Sergeant McDonald was terribly shattered by a cannon-ball, and he called out with his dying breath, "I die, but don"t let the cause of liberty die with me!"
The enemy"s fleet was driven off in a shattered condition. The commander was so deeply humiliated that even his black pilots insulted him. Weems says that he called to one of them:
"Cudjo, what water have you there?"
"What water, ma.s.sa? what water? Why, salt water, sure sir! sea water always salt water, ain"t he, ma.s.sa?"
"You black rascal, I knew it was salt water; I only wanted to know how _much_ water you have there?"
"How much water here, ma.s.sa? how much water here? G.o.d bless me, ma.s.sa!
Where I going get quart pot for measure him?"
The commander, even in his chagrin and trouble, could not but laugh at Cudjo"s idea of measuring the Atlantic ocean with a quart pot.
This discomfited fleet returned to New York and joined the British army.
When the news of the signal victory of the patriots at Moultrie reached Washington, he announced it to the army, and said:
"With such a bright example before us of what can be done by brave men fighting in defence of their country, we shall be loaded with a double share of shame and infamy if we do not acquit ourselves with courage, and manifest a determined resolution to conquer or die."
A detachment of the army was sent to construct works from Wallabout Bay to Red Hook. Washington rode out one day to inspect the defences, when he approached a subaltern officer who was directing his men to raise a heavy timber to its place. Instead of lending a helping hand, the conceited fellow stood, shouting:
"Hurrah, boys, _n-o-w_, right _up_, _h-e-a-v-e_," etc.
"Why do you not lend a helping hand?" said Washington, whom the officer did not know.
"What, sir! I lend a helping hand?" exclaimed the official sprig. "Why, sir, I"ll have you know that I am _corporal_!"
Washington leaped from his saddle, laid hold of the timber with the men, and helped lift it to its place. Then turning to the "corporal," he said sarcastically:
"Mr. Corporal, my name"s George Washington. I have come over from New York to inspect the works here; so soon as you have done this piece of work, you will meet me at your commander"s, General Sullivan"s quarters."
Washington despised officers who felt above their business.
On a flying visit to Connecticut, he failed to reach his destination on Sat.u.r.day night. Early Sunday morning he completed the few remaining miles of his journey. On his way, a t.i.thing man came out of a house and inquired of the coachman:
"Is there any necessity of your travelling on the Lord"s Day?"
Washington ordered his coachman to stop, and replied:
"I have no intention of breaking the laws of Connecticut; they meet my most cordial approbation. But I was disappointed in not being able to reach my destination last night, where I shall attend church."
Washington waited and waited for the enemy to move, and wondered that he did not. Putnam wrote to Gates:
"Is it not strange that those invincible troops who were to lay waste all the country, with their fleets and army, dare not put their feet on the main?"
About this time General Washington made the following address to his army:
"The time is now near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness, from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under G.o.d, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of a brave resistance or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die. Our own, our country"s, honor calls upon us for a vigorous and manly action; and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us then rely upon the goodness of our cause, and the aid of the Supreme Being, in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and n.o.ble actions."
The American army had grown by this time to over twenty thousand men poorly equipped and fed, though not more than fifteen thousand were available for immediate action. Congress was slow to provide supplies, and everything dragged. Many of the men carried only a spade, shovel or pick-axe. At the call of the country, they responded with shovels in hand, having no guns. They could throw up works, though dest.i.tute of arms to repel the foe. It was this dest.i.tute condition of our army that led a British officer to write home derisively:
"The rebels are armed with scythes and pitchforks."
To rebuke the growing vice and recklessness of the army, Washington issued the following order:
"The general is sorry to be informed that the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing, a vice heretofore little known in an American army, is growing into fashion. He hopes the officers will by example, as well as influence, endeavor to check it, and that both they and the men will reflect that we can have little hope of the blessing of Heaven on our arms if we insult it by our impiety and folly; added to this, it is a vice so mean and low, without any temptation, that every man of sense and character detests and despises it."
On the 17th of August Washington observed a movement of the enemy.
"They are embarking," he said to one of his aides, "bound for some point. Thirty thousand of them will be able to crush us if, as General Lee says, "G.o.d is on the side of heavy battalions.""
He was not long in doubt concerning their destination, for they landed at Long Island.
"They mean to capture Brooklyn Heights," exclaimed Washington; "their designs are clear enough now."
"The city is at their mercy if they once capture that position," replied "Old Put," as the soldiers called General Putnam. "They must not be suffered to gain that position."
"You must go to General Sullivan"s aid with six battalions, all the force we can spare," said Washington. "There is no time to be lost."
In antic.i.p.ation of such a movement, Washington had stationed a body of troops on Brooklyn Heights under General Greene; but the latter was taken sick, and General Sullivan succeeded him, and now General Putnam was placed in command. No more men could be sent to Brooklyn Heights, because Washington expected the British fleet would attack the city.
He received the following message from General Livingston of New Jersey:
"I saw movements of the enemy on Staten Island, and sent over a spy at midnight, who brought back the following intelligence: Twenty thousand men have embarked to make an attack on Long Island, and up the Hudson.
Fifteen thousand remained on Staten Island, to attack Bergen Point, Elizabethtown Point, and Amboy." The spy heard the orders read and the conversation of the generals. "They appear very determined," added he, "and will put all to the sword."
Again, in expectation of an immediate attack, he addressed the army to inspire them with determined valor, and said:
"The enemy have landed upon Long Island, and the hour is fast approaching on which the honor and success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding country, depend. Remember, officers and soldiers, that you are free men, fighting for the blessings of liberty; that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men. It is the general"s express orders that, if any man attempt to skulk, lie down, or retreat without orders, he be instantly shot down for an example."
Fifteen thousand British troops landed and advanced to seize the Heights. It was on the twenty-first day of August, 1776. A terrific battle of seven days followed, in which the slaughter and suffering were fearful. Alternate victory and defeat were experienced by both sides.
Sometimes it was a hand-to-hand fight with bayonets. As Washington beheld a detachment of his heroic men pierced to death by Hessian bayonets, he wrung his hands in an agony of spirit, and exclaimed:
"O good G.o.d, what brave fellows I must this day lose!"
There were but five thousand Americans pitted in this battle against fifteen thousand British, and yet they fought seven days.
On the twenty-eighth day of August, the British moved their line of battle to within a mile of the Yankee breast-works on the Heights. The capture of the Heights, with all the American soldiers, seemed inevitable. Between them and New York was the East River, which the enemy"s fleet commanded. Before them was the foe, numbering three to one. To human view there was no hope for the brave little army of patriots.
But on that night a storm arose, and a dense fog enveloped the Heights.
Early in the evening the rain began to fall, and, together, fog and rain created a dismal scene. At the same time a brisk breeze sprang up, sufficient to waft the boats across to the New York side. If anything more were needed to prove that G.o.d was favoring the smallest battalions, it was the fact that the night was clear on the New York side of the river.
"G.o.d is propitious to-night," said Washington to Putnam in a hopeful tone. "Under cover of this darkness we must cross the river and save our army."
"Our only salvation," replied Putnam.
Washington superintended the retreat personally, and, as the fog did not clear away until ten o"clock on the following day, his whole force, with guns and ammunition, were carried across the river before the enemy discovered the retreat. This retreat was regarded as one of the most signal achievements of the war. Sparks says, in his "Life of Washington:"