Washington the Soldier

by Henry B. Carrington

At this point, the beginning of the end of the war becomes apparent. Every fortuitous change in the details of immediately succeeding movements, and every modification of plans previously considered, seem to occur as if the American Commander-in-Chief adjusted characters and events with the accuracy of a master of chess who plays with a clear anticipation of the checkmate of Clinton and Cornwallis, his two antagonists. Each of the royal partners attempted, too late, the process of “castle-ing”; so that New York, first, and then Yorktown, became powerless to protect each other, or the dependent posts, garrisons, and commanders of each. And it is still more dramatic in the result than if Arnold had been captured; for the expedition of the French Marquis, which was at first regarded as only a temporary absence on his part from the immediate command of Washington, proved to be the vanguard of an advance which, through his extraordinary tact and skilful handling, finally inclosed Cornwallis, and made the opportunity for his capture.

Lafayette started from Peekskill immediately upon the departure of M. de Tully’s ships, taking with him twelve hundred light infantry, made up of New England and New Jersey troops. He reached Pompton, New Jersey, on the twenty-fifth day of February; Philadelphia, on the second day of March, and Head of Elk, on the next day. If the reader will imagine Lafayette as standing upon the high ground overlooking Chesapeake Bay on the evening of March 3, 1781, let him recall Maxwell’s visit to the same spot accompanied by Lafayette, on the third day of September, 1777, just before the Battle of Brandywine. On the former occasion, Lafayette slept in a log cabin where he had been watching the British landing. At daybreak, that cabin was within the British picket-lines. A suspicion that it was occupied by an officer of Lafayette’s rank was certainly beyond the conception of the Hessian Chasseurs who bivouacked close by. In a letter written by Lafayette, to his young wife, which was ever cherished by the late Senators Oscar and Edmond Lafayette, grandsons of the Marquis, he humorously contrasts his condition at the two dates. “The landing of Cornwallis, at this particular point” is noticed; then, “my first wound, in my first battle near Birmingham Meeting House”; and then, “my present independent command, and my hopeful expectation that the same British General will not much longer bar the way to American Independence.”

From this point, Lafayette sent his advance troops to Annapolis; but he first made a personal trip, in an open canoe, to Elizabethtown, to accelerate preparations for the capture of the traitor Arnold. He visited Baron Steuben at Yorktown, and learned that the Baron would undertake to raise five thousand militia for his support. He visited Muhlenburg at Suffolk; and then made a personal reconnoissance of Arnold’s defences at Portsmouth. The return of M. de Tully to Newport compelled him to return to Annapolis and there await instructions from Washington. Meanwhile, Washington, following up his own letters to Rochambeau, visited Newport, R.I., and accompanied Rochambeau to the French Admiral’s ship. Eleven hundred men had already embarked, awaiting the repair of a frigate before sailing. On the eighth, four frigates and eight battleships proceeded to sea. This was a profound surprise to the British fleet, still anchored in Gardiner’s Bay, as well as to Clinton, then in New York. The French fleet was actually under weigh before Admiral Arbuthnot suspected its design. He sailed promptly in pursuit, with an equal force, and wrote to General Clinton, to “warn Arnold of his danger.” On the sixteenth, the British and French squadrons fought a well-balanced battle, off the Chesapeake; but the presence of the British fleet having thwarted the chief object of its errand, Monsieur Destouches returned to Newport on the twenty-sixth, after an absence of only eighteen days. The inability of the French fleet to control the waters of the Chesapeake modified all plans.

Washington wrote to Lafayette on the fifth of April, as follows: “While we all lament the miscarriage of an enterprise [the capture of Arnold] which bid so fair of success, we must console ourselves in the thought of having done everything practicable to accomplish it. I am certain that the Chevalier Destouches exerted himself to the utmost to gain the Chesapeake. The point upon which the whole turned, the action with Admiral Arbuthnot, reflects honor upon the Chevalier, and upon the marine of France. As matters have turned out, it is to be wished that you had not gone out of the Elk; but, I never judge of the proprieties of measures by after results.” This letter, so timely and wise, as well as so characteristic of its author, also instructed Lafayette to return to Philadelphia; but on the sixth, he was ordered to report to General Greene.

