French troops. He felt, however, the difficulty of it, and acquiesced in all the reasonings of my letter. From the moment that our correspondence became direct, I was uniformly pleased with the solidity of his judgment and the amenity of his style. At length, in the beginning of September, we had news of the squadron of M. de Guichen, who had appeared on the southern coast of America. After having gained several battles in the West Indies, he undertook a large convoy for France. The chevalier de Ternay, when he found himself block aded by a superior force, had required of him a reinforcement of four sail of the line. The letter did not arrive at Cape François until after the departure of M. de Guichen: it was delivered to M. de Monteil, who could not decypher it, and who, besides, had engaged in an expedition against Pensacola, in conjunction with the Spaniards. We received, in the beginning of September, very unfavourable accounts from the southern states. Lord Cornwallis had advanced as far as Cambden, where he was met by General Gates: the latter was beaten, and the American army put complete ly to the rout. Cabb, a French officer, was killed at the head of an American division which sustained the whole weight of the day; General Gates retired with the remnant of his army as far as Hillsborough, in North Carolina. In the meantime, on the news of the approach of M. de Guichen, I at length obtained the desired meeting from General Washington, to determine upon the operations which our expected maritime superiority might warrant; it took place at Hartford, on the 20th September; we there agreed upon all our movements, in the event of the arrival of the second division, or of an increase of naval force brought or sent by M. de Guichen. But these appearances soon vanished upon the arrival of Admiral Rodney's fleet at New York, which tripled the English force. We hastened the conclusion of our conference, the French generals wishing to be at their posts where they were wanted. We found, however, that the baron de Viomenil had made every proper arrangement to secure the anchorage of the squadron against this new peril. General Washington was also in haste to join his army, where his presence became very necessary. I shall venture to interrupt here the regular narrative, in order to relate an anecdote fitted to exemplify the character of the good republicans of Connecticut. In going to this conference, the carriage which conveyed Admiral the Chevalier de Ternay and myself, broke down. I sent Fersen, my first aid-de-camp, in search of a wheelwright who resided at the distance of a mile from the place where the accident happened. Fersen returned to inform me, that he had found a man sick of a quartan fever, who had answered him that his hat full of guineas would not tempt him to work in the night. I requested the admiral to go with me that we might entreat him together. We told him that General Washington was to arrive that evening at Hartford, for the purpose of conferring with us the next day, and that the object would be defeated, unless he mended our vehicle. "You are no liars," said he: "I have read in the newspaper that Washington is to be there this evening to confer with you: I see this is a public matter; your carriage shall be ready by six o'clock in the morning." And so it was. On our return from the conference at Hartford, one of our wheels gave way nearly on the same spot, and at the same hour; and we were obliged to have recourse to our old friend "What," said he, " do you want me to work again in the night? "Alas, yes," was my reply: " Admiral Rodney is arrived, and has tripled the enemy's naval force, and we must get back with all speed to Rhode Island, in order to be ready for his attacks. " "But," rejoined the wheelwright, "what are you going to do with your six ships against twenty English ships?" "It will be a fine day for us if they at tempt to destroy us at our anchorage." "Come," said he, " you are clever fellows; you shall have your carriage at five o'clock in the morning; but, before I begin to work, tell me, if there is no harm in the question, are you pleased with Washington, and is he so with you?" We assured him that this was the case. His patriotic feelings were gratified, and he was again as good as his word. Such was the public spirit which animated not only this worthy mechanic, but almost all the inhabitants of the interior, and particularly the freeholders of Connecticut. It was at this period that the treason of Arnold happened: he had been negociating for nearly a month with André, aid-de-camp to General Clinton, to deliver the fortress of West-Point, an American depôt on the river Hudson, which contained all their muni tions; he intended to take advantage of Washington's absence to execute his treason. That General, who esteemed his military talents, had given him this confidential command, and intended to visit him and the post the very day on which André was arrested by a patrole of militia, who were the more active as they wished to secure the return of their general to the army. They suspected André, whom they found disguised on the road from West-Point to New York. They arrested him, and found in his shoes the whole plan of the conspiracy. He offered a purse to these militia-men, who refused it, and conducted him to head-quarters. General Washington arrived at the same time at WestPoint-Arnold had been immediately informed of the detention of André; he threw himself into a boat, and rowed to an English frigate, which he knew to be stationed below King's Ferry. General Washington found him gone, and Mrs. Arnold not knowing what had become of her husband; but letters which he received from his army soon made him acquainted with the treachery. He gave orders for the safety of the place, and immedi ately repaired to his