1776

 

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“The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army…. We have, therefore, resolved to conquer or die.” 

George Washington in a proclamation to his troops

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ONE NEW ENGLAND CUSTOM, meant to advance courtship, was called “bundling.” A young man and young woman, “fully clothed, lay down in bed, crawled under the blankets and exchanged confidences and, insofar as possible, endearments.” (300/193) 

Lt. Francis Anbury, an English soldier, recalled his close call with bundling during the war. When bad weather delayed his travel he found lodging for the night at the home of a family living in a log cabin. But what to do? There were only two beds. 

The wife agreed that she and her husband would sleep in one, “and our Jemima and you shall sleep in that.” 

Anbury explained: 

“Oh la! Mr. Ensign, you won’t be the first man our Jemima has bundled with, will it Jemima?” when little Jemima, who, by the bye, was a very pretty, black-eyed girl, of about sixteen or seventeen, archly reply, “No, father, not by many, but it will be with the first Britisher.” (The name they gave to Englishmen). In this dilemma, what could I do? The smiling invitation of pretty Jemima – the eye, the lip, the – Lord ha’ mercy, where am I going to? But wherever I may be going now, I did not go to bundle with her – in the same room with her father and mother, my kind host and hostess too! I thought of that – I thought of more besides – to struggle with the passions of nature; to clasp Jemima in my arms – to – do what? you’ll ask – why, to do – nothing! for if amid all these temptations, the lovely Jemima had melted into kindness, she had been outcast from rule – treated with contempt, abused by violence, and left perhaps to perish! No, Jemima; I could have endured all this to have been blessed with you, but it was too vast a sacrifice, when you were to be the victim! Suppose how great the test of virtue must, or how cold the American constitution, when this unaccountable custom is in hospitable repute, and perpetual practice. 

 

Around this time, clergymen began to take disapproving notice of the practice in sermons. What had once been considered a harmless way of courting was “stigmatized as a sin. 

The construction of larger and better heated houses in New England weakened the case for bundling. (300/193-195)

 

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January 10: In Common Sense Thomas Paine denounces the idea that the Colonies should not break from the control of the Mother Country. “This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of a monster.”

 

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February: Eight U.S. warships are assembled at Philadelphia. When Esek Hopkins, the commander, comes aboard, Lt. John Paul Jones hoists a yellow silk flag “on which was the device of a pine tree and a coiled rattlesnake and the motto, ‘Don’t tread on me.’” 

McMaster lays out the mismatch we faced at sea: a fleet of 24 vessels for our side, mounting 422 guns. 

For the British: 112 warships, carrying 3,714 guns, and 78 of these vessels stationed near American coasts. (97/177)

 

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February 7: The first volume of Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is published. As Gibbon puts it, history is “little more than the register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind.”

 

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ALICE MORSE EARLE reports that in the meeting house at Dorchester on Sunday, “the boys were so turbulent, the spirit of independence was so rife and riotous, that six men had to be appointed to keep order, and they had authority to ‘give proper discipline’ if necessary.” (226/246)

 

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“A noble train of artillery.” 

March 5: British forces holding Boston awake to the fact that Dorchester Heights, bare at sunset the day before, are now fortified, and those fortified lines filled with heavy artillery. Their positions in the city are now untenable. How this occurred, Lancaster and Plumb explain – with the greatest credit going to the former book seller, Henry Knox, all 280 pounds of the man. He had taken it upon himself weeks earlier to go to Fort Ticonderoga and retrieve the artillery pieces captured by Ethan Allen and his men. 

Then it had been his job to transport them south, through “a nearly roadless wilderness,” to Boston. 

At Ticonderoga, Knox had valuable help from General Philip Schuyler, the area commander, but soon he was on his own. Teamsters and oxen had to be hired, sledges rented or, in some cases, built on the spot. Once underway, the long column sought out what roads there were. Day by slow day, through heavy snows, through maddening thaws, the Ticonderoga guns lurched east, across the Taconics, along the very eaves of the Berkshire Hills into Great Barrington in Massachusetts. From dawn till sunset, day in and day out, hoofs churned and runners hissed over the snow until, at Farmingham, Knox was able to write to the commander in chief that 59 pieces of ordinance of all calibers, large and small – “a noble train of artillery” – were ready to be turned over to the American army. It had been a stupendous feat, and it is largely a forgotten one. When the last sledge came to a halt at its destination, the fate of Boston, its garrison, and its Loyalists was settled.

 

 

Lord Howe exclaimed, of the Americans, “these fellows have done more work in one night than I could make my army do in three months.” 

