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WASHINGTON AND HISARMSCOMRADES IN

ABRAHAM LINCOLN EDITIONVOLUME 12THE CHRONICLESOF AMERICA SERIESALLEN JOHNSONEDITORGERHARD R. LOMERCHARLES W. JEFFERYSASSISTANT EDITORS

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GEORGE WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGEPainting by Charles Willson Peale. In the PennsylvaniaAcademy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.

.BAHINGTON AND HISCOMRADES IN ARMSA CHRONICLE OF THEWAR OF INDEPENDENCEBY GEORGE M. WRONGNEW HAVEN: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESSTORONTO: GLASGOW, BROOK & CO.LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORDOXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS1921

*!?'Copyright, 1921, by Yale University Press

\PREFATORY NOTETHE author is aware of a certain audacity in undertaking,himself a Briton, to appear in a company ofAmerican writers on American history and aboveall to write on the subject of Washington.If excuseis needed it is to be found in the special interestof the career of Washingtonto a citizen ofthe British Commonwealth of Nations at the presenttime and in the urgency with which the editorand publishers declared that such an interpretationwould not be unwelcome to Americans and pressedupon the author a task for which he doubted hisTo the editor he owes thanksown qualifications.for wise criticism. He is also indebted to Mr.Worthington Chauncey Ford, ofthe MassachusettsHistorical Society, a great authority onW T ashington, who has kindly read the proofs andgiven helpful comments.Needless to say the authoralone is responsible for opinions in the book.UNIVERSITY OP TORONTO,June 15, 1920.vii

CONTENTSI. THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF Page 1II.BOSTON AND QUEBECIII. INDEPENDENCE"IV. THE LOSS OF NEW YORK"V. THE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIA""275481108VI. THE FIRST GREAT BRITISH DIS-ASTER"VII. WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESAT VALLEY FORGE"VIII.THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE ANDITS RESULTS"IX. THE WAR IN THE SOUTH"X. FRANCE TO THE RESCUE"XI. YORKTOWN"BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE"INDEX"123148182211230247277283

ILLUSTRATIONSGEORGE WASHINGTON AT VALLEYFORGEPainting by Charles Willson Peale. In thePennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,Philadelphia.BARON VONSTEUBENRICHARD MONTGOMERYFrontispiecePaintings by C. W. Peale. In IndependenceHall, Philadelphia. Facing page ^sHORATIO GATESEngraving by H. B. Hall, in facsimile of apencil drawing by John Trumbull. In theEmmet Collection, Print Department of theNew York Public Library.BENEDICT ARNOLDEngraving by B. I. Prevost, after a drawingfrom life made by Du Simitier in Philadelphia.In the Emmet Collection, PrintDepartment of the New York Public Library.NATHANAEL GREENEPainting by C. W. Peale.Hall, Philadelphia.MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTEPainting by C. W. Peale.Hall, Philadelphia.In IndependenceIn Independence" "" "" "112128176

xiiILLUSTRATIONSTHE REVOLUTIONARY WAR: NORTHERNCAMPAIGNSMap by W. L. G. Joerg, American GeographicalSociety. Facing page 180JOHN PAUL JONESMarble bust by Jean Antoine Houdon. Inthe Pennsylvania Academy of the FineArts, Philadelphia.CHARLES, EARL CORNWALLISPainting by Thomas Gainsborough. Inthe National Portrait Gallery, London,England.ALEXANDER HAMILTONPainting by Charles Willson Peale. In thecollection of the New York HistoricalSociety.THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR: SOUTHERNCAMPAIGNSMap by W. L. G. Joerg, American GeographicalSociety." "" "" "208224W250

WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESIN ARMSCHAPTER ITHE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEFMOVING among the members of the second ContinentalCongress, which met at Philadelphia inMay, 1775, was one, and but one, military figure.George Washington alone attended the sittings inuniform. This colonel from Virginia, now in hisforty-fourth year, was a great landholder, an ownerof slaves,an Anglican churchman, an aristocrat,everything that stands in contrast with the type ofa revolutionary radical. Yet from the first he hadbeen an outspoken and uncompromising championof the colonial cause. When the tax was imposedon tea he had abolished the use of tea in his ownhousehold and when war was imminent he hadtalked of recruiting a thousand men at his owni

2 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESexpense and marching to Boston. His steadywearing of the uniform seemed, indeed, to showthat he regarded the issue as hardly less militarythan political.The clash at Lexington, on the 19th of April,had made vivid the reality of war.high.Passions ranFor years there had been tension, long disputesabout buying British stamps to put on Americanlegal papers, about duties on glass and paintand paper and, above all, tea. Boston had shownturbulent defiance, and to hold Boston downBritish soldiers had been quartered on the inhabitantsin the proportion of one soldier for five of theAnd nowpopulace, a great and annoying burden.British soldiers had killed Americans who stoodbarring their way on Lexington Green.Benjamin Franklin spokeEven calmlater of the hands ofBritish ministers as "red, wet, and dropping withblood."Americans never forgot the fresh gravesmade on that day. There were, it is true, moreBritish than American graves, but the British wereregarded as the aggressors.If the rest of the colonieswere to join in the struggle, they must havea common leader. Who should he be?In June, while the Continental Congress facedthis question at Philadelphia,events at Boston

THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 3made the need of a leader more urgent.Bostonwas besieged by American volunteers under thecommand of General Artemas Ward. The siegehad lasted for two months, each side watching theother at long range.General Gage,the BritishCommander, had the sea open to him and a finelytempered army upon which he could rely. Theopposite was true of his opponents.motley host rather than an army.guns and almost no powder.They were aThey had fewIdle waiting since thefight at Lexington made untrained troops restlessand anxious to go home. Nothing holds an armytogether like real war, and shrewd officers knewthat they must give the men some hard task tokeep up their fighting spirit.It was rumored thatGage was preparing an aggressive movement fromBoston, which might mean pillage and massacrein the surrounding country, and it was decidedto draw in closer to Boston to give Gage a diversionand prove the mettle of the patriot army.So, on the evening of June 16, 1775, there wasa stir of preparation in the American camp atCambridge, and late at night the men fell in nearHarvard College.Across the Charles River north from Boston, ona peninsula, lay the village of Charlestown, and

4 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESrising behind it was Breed's Hill, about seventyfourfeet high, extending northeastward to thehigher elevation of Bunker Hill. The peninsulacould be reached from Cambridge only by a narrowneck of land easily swept by British floating batterieslying off the shore.In the dark the Americanforce of twelve hundred men under Colonel Prescottmarched to thisneck of land and then advancedhalf a mile southward to Breed's Hill.Prescott was an old campaigner of the Seven Years'War; he had six cannon, and his troops were commandedby experienced officers. Israel Putnam wasskillful in irregular frontier fighting, and NathanaelGreene, destined to prove himself the best man inthe American army next to Washington himself,could furnish sage military counsel derived frommuch thought and reading.Thus ithappened that on the morningof the17th of June General Gage in Boston awoke to asurprise. He had refused to believe that he wasshut upin Boston.It suited his convenience tostay there until a plan of campaign should beevolved by his superiors in London, but he was certainthat when he liked he could, with his disciplinedbattalions, brush away the besieging army.Now he saw the American force on Breed's Hill

THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 5throwing up a defiant and menacing redoubt andentrenchments. Gage did not hesitate. The boldaggressors must be driven away at once. He detailedfor the enterprise William Howe, the officerdestined soon to be his successor in the commandat Boston. Howe was a brave and experiencedsoldier. He had been a friend of Wolfe and had ledthe party of twenty-four men who had first climbedthe cliff at Quebec on the great day when Wolfefell victorious. He was the younger brother of thatbeloved Lord Howe who had fallen at Ticonderogaand to whose memory Massachusetts had reared amonument in Westminster Abbey. Gage gave himin all some twenty-five hundred men, and, at abouttwo in the afternoon, this force was landed atCharlestown.The little town was soon aflame and the smokehelped to conceal Howe's movements. The daywas boiling hot and the soldiers carried heavypacks with food for three days, for they intendedto camp on Bunker Hill.Straight up Breed's Hillthey marched wading through long grasssometimesto their knees and throwing down the fenceson the hillside.The British knew that raw troopswere likely to scatter their fire on a foe still out ofrange and they counted on a rapid bayonet charge

6 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESagainst men helpless with empty rifles.This expectationwas disappointed.The Americans hadin front of them a barricade and Israel Putnam wasthere, threatening dire things to any one who shouldfire before he could see the whites of the eyes ofthe advancing soldiery.As the British came onthere was a terrific discharge of musketry at twentyyards, repeated again and again as they eitherhalted or drew back.The slaughter was terrible. British officershardened in war declared long afterward that theyhad never seen carnage like that of this fight. TheAmerican riflemen had been told to aim especiallyat the British officers, easily known by their uniforms,and one rifleman is said to have shot twentyofficers before he was himself killed . Lord Ra wdon,who played a considerable part in the war and waslater, as Marquis of Hastings, Viceroy of India, usedto tell of his terror as he fought in the British line.Suddenly a soldier was shot dead by his side, and,when he saw the man quiet at his feet, he said, "IsDeath nothing but this?" and henceforth had nofear. When the first attack by the British waschecked they retired; but, with dogged resolve,they re-formed and again charged up the hill, onlya second time to be repulsed. The third time they

THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 7were more cautious. They began to work roundto the weaker defenses of the American left, wherethere were no redoubts and entrenchments likethose on the right. By this time British ships werethrowing shells among the Americans. Charlestownwas burning. The great column of blacksmoke, the incessant roar of cannon, and the dreadfulscenes of carnage had affected the defenders.They wavered; and on the third British charge,having exhausted their ammunition, they fled fromthe hillin confusion back to the narrow neck ofland half a mile away, swept now by a British floatingbattery. General Burgoyne wrote that, in thethird attack, the discipline and courage of theBritish privatesoldiers also broke down and thatwhen the redoubt was carried the officers of somecorps were almost alone. The British stood victoriousat Bunker Hill. It was, however, a costlyMore than a thousand men, nearly halfvictory.of the attacking force, had fallen, with an undueproportion of officers.Philadelphia, far away, did not know what washappening when, two days before the battle ofBunker Hill, the Continental Congress settled thequestion of a leader for a national army. On the

8 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES15th of June John Adams of Massachusetts roseand moved that the Congress should adopt as itsown the army before Boston and that it shouldname Washington as Commander-in-Chief . Adamshad deeply pondered the problem. He was certainthat New England would remain united and decidedin the struggle, but he was not so sure of theother colonies.To have a leader from beyond NewEngland would make for continental unity.Virginia,next to Massachusetts, had stood in the forefrontof the movement, and Virginia was fortunatein having in the Congress one whose fame as a soldierran through all the colonies.There was somethingto be said for choosing a commander from thecolony which began the struggle and Adams knewthat his colleague from Massachusetts, John Hancock,a man of wealth and importance, desired thepost. He was conspicuous enough to be Presidentof the Congress. Adams says that when he madehis motion, naming a Virginian, he saw in Hancock'sface "mortification and resentment." Hesaw, too, that Washington hurriedly left the roomwhen his name was mentioned.There could be no doubt as to what the Congresswould do.fittest man for the post.Unquestionably Washington was theTwenty yearsearlier he

THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 9had seen important service in the war with France.His position and character commanded universalrespect.The Congress adopted unanimously themotion of Adams and it only remained to be seenwhether Washington would accept.On the nextday he came to the sitting with his mind made up.The members, he said, would bear witness to hisdeclaration that he thought himself unfit for thetask. Since, however, they called him, he wouldtry to do his duty. He would take the commandbut he would accept no pay beyond his expenses.Thus it was that Washington became a great na-The man who had long worn thetional figure.King's uniform was now his deadliest enemy; andit isprobably true that after this step nothingcould have restored the old relations and reunitedthe British Empire.be made whole.The broken vessel could notWashington spent only a few days in gettingready to take over his new command. On the 21stof June, four days after Bunker Hill, he set out fromPhiladelphia. The colonies were in truth veryremote from each other. The journey to Bostonwas tedious.In the previous year John Adams hadtraveled in the other direction to the Congress atPhiladelphia and, in his journal, he notes, as if he

10 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESwere traveling in foreign lands, the strange mannersand customs of the other colonies.The journey,so momentous to Adams, was not new toWashington. Some twenty years earlier the youngVirginian officer had traveled as far as Boston inthe service of King George II. Now he was leaderin the war against King George III.In New Jersey,New York, and Connecticut he was receivedimpressively.In the warm summer weather theroads were good enough but manyof the riverswere not bridged and could be crossed only byferries or at fords. It took nearly a fortnight toreach Boston.Washington had ridden only twentymiles on hislong journey when the news reached him of thefight at Bunker Hill. The question which he askedanxiously shows what was in his mind: "Did themilitia fight?" When the answer was "Yes," hesaid with relief, "The liberties of the country aresafe." He reached Cambridge on the 2d of Julyand on the following day was the chief figure in astriking ceremony. In the presence of a vast crowdand of the motley army of volunteers, which wasnow to be called the American army, Washingtonassumed the command. He sat on horsebackunder an elm tree and an observer noted that his

THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 11appearance was "truly noble and majestic."Thiswas milder praise than that given a little later bya London paper which said: "There is not a kingin Europe but would look like a valet de chambreby his side." New England having seen him washenceforth wholly on his side. His traditions werenot those of the Puritans, of the Ephraims and theAbijahs of the volunteer army, men whose OldTestament names tell something of the rigor of thePuritan view of life.free and often careless hospitalityWashington, a sharer in theof his nativeVirginia, had a different outlook. In his personaldiscipline, however, he was not less Puritan thanthe strictest of New Englanders. The comingyears were to show that a great leader had takenhis fitting place.Washington, born in 1732, had been trainedin self-reliance, for he had been fatherless fromchildhood. At the age of sixteen he was workingat the profession, largely self-taught, of a surveyorof land. At the age of twenty-seven he marriedMartha Custis, a rich widow with children, thoughher marriage with Washington was childless. Hisestate on the Potomac River, three hundred milesfrom the open sea, recently named Mount Vernon,

12 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADEShad been in the family for nearly a hundred years.There were twenty-five hundred acres at MountVernon with ten miles of frontage on the tidal river.The Virginia planters were a landowning gentry;when Washington died he had more than sixtythousand acres. The growing of tobacco, the onevital industry of the Virginia of the time, with itshalf million people, was connected with the ownershipof land. On their great estates the planterslived remote, with a mail perhaps every fortnight.There were no large towns, no great factories.Nearly half of the population consisted of negroslaves.It is one of the ironies of history that thechief leader in a war marked by a passion for libertywas a member of a society in which, as another ofits members, Jefferson, the author of the Declarationof Independence, said, there was on the onehand the most insulting despotism and on the otherthe most degrading submission.The Virginianlandowners were more absolute masters than theproudest lords of medieval England. These feudallords had serfs on their land. The serfs were attachedto the soil and were sold to a new masterwith the soil.They were not, however, property,without human rights. On the other hand, theslaves of the Virginian master were property like

THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEFIShis horses. They could not even call wife andchildren their own, for these might be sold at will.It arouses a strange emotion now when we findWashington offering to exchange a negro for hogsheadsof molasses and rum and writing that theman would bring a good price, "if kept clean andtrim'd up a little when offered for sale."In early life Washington had had very little offormal education. He knew no language but English.When he became world famous and his friendLa Fayette urged him to visit France he refusedbecause he would seem uncouth if unable to speakthe French tongue. Like another great soldier, theDuke of Wellington, he was always careful abouthis dress.There was in him a silent pride whichwould brook nothing derogatory to his dignity.No one could be more methodical. He kept hisaccounts rigorously, entering even the cost of repairinga hairpin for a ward. He was a keen farmer,and it is amusing to find him recording in his carefuljournal that there are 844,800 seeds of "NewRiver Grass" to the pound Troy and so determininghow many should be sown to the acre. Notmany youths would write out as did Washington,apparently from French sources, and read andreread elaborate "Rules of Civility and Decent

14 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESBehaviour in Company and Conversation."In thefashion of the age of Chesterfield they portray theperfect gentleman. He is always to remember thepresence of others and not to move, read, or speakwithout considering what may be due to them. Inthe true spirit of the time he is to learn to defer topersons of superior quality.Tactless laughter athis own wit, jests that have a sting of idle gossip,are to be avoided. Reproof is to be given not inanger but in a sweet and mild temper.The rulesdescend even to manners at table and are a revelationof care in self-discipline. We might imagineOliver Cromwell drawing up such rules, but notNapoleon or Wellington.The class to which Washington belonged pridedWe pictureitself on good birth and good breeding.him as austere, but, like Oliver Cromwell, whomin some respects he resembles, he was very humanin his personal relations.He liked a glass of wine.He was fond of dancing and he went to the theater,even on Sunday. He was, too, something of alady's man; "He can be downright impudent sometimes,"wrote a Southern lady, "such impudence,Fanny, as you and I like." In old age he loved tohave the young and gay about him. He couldbreak into furious oaths and no one was a better

THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 15master of what we may call honorable guile indealing with wily savages, in circulating falsehoodsthat would deceive the enemy in time of war, or inpursuing a business advantage. He played cardsfor money and carefully entered loss and gain inhis accounts. He loved horseracing and horses,and nothing pleased him more than to talk of thatnoble animal . He kept hounds and until his burdenof cares became too great was an eager devotee ofhunting.His shooting was of a type more heroicthan that of an English squire spending a day on amoor with guests and gamekeepers and returningto comfort in the evening.Washington went offon expeditions into the forest lasting many daysand shared the life in the woods of rough men,sleeping often in the "open air. Happy," he wrote,"is he who gets the berth nearest the fire."Hecould spend a happy day in admiring the trees andthe richness of the land on a neighbor's estate.Always his thoughts were turning to the soil.There was poetry in him. It was said of Napoleonthat the one approach to poetry in all his writingsis the phrase: "The springis at last appearing andthe leaves are beginning to sprout."Washington,on the other hand, brooded over the mysteries oflife. He pictured to himself the serenity of a calm

16 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESold age and always dared to look death squarely inthe face.He was sensitive to human passion andhe felt the wonder of nature in allher ways, herbounteous response in growth to the skill of man,the delight of improving the earth in contrast withthe vain glory gained by ravaging it in war.Hismost striking characteristics were energy and decisionunited often with strong likes and dislikes.His clever secretary, Alexander Hamilton, found,as he said, that his chief was not remarkable forgood temper and resigned his post because of animpatient rebuke.When a young man servingin the army of Virginia, Washington had many atussle with the obstinate Scottish Governor, Dinwiddie,and ungrateful.who thought his vehemence unmannerlyGilbert Stuart, who painted severalof his portraits, said that his features showedstrong passions and that, had he not learned selfrestraint,his temper would have been savage.This discipline he acquired. The task was not easy,but in time he was able to say with truth, "I haveno resentments," and his self-control became soperfect as to be almost uncanny.The assumption that Washington fought againstan England grown decadent is not justified. Toadmit this would be to make his task seem lighter

THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 17than it really was. No doubt manyof the rich aristocracyspent idledays of pleasure-seeking withthe comfortable conviction that they could dischargetheir duties to society by merely existing,since their luxury made work and the more theyindulged themselves the more happy and profitableemployment would their many dependents enjoy.The eighteenth century was, however, a wonderfulepoch in England. Agriculture became a new thingunder the leadership of great landowners like LordTownshend and Coke of Norfolk.abroad inabuses.Already wassociety a divine discontent at existingIt brought Warren Hastings to trial onthe charge of plundering India.It attacked slavery,the cruelty of the criminal law, which sentchildren to execution for the theft of a few pennies,the brutality of the prisons, the torpid indifferenceof the church to the needs of the masses. Newinventions were beginning the age of machinery.The reform of Parliament, votes for the toilingmasses, and a thousand other improvements werebeing urged.It was a vigorous, rich, and arrogantEngland which Washington confronted.It is sometimes said of Washington that he wasan English country gentleman. A gentleman hewas, but with an experience and training quite

18 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESunlike that of a gentleman in England.The youngheir to an English estate might or might not go toa university. He could, like the young CharlesJames Fox, become a scholar, but like Fox, whoknew some of the virtues and all the supposedgentlemanly vices, he might dissipate his energiesin hunting, gambling, and cockfighting. He wouldalmost certainly make the grand tour of Europe,and, if he had little Latin and less Greek, he waspretty certain to have some familiarity with Parisand a smattering of French. The eighteenth centurywas a period of magnificent living in England.The great landowner, then, as now, the magnateof his neighborhood, was likely to rear, if he didnot inherit, one of those vast palaces which are todayburdens so costly to the heirs of their builders.At the beginning of the century the nation to honorMarlborough for his victories could think of nothingbetter than to give him half a million poundsto build a palace. Even with the colossal wealthproduced by modern industry we should be staggeredat a residence costing millions of dollars.Yet the Duke of Devonshire rivaled at Chatsworth,and Lord Leicester at Holkham, Marlborough'sbuilding at Blenheim, and many othercostly palaces were erected during the following

THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 19half century. Their owners sometimes built inorder to surpass a neighbor in grandeur, and to thisday great estates are encumbered by the debts thusincurred in vain show. The heir to such a propertywas reared in a pomp and luxury undreamed of bythe frugal young planter of Virginia. Of workingfor a livelihood, in the sense in which Washingtonknew it, the young Englishman of great estatewould never dream.The Atlantic is a broad sea and even in our ownday, when instant messages flash across it and manhimself can fly from shore to shore in less than ascore of hours, it is not easy for those on one strandto understand the thoughtof those on the other.Every community evolves its own spirit not easilyto be apprehended by the onlooker. The state ofsociety in America was vitally different from thatin England. The plain living of Virginia was insharp contrast with the magnificence and ease ofEngland. It is true that we hear of plate and elaboratefurniture, of servants in livery, and muchdrinking of Port and Madeira, among the Virginians.They had good horses. Driving, as oftenthey did, with six in a carriage, they seemed tokeep up regal style. Spaces were wide in a countrywhere one great landowner, Lord Fairfax, held

20 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESno less than five million acres.Houses lay isolatedand remote and a gentleman dining out wouldsometimes drive his elaborate equipage fromtwenty to fiftymiles. There was a tradition oflavish hospitality, of gallant men and fair women,and sometimes of hard and riotous living. Manyof the houses were, however, in a state of decay,with leaking roofs, battered doors and windowsand shabby furniture. To own land in Virginiadid not mean to live in luxurious ease. Landbrought in truth no very large income.It waseasier to break new land than to fertilize that longin use. An acre yielded only eight or ten bushelsof wheat.In England the land was more fruitful.One who was only a tenant on the estate of Coke ofNorfolk died worth 150,000, and Coke himselfhad the income of a prince. When Washingtondied he was reputed one of the richest men inAmerica and yet his estate was hardly equal tothat of Coke's tenant.Washington was a good farmer, inventive andenterprising, but he had difficulties which ruinedmany of his neighbors. Today much of his infertileestate of Mount Vernon would hardly growenough to pay the taxes. When Washingtondesired a gardener, or a bricklayer, or a carpenter,

THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 21he usually had to buy him in the form of a convict,or of a negro slave, or of a white man indenturedfor a term of years.Such labor required eternalvigilance. The negro, himself property, had nofor it in others. He stole when he couldrespectand worked only when the eyes of a master wereupon him. If left in charge of plants or of stockhe was likely to let them perish for lack of water.Washington's losses of cattle, horses, and sheepfrom this cause were enormous. The neglectedcattle gave so little milk that at one time Washington,with a hundred cows, had to buy his butter.Negroes feignedsickness for weeks at a time. Avisitor noted that Washington spoke to his slaveswith a stern harshness. No doubt it was necessary.The management of this intractable materialbrought training in command. If Washingtoncould make negroes efficient and farming pay inVirginia,he need hardly be afraid to meet anyother type of difficulty.From the first he was satisfied that the colonieshad before them a difficult struggle.Many stillrefused to believe that there was really a state ofwar. Lexington and Bunker Hill might be regardedas unfortunate accidents to be explainedaway in an era of good feeling when each side

22 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESshould acknowledge the merits of the other andapologize for its own faults. Washington had fewillusions of this kind. He took the issue in a seriousand even bitter spirit. He knew nothing of theEnglishman at home for he had never set foot outsideof the colonies except to visit Barbados withan invalid half-brother. Even then he noted thatthe "gentleman inhabitants" whose "hospitalityand genteel behaviour" he admired were discontentedwith the tone of the officials sent outfrom England. From early life Washington hadseen much of British officers in America. Some ofthem had been men of high birth and station whotreated the young colonial officer with due courtesy.When, however, he had served on the staff of theunfortunate General Braddock in the calamitouscampaign of 1755, he had been offended by thetone of that leader. Probably it was in these daysthat Washington first brooded over the contrastsbetween the Englishman and the Virginian. Withobstinate complacency Braddock had disregardedWashington's counsels of prudence. He showedarrogant confidence in his veteran troops and contemptfor the amateur soldiers of whom Washingtonwas one. In a wild country where rapid movementwas the condition of success Braddock would

THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 23halt, as Washington said, "to level every mole hilland to erect bridges over every brook."His transportwas poor and Washington, a lover of horses,chafed at what he calledthe horses by the British soldier."vile management" ofWhen anythingwent wrong Braddock blamed, not the ineffectivework of his own men, but the supineness of Virginia."He looks upon the country, Washington"wrote in wrath, "I believe, as void of honour andhonesty." The hour of trial came in the fight ofJuly, 1755, when Braddock was defeated and killedon the march to the Ohio. Washington told hismother that in the fight the Virginian troops stoodtheir ground and were nearlyall killed but theboasted regulars "were struck with such a panicthat they behaved with more cowardice than it ispossibleto conceive." Inthe anger and resentmentof this comment is found the spirit whichmade Washington a champion of the colonial causefrom the first hour of disagreement.That was a fatal day in March, 1765, when theBritish Parliament voted that it was just andnecessarythat a revenue be raised in America.Washington was uncompromising. After the taxon tea he derided "our lordly masters in GreatBritain."No man, he said, should scruple for a

24 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESmoment to take up arms against the threatenedtyranny. He and his neighbors of Fairfax County,Virginia, took the trouble to tell the world by formalresolution on July 18, 1774, that they weredescended not from a conquered but from a conqueringpeople, that they claimed full equalitywith the people of Great Britain, and like themwould make their own laws and impose their owntaxes.They were not democrats; they had notheories of equality; but as "gentlemen and men offortune " they would show to others the right pathin the crisis which had arisen.In this resolutionspoke the proud spirit of Washington; and, as hebrooded over what was happening, anger fortifiedhis pride.Of the Tories in Boston, some of themhighly educated men, who with sorrow were walkingin what was to them the hard path of duty,Washington could say later that "there never existeda more miserable set of beings than thesewretched creatures."The age of Washington was one of bitter vehemencein political thought. In England the goodWhig was taught that to deny Whig doctrine wasblasphemy, that there was no truth or honesty onthe other side, and that no one should trust a Tory;and usually the good Whig was true to the teaching

he had received.THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 25been no national politics.In America there had hithertoIssues had been localand passions thus confined exploded allfiercely.the moreFranklin spoke of George III as drinkinglong draughts of American blood and of the Britishpeople as so depraved and barbarous as to be thewickedest nation upon earth, inspired by bloodyand insatiable malice and wickedness. To WashingtonGeorge III was a tyrant, his ministers werescoundrels, and the British people were lost toevery sense of virtue. The evil of it is that, for aposterity which listened to no other comment onthe issues of the Revolution, such utterances, insteadof being understood as passing expressions ofparty bitterness, were taken as the calm judgmentsof men held in reverence and awe.Posterity hasagreed that there is nothing to be said for the coercingof the colonies so resolutely pressed by GeorgeIII and his ministers.Posterity can also, however,understand that the struggle was not between undilutedvirtue on the one side and undiluted viceon the other. Some eighty years after the AmericanRevolution the Republic created by the Revolutionendured the horrors of civil war ratherthan accept its own disruption.In 1776 even themost liberal Englishmen felt a similar passion for

26 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESthe continued unity of the British Empire.Timehas reconciled allschools of thought to the unitylost in the case of the Empire and to the unitypreserved in the case of the Republic, but on thelosing side in each case good men fought withdeep conviction.

CHAPTER IIBOSTON AND QUEBECWASHINGTON was not a professional soldier, thoughhe had seen the realities of war and had moved inmilitary society. Perhaps it was an advantagethat he had not received the rigid training of aregular, for he faced conditions which required anelastic mind. The force besieging Boston consistedat first chiefly of New England militia, with companiesof minute-men, so called because of theirsupposed readiness to fight at a minute's notice.had been told that he should findWashington20,000 men under his command; he found, in fact,a nominal army of 17,000, with probably not morethan 14,000 effective,and the number tended todecline as the men went away to their homes afterthe first vivid interest gave way to the humdrum ofmilitary life.The extensive camp before Boston, as Washingtonnow saw it, expressed27the varied character

28 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESof his strange command. Cambridge, the seat ofHarvard College, was still only a village with a fewlarge houses and park-like grounds set among fieldsof grain, now trodden down by the soldiers.Herewas placed in haphazard style the motley housingof a military camp. The occupants had followedtheir own taste in building. One could see structurescovered with turf, looking like lumps ofmother earth, tents made of sail cloth, huts ofbare boards, huts of brick and stone, some havingdoors and windows of wattled basketwork. Therewere not enough huts to house the army norcamp-kettles for cooking.that many ofBlankets were so fewthe men were without covering atIn the warm summer weather this did notnight.much matter but bleak autumn and harsh winterwould bring bitter privation. The sick in particularsuffered severely, for the hospitals werebadly equipped.A deep conviction inspired manyof the volunteers.They regarded as brutal tyranny the taxon tea, considered in England as a mild expedientfor raising needed revenue for defense in the colonies.The men of Suffolk County, Massachusetts,meeting in September, 1774, had declared in highflownterms that the proposed tax came from a

BOSTON AND QUEBEC 29parricide who held a daggerat their bosoms andthat those who resisted him would earn praises toeternity.From nearly every colony came similarutterances, and flaming resentment at injusticefilled the volunteer army. Many a soldier wouldnot touch a cupruin of his country.of tea because tea had been theSome wore pinned to theirhats or coats the words "Liberty or Death" andtalked of resisting tyranny until "time shall be nomore."so manyIt was a dark day for the motherland whenof her sons believed that she was theenemy of liberty. The iron of this convictionentered into the soul of the American nation; atGettysburg, nearly a century later, Abraham Lincoln,in a noble utterance which touched the heartof humanity, could appeal to the days of the Revolution,when "our fathers broughtforth on thiscontinent a new nation, conceived in liberty."The colonists believed that they were fighting forsomething of import to all mankind, and the nationwhich they created believes it still.An age of war furnishes, however, occasion forthe exercise of baser impulses. The New Eng-An army hadlander was a trader by instinct.come suddenly together and there was goldenpromise of contracts for supplies at fat profits.

30 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESThe leader from Virginia, untutored in such things,was astounded at the greedy scramble.Before theyear 1775 ended Washington wrote to his friendLee that he prayed God he might never again haveto witness such lack of public spirit, such jobbingand self-seeking, such "fertility in all the low arts,"as now he found at Cambridge. He declared thatif he could have foreseen all this nothing wouldhave induced him to take the command.Later,the young La Fayette, who had left behind him inFrance wealth and luxury in order to fight a hardfight in America, was shocked at the slackness andindifference among the supposed patriots for whosecause he was making sacrifices so heavy. In thebackward parts of the colonies the population wasdensely ignorant and had little grasp of the deepermeaning of the patriot cause.The army was, as Washington himself said, "amixed multitude."There was every variety ofdress. Old uniforms, treasured from the days ofthe last French wars, had been dug out. A militarycoat or a cocked hat was the only semblance ofuniform possessed by some of the officers. Rankwas often indicated by ribbons of different colorstied on the arm. Lads from the farms had comein their usual dress;a good many of these were

BOSTON AND QUEBEC 31hunters from the frontier wearing the buckskin ofthe deer they had slain. Sometimes there wasclothing of grimmer material.Later in the waran American officer recorded that his men hadskinned two dead Indians "from their hips down,for bootlegs, one pair for the Major, the other formyself." The volunteers varied greatly in age.There were bearded veterans of sixty and a sprinklingof lads of sixteen. An observer laughed atthe boys and the "great great grandfathers" whomarched side by side in the army before Boston.Occasionally a black face was seen in the ranks.One of Washington's tasks was to reduce the disparityof years and especially to secure men whocould shoot. In the first enthusiasm of 1775 somany men volunteered in Virginiathat a selectionwas made on the basis of accuracy in shooting.The men fired at a range of one hundred and fiftyyards at an outline of a man's nose in chalk on aboard. Each man had a single shot and the firstmen shot the nose entirely away.Undoubtedlythere was the finest materialamong the men lounging about their quarters atCambridge in fashion so unmilitary.In physiquethey were larger than the British soldier, a resultdue to abundant food and free life in the open air

32 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESfrom childhood.Most of the men supplied theirown uniform and rifles and much barter went on inthe hours after drill. The men made and sold shoes,clothes, and even arms. They were accustomedto farm life and good at digging and throwing upentrenchments. The colonial mode of waging warwas, however, not that of Europe. To the regularsoldier of the time even earth entrenchmentsseemed a sign of cowardice.The brave man wouldcome out on the open to face his foe. Earl Percy,who rescued the harassed British on the day ofLexington, had the poorest possible opinion ofthose on what he called the rebel side. To him theywere intriguing rascals, hypocrites, cowards, withsinister designs to ruin the Empire.forced to admit that they foughtdeath willingly.But he waswell and facedIn time Washington gathered about him a finebody of officers, brave, steady, and efficient. Onthe great issuethey, like himself, had unchangingconviction, and they and he saved the revolution.But a good many of his difficulties weredue to bad officers. He had himself the reverencefor gentility, the belief in an ordered grading ofsociety, characteristic of his class in that age. InVirginia the relation of master and servant was

BOSTON AND QUEBEC 38well understood and the tone of authority wasreadily accepted. In New England conceptionsof equality were more advanced. The extent towhich the people would brook the despotism ofmilitary command was uncertain: From the firstsome of the volunteers had elected their officers.The result was that intriguing demagogues weresometimes chosen. The Massachusetts troops,wrote a Connecticut captain, not free, perhaps,from local jealousy, were "commanded by a mostdespicable set of officers."At Bunker Hill officersof this type shirked the fight and their men, leftwithout leaders, joined in the panicky retreat ofthat day. Other officers sent away soldiers to workon their farms while at the same time they drewfor them public pay.At a later time Washingtonwrote to a friend wise counsel about the choice ofofficers."Take none but gentlemen; let no localattachment influence you; do not suffer your goodnature to say Yes when you ought to say No.Remember that it is a public, not a private cause."What he desired was the gentleman's chivalry ofrefinement, sense of honor, dignity of character,and freedom from mere self-seeking. The primequalities of a good officer, as he often said, wereauthority and decision. It is probably true of

34 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESdemocracies that they prefer and willman who will take with them a strong tone.follow theLittlemen, however, cannot see this and think to gainsupport by shifty changes of opinion to please themultitude. What authority and decision couldbe expected from an officer of the peasant type,elected by his own men? How could he dominatemen whose short term of service was expiring andwho had to be coaxed to renew it? Some electedofficers had to promise to pool their pay with thatof their men.In one company an officer fulfilledthe double position of captain and barber. Intime, however, the authority of military rank cameAnto be respected throughout the whole army.amusing contrast with earlier conditions is foundin 1779 when a captain was tried by a brigadecourt-martial and dismissed from the service forintimate association with the wagon-maker ofthe brigade.The first thing to do at Cambridge was to getrid of the inefficient and the corrupt. Washingtonhad never any belief in a militia army. From hisearliest days as a soldier he had favored conscription,even in free Virginia. He had then foundquite ineffective the "whooping, holloing gentlemensoldiers" of the volunteer force of the colony

BOSTON AND QUEBEC 35among whom "every individual has his own crudenotion of things and must undertake to direct. Ifhis advice is neglected he thinks himself slighted,abused, and injured and, to redress his wrongs, willdepart for his home." Washingtonfound at Cambridgetoo many officers. Then as later in theAmerican army there were swarms of colonels.The officers from Massachusetts, conscious thatthey had seen the first fighting in the great cause,expected special consideration from a strangerSoon they had a rudeserving on their own soil.awakening. Washington broke a Massachusettscolonel and two captains because they had provedcowards at Bunker Hill, two more captains forfraud in drawing pay and provisions for men whodid not exist, and still another for absence from hispost when he was needed. He put in jail a colonel,a major, and three or four other officers. "Newlords, new laws," wrote in his diary Mr. Emerson,the chaplain: "the Generals Washington and Leeare upon the lines every day great distinction. . .is made between officers and soldiers."The term of all the volunteers in Washington'sarmy expired by the end of 1775, so that he had tocreate a new army during the siege of Boston. Hespoke scornfully of an enemy so little enterprising

36 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESas to remain supine during the process.But probablythe British were wise to avoid a ventureinland and to remain in touch with their fleet.Washington made them uneasy when he droveaway the cattle from the neighborhood. Soon beefwas selling in Boston for as much as eighteen pencea pound. Food might reach Boston in ships butsupplies even by sea were insecure, for the Americanssoon had privateers manned by seamen familiarwith New England waters and happy in expectedgains from prize money. The British wereanxious about the elementary problem of food.They might have made Washington more uncomfortableby forays and alarms. Only reluctantly,however, did Howe, who took over the commandon October 10, 1775, admit to himself that this wasa real war. He stillhoped for settlement withoutfurther bloodshed.Washington was glad to learnthat the British were laying in supplies of coal forthe winter. It meant that they intended to stayin Boston, where, more than in any other place, hecould make trouble for them.Washington had more on his mind than the creationof an army and the siege of Boston. He hadalso to decide the strategy of the war. On the longAmerican sea front Boston alone remained in

British hands.BOSTON AND QUEBEC 37New York, Philadelphia, Charlestonand other ports farther south were all, for thetime, on the side of the Revolution.Boston wasnot a good naval base for the British, since it commandedno great waterway leading inland.Thesprawling colonies, from the rock-bound coast ofNew England to the swamps and forests of Georgia,were strong in their incoherent vastness. Therewere a thousand miles of seacoast. Only rarelywere considerable settlements to be found morethan a hundred miles distant from salt water.Anarmy marching to the interior would have increasingdifficulties from transport and supplies. Whereverwater routes could be used the naval power ofthe British gave them an advantage.One suchroute was the Hudson, less a river than a navigablearm of the sea, leading to the heart of the colony ofNew York, its upper waters almost touching LakeGeorge and Lake Champlain, which in turn led tothe St. Lawrence in Canada and thence to the sea.Canada was held by the British; and it was clearthat, if they should take the city of New York,they might command the whole line from themouth of the Hudson to the St. Lawrence, and socut off New England from the other colonies andovercome a divided enemy. To foil this policy

