Lighting 286 Candles on Washington’s Cake—Part II First in War

There is a lot wrong with this Currier and Ives American Centennial print of Washington accept command from the Continental Congress in 1776.  Washington in this is a much older man than accepted the job, the image based on Gilbert Stuart's famous standing portrait of him as President.  He is also shown wearing a Continental Army uniform, not the blue and red of his old Virginia Regiment.

Note:  Part II of a series in which we look at George Washington as the Continental Army Commander in the American Revolution.

On June 15, 1775 the Continental Congress appointed George Washington as the Commanding General of the Continental Army.  With Massachusetts and other New England militia units already besieging the British Army in Boston, Congress created a new Continental Army as a signal to the enemy that it was facing united Colonies, not just crazy, disgruntled Yankees. 

A unified command was essential, as was the arrival on the scene at the earliest possible moment of troops from the Middle and Southern colonies. The choice for the Commander was the subject of some intrigue.   There were other candidates. 

Most noteworthy was retired British Regular Army Lt. Colonel Charles Lee who had served as a junior officer with the 44th Foot Regiment in the French and Indian Wars.  Although he was away from the unit for the Battle of the Monongahela, Lee did serve at the Siege of Louisburg, a failed attempt to capture Ft. Ticonderoga, the capture of Ft. Niagara, and the failed attack on Montreal.  After returning to England and rising in the ranks, he became a mercenary serving with the Portuguese against a Spanish invasion and in the service of King Stanislaus II of Poland in the Russo-Turkish War.  After retiring from the British Army he expressed sympathy for the Colonial cause and immigrated to Virginia where he purchased an estate.  Lee was by far the most experienced officer available and had many supporters. 

Thomas Mifflin, a “fighting Quaker” from Pennsylvania was put forward by that colony’s delegates.  Artemus Ward, already commanding the troops in front of Boston, was naturally a candidate.  Among other names mentioned was another former British Regular officer, Richard Montgomery originally of Dublin, a veteran soldier with strong political links to British Whigs, and married into New York’s powerful Livingston family. 

Each of these men had regional and political support in Congress.  Virginia delegate Colonel George Washington was officially uninterested in the position.  But he showed up in Congress wearing his full uniform as Colonel of the Virginia Regiment—the Virginia Blues.  At a sturdy 6’2” the gentlemanly Washington cut quite a martial figure.  His mere presence inspired the members, especially in contrast to the slovenly, crude, and eccentric Lee. 

Like other candidates, Washington had served in the French and Indian Wars—in fact he started the war with his attack on a French scouting party near Fort Duquesne. He established Ft. Necessity nearby, but was soon driven out by French reinforcements.  He served as General Braddock’s aide-de-camp on his doomed expedition and was noted for his coolness under fire and getting as many men as possible out of the ambush. 

As commanding officer of the Virginia Blues he had established a series of frontier outposts for protection against Indian raids and conducted years of low grade warfare in the west.

Massachusetts delegate John Adams quickly recognized Washington as the best candidate.  He knew that a Virginia officer was essential in rallying the rest of the colonies to the rescue of his state.  Adams distrusted Lee because of his British roots and was offended by his uncouth manners.  He used all of his considerable legislative skill to line up a majority to elect Washington. 

In the end, however the choice might have come down to a matter of pay.  Lee insisted on the pay of a British Major General.  Washington promised to serve “without pay” only for expenses.  The frugal Congress, which had no power to raise revenues, liked that.  Washington accepted the appointment with appropriate, if feigned, modesty.  In a letter home he wrote: 

I assure you, in the most solemn manner, that, so far from seeking this appointment, I have used every endeavor in my power to avoid it, not only from my unwillingness to part with you and the family, but from a consciousness of its being a trust too great for my capacity, and that I should enjoy more happiness in one month with you at home than I have the most distant prospect of finding abroad.

The ailing General Ward was confirmed as official second in command, Lee made senior Major General,  Montgomery a Brigadier, and Mifflin rode north with Washington as his aide-de-camp and was soon to rise to Quarter Master General.  

Another Currier and Ives print gets it wrong Washington assuming Command in Massachusetts for the Siege of Boston.Few of the mostly Militia units and volunteers had uniforms, let alone the later Continental uniforms shown.

