[THE CLOSING SCENES OF THE WAR.]
BY THE EDITOR.
The campaign of Yorktown over, Rochambeau made his headquarters at Williamsburg (Parton's Jefferson, ch. 29), while Washington, having dispatched two thousand men south under St. Clair (instructions in Sparks's Washington, viii. 198) to reinforce Greene, moved with the rest of the army, by land and water, to the neighborhood of the Hudson (Sparks's Washington, viii. 199, 200; Irving's Washington, iv. ch. 29, 30; Kapp's Steuben, ch. 23; Lossing's Field-Book, ii. ch. 5). Washington at once acted in conjunction with Congress to prevent the country lapsing into a neglect of the war establishment through over-confidence in the effects of the capture of Cornwallis. In April, 1782, Washington left Philadelphia and joined the army, establishing his headquarters at Newburgh, in a house which is still standing. (Views of it are in Mag. of Amer. Hist., 1883, p. 357 (taken in 1834); Irving's Washington, quarto ed., iv. 434; W. H. Bartlett's Hist. of U. S.; with a paper by C. D. Deshler on "A Glimpse of Seventy-Six", in Harper's Mag., xlix. 231; with Lossing's "Romance of the Hudson", in Ibid., liii. p. 32; also in his Field-Book, ii. 99, his Hudson, 199, and his Mary and Martha Washington, 215; Gay's Pop. Hist. of U. S., iv. 84.)
There are several special accounts of this latest camp of the army. (Cf. Asa Bird Gardiner on "The Last Cantonment of the Main Continental Army" Mag. Amer. Hist., 1883, vol. x. 355), which is accompanied by a plan of the camp near New Windsor. Simeon De Witt's maps of the locality and the camp are in the N. Y. Hist. Soc. library. De Witt was the geographer of the American army, succeeding Erskine, who had died in 1780. Various orderly-books of this time are in the American Antiquarian Society library. Other papers on the camp are in Mag. Amer. Hist., Jan., 1884, p. 81; by J. T. Headley in Harper's Mag., lxiv. 651, and Galaxy, xxii. 7. Cf. also Ruttenber's Newburgh (1859) and the account of the first annual meeting of the Hist. Soc. of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands, Feb. 22, 1884,—Newburgh, 1884.
Washington and Congress were soon perplexed with the case of Capt. Joshua Huddy, and with a project of retaliation for that officer's execution. Huddy, an officer of the New Jersey line, commanded a block-house at Tom's River, New Jersey, and was there captured with his men by a band of refugee loyalists (W. S. Stryker's Capture of the Block-House at Tom's River). Huddy was taken by Capt. Richard Lippincott, a New Jersey loyalist, to Sandy Hook, where he was hanged on the pretence that he had been engaged in causing the death of Philip White, a Tory, who had been killed while endeavoring to escape from his guard. Congress ordered retaliation, and a young British officer, then a prisoner, Capt. Charles Asgill, was drawn by lot to suffer death unless Clinton should surrender Lippincott. Clinton condemned the action of Lippincott, who was, however, acquitted on trial, on the ground that his action was in accordance with instructions from the board of Associated Loyalists (Jones's N. Y. during the Rev., vol. ii. note xxix. p. 481). The execution of Asgill was postponed by Washington in the hope of some compensating arrangement, and at the instance of Lady Asgill, the young man's mother, the French monarch interceded with such effect that Congress, in November, 1782, ordered Washington to set Asgill at liberty. (References: Sparks's Washington, i. 378; viii. 262, 265, 301-310, 336, 361; ix. 197; Sparks MSS., vols. lxxii., xlviii., lviii.; Niles's Principles and Acts 1876 ed.), p. 509; Remembrancer, xiv. 144, 155; xv. 127, 191; Political Mag., iii. 468, 472; Jones's N. Y. during the Rev., ii. 232, 483, and Johnston's Observations on Jones, 77; Thomas Paine's American Crisis, and a Letter to Sir Guy Carleton on the Murder of Captain Huddy, and the Intended Retaliation on Captain Asgill, of the Guards (London, 1788); Memoir of Gen. Samuel Graham, edited by his son, Col. J. J Graham (Edinburgh, privately printed, 1862,—extract in Hist. Mag., ix. 329). Washington caused all the papers on the subject to be printed in the Columbian Mag., Jan. and Feb., 1787. This young officer of twenty died as Gen. Sir Charles Asgill in July, 1823. Cf. Diplomatic Corresp., xi. 105, 128, 140; Irving's Washington, iv. ch. 29; Sparks's Corresp. of the Rev., iii.; Heath's Memoirs, 335; Sparks's Franklin, ix. 376; Hamilton's Republic, ii. 282. The English view is given in Adolphus's England, iii. ch. 46.
