A Brief History of the United States Part 20

THE WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES AND ON THE SEA

BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND.--When Howe sailed from Boston (in March, 1776), he went to Halifax in Nova Scotia. But Washington was sure New York would be attacked, so he moved the Continental army to that city and took position on the hills back of Brooklyn on Long Island.

He was not mistaken, for to New York harbor in June came General Howe, and in July Clinton from his defeat at Charleston, and Admiral Howe [1] with troops from England. Thus reinforced, General Howe landed on Long Island in August, and drove the Americans from their outposts, back to Brooklyn.

[2] Washington now expected an a.s.sault, but Howe remembered Bunker Hill and made ready to besiege the Americans, whereupon two nights after the battle Washington crossed with the army to Manhattan Island. [3]

WASHINGTON'S RETREAT.--Washington left a strong force under Putnam in the heart of New York city, and stationed his main army along Harlem Heights.

Howe crossed to Manhattan and landed behind Putnam, [4] who was thus forced to leave his guns and tents, and flee to Harlem Heights, where Howe attacked Washington the next day and was repulsed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BATTLE OF HARLEM HEIGHTS. Tablet on a Columbia College building, New York city.]

So matters stood for nearly a month, when Howe attempted to go around the east end of Washington's line, and thus forced him to retreat to White Plains. Baffled in an attack at this place, Howe went back to New York and carried Fort Washington by storm, taking many prisoners.

Washington meantime had crossed the Hudson to New Jersey, leaving General Charles Lee with seven thousand men in New York state. He now ordered Lee to join him [5]; but Lee disobeyed, and Washington, closely pursued by the British, retreated across New Jersey.

THE VICTORY AT TRENTON, DECEMBER 26, 1776.--On the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River, Washington turned at bay, and having at last received some reenforcements, he recrossed the Delaware on Christmas night in a blinding snowstorm, marched nine miles to Trenton, surprised a body of Hessians, captured a thousand prisoners, and went back to Pennsylvania.

Washington now proposed to follow up this victory with other attacks. But a new difficulty arose, for the time of service of many of the Eastern troops would expire on January 1. These men were therefore asked to serve six weeks longer, and were offered a bounty of ten dollars a man.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MORRIS'S STRONG BOX. Now in the possession of the Pennsylvania Historical Society.]

ROBERT MORRIS SENDS MONEY.--Many agreed to serve, but the paymaster had no money. Washington therefore pledged his own fortune, and appealed to Robert Morris at Philadelphia. [6] "If it be possible, Sir," he wrote, "to give us a.s.sistance, do it; borrow money while it can be done, we are doing it upon our private credit." Morris responded at once, and on New Year's morning, 1777, went from house to house, roused his friends from their beds to borrow money from them, and early in the day sent fifty thousand dollars.

BATTLE OF PRINCETON, JANUARY 3, 1777.--Washington crossed again to Trenton, whereupon Lord Cornwallis hurried up with a British army, and shut in the Americans between his forces and the Delaware. But Washington slipped out, went around Cornwallis, and the next morning attacked three British regiments at Princeton and beat them. He then took possession of the hills at Morristown, where he spent the rest of the winter.

THE ATTEMPT TO CUT OFF NEW ENGLAND.--The British plan for the campaign of 1777 was to seize Lake Champlain and the Hudson River and so cut off New England from the Middle States. To carry out this plan, (1) General Burgoyne was to come down from Canada, (2) Howe was to go up the Hudson from New York and join Burgoyne at Albany, and (3) St. Leger was to go from Lake Ontario down the Mohawk to Albany. [7]

ORISKANY.--Hearing of the approach of St. Leger, General Herkimer of the New York militia gathered eight hundred men and hurried to the relief of Fort Stanwix. Near Oriskany, about six miles from the fort, he fell into an ambuscade of British and Indians, and a fierce hand-to-hand fight ensued, till the Indians fled and the British, forced to follow, left the Americans in possession of the field, too weak to pursue.

Just at this time the garrison of the fort made a sortie against part of the British army, captured their camp, and carried a quant.i.ty of supplies and their flags [8] back to the fort.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE FIRST NATIONAL FLAG.]

