The Glorious Cause - Jeff Shaara [80]
12. WASHINGTON
THEY HAD KEPT TO THE ROADS WITH AS MUCH ENERGY AS ANYONE could expect, often without the opportunity to prepare the most simple of meals. In the open roads between the towns they would often eat what was available only in the greatest haste, no time for campfires, the men subsisting mostly on raw flour. What had not been left behind in Fort Lee had been burned along the march, tents, blankets, anything to lighten the load, and to prevent the stores from falling into the hands of the British. Through each town they marched, the citizens who were still there had come forward, curiosity turning to horror, and finally, to pity for this amazing sight, barefoot men with rags for clothes, marching two by two, relentless in their retreat.
All along the journey, Washington had sent letters northward to Charles Lee, whose unopposed forces nearly doubled what Washington had on the march. The letters were polite, suggestive, imploring Lee to send what he felt he could spare, any strength he felt comfortable parting with. Lee had responded with a disturbing lack of concern, vague pronouncements to Washington that Lee felt his army should continue to remain whole, that his own position was the more important. Around Washington, the senior commanders were beginning to bristle toward Lee, astounded at the man’s arrogant assumption of an independent command. Washington responded by making his letters more direct, finally ordering Lee to march southward to add his forces to Washington’s, but again, Lee made excuses. To men like Greene and Stirling, Lee was insubordinate at best, and treasonous at worst. But Washington held down any such talk, kept his own anger inside, continued to order Lee to march. He would not yet believe that this man who was so loved by the army, who was thought to be the consummate professional soldier, would blatantly disobey Washington’s orders. When Lee finally agreed to bring part of his forces to join Washington, he moved with deliberate slowness, the message clear again. Certainly Lee knew that once he was alongside Washington, he would no longer command his own situation, could not play his particular game of war free from Washington’s interference.
Horatio Gates had been ordered to send reinforcements from the outposts he commanded north of Albany, the force that had been deployed to protect against a British advance from Canada. Gates had delayed as well, but did not have Charles Lee’s backbone for flagrant disobedience. Washington learned that Gates had sent nearly fifteen hundred troops on the march toward Trenton. There was still no word from Lee on how many men he would bring, but Washington had kept his optimism, believed that by the time Lee reached Trenton, the army would be strong enough to make some kind of effective resistance against Howe. But both columns of reinforcements were still many miles away when Washington marched into Trenton. Once his army had crossed the Delaware River into Pennsylvania, not only were Lee’s forces of no help, they were in a perilously isolated position of their own. Until the reinforcements arrived, Washington’s army had dwindled to fewer than three thousand men, and the escape over the river was not cause for a celebration to anyone. The lookouts had kept a sharp watch on Howe’s army as it gathered across the river, but there was no sign that Howe intended to come across. Washington made no great show of his wise strategy, the removal of all boats from the New Jersey shore, though around him, the entire army believed that it was the only thing keeping Howe on the far side of the river.
DECEMBER 15, 1776
He rode the horse through a stand of tall trees, the limbs stark and bare. He looked across to the church steeples, the streets of Trenton teeming with colorful activity, all of it from