17. See the comparative presentation of the two paintings in Anderson, Crucible, 366–67. Benjamin West (an American resident in London) and French painter Louis-Joseph Watteau helped to launch the Romantic Era with their dramatic paintings of major events.
18. Bernier, Lafayette, 7–10; Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 18–20.
19. Laf, Memoir of 1779, ILA 1:7; Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 13–15, 21–22.
20. ILA 1:12n; Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 18–20.
21. Laf, Memoir of 1779, ILA 1:7; another version of this story quoted Maurois, Adrienne, 27.
22. Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 21–22.
23. Ibid., 22–23; Laf quoted Maurois, Adrienne, 27.
24. Quoted Unger, Lafayette, 8–9.
25. Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 23–24.
26. The background to Laf’s marriage follows Maurois, Adrienne, 28–31; Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 26–31; and Lane, General, 7–11.
27. Lasteyrie, 43–44. Gottschalk puts the dowry at 1.5 million livres, but where he got the figure is not clear. Unger says 200,000, without giving a source. He may have followed Maurois, who also gives no source for the 200,000. Either sum was considerable in its day.
28. Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 31–32.
29. Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 33–36, 38–40; Bernier, Lafayette, 10–22. The war ministry promoted Laf to captain effective MAY 19, 1774, but withheld the rank until he turned eighteen.
30. Maurois, Adrienne, 32–34, offers a fair sampling of these missives.
31. Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 40–45.
32. Ibid., 40–41. Laf did not receive “vaccination,” a technique developed by Edward Jenner in England a few years later. Instead of direct inoculation with smallpox-bearing material, vaccination involves infecting the patient with vaccinia, the cowpox virus. Vaccination derived from Jenner’s observation that people who handled dairy cattle and contracted cowpox were immune to smallpox. GW ordered inoculation of his troops during the Revolution.
33. Laf, Memoir of 1779, ILA 1:2, 6.
34. Maurois, Adrienne, 37–40; Gottschalk, Lady-in-Waiting, 12–15, 116; Bernier, Lafayette, 18–19; Ségur quoted ILA 1:13.
35. Laf, Memoir of 1779, ILA 1:6; Unger, Lafayette, 14–15.
36. Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 41–45; Bernier, Lafayette, 10–22.
37. Parkman, Montcalm, 545.
38. Levi, Louis XIV, 163–69, 193–222. In the fifth century the church began to stomp out “pagan” beliefs and customs, including the Olympic Games and the taking of baths. Until the late nineteenth century, Western Christians were generally the dirtiest people in the world.
39. Laf, Memoir of 1779, ILA 1:3.
40. Quoted Unger, Lafayette, 14.
41. Comte de Marck quoted Bernier, Lafayette, 18.
42. Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 37–38. Laf’s height is given in English measures. The French foot (not used since the adoption of the metric system during the French Revolution) was three-quarters of an inch longer than the English. Contemporary sources describe his height as five feet four or five inches, French measures.
43. Ibid., 46–48; Laf, Memoir of 1779, ILA 1:7. The situation also may have involved Lafayette’s unsatisfied lust for Provence’s mistress.
44. Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 48–52; TJ, Autobiography, 105.
45. Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 48–52; Maurois, Adrienne, 41–45.
46. Memoirs quoted Unger, Lafayette, 15.
47. Laf, Memoir of 1779, ILA 1:7.
48. Vovelle, Fall, 182–83; Schama, Citizens, 29. Saint-Jean de la Candeur can be freely translated as “Saint John of the Straight Talk.” Masons in France, unlike in America, did not have minimum ages.
49. Unger, Lafayette, 15–16.
50. The best recent history of Freemasonry is Ridley, Freemasons. For a view from the inside, see also Coil, Comprehensive View. Modern Masonry grew out of two developments in the fourteenth century, after the Black Death wiped out a third of Europe’s labor force. This raised the price of labor, so governments set limits on wages or contract prices that could be charged or paid for given services. To protect themselves from prosecution, trade guilds developed secret signs and codes. The other development was a tendency by late in that century for guildsmen to admit to their groups those who did not practice their craft, for political, social, or business reasons. These new members were known as “admitted” members, by the eighteenth century as “accepted” members, hence the “Free and Accepted Masons.” By that time the Masons had lost all but a ritual association with their origins and were mostly clubs where tradesmen, gentlemen, and aristocrats could socialize outside their social classes. The “Freemasons” owe their name to “Freestone” masons, those who carved decorative stonework, in the medieval period. The social-equality beliefs of Masonry arose from horror at the mass slaughters in the name of religion that took place in the seventeenth century. Masons were therefore early believers in religious toleration and eventually Deism. The claim that revolutions were engineered by Masons is a myth. Masons and anti-Masons have been on all sides of most conflicts in the past two centuries.
