Chapter IX: ```"Thou desolate and dying year! (1)

```Prophetic of our final fall;

```Thy buds are gone, thy leaves are sere,

```Thy beauties shrouded in the pall;

```And all the garniture that shed

```A brilliancy upon thy prime,

```Hath like a morning vision fled

```Into the expanded grave of time."

`````James G. Brooks.

```"That soft autumnal time

````Is come, that sheds upon the naked seene

```Charms only known in this our northern clime--

````Bright seasons far between.

```" The woodland foliage now

````Is gathered lw the wild November blast,

```E'en the thick leaves upon the poplar's bough

````Are fallen to the last."

`````John H. Bryant.

N the 22d of November, 1848, I left New York to visit the Southern portions of the old Thirteen States, made memorable by the events of the War for Independence. Aware of the lack of public facilities for travel below the Potomac, and not doubting that many of the localities which I intended to visit were far distant from public highways, I resolved to journey with my own conveyance, with an independence and thoroughness not vouchsafed by steam or stage-drivers. I purchased a strong, good-natured horse, harnessed him to a light dearborn wagon, stowed my luggage under the seat, and, taking the reins, on a bright and balmy afternoon departed on a _drive_ of nearly fourteen hundred miles. The wisdom of my resolve was a hundred times made manifest, for, in some portions of the South, horse, mule, or ox could not have been procured to convey me to places of interest, lying scores of miles apart, and scores of miles away from stage-routes. It was a lonely journey; sometimes among mountains, sometimes through swamps, sometimes through vast pine forests and over sandy plains, and sometimes amid the most interesting natural scenery, even in mid-winter. It was to me a journey of great interest; and the dreary days passed in riding from one hallowed locality to another, after leaving the Appomattox, were all forgotten when sitting down, pencil in hand, in the midst of some arena consecrated by patriotism and love of country. Then glorious associations would crowd thickly upon the memory, weariness and privations would be forgotten, and the truthful heart would chant,=

```"Great God! we thank thee for this home--

````This bounteous birth-land of the free;

```Where wanderers from afar may come

````And breathe the air of liberty!

```Still may her flowers untrampled spring,

````Her harvests wave, her cities rise;

```And yet, till Time shall fold his wing,

````Remain earth's loveliest paradise!

`````W. J. Pabodie.=

[[[Perth Amboy.--Its original Settlement and Prospects.--Governor William Franklin.]]]

{217}In succeeding pages I shall endeavor to impart to my readers some of the pleasures and profits of this Southern journey, extended, after leaving my horse and wagon at Camden, in South Carolina, to nearly fourteen hundred miles further.

I left New York at three o'clock in the afternoon in the steam-boat _Transport_ of the Camden and Amboy Rail-road Company. We passed out at the Narrows at four o'clock between Forts Hamilton and La Fayette, and, traversing Raritan Bay, on the southeast side of Staten Island, reached South Amboy at twilight, where I remained until morning. This little village is situated upon the bay, at the mouth of the Raritan, and is the terminus of the rail-way from Philadelphia. On the north side of the Raritan is Perth Amboy, * a pleasant place, a port of entry, and a locality of considerable historic interest. It is about twenty-five miles from New York, and ten from New Brunswick; the latter lies at the head of steam-boat navigation on the Raritan. Upon this point the first proprietors of New Jersey intended to build a city. "If the Lord permit," they said, in their published account of the beauty and fertility of that region, "we intend, with all convenient speed, to erect and build our principal town, which, by reason of situation, must, in all probability, be the most considerable for merchandise, trade, and fishing in those parts. It is designed to be placed upon a neck or point of land called Ambo Point, lying on Raritan River, and pointing to Sandy Hook Bay, and near adjacent to the place where ships in that great harbor commonly ride at anchor." It was called "a sweet, wholesome, and delightful place and William Penn said, on taking a view of the land, "I have never seen such before in my life." The town was laid out into one hundred and fifty lots, many buildings were erected, and for a time it was the commercial rival of New York. A city charter was obtained in 1718. William Eier was the first mayor, and James Alexander--the father of Lord Stirling, of the Continental army--was the first recorder. Barracks for soldiers were built there in 1758--9, and were first occupied by the English troops on their return from Havana in 1761.

Perth Amboy was the place of residence of Governor Franklin when the Revolution broke out, and was the scene of many stirring events during that war. ** It was in posses-

* This point, when first mentioned in the East Jersey records, bears the Indian name of Ompage, of which Ambo or Amboy is a corruption. The white settlement there was for some time called Perth, in honor of the Earl of Perth, one of the proprietors; but the name of Ambo was so often mentioned, that at last it was called Perth Amboy.