38 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESWashington planned tocapture Canada.hold New York and toWith Canada in line the unionof the colonies would be indeed continental, and,if the British were driven from Boston, they wouldhave no secure foothold in North America.The danger from Canada had always been asource of anxiety to the English colonies. TheFrench had made Canada a base for attempts todrive the English from North America. Duringmany decades war had raged along the Canadianfrontier. With the cession of Canada to Britain in1763 this danger had vanished. The old habit endured,however, of fear of Canada. When, in 1774,the British Parliament passed the bill for the governmentof Canada known as the Quebec Act, therewas violent clamor. The measure was assumedto be a calculated threat against colonial liberty.The Quebec Act continued in Canada the Frenchcivil law and the ancient privileges of the RomanCatholic Church.It guaranteed order in the wildwestern region north of the Ohio, taken recentlyfrom France, by placing it under the authority longexercised there of the Governor of Quebec.Only avivid imagination would conceive that to allow tothe French in Canada their old loved customs andlaws involved designs against the freedom under

BOSTON AND QUEBEC 39English law in the other colonies, or that to let theCanadians retain in respect to religion what theyhad always possessed meant a sinister plot againstthe Protestantism of the English colonies. YetAlexander Hamilton, perhaps the greatest mind inthe American Revolution, had frantic suspicions.French laws in Canada involved, he said, the extensionof French despotism in the English colonies.The privileges continued to the Roman CatholicChurch in Canada would be followed in due courseby the Inquisition, the burning of heretics at thestake in Boston and New York, and the bringingfrom Europe of Roman Catholic settlers who wouldprove tools for the destruction of religious liberty.Military rule at Quebec meant, sooner or later,despotism everywhere in America. We may smilenow at the youthful Hamilton's picture of "darkdesigns" and "deceitful wiles" on the part ofthat fierce Protestant GeorgeIII to establishRoman Catholic despotism, but the colonies regardedthe danger as serious. The quick remedywould be simply to take Canada, as Washingtonnow planned.To this end something had been done beforeWashington assumed the command.The BritishFort Ticonderoga, on the neck of land separating

40 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESLake Champlain from Lake George, commandedthe route from New York to Canada. The fight atLexington in April had been quickly followed byaggressive action against this British stronghold.No news of Lexington had reached the fort whenearly in May Colonel Ethan Allen, with BenedictArnold serving as a volunteer in his force of eightythreemen, arrived in friendly guise.The fort washeld by only forty-eight British; with the menacefrom France at last ended they felt secure;disciplinewas slack, for there was nothing to do.Theincompetent commander testified that he lent Allentwenty men for some rough work on the lake.Byevening Allen had them all drunk and then it waseasy, without firing a shot, to capture the fort witha rush. The door to Canada was open. Greatstores of ammunition and a hundred and twentyguns, which in due course were used against theBritish at Boston, fell into American hands.About Canada Washington was ill-informed.He thought of the Canadians as ifthey were Virginiansor New Yorkers. Theyhad been recentlyconquered by Britain; their new king was a tyrant;they would desire liberty and would welcomean American army. So reasoned Washington,but without knowledge. The Canadians were a

BOSTON AND QUEBEC 41conquered people, but they had found the Britishking no tyrant and they had experienced the paradoxof being freer under the conqueror than they hadbeen under their own sovereign.The last days ofFrench rule in Canada were disgraced by corrup-The Cana-tion and tyranny almost unbelievable.dian peasant had been cruelly robbed and he hadconceived for his French rulers a dislike whichappearsstill in his attitude towards the motherlandof France. For his new British master he had assuredlyno love, but he was no longer dragged offHeto war and his property was not plundered.was free, too, to speak his mind. During the firsttwenty years after the British conquest of Canadathe Canadian French matured indeed an assertiveliberty not even dreamed of during the previouscentury and a half of French rule.The British tyranny which Washington picturedin Canada was thus not very real. He underestimated,too, the antagonism between the RomanCatholics of Canada and the Protestants of theEnglish colonies.The Congress at Philadelphia indenouncing the Quebec Act had accused the CatholicChurch of bigotry, persecution, murder, andrebellion. This was no very tactful appeal forsympathy to the sons of that France which was still

42 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESthe eldest daughter of the Church and it was hardlyhelped by a maladroit turn suggesting that "lowmindedinfirmities" should not permit such differencesto block union in the sacred cause of liberty.Washington believed that two battalions of Canadiansmight be recruited to fight the British, andthat the French Acadians of Nova Scotia, a peopleso remote that most of them hardly knew what thewar was about, were tingling with sympathy forthe American cause. In truth the Canadian wasnot prepared to fight on either side. What thepriest and the landowner could do to make himfight for Britain was done, but, for all that, SirGuy Carleton, the Governor of Canada, foundrecruiting impossible.Washington believed that the war would be wonby the side which held Canada. He saw that fromCanada would be determined the attitude of thesavages dwelling in the wild spaces of the interior;he saw, too, that Quebec as a military base inBritish hands would be a source of grave danger.The easy capture of Fort Ticonderoga led him tounderrate difficulties. If Ticonderoga why notQuebec?Nova Scotia might be occupied later, theAcadians helping. Thus it happened that, soonafter taking over the command, Washington was

BOSTON AND QUEBEC 43busy with a plan for the conquest of Canada. Twoforces were to advance into that country; one byway of Lake Champlain under General Schuylerand the other through the forests of Maine underBenedict Arnold.Schuyler was obliged through illness to give uphis command, and it was an odd fortune of war thatput General Richard Montgomeryat the head ofthe expedition going by way of Lake Champlain.Montgomery had served with Wolfe at the takingof Louisbourg and had been an officer in the proudBritish army which had received the surrender ofCanada in 1760.Not without searching of hearthad Montgomery turned against his former sover-He was living in America when war brokeeign.out;he had married into an American family ofposition; and he had come to the view that vitalliberty was challenged by the King. Now he didhis work well, in spite of very bad material in hisarmy. His New Englanders were, he said, "everyman a general and not one of them a soldier."They feigned sickness,though,as far as he hadNo better were the men from New York,learned, there was "not a man dead of any distemper.""the sweepings of the streets" with morals "infamous."Of the officers, too, Montgomery had a

44 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESpoor opinion.Like Washington he declared thatit was necessary to get gentlemen, men of educationand integrity, as officers, or disaster wouldfollow.the Richelieu,Nevertheless St. Johns, a British post onfrom Montreal, fellabout thirty miles across countryto Montgomery on the 3d ofNovember, after a siege of six weeks; and Britishregulars under Major Preston, a brave and competentofficer, yielded to a crude volunteer armywith whole regiments lacking uniforms. Montrealcould make no defense.On the 12th of NovemberMontgomery entered Montreal and was in controlof the St. Lawrence almost to the cliffs of Quebec.Canada seemed indeed an easy conquest.The adventurous Benedict Arnold went on anexpedition more hazardous. He had persuadedWashington of the impossible, that he could advancethrough the wilderness from the seacoast ofMaine and take Quebec by surprise. News travelseven by forest pathways.Arnold made a wonderfuleffort.Chill autumn was upon him when, onthe 25th of September,with about a thousandpicked men, he began to advance up the KennebecRiver and over the height of land to the upperwaters of the Chaudiere, which discharges into theSt. Lawrence opposite Quebec.There were heavy

BOSTON AND QUEBEC 45rains.Sometimes the men had to wade breast highin dragging heavy and leaking boats over the difficultplaces.A good many men died of starvation.Others deserted and turned back.The indomitableArnold pressed on, however, and on the 9th ofNovember, a few days before Montgomery occupiedMontreal, he stood with some six hundredworn and shivering men on the strand of the St.Lawrence opposite Quebec. He had not surprisedthe city and it looked grim and inaccessible as hesurveyed it across the great river.In the autumngales it was not easy to carry over his little army insmall boats. But this he accomplished and thenwaited for Montgomery to join him.By the 3d of December Montgomery was withArnold before Quebec. They had hardly morethan a thousand effective troops, together with afew hundred Canadians, upon whom no reliancecould be placed.Carleton, commanding at Quebec,sat tight and would hold no communicationwith despised "rebels."gentlemen,""They all pretend to besaid an astonished British officer inQuebec, when he heard that among the Americanofficers now captured by the British there were aformer blacksmith, a butcher, a shoemaker, andan innkeeper.Montgomery was stung to violent

46 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESthreats by Carleton's contempt, but never could hedraw from Carleton a reply.At last Montgomerytried, in the dark of early morning of New Year'sDay, 1776, to carry Quebec by storm. He was tolead an attack on the Lower Town from the westside, while Arnold was to enter from the oppositeside.When they met in the center they were tostorm the citadel on the heights above. Theycounted on the help ofthe French inhabitants,from whom Carleton said bitterly enough that hehad nothing to fear in prosperity and nothing tohope for in adversity.Arnold pressed his part of theattack with vigor and penetrated to the streets ofthe Lower Town where he fell wounded. CaptainDaniel Morgan, who took over the command, wasmade prisoner.Montgomery's fate was more tragic.In spite ofprotests from his officers, he led in person the attackfrom the west side of the fortress. The advancewas along a narrow road under the toweringcliffs of a great precipice. The attack was expectedby the British and the guard at the barrier wasordered to hold its fire until the enemy was near.Suddenly there was a roar of cannon and the assailantsnot swept down fled in panic. With themorning light the dead head of Montgomery was

BOSTON AND QUEBEC 47found protruding from the snow.by Washington and with reason.He was mournedHe had talentsand character which might have made him oneof the chief leaders of the revolutionary army.Elsewhere, too, was he mourned. His father, anIrish landowner, had been a member of the BritishParliament, and he himself was a Whig, known toFox and Burke. When news of his death reachedEngland eulogies upon him came from the Whigbenches in Parliament which could not have beenstronger had he died fighting for the King.While the outlook in Canada grew steadilydarker, the American cause prospered before Boston.There Howe was not at ease. If it was reallyto be war, which he still doubted, it would bewell to seek some other base. Washington helpedHowe to take action. Dorchester Heights commandedBoston as critically from the south as didBunker Hill from the north.Bythe end of FebruaryWashington had British cannon, broughtwith heavy labor from Ticonderoga, and then helost no time. On the morning of March 5, 1776,Howe awoke to find that, under cover of a heavybombardment, American troops had occupied DorchesterHeights and that if he would dislodge

48 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESthem he must make another attack similar to thatat Bunker Hill. The alternative of stiff fightingwas the evacuation of Boston.Howe, though dilatory,was a good fighting soldier.His defects as ageneral in America sprang in part from his beliefthat the war was unjust and that delay might bringcounsels making for peace and save bloodshed.His first decision was to attack, but a furious galethwarted his purpose, and he then prepared for theinevitable step.Washington divined Howe's purpose and therewas a tacit agreement that the retiring army shouldnot be molested. Howe destroyed munitions ofwar which he could not take away but he left intactthe powerful defenses of Boston, defenses rearedat the cost of Britain.Manyof the better class ofthe inhabitants, British in their sympathies, werenow face to face with bitter sorrow and sacrifice.Passions were so aroused that a hard fate awaitedthem should they remain in Boston and they decidedto leave with the British army.Travel byland was blocked; they could go only by sea.When the time came to depart, laden carriages,trucks, and wheelbarrows crowded to the quaysthrough the narrow streets and a sad procession ofexiles went out from their homes. A profane critic

RICHARD MONTGOMERY.Paintings by C. W. Peale.In Independence Hall, Philadelphia.BARON VON STEUBEN

.i\ T AND !make anotheriiiThe altemA f;^n ^t Tts%ot^iJlaH W ."J xdwarno\ad wl

BOSTON AND QUEBEC 49devil wassaid that they moved "as if the veryafter them." No doubt many of them would havebeen arrogant and merciless to "rebels" had theirsbeen the triumph. But the day was above all aday of sorrow. EdwardWinslow, a strong leaderamong them, tells of his tears " at leaving our oncehappy town of Boston." The ships, a forest ofmasts, set sail and, crowded with soldiers andrefugees, headed straight out to sea for Halifax.Abigail, wife of John Adams, a clever woman,watched the departure of the fleet with gladness inher heart.She thought that never before had beenseen in America so many ships bearing so manypeople.Washington's army marched joyously intoBoston. Joyous it might well be since, for themoment, powerfulsingle foot of territoryBritain was not secure in ain the former colonies.If Quebec should fall the continent would bealmost conquered.Quebec did not fall.Americans held on before the place.from cold.All through the winter theThey shiveredThey suffered from the dread diseaseThey had difficulty in getting food.of smallpox.The Canadians were insistent on having goodmoney for what they offered and since good moneywas not always in the treasury the invading army

50 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESsometimes used violence. Then the Canadiansbecame more reserved and chilling than ever.hope ofInmending matters Congress sent a commissionto Montreal in the spring of 1776. Itschairman was Benjamin Franklin and, with him,were two leading Roman Catholics, Charles Carrollof Carrollton, a great landowner of Maryland,and his brother John, a priest, afterwards Archbishopof Baltimore. Itwas not easy to representas the liberator of the Catholic Canadians theCongress which had denounced in scathing termsthe concessions in the Quebec Act to the CatholicChurch. Franklin was a master of conciliation,but before he achieved anything a dramatic eventhappened. On the 6th of May, British ships arrivedat Quebec. The inhabitants rushed to theramparts. Cries of joy passed from street to streetand they reached the little American army, nowunder General Thomas, encamped on the Plains ofAbraham. Panic seized the small force which hadheld on so long. On the ships were ten thousandfresh British Droops.The one thing for the Americansto do was to get away; and they fled, leavingbehind guns, supplies, even clothing and privatepapers. Five days later Franklin, at Montreal,was dismayed by the distressing news of disaster.

BOSTON AND QUEBEC 51Congress sent six regimentsarmy which had fled from Quebec.It was a desperateventure. Washington'sto reinforce theorders were thatthe Americans should fight the new British armyas near Quebec as possible. The decisive struggletook place on the 8th of June. An American forceunder the command of General Thompson attackedThree Rivers, a town on the St. Lawrence,half way between Quebec and Montreal. Theywere repulsed and the general was taken prisoner.The wonder is indeed that the army was not annihilated.Then followed a disastrous retreat. Shortof supplies, ravaged by smallpox, and in badweather, the invaders tried to make their way backto Lake Champlain.They evacuated Montreal.It is hard enough in the day of success to hold togetheran untrained army. In the day of defeatsuch a force is apt to become a mere rabble. Someof the American regiments preserved discipline.Others fell into complete disorder as, weak anddiscouraged, they retired to Lake Champlain.Many soldiers perished of disease. "I did not look"into a hut or a tent, says an observer, "in whichI did not find a dead or dying man."had huts were fortunate.Those whoThe fate of some was todie without medical care and without cover.By

52 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESthe end of June what was leftof the force hadreached Crown Point on Lake Champlain.Benedict Arnold, who had been wounded atQuebec, was now at Crown Point. Competentcritics of the war have held that what Arnold nowdid saved the Revolution. In another scene, beforethe summer ended, the British had taken NewYork and made themselves masters of the lowerHudson. Had they reached in the same seasonthe upper Hudson by way of Lake Champlain theywould have struck blows doubly staggering.ThisArnold saw, and his object was to delay, if he couldnot defeat, the British advance. There was noroad through the dense forest by the shores of LakeChamplain and Lake George to the upper Hudson.The British must go down the lake in boats. ThisGeneral Carleton had foreseen and he had urgedthat with the fleet sent to Quebec should be sentfrom England, in sections,quickly carried past the rapids ofboats which could bethe RichelieuRiver and launched on Lake Champlain. Theyhad not come and the only thing for Carleton to dowas to build a flotilla which could carry an armyup the lake and attack Crown Point. The thingwas done but skilled workmen were few and notuntil the 5th of October were the little ships afloat

BOSTON AND QUEBEC 53on Lake Champlain. Arnold, too, spent the summerin building boats to meet the attack and itwas a strange turn in warfare which now made himcommander in a naval fight. There was a briskstruggle on Lake Champlain. Carleton had a scoreor so of vessels; Arnold not so many. But he delayedCarleton. When he was beaten on the waterhe burned the ships not captured and took to theland. When he could no longer hold Crown Pointhe burned that place and retreated to Ticonderoga.By this time it was late autumn. The Britishwere far from their base and the Americans wereretreating into a friendly country. There is littledoubt that Carleton could have taken Fort Ticonderoga.It fell quite easily less than a year later.Some of his officers urged him to press on and do it.But the leaves had already fallen, the bleak winterwas near, and Carleton pictured to himself anarmy buried deeply in an enemy country andseparated from its base by many scores of miles oflake and forest. He withdrew to Canada and leftLake Champlain to the Americans.

CHAPTER IHINDEPENDENCEWELL-MEANING people in England found it difficultto understand the intensity of feeling in America.Britain had piled up a huge debt in driving Francefrom America. Landowners were paying in taxesno less than twenty per cent of their incomes fromland. The people who had chiefly benefited by thehumiliation of France were the colonists, now freedfrom hostile menace and secure for extension overa whole continent. Why should not they pay someshare of the cost of their own security? Certainfacts tended to make Englishmen indignant withthe Americans. Every effort had failed to get themto pay willingly for their defense. Before theStamp Act had become law in 1765 the colonieswere given a whole year to devise the raising ofmoney in any way which they liked better. Theburden of what was asked would be light. Whyshould not they agree to bear it? Why this talk,54

INDEPENDENCE 55repeated by the Whigs in the British Parliament,of brutal tyranny, oppression, hired minions imposingslavery, and so on. Where were the oppressed?Could any one point to a single personwho before war broke out had known Britishtyranny? What suffering could any one point toas the result of the tax on tea? The people of Englandpaid a tax on tea four times heavier than thatpaid in America. Was not the British Parliamentsupreme over the whole Empire? Did not thecolonies themselves admit that it had the right tocontrol their trade overseas? And if men shirktheir duty should they not come under some lawof compulsion?It was thus that many a plain man reasoned inEngland. The plain man in America had his ownopposing point of view. Debts and taxes in Englandwere not his concern. He remembered therecent war as vividly as did the Englishman, and,if the English paid its cost in gold, he had paid hisshare in blood and tears.led by the British generalsWho made up the armiesin America? More thanhalf the total number who served in America camefrom the colonies, the colonies which had barely athird of the population of Great Britain. True,Britain paid the bill in money but why not? She

56 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESwas rich with a vast accumulated capital.The war,partly in America, had given her the key to thewealth of India. Look at the magnificence, thepomp of servants, plate and pictures, the parks andgardens, of hundreds of English country houses, andcompare this opulence with the simple mode of life,simplicity imposed by necessity, of a countrygentleman like George Washington of Virginia,reputed to be the richest man in America. Thousandsof tenants in England, owning no acre ofland, were making a larger income than was possiblein America to any owner of broad acres.was true that America had gained from the latewar.The foreign enemy had been struck down.But had he not been struck down too for England?Had there not been far more dread in England ofinvasion by France and had not the colonies byhelping to ruin France freed England as much asEngland had freed them?ItIf now the colonies wereasked to pay a share of the bill for the British armythat was a matter for discussion.They had neverbefore done it and they must not be told that theyhad to meet the demand within a year or be compelledto pay. Was it not to impose tyranny andslavery to tell a people that their property wouldbe taken by force if they did not choose to give it?

INDEPENDENCE 57What free man would not rather die than yield onsuch a point?The familiar workings of modern democracyhave taught us that a great political issue must bediscussed in broad terms of high praise or severeblame. The contestants will exaggerate both thevirtue of the side they espouse and the malignityof the opposing side; nice discrimination is notpossible.the coloniesIt was inevitable that the dispute withshould arouse angry vehemence onboth sides. The passionate speech of PatrickHenry in Virginia, in 1763, which made himfamous, and was the forerunner of his later appeal," Give me Liberty or give me Death," related to soprosaic a question as the right of disallowance byEngland of an act passed by a colonial legislature,a right exercised long and often before that timeand tothis day a partFew men have livedof the constitutional machineryof the British Empire.more serenely poised than Washington, yet, as wehave seen, he hated the British with an implacablehatred. He was a humane man. In earlier years,Indian raids on the farmers of Virginia had stirredhim to "deadly sorrow," and later, during his retreatfrom New York, he was moved by the criesof the weak and infirm.Yet the same man felt no

58 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADEStouch of pity for the Loyalists of the Revolution.him they were detestable parricides, vile traitors,with no right to live.When we find this notein Washington, in America, we hardly wonder thatthe high Tory, Samuel Johnson, in England, shouldwrite that the proposed taxation was no tyranny,that it had not been imposed earlier because "wedo not put a calf into the plough; we wait till he isan ox," and that the Americans were "a race ofconvicts, and ought to be thankful for anythingwhich we allow them short of hanging." Tyrannyand treason are both ugly things. Washingtonbelieved that he was fighting the one, Johnson thathe was fighting the other, and neither side wouldadmit the charge against itself.Such are the passions aroused bycivil strife.We need not now, when they are, or ought to be,dead, spend any time in deploring them.It sufficesto explain them and the events to which they led.There was one and really only one final issue.Were the American colonies free to govern themselvesas they liked or might their government inthe lastanalysis be regulated by Great Britain?The truth is that the colonies had reached a conditionin which they regarded themselves as Britishstates with their own parliaments, exercising

INDEPENDENCE 59in-complete jurisdiction in their own affairs. Theytended to use their own judgment and they were asrestless under attempted control from England asEngland would have been under control fromAmerica. We can indeed always understand thepoint of view of Washington if we reverse the positionand imagine what an Englishman would havethought of a claim by America to tax him.An ancient and proud societyis reluctant tochange. After a long and successful war Englandwas prosperous. To her now came riches fromIndia and the ends of the earth.In society therewas such lavish expenditure that Horace Walpoledeclared an income of twenty thousand pounds ayear was barely enough.England had an aristocracythe proudest in the world, for it had not onlyrank but wealth. The English people were certainof the invincible superiority of their nation. EveryEnglishman was taught,as Disraeli said of a laterperiod, to believe that he occupied a position betterthan any one else of his own degree in any othercountry in the world. The merchant in Englandwas believed to surpass all others in wealth andintegrity,the manufacturer to have no rivals inskill, the British sailor to stand in a class by himself,the British officer to express the last word in

60 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESchivalry.It followed, of course, that the motherlandwas superior to her children overseas.Thecolonies had no aristocracy, no great landownersliving in stately palaces. They had almost nomanufactures. They had no imposing state systemwith places and pensions from which the fortunatemight reap a harvest of ten or even twentythousand pounds a year.They had no ancientuniversities thronged by gilded youth who, if noble,might secure degrees without the trying ceremonyof an examination. They had no EstablishedChurch with the ancient glories of its cathedrals.In all America there was not even a bishop.spite of these contrasts the English Whigs insistedupon the political equalityInwith themselves ofthe American colonists. The Tory squire, however,shared Samuel Johnson's view that colonistswere either traders or farmers and that colonialshopkeeping society was vulgar and contemptible.George III was ill-fitted by nature to deal withthe crisis. The King was not wholly withoutnatural parts, for his own firm will had achievedwhat earlier kings had tried and failed to do; hehad mastered Parliament, made it his obedienttool and himself for a time a despot. He had someadmirable virtues. He was a family man, the

father of fifteen children.INDEPENDENCE 61He liked quiet amusementsand had wholesome tastes.If industry andbelief in his own aims could of themselves make aHe wroteman great we might reverence George.once to Lord North: "I have no object but to beof use: if that is ensured I am completely happy."The King was always busy.Ceaseless industrydoes not, however, include every virtue, or theauthor of all evil would rank high in goodness.Wisdom must be the pilot of good intentions.George was not wise. He was ill-educated. Hehad never traveled.He had no power to see thepoint of view of others.As if nature had not sufficiently handicappedGeorge for a high part, fate placed him on thethrone at the immature age of twenty-two.Henceforththe boy was master, not pupil.and obsequious prelates did him reverence.Great noblesIgnorantand obstinate, the young King was determinednot only to reign but to rule, in spite of the newdoctrine that Parliament, not the King, carriedon the affairs of government through the leader ofthe majority inknown as the Prime Minister.the House of Commons, alreadyGeorge could notreally change what was the last expression of politicalforces in England. The rule of Parliament

62 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADEShad come to stay.Through it and it alone couldthe realm be governed. This power, however,though itcould not be destroyed, might be controlled.Parliament, while retaining all its privileges,might yet carry out the wishes of the sovereign.The King might be his own Prime Minister.The thing could be done if the King's friends helda majority of the seats and would do what theirmaster directed.It was a dark day for Englandwhen a king found that he could play off one factionagainst another, buy a majority in Parliament,and retain it either by paying with guineas or withposts and dignities which the bought Parliamentleft in his gift.This corruption it was which ruinedthe first British Empire.We need not doubt that George thoughtit hisright and also his duty to coerce America, or rather,as he said, the clamorous minority which was tryingto force rebellion. He showed no lack of sincerity.On October 26, 1775, while Washingtonwas besieging Boston, he opened Parliament witha speech which at anyenough.rate made the issue clearBritain would not give up colonies whichshe had founded with severe toil and nursed withgreat kindness. Her army and her navy, both nowincreased in size, would make her power respected.

INDEPENDENCE 63She would not, however, deal harshly with hererring children.Royal mercy would be shown tothose who admitted their error and they need notcome to England to secure it.Persons in Americawould be authorized to grant pardons and furnishthe guarantees which would proceed from theroyal clemency.Such was the magnanimity of George III.Washington's rage at the tone ofthe speech isalmost amusing in its vehemence. He, with amind conscious of rectitude and sacrifice in a greatcause, to ask pardon for his course! He to bendthe knee to this tyrant overseas! Washingtonhimself was not highly gifted with imagination.He never realized the strength of the forces inEngland arrayed on his own side and attributedto the English, as a whole, sinister and malignantdesigns always condemned by the great mass ofthe English people.They, no less than the Americans,were the victims of a turn in politics which,for a brief period, and for only a brief period, leftpower in the hands of a corrupt Parliament and acorrupting king.Ministers were not all corrupt or place-hunters.One of them, the Earl of Dartmouth, was a saintin spirit.Lord North, the king's chief minister,

64 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESwas not corrupt. He disliked his office and wishedto leave it. In truth no sweeping simplicity ofcondemnation will include all the ministers ofGeorge III except on this one point that theyallowed to dictate their policy a narrow-mindedand ignorant king.It was their right to furnish apolicy and to exercise the powers of government,appoint to office, spend the public revenues. Insteadthey let the King say that the opinions of hisministers had no avail with him.If we ask why,the answer is that there was a mixture of motives.North stayed in office because the King appealedto his loyalty, a plea hard to resist under an ancientmonarchy.Others stayed from love of power orfor what they could get.In that golden age ofpatronage it was possible for a man to hold a pluralityof offices which would bring to himself manythousands of pounds a year, and also to secure thereversion of officesand pensions to his children.Horace Walpole spent a long life in luxurious easebecause of officeswith high pay and few dutiessecured in the distant days of his father's politicalpower. Contracts to supply the army and thenavy went to friends of the government, sometimeswith disastrous results, since the contractor oftenknew nothing of the business he undertook.When,

INDEPENDENCE 65in 1777, the Admiralty boasted that thirty-fiveships of war were ready to put to sea it was foundthat there were in fact only six. The system nearlyruined the navy.It actually happened that planksof a man-of-war fell out through rot and that shesank. Often ropes and spars could not be had whenmost needed. When a public loan was floated theKing's friends and they alone were given the sharesat a price which enabled them to make largeprofits on the stock market.The system could endure only as longas theKing's friends had a majority in the House ofCommons. Elections must be looked after. TheKing must have those on whom he could alwaysdepend. He controlled offices and pensions. Withthese things he bought members and he had tokeep them bought by repeating the benefits.the holder of a public office was thought to be dyingthe King was already naming to his Prime Ministerthe person to whom the office must go when deathshould occur. He insisted that many posts previouslygranted for life should now be given duringhis pleasure so that he might dismiss the holdersat will. He watched the words and the votes inParliament of public men and woe to those in hispower if they displeased him. When he knew thatIf

66 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESFox, his great antagonist,would be absent fromParliament he pressed through measures whichFox would have opposed. It was not until GeorgeHI was King that the buying and selling of boroughsbecame common. The King bought votesin the boroughs by paying high prices for trifles.He even went over the lists of voters and hadnames of servants of the government inserted ifthis seemed needed to make a majority secure.One of the most unedifying scenes in English historyis that of George making a purchase in a shopat Windsor and because of this patronage askingfor the shopkeeper's support in a local election.The King was saving and penurious in his habitsthat he might have the more money to buy votes.Wfhen he had no money left he would go to Parliamentand ask for a special grant for his needs andthe bought members could not refuse the moneyfor their buying.The people of England knew that Parliamentwas corrupt. But how to end the system? Thepress was not free. Some of it the governmentbought and the rest it tried to intimidate thoughoften happily in vain. Onlyfragments of the debatesin Parliament were published. Not until1779 did the House of Commons admit the public

to its galleries.INDEPENDENCE 67No great political meetings wereallowed until just before the American war and inany case the masses had no votes. The great landownershad in their control a majority of the constituencies.There were scores of pocket boroughsin which their nominees were as certain of electionas peers were of their seats in the House of Lords.The disease of England was deep-seated. A wiseking could do much, but while George III survivedand his reign lasted sixty years there was nohope of a wise king. A strong minister could imposehis will on the King. But only time and circumstancecould evolve a strong minister. Timeand circumstance at length produced the youngerPitt. But it needed the tragedy of two long warsthose against the colonies and revolutionaryFrance before the nation finally threw off thesystem which permitted the personal rule of GeorgeIII and caused the disruption of the Empire.may thus be saidItwith some truth that GeorgeWashington was instrumental in the salvationof England.The ministers of George III loved the sports, therivalries, the ease, the remoteness of their ruralmagnificence. Perverse fashion kept them in Londoneven in April and May for "the season," just

68 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESwhen in the country nature was most alluring.Otherwise they were off to their estates wheneverthey could get away from town. The AmericanRevolution was not remotely affected by this habit.With ministers long absent in the country importantquestions were postponed or forgotten. Thecrisis which in the end brought France into thewar was partly due to the carelessness of a ministerhurrying away to the country.Lord George Germain,who directed military operations in America,dictated a letter which would have caused GeneralHowe to move northward from New York to meetGeneral Burgoyne advancing from Canada.Germainwent off to the country without waiting tosign the letter; it was mislaid among other papers;Howe was without needed instructions; and thedisaster followed of Burgoyne'ssurrender. Foxpointed out, that, at a time when there was adanger that a foreign army might land in England,not one of the King's ministers was less than fiftymiles from London. They were in their parks andgardens, or hunting or fishing. Nor did they stayaway for a few days only. The absence was forweeks or even months.It isto the credit of Whig leaders in England,landowners and aristocrats as they were, that they

INDEPENDENCE 69supported with passion the American cause.America, where the forces of the Revolution werein control, the Loyalist who dared to be bold forhis opinions was likely to be tarred and featheredand to lose his property.intolerance.InThere was an embitteredIn England, however, it was an openquestion in society whether to be for or against theAmerican cause. The Duke of Richmond, a greatgrandson of Charles II, said in the House of Lordsthat under no code should the fighting Americansbe considered traitors.What they did was "perfectlyjustifiable in every possible political andmoral sense." All the world knows that Chathamand Burke and Fox urged the conciliationof America and hundreds took the same stand.Burke said of General Con way, a man of position,that when he secured a majority in the House ofCommons against the Stamp Act his face shone asthe face of an angel.Since the bishops almost toa man voted with the King, Conway attacked themas in this untrue to their high office.Sir GeorgeSavile, whose benevolence, supported by greatwealth, made him widely respected and loved, saidthat the Americans were right in appealing to arms.Coke of Norfolk was a landed magnate who livedin regal style.His seat of Holkham was one of

70 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESthose great new palaces which the age reared atsuch elaborate cost. It was full of beautiful thingsthe art of Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, andVan Dyke, rare manuscripts, books, and tapestries.So magnificent was Coke that a legend long ranthat his horses were shod with gold and that thewheels of his chariots were of solid silver.In thecountry he drove six horses. In town only theKing did this. Coke despised George III, chieflyon account of his American policy, and to avoid thereproach of rivaling the King's estate, he took joyin driving past the palace in London with a donkeyas his sixth animal and in flicking his whip at theKing. When he was offered a peerage by the Kinghe denounced with fiery wrath the minister throughwhom itwas offered as attemptingto bribe him.Coke declared that if one of the King's ministersheld upa hat in the House of Commons and saidthat it was a green bag the majority of the memberswould solemnly vote that it was a green bag. Thebribery which brought this blind obedience ofToryism filled Coke with fury. In youth he hadbeen taught never to trust a Tory and he couldsay " I never have and, by God, I never will."Oneof his children asked their mother whether Torieswere born wicked or after birth became wicked.

INDEPENDENCE 71The uncompromising answer was: "They are bornwicked and they grow up worse."There is, of course, in much of this something ofthe malignance of party. In an age when onereverend theologian, Toplady, called another theologian,John Wesley, "a low and puny tadpole inDivinity" we must expect harsh epithets.Butbehind this bitterness lay a deep conviction of therighteousnessof the American cause. Ata greatbanquet at Holkham, Coke omitted the toast ofthe King; but every night during the Americanwar he drank the health of Washington as thegreatest man on earth. The war, he said, was theKing's war, ministers were his tools, the press wasbought. He denounced later the King's receptionof the traitor Arnold. When the King's degenerateson, who became George IV, after some specialmisconduct, wrote to proposehis annual visit toHolkham, Coke replied, "Holkham isopen tostrangers on Tuesdays." It was an independentand irate England which spoke in Coke. Thosewho paid taxes, he said, should control those whogoverned. America was not getting fair play.Both Coke and Fox, and no doubt many others,wore waistcoats of blue and buff because these werethe colors of the uniforms of Washington's army.

72 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESWashington and Coke exchanged messagesandthey would have been congenial companions; forCoke, like Washington, was above all a farmerand tried to improve agriculture. Never for amoment, he said, had time hung heavy on hishands in the country. He began on his estate theculture of the potato, and for some time the besthe could hear of it from his stolid tenantry wasthat it would not poison the pigs. Coke wouldhave fought the levy of a penny of unjust taxationand he understood Washington. The Americangentleman and the English gentleman had acommon outlook.Now had come, however, the hour for politicalseparation. By reluctant but inevitable stepsAmerica made up its mind to declare for independence.At first continued loyalty to the King wasurged on the plea that he was in the hands of evilmindedministers, inspired by diabolical rage, or inthose of an "infernal villain" such as the soldier,General Gage, a second Pharaoh; though it mustbe admitted that even then the King was "thetyrant of Great Britain." After Bunker Hill spasmodicdeclarations of independence were madehere and there by local bodies. When Congress

INDEPENDENCE 78organized an army, invaded Canada, and besiegedBoston, it was hard to protest loyalty to a Kingwhose forces were those of an enemy. Moreoverindependence would, in the eyes at least of foreigngovernments, give the colonies the rights of belligerentsand enable them to claim for their fightingforces the treatment due to a regular army and theexchange of prisoners with the British.They could,too, make alliances with other nations. Someclamored for independence for a reason more sinisterthat they might punish those who held tothe King and seize their property. There werethirteen colonies in arms and each of them had toform some kind of government which would workwithout a king as part of its mechanism. Oneone such governments were formed.byKing George,as we have seen, helped the colonies to make uptheir minds.They were in no mood to be callederring children who must implore undeservedmercy and not force a loving parent to take unwillingvengeance. "Our plantations" and "oursubjects in the colonies" would simply not learnobedience.If George III would not reply to theirpetitions until they laid down their arms, theycould manage to get on without a king. If England,as Horace Walpole admitted, would not take them

74 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESseriously and speakers in Parliament called themobscure ruffians and cowards, so much the worseforEngland.It was an Englishman, Thomas Paine, whofanned the fire into unquenchable flames. He hadrecently been dismissed from a post in the excise inEngland and was at this time earning in Philadelphiaa precarious living by his pen. Paine said itwas the interest of America to break the tie withEurope.Was a whole continent in America to begoverned by an island a thousand leagues away?Of what advantage was it to remain connected withGreat Britain?It was said that a united BritishEmpire could defy the world, but why shouldAmerica defy the world? "Everything that isright or natural pleads for separation."Interestedmen, weak men, prejudiced men, moderate menwho do not really know Europe, may urge reconciliation,but nature is against it.Paine broke loosein that denunciation of kings with which ever sincethe world has been familiar.The wretched Briton,said Paine, is under a king and where there was aking there was no security for liberty. Kings werecrowned ruffians and George III in particular wasa sceptered savage, a royal brute, and other evilthings. He had inflicted on America injuries not

INDEPENDENCE 75to be forgiven.The blood of the slain, not less thanthe true interests of posterity, demanded separation.Paine called his pamphlet Common Sense. It waspublished on January 9, 1776. More than a hundredthousand copies were quickly sold and itbrought decision to many wavering minds.In the first days of 1776 independence had be-New England had madecome a burning question.up its mind. Virginia was keen for separation,keener even than New England. New York andPennsylvania long hesitated and Maryland andNorth Carolina were very lukewarm. Early in1776 Washington was advocating independenceand Greene and other armysame mind.leaders were of theConservative forces delayed the settlement,and at last Virginia, in this as in so manyother things taking the lead, instructed its delegatesto urge a declaration by Congress of independence.Richard Henry Lee, a member of thathonored family which later produced the ablestsoldier of the Civil War, moved in Congress onJune 7, 1776, that "these United Colonies are, andof right ought to be, Free and Independent States."The preparation of a formal declaration was referredto a committee of which John Adams andThomas Jefferson were members.It is interesting

76 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESto note that each of them became President of theUnited States and that both died on July 4, 1826,the fiftieth anniversaryof the Declaration of Independence.Adams related long after that he andJefferson formed the sub-committee to draft theDeclaration and that he urged Jefferson to undertakethe task since "you can write ten times betterthan I can."Jefferson accordingly wrote theAdams was delighted "with its high tonepaper.and the flights of Oratory" but he did not approveof the flaming attack on the King, as a tyrant."I never believed," he said," George to be a tyrantin disposition and in nature." There was, hethought, too much passion for a grave and solemndocument. He was, however, the principal speakerin its support.There is passion in the Declaration from beginningto end, and not the restrained and chastenedpassion which we find in the great utterances of anAmerican statesman of a later day, Abraham Lincoln.Compared with Lincoln, Jefferson is indeeda mere amateur in the use of words. Lincoln wouldnot have scattered in his utterances overwroughtphrases about "death, desolation and tyranny" ortalked about pledging "our lives, our fortunes andour sacred honour." He indulged in no "Flights

of Oratory."INDEPENDENCE 77The passion in the Declaration isconcentrated against the King.We do not knowwhat were the emotions of George when he read it.We know that many Englishmen thought that itthere are which makespoke truth. Exaggerationsthe Declaration less than a completely candiddocument. The King is accused of abolishingEnglish laws in Canada with the intention of "introducingthe same absolute rule into these colonies."What had been done in Canada was to letthe conquered French retain their own lawswhich was not tyranny but magnanimity. Anotherclause of the Declaration, as Jefferson first wrote it,made George responsible for the slave trade inAmerica with all its horrors and crimes.We maydoubt whether that not too enlightened monarchhad even more than vaguely heard of the slavetrade.This phase of the attack upon him was toomuch for the slave owners of the South and theslave traders of New England, and the clause wasstruck out.Nearly fourscore and ten years later, AbrahamLincoln, at a supreme crisis in the nation's life,told in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, what theDeclaration of Independence meant to him. "Ihave never," he said, "had a feeling politically

78 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESwhich did not spring from the sentiments in theDeclaration of Independence"; and then he spokeof the sacrifices which the founders of the Republichad made for these principles. He asked, too,what was the idea which had held together thenation thus founded. It was not the breakingaway from Great Britain. It was the assertion ofhuman right. We should speak in terms of reverenceof a document which became a classic utteranceof political right and which inspired Lincolnin his fight to end slavery and to make "Libertyand the pursuit of Happiness" realities for all men.In England the colonists were often taunted withbeing "rebels." The answer was not wanting thatancestors of those who now cried "rebel" hadthemselves been rebels a hundred years earlierwhen their own liberty was at stake.There were inCongress men who ventured tosay that the Declaration was a libel on the governmentof England; men like John Dickinson ofPennsylvania and John Jay of New York, whofeared that the radical elements were moving toofast. Radicalism, however, was in the saddle,and on the 2d of July the "resolution respectingindependency" was adopted. On July 4, 1776,Congress debated and finally adopted the formal

INDEPENDENCE 79Declaration of Independence. The members did notvote individually. The delegates from each colonycast the vote of the colony. Twelve colonies votedfor the Declaration. New York alone was silentbecause its delegates had not been instructed as totheir vote, but New York, too, soon fell into line.It was a momentous occasion and was understoodto be such.in the late afternoon.Anxious citizens were waitingin the streets.The vote seems to have been reachedThere was a bell in the StateHouse, and an old ringer waited there for the signal.When there was long delay he is said to havemuttered: "They will never do it! they will neverdo it!" Then came the word, "Ring! Ring!" Itis an odd fact that the inscription on the bell,placed there long before the days of the trouble,was from Leviticus: "Proclaim liberty throughout allthe land unto all the inhabitants thereof." The bellsof Philadelphia rang and cannon boomed. As thenews spread there were bonfires and illuminationsin all the colonies. On the day after the Declarationthe Virginia Convention struck out "O Lord,save the King" from the church service. On the10th of July Washington, who by this time hadmoved to New York, paraded the army and hadthe Declaration read at the head of each brigade.

