along the eastern border of the land. Built many years before, and
to withstand the fire of comparatively small guns, the forts which
stood at the entrances of the Atlantic harbors were practically of no
offensive or defensive value whatever. They could neither withstand
the shot of modern guns nor reply with missiles likely to injure in
the slightest degree the sides of modern armored vessels. There was
not, in all the waters of the world, a navy flying the American flag
which was able, unitedly, to combat the weakest of the ironclads
named as making up the English power at Halifax. Upon the first
outbreak in April, the little band of regular-army officers engaged
in experiments with torpedoes at various stations along the coast had
been compelled to join their regiments, and had not since returned
to their experiments. The Revolutionary Government had done nothing
except issue “subventions” to a few long-haired, half-crazed socialists
and dynamiters to enable them to continue pottering and unscientific
attempts at the invention of new explosives. There were not experienced
gunners enough in the entire revolutionary army to man completely and
to work efficiently the guns in half the forts along the coast, such as
they were.
It was naturally assumed that New York, the richest city of the country
and the real centre of the revolution, would be the first object of
British attack. There were already about one hundred and fifty thousand
men in or about the city. They were hastily sent to the forts of the
harbor. Orders from Washington set a hundred thousand more in motion
towards the metropolis from Western cities. Canal-barges and tow-boats
were seized, loaded with stone, and sunk across the channel at the
Narrows. Others were loaded with petroleum and made ready for use as
fire-ships to send against the attacking fleet.
The convention speedily broke up. It held two sessions, but these were
spent in wordy wrangles; they failed to result in even the choice of
a presiding officer. The real leaders of the revolutionists hurried
towards the East on the confirmation of the news from Halifax. Others
followed in rapid succession, till, on the second day, less than half
the delegates remained in Washington. The convention dissolved. It did
not adjourn, it simply ceased to exist.
But Admiral Seymour, who commanded the British fleet, did not aim at
New York. While the revolutionists there were working with the energy
of desperation to block the approach to their water-front, he turned
into Boston Harbor, and, a little before noon, the 8th of October,
fired his first shot into Fort Warren, the structure defending the
lower main channel. The little garrison in the fort responded bravely
for an hour, but they could do nothing to harm the British fleet.
Their numbers were small, their guns old-fashioned and weak, and
their ammunition was soon spent. Their missiles seldom reached the
sides of the British vessels; when they did, they rebounded and fell
off as if they had been nothing worse than pebbles. The British fire
was not rapid at first, but terribly exact, and the fleet steadily
drew to closer quarters. The leading vessels approached within less
than a fourth of a mile of the fort. Their fire became more rapid and
destructive. The garrison was driven from the casemates and compelled
to retreat under such shelter as could be found. The flag was shot
away. A landing-party from the fleet rowed down upon the fort, under
the fire their own vessels were pouring into it. Before they reached
it, a white flag appeared on the walls, and firing ceased. The fort
surrendered.
Leaving a few men to dismantle it and destroy the magazine, the fleet
proceeded up the harbor without meeting further resistance. Its
appearance off the outer light had been announced in the city during
the morning, and every road to the North and West was blocked by flying
fugitives, who expected each moment to hear the shriek of British
shells hurtling above them through the air. Admiral Seymour drew up in
front of the city and within a quarter of a mile of the wharves, each
vessel swinging broadside to and anchoring bow and stern. The guns were
manned; and in this position he waited an hour for any message that
might be sent him from the shore.
But the mayor of Boston was himself an Irishman who had become known as
a sympathizer in the dynamite outrages. He had made several virulent
speeches against England and in eulogy of the “Irish martyrs,” as it
was the custom of his kind to denominate such murderers as were hanged
for assassinating landlords in Ireland or blowing up women and children
in London. He dared not show himself on board an English war-vessel.
In truth, he had been among the first to flee the city on the news of
the English approach. The city council had been hurriedly convened; but
time was wasted in a search for him before his flight became known.
During this hour of waiting, a party of young and reckless Irish
bravos had managed to steal unobserved into Fort Independence. This
was an antiquated stone fort in the upper harbor, entirely deserted,
and mounting a few harmless cannon. With these they began firing upon
the nearest British vessels. Their missiles had no more effect on the
armored war-ships than pop-guns could have had on Achilles’ shield;
but they ended the respite which Admiral Seymour had given the city.
A shell from his flag-ship was the signal for a volley from the whole
fleet. But the second round had not been fired when a white flag was
seen moving down Long Wharf and a party of men taking a boat. An
alderman boarded the flag-ship and begged that no further destruction
be done, as the city was defenceless and no opposition would be offered
to the operations of the fleet. In fact, he begged that a guard might
be landed at once to take possession of the public buildings and save
them from utter destruction in the disorder which was rampant once more
in the city, and which the authorities could not repress.
