The Boys Life of Lafayette 11

The Boys Life of Lafayette 11

LETTERS

 

 

Lafayette had plenty of time for thought as he lay in his neat room,

waited upon by the wife of the chief farmer of the Bethlehem Society

and her daughter, Lissel. Much of the time was spent in wondering about

Adrienne, of whom as yet he had received news only once. As this was

brought him by Count Pulaski, who left Paris before the birth of the

expected child, Lafayette did not know whether his new baby was a boy

or a girl, whether it had been born alive or dead, or how his wife

had come through the ordeal. He could only send her long letters at

every opportunity, well knowing "that King George might receive some

of them instead." In these he sent messages to many French friends,

not forgetting his old tutor, the Abbé Feyon, but he did not enlarge

upon all phases of his American Life. "At present I am in the solitude

of Bethlehem, about which the Abbé Raynal has so much to say," he told

her. "This community is really touching and very interesting. We will

talk about it after I return, when I mean to bore every one I love,

you, consequently, most of all, with stories of my travels." He did not

[Pg 82]think it wise to refer in letters to one amusing phase of the

situation in which he found himself at Bethlehem--the visits paid him

by influential members of the Moravian brotherhood, who took a deep

interest in his spiritual welfare and tried their best to convert him

from a warrior into a pacifist.

 

It was while listening, or appearing to listen, politely to their

sermons upon peace that his mind darted over the earth, here and there,

even to far-distant Asia, planning warlike expeditions for the aid of

his American friends. When his peaceful hosts departed he wrote letters

embodying these plans. As he says in his _Memoirs_, he could "do

nothing except write letters." One, which he addressed to the French

governor of Martinique, proposed an attack on the British West Indies,

to be carried out under the American flag. He had also the temerity to

write to M. de Maurepas, proposing a descent upon the British in India.

The boldness of the idea, and the impudence of Lafayette in suggesting

it while he was still under the ban of the French government, caused

the old man to chuckle. "Once that boy got an idea in his head there

was no stopping him," he said. "Some day he would strip Versailles of

its furniture for the sake of his Americans," and thereafter he showed

a marked partiality for "that boy."

 

Matters had gone badly for the Americans since the battle of the

Brandywine. General Howe occupied Philadelphia on September 26th; on

October 4th Washington lost the battle of Germantown. Since then the

[Pg 83]army had been moving from camp to camp, seeking a spot not

too exposed, yet from which it could give General Howe all possible

annoyance. Clearly this was no time to be lying in tidy, sunlit rooms

listening to sermons on non-resistance. Before he was able to bear

the weight of his military boot Lafayette rejoined the army. An entry

in the diary of the Bethlehem Congregation, dated October 16, 1777,

reads: "The French Marquis, whom we have found to be a very intelligent

and pleasant young man, came to bid us adieu, and requested to be

shown through the Sisters' House, which we were pleased to grant. He

was accompanied by his adjutant, and expressed his admiration of the

institution. While recovering from his wound he spent much of his time

in reading." Under date of October 18th is another entry, "The French

Marquis and General Woodford left for the army to-day."

 

On the day between Lafayette's visit of farewell and his actual

departure Gen. John Burgoyne, who had set out confidently from Canada

to open the Hudson River, ended by surrendering his entire army. He

had thought he was pursuing ragged Continental soldiers when in truth

they were luring him through the autumn woods to his ruin. He awoke to

find his communications cut and his army compelled to fight a battle or

starve. It gallantly fought two battles near Saratoga, one on September

19th, the other on October 7th; but both went against him and ten days

later he gave up his sword and nearly six thousand British soldiers to

"mere" Americans.

 

[Pg 84]Up to that time a puzzled world had been unable to understand

how the American cause continued to gain. The capture of a whole

British army, however, was something tangible that Europe could fully

comprehend, and respect for the Revolution measurably increased. The

victory had even greater effect in Europe than in America, though at

home there was much rejoicing and a marked gain in the value of those

"promises to pay" which Congress issued as a means of getting money for

current expenses.

 

But Burgoyne's surrender threatened to have very serious effects upon

the personal fortunes of General Washington, and in lesser degree

upon those of Lafayette. People began contrasting the results of the

summer's campaign. Washington, in command of the main army, had lost

Philadelphia, while farther north General Gates, with fewer men, had

not only captured Burgoyne, but cleared the whole region of enemy

troops. There were those who did not hesitate to say that Washington

ought to be deposed and Gates put in his place.

 

In reality Gates had almost nothing to do with the surrender of

Burgoyne. The strategy which led up to the battles of Saratoga was the

work of General Schuyler, who was forced out of command by intrigue

and superseded by Gates just before the crowning triumph. The battles

themselves had not been fought under the personal orders of the new

commander, but under Benedict Arnold and Gen. Daniel Morgan, with the

help of the Polish General Kosciuszko in planning defenses. It was pure

[Pg 85]luck, therefore, which brought Gates the fame; but, being a

man of more ambition than good judgment, with an excellent opinion of

himself, he was the last person in the world to discourage praise of

his ability.

