WASHINGTON'S CHIEF RELIANCE
It was at the retreat of the Americans before the British, who had
landed at Kip's Bay, that the unique spectacle was afforded of both
Washington and Putnam acting in unison, both in a towering rage, and
both attempting with all their might to turn their cowardly soldiers
face-about to stand against the foe. But all their efforts were in vain,
though Washington, in his endeavors to stem the tide of retreat, came
near being made prisoner, and would have been, probably, if one of the
soldiers had not taken his horse by the bridle and turned him in another
direction.
In the actual retreat to Harlem Heights that then followed, brave Putnam
took the post of danger again, and, while nearly everybody else was
heading northward, he himself went the other way in search of his
detachment, which, fortunately, his aide-de-camp, Major Burr, had taken
the liberty of setting on the move. He and his men were the last to gain
the Heights, barely escaping the British as they tried to hem them in,
and reaching the rendezvous long after dark.
It was a current rumor in camp, later, that his escape was not
altogether due to celerity of movement, nimble as he was, but to the
clever ruse of a fair Quakeress, Mrs. Murray (mother of Lindley Murray,
the renowned grammarian), who, being known to the British officers,
invited them in, as they filed past her door, to refresh themselves with
cake and wine. Being fatigued with their labors, and considering the
Americans as good as captured by their clever flanking movement, they
accepted the invitation gladly and remained enjoying her hospitality
about two hours, or just long enough for Putnam and his men to slip out
of the trap and scamper along the North River roads to the rendezvous.
Their joy at their escape when (as Major Humphreys, who was with them,
said) they had been given up for lost by their friends, was tempered
next day by the death of Colonel Knowlton, who had been sent out with
his rangers to reconnoiter the enemy. In the ensuing engagement, known
as the Battle of Harlem Heights, the gallant Knowlton was killed,
besides about one hundred and seventy of his men. Knowlton, who had
taken a prominent part in the battle of Bunker Hill, was an old friend
and comrade of Putnam in the Indian wars, as well as at Havana, and the
latter felt his loss most keenly.
There was no time for vain regrets, since the enemy were pushing after
the Americans, giving them no pause for a while. When at last there was
a cessation in their endeavors at direct assault, Washington was more
uneasy than before, and did not rest until he had discovered what it
meant. In short, General Howe was about trying the second in his
remarkable series of flanking movements, by which he hoped to get in
the rear of the Americans, and, with his overwhelming force, "bottle
them up" and compel a general engagement. But, with a force far inferior
to the British, Washington not only succeeded in avoiding a pitched
battle (for which he was wholly unprepared), but finally extricated his
army from the net which his enemy had spread on two sides and was now
attempting to sweep around to cut off his retreat.
Sending several war-vessels up the North River, or Hudson (which had no
trouble in breaking through the barrier stretched across it), General
Howe embarked the main body of his troops in flatboats for Westchester,
landing at a point about nine miles above the Heights of Harlem. The
enemy's object was then apparent, and Washington set about defeating it
by one of the most complicated and ingenious military movements on
record.
Leaving General Greene in command of Fort Washington, on the Hudson, not
far from Kingsbridge and the Heights, Washington hastened northward
toward White Plains, seizing upon every naturally strong position by the
way, and establishing a chain of entrenchments on the hill-crests that
commanded all the roads leading from the North River to the Sound. The
last week in October the opposing forces came in collision at Chatterton
Hill, where was fought the so-called Battle of White Plains, at which,
wrote Rufus Putnam, who had planned the defensive works, "the wall and
stone fence behind which our troops were posted proved as fatal to the
British as the rail-fence with grass hung on it did at Charlestown, June
17, 1775."
General Putnam was ordered to reenforce General McDougall, who was in
command at the hill; but before he arrived the British had flanked the
Americans and driven them from their position. Putnam's men covered
their retreat by firing at the British and Hessians from behind fences
and trees, Indian and Ranger fashion, and that night Washington
practically began his famous retrograde movement to Fort Washington and
Manhattan Island. "By folding one brigade behind another," in rear of
those ridges he had fortified, he "brought off all his artillery,
stores, and sick, in the face of a superior foe." He took position,
first, at North Castle Heights, which he deemed impregnable; but after a
few days the British left for the Hudson, with the purpose (as was
afterward ascertained, and at the time divined by Washington) of
attacking forts Washington and Lee and invading New Jersey. In
anticipation of this move Putnam was detached with about four thousand
men and ordered into New Jersey. Crossing the Hudson, he penetrated
inland as far as Hackensack, near which place he encamped and awaited
developments.
General Lee was left at North Castle Heights with seven thousand men to
watch the movements of the foe, while Washington followed after Putnam
to Hackensack. He was shortly recalled to the Hudson by a despatch
informing him that the British were before Fort Washington in
overwhelming force, and had demanded a surrender. Brave Colonel Magaw,
in command of the garrison, refused a reply until he had consulted his
superior officers, and as General Greene, in charge of both forts, was
of the opinion that they could be held, the result was the storming of
the fort and the loss of more than two thousand men.
The assault of the British, who had threatened to put the garrison to
the sword, was witnessed by Washington, Greene, and Putnam from the west
bank of the Hudson. Their distress may be imagined at beholding the
slaughter that ensued, and there must have been some searching
self-questioning by the Commander-in-Chief as to the wisdom of his
policy, by which his divided forces became such an easy prey to the foe.
