Washington the Soldier

by Henry B. Carrington

The Count de Rochambeau, with a soldier’s exactness, soon caught the fire of Washington’s zeal, and well comprehended the situation of American affairs generally. So intense is his delineation of the condition of things as he observed them, that if penned by Washington himself, nothing could have been added. His letter to the Count de Vergennes, dated on July sixteenth, only six days after his landing in America, reads, in part, as follows: “Upon our arrival here, the country was in consternation; the paper money had fallen to sixty for one.... I spoke to the principal persons of the place, and told them, as I write to General Washington, that this was merely the advance guard of a greater force, and that the king was determined to support them with his whole power. In twenty-four hours their spirits rose, and last night, all the streets, houses, and steeples were illuminated, in the midst of fireworks and great rejoicing.... You see, Sir, how important it is to act with vigor.... Send us troops, ships, and money; but do not depend upon this people, nor upon their means. They have neither money nor credit. Their means of resistance are but momentary, and called forth when they are attacked in their homes. Then they assemble themselves for the moment of immediate danger, and defend themselves. Washington sometimes commands fifteen thousand, and sometimes three thousand men.”

The restriction of the French fleet to Narragansett Bay so immediately after its arrival, led Washington and Rochambeau to postpone operations against New York; and it is proper to notice the fact that no news was received of the second division of French troops until late in the fall, when it was reported as blockaded in the home port of Brest. A proclamation was made and published by Lafayette, with the sanction of Washington, announcing to the Canadians that the French would aid them to expel the British troops from their country. The object of this proclamation was chiefly to divert the attention of the garrison of New York from a proposed joint attack upon that city, which Washington kept always in view. The expedition was never seriously entertained; but General Clinton, on the thirty-first of August, as anticipated by Washington, forwarded a copy of the paper to Lord Germaine, while at the same time he placed before him, in confidence, a proposition of a different kind, from which he derived a strong expectation of British gain, through the acquisition, by purchase, of the principal Hudson River military post, West Point itself.

Washington had advised General Arnold that he would soon be tendered an active command. But that officer, pleading as excuse continued suffering from his wounds, expressed a preference for the command of a military post. After urgent solicitation of himself and his friends, he was authorized to designate the post of his choice. As the result, on the third of August, he was assigned to the command of “West Point and its dependencies, in which all are included, from Fishkill to King’s Ferry.” At the date of this assignment of Arnold to a post which was rightly regarded by Washington as most vital to ultimate American success, a clandestine correspondence had already passed between Generals Clinton and Arnold, through the medium of Major John André.

The attention of the reader is naturally retrospective, as the name of André reappears in connection with that of Arnold. He had been taken prisoner at St. John’s; was once on parole at Montreal, and familiar with Arnold’s habits and the outrageous abuse of his public trust with which, there, as afterwards at Philadelphia, he had been charged. André also knew of his gambling, his extravagance, his ambition, and his reckless daring, generally. His own personal antecedents during the grand ovation tendered to General Howe, upon that officer’s departure from Philadelphia, in which he had so conspicuously figured as escort to Miss Shippen, afterwards the wife of Arnold, acquire special interest. He was, and long had been, a confidential member of General Clinton’s staff. Neither Clinton nor André could conceive, for a moment, that Arnold and his wife, formerly Miss Shippen, would betray André’s confidence; or, if the proposition to betray West Point failed, that André would be allowed to suffer.

On the twenty-fifth of August, General Clinton wrote to Lord Germaine as follows: “At this new epoch of the war, when a foreign foe has already landed, and an addition to it is expected, I owe it to my country, and I must in justice say, to my own fame, to declare to your lordship that I become every day more sensible of the utter impossibility of prosecuting the war in this country without reënforcements.... We are, by some thousands, too weak to subdue the rebellion.” On the twenty-seventh of September, Lord Germaine wrote in reply: “Next to the destruction of Washington’s army, the gaining over of officers of influence and reputation among the troops would be the speediest way of subduing the rebellion and restoring the tranquillity of America. Your commission authorizes you to avail yourself of such opportunities, and there can be no doubt that the expense will be cheerfully submitted to.” The British archives, then secret, show that Lord Germaine was kept fully advised of the whole scheme. On the thirtieth of August, Arnold solicited an interview with some responsible party, in order definitely to settle upon the price of surrendering West Point to Great Britain. André was selected, as mutually agreeable to both Clinton and Arnold. On the eighteenth of September, Arnold wrote, advising that André be sent up to the sloop-of-war Vulture, then anchored in Haverstraw Bay, promising to send a person with a flag of truce and boat to meet him. Clinton received the note on the next day. Under the pretence of an expedition to Chesapeake Bay, freely made public, a body of picked troops embarked on frigates. André reached the Vulture on the twentieth. On the twenty-first he landed, met Arnold, accompanied him first to the Clove, and then to the house of Josiah Holt Smith. (See map, “Highlands of the Hudson.”) Smith’s antecedents were those of a royalist; but the secret was too valuable to be intrusted to such a man; and subsequent investigations failed to connect him with any knowledge of the conspiracy. The terms of purchase were, in so many words: “Pay, in gold, and a brigadier-general’s commission in the British Army.”

