Amid innumerable discouragements Washington prepared for the coming campaign. It was not until July that the long-expected French fleet arrived, and then only part of the promised assistance. Five thousand five hundred men were sent, leaving two thousand, with all the arms, munitions of war, and clothing promised to La Fayette, to follow later. The intention of the American army had been to unite with the French allies in an attack upon New York. But the second part of the French fleet was blockaded in the port of Brest by a British squadron, thus disconcerting all the plans of the allies. The immediate attack upon New York was accordingly abandoned.
It was in September of this year, 1780, that the treachery of Benedict Arnold was consummated. Washington had, at the earnest solicitation of La Fayette, left the camp to meet with Count de Rochambeau, the leader of the French forces, and the Chevalier de Ternay, the admiral of the French fleet. This important interview had been arranged to take place at Hartford, Conn. It was during the absence of Washington that the traitor Arnold carried into execution his infamous plot. La Fayette thus describes his discovery of the nefarious deed, in a letter to the Chevalier de la Luzerne:—
“When I parted from you yesterday, Sir, to come and breakfast here with General Arnold, we were far from foreseeing the event which I am now going to relate to you. You will shudder at the danger to which we were exposed; you will admire the miraculous chain of unexpected events and singular chances which have saved us; but you will be still more astonished when you learn by what instrument this conspiracy has been formed. West Point was sold,—and sold by Arnold,—the same man who formerly acquired glory by rendering such immense services to his country. He had lately entered in a horrible compact with the enemy and but for the accident which brought us here at a certain hour, but for the combination of chances that threw the adjutant-general of the British army into the hands of some peasants, beyond the limits of our stations, at West Point and on the North River, they would both at present, in all probability, be in the possession of the enemy.
ROCHAMBEAU
“When we set out yesterday for Fishkill, we were preceded by one of my aides-de-camp and one of General Washington’s [Colonels Hamilton and McHenry], who found General Arnold and his wife at breakfast, and sat down at the table with them. While they were together, two letters were given to Arnold, which apprised him of the arrest of the spy. He ordered a horse to be saddled, went into his wife’s room to tell her he was ruined, and desired his aide-de-camp to inform General Washington that he was going to West Point, and would return in the course of an hour.
“On our arrival here we crossed the river and went to examine the works. You may conceive our astonishment when we learned, on our return, that the arrested spy was Major André, adjutant-general of the English army; and when among his papers were discovered the copy of an important council of war, the state of the garrison and works, and observations upon various means of attack and defence, the whole in Arnold’s own handwriting.
“The adjutant-general wrote also to the general avowing his name and situation. Orders were sent to arrest Arnold; but he escaped in a boat, got on board the English frigate, the Vulture, and as no person suspected his flight, he was not stopped at any post. Colonel Hamilton, who had gone in pursuit of him, received soon after, by a flag of truce, a letter from Arnold to the general, in which he entered into details to justify his treachery, and a letter from the English commander, Robertson, who, in a very insolent manner, demanded that the adjutant-general should be delivered up to them, as he had only acted with the permission of General Arnold.”
La Fayette was one of the fourteen generals who tried Major André, and who were forced to the painful decision that the interests of America demanded that he should suffer the extreme penalty of the law, as a spy, which was death by hanging. Washington would have been glad to exchange André for the traitor Arnold, that to him might be meted out his just deserts; but Sir Henry Clinton would not give up Arnold, though he made efforts to save André. Arnold’s villany was afterwards rewarded by the commission of brigadier-general in the British army, and he was placed at the head of some English troops then ravaging the southern part of Virginia. His malignant spirit gloated in acts of atrocious cruelty, and he allowed his men to pillage and destroy, sparing neither old nor young, neither women nor children.
La Fayette now entered upon a series of marches, manœuvres, skirmishes, and strategic expeditions, which ended at last in the capture of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown: this was largely due to La Fayette’s successive masterly stratagems and skilful plans. It has been said of La Fayette, that his name was never tarnished by a single military blunder. Others have displayed equal courage in the face of dangers, and calmness on the field of battle, but his military genius consisted in a tact and skill in extricating an army from apparently insurmountable perils that would have baffled veteran generals well versed in the stratagems of war.