Читать книгу The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn - Henry Phelps Johnston - Страница 15

"GEORGE WASHINGTON, Esq.,

New York.

HOWE."

"No, sir," said Reed, "I cannot receive that letter." "I am very sorry," returned the officer, "and so will be Lord Howe, that any error in the superscription should prevent the letter being received by General Washington." "Why, sir," replied Reed, whose instructions were positive not to accept such a communication, "I must obey orders;" and the officer, finding it useless to press the matter, could only repeat the sentiment, "Oh! yes, sir, you must obey orders, to be sure." Then, after exchanging letters from prisoners, the officers saluted and separated. The British barge had gone but a short distance when it quickly put about, and the officer asked by what particular title Washington chose to be addressed. Colonel Reed replied, "You are sensible, sir, of the rank of General Washington in our army." "Yes, sir, we are," said the officer; "I am sure my Lord Howe will lament exceedingly this affair, as the letter is quite of a civil nature, and not of a military one. He laments exceedingly that he was not here a little sooner." Reed and Knox supposed this to be an allusion to the Declaration of Independence, but making no reply, they again bowed, and parted, as Knox says, "in the most genteel terms imaginable."[71]

But Howe was unwilling to have the matter dropped in this fashion, and on the 20th he sent his adjutant-general, Lieutenant-Colonel Patterson, to hold an interview with Washington in person, if possible, and urge him to receive the letter and also to treat about the exchange of prisoners. Patterson landed at the Battery, and was conducted to Colonel Knox's quarters at the Kennedy House, without the usual formality of having his eyes blindfolded. Washington, "very handsomely dressed"[72] and making "a most elegant appearance," received him with his suite, and listened attentively while Patterson, interspersing his words at every other breath with "May it please your Excellency," explained the address on the letter by saying that the etc. etc. appended meant every thing. "And, indeed, it might mean any thing," replied Washington, as Patterson then proceeded to say, among other things, that the benevolence of the king had induced him to appoint General and Admiral Howe his commissioners to accommodate the unhappy disputes; that it would give them great pleasure to effect such an accommodation, and that he (Colonel Patterson) wished to have that visit considered as preliminary to so desirable an object. Washington replied that he himself was not vested with any authority in the case; that it did not appear that Lord Howe could do more than grant pardons, and that those who had committed no fault wanted no pardons, as they were simply defending what they deemed their indisputable rights.[73] Further conversation followed, when Patterson, rising to leave, asked, "Has your Excellency no particular commands with which you would please to honor me to Lord and General Howe?" "Nothing," replied Washington, "but my particular compliments to both;" and, declining to partake of a collation prepared for the occasion, the British adjutant-general took his departure. Again the king's "commissioners" had failed, and Washington had preserved the dignity of the young nation and his own self-respect as the commander of its armies.

An incident, of greater moment as a military affair, and which disturbed Washington as much as the Patterson interview must have diverted him, was the easy passage, on the 12th of July, of two of the British men-of-war, the Rose and Phœnix, past all the batteries, unharmed, up the North River. Taking advantage of a brisk breeze and running tide, the ships with their tenders sailed rapidly up from the Narrows, and to avoid the fire of the batteries as much as possible kept near the Jersey shore. The American artillerists opened upon them with all their guns along the river, but could do them no serious damage, while by accident, in their haste to load the pieces, six of their own gunners were killed. The ships sent many shots into the city, some crashing through houses but doing no other injury, while the roar of the cannon frightened the citizens who had not already moved away, and caused more to go.[74] At the upper end of the island, around Fort Washington, where the batteries and river obstructions were as yet incomplete, the ships suffered still less harm, and sailing by, anchored safely in the broad Tappan Bay above. Their object was to cut off the supplies which came down the river to Washington's army, and, as supposed, to encourage the loyalists in the upper counties and supply them with arms. Washington acknowledged that the event showed the weakness and inadequacy of the North River line of defences, and reported to Congress that it developed a possible plan of attack by the British upon his rear. Measures were taken to annoy if not destroy the ships, and, on the 3d of August, Commodore Tupper, with four of his sloops and schooners, boldly attacked the enemy, but though, as Washington wrote, "our officers and men, during the whole affair, behaved with great spirit and bravery," neither side sustained serious damage. On the night of the 16th two fire-rafts were directed against the ships, which were successful so far as to destroy one of the tenders; and on the 18th the enemy weighed anchor and returned to the Narrows as readily as they came up.

