Washington disappointed as to Reinforcements.—French Armament destined
for the Chesapeake.—Attempts on New York postponed.—March of the
Armies to the Chesapeake.—Stratagems to deceive the Enemy.—Arnold
ravages New London.—Washington at Philadelphia.—March of the Two
Armies through the City.—Cornwallis at Yorktown.—Preparations to
proceed against Him.—Visit to Mount Vernon.
After the grand reconnoissance of the posts on New York Island, related
in a former page, the confederate armies remained encamped about Dobbs
Ferry and the Greenburgh hills, awaiting an augmentation of force for
their meditated attack. To Washington’s great disappointment, his army
was but tardily and scantily recruited, while the garrison of New York
was augmented by the arrival of three thousand Hessian troops from
Europe. In this predicament he dispatched a circular letter to the
governments of the Eastern States, representing his delicate and
embarrassed situation. “Unable to advance with prudence, beyond my
present position,” writes he, “while, perhaps, in the general opinion,
my force is equal to the commencement of operations against New York, my
conduct must appear, if not blamable, highly mysterious at least. Our
allies, who were made to expect a very considerable augmentation of
force by this time, instead of seeing a prospect of advancing, must
conjecture, upon good grounds, that the campaign will waste fruitlessly
away. It will be no small degree of triumph to our enemies, and will
have a pernicious influence upon our friends in Europe, should they find
such a failure of resource, or such a want of energy to draw it out,
that our boasted and extensive preparations end only in idle parade....
The fulfillment of my engagements must depend upon the degree of vigor
with which the executives of the several States exercise the powers with
which they have been vested, and enforce the laws lately passed for
filling up and supplying the army. In full confidence that the means
which have been voted will be obtained, I shall continue my operations.”
Until we study Washington’s full, perspicuous letters, we know little of
the difficulties he had to struggle with in conducting his campaigns;
how often the sounding resolves of legislative bodies disappointed him;
how often he had to maintain a bold front when his country failed to
back him; how often, as in the siege of Boston, he had to carry on the
war without powder!
In a few days came letters from Lafayette, dated 26th and 30th of July,
speaking of the embarkation of the greatest part of Cornwallis’s army at
Portsmouth. “There are in Hampton Roads thirty transport ships full of
troops, most of them red coats, and eight or ten brigs with cavalry on
board.” He supposed their destination to be New York, yet, though wind
and weather were favorable, they did not sail. “Should a French fleet
now come into Hampton Roads,” adds the sanguine marquis, “the British
army would, I think, be ours.”
At this juncture arrived the French frigate Concorde at Newport,
bringing despatches from Admiral the Count de Grasse. He was to leave
St. Domingo on the 3d of August, with between twenty-five and thirty
ships of the line, and a considerable body of land forces, and to steer
immediately for the Chesapeake.
This changed the face of affairs, and called for a change in the game.
All attempt upon New York was postponed; the whole of the French army,
and as large a part of the Americans as could be spared, were to move to
Virginia, and coöperate with the Count de Grasse for the redemption of
the Southern States. Washington apprised the count by letter of this
intention. He wrote also to Lafayette on the 15th of August: “By the
time this reaches you, the Count de Grasse will either be in the
Chesapeake, or may be looked for every moment. Under these
circumstances, whether the enemy remain in full force, or whether they
have only a detachment left, you will immediately take such a position
as will best enable you to prevent their sudden retreat through North
Carolina, which I presume they will attempt the instant they perceive so
formidable an armament.”
Should General Wayne, with the troops destined for South Carolina, still
remain in the neighborhood of James River, and the enemy have made no
detachment to the southward, the marquis was to detain these troops
until he heard again from Washington, and was to inform General Greene
of the cause of their detention.
“You shall hear further from me,” concludes the letter, “as soon as I
have concerted plans and formed dispositions for sending a reinforcement
from hence. In the mean time, I have only to recommend a continuance of
that prudence and good conduct which you have manifested through the
whole of your campaign. You will be particularly careful to conceal the
expected arrival of the count; because, if the enemy are not apprised of
it, they will stay on board their transports in the bay, which will be
the luckiest circumstance in the world.”
