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Chapter 9 - part 4 · History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution

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  Section thirty three of History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American
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  Revolution, Volume one. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are
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  in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox
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  dot org. Read by Tedleinhardt. History of the Rise, Progress and Termination
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  of the American Revolution, Volume one by Mercy Otis Warren, Chapter nine,
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  Part four Congress, by advice of some military characters, precipitately removed to Baltimore
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  in the state of Maryland. The public concern was also heightened at this critical
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  period by the recent capture of General Lee. He had been collecting a number
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  of militia in the neighborhood of Morristown, with a design to fall on the
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  rear of the British Army while in chase of Washington through the Jerseys. It
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  is not why he was thus unguarded, but he incautiously lodged at the little
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  village of Baskinridge, four miles from the troops he had collected, and about
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  twenty from the British Army. Here he was betrayed, surprised, and taken
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  prisoner. Colonel Harcourt of the Light Horse conducted the enterprise with so much address
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  that, with a very small party he without noise, passed all the American
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  guards on his way, surrounded the house, and took possession of his prisoner
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  without the smallest resistance. In the hurry of the business, Lee was not
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  suffered to take either hat or cloak, and thus, in a ruffian like
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  manner was he conducted to the British headquarters. A peculiar triumph was enjoyed by
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  his enemies, and the capture of this single officer they considered his services at
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  that period of the greatest consequence to the American army. In addition to this,
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  he was viewed as a rebel to the Sovereign of Britain in a double
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  sense, both as a deserter from the King's service, in which he had
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  long held an honorable rank, and as an abettor of the American defection and
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  one of the first officers in their army. He was of course confined in
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  the strictest manner and threatened with military execution as a traitor to the king.
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  The Americans at that time had no British prisoners of equal rank, yet they
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  made the most strenuous efforts for his release a Colonel Campbell with five Hessian field
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  officers were soon after offered for the exchange of General Lee. When this was
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  refused, General Washington advertised Sir William Howe that their blood must atone for his
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  life if Lee fell, a sacrifice to the resentment of his enemies. Humanity
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  recoils that the sufferings of individuals who, by the laws of retaliation, are
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  deemed the legal victims of policy. But though the mind of the gentle may
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  be wounded by the necessity habit, in time, too often learns it to
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  acquiesce in the cruel policy of nations. Public emergencies may require the hand of
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  severity to fall heavily on those who are not personally guilty, but compassion prompts
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  and ever urges to milder methods. However, General Lee was not executed nor
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  suddenly released. Colonel Campbell was closely imprisoned and treated with much severity, and
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  a considerable time elapsed before either of them were relieved, except by some mitigation
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  in the manner of Colonel Campbell's confinement, which was carried to an extreme not
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  warranted even to a notorious felon. Note, General Lee was also treated very
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  severely until the defeat of Burgoyne. After this he was permitted to repair to
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  New York on parole, and soon after liberated by an exchange of prisoners.
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  And note, perhaps at no period of the Great Struggle for Independence were the
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  affairs of the United States at so low an ebb as at the present.
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  The footsteps of the British Army and their route through the Jerseys were everywhere marked
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  with the most wanton instances of rapine and bloodshed. Even the sacred repositories of
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  the dead were not unmolested by the sacrilegious hands of the soldiery. Note this
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  usage of the dead is authenticated by the accounts of several gentlemen of respectability near
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  the scene of action. And note while the licentiousness of their officers spread rape,
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  misery, and despair indiscriminately through every village. Thus, while human nature
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  was disgraced and the feelings of benevolence shocked by the perpetration of every crime,
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  when the arms army spared neither age or sex, youth, beauty or innocence,
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  it is observable that the distress of war had fallen principally on that state,
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  which at that time contained a greater proportion of persons attached to the Royal
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  cause than could have been found in any other part of America. But so
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  intermixed and blended were persons, families, and parties of different political opinions,
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  that it was not easy to distinguish, in the wanton riot of victory their
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  friends from their foes, or the Royalists from the Whigs. Even had the
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  Royal army been disposed to discriminate. It was indeed impossible for their foreign auxiliaries
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  to make any distinction among Americans. Though some British officers would gladly have checked
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  the insolence of triumph unbalanced by any principle of religion, honor, or humanity.
