Hudson. The only other event of importance during the campaign was a combined attack of 4,000 French and 8,000 Continentals and militia on the British force at Newport, 8,000 strong. The enterprise miscarried in consequence of a storm which drove off the French fleet. In November, the French fleet sailed for the West Indies, and on the 29th of December the British captured Savannah. By the middle of January they were masters of the whole State of Georgia, and thenceforward the South became the principal theater of operations during the remainder of the war. The following table" shows the costly army kept on foot during a campaign which at its close found the American forces everywhere reduced to the defensive, and an entire State in the hands of the enemy: Conjectural estimate of militia employed in addition to the above. New Hampshire, for two months. 500 Massachusetts, for two months.. Virginia: For two months..... Guarding convention troops. South Carolina, for three months.. Georgia, 2,000 militia for six months and 1,200 State troops Total 4,500 1,000 2,000 600 2,000 3, 200 13, 800 Grand total 51, 046 The above figures give, in the Continental establishment, 2,000 men less than in the year before; and in the militia a decrease of 15,000, due to the almost total inactivity of the enemy. a From American State Papers, vol. 12, p. 16. Two corrections in totals have been made by editors, namely, 32,893 for 32,887, in third column, and 37,246 for 37,252 in fifth column. Three errors also occur in the items of fifth column as carried over from third column. These also have been corrected, assuming that the third column is correct. Exact returns of militia were never rendered. See Report of General Knox, Secretary of War, American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. 1. BOUNTY. The year, though barren in military operations, had its valuable budget of military experience. While the patriotism of a people, taken collectively, is quite equal to keeping up a prolonged struggle for liberty, cost what it may, we find that the patriotism of the individual utterly fails to induce him to undergo, voluntarily, the hardships and dangers of war. The first bounty offered by the States and by Congress was a confession of this truth, which each succeeding campaign only too painfully confirmed. Congress now tried to conceal an evil which it could not check. On the 18th of September it resolved That General Washington be authorized, if he shall judge it for the interest of the United States, to augment the Continental bounty to recruits, enlisting for three years or during the war, to a sum not exceeding ten dollars; and that he use his discretion in keeping the matter secret as long as he shall deem necessary. To carry this into effect Congress further resolved that $80,000 be transmitted to William Palfrey, of Massachusetts, Paymaster-General of the Army. DRAFTING. The system of voluntary enlistments, even when stimulated by large bounties, having failed to raise the men required, Congress, as we have seen, was forced to recommend the draft. Only solicitous to escape the consequences of this measure, States, townships, and individuals cared little for the character of the men they sent into the field. On the 17th of March, Washington wrote to the President of the Massachusetts council: It gives me inexpressible concern to have repeated information from the best authority that the committees of the different towns and districts in your State hire deserters from General Burgoyne's army and employ them as substitutes to excuse the personal service of the inhabitants. I need not enlarge upon the dangers of substituting, as soldiers, men who have given a glaring proof of a treacherous disposition, and who are bound to us by no motives of attachment, instead of citizens in whom the ties of country, kindred, and sometimes property are so many securities for their fidelity. The evils with which this measure is pregnant are obvious, and of such serious nature as makes it necessary not only to stop the further progress of it, but likewise to apply a retrospective remedy, and if possible to annul it, so far as it has been carried into effect. Unless this is done, although you may be amused for the present with the flattering idea of speedily completing your battalions, they will be found, at or before the opening of the campaign, reduced by the defection of every British soldier to their original weak condition, and the accumulated bounties of the continent and of the State will have been fruitlessly sacrificed. Indeed, General Burgoyne could hardly, if he were consulted, suggest a more effectual plan for plundering us of so much money, reenforcing General Howe with so many men, and preventing us from recruiting a certain number of regiments; to say nothing of the additional losses, which may be dreaded, in desertions among the native soldiers, from the contagion of ill example and the arts of seduction, which it is more than probable will be put in practice.a The next day he wrote again: The evil which I apprehended from the enlistment of deserters has already made its appearance. One of the colonels informs me that every British deserter sent to his regiment, except one, has already gone off. One of these people a few nights a Sparks's Writings of Washington, vol. 5, pp. 287, 288. ago took off a light-horse with its accouterments from an advanced picket. I hope upon this proof of the infidelity of the above-described class that a total stop will be put to the hiring them. " This enlistment of deserters to fill quotas went so far that Congress was at length compelled to denounce it by resolution. The desire to get men in order to avoid the draft suggested another expedient- the enlistment of slaves-since resorted to on both sides during the war of the rebellion Free negroes had been permitted to enlist from the beginning of the Revolution, but in 1778 it was proposed in Rhode Island to raise a battalion of slaves. The governor of that State, in writing to Washington, explains the action of the assembly in this matter: Liberty is given to every effective slave to enter into the service during the war, and upon his passing muster he is absolutely made free and entitled to all the wages, bounties, and encouragements given by Congress to any soldier enlisting into the service. The masters are allowed at the rate of one hundred and twenty pounds for the most valuable slave, and in proportion for those of less value. The number of slaves in the State is not great, but it is generally thought that three hundred and upward will be enlisted. VOLUNTEERS. In a letter to his brother Augustine, Washington gives his views in regard to raising a body of volunteers in Virginia: I observe what you say respecting voluntary enlistment, or rather your scheme for raising 2,000 volunteers; and I candidly own to you that I have no opinion of it. These measures only tend to burthen the public with a number of officers without adding one jot to our strength, but greatly to confusion and disorder. If the several States would but fall on some vigorous measures to fill up