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soldiers, and the great personal influence of the commander-in-chief, had the effect to retain in the service, for a few weeks at least, more than one half of the old soldiers.

There were about fifteen hundred Hessians,' and a troop of British light horse, at Trenton, and these Washington determined to surprise. The British commanders looked with such contempt upon the American troops-the mere ghost of an army-and were so certain of an easy victory beyond the Delaware, where, rumor affirmed, the people were almost unanimous in favor of the king, that vigilance was neglected. So confident were they that the contest would be ended by taking possession of Philadelphia, that Cornwallis actually returned to New York, to prepare to sail for England! And when Rall, the commander of the Hessians at Trenton, applied to General Grant for a reinforcement, that officer said to the messenger, "Tell the colonel he is very safe. I will undertake to keep the peace in New Jersey, with a corporal's guard." How they mistook the character of Washington! During all the gloom of the past month, hope had beamed brightly upon the heart of the commander-inchief. Although Congress had adjourned to Baltimore [December 12, 1776], and the public mind was filled with despondency, his reliance upon Providence in a cause so just, was never shaken; and his great soul conceived, and his ready hand planned a bold stroke for deliverance. The Christmas holiday was at hand-a day when Germans, especially, indulge in convivial pleasures. Not doubting the Hessians would pass the day in sports and drinking, he resolved to profit by their condition, by falling suddenly upon them while they were in deep slumber after a day and night of carousal. His plan was to cross the Delaware in three divisions, one a few miles above Trenton, another a few miles below, and a third at Bristol to attack Count Donop' at Burlington. Small parties were also to attack the British posts at Mount Holly, Black Horse, and Bordentown, at the same time.

On the evening of Christmas day [1776], Washington gathered twentyfour hundred men, with some heavy artillery, at McConkey's Ferry, eight or nine miles above Trenton. They expected to cross, reach Trenton at midnight, and take the Hessians by surprise. But the river was filled with floating ice, and sleet and snow were falling fast. The passage was made in flat-boats; and so difficult was the navigation, that it was almost four o'clock in the morning [December 26] when the troops were mustered on the Jersey shore. They were arranged in two divisions, commanded respectively by Greene and Sullivan, and approached Trenton by separate roads. The enterprise was eminently successful. Colonel Rall, the Hessian commander, was yet indulging in wine at the end of a night spent in card

1 Page 246.

2 Alarmed at the approach of the British, Congress thought it prudent to adjourn to Baltimore. A committee to represent that body was left in Philadelphia, to co-operate with the army. Congress assembled at Baltimore on the 20th. 3 Page 275. Taylorsville is the name of the little village at that place. The river there, now spanned by a covered bridge, is about six hundred feet in width, and has a considerable current

playing, when the Americans approached, a little after sunrise;' and while endeavoring to rally his affrighted troops, he fell, mortally wounded, in the streets of Trenton. Between forty and fifty of the Hessians were killed and fatally wounded, and more than a thousand were made prisoners, together with arms, ammunition, and stores. Five hundred British cavalry barely escaped, and fled to Bordentown. Generals Ewing and Cadwalader, who commanded the other two divisions, destined to attack the enemy below Trenton, were unable to cross the river on account of the ice, to co-operate with Washington. With a strong enemy so near as Burlington and Princeton, the commander-in-chief thought it imprudent to remain on the Jersey shore, so with his prisoners and booty he re-crossed the Delaware on the evening after his victory.

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BATTLE AT TRENTON.

This was indeed a victory in more aspects than that of a skillful military operation. The Germans under Dunop, on the river below, thoroughly alarmed, fled into the interior. The Tories and pliant Whigs' were abashed; the friends of liberty, rising from the depths of despondency, stood erect in the pride and strength of their principles; the prestige of the Hessian name, lately so terrible, was broken, and the faltering militia, anxious for bounties and honors, flocked to the victorious standard of Washington. Fourteen hundred soldiers, chiefly of the eastern militia, whose terms of enlistment would expire with the year, agreed to remain six weeks longer, on a promise to each of a bounty of ten dollars. The military chest was not in a condition to permit him to fulfill his promise, and he wrote to Robert Morris, the eminent financier of the Revolution, for aid, and it was given. Fifty thousand dollars, in hard money, were sent to the banks of the Delaware, in time to allow Washington to fulfill his engagement."