80 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESThat evening the statue of King GeorgeYork was laid in the dust. It is a comment on thein Newin human fortune that within little morechangesthan a year the British had taken Philadelphia,that the clamorous bell had been hid away forsafety, and that colonial wiseacres were urging therescinding of the ill-timed Declaration and thereunion of the British Empire.

CHAPTER IVTHE LOSS OF NEW YORK1WASHINGTON'S success at Boston had one goodeffect.It destroyed Tory influence in that Puritanstronghold. New England was henceforth of atemper wholly revolutionary; and New Englandtradition holds that what itspeople think todayother Americans think tomorrow. But, in thesummer of this year 1776, though no serious foewas visible at any point in the revolted colonies, amenace haunted every one of them.The Britishhad gone away by sea; by sea they would return.On land armies move slowly and visibly; but on thesea a great force may pass out of sight and thensuddenly reappear at an unexpected point.is the haunting terror of sea power.BritishThisAlready thehad destroyed Falmouth, now Portland,Maine, and Norfolk, the principal town in Virginia.Washington had no illusions of security.He was anxious above all for the safety of New6 81

82 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESYork, commanding the vitalarteryof the Hudson,which must at all costs be defended.Accordingly,in April, he took his army to New York andestablished there his own headquarters.Even before Washington moved to New York,three great British expeditions were nearing America.One of these we have already seen at Quebec.Another was bound for Charleston, to landthere an army and to make the place a rallyingcenter for the numerous but harassed Loyalists ofthe South.The third and largest of these expeditionswas to strike at New York and, by a show ofIf mildness failed the British intendedto capture New York, sail up the Hudson and cutoff New England from the other colonies.The squadron destined for Charleston carried anarmy in command of a fine soldier, Lord Cornwallis,destined later to be the defeated leader in the lastdramatic scene of the war. In Maythis fleetreached Wilmington, North Carolina, and took onboard two thousand men under General Sir HenryClinton, who had been sent by Howe from Bostonin vain to win the Carolinas and who now assumedmilitary command of the combined forces.strength, bring the colonists to reason and reconciliation.AdmiralSir Peter Parker commanded the fleet, and

THE LOSS OF NEW YORK 83on the 4th of June he was off Charleston Harbor.Parker found that in order to cross the bar hewould have to lighten his larger ships.This wasdone by the laborious process of removing the guns,which, of course, he had to replace when the barwas crossed. On the 28th of June, Parker drew uphis ships before Fort Moultrie in the harbor. Hehad expected simultaneous aid by land from threethousand soldiers put ashore from the fleet on asandbar, but these troops could give him no helpagainst the fort from which they were cut off by achannel of deep water. A battle soon proved theBritish ships unable to withstand the Americanfire from Fort Moultrie.Late in the evening Parkerdrew off,with two hundred and twenty-fivecasualties against an American loss of thirty-seven.The check was greater than that of Bunker Hill,for there the British took the ground which theyattacked. The British sailors bore witness to thegallantry of the defense: "We never had such adrubbing in our lives," one of them testified.Only one of Parker's ten ships was seaworthy afterthe fight.It took him three weeks to refit, and notuntil the 4th of August did his defeated ships reachNew York.A mighty armada of seven hundred ships had

84 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESmeanwhile sailed into the Bay of New York. Thisfleet was commanded by Admiral Lord Howe andit carried an army of thirty thousand men led byhis younger brother, Sir William Howe, who hadcommanded at Bunker Hill.able and well-informed soldier.The General was anHe had a brilliantrecord of service in the Seven Years' War, withWolfe in Canada, then in France itself, and in theWest Indies.coarse.wine.general.In appearance he was tall, dark, andHis face showed him to be a free user ofThis may explain some of his faults as aHe trusted too much to subordinates; hewas leisurely and rather indolent, yet capable ofbrilliant and rapid action. In America his heartwas never in his task. He was member of Parliamentfor Nottingham and had publicly condemnedthe quarrel with America and told his electors thatin it he would take no command. He had not kepthis word, but his convictions remained. It wouldbe to accuse Howe of treason to say that he did notdo his best in America. Lack of conviction, how-Howe had no belief that hisever, affects action.country was in the right in the war and this handicappedhim as against the passionate conviction ofWashington that all was at stake which made lifeworth living.

THE LOSS OF NEW YORK 85The General's elder brother, Lord Howe, wasanother Whig who had no belief that the war wasjust. He sat in the House of Lords while hisbrother sat in the House of Commons. We ratherwonder that the King should have been content toleave in Whig hands his fortunes in America bothby land and sea. At any rate, here were the Howesmore eager to make peace than to make war andcommanded to offer terms of reconciliation. LordHowe had an unpleasant face, so dark that he wascalled "Black Dick"; he was a silent, awkwardman, shy and harsh in manner.In reality, however,he was kind, liberal in opinion, sober, andbeloved by those who knew him best.His pacifictemper towards America was not due to a dislikeof war. He was a fighting sailor. Nearly twentyyears later, on June 1, 1794, when he was in commandof a fleet in touch with the French enemy,the sailors watched him to find any indication thatthe expected action would take place. Then theword went round " : We shall have the fight today ;Black Dick has been smiling." They had it, andHowe won a victory which makes his name famousin the annals of the sea.By the middle of July the two brothers were atNew York. The soldier, having waited at Halifax

86 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESsince the evacuation of Boston, had arrived, andlanded his army on Staten Island, on the day beforeCongress made the Declaration of Independence,which, as now we can see, ended finally any chanceof reconciliation. The sailor arrived nine days later.Lord Howe was wont to regret that he had notarrived a little earlier, since the concessions whichhe had to offer might have averted the Declarationof Independence.In truth, however, he had littleto offer. Humor and imagination are useful giftsin carrying on human affairs, but George III hadneither. He saw no lack of humor in now oncemore offering full and free pardon to a repentantWashington and his comrades, though John Adamswas excepted by name 1 ;in repudiating the rightto existof the Congress at Philadelphia, and inrefusing to recognize the military rank of the rebelgeneral whom it had named: he was to be addressedin civilian styleas " George WashingtonEsq." The King and his ministers had no imaginationto call up the picture of high-hearted menfighting for rights which they held dear.Lord Howe went so far as to address a letter to"George Washington Esq. &c. &c.," and Washingtonagreed to an interview with the officer who'Trevelyan, American Revolution, Part n, vol. in), 261.(New Ed., vol.

ore it.THE LOSS OF NEW YORK 87In imposing uniform and with the stateliestmanner, Washington, who had an instinct foreffect, received the envoy. The awed messengerexplained that the symbols " &c. &c." meant everything,including, of course, military titles; butWashington only said smilingly that they mightmean anything, including, of course, an insult, andrefused to take the letter.He referred to Congress,a body which Howe could not recognize, the gravequestion of the address on an envelope and Congressagreed that the recognition of his rank wasnecessary. There was nothing to do but to go onwith the fight.Washington's army held the city of New York,at the southerly point of Manhattan Island. TheHudson River, separating the island from the mainlandof New Jersey on the west, is at its mouthThe northern and eastern sides oftwo miles wide.the island are washed by the Harlem River, flowingout of the Hudson about a dozen miles north of thecity, and broadening into the East River, abouta mile wide where it separates New York fromBrooklyn Heights, on Long Island.Encamped onStaten Island, on the south, General Howe could,with the aid of the fleet, land at anydozen vulnerable points. Howe had the furtherof half a

88 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESadvantage of a much larger force. Washington hadin all some twenty thousand men, numbers of themserving for short terms and therefore for the mostpart badly drilled. Howe had twenty-five thousandwell-trained soldiers, and he could, in addition,draw men from the fleet, which would givehim in all double the force of Washington.In such a situation even the best skill of Wash-He wasington was likely only to qualify defeat.advised to destroy New York and retire to positionsmore tenable. But even if he had so desired,Congress, his master, would not permit him toburn the city, and he had to make plans to defendit.Brooklyn Heightsso commanded New Yorkthat enemy cannon planted there would make thecity untenable. Accordingly Washington placedhalf his force on Long Island to defend BrooklynHeights and in doing so made the fundamentalerror of cutting his army in two and dividing itby an arm of the sea in presenceof overwhelminghostile naval power.On the 22d of August Howe ferried fifteen thousandmen across the Narrows to Long Island, inorder to attack the position on Brooklyn Heightsfrom the rear.Before him lay wooded hills acrosswhich led three roads converging at Brooklyn

Heights beyondTHE LOSS OF NEW YORK 89the hills.road led round the hills.On the east a fourthIn the dark of the nightin motionof the 26th of August Howe set his armyon all these roads, in order by daybreak to come toclose quarters with the Americans and drive themback to the Heights.The movement succeededperfectly. The British made terrible use of thebayonet. By the evening of the twenty-sevenththe Americans, who fought well against overwhelmingodds, had lost nearly two thousand men incasualties and prisoners, six field pieces, and twentysixheavy guns. The two chief commanders, Sullivanand Stirling, were among the prisoners, andwhat was left of the army had been driven back toBrooklyn Heights. Howe's critics said that had hepressed the attack further he could have madecertain the captureon Long Island.of the whole American forceCriticism of what might have been is easy andusually futile.It might be said of Washington,too, that he should not have kept an armyso far infront of his lines behind Brooklyn Heights facing asuperior enemy, and with, for a part of it, retreatpossible only by a single causeway across a marshthree miles long. When he realized, on the 28th ofAugust, what Howe had achieved, he increased the

90 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESdefenders of Brooklyn Heightsmen, more than half his army.cardinal error.to ten thousandThis was anotherBritish ships were near and butfor unfavorable winds might have sailed up toBrooklyn. Washington hoped and prayed thatHowe would try to carry Brooklyn Heights byassault. Then there would have been at leastslaughter on the scale of Bunker Hill. But Howehad learned caution. He made no reckless attack,and soon Washington found that he must moveaway or face the danger of losing every man onLong Island.On the night of the 29th of Augustthere wasclear moonlight, with fog towards daybreak.British army of twenty-five thousand men wasonly some six hundred yards from the Americanlines. A few miles from the shore lay at anchor agreat British fleet with, it is to be presumed, itspatrols on the alert. Yet, during that night, tenthousand American troops were marched down toboats on the strand at Brooklyn and, with all theirstores, were carried across a mile of water to NewYork.There must have been the splash of oarsand the grating of keels, orders givenAin tonesabove a whisper, the complex sounds of movingbodies of men. It was all done under the eye of

THE LOSS OF NEW YORK 91Washington. We can picture that tall figuremoving about on the strand at Brooklyn, whichhe was the last to leave. Not a sound disturbedthe slumbers of the British.does not easily defend itself.Boats from the Britishfleet might have brought panicAn army in retreatto the Americansin the darkness and the British army shouldat least have known that they were gone. Byseven in the morning the ten thousand Americansoldiers were for the time safe in New York, andwe may supposethat the two Howes were askingeager questions and wondering how it hadallhappened.Washington had shown that he knew when andhow to retire. Long Island was his first battle andhe had lost. Now retreat was his first great tacticalachievement.He could not stay in New York andso sent at once the chief part of the army, withdrawnfrom Brooklyn, to the lineRiver at the north end of the island.of the HarlemHe realizedthat his shore batteries could not keep the Britishfleet from sailing up both the East and the HudsonRivers and from landing a forceIsland almost where it liked.on ManhattanThen the city of NewYork would be surrounded by a hostile fleet and ahostile army. The Howes could have performed

92 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESthis maneuver as soon as they had a favorablewind.There was, we know, great confusionin New York, and Washingtontells us how hisheart was torn by the distress of the inhabitants.The British gave him plenty of time to make plans,and for a reason. We have seen that Lord Howewas not only an admiral to make war but also anenvoy to make peace. The British victory on LongIsland might, he thought, make Congress morewilling to negotiate.So now he sent to Philadelphiathe captured American General Sullivan, withthe request that some members of Congress mightconfer privately on the prospects for peace.Howe probably did not realize that the Americanshad the British quality of becoming moreresolute by temporary reverses.By this time, too,suspicion of every movement on the part of GreatBritain had become a mania.Every one in Congressseems to have thought that Howe was plan-John Adams, excepted by namening treachery.from British offers of pardon, called Sullivan a"decoy duck" and, as he confessed, laughed,scolded, and grieved at any negotiation. The wishto talk privately with members of Congress wascalled an insulting way of avoiding recognition ofthat body. In spite of this, even the stalwart

THE LOSS OF NEW YORK 93Adams and the suave Franklin were willing to bemembers of a committee which went to meet LordHowe.With great sorrow Howenow realized that hehad no power to grant what Congress insisted upon,the recognition of independence, as a preliminaryto negotiation. There was nothing for it but war.On the 15th of September the British struck theblow too long delayed had war been their onlyinterest. New York had to sit nearly helpless whilegreat men-of-war passed up both the Hudson andthe East River with guns sweeping the shoresof Manhattan Island. At the same time GeneralHowe sent over in boats from Long Island to thelanding at Kip's Bay, near the line of the presentThirty-fourth Street, an army to cut off the cityfrom the northern part of the island. Washingtonmarched in person with two New England regimentsto dispute the landing and give him timefor evacuation. To his rage panic seized his menand they turned and fled, leaving him almost alonenot a hundred yards from the enemy. A strayshot at that moment might have influenced greatlymodern history, for, as events were soon to show,Washington was the mainstay of the Americancause. He too had to get away and Howe's forcelanded easily enough.

94 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESMeanwhile, on the west shore of the island, therewas an animated scene. The roads were crowdedwith refugees fleeing northward from New York.These civilians Howe had no reason to stop, butthere marched, too, out of New York four thousandmen, under Israel Putnam, who got safely awaynorthward. Only leisurely did Howe extend hisline across the island so as to cut off the city.Thestory, not more trustworthy than many otherlegends of war, is that Mrs. Murray, living in acountry house near what now is Murray Hill, invitedthe General to luncheon, and that to enjoythis pleasure he ordered a halt for his whole force.Generals sometimes do foolish things but it is noteasy to call up a picture of Howe, in the midst ofa busy movement oftroops, receiving the lady'sinvitation, accepting it, and ordering the wholearmy to halt while he lingered over the luncheontable. There is no doubt that his mind was stilldivided between making war and making peace.Probably Putnam had already got away his men,and there was no purpose in stopping the refugeesin that flightfrom New York which so arousedthe pity of Washington. As it was Howe tooksixty-seven guns. By accident, or, it is said, bydesign of the Americans themselves, New York

THE LOSS OF NEW YORK 95soon took fire and one-third of the little citywas burned.After the fall of New York there followed a complexcampaign.The resourceful Washington wasnow, during his first days of active warfare, pittinghimself against one of the most experienced ofBritish generals.The aim of Howe was to getFleet and army were acting together.control of theHudson and to meet half way the advance fromCanada by way of Lake Champlain which Carletonwas leading. On the 12th of October, when autumnwinds were already making the nights cold,Howe moved. He did not attack Washington wholay in strength at the Harlem.been to play Washington's game.That would haveInstead he putthe part of his army still on Long Island in shipswhich then sailed through the dangerous currentsof Hell Gate and landed at Throg's Neck, a peninsulaon the sound across from Long Island. Washingtonparried this movement by so guarding thenarrow neck of the peninsula leading to the mainlandthat the cautious Howe shrank from a frontalattack across a marsh.he again embarked his army,After a delay of six days,landed a few milesabove Throg's Neck in the hope of cutting offWashington from retreat northward, only to find

96 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESWashington still north of him at WTiite Plains.A sharp skirmish followed in which Howe lostover two hundred men and Washington only onehundred and forty.Washington, masterly in retreat,then withdrew still farther north among hillsdifficult of attack.Howe had a plan which made a direct attack onWashington unnecessary.He turned southwardand occupied the east shore of the Hudson River.On the 16th of November took place the worstdisasterwhich had yet befallen American arms.Fort Washington, lying just south of the Harlem,was the only point still held on Manhattan Islandby the Americans. In modern war it has becomeclear that fortresses supposedly strong may beonly trapsfor their defenders. Fortstood on the east bank ofFort Lee, on the west bank.Washingtonthe Hudson oppositeThese forts could notfulfil the purpose for which they were intended, ofstopping British ships. Washington saw that thetwo forts should be abandoned. But the civiliansin Congress, who, it must be remembered, namedthe generals and had final authority in directing thewar, were reluctant to accept the loss involved inabandoning the forts and gave orders that everyeffort should be made to hold them. Greene, on

THE LOSS OF NEW YORK 97the whole Washington's best general, was in commandof the two positions and was left to use hisown judgment. On the 15th of November, by asudden and rapid march across the island, Howeappeared before Fort Washington and summonedit to surrender on pain of the rigors of war, whichmeant putting the garrison to the sword should hehave to take the place by storm.The answer wasa defiance; and on the next day Howe attacked inoverwhelming force. There was severe fighting.The casualties of the British were nearly five hundred,but they took the huge fort with its threethousand defenders and a great quantity of munitionsof war.There was no massacre.Howe's threat was not carried out.Across the river at Fort Lee the helpless Washingtonwatched this great disaster. He had needstill to look out, for Fort Lee was itself doomed.On the nineteenth Lord Cornwallis with five thousandmen crossed the river five miles above FortLee.General Greene barely escaped with the twothousand men in the fort, leaving behind one hundredand forty cannon, stores, tools, and even themen's blankets. On the twentieth the British flagwas floating over Fort Lee and Washington's wholeforce was in rapid flight across New Jersey, hardly

98 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESpausing until it had been ferried over the DelawareRiver into Pennsylvania.Treachery, now linked to military disaster, madeWashington's position terrible.Charles Lee, HoratioGates, and Richard Montgomery were threeimportant officers of the regular British armywho fought on the American side. Montgomeryhad been killed at Quebec; the defects of Gateswere not yet conspicuous;and Lee was next toWashington the most trusted American general.The names Washington and Lee of the twin fortson opposite sides of the Hudson show how the twogenerals stood in the public mind. While disasterwas overtaking Washington, Lee had seven thousandmen at North Castle on the east bank of theHudson, a few miles above Fort Washington,blocking Howe's advance farther up the river. Onthe day after the fall of Fort Washington, Lee receivedpositive orders to cross the Hudson at once.Three days later Fort Lee fell, and Washingtonrepeated the order. Lee did not budge. He wassafe where he was and could cross the river andget away into New Jersey when he liked. He seemsdeliberately to have left Washington to face completedisaster and thus prove his incompetence;then, as the undefeated general, he could take the

chief command.THE LOSS OF NEW YORK 99There is no evidence that he hadintrigued with Howe, but he thought that hecould be the peacemaker between Great Britain andAmerica, with untold possibilities of ambition inthat role. He wrote of Washington at this time,to his friend Gates, as weak and "most damnablydeficient." Nemesis, however, overtook him. Inthe end he had to retreat across the Hudson tonorthern New Jersey.were Tories.Here many of the peopleLee fell into a trap, was captured inbed at a tavern by a hard-riding party of Britishcavalry, and carried off a prisoner, obliged to bestridea horse in night gown and slippers. Notalways does fate appear so just in her strokes.In December, though the position of Washingtonwas very bad, all was not lost. The chief aim ofHowe was to secure the line of the Hudson and thishe had not achieved.At Stony Point, which liesup the Hudson about fifty miles from New York,the river narrows and passes through what isalmost a mountain gorge, easily defended.HereWashington had erected fortifications which madeit at least difficult for a British force to pass up theriver. Moreover in the highlands of northern NewJersey, with headquarters at Morristown, GeneralSullivan, recently exchanged, and General Gates

100 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESnow had Lee's army and also the remnants of theforce driven from Canada. But in retreatingacross New Jersey Washington had been forsakenby thousands of men, beguiled in part by theTory population, discouraged by defeat, and inmany cases with the right to go home, since theirterm of service had expired. All that remainedof Washington's armyafter the forces of Sullivanand Gates joined him across the Delawarein Pennsylvania, was about four thousand men.Howe was determined to have Philadelphia aswell as New York and could place some relianceon Tory help in Pennsylvania. He had pursuedWashington to the Delaware and would havepushed on across that river had not his alert foetaken care that all the boats should be on the wrongshore. As it was, Howe occupied the left bank ofthe Delaware with his chief postat Trenton. Ifhe made sure of New Jersey he could go on to Philadelphiawhen the river was frozen over or indeedwhen he liked. Even the Congress had fled toBaltimore.There were British successes in otherquarters. Early in December Lord Howe took thefleet to Newport. Soon he controlled the whole ofRhode Island and checked the American privateerswho had made it their base. The brothers issued

THE LOSS OF NEW YORK 101proclamations offering protection to all who shouldwithin sixty days return to then- British allegianceand many people of high standingand New Jersey accepted the offer.home to England the glad news of victory.Philadelphiawould probably falllooked as if the war was really over.in New YorkHowe wrotebefore spring and itIn this darkest hour Washington struck a blowwhich changed the whole situation. We associatewith him the thought of calm deliberation. Now,however, was he to show his strongest quality as ageneral to be audacity At the Battle of the Marne,.in 1914, the French General Foch sent the despatch:"My center isgiving way; my right is retreating;the situation is excellent I am :attacking."Washington's position seemed as nearly hopelessand he, too, had need of some striking action. Acampaign marked by his own blundering and bythe treachery of a trusted general had ended inseeming ruin. Pennsylvania at his back and NewJersey before him across the Delaware were lessthan half loyal to the American cause and probablywilling to accept peace on almost any terms.Never was a general in a position where greaterrisks must be taken for salvation. As Washingtonpondered what was going on amongthe British

102 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESacross the Delaware, a bold plan outlined itself inhis mind.Howe, he knew, had gone to New Yorkto celebrate a triumphant Christmas.His absencefrom the front was certain to involve slackness.It was Germans who held the line of the Delaware,some thirteen hundred of them under ColonelRahl at Trenton, two thousand under Von Donopfarther down the river at Bordentown; and withGermans perhaps more than any other peopleChristmas is a season of elaborate festivity. Onthis their first Christmas away from home many ofthe Germans would be likely to be off their guardeither through homesickness or dissipation. Theycared nothing for either side. There had beenmuch plundering in New Jersey and disciplinewas relaxed.Howe had been guilty of the folly of makingstrong the posts farthest from the enemy and weakthose nearest to him. He had, indeed, orderedRahl to throw up redoubts for the defense of Trenton,but this, as Washington well knew, had notbeen done for Rahl despised his enemy and spokeof the American army as alreadylost. Washington'sbold plan was to recross the Delaware andattack Trenton.There were to be three crossings.One was to be against Von Donop at Bordentown

THE LOSS OF NEW YORK 103below Trenton, the second at Trenton itself.Thesetwo attacks were designed to prevent aid to Trenton.The third force with which Washington himselfwent was to cross the river some nine milesabove the town.Christmas Day, 1776, was dismally cold.Therewas a driving storm of sleet and the broad swollenstream of the Delaware, dotted with dark massesof floating ice, offered a chill prospect.To take anarmy with its guns across that threatening floodwas indeed perilous.Gates and other generalsdeclared that the scheme was too difficult to becarried out.Only one of the three forces crossedthe river. Washington, with iron will, was not tobe turned from his purpose. He had skilled boat-The crossing took no lessmen from New England.than ten hours and a great part of it was done inWhen the army landed on thewintry darkness.New Jersey shore it had a march of nine miles insleet and rain in order to reach Trenton by daybreak.It is said that some of the men marchedbarefoot leaving tracks of blood in the snow.Thearms of some were lost and those of others were wetand useless but Washington told them that theymust depend the more on the bayonet. He attackedTrenton in broad daylight.There was a sharp fight.

104 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESRahl, the commander, and some seventy men, werekilled and a thousand men surrendered.Even now Washington's position was dangerous.Von Donop, with two thousand men, lay only afew miles down the river. Had he marched at onceon Trenton, as he should have done, the worn outlittle force of Washington might have met withdisaster. What Von Donop did when the alarmreached him was to retreat as fast as he could toPrinceton, a dozen miles to the rear towards NewYork, leaving behind his sick and all his heavyequipment. Meanwhile Washington, knowing hisdanger, had turned back across the Delaware witha prisoner for every two of his men.When, however,he saw what Von Donop had done he returnedon the twenty-ninth to Trenton, sent out scoutingparties, and roused the country so that in everybit of forest alongthe road to Princeton therewere men, dead shots, to make difficult a Britishadvance to retake Trenton.The reverse had brought consternation at NewYork.Lord Cornwallis was about to embark forEngland, the bearer of news of overwhelming victory.Now, instead, he was sent to drive backWashington. It was no easy task for Cornwallisto reach Trenton, for Washington's scouting

THE LOSS OF NEW YORK 105parties and a force of six hundred men underGreene were on the road to harass him. On theevening of the 2d of January, however, he reoccupiedTrenton.This time Washington had not recrossedthe Delaware but had retreated southwardand was now entrenched on the southern bank ofthe little river Assanpink, which flows into theDelaware.Reinforcements were following Cornwallis.HeThat night he sharply cannonaded Washington'sposition and was as sharply answered.intended to attack in force in the morning. To theskill and resource of Washington he paid the complimentof saying that at last he had run down the"Old Fox."Then followed a maneuver which, years after,Cornwallis, a generous foe,told Washington wasone of the most surprising and brilliant in the historyof war. There was another "old fox" inEurope, Frederick the Great, of Prussia, who knewwar if ever man knew it, and he, too, from thismovement ranked Washington among the greatgenerals. The maneuver was simple enough. Insteadof taking the obvious course of again retreatingacross the Delaware Washington decided toadvance, to get in behind Cornwallis, to try to cuthis communications, to threaten the British base

106 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESof supply and then, ifa superior force came up, toretreat into the highlands of New Jersey.Therehe could keep an unbroken line as far east as theHudson, menace the British in New Jersey, andprobably force them to withdraw to the safetyof New York.All through the night of January 2, 1777, Washington'scamp fires burned brightly and the Britishoutposts could hear the sound of voices and of thespade and pickaxe busy in throwing up entrenchments.The fires died down towards morning andthe British awoke to find the enemy camp deserted.Washington had carried his whole armyby a roundabout route to the Princeton road andnow stood between Cornwallis and his base. Therewas some sharp fighting that day near Princeton.Washington had to defeat and get past the reinforcementscoming to Cornwallis. He reachedPrinceton and then slipped away northward andmade his headquarters at Morristown. He hadachieved his purpose. The British with Washingtonentrenched on their flank were not safe in NewJersey. The only thing to do was to withdraw toNew York. By his brilliant advance Washingtonrecovered the whole of New Jersey with the exceptionof some minor positions near the sea. He had

THE LOSS OF NEW YORK 107changed the face of the war.In London there wasmomentary rejoicing over Howe's recent victories,but it was soon followed by distressing news ofdefeat. Through all the colonies ran inspiringtidings. There had been doubts whether, after all,Washington was the heaven-sent leader. Nowboth America and Europe learned to recognize hisskill.He had won a reputation, though not yethad he saved a cause.

CHAPTER VTHE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIATHOUGH the outlook for Washington was brightenedby his success in New Jersey,it was still depressingenough. The British had taken NewYork, they could probably take Philadelphia whenthey liked, and no place near the seacoast was safe.According to the votes in Parliament, by the springof 1777 Britain was to have an army of eighty-ninethousand men, of whom fifty-seven thousand wereintended for colonial garrisons and for the prosecutionof the war in America.These numbers were infact never reached, but the army of forty thousandin America was formidable compared with Washington'sforces.The British were not hampered bythe practice of enlisting men for only a few months,which marred so much of Washington's effort.Above all they had money and adequate resources.In a word they had the things which Washingtonlacked during almost the whole of the war.108

THE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIA 109Washington called his success in the attack atTrenton a lucky stroke. It was luck which had farreachingconsequences. Howe had the fixed ideathat to follow the capture of New York bythat ofPhiladelphia, the most populous city in America,and the seat of Congress, would mean great gloryfor himself and a crushing blow to the Americancause.If to this could be added, as he intended,the occupation of the whole valley of the Hudson,the year 1777 might well see the end of the war.An acute sense of the value of time is vital in war.Promptness, the quick surprise of the enemy, wasperhaps the chief military virtue of Washington;dilatoriness was the destructive vice of Howe. Hehad so little contempt for his foe that he practiseda blighting caution. On April 12, 1777, Washington,in view of his own depleted force, in a state ofhalf famine, wrote: "If Howe does not take advantageof our weak state he is veryunfit for histrust." Howe remained inactive and time, thusdespised, worked its due revenge. Later Howe didmove, and with skill, but he missed the rapid combinationin action which was the first condition offinal success. He could have captured Philadelphiain May. He took the city, but not until September,when to hold it had become a liability and not

110 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESan asset.To go there at all was perhaps unwise;to go in September was for him a tragic mistake.From New York to Philadelphia the distance byland is about a hundred miles. The route layacross New Jersey, that "garden of America"which English travelers spoke of as resemblingtheir own highly cultivated land. Washingtonhad his headquarters at Morristown, in northernNew Jersey. His resources were at a low ebb. Hehad always the faith that a cause founded on justicecould not fail; but his letters at this time arefull of depressing anxiety. Each State regardeditself as in danger and made care of its own interestsits chief concern. By this time Congresshad lost most of the able men who had given itdignity and authority. Like Howe it had slightsense of the value of time and imagined that tomorrowwas as good as today.Wellington oncecomplained that, though in supreme command,he had not authority to appoint even a corporal.Washington was hampered both by Congress andby the State Governments in choosing leaders.He had some officers, such as Greene, Knox, andBenedict Arnold, whom he trusted.Others, likeGates and Con way, were ceaseless intriguers.ToGeneral Sullivan, who fancied himself constantly

THE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIA 111slighted and ill-treated, Washington wrote sharplyto abolish his poisonous suspicions.Howe had offered easy terms to those in NewJersey who should declare their loyalty and tomeet this Washington advised the stern policy ofoutlawing every one who would not take the oathof allegianceto the United States. There wasmuch fluttering of heart on the New Jersey farms,much anxious trimming in order, in any event, tobe safe.Howe's Hessians had plundered ruthlesslycausing deep resentment against the British.NowWashington found his own people doing the samething. Militia officers, themselves, "generally"as he said, "of the lowest class of the people," notonlystole but incited their men to steal.It waseasy to plunder under the plea that the owner ofthe property was a Tory, whether open or concealed,and Washington wrote that the waste andtheft were "beyond all conception."There wereshirkers claiming exemption from military serviceon the ground that they were doing necessary serviceas civilians. Washington needed maps toplan his intricate movements and could not getthem. Smallpox was devastating his army andcausing losses heavier than those from the enemy.When pay day came there was usually no money.

WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESIt is little wonder that in this springof 1777 hefeared that his army might suddenly dissolve andleave him without a command.In that case hewould not have yielded. Rather, so stern andbitter was he against England, would he haveplungedinto the western wilderness to be lost inits vast spaces.Howe had his own perplexities.He knew that agreat expedition under Burgoyne was to advancefrom Canada southward to the Hudson. Was he toremain with his whole force at New York until thetime should come to push up the river to meetBurgoyne? He had a copyof the instructionsgiven in England to Burgoyne by Lord GeorgeGermain, but he was himself without orders.Afterwards the reason became known. LordGeorge Germain had dictated the order to cooperatewith Burgoyne, but had hurried off to thecountry before itwas ready for his signature andit had been mislaid. Howe seemed free to makehis own plans and he longed to be master of theenemy's capital.PhiladelphiaIn the end he decided to takea task easy enough,as the eventproved. At Howe's elbow was the traitorousAmerican general, Charles Lee, whom he had recentlycaptured, and Lee, as we know, toldhim

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THE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIA 113that Maryland and Pennsylvania were at heartloyal to the King and panting to be free from thetyranny of the demagogue. Once firmly in thecapital Howe believed that he would have securecontrol of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and NewHe could achieve this and be back at NewJersey.York in time to meet Burgoyne, perhaps at Albany.Then he would hold the colony of New York fromStaten Island to the Canadian frontier. Howefound that he could send ships up the Hudson, andthe American army had to stand on the banksalmost helpless against the mobility of sea power.Washington's left wing rested on the Hudson andhe held both banks but neither at Peekskill nor, asyet, farther up at West Point, could his forts preventthe passage of ships.for the British to advance on land.It was a different matterwent up and down in the spring of 1777.But the shipsIt wouldbe easy enough to help Burgoyne when the timeshould come.It was summer before Howe was ready to move,and by that time he had received instructions thathis first aim must be to cooperate with Burgoyne.First, however, he was resolved to have Philadelphia.Washington watched Howe in perplexity.A great fleet and a great army lay at New York.

114 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESWhy did they not move?well what heWashington knew perfectlyHowe's place.himself would have done inHe would have attacked rapidly inApril the weak American army and, after destroyingor dispersing it, would have turned to meetBurgoyne coming southward from Canada. Howedid send a strong force into New Jersey. But hedid not know how weak Washington really was, forthat master of craft in war disseminated with greatskill false information as to his own supposed overwhelmingstrength. Howe had been bitten onceby advancing too far into New Jersey and was notgoing to take risks. He tried to entice Washingtonfrom the hills to attack in open country. Hemarched here and there in New Jersey and keptWashington alarmed and exhausted by countermarches, and always puzzled as to what the nextmove should be. Howe purposely let one of hissecret messengers be taken bearing a despatch sayingthat the fleet was about to sail for Boston. Allthese things took time and the summer was slippingaway. In the end Washington realized that Howeintended to make his move not by land but bysea.Could it be possible that he was not going tomake aid to Burgoyne his chief purpose?Couldit be that he would attack Boston? Washington

THE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIA 115hoped so for he knew the reception certain atBoston. Or was his goal Charleston? On the 23dof July, when the summer was more than halfgone, Washington began to see more clearly.Onthat day Howe had embarked eighteen thousandmen and the fleet put to sea from Staten Island.Howe was doing what able officers with him,such as Cornwallis, Grey, and the German Knyphausen,appear to have been unanimous in thinkinghe should not do. He was misled not only by thedesire to strike at the very center of the rebellion,but also by the assurance of the traitorous Lee thatto take Philadelphia would be the effective signalto all the American Loyalists, the overwhelmingmajority of the people, as was believed, that seditionhad failed. A tender parent, the King, wasready to have the colonies back in their formerrelation and to give them secure guarantees offuture liberty.Any one who saw the fleet put outfrom New York Harbor must have been impressedwith the might of Britain. No less than two hundredand twenty-nine ships set their sails andcovered the sea for miles. When they had disappearedout of sight of the New Jersey shoretheir goal was still unknown. At sea they mightturn in any direction.Washington's uncertainty

116 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESwas partly relieved on the 30th of July when thefleetappeared at the entrance of Delaware Bay,with Philadelphia some hundred miles away acrossthe bay and up the Delaware River.After hoveringabout the Cape for a day the fleet again put tosea, and Washington, who had marched his armyso as to be near Philadelphia, thought the wholemovement a feint and knew not where the fleetwould next appear. He was preparing to march toNew York to menace General Clinton, who hadthere seven thousand men able to help Burgoynewhen he heard good news. On the 22d of Augusthe knew that Howe had really gone southward andwas in Chesapeake Bay. Boston was now certainlysafe. On the 25th of August, after three stormyweeks at sea, Howe arrived at Elkton, at the headof Chesapeake Bay, and there landed his army.It was Philadelphia fiftymiles awaythat he intendedto have. Washington wrote gleefully:"Now let all New England turn out and crushBurgoyne."writingBefore the end of September he wasthat he was certain of completedisasterto Burgoyne.Howe had, in truth, made a ruinous mistake.Had the date been May instead of August he mightstill have saved Burgoyne. But at the end of

THE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIA 117August, when the net was closing on Burgoyne,Howe was three hundred miles away. His disregardof time and distance had been magnificent.In July he had sailed to the mouth of the Delaware,with Philadelphia near, but he had then sailedaway again, and why?Because the passage of hisships up the river to the city was blocked by obstructionscommanded by bristling forts. Thenaval officers said truly that the fleet could notget up the river. ButHowe might have landed hisarmy at the head of Delaware Bay.It is a dozenmiles across the narrow peninsula from the head ofDelaware Bay to that of Chesapeake Bay. SinceHowe had decided to attack from the head of Chesa~peake Baythere was little toprevent him fromlanding his army on the Delaware side of the peninsulaand marching across it.By sea it is a voyageof three hundred miles round a peninsula onehundred and fifty miles long to get from one ofthese points to the other, by land only a dozen milesaway. Howe made the sea voyage and spent on itthree weeks when a march of a day would have savedthis time and kept his fleet three hundred miles bysea nearer to New York and aid for Burgoyne.Howe's mistakes only have their place in theprocession to inevitable disaster.Once in the thick

118 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESof fighting he showed himself formidable.When hehad landed at Elkton he was fifty miles southwestof Philadelphia and between him and that placewas Washington with his army. Washington wasdetermined to delay Howe in every possible way.To get to Philadelphia Howe had to cross theBrandywine River. Time was nothing to him.He landed at Elkton on the 25th of August. Notuntil the 10th of September was he prepared toattack Washington barring his way at Chadd'sFord. Washington was in a strong position on afront of two miles on the river. At his left, belowChadd's Ford, the Brandywine is a torrent flowingbetween high cliffs.There the British would findno passage. On his right was a forest. Washingtonhad chosen hisposition with his usual skill.Entrenchments protected his front and batterieswould sweep down an advancing enemy.probablyHe hadnot more than eleven thousand men inthe fight and it is doubtful whether Howe broughtup a greater number so that the armies were notunevenly matched. At daybreak on the elevenththe British army broke camp at the village of KennethSquare, four miles from Chadd's Ford, and,under General Knyphausen, marched straight tomake a frontal attack on Washington's position.

