American Revolution Podcast

Sunday, October 6, 2019

Episode 117: Retreat Across New Jersey

The last couple of weeks, I stepped away from the main fighting in New York and New Jersey to discuss other events. But before that, we left the Continental Army in late November, 1776, in full retreat from New York toward Philadelphia. The Continentals decided to make a stand at Fort Washington and ended up losing over 3000 soldiers as prisoners of war. They also had to abandon Fort Lee across the river in New Jersey.

Washington Retreats

The British invasion of New York in the summer and fall of 1776 had pushed the Americans out of the region. General Howe and Admiral Howe had used slow but steady measures to take the city and the area surrounding it. As he retreated, Washington had divided his army sending a little over half of his army further into upstate New York in case the British decided to move up the Hudson River and cut off New England from the rest of the colonies. He put his most trusted General, Charles Lee, in charge of these forces.

Retreats through the Jerseys by Howard Pyle
(from that should be a movie)

After getting pushed out of New York after the Battle of White Plains Washington kept personal command of the remaining forces as they moved into New Jersey. Washington had planned to combine these men with the more than 3000 men at Fort Washington, but after the British captured the fort and took all those men prisoner, Washington was left with a command of about 3500-4000 soldiers. Even worse, since it looked like the Americans were beat, many soldiers began abandoning Washington’s army as soon as their enlistments were up, or simply deserting. They were also unable to recruit much of any local militia to support them.

Clinton Gets Benched

Through late November and early December, Washington’s Army retreated across New Jersey. Most would have thought that the obvious General to command the forces against Washington would have been General Howe’s second in command, Henry Clinton. General Clinton had already made multiple suggestions to Howe on the way he could run the campaign and clearly would have wanted the job. But Howe did not seem interested in any of Clinton’s suggestions. Part of this may have been due to a desire not to let Clinton win any accolades for the final victory in crushing the Continental Army. It may also have been that Howe did not trust Clinton with an independent command. Clinton would be much more aggressive in chasing down the Continentals than Howe may have wanted.

Sir Henry Clinton, 1777
(from Wikimedia)

The two men had been going at each other all year, with Clinton barely containing his disdain of Howe’s strategy. At one point during the Battle of White Plains a frustrated Clinton told General Cornwallis that he would rather have an independent command of only three companies rather than continue to serve under Howe’s command. Cornwallis passed along these comments to Howe, which only deepened the division between the commander and his second in command.

Clinton had proposed landing a force in northern New Jersey and trying to move around the Continental army’s flank while another force pursued them directly. The two British forces would possibly surround the Continentals and force a surrender. But, Howe wanted Clinton nowhere near New Jersey. He assigned Clinton to the independent command to take and hold a couple of port cities in Rhode Island that the British navy would need for the winter. This was clearly an insult to Clinton. There was no serious opposition to this landing and could have been done by a much lower level officer. I plan to discuss the invasion of Rhode Island in a few weeks, but this move was clearly meant simply to push Clinton aside.

Instead, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, General Howe had given the New Jersey command to General Cornwallis, who had taken Fort Lee without much of a fight and then began to march through New Jersey in pursuit of the remnant of the Continental Army still under Washington’s command.

Washington’s break with Reed

During the course of the retreat, Washington’s situation became more and more desperate. His force continued to dwindle, primarily from desertion. No one wanted to be with the army when it finally surrendered. Washington sent repeated requests to General Charles Lee, encouraging him to move his army into New Jersey so the combined American forces could confront, and hopefully push back Cornwallis’ army. With the loss of Fort Washington, General Washington had half the force he expected when he first divided his army.

General Lee, however, was in no hurry to give up his independent command and help Washington. He came up with a series of excuses why he could not move his army. At the same time, he was telling everyone who would listen just how horrible Washington had been in command of the army in New York and that they really needed a new commander of the army (guess who) if they wanted to win this thing.

Joseph Reed

Washington was either ignorant of Lee’s machinations, or was simply ignoring them for the good of the army. Washington respected Lee as one of his best generals. The men had served together since the 1750’s when they both fought at the Battle of the Monongahela under General Edward Braddock. Washington knew that officers of lower rank often criticized commanders. No commander liked it, especially when things were going badly, but they knew it came with the job. However, a commander did not expect his own assistant to be a part of such criticisms.

One of Lee’s correspondents was Joseph Reed. Remember, Colonel Reed was the Philadelphia lawyer whom Washington had begged to serve as his aide-de-camp when he first arrived in Cambridge in 1775. Washington needed a good writer to assist him with correspondence and to assist with the clerical duties of command. Reed made a quick trip back to Philadelphia to tie up his affairs, then returned and remained by Washington’s side as his aide and secretary ever since.

Washington took very few men into his confidence and rarely discussed his personal thoughts, views, or feelings with much of anyone. But there were those rare few who entered Washington’s inner sanctum, men he trusted like family to keep confidential anything he told them. Reed was one of the few in that tight circle. In short, Reed was one man who the guarded Washington thought he could trust.

When Washington needed to send written orders, it was usually Reed who actually wrote the letter and made sure it got delivered. In one of Washington’s orders to General Lee, Reed included a personal note which said in part,

I do not mean to flatter, nor praise you at the expense of any other, but I confess I do think that it is entirely owing to you that this army and the liberties of America so far as they are dependant on it are not totally cut off. You have decision, a quality often wanting in minds otherwise valuable, and I ascribe to this an escape from York Island -- Kingsbridge and the Plains -- I have no doubt that had you been here with the garrison at Mount Washington would now have composed part of the army.

Reed went on to say that Washington needed his experience and judgment to guide him. There is some debate what Reed hoped to accomplish by this. It could simply have been that he hoped appealing to Lee’s considerable ego, he might convince the General to do as Washington wanted and join the two armies in New Jersey. Many historians interpret a more sinister motive. Washington’s career looked over after the loss of New York. They think Reed was looking to ingratiate himself with the man who would most likely become the new commander of the Continental Army.

Lee responded to Reed with a letter that put his ego on full display. When the letter arrived in Washington’s camp, however, Reed was away. Washington, desperate for news about Lee’s expected arrival, opened the letter and read it. It began with Lee responding to Reed’s earlier note to him.

