ET. 44.] RETREAT TO NEW YORK-THE ENEMY ON LONG ISLAND. 269 mer posts, and remained at them until called | ned by three vagabonds, who had lingered beoff to cross the ferry. "Whoever has seen hind to plunder. troops in a similar situation," writes General Heath," or duly contemplates the human heart in such trials, will know how to appreciate the conduct of these brave men on this occasion." The fog which prevailed all this time, seemed almost providential. While it hung over Long Island, and concealed the movements of the Americans, the atmosphere was clear on the New York side of the river. The adverse wind, too, died away, the river became so smooth that the row-boats could be laden almost to the gunwale; and a favoring breeze sprang up for the sail-boats. The whole embarkation of troops, artillery, ammunition, provisions, cattle, horses, and carts, was happily effected, and by daybreak the greater part had safely reached the city, thanks to the aid of Glover's Marblehead men. Scarce any thing was abandoned to the enemy, excepting a few heavy pieces of artillery. At a proper time, Mifflin, with his covering party, left the lines, and effected a silent retreat to the ferry. Washington, though repeatedly entreated, refused to enter a boat until all the troops were embarked; and crossed the river with the last. This extraordinary retreat, which, in its silence and celerity, equalled the midnight fortifying of Bunker's Hill, was one of the most signal achievements of the war, and redounded greatly to the reputation of Washington, who, we are told, for forty-eight hours preceding the safe extricating of his army from their perilous situation, scarce closed his eyes, and was the greater part of the time on horseback. Many, however, who considered the variety of risks and dangers which surrounded the camp, and the apparently fortuitous circumstances which averted them all, were disposed to attribute the safe retreat of the patriot army to a peculiar Providence. CHAPTER XXXIII. THE enemy had now possession of Long Island. British and Hessian troops garrisoned the works at Brooklyn, or were distributed at Bushwick, Newtown, Hell Gate, and Flushing. Admiral Howe came up with the main body of the fleet, and anchored close to Governor's Island, within cannon-shot of the city. A Long Island tradition tells how the British camp became aware of the march which had been stolen upon it.* Near the ferry resided "Our situation is truly distressing," writes a Mrs. Rapelye, whose husband, suspected of Washington to the President of Congress, on favoring the enemy, had been removed to the the 2d of September. "The check our detachinterior of New Jersey. On seeing the embark- ment sustained on the 27th ultimo, bas dispirited ation of the first detachment, she, out of loyalty too great a proportion of our troops, and filled or revenge, sent off a black servant to inform their minds with apprehension and despair. the first British officer he could find, of what The militia, instead of calling forth their utmost was going on. The negro succeeded in passing efforts to a brave and manly opposition in order the American sentinels, but arrived at a Hessian to repair our losses, are dismayed, intractable, outpost, where he could not make himself un- and impatient to return. Great numbers of derstood, and was put under guard as a suspi- them have gone off; in some instances almost cious person. There he was kept until day- by whole regiments, by half ones, and by combreak, when an officer visiting the post, exam-panies, at a time. With the deepined him, and was astounded by his story. est concern, I am obliged to confess my want An alarm was given, the troops were called to of confidence in the generality of the troops. arms; Captain Montressor, aide-de-camp of Our number of men at present fit for General Howe, followed by a handful of men, duty is under twenty thousand. I have ordered climbed cautiously over the crest of the works, General Mercer to send the men intended for and found them deserted. Advanced parties the flying camp to this place, about a thousand were hurried down to the ferry. The fog had in number, and to try with the militia, if praccleared away, sufficiently for them to see the ticable, to make a diversion upon Staten Island. rear boats of the retreating army half way Till of late, I had no doubt in my own mind of across the river. One boat, still within mus- defending this place; nor should I have yet, ket-shot, was compelled to return; it was man- if the men would do their duty, but this I despair of. *Hist. Long Island, p. 258. * * * * * "If we should be obliged to abandon the 270 PROPOSED ABANDONMENT OF NEW YORK. [1776 of it to any other than her own inhabitants. This stubborn and spirited resolution prevailed over the order of their commander, and the New Yorkers continue snugly in possession of that place." * town, ought it to stand as winter quarters for | ever should induce them to intrust the defence the enemy? They would derive great conveniences from it, on the one hand, and much property would be destroyed, on the other. It is an important question, but will admit of but little time for deliberation. At present, I dare say the enemy mean to preserve it if they can. If Congress, therefore, should resolve upon the destruction of it, the resolution should be a profound secret, as the knowledge will make a capital change in their plans." Colonel Reed, writing on the same day to his wife, says, "I have only time to say that I am alive and well; as to spirits, but middling. * * My country will, I trust, yet be free, whatever may be our fate who are cooped up, or are in danger of so being, on this tongue of land, where we ought never to have been." * We turn to cite letters of the very same date from British officers on Long Island, full of rumors and surmises. "I have just heard," writes an English field-officer, "there has been a most dreadful fray in the town of New York. The New Englauders insisted on setting the town on fire, and retreating. This was opposed by the New Yorkers, who were joined by the Pennsylvanians, and a battle has been the consequence, in which many have lost their lives. By the steps our general is taking, I imagine he will effectually cut off their retreat at King's Bridge, by which the island of New York is