** William Franklin, the royal governor of New Jersey, was the only son of Dr. Benjamin Franklin. He was born in 1731. He was postmaster of Philadelphia for a short time, and served as clerk of the House-of Representatives of Pennsylvania. He was a captain in the French and Indian war, and fought bravely, under Abercrombie, at Ticonderoga. He visited England, with his father, toward the close of the war. In Scotland he became acquainted with the Earl of Bute, who recommended him to Lord Fairfax. That-nobleman appointed him governor of New Jersey, and for a time he was very popular with the people. He was a decided monarchist, and from the beginning of the disputes with Great Britain he took sides against his father. He involved himself in quarrels with the Legislature of New Jersey, and the people became very hostile to him before the close of his administration in 1776. On the 23d of May of that year, the first Provincial Congress of New Jersey commenced their session at Trenton, and the royal government soon afterward ceased to exist. A constitution was adopted in July, 1776. William Livingston was elected governor in place of Franklin, and that deposed servant of royalty, declared by the Congress of New Jersey to be an enemy to liberty, was seized in his own house at Perth Amboy, and conveyed a prisoner to Windham, Connecticut, at which place, and also in Litchfield jail, he was confined for some time. [See p. 436, volume i.] On the arrival of Sir Henry Clinton in America in 1778, Governor Franklin was exchanged for some American prisoners, and released. He went to New York, where he served, for a short period, as president of the Board of Directors of the Associated Loyalists. In West's picture of the Reception of the American Loyalists by Great Britain, in the year 1783, Governor Franklin is a prominent personage-represented. A copy of this picture will be found in another part of this work. Franklin went to England at the close of the war, where he resided until his death in November, 1813, enjoying a pension of $4000 per annum. He and his father were reconciled in 1784, after an alienation often years. The doctor, however, could not forget his political delinquency. In his will, after devising to his son all the books and papers of his in possession of the governor, and also all debts standing against him on his account-books, he says, "The part he acted against me in the late war, which is of public notoriety, will account for my leaving him no more of an estate he endeavored to deprive me of." * Governor Franklin's wife died in 1778, just before his release from imprisonment. On a monumental tablet in St. Paul's Chureh, New York, it is inscribed that, "compelled to part from the husband she loved, and at length despairing of the soothing hope of his return, she sunk of accumulated distresses," &e. His son, William Temple Franklin, who edited his grandfather's works, died at Paris in May, 1823.

* Sparks's Life of Franklin, 599.

[[[Dunlap's Recollection of military Affairs at Perth Amboy.--Journey to Crosswicks.--Missionary Operations there.]]]

{218}sion of the British much of the time; and one of the many pictures of life of varied hue there presented, is given by William Dunlap (who was born there), in his _History of the Arts of Design_. "Here were centered," he says, "in addition to those cantoned in the place, all those [troops] drawn in from the Delaware, Princeton, and Brunswick; and the flower and pick of the army, English, Scotch, and German, who had at that time been brought in from Rhode Island. Here was to be seen a party of forty-second Highlanders, in national costume, and there a regiment of Hessians, their dress and arms a perfect contrast to the first. The slaves of Anspach and Waldeek were there--the first somber as night, the second gaudy as noon. Here dashed by a party of the seventeenth dragoons, and there scampered a party of Yagers. The trim, neat, and graceful English grenadier; the careless and half-savage Highlander, with his flowing robes and naked knees, and the immovably stiff' German, could hardly be taken for parts of one army. Here might be seen soldiers driving in cattle, and others guarding wagons loaded with household furniture, instead of the hay and oats they had been sent for.

"The landing of the grenadiers and light infantry from the ships which transplanted the troops from Rhode Island; their proud march into the hostile neighborhood, to gather the produce of the farmer for the garrison; the sound of the musketry, which soon rolled back upon us; the return of the disabled veterans who could retrace their steps, and the heavy march of the discomfited troops, with their wagons of groaning wounded, in the evening, are all impressed on my mind as pictures of the evils and the soul-stirring scenes of war. These lessons, and others more disgusting, were my sources of instruction in the winter of 1776--7." * [[November 23, 1848]] I left Amboy for Trenton, by the way of Crosswicks, before sunrise the next morning. The air was clear and frosty; the pools by the road side were skimmed with ice, and fields and fences were white with hoar frost. The deep sand of the road made the traveling heavy, yet, before the sun was fairly up, my strong horse had taken me half the way to Spottswood, ten miles distant. I passed through Spottswood, Old Bridge, Hightstown, and Cranberry, to Allentown, twenty-eight miles from Amboy, where I dined. These villages have a neat and thrifty appearance. Over the level, sandy country through which the road passes, extensive peach orchards are spread out, covering hundreds of acres. Crosswicks, ** the scene of some stirring events in the Revolution, is situated upon a ridge on the left bank of Crosswicks Creek, four miles from Allentown, and the same distance from the Delaware Ptiver. The creek is in a deep ravine, here spanned by a fine latticed bridge, erected upon the site of the old one of the Revolution. It was settled by the Quakers in 1681, and was a place of sufficient importance in colonial times to be once a meeting-place of the Provincial Assembly. Among the Indians at Crossweeksung, Brainerd and Tennant [[1748]] labored successfully, *** and the influence of the Quakers upon that tribe was sensibly felt. Here a small detachment of the American army was stationed after the first engagement at Trenton, where the Hessians were captured; and here one division of the British troops, marching from Philadelphia toward Monmouth, in June, 1778, were pretty severely handled by a party of Americans. The troops of the enemy marched in three divisions from Philadelphia: one by Mount Holly, one through Columbus, and the third by Bordentown, on the Delaware, near the mouth of Crosswicks Creek. Near the latter place was a draw-bridge, and as the British attempted to repair it for the purpose of crossing, the militia regiments of Colonels Frelinghuysen, **** Van Dyke, and Webster, stationed near, rushed

* History of the Arts of Design, vol. ii.

** This name is derived from the Indian appellation of the plaee, Crossweeksung, signifying a separation. The creek separates into two branches not far from the village.

*** In less than one year after Brainerd commenced preaching among them, he baptized no less than seventy-seven persons, of whom thirty-eight were adults.--Allen's Amer. Biog. Dictionary.

