XII.

CHAP. of the month this echo to Reed's letter, having outwardly the form of an official despatch, fell 1776. under the eye of Washington.

Nov.

26.

30.

The daily and precise letters and mandates of Washington admitted no subterfuge. On the twenty-sixth Lee promised obedience; he then turned to chide Heath for having thwarted his purpose; and wound up his note with these words: "The commander-in-chief is now separated from us; I, of course, command on this side the water; for the future, I will and must be obeyed." Assuming the air of authority in chief, he sent letters to three New England colonies, proposing a temporary embargo, that the privateersmen might be driven to seek employment in the army. And again to Massachusetts he urged the annual drafting of every seventh man; adding, to a puritan colony, his "most fervent prayer that God Almighty may assist in this pious work." Congress had lost much of its purity and dignity by the transfer of many of its ablest members; yet as nothing encouraged him to expect the dictatorship from that body, or from Massachusetts advice to save the country by virtuous treason," or from his division a willing complicity in disobedience, he consented to cross the river; but he was still determined to avoid a junction with the commander-in-chief, and to impress into his own separate army all the forces which he could intercept. To Washington's mild reproaches for his not being sooner in motion, he answered on the thirtieth from Peekskill: "I shall explain my difficulties, when we both have leisure." Of Heath he demanded the transfer of

XII.

1776.

Nov.

his best regiments. The honest officer refused, CHAP. producing his instructions. Lee insisted; assumed command at the post, and issued his own orders; but soon recalled them; for none approved his overturning the careful disposition which had been made for the security of the Highlands.

a

we

On the second and third of December his division passed the ferry; but he claimed to be " detached general," bound only "to make an important diversion." At Haverstraw, on the fourth, at the time when the army which he should have joined had shrunk to less than three thousand men, he heard of the approach of some of the seven regiments which Schuyler had transferred from the northern army; and he wrote to Washington: "I shall put myself at their head to-morrow; shall compose an army of five thousand good troops," giving an exaggerated return of his numbers. From Pompton, on the seventh, he sent Malmedy, a French officer of no merit, and utterly ignorant of English, to assume the general command of the troops collected for the defence of Rhode Island; and in his letter to the governor of that state he sneered at Washington as neither a heaven-born genius," nor one who had "theory joined to practice," and therefore destitute of the qualities which could "alone constitute a general." On the eighth, from Morristown, while the general was retiring before Howe and Cornwallis, and escaping beyond the Delaware with his half-starved, half-clad soldiers, few and weak and worn and seemingly doomed, Lee announced to Richard Henry Lee and Rush, the committee

"

Dec. 2, 3.

4.

7.

8.

CHAP. of congress, that it was not his intention "to

XII. join the army with Washington," because, said he, 1776. I am assured he is very strong." This he penned

Dec.

8.

66

with an unbounded audacity of falsehood, having at the moment the messenger from Washington at his side. To Washington, who had hoped by concert with him to achieve some great success, he used the same plain language of disobedience, and wrote that he would "hang on the enemy's rear, and annoy them in a desultory war." Then, as if to make the grief for his delay more poignant, he reports his division as amounting to four thousand noble-spirited men. "On receiving my despatches by Major Hoops," wrote Washington to congress, "I should suppose he would be convinced of the necessity of his proceeding this way with all the force he can bring." Lee had received the despatches by Major Hoops, and still adhering to his plan of remaining in the enemy's rear, had answered in a letter which, with the exception of a deceitful memorandum without signature, was his last communication to his chief during the campaign: "I shall look about me to-morrow, and 9. inform you further." From Chatham, which he selected as his post, he on that morrow hurried off orders to Heath to have three regiments just arrived from Ticonderoga join him without loss of time, saying: "I am in hopes here to reconquer the Jerseys; it was really in the hands of the enemy before my arrival."

12.

On the twelfth his division marched with Sullivan eight miles only to Vealtown; but Lee, with a small guard, proceeded on the flank, three or

XII.

1776.

Dec.

13.

four miles nearer the enemy, who were but eigh- CHAP. teen miles off; and passed the night at White's tavern at Baskingridge. The next morning he lay in bed till eight o'clock. On rising he wasted two hours with Wilkinson, a messenger from Gates, in boasting of his own prowess and cavilling at everything done by others. Never was a general in a position more free from difficulties; he had only to obey an explicit order from his superior officer, which there was nothing to prevent but his own. caprices. It was ten o'clock before he sat down to breakfast; after which he took time, in a letter to Gates, to indulge his spleen towards Washington in this wise: "My dear Gates, The ingenious manoeuvre of Fort Washington has unhinged the goodly fabric we had been building. There never was so damned a stroke. Entre nous, a certain great man is most damnably deficient. He has thrown me into a situation where I have my choice of difficulties if I stay in this province, I risk myself and army; and if I do not stay, the province is lost forever. I have neither guides, cavalry, medicines, money, shoes, or stockings. I must act with the greatest circumspection. Tories are in my front, rear, and on my flanks; the mass of the people is strangely contaminated; in short, unless something which I do not expect turns up, we are lost. Our counsels have been weak to the last degree. As to yourself, if you think you can be in time to aid the general, I would have you by all means go; you will at least save your army. It is said that the whigs are determined to set fire to Philadelphia; if they strike this decisive

Dec.

CHAP. stroke, the day will be our own; but unless it is XII. done, all chance of liberty in any part of the 1776. globe is forever vanished. Adieu, my dear friend; 13. God bless you. Charles Lee." The paper, which he signed, was not yet folded, when Wilkinson, at the window, cried out: "Here are the British cavalry." "Where?" asked Lee.

The young Lieutenant-Colonel Harcourt, eager for distinction, had asked and obtained of Cornwallis the command of a scouting party of thirty dragoons, and learning on the way Lee's foolhardy choice of lodgings, he approached the house undiscovered, and surrounded it by a sudden charge. Had Lee followed the advice of De Virnejoux, a gallant French captain in the American service, who was in the house, he would have escaped. But Harcourt, who knew that, to succeed, his work must be done quickly, called out to Lee to come forth immediately, or the house would be set on fire; and within two minutes, he who had made it his habitual boast that he would never be taken alive, sneaked out unarmed, bareheaded, without cloak, in slippers and blanket-coat, his collar open, his shirt very much soiled from several days' wear, pale from fear, with the abject manner of a coward, and entreated the dragoons to spare his life. They seized him just as he was, and set him on Wilkinson's horse, which stood ready saddled at the door. One of his aids, who came out with him, was mounted behind Harcourt's servant; and at the signal by the trumpet, just four minutes from the time of surrounding the house, they began their return. On the way, Lee recovered from his panic,