Blood Upon The Snow

by Martin Ganzglass

  2) Colonel Charles Mawhood, in response to an order from General Cornwallis, delivered by courier the night before, left Princeton early in the morning with two regiments, some cavalry, artillery and a heavy baggage train with supplies for the army in Trenton. Around 8 a.m., slightly more than a mile southwest of Princeton, they spotted elements of the oncoming American troops. (Hackett-Fischer, pp. 329-331; Dwyer, pp. 337-338.) The opening shots of the battle took place when Mawhood’s regiments, numbering around three hundred troops attacked the advancing units of General Mercer’s brigade, also about the same number, and drove them out of an apple orchard. The charging British troops broke the American line and caused panic among the militia reinforcements moving from the Saw Mill Road toward the fields. (Dwyer, pp.341-344.) Washington rode into the field to rally the troops and led them forward while the Virginia Continentals and Hand’s riflemen fired on the British left. (Ketchum, pp. 306-309.)

  3) The phenomenon of blood flowing down the icy surface of the fields, instead of sinking into the soil was recorded by eyewitnesses. “The ground was frozen,” Sergeant R noted, “and all the blood which was shed remained on the surface, which added to the horror of this scene of carnage.” (Dwyer, p. 352; Hackett-Fischer, p. 332.)

  4) In launching their attack and driving the Americans back toward the Saw Mill Road, the British troops gave no quarter.

  Lieutenant Bartholomew Yeates, an eighteen-year-old member of the First Virginia Regiment, ‘received a wound in his side which brought him to the ground. Upon seeing the enemy advance towards him, he begged for quarter. A British soldier stopped, and after deliberately loading his musket by his side, shot him through the breast. Finding that he was still alive, he stabbed him in thirteen places with his bayonet, the poor youth all the while crying for mercy. Upon the enemy being forced to retreat, either the same or another soldier, finding he was not dead, struck him with the butt of a musket on the side of the head.’ Yeates would impart these details to Dr. Benjamin Rush before dying a week later. (Dwyer, p. 344.)

  5) Captain Alexander Hamilton was in charge of the two cannons which supported the assault by General Sullivan’s forces on Nassau Hall of Princeton College. One cannon ball indeed rebounded off an outside wall and almost struck a mounted American officer. Legend has it, the other ball beheaded a portrait of King George II, which hung in the prayer hall. (Hackett-Fischer, p. 339; Dwyer, p.354.)

  6) The British lost approximately 450 soldiers, killed, wounded, captured or missing. The Americans claimed to have taken 200 to 300 prisoners. (Hackett-Fischer, p. 340.) Estimates of American losses were sketchy, with Washington claiming six or seven officers and twentyfive to thirty privates killed. (Dwyer, p. 353.)

  Although Washington may have originally intended to continue on the offensive and attack Brunswick, “the biggest British base in New Jersey, ‘with all their stores and magazines,’ and ‘a military chest’ of seventy thousand pounds sterling,” the Army was too exhausted to continue and the British army in Trenton was rapidly coming up the Post Road. At the time, Brunswick was defended by only one regiment.

  Nor was there any pursuit of the British baggage train fleeing Princeton. The capture of several wagons by Captain Hadley, Corporal Will Stoner and two others is fictitious. Instead, the victorious Americans plundered Princeton, claiming that the town was full of Tories. (Dwyer, p. 356.)

  Cornwallis had the British army on the move from Trenton to Princeton by 8 in the morning and “the advanced guard entered Prince Town as the rear of the enemy [the Americans] left it” (Dwyer, p. 360.) Once the bulk of the Redcoats arrived, the troops were issued three days rations and began the quick march to Brunswick. The Americans proceeded, exhausted but unmolested from Princeton northwest through Somerset Court House and Pluckemin, finally arriving at Morristown on January 6th, where they set up winter quarters.

  Chapter 4- The Education of King George 1) Surprisingly, it was the old women of Philadelphia who displayed the greatest hostility toward the Hessian prisoners. One Hessian wrote: “We arrived at the front entrance to the city [Philadelphia] at noon and as we marched through the city, many people, big and little, young and old, stood there watching sharply, seeing what kind of people we were. Some of them came up very close to us. The old women screamed fearfully and started to threaten us. They cried out that we ought to be hanged for coming to America to rob them of their freedom. Others, however, brought us liquor and bread but they were not allowed by the old women to give them to us. At one time the people pressed on us with such force as to nearly break the guard over us. The old women were the worst. If the American guards had not protected us, the women would have killed us.” (Dwyer, p. 298.)

