American Aurora

by Richard N. Rosenfeld

  [W]e had no reason to expect that the same Sieur Wickes would prosecute his cruising in the European seas, and we could not be otherwise than greatly surprised that, after having associated with the privateers the Lexington and the Dolphin to infest the English coast, they should all three of them come for refuge into our ports. You are too well informed, gentlemen, and too penetrating not to see how this conduct affects the dignity of the king, my master, at the same time it offends the neutrality, which his majesty professes … The king cannot dissemble it, and it is by his express order, gentlemen, that I acquaint you that orders have been sent to then ports on which the said privateers have entered, to sequester and detain them …975

  Today, the British Minister to France writes London:

  A little Time will show the real Intentions of France, if after her strong Professions, the succors to the Rebels should be continued and the American Privateers suffered to take Shelter and refit in her ports, the Consequence is clear. She must be resolved to [have] a War.976

  Sunday, July 20, 1777. Today, from the French port of St. Malo, American Captain Lambert Wickes writes his fellow American Captain Henry Johnson:

  [I] beg you would not leave that port untill you receive orders to do from the Hon[orable] Commissioners at Paris, but hold yourself in readiness to depart on Receipt of their orders from Paris … I think the reason the Gentlemen has not wrote you is owing to the hurry of Business now on hand, as our late Cruize has made a great deal of Noise & will probably bring on a War between France and England which is my sincere wish …977

  Thursday, July 31, 1777. In the United States, British Commander in Chief for North America Sir William Howe has sailed from New York to attack Philadelphia. Today, George Washington learns this and writes:

  Genl. Howe’s Object and Operations no longer remain a Secret. At half after nine O’Clock this Morning, I received an Express from Congress advising that the Enemy’s Fleet, consisting of 228 Sail, were at the Capes of Delaware yesterday in the forenoon. This being the case there can be no doubt but he will make a vigorous push to possess Philadelphia, and we should collect all the force we can to oppose him …

  As the Troops are on their March from hence, I shall not add more …978

  Monday, August 4, 1777. Today, as Washington prepares to bring his army back from New Jersey to Pennsylvania, the Continental Congress takes charge of the Northern Army. The Journals report:

  Congress took into consideration the letter from General Washington, wherein “he wishes to be excused from making the appointment of an officer to command the northern army”; and thereupon

  Congress proceed to the election of an officer; and the ballots being taken, Major General Gates was elected to the command [of the Northern Army] …979

  Congress has replaced General Schuyler as head of the Northern Army. John Adams:

  [T]he New England Officers, Soldiers and Inhabitants, knew Gates in the Camp at Cambridge … The New England Soldiers would not enlist to serve under [New Yorker Schuyler] and the Militia would not turn out … I was therefore under a Necessity of supporting Gates …980

  Tuesday, August 5, 1777. Today, George Washington writes:

  I hove, from the first, been among those few who never built much upon a French war. I ever did, and still do think, they never meant more than to give us a kind of underhand assistance; that is, to supply us with Arms, &c. for our Money and trade.981

  Tuesday, August 12, 1777. Today, in Paris, Benny Bache turns eight years old. Benny attends Le Coeur’s boarding school, about a half day’s ride from his grandfather, whom he visits each weekend and on holidays.982

  Saturday, August 16, 1777. Today, at Bennington, Vermont, General John Stark, who refuses to be part of the Continental army and is the object of congressional hearings to censure him for this refusal,983 leads an independent force of about 1,800 Hampshire Grants men to overpower five hundred Hessian mercenaries who have been detached, under Hessian Lieutenant Colonel Baum, from the British Northern Army, under General John Burgoyne, that is marching south from Canada.984

  Tuesday, August 19, 1777. Today, Horatio Gates takes command of America’s Northern Army, which is being reinforced with New England militiamen and equipped with massive quantities of French arms and ammunition which have arrived this spring and summer. The Northern Department does not report to Washington, and Washington declined even to recommend a commander for it. Washington:

  The Northern department in a great measure has been considered as separate, and more peculiarly under [Congress’] direction, and the officers commanding there always of their nomination. I have never interfered further than merely to advise, and to give such aids as were in my power, on the requisitions of those Officers.985

  Wednesday, August 20, 1777. Today, near Saratoga, New York, British Lieutenant General John Burgoyne, leading Britain’s Northern Army, writes British Colonial Secretary Lord George Germain:

  No operation, my lord, has yet been undertaken in my favour … Mr. [Horatio] Gates … is now strongly posted near the mouth of the Mohawk River, with an army superior to mine … He is likewise far from being deficient in artillery, having received all the pieces which were landed from the French ship which got into Boston.986

  Friday, August 22, 1777. Today, Washington reports to Congress his reaction to news that the British are threatening Philadelphia:

  I am honored with your favor containing the intelligence of the Enemy’s arrival in Chesapeak Bay … I have issued orders for all the Troops here to be in motion tomorrow morning very early with intention to march them towards Philadelphia.987

  Today, as George Washington sets off for Philadelphia, he orders Major General Sullivan to raid Staten Island but with so few soldiers that they are quickly put to flight. Washington:

