SIANS

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CHAPTER XXI.

THE NEW JERSEY CAMPAIGN.

CONDITION OF THE ARMY.-RETREAT THROUGH NEW JERSEY.-HOWE'S PROCLAMATION OF AMNESTY. WASHINGTON CROSSES THE DELAWARE. - CONDUCT OF GENERAL LEE, HIS CAPTURE. OUTRAGES BY THE FOREIGN TROOPS. THE HESAND CAPTURED AT TRENTON. WASHINGTON RECROSSES THE DELAWARE.—BATTLE OF PRINCETON. - WINTER QUARTERS AT MORRISTOWN. — RESULTS OF THE CAMPAIGN. SUFFERINGS OF AMERICAN PRISONERS IN THE HANDS OF THE BRITISH. THE QUESTION OF EXCHANGE. WASHINGTON'S POSI

TION.

SURPRISED

Washington

a move on

phia.

LITTLE doubt remained in Washington's mind that the British would follow up their successes about New York by an imapprehends mediate move upon Philadelphia. This was the opinion of Philadel- the council of war at White Plains when Howe relinquished further operations in Westchester County. Washington, therefore, left Lee at Northcastle, and Heath in the Highlands, taking Putnam, Greene, Stirling, and Mercer, with him southward. Something over four thousand men composed his entire force, and many of these were to leave in December.

66

Washington wrote to Governor Livingston, of New Jersey, to be prepared for the invasion of his province. He suggested that the militia be in readiness for instant service, and recommended the people, in the strongest terms, to remove their "stock, grain, effects, and carriages," for the enemy in their progress would leave them nothing. They have treated all here," he wrote from Westchester, "without discrimination; the distinction of Whig and Tory has been lost in one general scene of ravage and desolation." What could not be removed, he advised, should be burned" without the least hesitation." The condition of his army still gave him great anxiety. By the 1st Condition of of December he would have only about two thousand Continentals on the Jersey side, to oppose Howe's entire force. The several legislatures were exceedingly slow in raising their additional quotas, and Congress still adhered to the policy of short enlist

his army.

ments.

The first necessity now was reënforcements. Adjutant-general Reed

1776.]

RETREAT THROUGH NEW JERSEY.

521

was sent to appeal to the New Jersey Legislature for help, and Mifflin was despatched on a like errand to Congress at Philadelphia. Being a popular and able speaker, he addressed meetings in that city, roused the war spirit afresh, and by the middle of December had contributed much toward raising new troops in both town and country. The Philadelphia" associators," or home-guards, turned out in large numbers. General Schuyler sent down from the Northern Department seven eastern regiments under Gates and St. Clair.

The enemy had renewed operations only four days after the capture of Fort Washington, and Fort Lee was evacuated so hastily by the Americans that the kettles were on the fire, and a thousand bar

rels of flour, three hundred tents, and a number of mounted cannon fell into the hands of Cornwallis. As Washington reached Hackensack bridge, the British van appeared in sight on the road above. By the 22d the whole American army had fallen back to Newark. On the 28th, as Washington was leaving Newark at one end of the town, Cornwallis entered at the other.

A proclama

nesty.

Northern New Jersey was thrown into a panic at this invasion. Taking advantage of the alarm, the two Howes, as Peace Commissioners, issued a proclamation on the 30th, in which tion of amthey offered pardon to all who had taken up arms against the King, if they returned quietly to their homes, the offer holding good for sixty days. Many in New Jersey and Pennsylvania accepted

it. Among these was Joseph Galloway, of Philadelphia, a member of the first Continental Congress.1

Washington

From Newark Washington fell back to Brunswick on the Raritan. Most of the flying camp, Jerseymen and Pennsylvanians, went home, their term of enlistment having expired. The British came on through Elizabethtown, Uniontown, Woodbridge, and other places, impressing cattle, horses, and wagons. On December 1st, Washington retreated by a night march to Princeton, where he left Stirling and reaches the Stephen, of Virginia, to watch the enemy, while he moved to Delaware, Trenton with the other half of his force to transfer stores and baggage across the Delaware. Howe unaccountably ordered Cornwallis to halt at Brunswick. In the lull of the pursuit, Washington urged Congress to raise a permanent army and "have nothing to do with militia except in cases of extraordinary exigency." That he might, in case of necessity, make a safe retreat into Pennsylvania, he had boats in readiness at Trenton, and to prevent pursuit he ordered every sort of craft removed from the Jersey side for seventy miles up and down the Delaware. He gave special orders that the Durham produce-scows should be secured, as any one of them was large enough to transport a whole regiment. Cornwallis, on the 8th, suddenly pushed on again, and nearly surprised Stirling, while the entire American force, less than three thousand, crossed the Delaware as the British were marching into Trenton. Stedman, who was in Howe's army, criticises the easy pace of the pursuit. To him it seemed as if Howe "had calculated with the greatest accuracy the exact time necessary for his enemy to make his escape."

and crosses it.

