DESTINATION OF THE FLEET—COMMISSION OF THE TWO HOWES—CHARACTER OF LORD
HOWE—THE COLONIES DIVIDED INTO DEPARTMENTS—LEE ASSIGNED TO THE SOUTHERN
DEPARTMENT—GENERAL THOMAS TO CANADA—CHARACTER OF LEE, BY
WASHINGTON—LETTERS OF LEE FROM THE SOUTH—A DOG IN A DANCING
SCHOOL—COMMITTEE OF SAFETY IN VIRGINIA—LEE’S GRENADIERS—PUTNAM IN
COMMAND AT NEW YORK—STATE OF AFFAIRS THERE—ARRIVAL OF WASHINGTON—NEW
ARRANGEMENTS—PERPLEXITIES WITH RESPECT TO CANADA—ENGLAND SUBSIDIZES
HESSIAN TROOPS.
The British fleet bearing the army from Boston, had disappeared from the
coast. “Whither they are bound, and where they next will pitch their
tents,” writes Washington, “I know not.” He conjectured their
destination to be New York, and made his arrangements accordingly; but
he was mistaken. General Howe had steered for Halifax, there to await
the arrival of strong reinforcements from England, and the fleet of his
brother, Admiral Lord Howe; who was to be commander-in-chief of the
naval forces on the North American station.
It was thought these brothers would co-operate admirably in the exercise
of their relative functions on land and water. Yet they were widely
different in their habits and dispositions. Sir William, easy, indolent,
and self-indulgent, “hated business,” we are told, “and never did any.
Lord Howe loved it, dwelt upon it, never could leave it.” Beside his
nautical commands, he had been treasurer of the navy, member of the
board of admiralty, and had held a seat in Parliament; where, according
to Walpole, he was “silent as a rock,” excepting when naval affairs were
under discussion; when he spoke briefly and to the point. “My Lord
Howe,” said George II., “your life has been a continued series of
services to your country.” He was now about fifty-one years of age,
tall, and well proportioned like his brother; but wanting his ease of
deportment. His complexion was dark, his countenance grave and strongly
marked, and he had a shy reserve, occasionally mistaken for haughtiness.
As a naval officer, he was esteemed resolute and enterprising, yet cool
and firm. In his younger days he had contracted a friendship for Wolfe;
“it was like the union of cannon and gunpowder,” said Walpole. Howe,
strong in mind, solid in judgment, firm of purpose, was said to be the
cannon; Wolfe, quick in conception, prompt in execution, impetuous in
action—the gunpowder.[60] The bravest man, we are told, could not wish
for a more able, or more gallant commander than Howe, and the sailors
used to say of him, “Give us Black Dick, and we fear nothing.”
Such is his lordship’s portrait as sketched by English pencils; we shall
see hereafter how far his conduct conforms to it. At present we must
consider the state of the American army, in the appointments and
commands of which various changes had recently taken place.
It was presumed the enemy, in the ensuing campaign, would direct their
operations against the Middle and Southern colonies. Congress divided
those colonies into two departments; one, comprehending New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland, was to be under the command
of a major-general, and two brigadier-generals; the other, comprising
Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia, to be under the command of a
major-general, and four brigadiers.
In this new arrangement, the orders destining General Lee to Canada,
were superseded, and he was appointed to the command of the Southern
department, where he was to keep watch upon the movements of Sir Henry
Clinton. He was somewhat dissatisfied with the change in his
destination. “As I am the only general officer on the continent,” writes
he to Washington, “who can speak or think in French, I confess I think
it would have been more prudent to have sent me to Canada; but I shall
obey with alacrity, and I hope with success.”
In reply, Washington observes, “I was just about to congratulate you on
your appointment to the command in Canada, when I received the account
that your destination was altered. As a Virginian, I must rejoice at the
change, but as an American, I think you would have done more essential
service to the common cause in Canada. For, besides the advantage of
speaking and thinking in French, an officer who is acquainted with their
manners and customs, and has travelled in their country, must certainly
take the strongest hold of their affection and confidence.”