At first, he prepared for an attack that likely would have proved even more costly, and with even less chance of success, than his attack on Bunker Hill the previous summer. But a monster storm, described by some locals as a “Hurrycane,” ruined his plan. Instead, he loaded his troops, and most of the Tory families of Boston, aboard his fleet and sailed for Halifax. When American troops finally entered the city, they were surprised to find “great caches of Royal stores, most oddly abandoned.” (48/117)

Knox and his men bring the guns to Boston.

 

*

 

March 9: Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations is published.

 

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Saint Patrick’s Day: 120 ships carry 9,000 British soldiers, 1,200 dependents, and 1,100 Loyalists out of Boston. On the deck of one ship, the merchant George Erving tells other Loyalists, “Gentlemen, not one of you will ever see that place again.”

 

* 

March 18: General Washington enters the city of Boston.

 

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“Remember the Ladies.” 

March 31: Abigail Adams writes to her husband: 

I long to hear that you have declared an independency – and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.

 

That your Sex are Naturally Tyrannical is a Truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute, but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of Master for the more tender and endearing one of Friend. Why then, not put it out of the power of the vicious and the Lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity.

John replied: 

We are obliged to go fair and softly, and, in practice, you know we are the subjects. We have only the name of masters, and rather than give up this, which would completely subject us to the despotism of the petticoat, I hope General Washington and all our brave heroes would fight. (45/67)

 

Abigail Adams.

* 

Van Loon comments on Jefferson: 

Jefferson, in contrast with Washington, had read widely. Few authors had made such a deep impression upon him as John Locke, the contemporary of Spinoza and one of the earliest champions in England of the new and startling principle than man was entitled to his own convictions. Where Locke first got this notion we do not know. But during the latter half of the seventeenth century he’d been an exile in Holland, just a century after the people of that country had declared their independence from Spain in a document which had stated that “all sovereigns have been appointed by God that they may rule their subjects as shepherds who watch over their flocks,” and furthermore, that “the subjects have not been created for the benefit of the king, but the king has been created for the benefit of the subjects.” (124/199)

 

 

King George III and his generals hoped to gain support from various Native American tribes. Van Loon is dismissive, and unaware of his own racism, when he writes: 

As for their Indian friends, they did not prove of great value. Already the French had discovered that these poor savages were of very little use in actual battle. As long as everything went well, they murdered and plundered like lions, but as soon as there was the slightest sign of a panic, they disappeared and were swallowed up by the woods. (124/205) 

 

“It has been said (with more or less truth) that the Gods are always on the side of the largest cannon,” Van Loon continues. (124/205) 

The poor Hessians, on the other hand, engaged in this war at seven pounds, four shillings, four pence, half penny (which went into the pocketbook of their illustrious master), had absolutely nothing to gain but an occasional pot of ale and enough food to keep them alive.

 

And so they said to themselves, “Warum sollen wir uns da anstrengen?” [Why should we make an effort there?] And they went into action with one eye upon the enemy and the other upon the nearest exit.

 

Let those who never spent a couple of uncomfortable years under the shell-fire of a quarrel that did not interest him throw the first hand-grenade.

 

As far as I am concerned, those Hessians were very wise men. (124/206)

 

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May: French and Spanish ambassadors agree to set up a dummy trading company, which will sell military supplies to the Americans. It is estimated that in the next two years, 80% of the gunpowder used by American forces is provided by this dummy company. 

Still, Americans remain dubious: 

It is highly doubtful if any member of the Congress looked upon developments that might come from these rumored negotiations as being in the nature of a helping hand stretched out to further American ideals. They knew that both powers had heavy colonial holdings themselves and hence could scarcely view with complacency the sight of any revolt against royalty. Nor would those powers be anxious to aid in setting up an independent nation that was largely Protestant. The idea was to nibble away at England while the chance presented itself and take care of any awkward by-products later. (48/136-137)

 

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BRUCE CATTON says of this war: 

[The Americans] knew very little about European methods of warfare (and despite all the tales about frontier riflemen fighting Indian-fashion from behind trees, most of the great Revolutionary battles were fought according to the European style) and they were poorly equipped, usually ill-fed, and almost constantly badly clothed; but fighting against the world’s greatest power they managed not only to hold off disaster but usually to give a little better than they got. (48/9) 

 

This was not true, of course, in the battles around New York City, in the summer of 1776.

 

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June 28: A British attack on Charleston, South Carolina, from land and sea, proves a miserable failure. An infantry attack along the shore is shot to pieces. The enemy fleet takes a pounding from the guns of Fort Sullivan, which protects the city. 