Early in May the news from England made it evident that the war was approaching an end, and the promised release from further campaigning left the public mind in a better condition to comprehend how weak a stay Congress had proved itself, and how insufficient was the power lodged in that body to compel the States to do any and all acts necessary for the common good. The natural distrust which was created of the form of government, whose success in carrying on the war had been largely fortuitous, was still more increased by the difficulties yet to be encountered in disbanding an army, in satisfying its well-earned demands, and in organizing a stable control for the future (Bancroft, final revision, vi. 59, etc.) It was not, then, surprising that notions of counteraction should in any minds take the form of a monarchical solution of the problem, and this sentiment found expression in a letter, written by Col. Nicola, of the army, to Washington, in which it was somewhat adroitly suggested that Washington should consent to be the head of a royal government. Washington met the suggestion with an indignant and stern reply, and we hear nothing more of the subject (Sparks, viii. 300, etc.; Irving, iv. 370).
Sir Guy Carleton was sent to relieve Sir Henry Clinton in New York, and he arrived early in May. His instructions (April 4, 1782,—Sparks MSS., lviii.; cf. Sparks's Washington, viii. 294-298) were to avoid hostilities except for defence. He failed to open communication with Congress to treat for peace (Madison's Debates, vol. i.; Rives's Madison, i. 331, 333). An account of the cantonments of the British about New York just before this (Feb., 1782) is in the Sparks MSS. (xlix. vol. iii.). Clinton's account of his being relieved is in Mahon, vii. App., p. xvii. It was not till August that Carleton's communications to Washington rendered it certain that the concession of independence was a preliminary of the negotiations then going on for peace. Active hostilities accordingly ceased on both sides, though a posture of caution and vigilance was still maintained by each commander. The French, who had remained in Virginia, now joined (September) the Americans on the Hudson. There is among the Rochambeau maps an excellent colored plan (no. 33), measuring twenty inches wide by thirty high, showing the country from White Plains north, and called Position des Armées Amer. et Française à King's Ferry, Peak's Hill, et Hunt's Taverne, 17 Sept. et 20 Oct., 1782. In October the French under the Baron de Viomenil marched to Boston and embarked, while Rochambeau and Chastellux sailed from Baltimore. On the final departure of the French see a paper by J. A. Stevens in the Mag. Amer. Hist., vii. p. 1. The report on their departure, made to Congress, is dated Jan. 1, 1783,—Secret Journals, iii. 267.
CAPTAIN ASGILL.
(From Andrews's Hist. of the War, London, 1785, vol. iv. Cf. Harper's Cyclo. of U. S. Hist., ii. 653.)
In Dec., 1782, the army had set forth in representations to Congress the sufferings which it had experienced from the want of pay (Journals of Congress, iv. 206; Madison's Debates, etc., i. 256; Rives's Madison, i. 383; Morse's Hamilton, i. 114). Nothing satisfactory came of this appeal, and a movement of uncertain extent, but seemingly having the countenance of officers of high rank, was aimed at producing action on the part of the army, which might easily, if allowed to proceed, have passed beyond prudent control, till a claim for redress of grievances might instigate an act of mutiny. Its chief manifestations were in two successive anonymous addresses, circulated through the camp at Newburgh, which were written, as was later acknowledged, by Major John Armstrong, a member of Gen. Gates's staff. Washington interposed at a meeting of the officers (March 15, 1783), and by a timely address turned the current. The original autograph of his address belongs to the Mass. Hist. Society, and that body issued a fac-simile edition of it (Boston, 1876), with letters of Col. Pickering, Gov. John Brooks, Judge Dudley A. Tyng, and William A. Hayes, authenticating the document, and describing the scene when Washington read it. Copies of the addresses made by Armstrong himself are in the Sparks MSS., xlix. 1, 8, and they are given in Sparks's Washington, viii. 551; and in a Collection of papers, relative to half-pay and commutation of half-pay, granted by Congress to officers of the army. Compiled by the permission of General Washington from the original papers in his possession (Fishkill, 1783). Cf. Sabin, iv. 14, 379. Washington at a later day, Feb. 23, 1797, wrote to Armstrong, exonerating him from having intended any evil to the country (Sparks MSS., no. xxiv.). The genuineness of this letter having been assailed, Armstrong (Nov. 27, 1830) wrote a letter asserting its truth, and this autograph letter is in Harvard College library. More or less extended accounts of the incidents accompanying this attempt to organize a coercion of the civil by the military power will be found in the lives of Washington by Marshall (iv. 587); Sparks (viii. 369, 393); and Irving (iv. ch. 31); in Pickering's Pickering (i. ch. 29, 30, 31; including Montgar's, i. e. Armstrong's, letter in 1820); Drake's Knox, 77; Rives's Madison (i. 392); J. C. Hamilton's Republic (ii. 365, 385), and Alexander Hamilton (ii. 68); Morse's Hamilton, i. 119; Quincy's Shaw (p. 101); Hildreth's United States (iii. ch. 45); Dunlap's New York (ii. 230); Lossing's Field-Book (ii. 106, 315); Journals of Congress (iv. 213); Bancroft, final rev., vi. 71.