The Life of George Washington, Vol. 2 (of 5)

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The garrison of fort Mifflin consisted of only three hundred
continental troops, who were worn down with fatigue, and constant
watching, under the constant apprehension of being attacked from
Province Island, from Philadelphia, and from the ships below.

{October 29.}

Having failed in every attempt to draw the militia of Jersey to the
Delaware, General Washington determined to strengthen the garrison by
farther drafts from his army. Three hundred Pennsylvania militia were
detached, to be divided between the two forts; and, a few days
afterwards, General Varnum was ordered, with his brigade, to take a
position about Woodbury, near Red Bank, and to relieve and reinforce
the garrisons of both forts as far as his strength would permit. The
hope was entertained that the appearance of so respectable a
continental force might encourage the militia to assemble in greater
numbers.

Aware of the advantage to result from a victory over the British army
while separated from the fleet, General Washington had been uniformly
determined to risk much to gain one. He had, therefore, after the
battle of Germantown, continued to watch assiduously for an
opportunity to attack his enemy once more to advantage. The
circumspect caution of General Howe afforded none. After the repulse
at Red Bank, his measures were slow but certain; and were calculated
to insure the possession of the forts without exposing his troops to
the hazard of an assault.

In this state of things, intelligence was received of the successful
termination of the northern campaign, in consequence of which great
part of the troops who had been employed against Burgoyne, might be
drawn to the aid of the army in Pennsylvania. But it was feared that,
before these reinforcements could arrive, Sir William Howe would gain
possession of the forts, and remove the obstructions to the navigation
of the Delaware. This apprehension furnished a strong motive for
vigorous attempts to relieve fort Mifflin. But the relative force of
the armies, the difficulty of acting offensively against Philadelphia,
and, above all, the reflection that a defeat might disable him from
meeting his enemy in the field even after the arrival of the troops
expected from the north, determined General Washington not to hazard a
second attack under existing circumstances.

To expedite the reinforcements for which he waited, Colonel Hamilton
was despatched to General Gates with directions to represent to him
the condition of the armies in Pennsylvania; and to urge him, if he
contemplated no other service of more importance, immediately to send
the regiments of Massachusetts and New Hampshire to aid the army of
the middle department. These orders were not peremptory, because it
was possible that some other object (as the capture of New York) still
more interesting than the expulsion of General Howe from Philadelphia,
might be contemplated by Gates; and Washington meant not to interfere
with the accomplishment of such object.

On reaching General Putnam, Colonel Hamilton found that a considerable
part of the northern army had joined that officer, but that Gates had
detained four brigades at Albany for an expedition intended to be made
in the winter against Ticonderoga.

Having made such arrangements with Putnam as he supposed would secure
the immediate march of a large body of continental troops from that
station, Colonel Hamilton proceeded to Albany for the purpose of
remonstrating to General Gates against retaining so large and valuable
a part of the army unemployed at a time when the most imminent danger
threatened the vitals of the country. Gates was by no means disposed
to part with his troops. He could not believe that an expedition then
preparing at New York, was designed to reinforce General Howe; and
insisted that, should the troops then embarked at that place, instead
of proceeding to the Delaware, make a sudden movement up the Hudson,
it would be in their power, should Albany be left defenceless, to
destroy the valuable arsenal which had been there erected, and the
military stores captured with Burgoyne, which had been chiefly
deposited in that town.

Having, after repeated remonstrances, obtained an order directing
three brigades to the Delaware, Hamilton hastened back to Putnam, and
found the troops which had been ordered to join General Washington,
still at Peekskill. The detachment from New York had suggested to
Putnam the possibility of taking that place; and he does not appear to
have made very great exertions to divest himself of a force he deemed
necessary for an object, the accomplishment of which would give so
much splendour to his military character. In addition to this
circumstance, an opinion had gained ground among the soldiers that
their share of service for the campaign had been performed, and that
it was time for them to go into winter quarters. Great discontents too
prevailed concerning their pay, which the government had permitted to
be more than six months in arrear; and in Poor's brigade, a mutiny
broke out, in the course of which a soldier who was run through the
body by his captain, before he expired, shot the captain dead who gave
the wound. Colonel Hamilton came in time to borrow money from the
governor of New York, to put the troops in motion; and they proceeded
by brigades to the Delaware. But these several delays retarded their
arrival until the contest for the forts on that river was terminated.

