CHAPTER XIV.THE FIRST NEW JERSEY CAMPAIGN.—TRENTON.

Historical accuracy must recognize the First Campaign of Washington in New Jersey, as a masterly conduct of operations toward American Independence. The loss of Fort Washington has been a frequent topic of discussion, as if its retention or loss had determining value. As already indicated by Washington’s letters, there was no substantial benefit to be realized by the detachment of troops to retain it, so long as British ships controlled its water-front. Behind it was New England, which could furnish no base of American operations for a general war; and yet, in order to prosecute the war to success, the American army must be established where it could harass and antagonize British operations at and out from New York. Fort Washington could do neither, but, so long as held, must drain resources which were more valuable elsewhere.

It has already been noticed, that Washington prepared New England for its own immediate defence; and the assembling of supplies ordered was in anticipation of the campaign of 1777. The new system of enlistments, also, provided for five years of contingent service. The rapid organization of regiments at the South, and the authorized increase of the army, in excess of any possible British accessions from Europe, had induced the establishment of the Camp of Observation before alluded to, and indicated New Jersey as the essential centre of operations for allgeneral military purposes. British operations from Canada, or against the Southern Colonies, could be successfully met only by a closely related and compactly ordered base of operation and supply.

It is therefore a misnomer to dwell with emphasis upon Washington’s next movement, as simply a “masterly retreat.” The extracts, few out of many available, already cited, are declarations of a clearly defined strategic system, which would admit of no permanent failure so long as Congress and the American people completely filled the measure of his demands for men and money.

A glance at the disposition of both armies is invited. All operations in the northern department were practically suspended with Carleton’s withdrawal to Canada. But on the ninth of November, the official returns of that northern army showed a force of seven thousand three hundred and forty-five rank and file, present for duty; with three thousand nine hundred and sixty-one sick, present, and absent. Enlistments were to expire with the year, but weeks were to intervene. Lee’s Grand Division, at North Castle Heights, at date of the loss of Fort Washington, and as late as November, reported “seven thousand eight hundred and twenty-four of effective rank and file, present for duty and on command.” Enlistments here, also, were near their limit; but Lee ultimately crossed into New Jersey with thirty-four hundred effective troops. Washington had the right to expect, and did expect, that this force was available upon call. The division of General Heath, commanding upon the Hudson, with headquarters at Fishkill, numbered, on November twenty-fourth, five thousand four hundred and ten men for duty. Leaving to the governors of New England and New York the responsibility of maintaining their quotas when enlistments should expire, the time had come for American operations in the middlezoneof military action.

Cornwallis was detached from his immediate command and sent into New Jersey, with a strong force, to attack Washington. The American army abandoned the space between the Hackensack and Passaic rivers; crossed the latter at Aquackonock on the twenty-first of November; burned the bridge after a slight skirmish, and followed the right bank of the Passaic to Newark, reaching that city on the twenty-third. At this point, a muster of the army was ordered by Washington, and five thousand four hundred and ten reported for duty. New Brunswick was reached on the twenty-ninth. Here another skirmish with the army of Cornwallis took place. But Cornwallis halted his command under orders of Howe to “proceed no further than New Brunswick.”

Washington moved on to Princeton, and then to Trenton, where he arrived on the third day of December. He immediately gathered from Philadelphia all available boats, and for a stretch of seventy miles cleared both banks of the Delaware River of everything that could float, and took them into his own charge.

The reader should appreciate that these movements were not in the original design of the American Commander-in-Chief. He would have made a stand at both Hackensack and New Brunswick, if Lee’s Division, confidently expected, had joined him as ordered; and at least, the enemy’s progress would have been retarded.

Having left the Delaware regiment and five Virginia regiments at Princeton, under Lord Stirling, he moved all heavy military stores behind the Delaware, and returned to Princeton. Meeting Lord Stirling, who was falling back before a superior force of the enemy, he recrossed the Delaware at Trenton, established headquarters, and fixed the base for future action.

In writing to Congress on the fifth, he used this language: “As nothing but necessity obliged me to retire beforethe enemy and leave so much of New Jersey unprotected, I conceive it my duty, and it corresponds with myinclination, to make head against them so soon as there shall be the least probability of doing so with propriety.”

On the twelfth, he learned that General Lee had entered New Jersey with his division. As early as November twenty-fifth, he had ordered General Schuyler to forward to him all Pennsylvania and New Jersey troops then in the Northern Department.

