USA > New York > New York City > History of the New Netherlands, province of New York, and state of New York : to the adoption of the federal Constitution. Vol. II > Part 5
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HORATIO GATES.
as we have seen, he and his friend Charles Lee, likewise a pur- chaser in the same county, visited General Washington at Mount Vernon.
We have seen that General Lee was sent on to prepare New York for defence, and while he was thus employed, the comman- der-in-chief thought of him as a fit person to supply the loss of the brave and generous Montgomery, in Canada. About this time General Gates wrote to Lee from Cambridge. Some extracts from the letter will be of service to us. It is dated from Head- Quarters, February 26th, 1776. Speaking of Fort George, at New York, he says, " I like your intention of making the fort an open redoubt ; I think some heavy guns upon the south and west sides, with good sod merlons, will make the men-of-war keep aloof. Itis a pretty high situation, and battering it at a distance, over the lower batteries, would have but little effect. Clinton, I am satisfied, went to see how affairs were circumstanced at New York, to consult with Tryon, and to prepare the way for Howe's reception. We shall march with the utmost expedition to support you. Little Eustace is well, but nothing is done /for him as yet. You know the more than Scotch partiality of these folks. I have had much ... to do to support the lad you put into Colonel Whitcomb's regi- ment. They have no complaint in nature against him, but that he is too good an officer." By this is seen what Gates's feelings were towards the New England men, yet he had the art to conci- liate their favour and use it to supplant others. Shortly after this, General Lee was ordered to Charleston, South Carolina, to op- pose Clinton ; so that he being imployed in the south, and Schuy- ler at the north, Putnam, as the only remaining major-general, had command in the city of New York. He made his head-quarters in a house left vacant by the owner, Captain Kennedy, of the Bri- tish navy, being the first house in Broadway, since enlarged, and known as No. 1. But General Washington soon arrived, and fixed his head-quarters in the house built by Mortier, the English paymaster-general, who, as we have seen, had made his fortune and gone to England.
Gates had conceived his plan of overthrowing the commander- in-chief, and supplying his place, while at Cambridge, and ad- jutant-general. Immediately on receiving that appointment he accompanied General Washington to New York, with the two major-generals, Lee and Schuyler, and the latter having been charged with the northern department, Gates proceeded with Lee and Washington to Cambridge.
The blockade of Boston continued until the spring of 1776,* during which, Mrs. Gates who was no beauty, but a woman whose
* Communicated verbally, by Governour Morgan Lewis, who was present.
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HORATIO GATES.
ambition was as great, and her talent for intrigue greater than her husband's, saw the court paid to the commander's lady and others, with an evil eye ; and though glad in England to see Gates a fort- major, now saw even Israel Putnain, take rank of him. Gates applied to congress for the rank of major-general, and supposed himself not supported by General Washington : Mifflin was likewise disappointed, and both vowed revenge, and joined in enmity to the commander-in-chief.
Gates had been about 'one year in the service, when congress appointed him a major-general, and directed that he should take command in Canada to replace Montgomery.
These troops had been forwarded by Schuyler with the intent of commanding them himself in that expedition, but sickness pre- venting, they had been intrusted to the gallant Montgomery. They were now (under the command of General Sullivan) ordered by the commander of the department (Schuyler) to Crown Point ; where, in the condition of a sick, dispirited, and defeated army, Gates found them ; he not only super- seded Sullivan in the command of this force, but affected to con- sider himself independent of, if not superiour to, Schuyler. Gates had assumed the style and mode befitting the chief officer of a great department. In one of his letters to Washington, he says, " I must take the liberty to animadvert a little upon the unpre- cedented behaviour of the members of your council to their com- peers of this department."