joined to the continent." An English officer of the guards, writing from camp on the same day, varies the rumor. The Pennsylvanians, according to his version, joined with the New Englanders in the project to set fire to the town; both had a battle with the New Yorkers on the subject, and then withdrew themselves from the city-which, "with other favorable circumstances," gave the latter writer a lively "hope that this distressful business would soon be brought to a happy issue." Another letter gives a different version. "In the night of the 2d instant, three persons escaped from the city in a canoe, and informed our general that Mr. Washington had ordered three battalions of New York Provincials to leave New York, and that they should be replaced by an equal number of Connecticut troops; but the former, assured that the Connecticutians would burn and destroy all the houses, peremptorily refused to give up their city, declaring that no cause of exigency what *Force's Am. Archives, 5th Series, ii. 123. "Matters go on swimmingly," writes another officer. "I don't doubt the next news we send you, is, that New York is ours, though in ashes, for the rebel troops have vowed to put it in flames if the tory troops get over." An American officer writes to an absent New Yorker in a different tone. "I fear we shall evacuate your poor city. The very thought gives me the horrors!" Still he indulges a vague hope of succor from General Lee, who was returning, all glorious, from his successes at the South. "General Lee," writes he, "is hourly expected, as if from heaven,-with a legion of flaming swordsmen." It was, however, what Lee himself would have termed a mere brutum fulmen. These letters show the state of feeling in the opposite camps, at this watchful moment, when matters seemed hurrying to a crisis. On the night of Monday (Sept. 2d), a forty gun ship, taking advantage of a favorable wind and tide, passed between Governor's Island and Long Island, swept unharmed by the batteries which opened upon her, and anchored in Turtle Bay, above the city. In the morning, Washington despatched Major Crane of the artillery, with two twelve pounders and a howitzer to annoy her from the New York shore. They hulled her several times, and obliged her to take shelter behind Blackwell's Island. Several other ships-of-war, with transports and storeships, had made their appearance in the upper part of the Sound, having gone round Long Island. As the city might speedily be attacked, Washington caused all the sick and wounded to be conveyed to Orangetown, in the Jerseys, and such military stores and baggage as were not immediately needed, to be removed, as fast as conveyances could be procured, to a port partially fortified at Dobbs' Ferry, on the eastern bank of the Hudson, about twenty-two miles above the city. Reed, in his letters to his wife, talks of the dark and mysterious motions of the enemy, and the equally dark and intricate councils of Congress, by which the army were disheartened Force's Am. Archives, 5th Series, ii. 168. ET. 44.] YEARNINGS FOR HOME-HOWE'S OVERTURE TO CONGRESS. 271 and perplexed. "We are still here," writes he | phia gentlemen who came over on visits, upon on the 6th, "in a posture somewhat awkward; the first cannon, went off in a most violent hurwe think (at least I do) that we cannot stay, and yet we do not know how to go, so that we may be properly said to be between hawk and buzzard." The "shameful and scandalous desertions," as Washington termed them, continued. In a few days the Connecticut militia dwindled down from six to less than two thousand. "The impulse for going home was so irresistible," writes he, "that it answered no purpose to oppose it. Though I would not discharge them, I have been obliged to acquiesce." Still his considerate mind was tolerant of their defection. "Men," said he, "accustomed to unbounded freedom, cannot brook the restraint which is indispensably necessary to the good order and government of an army.' And again, "Men just dragged from the tender scenes of domestic life, unaccustomed to the din of arms, totally unacquainted with every kind of military skill (which is followed by a want of confidence in themselves, when opposed to troops regularly trained, superior in knowledge, and superior in arms), are timid and ready to fly from their own shadows. Besides, the sudden change in their manner of living, brings on an unconquerable desire to return to their homes." Greene, also, who coincided so much with Washington in opinions and sentiments, observes: "People coming from home with all the tender feelings of domestic life, are not sufficiently fortified with natural courage to stand the shocking scenes of war. To march over dead men, to hear without concern the groans of the wounded-I say few men can stand such scenes unless steeled by habit or fortified by military pride." Nor was this ill-timed yearning for home confined to the yeomanry of Connecticut, who might well look back to their humble farms, where they had left the plough standing in the furrow, and where every thing might go to ruin, and their family to want in their absence. Some of the gentlemen volunteers from beyond the Delaware, who had made themselves merry at the expense of the rustic soldiery of New England, were likewise among the first to feel the homeward impulse. "When I look around," said Reed, the adjutant-general, "and see how few of the numbers who talked so loudly of death and honor are around me, I am lost in wonder and surprise. Some of our Philadel ry. Your noisy sons of liberty, are, I find, the quietest on the field."