A glance at the plans and movements of the British army is now of interest. Howe reported his movements as follows: “My first design extended no further than to get, and keep possession of, East New Jersey. Lord Cornwallis had orders not to advance beyond Brunswick; but, on the sixth, I joined his lordship with the Fourth Brigade of British, under General Grant. On the seventh, Cornwallis marched with his corps, except the Guards who were left at Brunswick, to Princeton, which the Americans had quitted the same day. He delayed seventeen hours at Princeton, and was an entire day in marching to Trenton. He arrived there, just as the rear-guard of the enemy had crossed; but they had taken the precaution to destroy, or secure to the south side, all the boats that could possibly have been employed for crossing the river.”

Cornwallis remained at Pennington until the fourteenth, when the British army was placed in winter quarters; “the weather,” says General Howe, “having become too severe to keep the field.”

On the previous day, the thirteenth, General Charles Lee, next in rank to Washington, while leisurely resting at a country house at Baskenridge, three miles from his troops, was taken prisoner by a British scouting detachment. It may be of interest to the reader to be reminded, that this Major-General required from Congress anadvance of thirty thousand dollars, to enable him to transfer his English property to America, before he accepted his commission, and was disappointed that he was made second, instead of first, in command. When captured, he was in company with Major Wilkinson, a messenger from his old Virginia friend, General Horatio Gates, who had just been ordered by Washington to accompany certain reënforcements from the northern army, to increase the force of the Commander-in-Chief. This Major Wilkinson escaped capture, but the British scouts used his horse for Lee’s removal. On the table was a letter, not yet folded, which the messenger was to convey to General Gates. It reads as follows (omitting the expletives),—

Baskenridge, December 13, 1776.

My Dear Gates: The ingenious manœuvre of Fort Washington has completely unhinged the goodly fabrick we had been building. There never was so —— a stroke.Entre nous, a certain great man is —— deficient. He has thrown me into a position where I have my choice of difficulties. If I stay in the Province, I risk myself and my army; and if I do not stay, the Province is lost forever.... Our councils have been weak, to the last degree. As to what relates to yourself, if you think you can be in time to aid the general, I would have you, by all means, go. You will at least save your army.

No comment is required, except to state that repeated orders had been received and acknowledged by Lee, to join Washington; but he had determined not to join him, and to act independently with his division, regardless of the orders of his Commander-in-Chief, and of Congress. Two extracts only are admissible. Washington had reprimanded Lee for interfering with the independent command of General Heath, on the Hudson. On the twenty-sixth of November, Lee wrote to Heath: “The Commander-in-Chief is now separated from us. I, of course, command on this side the water; for the future I will, and I must, be obeyed.” On the twenty-third ofNovember, in order to induce New England to trusthim, anddistrustWashington, he wrote the following letter to James Bowdoin, President of the Massachusetts Council:

Before the unfortunate affair at Fort Washington, it was my opinion, that the two armies, that on the east and that on the west side of the North River, must rest, each, on its own bottom; that the idea, of detaching and reënforcing from one side to the other, on every motion of the enemy, was chimerical; but to harbor such a thought, in our present circumstances, is absolute insanity.... We must therefore depend upon ourselves. Should the enemy alter the present direction of their operation, I would never entertain the thought on being succored from the western army (that across the Hudson, with Washington). Affairs appear in so important a crisis, that I think even the resolves of Congress must be no longer nicely weighed with us. There are times when we must commit treason against the laws of the State, for the salvation of the State. The present crisis demands this brave,virtuouskind of treason. For my part, and I flatter myself my way of thinking is congenial with that of Mr. Bowdoin, I will stake my head and reputation on the measure.

James Bowdoin loved Massachusetts; but no selfish or local considerations, such as were those of Lee, could impair his confidence in the wisdom and patriotism of the American Commander-in-Chief.

The capture of Lee was thus mildly noticed by Washington: “It was by his own folly and imprudence, and without a view to effect any good, that he was taken.”

General Sullivan succeeded to the command of Lee’s Division. Gates joined from the northern army, and on the twentieth of December, the Continental Army was reorganized for active service.

General Howe had returned to New York December 20th. The British cantonments for the winter embraced Brunswick, Trenton, Burlington, Bordentown, and other places; with the Hessian, Donop, in command at Bordentown, and Rahl at Trenton.

The month had been one of great strain upon the American Commander-in-Chief. He was, practically, on trial. The next in command, who, by virtue of previous military training, largely commanded public confidence, had failed him, simply because Washington, with the modesty of a true aspirant for excellence in his profession, would not pass judgment, and enforce his own will, in disobedience of the will of Congress. But, by this time Congress itself began to realize that a deliberate civil body was not the best Commander-in-Chief for field service, and that it would have to trust the men who did the fighting. It adjourned on the twelfth of December, quite precipitately, butResolved“That, until Congress shall otherwise order, General Washington be possessed of full power to order and direct all things relative to the department and to the operations of war.”

