DIFFICULTIES IN FILLING UP THE ARMY—THE CONNECTICUT TROOPS PERSIST IN
GOING HOME—THEIR RECEPTION THERE—TIMELY ARRIVAL OF SPOILS IN THE
CAMP—PUTNAM AND THE PRIZE MORTAR—A MARAUD BY AMERICANS—REBUKED BY
WASHINGTON—CORRESPONDENCE OF WASHINGTON WITH GEN. HOWE ABOUT THE
TREATMENT OF ETHAN ALLEN—FRATERNAL ZEAL OF LEVI ALLEN—TREATMENT OF GEN.
PRESCOTT—PREPARATIONS TO BOMBARD BOSTON—BATTERY AT LECHMERE’S
POINT—PRAYER OF PUTNAM FOR POWDER.
The forming even of the skeleton of an army under the new regulations,
had been a work of infinite difficulty; to fill it up was still more
difficult. The first burst of revolutionary zeal had passed away;
enthusiasm had been chilled by the inaction and monotony of a long
encampment; an encampment, moreover, destitute of those comforts which,
in experienced warfare, are provided by a well-regulated commissariat.
The troops had suffered privations of every kind, want of fuel,
clothing, provisions. They looked forward with dismay to the rigors of
winter, and longed for their rustic homes and their family firesides.
Apprehending that some of them would incline to go home when the time of
their enlistment expired, Washington summoned the general officers at
head-quarters, and invited a delegation of the General Court to be
present, to adopt measures for the defence and support of the lines. The
result of their deliberations was an order that three thousand of the
minute men and militia of Massachusetts, and two thousand from New
Hampshire, should be at Cambridge by the 10th of December, to relieve
the Connecticut regiments, and supply the deficiency that would be
caused by their departure, and by the absence of others on furlough.
With this arrangement the Connecticut troops were made acquainted, and,
as the time of most of them would not be out before the 10th, they were
ordered to remain in camp until relieved. Their officers assured
Washington that he need apprehend no defection on the part of their men;
they would not leave the lines. The officers themselves were probably
mistaken in their opinion of their men, for on the 1st of December, many
of the latter, some of whom belonged to Putnam’s regiment, resolved to
go home immediately. Efforts were made to prevent them, but in vain;
several carried off with them their arms and ammunition. Washington sent
a list of their names to Governor Trumbull. “I submit it to your
judgment,” writes he, “whether an example should not be made of these
men who have deserted the cause of their country at this critical
juncture, when the enemy are receiving reinforcements?”
We anticipate the reply of Governor Trumbull, received several days
subsequently. “The late extraordinary and reprehensible conduct of some
of the troops of this colony,” writes he, “impresses me, and the minds
of many of our people, with great surprise and indignation, since the
treatment they met with, and the order and request made to them, were so
reasonable, and apparently necessary for the defence of our common
cause, and safety of our rights and privileges, for which they freely
engaged.”
We will here add, that the homeward-bound warriors seem to have run the
gauntlet along the road; for their conduct on quitting the army drew
upon them such indignation, that they could hardly get any thing to eat
on their journey, and when they arrived at home they met with such a
reception (to the credit of the Connecticut women be it recorded), that
many were soon disposed to return again to the camp.[30]
On the very day after the departure homeward of these troops, and while
it was feared their example would be contagious, a long, lumbering train
of waggons, laden with ordnance and military stores, and decorated with
flags, came wheeling into the camp escorted by continental troops and
country militia. They were part of the cargo of a large brigantine laden
with munitions of war, captured and sent in to Cape Ann by the schooner
Lee, Captain Manly, one of the cruisers sent out by Washington. “Such
universal joy ran through the whole camp,” writes an officer, “as if
each one grasped a victory in his own hands.”
Beside the ordnance captured, there were two thousand stand of arms, one
hundred thousand flints, thirty thousand round shot, and thirty-two tons
of musket balls.
“Surely nothing,” writes Washington, “ever came more _apropos_.”
It was indeed a cheering incident, and was eagerly turned to account.
Among the ordnance was a huge brass mortar of a new construction,
weighing near three thousand pounds. It was considered a glorious
trophy, and there was a resolve to christen it. Mifflin, Washington’s
secretary, suggested the name. The mortar was fixed in a bed; old Putnam
mounted it, dashed on it a bottle of rum, and gave it the name of
Congress. The shouts which rent the air were heard in Boston. When the
meaning of them was explained to the British, they observed, that
“should their expected reinforcements arrive in time, the rebels would
pay dear in the spring for all their petty triumphs.”
With Washington, this transient gleam of nautical success was soon
overshadowed by the conduct of the cruisers he had sent to the St.
