In mid-September, a captain carrying official dispatches for Lord Howe called on Caroline in Grafton Street with news of D’Estaing’s maneuvers. The detailed intelligence that she passed on to Lady Spencer shows how closely the Howe women followed the military operations of their men. D’Estaing had left his station off Sandy Hook in New York on July 22, Caroline wrote; three days later, he was sighted off the Delaware River. Meanwhile, four warships from Byron’s scattered fleet had reached New York, and the captain informed her that he had learned of six more warships during his Atlantic crossing. Caroline rejoiced that D’Estaing had abandoned his station at Sandy Hook, leaving the way open for the delayed warships to “get safe to Lord Howe,” and “if they do arrive safe, they will make my Brother strong enough to face D’Estaing if he dare return.”23
On July 29, D’Estaing’s squadron dared to return, appearing off Newport. Ten days later, several thousand American troops began to surround the British positions. The redcoat garrison prepared for a siege. Meanwhile, Richard faced adverse winds that prevented him from quickly reaching Rhode Island from New York. Howe’s squadron finally arrived off Newport on August 9. D’Estaing put to sea and prepared to confront the enemy.
In this age of wooden ships, it was not until August 12 that the opposing fleets managed to form their battle lines. Then, at four in the morning, a series of severe thunderstorms hit the fleets. Hours later, after the storms cleared, the damage was revealed. The French flagship Languedoc—with eighty cannon, the most powerful vessel in the fray—was dismasted, crippled in the tossing sea. The French had seemingly fared worse than their foe, and their earlier eagerness for battle was extinguished. While the French tried to avoid action, the British fleet held a different opinion; a sporadic and very disorganized battle began as the dispersed fleets encountered each other.
Nisbet Balfour—who had been promoted to lieutenant colonel eight months earlier—was present at the naval battle, along with his 23rd regiment. The British navy had recruited soldiers to serve as marines on their ships because of the desperate shortage of manpower in America. Balfour’s musket-wielding fusiliers were obliged to learn to climb rigging and man the “tops,” large platforms on the upper masts where they could act as snipers. When it became obvious on that day that the enemy had had enough and was heading out to sea, the British soldiers set up a war whoop in imitation of the Indian victory cries they had heard in America.24
Although naval maneuvers between the two opposing fleets continued along the coast over the next week, the French threat to Newport had been driven off. Without D’Estaing’s ships as backup, the Americans were soon obliged to abandon their siege of Newport—to their disgust, for they had expected much from the French. The new allies, however, had not yet learned to work together effectively.25 Richard, ever skillful and competent, had averted a damaging and embarrassing defeat.
With the enemy still near, Richard continued his diligent defensive operations off the American coast throughout August. Meanwhile, Britain waited impatiently for news; there was hope that Admiral Howe would destroy the French fleet. But the British people would have to wait until October for reports of the storm-tossed battle off Newport. As usual, Caroline sent Lady Spencer the details. Her brother had not been on his flagship during the action, she told her friend. He had supervised from a frigate, which was almost crippled in the encounter: “[I]n the Storm that parted the two fleets when they were only 3 miles asunder & preparing to engage, my brother was on board a frigate reconnoitre-ing & giving orders, she lost all her masts, we understand he is now at Rhode Island, & D’Estaing refitting at Boston.”26
On September 26, Richard transferred his command to Vice Admiral Byron and headed for England, making landfall on October 25. “We are all half wild,” wrote Caroline to her friend, “& you I am sure will sincerely rejoice with us.” Lady Howe had left home immediately to be reunited with Lord Howe at Portsmouth. “[W]hat a difference has a few weeks made in her feelings!”27
