CORRESPONDENCE OF WASHINGTON AND SCHUYLER ON THE DISASTERS IN
CANADA—REINFORCEMENTS REQUIRED FROM NEW ENGLAND—DANGERS IN THE INTERIOR
OF NEW YORK—JOHNSON HALL BELEAGUERED—SIR JOHN CAPITULATES—GENEROUS
CONDUCT OF SCHUYLER—GOVERNOR TRYON AND THE TORIES—TORY MACHINATIONS—LEE
AT NEW YORK—SIR HENRY CLINTON IN THE HARBOR—MENACES OF LEE—THE CITY AND
RIVER FORTIFIED—LEE’S TREATMENT OF THE TORIES—HIS PLANS OF
FORTIFICATION—ORDERED TO THE COMMAND IN CANADA—HIS SPECULATIONS ON
TITLES OF DIGNITY.
Schuyler’s letter to Washington, announcing the recent events, was
written with manly feeling. “I wish,” said he, “I had no occasion to
send my dear general this melancholy account. My amiable friend, the
gallant Montgomery, is no more; the brave Arnold is wounded; and we have
met with a severe check in an unsuccessful attempt on Quebec. May Heaven
be graciously pleased that the misfortune may terminate here! I tremble
for our people in Canada.”
Alluding to his recent request to retire from the army, he writes: “Our
affairs are much worse than when I made the request. This is motive
sufficient for me to continue to serve my country in any way I can be
thought most serviceable; but my utmost can be but little, weak and
indisposed as I am.”
Washington was deeply moved by the disastrous intelligence. “I most
sincerely condole with you,” writes he, in reply to Schuyler, “upon the
fall of the brave and worthy Montgomery. In the death of this gentleman,
America has sustained a heavy loss. I am much concerned for the intrepid
and enterprising Arnold, and greatly fear that consequences of the most
alarming nature will result from this well-intended, but unfortunate
attempt.”
General Schuyler, who was now in Albany, urged the necessity of an
immediate reinforcement of three thousand men for the army in Canada.
Washington had not a man to spare from the army before Boston. He
applied, therefore, on his own responsibility, to Massachusetts, New
Hampshire and Connecticut, for three regiments, which were granted. His
prompt measure received the approbation of Congress, and further
reinforcements were ordered from the same quarters.
Solicitude was awakened about the interior of the province of New York.
Arms and ammunition were said to be concealed in Tryon County, and
numbers of the tories in that neighborhood preparing for hostilities.
Sir John Johnson had fortified Johnson Hall, gathered about him his
Scotch Highland tenants and Indian allies, and it was rumored he
intended to carry fire and sword along the valley of the Mohawk.
Schuyler, in consequence, received orders from Congress to take measures
for securing the military stores, disarming the disaffected, and
apprehending their chiefs. He forthwith hastened from Albany, at the
head of a body of soldiers; was joined by Colonel Herkimer, with the
militia of Tryon County marshalled forth on the frozen bosom of the
Mohawk River, and appeared before Sir John’s stronghold, near Johnstown,
on the 19th of January.
Thus beleaguered, Sir John, after much negotiation, capitulated. He was
to surrender all weapons of war and military stores in his possession,
and to give his parole not to take arms against America. On these
conditions he was to be at liberty to go as far westward in Tryon County
as the German Flats and Kingsland districts, and to every part of the
colony to the southward and eastward of these districts; provided he did
not go into any seaport town.
Sir John intimated a trust, that he, and the gentlemen with him, would
be permitted to retain such arms as were their own property. The reply
was characteristic: “General Schuyler’s feelings as a gentleman, induce
him to consent that Sir John Johnson may retain the few favorite family
arms, he making a list of them. General Schuyler never refused a
gentleman his side-arms.”
The capitulation being adjusted, Schuyler ordered his troops to be drawn
up in line at noon (Jan. 20th), between his quarters and the Court
House, to receive the surrender of the Highlanders, enjoining profound
silence on his officers and men, when the surrender should be made.
Every thing was conducted with great regard to the feelings of Sir
John’s Scottish adherents; they marched to the front, grounded their
arms, and were dismissed with exhortations to good behavior.
The conduct of Schuyler, throughout this affair, drew forth a resolution
of Congress, applauding him for his fidelity, prudence and expedition,
and the proper temper he had maintained toward the “deluded people” in
question. Washington, too, congratulated him on his success. “I hope,”
writes he, “General Lee will execute a work of the same kind on Long
Island. It is high time to begin with our internal foes, when we are
threatened with such severity of chastisement from our kind parent
without.”