Repair of bridges below Trenton, by the British troops, led Washington to suspect that some move might be made against Philadelphia, from the east side of the Delaware River. He therefore divided the entire river front into divisions under competent commanders, on the day of the adjournment of Congress. Light earthworks were thrown up, opposite all ferries and places of easy landing, with small guards at frequent intervals; and constant patrols were ordered to be in motion, promptly to report any suspicious signs of British activity, or the movement of other persons than soldiers of the army. Points of rendezvous were also established, to resist any sudden attempt of persons to cross; all boats were kept in good order, and under guard; and rations for three days were distributed and required to be kept up to that standard, by night and by day. On the same day he promulged an order that affected Philadelphia itself; viz., “requiring all able-bodied men in the city, not conscientiously scrupulous as to bearing arms, to reportat the State House yard the next day, with arms and equipments; that all persons who have arms and accoutrements, which they cannot, or do not mean to employ in defence of America, are hereby ordered to deliver the same to Mr. Robert Tower, who will pay for the same; and that those who are convicted of secreting any arms, or accoutrements, will be severely punished.”

On the fourteenth, he also definitely resolved to “face about and meet the enemy,”—a purpose which only the conduct of General Lee had made impracticable before. He wrote to Governor Trumbull, General Gates, and General Heath, in confidence, of his purpose, “to take the offensive.” To Congress, he wrote sternly, stating that “ten days will put an end to the existence of this army”; adding: “This is not a time to stand upon expense. A character to lose; an estate to forfeit; the inestimable blessing of liberty at stake, and a life devoted, must be my excuse.”

At this juncture, Washington definitely resolved to establish his permanent base, as against New York; and selected Morristown, which had already been made the rendezvous of the New Jersey troops. General Maxwell, who was familiar with the country, was assigned to the command of this new position. Three regiments from Ticonderoga were ordered to halt at the new post. On the twenty-third of December, Washington sent a confidential communication to Adjutant-General Reed, then with General Cadwallader, in which he designated “Christmas night, an hour before day, as the time fixed for an attack upon Trenton.” Reed had fully shared in the desire for active, offensive duty, and in one letter thus concurred in the Commander-in-Chief’s opinion, that “to repossess ourselves of New Jersey, or any part of it, would have more effect than if we had never left it.” The purpose of Washington was so to combine themovements of various divisions, including one under Putnam from Philadelphia, as practically to clear the east bank of the Delaware of all Hessian garrisons. Putnam feared that the Tory element would rise during his absence, and that order was suspended. The right wing, under Cadwallader, was to cross at Bristol (see map); but owing to ice, which prevented the landing of artillery, he returned to Bristol, and reported to Washington. After expressing regret over his failure, he thus closes: “I imagine the badness of the night must have prevented you from passing over as you intended.” Ewing was to cross over just below Trenton, to intercept any reënforcements that might approach the garrison from Bordentown; but the violence of the storm prevented that movement also. Washington took charge of the left wing, consisting of twenty-four hundred men, which was to cross at McConkey’s Ferry, nine miles above Trenton, accompanied by Sullivan and Greene as division commanders. When preparations were complete, and Washington in his saddle, Major Wilkinson, of the staff of Gates, notified him that General Gates had gone to Baltimore to visit Congress. This was a deliberate “absence, without leave,” at an hour when he knew, and in advance, that Washington intended to force a battle; but Stark, of Breed’s Hill, was there. Glover, the man of Marblehead and hero of the Long Island retreat, was there; and William Washington, and James Monroe, were there!

WASHINGTON BEFORE TRENTON.[From Dael’s painting.]

The Hessian garrison of fifteen hundred and forty men had enjoyed a right “merry Christmas,” after the style of their own “old country” fashion; and the night, inclement without, was bright within, as dance and song with every cheery accompaniment dispelled thoughts of watchfulness of ice-bound Delaware and driving tempest. It was indeed a night for within-door relish, and the season of the year was most conducive to the abandonment of all care and worry. “Toasts were drank” with gleesome delight; and the hilarity of the happy Hessian soldiers, officers and men, only ceased when the worn-out night compelled them to seek relief in rest. The garrison were sleeping as soundly when the stormy morning broke into day, as if they had compassed a hard day’s march during the night hours. The usual detail for guard was distributed, but no other sign of life appeared on the streets of Trenton. Before Colonel Rahl’s headquarters, two guns, stationed there more as a recognition of his commanding position than for use, were partly buried in snow. A battery of four guns was in open ground, not far from the Friends’ Meeting house; but neither earthworks nor other defences had been deemed essential to the security of the British winter quarters.

