General progress of the War—Design against New-York—Glance at the Southern Campaigns—Treason of Arnold—Execution of Andre—Indian deputation to Count de Rochambeau, in Rhode Island—Invasion of the Schoharie-kill and the Mohawk Valleys, by Sir John Johnson, Brant, and the Corn-Planter—Surprise of the upper fort—The middle fort invested—Conduct of Murphy in firing upon a flag—Singular prosecution of the siege—Murphy's contumacy—The flags fired upon thrice—Sir John proceeds to the lower fort—After a brief halt, advances again to the Mohawk, destroying every thing in his way—Murder of the inhabitants—The Vroomans—Heroism of a woman—Sir John arrives at Fort Hunter—Ravages the Mohawk Valley—Battle of Stone Arabia and death of Colonel Brown—His character—Remarkable anecdote of General Arnold—Sir John proceeds to Klock's Field—Is pursued by Van Rensselaer, though with unaccountable delay—Battle of Klock's Field—Flight of the Indians—Strange retreat of Van Rensselaer—Affairs of the night—Secret flight of the Greens and Rangers—The pursuit—General Van Rensselaer prematurely relinquishes it—Capture of Captain Vrooman and his company, by Brant, in the neighborhood of Oneida—Touching incident at Fort Hunter—Singular story respecting the Corn-Planter—Major Carleton's expedition against Forts Anne and George—Correspondence on the subject of prisoners—Affairs at Niagara—Seating in of Winter.
The active operations of the war, during the open months of the present year, with the exception of the successive invasions of the Mohawk Valley by Sir John Johnson and Captain Brant at the head of the loyalists and Indians, were chiefly confined to the Southern states. True, indeed, in anticipation of the arrival of another French fleet, with an army under the Count de Rochambeau, for the land service, an attack had been meditated by the Commander-in-chief upon New-York, and various preliminary measures were adopted for that object. But, in order to cover the real design, an attempt was made, after the return of the Marquis de Lafayette from France, in the Spring, to divert the attention of the British Commander by inducing a belief that Canada was again to be invaded by a combined movement of the Americans and their allies. For this purpose, proclamations, addressed to the Canadian people, were prepared, one of which was written in French, and signed by Lafayette. These proclamations were printed with great secrecy, but at the same time for the express purpose of allowing copies of them to fall into the hands of the enemy, to mislead Sir Henry Clinton. The printing was confided by Washington to General Arnold; and as the stratagem was unsuccessful, subsequent events induced a belief that the treasonable practices of that officer had then already commenced. The letter from Washington to Arnold, respecting the printing of those proclamations, was dated June 4th. It was afterward satisfactorily ascertained, that "for several months previously Arnold had endeavored to recommend himself to the enemy, by sending intelligence concerning the movements and plans of the American army." [FN] Various untoward circumstances concurred in frustrating the design of the intended combined movement upon New-York. In the first place, although Congress had made large promises to France, of efficient co-operation, in the event of assistance from that quarter, yet the backwardness of many of the States in furnishing their respective quotas of men, and the continued deficiency of supplies, were serious discouragements to the Commander-in-chief, and he almost began to despair of the undertaking before the arrival of his allies. In the second place, the fleet of the Chevalier Ternay, with the army of the Count de Rochambeau, did not arrive so early by several weeks as was intended. In the third place, Sir Henry Clinton having returned to New-York from the south, instead of entering the harbor of New-York direct, the French admiral was constrained to put into the harbor of Rhode Island, where the army was landed; and before dispositions could be made for a combined movement thence upon New-York, the British Admiral Graves arrived off Rhode Island with a superior force, so that the Chevalier Ternay was blockaded. The result of all these occurrences was a relinquishment, for the time, of the enterprise against New-York; and the French and American armies were doomed to comparative inactivity at the north the whole season.
[FN] Sparks's Life and Correspondence of Washington, vol. vii. Vide several letters from Washington to Lafayette, Arnold, and others, during the month of May, 1780.
Not so, however, at the south. After the fall of Charleston, in the Spring, the British troops, under those able and active officers, Cornwallis, Tarleton, Lord Rawdon, and others, almost entirely over-ran the Southern States. Tarleton's first achievement was the cutting up of Colonel Buford, with about four hundred men, at the Waxhaws. In South Carolina all ideas of farther resistance seemed to be abandoned, until Sumpter returned, and revived their spirits by proving at Williamson's plantation that the invaders were not invincible. But in July, after General Gates had assumed the command in the Southern Department, to which the brave Baron De Kalb had opened the way, the severe disaster at Camden, where the militia ran away, as usual, at the beginning of the battle, rendered all again gloomy as before. [FN] The Baron De Kalb fell in this action, covered with wounds. Close upon the heels of this defeat, followed the surprise and all but annihilation of Sumpter's forces, by Tarleton, at the Wateree. But the splendid affair at King's Mountain, on the 7th of October, in which Ferguson, with a body of twelve or fifteen hundred loyalists, and about one hundred British regulars, was defeated and taken by Campbell, Shelby, and Cleaveland, at the head of the hardy mountaineers of Virginia and North Carolina, with the re-appearance of Sumpter in the field at the head of a body of volunteers—defeating Major Wemys at Broad River, on the 12th of November, and repulsing Tarleton himself at Black-stocks near the Tiger river, on the 20th,—contributed not a little to revive the spirits of the Americans in that quarter. At the north, the only considerable movement by the enemy was the expedition of the Hessian General Knyphausen into New Jersey, during which he burnt thirteen houses and the church at Connecticut Farms, and fifty houses at Springfield. Fighting a battle at that place without achieving a victory, he returned to Elizabethtown, and thence back to New-York.
