The Glorious Cause - Jeff Shaara [275]
THE BRITISH HAD RESPONDED TO THE ARRIVAL OF THE FRENCH BY detaching a sizable force of warships to Newport. Though Clinton might have little confidence in Arbuthnot’s abilities, the plan was simple and straightforward. No great naval battle was required. To the French and to Washington, it was clear the British were content to blockade Narragansett Bay, to bottle up the small French fleet, keeping them harmlessly out of the way. Washington’s scouts began to send word from the city that Clinton was preparing to move, British and Hessian troops already loading the transports. The strategy was obvious, Clinton feeling pressure to confront the French soldiers. But Washington did not want a major engagement to develop so far north, in a theater of the war he could not support himself. He did not have the troop strength to send anyone to Newport, and if the French infantry were crushed by a sudden British assault, it could be a disaster worse than Charleston. The entire alliance might collapse.
THE LETTERS WERE SENT OUT BY COURIER, WRAPPED IN A LEATHER pouch, the messenger riding hard and quick, darting through darkness on the road that led to the King’s Bridge, the northernmost access point to Manhattan Island. Even in darkness there was danger, British patrols always moving, guarding against any sudden assault that Washington might send at them from above.
The courier moved slowly, as quietly as the horse would allow, could see lanternlights at the bridge itself, the British guards not yet aware he was there. As he turned the horse in the road, the pouch of letters was dropped, the leather strap loosened enough so that papers would peek out, catching the eye of the first British patrol who passed that way.
Within a day, the letters had found their way to Henry Clinton. The headquarters congratulated themselves on the vigilance of their cavalry, the horsemen finding what had been so carelessly misplaced by the rebels. The letters were in Washington’s own hand, and the hand of his secretary, orders to his subordinates, the details of a plan to push a hard assault into New York. It was a logical and intelligent strategy, the British defense there weakened by the loss of the troops who would sail to Newport. But the rebel plan had been discovered in time, and all around New York, Washington’s scouts were surprised to see the flatboats returning from the transports fully loaded, the British and Hessian troops marched again to their barracks. From the camps near the city, a column of several regiments had marched quickly up to Harlem Heights.
As Washington sat high on the palisades and glassed across the Hudson, the reports began to come in from his spies. Clinton had canceled the mission to Newport, had instead ordered his army to stand on alert, to prepare to receive Washington’s massed attack.
Washington could only smile.
HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, SEPTEMBER 1780
I have arrived here with all the submission, all the zeal, and all the veneration I have for your person and for the distinguished talents which you reveal in sustaining this war forever memorable.
The tone of Rochambeau’s letter was certainly designed to erase any doubts Washington might have about French willingness to cooperate, but Lafayette brought another message as well, more direct, that Rochambeau now insisted on a meeting with Washington himself. With the British naval blockade still outside Newport, and Clinton’s massed army in New York, neither Rochambeau nor Washington was comfortable making a journey far from his own command. It was logical that the meeting would take place halfway between them, at Hartford.
Lafayette had given Washington his own version of the meetings with Rochambeau,