The Crossing

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by Howard Fast


  Bedini, Silvio A. Ridgefield in Review. The Ridgefield 250th Anniversary Comm., Ridgefield, Conn., 1958

  Billias, George Athan. General John Glover. Holt, Rinehart & Winston; N.Y., 1960

  —. George Washington’s Opponents. William Morrow; N.Y., 1969

  Burnett, Edmund C. The Continental Congress. Macmillan; N.Y., 1941

  Commager, Henry Steele and Morris, Richard B. The Spirit of ’Seventy-Six. 2 vols. Bobbs Merrill; Indianapolis and N.Y., 1958

  Curtis, Edward E. The Organization of the British Army in the American Revolution. Yale U. Press; New Haven, 1926

  Fast, Howard. The Selected Work of Tom Paine. Duell, Sloan & Pearce; N.Y., 1945

  Fisher, Sydney George. The True History of the American Revolution. J. B. Lippincott Co.; Phila., 1903

  —. The Struggle for American Independence. J. B. Lippincott Co.; Phila., 1908

  Fisk, John. The American Revolution. 2 vols. Houghton Mifflin; Boston, 1891

  Hammond, Otis G., ed. The Sullivan Papers. New Hampshire Historical Society Publications; Concord, 1930–1939

  Harlow, Ralph V. “Some Aspects of Revolutionary Finances.” American Historical Review, Vol. 35. N.Y., 1934

  Harwood, Paul Leland. George Washington, Country Gentleman. Bobbs-Merrill; Indianapolis and N.Y., 1925

  Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army. Heitman, 1917

  Hughes, Rupert. George Washington; the Human Being and the Hero. William Morrow; N.Y., 1926

  Irving, Washington. The Life of George Washington. Putnam; N.Y., 1868

  Lefferts, Charles M. Uniforms of the American, British, French and German Armies in the War of the American Revolution. The New York Historical Society, 1926

  Miller, John C. Sam Adams. Atlantic-Little Brown and Co.; Boston, 1936

  —. Origins of the American Revolution. Atlantic-Little Brown and Co.; Boston, 1943

  —. Triumph of Freedom. Atlantic-Little Brown and Co.; Boston, 1948

  Moore, George H. The Treason of Charles Lee. Charles Scribner; N.Y., 1860

  Morris, Richard B. The Era of the American Revolution. Columbia U. Press; N.Y., 1939

  Morrison, S. E. and Commager, H. S. The Growth of the American Republic. Oxford U. Press; N.Y., 1937

  Pennypacker, Morton. General Washington’s Spies. Long Island Historical Society; Bklyn, N.Y., 1939

  Rosengarten, J. G. The German Allied Troops 1776–1783. J. Munsell; Albany, 1893

  Spaulding, Oliver L. The United States Army in War and Peace. Putnam; N.Y., 1937

  Stryker, William S. The Battles of Trenton and Princeton. Houghton Mifflin; Boston, 1898

  Thane, Elswyth. Potomac Squire. Duell, Sloan & Pearce; N.Y., 1963

  Van Doren, Carl. Benjamin Franklin. Viking Press; N.Y., 1938

  —. Secret History of the American Revolution. Viking Press; N.Y., 1941

  Wilkinson, James. Memoirs of My Own Times. Abraham Small; Phila., 1816

  REFERENCES:

  Archives of Pennsylvania.

  Archives of the State of New Jersey.

  Dictionary of American Biography. 20 vols. Charles Scribner; N.Y., 1928

  Harper’s Encyclopedia of United States History. 10 vols. Harper Bros.; N.Y., 1907

  In addition to the above, I have made good use of the library at the Memorial Building at Washington Crossing State Park, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The people there have been kind and helpful in their knowledge of the local geography and of the immediate riverside in relation to the crossing. There, one has full freedom to examine every detail of the Durham boat, reconstructed as a part of the park.

  I must also acknowledge the kindness of the people in the Thompson-Neely house and their willingness to answer questions. Pamphlets, maps and reproductions of old material, for sale and given away at each of the above places, have also been useful.

