at the head of it. XXXVIII. They even entered the harbor of New- CHAPTER port, and obliged the British to burn or sink six frigates which lay there. A week, however, elapsed after D'Es- 1778. taing's arrival off Newport before the Continental troops could come up an unavoidable delay, but fatal to the enterprise. The American army, ten thousand strong, arranged in two divisions, one commanded by Greene, and the other by La Fayette, presently landed at the north end of the Aug. 10. island, where they expected to be joined by the four thousand troops of the French fleet, agreeably to the plan of attack as arranged with the French admiral. But D'Estaing, eager to take advantage of his superiority over Howe, on discovering the British fleet had put to sea, carrying the troops along with him. Within four or five days after D'Estaing's departure from Sandy Hook, four British men-of-war had arrived singly at New York, all of which, had D'Estaing kept that station, would probably have fallen into his hands. Even with this re-enforcement, Lord Howe was still inferior to the French fleet; but, resolved to risk every thing for the relief of Newport, he had sailed at once, and presently appeared off that harbor. In hopes of D'Estaing's speedy return, the Americans marched down the island, established themselves within two miles of the enemy's works, and opened a cannonade upon them. Meanwhile the fleets, struggling for the weather gage, were separated by a furious storm. D'Es- Aug. 15. taing presently reappeared off Newport, with two of his Aug. 20. ships dismasted, and the others badly damaged. Much to the disgust of Sullivan and his officers, and in spite of a written protest on their part, the French admiral insisted on sailing immediately to Boston to refit. Sullivan sent La Fayette to Boston to urge the re CHAPTER turn of the French ships, but without success. XXXVIII. The militia, much discouraged, began to desert. Sullivan 1778. abandoned his lines before the town, and retired by night. Aug. 29. Pursued and attacked, he maintained his ground in a sharp action, attended by the loss of two hundred men, and a somewhat larger loss to the British. The enemy thus checked, Sullivan continued the retreat with judgment, and soon established himself on strong ground at the northern end of the island, whence, a night or two Aug. 31. after, he crossed in safety to the main land—a very sea sonable movement, as the British army was re-enforced the next day by four thousand men from New York, led by Clinton in person. Lord Howe, whose vessels had suffered comparatively little in the storm, had sailed to cut off the French ships from Boston; but he found them so securely moored in the harbor that he did not venture an attack. The loud and pointed complaints of Sullivan, always too little able to command his feelings, were echoed through New England. Old anti-Gallican prejudices began to revive. A serious riot broke out at Boston between the American and French sailors. It required all the policy of Washington to allay these rising disgusts. To soothe the mortified D'Estaing, Congress passed a resolution approving his conduct. His retiring to Boston seems, indeed, to have been demanded by a due regard to the safety of his fleet. The British commissioners for conciliation, in addition to their public acts, had not been wanting—at least one of them-in private efforts with individuals. Johnstone had brought letters of introduction to several members of Congress from their friends and connections in Great Britain, among others, to Robert Morris, Reed, and Dana, to whom he wrote, urging the expediency of some arrange XXXVIII. ment, and suggesting in some of his letters that those CHAPTER persons instrumental in it could not fail of high honors and rewards. These letters, by order of Congress, were 1778. laid before that body. Reed also made a statement of a distinct offer made to him, through a Mrs. Furgerson, a lady of Philadelphia, who had connections in the British army, of £10,000, and any office he might choose in the colonies, if he would lend his aid in bringing about a reconciliation; to which he had replied "that he was not worth purchasing; but, such as he was, the King of England was not rich enough to buy him." Upon the strength of these communications, resolutions were passed by Congress accusing Johnstone of an attempt at bribery Aug. 11. and corruption, and declining to hold any further correspondence with him, or with the commission of which he was a member. Johnstone made an angry reply, in which he announced his withdrawal from the commission. The other commissioners published a paper, disavowing any responsibility for Johnstone's private letters or actions; but in this same paper, which seemed, indeed, to be intended chiefly for the public at large, they accused Congress of exceeding its powers, and of wantonly sacrificing, by the treaty with France, the best interests of the American people. No official answer was made to these two documents; but they were very severely handled, as the former papers of the commissioners had been, in publications by individual members of Congress. The commissioners had already remonstrated against the detention of Burgoyne's army, contrary to the terms of the capitulation, a ratification of which they presently Sept. tendered, signed by Sir Henry Clinton, the Earl of Carlisle, and William Eden. They made, at the same time, a new demand for the release of the troops. But a new XXXVIII. CHAPTER loop-hole was found by Congress. It was not for nothing that so many lawyers sat in that body. As all their acts 1778. were subject to approval by Parliament, Congress denied the authority of the commissioners to make a definitive ratification. Application was presently made, for the fourth time, to Sir Henry Clinton for passports for vessels to be employed in transporting supplies to Boston for the convention troops; and upon his neglect to grant them, the troops were marched off to Charlottesville, in Virginia, where they could be more easily guarded and more cheaply fed. They were quartered in log huts; the soldiers and officers had gardens, and the encampment formed quite a village. Some of them, especially the offi cers, were afterward exchanged; but the greater part remained prisoners till the end of the war. Oct. 3 The discomfited commissioners finally published an elaborate manifesto, addressed, not to Congress only, but to the Assemblies and the people of the states, charging upon Congress the responsibility of continuing the war; offering to the state Assemblies separately the terms already proposed to Congress; reminding those in arms that all the points originally in dispute had been conceded by Great Britain; suggesting to the clergy that the French were papists; appealing to all lovers of peace not to suffer a few ambitious men to subject the country to the miseries of unnecessary warfare; allowing forty days for submission; and threatening, if this offer were rejected, the desolation of the country as a future leading object of the war. A stop was put to the attempt to circulate this manifesto under flags of truce, but Congress caused it to be published in the newspapers, along with their counter manifesto, and other comments calculated to neutralize its intended effect. As the British commissioners, in their address, had XXXVIII. spoken very disparagingly of France, La Fayette persist- CHAPTER ed, in spite of the remonstrances of Washington and D'Estaing, in sending a challenge to the Earl of Car- 1778. lisle ; but that nobleman politely declined any responsibility for his public acts to any body but his own sovereign. At the end of the forty days limited in their manifesto, much to the relief of Congress, by which body they had been regarded from the first as very dangerous persons, the commissioners returned to Europe. The advances made by Hartley to Franklin at Paris met with no better success. Nothing now remained but to fight it out. Already, before the departure of the commissioners, the war began to assume the savage character which they had threatened. An expedition from Newport burned the Sept. 5. towns of New Bedford and Fairhaven, on Buzzard's Bay, and levied a heavy contribution of sheep and cattle on the defenseless island of Martha's Vineyard. To facilitate a similar expedition against Little Egg Harbor, in New Jersey, Clinton marched out of New York with his whole army, one division on either side of the Hudson. These divisions, by the command of the river, might be reunited at a moment's warning, while Washington could only reunite his army, distributed also on both sides of the river, by a long and tedious march through the Highlands. Baylor's regiment of horse, on duty in New Jersey, was surprised and cut to pieces. The town of Egg Oct. Harbor was burned, and all the surrounding country ravaged. The infantry of Pulaski's legion was also surprised, and bayoneted without mercy. The Americans complained of the wanton cruelty of these proceedings. The British replied that the towns burned were shelters for privateers. The refusal of quarter was excused by pleading the excitement of a surprise and a night attack. |