THE GREATEST TRAIT OF A GREAT COMMANDER
Jack Irons used to say that no man he had known had such an uncommon
amount of common sense as George Washington. He wrote to his father:
"It would seem that he must be in communication with the all-seeing mind.
If he were to make a serious blunder here our cause would fail. The
enemy tries in vain to fool him. Their devices are as an open book to
Washington. They have fooled me and Solomon and other officers but not
him. I had got quite a conceit of myself in judging strategy but now it
is all gone.
"One day I was scouting along the lines, a few miles from Philadelphia,
when I came upon a little, ragged, old woman. She wished to go through
the lines into the country to buy flour. The moment she spoke I
recognized her. It was old Lydia Darrah who had done my washing for me
the last year of my stay in Philadelphia.
"'Why, Lydia, how do you do?' I asked.
"'The way I have allus done, laddie buck," she answered in her good Irish
brogue. 'Workin' at the tub an' fightin' the divil--bad 'cess to
him--but I kape me hilth an' lucky I am to do that--thanks to the good
God! How is me fine lad that I'd niver 'a' knowed but for the voice o'
him?'
"'Not as fine as when I wore the white ruffles but stout as a moose,' I
answered. 'The war is a sad business.'
"'It is that--may the good God defind us! We cross the sea to be rid o'
the divil an' he follys an' grabs us be the neck.'
"We were on a lonely road. She looked about and seeing no one, put a
dirty old needle case in my hands. "'Take that, me smart lad. It's fer
good luck,' she answered.
"As I left her I was in doubt of the meaning of her generosity. Soon I
opened the needle book and found in one of its pockets a piece of thin
paper rolled tight. On it I found the information that Howe would be
leaving the city next morning with five thousand men, and baggage wagons
and thirteen cannon and eleven boats. The paper contained other details
of the proposed British raid. I rode post to headquarters and luckily
found the General in his tent. On the way I arrived at a definite
conviction regarding the plans of Howe. I was eager to give it air,
having no doubt of its soundness. The General gave me respectful
attention while I laid the facts before him. Then I took my courage in
my hands and asked:
"'General, may I venture to express an opinion?'
"'Certainly,' he answered.
"'It is the plan of Howe to cross the Delaware in his boats so as to make
us believe that he is going to New York. He will recross the river above
Bristol and suddenly descend upon our rear.'
"Washington sat, with his arms folded, looking very grave but made no
answer.
"In other words, again I presented my conviction.
"Still he was silent and I a little embarrassed. In half a moment I
ventured to ask:
"'General, what is your opinion?'
"He answered in a kindly tone: 'Colonel Irons, the enemy has no business
in our rear. The boats are only for our scouts and spies to look at.
The British hope to fool us with them. To-morrow morning about daylight
they will be coming down the Edgely Bye Road on our left.'
"He called an aid and ordered that our front be made ready for an attack
in the early morning.
"I left headquarters with my conceit upon me and half convinced that our
Chief was out in his judgment of that matter. No like notion will enter
my mind again. Solomon and I have quarters on the Edgely Bye Road. A
little after three next morning the British were reported coming down the
road. A large number of them were killed and captured and the rest
roughly handled.
"A smart Yankee soldier in his trial for playing cards yesterday, set up
a defense which is the talk of the camp. For a little time it changed
the tilt of the wrinkles on the grim visage of war. His claim was that
he had no Bible and that the cards aided him in his devotions.
"The ace reminded him of the one God; the deuce of the Father and Son;
the tray of the Trinity; the four spot of the four evangelists--Matthew,
Luke, Mark and John; the five spot of the five wise and the five foolish
virgins; the six spot of the six days of creation; the seven of the
Sabbath; the eight of Noah and his family; the nine of the nine
ungrateful lepers; the ten of the Ten Commandments; the knave of Judas;
the queen was to him the Queen of Sheba and the king was the one great
King of Heaven and the Universe.
"'You will go to the guard house for three days so that, hereafter, a
pack of cards will remind you only of a foolish soldier,' said Colonel
Provost."
Snow and bitter winds descended upon the camp early in December. It was
a worn, ragged, weary but devoted army of about eleven thousand men that
followed Washington into Valley Forge to make a camp for the winter. Of
these, two thousand and ninety-eight were unfit for duty. Most of the
latter had neither boots nor shoes. They marched over roads frozen hard,
with old rags and pieces of hide wrapped around their feet. There were
many red tracks in the snow in the Valley of the Schuylkill that day.
Hardly a man was dressed for cold weather. Hundreds were shivering and
coughing with influenza.
"When I look at these men I can not help thinking how small are my
troubles," Jack wrote to his mother. "I will complain of them no more.
Solomon and I have given away all the clothes we have except those on our
backs. A fiercer enemy than the British is besieging us here. He is
Winter. It is the duty of the people we are fighting for to defend us
against this enemy. We should not have to exhaust ourselves in such a
battle. Do they think that because God has shown His favor at Brooklyn,
Saratoga, and sundry other places, He is in a way committed? Are they
not disposed to take it easy and over-work the Creator? I can not resist
the impression that they are praying too much and paying too little. I
fear they are lying back and expecting God to send ravens to feed us and
angels to make our boots and weave our blankets and clothing. He will
not go into that kind of business. The Lord is not a shoemaker or a
weaver or a baker. He can have no respect for a people who would leave
its army to starve and freeze to death in the back country. If they are
to do that their faith is rotten with indolence and avarice.