Washington’s “soul was now in arms.” At length, after being baffled and
disappointed so often by the incompetency of his means, and above all,
thwarted by the enemy’s naval potency, he had the possibility of coping
with them both on land and sea. The contemplated expedition was likely
to consummate his plans, and wind up the fortunes of the war, and he
determined to lead it in person. He would take with him something more
than two thousand of the American army; the rest, chiefly Northern
troops, were to remain with General Heath, who was to hold command of
West Point, and the other posts of the Hudson.
Perfect secrecy was maintained as to this change of plan. Preparations
were still carried on, as if for an attack upon New York. An extensive
encampment was marked out in the Jerseys, and ovens erected, and fuel
provided for the baking of bread; as if a part of the besieging force
was to be stationed there, thence to make a descent upon the enemy’s
garrison on Staten Island, in aid of the operations against the city.
The American troops, themselves, were kept in ignorance of their
destination. “General Washington,” observes one of the shrewdest of
them, “matures his great plans and designs under an impenetrable veil of
secrecy, and while we repose the fullest confidence in our chief, our
opinions (as to his intentions) must be founded only on doubtful
conjecture.”[81]
Previous to his decampment, Washington sent forward a party of pioneers
to clear the roads towards King’s Bridge, as if the posts recently
reconnoitered were about to be attempted. On the 19th of August, his
troops were paraded with their faces in that direction. When all were
ready, however, they were ordered to face about, and were marched up
along the Hudson River towards King’s Ferry.
De Rochambeau, in like manner, broke up his encampment, and took the
road by White Plains, North Castle, Pine’s Bridge, and Crompond, towards
the same point. All Westchester County was again alive with the tramp of
troops, the gleam of arms, and the lumbering of artillery and baggage
wagons along its roads.
On the 20th, Washington arrived at King’s Ferry, and his troops began to
cross the Hudson with their baggage, stores, and cannon, and encamp at
Haverstraw. He himself crossed in the evening, and took up his quarters
at Colonel Hay’s, at the White House. Thence he wrote confidentially to
Lafayette, on the 21st, now first apprising him of his being on the
march with the expedition, and repeating his injunctions that the land
and naval forces, already at the scene of action, should so combine
their operations, that the English, on the arrival of the French fleet,
might not be able to escape. He wrote also to the Count de Grasse
(presuming that the letter would find him in the Chesapeake), urging him
to send up all his frigates and transports to the Head of Elk, by the
8th of September, for the transportation of the combined army, which
would be there by that time. He informed him also, that the Count de
Barras had resolved to join him in the Chesapeake with his squadron. One
is reminded of the tissue of movements planned from a distance, which
ended in the capture of Burgoyne.
On the 22d, the French troops arrived by their circuitous route, and
began to cross to Stony Point with their artillery, baggage, and stores.
The operation occupied between two and three days; during which time
Washington took the Count de Rochambeau on a visit to West Point, to
show him the citadel of the Highlands, an object of intense interest, in
consequence of having been the scene of Arnold’s treason.
The two armies having safely crossed the Hudson, commenced on the 25th,
their several lines of march towards the Jerseys; the Americans for
Springfield on the Rahway, the French for Whippany towards Trenton. Both
armies were still kept in the dark as to the ultimate object of their
movement. An intelligent observer, already quoted, who accompanied the
army, writes: “Our situation reminds me of some theatrical exhibition,
where the interest and expectations of the spectators are continually
increasing, and where curiosity is wrought to the highest point. Our
destination has been for some time matter of perplexing doubt and
uncertainty; bets have run high on one side, that we were to occupy the
ground marked out on the Jersey shore, to aid in the siege of New York;
and on the other, that we are stealing a march on the enemy, and are
actually destined to Virginia, in pursuit of the army under
Cornwallis.... A number of bateaux mounted on carriages have followed in
our train; supposed for the purpose of conveying the troops over to
Staten Island.”[82]
The mystery was at length solved. “We have now passed all the enemy’s
posts,” continues the foregoing writer, “and are pursuing our route,
with increased rapidity, toward Philadelphia. Wagons have been prepared
to carry the soldiers’ packs, that they may press forward with greater
facility. Our destination can no longer be a secret. Cornwallis is
unquestionably the object of our present expedition.... His Excellency,
General Washington, having succeeded in a masterly piece of
_generalship_, has now the satisfaction of leaving his adversary to
ruminate on his own mortifying situation, and to anticipate the perilous
fate which awaits his friend, Lord Cornwallis, in a different
quarter.”[83]
Washington had in fact reached the Delaware with his troops, before Sir
Henry Clinton was aware of their destination. It was too late to oppose
their march, even had his forces been adequate. As a kind of
counterplot, therefore, and in the hope of distracting the attention of
the American commander, and drawing off a part of his troops, he hurried
off an expedition to the eastward, to insult the State of Connecticut,
and attack her seaport of New London.