  It is unfortunate that an affair, which had so prosperous a beginning, should have terminated so disagreeably as in a great measure to defeat the good consequences that might have attended it … I am not sufficiently acquainted with circumstances to form a certain judgment of what might have been expected from this expedition …988

  Sir Henry Clinton:

  With respect to my own Post, it was threatened & once attacked with 7000 22.augt—had it been with 14,000, as would have been the Case if Washington had not been a Blockhead, I should have lost Staten and Long Island—even as it was, the good Conduct alone of the officers commanding at those stations saved them.989

  Saturday, August 23, 1777. However unsuccessful George Washington’s military operations may be, Ben Franklin is directing a naval operation that may force France into the war against Britain. Today, Silas Deane reports to the Committee of Foreign Affairs (formerly the Committee of Secret Correspondence) of the Continental Congress on Franklin’s naval operations, starting with Franklin’s decision to disregard congressional instructions and seize British prizes on his voyage to France:

  The first that arrived was the Reprisal with two prizes; this caused much speculation, and at our first audience [with the French Foreign Ministry] after, we were told that, by the treaties subsisting between France and England, ships of war belonging to any foreign power at war with either could not be entered into their ports … and, as you will see in the treaty of commerce of 1713, confirmed by all subsequent treaties …

  [T]he Reprisal [was] repaired and fitted for another cruise; which she made on the coast of Spain, taking, among other English prizes, the packet [mail] boat from Lisbon; with which Captain Wickes returned to [France’s] port d’Orient. On this the English Ambassador complained loudly, and the English merchants were alarmed. Insurance rose in London, and it was generally supposed there would be a restitution of the prizes and detention of Captain Wickes, or a declaration of war. This Court then ordered the prizes as well as Capt. Wickes to leave the port in twenty four hours. The former were sent out but sold to French merchants, and Captain Wickes, his ship being leaky was permitted to stay. Soon after this, Captain Johnson arrived in the Lexington, and we, h
aving bought a cutter, … sent her and the Lexington, under the command of Captain Wickes as commodore, with the design of intercepting the Irish linen ships … [A]s they sailed quite round Ireland and took or destroyed seventeen or eighteen sail of vessels, they most effectually alarmed England, prevented the great fair at Chester, occasioned insurance to rise, and even deterred the English merchants from shipping goods in English bottoms at any rate, so that in a few weeks forty sail of French ships were loading in the Thames on freight; an instance never before known.

  But upon this the English Ambassador complained in a higher tone … [O]rders were sent from the Court [of France] to detain [Captain Wickes’] vessel and the Lexington until further orders. This was owing partly to Captain Wickes having repeatedly come into the ports of France with prizes and refitted his ship for fresh cruises, it being contrary to the treaty which they pretend to hold sacred … and the consequent threatenings of the British ministry. In this situation [we] remain at present …

  [W]e bought a luggger at Dover and … sent Captain Cunningham in her, and ordered him to intercept the packet between England and Holland … Cunningham took her. As she had a prodigious number of letters on board, he imagined it was proper he should return to Dunkirk instead of continuing his course; in his return he also took a brig of some value and brought both prizes into port. This spread the alarm far and wide, and gave much real ground of complaint … The Ministry, therefore, to appease England ordered the prizes to be returned, and Cunningham and his crew to be imprisoned … But not discouraged thereby, another cutter was bought and equipped completely in the port of Dunkirk. Cunningham and his crew were set at liberty, and with some address and intrigue got again to sea … His first adventure greatly raised insurance on the northern trade, even the packet boats from Dover to Calais were for some time insured. On his leaving the port of Dunkirk the second time, he had orders to proceed directly for America, but he … attacked the first vessels they met with, and plundered and burnt as they went on. Our last accounts are that they had taken or destroyed about twenty sail … [T]o appease the British ministry, [our naval purchasing agent] Mr Hodge has been arrested and confined … [T]he politics of this Court are intricate and embarrassed with connexions and alliances … Some other prizes have arrived in different ports, particularly two valuable Jamaicamen sent to Nantes a few days since … [T]he owners … lodged claims, showing that they … were English property captured by American privateers, and consequently by treaty could not be sold in France. This obliged the government to arrest the prizes or openly violate the treaty …990

  Today, French Foreign Minister Vergennes advises French King Louis XVI on how to deal with the ultimatum that Britain’s ambassador, Lord Stormont, has delivered on Franklin’s naval operations:

  If the King consents to compel the surrender … of the prizes that American privateers may bring into his ports … it will have the effect of declaring them and their countrymen to be pirates … in order to avoid, perhaps for the moment, compromising ourselves with the English. It will have the effect of facilitating the reconciliation of the latter with the others …

  The need and desire for peace must doubtless induce some sacrifices … Peace being preferable to war, although such peace as we could conclude with England would be but precarious, it might be proposed from this aspect to renew, and that in the most explicit manner, the orders that the American privateers and their prizes be not admitted within the ports of France except under absolutely urgent circumstances …

  These orders issued, the tenor and the copies of them might, if the king shall permit, be officially communicated to the English Ministry …991

  Vergennes’ plan is adopted.