Lancaster and Plumb explain: 

The ships fared even worse…They ran aground, fouled one another’s ranges, and blundered into the wrong channels. When they were able to fire, the spongy palmetto logs of Fort Sullivan absorbed the heavy shot easily. Inside the blind, sweltering casements of the fort, raw gunners faced the awesome swoop and plunge of the attacking ships as coolly as the men on the crest of Breed’s Hill had met the weight of Howes’ battalions. They served the guns steadily, refused to panic when powder ran low, and kept up unhurried fire until fresh supplies were rushed over from the mainland. Few shots were wasted. Out in the slow-moving procession of ships, hulls showed ragged gaps; masts splintered and crashed overboard. Decks were swept by cannonballs and small arms fire; gun crews and their officers were struck down at their posts. “No slaughterhouse could present so bad a sight with blood and entrails lying about, as did our ship,” an officer of H.M.S. Bristol wrote. As for Admiral Sir Peter Parker, facing the stinging fire alongside his lowest ratings, he suffered the supreme humiliation of a splinter-wound that, said an eyewitness, “ruined his Britches … quite torn off, his backside laid bare, his thigh and knee wounded.” (48/130-131)

 

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SIX PRINCES of Germany furnished 29,867 soldiers for the war in America, called generically, “Hessians.” Some 12,250 never returned, including 5,000 who deserted. (97/163)

Hessian grenadier. 

 

* 

John Dickinson spoke against the Declaration of Independence – and Lancaster and Plumb argue that his predictions of disaster should have proven correct. 

However, “No man in his senses could have guessed the actual course of the years to come, but history is seldom sensible in the routes that it follows.” (48/145) 

July 1: A vote on the question of declaring independence fails.

 

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July 2: Absentees from the previous session arrive. “Staunch Caesar Rodney had ridden eighty miles through a rain-lashed night and took his place, still mud spattered, beside his colleague, Thomas McKean, to set Delaware on the affirmative side.” 

By the close of the day’s session, the ayes “had carried the question, despite rifts within individual delegations.” (48/146)

 

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July 4: We know that in the Declaration of Independence, George III was singled out for criticism, with Jefferson writing, “A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” 

After reading Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws, the king also laid out a strong anti-slavery position: 

“The pretexts used by the Spaniards for enslaving the New World were extremely curious,” George notes; “the propagation of the Christian religion was the first reason, the next was the [Indigenous] Americans differing from them in colour, manners and customs, all of which are too absurd to take the trouble of refuting.” As for the European practice of enslaving Africans, he wrote, “the very reasons urged for it will be perhaps sufficient to make us hold such practice in execration.”  

 

By comparison, 41 of 56 signers of the Declaration, including Jefferson, of course, owned slaves. 

(The blogger has covered the Declaration itself in detail, in a separate post, “Do You Know What the Declaration of Independence Means?” explaining how he and his students addressed the subject.)

NOTE TO TEACHERS: I expected my students to memorize this portion of the Declaration and know the answers to those six questions. 

I took this lesson very seriously. If a student failed to memorize, I invited them to come in at lunch and try again or catch me before or after school. I missed parts of many lunches, myself, but I could get all but a handful of students to get this passage by heart.

We also discussed Sally Hemings.

 

Smithsonian magazine also notes that even after Washington defeated his armies once and for all, George III could still refer to him as “the greatest character of the age.” 

When John Adams visited the Court of St. James in June 1785, George III told him, “I will be very frank with you. I was the last to consent to the separation; but the separation having been made, and having become inevitable, I have always said, and I say now, that I would be the first to meet the friendship of the United States as an independent power.” 

According to Smithsonian, “leading medical experts have come to agree over the past decade that George III almost surely suffered from bipolar disorder.”

 

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August 1: Fresh troops, 2,500 English, 8,000 Hessian, arrive in New York. “The effective British force was now about 25,000.” (2/76)

 

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“You are freemen fighting for the blessings of liberty.” 

August 22: The British and Hessians land 8,000 men on Long Island, equal in number to the American force there. Washington issues an appeal to his men: 

The enemy have now landed on Long Island, and the hour is fast approaching on which the honor and success of this army and the safety of our bleeding country depend. Remember, officers and soldiers, that you are freemen fighting for the blessings of liberty – that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men. (109/53) 

 

This mention, by a slave owner, of the curse of slavery is ironic.  

Washington’s army – which lacks naval support – is now in a difficult position. Washington has divided his forces, placing some on Long Island, some on Manhattan Island, and others hold the Jersey shore.

 

NOTE TO TEACHERS: In discussing this fight, my students could always see the fatal blunder Washington made. The British fleet could cut off any retreat; and the divided American forces could not aid each other. 

I could never draw worth beans.

 

One night enemy forces marched through Jamaica Pass, east of the end of American lines. Only a handful of our soldiers guarded the way, and they were surprised and captured. The next morning, Washington’s troops found the enemy behind them, and when British and Hessian forces attacked, the American line quickly collapsed. 

