Reign of George III. (Continued.) page 7

Before lord Howe advanced further, he received a deputation from the congress. He had sent the captured American general, Sullivan, on his parole to Philadelphia to endeavour to induce the congress to come to terms, and save the further effusion of blood. He assured them that he was not at liberty to treat with them as a congress, but he would willingly meet some of them as private gentlemen, having full powers, with his brother, general Howe, to settle the dispute betwixt them and Great Britain, on advantageous terms; that, on finding them disposed to agree to honourable conditions, he would seek for the acknowledgment of their authority to treat with him, so as to make the compact valid. This offer, under the circumstances, appeared very generous to many of the members, and occasioned a good deal of hesitation; but the democratic portion of the congress contrived to harden the rest, and they replied by Sullivan that, as a free and independent body, they could not treat with him except in their public character, as the representatives of the nation; but that, always anxious to secure peace and goodwill, they would appoint a deputation to hear the terms he had to propose; that any proposals for peace must be in writing, and addressed to them in their legislative capacity, and as an independent people.

The delegates appointed were sufficiently indicative of the little good that was to be hoped from the interview. They were Dr Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge. Franklin, as we have seen, had returned a most insulting answer to lord Howe's private letter. The pride of the philosopher, mortally wounded by his sharp overhauling in the royal council, for his share in the secretion and transmission of Mr. Whateley's private papers, now showed itself in gratuitous sarcasms on England and his lordship. The pride of England, her folly, her lust of conquest, of dominion, and of the monopoly of trade, were to bring her into ruin and humiliation. It was in vain that lord Howe assured the deputies that England was disposed to forget all, to pardon all, and to repeal all the obnoxious taxes, and that inexpressible Calamities would be avoided by the colonies simply returning to their allegiance. The deputies replied, that the only terms on which America could make peace was as independent states. This put the matter beyond accommodation. Lord Howe expressed his unfeigned regret, and Franklin his opinion - that, having failed in accomplishing a reconciliation, the thing his lordship ought to do was to relinquish so odious a command, and return to a more honourable private station.

On the 12th of October general Howe, who would have been better employed in driving the enemy before him than in waiting for his brother's useless negotiations, sent a considerable part of his forces, with flat-bottomed boats, through Hill Gate into the Sound, and landed them at Frog's Neck, about nine miles in the rear of Washington's position, thus cutting off all his supplies from the country. The ships ascended higher up the North River, cutting off the retreat into the Jerseys. Had Howe, instead of landing at Frog's Neck, done so at Pell's Point, he would have rendered Washington's retreat nearly impossible. But this was neglected till the 18th of October, by which time Washington, finding that he was getting gradually hemmed in, and Lee, who had now joined him from Sullivan's Island and the Carolinas, insisting that nothing but instant retreat could save them, they therefore made a rapid retreat into the open country called the White Plains. They had much difficulty in carrying away their artillery; and the whole of it must have been taken, had Howe shown any ordinary activity.

Betwixt this time and the 21st there was considerable skirmishing, which compelled Washington to retire further into the White Plains. Howe encamped at the village of New Rochelle, on the shore of the Sound, and Washington entrenched himself on a chain of heights extending about twelve miles in length, with the river Brunx in front of him. On the 28th Howe advanced to attack him in his entrenchments. His army was disposed in two columns, the left headed by himself, the right by Clinton. The English drove the outposts before them till they came within three quarters of a mile of the American lines. There Howe, after surveying the defences, determined not to attack the centre, but a position on the right, beyond the Brunx, where Washington had posted four thousand men.

Will it be believed that the central lines from which Howe turned away consisted only of the stalks of Indian corn, which had been hastily torn up from the fields, and reared with the roots upwards, and the lumps of earth adhering to the roots! Had Howe no telescope? Were there no military eyes sharp enough to detect such a flimsy defence? Had Howe charged that barrier of mere cornstalks, he would have cut Washington's army in two, and the whole must have been dispersed immediately. Howe had thirteen thousand effective, well-disciplined men; Washington had about eighteen thousand men, without discipline or courage. As it was, Howe attacked the strong position on the right. He crossed the Brunx, mounted the hill, and drove the Americans from the ground. But that night - a very stormy one - the English troops had to remain under arms, and the next day encamped, part on one side of the Brunx, part on the other. On the 30th Howe was reinforced by four fresh battalions, and determined to attack the enemy's lines the next morning; but the weather was unfavourable. As soon as the weather cleared up, and Howe prepared to attack Washington's lines, he found that he had retreated across the Croton, burning all the houses in the White Plains as he went, and had secured himself behind the Croton in a very strong position, with his rear defended by woods and hills.