Richard remained in Portsmouth for five days, awaiting permission to strike his flag. Once ashore, his first destination was Heckfield Park in Hampshire, the Pitts residence. It was a family gathering; in addition to his wife and his sister Mary and her husband, William and Julie were there. His three daughters, Charlotte, Mary, and Louisa, were to be ferried by their Aunt Caroline to Porter’s Lodge, where they would see their father again after a separation of more than two years. The youngest, Louisa, who was only eleven, indulged her Aunt Caroline with a flight of fancy. “Little Louisa t’other day talking of her father, said to me I know what he will say with my mamma, ‘what’ says I. That he is very much grieved she has not got a little boy ready for him, & that he shall only find the 3 girls he left. I thought I shd. have fallen off my chair with laughing.”28
Richard had defied etiquette by failing to proceed directly to London to be received by the king, but Caroline was instructed to deflect curiosity by giving out that “Ld Howe was not very well & a little fatigued with his voyage.”29 Just a week later, Richard was graciously received at a royal levee, and Caroline was soon back in Grafton Street, still rejoicing in her brother’s safe return. “He is thinner but vastly well,” she wrote, “his reception at court has been of course gracious, but I believe nothing talked over.” In fact, the Howes were dissatisfied with William’s treatment. “How it will all end I cannot guess,” Caroline continued. Both her brothers remained out of town until the opening of Parliament. “I fancy it will be a thorough bustling Sessions.”30
“Thorough bustling Sessions” was an understatement. Much had changed since Richard had last trod upon English soil. Britain now feared a French invasion and, as ever, all eyes were on the Channel Fleet as the first line of defense. Military camps were being set up to protect England’s principal naval bases and block any attempted enemy advance on London. Secret plans were made for a scorched-earth policy in the event of a French landing.31
Meanwhile, the British public was extracting some fun from the situation. The new military camps were an attraction. Crowds of visitors arrived to watch the troops review in a fairground atmosphere. Stalls and refreshments catered to the throng, musical comedies offered lighthearted takes on life in the camps, sham fights were put on, and the whole business helped to stoke a robust British war fever.32 The people of Britain had found a cause they could sink their teeth into. The notion that the American rebels were fighting for liberty now seemed hollow as they allied themselves with the despotic regime of Louis XVI. The newspapers had found a new target:
Say, Yankees, don’t you feel compunction,
At your unnatural, rash conjunction?
Can love for you in him take root,
Whose Catholic, and absolute?33
Those who earlier had voiced opposition to the war now joined the cause in defense of old England, and friends of the Howes were among them. The Duke of Richmond took up with zeal his formerly honorary office as lord lieutenant and colonel of the Sussex militia.34 Lady Spencer’s son, Lord Althorp, who had turned twenty in September, became a captain in the Northamptonshire militia. He was posted at Warley Camp in Essex, where he slept in a tent. Sanitation was rudimentary, and sickness spread as winter approached.35 William Howe met the youth while making his professional round of visits to military camps, and he found time to send word to Lady Spencer via Caroline that he looked in perfect health. A month later, Althorp visited his virtual aunt in Grafton Street, on a prosaic quest for woolen nightcaps. “[H]e looks as well as possible,” reassured Caroline, who had probably plied him with tea and cakes. “[H]e went back to Warley the same day.”36
Even Lord Althorp’s sister, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, spent time in a military camp during the dangerous year of 1778. Her husband, as Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire, was training regiments of volunteers in Kent, and the duchess insisted on sharing in the duke’s privations by living in the field in his tent. The ducal encampment was actually a vast network of marquees that included reception ro
oms, private sleeping areas, kitchens, and quarters for the servants. The duchess, unexpectedly, found herself drawn into a very different sort of predicament during that summer, as her husband began an affair with Lady Jersey. When Lady Spencer heard about it, she angrily confronted Lady Jersey on her daughter’s behalf. Georgiana, meanwhile, rode on a surge of popularity as she designed and outfitted herself and the other aristocratic wives in riding habits inspired by the military uniforms of their men. The Whig party of the Devonshires had been under a cloud for its support of the American rebellion. Now the duchess charmed the public with her colorful demonstration of Whiggish war fever.