He had, during the blockade of Boston ,by the eastern troops, used those arts which Montgomery said were so averse to his cha- racter. Gates could " wheedle and flatter." His manners were specious, as were his talents, and he was indefatigable, by writing and otherwise, in his efforts to attach to himself the eastern mem- bers of congress, and other men of influence. He was the boon companion of the gentlemen, and the " hail-fellow, well-met," of the vulgar. He saw from the first that Schuyler was unpopular in New England, who was like his friends Montgomery and Wash- ington, unfitted for wheedling, flattering, and lying ; and besides had, in the preceding disputes between the province of New York and New England, maintained the rights of the people who had sent him to the legislature. Gates knew at this time that seve- ral members of congress wished him to supersede Schuyler. Elbridge Gerry had, by letter, declared that he wished him to be generalissimo at the north. Messrs. Lovel, Samuel Adams, and others, were his adherents. He kept up a correspondence of a friendly nature with John Adams, but there is no evidence of that great man having appreciated him to the disadvantage of Schuyler. He had sounded Adams as to the character of Robert Morris, and
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HORATIO GATES.
received a high eulogium in answer. Shortly after, Robert Morris wrote to Gates, and speaking of the disasters in the north, he says, " I find some people attributing this to a source I should never have suspected : is it possible that a man who writes so well and expresses so much anxiety for the cause of his country as General S-r does-I say, is it possible that he can be sacrificing the interest of that country to his ambition or avarice ? I sincerely hope it is not so, but such intimations are dropped."
Gates gained, and attempted to gain, men of influence as agents in his plans of ambition. Connecticut was then a most efficient member of the union, and Governour Trumbull, as steady a pa- triot as any on the continent, was the friend of Washington and of his country, but placing great reliance on Gates. He had three sons at this time in the service ; if more, I know not. One of these young men was appointed a paymaster-general, another a commissary-general, and the youngest was appointed by Gates, . soon after he received his commission of major-general, (which was the 24th of June, 1776,) and was empowered to make such an appointment for the army in Canada, his deputy adjutant-gene- ral ; and this young gentleman he took on with him and retained, although there was no longer an army in Canada, appointed the youngest son of the governour of Connecticut, his deputy-adjutant- general, and Morgan Lewis, whose father was a member of congress, his quarter-master-general. Mr. Joseph Trumbull, the commissa- ry-general, was appointed by the same authority to furnish supplies for the northern department, of which, as has been seen, Schuyler was the commander ; and notwithstanding that that general had a commissary-general, Mr. Livingston, of his own choice, Gates had influence enough to force Mr. Joseph Trumbull upon him. All this secured to him the attachment of a powerful family, and of the state of Connecticut, where the good old governour was justly es- teemed for talents and patriotism.
Schuyler issued his orders for the relief and safety of the army in Canada, now driven back to his immediate department and com- mand. Gates, on his arrival, refused to submit to the authority of Schuyler, who met his unauthorized disobedience in the most courteous manner, and although the commission of Gates was in such plain terms that none but the wilfully blind could fail to un- derstand it, Schuyler offered to refer the matter in dispute to con- gress. I have had an opportunity of transcribing part of a letter written by Commissary-general Trumbull, to his patron, which throws light on the subject, and on the characters of the parties concerned. The letter is addressed to Major-general Gates.
He mentions letters received on the subject of his department, and says, ' by which I find you are in a cursed situation, your au-
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GATE'S INTRIGUES.
thority at an end, and commanded by a person who will be willing to have you knocked in the head, as General Montgomery was, if he can have the money-chest in his power. I expect soon to see you and your suite, back here again.' He adds, that he has shown these letters from his deputy-commissaries to General Wash- ington, and told him that he would order his agents back again : as a deputy, who could have no money from anybody but Gene- ral Schuyler, could be of no use in that part of the world : further, he says, he told the general he would .' not be answerable for the consequences where his authority and the chief command were both disputed.'