Howe had allowed every opportunity to escape him for annihilating the American army, and he now turned back to invest Fort Washington, York Island, where Washington had imprudently left a garrison of 3,000 men, including the works on Harlem Heights. This consisted of Macgaw's and Shea's Pennsylvanian regiments, Rawlin's Maryland rifles, and some of the militia of the flying camp. Greene, who commanded on the Jersey side, was of opinion that the position might be maintained. The situation, indeed, was I strong, the fortifications good, though not completely finished, and must be approached under a destructive fire. Yet it was too much isolated from the main body of the army to remain long defended. Washington hastened to examine its condition as soon as Howe fell back upon it, and led over some fresh reinforcements.

On the 15th of November Howe summoned the fort to surrender, on pain of being put to the sword. The next morning four different columns of English and Hessians began to ascend the heights. They had serious difficulties to overcome, various creeks and woods to cross, and, as they drew near the fort, were exposed to a most murderous fire. They had eight hundred men killed and wounded; but lord Percy carried the advanced works, and then the garrison threw down its arms and surrendered.

On the 18th lord Cornwallis crossed the North River with six thousand men, and, landing on the Jersey side, began to attack Fort Lee, standing nearly opposite Fort Washington. The garrison fled, leaving behind all its tents standing, all its provisions and artillery. Washington was compelled by this to fall back from his position on the Croton, thence to Brunswick, Princeton, Trenton, and finally to the Pennsylvanian side of the Delaware. Lord Cornwallis followed on his heels. "As the retreating Americans," says Ramsey, in his "History of the American Revolution," " marched through the country, scarcely one of the inhabitants joined them, whilst numbers were daily flocking to the royal army to make their peace and obtain protection." Not only the common people adopted this expedient, but many of the leading men in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In fact, the fear of the republicans was taken from their eyes, and they expressed their real sentiments.

Cornwallis penetrated to the remotest parts of east and west Jersey, and everywhere the inhabitants received him as a friend and deliverer. On the 24th of November, lord Cornwallis was approaching Brunswick, when he received orders to halt. Howe, now Sir William Howe, being made a knight of the Bath, as well as Sir Guy Carleton, had a most fatal knack of halting his troops, when just on the point of completely dispersing the enemy. By this means, Washington was allowed to escape across the Delaware. It was not till the evening of the 16th of December that Cornwallis received orders to proceed, and, though he made all haste, he was too late. The rear of the American army quitted Princetown as the van of the English army entered it. Washington himself, with Stirling's brigade, only left Princetown one hour before Cornwallis arrived. Washington, in headlong haste, fled to Trenton, and began ferrying his troops over the Delaware. When Cornwallis reached Trenton, at nine o'clock the next morning, he beheld the last boats of Washington crossing the river. Yet, with such precipitance had the Americans fled, notwithstanding the long hale of Cornwallis, that they had left nearly all their artillery behind them; and so many men had deserted, and so many quitted, their term being up, and no consideration being able to keep them a day longer, that Washington's whole force did not exceed three thousand. Once over the water, the remains of the American troops lost all appearance of an army. They were a mere dirty, worn-out, ragged, and dispirited mob. Washington had taken the advantage of the halt of Cornwallis to collect all the boats from the Delaware for the distance of seventy miles, so that the English could not cross after them. These men, therefore, abandoned themselves to rest, and numbers of them continued to desert, and they were repeatedly pursued and forcibly brought back. Had Cornwallis been allowed to follow them without check, not a man would have been left at the American camp. Cornwallis, being thus brought to a stand, put his army into winter quarters between the Delaware and the Hackensack.