I receiv’d your most obliging flattering letter lament with you that fatal indecision of mind which in war is a much greater disqualification than stupidity or even want of personal courage accident may put a decisive Blunderer in the right but eternal defeat and miscarriage must attend the man of the best parts if curs’d with indecision.

Charles Lee (from Wikimedia)

Washington knew that most of the country doubted his leadership ability following the loss of New York. He knew that Lee was clearly attacking Washington’s indecision in evacuating New York City, White Plains, and Fort Washington in his comments. Washington also already knew there was talk of replacing him with Lee as commander of the Continental Army. But to see his most capable general corresponding with his most trusted aide to badmouth his abilities hit Washington hard.

Washington forwarded on the letter to Reed with a note apologizing for opening his personal correspondence and saying he thought it had been related to official business and without further comment. Washington took no further action on the matter, but ended his confidential relationship with Reed. From that point on, their work together became cold and formal. Whatever his original intentions, Reed obviously saw that what he had done was seen as an act of betrayal. He tried to repair the relationship. The two continued to work together, but the bond of trust and confidence was gone forever.

If I had to identify a time when in Washington’s life when he probably felt the lowest, this would probably be it. His army, his officers, even his most trusted aide, had lost confidence in him. Congress was openly critical, and his failures as a military commander were only mounting.

Leaving New Jersey

Even worse, General Lee still refused to leave New York to come to Washington’s assistance. Enlistment expirations and desertions now meant that his army had fallen below 3000. As I said, Cornwallis had been pressing Washington rather hard as the two armies maintained a running battle across New Jersey.

Retreat from New Jersey (from Wikimedia)

On December 1, Cornwallis caught up with Washington’s army at the Raritan River and was ready to order the final death blow to the Continental Army. As Cornwallis prepared his orders for the following day’s attack, a courier arrived from orders from General Howe. Those order told him to halt his advance immediately and await reinforcements.

For nearly a week, Cornwallis’ army sat obediently on the banks of the Raritan River as they watched the Continentals slip away once again. Finally, Howe arrived a single brigade of reinforcements. The army once again began its advance. But now they were moving at Howe’s snail-like pace. Washington’s battered and shrinking army reached Trenton and crossed the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. Washington attempted to collect every boat along the river to prevent the enemy from crossing. This might have slowed up the British for a few days, but in truth, it seems that Howe had no interest in pursuing the army any further that year. It was already December and well past time to move into winter quarters.

Many Tories and British officers at the time, as well as later military historians, have criticized General Howe for slowing down the attack on the Continental Army fleeing across New Jersey. The Raritan River, actually more of creek, was easily fordable, knee deep in many locations. Washington could not have made a serious stand there if Cornwallis had stormed across the river backed by his artillery.

Washington’s rear guard would have been no match for the British. Indeed, Washington by this time commanded less than 3000 men as desertions continued to decimate his ranks. So why did General Howe order Cornwallis to stop? There are several reasonable explanations that do not indict Howe as incompetent or secretly supporting the American cause as some have said.

As a matter of military strategy, it is important not to let they armies get strung out too far. Howe would not want to give Washington a chance to ambush a large advance guard that had gotten too far ahead of the main force. Washington had done that on a smaller scale at White Plains. Even a minor victory could provide hope that would slow down the disintegration of the Continental Army. That appears to be Howe’s ultimate goal. Everyone decides the British Army is invincible, just gives up, goes home, accepts a pardon, and the war is over.

Howe’s Proclamation

Even before the Continental Army had left New Jersey, the Howe brothers issued another Proclamation of Conciliation on November 30. The proclamation called on the Continental army to disburse, for the Continental Congress to disband and offering amnesty to all rebels who signed an oath of allegiance to the King within 60 days.

Gen. William Howe
(from Wikimedia)

From the beginning, the Howes had made clear to the ministry back in London that they were much more interested in a political settlement in America than crushing the colonists in military defeat. Howe could have taken Clinton’s advice and sailed the British Navy up the Delaware River before pushing Washington’s army across New Jersey. This could have caught Washington between the British army and navy and forced a surrender. But that did not seem to be Howe’s goal. He wanted the Continental Army to run away and look powerless. He did not want to appear himself as a ruthless military tyrant. He wanted to be a liberator and peacemaker. With the British victories in New York, it was clear that the Americans could not stand up to the British Army. The time to convince people come back and obey the King and Parliament was when it looked like there was no better alternative.

Given the state of affairs, many took this offer seriously. It did not appear that the Continental Army would survive the winter. If Britain really was about to crush this rebellion, better to protect one’s personal property and even one’s life by taking advantage of the amnesty offer. Thousands of people across New York and New Jersey flocked to British outposts to take the oath. Allegedly among those taking the oath, Richard Stockton from New Jersey, who had signed the Declaration of Independence only a few months before. Some, historians, however, argue that he simply signed a parole agreement after being captured agreeing to play no further role in the rebellion. I want to discuss Stockton in more detail next week, but either way, it was not exactly a vote of confidence for an American victory. Other patriot leaders also seemed to doubt for the future. John Dickinson moved out of Philadelphia and advised his family members to stop accepting Continental dollars.

Washington’s Army

The remnant of Washington’s Army, if it could still be called an army, had been through hell. Over the course of the retreat, they had been forced to give up most of their tents and other supplies. Many were without shoes and had been wearing the same clothes for months without washing. Many of them were rags simply falling off their bodies. The men were dirty, unshaven and in most cases looked like they could barely walk, let alone fight.

To give you some idea, Charles Wilson Peale, the famous artist, commanded a company of Philadelphia militia that came out to assist with the Continentals entering Pennsylvania. He describes seeing, “the most hellish scene I have ever beheld.” As, lines of ragged men plodded past him, Peale noted, “a man staggered out of line and came toward me. He had lost all his clothes. He was in an old dirty blanket jacket, his beard long and his face full of scars, which so disfigured him that he was not known by me in first sight.” It was only when the soldier spoke to him that he realized it was his own brother James. Those who had not yet abandoned the army mostly looked like desperate beggars in rags, not like an army.