**** Frederik Frelinghuysen was the son of Reverend John Frelinghuysen, of Raritan, New Jersey. He graduated at Princeton in 1770, and when the Revolution broke out he entered the military service of his country. He was a captain of a militia company at the battle of Trenton, December 26, 1776, and, it is said, was the man who shot Colonel Rail, the commander of the Hessians. He was afterward promoted to the rank of colonel, which office he held during the war. He was a member of the old Congress, and, under the administration of Washington, was a senator from New Jersey. He was for a number of years one of the trustees of Princeton College. He died in April, 1804, aged about fifty-two years. Theodore Frelinghuysen, late United States senator from New Jersey, and Chancellor of the University of New York, is his son.

[[[Skirmish at Crosswicks.--The Friends' Meeting-house.--Mrs. Idell.--Bordentown]]]

{219}upon them, killed four and wounded several. The enemy left the bridge at Bordentown, and, marching up to Crosswicks, attempted to repair the bridge there, which the Americans had almost destroyed. *

The alert provincials were ready to receive them; and from their station on the Woodwardsville side of the creek, they poured upon the Britons volleys of musketry, which, with a well-aimed shot occasionally from an old six-pounder, effectually kept them at bay. Being re-enforced the next day, the enemy repaired the bridge, crossed it, and pursued their march toward Allentown. During the skirmish, one of the cannon-balls fired by the Americans struck the north wall of the meeting-house and lodged therein, where it remained until the building was repaired a few years ago. The hole made by the ball is yet visible; the dark spot between the sills of the two upper windows, on the right of the picture, marks the place.

The American troops at Crosswicks, after the battle of Trenton, used the meeting-house for barracks; yet, unlike the British soldiers who occupied churches for a similar purpose, they neither defaced the building, nor disturbed the society in their public religious duties'. Every Wednesday and Sunday the soldiers withdrew, the benches were properly arranged, and worship was held as usual.

During my brief tarry of an hour and a half at Crosswicks, I visited the venerable Mrs. Idell, who was eighty-three years old. She clearly remembered the advent of the Americans there, after the battle of Trenton. She lived with her brother, two or three miles from the meeting-house. Twelve American officers, on horseback, took possession of his house while himself and family were in meeting. The parlor was filled with equestrian accouterments, and she and two other children "almost lost their wits by fright." The old lady was strong in mind but feeble in body when I saw her, yet she was able to sit in their plain old house of worship every meeting-day.

I left Crosswicks at four o'clock, and arrived at Trenton at sunset. It was a pleasant drive of eight miles through a fertile country; the well-filled barns and barracks, and the numerous haystacks, denoting bountiful harvests. I passed a little northward of Bordentown, and had an occasional glimpse of its spires above the brown tree-tops. As we may not, in the course of our journey, approach so near this pleasant village again, let us slacken our pace a little as we go over the crown of the hill, from whence the vane of the Episcopal church is visible, and consider its Revolutionary history.

Bordentown is "a city upon a hill," and "can not be hid." It is at the elbow of the Delaware River, seven miles below Trenton, and from the brow of the eminence on which it stands there is an extensive view of that noble stream and the surrounding country. It derives its name from Joseph Borden, an early settler. Here both the Americans and British had military stores; and hither both parties, at different times, dispatched small detachments to surprise and capture, or destroy them. Here a strong body of Hessians, under

* An American named Clevenger, who had cut away the last sleeper of the bridge when the enemy approached, was shot in the back of the head and killed while retreating. He was the only man whom the Americans lost in the skirmish.

** This view is from the shed in the yard, looking southeast. The building stands in the center of a large square, is of imported brick, and very spacious. The Quakers were numerous in this vicinity in the time of the Revolution, and a large number of the present inhabitants are members of that sect.

[[[Revolutionary Events at Bordentown.--Joseph Bonaparte.--General Dickinson.--Trenton.]]]

{220}Count Donop, was stationed at the time of the battle at Trenton. One of the several expeditions sent out from Philadelphia by the enemy, in the spring of 1778, was for the purpose of destroying vessels which were lying in Barnes's and Crosswicks Creeks at this place. Six or seven hundred troops left Philadelphia about ten in the evening on the 7th of May, and went up the Delaware in a flotilla consisting of two row-galleys, three other armed vessels, and twenty-four flat-bottomed boats. They had fair winds for ten miles of the way, * when a calm ensued, and they were obliged to row the remainder of the distance. They expected to reach Bordentown and perform their destructive work before dawn, but they did not arrive there until late in the forenoon. Before landing, they burned two frigates at the White Hills, a little below the village, and afterward destroyed several smaller vessels. They landed without much opposition, burned the residence of Joseph Borden, committed some petty malicious trespasses, and then re-embarked. The next day they proceeded up the river as far as Bile's Island, intending to make a descent upon Trenton; but General Dickinson, ** and the troops under his command, gave them such a warm reception, that they hastily turned their prows southward. On their way down they landed at Colonel Kirk-bride's farm, on the Pennsylvania side, burned his buildings, and seized considerable property. A party of militia, whom General Dickinson sent down the river, succeeded in capturing a sloop which the enemy had filled with plunder, and took prisoners six men who were on board. The marauders returned to Philadelphia with very little booty, and not a particle of glory. ***

At Bordentown, from 1816 until 1842, Joseph Bonaparte, the ex-king of Spain, and brother of Napoleon, resided. His park and grounds comprised about fifteen hundred acres of land, which his taste and well-directed expenditure of money redeemed from almost barrenness, and made beautiful. His mansion was enriched with the most exquisite works of art in painting and sculpture, for the gratification of himself and friends; and while he was ever willing to display these for the pleasure of the poor, his hand was open to their wants.

