USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania, colonial and federal : a history, 1608-1903, Volume Two > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
55
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
road near White Marsh Church, and Washington at Penny- packer's mill.
On October 13, the Assembly at Lancaster established a Coun- cil of Safety, consisting of the members of the Supreme Executive Council and John Bayard, Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, Jonathan B. Smith, David Rittenhouse, Joseph Gardner, Robert Whitehill, Christopher Marshall, James Smith of Yorktown, Jacob Arndt, Curtis Grubb, James Cannon, and William Henry of Lancaster, with power to punish even capitally in a summary manner, and to take at their appraisement any necessaries for the army. This body on October 21, ordained that the personal estate of all inhabitants of the Commonwealth who had joined or should thereafter join the British army, or had resorted to any city or place in its possession, had car- ried or should thereafter carry provisions Betsy Ross House or intelligence to it, should be seized by commissioners appointed for that pur- In which it is said the first "Stars and Stripes" was de- signed and made pose, the perishable goods sold, the other effects liable to fall into the enemy's hands removed or disposed of, and the money and other goods subjected to future disposition by the legislature.
On November 7, it was ordained in view of the impracticabil- ity of the old common law proceedings against "engrossing," that any person who should buy up more bar-iron, leather, salt, wheat, cattle, or other merchandise or victuals than proper for his own need and supply should for the first offence, forfeit the same; for the second offence forfeit and be imprisoned three months, and for the third offence stand in the pillory and forfeit all his other goods. This was not to apply to millers purchasing wheat, graz- iers purchasing lean cattle, or others purchasing goods for the
56
Revolutionary Campaigns
1
purposes of their trade and occupation ; but such dealers could not sell the same goods unmanufactured or unimproved by art. For fear that a high price for whiskey would raise the price of bread corn, only licensed sutlers could receive more than 8s. 6d. Penn- sylvania currency for a gallon. The enemy being shut up in Philadelphia, the regular election for the Assembly was held in the rest of Pennsylvania. The new Assembly met the Supreme Executive Council and re-elected Wharton as President and Bryan as Vice-President on November 21, and the Council of Safety was abolished, after an existence of about seven weeks, on December 6th. On the 10th, the Assembly elected as delegates in Congress for the ensuing year Dr. Franklin, Robert Morris, Daniel Roberdeau, Jonathan Bayard Smith, James Smith of York- town, William Clinghan, and Joseph Reed.
On October 19, the main body of the British left Germantown, and encamped behind the line of redoubts in the Northern Lib- erties. With this line on the north and another on the south Philadelphia was a walled town from river to river. Although Billingsport in New Jersey had been taken, the Americans still obstructed the passage of the river to the men-of-war commanded by General Howe's brother, Admiral Lord Howe. Christopher Greene of Rhode Island commanded Fort Mercer at Red Bank, New Jersey, and Samuel Smith of Maryland, Fort Mifflin on Mud Island on the western side of the Delaware. Fort Mifflin sustained a bombardment on the 13th. Red Bank on October 2I repulsed an attack led by Count Donop, in which he was mortally wounded. A few days later General McDougal was sent by Washington to attack about 1,500 of the British at Gray's Ferry, while Sullivan and Greene were to make a feint down the Ger- mantown Road. The advance party of Greene's division went as far as Three Mile Run. Sullivan and Greene waited between Germantown and the city for two hours after daybreak for the signal that McDougal had begun his attack, and then marched back to Whitemarsh ; the enemy had called in the party at Gray's
57
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
Ferry and McDougal had been obliged to return. The magazine on the British ship Augusta blew up on the 23d. The English forced the evacuation of Fort Mifflin on November 15, by sending to its rear without guns an East India ship, which they had so cut down as to draw little water, and for which they sent the guns on a raft after her. The English raised some of the chevaux-de- frise sunk in the river, forced a crossing from Chester, and completed the opening of the river by driving the Americans from Red Bank. Upon the evacuation, the American galleys went up along the Jersey shore to Bristol; such armed vessels as were deemed unable to pass east of Windmill Island were set on fire by order of the officers. On December 4, General Howe led out his army at 10 o'clock at night to attack Washington at White Marsh. The next day, General James Irvine at the head of some Pennsylvania militia was wounded and taken prisoner. On the 7th there was an engagement at Edge Hill, in which the British suffered most. On the 8th the British army retired, attempting no great maneuvre until the following summer, except the forag- ing expedition on which Howe led 7,000 men on December 22 by way of Darby, and which returned in about a week with some hay and 37 prisoners. The American army, half clothed, half starved, with bleeding feet, went to Valley Forge, beginning on the 19th an encampment for the winter.
