American Aurora
Page 45
Friday, September 19, 1777. Tom Paine writes of this morning:
[A]bout one in the morning the first alarm of [the British] crossing was given, and the confusion, as you may suppose was very great. It was a beautiful still moonlight morning and the streets as full of men, women and children as on a market day … I was fully persuaded that unless something was done the city [Philadelphia] would be lost …1002
Today, John Adams writes in his diary,
At 3 this Morning, was waked … and told that the Members of Congress were gone, some of them, a little after Midnight. That there was a Letter from Mr. Hamilton, Aid de Camp to the General, informing that the Enemy … had it in their Power to be in Philadelphia before Morning, and that if Congress was not removed, they had not a moment to lose. [We] arose, sent for our Horses, and after collecting our Things, rode off after the others … We rode to Trenton …1003
Saturday, September 20, 1777. This morning, Tom Paine visits the commander in chief and later writes:
I breakfasted … at General Washington’s quarters, who was at the same loss with every other to account for the accidents of the day. I remember his expressing his surprise, by saying, that at the time he supposed everything secure and was about giving orders for the army to proceed down to Philadelphia, that he most unexpectedly saw a part [of his army] … hastily retreating … A new army once disordered is difficult to manage …1004
There’s more bad news. Late tonight, the British surprise and massacre American soldiers outside Philadelphia at the Battle of Paoli. A British account:
Upon intelligence that [American] General [Anthony] Wayne was lying in the Woods with a Corps of 1500 men and four Pieces of Cannon, … [British] Major Grey was detached late at night with the 2d. Battalion of Light Infantry, a Troop of Light Dragoons, 42d and 44th. Regiments to surprize this Corps … Without the least noise our Party, by the Bayonet only, forced and killed all their out sentries and Picquets, and rushed in upon their Encampment, directed by the lights of their fires, killed and wounded not less than 300 in their Huts and about the fires, the 42d. sat fire to them, as many of the Enemy would not come out, chusing rather to suffer in the Flames than be killed by the Bayonet. The Party took between 70 and 80 prisoners, including several officers … We had one Officer and 3 men killed, and four wounded. The Party returned to their Camp that morning.1005
Sunday, September 21, 1777. Today, John Adams writes in his diary:
It was a false alarm which occasioned our Flight from Philadelphia. Not a Soldier of Howe’s has crossed the Schuylkill. Washington has again crossed it, which I think is a very injudicious Maneuvre … If he had sent one Brigade of his regular Troops to have [headed] the Militia, it would have been enough. With such a Disposition, he might have cutt to Pieces Howe’s army in attempting to cross any of the Fords …
I fear … the same timorous, defensive Part which has involved us so many Disasters. oh, Heaven! grant us one great Soul! One leading Mind would extricate the best Cause from that Ruin which seems to await it for the Want of it … One active, masterly Capacity would bring order out of this Confusion and save this Country.1006
Tuesday, September 23, 1777. Today, George Washington writes the Continental Congress, now situated in Lancaster, Pennsylvania:
I have not had the honor of addressing you since your adjournment to Lancaster and I sincerely wish that my first letter was upon a more agreeable subject. The Enemy, by a variety of perplexing Manoevres thro’ a Country from which I could not derive the least intelligence (Being to a man Disaffected), contrived to pass the Schuylkill last night … They marched immediately towards Philadelphia, and I imagine their advanced parties will be near that City to Night. They had so far got the Start before I recd. certain intelligence that any considerable Number had crossed that I found it in vain to think of overtaking their Rear …
[T]he strongest Reason against being able to make a forced March is the want of Shoes … At least one thousand Men are barefooted and have performed the late marches in that condition …1007
Today, Elias Boudinot of New Jersey, America’s Commissary General of Prisoners, writes his brother, Elisha:
After marching and countermarching and forced marching, we have lain still at this place and peaceably suffered about 7,500 men of the Enemy to cross the Schuylkill and enter the City of Philadelphia and never fired a Gun at them. Many are the reasons given for this Conduct … but I confess it is all arabic to me and by no means satisfactory.1008
Wednesday, September 24, 1777. Today, from Lancaster, French volunteer Baron Johann de Kalb writes Comte Charles-François de Broglie (the marshal in France’s army who offered to lead America’s army):
[H]aving left Philadelphia on the 15th, the Congress sent after me to tell me that I was appointed Major General … however, I am very undecided what to do. I should certainly have some reasons for remaining; I have still more to return home …
