Part 5 (2/2)
Lee's disobedience thus broke the army in two, and did more for the British than they had been able to do for themselves since they started from Staten Island. It was the cause of Was.h.i.+ngton's flight through New Jersey, ending on the 8th of December, when he put himself behind the Delaware river, with scarcely 3000 men. Here was another difficulty. The American soldiers were enlisted for short terms, and when they were discouraged, as at present, they were apt to insist upon going home as soon as their time had expired. It was generally believed that Was.h.i.+ngton's army would thus fall to pieces within a few days. Howe did not think it worth while to be at the trouble of collecting boats wherewith to follow him across the Delaware. Congress fled to Baltimore.
People in New Jersey began taking the oath of allegiance to the crown.
Howe received the news that he had been knighted for his victory on Long Island, and he returned to New York to celebrate the occasion.
[Sidenote: Arnold's naval battle at Valcour Island, Oct. 11, 1776.]
While the case looked so desperate for Was.h.i.+ngton, events at the north had taken a less unfavourable turn. Carleton had embarked on Lake Champlain early in the autumn with his fine army and fleet. Arnold had fitted up a small fleet to oppose his advance, and on the 11th of October there had been a fierce naval battle between the two near Valcour Island, in which Arnold was defeated, while Carleton suffered serious damage. The British general then advanced upon Ticonderoga, but suddenly made up his mind that the season was too late for operations in that lat.i.tude. The resistance he had encountered seems to have made him despair of achieving any speedy success in that quarter, and on the 3d of November he started back for Canada. This retreat relieved General Schuyler at Albany of immediate cause for anxiety, and presently he detached seven regiments to go southward to Was.h.i.+ngton's a.s.sistance.
[Sidenote: Charles Lee is captured by British dragoons, Dec. 13, 1776.]
On the 2d of December Lee crossed the Hudson with 4000 men, and proceeded slowly to Morristown. Just what he designed to do was never known, but clearly he had no intention of going beyond the Delaware to a.s.sist Was.h.i.+ngton, whom he believed to be ruined. Perhaps he thought Morristown a desirable position to hold, as it certainly was. Whatever his plans may have been, they were nipped in the bud. For some unknown reason he pa.s.sed the night of the 12th at an unguarded tavern, about four miles from his army; and there he was captured next morning by a party of British dragoons, who carried him off to their camp at Princeton. The dragoons were very gleeful over this unexpected exploit, but really they could not have done the Americans a greater service than to rid them of such a worthless creature. The capture of Lee came in the nick of time, for it set free his men to go to the aid of Was.h.i.+ngton.
Even after this force and that sent by Schuyler had reached the commander-in-chief, he found he had only 6000 men fit for duty.
[Sidenote: Battle of Trenton, Dec. 26, 1776.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Was.h.i.+ngton's Campaigns IN NEW JERSEY & PENNSYLVANIA.]
With this little force Was.h.i.+ngton instantly took the offensive. It was the turning-point in his career and in the history of the Revolutionary War. On Christmas, 1776, and the following nine days, all Was.h.i.+ngton's most brilliant powers were displayed. The British centre, 10,000 strong, lay at Princeton. The princ.i.p.al generals, thinking the serious business of the war ended, had gone to New York. An advanced party of Hessians, 1000 strong, was posted on the bank of the Delaware at Trenton, and another one lower down, at Burlington. Was.h.i.+ngton decided to attack both these outposts, and arranged his troops accordingly, but when Christmas night arrived, the river was filled with great blocks of floating ice, and the only division which succeeded in crossing was the one that Was.h.i.+ngton led in person. It was less than 2500 in number, but the moment had come when the boldest course was the safest. By daybreak Was.h.i.+ngton had surprised the Hessians at Trenton and captured them all.
The outpost at Burlington, on hearing the news, retreated to Princeton.
By the 31st Was.h.i.+ngton had got all his available force across to Trenton. Some of them were raw recruits just come in to replace others who had just gone home. At this critical moment the army was nearly helpless for want of money, and on New Year's morning Robert Morris was knocking at door after door in Philadelphia, waking up his friends to borrow the fifty thousand dollars which he sent off to Trenton before noon. The next day Cornwallis arrived at Princeton, and taking with him all the army, except a rear-guard of 2000 men left to protect his communications, came on toward Trenton.
