XXXVIII. CHAPTER with sufficient promptitude, Sir William Howe had requested to be recalled; and the command-in-chief of the 1778. British army was presently assumed by Sir Henry Clinton. As the spring opened, strong foraging parties of the British army issued from Philadelphia. An expedition May 7. up the Delaware captured or burned a considerable number of vessels, including the unfinished Continental frigates which had been conveyed for safety to Trenton. Washington was still encamped at Valley Forge with an effective force of hardly twelve thousand men; nor did it seem possible, with all the efforts made to fill up the ranks, that the Continental army, including the troops at Wilmington, West Point, and Ticonderoga, and a brigade lately sent into New Jersey, could be carried beyond twenty thousand. Now that the Delaware was liable to be blocked up by a French fleet, Philadelphia could no longer be safely held by the British. An intention to evacuate it began to be rumored. To gain intelligence as to this matter, as well as to restrict the enemy's foraging parties, Washington sent La Fayette, to whom the command of a division had lately been given, with a strong detachment of the best troops, to occupy Barren Hill, between Valley Forge and Philadelphia, some ten miles in advance of the camp. He had not long been there when Clinton sent a much stronger force to cut him off; but the young May 20. general escaped by a seasonable and handsome retreat. The three civil commissioners appointed under Lord North's act were the Earl of Carlisle, William Eden, a brother of the late governor of Maryland, known afterward as Lord Auckland, and Governor Johnstone, who had been from the commencement a conspicuous opponent in Parliament to the whole American policy of ministers. A passport to visit Congress having been refused XXXVIII by Washington to Adam Ferguson, the commissioners' CHAPTER secretary, they presently sent to that body a copy of their commission, and an address, in which they proposed a sus- 1778. pension of hostilities. They suggested in it, as the basis June 13. of a final settlement, an extension of the privileges of trade hitherto allowed to the colonies; an understanding that no military force should be kept up in any colony without the consent of its Assembly; an arrangement for sustaining the Continental bills of credit, and their ultimate discharge; a representation of the colonies in the British Parliament, and of the British government in the colonial Assemblies; and such an organization of the colonial administrations as to yield almost every thing short of total independence. Such an offer, two years before, would have been eagerly grasped at. But times had changed. Jealous, however, of the influence which the commissioners might exercise, Congress resolved to have as little to do with them as possible. A very brief answer was given to their June 17 address in the terms of the resolution above mentioned, refusing to treat unless the independence of the states were first acknowledged or the British troops withdrawn. The commissioners made a long and argumentative re- July 1. joinder; but of that Congress took no notice. The preparations for evacuating Philadelphia had meanwhile been completed. The baggage and stores, and a considerable number of non-combatants who adhered to the British, were sent round to New York by water; the army, about twelve thousand strong, having crossed the June 18. Delaware, took up its line of march through the Jerseys As soon as the evacuation was known, Washington, with his whole force, marched in pursuit. The weather was hot and rainy; the British were a good deal encumbered with baggage and provision wagons, and the Ameri XXXVIII. CHAPTER cans soon began to come up with them. The question of a general engagement had been warmly discussed in a 1778. council of war; Lee, whose exchange had been recently effected, and who held, next to Washington, the highest rank in the service, had strongly opposed it; Greene, and other officers, were in favor of fighting. Washington himself inclined to that opinion, and he sent forward June 25. La Fayette with two thousand men to press upon Clinton's left, and crowd him off from the high grounds. Lee's rank entitled him to the leadership of this corps; but, as he had opposed fighting, he yielded it up to La Fayette. The next day, however, Lee changed his mind; and, being sent forward with two additional brigades, by virtue of his superior rank he assumed the command of the whole advanced division. The enemy encamped at June 28. Monmouth Court House. The next morning Washington sent word to Lee, who was now about six miles in advance, to make an attack, promising to bring up the whole army to support it. He advanced accordingly, but, much to his surprise, presently met Lee retreating. Greatly irritated, Washington uttered a very sharp reprimand, and ordered the line of battle to be formed. warm but indecisive action followed, broken off by the approach of night. The British retired under cover of the darkness, and, having gained the high grounds of Nevisink, placed themselves in a position secure from attack. The American loss in this action was about two hundred, partly killed and wounded, partly disabled by the extreme heat. The British loss was about three hundred; but great numbers, especially of the Germans, who had married, or formed other connections in Philadelphia, took occasion, during the march across the Jerseys, to desert, and the total British loss in the retreat hardly fell short of two thousand men. A XXXVIII. Greatly offended at Washington's pointed and public CHAPTER rebuke, the day after the action Lee wrote him a letter in no very respectful tone. Washington's answer, so far 1778. from satisfying him, drew out another letter still more disrespectful. Lee was arrested, and was presently tried June 30. by court martial for disobedience of orders; for having made an unnecessary, shameful, and disorderly retreat; and for disrespect to the commander-in-chief in the two letters above mentioned. He defended himself with a good deal of ability, justifying his retreat on the ground that the enemy appeared in unexpected force in front, and that it was necessary to disentangle himself from a morass in his rear, which, in case of defeat, would have made escape impossible. The court acquitted him of the more serious part of the charges, but found him guilty of the rest, and sentenced him to be suspended for one year. This was the end of Lee's service in the American army. Shortly after the expiration of his sentence, in a sudden heat of passion at some suspected slight, he addressed an insolent letter to Congress, soon after retracted and apologized for, but which occasioned his dismissal from the service. From his position at Nevisink, Clinton found a short transportation to New York in Lord Howe's fleet, which had just arrived from Philadelphia with the baggage and stores. The retreat of the British was none too soon. They had been gone but a few days when the Count D'Estaing arrived off the Delaware with a French fleet July 6. of twelve ships of the line and four frigates. This fleet, much superior to Lord Howe's, had on board four thousand French troops. There came out in it M. Gerard, late secretary to the king's council, much employed in the American negotiation, and appointed embassador to the United States. Deane also took this opportunity to CHAPTER obey the orders of Congress, by returning home to give an account of his mission. XXXVIII 1778. Having sent his passengers up the Delaware in a frigate, D'Estaing sailed for Sandy Hook, and came to anchor off the harbor of New York. A joint attack by sea and land upon that city was seriously meditated. With that July 21. object in view, Washington crossed the Hudson with his army, and encamped at White Plains. New York was thrown into the greatest alarm; but the pilots declined to take the heavier French ships over the bar, and the projected attack had to be abandoned. The next most feasible undertaking seemed to be an expedition against Newport, then held by à British army of six thousand men, under General Pigot. This British occupation of Newport was a great eyesore to New England. An attack had been projected the year before, and a great expense incurred; but, from various reasons, it had been abandoned. Congress had ordered an inquiry into the causes of that failure, and Spencer, who had held the command in Rhode Island, had resigned his commission in consequence. He was, however, immediately sent as a delegate to Congress from Connecticut. Foreseeing that Newport might become the object of attack, Washington had directed Sullivan, Spencer's successor in that command, to call upon Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut for five thousand militia, a call which had been promptly obeyed. William Greene, Cooke's successor as governor of Rhode Island, exerted himself to the utmost. The Massachusetts militia marched under John Hancock as general. Two brig ades of Continentals were sent on from the main army. Great enthusiasm prevailed, and every thing promised The French ships occupied Narraganset Bay, and opened a communication with the American army success. |