WASHINGTON AND HIS GENERALS
An address given at a meeting of the New Hampshire Sons of the American Revolution by J. Duane Squires
Today we are observing the 235th anniversary of George Washington's birth. As Abraham Lincoln once said in another connection, "It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this." For it was General Washington who, more than any other single individual, achieved victory in our War for Independence. It was this struggle which made our beloved nation a reality; and it was on the memories of this struggle that the S.A.R. was founded.
I have been invited to speak to you on the theme, "George Washington and His Generals," and to this theme I propose closely to adhere. In preparing my remarks I have read most of Douglas Freeman's magisterial biography in seven volumes, entitled George Washington; and in many other recent works of scholarship. But for now I must pass over all the events in Washington's early life from 1732 to the spring of 1775, and over all the great works of his later years from 1783 to 1799, and confine myself strictly to the period when he and his officers and men fought and won American independence.
It is always well in beginning the study of a phase in a man's life--even so important a phase as represented by these eight years from 1775-1783 in the life of Washington--to consider an over-all view of the person we are examining. Perhaps the finest characterization ever penned was written fourteen years after his death by a fellow Virginian who knew him well, by a man who also became President of the United States, and by one who had likewise a great part in the War for Independence. His name was Thomas Jefferson.
In 1814 Jefferson wrote this evaluation of General and President Washington:
"His mind was great and powerful . . . and as far as he saw, no judgment was ever sounder... Perhaps the strongest feature in his character was prudence, never acting until every circumstance, every consideration, was maturely weighed; refraining when he saw a doubt, but, when once decided, going through with his purpose whatever obstacles opposed. His integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexible I have ever known, no motives or interest or consanguinity, of friendship or hatred, being able to bias his decision. He was indeed, in every sense of the words, a wise, a good and a great man . . . On the whole, his character was, in its mass, perfect, in nothing bad, in few points indifferent; and it may truly be said, that never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and to place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited from man an everlasting remembrance..."
Let us never forget these words.
In March, 1775, George Washington, then a member of the House of Burgesses in Virginia, was elected as one of the seven delegates to the Second Continental Congress to which that colony was entitled. On the evening of April 27 Washington and his colleagues first heard the tidings of what had happened at Lexington and Concord the week before. Just one week later, i.e., on May 4, they started from Mount Vernon to Philadelphia, where the Second Continental Congress was to open on May 10.
At this point in American history Philadelphia was the largest city in the thirteen colonies; it had 34,000 inhabitants. New York, Boston, and Charleston were the next three in size, boasting respectively 22,000, 15,000, and 12,000. The entire population of the colonies did not exceed 2,500,000 people, white and black combined, and the total number of able-bodied white males of military age was perhaps 175,000.
On June 14, 1775, the Congress was discussing the matter of raising an army to fight the British. In the midst of the debate John Adams of Massachusetts moved that the Congress select George Washington of Virginia as General and Commander-in-Chief of all the continental armies to be raised. The motion was seconded by cousin Samuel Adams, also of Massachusetts.7 The next day, June 15, the great decision was made. Charles Thomson, Secretary of the Congress, wrote six lines in the record for that day that were to change American history:8
"The report of the committee being read and debated, Resolved that a General be appointed to command all the continental forces raised or to be raised for the defence of American liberty; That five hundred dollars per month be allowed for his pay and expenses. The Congress then proceeded to the choice of a general when George Washington Esq. was unanimously elected."
On June 17 and on June 19 the Congress named four Major Generals (Artemas Ward, Charles Lee, Philip Schuyler, and Israel Putnam); and thirteen Brigadiers, including among the latter John Sullivan of New Hampshire.9 These two ranks of Major General and Brigadier were the only general officer grades known during the Revolutionary War. Washington, of course, as General and Commander-in-Chief, held a unique position which, unlike the five-star rank of World War II, was never accorded to any other officer.