The command of this expedition, which was to be one of ravage and
destruction, was given to Arnold, as if it was necessary to complete the
measure of his infamy, that he should carry fire and sword into his
native State, and desecrate the very cradle of his infancy.
On the 6th of September he appeared off the harbor of New London with a
fleet of ships and transports and a force of two thousand infantry and
three hundred cavalry; partly British troops, but a great part made up
of American royalists and refugees, and Hessian yagers.
New London stands on the west bank of the river Thames. The approach to
it was defended by two forts on opposite sides of the river, and about a
mile below the town; Fort Trumbull on the west and Fort Griswold on the
east side, on a height called Groton Hill. The troops landed in two
divisions of about eight hundred men each; one under Lieutenant-colonel
Eyre on the east side, the other under Arnold on the west, on the same
side with New London, and about three miles below it. Arnold met with
but little opposition. The few militia which manned an advance battery
and Fort Trumbull, abandoned their posts, and crossed the river to Fort
Griswold. He pushed on and took possession of the town.
Colonel Eyre had a harder task. The militia, about one hundred and
fifty-seven strong, had collected in Fort Griswold, hastily and
imperfectly armed it is true, some of them merely with spears, but they
were brave men, and had a brave commander, Colonel William Ledyard,
brother of the celebrated traveller. The fort was square and regularly
built. Arnold, unaware of its strength, had ordered Colonel Eyre to take
it by a coup de main. He discovered his mistake, and sent counter
orders, but too late.
Colonel Eyre forced the pickets; made his way into the fosse, and
attacked the fort on three sides; it was bravely defended; the enemy
were repeatedly repulsed; they returned to the assault, scrambled up on
each other’s shoulders, effected a lodgment on the fraise, and made
their way with fixed bayonets through the embrasures. Colonel Eyre
received a mortal wound near the works; Major Montgomery took his place;
a negro thrust him through with a spear as he mounted the parapet; Major
Bromfield succeeded to the command, and carried the fort at the point of
the bayonet. In fact, after the enemy were within the walls, the
fighting was at an end and the slaughter commenced. Colonel Ledyard had
ordered his men to lay down their arms; but the enemy, exasperated by
the resistance they had experienced, and by the death of their officers,
continued the deadly work of the musket and the bayonet. Colonel
Ledyard, it is said, was thrust through with his own sword after
yielding it up to Major Bromfield. Seventy of the garrison were slain,
and thirty-five desperately wounded: and most of them after the fort had
been taken. The massacre was chiefly perpetrated by the tories,
refugees, and Hessians. Major Bromfield himself was a New Jersey
loyalist. The rancor of such men against their patriot countrymen was
always deadly. The loss of the enemy was two officers and forty-six
soldiers killed, and eight officers and one hundred and thirty-five
soldiers wounded.
Arnold, in the mean time, had carried on the work of destruction at New
London. Some of the American shipping had effected their escape up the
river, but a number were burnt. Fire, too, was set to the public stores;
it communicated to the dwelling-houses, and, in a little while, the
whole place was wrapped in flames. The destruction was immense, not only
of public but private property: many families once living in affluence
were ruined and rendered homeless.
Having completed his ravage, Arnold retreated to his boats, leaving the
town still burning. Alarm guns had roused the country; the traitor was
pursued by the exasperated yeomanry; he escaped their well-merited
vengeance, but several of his men were killed and wounded.
So ended his career of infamy in his native land; a land which had once
delighted to honor him, but in which his name was never thenceforth to
be pronounced without a malediction.