* Present experience induced Washington to reiterate the opinion he had repeatedly expressed to Congress, that little reliance was to be placed on militia enlisted for short periods. The only means of protecting the national liberties from great hazard, if not utter loss, was, he said, an army enlisted for the war. The thousand men ordered from the flying camp were furnished by General Mercer. They were Maryland troops under Colonels Griffith and Richardson, and were a seasonable addition to his effective forces; but the ammunition carried off by the disbanding militia was a serious loss at this critical juncture. A work had been commenced on the Jersey shore opposite Fort Washington, to aid in protecting Putnam's chevaux-de-frise which had been sunk between them. This work had received the name of Fort Constitution (a name already borne by one of the forts in the Highlands). Troops were drawn from the flying camp to make a strong encampment in the vicinity of the fort, with an able officer to command it, and a skilful engineer to strengthen the works. It was hoped, by the co-operation of these opposite forts and the chevaux-de-frise, to command the Hudson, and prevent the passing and repassing of hostile ships. The British, in the mean time, forbore to press further hostilities. Lord Howe was really desirous of a peaceful adjustment of the strife between the colonies and the mother country, and supposed this a propitious moment for a new attempt at pacification. He accordingly sent off General Sullivan on parole, charged with an overture to Congress. In this he declared himself empowered and disposed to compromise the dispute between Great Britain and America, on the most favorable terms, and though he could not treat with Congress as a legally organized body, he was desirous of a conference with some of its members. These, for the time, he should consider only as private gentlemen, but if in the conference any probable scheme of accommodation should be agreed upon, the authority of Congress would afterwards be acknowledged, to render the compact complete.f The message caused some embarrassment in Congress. To accede to the interview might *Life of Reed, i. 231. ↑ Civil War, vol. i., p. 190. 272 COMMITTEE OF CONFERENCE-FRANKLIN'S LETTER TO LORD HOWE. [1776. seem to waive the question of independence; | any gentlemen of influence in the colonies upon to decline it, was to shut the door on all hope the terms, but also to effect a lasting peace of conciliation, and might alienate the co-oper- and reunion between the two countries, were ation of some worthy whigs who still clung to the tempers of the colonies such as professed that hope. After much debate, Congress, on in the last petition of Congress to the king." * the 5th September, replied, that, being the representatives of the free and independent States of America, they could not send any members to confer with his lordship in their private characters, but that, ever desirous of establishing peace on reasonable terms, they would send a committee of their body to ascertain what authority he had to treat with persons authorized by Congress, and what propositions he had to offer. A hope of the kind lingered in the breast of his lordship when he sought the proposed conference. It was to take place on the 11th, at a house on Staten Island, opposite to Amboy; at which latter place the veteran Mercer was stationed with his flying camp. At Amboy, the committee found Lord Howe's barge waiting to receive them; with a British officer of rank, who was to remain within the American lines during their absence, as a hostage. This guar parties crossed together to Staten Island. The admiral met them on their landing, and conducted them through his guards to his house. A committee was chosen on the 6th of Sep-antee of safety was promptly declined, and the tember, composed of John Adams, Edward Rutledge, and Doctor Franklin. The latter, in the preceding year, during his residence in England, had become acquainted with Lord Howe, at the house of his lordship's sister, the Honorable Mrs. Howe, and they had held frequent conversations on the subject of American affairs, in the course of which, his lordship had intimated the possibility of his being sent commissioner to settle the differences in America. Franklin had recently adverted to this in a letter to Lord Howe. "Your lordship may possibly remember the tears of joy that wet my cheek, when, at your good sister's in London, you gave me expectations that a reconciliation might soon take place. I had the misfortune to find these expectations disappointed. * * * * * ** * * * * "The well-founded esteem, and, permit me to say, affection, which I shall always have for your lordship, makes it painful for me to see you engaged in conducting a war, the great ground of which, as expressed in your letter, is 'the necessity of preventing the American trade from passing into foreign channels.' * * On opening the conference, his lordship again intimated that he could not treat with them as a committee of Congress, but only confer with them as private gentlemen of influence in the colonies on the means of restoring peace between the two countries. The commissioners replied that as their business was to hear, he might consider them in what light he pleased; but that they should consider themselves in no other character than that in which they were placed by order of Congress. Lord Howe then entered into a discourse of considerable length, but made no explicit proposition of peace, nor promise of redress of grievances, excepting on condition that the colonies should return to their allegiance. This, the commissioners replied, was not now to be expected. Their repeated humble petitions to the king and parliament having been treated with contempt, and answered by addi*tional injuries, and war having been declared against them, the colonies had declared their independence, and it was not in the power of Congress to agree for them that they should return to their former dependent state.t I know your great motive in coming hither was the hope of being instrumental in a reconciliation; and I believe that when you find that impossible on any terms given to you to propose, you will relinquish so odious a command, and return to a more honorable privato station." "I can have no difficulty to acknowledge," replied Lord Howe, "that the powers I am invested with were never calculated to negotiate a reunion with America, under any other description than as subject to the crown of Great Britain. But I do esteem these powers competent, not only to confer and negotiato with His lordship expressed his sorrow that no accommodation was likely to take place; and, on breaking up the conference, assured his old friend, Dr. Franklin, that he should suffer great pain in being obliged to distress those for whom he had so much regard. "I feel thankful to your lordship for your regard," replied Franklin good-humoredly; Franklin's Writings, v. 103. † Report of the Comm. to Congress., Sept. 13, 1776. |