[General] John Sullivan’s entire left wing was crushed and broken, rolled South in shattering defeat.

 

There was a signal gun from the lowlands by the British center and left, and Hessian jägers and grenadiers, British line companies, and kilted Scots roared into action. Everything gave way. Riflemen, on whose deadly aimed fire so many hopes had been built, found that their clumsy weapons took far too long to reload. Lacking bayonets, they were engulfed by yelling, stabbing swarms of Germans and British. American gunners abandoned their pieces in the face of scarlet and blue lines that poured toward them, bayonets aslant.

 

Sometime during the morning of the twenty-sixth Washington came over to Brooklyn, but there was nothing that he or any other commander could have done. And there was consolation for him in only two points. Adverse winds still kept the British fleet out of the East River. And down at the American far right where Lord Stirling commanded [Smallwood’s Marylanders and Haslet’s Delawares] were standing firm, taking the heavy assaults of fur-capped British grenadiers and kilted 42nd Black Watch. An English officer in one of the attacking waves particularly remembered the Delawares “their ranks full, their uniforms smart… their courage high.” 

 

Disaster beckoned; but Stirling ordered most of him men to make an orderly retreat, holding back Major Mordecai Gist and “some 200 immortal Marylanders.” Lord Stirling then led them in a stunning counterattack. 

Highlander, Grenadier, and Hessian recoiled from this unexpected onset. Their lines wavered, seemed about to break, then fresh troops raced up just as Stirling launched his sixth assault, and the Maryland survivors broke up into small groups, trying to fight their way back to their own lines. Of the 200, only Mordecai Gist and nine others succeeded. 

 

Stirling himself was captured and surrendered his sword to a Hessian general. (48/160) 

At noon, fighting died out, and the British commander, Lord Howe, sat down to write a “glittering report” to his superiors in London. But the Americans still held the Brooklyn Heights. Rather than attack, as he had at Breed’s Hill, he decided to dig in and advance his lines until they were closer to the American defenses. 

Within the American lines there was chaos and deep, bitter disillusionment as men wandered about trying to find their outfits. It was clear to the dullest that they had no chance in the field unless American firepower could smash bayonet charges before the attackers could close. There was nothing else with which to counter that weapon. There were few bayonets in the American lines, and fewer men who knew how to use them. Yet some semblance of order crept back into the works, for George Washington was there – outwardly calm, imperturbable, and confident, whatever doubts may have gnawed at him in his first big test as commander in chief. Units were sorted out, guards posted, and by late afternoon parties of riflemen crept out a good hundred rods from the works to fire on enemy posts.

 

Washington still clung to his belief that Brooklyn could be held, and in a gesture that invited disaster, shifted more units from Manhattan, apparently forgetting that a turn of the wind could bring the British fleet between him and his base. On August 28 the weather broke in a howling, rain-lashing nor’easter, but Howe’s diggers kept on, drawing closer to the American lines. Appreciating the situation more clearly as hours went by, the Virginian concluded that after all he could not hold Brooklyn. With that conclusion the American army was placed in the greatest danger it had yet known. If the British received the slightest hint of evacuation, slaughter and mass capture must result. (48/160-161)

 

NOTE TO TEACHERS: At this point, I always stressed the idea that Washington was inexperienced – and that only luck here may have kept him from going down in history as a failure.

 

Fortunately, the wind continued to keep the British fleet away. Washington could also call on the soldiers of John Glover, who knew how to handle every kind of sailing vessel and small boat. All night, Glover’s troops ferried others to safety. At dusk, with blinding rain offering them cover, Glover’s own men prepared to make their escape. Hour after hour, with little food, they had rowed back and forth in the dark, making the two-mile round trip. One of the last to leave the island: General Washington himself. 

(We will meet Glover and his men again, at the Battle of Trenton.)

 

NOTE TO TEACHERS: It was interesting to ask students why it might have been important for Washington to leave last? I always felt that it was worthwhile to discuss the attributes that made for good leadership – including in my students’ own lives.

 

Finally, luck played a key role again. The contrary winds died down, and the British fleet might have sailed up the East River and cut off the American retreat. But a thick fog blanketed the water. 

Joseph White, a young soldier in Washington’s army (he had re-enlisted by this time; see: 1775) admitted that the Americans had to “make haste” in evacuating the city. 

 I was just recovering from a dangerous sickness, went on board a row galley and sailed up the north river, 20 miles. Sailing up, I saw heaps of peaches, of the best kind, lying under the trees; I got the capt. to send a boat ashore and get some, which he did; I eat so many, was bad as ever, and went into a barn for the hospital. The owner of which was a quaker; after some time, went into his house to buy some milk. The quaker said, we can’t sell thee any. Then I told them I would milk the cows; the woman consented to let me have a pint every morning, by paying her three coppers. My health gained fast.

