*

LIV.

1776.

"of the property of the city and suburbs belong C HAP. "to the Tories!" Still larger were the views of another patriot, John Jay. In the month ensuing he wrote as follows to a private friend: "Had I "been vested with absolute power in this State, "I have often said, and still think, that I would "last spring have desolated all Long Island, "Staten Island, the city and county of New York, "and all that part of the county of West Chester "which lies below the mountains." Happily for these States, the wish of those who called themselves their truest and most thorough-going friends was not complied with. New York, in great part at least, was spared the ruin and anguish which, not the warring strangers, but her own sons had designed; for the proposal of burning the city being referred by Washington to Congress, was not approved by that body, which, on the contrary, enjoined him, in case of his retreat, to take special care that no damage should be done.

In this resolution, as in many others of popular assemblies, there appears to be a right conclusion arrived at from wrong premises. For the reason which the Congress themselves assigned for their orders was as follows-their full confidence that, if even their troops did leave New York, they would speedily be able to recover it. But, on the con

*For Greene's letter (Sept. 5. 1776) see a note to Sparks's Washington, vol. iv. p. 85. ; and for John Jay's (Oct. 6. 1776), the Life of President Reed, vol. i. p. 235.

CHAP. trary, as the sequel will show, New York was held by the British until the very conclusion of the

LIV.

The American army had been drawn by Washington in lines along the East River with the main body at Haerlem, a village about nine miles distant from New York. It was the evident design of the British, from their new position, and with the assistance of their fleet, to effect a landing on some point of New York Island. From several reports of their movements, Washington, in the night of the 14th, repaired in person to Haerlem. But next morning he was apprised that the first division of the British had crossed the stream at Kipp's Bay, between him and New York. What follows shall be told in his own words: "As soon "as I heard the firing, I rode with all possible despatch towards the place of landing, when, to my great surprise and mortification, I found the troops that had been posted in the lines retreat

66

66

66

ing with the utmost precipitation, and those "ordered to support them (Parsons's and Fellows's "brigades) flying in every direction and in the "greatest confusion, notwithstanding the exertions "of their generals to form them. I used every "means in my power to rally and get them into "some order, but my attempts were fruitless and "ineffectual, and on the appearance of a small party of the enemy, not more than sixty or

*Resolves of Congress, September 3. 1776.

66

66

LIV.

seventy, their disorder increased, and they ran CHAP. away in the greatest confusion, without firing a single shot." General Greene, in a private

"note, informs us further that, "Fellows's and "Parsons's brigades ran away from about fifty

66

men, and left his Excellency on the ground "within eighty yards of the enemy, so vexed at "the infamous conduct of the troops that he

66

sought death rather than life." It is said that Washington, in his grief and shame, drew his sword, and threatened to run his own men through, and also cocked and snapped his pistols at them. His attendants caught the bridle of his horse, and with some difficulty led him from the field.*

In the lines which the Americans left on this occasion were found some hostile implements, such as the common consent of nations has declared unworthy of civilised or Christian warfare. The common men, it seems, or the inferior officers, had used them without the sanction of their chiefs. On this subject General Howe wrote as follows to General Washington; for by this time, notwithstanding the punctilio of rank, a correspondence had arisen between them for the exchange of prisoners. "My aide-de-camp will present to you a ball cut and fixed to the end of a nail, taken "from a number of the same kind found in the

66

66

encampment quitted by your troops on the 15th.

* Compare Sparks's Washington, vol. iv. p. 94., with Gordon's History, vol. ii. p. 327.

1776.

LIV.

1776.

CHAP. "I do not make any comment upon such unwar"rantable and malicious practices, being well "assured the contrivance has not come to your "knowledge." Washington promptly replied: "The ball you mention, delivered to me by your aide-de-camp, was the first of the kind I ever saw "or heard of. You may depend upon it the "contrivance is highly abhorred by me, and every "measure shall be taken to prevent so wicked and "infamous a practice being adopted in this 66 army.

It is to be observed that during several previous days the Americans had been preparing to evacuate New York. "Had the landing of the

enemy been delayed one day longer, we should "have left them the city" writes the AdjutantGeneral to his wife. Accordingly, on the 15th, the advancing British columns quietly took possession of the place; while General Putnam, with some three or four thousand of the insurgents, withdrew at their approach. It might have been easy (this the American annalists acknowledge) to have cut him off in his retreat along the North River; but that opportunity, as several both before and since, was lost upon General Howe. At New York, the British found themselves hailed as friends and deliverers by no small portion of the inhabitants. The most arbitrary violence had for some time past been practised against them. In

*Sparks's Washington, vol. iv. p. 107.

LIV.

many other places it was deemed sufficient to CHAP. exclude the suspected Tory from the benefits of human society to sign an engagement, solemnly 1776. renouncing all ties of business or of friendship with him. But at New York a great number of persons were suddenly arrested and sent to distant places of confinement, not for any crime imputed or alleged, but solely because, from the general tenor of their lives or their opinions, they were supposed to be unfriendly to the popular cause. Their offence, in short, was one for which the language of England scarcely affords a name, nor its history a precedent; it is best described in the Frenchmen's phrase, during their first Revolutionary period — SOUPÇONNÉ D'ÊTRE SUSPECT!

Whatever joy the loyalists remaining in New York may have felt at the sight of the King's troops was not long unalloyed. A few nights afterwards, the city was fired in several places at once; matches and other combustibles having been prepared and skilfully disposed. General Howe reports to Lord George Germaine that many of the incendiaries were detected in the fact, and some killed upon the spot by the infuriated troops. Notwithstanding every exertion on the part of the British chiefs, full one quarter of the city was thus consumed. It was believed by many persons that this conflagration might be

See one of these forms of Ostracism in the American Archives, vol. ii. p. 1678.