From Farm House to the White House Part 54

Washington was almost ubiquitous in his exertions, and his n.o.ble white charger galloped over the battlefield, utterly regardless of danger, until the splendid beast sank under the excessive heat, and died.

Immediately the general mounted another war-horse of equal spirit, and, brandishing his sword high in the air, called to the troops:

"Stand fast, my boys, and receive your enemy! The Southern troops are advancing to support you!"

On the evening before, the officers drew up a memorial to Washington, entreating him not to expose himself in battle, as he did at Princeton, Trenton, and other places. Dr. Craik, who was present, remarked:

"It will not have the weight of a feather with him." Then referring to the Indian chief's prophecy on the banks of the Ohio, "The Great Spirit protects him; he cannot be shot in battle," he added, "I believe it."

In the b.l.o.o.d.y contest of the next day, a round shot from the British artillery ploughed the ground directly in front of the general, throwing up a cloud of dirt over his person.

"Dat wash very near!" exclaimed Baron Stuben. Dr. Craik and several of the officers who were together on the previous evening were witnesses.

Pleased by this remarkable confirmation of his faith in the Indian's prophecy, Dr. Craik smiled and, without uttering a word, pointed his finger towards heaven, as much as to say, "The Great Spirit protects him."

At the close of the day the battle-ground was in possession of the Americans. Washington's orders were to attack the foe again as soon as they began to move in the morning. But in the morning no enemy could be found; they had silently retreated during the night.

The Americans lost two hundred and twenty killed and wounded; and the British two hundred and fifty, and one hundred prisoners.

Major-General Lee was court-martialed for his conduct on the field of Monmouth, and was suspended from all command for one year. Many believed that he was an arch-traitor, who deserved a halter, although the evidence of it was not then conclusive. But eighty years thereafter (in 1858), papers were discovered in Lee's handwriting, in which he communicated to Lord and Sir William Howe, while he was a prisoner in New York, a plan for subjugating the Colonies. The only explanation of his conduct, after the fall of Fort Washington, is found in his treasonable designs. He never returned to the service.

On the 13th of July Washington received news of the arrival of the French fleet, consisting of twelve ships of the line and six frigates, and four thousand men for a land force. Immediate consultation with the commander, Count D'Estaing, led him to cross the Hudson and establish his army at White Plains.

Rhode Island was in the possession of the British, and Washington proposed to recover it by the united action of his army and the French fleet. After several weeks of rough campaigning, Washington was compelled to abandon his purpose, because the eccentric D'Estaing resolved to take his fleet to Boston for rest and repairs.

For the winter of 1778-'79 he stationed his army in cantonments from Long Island Sound to the Delaware, while his own headquarters were near Middlebrook. This arrangement was designed to protect the country and watch the enemy.

The next year, 1779, the enemy carried on a predatory war, striking here and there with detachments of troops, plundering, burning, and ravaging the neighborhood. Washington was fully occupied in repulsing the enemy engaged in this sort of warfare.

As ill.u.s.tration of the cruel measures adopted by the British commander, an expedition was sent to Connecticut; they captured the fort at New Haven, destroyed all the vessels in the harbor, with all the artillery, ammunition, and stores, and plundered several private houses. They burned the town of Fairfield, destroying ninety-seven dwelling houses, sixty-seven barns and stables, forty-eight store-houses, three places of worship, two school-houses, a court-house, a jail, and all the vessels and public stores they could lay their hands on. Norwalk was also burned in the same ruthless manner; and the depredations extended into Ma.s.sachusetts, injuring or destroying such towns as offered good harbors for privateers.

Exasperated by the reluctance of the Tories to flock to the British standard, and the numerous desertions of English and Germans from his army, King George sent his emissaries to instigate the savages of the Mohawk to plunder and butchery. The terrible ma.s.sacres of Cherry Valley and Wyoming, in which hundreds of men, women, and children were remorselessly slaughtered, and their habitations committed to the flames, followed. The brutality of those scenes are known to the world, because they are matters of history.

Some of the ablest statesmen of England fearlessly denounced the king and his court for prosecuting a war with such barbarity. Lord Chatham declared:

"Were I an American as I am an Englishman, I would never lay down my arms: never, _never_, NEVER!"

The king and his court maintained, however, that they were justified in resorting to any measures to subdue American rebels.

Two remarkable expeditions which Washington organized that year were those which captured Stoney Point, under General Wayne; and Paulus Hook, under Major Henry Lee. These grand achievements inspirited the American army, and did much to convince the British that they were engaged in a fruitless attempt to reduce the Colonies to their domination.

As winter approached, the French fleet, which sailed from Boston to the West Indies, appeared off the Southern coast, to co-operate with General Lincoln, who commanded the Southern Department. On this account the British commander was compelled to operate in that direction.