During the eight years of the War, Congress commissioned 29 separate men with the rank of Major General, and gave the rank of Brigadier General to 44 other men who never advanced beyond that grade. Of the Major Generals 7 resigned during the War; 6 died; and 1 was a traitor.10 Early in the War the Commander-in-Chief ordered that his official insignia of office was to be a light blue riband across his breast. Major Generals wore a purple ribbon; Brigadiers wore pink; and staff officers green.11
Remember, if you please, that there was no carefully devised army organization then as there is now: G-1 for Personnel and Administration; G-2 for Intelligence; G-3 for Planning; G-4 for Supply; and G-5 for Military Government. General Washington had only a small personal staff, an Adjutant General and a Commissary General. For every other aspect of army administration he was solely responsible. His whole theory of handling men, either privates or officers, is expressed in a letter he wrote to one of his commanders in 1775:12
"Be strict in your discipline; that is, to require nothing unreasonable of your officers and men, but see that whatever is required be punctually complied with. Reward and punish every man according to his merit, without partiality or prejudice; hear his complaints; if well founded, redress them; if otherwise, discourage them in order to prevent frivolous ones. Discourage vice in every shape, and impress upon the mind of every man, from the first to the lowest, the importance of the cause, and what it is they are contending for."
Let me now trace briefly the activities of the Commander-in Chief from the day he left Philadelphia, June 23, 1775, until the day he was formally decommissioned at Annapolis, Maryland, on December 23, 1783, eight years and six months later. During all this period he took no salary of any kind, and in the end accepted reimbursement only for his out-of-pocket expenses. I believe that it is correct to say that during the same period of eight years and six months he visited his beloved Mount Vernon just once, and this was for a few hours only, in connection with the Yorktown campaign of 1781.13
George Washington reached Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the main Continental army was in 1775, and formally assumed command on July 3.14 There he remained until the British army and navy evacuated Boston in March, 1776. Following this triumph the bulk of the American troops were ordered to New York, and Washington left for Manhattan on April 14.15
There followed the long hot summer of 1776, with the British closing in on New York, and Washington's forced retreat into Westchester County in the autumn of that year. Then came the depressing further retreat across New Jersey, culminating in the victories at Trenton and Princeton during the last week of 1776 and the early days of 1777.
In the summer and autumn of 1777 the Commander-in-Chief and his army were occupied mostly in operations near Philadelphia. At the year's end Washington and his troops went into winter quarters at Valley Forge. The sufferings of the officers and men during that terrible winter can never be fully understood today. The third week in February, 1778, was the worst trial of all. One of the officer's wives expressed a general view when she wrote: "Except for Washington we would have no army.16 And as spring came at last the General wrote these words which should ever be remembered:17
. . . "without arrogance or the smallest deviation from truth it may be said that no history, now extant, can furnish an instance of an Army's suffering such uncommon hardships as ours have done, and bearing them with the same patience and fortitude. To see men without clothes to cover their nakedness, without blankets to lay on, without shoes, by which their marches might be traced by the blood from their feet, and almost as often without provisions as with; marching through frost and snow, and at Chrismas taking up their winter quarters within a day's march of the enemy, without a house or hut to cover them till they could be built, and submitting to it without a murmur, is a mark of patience and obedience which in my opinion can scarce be paralleled."
In 1778 General Washington's spirits were uplifted by the signing of the alliance with France and by the arrival of that great Prussian drill master, Baron yon Steuben. That was the summer of Charles Lee's failure at the Battle of Monmouth. The following winter of 1778-79 saw the Continental army and its General in winter quarters in new Jersey.
In the summer of 1779 many of the best regiments of the army were detached for the campaign against the Indians and Tories in western Pennsylvania and New York. There followed another dreadful winter near Morristown, New Jersey.18
In 1780 came the shattering experience involving Benedict Arnold's treason at West Point,19 and another bad winter after that. In January, 1781, Washington faced an actual mutiny in some Pennsylvania regiments? But the great and happy event of 1781 was Washington's successful cooperation with our ally, France, and the resulting joint operations which led to the decisive victory at Yorktown on October 19 of that year. To all intents and purposes Cornwallis's surrender there ended the military aspects of the War?
