IN CAMP AND AT MOUNT VERNON
Peace was not declared until March 3, 1783. In the meanwhile the armies must be kept in camp, regularly drilled, and ready at a moment's notice for action. The American army was encamped at Verplanck's Point; that of Count de Rochambeau—alas, for the honor and peace of one household!—at Williamsburg. The brilliant campaign in Virginia attracted immense interest abroad. Every ship brought strangers to visit the camp,—artists, writers, military men. Washington begins to be sensitive about our meagre facilities for entertaining these visitors. "We have nothing to offer," he deplores, "except whisky hot from the still,—and not always that,—and meat with no vegetables," etc. There was always plenty of Virginia hickory nuts! They appeared at every meal. They saved many a day and redeemed many a slender breakfast, dinner, and supper. The commander-in-chief seems to have striven to make them fashionable by devoting himself to their consumption.
M. de Broglie came to Virginia in 1782, bearing letters of introduction to General Washington from Benjamin Franklin,—letters "rendered doubly agreeable," said the general, "by the pleasure I had in receiving them from the hands of such an amiable and accomplished young gentleman." M. de Broglie kept a journal which found its way to the columns of the Courier des États Unis, and was translated by a Boston literary journal. The impression made upon this "amiable and accomplished young gentleman" presents an interesting portrait of Washington in the year succeeding the surrender, and also permits our curtain to fall upon a charming picture of the ancestors of the sons and daughters of the American Revolution.
M. de Broglie says: "I found the American Army encamped in a place called Verplanck's Point. There were six thousand men who, for the first time during the war, were well armed, well drilled, well kept, and camped under tents of a regular form. I passed along its front with pleasure, astonishment and admiration. All the soldiers appeared to me fine, robust and well chosen. The sentinels well kept, extremely attentive, and sufficiently well placed under arms, contrasted so completely with the crude idea I had formed of these troops, that I was obliged to repeat to myself several times that I was indeed seeing this army that formerly had no other uniform than a cap upon which was written 'Liberty.'
"I pressed M. de Rochambeau, who received me with kindness, to add that of making me acquainted with Washington. He assented; and the day after my arrival, he went with me to dine with this famous man. I gave him a letter from my father; and, after a slight 'shake hand,' he was kind enough to say a thousand flatteries and polite things to me. Here is his portrait, which I have formed from what I have been able to see of him for myself, and from what the conversations which I have had with regard to him, have taught me:—
"The General is about forty-nine years of age; he is large, finely made, very well proportioned. His figure is much more pleasing than the picture represents it. He was fine looking until within about three years; and, although those who have been constantly with him since that time say that he seems to them to have grown old fast, it is undeniable that the General is still fresh, and active as a young man.
"His physiognomy is pleasant and open; his address is cold, though polite; his pensive eye is more attentive than sparkling; but his countenance is kind, noble and composed. He maintains, in his private deportment, that polite and attentive manner which does not offend. He is the enemy of ostentation and vain-glory. His manners are always equable; he has never shown the least temper. Modest even to humility, he seems not to estimate himself duly; he receives with good grace the deference paid to him, but rather shuns than courts it. His society is agreeable and pleasing. Always serious, never constrained; always simple, always free and affable, without being familiar, the respect which he inspires never becomes painful. He talks little in general, and in a very low tone of voice; but he is so attentive to what is said to him, that you are satisfied that he understands you, and are almost willing to dispense with a reply. This conduct has often been of advantage to him in various circumstances; no one has more occasion than he to use circumspection, and to weigh well his words. He unites to an unalterable tranquillity of soul, a fine power of judgment; and one can seldom reproach him for a little slowness in determination, or even in acting, when he has formed his decision. His courage is calm and brilliant. An excellent patriot, a wise, virtuous man—one is tempted to grant him all qualities, even those which circumstances have not permitted him to develop. Never was there a man more fitted to lead the Americans nor one who has evinced in his conduct more consistency, wisdom, constancy and reason.
"Mr. Washington has never received any compensation as General; he has refused such, as not needing it. The expenses of his table are alone made at the expense of the State. He has every day as many as thirty people at dinner, gives good military receptions, and is very attentive to all the officers whom he admits to his table. It is, in general, the moment of the day when he is most gay.
"At dessert, he makes an enormous consumption of nuts, and, when the conversation amuses him, he eats them for two hours, 'drinking healths,' according to the English and American custom, several times. This is called toasting. They begin always by drinking to the United States of America; afterwards to the King of France, to the Queen, and success to the arms of the combined army. Then is given, sometimes, what is called a sentiment; for example, 'To our success with our enemies and the ladies!' 'Success in war and love!'
"I have toasted several times with General Washington. On one occasion I proposed to him to drink to the Marquis de Lafayette, whom he looked upon as a son. He accepted with a smile of benevolence, and had the politeness to propose to me in return that of my father and wife.
"Mr. Washington appears to me to keep up a perfect bearing towards the officers of his army; he treats them very politely, but they are far from growing familiar with him; they all wear, on the contrary, in presence of this General, an air of respect, confidence and admiration."
