Northwest + by Frederic Austin Ogg + 20. The Reign of Andrew Jackson + by Frederic Austin Ogg + 21. The Paths of Inland Commerce + by Archer Butler Hulbert + 22. Adventurers of Oregon + by Constance Lindsay Skinner + 23. The Spanish Borderlands + by Herbert E. Bolton + 24. Texas and the Mexican War + by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson + 25. The Forty-Niners + by Stewart Edward White + 26. The Passing of the Frontier + by Emerson Hough + 27. The Cotton Kingdom + by William E. Dodd + 28. The Anti-Slavery Crusade + by Jesse Macy + 29. Abraham Lincoln and the Union + by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson + 30. The Day of the Confederacy + by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson + 31. Captains of the Civil War + by William Charles Henry Wood + 32. The Sequel of Appomattox + by Walter Lynwood Fleming + 33. The American Spirit in Education + by Edwin E. Slosson + 34. The American Spirit in Literature + by Bliss Perry + 35. Our Foreigners + by Samuel Peter Orth + 36. The Old Merchant Marine + by Ralph Delahaye Paine + 37. The Age of Invention + by Holland Thompson + 38. The Railroad Builders + by John Moody + 39. The Age of Big Business + by Burton Jesse Hendrick + 40. The Armies of Labor + by Samuel Peter Orth + 41. The Masters of Capital + by John Moody + 42. The New South + by Holland Thompson + 43. The Boss and the Machine + by Samuel Peter Orth + 44. The Cleveland Era + by Henry Jones Ford + 45. The Agrarian Crusade + by Solon Justus Buck + 46. The Path of Empire + by Carl Russell Fish + 47. Theodore Roosevelt and His Times + by Harold Howland + 48. Woodrow Wilson and the World War + by Charles Seymour + 49. The Canadian Dominion + by Oscar D. Skelton + 50. The Hispanic Nations of the New World + by William R. Shepherd + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Washington and his Comrades in Arms, by George Wrong + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES *** + +***** This file should be named 2704.txt or 2704.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/0/2704/ + +Produced by Dianne Bean, The James J. Kelly Library Of St. Gregory's +University; Alev Akman, David Widger, and Robert J. Homa + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/old/2704-8.zip b/old/2704-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b9edd57 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/2704-8.zip diff --git a/old/wacia10.txt b/old/wacia10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8c99c45 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/wacia10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6149 @@ +Project Gutenberg Washington and his Comrades in Arms, by Wrong + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + +*It must legally be the first thing seen when opening the book.* +In fact, our legal advisors said we can't even change margins. + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + + + + +Title: Washington and his Comrades in Arms +Title: A Chronicle of the War of Independence + +Author: George Wrong + +July, 2001 [Etext #2704] +[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule] + +Project Gutenberg Washington and his Comrades in Arms, by Wrong +*****This file should be named wacia10.txt or wacia10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, wacia11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, wacia10a.txt + +THIS BOOK, VOLUME 12 IN THE CHRONICLES OF AMERICA SERIES, ALLEN +JOHNSON, EDITOR, WAS DONATED TO PROJECT GUTENBERG BY THE JAMES J. +KELLY LIBRARY OF ST. GREGORY'S UNIVERSITY; THANKS TO ALEV AKMAN. + + +Scanned by Dianne Bean. + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions, +all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a +copyright notice is included. Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any +of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. + +Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. To be sure you have an +up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes +in the first week of the next month. Since our ftp program has +a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a +look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a +new copy has at least one byte more or less. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-six text +files per month, or 432 more Etexts in 1999 for a total of 2000+ +If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the +total should reach over 200 billion Etexts given away this year. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only ~5% of the present number of computer users. + +At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third +of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we +manage to get some real funding; currently our funding is mostly +from Michael Hart's salary at Carnegie-Mellon University, and an +assortment of sporadic gifts; this salary is only good for a few +more years, so we are looking for something to replace it, as we +don't want Project Gutenberg to be so dependent on one person. + +We need your donations more than ever! + + +All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are +tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. (CMU = Carnegie- +Mellon University). + +For these and other matters, please mail to: + +Project Gutenberg +P. O. Box 2782 +Champaign, IL 61825 + +When all other email fails. . .try our Executive Director: +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> +hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org +if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if +it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . . + +We would prefer to send you this information by email. + +****** + +To access Project Gutenberg etexts, use any Web browser +to view http://promo.net/pg. This site lists Etexts by +author and by title, and includes information about how +to get involved with Project Gutenberg. You could also +download our past Newsletters, or subscribe here. This +is one of our major sites, please email hart@pobox.com, +for a more complete list of our various sites. + +To go directly to the etext collections, use FTP or any +Web browser to visit a Project Gutenberg mirror (mirror +sites are available on 7 continents; mirrors are listed +at http://promo.net/pg). + +Mac users, do NOT point and click, typing works better. + +Example FTP session: + +ftp metalab.unc.edu +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg +cd etext90 through etext99 or etext00 through etext01, etc. +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET GUTINDEX.?? [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99] +GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books] + +*** + +**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor** + +(Three Pages) + + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG- +tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor +Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at +Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project"). Among other +things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this +etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors, +officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost +and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or +indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: +[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, +or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- + cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the + net profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + +We are planning on making some changes in our donation structure +in 2000, so you might want to email me, hart@pobox.com beforehand. + + + + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +THIS BOOK, VOLUME 12 IN THE CHRONICLES OF AMERICA SERIES, ALLEN +JOHNSON, EDITOR, WAS DONATED TO PROJECT GUTENBERG BY THE JAMES J. +KELLY LIBRARY OF ST. GREGORY'S UNIVERSITY; THANKS TO ALEV AKMAN. +Scanned by Dianne Bean. + + +WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES IN ARMS, A CHRONICLE OF THE WAR OF +INDEPENDENCE + +BY GEORGE M. WRONG + + + + +Volume 12 in the Chronicles of America Series. Abraham Lincoln Edition. + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE + +The author is aware of a certain audacity in undertaking, himself +a Briton, to appear in a company of American writers on American +history and above all to write on the subject of Washington. If +excuse is needed it is to be found in the special interest of the +career of Washington to a citizen of the British Commonwealth of +Nations at the present time and in the urgency with which the +editor and publishers declared that such an interpretation would +not be unwelcome to Americans and pressed upon the author a task +for which he doubted his own qualifications. To the editor he +owes thanks for wise criticism. He is also indebted to Mr. +Worthington Chauncey Ford, of the Massachusetts Historical +Society, a great authority on Washington, who has kindly read the +proofs and given helpful comments. Needless to say the author +alone is responsible for opinions in the book. + +University of Toronto, +June 16, 1920. + + +CONTENTS + +I. THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF + +II. BOSTON AND QUEBEC + +III. INDEPENDENCE + +IV. THE LOSS OF NEW YORK + +V. THE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIA + +VI. THE FIRST GREAT BRITISH DISASTER + +VII. WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES AT VALLEY FORGE + +VIII. THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE AND ITS RESULTS + +IX. THE WAR IN THE SOUTH + +X. FRANCE TO THE RESCUE + +XI. YORKTOWN + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + + +WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES IN ARMS + + +CHAPTER I. THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF + +Moving among the members of the second Continental 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 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 disputes about buying British stamps to put on +American 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 +inhabitants 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 +colonies 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 Boston 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 diversion 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 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 batteries lying off the shore. In the dark +the American force of twelve hundred men under Colonel Prescott +marched to this neck of land and then advanced 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 +commanded 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 certain that when he liked he could, with +his disciplined battalions, brush away the besieging army. Now he +saw the American force on Breed's Hill throwing up a defiant and +menacing redoubt and entrenchments. Gage did not hesitate. The +bold aggressors must be driven away at once. He detailed 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 sometimes 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 charge against men helpless with +empty rifles. This expectation was disappointed. The Americans +had in front of them a barricade and Israel Putnam was there, +threatening dire things to any one who should 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 +uniforms, 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 they were more +cautious. They began to work round to the weaker defenses of the +American left, where were no redoubts and entrenchments like +those on the right. By this time British ships were throwing +shells among the Americans. Charlestown was burning. The great +column of black smoke, the incessant roar of cannon, and the +dreadful 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 +floating 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 +victorious 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 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 decided 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. Virginia, next to +Massachusetts, had stood in the forefront of the movement, and +Virginia was fortunate in having in the Congress one whose fame +as a soldier ran through all the colonies. There was something to +be said for choosing a commander from the colony which began the +struggle and Adams knew that his colleague from Massachusetts, +John Hancock, 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 +Hancock'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 he had seen important service in the war +with France. His position and character commanded universal +aspect. 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 national 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 were traveling in foreign lands, the strange +manners and customs of the other colonies. The journey, 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 Jersey, 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 his +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 years +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, 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 +ownership 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 Declaration 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 attached 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 +like 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 hogsheads 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 English. 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 repairing a hairpin for a ward. He was +a keen farmer, and it is amusing to find him recording in his +careful journal that there are 844,800 seeds of "New River Grass" +to the pound Troy and so determining 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 Behaviour in Company and +Conversation." In the 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 revelation 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 sometimes," 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 better 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 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 decision 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, Dinwiddie, who thought his vehemence +unmannerly and ungrateful. Gilbert Stuart, who painted several 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 lighter than it really was. No doubt many of the rich +aristocracy spent idle days of pleasure-seeking with the +comfortable conviction that they could discharge 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 +slavery, 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 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 century 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 today 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 nothing 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 staggered at a residence costing +millions of dollars. Yet the Duke of Devonshire rivaled at +Chatsworth, and Lord Leicester at Holkham, Marlborough's building +at Blenheim, and many other costly palaces were erected during +the following 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 elaborate furniture, of +servants in livery, and much drinking of Port and Madeira, among +the Virginians: 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 country where one great landowner, Lord +Fairfax, held 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 pounds, 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 infertile estate of Mount Vernon would hardly grow enough +to pay the taxes. When Washington desired a gardener, or a +bricklayer, or a carpenter, 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 Washington, +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 +necessary. 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 +regarded as unfortunate accidents to be explained away in an era +of good feeling when each side 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 outside 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 discontented 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 contempt for the amateur soldiers of +whom Washington was one. In a wild country where rapid movement +was the condition of success Braddock would halt, as Washington +said, "to level every mole hill and to erect bridges over every +brook." His transport 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 +Virginia. "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 resentment 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 a 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 formal resolution +on July 18, 1774, that they were descended not from a conquered +but from a conquering 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 walking in what was to them +the hard path of duty, Washington could say later that "there +never existed a more miserable set of beings than these wretched +creatures." + +The age of Washington was one of bitter vehemence 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 teaching 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 Washington 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, instead 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 coercing of +the colonies so resolutely pressed by George III and his +ministers. Posterity can also, however, understand that the +struggle was not between undiluted virtue on the one side and +undiluted vice on the other. Some eighty years after the American +Revolution the Republic created by the Revolution endured the +horrors of civil war rather than accept its own disruption. In +1776 even the most liberal Englishmen felt a similar passion for +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 companies 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 Washington now saw it, +expressed the varied character 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 structures 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. +In the warm summer weather this did not much matter but bleak +autumn and harsh winter would bring bitter privation. The sick in +particular suffered severely, for the hospitals were badly +equipped. + +A deep conviction inspired many of the volunteers. They regarded +as brutal tyranny the tax on tea, considered in England as a mild +expedient for raising needed revenue for defense in the colonies. +The men of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, meeting in September, +1774, had declared in high-flown terms that the proposed tax came +from a parricide 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 Lincoln, in a noble +utterance which touched the heart of humanity, could appeal to +the days of the Revolution, when "our fathers brought forth on +this continent 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 Englander was a trader by instinct. An +army had come suddenly together and there was golden promise of +contracts for supplies at fat profits. 