EXPEDITION AGAINST PENOBSCOT—NIGHT SURPRISAL OF PAULUS HOOK—WASHINGTON
FORTIFIES WEST POINT—HIS STYLE OF LIVING THERE—TABLE AT
HEAD-QUARTERS—SIR HENRY CLINTON REINFORCED—ARRIVAL OF D’ESTAING ON
THE COAST OF GEORGIA—PLANS IN CONSEQUENCE—THE FRENCH MINISTER AT
WASHINGTON’S HIGHLAND CAMP—LETTER TO LAFAYETTE—D’ESTAING CO-OPERATES
WITH LINCOLN—REPULSED AT SAVANNAH—WASHINGTON REINFORCES LINCOLN—GOES
INTO WINTER-QUARTERS—SIR HENRY CLINTON SENDS AN EXPEDITION TO THE
SOUTH.
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; whence inexhaustible supplies of timber might be
procured for the royal shipyards at Halifax and elsewhere.
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. All Boston was in a military bustle, enrolling militia
and volunteers. An embargo of forty days was laid on the shipping, to
facilitate the equipment of the naval armament; a squadron of armed
ships and brigantines under Commodore Saltonstall, at length 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 enemy availed themselves of the delay
to strengthen their works, in which they were aided by men from the
ships. Distrustful of the efficiency of the militia and of their
continuance in camp, Lovel sent to Boston for a reinforcement of
Continental troops. He only awaited their arrival to carry the place by
storm. A golden opportunity was lost by this excess of caution. It 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; and
several of them perishing through hunger and exhaustion.
If Washington was chagrined by the signal failure of this expedition,
undertaken without his advice, 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 his
communications to head-quarters he intimated that an opportunity
presented for an exploit of almost equal daring. 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. The whole
position, with the country immediately adjacent, was separated from the
rest of Jersey by the Hackensack River, running parallel to the Hudson,
at the distance of a very few miles, and only traversable in boats,
excepting at the New Bridge, about fourteen miles from Paulus Hook.
Confident in the strength of his position, and its distance from any
American force, Major Sutherland had become remiss in his military
precautions; the want of vigilance in a commander soon produces
carelessness in subalterns, and a general negligence prevailed in the
garrison.
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 pleased
with the project; he had a relish for signal enterprises of the kind; he
was aware of their striking and salutary effect upon both friend and
foe; and he was disposed to favor the adventurous schemes of this young
officer. The chief danger in the present one, would be in the evacuation
and retreat after the blow had been effected, owing to the proximity of
the enemy’s force at New York. In consenting to the enterprise,
therefore, he stipulated that Lee should not undertake it unless sure,
from previous observation, that the post could be carried by instant
surprise; when carried, no time was to be lost in attempting to bring
off cannon or any other articles; or in collecting stragglers of the
garrison who might skulk and hide themselves. He was “to surprise the
post; bring off the garrison immediately, and effect a retreat.”
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. The attack was to be made that night.
Lest the enemy should hear of their movement, it was given out that they
were on a mere foraging excursion. The road they took lay along that
belt of rocky and wooded heights which borders the Hudson, and forms a
rugged neck between it and the Hackensack. Lord Stirling followed with
five hundred men, and encamped at the New Bridge on that river, to be at
hand to render aid if required. As it would be perilous to return along
the rugged neck just mentioned, from the number of the enemy encamped
along the Hudson, Lee, after striking the blow, was to push for Dow’s
Ferry on the Hackensack, not far from Paulus Hook, where boats would be
waiting to receive him.
It was between two and three in the morning when Lee arrived at the
creek which rendered Paulus Hook difficult of access. 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 fiftynine
prisoners, among whom were three officers, Lee commenced his retreat,
without tarrying to destroy either barracks or artillery. He had
achieved his object: a _coup de main_ of signal audacity. 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.
His retreat was attended by perils and perplexities. Through blunder or
misapprehension, the boats which he was to have found at Dow’s Ferry on
the Hackensack, disappointed him; and he had to make his way with his
weary troops up the neck of land between that river and the Hudson, in
imminent danger of being cut up by Buskirk and his scouting detachment.
Fortunately Lord Stirling heard of his peril, and sent out a force to
cover his retreat, which was effected in safety. Washington felt the
value of this hardy and brilliant exploit. “The increase of confidence,”
said he, “which the army will derive from this affair and that of Stony
Point, though great, will be among the least of the advantages resulting
from these events.” In a letter to the President of Congress, he
extolled the prudence, address, enterprise, and bravery displayed on the
occasion by Major Lee; in consequence of which the latter received the
signal reward of a gold medal.