Washington was in New York City on his way to assume command of the siege when he received an account of the Battle of Bunker Hill from the Massachusetts Committee on Safety.  The report exaggerated British losses and papered over the difficulties Connecticut General Israel Putnam experienced trying to assert command, but it heartened the new commander.   He arrived on July 2 to find the army in some disarray and a general stalemate between the two sides.  He spent the next months gaining the confidence of his new command and its officers, reorganizing—basically creating—the Continental Line while trying to keep his Militia and volunteers on duty.  There were a few indecisive skirmishes and both sides suffered near starvation and small pox outbreaks over an exceptionally harsh winter.

But that same snowy winter allowed the rotund young former bookseller Col. Henry Knox to drag the heavy cannons captured at Fort Ticonderoga overland.  Some of the cannon, under Knox’s command were able to begin shelling Boston on March 2, 1776.  On March 5 Washington moved more cannon to the commanding Dorchester Heights in an overnight surprise operation.  That placed the British fleet, as well as the city under Continental guns.

An astonished British General William Howe is said to have proclaimed, “My God, these fellows have done more work in one night than I could make my army do in three months.”  It was checkmate and game over.  After delays because of unfavorable winds, British boarded ships and sailed from the city on March 17.  American troops, all handpicked for earlier exposure to and survival of small pox, led by Artemas Ward entered the city on March 20.

Washington had forged and army from a disorganized rabble in arms, liberated the cradle of the Revolution, and notched the first significant victory of the war—significant enough to embolden those in the Continental Congress led by John Adams who were pushing for a full declaration of independence.  The Commanding General’s prestige could not have been greater. 

However things would take a turn for the much worse.

With Boston secured, Washington moved his army to defend New York, the key mid-Atlantic port where the Hudson River flowing north and Lake Champlain provided and invasion route to or from Upper Canada and Quebec.  Control over the port and river also prevented New England from being cut off from the capitol at Philadelphia, the breadbasket Colonies of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the South.  The city was a prime target for the British and Washington knew they had an intact army in Nova Scotia and a powerful fleet.

Subordinates Generals Charles Lee and Nathaniel Greene began construction of fortification in Manhattan and on Brooklyn Heights before Washington and his 18,000 troops arrived from Boston.  Neither believed that the city could be held against a full scale British attack and wanted to position artillery under Knox to do the greatest damage to an invasion force possible before retreating and taking up defensive positions up the Hudson and in New Jersey.

Aggressive and overconfident, Washington wanted to lure the British into a full set-piece battle hoping to crush the invasion bring a quick end to the war.  He had not yet conducted a full scale battle and over estimated his still rudely trained troops.  Ft. Washington on the tip of Manhattan and Ft. Lee opposite it across the Hudson were hastily erected.

  

Washington is seen as observing New Yorkers topple the Statue of George III in New York after the reading of the Declaration of Independence.  The General did not approve of the disorder or vandalism, but came to appreciate the musket balls molded from the melted statue.  When the British took the city and held it through the rest of the war, they were not amused. 

The British fleet commanded by Admiral Richard Howe began arriving and anchoring off of Staten Island in late June.  Troops under his brother William landed on the Island on July 2, quickly dispersing a small Continental garrison there while the Staten Island Militia simply switched sides.  Couriers from Philadelphia arrived on July 5 and the Declaration of Independence was read to the troops and public in the city on that day.  Jubilant mobs toppled an equestrian statute of King George III and lopped off its head.  The always decorous Washington was mortified but soon glad to have the statue melted down for musket balls and cannon shot.

By mid-July British ships had sailed passed the guns of Forts Washington and Lee and sailed upriver to Tarrytown effectively cutting off the city from provisions from the north.  Howe attempted to open negotiations for Washington’s surrender but was repeatedly rebuffed for sending messages to George Washington, Esq. instead of General George Washington.  In early August Howe was reinforced by more ships and troops under Generals Henry Clinton and Charles Cornwallis arrived bring the total British force to an overwhelming 32,000 troops including 8,000 tough Hessian mercenaries on Staten Island and 73 warships.

Washington was unsure where the British would strike ignored the advice of Nathaniel Green that Long Island was the likely first target.  Washington felt that an attack on Long Island would be a diversion for a main thrust at Manhattan itself.  He made a nearly fatally bad decision to split his already out-numbered army in two and defend both.  Green was assigned command on Long Island, but was taken ill and replaced by New Yorker John Sullivan. 