  And, of course, I must acknowledge the help of my wife, who patiently and uncomplainingly traveled these old paths, joined my attempts to find old ghosts, so long gone, prowled with me around Baskingridge and a dozen other Jersey towns, painstakingly examined miles of the Delaware River, and served as secretary and researcher.

  Most of this research, however, served as background material. A great deal of directly pertinent material had been detailed by James Wilkinson, William S. Stryker and Washington Irving. It is true that Wilkinson saw all events in his own reflection, and that neither Irving nor Stryker was critical or even wholly realistic about the men who played the major roles in this story. Neither of them even alluded, for example, to Lord Stirling’s drinking—or “drunkenness” as so many of his contemporaries put it–or to Stephen’s black temper and frequent bouts of drunkenness, or to Ewing and Cadwalader’s only too apparent cowardice; for these were men whose loyalty was accepted as covering all weaknesses. Also, it is most difficult to make any truthful judgments of men in so contentious a situation, where even saints would produce enemies.

  But in terms of the major currents of my story, Irving and Stryker did magnificent if old-fashioned work of reconstruction, and of course I leaned upon them heavily.

  Where original facts emerged, they were not very important to my story. For instance, lunching one day at the old inn at New Hope, the charming owner told my wife and me a story of a letter recently uncovered by a local inhabitant that indicated that Washington had a meeting in the same place on the fifteenth or sixteenth of December in 1776. But although this was a wholly new piece of material, the letter could offer little that was new to the tale. The writings of Thomas Paine were of great value, and Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris had selected for their very fine book, The Spirit of ’Seventy-Sir, most of the pertinent and colorful documentary material of that incident, making access to this material so much the easier for any researcher.

  A meticulous examination of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey archives revealed six or seven items that Stryker had not used—all of them pleas for food, medicine and clothes.

  Originally, my hope had been to uncover enough material excitingly pertinent to the crossing to make a more detailed study than this, but the paucity of information in the Philadelphia newspapers was incredible. I was able to extract a few items from the newspapers, but there was nothing available comparable to the New England newspapers of the time, which offer enough intriguing information to make a history of the war in New England with no other sources.

  The reason for this is that before the crossing took place, the depression and despair were so great as to discourage writing what amounted to an obituary, and Philadelphia, naturally, was wholly concerned with its own salvation. The few dismal, awful weeks on the Delaware were speedily forgotten and subordinated to the military events that followed.

  NOTES FOR The First Crossing

  (East to West)

  NOTES: Chapter 1

  Both the British retreat from Concord and the subsequent Battle at Breed’s Hill (commonly remembered as Bunker Hill) in Boston convinced the Yankee Continental that the British were not only mortal but stupid. At the same time, the more sensitive in the American ranks realized that Bunker Hill was a psychological error that might never be repeated; while the fierce infighting of the British, when pressed, might be repeated all too often. There, too, the British use of the bayonet as a terrible and deadly weapon was felt for the first time, as remarked upon in a letter written by Sir William Howe to his adjutant general and quoted by Fortescue, who is quoted by Sidney George Fisher:

  “Pigott was relieved from his enemies in that quarter, and in the 2nd onset he carried the redoubt in the handsomest manner, tho it was most obstinately defended to the last. Thirty of the Rebels not having time to get away were killed with bayonets in it.”

  NOTES: Chapter 2

  A whole body of mythology has grown up around the long rifles that were introduced from the Austrian Tyrol in 1730 and manufactured by talented gunsmiths in Pennsylvania in Colonial times, particularly at Lancaster and Philadelphia and somewhat later in Kentuck
y. In Pennsylvania, many of these rifles were made by German gunsmiths, and each was a work of art. They were accurate at a longer range than any musket, and in the hands of a fine marksman, they were an excellent hunting weapon.

  But they were not called “squirrel guns” without reason. Their small bullet was frequently ineffective against larger game, and once fired, they were reloaded only with the greatest of difficulty, the bullet having to be pounded into the small rifle bore. Because of this, almost no body of militia was armed with these guns, and the corollary was that those divisions of riflemen enlisted in the Continental army were undrilled, makeshift and undisciplined. The very fact that so many of them were footloose hunters mitigated against the quality of steadiness desired.

