The Boys Life of Lafayette 10

The Boys Life of Lafayette 10

Judging by what they had accomplished, they were indeed wonders.

It was now August, 1777. Lexington had been fought in April, 1775,

and in that space of more than two years England had been unable to

make real headway against the insurrection which General Gage had at

first thought could be thoroughly crushed by four British regiments.

That mistake had soon become apparent. Large reinforcements had been

sent from England with new generals. At present there were two British

armies in the field. Time and again the ragged Continentals had

been beaten, yet in a bewildering fashion they continued to grow in

importance in the eyes of the world.

 

The first part of the struggle had all taken place in the neighborhood

of Boston; hence the name "Bostonians" by which the Americans had

been applauded in Paris. But after General Howe was held for a whole

winter in Boston in a state of siege he sailed away for Halifax in

March, 1776, with all his troops and all the Tories who refused to stay

without him. This was nothing less than an admission that he was unable

to cope with the Americans. He sent word to England that it would

require at least 50,000 men to do it--10,000 in New England, 20,000

in the Middle States, 10,000 in the South, and 10,000 to beat General

Washington, who had developed such an uncanny power of losing battles,

yet gaining prestige.

 

The War Office in London refused to believe General Howe. It reasoned

that New England was, after all, only a small section of country which

[Pg 74]could be dealt with later; so it let it severely alone and

concentrated attention upon New York with a view to getting command

of the Hudson River. The Hudson would afford a direct route up to the

Canadian border, and Canada was already British territory. It ought

not to be difficult to gain control of one Atlantic seaport and one

river. That accomplished, the rebellion would be cut in two as neatly

as though severed with a knife, and it would be easy enough to dispose

of New England and of the South in turn.

 

So General Howe was ordered back to carry out this plan. He appeared

off Staten Island with twenty-five thousand men on the day after the

Declaration of Independence was signed. In the thirteen months that

elapsed between his coming and the day Lafayette first reviewed the

American army General Washington had been able to keep Howe and all

his forces at bay. He had marched and retreated and maneuvered. He had

lost battles and men. Lost New York, as had been reported in Paris; had

indeed lost most of his army, as the American commissioners admitted

to Lafayette; yet in some mysterious way he continued to fight. By

brilliant strategy he had gained enough victory to rekindle hope after

hope seemed dead; and never, even when the outlook was darkest, had the

British been able to get full control of the Hudson River.

 

The British government, annoyed by Howe's delay, sent over another army

under General Burgoyne in the spring of 1777, with orders to go down

[Pg 75]from Canada and end the matter. When last heard from, this army

had taken Ticonderoga and was pursuing General Schuyler through eastern

New York. General Howe, meanwhile, appeared to have dropped off the

map. He was no longer in force near New York, nor had Washington any

definite news of his whereabouts. This was the situation when Lafayette

became a member of Washington's military family; a major-general

without pay, experience, or a command.

 

He took his commission seriously enough to cause his general some

misgiving; for, after all, Washington knew nothing about his ability,

only that he liked him personally. Lafayette frankly admitted his youth

and inexperience, but always accompanied such admissions with a hint

that he was ready to assume command as soon as the general saw fit to

intrust him with it. On the 19th of August Washington wrote to Benjamin

Harrison, a member of Congress, telling him his perplexity and asking

him to find out how matters really stood. If Lafayette's commission had

been merely honorary, as Washington supposed, the young man ought to

be made fully aware of his mistake; if not, Washington would like to

know what was expected of him. The answer returned was that Washington

must use his own judgment; and for a time matters drifted. Lafayette

meanwhile took gallant advantage of every small opportunity that came

his way, both for assuming responsibility and for doing a kindness.

He proved himself ready to bear a little more than his full share of

hardship, and, by constant cheerfulness and willingness to accept

[Pg 76]whatever duty was assigned him, came to be regarded as by far

the best foreigner in the army--though of course hopelessly and forever

a foreigner. In his letters home he often touched upon the discontent

of other men of European birth "who complain, detest, and are detested

in turn. They do not understand why I alone am liked.... For my part I

cannot understand why they are so heartily detested.... I am happy in

being loved by everybody, foreign and American. I like them all, hope

to merit their esteem, and we are well content with each other."

 

It was on the 21st of August, two days after Washington's letter to

Mr. Harrison, that Lafayette was called to attend the first council of

war--that duty about which he had playfully written to his wife. The

question was what to do next, for General Howe and his army had not

been seen or heard of for weeks. That meant that he was planning some

surprise; but from which direction would it come?

