How they shouted! What rejoicings! The calm, gliding Delaware! How the bonfires and the torches And from the flames, like fabled phoenix, Our glorious Liberty arose! -W. R. Wallace's "Liberty Bell.'' 259. The Opposing Armies at New York. General Howe soon sailed from Halifax to New York and established his headquarters on Staten Island. Thither came his brother, Admiral Howe, with re-enforcements from England, and Clinton from his defeat at Fort Moultrie. Howe had now under his command about thirty thousand well-armed soldiers. Washington, divining the plans of the enemy, gathered all his available forces, about seventeen thousand men, at New York to protect the city. Fort Lee and Fort Washington were built on opposite sides of the Hudson. Brooklyn Heights on Long Island commanded New York City, and it was immediately fortified and placed under the command of General Putnam. Putnam was one of the great number of recruits who had gathered at Cambridge after the battle of Lexington. He was plowing on his farm in Connecticut when the news of the battle reached him. Leaving his plow in the furrow and his oxen free, he sprang to his horse and never stopped until he reached the camp at Cambridge. Putnam was noted for reckless bravery, which well qualified him for bold and startling movements. Great Britain, after her failure in New England, now planned to gain control of the Middle States. Her objects in this move were to separate the North from the South, and to cut off relations between the two great ringleaders-Massachusetts and Virginia. This could be best done by getting A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES possession of New York harbor, and of the water route to Canada by way of the Hudson River and Lake Champlain. 260. The Battle of Long Island. General Howe saw that, by securing Brooklyn Heights, he could, from this point, drive Washington out of New York, just as Washington had driven. him out of Boston. So he attacked a detachment of Putnam's army under Sullivan and defeated it with heavy loss (August). He did not, however, follow up his victory, and the wary Washington, under cover of a dense fog and burning camp fires, removed his entire army across East River to New York. Again, as at Bunker Hill and Dorchester Heights, the slowwitted Howe was out-generaled by Washington. 261. Washington's Masterly Retreat. Howe followed Washington to New York, and the latter, unable to hold the city against the superior forces of the enemy, retreated northward along the east side of the Hudson to Peekskill, encountering Howe's skirmishing parties at Harlem and White Plains (October). Captain Nathan Hale, only twenty-one years of age, a former student of Yale College, a school teacher by profession, was sent by Washington to gain some information respecting the British in the city. Betrayed by an American Tory, he was captured by the enemy and executed, without trial, as a spy. His last words, "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country," proved the undaunted patriotism of this brave hero. Howe captured Forts Lee and Washington. Aroused by the losses he had suffered (New York, and Forts Washington and Lee), Washington left General Charles Lee to hold Peekskill, while he himself hurried across the Hudson to New Jersey to stand between the British and Philadelphia. The British, under Lord Cornwallis, also crossed the Hudson. Washington now ordered Lee, who was still on the east side of the river, to join him; but this treacherous commander refused, and Washington's only policy was that of retreat. Greatly outnumbered by the British, he fled rapidly before them through Newark, New Brunswick, Princeton, and Trenton, whence he crossed the Delaware into Pennsylvania. Since Washington had seized all the boats in reach, Cornwallis could not follow across the stream, so he returned to New York to share in the Christmas festivities, declaring that he would wait till the river should be frozen over to "bag the old fox," as he styled Washington. General Charles Lee now started to follow his chief leisurely into New Jersey. He was soon captured HESSIAN SOLDIER by the British; his troops, however, succeeded in joining Washington. Lee was a traitor. Jealous of Washington, and disappointed in his hope of securing the latter's position, he wished to see him fail. The American situation, after the succession of disasters attending Washington's remarkably skillful retreat, was gloomy, and discouragement settled on the country. Washington was constantly losing men by sickness and desertion, until he had not more than five thousand under his command, while the British army was being reenforced by the deserters from Washington's army, as well as by numerous Tories. The British generals began to think that the war was near its close. Cornwallis was even packing up to re turn home. He thought that the Delaware would soon be bridged by ice and that he could then cross and capture Philadelphia, the rebel capital. After this his services would no longer be needed in America. |