USA > New York > The natural, statistical, and civil history of the state of New-York, v. 3 > Part 31
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Every exertion was made by Sir Henry Clinton, but without effect. Andre, though superior to the terrors of death, wished
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to die like a soldier. To obtain this favour, he wrote a letter to Washington, fraught with sentiments of military dignity. From an adherence to the usuages of war, it was not thought proper to grant this request. The guard marched him to the place of execution. The way was crowded with spectators .- Their sensibility was strongly impressed by beholding a youth, of an engaging person, mien and aspect, devoted to execution. Major Andre walked with firmness, composure and dignity, be- tween two officers. Upon seeing the preparations at the fatal spot, he asked, with some degree of concern, " must I die in this manner ?" He was told it was unavoidable. He replied, " I am reconciled to my fate, but not to the mode ;" but soon subjoined, " it will be but a momentary pang." .Ile ascended the car with composure. He was asked when the fatal moment was at hand, if he had any thing to say-he answered nothing, but to request, " that you will witness to the world that I die like a brave man."-The succeeding moment closed the scene.
This execution was the subject of severe censure. Barbarity, cruelty and murder were plentifully charged on the Americans, but the impartial, of all nations allowed, that it was warranted by the usages of war. It cannot be condemned without con- demning the maxims of self-preservation, which have uniformly guided the practice of hostile nations. The finer feelings of humanity would have been gratified by dispensing with the rigid maxims of war, but these feelings must be controlled by a regard for the public safety.
This grand project terminated with no other alternative, in respect to the British, than that of their exchanging one of their best officers, for the worst man in the American army. Arnold was immediately made a brigadier-general in the British ser- vice. The failure of the scheme respecting West Point, made it necessary for him to dispel the cloud which overshadowed his character, by the performance of some signal service for his new master. The condition of the American army afforded him a prospect of doing something. He flattered himself, that by the allurements of pay and promotion, he should be able to raise a numerous force from the distressed American soldiery. VOL. III. 44
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He, therefore, took methods for accomplishing this purpose. His first public measure was, issuing an address to the inhabi- tants of America, dated October fifth, and five days after An- dre's execution. In this he endeavoured to justify himself for deserting their cause. He said, " that when he first engaged in it, he conceived the rights of his country to be in danger, and that duty and honour called him to her defence. A re- dress of grievances was his only aim. He acquiesced in the declaration of independence, although he thought it precipitate. But the reasons that then were offered to justify that measure, no longer could exist, when Great Britain, with the open arms of a parent, offered to embrace them as children, and to grant the wished for redress. From the refusal of these proposals, and the ratification of the French alliance, all his ideas of the justice and policy of the war, were totally changed, and from that time, he had become a professed loyalist. He acknow-
· ledged, that "in these principles, he had only retained his
. arms and command for an opportunity to surrender them to Great Britain." This address was soon followed by another, inscribed to the officers and soldiers of the American army. He informed them, that he was authorized to raise a corps of cavalry and infantry, who were to be on the same footing with the other troops in the British service. To allure the private . men, three guineas were offered to each, besides payment for their horses and arms. Rank in the British army was also held out to the American officers, who would recruit, and bring in a certain number of men. But this address did not produce the intended effect.
