USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania in American history > Part 2
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. It was a glorious day."
On the 27th of October, in response to a query from Washington as to whether it would be prudent to attempt to dislodge the enemy, he re- commended that an immediate attack be made, and
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he advanced as reasons for his opinion that the ground was not disadvantageous, that the shipping in the river could assist, that in the event of failure they had a stretch of open country to which to retire, that if no attempt were made the forts on the Delaware must fall, affording the enemy comfortable quarters, and finally that the Americans would be forced from the field or lose more by sickness and desertion in a naked, discontented army than in an action. The subsequent evacuation of Fort Mifflin, with loss of control of the Delaware, and the expe- riences at Valley Forge seemed to justify at least some of his conclusions. Fort Mifflin, on the west bank of the Delaware, had been besieged for six weeks, the British had erected works on Province island, near enough to threaten the fort, when Wayne was ordered with his division and the corps of Mor- gan to "storm the enemy's lines, spike their cannon, and ruin their works." Wayne gladly undertook the difficult and dangerous task, but the day before the effort was to have been made the fort was aban- doned. Another council of war was held Novem- ber 24th and the same question broached. Wayne was decided in his view that the credit of the
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army, the safety of the country, the honor of American arms, the approach of the winter and the depreciation of the currency made it necessary to give battle to the enemy, and he advised that the army march the next morning to the upper end of Germantown. He admitted the hazard and the undoubted loss of life, but believed that the bold course would prove to be the most effective.
His life at Valley Forge, where his division occupied the centre of the outer line, was an un- ceasing struggle to secure recruits and sufficient arms to equip and clothing to cover his soldiers. Nearly all of the deaths and desertions, he says, were due to nakedness and dirt. He did not want rifles, but muskets with bayonets, believing that the mere consciousness of the possession of a bayonet gave a sense of security, and that without being used it was an element of safety. Provisions grew to be scarce and he was sent with five hundred and fifty men to the agricultural regions of New Jersey to collect cattle for the army. On one occasion he sent to the camp one hundred and fifty cattle and thirty horses. With the British, who crossed the
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Delaware from Philadelphia upon a like errand, he, and Count Pulaski at the head of fifty horse, had a combat of some severity in the neighborhood of Haddonfield, and another at Cooper's Ferry. Not only did he succeed in feeding the army, but his energetic movements became the subject of a ribald poem, entitled "The Cow Chase," written by John André, the vivacious adjutant general of the British army, in which to some extent the author foreshad- owed his own unhappy fate, should he fall into the hands of Wayne.
On the return of Wayne to the camp at Valley Forge he, on the 2 1st of April, 1778, again urged upon Washington that "many reasons, in my hum- ble opinion, both political and prudential, point to the expediency of putting the enemy on the defens- ive." He recommended making an effort against Howe or New York, saying, " Whatever part may be assigned to me, I shall always, and at all times, be ready to serve you." Ere long his wish was gratified. The British, fearing a blockade of the Delaware River by the French fleet, were about to evacuate Philadelphia. Again Washington called a council of war. The advice of Wayne was "that
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the whole of the army be put in motion the soon- est possible for some of the ferries on the Delaware above Trent Town, so as to be ready to act as soon as the enemy's movement shall be ascertained," and then, if the North River should prove to be their objective point, "take the first favorable opportunity to make a vigorous and serious attack." Manifestly his earnestness of purpose was having its effect, since this was the course a few days afterward pursued.