The sun was vailed, at its setting, when I arrived at Trenton, **** by an ominous red vapor that betokened a storm. True to the "sign," the morning following was lowery, and a chilly east wind made sketching in the open air any thing but pleasant. I was busy with my pencil until the rain began to fall at noon. At two o'clock the sun peeped out for a moment, and smiled so pleasantly (yet deceptively) that I ordered my horse, and, accompa-

* The distance from Philadelphia to Bordentown is twenty-six miles.

** Philemon Dickinson was a gallant officer of the Revolution. He was a Whig of the truest dye, and entered the Revolutionary army at the outset of the contest. Although possessed of an ample fortune, he cheerfully hazarded it for the good of his country, preferring poverty with liberty, to wealth with slavery. He was at the head of the Jersey militia in the battle of Monmouth, where he displayed the greatest bravery. He was a member of Congress from his state after the establishment of the present Federal government, and in various civil and military stations he discharged his duty faithfully. Twelve years of the latter part of his life were passed in domestic retirement at his seat near Trenton, where he died on the 4th of February, 1809, at the age of sixty-eight years.

*** Howe, in the Historical Collections of New Jersey, page 101, records one or two incidents of this incursion which were related to him by a person who was a resident there at the time. He said the British officers dined at the house of Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, who, with his family, was absent at the time. A young lady, eighteen years old, named Mary Comely, provided the dinner for them. While they were dining, she was informed that the soldiers were robbing the houses of her mother and grandmother, on the opposite side of the street. She went in, and stealthily cut a piece from the skirt of one of the soldiers' coats. This she handed to the commander, and by it he detected the thief. By this means the property of her relations and some neighbors was restored. A Whig, in order to save his property, slew a sheep, and made a good dinner for the soldiers; but, before the meal was ready, the bugle sounded for the troops to form in line. The dinner was partaken of by Colonel Baylor and his light horse, who arrived toward evening.

**** Trenton is the capital of New Jersey, situated upon the east bank of the Delaware, at the Falls, thirty miles from Philadelphia. The first settlements were made by Quakers, on both sides of the river, about 1679. The region in the vicinity of the Falls was called by the Delaware Indians, Sankhican, a name signifying gun or firelock, from the circumstance that a tribe of Mohawks, who used guns, occupied that spot. A purchase of a large tract of land lying on both sides of the Assanpink was made by Colonel William Trent, of Philadelphia, in 1714, and from him Trent Town or Trenton derives its name.

[[[M'Conkey's Ferry, where Washington crossed the Delaware.--Long Bridge.--Capture of Forts Washington and Lee.]]]

{221}nied by the Honorable G. W. Smyth, of Belvidere, started for M'Conkey's Ferry (now Taylorsville), eight miles above Trenton, the place where=

```On Christmas day, in seventy-six,

