LAFAYETTE’S EXPEDITION TO CANADA.
During the preceding year, while the treaty between France and America was pending, the Marquess de Lafayette, a warm-hearted and warm-headed young Frenchman, who had imbibed the political notions of the new school of philosophy, which had for some time been sowing the seeds of revolution in France, resolved to embark in the cause of America. Accordingly he set sail for that country, accompanied by Baron Kalb, and a few other adventurers, and when he arrived he was received with open arms by Washington and by congress. On the 31st of July, indeed, the members of congress expressed their sense of his accession to their cause in warm terms, and conferred on him the rank and commission of major-general. He fought in the battle of the Brandywine, where he was shot in the leg, and where he narrowly escaped being taken prisoner. Nothing more is heard of him till the depth of the winter, when Washington still lay hutted in Valley Forge, contending against the horrors of sickness and famine, as previously narrated. At this time congress, who were sitting in York Town, at the instigation of a board of war, composed of Gates, Starke, and others, all personal enemies of Washington, resolved to make another irruption into Canada, and that the command should be given to Lafayette. It was supposed that the young French nobleman would have great influence with the French descendants in Canada, which was the chief reason of his being raised to the command. The plan was completed without a word of intimation to Washington; and when it was fully resolved upon he received a letter from Gates, now his rival, enclosing another for the young marquess, requiring his immediate attendance on congress to receive his instructions. At the same time, Washington was directed to send one of his best regiments to join the Canadian expedition. Lafayette repaired to congress, and Washington put the required regiment in motion for Albany, on the Hudson, where the invading force was to be assembled. According to his own account, Lafayette made large demands on congress in order to ensure the success of his expedition, which demands were all complied with. He soon, however, found that the word of congress could not be depended upon. He was told that 2500 men would be assembled at Albany; that he would be joined by a great body of militia further up the Hudson; that he should have a certain sum of money in specie, and 2,000,000 dollars in paper-money; and that he must proceed from the head of the Hudson to Lake Champlain, cross that water on the ice, burn the English fleet at the Isle Aux Noix, and then, descending the Sorel and crossing the St. Lawrence, repair to Montreal, to act as circumstances should permit him. Lafayette set out full of ardour and hope, but he had scarcely left congress when it crossed their minds that the young Frenchman might, instead of inducing the Canadians to join the thirteen United States, induce them to renew their connexion with their mother country—France. These misgivings were natural, and the result was that congress resolved to neglect this long-cherished scheme of conquest. Accordingly, when Lafayette arrived at Albany, he did not find half of the promised regular troops, and as for the militia, it had either not received or attended to the summons. Even the troops he found there wanted clothing and provisions, and while he had little or no specie, the paper-dollars proved scarcely worth the carriage. Moreover, he had no sledges to carry his troops across the ice, and when the month of March arrived, the lakes began to thaw, and he received intelligence that the English were well prepared to receive him. Lafayette now gave up the enterprise, and after having made an attempt to engage some Mohawk Indians in the service of congress, in which he met with but little success, and having administered a new form of oath, devised by congress, to the population of Albany, he was permitted to return to the camp of Washington.
UNFORTUNATE ACTION UNDER LAFAYETTE.
During the winter and the commencement of the spring, while the great body of the British troops were quartered in Philadelphia, several excursions were made by detachments in different directions, chiefly for the purpose of obtaining provisions and clothing. These excursions were generally attended with success, and many American prisoners were brought into Philadelphia. Washington, however, was still permitted to rest securely in Valley Forge, where he omitted no opportunity of bettering the condition of his forces. His exertions were great, and he was now ably seconded by Baron Steuben, a Prussian officer, who had served for many years on the staff of Frederick the Great, and who, like Lafayette, had become an adventurer on this theatre of war. Steuben taught the raw troops of the republic the system of field-exercise which his Prussian majesty had introduced or improved; and when they next took the field, therefore, they presented a far more soldier-like appearance than they had presented in the previous campaigns. It was in the month of May that they again took the field. In that month the British had made an expedition by sea and land to destroy all the American shipping in the upper part of the Delaware between Philadelphia and Trenton. This may be considered the opening of the campaign, and the expedition was in a great measure successful.
More than forty American vessels were burnt; a considerable quantity of stores and provisions were destroyed; and some Americans were slain and wounded in the vain endeavour to defend them. Washington now began to act. On the 19th of May he detached Lafayette with nearly 3000 men to take post at Barren Hill, about seven miles in advance of Valley Forge, but on the opposite side of the Schuylkill. The object of this movement appears to have been the restraining of the British excursions, but the position was ill-chosen, as the communication between it and Valley Forge was difficult, and easy to be interrupted by an active enemy. Probably Washington calculated that General Howe would still continue his inactivity, and especially as it was now known that the British contemplated the abandonment of Philadelphia. But in this he was mistaken. On the night of the 20th, General Grant was detached with 5000 men to surprise Lafayette in this position, and he reached a point between his rear and Valley Forge without discovery. At the same time another detachment, under General Grey, marched along the western bank of the Schuylkill, and posted themselves at a ford about three miles in front of Lafayette’s right flank, while the rest of the British army advanced to Chesnut-hill. His retreat was utterly cut off, except by the way of Matson’s-ford. As soon as Lafayette became aware of his danger he saw this, and he instantly fled, pell-mell, with his detachment to this ford, leaving on his way six field-pieces. There was a race between him and Grey which should get first to Matson’s Ford, but fear quickened his steps and those of his followers, and Grey’s men being fatigued with their long night-march, the Frenchmen won the race, and the ford was passed before Grey could reach it. General Grant also was slow in his pursuit from behind, and Lafayette was even allowed time to send back some of his men across the water to recover the artillery he had abandoned. He escaped with the loss of about fifty men killed and wounded, and a few more taken prisoners; but had this expedition, which had been well conceived, been executed with greater rapidity, the career of Lafayette would have terminated, and his followers must either have been captured or slain. Washington himself seems to have considered that his case was hopeless. By means of glasses he had discovered Lafayette’s peril, and he caused his bridge across the Schuylkill to be broken down, lest the British, after annihilating this detachment, should fall upon himself at Valley Forge.
GEORGE III. 1778-1779