The command in Canada was given to General Thomas, who had distinguished
himself at Roxbury, and was promoted to the rank of major-general. It
would have been given to Schuyler, out for the infirm state of his
health; still Congress expressed a reliance on his efforts to complete
the work “so conspicuously begun and well conducted” under his orders,
in the last campaign; and, as not merely the success but the very
existence of the army in Canada would depend on supplies sent from these
colonies across the lakes, he was required, until further orders, to fix
his head-quarters at Albany, where, without being exposed to the fatigue
of the camp until his health was perfectly restored, he would be in a
situation to forward supplies; to superintend the operations necessary
for the defence of New York and the Hudson River, and the affairs of the
whole middle department.
Lee set out for the South on the 7th of March, carrying with him his
bold spirit, his shrewd sagacity, and his whimsical and splenetic
humors. The following admirably impartial sketch is given of him by
Washington, in a letter to his brother Augustine: “He is the first in
military knowledge and experience we have in the whole army. He is
zealously attached to the cause; honest and well meaning, but rather
fickle and violent, I fear, in his temper. However, as he possesses an
uncommon share of good sense and spirit, I congratulate my countrymen on
his appointment to that department.”[61]
We give by anticipation a few passages from Lee’s letters, illustrative
of his character and career. The news of the evacuation of Boston
reached him in Virginia. In a letter to Washington, dated Williamsburg,
April 5, he expresses himself on the subject with generous warmth. “My
dear general,” writes he, “I most sincerely congratulate you; I
congratulate the public, on the great and glorious event, your
possession of Boston. It will be a most bright page in the annals of
America, and a most abominable black one in those of the beldam Britain.
Go on, my dear general; crown yourself with glory, and establish the
liberties and lustre of your country on a foundation more permanent than
the Capitol rock.”
Then reverting to himself, his subacid humors work up, and he shows that
he had been as much annoyed in Williamsburg, by the interference of
committees, as he had been in New York. “My situation,” writes he, “is
just as I expected. I am afraid I shall make a shabby figure, without
any real demerits of my own. I am like a dog in a dancing-school; I know
not where to turn myself, where to fix myself. The circumstances of the
country, intersected with navigable rivers; the uncertainty of the
enemy’s designs and motions, who can fly in an instant to any spot they
choose, with their canvas wings, throw me, or would throw Julius Cæsar
into this inevitable dilemma; I may possibly be in the North, when, as
Richard says, I should serve my sovereign in the West. I can only act
from surmise, and have a very good chance of surmising wrong. I am sorry
to grate your ears with a truth, but must, at all events, assure you,
that the Provincial Congress of New York are angels of decision, when
compared with your countrymen, the committee of safety assembled at
Williamsburg. Page, Lee, Mercer and Payne, are, indeed, exceptions; but
from Pendleton, Bland, the Treasurer and Co.—_Libera nos domine!_”
Lee’s letters from Virginia, written at a later date, were in a better
humor. “There is a noble spirit in this province pervading all orders of
men; if the same becomes universal, we shall be saved. I am, fortunately
for my own happiness, and, I think, for the well-being of the community,
on the best terms with the senatorial part, as well as the people at
large. I shall endeavor to preserve their confidence and good
opinion.”[62]
And in a letter to Washington:
“I have formed two companies of grenadiers to each regiment, and with
spears thirteen feet long. Their rifles (for they are all riflemen)
sling over their shoulders, their appearance is formidable, and the men
are conciliated to the weapon. * * * I am likewise furnishing myself
with four-ounced rifled amusettes, which will carry an infernal
distance; the two-ounced hit a half sheet of paper, at five hundred
yards distance.”
On Lee’s departure for the South, Brigadier-general Lord Stirling had
remained in temporary command at New York. Washington, however,
presuming that the British fleet had steered for that port, with the
force which had evacuated Boston, hastened detachments thither under
Generals Heath and Sullivan, and wrote for three thousand additional men
to be furnished by Connecticut. The command of the whole he gave to
General Putnam, who was ordered to fortify the city and the passes of
the Hudson, according to the plans of General Lee. In the mean time,
Washington delayed to come on himself, until he should have pushed
forward the main body of his army by divisions.
