WASHINGTON IN PHILADELPHIA.--INDIAN WARFARE.--CAPTURE OF STONY
POINT.--RAVAGES IN CONNECTICUT.--REPULSE AT SAVANNAH.
About the beginning of December, Washington distributed his troops for
the winter in a line of strong cantonments extending from Long Island
Sound to the Delaware. General Putnam commanded at Danbury, General
McDougall in the Highlands, while the head-quarters of the
commander-in-chief were near Middlebrook in the Jerseys. The objects
of this arrangement were the protection of the country; the security
of the important posts on the Hudson, and the safety, discipline, and
easy subsistence of the army.
In the course of this winter he devised a plan of alarm signals, which
General Philemon Dickinson was employed to carry into effect. On
Bottle Hill, which commanded a vast map of country, sentinels kept
watch day and night. Should there be an irruption of the enemy, an
eighteen pounder, called the Old Sow, fired every half hour, gave the
alarm in the day time or in dark and stormy nights; an immense fire or
beacon at other times. On the booming of that heavy gun, lights sprang
up from hill to hill along the different ranges of heights; the
country was aroused, and the yeomanry, hastily armed, hurried to their
gathering places.
Washington was now doomed to experience great loss in the narrow
circle of those about him, on whose attachment and devotion he could
place implicit reliance. The Marquis Lafayette, seeing no immediate
prospect of active employment in the United States, and anticipating a
war on the continent of Europe, was disposed to return to France to
offer his services to his sovereign; desirous, however, of preserving
a relation with America, he merely solicited from Congress the liberty
of going home for the next winter; engaging himself not to depart
until certain that the campaign was over. Washington backed his
application for a furlough, as an arrangement that would still link
him with the service; expressing his reluctance to part with an
officer who united "to all the military fire of youth an uncommon
maturity of judgment." Congress in consequence granted the marquis an
unlimited leave of absence, to return to America whenever he should
find it convenient.
Much of the winter was passed by Washington in Philadelphia, occupied
in devising and discussing plans for the campaign of 1779. It was an
anxious moment with him. Circumstances which inspired others with
confidence, filled him with solicitude. The alliance with France had
produced a baneful feeling of security, which, it appeared to him, was
paralyzing the energies of the country. England, it was thought, would
now be too much occupied in securing her position in Europe, to
increase her force or extend her operations in America. Many,
therefore, considered the war as virtually at an end; and were
unwilling to make the sacrifices, or supply the means necessary for
important military undertakings.
Dissensions, too, and party feuds were breaking out in Congress, owing
to the relaxation of that external pressure of a common and imminent
danger, which had heretofore produced a unity of sentiment and action.
That august body had, in fact, greatly deteriorated since the
commencement of the war. Many of those whose names had been as
watchwords at the Declaration of Independence, had withdrawn from the
national councils; occupied either by their individual affairs, or by
the affairs of their individual States. Washington, whose
comprehensive patriotism embraced the whole Union, deprecated and
deplored the dawning of this sectional spirit. America, he declared,
had never stood in more imminent need of the wise, patriotic, and
spirited exertions of her sons than at this period.
In discussing the policy to be observed in the next campaign,
Washington presumed the enemy would maintain their present posts and
conduct the war as heretofore; in which case he was for remaining
entirely on the defensive. One single exception was made by him. The
horrible ravages and massacres perpetrated by the Indians and their
tory allies at Wyoming had been followed by similar atrocities at
Cherry Valley, in the State of New York, and called for signal
vengeance to prevent a repetition. Washington knew by experience that
Indian warfare, to be effective, should never be merely defensive, but
must be carried into the enemy's country. The Six Nations, the most
civilized of the savage tribes, had proved themselves the most
formidable. His idea was to make war upon them in their own style;
penetrate their country, lay waste their villages and settlements, and
at the same time destroy the British post at Niagara, that
nestling-place of tories and refugees.