  Today, George Washington writes the Continental Congress:

  I beg leave to inform you that the [American] Army marched early this morning and will encamp this Evening, I expect, within Five or Six Miles of Philadelphia. Tomorrow Morning, it will move again, and I think to march it thro’ the City … that it may have some influence on the minds of the disaffected there and those who are Dupes to their artifices and opinions. The March will be down Front and up Chestnut Street, and I presume about Seven O’Clock.992

  Tonight, George Washington, twenty staff officers, and their servants stay at George Logan’s home, Stenton, outside Philadelphia in Germantown.993

  Tuesday, September 2, 1777. Today, from Philadelphia, John Adams writes to his wife, Abigail, about Washington’s Fabian tactics:

  Washington has a great Body of Militia assembled and assembling, in Addition to a grand Continental Army. Whether he will strike or not, I cant say. He is very prudent, you know, and will not unnecessarily hazard his Army. By my own inward Feelings, I judge, I should put more to risque if I were in his shoes …

  I wish the Continental Army would prove that any Thing can be done. But this is sedition at least. I am weary however, I own, with so much Insipidity.994

  Thursday, September 11, 1777. Today, George Washington confronts the British army on its march from the Chesapeake Bay toward Philadelphia. In the Battle of Brandywine Creek, Washington allows his army to be outflanked (as in New York), to suffer the loss of a thousand men, and to avoid complete destruction only through British forbearance in its pursuit.995 Tonight, at midnight, Washington prepares his report to the Continental Congress:

  I am sorry to inform you that, in this day’s engagement, we have been obliged to leave the enemy masters of the field. Unfortunately the intelligence received of the enemy’s advancing up the Brandywine and crossing at a ford about six miles above us, was uncertain … This prevented my making a disposition adequate to the force with which the Enemy attacked us on the right; in consequence of which the troops first engaged were obliged to retire before they could be reinforced. In the midst of the attack on the right, that body of the Enemy which remained on the other side … attacked the division there … and the light troops … who, after a severe conflict, also retired. The Militia … being post at a ford, about two miles [away], had no opportunity of engaging …996

  Adjutant General Timothy Pickering will much later write:

  I had been in the army hardly three months when the Battle of Brandywine took place. While going with an order from the General [Washington] …, the action began … But before our arrival the troops had been defeated and retired. I joined the General. The British were advancing in line. There was no adequate force to oppose them … [T]he body of the enemy, left at Chad’s Ford, crossed and defeated our troops posted there to receive them. Thus the day closed. In the course of it, I had observed nothing which indicated commanding talents in the General…997

  The nineteen-year-old French nobleman volunteer, the Marquis de Lafayette, now a major general in the American army, is wounded at Brandywine. Another French volunteer on the scene, the engineer and future American general Du Portail, observes:

  If the English had followed their advantage that day, Washington’s army would have been spoken of no more.998

  Tuesday, September 16, 1777. Today, Washington loses another battle, this time the “Battle of the Clouds.” Washington reports:

  When I left Germantown with the Army, I hoped I should have had an opportunity of attacking them either in Front or on their Flank, with a prospect of Success; But … [o]ur March … was greatly impeded thro’ want of Provisions which delayed us so long that the Enemy were apprized of our Motions and gained the Grounds near the White Horse Tavern, with a part of their Army turning our right flank, whilst another part, composing the Main Body, were more advanced towards our left. We should have disappointed them … But the Heavy rain which fell that evening and in the course of the night, totally unfitted our Guns for Service and nearly the whole of the Ammunition with which the Army had been compleated … In this Situation it was judged necessary that we should proceed [retreat] as far as Reading Furnace for the security of the army. Owing to these accidents … the Enemy have had an opportunity of making their advances without being atta
cked.999

  A comment by Adjutant General Timothy Pickering:

  [W]e expected another general attack. Fortunately for the American army (so I have always thought) after some smart skirmishing, it began to rain; and [British] General Howe halted …

  It was during this skirmishing … I found the General [Washington] surrounded by officers, and everything in suspense … [Y]ou will imagine how urgent was the occasion when I could address [Washington] in this language; “Sir, the advancing of the British is manifest … If we are to take the high grounds on the other side of the valley, we ought to march immediately … Pray, Sir decide.”…

  [T]he emphatic words [“Pray, Sir, decide”] … so strongly marked the General’s want of decision.

  Having been under arms nearly all day during an incessant rain, the ammunition in the cartridge boxes (which were badly made) was spoiled. This obliged us to keep out of striking distance … until the army could safely encamp and make up musket cartridges. This caution occasioned two or three night marches. In one of them, General [Nathanael] Greene and I fell together in the rear of the army. In that situation, I thus accosted him. “General Greene, I had once conceived an exalted opinion of General Washington’s military talents; but since I have been in the army, I have seen nothing to enhance that opinion.” In fact, it was lowered, and so Greene must have understood me; for he answered promptly and precisely in these words—“Why the General does want decision: for my part, I decide in a moment.”1000

  Thursday, September 18, 1777. Today, news that Washington won’t prevent an attack on Philadelphia reaches the city. This autumn, like last, Philadelphians must flee. The Pennsylvania Gazette does not appear.1001