General Grant had indeed written from Brunswick on the twenty-fourth: “It is perfectly certain there are no more rebel troops in New Jersey; they only send over small parties of twenty or thirty men. On last Sunday, Washington told his assembled generals that the ‘British are weak at Trenton and Princeton.’ I wish the Hessians to be on guard against sudden attack; but, at the same time, I give my opinion that nothing of the kind will be undertaken.” General Grant did, it would seem, compliment Washington’s sagacity, without comprehending his will-power to realize in action every positive conviction of possible duty. And so it was, that the garrison of Trenton on that Christmas night slept at ease, until morning dawned and Washington paid his unexpected visit.

Under cover of high ground, just back of McConkey’s Ferry, on Christmas afternoon, 1776, Washington held a special evening parade. Neither driving wind nor benumbing cold prevented full ranks and prompt response to “roll-call,” as company after company fell into line;and when darkness obscured the closing day, all was in motion. It had been his design to complete the crossing by midnight, and enter Trenton at five o’clock in the morning. He was to lead, in person, and announced as the countersign, “Victory or Death!” The order to march to the river bank, by divisions and sub-divisions, each to its designated group of boats, was communicated by officers especially selected for that duty, so that the most perfect order attended each movement. The few days of mild weather which had opened the ice, had been succeeded by a sudden freeze, and a tempest of hail and sleet that checked the swift current and made a safe passage of daring and doubtful venture. The shore was skirted with ice, while the floating blocks ofoldice twisted and twirled the fragile boats as mere playthings in their way. But no one grumbled at cold, sleet or danger. The elements were not the patriot’s foe that night of nights. All faces were set against their country’s foes. They were, at last, to pursue their old pursuers. The “man of retreats,” as Washington had been called in derision by such men as Gates and Lee, was guiding, and leading to “Victory or Death!”

The landing of the artillery was not effected until three o’clock in the morning, with nearly nine miles yet to march. At four o’clock the advance was ordered. The snow ceased, but the hail and sleet returned, driven by a fierce wind from the north-east. A mile and a quarter brought them to Bear Tavern (see map). Three and a half miles more brought them to Birmingham. Here a messenger from General Sullivan informed Washington that his men reported “their arms to be wet.” “Tell your general,” replied Washington, “to use the bayonet, and penetrate into the town. The town must be taken. I am resolved to take it.”

Trenton and Vicinity

From this point Sullivan took the river road. Washington and Greene, bearing to the left, crossed to the old Scotch road, and then entered the Pennington road, only one mile from Trenton. The distance by each road was about the same, four and one-half miles. Washington moved at once to the head of King and Queen streets, where they joined at a sharp angle; and here, under direction of General Knox, Forrest’s Battery was placed in position, to sweep both streets, even down to the river. “It was exactly eight o’clock,” says Washington, “and three minutes after, I found from the firing on the lower road that that division had also got up.” The entire movement was with the utmost silence, to enable Sullivan and Stark to pass through the lower town and take the Hessians in the rear and by surprise.

The battle was over in an hour. The Hessian troops burst from their quarters, half dressed, but in the narrow streets already swept by Forrest’s guns, any regular formation was impossible. The two guns before Rahl’s headquarters were manned; but before they could deliver a single round Capt. William Washington and Lieut. James Monroe (subsequently President Monroe), with a small party, rushed upon the gunners and hauled the guns away for use elsewhere. Sullivan had entered the town by Front and Second streets. Stark led his column directly to the Assanpink Bridge, to cut off retreat to Bordentown; and then swung to the left, and attacked the Hessians, who were gallantly attempting to form in the open ground between Queen Street and the Assanpink. Hand’s Rifles and Scott’s and Lawson’s Virginia regiments were conspicuous for gallantry. All did well.

The American casualties were two killed and three wounded,—Captain Washington and Lieutenant Monroe being among the latter. The Hessian loss in killed and wounded, besides officers, was forty-one. The number of prisoners, including thirty officers, was one thousandand nine. Colonel Rahl fell, mortally wounded, while using his bravest energies to rally his men for an attack on Washington’s position at the head of King Street; but the surprise was so complete, and the coöperation of the American divisions was so timely and constant, that no troops in the world could have resisted the assault. Six bronze guns, over a thousand stand of arms, four sets of colors, twelve drums, and many valuable supplies were among the trophies of war.

