The First American Army - Bruce Chadwick [80]
There was much praise for George Washington, but there was also substantial praise for the common soldiers in the American army. British historian George Trevelyan wrote of them, “It may be doubted whether so small a number of men ever employed so short a space of time with greater and more lasting effects upon the history of the world.” And the proud editor of the Freeman’s Journal, an American newspaper, wrote of the troops that “the men behaved with the utmost bravery.”14 George Washington, riding at the head of the column trudging northward to Morristown, may have thought of all the consequences of the dual triumphs, but Sergeant Joe White had neither the time or the inclination to do so. As he walked along the highway north toward Morristown he devoted his attention to pulling from his knapsack one of the cakes that woman in Princeton had baked for him and thinking about how pretty her daughters were.
Chapter Fifteen
NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA, 1777–1778:
Lieutenant James McMichael: A Poet Goes to War
The War
The Continental Army struggled through the winter of 1777 at Morristown. Following the twin victories at Trenton and Princeton, the army marched north to the small community in the heart of northern New Jersey to establish a winter camp. The town was protected by the Watchung Mountains to the east, intersected by two main highways, home to a large militia, run by patriotic public officials and close enough to New York that Washington could keep an eye on the British army there.
It was a winter of discontent for the American army. Hundreds of men either deserted or went home after their enlistments were up, and at one point Washington had only fourteen hundred regulars and militia left. Another smallpox epidemic hit America that winter, threatening not only the existence of the army but the lives of thousands of civilians. Washington took the unprecedented step of immediately inoculating all of the troops and any civilians who chose to participate. His bold step saved the army and thousands of citizens.
There was nothing but bad news. Just before the arrival of the army at Morristown in December 1776, the British attacked and occupied Newport, Rhode Island, a key seaport. Throughout the winter, U.S. currency continually depreciated in value, making it difficult for the army to purchase needed supplies.
Most of the troops in Washington’s main force remained in Morristown until the end of May, but some regiments were assigned elsewhere.
Lieutenant James McMichael’s Pennsylvania State Regiment of some five hundred men (renamed the Thirteenth Pennsylvania Regiment in late 1777), remained at Morristown all winter. In April 1777, the regiment was sent to Liberty Island in the Delaware River just south of Philadelphia to protect the city in case of a British attack, which George Washington fully expected. The capture of Philadelphia—the capital of the United States and the home of Congress and a major port—would be a major military victory for the British.
On May 1, a Sunday, a local band arrived on Liberty Island, the musicians carrying their instruments from boats to a compact parade ground to entertain the troops stationed there. Among them were the three companies of Lieutenant McMichael’s regiment. They needed entertainment.
The Pennsylvanians had been through some of the most dangerous battles and hardest marches of the American Revolution. The men had no sooner left their villages in Pennsylvania on May 27, 1776, to applause and cheers from their friends and neighbors, then they, and McMichael, in his early twenties, found themselves on the front lines of the battles to defend New York. The enlisted men were thoroughly beaten at the battle of Long Island on August 27. There, in the early afternoon, the Pennsylvanians found themselves cut off from the army. They fought courageously but were hopelessly outnumbered. At first, under McMichael’s direction, a line of enlisted