History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 39

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534

USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania > Part 39

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" In the march of the army, General Washington, following Sullivan's column, kept in the road leading to and through Germantown to Philadelphia. When he had entered the northern part of the village, we heard in advance of us (I was riding by the General's side) a very heavy fire of musketry. General Sullivan's divisions, it was evident, were warmly engaged with the enemy, but urither were in sight. This fire was brisk and heavy, and General Washington said to me, 'Iam afraid General Sullivan is throwing away his ammunition ; ride forward and tell him to reserve it.' I do not know what was the precise idea which at that moment struck the mind of the general. 1 can only conjecture that he was apprehensive that Sullivan, after meeting the enemy in the front, kept up his brisk and incessant fire, when the haziness of the air and its increased obscurity, from the burning of so much powder, prevented his troops having such a distinct view of the enemy as would render their fire efficient. Be that as it may, the instant I received the general's orders I rede forward, and in the road, three or four hundred yards beyond (how's house, met Sullivan, and delivered to him the general's orders.

" At this time I had never heard of Chew's house, and had no idea that an enemy was in my rear. The first notice I received of it was from the whizzing of the musket-balls across the road, before, behind and above me as I was returning, after delivering the orders to Sullivan. In- staatly turning my eyes to the right, I saw the blaze of the muskets, whose shots were still aimed at me from the windows of a large stone house, standing back about a hundred yards from the road. This was Chew's house. Passing on, I came to some of our artillery who were firing very obliquely on the front of the house. I remarked to them that in that position their fire would be unavailing, and that the only chance of their shot making any impression on the house would be moving down and firing on its front. Then immediately passing on, I rejoined General Washington, who, with General Knox and other officers, was in front of a stone house (nearly all the houses in Germantown were of stone), next northiward of the epen fields on which Chew's house stood. I found they were discussing, in Washington's presence, this question,-Whether the whole of our troops tben behind should immediately advance, regard- less of the enemy in Chew's house, or first summon them to surrender ? General Knox strenuously urged the sending of a summons. Among other things, he said, 'It would be unmilitary to leave a castle in the rear,' I answered, 'Doubtless that is a correct general maxim ; but it does not apply in this case. We know the extent of this castle (Chew's house), and to guard against the danger of the enemy's sallying and fall- ing on the rear of our troops, a small regiment may be posted here to watch them ; and if they sally such a regiment will take them. But,' I added, 'to summon them to surrender would be useless. We are now in the midst of the battle, and its issues are unknown. In this state of on- certainty, and so well secured as the enemy find themselves, they will not regard a summons. They will fire at your flug.'

However, a flag was sent with a summons. Lieutenant Smith, of

Mr. Bancroft, in writing of this battle, says : 1 " In the official report of this engagement the commander-in- chief stated with exactness the tardy arrival of Greene," and adds, "Had the forces trusted to that officer and the militia under Armstrong acted as efficiently as the troops with Washington, the morning might. have been fatal to Howe's army. The renewal of the attack so soon after the defeat at the Brandywine, and its partial success, inspirited Congress and the army.

Virginia, my assistant in the office of adjutant-general, volunteered his service to carry it. As he was advancing, a shot from the house gave him a wound of which he died. Whatever delay in the advance of the division in our rear was occasioned by the pause at Chew's house, I am satisfied that Sullivan's column did not halt there at all, as mentioned by Judge Johnson. The column was certainly not in sight when the gen- eral sent me with the orders already noticed, and it is alike certain that. it was then beyond Chew's house. Nor were the enemy forming under . cover of the house, or I would have seen them. When the orders were sent to our troops in the rear to advance I do not know, but it must have been subsequent to the sending of the flag, nod, I should think, twenty minutes, at least, after it was found that au enemy was in the house. The general did not pass it at all. I had remained near him until our troops were retreating, when I rode off to the right to endeavor to stop and rally those I met retiring in companies and squads ; but it was impracticable. Their ammunition, I suppose, had generally been expended.

"In the foregoing letter from General Washington to Congress, he says, 'The attack from our left column, under General Greene, began about three-quarters of an hour after that from our right.' You ask the cause of this. The answer is obvious. The right column, under General Sullivan, which Washington accompanied, marched on the direct road to- Germantown ; Greene, with his column, was obliged to make a circuit to the left to gain the road which led to his point of attack. The columns thus entirely separated, and at a distance from each other, no calculations of their commanders could have insured their arriving at the same time at their respective points of attack.