The policy thus recommended was adopted by Congress. Arrangements were
set on foot to carry that part relative to the Indians into execution.
The first act was an expedition from Fort Schuyler by Colonel Van
Schaick, Lieutenant-colonel Willett, and Major Cochran, with about six
hundred men, who, on the 19th of April, surprised the towns of the
Onondagas, destroyed the whole settlement, and returned to the fort
without the loss of a single man.
The great expedition of the campaign, however, was in revenge of the
massacre of Wyoming. Early in the summer three thousand men assembled
in that lately desolated region, and, conducted by General Sullivan,
moved up the west branch of the Susquehanna into the Seneca country.
While on the way they were joined by a part of the western army under
General James Clinton, who had come from the valley of the Mohawk by
Otsego Lake and the east branch of the Susquehanna. The united forces
amounted to about five thousand men, of which Sullivan had the general
command.
The Indians, and their allies the tories, had received information of
the intended invasion, and appeared in arms to oppose it. They were
much inferior in force, however, being about fifteen hundred Indians
and two hundred white men, commanded by the two Butlers, Johnson, and
Brant. A battle took place at Newtown, on the 29th of August, in which
they were easily defeated. Sullivan then pushed forward into the heart
of the Indian country, penetrating as far as the Genesee River, laying
everything waste, setting fire to deserted dwellings, destroying
cornfields, orchards, gardens, everything that could give sustenance
to man, the design being to starve the Indians out of the country. The
latter retreated before him with their families, and at length took
refuge under the protection of the British garrison at Niagara. Having
completed his errand, Sullivan returned to Easton in Pennsylvania. The
thanks of Congress were voted to him and his army, but he shortly
afterward resigned his commission on account of ill health and retired
from the service.
A similar expedition was undertaken by Colonel Brodhead, from
Pittsburg up the Alleghany, against the Mingo, Muncey, and Seneca
tribes, with similar results. The wisdom of Washington's policy of
carrying the war against the Indians into their country, and
conducting it in their own way, was apparent from the general
intimidation produced among the tribes by these expeditions, and the
subsequent infrequency of their murderous incursions.
* * * * * * *
The situation of Sir Henry Clinton must have been mortifying in the
extreme to an officer of lofty ambition and generous aims. His force,
between sixteen and seventeen thousand strong, was superior in number,
discipline, and equipment to that of Washington; yet his instructions
confined him to a predatory warfare carried on by attacks and marauds
at distant points, harassing, it is true, yet irritating to the
country intended to be conciliated, and brutalizing to his own
soldiery. Such was the nature of an expedition set on foot against the
commerce of the Chesapeake; by which commerce the armies were supplied
and the credit of the government sustained. On the 9th of May, a
squadron under Sir George Collier, convoying transports and galleys,
with twenty-five hundred men, commanded by General Mathews, entered
these waters, took possession of Portsmouth without opposition, sent
out armed parties against Norfolk, Suffolk, Gosport, Kemp's Landing,
and other neighboring places, where were immense quantities of
provisions, naval and military stores, and merchandise of all kinds;
with numerous vessels, some on the stocks, others richly laden.
Wherever they went, a scene of plunder, conflagration, and destruction
ensued. A few days sufficed to ravage the whole neighborhood.
While this was going on at the South, Washington received intelligence
of movements at New York and in its vicinity, which made him apprehend
an expedition against the Highlands of the Hudson. Since the loss of
Forts Montgomery and Clinton, the main defences of the Highlands had
been established at the sudden bend of the river where it winds
between West Point and Constitution Island. Two opposite forts
commanded this bend, and an iron chain which was stretched across it.
Washington had projected two works also just below the Highlands, at
Stony Point and Verplanck's Point, to serve as outworks of the
mountain passes, and to protect King's Ferry, the most direct and
convenient communication between the Northern and Middle States. A
small but strong fort had been erected on Verplanck's Point, and was
garrisoned by seventy men under Captain Armstrong. A more important
work was in progress at Stony Point. When completed, these two forts,
on opposite promontories, would form as it were the lower gates of the
Highlands. To be at hand in case of any real attempt upon the
Highlands, Washington drew up with his forces in that direction;
moving by the way of Morristown.