At another council of war, held on the 24th of June, Wayne and Cadwalader, the two Pennsyl- vanians alone, supported to some extent by Lafay- ette and Greene, declared in favor of active and aggressive measures. On this occasion Wayne had his way, and two days afterward the two armies were within a few miles of each other and about to come into contact. Washington determined to at- tack the rear guard of the enemy, which was pro- tecting the baggage train, and sent General Charles Lee, with five thousand men, among whom was Wayne, five miles in advance with this purpose in view. Lee ordered Wayne, telling him that his was the post of honor, to lead the advance, and with seven
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hundred men to assail the left rear of the British. Before, however, this movement could be accom- plished, they assumed the aggressive. A charge by Simcoe's Rangers upon Butler's Pennsylvania regi- ment was repulsed, but reinforcements in great numbers came to their assistance. At this time, while Wayne was engaged in a desperate struggle, the heart of Lee failed him, and he marched his men not forward in support, but about face to the rear. His excuse was that the temerity of Wayne had brought upon him "the whole flower of the British Army, Grenadiers, Light Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery, amounting in all to seven thousand men." Washington, meeting Lee in retreat, in an- ger assumed command and ordered Wayne, who to avoid capture had been compelled to follow, to take Craig's Third Pennsylvania, Irvine's Seventh Penn- sylvania, Stewart's Thirteenth Pennsylvania, a Mary- land regiment and a regiment from Virginia and check the pursuit. Holding a position in an or- chard, between two hills near the parsonage of Monmouth, they repelled two determined onsets and gained time for the occupation of the high ground by the forces sent to the front by Washington.
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Finally Colonel Henry Monckton, brother of Lord Galway, after a brief speech appealing to the pride, and calling attention to the brilliant services of the British Guards, led them forward in a bayonet charge, with impetuous fury, against the troops of Wayne. They were unable to withstand the withering fire they encountered and, driven back in confusion, left the dead body of the Colonel on the field. Other efforts were continued for more than an hour, but in vain. The élite of the British army and the ragged Continentals from the huts of Valley Forge had met upon the plains of Monmouth and the fame of the deeds of Anthony Wayne was never- more to fade from the memories of men. "Penn- sylvania showed the road to victory" was the ex- pression of what was probably his keenest gratifi- cation. "I cannot forbear mentioning Brigadier General Wayne, whose conduct and bravery through the whole action deserves particular commendation," was the stately and subdued comment of George Washington. Later a duel with Lee, which these events threatened, was happily averted.
After the exertions of Monmouth there was a long lull in military activities. The British held pos-
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session of New York, and the army of Washington, stretched across New Jersey, kept watch upon their movements. Throughout this period of inaction the difficulties of the continental army in maintaining the numbers of the rank and file, in supplying them pay, arms, clothing and provisions, in arranging the grades of the officers, were serious and so continu- ous as to become chronic. On the 5th of October, 1778, Wayne wrote to Robert Morris: " By the first of January we shall have more Continental troops in the field than any other State in the whole Confed- eracy, but not as many general officers." At this time Pennsylvania had two brigades with the main army, three hundred men with Colonel Butler on the Mohawk, three hundred men with Colonel Brodhead at Pittsburg, and a regiment with Colonel Hartley at Sunbury. The service, according to Wayne, promised nothing "but indigence and want." The pay had become a mere vox et praeterea nihil. The clothier general of the army refused to furnish them with clothing, giving as a reason that, unlike the other states, they had their own state clothier. When his men burned some fences to keep themselves warm, Scammell, the aide to Lord
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Stirling, proceeded to read him a lecture. "In case he (the Major General) is obliged to repeat the orders again, he shall be under the disagreeable necessity of pointing out the Pennsylvania troops in particular," said Scammell in a reflected lordly fash- ion. Wayne, entirely able to hold his own, and ever ready to support his troops, replied: "During the very severe storm from Christmas to New Year's, whilst our people lay without any cover except their old tents, and when the drifting of snow prevented the green wood from taking fire," yes, they burned some rails, but fifty men had first been frost- bitten. The other troops "were either cooped in huts or cantoned in houses. . . . It is not new to the Pennsylvanians to be taken notice of in general orders." It was always his effort to keep them "well and comfortable," and no commander ever had more trustful and devoted followers.
When Dr. Jones sent to him a bear skin, he was delighted. Occasionally his thoughts wandered toward his home. To Polly he sent " A tierce of beer, some rock fish and oysters, with a little good fresh beef," saying, "I would advise you to make immediate use of the fish." Again he wrote to
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her, "I am not a little anxious about the education of our girl and boy. It is full time that Peggy should be put to the dancing school. How does she improve in her writing and reading? Does Isaac take learning freely? Has he become fond of school?"