The terms were settled and the bargain was closed. Besides knowledge of the plans of the post and its approaches, André was advised of the signals to be exchanged; the disposition of the guards; and the points of surest attack which would be within the immediate control of disembarking grenadiers and sharp-shooters. The Vulture had dropped down the river with the tide too far to be promptly reached; so that André crossed the river, and having proper passports attempted to save time by returning to New York by land. While passing through Tarrytown, he was challenged, stopped, examined, and made prisoner. On the second of October, he was executed as a spy. America grieved over his fate, and no one with more of pity than did Washington. His soul still felt sore over the fate of Nathan Hale, and after a solitary hour of anguish in spirit, he suggested to General Clinton a method of escape for André. He offered to exchange him for Benedict Arnold. Clinton could not do this without loss of honor to himself and Great Britain. André had to die. Washington, with tender consideration and profound sympathy, gave to Mrs. Arnold a safe conduct and escort to her former home in Philadelphia, and shared the sentiment of all who knew her best, that the wife was not the confidante of her husband’s treason. Lafayette most tenderly announced his sympathy in her behalf.

General Greene was immediately assigned to command West Point and its dependencies. The garrison was also entirely changed. The works were skilfully modified and strengthened, so that any plans in the possession of Clinton would be useless; and Washington took post, in person, at Brakeness, near Passaic Falls, N.J.

It will be remembered that Baron De Kalb left Morristown on the sixteenth of the previous April with reënforcements for the Southern army. On the sixth of July, he reached Buffalo Ford and Deep River, N.C. On the twenty-fifth, Gates, who had been assigned to command of the Southern Department, joined him. “Away from Washington,” Baron De Kalb experienced deeply the sentiment of unreasonable, but perhaps natural jealousy of foreign officers which pervaded portions of the American army; and General Caswell, in defiance of positive orders to report to Baron De Kalb, marched directly to Camden and reported to General Gates. It had been De Kalb’s purpose, as an experienced soldier, to advance by Charlotte and Salisbury, where supplies could be readily obtained. “General Gates,” says Irving, “on the twenty-seventh, put what he called the ‘Grand Army’ on its march through a barren country which could offer no food but lean cattle, fruit, and unripe maize.” The Battle of Camden, or “Sanders’ Creek,” which followed, was a complete rout. Baron De Kalb fought with the utmost confidence and bravery, but fell upon the field, after having been eleven times wounded. Any support whatever, on the part of Gates, would have secured victory, or a well-balanced action. Gates overestimated his own force; refused to examine his Adjutant-General’s statement, or to consider the advice of his officers, who understood exactly the true condition of the crude material which he styled his “Grand Army,” and fled from the battlefield at full speed. He did not halt until reaching Charlotte, sixty miles away; and by the twentieth reached Hillsborough, one hundred and eighty miles distant, without gathering a sufficient force to form an escort. He said that he was “carried away from the field by a torrent of flying soldiers.” His self-conceit and presumption, like that of Lee, on account of having once served in the British army, and his utter want of every soldierly quality, except the negative sense of pride in having a personal command, were exposed to the American people without delay. He claimed to have made an attempt to rally his troops; but he had no influence whatever. During the Burgoyne campaign, he was never under fire; and Lee’s unheeded warning did indeed secure to his memory the wreath of “Southern willow, in place of that of laurel” which Congress had placed upon his brow, when the laurel had been earned by the brave and patriotic Schuyler. The troops of Delaware and Maryland alone would have saved the battle, if properly supported by Gates. The gallant Delaware Battalion which fought with De Kalb, was almost destroyed. The Maryland troops lost in killed, wounded and prisoners nearly four hundred, out of a total of fourteen hundred; but to their perpetual honor it is to be recorded, that of the number swept away in the final retreat of the whole army, seven hundred non-commissioned officers and privates reported for duty by the twenty-ninth of the month.

On the eighth of October, the Battle of King’s Mountain was fought; and the names of Shelby, Campbell, McDowell, Sevier, and Williams are still associated with descendants from the brave participants in that battle. It partially offset the disaster at Camden, and was an inspiration to Washington in the adjustment of his plans for Greene’s movements. It compelled Cornwallis to delay his second invasion of North Carolina; and Tarleton, in writing, says of this people, that “the counties of Mecklenburg and Rowan were more hostile to England than any others in America.”

Gates endeavored to gather the remnant of his army; and, before his leaving to answer before a Court of Inquiry ordered by Congress, about twenty-three hundred men assembled. On inspection, it was found that but eight hundred in the whole number were properly clothed and equipped.