  The story of Colonel (later General) John Glover remained obscure until George Athan Billias wrote his excellent biography, General John Glover and His Marblehead Mariners. Since Glover plays so large a role in my own work, the use of the above background material is general. Also, for Glover, see the Marblehead town records, American Archives, fourth and fifth series.

  NOTES: Chapter 5

  Lafayette, in his memoirs, Volume I, p. 19, London, 1887, provides the following interesting description of a section of the Continental army:

  “About eleven thousand men ill armed, and still worse clothed, presented a strange spectacle. Their clothes were parti-colored and many of them were almost naked. The best clad wore hunting shirts, large grey linen coats which were much used in Carolina. As to their military tactics, it will be sufficient to say that, for a regiment ranged in battle order to move forward on the right of its line it was necessary for the left to make a continued counter-march. They were always arranged in two lines, the smallest men in the first line.”

  While we specify a colonel in command of a regiment or battalion, he would have a lieutenant colonel and a major as his staff officers in command. The rest of his staff would include a surgeon with one or two or three surgeon’s mates, a quartermaster and an adjutant. Often enough, the local Congregational or Presbyterian minister would come along as chaplain, and since the surgeon was an educated man—a gentleman in the class terms of the time—he would frequently double as commander.

  The companies would have a sergeant for every twenty men—in their first organization—and each sergeant would be assisted by two to four corporals. There would be music provided by as many fifers and drummer boys each company could enlist. In the first year of the war, the drummer boys were frequently as young as twelve and thirteen years, the soldiers sometimes as young as fourteen.

  In New England, the companies numbered from fifty-nine to seventy-nine men—a curious number given in the documents of the time—even though the Provincial Congress had fixed the number of company men at one hundred. Ideally, the regiment would consist of ten companies, or one thousand men, and the brigade of ten regiments, or ten thousand men. In all truth, most companies were limited to a few dozen, regiments to a few hundred at best, and brigades to little more than a thousand.

  NOTES: Chapter 6

  Few accounts of the American Revolution mention the role played by the Scottish Highlanders and their terrifying effect upon the young American recruits as they advanced behind their skirling pipes; in particular, the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment, later made famous by Kipling as the “Black Watch.” This regiment was curiously armed during the Brooklyn and Manhattan Island campaign, in that each man carried in addition to musket and bayonet an enormous sword, not unlike the old Scottish claymore. In the heat of battle, the Highlanders were wont to cast aside musket and bayonet and go berserk, laying about them with their huge swords. Even though these swords were abandoned toward the end of 1776, the legend of fear they had created went with the Highland regiments. It was difficult enough to teach the farm boys in the American ranks to face bayonets; broadswords swung by battle-crazed Highlanders were too much.

  Several kilted Highland regiments were raised among the Tory colonists, as for example the North Carolina Highland Regiment, which was under the command of Lt. Colonel Alexander Stewart. This regiment was entirely raised in the colonies, out of loyalists. Another Highland regiment, kilted and in full Highland regalia, pipes and all, was the Royal Highland Emigrants, commanded by Lt. Colonel John Small—also raised in the colonies.

  There were at least twelve regiments of Orangemen raised in the colonies to fight for the British—King’s Orange Rangers, Volunteers of Ireland, Loyal Irish Volunteers, to mention only a few—and several of them wore the kilt and used pipers.

  It is all too little remembered today how much of the American Revolution was a civil war. In the course of the Revolution, the British were able to raise eighty-two regiments of foot soldiers and cavalry in the colonies and in Canada, and while most of these troops were far from dependable in terms of enlistment, they do indicate the extent to which the population of the colonies was ideologically split.

  That Washington had a personal bodyguard of black soldiers is often glossed over, as is the fact of so many black volunteers in the American ranks; but black regiments among the British is something only to be surmised. We have the record of a British regiment called “The Black Volunteers,” commanded by Captain George Martin, and one might guess that it was composed of escaped slaves—but proof requires a good deal of additional research.