Night had already begun to fall; nevertheless a strong party of marines
was landed from the fleet. Most of the public buildings had been
destroyed by the mob during the outbreaks in the summer; but the State
House was still standing, though its interior had been dismantled, and
the post-office was intact. These buildings were taken possession of,
and put in readiness for defence against any attacks such as might be
made by a mob; small garrisons were left in them, and other bodies
encamped on the famous “Common” and in the Public Garden.
The next morning’s dawn saw the harbor black with the smoke of a score
of transports, from which whole brigades of red-coated soldiers were
disembarked at Long Wharf. As fast as landed they were marched through
the city and pushed out beyond the suburbs in every direction, where
they began the work of fortifying themselves. From Hingham to Revere,
earthworks were thrown up and mounted with guns taken from the forts
in the harbor and pieces brought by the invaders. Describing a vast
semicircle, these fortifications cut off every landward approach to
the city. Detached forts were built on strategic points in advance of
the general line, and behind the semicircle a double line of railway
track was laid, so that every point of the fortifications was within
half an hour of relief from any other post. Transports arrived almost
daily with fresh troops and munitions. The city was turned into a vast
British camp, and evidence soon came that it had been chosen as the
winter quarters, from which operations would be begun in the spring.
General Wood, of Afghan and African fame, arrived a few days later and
assumed command.
The revolutionists had not allowed this work to proceed without making
all the trouble they could. As soon as the attack on Boston had
developed itself, large detachments had been hurried from New York to
the assistance of the small number which had been left watching the
New England metropolis. But transportation was so slow and facilities
so inadequate that they found the British in force occupying the most
important positions around the city, and already strongly fortified,
before they could gather strength sufficient to warrant an attack. They
brought with them only field-pieces in the way of artillery, and were
overmatched even by the old-fashioned guns from the harbor forts with
which many of the earthworks had been mounted. From these guns the
English gunners constantly dropped shells among them, reaching their
camps at a distance from which they could make no reply. One or two
desperate assaults were made on the intrenchments; but a near approach
showed that these were not only mounted with numerous long-range
pieces, but that their parapets fairly bristled with Gatling guns and
mitrailleuses, which mowed the assailants down in actual swaths as
they came within rifle-shot. Hopeless of success, the revolutionists
sullenly retired to Worcester, Springfield, Providence, and other
interior cities, and the Washington triumvirate prepared to wait till
spring. Then they hoped to muster a force great enough to overwhelm, by
sheer weight of numbers, all the British who might be sent across the
sea.
When the city was first captured, a number of prominent Irish leaders
had been seized by the troops under Admiral Seymour. In one of the
assaults made on the British earthworks in Medford, a few days later,
about two hundred revolutionists, including two officers calling
themselves generals, had been captured. They were conveyed to the
jail on Charles Street, and incarcerated with the Irishmen previously
arrested. The next day General Wood called the city council together at
his headquarters, which had been fixed in the State House, and directed
them to inform the General Government at Washington, “or the persons
in whose custody the English minister and his colleagues of France and
Germany are detained,” that these prisoners would be held as hostages
for the safe keeping and delivery of the diplomats within British
lines. Furthermore, the council was advised that all non-combatants
would do well to remove from the city, as the general would not be
responsible for the preservation of the city itself should news arrive
of any harm to these foreign representatives. For themselves, they were
relieved from their offices, as the city was to be put under martial law.
When the winter opened it found Boston turned into a British fortress,
without a trace of self-government left, with its streets guarded
by detachments of British soldiers, and all its public affairs
administered by a board of British officers. Nevertheless, there was
better order and less suffering under the management of these foreign
invaders than were experienced in any of the cities in which the
revolutionists retained control. Business revived under the stimulus
of the presence of a large army, and merchants, despite the menace of
Admiral Seymour’s warning, which still hung over the city, felt more
confidence than they had known for many a month. Throughout the rest
of the land the control of the revolutionists was supreme, except in
some of the rural portions, where small bands, composed of those who
had once been the best and most loyal citizens, disputed their rule and
maintained themselves by a sort of guerilla warfare.
