WEBVTT NOTE 36. The Campaigns in New Jersey 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 Volume 4, Chapter 36, The Campaigns in New Jersey 2 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:14.000 Washington's army was now safe. It was clear that Howe would turn back to capture the force left at Fort Washington. 3 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:23.000 Yet, despite the urging of Charles Lee, no decision was made to evacuate that isolated and indefensible position. 4 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:39.000 General Greene, in overall command of both forts at Fort Constitution, renamed Fort Lee in honor of Charles Lee, made his worst blunder of the war by maintaining that Fort Washington could be held. 5 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:47.000 He was supported in this by the bumbling General Putnam and by Colonel Robert Morgan, commander of Fort Washington. 6 00:00:47.000 --> 00:01:00.000 The dithering Washington left the decision to Green and himself took most of his forces into New Jersey on November 12 to counter an expected British thrust there. 7 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:08.000 Lee was left behind at North Castle and Heath at Peekskill to guard against any British move north. 8 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:20.000 When Greene decided to reinforce Fort Washington with almost 1,000 more men, rather than evacuate, Lee lamented, Then we are undone. 9 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:30.000 A British force of 10,000 began the attack on the fort on November 14, surrounded it and secured its inevitable surrender. 10 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:41.000 The Americans lost over 150 men in casualties, and more than 2,800 captured, a staggering total loss of nearly 3,000 men. 11 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:52.000 Three days later, the British crossed the Hudson and took Fort Lee, which Green had to evacuate hastily without securing or destroying its provisions. 12 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:58.880 At the two forts, the British seized several thousand guns and muskets, large amounts of 13 00:01:58.880 --> 00:02:02.920 ammunition and flour, and hundreds of tents. 14 00:02:02.920 --> 00:02:08.600 Typically, Washington allowed Greene to bear the brunt of criticism for the defeat without 15 00:02:08.600 --> 00:02:12.760 acknowledging his own grave responsibility. 16 00:02:12.760 --> 00:02:16.480 To Lee, the disaster at Fort Washington was the last straw. 17 00:02:16.480 --> 00:02:20.760 The incompetence of Washington could be brooked no longer. 18 00:02:20.760 --> 00:02:27.940 It was clear to him, and to many other Americans as well, that he would do far better as Commander-in-Chief, 19 00:02:27.940 --> 00:02:34.520 and that, at the least, Washington's superior rank must not be allowed to impose fatal blunders 20 00:02:34.520 --> 00:02:36.200 upon Lee. 21 00:02:36.200 --> 00:02:41.840 Washington had encamped at Hackensack, New Jersey, northwest of Fort Lee, and Green's 22 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:48.060 forces joined him there after almost being cut off and encircled by General Cornwallis 23 00:02:48.060 --> 00:02:49.600 at Fort Lee. 24 00:02:49.600 --> 00:02:57.440 The American forces, totaling 14,000 effectives, were now split into three parts, Washington 25 00:02:57.440 --> 00:03:05.760 and Green in Hackensack with 5,400 men, Heath at Peekskill with 3,200, and Lee at North 26 00:03:05.760 --> 00:03:07.960 Castle with 5,500. 27 00:03:07.960 --> 00:03:15.760 Hackensack, on a flat plain, was not defensible, and Washington, with only 3,000 men, retreated 28 00:03:15.760 --> 00:03:18.560 southwest toward Newark. 