[889] His letters (Sparks, iv., and 5 Force, iii.) give details of this retreat. Cf. also G. W. P. Custis's Recollections, p. 538. Howe has been much blamed for his want of enterprise in allowing Washington to escape (Galloway's Examination; Gordon's Amer. Rev., ii. 355; Wilkinson's Memoirs, i. 120).
[890] Lee was wrought upon by Joseph Reed writing to him, Nov. 21st, of Washington's "indecisive mind" (C. Lee's Memoirs; Moore's Treason of Lee, p. 46), and the next day Lee wrote in the same spirit to Bowdoin (Ibid., p. 49), and on the 24th he wrote to Reed of Washington's "fatal indecision." Moore examines this hesitancy of Lee (pp. 48, 57). For suspicions as to Lee's conduct at this time, see Moore's Treason of Lee; Heath's Memoirs, 88; Reed's Jos. Reed, i. 253; Drake's Knox; J. C. Hamilton's Republic, i. ch. 6; Lee Papers (N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll.), ii. 337, etc.
[891] Cf. Force's Archives, 5th ser., vol. iii.; Jones's N. Y. during the Rev., i. 173; Wilkinson's Memoirs, i. 105; Sparks's Washington, iv. App. p. 530; Robert Morris's letter, Dec. 17th, in Pa. Hist. Soc. Bull., vol. i.; Moore's Treason of Lee, 61; Bancroft, ix. 210; Irving's Washington, ii. 433; Scull's Evelyns in America, 211; Memoir of Mrs. E. S. M. Quincy (1861); Fonblanque's Burgoyne, p. 50.
A contemporary picture of the capture of Lee, in Barnard's Hist. of England, represents him in uniform at the door of his house, handing his sword to a mounted officer, whose horse prances among dead bodies, while a platoon of dragoons stands at a little distance.
Lee's exchange was rendered possible when Washington acquired a prisoner of equal rank by the exploit of Colonel Barton. This Rhode Island officer summoned a party, and in whale-boats crossed Narragansett Bay, and (July 10, 1777) surprised Gen. Richard Prescott in bed at his headquarters, a few miles north of Newport where he held command of the British who, under Clinton and Percy, had taken possession of that port in Dec., 1776 (Almon'S Remembrancer, iii. 261; Jones's N. Y. during the Rev., i. 639). The parole of Gen. Prescott, July 14, 1777, given at Providence, as well as a letter from Lambert Cadwalader, "being greatly indebted to his politeness and generosity while a prisoner in New York", are in the Trumbull MSS. (vol. vi.). The parole is printed in Arnold's Rhode Island, ii. 403. General Smith's letter, July 12th, to Howe is in the Sparks MSS., lviii. Contemporary accounts are in Moore's Diary, i. 468. Cf. Force's Archives, 4th ser., vol. iv., and Thacher's Mil. Journal. Barton was assisted by a negro. Livermore's Historical Research, 143. There was an address by Professor Diman on the centennial of the capture, which was printed as no. 1 of the R. I. Hist. Tracts. Cf. Narrative of the surprise and Capture of Maj.-Gen. Richard Prescott, July 9, 1777 (Windsor, Vt., 1821), and a tract of similar title, Philadelphia, 1817; Mrs. C. R. Williams's Biog. of Revolutionary Heroes (William Barton and Stephen Olney), Providence, 1839; Andrew Sherburne's Memoirs, App.; Sparks's Washington, iv. 495; Arnold's Rhode Island; Scull's Evelyns in America, 280. Diman gives a photograph of a portrait of Barton, and a fac-simile of his orders. Cf. Lossing's Field-Book, ii. 75. Scull (p. 140) gives a likeness of Prescott. Views of the house where the capture took place are in Mason's Newport, p. 8; Lossing's Field-Book, ii. 76, and his Cyclo. U. S. Hist., p. 1133.
[892] Penna. Archives, vi. (1853); Colonial Records of Pa., xi. (1852); Hazard's Register, iii. 40; Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg's journal in Pa. Hist. Soc. Coll., i.; Robert Morris's letters in Pa. Hist. Soc. Bull., i. 50, etc.; broadsides enumerated in Hildeburn's Issues of Pa. Press, ii.; the diary of Christopher Marshall (Philad., 1839, to Dec. 31, 1776; again to Dec. 31, 1777; in full, Albany, 1877).
[893] See ante, p. 272.
[894] Wallace's Col. W. Bradford, p. 140. Mr. Stone indicates the following authorities on these points: Charles Thomson's letter to Drayton (Pa. Mag. of Hist., ii. 411; N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1878, p. 274); Reed's Reed (ii. ch. i.); Anna H. Wharton on Thomas Wharton, Jr., in Pa. Mag. Hist. (v. 431, 437,—also in The Wharton Family); St. Clair Papers (i. 370, 373); Proceedings relative to calling the Conventions of 1776 and 1780 (Harrisburg, 1825); Journals of the Ho. of Rep. of Penna. (vol. i.—Philad., 1782); Pa. Col. Rec., xi.; and other titles in Hildeburn.
[895] For further aspects of a political nature, see Wells's Sam. Adams, ii.; Ellery's letter to the governor of Rhode Island (R. I. Col. Rec., viii.), and the Corresp. of the Executive of New Jersey, 1776-1786 (Newark, 1846); Read's George Read, 212, 216, and (Cæsar Rodney's letter) 256. The leading biographies give some original aspects: Greene's Greene, i. 299 (in which Bancroft's statements are controverted); Reed's Reed, ch. 14; Drake's Knox, 36; Stone's John Howland, who was with the troops from Lee, which reinforced Washington; Williams's Olney. There is a contemporary "Relation of the Engagement at Trenton and Princetown on Thursday and Friday the 2d and 3d of January, 1777, by Mr. Wood, 3d Battalion", in the Penna. Mag. of Hist., x. 263.