If he crossed the river, what was to stop him from going on to Philadelphia and driving Congress out into the wilderness? On his way over he might gather in Forts Washington and Lee. With this perplexity in his mind, Washington, on November 6th, 1776, resumed his letters to Congress, referring to the "sudden and unexpected movement." The design "is a matter of much conjecture and speculation." The enemy might still try to flank him "by a sudden wheel." He speaks of a council of war which unanimously agreed to throw troops into New Jersey in expectation of Howe's movement thither. He adds: "Nor shall I be disappointed if he sends a detachment to the southward for the purpose of making a winter campaign." >> 30 But he was in such despair of receiving replacements of the deserters, or reinforcements that he wrote to the several States for aid. He wrote to Greene that he was "inclined to think, that it will not be prudent to hazard the Men and Stores at Mount Washington; but, as you are on the spot, leave it to you to give such orders, ... as you may judge best, and so far revoking the order given to Colonel Magaw to defend it to the last." He had been away from Greene for some time and under the influence of Charles Lee, yet he followed his rule of giving advice, not orders, to distant commanders. Greene answered on November 9th, with a confidence that he never afterward had, that he wanted to hold on to Fort Washington: "I cannot conceive it to be in any great danger. The men can be brought off at any time. I was over there last evening. The enemy seem to be disposing matters to besiege the place; but Colonel Magaw thinks it will take them till December expires.' 99 31 Just exactly one week later, Colonel Magaw surrendered the fort after a few hours' fighting—and to a Hessian!— with a loss of 59 killed, 2,818 prisoners, 146 pieces of artillery, 12,000 shot, shell and case, 2,800 muskets and 400,000 cartridges. If Knyphausen had closed in half an hour earlier he would have included among his prisoners Generals Mercer, Putnam, Greene and-George Washington. Τ XXXVI THE RETREAT ACROSS THE JERSEYS HE little garrison of Fort Washington had been simply swamped. Howe had ordered Knyphausen to march west from New Rochelle to the south of the Harlem river; Cornwallis to camp to the north of that stream; Lord Percy to come up from New York to the Hollow Way; thirty flatboats to be fetched up the Hudson and round into the Harlem to carry Cornwallis over the Harlem-the batteries could not even stop the barges. And then Howe marched across to Dobbs Ferry on the Hudson, moved south and clamped the lid on. A dozen British and fifteen Hessian regiments, totaling 13,000 men, surrounded less than 3,000 men. Washington was in such grave doubt as to the possibility of saving the fort that he left White Plains with Putnam and Mercer and a few troops, crossed the Hudson at King's Ferry, and rode down to Fort Lee on the New Jersey side. He was shocked to find that no progress had been made in perfecting the obstruction of the river, which was so important to the success of the war. Yet he remembered the orders from Congress to hold the fort at all costs. He remembered that he had resigned himself to a war of retreats and obstacles. But, as Alexander Graydon, who was one of the Fort Washington garrison, wrote: "The idea, about this time, seems to have been taken up of making our resistance, a war of posts; or of disputing, inch by inch, our ground. This sort of war, however appears to be scarcely practicable, unless it should have the good fortune to be protected by a succession of Thermopyles." 1 Fort Washington was no Thermopylae. Graydon quotes Lee's question: supposing it tenable, what purpose did it answer to keep it? He blames Washington for the disaster, in terms that were gentle considering the torment Graydon endured as a captive. In spite of Greene's eagerness to hold the fort, Washington was dubious. He wanted to go over and see it with his own eyes. It was a "risque," but he braved it. He crossed the Hudson with the other generals in a rowboat. He walked right into the assault, for the first cannonade began and the first line of outposts was forced in before Washington had finished the steep climb from the shore. Under fire he studied the ground and interviewed Magaw, who assured him that he could hold out for months. In any case it was too late now to remove either men or stores. As Greene wrote to Knox: "There we all stood in a very awkward situation. As the disposition was made, and the enemy advancing, we durst not attempt to make any new disposition; indeed, we saw nothing amiss. We all urged his Excellency to come off. I offered to stay. General Putnam did the same, and so did General Mercer; but his Excellency thought it best for us all to come off together, which we did, about half an hour before the enemy surrounded the fort."2 Graydon says: "It is a fact, not generally known that the British troops took possession of the very spot on which the commander in chief, and the general officers with him, had stood, in fifteen minutes after they left it." 3 By the time Washington's boat had left the shore the fort was surrounded, and there must have been great sorrow in his eyes and in his heart as he stared back at the futile resistance of the men whose loss he owed to the meekness of his soul and his reluctance to discard the counsel of other patriots. By the time he reached Fort Lee there was terrible slaughter going on across the river, and from his eyrie, he could doubtless see the flash of bayonets quenched in the bodies of his people. A soldier suffers few things more keenly than watching a fight that he cannot join, especially when it is destroying his men. Washington must have observed the surrender and the march-out of the garrison. But he did not see what he might have seen if he had lingered but a few minutes more in the fort that was his namesake, for Graydon tells of the rumor having spread to New York that Washington was among the prisoners, and the greetings that met the sorry troop: "On the road as we approached the city, we were beset by a parcel of soldiers trulls and others, who came out to meet us. It was obvious, that in the calculation of this assemblage of female loyalty, the war was at an end; and that the whole of the rebel army, Washington and all, were safe in durance. "Which is Washington? Which is Washington?' proceeded from half a dozen mouths at once; and the guard was obliged to exert itself to keep them off. Some of them assailed us with vollies of Billingsgate; and colonel Maxwell, who rode along side of us, and whom I immediately recognized for a captain Maxwell, who had once lodged at my mother's, had enough to do to silence one of them, calling out repeatedly: 'Away with that woman! Take her away! Knock her down, the bitch! Knock her down!"" 4 Poor Greene was a brave and a wise man whom the event had turned for the moment into a destructive fool. He was heartbroken. He wrote to Knox in incoherent misery: "I feel mad, vexed, sick, and sorry. Never did I need the consoling voice of a friend more than now. Happy should I be to see you. This is a most terrible event: its consequences are justly to be dreaded. Pray, what is said upon the occasion? A line from you will be very acceptable.' |