29 00:03:18.560 --> 00:03:25.240 This was the beginning of his full-scale retreat across New Jersey. To him and to his discouraged 30 00:03:25.240 --> 00:03:31.160 and broken army, it seemed that destruction was imminent, and he contemplated a retreat 31 00:03:31.160 --> 00:03:37.360 all the way to Virginia and even west beyond the Alleghenies. As he retreated, rapidly 32 00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:44.840 losing militia whose terms of enlistment had expired, Cornwallis followed hard on his heels. 33 00:03:44.840 --> 00:03:50.720 Washington fled toward Pennsylvania to safety on the other side of the Delaware River. 34 00:03:50.720 --> 00:03:55.640 Cornwallis was on the point of catching and destroying the American Army at New Brunswick 35 00:03:55.640 --> 00:04:02.760 in early December, but at the crucial moment, Howe ordered him to halt at the Raritan River 36 00:04:02.760 --> 00:04:07.720 for four days, to wait for him to come up with his army. 37 00:04:07.720 --> 00:04:12.160 Washington was thereby allowed to escape to the Delaware. 38 00:04:12.160 --> 00:04:18.560 At the same time, in a useless and wasteful move, Howe dispatched Clinton with 6,000 men 39 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:25.080 to seize Rhode Island, where the British were to linger around Newport for several years. 40 00:04:25.080 --> 00:04:30.100 Washington thereby escaped to Trenton on the Delaware. 41 00:04:30.100 --> 00:04:37.100 When he got there, however, he uncertainly and with no clear goal or purpose turned back. 42 00:04:37.100 --> 00:04:42.140 When he learned that Howe had reached Cornwallis and that the two were again pushing forward 43 00:04:42.140 --> 00:04:53.140 He fled across the Delaware on December 6. The British posted their men at Trenton and in the surrounding area and dug in contentedly for the winter. 44 00:04:53.140 --> 00:05:01.140 Meanwhile, Washington was repeatedly and frantically urging Lee to join him in New Jersey, but Lee refused. 45 00:05:01.140 --> 00:05:11.140 He carefully waited to clear Upper Westchester of Tories and to call up more Connecticut and Massachusetts militia to guard against any invasion of New England. 46 00:05:11.140 --> 00:05:19.140 Crossing the Hudson in early December, Lee decided that it would be better to remain in the western hills of New Jersey. 47 00:05:19.140 --> 00:05:31.140 Stationing his army at Morristown on December 8, he quickly realized, as Washington did not, that Howe was not about to fall on Philadelphia that winter. 48 00:05:31.140 --> 00:05:40.140 Therefore, he would be better employed in harassing and disrupting the British communication and supply lines from New York to Trenton. 49 00:05:40.140 --> 00:05:47.620 to Trenton. Lee was forming a new and brilliant conception of the proper mode of waging revolutionary 50 00:05:47.620 --> 00:05:53.940 warfare. Washington, interested first and foremost in keeping his army intact, was willing 51 00:05:53.940 --> 00:05:58.940 to abandon New Jersey to the British, with the result that Tories began to sprout and 52 00:05:58.940 --> 00:06:05.740 multiply and Tory militia to emerge and round up rebels. Lee saw that a revolution depends 53 00:06:05.740 --> 00:06:12.520 is, above all, on the support and enthusiasm of the populace. The army is, in a sense, 54 00:06:12.520 --> 00:06:18.580 the superstructure of mass support. He saw that the people's militia was the last line 55 00:06:18.580 --> 00:06:25.760 of local defense and that this militia must remain active if the entire population were 56 00:06:25.760 --> 00:06:32.760 not to succumb to collaboration with the enemy. But the fragmented and untrained militia would 57 00:06:32.760 --> 00:06:38.720 would only fight, especially in the early stages, if supported by Continental troops 58 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:39.720 nearby. 59 00:06:39.720 --> 00:06:46.440 While Washington was denouncing short-term militia and calling for long-service volunteers, 60 00:06:46.440 --> 00:06:53.320 Lee urged increased emphasis on local militia, which would create zones of resistance that 61 00:06:53.320 --> 00:06:57.280 could deny General Howe the fruits of his recent victories. 