On August 22 4000 advance troops under Clinton and Cornwallis landed at Long Island’s Sheep’s Head Bay unopposed by a regiment of Pennsylvania Rifles who fell back.  The sharpshooters might have made the landing hot work with their lethally accurate fire but were not prepared for a full field assault.  The troops rapidly advance six miles and established camp at Flatbush.  Meanwhile 40 pieces of artillery and more troops were brought ashore.  Washington was sent faulty intelligence on the size of the force and concluded that it was the feint he had feared.  He sent only 1,500 more troops from Manhattan to reinforce Long Island with the veteran of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston Israel Putman taking overall command on the island.  The arrival of Hessian reinforcements for the British brought their number to over 20,000.

On August 27 1,600 Colonials under Lord Sterling—William Alexander—mainly from the 1st Delaware Regiment and 1st Maryland Infantry met a force under British General James Grant on the high ground that became known as Battle Hill.  The colonials fought effectively and inflicted heavy casualties on the British stopping their advance.  They believed that they had stopped the main force.  Unfortunately this was a diversion for a main attack across Jamaica Plain led by a much larger force under Clinton.

The sacrifice of the Maryland 400 in its rear gaurd action in the Battle of Long Island allowed most of the surviving army to Join Washington on Brooklyn Heights and eventually escape from the island.

The Hessians attacked troops under John Sullivan at Flatbush’s Battle Pass then the main force flanked him and attacked his positions in the rear.  The left of the American line collapsed and Sullivan rallied his troops in fierce hand-to-hand fighting and managed to get most of the survivors to Brooklyn Heights before he was captured.  Stirling managed to fight off his attackers for hours on the right but was soon nearly surrounded with the arrival of 2,000 fresh Royal Marines.  Stirling personally took command of a rear guard of about 280 Marylanders under Major Mordecai Gist who became known to history as the Maryland 400—a hat tip to the 400 Spartans at Marathon.  They launched a desperate counter charge to hold up the British and allow the remnants of his troops to escape through a narrow pass to Brooklyn Heights. 

Meanwhile Washington, who now realized that the Long Island campaign was no diversion, arrived from Manhattan with reinforcements which were too late in arriving to commit to the battle, watched the desperate fight of the Marylanders in front of the fortified stone Vechte-Cortelyou House where 259 of them died.  Only a dozen or so made it back to Continental lines.  Stirling, a Scot nobleman, feared he would be hung by the British and hacked his way with his sword through their lines to surrender to the relative safety of the Hessians, who had been bayonetting captured private soldiers but would give gentlemanly respect to an officer.  Washington is said to have exclaimed, “Good God, what brave fellows I must this day lose!”

But now he and the tattered remnants of his army were trapped on Brooklyn Heights.  The situation looked grim.  But Howe did not press the attack.  He later told a court of inquiry that he was concerned with saving lives on both sides and that he wanted to give Washington a chance to surrender honorably in a hopeless situation.  Most likely he had in mind the horrific casualties that the Colonials could inflict from behind secure earthworks to troops charging up hill—the lesson of the fighting on Breed’s [Bunker] Hill.

As the British began to dig siege trenches, Washington brought over 1,500 more troops from Manhattan including the rugged fishermen of John Glover’s Marblehead Regiment.

Washington managed to evacuate thousands of troops and his precious artillery from the disaster on Long Island.

With skirmishing long the trench lines a steady rain began to fall on the afternoon of the 28th slowing the British progress on the trenches.  Meanwhile he had Knox’s artillery pound the British lines.  Washington sent word to Manhattan to gather all flat bottom scows and row boats and bring them over under cover of darkness.  At a Council of War on the 29th Washington agreed to Thomas Mifflin’s proposal to evacuate Brooklyn Heights while Pennsylvanians under his command provided a rear guard.  The evacuation began undetected by the British that night with Glover’s fishermen manning the boats.  A fortuitous fog covered the continuing operation when it dragged on into daylight of the 30th.  At 7 am Washington, the last man on Long Island not held prisoner stepped into the last boat.  He had miraculously gotten his army—9,000 men--to the temporary safety of Manhattan.