THE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIA 119In the battle which followed Washington wasbeaten by the superior tactics of his enemy. Notall of the British army was there in the attack atChadd's Ford. A column under Cornwallis had filedoff by a road to the left and was making a long andrapid march. The plan was to cross the Brandywinesome ten miles above where Washington waspostedand to attack him in the rear. Bytwoo'clock in the afternoon Cornwallis had forced thetwo branches of the upper Brandywine and wasmarching on Dilworth at the right rear of theAmerican army. Only then did Washington be*-come aware of his danger. His first impulse was toadvanceacross Chadd's Ford to try to overwhelmKnyphausen and thus to get between Howe andthe fleet at Elkton.broughtThis might, however, havedisaster and he soon decided to retire.His movement was ably carried out.Both sidessuffered in the woodland fighting but that nightthe British army encamped in Washington's positionat Chadd's Ford, and Howe had foughtskillfully and won an important battle.Washington had retired in good order and wasstill formidable. He now realized clearly enoughthat Philadelphia would fall. Delay, however,would be nearly as good as victory. He saw what

120 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESHowe could not see,that menacing cloud in thenorth, much bigger than a man's hand, which, withHowe far away, should break in a final stormterrible for the British cause.Meanwhile Washingtonmeant to keep Howe occupied.Rain aloneprevented another battle before the British reachedthe Schuylkill River. On that river Washingtonguarded every ford. But, in the end, by skillfulmaneuvering, Howe was able to cross and on the26th of September he occupied Philadelphia withoutresistance.quietlyin their houses.the wealthier inhabitants.The people were ordered to remainOfficers were billeted onThe fall resounded farof what Lord Adam Gordon called a "great andnoble city," "the first Town in America," "one ofthe Wonders of the World."Its luxury had beenso conspicuous that the austere John Adams condemnedthe "sinful feasts" in which he shared.About it were fine country seats surrounded byparklike grounds, with noble trees, clipped hedges,and beautiful gardens. The British believed thatPennsylvania was really on their side.the people were friendlyMany ofand hundreds now renewedtheir oath of allegiance to the King.Washingtoncomplained that the people gave Howe informationdenied to him. They certainly fed

THE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIAHowe's army willingly and received good Britishgold while Washington had only paper money withwhich to pay. Over the proud capital floated oncemore the British flag and people who did not seevery far said that, with both New York and Phila-delphia taken, the rebellion had at last collapsed.Once in possession of Philadelphia Howe madehis camp at Germantown, a straggling suburbanSvillage,about seven miles northwest of the city.Washington's army lay at the foot of some hills adozen miles farther away. Howe had need to bewary, for Washington was the same "old fox" whohad played so cunning a game at Trenton. Theefforts of the British army were now centered onclearing the river Delaware so that supplies mightbe brought up rapidly by water instead of beingcarried fifty miles overland from Chesapeake Bay.Howe detached some thousands of men for thiswork and there was sharp fighting before the troopsand the fleet combined had cleared the river. AtGermantown Howe kept about nine thousand men*Though he knew that Washington was likely toattack him he did not entrench his army as hedesired the attack to be made. It might well havesucceeded. Washington with eleven thousand menaimed at a surprise. On the evening of the 3d of

WASHINGTON AND HIS COMKADESOctober he set out from his camp.Four roads ledinto Germantown and all these the Americansused.At sunrise on the fourth, just as the attackbegan, a fog arose to embarrass both sides. Lyinga little north of the village was the solid stonehouse of Chief Justice Chew, and it remains famousas the central point in the bitter fight of that day.What brought final failure to the American attackwas an accident of maneuvering. Sullivan's brigadewas in front attacking the British whenGreene's came up for the same purpose.His lineoverlapped Sullivan's and he mistook in the fogSullivan's men for the enemy and fired on themfrom the rear. A panic naturally resulted amongthe men who were attacked also at the same timeby the British on their front.The disorder spread.British reinforcements arrived, and Washington-drew off his army in surprising order consideringthe panic.He had six hundred and seventy-threecasualties and lost besides four hundred prisoners.%The British loss was five hundred and thirty-sevencasualties and fourteen prisoners. The attack hadfailed, but news soon came which made the reverseunimportant. Burgoyne and his whole army hadsurrendered at Saratoga.

CHAPTER VITHE FIRST GREAT BRITISH DISASTERJOHN BURGOYNE, in a measure a soldier of fortune,was the younger son of an impoverished baronet,but he had married the daughter of the powerfulEarl of Derby and was well known in Londonsocietyas a man of fashion and also as a man ofletters, whose plays had a certain vogue.His will,in which he describes himself as a humble Christian,who, in spite of many faults, had never forgottenGod, shows that he was serious minded.He sat in the House of Commons for Preston and,though he used the languageof a courtier andspoke of himself as lying at the King's feet to awaithis commands, he was a Whig,the friend of Fox,and others whom the King regarded as his enemies.One of his plays describes the difficulties of gettingthe English to join the army of George III. We havethe smartly dressed recruit as a decoy to suggest aneasy life in the army. Victory and glory are so123

124 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADEScertain that a tailorneck of the Kingstands with his feet on theof France. Thedecks of capturedships swim with punch and are clotted withgold dust, and happy soldiers play with diamondsto make sureas ifthey were marbles. The senators of England,says Burgoyne, care chieflyof good game laws for their own pleasure. Theworthless son of one of them, who sets out onthe long drive to his father's seat in the country,spends an hour in "yawning, picking his teethand damning his journey" and when once on theway drives with such fury that the route ismarked by "yelping dogs, broken-backed pigs anddismembered geese."It was under this playwright and satirist,whohad some skill as a soldier, that the British causenow received a blow from which it never recovered.Burgoyne had taken part in driving the Americansfrom Canada in 1776 and had spent the followingwinter in England using his influence to secure anindependent command. To his later undoing hesucceeded.It was he, and not, as had been expected,General Carleton, who was appointed tolead the expedition of1777 from Canada to theHudson. Burgoyne was given instructions so rigidas to be an insult to his intelligence. He was to do

FIRST GREAT BRITISH DISASTER 125or;e thing and only one thing, to press forward tothe Hudson and meet Howe. At the same time LordGeorge Germain, the minister responsible, failed toinstruct Howe to advance up the Hudson to meetBurgoyne. Burgoyne had a genuine belief in thewisdom of this strategy but he had no power tovary it, to meet changing circumstances, and thiswas one chief factor in his failure.Behold Burgoyne then, on the 17th of June,embarking on Lake Champlain the army which,ever since his arrival in Canada on the 6th of May,he had been preparing for this advance. He hadrather more than seven thousand men, of whomnearly one-half were Germans under the competentGeneral Riedesel. In the force of Burgoyne wefind the ominous presence of some hundreds ofIndian allies.They had been attached to one sideor the other in every war fought in those regions'during the previous one hundred and fifty years.In the war which ended in 1763 Montcalm hadused them and so had his opponent Amherst. Theregiments from the New England and other colonieshad fought in alliance with the painted andbefeathered savages and had made no protest.Now either times had changed, or there was somethingin a civil war which made the use of savages

126 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESseem hideous. One thing is certain. Amherstheld his savages in stern restraint and could sayproudly that they had not committed a singleoutrage. Burgoyne was not so happy.In nearly every war the professional soldiershows distrust, if not contempt,for civilian levies.Burgoyne had been in America before the day ofBunker Hill and knew a great deal about the country.He thought the "insurgents" good enoughfighters when protected by trees and stones andswampy ground. But he thought, too, that theyhad no real knowledge of the science of war andcould not fight a pitched battle. He himself hadnot shown the prevision required by sound militaryknowledge. If the British were going to abandonthe advantage of sea power and fight where theycould not fall back on their fleet, they needed to payspecial attention to land transport. This Burgoynehad not done. It was only a little more than aweek before he reached Lake Champlain that heasked Carleton to provide the four hundred horsesand five hundred carts which he still needed andwhich were not easily secured in a sparsely settledcountry. Burgoyne lingered for three days atCrown Point, half way down the lake. Then, onthe 2d of July, he laid siege to Fort Ticonderoga.

FIRST GREAT BRITISH DISASTER 127Once past this fort, guardingthe route to LakeGeorge, he could easily reach the Hudson.In command at Fort Ticonderoga was GeneralSt. Clair, with about thirty-five hundred men.He had long notice of the siege, for the expeditionof Burgoyne had been the open talk of Montrealand the surrounding country during many months.He had built Fort Independence, on the east shoreof Lake Champlain, and with a great expenditureof labor had sunk twenty-two piers across the lakeand stretched in front of them a boom to protectthe two forts. But he had neglected to defendSugar Hill in front of Fort Ticonderoga, and commandingthe American works. Ittook only threeor four days for the British to drag cannon to thetop, erect a battery and prepare to open fire. Onthe 5th of July, St. Clair had to face a bitter necessity.He abandoned the untenable forts and retiredsouthward to Fort Edward by way of thedifficult Green Mountains. The British took onehundred and twenty-eight guns.These successes led the British to think thatwithin a few days they would be in Albany.Wehave an amusing picture of the effect on GeorgeIII of the fall of Fort Ticonderoga. The place hadbeen much discussed.It had been the first British

US WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESfort to fall to the Americans when the Revolutionbegan, and Carleton's failure to take it in theautumn of 1776 had been the cause of acute heartburningfallin London. Now,reached England, Georgewhen the news of itsIII burst into theQueen's room with the glad cry, "I have beat them,I have beat the Americans." Washington's depressionwas not as great as the King's elation; hehad a better sense of values; but he had intendedthat the fort should hold Burgoyne, and itsfallwas a disastrous blow. The Americans showedskill and good soldierly quality in the retreat fromTiconderoga, and Burgoyne in following and harassingthem was led into hard fighting in thewoods. The easier route by way of Lake Georgewas open but Burgoyne hoped to destroy hisenemy by direct pursuit through the forest. Ittook him twenty days to hew his way twentymiles, to the upper waters of the Hudson near FortEdward. When there on the 30th of July hehad communications open from the Hudson to theSt. Lawrence.Fortune seemed to smile on Burgoyne.He hadtaken many guns and he had proved the fightingquality of his men. But his cheerful elation had,in truth, no sound basis.Never during the two

NATHANAELGREENEPainting by C. W. Peale. In Independence Hall, Philadelphia.

ty days to hew his way tw- ^ort; he AQuvi-geIII bur* *I have beat them,I have be*. >fl?rica Washington's de'-ion Wit* m>t * frreat as th< King's elation; head intendedftraaaa.nKV.i.HTkVi'.r,i[fqlohc!M4 JlcH eoogfcn^bnl nl .I pursuit throughthe forest. ItEdv.V-T ,theHe hadtaken man; ad pro lightingof his L

FIRST GREAT BRITISH DISASTER 129and a half months of bitter struggle which followedwas he able to advance more than twenty-fivemiles from Fort Edward. The moment he neededtransport by land he found himself almost helpless.Sometimes his men were without food and equipmentbecause he had not the horses and carts tobring supplies from the head of water at Fort Anneor Fort George, a score of miles away. Sometimeshe had no food to transport. He was dependenton his communications for every form of supplies.Even hay had to be brought from Canada, since,hi the forest country, there was little food for hishorses. The perennial problem for the British inall operations was this one of food. The inlandregions were too sparsely populated to make itpossiblefor more than a few soldiers to live onlocal supplies. The wheat for the bread of theBritish soldier, his beef and his pork, even the oatsfor his horse, came, for the most part, from England,at vast expense for transport, which madefortunes for contractors. It is said that the costof a pound of salted meat delivered to Burgoyneon the Hudson was thirty shillings. Burgoynehad been told that the inhabitants needed onlyprotection to make them openly loyal and hadcounted on them for supplies. He found instead

130 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESthe great mass of the peoplehostile and hedoubted the sincerity even of those who professedtheir loyalty.After Burgoyne had been a month at Fort Edwardhe was face to face with starvation.If headvanced he lengthened his line to flank attack.As it was he had difficulty in holding it againstNew Englanders, the most resolute of all his foes,eager to assert by hard fighting, if need be, theirright to hold the invaded territory which wasclaimed also by New York.Burgoyne's instructionsforbade him to turn aside and strike them aheavy blow. He must go on to meet Howe whowas not there to be met. A being who could seethe movements of men as we watch a game of chess,mightthink that madness had seized the Britishleaders; Burgoyne on the upper Hudson plungingforward resolutely to meet Howe; Howe at seasailing away, as it might well seem, to get as farfrom Burgoyne as he could; Clinton in command atNew York without instructions, puzzled what to doand not hearing from his leader, Howe, for sixweeks at a time; and across the sea a complacentminister, Germain, who believed that he knewwhat to do in a scene three thousand miles away,and had drawn up exact instructions as to the way

FIRST GREAT BRITISH DISASTER 131of doing it,news of the final triumph.Burgoyneand who was now eagerly awaitingdid his best. Earlyin August he hadto make a venturesome stroke to get sorely neededfood.Some twenty-five miles east of the Hudsonat Bennington, in difficult country, New Englandmilitia had gathered food and munitions, andHehorses for transport. The pressure of need cloudedBurgoyne's judgment. To make a dash for Benningtonmeant a long and dangerous march.was assured, however, that a surprise was possibleand that in any case the country was full of friendsonly awaiting a little encouragement to come outopenly on his side. They were Germans who lay onBurgoyne's left and Burgoyne sent Colonel Baum,an efficient officer, with five or six hundred mento attack the New Englanders and bring inthesupplies. It was a stupid blunder to send Germansamong a people specially incensed against theuse of these mercenaries. There was no surprise.Many professing loyalists, seemingly eager to takethe oath of allegiance, met and delayed Baum.When near Bennington he found in front of him aforce barring the way and had to make a carefullyThen five hundredguarded camp for the night.men, some of them the cheerful takers of the oath

132 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESof allegiance, slipped round to his rear and in themorning he was attacked from front and rear.A hot fight followed which resulted in the completedefeat of the British. Baum was mortallywounded. Some of his men escaped into thewoods; the rest were killed or captured.this all.Nor wasBurgoyne, scenting danger, had orderedfive hundred more Germans to reinforce Baum.They, too, were attacked and overwhelmed.In allBurgoyne lost some eight hundred men and fourguns. The American loss was seventy. It showsthe spirit of the time that, for the sport of the soldiers,British prisoners were tied together in pairsat the tail of horses. Anand driven by negroesAmerican soldier described long after, with regretfor his own cruelty, how he had taken a Britishprisoner who had had his left eye shot out andmounted him on a horse also without the left eye,in derision at the captive's misfortune. The Britishcomplained that quarter was refused in thefight.For days tired stragglers, after long wanderingin the woods, drifted into Burgoyne's camp.This was now near Saratoga, a name destined tobe ominous in the history of the British army.Further misfortune now crowded upon Burgoyne.The general of that day had two favorite

FIRST GREAT BRITISH DISASTER 133forms of attack. One was to hold the enemy'sfront and throw out a column to march round theflank and attack his rear, the method of Howe atthe Brandywine; the other method was to advanceon the enemy by lines converging at a commoncenter. This form of attack had proved mostsuccessful eighteen yearsearlier when the Britishhad finally secured Canada by bringing together,at Montreal, three armies, one from the east, onefrom the west, and one from the south. Now therewas a similar plan of bringing together three Britishforces at or near Albany, on the Hudson. Ofat New York, and Burgoyne we know.Clinton,The third force was under General St. Leger. Withsome seventeen hundred men, fully half of whomwere Indians, he had gone up the St. Lawrence fromMontreal and was advancing from Oswego on LakeOntario to attack Fort Stanwix at the end ofthe road from the Great Lakes to the MohawkRiver.After taking that stronghold he intendedto go down the river valley to meet Burgoynenear Albany.On the 3d of August St. Leger was before FortStanwix garrisoned by some seven hundred Americans.that scene.With him were two men deemed potent inOne of these was Sir John Johnson

134 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESwho had recently inherited the vast estate in theneighborhood of his father, the great Indian Superintendent,Sir William Johnson, and was now incommand of a regiment recruited from Loyalists,manyof them fierce and embittered because of theseizure of their property.The other leader was afamous chief of the Mohawks, Thayendanegea, or,to give him his English name, Joseph Brant, halfsavage still,but also half civilized and half educated,because he had had a careful schooling andfor a brief day had been courted by London fashion.He exerted a formidable influence with his ownpeople. The Indians were not, however, all onone side. Half of the six tribes of the Iroquoiswere either neutral or in sympathy with the Americans.Among the savages, as among the civilized,the war was a family quarrel, in which brotherfought brother. Most of the Indians on the Americanside preserved, indeed, an outward neutrality.There was no hostile population for them to plunderand the Indian usually had no stomach for anyother kind of warfare. The allies of the British,on the other hand, had plenty of openings to theirtaste and they brought on the British cause anenduring discredit.When St. Leger was before Fort Stanwix he

FIRST GREAT BRITISH DISASTER 135heard that a force of eight hundred men, led by aGerman settler named Herkimer, was coming upagainst him. When it was at Oriskany, about sixmiles away, St. Leger laid a trap. He sent Brantwith some hundreds of Indians and a few soldiersto be concealed in a marshy ravine which Herkimermust cross. When the American force washemmed in by trees and marsh on the narrowcauseway of logs running across the ravine theIndians attacked with wild yells and murderousfire. Then followed a bloody hand to hand fight.Tradition has been busy with its horrors. Menstruggled in slime and blood and shouted cursesand defiance. Improbable stories are told of pairsof skeletons found afterwards in the bog each witha bony hand which had driven a knife to the heartof the other.In the end the British, met by resolutionso fierce, drew back. Meanwhile a sortie fromthe American fort on their rear had a menacingsuccess.Sir John Johnson's camp was taken andsacked. The two sides were at last glad to separate,after the most bloody struggle in the wholewar. St. Leger's Indians had had more thanenough. About a hundred had been killed and therest were in a state of mutiny. Soon it was knownthat Benedict Arnold, with a considerable force,

136 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESwas pushing up the Mohawk Valley to relieve theAmerican fort. Arnold knew how to deal withsavages. He took care that his friendly Indiansshould come into contact with those of Brant andtelllurid tales of utter disaster to Burgoyne andof a great avenging army on the march to attackSt. Leger. The result was that St. Leger's Indiansbroke out in riot and maddened themselves withstolen rum.Disorder affected even the soldiers.The only thing for St. Leger to do was to get away.He abandoned his guns and stores and, harassednow by his former Indian allies, made his way toOswego and in the end reached Montreal with aremnant of his force.News of these things came to Burgoyne justafter the disaster at Bennington.Since Fort Stanwixwas in a country counted upon as Loyalist atheart it was especially discouraging again to findthat in the main the population was against theBritish.During the war almost without exception"X Loyalist opinion proved weak against the fiercedetermination of the American side. It was partlya matter of organization. The vigilance committeesin each State made life well-nigh intolerable tosuspected Tories. Above all, however, the Britishhad to bear the odium which attaches always to

FIRST GREAT BRITISH DISASTER 137the invader. We do not know what an Americanarmy would have done if, with Iroquois savages asallies, it had made war in an English county.know what loathing a parallelWesituation arousedagainst the British army in America. The Indians,it should be noted, were not soldiers under Britishdiscipline but allies;the chiefs regarded themselvesas equals who must be consulted and not asenlisted to take orders from a British general.In war, as in politics, nice balancing of merit ordefect in an enemy would destroy the main purposewhich is to defeat him. Each side exaggerates anyweak point in the other in order to stimulate thefighting passions. Judgment is distorted. TheBaroness Riedesel, the wife of one of Burgoyne'sgenerals, who was in Boston in 1777, says that thepeople were all dressed alike in a peasant costumewith a leather strap round the waist, that they wereof very low and insignificant stature, and that onlyone in ten of them could read or write. She picturesNew Englanders as tarring and featheringcultivated English ladies. When educated peoplebelieved every evil of the enemy the ignorant hadNew England hadno restraint to their credulity.long regarded the native savages as a pest. In1776 New Hampshire offered seventy pounds for

138 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMKADESeach scalp of a hostile male Indian and thirty-sevenpounds and ten shillings for each scalpor of a child under twelve years of age.of a womanNow itwas reported that the British were offering bountiesfor American scalps.Benjamin Franklin satirizedBritish ignorance when he described whales leapingNiagara Falls and he did not expectto be takenseriously when, at a later date, he pictured GeorgeIII as gloating over the scalps of his subjects inAmerica.The Seneca Indians alone, wrote Franklin,sent to the King many bales of scalps. Somebales were captured by the Americans and theyfound the scalps of 43 soldiers, 297 farmers, some ofthem burned alive, and 67 old people, 88 women, 193boys, 211 girls, 29 infants, and others unclassified.Exact figures bring conviction. Franklin was notwanting in exactness nor did he fail,albeit it wasunwittingly, to intensify burning resentment ofwhich we have echoes still. Burgoyne had to bearthe odium of the outrages by Indians.It is amusingto us, though it was hardly so to this kindlyman, to find these words put into his mouth by acolonial poet:I will let loose the dogs of Hell,Ten thousand Indians who shall yell,And foam, and tear, and grin, and roar

FIRST GREAT BRITISH DISASTER 139And drench their moccasins in gore: . . .I swear, by St. George and St. Paul,I will exterminate you all.Such seed, falling on soil prepared by the hateof war, brought forth its deadly fruit. The Americansbelieved that there was no brutality fromwhich British officers would shrink.Burgoyne hadtold his Indian allies that they must not kill exceptin actual fighting and that there must be no slaughterof non-combatants and no scalping of any butthe dead. The warning delivered him into thehands of his enemies for it showed that he halfexpected outrage. Members of the British Houseof Commons were no whit behind the Americansin attacking him.Burke amused the House by hissatire on Burgoyne's words: "My gentle lions, myhumane bears, my tender-hearted hyenas, go forth !But I exhort you, as you are Christians and membersof civilized society,any man, woman, or child."to take care not to hurtBurke's great speechlasted for three and a half hours and Sir GeorgeSavile called it "the greatest triumph of eloquencewithin memory." British officers disliked theirdirty, greasy, noisy allies and Burgoyne found hisuse of savages, with the futile order to be merciful,a potent factor in his defeat.

140 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESA horrifying incident had occurred while he wasfighting his wayto the Hudson.As the Americanswere preparing to leave Fort Edward some maraudingIndians saw a chance of plunder and outrage.They burst into a house and carried off twoladies, both of them British in sympathy Mrs.McNeil, a cousin of one of Burgoyne's chief officers,General Fraser, and Miss Jeannie McCrae, whosebetrothed, a Mr. Jones, and whose brother wereserving with Burgoyne. In a short time Mrs.McNeil was handed over unhurt to Burgoyne'sadvancing army.seen alive by her friends.Miss McCrae was never againHer body was found anda Wyandot chief, known as the Panther, showedher scalp as a trophy.Burgoyne would have beena poor creature had he not shown anger at such acrime, even if committed against the enemy. Thiscrime, however, was committed against his ownfriends. He pressed the charge against the chiefand was prepared to hang him and only relaxedwhen it was urged that the execution would causeallhis Indians to leave him and to commit furtheroutrages.The incident was appealing in itstragedy and stirred the deep anger of the populationof the surrounding country among whosedescendants to this daythe tradition of the

FIRST GREAT BRITISH DISASTER 141abandoned brutality of the British keeps alive theold hatred.At Fort Edward Burgoyne now found that heHe was encumbered by ancould hardly move.enormous baggage train.His own effects filled, itis said, thirty wagons and this we can believe whenwe find that champagne was served at his table upalmost to the day of final disaster. The populationwas thoroughly aroused against him.His own instinctwas to remain near the water route to Canadaand make sure of his communications. Onthe other hand, honor called him to go forward andnot fail Howe, supposed to be advancing to meethim.For a long time he waited and hesitated.Meanwhile he was having increasing difficulty infeeding his army and through sickness and desertionhis numbers were declining.Bythe 13th ofHe madeSeptember he had taken a decisive step.a bridge of boats and moved his whole force acrossthe river to Saratoga, now Schuylerville. Thiscrossing of the river would result inevitably incutting off his communications with Lake Georgeand Ticonderoga. After such a step he could notgo back and he was moving forward into a darkunknown. The American camp was at Stillwater,twelve miles farther down the river. Burgoyne

142 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESsent messenger after messenger to get past theAmerican lines and bring back news of Howe.one of these unfortunate spies returned.them were caught and ignominiously hanged.NotMost ofOnething, however, Burgoyne could do. He couldhazard a fight and on this he decided as the autumnwas closing in.Burgoyne had no time to lose, once his force wason the west bank of the Hudson. General Lincolncut off his communications with Canada and wassoon laying siege to Ticonderoga.The Americanarmy facing Burgoyne was now commanded byGeneral Gates. This Englishman, the godson ofHorace Walpole, had gained by successful intriguepowerful support in Congress. That body wasalways payingtoo much heed to local claims andjealousies and on the 2d of Augustit removedSchuyler of New York because he was disliked bythe soldiers from New England and gave the commandto Gates. Washington was far away maneuveringto meet Howe and he was never able towatch closely the campaign in the north. Gates,indeed, considered himself independent of Washingtonand reported not to the Commander-in-Chief but direct to Congress. On the 19th ofSeptember Burgoyne attacked Gates in a strong

FIRST GREAT BRITISH DISASTER 143entrenched position on Bemis Heights, at Stillwater.There was a long and bitterfight, but by eveningBurgoyne had not carried the main positionand had lost more than five hundred men whomhe could illspare from his scanty numbers.Burgoyne's condition was now growing desperate.American forces barred retreat to Canada.He must go back and meet both frontal and flankattacks, or go forward, or surrender. To go forwardnow had most promise, for at last Howe hadinstructed Clinton, left in command at New York,to move, and Clinton was making rapid progressup the Hudson. On the 7th of October Burgoyneattacked again at Stillwater. This time he wasdecisively defeated, a result due to the amazingenergy in attack of Benedict Arnold, who had beenstripped of his command by an intrigue. Gateswould not even speak to him and his lingering inthe American camp was unwelcome. Yet as avolunteer Arnold charged the British line madlyand broke it. Burgoyne's best general, Fraser,was killed in the fight.Burgoyne retired to Saratogaand there at last faced the prospects of gettingback to Fort Edward and to Canada. It may bethat he could have cut his way through, but thisis doubtful.Without risk of destruction he could

144 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESnot move in any direction.His enemies now outnumberedhim nearly four to one. His camp wasswept by the American guns and his men wereunder arms night and day. American sharpshootersstationed themselves at daybreak in treesabout the British camp and any one who appearedin the openrisked his life. Ifa cap was held upin view instantly two or three balls would passthrough it.His horses were killed by rifle shots.Burgoyne had little food for his men and none forhis horses.His Indians hud long since goneoff indudgeon. Many of his Canadian French slippedoff homeward and so did the Loyalists. The Ger-A Britishman troops were naturally dispirited.officer tells of the deadly homesickness of thesepoor men. They would gather in groups of twodozen or so and mourn that they would never againsee their native land.They died, a score at a time,of no other disease than sickness for their homes.They could have no pride in trying to save a lostcause.Burgoyne was surrounded and, on the 17thof October, he was obliged to surrender.Gates proposed to Burgoyne hard termssurrenderwith no honors of war.The British were tolay down their arms in their encampments and tomarch out without weapons of any kind. Burgoyne

FIRST GREAT BRITISH DISASTER 145declared that, rather than accept such terms, hewould fight still and take no quarter. A shadowwas falling on the path of Gates. The term of serviceof some of his men had expired. The NewEnglanders were determined to stay and see theend of Burgoyne but a good many of the New Yorktroops went off. Sickness, too, was increasing..Above allHudson.General Clinton was advancing up theBritish ships could come up freelyas faras Albany and in a few days Clinton might make aformidable advance. Gates, a timid man, was in ahurry. He therefore agreed that the British shouldmarch from their camp with the honors of war,that the troops should be taken to New England,and from there to England.They must not serveagain in North America during the war but therewas nothing in the terms to prevent their servingin Europe and relieving British regimentsfor servicein America.Gates had the courtesy to keephis army where it could not see the laying down ofarms by Burgoyne's force.About five thousandmen, of whom sixteen hundred were Germansand only three thousand five hundred fit forduty, surrendered to sixteen thousand Americans.Burgoyne gave offense to German officers by sayingin his report that he might have held out longer

146 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADEShad all his troops been British. This isprobablytrue but the British met with only a just Nemesisfor using soldiers who had no call of duty to serve.The army set out on its long march of two hundredmiles to Boston.The late autumn weatherwas cold, the army was badly clothed and fed, andthe discomfort of the weary route was increased bythe bitter antagonismof the inhabitants. Theyrespected the regular British soldier but at theGermans they shouted insults and the Loyaliststhey despised as traitors. The camp at the journey'send was on the ground at Cambridge wheretwo years earlier Washington had trained his firstarmy. Every day Burgoyne expected to embark.There was delay and, at last, he knew the reason.Congress repudiated the terms granted by Gates.A tangled dispute followed. Washington probablyhad no sympathy with the quibbling of Congress.But he had no desire to see this armyreturn toEurope and release there an army to serve inAmerica. Burgoyne's force was never sent to England.For nearly a year it lay at Boston. Then itwas marched to Virginia. The men suffered greathardships and the numbers fell by desertion andescape. When peace came in 1783 there was noarmy to take back to England; Burgoyne's soldiers

FIRST GREAT BRITISH DISASTER 147had been merged into the American people.may well be, indeed, that descendants of his beatenmen have played an important part in buildingup the United States.isunconquerable.ItThe irony of history

CHAPTER VIIWASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADES AT VALLEYFORGEWASHINGTON had met defeat in every considerablebattle at which he was personally present.first appearance in military history,Hisin the Ohiocampaign against the French, twenty-two yearsbefore the Revolution, was marked by a defeat,the surrender of Fort-Necessity.Again in the nextyear, when he fought to relieve the disaster toBraddock's army, defeat was his portion.Defeathad pursued him in the battles of the Revolutionbefore New York, at the Brandywine, at Germantown.The campaign against Canada, whichhe himself planned, had failed. He had lost NewYork and Philadelphia.England, who in his long struggleBut, like William III ofwith Francehardly won a battle and yet forced Louis XIV toaccept his terms of peace, Washington, by suddennessin reprisal, by skill in resource when his plans148

AT VALLEY FORGE 149seemed to have been shattered, grew on the hardrock of defeat the flower of victory.There was never a time when Washington wasnot trusted by men of real military insight or byBut a general who doesthe masses of the people.not win victories in the field is open to attack. Bythe winter of 1777 when Washington, with hisarmy reduced and needy, was at Valley Forgekeeping watch on Howe in Philadelphia, JohnAdams and others were talking of the sin of idolatryin the worship of Washington,of its flavor ofthe accursed spirit of monarchy, and of the punishmentwhich "the God of Heaven and Earth" mustinflict for such perversity. Adams was all againsta Fabian policy and wanted to settle issues foreverby a short and strenuous war. Theidol, it was beingwhispered, proved after all to have feet of clay.One general, and only one, had to his credit a reallygreat victoryGates, to whom Burgoyne had surrenderedat Saratoga, and there was a movementto replace Washington by this laureled victor.General Conway, an Irish soldier of fortune, wasone of the most troublesome in this plot. He hadserved in the campaign about Philadelphiabuthad been blocked in his extravagant demands forpromotion; so he turned for redress to Gates, the

150 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESstar in the north. A malignant campaign followedin detraction of Washington. He had, it was said,worn out his men by useless marches ;with an armythree times as numerous as that of Howe, he hadgained no victory; there was high fighting qualityin the American army if properly led, but Washingtondespised the militia; a Gates or a Lee or aConway would save the cause as Washington couldnot; and so on."Heaven has determined to saveyour country or a weak general and bad counsellorswould have ruined it"; so wrote Conway to Gatesand Gates allowed the letter to be seen. The wordswere reported to Washington, who at once, in highdudgeon, called Con way to account. An explosionfollowed. Gates both denied that he had receiveda letter with the passage in question, and, at thesame time, charged that there had been tamperingwith his private correspondence. He could nothave it both ways. Conway was merely impudentin reply to Washington, but Gates laid the wholematter before Congress. WashingtonGates, in replyto his denials,wrote toironical referencesto "rich treasures of knowledge and experience""guarded with penurious reserve" by Conwayfrom his leaders but revealed to Gates. There wasno irony in Washington's reference to malignant

AT VALLEY FORGE 151detraction and mean intrigue.At the same timehe said to Gates: "My temper leads me to peaceand harmony with all men," and he deplored theinternal strife which injured the great cause. Conwaysoon left America. Gates lived to commandanother American army and to end his career by acrowning disaster.Washington had now been for more than twoyears in the chief command and knew his problems.It was a British tradition that standing armieswere a menace to liberty,gained strength in crossingand the tradition hadthe sea. Washingtonwould have wished a national army recruited byCongressalone and bound to serve for the durationof the war.There was much talk at the timeof a "new model army" similar in typewonderful creation of Oliver Cromwell.to theThe ThirteenColonies became, however, thirteen nations.Each reserved the right to raise its own levies inits own way. To induce men to enlist Congresswas twice handicapped.First, it had no power oftaxation and could only ask the States to providewhat it needed. The second handicap was evengreater. When Congress offered bounties to thosewho enlisted in the Continental army, some of theStates offered higher bounties for their own levies

152 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESof militia, and one authority was bidding againstthe other.This encouraged short-term enlistments.If a man could re-enlist and again secure a bounty,he would gain more than if he enlisted at once forthe duration of the war.An army is an intricate mechanism needing thesame variety of agenciesthat isrequiredfor thewell-being of a community. The chief aim is, ofcourse, to defeat the enemy, and to do this anarmy must be prepared to move rapidly. Means oftransport, so necessary in peace, are even moreurgently needed in war. Thus Washington alwaysneeded military engineers to construct roads andbridges.Before the Revolution the greater partof such services had been provided in America bythe regular British army, now the enemy. Britishofficers declared that the American army waswithout engineers who knew the science of war, andcertainly the forts on which they spenttheir skillin the North, those on the lower Hudson, and atTiconderoga, at the head of Lake George, fell easilybefore the assailant. Good maps were needed, andhi this Washington was badly served, though thedefect was often corrected by his intimate knowledgeof the country.Another service ill-equippedwas what we should now call the Red Cross.

AT VALLEY FORGE 153Epidemics, and especially smallpox, wrought havocin the army.Then, as now, shattered nerves weresometimes the result of the strain of military life."The wind of a ball," what we should now callshell-shock, sometimes killed men whose bodiesappeared to be uninjured. To our more advancedknowledge the medical science of the time seemscrude. The physicians of New England, todayperhaps the most expert bodythe world, were even then highly skillful.surgeons and nurses were too few.of both sides in the conflict.of medical men inBut theThis was truePrisoners in hospitalsoften suffered terribly and each side broughtcharges of ill-treatment against the other. Theprison-ships in the harbor of New York, whereAmerican prisoners were confined, became a scandal,and much bitter invective against Britishbrutality is found in the literature of the period.The British leaders, no less than Washington himself,were humane men, and ignorance and inadequateequipment willan occasional officer on either sideexplain most of the hardships,thoughwas undoubtedly callous in respect to the sufferingsof the enemy.Food and clothing, the firstan army, were often deplorably scarce.vital necessities ofIn a land

154 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESof farmers there was food enough.Its lack in thearmy was chiefly due to bad transport. Clothingwas another matter. One of the things insistedupon in a well-trained army is a decent regard forappearance, and in the eyes of the French and theBritish officers the American army usually seemedrather unkempt.The formalities of dress, the uniformityof pipe-clay and powdered hair, of polishedsteel and brass, can of course be overdone. TheBritish army had too much of it, but to Washington'sforce the danger was of having too little.was not easy to induce farmers and frontiersmenwho at home began the day without the use ofwater, razor, or brush, to appear on parade clean,with hair powdered, faces shaved, and clothes neat.In the long summer days the men were told toshave before going to bed that they might preparethe more quickly for parade in the morning, andto filltheir canteens over nightif an early marchwas imminent.ItSome of the regiments had uniformswhich gave them a sufficiently smart appearance.The cocked hat, the loose hunting shirtwith its fringed border, the breeches of brownleather or duck, the brown gaiters or leggings, thepowdered hair, were familiar marks of the soldierof the Revolution.