62 00:06:57.280 --> 00:07:02.840 Lee, in short, had set out to reconquer the Jerseys, and he wrote Washington that the 63 00:07:02.840 --> 00:07:09.020 militia in this part of the provinces seems sanguine. If they could be assured of an army 64 00:07:09.020 --> 00:07:15.060 remaining amongst them, I believe they would raise a considerable number. 65 00:07:15.060 --> 00:07:21.400 Lee was increasingly acting independently of Washington. Indeed, the New York Council 66 00:07:21.400 --> 00:07:26.360 of Safety tried to persuade Gates, who was leading a column from upstate New York to 67 00:07:26.360 --> 00:07:33.860 Aide Washington to disobey orders and join Lee instead. Gates, less of a military rebel 68 00:07:33.860 --> 00:07:40.760 than Lee, refused the plea. Furthermore, the New York militia under General George Clinton 69 00:07:40.760 --> 00:07:47.160 was getting ready to join Lee's army. Against his better judgment, Lee finally yielded to 70 00:07:47.160 --> 00:07:55.960 Washington's pleas and marched slowly southwestward. On December 13, a chance British raiding party 71 00:07:55.960 --> 00:08:02.840 captured Lee and spirited him to the British lines. Americans everywhere, from the ladies 72 00:08:02.840 --> 00:08:09.840 of Boston to Washington and Greene to Robert Morris, Hancock and the Adamses, lamented 73 00:08:09.840 --> 00:08:15.880 the sudden grievous blow. They had lost their paladin of American liberty, as Lee was widely 74 00:08:15.880 --> 00:08:22.440 called. The British, on the other hand, rejoiced wildly from the red-coated soldiery to General 75 00:08:22.440 --> 00:08:38.440 From the General Howe and the officers to the public houses in England, Lieutenant Colonel William Harcourt, head of the raiding party, rejoiced at the imminent end of the war and received the personal thanks of King George for his exploit. 76 00:08:38.440 --> 00:08:40.920 Never had American morale been lower. 77 00:08:40.920 --> 00:08:47.600 Ill, barely clothed or sheltered, Washington's 5,000 men on the West Bank of the Delaware 78 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:54.080 could have been crushed by a determined British attack and Philadelphia easily captured. 79 00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:59.840 But the Hows were still primarily concerned with making peace, and they issued a proclamation 80 00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:04.800 of a full and general pardon to all Americans who would take an oath of allegiance to the 81 00:09:04.800 --> 00:09:06.120 Crown. 82 00:09:06.120 --> 00:09:17.120 The conservative New Jersey responded with enthusiasm, 5,000 quickly taking the oath. Citizens fled the exposed capital city of Philadelphia in droves. 83 00:09:17.120 --> 00:09:27.120 The eminent and wealthy Allen Brothers of the old proprietary party of Philadelphia fled to join the British at Trenton, as did Joseph Galloway. 84 00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:38.120 Congress hastily turned over all military direction to Washington, and on December 12, adjourned to Baltimore, amid the jeers of Philadelphia's Tories. 85 00:09:38.120 --> 00:09:46.120 With his brilliant sense of timing, Tom Paine now published his pamphlet, The Crisis. 86 00:09:46.120 --> 00:09:54.120 Paine had joined Greens forces at Fort Lee as a humble volunteer and shared the lot of Washington's soldiers. 87 00:09:54.120 --> 00:10:21.120 The crisis was a stirring call for a redoubling of hope and effort. It opened. These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country, but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. 88 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:28.680 A tyranny like hell is not easily conquered, yet we have this consolation with us that 89 00:10:28.680 --> 00:10:34.360 the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. 