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 arts," 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 were hunters from the +frontier wearing the buckskin of the deer they had slain. +Sometimes there was clothing of grimmer material. Later in the +war in 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 sprinkling of +lads of sixteen. An observer laughed at the boys and the "great +great grandfathers" who 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 disparity 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 air from childhood. +Most of the men supplied their own uniform and rifles and much +barter went on in the hours after drill. The men made and 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 unchanging conviction, and they and he saved the +revolution. 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 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 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 +conscription, even in free Virginia. He had then found quite +ineffective the "whooping, holloing gentlemen soldiers" of the +volunteer force of the colony 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 Cambridge 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 any 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 +as to remain supine during the process. But probably 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 Americans +soon had privateers manned by seamen familiar with New England +waters and happy in expected gains from prize money. The British +were anxious about the elementary problem of food. They might +have made Washington more uncomfortable by forays and alarms. +Only reluctantly, however, did Howe, who took over the command on +October 10, 1775, admit to himself that this was a real 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 creation 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 in +British hands. New York, Philadelphia, Charleston 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 commanded no great waterway leading inland. The +sprawling colonies, from the rock-bound coast of New England to +the 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 increasing difficulties from transport and +supplies. Wherever 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 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 +endured, however, of fear of Canada. When, in 1774, the British +Parliament passed the bill for the government 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 under 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 extension 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 regarded 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 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; discipline was +slack, for there was nothing to do. 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 Virginians or New Yorkers. They had +been recently conquered by Britain; their new king was a tyrant; +they would desire liberty and would welcome an American army. So +reasoned Washington, but without knowledge. The Canadians were a +conquered people, but they had found the British king no tyrant +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 corruption and +tyranny almost unbelievable. The Canadian peasant had been +cruelly robbed and he had conceived for his French rulers a +dislike which appears still in his attitude towards the +motherland of France. For his new British master he had assuredly +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 underestimated, 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 Catholic Church of bigotry, persecution, +murder, and rebellion. This was no very tactful appeal for +sympathy to the sons of that France which was still the eldest +daughter of the Church and it was hardly helped by a maladroit +turn suggesting that "low-minded infirmities" should not permit +such differences to block union in the sacred cause of liberty. +Washington believed that two battalions of Canadians 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 was 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 Maine 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 sovereign. 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 distemper." No better were the men +from New York, "the sweepings of the streets" with morals +"infamous." Of the officers, too, Montgomery had a poor opinion. +Like Washington he declared that it was necessary to get +gentlemen, men of education 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 +competent 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 advance through the wilderness from the seacoast of Maine +and take Quebec by surprise. News travels even by forest +pathways. Arnold made a wonderful 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 Chaudiere, which +discharges into the St. Lawrence opposite Quebec. There were +heavy rains. Sometimes the men had to wade breast high in +dragging heavy and leaking boats over the difficult places. A +good many men died of starvation. Others deserted and turned +back. The indomitable Arnold pressed on, however, and on the 9th +of November, a few days before Montgomery occupied 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 Quebec, 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 threats by +Carleton's contempt, but never could he draw from Carleton a +reply. 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 attack from the west side of the +fortress. The advance 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 assailants not swept down fled in panic. With the morning +light the dead head of Montgomery was found protruding from the +snow. He was mourned by Washington and with reason. He had +talents and character which might have made him one of 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 Boston. 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 commanded Boston as critically from the south +as did Bunker Hill from the north. By the end of February +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 Dorchester Heights and +that if he would dislodge them he must make another attack +similar to that at Bunker Hill. The alternative of stiff fighting +was the evacuation of Boston. Howe, though dilatory, 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 powerful 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 decided 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 +critic 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 masts, 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. If 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 from cold. They suffered from the +dread disease 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 sometimes used violence. Then the Canadians became +more reserved and chilling than ever. In hope of mending matters +Congress sent a commission to Montreal in the spring of 1776. Its +chairman was Benjamin Franklin and, with him, were two leading +Roman Catholics, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a great landowner +of Maryland, and his brother John, a priest, afterwards +Archbishop 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 arrived 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 Americans 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. + +Congress sent six regiments to reinforce the army which had fled +from Quebec. It was a desperate 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 +attacked 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 +annihilated. 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 +together 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 into 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 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 6th of October were the little ships afloat on Lake +Champlain. Arnold, too, spent the summer 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 delayed 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 +Ticonderoga. 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 Lake Champlain to the +Americans. + + + +CHAPTER III. INDEPENDENCE + +Well-meaning people in England found it difficult to understand +the intensity of feeling in America. Britain had piled up a huge +debt in driving France from America. Landowners were paying in +taxes no less than twenty per cent of their incomes from land. +The people who had chiefly benefited by the humiliation of France +were the colonists, now freed from hostile menace and secure for +extension over a whole continent. Why should not they pay some +share of the cost of their own security? Certain facts tended to +make Englishmen indignant with the Americans. Every effort had +failed to get them to pay willingly for their defense. Before the +Stamp Act had become law in 1765 the colonies were given a whole +year to devise the raising of money in any way which they liked +better. The burden of what was asked would be light. Why should +not they agree to bear it? Why this talk, repeated by the Whigs +in the British Parliament, of brutal tyranny, oppression, hired +minions imposing slavery, and so on. Where were the oppressed? +Could any one point to a single person who before war broke out +had known British tyranny? What suffering could any one point to +as the result of the tax on tea? The people of England paid a tax +on tea four times heavier than that paid in America. Was not the +British Parliament supreme over the whole Empire? Did not the +colonies themselves admit that it had the right to control their +trade overseas? And if men shirk their duty should they not come +under some law of compulsion? + +It was thus that many a plain man reasoned in England. The plain +man in America had his own opposing point of view. Debts and +taxes in England were not his concern. He remembered the recent +war as vividly as did the Englishman, and, if the English paid +its cost in gold, he had paid his share in blood and tears. Who +made up the armies led by the British generals in America? More +than half the total number who served in America came from the +colonies, the colonies which had barely a third of the population +of Great Britain. True, Britain paid the bill in money but why +not? She was rich with a vast accumulated capital. The war, +partly in America, had given her the key to the wealth of India. +Look at the magnificence, the pomp of servants, plate and +pictures, the parks and gardens, of hundreds of English country +houses, and compare this opulence with the simple mode of life, +simplicity imposed by necessity, of a country gentleman like +George Washington of Virginia, reputed to be the richest man in +America. Thousands of tenants in England, owning no acre of land, +were making a larger income than was possible in America to any +owner of broad acres. It was true that America had gained from +the late war. The foreign enemy had been struck down. But had he +not been struck down too for England? Had there not been far more +dread in England of invasion by France and had not the colonies +by helping to ruin France freed England as much as England had +freed them? If now the colonies were asked to pay a share of the +bill for the British army that was a matter for discussion. They +had never before done it and they must not be told that they had +to meet the demand within a year or be compelled to pay. Was it +not to impose tyranny and slavery to tell a people that their +property would be taken by force if they did not choose to give +it? What free man would not rather die than yield on such a +point? + +The familiar workings of modern democracy have taught us that a +great political issue must be discussed in broad terms of high +praise or severe blame. The contestants will exaggerate both the +virtue of the side they espouse and the malignity of the opposing +side; nice discrimination is not possible. It was inevitable that +the dispute with the colonies should arouse angry vehemence on +both sides. The passionate speech of Patrick Henry in Virginia, +in 1763, which made him famous, and was the forerunner of his +later appeal, "Give me Liberty or give me Death, " related to so +prosaic a question as the right of disallowance by England of an +act passed by a colonial legislature, a right exercised long and +often before that time and to this day a part of the +constitutional machinery of the British Empire. Few men have +lived more serenely poised than Washington, yet, as we have seen, +he hated the British with an implacable hatred. He was a humane +man. In earlier years, Indian raids on the farmers of Virginia +had stirred him to "deadly sorrow," and later, during his retreat +from New York, he was moved by the cries of the weak and infirm. +Yet the same man felt no touch of pity for the Loyalists of the +Revolution. To him they were detestable parricides, vile +traitors, with no right to live. When we find this note in +Washington, in America, we hardly wonder that the high Tory, +Samuel Johnson, in England, should write that the proposed +taxation was no tyranny, that it had not been imposed earlier +because "we do not put a calf into the plough; we wait till he is +an ox," and that the Americans were "a race of convicts, and +ought to be thankful for anything which we allow them short of +hanging." Tyranny and treason are both ugly things. Washington +believed that he was fighting the one, Johnson that he was +fighting the other, and neither side would admit the charge +against itself. + +Such are the passions aroused by civil strife. We need not now, +when they are, or ought to be, dead, spend any time in deploring +them. It suffices to explain them and the events to which they +led. There was one and really only one final issue. Were the +American colonies free to govern themselves as they liked or +might their government in the last analysis be regulated by Great +Britain? The truth is that the colonies had reached a condition +in which they regarded themselves as British states with their +own parliaments, exercising complete jurisdiction in their own +affairs. They intended to use their own judgment and they were as +restless under attempted control from England as England would +have been under control from America. We can indeed always +understand the point of view of Washington if we reverse the +position and imagine what an Englishman would have thought of a +claim by America to tax him. + +An ancient and proud society is reluctant to change. After a long +and successful war England was prosperous. To her now came +riches from India and the ends of the earth. In society there was +such lavish expenditure that Horace Walpole declared an income of +twenty thousand pounds a year was barely enough. England had an +aristocracy the proudest in the world, for it had not only rank +but wealth. The English people were certain of the invincible +superiority of their nation. Every Englishman was taught, as +Disraeli said of a later period, to believe that he occupied a +position better than any one else of his own degree in any other +country in the world. The merchant in England was believed to +surpass all others in wealth and integrity, the manufacturer to +have no rivals in skill, the British sailor to stand in a class +by himself, the British officer to express the last word in +chivalry. It followed, of course, that the motherland was +superior to her children overseas. The colonies had no +aristocracy, no great landowners living in stately palaces. They +had almost no manufactures. They had no imposing state system +with places and pensions from which the fortunate might reap a +harvest of ten or even twenty thousand pounds a year. They had no +ancient universities thronged by gilded youth who, if noble, +might secure degrees without the trying ceremony of an +examination. They had no Established Church with the ancient +glories of its cathedrals. In all America there was not even a +bishop. In spite of these contrasts the English Whigs insisted +upon the political equality with themselves of the American +colonists. The Tory squire, however, shared Samuel Johnson's view +that colonists were either traders or farmers and that colonial +shopkeeping society was vulgar and contemptible. + +George III was ill-fitted by nature to deal with the crisis. The +King was not wholly without natural parts, for his own firm will +had achieved what earlier kings had tried and failed to do; he +had mastered Parliament, made it his obedient tool and himself +for a time a despot. He had some admirable virtues. He was a +family man, the father of fifteen children. He liked quiet +amusements and had wholesome tastes. If industry and belief in +his own aims could of themselves make a man great we might +reverence George. He wrote once to Lord North: "I have no object +but to be of use: if that is ensured I am completely happy." The +King was always busy. Ceaseless industry does not, however, +include every virtue, or the author of all evil would rank high +in goodness. Wisdom must be the pilot of good intentions. George +was not wise. He was ill-educated. He had never traveled. He had +no power to see the point of view of others. + +As if nature had not sufficiently handicapped George for a high +part, fate placed him on the throne at the immature age of +twenty-two. Henceforth the boy was master, not pupil. Great +nobles and obsequious prelates did him reverence. Ignorant and +obstinate, the young King was determined not only to reign but to +rule, in spite of the new doctrine that Parliament, not the King, +carried on the affairs of government through the leader of the +majority in the House of Commons, already known as the Prime +Minister. George could not really change what was the last +expression of political forces in England. The rule of Parliament +had come to stay. Through it and it alone could the realm be +governed. This power, however, though it could not be destroyed, +might be controlled. Parliament, while retaining all its +privileges, might yet carry out the wishes of the sovereign. The +King might be his own Prime Minister. The thing could be done if +the King's friends held a majority of the seats and would do what +their master directed. It was a dark day for England when a king +found that he could play off one faction against another, buy a +majority in Parliament, and retain it either by paying with +guineas or with posts and dignities which the bought Parliament +left in his gift. This corruption it was which ruined the first +British Empire. + +We need not doubt that George thought it his right and also his +duty to coerce America, or rather, as he said, the clamorous +minority which was trying to force rebellion. He showed no lack +of sincerity. On October 26, 1775, while Washington was besieging +Boston, he opened Parliament with a speech which at any rate made +the issue clear enough. Britain would not give up colonies which +she had founded with severe toil and nursed with great kindness. +Her army and her navy, both now increased in size, would make her +power respected. She would not, however, deal harshly with her +erring children. Royal mercy would be shown to those who admitted +their error and they need not come to England to secure it. +Persons in America would be authorized to grant pardons and +furnish the guarantees which would proceed from the royal +clemency. + +Such was the magnanimity of George III. Washington's rage at the +tone of the speech is almost amusing in its vehemence. He, with a +mind conscious of rectitude and sacrifice in a great cause, to +ask pardon for his course! He to bend the knee to this tyrant +overseas! Washington himself was not highly gifted with +imagination. He never realized the strength of the forces in +England arrayed on his own side and attributed to the English, as +a whole, sinister and malignant designs always condemned by the +great mass of the English people. They, no less than the +Americans, were the victims of a turn in politics which, for a +brief period, and for only a brief period, left power in the +hands of a corrupt Parliament and a corrupting king. + +Ministers were not all corrupt or place-hunters. One of them, the +Earl of Dartmouth, was a saint in spirit. Lord North, the king's +chief minister, was not corrupt. He disliked his office and +wished to leave it. In truth no sweeping simplicity of +condemnation will include all the ministers of George III except +on this one point that they allowed to dictate their policy a +narrow-minded and ignorant king. It was their right to furnish a +policy and to exercise the powers of government, appoint to +office, spend the public revenues. Instead they let the King say +that the opinions of his ministers had no avail with him. If we +ask why, the answer is that there was a mixture of motives. North +stayed in office because the King appealed to his loyalty, a plea +hard to resist under an ancient monarchy. Others stayed from love +of power or for what they could get. In that golden age of +patronage it was possible for a man to hold a plurality of +offices which would bring to himself many thousands of pounds a +year, and also to secure the reversion of offices and pensions to +his children. Horace Walpole spent a long life in luxurious ease +because of offices with high pay and few duties secured in the +distant days of his father's political power. Contracts to supply +the army and the navy went to friends of the government, +sometimes with disastrous results, since the contractor often +knew nothing of the business he undertook. When, in 1777, the +Admiralty boasted that thirty-five ships of war were ready to put +to sea it was found that there were in fact only six. The system +nearly ruined the navy. It actually happened that planks of a +man-of-war fell out through rot and that she sank. Often ropes +and spars could not be had when most needed. When a public loan +was floated the King's friends and they alone were given the +shares at a price which enabled them to make large profits on the +stock market. + +The system could endure only as long as the King's friends had a +majority in the House of Commons. Elections must be looked after. +The King must have those on whom he could always depend. He +controlled offices and pensions. With these things he bought +members and he had to keep them bought by repeating the benefits. +If the holder of a public office was thought to be dying the King +was already naming to his Prime Minister the person to whom the +office must go when death should occur. He insisted that many +posts previously granted for life should now be given during his +pleasure so that he might dismiss the holders at will. He watched +the words and the votes in Parliament of public men and woe to +those in his power if they displeased him. When he knew that Fox, +his great antagonist, would be absent from Parliament he pressed +through measures which Fox would have opposed. It was not until +George III was King that the buying and selling of boroughs +became common. The King bought votes in the boroughs by paying +high prices for trifles. He even went over the lists of voters +and had names of servants of the government inserted if this +seemed needed to make a majority secure. One of the most +unedifying scenes in English history is that of George making a +purchase in a shop at Windsor and because of this patronage +asking for the shopkeeper's support in a local election. The King +was saving and penurious in his habits that he might have the +more money to buy votes. When he had no money left he would go to +Parliament and ask for a special grant for his needs and the +bought members could not refuse the money for their buying. + +The people of England knew that Parliament was corrupt. But how +to end the system? The press was not free. Some of it the +government bought and the rest it tried to intimidate though +often happily in vain. Only fragments of the debates in +Parliament were published. Not until 1779 did the House of +Commons admit the public to its galleries. No great political +meetings were allowed until just before the American war and in +any case the masses had no votes. The great landowners had in +their control a majority of the constituencies. There were scores +of pocket boroughs in which their nominees were as certain of +election as peers were of their seats in the House of Lords. The +disease of England was deep-seated. A wise king could do much, +but while George III survived--and his reign lasted sixty +years--there was no hope of a wise king. A strong minister could +impose his will on the King. But only time and circumstance could +evolve a strong minister. Time and circumstance at length +produced the younger Pitt. But it needed the tragedy of two long +wars--those against the colonies and revolutionary France--before +the nation finally threw off the system which permitted the +personal rule of George III and caused the disruption of the +Empire. It may thus be said with some truth that George +Washington was instrumental in the salvation of England. + +The ministers of George III loved the sports, the rivalries, the +ease, the remoteness of their rural magnificence. Perverse +fashion kept them in London even in April and May for "the +season," just 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 +important 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 Germain, 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. Germain 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 they 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 "perfectly justifiable in every possible political +and moral sense." All the world knows that Chatham 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 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. 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 theologian, 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. + +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 taxation and he understood Washington. The +American 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 independence. 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 spasmodic +declarations of independence were made here and there by local +bodies. When Congress 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 belligerents 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 sinister--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 unwilling 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 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 +Philadelphia 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 men, weak men, prejudiced men, moderate men who do not +really know Europe, may urge reconciliation, 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 to be forgiven. 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 hundred thousand copies were quickly sold +and it brought decision to many wavering minds. + +In the first days of 1776 independence had become 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 settlement, and at last +Virginia, in this as in so many other things taking the lead, +instructed its delegates to urge a declaration by Congress of +independence. 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 referred to a committee +of which John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were members. It is +interesting 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 Independence. Adams related +long after that he and Jefferson formed the sub-committee to +draft the Declaration and that he urged Jefferson to undertake +the task since "you can write ten times better 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. "I 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 beginning 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 +Lincoln. 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 "Flights 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 "introducing the +same absolute rule into these colonies." 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 +had 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 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 reverence of a document +which became a classic utterance 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 government 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 formal Declaration +of Independence. The members did 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. It was a momentous +occasion and was understood to be such. The vote seems to have +been reached in the late afternoon. Anxious citizens were waiting +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 Declaration the Virginia Convention struck out "O Lord, +save the King" from the church service. On the l0th 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. +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 +Virginia. Washington had no illusions of security. He was anxious +above all for the safety of New York, commanding the vital artery +of the Hudson, which must at all costs be defended. Accordingly, +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 America. One of these we have already +seen at Quebec. 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 expeditions was to strike at New York and, by a show of +strength, bring the colonists to reason and reconciliation. If +mildness failed the British intended to capture New York, sail up +the Hudson and cut off New England from the other colonies. + +The squadron destined 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 men under 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. Admiral Sir +Peter Parker commanded the fleet, and 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 Parker drew off, with two hundred and +twenty-five casualties against an American loss of thirty-seven. +The check was greater than that of Bunker 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," one of them testified. Only one of +Parker's ten ships was seaworthy after the fight. It took him +three weeks to refit, and not until the 4th of August did his +defeated ships reach New York. + +A mighty armada of seven hundred ships had 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 +Parliament for Nottingham and had publicly condemned the quarrel +with America 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, however, affects action. +Howe had no belief that his country was in the right in the war +and this handicapped him as against the passionate conviction of +Washington that all was at stake which made life worth living. + +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 by 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 Howe 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, however, 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 was a fighting sailor. Nearly twenty years +later, on June 1, 1794, when he was in command 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 in the annals of the sea. + +By the middle of July the two brothers were at New York. The +soldier, having waited at Halifax 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 addressed in civilian +style as "George Washington Esq." The King and his ministers had +no imagination to call up the picture of high-hearted men +fighting for rights which they held dear. + +* Trevelyan, "American Revolution", Part II, vol. I (New Ed., +vol. II), 261. + + +Lord Howe went so far as to address a letter to "George +Washington Esq. &c. &c.," and Washington agreed to an interview +with the officer who bore it. In imposing uniform and with the +stateliest manner, Washington, who had an instinct for effect, +received the envoy. The awed messenger explained that the symbols +" &c. &c." meant everything, 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 +Congress 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 mainland 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 +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 +thousand well-trained soldiers, and he could, in addition, 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 Washington was likely +only to qualify defeat. He was advised to destroy New York and +retire to positions more tenable. But even if he had so desired, +Congress, his master, would not permit him to 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 the city +untenable. Accordingly Washington placed half his force on Long +Island to defend Brooklyn Heights and in doing so made the +fundamental error of cutting his army in two and dividing it by +an arm of the sea in presence of overwhelming hostile naval +power. + +On the 22d of August Howe ferried fifteen thousand men across the +Narrows to Long Island, in order to attack the position on +Brooklyn Heights from the rear. Before him lay wooded hills +across which led three roads converging at Brooklyn 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 overwhelming odds, had +lost nearly two thousand men in casualties and prisoners, six +field pieces, and twenty-six heavy guns. The two chief +commanders, Sullivan 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 marsh three miles long. When +he realized, on the 28th of August, what Howe had achieved, he +increased the defenders of Brooklyn Heights to ten thousand men, +more than half his army. This was another cardinal error. British +ships were near and but for unfavorable winds might have sailed +up to Brooklyn. Washington hoped and prayed that 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 move away or face the danger of losing every +man on Long Island. + +On the night of the 29th of August there was clear moonlight, +with fog towards daybreak. A British army of twenty-five thousand +men was only some six hundred yards from the American lines. A +few miles from the shore lay at anchor a great British fleet +with, it is to be presumed, its patrols on the alert. Yet, during +that night, ten thousand American troops were marched down to +boats on the strand at Brooklyn and, with all their stores, were +carried across a mile of water to New York. There must have been +the splash of oars 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 of 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 British fleet might have brought panic to the Americans +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 asking 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, withdrawn 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 performed this +maneuver as soon as they had a favorable wind. There was, we +know, great confusion in New York, and Washington tells us how +his 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 an envoy to make peace. The British victory on Long +Island might, he thought, make Congress more willing to +negotiate. So now he sent to Philadelphia 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 Americans had the British +quality of becoming more 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 Congress seems to have +thought that Howe was planning treachery. John Adams, excepted by +name from British offers of pardon, called Sullivan a "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 stalwart Adams and the suave Franklin +were willing to be members of a committee which went to meet Lord +Howe. With great sorrow Howe now realized 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 regiments 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. 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, +invited 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 York soon took fire and one-third of +the little city was burned. + +After the fall of New York there followed a complex 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 together. 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 autumn 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 still on +Long Island in ships which then sailed through the dangerous +currents of Hell Gate and landed at Throg's Neck, a peninsula on +the sound across from Long Island. Washington parried this +movement by so guarding the narrow neck of the peninsula leading +to the mainland 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 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 +retreat, 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, on the whole Washington's best +general, was in command 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 hundred, +but they took the huge fort with its three thousand defenders and +a great quantity of munitions of war. Howe's threat was not +carried out. There was no massacre. + +Across the river at Fort Lee the helpless Washington watched this +great disaster. He had need still to look out, for Fort Lee was +itself doomed. On the nineteenth Lord Cornwallis with five +thousand men crossed the river five miles above Fort Lee. General +Greene barely escaped with the two thousand men in the fort, +leaving behind one hundred 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 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, Horatio 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 thousand +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 received +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. He seems deliberately to have +left Washington to face complete disaster and thus prove his +incompetence; then, as the undefeated general, he could take the +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 role. 