Whilst Cornwallis was pursuing Washington through the Jerseys, Clinton swept Rhode Island of the American troops, and drove commodore Hopkins with some ships up Providence River, where he remained. Rhode Island, however, required a strong body of English soldiers constantly to defend it. Meantime Sir Guy Carleton, having destroyed the American flotilla on Lake Champlain, was daily expected to march from Crown Point and invest Ticonderoga, which was only fifteen miles distant, and where Schuyler lay prepared to abandon it on the approach of the English. But Carleton, who had displayed so much activity and energy, now, like the rest of our generals, seemed at once to abandon them at the decisive point. He descended the Champlain to Isle aux Noix, put his forces into winter quarters there, and proceeded himself to Quebec, to prepare for the next campaign. Thus ended the campaign of 1776. Before quitting the northern operations, we may remark that amongst Carleton's officers in the squadron on the lake was Edward Pellew, destined hereafter to become one of the most distinguished of English admirals - the future castigator of Algiers, viscount Exmouth. On one occasion, young Pellew observed Arnold on the lake in a boat, and gave chase so spiritedly, that he very nearly captured the American general, who was so closely run, that he had only time to drive his boat ashore, and plunge into the woods, leaving his stock and buckle in the boat, which are yet preserved in the Pellew family. Had he captured Arnold, we should probably never have heard of the surrender of general Burgoyne.

Besides fighting, there had been much anxious thinking, consulting, and contriving, on the part of the American congress and Washington. Congress had been obliged to fly from Philadelphia, and reassemble at Baltimore on the 12th of December. Washington was in constant and anxious correspondence with them. He showed them that numbers were useless without discipline and subordination. From first to last, during the year, there had been forty- seven thousand continentals in the field, besides twenty- seven thousand militia - a greater force than the states ever could afterwards muster; yet they had been beaten in every engagement, and where were they now? Almost totally dispersed. Congress saw the necessity, in addition to their new regulations regarding the army, to invest Washington with almost dictatorial power. He was authorised to displace all officers under the rank of brigadier; to fill up all vacancies; to take for the use of the army whatever be might want, allowing the owners a reasonable price; and to arrest and confine for trial, by the civil tribunals, all persons disaffected to the American cause, or refusing to take the continental paper money.

A committee of congress was sent to camp, to assist him in organising the new regulation of converting the army into eighty battalions of seven hundred and fifty men each. They concluded that Hazen's Canadian regiment should be kept up by recruiting in the states, and be called "Congress's Own." They settled the proportions that every state should furnish; the men to be enlisted for the war, each of them to be entitled, at the end of the war, to one hundred acres of land; colonels, five hundred; and inferior officers, a number of acres according to scale of rank. The articles of war were revised, and made more strict; and national foundries and laboratories, for the manufacture of military stores, were established at Carlisle, in Pennsylvania, and Springfield, in Massachusetts. A clothier-general for the army was appointed. Meantime, every exertion was made in the different states to enlist troops. Massachusetts, contrary to the remonstrances of Washington, who regarded the plan as encouraging men to stand out for still higher terms, offered sixty-six dollars bounty, and., eight dollars to every one who procured a recruit. General Mifflin made a tour through Pennsylvania, putting forth all his persuasion,; to induce men to come in and defend their country and their homes. By this means, Washington soon saw his army raised from a few miserable, half-starved fugitives, to seven thousand men.

At the very time that Washington was flying before the British army, congress, putting a firm face on the matter, went on legislating as boldly as ever. Around them defection showed itself as alarmingly as the weakness of their arms. The speedy triumph of the mother country was prognosticated on all sides, and appeared certain. People in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, flocked in to accept the terms of Howe's proclamation. Tucker, president of the late New Jersey convention, made his peace with England. Allen and Galloway, late delegates from Pennsylvania to congress, did the same. For ten days after the proclamation, from two to three hundred persons a-day came in and took the oaths. The great body of Quakers in Pennsylvania, who were always for peace, and favourable to the mother country, exerted themselves to induce people to give up the contest, and it was on these grounds that Putnam and Mifflin strenuously recommended the removal of congress thence to Baltimore. In Maryland, the same falling away from the republican cause was going on. Most of the towns in the Jerseys sent deputations to the king's commissioners, expressing their ardent desire for peace and reconciliation.