Improbable Patriot

by Harlow Giles Unger

  As they neared Bennington, Vermont, their number had swelled to more than 2,000. They arrived in time to reinforce General John Stark’s 500 militiamen, who were under attack by a contingent of 900 British troops and running out of powder. With their powder horns refilled with Beaumarchais supplies, the Americans slaughtered 200 Redcoats by the end of the day and captured the remaining 700 — depleting Burgoyne’s forces by 10 percent. The disaster at Bennington proved the first in a series of crushing defeats that the arrival of Beaumarchais ships would inflict on Burgoyne and his Redcoats in the coming days.

  Nor was the war going well in the south. Although Howe had left New York with 15,000 troops on July 23, it took him a month to reach the northern shore of Chesapeake Bay and land his men — and another month of fierce fighting to capture Philadelphia. By then, Washington’s winter triumph at Trenton had revived American spirits and doubled the number of his fighting force to more than 10,000. By then, too, more French arms from Beaumarchais were landing on American shores. Although the British had captured the Seine, the 480-ton Amphitrite lumbered safely over the horizon into Portsmouth harbor on April 30 with twice as much cargo as the Mercure — enough arms, ammunition, and supplies for 30,000 men, according to Silas Deane’s own inventory.10 As more Beaumarchais ships arrived in Portsmouth, supply lines formed to carry French muskets, balls, powder, and other supplies to Washington’s army. Although still outnumbered, the Americans used their fresh supplies of arms and ammunition to begrudge Howe’s invaders every inch of ground on the road to Philadelphia, ceding access to the city only after a fierce bayonet attack at the Brandywine River southwest of the city sliced their numbers to levels that made further resistance impossible.

  By the time Howe’s army marched into Philadelphia on September 26, Burgoyne’s army in the north was running out of food. Unaware that Beaumarchais had successfully rearmed the Americans, Burgoyne ordered his troops to decamp and advance to Albany. Waiting for him was a battle-tested force of Northern Army soldiers under General Horatio Gates, a British-born officer who had planted his men on Bemis Heights, just south of Saratoga. As men streamed in to support Gates with supplies from Beaumarchais’s Amphitrite, Burgoyne ordered 1,200 Hessians to attack the American right flank, while 2,200 British troops charged the left flank and the rest of the British army attacked the center. To Burgoyne’s shock, the Americans turned the encounter into a slaughterhouse, with General Daniel Morgan’s riflemen poised behind trees on the slopes of Bemis Heights raining bullets on the advancing British troops as they marched in traditional linear style toward the forested hillside. Unaccustomed to fighting in the North American wilderness, the Redcoats toppled onto each other like toy soldiers, row after row, marching forward relentlessly, stepping over their fallen comrades before dropping under the ceaseless rifle fire. The British forces on either flank withdrew toward the center to save survivors and cover their retreat. At the end of the day, Burgoyne had lost about 600 men. The Patriots had lost only half that number, and whereas Burgoyne could not count on replacements, hundreds more farmers and their sons were streaming into the American camp to volunteer.

  As supplies from the Amphitrite continued rolling into the American camp, Burgoyne put his troops on half-rations and resolved to break through the American left flank, which blocked the road to Albany. Again, the Americans routed the British, who suffered a loss of 700 troops captured, wounded, and killed. The Americans lost 150 men. By early October, the American army had swelled to 17,000, all of them now well armed by Beaumarchais. By then, he had doubled his fleet to forty ships. Some continued sailing into Portsmouth, but many followed safer routes to the French West Indies, where they distributed their cargoes to smaller American ships that sailed into hidden harbors along the Atlantic coast. By October 1777, Beaumarchais’s ships had landed 200 field artillery pieces at Portsmouth, along with thousands of muskets, thousands of kegs of powder, and enough blankets, clothes, and shoes — and pocket handkerchiefs — in all, worth 5 million livres (about $20 million in today’s dollars), or nine-tenths of the Northern Army’s military supplies at the time.