The recent reverses in Canada had, in fact, heightened the solicitude of
Washington about the province of New York. That province was the central
and all-important link in the confederacy; but he feared it might prove
a brittle one. We have already mentioned the adverse influences in
operation there. A large number of friends to the crown, among the
official and commercial classes; rank tories, (as they were called,) in
the city and about the neighboring country; particularly on Long and
Staten Islands; king’s ships at anchor in the bay and harbor, keeping up
a suspicious intercourse with the citizens; while Governor Tryon,
castled, as it were, on board one of these ships, carried on intrigues
with those disaffected to the popular cause, in all parts of the
neighborhood. County committees had been empowered by the New York
Congress and convention, to apprehend all persons notoriously
disaffected, to examine into their conduct, and ascertain whether they
were guilty of any hostile act or machination. Imprisonment or
banishment was the penalty. The committees could call upon the militia
to aid in the discharge of their functions. Still, disaffection to the
cause was said to be rife in the province, and Washington looked to
General Lee for effective measures to suppress it.
Lee arrived at New York on the 4th of February, his caustic humors
sharpened by a severe attack of the gout, which had rendered it
necessary, while on the march, to carry him for a considerable part of
the way in a litter. His correspondence is a complete mental barometer.
“I consider it as a piece of the greatest good fortune,” writes he to
Washington (Feb. 5th), “that the Congress have detached a committee to
this place, otherwise I should have made a most ridiculous figure,
besides bringing upon myself the enmity of the whole province. My hands
were effectually tied up from taking any step necessary for the public
service by the late resolve of Congress, putting every detachment of the
continental forces under the command of the Provincial Congress where
such detachment is.”
By a singular coincidence, on the very day of his arrival Sir Henry
Clinton, with the squadron which had sailed so mysteriously from Boston,
looked into the harbor. “Though it was Sabbath,” says a letter-writer of
the day, “it threw the whole city into such a convulsion as it never
knew before. Many of the inhabitants hastened to move their effects into
the country, expecting an immediate conflict. All that day and all
night, were there carts going and boats loading, and women and children
crying, and distressed voices heard in the roads in the dead of the
night.”[47]
Clinton sent for the mayor, and expressed much surprise and concern at
the distress caused by his arrival; which was merely, he said, on a
short visit to his friend Tryon, and to see how matters stood. He
professed a juvenile love for the place, and desired that the
inhabitants might be informed of the purport of his visit, and that he
would go away as soon as possible.
“He brought no troops with him,” writes Lee, “and pledges his honor that
none are coming. He says it is merely a visit to his friend Tryon. If it
is really so, it is the most whimsical piece of civility I ever heard
of.”
A gentleman in New York, writing to a friend in Philadelphia, reports
one of the general’s characteristic menaces, which kept the town in a
fever.
“Lee says, he will send word on board of the men-of-war, that, if they
set a house on fire, he will chain a hundred of their friends by the
neck, and make the house their funeral pile.”[48]
For this time, the inhabitants of New York were let off for their fears.
Clinton, after a brief visit, continued his mysterious cruise, openly
avowing his destination to be North Carolina—which nobody believed,
simply because he avowed it.
The Duke of Manchester, speaking in the House of Lords of the conduct of
Clinton, contrasts it with that of Lord Dunmore, who wrapped Norfolk in
flames. “I will pass no censure on that noble lord,” said he, “but I
could wish that he had acted with that generous spirit that forbade
Clinton uselessly to destroy the town of New York. My lords, Clinton
visited New York; the inhabitants expected its destruction. Lee appeared
before it with an army too powerful to be attacked, and Clinton passed
by without doing any wanton damage.”
The necessity of conferring with committees at every step, was a hard
restraint upon a man of Lee’s ardent and impatient temper, who had a
soldierlike contempt for the men of peace around him; yet at the outset
he bore it better than might have been expected.
“The Congress committees, a certain number of the committees of safety,
and your humble servant,” writes he to Washington, “have had two
conferences. The result is such as will agreeably surprise you. It is in
the first place agreed, and justly, that to fortify the town against
shipping is impracticable; but we are to fortify lodgments on some
commanding part of the city for two thousand men. We are to erect
enclosed batteries on both sides of the water, near Hell Gate, which
will answer the double purpose of securing the town against piracies
through the Sound, and secure our communication with Long Island, now
become a more important point than ever; as it is determined to form a
strong fortified camp of three thousand men, on the Island, immediately
opposite to New York. The pass in the Highlands is to be made as
respectable as possible, and guarded by a battalion. In short, I think
the plan judicious and complete.”
The pass in the Highlands above alluded to, is that grand defile of the
Hudson, where, for upwards of fifteen miles, it wends its deep channel
between stern, forest-clad mountains and rocky promontories. Two forts,
about six miles distant from each other, and commanding narrow parts of
the river at its bends through these Highlands, had been commenced in
the preceding autumn, by order of the Continental Congress; but they
were said to be insufficient for the security of that important pass,
and were to be extended and strengthened.
