Reign of George III. (Continued.) page 12

To procure the money which they could not draw from Europe, congress made fresh issues of paper money, though what was already out was fearfully depreciated. They voted a loan also of five million of dollars, at four per cent, interest. They authorised a lottery to raise a like sum, the prizes to be payable in loan - office certificates. These measures only precipitated the depreciation of the government paper: people refused to take it; and Washington, to prevent the absolute starvation of the army, was endowed with the extraordinary power of compelling the acceptance of it, and of arresting and imprisoning all maligners of the credit of congress. Congress went further, and passed a resolution that their bills ought to pass current in all payments, trade, and dealings, and be deemed equal in value to the same sum in Spanish dollars; and that all persons refusing to take them should be considered enemies to the United States; and the local authorities were called upon to inflict forfeitures and other penalties on all such persons. Still further: the New York convention having laid before congress their scheme for regulating the price of labour, produce, manufactured articles, and important goods, it was adopted. But these arbitrary and unscientific measures the traders set at defiance, and the attempts to enforce them only aggravated the public distress. Loans came in slowly, the treasury ran low, the loan offices were overdrawn, and the issue of bills of credit was reluctantly recommenced; ten additional millions were speedily authorised, and as the issue increased, the depreciation naturally kept pace with it. The commissioners in France were instructed to borrow money there, but the instructions were more easily given than executed.

Meantime, a considerable number of French officers, who had been engaged by Silas Deane, had arrived in America. Amongst these were Du Portail, La Radiere, and Du Gorion, engineer officers of merit, who were now placed at the head of the engineering department. The Pole, Kosciusko, was appointed engineer to the northern army; Pulaski, another Pole, who had acquired distinction in the resistance of Poland to Russia, Prussia, and Austria, had also arrived and been engaged. But the greater number of the foreign officers engaged by Deane, under extravagant promises, were persons far more remarkable for their self- conceit, their insatiable demands of high pay, honours, and rewards, than for their talents. La Fayette was a striking exception. With all the vanity of a Frenchman, and with but an ordinary amount of talent, La Fayette early imbibed a genuine enthusiasm for liberty, and thus, by his name and station, far more than by his abilities, conferred the greatest benefits on the cause of freedom both in America and afterwards in his own country, France. His father had served with distinction in the German wars; and, at the age of sixteen, La Fayette was married to a daughter of the great house of Noailles. Through his hereditary property and that of his wife, he had an income of nearly two hundred thousand livres a-year - a brilliant one for a French noble. When only eighteen, he chanced to meet with the duke of Gloucester at Metz, and heard the duke's version of the American revolution, which - the duke being out of favour with the English court on account of his wife - was much in favour of the Americans. La Fayette immediately resolved to go over to America, and embrace its cause. He returned to Paris, and was eagerly caught at by Silas Deane, who had found no person of much rank or station yet willing to listen to his offers. La Fayette was the more desirable, because he wished for no pay. Deane offered him the rank of major-general, which La Fayette accepted, and made immediate preparations for the voyage. He purchased a vessel at Bourdeaux, and, whilst it was loading, he went over to London, where his relative, the marquis de Noailles, was ambassador - made further inquiries, and, keeping his design to himself, was presented to the king, and was graciously- received. He also, at the opera, saw general Clinton, so soon to be his opponent in the field.

On his return to Bourdeaux, he found that his design had been discovered by lord Stormont, the British ambassador, who complained of it to the French court. There was a lettre de cachet out for his arrest; and he only escaped by getting across the Spanish frontiers. His vessel met him at Passages, and thence, accompanied by the baron Yon Kalb and eleven other officers, he sailed for America, and landed on the coast of Carolina, in the month of June this year. The congress at first objected to his having the rank of major-general, but, as he wanted no pay, they consented. By Washington he was most cordially received at Philadelphia, was invited to take up his quarters at his house as one of the family, which he did, and a warm and ever unbroken friendship grew up betwixt the noble commander-in- chief and the liberty-loving Frenchman; in fact, La Fayette, who always professed a very tender attachment to his wife, certainly showed still more attachment to the cause of liberty, for he left madame La Fayette when she was in an interesting situation to set out on this enterprise.

