George Washington

by David O. Stewart

  13. Ibid., 156–58; Lengel, General George Washington, 229–41.

  14. JCC 8:592–93 (31 July 1777); Fleming, Washington’s Secret War, 9.

  15. Lengel, General George Washington, 246–49; to General John Lacey Jr., 3 May 1778, GWP; Nathanael Greene to Miss Susanna Livingston, 11 November 1777, in Richard K. Showman, Greene Papers 2:195.

  16. General Orders, 3 October 1777, GWP; Journal of Colonel Timothy Pickering, 3 October 1777, in Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris, The Spirit of ’Seventy-Six: The Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants, New York: Bonanza Books (1983), 626–27; T. Will Heth to Colonel John Lamb, 12 October 1777, in Commager and Morris, The Spirit of ’Seventy-Six, 630; Lengel, General George Washington, 253–59.

  17. General Orders, 5 October 1777, GWP; General John Armstrong to Horatio Gates, 9 October 1777, in Commager and Morris, The Spirit of ’Seventy-Six, 629; Anonymous to Gov. Clinton, 5 October 1777, in Public Papers of George Clinton, New York: Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Co. (1900) 2:372; Thomas Paine to Benjamin Franklin, 16 May 1778, PBF; see James McMichael, “Diary of Lieutenant James McMichael, of the Pennsylvania Line, 1776–1778,” PMHB 16:129 (1892), 153 (4 October 1778). A British journal called the battle “not of that final and decisive kind which the public had expected,” adding that “the rebels were not disheartened.” Annual Register for the Year 1777, London: J. Dodsley (3d ed., 1785), 131.

  For Washington, one virtue of the Germantown battle was that it ended the military career of Adam Stephen, his subordinate and successor with the Virginia Regiment and then rival for the House of Burgesses. When the Revolutionary War began, Stephen parlayed his military experience (scandal-marred though it was) and sponsorship by Richard Henry Lee into a major generalship with the Continentals. Though Washington mistrusted Stephen, he never opposed congressional appointments, so did not object to Stephen’s. Freeman 4:535–36; Ward, Major General Adam Stephen, 149, 160–61. Stephen soon showed that he had not mended his ways. He criticized Washington’s leadership and promoted himself in the press. Months before Germantown, Washington chastised Stephen for an unauthorized attack that Stephen had misrepresented in his official report. To Adam Stephen, 12 May 1777, GWP; Ward, Major General Adam Stephen, 164–72. At Germantown, Stephen’s troops arrived late, then fell into a friendly-fire exchange with Anthony Wayne’s forces. Freeman 4:511; Ward, 186–87. A court-martial found that Stephen “did not pay that general attention to his Division which might be expected from an officer of his command” and had not stayed with his men during the battle, but the court passed over claims of drunkenness on duty. Washington approved the verdict, dismissing Stephen from the army. “Report of a Court of Enquiry,” in Showman, Greene Papers 2:188–89 (1 November 1777); Ward, Major General Adam Stephen, 194, 200–1, 204–5; General Orders, 20 November 1777, GWP.

  18. To General Thomas Nelson Jr., 8 November 1777, GWP; from Nathanael Greene, 14 November 1777, GWP; Lengel, 263–64; Bodle, The Valley Forge Winter, 47; to Nathanael Greene, 26 November 1777, GWP; from Duportail, 3 December 1777, GWP; from Nathanael Greene, 3 December 1777, GWP; to President of Congress, 22 December 1777, GWP.

  19. Joseph Lee Boyle, Writings from the Valley Forge Encampment of the Continental Army, December 19, 1777–June 19, 1778, Bowie, MD: Heritage Books (2000), 1; Jedediah Huntington to Joshua Huntington, 20 December 1777, in Correspondence of the Brothers Joshua and Jedediah Huntington During the Period of the American Revolution, Hartford: Connecticut Historical Society (1923), 386–87.

  20. Lengel, General George Washington, 266–68; Freeman 4:564; Bodle, 59–64, 104–5; John B. B. Trussell, Birthplace of an Army: A Study of the Valley Forge Encampment, Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (1976), 1, 13; from Nathanael Greene, 1 December 1777, GWP; Middlekauf, Washington’s Revolution, 172.