Such were some of the difficulties which Schuyler and Washington had to contend against. The reader will remem- ber the extracts from the letters of Montgomery, and can judge how differently that gallant officer and good man thought of Schuyler, who is here charged with avarice and peculation, if not directly, certainly by implication. Yet we know that this high- souled gentleman advanced his own money for the publick service when the envied chest was empty ; and saw his houses, mills, and plantations at Saratoga, committed to the flames by the enemy, without regreting any sacrifice for his country's service. One would suppose, that mean suspicion could not add to this, yet I find the charge against Philip Schuyler of intercepting the letters forwarded by congress to the friends of Gates! It was thus that Schuyler and Washington had to contend against internal as well as external enemies. As early as January, 1776, this persecuted patriot wrote to his friend and commander, "I could point out particular persons of rank in the army, who have frequently declared, that the officer commanding in this quarter, ought to be of the co- lony from whence the majority of the troops came." He says, he has come to the conclusion " that troops from the colony of Con- necticut will not bear with a general from another colony." He laments the " unbecoming jealousy in a people of so much publick virtue." Writing to the same, in May, 1776, he alludes to the clamour raised against him, which had been attributed to artful practices of the tories, and says, " I trust it will appear that it was more a scheme calculated to ruin me, than to disunite and create jealousies in the friends of America, Your excellency will please to order a court of inquiry the soonest possible." He had before said that he had reason to apprehend that the tories were not the only ones who propagated evil reports respecting him. He afterward knew full well who were leagued against him.
Schuyler had ever been a champion for the rights of New York : and much of what he terms a general aversion to men of other pro- vinces, was personal enmity to him. This was fostered and in- creased by the arts of a foreign officer, to whom these Americans looked up as almost the only leader whose knowledge could save
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ENMITY TO SCHUYLER.
them. It will be recollected that this was early in the struggle. People had no confidence in their own military skill, and saw in . Charles Lee and Horatio Gates, men possessing that knowledge which raised them above any provincial. We must recollect that Americans had heard for years of their own inferiority, and of the immense advantages possessed by the British officers. Therefore, it was not unnatural that men who felt their own deficiency in mili- tary tacticks (and had almost been made to believe that they were an inferiour race, compared to Europeans) should look up to those who had seen some service.
John Hancock wrote to him, that congress having considered Schuyler's letter to Washington, laid before them by the mutual agreement of the parties disputing, had resolved that his com- mand was totally independent of General Schuyler's, while the army was in Canada. " Your letter of the 29th was delivered to me within this half hour. I experience the finest feelings, from your friendly declaration. You will never, my dear sir, out-do me in acts of friendship." In the mean time the expectations of General Gates were more than kept alive by his eastern and other friends ; El- bridge Gerry wrote to him from Hartford, "we want very much to see you with the sole command in the northern department, but hope that you will not relinquish your exertions until a favourable opportunity shall effect it." He had previously offered to give him information of the measures of congress, their causes and moving principles. Samuel Chase writes from congress, "I wish you would inform me of your suspicions, and disclose the secret springs which you suppose have influenced men and measures in your department." Schuyler, meantime, was sensible of the pre- judices against him, and of the jealousies kept alive by machination. Sincerely willing to retire, he kept his post and encountered all the difficulties of this unfortunate northern campaign.
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ENMITY TO SCHUYLER.
CHAPTER IV.
General Gates at Ticonderoga - Arnold - His efforts against Carleton.
Ox the 3d of August, 1776, Schuyler writes to Gates as to a friend, lamenting that he should be the object of envy, when his wish is to be in a private station. He says, that " the conclusion of the last campaign I begged leave of congress to retire, and in confidence communicated to General Washington my more immediate rea- sons for it." He laments that he was persuaded to continue.
Surrounded by difficulties, which were rejoiced in and increased by the man to whom he communicated them, General Schuyler wrote to Gates that he had notified congress and General Wash- ington, of his determination to resign his commission, and insist on a hearing. He says, "My countrymen will be astonished to find that I shall not only clearly exculpate myself of all infamous charges laid to me, but point out that it ought to be bestowed else- where." At this time Joseph Trumbull writes to Gates : " I find that General Schuyler is about to resign ; I congratulate you and myself thereon."
