History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 40

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

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exelaimed, " Poor fellows !" Then, giving rein to his horse, he rode rapidly away.

The purpose of the commander-in-chief in taking position at Valley Forge was to give the greatest measure of protection possible to the State, and to circumseribe the operations of General Howe within limits that would seriously affeet his source of sup- ply. To this end his line was admirably drawn. On the west side of the Schuylkill he extended his right flank to Wilmington, at which point he stationed General Smallwood with his brigade of infantry, covering the long interval with Morgan's rifle corps and the squadron of cavalry under Major Harry Lee.

On the east of the river he occupied the country as far as Whitemarsh, placing General Armstrong with a brigade of Pennsylvania militia so as to eover the principal roads converging at that point; the cavalry under Major Jameson and Captain MeLane1 guarded the highways in the direction of Barren and Chestnut Hills; and to still further prevent the in- cursions of the enemy northward from Philadelphia, he directed General Pulaski, who was in command of the brigade of cavalry, to go into camp at Trenton, N. J.

The line of defense from the west shore of the Schuylkill River to the base of Mount Joy, at the angle of Valley Creek, occupied commanding ground, and the earthworks and fortifications erected under the direction of General Duportail were extensive in character and skillfully constructed. The interior line of works and abatis were semicircular in form, crossing from north to south, with one star and two square forts, from which the army could have success- fully covered a retreat westward, had such a move- ment become necessary. The interior lines, with the remains of the two square forts, are still diseernible, and constitute the only landmarks which the crumb- ling hand of time has left to guide the pilgrim over these hills. Fortunately for the living of to-day, we are not without reliable data by which we may indieate with accuracy the position of the fourteen brigades of Continental troops eneamped within the fortified lines, representing a maximum of seventeen thousand men, but reduced by sickness and the paueity of supplies to the pitiable number of five thousand and twelve effectives.

The extreme right of the line, commanding the ap- proaches from the southwest, was held by Brigadier- General Charles Scott, of Virginia, upon whose left Brigadier-General Anthony Wayne, commanding the Pennsylvania line, was placed; then in succession from right to left eame the brigades of General Enoch Poor, of Massachusetts, General John Glover, of Massachusetts, General Ebenezer Larned, General John Patterson, of Massachusetts, General George Weedon, of Virginia, who connected with General

1 Lossing's " Field-Book," vol. ii. p. 106; Day's " Historical Collec-

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Peter Muhlenberg, of Pennsylvania, holding the ex- treme left of the line, resting on the Schuylkill at a point near where the village of Port Kennedy is now located.

The second or supporting line of troops was en- camped immediately in front of the interior line of earthworks, still discernible. Brigadier-General William Woodford, of Virginia, held the right, cover- ing the corps of Major-General Henry Knox'sartillery, located a short distance to his left and rear; to the left of Woodford, successively, the brigades of General William Maxwell, of New Jer- sey, General Thomas Conway, of Irish birth, General Jedediah Huntingdon, of Connec- ticut, connecting with the brigade of General James Varnum, of Massachusetts; on the extreme left, covering the bridge over the Schuylkill River, built by General Sullivan, Brigadier-General Loehlan McIntosh, of Scottish birth, a Georgian by adoption, with the remaining brigade, was encamped in the rear of the second line of intrenehments, a short distance cast of the Potts mansion, oe- cupied by the commander-in-chief; near by and to the left of MeIntosh, Washington's body-guard, commanded by Major Gibbs, of Rhode Island, was encamped ; still farther to the west, and on the opposite side of the Valley Creek, the artificers of the army were quartered in huts, with large log buildings for work-shops.

The bake-house, used for the double purpose of furnishing food for the army and as a place for holding court-martial, was located within a few yards of these work-shops. By the 20th of December the army was in position as indicated, and the order to construct huts for the winter was issued. Its exeeu- tion followed with dispatch and great exactness. Soldiers became axemen from necessity ; before them the forest fell, and hundreds of log houses grew as by magie. The dimensions of each hnt were fourteen by sixteen feet, withi chimney, fire-place, and door, facing upon company streets, drawn in strict conformity with the rules of military eneampments. Quarters for field and staff officers were erected in rear of the line of troops, while still farther to the rear, upon the sloping hills, shelter was sought for the trains of the army. History and tradition alike confirm the fact that the hills were made bare of timber in completing the shelter necessary for men and animals, and the wood necessary for fuel during the long winter was hauled by men a distance of one and more miles from the camp.