Congress Runs Away

The Continental Congress in Philadelphia was not exactly a profile in courage during this time. Fearing the British might still try to capture Philadelphia, and without any faith in Washington to defend them, Congress chose to run away. On December 12, Congress adjourned and voted to move to Baltimore until the threat passed. One delegate, Robert Morris, opted to stay in Philadelphia where he lived and had his business. Morris essentially acted as a one man Department of War and Department of Treasury, providing Washington what little assistance he could as the rest of Congress fled to the south.

Robert Morris

Congress reconvened in Baltimore, on December 20, 1776, and would remain there for a little over two months. In 1776, Baltimore was not the shining model city that it is today. Members complained about the garbage everywhere and the terrible smell. There were no decent public buildings in which to meet. Congress had to rent a large home downtown, belonging to Henry Fite where they would convene until February.

Shortly after reconvening, Congress passed a resolution giving Washington full authority to do whatever he wanted regarding the operation of the war. In other words, they handed him near dictatorial powers. Congress did not plan to be available for consultation or much of anything else as it went on the run. I’ll discuss the Continental Congress’ time in Baltimore in a future episode. At least Congress did not try to change commanders at the time. Whatever their concerns about Washington’s leadership, they knew enough not to try to change commanders in the middle of this retreat.

This also meant that Washington was on his own. His army continued to shrink. The Continental armies to the north led by Generals Lee and Gates seemed uninterested in coming to his assistance. Congress showed no faith that he could protect Philadelphia. Only Howe’s reluctance to cross the Delaware River in December seemed to save the Continental army from complete annihilation.

Next week, I want to focus on two important prisoners captured during this retreat: Congressman Richard Stockton and General Charles Lee.

- - -

Next Episode 118: Capture of Stockton and Lee

Previous Episode 116: American Terrorist in Britain

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Further Reading

Websites

Lee Letter to Reed, Nov. 24, 1776: https://books.google.com/books?id=bxlJAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA305#v=onepage&q&f=false

Lee Letter to Washington, sent along with the Note to Reed, Nov. 24, 1776: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-07-02-0149

Washington, note to Reed, Nov. 30, 1776:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-07-02-0171

Lee Letter to Washington, Dec. 4, 1776: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-07-02-0194

Washington, letter to brother Samuel, Dec. 18, 1776: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-07-02-0299

Fleming, Thomas “The Enigma Of General Howe” American Heritage, Feb. 1964: http://www.americanheritage.com/content/enigma-general-howe

Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)

The Detail and Conduct of the American War, under Generals Gage, Howe, Burgoyne, and Vice Admiral Lord Howe, (original reports and letters) The Royal Exchange, 1780.

Carrington, Henry Battles of the American Revolution, 1775-1781, A.S. Barnes & Co. 1876.

Collins, Varnum L. A Brief Narrative of the Ravages of the British and Hessians at Princeton in 1776-1777; a contemporary account of the battles of Trenton and Princeton, Princeton University Library, 1906.

Drake, Samuel A. The Campaign of Trenton 1776-77, Lee and Shepard, 1899.

Force, Peter American Archives, Series 5, Vol 3, Washington: St. Claire Clarke, 1837.

Johnston, Henry The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn, Long Island Historical Society, 1878.

Martin, Joseph Plumb The Adventures of a Revolutionary Soldier, 1830 (This is a copy of the original print, but in poor quality. You can borrow a better quality copy or listen to a free audio copy of the book) or see below in "books worth buying" section.

Reed, William B. (ed) Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed, Vol. 1, Lindsay and Blakiston, 1847.

Ross, Charles Derek (ed) Correspondence of Charles, first Marquis Cornwallis, Vol. 1 J. Murray, 1859.

Stryker, William Battles Of Trenton And Princeton, Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, 1898.

Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*

Atkinson, Richard The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777, Henry Holt & Co. 2019

Dwyer, William The Day Is Ours: How a Ragged Rebel Army Stood the Storm and Saved the Revolution, Viking, 1983.

Fischer, David Hackett Washington’s Crossing, Oxford Univ. Press, 2004.

Fleming, Thomas 1776: Year of Illusions, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1975.

Lefkowitz, Arthur S. The Long Retreat, The Calamitous American Defense of New Jersey 1776, Upland Press, 1998 (book recommendation of the week).

McCullough, David 1776, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.

Schecter, Barnet The Battle for New York, New York: Walker Publishing, 2002.

* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Episode 116: American Terrorist in Britain

Last week I discussed some of the trouble Silas Deane had in France trying to get military supplies and French officers to America.

The Offer

Around the same time Silas Deane was trying to get the first ships out of port in November 1776, a man named James Aitken knocked on his door. Aitken told Deane he had fought for the British under Lord Dunmore in Virginia the year before. He had been treated poorly and now wanted to work for the patriot cause. The 25 year old seemed dishevelled and tended to ramble on, but offered an interesting plan.

Aitken had developed a device that would allow the user to set it, then after a delay of several hours, it would burst into flame. Aitken proposed to enter British dockyards, set multiple devices, and escape before the fires broke out, destroying the dockyard. This would cripple British naval operations.

This seemed like a pretty daring and ambitious plan, but the risk really just fell on Aitken. If he was willing to attempt this massive sabotage campaign on his own, why not let him try? Deane gave the man travel expenses back to England and told him to contact his friend Edward Bancroft in London if he ran into trouble.

James Aitken

Aitken’s story begins in Scotland. He was born in Edinburgh in 1752. As the 8th of 12 children, he probably did not stand out much. His father was a smith, meaning he had a decent trade, but still had difficulty supporting his large family. In any event, his father died when James was only seven. In an age when women did not typically work outside the home, his widowed mother could not support the family.

James Aitken (from Wikimedia)

There was no social safety net at the time, so the family was largely on its own. Even for intact families, times were tough. Edinburgh saw several food riots in the 1760s. Poor harvests had increased food prices to the point where many were starving to death.

