156

There Howe,

On the 12th of October general Howe, who would have been better employed in driving the enemy before him than in waiting for his brother's useless negotiations, sent a considerable part of his forces, with flat-bottomed boats, through Hill Gate into the Sound, and landed them at Frog's Neck, about nine miles in the rear of Washington's position, thus cutting off all his supplies from the country. The ships ascended higher up the North River, cutting off the retreat into the Jerseys. Had Howe, instead of landing at Frog's Neck, done so at Pell's Point, he would have there no military eyes sharp enough to detect such a flimsy rendered Washington's retreat nearly impossible. But this defence? Had Howe charged that barrier of mere cornwas neglected till the 18th of October, by which time stalks, he would have cut Washington's army in two, and Washington, finding that he was getting gradually hemmed the whole must have been dispersed immediately. Howe

quarters of a mile of the American lines.
after surveying the defences, determined not to attack the
centre, but a position on the right, beyond the Brunx,
where Washington had posted four thousand men.

Will it be believed that the central lines from which Howe turned away consisted only of the stalks of Indian corn, which had been hastily torn up from the fields, and Had Howe no telescope? Were reared with the roots upwards, and the lumps of earth adhering to the roots!

in, and Lee, who had now joined him from Sullivan's Island | had thirteen thousand effective, well-disciplined men ; and the Carolinas, insisting that nothing but instant retreat could save them, they therefore made a rapid retreat into the open country called the White Plains. They had much difficulty in carrying away their artillery; and the whole of it must have been taken, had Howe shown any ordinary activity.

Betwixt this time and the 21st there was considerable skirmishing, which compelled Washington to retire further into the White Plains. Howe encampel at the village of New Rochelle, on the shore of the Sound, and Washington entrenched himself on a chain of heights extending about twelve miles in length, with the river Brunx in front of him. On the 28th, Howe advanced to attack him in his entrenchments. His army was disposed in two columns, the left The English headed by himself, the right by Clinton. drove the outposts before them till they came within three

Washington had about eighteen thousand men, without
discipline or courage. As it was, Howe attacked the strong
position on the right. He crossed the Brunx, mounted the
the English troops had to
hill, and drove the Americans from the ground. But that
night-a very stormy one
remain under arms, and the next day encamped, part on
On the 30th,
one side of the Brunx, part on the other.
Howe was reinforced by four fresh battalions, and deter-
mined to attack the enemy's lines the next morning; but
As soon as the weather
the weather was unfavourable.
cleared up, and Howe prepared to attack Washington's
lines, he found that he had retreated across the Croton,
burning all the houses in the White Plains as he went, and
had secured himself behind the Croton in a very strong
position, with his rear defended by woods and hills.

Howe had allowed every opportunity to escape him for

A.D. 1776.]

CAPTURE OF FORTS WASHINGTON AND LEE.

157

the fort, were exposed to a most murderous fire. They had eight hundred men killed and wounded; but lord Percy carried the advanced works, and then the garrison threw down its arms and surrendered.

annihilating the American army, and he now turned back to invest Fort Washington, on York Island, where Washington had imprudently left a garrison of three thousand men, including the works on Harlem Heights. This consisted of Macgaw's and Shea's Pennsylvanian regiments, Rawlin's Maryland On the 18th lord Cornwallis crossed the North River rifles, and some of the militia of the flying camp. Greene, with six thousand men, and, landing on the Jersey side, who commanded on the Jersey side, was of opinion that the attacked Fort Lee, standing nearly opposite Fort

position might be maintained. The situation, indeed, was strong, the fortifications good, though not completely finished, and must be approached under a destructive fire. Yet it was too much isolated from the main body of the army to remain long defended. Washington hastened to examine its condition as soon as Howe fell back upon it, and led over some fresh reinforcements.

On the 15th of November Howe summoned the fort to surrender, on pain of being put to the sword. The next morning four different columns of English and Hessians began to ascend the heights. They had serious difficulties to overcome, various creeks and woods to cross, and, as they drew near

VOL. V.-No. 222.

Washington. The garrison fled, leaving behind all its tents standing, all its provisions and artillery. Washington was compelled by this to fall back from his position on the Croton, thence to Brunswick, Princeton, Trenton, and finally, to the Pennsylvanian side of the Delaware. Lord Cornwallis followed on his heels. "As the retreating Americans," says Ramsey, in his "History of the American Revolution," "marched through the country, scarcely one of the inhabitants joined them, whilst numbers were daily flocking to the royal army to make their peace and obtain protection." Not only the common people adopted thi expedient, but many of the leading men in New Jersey and

Pennsylvania. In fact, the fear of the republicaus was taken from their eyes, and they expressed their real senti

ments.

most distinguished of English admirals-the future castigator of Algiers, viscount Exmouth. On one occasion, young Pellow observed Arnold on the lake in a boat, and gave chase so spiritedly, that he very nearly captured the American general, who was so closely run, that he had only time to drive his boat ashore, and plunge into the woods, leaving his stock and buckle in the boat, which are yet preserved in the Pellew family. Had he captured Arnold, we should probably never have heard of the surrender of general Burgoyne.