AT VALLEY FORGE 155During a great part of the war, however, in spiteof supplies brought from both France and the WestIndies, Washington found it difficult to secure forhis men even decent clothing of any kind, whetherof military cut or not.More than a year after hetook command, in the fighting about New York, agreat part of his army had no more semblance ofuniform than hunting shirts on a common pattern.In the following December, he wrote of many menas either shivering in garments fit only for summerwear or as entirely naked.There was a time inthe later campaign in the South when hundreds ofAmerican soldiers marched stark naked, except forbreech cloths. One of the most pathetic hardshipsof the soldier's lifeMore than one of Washington'swas due to the lack of boots.armies could betracked by the bloody footprints of his barefootedmen.Near the end of the war Benedict Arnold,who knew whereof he spoke, described the Americanarmy as "illy clad, badly fed, and worse paid,"pay being then two or three years overdue.On theother hand, there is evidence that life in the armywas not without its compensations. Enforceddwelling in the open air saved men from diseasessuch as consumption and the movement from campto camp gave a broader outlook to the farmer's

156 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESsons. The army could usually make a braveparade.On ceremonial occasions the long hair ofthe men would be tied back and made white withpowder, even though their uniforms were littlemore than rags.The men carried weapons some of which, in, atany rate, the early days of the war, were made byhand at the village smithy. A man might take tothe war a weapon forged by himself. The Americansoldier had this advantage over the Britishsoldier, that he used, ifnot generally, at least insome cases, not the smooth-bore musket but thegrooved rifle by which the ball was made to rotatein its flight.accurate.The fire from this rifle was extremelyAt first weapons were few and ammunitionwas scanty, but in time there were importationsfrom France and also supplies from Americangun factories. The standard length of the barrelwas three and a half feet, a portentous size com-The load-pared with that of the modern weapon.ing was from the muzzle, a process so slow that oneof the favorite tactics of the time was to awaitthe fire of the enemy and then charge quicklyand bayonet him before he could reload. The oldmethod of firing off the musket by means of slowmatches kept alight during action was now obsolete ;

AT VALLEY FORGE 157the latest device was the flintlock.But there wasalways a measure of doubt whether the weaponwould go off. Partly on this account BenjaminFranklin, the wisest man of his time, declared forthe use of the pike of an earlier age rather than thebayonet and for bows and arrows instead of firearms.A soldier, he said, could shoot four arrowsto one bullet.An arrow wound was more disablingthan a bullet wound; and arrows did not becloudthe vision with smoke.The bullet remained, however,the chief means of destruction, and the fireof Washington's soldiers usuallythe British.the use of the bayonet.excelled that ofThese, in their turn, were superior inPowder and lead were hard to get.The inventivespirit of America was busy with plans to procuresaltpeter and other ingredients for makingpowder, but it remained scarce. Since there wasno standard firearm, each soldier required bulletsspecially suited to his weapon.The men meltedlead and cast it in their own bullet-molds.It isan instance of the minor ironies of war that thegreat equestrian statue of George III, which hadbeen erected in New York in days more peaceful,was melted into bullets for killing that monarch'ssoldiers.Another necessity was paper for cartridges

158 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESand wads. The cartridge of that day was apaper envelope containing the charge of ball andpowder.This served also as a wad, after beingemptied of its contents, and was pushed home witha ramrod. A store of German Bibles in Pennsylvaniafell into the hands of the soldiers at a momentwhen paper was a crying need, and the pages ofthese Bibles were used for wads.The artillery of the time seems feeble comparedwith the monster weapons of death which we knowin our own age.the war.Yet it was an important factor inIt isprobable that before the war not asingle cannon had been made in the colonies.Fromthe outset Washington was hampered for lack ofartillery. Neutrals, especially the Dutch in theWest Indies, sold guns to the Americans, andFrance was a chief source of supply during longperiods when the British lost the command of thesea. There was always difficulty about equippingcavalry, especially in the North. The Virginianwas at home on horseback, and in the fartherSouth bands of cavalry did service during the lateryears of the war, but many of the fighting ridersof today might tomorrow be guiding their horsespeacefully behind the plough.The pay of the soldiers remained to Washington

AT VALLEY FORGE 159a baffling problem. When the war ended theirpay was still heavily in arrears. The States weretimid about imposing taxation and few ifany paidpromptly the levies made upon them.Congressbridged the chasm in finance by issuing papermoney which so declined in value that, as Washingtonsaid grimly, it required a wagon-load ofmoney to pay for a wagon-load of supplies.soldier received his pay in this moneyTheat its facevalue, and there is little wonder that the "continentaldollar " is still in the United States a symbolof worthlessness. At times the lack of pay causedmutiny which would have been dangerous but forWashington's firm and tactful management in thetime of crisis. There was in him both the kindlyarmy leader.feeling of the humane man and the rigor of theHe sent men to death without flinching,but he was at one with his men in their sufferings,and no problem gave him greater anxietythan that of pay, affecting, as it did, the health andspiritsof men who, while unpaid, had no meansof softening the daily tale of hardship.Desertion was always hard to combat.With thehomesickness which led sometimes to desertionWashington must have had a secret sympathy, forhis letters show that he always longed for that

160 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESpleasant home in Virginia which he did not allowhimself to revisit until nearly the end of the war.The land of a farmer on service often remaineduntilled, and there are pathetic cases of familiesin bitter need because the breadwinner was in thearmy. In frontier settlements his absence sometimesmeant the massacre of his family by thesavages. There is little wonder that desertion wascommon, so common that after a reverse the menwent away by hundreds. As they usually carriedwith them their rifles and other equipment, desertioninvolved a double loss. On one occasion somesoldiers undertook for themselves the punishmentof deserters. Men of the First Pennsylvania Regimentwho had recaptured three deserters, beheadedone of them and returned to their camp with thehead carried on a pole. More than once ithappenedthat condemned men were paraded beforethe troops for execution with the graves dug andthe coffins lying ready. The death sentence wouldbe read, and then, as the firing party took aim,a reprieve would be announced. The reprievein such circumstances was omitted often enoughto make the condemned endure the real agonyof death.Religion offered its consolations in the army and

AT VALLEY FORGE 1(51Washington gave much thought to the service ofthe chaplains. He told his army that fine as it wasto be a patriot it was finer still to be a Christian.It is an odd fact that, though he attended the AnglicanCommunion service before and after the war,he did not partake of the Communion during thewar. What was in his mind we do not know. Hewas disposed, as he said himself, to let men find"that road to Heaven which to them shall seem the^most direct," and he was without Puritan fervor,but he had deep religious feeling. During thetroubled days at Valley Forge a neighbor cameupon him alone in the bush on his knees prayingaloud, and stole away unobserved. He would notallow inthe army a favorite Puritan custom ofburning the Pope in effigy, and the prohibitionwas not easily enforced among men, thousands ofwhom bore scriptural names from ancestors whothought the Pope anti-Christ.Washington's winter quarters at Valley Forgewere only twenty miles from Philadelphia, amonghills easily defended.It is matter for wonder thatHowe, with an army well equipped, did not makesome attempt to destroy the army of Washingtonwhich passed the winter so near and in acute

162 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESdistress.The Pennsylvania Loyalists, with darkdays soon to come, were bitter at Howe's inactivity,full of tragic meaning for themselves. Hesaid that he could achieve nothing permanent byattack. It may be so; but it is a sound principlein warfare to destroy the enemy when this ispossible. There was a time when in Washington'swhole force not more than two thousand men werein a condition to fight.Congress was responsiblefor the needs of the army but was now, in sordidinefficiency, cooped up in the little town of York,eighty miles west of Valley Forge, to which it hadfled. There was as yet no real federal union. Theseat of authority was in the State Governments,and we need not wonder that, with the passing ofthe first burst of devotion which united the coloniesin a common cause, Congress declined rapidly in"What a lot of damned scoundrelspublic esteem.we had in that second Congress" said, at a laterdate, Gouverneur Morris of Philadelphia to JohnJay of New York, and Jay answered gravely, "Yes,we had." The body, so despised in the retrospect,had no real executive government, no organizeddepartments. Already before Independence wasproclaimed there had been talk of a permanentunion, but the members of Congress had shown no

sense of urgency, and itAT VALLEY FORGE 163was not until November15, 1777, when the British were in Philadelphia andCongress was in exile at York, that Articles of Confederationwere adopted.By the following midsummermanyof the States had ratified thesearticles, but Maryland, the last to assent, did notaccept the new union until 1781, so that Congresscontinued to act for the States without constitutionalsanction during the greater part of the war.The ineptitude of Congress is explained when werecall that it was a revolutionary body which indeedcontrolled foreign affairs and the issues ofwar and peace, coined money, and put forth papermoney but had no general powers. Each Statehad but one vote, and thus a small and sparselysettled State counted for as much as populous Massachusettsor Virginia.The Congress must dealwith each State only as a unit; it could not coerce aState; and it had no authority to tax or to coerceindividuals. The utmost it could do was to appealto good feeling, and when a State felt that it had agrievance such an appeal was likely to meet with aflaming retort.Washington maintained towards Congress an attitudeof deference and courtesy which it did notalways deserve.The ablest men in the individual

164 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESStates held aloof from Congress. They felt thatthey had more dignity and power ifthey sat intheir own legislatures. The assembly which inthe first days had as members men of the type ofWashington and Franklin sank into a gathering ofsecond-rate men who were divided into fierce factions.They debated interminably and did little.Each member usually felt that he must championthe interests of his own State against the hostilityof others.It was not easy to create a sense of nationallife.The union was only a league of friendship.States which for a century or more hadbarely acknowledged their dependence upon GreatBritain, were chary about coming under the controlof a new centralizing authority at Philadelphia.The new States were sovereign and some of themwent so far as to send envoys of their own to negotiatewith foreign powers in Europe.urged thatWhen it wasCongress should have the power toraise taxes in the States, there were patriots whoasked sternly what the war was about if it was notto vindicate the principle that the people of a Statealone should have power of taxation over themselves.Of New England all the other States werejealous and they particularly disliked that proudand censorious city which already was accused of

AT VALLEY FORGE 165that God had made Boston for Himselfbelievingand all the rest of the world for Boston.The religionof New England did not suit the Anglicansof Virginia or the Roman Catholics of Maryland,and there was resentful suspicion of Puritan intolerance.John Adams said quite openly thatthere were no religious teachers in Philadelphia tocompare with those of Boston and naturally othercolonies drew away from the severe and ratheracrid righteousness of which he was a type.Inefficiency meanwhile brought terrible sufferingat Valley Forge, and the horrors of that winterremain still vivid in the memory of the AmericanThe army marched to Valley Forge onpeople.December 17, 1777, and in midwinter everythingfrom houses to entrenchments had still to becreated.At once there was busy activityin cuttingdown trees for the log huts.They were builtnearly square, sixteen feet by fourteen, in rows,with the door opening on improvised streets.Sinceboards were scarce, and it was difficult to makeroofs rainproof, Washingtontried to stimulateingenuity by offering a reward of one hundreddollars for an improved method of roofing.Thefireplaces of wood were protected with thick clay.

166 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESFirewood was abundant, but, with little food foroxen and horses, men had to turn themselves intodraught animals to bring in supplies.Sometimes the army was for a week withoutmeat.Many horses died for lack of forage or ofproper care, a waste which especially disturbedWashington, a lover of horses. When quantitiesof clothing were ready for use, they were not deliveredat Valley Forge owing to lack of transport.Washington expressed his contempt for officerswho resigned their commissions in face of these distresses.No one, he said, ever heard him say aword about resignation.There were many desertionsbut, on the whole, he marveled at the patienceof his men and that they did not mutiny. With acertain grim humor they chanted phrases about"no pay, no clothes, no provisions, no rum," andsang an ode glorifying war and Washington.Hundredsof them marched barefoot, their blood stainingthe snow or the frozen ground while, at thesame time, stores of shoes and clothing were lyingunused somewhere on the roads to the camp.Sickness raged in the army. Few men at ValleyForge, wrote Washington, had more than a sheet,many only part of a sheet, and some nothing at all.Hospital stores were lacking.For want of straw

AT VALLEY FORGE 167and blankets the sick lay perishing on the frozenground. When Washington had been at ValleyForge for less than a week, he had to report nearlythree thousand men unfit for duty because of theirnakedness in the bitter winter.Then, as always,what we now call the "profiteer" was holding upsupplies for higher prices.To the British at Philadelphia,because they paid in gold, things werefurnished which were denied to Washington atValley Forge, and he announced that he wouldhang any one who took provisions to Philadelphia.To keep his men alive Washington had sometimesto take food by force from the inhabitants and thenthere was an outcry that this was robbery. Withmany sick, his horses so disabled that he could notmove his artillery, and his defenses very slight, hecould have made only a weak fight had Howeattacked him.Yet the legislature of Pennsylvaniatold him that, instead of lying quietin winterquarters, he ought to be carrying on an active campaign.In most wars irresponsible men sitting bycomfortable firesides are sure they knew best howthe thing should be done.The bleak hillside at Valley Forge was somethingmore than a prison. Washington's staff was knownas his family and his relations with them were cordial

168 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESand even affectionate. The young officers facedtheir hardships cheerily and gave meager dinnersto which no one might goif he was so well off as tohave trousers without holes.and jested about their privations.They talked and sangBythis timemany of the bad officers, of whom Washingtoncomplained earlier, had been weeded out and hewas served by a body of devoted men. There wasmuch good comradeship. Partnership in sufferingtends to draw men together. In the company whichgathered about Washington, two men, mere youthsat the time, have a world-wide fame. The youngAlexander Hamilton, barely twenty-one years ofage, and widely known already for his politicalwritings, had the rank of lieutenant colonel gainedfor his services in the fighting about New York.He was now Washington's confidential secretary,a position in which he soon grewrestless. Hisambition was to be one of the great military leadersof the Revolution.Before the end of the warhe had gone back to fighting and he distinguishedhimself in the last battle of the war at Yorktown.The other youthful figure was the Marquis de La.Fayette. It is not without significance that anoble square bears his name in the capital namedafter Washington. The two men loved each other.

AT VALLEY FORGE 169The young French aristocrat, with both a greatname and great possessions, was fired in 1776, whenonly nineteen, with zeal for the American cause."With the welfare of America," he wrote to hiswife,"is closely linked the welfare of mankind."Idealists in France believed that America wasleading in the remaking of the world. When itwas known that La Fayette intended to go to fightin America, the King of France forbade it,France had as yet no quarrel with England.sinceTheyouth, however, chartered a ship, landed in SouthCarolina, hurried to Philadelphia, and was a majorgeneral in the American army when he was twentyyears of age.La Fayette rendered no serious military serviceto the American cause.He arrived in time to fightin the battle of the Brandywine. Washingtonpraised him for his bravery and military ardor andwrote to Congress that he was sensible, discreet,and able to speak English freely. It was withan eye to the influence in France of the name ofthe young noble that Congress advanced him sorapidly.La Fayette was sincere and generous inspirit.He had, however, little military capacity.Later when he might have directed the course ofthe French Revolution he was found wanting in

170 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESforce of character.The great Mirabeau tried towork with him for the good of France, but was repelledby La Fayette's jealous vanity, a vanity sogreedy of praise that Jefferson called it a "canineappetite for popularity and fame." La Faygtteonce said that he had never had a thought withwhich he could reproach himself, and he boastedthat he has mastered three kingsthe King ofEngland in the American Revolution, the King ofFrance, and King Mob of Paris during the upheavalin France. He was useful as a diplomatistrather than as a soldier.Later, in an hour of deepneed, Washington sent La Fayette to France toask for aid. He was influential at the French courtand came back with abundant promises, whichwere in part fulfilled.Washingtonhimself and Oliver Cromwell areperhaps the only two civilian generals in historywho stand in the first rank as military leaders. Itis doubtful indeed whether it is not rather characterthan military skill which gives Washington hisplace.Only one other general of the Revolutionattained to first rank even in secondary fame.Nathanael Greene was of Quaker stock from RhodeIsland. He was a natural student and whentrouble with the mother country was impending

AT VALLEY FORGE 171in 1774 he spent the leisure which he could sparefrom his forges in the study of military history andin organizing the local militia.Because of his zealfor military service he was expelled from the Societyof Friends. In 1775 when war broke outhe was promptly on hand with a contingent fromRhode Island.In little more than a year and aftera very slender military experience he was in commandof the army on Long Island. On the Hudsondefeat not victory was his lot. He had, however,as much stern resolve as Washington. He sharedWashington's success in the attack on Trenton,and his defeats at the Brandywine and at Germantown.March 2,Now he was at Valley Forge, and when, on1778, he became quartermaster general,the outlook for food and supplies steadily improved.Later, in the South, he rendered brilliantservice which made possible the final Americanvictory at Yorktown.Henry Knox, a Boston bookseller, had, likeGreene, only slight training for military command.It shows the dearth of officers to fight the highly!disciplined British army that Knox, at the age oftwenty-five, and fresh from commercial life,wasplaced in charge of the meager artillery whichWashington had before Boston.It was Knox, who,

172 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESwith heart-breaking labor,took to the Americanfront the guns captured at Ticonderoga.Throughoutthe war he did excellent service with the artillery,and Washington placed a high value uponhis services. He valued too those of Daniel Morgan,an old fighter in the Indian wars, who left hisfarm in Virginia when war broke out, and marchedhis company of riflemen to join the army beforeBoston. He served with Arnold at the siege ofQuebec, and was there taken prisoner.He wasexchanged and had his due revenge when he tookpart in the capture of Burgoyne's army. He wasnow at Valley Forge. Later he had a commandunder Greene in the South and there, as we shallsee, he won the great success of the Battle ofCowpens in January, 1781.It was the peculiar misfortune of Washingtonthat the three men, Arnold, Lee, and Gates, whoought to have rendered him the greatest service,proved unfaithful.Benedict Arnold, next toWashington himself, was probably the most brilliantand resourceful soldier of the Revolution.Washington so trusted him that,when the darkdays at Valley Forge were over, he placed him incommand of the recaptured federal capital. Todaythe name of Arnold would rank high in the

AT VALLEY FORGE 173memory of a grateful country had he not falleninto the bottomless pit of treason.The same is insome measure true of Charles Lee, who was freedby the British in an exchange of prisoners andjoined Washington at Valley Forge late in thespring of 1778. Lee was so clever with his pen asto be one of the reputed authors of the Letters ofJunius. He had served as a British officer in theconquest of Canada, and later as major general inthe army of Poland. He had a jealous and venomoustemper and could never conceal the contemptof the professional soldier for civilian generals.He, too, fell into the abyss of treason. HoratioGates, also a regular soldier, had served underBraddock and was thus at that early period acomrade of Washington. Intriguer he was, butnot a traitor. It was incompetence and perhapscowardice which brought his final ruin.Europe had thousands of unemployed officerssome of whom had had experience in theSevenYears' War and many turned eagerly to Americafor employment. There were some good soldiersamong these fighting adventurers. Kosciuszko,later famous as a Polish patriot, rose by his meritsto the rank of brigadier general in the Americanarmy; De Kalb, son of a German peasant, though

174 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESnot a baron, as he called himself, proved worthy ofthe rank of a major general.flood of volunteers of another type.There was, however, aFrench officersfleeing from their creditors and sometimes underfalse names and titles, made their way to Americaas best they could and came to Washington withpretentious claims.Germans and Poles there were,too, and also exiles from that unhappy island whichremains stillthe most vexing problem of Britishpolitics. Some of them wrote their own testimonials;some, too, were spies. On the first day,Washington wrote, they talked only of servingfreely a noble cause, but within a week were demandingpromotion and advance of money.Sometimesthey took a high tone with members ofCongress who had not courage to snub whatWashington called impudence and vain boasting." I am haunted and teased to death by the importunityof some and dissatisfaction of others" wroteWashington of these people.One foreign officer rendered incalculable serviceto the American cause.It was not only on theBritish side that Germans served in the AmericanRevolution. The Baron von Steuben was, likeLa Fayette, a man of rank in his own country, andhis personal service to the Revolution was much

AT VALLEY FORGE 175greater than that of La Fayette. Steuben hadserved on the staff of Frederick the Great and wasdistinguished for his wit and his polished manners.There was in him nothing of the needy adventurer.The sale of Hessian and other troops to the Britishby greedy German princes was met in some circlesin Germany by a keen desire to aid the cause of theyoung republic. Steuben, who held a lucrativepost, became convinced, while on a visit to Paris,that he could render service in training the Americans.With quick sympathy and showing no reservein his generous spirit he abandoned his country,as it proved forever, took ship for the UnitedStates, and arrived in November, 1777. Washingtonwelcomed him at Valley Forge in the followingMarch. He was made Inspector General andat once took in hand the organization of the army.He prepared "Regulations for the Order and Disciplineof the Troops of the United States" later,in 1779, issued as a book. Under this Germaninfluence British methods were discarded. Theword of command became short and sharp.TheBritish practice of leaving recruits to be trained bysergeants, often ignorant, coarse, and brutal, wasdiscarded, and officers themselves did this work.The last letter which Washington wrote before he

176 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESresignedhis command at the end of the war wasto thank Steuben for his invaluable aid. CharlesLee did not believe that American recruits couldbe quickly trained so as to be able to face the disciplinedBritish battalions. Steuben was to provethat Lee was wrong to Lee's own entire undoingat Monmouth when fighting began in 1778.The British army in America furnished sharpcontrasts to that of Washington.If the Britishjeered at the fighting quality of citizens, theseretorted that the British soldier was a mere slave.There were two great stains upon the British system,the press-gang and flogging. Press-gangsmight seize men abroad in the streets of a townand, unless they could prove that they were gentlemenin rank, they could be sent in the fleet to servein the remotest corners of the earth. In both navyand army flogging outraged the dignity of manhood.The liability to this brutal and degradingpunishment kept all but the dregs of the populacefrom enlisting in the British army. It helped tofix the deep gulf between officers and men. Fortyyears later Napoleon Bonaparte, despot though hemight be, was struck by this separation. He himselfwent freely among his men, warmed himself at

MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTEPainting by C. W. Peale. In Independence Hall, Philadelphia.

.(D HIud at t.'jn for his invaleve that Americaouldbe quickly trained so as to beBritish battalions. Steuben wasto Lee's own entire un

AT VALLEY FORGE 177their fire, and talked to them familiarly about theirwork, and he thought that the British officer wastoo aloof in his demeanor.serving in America there were manyIn the British armyofficers ofaristocratic birth and long training in militaryscience. When they found that American officerswere frequently drawn from a class of society whichin England would never aspire to a commission,and were largely self-taught, not unnaturally theyjeered at an armyso constituted. Another factexcited British disdain. The Americans weretechnically rebels against their lawful ruler, andrebels in arms have no rights as belligerents. Whenthe war ended more than a thousand Americanprisoners were still held in England on the capitalcharge of treason. Nothing stirred Washington'sanger more deeply than the remark sometimesmade by British officers that the prisoners theytook were receiving undeserved mercy when theywere not hanged.There was much debate at Valley Forge as to theprospect for the future. When we look at availablenumbers during the war we appreciate the viewof a British officer that in spite of Washington'sfailures and of British victories the war was serious,"an ugly job, a damned affair indeed."The

178 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESpopulation of the colonies some 2,500,000was about one-third that of the United Kingdom;and for the British the war was remotefrom the base of supply.In those days, consideringthe means of transport, America was as farfrom England as at the present day is Australia.Sometimes the voyage across the sea occupiedtwo and even three months, and, with the relativelysmall ships of the time, itrequired a vastarray of transports to carry an army of twentyor thirty thousand men. In the spring of 1776Great Britain had found itimpossibleto raise athome an army of even twenty thousand men forservice in America, and she was forced to relyin large part upon mercenary soldiers. This wasnothing new.Her island people did not like serviceabroad and this unwillingness was intensifiedin regard to war in remote America.MoreoverWhig leaders in England discouraged enlistment.They were bitterly hostile to the war which theyas an attack not less on their own libertiesregardedthan on those of America.ascribe to the ignorantIt would be too much toBritish common soldier ofthe time any deep conviction as to the merits ordemerits of the cause for which he fought.Thereis no evidence that, once in the army, he was less

AT VALLEY FORGE 179ready to attack the Americans than any otherfoe.Certainly the Americans did not think hewas half-hearted.The British soldier fought indeed with moreresolute determination than did the hired auxiliaryat his side.These German troops played a notablepart in the war. The despotic princes of the lesserGerman states were accustomed to sell the servicesof their troops.Despotic Russia, too, was a likelyfield for such enterprise. When, however, it wasproposed to the Empress Catherine II that sheshould furnish twenty thousand men for service inAmerica she retorted with the sage advice that itwas England's true interest to settle the quarrel inAmerica without war. Germany was left as therecruiting field.British efforts to enlist Germansas volunteers in her own army were promptlychecked by the German rulers and it was necessaryliterally to buy the troops from their princes. Onefourthof the able-bodied men of Hesse-Cassel wereshipped to America. Theyreceived four times therate of pay at home and their ruler received in additionsome half million dollars a year. The mensuffered terribly and some died of sickness for thehomes to which thousands of them never returned.German generals, such as Knyphausen and Riedesel,

180 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESgave the British sincere and effective service.The Hessians were, however, of doubtful benefit tothe British.It angered the Americans that hiredtroops should be used against them, an anger notlessened by the contempt which the Hessiansshowed for the colonial officers as plebeians.The two sides were much alike in their qualitiesand were skillful in propaganda.tales were told of the colonists scalpingIn Britain luridthe woundedat Lexington and using poisoned bullets atBunker Hill.In America every prisoner in Britishhands was said to be treated brutally and everyman slain in the fighting to have been murdered.The use of foreign troops was a fruitful theme.The report ran through the colonies that the Hessianswere huge ogre-like monsters, with doublerows of teeth round each jaw, who had come at thecall of the British tyrant to slay women and children.Americans.In truth many of the Hessians became goodthey were readilyIn spite of the loyalty of their officersinduced to desert.The wit ofBenjamin Franklin was enlisted to compose tellingappeals, translated into simple German, whichpromised grants of land to those who should abandonan unrighteous cause. The Hessian trooperwho opened a packet of tobacco might find in

AT VALLEY FORGE 181the wrapper appeals both to his virtue and to hiscupidity. It was easy for him to resist themwhen the British were winning victories and hewas dreaming of a return to the Fatherland witha comfortable accumulation of pay, but it was differentwhen reverses overtook British arms.Thenmany hundreds slipped away; and today theirblood flows in the veins of thousands of prosperousAmerican farmers.

CHAPTER VIIITHE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE AND ITS RESULTSWASHINGTON badly needed aid from Europe, butthere every important government was monarchicaland it was not easy for a young republic, thechild of revolution, to secure an ally. Francetingled with joy at American victories and sorrowed'at American reverses, but motives weremingled and perhaps hatred of England wasin America. Thestronger than love for libertyyoung La Fayette had a pure zeal, but he wouldnot have fought for the liberty of colonists inMexico as he did for those inVirginia; and thedifference was that service in Mexico would nothurt the enemy of France so recently triumphant.He hated England and said so quite openly. Thethought of humiliating and destroying that "insolentnation" was always to him an inspiration.Vergennes, the French Foreign Minister, thoughhe lacked genius, was a man of boundless zeal and182

energy.THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 183He was at work at four o'clock in themorning and he spent his long days in toil for hiscountry. He believed that England was the tyrantof the seas, "the monster against whom we shouldbe always prepared," a greedy, perfidious neighbor,the natural enemy of France.From the first days of the trouble in regard tothe Stamp Act Vergennes had rejoiced that England'sown children were turning against her. Hehad French military officers in England spying onher defenses.When war broke out he showed nonice regard for the rules of neutrality and helpedthe colonies in every way possible. It was aFrench writer who led in these activities.Beaumarchaisis known to the world chiefly as the creatorof the character of Figaro, which has becomethe type of the bold, clever, witty, and intriguingrascal, but he played a real part in the AmericanRevolution. We need not inquire too closely intohis motives. There was hatred of the English,that "audacious, unbridled, shameless people,"and there was, too, the zeal for liberal ideas whichmade Queen Marie Antoinette herself take a prettyinterest in the "dear republicans" overseas whowere at the same time fighting the national enemy.Beaumarchais secured from the government money

184 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESwith which he purchased supplies to be sent toAmerica. He had a great warehouse in Paris, and,under the rather fantastic Spanish name of RoderigueHortalez & Co., he sent vast quantities ofmunitions and clothing to America.Cannon, notfrom private firms but from the government arsenals,were sent across the sea. When Vergennesshowed scruples about this violation of neutrality,the answer of Beaumarchais was that governmentswere not bound by rules of morality applicable toprivate persons. Vergennes learned well the lessonand, while protesting to the British ambassadorin Paris that France was blameless, he permittedoutrageous breaches of the laws of neutrality.Secret help was one thing, open alliance another.Early in 1776 Silas Deane, a member from Connecticutof the Continental Congress, was namedas envoy to France to secure French aid. Theday was to come when Deane should believe thestruggle against Britain hopeless and counsel submission,but now he showed a furious zeal.Heknew hardly a word of French, but this did notkeep him from making his elaborate programmewell understood. Himself a trader, he promisedFrance vast profits from the monopoly of the tradeof America when independence should be secure.

THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 185He gave other promises not more easy of fulfillment.To Frenchmen zealous for the ideals ofliberty and seeking military careers in America hepromised freely commissions as colonels and evengenerals and was the chief cause of that deluge ofEuropean officers which proved to Washington soannoying. It was through Deane's activities thatLa Fayette became a volunteer. Through himcame too the proposalto send to America theComte de Broglie who should be greater than colonelor general a generalissimo, a dictator. Hewas to brush aside Washington, to take commandof the American armies, and by his prestige andskill to secure France as an ally and win victory inthe field. For such services Broglie asked onlydespotic power while he served and for life a greatpension which would, he declared, not be onehundredthpart of his real value. That Deaneshould have considered a scheme so fantasticreveals the measure of his capacity, and by the endofbring1776 Benjamin Franklin was sent to Paris tothe alliance.his tried skill tobear upon the problem ofWith Deane and Franklin as a thirdmember of the commission was associated ArthurLee who had vainly sought aid at the courts ofSpain and Prussia.

186 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESFrance was, however, coy.The end of 1776 sawthe colonial cause at a very low ebb, with Washingtondriven from New York and about to be drivenfrom Philadelphia.for an alliance.Defeat is not a good argumentFrance was willing to send arms toAmerica and willing to let American privateers usefreely her ports.The ship which carried Franklinto France soon busied herself as a privateer andreaped for her crew a great harvest of prize money.In a single week of June, 1777, this ship captureda score of British merchantmen, of which morethan two thousand were taken by Americansduringthe war. France allowed the Americanprivateers to come and go as they liked, and gaveEngland smooth words, but no redress. There islittle wonder that England threatened to hangcaptured American sailors as pirates.It was the capture of Burgoyne at Saratogawhich brought decision to France. That was thevictory which Vergennes had demanded before hewould take open action. One British army hadsurrendered. Another was in an untenable positionin Philadelphia.It was known that the Britishfleet had declined. With the best of it inAmerica, France was the more likely to win successesin Europe. The Bourbon king of France

THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 187could, too, draw into the war the Bourbon king ofSpain, and Spain had good ships. The defects ofFrance and Spain on the sea were not in ships butin men. The invasion of England was not improbableand then less than a score of years mightgive France both avenging justice for her recenthumiliation and safety for her future. Britainshould lose America, she should lose India, sheshould pay in a hundred ways for her past triumphs,for the arrogance of Pitt, who had declaredthat he would so reduce France that she shouldnever again rise.Britain but to France.The future should belong not toThus it was that ferventpatriotism argued after the defeat of Burgoyne.Frederick the Great told his ambassador at Paristo urge upon France that she had now a chance tostrike England which might never again come.France need not, he said, fear his enmity, for hewas as likely to help England as the devil to helpa Christian. Whatever doubts Vergennes mayhave entertained about an openalliance withAmerica were now swept away. The treaty offriendship with America was signed on February6, 1778. On the 13th of March the French ambassadorin London told the British Government,with studied insolence of tone, that the United

188 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESStates were by their own declaration independent.Only a few weeks earlier the British ministry hadsaid that there was no prospect of any foreign interventionto helpthe Americans and now in themost galling manner France told GeorgeIII theone thing to which he would not listen, that a greatpart of his sovereignty was gone. Each countrywithdrew its ambassador and war quickly followed.France had not triedwith the Americans.to make a hard bargainShe demanded nothing forherself and agreed not even to ask for the restorationof Canada.She required only that Americashould never restore the King's sovereignty inorder to secure peace. Certain sections of opinionin America were suspicious of France. Was she notharassed the fron-the old enemy who had so longtiers of New England and New York? If GeorgeIII was a despot what of Louis XVI, who hadnot even an elected Parliament to restrain him?Washington himself was distrustful of France andmonths after the alliance had been concluded heuttered the warning that hatred of England mustnot lead to over-confidence in France. "No nation,"he said, "is to be trusted farther than it isbound by its interests." France, he thought, mustdesire to recover Canada, so recently lost. He did

THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 189not wish to see a great military power on the northernfrontier of the United States.This would beto confirm the jeer of the Loyalists that the alliancewas a case of the wooden horse in Troy;the oldenemy would come back in the guise of a friendand would then prove to be master and bring thecolonies under a servitude compared with whichthe British supremacy would seem indeed mild.The intervention of France brought a cruelembarrassment to the Whig patriot inHe could rejoiceEngland.and mourn with American patriotsbecause he believed that their cause was hisown.It was as much the interest of Norfolk as ofMassachusetts that the new despotism of a king,who ruled through a corrupt Parliament, shouldbe destroyed. It was, however, another matterwhen France took a share in the fight. Francefought less for freedom than for revenge, and theEnglishman who, like Coke of Norfolk, could dailytoast Washington as the greatest of men could notlink that name with Louis XVI or with his ministerVergennes. The currents of the past are too swiftand intricate to be measured exactly by the observerwho stands on the shore of the present, butit is arguable that the Whigs might soon havebrought about peace in England had it not been for

190 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESthe intervention of France.No serious person anylonger thought that taxation could be enforcedupon America or that the colonies should be anythingbut free in regulatingtheir own affairs.George III himself said that he who declared thetaxing of America to be worth what it cost was"more fit for Bedlam than a seat in the Senate."The one concession Britain was not yetprepared to make was Independence. But Burkeand many other Whigs were ready now for this,though Chatham still believed it would be the ruinof the British Empire.Chatham, however, was all for conciliation, andit is not hard to imagine a group of wise men chosenfrom both sides, men British in blood and outlook,sitting round a table and reaching an agreement toresult in a real independence for America and a realunity with Great Britain. A century and a quarterlater a bitter war with an alien race in South Africawas followed by a result even more astounding.The surrender of Burgoyne had made the PrimeMinister, Lord North, weary of his position. Hehad never been in sympathy with the King's policyand since the bad news had come in December hehad pondered some radical step which should endthe war. On February 17, 1778, before the treaty

THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 191of friendship between the United States and Francehad been made public, North startled the House ofCommons by introducing a bill repealing the taxon tea, renouncing forever the right to tax America,and nullifying those changes in the constitution ofMassachusetts which had so rankled in the mindsof its people. A commission with full powers tonegotiate peace would proceed at once to Americaand it might suspend at its discretion, and thusreally repeal, any act touching America passedsince 1763.North had taken a sharp turn. The Whigclothes had been stolen by a Tory Prime Ministerand if he wished to stay in office the Whigs had notthe votes to turn him out.His supporters wouldaccept almost anything in order to dish the Whigs.They swallowed now the bill, and it became law,but at the same time came, too, the war withFrance. It united the Tories ;it divided the Whigs.All England was deeply stirred. Nearly everyimportant town offered to raise volunteer forces atits own expense. The Government soon had fifteenthousand men recruited at private cost. Help wasoffered so freely that the Whig, John Wilkes, actuallyintroduced into Parliament a billto prohibitgifts of money to the Crown since this voluntary

192 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADEStaxation gave the Crown money without the consentof Parliament.The British patriot, gentleas he might be towards America, fumed againstFrance. This was no longer only a domesticstruggle between parties, but a war with an agelongforeign enemy. The populace resented whatthey called the insolence and the treachery ofFrance and the French ambassador was pelted atCanterbury as he drove to the seacoast on hisrecall. In a large sense the French alliance was notan unmixed blessing for America, since it confusedthe counsels of her best friends in England.In spite of this it isprobably true that from thistime the mass of the English people were againstfurther attempts to coerce America. A change ofministry was urgently demanded. There was oneleader to whom the nation looked in this gravecrisis. The genius of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham,had won the last war against France and hehad promoted the repeal of the Stamp Act. InAmerica his name was held in reverence so highthat New York and Charleston had erected statuesin his honor. When the defeat of Burgoyne soshook the ministrythat North was anxious toretire, Chatham, but for two obstacles, could probablyhave formed a ministry. One obstacle was

THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 193his age; as the event proved, he was near his end.It was, however, not this which kept him fromoffice, but the resolve of George III. The Kingsimply said that he would not have Chatham.In office Chatham would certainly rule and theKing intended himself to rule. If Chatham wouldcome in a subordinate position, well; but Chathamshould not lead.The King declared that as longas even ten men stood by him he would hold outand he would lose his crown rather than calloffice that clamorous Opposition which had attackedhis American policy. "I will never consent,"he said firmly, "to removing the membersof the present Cabinet from my service." Heasked North: "Are you resolved at the hour ofidanger to desert me?" North remained in office.;Chatham soon died and, during four years still/George III was master of England.toThroughoutthe long history of that nation there is no crisis inwhich one man took a heavier and more disastrousresponsibility.News came to Valley Forgeof the alliance withFrance and there were great rejoicings. We aretold that, to celebrate the occasion, Washingtondined in public. We are not given the bill of fare13

194 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESin that scene of famine; but by the springtimetension in regard to supplies had been relieved andwe may hope that Valley Forge reallyhonor of the great event.feasted inThe same news broughtgloom to the British in Philadelphia, for it had thestern meaning that the effort and loss involved inthe capture of that city were in vain.Washingtonheld most of the surrounding country so that suppliesmust come chiefly by sea. With a Frenchfleet and a French army on the way to America,the British realized that they must concentratetheir defenses.Thus the cheers at Valley Forgewere really the sign that the British must go.Sir William Howe, having taken Philadelphia,was determined not to be the one who shouldgive it up. Feeling was bitter in England over theghastly failure of Burgoyne, and he had gone homeon parole to defend himself from his seat in theHouse of Commons.There Howe had a seat andhe, too, had need to be on hand. Lord GeorgeGermain had censured him for his course and, toshield himself, was clearly resolved to make scapegoatsof others. So,on May 18, 1778, at Philadelphiathere was a farewell to Howe, which took theform of a Mischianza, something approaching themedieval tournament. Knights broke lances in

THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 195honor of fair ladies, there were arches and flowersand fancy costumes, and high-flown Latin andFrench, all in praise of the departing Howe.Obviouslythe garrison of Philadelphia had much timeon its hands and could count upon, at least, somecheers from a friendly population. It is rememberedstill, with moralizings on the turns in humanfortune, that Major Andre and Miss MargaretShippen were the leaders in that gay scene, the one,in the days to come, to be hanged by Washingtonas a spy, because entrapped in the treason of BenedictArnold, who became the husband of the other.On May 24, 1778, Sir Henry Clinton took overfrom Howe the command of the British army inAmerica and confronted a difficult problem. Ifd'Estaing, the French admiral, should sail straightfor the Delaware he might destroy the fleet of littlemore than half his strength which lay there, andmight quickly starve Philadelphia into surrender.The British must unite their forces to meet thefrom France, and New York, as an island,Aperilwas the best point for a defense, chiefly naval.move to New York was therefore urgent.It wasby sea that the British had come to Philadelphia,but it was not easy to go away by sea. There wasnot room in the transports for the army and its