The American army countermarched during the night after the battle, reaching the old headquarters at Newtown with their prisoners before morning; having made the entire distance of fully thirty miles under circumstances of such extreme hardship and exposure, that more than one thousand men were disabled for duty through frozen limbs and broken-down energies.

The Hessian troops were proudly escorted through Philadelphia, and the country began to realize the value of a Soldier in command. Fugitives from Trenton reached Bordentown, where Colonel Donop had already been so closely pressed by Colonel Griffiths in an adventurous skirmish, as to require the services of his entire garrison to meet it. He abandoned Bordentown instantly, leaving the sick and wounded, and the public stores; marched with all haste to Princeton, via Crosswicks and Allentown, and started the next day for South Amboy, the nearest port to New York.

On the twenty-seventh, Cadwallader crossed at Bristol with eighteen hundred men, not knowing that Washington had recrossed the Delaware. Generals Mifflin and Ewing followed with thirteen hundred men; but Mt. Holly and Black Horse had also been abandoned by the Hessian garrisons.

While the American army rested, its Commander-in-Chief matured his plans for further offensive action. Aletter from Colonel De Hart, at Morristown, advised him that the regiments of Greaton, Bond, and Porter would extend their term of service two weeks. The British post at Boundbrook and vicinity had been withdrawn to Brunswick. Generals McDougall and Maxwell, then at Morristown, were instructed by Washington “to collect as large a body of militia as possible, and to assure them, that nothing is wanting but for them to lend a hand, and drive the enemy from the whole Province of New Jersey.” On the twenty-eighth, he wrote thus to Maxwell: “As I am about to enter the Jerseys with a considerable force, immediately, for the purpose of attempting a recovery of that country from the enemy; and as a diversion from your quarter may greatly facilitate this event, by dividing and distracting their troops, I must request that you will collect all the forces in your power, and annoy and distress them by every means which prudence may suggest.”

To General Heath, he wrote: “I would have you advance as rapidly as the season will permit, with the eastern militia, by the way of the Hackensack, and proceed downwards until you hear from me. I think a fair opportunity is offered of driving the enemy entirely from, or, at least to the extremity of New Jersey.”

On the thirtieth, having again crossed to Trenton, Washington was able to announce that “the eastern Continental troops had agreed to remain six weeks longer, upon receipt of a bounty of ten dollars; and the services of eminent citizens were enlisted in an effort to use the success at Trenton, as a stimulus to recruiting,” and, “to hasten the concentration of the militia.” Washington intensely realized that in a few weeks, at furthest, he was to begin again the instruction of a new army; and determined to get the largest possible benefits from the presence of four thousand veterans who had consented to remain for a short period beyond their exact term of enlistment.

On the twenty-seventh of December, Congress clothed Washington with full dictatorial authority in the matter of raising troops, and in all that pertained to the conduct of the war, for the period of six months; reciting as the foundation of such action, that affairs were in such a condition that the very existence of civil liberty depended upon the right exercise of military powers; and, “the vigorous, decisive conduct of these being impossible in distant, numerous, and deliberative bodies, it was confident of the wisdom, vigor, and uprightness of George Washington.”

It was under the burden of this vast responsibility that Washington rested, when he closed the year 1776 in camp near Trenton. He responded to this confidence on the part of the Continental Congress, in this simple manner: “Instead of thinking myself freed from all civil obligation, I shall immediately bear in mind that as the sword was the last resort for the preservation of our liberty, so it ought to be the first thing laid aside, when those liberties are finally established. I shall instantly set about making the most necessary reforms in the army.”

Thus rapidly, in as natural and orderly sequence as seemed desirable, omitting incidents, correspondence, and names of persons that do not seem essential in the illustration of qualities which attach to the career of Washington as a Soldier, the reader is brought to the midnight hour of December 31, 1776.

All his struggles in camp, in field, on the march, have closed with one tremendous blow struck at British prestige and British power. The greatest soldiers and statesmen of that period recognized its significance, and rendered unstinted praise to the “wisdom, constancy, and intrepidity of the American Commander-in-Chief.”

But, at that midnight hour, the Soldier who had been the kind and faithful guardian of the humblest men in theranks, as well as the example and instructor of the proudest veteran, waited with swelling breast and aching heart for the morning’s dawn; realizing the solemnity of its certain ordeal, when the organization of a new army, and more herculean efforts of the British crown, were to test not only his own capacity and will, but test the readiness and fitness of the American people to rise to the emergencies of one supreme issue—“Victory or Death!”

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