Congress on November 7 made Mifflin a member of the new Board of War. The gloom over America after the loss of Phila- delphia was such as to make people lose all .confidence in their General, and when the brilliant victory-of Gates at Saratoga came to brighten the prospect, it was natural to suggest that Gates was inore competent. Dr. Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence, is believed to have been the author of letters to this effect. Pennsylvanians were clamorous for the retaking of Philadelphia. General Conway had written, "Heaven has been determined to save your country or a weak general and bad coun- sellors would have ruined it." The words reached Washington's
58
.
Revolutionary Campaigns
ears, but Conway refused to apologize, and told Mifflin of his interview with the Commander-in-Chief. Mifflin was temporary head of the Board of War, but Gates became its President on November 27th, and Mifflin declared to Gates that Conway's letter was a "collection of just sentiments." On Mifflin's recom- mendation, Congress, in which there was always a faction against Washington, appointed Conway Inspector-General, and referred him to the Board of War, independent of Washington, for the regulations to be introduced. The internment of the army at Valley Forge called forth the remonstrances of the Continental Congress and of the Supreme Executive Council and the As- sembly of Pennsylvania. Washington, in reply, says Bancroft, laid "deserved blame" on Mifflin for neglect of duty as Quarter- master, and pointed out the distressed condition of the troops. Congress in January appointed Gates, Mifflin, and Pickering of the Board of War to join a committee from Congress for consult- ing with Washington at headquarters upon a complete reform in the administration of the army. Bancroft says that those who had cavilled at Washington, being unable to shake the confidence of the people, wished their words benevolently interpreted or for- gotten, and Gates and Mifflin asked to be excused from serving on the committee.
Mifflin was made a Major-General in February, 1778, and the Quartermaster-General's duties were intrusted to General Greene on the 2d of March. When, however, Mifflin requested leave to join the army, Congress desired Washington to make inquiry into his conduct, and if the distresses of the army were attributable to him or to his inferiors, to order a court-martial. Mifflin, never obtaining an examination, offered his resignation, but Congress refused to accept it, and, notwithstanding the state of his health, he served all through the war. Congress, which seems always to have trusted him, placed in his hands a million dollars to settle the claims incurred during his administration of the Quartermaster-General's department, and in January. 1780,
59
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
appointed him member of a board to devise means for retrenching expenditure.
Galloway had accompanied the expedition against Philadel- phia. After it was taken he was appointed Superintendent of the Police of the City and Suburbs, of the Port, and of the Prohibited Articles. Thus he was for about five months of the British occu- pation the head of the civil government, and he was consulted on the business of almost all the departments of the army. Offering to raise a regiment of Provincial light horse, he obtained authority to raise a small troop. He found the recruits, and properly dis- ciplined them. He also gathered a company of Bucks county refugees, who served without pay; and with these two bodies, he carried on various small military enterprises against the Amer- icans. By act of March 6, 1778, the Assembly of Pennsylvania at- tainted the following persons of high treason unless they should appear by April 20 and stand trial, and provided for the sale of their estates, viz. : Joseph Galloway, John Allen, Andrew Allen, William Allen, James Rankin of York county, Rev. Jacob Duché, who had made the prayer at the opening of the first Continental Congress and since had been chaplain to Congress, but had after- wards prayed for the King, Gilbert Hicks of Bucks county, Sam- uel Shoemaker, a wealthy Quaker alderman, son of the Shoe- maker of Penn's Council, John Potts of Philadelphia county, Na- thaniel Vernon, once sheriff of Chester, Christian Fouts, formerly lieutenant-colonel in the Lancaster militia, Reynold Keen of Berks, and John Biddle of Berks, because they were adhering to and as- sisting the British army and remaining with it in Philadelphia. It would be interesting to know how they could have found an opportunity to surrender themselves before any judge on April 20. Galloway's estate was worth, according to his testimony be- fore the Parliamentary committee, at least £40,000 sterling. His house on the southeast corner of Sixth and High Streets in Phila- delphia was appropriated by the State of Pennsylvania as a resi- dence for the President of the Supreme Executive Council, but
.
