Part 20

These enormities, though too frequently practised in a time of war by the military, unless restrained by the severest discipline, so exasperated the people of the Jerseys, that they flew to arms immediately upon the army’s hurrying from Trenton, and forming themselves into parties, they way-laid the men, and cut them off as they had opportunity. The militia collected. The Americans in a few days over-ran the Jerseys. The army was forced from Woodbridge. Gen. Maxwell surprised Elizabeth-Town, and took near 100 prisoners, with a quantity of baggage. Newark was abandoned. The royal troops were confined to the narrow compass of Brunswick and Amboy, both holding an open communication with New-York by water. They could not even stir out to forage but in large parties, which seldom returned without loss. [Jan. 20.] Gen. Dickenson, with about 400 militia and 50 of the Pennsylvania riflemen, defeated near Somerset court-house, on Millstone river, a foraging party of the enemy, of equal number; and took 40 waggons, upward of 100 horses, beside sheep and cattle which they had collected. They retreated with such precipitation that he could make only nine prisoners; but they were observed to carry off many dead and wounded in light waggons. The general’s behavior reflects the highest honor upon him; for though his troops were all raw, he led them through the river middle deep, and gave the enemy so severe a charge, that although supported by three field-pieces, they gave way and left their convoy.

The whole country was now become hostile to the British army. Sufferers of all parties rose as one man to revenge their personal injuries and particular oppressions, and were the most bitter and determined enemies. They who were incapable of bearing arms, acted as spies, and kept a continual watch, so that not the smallest motion could be made by the royalists, without its being discovered before it could produce the intended effect. This hostile spirit was encouraged by a proclamation of general Washington [Jan. 25.] which commands every person having subscribed the declaration of fidelity to Great-Britain, taken the oaths of allegiance, and accepted protections and certificates from the commissioners, to deliver up the same, and take the oath of allegiance to the United States of America. It grants however, full liberty to all such as prefer the interest and protection of Great-Britain to the freedom and happiness of their country, forthwith to withdraw themselves and families within the enemy’s lines. But it declares, that all who neglect or refuse to comply with the order, within thirty days from the date, will be deemed adherents to the king of Great-Britain, and treated as common enemies to these American States. Some days before the proclamation was issued, a number of the Pennsylvania militia, having served the time fixed upon, were desirous of returning, which was complied with, and the general took the earliest opportunity of returning his most hearty thanks to those brave men, who in the most inclement season of the year nobly stepped forth in defence of their country. He also acknowledged with pleasure the signal services done by the said militia; and with additional satisfaction, the good services of those battalions, who determined to remain with him after the expiration of their times of service. The militia of Pennsylvania are not only entitled to the hearty thanks of the commander in chief, but of the United States; for greatly through their instrumentality, the Jerseys have been nearly recovered, and a victorious and superior army been reduced to act upon the defensive, as well as Philadelphia saved, and Pennsylvania freed from danger. Nor will gratitude forget the share which gen. Mifflin had in exciting them to rise in favour of public liberty.

Toward the end of January a plan was formed for taking Fort Independence, near Kingsbridge, and by so doing, to obtain a passage into New-York island. About 4000 militia of the Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New-York states, in four divisions, under generals Heath, Wooster, Parsons and Lincoln, were destined for the service. Gen. Heath was commander in chief. They marched, the division under Heath from White-Plains—under Wooster and Parsons from New-Rochelle—and under Lincoln from toward Tarry-town. All met on the heights about and near Kingsbridge. The fort had but a trifling garrison, which could have made no effectual resistance, had a vigorous push been instantly made; and the men were in spirits for the attempt. In this way only could it be carried, was defence sttempted, as the Americans had no other artillery than three field-pieces. With these they fired a number of shots at eighty or a hundred Hessians, and a few light-horse, who collected on the other side of Haerlem river; the Hessians were thrown into a momentary confusion, but soon formed again. Gen. Heath demanded a surrender of the fort, and threatened in case of non-compliance. The threat was disregarded. The troops were employed chiefly in picking up tories, and in foraging and taking stores that had been in the possession of the enemy, till more artillery should arrive from Peek’s-kill which a council of war had agreed to send for. About nine days from the first appearance of the Americans before the fort, the artillery came to hand, and consisted of one brass 24 pounder, and two howitzers. The twenty-four pounder was fired twice, when the carriage broke; and a few shells were thrown, without any execution. A great number of teams were then employed in carrying off forage, &c. The enemy who had been reinforced during these delays, sallied out, but were repulsed: soon after the Americans retired, upon a report that some ships were gone up the North-River. Gen Heath’s conduct was censured by men of sense and judgment, who were with him on the expedition. It was fraught with so much caution, that the army was disappointed, and in some degree disgraced. His summons, as he did not fulfil his threats, was idle and farcical, and tended to bring upon all of them the ridicule of their enemies. The Americans suffered much from the weather, and not less from the failure of the expedition. Many of them afterward crossed the North-River, and proceeded to Morristown.