That spark, which was kindled at Boston, expanded itself, till various nations were involved in its spreading flames .- France had been drawn in, in the year 1778, Spain in 1779, and the Netherlands this year. From the year 1777, the Bri- tish minister at the court of the Netherlands, had made sundry representations to their High Mightinesses of the clandestine commerce carried on between their subjects and the Americans. He particularly stated that the governor of St. Eustatia had permitted an illicit commerce with the Americans ; and had, at
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one time, returned the salute of a vessel carrying their flag. The minister, therefore, demanded a formal disavowal of this . salute, and the dismissal and recal of the governor. This de- mand was answered with a temporising reply. On the twelfth of September, 1778, a memorial was presented to the States General from the merchants of Amsterdam, in which they com- plained that their commerce was obstructed by the ships of his Britannic Majesty. Friendly declarations and unfriendly ac- tions followed each other. At length a declaration was pub- lished by the King of Great Britain, by which it was announc- ed, " that the subjects of the United Provinces were henceforth to be considered upon the same footing with other martial powers, not privileged by treaty." Throughout the whole of this period the Dutch, by means of neutral ports, continued to supply the Americans, and the British to intercept their navi- gation, but open hostilities were avoided by both. The event which occasioned a formal declaration of war, was the capture of Henry Laurens. In the deranged state of the American finances, Mr. Laurens had been deputed by Congress to solicit a loan in the Netherlands, and also to negotiate a treaty. On . . his way thither he was taken, on the third of September, 1780. He had thrown his papers overboard, but great part of them were recovered. His papers being delivered to the British ministry were examined. Among them was found oue pur- porting to be a plan of a treaty of amity and commerce between the United States and the Netherlands. This unauthentic pa- per, which was in Mr. Laurens' possession, proved the occasion of a war. The court of Great Britain was highly offended at it. The paper itself, and some others relating to the same sub- ject, were delivered to the Stadtholder, who laid them before the states of the Netherlands.
Sir Joseph York, the British minister, presented a memorial to the States General, in which he asserted, " that the papers of Mr. Laurens had furnished the discovery of a plot, unexampled in the annals of the republic. That it appeared, by these pa- pers, that the gentlemen of Amsterdam had been engaged in a clandestine correspondence with the American rebels, from the
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month of August, 1778; and that instructions and full power had been given by them for the conclusion of a treaty of amity with those rebels, who were the subjects of a sovereign, to whom the republic was united by the closest engagements." He, therefore, in the name of his master, demanded a formal disa- vowal of this irregular conduct, and a prompt satisfaction pro- portioned to the offence, and an exemplary punishment of the pensionary, Van Berkel, and his accomplices, as disturbers of . the public peace, and violators of the laws of nations. The States General disavowed the intended treaty of the city of Am- sterdam, and engaged to prosecute the pensioner, but this was deemed not satisfactory. Sir Joseph York was ordered to with- draw from the Hague, and soon after a manifesto against the Dutch was published in London. This was followed by an order of council, " that general reprisals be granted against the ships. goods, and subjects of the Netherlands." A war with the Netherlands being resolved upon, the storm of British ven- geance first burst on the Dutch island of St. Eustatia. It was the grand free port of the West Indies. Sir George Rodney and General Vaughan, with a large fleet and army, proceeded against it, and demanded a surrender, on the third of February, 1781, which was complied with forthwith, since it was not in a defensible state, and the inhabitants were recommended by the governor to the clemency of the British commanders.
The wealth accumulated in the store-houses on this small island alone was prodigious, being, on a moderate calculation, estimated at above three millions pounds sterling, or thirteen millions and two hundred thousand dollars. All this property, together with what was found on the island, was seized and de- clared to be confiscated. This valuable booty was farther in- creased by new arrivals. The conquerors, perfidiously, for some time kept up Dutch colours, which decoyed American, French, and Dutch ships into their hands, to the number of one hun- dred and fifty, besides a Dutch frigate, and other armed craft.
The severity with which the victors proceeded, drew on them great censure.
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See Marshall's Life of Washington, and Ramsey's History of the Revolution- ary War, &c.
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CHAPTER XI.
