Revolutionary War 250

11 OCTOBER 1776, VALCOUR ISLAND, LAKE CHAMPLAIN: “At half-past twelve, the engagement became general, and very warm”: The British and American lake fleets begin exchanging general broadsides.

founders.archives.govhttps://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-07-02-0028

27 OCTOBER 1776, WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK: George Washington urges the Continental Army to be braver when encountering British cavalry, and offers a reward for doing so: founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...

“by taking post in the Woods by the roads, or along the stone-walls, where they will not venture to follow them; And as an encouragement to any brave parties, who will endeavour to surprise some of them,

“the General offers 100 Dollars, for every Trooper, with his Horse and Accoutrements, which shall be brought in, and so in proportion for any part, to be divided according to the rank and pay of the party.”

founders.archives.govhttps://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-07-02-0028

“The General observing that the Army seems unacquainted with the Enemy’s Horse; and that when any parties meet with them, they do not oppose them with the same Alacrity which they shew in other cases;

“thinks it necessary to inform the officers and soliders, that, in such a broken Country, full of Stone-Walls, there is no Enemy more to be despised, as they cannot leave the road; So that any party attacking them may be always sure of doing it to advantage,

26 OCTOBER 1776, PHILADELPHIA: Like the rest of the Continental Congress, North Carolina delegate William Hooper anxiously awaits news of the expected battle between the two armies in New York, two days’ ride away:

“Men who have weak nerves, or like the Cappadocians chose rather to be slaves than freemen, despising the habit of thinking for themselves, these and such as these are governed by the event of the day, and if they do not run on in a continued tide of success,

“they lift up their hands in despair and give over all for lost; these unhappily are the bulk of mankind, it is the history of Human nature not of any particular place. Such exist here.”

“Should we be defeated at New York it is absolutely necessary that a full congress should be upon the spot to counteract the uses which the Tories may make of it to dispirit our friends, to encourage the disaffected and bring our glorious cause into disrepute.

“Men who have made observations on the History of past ages, or studied the nature of things are convinced that uninterrupted success is not the portion of man however meritorious his cause, but others who think superficially or are too lazy to think at all,

“[General Charles] Lee is with him and is an able assistant, and we have very many other officers who would do honour to any Corps in Europe. Our men are in high spirits, zealous for action, leaving the event to him who has most miraculously fought for us on former occasions.

“We trust we shall succeed, but the contrary is possible, as such this congress means to provide for such an event, if it does not happen our precautions will have been useless & this is the worst epithet they will merit.

“The armies have continued for 6 days within a mile of each other, skirmishing at the extremities; this must soon communicate to the center and the action become general. What will be the event Heaven alone knows.

“Success is so often the result of unforseen accidents that the most experienced never count with confidence. Our hopes are indeed sanguine. Our General stands high in the opinion of those who know him, as the soldier, the Citizen, the Man his character is great.

26 OCTOBER 1776, NEW YORK: “The cautious conduct of Genl Howe in all the operations of this Campaign is generally approved of,” redcoat Frederick Mackenzie tells us out of the blue, though the fact he then launches into a discussion of a battle from two months ago suggests this might not be true.

Mackenzie is of course speaking of the Battle of Long Island, where after winning a crushing victory over the Continental Army, Howe chose to leave Washington behind his fortifications in the expectation of starving him out rather than launch a frontal assault.

This then allowed Washington and the Continental Army to achieve the “American Dunkirk,” ferrying the whole army across the East River to Manhattan, protected by a dense fog, in a single night. Historians still debate whether Howe’s choice was legitimate in the moment.

“Great Britain has at an immense expense, and by great exertions, assembled an Army from which the Nation expects an entire suppression of the Rebellion,

“it would therefore be the heighth of imprudence in the Commander in Chief, by any incautious or precipitate conduct, to give the Rebels any chance of an advantage over it.”

“yet it must be allowed that it was extremely proper in him to consider what fatal consequences might have attended any check which the Army might have received in the first action of the Campaign.

“He has therefore conducted every enterprize in that cautious, circumspect manner, which, altho not so brilliant and striking, is productive of certain and real advantages, at the same time that very little is set at stake.

“Altho many are of opinion that he should have followed up the advantage he gained on the 27th August, and either on that day, or the following, attacked the Rebels in their lines at Brooklyn,

26 OCTOBER 1776, WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK: Nathan Hale’s brother Enoch finally receives the family’s first confirmation of Nathan’s execution, having been forced to travel to the Continental Army camp to inquire personally about the rumors rather than receive any notification.