  21. Lloyd A. Brown and Howard H. Peckham, Revolutionary War Journals of Henry Dearborn, 1775–1783, Chicago: The Caxton Club (1939), 13; Memoir of a Revolutionary Soldier: The Narrative of Joseph Plumb Martin, Mineola, NY: Dover Publications (2006), 57.

  22. Martin, Memoir, 58; Albigence Waldo diary, 14 December 1777, in Commager and Morris, The Spirit of ’Seventy-Six, 640–41; see Nathanael Greene to Christopher Greene, 5 January 1778, in Showman, Greene Papers 2:248.

  23. From General James Varnum, 22 December 1777, GWP; Thomas Jones and John Chaloner to Thomas Wharton Jr. and the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, 24 December 1777, in Boyle, Writings from the Valley Forge Encampment, 5; Albigence Waldo, 21 December 1777, in Commager and Morris, The Spirit of ’Seventy-Six, 641; to Henry Laurens, 23 December 1777, GWP; Fleming, Washington’s Secret War, 25.

  24. Dearborn, Journals, 119 (23 and 26 December 1777); General Orders, 18 December 1777, GWP; Trussell, Birthplace of an Army 19.

  25. Jonathan Todd Jr. to Jonathan Todd Sr., 25 December 1777 and 19 January 1777, in Boyle, Writings from the Valley Forge Encampment, 6, 30; Martin, Memoir, 58: George Ewing, Military Journal of George Ewing, Yonkers: T. Ewing (1928), 25.

  26. Thomas Paine to Benjamin Franklin, 16 May 1778, PBF; Mark Edward Lender and Garry Wheeler Stone, Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, and the Politics of Battle, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press (2016), 24; Friedrich Kapp, The Life of John Kalb, New York: Henry Holt and Co. (1884), 137; A. E. Zucker, General De Kalb: Lafayette’s Mentor, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press (1966), 163; General Orders, 17 December 1777, GWP; Trussell, Birthplace of an Army, 18.

  27. John Shreve, “Personal Narrative of the Services of Lt. John Shreve of the New Jersey Line,” Mag. of Amer. Hist. (September 1879), 568; Colonel William Shepard to Captain David Mosely, 25 January 1778, quoted in Freeman 4:579.

  28. Stephen Fried, Rush: Revolution, Madness, and Benjamin Rush, the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father, New York: Crown (2018), 234; General Johann de Kalb to Count Charles Francis de Broglie, 25 December 1777, in Commager and Morris, The Spirit of ’Seventy-Six, 646–648; from Alexander Hamilton, 12 November 1777, GWP; Fleming, Washington’s Secret War, 134–35.

  29. From Nathanael Greene, 24 November 1777, GWP; Anthony Wayne to Thomas Wharton, 10 February 1778, in Samuel Hazard, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Philadelphia: Joseph Severns & Co. (1853), 1st Ser. 6:251; Committee at Camp to Henry Laurens, 12 February 1778, in Letters of Delegates 9:80.

  30. Taylor, American Revolutions, 185; Trussell, Birthplace of an Army, 39; Jonathan Todd Jr. to Jonathan Todd Sr., 19 January 1778, in Boyle, Writings from the Valley Forge Encampment, 31; William Weeks to unidentified, 16 February 1778, in Boyle, Writings from the Valley Forge Encampment, 55.

  31. To a Continental Congress Camp Committee, 29 January 1778, GWP; to Henry Laurens, 3 February 1778, GWP; to Henry Laurens, 10 November 1777, GWP; from Israel Putnam, 7 November 1777, GWP; Archelaus Lewis to Jesse Partridge, 1 February 1778, in Boyle, Writings from the Valley Forge Encampment, 40; Richard Butler to Thomas Wharton Jr., 26 March 1778, in Boyle, Writings from the Valley Forge Encampment, 90.