196 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESencumbrances.Moreover, to embark the wholeforce, a march of forty miles to New Castle, on thelower Delaware, would be necessary and the retreatingarmy was sure to be harassed on its wayby Washington.It would besides hardly be safeto take the army by sea for the French fleet mightbe strong enough to capturethe flotilla.There was nothing for it but, at whatever risk,to abandon Philadelphia and march the armyacross New Jersey. It would be possible to take bysea the stores and the three thousand Loyalistsfrom Philadelphia, some of whom would probablybe hanged if they should be taken. Lord Howe,the naval commander, did his part in a masterlymanner. On the 18th of June the British armymarched out of Philadelphia and before the daywas over it was across the Delaware on the NewJersey side.free from itsthe capital.That same day Washington's army,long exile at Valley Forge, occupiedClinton set out on his long march byland and Howe worked his laden ships down thedifficult river to its mouth and, after delay bywinds, put to sea on the 28th of June. Bya strokeof good fortune he sailed the two hundred miles toNew York in two days and missed the great fleetof d'Estaing, carrying an army of four thousand

THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 197men. On the 8th of July d'Estaing anchored atthe mouth of the Delaware. Had not his passagebeen unusually delayed and Howe's unusuallyquick, as Washington noted, the British fleet andthe transports in the Delaware would probablyhave been taken and Clinton and his army wouldhave shared the fate of Burgoyne.As it was, though Howe's fleet was clear away,Clinton's army had a bad time in the march acrossNew Jersey. Its baggage train was no less thantwelve miles long and, winding along roads leadingsometimes through forests, was peculiarly vulnerableto flank attack. In this type of warfare Washingtonexcelled. He had fought over this countryand he knew it well. The tragedy of Valley Forgewas past.supplied.His army was now well trained and wellHe had about the same number of menas the British perhapssixteen thousand andhe was not encumbered by a long baggage train.Thus it happened that Washington was acrossthe Delaware almost as soon as the British. Hemarched parallel with them on a line some fivemiles to the north and was able to forge towardsthe head of their column. He could attack theirflank almost when he liked.Clinton marched withgreat difficulty. He found bridges down. Not

198 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESonly was Washington behind him and on his flankbut General Gates was in front marching from thenorth to attack him when he should try to cross theRaritan River.The long British column turnedsoutheastward toward Sandy Hook, so as to lessenthe menace from Gates.Between the half of thearmy in the van and the other half in the rearwas the baggage train.The crisis came on Sunday the 28th of June,a day of sweltering heat. By this time GeneralCharles Lee, Washington's second in command,was in a good positionto attack the British rearguard from the north, while Washington, marchingthree miles behind Lee, was to come up in the hopeof overwhelming it from the rear. Clinton'spositionwas difficult but he was saved by Lee's ineptitude.He had positive instructions to attackwith his five thousand men and hold the Britishengaged until Washington should come up in overwhelmingforce. The young La Fayette was withLee. He knew what Washington had ordered, butLee said to him: "You don't know the Britishsoldiers; we cannot stand against them." Lee'sconduct looks like deliberate treachery.Instead ofattacking the British he allowed them to attackhim. La Fayette managed to send a message to

THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 199Washington in the rear; Washington dashed to thefront and, as he came up, met soldiers flying frombefore the British. He rode straight to Lee, calledhim in flaming anger a "damned poltroon," andhimself at once took command.fightnear Monmouth Court House.There was a sharpThe Britishwere driven back and only the coming of nightended the struggle.Washington was preparing torenew it in the morning, but Clinton had marchedaway in the darkness. He reached the coast onthe 30th of June, having lost on the way fifty-ninemen from sunstroke, over three hundred in battle,and a great many more by desertion.The deserterswere chiefly Germans, enticed by skillful offersof land. Washington called for a reckoning fromLee. He was placed under arrest, tried by courtmartial,found guilty, and suspended from rankfor twelve months.Ultimately he was dismissedfrom the American army, less it appearsfor hisconduct at Monmouth than for his impudentdemeanor toward Congress afterwards.These events on land were quickly followed bystirring events on the sea. The delays of theBritish Admiraltyof this time seem almost incredible.Two hundred ships waited at Spitheadfor three months for convoy to the West Indies,

200 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESwhile allthe time the people of the West Indies,cut off from their usual sources of supply inAmerica, were in distress for food.Seven weekspassed after d'Estaing had sailed for Americabefore the Admiralty knew that he was really goneand sent Admiral Byron, with fourteen ships, tothe aid of Lord Howe.When d'Estaing was alreadybefore New York Byron was stillbattlingwith storms in mid-Atlantic, storms so severe thathis fleet was entirely dispersed and his flagshipwas alone when it reached Long Island on the18th of August.Meanwhile the French had a great chance.Onthe llth of July their fleet, much stronger than theBritish, arrived from the Delaware, and anchoredoff Sandy Hook. Admiral Howe knew his danger.He asked for volunteers from the merchant shipsand the sailors offered themselves almost to a man.If d'Estaing could beat Howe's inferior fleet,thetransports at New York would be at his mercy andthe British army, with no other source of supply,must surrender. Washington was near, to givehelp on land. The end of the war seemed not faraway. But it did not come. The French admiralswere often taken from an army command, andd'Estaing was not a sailor but a soldier.He feared

THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 201the skill of Howe, a really great sailor, whose sevenavailable ships were drawn up in line at SandyHook so that their guns bore on ships coming inacross the bar. D'Estaing hovered outside. Pilotsfrom New York told him that at high tide therewere only twenty-two feet of water on the bar andthis was not enough for his great ships, one of whichcarried ninety-one guns. On the 22d of July therewas the highest of tides with, in reality, thirty feetof water on the bar, and a wind from the northeastwhich would have brought d'Estaing's ships easilythrough the channel into the harbor. The Britishexpected the hottest naval fight in their history.At three in the afternoon d'Estaing moved but itwas to sail away out of sight.Opportunity, though once spurned, seemed yetto knock again. The one other point held bythe British was Newport, Rhode Island. HereGeneral Pigot had five thousand men and onlyperilous communications by sea with New York.Washington, keenly desirous to capture this army,sent General Greene to aid General Sullivan incommand at Providence, and d'Estaing arrivedoff Newport to give aid.Greene had fifteen hundredfine soldiers, Sullivan had nine thousandNew England militia, and d'Estaing four thousand

202 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESFrench regulars.A force of fourteen thousand fivehundred men threatened five thousand British.But on the 9th of August Howe suddenly appearednear Newport with his smaller fleet. D'Estaingput to sea to fight him, and a great naval battlewas imminent, when a terrific storm blew up andseparated and almost shattered both fleets.D'Estaingthen, in spite of American protests, insistedon taking the French ships to Boston to refit andwith them the French soldiers.denounced the French admiral asSullivan publiclyhaving baselydeserted him and his own disgusted yeomanry leftin hundreds for their farms to gather in the harvest.In September, with d'Estaing safely away, Clintonsailed into Newport with five thousand men.Washington's campaign against Rhode Island hadfailed completely.The summer of 1778 thus turned out badly forWashington.Help from France which had arousedsuch joyous hopes in America had achieved littleand the allies were hurling reproaches at eachother.French and American soldiers had riotousfights in Boston and a French officer was killed.The British, meanwhile, were landing at smallports on the coast, which had been the hauntsof privateers, and were not only burning shipping

THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 203and stores but were devastating the country withLoyalist regiments recruited in America. TheFrench told the Americans that they were expectingtoo much from the alliance, and the cautiousWashington expressed fear that help from outsidewould relax effort at home. Both were right. Bythe autumn the British had been reinforced and the.French fleet had gone to the West Indies. Trulythe mountain in labor of the French allianceseemed to have brought forth only a ridiculousmouse.None the less was it to prove, in the end,the decisive factor in the struggle.The alliance with France altered the wholecharacter of the war, which ceased now to bemerely a war in North America. France soongamed an ally in Europe. Bourbon Spain had nothought of helping the colonies in rebellion againsttheir king, and she viewed their ambitions to extendwestward with jealous concern, since shedesired for herself both sides of the Mississippi.Spain, however, had a grievance againstBritain,for Britain would not yield Gibraltar, that rockyfragment of Spain commanding the entrance to theMediterranean which Britain had wrested from heras she had wrested also Minorca and Florida.

204 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESSo, in April, 1779, Spain joined France in war onGreat Britain. France agreed not only to furnishan army for the invasion of England but never tomake peace until Britain had handed back Gibraltar.The allies planned to seize and hold the Isleof Wight. England has often been threatened andyet has been so long free from the tramp of hostilearmies that we are tempted to dismiss lightly suchdangers. But in the summer of 1779 the dangerwas real. Of warships carrying fifty guns ormore France and Spain together had one hundredand twenty-one, while Britain had seventy. TheBritish Channel fleet for the defense of home coastsnumbered forty ships of the line while France andSpain together had sixty-six. Nor had Britain resourcesin any other quarter upon which she couldreadily draw. In the West Indies she had twentyoneships of the line while France had twenty-five.The British could not find comfort in any supposedsuperiority hi the structure of their ships.Thenand later, as Nelson admitted when he was fightingSpain, the Spanish ships were better built thanthe British.Lurking in the background to haunt Britishthought was the growing American navy. JohnPaul was a Scots sailor, who had been a slave trader

THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 205and subsequently master of a West India merchantman,and on going to America had assumedthe name of Jones.ambition, vanity, and vigor,He was a man of boundlessand when he commandedAmerican privateers he became a terrorto the maritime people from whom he sprang.the summer of 1779 when Jones, with a squadronof four ships, was haunting the British coasts,InAt Plymouth a boomevery harbor was nervous.blocked the entrance, but other places had noteven this defense. Sir Walter Scott has describedhow, on September 17, 1779, a squadron, underJohn Paul Jones, came within gunshot of Leith,the port of Edinburgh. The whole surroundingcountry was alarmed, since for two days the squadronhad been in sight beating up the Firth of Forth.A sudden squall, which drove Jones back, probablysaved Edinburgh from being plundered. A fewdays later Jones was burning shipsin the Humberand, on the 23d of September, he met off FlamboroughHead and, after a desperate fight, capturedtwo British armed ships: the Serapis, a 40-gun vessel newly commissioned, and the Countessof Scarborough, carrying 20 guns, both of whichwere convoying a fleet. The fame of his exploitrang through Europe. Jones was a regularly

206 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADEScommissioned officer in the navy of thellnited States,but neutral powers, such as Holland, had not yetrecognized the republic and to them there was noAmerican navy. The British regarded him as atraitor and pirate and might possibly have hangedhim had he fallen into their hands.Terrible days indeed were these for distractedEngland. In India, France, baulked twenty yearsearlier, was working for her entire overthrow, andin North Africa, Spain was using the Moors to thesame end.violent.As time passed the storm grew moreBefore the yearjoined England's enemies.1780 ended Holland hadMoreover, the northernstates of Europe, angry at British interference onthe sea with their trade, and especially at herseizure of ships trying to enter blockaded ports,took strong measures. On March 8, 1780, Russiaissued a proclamation declaring that neutral shipsmust be allowed to come and go on the sea as theyliked. They might be searched by a nation atwar for arms and ammunition but for nothing else.It would moreover be illegal to declare a blockadeof a port and punish neutrals for violating it, unlesstheir ships were actually caught in an attempt toenter the port.Denmark and Sweden joined Russiain what was known as the Armed Neutrality and

THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 207promised that they would retaliate upon any nationwhich did not respect the conditions laid down.In domestic affairsGreat Britain was divided.The Whigs and Tories were carrying on a warfareshameless beyond even the bitter partisan strife oflater days.In Parliament the Whigs cheered atmilitary defeats which might serve to discredit theTory Government. The navy was torn by faction.When, in 1778, the Whig Admiral Keppel foughtan indecisive naval battle off Ushant and was afterwardsaccused by one of his officers, Sir HughPalliser, of not pressing the enemy hard enough,party passion was invoked. The Whigs were forKeppel, the Tories for Palliser,mob was WTiig.and the LondonWTien Keppel was acquitted therewere riotous demonstrations; the house of Palliserwas wrecked, and he himself barely escaped withhis life. Whig naval officers declared that theyhad no chance of fair treatment at the hands of aTory Admiralty, and Lord Howe, among others,now refused to serve. For a time British suprem-*acy on the sea disappeared and it was only regainedin April, 1782, when the Tory AdmiralRodney won a great victory hi the West Indiesagainst the French.A spirit of violence was abroad in England.The

208 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESdisabilitiesof the Roman Catholics were a grossscandal. They might not vote or hold public office.Yet when, in 1780, Parliament passed a bill removingsome of their burdens dreadful riots brokeout in London. A fanatic, Lord George Gordon,led a mob to Westminster and, as Dr. Johnson expressedit, "insulted" both Houses of Parliament.The cowed ministry did nothing to check the disturbance.The mob burned Newgate jail, releasedthe prisoners from this and other prisons, and madea deliberate attempt to destroy London by fire.Order was restored under the personal direction ofthe King, who, with all his faults, was no coward.At the same time the Irish Parliament, underProtestant lead, was making a Declaration of Independencewhich, in 1782, England was obliged toadmit by formal act of Parliament. For the timebeing, though the two monarchies had the sameking, Ireland, in name at least, was free of England.Washington's enemythus had embarrassmentsenough. Yet these very years, 1779 and 1780,were the years in which he came nearest to despair.The strain of a great movement is not in the earlydays of enthusiasm, but in the slow years whenidealism is tempered by the strife of opinion and

JOHN PAUL JONESMarble bust by Jean Antoine Houdon. In the PennsylvaniaAcademy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.

-vDr.nil ill .nol.iroH soi3mwi a s trd.

THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE 309self-interest which brings delay and disillusion.As the war went on recruitingbecame steadilymore difficult.The alliance with France actuallyworked to discourage it since it was felt that thecause was safe in the hands of this powerful ally.Whatever Great Britain's difficulties about financethey were light compared with Washington's. Intime the "continental dollar" was worth only twocents.Yet soldiers long had to take this moneyat its face value for their pay,with the resultThe only ones on whomthat the pay for three months would scarcely buya pair of boots. There is little wonder that morethan once Washington had to face formidable mutinyamong his troops.he could rely were the regulars enlisted by Congressand carefully trained. The worth of the militia,he said, "depends entirely on the prospects of theday; if favorable, they throng to you; if not, theywill not move." They played a chief part inthe prosperous campaign of 1777, when Burgoynewas beaten.they whollyIn the next year, before Newport,failed General Sullivan and desertedshamelessly to their homes.By 1779 the fighting had shifted to the South.Washington personally remained in the North toguard the Hudson and to watch the British in

210 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESNew York.He sent La Fayette to France in January,1779, there to urge not merely naval but militaryaid on a great scale. La Fayette came backafter an absence of a little over a year and in the endFrance promised eight thousand men who shouldbe under Washington's control as completely as ifthey were American soldiers. The older nationaccepted the principle that the officers in theyounger nation which she was helping should rankin their grade before her own. It was a magnanimityreciprocated nearly a century and a halflater when a great American army in Europe wasplaced under the supreme command of a Marshalof France.

CHAPTER IXTHE WAR IN THE SOUTHAFTER 1778 there was no more decisive fighting inthe North. The British plan was to hold NewYork and keep there a threatening force, but tomake the South henceforth the central arena of thewar.Accordingly, in 1779, they evacuated RhodeIsland and left the magnificent harbor of Newportto be the chief base for the French fleet and armyin America. They also drew in their posts on theHudson and left Washington free to strengthenWest Point and other defenses by which he wasblocking the river. Meanwhile they were strikingstaggering blows in the South. On December29, 1778, a British force landed two miles belowSavannah, in Georgia, lyingnear the mouth of theimportant Savannah River, and by nightfall, aftersome sharp fighting, took the place with its storesand shipping. Augusta, the capital of Georgia,lay about a hundred and twenty -five miles up the211

iver.WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESBy the end of February, 1779, the Britishnot only held Augusta but had established sostrong a line of posts in the interior that Georgiaseemed to be entirely under their control.Then followed a singular chain of events.Eversince hostilities had begun, in 1775, the revolutionaryparty had been dominant in the South. Yetnow again in 1779 the British flag floated overthe capital of Georgia. Some rejoiced and somemourned. Men do not change lightly their politicalallegiance. Probably Boston was the most completelyrevolutionary of American towns. Yet evenin Boston there had been a sad procession of exileswho would not turn against the King. The Southhad been more evenly divided. Now the Loyaliststook heart and began to assert themselves.When the British seemed secure in Georgiabands of Loyalists marched into the British campin furious joy that now their day was come, andgave no gentle advice as to the crushing of rebellion.Many a patriot farmhouse was now destroyedand the hapless owner either killed or drivento the mountains to live as best he could by hunting.Sometimes even the children were shot down.It so happened that a company of militia captureda large band of Loyalists marching to Augusta to

THE WAR IN THE SOUTHsupport the British cause.Here was the occasionfor the republican patriots to assert their principles.To them these Loyalists were guilty oftreason. Accordingly seventy of the prisonerswere tried before a civil court and five of themwere hanged.For this hanging of prisoners theLoyalists, of course, retaliated in kind.Both theBritish and American regular officers tried to restrainthese fierce passions but the spirit of thewar in the South was ruthless. To this day manya tale of horror is repeated and, since Loyalistopinion was finally destroyed, no one survived toapportion blame to their enemies. It is probablethat each side matched the other in barbarity.The British hoped to sweep rapidly through theSouth, to master it up to the borders of Virginia,and then to conquer that breeding ground of revolution.In the spring of 1779 General Prevostmarched from Georgia into South Carolina.Onthe 12th of May he was before Charleston demandingsurrender. We are astonished now toread that, in response to Prevost's demand, a pro-South Carolina should beposal was made sthatallowed to remain neutral and that at the end ofthe war it should join the victorious side. Thiscertainly indicates a large body of opinion which

214 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESwas not irreconcilable with Great Britain andseems to justify the hopeof the British that thebeginnings of military success might rallyof the people to their side. Forthe massthe moment, however,Charleston did not surrender. The resistancewas so stiff that Prevost had to raise thesiege and go back to Savannah.Suddenly, early in September, 1779, the Frenchunder d'Estaing appeared before Savannah.fleetIt had come from the West Indies, partly to avoidthe dreaded hurricane season ofthose waters.the autumn inThe British, practically without anynaval defense, were confronted at once by twentytwoFrench ships of the line, eleven frigates, andmany transports carrying an army. The greatflotilla easily got rid of the few British ships lyingat Savannah. An American army, under GeneralLincoln, marched to join d'Estaing. The Frenchlanded some three thousand men, and the combinedarmy numbered about six thousand. A siegebegan which, it seemed, could end in only one way.Prevost, however, with three thousand seven hundredmen, nearly half of them sick,was defiant,and on the 9th of October the combined French andAmerican armies made a great assault.with disaster.They metD'Estaing was severely wounded.

THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 215With losses of some nine hundred killed andwounded in the bitter fighting the assailants drewoff and soon raised the siege. The British losseswere only fifty-four. In the previous year Frenchand Americans fighting together had utterly failed.Now they had failed again and there was bitterrecrimination between the defeated allies.D'Es-*taing sailed away and soon lost some of his shipshi a violent storm. Ill-fortune pursued him to theend. He served no more in the war and in theReign of Terror in Paris, in 1794, he perished onthe scaffold.At Charleston the American General Lincolnwas in command with about sixthousand men.The place, named after King Charles II, had beena center of British influence before the war.Thatcritical traveler, Lord Adam Gordon, thought itspeople clever in business, courteous, and hospitable.Most of them, he says, made a visit to Englandat some time during life and it was the fashionto send there the children to be educated.ObviouslyCharleston was fitted to be a British rallyingcenter in the South; yet it had remained inAmerican hands since the opening of the war. In1776 Sir Henry Clinton, the British Commander,had woefully failed in his assault on Charleston.

216 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESNow in December, 1779, he sailed from New Yorkto make a renewed effort.his best officersCqrnwallis, Simcoe, and Tarleton,the last two skillfulWith him were three ofleaders of irregulars, recruitedin America and used chiefly for raids.The wintry voyage was rough; one of the vesselsladen with cannon foundered and sank, and all thehorses died.But Clinton reached Charleston andwas able to surround it on the landward side withan army at least ten thousand strong.Tarleton'sirregulars rode through the country. It is onrecord that he marched sixty-four miles in twentythreehours and a hundred and five miles in fiftyfourhours. Such mobility was irresistible. Onthe 12th of April, after a ride of thirty miles, Tarletonsurprised, in the night, three regiments ofAmerican cavalry regulars at a place called Biggin'sBridge, routed them completely and, accordingto his own account, with the loss of three menwounded, carried off a hundred prisoners, fourhundred horses, and also stores and ammunition.There is no doubt that Tarleton's dragoons behavedwith great brutality and itwould perhapshave taught a needed lesson if, as was indeedthreatened by a British officer, Major Ferguson, afew of them had been shot on the spot for these

THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 217outrages. Tarleton's dashingattacks isolatedCharleston and there was nothing for Lincoln todo but to surrender.This he did on the 12th ofMay. Burgoyne seemed to have been avenged.The most important city in the South had fallen." We look on America as at our feet," wrote HoraceWalpole.interior.The British advanced boldly into theOn the 29th of MayTarleton attackedan American force under Colonel Buford, killedover a hundred men, carried off two hundred prisoners,and had only twenty-one casualties.It issuch scenes that reveal the true character of thewar in the South.Above all it was a war of hardriding, often in the night, of sudden attack, andterrible bloodshed.After the fall of Charleston only a few Americanirregulars were to be found in South Carolina. Itand Georgia seemed safe in British control.WithBritish successes came the problem of governingthe South. On the royalist theory, the recoveredland had been in a state of rebellion and was nowrestored to its true allegiance.Every one who hadtaken up arms against the King was guilty oftreason with death as the penalty. Clinton had nointention of applying this hard theory, but he wasreturning to New York and he had to establish a

218 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESgovernment on some legal basis.Duringthe firstyears of the war, Loyalists who would not acceptthe new order had been punished with greatseverity. Their day had now come. Clinton saidthat "every good man" must be ready to join inarms the King's troops inpeace and good government."order "to reestablish"Wicked and desperatemen" who still opposed the King should bepunished with rigor and have their property confiscated.He offered pardon for past offenses,except to those who had taken part in killingLoyalists "under the mock forms of justice."Noone was henceforth to be exempted from the activeduty of supporting the King's authority.Clinton's proclamation was very disturbing tothe large element in South Carolina which did notdesire to fight on either side. Every one must nowbe for or against the King, and many were in theirsecret hearts resolved to be against him.Therefollowed an orgy of bloodshed which discreditshuman nature. The patriots fled to the mountainsrather than yield and, in their turn, waylaid andmurdered straggling Loyalists. Under pressuresome republicans would give outward complianceto royal government, but they could not be coercedinto a real loyalty.It required only a reverse to

THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 219the King's forces to make them again activelyhostile. To meet the difficult situation Congressnow made a disastrous blunder. On June 13, 1780,General Gates, the belauded victor at Saratoga,was given the command in the South.Camden, on the Wateree River, lies inland fromCharleston about a hundred and twenty-five milesas the crow flies.The British had occupied it soonafter the fall of Charleston, and it was now held bya small force under Lord Rawdon, one of the ablestof the British commanders. Gates had superiornumbers and could probably have taken Camdenby a rapid movement; but the man had no realstomach for fighting. He delayed until, on the14th of August, Cornwallis arrived at Camden withreinforcements and with the fixed resolve to attackGates before Gates attacked him. On the earlymorning of the 16th of August, Cornwallis withtwo thousand men marching northward betweenswamps on both flanks, met Gates with threethousand marching southward, each of them intendingto surprise the other. A fierce strugglefollowed. Gates was completely routed with athousand casualties, a thousand prisoners, and theloss of nearly the whole of his guns and transport.The fleeing army was pursued for twenty miles by

220 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESthe relentless Tarleton.General Kalb, who haddone much to organize the American army, waskilled.The enemies of Gates jeered at his ridingaway with the fugitives and hardly drawing reinuntil after four days he was at Hillsborough, twohundred miles away. His defense was that he"proceeded with all possible despatch," which hecertainly did, to the nearest point where he couldreorganize his forces. His career was, however,ended. He was deprived of his command, andWashington appointedNathanael Greene.to succeed him GeneralIn spite of the headlong flight of Gates the disasterat Camden had only a transient effect. Thewar developed a number of irregular leaders on theAmerican side who were never beaten beyond recovery,no matter what might be the reverses ofthe day. The two most famous are Francis Marionand Thomas Sumter.Marion, descended from afamily of Huguenot exiles, was slight in frameand courteous in manner; Sumter, tall, powerful,and rough, was the vigorous frontiersman in type.Threatened men live long: Sumter died in 1832, atthe age of ninety-six, the last surviving general ofthe Revolution. Both men had had prolongedexperience in frontier fighting against the Indians.

THE WAR IN THE SOUTHTarleton called Marion the "old swamp fox"because he often escaped through using by-pathsacross the great swamps of the country.Britishcommunications were always in danger. A smallBritish force might find itself in the midst of a hostwhich had suddenly come together as an army,only to dissolve next day into its elements of hardyfarmers, woodsmen, and mountaineers.After the victory at Camden Cornwallis advancedinto North Carolina, and sent Major Ferguson,one of his most trusted officers, with a forceof about a thousand men, into the mountainouscountry lying westward, chiefly to secure Loyalistrecruits.If attacked in force Ferguson was to retreatand rejoin his leader.Mountain isThe Battle of King'shardly famous in the annals of theworld, and yet, in some ways, itwas a decisiveevent. Suddenly Ferguson found himself besetby hostile bands, coming from the north, thesouth, the east, and the west.When, in obedienceto his orders, he tried to retreat he found the wayblocked, and his messages were intercepted, sothat Cornwallis was not aware of the peril.Ferguson,harassed, outnumbered, at last took refugeon King's Mountain, a stony ridge on the westernborder between the two Carolinas.The north side

222 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESof the mountain was a sheer impassable cliff and,since the ridge was only half a mile long, Fergusonthought that his force could hold it securely.Hewas, however, fighting an enemy deadly with therifle and accustomed to fire from cover.The sidesand top of King's Mountain were wooded andstrewn with boulders.The motley assailants creptup to the crest while pouring a deadly fire on anyof the defenders who exposed themselves.Fergusonwas killed and in the end his force surrendered,on October 7,1780, with four hundred casualtiesand the loss of more than seven hundred prisoners.The American casualties were eighty-eight. Inreprisal for earlier acts on the other side, the victorsinsulted the dead body of Ferguson and hangednine of their prisoners on the limb of a great tuliptree.Then the improvised army scattered. xWhile the conflict for supremacy in the Southwas still uncertain, in the Northwest the Americansmade a stroke destined to have astounding results.Virginia had long coveted lands in the valleys ofthe Ohio and the Mississippi.It was in this regionthat Washingtonhad first seen active service,helping to wrest that land from France. The1See Chapter IX, Pioneers of the Old Southwest, by ConstanceLindsay Skinner in The Chronicles of America.

country was wild.THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 223There was almost no settlement;but over a few forts on the upper Mississippiand in the regions lying eastward to the DetroitRiver there was that flicker of a red flag whichmeant that the Northwest was under British rule.George Rogers Clark, like Washington a Virginianland surveyor, was a strong, reckless, brave frontiersman.Early in 1778 Virginia gave him a smallsum of money, made him a lieutenant colonel, andauthorized him to raise troops for a western adventure.He had less than two hundred men whenhe appeared a littleMississippiin what is nowlater at Kaskaskia near theIllinois and capturedthe small British garrison, with the friendly consentof the French settlers about the fort. He did thesame thing at Cahokia, farther up the river. TheFrench scattered through the western countrynaturally sided with the Americans, fighting nowin alliance with France. The British sent out aforce from Detroit to tryto check the efforts ofClark, but in February, 1779, the indomitablefrontiersman surprised and captured this force atVincennes on the Wabash.Thus did Clark's twohundred famished and ragged men take possessionof the Northwest, and, when peace was made, thisvast domain, an empire in extent, fell to the United

WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESStates. Clark's exploit is one of the pregnantromances of history. 1Perhaps the most sorrowful phase of the Revolutionwas the internal conflictwaged between itsfriends and its enemies in America, where neighborfought against neighbor.During this pitiless strugglethe strength of the Loyalists tended steadily todecline; and they came at last to be regardedeverywhere by triumphant revolution as a vilepeople who should bear the penalties of outcasts.In this attitude towards them Boston had given alead which the rest of the country eagerly followed.To coerce Loyalists local committees sprang upeverywhere.It must be said that the Loyalistsgave abundant provocation. They sneered atrebel officers of humble origin as convicts and shoeblacks.There should be some fine hanging, theypromised, on the return of the King's men toBoston.Early in the Revolution British colonialgovernors, like Lord Dunmore of Virginia, adoptedthe policy of reducing the rebels by harrying theircoasts.Sailors would land at night from ships andcommit their ravages in the light of burning houses.Soldiers would dart out beyond the British lines,'See Chapters III and IV in The Old Northwest by FredericAustin Ogg in The Chronicles of America.

CHARLES, EARL CORNWALLISPainting by Thomas Gainsborough. In the National PortraitGallery, London, England.

epregnantwrfnVfoubor.) i&se of the Revoluwagedbetween itswhere neig!Duriug this pitiless strug-[joyalists tended steadily toat last to be regardedmphant revolutionas, a vilee penalties of outcasts..rd beucK:ngf they>uld

THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 225burn a village, carry off some Whig farmers, andescape before opposing forces could rally.GovernorTryon of New York was specially active inthese enterprises and to this day a special odiumattaches to his name.For these ravages, and often with justice, theLoyalists were held responsible. The result was abitterness which fired even the calm spirit of BenjaminFranklin and led him when the day camefor peace to declare that the plundering and murderingadherents of King George were the ones whoshould pay for damage and not the States whichhad confiscated Loyalist property.Lists of Loyalistnames were sometimes posted and then the personsconcerned were likely to be the victims of anyone disposed to mischief.Sometimes a suspectedLoyalist would find an effigy hung on a tree beforehis own door with a hint that next time the figuremight be himself. A musket ball might comewhizzing through his window. Many a Loyalistwas stripped, plunged in a barrel of tar, andthen rolled in feathers, taken sometimes from hisown bed.Punishment for loyalism was not, however, leftmerely to chance.Even before the Declaration ofIndependence, Congress, sitting itself in a cityis

226 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESwhere loyalisni was strong, urged the States to actsternly in repressing Loyalist opinion.They didnot obey every urging of Congress as eagerly asthey responded to this one. Inpractically everyState Test Acts were passed and no one was safewho did not carry a certificate that he was free ofany suspicion of loyalty to King George.Magistrateswere paid a fee for these certificates and thushad a golden reason for insisting that Loyalistsshould possess them. To secure a certificate theholder must forswear allegiance to the King andpromise support to the State at war with him. Anunguarded word even about the value in gold of thecontinental dollar might lead to the adding of thespeaker's name to the list of the proscribed. Legislaturespassed bills denouncing Loyalists. Thenames in Massachusetts read like a list of the leadingfamilies of New England. The "Black List"of Pennsylvania contained four hundred andninety names of Loyalists charged with treason,and Philadelphia had the grim experience of seeingtwo Loyalists led to the scaffold with ropes aroundtheir necks and hanged. Most of the persecutedLoyalists lost all their property and remained exilesfrom their former homes. The self-appointedcommittees took in hand the task of disciplining

THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 227those who did not fly, and the rabble often pushedmatters to brutal extremes. When we rememberthat Washington himself regardedTories as thevilest of mankind and unfit to live, we can imaginethe spirit of mobs, which had sometimes the furtherincentive of greed for Loyalist property.Loyalistshad the experience of what we now call boycottingwhen they could not buy or sell in the shops andwere forced to see their own shops plundered.Mills would not grind their corn. Their cattlewere maimed and poisoned. They could not securepayment of debts due to them or, if payment wasmade, they received it in the debased continentalcurrency at its face value. Theya court of law, nor sellmight not sue intheir property, nor makea will. It was a felony for them to keep arms.No Loyalist might hold office, or practice law ormedicine, or keep a school.Some Loyalists were deported to the wildernessin the back country. Many took refuge withinManythe British lines, especially at New York.Loyalists created homes elsewhere. Some went toEngland only to find melancholy disillusion of hopethat a grateful motherland would understand andreward their sacrifices.Large numbers found theirway to Nova Scotia and to Canada, north of the

228 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESGreat Lakes, and there played a part in laying thefoundation of the Dominion of today.The cityof Toronto with a population of half a million isrooted in the Loyalist traditions of its Tory founders.Simcoe, the first Governor of Upper Canada,who made Toronto his capital, was one of themost enterprising of the officers who served withCornwallis in the South and surrendered withhim at Yorktown.The State of New York acquired from the forfeitedlands of Loyalists a sum approaching fourmillion dollars, a great amount in those days.Other States profited in a similar way. EveryLoyalist whose property was seized had a directand personal grievance. He could join the Britisharmy and fight against his oppressors, and this hedid: New York furnished about fifteen thousandmen to fight on the British side. Plundered himself,he could plunder his enemies, and this toohe did both by land and sea.In the autumn of1778 ships manned chiefly by Loyalist refugeeswere terrorizing the coast from Massachusetts toNew Jersey. They plundered Martha's Vineyard,burned some lesser towns, such as New Bedford,and showed no quarter to small parties of Americantroops whom they managed to intercept.

THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 229What happened on the coast happened also in theinterior. At Wyoming in the northeastern part ofPennsylvania, in July, 1778, during a raid of Loyalists,aided by Indians, there was a brutal massacre,the horrors of which long served to inspire hate forthe British. A little later in the same year similarevents took place at Cherry Valley, in centralNew York. Burning houses, the dead bodies notonly of men but of women and children scalped bythe savage allies of the Loyalists, desolation andruin in scenes once peaceful and happy suchhorrors American patriotism learned to associatewith the Loyalists.These in their turn rememberedthe slow martyrdomof their lives as socialoutcasts, the threats and plunder which in the endforced them to fly, the hardships, starvation, anddeath to their loved ones which were wont to follow.The conflict isperhaps the most tragic and irreconcilablein the whole story of the Revolution.