```Our gallant troops, with bayonets fixed,

````To Trenton marched away,"=

and, with Washington, crossed the Delaware, on the memorable night of that festival.

We had ridden scarcely a mile before the rain came pattering down upon our wagon-top, and when we returned at evening the storm had increased in violence to that of a drenching summer shower. The road passes along the bank of the Delaware, and on a bright summer day it must be one of the pleasantest drives imaginable. There are several beautiful country-seats on the way, with grounds tastefully laid out and shaded. Two miles from Trenton is the State Lunatic Asylum, an immense building, having nine quadrangles, and presenting a front of four hundred and eighty feet. The feeder for the Delaware and Hudson Canal, and the artificial channel made along the river bank for the production of water power at Trenton, are crossed and paralleled by the road all the way to Yardleyville, between which and Taylorsville the great dam constructed to supply these streams stretches across the Delaware. Taylorsville is on the Pennsylvania side, at M'Conkey's Ferry. A noble bridge, six hundred feet long, here spans the river. It is supported by eight piers, eighteen feet above the water when the stream has its usual depth. The bridge is of timber, the piers of solid masonry, with an icebreaker on the upper side. The view here given is from below the bridge on the Pennsylvania side, looking northeast, and exhibits the Jersey shore at the precise point where the American army landed, an event which we shall consider presently. Mr. Taylor, an old resident of the place, pointed out the spot, on each side of the river, where a log-house stood at the time. The one on the Pennsylvania side was upon the site of the _Temperance House_, in Taylorsville; that upon the Jersey shore was exactly at the end of the bridge.

It was very dark when we reached Trenton in the midst of the storm. With the feelings of the silly mortal who thought a brook would soon run dry because the stream was so swift, I hoped for a bright morning because the rain came down deluge-like. Let us turn from the present and commune an hour with the past.

Fort Washington, on the east bank of the Hudson, near New York city, fell into the hands of the enemy on the 16th of November, 1776, and the garrison of nearly three thousand men became prisoners of war. The skirmish at White Plains had recently [[October 28, 1776]] occurred, and Washington, penetrating the design of the enemy to pass into New Jersey and march to the capture of Philadelphia, had already crossed the Hudson with the main body of the American army, after securing some positions on the east bank, between Kingsbridge and the Highlands. He encamped at Hackensack, in the rear of Fort Lee where General Greene was in command. Lord Cornwallis crossed the Hudson at Dobbs's Ferry, with six thousand men, on the 18th, and landing at Closter, a mile and a [[November, 1776]] half from English Neighborhood, proceeded to attack Fort Lee. The garrison made a hasty retreat, and joined the main army at Hackensack, five miles distant. All the baggage and military stores at Fort Lee fell into the hands of the enemy. It was an easy conquest for Cornwallis; and had he followed up this successful beginning with energy,

[[[Retreat of the Americans across New Jersey.--Decrease of the Army.--Tardy Movements of General Lee.]]]

{222}there is every probability that he would have captured Washington and his army. The latter commenced a retreat toward the Delaware when Cornwallis approached, hoping to be sufficiently re-enforced by the New Jersey and Pennsylvania militia to be enabled to make a successful stand against the invaders at some intermediate point. But late reverses had dispirited the militia, and Washington found his army diminishing at every step rather than augmenting.

By the last of November scarcely three thousand troops remained in the American army. For three weeks he fled before Cornwallis across the level districts of New Jersey. Newark, New Brunswick, Princeton, and Trenton were successively evacuated by the Americans and occupied by the enemy. Often the music of the pursued and the pursuers would be heard by each other, yet no action occurred. Arrived at Trenton on the 8th of December, Washington and his army crossed the Delaware in boats. The last one had reached the Pennsylvania shore just as one division of Cornwallis's army, with all the pomp of victors, marched into Trenton. This was about twelve o'clock at night. The British commander, with the main body of the troops, halted within six miles of Trenton.

Washington had hoped to make a stand at New Brunswick, but was disappointed. The service of the Jersey and Maryland brigades expired on the day he left that place, and neither of them would remain longer with the army. General Lee had been left at White Plains in command of a detachment of the army, consisting of nearly three thousand men. Washington wrote to him from Hackensack, requesting him to lead his division into New Jersey immediately to re-enforce his melting army. Lee did not heed the request, and the commander-in-chief finally sent him a positive order to that effect. This order was repeated, and yet he delayed; and so tardy was his march in the rear of the royal army, that it was three weeks before he reached Morristown. It is evident from Lee's conduct, and the tenor of his letters at that time, that it was not so much a spirit of determined disobedience which governed his actions, as a strong desire to act independent of the commander-in-chief, and perform some signal service which would redound to his personal glory. * He was as ambitious as he was impetuous and brave. He had endeavored, but in vain, to induce General Heath, who was left in command at Peekskill, to let him have a detachment of one or two thousand men, with which to operate. Heath refused to vary from his instructions, and it was well he did. Washington continued to urge Lee to form a junction with him; yet, as late as the 11th of December, two days after the passage of the Delaware, a letter written by Lee to Washington, at Morristown, hinted at various contemplated movements, not one of which referred to a junction of forces. This was the last letter Washington received from Lee during his march. Two days afterward, while pursuing his slow and reluctant progress toward the Delaware, Lee was taken prisoner. His troops lay at a place called Vealtown, while he lodged at Basking Ridge, nearly three miles distant, at the inn of a Mrs. White, now a private dwelling, situated upon rising ground at the southeast entrance of the village. Colonel Harcourt, at the head of a scouting party of British cavalry, apprised of the position of General Lee,2 made a furious charge upon his quarters on

* It was at this time that the close and confidential intimacy which existed between Washington and Colonel Joseph Reed was disturbed by a letter from Lee to the latter. It will be remembered that Reed was with Washington at Cambridge during the siege of Boston, and was the most confidential friend of the commander-in-chief. On the 21st of November he wrote a letter to Lee, from Hackensack, in which, pointedly alluding to Washington, he complained of the indecision of officers, at the same time complimenting Lee for his opposite quality. This letter was answered in a tone and spirit little calculated to command the respect of Washington for either party. Reed had left camp before its arrival, and, as usual, his letters were opened by the commander-in-chief. In this way the latter became acquainted with its contents. Free explanations were made, and mutual confidence was afterward restored, which continued through life.

