For civilians unlucky enough to have an army encamped in their neighborhood, quartering officers in one's home was often a better alternative than housing the rank and file. Wrote one distraught resident of the New Brunswick area:
I suppose you would gladly hear how we have fared the winter past with the regular soldiers; which, in a word, is beyond my tongue or pen to express. I could not have thought there was such a set of blackguards in the world. I have said, and have no reason to recall it, “That if the Devil had a permission to send the worst crew from Tophet, these people, if they may be allowed the title, would outdo them in swearing, lying, stealing, and blackguarding.” The last thing they do when they go to bed, and the first in the morning, is to remind God to damn their eyes, tongue, liver, pluck, heart and soul, and this they do more than a thousand times a day.29
By no means were British troops alone. Washington and others found the scale of profanity among American troops very disturbing. “It is much to be lamented, that the foolish and scandalous practice of profane Swearing is exceedingly prevalent in the American Army,” he published in the General Orders for May 31, 1777. “Officers of every rank are bound to discourage it, first by their example, and then by punishing offenders.”30
John Adams, too, was shocked and dismayed by the foul language and other vices common to armies. “The Prevalence of Dissipation, Debauchery, Gaming, Prophaneness, and Blasphemy, terrifies the best people upon the Continent from trusting their Sons and other Relations among so many dangerous snares and Temptations,” he complained to Nathanael Greene. “Multitudes of People who would with chearfull Resignation Submit their Families to the Dangers of the sword shudder at the Thought of exposing them to what appears to them, the more destructive Effects of Vice and Impiety.”31 Greene replied, “I remember you lament the general corruption of manners and the increase of vicious habits that prevail in the Army. It is a serious truth and much to be lamented.” He agreed and told Adams, “I am sensible of the force and justness of your remarks, that the vices of the Army prevents many from engaging in the service more than the hardships and dangers attending it.”32
Washington also had great difficulty preventing some of his troops from plundering. The main culprits in this period were some of the New Jersey militia, who witnessed firsthand the devastation of their state by royal troops and were furious with their fellow Jerseyans who remained loyal to the king or stayed neutral. In late January, Washington told Gov. William Livingston, “The irregular and disjointed State of the Militia of this Province, makes it necessary for me to inform you, that, unless a Law is immediately passed by your Legislature, to reduce them to some order, and oblige them to turn out, in a different Manner from what they have hitherto done, we shall bring very few into the Field, and even those few will render little or no Service.” Disgusted, he wrote, “Their Officers are generally of the lowest Class of People; and, instead of setting a good Example to their Men, are leading them into every Kind of Mischief, one species of which is, Plundering the Inhabitants, under the pretence of their being Tories.” Further, Washington told Livingston, “A Law should, in my Opinion, be passed, to put a Stop to this kind of lawless Rapine; for, unless there is something done to prevent it, the People will throw themselves, of Choice, into the Hands of the British Troops. But your first object should be a well regulated Militia Law; the People, put under good Officers, would behave in quite another Manner; and not only render real Service as Soldiers, but would protect, instead of distressing, the Inhabitants.”33
Support for independence was far from unanimous, and a vicious civil war was the result, particularly in New Jersey. Such conditions also provided a means to settle old scores between neighbors and within families; for others, there were chances for social and political advancement and the acquisition of power, however petty. This was also a grand opportunity for lawless elements to take advantage of the power struggle and commit crimes in the name of one cause or another.