It was the only bright spot in an otherwise disastrous battle.  It turned out to be the largest by men committed of the entire war, but it was also Washington’s nadir as a commander.  His stubbornness and the bad strategic decision to split his forces had placed his whole army in jeopardy.  Naturally some in Congress new began to call for his replacement by Lee or perhaps Green who was recovering from his illness.

Many historians have harshly judged Washington’s capacity as a field general based on the Long Island campaign.  But recently respected historian David McCullough in his epic 2006 historical novel 1776 has argued that the escape from Long Island was an heroic and masterful American Dunkirk and represented Washington at his finest as a commander—cool in crisis, bold in execution, and innovative.

Meanwhile Howe once again dawdled, his hallmark as a commander in the war, but Washington again defied the advice of his senior officers that he abandon Manhattan.  On September 15 Howe finally landed a force at Kip’s Bay and quickly overran New York City on the lower end of the island.  A quarter the city mysteriously burned on September 21, a conflagration that may or may not have been set by Washington operatives in the city.

Washington retreated north across the Harlem River out of Manhattan and into Westchester County where troops under Putnam and General Alexander McDougall on October 28 put of a stiff resistance at the heights near White Plaines that caused Howe so many casualties that he eventually abandoned the village.  Washington’s main army was not engaged and he had time to organize a further retreat. 

Instead of pursuing Washington, Howe turned back south and attacked the remaining Continental bastion in Manhattan, Ft. Washington.  Washington had left it to the discretion of the commander on the scene, New Jersey Colonel Robert Magaw with 3000 men whether to evacuate the post.  Magaw believed he could make a stand from the well entrenched position.  Before Washington himself could arrive on the scene to assess the situation, Howe attacked from three sides with overwhelming force and naval support.  After some stiff resistance, Magaw was forced to surrender the post and his garrison on November 16.  Three days later Washington ordered Ft. Lee across the river abandoned, essentially ending the campaign around New York. 

Leaving most of his New England troops behind in the highlands above the Hudson to guard supply lines and deter a British dash up the river, Washington crossed over to New Jersey with most of his surviving army at Peekskill.  Howe chased him across New Jersey and Pennsylvania with elements of his army through November and early December, but declined to march out of the city in full force and risk a winter campaign.  European gentlemen soldiers did not fight in the winter.  Instead he built a string of outposts as forward strong points and planned a move against Washington and the Continental capitol at Philadelphia for spring.

That is when Washington with his beaten and demoralized army, planned one of the most audacious attacks in history which not only surprised his enemy but gave him a much needed victory which probably saved his command. 

Washington and most his remaining army—90% of those who had fought on Long Island were gone due to death, injury, capture, desertion, or the expiration of short term Militia enlistment—were in desperate condition and camped on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River hoping desperately to block any British move against Philadelphia.  He received some reinforcements—2,000 troops under General Sullivan and 800 from Ft. Ticonderoga under General Horatio Gates on December 20.

About the same time a spy in Washington’s elaborate intelligence operation brought word that three battalions of Hessians under Col. Johann Rall were posted across the river at Trenton, New Jersey and that Rall had failed to fortify his position confident that any attack by the rag-tag Continentals could be repelled at bayonet point.  Washington hatched a bold and desperate plan.

He knew that the Christmas loving Germans would be celebrating on December 25 and would probably not be in either great shape or on the lookout for an attack the next morning.  On the other hand Christmas was not a major holiday for most of his own troops.  And they had nothing in camp with which to celebrate anyway.  Washington planned a surprise crossing of the Delaware under cover of night after which he would split his main force into two columns under Generals Sullivan and Greene who would attack Trenton from both sides of the town at dawn.

Emanuel G Leutze 's George Washington Crossing the Delaware River, painted in 1851 was wildly romantic and inaccurate but became American icon anyway.

Washington’s friend, Philadelphia physician Benjamin Rush who was with the army as a volunteer surgeon reported seeing a not scrawled by the General that said “Victory or Death” which became the password of the operation

To get the men across, the turned once again to the Marblehead men under Col. Glover to man the boats.  Each man was issued 60 rounds of musket balls and powder and three days ration.  Field guns were also to be taken across by the boats.  There were delays in assembling and the weather turned foul—a pelting sleet and wind resulting in choppy water which was also partially iced over.  Despite not being able to complete the crossing before dawn, all troops made it across without the loss of a single life despite some falling overboard, as did the important cannon.  Unlike the famous picture, Washington did not foolishly stand up in the boat that carried him and his horse.