Though Wayne had long with the greatest measure of success commanded a division, his rank and pay were only those of a brigadier, and he never throughout the Revolution received the advance- ment to which his services were entitled. Skill in securing recognition and compensation is an art in itself often quite apart from those qualities which accomplish great achievements. The man who is really intent upon his work often forgets the reward. And now his superior, St. Clair, that unfortunate general who had surrendered Ticon- deroga, and who for some occult reason appears to have ever been a favorite with those in authority, came to take charge of the Pennsylvania Line. Wayne, after having been promised command of the Light Infantry soon to be organized, and bear- ing with him the written and eager statement of his colonels, Harmar, Stewart and the rest, that his
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recent effort had "riveted the hearts of all ranks more firmly" to him and had rendered his "name more dear to the whole line," returned to Penn- sylvania. His rest was not for long. Washington pondered over the possibilities of a desperate deed of "derring-doe" requiring military intelligence and personal courage of the highest character, and in its consideration in all probability weighed the qualities of every general then in the field with him. One day, June 24, 1779, Wayne was in Philadelphia on his way to greet his family at East- town, when a post rider gave him a dispatch from Washington with the suggestive words: "I request that you join the army as soon as you can." Polly must forego the greeting and be left to her loneli- ness, and it meant a long farewell.
Stony Point, a rugged promontory covered with rock and wood, extending into the Hudson River for half a mile from the western shore line and rising to a height of one hundred and fifty feet, stood "like a solitary sentinel, ever keeping watch and ward over the gateway of the Highlands. Bending around its western base and separating it from the mainland, a marsh sometimes to the depth
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of two feet crept from an entrance in the river to the north to an outlet in the river to the south. An island fortress likened often in its strength and conformation to Gibraltar, it seemed to present in- surmountable obstacles to any attacking force and with quiet and sardonic frown to threaten destruc- tion. Upon the summit the British had erected a series of redoubts and had placed seven or eight dis- connected batteries, while immediately below them an abattis extended the entire length of the crest. Within this fortification were four companies of the Seventeenth Regiment of Infantry, one company of American tories and a detachment of the Royal Ar- tillery. About one-third of the way down the hill from the summit ran a second line of abattis, sup- ported by three redoubts, on which were brass twelve- pound cannon defended by two companies of the Seventeenth Regiment and two companies of Gren- adiers. At the foot of the hill near the morass were five pickets and the British vessels of war, which rode in the river, were able to sweep with their guns the low ground of the approaches. Four brass and four iron cannon, one howitzer and five mortars, amply supplied with ammunition, were at
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the service of the garrison, which consisted of over six hundred of the best disciplined and most trust- worthy troops of the British army," commanded by a capable and gallant officer. At half after eleven o'clock on the night of July 15, 1779, thirteen hundred and fifty men, with bayonets fixed, and likewise "fresh shaved and well pow- dered," were waiting with Anthony Wayne on the farther side of the marsh to storm this formidable fortification. It was a most difficult undertaking, and the entire responsibility for the plan to be pursued, and the time and manner of carrying it out, rested upon Wayne. "So soon as you have fixed your plans and the time of execution, I shall be obliged to you to give me notice," Washington wrote to him on the 10th of July, to which Wayne replied on the 14th, "I shall do myself the honor to enclose you the plan and disposition to-morrow." He determined upon an assault by two columns, one on the right and one on the left, each to consist of one hundred and fifty men with arms unloaded, de- pending solely upon their bayonets, each preceded at the distance of sixty feet by a "forlorn hope,"
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consisting of an officer and twenty men, while a force in the centre were to attract attention by a fire of musketry, but to make only a simulated attack. Never in the whole history of mankind has there occurred a situation which gives more forcibly the impression of absolute solemnity-the silence -the stern resolution of the musket grip-the morass in front, with its hidden uncertainties-the dangers and hopes that lay beyond on the threatening mount, and the deep darkness of the midnight. Wayne made his preparations for death. At eleven o'clock he sent certain roughly drawn papers to his dearest friend. "This will not meet your eye until the writer is no more. . . . I know that friendship will induce you to attend to the education of my little son and daughter. I fear that their mother will not survive this stroke. Do go to her. . . . I am called to sup, but where to breakfast, either within the en- emy's lines in triumph or in the other world," were some of the utterances wrung from a burdened soul. On the way up the mount, just beyond the first abattis, he was struck by a ball which cut a gash two inches in length across his face and head, and felled him senseless to the ground. It was no light