Chapter Two
1. Biographies of GW are legion. The best are those of Freeman and Flexner; this account of GW’s early life follows both. Recent biographies include Ellis, His Excellency, and Burns and Dunn, George Washington. On his military career, a recent account is Lengel, General George Washington. On the Indian and agricultural background of the Tidewater, see Clary, Fortress, 179, notes 1–5. GW’s birthday was FEB 11 until 1752, when Britain adopted the modern calendar.
2. Flexner, George Washington Forge, 18–19.
3. Ibid., 19–20, demolishes the tendency of GW’s early biographers to portray Mary as the saintly mother of the plaster saint they offered as their version of GW. As his fame increased, she became jealous of him and claimed that he had left her to starve in Fredericksburg while he chased after glory. As Flexner observes, “[H]istory does not always draw noble men from noble mothers, preferring sometimes to temper her future heroes in the furnaces of domestic infelicity.”
4. “Old Grog” acquired his nickname when he regularized the grog (daily rum) ration in the Royal Navy, a custom that endured until near the end of the twentieth century.
5. Flexner, George Washington Forge, 22–23.
6. Roberts, George Washington Master Mason, passim; Ridley, Freemasons, 94.
7. Quoted Flexner, George Washington Forge, 26.
8. GWD, quoted ibid., 35–36.
9. Quoted ibid., 54. The account of GW’s mission to the French forts follows, besides the biographies, Anderson, Crucible, 43–49, and Parkman, Montcalm, 75–81. See also Lewis, For King and Country.
10. Both quoted Flexner, George Washington Forge, 55–56.
11. Quoted Parkman, Montcalm, 78. The English had called the French “frog-eaters” and “frogs” (from their presumed dietary preferences), and the French had called the English rosbifs (“roast beefs,” from their habit of eating meat roasted instead of boiled) and les goddams (from their commonest word, at least as the French heard it), since early in the Hundred Years’ War of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. During World War I American troops became known in France as les sombiches, for their favorite word.
12. Quoted Freeman, George Washington 1:326.
13. On the events leading up to the surrender at Fort Necessity, I follow Anderson, Crucible, 50–65, and Parkman, Montcalm, 81–93.
14. Parkman, Montcalm, 93–94. The bloody behavior of the Indians was usual in frontier warfare, and whites behaved the same way when they could. Grenier, First Way, suggests that this sort of thing produced a uniquely American style of warfare that persisted for centuries.
15. Flexner, George Washington Forge, 110–14; Anderson, Crucible, 66–68.
16. Ellis, His Excellency, 20.
17. Both quoted Parkman, Montcalm, 110–12. The account of the campaign and the Battle of Monongahela that follows relies on Anderso
n, Crucible, 94–107; Parkman, Montcalm, 118–34; and among the biographies, Flexner, George Washington Forge, 116–31, and Ellis, His Excellency, 20–24.
18. FGW 29:41–42, quoted Flexner, George Washington Forge, 120.
19. Quoted ibid., 127–28.
20. The event has also been called the Battle of the Wilderness and the Battle of Turtle Creek, after a tributary of the Monongahela. British troops would not suffer another defeat so lopsided until JAN 22, 1879, at Isandhlwana in the opening action of the Zulu War. Six companies of infantry, together with two guns and a small force of volunteers, were overwhelmed by Zulus armed with short spears and hard-charging tactics of assault and envelopment. Only a few men survived.
21. FGW 39:44, quoted Flexner George Washington Forge, 130.
22. FGW 39:44, quoted ibid., 131.
23. Flexner, ibid., 131n, points out that Braddock’s orderly, Thomas Bishop, “attached himself to Washington” and served him as a valet and servant for more than thirty years.
24. Ibid., 137–38. This summary of GW’s Virginia military career in the 1750s follows ibid., 136–87, and Ellis, His Excellency, 24–39. See also Clary, Fortress, 2–6.