When he reached that town, late in the afternoon, he found Was.h.i.+ngton entrenched behind a small creek just south of the town, with his back toward the Delaware river. ”Oho!” said Cornwallis, ”at last we have run down the old fox, and we will bag him in the morning.” He sent back to Princeton, and ordered the rear-guard to come up. He expected next morning to cross the creek above Was.h.i.+ngton's right, and then press him back against the broad and deep river, and compel him to surrender.
Cornwallis was by no means a careless general, but he seems to have gone to bed on that memorable night and slept the sleep of the just.
[Sidenote: Battle of Princeton, Jan. 3, 1777.]
Was.h.i.+ngton meanwhile was wide awake. He kept his front line noisily at work digging and entrenching, and made a fine show with his campfires.
Then he marched his army to the right and across the creek, and got around Cornwallis's left wing and into his rear, and so went on gayly toward Princeton. At daybreak he encountered the British rear-guard, fought a sharp battle with it and sent it flying, with the loss of one-fourth of its number. The booming guns aroused Cornwallis too late.
To preserve his communications with New York, he was obliged to retreat with all haste upon New Brunswick, while Was.h.i.+ngton's victorious army pushed on and occupied the strong position at Morristown.
There was small hope of dislodging such a general from such a position.
But to leave Was.h.i.+ngton in possession of Morristown was to resign to him the laurels of this half-year's work. For that position guarded the Highlands of the Hudson on the one hand, and the roads to Philadelphia on the other. Except that the British had taken the city of New York--which from the start was almost a foregone conclusion--they were no better off than in July when Lord Howe had landed on Staten Island.
In nine days the tables had been completely turned. The attack upon an outpost had developed into a campaign which quite retrieved the situation. The ill-timed interference of Congress, which had begun the series of disasters, was remedied; the treachery of Lee was checkmated; and the cause of American Independence, which on Christmas Eve had seemed hopeless, was now fairly set on its feet. Earlier successes had been local; this was continental. Seldom has so much been done with such slender means.
[Sidenote: Effects of the campaign, in Europe.]
The American war had begun to awaken interest in Europe, especially in France, whither Franklin, with Silas Deane and Arthur Lee, had been sent to seek for military aid. The French government was not yet ready to make an alliance with the United States, but money and arms were secretly sent over to Congress. Several young French n.o.bles had asked the king's permission to go to America, but it was refused, and for the sake of keeping up appearances the refusal had something of the air of a reprimand. The king did not wish to offend Great Britain prematurely.
One of these n.o.bles was Lafayette, then eighteen years of age, who fitted up a s.h.i.+p at his own expense, and sailed from Bordeaux in April, 1777, in spite of the royal prohibition, taking with him Kalb and other officers. Lafayette and Kalb, with the Poles, Kosciuszko and Pulaski, who had come some time before, and the German Steuben, who came in the following December, were the five most eminent foreigners who received commissions in the Continental army.
[Sidenote: Difficulty in raising an army.]
During the winter season at Morristown the efforts of Was.h.i.+ngton were directed toward the establishment of a regular army to be kept together for three years or so long as the war should last. Hitherto the military preparations of Congress had been absurdly weak. Squads of militia had been enlisted for terms of three or six months, as if there were any likelihood of the war being ended within such a period. While the men thus kept coming and going, it was difficult either to maintain discipline or to carry out any series of military operations.
Accordingly Congress now proceeded to call upon the states for an army of 80,000 men to serve during the war. The enlisting was to be done by the states, but the money was to be furnished by Congress. Not half that number of men were actually obtained. The Continental army was larger in 1777 than in any other year, but the highest number it reached was only 34,820. In addition to these about 34,000 militia turned out in the course of the year. An army of 80,000 would have taken about the same proportion of all the fighting men in the country as an army of 1,000,000 in our great Civil War. Now in our Civil War the Union army grew with the occasion until it numbered more than 1,000,000. But in the Revolutionary War the Continental army was not only never equal to the occasion, but it kept diminis.h.i.+ng till in 1781 it numbered only 13,292.
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