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wound. Long afterward he was weak from the loss of blood which streamed over him. Three weeks later his mental faculties were still benumbed. Six weeks later it was yet unhealed. As soon as he regained consciousness he called aloud : "Lead me forward. . . . Let me die in the fort," but con- tinued to direct the movements with the point of
his spear. In a few moments the words which he had adopted as a signal, "The Fort's our own," rang over the parapet; at two o'clock in the morning Wayne sent a despatch to Washington almost as laconic as the message of Cæsar: "The fort and garrison, with Colonel Johnston, are ours. Our officers and men behaved like men determined to be free;" of the twenty-one men in the " forlorn hope" led by Lieutenant James Gibbons, of Phila- delphia, seventeen had been shot; and a valorous feat of arms, unequaled in American annals, either before or since, ending in brilliant success, had caught the attention of the entire world to hold it forevermore.
At that time the laws of war permitted a gar- rison taken by storm to be put to the sword, and memory recalls more than one British victory in
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that and later wars stained with such cruelty. It is a great glory of Stony Point that no poor wretch cried for mercy in vain, and that all who submitted were saved. As an achievement, more important than the capture of a stronghold and the exhibition of valor and military skill was the fact that it cre- ated confidence and self-respect, and aroused a sense of state and national pride, public virtues as much needed then as they are to-day. The calm Wash- ington in a despatch to Congress said that the con- duct of Wayne "through the whole of this arduous enterprise merits the warmest approbation," and the more impulsive Greene declared that the event would "immortalize General Wayne" as it would do honor to the first general in Europe. Gerard, the French minister wrote: "The most rare quali- ties were found united;" John Jay, "You have nobly reaped laurels in the cause of your country and in the fields of danger and death;" Sharp De- laney, "At a Town Meeting yesterday you had all our hats and hands in repeated acclamation;" Ben- jamin Rush, "Our streets for many days rung with nothing but the name of General Wayne;" Colonel Spotswood, of Virginia, "The greatest stroke that 37737
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has been struck this war;" General Adam Stephen, "You have added dignity to the American arms and acquired immortal renown;" Colonel Sherman, that his name would "be coeval with the annals of American history;" Lafayette, that it was a " Glo- rious affair ;" Steuben, "This gallant action would fix the character of the commanding officer in any part of the world;" General Lee, "I do most sin- cerely declare that your action in the assault on Stony Point is not only the most brilliant in my opinion through the whole course of this war on either side, but that it is one of the most brilliant I am acquainted with in history," and the English commodore, George Collier, that "The rebels had made the attack with a bravery they never before exhibited and they showed at the mo- ment a generosity and clemency which during the course of the rebellion had no parallel." The poet sang :
" Each soldier darts amain And every youth with ardor burns To emulate our Wayne."
The Assembly of Pennsylvania and the Supreme Executive Council passed resolutions thanking Wayne
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and the Pennsylvania Line for "the honor they have reflected on the State to which they belong," and Congress, praising his "brave, prudent and soldier- like conduct," ordered a gold medal to be presented to him, to be made in France under the supervision of Dr. Franklin. In the very nature of things such an event could not occur without producing an effect upon the relations of Wayne to the other offi- cers of the army, in some instances enhancing their esteem and in others, it is to be feared, arousing their envy, and without influencing his personal fortunes. He turned sharply upon Return Jonathan Meigs, of Connecticut, with: "I don't wish to incur any gentleman's displeasure. I put up with no man's insults." Twice within the next six weeks Wash- ington dined with him and, referring to a recent incident in the conduct of military affairs, paid him this high compliment: " I had resolved to attempt the same enterprise, to be executed in the same manner you mention." The minds of the two men had come to be in an entire accord. About the same time he ordered: "One pair of elegant gold epaulets, superfine buff sufficient to face two uniform coats, with hair and silk, four dozen best yellow
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gilt coat buttons, plain and buff color lining suitable to the facing of one coat."