When news of Oriskany reached Schuyler, the patriot general commanding in the north, he called for a volunteer to lead a force to relieve Fort Stanwix. Arnold responded, and with twelve hundred men hurried westward, and by a clever ruse [9] forced St. Leger to raise the siege and flee to Montreal.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BATTLE OF BENNINGTON. From an old print.]

BENNINGTON.--Burgoyne set out in June, captured Ticonderoga, and advanced to the upper Hudson. As he came southward, the st.u.r.dy farmers of Vermont and New York began to gather on his flank, and collected at Bennington many horses and large stores of food and ammunition. As Burgoyne needed horses, he sent a force of Hessians to attack Bennington. But Stark, with his Green Mountain Boys and New Hampshire militia, met the Hessians six miles from town, surrounded them on all sides, beat them, and took seven hundred prisoners and quant.i.ties of guns and some cannon (August 16).

SARATOGA.--These defeats were serious blows to Burgoyne, around whose army the Americans had been gathering. He decided, however, to fight, crossed the Hudson, and about the middle of September attacked the Americans at Bemis Heights, and again on the same ground early in October. [10] He was beaten in both battles and on October 17 was forced to surrender at Saratoga.

BATTLE OF BRANDYWINE.--What, meantime, had Howe been doing? He should have pushed up the Hudson to join Burgoyne. But he decided to capture Philadelphia before going north, and having put his army on board a fleet, he started for that city by sea. Not venturing to enter the Delaware, he sailed up Chesapeake Bay and two weeks after landing found Washington awaiting him on Brandywine Creek, where (September 11, 1777) a battle was fought and won by the British. Among the wounded was Marquis de Lafayette, [11] who earlier in the year had come from France to offer his services to Congress.

PHILADELPHIA OCCUPIED.--Two weeks later Howe entered Philadelphia in triumph. [12] Congress had fled to Lancaster, and later went to York, Pennsylvania. Washington now attacked Howe at Germantown (just north of Philadelphia), but was defeated and went into winter quarters at Valley Forge, where the patriots suffered greatly from cold and hunger. [13]

[Ill.u.s.tration: AT VALLEY FORGE.]

RESULT OF THE CAMPAIGN.--The year's campaign was far from a failure. [14]

The surprise at Trenton and the victory at Princeton showed that Washington was a general of the first rank. The defeats at Brandywine and Germantown did not dishearten the army. The victory at Saratoga was one of the decisive campaigns of the world's history; for it ruined the plans of the British [15] and secured us the aid of France.

HELP FROM FRANCE, 1778.--In 1776 Congress commissioned Benjamin Franklin, Arthur Lee, and Silas Deane to go to France and seek her help. France, smarting under the loss of Louisiana and Canada (1763), would gladly have helped us; but not till the victories at Trenton, Princeton, Oriskany, and Saratoga could she feel sure of the ability of the Americans to fight.

Then the French king recognized our independence, and in February, 1778, made with us a treaty of alliance and went to war with Great Britain.

The effect of the French alliance was immediate. France began to fit out a fleet and army to help us. Hearing of this, Clinton, who had succeeded Howe in command at Philadelphia, left that city with his army and started for New York.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHURCH NEAR MONMOUTH BATTLEFIELD, BUILT IN 1752.]

MONMOUTH, JUNE 28, 1778.--Washington decided to pursue, and as Clinton, hampered by an immense train of baggage, moved slowly across New Jersey, he was overtaken by the Americans at Monmouth. Charles Lee [16] was to begin the attack, and Washington, coming up a little later, was to complete the defeat of the enemy. But Lee was a traitor, and having attacked the British, began a retreat which would have lost the day had not Washington come up just in time to lead a new attack. The battle raged till nightfall, and in the darkness Clinton slipped away and went on to New York.

Washington now crossed the Hudson, encamped at White Plains, and during three years remained in that neighborhood, constantly threatening the British in New York. [17]

BEGINNING OF THE NAVY.--More than three years had now pa.s.sed since the fight at Lexington, and here let us stop and review what the Americans had been doing at sea. At the outset, the colonists had no warships at all.