"Judge Johnson, in his ' Life of Greene,' lias represented as 'almost ludicrous' the 'scene' exhibited by some writers of the discussion near Chew's house in the presence of General Washington, in which it is hinted that opinions were 'obtruded, and that even field officers may have expressed their opinions ; but,' he adds, 'General Washington wa listening to the counsels of his own mind and of his general officers.' I know, however, that he did listee to the discussion, and Lee (Light- Horse Harry) commanded a troop of horse that day on duty near the General's persen. This accounts for his determination to send the sum- mons. 'Knox,' he says, ' being always high in the general's confidence his opinion prevailed.' Further, I must remark, that the general officers whom the judge supposes to have been present and advising the con- mander in-chief, were in their proper places with their divisions and brigades. Knox alone, of the general officers, was present. Command- ing in the artillery department, and the field pieces being distributed among the brigules of the army, he was always at liberty in time of artion to attend the commander-in-chief.

" Some two or three years since I wrote to Judge Johnson, informing, him of his mistakes in the matter noticed in this paragraph. Others of his details of this battle, which are inconsistent with the statements I have here given to you, must be incorrect. The truth is that General Washington, not sanguine in his own opinion, and his diffidence being increased, probably, by a feeling sense of high responsibility as comman- der-in-chief, was ever disposed, when occasions occurred, to consult those efficers who were near him in whose discernment and fidelity he placed a confidenice, and certainly his decisions were often influenced by their opinions. This is within my knowledge.

" I am, etc., " T. PICKERING."

The retreat of Washington from Germantown was accomplished with- out the loss of material. He retired to Skippack Creek, placed his wounded and disabled soldiers in hospitals wherever he could establish them, generally using the churches and other public buildings between the Perkiomen and Reading for that purpose.

1 Vol. vi., p. 19.

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167

THE REVOLUTION.

In Europe it convinced Frederick of Prussia and the Cabinet of France that the independence of America was assured."

Information of the success of General Gates in the Northern Department reached the commander-in- chief on the 18th of October,-one day after the sur- render. The event was promptly made known to the army, and received by soldiers and citizens with man- ifestations of joy. Immediately the Continental troops under General Glover and Morgan's corps of riflemen were reealled from the Department of the North. Delay followed, with evident disinclination upon the part of General Gates to promptly obey the order of the commander-in-chief, and not until Colonel Hamilton was dispatched in person to renew the demand was the summons obeyed.

Pending the movement of reinforcements from the North, the public mind, having recovered from the first effects of the reverses at Brandywine, Paoli and Germantown, perhaps unduly elated by the surrender of Burgoyne and its sequences, elamored for further aggressive movements against Howe. Partly in def- erence to this feeling, and to quiet the unfriendly criticism inspired by the disingenuous spirit subse- quently and more notoriously connected with the developments of the Conway cabal, Washington moved his army to the east, taking a strong position at White- marsh, from which he was able to watch the move- ments of the enemy, harass his outposts, cut off his source of supplies, give protection to the agricultural people and confidence to the public mind. Here, after an ineffectual attempt1 on the part of the enemy

1 When General Howe took formal possession of Philadelphia, in the autumn of 1777, he established his headquarters in Second Street, fourth door below Spruce, in a house formerly ocenpied hy General Cadwallader. Directly opposite resided William and Lydia Durrach, members of the Society of Friends. A superior officer of the British army, believed to be the adjutant-general (Major Andre), fixed upon one of their chatu- bers, a back room, for private conference, and two officers frequently met there, with hre and candles, in close consultation. About the 2d of December the adjutant-general told Lydia that they would be in the room at 7 o'clock and remain late, and that they wished the family to re- tire early to bed, adding that when they were going away they would call her to let them ont and extinguish their fire and candles, She ac- cordingly sent all her family to bed ; but as the officer had been so par- ticular her curiosity was excited. She took off her shoes, put her ear to the keyhole of the conclave, and overheard an order read for all the British troops to march ont late on the evening of the 4th and attack General Washington, then encamped at Whitemarsh. On hearing this she return- ed to her chamber and laid down. Soon after, the officer knocked at her door, but she rose only at the third summons, having feigned herself asleep. IIer mind was so agitated that she could neither eat nor sleep, supposing it in her power to save the lives of thousands of her fellow-countrymen, but not knowing how she was to convey the information to General Washing- ton, not daring to confide it to her husband. The time, however, was short. She quickly determined to make ber way as soon as possible to the Ameri- can outposts, where she had a son who was an officer in the American army. She informed her family that as she was in want of flour, she would go to Frankford for it. Her husband insisted she should take her servant maid with her, but to his surprise she positively refused. She got access to General Howe and solicited what he readily granted, -- a pass through the British lines. Beyond the lines she was met by an American officer, Lieutenant-Col. Craig, of the Light Horse, who knew her. To him she dis- closed her secret, after having obtained from him a solemn promise never to betray her individually, as her life might he at stake with the British. He conducted her to a house near at hand, directed something for her to

to dislodge him, on the 5th and 6th of December, the campaign closed, Howe retiring within his lines of defense, reaching from the Delaware to the Schuylkill River. The war-worn and jaded condition of the patriot troops, the want of supplies, the hopelessness of further operations to repossess Philadelphia, and the approach of winter, all admonished the commander to seek shelter and repose for his army.