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 bestride 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 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 Sullivan 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 Philadelphia 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 +issued 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. Philadelphia +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 despatch: "My center is giving +way; my right is retreating; 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 probably 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 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 +Trenton, but this, as Washington well knew, had not been done for +Rahl despised his enemy and spoke of the American army as already +lost. Washington'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 Bordentown below Trenton, the second at +Trenton itself. These two attacks were designed to prevent aid to +Trenton. The third force with which Washington himself 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 boatmen 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 daybreak. 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 the more +on the bayonet. He attacked Trenton in broad daylight. There was +a sharp fight. 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, however, +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 victory. Now, instead, he was sent to drive back +Washington. It was no easy task for Cornwallis to reach Trenton, +for Washington's scouting 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 reoccupied Trenton. This time +Washington had not recrossed 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 Cornwallis. That night he sharply +cannonaded Washington'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 compliment 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 history 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. Instead of +taking the obvious course of again retreating across the Delaware +Washington decided to advance, to get in behind Cornwallis, to +try to cut his communications, to threaten the British base 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, Washington'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 +entrenchments. The fires died down towards morning and the +British awoke to find the enemy camp deserted. 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 reinforcements coming to Cornwallis. He +reached Princeton and then slipped away northward and made his +headquarters at Morristown. He had achieved his purpose. The +British with Washington 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 exception of some minor positions near the sea. +He had 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. + + + +CHAPTER V. THE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIA + +Though the outlook for Washington was brightened by his success +in New Jersey, it was still depressing 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 prosecution of +the war in America. These numbers were in fact never reached, but +the army of forty thousand in America was formidable compared +with Washington'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. + +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, Washington, in view of his own depleted force, in +a state of half famine, wrote: "If Howe does not take advantage +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 +combination in action which was the first condition of final +success. He could have captured Philadelphia in May. He took the +city, but not until September, when to hold it had become a +liability and not 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 a low +ebb. He had always the faith that a cause founded on justice +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 interests 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 tomorrow 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 constantly +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 concealed, 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 service 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. 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 he to 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 cooperate 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 recently captured, and Lee, as we know, +told him 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 prevent 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 cooperate +with Burgoyne. First, however, he was resolved to have +Philadelphia. Washington watched Howe in perplexity. A great +fleet and a great army lay at New York. Why did they not move? +Washington knew perfectly well what he himself would have done in +Howe's place. He would have attacked rapidly in April the weak +American army and, after destroying 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 overwhelming 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 saying +that the fleet was about to sail for Boston. All these things +took time and the summer was slipping away. In the 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? Washington 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 Knyphausen, 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 +sedition 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 hundred and twenty-nine ships +set their sails and covered the sea for miles. When they had +disappeared out of sight of the New Jersey shore their goal was +still unknown. At sea they might turn in any direction. +Washington's uncertainty 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 hovering 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 intended 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 of August, when the net was closing on Burgoyne, Howe was +three hundred miles away. His disregard 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 obstructions commanded by bristling +forts. The naval officers said truly that the fleet could not get +up the river. 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 Chesapeake Bay there +was little to prevent him from landing his army on the Delaware +side of the peninsula and marching across it. By sea it is a +voyage 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 when a 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 of fighting he showed +himself formidable. When he had landed at Elkton he was fifty +miles southwest of Philadelphia and between him and that place +was Washington with his army. Washington was determined to delay +Howe in every possible way. To get to Philadelphia Howe had to +cross the Brandywine River. Time was nothing to him. He landed at +Elkton on the 25th of August. Not until the l0th of September was +he prepared to attack Washington barring his way at Chadd's Ford. +Washington was in a strong position on a front of two miles on +the river. At his left, below Chadd's Ford, the Brandywine is a +torrent flowing between high cliffs. There the British would find +no passage. On his right was a forest. Washington had chosen his +position with his usual skill. Entrenchments protected his front +and batteries would sweep down an advancing enemy. He had +probably not more than eleven thousand men in the fight and it is +doubtful whether Howe brought up a greater number so that the +armies were not unevenly matched. At daybreak on the eleventh the +British army broke camp at the village of Kenneth Square, four +miles from Chadd's Ford, and, under General Knyphausen, marched +straight to make a frontal attack on Washington's position. + +In the battle which followed Washington was beaten by the +superior tactics of his enemy. Not all of the British army was +there in the attack at Chadd's Ford. A column under Cornwallis +had filed off by a road to the left and was making a long and +rapid march. The plan was to cross the Brandywine some ten miles +above where Washington was posted and to attack him in the rear. +By two o'clock in the afternoon Cornwallis had forced the two +branches of the upper Brandywine and was marching on Dilworth at +the right rear of the American army. Only then did Washington +become aware of his danger. His first impulse was to advance +across Chadd's Ford to try to overwhelm Knyphausen and thus to +get between Howe and the fleet at Elkton. This might, however, +have brought disaster and he soon decided to retire. His movement +was ably carried out. Both sides suffered in the woodland +fighting but that night the British army encamped in Washington's +position at Chadd's Ford, and Howe had fought skillfully and won +an important battle. + +Washington had retired in good order and was still formidable. He +now realized clearly enough that Philadelphia would fall. Delay, +however, would be nearly as good as victory. He saw what Howe +could not see, that menacing cloud in the north, much bigger than +a man's hand, which, with Howe far away, should break in a final +storm terrible for the British cause. Meanwhile Washington meant +to keep Howe occupied. Rain alone prevented another battle before +the British reached the Schuylkill River. On that river +Washington guarded every ford. But, in the end, by skillful +maneuvering, Howe was able to cross and on the 26th of September +he occupied Philadelphia without resistance. The people were +ordered to remain quietly in their houses. Officers were billeted +on the wealthier inhabitants. The fall resounded far of what Lord +Adam Gordon called a "great and 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 condemned 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 renewed their oath of allegiance to the King. +Washington complained that the people gave Howe information +denied to him. They certainly fed 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 Philadelphia 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 carried 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 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 +brigade 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 + +John 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 Christian, who, in spite of many faults, had +never forgotten 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 +certain that a tailor stands with his feet on the neck of the +King of France. The decks of captured ships swim with punch and +are clotted with gold dust, and happy soldiers play with diamonds +as if they were marbles. The senators of England, 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 expected, 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 do 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 colonies had fought in alliance with the +painted and befeathered savages and had made no protest. Now +either times had changed, or there was something in a civil war +which made the use of savages 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 +country. 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 to land 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. 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 commanding 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 necessity. He abandoned the untenable +forts and retired 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 III of the fall of Fort Ticonderoga. The place had been +much discussed. It had been the first British 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 +heartburning 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 +depression 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 harassing 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 two 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 equipment 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 England, 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 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 Edward 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 +instructions 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 way 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 Bennington 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 Germans 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 of allegiance, slipped round to his rear and +in the morning he was attacked from front and rear. + +A hot fight followed which resulted in the complete defeat of the +British. Baum was mortally wounded. Some of his men escaped into +the woods; the rest were killed or captured. Nor was this all. +Burgoyne, scenting danger, had ordered five hundred more Germans +to reinforce Baum. They, too, were attacked and overwhelmed. In +all Burgoyne lost some eight hundred men and four guns. The +American loss was seventy. It shows the spirit of the time that, +for the sport of the soldiers, British prisoners were tied +together in pairs and driven by negroes at the tail of horses. An +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 and mounted him on a horse also without the left +eye, in derision at the captive's misfortune. The British +complained that quarter was refused in the fight. For days tired +stragglers, after long wandering in the woods, drifted into +Burgoyne's camp. This was now near Saratoga, a name destined to +be ominous in the history of the British army. + +Further misfortune now crowded upon Burgoyne. The general of that +day had two favorite 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 British 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 Americans. With him were two men deemed +potent in that scene. One of these was Sir John Johnson who had +recently inherited the vast estate in the neighborhood of his +father, the great Indian Superintendent, Sir William Johnson, and +was now in command of a regiment recruited from Loyalists, many +of them fierce and embittered because of the seizure of their +property. The other leader was a famous chief of the Mohawks, +Thayendanegea, or, to give him his English name, Joseph Brant, +half savage still, but also half civilized and half educated, +because he had had a careful schooling and for a brief day had +been courted by London fashion. He exerted a formidable influence +with his own people. The Indians were not, however, all on one +side. Half of the six tribes of the Iroquois were either neutral +or in sympathy with the Americans. Among the savages, as among +the civilized, the war was a family quarrel, in which brother +fought brother. Most of the Indians on the American side +preserved, indeed, an outward neutrality. There was no hostile +population for them to plunder and the Indian usually had no +stomach for any other kind of warfare. The allies of the British, +on the other hand, had plenty of openings to their taste and they +brought on the British cause an enduring discredit. + +When St. Leger was before Fort Stanwix he heard that a force of +eight hundred men, led by a German settler named Herkimer, was +coming up against him. When it was at Oriskany, about six miles +away, St. Leger laid a trap. He sent Brant with some hundreds of +Indians and a few soldiers to be concealed in a marshy ravine +which Herkimer must cross. When the American force was hemmed in +by trees and marsh on the narrow causeway of logs running across +the ravine the Indians attacked with wild yells and murderous +fire. Then followed a bloody hand to hand fight. Tradition has +been busy with its horrors. Men struggled in slime and blood and +shouted curses and defiance. Improbable stories are told of pairs +of skeletons found afterwards in the bog each with a bony hand +which had driven a knife to the heart of the other. In the end +the British, met by resolution so fierce, drew back. Meanwhile a +sortie from the American fort on their rear had a menacing +success. Sir John Johnson's camp was taken and sacked. The two +sides were at last glad to separate, after the most bloody +struggle in the whole war. St. Leger's Indians had had more than +enough. About a hundred had been killed and the rest were in a +state of mutiny. Soon it was known that Benedict Arnold, with a +considerable force, was pushing up the Mohawk Valley to relieve +the American fort. Arnold knew how to deal with savages. He took +care that his friendly Indians should come into contact with +those of Brant and tell lurid tales of utter disaster to Burgoyne +and of a great avenging army on the march to attack St. Leger. +The result was that St. Leger's Indians broke out in riot and +maddened themselves with stolen rum. Disorder affected even the +soldiers. The only thing for St. Leger to do was to get away. He +abandoned his guns and stores and, harassed now by his former +Indian allies, made his way to Oswego and in the end reached +Montreal with a remnant of his force. + +News of these things came to Burgoyne just after the disaster at +Bennington. Since Fort Stanwix was in a country counted upon as +Loyalist at heart it was especially discouraging again to find +that in the main the population was against the British. During +the war almost without exception Loyalist opinion proved weak +against the fierce determination of the American side. It was +partly a matter of organization. The vigilance committees in each +State made life well-nigh intolerable to suspected Tories. Above +all, however, the British had to bear the odium which attaches +always to the invader. We do not know what an American army would +have done if, with Iroquois savages as allies, it had made war in +an English county. We know what loathing a parallel situation +aroused against the British army in America. The Indians, it +should be noted, were not soldiers under British discipline but +allies; the chiefs regarded themselves as equals who must be +consulted and not as enlisted to take orders from a British +general. + +In war, as in politics, nice balancing of merit or defect in an +enemy would destroy the main purpose which is to defeat him. Each +side exaggerates any weak point in the other in order to +stimulate the fighting passions. Judgment is distorted. The +Baroness Riedesel, the wife of one of Burgoyne's generals, who +was in Boston in 1777, says that the people were all dressed +alike in a peasant costume with a leather strap round the waist, +that they were of very low and insignificant stature, and that +only one in ten of them could read or write. She pictures New +Englanders as tarring and feathering cultivated English ladies. +When educated people believed every evil of the enemy the +ignorant had no restraint to their credulity. New England had +long regarded the native savages as a pest. In 1776 New Hampshire +offered seventy pounds for each scalp of a hostile male Indian +and thirty-seven pounds and ten shillings for each scalp of a +woman or of a child under twelve years of age. Now it was +reported that the British were offering bounties for American +scalps. Benjamin Franklin satirized British ignorance when he +described whales leaping Niagara Falls and he did not expect to +be taken seriously when, at a later date, he pictured George III +as gloating over the scalps of his subjects in America. The +Seneca Indians alone, wrote Franklin, sent to the King many bales +of scalps. Some bales were captured by the Americans and they +found the scalps of 43 soldiers, 