The soldiers of the Pennsylvania line revolt-Also, the soldiers of a part of the New-Jersey- Distresses of the American army -General Arnold invades Virginia-Operations in 'North and South Carolina and Georgia-Americans under Morgan make an irruption into the district of Ninety Six-Colonel Torleton is sent to oppose him-Is defeated at the Cowpens- Cornwallis prepares to invade North Carolina-Reinforce- ments under Leslie arrive at Charleston-Morgan retreats ., with the prisoners taken at the Cowpens- Lord Cornwallis pursues him-General Greene retires to North Carolina- Greene and Morgan form a junction-Cornwallis follows the southern army-Greene withdraws from North Carolina to Virginia-Proclamation of Lord Cornwallis to the inhabi- tants-Greene returns into North Carolina-Skirmishes- Success of the Americans-Battle of Guilford-The flight of the North Carolina militia occasions the defeat of the Ameri- cans-Greene retreats to Reedy Fork, and makes a stand- Lord Cornwallis marches from Guilford to Wilmington in the same state-Greene follows the British army-Cornwattis leaves Wilmington, and marches to Petersburgh in I irginia -Greene advances to Camden, in South Carolina -- Action between the Americans, under Greene, and the British, under Lord Rawdon, near Camden-Greene forced to retreat- Lord Rawdon evacuates Camden, and retires behind the San- tee-Success of the Americans-General Greene besinges the post of Ninety Six, but is forced to raise it, by Lord Raudon -Ile retreats before the British, under Lord Rawdon, to the river Enoree-Retrograde movements of Lord Rawdon- Greene goes in quest of him-The British abandon Ninety Sir-Greene, at the Eutaws, defeats the British, under Lord Raudon-Lord Cornwallis arrives in Virginia-Is opposed by the Marquis de La Fayette-The British cross James
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Ricer-The Americans retire-The Generals Wayne and Steuben join La Fayette-Cornwallis retreats to Williams- burgh-The British army takes pos, at Yorktown-Count de Grasse, with a French fleet, arrives in the Chesapeake-A body of French troops, under the Marquis de St. Simon, de- barks, and joins the Americans, under La Fayette-Perilou! , situation of the British army, under Cornwallis-A powerful British fleet attempts, but without success, to afford relief- The American and French armies, under Washington and Rochambeau, break up their cantonments on the Hudson, and march for Virginia-They arrive at Williamsburgh-York- town invested by the combined armies of America and France, and by the French fleet-Operations-The British army, un- der Lord Cornwallis, surrenders-Arnold, with a body of British troops, makes an inroad into Connecticut, and commits great depredations.
THOUGH General Arnold's address to the American soldiery produced no effect in detaching them from the service, yet a seri- ous revolt happened in the Pennsylvania line, and in some other corps. This was occasioned in consequence of the men not being paid, clothed, and provided for, as stipulated by Con- gress. They had declined the proffers made to them to enter the British service, but their distresses at length induced them to mutiny. This event, which had been long expected, made its first threatening appearance in the Pennsylvania line. The soldiers enlisted in that state were for the most part Irish, and were inferior to none in discipline and courage. They had been but a few months before the most active instruments in quelling a mutiny among the Connecticut troops. An am- biguity in the terms of their enlistment, furnished a pretext for their conduct. A great part of them were enlisted for three years, or during the war; the three years were expired, and the men insisted that the choice of staying or going remained with them, while the officers contended that the choice was in the state.
The mutiny was excited by the non-commissioned officers and
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soldiers, in the night of the first of January, 1781, and soon be- came so universal in the line of that state, as to defy all opposition. The whole, except three regiments, upon a signal for that pur- pose, turned out under arms, without their officers, and declar- ed for a redress of grievances. The officers in vain endeaoured to quell them. Several were wounded, and a captain was kill- e'd in attempting it. General Wayne presented his pistols, as if about to fire on them ; they held their bayonets to his breast, and said, " We love and respect you, but if you fire, you are a dead man ! We are not going to the enemy-on the contrary, if they were now to come out, you should see us fight, under your orders, with as much alacrity as ever ; but we will be no longer amused-we are determined on obtaining what is our just due." Deaf to arguments, they, to the number of thirteen hundred, moved off in a body from Morristown, and proceeded in good order, with their arms and six field-pieces, to Princeton. . General Wayne forwarded provisions to them.
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Congress sent a committee of their body to them to procure an accommodation. These met them at Princeton, and re- dressed all their grievances, and dismissed those who wished it. By these measures, the revolt was quelled. A general amnesty closed the business.
The spirit of mutiny proved contagious. During the same month, about one hundred and sixty of the New-Jersey troops followed the example of the Pennsylvania line ; but they did not conduct themselves with equal spirit. Major-general Howe, with a considerable force, was ordered to reduce them to obedience. He marched from Kingwood, about midnight, and by the dawn of day surrounded them. They were command- ed to lay down their arms, which was complied with, and two were unjustly executed.