An expedition up the Hudson was really the object of Sir Henry
Clinton's movements, and for this he was strengthened by the return of
Sir George Collier with his marauding ships and forces from Virginia.
On the 30th of May, Sir Henry set out on his second grand cruise up
the Hudson, with an armament of about seventy sail, great and small,
and one hundred and fifty flat-boats. Admiral Sir George Collier
commanded the armament, and there was a land force of about five
thousand men under General Vaughan.
The first aim of Sir Henry was to get possession of Stony and
Verplanck's Points; his former expedition had acquainted him with the
importance of this pass of the river. On the morning of the 31st, the
forces were landed in two divisions, the largest under General
Vaughan, on the east side of the river, about seven or eight miles
below Verplanck's Point; the other, commanded by Sir Henry in person,
landed in Haverstraw Bay, about three miles below Stony Point. There
were but about thirty men in the unfinished fort; they abandoned it on
the approach of the enemy, and retreated into the Highlands, having
first set fire to the block-house. The British took quiet possession
of the fort in the evening; dragged up cannon and mortars in the
night, and at daybreak opened a furious fire upon Fort Lafayette. It
was cannonaded at the same time by the armed vessels, and a
demonstration was made on it by the division under General Vaughan.
Thus surrounded, the little garrison of seventy men was forced to
surrender, with no other stipulation than safety to their persons and
to the property they had in the fort. Major André was aide-de-camp to
Sir Henry, and signed the articles of capitulation.
Washington presumed that the main object of Sir Henry was to get
possession of West Point, the guardian fortress of the river, and that
the capture of Stony and Verplanck's Points were preparatory steps. He
would fain have dislodged him from these posts, but deferring any
attempt on them for the present, he took measures for the protection
of West Point. Leaving General Putnam and the main body of the army at
Smith's Clove, a mountain pass in the rear of Haverstraw, he removed
his head-quarters to New Windsor, to be near West Point in case of
need, and to press the completion of its works. General McDougall was
transferred to the command of the Point. Three brigades were stationed
at different places on the opposite side of the river, under General
Heath, from which fatigue parties crossed daily to work on the
fortifications.
This strong disposition of the American forces checked Sir Henry's
designs against the Highlands. Contenting himself, therefore, for the
present, with the acquisition of Stony and Verplanck's Points, he
returned to New York, where he soon set on foot a desolating
expedition along the seaboard of Connecticut. That State, while it
furnished the American armies with provisions and recruits, and
infested the sea with privateers, had hitherto experienced nothing of
the horrors of war within its borders. Sir Henry, in compliance with
his instructions from government, was now about to give it a scourging
lesson. General (late Governor) Tryon, was the officer selected by Sir
Henry for this inglorious, but apparently congenial service. About the
beginning of July he embarked with two thousand six hundred men, in a
fleet of transports and tenders, and was convoyed up the Sound by Sir
George Collier with two ships-of-war.
On the 5th of July the troops landed near New Haven, in two divisions,
one led by Tryon, the other by Brigadier-general Garth, his
lieutenant. They came upon the neighborhood by surprise; yet the
militia assembled in haste, and made a resolute though ineffectual
opposition. The British captured the town, dismantled the fort, and
took or destroyed all the vessels in the harbor; with all the
artillery, ammunition, and public stores. Several private houses were
plundered. They next proceeded to Fairfield; where, meeting with
greater resistance, they thought the moment arrived for a wholesome
example of severity. Accordingly, they not merely ravaged and
destroyed the public stores and the vessels in the harbor, but laid
the town itself in ashes. The exact return of this salutary lesson
gives the destruction of ninety-seven dwelling-houses, sixty-seven
barns and stables, forty-eight store-houses, three places of worship,
a court-house, a jail, and two school-houses.