  NOTES: Chapter 7

  It is impossible to put together any clear account of the extent of General Washington’s artillery in the summer of 1776. However, it is likely that the Continental army owned more than three hundred cannon of various caliber before the Battle of Long Island. No better impression of the retreat can be given than simply to state that by the time the army reached the Delaware River, less than twenty cannon remained in its possession.

  NOTES: Chapter 8

  There has been much argument concerning Paine’s status with the American army at that time. Washington Irving implies that Washington gave him some sort of temporary rank, and this is possible, so loosely were ranks awarded. Some such rank would have helped Paine to explain his presence, since the notion of a war correspondent remained in the future.

  NOTES: Chapter 9

  The following material on the Durham boats has been prepared by the researchers at Washington Crossing State Park, in Pennsylvania. Curiously enough, the fact and function of these boats in a precise sense has been somewhat obscure until recent years. Now, a facsimile of one of the original boats has been built and placed in a cradle on the west bank of the Delaware River near the crossing point. Its great size and weight is surprising at first, and it appears incredible that these huge craft—reminiscent of Viking ships—could be manhandled across an icy river.

  Although today most people identify the Durham Boat as the type used in the famous painting, “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” actually, from Colonial times and for a hundred years afterward, it had an interesting history of its own.

  In Bucks County in the hills near Riegelsville, iron ore was discovered in 1727. The Durham Iron Works which established itself there had a very special kind of boat built in 1750 to carry heavy loads of ore and pig iron down the treacherous rapids of the Delaware River to market in Philadelphia. A great river traffic grew up around this type of boat, which continued to be known as the Durham Boat. At one time 2000 rivermen ran more than 300 Durham Boats from Easton to Philadelphia, hauling iron and grain, whiskey and local produce downstream, and light loads of manufactured goods upstream. When the boats docked, during the period 1750–1860, scenes around the saloons of Easton, Trenton and Philadelphia were often as lively as any in the Old West.

  Durham Boats varied in length from forty to sixty feet. One forty feet in length with an eight foot beam and a depth of hold of about three feet, six inches, would have a draft of 5 inches when empty, and when loaded with 15 tons, about 30 inches. The current carried it downstream, while a crew of six men and a captain wielded the steering sweep, 25 to 30 feet long, and the setting poles and oars to guide it
over the rapids. Upstream only two or three tons were carried and the boat was poled along from the bottom of the riverbed.

  Such boats were used by General George Washington for the famous crossing of the Delaware, Christmas night, 1776. After he had crossed to Pennsylvania early in December, he began his plan for recrossing toward victory, and used his meager funds to buy and hire Durham boats for this purpose.*

  In a letter by General Washington, dated December 1, 1776, he wrote, “The boats all along the Delaware River should be secured, particularly the Durham Boats.” Such boats should be capable of carrying horses and cannon, as well as men, and when the fateful night came they were manned by General Glover’s Marblehead, Mass., fishermen who poled men and equipment safely through the icy river to the Jersey shore. The resultant victory at Trenton on the morning of December 26, 1776, became America’s first as a nation.

  NOTES: Chapter 13

  The end pages of the documentary history of the American Revolution, assembled and edited by Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris and published by Bobbs-Merrill in 1958, show a colorful parade of sixteen different uniforms worn by soldiers in the Continental army. This is the work of the book designer, not the editors, who were fully aware that most uniforms of the American Revolution consisted of decoration after the fact, sometimes a hundred years after the fact. Apart from uniforms made for themselves by affluent officers or by well-to-do city companies, there were almost no uniforms at all. Regarding the “hunting shirt,” we have this interesting comment from Force, fifth series, Volume I, p. 676:

  “The General [Washington], sensible of the difficulty and expense of providing clothes of almost any kind for the troops, feels an unwillingness to recommend, much more to order, any kind of uniform; but as it is absolutely necessary that the men should have clothes, and appear decent and tight, he earnestly encourages the use of hunting shirts, with long breeches made of the same cloth, gaiter-fashion about the legs, to all those yet unprovided.”

 

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