George Washington

by Stephen Brumwell

  6. For Bragg and Ingram, see Chelsea Boards of May 12 and June 18, 1787, in National Archives, WO 121/1, and for Haymer, Board of May 3, 1790, WO 121/8.

  7. Stephen Conway, The British Isles and the War of American Independence (Oxford, 2000), pp. 34–35.

  8. See the discussion in Spring, Zeal and Bayonets, pp. 28–29.

  9. This overview follows Martin and Lender, A Respectable Army, pp. 100–103.

  10. Paul David Nelson, Anthony Wayne: Soldier of the Early Republic (Bloomington, Indiana, 1985), p. 66; General Johann de Kalb to Count Charles Francis de Broglie, Valley Forge, December 25, 1777, in Commager and Morris, eds., Spirit of ’Seventy-Six, p. 646; JCC, 7, pp. 196–97 (March 24, 1777); see also Higginbotham, War of American Independence, p. 211.

  11. John Adams to Abigail Adams, October 26, 1777, in P. H. Smith. ed., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789, 26 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1976–2000), 8, p. 187. For widespread public praise of Washington, and the extent to which American propagandists depicted him as a virtuous replacement for the “tyrant” George III, see Longmore, Invention of George Washington, pp. 202–11.

  12. Rush to John Adams, October 21, 1777, in Butterfield, ed., Letters of Rush, 1, p. 161.

  13. Wilkinson, Memoirs, 1, pp. 331–32.

  14. Stirling to GW, November 3, 1777, in PWRW, 12, p. 111.

  15. GW to Conway, ca. November 5, 1777; Conway to GW, November 5, 1777, in PWRW, 12, pp. 129–30. A paraphrased extract from Conway’s original letter to Gates was copied by Henry Laurens, who passed it to Washington’s aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Col. John Fitzgerald; he in turn enclosed it in a letter to Washington of February 16, 1778 (PWRW, 13, pp. 555–56).

  16. Conway to GW, January 10, 1778, in PWRW, 13, p. 195.

  17. See H. James Henderson, Party Politics in the Continental Congress (New York, 1974), p. 119. The notion of a “cabal” was comprehensively debunked by Bernhard Knollenberg in Washington and the Revolution: A Reappraisal (New York, 1940), pp. 65–77.

  18. Craik to GW, January 6, 1778, in PWRW, 13, p. 160; Lafayette to Henry Laurens, ca. January 5, 1778, and Laurens to Lafayette, January 12, 1778, in Idzerda, ed., Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution, 1, pp. 213, 231–32.

  19. Lovell to Adams, January 20, 1778, in Smith, ed., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 8, p. 618.

  20. See Rush to Patrick Henry, January 12, 1778, in Butterfield, ed., Letters of Rush, 1, p. 183.

  21. GW to Conway, December 30, 1777; Conway to GW, December 31, 1777, in PWRW, 13, pp. 66–67, 78.

  22. Lafayette to GW, December 30, 1777, in PWRW, 13, p. 69.

  23. See “Conway, Thomas,” in Johnson and Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, 2, pp. 365–66. While most accounts assume that Cadwalader “called out” Conway, Freeman suggested that Conway was the challenger (Washington, 5, p. 39). For Conway’s letter to Washington from Philadelphia (misdated to February 23, instead of July 23, 1778), see Thacher, Military Journal, p. 129 note.

  24. Gates to GW, December 8, 1777, and February 19, 1778, in PWRW, 12, pp. 576–77, and PWRW, 13, p. 590; and GW to Gates, January 4 and February 24, 1778, in PWRW, 13, pp. 138–39, 654–55.

  25. For the “witch hunt” comparison and a thoughtful overview of the “Conway Cabal,” see Higginbotham, War of American Independence, pp. 216–22.

  26. GW to Continental Congress Camp Committee, January 29, 1778, in PWRW, 13, pp. 377–78; Henderson, Party Politics in the Continental Congress, p. 124.