About the time this fruitless expedition commenced, and three days before gen. Washington’s proclamation, plundering had become so prevalent among the American troops, that his excellency had inserted in general orders—“The general prohibits, both in the militia and continental troops, in the most possitive terms, the infamous practices of plundering the inhabitants, under the specious pretence of their being tories. It is our business to give protection and support to the poor distressed inhabitants, not to multiply and increase their calamities. After this order, any officer found plundering the inhabitants under the pretence of their being tories, may expect to be punished in the severest manner. The adjutant general to furnish the commanding officer of each division with a copy of these orders, who is to circulate copies among his troops immediately.” You will regret, that while the British and Hessians plunder the Americans upon the plea of their being rebels; these should plunder their own countrymen upon the plea of their being tories. Humanity and good sense should dictate a different line of conduct, from a belief, that men of opposite sentiments may act conscientiously, while taking contrary parts in a civil contest.

Near upon 2000 of the British went on a foraging party from Amboy. They attacked the American guards and drove them five or six miles. When the latter were reinforced by gen. Maxwell, with about 1400 men, chiefly militia, the others retreated with such precipitation, as to be able to return but two fires, and left behind them six of their men prisoners and two dead. Thus are the troops under lord Cornwallis watched, straitened, and obliged to undergo the hardships of a most severe and unremitting duty; though he has been strengthened by a brigade of British, and some companies of grenadiers and light infantry from Rhode-Island. The order for these troops was sent to lord Percy, gen. Clinton being gone to England. Lord Percy did not immediately comply: but returned for answer, that the enemy were collecting a large force near Providence, of which circumstance he supposes gen. Howe was unacquainted; that he thought it his duty to represent this matter, and to add, that he apprehended it would be dangerous to the service there, to send away so large a corps. Gen. Howe replied, that lord Percy knew the consequence of disobedience of orders, trial by court martial, and certain sentence of being broke; but that he was inclined to show his lordship all the indulgence that his services deserved, at the same time he insisted upon his orders being punctually obeyed. His lordship’s feelings have been so hurt by this reply, that it is apprehended, he will not remain long in a situation that subjects him to gen. Howe.

The American recruiting service went on most wretchedly.—The returns which gen. Washington received from different quarters, were of so extraordinary a nature, that he suspected the most abominable fraud and embezzlement of the public money. The accounts of desertion almost surpassed belief, and afforded him the highest probability that officers were tempted, by the great bounty allowed, to exhibit a number of pretended recruits, that were never in reality inlisted. But the evil he complained of, was owing greatly to the prevailing method of inlisting men, viz. the paying of them the bounty, and then suffering them to ramble about the country, by which means they inlisted with half a dozen officers. Instead of being formidable by the middle or March, he wrote, [March 6.] “After the fifteenth, when gen. Lincoln’s militia leave us, we shall only have the remains of the five Virginia regiments, who do not amount altogether to more than five or six hundred men, and two of the other continental battalions very weak. The rest of our army is composed of small parties of militia from this state and Pennsylvania; and little dependence can be put upon the militia, as they come and go when they please, if the enemy do not move it will be a miracle; nothing but ignorance of our numbers, and situation, can protect us.” He has since owned, that during the latter part of this last winter, he and his army have remained at the mercy of the royal troops, with sometimes scarcely a sufficient body of men to mount the ordinary guards, liable every moment to be dissipated, if the enemy had only thought proper to march against them. The general’s whole force, including militia, at Morristown and the several out-posts, amounted often to not more than 1500 men; and it has been asserted, upon apparently good authority, that he repeatedly could not muster more at Morristown than between three and four hundred. In writing officially upon the subject to the governor and council of Connecticut the representation he gave of affairs drew tears from the eyes of those who heard the letter read. While gen. Washington was at this low ebb with his army, gentlemen of five thousand pounds fortune or more, and many others who were men of substance, though not equal to that, did duty as centinels at his doors and elsewhere.