Lawrence. Failing to intercept the brigantines, the objects of their
cruise, they landed on the island of St. Johns, plundered the house of
the governor and several private dwellings, and brought off three of the
principal inhabitants prisoners; one of whom, Mr. Callbeck, was
president of the council, and acted as governor.
These gentlemen made a memorial to Washington of this scandalous maraud.
He instantly ordered the restoration of the effects which had been
pillaged;—of his conduct towards the gentlemen personally, we may judge
by the following note addressed to him by Mr. Callbeck.
“I should ill deserve the generous treatment which your Excellency has
been pleased to show me, had I not the gratitude to acknowledge so great
a favor. I cannot ascribe any part of it to my own merit, but must
impute the whole to the philanthropy and humane disposition that so
truly characterize General Washington. Be so obliging, therefore, as to
accept the only return in my power, that of my most grateful
thanks.”[31]
Shortly after the foregoing occurrence, information was received of the
indignities which had been heaped upon Colonel Ethan Allen, when
captured at Montreal by General Prescott, who, himself, was now a
prisoner in the hands of the Americans. It touched Washington on a point
on which he was most sensitive and tenacious, the treatment of American
officers when captured; and produced the following letter from him to
General Howe:
“SIR,—We have just been informed of a circumstance which, were it not so
well authenticated, I should scarcely think credible. It is that Colonel
Allen, who, with his small party, was defeated and made prisoner near
Montreal, has been treated without regard to decency, humanity, or the
rules of war; that he has been thrown into irons, and suffers all the
hardships inflicted upon common felons.
“I think it my duty, sir, to demand, and do expect from you, an
eclaircissement on this subject. At the same time, I flatter myself,
from the character which Mr. Howe bears as a man of honor, gentleman and
soldier, that my demand will meet with his approbation. I must take the
liberty, also, of informing you that I shall consider your silence as a
confirmation of the report, and further assuring you, that whatever
treatment Colonel Allen receives, whatever fate he undergoes, such
exactly shall be the treatment and fate of Brigadier Prescott, now in
our hands. The law of retaliation is not only justifiable in the eyes of
God and man, but absolutely a duty, which, in our present circumstances,
we owe to our relations, friends and fellow-citizens.
“Permit me to add, sir, that we have all here the highest regard and
reverence for your great personal qualities and attainments, and the
Americans in general esteem it as not the least of their misfortunes,
that the name of Howe, a name so dear to them, should appear at the head
of the catalogue of the instruments employed by a wicked ministry for
their destruction.”
General Howe felt acutely the sorrowful reproach in the latter part of
the letter. It was a reiteration of what had already been expressed by
Congress; in the present instance it produced irritation, if we may
judge from the reply.
“SIR,—In answer to your letter, I am to acquaint you that my command
does not extend to Canada. Not having any accounts wherein the name of
Allen is mentioned, I cannot give you the smallest satisfaction upon the
subject of your letter. But trusting Major-general Carleton’s conduct
will never incur censure upon any occasion, I am to conclude in the
instance of your inquiry, that he has not forfeited his past pretensions
to decency and humanity.
“It is with regret, considering the character you have always maintained
among your friends, as a gentleman of the strictest honor and delicacy,
that I find cause to resent a sentence in the conclusion of your letter,
big with invective against my superiors, and insulting to myself, which
should obstruct any further intercourse between us. I am, sir, &c.”
In transmitting a copy of his letter to the President of Congress,
Washington observed: “My reason for pointing out Brigadier-general
Prescott as the object, who is to suffer for Mr. Allen’s fate, is, that
by letters from General Schuyler and copies of letters from General
Montgomery to Schuyler, I am given to understand that Prescott is the
cause of Allen’s sufferings. I thought it best to be decisive on the
occasion, as did the generals whom I consulted thereon.”
For the sake of continuity we will anticipate a few facts connected with
the story of Ethan Allen. Within a few weeks after the preceding
correspondence, Washington received a letter from Levi Allen, a brother
to the colonel, and of like enterprising and enthusiastic character. It
was dated from Salisbury in Connecticut; and enclosed affidavits of the
harsh treatment his brother had experienced, and of his being confined
on board of the Gaspec, “with a bar of iron fixed to one of his legs and
iron to his hands.” Levi was bent upon effecting his deliverance, and
the mode proposed was in unison with the bold but wild schemes of the
colonel. We quote his crude, but characteristic letter.
“Have some thoughts of going to England _incognito_, after my brother;
but am not positively certain he is sent there, though believe he is.
