There were heroes who bore part in those expeditions, and their experience was to crown many of Washington’s later campaigns with the honors of victory. Meanwhile, about Boston, enlistments were rapidly expiring, to be again replaced with fresh material for the master’s handling into army shape and use; and the American Commander-in-Chief was beginning to illustrate his qualities as Soldier.
CHAPTER VIII.
AMERICA AGAINST BRITAIN.—BOSTON TAKEN.
On the thirty-first day of December, 1775, Admiral Shuldham reached Boston with reënforcements for its garrison, and relieved Admiral Graves in command of all British naval forces. The troops within the lines were held under the most rigid discipline, although amusements were provided to while away the idle hours of a passive defence.
The winter was memorable for its mildness, so that the American troops, encamped about the city in tents, did not suffer; but the in-gathering of recruits, to replace soldiers whose enlistments had just expired, involved the actual creation of a new army, directly in the face of a powerful, well-equipped, and watchful adversary. And yet, this very adversary must be driven from Boston before the American patriot army could move elsewhere, and engage actively against the combined armies and navy of the British crown.
Indications of increasing hostilities on the part of royal governors of the South were not wanting to stimulate the prosecution of the siege to its most speedy consummation; and although unknown to Washington at the time, the city of Norfolk, Va., had been bombarded on New Year’s day by order of Lord Dunmore.
Impressed by the urgency of the crisis, Washington, on the same day, was writing to Congress in plain terms, as follows, leaving the last word blank, lest it might miscarry: “It is not, perhaps, in the power of history to furnish a case like ours; to maintain a post within musket-shot of the enemy, within that distance of twenty, old British regiments without——”
General Greene kept his small army well in hand, watchful of the minutest detail, inspecting daily each detachment, as well as all supplies of ammunition and food; and on the fourth of January, writing from Prospect Hill (see map of Boston and Vicinity), thus reported his exact position to the Commander-in-Chief: “The night after the old troops went off, I could not have mustered seven hundred men, notwithstanding the returns of the new enlisted men amounted to nineteen hundred and upwards. I am strong enough to defend myself against all the force in Boston. Our situation has been critical. Had the enemy been acquainted with our situation, I cannot pretend to say what might have been the consequences.”
The reader will appreciate at a glance the real opinion of the American Commander-in-Chief as to his own immediate future, and the general scope of operations which he regarded as supremely important in behalf of American Independence. He understood thoroughly, that Lord Dartmouth originally opposed the military occupation of Boston in order to prevent a collision between British troops and the excited people, which he regarded as an inevitable result. That distinguished and far-sighted statesman, in order to prevent any overt acts of resistance to the established representatives of the crown at business or social centres, wrote to Lord Howe as early as October 22, 1775, to “gain possession of some respectable port to the southward, from which to make sudden and unexpected attacks upon sea-coast towns during the winter.” But British pride had forced the increase of the army in Massachusetts Colony, and initiated a disastrous campaign. Lord Dartmouth never wavered in the opinion that New York was the only proper base of operations in dealing with the Colonies at large. Lord Howe himself had advised that New York, instead of Boston, should be made the rendezvous and headquarters of all British troops to be sent to America. Only the contumacy of General Gage had baffled the wiser plans of superior authority.
During the first week of the new year, and while the American army was under the stress of reconstruction, Washington learned that General Clinton had been promised an independent command of a portion of the fresh troops which accompanied Admiral Shuldham to America, and would be detailed on some important detached service remote from New England waters. As a remarkable fact, not creditable to the king’s advisers, the Island of New York, at that time, was practically without any regular military garrison; but its aristocratic tory circles of influence could not conceive of a popular uprising against the supremacy of George III. within their favored sphere of luxury and independence.