Washington was now at West Point, diligently providing for the defence
of the Highlands against any farther attempts of the enemy. During the
time that he made this his head-quarters, the most important works, we
are told, were completed, especially the fort at West Point, which
formed the citadel of those mountains.
Of his singularly isolated situation with respect to public affairs, we
have evidence in the following passage of a letter to Edmund Randolph,
who had recently taken his seat in Congress. “I shall be happy in such
communications as your leisure and other considerations will permit you
to transmit to me, for I am as totally unacquainted with the political
state of things, and what is going forward in the great national
council, as if I was an alien; when a competent knowledge of the temper
and designs of our allies, from time to time, and the frequent changes
and complexion of affairs in Europe might, as they ought to do, have a
considerable influence on the operations of our army, and would in many
cases determine the propriety of measures, which under a cloud of
darkness can only be groped at. I say this upon a presumption that
Congress, either through their own ministers or that of France, must be
acquainted in some degree with the plans of Great Britain, and the
designs of France and Spain. If I mistake in this conjecture, it is to
be lamented that they have not better information; or, if political
motives render disclosures of this kind improper, I am content to remain
in ignorance.”
Of the style of living at head-quarters, we have a picture in the
following letter to Doctor John Cochran, the surgeon-general and
physician of the army. It is almost the only instance of sportive
writing in all Washington’s correspondence.
“DEAR DOCTOR:—I have asked Mrs. Cochran and Mrs. Livingston to dine
with me to-morrow; but am I not in honor bound to apprise them of
their fare? As I hate deception, even where the imagination only is
concerned, I will. It is needless to premise that my table is large
enough to hold the ladies. Of this they had ocular proof yesterday. To
say how it is usually covered is more essential; and this shall be the
purport of my letter.
“Since our arrival at this happy spot, we have had a ham, sometimes a
shoulder of bacon, to grace the head of the table: a piece of roast
beef adorns the foot; and a dish of beans or greens, almost
imperceptible, decorates the centre. When the cook has a mind to cut a
figure, which I presume will be the case to-morrow, we have two
beefsteak pies, or dishes of crabs, in addition, one on each side of
the centre dish, dividing the space and reducing the distance between
dish and dish to about six feet, which, without them, would be about
twelve feet apart. Of late he has had the surprising sagacity to
discover that apples will make pies, and it is a question, if, in the
violence of his efforts, we do not get one of apples instead of having
both of beefsteaks. If the ladies can put up with such entertainment,
and will submit to partake of it on plates once tin but now iron (not
become so by the labor of scouring), I shall be happy to see them.”
We may add, that, however poor the fare and poor the table equipage at
head-quarters, every thing was conducted with strict etiquette and
decorum, and we make no doubt the ladies in question were handed in with
as much courtesy to the bacon and greens and tin dishes, as though they
were to be regaled with the daintiest viands, served up on enamelled
plate and porcelain.
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. As this would require
large detachments, he threw up additional works on New York Island and
at Brooklyn, to render his position secure with the diminished force
that would remain with him.
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.
The Chevalier de la Luzerne, minister from France, with Mons. Barbé
Marbois, his secretary of legation, having recently landed at Boston,
paid Washington a visit at his mountain fortress, bringing letters of
introduction from Lafayette. The chevalier not having yet announced
himself to Congress, did not choose to be received in his public
character. “If he had,” writes Washington, “except paying him military
honors, it was not my intention to depart from that plain and simple
manner of living, which accords with the real interest and policy of men
struggling under every difficulty for the attainment of the most
inestimable blessing of life, _liberty_.”
In conformity with this intention, he welcomed the chevalier to the
mountains with the thunder of artillery, and received him at his
fortress with military ceremonial; but very probably surprised him with
the stern simplicity of his table, while he charmed him with the dignity
and grace with which he presided at it. The ambassador evidently
acquitted himself with true French suavity and diplomatic tact. “He was
polite enough,” writes Washington, “to approve my principle, and
condescended to appear pleased with our Spartan living. In a word, he
made us all exceedingly happy by his affability and good humor while he
remained in camp.”