It was at Philadelphia that La Fayette first saw the American army, and he was not a little astonished at their appearance - with green boughs fastened to their hats, coarse hunting shirts instead of uniforms, and muskets, many of them wanting bayonets, and all of unequal make and size. Such had been the difficulty of raising even such an army, that congress had waved the rule made at first, especially by the New England states, of not admitting negro slaves into the army. They had now great numbers of negro slaves, redemptioners, or indented servants, for whom congress pledged itself to make compensation to their masters.

Such were the difficulties under which congress and Washington had been struggling through this winter to raise and keep together any considerable force; whilst general, now Sir William Howe, had been completely dozing at New York. The first movements of Howe were to execute several detached evolutions. Learning that Washington, in his entrenched camp at Morristown, received the chief of his supplies through a port on the Hudson, about fifty miles above New York, called Peekskill, he dispatched, on the 23rd of March, five hundred men, under the command of colonel Bird, to drive the Americans thence, and bring away the stores. The Americans had about eight hundred men there, who fled at the first approach of the British, but took care to set fire to their store-houses before going off, so that Bird only got possession of an empty station, and returned, without booty, to New York.

On the 23rd of April, Howe sent governor Tryon, supported by general Agnew and Sir William Erskine, to seize another strong depot of stores at Dornbury, on the western borders of Connecticut. He had two thousand men; and, landing at Camp's Point, between Fairfield and Norwalk, he reached Dornbury in the morning. The Americans this time fled too rapidly to set fire to their stores; but the English had brought no carriages with them to carry them away, and they, in their turn, set fire to the magazines, and burned one thousand six hundred barrels of pork and beef, six hundred barrels of flour, two thousand barrels or wheat, rye, and Indian corn, two thousand tents, and a great quantity of military clothing - articles of which Washington had the greatest need.

The burning of this great mass of property occupied the troops all that day and the following night. The next morning, having been without sleep for two nights, the British began their retreat. But, whilst they had been burning, the Americans had rallied, and thrown themselves across the track of their return. Arnold, happening to be in that neighbourhood, volunteered his services, and posted himself at the little town of Bridgefield, which they defended with several field-pieces. As this was the only road back to Camp's Point, the English charged and cleared the town, but only after a bloody reception. Arnold nearly lost his life; his horse was shot under him; and, whilst endeavouring to recover his feet, he was attacked by a soldier with fixed bayonet. Arnold, however, with that presence of mind which never deserted him, shot the soldier dead with a horse-pistol, and escaped.

That night, the British, tired out with loss of sleep, lay on their arms in the field; but, on reaching the bridge near the town, they there found Wooster drawn up with his artillery. They, however, were conducted by their guide to a ford, by which means they got betwixt Wooster and Camp's Point. Pursued by Wooster, Sir William Erskine, at the head of four hundred men, was directed to wheel and charge the Americans. He soon routed them, killing general Wooster and several field officers, and many men. The total loss of the English was, in killed and wounded, about one hundred and seventy men; of the Americans, upwards of one hundred. Arnold, for his gallantry, was made major- general, and was presented by congress with a horse fully caparisoned; yet he still complained of junior officers being promoted over his head.

As a retaliation, the Americans sent colonel Meigs over to Long Island, to a place called Sag Harbour, where the English had a great quantity of provision stores, which they learned were very remissly guarded. Meigs, who had been trained under Arnold, conducted the enterprise very adroitly. He passed the Sound in whale-boats in the night, landed without much difficulty before the break of day, and began to fire the magazines. He met with a brave resistance from the crews of the merchants' vessels; but, having two hundred men, and there being no soldiers to oppose him, he destroyed twelve of the trading vessels, took ninety prisoners, and returned triumphantly without the loss of a single man. Another success which greatly elated the Americans, was the capture of general Prescott, much in the same manner as colonel Harcourt had captured general Lee. Prescott had offered a reward for the capture of Arnold; and Arnold, in affected contempt, retorted by offering half the sum for the capture of Prescott. Spies in Newport, where Prescott lay, informed the Americans that Prescott was very careless in his guards, and lodged himself with remarkable rashness at a country house at some little distance from the town. A party was sent out to take him, and succeeded, so that now they had Prescott to sot off against Lee.