This order had hardly been issued when Washington learned that Clinton, acting upon Admiral Arbuthnot’s suggestion, had forwarded additional troops to the support of Arnold, under command of General Phillips. He at once countermanded Lafayette’s orders to report to General Greene, and assigned him to command in Virginia, reporting, however, both to General Greene and himself. Greene received a copy of this order March 18th, three days after the Battle of Guilford Court-House, and he dates his reply as follows: “Ten miles from Guilford Court-House. I am happy to hear the Marquis is coming to Virginia, though I am afraid from a hint in one of Baron Steuben’s letters that he will think himself injured in being superseded in command. Could the Marquis be with us at this moment, we should have a most glorious campaign. It would put Cornwallis and his whole army into our hands.”

Greene, at this time, knowing the condition of the army of Cornwallis at Wilmington, believed that by the advance of Lafayette from Virginia, and his own coöperation, just as he started in pursuit of Cornwallis, the capture of that officer’s entire command would be assured. But in other ways than had been anticipated, the assignment of Lafayette to command in Virginia did enforce the ultimate surrender of the British army of Virginia. Baron Steuben, with perfect confidence in the wisdom of Washington, gracefully accepted the order as final, and rendered to Lafayette prompt obedience and thoroughly hearty support.

The troops that accompanied Lafayette, however, did not like their transfer to a warmer climate. Desertions were frequent, and a mutinous spirit was exhibited. Lafayette hung the first deserter who was captured. A second was arrested and brought before him for disposal. He sent him adrift, with “permission to return to his home, or wherever he desired to go.” He then issued an order, reciting, that “he was setting out upon a dangerous and difficult expedition; and he hoped the soldiers would not abandon him; but that whoever wished to go away, might do so instantly.” “From that hour,” wrote Lafayette, “all desertions ceased, and not a man would leave.”

Washington himself, at this juncture of affairs, was peculiarly embarrassed. Congress had assured him that the new regular force of thirty-seven thousand men would be in the field by the first of January. Marshall, the historian, makes the following statement: “The regular force drawn from Pennsylvania, to Georgia inclusive, at no time during this interesting campaign amounted to three thousand effective men.” Of the Northern troops, twelve hundred had been detached under the Marquis de Lafayette, in the aid of Virginia. Including these in the estimate, the States, from New Jersey to New Hampshire, had furnished only five thousand effectives. The cavalry and artillery at no time exceeded one thousand. During May, the total force reached seven thousand, of whom rather more than four thousand might have been relied on for action; but even these had been brought into camp too late to acquire that discipline which is so essential to military service.

As early as February twentieth, when the Virginia campaign was in prospect, General Washington begged Schuyler to accept the head of the War Department, in these earnest words: “Our affairs are brought to an awful crisis. Nothing will recover them but the vigorous exertion of men of abilities who know our wants and the best means of supplying them. These qualifications, Sir, without a compliment, I think you possess. Why, then, the department being necessary, should you shrink from it? The greater the chaos, the greater will be your merit in bringing forth order.” General Schuyler replied on the twenty-fifth, and declared his intention never to hold office under Congress, unless accompanied by a restoration to military rank; and added that “such inconvenience would result to themselves [members of Congress] from such a restoration, as would necessarily give umbrage to many officers.”

Washington’s diary at this period affords a fair show of existing conditions, and reveals his anxiety better than another can depict it. On the first of May, his record is this: “Instead of having magazines filled with provisions, we have a scant pittance, scattered here and there, in different States. Instead of having our arsenals filled with military stores, they are poorly provided, and the workmen are leaving them.... Instead of having the regiments completed under the new establishment, scarce any State has an eighth part of its quota in the field, and there is little prospect of getting more than half. In a word, instead of having everything in readiness to take the field, we have nothing.... And instead of having the prospect of a glorious, offensive campaign before us, we have a gloomy and bewildered prospect of a defensive one, unless we should receive a powerful aid of ships, land troops, and money, from our generous allies, and these are at present too contingent to build upon.... Chimney-corner patriots abound; venality, corruption, prostitution of office for selfish ends, abuse of trust, perversion of funds from a national to a private use, and speculations upon the necessities of the times, pervade all interests.... In fact, every battle and every campaign is affected by these elements, and the diffusion of political responsibility still makes the United States only a loose partnership of scattered and loosely related partners.”