He served with distinction in Flanders, and at the end of the Seven Years' War he was chosen to command the companies selected for service in Portugal. When so employed, he won the respect of all by his dignified firmness and courtesy, and laid the foundation of an affection towards himself from the officers serving under him which never even waned. On his staff in Portugal was a subaltern bearing a name honoured then as now in the Artillery,—Adye. Lieutenant S. P. Adye was afterwards, as a Captain-Lieutenant, aide-de-camp to General Pattison when in command of the Royal Artillery in New York, and was a most able and energetic staff officer.
In 1769 Colonel Pattison was sent to Venice to superintend the organization of the Venetian Artillery. From private letters, which are still in existence, it would appear that he had a very difficult task, not so much with the Artillerymen as with the authorities, who were disposed to break faith with him. But as he simply threatened to resign if they did not keep their promises, he obtained what he wanted; and it may be said of James Pattison that he never wanted more than justice.
General Pattison, as has already been mentioned, succeeded Colonel Cleaveland in the command of the Fourth Battalion of the Royal Artillery in America. He succeeded one who was a soldier, but no statesman,—who conceived that the utmost expected of him was to despise and defeat any enemy who might be opposed to him. General Pattison was equally sensible of his duty as far as military operations were concerned; but he went beyond his predecessor in the liberal and statesmanlike views he took of the state of America. In his official reports, it is needless to say, he did not enter into details beyond his province; but his private correspondence is a mine of wealth to the student of the great American War, and it has been placed at the disposal of the compiler of this work by the representatives of the family. The following letter is a dispassionate and valuable contribution to the history of those stirring times, and reveals at once the able character of the writer and the state of the American Colonies. In writing to his brother from Philadelphia, in December, 1777, he says:
"I wish it was in my power to give you very pleasing accounts of the state of affairs in this distracted country; but, indeed, it is almost a distracting consideration for anyone who knows them, as we do by experience, to think of them. Ministers have been deceived, and have never known the true state of this country; if they had, they never would have entered into a war with it. I own I had very mistaken notions myself when in England of reducing America to obedience by conquest. I have totally changed my sentiments, not that I would wish them to be known but to yourself, as it might not be prudent for me to declare them; but I will confess to you that, by what I have seen and heard, I am fully of opinion that all the efforts Great Britain can make will never effectually conquer this great continent, in which, notwithstanding all that has been said of friends to Government here, and friends to Government there, yet there is scarcely one to be met with from one end of it to the other. We have not only armies to combat with, but a whole country, where every man, woman, and even child is your enemy, and, in fact, do in one shape or another act as such. One Royal Army has been already obliged to do what is not in our History to be met with,—to lay down their arms, and surrender prisoners of war; another Army at New York in a state of alarm; and the Grand Army here penned up within the narrow limits of two or three miles, and cut off from all provisions, but what must be gained by fighting for with large foraging parties sent out from time to time for that purpose. In short, unless thirty thousand men more, added to the thirty thousand we already have, can be sent hither early in the year, the wisest thing would be to get rid of the contest in the best manner you can, and, if it was possible to persuade them to revoke their Declaration of Independence, then to make one general Act of Oblivion—give up entirely the point of taxation, and restore the whole country to the state it was in 1763. These are my politics, though I would not wish them to be known. I am much afraid the prosecution of the war must prove ruinous and destructive to Great Britain."
These words have a special value, as coming from one whose official position in command of the Artillery gave him favourable opportunities for forming an opinion. Happily, among British officers, opinions never interfere with the performance of duties, however hopeless; and it will be found that no one was more energetic than General Pattison, both at Philadelphia and in his command at New York. At the same time, we learn from this letter three things—the success of the cry against England commenced in Massachusetts, and swollen by hasty and foolish treatment on the part of England; the falsehood of the Government statements at home; and the great difficulties which embarrassed the English Army in its operations, even thus early in the war.
But in this chapter the condition of New York during the British occupation is the subject of consideration; and perhaps it cannot be better realized than by imagining oneself in the company of the gallant General, as he went his daily rounds. Hanging about in the vicinity of his house are orderlies, in different costume; the gunner, in full dress, with his gold-laced cocked-hat, with black feather, as was the custom then in the 4th Battalion, his hair clubbed and powdered, white stock, white breeches, and white stockings, and armed with a carbine and a bayonet; or, perhaps, in the marvellous undress invented for the Battalion by Colonel Cleaveland—a blue jacket and brown trousers. Among the others is also to be seen an occasional negro, in no particular uniform at all, one of a company of Virginian blacks enrolled for duty with the Artillery and in the Ordnance Yard. In the recent American Civil War many hard things were said of the Northerners for declaring the slaves of the rebels to be free, at a time when the women and children of the South were in their homes alone and unprotected. It is but fair to say that the example followed was our own. During the War of Independence the same course towards the rebels was taken by the British, and an influx of runaway slaves in New York was the result. This, coupled with the decided immigration of Loyalists from other districts, accounts for the great rise in the population of New York during the British occupation, which increased from 17,000 to 30,000. The newspapers of the time teem with advertisements announcing the sale of slaves, but from the fact above mentioned it is evident that they can only apply to the slaves of Loyalists. Some of them are so grotesque as to be worthy of reproduction:
"To be sold, a strong, healthy mulatto girl, about fifteen years of age. Has been used to household work and the care of children. She has both had the small-pox and the measles. For further particulars, apply to Mr. Stevens, Livery Stable Keeper, Little Queen-street."
"To be sold, a young negro wench, who has had the small-pox, can cook very well, nineteen years old, and sold for no fault. Lowest price, 70l."
And—"For sale, a fine negro boy and a billiard-table."
Doubtless, if one looked in at the places of auction, the poor girl "who is accustomed to the care of children" would be found crying her heart out, while thinking of the charge from which she has been torn, and dreading the unknown future before her; while poor little Sambo would be seen showing his white teeth over the table which has been the dusky marker's little world, and from which he has found that he is not to be separated.