USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Old landmarks and historic fields of Middlesex > Part 26
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" ANTY WAYNE."
Gates wrote a handsome, round hand ; so did Schuyler, St. Clair, Sullivan, and Stirling. Lee took rather more care of his handwriting than of his dress ; his characters are bold and legible. Lafayette wrote like a Frenchman. Steuben's and Chastellux's were rather an improvement on Lafayette's diminu- tive strokes.
Whatever may be said of Washington's Fabian policy, it is certain the pugnacious element was not wanting in his charac- ter. He wished to carry Boston by assault, but was overruled by his council ; he wished to fight at Germantown, with an army just beaten ; and again at Monmouth against the advice of a council of war, with Lee at its head. In the latter battle, where he was more than half defeatad, disaster became victory under his eye and voice. Here he is said to have been fear- fully aroused, appearing in an unwonted and terrible aspect. An eyewitness of one of those rare but awful phenomena, a burst of ungovernable wrath from Washington, related that on seeing the misconduct of General Lee, he lost all control of himself, and, casting his hat to the ground, stamped upon it in his rage.
" In every heart Are sown the sparks that kindle fiery war ; Occasion needs but fan them and they blaze."
This battle has always reminded us of Marengo, where De- saix, arriving on the field to find the French army beaten and retreating, calmly replied to the question of the First Consul, " The battle is lost ; but it is only two o'clock, we have time to gain another." But Lee was not Desaix, and the chief, not the lieutenant, saved the day. Lafayette always said Washing- ton was superb at Monmouth.
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Another incident, perfectly authentic, exhibits Washington's personal magnetism and prowess. It is related that one morn- ing Colonel Glover came in haste to headquarters to announce that his men were in a state of mutiny. On the instant the General arose, and, mounting his horse, which was always kept ready saddled, rode at full gallop to the mutineers' camp, ac- companied by Glover and Hon. James Sullivan. Washington, arrived on the spot, found himself in presence of a riot of seri- ous proportions between the Marblehead fishermen and Mor- gan's Riflemen. The Yankees ridiculed the strange attire and bizarre appearance of the Virginians. Words were followed by blows, until an indescribable uproar, produced by a thousand combatants, greeted the appearance of the General. He had ordered his servant, Pompey, to dismount and let down the bars which closed the entrance to the camp ; this the negro was in the act of doing, when the General, spurring his horse, leaped over Pompey's head, cleared the bars, and dashed among the rioters. "The General threw the bridle of his horse into his servant's hands, and, rushing into the thickest of the fight, seized two tall, brawny riflemen by the throat, keeping them at arm's length, talking to and shaking them." His command- ing presence and gestures, together with the great physical strength he displayed, - for he held the men he had seized as incapable of resistance as babes, - caused the angry soldiers to fall back to the right and left. Calling the officers around him, with their aid the riot was quickly suppressed. The General, after giving orders appropriate to prevent the recurrence of such an affair, cantered away from the field, leaving officers and men alike astonished and charmed with what they had wit- nessed. "You have both a Howe and a Clinton in your army," said a British officer to a fair rebel. "Even so ; but you have no Washington in yours," was the reply.
On the occasion when Colonel Patterson, Howe's adjutant- general, brought to Washington at New York the letter ad- dressed to " George Washington, Esq., &c., &c.," an officer who was present at the interview says his Excellency was very handsomely dressed and made a most elegant appearance.
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Patterson appeared awe-struck, and every other word with him was " may it please your Excellency," or " if your Excellency please." After considerable talk on the subject of the letter, the Colonel asked, " Has your Excellency no particular com- mands with which you would please to honor me to Lord and General Howe ?" "Nothing but my particular compli- ments to both," replied the General, and the conference closed.
Of his generals, Washington's relations with Knox were the most intimate and confidential. Lafayette fully shared in the feelings of love and veneration with which Knox regarded his hero. The appointment of Mad Anthony to command the army against the Northwestern Indians showed that the Presi- dent had great confidence in his courage and ability. Greene was thought to have possessed greater influence in the councils of the general-in-chief than any other of his captains. None other of the superior officers appear to have stood on as familiar a footing as these. St. Clair was a Scotsman, Montgomery an Irishman, as was also General Conway, while Lee and Gates were Englishmen by birth.