CHAPTER XPRANCE TO THE RESCUEDURING 1778 and 1779 French effort had failed.Now France resolved to do something decisive. Shenever sent across the sea the eight thousand menpromised to La Fayette but by the spring of 1780about this number were gathered at Brest to findthat transport was inadequate. The leader wasa French noble, the Comte de Rochambeau, an oldcampaigner, now in his fifty-fifthyear, who hadfought against England before in the Seven Years'War and had then been opposed by Clinton, Cornwallis,and Lord George Germain.He was a soundand prudent soldier who shares with La Fayettethe chief glory of the French service in America.Rochambeau had fought at the second battle ofMinden, where the father of La Fayette had fallen,and he had for the ardent young Frenchman theamiable regard of a father and sometimes rebukedhis impulsiveness in that spirit. He studied the230

FRANCE TO THE RESCUE 231problem in America with the insight of a trainedleader.Before he left France he made the pregnantcomment on the outlook: "Nothing withoutnaval supremacy."About the same time Washingtonwas writing to La Fayette that a decisivenaval supremacy was a fundamental need.A gallant company it was which gathered atBrest.Probably no other land than France couldhave sent forth on a crusade for democratic libertya band of aristocrats who had little thought ofapplying to their own land the principles for whichthey were ready to fight in America.Over someof them hung the shadow of the guillotine; otherswere to ride the storm of the French Revolutionand to attain fame which should surpass theirsanguine dreams. Rochambeau himself, thoughhe narrowly escaped during the Reign of Terror,lived to extreme old age and died aFrance.Marshal ofBerthier, one of his officers, became oneof Napoleon's marshals and died just when Napoleon,whom he had deserted, returned from Elba.Dumas became another of Napoleon's generals.He nearly perished inthe retreat from Moscowbut lived, like Rochambeau, to extreme old age.One of the gayest of the company was the Due deLauzun, a noted libertine in France but, as far as

WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESthe record goes, a man of blameless propriety inAmerica. He died on the scaffold during theFrench Revolution.So, too, did his companion,the Prince de Broglie, in spite of the protest of hislast words that he was faithful to the principles ofthe Revolution, some of which he had learned inAmerica.Another companion was the SwedishCount Fersen, later the devoted friend of the unfortunateQueen Marie Antoinette, the driver ofthe carriage in which the royal family made thefamous flight to Varennes in 1791, and himselfdestined to be trampled to death by a Swedishmob in 1810. Other old and famous names therewere: Laval-Montmorency, Mirabeau, Talleyrand,Saint-Simon.It has been said that the names ofthe French officers in America read like a listmedieval heroes in the Chronicles of Froissart.Only half of the expected ships were ready atBrest and only five thousand five hundred mencould embark.crowded .for personal effects.ofThe vessels were, of course, veryRochambeau cut down the space allowedHe took no horse for himselfand would allow none to go, but he permitted a fewdogs. Forty-five ships set sail, "a truly imposingsight," said one of those on board. We have reportsof their ennui on the long voyage of seventy

FRANCE TO THE RESCUES33days, of their amusements and their devotions, fortwice daily were prayers read on deck.They sailedinto Newport on the llth of July and the inhabitantsof that still primitive spot illuminated theirhouses as best they could. Then the army settleddown at Newport and there it remained for manyweary months. Reinforcements never came,partly through mismanagement in France, partlythrough the vigilance of the British fleet, whichwas on guard before Brest. The French had beenfor generations the deadly enemies of the EnglishColonies and some of the French officers noted thereserve with which they were received.The icewas, however, soon broken. They brought withthem gold, and the New England merchants likedthis relief from the debased continental currency.Some of the New England ladies were beautiful,and the experienced Lauzun expresses glowingadmiration for a prim Quakeress whose simple dresshe thought more attractive than the elaboratemodes of Paris.The French dazzled the ragged American armyby their display of waving plumes and of uniformsin striking colors. They wondered at the quantitiesof tea drunk by their friends and so do we whenwe remember the political hatred for tea.They

234 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESmade the blunder common in Europe of thinkingthat there were no social distinctions in America.Washington could have told him a different story.Intercourse was at first difficult, for few of theAmericans spoke French and fewer still of theFrench spoke English.Sometimes the talk was inLatin, pronounced by an American scholar as nottoo bad. A French officer writing in Latin to anAmerican friend announces his intention to learnEnglish: "Inglicam linguam noscere conabor." Hemade the effort and he and his fellow officerslearned a quaint English speech. When Rochambeauand Washington first met they conversedthrough La Fayette, as interpreter, but in time theolder man did verywell in theAmerican comrade in arms.For a long time the French army effected noth-Washington longed to attack New York anding.languageof hisurged the effort, but the wise and experiencedRochambeau applied his principle, "nothing withoutnaval supremacy," and insisted that in such anattack a powerful fleet should act with a powerfularmy, and, for the moment, the French had nopowerful fleet available. The British were blockadingin Narragansett Bay the French fleet whichlay there. Had the French army moved away

FRANCE TO THE RESCUE 235from Newport their fleet would almost certainlyhave become a prey to the British. For the momentthere was nothing to do but to wait.TheFrench preserved an admirable discipline. Againsttheir army there are no records of outrage andplunder such as we have against the German alliesof the British.We must remember, however, thatthe French were serving in the countryof theirfriends, with every restraint of good feeling whichthis involved. Rochambeau told his men thatthere must not be the theft of a bit of wood, or ofany vegetables, or of even a sheaf of straw.Hethreatened the vice which he called "sonorousdrunkenness," and even lack of cleanliness,sharp punishment.withThe result was that a monthafter landing he could say that not a cabbage hadbeen stolen.Our credulity is strained when we aretold that apple trees with their fruit overhungthe tents of his soldiers and remained untouched.Thousands flocked to see the French camp.Thebands played and Puritan maidens of all grades ofsociety danced with the young French officers andwe are told, whether we believe it or not, that therewas the simple innocence of the Garden of Eden.The zeal of the French officers and the friendlydisposition of the men never failed. There had

236 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESbeen bitter quarrels in 1778 and 1779 and now theFrench were careful to be on their good behaviorin America. Rochambeau had been instructed toplace himself under the command of Washington,to whom were given the honors of a Marshal ofFrance. The French admiral, had, however, beengiven no such instructions and Washington had noauthority over the fleet.Meanwhile events were happening which mighthave brought a British triumph. On September14, 1780, there arrived and anchored at SandyHook, New York, fourteen British ships of the lineunder Rodney, the doughtiestof the British admiralsafloat.Washington, with his army headquartersat West Point, on guard to keep theBritish from advancing up the Hudson, was lookingfor the arrival, not of a British fleet, but of aFrench fleet, from the West Indies. For him thesewere very dark days.The recent defeat at Camdenwas a crushing blow.Congress was inept andhad in it men, as the patient General Greene said,"without principles, honor or modesty." Thecomingof the British fleetwas a new and overwhelmingdiscouragement, and, on the 18th ofSeptember, Washington left West Point for a long

FRANCE TO THE RESCUE 237ride to Hartford in Connecticut, half way betweenthe two headquarters, there to take counsel withthe French general.Rochambeau, it was said, hadbeen purposely created to understand Washington,but as yet the two leaders had not met.It is thesimple truth that Washington had to go to theFrench as a beggar. Rochambeau said later thatWashington was afraid to reveal the extent of hisdistress.He had to ask for men and for ships, buthe had also to ask for what a proud man dislikes toask, for money from the stranger who had cometo help him.The Hudson had long been the chief object ofWashington's anxiety and now it looked as iftheBritish intended some new movement up the river,as indeed they did. Clinton had not expectedRodney's squadron, but it arrived opportunely and,when it sailed up to New York from Sandy Hook,on the 16th of September, he beganembark his army, taking painsat once toat the same timeto send out reports that he was going to the Chesapeake.Washington concluded that the oppositewas true and that he was likely to be going northward.At West Point, where the Hudson flowsthrough a mountainous gap, Washington hadstrong defenses on both shores of the river. His

238 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESbatteries commanded itswhole width, but shorebatteries were ineffective against moving ships.The embarking of Clinton's army meant that heplanned operations on land. He might be goingto Rhode Island or to Boston but he might alsodash up the Hudson. Itwas an anxious leader who,with La Fayette and Alexander Hamilton, rodeaway from headquarters to Hartford.The officer in command at West Point was BenedictArnold. No general on the American sidehad a more brilliant record or could show morescars of battle. We have seen him leading an armythrough the wilderness to Quebec, and incurringhardships almost incredible. Later he is found onLake Champlain, fighting on both land and water.When in the next year the Americans succeededat Saratogathe fighting.was severely wounded.it was Arnold who bore the brunt ofAt Quebec and again at Saratoga heIn the summer of 1778 hewas given the command at Philadelphia, afterthe British evacuation.It was a troubled time.Arnold was concerned with confiscations of propertyfor treason and with disputes about ownership.Impulsive, ambitious, and with a certain elementof coarseness in his nature, he made enemies.Hewas involved in bitter strife with both Congress

FRANCE TO THE RESCUE 239and the State government of Pennsylvania. Aftera period of tension and privation in war, one ofslackness and luxury is almost certain to follow.Philadelphia, which had recently suffered for wantnow relapsed into gay indul-of bare necessities,gence. Arnold lived extravagantly. He playeda conspicuous part in society and, a widower ofthirty-five, was successful in paying court to MissShippen, a young lady of twenty, with whom, asWashington said, all the American officers werein love.Malignancy was rampant and Arnold was pursuedwith great bitterness. Joseph Reed, thePresident of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania,not only brought charge against him ofabusing his position for his own advantage, butalso laid the charges before each State government.In the end Arnold was tried by court-martial andafter long and inexcusable delay, on January26, 1780, he was acquitted of everything but theimprudence of using, in an emergency, publicwagons to remove private property, and of grantingirregularly a pass to a ship to enter the port ofPhiladelphia. Yet the court ordered that for thesetrifles Arnold should receive a public reprimandfrom the Commander-in-Chief .Washington gave

840 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESthe reprimand in terms as gentle as possible, andwhen, in July, 1780, Arnold asked for the importantcommand at West Point, Washington readilycomplied probably with relief that so important aposition should be in such good hands.The treason of Arnold now came rapidly to ahead. The man was embittered. He had renderedgreat services and yet had been persecuted withspiteful persistence. The truth seems to be, too,that Arnold thought America ripe for reconciliationwith Great Britain. He dreamed that hemight be the saviour of his country.reconciled the English republicMonk hadto the restoredStuart King Charles II; Arnold might reconcile theAmerican republic to George III for the good ofboth. That reconciliation he believed was widelydesired in America. He tried to persuade himselfthat to change sides in this civil strife was no moreculpable then to turn from one party to another inpolitical He life. forgot, however, that it is neverhonorable to betray a trust.It is almost certain that Arnold received a largesum in money for his treachery. However thismay be,there was treason in his heart when heasked for and received the command at West Point,and he intended to use his authority to surrender

ALEXANDER HAMILTONPainting by Charles Willson Peale. In the collection of theNew York Historical Society.

.tautibeen7m\\v,u \\srfinl

SRAVURE . ANDERSEN -1

that vital postFRANCE TO THE RESCUE 241to the British.And now on the18th of September Washington was riding northeastwardinto Connecticut, British troops were onboard ships in New York and all was ready.Onthe 20th of September the Vulture, sloop of war,sailed up the Hudson from New York and anchoredat Stony Point, a few miles below WestPoint. On board the Vulture was the British officerwho was treating with Arnold and who nowcame to arrange terms with him, Major JohnAndre, Clinton's young adjutant general, a manof attractive personality. Under cover of nightArnold sent off a boat to bring Andre ashore toa remote thicket of fir trees, outside the Americanlines. There the final plans were made. TheBritish fleet, carrying an army, was to sail up theriver. A heavy chain had been placed across theriver at West Point to bar the way of hostile ships.Under pretense of repairs a link was to be taken outand replaced by a rope which would break easily.The defenses of West Point were to be so arrangedthat they could not meet a sudden attack andArnold was to surrender with hisforce of threethousand men. Such a blow following the disastersat Charleston and Camden might end thestrife.16Britain was prepared to yield everything but

242 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESseparation;and America, Arnold said, could nowmake an honorable peace.A chapter ofaccidents prevented the testing.Had Andre been rowed ashore by British tars theycould have taken him back to the ship at his commandbefore daylight. As it was the Americanboatmen, suspicious perhaps of the meaning of thistalk at midnight between an American officer anda British officer, both of them in uniform, refusedto row Andre back to the ship because their ownreturn would be dangerous in daylight.Contraryto his instructions and wishes Andre accompaniedArnold to a house within the American lineswait until he could be taken offtounder cover ofnight.Meanwhile, however, an American batteryon shore, angry at the Vulture, lying defiantlywithin range, opened fire upon her and she droppeddown stream some miles. This was alarming.Arnold, however, arranged with a man to rowAndre down the river and about midday went backto West Point.It was uncertain how far the Vulture had gone.The vigilance of those guardingthe river wasaroused and Andre's guide insisted that he shouldgo to the British lines by land. He was carryingcompromising papers and wearing civilian dress

FRANCE TO THE RESCUE 243when seized by an American party and held underclose arrest.Arnold meanwhile, ignorantof thisdelay, was waiting for the expected advance up theriver of the British fleet. He learned of the arrestof Andre while at breakfast on the morning of thetwenty-fifth, waiting to be joined by Washington,who had just ridden in from Hartford. Arnoldreceived the startling news with extraordinarycomposure, finished the subject under discussion,and then left the table under pretext of a summonsfrom across the river.Within a few minuteshis barge was moving swiftly to the Vulture eighteenmiles away. Thus Arnold escaped. Theunhappy Andre was hanged as a spy on the 2d ofOctober. He met his fate bravely. Washington, itis said, shed tears at its stern necessity under militarylaw.Forty yearslater the bones of Andrewere reburied in Westminster Abbey, a tribute ofpity for a fine officer.The treason of Arnold is not in itself important,yet Washington wrote with deep conviction thatProvidence had directly intervened to save theAmerican cause.Arnold might be only one ofmany. Washington said, indeed, that it was awonder there were not more. In a civil war everyone of importance is likely to have ties with both

244 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESsides, regrets for the friends he has lost, misgivingsin respect to the course he has adopted.In April,1779, Arnold had begun his treason by expressingdiscontent at the alliance with France then workingso disastrously.was stillHis future lay before him; heunder forty; he had just married into afamily of position; he expected that both he andhis descendants would spend their lives in Americaand he must have known that contempt wouldfollow them for the conduct which he planned if itwas regarded by public opinion as base.Voices inCongress, too, had denounced the alliance withFrance as alliance with tyranny, political and religious.Members praised the liberties of Englandand had declared that the Declaration of Independencemust be revoked and that now it couldbe done with honor since the Americans had provedtheir metal.There was room for the fear that themorale of the Americans was giving way.The defection of Arnold might also have militaryresults. He had bargained to be made a general inthe British army and he had intimate knowledgeHeof the weak points in Washington's position.advised the British that ifthey would do twothings, offer generous terms to soldiers serving inthe American army, and concentrate their effort,

FRANCE TO THE RESCUE 245they could win the war. Witha cynical knowledgeof the weaker side of human nature, he declaredthat it was too expensive a business to bring menfrom England to serve in America. They couldbe secured more cheaply in America; it would benecessary only to pay them better than Washingtoncould pay his army. As matters stood theContinental troops were to have half pay for sevenyears after the close of the war and grants of landranging from one hundred acres for a private toeleven hundred acres for a general. Make betteroffers than this, urged Arnold; "Money will gofarther than arms in America." If the Britishwould concentrate on the Hudson where the defenseswere weak they could drive a wedge betweenNorth and South. If on the other hand they preferredto concentrate in the South, leaving only agarrison in New York, they could overrun Virginiaand Maryland and then the States farther southwould give up a fight in which they were alreadybeaten.Energy and enterprise, said Arnold, willquickly win the war.In the autumn of 1780 the British cause did,indeed, seem near triumph. An election in EnglandinOctober gave the ministry an increasedmajority and with this renewed determination.

246 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESWhen Holland, long a secret enemy, became anopen one in December, 1780, Admiral Rodneydescended on the Dutch island of St. Eustatius, inthe West Indies, where the Americans were in thehabit of buying great quantitiesof stores and onthe 3d of February, 1781, captured the place withtwo hundred merchant ships, half a dozen men-ofwar,and stores to the value of three million pounds.The capture cut off one chief source of supply tothe United States.respect to money came to a head.By January, 1781, a crisis inFierce mutiniesbroke out because there was no money to providefood, clothing, or pay for the army and the menwere in a destitute condition."These people areat the end of their resources," wrote Rochambeauin March.Arnold's treason, the halting voices inCongress, the disasters in the South, the Britishsuccess in cutting offsuppliesEustatius, the sordid problem of moneyof stores from St.all thesewere well fitted to depress the worn leader so anxiouslywatching on the Hudson. It was the darkhour before the dawn.

CHAPTER XIYORKTOWNTHE critical stroke of the war was near. In theSouth, after General Greene superseded Gates inthe command, the tide of war began to turn. Cornwallisnow had to fight a better general than Gates.Greene arrived at Charlotte, North Carolina, inDecember. He found an army badly equipped,wretchedly clothed, and confronted by a greatlysuperior force. He had, however, some excellentand he did not scorn, as Gates, with theofficers,stiff military traditions of a regular soldier, hadscorned, the aid of guerrilla leaders like Marionand Sumter. Serving with Greene was GeneralDaniel Morgan, the enterprising and resourcefulVirginia rifleman, who had fought valorously atQuebec, at Saratoga, and later in Virginia. Steubenwas busy in Virginia holding the British incheck and keeping open the line of communicationwith the North. The mobility and diversity of the247

248 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESAmerican forces puzzled Cornwallis. When hemarched from Camden into North Carolina hehoped to draw Greene into a battle and to crushhim as he had crushed Gates. He sent Tarletonwith a smaller force to strike a deadly blow atMorgan who was threatening the British garrisonsat the points in the interior farther south. Therewas no more capable leader than Tarleton; he hadwon many victories; but now came his day ofdefeat. On January 17, 1781, he met Morgan atthe Cowpens, about thirty miles west from King'sMountain.Morgan, not quite sure of the disciplineof his men, stood with his back to a broadriver so that retreat was impossible.Tarleton hadmarched nearly all night over bad roads; but, confidentin the superiority of his weary and hungryveterans, he advanced to the attack at daybreak.The result was a complete disaster. Tarletonhimself barely got away with two hundred andseventy men and left behind nearly nine hundredcasualties and prisoners.Cornwallis had lost one-third of his effectivearmy.There was nothing for him to do but to takehis loss and still to press on northward in the hopethat the more southerly inland posts could takecare of themselves. In the early spring of 1781,

YORKTOWN 249when heavy rains were making the roads difficultand the rivers almost impassable, Greene wasluringCornwallis northward and Cornwallis waschasing Greene.At Hillsborough, in the northwestcorner of North Carolina,Cornwallis issueda proclamation saying that the colony was oncemore under the authority of the King and invitingthe Loyalists, bullied and oppressed during nearlysix years, to come out openly on the royal side.On the 15th of March Greene took a stand andoffered battle at Guilford Court House.In theearly afternoon, after a march of twelve miles withoutfood, Cornwallis, with less than two thousandmen, attacked Greene's force of about four thousand.By evening the British held the field andhad captured Greene's guns. But they had lostheavily and they were two hundred miles fromtheir base.Their friends were timid, and in factfew, and their numerous enemies were filled withpassionate resolution.Cornwallis now wrote to urge Clinton to cometo his aid. Abandon New York, he said; bringthe whole British force into Virginia and end thewar by one smashing stroke; that would be betterthan sticking to salt porkin New York and sendingonly enough men to Virginia to steal tobacco.

230 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESCornwallis could not remain where he was, farfrom the sea.Go back to Camden he would notafter a victory, and thus seem to admit a defeat.So he decided to risk all and go forward. By hardmarching he led his army down the Cape FearRiver to Wilmington on the sea, and there hearrived on the 9th of April. Greene, however,simply would not do what Cornwallis wishedstay in the north to be beaten by a second smashingblow. He did what Cornwallis would not do;he marched back into the South and disturbed theBritish dream that now the country was held securely.It mattered little that, after this, theBritish won minor victories.Lord Rawdon, stillholding Camden, defeated Greene on the 25th ofApril at Hobkirk's Hill. None the less did Rawdonfind his position untenable and he, too, wasforced to march to the sea, which he reached at apoint near Charleston. Augusta, the capital ofGeorgia,fell to the Americans on the 5th of Juneand the operations of the summer went decisivelyin their favor. The last battle in the field of thefarther South was fought on the 8th of Septemberat Eutaw Springs, about fifty miles northwest ofCharleston.The British held their position andthus could claim a victory. But it was fruitless.

YORKTOWN 251They had been forced steadily to withdraw.the boasted fabric of royal governmentAllin theSouth had come down with a crash and the Torieswho had supported it were having evil days.While these events were happening farthersouth, Cornwallis himself, without waiting for wordfrom Clinton in New York, had adopted his ownpolicy and marched from Wilmington northwardinto Virginia.Benedict Arnold was now in Virginiadoing what mischief he could to his formerfriends.In January he burned the little town ofRichmond, destined in the years to come to be agreat center in another civil war. Some twentymiles south from Richmond lay in a strong positionPetersburg,shed in civil strife.later also to be drenched with bloodArnold was already at Petersburgwhen Cornwallis arrived on the 20th of May.He was now in high spirits. He did not yet realizethe extent of the failure farther south. Virginia hebelieved to be half loyalist at heart. The negroeswould, he thought, turn against their masters whenthey knew that the British were strong enough todefend them. Above all he had a finely disciplinedarmy of five thousand men. Cornwallis was themore confident when he knew by whom he wasopposed. In April Washington had placed La

WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESFayette in charge of the defense of Virginia, andnot only was La Fayette young and untried insuch a command but he had at firstonly threethousand badly-trained men to confront the formidableBritish general.Cornwallis said cheerilythat "the boy" was certainly now his prey andbegan the task of catching him.An exciting chase followed. La Fayette didsome good work.It was impossible, with his inferiorforce, to fight Cornwallis, but he could tirehim out by drawing him into long marches.WhenCornwallis advanced to attack La Fayette at Richmond,La Fayette was not there but had slippedaway and was able to use rivers and mountains forhis defense. Cornwallis had more than one stringto his bow. The legislature of Virginia was sittingat Charlottesville, lying in the interior nearly a hundredmiles northwest from Richmond, and Cornwallisconceived the daring plan of raiding Charlottesville,capturing the Governor of Virginia,Thomas Jefferson, and, at one stroke, shatteringthe civil administration. Tarleton was the manfor such an enterprise of hard riding and bold fightingand he nearly succeeded. Jefferson indeedescaped by rapid flightbut Tarleton took thetown, burned the public records, and captured

YORKTOWN 253ammunition and arms. But he really effected little.La Fayette was still unconquered. His army wasgrowing and the British were finding that Virginia,like New England, was definitely against them.At New York, meanwhile, Clinton was in adilemma. He was dismayed at the news of themarch of Cornwallis to Virginia. Cornwallis hadbeen so long practically independent in the Souththat he assumed not only the right to shape hisown policy but adopted a certain tartness in hisdespatches to Clinton, his superior. When now,in this tone, he urged Clinton to abandon NewYork and join him Clinton's answer on the 26th ofJune was a definite order to occupy some port inVirginia easily reached from the sea,to make itsecure, and to send to New York reinforcements.The French army at Newport was beginning tomove towards New York and Clinton had interceptedletters from Washington to La Fayetterevealing a serious design to make an attack withthe aid of the French fleet.Such was the gamewhich fortune was playing with the British generals.Each desired the other to abandon his ownplans and to come to his aid.They were agreed,however, that some strong point must be held inVirginia as a naval base, and on the 2d of August

254 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESCornwallis established this base at Yorktown, atthe mouth of the York River, a mile wide where itflows into Chesapeake Bay. His cannon couldcommand the whole width of the river and keepin safety ships anchored above the town. Yorktownlay about half way between New York andCharleston and from here a fleet could readilycarry a military force to any needed point on thesea. La Fayette with a growing armyon Yorktown, and Cornwallis,closed inalmost before heknew it, was besieged with no hope of rescue exceptby a fleet.Then it was that from the sea, the restless andmysterious sea, came the final decision. Manseems so much the sport of circumstance thatapparent trifles, remote from his consciousness,appear at times to determine his fate; it is a commonplaceof romance that a pretty face or a straybullet has altered the destiny not merely of familiesbut of nations. And now, in the AmericanRevolution, it was not forts on the Hudson, normaneuvers in the South, that were to decide theissue, but the presence of a few more French warshipsthan the British could muster at a givenspot and time.Washington had urged in Januarythat France should planto have at least

YORKTOWN 255temporary naval superiority in American waters, inaccordance with Rochambeau Js principle, "Nothingwithout naval supremacy." Washingtonwished to concentrate against New York, but thewere of a different mind, believing that thegreat enort should be made in Chesapeake Bay.There the British could have no defenses like thoseat New York, and the French fleet, which was\ stationed in the West Indies, could reach moreVeadily than New York a point in the South.Early in May Rochambeau knew that a Frenchfleet was coming to his aid but not yet did he knowwhere the stroke should be made.It was clear,however, that there was nothing for the French todo at Newport, and, by the beginning of June,Rochambeau prepared to set his army in motion.The first step was to join Washington on the Hudsonand at any rate alarm Clinton as to an imminentattack on New York and hold him to that spot.After nearly a year of idleness the French soldierswere delighted that now at last there was to be anactive movement. The long march from Newportto New York began.In glowing June, amid thebeauties of nature, now overcome by intense heatand obliged to march at two o'clock in the morning,now drenched by heavy rains, the French plodded

256 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESon, and joined their American comrades along theHudson early in July.By the 14th of August Washington knew twothingsthat a great French fleet under the Comtede Grasse had sailed for the Chesapeake and thatthe British army had reached Yorktown.Soon thetwo allied armies, both lying on the east side ofthe Hudson, moved southward. On the 20th ofAugust the Americans began to cross the river atKing's Ferry, eight miles below Peekskill. Washingtonhad to leave the greater part of his armybefore New York, and his meager force of some twothousand was soon over the river in spiteof torrentialrains. By the 24th of August the French,too, had crossed with some four thousand men andwith their heavy equipment. The British madeno move.operations nervously.Clinton was, however, watching theseThe united armies marcheddown the right bank of the Hudson so rapidly thatthey had to leave useful effects behind and somegrumbled at the privation.enemy mightJersey shore.Clinton thought hisstill attack New York from the NewHe knew that near Staten Islandthe Americans were building great bakeries as ifto feed an army besieging New York.on the 29th of Augustthe armies turnedSuddenlyaway

YORKTOWN 257from New York southwestward across New Jersey,and stillwere bound.only the two leaders knew whither theyAmerican patriotism has liked to dwell on thislast great march of Washington.To him this wasfamiliar country; it was here that he had harassedClinton on the march from Philadelphia to NewYork three long years before.The French marchedon the right at the rate of about fifteen miles a day.The country was beautiful and the roads weregood. Autumn had come and the air was bracing.The peaches hung ripe on the trees. The Dutchfarmers who, four years earlier, had been plaintiveabout the pillage by the Hessians, now seemedprosperous enough and brought abundance ofprovisions to the army. They had just gatheredtheir harvest. The armies passed through Princeton,with its fine college, numbering as many asfifty students; then on to Trenton, and across theDelaware to Philadelphia, which the vanguardreached on the 3d of September.There were gala scenes in Philadelphia. Twentythousand people witnessed a review of the Frencharmy. To one of the French officers the cityseemed "immense" with its seventy-two streetsall "in a straight line." The shops appeared to be

258 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESequal to those of Paris and there were prettywomen well dressed in the French fashion. TheQuaker city forgot its old suspicion of the Frenchand their Catholic religion. Luzerne, the FrenchMinister, gave a great banquet on the evening ofthe 5th of September.Eighty guests took theirplaces at table and as they sat down good newsarrived. As yet few knew the destination of thearmy but now Luzerne read momentous tidingsand the secret was out: twenty-eight French shipsof the line had arrived in Chesapeake Bay; anarmy of three thousand men had already disembarkedand was in touch with the army ofLa Fayette; Washington and Rochambeau werebound for Yorktown to attack Cornwallis.Greatwas the joy; in the streets the soldiers and thepeople shouted and sang and humorists, mountedon chairs, delivered in advance mock funeralorations on Cornwallis.It was planned that the army should march thefifty miles to Elkton, at the head of ChesapeakeBay, and there take boat to Yorktown, two hundredmiles to the south at the other end of the Bay.But there were not ships enough. Washington hadasked the people of influence in the neighborhoodto help him to gather transports but few of them

YORKTOWN 259responded. A deadly apathy in regard to the warseems to have fallen upon many parts of the country.The Bay now in control of the French fleetwas quite safe for unarmed ships.Half the Americansand some of the French embarked and therest continued on foot.There was need of haste,and the troops marched on to Baltimore and beyondat the rate of twenty miles a day, over roadsoften bad and across rivers sometimes unbridged.At Baltimore some further regiments were takenon board transports and most of them made thefinal stages of the journey by water.Some therewere, however, and among them the Vicomtede Noailles, brother-in-law of La Fayette, whotramped on foot the whole seven hundred andfifty -six miles from Newport to Yorktown. Washingtonhimself left the army at Elkton and rode onwith Rochambeau, making about sixty miles a day.Mount Vernon lay on the way and here Washingtonpaused for two or three days.It was the firsttime he had seen it since he set out on May 4, 1775,to attend the Continental Congressat Philadelphia,little dreaming then of himself as chief leaderin a long war. Now he pressed on to join LaFayette. By the end of the month an army ofsixteen thousand men, of whom about one-half

260 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESwere French, was besieging Cornwallis with seventhousand men in Yorktown.Heart-stirring events had happened while thearmies were marching to the South. The Comtede Grasse, with his great fleet, arrived at the entranceto the Chesapeake on the 30th of Augustwhile the British fleet under Admiral Graves stilllay at New York. Grasse, now the pivot uponwhich everything turned, was the French admiralin the West Indies. Taking advantage of a lull inoperations he had slipped away with his wholefleet, to make his stroke and be back again beforehis absence had caused great loss.It was a riskyenterprise, but a wise leader takes risks.He intendedto be back in the West Indies before theend of October.It was not easy for the British to realize thatthey could be outmatched on the sea. Rodneyhad sent word from the West Indies that tenships were the limit of Grasse's numbers and thateven fourteen British ships would be adequate tomeet him. A British fleet, numbering nineteenships of the line, commanded by Admiral Graves,left New York on the 31st of August and five dayslater stood off the entrance to Chesapeake Bay.On the mainland across the Bay lay Yorktown, the

YORKTOWN 261one point now held by the British on that greatstretch of coast. When Graves arrived he had anunpleasant surprise. The strength of the Frenchhad been well concealed. There to confront himlay twenty-four enemy ships.The situation waseven worse, for the French fleet from Newportwas on its way to join Grasse.On the afternoon of the 5th of September, theday of the great rejoicing in Philadelphia, therewas a spectacle of surpassing interest off CapeHenry, at the mouth of the Bay. The two greatfleets joined battle, under sail, and poured theirfire into each other. When night came the Britishhad about three hundred and fifty casualties andthe French about two hundred.brilliant leadership on either side.There was noOne of Graves'slargest ships, the Terrible, was so crippled that heburnt her, and several others were badly damaged.Admiral Hood, one of Graves's officers, says thatif his leader had turned suddenly and anchoredhis ships across the mouth of the Bay, the FrenchAdmiral with his fleet outside would probably havesailed away and left the British fleet in possession.As it was the two fleets lay at sea in sight of eachother for four days. On the morning of the tenththe squadron from Newport under Barras arrived

WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESand increased Grasse's ships to thirty -six. Againstsuch odds Graves could do nothing. He lingerednear the mouth of the Chesapeake for a few daysstill and then sailed away to New York to refit.At the most critical hour of the whole war a Britishfleet, crippled and spiritless, was hurrying to aprotecting port and the fleurs-de-lis waved unchallengedon the American coast. The action ofGraves spelled the doom of Cornwallis.potent fleet ever gathered inoff from rescue by sea.The most1those waters cut himYorktown fronted on the York River with a deepravine and swamps at the back of the town. Fromthe land it could on the west side be approachedby a road leading over marshes and easily defended,and on the east side by solid ground about half amile wide now protected by redoubts and entrenchmentswith an outer and an inner parallel.Cornwallis hold out?CouldAt New York, no longer inany danger, there was still a keen desire to rescuehim. By the end of September he received wordfrom Clinton that reinforcements had arrived fromEngland and that, with a fleet of twenty-six shipsof the line carrying five thousand troops, he hopedto sail on the 5th of October to the rescue of Yorktown.There was delay. Later Clinton wrote that

YORKTOWN 263on the basis of assurances from Admiral Graves hehoped to get away on the twelfth.A British officerin New York describes the hopes with which thepopulace watched these preparations.The fleet,however, did not sail until the 19th of October.A speaker in Congress at the time said that theBritish Admiral should certainly hang for this delay.On the 5th of October, for some reason unexplained,Cornwallis abandoned the outer paralleland withdrew behind the inner one. This left himin Yorktown a space so narrow that nearly everypart of it could be swept by enemy artillery.Bythe llth of October shells were dropping incessantlyfrom a distance of only three hundredyards, and before this powerful fire the earthworkscrumbled. On the fourteenth the French andAmericans carried by storm two redoubts on thesecond parallel.The redoubtable Tarleton was inYorktown, and he says that day and night therewas acute danger to any one showing himself andthat every gun was dismounted as soon as seen.He was for evacuating the place and marchingaway, whither he hardly knew. Cornwallis stillheld Gloucester, on the opposite side of the YorkRiver, and he now planned to cross to that placewith his best troops, leaving behind his sick and

264 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESwounded.He would try to reach Philadelphia bythe route over which Washington had just ridden.The feat was not impossible. Washington wouldhave had a stern chase in following Cornwallis, whomight have been able to live off the country.Clinton could help by attacking Philadelphia,which was almost defenseless.As it was, a storm prevented the crossing toGloucester. The defenses of Yorktown wereweakening and in face of this new discouragementthe British leader made up his mind that the endwas near.Tarleton and other officers condemnedCornwallis sharply for not persisting in the effortto get away. Cornwallis was a considerate man."I thought it would have been wanton and inhuman,"he reported later,"to sacrifice the livesof this small body of gallant soldiers." He hadalready written to Clinton to say that there wouldbe great risk in trying to send a fleet and armyto rescue him. On the 19th of October came theclimax.Cornwallis surrendered with some hundredsof sailors and about seven thousand soldiers,of whom two thousand were in hospital. Theterms were similar to those which the British hadgranted at Charleston to General Lincoln, who wasnow charged with carrying out the surrender.

YORKTOWN 265Such is the play of human fortune. At two o'clockin the afternoon the British marched out betweentwo lines, the French on the one side, the Americanson the other, the French in full dress uniform,the Americans in some cases half naked and barefoot.No civilian sightseers were admitted, andthere was a respectful silence in the presence ofthis great humiliation to a proud army. The townitself was a dreadful spectacle with, as a Frenchobserver noted, " big holes made by bombs, cannonballs, splinters, barely covered graves, arms andlegs of blacks and whites scattered here and there,most of the houses riddled with shot and devoidof window-panes."On the very day of surrender Clinton sailed fromNew York with a rescuing army. Nine days laterforty-four British ships were counted off the entranceto Chesapeake Bay. The next day therewere none. The great fleet had heard of thesurrender and had turned back to New York.Washington urged Grasse to attack New York orCharleston but the French Admiral was anxious totake his fleet back to meet the British menacefarther south and he sailed away with all his greatarray.The waters of the Chesapeake, the sceneof one of the decisive events in human history,

266 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESwere deserted by ships of war. Grassehad sailed,however, to meet a stern fate.He was a fine fight-His men said of him that he was oning sailor.ordinary days six feet in height but on battle dayssix feet and six inches. None the less did a fewmonths bring the British a quick revenge on thesea. On April 12, 1782, Rodney met Grasse inSomea terrible naval battle in the West Indies.five thousand in both fleets perished. When nightcame Grasse was Rodney's prisoner and Britainhad recovered her supremacy on the sea.On returningto France Grasse was tried by court-martialand, though acquitted, he remained in disgraceuntil he died in 1788, "weary," as he said,"of the burden of life." The defeated Cornwalliswas not blamed in England.His character commandedwide respect and he lived to play a greatpart in public life. He became Governor Generalof India, and was Viceroy of Ireland when itsrestless union with England was brought aboutin 1800.Yorktown settled the issue of the war but didnot end it. For more than a year still hostilitiescontinued and, in parts of the South, embitteredfaction led to more bloodshed. In England the

YORKTOWN 267news of Yorktown caused a commotion. WhenLord George Germain received the first despatchhe drove with one or two colleagues to the PrimeMinister's house in DowningStreet. A friendasked Lord George how Lord North had taken thenews. "As he would have taken a ball in thebreast," he replied; "for he opened his arms, exclaimingwildly, as he paced up and down theapartment during a few minutes, 'Oh God! it is allover/ words which he repeated many times, underemotions ofthe deepest agitation and distress."Lord North might well be agitated for the newsmeant the collapse of a system. The King was atKew and word was sent to him. That Sundayevening Lord George Germain had a small dinnerparty and the King's letter in reply was broughtto the table. The guests were curious to know howthe King took the news. "The King writes justas he always does," said Lord George, "except thatI observe he has omitted to mark the hour and theminute of his writing with his usual precision."It needed a heavy shock to disturb the routine ofGeorge III.The King hoped no one would thinkthat the bad news "makes the smallest alterationin those principles of my conduct which havedirected me in past time." Lesser men might

268 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESchange in the face of evils; George III was resolvedto be changeless and never, never, to yield to thecoercion of facts.Yield, however, he did. The months whichfollowed were months of political commotion inEngland.For a time the ministry held its majorityagainst the fierce attacks of Burke and Fox. TheHouse of Commons voted that the war must go on.But the heart had gone out of British effort.Everywhere the people were growing restless.Even the ministry acknowledged that the war inAmerica must henceforth be defensive only. InFebruary, 1782, a motion in the House of Commonsfor peace was lost by only one vote; and inMarch, in spite of the frantic expostulations of theKing, Lord North resigned. The King insistedthat at any rate some members of the new ministrymust be named by himself and not, as isthe Britishconstitutional custom, by the Prime Minister.On this, too, he had to yield; and a Whig ministry,under the Marquis of Rockingham, took officein March, 1782.Rockinghamdied on the 1st ofJuly, and it was Lord Shelburne, later the Marquisof Lansdowne, under whom the war came to an end.The King meanwhile declared that he would returnto Hanover rather than yield the independence

YORKTOWN 269of the colonies. Over and over again he hadsaid that no one should hold office in his governmentwho would not pledge himself to keep theBut even his obstinacy was broken.Empire entire.On December 5, 1782, he opened Parliament witha speech in which the rightof the colonies to independencewas acknowledged."Did I lower myvoice when I came to that part of my speech?"George asked afterwards. He might well speak ina subdued tone for he had brought the BritishEmpire to the lowest level in its history.In America, meanwhile, the glow of victory hadgiven way to weariness and lassitude. Rochambeauwith his army remained in Virginia. Washingtontook his forces back to the lines before NewYork, sparing what men he could to help Greenein the South.and waiting.Again came a long period of watchingWashington, knowing the obstinatedetermination of the British character, urged Congressto keep up the numbers of the army so as tobe prepared for any emergency. Sir Guy Carletonnow commanded the British at New York andWashington feared that this capable Irishmanmight soothe the Americans into a false security.He had to speak sharply, for the people seemed indifferentto further effort and Congress was slack

270 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESand impotent.The outlook for Washington's alliesin the war darkened, when in April, 1782,Rodney won his crushing victory and carried DeGrasse a prisoner to England. France's ally Spainhad been besieging Gibraltar for three years, butin September, 1782, when the great batteringshipsspecially built for the purpose began a furiousbombardment, which was expected to end thesiege, the British defenders destroyed every ship,and after that Gibraltar was safe. These eventsnaturally stiffened the backs of the British in negotiatingpeace. Spain declared that she would nevermake peace without the surrender of Gibraltar,and she was ready to leave the question of Americanindependence undecided or decided againstthe colonies if she could only get for herself theterms which she desired. There was a period whenFranceseemed ready to make peace on the basisofof dividing the Thirteen States, leaving somethem independent while others should remainunder the British King.Congress was not willing to leave its affairs atParis in the capable hands of Franklin alone. In1780 it sent John Adams to Paris, and John Jayand Henry Laurens were also members of the AmericanCommission. The austere Adams disliked

YORKTOWN 271and was jealous of Franklin, gay in spiteof hisyears, seemingly indolent and easygoing, alwaysbland and reluctant to say No to any request fromhis friends, but ever astute in the interests of hiscountry.Adams told Vergennes, the French foreignminister, that the Americans owed nothing toFrance, that France had entered the war in herown interests, and that her alliance with Americahad greatly strengthened her position in Europe.France, he added, was really hostile to the colonies,since she was jealously trying to keep them frombecoming rich and powerful. Adams dropped hintsthat America might be compelled to make a separatepeace with Britain. When it was proposedthat the depreciated continental paper money,largely held in France for purchases there, shouldbe redeemed at the rate of one good dollar forevery forty in paper money, Adams declared to thehorrified French creditors of the United States thatthe proposal was fair and just.Congress was drawing on Franklin inAt the same timeParis formoney to meet its requirements and Franklin wasexpected to persuade the French treasuryto furnishhim with what he needed and to an amazingdegree succeeded in doing so. The self interestwhich Washington believed to be the dominant

WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESmotive in politics was, it is clear, actively atwork.In the end the American Commissionersnegotiated directly with Great Britain, withoutasking for the consent of their French allies. OnNovember 30, 1782, articles of peace betweenGreat Britain and the United States were signed.They were, however, not to go into effect untilGreat Britain and France had agreed upon termsof peace; and it was not until September 3, 1783,that the definite treaty was signed. So far asthe United States was concerned Spain was leftquite properly to shift for herself.Thus it was that the war ended.Great Britainhad urged especially the case of the Loyalists, thereturn to them of their property and compensationfor their losses.She could not achieve anything.Franklin indeed asked that Americans who hadbeen ruined by the destruction of their propertyshould be compensated by Britain, that Canadashould be added to the United States, and thatBritain should acknowledge her fault in distressingthe colonies. In the end the American Commissionersagreed to ask the individual States to meetthe desires of the British negotiators, but bothsides understood that the States would do nothing,that the confiscated property would never be