297 farmers, some of them burned +alive, and 67 old people, 88 women, 193 boys, 211 girls, 29 +infants, and others unclassified. Exact figures bring conviction. +Franklin was not wanting in exactness nor did he fail, albeit it +was unwittingly, to intensify burning resentment of which we have +echoes still. Burgoyne had to bear the odium of the outrages by +Indians. It is amusing to us, though it was hardly so to this +kindly man, to find these words put into his mouth by a colonial +poet: + + I will let loose the dogs of Hell, +Ten thousand Indians who shall yell, +And foam, and tear, and grin, and roar +And drench their moccasins in gore:. . . +I swear, by St. George and St. Paul, +I will exterminate you all. + +Such seed, falling on soil prepared by the hate of war, brought +forth its deadly fruit. The Americans believed that there was no +brutality from which British officers would shrink. Burgoyne had +told his Indian allies that they must not kill except in actual +fighting and that there must be no slaughter of non-combatants +and no scalping of any but the dead. The warning delivered him +into the hands of his enemies for it showed that he half expected +outrage. Members of the British House of Commons were no whit +behind the Americans in attacking him. Burke amused the House by +his satire on Burgoyne's words: "My gentle lions, my humane +bears, my tenderhearted hyenas, go forth! But I exhort you, as +you are Christians and members of civilized society, to take care +not to hurt any man, woman, or child." Burke's great speech +lasted for three and a half hours and Sir George Savile called it +"the greatest triumph of eloquence within memory." British +officers disliked their dirty, greasy, noisy allies and Burgoyne +found his use of savages, with the futile order to be merciful, a +potent factor in his defeat. + +A horrifying incident had occurred while he was fighting his way +to the Hudson. As the Americans were preparing to leave Fort +Edward some marauding Indians saw a chance of plunder and +outrage. They burst into a house and carried off two ladies, both +of them British in sympathy--Mrs. McNeil, a cousin of one of +Burgoyne's chief officers, General Fraser, and Miss Jeannie +McCrae, whose betrothed, a Mr. Jones, and whose brother were +serving with Burgoyne. In a short time Mrs. McNeil was handed +over unhurt to Burgoyne's advancing army. Miss McCrae was never +again seen alive by her friends. Her body was found and a Wyandot +chief, known as the Panther, showed her scalp as a trophy. +Burgoyne would have been a poor creature had he not shown anger +at such a crime, even if committed against the enemy. This crime, +however, was committed against his own friends. He pressed the +charge against the chief and was prepared to hang him and only +relaxed when it was urged that the execution would cause all his +Indians to leave him and to commit further outrages. The incident +was appealing in its tragedy and stirred the deep anger of the +population of the surrounding country among whose descendants to +this day the tradition of the abandoned brutality of the British +keeps alive the old hatred. + +At Fort Edward Burgoyne now found that he could hardly move. He +was encumbered by an enormous baggage train. His own effects +filled, it is said, thirty wagons and this we can believe when we +find that champagne was served at his table up almost to the day +of final disaster. The population was thoroughly aroused against +him. His own instinct was to remain near the water route to +Canada and make sure of his communications. On the other hand, +honor called him to go forward and not fail Howe, supposed to be +advancing to meet him. For a long time he waited and hesitated. +Meanwhile he was having increasing difficulty in feeding his army +and through sickness and desertion his numbers were declining. By +the 13th of September he had taken a decisive step. He made a +bridge of boats and moved his whole force across the river to +Saratoga, now Schuylerville. This crossing of the river would +result inevitably in cutting off his communications with Lake +George and Ticonderoga. After such a step he could not go back +and he was moving forward into a dark unknown. The American camp +was at Stillwater, twelve miles farther down the river. Burgoyne +sent messenger after messenger to get past the American lines and +bring back news of Howe. Not one of these unfortunate spies +returned. Most of them were caught and ignominiously hanged. One +thing, however, Burgoyne could do. He could hazard a fight and on +this he decided as the autumn was closing in. + +Burgoyne had no time to lose, once his force was on the west bank +of the Hudson. General Lincoln cut off his communications with +Canada and was soon laying siege to Ticonderoga. The American +army facing Burgoyne was now commanded by General Gates. This +Englishman, the godson of Horace Walpole, had gained by +successful intrigue powerful support in Congress. That body was +always paying too much heed to local claims and jealousies and on +the 2d of August it removed Schuyler of New York because he was +disliked by the soldiers from New England and gave the command to +Gates. Washington was far away maneuvering to meet Howe and he +was never able to watch closely the campaign in the north. Gates, +indeed, considered himself independent of Washington and reported +not to the Commander-in-Chief but direct to Congress. On the 19th +of September Burgoyne attacked Gates in a strong entrenched +position on Bemis Heights, at Stillwater. There was a long and +bitter fight, but by evening Burgoyne had not carried the main +position and had lost more than five hundred men whom he could +ill spare from his scanty numbers. + +Burgoyne's condition was now growing desperate. American forces +barred retreat to Canada. He must go back and meet both frontal +and flank attacks, or go forward, or surrender. To go forward now +had most promise, for at last Howe had instructed Clinton, left +in command at New York, to move, and Clinton was making rapid +progress up the Hudson. On the 7th of October Burgoyne attacked +again at Stillwater. This time he was decisively defeated, a +result due to the amazing energy in attack of Benedict Arnold, +who had been stripped of his command by an intrigue. Gates would +not even speak to him and his lingering in the American camp was +unwelcome. Yet as a volunteer Arnold charged the British line +madly and broke it. Burgoyne's best general, Fraser, was killed +in the fight. Burgoyne retired to Saratoga and there at last +faced the prospects of getting back to Fort Edward and to Canada. +It may be that he could have cut his way through, but this is +doubtful. Without risk of destruction he could not move in any +direction. His enemies now outnumbered him nearly four to one. +His camp was swept by the American guns and his men were under +arms night and day. American sharpshooters stationed themselves +at daybreak in trees about the British camp and any one who +appeared in the open risked his life. If a cap was held up in +view instantly two or three balls would pass through it. His +horses were killed by rifle shots. Burgoyne had little food for +his men and none for his horses. His Indians had long since gone +off in dudgeon. Many of his Canadian French slipped off homeward +and so did the Loyalists. The German troops were naturally +dispirited. A British officer tells of the deadly homesickness of +these poor men. They would gather in groups of two dozen or so +and mourn that they would never again see their native land. They +died, a score at a time, of no other disease than sickness for +their homes. They could have no pride in trying to save a lost +cause. Burgoyne was surrounded and, on the 17th of October, he +was obliged to surrender. + +Gates proposed to Burgoyne hard terms--surrender with no honors +of war. The British were to lay down their arms in their +encampments and to march out without weapons of any kind. +Burgoyne declared that, rather than accept such terms, he would +fight still and take no quarter. A shadow was falling on the path +of Gates. The term of service of some of his men had expired. The +New Englanders were determined to stay and see the end of +Burgoyne but a good many of the New York troops went off. +Sickness, too, was increasing. Above all General Clinton was +advancing up the Hudson. British ships could come up freely as +far as Albany and in a few days Clinton might make a formidable +advance. Gates, a timid man, was in a hurry. He therefore agreed +that the British should march from their camp with the honors of +war, that the troops should be taken to New England, and from +there to England. They must not serve again in North America +during the war but there was nothing in the terms to prevent +their serving in Europe and relieving British regiments for +service in America. Gates had the courtesy to keep his army where +it could not see the laying down of arms by Burgoyne's force. +About five thousand men, of whom sixteen hundred were Germans and +only three thousand five hundred fit for duty, surrendered to +sixteen thousand Americans. Burgoyne gave offense to German +officers by saying in his report that he might have held out +longer had all his troops been British. This is probably true but +the British met with only a just Nemesis for using soldiers who +had no call of duty to serve. + +The army set out on its long march of two hundred miles to +Boston. The late autumn weather was cold, the army was badly +clothed and fed, and the discomfort of the weary route was +increased by the bitter antagonism of the inhabitants. They +respected the regular British soldier but at the Germans they +shouted insults and the Loyalists they despised as traitors. The +camp at the journey's end was on the ground at Cambridge where +two years earlier Washington had trained his first army. Every +day Burgoyne expected to embark. There was delay and, at last, he +knew the reason. Congress repudiated the terms granted by Gates. +A tangled dispute followed. Washington probably had no sympathy +with the quibbling of Congress. But he had no desire to see this +army return to Europe and release there an army to serve in +America. Burgoyne's force was never sent to England. For nearly a +year it lay at Boston. Then it was marched to Virginia. The men +suffered great hardships and the numbers fell by desertion and +escape. When peace came in 1783 there was no army to take back to +England; Burgoyne's soldiers had been merged into the American +people. It may well be, indeed, that descendants of his beaten +men have played an important part in building up the United +States. The irony of history is unconquerable. + + + +CHAPTER VII. WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES AT VALLEY FORGE + +Washington had met defeat in every considerable battle at which +he was personally present. His first appearance in military +history, in the Ohio campaign against the French, twenty-two +years before the Revolution, was marked by a defeat, the +surrender of Fort Necessity. Again in the next year, when he +fought to relieve the disaster to Braddock's army, defeat was his +portion. Defeat had pursued him in the battles of the Revolution +--before New York, at the Brandywine, at Germantown. The campaign +against Canada, which he himself planned, had failed. He had lost +New York and Philadelphia. But, like William III of England, who +in his long struggle with France hardly won a battle and yet +forced Louis XIV to accept his terms of peace, Washington, by +suddenness in reprisal, by skill in resource when his plans +seemed to have been shattered, grew on the hard rock of defeat +the flower of victory. + +There was never a time when Washington was not trusted by men of +real military insight or by the masses of the people. But a +general who does not win victories in the field is open to +attack. By the winter of 1777 when Washington, with his army +reduced and needy, was at Valley Forge keeping watch on Howe in +Philadelphia, John Adams and others were talking of the sin of +idolatry in the worship of Washington, of its flavor of the +accursed spirit of monarchy, and of the punishment which "the God +of Heaven and Earth" must inflict for such perversity. Adams was +all against a Fabian policy and wanted to settle issues forever +by a short and strenuous war. The idol, it was being whispered, +proved after all to have feet of clay. One general, and only one, +had to his credit a really great victory--Gates, to whom Burgoyne +had surrendered at Saratoga, and there was a movement to replace +Washington by this laureled victor. + +General Conway, an Irish soldier of fortune, was one of the most +troublesome in this plot. He had served in the campaign about +Philadelphia but had been blocked in his extravagant demands for +promotion; so he turned for redress to Gates, the star in the +north. A malignant campaign followed in detraction of Washington. +He had, it was said, worn out his men by useless marches; with an +army three times as numerous as that of Howe, he had gained no +victory; there was high fighting quality in the American army if +properly led, but Washington despised the militia; a Gates or a +Lee or a Conway would save the cause as Washington could not; and +so on. "Heaven has determined to save your country or a weak +general and bad counsellors would have ruined it"; so wrote +Conway to Gates and Gates allowed the letter to be seen. The +words were reported to Washington, who at once, in high dudgeon, +called Conway to account. An explosion followed. Gates both +denied that he had received a letter with the passage in +question, and, at the same time, charged that there had been +tampering with his private correspondence. He could not have it +both ways. Conway was merely impudent in reply to Washington, but +Gates laid the whole matter before Congress. Washington wrote to +Gates, in reply to his denials, ironical references to "rich +treasures of knowledge and experience" "guarded with penurious +reserve" by Conway from his leaders but revealed to Gates. There +was no irony in Washington's reference to malignant detraction +and mean intrigue. At the same time he said to Gates: "My temper +leads me to peace and harmony with all men," and he deplored the +internal strife which injured the great cause. Conway soon left +America. Gates lived to command another American army and to end +his career by a crowning disaster. + +Washington had now been for more than two years in the chief +command and knew his problems. It was a British tradition that +standing armies were a menace to liberty, and the tradition had +gained strength in crossing the sea. Washington would have wished +a national army recruited by Congress alone and bound to serve +for the duration of the war. There was much talk at the time of a +"new model army" similar in type to the wonderful creation of +Oliver Cromwell. The Thirteen Colonies became, however, thirteen +nations. Each reserved the right to raise its own levies in its +own way. To induce men to enlist Congress was twice handicapped. +First, it had no power of taxation and could only ask the States +to provide what it needed. The second handicap was even greater. +When Congress offered bounties to those who enlisted in the +Continental army, some of the States offered higher bounties for +their own levies of militia, and one authority was bidding +against the other. 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 knowledge of the +country. Another service ill-equipped was what we should now call +the Red Cross. Epidemics, and especially smallpox, wrought havoc +in the army. 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 shellshock, sometimes killed men whose bodies +appeared to be uninjured. To our more advanced knowledge the +medical science of the time seems crude. 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 hospitals 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 scandal, and much bitter invective +against British brutality is found in the literature of the +period. The British leaders, no less than Washington himself, +were humane men, and ignorance and inadequate equipment will +explain most of the hardships, 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 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 +uniformity 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 Washington'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 uniforms +which gave them a sufficiently smart appearance. 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. + +During a great part of the war, however, in spite of supplies +brought from both lance 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 American 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's +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 American +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 ammunition was +scanty, but in time there were importations from France and also +supplies from American gun factories. The standard length of the +barrel was three and a half feet, a portentous size compared with +that of the modern weapon. The loading 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; 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 firearms. 