At Norwalk, where they landed on the 11th of July, they burnt one
hundred and thirty dwelling-houses, eighty-seven barns, twenty-two
store-houses, seventeen shops, four mills, two places of worship, and
five vessels which were in the harbor. The loss of the British
throughout the whole expedition amounted, according to their own
accounts, to twenty killed, ninety-six wounded, and thirty-two
missing. It was intended to crown this grand ravage by a descent on
New London, a noted rendezvous of privateers; but as greater
opposition was expected there than at either of the other places the
squadron returned to Huntington Bay, on Long Island, to await
reinforcements; and Commodore Collier proceeded to Throg's Neck, to
confer with Sir Henry Clinton about further operations.
Washington on hearing of the departure of the expedition to the
eastward, and before he was acquainted with its definite object,
detached General Heath, with two brigades of Connecticut militia, to
counteract the movements of the enemy. This was all that he could
spare from the force stationed for the protection of the Highlands.
Any weakening of his posts there might bring the enemy suddenly upon
him, such was their facility in moving from one place to another by
means of their shipping. Indeed, he had divined that a scheme of the
kind was at the bottom of the hostile movement to the eastward.
As a kind of counter-check to Sir Henry, Washington had for some days
been planning the recapture of Stony Point and Fort Lafayette. He had
reconnoitred them in person; spies had been thrown into them, and
information collected from deserters. Stony Point having been recently
strengthened by the British was now the most important. It was a rocky
promontory advancing far into the Hudson, which washed three sides of
it. A deep morass, covered at high water, separated it from the
mainland, but at low tide might be traversed by a narrow causeway and
bridge. The promontory was crowned by strong works, furnished with
heavy ordnance, commanding the morass and causeway. Lower down were
two rows of abatis, and the shore at the foot of the hill could be
swept by vessels of war anchored in the river. The garrison was about
six hundred strong, commanded by Lieutenant-colonel Johnson.
To attempt the surprisal of this isolated post, thus strongly
fortified, was a perilous enterprise. General Wayne, Mad Anthony as he
was called from his daring valor, was the officer to whom Washington
proposed it, and he engaged in it with avidity. According to
Washington's plan, it was to be attempted by light-infantry only, at
night, and with the utmost secrecy, securing every person they met to
prevent discovery. Between one and two hundred chosen men and officers
were to make the surprise; preceded by a vanguard of prudent,
determined men, well commanded, to remove obstructions, secure
sentries, and drive in the guards. On getting possession of Stony
Point, Wayne was to turn its guns upon Fort Lafayette and the
shipping. A detachment was to march down from West Point by Peekskill,
to the vicinity of Fort Lafayette, and hold itself ready to join in
the attack upon it, as soon as the cannonade began from Stony Point.
On the 15th of July, about mid-day, Wayne set out with his
light-infantry from Sandy Beach, fourteen miles distant from Stony
Point. About eight in the evening, they arrived within a mile and a
half of the forts, without being discovered. About half-past eleven,
the whole moved forward, guided by a negro of the neighborhood who had
frequently carried in fruit to the garrison, and served the Americans
as a spy. He led the way, accompanied by two stout men disguised as
farmers. The countersign was given to the first sentinel, posted on
high ground west of the morass. While the negro talked with him, the
men seized and gagged him. The sentinel posted at the head of the
causeway was served in the same manner. The causeway, however, was
overflowed, and it was some time after twelve o'clock before the
troops could cross; leaving three hundred men under General
Muhlenberg, on the western side of the morass, as a reserve.
At the foot of the promontory, the troops were divided into two
columns, for simultaneous attacks on opposite sides of the works. One
hundred and fifty volunteers, led by Lieutenant-colonel Fleury,
seconded by Major Posey, formed the vanguard of the right column; one
hundred volunteers under Major Stewart, the vanguard of the left. In
the advance of each was a forlorn hope of twenty men, one led by
Lieutenant Gibbon, the other by Lieutenant Knox; it was their
desperate duty to remove the abatis. So well had the whole affair been
conducted, that the Americans were close upon the outworks before they
were discovered. There was then severe skirmishing at the pickets. The
Americans used the bayonet; the others discharged their muskets. The
reports roused the garrison. Stony Point was instantly in an uproar.
