CHAPTER XX.JEALOUSY AND GREED DEFEATED.—VALLEY FORGE.
The struggle for American independence and the career of the American Commander-in-Chief very minutely foreshadowed the experience of most successful soldiers with the political manipulations of partisans in Congress ever since. The “On to Richmond,” and the “On to Washington” cries of 1861, and the fluctuations of the popular pulse with the incidents of successive campaigns in the civil war, were used by demagogues for selfish ends. But the same spirit had shown itself in a degree quite as repugnant to devoted sons of liberty, during the throes which accompanied this nation’s birth.
Nothing seemed too exacting as a test of the American Commander-in-Chief. As the war enlarged its scope, and the prospects of success brightened for the moment, clamorous aspirants for office multiplied. The personal bravery of the soldier was magnified at the expense of discipline. The slow progress of the army was charged to excessive caution. Nothing, so far as politicians were concerned, was deemed too hard for the American militia, if only the right sort of a quack administered their action, and led them to its tests. But the consciousness of unselfish devotion to duty, never boldly impeached, and ever unimpeachable, sustained Washington. Amid these clamors for office and preferment from Congressmen and politicians, his faith in righteous methods, in patient training, in kind and considerate treatment ofall who took part in the struggle, whatever their antecedents or rank, never for a moment swerved. His purpose and his self-control matured, until he attained such calm contempt for jealousy and intrigue that he could move on through the deepest waters, regardless of restless, dashing wave-crests.
The Battle of Germantown, and Howe’s abandonment of his suburban encampment, naturally suggested the immediate occupation of Philadelphia by the American army. It, like Boston, “must be seized” at once. The “almost” victory on the fourth of October, blinded the vision of many to the broader range of national activity which Washington’s supervision embraced. News of the surrender of Burgoyne reached his headquarters on the eighteenth day of October. He promptly congratulated General Gates and the northern army, in terms of most, gracious sincerity and emphasis. And yet, General Gates presumed to send his Report to Congress direct, and not to his Commander-in-Chief. Then, the “almost” victory of Washington over Howe, at Germantown, was contrasted with the complete victory of Gates over Burgoyne. The fact that Washington fought with fewer numbers, and these, of hungry, poorly armed men, nearly worn out by marches and counter-marches, while the northern army, three to one of their adversaries, simply penned up first, and then starved out, a force that had not rations for another day, counted little with these pseudo-scientific experts. And yet, let it ever be remembered, that the British garrison of Philadelphia was not panting for any more field service. The very restriction of that garrison to city limits and the immediate suburbs, proved not only subversive of their discipline and efficiency, but ultimately vindicated the wisdom of Washington. He saw distinctly, just how its partial inaction afforded him time to mature his own armyorganization; while the garrison of New York must, of necessity, be kept equally passive, for lack of this very strong detachment which idled in barracks, on the banks of the Delaware.
But while the garrison of Philadelphia limited its excursions to plundering farms and the country adjacent for wood, forage and provisions generally, both commanding generals were studying the relations of the Delaware River to the conduct of all future operations upon any decisive scale. The river had been so obstructed that the fleet of Admiral Howe, which had been compelled to land his army at the head of the Chesapeake in September, could not yet communicate with the army since it gained the city. He arrived off Newcastle on the sixth day of October. Washington realized that by retaining control of the Delaware he not only restricted the supply of provisions and military stores to the garrison, but retained easy communications with New Jersey and the Camps of Instruction and rendezvous at the adequately fortified posts of Morristown and Middlebrook.
At Billingsport,chevaux-de-friseobstructed the channel. Just below the mouth of the Schuylkill was Fort Mifflin, on Mud Island. On the opposite shore, at Red Bank, was Fort Mercer. Washington determined to maintain these posts, or make their acquisition by the enemy most costly in men and materials. His foresight grasped, as if in hand, the rapidly maturing facts, that Britain could not much longer meet the drain of the American war and at the same time hold her own against her European foes; and that America needed only a thoroughly concerted effort to consummate her independence.
Colonel Christopher Green, courageous at Bunker Hill and during Arnold’s expedition to Canada, was assigned to command Fort Mercer, with troops from his own State, Rhode Island. Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, of Maryland,with Maryland troops, was stationed at Fort Mifflin. These little garrisons were strengthened by the detail of four hundred Continental troops to each. In these details, the same wisdom marked Washington’s choice; as Angel’s Rhode Island regiment reported to Greene, and a portion of Greene’s Virginia regiment reported to Smith.