[FN] From the time of his leaving the command at Providence in the beginning of the preceding winter, General Gates had been residing at his own home in Virginia. He was unanimously appointed by Congress, on the 13th of June, to take command in the southern department.—Sparks.
But the great event of the Summer at the north, was the capture of the British Adjutant General, Major André, in the character of a spy, and the consequent detection of the treason of General Arnold. The annals of war furnish not a more flagrant instance of treachery than that Arnold was a brave man, who had shared largely in the confidence of Washington during the earlier years of the war; and although events had subsequently occurred which must seriously have shaken the faith of the Commander-in-chief in his private virtue and integrity, still he could not have entertained the slightest suspicion of his patriotism, or his integrity to the country; ignorant, probably, of the fact which will appear a few pages ahead, that even that had been questioned, during the Canadian campaign of 1776. But, aside from Arnold's thirst for military fame, which certainly cannot be denied to him, his ruling passion was avarice. During his residence in Philadelphia, with the command of which he was invested after its evacuation by the British troops in 1778, he had lived in a style of splendor altogether beyond his means. Embarking largely in privateering and other speculations, he had suffered heavy losses; and to supply an exchequer which had been exhausted by an almost boundless prodigality, he had resorted to acts of oppression and base dishonor. Another device to obtain the means of indulging his extravagance, was the exhibition of accounts against the public, so enormous as to demand an investigation by a Board of Commissioners. Many of these accounts being disallowed by the Commissioners, Arnold appealed to Congress. A committee of re-examination was appointed; the report of which was, that the Board of Commissioners had already allowed too much. He was shortly afterward brought to answer for his peculations, and other malpractices, before a General Court-martial; and he only escaped being cashiered, by the death of one witness and the unaccountable absence of another. Still, his conduct was pronounced highly reprehensible by the Court, for which he was subjected to a reprimand from the Commander-in-chief. The impression, however, was strong, and very general, that he ought to have been dismissed from the army. Stung to the quick at these censures of the Congress, the Court, and of his commander—hating that commander now, if he had not done so before, fur the high-souled honor of his sentiments, and the exalted virtue and moral purity of his life—hating him the more bitterly because of his own fall—and stimulated to the foul purpose, like the Thane of Cawdor, by his wife, who was a traitress before him [FN-1]—Arnold had almost consummated his long-meditated treachery, [FN-2] when the arrest of the unfortunate André saved not only the citadel of the army, but probably the cause of the country itself.
[FN-1] It is well known that, on the detection of Arnold's treason and his flight, Mrs. Arnold was apparently deeply affected—tearing her hair, and seeming almost frantic. So great was her agony, that the feelings of Washington, Hamilton, and other officers, were greatly excited in her behalf. The author has long been aware, through the confidential friends of the late Colonel Burr, that Mrs. Arnold was only acting a part when she exhibited her distress. She was the daughter of Chief Justice Shippen, of Pennsylvania, and had been married to Arnold at Philadelphia in 1779. She had corresponded with Major André, during the Summer, under a pretext of obtaining supplies of millinery, &c. Her habits were extravagant, and had doubtless contributed to involve her husband more deeply in pecuniary difficulties. Having obtained from General Washington a passport, and permission to join her husband in New-York, Mrs. Arnold stopped on the way At the house of Mrs. Provost, at Paramus, the lady of a British officer, and afterward the wife of Colonel Burr, where she stayed one night. Here the frantic scenes of West Point were re-enacted while there were strangers present; but as soon as they were alone, she became Tranquilized, and assured Mrs. Provost that she was heartily sick of the theatrics she was playing. She stated that she had corresponded with the British commander—that she was disgusted with the American cause, and those who had the management of it; and that, through great precaution and unceasing perseverance, she had ultimately brought the General into the arrangement to surrender West Point to the British, &c., &c. For farther particulars upon the subject, see Davis's Life of Burr, pp. 219, 220. In his letter in her behalf to General Washington, Arnold of course entirely exculpated his wife. The public vengeance, he said, "ought alone to fall on me. She is as good and as innocent as an angel, and is incapable of doing wrong."