IX – THE ARMY ASSEMBLES

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PHILIP SCHUYLER represented the best Dutch blood and the wealthiest landed aristocracy of New York; and, when it was proposed to elect him a Continental major-general, Richard Montgomery said truly, ‘His consequence in the province makes him a fit subject for an important trust.’ As the proprietor of a fine mansion at Albany and a fine estate at Saratoga, he was known and honored throughout that region. He, in turn, knew the country and its people; and, as a share of military experience, besides a long training in business management, had fallen to his lot, he seemed a most fitting person to command the northern army.’ (1 – Montg. to R. R. Liv.. June 3, 1775; Liv. Papers, 1775-77, pp. 31, 33. Schuyler’s Saratoga estate was not at the Springs, but near the present R. R. station of Schuylerville. It was 32 miles from Albany (Carroll, Journal, p. 55). He had acted as Commissary in the British service during the late war (Tuckerman, Schuyler, p. 91).

Many shrank from laying the j’ard-stick upon Schuyler, for they began by admiring him; but, when driven to set down the measurements, what they found was an honest, intelligent, courteous, gallant country squire, kindly, high-minded, and public-spirited, thoroughly scornful of everything false or mean, abundantly qualified to shine in gilt buttons and a cocked hat on training days, just the man to lead a quadrille with slightly overdone politeness at a county ball, and equally capable of damning a tenant — with a red face and redder language, perhaps — for pilfering or disrespect, of turning him out of liouse and home for retorting, and of sending him a leg of mutton and a cord of wood as soon as the fellow began to starve and freeze. (2 – The sketch of Schuyler is based upon his portraits, his correspondence, and Lossing’s Schuyler, I., p. 66 ; II., p. 479, etc.)

His constitution, good for better than threescore years and ten, j-et given to frequent sudden outbreaks of capricious illness; his tall person, slight yet able to make fine spurts of energy; his florid, mobile, puckering face; his keen, squinting, snapping dark eyes; his sagacious but rather quizzical nose; his dark-brown hair, so breezy it almost seemed electrified; his clear voice, which readily grew sharp; and his general effect of sensitiveness, willfullness, and tiltedness, overlying real gravity and vim, — all instantly announced him as the petrel, not exactly of storms perhaps, but certainly of thunder-showers.

Placed in a world where everybody had been well born and well bred, he would have been a piquant and merry kind of saint, with only the failings necessary to make him a ‘gentleman’ also; but, in contact often with common and sometimes with ignoble characters — occasionally commissioned in the Continental service — he despised them too much to hide his opinions, preserve his manners, and carry his point. (3 – Graydon’s letter: Dunlap, New Netherlands, I, p. 480.) Probably he never used a word of extraordinary dimensions, far less a series of them, without cause; but the cause might be some independent Son of Liberty, endowed with a good memory if not a good character. Given a limited field — not vastly larger, say, than his own estates — he could plan and execute in a masterly style; but his propeller travelled rather near the surface; and, when forced by emergencies, it spent a little over-much of its energy in foam instead of propulsion. Perhaps, too, his ardent facility of expression could not have grown so round, without eating more or less into his self-control and his personal weight. At all events, the executive power of a Greene, a Wayne, a Sullivan lay quite beyond his reach.

Yet Schuyler well merited admiration, after all; and gratitude besides. The country called him, and he responded without grudging or self-seeking. She asked much, and he offered all, — his name and influence, his property, his best efforts, his comfort, health, and peace of mind. It was not the General’s fault that he lacked the breadth of beam and weight of metal for the heaviest burdens and the mightiest battles. He did what he could, and that was much. He proved himself a noble and patriotic citizen. Therefore his name shines, and therefore let it shine for aye.

It was easy to see how Schuyler’s task would present itself. Prompt action was essential. Hinman himself admitted that. Under his regime things were going badly, so far as they were going at all. After being in undisputed command for two weeks, he confessed his inability to make a satisfactory return of his forces, guns, ammunition, and stores on account of the ‘ present unsettled circumstances.’ In reply to what Schuyler described as a pointed letter, he acknowledged that he could ‘say but little’ about Carleton’s movements; and as for informing the Canadians of our friendly intentions, they were ‘so very cautious,’ and the passes ‘so well guarded’ that it was ‘almost impossible to get any information to them.’ ‘I find myself very unable to steer in this stormy situation,’ added the poor fellow; ‘Sometimes we have no flour, and a constant cry for rum, and want of molasses for beer, which was engaged to our people.’ Some three hundred men lay idle at Crown Point, and about six hundred at Ticonderoga, though Hinman realized that without new fortifications the ground could not be defended. Supplies were being wasted or embezzled. One day the cook at Ticonderoga found himself with only a single barrel of flour. The sloop had neither pilot nor captain; roads and bridges were becoming impracticable; and King Log was only able to ‘wait, Sir, with impatience’ for Schuyler’s arrival, and meanwhile ‘hope for better times.’ Never was a master hand more needed. ‘I shall have an Augean stable to cleanse there,’ said the General himself. (4 – Hinman to Schuyler, July 7, 1775: 4 Force, II., 1605. Schuyler to Hinman, June 28, 1775: ib., 1123. Arnold’s report by Schiyller’s request, July 11, 1775: ib. 1646. Indefens, etc., etc: Hinman to N. Y. Cong., July 3, 1775 (ib., 1538). No fortifs.: Schuyler to Hancock, July 15, 1775 (ib. 1665). Flour. Etc.: Id. To Id., July 11, 1775 (ib., 1645). Stable, etc. : Id. To Wash., July, 15 (ib. 1668).