It is not a little surprising that in our republican army there should have been an officer born on our soil who not only claimed the title to an earldom, but also to be addressed as "My Lord" by his brother officers. He signed himself sim- ply " Stirling." A bon vivant, he was accused of liking the bottle fully as much as became a lord, and more than became a general. On convivial occasions he was fond of fighting his battles over.
One of Stirling's daughters, Lady Kitty, made a private mar- riage with Colonel William Duer, who acted so noble a part during the memorable cabal in Congress to elevate Gates to the chief command. Lady Kitty kept her secret so well that even her father's most intimate friends were not informed of it, and when Colonel Duer stated that he was married he was supposed to be jesting, until it was announced that the pair had passed the night together at the house of a friend.
Lafayette always kept a huge bowl of grog on his table for all comers. Despite his deep red hair, he was one of the finest-
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looking men in the army. His forehead was good, though re- ceding ; his eyes hazel ; his mouth and chin delicately formed, exhibiting beauty rather than strength. His carriage was noble, his manner frank and winning. He never wore powder, but in later years became quite bald and wore a wig.
The Marchioness was not critically handsome, but had an agreeable face and figure, and was a most amiable woman. Mademoiselle and Master George were considered in their youth fine children, and the friends of the Marquis thought he made a great sacrifice of domestic happiness in espousing the cause of our country as warmly as he did. His son, George Wash- ington Lafayette, who was confided to a Bostonian's care dur- ing one of the stormy periods of his father's career after his return to France, accompanied the Marquis to America in 1824, and died at La Grange in 1849.
Count Rochambeau could not speak a word of English, nor could the brothers, Baron and Viscount Viomenil, the Mar- quis Laval, or Count Saint Maime. The two Counts Deux Ponts, on the other hand, spoke pretty well, while General Chastellux had fully mastered the language. During the stay of the French at Newport, an invitation to the petites soupers of the latter officer was eagerly welcomed by intelligent Ameri- cans.
It has been said there is not a proclamation of Napoleon to his soldiers in which glory is not mentioned and duty forgot- ten ; there is not an order of Wellington to his troops in which duty is not inculcated, nor one in which glory is even alluded to. Washington's orders contain appeals to the patriotism, love of country, and nobler impulses of his soldiers. He re- buked profligacy, immorality, and kindred vices in scathing terms ; he seldom addressed his army that he did not confess his dependence on that Supreme guidance which the two pre- ceding illustrious examples ignored.
In this study probably assembled the councils of war, at which we may imagine the General standing with his back to the cavernous fireplace, his brow thoughtful, his lips compressed beyond their wont, while the glowing embers paint fantastic
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pictures on the wainscot, or cast weird shadows of the tall figure along the floor. Around the board are Ward, Lee, and Put- nam in the places of honor, with Thomas, Heath, Greene, Sul- livan, Spencer, and Knox in the order of rank. If the subject was momentous, or not finally disposed of to his satisfaction in the council, it was Washington's custom to require a written opinion from each of the generals.
Opposite the study, on your left as you enter, is the recep- tion-room, in which Mrs. Washington, who arrived in Cam- bridge at about the same time as the news of the capture of Montreal, - twin events which gladdened the General's heart, - received her guests. These, we may assume, included all the families of distinction, either resident or who came to visit their relations in camp. On the day of the battle of Bunker Hill the untoward and afflicting scenes so affected one delicate, sen- sitive organization that the lady became deranged, and died in a few months. This was the wife of Colonel, afterwards Gen- eral, Huntington.
But the gloomy aspect was not always uppermost, and gayety perhaps prevailed on one side of the hall, while matters of grave moment were being despatched on the other. It would not be too great a flight of fancy to imagine the lady of the household looking over the list of her dinner invitations while her lord was signing the sentence of a court-martial or the order to open fire on the beleaguered town. Mrs. Washington entered this house on the 11th December, 1775, having for the companions of her journey from Virginia Mrs. Gates, John Custis and lady, and George Lewis. The General's wife had very fine dark hair. A portion of her wedding dress is highly prized by a lady resident in Boston, while a shoe possessed by another gives assurance of a small, delicate foot.