Major-Generals Lafayette, De Kalb and Stirling es- tablished their headquarters for the winter with the army, and were alternately assigned to important field and detached duty during the winter. Major-General Charles Lee, at the time a prisoner of war, was subse- quently exchanged for General Prescott, and returned

to this camp, together with Major-General Thomas Mifflin, of Pennsylvania, who had also been absent some months.

The following staff officers established their head- quarters near the Potts mansion : Major-General Na- thaniel Greene, of Rhode Island, quartermaster-gen- eral of the army; Major-General Baron Steuben, in- spector-general ; Brigadier-General Duportail, chief engineer ; Colonel Timothy Pickering, adjutant-gen- cral; and Colonel Alexander Hamilton, aide-de-camp.

POTTS' MANSION, Washington's Ileadquarters at Valley Forge.

Time and space forbid what would otherwise be a pleasing task of calling from the long roll of honor the names of subordinate officers, who were conspicu- ously associated with those near the person of the commander-in-chief, and supported him in his trials and embarrassments while in occupation of Valley Forge. Long before the works for defense were completed, or the huts that were to shelter the army were finished, the bitter ery of hunger, from thousands of brave and heroic men, reached the ears and heart of Washington. He appealed in vain to the govern- ment for supplies. The hasty removal of Congress from Philadelphia to Lancaster, thence to York, had its disorganizing effects upon all the departments; especially upon those of the quartermaster and com- missary. The limited provisions made to meet the wants of the army, greatly increased by the losses in- separable from the defeats and retreats experienced, were with difficulty placed within reach of the com- mander, whose transportation had been reduced to the minimum from necessity, whose trains had been enfeebled by overwork, irregular food and that want of care for which the quartermaster's department had become noted. To overcome in some measure the pressing necessity which threatened the dissolution of his army, as early as the 20th of December, 1777, he issned the following order :

"By virtue of the power and direction especially given, I hereby en-

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THE REVOLUTION.

join and require all persons residing within seventy miles of my head- quarters to thresh one-half of their grain by the first day of March next ensuing, on pain, in case of failure, of having all that shall remain in sheaves, after the period above mentioned, seized by the commissaries and quartermasters of the armny, and paid for a> strate."1

In the absence of blankets, the want of straw as well as grain was sorely felt by the army ; farmers in the immediate vicinity had suffered great loss by the presence of both armies in their midst. If the patriot army were considerate of those known to be friendly to their cause and merciless upon the "Tory," the British, who closely followed them, laid a heavy hand upon the supplies of the "Rebel," and between the two the farmers from the Brandywine to the Delaware found an involuntary market. Under these circum- stances, it was not surprising that those who had stowed away the grain and hay that was relied upon to keep body and soul together for another year were tardy in threshing it out. The commander-in-chief comprehended the situation, and the order issued went direct to the vital point; it suggested an alterna- tive which brought fails to the front, barn-doors were opened, the golden sheaves were brought in from well- preserved stacks, in many instances by the soldiers themselves, who were glad to exchange the rigors of a starving camp for the toil of the threshing-floor, which exchange yielded bread for themselves and com- patriots by day, and afforded the hope of merriment amidst the cheerful homes of patriot mothers and daughters by night. Tradition says that throughout the length and breadth of "Washington's seventy miles" could be heard from morn till night two or three threshers on every barn-floor. Straw was soon in the market, soft as flails could make it, and con- tributed greatly to the comfort of the men at Valley Forge, and hundreds and thousands ot other sick and wounded, who filled every church and meeting-honse front Barren Hill to the "Swamp," and from " Bir- mingham to Reading."

" At no period of the war," writes Chief Justice Marshall, " had the American army been reduced to a situation of greater peril than during the winter at Valley Forge. More than once they were absolutely without food. Even while their condition was less desperate in this respect, their stock of provisions was so scanty that there was seldom at any time in the stores a quantity sufficient for the use of the troops for a week. The returns of the Ist of February ex- hibit the astonishing number of three thousand nine hundred and eighty-nine men in camp unfit for duty for want of clothes. Of this number scarcely a man had a pair of shoes. Although the total of the army exceeded seventeen thousand men, the present effec- tive rank and file amounted to only five thousand and

twelve. The returns throughout the winter did not effectually vary from that which has been particularly stated."