Congress therefore (in December, 1775) ordered thirteen armed vessels to be built at once, bought merchant ships to serve as cruisers, and thus created a navy of thirty vessels before the 4th of July, 1776. [18]

Eight of the cruisers were quickly a.s.sembled at Philadelphia, and early in January, 1776, Esek Hopkins, commander in chief, stepped on board of one of them and took command. As he did so, Lieutenant John Paul Jones hoisted a yellow silk flag on which was the device of a pine tree and a coiled rattlesnake and the motto "Don't tread on me." This was the first flag ever displayed on an American man-of-war. Ice delayed the departure of the squadron; but in February it put to sea, went to the Bahama Islands, captured the forts on the island of New Providence, and carried off a quant.i.ty of powder and cannon.

CAPTAIN BARRY.--Soon afterward another cruiser, the sixteen-gun brig _Lexington_, Captain John Barry, [19] fell in with a British armed vessel off the coast of Virginia, and after a sharp engagement captured her. She was the first prize brought in by a commissioned officer of the American navy.

THE CRUISERS IN EUROPE.--In 1777 the cruisers carried the war into British ports and waters, across the Atlantic. The _Reprisal_ (which had carried Franklin to France), under Captain Wilkes, in company with two other vessels, sailed twice around Ireland, made fifteen prizes, and alarmed the whole coast. [20] Another cruiser, the _Revenge_, scoured British waters, and when in need of repairs boldly entered a British port in disguise and refitted.

In 1778 John Paul Jones, [21] in the _Ranger_, sailed to the Irish Channel, destroyed four vessels, set fire to the shipping in a British port, fought and captured a British armed schooner, sailed around Ireland with her, and reached France in safety.

The next year (1779) Jones, in the _Bonhomme Richard_ (bo-nom' re-shar'), fell in with the British frigate _Serapis_ off the east coast of Great Britain, and on a moonlight night fought one of the most desperate battles in naval history and won it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GOLD MEDAL GIVEN TO JONES. [22]]

THE FRIGATES.--Of the thirteen frigates ordered by Congress in 1775, only four remained by the end of 1778. Some were captured at sea, some were destroyed to prevent their falling into British hands, and one blew up while gallantly fighting. Of the cruisers bought in 1775, only one remained. Other purchases at home and abroad were made, but three frigates were captured and destroyed at Charleston in 1779, and by the end of the year our navy was reduced to six vessels. During the war 24 vessels of the navy were lost by capture, wreck, or destruction. The British navy lost 102.

THE PRIVATEERS.--So far we have considered only the American navy--the warships owned by the government. Congress also (March, 1776) issued letters of marque, or licenses to citizens to fit out armed vessels and make war on British ships armed or unarmed; and the sea soon swarmed with privateers fitted out, not only by citizens but also by the states. The privateers were active throughout the war, and took hundreds of prizes.

SUMMARY

1. After the British left Boston, Washington moved his army to Long Island, where he was attacked by the British and driven up the Hudson to White Plains.

2. Later in the year (1776), Washington crossed the Hudson and retreated through New Jersey to Pennsylvania; then he turned about, won the battles of Trenton (December 26, 1776) and Princeton (January 3, 1777), and spent the rest of the winter in New Jersey.

3. The British plan for the campaign of 1777 was to cut off New England from the Middle States; Burgoyne was to come down from Canada and meet Howe, who was to move up the Hudson.

4. Burgoyne lost several battles, and was forced to surrender at Saratoga (October 17, 1777).

5. Howe put off going up the Hudson till too late; instead, he defeated Washington at Brandywine Creek (September 11, 1777), and captured Philadelphia. Washington then attacked Howe at Germantown, was defeated, and spent the winter at Valley Forge.

6. After Burgoyne's surrender, France recognized our independence (February, 1778) and joined us in the war.

7. Fearing a French attack on New York, the British left Philadelphia (June, 1778); Washington followed and fought the battle of Monmouth; but the British went on to New York, and for three years Washington remained near that city.

8. Congress, in December, 1775, created a little navy; but some of these vessels never got to sea; others under Hopkins and Barry won victories during 1776.