By mid-January, in cold, dreary weather, the war had degenerated into a desultory, monotonous round of foraging parties and inconclusive skirmishes that continued for the next five months. Commerce was at a standstill, prices skyrocketed, and many goods were unobtainable. In New York City, one Loyalist concluded a bittersweet letter to England by writing, “Well, my good friend, God Bless you and yours! It is now near one o'clock, Feb. 10, 1777. My fire is out, and wood is very scarce. It has been 5 l. the chord. Beef is from 12 to 18 pence, the pound; mutton the same; veal from 18 to 24 pence; a couple of Fowls, 10 shillings; trade entirely ruined, and my purse almost empty: And so, ‘God save great George our King.’”34
On the American side, the euphoria over Trenton and Princeton had dissipated, and Washington faced the greatest enemy of all: apathy, which meant lack of support, which in turn spawned desertion. “Our Army is shamefully reduced by desertion,” he informed John Hancock on the last day of January, “and except the people in the Country can be forced to give Information, when Deserters return to their old Neighbourhoods, we shall be obliged to detach one half of the Army to bring back the other.”35
The nasty, dirty little war of ambushes, sniping, and occasional atrocities in this era has come to be known as the Forage War. In more recent times, this sort of activity is called guerrilla war, a Spanish term derived from resistance to Napoleon's occupation of Spain in the early nineteenth century. In the eighteenth century, such warfare had a French name: la petite guerre, literally meaning “the little war,” or skirmishing, and its tactics were referred to as partisan warfare. “There have been and almost daily are, some small skirmishes, but without much loss on either side,” Washington told Gen. Philip Schuyler in late February. “I do not apprehend, however, that this Petit Guerre will be continued long. I think matters will be transacted upon a larger scale.”36
Contrary to misconceptions ingrained in popular history, the British Army was well equipped to deal with this sort of warfare and conducted its own effective partisan operations, using light infantry, dragoons, German Jägers, Scottish Highlanders, and American Loyalists. “We have a pretty amusement known by the name of foraging or fighting for our daily bread,” a British light infantry officer, Capt. Sir James Murray of the 57th, told his sister in Scotland. “As the rascals are skulking about the whole country, it is impossible to move with any degree of safety without a pretty large escort, and even then you are exposed to a dirty kind of tiraillerie [random gunfire], which is more noisy indeed than dangerous.”37
Occasionally the skirmishes grew into large firefights, and casualties mounted. On February 23, a 2,000-strong British foraging party left Perth Amboy and headed toward Woodbridge. As the foragers fanned out, the Grenadier Company of the 42nd Royal Highlanders was attacked by Continental forces under Gen. William Maxwell of New Jersey. The Scots fought fiercely, as usual, but were heavily outnumbered and left unsupported. By the time the action ceased, the British had suffered over seventy casualties, while American losses were negligible. Visiting his wounded grenadiers the next day, Capt. Lt. John Peebles of the 42nd commented bitterly, “What pity it is to throw away such men as these on such shabby, ill managed occasions.”38
Yet in the same fight, one of the British light infantry officers with the main force, Capt. William Dansey of the 33rd, had a wholly different experience. He boasted to his mother, Martha, the widow of a career military man, “as to War's Alarms they are now come so familiar that a Day's Yankie Hunting is no more minded than a Day's Fox Hunting, at both Diversions a broken Bone may be got.” Like many of his fellow officers, on first arrival, Dansey was gravely concerned about American “frontier” tactics and rumored marksmanship, which had already become the stuff of legends. Stories abounded of how British officers were deliberately picked off, so their uniforms were adapted to make them appear less conspicuous. Gold and silver lace was reduced or removed entirely, cocked hats were cut down into “round hats,” and many British officers opted to carry light muskets called fusils, or “fuze
es,” with them. But after several months of field experience, Dansey changed his views and stated, “I flatter myself with understanding fighting the Rebels so well now that I am not in half the danger I was in at first and mind a shooting match with them no more then a Days Cockshooting.” He told his mother, “You know I was never a famous shot but I made a very good one in the Skirmish we had on the 23rd. A Fellow jump'd from behind a [fence?] near me, ran behind a Tree and presented [aimed at] me; I up with my Fuzee and knock'd him as quick as a Cockrooster wou'd a Cock.” Dansey hastened to reassure her, “So don't fear for me, who never was cool enough at home to kill a Woodcock, yet now am got cool enough to shoot a Man,” adding, “I think I shall make one of the coolest Shooters in the Country when I return.”39
As February came to an end, Washington reached new limits of exasperation with the inaction of Congress and the state governments, whom he had to beg incessantly to send troops, clothing, food, weapons, and ammunition. On March 2, he wrote a remarkable private letter to Robert Morris, one of the most influential members of Congress, in which he frankly and honestly and, in many ways, at great risk laid out the facts of the situation: “General Howe cannot, by the best intelligence I have been able to get, have less than 10,000 Men in the Jerseys and on board of Transports at Amboy: Ours does not exceed 4,000: His are well disciplined, well Officered, and well appointed: Ours raw Militia, badly Officered, and under no Government. His numbers cannot, in any short time, be augmented: Ours must very considerably, and by such Troops as we can have some reliance on, or the Game is at an End.”