The situation of the camp was so eminently critical on the 14th of February that General Varnum wrote to General Greene " that in all human probability the army must dissolve." On the 16th of the same month Washington wrote to Governor Clinton : " For some days past there has been little less than a famine in camp. A part of the army has been a week without any kind of flesh, and the rest three or four days. Naked and starved as they are, we cannot enough ad- mire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery that they have not been ere this excited by their sufferings to general mutiny and desertion."

Dr. Thatcher, in his private journal, states : " That it was with the greatest difficulty that men enough could be found in a fit condition to discharge the mili- tary camp duties from day to day, and for this pur- pose, those who were naked borrowed of those who were more fortunate in having covering for their bodies and shoes for their feet." Yet, amidst the suf- ferings and privations endured by these devoted troops week after week and month after month, pelted by the storms of one of the severest winters ever known in this region, the love of country, the hope of victory, and an abiding confidence in their great leader sus- tained them until, in the Providence of God, the cause found an ally whose offices of friendship, long and ardently hoped for by the chivalrous Lafayette, were finally assured by the diplomacy of our own glorious Franklin.

Captain Peter S. Duponceau, aide-de-camp on the staff of Baron Steuben, in a speech at Valley Forge on the 26th day of July, 1828, at a " Harvest Home" held in commemoration of the trials and sufferings and sacrifices of the Continental army, thus speaks of the period and situation : "At that time no nation in Europe had acknowledged our independence ex- cept a few insufficient succors secretly sent to us from France. We were left entirely to our own resources, which were, alas! all centred in the courage of our rulers and our brave soldiers. Despondency reigned everywhere except in the hearts of those who watched and suffered for our safety. I cannot well represent to you with what fortitude, resignation and patience these trials were borne by the soldiers of the Revolu- tion. They never broke into loud murmurs, much less into mutiny or disobedience. I have seen them when pressed by hunger sometimes pop their heads out of their poor huts and call out in an undertone, ' No bread, no soldier ;' but a single kind word from an officer would still their complaints, and they were willing to brave everything for the sake of liberty and their country."

Passing from the gloom of the command, we are met with the perils of the commander. The surren- der of Burgoyne on the Hudson, due primarily to the comprehensive direction of Washington, successfully

1 In a letter to Congress touching this order, Washington says, " I regret the necessity which compelled us to issue this order, and I shall consider it among the greatest of our misfortunes to be under the neces- sity of practicing it again. I am now obliged to keep several parties from the army threshing grain, that our supplies may not fail us ; but this will not do."-Marshall's " Washington," rol. i., p. 216.

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carried into execution by Major-General Philip Schuyler, who in an evil hour was superseded by Major-General Horatio Gates, giving to the latter officer easy honors and bringing to his standard the disaffected spirits of the army, as it did the impatient and fawning politicians of the period.

The victory of Gates at Saratoga was the inevitable result of conditions precedent to his assuming com- mand in that department, a fact well understood by his contemporaries at the time; and it would seem that a proper respect for the proprieties of his pro- fession, a due regard for the troops who served him and the superior officers in merit and rank who made his triumph a possibility should have induced subse- quent conduct upon his part consistent with the highest interest of his country. But it was not so. Assuming honors he never merited and powers never conferred upon him, he covertly sought to destroy personal attachments and inspire publie distrust in his commander-in-chief.

General Conway, with others of less importance, served the base purpose of Gates only too well, and for a time the cabal worked unseen mischief in the attempted alienation of friends and disorganization of the army, which ultimately recoiled upon those most conspicuously connected with the movement, leaving the character of him they thought to asperse brighter and purer and nobler than ever before.