I have not yet told you anything of the character of General Washington. He is the most amiable, obliging, and civil man but as a General he is too slow, even indolent, much too weak and is not without his portion of vanity and presumption. My opinion is that if he gains any brilliant action, he will always owe it more to fortune or to the faults of his adversary than to his own capacity. I will even say that he does not know how to profit by the clumsiest mistakes of the enemy. He has not yet been able to get rid of his old prejudice against the French. I therefore think that in a short time, there will not be one of our officers in their service … If I return to Europe it will be in a great measure because it is impossible to succeed in the great project which I took up with so much pleasure.1009
Friday, September 26, 1777. Today, at ten in the morning, about 1,500 British troops, led by British General Charles, Lord Cornwallis, occupy Philadelphia. There is no resistance. A large part of the British army remains encamped in Germantown, about ten miles outside the city.1010
Saturday, October 4, 1777. Early this morning, George Washington surprises the British army camp at Germantown, but, when Washington’s soldiers become preoccupied with dislodging a British detachment from a large stone house (Cliveden) belonging to Pennsylvania’s Colonial Chief Justice Benjamin Chew, the British army has time to regroup and turn the tide. In this battle, Washington loses one thousand men, twice as many as the British. Washington reports his defeat to the Continental Congress:
We marched about Seven O’Clock the preceding Evening [the 3d], and … attacked their Picket … about Sun rise the next Morning [and] … the Light Infantry and other Troops encamped near the picket which [were] forced from the Ground, leaving their baggage. They retreated a considerable distance, having previously thrown a party into Mr. Chew’s house, who were in a situation not to be easily forced and had it in their power from the Windows to give us no small annoyance and in a great measure to obstruct our advance …
The Morning was extremely foggy which … obliged us to act with more caution and … gave the Enemy time to recover … and what was still more unfortunate, it served to keep our different parties in ignorance of each Other’s movements and … occasioned them to mistake one another for the Enemy, which I believe more than any thing else contributed to the misfortune which ensued. In the midst of the most promising appearances, when every thing gave the most flattering hopes of victory, the Troops began suddenly to retreat and intirely left the Field in spite of every effort that could have been made to rally them.1011
Benny Bache will (as an adult) write:
[I]t is here and there the complaint of an unsuccessful general that his troops want courage; yet when his troops can march barefooted in the snow and suffer many other hardships with constancy, it is but too certain a proof that what they most want is confidence. Hence the militia which fought so well at Lexington and Bunker’s hill in New England … too often fled when under the more immediate direction of General Washington; other troops commonly keeping them company. The bravest have some regard to their personal saf
ety; and when they suspect that their lives are likely to be thrown away uselessly, they are prompt in noticing defects in their position in the day of battle.1012
Wednesday, October 15, 1777. Today, at Saratoga, New York, militiamen of New England—who have swelled America’s Northern Army, under General Horatio Gates, to fourteen thousand and have inflicted three weeks of artillery shelling and small arms fire on the British Northern Army which has entered from Canada—have a tremendous American victory in sight. Today, Britain’s Lieutenant General John Burgoyne, who commands this British Northern Army, holds a war council with fellow officers which he memorializes:
The lieutenant-general states to the council the present situation of affairs.
The enemy in force, … upwards of fourteen thousand men and a considerable quantity of artillery are on this side of the Fish Kill and threaten an attack. On the other side the Hudson’s River … is another army of the enemy … They have likewise [French] cannon on the other side of the Hudson’s River …
The first question he desired them to decide was, Whether an army of 3500 fighting men, and well provided with artillery, were justifiable … in capitulating in any possible situation? …
Resolved … that the present situation justifies a capitulation …1013
Thursday, October 16, 1777. Today, President of the Continental Congress Henry Laurens informs his son, John, that there’s much criticism of Washington in the Congress:
I am writing in Congress and in the midst of much talk (not regular Congress) buz!
Says one “I would, if I had been Comm’ of that Army with such powers, have procured all the necessaries which are said to be wanted without such whining Complaints.”
“I would,” says 2d., “have prevented the amazing desertions which have happened …”3d “It is very easy too prevent intercourses between the Army and the Enemy … but we never mind who comes in and who goes out of our Camp.”
“In short,” 4th. “our Army is under no regulations or discipline” etc etc etc.1014
Friday, October 17, 1777. Today, an extraordinary event! At Saratoga, New York, British Lieutenant General John Burgoyne surrenders his five-thousand-man British Northern Army to American General Horatio Gates and America’s Northern Army of fourteen thousand militiamen. It’s a credit to General Gates, a credit to America’s militiamen, and—perhaps most of all—a credit to Benjamin Franklin’s diplomacy and to the generous assistance of France.
