The Army and Independence Maintained (January to July 1777)
American army inoculated.—State of the army.—Destruction of stores at Peekskill.—at Danbury.—Expedition to Sagg Harbor.—Camp formed at Middle Brook.—British move out to Somerset Court-House.—Return to Amboy.—Attempt to cut off the retreat of the American army at Middle Brook.—Lord Cornwallis skirmishes with Lord Sterling.—General Prescot surprised and taken.—The British army embarks.
Jan. 1777
THE EFFECT of the proclamation published by Lord and General Howe, on taking possession of Jersey, was in a great degree counteracted by the conduct of the invading army. The hope that security was attainable by submission was soon dissipated. The inhabitants were treated rather as conquered rebels than returning friends. Whatever may have been the exertions of the General to restrain his soldiers, they indulged in every species of licentiousness. The loyalists as well as those who had been active in the American cause, were the victims of this indiscriminating spirit of rapine and violence. A sense of personal wrongs produced a temper which national considerations had been too weak to excite; and, when the battles of Trenton and Princeton relieved the people from the fears inspired by the presence of their invaders, the great body of the people flew to arms. Small parties of militia scoured the country, and were collecting in such numbers as to threaten the weaker British posts with the fate which had befallen Trenton and Princeton.
To guard against this spirit, the British General found it expedient to abandon the positions taken for the purpose of recovering the country, and to confine himself to New Brunswick and Amboy.
The militia and volunteers who came in aid of the small remnant of continental troops, enabled General Washington to take different positions near the lines of the enemy, to harass him perpetually, restrain his foraging parties,1 and produce considerable distress in his camp.
In the midst of these operations, he came to the hazardous resolution of freeing himself and his troops from the fear of a calamity which had proved more fatal than the sword of the enemy.
The small-pox had found its way into both the northern and middle army, and had impaired the strength of both to an alarming degree. To avoid the return of this evil, the General determined to inoculate all the soldiers in the American service. This determination was carried into execution, and an army, exempt from the fear of a calamity which had, at all times, endangered the most important operations, was prepared for the next campaign. The example was followed through the country, and this alarming disease ceased to be the terror of America.
As the British army was divided between New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island, General Washington cherished hopes of being enabled to strike a decisive blow against some one of its divisions during the winter. The state sovereignties, which possessed all the real energies of government, were incessantly urged to fill their regiments and to bring their quotas into the field; but the inherent defects of the American system rendered it impracticable to collect a force competent to those vigorous operations which had been anticipated. Some of the State Assemblies did not even complete the appointment of officers till the spring. After these arrangements were made, the difficulty of enlisting men was unexpectedly great. The immense hardships to which the naked soldiers had been exposed; the mortality resulting from those hardships, and probably from an injudicious arrangement of the hospital department which proved to be the tomb of the sick, had excited extensive disgust to the service, and a consequent unwillingness to engage in it. A letter of the 4th of March, addressed to Congress, states that the whole effective force in Jersey fit for duty, was less than three thousand, of whom not quite one thousand were regulars. Still a war of skirmishes was kept up through the winter. The British foraging parties were often attacked to advantage; and these small successes, magnified by the press into victories, served to increase the confidence of the American soldiers in themselves, and to animate the people. Hopes were even entertained that, from the scarcity of forage, neither the British cavalry nor draft horses would be fit for service when the campaign should open.
As the season for active operations approached, fresh difficulties, growing out of the organization of the American system, disclosed themselves. Every state being exposed to invasion, the attention of each was directed to itself. The spirit incident to every league was displayed in repeated attempts to give to the military force such various directions as would leave it unable to effect any great object, or to obstruct any one plan the enemy might form. The patriotism of the day, however, and the unexampled confidence placed in the commander-in-chief, prevented the mischiefs this spirit is well calculated to generate. His representations made their proper impression, and the intention of retaining continental troops for local defence was reluctantly abandoned. The plan of raising additional regular corps, to be exclusively under state authority, was substituted for the yeomanry2 of the country, as a more effectual and convenient mode of protecting the coasts from insult.
During the winter, General Howe kept his troops in their quarters. As the season for active operations approached, his first attention was directed to the destruction of the scanty supplies prepared by the Americans for the ensuing campaign. Peekskill on the Hudson, about fifty miles above New York, was generally the residence of the commander in the Highlands, and was used as a place of deposit for stores to be distributed into the neighboring posts.
Colonel Bird was detached up the river against this place, at the head of five hundred men, under convoy of a frigate and some smaller vessels. After completely destroying the magazines and barracks, he returned to New York.
An expedition was also projected against Danbury, a village on the western frontier of Connecticut, in which military stores to a considerable amount had been deposited. Governor Tryon, Major-General of the provinces in the British service, assisted by Brigadiers Agnew and Sir William Irskine, proceeded on this enterprise at the head of two thousand men.
On the 25th of April, the troops landed between Fairfield and Norwalk, and reached Danbury about two the next day. The village, with the magazines it contained, were consumed by fire, and early in the morning of the succeeding day, Tryon commenced his line of march towards his ships. The militia, however, had been alarmed, and assembled in considerable bodies to obstruct his retreat. General Wooster, who had resigned his commission in the continental army, and been appointed Major-General of the militia,3 fell into his rear with about three hundred men, while Arnold and Sullivan, then casually in Connecticut, gained his front at Ridgefield. Wooster attacked his rear with great gallantry, about eleven in the morning, but his troops were repulsed, and he was himself mortally wounded. Tryon proceeded on his march to Ridgefield, where he found Arnold already entrenched on a strong piece of ground. A warm skirmish ensued which continued nearly an hour, when Arnold was driven from the field. At break of day next morning, after setting fire to Ridgefield, the British resumed their line of march. About eleven in the forenoon they were again met by Arnold whose numbers were increased to a thousand men, among whom were some continental soldiers. A continued skirmishing was kept up till five in the afternoon, when the British formed on a hill near their ships. The Americans attacked with great intrepidity, but were repulsed; and Tryon, availing himself of this respite, re-embarked his troops and returned to New York.
The loss of the British amounted to one hundred and seventy men. That of the Americans was stated at one hundred; but among these was General Wooster, lieutenant-Colonel Gould, and another field-officer, killed; and Colonel Lamb wounded.
This enterprise was not long afterwards successfully retaliated. The British had collected a considerable quantity of provisions and forage at Sagg Harbor, on the eastern end of Long Island. Believing this place to be completely secured by the vessels that were continually traversing the Sound, General Howe had confided its protection to a schooner4 carrying twelve guns, and a company of infantry.
May 1777
General Parsons, who commanded a few recruits at New Haven, formed the design of surprising this party, which was entrusted to Lieutenant-Colonel