October 18-19, 1779.
Washington was encamped at Morristown, New Jersey. Views of his headquarters are in Lamb's Homes of America; Appleton's Journal, xii. 129; Lossing's Field-Book, i. 309, and his M. and M. Washington, 191. (Cf. Poole's Index, p. 873; Harper's Mag., xviii. 289; Mag. of Amer. Hist., iii. 89, 118.) Letters of Washington, while in Morristown, in addition to those given in Sparks, are in Mag. Amer. Hist., iii. 496. Orderly-books are in N. Y. Hist. Soc. cabinet and in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., xvii. 48.
The trials and deprivations of the army were so great that Washington did not dare take advantage of an ice-bridge formed across the Hudson, for an attack on New York, though the British feared that he might. There were varying councils on this point in the American camp (Duer's Stirling, ch. viii.). The British apprehension (Feb., 1780) is shown in Duncan's Royal Artillery, ii. 359; N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1875, pp. 147, 152. The difficulties in the American camp are followed in Irving's Washington, iv. ch. 1 and 4; Thacher's Mil. Journal; J. F. Tuttle in Hist. Mag., June, 1871, and Harper's Mag., Feb., 1859. A lack of money in the paymasters' chests caused dissatisfaction, which grew into an insurrection. The British, seeking to increase the trouble, marched into New Jersey, under General Matthews, but they were driven back, and waited on the coast till Clinton, returning from Carolina, reinforced them, when they again advanced. Washington, meanwhile, suspecting an incursion up the Hudson, had gone thither with a large part of his troops, leaving Greene at Morristown. Greene met the British and defeated them at Springfield, when they returned to New York. The progress of these events can be followed. On the American side, Greene's Greene, ii., and his letters in Sparks's Washington, vii. 75, 506; Gordon, iii. 368; Marshall's Washington; Sedgwick's Livingston; Bancroft, x. ch. 18; Irving's Washington, iv. 6; Carrington, 502; Lossing, i. 322; in histories of N. Jersey; Atkinson's Newark, 104; Hatfield's Elizabeth, ch. 22; Mag. Amer. Hist., iii. 211, 490. On the British side, Moore's Diary, ii. 285; Simcoe's Queen's Rangers; in letters in N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1875, p. 458. George Mathew, of the Coldstream Guards, wrote an account (Hist. Mag., i. 103,—App., 1857), and some details are in the Court Martial of Col. Cosmo Gordon (London, 1783). For maps, John Hill's, published by Faden, 1784, is the principal one. Cf. Carrington; Lossing's Field-Book, i. 322; and the map of Elizabethport Point (1775-1783) by E. L. Meyer, published in 1879.
What is known as the affair of Bull's Ferry (July 21, 1780) was an unsuccessful attempt by Wayne upon a block-house garrisoned by Tories. (Cf. Mag. Amer. Hist., v. 161; Armstrong's Wayne; Sparks's Washington, vii. 116; and his Corresp. of Rev., iii. 34, 37; Sargent's André, 234.) André wrote on this misadventure of Wayne the well-known doggerel verses called The Cow-Chace, part of Wayne's project having been to gather cattle. The verses appeared in three numbers of Rivington's Gazette (New York, Aug. 16, 30, Sept. 23, 1780; Menzies, $23), and were republished by Rivington separately, 1780 (J. A. Rice's sale, $265), and also in Philadelphia, 1780. The book was reprinted at London with notes in 1781; at New York in 1789 (Morrell's Catal., $36); at London in 1799, with Dunlap's tragedy of André (Menzies, 61, $23); at Albany in 1866, edited by F. B. Hough; at Cincinnati in 1869. André seems to have made several copies of the MS. Sargent prints it from one of these. Another belonged to Dr. W. B. Sprague, and Lossing printed from this (Field-Book, ii. 878; Two Spies, 68). It will also be found in Moore's Songs and Ballads, 299; J. A. Spencer's United States, vol. ii. etc.
The summer was barren of military interest. Steuben was trying to reorganize the army (Kapp's Steuben, ch. 12-15). The low condition of the army is shown in Washington's letters (Sparks, vii. 156; Corresp. of Rev., iii. 15; Mag. Amer. Hist., Aug., 1879). Washington issued a circular letter on the army's distress (New Hampshire State Papers, viii. 870; cf. Journals of Congress, iii. 469). The British intercepted some mournful letters, and printed them (Political Mag., ii. 73).
In August there was a gathering of delegates from the New England States at Boston, "to advise the most vigorous prosecution of the war, and provide for the reception of our French allies." The Proceedings of this meeting have been edited from the original MS. by F. B. Hough (Albany, 1867). In November a convention of the Northern States at Hartford sought methods of furnishing men and supplies (Mag. Amer. Hist., Oct., 1882, viii. 688; and Clinton's knowledge of it in Ibid. x. 411).
Hope revived with the prospect of the arrival of Rochambeau and the French, in July, 1780 (Heath's Memoirs, 243; Corresp. of Rev., iii. 12). The first communications of Washington and Rochambeau are in Sparks's Washington, vii. 110, and App. 4, with an account of Lafayette's conference with the French. Rochambeau's instructions are in Ibid. vii. 493. The letters of Rochambeau and Lafayette are in the Sparks MSS., lxxxv.
The English fleet blockaded the French in Newport harbor. The Political Mag., 1780, has a map showing the blockade of the French admiral Ternay by Arbuthnot. Letters of the English admiral are in the Hist. MSS. Com. Report IX., App. iii. p. 106.
On the occupation of Newport by the French, see Mason's Newport; Newport Hist. Mag., ii. 41; iii. 177; Stone's French Allies, 256; Lippincott's Mag., xxvi. 351; Drake's Nooks and Corners of the N. E. Coast; Harper's Mag., lix. 497. The correspondence of Rochambeau and the Rhode Island authorities is in the R. I. Col. Rec., ix. There is a diary of a French officer in Mag. Amer. Hist., iv. 209; and Fersen's letters are in Ibid. iii. 300, 369, 437.