Part 12 (1/2)
His Excellency, GENL WAshi+NGTON
On the following day Congress adjourned As soon as possible after its adjournates seem to have departed for home, to take their places in the convention then in session at Richmond; for the journal of that convention ust the 9th, ”Patrick Henry, Edmund Pendleton, Benjamin Harrison, and Thomas Jefferson, Esquires, appeared in convention, and took their seats”[207] On the next day an incident occurred in the convention iress, had been able to serve his colony by other gifts as well as by those of ”bold and splendid eloquence:” it was resolved that ”the powder purchased by Patrick Henry, Esquire, for the use of this colony, be i that, the convention resolved unanimously that ”the thanks of this convention are justly due to his excellency, George Washi+ngton, Esquire, Patrick Henry, and Edates who represented this colony in the late Continental Congress, for their faithful discharge of that important trust; and this body are only induced to dispense with their future services of the like kind, by the appointment of the two former to other offices in the public service, incompatible with their attendance on this, and the infirm state of health of the latter”[209]
Of course, the two appointton as commander-in-chief of the forces of the United Colonies, and of Patrick Henry as coinia,--the latter appointinia convention on the 5th of August The commission, which passed the convention on the 28th of that iulars, and commander-in-chief of all the forces to be raised for the protection and defence of this colony;” and while it required ”all officers and soldiers, and every person whatsoever, in any way concerned, to be obedient” to hi the due execution of this commission,” it also required him to be obedient to ”all orders and instructions which, froht ”receive froly, Patrick Henry's control ofmore than nominal: it was a supreme command on paper, tempered in actual experience by the incessant and distrustful interference of an ever-present body of civilians, who had all power over hi for the 23d of September announces the arrival there, two days before, of ”Patrick Henry, Esquire, coinia forces He was met and escorted to town by the whole body of volunteers, who paid him every mark of respect and distinction in their power”[211] Thereupon he inspected the grounds about the city; and as a place suitable for the encae of Williaan to arrive in considerable nuht be required of them[212] There was, however, a sad lack of arms and ammunition On the 15th of October, Pendleton, as at the head of the Coave this account of the situation in a letter to Richard Henry Lee, then in Congress at Philadelphia:--
”Had we aror to our ulars are here, and seem very clever men; others, we hear, are ready, and only wait to collect arms Lord Dunmore's forces are only one hundred and sixty as yet, intrenched at Gosport, and supported by the shi+ps drawn up before that and Norfolk”[213]
On the 30th of November, Lord Dunmore, who had been coe upon his armed vessels off the coast, thus described the situation, in a letter to General Sir William Howe, then in command at Boston:--
”I must inform you that with our little corps, I think we have done wonders We have taken and destroyed above four score pieces of ordnance, and, by landing in different parts of the country, we keep the heard that a thousand chosen reat part of ere riflemen, were on their march to attack us here, or to cut off our provisions, I detere, which secures us the greatest part of two counties to supply us with provisions I accordingly ordered a stockade fort to be erected there, which was done in a few days; and I put an officer and twenty-five roes, who have defended it against all the efforts of the rebels for these eight days
We have killed several of their men; and I round there; but should we be obliged to abandon it, we have thrown up an intrenchment on the land side of Norfolk, which I hope they will never be able to force Here we are, with only the sainst the extensive colony of Virginia”[214]
But ere these ”thousand chosento the rebels,” who, on their march to attack Lord Dunmore at Norfolk, had thus been held in check by his little fort at the Great Bridge? We are told by Duninia troops But as not Patrick Henry in immediate command of them? Why was Patrick Henry held back from this service,--the only active service then to be had in the field? And as the direction of this iiven to his subordinate, Colonel Williaiment?
There is abundant evidence that Patrick Henry had eagerly desired to conduct this expedition; that he had even solicited the Committee of Safety to per his ave this fine opportunity for military distinction to the officer next below him in command
Moreover, no sooner had Colonel Woodford departed upon the service, than he began to ignore altogether the commander-in-chief, and to make his communications directly to the Committee of Safety,--a course in which he was virtually sustained by that body, on appeal being made to them Furthermore, on the 9th of December, Colonel Woodford won a brilliant victory over the ene to the public the wisdo the work to hiround the co in camp over his enforced retirement from this duty But this was not the only cup of hu afterward, there arrived at the seat of war a few hundred North Carolina troops, under command of Colonel Robert Howe; and the latter, with the full consent of Woodford, at once took command of their united forces, and thenceforward addressed his official letters solely to the convention of Virginia, or to the Cohtest attention to the coress decided to raise in Virginia six battalions to be taken into continental pay;[217] and, by a subsequent vote, it likewise resolved to include within these six battalions the first and the second Virginia regily sent to Patrick Henry as colonel of the first Virginia battalion,[219]--an official intieneral for Virginia was to be given to so this last affront, Patrick Henry determined to lay down his military appointments, which he did on the 28th of February, 1776, and at once prepared to leave the ca the troops, they all, according to a conte, and, under ars,” when his officers presented to him an affectionate address:--
TO PATRICK HENRY, JUNIOR, ESQUIRE:
Deeply iations we lie under to you for the polite, huhout the whole of your conduct, while we have had the honor of being under your command, permit us to offer to you our sincere thanks, as the only tribute we have in our power to pay to your realyourself fronant sorrow, as it at once deprives us of our father and general, yet, as gentlemen, we are colaring indignity May your eneral as it hath done to us, and s upon you
