Letters of Delegates to Congress: Volume 7
Henry Laurens to John Lewis Gervais
Dr Sir,
Philada.
5th August 1777
I wrote to you the 25th Ulto by Capt Budd of the Georgia Troops. Every day since my Arrival in this place has produced something new from the Theatre of War, you will find the principal occurrences in the News Papers which I shall send you.
The Loss of Ticonderoga has raised universal Complaint, an inquiry has been demanded by the Voice of the People and is now orderd by their Representatives. To say all that I think upon that Subject founded upon his own Letters might bear too hard upon the Commanding Officer, but 'tis easy to perceive great Propriety in the advice of the General Officers for evacuating the Fortress at the time their Opinions were ask'd, and a criminal Deficiency on the Commanders Part in not calling for them while there was opportunity for saving the Cannon, stores and some Lives. Be that as it may, Genl. Fermoy disclaims the merit of abandoning the whole to have been consistent with his Sentiments before a proper Resistance had been made .(1) General Schuyler is not a little blamed for absence from his Post, nor on the other hand does he want Advocates who hesitate not to cast part of the Fault upon Congress. These are the Ebullitions of Party. A Court of Inquiry will develop Truth and give the Public better Information. In the mean time Genl. Gates by the unanimous Vote of Congress is orderd to take Command of the Northern Department, tis said he is an excellent officer and exceedingly popular in N. England, whence we hope to derive such Aid from the Militia as will at least check Mr Bourgoynes Progress. I am sorry to say he seems at present to be bearing down all before him.
The late Motions of Lord and Genl Howe have puzzled every body on our Side of the Question. After we had learn'd of Bourgoynes Successes I uniformly maintain'd that the Fleets appearance even off the Capes of Delaware was no more than a Feint calculated to draw Genl Washington into fatiguing Marches and remarches through Jersey. It seems the General was so strongly persuaded of that Fact he would not cross Delaware until he had received Orders from Congress in consequence of an erroneous Information that 60 of the Fleet had certainly anchor'd within the Bay, and the Remainder were pouring in with a fair Wind. So strongly had this false Intelligence been impress'd upon our minds that orders were dispatch'd for driving off Cattle, removing Waggons, Horses &ca &ca from the borders of the Bay and River.(2) Five Ships were equipp'd and the best inform'd had mark'd the very day for landing the Enemys Troops. All parties were disappointed-the cursed Tories who abound in and about this City, because they had expected their Friends-the Friends of freedom, because they had wished to give a decisive Blow to those British Buccaniers. These finally disappear'd about four days ago, and whither they are now wandering we know not, probably they may have reenter'd North River, possibly landed at Rhode Island and part of the Fleet may be gone to bombard Boston which we know to be one Line in the general Plan. Our Troops are encamp'd within a few Miles of this City, by the time they have recover'd from the fatigue of the late severe Marches we shall learn more certainly the Destiny of the Strollers. Part of them must have shar'd fatigues with our People. Their Horses & many of their Men had been a full Month on Shipboard, when we Last heard from them. Mischief they may do tis all they can hope to do. Conquest they cannot expect, even if they should work our Destruction, in that Case they will only have enabled their Rival Neighbours to reap the Harvest of their own Ruin. To console us in some measure we are told and it is believed that our Eastern Friends have in a second Attempt actually taken Fort Cumberland in St Johns.(3) To morrows Paper which I shall have time to inclose with this will shew you the fate of brave Manly, whose fall I think more glorious than all his Feats.(4) He was announced at N. York as a Pirate but it will behove his Keepers to treat him like a Gentleman if they have any regard for the late Commander of the Fox. We have heard nothing late from General Lee. The Capture of Major Genl Prescott will be another Bar against further ill Usage to him and when the heat of present Enterprizes has a little subsided an Exchange will probably be effected.(5)
The repeated Instances of British cruelty exercised upon American Prisoners particularly those produced in Doctor Franklins letter to Lord Stormont and others this very day by a Master of a Vessel escaped from N York have raised a Spirit which will soon appear with the Label of Retaliation. When the Question is brought I will oppose it in part. I abhor the practice of Cruelty and will never in our circumstances consent to make Returns except in cases where good effects may be expected. Circumstanced as we are a general and rigid Retaliation wd be impolitic. The common people of England are our Friends. I believe their infamous Leaders have strove to extort Cruelty to prisoners on our part in order to enrage and unite them against us. Nothing less will make them our Enemies. To imprison closely and if occasion require to hang a Prescot and a Barrington for Injuries done to Lee will not displease but rather be applauded by those common people. Such Strokes I have no Objection to. With the lower Class of Soldiers and Seamen I would contrast American Humanity against British Ferocity, but if a Douglas or a Jordan could be handled some Atonement should be made for the Blood of Burke and others who have sufferd under their Barbarian Hands.