We pass into the dining-room, in which have assembled many of the most distinguished military, civil, and literary characters , of our country. Washington's house steward was Ebenezer Aus- tin, who had been recommended to him by the Provincial Com- mittee. Mrs. Goodwin of Charlestown, the mother of Ozias Goodwin, a well-known merchant of Boston, was his house-
T
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keeper ; she had been rendered homeless by the destruction of Charlestown. The General had a French cook and black servants, -then as common in Massachusetts as in the Old Dominion.
The General breakfasted at seven o'clock in the summer and at eight in the winter. He dined at two, and drank tea early in the evening ; supper he eschewed altogether. His breakfast was very frugal, and at this meal he drank tea, of which he was extremely fond. He dined well, but was not difficult to please in the choice of his viands. There were usually eight or ten large dishes of meat and pastry, with vegetables, followed by a second course of pastry. After the removal of the cloth the ladies retired, and the gentlemen, as was then the fashion, par- took of wine. Madeira, of which he drank a couple of glasses out of silver camp cups, was the General's favorite wine.
Washington sat long at table. An officer who dined with him says the repast occupied two hours, during which the Gen- eral was toasting and conversing all the time. One of his aides was seated every day at the bottom of the table, near the Gen- eral, to serve the company and distribute the bottles. Wash- ington's mess-chest, camp equipage, and horse equipments were complete and elegant ; he broke all his own horses.
Apropos of the General's stud, he had two favorite horses, - one a large, elegant chestnut, high-spirited and of gallant carriage, which had belonged to the British army ; the other a sorrel, and smaller. This was the horse he always rode in battle, so that whenever the General was seen to mount him the word ran through the ranks, " We have business on hand." Washington came to Cambridge in a light phaeton and pair, but in his frequent excursions and reconnoitring expeditions he preferred the saddle, for he was an admirable horseman. Billy, the General's black groom and favorite body-servant, has be- come an historical character.
In order that nothing may be wanting to complete the in-door life in this old mansion in 1775 and 1776, we append a dinner invitation, such as was issued daily, merely cautioning the reader that it is not the production of the General, but of one of his family : --
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" The General & Mrs Washington present their compliments to Col® Knox & Lady, begs the favor of their company at dinner on Friday half after 2 o'clock
" Thursday Evening Feby 1st."
Among other notables who sat at the General's board in this room was Franklin, when he came to settle with his fellow- commissioners, Hon. Thomas Lynch of Carolina, and Benjamin Harrison of Virginia, the new establishment of the Continental army. General Greene, who was presented to the philosopher on the evening of his arrival, says :-
" I had the honor to be introduced to that very great man, Doctor Franklin, whom I viewed with silent admiration during the whole evening. Attention watched his lips, and conviction closed his periods."
We do not know whether grace was habitually said at the General's table or not, but the great printer would have will- ingly dispensed with it. It is related, as illustrative of the eminently practical turn of his mind, that he one day aston- ished that devout old gentleman, his father, by asking, "Father, why don't you say grace at once over the whole barrel of flour or pork, instead of doing so three times a day ?" Neither his- tory nor tradition has preserved the respectable tallow-chan- dler's reply.
The first steps taken by Washington to form a body-guard were in orders of the 11th of March, 1776, by which the com- manding officers of the regiments of the established army were directed to furnish four men each, selected for their honesty, sobriety, and good behavior. The men were to be from five feet eight to five feet ten inches in height, hand- somely and well made, and, as the General laid great stress upon cleanliness in the soldier, he requested that partic- ular attention might be paid to the choice of such as were "neat and spruce." The General stipulated that the can- didates for his guard should be drilled men, and perfectly willing to enter upon this new duty. They were not re- quired to bring either arms or uniform, which indicates the
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General's intention to newly arm and clothe his guard. This was the origin of the celebrated corps d'élite.
CONQUOR
DIF
OR
FLAG OF THE BODY-GUARD.
Caleb Gibbs of Rhode Island was the first commander of the Life Guard. Hehad been adjutant of Glover's regiment, and must have rec- ommended himself to the commander-in- chief. After the war he resided in Boston, and was made naval store-keeper, with an office in Battery- march Street.