WILLIAMSBURG, February 29, 1776
His reply to this war words:--
GENTLEMEN,--I aed to you for your approbation of hest honor This kind testiard to reater than I have had the power to perforentlements for the spirit, alacrity, and zeal you have constantly shown in your several stations
I am unhappy to part with you I leave the service, but I leave ive you success and safety, andour country[221]
The grief and indignation thus exhibited by the officers who had served under Patrick Henry soon showed itself in a soinia Gazette” for that time states that, ”after the officers had received Colonel Henry's kind answer to their address, they insisted upon his dining with theh Tavern, before his departure; and after the dinner, a nu hi a the soldiery, who assee, and declared their unwillingness to serve under any other commander Upon which Colonel Henry found it necessary to stay a night longer in tohich he spent in visiting the several barracks; and used every argument in his poith the soldiery to lay aside their imprudent resolution, and to continue in the service, which he had quitted from motives in which his honor alone was concerned”[222] Moreover, several days after he had left the caether and had returned to his honed by ninety officers belonging not only to his own regiment, but to that of Colonel Woodford,--a doculy one side of conte Patrick Henry's career as a soldier, and the treatment to which he had been subjected
SIR,--Deeply concerned for the good of our country, we sincerely lanation, and with all the wariven rise to the indignity lately offered to you, we join with the general voice of the people, and think it our duty to h respect for your distinguished ment, as a senator, this United Continent bears ample testimony, while she prosecutes her steady opposition to those destructive ministerial ht to resent, and your resolution led forward to resist To your extensive popularity the service, also, is greatly indebted for the expedition hich the troops were raised; and while they were continued under your command, the firmness, candor, and politeness, which formed the conal approbation of the wise and virtuous, and will leave upon our h retired from the immediate concerns of e solicit the continuance of your kindly attention We know your attachment to the best of causes; we have the fullest confidence in your abilities, and in the rectitude of your views; and, however willing the envious may be to undermine an established reputation, we trust the day will come when justice shall prevail, and thereby secure you an honorable and happy return to the glorious e your life in the defence of your country[223]
The public agitation over the alleged wrong which had thus been done to Patrick Henry during his brief ht that career to its abrupt and painful close, seehout the colony the blame was openly and bluntly laid upon the Committee of Safety, who, on account of envy, it was said, had tried ”to bury in obscurity his martial talents”[224] On the other hand, the course pursued by that coround that Patrick Henry, with all his great gifts for civil life, really had no fitness for a leading military position One writer asserted that even in the convention which had elected Patrick Henry as commander-in-chief, it was objected that ”his studies had been directed to civil and not to military pursuits; that he was totally unacquainted with the art of war, and had no knowledge of military discipline; and that such a person was very unfit to be at the head of troops ere likely to be engaged with a well-disciplined arenerals”[225] In the very middle of the period of his nominal military service, this opinion of his unfitness was still ed by the chairman of the Committee of Safety, who, on the 24th of December, 1775, said in a letter to Colonel Woodford:--
”Believe entleman from our councils, where he was useful, into the field, in an important station, the duties of which he iven me many an anxious and uneasy moment In consequence of this mistaken step, which can't now be retracted or reradation, and must keep his rank,--we must be deprived of the service of some able officers, whose honor and former ranks will not suffer them to act under him in this juncture, e so much need their services”[226]
This see Patrick Henry held at that time by at least two friendly andon froe of any personal or partisan prejudice upon the subject Writing froe, on the 7th of March, 1776, before he had received the news of Henry's resignation, Washi+ngton said to Joseph Reed, then at Philadelphia: ”I think my countrymen made a capital mistake when they took Henry out of the senate to place him in the field; and pity it is that he does not see this, and renation”[227] On the 15th of that ton this bit of news: ”We have soned in disgust at not being ives satisfaction than otherwise, as his abilities seem better calculated for the senate than the field”[228]
Nevertheless, in all these conteed military defects of Patrick Henry, no reader can now fail to note an e lack of definiteness, and a tendency to infer that, because that great reat in civil life, as a reat, also, in military life,--a proposition that could be overthrown by nureatly aid us if we could know precisely what, in actual experience, were the defects found in Patrick Henry as a military man, and precisely how these defects were exhibited by his of that period, no satisfaction upon this point seems thus far to have been obtained
There is, however, a piece of later testimony, derived by authentic tradition froinia Committee of Safety, which really helps one to understand what may have been the exact difficulty with the military character of Patrick Henry, and just why, also, it could not be ton, a son of Paul Carrington, told Hugh Blair Grigsby that the real ground of the action of the Coiment under the coe, or his alacrity to hasten to the field; but it was plain that he did not seem to be conscious of the iarded his soldiers as so entlemen who had met to defend their country, and exacted fro equals To have iment of such men, would have been to insure their destruction; and it was a thorough conviction of this truth that prompted the decision of the committee”[229]
Yet, even with this explanation, the truth reinia forces, never was permitted to take command, or to see any real service in the field, or to look upon the face of an armed enemy, or to show, in the only way in which it could be shohether or not he had the gifts of a military leader in action As an accoinian of our own time has said:--