25. Flexner, George Washington Forge, 137.
26. Quoted ibid., 148.
27. Quoted Ellis, His Excellency, 26.
28. Ibid., 31–32.
29. Both quoted Flexner, George Washington Forge, 222–23.
30. FGW 2:337, quoted ibid., 229. The summary of GW’s life to 1775 that follows relies mostly on ibid., 227–345, and Ellis, His Excellency, 35–72.
31. Quoted Ellis, His Excellency, 55. On GW and the Potomac, see Achenbach, Grand Idea.
32. GW to George Fairfax, JUN 10–15, 1774, and GW to Bryan Fairfax, JUL 4, 1774, both quoted Ellis, His Excellency, 61–62. On the British side of the American Revolution and how the king’s government blundered into it, see Weintraub, Iron Tears.
33. Quoted Flexner, George Washington Forge, 340–41.
34. Quoted ibid., 345.
Chapter Three
1. Quoted Risch, Quartermaster Support, 16; Clary, These Relics, 6–13, 292–300.
2. Quoted Weigley, History, 32.
3. Quoted CW, 12–13.
4. Orders and regulations for uniforms are in Ogden, Uniform, in chronological order. This was the first.
5. Flexner, George Washington American, 35; CW, 12n.
6. Ogden, Uniform. The blue frock-coat uniform first appeared officially for the artillery in 1777. In March 1779, Congress formally adopted European-style uniforms for all troops. The Continental Army gradually became more regular in appearance, but supply and cash shortages kept the enlisted men ragtag.
7. Weigley, History, 29–30; Ganoe, History, 2–9; Flexner, George Washington American, 29–43; Morton, “Origins”; Boucher, “Colonial Militia”; Spaulding, “Military Studies.”
8. Lefkowitz, George Washington’s Indispensable, 19–24; Boatner, 925–26; Heitman 1:37.
9. Lefkowitz, George Washington’s Indispensable, 24–25; Boatner, 704–5; Heitman 1:708.
10. Weigley, History, 30, 44–45, 64–65; Forman, “Why the Military Academy,” 17–18; Ganoe, History, 2–9. The lawmakers believed that military experience was important. Of thirteen general officers commissioned in 1775, eleven had had some war service. Of seventy-three generals appointed during the war, sixteen had held commissions in European armies. Only twenty-one lacked any military background before 1775. But only a handful of the generals were thoroughly trustworthy, and some of the better ones had flawed characters. Lower down, there were too few good junior officers and sergeants.
11. Flexner, George Washington American, 17–18, 29; Boatner, 1161–2; Heitman 1:1000.
12. Higginbotham, War, 46; Flexner, George Washington American, 17–18; Gottschalk, Lafayette Joins, 204–5; Thane, Fighting Quaker, 23; Boatner, 605–7; John W. Shy, “Charles Lee: The Soldier as Radical,” in Billias, George Washington’s Generals, 22–53; Heitman 1:623.
13. Flexner, George Washington American, 18; Boatner, 902–4, 991–93; John H. G. Pell, “Philip Schuyler: The General as Aristocrat,” in Billias, George Washington’s Generals, 54–78; Heitman 1:810, 867.
14. Nelson, General Horatio Gates; Thane, Fighting Quaker, 23; Flexner, George Washington American, 18; George A. Billias, “Horatio Gates: Professional Soldier,” in Billias, George Washington’s Generals, 79–108; Heitman 1:449.
15. Weigley, History, 62; CW, 14–15; Wright, Continental Army, 45–56. Administrative and tactical organization would not take final form until after FVS arrived in 1778. Tactical formations between the battalion and the whole army did not become common in Europe until after the 1790s. Despite his original intentions, GW became a pioneer in tactical organization.
16. Maurer, “Military Justice”; CW, 15; Weigley, History, 63. The first articles of war limited whippings to the biblical maximum of thirty-nine strokes; Washington got Congress to raise that to a hundred a year later, but when he asked for a maximum of 500, the lawmakers refused. As the commander in chief gradually learned, American citizen-soldiers would not stand for being treated as if they were European regulars.
17. Weigley, History, 44–45, 51–61; CW, 14; Risch, Quartermaster, 1–73. “[O]ur hospital, or rather house of carnage,” AW complained, “beggars all description; and shocks humanity to visit.” Quoted Commager and Morris, Spirit, 828.