 

One morning I sat [set] off for camp, but was so weak, had to set down every few rods, and by sunset reached Fort Washington, after travaling about 10 miles.

 

I now got to my old company, capt. Perkins told me, that I looked so weak, was not able to fight; that they expected to be attacked every moment. I had better go to Fort Lee, to capt. Allen, so I went.

 

We encamped at Fort Lee a long time, and saw Fort Washington taken. The General seemed in an agony when he saw the fort surrended. 

(White appears to be referring to George Washington.)

 

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WASHINGTON is eventually forced to abandon New York City, marching his troops north, with British forces pursuing in desultory fashion. Overconfidence – the bane of all militaries. 

McMaster writes that the American army was badly divided, and one force, under General Putnam was in danger of being cut off. 

When [Lord William] Howe, marching across Manhattan island, reached Murray Hill, Mrs. Lindley Murray sent a servant to invite him to luncheon. The [British and Hessian] army was halted, and Mrs. Murray entertained Howe and his officers for two hours. It was this delay that enabled Putnam to escape. (97/170)

 

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“Long Faces” and disgrace. 

September 16: Kips Bay landing: 

As soon as the British landed, the militia fled without firing once. Washington and his aides, attempting to rally the retreating militia, were left in such an exposed position that they had to flee ignominiously before the advancing redcoats. When the news of the militia’s “disgraceful and dastardly” behavior reached Monroe and the Virginians as they stood in battle formation, they furiously denounced those who had “shamefully abandoned their posts without exchanging fire.” 

 

That day, the “the sound of British bugles rang out from the opposing heights. The call was not a military one, but the famous hunting call – the chase has ended and the fox is dead.” 

This served to cap the army’s disgrace. (24/9) 

According to Harry Ammon, deserters during the Revolution were dubbed “Long Faces.”

 

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PLUMB AND LANCASTER also tell the story of Gen. Putnam’s narrow escape – without mentioning Mrs. Murray. 

They do note that Washington decided to play upon the enemy’s overconfidence. Much of Manhattan Island was then wooded, and two parallel columns, one American, one British and Hessian, had raced north to new lines on Harlem Heights. Fortunately, Putnam’s force was screened by a line of hills, and, beaten and discouraged, entered the main Continental Army line. 

With nightfall, the British halted just beyond McGowan’s. Morning, thought Howe, would be time enough for a good strong push against the Heights and the shattered, uncertain men who held them. Once more, he was presenting his enemies with the priceless commodity of time.

 

Up on the dark Heights a beaten force lay on its arms, apparently ready to fall to pieces at the lightest touch. Yet there was in that mass a hard, solid core, and its hardest, solidest part was represented by a tall, cloaked Virginian who sat with his subordinates, fully aware that the weight of the all-important decision – what to do next – rested on his shoulders alone. He had seen his troops break and panic that very morning. Would they be any more reliable now? George Washington made his decision.

 

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September 17: 

Before dawn Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Knowlton of Connecticut was on the move. A veteran of several battles, cool and courageous, Knowlton was a “favorite of his superiors, idol of his soldiers.” 

Down into the Hollow Way he led about 100 Connecticut Rangers, all picked men, and on the south slope they collided with light infantry. Knowlton’s men stood firm, exchanging fire with the enemy until the sudden skirl of bagpipes brought on masses of the Black Watch. Then, carefully and in excellent order, Knowlton broke off and made a leisurely retreat.

 

Not unnaturally, this move was interpreted by the British as flight, and a general forward movement was almost contemptuously begun. Immediately Washington saw an opportunity to draw the enemy’s light infantry down into the Hollow Way. 

 

Soldiers from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Virginia moved forward to meet the enemy. 

There was immediate contact. Jeering scarlet lines poured into the valley, were checked, and, incredibly to both sides, faltered. The Yankees were attacking, and in the open, not from behind walls! … [More American troops were committed to the fight.] Then, in a magnificent gesture, Washington committed the very militiamen who had fled so ingloriously just the day before at Kips Bay, saw them stand almost toe-to-toe with the very units which had slashed so hard over on Long Island.

 

Suddenly the British began to retreat! Through a field of buckwheat on the site of Barnard College, through an orchard went kilt and bearskin, with New Englanders and Marylanders and Virginians in pursuit. Through fringes of smoke to the south men could see the last of the British and Hessian reserves being hurried forward at the double. The little reconnaissance was developing into a general engagement which was more than Washington dared risk. Wisely and coolly he ordered a retirement which, said young Tench Tilghman of Pennsylvania, was greeted derisively, for “the pursuit of a flying enemy was so new a scene that it was with difficulty that our men could be brought to retire … they gave a Hurra! and left the field in good order.”