But a combination of the hecticness of the last five weeks and the army’s embarrassment at having their officer caught spying by the British and executed for it has conspired such that neither the army nor any of Hale’s friends have written to his relatives.

Main source: Alexander Rose, WASHINGTON’S SPIES

Hale was hanged as a spy on September 22, and one of William Howe’s aides personally informed members of Washington’s staff of it the same day.

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26 OCTOBER 1776, BELCHERTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS: The three children, all girls aged five to one and a half, of Moses & Amy Cowles are killed when their house burns down while Amy is briefly out. Moses is away serving with the Continental Army around New York.

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Amy, herself pregnant, understandably “never appeared well after their House & Children was burnt.” On January 22 she goes into premature labor and dies shortly after delivering a stillbirth:

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“She had perhaps Black Jaundice ointed for itch was taken delerious it brought on her trevail prematurely. The child was stillborn. She survived but about 2 hours.”

26 OCTOBER 1776, LONDON: Law student John Laurens is delighted to learn in a letter from his father, the Vice President of independent South Carolina, that the Declaration of Independence has inspired him to renounce slavery and start planning how to free his hundreds of slaves.

John Laurens will remain a committed abolitionist, repeatedly (unsuccessfully) attempting to persuade the South Carolina legislature to raise a regiment of black troops until he is killed fighting for the Continental Army in 1782.

americanrevolutioninstitute.orghttps://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/John-Laurens-to-Henry-Laurens.pdf

His father Henry, a president of the Second Continental Congress and one of four American negotiators of the Treaty of Paris, will never free his slaves. In 1766, he was enslaving 227 human beings; by 1790, that number will have risen to 298. www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/wp-content/u...

“the Example of Rome suffering from Swarms of bad Citizens who were freedmen is a warning to us to proceed with Caution; and the necessity for it is an Argument of the complete Mischief occasioned by our continued Usurpation. we have sunk the African and their descendants

“below the standard of Humanity, and almost render'd them incapable of that Blessing which equal Heaven bestow'd upon us all by what shades and Degrees they are to be brought to the happy state which you propose for them, is not to be determined in a moment.”

“but it was easy to perceive that they consider'd only their own advantage arising from the Fact, and embarassed themselves very little about the Right. indeed when driven from everything else, they generally exclaim'd Without Slaves how is it possible for us to be rich[?]

“There may be some Inconvenience and even Danger in advancing Men suddenly from a state of Slavery, while possessed of the manners and Principles incident to that State, there may be danger I say in advancing such Men too suddenly to the Rights of Freemen.

“The equitable Conduct which you have resolved upon with respect to your Negroes, will undoubtedly meet with great Opposition from interested Men [i.e. men with a conflict of interest],” John writes to his father.

“I have often conversed upon the subject and I have scarcely ever met with a Native of the Southern provinces or the W. Indies, who did not obstinately recur to the most absurd Arguments in support of Slavery,

25 OCTOBER 1776, BROOKLYN: Lord Howe’s secretary, Ambrose Serle, reflects on the religious nature of the dispute among the Americans, and is mystified by the American proclivity (on both sides) to believe that God favors one’s own political party over another:

“One would think, by the Conduct of these men, that God had a great temporal Interest in this world, which wholly depended upon the management & Exaltation of their Party; and that, having so good an End, even Spite & malice might be employed as the means:

“But—non tali auxilio, non defensoribus istis Deus eget.” (Neither such help nor such defenders does God need.)

“One thing is very observable in the Clergy of this Country; both those of the Establishment [Anglicans; what we would call Episcopalians] & of the Presbyterian Interest, who take the Lead, are Fire-brands to a man, and can speak with no sort of Patience of each other.”

(Though one shouldn’t exaggerate the correlation, often Anglicans are associated with Loyalism and Presbyterians with the Patriots.) “These have fomented half the present Divisions; nor is it likely that they will be quiet in future, but under a Power that may controul them both.

25 OCTOBER 1776, NEW YORK: To mark the anniversary of George III’s accession, at one o’clock all five hundred British ships in the harbor, the East River and the Hudson River—the largest fleet ever assembled in the Americas—fire a twenty-one gun salute.

“This being the anniversary of the King’s Accession … the Flag-Ships displayed their Colors, viz. The Royal Standard upon the main-top mast-Head, the St George’s Flag upon the Fore-top, the Union upon the mizen, and the Jack & Ensign at their usual Staffs.