The letters from Lafayette spoke of his favorable reception at court,
and his appointment to an honorable situation in the French army. “I had
no doubt,” writes Washington, “that this would be the case. To hear it
from yourself adds pleasure to the account. And here, my dear friend,
let me congratulate you. None can do it with more warmth of affection,
or sincere joy than myself. Your forward zeal in the cause of liberty;
your singular attachment to this infant world; your ardent and
persevering efforts, not only in America, but since your return to
France, to serve the United States; your polite attention to Americans,
and your strict and uniform friendship for _me_, have ripened the first
impressions of esteem and attachment which I imbibed for you, into such
perfect love and gratitude, as neither time nor absence can impair. This
will warrant my assuring you that, whether in the character of an
officer at the head of a corps of gallant Frenchmen, if circumstances
should require this, whether as a major-general commanding a division of
the American army, or whether, after our swords and spears have given
place to the ploughshare and the pruning-hook, I see you as a private
gentleman, a friend and companion, I shall welcome you with all the
warmth of friendship to Columbia’s shores; and, in the latter case, to
my rural cottage, where homely fare and a cordial reception, shall be
substituted for delicacies and costly living. This, from past
experience, I know you can submit to; and if the lovely partner of your
happiness will consent to participate with _us_ in such rural
entertainment and amusements, I can undertake, on behalf of Mrs.
Washington, that she will do every thing in her power to make Virginia
agreeable to the marchioness. My inclination and endeavors to do this
cannot be doubted, when I assure you, that I love every body that is
dear to you, and consequently participate in the pleasure you feel in
the prospect of again becoming a parent, and do most sincerely
congratulate you and your lady on this fresh pledge she is about to give
you of her love.”
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, which had fallen into the hands of the British during the
preceding year. 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 Americans recrossed the Savannah River into South Carolina; the
militia returned to their homes, and the French re-embarked.
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. Doubts
began to be entertained of some furtive design nearer at hand, and
measures were taken to protect the army against an attack when in
winter-quarters. Sir Henry, however, 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.
END OF VOL. III.
-----
Footnote 1:
Burke’s Works, vol. v. p. 125.
Footnote 2:
“These rascals plunder all indiscriminately. If they see any thing
they like, they say, ‘Rebel good for Hesse-mans,’ and seize upon it
for their own use. They have no idea of the distinctions between Whig
and Tory.”—_Letter of Hazard the Postmaster._
Footnote 3:
Wilkinson’s Memoirs, vol. i. p. 149.
Footnote 4:
Notes of the Rev. Joseph F. Tuttle, MS.
Footnote 5:
Sparks’ Am. Biography, vol. vii. p. 196.
Footnote 6:
Washington to the President of Cong. Also note to Sparks, vol. iv. p.
290.
Footnote 7:
Notes of the Rev. Joseph F. Tuttle, MS.
Footnote 8:
Graydon’s Memoirs, p. 232.
Footnote 9:
Am. Archives, 5th Series, iii. 1244.
Footnote 10:
Letter to Governor Cooke, Sparks, iv. 285.
Footnote 11:
Schuyler’s Letter Book, MS.
Footnote 12:
Schuyler’s Letter Book, MS.
Footnote 13:
Sparks. Washington’s Writings, iv. 361. note.
Footnote 14:
The reader may recollect that it was Commissary-general Trumbull who
wrote the letter to Gates calculated to inflame his jealousy against
Schuyler, when the question of command had risen between them. (See
vol i. ch. 28.)
Footnote 15:
Gates’s papers. N. Y. H. Lib.
Footnote 16:
Journals of Congress.
Footnote 17:
Letter of Col. Richard Varick. Schuyler’s Letter Book.
Footnote 18:
Schuyler’s Letter Book.
Footnote 19:
Foreign Quarterly Review, vol xv. p. 114.
Footnote 20:
Sparks. Writings of Washington, iv. 407.
Footnote 21:
Life of Lamb, p. 157.
Footnote 22:
Schuyler’s Letter Book.
Footnote 23:
Letter to Jas. Lovell, of Massachusetts. Gates’s papers, N. Y. Hist.
Lib.
Footnote 24:
Gates’s Papers.
Footnote 25:
Washington’s Writings, Sparks, iv. 427.
Footnote 26:
Gates’s Papers, N. Y. Hist. Lib.
Footnote 27:
Letter of the Hon. Wm. Duer, Schuyler’s Papers.
Footnote 28:
Clinton to Washington.
Footnote 29:
Evidence of Major-general Grey before the House of Commons.
Footnote 30:
Life of Reed by his grandson.
Footnote 31:
Civil war in America, v. i. p. 247.
Footnote 32:
Letter to the President of Cong. 28th June, 1777.