The British army was not an idle observer of these movements. On the twenty-second of October, the two Grenadier regiments of Donop and Minnigerode, and two regiments of the line, with the Infantry Chasseurs (all Hessian), with eight 3–pounders and two howitzers, approached Fort Mercer and demanded its surrender. They had crossed at Coopers Ferry on the twenty-first, slightly interrupted by skirmishers, and on the following morning suddenly emerged from the woods, expecting an easy and an immediate victory. Defiance was returned to their demand. Two assaulting columns, already formed, made an immediate and simultaneous advance upon the north and south faces of the fort. The garrison, however, knowing that it could not hold the exterior works, which were still incomplete, retired to the interior defences; but still occupied a curtain of the old works, which afforded an enfilading fire upon any storming party which should attempt the inner stockade. The withdrawal of the garrison from the exterior works was misunderstood. The assault was bold, desperate, and brilliant. The resistance was incessant, deadly, overwhelming. Colonel Donop fell, mortally wounded, and near him, Lieutenant-Colonel Minnigerode. These confident assailants lost, in less than sixty minutes, four hundred men—being one-third of their entire force. And still, one more attempt was made at the escarpment near the river; but here also the Americans were on the alert. Armed galleys in the stream opened a raking fire atshort range, and dispersed the assailants. Two British ships—theAugusta(64–gun man-of-war), and theMerlin(frigate), which had been so disposed as to aid the assault, grounded. On the next day, the former took fire from a hot shot, and blew up, before her entire crew could escape; and theMerlinwas burned, to avoid capture. The American loss was fourteen killed and twenty-one wounded. Colonel Donop was buried carefully by Major Fleury, a French officer in the American service, and his grave at the south end of the old works is still an object of interest to visitors. Colonel Greene, Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, and Commodore Hazlewood of the galley service, received from Washington and from Congress worthy testimonials for “gallant conduct.”
In the meantime, the British had found two solid points of land amid the marshy ground at the mouth of the Schuylkill River, within cannon-range of Fort Mifflin, where they constructed two heavy batteries bearing upon that fort. Four 32–pounders from theSomersetand six 24–pounders from theEagle, with one 13–inch mortar, were added to works erected on Province Island, to bring a more direct fire upon the fort than could be secured from the batteries at the mouth of the Schuylkill River. (See map.)
In order to anticipate a possible movement of troops into New Jersey, in case of a successful assault upon Fort Mifflin, Washington ordered General Varnum’s brigade to take post at Woodbury, near Red Bank, and General Forman to rally the New Jersey militia to his support. But the British made no attempt to land. The later assault upon the fort, made on the tenth, was successful. Seven ships of the British fleet joined in the attack; among them theSomerset, theRoebuck, and thePearl, which had taken part in operations before Boston and New York. Lieutenant-Colonel Smith was wounded early in the action and removed to Fort Mercer, Major Thayer succeeding to the command. Major Fleury, who planned the works, was also wounded; and after a loss of two hundred and fifty men, the remnant of the garrison, on the night of the fifteenth, retired to Fort Mercer. At dawn of the sixteenth, the Grenadiers of the Royal Guards occupied the island.
Operations on the Delaware.
The Report of Washington upon this action thus honors the brave defenders of Fort Mifflin: “The defence will always reflect the highest honor upon the officers and men of the garrison. The works were entirely beat down; every piece of cannon was dismounted, and one of the enemy’s ships came so near that she threw grenades from her tops into the fort, and killed men upon the platforms, before they quitted the island.”
On the eighteenth, General Cornwallis landed at Billingsport in force, and Washington sent General Greene to take command of the troops in New Jersey and check his progress; but the demonstration was so formidable that the garrison evacuated the works. The Americans, unable to save their galleys, set fire to them near Gloucester Point; and the British fleet gained the freedom of the Delaware River.
During this movement, Lafayette, intrusted with a detachment of troops by General Greene, had several skirmishes with the enemy, and on the first of December was assigned to command of the division left without a commander by the dismissal of Stephen. While Cornwallis was on this detached service, four general officers of Washington’s army against eleven dissenting voted to attack General Howe. The incident, occurring at such a period, is noteworthy.