While forwarding the service of his country on Lake Champlain, he was engaged, as he says in a letter to Washington, " on business the most disagreeable, to a man accustomed to civil society, that can be possibly conceived." A whole month, at the German Flats, was he endeavouring to secure the neutrality of the Indians by speeches and presents. He says, he " believes the Six Nations will not fall on the frontiers :" but he was, at the same time, preparing for de- fence. To congress he complains, that his character had been barbarously traduced : he asks for a committee to inquire how far the miscarriages in Canada, if at all, are to be imputed to him. He says, " conscious of the mediocrity of my talents, and that I am vastly inadequate to the command I am honoured with, yet, on this occasion, I may be allowed to say, that I do not believe that I shall even be convicted of an errour of judgment. Confidence of the army, in me, I know, is, in a great measure destroyed, by in- sidious insinuations, industriously propagated by a set of miscre- ants." September 14th, he tenders his resignation to congress : "I am still willing to meet any inquiry. Oppressed as I have been
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ARNOLD AT MONTREAL.
by calumnies, I shall be always ready to do the duties of a good citizen, and to give my successor all the information and assistance in my power."
Congress would not accept his resignation. Still, their conduct towards him was so unsatisfactory, that but for events on Lake Champlain, that called upon his patriotism, he would have retired in disgust.
Arnold when last mentioned, was before Quebec with the unfor- tunate gallant Montgomery. As soon as the news of the attempt upon the capital of Canada reached congress, they promoted Arnold to the rank of brigadier general. Ever worthy of praise by his courage and enterprize, he was at the same time obnoxious to censure for turbulence and rapacity.
Major Brown had been one of those who opposed the preten- sions of Arnold, at the time of the capture of 'Ticonderoga by Ethan Allen. By the death of Montgomery, Brown, who had accompanied that amiable man to Quebec, was placed under the command of Arnold, little prone to forgiveness, or scrupulous in the means of inflicting injury. He wrote letters to certain mem- bers of congress, charging Brown with having plundered the baggage and property of prisoners taken in Canada. This being made known to Brown, he applied successively to Generals Woos- ter, Thomas and Gates, for a court of inquiry : but Arnold had influence enough to prevent this mode of wiping off the stigma he had inflicted, and even to induce Gates to evade the orders of congress, which Brown, now a colonel, had obtained for his redress. Baffled in all his attempts to obtain justice, the injured man pub- lished a narrative of the affair, after having demanded the arrest of Arnold on a series of charges, including " numerous misdemean- ours and criminal acts during the course of his command." Arnold, who always had the words honour and innocence at command, even to the last of his life, never, during the course of these charges by Brown, demanded a court of inquiry upon his own conduct, although that was the obvious mode of proving both his innocence and honour.
Arnold having been superseded in command before Quebec, by the arrival of General Wooster in April 1776, pleaded his wounds, and was removed to Montreal, where he again had the command. The enemy were soon approaching in force. The " affair of the Cedars," where to use the words of Mr. Sparks, " nearly 400 men surrendered, and a hundred more were killed or taken in a brave encounter," called forth the spirit and activity of General Arnold. On the 26th of May he arrived at St. Anne's with 800 men. He had sent a message by some friendly Indians, to the hostile savages on the other side of the river, demanding a surrender of the Ame- rican prisoners, and threatening if any murders were committed VOL. II.
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that he would put to death every Indian he took. His messengers returned with a threat in answer, that if Arnold attempted to cross to the rescue of the prisoners they held, every one of them, 500 in number should be sacrificed.
Arnold was not a man to be deterred by a threat. He manned his boats and pushed for the Island where the prisoners had been confined. - On landing he found five American soldiers, naked and almost famished ; the other prisoners had been removed to Quinze Chiens, five miles lower on the river, except two, who being sick, had been butchered. Advancing with his boats to Quinze Chiens, he found the enemy prepared to receive him and prevent his land- ing. Major Foster was then commander, who with two field pieces, forty British troops, one hundred Canadians, and four hundred Indians, repulsed the Americans, who retired to St. Anne for the night, it being determined to attack the enemy as soon as the light of morning permitted. But at midnight arrived an officer with a flag, bearing articles which had been entered into between Major Sherburne, the superiour officer among the prisoners, and Major Foster ; who had prevailed on Sherburne (by assurances that he . could not controul the Indians, and that every prisoner would be massacred the moment their friends approached to rescue them) to sign articles by which it was stipulated that the prisoners should be released on parole in exchange for British prisoners in the hands of the Americans : the Americans were not again to take up arms, and should pledge themselves not to give any information by words, writing or signs which should be prejudicial to his ma- jesty's service. This clause Arnold rejected, but in consideration of the barbarous threat which had induced Sherburne to sign this agreement, he consented to the other articles, by which six days . were allowed for sending the prisoners to St Johns : four Ameri- can captains were to go to Quebec and remain as hostages, till the exchange could be effected, and reparation was to be made for all property that had been destroyed by the continental troops. Such were the articles imposed upon prisoners in his power by a British. officer, as the only means to prevent indiscriminate slaughter by his followers.