At age nine, James caught a break. He was admitted to George Heriot’s Hospital, which despite the name, was a school. It had been established more than a century earlier for young fatherless boys whose fathers had been town Burgesses. A Burgess included craft workers such as James’ father. The result was that James could get an education and sufficient food. If he did well at his studies, he might even get a scholarship to the University of Edinburgh.

Unfortunately, James did not do so well at his studies. He did learn to read and write and listened to many sermons by the Reverend John Erskine, who was a radical whig very sympathetic to the plight of the colonists in America. By age 14, the administration decided that James was not university material. Instead, they would apprentice him to a trade. The school thought he should become a house painter.

Now in earlier centuries, a painter was a craftsman since few people knew how to make paint. But by the mid-1700’s businesses were producing paint on a larger scale, House painters did not make their own paint and therefore really need that much training. There were already more painters than needed. It does not seem like a good career goal for anyone at that time. Forcing a boy into a seven year apprenticeship to learn how to paint a house was really more just about forcing him into involuntary labor for a long time.

Finally, at age 20, Aitken finished his apprenticeship and became a journeyman painter. In 1772, his school gave him five pounds sterling to get him started in life and sent him out into the world. Aitken showed no interest in working as a painter. Even if he had, there just wasn’t much of a market for one. He had expressed interested in becoming a military officer, but there was no way he could afford to buy a commission. Instead, the young man hit the road and set out for London to seek his fortune.

Londoners, however, were not terribly fond of Scotsmen. They considered them ill-mannered and as foreigners taking away jobs from Englishmen. Aitken did find a few jobs, but did not make enough to survive. After a time, he embarked on a new career, highway robbery. He purchased a pair of pistols and held up coaches on the roads in and out of London. He also took up shoplifting and burglary. Even a life of crime did not produce much, and always presented the danger of being hanged. Continuing in this way would not end well.

The following year, 1773, Aitken decided to try his luck in America. Since he was broke, he made arrangements to serve as an indentured servant. A ship would pay for his passage, including food and clothing for the journey. They would then auction him off for a period of years to someone willing to buy his indenture and pay for the journey. Of course, conditions aboard ship were pretty terrible. The food and water were poor and inadequate. It was not unusual for a fair percentage of passengers to die from the poor conditions during the crossing.

Aitken reached Jamestown, Virginia he was auctioned off to a plantation owner. The details of Aitken’s time in America are rather sketchy. Much of what we know comes from his own accounts, in which he tried to appear much more impressive than was probably the case.

He went to work as a common field hand, working alongside black slaves. In many accounts, slaves received better treatment than indentured servants. This was because they represented a larger investment for the owner. An owner could invest the time to train slaves in more skilled work since the slave would be around for life. The indentured servant would only be around for a few years, meaning one had to get as much labor out of him as possible during the indenture period.

Hard work as a field laborer was not something Aitken would tolerate. He spent his first few weeks in America sick, perhaps from his journey, or more likely from a range of diseases on the plantation. Almost as soon as he was well though, Aitken ran away from his indenture.

This was no easy task. Most of Virginia was set up to prevent slaves and servants from escaping. Aitken’s clothing and accent would have identified him as a servant, meaning he would have to have a pass from his master. Since he was literate enough, he could have forged such a pass. Even so, most who tried to escape were unsuccessful. It is impressive that he did make his escape on his first try in a strange land.

However, he did it, Aitken says that he found his way to Philadelphia, but could not find work or anything else to support himself there. After a few months, he traveled to Perth Amboy, New Jersey and then New York City. Aitken claims he then traveled to Boston in time to participate in the Boston Tea Party. This is highly unlikely. He likely made the claim only to enhance his reputation and association with the patriot cause later in life. I’ve seen no good evidence that he made it to Boston at all, let alone participated in the Tea Party.

By early 1775, anti-Scottish sentiment swept over most of colonies. Scots tended to be Tories, who became very unwelcome in the months leading up to war. As I mentioned, Aitken also makes the claim that he fought for Lord Dunmore, the loyalist Governor of Virginia. This could be as part of the force that fought the Indians in Lord Dunmore’s war of 1774, or perhaps with the loyalists fighting for the Governor in 1775. Again, though, it is not clear at all whether Aitken was just making up his participation in events that he read about in the newspaper.

Whatever his actual activities, by 1775 Aitken found himself in North Carolina along with a number of Scottish loyalists looking for a friendlier location. There was already a large Scotch population in the colony. Once he arrived, though, Aitken decided to head back to England. As ship captains were hard up for crewman, it would have been rather easy to find a job on a ship, even without experience.

Once back in London, Aitken chose a new profession: bounty jumping. The army was looking to recruit soldiers following the news of Lexington and Concord. Aitken signed up at least three times that year, each time using a false name. He collected a signing bounty each time, then deserted a few days later. This sort of thing could get you hanged if caught, but Aitken seems to have become comfortable with risking the hangman’s noose in order to get by. He spent the rest of 1775 and 1776 engaging in a series of street robberies and burglaries across southern England, never staying in one place too long.

Adopting the Patriot Cause

Aitken, however, wanted to be more than a common criminal. He supported the cause of the colonists in the war with Britain. During this time, Aitken claims to have overheard a conversation in Oxford that changed his life. Several men in a tavern were discussing the war. One of them noted that the war depended on the British navy, and that the navy greatly depending on a few dockyards that dotted the coast of southern England. If something happened to those dockyards, the navy would be devastated.

From that, Aitken finally saw his path to fame and fortune. He would burn down all the main navy yards in Britain: Portsmouth, Plymouth, Chatham, Woolwich and Deptford. Britain would end the war. Aitken would slip away to America where he would be hailed as a hero of the Revolution, perhaps even receiving a commission as an officer in the Continental Army.

Aitken with his
incendiary device
(from Wikimedia)

In early 1776, Aitken found work as a journeyman painter near the Portsmouth docks. He spent much of his time drawing sketches of the dockyard defenses and designing devices that would start a fire after a time delay.

The idea of causing a fire in a dockyard was a realistic one. While the navy had defenses against an enemy attack, they were not prepared for saboteurs. Anyone could enter the dockyards without being searched. Bringing in equipment to start a fire was quite possible. One would have to start multiple fires all at once all over the dockyards to be successful though. Otherwise, bucket brigades would probably douse the fire relatively quickly and limit its damage.