  32. To William Buchanan, 7 February 1778, GWP; Thomas Jones to Charles Stewart, 18 February 1778, in Boyle, Writings from the Valley Forge Encampment, 63; Ernt Kipping, tr., At General Howe’s Side: The Diary of General William Howe’s Aide de Camp, Captain Friedrich Von Muenchhausen, Monmouth Beach, NJ: Philip Freneau Press (1974), 47; to James Bowdoin, 31 March 1778, GWP; Enoch Poor to Meschach Weare, 21 January 1778, in Boyle, Writings from the Valley Forge Encampment, 32: Trussell, Birthplace of an Army, 69–70.

  33. To Richard Peters, 27 November 1777, GWP; “From Eight Continental Army Field Officers,” November 1777, GWP; from Nathanael Greene, 1 December 1777, GWP; to Congress, 22 December 1777, GWP; from James Eldredge, 1 January 1778, GWP; from Major Francis Menges, 26 November 1777, GWP; Albigence Waldo, 28 and 29 December 1777, in Richard M. Dorson, ed., America Rebels: Narratives of the Patriots, Westport: Greenwood Press (1973), 216; to John Bannister, 21 April 17
78, GWP; John Fitzgerald to Edward Stevens, 24 January 1778, in Boyle, Writings from the Valley Forge Encampment, 35–36.

  34. General Orders, 22 November and 18 December 1777, GWP; General Orders, 7 and 8 January, 13 and 18 March, 14 April 1778, GWP; to James Mease, 21 January 1778, GWP; to Jonathan Trumbull Sr., 27 January 1778, GWP; to Committee in Camp, 29 January 1778, GWP.

  35. Lengel, General George Washington, 280.

  36. To Henry Knox, 20 February 1784, GWP.

  37. Trussell, Birthplace of an Army, 97; to John Hancock, 23 April 1776, GWP; Fraser, The Washingtons, 191.

  38. Trussell, Birthplace of an Army, 37–38; Paul Lockhart, The Drill Master of Valley Forge: The Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American Army, New York: HarperCollins (2008), 75; Carp, To Starve the Army, 55–56.

  39. Freeman 4:573; to Richard Henry Lee, 18 November 1777, GWP; Fleming, Washington’s Secret War, 27; James Lovell to John Adams, 30 December 1777, in Letters of Delegates 8:507; Nathanael Greene to Jacob Greene, 3 January 1778, in Showman, Greene Papers 2:243–44; Colonel Hugh Hughes to Horatio Gates, 24 August 1777, cited in Carp, To Starve the Army, 44; Jacqueline Thibaut, The Valley Forge Report, Vol. II: This Fatal Crisis: Logistics, Supply, and the Continental Army at Valley Forge, 1777–1778, Valley Forge National Historical Park (1979), 3–9, 25, 40–42.

  40. Nathanael Greene to Jacob Greene, 3 January 1778, in Showman, Greene Papers 2:243–44; Thibaut, This Fatal Crisis, 7, 38; Carp, To Starve the Army, 61.

  41. Lengel, General George Washington, 272–73; to James Mease, 30 November 1777, 17 April and 16 May 1778, GWP; from James Mease, 16 December 1777, GWP.

  42. Nathanael Greene to General Alexander McDougall, 25 January 1778, in Showman, Greene Papers 2:261.

  43. To Congress, 22 December 1777, GWP; to William Buchanan, 7 February 1778, GWP.

  44. To Henry Laurens, 23 December 1777, GWP.

  45. Bruce E. Burgoyne, tr. and ed., Johann Conrad Döhla, A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press (1990), 66–67; Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy, The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire, New Haven: Yale University Press, 110.

  46. Fleming, Washington’s Secret War, 44–45, 64–67; Henry Laurens to Rawlins Lowndes, 17 May 1778, in David R. Chesnutt and C. James Taylor, eds., The Papers of Henry Laurens, Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, (1992) 13:315.

  33. THE FIRST ADVERSARY

  1. Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant to James Lovell, 20 November 1777, in Letters of Delegates; James Lovell to Joseph Whipple, 21 November 1777, in Letters of Delegates; Cornelius Harnett to Thomas Burke, 16 December 1777, in Letters of Delegates; Thomas Burke to Richard Caswell, 17 September 1777, in Letters of Delegates; Mark Edward Lender, Cabal!: The Plot Against General Washington, Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing (2019), xiii; G. W. Greene, The Life of Nathanael Greene, New York: Hurd and Houghton (1871) 1:468. A European officer concluded about Washington that “as a general he is too slow, too indolent, and far too weak . . . and overestimates himself.” General Johann de Kalb to Comte de Broglie, 24 September 1777, in Kapp, Life of John Kalb, 127.