Though gen. Howe made no capital stroke at the commander in chief of the Americans; yet he concerted an operation against the post which gen. M’Dougall occupied, and where a considerable quantity of provisions and stores was deposited. A detachment of 500 men under col. Bird was convoyed by the Brunc frigate to Peek’s-kill, near fifty miles from New-York. They landed on the 23d of March. As the general had but 250 men fit for duty, insted of 600 to guard the place, which lay in a bottom and was not tenable, he fired the principal store-houses, and then quitted the town in order to occupy the important pass through the highlands, on the east side of the river, about two miles and a half distant. The fire rendered useless the only wharf where it was practicable to embark the remaining stores in convenient time, which made it expedient to destroy the greater part. Col. Bird having done it, and hearing a reinforcement was expected by the Americans, re-embarked the same day. The loss of rum, molasses, flour, biscuit, pork, beef, wheat, oats, hay, tallow, iron pots, camp kettles, canteens, bowls, nails, waggons and carts, barracks, store-houses, sloops and pettiaugers laden with provisions, was very considerable, far beyond what was given out by the Americans, though not of that importance and magnitude, as to answer the expectations of gen. Howe. Gen. Washington had repeatedly guarded the commissary against suffering any large quantities of provisions to lie near the water, in such places as were accessable to the enemy’s shipping; but he had not been properly attended to.

The want of muskets occasioned a delay in forwarding the new troops from the Massachusetts: but many of the militia from that state were persuaded to remain at Morristown for some weeks longer than the fixed time of service. Fifteen hundred of the new troops would have been upon their march, but the general court could not supply them with arms. The perplexity occasioned by this circumstance was however of short continuance. On the day of its commencement or the following, a vessel of fourteen guns from France arrived at Portsmouth with 364 cases, containing 11,987 stand: she had also on board a thousand barrels of powder, 11,000 gun-flints, 48 bales of woollens, and a small quantity of handkerchiefs, cottons, linens, and other articles. Congress were under a similar distress with the Massachusetts general court, as to the procuring of arms for gen. Washington’s army; but obtained a similar relief, by the arrival of a vessel, [March 24.] with 10,000 stand, beside a great number of gun-locks. These seasonable arrivals will furnish an ample supply of arms: the main difficulty will now be to get men to use them. Dr. Franklin arrived at Nantz the 13th of December.

The brilliancy of the successes, which have attended the American army since last Christmas, and their most happy consequences in changing the complexion of the times, must raise the character of gen. Washington as highly in Europe as it had done in America; and may lead sanguine spirits, who are strangers to the real circumstances of the country, to imagine that he will soon be able to drive all before him; but it will require his utmost abilities to act in so defensive a manner, as to secure himself from injury, and at the same time frustrate the offensive plans of the enemy. He is indeed to have the assistance of a body of cavalry, which will be of considerable advantage.

You will scarce think it beneath remarking, that when the royal army had possessed themselves of the Jerseys, and the American affairs were at the lowest ebb, there was not a single state, or capital town or city (if not wholly in the power of the enemy) that made advances toward submission. But in the month of January, the tories rose to a great head, in the counties of Somerset and Worcester, in the state of Maryland; so that in the beginning of February, the congress were obliged to employ several battalions (before they could march forward to join gen. Washington) in suppressing the insurgents.

Committees, from the four New-England states, had a meeting; since which their proceedings were laid before congress; and the last have resolved, [Feb. 15.] “That the plan for regulating the price of labor, of manufactures, and internal produce within those states, and of goods imported from foreign parts, except military stores, be referred to the consideration of the other United States; and that it be recommended to them to adopt such measures, as they shall think most expedient to remedy the evils occasioned by the present fluctuating and exorbitant prices of the articles aforesaid:—That for this purpose it be recommended to the legislatures, or in their recess, to the executive powers of the states of New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, to appoint commissioners to meet at Yorktown in Pennsylvania, on the third Monday in March next, to consider of and form a system of regulation adapted to those states, to be laid before the respective legislatures of each states, for their approbation:—That for the like purpose it be recommended to the legislatures, or executive powers in the recess of the legislatures of the states of North-Carolina, South-Carolina and Georgia, to appoint commissioners to meet at Charleston in South-Carolina on the first Monday in May next.” Some of the New-England states had passed acts for regulating prices, before these resolutions.

On the 27th, congress adjourned to meet at Philadelphia the following Wednesday. Before adjourning they recommended to the several states, the passing of laws to put a stop to the distilling of grain.

