The Boys Life of Lafayette 12

The Boys Life of Lafayette 12

A FOOL'S ERRAND

 

 

The more Lafayette studied Washington the more he was confirmed in

his first swift impression. "Our general is a man really created for

this Revolution, which could not succeed without him," he wrote the

Duc d'Ayen. "I see him more intimately than any one else in the world,

and I see him worthy the adoration of his country.... His name will be

revered in future ages by all lovers of liberty and humanity."

 

Such admiration seemed unlikely ground upon which to work for

Washington's undoing, but this was what his enemies attempted. Part

of their plan was to win away Washington's trusted friends, and

Lafayette's good will would be particularly valuable, because he

was looked upon in a way as representing France. The winter proved

unusually severe, and when the sufferings of the soldiers at Valley

Forge began to be noised abroad criticism of Washington increased. It

was pointed out that Burgoyne's captured army was being fed at American

expense, that General Clinton's forces were comfortably housed in New

York, while General Howe and his officers were enjoying a brilliant

[Pg 92]social season at Philadelphia; but at Valley Forge there was

only misery. General Conway was there himself, working up his plot.

 

Lafayette was so kindly disposed that it was hard for him to believe

others evil-minded. Also he was frankly ambitious. Thomas Jefferson

once said of him that he had "a canine appetite" for fame. Conway

played skilfully on both these traits, professing great friendship for

Lafayette and throwing out hints of glory to be gained in service under

General Gates, to whom he knew Lafayette had written a polite note of

congratulation after Saratoga. Lafayette appears to have taken it all

at its face value until an incriminating letter from Conway to Gates

fell into hands for which it was never intended. Then Lafayette went

directly to Washington, meaning to unburden his heart, but the general

was engaged and could not see him. He returned to his quarters and

wrote him a long letter, breathing solicitude in every line. Washington

answered with his usual calm dignity, but in a way to show that the

young man's devotion was balm to his spirit.

 

Conway had played upon Lafayette's homesickness also. Family news came

to him very slowly. It was not until Christmas was being celebrated at

Valley Forge with such sorry festivities as the camp could afford that

he learned of the birth of his little daughter, Anastasie, which had

occurred in the previous July. All the camp rejoiced with him, but the

news increased his desire to be with his wife and children, if only for

[Pg 93]a short time. If he had really contemplated a journey across the

sea, however, he gave up the idea at once, believing that loyalty to

his friend now made it his duty to "stand by."

 

"The bearer of this letter will describe to you the attractive

surroundings of the place I have chosen to stay in rather than to enjoy

the happiness of being with you," he wrote Adrienne. "After you know

in detail all the circumstances of my present position ... you will

approve of my course. I almost dare to say you will applaud me....

Besides the reason that I have given you, I have still another which

I should not mention to everybody, because it might appear that I was

assuming an air of ridiculous importance. My presence is more necessary

to the American cause at this moment than you may imagine. Many

foreigners who have failed to obtain commissions, or whose ambitious

schemes after having obtained them could not be countenanced, have

entered into powerful conspiracies; they have used every artifice to

turn me against this Revolution and against him who is its leader; and

they have taken every opportunity to spread the report that I am about

to leave the continent. The British have openly declared this to be so.

I cannot with good conscience play into the hands of these people. If I

were to go, many Frenchmen who are useful here would follow my example."

 

So he stayed at Valley Forge, which was indeed a place of icy torment.

The men suffered horribly for lack of coats and caps and shoes.

Their feet froze until they were black. Sometimes they had to be [Pg

94]amputated. There was not enough food. Even colonels rarely had

more than two meals a day, often only one, while the rank and file

frequently went for several days without a distribution of rations.

Enlistments ceased, and desertion was very easy with a wide-open

country back of the camp and Howe's sleek, well-fed army only two

marches away down the Lancaster Pike. It was small wonder that

Washington's numbers dwindled until he could count only five or six

thousand. Lafayette called the endurance of the wretched little army

that held on "a miracle which every day served to renew." It was a

miracle explained by the character of the Commander-in-chief, and of

the remarkable group of officers he had gathered around him. As for

Lafayette, he strove to live as frugally and be as self-denying as

any of them. More than forty years later some of his American friends

had proof of how well he succeeded; for an old soldier came up and

reminded him how one snowy night at Valley Forge he had taken a gun

from a shivering sentry and stood guard himself while he sent the man

to his own quarters for a pair of stockings and his only blanket; and

when these things were brought how he had cut the blanket in two and

given him half. Though there was cruel suffering in that winter camp,

there was much of such high-spirited gallantry to meet it; and there

were also pleasant hours, for several of the officers had been joined

by their wives, who did everything in their power to make the dull days

brighter.