{November.}

The preparations of Sir William Howe being completed, a large battery
on Province Island of twenty-four and thirty-two pounders, and two
howitzers of eight inches each, opened, early in the morning of the
10th of November, upon fort Mifflin, at the distance of five hundred
yards, and kept up an incessant fire for several successive days. The
block-houses were reduced to a heap of ruins; the palisades were
beaten down; and most of the guns dismounted and otherwise disabled.
The barracks were battered in every part, so that the troops could not
remain in them. They were under the necessity of working and watching
the whole night to repair the damages of the day, and to guard against
a storm, of which they were in perpetual apprehension. If in the day,
a few moments were allowed for repose, it was taken on the wet earth,
which, in consequence of heavy rains, had become a soft mud. The
garrison was relieved by General Varnum every forty-eight hours; but
his brigade was so weak that half the men were constantly on duty.

Colonel Smith was decidedly of opinion, and General Varnum concurred
with him, that the garrison could not repel an assault, and ought to
be withdrawn; but General Washington still cherished the hope that the
place might be maintained until he should be reinforced from the
northern army. Believing that an assault would not be attempted until
the works were battered down, he recommended that the whole night
should be employed in making repairs. His orders were that the place
should be defended to the last extremity; and never were orders more
faithfully executed.

{November 11.}

{Fourteenth.}

Several of the garrison were killed, and among them Captain Treat, a
gallant officer, who commanded the artillery. Colonel Smith received a
contusion on his hip and arm which compelled him to give up the
command, and retire to Red Bank. Major Fleury, a French officer of
distinguished merit, who served as engineer, reported to the
Commander-in-chief that, although the block-houses were beaten down,
all the guns in them, except two, disabled, and several breaches made
in the walls, the place was still defensible; but the garrison was so
unequal to the numbers required by the extent of the lines, and was so
dispirited by watching, fatigue, and constant exposure to the cold
rains which were almost incessant, that he dreaded the event of an
attempt to carry the place by storm. Fresh troops were ordered to
their relief from Varnum's brigade, and the command was taken, first
by Colonel Russell, and afterwards by Major Thayer. The artillery,
commanded by Captain Lee, continued to be well served. The besiegers
were several times thrown into confusion, and a floating battery which
opened on the morning of the 14th, was silenced in the course of the
day.

{Fifteenth.}

The defence being unexpectedly obstinate, the assailants brought up
their ships as far as the obstructions in the river permitted, and
added their fire to that of the batteries, which was the more fatal as
the cover for the troops had been greatly impaired. The brave
garrison, however, still maintained their ground with unshaken
firmness. In the midst of this stubborn conflict, the Vigilant and a
sloop of war were brought up the inner channel, between Mud and
Province Islands, which had, unobserved by the besieged, been deepened
by the current in consequence of the obstructions in the main channel;
and, taking a station within one hundred yards of the works, not only
kept up a destructive cannonade, but threw hand grenades into them;
while the musketeers from the round top of the Vigilant killed every
man that appeared on the platform.

Major Thayer applied to the Commodore to remove these vessels, and he
ordered six galleys on the service; but, after reconnoitring their
situation, the galleys returned without attempting any thing. Their
report was that these ships were so covered by the batteries on
Province Island as to be unassailable.

[Sidenote: Fort Mifflin evacuated and possession taken by the
British.]

{November 16.}

It was now apparent to all that the fort could be no longer defended.
The works were in ruins. The position of the Vigilant rendered any
farther continuance on the island a prodigal and useless waste of
human life; and on the 16th, about 11 at night, the garrison was
withdrawn.[72]

[Footnote 72: In stating the defence of Mud Island, the
author has availed himself of the journal of Major Fleury.]