head-quarters. Every body is acquainted with the trial and the tragic end of the young André, who deserved a better fate, and who was lamented even by his judges. The rigour of the laws, and the necessity of making an example, forced them to condemn him. On my return from the conference I was principally occupied with the care of placing my troops in winterquarters in a country of liberty, in which every individual considers his property as so sacred, that the army of General Washington had always remained in tents during the summer, and during the winter in barracks constructed by themselves in the midst of the forests. This plan was impracticable for us in Rhode Island, where the English, during the three years that they occupied it, had burnt for fuel every tree on the island. The state of Rhode Island acquiesced readily in a plan which I suggested, of our repairing, at the expense of our military chest, the houses which the British had injured, and converting them into barracks for the soldiery, while the inhabitants should undertake to lodge the officers. All was managed with perfect harmony and admirable discipline on our part. We had frequent deputations of Indians to our quarters, who expressed astonishment at nothing but to see still laden with fruit, the apple trees that overhung the tents which the soldiers had occupied for three months. One of the chiefs of these savages put a question to me, at a public audience, which surprised me not a little. "Father," said he, "is it not strange that the king of France, our father, sends his troops to help the Americans in an insurrection against the king of England, their father?" I answered, that the king of France, his father, protected the natural liberty which God had given to man, and which the English king would take away from the Americans. It was thus that I got rid, indifferently well, of a remark which was of a perplexing nature. Admiral Rodney departed again for the West Indies in the course of November, leaving a squadron of twelve sail of the line under Admiral Arburthnot, who fixed his anchoring ground, for the whole winter, in Gardner's bay, at the extremity of Long Island, that he might not lose sight of the French squadron; while he sent ships of fifty guns, and a considerable number of frigates, to cruize off the It must different ports of America. be acknowledged, that, during the whole time in which he kept his fleet together for the purpose of attacking the French, the commerce of the Americans at the ports of Philadel phia was very brisk; that their privateers made a great many prizes; and that the union of their fleet opposite to Rhode Island wss a great relief to the other ports on so extensive a coast. Lord Cornwallis after his victory at Camden, pursued the American army into North Carolina; but the want of provisions, and the protect on necessary for his convoys, compel ed him to send off strong detachments. One of these corps, under the command of Major Ferguson, was attacked by several bands of American militia, who beat him completely, and killed or took twelve hundred men. This check obliged Lord Cornwallis to fall back on Camden. General Clinton had sent off towards the end of October, a detachment of three thousand men, under the command of Brigadier-general Leslie, who had landed at Portsmouth, in the Chesapeake bay, with the view of acting, there in concert with Lord Cornwallis; he was directed by the latterto re-imbark, and proceed to reinforce him in South Carolina. These men were replaced at New York by three thousand troops who arrived from Ireland. General Greene quitted the army of Washington at this epoch, by order of Congress, in order to succeed General Gates in the command of the southern army. *** In the beginning of November, our troops took possession of the quarters which had been prepared for them. We were compelled, by the dearth of provisions, to separate the cavalry from the legion of Lauzun, and send them, with the artillery horses, to occupy the barracks which the state of Connecticut had constructed at Banora, for its militia. The Duke de LauzunBiron, who took the command at these barracks, rendered himself, by the urbanity of his manners, highly agreeable to the Americans, and succeeded perfectly in whatever business he had to transact either with old governor Trumbull, or the members of the legislature. A little anecdote will serve to illustrate the duke's aptitude for social intercourse of every kind. An honest American of the village asked him what trade his father was of in France. My father, answered Lauzun, does nothing, but I have an uncle who is a farrier,-alluding to one of 10 the significations of the ward Marechal in his own language. "Very well," said the American, shaking him cordially and lustily by the hand, "that is a very good trade." The next year commenced very unfavourably for the American cause. A third part of General Washington's army revolted; the Pennsylvania line, after putting their generalsand officers under arrest, marched, with a serjeant at their head, to Philadelphia, to demand their pay from Congress. An extraordinary trait of patrotism marked this sedition. General Clinton, commanding at New York, sent emis saries to these troops, to induce them to join the American refugees whom he had in his army, and offered to pay all their arrears, which were, in fact, but too justly due. The serjeant commanding the line exclaimed-" Comrades, he takes us for traitors; we áre only brave soldiers, who demand justice from our countrymen;-but we will never betray our country." He hanged the spies and continued his march. The assembly of Pennsylvania appointed deputies to meet them, who, after a very arduous negociation, succeeded in reclaiming them to their duty. The mutiny extended itself to the Jersey line; and General