The expedition, while it added one more hateful and disgraceful incident
to this unnatural war, failed of its main object. It had not diverted
Washington from the grand object on which he had fixed his mind. On the
30th of August, he, with his suite, had arrived at Philadelphia about
noon, and alighted at the city tavern amidst enthusiastic crowds, who
welcomed him with acclamations, but wondered at the object of this
visit. During his sojourn in the city he was hospitably entertained at
the house of Mr. Morris, the patriotic financier. The greatest
difficulty with which he had to contend in his present enterprise, was
the want of funds, part of his troops not having received any pay for a
long time, and having occasionally given evidence of great discontent.
The service upon which they were going was disagreeable to the Northern
regiments, and the _douceur_ of a little hard money would have an
effect, Washington thought, to put them into a proper temper. In this
emergency he was accommodated by the Count de Rochambeau, with a loan of
twenty thousand hard dollars, which Mr. Robert Morris engaged to repay
by the first of October. This pecuniary pressure was relieved by the
arrival in Boston, on the 25th of August, of Colonel John Laurens from
his mission to France, bringing with him two and a half millions of
livres in cash, being part of a subsidy of six millions of livres
granted by the French king.
On the 2d of September the American troops passed through Philadelphia.
Their line of march, including appendages and attendants, extended
nearly two miles. The general officers and their staffs were well
dressed and well mounted, and followed by servants and baggage. In the
rear of every brigade were several field-pieces with ammunition wagons.
The soldiers kept step to the sound of the drum and fife. In the rear
followed a great number of wagons laden with tents, provisions, and
baggage, beside a few soldiers’ wives and children. The weather was warm
and dry. The troops as they marched raised a cloud of dust “like a
smothering snow-storm,” which almost blinded them. The begriming effect
was especially mortifying to the campaigner whom we quote, “as ladies
were viewing them from the windows of every house as they passed.”
Notwithstanding the dusty and somewhat ragged plight of the soldiery,
however, they were cheered with enthusiasm by the populace, who hailed
them as the war-worn defenders of the country.
The French troops entered on the following day but in different style.
Halting within a mile of the city they arranged their arms and
accoutrements; brushed the dust off of their gay white uniforms faced
with green, and then marched in with buoyant step and brilliant array to
the swelling music of a military band. The streets were again thronged
by the shouting populace. The windows were crowded with ladies; among
whom probably were some of the beauties who had crowned the British
knights in the chivalrous mime of the Mischianza, now ready to bestow
smiles and wreaths on their Gallic rivals.
At Philadelphia Washington received dispatches from Lafayette, dated the
21st and 24th of August, from his camp at the Forks of York River in
Virginia. The embarkation at Portsmouth, which the Marquis had supposed
might be intended for New York, was merely for Yorktown, where
Cornwallis had determined to establish the permanent post ordered in his
instructions.
Yorktown was a small place situated on a projecting bank on the south
side of York River, opposite a promontory called Gloucester Point. The
river between was not more than a mile wide, but deep enough to admit
ships of a large size and burthen. Here concentrating his forces, he had
proceeded to fortify the opposite points, calculating to have the works
finished by the beginning of October; at which time Sir Henry Clinton
intended to recommence operations on the Chesapeake. Believing that he
had no present enemy but Lafayette to guard against, Cornwallis felt so
secure in his position, that he wrote to Sir Henry on the 22d of August,
offering to detach a thousand or twelve hundred men to strengthen New
York against the apprehended attack of the combined armies.
While Cornwallis, undervaluing his youthful adversary, felt thus secure,
Lafayette, in conformity to the instructions of Washington, was taking
measures to cut off any retreat by land which his lordship might attempt
on the arrival of De Grasse. With this view he called upon General
Thomas Nelson, the Governor of Virginia, for six hundred of the militia
to be collected upon Blackwater; detached troops to the south of James
River, under pretext of a design to dislodge the British from
Portsmouth, and requested General Wayne to move southward, to be ready
to cross James River at Westover.
As to himself, Lafayette was prepared, as soon as he should hear of the
arrival of De Grasse, to march at once to Williamsburg and form a
junction with the troops which were to be landed from the fleet. Thus a
net was quietly drawn round Cornwallis by the youthful general, while
the veteran felt himself so secure that he was talking of detaching
troops to New York.