60
Revolutionary Campaigns
was afterwards sold to Robert Morris. By virtue of a power conferred in the aforesaid act of Assembly upon the Supreme Ex- ecutive Council, that body issued a proclamation on May 8 and another two days before the British evacuated Philadelphia, com- manding a great number of persons who had adhered to and aided the enemy by joining the army in that city, among them the old Indian trader George Croghan, to surrender themselves by a cer- tain time to some justice of the Supreme Court or justice of the peace, and stand trial for treason, on pain of being attainted.
While Washington's army was shivering at Valley Forge, Wayne on the alert for partisan warfare in the lower part of New Jersey, St. Clair to secure supplies in the neighborhood of Chester and Wilmington, Franklin was achieving the independence of the United States by securing the assistance of France.
To local historians or society chroniclers we will refer the reader for a description of the festival called the meschianza, given by the British officers in Philadelphia on the 18th of May. In the imitation of a mediaval tournament, the unfortunate André and other knights of the Blended Rose or the Burning Mountain contended in honor of the pretty daughters of the fashionable coterie. General Howe was about to return to England, and be succeeded by Sir Henry Clinton. On the next day, Lafayette with 2,500 men and eight cannon crossed the Schuylkill to Barren Hill. Sending Grant with 5,300 to take position in his rear, Howe marched with 5,700 under Clinton and Knyphausen to overwhelm this important part of the American army. Lafayette escaped by Matson's Ford. Four days later, May 24, Howe em- barked. On June 6, three British commissioners to effect peace, the Earl of Carlisle, William Ewen, and George Johnston, arrived in Philadelphia. The British army of 17,000 men, accompanied by Tory refugees, evacuated Philadelphia on June 17. Benedict Arnold, detailed by Washington, took possession of the city. Occupying during a part of his stay a handsome country seat (now in the Park), he lived extravagantly, and married Margaret,
61
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
daughter of Edward Shippen, one of Governor Penn's councillors, afterwards Chief Justice of the State.
Thomas Wharton Jr., President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, died at Lancaster on May 23. The funeral was the next Sunday, attended by military, the councillors, and the Assembly. The body was interred in the Evangelical Trinity Church of that town. On June 26, the Council, with Vice-President Bryan in the chair, resumed meeting in Philadel- phia, and in a few days discharged Edward Shippen, Provost Rev. Dr. Smith, and others from their parole.
After Mifflin, and on a par with St. Clair, the most important generals from Pennsylvania at this time were Wayne and Cad- walader. In education they were the inferiors of Mifflin and St. Clair, and about the equals of each other, both having studied under Provost Smith, but not graduated from the College. We do not know that either had "smelt powder" before the Revolu- tion : otherwise Wayne's career, surveyor. farmer, assemblyman, vestryman, had been about the same as Washington's, Washing- ton being older and his wife wealthy. Cadwalader's family were somewhat more important in Pennsylvania than Washington's in Virginia, where in disregard of Washington's ability, Byrd had been talked of in 1759 as the successor of Forbes. Wayne, des- tined to become memorable for the taking of Stony Point in 1779, and to close his life in command of the army of the United States after a victory of transcending importance over the Indians, was in 1778, or had been, among those out of patience with Washing- ton, while on the other hand Cadwalader remained the latter's great admirer. In the spring of this year, in answer to a letter, General Washington alludes with pleasure to the hope of seeing General Cadwalader in camp again, adding, "We want your aid exceedingly, and the public perhaps at no time since the com- mencement of the war would be more benefited by your advice and assistance than at the present moment and throughout all this campaign which must be important and critical." The British
62
Revolutionary Campaigns
army on evacuating Philadelphia moved towards New York. Washington crossed the Delaware. At a council of war, Chief Justice Marshall says, of the seventeen American Generals, Wayne and Cadwalader were the only two who urged an attack, although Lafayette and Greene seemed to favor it, while General Washing- ton was inclined to it. Washington ordered Arnold, then at Philadelphia, with a body of Continental troops and as many of the militia as could be collected in the city and in the country ad- joining, to advance in the rear of the enemy, with the hope that General Cadwalader would be prevailed upon to take command. At a second meeting of the council of general officers, finding that he was supported by those in whom he felt confidence, Washing- ton determined upon the measure which resulted on June 28, 1778, in the battle of Monmouth, in which both Wayne and Cad- walader were actively engaged. Certain remarks upon General Conway's behavior at the battle of Germantown brought a chal- lenge from General Conway to Cadwalader, and a duel was fought, which private affair had a greater effect upon American history than many a skirmish between brigades, for it ended "Conway's Cabal." Conway was severely wounded, and, believ- ing himself to be mortally so, repented, and expressed to General Washington his grief, adding, "My career will soon be over, therefore justice and truth prompt me to declare my last senti- ments. May you long enjoy the love, veneration, and esteem of these States whose liberties you have asserted by your virtues."