Such is a hasty summary of the Commander-in-Chief and his army for six years. I have not been able even to mention Washington’s constant anxiety about food, munitions, and equipment for his men; his endless correspondence with state governors and with the leaders of Congress; his handling of dissident elements in the states who wanted to end the War at any cost; his tactful relations with the numerous foreign officers who sought to save the American cause; his unceasing efforts to mitigate the unavoidable suffering of war; in short, his unvarying courage, determination, and patience in the face of every obstacle that confronted him.
What were Washington’s relations with the seventy-three men who, as I have already observed, held general officer rank under him? Books have been written about most of the major generals and brigadiers, and their mutual ties with the Commander-in-Chief have been much discussed. It is clear that Washington was the dominant and superior personality who always led and controlled them. I would say that perhaps the most trusted of his generals--other than those from New Hampshire whom I shall discuss in a little more detail--were Major General Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island; Major General Henry Knox of Massachusetts; Major General Anthony Wayne of Pennsylvania; Major General Philip Schuyler of New York; and three distinguished foreign officers: the Marquis de Lafayette, Baron von Steuben, and General Rochambeau? Each of these seven general officers was dear to the heart of Washington, and each cherished him above the power of words to express.
These generals might have mutual jealousies among themselves, but never with the Commander-in-Chief. John Adams once wrote his discouragement over the incessant bickings among the officers:23
"I am wearied to death with the wrangles between military officers, high and low. They quarrel like cats and dogs. They worry one another like mastiffs, scrambling for rank and pay like apes for nuts."
Freeman's eloquent words of comment on the above observation by John Adams are:
"Had Washington read this, he might have told the Delegate from Massachusetts that a seat in Congress or a chair in Philadelphia lodgings showed a man far less of the frailties of his fellows than were to be observed from the desk of a commanding General."
New Hampshire had four men who received general officer rank from Congress between 1775 and the end of actual fighting in 1781. Let us briefly consider each of them in relation to Washington.
John Sullivan of Durham (1740-1795) won the rank of Brigadier General in June, 1775, and the rank of Major General in August, 1776. He was with Washington in almost all his campaigns from the siege of Boston to his own resignation from the army in December, 1779.
Throughout these years, says his biographer, C. P. Whittemore, he was" . . . brave, energetic, and resourceful."24 At the same time he was ambitious, somewhat sensitive, and easily had his feelings hurt. For example, on March 15, 1777, General Washington had to write Sullivan a strong letter, warning him against imagining that he (Sullivan) was being in any way passed over or neglected25 To John Sullivan's credit he never lost his confidence in the Commander-in-Chief nor his admiration for him. In his letter of resignation from the army Major General Sullivan wrote Washington:26
"My publick & Constant Declarations have been, & I now repeat, that in my opinion, you are the Saviour of this Country, and that to your fortitude, bravery, & Steady Performance, do we owe the Independence & Freedom we Enjoy."
The second New Hampshire man to obtain general officer rank was James Reed (1722-1807). A native of Massachusetts, he had lived in Fitzwilliam after 1765. At the beginning of the War he was named Colonel of the 3rd New Hampshire. In August, 1776, he was commissioned a Brigadier General by Congress, but shortly thereafter became blind27 In September, 1776, he retired from the army and lived quietly the rest of his life in Fitzwilliam. I have found no record of any existing correspondence between Reed and George Washington.
Enoch Poor (1736-1780), born in Massachusetts but a resident of Exeter after 1760, was the third New Hampshire officer who attained a general's rank. Commissioned in 1775 as Colonel of the 2nd New Hampshire, Poor was promoted by Congress to the rank of a Brigadier General on February 21, 1777. He was active in General Sullivan's campaign of 1779 against the Iroquois Indians, but died of wounds in September, 1780. Of him the Commander-in-Chief wrote:28
"He was an officer of distinguished merit who as a citizen and a soldier had every claim to the esteem of his country."
