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of Springfield. British losses were not reported, but villagers said they saw several wagons filled with dead soldiers rolling down the highway as the soundly beaten British retreated.6 Later, in a report that would have made the Morris militia and other militia units proud of themselves, General Knyphausen wrote to George Germain, head of Britain’s colonial office and in charge of the war, “I found the disposition of the inhabitants by no means such as I expected; on the contrary they were everywhere in arms.”7 Even more pleasing was Washington’s assessment of the militia. The general had been critical of them since he took command of the army three years earlier. The militiamen fought in the two Springfield engagements, he wrote to General Robert Howe, “with admirable spirit.”8

Washington praised the Second Rhode Island, too, writing that “the gallant behavior of Col. Angell’s [men] on the 23 instant, at Springfield, reflects the highest honor upon the officers and men. They disputed an important pass, with so obstinate a bravery, that they lost upwards of forty killed, wounded, and missing before they gave up their ground to a vast superiority of force.”

The Rhode Island Assembly was even more effusive in its praise. An official proclamation conveyed “sincere thanks to the officers and soldiers in general, belonging to the regiment, for that bravery, patriotism, and perseverance and those military virtues manifested on all occasions so similar to those exhibited by the famous legions of ancient Rome, in the shining periods of the history of that republic.”9

The battles for Springfield have usually been dismissed by historians, but they were two of the most important encounters of the war. If the Americans had not turned the enemy back both times, the British might have defeated Washington, decimated the American army, and moved into Morristown to capture all of the Continental Army’s supplies, food, and ammunition. The French had agreed to send ships, cannon, ammunition, and several thousand soldiers in 1780, but their fleet and troops had not yet arrived. So a defeat at Springfield, coupled with the loss of Charleston, lack of provisions, and the reeling U.S. economy might have resulted in American capitulation.10

The awful winter and spring had brought about a mutiny, starvation, inflation, the loss of Charleston, the defeat at Staten Island, the corruption trial of Arnold, and animosity between the people and the troops. But in an odd way, these travails had somehow rekindled the spirit of many in the service. Wrote one foot soldier in a long and passionate letter to the Jersey Journal:

At least half the whole family of mankind may be interested in our success; a prize as important was never before disputed on the stage of the world. We have every virtuous, every great and noble idea to animate our exertions; the superior Beings who inhabit other worlds may behold our efforts with pleasing admiration—and the Eternal may look down with approbation and pleasure, while we contend for the rights of creation and refuse to part with our divine inheritance.11

Chapter Twenty-Nine

1781:

Victory at Yorktown

The War

The Revolution, its critics claimed, was about to collapse as a series of events worked against the American cause throughout 1780 and 1781.

All of America was enraged at the defection of Benedict Arnold in September 1780. The disgruntled Arnold, thirty-nine, had just married the nineteenyear-old daughter of a Philadelphia Tory. He still fumed about his conviction on corruption charges in the winter and shortly thereafter defected to the British after selling them the military plans for the American fortifications at West Point; his connection, British Major John Andre, was captured and hanged. Arnold’s betrayal hurt Washington deeply, but it also infuriated every soldier who had served with Arnold, including Ebenezer Wild, at Saratoga, John Greenwood, and Jeremiah Greenman, plus Dr. Lewis Beebe, and Rev. Ammi Robbins, now at home (Greenman was present at Andre’s execution).

The army was hurt