The proposition to retire the army for the winter gave rise to well-marked differences of opinion. Within army circles the only question was that of location. Whether it should fortify and remain where it was, or retire to the Perkiomen hills, or move south and occupy the vicinity of Wilmington, was canvassed by leading officers in the army, whose opinions were sought by the commander-in-chief. In political cir- cles, and among a large and influential class of patri- otic citizens of Pennsylvania, a different view pre- vailed. In their opinion, the exigency of the public service demanded a continuation of active operations upon the part of this army. Their hostility to the proposed cantonment of troops culminated in a re- monstrance prepared by the General Assembly, and by that body presented to Congress, then in session at York. We recite the remonstrance here in order to illustrate the wisdom and force of character of the great and good man who, in serving the higher inter- ests of his country, disregarded the remonstrance of those whose sensibilities were shocked by the calami- ties of war, and who, for a temporary respite from its ravages, would have sacrificed the army of hope by denying it that well-earned repose absolutely neces- sary at that season and period to preserve its existence.

REMONSTRANCE OF COUNCIL, AND ASSEMBLY TO CONGRESS, 1777.1

"At a conference with the Supreme Executive Council and General Assembly of the State, held in the Assembly Room, Resolved, that a re- monstrance be immediately drawn up and forwarded to Congress agninst the proposed cantonment of the army of the United States under com- mand of His Excellency, General Washington, and that the following reasons be nrged.

" Ist. That by the army's removal to the west side of the Schuylkill as far as Wilmington and its neighborhood, a great part of the State, par- ticularly that on the east side, together with the State of New Jersey,

eat, and hastened to headquarters, where he immediately acquainted Gen- eral Washington with what he had heard. Washington made, of course, all preparations for baffling the meditated surprise. Lydia returned home with her flour, sat np alone to watch the movements of the British troops, and heard their footsteps ; but when they returned in a few days after, did not dare to ask a question, thongh solicitons to learn the result. The next evening the adjutant-general came in, and requested her to walk up to his room, as he wished to ask some questions. She followed him in terror, and when he locked the door and hegged her, with an air of mystery, to be seated, she was enre she was either suspected or betrayed. He inquired earnestly whether any of her family were up the last night when he and the other officer met. She told him they all re- tired at eight o'clock. He observed, "I know you were asleep for I knocked at your door three times before you heard me. I am entirely at a loss to imagine who gave General Washington information of our intended attack, unless the walls of the house could speak. When we arrived near Whitemarsh, we found all their cannon mounted and the troops prepared to receive us ; and we have marched back like a parcel of fools."

1 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. vi., 1777-1778, p. 279.

168

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

must be left in the power of the enemy subject to their ravages ; the in- habitants be obliged either to fly to the neighboring States or submit to such terms ae the enemy may prescribe.

"2d. That the State Assembly at their last session had laid a tax of five shillings on the pound on all estates, real and personal, in order to call in aod siak the moneys issued by this Government, and at this session had Resolved over and above said tax to raise the sum of sixty-two thousand dollars for support of war for the ensuing year. Agreeably to resolve of Congress, both which taxee must iufallibly fail, provided the army gointo cantooment at such distance as will prevent their covering the country from the depredations of the enemy, it being a melancholy truth that too many of our people are eo disaffected already that nothing but the neighborhood of the army keeps them subject to Goverment, whilst the Whigs and those who have taken the most active part in support of our cause will be discouraged and give up all as lost.

" I can assure those gentlemen that it is a much easier and less distress- ing thing to draw remonstrauces in a comfortable room by a good fire- side than to occupy a cold, bleak hill, and sleep under frost and suow without clothes or blankets. However, although they seem to have little feeling for the naked and distressed soldiers, I feel superabundantly for them, and from my soul I pity those miseries which it is neither iu my power to relieve or prevent."

On the 11th of December the camp was broken up at Whitemarsh, and after a painful march over rough and frozen roads reached the Gulf Hills, crossing the Sehnylkill River at Swedes' and Matson's Ford on improvised bridges. Here the advance division under General Potter, which moved sonth of Matson's Ford

Oath of Allegiance.

I DO hereby CERTIFY, That Framois Hephonifor of thebily of Theland Exquise

A.D. 1777.

hath voluntarily taken and fubfcribed the Oath or Af. formation of Allegiance and Fidelity, as directed by an Ad of General Affembly of Pennfylvania, paffed the 1 3th day of June, A. D. 1707. Witnefs my hand

and feal, the first day of Ofily A. D.14

L.S.

Ford

PRINTED BY JOHN DUNLAP.

FAC-SIMILE OF OATH OF ALLEGIANCE.