  27. See Royster, A Revolutionary People at War, pp. 208–10.

  28. Ewald, Diary of the American War, Introduction, pp. xxv–xxvi.

  29. Thacher, Military Journal, p. 205 (mispaged as p. 189).

  30. Joseph J. Ellis argues that Valley Forge was the “honor-driven place where dueling first became a fixture in national politics.” See His Excellency George Washington, p. 295, note 9.

  31. See Mark Evans Bryan, “‘Slideing into Monarchical extravagance’: Cato at Valley Forge and the Testimony of William Bradford Jr.,” WMQ, 67 (2010), pp. 123–44.

  32. Gruber, ed., Peebles’ American War, pp. 181–83; Tatum, ed. Journal of Serle, p. 294. For a detailed account of the “Mischianza” written by one of the organizers, Captain John André, dated Philadelphia, May 23, 1778, see the Annual Register for 1778, pp. 267–70. On the event’s “Gothic” dimension, see Starkey, “War and Culture: a Case Study,” in War and Society (1990), pp. 17–18.

  33. GW to Henry Laurens, April 30, 1778, in PWRW, 14, pp. 681–83.

  34. Baron von Steuben to Franklin, September 28, 1779, in Labaree and Willcox, eds., Papers of Franklin, 30, p. 412; Clinton, American Rebellion, p. 95, note 16.

  35. See Paul Lockhart, The Drillmaster of Valley Forge: The Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American Army (New York, 2008), pp. 193–94.

  36. General Orders, headquarters, Valley Forge, May 5, 1778, in PWRW, 15, pp. 38–40, 41, note 6.

  37. Gruber, ed., Peebles’ American War, p. 188.

  38. See William B. Wilcox, “Sir Henry Clinton: Paralysis of Command,” in George A. Billias, ed., George Washington’s Opponents: British Generals and Admirals in the American Revolution (New York, 1969), pp. 73–102: 74.

  39. Lee to GW, April 13, 1778, enclosing his “Plan of an Army, Etc” in Lee Papers, 2, pp. 382–89: 388; and June 15, 1778, in PWRW, 15, p. 404.

  40. Council-of-War, Hopewell Township, New Jersey, June 24, 1778, in PWRW, 15, pp. 520–21; Hamilton to Elias Boudinot, July 5, 1778, in Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, 27 vols. (New York, 1961–87), 1, p. 510.

  41. See Greene, Lafayette, and Wayne to GW, June 24, 1778, and Hamilton to GW, June 26, 1778 in PWRW, 15, pp. 525–26, 528–29, 535. and 547.

  42. Lee to GW, June 25, 1778, in PWRW, 15, p. 541.

  43. Martin, Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier, pp. 110–11.

  44. Despite much colorful speculation, exactly what was said is unclear from the evidence, although Lee maintained that Washington made use of “very singular expressions.” Washington denied doing so and could only recall using language “dictated by duty and warranted by the occasion.” See Lee to GW, and GW to Lee, both June 30, 1778, in PWRW, 15, pp. 594–95; also, the discussion of the episode in James Thomas Flexner, George Washington in the American Revolution, 1775–1783 (Boston, 1967), p. 305.

  45. Hamilton to Boudinot, July 5, 1778, in Syrett, ed., Papers of Hamilton, 2, p. 512; Nathanael Greene to [his brother] Jacob Greene, July 2, 1778, in Showman, ed., Papers of Greene, 2, p. 451.

  46. Ewald, Diary of the American War, p. 136.

  47. General Orders, headquarters, Freehold, and GW to Laurens, both June 29, 1778, in PWRW, 15, pp. 583, 587.

  48. See Lee to GW, June 30, 1778 (three letters), and GW to Lee, June 30 (two letters) in PWRW, 15, pp. 594–97.

  49. For the charges, see Lee Papers, 3, p. 2, with the verdict at p. 208. The voluminous court testimony fills the intervening pages.