** Following the account of Wilkinson, in his Memoirs (who was with Lee at the time), historians say that a Tory communicated the fact of Lee's presence at White's Tavern to Colonel Harcourt. There is no positive evidence that such was the fact; on the contrary, it is asserted, in the Historical Collections of New Jersey, that one of the compilers of that work was informed by Colonel J. W. Drake, of Mendham, that the individual was a Mr. Mackelwraith, an elder of a Presbyterian church, who was surrounded in the road by Harcourt and his men, pressed into service, and compelled to show them Lee's quarters. When the assailants arrived, the guard were sunning themselves on the south side of the house, and were suddenly separated from their arms; hence the feebleness of their resistance.

[[[Capture of General Lee.--Longevity of the Captor's Horse.--Biography of Lee.--His Division commanded by Sullivan.]]]

{223}the morning of the 13th of December, dispersed the guard, and captured the commander. * Lee had just finished a letter to General Gates when the dragoons appeared. So sudden was the arrest, and so quick was the departure, that he was hurried away on horseback, bare-headed, nothing but slippers on his feet, and a blanket coat on his back, and conveyed in safety to New York. General Sullivan, who was taken prisoner at the battle on Long Island, in August previous, had been exchanged, and was now with Lee's division of the army.

On the capture of Lee the command devolved on Sullivan, and he soon afterward crossed the Delaware and joined Washington.

General Lee was an able and efficient officer, and his loss, at that time, was very severely felt. The estimation in which the enemy held his services may be understood by the declaration, "We have taken the American palladium." His disobedience is indefensible; yet, viewing subsequent events in their various relations, that very disobedience was probably instrumental in working out greater good than compliance would

* Mr. James the English novelist, now (1851) residing in this country, informed a friend of the writer that he possesses a manuscript drawing of Colonel Harcourt, and of the horse which he rode on that occasion. The horse lived to the extraordinary age of fifty years.

** Charles Lee was born in Wales in 1731. He was the son of General John Lee of the British army. He was a commissioned officer in the army of George II. at a very early age (some say eleven years), and ardently pursued military knowledge. He acquired many of the Continental languages. He came to America in 1756, and distinguished himself in the wars with the French and Indians. He dwelt, for a time, with the Mohawks, and was made a chief of the tribe, under the name, in the Mohawk dialect, of Boiling Water. In 1762 he bore a colonel's commission, and served under Burgoyne in Portugal. After engaging for a while in political strife in England, he went to the Continent, and during three years, from 1770, he rambled all over Europe. He was received with favor by the great, and finally became aid to Poniatowski, kin" of Poland. For two years he basked in that monarch's favor, and then went, with the king's embassador, to Turkey. From Constantinople he went to Paris, and in 1773 again came to America. He became acquainted with General Gates, and, through his persuasions, purchased a tract of land in Berkley county, Virginia. Resigning a commission which he held in the British army, he accepted one from Congress when the Continental army was organized in the summer of 1775. He accompanied Washington to Cambridge, and from that period until his capture in December, 1776, he was engaged in very active service, particularly at the South. In May, 1778, he was exchanged for General Prescott, who was captured on Rhode Island, and within a month afterward he was engaged in the fierce battle of Monmouth. In that conflict he was disobedient to the commands of the chief, and was arrested for his misconduct. His trial resulted in his suspension, a verdict which gave general satisfaction, for it was believed that he was aiming at supreme command. The verdict was confirmed by Congress in 1780, and he left the army. He lived a while at Berkley, morose and secluded. He finally went to Philadelphia, and took lodgings in a house now known as the "Slate-roof House," once the residence of William Penn, where he died, soon afterward, in poverty and obscurity. His death occurred on the 2d of Oetober, 1782, at the age of fifty-one. General Lee was a brilliant man in many things, but his life exhibited a most perfect specimen of antitheses of character. He was bad in morals and manners, profane in language, and neither feared or loved God or man. He wrote his will a few days before his death, in which he bequeathed his soul to the Almighty, and his body to the earth, saying, "I desire most earnestly that I may not be buried in any church or churchyard, or within a mile of any Presbyterian or Anabaptist meeting-house; for, since I have resided in this country, I have kept so much bad company when living, that I do not choose to continue it when dead." His last words on his death-bed were, "Stand by me, my brave grenadiers!" He was buried in Christ Church-yard, Philadelphia, with military honors. Quite a large concourse of citizens attended his funeral. Mrs. Mercy Warren seems to have formed a correct estimate of Lee's character from her own observations on the occasion of his dining with herself and husband at Watertown, while the army was at Cambridge. In a letter to Samuel Adams, she speaks of him as "plain in his person to a degree of ugliness; careless even to unpoliteness; his garb ordinary; his voice rough; his manners rather morose; yet sensible, learned, judicious, and penetrating." Such is the character of Lee which I received from the lips of Mrs. Hamilton, who expressively called him "a crabbed man."

[[[The Delaware between Washington and Cornwallis.--Weakness of the American Army.--Gloomy Aspect of Affairs.]]]

{224}have done. Let us return to the consideration of the movements of the two armies upon the Delaware.

Washington took the precaution, when he crossed the river, to secure every boat and bateau, so that Cornwallis had no means for continuing an immediate pursuit. The latter had intended to cross a portion of troops early the next morning between M'Conkey's and Coryell's Ferry, for the purpose of capturing a number of boats which the Americans had collected on the Pennsylvania side. But these had been taken away, and he had no alternative but to construct boats, or wait for the freezing of the Delaware, so that he might pass his troops over on the ice.