It was now apparent that the great struggle between the two armies could be postponed no longer, and no day after the arrival of the Hessians passed that the British attack was not looked for. The orders of August 8th cautioned the men to be at their quarters, "especially early in the morning or upon the tide of flood," when the enemy's fleet might be expected, and every preparation was made to resist the landing of the British at any point upon Manhattan Island.[75]

Upon Long Island General Greene and his men were still at work on the defences, and, since the arrival of the enemy, doubly vigilant. Hand's riflemen kept close watch at the Narrows and reported every suspicious movement of the fleet. Word was brought in on the 9th that a large number of regulars were drawn up at the Staten Island ferry, and Greene immediately sent around the order for "no officer or soldier to stir from his quarters, that we may be ready to march at a moment's warning, if necessary." Upon another alarm, when probably he himself was indisposed, he directed Colonel Little, the senior regimental officer present, to superintend the disposition of the troops. His hastily written letter, penned apparently not long after midnight, runs as follows:

Thursday Morning [August 8 or 15?]

Dear Sir—By Express from Col Hand and from Red Hook, and from on board the Sloop at Governor's Island it is very evident there was a General Imbarcation of the Troops last evening from Statten Island—doubtless they'l make a dessent this morning. Youl please to order all the troops fit for duty to be at their Alarm posts near an hour sooner than is common—let their flints arms and ammunition be examined and everything held in readiness to defend the works or go upon a detachment. A few minutes past received an Express from Head Quarters. Youl acquaint the Commanding officers of Col Hitchcock's Regiment and Col Forman's Regiment of this, and direct them to observe the same orders, also the Artillery officers.

I am ys,

N. Greene.

[Addressed to Col. Little.][76]

Greene had been promoted to the rank of major-general on the 9th, and his old brigade on Long Island given to Brigadier-General John Nixon, of Massachusetts, who was promoted from a colonelcy at the same time. A new arrangement of the army was effected, and Brigadier-General Heard's brigade of five New Jersey regiments was ordered to Long Island to reinforce Greene. His division, now consisting of these two brigades—Nixon's and Heard's—numbered, August 15th, two thousand nine hundred men fit for duty. Parts of two Long Island militia regiments under Colonels Smith and Remsen which joined him about this date, and Colonel Gay's Connecticut levies, who had been on that side since the 1st of August, increased this number to something over thirty-five hundred.

But Greene was not to be a participator in the approaching scenes. The prevailing fever which had prostrated so many officers and men seized him with all but a fatal hold, and he was obliged to relinquish his command. He clung to it, however, to the last moment in hopes of a change for the better. "I am very sorry," he wrote to Washington on the 15th, "that I am under the necessity of acquainting you that I am confined to my bed with a raging fever. The critical situation of affairs makes me the more anxious, but I hope, through the assistance of Providence, to be able to ride before the presence of the enemy may make it absolutely necessary;" and he assured the commander-in-chief that his men appeared to be "in exceeding good spirits," and would no doubt be able to render a very good account of the enemy should they land on Long Island. On the 16th there was no change for the better in his condition, but on the contrary Livingston, his aid, reported that he had "a very bad night of it;" and in a day or two he was removed to New York, to the house of John Inglis now the intersection of Ninth Street and Broadway where with rest and care he slowly passed the crisis of his illness.[77]

On the 20th Washington gave orders to General Sullivan, who had recently returned from Canada, to take the command upon Long Island, until General Greene's state of health should permit him to resume it.[78]