This proposition of Dunmore, and the barbarous treatment, by the British officers, of the American prisoners of war, roused the indignation of General Charles Lee to the highest pitch. He wrote:
“I propose to seize every governor, government man, placeman, tory, and enemy to liberty on the continent, and to confiscate their estates; or at least lay them under heavy contributions for the public. Their persons should be secured in some of the interior towns, as hostages for the treatment of those of our party, whom the fortune of war shall throw into their hands.”[111]
Had these decisive measures been adopted, it would probably have saved many American captives from an untold amount of misery. The month of December was, to Washington, a period of great anxiety and perplexity. The troops, whose time of service had expired, were rapidly leaving, and but few came to occupy their places.
On the 1st of January, 1776, the army besieging Boston did not exceed ten thousand men. These troops had no uniform, were wretchedly supplied with arms, and there was a great destitution of ammunition in the camp. The genius of Washington, in maintaining his post under these circumstances, led even Frederick of Prussia to pronounce him the ablest general in the world. It was indeed evident, during those perilous months, that the aid of heaven was not always with the heaviest battalions. Washington wrote to Congress:
“Search the volumes of history through, and I much question whether a case similar to ours is to be found: namely, to maintain a post, against the power of the British troops, for six months together; without powder; and then to have one army disbanded and another raised within musket-shot of a reinforced enemy. How it will end, God, in His great goodness, will direct. I am thankful for His protection to this time.”
Again he wrote, in strains which excite alike our sympathy, our reverence, and our love:
“The reflection on my situation, and that of this army, produces many an unhappy hour, when all around me are wrapped in sleep. Few people know the predicament we are in, on a thousand accounts. I have often thought how much happier I should have been if instead of accepting the command, under such circumstances, I had taken my musket on my shoulder, and entered the ranks; or, if I could have justified the measure to posterity and my own conscience, had retired to the back country and lived in a wigwam. If I shall be able to rise superior to these, and many other difficulties which might be enumerated, I shall most religiously believe that the finger of Providence is in it, to blind the eyes of our enemies.”
General Henry Knox had been sent to Ticonderoga, at the head of Lake George, to transport cannon and ordnance stores to the camp at Cambridge.[112] With marvellous energy he had surmounted difficulties, apparently insurmountable. On the 17th of December he wrote to Washington:
“Three days ago it was very uncertain whether we could get them till next spring. Now, please God, they shall go. I have made forty-two exceedingly strong sleds, and have provided eighty yoke of oxen, to drag them as far as Springfield, where I shall get fresh cattle to take them to camp.”
Early in January there was great commotion in Boston, visible from the heights which the Americans held. A fleet of war-ships and transports, crowded with troops and heavily laden with munitions of war, was leaving the harbor, on some secret expedition.