Washington had but twenty-two hundred men under his command when he crossed the river; and two days afterward, in consequence of the expiration of the term of service of a portion of these, he had but seventeen hundred--indeed, not more than one thousand on whom he could rely. The proclamation of General Howe, mentioned on page 308, vol. i., [[November 30, 1776]] had been circulated freely in the Jerseys since the day of its publication, and had produced wide-spread disaffection to the patriot cause. * New Jersey was now in possession of a victorious enemy, and nothing but the feeble barrier of the Delaware lay between Cornwallis and his well-disciplined army, and Philadelphia, the Federal capital, where Congress was in session. The public treasury was exhausted, and the Congress bills of credit were beginning to be looked upon with suspicion and disfavor. Hourly the American army was melting away, and despondency was brooding over every patriot's mind. Clouds and darkness were gathering thick on every side. The campaign had been little else than a series of discomfitures, ** and the inefficient provisions made by Congress for keeping up an army were manifest to all. Distrust of Congress and of the army began to prevail in all minds, and the sun of American liberty seemed about to set amid the clouds of hopeless despair. Yet Washington was firm and undaunted. His faith in the ultimate triumph of the Americans seems never to have burned with a brighter and steadier light than at this dark moment. Although December frosts were rapidly preparing a bridge over which the enemy might cross the Delaware and march triumphantly to the conquest of Philadelphia and all Pennsylvania, yet he was calm, determined, hopeful. When asked what he would do if Philadelphia should be taken, he replied, "We will retreat beyond the Susquehanna River, and thence, if necessary, to the Alleghany Mountains." While there was a shadow of an army in the field--while Congress maintained its sittings and unity--while a single ray of hope for success remained, no thought of abandoning the righteous cause was harbored in the mind of that great and good man. Already, in the very darkest hour, he

* Among the prominent men who had espoused the Republican cause at the commencement and now abandoned it, was Tucker, president of the New Jersey convention which had sanctioned the Declaration of Independence, and Joseph Galloway, a member of the first Continental Congress. For ten days after the issuing of the proclamation, two or three hundred persons a day came in to take the oath of allegiance to the British crown. Their disappointment is mentioned on page 308, vol. i.

** Although the Americans had generally suffered defeat, yet, from a summary of prisoners taken by each party, during 1776, given in Sparks's Life and Writings of Washington (iv., 547), the Americans were quite successful in making captures. The number of American prisoners taken by the British was 4854; the number of British taken by the Americans, 2860; making a difference in favor of the enemy of 1994. In this statement is not included the 431 Americans captured at the Cedars, but includes the Hessians taken at Trenton. The number of American officers taken was 304--staff 25; privates, 4101: total, 4430. In addition to men, the Americans lost, according to Gordon (ii., 131), 12 mortars and cannons of brass, and 235 of iron; 23,979 empty shells, and 17,122 filled; 2684 double-headed shot; a large quantity of grape-shot; 2800 muskets; 400,000 cartridges; 16 barrels of powder; a quantity of bar iron; 500 intrenching tools; 4 covered wagons; 200 hand-barrows, carts, crows, mantelets, chevaux-de-frize, &c.; 4000 barrels of flour, at Forts Washington and Lee; baggage, tents, and a large quantity of other stores.

[[[Putnam in Command at Philadelphia.--Reorganization of the Army.--Adjournment of Congress to Baltimore.--The Quakers.]]]

{225}had conceived the masterly stroke of military skill which presently brought forth such a radiant spark of hope and joy upon the frozen banks of the Delaware. *

After passing the Delaware, the salvation of Philadelphia became the object of Washington's greatest solicitude. He dispatched General Putnam thither, who, with General Mifflin, commenced the erection of defenses at different points around the city. Congress, now alive to the necessity for the most energetic action, put forth all its powers. It resolved to defend Philadelphia to the last extremity. A stirring appeal to the people was adopted and sent forth, and a thorough organization of the army was begun, in accordance [[December 11, 1776]] with a plan matured by Washington and a committee of Congress, while the American army was upon Harlem Heights, a few months previous. According to this plan, all the hitherto scattered Continental forces were to be embraced in one grand army, consisting of eighty battalions of seven hundred and fifty men each, to be raised in the several states. Massachusetts and Virginia were each to furnish fifteen battalions; Pennsylvania, twelve; North Carolina, nine; Connecticut, eight; South Carolina, six; New York and New Jersey, four each; New Hampshire and Maryland, three each; Rhode Island, two, and Georgia, one. As an inducement for men to enlist and supply the places of those whose term of service was about expiring, liberal bounties were offered. ** A loan of five millions of dollars at four per cent, interest was authorized.

On the 12th of December, Congress invested General Putnam with almost unlimited power in Philadelphia, placing under his control all the munitions of war in the city, and also authorizing him to employ all the private armed vessels in that harbor for the defense of the place. On the same day, under the advice of Putnam and Mifflin, Congress resolved to retire to Baltimore, because Philadelphia, now being made the seat of war, could not furnish that quiet so necessary to wise and dispassionate legislation. *** A committee of three, consisting of Robert Morris, George Clymer, and George Walton, was appointed to remain in Philadelphia, to act in behalf of Congress, during its absence. That body, pursuant to adjournment, reassembled in Baltimore on the 20th. The Whigs in Philadelphia were in great consternation when Congress left. They feared the Loyalists in their midst quite as much as the approaching enemy. On the departure of Congress, the active Loyalists assumed a bold tone; and General Putnam, who was sent thither to fortify the city, was in daily expectation of an insurrection in favor of the royal cause. Nearly the whole body of Quakers, though passive, belonged to that party.

* In a letter to Governor Trumbull, of Connecticut, written on the 14th of December, six days after he crossed the Delaware, he said, alluding to the approach of Gates with a considerable force, "They may, in conjunction with my present force and that under General Lee, enable us to attempt a stroke upon the forces of the enemy, who lie a good deal scattered, and to all appearanee in a state of security. A lucky blow in this quarter would be fatal to them, and would most certainly rouse the spirits of the people, which are quite sunk by our late misfortunes."--Writings of Washington, iv., 220, 221. General Greene, to whom Washington communicated his plans, wrote to Governor Cooke, of Rhode Island, on the 21st, "We are now on the west side of the Delaware. Our force is small when collected together; but, small as it is, I hope we shall give the enemy a stroke in a few days. Should fortune favor the attack, it may put a stop to General Howe's progress." Colonel Reed wrote to Washington on the 21st, "Will it not be possible, my dear general, for your troops, or such part of them as can act with advantage, to make a diversion, or something more, at or about Trenton?"--Ibid., 542, 543.