It does not appear that Genl Howe has received any considerable Reinforcement the present Year, perhaps a few hundred, at most 2000 chiefly Anspachers. These we are well inform'd refused to march and by a Letter from a Friend at Rotterdam (6) we are assured that most of them were sent down the Maes tied Neck and Heels. The foreign Troops on the Spot are much disgusted and among Bourgoynes a Mutiny lately happend in which eighty Lives were lost.
We are assured from good Authority that this City is the grand Object of the Campaign. It might have been so while Reinforcements were expected, but the late Movements of the Brothers mark the Imbecillity of the Generals Army which we think cannot exceed 8000 & General Washington seems to be certain that Bourgoyne has not above 6000. To them some recruits may have been added from among the mal Contents on his late rapid inroad. You will see in the News papers we have taken the Liberty to hang two of General Howes recruiting Officers on North River. If those Generals can form a junction, no doubt an attempt will be made to penetrate the Country & we may hear of them in front & Rear before October. On the other hand Spirited measures under General Gates who will go out this day (the 6th) to Command the Northern Department will keep them asunder & may prove the ruin of their Campaign.
General Putnam commands at Peeks Kill. He will have his hands full & if not Speedily & well supported we shall lose our frigates on North River, the Country will be laid open & Thousands of Tories & property Men join the Enemy. Exposed to Similar dangers I find we are at Providence, where we have also two Frigates & much other Valuable Shipping. These the Enemy are at this time attempting to destroy to complete the Conquest of Rhode Island Government & open an easy passage to Boston. Not one of these projects could be executed if the people were anxious to defeat them, but there seems to be an universal langour, except in the article of Money. Zeal & animation to make as much of that as possible & by all possible ways & means are very visible among all Classes. While this Spirit Governs nothing more can be expected than base defensive action, but tis clear if we were united & would act with vigour only three Months no British Troops would remain on this side the Lakes but such as were protected by Men of War or confined by prison Walls. The New Yorkers & some others blame New England, the Yankees retort & upon a fair hearing it appears that the latter have given more Men in proportion than any other State. But Say the Southern States they are able to do more, they are attentive only to privateering & making Money. New England replies we furnish our quota ascertained by your Selves, we have a large frontier to defend both by Land & Sea, our Country is barren & affords bare Subsistence in return for hard Labour. Ye enjoy fertile fields, live in Luxury Without the Labour of your own hands, Ye are Rich in Money & Products & can better afford to pay. I believe New England is at this time, unless the British Army is actually gone there, in happier circumstances than any Southern State, but we should remember three things. They bore the first & Severest attack-what they now enjoy they have gained by their address & their industry- their gains have greatly distressed the common Enemy & in so far we participated I may add, they are still the grand object of British revenge.