For two years after the surrender, General Washington was confined to the routine of camp life. We read of no visits to Fredericksburg or to Mount Vernon. If he made them, they were brief and uneventful.
His mother lived quietly in her new home, never fulfilling her intention of returning to "Pine Grove" across the river. She was now seventy-eight years old, but remembered by the children of her old neighbors as bright, active, and alert—keenly interested in everything around her. Charming granddaughters were growing up in Betty Lewis's "Kenmore" home. One of these—doubtless our "little Betty,"—accompanied General and Mrs. Washington on their joyful return home to Mount Vernon from Annapolis, whither the general had gone to resign his commission. Mr. Lossing has preserved a letter from little Miss Lewis:—
"I must tell you what a charming day I spent at Mt. Vernon with Mama and Sally. The General and Madame came home at Christmas Eve, and such a racket the servants made! They were glad of their coming. Three handsome young officers came with them. All Christmas afternoon people came to pay their respects and duty. Among these were stately dames and gay young women. The General seemed very happy and Mrs. Washington was up before daybreak making everything as agreeable as possible for everybody. Among the most notable callers was Mr. George Mason of Gunston Hall, who brought a charming granddaughter with him about fourteen years old. He is said to be one of the greatest statesmen and wisest men in Virginia. We had heard much of him, and were delighted to look in his face, hear him speak, and take his hand which he offered in a courtly manner. He has a grand head and clear gray eyes—is straight, but not tall, and has few white hairs, though they say he is about sixty years old."
The little hero-worshipper! And so reverent to her illustrious uncle and his wife, with no underbred, familiar claiming of kinship with "the General and Madame."
Even before peace was declared, our French allies circulated large sums of gold and silver coin, which put to flight the wretched paper currency of our country, and in an incredibly short time quantities of French and English goods were imported. "Our people," laments an old writer, "suddenly laid aside their plain, home-manufactured clothing. Fine ruffles, powdered heads, silks and scarlets decorated the men, while the most costly silks, satins, chintzes, calicoes and muslins decorated our females. Superb plate, foreign spirits, and wines, sparkled on the sideboards, and as a necessary consequence the people ran in debt, and money was hard to raise."
General Washington's family resumed their old-time habits of living. They rose early, breakfasted at half-past seven, dined frugally at two, retired early. "Those who come to see me," said the general, "will always find a bit of mutton and a glass of wine. If they expect anything more, they will be disappointed." Mary Washington and the mistress of Mount Vernon never laid aside their simple customs, dress, and occupations. They seemed to have formed, said Washington Irving, "an inveterate habit of knitting" in and out of the drawing-room. Walking about her garden, Mary Washington's fingers held the flying needles. The results were sent to somebody less fortunate than herself. Martha Washington kept up her "inveterate habit" long after she became the first lady in the land, presenting unfinished gloves of her own knitting to her friends to "finish and wear for my sake," thus delicately suggesting a plan by which the gift could be rendered more valuable, and at the same time inspiring her gay young visitors with something of her own spirit of industry.
Inestimable to women is the value of such occupation! For them the curse has been transmuted into a golden blessing. There could have been no necessity for Mary and Martha Washington to employ themselves so diligently in sewing and knitting. The hands were numerous enough around them among the negroes and humbler classes for all such work. But they held an old-fashioned creed: that the human hand—that wonderful mechanism—was created for some useful purpose! In their day the hand had not claimed for its beauty the cunning skill of the "artist manicure." The instructed hand made laces, and manipulated the spinet and harp, but it made garments as well. Let none call the love of needlework useless—its results not worth the while! Knitting may not be the highest use for one's beautiful hands, but it surely ranks with the highest when it ministers to those who suffer! And even as an innocent occupation it is not to be despised. All such work is better than dull vacuity or lack of interest in domestic life. A passion for such things is not the worst passion that can possess a woman's soul. Besides, needlework is an admirable sedative to the nerves. Mary Washington's knitting helped to relieve her mind of its tension when circumstances seemed so unfortunate and discouraging. Perhaps the Queen of Scots sometimes forgot the uncertain tenure by which she held her beautiful head because she had a passion for embroidery and was, every day, expecting new flosses and filoselles from France to finish something very lovely which she had commenced.
But knitting was not with Mary Washington and her daughters a matter of sentiment or resorted to as a nerve cure. It was simply the natural expression of pure benevolence. There was no money to buy—nothing imported to be bought. The destitution of the soldiers pressed heavily upon the hearts of these good women. Constantly employed every moment of their waking hours, they might hope to achieve something to add to that "cap upon which was written 'Liberty.'" The Phrygian cap might indeed protect the fervid brain of the patriot, but could in no wise comfort his weary feet!
American women have never failed in time of war to give the work of their own hands. With the wife of another Virginia commander, Mary Custis Lee, knitting was as inveterate a habit in the time of America's Civil War as it was with her great-grandmother, Martha Washington, in the war of the American Revolution.
Many were the soldiers who were comforted in body and heartened in spirit by the gifts of these noble women—all the more because they were wrought by their own gentle hands.