** Each soldier was to have a bounty of twenty dollars, besides an allotment of land, at the end of the war, to all who survived, or to the families of those who should fall in the service. The allotment of a common soldier was to be one hundred acres; of an ensign, one hundred and fifty; of a lieutenant, two hundred; a captain, three hundred; a major, four hundred; a lieutenant colonel, four hundred and fifty; and a colonel, five hundred. This allotment was to be extended only to those who enlisted "during the war."

*** A rumor having gone abroad that Congress was about to disperse, that body resolved that Washington should be desired to contradict "the false and malicious report spread by the enemies of America," in his general orders. The commander-in-chief, in a letter to the President of Congress from Trenton Falls, written on the 12th, wisely declined publishing such refutation, and gave good reasons for his course. It was a fortunate circumstance," says Sparks (Washington, iv., 210), "that General Washington did not publish this resolve to the army, for, the next day after it was passed, Congress actually adjourned from Philadelphia, to assemble again in Baltimore." The resolution was transmitted to Washington by the secretary of Congress, but it does not appear among the published proceedings of that body.

[[[Howe's Plans.--Injudicious Disposition of the British Troops.--Augmentation of Washington's Forces.]]]

{226}In the mean while, Washington was preparing to strike the enemy. General Howe, the commander-in-chief of the British forces, remained in New York, and the operations in New Jersey were under the control and direction of Lord Cornwallis. It appears from Howe's dispatches * that he did not contemplate pursuing the Americans further than the Delaware, but designed sending a strong force up the Hudson to meet Burgoyne, who was to penetrate the country from Canada. Cornwallis urged the capture of Philadelphia as a paramount measure, and Howe consented. Yet, with all his vigilance and skill, the arrangement of the British army in the Jerseys was not creditable to the sagacity of Cornwallis. It was scattered in detachments along an extended line. A body of Hessians, under Colonel Hall, was stationed at Trenton, and another, under Count Donop, was posted at Bordentown.

The English troops were divided into a chain of cantonments, extending from New Brunswick to the Delaware, and down that river to a point below Burlington. Small detachments were also stationed at Black Horse and Mount Holly. Cornwallis looked with such contempt upon the weak and scattered forces of Washington, and was so certain of an easy victory beyond the Delaware, where, rumor informed him, the people were almost unanimous in favor of the king, that he did not regard great vigilance as necessary. He had returned to head-quarters at New York; and so confident were the British generals that the contest would be ended by taking possession of Philadelphia, that Cornwallis had prepared to sail for England on leave of absence. ** His military stores were chiefly at New Brunswick, and there was his strongest detachment.

Lee's division, under Sullivan, and the regiments from Ticonderoga, united with Washington on the 21 st. The increased pay of officers, the proffered bounties to the[[December, 1776]] soldiers, and the great personal influence of the commander-in-chief, had the effect to retain in the service, for a few weeks at least, more than one half of the old soldiers. The militia of Pennsylvania turned out with considerable alacrity; and on the 24th, between five and six thousand Americans were gathered around the standard of Washington. *** The commander-in-chief's head-quarters were at Newtown, a little village on a small branch of the Nesharning, two miles northeast from Bristol. ****

There were about fifteen hundred Hesssians and a troop of British light horse at Trenton; these Washington determined to surprise. The posts at Mount Holly, Burlington, Black Horse, and Bordentown were to be attacked, at the same time, by the Pennsylvania militia, under Generals Cadwallader (v) and Ewing, the former to cross near Bristol, the latter below Trenton Falls; while Washington, leading the main body of the Continental troops in person, assisted by Generals Sullivan and Greene, and Colonel Knox of the ar-

* Parliamentary Register, xi., p. 260, 362.

** Ramsay says that Colonel Rail, being under some apprehension for the safety of Trenton, applied to General Grant for a re-enforcement. That officer, partaking of the confidence of others, said to the messenger, "Tell the colonel he is very safe. I will undertake to keep the peace in New Jersey with a corporal's guard."

*** By the adjutant's return on the 22d of December, the army of Washington amounted to ten thousand one hundred and six men. Of this number, five thousand three hundred and ninety-nine were sick, on command elsewhere, or on furlough, leaving an effective force of four thousand seven hundred and seven. To these must be added the effective men of Lee's division and the Pennsylvania militia.

**** Washington occupied the house now (1848) owned by Dr. Lee, on the west side of the creek; General Greene was at the large brick house, now Hough's Hotel; and General Mercer was at Mr. Keith's, a little out of the town. It is related that on the morning of the day when the Americans marched to M'Conkey's Ferry, General Mercer told Mrs. Keith that he dreamed, the previous night, that he had been attacked and overpowered by a huge black bear. Mercer was killed by the British and Hessians at Princeton a few days afterward, and those who knew of his dream superstitiously regarded it, as a premonition of his fate.

* (v) John Cadwallader was a native of Philadelphia. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Convention in 1775. He entered the army, and was appointed brigadier by Congress in February, 1777. He participated in the battles of Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. He fought a duel with General Conway, the quarrel which led to it growing out of the intrigue of that officer with Gates and others against Washington. Conway was badly, but not mortally wounded. Cadwallader removed to Maryland after the war, and became a member of its State Legislature. He died on the 10th of February, 1786, aged forty-three years. He was a gentleman of large fortune, and dispensed its blessings with a liberal hand. He has many descendants in Philadelphia and vicinity.

[[[Successful Diversion, by Putnam, in favor of Washington.--The American Army cross the Delaware on Christmas Night.]]]

{227}tillery, was to cross the Delaware at M'Conkey's Ferry, and march down upon the enemy at Trenton. The river yet remained quite free from ice, and every thing seemed auspicious. Unknown to General Washington, Putnam, who had been made acquainted with the design of attacking Trenton, sent Colonel Griffin, with a body of four hundred and fifty militia, across from Philadelphia into New Jersey, to make a diversion in favor of the Trenton expedition. Griffin was instructed to proceed to Mount Holly, for the purpose of attracting the attention of Colonel Donop at Bordentown. He was ordered not to fight, but to retreat down the river when the enemy should appear. This movement had the desired effect. Donop, who should have been near enough to support Colonel Rall, * moved against Griffin with his whole force of two thousand men; and so dilatory was he in his marches after the retreat of the Americans, that it was two days before he returned to his post. **

Christmas night was selected by Washington for the execution of the enterprise. He well knew the German habit of celebrating that day with feasting and drinking, and reasoned wisely on the probability of a large portion of the Hessians being half disabled by intemperate indulgence.