Further, even if he could destroy one dockyard, that would almost certainly put the others on alert. These heightened defenses would prevent similar attacks in other dockyards. The only way to pull off this sort of destruction would be to have a team of saboteurs hit all the dockyards on the same night. However, Aitken had no ability to plan such an aggressive coordinated attack. He planned to do everything by himself.

At first, he hoped he might get to Philadelphia to get the Continental Congress to back his plan. But he had no money to get to America, even if that was possible given the trade embargo. Instead, he opted to go to Paris to meet with Silas Deane, the American agent. Aitken found a small sailboat that took him across the British Channel. After several attempts he obtained an audience with Deane. By this time, British agents were watching Deane’s residence at all times. His valet was also a British spy. None of them seemed to see Aitken as anything more than a commoner who was no threat to anything, or even worth reporting.

Deane was also skeptical. Still, after two meetings and reviewing Aitken’s sketches for a time delayed firebomb, he sent Aitken back to England without any real assistance, but with the view, that sure, maybe this guy can destroy something. He gave Aitken the equivalent of about three pounds stirling and a French passport so that he could return to Britain. He also gave him the name of a local contact in Britain, Edward Bancroft. Aitken claims that Deane gave him a promissory note for £300, though there is no good evidence of this.

The Attacks

Although Deane may have seen some small chance that Aitken might do some damage with his time delay devices, the execution of the plot was shockingly amateurish.

Aitken attempted to get several of the devices built to set his fires. The device itself was rather simple. It was a candle inside a tin box with small holes to let in air. When the candle burned low enough, it would open a lower compartment filled with turpentine or other combustibles to the open flame. This would cause the box to explode and set on fire anything within a few feet of it. Aitken attempted to have several built, but only ever got one of them completed.

On December 6, 1776, Aitken entered the main rope house of the Portsmouth dockyard, planning to set the time delayed fire there. Since he only had equipment to start one fire, he planned to light the candle, then rush back to town and set his rented room on fire. That way, firefighters would be busy putting out that fire when the alarm for the dockyard fire came.

Portsmouth Dockyard (1760 plans) (from Portsmouth Royal
Dockyards Historical Trust)

He spent too long putting the combustibles in place, and soon found himself locked inside the rope house for the night. After trying to find a way out, he eventually had to bang on the door until someone could get a key and let him out. He had not set the fire and simply claimed to be a curious visitor who got stuck inside. The guards apparently bought his story and let him go.

The next morning, Aitken tried again, but this time tried to set his room on fire before leaving for the dockyard. His landlady immediately smelled smoke and confronted him. After some argument, he left his room for the dockyard. He spent the day having a few drinks and buying more matches. In the early afternoon, he entered the rope house, which was already empty for the day. He started three small fires, then walked out before they grew large enough for anyone to notice.

His fire damaged the rope house but did not spread beyond that. Aitken fled town hitchhiking to London over the next 24 hours. Once there, he headed straight to the home of Edward Bancroft, Silas Deane’s agent in London. Now you may recall from last week, Deane had been using Bancroft to send him information from London. But Bancroft was a double agent, sending virtually useless information to Deane, and keeping British officials informed of everything that happened in France.

Aitken arrived at Bancroft’s door, telling him that Deane had promised him that Bancroft would give him a safe house and £300 to complete his missions in the other dockyards. This put Bancroft in a difficult position. If he helped Aitken, British officials might convict him of being part of this American plot. If he did not, the Americans might suspect him of being the British agent that he was. Bancroft sent him away but agreed to meet later. At that other meeting Bancroft informed Aitken that he would be no part of this scheme.

With that, Aitken left, still determined to complete his self-appointed mission. Without money, he had to turn back to petty theft to support himself. He held up in Bristol for a while and began casing the Plymouth dockyards. All the time, he was certain that a national manhunt would track him down and hang him.

In fact, though his fire at Portsmouth had destroyed the rope house, the damage was limited. Investigators had no clue who did it, and were leaning toward it being accidental. They had interviewed over a dozen suspects. The investigation was leading nowhere.

Aitken though, saw himself as a one man destruction force. In mid-January, he tried to set fires on three merchant ships and a warehouse in Bristol. The fires did not work, but discovery of combustibles on the three ships alerted the town that they had an arsonist. A few days later, Aitken set another fire which managed to burn several warehouses before locals could extinguish it

Once everyone realized there really was a serial arsonist, panic set in. The government offered a £1000 reward, then doubled it to £2000. Eventually the reward reached almost £3000 Witnesses started to put together the behavior of this strange Scotsman who had been lurking around Portsmouth and Bristol before the fires. He became known as “John the Painter” as officials tried to track him down. Lord Germain used the panic to push a bill through Parliament allowing officials to imprison suspected American combatants without trial. The bill was aimed primarily at privateers, but the panic over arson helped shephard this bill through Parliament.

Within a couple of weeks, Aitken was in jail. His luck ran out after he robbed a local shop. The owner tracked him down. When caught, Aitken had several of the stolen items on him, as well as various tools for use in his acts of arson. The owner suspected he might be the arsonist. While in jail, several witnesses identified him. Officials were confident they had their man. But they still did not know why he did it or whether he had accomplices.

The Trial

Because Aitken refused to talk, authorities tricked him into providing the information they needed. They introduced a man as a possible witness who could not identify Aitken. Afterwards, the man struck up a conversation with the prisoner and showed him some kindness. He offered to come visit him in jail to talk more. In their discussions, Aitken bragged about his visits to America, his meetings with Silas Deane and Edward Bancroft, and his work for the American cause. The man he trusted turned out to be an informant working for the prosecution.

Aitken's trial
(from Wikimedia)

The trial began on March 6, 1777 and was by local standards a very long one, taking nearly seven hours. The prosecutors indicted him for three offenses related to the fires in Portsmouth. They did not indict him for the Bristol fires. Some have said this was to avoid having to pay the rewards offered for the capture of the person convicted of those crimes. The court had five prosecutors and nineteen witnesses. Aitken was not entitled to a defense lawyer and had no information before the trial started about the evidence to be used against him. The jury deliberated for about a second before finding him guilty, and the judge sentenced him to hang.

