Washington the Soldier

by Henry B. Carrington

On New Year’s Day, January 1, 1781, the Pennsylvania line (Continentals) revolted, and Captain Billings was killed in the effort to suppress the outbreak. Thirteen hundred men, with six guns, started for Philadelphia. Wayne was powerless to control even his own command; and so advised Washington. The Commander-in-Chief was at first impelled to leave New Windsor and go in person to the camps; but knowing that he had troops who would obey him, whatever conditions might arise, he addressed himself to this state of affairs with a dignity, deliberation, and sympathy, so calm and yet so impressive, that he both retained the full prestige of his position, and secured full control of the disaffection. He allowed passion to subside; and then resolved to execute his own will, at all hazards. The details of his mental struggle, and the precautionary measures taken by him to master the situation, with eager and excited veterans at his back to enforce his will, would fill a volume. Recognizing the neglect of State authorities to furnish their own respective regiments with food, clothing, and money, he proudly, sublimely, and with a dignity beyond any heroic act of the battlefield, called upon the Governors of the Northern States to send their militia, at once, to take care of Clinton’s army in New York, if they wished to prevent the invasion and waste of their own peaceful homes. In other words, as plainly as he could do it, he made the “stay-at-homes” responsible for their own further immunity from battle scenes and battle waste.

This mutiny was indeed, a natural outbreak, inevitable, irresistible! It did not impair loyalty to country. The emergency overwhelmed every purely military obligation in that of self-preservation—of life itself. It did impair discipline, and did disregard authority, for the time; but in its manifestations had many of the elements of lawful revolution. The State first failed in duty to its defenders. For such a cause, the Revolution had its first outbreaks at Lexington and Concord. Washington was never so great in arms, as when with calm trust and steady nerve he faced this momentous issue. Besides his demand upon the States most exposed to British incursions, for men, he demanded money. Massachusetts and New Hampshire promptly gave twenty-four dollars extra, in specie, to each enlisted man. Colonel Laurens was appointed as special agent to France, to secure a loan. Eventually, he succeeded; but Count de Vergennes, when advised of his mission, wrote on the fifteenth of February: “Congress relies too much on France for subsidies to maintain their army. They must absolutely refrain from such exorbitant demands. The great expenses of the war render it impossible for France to meet these demands, if persisted in.” Franklin, then at Paris, wrote to his daughter, Mrs. Balche: “If you see Washington, assure him of my very great and sincere respect, and tell him that all the old Generals here amuse themselves in studying the accounts of his operations, and approve highly of his conduct.” Lafayette also wrote, urging full supplies of men and money; with most pointed assurances that the “American States would surely realize success, and be amply able to refund all advances which might be made by the king.”

Up to this time, the individuality of the States, in spite of Washington’s repeated appeals for entire unity of purpose and action on the part of all, had been jealously maintained. A partial relief was afforded, when, on the second of March, 1781, the Articles of Confederation finally went into effect, Maryland having yielded her assent on the previous day. Four years and four months had elapsed since their formal adoption and submission to the several States for acceptance.

All the insubordination of the American army before referred to, was well known at British headquarters in New York. That of the previous year had disappointed both Clinton and Knyphausen, who invaded New Jersey, it will be remembered, hoping to reap some benefits from its expression; but now that it assumed such unmistakable signs of armed revolt, they doubled their interest in its movements. General Clinton, mindful of his error on a former occasion, simply watched Washington. He received information of the general insubordination as early as Washington, and on the morning of the twenty-third, sent messengers to the American army with propositions looking to their return to British allegiance. He entirely misconceived the nature of the disaffection, and his agents were retained in custody. In writing to Lord Germaine, he says: “General Washington has not moved a man from his army [near West Point] as yet; and as it is probable that their demands are nearly the same with the Pennsylvania line, it is not thought likely that he will. I am, however, in a situation to avail myself of favorable events; but to stir before they offer, might mar all.”

At this period, the influence of the American Commissioners—Adams, Franklin and Jay, was proving very beneficial to the American cause with the Governments of Spain and Holland, as well as with France; and Colonel Laurens, upon his arrival at Paris, after release from prison, pretty plainly assured the French Ministry that it “would be much wiser policy to advance money to America, than to risk such an accommodation with England as would compel America, so near her West India possessions, to make common cause with England against France.” Notwithstanding these negotiations, then in progress, the American army had become reduced to an effective force of barely five thousand men; and the French army could not be disposable for general service while their fleets were so closely confined to the harbor of Newport. The British fleet was wintering at Gardiner’s Bay, L.I., so as to watch all vessels that entered or departed from Long Island Sound, and maintained its blockade. Late in January a violent north-east storm made havoc with the British ships. The Culloden, line-of-battle ship (74 guns), was sunk. The Bedford was dismasted, and the America was driven to sea. Washington seized upon this incident to make a diversion southward and attempt, the capture of Arnold, who was in full commission as a brigadier-general of the British army.