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, however, 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 inventive spirit of America +was busy with plans to procure 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 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 with a ramrod. A store of German Bibles in +Pennsylvania 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 Washington 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 Washington 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 "continental 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 +flinching, but he was at one with his men in their sufferings, +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 +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 sometimes 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, desertion involved a double loss. On one +occasion some soldiers undertook for themselves the punishment of +deserters. Men of the First Pennsylvania Regiment 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 +happened 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 and 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 +Anglican 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 Washington which passed +the winter so near and in acute distress. The Pennsylvania +Loyalists, with dark days soon to come, were bitter at Howe's +inactivity, 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 principle 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 no 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 Confederation +were adopted. By the following midsummer 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 constitutional sanction during the +greater part of the war. + +The ineptitude of Congress is explained when we recall that it +was a revolutionary body which indeed 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 Massachusetts 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 attitude of deference +and courtesy which it did not always deserve. The ablest men in +the individual States held aloof from Congress. They felt that +they had more dignity and power if they sat in their own +legislatures. The assembly which in the first days had as members +men of the type of Washington and Franklin sank into a gathering +of second-rate men who were divided into fierce factions. They +debated interminably and did little. Each member usually felt +that he must champion the interests of his own State against the +hostility of others. It was not easy to create a sense of +national life. The union was only a league of friendship. States +which for a century or more had barely acknowledged their +dependence upon Great Britain, were chary about coming under the +control of a new centralizing authority at Philadelphia. The new +States were sovereign and some of them went so far as to send +envoys of their own to negotiate with foreign powers in Europe. +When it was urged that Congress should have the power to raise +taxes in the States, there were patriots who asked sternly what +the war was about if it was not to vindicate the principle that +the people of a State alone should have power of taxation over +themselves. Of New England all the other States were jealous and +they particularly disliked that proud and censorious city which +already was accused of believing that God had made Boston for +Himself and all the rest of the world for Boston. The religion of +New England did not suit the Anglicans of Virginia or the Roman +Catholics of Maryland, and there was resentful suspicion of +Puritan intolerance. John Adams said quite openly that there were +no religious teachers in Philadelphia to compare with those of +Boston and naturally other colonies drew away from the severe and +rather acrid righteousness of which he was a type. + + +Inefficiency meanwhile brought terrible suffering at Valley +Forge, and the horrors of that winter remain still vivid in the +memory of the American people. The army marched to Valley Forge +on December 17, 1777, and in midwinter everything from houses to +entrenchments had still to be created. At once there was busy +activity in cutting down trees for the log huts. They were built +nearly square, sixteen feet by fourteen, in rows, with the door +opening on improvised streets. Since boards were scarce, and it +was difficult to make roofs rainproof, Washington tried to +stimulate ingenuity by offering a reward of one hundred dollars +for an improved method of roofing. The fireplaces of wood were +protected with thick clay. Firewood was abundant, but, with +little food for oxen and horses, men had to turn themselves into +draught animals to bring in supplies. + +Sometimes the army was for a week without meat. Many horses died +for lack of forage or of proper care, a waste which especially +disturbed Washington, a lover of horses. When quantities of +clothing were ready for use, they were not delivered at Valley +Forge owing to lack of transport. Washington expressed his +contempt for officers who resigned their commissions in face of +these distresses. No one, he said, ever heard him say a word +about resignation. There were many desertions but, on the whole, +he marveled at the patience of his men and that they did not +mutiny. With a certain grim humor they chanted phrases about "no +pay, no clothes, no provisions, no rum," and sang an ode +glorifying war and Washington. Hundreds of them marched barefoot, +their blood staining the snow or the frozen ground while, at the +same time, stores of shoes and clothing were lying unused +somewhere on the roads to the camp. + +Sickness raged in the army. Few men at Valley Forge, wrote +Washington, had more than a sheet, many only part of a sheet, and +some nothing at all. Hospital stores were lacking. For want of +straw and blankets the sick lay perishing on the frozen ground. +When Washington had been at Valley Forge for less than a week, he +had to report nearly three thousand men unfit for duty because of +their nakedness in the bitter winter. Then, as always, what we +now call the "profiteer" was holding up supplies for higher +prices. To the British at Philadelphia, because they paid in +gold, things were furnished which were denied to Washington at +Valley Forge, and he announced that he would hang any one who +took provisions to Philadelphia. To keep his men alive Washington +had sometimes to take food by force from the inhabitants and then +there was an outcry that this was robbery. With many sick, his +horses so disabled that he could not move his artillery, and his +defenses very slight, he could have made only a weak fight had +Howe attacked him. Yet the legislature of Pennsylvania told him +that, instead of lying quiet in winter quarters, he ought to be +carrying on an active campaign. In most wars irresponsible men +sitting by comfortable firesides are sure they knew best how the +thing should be done. + +The bleak hillside at Valley Forge was something more than a +prison. Washington's staff was known as his family and his +relations with them were cordial and even affectionate. The young +officers faced their hardships cheerily and gave meager dinners +to which no one might go if he was so well off as to have +trousers without holes. They talked and sang and jested about +their privations. By this time many of the bad officers, of whom +Washington complained earlier, had been weeded out and he was +served by a body of devoted men. There was much good comradeship. +Partnership in suffering tends to draw men together. In the +company which gathered about Washington, two men, mere youths at +the time, have a world-wide fame. The young Alexander Hamilton, +barely twenty-one years of age, and widely known already for his +political writings, had the rank of lieutenant colonel gained for +his services in the fighting about New York. He was now +Washington's confidential secretary, a position in which he soon +grew restless. His ambition was to be one of the great military +leaders of the Revolution. Before the end of the war he had gone +back to fighting and he distinguished himself in the last battle +of the war at Yorktown. The other youthful figure was the Marquis +de La Fayette. It is not without significance that a noble square +bears his name in the capital named after Washington. The two men +loved each other. The young French aristocrat, with both a great +name and great possessions, was fired in 1776, when only +nineteen, with zeal for the American cause. "With the welfare of +America," he wrote to his wife, "is closely linked the welfare of +mankind." Idealists in France believed that America was leading +in the remaking of the world. When it was known that La Fayette +intended to go to fight in America, the King of France forbade +it, since France had as yet no quarrel with England. The youth, +however, chartered a ship, landed in South Carolina, hurried to +Philadelphia, and was a major general in the American army when +he was twenty years of age. + +La Fayette rendered no serious military service to the American +cause. He arrived in time to fight in the battle of the +Brandywine. Washington praised him for his bravery and military +ardor and wrote to Congress that he was sensible, discreet, and +able to speak English freely. It was with an eye to the influence +in France of the name of the young noble that Congress advanced +him so rapidly. La Fayette was sincere and generous in spirit. He +had, however, little military capacity. Later when he might have +directed the course of the French Revolution he was found wanting +in force of character. The great Mirabeau tried to work with him +for the good of France, but was repelled by La Fayette's jealous +vanity, a vanity so greedy of praise that Jefferson called it a +"canine appetite for popularity and fame." La Fayette once said +that he had never bad a thought with which he could reproach +himself, and he boasted that he has mastered three kings--the +King of England in the American Revolution, the King of France, +and King Mob of Paris during the upheaval in France. He was +useful as a diplomatist rather than as a soldier. Later, in an +hour of deep need, Washington sent La Fayette to France to ask +for aid. He was influential at the French court and came back +with abundant promises, which were in part fulfilled. + +Washington himself and Oliver Cromwell are perhaps the only two +civilian generals in history who stand in the first rank as +military leaders. It is doubtful indeed whether it is not rather +character than military skill which gives Washington his place. +Only one other general of the Revolution attained to first rank +even in secondary fame. Nathanael Greene was of Quaker stock from +Rhode Island. He was a natural student and when trouble with the +mother country was impending in 1774 he spent the leisure which +he could spare from his forges in the study of military history +and in organizing the local militia. Because of his zeal for +military service he was expelled from the Society of Friends. In +1775 when war broke out he was promptly on hand with a contingent +from Rhode Island. In little more than a year and after a very +slender military experience he was in command of the army on Long +Island. On the Hudson defeat not victory was his lot. He had, +however, as much stern resolve as Washington. He shared +Washington's success in the attack on Trenton, and his defeats at +the Brandywine and at Germantown. Now he was at Valley Forge, and +when, on March 2, 1778, he became quartermaster general, the +outlook for food and supplies steadily improved. Later, in the +South, he rendered brilliant service which made possible the +final American victory at Yorktown. + +Henry Knox, a Boston bookseller, had, like Greene, only slight +training for military command. It shows the dearth of officers to +fight the highly disciplined British army that Knox, at the age +of twenty-five, and fresh from commercial life, was placed in +charge of the meager artillery which Washington had before +Boston. It was Knox, who, with heart-breaking labor, took to the +American front the guns captured at Ticonderoga. Throughout the +war he did excellent service with the artillery, and Washington +placed a high value upon his services. He valued too those of +Daniel Morgan, an old fighter in the Indian wars, who left his +farm in Virginia when war broke out, and marched his company of +riflemen to join the army before Boston. He served with Arnold at +the siege of Quebec, and was there taken prisoner. He was +exchanged and had his due revenge when he took part in the +capture of Burgoyne's army. He was now at Valley Forge. Later he +had a command under Greene in the South and there, as we shall +see, he won the great success of the Battle of Cowpens in +January, 1781. + +It was the peculiar misfortune of Washington that the three men, +Arnold, Lee, and Gates, who ought to have rendered him the +greatest service, proved unfaithful. Benedict Arnold, next to +Washington himself, was probably the most brilliant and +resourceful soldier of the Revolution. Washington so trusted him +that, when the dark days at Valley Forge were over, he placed him +in command of the recaptured federal capital. Today the name of +Arnold would rank high in the memory of a grateful country had he +not fallen into the bottomless pit of treason. The same is in +some measure true of Charles Lee, who was freed by the British in +an exchange of prisoners and joined Washington at Valley Forge +late in the spring of 1778. Lee was so clever with his pen as to +be one of the reputed authors of the Letters of Junius. He had +served as a British officer in the conquest of Canada, and later +as major general in the army of Poland. He had a jealous and +venomous temper and could never conceal the contempt of the +professional soldier for civilian generals. He, too, fell into +the abyss of treason. Horatio Gates, also a regular soldier, had +served under Braddock and was thus at that early period a comrade +of Washington. Intriguer he was, but not a traitor. It was +incompetence and perhaps cowardice which brought his final ruin. + +Europe had thousands of unemployed officers some of whom had had +experience in the Seven Years' War and many turned eagerly to +America for employment. There were some good soldiers among these +fighting adventurers. Kosciuszko, later famous as a Polish +patriot, rose by his merits to the rank of brigadier general in +the American army; De Kalb, son of a German peasant, though not a +baron, as he called himself, proved worthy of the rank of a major +general. There was, however, a flood of volunteers of another +type. French officers fleeing from their creditors and sometimes +under false names and titles, made their way to America as best +they could and came to Washington with pretentious claims. +Germans and Poles there were, too, and also exiles from that +unhappy island which remains still the most vexing problem of +British politics. Some of them wrote their own testimonials; +some, too, were spies. On the first day, Washington wrote, they +talked only of serving freely a noble cause, but within a week +were demanding promotion and advance of money. Sometimes they +took a high tone with members of Congress who had not courage to +snub what Washington called impudence and vain boasting. "I am +haunted and teased to death by the importunity of some and +dissatisfaction of others" wrote Washington of these people. + +One foreign officer rendered incalculable service to the American +cause. It was not only on the British side that Germans served in +the American Revolution. The Baron yon Steuben was, like La +Fayette, a man of rank in his own country, and his personal +service to the Revolution was much greater than that of La +Fayette. Steuben had served on the staff of Frederick the Great +and was distinguished for his wit and his polished manners. There +was in him nothing of the needy adventurer. The sale of Hessian +and other troops to the British by greedy German princes was met +in some circles in Germany by a keen desire to aid the cause of +the young republic. Steuben, who held a lucrative post, became +convinced, while on a visit to Paris, that he could render +service in training the Americans. With quick sympathy and +showing no reserve in his generous spirit he abandoned his +country, as it proved forever, took ship for the United States, +and arrived in November, 1777. Washington welcomed him at Valley +Forge in the following March. He was made Inspector General and +at once took in hand the organization of the army. He prepared +"Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the +United States" later, in 1779, issued as a book. Under this +German influence British methods were discarded. The word of +command became short and sharp. The British practice of leaving +recruits to be trained by sergeants, often ignorant, coarse, and +brutal, was discarded, and officers themselves did this work. The +last letter which Washington wrote before he resigned his command +at the end of the war was to thank Steuben for his invaluable +aid. Charles Lee did not believe that American recruits could be +quickly trained so as to be able to face the disciplined British +battalions. Steuben was to prove that Lee was wrong to Lee's own +entire undoing at Monmouth when fighting began in 1778. + + +The British army in America furnished sharp contrasts to that of +Washington. If the British jeered at the fighting quality of +citizens, these retorted that the British soldier was a mere +slave. There were two great stains upon the British system, the +press-gang and flogging. Press-gangs might seize men abroad in +the streets of a town and, unless they could prove that they were +gentlemen in rank, they could be sent in the fleet to serve in +the remotest corners of the earth. In both navy and army flogging +outraged the dignity of manhood. The liability to this brutal and +degrading punishment kept all but the dregs of the populace from +enlisting in the British army. It helped to fix the deep gulf +between officers and men. Forty years later Napoleon Bonaparte, +despot though he might be, was struck by this separation. He +himself went freely among his men, warmed himself at their fire, +and talked to them familiarly about their work, and he thought +that the British officer was too aloof in his demeanor. In the +British army serving in America there were many officers of +aristocratic birth and long training in military science. When +they found that American officers were frequently drawn from a +class of society which in England would never aspire to a +commission, and were largely self-taught, not unnaturally they +jeered at an army so constituted. Another fact excited British +disdain. The Americans were technically rebels against their +lawful ruler, and rebels in arms have no rights as belligerents. +When the war ended more than a thousand American prisoners were +still held in England on the capital charge of treason. Nothing +stirred Washington's anger more deeply than the remark sometimes +made by British officers that the prisoners they took were +receiving undeserved mercy when they were not hanged. + +There was much debate at Valley Forge as to the prospect for the +future. When we look at available numbers during the war we +appreciate the view of a British officer that in spite of +Washington's failures and of British victories the war was +serious, "an ugly job, a damned affair indeed." The population of +the colonies--some 2,500,000--was about one-third that of the +United Kingdom; and for the British the war was remote from the +base of supply. In those days, considering the means of +transport, America was as far from England as at the present day +is Australia. Sometimes the voyage across the sea occupied two +and even three months, and, with the relatively small ships of +the time, it required a vast array of transports to carry an army +of twenty or thirty thousand men. In the spring of 1776 Great +Britain had found it impossible to raise at home an army of even +twenty thousand men for service in America, and she was forced to +rely in large part upon mercenary soldiers. This was nothing new. +Her island people did not like service abroad and this +unwillingness was intensified in regard to war in remote America. +Moreover Whig leaders in England discouraged enlistment. They +were bitterly hostile to the war which they regarded as an attack +not less on their