We have the best assurance that the port of Havanna is open to American Vessels, that the Caribs in the Island of St Vincents have reasserted their rights, obtained Supplies of Arms & ammunition from Martinico, made Several Successful inroads upon the planters, taken many of their Negroes, destroyed vast fields of Cane & Grain, that the Governor at the head of the Militia had marched against them. If I remember right seven British Regiments were fully employed to bring those half armed Savages to a treaty & a drawn game in 1773. Lord North has now cut out work enough to employ Seventy Regiments.(7)
The late flood of French Men rushed in upon us under argeements with Mr. Deane has reduced Congress to a painful dilemma. If we employ with all his unwarranted Contracts, many of our best Generals will be grosly affronted; if we do not, the United States will be exposed to the reproach & probably resentment of Men who have been deceived & ill used. Some of them have been very clamorous & we shall be obliged to make pecuniary Satisfaction for their disappointment of Rank, Some of them by the by prove to be rank Cheats, nevertheless they have Credentials from our agent Deane & must be provided for in Some way. Holzendorf being a long time upon hand, I interposed on his behalf, obtained his Commission of Lt. Colonel according to agreement, but he is not employed.(8) This so far looks well as it Shows these people we are not altogether dependent upon Frenchmen. The Chevalier Faliat [Failly] who in his passage from Charles Town to Virginia had been taken by the Daptine M.W. [H.M.S. Daphne] arrived here a few days ago. The recommendation of Doctor Franklin Seconded by that of Monsieur de Coudrie has ensured him a Majority, a Commission only but no employment at present.(9)
A Commission of Major General is granted to the Marqui de la Fayette the young nobleman who lately came from Charles Town. He required no pension, no Special Command; the honour of fighting near General Washington & having rank in the Army was all he coveted except opportunities to shew his Zeal for the glorious cause of American Freedom either in the Field, or at Court when it shall be judged he can be more Servicable at Versailles. This illustrious Stranger whose address & manner bespeak his birth will Serve a short Campaign & then probably return to France & Secure to us the powerful Interest of his high & extensive connexions.(10)
General Howe has published by proclamation an extraordinary regulation of Trade in New York, calculated as they pretend to Starve the Rebels. (1l) Except the necessary article of Salt we abound in good things although we pay abundantly for them. Salt is excessively dear, 16 Dollars per bushel. Nevertheless the Enemy's men who are purchased & fed at much dearer rate will be all defunct or banished before our whole Stock of Salt is exhausted. From the Same quarter we learn that the Inhabitants of that City & its environs are very unhappy infinitely more so than their old friends whom they infamously forsook. I have seen & read English News papers up to the 13 May & Letters from France late as June. England is truely distressed on all hands. She has Suffered by Captures made by the Americans & Frenchmen Americanized far beyond my former apprehensions. The number of Privateers Maned by Frenchmen under English Captains & Congress Commissions is astonishing. These have destroyed the English West India & African Trade & are daily making prizes in the Channel from Scilly to the German Sea. To such insults do the British Ministry Tamely Submit-while on the other hand they meanly threaten Holland only for having connived at illicit Trade with us. You have seen Sir Joseph Yorkes memorial presented at the Hague, I will Send you the Dutch Envoy's humble answer & we learn from undoubted authority that a Mr. Vanbibber our Commissioner or Agent was lately imprisoned at St. Eustatia for having caused an English Vessel to be taken in Sight of the Island.(12) Tis however Said this is the effect of policy. I will not take upon me to comment but you may depend upon it we have now a Vessel for War building in Amsterdam which will be equal or is intended to be, to an English 64 Gun Ship & that the States of Holland are as anxiously concerned to establish our Independence as the French are, & that in order to be ready for defense they are augmenting their Navy.
Our Agents in France have contracted with proper persons to dispatch an advice Boat together with 30 Tons of Merchandize if required once a Month to Congress. The first arrived at Portsmouth a few days ago & brought us the accounts which the News papers & This have retailed to you together with Some of a more private nature. The Second Sailed as I suppose the latter end of June or beginning of July & on this Instant learn she was taken within Six hours of her leaving port-Stratagem which must be guarded against in future time. Mr Lee (Arthur) had been at Madrid where he had been well received as a private Agent for the American States, but the Court would not recognize him in any higher Character. From thence we have obtained Strong assurances of friendship. The ports of Spain in Europe & that of Havanna in America are open to our Ships Warlike & Commercial & every desirable encouragement held out to us. Content with this Since no more was to be gained, Mr Lee turned his face to the Court of Berlin.(13) I long to know his reception & Success there.
I shall send to the President Copy of a Letter from a very intelligent writer at Paris which he will probably give Wells to print,(14) the Gentleman to whom it was addressed assures me we may depend upon his correspondents veracity. Indeed tis no more than consonant with advices which we have received from our Commissioners. You will learn there how much all the States in Europe, Portugal excepted, Interest themselves in our Cause, it is said that even the Empress of Russia wishes our Establishment & we are assured we shall not be troubled with Troops from her dominions. Our greatest Enemies are within ourselves & not among those Men who oppose us by Arms or who honestly & openly profess themselves averse from our measures & politics. You would be astonished were you here to see the number & influence of the property Men. I call them so because almost every Man of them were the most Vigorous in opposing the measures of the British Ministry until they perceived that opposition, proceeding to a serious War, then fear of the Loss of Life & Estate shocked their faith. they wished to remain neuter, they still acknowledged that America had been greatly aggreived but withdrew from the Councils & Society of their former Colleagues under pretences, some that Independence had been declared too soon, others that it had never been their design to be Independent. A few such we have in Carolina, observe them, they are Men of property called sensible & good Sort of Men. They are cunning Men, & their cunning is exceedingly baneful to a cause which in their hearts they wish well. If we lose that Cause it will be the effect of their timidity & their pernicious examples. Whether their wishes to enjoy their Estates in quiet will succeed I know not-I rather beleive they will drag a few years of life through painful reproaches & reflections- but I say, Such Men in this State & that of New York abound-& unless the progress of Burgoyne & his junction with Sir William Howe is Speedily prevented they will have room to expand to join the Enemy & to reduce the friends of Freedom to the utmost hazards & difficulties.