During the winter several of these bands united in the upper portions
of Vermont and New Hampshire, and succeeded in opening communication
with others in New York, Ohio, and the Southern States. The old spirit
of republicanism was found stronger in the South than in any other
portion of the country, and the revolutionists were proportionately
weaker there. A considerable force of loyalists was known to be lurking
in the mountains of eastern Tennessee. Slowly the hope grew that a
combination might be effected between the scattered bands in the North
and West and these in Tennessee, which would be recruited rapidly from
the South, and which might attain sufficient size to warrant a movement
against the revolutionists, now distracted by the British attack. Among
the patriots were many officers of the regular army and a considerable
number of veterans who had seen service on both sides in the civil war
of 1861–1865. Their efforts were devoted to drilling and instructing
the loyalists in such simple and rudimentary tactics as could be taught
to them individually or at the occasional and secret meetings when a
few score could be collected without danger of discovery. With great
difficulty and in the face of apparently insuperable obstacles, two
armies, of about eighteen and thirty thousand men respectively, were at
last collected in northern New England and western New York. If they
could be united, and especially if the loyal forces, which were known
to have increased to some eight or ten thousand in eastern Tennessee,
could be joined with them, and the command of the whole army put into
an experienced officer’s hands, it was felt that there was a chance for
striking a blow which should inspirit the loyal people all over the
country and make possible a general uprising against the brutal and
cruel and utterly irresponsible rule of the revolutionists. This scheme
was carried out toward the close of the winter in so far as the union
of the two northern bands was concerned. But it was found impracticable
for them to join the Southern force, or for it to reach them, until
spring opened. Before that time other events occurred, which must now
be chronicled.
XIV.
THE EUROPEAN COALITION.
France and Germany had replied to the outrage upon their
plenipotentiaries at Washington by almost simultaneous declarations of
war. But their action came later than that of England, and it was felt
by each Government to be impossible for it to do anything of importance
before the coming spring. Moreover, it was a grave question how they
should act so as to avoid the possibility of complications with each
other and with England, whose fleet and army were already actively
engaged. Each Government detached a small fleet with instructions
to harass the coast, seize as much American shipping as possible,
capture privateers, and destroy supplies. But they were not to
attempt any serious warfare until further details should be arranged.
The diplomatic correspondence which followed showed that all three
Governments were impressed with the danger, not only to themselves,
but also to civilization, of allowing the American excesses to go
unpunished.
The maniacs who had secured control of affairs in the western
hemisphere had practically declared war against the whole world and
against civilization itself. It was found that the other European
Powers sympathized with England, Germany, and France in their feeling
that the revolution must be crushed out at any cost, and so completely
that there should be no danger of its reviving. Hardly a Government in
Europe but had had experience with the men now in power in America. Not
a Government in Europe but knew that in its own dominions thousands
of other socialists and anarchists were waiting the triumph of their
brethren across the water to rise themselves in fierce revolt.
Early in January a conference representing all the European Governments
was held at Berlin. Representatives from Russia, Austria, Spain, and
Italy were there, as well as from England, France, and Germany. For
once the instinct of self-preservation overcame the hereditary distrust
of these generally antagonistic Powers. The debates of the conference
were characterized by a plainness of speech, a directness and unanimity
of agreement, and a promptness of action which were new to the history
of diplomacy. It sat but five days. During that time it perfected a
European alliance in which all the nations represented united for
the object of crushing the anarchistic revolution in America. It was
decided that the actual conduct of the war should be left to the
three Powers already involved; but the other Governments agreed to
close their ports to American vessels, to refuse supplies for use in
America, and to sustain in every way short of actual war the Powers
which should act in behalf of Europe in the field and on the ocean.
Of the three nations already at war with the revolutionists, England
was unquestionably the greatest Naval Power. It was determined that the
united fleet of the allies should be put under the command of Admiral
Seymour, already in American waters. Germany and France forgot their
traditional hatred for the time, and vied with each other as to which
should succeed in relinquishing to the other the supreme authority over
the army. It was finally agreed that General Count von Blücken, the
strategist who had succeeded to the command of the German army, should
have control in the field, with a staff comprising an equal number of
French, German, and English officers.
Before the middle of January, 1888, the arrangements perfected by the
conference had been ratified by the various Governments interested,
and preparations were being pushed rapidly forward for the spring
campaign. General Sir Evelyn Wood had been put in command of the
British forces in and around Boston. Admiral Seymour returned to London
early in January, and held a long consultation there with General Wood,
General von Blücken, and General de l’Isle, who was to command the
French contingent. Long Island Sound, itself an immense land-locked
harbor, was selected as the rendezvous of the fleets. On the northern
shore of the Sound was marked out the point for the collection of the
army. Before the end of February Seymour returned to America. He was
accompanied by considerable reinforcements for the British garrison
in Boston. Within a week after his departure the first convoy of the
allies sailed from Havre. It consisted of seven powerful ships of war
and a fleet of transports under their protection, bearing nearly fifty
thousand men. Only a day later the first German contingent sailed from
Bremen.
Day by day and week by week others followed. The allies knew that
they had undertaken a Herculean task in the subjugation of the United
States, torn and divided though its once impregnable power had become.
They determined to make no mistake in underestimating the resistance
which they were likely to meet. Before the end of April they had in
the Sound, occupying various harbors along its shores, a fleet of one
hundred and twenty men-of-war. On shore, including the British troops
garrisoning Boston, they had an army of half a million men, all trained
soldiers, all armed with the most perfect weapons which modern science
had discovered and modern skill invented, and in receipt, even after
that enormous number had been reached, of constant reinforcements.