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  A neglect of strict discipline prevented the meliar adition of crime and misery,
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  and filled up the measure of censure, which afterwards fell on the commander in
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  chief of the British forces, even from those who wished to give his military
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  operations the most brilliant Caste note c. Sir William Howe's defense of his conduct
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  in his Letters to Administration published in London, and note had General Howe persevered
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  in his pursuit and have crossed the Delaware, he would inevitably have destroyed even
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  the vestige of an American army. The remnant of the old troops drawn into
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  Philadelphia was too small for resistance. The citizens were divided and intimidated. Congress
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  had retreated to Baltimore. The country was dispirited, and Washington himself, ready
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  to despair, had actually consulted some of his officers on the expediency of flying
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  to the back parts of Pennsylvania or even beyond the Allegheny Mountains, to escape
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  the usual fate of unsuccessful rebels, or, as himself expressed it, to
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  save his neck from a halter. Note this was confidentially said to an officer,
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  who reported that the General put his hand to his neck and observed that
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  it did not feel as if made for a halter see Stedman's history. It
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  is probable, if ever General Washington really expressed himself in this manner, it
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  was uttered more from the momentary ebullition of distress than from the serious contemplation of
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  despair. It discovered more a determination to live free than any timidity from sudden
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  dismay. Had General Howe overtaken the American troops and have secured their commander,
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  he would doubtless have been made a victim of severe vengeance. And note thus
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  without an army, without allies, and without resources, the gloom of disappointment
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  overspread not only the brow of the commander in chief, but expanded wide and
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  ruined from every quarter. Lowered on the face of American freedom, Newport and
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  the adjacent islands were taken possession of by a part of the British Army and
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  Navy under the command of Commodore Sir Peter Parker and Sir Henry Clinton. The
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  whole colony of Rhode Island was not able to make the smallest resistance to the
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  seizure of their capital, and to complete the climax of danger which this melancholy
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  winter exhibited the eruptions of the natives in various parts was not the least.
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  Many tribes of those Aborigines, stimulated by their native fierceness, brought up still
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  higher by British influence, and headed by some American desperadoes in the service of
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  Britain, were making the most horrid depredations on the back settlements of some of
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  the southern states. Nor did the affairs of America at the northward where a
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  more favorable aspect. General Carleton had conducted the campaign of this year with the
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  ability of the statesman and the courage of the soldier, And notwithstanding the severity
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  of his general character, he, with a degree of humanity honorable to himself
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  and exemplary to his military associates, had been disposed to commiserate the unfortunate.
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  It has been observed that all who fell into his hands after the death of
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  General Montgomery were treated with lenity and tenderness. He was doubtless sensible that a
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  war enkindled more to satiate a spirit of resentment and pride than to establish the
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  principles of justice, required every palliative to mitigate the odium of the disgraceful design
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  of subduing America by the aid of savages who had hutted for ages in the
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  wilderness beyond the distant lakes. General Carlton, with the most extraordinary vigilance and
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  vigor, had conducted the pursuit of the Americans until Arnold and his party were
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  chased out of the province of Quebec. Nor did he ever lose sight of
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  his object, which was to make himself master of the Hudson and form a
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  junction at Albany with General Howe, whose troops and detached parties were wasting the
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  Middle colonies and cooperating in the same design. By uncommon exertions, Carlton obtained
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  a fleet in the wilderness of such strength and superiority as to destroy the little
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  American squadron on the Lake Champlain, one of the smaller navigable basins in the
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  woods of that astonishing country. The Lakes of America are among the wonders of
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  the world. They are numerous and extensive, deep, and navigable at many
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  hundred miles distance from the ocean, A view of this part of creation is
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  sublime and stone. There are five of those lakes of principal magnitude. The
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  smallest of them, Lake Ontario, is more than two hundred and the largest,
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  Lake Superior, is five hundred leagues in circumference. Note the principle of
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  these inland seas are Lake Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario.
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  The description of these, and the smaller sheets of waters spread over the
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  vast western territory may be found in every geographical work. And note happy might
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  it have been for the Atlantic States had they been contented within these boundaries of
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  nature, and not at an after period have wasted the blood of their citizens
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  in attempting to wrest from the natives a vast extent of territory, which it
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  is very improbable they will be long able to govern, unless a remarkable coincidence
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  of events should give them a commanding influence superior to any European power. The
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  bravery of Arnold was on his retreat equally conspicuous with the outset of his extraordinary
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  undertaking. But notwithstanding his vigilance and the valor of his soldiers, they were
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  reduced to the utmost distress before he blew up the remainder of his fleet,
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  which Carlton had not captured, and run his last ship on shore without acknowledging
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  the superiority of the British flag by the servile signal of striking his colors.