A second attempt was made to drive the vessels from their stations
with a determination, should it succeed, to repossess the island; but
the galleys effected nothing; and a detachment from Province Island
soon occupied the ground which had been abandoned.

{November 17.}

The day after receiving intelligence of the evacuation of fort
Mifflin, General Washington deputed Generals De Kalb, and Knox, to
confer with General Varnum and the officers at fort Mercer on the
practicability of continuing to defend the obstructions in the
channel, to report thereon, and to state the force which would be
necessary for that purpose. Their report was in favour of continuing
the defence. A council of the navy officers had already been called by
the Commodore in pursuance of a request of the Commander-in-chief made
before the evacuation had taken place, who were unanimously of opinion
that it would be impracticable for the fleet, after the loss of the
island, to maintain its station, or to assist in preventing the
chevaux-de-frise from being weighed by the ships of the enemy.

General Howe had now completed a line of defence from the Schuylkill
to the Delaware; and a reinforcement from New York had arrived at
Chester. These two circumstances enabled him to form an army in the
Jerseys sufficient for the reduction of fort Mercer, without weakening
himself so much in Philadelphia as to put his lines in hazard. Still
deeming it of the utmost importance to open the navigation of the
Delaware completely, he detached Lord Cornwallis about one in the
morning of the 17th, with a strong body of troops to Chester. From
that place, his lordship crossed over to Billingsport, where he was
joined by the reinforcement from New York.

{November 17.}

General Washington received immediate intelligence of the march of
this detachment, which he communicated to General Varnum with orders
that fort Mercer should be defended to the last extremity. With a view
to military operations in that quarter, he ordered one division of the
army to cross the river at Burlington, and despatched expresses to the
northern troops who were marching on by brigades, directing them to
move down the Delaware on its northern side until they should receive
farther orders.

[Sidenote: Fort Mercer evacuated.]

Major General Greene, an officer who had been distinguished early in
the war by the Commander-in-chief for the solidity of his judgment and
his military talents, was selected for this expedition. A hope was
entertained that he would be able, not only to protect fort Mercer,
but to obtain some decisive advantage over Lord Cornwallis; as the
situation of the fort, which his lordship could not invest without
placing himself between Timber and Manto Creeks, would expose the
assailants to great peril from a respectable force in their rear. But,
before Greene could cross the Delaware, Lord Cornwallis approached
with an army rendered more powerful than had been expected by the
junction of the reinforcement from New York; and fort Mercer was
evacuated.

A few of the smaller galleys escaped up the river, and the others were
burnt by their crews.

Washington still hoped to recover much of what had been lost. A
victory would restore the Jersey shore, and this object was deemed so
important, that General Greene's instructions indicated the
expectation that he would be in a condition to fight Lord Cornwallis.

That judicious officer feared the reproach of avoiding an action less
than the just censure of sacrificing the real interests of his country
by engaging the enemy on disadvantageous terms. The numbers of the
British exceeded his, even counting his militia as regulars; and he
determined to wait for Glover's brigade, which was marching from the
north. Before its arrival, Lord Cornwallis took post on Gloucester
Point, a point of land making deep into the Delaware, which was
entirely under cover of the guns of the ships, from which place he was
embarking his baggage and the provisions he had collected for
Philadelphia.[73]

[Footnote 73: While Lord Cornwallis lay on Gloucester Point,
about one hundred and fifty men of Morgan's rifle corps
under Lieutenant Colonel Butler, and an equal number of
militia, the whole under the Marquis de la Fayette, who
still served as a volunteer, attacked a picket consisting of
about three hundred men, and drove them with the loss of
twenty or thirty killed, and a greater number wounded, quite
into their camp; after which the Americans retired without
being pursued.]

Believing that Lord Cornwallis would immediately follow the magazines
he had collected, and that the purpose of Sir William Howe was, with
his united forces, to attack the American army while divided, General
Washington ordered Greene to recross the Delaware, and join the army.

[Sidenote: The enemy succeeds in opening a free communication with his
fleet.]