After his trial, Aitken figured that if he was going to hang, he might as well hang as an American hero rather than a common criminal. He spent the next few days giving his story to men who would publish biographies of his life and sell them on the streets of London. He told them he was an American agent, working for Deane and Bancroft. Although Deane was safely in Paris, Bancroft was in London. Of course he denied knowing anything about this, but the public now thought he might be an American spy. The main thing that saved him from arrest was that the British government knew he was a double agent and still wanted to use him. They ended up allowing him to “flee” to Paris where he could keep tabs on Deane and continue to provide intelligence to the British government.

On March 10, 1777, four days after his trial, officials took Aitken back to the Bristol dockyards, where they had assembled a gallows. It was over 60 feet high, made from a ship’s yardarm, the tallest ever used in Britain. After the hanging, they gibotted his body, which meant covering it with tar for preservation, then putting it in a cage and hanging it on public display. There he would remain as a warning to anyone else who would try to interfere with the British war effort.

Next Week: We return to American as Washington’s Army begins its retreat across New Jersey with the British Army in close pursuit.

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Next Episode 117: Retreat Across New Jersey

Previous Episode 115: Congress and French Diplomacy

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Sunday, September 22, 2019

Episode 115: Congress and French Diplomacy

I’m stepping away from the war today to catch up on what the Continental Congress has been doing. We last left Congress in early July 1776 after it approved the Declaration of Independence.

Yet even after approving the language of the Declaration on July 4th, Congress immediately turned to other business that same afternoon. Congress voted on a diplomatic delegation to Pittsburgh to meet with Indian tribes, and held another vote on providing the Board of War with authority to hire employees to make more flints for the army and several other matters. In other words, there was no time to rest on their laurels or even reflect much on independence.

Congress Signed the Declaration on August 2, 1776
(from Today I Found Out)

The delegates did not even get around to creating a final draft of the Declaration for several more weeks. Most of them signed the copy that we today regard as the original on August 2. In fact, thousands of copies had already circulated around the country and were already on their way across the Atlantic before anyone signed what we consider the “original” declaration. Congress simply filed away the signed copy. It did not make any formal attempt to send that, or any copy, to London. This was a declaration to the world, not a petition to their former leaders.

Turning attention to other matters, the three most important ongoing committees in the fall of 1776 were the Board of War, the Committee tasked with drafting the Articles of Confederation, and the Secret Committee of Correspondence which handled foreign diplomacy,

Running a War

The late summer and fall of 1776 was a chaotic one for the War. Congress watched General George Washington lose New York and New Jersey as his army eventually fell back to just outside Philadelphia by the end of the year. In the north, Congress saw General Benedict Arnold lose the battle of Valcour Island, opening upstate New York for invasion. Fortunately for the patriots, the British decided to hold off on that invasion until the following spring. But things did not seem to be going well for the Continental war effort.

Aside from the day to day issues of running the army, one of the Board of War’s most contentious activities was promoting officers. General Washington made some recommendations, but did not press too hard for fear of infringing on civilian control of the army. After Washington started losing battle after battle during the British invasion of New York, Congress had less interest in his views anyway. Many were debating the idea of selecting a new commander for the army.

William Heath now a major
general (from Wikimedia)

State representation among generals also remained a bone of contention. Although New England provided most of the soldiers, a disproportionate number of top officers came from southern states. John Adams and others from New England had supported that tactic a year earlier to get the southern states on board with going to war, by this time, they wanted to see more New Englanders in top positions.

In August, Congress promoted four new major generals, all from New England: William Heath (MA), Joseph Spencer (CT), John Sullivan (NH), and Nathaniel Greene (RI). Missing from that list was another New Englander, Benedict Arnold of Connecticut. Arnold thought he deserved promotion, but all four who were promoted were already senior to him as brigadier generals, so he patiently waited for his turn. Besides, at the time, he was preparing to fight the Battle of Valcour Island, after which Congress would certainly see the merit in promoting him.

Congress also promoted 6 new brigadier generals in August, three from New England (James Reed, John Nixon, and Samuel Parsons), two from New York (Alexander McDougall and James Clinton) and one from Pennsylvania (Arthur St. Clair). This led to push back from the southern colonies. The Board had to bring more southern balance by naming four more southern generals in September, Adam Stephen of Virginia, Christopher Gadsden and William Moultrie of South Carolina, and Lachlan McIntosh of Georgia. In October, they added William Maxwell of New Jersey and William Smallwood of Maryland.

Major General Nathanael
Greene (from Wikipedia)

Don’t worry, you won’t need to remember all of these names. I’ll talk more about each of these new generals when they do something interesting.

Congress’ disappointment with the militia during the New York area fighting also persuaded many delegates of the need for a more professional and well trained standing army. They accepted Washington’s recommendation of three year enlistments. Up until this time, most enlistments had been a maximum of one year. Three year enlistments allowed the army to rely on a core of trained Continental soldiers when things got tough.

One of the problems with a standing army, was that they were expensive. Congress still had no taxing authority because they could not agree even on a general outline on how to collect taxes. They were paying for everything with paper money, which was essentially a promise to provide real hard currency at some point in the future. Churning out so much paper money already, combined with no plan after a year and a half on how to make good on all this paper, had caused serious devaluation. Even with the amount they had produced, they did not have enough, even of that paper money to pay the army, or provide soldiers with the basic necessities of food, clothing, and weaponry.

The Board of War did its best to get what it could and to keep the Continental Army together even as the British pushed them out of New York and back toward Philadelphia.

Debating Articles of Confederation

Pressing war issues aside, Congress had been trying to put together Articles of Confederation since 1775, long before they started debating independence. Without the Articles, Congress really had no basis for operating or doing much of anything. It used some of the general rules of order the members knew from their colonial legislatures, but they were essentially making up everything as they went along. There was no set of rules that gave Congress any authority to do anything, or how they should operate.