The drums beat to arms; every one hurried to his alarm post; the works
were hastily manned, and a tremendous fire of grape-shot and musketry
opened upon the assailants.
The two columns forced their way with the bayonet, at opposite points,
surmounting every obstacle. Colonel Fleury was the first to enter the
fort and strike the British flag. Major Posey sprang to the ramparts
and shouted, "The fort is our own." The two columns arrived nearly at
the same time, and met in the centre of the works. The garrison
surrendered at discretion. At daybreak, the guns of the fort were
turned on Fort Lafayette and the shipping. The latter cut their cables
and dropped down the river. Through a series of blunders, the
detachment from West Point, which was to have co-operated, did not
arrive in time, and came unprovided with suitable ammunition for their
battering artillery. This part of the enterprise, therefore, failed;
Fort Lafayette held out.
The storming of Stony Point stands out in high relief as one of the
most brilliant achievements of the war. The Americans had effected it
without firing a musket. On their part it was the silent, deadly work
of the bayonet; the fierce resistance they met at the outset may be
judged by the havoc made in their forlorn hope; out of twenty-two men,
seventeen were either killed or wounded. The whole loss of the
Americans was fifteen killed and eighty-three wounded. Of the
garrison, sixty-three were slain, including two officers; five hundred
and fifty-three were taken prisoners, among whom were a
lieutenant-colonel, four captains, and twenty-three subaltern
officers.
{Illustration: NEW LONDON, CONN. Vol. IV.}
Tidings of the capture of Stony Point, and the imminent danger of Fort
Lafayette, reached Sir Henry Clinton just after his conference with
Sir George Collier at Throg's Neck. The expedition against New London
was instantly given up; the transports and troops were recalled; a
forced march was made to Dobbs' Ferry on the Hudson; a detachment was
sent up the river in transports to relieve Fort Lafayette, and Sir
Henry followed with a greater force, hoping Washington might quit his
fastnesses, and risk a battle for the possession of Stony Point.
Again the Fabian policy of the American commander-in-chief
disappointed the British general. Having well examined the post in
company with an engineer and several general officers, he found that
at least fifteen hundred men would be required to maintain it, a
number not to be spared from the army at present. The works, too, were
only calculated for defence on the land side, and were open towards
the river, where the enemy depended upon protection from their ships.
It would be necessary to construct them anew, with great labor. The
army, also, would have to be in the vicinity, too distant from West
Point to aid in completing or defending its fortifications, and
exposed to the risk of a general action on unfavorable terms. For
these considerations, in which all his officers concurred, Washington
evacuated the post on the 18th, removing the cannon and stores, and
destroying the works; after which he drew his forces together in the
Highlands, and established his quarters at West Point. Sir Henry
retook possession of Stony Point, and fortified and garrisoned it more
strongly than ever, but was too wary to risk an attempt upon the
strongholds of the Highlands.
The brilliant affair of the storming of Stony Point was somewhat
overshadowed by the result of an enterprise at the eastward,
undertaken without consulting Washington. A British detachment from
Halifax, of seven or eight hundred men, had founded in June a military
post on the eastern side of the Bay of Penobscot, nine miles below the
river of that name, and were erecting a fort there, intended to
protect Nova Scotia, control the frontiers of Massachusetts, and
command the vast wooded regions of Maine.
The people of Boston, roused by this movement, which invaded their
territory, and touched their pride and interests, undertook, on their
own responsibility, a naval and military expedition intended to drive
off the invaders. A squadron of armed ships and brigantines under
Commodore Saltonstall put to sea, convoying transports, on board of
which were near four thousand land troops under General Lovel.