 

[Illustration: WASHINGTON AND THE COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS AT VALLEY FORGE]

 

[Illustration: VALLEY FORGE--WASHINGTON AND LAFAYETTE]

 

[Pg 95]Washington's enemies, not yet having exhausted their wiles, hit

upon a clever plan to remove Lafayette from his side. They succeeded

in getting Congress to appoint a new War Board with General Gates at

its head. This body exercised authority, though Washington remained

Commander-in-chief. Without consulting him, the board decided, or

pretended to decide, to send a winter expedition into Canada, with

Lafayette at its head and Conway second in command. Conway had offered

his resignation at the time his letter was discovered, but it had not

been accepted. To emphasize the slight put upon Washington, Lafayette's

new commission was inclosed in a letter to the Commander-in-chief, with

the request that he hand it to the younger man. This Washington did

with admirable self-control, saying, as he gave Lafayette the paper, "I

would rather they had selected you for this than any other man."

 

It is not often that such important duty falls to a soldier of

twenty-one. Naturally enough, he was elated, and this duty was

particularly tempting because it offered him, a Frenchman, the chance

to go into a French province to reconquer a region which had been

taken from his own people by Britain in the Seven Years' War. But he

also was capable of exercising self-control, and he answered that he

could accept it only on the understanding that he remained subordinate

to Washington, as an officer of his army detailed for special duty,

with the privilege of making reports directly to him and of sending

duplicates to Congress. A committee of Congress happened to be visiting

[Pg 96]Valley Forge that day, and he went impetuously before them and

declared that he would rather serve as a mere aide under Washington

than accept any separate command the War Board could give him. His

conditions being agreed to, he departed happily enough for York,

Pennsylvania, where Congress was still holding its sittings, in order

to receive his instructions.

 

There, in General Gates's own house, at another dinner memorable in his

personal history, he got his first intimation of the kind of campaign

the War Board wished him to carry on. Toast after toast was drunk--to

the success of the northern expedition--to Lafayette and his brilliant

prospects--and on through a long list, to which he listened in growing

amazement, for he missed the most important of them all. "Gentlemen!"

he cried, finally, springing to his feet, "I propose the health of

General Washington!" and the others drank it in silence.

 

He refused to have Conway for his second in command, and asked that De

Kalb be detailed to accompany him instead. He proved so intractable, in

short, that even before he set out for Albany, where he was to assume

command, the conspirators saw it was useless to continue the farce; but

they allowed him to depart on his cold journey as the easiest way of

letting the matter end. The four hundred miles occupied two weeks by

sleigh and horseback, a most discouraging sample of what he must expect

farther north. "Lake Champlain is too cold for producing the least bit

of laurel," he wrote Washington. "I go very slowly, sometimes drenched

by rain, sometimes covered by snow, and not entertaining many [Pg

97]handsome thoughts about the projected incursion into Canada."

 

At Albany he found creature comforts, a bed, for one thing, with a

supply of quilts and blankets that made it entirely possible to sleep

without lying down in his clothes, which was a luxury he had scarcely

enjoyed since leaving Bethlehem; but of preparations for invading

Canada he found not one. The plans and orders that looked so well on

paper, and which he had been assured were well under way, had not been

heard of in Albany, or else had not been executed, for the best of

reasons; because they could not be. General Conway was there ahead of

him to represent the War Board, and told him curtly that the expedition

was not to be thought of. Astounded, the young general refused

to believe him until interviews with General Schuyler and others

experienced in northern campaigning convinced him that this at least

was not treachery, but cold, hard fact.

 

The discovery was a great blow to Lafayette's pride. Members of

Congress had urged him to write about the expedition to his friends

in France. He was frankly afraid that he would be laughed at "unless

Congress offers the means of mending this ugly business by some

glorious operation." But he was in no mood to ask favors of Congress.

"For you, dear General," he wrote Washington, "I know very well that

you will do everything to procure me the one thing I am ambitious

of--glory. I think your Excellency will approve of my staying on here

until further orders."

 

[Pg 98]March found him still at Albany, awaiting the orders which the

War Board was in no haste to send, having already accomplished its

purpose. He tried to retrieve something out of the hopeless situation,

but with fewer men than he had been promised, and these clamoring for

pay long overdue, he had little success. "Everybody is after me for

monney," he wrote General Gates, "and monney will be spoken of by me

till I will be enabled to pay our poor soldiers. Not only justice and

humanity, but even prudence obliges us to satisfy them soon." As he

had already done, and would do again, he drew upon his private credit

to meet the most pressing public needs; but he could work against the

enemy only in an indirect way by sending supplies to Fort Schuyler,

where they were sorely needed.