The French arms and ammunition that arrived this spring and summer equipped Horatio Gates’ fourteen-thousand-man army. As one historian has observed, “the arms and ammunition that stopped Burgoyne at Saratoga originally came from French arsenals.”1015 As another observed, “if it had not been for the great quantities of powder by importation from France before the Saratoga campaign, the Revolution would have broken down long before that time.”1016 Of the 2,250,000 pounds of gunpowder that Americans have used to this time, 90 percent has come from France.1017
Meanwhile, some in the Continental Congress want to wrest control of the war from George Washington and place it in a new war board to which they would promote certain military figures. Today, Washington urges that the Continental Congress not promote a French officer Thomas Conway to be a major general:
[I]f there is any truth in a report … that Congress hath appointed, or as others say are about to appoint, Brigadier Conway a Major-General in this Army, it will be as unfortunate a measure as ever was adopted. I may add (and I think with truth) that it will give a fatal blow to the existence of the Army … General Conway’s merit, then, as an Officer, and his importance in this Army, exists more in his own imagination than in reality … I am very well assured … that [the brigadiers] will not serve under him …
To Sum up the whole, I have been a slave to the service. I have undergone more than most Men are aware of to harmonize so many discordant parts; but it will be impossible for me to be of any further service, if such insuperable difficulties are thrown in my way.1018
Saturday, October 18, 1777. Today, George Washington learns of the Saratoga victory,1019 though not from General Gates. Tom Paine:
The campaign of 1777 became famous, not by anything on the part of General Washington, but [rather] by the capture of [British] General Burgoyne and the army under his command by the Northern Army at Saratoga under General Gates. So totally distinct and unconnected was the latter of the authority of the nominal Commander-in-Chief that the two generals did not so much as correspond, and it was only by a letter of [American] General [George] Clinton that George Washington was informed of the event.1020
Wednesday, October 22, 1777. Today, Britain’s commander in chief in North America, General Sir William Howe, submits his resignation. Britain’s General Sir Henry Clinton will succeed him.1021
Monday, October 27, 1777. Today, George Washington reflects on his military failures and on General Gates’ victory:
[The Northern Army] exhibits a striking proof of the advantages which result from unanimity and a spirited conduct in the Militias. [T]he Northern Army … was reenforced by upwards of 12,000 Militia who shut the only door by which Burgoyne could Retreat and cut off all of his supplies. How different our case !—the disaffection of great part of the Inhabitants of this State—the languor of others and internal distraction of the whole, have been among the great and insuperable difficulties I have met with, and have contributed not a little to my embarrassment this Campaign,—but enough! I do not mean to complain …1022
Thursday, October 30, 1777. Feelings against Washington continue to develop. Today, from Washington’s headquarters, Tom Paine writes congressional delegate Richard Henry Lee of Virginia:
I wish the Northern Army was down here. I am apt to think that nothing materially will take place on our part at present. Some means must be taken to fill up the Army this winter. I look upon the recruiting service at an end …1023
The outpouring of New England militias for Horatio Gates’ Northern Army has created an embarrassment for George Washington, whose defeats have lost him the power to recruit an army.
Tuesday, November 11, 1777. Today, John Adams leaves the Continental Congress for his home in Braintree, Massachusetts.1024
Thursday, November 20, 1777. Today, Pennsylvania’s attorney general writes Massachusetts congressional delegate James Lovell:
Thousands of Lives and millions of Property are yearly sacrificed to the insufficiency of our Commander-in-Chief. Two battles he has lost for us by two such blunders as might have disgraced a Soldier of three months standing.1025
Thursday, November 27, 1777. Today, in the Continental Congress, the Journals report:
Resolved, That Major-general Gates be appointed president of the Board of War;
Resolved, That Mr. President inform Major-general Gates of his being appointed president of the new Board of War, expressing the high sense Congress entertain of the General’s abilities and peculiar fitness to discharge the duties of that important office, upon the right execution of which the success of the American cause does eminently depend …1026
Today, Massachusetts congressional delegate James Lovell writes the victorious General Horatio Gates:
We want you in different places … We want you most near Germantown. Good God! what a situation are we in! How different from what might have been justly expected! You will be astonished when you come to know accurately what numbers have at one time and another been collected near Philadelphia to wear out stockings, shoes, and breeches. Depend on it for every ten soldiers placed under the command of our Fabius, five recruits will be wanted annually during the war. The brave fellows at Fort Mifflin and Red Bank have despaired of succor and been obliged to quit. The naval department has fallen into circumstances of seeming disgrace. Come to the Board of War if only for a short season …
[I]f it was not for the defeat of Burgoyne and the strong appearances of a European war, our affairs are Fabiused into a very disagreeable posture …1027
Thomas
Conway, the French officer whose promotion George Washington opposes, also sends congratulations to Horatio Gates:
Heaven has been determined to save your Country, or a weak General and bad Councellors would have ruind it.1028
Friday, November 28, 1777. Today, the Continental Congress chooses someone to replace Silas Deane as a commissioner in Paris. The Journals of the Continental Congress report:
Congress proceeded to the election of a commissioner to the Court of France in the room of S. Deane, Esq. and the ballots being taken,
John Adams, a delegate in Congress from Massachusetts bay, was elected.1029
John Adams:
Mr. Langdon came in from Philadelphia and leaning over the Bar whispered to me that Mr. Deane was recalled, and I was appointed to France … I could scarcely believe the news to be true …1030
Wednesday, December 10, 1777. Today, in the Continental Congress, the Journals report criticism of George Washington’s “forbearance”:
Resolved, That General Washington be informed that Congress have observed, with deep concern, that … since the loss of Philadelphia … the army has been irregularly and scantily supplied … while large quantities of stock … are still remaining in the counties of Philadelphia [&c] … which, by fortune of war, may soon be subjected to the power of the enemy;
That Congress … can only impute [General Washington’s] forbearance … to a delicacy in exerting military authority on the citizens of these states; a delicacy which … may … prove destructive to the army and prejudicial to the general liberties of America;
That … General Washington should, for the future, endeavor as much as possible to subsist his army from such parts of the country as are in his vicinity … and that he issue orders for such purpose …1031