Washington took his departure from the Vassall house be- tween the 4th and 10th of April, 1776, for New York. On the 4th he wrote from Cambridge to the president of Congress, and on the 11th he was at New Haven en route to New York. On the occasion of his third visit to Boston, in 1789, he again passed through Cambridge and stopped about an hour at his old headquarters. He then received a military salute from the Middlesex militia, who were drawn up on Cambridge Common with General Brooks at their head.
The next person to claim our attention is Nathaniel Tracy, who became the proprietor after the war. He kept up the tra- ditions of the mansion for hospitality, though we doubt whether his servants ever drank choice wines from pitchers, as has been stated. Tracy was from Newburyport, where, with his brother, he had carried on, under the firm name of Tracy, Jackson, and Tracy, an immense business in privateering. Martin Brimmer was their agent in Boston. He fitted out the first private armed vessel that sailed from an American port, and during the war was the principal owner of more than a score of cruisers, which inflicted great loss upon the enemy's marine. The follow-
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ing extract will enable the reader to form a correct estimate of the hazard with which this business was conducted : -
" At the end of 1777 his brother and he had lost one and forty ships, and with regard to himself he had not a ray of hope but in a single letter of marque of eight guns, of which he had received no news. As he was walking one day with his brother, discussing with him how they should procure the means of subsistence for their families, they perceived a sail making for the harbor, which fortu- nately proved a prize worth £ 20,000 sterling.
" In 1781 he lent the State of Massachusetts five thousand pounds to clothe their troops, with no other security than the receipt of the State Treasurer."
Mr. Tracy was generous and patriotic. Benedict Arnold was his guest while preparing to embark his troops for the Kenne- bec in 1775. He had entertained in 1782, at his mansion at Newburyport, M. de Chastellux and his aides, Isidore Lynch, De Montesquieu, and Talleyrand the younger. The Frenchmen could manage his good old Madeira and Xeres, but the home- brewed punch, which was always at hand in a huge punch- bowl, proved too much for De Montesquieu and Talleyrand, who succumbed and were carried drunk to bed.
Tracy went to France in 1784, where he met with due re- turn for his former civilities from Viscount Noailles and some of his old guests. In 1789, when again a resident of Newbury- port, he received Washington, then on his triumphal tour ; and in 1824 Lafayette, following in the footsteps of his illustrious commander, slept in the same apartment he had occupied.
Next comes Thomas Russell, a Boston merchant-prince, ac- credited by the vulgar with having once eaten for his breakfast a sandwich made of a hundred-dollar note and two slices of bread.
Following Thomas Russell came, in March, 1791, Dr. An- drew Craigie, late apothecary-general to the Continental army, in which service it is reported he amassed a very large fortune. For the estate, then estimated to contain one hundred and fifty acres, and including the house of Harry Vassall, - designated as that of Mr. Batchelder, but then occupied by Frederick Geyer,
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- Mr. Craigie gave £ 3,750 lawful money, - a sum so small in comparison with its value that our reader will pardon us for mentioning it.
Craigie was at Bunker Hill, and assisted in the care of the wounded there. He was at Cambridge during the siege of Boston, and doubtless dispensed his nostrums liberally, for physic was the only thing of which the army had enough, if we may credit concurrent testimony. He was with the North- ern army, under General Gates, in 1777 and 1778, and was the confidant of Wilkinson, Gates's adjutant-general, in his corre- spondence with Lord Stirling, growing out of the Conway im- broglio. Craigie was a director and large proprietor in the company which built the bridge connecting East Cambridge with Boston, to which his name was given. After his decease his widow continued to reside here.
Craigie entertained two very notable guests in this house. One of them was Talleyrand, the evil genius of Napoleon, who said of him that he always treated his enemies as if they were one day to become his friends, and his friends as if they were one day to become his enemies. " A man of talent, but venal in everything." The world has long expected the private me- moirs of this remarkable personage, but the thirty years which the prince stipulated in his will should first elapse have passed without their appearance. Without doubt, the private corre- spondence of Talleyrand would make a record of the most startling character, and give an insight into the lives of his con- temporaries that might reverse the views of the world in gen- eral in regard to some of them. Few dared to fence with the caustic minister. "Have you read my book ?" said Madame de Staël to the prince, whom she had there made to play a part as well as herself. "No," replied Talleyrand ; "but I understand we both figure in it as women."