  50. Shy, A People Numerous and Armed, p. 159.

  51. Clinton, American Rebellion, p. 96.

  52. See the “Account” of the duel prepared by the “seconds,” Alexander Hamilton and Major Evan Edwards, in Syrett, ed., Papers of Hamilton, 1, pp. 602–604.

  53. Rush to John Adams, October 13, 1777, in Butterfield, ed., Letters of Rush, 1, p. 158. A leading modern historian of the war concludes that Lee “would have been a disaster as the army’s commander.” See Ferling, Almost a Miracle, p. 573.

  54. On the war at sea, see especially William M. Fowler, Rebels Under Sail: the American Navy During the American Revolution (New York, 1976); David Syrett, The Royal Navy in American Waters, 1775–1783 (Aldershot, 1989); and Daniel A. Baugh, “Why Did Britain Lose Command of the Sea During the War for America?,” in Jeremy Black and Philip Woodfine, eds., The British Navy and the Use of Naval Power in the Eighteenth Century (Leicester, 1988), pp. 149–69.

  55. GW to d’Estaing, July 17, 1778, in PWRW, 16, p. 88.

  56. Washin
gton to Nathanael Greene, September 1, 1778, in PWRW, 16, pp. 458–59.

  57. For the diverging views of British officers, see Stephen Conway, “To Subdue America: British Army Officers and the Conduct of the Revolutionary War,” in WMQ, 43 (1986), pp. 381–407.

  58. Freeman, Washington, 5, p. 87.

  59. Washington to Henry Laurens, November 14, 1778, in PWRW, 18, pp. 149–51.

  60. See Mackesy, War for America, p. 232; Fortescue, History of the British Army, 3, pp. 268–71; Spring, Zeal and Bayonets, p. 192; Mark Urban, Fusiliers: Eight Years with the Redcoats in America (London, 2007), p. 306.

  61. Gruber, ed., Peebles’ American War, p. 271.

  62. See GW to Wayne, July 10, 1779, in WW, 15, pp. 396–97; also, Nelson, Anthony Wayne, pp. 94–101; and Starkey, “Paoli to Stony Point,” Journal of Military History (1994), pp. 20–27.

  63. Washington to Major General Lord Stirling, August 21, 1779, and to Lafayette, September 12, 1779, in WW, 16, pp. 145–46, 267–68.

  64. Ewald, Diary of the American War, pp. 166–67.

  65. On this episode, known as the “Indian Field” skirmish, see Ewald, Diary of the American War, pp. 144–45, and Brigadier General Charles Scott to GW, August 31, 1778, in PWRW, 16, p. 448; also Colin G. Calloway, The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities (Cambridge and New York, 1995), pp. 96–97.

  66. Instructions to Major General John Sullivan, May 31, 1779, in PWRW, 20, pp. 717–18. For an analysis of Sullivan’s expedition that emphasizes the different “rules” governing war against Indians, see Wayne E. Lee, Barbarians and Brothers: Anglo-American Warfare, 1500–1865 (New York, 2011), pp. 209–31.

  67. See Isabel Thompson Kelsay, Joseph Brant, 1743–1807: Man of Two Worlds (Syracuse, New York, 1984), pp. 62, 161–74, 182–83.

  68. Tatum, ed., Journal of Serle, p. 55.

  69. GW to Lafayette, September 12 and 30, 1779, in WW, 16, pp. 268, 375. For the extent to which this wholesale destruction conformed to a well-established pattern of targeting Indians’ food resources, see John Grenier, The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier (Cambridge and New York, 2005), especially pp. 166–67.

  70. See Fausz, “‘Engaged in Enterprises Pregnant with Terror’: George Washington’s Formative Years Among the Indians,” in Hofstra, ed., George Washington and the Virginia Backcountry, p. 137.