It was natural that the Six Nations were ranged in the Revo- lutionary War on the same side as Sir William Johnson's son and William Penn's grandson and the Quakers, and on a different side from the Scotch-Irish and the Connecticut settlers and the French. The British government offered a reward for the scalps of Americans. The whole of Pennsylvania beyond the Alle- ghanies then became subject to raids by the savages, accompanied, urged on, or quietly aided by English officers and colonists op-
63
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
posed to independence. Troops were sent to protect Pittsburgh from the Indians who could be controlled from Detroit : but mean- while Sakayenguaraghton, the Seneca king, determined to destroy the Wyoming settlement, and, summoning his numerous follow- ers, took down the Susquehanna to the mouth of the Lackawanna Colonel John Butler, Superintendent of the Six Nations, with a
Corpse House, Lititz
Photo by J. F. Sachse
detachment of Sir John Johnson's Tory regiment called the Royal Greens. For a few days a force of over 1,000 savages lay con- cealed. On June 30, 1778, the Wintermoot family peaceably surrendered their fort near the head of the valley. On the same day eight of the seventeen men dwelling in Fort Jenkins were at- tacked when returning from work, two killed and scalped, others taken prisoners. On July 2, the fort was surrendered. Zebulon Butler, Colonel of a Connecticut regiment, Lazarus Stewart, now
64
Revolutionary Campaigns
Lieutenant-Colonel under that colony, and other residents of the tract claimed by Connecticut, gathered at Forty Fort. They on July 3, decided to march out against the enemy, who allowed them to proceed far enough to be attacked on the flank by the Indians. Dennison's order to Whittlesey to change the position of the exposed division was mistaken for an order to retreat. A panic ensued. Those who were not killed outright were tortured to death; 227 scalps were taken and afterwards paid for by the British at $10 each. Among the details of this massacre carried on in the night were the circles formed by the Indians around fires with the prisoners stripped naked running amuck, or toma- hawked by a squaw, supposed to have been a queen among the savages at Tioga called Hester. The fort capitulated the next day, when the women and children were spared. All buildings far and wide, 1,000 houses, as well as forts, blockhouses, mills, were set on fire, and from a region thoroughly devastated the husbandless and fatherless made their way, some sent before the battle, others starting when they knew the extent of their loss, across the mountains to the Lehigh or down the Susquehanna. On the 8th the Tories and Indians returned to their homes for the time being. Communicating terror to the inhabitants down the river, and followed by the population of Northumberland county, where depredations had been committed on the West Branch, refugees came as far as Paxton, where on the 12th, William Maclay reported them "absolutely naked." The militia gathered at Northumberland and Sunbury. Below, the banks of the river were lined with people, who as far as possible had carried with them their effects. General McIntosh sent 340 men destined for Pittsburgh under Colonel Brodhead to the Susquehanna, and they proceeded to Briar creek, Penn's Valley, and Muncy. Congress agreed that Colonel Thomas Hartley should proceed from Phila- delphia to Sunbury with all of his regiment except the detachment in New Jersey, which should join Colonel Kowatz and his troop- ers at Easton. The Council of Pennsylvania ordered militia to
2-5
65
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
Sunbury, Easton, and Standing Stone. Hartley took command at Sunbury, and furnishing guards, the people of Northumber- land county were induced to return and gather their harvest. Brodhead proceeded to Pittsburgh, and thence beyond the State.
