Revolution! America – Chapter 5 – The Brick Chronicle

Under cover of night, on March 4, 1775, Washington had his men work quickly and quietly to occupy and fortify Dorchester Heights, which overlooked Boston from the south. The British awoke the next morning to find that the rebels had cannons in place from which they could easily bombard the city and ships in the harbor. The British general William Howe, who had been brought to Boston to replace General Gage, was now faced with a decision: attempt to drive the rebels from the heights or withdraw his army from Boston.

On March 8, Howe sent out word that the British would not burn Boston to the ground if their army was unmolested during its evacuation of the city. What followed was a frantic week of nine thousand Redcoats hastily loading equipment and supplies onto ships. Over a thousand loyal colonists, who wanted nothing to do with rebellion and feared for their lives if they stayed, also bade a sad goodbye to their homes and possessions as they, too, boarded British transports.

The ships brought the loyalists to safety in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the army regrouped and received reinforcements. Washington correctly anticipated that the British army would next focus their efforts on New York City, and in April he marched the army there from Boston and built up the city’s defenses in Manhattan and across the East River at Brooklyn Heights with its vantage point over the harbor.

New York’s citizenry were far more loyalist in their leanings than Boston, and the city held other novel dangers to the army. As many as five hundred prostitutes plied their trade in lower Manhattan, and venereal diseases including syphilis spread rapidly throughout the army. Bordellos could be deadly in a more direct way as well. On April 22, the bodies of two soldiers were discovered in a brothel, both mutilated, and one “castrated in a barbarous manner.” Seeking vengeance, gangs of soldiers tore apart the building where the men had been murdered.

Over the next weeks, loyalists began to flee the city en masse to escape torment at the hands of the rebel troops who made a sport of parading the hated “Tories” through town stripped and placed atop a sharp rail. When officer Israel Putnam attempted to put an end to such tortures, Washington reprimanded him, stating that for Putnam “to discourage such proceedings was to injure the cause of liberty in which they have been engaged, and that nobody would attempt it but an enemy to his country.”

In June, rumors quickly spread of a plot to assassinate Washington, and a subsequent investigation uncovered a conspiracy among a dozen men including New York mayor David Matthews and two from among Washington’s personal guard. While most of the conspirators received light sentences, Washington chose to make an example of a soldier named Thomas Hickey who had remained unrepentant. A crowd of twenty thousand soldiers and citizens gathered to witness his execution by hanging on June 28.

Days later, the rebels spotted a massive armada of British ships approaching, carrying 32,000 men including 8,400 hired Hessian mercenaries from Germany. In the largest amphibious landing of the eighteenth century, a seemingly never-ending stream of soldiers disembarked onto Staten Island in full view of the city. “The time is now near at hand,” Washington told his troops, “which must probably determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves.”

Throughout the spring, more and more members of the Continental Congress came to see the pressing need to officially declare the thirteen colonies independent from Britain. Only then could treaties of alliance be sought with France and Spain, coins and currency issued, and some form of confederation of the colonies established. In June, a committee including John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson was selected to prepare a written declaration, with the thirty-three-year-old Jefferson composing the first draft.

Guided by the Enlightenment principles that all men are born equal with “natural rights,” and that a government’s only legitimate source of power is the consent of those governed, Jefferson sought to justify revolution as a final recourse against any political body harmful to the rights of man. He followed this with a long list of indictments against King George III, including taxing the colonies without consent, dismissing provincial legislatures, waging war on the colonists, and inciting attacks by “Indian Savages.”

Jefferson’s draft was edited by Congress over two days, with improvements made to the wording and the removal of a section that sought to blame the monarchy for foisting the evil of African slavery upon the colonies. The congress then approved the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Days later, it was officially proclaimed before a crowd of thousands, and two hundred printed copies were sent off to be read throughout the colonies.

On July 9, in New York, George Washington marched several brigades to the Commons to hear the Declaration read aloud. The crowds shouted and cheered their approval, and it so stirred anti-British zeal that a mob of soldiers and citizens rushed down to the tip of Manhattan where they used ropes and bars to pull down the equestrian statue of King George III. They then decapitated the statue, hacked off its nose, and mounted the head on a spike outside a tavern. The rest of the statue was melted down to make bullets.

Three days later, the British tested New York’s defenses by sailing two warships up the Hudson River. The Continental Army duly opened fire with its heavy guns and nearly two hundred cannonballs were launched, all to no significant effect. One artillery unit under the command of twenty-one-year-old Alexander Hamilton suffered the death of six men when their cannon exploded due to improper handling, possibly attributable to the heavy amount of drinking among Washington’s troops.

Several tense weeks passed. With total command of the sea and rivers, General Howe could land his troops wherever and whenever he pleased, and seemed in no particular hurry. In contrast to the filthy and disease-ridden camps of the rebel troops, the fastidious Redcoats were enjoying good health and plentiful supplies brought by sympathetic locals. With each passing day, they were joined by more and more deserters from the Continental Army and oppressed loyalists from the city.