The amazing scarcity & high prices of articles formerly imported from Europe & the West Indies have influenced the rates of every necessary of Life. Fire Wood delivered at a House not 1/4 Miles from the Wharf at 220 Carolina Currency per Chord, Butter at this Season the best a Dollar a pound, Beef 6/3, Mutton & other small Meat 7/6, Rum £12, Wine £13, Brown Sugar 25/, Horses at Stable a Dollar & upwards per day-for a Living Room, a Bed Chamber & the use of a Kitchen, where I find my own Fire & my own food of every kind, my Cook also, I pay 14 2/3ds Dollars per Week, & so in proportion for every thing else. These extraordinary circumstances hurt a few people, I am one among the hurt, but they by no means threaten immediate ruin to America, yet from them these property Men denounce our destruction & are very industrious to impress the minds of weak people with the most direful apprehensions. Some Steps have been taken by the Executive power to remove such Men from the Capital, weak & feeble attempts & hitherto without any good effect. We are not yet Sufficiently distressed to make us Sufficiently in earnest. An old friend of mine now a rigid Tory, complained to me of the friends of Liberty who had on the 4 July broke the Glass Windows of such quiet people as had refused to illuminate their Houses upon that anniversary. In reply I expressed my concern for the ill timed destruction of Glass and added for his consolation, that he might depend upon this as a type of broken bones to that Glass unless they soon reformed or removed out of the Country. I have dwelt too long perhaps upon a Subject which you are well acquainted with, but although you are well acquainted with the Subject in general, you had no Idea when I left Charles Town of the number & influence of the Tories in these parts.
7th August. Your obliging Letters of 4th & 5th July by Colo C C Pinckney just came to hand & I thank you for all the trouble you have taken for me. More particular replies may appear in the sequel of this or in a future Letter.(15)
LB (ScHi).
1 See Brig. Gen. Roche de Fermoy's July 25 letter to President Hancock in MC, item 78, 9: 107-12.
2 See JCC, 8: 588-89.
3 This information was false.
4 The capture of Capt. John Manley and the Continental frigate Hancock by H.M.S. Rainbow on July 8 is described in William J. Morgan, Captains to the Northward: The New England Captains in the Continental Navy (Barre, Mass.: Barre Publishing Co., 1959), pp. 89-91.
5 See John Hancock to William Barton, July 26, 1777, note 1.
6 See Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, 2:288.
7 There is a brief discussion of the Carib Revolt of 1772-73 in Sir Alan Burns History of the British West Indies (Norwich, England: Jarrold & Sons Ltd., 1954), pp. 505-6. The report of a new Carib uprising on St. Vincents was untrue.
8 This statement is puzzling. Congress agreed to make Baron de Holtzendorf a Continental lieutenant colonel, in accordance with his agreement with Silas Deane, on July 17-five days before Laurens took his seat as a delegate. Perhaps Laurens means that there was some delay in carrying out the July 17 resolution and he helped to clear it up. JCC, 8: 559-60.
9 Congress was even more impressed with the chevalier de Failly than Laurens supposed, for on August 21 it appointed him a lieutenant colonel and assigned him to the northern department. JCC, 8: 638, 663.
10 There is much original material pertaining to the marquis de Lafayette's July 31 appointment in Lafayette, Papers (Idzerda), 1 :3-88.
11 This proclamation, dated July 17, appeared in the New-York Gazette: and the Weekly Mercury, July 21, 1777.
12 For the Anglo-Dutch confrontation Laurens mentions here, see James Lovell to Joseph Whipple, July 29, 1777, note. For the case of Abraham Van Bibber see Friedrich Edler, The Dutch Republic and American Independence (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1911), pp. 56-58.
13 See Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, 2:292-96, 319-20.
14 John Wells, publisher of the South-Carolina and American Gazette.
15 For the continuation of this letter, see Laurens to Gervais, August 9, 1777.
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