Hartley, having a frontier from Wyoming to Allegheny to protect with only a few regular soldiers, determined to destroy the nearest towns of the enemy, and led about 200 rank and file from Samuel Wallis's at Muncy on September 21. The route, through swamps or rocks, over mountains and twenty times across the Lycoming river, was mostly by the Susquehanna path, pur- sued amid heavy rains. On the 26th the advance party, nineteen strong, fired at an equal number of Indians, killing the leader, and putting the rest to flight, but, unfortunately, causing the alarm to be given to those against whom the expedition was aimed : a few miles further they found where 70 warriors had slept the preceding night, and whence they had turned back. A deserter, too, had warned the Indians, as was learned when the expedition, reaching Sheshecununk, took 15 prisoners. Then a hurried ad- vance, driving Indians on, was made to Tioga, and the town was burnt, and another prisoner taken. Butler, the Tory, had been there with 300 men, mostly in green uniform, a few hours before. but, as it was ascertained that a force 500 strong was fortifying itself at Chemung, only twelve miles away, Hartley was obliged to retreat, retracing his steps to Sheshecununk and then, crossing the North Branch, to Wyalusing. There, with whiskey and flour exhausted, they spent the night of the 28th, and devoted the next morning to killing and cooking beef. Those who marched home, 70 having left in canoes, were attacked in the narrows below Wyalusing three times, the third time in great force, but suc- ceeded in defending themselves with a loss of only four killed and wounded. At Wyoming, three men going out to look for pota- toes were scalped. Hartley, lest those who attacked him were in that neighborhood, left half of his detachment as a garrison there. Returning to Sunbury, and the term of his militiamen expiring,
66
Revolutionary Campaigns
he appealed to Congress and the Council for troops. In Novem- ber he went to the relief of Wyoming, which had been invested by the Tories and Indians while destroying all the settlements on the North East Branch as far as Nescopeck. His advance seems to have cleared the country of the enemy for the time.
In September, 1778, Abraham Carlisle of the City of Philadel- phia, carpenter, and John Roberts of Lower Meron, then in the county of Philadelphia, miller, were convicted of treason to the State of Pennsylvania, not for bearing arms, for they were Qua- kers, not for betraying secrets or trusts, for they had never taken as far as we know any part in the Revolutionary movement, but the one for acting as keeper of one of the gates which Howe had set up when he established his entrenchments to enclose the city, and the other for some service as a guide perhaps to foraging parties. They were sentenced to be hung. To make an example of them was not called for, as it was not likely that the British would ever again by coming to Philadelphia tempt any one to commit such offenses. Upon the evacuation, instead of going with the British, they had remained, and accepted the situation, and, as it were, trusted to the magnanimity of the restored Amer- icans. As both men had borne good characters, were past middle age,-Carlisle had a wife and children, Roberts was nearly sixty and had a wife and nine children,-petitions were sent to the Ex- ecutive Council for the pardon or at least the reprieve of both, signed by ministers of the Gospel in the city, patriots, as well as others from various parts of the State, ten of the grand jury, and the two judges who heard the cases, and separate petitions for each respectively from all of Carlisle's jurors and ten of Roberts's, and the neighbors, relatives, beneficiaries of kindness, etc., bore with the petitions as to both as many and as illustrious signatures as any paper in our local history. Such an expression of public sentiment would have influenced a body composed of Philadel- phians. But it was an age when men were hung for forging paper money, of which there was an instance three years before,
67
4
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
and in the midst of these appeals the Council, on October 30, per- haps aiming to get money for public use, was issuing a proclama- tion against a number of traitors, including Andrew Elliott, son of Lord Minto of Scotland, and afterwards British Governor of New York, requiring them to surrender themselves on December
Cartoon of Revolutionary War Times
It represents English subjects milking and de- horning a cow-the American Colonies. Repro- duced especially for this work from a wood cut bv Benjamin Chandlee, in possession of D. E. Brinton
15 ensuing. The councillors had no predilection for Quakers, and four could not be induced to vote for mercy. So on Novem- ber 4, the two men suffered death.
We turn with some comfort from that unnecessary cruelty to the message of the same Council to the Assembly a few days later recommending a law to manumit all infant negroes and to forbid the importation of slaves, so that without interfering with those then in bondage, the number of whom had been much reduced by
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.