 

Discontent against Washington was fanned by born intriguers like the

Irish General Conway and by the more despicable Gen. Charles Lee, a

traitor at heart. Lafayette became involved quite innocently, in the

plot against him, known to history as the Conway Cabal. Two things,

good in themselves, were responsible for it. One was his optimistic

belief in human nature; the other, his increasing military renown. The

latter was the result of a very small engagement in which he took a

very large part shortly after rejoining the army. The main camp was

then about fifteen miles from Philadelphia, but General Greene had

taken his division over into New Jersey, where he was endeavoring to

make life uncomfortable for General Howe. Lafayette obtained permission

to join him as a volunteer, and on the 25th of November went out with

about three hundred men to reconnoiter a position held by the British

at Gloucester, opposite Philadelphia. He could clearly see them

carrying across the river the provisions they had gathered in a raid

in New Jersey, and they might easily have killed or captured him had

they been on the lookout. Some of his men advanced to within two miles

and a half of Gloucester, where they came upon a post of three hundred

and fifty Hessians with field-pieces. What followed is told briefly in

[Pg 86]his own words. "As my little reconnoitering party was all in

fine spirits, I supported them. We pushed the Hessians more than half

a mile from the place where their main body was, and we made them run

very fast." The vigor, of his attack made Cornwallis believe General

Greene's entire division was upon him, and he hurried to the relief of

his Hessians. This was more than Lafayette bargained for, and he drew

off in the gathering darkness with the loss of only one man killed and

five wounded, carrying with him fourteen Hessian prisoners, while twice

that number, including an officer, remained on the field.

 

General Greene had described Lafayette to his wife as "one of the

sweetest-tempered young gentlemen." Now his soldierly qualities

impressed him. "The marquis is determined to be in the way of danger,"

was the comment he appended to his own account of the affair; and he

ordered Lafayette to make his report directly to Washington, which the

young man did in the boyishly jubilant epistle written in quaint French

English which told how the Hessians "ran very fast." The letter fairly

bubbled with pride over the behavior of his militia and his rifle

corps; and, not content with expressing this to his Commander-in-chief,

he lined them up next morning and made them a little speech, telling

them exactly how he felt about it. An Englishman or an American could

scarcely have done it with grace, but it was manifestly spontaneous on

his part--one of those little acts which so endeared Lafayette to his

American friends both in and out of the army.

 

[Pg 87]Washington sent on the news to Congress with the intimation

that his young friend had now proved his ability and might be trusted

with the command he so longed for. "He possesses uncommon military

talents," Washington wrote, "is of a quick and sound judgment,

persevering and enterprising without rashness, and, besides these, he

is of conciliating temper and perfectly sober--which are qualities

that rarely combine in the same person." At that moment of bickering

in the army and of popular criticism of himself they must have

seemed exceptionally rare to Washington. Congress expressed its

willingness, and we learn from a long letter written by Lafayette to

his father-in-law and carried across the ocean by no less a personage

than John Adams, when he went to replace Silas Deane at Paris, that

Washington offered him the choice of several different divisions.

 

He chose one made up entirely of Virginians, though it was weak "even

in proportion to the weakness of the entire army," and very sadly in

need of clothing. "I am given hope of cloth out of which I must make

coats and recruits out of which I must make soldiers in almost the

same space of time. Alas! the one is harder than the other, even for

men more skilled than I," he wrote, just before the army went into

its melancholy winter quarters at Valley Forge. "We shall be in huts

there all winter," Lafayette explained. "It is there that the American

army will try to clothe itself, because it is naked with an entire

nakedness; to form itself, because it is in need of instruction; and to

[Pg 88]recruit its numbers, because it is very weak. But the thirteen

states are going to exert themselves and send us men," he added,

cheerfully. "I hope my division will be one of the strongest, and I

shall do all in my power to make it one of the best."

 

He was striving to make the most of his opportunity. "I read, I study,

I examine, I listen, I reflect, and upon the result of all this I

endeavor to form my opinion and to put into it as much common sense as

I can. I am cautious about talking too much, lest I should say some

foolish thing; and still more cautious in my actions lest I should do

some foolish thing; for I do not want to disappoint the confidence the

Americans have so kindly placed in me."

 

There was not much to do after the army went into winter quarters;

and France seemed very far away. "What is the use of writing news in

a letter destined to travel for years and to reach you finally in

tatters?" he wrote Adrienne on November 6th. "You may receive this

letter, dear heart, in the course of five or six years, for I write