  2. Greene to Miss Susanna Livingston, 11 November 1777, in Showman, Greene Papers 2:195; to Patrick Henry, 13 November 1777, GWP; Lafayette to Henry Laurens, 5 January 1778, in Chesnutt and Taylor, Laurens Papers 12:254–55; Greene to Alexander McDougall, 25 January 1778, in Showman, Greene Papers 2:259–61.

  3. Max M. Mintz, The Generals of Saratoga, New Haven: Yale University Press (1990), 1–2; JCC 9:861–62 (4 November 1777); to Henry Laurens, 1–3 November 1777, GWP; Middlekauf, Washington’s Revolution, 175; from General Horatio Gates, 2 and 7 November 1777, GWP; from Alexander Hamilton, 5, 6, and 10 November, GWP.

  4. From William Alexander, Lord Stirling, 3 November 1777, and note 4, GWP; to General Thomas Conway, 5 November 1777, GWP.

  5. James Wilkinson, Memoirs of My Own Times, Philadelphia: Abraham Small (1816), 330–32; from William Alexander, Lord Stirling, 3 November 1777, GWP.

  6. From Brigiadier General Thomas Conway, 5 November 1777, GWP; Kenneth R. Rossman, Thomas Mifflin and the Politics of the American Revolution, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press (1952), 117.

  7. To Richard Henry Lee, 16 October 1777, GWP.

  8. JCC 9:871, 873–74 (6 and 7 November 1777); Rossman, Thomas Mifflin, 106.

  9. Greene to Jacob Greene, 7 February 1778, in Showman, Greene Papers 2:277; John Stockton Littell, ed., Alexander Graydon’s Memoirs of His Own Time, Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston (1846), 299–310; Rossman, Thomas Mifflin, 3; Lender, Cabal, 83–84; James Lovell to Horatio Gates, 5 October 1777, in Letters of Delegates; Thomas Mifflin to Horatio Gates, 17 November 1777, Horatio Gates Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL. The surviving copy of Mifflin’s letter of 17 November 1777 is not signed, but shows that it was written at Reading, where Mifflin lived. For some time the letter was attributed to Massachusetts delegate James Lovell, but the editors of the Letters of Delegates to the Continental Congress concluded that Mifflin was the author. Letters of Delegates 8:315, note 5. That conclusion is supported both by information in the letter that would have come from Mifflin (not Lovell), and by handwriting analysis. Lender, Cabal, 244, note 44.

  10. Richard Henry Lee to Samuel Adams, 23 November 1777, in Ballagh, Lee Letters, 358; Rossman, 97–98; Theodore Thayer, Nathanael Greene, Strategist of the American Revolution, New York: Twayne Publishers (1960), 213; James Lovell to Joseph Trumbull, 28 November 1777, in Letters of Delegates 8:339.

  11. From Brigadier General Thomas Conway, 16 November 1777, GWP; to Brigadier General Thomas Conway, 16 November 1777; JCC 9:971–72, 28 November 1777.

  12. In a careful study of the scheming in 1777–78, Mark Edward Lender has concluded that the Board of War was the key to the effort to reduce Washington’s power and drive him from office. Lender, Cabal, passim.

  13. Thomas Mifflin to Horatio Gates, 28 November 1777, in note 1 to letter from Brigadier General Thomas Conway, 5 November 1777, GWP.

  14. From Major General Horatio Gates, 8 December 1777, GWP. In a letter sent on the same day to Henry Laurens, Gates made the same points. Horatio Gates to Henry Laurens, 8 December 1777, in Chesnutt and Taylor, Laurens Papers 12:133. In a letter to Mifflin four days before, he confessed that he was “ruminating who could be the villain that has played me this cursed, treacherous trick.” Paul David Nelson, General Horatio Gates: A Biography, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press (1976), 164 (quoting from Gates to Mifflin, 4 December 1777).