In December, 1794, the Duke of Kent, or Prince Edward as he was styled, was in Boston, and was received during his sojourn with marked attention. He was then in command of the forces in Canada, but afterwards joined the expedition, under Sir Charles Grey, to the French West Indies, where he
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so greatly distinguished himself by his reckless bravery at the storming of Martinique and Guadaloupe that the flank division which he commanded became the standing toast at the admiral's and commander-in-chief's table. The Duke was a perfect mar- tinet, and was so unpopular with the regiment he commanded under O'Hara, at Gibraltar, that it repeatedly mutinied. He was the father of Queen Victoria.
The prince was accompanied to Boston by his suite. He was very devoted to the ladies, especially so to Mrs. Thomas Rus- sell, whom he attended to the Assembly at Concert Hall. He danced four country-dances with his fair companion, but she fainted before finishing the last, and he danced with no one else, at which every one of the other eighty ladies present was much enraged. At the British Consul's, where the prince held a levee, he was introduced to the widow of a British officer. Her he saluted, while he only bowed to the other ladies pres- ent, which gave rise to feelings of no pleasant nature in gentle breasts. It was well said by one who knew the circumstance, that had his Highness settled a pension on the young widow and her children it would indeed have been a princely salute. The prince visited Andrew Craigie. He drove a handsome pair of bays with clipped ears, then an unusual sight in the vicinity of Old Boston.
In October, 1832, Mr. Sparks married Miss Frances Anne Allen, of New York, and in April, 1833, he began house- keeping in the Craigie house. He was at this time engaged on his " Writings of George Washington," and notes in his journal under the date of April 2 : -
" This day, began to occupy Mrs. Craigie's house in Cambridge. It is a singular circumstance that, while I am engaged in preparing for the press the letters of General Washington which he wrote at Cambridge after taking command of the American army, I should occupy the same rooms that he did at that time." *
Edward Everett, whose efforts in behalf of the Mount Vernon fund associate his name with our memorials of Washington, * Rev. Dr. Ellis's Memoir.
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resided here just after his marriage, and while still a professor in the University of which he became president. Willard, Phillips, and Joseph Emerson Worcester, the lexicographer, also lived in the house we are describing.
We now return to Mr. Longfellow, who became an innate of the house in 1837, with Mrs. Craigie for his landlady. The Harvard professor, as he then was, took possession of the south- east chamber, which has been mentioned as Washington's. In this room were written "Hyperion " and " Voices of the Night," and to its inspiration perhaps we owe the lines, -
" Lives of great men all remind us We may make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time."
Nearly all of Longfellow's productions, except "Coplas de Manrique " and " Outre Mer," which were written at Bruns- wick, have been penned in the old Vassall homestead.
It is related that one day, after patiently exhibiting his grand old mansion to a knot of visitors, to whose many questions he replied with perfect good-humor, the poet was about to close the door on the party, when the leader and spokesman accosted him with the startling question, -
" Can you tell me who lives in this house now ?"
" Yes, sir, certainly. I live here."
" What name ?"
" Longfellow."
" Any relation to the Wiscasset Longfellers ?"
This house will ever be chiefly renowned for its associations with the Father of his Country, and when it is gone the spot will still be cherished in loving remembrance. Yet some pil- grims there will be who will come to pay tribute to the literary memories that cluster around it ; soldiers who conquer with the pen's point, and on whose banners are inscribed the watchword, " Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war."
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CHAPTER XIV.
OLD TORY ROW AND BEYOND.
" Damned neuters, in their middle way of steering, Are neither fish nor flesh, nor good red herring." DRYDEN.
T HE house standing at the corner of Brattle and Sparks Streets, almost concealed from view by a group of giant, sweet-scented Lindens, has undergone such material change as not to be easily recognized for a relic of Colonial times. The old, two-storied house, seen in our view, has been bodily raised
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