YORKTOWN 273returned, that most of the exiled Loyalists wouldremain exiles, and that Britain herself must compensatethem for their losses. This in time shedid on a scaleof a generousinadequate indeed but expressiveintention. The United States retainedthe great Northwest and theMississippibecame the western frontier, with destiny alreadywhispering that weak and grasping Spainmust soon let go of the farther West stretchingto the Pacific Ocean. When Great Britain signedpeace with France and Spain in January, 1783,Gibraltar was not returned; Spain had to be contentwith the return of Minorca and Florida whichshe had been forced to yield to Britain in 1763.Each side restored its conquests in the West Indies.France, the chief mainstay of the war during itslater years, gained from it really nothing beyondthe weakening of her ancient enemy. The magnanimityof France, especially towards her exactingAmerican ally, is one of the fine things in the greatcombat. The huge sum of nearly eight hundredmillion dollars spent by France in the war was oneof the chief factors in the financial crisis which, sixyears after the signing ofthe French Revolution and with itof the Bourbon monarchy.18the peace, brought onthe overthrowPolitics bring strange

274 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESbedfellows aud they have rarely brought strangerones than the democracy of young America andthe political despotism, linked with idealism, of theancient monarchy of France.The British did not evacuate New York untilCarleton had gathered there the Loyalists whoclaimed his protection. These unhappy peoplemade their way to the seaports, often after longand distressing journeys overland.Charleston wasthe chief rallying place in the South and from theremany sad-hearted people sailed away, never to seeagain their former homes. The British had capturedNew York in September, 1776, and it wasmore than seven years later, on November 25,1783,that the last of the British fleet put to sea. Britainand America had broken forever their political tieand for many years to come embittered memorieskept up the alienation.It was fitting that Washington should bid farewellto his army at New York, the center of hishopes and anxieties during the greater part of thelong struggle. On December 4, 1783, his officersmet at a tavern to bid him farewell. The tears randown his cheeks as he parted with these brave andtried men.He shook their hands in silence and,in a fashion still preserved in France, kissed each

of them.YORKTOWN 275Then they watched him as he was rowedaway in his barge to the New Jersey shore.Congresswas now sitting at Annapolis in Marylandand there on December 23, 1783, Washington appearedand gave up finally his command. We aretold that the members sat covered to show thesovereignty of the Union, a quaint touch of thethought of the time. The little town made a braveshow and " the gallery was filled with a beautifulgroup of elegant ladies."With solemn sincerityWashington commended the country to the protectionof Almighty God and the army to the specialcare of Congress.Passion had already subsided forthe President of Congress in his reply praised the"magnanimous king and nation" of Great Britain.By the end of the year Washington was at MountVernon, hoping now to be able, as he said simply, tomake and sell a little flour annually and to repairhouses fast going to ruin. He did not foresee thetroubled years and the vexing problems which stilllay before him. Nor could he, in his modest estimateof himself, know that for a distant posterityhis character and his words would have compellingauthority. What Washington's countryman, Motley,said of William of Orange is true of Washingtonhimself : As long as he lived he was the "guiding

276 WASHINGTON AND HIS COMRADESstar of a brave nation and when he died the littlechildren cried in the streets/'To this day in the domestic and foreignBut this is not all.affairs ofthe United States the words of Washington, thepolicies which he favored, have a living and almostbinding force.itsThis attitude of mind is not withoutdangers, for nations require to make new adjustmentsof policy, and the past isthe master of the present; but itonly in partis the tribute ofa grateful nation to the noble character of itschief founder.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTEIN Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America,vol. vi (1889), and in Lamed (editor), Literature ofAmerican History, pp. 111-152 (1902), the authoritiesare critically estimated. There are excellent classifiedlists in Van Tyne, The American Revolution (1905),vol. v of Hart (editor), The American Nation, and inAvery, History of the United States, vol. v, pp. 422-432, and vol. vi, pp. 445-471 (1908-09). The notes inChanning, A History of the United States, vol. in (1913),are useful. Detailed information in regard to placeswill be found in Lossing, The Pictorial Field Book ofthe Revolution, 2 vols. (1850).In recent years American writers on the period havechiefly occupied themselves with special studies ,andthe general histories have been few. Tyler's The LiteraryHistory of the American Revolution, 2 vols. (1897),is a penetrating study of opinion. Fiske's The AmericanRevolution, 2 vols, (1891), and Sydney GeorgeFisher's The Strugglefor American Independence, 2 vols.(1908), are popular works. The short volume of VanTyne is based upon extensive research. The attentionof English writers has been drawn in an increasingdegree to the Revolution. Lecky, A History of Englandin the Eighteenth Century, chaps, xm, xiv, andxv (1903), is impartial. The most elaborate and277

278 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTEreadable history is Trevelyan, The American Revolution,and his George the Third and Charles Fox (six volumesin all, completed in 1914). If Trevelyan leans toomuch to the American side the opposite is true of Fortescue,A History of the British Army, vol. in (1902), ascientific account of military events with many mapsand plans. Captain Mahan, U. S. N., wrote the Britishnaval history of the period in Clowes (editor), TheRoyal Navy, a History, vol. m, pp. 353-564 (1898). Ofgreat value also is Mahan's Influence of Sea Power onHistory (1890) and Major Operations of the Navies inthe War of Independence (1913). He may be supplementedby C. O. Paullin's Navy of the AmericanRevolution (1906) and G. W. Allen's A Naval Historyof the American Revolution, 2 vols. (1913).CHAPTERS IAND IIWashington's own writings are necessary to anunderstanding of his character. Sparks, The Life andWritings of George Washington, 2 vols. (completed1855), has been superseded by Ford, The Writings ofGeorge Washington, 14 vols. (completed 1893). Thegeneral reader will probably put aside the older biographiesof Washington by Marshall, Irving, and Sparksfor more recent Lives such as those by WoodrowWilson, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Paul Leicester Ford.Haworth, George Washington, Farmer (1915) deals witha special side of Washington's character. The problemsof the army are described in Bolton, The PrivateSoldier under Washington (1902), and in Hatch, TheAdministration of the American Revolutionary Army(1904). For military operations Frothingham, The

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 279Siege of Boston; Justin H. Smith, Our Struggle for theFourteenth Colony, Z vols. (1907); Codman, Arnold'sExpedition to Quebec (1901); and Lucas, History ofCanada, 1763-1812 (1909).CHAPTER IIIFor the state of opinion in England, the contemporaryAnnual Register, and the writings and speeches ofmen of the time like Burke, Fox, Horace Walpole, andDr. Samuel Johnson. The King's attitude is found inDonne, Correspondence of George III with Lord North,1768-83, 2 vols. (1867). Stirling, Coke of Norfolk andhis Friends, % vols. (1908), gives the outlook of a Whigmagnate; Fitzmaurice, Life of William, Earl of Shelburne,2 vols. (1912), the Whig policy. Curwen's Journalsand Letters, 1775-84 (1842), show us a Loyalistexile in England. Hazelton's The Declaration ofIndependence, its History (1906), is an elaborate study.CHAPTERS IV, V,AND VIThe three campaigns New York, Philadelphia,and the Hudson are covered by C. F. Adams,Studies Military and Diplomatic (1911), which makessevere strictures on Washington's strategy; H. P.Johnston's "Campaign of 1776 around New York andBrooklyn," in the Long Island Historical Society'sMemoirs, and Battle of Harlem Heights (1897) ; Carrington,Battles of the American Revolution (1904) ; Stryker,The Battles of Trenton and Princeton (1898); Lucas,History of Canada ( 1 909) Fonblanque's John Burgoyne.(1876) is a defense of that leader; while Riedesel's

280 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTELetters and Journals Relating to the War of the AmericanRevolution (trans. W. L. Stone, 1867) and Anburey'sTravels through the Interior Parts of America(1789) are accounts by eye-witnesses. Mereness'(editor) Travels in the American Colonies, 1690-1783(1916) gives the impressions of Lord Adam Gordonand others.CHAPTERS VII AND VIIIOn Washington at Valley Forge, Oliver, Life ofAlexander Hamilton (1906) ; Charlemagne Tower, TheMarquis de La Fayette in the American Revolution, 2vols. (1895); Greene, Life of Nathanael Greene (1893);Brooks, Henry Knox (1900); Graham, Life of GeneralDaniel Morgan (1856); Kapp, Life of Steuben (1859);Arnold, Life of Benedict Arnold (1880). On the armyBolton and Hatch as cited; Mahan gives a lucid accountof naval effort. Barrow, Richard, Earl Howe(1838) is a dull account of a remarkable man. On theFrench alliance, Perkins, France in the American Revolution(1911), Corwin, French Policy and the AmericanAlliance of 1778 (1916), and Van Tyne on "Influenceswhich Determined the French Government toMake the Treaty with America, 1778," in The AmericanHistorical Review, April, 1916.CHAPTER IXFortescue, as cited, gives excellent plans. Otheruseful books are McCrady, History of South Carolinain the Revolution (1901); Draper, King's Mountain andits Heroes (1881) ; Simms, Life of Marion (1844). Ross

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 281(editor), The Cornwallis Correspondence, 3 vols. (1859),and Tarleton, History of the Campaigns of 1780 and1781 in the Southern Provinces of North America (1787),give the point of view of British leaders. On the West,Thwaites, How George Rogers Clark won the Northwest(1903); and on the Loyalists Van Tyne, The Loyalistsin the American Revolution (1902), Flick, Loyalismin New York (1901), and Stark, The Loyalists ofMassachusetts (1910).CHAPTERS X AND XIFor the exploits of John Paul Jones and of theAmerican navy, Mrs. De Koven's The Life and Lettersof John Paul Jones, 2 vols. (1913), Don C. Seitz's PaulJones, and G. W. Allen's A Naval History of the AmericanRevolution, 2 vols. (1913), should be consulted.Jusserand's With Americans of Past and Present Days(1917) contains a chapter on "Rochambeau and theFrench in America"; Johnston's The Yorktown Campaign(1881) is a full account; Wraxall, HistoricalMemoirs of my own Time (1815, reprinted 1904), tellsof the reception of the news of Yorktown in England.The Encyclopaedia Britannica has useful referencesto authorities for persons prominent in the Revolutionand The Dictionary of National Biography for leaderson the British side.

INDEXAbraham, Plains of, Americanarmy on, 50Adams, Abigail, 49Adams, John, in ContinentalCongress, 8; journey fromBoston to Philadelphia, 9-10; on committee to draftDeclaration of Independence,75-76; excepted from Britishoffer of pardon, 86, 92;opinion of Philadelphia, 120,165; criticism of Washington,149; sent to Paris onAmerican Commission, 270-271Albany (N. Y.), plan to concentrateBritish forces at, 133Allen, Colonel Ethan, 40Andre, Major John, at Philadelphia,195; treats withArnold, 241-42; capture,242-43; hanged as spy, 243Annapolis (Md.)> Congress at,275Anne, Fort, 129Armed neutrality, 206Army, American, camp atCambridge, 27 r 28; Washingtonreorganizes, 30-35 ;food and clothing, 30-31, 32,153-56, 166; composition,31-32, 43; officers, 32-35,after43^44;Canadian campaign,51; desertions, 100,159-60; plundering by, 111;pay, 111, 158-59, 209; in2831777, 112; condition underGates, 145; Washingtonwishes national, 151; needof engineers, 152; hospitalservice, 152-53, 166-67;weapons and artillery, 156-158; religion in, 160-61;supplies from France, 184;after Valley Forge, 197;mutinous, 209, 246Army, British, food for, 36;press-gangs, 176; flogging,176; relations between officersand men, 176-77;difficulties of raising, 178;see also GermansArmy, French, in America,235-36Arnold, Benedict, at Ticonderoga,40; through Maineto Canada, 43, 44-45; atQuebec, 45-46; at CrownPoint, 52-53; Coke denouncesKing's reception of,71; Washington's trust in,110, 172-73; at Stillwater,143; describes Americanarmy, 155; treason, 173, 195,240-43; at West Point, 238;life at Philadelphia, 239;tried by court-martial, 239;reprimanded by Washington,239-40; in Virginia, 251Articles of Confederation, 163Assanpink River, Washingtonon, 105Atrocities, 180, 212; see alsoIndians, Prisons

284 INDEXAugusta (Ga.), British take,211-12; falls to Americans,250BBaltimore, Congress flees to,100Barbados, Washington visits,22Barras, French naval commander,261Baum, Colonel, at Bennington,131, 132Beaumarchais sends munitionsto America, 183-84Bemis Heights, battle, 143Bennington, battle of, 131-32Berthier, French officer, 231Biggin's Bridge, Tarleton's victoryat, 216Bordentown, Germans at, 102Boston, defiance of British in,2; siege, 3, 4, 35-36; Washington'sjourney to, 9-10;American camp, 27-28; evacuatedby British, 48-49;effect of Washington's successat, 81; Howe feignssetting out for, 114; safe,116; Burgoyne's force at,146; Loyalists in, 212Braddock, General Edward,Washington with, 22-23Brandywine, battle of, 119-20,133, 148; La Fayette at,169; Greene at, 171Brant, Joseph (Thayendanegea),134Breed's Hill, 4-5; see alsoBunker HillBroglie, Comte de, suggestedas commander of Americanarmy, 185Broglie, Prince de, with Frencharmy in America, 232Brooklyn Heights,ton on, 88-91Washing-Buford, Colonel, Tarletonattacks, 217Bunker Hill, battle of, 4-7, 33;Washington learns of, 10;significance, 21; officers at,33, 35Burgoyne, General John, onBritish behavior at BunkerHill, 7; ordered to meetHowe, 68, 112, 113, 124-25;Howe deserts, 116, 130; lifeand character, 123-24; atLake Champlain, 125 et seq.;Indian Allies, 125-26, 138-140, 144; takes Fort Ticpnderoga,127; lack of supplies,129-30; at Fort Edward,129, 130, 141; and Bennington,131-32; at Saratoga,132, 141, 143; learns offailure of St. Leger, 136;crosses Hudson, 141; atStillwater (Freeman's Farm),142-43; surrender at Saratoga,68, 122, 143-47, 149;condition of army, 144;effect on France of surrenderof, 186; effect of surrenderin England, 190, 192Burke, Edmund, and conciliation,69; and Independence,190Byron, Admiral, sent to aidHowe, 200Cahokia, Clark at, 223Cambridge, American camp,3, 27-28; Washington at,10, 30-31, 34, 35, 146Camden, battle of , 219 7 20, 236Canada, campaign against, 37,38-47; Washington's idea of,40; France and, 188; Loyaliststake refuge in, 227-28Carleton, Sir Guy, Governorof Canada, 42; commands atQuebec, 45-46; operationson Lake Champlain, 52-53;Howe and, 95; superseded

INDEX 285Carleton, Sir Guy Continuedby Burgoyne, 124; commandsat New York, 269;and Loyalists, 274Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton,on commission to Montreal,50Carroll, John, on commissionto Montreal, 50Catherine II advises Englandagainst war, 179Catholics, Quebec Act, 38-39,41; disabilities in England,208Chadd's Ford, Washington at,118, 119Champlain, Lake, plan for conquestof Canada by way of,43; operations on, 52-53, 95;Burgoyne at, 125 etArnold at, 238seq.\Charleston (S. C.)> on side ofRevolution, 37; British expeditionto, 82-83; Prevostdemands surrender, 213-14;Lincoln at, 215-17, surrenders,217Charlestown (Mass.), location,3; burned, 5, 7Charlotte (N. C.). Greene at,247Charlottesville (Va.), Cornwallisplans raid of, 252Chatham, William Pitt, Earlof, and conciliation withAmerica, 69, 190; politicalstatus, 192, 193Cherry Valley, massacre, 229Chesapeake Bay, Howe on,116, 117; see also YorktownChew, Benjamin, house ascentral point in battle atGermantown, 122Clark, G. R., expedition, 223Clinton, General Sir Henry,230; at Charleston, 82, 215;at New York, 116, 130, 133;up the Hudson, 143, 145;succeeds Howe in command.195; march from Philadelphia,196, 197, 198; retreatsat Monmouth Court House,199; reaches Newport, 202;sails for Charleston, 217-18;proclamation, 218; Rodneyrelieves, 237; and Cornwallis,253; delay in reinforcingCornwallis, 262-63,265Coke of Norfolk, wealth, 20,69-70; and Toryism, 70-71;on American question, 71-72; and Washington, 71, 72,189Colonies, attitude toward England,55 et geq.; state ofsociety in, 60; population,177-78; see also names ofcoloniesContinental Congress, Washingtonat, 1, 259; selectsleader for army, 7-9; Howe'sconciliation, 92-93; flees toBaltimore, 100; loses ablemen, 110; hampers Washington,110; Gates and, 142;repudiates Gates's terms toBurgoyne, 146; Gates laysquarrel with Washingtonbefore, 150; and enlistment,151; at York, 162, 163; ineptitude,163-64, 236, 269-270; gives Southern commandto Gates, 219; TestActs, 226; and French alliance,244; borrows moneyfrom France, 271; at Annapolis,275Conway, General,and StampAct, 69Conway, General Thomas,110; "Conway Cabal"against Washington, 149,150; leaves America, 151Cornwallis, Lord, 230; atCharleston, 82; crosses Hudson,97; goes to Trenton, 104-105; at Princeton, 106; and

286 INDEXCornwallis, Lord ContinuedHowe, 115; at the Brandywine,119; goes to Charleston,216; at Camden, 219; inNorth Carolina,^221, 247-248; proclamation, 249;Guilford Court House, 249;advance down Cape FearRiver, 250; in Virginia, 251-252; and Clinton, 253; Yorktown,254 et seq.; surrender,264-66Countess of Scarborough (ship),Jones captures, 205Cowpens, battle of, 172, 248Cromwell, Oliver, as militaryleader, 170Crown Point, capture of, 52-53; Burgoyne at, 126DDartmouth, Earl of. Ministerof England, 63Deane, Silas, envoy to France,184-85Declaration of Independence,75-80Delaware Bay, British fleet in,116Delaware River, Washingtoncrosses, 102Denmark and armed neutrality,206-07Detroit, force to check Clarkfrom, 223Devonshire, Duke of, costlyresidence, 18Dickinson, John, of Pennsylvania,on Declaration ofIndependence, 78Dilworth, Cornwallis marcheson, 119Dinwiddie, Governor, Washingtonand, 16Donop, Count von, at Trenton,102. 104Dorchester Heights, Americantroops on, 47-48Dumas, French officer withRochambeau, 231Dunmore, Lord, Governor ofVirginia, 224EEast River, location, 87; Britishon, 93Edward, Fort, St. Clair retiresto, 127; Burgoyne at, 129,130-141; Indian raids at,140; Burgoyne seeks to returnto, 143Elkton, Howe at, 116, 118;American army at, 258Emerson, chaplain, diaryquoted, 35England, in eighteenth century,16-19; state of society,19, 59; Parliament votes taxon colonies, 23; politics, 24-25, 64 et seq., 268; attitudetoward colonies, 54-55, 58;prosperity, 59; difficulties inraising army, 178; Franceand, 182-83, 187-88, 191-192, 195-96, 206, 270; Whigattitude after French intervention,189-90; and Spain,187, 203-204, 206; navy in1779, 204; domestic affairs,207; treaty of peace, 272;see also Army, BritishEstaing, Count d', Frenchadmiral, 195; at the Delaware,196-97; at SandyHook, 200-01; at Newport,201-02; at Savannah, 214-215Eutaw Springs, battle of, 250Falmouth (Portland) (Me.),destroyed, 81Ferguson, Major Patrick, 216;King's Mountain, 221-22;killed, 222

INDEX 287Fersen, Count, with Frencharmy, 232Finance, value of continentalmoney, 209; Franklin procuresmoney in France, 271Florida returned to Spain, 273Foch, General, quoted, 101Fox, C. J., and carelessness ofministers, 68; urges conciliation,69France, French in Canada, 38;alliance with, 182 et seq.;and England, 182-83, 187-188, 191-92, 195-96, 206,270; treaty of friendshipwith America (1778), 187;and Canada, 188; and Spain,203; promises soldiers toWashington, 210; help in1780, 230 et seq.; bibliographyof alliance, 280Franklin, Benjamin, on Lexington,2; on George III, 25;member of commission toMontreal, 50; on committeeto meet Howe, 93; satirizesBritish ignorance, 138; inCongress, 164; induces Hessiansto desert, 180; sent toParis, 185; and Loyalists,225, 270, 271Fraser, General, killed, 143Frederick the Great, of Prussia,estimate of Washington,105; urges France againstEngland, 187Gage, General Thomas, 72;at Boston, 3, 4-5Gates, General Horatio, 98,110, 172, 173; in commandof Lee's army, 99-100;joins Washington, 100; discouragesWashington, 103;against Burgoyne, 142-45;intrigue, 149-51; menacesClinton in New Jersey, 198;command in the South, 219;Cainden, 219; Greene supersedes,247George III, American opinionsof, 25; Hamilton on, 39;character, 60-62; speech inParliament, 62-63; Washingtonand, 63, 86; statuedestroyed in New York, 80;ready to give guarantees ofliberty, 115; effect of news ofTiconderoga on, 127-28; ontaxing of America, 190; andChatham, 193; news ofYorktown, 267-68George, Fort, Burgoyne's suppliesfrom, 129Georgia, British in, 211-12, 217Germain, Lord George, failureto send orders to Howe, 68,125; instructions to Burgoyne,112; plans campaignfrom England, 130-31; censuresHowe, 194; in SevenYears' War, 230; news ofYorktown, 267Germans, hold line of theDelaware, 102; plundering,111; at Bennington, 131-32;with Burgoyne, 144, 145;Steuben's part in RevolutionaryWar, 174-76; benefitto British, 179-80; desertions,180-81, 199Germantown, Howe's camp at,121; battle of, 122, 148;Greene at, 171Gibraltar, Spain besieges, 270;not returned to Spain, 273Gloucester, Cornwallis holds,263Gordon, Lord Adam, on Philadelphia,120; opinion ofCharleston, 215Gordon, Lord George, leadsLondon riot, 208Grasse, Comte de, commandsFrench fleet, 256; at Chesa-

1288 INDEXGrasse, Comte de Continuedpeake Bay, 260, 261-62;sails south, 265; Rodneycaptures, 266, 270Great Britain, see EnglandGreene, General Nathanael,110; at Bunker Hill, 4; advocatesindependence, 75 ;commands Fort Washington,96-97; harasses Cornwallis,105; at Germantown,122; at Valley Forge, 170-171; in Rhode Island, 201; onCongress, 236; supersedesGates in South, 247; GuilfordCourt House, 249; atHobkirk's Hill, 250Grey, Sir Charles, Howe and,115Guilford Court House, 249Hamilton, Alexander, 238; andWashington, 16, 168; onQuebec Act, 39Hancock, John, desires post asCommander-in-Chief, 8Harlem River, location, 87Hastings, Marquis of, 6; seealso Rawdon, LordHenry, Patrick, speech, 57Henry, Cape, naval battle off,261Herkimer, General Nicholas,battle of Oriskany, 135Hessians, see GermansHillsborough (N. C.), Cornwallisissues proclamationat, 249Hobkirk's Hill, Rawdon defeatsGreene at, 250Holkham, Lord Leicester'sresidence at, 18; Coke's residenceat, 69-70, 71Holland joins England's enemies,206, 246Hood, Sir Samuel, British admiral,261Howe, Richard, Lord, commandsfleet reaching NewYork, 84, 86; Whig sympathy,85; personal characteristics,85; letter to Washington,86-87; seeks peace,92-93; takes fleet to Newport,100; proclamation, 101;and evacuation of Philadelphia,196-97; expectsnavalfight off Sandy Hook, 200-201; at Newport, 202; refusesto serve Tory Admiralty,207Howe, General Sir William, atBunker Hill, 5; succeedsGage in command, 5, 36;evacuates Boston, 47-48;and Burgoyne, 68, 112, 116-117, 130, 142; personal characteristics,84; attitude towardRevolution, 84; landsarmy on Staten Island, 86;battle of Long Island, 87-90; in New York, 93-95;plans to meet Carleton, 95;battle of White Plains, 96;Fort Washington, 96-97;takes Fort Lee, 98; and Lee,99, 112-13; at Trenton, 100;proclamation, 101, 111; goesto New York for Christmas,102; dilatoriness, 109, 110;takes Philadelphia, 109, 112,12O, 149; plan of 1777, 112-113; sails for ChesapeakeBay, 115-16; at the Brandywine,118-19, 133; andPennsylvanians, 120-21; atGermantown, 121-22; leavesPhiladelphia, 194; Clintonsucceeds, 195Hudson River, advantages ofplan to sail up, 82; locationof mouth, 87; Britishon, 93, 96-98; Washingtonguards, 209-10, 211,236, 237-38; see also WestPoint

INDEX 289Independence, 54 et seq.\ seealso Declaration of IndependenceIndependence, Fort, 127India, France against Britishin, 206Indians, allies of Burgoyne,125, 133, 138, 139-40, 144;with St. Leger, 134-36; aidLoyalists in Wyoming massacre,229Ireland, Declaration of Independence,208Jay, John, on Declaration ofIndependence, 78; opinionof Congress, 162; on AmericanCommission, 270Jefferson, Thomas, and Declarationof Independence,75-77; on La Fayette, 170;British plan to capture, 252Johnson, Sir John, with St.Leger, 133-34, 135Johnson, Samuel, quoted, 58Johnson, Sir William, 134Jones, John Paul, 204-06;bibliography, 281Kalb, Baron de, part in RevolutionaryWar, 173-74;killed, 220Kaskaskia, Clark at, 223Kenneth Square, British campat, 118Keppel, Admiral, and Londonriots, 207King's Mountain, battle of,221-22Knox, Henry, Washingtonvalues service of, 110, 171-172Knyphausen, General, andHowe, 115; at the Brandywine,118; effective service,179-80Kosciuszko, in American army,173La Fayette, Marquis de, 182,230, 238; and Washington,13, 168, 169; and independenceof America, 30; personalcharacteristics, 169-170; volunteers throughDeane's influence, 185; withLee at Monmouth CourtHouse, 198-99; sent toFrance (1779), 210; as interpreterfor Washington andRochambeau, 234; in Virginia,251-52Lansdowne, Marquis of, seeShelburne, LordLaurens, Henry, on AmericanCommission, 270Lauzun, Due de, with Frencharmy in America, 231-32,233Laval-Montmorency, Frenchofficer in America, 232Lee, Arthur, on commission toParis, 185Lee, General Charles, 150, 172;Washington writes to, 30;at Fort Washington, 98;disobeys Washington, 98-99; letter to Gates, 99; captured,99; and Howe, 99,112-13; freed by exchange ofprisoners, 173; personal characteristics,173; and trainingof recruits, 176; at MonmouthCourt House, 198-199; court-martialed, 199;suspended, 199; dismissedfrom army, 199Lee, R. H., and Declaration ofIndependence, 75

290 INDEXLee, Port, 96; Washington at,97; falls to British, 97, 98Leicester, Lord, costly residenceat Holkham, 18Lexington, battle of, 2, 21Lincoln, Abraham, quoted, 29;and Declaration of Independence,76, 77-78Lincoln, General Benjamin, atTiconderoga, 142; southerncampaign, 214, 215, 217, 264Long Island, battle of, 87-90,91Loyalists, Howe and Pennsylvania,162; plundering, 203,228; in South, 212-13; Clinton'sproclamation to, 218;decline in strength, 224;punishments, 225-26; TestActs, 226; question of compensationof, 272; gatherNew inYork to claim Britishprotection, 274 ; bibliography,281Luzerne, French Minister, 258MMcCrae, Jeannie, carried offby Indians, 140McNeil, Mrs., carried off byIndians, 140Maine, Arnold's expedition,43, 44Marie Antoinette, Queen, zealfor liberal ideas, 183; Fersenfriend of, 232Marion, Francis, guerrillaleader, 220, 247Marlborough, Duke of,residence, 18costlyMartha's Vineyard, Loyalistrefugees plunder, 228Maryland, and independence,75; Howe plans to securecontrol of, 113Massachusetts, Suffolk Countydefies England, 28-29; Northand constitution of, 191;list of Loyalists, 226Minorca returned to Spain, 273Mirabeau, French officer inAmerica, 232Mississippi River becomeswestern frontier of UnitedStates, 273Monmouth Court House,battle of, 198-99; Lee at, 176Montgomery, General Richard,expedition to Canada,43; at Quebec, 45-46; death,46-47, 98Montreal, Montgomery enters,44; Commission sent to, 50;evacuated, 51; St. Legerreaches, 136Morgan, Captain Daniel, atQuebec, 46; with Greene,247; at Cowpens, 248Morris, Gouveneur, opinion ofCongress, 162Morristown (N. J.), Americanheadquarters at, 99, 106,110Moultrie, Fort, battle at, 83Mount Vernon, Washington'sestate, 20, 259, 275Murray, Mrs., saves Putnam'sarmy, 94NNarragansett Bay, Britishblockade French fleet in,234Navy, American, Jones and,204-06; need for supremacy,231Navy, British, condition in1779, 204; factions, 207Necessity, Fort, surrender of,148New Bedford, Loyalists burn,228New England, question ofleader from, 8; and Washington,11; character of

New Engl&nd~~Continuedpeople, 29; equality in, 33;on independence, 75; revolutionary,81; and Indians,137; and Burgoyne, 145;States jealous of, 164-65New Hampshire offers bountyfor Indian scalps, 137-38New Jersey, Washington'sflight across, 97, 100; Leeretreats to, 99; loyalty,110; Howe's proclamation,110; Washington recovers,106; Howe moves across, 110,114; Clinton crosses, 196,INDEX 291Carolina, indepen- Earl ofdence, 75; campaign in, 247-251Northwest, United States retains,273Nova Scotia, Washington'sbelief of sympathy in, 42;Loyalists go to, 227OOgg, F. A., The Old Northwest,cited, 224 (note)Oriskany, battle of, 135197New York, on independence, Paine, Thomas, 74; Common75; Howe's proclamation, Sense, 75101; Howe's plan to hold, Palliser, Sir Hugh, and British113; acquires Loyalist lands, naval quarrel, 207228Panther, Wyandot chief, showsNew York City, on side of scalp of Miss McCrae, 140Revolution, 37; Washington Parker, Admiral Sir Peter,plans to hold, 37-38; loss of, before Fort Moultrie, 82-8352, 81 et seq., 108, 148; Pennsylvania, and independence,75; loyalty, 101;statue of King destroyed,80; burned, 94-95; Washingtonplans march to, 116; trol of, 113; "Black List" ofHowe plans to secure con-for naval defence, 195; Loyalists, 226Loyalists take refuge in, Percy, Earl, opinion of rebels227; French army moves in America, 32toward, 253; Washington Petersburg (Va.), Arnold at,returns to, 269; Washington 251bids farewell to army at, 274 Philadelphia, second ContinentalCongress at, 1, 7-9;Newgate jail burned, 208Newport, Lord Howe's fleet Washington sets out from,at, 100; British hold, 201; 9; on side of Revolution, 37;French fleet sails into, 233; Paine in, 74; Howe plans toFrench army leaves, 253secure, 100, 101; loss of, 108Noailles, Vicomte de, on foot et seq., 148; Howe leaves,from Newport to Yorktown, 194; Mischianza in, 194-95;259British abandon, 196; Loyalistshanged in, 226; ArnoldNorfolk (Va.), destroyed, 81North, Lord, Prime Minister, in command at, 238; French63-64, 190-91; George III army reviewed in, 257-58writes to, 61; seeks to retire, Pigot, General, at192, 193; and news of Yorktown,201Newport,267; resigns, 268North andPitt, William, see Chatham,

INDEXPolitics, see EnglandPrescott, Colonel, at BunkerHill, 4Preston, Major, British officerat St. Johns, 44Prevost, General Augustine,at Charleston, 213-14Prices, 167Princeton, Cornwallis at, 106Prisons, British prison-ships,153; London riots, 208Privateers, checked at Newport,100; France and, 186Providence (R. I.). Greene andSullivan at, 201Putnam, Israel, at BunkerHill, 4, 6; leaves New York,94Quebec, Arnold and Montgomerybefore, 45-46, 49-50, 82, 98, 238; Morgan at,172, 247Quebec Act, 38-39, 41RRahl, Colonel, at Trenton, 102;killed, 104Lord Rawdon,Bunker Hill, 6;Francis, atat Camden,219, 250Reed, Joseph, charge againstArnold, 239Revolutionary War, bibliography,277-78Rhode Island, British control,100; Washington's campaignagainst, 201-02; Britishevacuate, 211Richmond, Duke of, opinionof Revolution, 69Richmond (Va.) Arnold burns,251Riedesel, General, at LakeChamplain, 125; effectiveservice to British, 179-80Riedesel, Baroness, reportsconditions in New England,137Rochambeau, Comte de, leaderof French army in America,230-31; idea of naval supremacy,231, 255; and Washington,234, 236, 237; onAmerican situation (1781),246; goes to Yorktown, 258;in Virginia, 269Rockingham, Marquis of,Prime Minister, 268Rodney, Admiral, arrives inAmerica, 236; captures St.Eustatius, 246; capturesGrasse, 266, 270Russia, British endeavor to gettroops in, 179; Armed Neutrality,206St. Clair, General Arthur, atFort Ticonderoga, 127St. Eustatius captured byRodney, 246St. Johns, Montgomery captures,44St. Leger, General Barry, atFort Stanwix, 133-34; atOriskany, 135-36Saint-Simon, French officer inAmerica, 232Sandy Hook, French fleet at,200, 201Saratoga, Burgoyne at, 132,141, 143; Burgoyne's surrender,68, 122, 143-47, 149,186; Arnold at, 238; Morganat, 247Savannah (Ga.), British landat, 211Savile, Sir George, opinion ofRevolution, 69Schuyler, General Philip, goesto Canada by way of LakeChamplain, 43; Gates supersedes,142

INDEX 293Serapis (ship), Jones captures, at Germantown, 122; at99; and Washington, 110-11; leaves, 196205Providence, 201Shelburne, Lord, Prime Minister,Sumter, Thomas, guerrilla268leader, 220, 247Shippen, Margaret, 195; Sweden, Armed Neutrality, 206marries Arnold, 239Simcoe, General J. G., withClinton at Charleston, 216;Governor of Upper Canada,228Talleyrand, French officer inSkinner, C. L., Pioneers of the America, 232Old Southwest, cited, 222 Tarleton, Colonel Banastre,(note)raids, 216, 217; at Camden,Slavery, Washington as a 219-20; and Marion, 221;slave-owner, 21King's Mountain, 248; takesSlave-trade, Declaration of Charlottesville (Va.). 252-Independence makes King 253; in Yorktown, 263; andresponsible for, 77Cornwallis, 264South, war in the, 211 et seq. Terrible (ship), 261South Carolina, neutrality proposed,Test Acts, 226213; British control, Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant) ,217134Spain, against England, 187, Thomas, General, on Plains of203-04, 206; navy, 187; and Abraham, 50Gibralter, 270; and peace Thompson, General, attackstreaty, 272Three Rivers, 51Stamp Act, 69, 183, 192Three Rivers, attack on, 51Stanwix, Fort, St. Leger Throg's Neck, Howe at, 95before, 133-34Ticonderoga, Fort, capturedStaten Island, Howe on, 86, by Allen, 39-40, 42; Arnold87, 115retreats to, 53; BurgoyneStates, Congress and, 163lays siege to, 126-27; Lincolnbesieges, 142Steuben, Baron von, service inRevolution, 174-75; in Virginia,247LoyalistsTories, plundering of, 111; seeStillwater, American camp at, Toronto, Loyalists in, 228141; Burgoyne attacks Gates Transportation, need of militaryengineers for, 152at, 142-43; Burgoyne's defeat,143Trenton, Howe at, 100; attackStirling, Lord, prisoner, 89on, 101-07, 109; Greene at,Stony Point, 99171Stuart, Gilbert, and Washington,Tryon, Governor of New York,16225Sullivan, General John, takenprisoner at battle of LongIsland, 89; sent by Howe tointerview Congress, 92; exchanged,Valley Forge, Washington at,99: at Morristown, 148 et *eq.\Washington

294 INDEXVergennes, French ForeignMinister, 182-83, 184, 187,271Vincennes, Clark at, 223Virginia, choice of a commanderfrom, 8; state of society,19-20, 32-33; on independence,75; Conventionchanges church service, 79;Burgoyne's force in, 146;covets lands in Northwest,222; Steuben in, 247; Cornwallisin, 251Vulture (sloop of war), 241,242, 243WWalpole, Horace, 59, 64. 73-74; Gates godson of, 142;quoted, 217Ward, General Artemas, andsiege of Boston, 3Washington, George, at secondContinental Congress, 1,259; champion of colonialcause, 1-2, 23-24, 59; chosenCommander-in-Chief, 8-9;journey to Boston, 9-11;personal characteristics, 11,13-16. 109; life, 11; as alandowner, 12; education,13; contrasted with Englishcountry gentleman, 17-20;wealth, 20, 56; as a farmer,20-21; a slave-owner, 21;with Braddock, 22-23; opinionof George III, 25, 63;not professional soldier, 27;reorganizes army, 30-35;favors conscription, 34; atBoston, 36; plans againstCanada, 40-43; mournsMontgomery, 47; hatred ofBritish, 57-58; Coke and,71, 72, 189; advocates independence,75; headquartersin New York. 82, 87; Howe'sletter to, 86-87; at BrooklynHeights, 88-91; exposed toenemy in New York, 93;and Congress, 96, 146, 163-164; Lee and, 98-99, 199;retreats across New Jersey,100; attack upon Trenton,101-107, 109; on Howe'sdilatoriness, 109; in NewJersey, 110; and Sullivan,111; policy toward Loyalists,111; on plundering, 111;need of maps, 111; andHowe, 113-15, 118, 120,142; and Burgoyne, 116; atthe Brandywine, 118-19;Germantown, 121-22; atValley Forge, 148 et seq.;religion, 161; relations withstaff, 167-68; as militaryleader, 170; volunteers cometo, 174; distrustful of France,188-89; celebrates Frenchalliance, 193; army occupiesPhiladelphia, 196; followsClinton acrossNew Jersey,197-98; Monmouth CourtHouse, 199; despair of, 1779-1780, 208-09; guards Hudson,209-10; French under,210; opinion of Tories, 227;and Rochambeau, 234, 236,237, 255; reprimands Arnold,239-40; and Andre*, 243;plan differs from French,255; march to Yorktown,255 et seq.; and Carleton,269; believes self-interestdominant in politics, 271-272; bids farewell to army;274; gives up command, 275;at Mount Vernon, 275;influence upon future, 275-276; bibliography, 278Washington, Fort, held byAmericans, 96-97; Britishtake, 97West Indies, conquests restored.273

INDEX 295West Point, fortification, 236,237-38; Arnold in command,238; plot to surrender,240-44White Plains, battle of, 96Wight, Isle of, plan to seize,204Wilkes, John, introduces billinto Parliament, 191Wilmington (N. C.), Britishfleet reaches, 82; Cornwallisin, 250Wins'ow, Edward, quoted, 49Wyoming (Penn.) massacre,229YYork, Congress at, 162, 163Yorktown, Cornwallis surrendersat, 228, 247 et seq.

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