  As Patriot forces surrounded Burgoyne’s army at Saratoga, Sir Henry Clinton sailed up the Hudson River from New York toward Albany to relieve Burgoyne. Clinton left New York on October 13, but his ships scraped bottom two days later, only midway up to Albany. Although his troops disembarked on the western shore of the river, they were already too late and too far away to save Burgoyne.

  When the Amphitrite was preparing to cast off for its return to France, an American ship’s captain arrived at Portsmouth with his officers and crew — and orders from Congress to seize command of the Amphitrite and sail off as a privateer to attack British shipping. Citing the command as a “reward for his zeal,” the instructions directed him to split the proceeds of all prizes three ways, with “one third to the French owners, master and crew, one third to Congress,” and one-third for the American captain “and his merry men.” The American captain was John Paul Jones.

  Appalled by the sheer gall of both Congress and Jones, the captain of the Amphitrite placed his hand on the handle of his sword and denied Jones permission to board his ship. To ease tensions, the captain of the Mercure stepped between the two men and offered to carry Jones as a passenger to seek a ship of his own in France, but Jones simply walked away. Congress subsequently offered him command of an American ship — the Ranger.

  When the Amphitrite returned from America, Beaumarchais bounded onto the deck and pulled up in shock as he stared in disbelief into the empty hold: no tobacco, no rice, no flour — nothing. Although the smaller Mercure had returned carrying lumber for masts and spars from New Hampshire’s white pine forests, the huge Amphitrite had returned to port empty — without American products to pay for the arms he had sent. In the weeks that followed, ship after ship returned in the same condition. All were to have picked up cargoes in such ports as Newport, Charleston, and Savannah before returning to France, but the Americans had evidently reneged on their deal. Beaumarchais had now sent more than 5 million livres (more than $20 million today) in arms to the Americans and received in return one load of lumber worth 19,000 livres (nearly $80,000).

  Unbeknownst to Beaumarchais, Arthur Lee was responsible for the playwright’s financial reversals. He had convinced Benjamin Franklin that the French arms Beaumarchais was shipping to America were an outright gift from the French king, and Franklin confirmed that “the first two millions granted to Beaumarchais by his majesty we understood to be a gift.”11 Lee confirmed Franklin’s argument with a letter of his own to Congress asserting, “I think it is my duty to state to you some facts relative to the demands of … Hortalez. … The Minister has repeatedly assured us, and in the most explicit terms, that no return is expected for these subsidies.”12

  Convinced that all the arms, ammunition, and matériel on the Beaumarchais ships had been gifts of the French king, Congress not only refused to ship any commodities to Beaumarchais, it did not reply to his letters or even thank him.

  “I am in despair,” Beaumarchais wrote to Vergennes on July 1, citing debts of more than 500,000 livres. As creditors threatened to seize Beaumarchais’s ships, Vergennes advanced him another 1 million livres to maintain the flow of arms to America, but Beaumarchais realized the advance was but a temporary solution to a much more serious problem: the failure of Congress to respond to his — and Silas Deane’s — entreaties to pay Hortalez et Cie. for earlier shipments. Even his crews threatened to abandon him. Without return cargoes to provide them with commissions, ships’ officers were selling cannons off their decks to realize some returns for their voyages. Beaumarchais decided to send Théveneau de Francy to America to learn the reasons and work out an arrangement for continuing to sell arms to America.

  Sailing with Francy was a Prussian officer whom the French minister of war, comte de St. Germain, had enticed into volunteering to train the American army. “You are the very man America needs at this moment,” St. Germain
told Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von Steuben. “Here is your field of action, here is the Republic you must serve. If you succeed … you will acquire more glory than you can hope for in Europe for many years to come.”13 When Benjamin Franklin was unable to provide von Steuben with an advance on his salary or even his traveling expenses, Beaumarchais gave the Prussian 1,000 louis d’or and free passage to America.