The fourth New Hampshire man to receive general officer rank was John Stark (1728-1822), whose statue graces the State House plaza in Concord. The house that he built still stands in the city in which we meet today. Stark began his Revolutionary War service as Colonel of the 1st New Hampshire. He was with Washington at Trenton and Princeton, serving in an important command, and on the eve of the battle of Trenton bluntly offering his advice to Washington.29 Following the great victory of Stark and his men at Bennington on August 16, 1777, Stark received his long-deserved promotion. He was named by Congress on October 4, 1777, as a Continental Brigadier General.30
Later in the war he served as Commander of the United States forces in the northern portion of New York, and was a member of the court-martial board that sentenced Major Andre to death, following Arnold's treason in September, 1780. His affection for and devotion to Washington were attested in a letter he wrote to the Commander-in-Chief on September 23, 1782:31
During the course of the winter and the greater part of the spring and summer I was scarce able to ride five miles, but as the autumn begins to advance I find my health gradually returning and had thoughts of taking a ride to camp in case I could have found cash enough in the state to defray my expenses . . . Money I have none and my private fortune scarce competent to the support of a numerous offspring which Heaven has been pleased to bestow . . . However, should your Excellency think my presence at any place in the army necessary for the good of my country, I will endeavor upon the shortest notice to comply with your commands . . .
"Most sincerely wishing you success, that your path on the theatre of glory may still continue to shine with its usual splendor and that you may soon be able to restore to your country a safe, honorable and lasting tranquility, is the ardent wish of your most obedient, most devoted and very humble servant, JOHN STARK."
So much for New Hampshire's general officers and the others of that rank in their relations to General Washington during the War for Independence. In the last month of 1783, all remaining troops of the British army, and all units of the British navy, were to evacuate New York.
General Washington, many of his officers, and some picked troops, entered New York on November 25 and impatiently waited for the British to leave. Finally, the embarkation plans were completed and the day of departure was set for December 4. The Commander-in-Chief called his officers to meet with him for the last time that day at noon at Fraunces' Tavern in lower New York. Let Freeman tell the story of the memorable events of that last meeting:32
". . . as the hour approached, he was choking with an emotion that even his powerful will was unable to suppress. When he entered the long room at Fraunces', soon after the clock struck the hour, he found there nearly all the officers who had entered the city on the 25th and all the others who could assemble on short notice . . .
"He did not succeed in going through even the form of refreshment, but he did regain his composure sufficiently to fill a glass with wine, as if inviting the gentlemen to do the same thing. Passing this wine had the effect of permitting the officers to get a grip on themselves. The General remained with the glass in his hand. When the decanters had gone the rounds, Washington, half-choked, said simply: 'With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your later days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable.'
"There was confused answer, in one tone a chorus, in others an effort on the part of each man to express his feelings towards the General. Then they drank their wine, not aware that in a manner wholly unintended, it was a communion.
"By the time they had drunk all of it, Washington's emotions had risen so high again that tears were blinding him. 'I cannot come to each of you,' he said in a faltering voice, 'but shall feel obliged if each of you will come and take me by the hand.' Chance fixed it that in the absence of Nathanael Greene, the soldier best entitled to be first among them was nearest at hand--Henry Knox, the man who had brought the cannon over the ice from Ticonderoga, youthful father of the artillery corps, the one senior officer of whom it could be said that in eight years of service he had not given his General an hour's needless concern. Knox stepped forward silently and held out his hand; Washington extended his own, but as he looked into those honest eyes and remembered what Knox had meant to him, he could not say farewell with a handshake. Impulsively he put his arms around Knox . . . Once done, this had of course to be done with all, from Steuben to the youngest officer. With streaming eyes, they came up to him, received the same embrace and passed on. Even the most talkative was awed. Not a man had the bad taste to attempt any expression of thanks or of admiration. 'The simple thought,' Tallmadge wrote long afterwards, 'that we were then about to part from the man who had conducted us through a long and bloody war, and under whose conduct the glory and independence of our country had been achieved,' and that we should see his face no more in this world seemed to me utterly insupportable.'