Practically no opposition had been offered to their landing along the
Connecticut shore. The revolutionists had no information of the point
which the fleet intended to strike, and naturally assumed that Boston,
which was already in foreign hands, would be selected as the base of
the contemplated invasion. When they discovered their error it was too
late to make a hopeful defence. They contented themselves, therefore,
with strengthening their fortifications around New York, and calling
to that city as many of their men as could be spared from watching the
British at Boston and the patriots in the interior parts of the country.
The loyalists, it need not be said, viewed this invasion of foreign
troops with almost as much alarm as they had felt at the uprising of
the native revolutionists. There had been division in their councils
before this. The news of the European alliance still more completely
split them into factions. One party frankly owned that they regarded a
foreign conquest as vastly preferable to a continuance of revolutionary
rule. The other party, though hating the revolutionists with equal
hatred, asked what was likely to be the result upon the fortunes of
the Republic of a victory by the foreign allies. Long and anxious
discussions were held during the latter portion of the winter and the
early weeks of spring. Attempts were made to ascertain the intentions
of the allies in case they should defeat the revolutionists; but no
one among the invaders was found who could undertake to answer that
question. Many left the little band of patriots and returned to their
homes, refusing to share longer in a movement which could not be
regarded as anything else than an alliance with a foreign invasion. The
others determined to remain inactive for the time, and wait the events
of the summer.
As the spring opened and it became certain to the revolutionists that
New York was the object at which the allied attack was to be first
aimed, they summoned more of their forces from the interior, and left
the patriots greater opportunity to move with freedom. The two little
armies of northern New England and of western New York united near Lake
George and slowly moved down the western bank of the Hudson to Newburg,
where they could watch events and take such part as might seem best at
the time. They numbered altogether about fifty thousand men.
As soon as the spring weather allowed, the revolutionists renewed
their efforts to put the metropolis in a condition of defence. The
approaches to the harbor were entirely closed by the sinking of
additional barges and scows laden with stones. Torpedoes were thickly
planted outside these obstructions, so as to make any attempt to
remove them as dangerous as possible. Relying upon the inability of
the attacking squadron to pass these obstacles and enter the harbor,
the revolutionists imitated the tactics of Admiral Seymour at Boston,
and removed most of the guns from the forts below the city to the
earthworks and intrenchments they had thrown up to the northward and
eastward of it.
The allies lay encamped along the Connecticut shore of the Sound,
mostly between Bridgeport and Greenwich. From New Rochelle to Yonkers
the revolutionists erected a chain of strong works, stretching entirely
across the peninsula whose point is occupied by New York city. Three
separate lines of intrenchments were constructed, each one of which was
capable of being defended after everything in front of it was in the
possession of the enemy. Detached forts and redoubts were thrown up on
every elevation or commanding point.
On the Brooklyn side the defences were less elaborate, but still
strong. It was evident that the possession of Brooklyn by the allies
would render New York untenable; but the revolutionists felt confident
that they could transport troops faster from the forts above New York
to the Brooklyn side than the allies could be moved across the Sound
to attack from Long Island. They had the inner and shorter circle
on which to move. Besides, a defeat of the allies, if they should
be defeated, on the island would be vastly more disastrous to them
than a repulse from the works on the mainland. It was not likely that
General von Blücken would take such an unnecessary risk. In fact, the
revolutionists were right. He intended from the outset to make his
attack on New York from the northward.
During the winter the British troops in Boston pushed their way out
into the interior, especially developing their strength towards the
southwest, in the direction of the camp of the allies. Early in March
they took possession of Providence,--still a fair and beautiful city,
despite the havoc and ruin which the rule of the lawless hordes of the
revolution had wrought in it. The revolutionists who were driven out of
the city joined those at Worcester and Springfield, and by the middle
of March regained the main force in New York by way of Albany and the
eastern shore of the Hudson. This left the whole of lower New England
practically in the undisputed possession of the allies. They speedily
repaired the railway lines leading from Boston towards New York, and
thus secured ready communication between the main army and several
other important ports and depots of supplies besides New London, at
which most of the army’s material had hitherto been landed.
XV.
THE ALLIES ATTACK NEW YORK.
Early in May the outposts of the opposing forces were face to face,
and occasional skirmishes had already taken place. The two armies were
nearly evenly matched in point of numbers. The allies counted up five
hundred and twenty-two thousand men on shore, besides a naval force
of about thirty thousand, in one hundred and twenty-two ships of war
belonging to one grade or another. Only thirty-five of these vessels
were iron-clad, but all carried effective armaments. In addition, the
Sound was filled with an innumerable fleet of transports, tugs, and
similar craft, acting as tenders on the larger ships.