FOOTNOTES:
[27] André seems to have been impressed with the idea that the occupation of General Wayne, the leader of the expedition, was that of a tanner in his early life.
A few foot-notes were made to the poem when it was published in England. These are here placed in italics. The remainder are by the author of this volume.
[28] A hasty-pudding made of the meal of Indian corn.
[29] This is in allusion to the fact that many of the American soldiers, at that time, were without shoes or stockings.
[30] Freedom's, i.e., liberty-pole—a long stick stuck in the ground.
[31] Rum was the usual kind of spirituous liquor that formed a portion of the rations of the soldiers.
[32] In his letter to Congress (July 26, 1780) concerning this expedition, Washington spoke of the American cannons being "too light to penetrate the logs of which it [the block-house] was constructed." He also attributed the great loss of the Americans in that attack to the "intemperate valor" of the men. André exercised a poetical license in putting these words into the mouth of Wayne before the occurrence.
[33] Loyalists expelled from the American lines.
[34] One of the Irvines was a hatter; the other was a physician. It was probably the latter—Dr. William Irvine—who was in this expedition, for he was then in command of the Second Pennsylvania Regiment. He had been a captain in Canada about two years. Brigadier-General Irvine was made a prisoner at Chestnut Hill, near Philadelphia, in December, 1777.
[35] William Alexander, Lord Stirling, was a general in the Continental army. He had been frustrated in obtaining a Scottish estate and peerage to which he was clearly entitled. He assumed the title as a right.
[36] General Wayne reported that, owing to the lightness of his field-pieces, the shot did not penetrate the logs of the block-house.
[37] Vide Lee's trial. General Charles Lee, in his testimony at his trial by court-martial, after the battle of Monmouth, spoke of "Colonel Hamilton flourishing his sword" after delivering a message from Washington on the battle-field, and saying, "'I will stay, and we will all die here on this spot.' I could not but be surprised," said Lee, "at his expression, but observed him much fluttered, and in a sort of frenzy of valor."
[38] Richard Harrison, Washington's secretary.
[39] A disorder prevalent in the rebel lines.
[40] The merit of these lines, which is doubtless very great, can only be felt by true connoisseurs conversant in ancient song. In "Chevy Chase" occurs the stanza:
"For Witherington needs must I wayle,
As one in doleful dumps;
For when his legges were smitten off,
He fought upon his stumps."
[41] Who kept a dram-shop.
[42] A deity of the woods.
[43] A New England name for a horse, mare, or gelding.
[44] A cant appellation given among the soldiers to the corps that has the honor to guard his Majesty's person—a body-guard.
[45] William Cunningham, the veteran provost-marshal at New York.
[46] Rev. James Caldwell, an earnest Whig of New Jersey, and pastor of a church at Connecticut Farms. His wife had been shot by a newly enlisted soldier in her own house, when the British, under Knyphausen, made a raid upon Springfield in 1778.
[47] Calling himself, because he was ordered not to do it, Earl of Stirling, though no sterling earl. (See foot-note, page 71.) In a winter expedition to Staten Island a larger proportion of his soldiers were frost-bitten.
[48] Lafayette.
[49] Now Jersey City, where the British had a redoubt. This Major Henry Lee surprised, in August, 1779, and carried away one hundred and fifty-nine of the garrison prisoners.
[50] Mrs. Susannah Livingston, a daughter of Governor William Livingston, of New Jersey, who was suspected of political authorship.
[51] It so happened that when André was taken to Tappaan he was delivered to the custody of Wayne. The latter was not a member of the board of inquiry. Frank Moore says that, under André's signature to a MS. copy of the "Cow-Chase," some one wrote:
"When the epic strain was sung,
The poet by the neck was hung,
And to his cost he finds, too late,
The 'dung-born tribe' decides his fate."
Fac-simile of the last Stanza of the Cow-Chase.