These mutinies alarmed the states, but did not produce per- manent reliefs to the army. Their wants were only partially supplied, and by expedients from one short time to another. The most usual was ordering an officer to seize on provision. wherever found. This differed from robbery, only in its being done by authority, for the service, and in the officers always
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giving the proprietor a certificate of the quantity. At first, some reliance was placed on these certificates to support a future demand on the United States, but they soon, in consequence of the bad credit of the government, became of little or no value. Recourse was so frequently had to coercion, both legislative and military, that the people not only lost confidence in pub- lic credit, but became impatient, under all exertions, for forcing their property from them. That an army should have been kept together under such circumstances, so far exceeds credi- bility, as to make it necessary to produce some evidence of the fact. General James Clinton, in a letter to Washington, dated at Albany, the sixteenth of April, 1781, wrote as follows : " There is not now, independent of Fort Schuyler, three days' provision in the whole department, for the troops, in case of an alarm, nor any prospect of procuring any. The recruits of the new levies, I cannot receive, because I have nothing to give them. The Canadian families, I have been obliged to deprive of their scanty pittance, contrary to every principle of humani- ty. The quarter-master's department is totally useless, the public armoury has been shut up for near three weeks, and a total suspension of every military operation has ensued."
Fort Schuyler, on the Mohawk, West Point, on the Hud- son, and the other posts on that river, were on the point of being abandoned by their starving garrisons. At this period, there was little or no circulating medium, either in the form of' paper or specie, and in the neighbourhood of the army, there was a want of provisions. The deficiency of the former occa- sioned many inconveniences, and an unequal distribution of the burdens of the war ; but the insufficiency of the latter, had well nigh dissolved the army.
This crisis, which had been ardently wished for by the ene- my, and dreaded by the Americans, took place in 1781, but without realising the hopes of the one, or the fears of the other. New resources were opened, and the war was carried on as be- fore. A great deal of gold and silver was about this time in- troduced into the United States, by a trade with the French and Spanish Islands, in the West Indies, and by the French
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army in Rhode Island. Representations were made to the ministers of Louis XVI., by Washington, Dr. Franklin, and Colonel John Laurens. The king of France gave the United States a subsidy of six millions of livres, and became their se- curity for ten millions more borrowed for their use in the Neth- erlands. A regular system of finance was also adopted. All matters, relative to the treasury, the supplies of the army, and the accounts were put under Robert Morris, who arranged the whole with economy. The public engagements were made in coin. The introduction of so much gold and silver, together with these regulations, extricated Congress from much of their embarrassment, and put it in their power to feed, clothe, and move the army.
About the same time, the continental money ceased to have currency. Like an aged man, expiring by the decays of na- ture, without a sigh or groan, it fell asleep in the hands of its possessors. By the scale of depreciation, the war was carried on five years, for a little more than four millions four hundred thousand dollars, and two hundred millions of paper dollars were made redeemable by five millions of silver ones. Public faith was violated, but in the opinion of most men, public good was promoted. Nothing can afford stronger proof that the re- sistance of America to Great Britain was grounded in the hearts of the people, than these events. To receive paper bills of credit, issued without any funds, and to give property in ex- change for them, demonstrated the enthusiasm with which the war was begun.
While the Americans were suffering the complicated calamities which introduced the year 1781, their adversaries were carrying on an extensive plan of operations. It had often been objected to the British commanders, that they had not conducted the war in the manner most likely to effect the subjugation of the states. Military critics, in particular, found fault with them for keeping a large army idle at the city of New-York, and its vicinity, which they said, if properly applied, would have been sufficient to make successful impressions at one and the same time, on several of the states. The British seem to have calcu- VOL. III.