Arriving in the Penobscot on the 25th of May, they found Colonel
Maclean posted on a peninsula, steep and precipitous toward the bay,
and deeply trenched on the land side, with three ships-of-war anchored
before it.
Lovel was repulsed, with some little loss, in an attempt to effect a
landing on the peninsula; but finally succeeded before daybreak on the
28th. The moment was propitious for a bold and vigorous blow. The fort
was but half finished; the guns were not mounted; the three armed
vessels could not have offered a formidable resistance; but,
unfortunately, the energy of a Wayne was wanting to the enterprise.
Lovel proceeded by regular siege. He threw up works at seven hundred
and fifty yards distance, and opened a cannonade, which was continued
from day to day, for a fortnight. The delay gave time for Admiral
Collier at New York to hear of this enterprise, and take measures for
its defeat.
On the 13th of August, Lovel was astounded by intelligence that the
admiral was arrived before the bay with a superior armament. Thus
fairly entrapped, he endeavored to extricate his force with as little
loss as possible. Before news of Collier's arrival could reach the
fort, he re-embarked his troops in the transports to make their escape
up the river. His armed vessels were drawn up in a crescent as if to
give battle, but it was merely to hold the enemy in check. They soon
gave way; some were captured, others were set on fire or blown up, and
abandoned by their crews. The transports being eagerly pursued and in
great danger of being taken, disgorged the troops and seamen on the
wild shores of the river: whence they had to make the best of their
way to Boston, struggling for upwards of a hundred miles through a
pathless wilderness, before they reached the settled parts of the
country.
If Washington was chagrined by the signal failure of this expedition,
he was cheered by the better fortune of one set on foot about the same
time, under his own eye, by his young friend, Major Henry Lee of the
Virginia dragoons. This active and daring officer had frequently been
employed by him in scouring the country on the west side of the Hudson
to collect information; keep an eye upon the enemy's posts; cut off
their supplies, and check their foraging parties. The _coup de main_
at Stony Point had piqued his emulation. In the course of his
reconnoitring, and by means of spies, he had discovered that the
British post at Paulus Hook, immediately opposite to New York, was
very negligently guarded. Paulus Hook is a long low point of the
Jersey shore, stretching into the Hudson, and connected to the main
land by a sandy isthmus. A fort had been erected on it, and garrisoned
with four or five hundred men, under the command of Major Sutherland.
It was a strong position. A creek, fordable only in two places,
rendered the hook difficult of access. Within this, a deep trench had
been cut across the isthmus, traversed by a drawbridge with a barred
gate; and still within this was a double row of abatis, extending into
the water. Confident in the strength of his position, and its distance
from any American force, Major Sutherland had become remiss in his
military precautions. All this had been ascertained by Major Lee; and
he now proposed the daring project of surprising the fort at night,
and thus striking an insulting blow "within cannon shot of New York."
Washington was disposed to favor the adventurous schemes of this young
officer.
On the 18th of August, Lee set out on the expedition, at the head of
three hundred men of Lord Stirling's division, and a troop of
dismounted dragoons under Captain McLane. It was between two and three
in the morning when he arrived at the creek. It happened, fortunately,
that Major Sutherland, the British commander, had the day before
detached a foraging party under a Major Buskirk to a part of the
country called the English Neighborhood. As Lee and his men approached
they were mistaken by the sentinel for this party on its return. The
darkness of the night favored the mistake. They passed the creek and
ditch, entered the works unmolested, and had made themselves masters
of the post before the negligent garrison were well roused from sleep.
Major Sutherland and about sixty Hessians threw themselves into a
small block-house on the left of the fort and opened an irregular
fire. To attempt to dislodge them would have cost too much time. Alarm
guns from the ships in the river and the forts at New York threatened
speedy reinforcements to the enemy. Having made one hundred and
fifty-nine prisoners, among whom were three officers, Lee commenced
his retreat, without tarrying to destroy either barracks or artillery.