  71. Circular to Governors of the States, headquarters, Morristown, December 16, 1779, in WW, 17, pp. 273–74.

  72. Thacher, Military Journal, pp. 181–82.

  73. General Orders, January 28, 1780, in WW, 17, pp. 459–60.

  74. Thacher, Military Journal, p. 182.

  75. Martin, Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier, p. 157.

  76. Gruber, ed., Peebles’ American War, pp. 372–73.

  77. Lee Kennett, The French Forces in America, 1780–1783 (Westport, Connecticut, 1977), pp. 29–30.

  78. GW to Rochambeau, July 16 ,1780, and General Orders, Head Quarters, “Pracaness [New Jersey],” July 20, 1780, in WW, 19, pp. 186, 220–21.

  79. Williams to Alexander Hamilton, August 30, 1780; Hamilton to James Duane, September 6, 1780, in Syrett, ed., Papers of Hamilton, 2, pp. 385, 420–21.

  80. GW to Samuel Huntington, September 15, 1780, in WW, 20, pp. 49–50.

  81. See Anthony J. Scotti, Jr., Brutal Virtue: The Myth and Reality of Banastre Tarleton (Bowie, Maryland, 2002), p. 134. While focused on Tarleton and his British Legion, Scotti’s book also provides a nuanced analysis of the factors behind the brutality of warfare in the Carolinas.

  82. See Washington’s “Answers to Queries by the Comte de Rochambeau and the Chevalier de Ternay,” and “Conference at Hartford,” Hartford, September 22, 1780, in Syrett, ed., Papers of Hamilton, 2, pp. 435–38. See also Kennett, French Forces in America, pp. 59–61.

  83. Clinton to Germain, October 11, 1780 in Clinton, American Rebellion, pp. 462–65.

  84. See Robert E. Cray Jr., “Major John André and the Three Captors: Class Dynamics and Revolutionary Memory Wars in the Early Republic, 1780–1831,” in Journal of the Early Republic, 17 (1997), pp. 371–97: 375–76.

  85. General Orders, headquarters, Orangetown, September 26, 1780, in WW, 20, p. 95.

  86. GW to Clinton, September 30, 1780, in WW, 20, pp. 103–104.

  87. Robertson to Clinton, October 1, 1780, in Carl Van Doren, Secret History of the American Revolution (New York, 1941), pp. 488–89.

  88. Ibid., p. 475.

  89. André to GW, October 1, 1780, in Major André’s Journal, p. 9; Hamilton to Lt. Col. John Laurens, October 11, 1780, in Syrett, ed., Papers of Hamilton, 2, p. 468.

  90. Thacher, Military Journal, pp. 222–23; Gibbs’s account is reproduced in Major André’s Journal, p. 112.

  91. Ewald, Diary of the American War, p. 250.

  92. Rasmussen and Tilton, George Washington: The Man Behind the Myths, p. 140.

  93. Given in Commager and Morris, eds., The Spirit of ’Seventy Six, p. 763.

  94. Clinton, American Rebellion, p. 217.

  95. Washington to Laurens, October 13, 1780, in WW, 20, p. 173.

  96. Thacher, Military Journal, pp. 224–5; Martin and Lender, A Respectable Army, p. 161.

  97. Arnold to GW, “On Board the Vulture,” September 25, 1780, enclosed in Alexander Hamilton to GW, September 25, 1780, in Syrett, ed., Papers of Hamilton, 2, pp. 439–40.

  10: The World Turned Upside Down

  1. See Royster, A Revolutionary People at War, pp. 302–303.

  2. James Kirby Martin, “A ‘Most Undisciplined Profligate Crew’: Protest and Defiance in the Continental Ranks, 1776–1783,” in Hoffman, ed., Arms and Independence, pp. 119–40: 134.

  3. Kennett, French Forces in America, pp. 83–84.

  4. GW to Wayne, January 3–4, 1781, in WW, 21, pp. 55–58.

  5. GW to the President of Congress, January 23, 1781, in WW, 21, pp. 135–36.

  6. Thacher, Military Journal, pp. 244–46.

  7. Kennett, French Forces in America, pp. 96–97.

  8. GW to Lafayette, February 20, 1781, in WW, 21, pp. 253–55; Ewald, Diary of the American War, p. 295.

  9. See Berthier’s “Journal” in Howard C. Rice Jr. and Anne S. K. Brown, eds., The American Campaigns of Rochambeau’s Army, 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783, 2 vols. (Princeton, New Jersey, and Providence, Rhode Island, 1972), 1, p. 241.