John Dickinson
(from Dickinson College)

On July 12, 1776, Congress began debate on a proposed draft from John Dickinson. Dickinson did not participate in the debate himself. He had left Congress to command a Pennsylvania Battalion deployed to New York to stop the British invasion there.

Congress would debate the matter on and off for the next year and a half, without reaching any consensus. The big issues involved whether each State would continue to get one vote, or whether state population would determine representation. Also, there was a debate over how to tax the States. Some wanted it based on population, others on the combined wealth of a colony. Finally there came a debate over competing land claims. One of the biggest was whether to validate some colonial claims to land, many of which conflicted with other colonies. Some of those claims reached all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Some of these debates raised the slavery issue. There was no debate on freeing them, but there were debates over whether slaves should be considered people for purposes of calculating population and whether to consider their value as property for purposes of taxation. Slavery was becoming a contentious issue given all the recent talk about inalienable rights and all men created equal. But all thirteen states still allowed slavery at this time. With the many other issues regarding how to set up government, the idea of tackling such a major political, social, and economic issue would have to wait.

In late 1776, Congress would not even resolve the disputes over creating the articles. It would take Congress until near the end of 1777 before it could agree on Articles of Confederation. I’m not going to get into all the debate details now. That will be a future episode. For now, suffice it to say that coming to any consensus on any of this was impossible. Congress would argue about it, then put it aside when they needed to deal with more pressing issues, like how to keep an army fed and armed as the British regulars advanced on Philadelphia.

New French Delegation

Congress was eager to find allies in Europe to help with the war effort. The colonies had a wealth of trade goods that British laws had kept from trading with Europe. But now independent, America hoped to use this trade to tempt Europeans into trading for goods needed for the war effort. John Adams had been working on a draft of such a treaty since at least March 1776. On July 18, once Congress had completed its debate on independence, Adams submitted his model treaty for consideration. Congress reviewed, debated, and amended the model treaty over the next two months.

Silas Deane (from Wikimedia)

On September 17, Congress approved its model treaty, which it hoped to shop around Europe and see if it could make any deals. The following week, Congress adopted instructions for a delegation of Commissioners to go to Europe and use the model treaty as a basis for negotiations. It formally appointed Silas Deane, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson as Commissioners. As you may recall from Episode 83, Congress had already sent Deane to Europe where he was unofficially lobbying France and trying to get military assistance for the cause. Franklin, who had spent years in London as a colonial agent, prepared for his new role as American diplomat. Jefferson, begged off. He had returned to Virginia where he would work on the new State’s legal code.

So for the third delegate, Congress turned to Arthur Lee, who you may recall from Episode 108 had been living in London and trying to compete with Deane in setting up arms deals for the Continental Army. Lee and Deane already hated each other. Franklin, who had known Lee when the two men lived in London, also did not much care for Lee. So from the beginning, the delegation was not a united one. It would take months for Franklin to cross the Atlantic and for Lee to learn of his new commission. So for almost the rest of the 1776, Deane continued to operate in France on his own.

French Aid Stumbles

In mid August, French newspapers reported that America had declared independence. Deane, in France, never received direct word from Congress, nor even a copy of the Declaration to present to the court of Versailles. Congress did try to mail him a copy, but it never arrived. Arthur Lee also had come to Paris in August, only to find that Deane had already finalized about 3 million livres worth of military contracts.

Arthur Lee
(from Stratford Hall)

Lee, who had hoped to profit from some of these deals, began writing letters to his brothers in the Continental Congress, as well as his friend Samuel Adams. Lee told them that France was not covertly selling these supplies in exchange for tobacco. Rather, France was giving those supplies for free. He alleged Deane was attempting to profit from the assistance by getting Congress to send payments which he could keep for himself. Lee absolutely knew this was a lie. He had spoken to French diplomats and other knowledgeable sources who confirmed these were sales, not gifts. Lee just seemed to want to destroy Deane’s credibility with Congress and get him sent home.

Around this same time in London, the opposition in Parliament complained publicly that Silas Deane was openly meeting with foreign minister Vergennes and arranging for French covert arms shipments to America. Deane’s agent, Edward Bancroft, reported this public information to Deane, who now feared that British spies knew everything he was doing. Of course, he did not suspect that his own agent, Bancroft, was the double agent giving most of this information to the British.

With the British exposing the arms deal publicly, with Congress not communicating with Deane, and with America not shipping boat loads of tobacco to France to pay for the arms, the French government began to doubt whether Deane was even a legitimate agent of the American government. It also feared that British knowledge of its attempts at aid were about to lead to war between France and Britain. For a few weeks, the French government shut down the operation completely. Only Deane’s heavy lobbying efforts convinced them to allow it to continue.

Even so, Deane and his French associate Beaumarchais could not seem to get anything done without British officials complaining to the French government to shut down their illegal exports. Since the British had spies working in their offices, the British knew about all attempted shipments and were able to get the French government to shut them down before they could leave port. The French had to comply or else face the possibility of going to war with Britain.

French Generals

Without any guidance from Philadelphia, Deane was pretty much making up his job as he went along. He tried to maintain a private trading business to hide his arms deals. But that did not seem to fool anyone. He tried to intervene when an American privateer landed in Spain with five British ships as prizes. Since no one recognized the United States as a sovereign power, they also did not recognize Congress’ letter of marque authorizing the Captain to act as a privateer. Without that letter, he was just a pirate who should be hanged. Although Deane still had no official government authority, he got the French government to intervene and release the Captain and his crew. Deane had to promise that American privateers would avoid using Spanish or French ports in the future. I'm not sure anyone believed that promise, but it gave the French government cover to get Spain to release the American crew.

Deane also started making other commitments without any Congressional authorization. France had been pressuring Lee to commission French officers to go fight in the Continental Army. It was common practice in Europe for officers to serve in other armies when their country was at peace. Officers gained valuable experience in command and battle. Typically, an officer would be enticed by a higher rank than he had in his own army. At the same time, the Continental Army would benefit from experienced officers and engineers who had professional training.