 

This startling American achievement was a national one, not sectional. Troops from many states had been committed to battle and there was nothing to choose between them. Washington’s force had been transformed by him and by its own efforts from a mob into an army, and every man on the Heights knew it. Joseph Reed, sensing this, wrote, “you can hardly conceive the change it has made. … The men … feel a confidence which before they had quite lost.” Such confidence, of course, could evaporate, as Reed realized when he added, “I hope the effects will be lasting.” (48/166-168)

 

NOTE TO TEACHERS: Here, again, I thought it was useful to talk about the leadership shown by Washington.

 

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“But one life to lose for my country.” 

September 22: From Coe, in Makers of the Nation: 

Nathan Hale was born on June 6th, 1755, in Coventry, Connecticut… [he] was admitted to Yale College, where he was an earnest student. He delighted his classmates by his success in athletics, for he broke the college record for jumping.

 

…His favorite motto was “A man ought never to lose a minute.”

 

In September 1773, Nathan Hale was graduated from Yale College with the highest honors. He taught school in Connecticut for the next year and a half. But when the stirring news of the battles of Lexington and Concord reached him, Hale could not remain at his desk. He was marching to Boston the following day with two Connecticut regiments. He took part in the siege of Boston and was made a captain in January 1776. 

 

Later, General Washington needed a spy to give him information about the British in New York; Hale volunteered when no other officer would. 

Hale was to enter the British lines as a schoolmaster who was disgusted with the American cause. He laid aside his American uniform and dressed himself in a plain brown suit, with a broad-brimmed, round hat. He carried his diploma, to serve as a kind of passport.

 

[Once inside enemy lines…] For the next six days he was busy indeed. He walked about from morning to night, taking mental notes of all that he saw. He talked and joked with sentries and officers, until his genial manners won their hearts and they grew confidential. Incredible was the amount of material garnered by Hale. His candle burned during many hours of the night as he toiled to record, with the utmost exactness, what he had learned through the day.

 

[Waiting for a boat to leave the city, he goes into a tavern.] It was too early for the boat, and so, grown bolder through success, he turned into the Tory tavern kept by Mother Chichester. Alas! Why did not his good angel warn him away?

 

In the tavern, several redcoats sat at breakfast. These Hale joined, in his usual happy way, and a brisk conversation ensued. The young man did not notice that one guest studied him carefully for one long minute, and then slipped from the room. 

Nathan Hale is captured.

 

Hale had been recognized as a person who had been gathering information before, and suspicions were aroused. He was soon arrested, tried, and condemned as a spy. “Led to his execution in an orchard, before a few gathered to watch, he was asked if he had any last words, at age 21. ‘I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.’”

 

* 

THE HISTORIAN, Benjamin Andrews describes the same incident: Hale “was soon caught, and soon swung from an apple tree in Colonel Rutger’s orchard, a corpse, Bible and religious ministrations denied him, his letters to his mother and sister destroyed, [and with] women standing by and sobbing, he met his fate without a tremor.”

 

“I only regret,” comes his voice from yon rude scaffold, “that I have but one life to give for my country.” (2/144)

 

* 

November 16/20: Through the treason of Adjutant Demont, who had deserted to Lord Percy with complete information of their weakness, Forts Washington and Lee were captured, November 16 and 20, with the loss of 150 killed and wounded, and 2,634 prisoners, besides valuable stores, small arms, and forty-three pieces of artillery.”

 

“Charles Lee, with a considerable portion of the army, persistently refused to cross the Hudson.” (2/78)

 

* 

YOUNG Joseph White and the rest of Washington’s soldiers are forced to retreat again, this time in haste. 

White explains: 

…early one morning an express arrived, screaming “turn out! turn out! we are all surrounded, leave every thing but your blankets – you must fight your way through, or be prisoners.” We were on the march in about 10 minutes, they let us march by them, leaving all the camp equipage.

 

As soon as we marched by them they followed us through the Jersey, to the river Delaware; here we crossed – after 2 or 3 weeks march. – The privations and sufferings we endured, is beyond description – no tent to cover us at night – exposed to cold and rains day and night – no food of any kind but a little raw flour.