Georgiana was celebrated for her use of dress to make political statements. She was already notorious for donning the blue-and-buff colors of the American rebel Continental Army—colors that had been adopted by the male members of the Whig party in 1777 to demonstrate their opposition to the war.37 Perhaps this taxed the indulgent good humor of her adoptive Aunt Caroline, whom she visited regularly and whose redcoat brother was now home from the war, but Caroline’s letters were silent on the issue. Years later, however, Lady Spencer was advising on a new coat for Caroline’s great-nephew that was to have buff trimmings. “I like anything with Buff,” Lady Spencer let drop, “but Blue.”38
In Parliament, the opposition group led by Lord Rockingham, which had opposed the war in America from its beginning, reacted to the news that France was entering the conflict by moving toward advocating recognition of American independence. Britain was perilously exposed, it was argued. There were cries against Lord Sandwich, the First Lord of the Admiralty, because the navy was not in a state of readiness for the emergency. The depredations of American sea captain John Paul Jones and his USS Ranger along the coast of Britain brought home Britain’s vulnerability, even though the material damage inflicted was not serious.39
Richard’s elderly patron the Earl of Chatham was horrified to hear the Rockinghams declare that they were ready to concede American independence. On April 7, he dragged himself on crutches into the House of Lords to declare that America, “the great source of all our wealth and power,” must never be allowed to separate from Britain. His collapse on the floor of the House was high drama, and he died five weeks later.40
UPON HIS RETURN HOME, Richard would discover that the nation was in no mood to accept anything less than complete victory from its naval commanders, and that some viewed his success in Newport as a disappointment. Biting commentary from Horace Walpole reflected the opinion that Richard ought to have captured or blockaded D’Estaing and his ships in Boston. Instead, rather than taking the French fleet, sneered Walpole, “Lord Howe himself arrived on Monday, having taken nothing but his leave.”41
Richard’s most vociferous political critic was George Johnstone, one of the peace commissioners who went to America with Lord Carlisle. Johnstone was a naval officer and a member of Parliament who had served as governor of the new British colony of West Florida during the 1760s. He was a man of bold actions and strong opinions who was willing to resort to pistol or cudgel to enforce his views. Independent in his loyalties, he was nevertheless friendly with opposition leaders. In the early years of the war, he had opposed the coercion of America. But he returned from service on the Carlisle Commission with very different feelings, disgusted with the American Congress and highly motivated to join the war against the French.42 Johnstone was now convinced that American loyalists had been right all along, that the upstart Continental Congress did not represent the opinions of most Americans, and that the Continental Army was breaking up. He was not slow to blame the Howes for the fiasco in America, and he was convinced that increased military pressure could still win the war for Britain.43
Thus began a tiresome tug-of-war, which would last for the remainder of the conflict, between those who thought three years of fighting had proven it to be a futile waste, and those who believed just one more big campaign would win the colonies back. The controversy over why the Howes had failed to achieve victory became politically loaded as it became entangled with the extremes of opinion over the war itself.
Opposition leaders contended that the conflict in America was unwinnable. The Americans should be conciliated—which effectively meant offering them independence—and the nation’s firepower should be turned on the French. The danger to national security was great, and the imminent threat that Spain might soon declare war against Britain made it greater still.
The king and his government, on the other hand, remained adamantly opposed to recognizing American independence. The extent of popular loyalty in America was a key component in the government’s argument for prolonging the war. Lord George Germain, clashing with the Rockinghams over the lessons to be drawn from the battle at Saratoga, pointed to testimonies of American loyalists in London. They corroborated the views of men like MP George Johnstone, arguing that loyal Americans were an oppressed majority in the colonies, and the rebellion’s success did not reflect popular support for the war.44 That meant, of course, that the blame had to lie elsewhere, and the Howes became the center of the growing storm. They had to be “guilty of something,” whether it be treason or incompetence. If they were not, the war in America risked losing all credibility.
