XXXVI. Greene, Sullivan, and Knox, in a joint letter, a few CHAPTER weeks before Washington's visit to Congress, had threatened to resign if a certain M. Du Coudray were promoted 1777. to the command of the artillery, with the rank of major general, agreeably to a contract which Deane had signed with him, in consideration of certain supplies which he had furnished. Congress, with a just sense of its dignity, voted this letter of the generals "an attempt to influence their decision, an invasion of the liberties of the people, and indicating a want of confidence in the justice of Congress," for which the writers were required to make an apology. Having consented to serve for the present as a volunteer, with a merely nominal rank, Du Coudray was drowned shortly after in crossing the Schuylkill. There was, indeed, among the American officers excessive jealousy and great heart-burnings on the subject of rank, precedence, and command, not only as to foreigners, but as to each other. Congress professed to be governed in its promotions by the complex considerations of former rank, meritorious service, and the number of troops raised by the states to which the officers respectively belonged. But the officers imagined, and not always without reason, that intrigue and personal favor had quite as much influence. Among the contracts made by Deane was one with Du Portail, La Radière, and Du Govion, three engineer officers of merit, recommended by the French, court, who were now placed at the head of the engineer department, thus completing the organization of the new army. Kosciusko, whose entry of the service has been already mentioned, was appointed engineer for the northern department. The Count Pulaski, who had already gained distinc CHAPTER tion in Europe by his attempts to resist the first parXXXVI. tition of Poland, had just arrived in America, and had 1777. offered his services to Congress. The foreign officers above named were persons of merit; but too large a proportion of those who came to seek commissions in America, whether sent by Deane, or adventurers on their own account, even some who brought high recommendations, were remarkable for nothing but extravagant self-conceit, and boundless demands for rank, command, and pay. Of a very different character was the Marquis De la Fayette, a youth of nineteen, belonging to one of the most illustrious families of France, who had just arrived in America, and whom Washington now met at Philadelphia for the first time. Like all other French nobles of that day, he had received a military education, and held a commission in the French army. In garrison at Metz, he had been present at an entertainment given by the governor of that city to the Duke of Gloucester, brother of the British king, and on that occasion, from the duke's lips, he first heard the story of the American rebellion. His youthful fancy was fired by the idea of this transatlantic struggle for liberty, and, though master of an ample fortune, and married to a wife whom he tenderly loved, he resolved at once to adventure in it. For that purpose he opened a communication with Deane. His intention becoming known, the French court, which still kept up the forms of neutrality, forbade him to go. But he secretly purchased a ship, which Deane loaded with military stores, and set sail at a moment when the news of the loss of New York and the retreat through the Jerseys made most foreigners despair of the American cause. The French court sent orders to the West Indies to intercept him; but he sailed XXXVI. directly for the United States, arrived in safety, present- CHAPTER ed himself to Congress, and offered to serve as a volunteer without pay. Admiring his disinterestedness not 1777. less than his zeal, and not uninfluenced by his rank and connections, Congress gave him the commission of major general which Deane had promised; but, for the present, content with the rank without any command, he entered the military family of Washington, for whom he soon contracted a warm and lasting friendship, which Washington as warmly returned. him eleven other officers; among them the Baron De Kalb, a German veteran, presently commissioned as major general. La Fayette brought with While Howe's uncertain movements kept Washington in doubt, Sullivan, who had been left in New Jersey with his division, availed himself of the absence of the main British army to undertake an expedition against Staten Island, then held by about three thousand British troops, one third of whom were Loyalists, stationed nearest the Jersey shore, and a great scourge to the people of New Jersey, whom they plundered without mercy. Sullivan effected a landing with a thousand men, in three divi- Aug. 22. sions, surprised two Loyalist regiments, and took a number of prisoners, who were sent off in a captured vessel. Seeing British uniforms on board this vessel, some of Sullivan's boats took the alarm and fled. His return was thus delayed by want of sufficient transportation, and his rear guard was cut off by a body of British regulars which came up from another part of the island. The papers and records of the yearly meeting of the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Quakers being taken by this expedition, Congress, from an examination of them, advised the council of Pennsylvania to arrest eleven leading and wealthy members of that sect, residents of CHAPTER Philadelphia, among others, Thomas Wharton, father of XXXVI. the president of Pennsylvania. 1777. In view of the danger of invasion, John Penn, joint proprietary and late governor of Pennsylvania, and Benjamin Chew, late chief justice, had been compelled, a few weeks before, to give their parole. They were now, by the advice of Congress, sent prisoners to Fredericksburg in Virginia, as were also such of the other arrested persons as refused to affirm allegiance to the State of Pennsylvania. Measures had already been taken to suppress the Tories, said to be very numerous in Sussex, the southern county of Delaware; and Congress now recommended to all the states to arrest all persons, Quakers or others, "who have, in their general conduct and conversation, evinced a disposition inimical to the cause of America;" also, to seize the papers of the Quaker yearly meetings, and to transmit the political part of their contents to Congress. What added to the present feelings of alarm, disastrous news had arrived from the north, where events of the utmost importance were transpiring. The force in Canada at Burgoyne's disposal had been a good deal underrated by Washington and by Congress; nor could they be induced to believe that any thing was intended in that quarter beyond a feigned attack upon Ticonderoga, in order to distract attention from Philadelphia. Hence the less pains had been taken to fill up the ranks of the northern army, which, indeed, was much weaker than Congress had supposed. At least ten thousand men were necessary for the defense of Ticonderoga alone; but St. Clair, who commanded there, had only three thousand, very insufficiently armed and equipped. The posts in the rear were equally weak. It was a part of Burgoyne's plan not merely to take XXXVI. Ticonderoga, but to advance thence upon Albany, and, CHAPTER with the co-operation of the troops at New-York, to get possession also of the posts in the Highlands. The Brit- 1777. ish would then command the Hudson through its whole extent, and New England, the head of the rebellion, would be completely cut off from the middle and southern colonies. Burgoyne started on this expedition with a brilliant army of eight thousand men, partly British and partly Germans, besides a large number of Canadian boatmen, laborers, and skirmishers. On the western shore of Lake Champlain, near Crown Point, he met the Six Nations in council, and, after a feast and a speech, some four hundred of their warriors joined his army. His next step was to issue a proclamation, in a very gran- June 29. diloquent style, setting forth his own and the British power, painting in vivid colors the rage and fury of the Indians, so difficult to be restrained, and threatening with all the extremities of war all who should presume to resist his arms. Two days after the issue of this proclamation, Bur- July 1. goyne appeared before Ticonderoga. He occupied a steep hill which overlooked the fort, and which the Americans had neglected because they thought it inaccessible to artillery. Preparations for attack were rapidly making, and St. Clair saw there was no chance for his troops except in instant retreat. The baggage and stores, placed in bateaux, under convoy of five armed galleys, the last remains of the American flotilla, were dispatched up the July 6. narrow southern extremity of the lake to Skenesborough, now Whitehall, toward which point the troops retired by land, in a southeasterly direction, through the New Hampshire grants. While General Fraser pursued the retreating troops, |