Footnote 33:
Communicated to the author by the late Mrs. Hamilton.
NOTE.—A veteran officer of the Revolution used to speak in his old
days of the occasion on which he first saw Hamilton. It was during the
memorable retreat through the Jerseys. “I noticed,” said he, “a youth,
a mere stripling, small, slender, almost delicate in frame, marching
beside a piece of artillery, with a cocked hat pulled down over his
eyes, apparently lost in thought, with his hand resting on the cannon,
and every now and then patting it as he mused, as if it were a
favorite horse, or a pet plaything.”
Footnote 34:
Graydon’s Memoirs, 282.
Footnote 35:
Henry Brockholst Livingston: in after years judge of the Supreme Court
of the United States.
Footnote 36:
Letter of Major Livingston to Genl. Schuyler, MS.
Footnote 37:
Letter to the Hon. George Clymer.
Footnote 38:
Schuyler’s Letter Book.
Footnote 39:
Letter to Schuyler, 18th July, 1777.
Footnote 40:
Trumbull’s Autobiography, p. 32.
Footnote 41:
MS. Letter of Richard Varick to Schuyler.
Footnote 42:
Hist. Civil War in America, vol. i. p. 283.
Footnote 43:
Letter to Governor Trumbull. Correspondence of the Revolution, vol. i.
Sparks.
Footnote 44:
Schuyler’s Letter Book.
Footnote 45:
Civil War in America, vol. i. p. 250.
Footnote 46:
Communicated by Professor B. Silliman.
Footnote 47:
Schuyler to Gov. Trumbull. Letter Book.
Footnote 48:
Schuyler’s Papers.
Footnote 49:
Schuyler’s Letter Book.
Footnote 50:
Memoires du Gen. Lafayette, tom. i. p. 19.
Footnote 51:
Washington to Benj. Harrison. Sparks, v. 35.
Footnote 52:
The sad story of Miss McCrea, like many other incidents of the
Revolution, has been related in such a variety of ways, and so wrought
up by tradition, that it is difficult now to get at the simple truth.
Some of the above circumstances were derived from a niece of Miss
McCrea, whom the author met upwards of fifty years ago, at her
residence on the banks of the St. Lawrence. A stone, with her name cut
on it, still marks the grave of Miss McCrea near the ruins of Fort
Edward; and a tree is pointed out near which she was murdered.
Lieutenant Jones is said to have been completely broken in spirit by
the shock of her death. Procuring her scalp, with its long silken
tresses, he brooded over it in anguish, and preserved it as a sad, but
precious relic. Disgusted with the service, he threw up his
commission, and retired to Canada; never marrying, but living to be an
old man; taciturn and melancholy, and haunted by painful
recollections.
Footnote 53:
Some of the particulars of this action were given to the author by a
son of Colonel Paris.
Footnote 54:
Letter to Gates. Gates’s Papers.
Footnote 55:
Schlözer’s Briefwechsel, Th. iii. Heft xvii.
Footnote 56:
Schlözer’s Briefwechsel.
Footnote 57:
Briefe aus Amerika. Schlözer’s Briefwechsel, Th. iii. Heft xiii.
Footnote 58:
Schlözer’s Briefwechsel, Th. iii. Heft xiii.
Footnote 59:
Gates’s Papers.
Footnote 60:
After General Gates had written his letter to Burgoyne, he called
General Lincoln and myself into his apartment, read it to us, and
requested our opinion of it, which we declined giving; but being
pressed by him, with diffidence we concurred in judgment, that he had
been too personal; to which the old gentleman replied with his
characteristic bluntness, “By G—! I don’t believe either of you can
mend it:”—and thus the consultation terminated.—_Wilkinson’s Memoirs_,
vol. i. 231.
Footnote 61:
Memoires. Tom. 1. p. 26.
Footnote 62:
Memoir of Major Samuel Shaw, by Hon. Josiah Quincy.
Footnote 63:
Letter to Lord George Germain.
Footnote 64:
Riedesel’s Memoirs.
Footnote 65:
MS. Letter to Schuyler.
Footnote 66:
MS. Letter to Schuyler.
Footnote 67:
Schlözer’s Briefwechsel.
Footnote 68:
Wilkinson’s Memoirs, i. 236.
Footnote 69:
Col. Varick to Schuyler. Schuyler Papers.
Footnote 70:
Col. Varick to Schuyler. Schuyler Papers.
Footnote 71:
Burgoyne to Lord George Germain.