There was an officer in the army holding the high rank of a major general for whom Wayne had long held an unconcealed hostility, and whose con- duct he viewed with suspicion. "I ever entertained the most despicable opinion of his abilities." "He had neither fortitude or personal courage other than what the bowl or glass supplied," were the com- ments of Wayne. At Morristown the officers of the Pennsylvania Line had refused to serve under his command. After this officer, Benedict Arnold, of Connecticut, had in 1780 planned to give pos- session of West Point to the enemy and the complot with Clinton had been discovered, while it was still uncertain how far the treason had extended and whether it might not be successful, Washington or- dered the Pennsylvania Line to the place of danger and gave them charge of that post. The First and Second Brigades marched from Tappan at the in- stant that the order came, leaving their tents stand- ing, without taking time to call in their guards and detachments, and hastened to seize the pass at Smith's White House, where they could dispute the advance
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of the enemy or retire to West Point as the situa- tion demanded. Wayne, with the rest of the Line, taking care to see that no more of the enemy passed up the river, seized the pass at Storms, from which a road in their rear ran to West Point, over which he could move rapidly and send the artillery and baggage. The order was received at one o'clock in the morning. At two they were on the march. It was a dark night, but without a halt they pushed ahead over the mountains "sixteen miles in four hours," and by sunrise were holding the passes. Washington in joyful surprise, ejaculating, "All is safe and I again am happy," went to bed after a long and uneasy watch.
A few months later occurred that émeute which the writers of books have strangely been pleased to call "the revolt of the Pennsylvania Line." In the latter part of 1780 the Line had under arms two thousand and five men, and they constituted, according to Dr. Stillé, as nearly as may be, two-thirds of the entire army. According to an estimate of Washington, they were one-third of his forces, and he said the army was "dwindling into nothing," and that the officers, as well as the
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men, were renouncing the service. Within nine months one hundred and sixty-eight officers, includ- ing, however, only one from Pennsylvania, had re- signed. It is altogether plain that in one way or another, for some reason about which it is unneces- sary to inquire, in the main the troops from the other colonies had returned to their homes.
It was of the utmost importance for the success of the Continental cause that the men then in the service should be retained, even if in doing so the timbers of the ship had to be strained. The men in the Line had been enlisted for "three years, or during the war." There can be but very little doubt as to the meaning of this contract. The only reasonable construction is that they were to re- main at most for the three years, but if the war should end during that period, the Government, hav- ing no longer use for their services, should be at liberty to discharge them. As it happened, the war lasted beyond the three years and it suited the neces- sities of the Government to act upon the assumption that "during the war" meant a time without limit. A large proportion of these men had been enlisted in 1776 and 1777, and therefore their terms of
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service had long expired and they were being held without warrant of law. Moreover, cold weather had come upon them, and in the language of Wayne, "the distressed situation of the soldiers for want of clothing beggars all description." They had no money for their families, and Washington wrote that there had been a "total want of pay for nearly twelve months." No gentle remedy would have served any purpose in such a situation. There arose among them a hero with the plebeian name of William Bowser, but imbued with the spirit that won the War of the Revolution, a sergeant of the Tenth Pennsylvania Regiment. With every proba- bility of being shot to death and covered with ignominy, with the nicest propriety of conduct, with a certain rude eloquence, he confronted An- thony Wayne, George Washington, the Pennsylva- nia Supreme Executive Council, and the Continental Congress. He was absolutely right as to his con- tentions, and musket in hand, he gained his cause by force, over the heads of them all, and brought about a relief from the difficulties that encompassed them. About nine o'clock in the night of the Ist of January, 1781, the Line arose en masse, formed
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