 

After crossing the river, we were put into the back part of a tavern; the tavern-keeper refused to take rebel money, as he called it. I went to Gen. Putnam and told him that he had every thing we wanted, but he will not take paper money, he calls it rebel money. You go and tell him, from me, that if he refuses to take our money, take what you want, without any pay – I went and told the man what the General said. Your yankee Gen. dare not give such orders, said he. I placed two men at the cellar door, as centries; let nobody whatever go down, I said. I called for a light, and two men to go down cellar with me. – We found it full of good things, a large pile of cheeses, hams of bacon, a large tub of honey, barrels of cider, and 1 do. marked cider-royal, which was very strong; also, all kinds of spirit. The owner went to the Gen. to complain. The sergeant told me, said the Gen. that you refused to take paper money. So I did, said he, I do not like your rebel money. The Gen. flew round like a top, he called for a file of men; a corporal and four men came – take this tory rascal to the main guard house.

 

I sent a ham of bacon, one large cheese, and a bucket full of cider-royal, to general Putnam.

 

* 

“These are the times that try men’s souls.” 

December 18: Halleck writes, 

In the latter part of 1776 Washington wrote, “If every nerve is not strained to recruit the new army with all possible expedition, I think the game is pretty nearly up.” In those gloomy days, sharing the privations of the army, Thomas Paine wrote the first number of an irregularly issued periodical, known as the Crisis, beginning:

 

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” (30/67-68)

 

* 

December 20: General Washington writes another gloomy letter, this to John Hancock and Congress. 

“I rather think the design of General Howe is to possess himself of Philadelphia this winter, if possible; and in truth I do not see what is to prevent him, as ten days will put an end to the existence of our army.” (109/57)

 

* 

Christmas: Once again, Lord Howe has given Washington a gift of time. He settles down in New York City for the winter, placing outposts at Princeton and Trenton. The Delaware River almost freezes over. Many American soldiers have already gone home. But on the American side, forty-foot-long Durham boats were being readied by John Glover’s Marblehead troops. Others, many in ragged uniforms, bent “into gale-driven sleet as they made for the river and the waiting boats, their course “tinged here and there with blood from the feet of men who wore broken shoes – or no shoes, at all. 

“It will be a terrible night for the soldiers,” wrote an officer, “but I have not heard a man complain.”

 

* 

“Country clowns.” 

December 26: In the dark, Glover’s men continued to ferry troops across the river, fending off large chunks of floating ice. By 4 a.m., the Americans are across the river – but still nine miles from their objective: Trenton, where about a thousand Hessian soldiers are slowly recovering from Christmas celebrations. 

“There was no smoking or talking or halting or straggling – surprise was essential on the road that led to sleeping Trenton,” Lancaster and Plumb explain. 

Soaked muskets became useless, but Washington ordered: “Tell General Sullivan to use the bayonet. I am resolved to take Trenton.” And for once bayonets were available. Ice formed on the roads. Men fell in a clatter of equipment, were prized to their feet, went stumbling on. Overhead the eastern sky began to pale. The columns broke into what a soldier later called a “long trot.”

 

The 100-odd scattered houses of Trenton lay silent under the storm, and ice glinted on picket fences, orchards, and the hulking stone barracks built to house Royal troops during the old French wars. A few of Colonel Rall’s command were beginning to moan as they awakened to face thundering post-Christmas hangovers. Outposts were weak and unready. 

 

Around 7:30 a.m. a Hessian outpost saw movement, and heard the first shots of battle, but American forces were soon striking the Hessians’ position from several directions. (48/175-176)

 

NOTE TO TEACHERS: The following is from a reading I prepared for my students on the American Revolution. 

Washington suffered setback after setback. Most of his men lost hope and many of his officers and members of Congress doubted him. British confidence, by contrast, was high as the year ended. One British officer described Washington’s army as “almost naked, dying of cold, without blankets and very ill supplied with provisions.”

 

Colonel Johann Rall, who led Hessian forces, labeled the America soldiers “country clowns” and decided he had nothing to fear from such men. Besides, his forces at Trenton were protected by the wide, ice-choked Delaware River. He spent Christmas night in 1776 playing cards and drinking with fellow officers and went to bed late on the morning of December 26. There were reports of American movements but the Hessians laughed them all away. 

 

My story continued: 

Perhaps we should not blame them. Washington’s men had, after all, done the impossible. In the darkness they rowed across an ice-filled river. Sleet blew in their faces and cold winds sliced through tattered uniforms. In some places they had to walk across ice the last hundred yards, and it proved impossible to get most of their big guns across. Then they marched nine miles, in weather so terrible two men froze to death. By morning on December 26, American forces were in position. Without warning, General Washington’s men came charging out of the snow, like ice-coated ghosts. The sound of cannon fire roused the sleepy Hessian leader. Rall stumbled outside to rally his troops. One story has him in his long underwear, waving his sword, when the Americans shot him down. Taken completely by surprise, 1,000 Hessians were killed, wounded, or captured, along with their silk battle flags and six brass cannon. The fight itself cost Washington three wounded. One was a future president, Lieutenant James Monroe. (See: January 3, 1777.)