When apprised of the intrigues of faction by his personal friend, Mr. Laurens, then President of Con- gress, he replied with a frankness which, while it disclosed a wounded spirit, breathed in every line and sentence his unqualified attachment to the cause and his unselfish love of country. _ He writes to his friend: " As I have no other view than to promote the public good, and am unambitious of honors not founded in the approbation of my country, I would not desire in the least degree to suppress a free spirit of inquiry into any part of my conduct that even faction itself may deem reprehensible. The anonymous paper handed you exhibits many serious charges, and it is my wish that it may be submitted to Congress.1 This

1 Charles Thumson was, in some respects, one of the most interesting characters of the Revolution. His life has never been written, because he deliberately destroyed the materials for it ; he knew more of the inside bistory of the great struggle than any other man, but never opened his lips about it, burning his papers before his death and calmly insisting that bis secrets should die with him. This self-repression cost him no pangs ; it was natural to him; he habitually acted behind the scenes and hy indirect methods, and he did this not from any spirit of intrigue or other unworthy motive, but because his nature seemed to demand it. He was the soul of truth and honor, frank, ingenuous, much beloved of his friends, serene, companionable, quiet, yet evidently capable of emotions of the very strongest sort, so that he fainted from excitement in speaking upon the Boston Port Bill, and John Adams spoke of him as "the Sum Adams of l'hiladelphia." Perhaps it was this excitability and his con- sciousness of it which made Thomson always avoid the demonstrative part of the great work to which he had laid his hand and which he did 80 thoroughly. This and the untoward circumstances of his childhood may sathice to explain the seeming anomaly in Charles Thomson's character. He was born in Ireland, whence, in 1740, being then eleven years old (born November, 1729, at Maghera, Derry), he, an eller

I am the more inclined to, as the suppression or con- cealment may possibly involve you in embarrassments hereafter, since it is uncertain how many or who may

brother and three sisters, and a sick father crossed the ocean for the Delaware. Ilis mother had died when Charles was very young, and the father died on the voyage and was Imried at sea.

The captain of the vessel seized the children's effects and put them ashore at New Castle, committing Charles to the care of a blacksmith, who proposed binding the boy to his trade. To defeat this, Charles at

Chathomson

once ran away, tound a friend on the road, a lady, a stranger to him, was taken nuder her care, and sent to school to Dr. Francis Allison, at Thun- der Hill, Md. Then and afterwards the lad was a diligent student, and was made usher under Allison when the latter hecame vice-principal of the Philadelphia College. Thomson lodged with David J. Dove, and may have taught in the latter's private school and in the German- town Academy also. To show the habitual cantion of the man, he got a certificate of good character from Dove and his wife both before leaving their house. Hle taught in the Friends' school, in Fourth Street, below Chestnut, becoming principal.

Ilis first public service was as short-hand reporter for the Quakers, in 1757, at the famous Indian council that year, when Tedyuscung gave him the name which stuck to him, emeritus, through life,-Weagh conlan-mo-und. the man who tells the truth. After this Thomson went into business and made money. Watson says he was interested in iron-works at Egg Harbor. As soon as the suspicions of ministerial intention to tax America were awakened Thomson began to correspond with leading men in other colonies. He was intimate with Franklin, trusted in business circles, and must have revealed his qualities as a con- fidential agent very early. Jefferson and he corresponded as early as 1764 ; the New England patriots all knew him, and he was secretary of the New York (Stamp Act) Congress of 1765. He managed all the politi- cal leaders in Philadelphia as easily as jmppets are moved by the hand pulling their wires, He was secretary of the First Continental Congress, perpetual secretary of Congress during and after the war (fourteen years in all), and confidential friend of every leader in the colonies throughout the struggle. The delicacy of his responsible and confidential relations to Congress were enhanced by the fact that he obviously had charge of the secret service of Congress, and that body required to havo spies everywhere, domestic and foreign, and of every grade.

Watson learned from him incidentally, perhaps accidentally, that James Rivington, the Tory printer in New York, was one of these agents, and Mrs. Logan reports that Patience Wright, the wax modeler, was another. The Intter had the means to be very useful. She wasintimate with Franklin, passed for a half-mad woman, went where she pleased, even to Windsor Castle, without leave, where she used to hurst in ab- ruptly, calling the king "George" and the queen " Charlotte," and withal she was astute, shrewd and full of resources. Thomson married,

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be privy to the contest. My enemies take an ungen- erous advantage. They know the delicacy of my situation, and that motives of policy deprive me of the defense I might otherwise make against their insidious attacks. They know I cannot combat their insinuations, however injurious, without disclosing secrets it is of the utmost moment to conceal. But why should I expect to be free from censure, the un- failing lot of an elevated station? Merit and talents which I cannot pretend to rival have ever been subject to it. My heart tells me that it has been my unremitted aim to do the best which circumstances would permit. Yet I may have been very often mistaken in my judgment of the means, and may in many instances deserve the imputation of error."