Washington found himself obliged to suppress, by an example of severity, a disorder, the spreading of which was so much the more dangerous, as all his army had the same just cause of complaint. On our side, the French military chest was far from being in a situation to afford assistance to that of the Americans, since we subsisted only from day to day, on loans which were exceedingly onerous. At this period, bills of exchange on France were negociated at Boston and Philadelphia at a loss of forty per cent. The American paper money was not worth the one hundred part of its nominal value, and was advancing rapidly to annihila tion. It was at the same period that Arnold embarked at New York with two thousand men, to seize a post at Portsmouth in Virginia, whence he could commit depredations on the shores of the Chesapeake without any resistance but from the militia of the country. These misfortunes following each other rapidly, induced Congress to dispatch for France, Colonel Laurens, aid-de-camp to General Washington, and son of the famous Laurens, formerly president of Congress, who was then confined in the Tower of London. This officer was instructed to represent, in the strongest light, to the court of France, the distressed situation of his country. ** During the month of February we had news of the defeat of Tarlton by the division of Brigadier-general Morgan. But this check had only irritated Lord Cornwallis, who marched with his whole force in pursuit of Morgan, but could not overtake him before his junction with General Greene. The latter was obliged to fall back to meet his reinforcements on the Roanoke. Having assembled them, he took post at Guildford court-house. Lord Cornwallis attacked him vigorously, and, after a bloody action, succeeded in dislodging him. But the American general yielded only the field of battle, and took up a new position some miles in the rear. Lord Cornwallis having suffered much from a long march, a fierce contest, and want of provisions, was also obliged to retire, towards Cape Fear, to a settlement of Scotch royalists, where he hoped to find refreshments and assistance for *In French, the word Maréchal means either a marshal or a farrier. Biron, the uncle of Lauzun, was a marshal of France. his wounded. The conduct of General Greene in this retreat, on the day of battle at Guildford, and after the action, did him great honour, and presaged the high talents which he afterwards displayed. M. de la Peyrouse, who, with my son, had sailed for France on the 28th of October, in order to explain to the French cabinet the state of things in America, and to solicit the necessary succours of men and money, returned to Boston about the end of February, It was by him that we received our first despatches since our departure from France. We learned that my son and he, on their arrival at Versailles, had found M. de Sartine withdrawn from the ministry of the marine; and replaced by M. de Castries; that the minister of war was on the point of sending in his resignation; that the empress-queen had finished her glorious career; that the English, having declared war against the Dutch, and taken them unawares in all their possessions which were unprovided with the means of defence, the council of France was preparing forces by sea and land to support them; and that, in fine, from all these circumstances, it was impossible to give the proper attention and supply to the exigencies of America. The king, how ever, gave orders to M. de la Peyrouse to set off immediately in the fastest sailing frigate at Brest, charged with fifteen hundred thousand francs which had been deposited at Brest for six months, waiting the departure of the second division. Colonel Rochambeau was ordered to remain until it should be determined in council, what answer to make to the demands of America. After the return of our squadron, Arnold was reinforced in Virginia by a detachment of three thousand men from New York, under the command of General Philips. The English squadron remained at New York to repair three ships which had received great injury, in a spirited action which had been fought in the Chesapeake between Chevalier Destouches and Admiral Graves; and the Chevalier Destouches was engaged in refitting the Conquerant, which had lost her rudder. La Fayette, who had been detached with a thousand men, by General Washington, continued his march by land to join Baron Steuben, and the different bodies of militia. which the state of Virginia had put in motion. Our squadron being refitted, the Chevalier Destouches was very anxious to undertake an expedition against Penobscot, a fortress in possession of the English, at the northern extremity of the United States. He was pressed to do so, by the merchants of Boston, who were greatly infested by privateers and pirates from that post. General Washington did not approve of this project, and convinced the Chevalier Destouches that for an object of very little consequence, he would be exposing his squadron in a gulph where, after an unsuccessful engagement, he would have no port of refuge; in fact, two years before, an expedition from Boston which had attempted this conquest, had been destroyed in Penobscot river. We were also informed that the English squadron was repaired. at New York, and reinforced by all the ships of fifty guns which had been cruizing on the different stations; so that any enterprize by sea became impossible for the French squadron, on account of the superiority which these reinforcements gave to the enemy, who seemed determined to bear with his whole strength upon the southern states. He weakened New York by various detachments, and as our squadron at Rhode Island might now be left in security with a smaller number of troops to protect it, I proposed to General Washington to march to the Hudson, |