  15. To Major General Thomas Conway, 30 December 1777, GWP; from Major General Thomas Conway, 31 December 1777, GWP.

  16. From Dr. James Craik, 6 January 1778, GWP.

  17. From Joseph Jones, 22 January 1778, GWP (warning of “a certain popular Pennsylvanian lately appointed to the new Board of War”); John Laurens to Henry Laurens, 3 January 1778, in Chesnutt and Taylor, Laurens Papers 12:246; Tench Tilghman to John Cadwalader, 18 January 1778, in Boyle, Writings from Valley Forge, 25–26: Pennsylvania Packet, January 14, 1778; from Richard Henry Lee, 2 January 1778, GWP; to Richard Henry Lee, 15 February 1778, GWP; L. G. Shreve, Tench Tilghman, The Life and Times of Washington’s Aide-de-Camp, Centreville, MD: Tidewater Publishers (1982), 34–36, 41, 209–10, 98; Tench Tilghman to Robert Morris, 2 February 1778, in Boyle, Writings from Valley Forge, 40.

  18. Rossman, Thomas Mifflin 120 (Conway to Gates about reports that he, Mifflin, and Gates were intriguing to unseat Washington); Duane, Diary of Christopher Marshall, 159 (7 January 1778) (“a cry begins to be raised for a Gates, a Conway, a De Kalb, a Lee”); Benjamin Rush to wife, J. Rush, 15 January 1778, in L. H. Butterfield, Letters of Benjamin Rush, Princeton: American Philosophical Society (1951) 1:185–87 (talk in York of a rupture between Gates and Washington); “From Certain General Officers,” 31 December 1777, GWP; to Henry Laurens, 2 January 1778, G
WP.

  19. Littell, Alexander Graydon’s Memoirs, 300; from Major General Thomas Conway, 10 and 27 January 1778, GWP; Henry Laurens to Isaac Motte, 26 January 1778, in Chesnutt and Taylor, Laurens Papers 12:343; Nathanael Greene to Jacob Greene, 3 January 1778, in Showman, Greene Papers 2:243; Alexander Hamilton to George Clinton, 13 February 1778, AHP.

  20. To Major General Horatio Gates, 4 January 1778, GWP.

  21. Trussell, Birthplace of an Army, 95; Fraser, The Washingtons, 188–89; Martha Washington to Burwell Bassett, 22 December 1777, in Fields, Worthy Partner, 176; Martha Washington to Mercy Otis Warren, 7 March 1778, in Fields, Worthy Partner, 177–78; DuPonceau, “Autobiographical Letters,” PMHB 16:181.

  22. Lender, Cabal, 152–56.

  23. Francis Dana to Elbridge Gerry, 29 January 1778, in Letters of Delegates 8:681; Committee in Camp to Henry Laurens, 11 February 1778, in Letters of Delegates 9:72–75; JCC 10:84 (22 January 1778).

  24. Nathanael Greene to General Alexander McDougall, 5 February 1778, in Showman, Greene Papers 2:275. The theme of the cabal members was articulated by Dr. Benjamin Rush in an unsigned letter he sent to enlist Governor Patrick Henry of Virginia in the dump-Washington movement. “A Gates, a Lee, or a Conway,” Rush wrote, “would in a few weeks render [the army] an irresistible body of men.” Benjamin Rush to Patrick Henry, 12 January 1778 (unsigned), in Commager and Morris, The Spirit of ’Seventy-Six, 655. Henry promptly sent Rush’s letter to Washington along with a denunciation of the cabal. From Patrick Henry, 20 February 1778, GWP.

  25. From Lafayette, 30 December 1777, GWP.

  26. To Major General Horatio Gates, 27 January 1778, GWP; to General Thomas Nelson Jr., 8 February 1778, GWP.

  27. Lafayette to Henry Laurens, 26 January 1778, in Chesnutt and Taylor, Laurens Papers 12:350; Henry Laurens to John Rutledge, 30 January 1778, in Chesnutt and Taylor, Laurens Papers 12:380; Lafayette to Henry Laurens, 31 January 1778, in Chesnutt and Taylor, Laurens Papers 12:387–88; JCC 10:106 (2 February 1778).