Washington had charged Lee, in his instructions, to keep a stern eye
upon the tories, who were active in New York. “You can seize upon the
persons of the principals,” said he; “they must be so notoriously known,
that there will be little danger of committing mistakes.” Lee acted up
to the letter of these instructions, and weeded out with a vigorous
hand, some of the rankest of the growth. This gave great offence to the
peace-loving citizens, who insisted that he was arrogating a power
vested solely in the civil authority. One of them, well-affected to the
cause, writes: “To see the vast number of houses shut up, one would
think the city almost evacuated. Women and children are scarcely to be
seen in the streets. Troops are daily coming in; they break open and
quarter themselves in any house they find shut.”[49]
The enemy, too, regarded his measures with apprehension. “That arch
rebel Lee,” writes a British officer, “has driven all the well-affected
people from the town of New York. If something is not speedily done, his
Britannic majesty’s American dominions will be confined within a very
narrow compass.”[50]
In the exercise of his military functions, Lee set Governor Tryon and
the captain of the Asia at defiance. “They had threatened perdition to
the town,” writes he to Washington, “if the cannon were removed from the
batteries and wharves, but I ever considered their threats as a _brutum
fulmen_, and even persuaded the town to be of the same way of thinking.
We accordingly conveyed them to a place of safety in the middle of the
day, and no cannonade ensued. Captain Parker publishes a pleasant reason
for his passive conduct. He says that it was manifestly my intention,
and that of the New England men under my command, to bring destruction
on this town, so hated for their loyal principles, but that he was
determined not to indulge us; so remained quiet out of spite. The people
here laugh at his nonsense, and begin to despise the menaces which
formerly used to throw them into convulsions.”
Washington appears to have shared the merriment. In his reply to Lee, he
writes, “I could not avoid laughing at Captain Parker’s reasons for not
putting his repeated threats into execution,”—a proof, by the way, under
his own hand, that he could laugh occasionally; and even when surrounded
by perplexities.
According to Lee’s account, the New Yorkers showed a wonderful alacrity
in removing the cannon. “Men and boys of all ages,” writes he, “worked
with the greatest zeal and pleasure. I really believe the generality are
as well-affected as any on the continent.” Some of the well-affected,
however, thought he was rather too self-willed and high-handed. “Though
General Lee has many things to recommend him as a general,” writes one
of them, “yet I think he was out of luck when he ordered the removal of
the guns from the battery; as it was without the approbation or
knowledge of our Congress.”[51]—Lee seldom waited for the approbation of
Congress in moments of exigency.
He now proceeded with his plan of defences. A strong redoubt, capable of
holding three hundred men, was commenced at Horen’s Hook, commanding the
pass at Hell Gate, so as to block up from the enemy’s ships, the passage
between the mainland and Long Island. A regiment was stationed on the
island, making fascines, and preparing other materials for constructing
the works for an intrenched camp, which Lee hoped would render it
impossible for the enemy to get a footing there. “What to do with this
city,” writes he, “I own, puzzles me. It is so encircled with deep
navigable water, that whoever commands the sea must command the town.
To-morrow I shall begin to dismantle that part of the fort next to the
town, to prevent its being converted into a citadel. I shall barrier the
principal streets, and, at least, if I cannot make it a continental
garrison, it shall be a disputable field of battle.” Batteries were to
be erected on an eminence behind Trinity Church, to keep the enemy’s
ships at so great a distance as not to injure the town.
King’s Bridge, at the upper end of Manhattan or New York Island, linking
it with the mainland, was pronounced by Lee “a most important pass,
without which the city could have no communication with Connecticut.” It
was, therefore, to be made as strong as possible.
Heavy cannon were to be sent up to the forts in the Highlands; which
were to be enlarged and strengthened.
In the midst of his schemes, Lee received orders from Congress to the
command in Canada, vacant by the death of Montgomery. He bewailed the
defenceless condition of the city; the Continental Congress, as he said,
not having, as yet, taken the least step for its security. “The instant
I leave it,” said he, “I conclude the Provincial Congress, and
inhabitants in general, will relapse into their former hysterics. The
men-of-war and Mr. Tryon will return to their old station at the
wharves, and the first regiments who arrive from England, will take
quiet possession of the town and Long Island.”
It must be observed that, in consequence of his military demonstrations
in the city, the enemy’s ships had drawn off and dropped down the bay;
and he had taken vigorous measures, without consulting the committees,
to put an end to the practice of supplying them with provisions.
“Governor Tryon and the Asia,” writes he to Washington, “continue
between Nutten and Bedlow’s Islands. It has pleased his excellency, in
violation of the compact he has made, to seize several vessels from
Jersey laden with flour. It has, in return, pleased my excellency to
stop all provisions from the city, and cut off all intercourse with
him,—a measure which has thrown the mayor, council, and tories into
agonies. The propensity, or rather rage, for paying court to this great
man, is inconceivable. They cannot be weaned from him. We must put
wormwood on his paps, or they will cry to suck, as they are in their
second childhood.”
We would observe in explanation of a sarcasm in the above quoted letter,
that Lee professed a great contempt for the titles of respect which it
was the custom to prefix to the names of men in office or command. He
scoffed at them, as unworthy of “a great, free, manly, equal
commonwealth.” “For my own part,” said he, “I would as lief they would
put ratsbane in my mouth, as the excellency with which I am daily
crammed. How much more true dignity was there in the simplicity of
address among the Romans! Marcus Tullius Cicero, Decius Bruto
Imperatori, or Caio Marcello Consuli; than to ’His Excellency
Major-general Noodle,’ or to the ’Honorable John Doodle.’”