90 00:10:34.360 --> 00:10:39.080 The crisis spread like wildfire through all the towns of America and among the soldiers 91 00:10:39.080 --> 00:10:41.000 in the Continental Army. 92 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:46.360 Everywhere morale was raised, even in New Jersey, where widespread and indiscriminate 93 00:10:46.360 --> 00:10:53.840 Repine and plunder by British and Hessian troops in the North alienated many Tories. 94 00:10:53.840 --> 00:11:00.160 But the biggest boost to morale was Howe's decision over the objections of his officers 95 00:11:00.160 --> 00:11:05.880 not to cut through Washington's forces and take Philadelphia, but instead to withdraw 96 00:11:05.880 --> 00:11:10.320 his army to winter quarters in New York. 97 00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:12.880 Philadelphia and the Continental Army were now safe. 98 00:11:12.880 --> 00:11:19.520 Parted by this disastrous British decision, Washington began to take on, for a while, 99 00:11:19.520 --> 00:11:22.420 the accoutrements of a guerrilla leader. 100 00:11:22.420 --> 00:11:28.760 With the British tied down, somnolent, passive and withdrawing, why not a swift attack across 101 00:11:28.760 --> 00:11:30.020 the Delaware? 102 00:11:30.020 --> 00:11:36.500 In this aim, Washington was reinforced by Lee's second command, General Sullivan, who arrived 103 00:11:36.500 --> 00:11:43.500 across the Delaware with 2,000 troops, and Gates came from the North with another 500. 104 00:11:43.500 --> 00:11:50.500 All in all, Washington had 6,000 effectives by Christmas of 1776. 105 00:11:50.500 --> 00:11:56.180 In this situation, he happily decided on a swift strike across the river. 106 00:11:56.180 --> 00:12:02.820 On late Christmas night, through a driving snow, Washington ferried 2,400 men across 107 00:12:02.820 --> 00:12:06.300 the ice-laden waters of the Delaware. 108 00:12:06.300 --> 00:12:12.780 Most remarkable was the feat of Colonel Henry Knox in transporting across the river eighteen 109 00:12:12.780 --> 00:12:19.260 field cannon, a proportion of cannon to foot soldiers about three times the usual amount 110 00:12:19.260 --> 00:12:21.260 in the eighteenth century. 111 00:12:21.260 --> 00:12:26.940 The cannon were particularly useful on a snowy night for the muskets of that day could not 112 00:12:26.940 --> 00:12:29.460 fire unless completely dry. 113 00:12:29.460 --> 00:12:35.140 In a perfectly executed maneuver, Washington and his men were able to surround the brigade 114 00:12:35.140 --> 00:12:41.620 of Hessians, stationed at Trenton. They took them, sodden with the celebrating of Christmas, 115 00:12:41.620 --> 00:12:47.500 completely by surprise. Washington's troops had read the crisis before embarking on the 116 00:12:47.500 --> 00:12:54.620 raid, and now they fell upon the Hessians crying, this is the time to try men's souls. 117 00:12:54.620 --> 00:13:01.740 In an hour, the overconfident Hessian commander, General Johann Rall, had been killed, and 118 00:13:01.740 --> 00:13:08.620 The Hessians had surrendered. The Hessians suffered 30 casualties and over 900 men had 119 00:13:08.620 --> 00:13:16.060 been taken prisoner. In contrast, the Americans suffered only three casualties. George Washington 120 00:13:16.060 --> 00:13:23.300 had won his first real military victory and it was indeed a brilliant one. It was also 121 00:13:23.300 --> 00:13:29.220 the first battle he conducted in quasi-guerrilla manner. With the confusion engendered in the 122 00:13:29.220 --> 00:13:35.420 The enemy troops, Greene and other officers, urged Washington to press his advantage and 123 00:13:35.420 --> 00:13:39.940 attack the Hessian units stationed to the south in Burlington. 124 00:13:39.940 --> 00:13:46.180 But he lacked the imagination to grasp the dimensions of his own victory, and he cautiously 125 00:13:46.180 --> 00:13:49.380 withdrew back across the Delaware. 126 00:13:49.380 --> 00:13:55.380 He indecisively waited several days to become aggressive once more, and the delay almost 127 00:13:55.380 --> 00:13:57.060 proved fatal. 