  Such vehement hatred could be attributed to the wellpublicized accounts of numerous rapes committed by the Hessians troops. Whig propaganda, in the form of broadsheets and gazettes, exaggerated Hessian atrocities to whip up support for the cause. George Washington was aware of the propaganda value of parading the Hessians through the streets of Philadelphia to emphasize the magnitude of the victory at Trenton and to show that the Hessians could be and were defeated. (Lecture by Daniel Krebs, June 14, 2014, at the Society of the Cincinnati, Washington, D.C.; Daniel Krebs, “A Generous and Merciful Enemy-Life for German Prisoners of War during the American Revolution, pp. 78-79.)

  2) On December 29, 1776, General Washington wrote to the Pennsylvania Council of Safety that Hessian “officers and men should be separated. I wish the former may be well treated, and that the latter may have such principles instilled in them during their Confinement, that when they return, they may open the Eyes of their Countrymen.” (Hackett-Fischer, p. 276.) The author goes on to point out that Washington “often reminded his men that they were an army of liberty and freedom, and that the rights of humanity for which they were fighting should extend even to their enemies.”

  One Hessian attributed their better treatment to a proclamation from General Washington, posted throughout Philadelphia that stated: “the Hessians were without blame and had been forced into this war. The Hessians had not come of their own free will. They should not be regarded as enemies but as friends of the American people and should be treated as such. Because General Washington had full authority and he gave his honest word, it became better for us. All day long Americans. . .came to the barracks and brought food to us and treated us with kindness and humanity.” (Dwyer, p. 298.)

  Many of the Hessian prisoners worked on farms in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania for the duration of the war. Hackett-Fischer reports that of “the 13,988 Hessian soldiers who survived the war, 3,194 (23 percent) chose to remain in America.” (Hackett-Fischer, p. 379.)

  3) Many of the troops had learned trades either before entering the Army (most young men started learning a craft around age fourteen) or when they were furloughed during garrison duty while still in their home provinces. The most common skills were tailoring and shoemaking. Others were linen weavers, millers, smiths, joiners, cloth makers and carpenters. (Krebs, pp. 63, 68-70.)

  4) A Housekeeping Book, by Nelly Custis Lewis described Martha Washington’s remedy for worms as follows: “1 oz seeds of wormseeds

  half an oz rhubarb

  1 tablespoon small cloves of garlic

  Put the ingredients into a pint bottle. Fill it with best wine or whiskey, let it stand a few days, shaking it well, then strain it.” (Cokie Roberts, Ladies of Liberty, p. 395.) Wormseed is an herb and its flowers were used to make medicine. It is believed to contain a chemical that kills intestinal parasites.

  5) The description of the Kierney family farm is based on Eric Sloane’s “Diary of an Early American Boy, Noah Blake, 1805.” On page 8, there is a marvelous illustration of their cabin’s dirt floor, swept and decorated with a floral design by Noah’s mother. This book describes in beautiful detail the evolution of the Blake farm from 1790 to the early 1800s, the self-sufficiency of the family in making much of what they needed and used, as well as neighbors helping each other with planting and har
vesting, barn raisings and bridge building.

  Part Two – Winter Quarters

  Chapter 5- The Happiest Man in Camp 1) Martha Washington actually arrived at the Morristown winter camp of the army sometime in March 1777. She significantly improved her husband’s morale. “Everyone watched the commander in chief visibly brighten in her presence. . .” (Ron Chernow, “Washington, A Life,”p. 295.)

  2) In February 1777, Lucy Knox was in Boston while the Army was at winter quarters in Morristown. (While there, she introduced General Benedict Arnold to a young lady whom he assiduously but unsuccessfully courted). (Nancy Rubin Stuart,“Defiant Brides-The Untold Story of Two Revolutionary Era Women and the Radical Men They Married,” p. 30.) Henry Knox refused to let his wife visit winter quarters, writing: “Your safety and happiness is the sole object of my heart. . . I however anxious to have you with me cannot consent to a step which will most inevitably . . . reiterate . . . the disagreeable situation” [referring to when Lucy had been in New York City when the British invaded.]) Stuart, p. 32 Lucy’s visit to Morristown in 1777 is fictitious.