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lated the campaign of 1781, with a view to make an experiment of the comparative merit of this mode of conducting military operations. The war raged in that year, not only in the vicini- ty of New-York, but in Georgia, South Carolina, North Caro- lina and Virginia. To favour Lord Cornwallis' designs in the southern states, General Leslie, with about two thousand men, had been detached from New-York to the Chesapeake, in the latter end of 1780 ; but subsequent events induced his lordship to order him to Charleston. Soon after the departure of Leslie, Virginia was again invaded by another party of the royal troops from New-York. These were commanded by General Arnold, and consisted of about sixteen hundred men. They landed about fifteen miles below Richmond, on James' River, on the fifth of January, and marched thence to that town, where they destroyed large quantities of tobacco, salt, rum, sail-cloth, and other merchandise. Successive excursions were , niade to several other places, in which the army committed similar devastations.
In about two weeks, they proceeded to Portsmouth, and be- gan to fortify it. The havoc made by Arnold, and the apprehen- sion of a design to fix a post in Virginia, induced Washington to detach the Marquis La Fayette, with twelve hundred men to that state, and also to urge the French in Rhode Island, to co- operate in attempting to capture Arnold and his party. The French commanders closed with the proposal. With this view, their fleet, with fifteen hundred additional men on board, sailed from Newport for Virginia. D.Estouches, the admiral, previ- ous to the sailing of his fleet, dispatched a sixty-four gun ship and two frigates, with orders to destroy the British ships in the Chesapeake. These took ten vessels, and captured the Romulus, a forty-four gun frigate. Arbuthnot, with a British fleet sailed from Gardiner's Bay, at the east end of Long Island in pursuit of D. Estouches. The former overtook and engaged the latter. off the Capes of Virginia. The British were consi- derably superior in guus. The contest between the fleets was so nearly equal, that it ended without the loss of a ship on either side ; but the British obtained the fruits of victory so
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far, as to frustrate the scheme of their adversaries. The French fleet returned to Rhode Island. Thus was Arnold and his party saved. The day before the French fleet reached New- port, a convoy arrived in the Chesapeake, from New-York, with General Philips, and two thousand men. Philips and Arnold soon formed a junction, and carried every thing before them. They defeated those bodies of militia that came in their way. The whole country was open to their excursions. On their embarkation from Portsmouth, a detachment visited York- ·town, but the main body proceeded to Williamsburgh. On the twenty -second of April, they reached Chickapowing. A party went up that river, and destroyed much property. On the twenty-fourth, they landed at City Point, and soon after march- ed to Petersburgh, on the Appomatox. About a mile from the town they were opposed by a small force, commanded by Baron De Steuben ; but this was compelled to retreat. At Peters- burgh, they destroyed four thousand hogsheads of tobacco, and several vessels. Within three days, one party marched to Chesterfield court-house, and burned the barracks, and three hundred barrels of flour at that place. On the same day, an- other party, under Arnold, marched to Osborne's, about four miles above Chesterfield, where they took a number of vessels loaded with tobacco, flour, cordage, &c. The quantity of to- bacco taken and destroyed, exceeded two thousand hogsheads. . The royal forces then marched to Manchester, where they de- stroyed twelve hundred hogsheads of tobaccox;returning thence, they made great destruction at Warwick. They destroyed the ships on the stocks and in the river, the ropewalk, warehouses, tan houses, with their commodities. On the ninth of May, they returned to Petersburgh, having destroyed property to a large amount. About this time, General Philips died, and the com- mand devolved again on Arnold.
The successes which, with a few checks, followed the British arms, since they had reduced Savannah and Charleston, en- couraged them to pursue their object. by advancing from south to north. An invasion of North Carolina was therefore pro-
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jected for the business of the winter, which followed Genera !. Gates' defeat near Camden.
'The army, after its defeat and dispersion, on the sixteenth of August, 1780, rendezvoused at Hillsborough. In the latter end of the year it advanced to Charlottetown. At this place General Greene superceded Gates. Within a few days after, Lieutenant-colonel Washington being out on a foraging excur- sion, penetrated to the seat of Lieutenant-colonel Rigley, of the British militia. This was fortified by a block-house and other works, and was defended by upwards of one hundred of the inhabitants, who kad submitted to the royal government. Lieutenant-colonel Washington advanced with his cavalry, and . planted the trunk of a pine tree so as to resemble a field-piece. A peremptory demand of an immediate surrender was then made, which was complied with.
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