The Boys Life of Lafayette 18
"I am not writing to M. le Comte de Rochambeau or to M. le Chevalier
de Ternay. I beg you to communicate to them this incredible story....
What will the officers of the French army say when they see a general
abandon and basely sell his country after having defended it so
well? You can bear witness, M. le Chevalier, that this is the first
[Pg 142]atrocity that has been heard of in our army. But if, on the
one hand, they hear of the infamy of Arnold, they are bound to admire
the disinterestedness of a few countrymen who happened to meet Mr.
André with a passport from General Arnold, and on the mere suspicion
of his being a friend of England made him a prisoner, refusing at the
same time his horse, his watch, and four hundred guineas which he
offered them if they would allow him to continue upon his way....
"I shall conclude my long letter, M. le Chevalier, by referring to a
subject which must touch every human heart. The unhappy Mrs. Arnold
did not know a word of this conspiracy. Her husband told her before
going away that he was flying, never to come back, and he left her
lying unconscious. When she came to herself she fell into frightful
convulsions and completely lost her reason. We did everything we
could to quiet her, but she looked upon us as the murderers of her
husband.... The horror with which her husband's conduct has inspired
her, and a thousand other feelings, make her the most unhappy of
women.
"P.S.--She has recovered her reason this morning, and, as you know
I am upon very good terms with her, she sent for me to go up to her
chamber. General Washington and every one else sympathize warmly with
this estimable woman whose face and whose youthfulness make her so
interesting. She is going to Philadelphia, and I implore you, when
you return, to use your influence in her favor.... Your influence and
[Pg 143]your opinion, emphatically expressed, may prevent her from
being visited with a vengeance which she does not deserve. General
Washington will protect her also. As for myself, you know that I
have always been fond of her, and at this moment she interests me
intensely. We are certain that she knew nothing of the plot."
This letter expressed the hope that André would be hanged according to
military law, because, being a man of high rank and influence, his fate
would serve as a warning to spies of lesser degree. Lafayette was one
of the court martial that tried and sentenced him; and we have no proof
that he hesitated for an instant in the performance of his stem duty
or that he ever regretted it. Yet from a letter to Madame Lafayette,
written after André's death, we know that Lafayette felt his charm, as
did every one else who knew the unfortunate young Englishman. "He was
an interesting young man," Lafayette wrote. "He conducted himself in a
manner so frank, so noble, and so delicate that I cannot help feeling
for him infinite sorrow."
Arnold, as everybody knows, did not blow out his brains, but, becoming
literally a turncoat, donned the red of the British uniform, and took
his unwelcome place among the gentlemen officers of King George. In
the following spring he was doing work of destruction in Virginia; but
he was not trusted by his new companions, and two British colonels
supposed to be under his orders were secretly charged with the duty of
keeping an eye on him. It was in Virginia that his path and Lafayette's
crossed once more.
[Pg 144]Lafayette meantime had been a prey to restlessness. Nothing
happened in the North more interesting than camp routine and the
exchange of official visits. During the summer he had been given
command of a special corps of light infantry culled from all branches
of the service, a body of men in which he took infinite pride. "Its
position is always that of advance-guard," he wrote Adrienne. "It is
independent of the main army, and it is far too fine for our present
pacific situation." He lavished training and affection upon it and
pampered it by sending to France for luxuries like sabers and banners
and plumes. While less needed than coats and shoes, such things were
easier to transport. But even in the matter of clothing this favored
corps was better off than the rest of the army. A French officer who
visited Lafayette's camp thought the uniforms of both men and officers
smart. Each soldier wore a sort of helmet made of hard leather, with a
crest of horsehair.
Before the army went into winter quarters many Frenchmen came to "the
camp of the marquis" twenty miles from New York, making the pilgrimage
not so much from love of him or to sample the punch which, according
to the custom of the time, he kept "stationary on the table" for
the benefit of his guests, as out of curiosity to see Washington's
headquarters, which were not far away. Most of them were impressed
by the good horses owned by American generals and astonished at the
simplicity of their other equipment. Some "who had made war as colonels
[Pg 145]long before Lafayette left school" were the least bit jealous
of his youth and influence. Several had entered into an agreement not
to accept service under him; but all were flattered that a Frenchman
held such high place in public esteem. One of them asserted with
complacency that "private letters from him have frequently produced
more effect upon some states than the strongest exhortations of
Congress."
