Читать книгу Washington the Soldier - Henry B. Carrington - Страница 11

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The Continental Army about Boston was largely composed of New England troops. This was inevitable until the action of Congress could be realized by reënforcements from other Colonies. The experience of nearly all veteran soldiers in the Cambridge camps had been gained by service in Canada or upon its borders. British garrisons at Halifax, Quebec, and Montreal, as well as at Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and St. John’s, offered an opportunity for British aggression from the north. The seizure of the nearer posts, last named, temporarily checked such aggressions, but seemed to require adequate garrisons, and a watchful armed outlook across the border.

There had been very early urged upon the Massachusetts Committee of Safety more extensive operations into Canada, especially as the “Canadian Acts of Parliament” had become nearly as offensive to Canadians as other Acts which had alienated the American Colonies from respect for the common “Mother Country.” The Canadian Acts, however, had not been pressed to armed resistance; and differences of race, language, and religious forms were not conducive to those neighborly relations which would admit of combined action, even in emergencies common to both sections. But the initiative of a general movement into Canada had been taken, and Congress precipitated the first advance, before Washington became Commander-in-Chief. In order to appreciate the action of Washington when he became more directly responsible for the success of these detachments from his army, for service in Canada, they must be noticed.

The adventurous spirit of Arnold prompted the suggestion that the conquest of Canada would bring disaster to Great Britain and fend off attacks upon the other Colonies. He once traded with its people, was familiar with Quebec, and after his adventure at Crown Point, in June, had written from that place to the Continental Congress that Gen. Sir Guy Carleton’s force in Canada was less than six hundred men, promising to guarantee the conquest of Canada if he were granted the command of two thousand men for that purpose. On the second day of June, Ethan Allen, who had anticipated Arnold in the capture of Ticonderoga, had made a similar proposition to the Provincial Congress of New York. Both Allen and Seth Warner had visited Congress, and requested authority to raise new regiments. Authority was not given, but a recommendation was forwarded to the New York Provincial Congress, that the “Green Mountain Boys” should be recognized as regular forces, and be granted the privilege of electing their own officers.

It is of interest in this connection to notice the fact that when Arnold, in his first dash up Lake Champlain, found that Warner had anticipated his projected capture of Crown Point, as Allen had that of Ticonderoga, he was greatly offended, usurped command of that post and of a few vessels which he styled his “Navy,” and upon finding that his assumption of authority was neither sanctioned by Massachusetts nor Connecticut, discharged his force and returned to Cambridge in anger. This same navy, however, chiefly constructed under his skilful and energetic direction, won several brilliant successes and certainly postponed movements from Canada southward, for many months.

Eventually a formal expedition was authorized against Montreal, and Generals Schuyler and Montgomery were assigned to its command. This force, consisting of three thousand men, was ordered to rendezvous during the month of August at Ticonderoga, where Allen and Warner also joined it.

During the same month a committee from Congress visited Washington at Cambridge, and persuaded him to send a second army to Canada, via the Kennebec river, to capture Quebec. Existing conditions seemed to warrant these demonstrations which, under other circumstances, might have proved fatal to success at Boston. The theory upon which Washington concurred in the action of Congress is worthy of notice, in estimating his character as a soldier. He understood that the suddenness of the resistance at Lexington, and the comparatively “drawn game” between the patriots and British regulars at Breed’s Hill, would involve on the part of the British government much time and great outlay of money, in order to send to America an adequate force for aggressive action upon any extended scale; and that the control of New York and the southern coast cities must be of vastly more importance than to harass the scattered settlements adjoining Canada. Inasmuch, however, as New York and New England seemed to stake the safety of their northern frontier upon operations northward, while Quebec and Montreal were almost destitute of regular troops, and the season of the year would prevent British reënforcements by sea, it might prove to be the best opportunity to test the sentiment of the Canadian people themselves as to their readiness to make common cause against the Crown. If reported professions could be realized, the north would be permanently protected.

Taking into account that General Carleton would never anticipate an advance upon Quebec, but concentrate his small force at Montreal, with view to the ultimate recapture of St. John’s, Crown Point, and Ticonderoga, and estimating, from advices received, that Carleton’s forces numbered not to exceed eight hundred regulars and as many Provincials, he regarded the detail of three thousand men as sufficient for the capture of Montreal. This estimate was a correct one. Its occupation was also deemed practicable and wise, because it was so near the mouth of Sorel River and Lake Champlain as to be readily supported, so long as the British army was not substantially reënforced along the Atlantic coast.

There was one additional consideration that practically decided the action of Washington. The mere capture of Montreal, on the north bank of the St. Lawrence river, and so easily approached by water from Quebec, would be of no permanent value so long as Quebec retained its place as the almost impregnable rendezvous of British troops and fleets. This view of the recommendation of Congress was deemed conclusive; provided, that the movement against Quebec could be immediate, sudden, by surprise, and involve no siege. Under the assumption that Congress had been rightly advised of the British forces in Canada, and of the sentiments of the Canadians themselves, the expedition had promise of success.