The situation was truly desperate. “My Opinions upon these several matters are only known to those who have a right to be informed: As much as possible, I have endeavoured to conceal them from every one else,” he confided to Morris. “To deceive Congress, or you, through whose hands my Letters to them are to pass, with false appearances and assurances, would, in my judgment, be criminal and make me responsible for consequences. I endeavour, in all those Letters, to state matters as they appear to my judgment, without adding to, or diminishing aught from the Picture: From others my sentiments are pretty much hid.” Washington concluded, “In a Word, common prudence dictates the necessity of duly attending to the circumstances of both Armies, before the style of Conquerers is assumed by either; and sorry, I am to add, that this does not appear to be the case with us; Nor is it in my power to make Congress fully sensible of the real situation of our Affairs, and that it is with difficulty (if I may use the expression) that I can, by every means in my power, keep the Life and Soul of this Army together.” Chiding the Congress, he wrote bitterly, “In a word, when they are at a distance, they think it is but to say Presto begone, and everything is done. They seem not to have any conception of the difficulty and perplexity attending those who are to execute.”40
Notwithstanding the hazards of frontline duty and the provincial nature of their surroundings, the British and Hessian officers managed to make their routine a bit more bearable with social gatherings. One of the more curious features of the New Brunswick cantonment involved the van Horne family. Mr. Philip van Horne owned a country house called Convivial Hall, or “Phil's Hill,” near Middlebrook, but his family spent much of the winter in New Brunswick. His daughters were favorites with officers on both sides. “There were five of the Miss Vanhornes, all handsome and well bred,” wrote Alexander Graydon, an American officer whose mother visited the van Hornes on her way to New York that spring, but they were “avowed Whigs, notwithstanding their civility to the British officers.”41
Convivial Hall was used as headquarters by Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, commander of the American outpost at nearby Bound Brook, even though van Horne was suspected of being a Loyalist; Phil managed to remain on good terms with the officers on both sides. In 1778, his daughter Mary, “the Belle of Middlebrook,” married Col. Stephen Moylan, commander of the 4th Continental Dragoons and one of Washington's top intelligence officers. Three of his other daughters, Susan, Jeanette, and Anne, were very popular with the British and Hessian officers, including Capt. Johann Ewald of the Jägers.