Beg your excellency will favor me with a line, and acquaint me if any
intelligence concerning him, and if your excellency please, your opinion
of the expediency of going after him, and whether your excellency would
think proper to advance any money for that purpose, as my brother was a
man blessed with more fortitude than fortune. Your excellency may think,
at first thought, I can do nothing by going to England; I feel as if I
could do a great deal, by raising a mob in London, bribing the jailer,
or by getting into some servile employment with the jailer, and
over-faithfulness make myself master of the key, or at least be able to
lay my hand on it some night. I beg your excellency will countenance my
going; can muster more than one hundred pounds, my own property; shall
regard spending that no more than one copper. Your excellency must know
Allen was not only a brother, but a real friend that sticketh closer
than a brother.”
In a postscript he adds, “cannot live without going to England, if my
brother is sent there.”
In reply, Washington intimated a belief that the colonel had been sent
to England, but discountenanced Levi’s wild project of following him
thither; as there was no probability of its success, and he would be
running himself into danger without a prospect of rendering service to
his brother.
The measure of retaliation mentioned in Washington’s letter to Howe, was
actually meted out by Congress on the arrival of General Prescott in
Philadelphia. He was ordered into close confinement in the jail; though
not put in irons. He was subsequently released from confinement, on
account of ill health, and was treated by some Philadelphia families
with unmerited hospitality.[32]
At the time of the foregoing correspondence with Howe, Washington was
earnestly occupied preparing works for the bombardment of Boston, should
that measure be resolved upon by Congress. General Putnam, in the
preceding month, had taken possession in the night of Cobble Hill
without molestation from the enemy, though a commanding eminence; and in
two days had constructed a work, which, from its strength, was named
Putnam’s impregnable fortress.
He was now engaged on another work on Lechmere Point, to be connected
with the works at Cobble Hill by a bridge thrown across Willis’s Creek,
and a covered way. Lechmere Point is immediately opposite the north part
of Boston; and the Scarborough ship-of-war was anchored near it. Putnam
availed himself of a dark and foggy day (Dec. 17), to commence
operations, and broke ground with four hundred men, at ten o’clock in
the morning, on a hill at the Point. “The mist,” says a contemporary
account, “was so great as to prevent the enemy from discovering what he
was about until near twelve o’clock, when it cleared up, and opened to
their view our whole party at the Point, and another at the causeway
throwing a bridge over the creek. The Scarborough, anchored off the
Point, poured in a broadside. The enemy from Boston threw shells. The
garrison at Cobble Hill returned fire. Our men were obliged to decamp
from the Point, but the work was resumed by the brave old general at
night.”
On the next morning, a cannonade from Cobble Hill obliged the
Scarborough to weigh anchor, and drop down below the ferry; and General
Heath was detached with a party of men to carry on the work which Putnam
had commenced. The enemy resumed their fire. Sentinels were placed to
give notice of a shot or shell; the men would crouch down or dodge it,
and continue on with their work. The fire ceased in the afternoon, and
Washington visited the hill accompanied by several officers, and
inspected the progress of the work. It was to consist of two redoubts,
on one of which was to be a mortar battery. There was, as yet, a
deficiency of ordnance; but the prize mortar was to be mounted which
Putnam had recently christened, “The Congress.” From the spirit with
which the work was carried on, Washington trusted that it would soon be
completed, “and then,” said he, “if we have powder to sport with, and
Congress gives the word, Boston can be bombarded from this point.”
For several days the labor at the works was continued; the redoubts were
thrown up, and a covered way was constructed leading down to the bridge.
All this was done notwithstanding the continual fire of the enemy. The
letter of a British officer gives his idea of the efficiency of the
work.
“The rebels for some days past have been erecting a battery on Phipps’
Farm. The new constructed mortar taken on board the ordnance brig, we
are told, will be mounted upon it, and we expect a warm salute from the
shells, another part of that vessel’s cargo; so that, in spite of her
capture, we are likely to be complimented with the contents of her
lading.”
“If the rebels can complete their battery, this town will be on fire
about our ears a few hours after; all our buildings being of wood, or a
mixture of brick and wood-work. Had the rebels erected their battery on
the other side of the town, at Dorchester, the admiral and all his booms
would have made the first blaze, and the burning of the town would have
followed. If we cannot destroy the rebel battery by our guns, we must
march out and take it sword in hand.”
Putnam anticipated great effects from this work, and especially from his
grand mortar, “The Congress.” Shells there were in abundance for a
bombardment; the only thing wanting was a supply of powder. One of the
officers, writing of the unusual mildness of the winter, observes:
“Every thing thaws here except old Put. He is still as hard as ever,
crying out for powder—powder—powder. Ye gods, give us powder!”