The Glorious Cause - Jeff Shaara [319]
53. WASHINGTON
JUNE 1781
THE INVASION OF VIRGINIA BY BENEDICT ARNOLD HAD INSPIRED Washington to counter the move by sending Lafayette southward with as many troops as could be spared. Von Steuben’s efforts at raising militia were encouraging, and with the young Frenchman’s arrival there, Arnold’s threat could be minimized. Washington had given Lafayette one more order as well. If at all possible, Arnold was to be captured.
For several weeks, Lafayette had prevented any effective British campaign, and Arnold’s men had done little more than pillage the countryside, terrorizing civilians whose farms and villages had already been stripped bare by the needs of their own army. Virginia seemed to have settled into the same kind of stalemate Washington had endured in New York. And then, he learned that Clinton had sent reinforcements and that, surprisingly, their commander was no longer Arnold, but Cornwallis himself.
The news was agonizing for Washington, for reasons both military and personal. If Cornwallis secured the conquest of Virginia, Mount Vernon and, indeed, Martha herself might fall into British hands. Though he could not take his eyes off Clinton and the continuing threat of a British surge out of New York, he could no longer assume Virginia had the troop strength to defend itself. Weakening his army once more, Washington reluctantly sent Anthony Wayne southward, with another thousand troops. If Cornwallis did indeed force an engagement with Lafayette, at least the young Frenchman would have the power to mount an effective defense.
Though Greene was technically in command of the Southern Department, he still deferred to Washington’s authority. The difficulties lay with communication. Letters took a month or more to travel from the Carolinas to Washington’s base along the Hudson. But Greene had done nothing to shake Washington’s confidence, and the news of Cornwallis’ departure from Wilmington had to be accepted as stunning evidence of Greene’s success. With Cornwallis gone, Greene would confront an enemy in South Carolina who seemed resigned to its fate. Though the British would certainly fight to maintain their outposts, their positions were isolated and unlikely to be reinforced. While Greene still had a great deal of work to do, his return to South Carolina would bring the partisans to his side, and, certainly, the people themselves.
FOR LONG AGONIZING MONTHS WASHINGTON HAD PLANNED AND PLOTTED for some means of assaulting New York. But the reality was pure frustration, Clinton’s strength actually increasing with a sudden arrival of reinforcements. Washington’s spies confirmed that New York was now bristling with nearly fifteen thousand British and Hessian troops. If there was to be any assault at all against Manhattan Island, Washington could do nothing without the support of the French.
Washington had gone north again for another conference with Rochambeau. The French were maddeningly gracious, politely receptive to his maps and strategies, Rochambeau quick to repeat his assurances that he was there only to serve Washington’s needs. Washington endured the grand dinners and lavish parades, all the European pageantry that was designed to impress on him their respect for his command. But through each formal ceremony, and each toast to his name and his health, Washington was acutely aware that the French troops were still idle, the inadequate force of warships in the harbor at Newport were continuing to lie at anchor, while in New York, the British grew stronger still. The question burned inside of him, shielded by his smiling politeness to Rochambeau. Why were the French on American soil if they did not intend to fight?
As Washington fumed about his headquarters, he was still convinced that the ridiculous stalemate could be broken. He had formed a plan for a quick strike into New York from the north, directed toward the King’s Bridge. But the plan required the