Washington, whose headquarters had been at West Point for several months, went into winter quarters at Morristown, where the experience of Valley Forge was repeated with additional rigor.

The cruel treatment of Americans captured by the British had long engaged Washington's attention, and reference to it here is in point.

Many of their prisoners were confined in old ships, where they suffered all that hunger, thirst, filth, and abuse could inflict. On account of the dreadful sufferings endured by the prisoners, these ships were called "floating h.e.l.ls."

The "Jersey Prison Ship" and the old "Sugar House," converted into prisons by Lord Howe, are notorious for their infamous character in American history. Congress appealed in vain to the commanding British general, and Washington wrote to him upon the subject again and again.

In one letter Washington said:

"From the opinion I have ever been taught to entertain of your lordship's humanity, I will not suppose that you are privy to proceedings of so cruel and unjustifiable a nature; and I hope that, upon making the proper inquiry, you will have the matter so regulated that the unhappy persons whose lot is captivity may not in the future have the miseries of cold, disease, and famine added to their other misfortunes.... I should not have said thus much, but my injured countrymen have long called upon me to endeavor to obtain a redress of their grievances, and I should think myself as culpable as those who inflict such severities upon them were I to continue silent."

A Rev. Mr. Andros of Ma.s.sachusetts was confined in the "Jersey Prison Ship." After his escape and the close of the war, he published a small book detailing the sufferings of its occupants. One brief paragraph therefrom is all our s.p.a.ce will permit.

"Her dark and filthy exterior corresponded with the death and despair reigning within. It is supposed that eleven thousand American seaman perished in her. None came to relieve their woes. Once or twice, by order of a stranger on the quarter-deck a bag of apples was hurled promiscuously into the midst of hundreds of prisoners, crowded as thick as they could stand, and life and limb were endangered in the struggle.

The prisoners were secured between the decks by iron gratings; and when the ship was to be cleared of watch, an armed guard forced them up to the winches, amid a roar of execrations and reproaches, the dim light adding to the horrors of the scene. Thousands died whose names have never been known, perishing when no eye could witness their fort.i.tude, nor praise their devotion to their country."

The brave Lingan, hero of Fort Washington, was confined in the "Jersey;"

and it was amid the horrors around him that he exclaimed:

"Sweet, O my country, should be thy liberties, when they are purchased at this monstrous price!"

Custis relates that one day, when a coffin was brought in which proved too short for the dead comrade, and it was proposed to cut off his head in order to adapt the body to the receptacle, Lingan "sprang from his couch of pain, and, laying his hand upon the lifeless corpse of the departed soldier, swore he would destroy the first man who should thus mutilate the body of his friend."

XXII.

CLOSE OF THE WAR.

The treason of Arnold in 1780 contributed, on the whole, to the fidelity of the army in 1781. The poorest soldier in the ranks scorned "to become an Arnold."

Washington placed Arnold in command at West Point in 1780. Arnold had long been interceding for the position, and it was found subsequently that he had been in treasonable correspondence with the British commander fifteen months when he a.s.sumed command of that post. The correspondence was commenced voluntarily by Arnold, and was conducted on the part of Sir Henry Clinton by his aid, Major John Andre, under the signature of John Anderson.

General Arnold was hara.s.sed by burdensome debts. He was a gambler, too, and, of course, devoid of moral principle. His object was to pay his debts with British gold.

His correspondence ripened into a plan by Arnold to deliver West Point into the hands of the British, for which purpose a midnight meeting was arranged between him and Major Andre. The meeting occurred at Dobb's Ferry, when Arnold delivered to Andre a plan of the works at West Point, together with a plan of attack by the British, when the post would be surrendered on the ground that the American troops were too few to hold it. The papers were concealed in Andre's stockings.

On his return, even after he had pa.s.sed the American lines, three patriotic representatives of the New York yeomanry, John Paulding, Isaac Van Wart, and David Williams, stopped him, the first aiming his musket at his head.

"Gentlemen, I hope you belong to our party," said Andre with as much composure as he could command.

"What party?" responded Paulding.

"The lower party," replied Andre.

"We do," they said.

"I am a British officer, and have been up the country on particular business," continued Andre, now feeling that he was among friends. He was deceived by the dress which Paulding wore,--that of a refugee.

Paulding had been a prisoner in the hands of the British, confined in that terrible prison known as the "Sugar House." He was released only four days before. In that place his citizen's suit was taken from him, and replaced by the refugee garb, so that the barbarity of Andre's countrymen became the cause of his detection.

"I must not be detained for a moment," continued Andre, taking out his gold watch, the sight of which showed to his captors that he was a man of consequence.

"We are Americans, and you are our prisoner!" exclaimed Paulding.

Andre was astounded by this revelation, and he was ready to pay any amount of money to his captors if they would let him go.