Late in October, the American army advanced from Perkiomy to White Marsh; General Varnum’s Rhode Island Brigade, twelve hundred strong, reported forduty, as well as about a thousand additional troops from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. Generals Gates and Putnam still retained troops for their semi-independent commands; and General Gates, in particular, only grudgingly sent such as were peremptorily ordered to report to Washington. It was not until Colonel Hamilton, Aide-de-camp, visited him in person, that Gates sent the troops which were absolutely indispensable at army headquarters, and as absolutely useless at Albany. His ostentatious proclamation of his military success over Burgoyne, and his criticism of the tardiness and non-efficiency of his Commander-in-Chief, began to expose his renewed aspirations to succeed to the chief command.
On the fourth of December, General Howe with a force of fourteen thousand men, accompanied by Generals Knyphausen and Cornwallis, advanced to Chestnut Hill, within three miles of the right of the American army, and slight skirmishing ensued. On the seventh, the British troops left Chestnut Hill, and took a position at Edge Hill near the American left. Morgan, just arrived from the northern army, and the Maryland militia under Colonel Mordecai Gist (subsequently Brigadier-General) had a sharp skirmish with Cornwallis, losing forty-four men and indicting an equal loss upon the enemy. Major-General Gray and the Queen’s Rangers indicted a loss of about fifty men upon an advance post of the American left; and when night came on, the British pickets were within a half mile of the American lines, where battle was awaited with satisfaction and hopeful expectancy. But on the morning of the eighth, the British camp disappeared, for Howe had suddenly returned to Philadelphia.
Operations near Philadelphia.
Howe’s Report, dated December 13th, reads as follows: “Upon the presumption that a forward movement might tempt the enemy, after receiving such a reënforcement [reported afterwards as four thousand men], to give battle for the recovery of this place [Philadelphia]; or, that a vulnerable part might be found to admit of an attack upon their camp; the army marched out on the night of the fourth instant.” It was afterwards learned that Howe had full knowledge of the jealous spirit then existing towards Washington, and that several of his generals favored an attack upon Philadelphia, against his better judgment. Washington, in noticing Howe’s movement, says: “I sincerely wish that they had made the attack; as the issue, in all probability, from the disposition of our troops and the strong position of our camp, would have been fortunate and happy. At the same time, I must add, that reason, prudence, and every principle of policy, forbid us quitting our post to attack them. Nothing but success would have justified the measure; and this could not be expected from their position.”
The army of Washington, nominally eleven thousand strong, had, says Baron De Kalb, but seven thousand effective men for duty, so general was the sickness, from extreme cold and the want of sufficient clothing and other necessaries of a campaign. And yet, under these conditions, Congress placed in responsible positions those officers who were most officiously antagonistic to the American Commander-in-Chief. On the sixth of November, Gates had been made President of the Board of War. Mifflin, withdrawn from duty as Quartermaster-General, was also placed upon the Board, retaining his full rank. On the twenty-eighth of December, Congress appointed Conway Major-General and Inspector-General, and placed him in communication with the Board of War, to act independently of the Commander-in-Chief. Lee, then a prisoner of war, through letters addressed to Gates, Mifflin, Wayne and Conway, united with them in concerted purpose to oppose the policy of Washington, and to dictate his action; and more than this, there was astrong influence brought to bear upon Congress to force Washington’s resignation, or removal from command.
Washington, however, established his headquarters at Valley Forge, twenty-one miles from Philadelphia; and on the nineteenth of December announced his winter quarters by a formal order. On the same day he sent General Smallwood to Wilmington, to occupy the country south of Philadelphia and cut off supplies for that city and its garrison. McDougall was established at Peekskill. Putnam was on the shore of Long Island Sound until the middle of December, when he was ordered back to the Highlands. The absence of General Mifflin from the army, and his total neglect of duty as Quartermaster-General, in which he had once been so efficient, “caused,” says Washington, “the want of two days’ supply of provisions, and thereby cost an opportunity scarcely ever offered, of taking an advantage of the enemy.”