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  Obliged to relinquish every post of advantage, Arnold and the remnant of his troops
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  were driven naked, defenseless, and despondent, from forest to forest, and
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  from lake to lake, until they reached Taekwonderoga. The garrison there had been
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  reinforced by some militia from the Eastern States, but they were in no condition
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  to meet General Carlton, whose advancement they had every reason to expect, with
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  superior numbers and the double advantage of discipline and success, and his exertions aided
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  by tribes of copper colored savages. General Thomas had been sent from Cambridge in
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  the spring one thousand, seven hundred and seventy six with a detachment of the
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  Continental Army to endeavor, in conjunction with the Eastern Militia, to retrieve the
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  wretched state of affairs in Canada. He was a man of cool judgment,
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  possessed of courage the result of principle rather than bravery, the impulse of passion.
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  He was respected by the citizens, beloved by the soldiers, and well
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  qualified by the firmness of his mind and the strength of his constitution to face
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  the dangers of a campaign in the wilderness. But unfortunately for him, he
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  was deputed to the Northern Command to oppose the conjoined forces of the Native barbarians
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  and their British allies, at a time when the remains of the American Army
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  were dismayed by defeat, worn out by fatigue, and in addition to their
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  distresses, a pestilential disorder than fatal to New Englanders, had spread through the
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  camp. The smallpox, by the ill policy of the country, had been
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  so long kept from their doors that there was scarce a man among them who
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  was not more afraid of an attack from this kind of pestilence than the fury
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  of the sword. But no caution could prevent the rapidity of the contagion.
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  It pervaded the whole army, and proved fatal to most of the new raised
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  troops. The character of the military officer who dies in his bed, however,
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  meritorious, is seldom crowned by the cot of fame which follows the hero
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  who perishes in the field. Thus, this good man qualified to reap the
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  fairest laurels in a day of battle, was immediately on his arrival at the
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  scene of action, cut down by the hand of sickness, and his memory
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  almost extinguished by a succession of new characters and events that crowded for attention.
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  By the death of General Thomas and the reduced state of the Americans, they
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  were far from being in any preparation for the reception of General Carleton, whose
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  arrival they momently expected. They had nothing to hope and immediate surrender to mercy
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  was their only resource. On this they had determined. When, to their
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  surprise and joy, they were informed that all further pursuit was relinquished and that
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  the Canadians and British troops had precipitately retreated. Thus the remnant of the broken
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  Continental Army was left at full liberty to escape in the best manner they could,
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  from other impending dangers, from the nature of the grounds, and from
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  the neighborhood of the savages. From their weak, sickly and reduced state.
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  Their retreat was extremely difficult, but in scattered parties they reached Crown Point in
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  a very feeble condition. After this series of successful efforts, all further thoughts
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  of the reduction in conquest of Canada were for the present laid aside. General
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  Carleton had repaired to Quebec. General Phillips with a considerable force, made winter
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  quarters at Montreal, and General Burgoyne took passage for England. Both these officers
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  had been very active in aid of Carlton to the campaign of one thousand,
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  seven hundred and seventy six, the defeat of the Americans in Canada and the
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  advantages gained by the British arms in the Jerseys, and indeed, for some
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  months in every other quarter, gave to the Royal cause an air of triumph.
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  The brilliant hopes formed from these circumstances by the calculators of events for the
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  ensuing spring, led the ministry and the army, the Nation, and their
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  sovereign to flatter themselves that the completion of the war was at no great distance,
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  and that only one more campaign would be necessary for the entire subjugation of
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  America. The vicissitudes of fortune that hourly cloud or brighten all human affairs,
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  soon convinced them that this was but the triumph of a day. The new
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  year opened in a reversive view. A spirited movement of General Washington at this
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  important crisis had a most happy effect. A single incident gave a different face
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  to the affairs of the colonies in a shorter time than could have been imagined
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  after the ruinous appearance of everything at the close of the campaign. On the
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  evening of the twenty fifth of December, General Washington, in a most severe
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  season, crossed the Delaware with a part of his army, then reduced to
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  less than two thousand men in the whole. They very unexpectedly landed near Trenton.
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  Colonel Rawl, an officer of decided bravery, commanded a detachment of twelve
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  hundred head stationed there, where they lay in perfect security. It was near
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  morning before they were alarmed. The surprise was complete the resistance. Small Raul
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  was mortally wounded, and his whole corps surrendered prisoners of war. After the
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  fatigue the hazards and the success of the night, General Washington, with his
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  party and his prisoners, consisting of the three regiments of ral Lothburg and Kniphausen,
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  recrossed the river before eight in the morning with little or no loss.
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  End Section thirty three