Taking it as a sign of how “spirited” his troops were, one British captain noted with apparent pleasure the increase in the number of troops being court-martialed for rape. “The fair nymphs of this isle are in wonderful tribulation,” he noted. “A girl cannot step into the bushes to pluck a rose, without running the most imminent risk of being ravished, and they are so little accustomed to these vigorous methods that they don’t bear them with the proper resignation.”

Committed not to surrender the city without a fight, Washington perilously opted to split his defense forces between Manhattan and Brooklyn Heights. On the night of August 21, an ominous thunderstorm rolled over the city. Three rebel officers were killed by a lightning strike that blackened their bodies and melted their coins and swords. Ten other soldiers were killed by a single bolt as they camped near the East River, and yet another soldier was hit by a third strike, leaving him deaf, blind, and mute.

The next morning the weather cleared, and General Howe landed fifteen thousand Redcoats at Gravesend, a few miles south of the rebel defenses in Brooklyn. Another five thousand Hessians would arrive days later. Hundreds of loyalists on Long Island came out to greet the British army as liberators, offering them caches of supplies.

The rebels did not mount an opposition to the landings, and those stationed nearest to Gravesend fell back, burning wheat fields and farm houses as they went, and killing off cattle the enemy might put to use. At his Manhattan headquarters, Washington was alerted to the arrival of the troops, but informed it was eight or nine thousand, thus he suspected it was a distraction from an imminent larger attack on the city itself.

Observing the fruitful farmlands and well-appointed houses of Long Island, the British and German troops marveled at the high standard of living in America and could not fathom why people with so much would rebel against their king and bring about their own destruction. Under cover of night on August 26, loyalists led ten thousand Redcoats through a roundabout pass left undefended by the rebels, allowing Howe’s men to completely flank Washington’s forces at Brooklyn.

A three-pronged British attack commenced before dawn. Remembering Washington’s inspirational words as well as his threats—“If I see any man turn his back today, I will shoot him through; I have two pistols loaded”—the rebels fought valiantly for hours against superior numbers, holding off the British advance on their right, but overwhelmed by Hessian forces who raced over the hills and charged with bayonets, brutally slashing and impaling even those who tried to surrender.

The rebel defense collapsed as Howe and his ten thousand troops exploited the unguarded pass to emerge behind their enemy’s lines and wreak havoc. The losses were staggering: three hundred killed, seven hundred wounded, and a thousand captured. Washington watched the disaster unfold from Brooklyn Heights. Observing one Maryland regiment taking extreme losses as they guarded the route of the rebels’ retreat, the commander in chief was heard to say, “Good God! What brave fellows I must lose this day!”

Washington’s first experience leading the Continental Army into battle had become a terrible defeat, but it was nearly much worse. If Howe had pressed his attack farther or if British ships had sailed up the East River to prevent the rebel army’s escape, Washington and thousands of his men would have been annihilated or taken prisoner. But unfavorable winds kept the British ships off the East River, and Howe’s hesitancy, combined with the cover of night and a thick morning fog, allowed Washington and nine thousand men to escape across the river to Manhattan in safety.

The British celebrated and hoped such a decisive show of royal might would put a quick end to the rebellion. “If a good bleeding can bring those Bible-faced Yankees to their senses,” wrote one officer, “the fever of independency should soon abate.” John Jewett, a rebel captain and father of ten, had been bayoneted twice in the battle and lay in excruciating pain while squeezed into a barn with other prisoners. Noted a fellow prisoner, the captain “was sensible of his being near his end, often repeating that it was hard work to die.”

Back in Manhattan, Washington decided the time was right to try out a new invention offered to him by Yale graduate David Bushnell. On the night of September 6, The Turtle, a one-man submersible craft, was launched against the sixty-four gun flagship of the British fleet commanded by General Howe’s brother Admiral Richard “Black Dick” Howe. It submerged and attempted to affix a timed explosive device by screwing it to the hull. After much effort, the vessel’s drill failed to penetrate the hull, and its pilot, Sergeant Ezra Lee, had to give up as daybreak approached.

While retreating, the submarine was spotted by Redcoats at the fort on Governor’s Island, and a six-man cutter was rowed out to investigate. Lee released the explosive, hoping that if he was captured, the device would be picked up as well and they would all be blown to smithereens. The British became skittish, however, and rowed away. The device floated into the East River and exploded, throwing a massive amount of water into the air. The Turtle was lost days later when the ship it was on was sunk by the British in the Hudson.

General Howe delayed further offensive action against New York to attempt a peace negotiation. On September 11, 1776, the Continental Congress sent delegates including John Adams and Benjamin Franklin to meet with Admiral Howe on Staten Island. The three-hour meeting ended with no progress, however, with the British refusing to recognize the Declaration of Independence. Howe’s only offer to the rebels was to grant them pardons and only on the conditions that the Congress disband, legitimate colonial governments be reestablished, and loyalists be reimbursed for their losses. Thus the war continued.

Washington realized the city of New York could not be held. Rather than allow it to provide a “warm and comfortable barracks” for the enemy, he decided the entire city should be burned to ashes. Congress, however, overruled him. So instead, Washington abandoned the city and marched his troops northward toward Harlem Heights, leaving just enough troops to guard the retreat—poorly armed militiamen in ditches such as those at Kip’s Bay along the East River.