The victory was also productive of more vigilant efforts on the part of the

1 Rall spent the night at the house of a loyalist, named Hunt. Just at dawn, & messenger, sent by a Tory on the line of march of the patriots, came in hot haste to the colonel. Exted by wine, and intent upon his game, that officer thrust the note into his pocket. Like the Athenian lemarch, who, when he received dispatches relative to a conspiracy, refused to open them, saying, "Busi ness to-morrow," Rall did not look at the message, but continued his amusement unt the rull of the American drum, and the crack of his rifle, fell upon his dull ears, and called him to acty. 2 Note 4, page 226.

Then it was that Robert Morris not only evinced his faith in the success of the patriot cause, and his own love of country, but he tested the strength of his credit and mercantile honor. The sum was large, and the requirement seemed almost impossible to meet. Government credit was low, but confidence in Robert Morris was unbounded. On leaving his office, musing upon how he should obtain the money, he met a wealthy Quaker, and said, "I want money for the use of the army." "Robert, what security canst thou give?" asked the Quaker. "My note and my honor," promptly replied Morris. "Thou shalt have it," as promptly responded the lender, who offered him a considerable sum, and the next morning it was on its way to the camp of Washington. Robert Morris was a native of England, where he was born in 1733. He came to America in 1744, and became a merchant's clerk in Philadelphia. By the force of industry, energy, and a good character, he arose to the station of one of the first merchants of his time. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and was active as a public financier, throughout the war. Toward its close [1781], he was instrumental in establishing a national bank. After the war, he was a state legislator, and Washington wished hira to be his first Secretary of the Treasury, but he declined it. By land speculations he lost his fortune, and died in comparative poverty, in May, 1806, when a little more than seventy years of age. See his portrait on next page.

invaders. Believing the rebellion to be at an end, and the American army hopelessly annihilated, when Washington, with his shivering, half-starved troops, fled across the Delaware, Cornwallis, as we have observed, had returned to New York to embark for England. The contempt of the British for the

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"rebels," was changed to respect and fear, and when intelligence of the affair at Trenton reached Howe, he ordered Cornwallis back with reinforcements, to gain the advantage lost. Congress, in the mean while, perceiving the necessity of giving more power to the commander-in-chief, wisely clothed him [December 27] with all the puissance of a military dictator, for six months, and gave him absolute control of all the operations of war, for that period.' This act was accomplished before that body could possibly have heard of the victory at Trenton, for they were then in session in Baltimore.

Inspirited by his success at Trenton, the panic of the enemy, and their retirement from the Delaware, Washington determined to recross that river, and act on the offensive. He ordered General Heath, who was with quite a

When Congress adjourned on the 12th, to meet at Baltimore, almost equal powers were given to Washington, but they were not then defined. Now they were so, by resolution. They wrote to Washington, when they forwarded the resolution, "Happy is it for this country, that the general of their forces can be safely intrusted with unlimited power, and neither personal security, liberty, nor property, be in the least degree endangered thereby." At that time, Congress had given General Putnam almost unlimited command in Philadelphia. All munitions of war there, were placed under his control. He was also authorized to employ all private armed vessels in the Delaware, in the defense of Philadelphia. See note 1, page 246.

large body of New England troops at Peekskill,' to move into New Jersey with his main force; and the new militia levies were directed to annoy the flank and rear of the British detachments, and make frequent attacks upon their outposts. In the mean while, he again crossed the Delaware [December 30th], with his whole army, and took post at Trenton, while the British and German troops were concentrating at Princeton, only ten miles distant. Such was the position and the condition of the two armies at the close of the second year of the War for Independence-the memorable year when this great Republic of the West was born.

CHAPTER IV

THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. [1777.]

THE strange apathy of nations, like individuals, in times of great danger, or when dearest interests depend upon the utmost vigilance and care, is a remarkable phase in human character, and the records thereof appear as monstrous anomalies upon the pages of history. Such was the case with the executive and legislative power of the British nation during the momentous year of 1776, when the eye of ordinary forecast could not fail to perceive that the integrity of the realm was in imminent danger, and that the American colonies, the fairest jewels in the British crown, were likely to be lost forever. Such an apathy, strange and profound, seemed to pervade the councils of the British Government, even while the public mind of England was filled with the subject of the American rebellion. Notwithstanding an army had been driven from one city' [March, 1776], a fleet expelled from another' [June], their colonies declared independent [July 4], and almost thirty thousand of their choice troops and fierce hirelings had been defied and combatted' [August], Parliament did not assemble until the last day of October, to deliberate on these important matters. Then the king, in his speech, congratulated them upon the success of the royal troops in America, and assured them (but without the shadow of good reason for the belief) that most of the continental powers entertained friendly feelings toward Great Britain. During a dull session of six weeks, new supplies for the American service were voted, while every conciliatory proposition was rejected; and when Parliament adjourned, in December, to keep the Christmas holidays, the members appeared to feel that their votes had crushed the rebellion, and that, on their re-assembling in January, they would be invited to join in a Te Deum at St. Paul's, because of submission and peace in