their respective regiments, nothing more need be asked of them. But while these are neglected, or, in other words, ineffectually and feebly attended to, and these succedaneums (sic) tried, we can never have an army to be depended upon. c OFFICERS. Another difficulty arose in 1778, almost as grave as the non-enlistment of recruits. Paper money, steadily issued from the beginning of the war, had now become so depreciated that officers could not possibly support themselves and their families on their pay. The general state of the country toward the close of the year is thus given by Washington in a letter to Benjamin Harrison. If I were to be called upon to draw a picture of the times and of men, from what I have seen, heard, and in part know, I should in one word say that idleness, dissipation, and extravagance seem to have laid fast hold of most of them; that speculation, peculation, and an insatiable thirst for riches seem to have got the better of every other consideration, and almost every order of men; that party disputes and personal quarrels are the great business of the day; whilst the momentous concerns of an empire, a great and accumulating debt, ruined finances, depreciated money, and want of credit, whilst in its consequences is the want of everything, are but secondary considerations, and postponed from day to day, from week to week, as if our affairs wore the most promising aspect. Our money is now sinking 50 per cent a day in this city (Philadelphia), and I shall not be surprised if, in the course of a few months, a total stop is put to the currency of it; and yet an assembly, a concert, a dinner, or supper that will cost a Sparks's Writings of Washington, vol. 5, p. 288, note. b Sparks's Writings of Washington, vol. 5, p. 245, note. C Sparks's Writings of Washington, vol. 5, pp. 432, 433. three or four hundred pounds will not only take men off from acting in this business, but even from thinking of it, while a great part of the officers of our army from absolute necessity are quitting the service, and the more virtuous few, rather than do this, are sinking by sure degrees into beggary and want.a Early in the year, in view of the great importance of inducing his best officers to remain, Washington repeatedly impressed upon Congress that those who should serve to the end of the war ought to receive half pay for life. April 21, he again wrote to John Banister, a member of that body: The spirit of resigning commissions has been long at an alarming height, and increases daily. The Virginia line has sustained a violent shock in this instance. Not less than ninety have already resigned to me. The same conduct has prevailed among the officers from the other States, though not yet to so considerable a degree; and there are but two just grounds to fear, that it will shake the very existence of the army, unless a remedy is soon, very soon, applied. There is none, in my opinion, so effectual as the one pointed out. This, I trust, will satisfy the officers, and at the same time it will produce no present additional emission of money. They will not be persuaded to sacrifice all views of present interest and encounter the numerous vicissitudes of war in the defense of their country, unless she will be generous enough on her part to make a decent provision for their future support. I do not pronounce absolutely that we shall have no army if the establishment fails, but the army which we may have will be without discipline, without energy, incapable of acting with vigor, and destitute of those cements necessary to promise success on the one hand or to withstand the shocks of adversity on the other. It is indeed hard to say how extensive the evil may be if the measure should be rejected or much longer delayed. I find it a very arduous task to keep the officers in tolerable humor and to protract such a combination for quitting the service as might possibly undo us forever. The difference between our service and that of the enemy is very striking. With us, from the peculiar, unhappy situation of things, the officer, a few instances excepted, must break in upon his private fortune for present support, without a prospect of future relief.b Speaking of his own motives, Washington wrote to the President of Congress: Personally as an officer, I have no interest in their decision, because I have declared, and I now repeat it, that I never will receive the smallest benefit from the half-pay establishment; but, as a man who fights under the weight of a proscription and as a citizen who wishes to see the liberty of the country established upon a permanent foundation, and whose property depends upon the success of our arms, I am deeply interested. But all this apart and justice out of the question, upon the single ground of economy and public saving, I will maintain the utility of it; for I have not the least doubt that, until officers consider their commissions in an honorable and interested point of view, and are afraid to endanger them by negligence and inattention, no order, regularity, or care, either of the men or public property, will prevail. To prove this, I need only refer to the general courts-martial which are constantly sitting for the trial of them, and the number who have been cashiered within the last three months for misconduct of different kinds. At no period since the commencement of the war have I felt more painful sensations on account of delay than at the present; and, urged by them, I have expressed myself without reserve.c After more letters and much discussion Congress resolved, May 15, that officers serving until the end of the war should thereafter receive half pay for seven years; provided that no general should receive more than the half pay of a colonel. To noncommissioned officers and soldiers a gratuity was to be given of $80. a Sparks's Writings of Washington, vol. 6, pp. 151, 152. JEALOUSY OF A STANDING ARMY. Although the want of an adequate standing army had twice forced Congress to clothe Washington with dictatorial power, the military legislation of 1778 was much hampered by the fear and jealousy of such an establishment. Writing to Mr. Banister in relation to several matters, Washington states: The other point is the jealousy which Congress unhappily entertains of the Army, and which, if reports are right, some members labor to establish. You may be assured there is nothing more injurious or more unfounded. This jealousy stands upon the commonly received opinion, which under proper limitations is certainly true, that standing armies are dangerous to a state. The prejudices in other countries have only gone to them in time of peace, and these from their not having, in general cases, any of the ties, the concerns, or interests of citizens, or any other dependence than what flowed from their military employ; in short, from their being mercenaries, hirelings. It is our policy to be prejudiced against them in time of war, though they are citizens, having all the ties and interests of citizens, and, in most cases, properly totally unconnected with the military line. a a Sparks's Writings of Washington, vol. 5, p. 328. |