  Beaumarchais also gave von Steuben a letter of introduction to Congress: “The art of making war successfully being the fruit of courage combined with prudence, knowledge and experience,” Beaumarchais wrote, “a companion in arms of the great Frederick, who stood by his side for twenty-two years, seems one of the men best fitted to second Monsieur Washington.”14 Weeks later, von Steuben stood on a field at Valley Forge barking orders at Washington’s troops, teaching them to march in formation and teaching their officers the arts of warfare, strategy, and maintaining troop discipline.

  “I congratulate myself for what I have learned of him and for having given so great an officer to my friends, the free men of America,” Beaumarchais boasted to Francy after learning of von Steuben’s appointment as Inspector General of the Continental Army. “Never have I made an investment which gave me greater pleasure. … Bravo! Tell him that his glory is the interest on my money.”15

  Francy arrived in America in December 1777 and spent the next three months cajoling Congress into honoring the contractual arrangements implicit in the exchange of letters between Beaumarchais and Silas Deane in 1776. He finally extracted a document on April 6, 1778, that included this admission: “Whereas, Roderigue Hortalès et Cie. have shipped or caused to be shipped … considerable quantities of cannon, arms, ammunition, clothing, and other stores …” It continued with a promise to honor outstanding bills of 24 million livres (more than $98 million) plus 6 percent annual interest, payable either in specie or “exports of American produce.” The contract seemed to be a complete repudiation of Arthur Lee and a vindication of Beaumarchais “as the most zealous partisan of the American republic in France.”16

  The document did not, however, translate into any tobacco shipments, and after two months of fruitless attempts to obtain payment for his patron’s arms shipments, Francy wrote in despair to Beaumarchais: “In spite of the most formal engagements, these people find the means of obstructing all business and a pretext for breaking the most solemn promises. This business would be one of the greatest commercial operations ever engaged in, if one could only rely on the good faith of these republicans. But they have no principle and I sincerely believe you should close all your accounts with them.”17

  On October 13, 1777, British General John Burgoyne asked for a ceasefire at Saratoga. Four days later, surrounded by a well-armed force three times larger than his own, he surrendered his army of more than 5,000 men to the Americans. After the surrender, Burgoyne at last reached Albany — as a prisoner rather than as a conqueror — while his men marched away to an internment camp near Boston. Clinton’s troops, meanwhile, had reached the state capital of Kingston to the south and, hearing of Burgoyne’s surrender, retaliated by burning the town to the ground before reboarding their ships and returning to New York.

  When news of Burgoyne’s surrender reached London the following month, gloom swept through the halls of Parliament. Prime Minister Lord North responded by sending a representative to Paris to try to negotiate terms of reconciliation with Deane and Franklin, but the Saratoga victory emboldened the Americans to refuse to discuss any topic but full independence.

  Exulting in the news of the Saratoga victory, Beaumarchais warned Vergennes that “an emissary from Lord North arrived in Paris yesterday. … He has orders to gain the deputation at Passy [Franklin’s residence] at any price. This is the moment or never … whichever of the two nations, France or England, recognizes first the independence of America, she alone will reap all the fruits, while that independence will certainly be ruinous to the one which allows her rival to get the advance.”18

  Using the American victory at Saratoga to convince Vergennes that the Americans would win the war if properly armed, Beaumarchais coaxed the foreign minister into urging the king to recognize American independence. And as the playwright predicted, the king’s acquiescence made France the first nation to harvest the fruits of American independence.

  On February 6, 1778, French representatives signed two treaties with the Americans. One was a treaty of amity and commerce that immediately granted France and the United States “most favored nation” trade status with each other. The other treaty formed a defensive military alliance that would become effective if and when France and Britain went to war with one another. The alliance included a French pledge to help the United States “maintain its liberty, sovereignty, and independence,” and it gave the United States the right to conquer Canada and Bermuda. France won the right to seize the British West Indies. Both nations agreed to guarantee each other’s territorial integrity. On March 20, 1778, King Louis XVI officially received Franklin and Deane as representatives of the United States of America.