Arnold had left New York with sixteen hundred men, on the nineteenth of the preceding December, for Virginia. His command consisted of the eighteenth British (Scotch) regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Dundas, and the Queen’s Rangers, Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe; the latter being a skilful officer, shrewd and cool, but noted, in the heat of battle, for characteristic ferocity in shortening fights, and thus reducing the number of wounded prisoners to be cared for. Clinton seems not to have fully relied upon the discretion of Arnold, since he reports, having “detailed two officers of tried ability and experience, and possessing the entire confidence of their commander.” As with so many naval expeditions of that period, a gale overtook Arnold on the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh of December, scattering his transports, so that without waiting for those still at sea, he landed with twelve hundred men and moved up the James River on the fourth of January. He landed at Westover, twenty-five miles below Richmond, and immediately marched upon the city. On the afternoon of the fifth, he entered Richmond. The militia, under Col. John Nichols, only two hundred in number, assembled upon Richmond Hill, but had to retire before Simcoe’s advance. A few men stationed on Shreve Hill, also retired. At Westham, seven miles above Richmond, a foundry, a laboratory, and some shops were destroyed, as well as the Auditor’s Records, which had been removed from Richmond for safety. Arnold sent a proposition to Governor Jefferson, offering to spare the city if no opposition were made to his vessels ascending the river to remove tobacco and other legitimate plunder of war. Upon rejection of this proposition, he burned so much of the city as time allowed, and returned to Westover, without loss. He carried off seven brass cannon, three hundred stands of arms found in the loft of the Capitol, and a few quartermasters’ stores, as his sole trophies of war. Upon information, however, that Baron Steuben was at Petersburg with some militia, Arnold hastened to Portsmouth to put its defences in better condition.

CHAPTER XXXI.
THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGN, 1781, OUTLINED.—COWPENS.—GUILFORD COURT-HOUSE.—EUTAW SPRINGS.

Before developing Washington’s plan for the capture of Benedict Arnold, it is advisable to glance at the military condition of the Southern Department in which Arnold was then serving in command of British troops. Lafayette had been intrusted with execution of the plan. He knew perfectly well that Arnold would not venture far from his fortified position at Portsmouth, and thus incur risk of capture and an inevitable death upon the gibbet.

The assignment of General Greene to the command of that department was designed by Washington, for the purpose of initiating a vigorous campaign against all posts occupied by British garrisons, and gradually to clear that country of the presence of British troops. He had great confidence in such men as Marion, Sumter, Hampton, and other partisan leaders, who were perpetually on the alert, by night and by day, for opportunities to repress royalist risings, and harass the enemy at every possible point of contact. It was very natural, then, to overestimate the British successes at Savannah and Charleston, and even to assume that the British army would be uniformly equal to active campaign service, and would not find it difficult to maintain supplies in the field. In view of the condition of roads, water-courses, swamps, and the limited agricultural improvements of those times, it is greatly to the credit of the British officers that so much was accomplished by them, in the face of the partisan operations above noticed.

Washington appreciated this condition fully; urged the Southern governors to renewed activity, and furnished General Greene with instructions respecting what he regarded as the final campaign of the war. The first element of success which he enjoined as a duty was “to avoid battle with fresh British troops, just out of garrison, and therefore in complete readiness for action.” The second injunction was, “so far as possible, to give a partisan or skirmish character to engagements where inferior numbers could keep their adversaries under constant and sleepless apprehension of attack.” The third was, “to utilize and control streams, swamps, and woods, where the bayonet and artillery could not be successfully employed by British troops.” The fourth principle of action was characteristic of Washington’s early experience, and was exemplified throughout the war—“never to halt, over night, without making artificial protection against surprise; and to surprise the enemy so far as practicable, whenever all conditions seem to render such surprise impossible.” Cæsar’s habitual intrenchments, upon a halt, were types of Washington’s methods; and the Crimean War made more impressive than ever the value of slight, temporary cover for troops in the field. The camp-kettle, the powder and lead, the pick and the spade, were Washington’s indispensable tools.