  10. Evelyn M. Acomb, ed., The Revolutionary Journal of Baron Von Closen (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1958), p. 64.

  11. See “Diary of a French Officer, 1781, presumed to be that of Baron Cromot du Bourg, Aid to Rochambeau, Part 2,” in The Magazine of American History, 4 (1880), pp. 293–308: 296.

  12. For Washington’s reception, see Kennett, French Forces in America, p. 98.

  13. Ibid, pp. 98–100.

  14. Diaries, 3, p. 356.

  15. See Lawrence E. Babits, The Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1998).

  16. GW to Greene, April 18, 1781, in WW, 21, pp. 471–72.

  17. See Allan R. Millett and Peter Maslowski, For the Common Defense: A Military History of the United States of America (New York, 1984), p. 54.

  18. This synthesis draws especially on Martin and Lender, A Respectable Army, pp. 198–200; Conway, The War of American Independence, p. 30; and Howard H. Peckham, ed., The Toll of Independence: Engagements and Battle Casualties of the American Revolution (Chicago, 1974), pp. 132–33. Since 1818, half-pay pensions had been available to all Continental officers and men, along with members of the US Navy and Marines, who were in financial distress. By contrast, applicants under the 1832 law didn’t have to prove disability or hardship. The many thousands of testimonies taken to support pension applications have been described as “a remarkable body of historical data” amounting to “one of the largest oral history projects ever undertaken.” See Dann, ed., The Revolution Remembered, pp. xv–xvii.

  19. On Hobkirk’s Hill, see Nelson, Francis Rawdon
-Hastings, pp. 94–96; Terry Golway, Washington’s General: Nathanael Greene and the Triumph of the American Revolution (New York, 2006), pp. 267–69.

  20. Acomb, ed. Journal of Closen, p. 78; Kennett, French Forces in America, pp. 104–105.

  21. Marquis de Chastellux, Travels in North America, trans. and ed. Howard C. Rice Jr., 2 vols. (Chapel Hill, North Carolina), 1, pp. 106–14.

  22. See Kennett, French Forces in America, p. 105.

  23. “Conference with Comte de Rochambeau,” Wethersfield, May 23 [actually 22], 1781, in WW, 22, pp. 105–107; GW to Sullivan, May 29, 1781, in WW, 22, pp. 131–32.

  24. This interpretation follows Kennett, French Forces in America, pp. 107–109; also Jonathan R. Dull, The French Navy and American Independence: A Study of Arms and Diplomacy, 1774–1787 (Princeton, New Jersey, 1975), pp. 242–43. See also GW to Rochambeau, June 13, 1781, in WW, 22, p. 208.

  25. See Rice and Brown, eds., American Campaigns of Rochambeau’s Army, 1, p. 33; Acomb, ed., Journal of Closen, pp. 89–92.

  26. For a detailed examination of the controversial issue of the black contribution to the Continental Army, see Neimeyer, America Goes to War, pp. 65–88.

  27. Diaries, 3, p. 397.

  28. See John Austin Stevens, “The Operations of the Allied Armies before New York, 1781,” in Magazine of American History, 4 (1880), pp. 1–31.

  29. Diaries, 3, pp. 403–405.

  30. Nelson, Anthony Wayne, pp. 128–33.

  31. See Clinton to Cornwallis, June 11 and June 15 (extract) in Clinton, American Rebellion, Appendix, pp. 529–32; Ewald, Diary of the American War, p. 315.

  32. On Green Spring, see F. and M. Wickwire, Cornwallis, pp. 342–47; Nelson, Anthony Wayne, pp. 135–37.