Few of the enemy were slain, for there was but little fighting and no
massacre. His own loss was two men killed and three wounded.
The arrival of Admiral Arbuthnot, with a fleet bringing three thousand
troops and a supply of provisions and stores, strengthened the hands
of Sir Henry Clinton. Still he had not sufficient force to warrant any
further attempt up the Hudson, Washington, by his diligence in
fortifying West Point, having rendered that fastness of the Highlands
apparently impregnable. Sir Henry turned his thoughts, therefore,
towards the South, hoping by a successful expedition in that direction
to counterbalance ill success in other quarters.
At this juncture news was received of the arrival of the Count
D'Estaing with a formidable fleet on the coast of Georgia, having made
a successful cruise in the West Indies, in the course of which he had
taken St. Vincent's and Granada. A combined attack upon New York was
again talked of. In anticipation of it, Washington called upon several
of the Middle States for supplies of all kinds, and reinforcements of
militia. Sir Henry Clinton also changed his plans; caused Rhode Island
to be evacuated; the troops and stores to be brought away; the
garrisons brought off from Stony and Verplanck's Points, and all his
forces to be concentrated at New York, which he endeavored to put in
the strongest posture of defence.
Intelligence recently received, too, that Spain had joined France in
hostilities against England, contributed to increase the solicitude
and perplexities of the enemy, while it gave fresh confidence to the
Americans.
Washington's anticipations of a combined operation with D'Estaing
against New York were again disappointed. The French admiral, on
arriving on the coast of Georgia, had been persuaded to co-operate
with the Southern army, under General Lincoln, in an attempt to
recover Savannah. For three weeks a siege was carried on with great
vigor, by regular approaches on land, and cannonade and bombardment
from the shipping. On the 9th of October, although the approaches were
not complete, and no sufficient breach had been effected, Lincoln and
D'Estaing, at the head of their choicest troops, advanced before
daybreak to storm the works. The assault was gallant but unsuccessful;
both Americans and French had planted their standards on the redoubts,
but were finally repulsed. After the repulse, both armies retired from
before the place, the French having lost in killed and wounded upwards
of six hundred men, the Americans about four hundred. D'Estaing
himself was among the wounded, and the gallant Count Pulaski among the
slain. The loss of the enemy was trifling, being protected by their
works.
The tidings of this reverse, which reached Washington late in
November, put an end to all prospect of co-operation from the French
fleet; a consequent change took place in all his plans. The militia of
New York and Massachusetts, recently assembled, were disbanded, and
arrangements were made for the winter. The army was thrown into two
divisions; one was to be stationed under General Heath in the
Highlands, for the protection of West Point and the neighboring posts;
the other and principal division was to be hutted near Morristown,
where Washington was to have his head-quarters. The cavalry were to be
sent to Connecticut.
Understanding that Sir Henry Clinton was making preparations at New
York for a large embarkation of troops, and fearing they might be
destined against Georgia and Carolina, he resolved to detach the
greater part of his Southern troops for the protection of those
States; a provident resolution, in which he was confirmed by
subsequent instructions from Congress. Accordingly, the North Carolina
brigade took up its march for Charleston in November, and the whole of
the Virginia line in December.
Notwithstanding the recent preparations at New York, the ships
remained in port, and the enemy held themselves in collected force
there. Sir Henry was regulating his movements by those the French
fleet might make after the repulse at Savannah. Intelligence at length
arrived that it had been dispersed by a violent storm. Count
D'Estaing, with a part, had shaped his course for France; the rest had
proceeded to the West Indies. Sir Henry now lost no time in carrying
his plans into operation. Leaving the garrison of New York under the
command of Lieutenant-general Knyphausen, he embarked several thousand
men on board of transports, to be convoyed by five ships-of-the-line
and several frigates under Admiral Arbuthnot, and set sail on the 26th
of December, accompanied by Lord Cornwallis, on an expedition intended
for the capture of Charleston and the reduction of South Carolina.