"Washington could not endure it longer. When the last weeping officer had receive his embrace, the General walked across the room, raised his arm in an all-inclusive, silent farewell and passed through the door, out of the tavern, between the open ranks of a guard of honor, and then along the street to Whitehall. Behind him, at a distance, were the officers. At the wharf, every foot of space that offered a glimpse of his approach and of the barge was crowded with men and women of every station. Many held up little children to look at the tall man who still had to set his mouth and keep taut the muscles of his face lest, if he loosened his half-recovered grip on himself, he could not bear the parting. Without a word, he climbed into the barge which had been made ready for instant departure. At a nod from an officer, the boat was shoved off. Again, tense, immobile, Washington made that all-embracing gesture of farewell . . . and in the outer harbor the boatswains on the last of the British transports soon piped all hands to make sail."
The War for Independence was over!
NOTES
1 Douglas S. Freeman, George Washington, 7 volumes, NeW York, 1948-1957.
2 Howard P. Moore, A Life of General John Stark of New Hampshire, New York, 1949; C. P. Whit-ternore, dohn Sullivan of New Hampshire, New York, 1961.
3 Quoted by Freeman, op. cit., Volume 7, 653.
4 Freeman, op. cit., Volume 3, 406.
5 Freeman, op. cit., Volume 3, 412, 418.
6 Freeman, op. cit., Volume 3, op. cit., Volume 3, 442.
7 Freeman, op. cit., Volume 3, 436.
8 Freeman, op. cit., Volume 3, 435A
9 Freeman, op. cit., Volume 3, 440, 455
10 Freeman, op. cit., Volume 5, 466
11 Freeman, op. cit., Volume 3, 503
12 Freeman, op. cit., Volume 3, 521
13 Freeman, op. cit., Volume 5, 324-327
14 Freeman, op. cit., Volume 3, 483
15 Freeman, op. cit., Volume 4, 76.
16 Freeman, op. cit., Volume 4, 581.
17 Freeman, op. cit., Volume 4, 621.
18 Freeman, op. cit., Volume 5, 143, 152.
19 Freeman, op. cit., Volume 5, 196-222.
20 Freeman, op. cit., Volume 6, 509-510.
21 Freeman, op. cit., Volume 5, 378-393.
22 On these seven generals and Washington’s relations thereto, see Freeman, op. cit., as follows: Greene, Volume 4, 367A; Knox, Volume 4, 13lB; on Wayne, Volume 4, 461A; on Schuyler, Volume 4, 367B; on Lafayette, Volume 4, 461B; on Steuben, Volume 4, 617A; and on Rochambeau, Volume 5, 276A.
23 Freeman, op. cit., Volume 4, 419.
24 C. P. Whittemore, John Sullivan o/New Hampshire, New York, 1961, 151.
25 Whittemore, op. cit., 51-52.
26 Whittemore, op. cit., 151.
27 Dictionary of American Biography.
28 Dictionary of American Biography.
29 Moore, op. cit., 243.
30 Moore, op. cit., 392.
21 Moore, op. cit., 479-480.
31 Freeman, op. cit., Volume 5, 466-468.
Freeman's magisterial biography in seven volumes, entitled George Washington;1 and in many other recent works of scholarship2 But for now I must pass over all the events in Washington's early life Washington:3 entitled.4 May 10.5
tively 22,000, 15,000, and 12,000.6 The entire population of the colonies did not exceed Sullivan of New Hampshire.9 These two ranks of Major General and Brigadier were the only general New Jersey. whom I shall discuss in a little more detail--were Major General Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island; Chief. John Adams once wrote his discouragement over the incessant bickerings among the officers:23 "During the course of the winter and the greater part of the spring and summer I was man to express his feelings toward the General. Then they drank their wine, not aware that
Volume 5, 509-510
Volume 4, 367B; on Lafayette,
Volume 4, 461B; on Steuben, Volume 4, 617A; and on Rochambeau, Volume 5, 275A
27 Dictionary of American Biography.
28 Dictionary of American Biograpfiy.
29 Moore, op. cit., 243.
30 Moore, op. cit., 392.
31 Moore, op. cit., 479-480.
31 Freeman, op. cit., VOlume 5, 466-465.