General Johann de Kalb
(from Wikimedia)

Although he had zero authority to do so, Deane granted a commission as a major general in the Continental Army to the German-born French officer Baron Johann de Kalb, along with a 6000 livre advance and a promise of another 6000 to pay his expenses.

Even more disturbing than Deane’s decision to commission generals without the approval of Congress, was the fact that Dekalb’s main mission seemed to be to convince Congress to replace General Washington with the French General Victor de Broglie as commander in chief of the Continental Army. Up until that time, de Broglie’s biggest accomplishment was losing the Seven Years War with Britain.

Although in the fall of 1776, many Americans were thinking about replacing Washington, It’s hard to imagine anyone thinking that putting a French general in charge of the army was an acceptable idea. Deane simply sent a letter to Congress saying the French government thought it was a good idea, without giving his own opinion one way or the other. But the simple act of passing along the proposal without comment, led many in Congress to conclude that Deane seriously thought this was a good idea. Many in Congress began to question Deane’s judgment.

After Kalb’s appointment, many other French officers sought an audience with Deane, seeking commissions. Most got turned away, but Deane did issue a few others, including another major general’s commission to a 19 year old Marquis named Lafayette. In total, Deane issued about 60 commissions, including four major generals, all without any authorization from Congress.

British Interference

Deane, however, was still operating without any real guidance. He had not received any word from Congress about anything. The British had been pretty effective in intercepting or forcing the destruction of almost all messages between America and France.

British spies in France were able to keep close tabs on the activities of Beaumarchais and Deane as they purchased and stored military supplies bound for America. By November 1776, the Roderigue Hortalez company, created by Beaumarchais as a front for the covert arms deals, was ready to load up three large supply ships in Le Havre France for its first shipment to America.

Beaumarchais (from Wikimedia)

This mission had the tacit support of the French government. Recall back in Episode 108 that the French Minister, the comte de Vergennes, had put Dean and Beaumarchais in contact with each other. The French government, however, could not appear to support the Americans actively. If the British discovered the plan to sell arms to America, the French government would have to disavow having any knowledge of it and shut it down. Everyone was trying to keep a low profile so British spies would not discover the plots. Beaumarchais, worked in town under an assumed name as he oversaw the loading of supplies.

Things got delayed though when a French officer, Colonel du Coudray, who Deane had promised to make a major general, delayed coming to town. He had received word that the British had taken New York and now feared the war might be over before he could arrive in America. Finally, du Coudray showed up in early December, ready to sail.

In the meantime, Beaumarchais discovered a local production in Le Havre of his play The Barber of Seville. He did not like the production and offered to assist as director of the play. Soon word got out that Beaumarchais was directing his play at Le Havre. This blew his cover and British agents quickly realized he was in town to load ships for America.

The British Ambassador, Lord Stormont, rushed to Versailles to demand Vergennes stop the departure of these ships, or he would consider it an act of war. Vergennes had no choice but to order the ships seized. He delayed getting the order to Le Havre for a couple of days, hoping the ships would get out of port before his orders arrived. But only one had left port by the time his orders made it there.

A couple of weeks later though, the one ship that had left port, returned to France. A storm had destroyed part of its food. Also, du Coudray thought his quarters were unacceptable, and demanded the Captain return to port. By then, France had been forced to impose an embargo on all of Beaumarchais’ ships and so authorities seized the ship as soon as it returned to the harbor. So no assistance would leave France in 1776 thanks to Beaumarchais’ ego over his play and General du Coudray slowing down the operation with his reluctance to leave for America.

French aid would have to wait until Franklin and Lee arrived in France in 1777. Franklin, Lee, and Deane would all have to learn to play nice with each other before they could then convince France to provide arms to America. They never would discover that their secretary Bancroft was a British spy. He would continue his work for London throughout the war. After the war, Bancroft moved to England but continued to correspond with Franklin. It was only decades after everyone had died that Bancroft’s role as a spy became public knowledge.

Next Week: Dean lands himself in more hot water after he provides funding to a terrorist who promises to destroy shipyards in Britain on behalf of the American cause.

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Next Episode 116: American Terrorist in Britain

Previous Episode 114 Escape from Fort Lee

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Further Reading

Websites

Dickinson Draft Articles of Confederation. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/contcong_07-12-76.asp

Discussion of Dickinson Draft Articles of Confederation:: https://digitalhistory.hsp.org/pafrm/doc/draft-articles-confederation-john-dickinson-june-1776

The Model Treaty, 1776: https://history.state.gov/milestones/1776-1783/model-treaty

Arthur Lee: http://www.stratfordhall.org/meet-the-lee-family/arthur-lee

Beaumarchais and the American Revolution: https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol14no1/html/v14i1a01p_0001.htm

The Rise and Fall of Silas Deane: https://connecticuthistory.org/the-rise-and-fall-of-silas-deane-american-patriot

Ruppert, Bob America’s "First Black Ops" Journal of the American Revolution 2017:
https://allthingsliberty.com/2017/09/americas-first-black-ops

Roderigue Hortalez et Cie, a Very Helpful Trading Firm: http://w3r-us.org/history/hortalez.htm

Kite, Elizabeth S. “Preliminaries of French Secret Aid = 1775-1778" Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, vol. 46, no. 2, 1935, pp. 58–67, www.jstor.org/stable/44209191.

Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)

Dean, Silas The Dean Papers, Vol. 1, New York Historical Society, 1887.

Ingraham, Edward D. (ed) Papers in Relation to the Case of Silas Deane, Philadelphia: Seventy-six society, 1855.

Lee, Richard Henry Life of Arthur Lee, Vol 1 & Vol 2, Wells and Lilly, 1829

Sparks, Jared The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. 1, N. Hale and Gray & Bowen, 1829.

Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*

Dull, Jonathan Diplomatic History of the American Revolution, Yale Univ. Press, 1985 (book recommendation of the week).

Fleming, Thomas 1776: Year of Illusions, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1975.

Isaacson, Walter Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004

McCullough, David John Adams, Simon & Schuster, 2001.

Paul, Joel Richard Unlikely Allies: How a Merchant, a Playwright, and a Spy Saved the American Revolution, Riverhead, 2009.

* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.