  Before leaving for Versailles, however, Deane learned that Congress had recalled him. Although he could not know it then, his recall followed a series of letters from Arthur Lee insinuating that Deane had embezzled funds destined for American aid. Only the eloquence of New York’s John Jay, then secretary for foreign affairs, prevented Congress from adding a censure to the recall.

  Distraught by the unfeeling senselessness of the letter of recall, Deane turned to his friend Beaumarchais, who had received word from Francy of Deane’s humiliation. “I am almost sure that it is the work of that famous politician … Arthur Lee,” Francy wrote. “It is he who has alienated Doctor Franklin from you.”19

  It was Deane who had taught Beaumarchais to love America and the American cause, and Beaumarchais instinctively began plotting to save his friend’s reputation with a letter to Vergennes, who already suspected Lee of being an agent for England. “To succeed in his design,” Beaumarchais wrote of Lee, “it was necessary to dispose of a colleague so formidable as Mr. Deane … by rendering him … an object of suspicion to Congress.” Calling Deane a friend of France and French interests, Beaumarchais urged Vergennes to bestow on Deane

  a particular mark of distinction, even the King’s portrait or some such noticeable present to convince his countrymen that not only was he a creditable and faithful agent, but that his personality, prudence and action have pleased the French Ministry. I strongly recommend his being escorted by a fleet or royal frigate. … Once justified before Congress, his opinion becomes of immense weight and influence. … His enemies will remain dazed and humiliated at their own failure. … Upon the assurance that these considerations be regarded as just, I will neglect everything else until I have completely vindicated Mr. Deane.20

  Beaumarchais’s seductive words convinced Vergennes to send Deane a portrait of King Louis XVI, with testimonial letters from the king’s ministers. What Deane needed more than the king’s portrait, however, was some hard cash. In accepting his assignment in France, he had counted on collecting a 5 percent commission on the sale of commodities that Congress was to have shipped to pay for military supplies. By the time of his recall, however, Congress had shipped so little that Deane had depleted his own resources and had borrowed money from Beaumarchais to pay for his food and lodging during his last months in France. Benjamin Franklin, of course, had foreseen such problems and brought a shipload of indigo he had purchased in America to sell when he landed in Brittany.

  The world-renowned Admiral Comte d’Estaing led a French fleet that carried Deane home to America, and Vergennes’s personal letter to the president of Congress confirmed Deane’s “zeal, activity and intelligence in supporting United States interests.”21 Beaumarchais wrote that even as America’s other ministers — Lee and Franklin — were “lacking in common civility towards me, I testify that my zeal, my advances of money, and my shipments of supplies and merchandise have been … due
to the indefatigable exertions of Mr. Deane.”22

  Before leaving, Deane wrote a long farewell to his friend Beaumarchais, promising, first, to return in the fall to repay Beaumarchais’s personal loans to him and then congratulating him for having “contributed more than any other person … to [the French government] resolution to protect America’s liberties and independence. I shall … rely on being honored with a continuance of your … friendship. Wishing that you may ever be happy and fortunate … Silas Deane.”23

  As Deane sailed to America, word of the French fleet’s approach provoked a British evacuation of Philadelphia and consolidation of their American forces in New York. When Deane’s ship moored in Delaware Bay, he sent word of his arrival to Congress, which simply ignored him. And when he finally addressed that body, its members dismissed his every word, with the friends and relatives of Arthur Lee convinced that Lee had had no reason to lie about Deane and that his accusations were true.

  While waiting for Francy to obtain redress from Congress, Beaumarchais heard from William Carmichael, Deane’s secretary, who had preceded his patron home to America. “I have applied myself with my whole power to convince my compatriots of the injustice and ingratitude with which you have been treated,” Carmichael wrote.

  I wish for the honor of my compatriots that it had never been necessary for us to plead for you. … Mr. de Francy is in Virginia and works sincerely and indefatigably for your interests.