  3) Knox, upon orders of General Washington, left Morristown in January 1777 for Springfield to “see to the casting of cannon and the establishment of laboratories, [for the manufacture of gun powder]. (Francis S. Drake, “Life and Correspondence of Henry Knox,” p.41; Noah Brooks, “Henry Knox, A Soldier of the Revolution,” p. 87.)

  4) The song, “Battle of Trenton,” consists of six verses, six lines each, and tells the story of the freezing night march, storming the Hessian pickets, winning the battle and capturing an exaggerated number of Hessians and their equipment. The song appears in Poetry and Prose of the Revolution, edited by Frederick C. Prescott and John H. Nelson. The section of Revolutionary Songs and Ballads begins with the following introduction: “Perhaps nowhere, . . .is ‘the complexion of the times’ better shown than in the popular verse of the Revolution. In songs, ballads, satires, epigrams and patriotic hymns, the colonists proclaimed their opposition to tyranny and royal aggression; while in the manner, but frequently with more dignity, the loyalists upheld their side. . . . Most of them were printed (in colonial newspapers or broadsides) almost as soon as they were composed; but frequently the author’s name was withheld, and is unknown to the present day. (Prescott and Nelson, p. 83.)

  Chapter 6- Hunting the Foragers 1) General William Maxwell, known as “Scotch Willie,” because of his strong Ulster accent, having been born in County Tyrone, was one of Washington’s more aggressive Generals in the “Forage War” or “petit guerre” from January to March 1777. (Hackett Fischer, pp. 348-349)

  Maxwell, with regular units of the Continental Army, including Colonel Hand’s riflemen, joined with New Jersey militias to engage in a series of harassing raids, ambushes, sniping and attacks on the British when they sent foraging parties out from their New Jersey bases. The British and Hessian troops at these bases, stretching from Brunswick and the Amboys in the south to Elizabethtown across from Staten Island, were adequately supplied with food and provisions. The problem was lack of firewood and hay and forage for their animals, necessary to pull their artillery and supply wagons and baggage trains.

  2) The actual battle of Spanktown, or Rahway, began on the morning of February 23, 1777. Two thousand British troops, consisting of a battalion of grenadiers, one of light infantry and a company of Scottish Highlanders were scouring the countryside hoping to surprise Jersey militia who were attacking British foraging parties, or engaged in foraging of their own. Using a foraging party as bait, General Maxwell enticed the British troops to attack a small force of New Jersey militia on a hilltop, while keeping the main American force, including Colonel Hand’s riflemen out of sight. The Americans flanked the Highlanders as they began their assault, and routed the entire British force, pursuing them as they fled a distance of more than twenty-five miles to Amboy which they reached at eight p.m. at night. Total British casualties were between seventy-five to one hundred men, with the Americans suffering five killed and nine wounded. (HackettFischer, p. 356-357; Thomas J. McGuire, “The Philadelphia Campaign, Brandywine and the Fall of Philadelphia,” p. 18.)

  I have placed Colonel Hand’s riflemen in the principal flanking position and given them the task of pursuing the British the entire day from the battlefield to Amboy. This is speculation on my part.

  3) In 1777, some British officers were equipped with light muskets that were shorter than those carried by the regular troops and thus, more easily raised and fired when ambushed. These light muskets were called fusils because of their French origin and nicknamed “fuzees” by the British. (McGuire, p.18.)

  4) Another battle was fought on March 8, 1777 again involving General Maxwell and about two thousand British troops. (HackettFischer, p. 357.) Maxwell directed his troops to attack a smaller segment of the Redcoats attempting to reinforce part of the British line and the British fled in disarray. Hackett-Fischer states the British lost about sixty men and the Americans about twenty. (Hackett-Fischer, p. 357.)

  I have no documentation establishing whether Colonel Hand’s regiment of riflemen or the British 16th Light Dragoons were present on the field but have chosen to include the Dragoons for purposes of the plot.

  The Forage War sapped the strength of the British forces, wearing down the troops and reducing the number of effective soldiers able to take the field. Hackett-Fischer estimates that “more than nine hundred men were killed, wounded, captured or missing. . . [and] the true numbers were higher. Altogether, from the Christmas campaign to the beginning of spring [this includes the first and second battles of Trenton and the battle of Princeton] Howe’s army suffered at least 2,887 killed, captured and seriously wounded, after losing [only] 1,510 men in the New York campaign.” (Hackett-Fischer, p. 359.)