In December 1778, the Howe brothers took aim at Lord George Germain in the House of Commons. William declared bluntly that the war could not succeed under the direction of Germain. The brothers were openly gunning for the American secretary alone, rather than the North administration. Members of both houses scrambled to take sides. Lord North defended his fellow minister, declaring that the measures pursued were those agreed upon by the collective cabinet. Opposition leader Lord Shelburne, calling for a parliamentary inquiry into the conduct of the war, charged that nothing but “national ruin” could be expected as long as the present administration was in power.45
Shelburne was a natural ally of the Howes, having known the family for years, and he, like them, was a follower of Chatham. Upon the death of William Pitt in May, he assumed leadership of the Chatham group in Parliament. Thereafter, Shelburne was drawn into Caroline’s social set, becoming another caller at 12 Grafton Street.46 Like William Pitt, he opposed recognition of American independence, arguing that, with the loss of the colonies, “we shall no longer be a powerful or respectable people.” But he also launched vigorous attacks on the policies of the North administration. He and Governor Johnstone clashed in debates that played out the spectrum of opinion on the war. Shelburne asserted that General Burgoyne’s catastrophic actions in the backwoods of New York had been an ill-conceived mistake from the start, and he laid the blame squarely on Germain. The Canadian army, he asserted, should have simply joined Howe’s forces by sea.47 Governor Johnstone thundered that it was General Howe’s expedition to Pennsylvania that had led directly to “the ruin of General Burgoyne’s army.” Taking his cue, William Howe rose in the House and retorted that he trusted that Governor Johnstone would give his vote for a full parliamentary inquiry.48
The Howe brothers now sought a public inquiry into the war as a means of vindicating their record. In particular, they wanted a full disclosure of the correspondence between themselves and Germain. The prospect sent Germain scurrying to put his papers in order. He couldn’t find some of his letters, he complained to his undersecretary; he had never imagined they would be wanted for a parliamentary inspection. He and his assistants trawled through letters from loyalists that found fault with the Howe command, seeking narratives that affirmed Germain’s version of events.49 As he constructed his defense, Germain received an unsettling letter from an army associate who warned him that either he or the Howe brothers would be forever cast in the role of “criminals with your country & with posterity.”50
CHRISTMAS 1778 WAS a season of tension for all parties. Caroline was at Althorp, surrounded by opposition friends of the Spencers, who were preparing for an attack on the government in the new year.51 Richard was at Porter’s Lodge with his family, fretting that he could no longer ob
tain reliable news of the war in America.52 Nisbet Balfour joined him there on New Year’s Day, having resolved to assist with the Howe case in Parliament. In early January, the Scotsman visited William at Heckfield and then accompanied him to a royal levee, determined to remain by the side of “my old Master,” as he called his former commander in chief.53 It was William whose service in America was under question in official circles. Despite his reception at court, overt praise of the former commander in chief was withheld; behind the scenes, the king spoke to his ministers of General Howe’s lack of zeal in pursuing the war.54
Richard, by contrast, still enjoyed royal favor, as was made clear early in 1779, when he saw his protégé, Captain Andrew Snape Hamond, knighted for his services in America.55 Richard’s navy had done a good job, and, despite criticism in some quarters, he enjoyed celebrity for the repulsion of D’Estaing’s fleet off Newport. Perhaps, then, the elder Howe brother was not surprised to find himself wooed by cabinet ministers who sought to bring him into the government. The North administration wanted a cabinet reshuffle that would strengthen its position with critics of the war. Longtime followers of Chatham, who were conciliatory toward the Americans but could be relied on to oppose American independence, were under consideration, and friends of the Howes were involved in the behind-the-scenes maneuvers: their cousin, Thomas Thynne, 3rd Viscount Weymouth, as well as the Duke of Grafton.56 Richard was offered the post of First Lord of the Admiralty, replacing Lord Sandwich.
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