"3d. By removal of our army it will be impossible to recruit the regi- ments of this State, as those who would be active and zealous in promot- iag that measure will be obliged to leave the State, whilst the Tories and disaffected will gain strength, and in many places, perhaps, declare openly for the enemy, by which means there will be a probalulity of their not only supplying their exhausted magazines, but greatly strength- ening their army.

" 4th. The army removing at a distance from the enemy must give a fatal etab to the credit of the Continental currency throughout this State, It is a melancholy truth that it is very difficult to purchase from many of our most able farmers the necessary provisions of our army, owing to their fear of the money ; but this difficulty must be greatly increased wben another market, without interruption, will open to them where they will receive at least a promise of hard money." 1

"We liave this day no less than two thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight men in camp nufit for duty, because they are barefoot and otherwise naked. Our whole strength in Continental troops amounts to no more than eight thousand two hundred in camp fit for duty. Since the fourth inst., our numbers fit for duty, from hardship and exposure, bave decreased nearly two thousand men. Gentlemen reprobate the going into winter-quarters as much as if the soldiers were made of sticks and etunes.

1 To this remonstrance Washington replied oo the 23d of December, 1777. After laying blame upon General Mifflin for neglect of duty as quartermaster-general, he says : " For want of a two days' supply of pro- visions, an opportunity scarcely ever offered of taking an advantage of the enemy that has not been either totally obstructed or greatly impeded. Men are confined to hospitals or in farmers' houses for want of shuee. "

to cover the passage of the main army, unexpectedly came in contact with a strong detachment of the enemy under Cornwallis, out upon a foraging expedi- tion. The presence of the enemy in this quarter and in such force was a surprise at the time, and occasioned delay, the counter-movement of troops and some apprehension upon the part of the commander-in- chief, which subsequently proved to be without cause.

A camp was established for some days on the Gulf Hills, fourteen miles distant from Philadelphia, where the army remained until the 18th, when it retired to Valley Forge, going into position with the right rest- ing upon the base of Mount Joy, near the acute angle of the Valley Creek, the left flank resting upon and protected by the Schuylkill River, about one-half mile below Fatland Ford or Sullivan's bridge.

Historians have uniformly signalized the arrival of the army on this ground as coincident with the famous order of the commander-in-chief dated, " Headquarters on the Schuylkill, December 17, 1777," congratulating his troops upon the close of the campaign, the results accomplished, the heroic conduct of officers and the endurance of men, counseling them to continue in

169

THE REVOLUTION.

fortitude and patience, assuring his followers "that while in some instances he had unfortunately failed, that upon the whole, heaven had smiled upon their army and erowned them with success, that the end of their warfare was independence, liberty and peace, and that the hope of securing these blessings for themselves and their posterity demanded a continu- ance of the struggle at every hazard."

This was the pleasing side of the picture, set in the gilded framework of war's seducing blandishments and panoplied with its field-day glories. But there was another,-the shoeless soldiers, the frozen ground, the cheerless hills, the lowering leaden sky that arched them over with gloom. These were the sor- rowing and mute witnesses to the true scene of the arrival, and which the artist has thus far failed to place upon eanvas. We are not, however, wanting for the pen picture. I give it in the language of Mr. George Washington Parke Curtis.

"The brigades had gone into position upon the line of defense indicated by the skillful officer who drew it. The pitiless winter winds swept the hills and valley with unceasing fury as the December sun sank into banks of snow-elonds, presaging the coming storm. The poverty of supplies in food and raiment was bitterly and profanely bewailed by shivering, unpaid officers and half-naked men as they crowded around the comfortless camp-fire of the bivouac, when suddenly the appearance of the Horse Guard announced the approach of the commander-in-chief. The officer commanding the detachment, choosing the most favorable ground, paraded his men to pay their general the honors of a passing salute. As Washington rode slowly up he was observed to be eying very earnestly something that attracted his attention on the frozen surface of the road. Having returned the salute with that native grace and digni- fied manner that won the admiration of the soldiers of the Revolution, the chief reined in his charger, and ordering the commanding officer of the detach- ment to his side, addressed him as follows: "How comes it, sir, that I have tracked the march of your troops by the blood-stains of their feet upon the frozen ground? Were there no shoes in the commis- sary's stores, that this sad spectacle is to be seen along the public highway?" The officer replied : | " Your Excellency may rest assured that this sight is as painful to my feelings as it can be to yours, but there is no remedy within our reach. When shoes were issued the different regiments were served in turn; it was our misfortune to be among the last to be served, and the stores became exhausted before we could obtain even the smallest supply."

The general was observed to be deeply atleeted by his officer's description of the soldiers' privations and sufferings. His compressed lips, the heaving of his manly ehest betokened the powerful emotions that were struggling in his bosom, when, turning towards the troops, with a voice tremulous, yet kindly, he ! tions," p. 501.

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History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 39

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534