Thus after one continued struggle of more than six weeks, in which the
continental troops displayed great military virtues, the army in
Philadelphia secured itself in the possession of that city, by opening
a free communication with the fleet.[74]

[Footnote 74: While these transactions were passing on the
Delaware, General Dickinson projected another expedition
against the post on Staten Island. He collected about two
thousand men, and requested General Putnam to make a
diversion on the side of Kingsbridge, in order to prevent a
reinforcement from New York.

Knowing that success depended on secrecy, he had concealed
his object even from his field-officers, until eight of the
night in which it was to be executed. Yet by three next
morning, information of his design was given to General
Skinner, who, being on his guard, saved himself and his
brigade, by taking refuge, on the first alarm, in some works
too strong to be carried by assault. A few prisoners were
made and a few men killed, after which General Dickinson
brought off his party with the loss of only three killed and
ten slightly wounded.]

[Sidenote: Washington urged to attack Philadelphia.]

While Lord Cornwallis was in Jersey, and General Greene on the
Delaware above him, the reinforcements from the north being received,
an attack on Philadelphia was strongly pressed by several officers
high in rank; and was in some measure urged by that torrent of public
opinion, which, if not resisted by a very firm mind, overwhelms the
judgment, and by controlling measures not well comprehended, may
frequently produce, especially in military transactions, the most
disastrous effects.

It was stated to the Commander-in-chief, that his army was now in
greater force than he could expect it to be at any future time; that
being joined by the troops who had conquered Burgoyne, his own
reputation, the reputation of his army, the opinion of congress, and
of the nation, required some decisive blow on his part. That the rapid
depreciation of the paper currency, by which the resources for
carrying on the war were dried up, rendered indispensable some grand
effort to bring it to a speedy termination.

The plan proposed was, that General Greene should embark two thousand
men at Dunks' ferry, and descending the Delaware in the night, land in
the town just before day, attack the enemy in the rear, and take
possession of the bridge over the Schuylkill. That a strong corps
should march down on the west side of that river, occupy the heights
enfilading the works of the enemy, and open a brisk cannonade upon
them, while a detachment from it should march down to the bridge, and
attack in front at the same instant, that the party descending the
river should commence its assault on the rear.

Not only the Commander-in-chief, but some of his best officers, those
who could not be impelled by the clamours of the ill-informed to ruin
the public interests, were opposed to this mad enterprise.

The two armies, they said, were now nearly equal in point of numbers,
and the detachment under Lord Cornwallis could not be supposed to have
so weakened Sir William Howe as to compensate for the advantages of
his position. His right was covered by the Delaware, his left by the
Schuylkill, his rear by the junction of those two rivers, as well as
by the city of Philadelphia, and his front by a line of redoubts
extending from river to river, and connected by an abattis, and by
circular works. It would be indispensably necessary to carry all these
redoubts; since to leave a part of them to play on the rear of the
columns, while engaged in front with the enemy in Philadelphia, would
be extremely hazardous.

Supposing the redoubts carried, and the British army driven into the
town, yet all military men were agreed on the great peril of storming
a town. The streets would be defended by an artillery greatly superior
to that of the Americans, which would attack in front, while the brick
houses would be lined with musketeers, whose first must thin the ranks
of the assailants.

A part of the plan, on the successful execution of which the whole
depended, was, that the British rear should be surprised by the corps
descending the Delaware. This would require the concurrence of too
many favourable circumstances to be calculated on with any confidence.
As the position of General Greene was known, it could not be supposed
that Sir William Howe would be inattentive to him. It was probable
that not even his embarkation would be made unnoticed; but it was
presuming a degree of negligence which ought not to be assumed, to
suppose that he could descend the river to Philadelphia undiscovered.
So soon as his movements should be observed, the whole plan would be
comprehended, since it would never be conjectured that General Greene
was to attack singly.

If the attack in front should fail, which was not even improbable, the
total loss of the two thousand men in the rear must follow; and
General Howe would maintain his superiority through the winter.