Johann Ewald was a fascinating character. The son of a postal employee and a merchant's daughter, he was born in the Hessian city of Cassel in 1744. At sixteen, he entered the military during the Seven Years’ War, which raged all through Germany; he even participated in the siege of Cassel, his hometown, in 1761 and was wounded in action while on campaign. After the war, during a drunken argument one night in 1770, Ewald fought a duel with a friend and lost his left eye. He since wore a glass eye and also used an eye patch to cover the injury. In 1774, he published his first book and was promoted captain of the Hessian Jäger Corps, a special unit of riflemen dressed in distinctive green uniforms. Ewald arrived in America during the late summer of 1776, and by 1777, he had established his fame as a good and dependable officer. He was also a thirty-three-year-old bachelor of medium height, very erect and slender, who fell in love with Jeanette van Horne. Ewald wrote a number of love letters, addressing her as “Mademoiselle Jeannette von Horen.”42
Sir George Osborn of the Guards, a widower at this time in his life, was also charmed by the van Horne girls. A letter from the bishop of Worcester to Lord North, two of Osborn's cousins, provides a glimpse into the sort of socializing hosted by Sir George during the early spring of 1777. “We have had a chearful letter from Sir George in which he seems to consider the War as nearly at an end,” the bishop wrote. “He had been giving a Fete to some rebel ladies which he calls a fête champêtre and thought it very lucky that his company were entertained by the enemy attacking his picquet Guard upon a distant hill during the Fete. The ladies were invited, said they would wait upon him but they had no shoes and he sent a Grenadier who had been a shoe maker to equip them.”43 The “rebel ladies” included the van Horne girls, and the fête was given on St. George's Day, April 23, according to Colonel von Donop, who was also much taken with the young ladies.44
Captain Graydon of Pennsylvania recalled that during his mother's visit to New Brunswick in late May, “There soon after came in two or three British officers, who, entering into conversation with the ease of men of fashion, gave her to understand that there had been a ball the preceding evening, at which had been the Miss Vanhornes, the ladies whom they now called to see. These gentlemen, one of whom was Sir John Wrottesley, were such frequent visitors at this house, that my mother, during her stay in it, became pretty well acquainted with them.”45 Sir John was a Guards officer, a bon vivant, and a very close friend of Osborn, who may well have been one of the other officers present.
But the petite guerre continued. In early April, to up the ante and help shake off the doldrums of a long winter cantonment, Lord Cornwallis decided to strike Lincoln's outpost at Boundbrook. On the night of April 12, a force of nearly 4,000 British and Hessian troops moved along both sides of the Raritan River toward Lincoln's position. “An outpost of the enemy…at Boundbrook…has harassed our Jägers not a little since we came here,” noted General von Heister's official report.
General Cornwallis, tired of this harassment, at last resolved to attack them unawares. The 13th April was fixed for it; the arrangements for it were made in three different detachments. Colonel v. Donop commanded the centre, which consisted of the two Grenadier Battalions von Linsing and Minnegerode…the left flank consisted of two Light Infantry Battalions, the 1st English Grenadier Battalion and a detachment of Light Dragoons; the right flank of the Hessian Jägers, the Grenadier Company of the English Guards, commanded by Lt-Colonel Osborne, and also a detachment of Light Dragoons. Generals Cornwallis and Grant commanded the whole [3,000 to 4,000 troops].
The Hessian report complimented the British strategy:
The project was well planned; as Boundbrook lies at the foot of a range of hills, the two wings were to surround it from the side of the hills; but as the heat is usually too great on such enterprises the center did not let the wings come far enough round and made the attack too soon, with the result that
the greater part of the rebels escaped, and only 70 men, including three officers, were taken prisoners, and three metal [brass] fieldpieces captured. Perhaps ten to twenty men were killed. On our side only three Jägers were wounded.46
Ewald commanded the Jägers in front of Grant's column. “As I set out with the advanced guard, General Grant said to me, ‘Captain Ewald, you know the area. I say nothing further to you. You know everything else.’” The Jägers moved out enthusiastically, and as they engaged the American sentries, Ewald quickly discovered that he had advanced too far too soon: “The picket received us spiritedly and withdrew under steady fire…. The day dawned and I was exposed to a murderous fire.” Outnumbered and pinned down, the captain recalled, “We had no choice but to lie down on the ground before the bridge, whereupon I ordered ‘Forward!’ sounded constantly” by the hornblower. “Luckily for us, Colonel Donop's column appeared after a lapse of eight or ten minutes, whereupon the Americans abandoned the redoubt. We arrived in the town with the garrison of the redoubt amidst a hard running fight.”47
The Philadelphia Campaign Page 3