It was an hour of deep distress to Washington, when, on the twenty-third day of December, 1777, he felt compelled to advise Congress of the condition of his army: “The numbers had been reduced since the fourth of the month, only three weeks, two thousand men, from hardship and exposure. Two thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight were unfit for duty, because barefoot and otherwise naked. Only eight thousand two hundred men were present for duty.” He added: “We have not more than three months in which to prepare a great deal of business. If we let them slip, or waste, we shall be laboring under the same difficulties in the next campaign as we have in this, to rectify mistakes and bring things to order. Military arrangements and movements, in consequence, like the mechanism of a clock,will be imperfect and disordered by the want of any part.” The concluding clause, italicized, illustrates one of his peculiar characteristics—never to slight the humblest man or agency in his country’s service, and never to count any duty too small to be done well.
'WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE[From the painting by Scheuster.]
WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE[From the painting by Scheuster.]
WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE[From the painting by Scheuster.]
At this time, the Assembly of Pennsylvania began to snuff up some of the malarious odors of selfish and senseless gossip. They even remonstrated against his going into winter quarters at all. His reply was not wanting in directness and clearness. It reads as follows: “Gentlemen reprobate the going into winter quarters as much as if they thought the soldiers were made of sticks, or stones. I can assure those gentlemen that it is a much easier and less distressing thing to remonstrate in a comfortable room, than to occupy a cold bleak hill, and sleep under frost and snow, without clothing or blankets. However, as they seem to have little feeling for the naked and distressed soldiers, I feel superabundantly for them, and from my soul I pity their miseries which it is neither in my power to relieve, or prevent.”
On the twenty-sixth, General Sullivan, who generally kept aloof from active participation in the movements of the intriguing class of officers, urged Washington to “make an attempt upon Philadelphia, and risk every consequence, in an action.” General Sullivan meant well; but the reader will recognize the characteristic style of this officer under circumstances of special doubt as to “what is to be done next.” But Washington never wavered in his purpose. On the thirtieth of December, Baron De Kalb was appointed Inspector-General,viceConway, resigned. Washington closed the year at Valley Forge. The twelve months since he recrossed the Delaware at Trenton and outgeneraled Lord Cornwallis, had indeed been eventful. Once more, amid snow and cold, surrounded by faithful but suffering thousands, he plans for other perils and exposure; before the goal of his desire, substantial victory, could bringto them and to his beloved country the boon of realized independence. And yet, unknown to him, two days before he occupied the barren site of Valley Forge a thrilling event occurred beyond the Atlantic Ocean, and one which was, in the providence of God, to verify the soldier’s faith, and secure for him final victory.
As early as December 2d, the tidings of Burgoyne’s disaster reached the royal palace of George III. Fox, Burke, and Richmond favored immediate peace, and such an alliance, or Federal Union, as would be for the material interests of both countries. Burke solemnly declared that “peace upon any honorable terms was in justice due to both nations.” But the king adjourned Parliament to the twentieth of January, 1778.
Meanwhile a speedy ship from Boston was on the high seas, bound for France, and the account of Burgoyne’s surrender was received by the American Commissioners. On the twelfth of the month it was announced to the Count de Vergennes, Minister for Foreign Affairs at the French Court. The sensation throughout Paris was intense. “Europe need no longer dread the British power, since her very Colonies have successfully defied unjust laws, and equally defied her power to enforce them.” This was the public utterance. One pregnant sentence already cited, that of Count de Vergennes, proved the incentive to immediate action. “Saratoga” and “Germantown” were coupled in a message sent to Spain, to solicit her co-operation. Without any real sympathy with America, Spain had already discriminated in favor of American privateers which took prizes to her ports.
But France did not await reply before announcing her own action. And just when Washington was gathering his weary army into humble huts for partial shelter and rest, and while his tired spirit was pained by the small jealousies which impaired the value of his personal serviceand sacrifice, and threatened the harmony of his entire command, a new ally and friend had taken him to heart; and Louis XVI. was dropping into the scales both the prestige and the power of France, to vindicate and accomplish American liberty. On that day, December 17, 1777, Gerard, one of the secretaries of Count de Vergennes, announced to Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane, two American Commissioners, “by the King’s order,” “that the King of France, in Council, had determined not only to acknowledge, but to support American independence.”
The declaration of the Duke of Richmond, already cited, which predicted “the application of the Colonists to strangers for aid, if Parliament authorized the hire of Hessians,” had been realized.