Lee’s anticipations that laxity and confusion would prevail after his
departure, were not realized. The veteran Putnam, on taking command, put
the city under rigorous military rule. Tho soldiers were to retire to
their barracks and quarters at the beating of the tattoo, and remain
there until the reveille in the morning. The inhabitants were subjected
to the same rule. None would be permitted to pass a sentry, without the
countersign, which would be furnished to them on applying to any of the
brigade majors. All communication between the “ministerial fleet” and
shore was stopped; the ships were no longer to be furnished with
provisions. Any person taken in the act of holding communication with
them would be considered an enemy, and treated accordingly.
We have a lively picture of the state of the city, in letters written at
the time, and already cited. “When you are informed that New York is
deserted by its old inhabitants, and filled with soldiers from New
England, Philadelphia, Jersey, &c., you will naturally conclude the
environs of it are not very safe from so undisciplined a multitude as
our Provincials are represented to be; but I do believe there are very
few instances of so great a number of men together, with so little
mischief done by them. They have all the simplicity of ploughmen in
their manners, and seem quite strangers to the vices of older soldiers:
they have been employed in creating fortifications in every part of the
town. * * * Governor Tryon loses his credit with the people here
prodigiously; he has lately issued a proclamation, desiring the deluded
people of this colony to return to their obedience, promising a speedy
support to the friends of government, declaring a door of mercy open to
the penitent, and a rod for the disobedient, &c. The friends of
government were provoked at being so distinguished, and the friends to
liberty hung him in effigy, and printed a dying speech for him. A
letter, too, was intercepted from him, hastening Lord Howe to New York,
as the rebels were fortifying. These have entirely lost him the good
will of the people. * * * You cannot think how sorry I am the governor
has so lost himself, a man once so much beloved. O Lucifer, once the son
of morn, how fallen! General Washington is expected hourly; General
Putnam is here, with several other generals, and some of their
ladies. * * * The variety of reports keeps one’s mind always in
agitation. Clinton and Howe have set the continent a racing from Boston
to Carolina. Clinton came into our harbor: away flew the women,
children, goods and chattels, and in came the soldiers flocking from
every part. No sooner was it known that he was not going to land here,
than expresses were sent to Virginia and Carolina, to put them on their
guard; his next expedition was to Virginia; there they were ready to
receive him; from thence without attempting to land, he sailed to
Carolina. Now General Howe is leading us another dance.”[63]
Washington came on by the way of Providence, Norwich and New London,
expediting the embarkation of troops from these posts, and arrived at
New York on the 13th of April. Many of the works which Lee had commenced
were by this time finished; others were in progress. It was apprehended
the principal operations of the enemy would be on Long Island, the high
grounds of which, in the neighborhood of Brooklyn, commanded the city.
Washington saw that an able and efficient officer was needed at that
place. Greene was accordingly stationed there, with a division of the
army. He immediately proceeded to complete the fortifications of that
important post, and to make himself acquainted with the topography, and
the defensive points of the surrounding country.
The aggregate force distributed at several extensive posts in New York
and its environs, and on Long Island, Staten Island and elsewhere,
amounted to little more than ten thousand men; some of those were on the
sick list, others absent on command, or on furlough; there were but
about eight thousand available and fit for duty. These, too, were
without pay; those recently enlisted, without arms, and no one could say
where arms were to be procured.
Washington saw the inadequacy of the force to the purposes required, and
was full of solicitude about the security of a place, the central point
of the Confederacy, and the grand deposit of ordnance and military
stores. He was aware too, of the disaffection to the cause among many of
the inhabitants; and apprehensive of treachery. The process of
fortifying the place had induced the ships of war to fall down into the
outer bay, within the Hook, upwards of twenty miles from the city; but
Governor Tryon was still on board of one of them, keeping up an active
correspondence with the tories on Staten and Long Islands, and in other
parts of the neighborhood.