The secret intrigues within army circles, the violent criticism of partisans in the civil service, the protest of Pennsylvanians against the cantonment of the army, the lasty appointment of a new Board of War, consisting first of Major-General Thomas Mifflin, Colonel Timothy Pickering, and Colonel Robert HI. Harrison, enlarged on the 17th day of November, 1777, by the addition of Mr. Francis Dana and J. B. Smith, and again on the 27th of the same month by the further appointment of General Gates, Joseph Trumbull, and Richard Peters, Gates being chosen chairman, and, as thus constituted. evidently in sympathy with the cabal, these circum- stances promptly induced a correspondence by Wash- ington with Congress,1 which resulted in the appoint-

for his first wife, a daughter of Charles Mather, of Chester County. His two children by her, died in infancy. In 1774 he married Hannah Har- rison, daughter of a Maryland Quaker of fortune, and with her he got the estate of Harriton, in Montgomery County, a large property for a man of Thomson's simple ways. llis wife was a kinswoman of John Dickinson's, and a lineal descendant of Isaac Norris and Governor

RESIDENCE OF CHAS. THOMSON.

Thomas Lloyd. The wedding had just taken place when Thomson was called to act as secretary of Congress. After he was relieved from this place he steadily declined to take any other public position, gave twelve years hard labor to the preparation of a translation of the Septuagint and Greek Testaments, and survived until August Iti, 1824, his mind much de- cayed by age in his last quiet years .- Scharf and Westcott's " Hist. of Phila.," vol. i.

1 Journal of Congress, 1778-79, vol. ix. pp. 21-29.

ment of a committee from that body, consisting of Mr. Francis Dana, General Joseph Reed, Nathan Folsom, Charles Carroll and Gouverneur Morris, to visit the camp at Valley Forge, and who, if not in perfect accord with the condition of public affairs resulting from the campaign in Pennsylvania, were at least willing to hear an impartial statement of facts as presented by the commander-in-chief and those who surrounded him, and report to Congress such suggestions for the future conduct of the army as would insure its preservation for the winter and probable suecess in the proposed operations for the ensuing year, now rendered doubly promising by the friendly offices and assurances of France.

This committee remained in camp for several weeks, and finally drafted a report embodying suggestions generally accredited to the foresight, sagaeity, and wisdom of Washington. Their labor was productive of the best results. They restored whatever want of con- fidence had been felt in the public mind, and hastened the work of preparation for the future by conceding to the commander-in-chief the exercise of those powers originally contemplated by the terms of his commission.

Major-General Nathaniel Greene, was, at the urgent request of Washington, appointed quarter- master-general of the Continental army, a position which he accepted with great reluctance, but to which office he brought a degree of energy and judgment that speedily brought order out of chaos, and substituted plenty in the place of poverty. Under his supervising care supplies were organized by contract and purchase wherever possible, and by methodical impressment when and wherever the preferable mode was impossible or impracticable.

Having the department of supplies now under the direction of an officer in accord with bis plans and purposes (although he was not committed to certain details insisted upon by its chief), Washington turned his attention to filling the place left unoecu- pied by the apostasy of Conway as worthily as he had filled that made vacant by the resignation of Mifflin. Happily the choice of men for the position of inspector-general of the army fell upon Baron Steuben, a Prussian officer of great distinction, hav- ing served seven years in the army and on the staff of Frederick the Great. He was then in his forty- seventh year, and had adopted America for his country. He came highly recommended by Frank- lin, then at Paris, and many distinguished officers in the French and Prussian armies, especially as a dis- ciplinarian. He reached Washington's headquarters on the 5th of February, 1778, and was promptly assigned to the inspector-general's department.

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History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 40

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