* See page 446.
** Charles Armand, marquis de la Rouarie, was a French officer in the Continental army, who had been ten years in military service before he came to this country. On the 10th of May, 1777, Congress gave him the commission of colonel, and authorized him to raise a corps of Frenchmen, in number not exceeding two hundred men He was a zealous and spirited officer, and did good service throughout the war. He was with La Fayette in New Jersey, after the battle of Red Bank, in the fall of 1777, and the next year was actively engaged in Westchester county, New York, in opposition to the corps of Simcoe and Emerick, and the Loyalists under Bare-more. The latter was captured by Armand, who, at one time, had his quarters at a house which stood on the site of the present St. John's College, at Fordham. He was stationed at Ridgefield, in Connecticut, under General Robert Howe, in the summer of 1779. Belonging to his corps was a company of cavalry called Maréchaussée * whose duties appertained chiefly to the police of the army. Armand's corps, exclusive of this company, was incorporated with Pulaski's in February, 1780. Armand was with the army under Gates at Clermont, near Camden, in South Carolina, and was directed by that general to form an advance attacking party in the night-march against Cornwallis at Camden. He censured the conduct of his general on that occasion very much. "I will not say," he remarked, "that the general contemplated treason; but I will say, that if he had desired to betray his army, he could not have chosen a more judicious course." Armand was dissatisfied with the promotions in the army, for he perceived no chance for himself to advance, yet he continued in faithful service. He went to France in February, 1781, to procure clothing and accoutrements, but came back again in time to join the army before Yorktown in Oetober of that year. On the earnest recommendation of Washington, who knew his worth, Congress gave Colonel Armand the commission of brigadier general in the spring of 1783. He returned to France in 1784. In a letter to Rochambeau, written in May of that year, Washington strongly recommended General Armand as worthy of promotion in his own eountry. He was married, in 1786, to a wealthy lady, belonging to an ancient family, and on that occasion wrote a letter to Washington, inviting him to come to Europe and partake of the hospitalities of his home. In his reply, Washington remarked, "I must confess I was a little pleased, if not surprised, to find you think quite like an American on the subject of matrimony and domestic felicity; for, in my estimation, more permanent and genuine happiness is to be found in the sequestered walks of connubial life than in the giddy rounds of promiscuous pleasure, or the more tumultuous and imposing scenes of successful ambition. This sentiment will account in a degree for my not making a visit to Europe." General Armand took an active part in the revolutionary movements in his own country, and became a prisoner in the Bastile, for a time, in 1789. He participated in the sanguinary scenes in La Vendee, during the first year of the French Revolution. Sick when the news of the execution of Louis XVI. reached him, it produced a powerful effect upon his weakened system. A crisis in his malady was induced, and, on the 30th of January, 1793, he expired. He was buried privately, by moonlight; but his remains were disinterred by the Revolutionists within a month afterward, and the papers inhumed with him revealed the names of associates, some of whom were afterward guillotined. General Armand was of middle size, dark complexion, urbane in deportment, polished in manners, an eloquent and persuasive speaker, and a practiced marksman. He was greatly beloved by his friends, and his opponents were not his enemies.
* The Maréchaussée was a useful corps. In an encampment, it was its business to patrol the camp and its vicinity, for the purpose of apprehending deserters, thieves, rioters, &e., and soldiers who should be found violating the rules of the army. Strangers without passes were to be apprehended by them, and the sutlers in the army were under the control of the commander of the corps. In the time of action they were to patrol the roads on both flanks of the army to arrest fugitives, and apprehend those who might be skulking away.
The Baltic Order.—Attack upon the Outpost.—The Enemy in full Force.—Retreat of the Americans.
who had recovered from the effects of his unhorsing at Spencer's. The Continental infantry, chiefly Pennsylvania troops, under Wayne, supported the whole. La Fayette, with nine hundred Continentals and some militia, halted after crossing the morass, to be in readiness to support Wayne, if necessary. Steuben, with the main body of the militia, remained as a reserve at Green Spring.
After moving about a mile, the van patrol were attacked by some of the enemy's Yagers, and the riflemen and militia commenced the attack upon the British pickets at about five o'clock. A desultory fire was kept up for a few minutes, when the cavalry made a furious charge, and the pickets were driven within their lines in great confusion and with considerable loss. The British outpost, which covered and concealed the main body of the royal army, was now assailed by the riflemen, who were stationed in a ditch, near a rail fence. They were under the immediate direction of M'Pherson and Mercer, and terribly galled the Yagers who garrisoned the point assailed, yet without driving them from their position. The assailants were speedily joined by two battalions of Continental infantry, one under Major Galvan, and another under Major Willis, of Connecticut, supported by two pieces of artillery, under the direction of Captain Savage. The Americans felt certain of victory, and were about to leave the ditch and engage hand to hand with the enemy, when more than two thousand of the royal troops were led from their concealment into action by Lieutenant-colonel Yorke on the right, and Lieutenant-colonel Dundas on the left. The brigade of the latter consisted of the forty-third, seventy-sixth, and eightieth regiments, the flower of Cornwallis's army. Yorke soon put to flight the American militia on the right; but, on the left, the riflemen, cavalry, and the Pennsylvania infantry sustained the unequal conflict with great bravery. Superior numbers, however, overmatched skill and courage, and the Americans, after a sanguinary battle of ten minutes, gave way; first the riflemen, then the cavalry, and finally the whole body of infantry retreated in confusion upon Wayne's line, which was drawn up in compact order in the field in front of the present residence of Mr. Coke.
Wayne now perceived the whole breadth of Cornwallis's stratagem, and the imminence of the danger which surrounded his troops. Already strong detachments were rapidly outflanking him and gaining his rear, while a solid body of veterans were confronting him. It was a moment of great peril. To retreat would be certain destruction to his troops; a false movement would involve the whole in ruin. Wayne's presence of mind never forsook him, and, in moments of greatest danger, his judgment seemed the most acute and faithful. He now instantly conceived a bold movement, but one full of peril. He ordered the trumpeters to