When the army went into winter quarters again he had even more time
upon his hands. He wrote many letters. One went almost every month
to his powerful friend at court, Vergennes, urging speedy aid. The
military needs of the country were never absent from his thoughts, even
while he was taking his French friends, including De Noailles, on a
personally conducted tour of near-by battle-fields and cities. He did
not trust himself far from headquarters, for fear that his chief might
need him or that he might miss some opportunity. When Colonel Laurens
received his instructions before starting for Paris he took care to be
on hand, to give expert advice on court customs and prejudices. He was
a young man who well knew his influence upon two continents, and was
so eager to use it that a man of less winning personality in similar
circumstances might have got himself heartily disliked.
His eagerness to do something was heightened by his belief that Europe
misunderstood, and thought Americans either unready or unwilling to
fight. His vivid imagination got to work again and juggled with facts
and figures until he became convinced that a surprise attack upon New
[Pg 146]York could do no possible harm and might capture the city. He
detailed this plan to Washington, who saw the weakness of his reasoning
and rejected it in a kind letter signed "sincerely and affectionately
yours," reminding Lafayette that "we must consult our means rather than
our wishes" and that "to endeavor to recover our reputation we should
take care not to injure it the more."
After this gentle snub he was torn between a desire to join General
Greene in the South for the winter campaign and his wish to be near New
York when a blow was struck there. With a curiosity that would have
been unpardonable in a less intimate friend, he sought to find out his
chief's plans on this score. Washington's answer was non-committal, but
he pointed out that "your going to the Southern army, if you expect
a command in this, will answer no valuable purpose"; and after this
second gentle snub Lafayette gave up the idea of joining Greene. Then
in February he was sent with a detachment of twelve hundred men to
Virginia, where Arnold was destroying valuable supplies. His orders
bade him travel fast, "not to suffer the detachment to be delayed
for want of either provisions, forage, or wagons," and after he got
to Virginia "to do no act whatever with Arnold that directly or by
implication will screen him from the punishment due to his treason and
desertion; which, if he should fall into your hands, you will execute
in the most summary way." While in Virginia he was to co-operate with
General von Steuben, who was in command of militia there; and if [Pg
147]it should prove impossible to dislodge Arnold, Lafayette was to
bring his men back to rejoin the main army.
He had his force at the Head of Elk, that inlet at the head of
Chesapeake Bay which the English had already used, three days ahead of
schedule time. His campaign lasted about a month, but came to nothing,
because he did not have the co-operation of ships, and in that tangle
of land and water control of Chesapeake Bay was as necessary to success
as ammunition or fodder. The French had been asked to help, and twice
sent ships from Newport to Chesapeake Bay, but in neither case were
they useful to him. He did the best he could from day to day without
them, and even pushed down the bay in a small boat far ahead of his
men, hoping to establish connections; but the ships he saw were British
instead of French. Then he took his men back again to the Head of Elk.
That his failure was not due to lack of persistence letters written
by him to Gov. Thomas Jefferson, asking for transportation, for
provisions, for boats, for wagons, for horses, and, if horses were not
available, even for oxen to draw his guns, amply testify. That he had
his usual resourcefulness at instant command was displayed at Annapolis
on the northward journey when he found two small armed British vessels
blocking his progress. He improvised a temporary navy of his own, armed
two merchant sloops with cannon, manned them with volunteers, and drove
the British away long enough to permit the rest of his force to go on.
[Pg 148]Neither was his usual friendliness lacking. He snatched
time to visit Mount Vernon and to call upon Washington's mother at
Fredericksburg, but he made up for the time lost in these indulgences
by riding at night to overtake his command.
[Pg 149]XVII
PREPARING FOR THE LAST ACT
The British were beginning to be hard pressed in the South. The
struggle had been long and disappointing, and burning and looting and
the horrors of civil war had spread over a large area. Two Continental
armies had been lost in rapid succession, and there had been months
when one disaster seemed to follow upon another; but gradually the
British were being driven away from their ships and bases of supply
on the coast. The heat of summer had brought much sickness to their
camps, and General Greene, next to Washington the most skilful of the
Revolutionary generals, had perfected his "science of losing battles"
to the point where his opponents might claim almost every engagement
as a victory and yet the advantage remained with the Americans.
Recently the British had lost a large part of their light troops. In
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