Washington the Soldier

by Henry B. Carrington

In order to anticipate any possible delay of the troops in reaching their destination, he had already requested Governor Trumbull, of Connecticut, to reënforce the New York garrison with two thousand men from Western Connecticut; and he also instructed the commanding officer in that city to apply to the Provincial Convention, or to the Committee of Safety of New Jersey, to furnish a thousand men for the same purpose. In advising Congress of this additional expense, incurred through his own forethought, but without authority of Congress, he wrote thus discreetly: “Past experience and the lines in Boston and on Boston Neck point out the propriety and suggest the necessity of keeping our enemies from gaining possession and making a lodgment.”

The Continental Army had entered upon its first active campaign; but before Washington left Cambridge he arranged for the assembling of transports at Norwich, Conn., thereby to save the long coastwise march to New York; and digested a careful itinerary of daily marches, by which the different divisions would not crowd one upon another. Quartermaster-General Mifflin was intrusted with the duty of preparing barracks, quarters, and forage for the use of the troops on their arrival, and all the governors of New England were conferred with as to the contingencies of British raids upon exposed sea-coast towns, after removal of the army from Boston. A careful system of keeping the Pay Accounts of officers was also devised, and this, with the examination of an alleged complicity of officers with the purchase of army supplies, added to the preliminary work of getting his army ready for the best of service in garrison or the field. Two companies of artillery, with shot and shell, were detailed to report to General Thomas, who had been ordered by Congress to Canada, vice General Lee ordered southward.

Washington’s journey to New York was via Providence, Norwich, and New London, in order to inspect and hasten the departure of the troops.

A reference to the situation in that city is necessary to an appreciation of the development which ensued immediately upon the arrival of the Commander-in-Chief.

William Tryon, who subsequently invaded Connecticut twice, and left his devastating impress upon Danbury, Ridgefield, New Haven, Fairfield, Norwalk, and Green Farms, was the royal Governor of New York. It is interesting to recall the antecedents of this governor. He had been Governor of North Carolina once, and attempted a part similar to that so foolishly played by Governor Gage at Lexington and Concord. Until this day, the people of North Carolina will cite the “Battle of Alamance,” which was a pretty sharp fight between Tryon’s forces and the yeomanry of the “Old North State,” on the sixteenth day of May, 1771, as the first blood shed in resistance to the usurpations of the royal prerogative. It was the same William Tryon, in person, temperament, and methods, who governed New York City in 1776, and Washington knew him thoroughly. The royalists and patriots of New York City, in the absence of a controlling force of either British or Continental troops, commingled daily. A few British men-of-war really controlled its waters; but the city was practically at rest. There prevailed a general understanding that each party should retain its own views; that the officers of the Crown should keep within the technical line of their official duty, and that the citizens would not interfere. Congress had no troops to spare, and there was quite a general suspension of arming, except to supply the regiments already in the field.

An extraordinary coincidence of the arrival of General Clinton from Halifax, with a small force, and the arrival, on the same day, of General Lee, from Connecticut, with about fifteen hundred volunteers, brought this condition of armed neutrality to an end. Clinton had positive orders to “destroy all towns that refused submission.” When Clinton cast anchor at Sandy Hook and communicated with Governor Tryon, and learned the facts, he judiciously made the official courtesy due to the governor his plausible excuse for entering the harbor at all, “being ordered southward.” Lee, doubtful of Clinton’s real purpose, fortified Brooklyn Heights back of Governor’s Island, and began also to fortify the city, at the south end of the island, still called “The Battery.” Clinton followed his orders, sailed southward, visited Lord Dunmore in Chesapeake Bay, joined Earl Cornwallis at Wilmington, N.C., in May, on the arrival of that officer from Ireland, and took part with him in the operations against Fort Sullivan (afterwards Fort Moultrie) near Charleston, during the succeeding summer.

Lee, ever arrogating to himself supreme command, whenever detached, placed the Connecticut volunteers whom he accompanied to New York upon a Continental basis of service. In this he deliberately exceeded his authority and came into direct collision with Congress, which had ordered one of the regiments to be disbanded; and offended the New York patriots, whom he characterized as the “accursed Provincial Congress of New York.” His action received the official disapproval of Washington; and the visit of a Committee of Congress accommodated the formal occupation by the Colonial troops to the judgment of all well-disposed citizens. In no respect was the episode of Lee’s temporary command a reflection upon the patriotism of the citizens. He was ordered to the south; and in the attack upon Fort Sullivan and the preparation of Charleston for defence he gave much good advice, but had to be repressed and controlled all the time by President Rutledge, who was as resolute as Washington himself in the discharge of public duty once confided to his trust. The attitude of South Carolina, at this time, deserves special mention, and it has hardly received sufficient recognition in the development of the United States. Without waiting for the united action of the Colonies this State declared its own independence as a sovereign republic. John Rutledge was elected as President, with Henry Laurens as Vice-President, and William H. Drayton as Chief Justice. An army and navy were authorized; a Privy Council and Assembly were also elected; the issue of six hundred thousand dollars of paper money was authorized, as well as the issue of coin. It was the first republic in the New World to perfect the organization of an independent State.

When Lee was ordered southward, General Thomas had been ordered to Canada; and the first act of Washington, after his arrival at New York, was the enforced depletion of his command by the detail of four battalions as a reënforcement to the army in Canada. These he sent by water to Albany, “to ease the men of fatigue.” He also sent five hundred barrels of provisions to Schuyler’s command on the twenty-second.

The activity of the army about headquarters aroused the royalist element and prompt action became necessary. Washington addressed a letter to the New York Committee of Safety, directing that further correspondence with the enemy must cease, closing as follows: “We must consider ourselves in a state of war, or peace, with Great Britain.” He enforced these views with emphasis.

Late at night, on the twenty-fifth, an order was received from Congress directing him to send six additional battalions to Canada, requesting also an immediate report as to “whether still additional regiments could be spared for that purpose.” General Sullivan accompanied this division; and with him were such men as Stark, Reed, Wayne, and Irvine. In reply to Congress, Washington stated that “by this division of forces there was danger that neither army, that sent to Canada and that kept at New York, would be sufficient, because Great Britain would both attempt to relieve Canada and capture New York, both being of the greatest importance to them, if they have the men.”