 

* 

LT. MONROE helped lead a charge at Trenton that drove back the Hessians and led to capture of several field pieces. Monroe was badly wounded and had to be carried from the field. Fortunately, a doctor managed to “‘take up an artery’ severed by the bullet which entered his shoulder. Without this immediate medical assistance Monroe would have bled to death on the field.” For his gallantry, Monroe was promoted to the rank of captain. (24/13-14) 

Among the other young aides serving with the army were John Marshall, Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr. Monroe’s friendship with Lafayette and other French volunteers broadened his worldview. 

Monroe no longer thought of the revolution in the narrow terms of a family quarrel between George III and his American subjects. He now viewed the conflict – and this was a widely shared attitude – as the first step in a worldwide struggle to liberate mankind from the baneful effects of despotism. He now had a sense of mission. (24/19)

 

* 

A “BLUESTOCKING” was a woman having literary or intellectual interests.

 

* 

JOSEPH WHITE would never forget the scenes of battle he witnessed at Trenton. It was by far the biggest fight he had taken part in. In a memoir he wrote in 1833, he described what happened. 

On the afternoon of the 25th of December 1776, our whole army after marching several miles up the river Delaware, in a violent snow storm, crossed it, in order to attack a body of Hessians, posted at Trenton, under the command of Col. Rhol, who was killed in the battle. At day light, their out guard, posted about three or four miles off from their main body, turned out and gave us a fire. Our advanced guard opened from right to left, we gave them four or five cannisters of shot, following them to their main body, and displayed our columns.

 

The 3d shot we fired broke the axle-tree of the piece, – we stood there some time idle, they firing upon us. Col. [Henry] Knox rode up and said, My brave lads, go up and take those two held pieces sword in hand. – There is a party going, you must go & join them. Capt. A. said Sergeant W. you heard what the Col. said, – you must take the whole of those that belonged to that piece, and join them. This party was commanded by Capt. Washington and Lieut. Munroe, our late President of the U. States, both of which were wounded. The party inclined to the right. I hallowed as loud as I could scream, to the men to run for their lives right up to the pieces. I was the first that reach them. They had all left it, except one man tending vent – run you dog, cried I, holding my sword over his head, he looked up and saw it, then run. We put in a cannister of shot, (they had put in the cartridge before they left it,) and fired. The battle ceased.

 

I took a walk over the field of battle, and my blood chill’d to see such horror and distress, blood mingling together – the dying groans, and “garments rolled in blood.” The sight was too much to bear; I left it soon, and in returning I saw a field officer laying dead on the ground and his sword by him, I took it up and pulling the sheathe out of the belt, I carried it of. It was an elegant sword, and I wore it all the time I staid in the army, and part of the way home. At Hartford I met with a young officer, I sold to him for 8 dollars

 

Col. Knox told us to leave that piece with the broken axle-tree. This field piece was called the best in the regiment. I was determined to get it off. I hired 4 of our men and one of them had been a mate of a vessel; he contrived it and off we moved. The rear guard came on with a whole regiment. The Col. came to me and said, you had better leave that cannon, I will not take charge of it, said he. I told him I rather ran the resque [risk] of being taken, than to leave now, we had got so far. They marched on and left us. We kept marching on; here comes the enemy’s light horse, said they. I looked told them they were nothing but a party of old quakers; they had handkerchiefs tyed over their hats, for there had been a snow storm all the day.

 

Col. Knox rode up to me, and said, Sergeant what piece is that? I told him the piece that he ordered to be left, I wanted the victory complete. You are a good fellew, said he, I will remember you, and they happened to be all the Generals, and they rode on.

 

After getting back to the place where we crossed, I being weary, laid down upon the snow and took a knap; the heat of my body melted the snow, and I sunk down to the ground. …

 

This victory [at Trenton] raised the drooping spirits of the American army, and string anew every nerve for our Liberty and Independence.

The Hessians are caught completely by surprise.

* 

PLUMB and Lancaster explain the impact of the battle on both the men of the army and the struggling young nation: 

News of the Trenton victory ran through the army and the country like a bolt of electricity. It had been a real offensive, not a counterattack like the Hollow Way, and had been won largely by the bayonet, a weapon which the Americans were not supposed to understand – or even possess. …

 

Had Washington been able to keep his Trenton men as a nucleus about which to build an army for the rest of the war, he could have presented a formidable threat to the British, on land at least. But the commander in chief was never to have a veteran army. Days were flicking off the calendar, bringing mass expiration of enlistments nearer. (48/178)