own liberties than on those of America. It +would be too much to ascribe to the ignorant British common +soldier of the time any deep conviction as to the merits or +demerits of the cause for which he fought. There is no evidence +that, once in the army, he was less ready to attack the Americans +than any other foe. Certainly the Americans did not think he was +half-hearted. + +The British soldier fought indeed with more resolute +determination than did the hired auxiliary at his side. These +German troops played a notable part in the war. The despotic +princes of the lesser German states were accustomed to sell the +services of their troops. Despotic Russia, too, was a likely +field for such enterprise. When, however, it was proposed to the +Empress Catherine II that she should furnish twenty thousand men +for service in America she retorted with the sage advice that it +was England's true interest to settle the quarrel in America +without war. Germany was left as the recruiting field. British +efforts to enlist Germans as volunteers in her own army were +promptly checked by the German rulers and it was necessary +literally to buy the troops from their princes. One-fourth of the +able-bodied men of Hesse-Cassel were shipped to America. They +received four times the rate of pay at home and their ruler +received in addition some half million dollars a year. The men +suffered terribly and some died of sickness for the homes to +which thousands of them never returned. German generals, such as +Knyphausen and Riedesel, gave the British sincere and effective +service. The Hessians were, however, of doubtful benefit to the +British. It angered the Americans that hired troops should be +used against them, an anger not lessened by the contempt which +the Hessians showed for the colonial officers as plebeians. + +The two sides were much alike in their qualities and were +skillful in propaganda. In Britain lurid tales were told of the +colonists scalping the wounded at Lexington and using poisoned +bullets at Bunker Hill. In America every prisoner in British +hands was said to be treated brutally and every man slain in the +fighting to have been murdered. The use of foreign troops was a +fruitful theme. The report ran through the colonies that the +Hessians were huge ogre-like monsters, with double rows of teeth +round each jaw, who had come at the call of the British tyrant to +slay women and children. In truth many of the Hessians became +good Americans. In spite of the loyalty of their officers they +were readily induced to desert. The wit of Benjamin Franklin was +enlisted to compose telling appeals, translated into simple +German, which promised grants of land to those who should abandon +an unrighteous cause. The Hessian trooper who opened a packet of +tobacco might find in 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 +different when reverses overtook British arms. Then many hundreds +slipped away; and today their blood flows in the veins of +thousands of prosperous American farmers. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE AND ITS RESULTS + +Washington badly needed aid from Europe, but there every +important government was monarchical 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 sorrowed 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 +"insolent nation" was always to him an inspiration. Vergennes, +the French Foreign Minister, though he lacked genius, was a man +of boundless zeal and 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 England'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. +Beaumarchais is known to the world chiefly as the creator 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 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 Roderigue Hortalez & Co., he +sent vast quantities of munitions and clothing to America. +Cannon, not from private firms but from the government arsenals, +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 Connecticut 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 submission, 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. He gave other promises not more easy of fulfillment. 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 colonel 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. France +was, however, coy. The end of 1776 saw the colonial cause at a +very low ebb, with Washington 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 position in +Philadelphia. It was known that the British fleet had declined. +With the best of it in America, France was the more likely to win +successes in Europe. The Bourbon king of France 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 improbable 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 triumphs, 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 ambassador in +London told the British Government, with studied insolence of +tone, that the United 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 intervention 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 restoration 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 frontiers +of New England and New York? If George III 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 +nation," 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 did not wish to see a great military +power on the northern 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 +patriots 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 observer 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 the intervention of France. No +serious person any longer thought that taxation could be enforced +upon America or that the colonies should be anything 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 Senate." 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 treaty 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, +actually introduced into Parliament a bill to prohibit gifts of +money to the Crown since this voluntary taxation gave the Crown +money without the consent of Parliament. The British patriot, +gentle as he might be towards America, fumed against 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. In a 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 Chatham, 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 high that New York +and Charleston had erected statues in his honor. When the defeat +of Burgoyne so shook the ministry that North was anxious to +retire, Chatham, but for two obstacles, could probably have +formed a ministry. One obstacle was 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 attacked his American policy. +"I will never consent," 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 in that scene of famine; but by the springtime tension in +regard to supplies had been relieved and 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 supplies 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 give it up. 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, to +shield himself; was clearly resolved to make scapegoats of +others. So, on May 18, 1778, at Philadelphia there was a farewell +to Howe, which took the form of a Mischianza, something +approaching the medieval tournament. Knights broke lances in +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. Obviously the garrison of Philadelphia had much +time on its hands and could count upon, at least, some cheers +from a friendly population. It is remembered still, with +moralizings on the turns in human fortune, that Major Andre and +Miss Margaret Shippen were the leaders in that gay scene, the +one, in the days to come, to be hanged by Washington as a spy, +because entrapped in the treason of Benedict Arnold, who became +the husband of the other. + +On May 24, 1778, Sir Henry Clinton took over from 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 encumbrances. +Moreover, to embark the whole force, a march of forty miles to +New Castle, on the lower Delaware, would be necessary and the +retreating 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 to +New York in two days and missed the great fleet of d'Estaing, +carrying an army of four thousand 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 vulnerable to flank +attack. In this type of warfare Washington 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 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 position was difficult but he was saved by Lee's +ineptitude. He had positive instructions to attack with his five +thousand men and hold the British engaged until Washington should +come up in overwhelming 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 to 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 deserters 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 incredible. Two hundred ships waited at Spithead for three +months for convoy to the West Indies, 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 already 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. But it did not +come. The French admirals were often taken from an army command, +and d'Estaing was not a sailor but a soldier. He feared 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 hundred fine soldiers, Sullivan had +nine thousand New England militia, and d'Estaing four thousand +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'Estaing 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, Clinton 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 shipping and stores but +were devastating the country with Loyalist regiments recruited in +America. The French told the Americans that they were expecting +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 extend 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. 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 Gibraltar. 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 danger 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 resources 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 trader and subsequently master of a West India +merchantman, and on going to America had assumed the name of +Jones. He was a man of boundless ambition, vanity, and vigor, and +when he commanded 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 squadron 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 Flamborough Head and, after a desperate fight, captured 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 commissioned officer +in the navy of the United States, but neutral powers, such as +Holland, had not yet 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 +ships 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 to enter the port. +Denmark and Sweden joined Russia in what was known as the Armed +Neutrality and 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 afterwards 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 supremacy on the sea disappeared and it +was only regained 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 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 +removing some of their burdens dreadful riots broke out in +London. A fanatic, Lord George Gordon, led a mob to Westminster +and, as Dr. Johnson expressed it, "insulted" both Houses of +Parliament. The cowed ministry did nothing to check the +disturbance. 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 Independence which, in 1782, England was +obliged to 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 and 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 mutiny 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 New York. He sent La Fayette to France in January, +1779, there to urge not merely naval but military 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 magnanimity +reciprocated nearly a century and a half later when a great +American army in Europe was placed under the supreme command of a +Marshal 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 Newport 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 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 revolutionary 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 political allegiance. Probably Boston +was the most completely revolutionary of American towns. Yet even +in Boston there had been a sad procession of exiles who would not +turn against the King. The South 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 +rebellion. Many a patriot farmhouse was now destroyed and the +hapless owner either killed or driven to the mountains to live as +best he could by hunting. Sometimes even the children were shot +down. It so happened that a company of militia captured a large +band of Loyalists marching to Augusta to support the British +cause. Here was the occasion for the republican patriots to +assert their principles. 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 restrain 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 revolution. In the spring of 1779 General +Prevost marched from Georgia into South Carolina. On the 12th of +May he was before Charleston demanding surrender. We are +astonished now to read that, in response to Prevost's demand, a +proposal 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 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, however, Charleston did not surrender. The resistance 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 combined army numbered about six thousand. A siege +began which, it seemed, could end in only one way. Prevost, +however, with three thousand seven hundred 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. 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'Estaing sailed away and soon lost some of his ships in a +violent storm. Ill-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 hospitable. Most of them, he says, made +a visit to England at some time during life and it was the +fashion to send there the children to be educated. Obviously +Charleston was fitted to be a British rallying 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. Now in December, +1779, he sailed from New York to make a renewed effort. With him +were three of his best officer--Cornwallis, Simcoe, and Tarleton, +the last two skillful leaders of irregulars, recruited 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, Tarleton surprised, in the night, three regiments +of American cavalry regulars at a place called Biggin's Bridge, +routed them completely and, according 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 behaved 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 these 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 +prisoners, 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 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 reestablish +peace and good government." "Wicked and desperate men" who still +opposed the King should be punished with rigor and have their +property confiscated. 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 to 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 intending 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 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 disaster at Camden +had only a transient effect. The war developed a number of +irregular leaders on the American side who were never beaten +beyond recovery, 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. 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 advanced into North +Carolina, and sent Major Ferguson, 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 retreat 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. Ferguson, harassed, outnumbered, at +last took refuge on King's Mountain, a stony ridge on the western +border between the two Carolinas. The north side 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. Ferguson 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.* + +* See Chapter IX, "Pioneers of the Old Southwest", by Constance +Lindsay Skinner in "The Chronicles of America." + + +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 +region that Washington had first seen active service, helping to +wrest that land from France. The country was wild. There was +almost no settlement; 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 frontiersman. 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 adventure. He had less than two +hundred men when he appeared a little later at Kaskaskia near the +Mississippi in what is now Illinois 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 +indomitable 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 States. Clark's exploit is one of the pregnant romances of +history.* + +* See Chapters III and IV in "The Old Northwest" by Frederic +Austin Ogg in "The Chronicles of America". + + +Perhaps the most sorrowful phase of the Revolution was the +internal conflict waged between its friends and its enemies in +America, where neighbor fought against neighbor. During this +pitiless struggle 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 +shoeblacks. 