The men, many of them shoeless with rags tied around their feet marched rapidly south to a road junction about two miles from Trenton where Green and Sullivan’s columns split.  Sullivan took the river road and Green swung around to attack the town from the rear.  Each column sent a 40 advance guard ahead.  On the march some curious locals enthusiastically grabbed their hunting muskets and joined the troops. 

On the march Washington was surprised to encounter a local Militia band of 50 men under Adam Stephens who unaware of the planned attack, had just executed their own surprise hit and run raid against an isolated Hessian picket post.  Washington was furious that Stephens may have inadvertently alerted Rall but it was too late to turn back.  Stephens and his men fell in line with the troops and continued the march.  For his part Rall thought the small raid was the attack that some local Tories had warned him that the Continentals were preparing.  The ease with which it was repelled led him to conclude that the threat had been exaggerated.  He took no action to put his post on alert.

Washington inspects the Hessian colors after the victory at Trenton by Edward Percy Moran, c. 1914.

Outposts about a mile from Trenton were attacked about 8 am and quickly routed.  Sullivan and Green’s columns attacked the city itself as planned and Henry Knox brought his artillery to bear.  The surprise was effective.  The Hessians, the finest professional troops in Europe, tried to organize a defense but were quickly overwhelmed.  A detachment of British Dragoons was also quickly scattered.  There was sharp fighting and Rall rallied his regiment outside of town and organized a bayonet counter attack on the town.  Washington, watching from nearby heights led the reserve down to meet the charge while Knox’s men recaptured cannon which had changed hands turning it on the Hessians.  Taking positions in the cover of houses, Green’s men peppered the Germans from three sides.  Rall was mortally wounded and forced to surrender.  Another regiment tried to make a break out, but was surrounded and captured by Sullivan.  The whole battle was over in less than an hour.  It was an overwhelming American victory.

The Continentals suffered only two dead—both of exposure on the march not enemy fire—and five wounded including the commanding general’s cousin Captain William Washington and a young Lt. James Monroe, the future President.  The Hessians lost 22 dead, including all four colonels, 83 wounded and almost 900 captured.  In addition the Continentals came into possession of all of the enemy’s arms, munitions, rations, and critical supplies like boots and greatcoats.

Washington learned that a secondary attack across the Delaware to the north under General John Cadwalader and Militia under General James Ewing had been prevented from crossing by the bad weather and not having the experienced Marblehead boatmen.  Their combined 2,800 men had been expected to join Washington at Trenton where a united army could then push on against Princeton and New Brunswick.  That left Washington with only 2,400 effectuals exposed to a possible counter attack by Howe.  He prudently decided to withdraw back across the river with his spoils and prisoners.

The victory after the drubbing in New York re-assured Congress and buoyed moral in the army.  Re-enlistments increased, desertion decreased, and the colonies were able to recruit fresh bodies for the Line regiments.

But Washington was not yet done.  With his re-united army he re-crossed the Delaware at Trenton on December 29.  After a sharp skirmish at Assunpink Creek on January 2, he swung around an army under Cornwallis sent by Howe to find and punish him.  The next day after Washington personally led the troops of fallen General Hugh Mercer after rallying them and panicked Militia driving two brigades of the British back on Cornwallis near Trenton.  Meanwhile Sullivan captured the city and a sizable detachment held up in Nassau Hall, the main building of the College of New Jersey. 

Washington then marched to Morristown and finally went into winter quarters.  Stung by three defeats to the Continentals in a few days and hectored by attacks on his supply lines and isolated outposts by the New Jersey Militia, Howe ordered Cornwallis and most of the other troops to fall back to New York.

Thus ended Washington’s first campaign season, a mixed bag of triumph, disaster, and redemption.  Everyone now recognized it would be long war and Washington realized that above all he must keep and army in the field no matter what setbacks in hopes of bleeding the Treasury and eroding support of the war in Parliament.  He would concentrate on training and equipping his troops and cultivating a reliable and loyal officer corps.  He learned to distrust Militia, which had broken and run too often, and lean heavily on his Continental Line.  Six long, eventful years of war stretched ahead.

Tomorrow:  War, More War, Intrigue, and the World Turned Upside Down.