 

The truth was that General Howe had allowed himself to be lured away

from the Hudson by his ambition to capture Philadelphia, knowing what

a blow it would be to the Americans to lose their chief town where

Congress was sitting. As soon as this was accomplished he meant to

return to his former duty. To the American officers gathered around

the map on the council table his whereabouts was a great mystery, for

they thought ample time had elapsed for him to appear in Chesapeake

Bay if Philadelphia was indeed his objective. Presumably he meant to

attack some other place, and Charleston seemed to be the only other

[Pg 77]place of sufficient importance to merit his attention. As it

was manifestly impossible to get Washington's army that far south in

time to be of assistance, it was determined to leave Charleston to its

fate and to move nearer to New York to guard the Hudson. With Burgoyne

descending from the north and Howe in hiding, it was quite possible

that the river might soon be menaced from two directions. The battle

of Bennington, a severe check for Burgoyne, had in fact occurred three

days before, but it is probable they had not yet heard of it.

 

The day after the council, ships carrying Howe's army were sighted

in Chesapeake Bay, which proved without doubt that Philadelphia was

his goal. Washington faced his men about, and, in order to cheer

Philadelphians and give his soldiers a realization of what they were

defending, marched the army through the city "down Front Street to

Chestnut, and up Chestnut to Elm," riding, himself, at the head of

his troops, a very handsome figure on his white horse, Lafayette

conspicuous among the staff-officers, and the privates wearing

sprigs of green in their hats as they marched to a lively air. They

were joined as they went along by Pennsylvania militia and by other

volunteers who hastened forward, American fashion, at prospect of a

battle. Thus Washington's force was increased to about fifteen thousand

by the time he neared the enemy. Most of these new arrivals were,

however, worse off for clothing and arms--and discipline--than the

original army, so his force by no means matched either in numbers or

[Pg 78]equipment the eighteen thousand British soldiers, thoroughly

supplied according to the best standards of the day, which were

disembarked by Cornwallis "at the Head of Elk," the inlet of Chesapeake

Bay nearest to the city.

 

There were several preliminary skirmishes, during which Lafayette

learned that Washington could be as personally reckless as the youngest

lieutenant. On the day the British landed he exposed himself in a

reconnaissance and was forced to remain through a night of storm, with

Lafayette and Gen. Nathanael Greene, in a farm-house very near the

enemy lines.

 

The main battle for the defense of Philadelphia occurred on the 11th

of September, on the banks of a little stream called the Brandywine,

about twenty-five miles from the city. Washington intrenched his force

upon the hilly ground of its east bank, but, owing to woods which made

it hard to observe the enemy, to the ease with which the stream could

be forded, and to the superior numbers of the British, this position

was turned and his army forced back toward Chester. It was Lafayette's

first battle, and the zeal with which he threw himself into the unequal

contest, the quickness of his perceptions, and the courage he showed in

following up his instinct of the thing to do with the act of doing it,

won the admiration of all who saw him. After that day the army forgot

he was a foreigner and looked upon him as one of themselves. "Never,"

he says, "was adoption more complete."

 

During the hottest of the fight he had leaped from his horse down

among the men, striving by voice and example to rally them to make

[Pg 79]a stand against Cornwallis's fast-approaching column. Lord

Sterling and General Sullivan had come to his aid and the three had

held their ground until the British were only twenty yards away, when

they took refuge in a wood. Lafayette's left leg had been struck by

a musket-ball, but he was unconscious of this until another officer

called attention to the blood running from his boot. With the help of

his French aide-de-camp, Major de Gimat, who had come with him on _La

Victoire_, he remounted his horse, but remained with the troops and

was borne along in the general retreat toward Chester, which became

very like a rout as night approached; men and guns hurrying on in

ever-increasing confusion. Near Chester there was a bridge, and here,

though Lafayette was weak from loss of blood, he placed guards and,

halting the fugitives as they came up, managed to bring something like

order into the chaos. It was only after Washington and other generals

reached the spot that he consented to have his wound properly dressed.

Washington's midnight report to Congress mentioned the gallantry of the

young Frenchman.

 

Lafayette's injury was not at all dangerous, but it was quite

serious enough to keep him in bed for a month or more. He was taken

to Philadelphia, and Washington sent his most skilful surgeon to

attend him, with orders to care for him as he would for his own son.

Later, when Howe's continued approach made it certain the city must

pass into British hands, he was sent by water to Bristol on the

[Pg 80]Delaware River, and from that point Mr. Henry Laurens, the new

President of Congress, on the way to join his fleeing fellow-members,

who were to resume their sessions at York, gave him a lift in his

traveling-carriage as far as Bethlehem, where the Moravians nursed him

back to health.

 

De Kalb and other military friends took a real, if humorously

expressed, interest in his "little wound," and on his part he declared

that he valued it at more than five hundred guineas. He had hastened to

write his wife all about it, not too seriously, "for fear that General

Howe, who sends his royal master rather exaggerated details of his