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, burn a village, carry off some Whig +farmers, and escape before opposing forces could rally. Governor +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 Benjamin Franklin and led him when the day +came for peace to declare that the plundering and murdering +adherents of King George were the ones who should pay for damage +and not the States which had confiscated Loyalist property. Lists +of Loyalist names were sometimes posted and then the persons +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 +figure might be himself. A musket ball might come whizzing +through his window. Many a Loyalist 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 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. Magistrates 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. Legislatures +passed bills denouncing Loyalists. The names in Massachusetts +read like a list of the leading 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 exiles from their +former homes. The self-appointed committees took in hand the task +of disciplining 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 Great Lakes, and there played a part in laying the +foundation of the Dominion of today. The city of Toronto with a +population of half a million is rooted in the Loyalist traditions +of its Tory founders. Simcoe, the first Governor of Upper Canada, +who made Toronto his capital, was one of the most enterprising of +the officers who served with Cornwallis in the South and +surrendered with him at Yorktown. + +The State of New York acquired from the forfeited lands of +Loyalists a sum approaching four million dollars, a great amount +in those days. Other States profited in a similar way. Every +Loyalist whose property was seized had a direct and personal +grievance. He could join the British army and fight against his +oppressors, and this he did: New York furnished about fifteen +thousand men to fight on the British side. Plundered himself, he +could plunder his enemies, and this too he did both by land and +sea. In the autumn of 1778 ships manned chiefly by Loyalist +refugees were terrorizing the coast from Massachusetts to New +Jersey. They plundered Martha's Vineyard, burned some lesser +towns, such as New Bedford, and showed no quarter to small +parties of American troops whom they managed to intercept. + +What happened on the coast happened also in the interior. At +Wyoming in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, in July, 1778, +during a raid of Loyalists, aided by Indians, there was a brutal +massacre, the horrors of which long served to inspire hate for +the British. A little later in the same year similar events took +place at Cherry Valley, in central New York. Burning houses, the +dead bodies not only of men but of women and children scalped by +the savage allies of the Loyalists, desolation and ruin in scenes +once peaceful and happy such horrors American patriotism learned +to associate with the Loyalists. These in their turn remembered +the slow martyrdom of their lives as social outcasts, the threats +and plunder which in the end forced them to fly, the hardships, +starvation, and death to their loved ones which were wont to +follow. The conflict is perhaps the most tragic and +irreconcilable in the whole story of the Revolution. + + + +CHAPTER X. FRANCE TO THE RESCUE + +During 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, Cornwallis, 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 problem in +America with the insight of a trained leader. Before he left +France he made the pregnant comment on the outlook: "Nothing +without naval supremacy." About the same time Washington 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 Napoleon, 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 +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 unfortunate 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 reports of their ennui on the long voyage of seventy 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 inhabitants 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 +beautiful, 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 quantities of tea drunk by their friends and so do we when +we remember the political hatred for tea. They 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 Rochambeau 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 nothing. Washington +longed to attack New York and urged the effort, but the wise and +experienced Rochambeau applied his principle, "nothing without +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 +blockading in Narragansett Bay the French fleet which lay there. +Had the French army moved away from Newport their fleet would +almost certainly have become a prey to the British. For the +moment 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 +they 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 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 admirals afloat. +Washington, with his army headquarters at West Point, on guard to +keep the British from advancing up the Hudson, was looking 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 Camden 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 overwhelming discouragement, and, on the 18th of +September, Washington left West Point for a long 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 Chesapeake. Washington +concluded that the opposite was true and that he was likely to be +going northward. At West Point, where the Hudson flows through a +mountainous gap, Washington had strong defenses on both shores of +the river. His 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 up +the 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 Benedict Arnold. No +general on the American side had a more brilliant record or could +show more scars 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 property 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 Congress 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 indulgence. 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 pursued with great +bitterness. Joseph Reed, the President of the Executive Council +of Pennsylvania, 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 +26, 1780, he was acquitted of everything but the imprudence of +using, in an emergency, public wagons to remove private property, +and of granting 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 the reprimand in terms as gentle as possible, and +when, in July, 1780, Arnold asked for the important 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 reconciliation 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 surrender that vital post +to the British. And now on the 18th of September Washington was +riding northeastward 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 anchored at Stony Point, a few miles below West +Point. On board the Vulture was the British officer who was +treating with Arnold and who now came to arrange terms with him, +Major John Andre, Clinton's young adjutant general, a man of +attractive personality. Under cover of night Arnold sent off a +boat to bring Andre ashore to a remote thicket of fir trees, +outside the American 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 disasters at +Charleston and Camden might end the strife. Britain was prepared +to yield everything but separation; and America, Arnold said, +could now make an honorable peace. + +A chapter of accidents prevented the testing. Had Andre been +rowed ashore by British tars they could have taken him back to +the ship at his command 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 Andre back to the ship because +their own return would be dangerous in daylight. Contrary to his +instructions and wishes Andre 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 Andre 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 Andre's guide insisted +that he should go to the British lines by land. He was carrying +compromising papers and wearing civilian dress 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 Andre +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 summons from across the river. Within a few +minutes his barge was moving swiftly to the Vulture eighteen +miles away. Thus Arnold escaped. The unhappy Andre 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 military law. +Forty years later the bones of Andre 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 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 working 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 religious. Members praised the +liberties of England and had declared that the Declaration of +Independence 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, 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 Washington 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 defenses +were weak they could drive a wedge between North and South. If on +the other hand they preferred 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 England in October gave the ministry an +increased majority and with this renewed determination. 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 to a 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 anxiously 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 +began to turn. Cornwallis 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. Steuben 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 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 +discipline 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, confident 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, 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 northwest 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 without food, +Cornwallis, with less than two thousand men, attacked Greene's +force of about four thousand. 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 sending only enough men to +Virginia to steal tobacco. 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 +smashing 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 securely. 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 Rawdon 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. 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 Virginia 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 +Petersburg 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 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 formidable 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 inferior force, to fight Cornwallis, but he +could tire him out by drawing him into long marches. When +Cornwallis advanced to attack La Fayette at Richmond, 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 hundred miles +northwest from Richmond, and Cornwallis conceived the daring plan +of raiding Charlottesville, 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 fighting and he nearly succeeded. Jefferson +indeed escaped by rapid flight but Tarleton took the town, burned +the public records, and captured ammunition and arms. But he +really 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 intercepted 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 generals. 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 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. Yorktown +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 +commonplace of romance that a pretty face or a stray bullet has +altered the destiny not merely of families 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 warships than the British could +muster at a given spot and time. Washington had urged in January +that France should plan to have at least temporary naval +superiority in American waters, in accordance with Rochambeau's +principle, "Nothing 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 Hudson and at any rate alarm Clinton as to an imminent +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 +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. +Washington 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 torrential 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 away 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 Princeton, 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 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 disembarked 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, mounted 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 hundred 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 them responded. A deadly apathy in regard +to the war seems to have fallen upon many parts of the country. +The Bay now in control of the French fleet was quite safe for +unarmed ships. Half the Americans 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 beyond 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. Washington 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 Washington 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 Philadelphia, 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 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 entrance 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 intended 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, the 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 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 British +fleet, crippled and spiritless, was hurrying to a protecting port +and the fleurs-de-lis waved unchallenged 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 entrenchments 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 Yorktown. +There was delay. Later Clinton wrote that 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 unexplained, 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 incessantly 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 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. "I thought it would have been wanton and +inhuman," 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 hundreds 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. 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 Americans on +the other, the French in full dress uniform, the Americans in +some cases half naked and barefoot. 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 entrance 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, were +deserted by ships of war. Grasse had sailed, however, to meet a +stern fate. He was a fine fighting 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 returning to France Grasse was tried by +court-martial and, though acquitted, he remained in disgrace +until he died in 1788, "weary," as he said, "of the burden of +life." The defeated Cornwallis was not blamed in England. His +character commanded wide respect and he lived to play a great +part in public life. He became Governor General 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 the +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, +exclaiming 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 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 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. For a 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 Commons 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 +British 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 +1st 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 return to Hanover rather than yield the +independence of the colonies. Over and over again he had said +that no one should hold office in his government 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 independence 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. Rochambeau with his army remained in +Virginia. Washington took his forces back to the lines before New +York, sparing what men he could to help Greene in the South. +Again came a long period of watching and waiting. Washington, +knowing the obstinate determination of the British character, +urged Congress 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 indifferent to further +effort and Congress was slack and impotent. The outlook for +Washington's allies 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 negotiating peace. Spain declared that she would never make +peace without the surrender of Gibraltar, and she was ready to +leave the question of American 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 basis 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 +American Commission. The austere Adams disliked 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 foreign 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 separate +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 furnish him with what +he needed and to an amazing degree succeeded in doing so. The +self interest which Washington believed to be the dominant 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 war ended. 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 Commissioners agreed to ask the +individual States to meet the desires of the British negotiators, +but both sides understood that the States would do nothing, that +the confiscated property would never be returned, that most of +the exiled Loyalists would remain exiles, and that Britain +herself must compensate them for their losses. This in time she +did on a scale inadequate indeed but expressive of a generous +intention. The United States retained the great Northwest and the +Mississippi became the western frontier, with destiny already +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 content 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 magnanimity 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 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 +captured 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 farewell 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 each of them. Then they watched him as he was +rowed away in his barge to the New Jersey shore. Congress was now +sitting at Annapolis in Maryland and there on December 23, 1783, +Washington appeared 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 protection 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 estimate of himself, know that for a +distant posterity his character and his words would have +compelling authority. What Washington's countryman, Motley, said +of William of Orange is true of Washington himself: "As long as +he lived he was the guiding 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 +adjustments 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), "The 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. III (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 Literary History of the +American Revolution, 2 vols. (1897), is a penetrating study of +opinion. Fiske's "The American 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 England in the Eighteenth Century", chaps. +XIII, XIV, and XV (1903), is impartial. The most elaborate and +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 Fortescue, "A History of the British +Army", vol. III (1902), a scientific account of military events +with many maps and plans. Captain Mahan, U. S. N., wrote the +British naval history of the period in Clowes (editor), "The +Royal Navy, a History", vol. III, 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 supplemented 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). + +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 +1898). The general reader will probably put aside the older +biographies 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 problems 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, "The Siege 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 contemporary "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 Shelburne", 2 +vols. (1912), the Whig policy. Curwen's "Journals and Letters", +1775-84 (1842), show us a Loyalist 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); Carrington, "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 "Letters and Journals Relating to the War of the +American Revolution" (trans. W. L. Stone, 1867) and Anburey'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 account 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 Revolution" (1911), Corwin, "French Policy and the +American Alliance of 1778" (1916), and Van Tyne on "Influences +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). Ross (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 Loyalists in the +American Revolution" (1902), Flick, "Loyalism 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 American 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 Campaign" (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 "Encyclopaedia Britannica" has useful references to +authorities for persons prominent in the Revolution and "The +Dictionary of National Biography" for leaders on the British side. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Washington and his Comrades in Arms, by Wrong + diff --git a/old/wacia10.zip b/old/wacia10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ed1b62 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/wacia10.zip |