There was a variance of religious form and religious faith which did not attract all the New England soldiers in behalf of Canadian independence. This was sufficiently observed by Washington’s keen insight into human nature to call forth the following order, which placed the Canadian expeditions upon a very lofty basis. The extract is as follows: “As the Commander-in-Chief has been apprised of a design formed for the observance of that ridiculous and childish custom of burning the effigy of the Pope, he cannot help expressing his surprise that there should be officers and soldiers in this army so void of common-sense as not to see the impropriety of such a step at this juncture, at a time when we are soliciting, and have really obtained the friendship and alliance of Canada, whom we ought to consider as brethren embarked in the same cause—the defence of the general liberty of America.... At such a juncture, and in such circumstances, to be insulting their religion is so monstrous as not to be suffered or excused; indeed, instead of offering the most remote insult, it is our duty to address public thanks to those our brethren, as to them we are so much indebted for every late happy success over the common enemy in Canada.”

Washington, however, hinged his chief objection to these distant enterprises, which he habitually opposed throughout the war, upon the pressing demand for the immediate capture of Boston, and an immediate transfer of the Headquarters of the Army to New York, where, and where only, the Colonies could be brought into close relation for the organization and distribution of an army adequate to carry on war, generally, wherever along the Atlantic coast the British might land troops.

As early as June, Congress had disclaimed any purpose to operate against Canada, and Bancroft says that the invasion was not determined upon until the Proclamation of Martial Law by the British Governor, his denunciation of the American borderers, and the incitement of savages to raids against New York and New England had made the invasion an act of self-defence. But there had been no such combination of hostile acts when these expeditions were planned, and Mr. Bancroft must have associated those events with the employment of Indian allies during the subsequent Burgoyne campaign of 1777.

The details of the two contemporary expeditions to Canada are only sufficiently outlined to develop the relations of the Commander-in-Chief to their prosecution, and to introduce to the reader certain officers who subsequently came more directly under Washington’s personal command. The substantial failure of each, except that it developed some of the best officers of the war, is accepted as history. But it is no less true that when Great Britain made Canada the base of Burgoyne’s invasion, his feeble support by the Canadians themselves proved a material factor in his ultimate disaster. He was practically starved to surrender for want of adequate support in men and provisions, from his only natural base of supply.

It is sufficient, at present, to notice the departure of the two expeditions, that of Schuyler and Montgomery, assembling at Ticonderoga, August 20, and that of Arnold, consisting of eleven hundred men, without artillery, which left Cambridge on the seventeenth day of September and landed at Gardiner, Me., on the twentieth. Several companies of riflemen from Pennsylvania and Virginia which had reported for duty were assigned to Arnold’s command. Among the officers were Daniel Morgan and Christopher Greene. Aaron Burr, then but nineteen years of age, accompanied this expedition.

As the summer of 1775 drew near its close, and the temporary excitement of Arnold’s departure restored the routine of camp life and the passive watching of a beleaguered city, the large number of “Six Months” men, whose term of enlistment was soon to expire, became listless and indifferent to duty. Washington, without official rebuke of this growing negligence, forestalled its further development by redoubling his efforts to place the works about Boston in a complete condition of defence. None were exempt from the scope of his orders. Ploughed Hill and Cobble Hill were fortified, and the works at Lechmere Point were strengthened. (See map, “Boston and Vicinity.”) Demonstrations were made daily in order to entice the garrison to sorties upon the investing lines. But the British troops made no hostile demonstrations, and in a very short time the American redoubts were sufficiently established to resist the attack of the entire British army.

A Council of War was summoned to meet at Washington’s headquarters to consider his proposition that an assault be made upon the city, and that it be burned, if that seemed to be a military necessity. Lee opposed the movement, as impossible of execution, in view of the character of the British troops whom the militia would be compelled to meet in close battle. The Council of War concurred in his motion to postpone the proposition of the Commander-in-Chief. Lee’s want of confidence in the American troops, then for the first time officially stated, had its temporary influence; but, ever after, through his entire career until its ignominious close, he opposed every opportunity for battle, on the same pretence. The only exception was his encouragement to the resistance of Moultrie at Charleston, against the British fleet, during June, 1776, although he was not a participant in that battle.

Meanwhile, the citizens of the sea-coast towns of New England began to be anxious as to their own safety. A British armed transport cannonaded Stonington, and other vessels threatened New London and Norwich. All of these towns implored Washington to send them troops. Governor Jonathan Trumbull, of Connecticut (the original “Brother Jonathan”), whose extraordinary comprehension of the military as well as the civil issues of the times made him then, and ever, a reliable and constant friend of Washington, consulted the Commander-in-Chief as to these depredations, and acquiesced in his judgment as final.

Washington wrote thus: “The most important operations of the campaign cannot be made to depend upon the piratical expeditions of two or three men-of-war privateers.” This significant rejoinder illustrated the proposition to burn Boston, and was characteristic of Washington’s policy respecting other local raids and endangered cities. It is in harmony with the purpose of this narrative to emphasize this incident. Napoleon in his victorious campaign against Austria refused to occupy Vienna with his army, and counted the acquisition of towns and cities as demoralizing to troops, besides enforcing detachments from his fighting force simply to hold dead property. Washington ignored the safety of Philadelphia, the Colonial capital, repeatedly, claiming that to hold his army compactly together, ready for the field, was the one chief essential to ultimate victory. Even the later invasions of Virginia and Connecticut, and the erratic excursions of Simcoe and other royalist leaders into Westchester County, New York, and the country about Philadelphia, did not bend his deliberate purpose to cast upon local communities a fair share of their own defence. In more than one instance he announced to the people that these local incursions only brought reproach upon the perpetrators, and embittered the Colonists more intensely against the invader.