Besides fighting, there had been much anxious thinking, consulting, and contriving, on the part of the American congress and Washington. Congress had been obliged to fly from Philadelphia, and reassemble at Baltimore on the 12th of December. Washington was in constant and anxious correspondence with them. He showed them that numbers were useless without discipline and subordination. From first to last, during the year, there had been fortyseven thousand continentals in the field, besides twentyseven thousand militia—a greater force than the states ever could afterwards muster; yet they had been beaten in every engagement, and where were they now? Almost totally dispersed. Congress saw the necessity, in addition to their new regulations regarding the army, to invest Washington with almost dictatorial power. He was authorised to displace all officers under the rank of brigadier; to fill up all vacancies; to take for the use of the army whatever be might want, allowing the owners a reasonable price; and to

Cornwallis penetrated to the remotest parts of east and west Jersey, and everywhere the inhabitants received him as a friend and deliverer. On the 24th of November, lord Cornwallis was approaching Brunswick, when he received orders to halt. Howe, now Sir William Howe, being made a knight of the Bath, as well as Sir Guy Carleton, had a most fatal knack of halting his troops, when just on the point of completely dispersing the enemy. By this means, Washington was allowed to escape across the Delaware. It was not till the evening of the 16th of December that Cornwallis received orders to proceed, and, though he made all haste, he was too late. The rear of the American army quitted Princetown as the van of the English army entered it. Washington himself, with Stirling's brigade, only left Princetown one hour before Cornwallis arrived. Washington, in headlong haste, fled to Trenton, and began ferrying his troops over the Delaware. When Cornwallis reached Trenton, at nine o'clock the next morning, he beheld the last boats of Washington crossing the river. Yet, with such precipitance had the Americans fled, notwithstanding the long halt of Cornwallis, that they had left nearly all their artillery behind them; and so many men had deserted, and so many quitted, their term being up, and no consideration being able to keep them a day longer, that Washington's whole force did not exceed three thousand. Once over the water, the remains of the American troops lost all appear-arrest and confine for trial, by the civil tribunals, all persons ance of an army. They were a mere dirty, worn-out, ragged, and dispirited mob. Washington had taken the advantage of the halt of Cornwallis to collect all the boats from the Delaware for the distance of seventy miles, so that the English could not cross after them. These men, therefore, abandoned themselves to rest, and numbers of them continued to desert, and they were repeatedly pursued and forcibly brought back. Had Cornwallis been allowed to follow them without check, not a man would have been left at the American camp. Cornwallis, being thus brought to a stand, put his army into winter quarters between the Delaware and the Hackensack.

Whilst Cornwallis was pursuing Washington through the Jerseys, Clinton swept Rhode Island of the American troops, and drove commodore Hopkins with some ships up Providence River, where he remained. Rhode Island, however, required a strong body of English soldiers constantly to defend it. Meantime Sir Guy Carleton, having destroyed the American flotilla on Lake Champlain, was daily expected to march from Crown Point and invest Ticonderoga, which was only fifteen miles distant, and where Schuyler lay prepared to abandon it on the approach of the English. But Carleton, who had displayed so much activity and energy, now, like the rest of our generals, seemed at once to abandon them at the decisive point. He descended the Champlain to Isle aux Noix, put his forces into winter quarters there, and proceeded himself to Quebec, to prepare for the next campaign. Thus ended the campaign of 1776. Before quitting the northern operations, we may remark that amongst Carleton's officers in the squadron on the lake was Edward Pellew. destined hereafter to become one of the

disaffected to the American cause, or refusing to take the continental paper money.

A committee of congress was sent to camp, to assist him in organising the new regulation of converting the army into eighty battalions of seven hundred and fifty men each. They concluded that Hazen's Canadian regiment should be kept up by recruiting in the states, and be called "Congress's Own." They settled the proportions that every state should furnish; the men to be enlisted for the war, each of them to be entitled, at the end of the war, to one hundred acres of land; colonels, five hundred; and inferior officers, a number of acres according to scale of rank. The articles of war were revised, and made more strict; and national foundries and laboratories, for the manufacture of military stores, were established at Carlisle, in Pennsylvania, and Springfield, in Massachusetts. A clothier-general for the army was appointed. Meantime, every exertion was made in the different states to enlist troops. Massachusetts, contrary to the remonstrances of Washington, who regarded the plan as encouraging men to stand out for still higher terms, offered sixty-six dollars bounty, and eight dollars to every one who procured a recruit. General Mifflin made a tour through Pennsylvania, putting forth all his persuasion, to induce men to come in and defend their country and their homes. By this means, Washington soon saw his army raised from a few miserable, half-starved fugitives, to seven thousand men.

At the very time that Washington was flying before the British army, congress, putting a firm face on the matter, went on legislating as boldly as ever. Around them defection showed itself as alarmingly as the weakness of

A.D. 1776.]

ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION BETWEEN THE STATES.

their arms. The speedy triumph of the mother country was prognosticated on all sides, and appeared certain. People in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, flocked in to accept the terms of Howe's proclamation. Tucker, president of the late New Jersey convention, made his peace with England. Allen and Galloway, late delegates from Pennsylvania to congress, did the same. For ten days after the proclamation, from two to three hundred persons a-day came in and took the oaths. The great body of Quakers in Pennsylvania, who were always for peace, and favourable to the mother country, exerted themselves to induce people to give up the contest, and it was on these grounds that Putnam and Mifflin strenuously recommended the removal of congress thence to Baltimore. In Maryland, the same falling away from the republican cause was going on. Most of the towns in the Jerseys sent deputations to the king's commissioners, expressing their ardent desire for peace and reconciliation.

In the back settlements, the British having withdrawn their frontier guards, and warned the well-affected to remove with their property, left the Indians to indulge their intense hatred of the American settlers, who had always treated them as wild beasts, or as they treat their slaves now. The Americans accuse the English of exciting the Indians to outrage; but on this head, it is only lamentably too true, that both sides in this unnatural war stimulated these savages against each other. The Creeks and Cherokees were soon on foot, invading Virginia and the Carolinas, burning, destroying, and scalping, in their usual style; but the militia of those states soon succeeded in driving them back, and retaliating by laying waste their fields, burning their dwellings, and driving them into the woods.

These

Whilst these things were progressing, congress was steadily at work. They established articles of confederation and perpetual union between the several states. articles were a supplement to and extension of the declaration of independence, and were sixteen in number:-1st. That the thirteen states thus confederating should take the title of the United States. 2nd. That each and all were engaged in a reciprocal treaty of alliance and friendship for their common defence, and for their general advantage; obliging themselves to assist each other against all violence that might threaten all or any of them on account of religion, sovereignty, commerce, or under any other pretext whatever. 3rd. That each state reserved to itself alone the exclusive right of regulating its internal government. 4th. That no state in particular should either send or receive embassies, begin any negotiations, contract any engagements, form any alliances, or conclude any treaties with any king, prince, or power whatsoever, without the consent of the United States assembled in congress; that no person invested with any post in the United States should be allowed to accept any presents, emoluments, office, or title, from any king, prince, or foreign power; and that neither the general congress, nor any state in particular, should ever confer any title of nobility. 5th. That none of the said states should have power to form alliances, or confederations, even amongst themselves, without the consent of the general congress. 6th. That no state should lay on any imposts, or establish any duties, which might affect

159

treaties to be hereafter concluded by congress with foreign powers. 7th. That no state in particular should keep up ships of war, or land troops beyond the amount regulated by congress. 8th. That when any of the states raised troops for the common defence, the officers of the rank of colonel and under should be appointed by the legislature of the state, and the superior officers by congress. 9th. That all the expenses of the war, &c., should be paid out of a common treasury. Other clauses defined the functions and powers of congress, and the 14th offered to Canada admission to all the privileges of the other states, should she desire it; but that no other colony should be admitted without the formal consent of nine of the states composing the Union.

After thus settling the form and powers of the constitution, they voted eight million of dollars to be raised as a loan, and ordered a fresh issue of paper money. But, above all, they laboured to acquire aid from abroad, without which it was quite clear that they must yield to the superior military force of the mother country, and return to their obedience on humiliating terms. There was a depressing gloom over all the American states-an idea that the British power was too mighty to be coped with, and that the contest was approaching its close. Washington alone stood firm in his resolution, though a fugitive before the enemy. He declared that, let it come to the worst, he would only retire from post to post as he was compelled, and that at the last he would still maintain the war from beyond the Alleghany mountains. The only other firm party was the congress. They sent off emissaries to different powers on the continent of Europe, pointing out the fine opportunity of now humbling the proud heart of England, by helping to rend from her her magnificent colonies. To France it was proposed by members of congress to offer all the advantages which England had ever enjoyed; the monopoly of their trade, and an alliance offensive and defensive, by which, in any future struggle with England, France would have the support of America. Such was the dread of again submitting in shame after so many taunts and so much high language, that these councillors would have run the states into tenfold more evils than those from which they had endeavoured to escape. The cooler heads, however, suggested that the most attractive thing to France would be to see England humbled, and that, if this would not move the French to help them, nothing would.

For this purpose, in addition to Silas Deane, who was already in Paris, Dr. Franklin and Arthur Lee were dispatched to that capital to obtain aid with all possible speed. These gentlemen set sail in the beginning of November, though in much apprehension of being intercepted by the English cruisers, but managed to reach Quiberon Bay in safety, and Paris before the end of the year.

In England, the successes of the British arms had greatly encouraged the government. The parliament met on the 31st of October; and the king, in his specch, informed the two houses that the Americans had been driven out of Canada; that that colony remained firm and loyal; but that the Americans had now carried their madness and malignity to such a pitch, that they had formally thrown off the allegiance of England, and had declared the colonies independcut