Washington took an early occasion to address an urgent letter to the
committee of safety, pointing out the dangerous, and even treasonable
nature of this correspondence. He had more weight and influence with
that body than had been possessed by General Lee, and procured the
passage of a resolution prohibiting, under severe penalties, all
intercourse with the king’s ships.
Head-quarters, at this time, was a scene of incessant toil on the part
of the commander-in-chief, his secretaries and aides-de-camp. “I give in
to no kind of amusements myself,” writes he, “and consequently those
about me can have none, but are confined from morning until evening,
hearing and answering applications and letters.” The presence of Mrs.
Washington was a solace in the midst of these stern military cares, and
diffused a feminine grace and decorum, and a cheerful spirit over the
domestic arrangements of head-quarters, where every thing was conducted
with simplicity and dignity. The wives of some of the other generals and
officers rallied around Mrs. Washington, but social intercourse was
generally at an end. “We all live here,” writes a lady of New York,
“like nuns shut up in a nunnery. No society with the town, for there are
none there to visit; neither can we go in or out after a certain hour
without the countersign.”
In addition to his cares about the security of New York, Washington had
to provide for the perilous exigencies of the army in Canada. Since his
arrival in the city, four regiments of troops, a company of riflemen and
another of artificers had been detached under the command of
Brigadier-general Thompson, and a further corps of six regiments under
Brigadier-general Sullivan, with orders to join General Thomas as soon
as possible.
Still Congress inquired of him, whether further reinforcements to the
army in Canada would not be necessary, and whether they could be spared
from the army in New York. His reply shows the peculiar perplexities of
his situation, and the tormenting uncertainty in which he was kept, as
to where the next storm of war would break. “With respect to sending
more troops to that country, I am really at a loss what to advise, as it
is impossible, at present, to know the designs of the enemy. Should they
send the whole force under General Howe up the river St. Lawrence, to
relieve Quebec and recover Canada, the troops gone and now going, will
be insufficient to stop their progress; and, should they think proper to
send that, or an equal force, this way from Great Britain, for the
purpose of possessing this city and securing the navigation of Hudson’s
River, the troops left here will not be sufficient to oppose them; and
yet, for any thing we know, I think it not improbable they may attempt
both; both being of the greatest importance to them, if they have men. I
could wish, indeed, that the army in Canada should be more powerfully
reinforced; at the same time, I am conscious that the trusting of this
important post, which is now become the grand magazine of America, to
the handful of men remaining here, is running too great a risk. The
securing of this post and Hudson’s River is to us also of so great
importance, that I cannot, at present, advise the sending any more
troops from hence; on the contrary, the general officers now here, whom
I thought it my duty to consult, think it absolutely necessary to
increase the army at this place with at least ten thousand men;
especially when it is considered, that from this place only the army in
Canada must draw its supplies of ammunition, provisions, and most
probably of men.”
Washington at that time was not aware of the extraordinary expedients
England had recently resorted to, against the next campaign. The Duke of
Brunswick, the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, and the Hereditary Prince of
Cassel, Count of Hanau, had been subsidized to furnish troops to assist
in the subjugation of her colonies. Four thousand three hundred
Brunswick troops, and nearly thirteen thousand Hessians, had entered the
British service. Beside the subsidy exacted by the German princes, they
were to be paid seven pounds four shillings and four pence sterling for
every soldier furnished by them, and as much more for every one slain.
Of this notable arrangement, Washington, as we observed, was not yet
aware. “The designs of the enemy,” writes he, “are too much behind the
curtain for me to form any accurate opinion of their plan of operations
for the summer’s campaign. We are left to wander, therefore, in the
field of conjecture.”[64]
Within a few days afterwards, he had vague accounts of “Hessians and
Hanoverian troops coming over;” but it was not until the 17th of May,
when he received letters from General Schuyler, inclosing others from
the commanders in Canada, that he knew in what direction some of these
bolts of war were launched; and this calls for some further particulars
of the campaign on the banks of the St. Lawrence; which we shall give to
the reader in the ensuing chapter.