128 00:13:57.060 --> 00:14:04.020 He plunged back across the icy Delaware on December 31 with 5,000 men and reoccupied 129 00:14:04.020 --> 00:14:05.260 Trenton. 130 00:14:05.260 --> 00:14:11.340 By this time, however, Lord Cornwallis, who had been about to set sail for England, had 131 00:14:11.340 --> 00:14:17.580 rushed back to Jersey and was advancing upon Trenton with 6,000 troops. 132 00:14:17.580 --> 00:14:24.120 Retreating just southward as Cornwallis entered Trenton on January 2, Washington was in grave 133 00:14:24.120 --> 00:14:30.840 of Peril, for the British were too close to allow the Americans to recross the river. 134 00:14:30.840 --> 00:14:36.560 Knox's guns held off the British advance in the Second Battle of Trenton, and Cornwallis, 135 00:14:36.560 --> 00:14:42.120 against the advice of General Sir William Erskine, over-confidently decided to wait 136 00:14:42.120 --> 00:14:45.800 until morning to deliver the coup de grace. 137 00:14:45.800 --> 00:14:51.920 Perhaps at the suggestion of Brigadier General Arthur St. Clair, Washington silently moved 138 00:14:51.920 --> 00:14:58.580 East during the night, taking a neglected old road to slip around Cornwallis's lines 139 00:14:58.580 --> 00:15:04.680 and move north. At Princeton in the morning, Washington encountered a British brigade under 140 00:15:04.680 --> 00:15:11.680 Colonel Charles Mawhood, and after a furious battle sustained by Knox's guns, the Americans 141 00:15:11.680 --> 00:15:17.780 routed the British force. If the American troops had been fresh, they might have sped 142 00:15:17.780 --> 00:15:23.780 Washington went on to capture New Brunswick and isolate Cornwallis in southern New Jersey. 143 00:15:23.780 --> 00:15:31.780 Instead, Washington promptly took his exhausted but happy men northwest to winter quarters in Morristown. 144 00:15:31.780 --> 00:15:41.780 The angry British were obliged to evacuate all of New Jersey except New Brunswick and Perth Amboy on the Raritan River. 145 00:15:41.780 --> 00:15:46.780 Washington's victories at Trenton and Princeton served to bolster and restore American morale. 146 00:15:46.780 --> 00:15:47.780 Morale. 147 00:15:47.780 --> 00:15:52.900 As one young Englishman noted about the Americans, a few days ago they had given up the cause 148 00:15:52.900 --> 00:15:54.220 for lost. 149 00:15:54.220 --> 00:15:59.540 Their late successes have turned the scale and now they are all liberty mad again. 150 00:15:59.540 --> 00:16:02.820 This turnabout of morale was eminently justified. 151 00:16:02.820 --> 00:16:08.900 Professor Alden estimates with good reason that Trenton and not the victory at Saratoga 152 00:16:08.900 --> 00:16:14.040 the following year was the true turning point of the revolution. 153 00:16:14.040 --> 00:16:18.880 Early American fortunes were at their lowest ebb on the Jersey retreat in November and 154 00:16:18.880 --> 00:16:27.080 December. By the 1777 campaign, American forces were stronger and the British never as confident 155 00:16:27.080 --> 00:16:34.680 again. As optimism returned, the Continental Congress moved back to Philadelphia. Despite 156 00:16:34.680 --> 00:16:40.640 difficulties in obtaining food, clothing and recruits to replace deserters in short-term 157 00:16:40.640 --> 00:16:47.640 By spring, new continental regiments arrived at Morristown. 158 00:16:47.640 --> 00:16:55.640 Washington used dictatorial powers that had been granted him by Congress to commandeer food from the inhabitants of New Jersey. 159 00:16:55.640 --> 00:17:06.640 But the ravages and depredations of the British and Hessians had transformed the previously lukewarm Jersey populace into ardent patriots. 160 00:17:06.640 --> 00:17:15.640 As a result, the 14,000 British troops stationed at Perth Amboy in New Brunswick were virtually under siege. 161 00:17:15.640 --> 00:17:28.640 Any British foraging parties were subjected to devastating attacks by Washington's forces or by Jersey militia, all aided by the intelligence work of the Jersey citizenry.