18. Quoted Ganoe, History, 13–14; Weigley, History, 52.
19. Flexner, George Washington American, 34–38.
20. Clary, These Relics, 6–13.
21. Riling, Baron von Steuben, 1–2. Lieutenant Timothy Pickering’s manual for the Essex County, Massachusetts, militia offered some promise as a tactical standard. It was adopted as the official state manual in 1776 and was much copied in other American units. It offered simplified maneuvers, with original elements adapted to American conditions. It took FVS to straighten out this fundamental weakness in the Continental Army, as will be seen. HK thought he knew what the problem was. “The officers of the army,” he said in 1776, “are exceedingly deficient in books upon the military art.” HK to JA, MAY 13, 1776, quoted Forman, “Why the Military Academy,” 18. Unfortunately, men did not become leaders through reading alone.
22. Weigley, History, 33–34.
23. GW to Reed, NOV 28, 1775, quoted Karsen, “American Democratic,” 35.
24. Callahan, Henry Knox; North Callahan, “Henry Knox: American Artillerist,” in Billias, George Washington’s Generals, 239–59; Thane, Fighting Quaker, 10–11; Boatner, 586–87; Heitman 1:607. The performance of American artillery under HK’s supervision amazed the French. The chevalier de Chastellux, who was in America in the early 1780s as both a tourist and a sometime aide to Roc, got to know HK at Yorktown and said, “As for General Knox, he belongs to the whole world by his reputation and his success. Thus have the English, contrary to their intention, added to the ornament of the human species, by awakening talents and virtues where they thought to find nothing but ignorance and weakness.” He also said, “From the very first campaign, he was entrusted with the command of the artillery, and it has turned out that it could not have been placed in better hands.” Quoted Chinard, George Washington as French, 53–54. HK was the one true American military genius of the war, and his field artillery tactical innovations, carried to France by Laf and others, profoundly influenced the development of artillery doctrine in what became the Napoleonic army, as will be seen. HK succeeded GW as commander in chief in 1783 and later became his secretary of war.
25. Boatner, 587–88; Higginbotham, War, 105. Three of the thirteen-inch siege mortars weighed over a ton each.
26. Higginbotham, War, 104–6; Flexner, George Washington American, 70–78.
27. Higginbotham, War, 16–15. On Arnold’s part in the campaign, see Desjardin, Through Howling.
28. Weigley, History, 34–39, 62–63, GW quoted 34, 39. The recruiting difficulties were created when Congress, trying to standardize the size of regiments
, abolished existing ones, depriving officers of their commissions, and authorized new units. The lawmakers tried to correct that when they restored state designations to Continental Army regiments but invited the states to review officer performance. Nobody wanted to reenlist because none knew who would be the new officers with the authority to recruit. By November, none had been selected.
29. This summary of the campaign of 1776 follows Fischer, Washington’s Crossing, 66–114, quote at 114; and of the New York campaign, Schuster, Battle. See also McCullough, 1776.
30. GW quoted Weigley, History, 37; Fischer, Washington’s Crossing, 115–51.
31. FGW 8:247 quoted Flexner, George Washington American, 159–60.
32. Fischer, Washington’s Crossing, 160–91; Weigley, History, 63.
33. Fischer, Washington’s Crossing, 206–62.
34. Ibid., 263–345; Weigley, History, 39–40.
35. Murphy, “French Soldiers’ Opinion,” 191–98.
36. Higginbotham, War, 226–30.
37. Pachero, French Secret Agents; see also ibid., 230.
38. Corwin, “French Objectives”; Higginbotham, War, 231; Kapp, Life of John Kalb, 52–73; Boatner, 227–28, 1145–7. On French interest in and aid to America in the 1770s, see also Ketcham, “France and American Politics”; Meng, “Foot-note”; Rule, “Old Regime”; and Van Tyne, “French Aid.”
39. Dull, Diplomatic History, 63–64; Higginbotham, War, 233; Boatner, 320–22; Stephenson, “Supply of Gunpowder”; Meng, “Foot-note”; Kite, “French Secret Aid”; Schoenbrun, Triumph, passim.
40. Perkins, France, 193–203; Kapp, Life of John Kalb, 94–95; Ver quoted Unger, Lafayette, 18–19.
41. Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 51–54, 157–58.
42. Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 66–76; de Broglie quoted Unger, Lafayette, 21–22; Laf, Memoir of 1779, ILA 1:8.
43. Quoted Kapp, Life of John Kalb, 94–95.
44. SD to Committee of Secret Correspondence, DEC 6, 1776, quoted Corwin, French Policy, 90–91.
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