Lee could hardly be induced to leave his secure retreat, from which he
departed only after repeated requests from Washington, whose great
reliance at this time was sturdy Israel Putnam. He assisted at the
evacuation of Fort Lee (now rendered useless by the loss of its sister
fort across the river), and piloted the commander and his friends to his
camp at Hackensack.
British troops under Lord Cornwallis had landed above Fort Lee at the
base of the Palisades, and were now coming down to attempt to cut off
the Americans before they could extricate themselves from the marshes
lying between the Hudson and the Hackensack rivers. The latter left so
precipitately that their fires were burning, with camp kettles over
them, and tents still standing, when the British reached Fort Lee.
Parallel with the Hackensack River runs the Passaic, and across country
between the two Washington was compelled to hasten, lest he be hemmed in
again by the pursuing enemy. It was now late in November, the weather
was cold, and gloomy were these "dark days of the Revolution," when the
militia left the army by hundreds, their terms of enlistment having
expired, and no others took their places. While the little army of less
than four thousand men was constantly depleted, it seemed as if its foes
increased, in that country of loyalists and British sympathizers. It was
with only the "skeleton of an army" that Washington, on the eighth of
December, crossed the Delaware at Trenton, less than three thousand
troops remaining by him then. Cornwallis and his soldiers were not far
behind, during a portion of that gloomy retreat, a few days measuring
the distance between the rival armies; but they did not catch up with
the Americans that time.
The very day after his arrival at Trenton Washington ordered Putnam to
Philadelphia, where he was placed in absolute command, and where he
displayed the same energy and integrity of purpose that had always
animated him hitherto. He had been a sustaining force to the
Commander-in-Chief on that march across New Jersey, and of the few
generals who had stood by him, no one had endured with less complaint or
performed with more alacrity than Old Put. He was one upon whom to rely
in the proposed scheme of fortifying the city, and his long experience
at entrenching made him peculiarly fit for the work.
His sturdy nature, good sense, and ready wit made him at once a favorite
with the Continental Congress and the Committee of Safety; though the
former, acting on his advice, soon left the city for the greater
security of Baltimore. Putnam soon placed the city under martial law,
drafted all the citizens, except the Quakers, into the military service,
and put the place in the best posture for defense of which it was
capable. "There were foes within the city as well as foes without," for
the Tory element was strong in Philadelphia, and it was because of it
that Putnam was unable to cooperate with Washington when he dealt the
enemy the first of those telling blows at Trenton and Princeton. He
dared not withdraw his men from the city, even for a short absence, in
order to create a diversion while his Commander-in-Chief made the direct
attack. Had he done so, and also the other generals to whom were
entrusted the details of this affair, the Hessians might have been
entirely cut off in their retreat from Trenton and practically
destroyed. As it was, Putnam held to his command in Philadelphia, and
soon had the pleasure of entertaining some of the Hessian captives, for
whom he was obliged to provide quarters while passing through the city.
It must have fretted him vastly to be kept in Philadelphia while
Washington was pursuing the very tactics he himself would have used
against the enemy. After his first success Washington ordered Putnam out
to Crosswicks, a small place southeast of Trenton, "a very advantageous
post" for him to hold while his superior was planning his descent upon
Princeton. On the 5th of January, after Washington had launched his
thunderbolt at Princeton (of his intention to do which Putnam had been
informed by a letter from his adjutant, written at midnight preceding
that eventful third of January, 1777), he wrote at length to his trusty
friend and General: "It is thought advisable for you to march the troops
under your command to Crosswicks, and keep a strict watch upon the enemy
in that quarter. If the enemy continue at Brunswick you must act with
great circumspection, lest you meet with a surprise. As we have made two
successful attacks upon the enemy by the way of surprise, they will be
pointed with resentment, and if there is any possibility of retaliating
they will attempt it. _You will give out your strength to be twice as
great as it is._ Forward on all the baggage and scattered troops
belonging to this division of the army as soon as may be."
In accordance with Washington's suggestion as to the augmenting of the
number of his men, Putnam availed himself of the request of a wounded
British officer, who was his prisoner, that a friend in Cornwallis's
army might be sent for to make his will, to practise a ruse. It was in
Princeton, whither he had been ordered from Crosswicks. As he had but a
few hundred men, in order to prevent his weakness from being known to
the military visitor he was brought in after dark, all the windows in
the college buildings and private houses were lighted up, "and the
handful of troops paraded about to such effect during the night that the
visitor, on his return to the British camp, reported the force under the
old general to be at least five thousand strong!" In this manner the
shrewd but kind-hearted Putnam complied with his prisoner's request, and
at the same time turned it to his own and his soldiers' advantage.
Having failed in his attempt to "bag that old fox" (Washington), Lord
Cornwallis had scurried back to protect his baggage and communications
at New Brunswick, while Washington ensconced himself in the rugged
country about Morristown, and Putnam was left to protect the lowlands
and harass the enemy. So effectually did he perform the latter that his
aggregate of prisoners taken during the winter exceeded the number
captured by Washington at Trenton, and his captures of wagons laden
with provisions for the enemy were highly important.