In the meantime, Washington had quitted his encampment at Morristown, and taken up a strong position at Middlebrook, about twelve miles from Princetown. He had with him forty-three regiments, or rather skeletons of regiments, for the whole amounted to only eight thousand men, divided into ten brigades. On the 13th of June, Howe at last marched out of New Brunswick to attack him. On this, Washington called to his asistance a great part of the troops in the highlands, the whole force of the Jersey militia, whilst Arnold, who had the command at Philadelphia, was actively engaged with Mifflin in preparing defences for the Delaware. The object of Howe was to draw Washington from his entrenchments, certain that, on fair ground, it would require little exertion to totally dissipate his army; therefore, after marching up almost to the American lines, he commenced a retreat, evacuated even New Brunswick, and fell back to Amboy. Washington fell into the snare; he sent a strong force in pursuit of Howe, who, keeping up the ruse, threw a bridge over the narrow strait which divides Staten Island from the mainland, and sent over part of his baggage and a number of troops. Satisfied then that Howe was bent on resuming his old quarters at New York, Washington quitted his camp, which had cost him so much labour to create, and descended with his main body to Quibbletown. On seeing this, Howe advanced again, and dispatched several bodies of soldiers by different routes, to get, if possible, betwixt Washington and his old post on the hills, so as to bring him to an engagement on the plain. To have effected tins movement required, however, more rapidity and energy than belonged to Howe. Washington instantly became aware of his design, and retreated with all speed. Lord Cornwallis, who led the British van, notwithstanding, managed to come up with him, and fell upon a division of three thousand strong, advantageously posted, and defended with cannon. Cornwallis's charge, however, threw him into confusion, the route became general, and the British pursued them as far as Westfield, whence, coming to a woody country, and the heat of the day being intense, they halted for the night. This halt was again the salvation of Washington: it enabled him to regain his old fortified post in the hills, leaving behind him part of his cannon, and about two hundred men killed.

Instead of waiting to watch Washington, or leaving any force for that purpose, Howe now suddenly altered his plans, marched back in reality to Staten Island, and left the enemy in full command of the Jerseys. Neither Washington nor his own officers could now comprehend his designs. It would have been far better to have attacked Washington's camp than for Howe to have cooped up his forces in the heat of the season in the vessels lying off Staten Island. Had Howe captured or broken up Washington's army, the greatest difficulty of the war would have been over. As it was, some thought he intended to ascend the Hudson, in order to meet and support general Burgoyne, who was descending from Canada by the fort of Ticonderoga towards Albany, by which he would have secured the second great enterprise in the campaign, and have then left only Washington to encounter the whole momentum of his forces.

But, embarking his army on the 5th of July, he left general Clinton at New York with seventeen battalions, a body of loyal American militia, and a regiment of light horse. He set sail on the 23rd of July, and stood out to sea. Washington, now supposing that he meant to make an attempt on Boston, moved slowly towards the Hudson; but he had soon information that caused him to retreat again towards the Delaware; and, news coming that Howe had been seen off Cape May, he advanced to Germantown. Instead of entering the Delaware, however, the British fleet was presently seen steering eastward, and all calculations were baffled. Washington, now believing that he was intending to return to New York, proceeded to Philadelphia, and had an interview with the congress.

Howe's real intention had been to enter the Delaware, and proceed up it direct to Philadelphia; but, understanding that the Americans had placed enormous impediments in the river, he stood away for the mouth of the Elk, in Chesapeake Bay. He was tediously detained by contrary winds always prevailing there on that course in that season, and it was the 28th of August before he entered the Elk, and reached the Elk head, where he landed his troops. On the 2nd of September he commenced his march for Philadelphia. He soon came upon a body of Washington's army at Iron Hill, which he charged and drove from the hill. On the 11th he came in sight of Washington's main army, strongly posted and fortified on the forks of the Brandy wine river. Here Howe's dispositions were excellent. He sent forward, under general Knyphausen, the second division, consisting of two English brigades and the Hessian troops, accompanied by a corps of riflemen, who advanced to a ford called Chad's Ford, and drove a detachment of Americans across it. Howe then advanced, and, planting his cannon along the bank of the river, he engaged the Americans in a brisk cannonade across the stream. Meantime, lord Cornwallis was silently marching in the rear of Howe's troops, round to another ford at the forks of the Brandywine, which he crossed, and took Washington's army in the rear. On firing his signal gun, the Americans were thrown into consternation, and at the same moment Knyphausen dashed across Chad's Ford, and drove the surprised Americans from their batteries and entrenchments at the point of the bayonet. The batteries were instantly turned against them, and Cornwallis, who had been checked by a division under general Sullivan, coming up, there was a general route. The Americans fled in utter confusion, having lost three hundred, six hundred wounded, and four hundred taken prisoners. The English had one hundred killed and four hundred wounded.