Footnote 72:
Col. Livingston to Schuyler. Schuyler Papers.
Footnote 73:
Gates’s Papers, N. Y. Hist. Lib.
Footnote 74:
Burgoyne’s Expedition, p. 166.
Footnote 75:
Correspondence of the Revolution. Sparks, ii. 537.
Footnote 76:
Civil War in America, vol. i. p. 311.
Footnote 77:
Stedman, vol. i. p. 364.
Footnote 78:
Idem.
Footnote 79:
Letter to the Council of Safety. Jour. of Provincial Congress, vol. i.
1064.
Footnote 80:
Gov. Clinton to the N. Y. Council of Safety. Journal of Prov. Cong.
Footnote 81:
Schlözer’s Briefwechsel.
Footnote 82:
Letter to Gov. Clinton. Gates’s Papers.
Footnote 83:
Civil War in America i. 302.
Footnote 84:
Riedesel’s Memoirs.
Footnote 85:
Riedesel’s Memoirs, p. 171.
Footnote 86:
The statement here given is founded on the report made to General
Wilkinson by Major (afterward General) Dearborn. It varies from that
of Burgoyne.
Footnote 87:
Schuyler Papers.
Footnote 88:
“At the very time,” say the British historians, “that General Burgoyne
was receiving the most favorable conditions for himself and his ruined
army, the fine village or town of Esopus, at no very great distance,
was reduced to ashes, and not a house left standing.”
Footnote 89:
Briefe aus Neu England. Schlözer’s Briefwechsel.
Footnote 90:
Letter to the President of Cong. Sparks, v. 71.
Footnote 91:
Letter of Washington to the President of Congress. Letter of Sullivan
to the President of New Hampshire.
Footnote 92:
Letter to Col. Lamb in the Lamb Papers. N. Y. Hist. Soc., and quoted
in the Life of Lamb, p. 183.
Footnote 93:
Reed’s Memoirs, vol. i. p. 319.
Footnote 94:
Civil War in America, i. 269.
Footnote 95:
Capt. Heth to Col. Lamb.
Footnote 96:
Major Shaw, Memoirs by Josiah Quincy, p. 41.
Footnote 97:
De Chastellux, vol. i. p. 266.
Footnote 98:
Gates’s Papers, N. Y. Hist. Lib.
Footnote 99:
Life of Lord Stirling, by W. A. Duer, p. 182.
Footnote 100:
Life of Talbot, by Henry T. Tuckerman, p. 31.
Footnote 101:
Governor Clinton and myself have been down to view the forts, and are
both of opinion that a boom, thrown across at Fort Constitution, and a
battery on each side of the river, would answer a much better purpose
than at Fort Montgomery, as the garrison would be reinforced by
militia with more expedition, and the ground much more definable
(defendable?).—Putnam to Washington, 7th Nov. 1777.—_Sparks’ Cor. of
the Rev._ ii. 30.
Footnote 102:
Gates’s Papers, N. Y. Hist. Soc. Lib.
Footnote 103:
Reed to Gates. Gates’s Papers.
Footnote 104:
Reed to President Wharton.
Footnote 105:
Life and Cor. of Reed, vol. i. p. 341.
Footnote 106:
Washington’s Writings. Sparks, vol. v. p. 171.
Footnote 107:
Memoirs of Lafayette, vol. i. p. 122.
Footnote 108:
Gates’s Papers, N. Y. Hist. Soc. Lib.
Footnote 109:
Life and Cor. of Reed, vol. i. p. 351.
Footnote 110:
Letter of Elias Boudinot, Commissary of Prisoners, to President
Wharton .—_Life and Cor. of J. Reed_, vol. i. p. 351.
Footnote 111:
Gordon’s Hist. Am. War, vol. ii. p. 279.
Footnote 112:
Gates’s Papers, N. Y. Hist. Lib.
Footnote 113:
Sparks. Washington’s Writings, vol. v. p. 498.
Footnote 114:
Sparks. Washington’s Writings, vol. v. p. 493.
Footnote 115:
Idem, vol. v. p. 497.
Footnote 116:
Sparks’ Cor. Am. Rev. vol. ii. p. 74.
Footnote 117:
At that time an aide-de-camp of Gates.
Footnote 118:
Letter to Gen. Henry Lee, Virginia.—_Sparks’ Writings of Washington_,
vol. v. 378.
Footnote 119:
Letter to Landon Carter. Idem. p. 391.