Lafayette, at the time of writing his dispatches, was ignorant that
Washington had taken command of the expedition coming to his aid, and
expressed an affectionate solicitude on the subject. “In the present
state of affairs, my dear general,” writes he, “I hope you will come
yourself to Virginia, and that, if the French army moves this way, I
will have at least the satisfaction of beholding you, myself, at the
head of the combined armies.” In concluding his letter, he writes:
“Adieu, my dear general. I heartily thank you for having ordered me to
remain in Virginia; and to your goodness to me I am owing the most
beautiful prospect I may ever behold.”
The letter of Lafayette gave no account of the Count de Grasse, and
Washington expressed himself distressed beyond measure to know what had
become of that commander. He had heard of an English fleet at sea
steering for the Chesapeake, and feared it might arrive and frustrate
all the flattering prospects in that quarter. Still, as usual, he looked
to the bright side. “Of many contingencies,” writes he, “we will hope
for the most propitious events. Should the retreat of Lord Cornwallis by
water be cut off by the arrival of either of the French fleets, I am
persuaded you will do all in your power to prevent his escape by land.
May that great felicity be reserved for you.”
Washington left Philadelphia on the 5th of September, on his way to the
Head of Elk. About three miles below Chester, he was met by an express
bearing tidings of the arrival of the Count de Grasse in the Chesapeake
with twenty-eight ships of the line. Washington instantly rode back to
Chester to rejoice with the Count de Rochambeau, who was coming down to
that place from Philadelphia by water. They had a joyous dinner
together, after which Washington proceeded in the evening on his
destination.
The express meantime reached Philadelphia most opportunely. There had
been a grand review of the French troops, at which the President of
Congress and all the fashion of the city were present. It was followed
by a banquet given to the officers by the French Minister, the Chevalier
de Luzerne. Scarce were the company seated at table, when dispatches
came announcing the arrival of De Grasse and the landing of three
thousand troops under the Marquis St. Simon, who, it was added, had
opened a communication with Lafayette.
All now was mutual gratulations at the banquet. The news soon went forth
and spread throughout the city. Acclamations were to be heard on all
sides, and crowds assembling before the house of the French Minister
rent the air with hearty huzzas for Louis the Sixteenth.
Washington reached the Head of Elk on the 6th. The troops and a great
part of the stores were already arrived, and beginning to embark. Thence
he wrote to the Count De Grasse, felicitating him on his arrival; and
informing him that the van of the two armies were about to embark and
fall down the Chesapeake, form a junction with the troops under the
Count de St. Simon and the Marquis de Lafayette, and coöperate in
blocking up Cornwallis in York River, so as to prevent his retreat by
land or his getting any supplies from the country. “As it will be of the
greatest importance,” writes he, “to prevent the escape of his lordship
from his present position, I am persuaded that every measure which
prudence can dictate will be adopted for that purpose, until the arrival
of our complete force, when I hope his lordship will be compelled to
yield his ground to the superior power of our combined forces.”
Everything had thus far gone on well, but there were not vessels enough
at the Head of Elk for the immediate transportation of all the troops,
ordnance, and stores; a part of the troops would have to proceed to
Baltimore by land. Leaving General Heath to bring on the American
forces, and the Baron de Viomenil the French, Washington, accompanied by
De Rochambeau, crossed the Susquehanna early on the 8th, and pushed
forward for Baltimore. He was met by a deputation of the citizens, who
made him a public address, to which he replied, and his arrival was
celebrated in the evening with illuminations.
On the 9th he left Baltimore a little after daybreak, accompanied only
by Colonel Humphreys; the rest of his suite were to follow at their
ease; for himself, he was determined to reach Mount Vernon that evening.
Six years had elapsed since last he was under its roof; six wearing
years of toil, of danger, and of constant anxiety. During all that time,
and amid all his military cares, he had kept up a regular weekly
correspondence with his steward or agent, regulating all the affairs of
his rural establishment with as much exactness as he did those of the
army.
It was a late hour when he arrived at Mount Vernon; where he was joined
by his suite at dinner time on the following day, and by the Count de
Rochambeau in the evening. General Chastellux and his aides-de-camp
arrived there on the 11th, and Mount Vernon was now crowded with guests,
who were all entertained in the ample style of old Virginian
hospitality. On the 12th, tearing himself away once more from the home
of his heart, Washington with his military associates continued onward
to join Lafayette at Williamsburg.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]