Arnold returned to Montreal, and held that post until the Amer- can commander in Canada had made a precipitate retreat to Crown Point. Having sent off his troops he reserved a boat for himself, and mounting his horse, he rode with his aid, Wilkinson, two miles to view the approaching army under Burgoyne : they, after reconnoitering, dismounted, stript and shot their horses, and em- barked in the boat that attended them. Arnold-that he might be the last man to retreat from the hostile shore-pushed off the boat himself, before springing into it. It was night before he overtook the army at Isle-aux-noix.
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ARNOLD AT MONTREAL.
Although Benedict escaped with life from Montreal, charges were brought against him for conduct which accorded with his former character for dishonesty aud rapacity, and which would have consigned him to merited iguominy, but that his military and naval skill, his courage and activity, were wanted to place as a barrier against the advancing eneiny ; and Gates, to whom the defence of the lake had fallen, felt himself unequal to the task without Arnold's assistance.
When Arnold saw that Canada must be given up, he seems to have determined to make the most of his command at Montreal. Under pretence that the goods of the inhabitants were wanted for public service, he seized them-the owners names were inscribed on the parcels with the promises of payment by congress, and thus were hurried off to Chamblee, where Colonel Hazen commanded, with orders to forward them to St. Johus, and theuce by water to Ticonderoga. Hazen, as is said, refused to meddle with these goods thus forced from the owners, and when he did take them in his charge, left them exposed to injury and plunder. 'The owners followed with invoices of what had been taken. General Arnold was censured for seizing the merchandize, and he accused Hazen of disobedience of orders in not preserving them from injury. A court martial on Hazen was the consequence, which refused to re- ceive the testimony of Arnold's agent, who had received the goods, he being as they alledged a party concerned: The general wrote an insolent letter to the court. They demanded an apology, which was insultingly refused, in a kind of challenge to the individuals ; the court appealed to Gates, then in command, but he abetted Arnold, dissolved the court, and appointed him to the com- mand of the flotilla that was to oppose the invasion of Carleton. The court before separating, acquitted Hazen with honour, thus informally censuring Arnold for the seizure of the merchandize at Montreal. This was probably all the satisfaction that the owners obtained.
If Arnold's previous character had been that of a conscientious and honest man it is probable that he would not have been judged so hardly in this affair : for letters are extant, which prove that " he was not practising" as Mr. Sparks observes, " any secret manœuvre in the removal of the goods, or for retaining them in his own pos- session :" yet on the other hand, he well knew, that by the articles of capitulation agreed to by General Montgomery, the citizens of Montreal were to be secured in all their effects ; and as to the plea of these goods being for publick service, it was publickly known that silks and other articles were seized little needed for the wants of any army.
Gates had by order of congress taken command of the northern
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ARNOLD ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN.
army, as mentioned .* Schuyler gave his effectual aid in preparing the necessary defence of the country, although sensible of the in- justice done him. Arnold repaired to Albany for the purpose of giving the commander in the northern department information of the state of affairs after the retreat of the American army ; and he had scarcely time to tell his tale to General Schuyler, as the officer entitled to hear it, before Gates arrived, as appointed head of affairs, and the tale had to be retold to him. Schuyler accom- panied his successful rival to Crown Point, to give him the instruc- tion and information the service required. Arnold went with them.
It was after General Schuyler's departure to prepare for the de- fence of the western frontier of the state, that the decision of the court martial threw censure upon Arnold, and the dictatorial or- ders of Gates silenced that censure, and placed him as admiral of the flotilla, which was prepared and preparing, to prevent the pro- gress of General Carleton.
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