  When General Howe took to the field in the summer of 1777, with a plan to force the Americans into a full scale battle in defense of the Continental capital of Philadelphia, Hackett-Fischer speculated “that campaign. . . might have had a different outcome if the British and Hessian regiments had not lost so many of their best troops before it began.” (Hackett-Fischer, p. 360.)

  Chapter 7 – Resurrection in the Spring 1) After the Army had been in its Morristown camp for about two weeks, General Washington ordered Knox to explore and establish arsenals in New England. In mid to late January, Knox traveled to Hartford, Connecticut and Springfield, Massachusetts, further up the Connecticut River and assessed the locations for casting of cannons, making gunpowder and storing arms and munitions. (Puls, p. 84; Brooks, pp. 86-87.)

  2) John Locke, (1632-1704), the English political philosopher, wrote “Two Treatises on Government,” in 1689. They were highly influential on the political thought of those colonials who first argued their rights as Englishmen and evolved their theories to demand full independence. Locke was the intellectual mentor of the Whigs in the colonies. His Second Treatise was reprinted in Boston in 1773.

  Benjamin Edes was a prominent Boston printer. I have attributed the printing of Locke to his shop, although I have no documentary evidence to support it.

  3) John Hancock, then President of the Congress, was insistent that the magazines and laboratories be located in Brookfield and Hartford, Connecticut as well as Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Knox believed Springfield was a superior location, both because it was further up the Connecticut River than Hartford and was thus less vulnerable to British naval attack, and it was better suited to supplying American troops in upstate New York. Metals used for casting cannons, copper, tin and brass, were also more accessible near Springfield. Washington threw his prestige behind Knox and asked Congress to approve his artillery General’s change in congressional plans. Ultimately, they did, but John Adams recorded Hancock’s “great resentment against the book binder [Knox]. (Puls, pp. 84-85,) Before the war, Henry Knox was a bookseller not a bookbinder.

  4) After he arrived in Boston, Knox wrote Washington on February 1, 1777, that he was gathering materials “necessary to carry on the
various branches connected with the laboratory and ordnance establishment” in Springfield. He commented on the rapid rate of enlistments and the “very extraordinary bounty offered by the State ($86) for recruits for the service.” (Drake, p. 41.)

  5) By letter dated March 14th, Washington wrote Knox, still in Boston: “I have for some time past most earnestly expected you, to arrange matters in the artillery department. . . As you see how necessary your presence is here, I hope you will make as much haste as possible to join.” (Puls, p. 87.)

  6) The descriptions of the construction of the bridge and mill, the carpentry and ax work are depicted in wonderful drawings in The Diary of an Early American Boy. (Sloane, pp. 26-27; 36-38.)

  7) “Rog Sunday” is short for Rogation Sunday, the day farmers and their families prayed for a bountiful harvest. In the evening, the families “walked the boundaries of their property; it was both inventory and time for giving thanks for their land.” (Sloane, p. 33.)

  Part Three- The Campaign Renewed.

  Chapter 8 - Return to the Jersey Shore. 1) The New Jersey Constitution, adopted in 1776, entitled all heads of households, owning property over a certain value, to vote in New Jersey elections. This was interpreted to include unmarried widows, who by the death of their husbands and inheritance, became heads of households. (Blog-“Boston 1775,” September 27, 2014.)

  2) In the 1790s, an estimated 10,000 women were heads of households in New Jersey and entitled to vote. In 1807, New Jersey passed a new election law, restricting the right to vote to “all taxpaying white male citizens.” (Blog-“Boston 1775,” August 27, 28, 2010.)

  3) The Congress Minuet, like other minuets “was a dance of ceremony and ritual.” It was danced “in order of descending order of social rank” and was one that “any two dancers could safely perform without previous practice together.” (Charles Cyril Hendrickson and Kate Van Winkle Keller, “Social Dances from the American Revolution – Music and Instructions for country dances from the personal notebook of an officer in General Washington’s Army,” p. 9.) For example, at a dance and party hosted by General and Mrs. Knox at Pluckemin, the artillery encampment in 1778-1779, General Washington danced the opening minuet with Mrs. Knox as the hostess.