"There are many here who have nothing to wear but blankets with armholes,
belted by a length of rope. There are hundreds who have no blankets to
cover them at night. They have to take turns sitting by the fire while
others are asleep. For them a night's rest is impossible. Let this
letter be read to the people of Albany and may they not lie down to sleep
until they have stirred themselves in our behalf, and if any man dares to
pray to God to help us until he has given of his abundance to that end
and besought his neighbors to do the same, I could wish that his praying
would choke him. Are we worthy to be saved--that is the question. If we
expect God to furnish the flannel and the shoe leather, we are not. That
is our part of the great task. Are we going to shirk it and fail?
"We are making a real army. The men who are able to work are being
carefully trained by the crusty old Baron Steuben and a number of French
officers."
That they did not fail was probably due to the fact that there were men
in the army like this one who seemed to have some little understanding of
the will of God and the duty of man. This letter and others like it,
traveled far and wide and more than a million hands began to work for the
army.
The Schuylkill was on one side of the camp and wooded ridges, protected
by entrenchments, on the other. Trees were felled and log huts
constructed, sixteen by fourteen feet in size. Twelve privates were
quartered in each hut.
The Gates propaganda was again being pushed. Anonymous letters
complaining that Washington was not protecting the people of Pennsylvania
and New Jersey from depredations were appearing in sundry newspapers. By
and by a committee of investigation arrived from Congress. They left
satisfied that Washington had done well to keep his army alive, and that
he must have help or a large part of it would die of cold and hunger.
2
It was on a severe day in March that Washington sent for Jack Irons. The
scout found the General sitting alone by the fireside in his office which
was part of a small farm-house. He was eating a cold luncheon of baked
beans and bread without butter. Jack had just returned from Philadelphia
where he had risked his life as a spy, of which adventure no details are
recorded save the one given in the brief talk which follows. The scout
smiled as he took the chair offered.
"The British are eating no such frugal fare," he remarked.
"I suppose not," the General answered.
"The night before I left Philadelphia Howe and his staff had a banquet at
The Three Mariners. There were roasted hams and geese and turkeys and
patties and pies and jellies and many kinds of wine and high merriment.
The British army is well fed and clothed."
"We are not so provided but we must be patient," said Washington. "Our
people mean well, they are as yet unorganized. This matter of being
citizens of an independent nation at war is new to them. The men who are
trying to establish a government while they are defending it against a
powerful enemy have a most complicated problem. Naturally, there are
disagreements and factions. Congress may, for a time, be divided but the
army must stand as one man. This thing we call human liberty has become
for me a sublime personality. In times when I could see no light, she
has kept my heart from failing."
"She is like the goddess of old who fought in the battles of Agamemnon,"
said Jack. "Perhaps she is the angel of God who hath been given charge
concerning us. Perhaps she is traveling up and down the land and
overseas in our behalf."
Washington sat looking thoughtfully into the fire. In a moment he said:
"She is like a wise and beautiful mother assuring us that our sorrows
will end, by and by, and that we must keep on."
The General arose and went to his desk and returned with sealed letters
in his hand and said:
"Colonel, I have a task for you. I could give it to no man in whom I had
not the utmost confidence. You have earned a respite from the hardships
and perils of this army. Here is a purse and two letters. With them I
wish you to make your way to France as soon as possible and turn over the
letters to Franklin. The Doctor is much in need of help. Put your
services at his disposal. A ship will be leaving Boston on the
fourteenth. A good horse has been provided; your route is mapped. You
will need to start after the noon mess. For the first time in ten days
there will be fresh beef on the tables. Two hundred blankets have
arrived and more are coming. After they have eaten, give the men a
farewell talk and put them in good heart, if you can. We are going to
celebrate the winter's end which can not be long delayed. When you have
left the table, Hamilton will talk to the boys in his witty and inspiring
fashion."
Soon after one o'clock on the seventh of March, 1778, Colonel Irons bade
Solomon good-by and set out on his long journey. That night he slept in
a farmhouse some fifty miles from Valley Forge.
Next morning this brief note was written to his mother:
"I am on my way to France, leaving mother and father and sister and
brother and friend, as the Lord has commanded, to follow Him, I verily
believe. Yesterday the thought came to me that this thing we call the
love of Liberty which is in the heart of every man and woman of us,
urging that we stop at no sacrifice of blood and treasure, is as truly
the angel of God as he that stood with Peter in the prison house. Last
night I saw Liberty in my dreams--a beautiful woman she was, of heroic
stature with streaming hair and the glowing eyes of youth and she was
dressed in a long white robe held at the waist by a golden girdle. And I
thought that she touched my brow and said:
"'My son, I am sent for all the children of men and not for America
alone. You will find me in France for my task is in many lands.'
"I left the brave old fighter, Solomon, with tears in his eyes. What a
man is Solomon! Yet, God knows, he is the rank and file of Washington's
army as it stands to-day--ragged, honest, religious, heroic, half fed,
unappreciated, but true as steel and willing, if required, to give up his
comfort or his life! How may we account for such a man without the help
of God and His angels?"
BOOK THREE