On September 15, five British warships dropped anchor at Kip’s Bay and opened fire with a deafening bombardment of Manhattan that lasted an hour, demolishing rebel fortifications. Hessian troops then stormed the shoreline, slashing with their bayonets, shooting rebels that tried to surrender, and decapitating one and planting his head on a pike. The rebel retreat turned into a panicked flight in which soldiers dropped their weapons and supplies and ran.

Washington rode his horse into the thick of the fighting and issued commands to his officers, but to no avail. Overwhelmed with fury at the cowardice of his men, he threw down his hat, brandished a pistol, and lashed at retreating officers with his riding crop, shouting, “Are these the men with which I am to defend America?” With a column of Hessians quickly bearing down on them, Washington’s own aides had to pull his horse by the reins to drag him out of harm’s way.

Fifteen thousand British troops landed on Manhattan that day, and Washington’s retreating army narrowly escaped. Young Aaron Burr guided thousands of troops along a less-traveled route near the Hudson that kept them out of the way of the advancing British columns. New York’s inhabitants cheered the arrival of the British, even carrying some of them around on their shoulders. Women pulled down the Continental Army’s flag, trampled it under foot, and raised the Union Jack. Revolution_

The next day, a battle broke out in the Harlem woods, and it was here that Washington scored his first battlefield victory while leading the Continental Army. His outnumbered men managed to nearly encircle the advancing British, killed ninety of them, wounded three hundred more, and forced them to fall back. The commander in chief took solace in the bravery his troops displayed, but a report came in of one soldier named Ebenezer Leffingwell who had fled the enemy and, when ordered back into position, raised his musket at his commanding officer.

The officer removed his sword and struck Leffingwell twice, severing his thumb and wounding his head. On September 19, the young soldier was court-martialed and found guilty of cowardice. Sentenced to be executed the next day, Leffingwell was on his knees waiting to be shot when Washington granted him a pardon, but warned that the next such offender would be shown “death without mercy.” He then reminded his officers of their duty to shoot dead any of their own men retreating without orders.

On September 21, a devastating fire broke out in New York City that burned nearly a quarter of the city including Trinity Church. Rumors ran rampant that rebel infiltrators were to blame. Although no one was ever charged with arson, that same day the twenty-one-year-old rebel Nathan Hale was arrested by the British for espionage. Just before being hung to death the next morning, he is reported to have announced, “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.”

General Howe landed troops in Westchester County in late October, attempting to cut off Washington’s escape route. At a major battle in White Plains, the rebels were again outflanked and forced to retreat amid heavy fighting. One Connecticut soldier witnessed a single cannonball that “first took the head of Smith, a stout heavy man and dash’t it open, then it took off Chilson’s arm . . . it then took Taylor across the bowels, it then struck Sergt. Garret of our company on the hip [and] took off the point of the hip bone . . . What a sight . . . those men with their legs and arms and guns and packs all in a heap.”

Under cover of rainfall, Washington and his troops managed to cross the Hudson to New Jersey. Rather than pursue him, Howe marched his forces south and attacked the last rebel outpost on Manhattan at Fort Washington, defended by three thousand troops. During the battle, Margaret Corbin, the wife of an artilleryman stationed at the fort, saw her husband fall and immediately took his place loading a cannon to fend off the advancing British and Hessians.

But she, too, was hit by enemy fire and grievously injured in the arm, chest, and jaw. The Hessians overran the fort with a final bayonet charge, and the rebels were forced to surrender to avoid being massacred. In a catastrophic defeat, 2,837 soldiers were taken prisoner and vast amounts of supplies and artillery captured. Due to the grim, cramped, disease-infested nature of British prison ships in New York harbor, only eight hundred of those taken prisoner were still alive eighteen months later.

Washington’s demoralized, bedraggled army, some lacking even shoes, marched across New Jersey, staying just ahead of a British pursuit. When the enlistments of two thousand rebel troops ended in November, they went home. Hundreds of others simply deserted. Hoping to bring a quick and peaceful end to the war, on November 30, General Howe issued a proclamation granting a full pardon to any colonists who, within sixty days, took an oath of allegiance and “peaceful obedience” to the king. Thousands from New Jersey came forward to accept the offer.

On December 13, Washington’s second in command, General Charles Lee, chose to spend the night at a tavern in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, some three miles away from his troops, enjoying the company of prostitutes. Tipped off to his whereabouts by local loyalists, a British mounted patrol, led by Banastre Tarleton, surrounded the tavern, fired through the windows, and threatened to burn it to the ground. Lee surrendered in his dressing gown amid derisory cheers and a mocking trumpet blast from his British captors.

Confidence in Washington was at an all-time low as he retreated across the Delaware River with his remaining troops into Pennsylvania. With brutally cold weather setting in, the British ended their pursuit of the rebel army, leaving a series of defended outposts throughout New Jersey. It was certain that once the weather warmed, the Redcoats and Hessians would renew their advance toward the rebel capital of Philadelphia, now a mere thirty miles away. Congress had already fled the city. The revolutionary cause appeared quite hopeless.

Opening Quote

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Opening Quote