A panic.

As the two armies moved southward, the panic in Jersey and Pennsylvania increased. Congress thought it unsafe to remain in Philadelphia, and adjourned early in December to meet at Baltimore. Oliver Wolcott, a delegate from Connecticut, wrote that it was judged that the Council of America ought not to sit in a Place liable to be interrupted by the rude Disorder of Arms." Putnam and Mifflin were ordered there to put that city in a state of defence.

Lee's conduct.

As Washington fell back slowly through New Jersey, warily watching every movement of the enemy, he had repeatedly and urgently ordered Lee to join him with his whole force. But that General chose to construe those orders as conditional, and not imperative. This was in accordance with his settled purpose to acquire a

1 Howe subsequently made him superintendent of the post at that city, but he appears at the close of the war as a witness in England against the British General who had pardoned him, who was accused of conducting a very sluggish campaign in the Jerseys.

1776.]

CONDUCT OF GENERAL LEE.

523 separate command; more than this, -as he had hoped the year before that the supreme command would be bestowed upon him, so he still hoped, undoubtedly, that he might supersede Washington. He assumed to instruct the New England Governors, and even Congress, upon the construction of the army, and the measures which should be adopted for the conduct of military affairs. In November he wrote to the President of the Massachusetts Council, James Bowdoin, that "before the unfortunate affair of Fort Washington, he was of opinion that the two armies — that on the east and that on the west side of North River must rest each on its own bottom; that the idea of detaching . . . . from one side to the other was chimerical; but to harbor such a thought in our present circumstances is absolute insanity." When Washington ordered him to move, he saw fit to act upon his own judgment rather than to obey the orders of his superior, and directed General Heath to cross the river and join the main army, instead of himself. Heath refused to obey, properly conceiving that his movements were to be governed by the Commander-in-chief. "The Commander-in-chief," was Lee's reply, "is now separated from us; I, of course, command on this side the water: for the future I will and must be obeyed." When, at last, he leisurely took up his line of march to join the main army, where the aid of his troops was so imperatively needed, he wrote that he was "in hopes to reconquer the Jerseys, which were really in the hands of the enemy before my arrival." In a letter to General Gates, two days later, he says, "Entre nous, a certain great man is most damnably deficient. He has thrown me into a situation where I have my choice of difficulties if I stay in this Province, I risk myself and Army, and if I do not stay, the Province is lost forever — . I must act with the greatest circumspection—. . . . as to what relates to yourself, if . you think you can be in time to aid the General, I would have you by all means go." Even Gates, he thought, should be governed by his own discretion, rather than obey positive orders; and while he hesitated whether he should stay or not stay in Jersey, Washington had four times written him within ten days" hasten your march as much as possible, or your arrival may be too late to answer any valuable purpose: "the sooner you join me with your division, the sooner the service will be benefited: " "march and join me with all your whole force with all possible expedition: "-"push on with every possible succor you can bring." 1

On his march through Jersey he compelled the inhabitants to furnish his men with clothing, of which they were, like all the army,

1 See Treason of Major-general Charles Lee, by George H. Moore. Lee Papers, N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1872.

greatly in need, promising that the public should pay for it. He did not cross the Hudson until the 3d of December, sixteen days after he was directed to march. On the 12th he was no farther than Vealtown, and on the next day was taken prisoner. The previous evening, he had pushed on with his staff and about a dozen guards to Baskingridge, and put up at a tavern. "A rascally Tory," according to one account, noticed Lee's exposed position, and

Lee captured.

galloping away at high speed, gave the information that night to a British scouting-party under Lieutenant-colonel Harcourt, twenty miles distant. Harcourt arrived at Baskingridge, with fifty of his dragoons, about ten o'clock on the morning of the 13th. Lee had

1 This order, recently discovered, directs Colonel Chester and a party to proceed to Harrington township and collect all the serviceable horses and spare blankets they can find, leaving "a sufficient number to cover the people;" and they are to gather shoes and great coats, "to serve as Watch Coats." "The people from whom they are taken," continues the order, are not to be insulted either by language or actions, but told that the urgent necessity of the troops obliges us to this measure, that, unless we adopt it, their liberties must perish."