1 On the east bank of the Hudson, at the entrance to the Highlands, forty-five miles from the city of New York. See page 270.

2

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3 Page 249.

4 Page 251.

247. Page 253. The Te Deum Laudamus (We praise thee, O God) is always chanted in churches in England, and on the continent, after a great victory, great deliverance, etc. There is something revolting in

America. At that very moment, Washington was planning his brilliant achievement on the banks of the Delaware.'

SILAS DEANE.

In contrast with this apathy of the British Government, was the vigilance and activity of the Continental Congress. Their perpetual session was one of perpetual labor. Early in the year [March, 1776], the Secret Committee of that body had appointed Silas Deane,' a delegate from Connecticut, to proceed to France, as their agent, with general powers to solicit the co-operation of other governments. Even these remote colonists knew that the claims of the king of England to the friendship of the continental powers, was fallacious, and that France, Spain, and Holland, the Prince of Orange, and even Catharine of Russia, and Pope Clement the Fourteenth (Ganganelli), all of whom feared and hated England, instead of being friendly to her, were anxious for a pretense to strike her fiercely, and humble her pride, because of her potency in arms, her commerce, her diplomacy, and her strong Protestantism. All of these spoke kindly to the American agent, and Deane was successful in his embassy. He talked confidently, and by skillful management, during the summer of 1776, he obtained fifteen thousand muskets from the French arsenals, and abundant promises of men and money. And when the Declaration of Independence had been made [July 4], Congress appointed a regular embassy' [Sept. 22, 1776], to the court of France, and finally sent agents to other foreign courts. They also planned, and finally executed measures for strengthening the bond of union between the several colonies, already made powerfully cohesive by common dangers and common hopes. Articles of Confederation, which formed the organic laws of the nation until the adoption of

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this to the true Christian mind and heart. War, except strictly defensive as a last extremity, is always a monstrous injustice; and for its success in soddening God's fair earth with human blood, men in epaulettes, their hands literally dripping with gore, will go into the temple dedicated to the Prince of Peace, and there sing a Te Deum! Page 261. 2 Silas Deane was born at Groton, in Connecticut, and was educated at Yale College. He was elected to the first Congress [page 228] in 1774, and after being some time abroad, as agent for the Secret Committee, he was recalled, on account of alleged bad conduct. He published a defense of his character in 1778, but he failed to reinstate himself in the public opinion. He went to England toward the close of 1784, where he died in extreme poverty, in 1789.

3 The embassy consisted of Dr. Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee. Franklin and Lee joined Deane at Paris, at the middle of December, 1776. Lee had then been in Europe for some time, as a sort of private agent of the Secret Committee. He made an arrangement with the French king to send a large amount of arms, ammunition, and specie, to the colonists, but in such a way that it would appear as a commercial transaction. The agent on the part of the French was Beaumarchais, who assumed the commercial title of Roderique Hortales & Co., and Lee took the name of Mary Johnson. This arrangement with the false and avaricious Beaumarchais, was a source of great annoyance and actual loss to Congress in after years. What was a gratuity on the part of the French government, in the name of Hortales & Co., Beaumarchais afterward presented a claim for, and actually received from Congress four hundred thousand dollars. Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, in 1706. He was a printer; worked at his trade in London; became eminent in his business in Philadelphia; obtained a high position as a philosopher and statesman; was agent in England for several colonies; was chief embassador for the United States in Europe during the Revolution, and filled various official stations in the scientific and political world. He was one of the most remarkable men that ever lived; and, next to Washington, is the best known and most revered of all Americans. He died in 1790, at the age of more than eighty-four years Arthur Lee was a brother of Richard Henry Lee [page 250], and was born in Virginia, in 1740. He was a fine scholar, and elegant writer. He died in 1782. Holland, Spain, and Prussia.

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