Congress having dismissed doctor Samuel Stringer, director of the hospital in the northern department of the army, (at the same day they dismissed Dr. Morgan) gen. Scuyler took offence at it, and expressed himself unguardedly in some of his official letters: upon that it was “Resolved, [Mar. 15.] That as congress proceeded to the dismission of Dr. Stringer, upon reasons satisfactory to themselves, gen. Scuyler ought to have known it to be his duty to have acquiesced therein:—That the suggestion in gen. Scuyler’s letter to congress, that it was a compliment due to him to have been advised of the reasons of Dr. Stringer’s dismission, is highly derogatory to the honor of congress; and that the president be desired to acquaint gen. Scuyler, that it is expected his letters for the future, be written in a style more suitable to the dignity of the representative body of those free and independent states, and to his own character of their officer:—Resolved, That it is altogether improper and inconsistent with the dignity of this congress, to interfere in disputes subsisting among the officers of the army, which ought to be settled, unless they can be otherwise accommodated, in a court martial, agreeable to the rules of the army; and that the expression in gen. Scuyler’s letter of the fourth of February—“That he confidently expected congress would have done him that justice, which it was in their power to give, and which he humbly conceives they ought to have done”—were to say the least, ill-advised and highly indecent.”

[Jan. 24.] “Resolved, That gen. Washington be informed that it never was the intention of congress that he should be bound by the majority of voices in a council of war contrary to his own judgment:—That the commander in chief in every department be made acquainted, that though he may consult the general officers under him, yet he is not bound by their opinion; but ought finally to direct every measure according to his own judgment.”

In the month of January gen. Howe discharged all the privates who were prisoners in New-York. Great complaints were made of the horrid usage the Americans met with after they were captured. The garrison of Fort Washington surrendered by capitulation to gen. Howe the 16th of November. The terms were, that the fort should be surrendered, the troops be considered prisoners of war, and that the American officers should keep their baggage and side arms. These articles were signed, and afterward published in the New-York papers. Major Otho Holland Williams, of Rawlings’s rifle regiment, in doing his duty that day, unfortunately fell into the hands of the enemy. The haughty, imperious deportment of the officers, and the insolent scurrility of the soldiers of the British army soon dispelled his hopes of being treated with lenity. Many of the American officers were plundered of their baggage and robbed of their side arms, hats, cockades, &c. and otherwise grossly ill-treated. He and three companions were (on the third day) put on board the Baltic Merchant, an hospital ship, then lying in the Sound. The wretchedness of his situation was in some degree alleviated by a small pittance of pork and parsnip, which a good natured sailor spared him from his own mess. The fourth day of their captivity, Rawlings, Hanson, M’Intire, and himself, all wounded officers, were put into one common dirt cart, and dragged through the city of New-York, as objects of derision, reviled as rebels, and treated with the utmost contempt. From the cart they were set down at the door of an old _waste_ house (the remains of Hamden-hall) near Bridewell, which because of the openness and filthiness of the place, he had a few months before refused as barracks for his privates; but now was willing to accept for himself and friends, in hopes of finding an intermission of the fatigue and persecution they had perpetually suffered. Some provisions were issued to the prisoners in the afternoon of that day; what quantity he could not declare; but it was of the worst quality he ever, till then, saw made use of. He was informed the allowance consisted of six ounces of pork, one pound of biscuit and some peas per day for each man, and two bushels and a half of sea-coal per week for the officers, to each fire-place. These were admitted on parole, and lived generally in waste houses. The privates, in the coldest season of the year, were close confined in churches, sugar-houses and other open buildings which admitted all kinds of weather and consequently were subjected to the severest kind of persecution that ever unfortunate captives suffered. Officers were insulted, and often struck for attempting to afford some of the miserable privates a small relief. In about three weeks he was able to walk, and was himself a witness of the extreme wretchedness his countrymen suffered. He could not describe their misery. Their constitutions were not equal to the rigor of the treatment they received, and the consequence was the death of many hundreds. The officers were not allowed to take muster-rolls, nor even to visit their men, so that it was impossible to ascertain the numbers that perished; but from frequent reports and his own observations, he verily believed, as well as had heard many officers give it as their opinion, that not less than fifteen hundred prisoners perished in the course of a few weeks in the city of New-York, and, that this dreadful mortality was principally owing to the want of provisions and extreme cold. If they computed too largely, it must be ascribed to the shocking, brutal manner of treating the dead bodies, and not to any desire of exaggerating the account of their sufferings. When the king’s commissary of prisoners intimated to some of the American officers, gen. Howe’s intention of sending the privates home on parole, they all earnestly desired it; a paper was signed expressing that desire; the reason for signing was, they well knew the effects of a longer confinement; and the great numbers that died when on parole, justified their pretensions to that knowledge. In January almost all the officers were sent to Long-Island on parole, and there billeted on the inhabitants at two dollars per week.[42]