Footnote 120:
The introduction to the letters states them to have been transmitted
to England by an officer serving in Delancey’s corps of loyalists, who
gives the following account of the way he came by them:—Among the
prisoners at Fort Lee, I espied a mulatto fellow, whom I thought I
recollected, and who confirmed my conjectures by gazing very earnestly
at me. I asked him if he knew me. At first, he was unwilling to own
it; but when he was about to be carried of, thinking, I suppose, that
I might perhaps be of some service to him, he came and told me that he
was Billy, and the old servant of General Washington. He had been left
there on account of an indisposition which prevented his attending his
master. I asked him a great many questions, as you may suppose; but
found very little satisfaction in his answers. At last, however, he
told me that he had a small portmanteau of his master’s, of which,
when he found that he must be put into confinement, he entreated my
care. It contained only a few stockings and shirts; and I could see
nothing worth my care, except an almanack, in which he had kept a sort
of a journal, or diary of his proceedings since his first coming to
New York; there were also two letters from his lady, one from Mr.
Custis, and some pretty long ones from a Mr. Lund Washington. And in
the same bundle with them, the first draughts, or foul copies of
answers to them. I read these with avidity; and being highly
entertained with them, have shown them to several of my friends, who
all agree with me, that he is a very different character from what
they had supposed him.
In commenting on the above, Washington observed that his mulatto man
Billy, had never been one moment in the power of the enemy, and that
no part of his baggage nor any of his attendants were captured during
the whole course of the war.—_Letter to Timothy Pickering, Sparks_,
ix. 149.
Footnote 121:
Sparks’ Writings of Washington, vol. v. p. 300.
Footnote 122:
Wilkinson’s Memoirs, vol i. p. 409.
Footnote 123:
Sparks’ Writings of Washington. Vol. v. Appendix—where there is a
series of documents respecting the Conway Cabal.
Footnote 124:
Names of the committee—General Reed, Nathaniel Folsom, Francis Dana,
Charles Carroll, and Gouverneur Morris.
Footnote 125:
Stedman.
Footnote 126:
Bryan Fairfax continued to reside in Virginia until his death, which
happened in 1802, at seventy-five years of age. He became proprietor
of Belvoir and heir to the family title, but the latter he never
assumed. During the latter years of his life he was a clergyman of the
Episcopal church.
Footnote 127:
Washington to the President of Cong. Sparks. v. 347.
Footnote 128:
On one occasion having exhausted all his German and French oaths, he
vociferated to his aide-de-camp, Major Walker, “Vien mon ami
Walker—vien mon bon ami. Sacra— G— dam de gaucherie of dese badauts—je
ne puis plus—I can curse dem no more.”—_Carden, Anecdotes of the Am.
War_, p. 341.
Footnote 129:
Correspondence of the Revolution, vol. ii. p. 274.
Footnote 130:
Washington to Greene.—_Writings of Washington_, vol. vii. p. 152.
Footnote 131:
Wilkinson’s Memoirs, vol. i. p. 852.
Footnote 132:
Stedman.
Footnote 133:
In the Gazette of that date the Conciliatory Bills were published by
order of Congress; as an instance of their reception by the public, we
may mention that in Rhode Island the populace burned them under the
gallows.
Footnote 134:
Stedman, vol. i. p. 384.
Footnote 135:
19 Parliamentary Hist. 1338.
Footnote 136:
Force’s Am. Archives, vol. 1. 962.
Footnote 137:
MS. letter of Hamilton to Elias Boudinot.
Footnote 138:
Evidence of Dr. McHenry on the Court-Martial.
Footnote 139:
Lossing’s Field Book of the Revolution, ii. 363.
Footnote 140:
Letter to Joseph Reed. Sparks. Biog. of Lee, p. 174.
Footnote 141:
Letter to Dr. Rush. Sparks. Biog. of Lee.
Footnote 142:
Washington to Reed. Sparks, vol. vi. 133.
Footnote 143:
Brit. Ann. Register for 1778 p. 229.
Footnote 144:
Letter of the count.
Footnote 145:
Letter of Lafayette to Washington. Memoirs, T. i. p. 194.
Footnote 146:
Gentleman’s Magazine for 1778, p. 545.
Footnote 147:
Ann. Register, 1778, p. 215.
Footnote 148:
It is a popular tradition, that when Washington proposed to Wayne the
storming of Stony Point, the reply was, “General, I’ll storm h—ll if
_you_ will only plan it.”
Footnote 149:
Stedman, vol. i. p. 145.
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