The situation of America did not require these desperate measures. The
British general would be compelled to risk a battle on equal terms, or
to manifest a conscious inferiority to the American army. The
depreciation of paper money was the inevitable consequence of immense
emissions without corresponding taxes. It was by removing the cause,
not by sacrificing the army, that this evil was to be corrected.

Washington possessed too much discernment to be dazzled by the false
brilliant presented by those who urged the necessity of storming
Philadelphia, in order to throw lustre round his own fame, and that of
his army; and too much firmness of temper, too much virtue and real
patriotism, to be diverted from a purpose believed to be right, by the
clamours of faction or the discontents of ignorance. Disregarding the
importunities of mistaken friends, the malignant insinuations of
enemies, and the expectations of the ill-informed; he persevered in
his resolution to make no attempt on Philadelphia. He saved his army,
and was able to keep the field in the face of his enemy; while the
clamour of the moment wasted in air, and is forgotten.

The opinion that Sir William Howe meditated an attack on the American
camp, was not ill founded. Scarcely had Lord Cornwallis returned to
Philadelphia, and Greene to the American army, when unquestionable
intelligence was received that the British general was preparing to
march out in full strength, with the avowed object of forcing
Washington from his position, and driving him beyond the mountains.

[Sidenote: General Howe marches out to Chestnut Hill.]

On the 4th of December, Captain M'Lane, a vigilant officer on the
lines, discovered that an attempt to surprise the American camp at
White Marsh was about to be made, and communicated the information to
the Commander-in-chief. In the evening of the same day, General Howe
marched out of Philadelphia with his whole force; and, about eleven at
night, M'Lane, who had been detached with one hundred chosen men,
attacked the British van at the Three Mile Run, on the Germantown
road, and compelled their front division to change its line of march.
He hovered on the front and flank of the advancing army, galling them
severely until three next morning, when the British encamped on
Chestnut Hill, in front of the American right, and distant from it
about three miles. A slight skirmish had also taken place between the
Pennsylvania militia under General Irvine, and the advanced light
parties of the enemy, in which the general was wounded, and the
militia, without much other loss, were dispersed.

The range of hills on which the British were posted, approached nearer
to those occupied by the Americans, as they stretched northward.

Having passed the day in reconnoitring the right, Sir William Howe
changed his ground in the course of the night, and moving along the
hills to his right, took an advantageous position, about a mile in
front of the American left. The next day he inclined still farther to
his right, and, in doing so, approached still nearer to the left wing
of the American army. Supposing a general engagement to be
approaching, Washington detached Gist with some Maryland militia, and
Morgan with his rifle corps, to attack the flanking and advanced
parties of the enemy. A sharp action ensued, in which Major Morris, of
Jersey, a brave officer in Morgan's regiment, was mortally wounded,
and twenty-seven of his men were killed and wounded. A small loss was
also sustained in the militia. The parties first attacked were driven
in; but the enemy reinforcing in numbers, and Washington, unwilling to
move from the heights, and engage on the ground which was the scene of
the skirmish, declining to reinforce Gist and Morgan, they, in turn,
were compelled to retreat.

[Sidenote: Returns to Philadelphia.]

Sir William Howe continued to manoeuvre towards the flank, and in
front of the left wing of the American army. Expecting to be attacked
in that quarter in full force, Washington made such changes in the
disposition of his troops as the occasion required; and the day was
consumed in these movements. In the course of it, the American chief
rode through every brigade of his army, delivering, in person, his
orders, respecting the manner of receiving the enemy, exhorting his
troops to rely principally on the bayonet, and encouraging them by the
steady firmness of his countenance, as well as by his words, to a
vigorous performance of their duty.[75] The dispositions of the
evening indicated an intention to attack him the ensuing morning; but
in the afternoon of the eighth, the British suddenly filed off from
their right, which extended beyond the American left, and retreated to
Philadelphia. The parties detached to harass their rear could not
overtake it.

[Footnote 75: The author states this on his own
observation.]

The loss of the British in this expedition, as stated in the official
letter of General Howe, rather exceeded one hundred in killed,
wounded, and missing; and was sustained principally in the skirmish of
the 7th, in which Major Morris fell.

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