And the situation in Canada cried no less loudly. ‘Without Ivoss of Time,’ had been the proviso of Arnold’s offer to move north. Were the invasion to be neglected much longer, the delay might be ‘fatal,’ reported Bayley’s trustworthy Indian a fortnight later. In Governor Trumbull’ s opinion, it would soon be ‘high time’ to secure the province; which meant that it was time already. Ethan Allen and all the others of importance on the ground had been urging the advance this long while. Nobody could doubt that Carleton would bar higher every day the pass at St. Johns. It was evident that his power and ability must weaken steadily the ‘Friends of Liberty ‘ in Canada. Any hour, reinforcements might arrive from England, or Gage might send aid from Boston; and who could doubt that the Governor was toiling with every nerve to build water-craft and regain control of the lakes ? (5 – Arnold to Cong., June 13, 1775 : 4 Force, II., 976. Bayley to N. Y. Cong., June 29, 1775: ib., 1134. Trumbull to Schuyler, July 24, 1775: ib., 1721.)

Evidently, then, if the orders of Congress were to be executed, boats, men, equipment, and organization must be provided, and provided in the quickest possible time. Everything depended upon ‘despatch,’ said Schuyler himself. A day, an hour might be decisive a little later. The boats must be made; and, as that operation would very likely require more time than anything else, it needed to be undertaken first. Trees and water-power abounded near Ticonderoga; but the timber would have to come into contact with moving strips of steel, notched on one edge, called saws. The General must have known — for doubtless on some fishing or hunting trip he had passed that way — that old French mills, worth repairing, stood on the Outlet of Eake George. But, with- out counting overmuch upon these, he would immediately despatch to the ground a few millwrights and ship- carpenters, with a squad of journeymen, some boxes of tools, a few sarws, quantities of nails, and some bags of oakum. Precise, detailed orders would be made out, so far as possible, at once; and then, in view of the lack of executive organization, he or his lieutenant, Brigadier- General Richard Montgomery, would follow up these orders at the base of supply, and at- tend personally to the raising, equipping, and forwarding of troops, while the other would seek the front without delay. (6 – Despatch : Schuyler to Cong., June 30, 1775 (Lossingr, Schuyler, I., p. 344). Mills: Parkman, Montcalm, I., p. 477 ; Schuyler to Franklin, Aug. 23, 1775: 4 Force, III., 242.)

No doubt a chance for. many long letters full of politely turned phrases and elegant prolixity lay in the situation. No doubt social amenities asserted their claims. No doubt the politics of New York demanded steering; and Schuyler, a member of the Provincial Congress, counted for much. No doubt the Tories in Tryon County were buzzing. But Schuyler stood now as a major-general of the United Colonies, with a commission second only to Washington’s in moment and urgency; and before him lay orders both definite and important. Naturally he reasoned that, as an executive, his true policy was to achieve, at all hazards, the essential thing, and then cover as many other points as possible.

But no; Schuyler did not reason in this way. Such a course would no doubt have possessed certain merits; but it would have lacked politeness, — not to say, dignity. Father Knickerbocker was no pert Boston lawyer; he could neither hustle nor be hustled. Hudson River patroons were no Connecticut artisans; great bodies like them had planetary motions to fulfill. Schuyler himself lived on that stream. Six days after the Continental Congress ordered him to the north, he delivered to the New York Congress (July 3) a requisition for troops, lead, powder, bullet-moulds, tents, oakum, pitch, oars, saws, and various other things, adding — as if with a courtly wave of the hand — ‘an assortment of articles in the artillery way; (7 – Schuyler to N. Y. Cong., July 3, 1775; 4 Force, II., 1536 ; Id. to Hancock, July 21, 1775: ib., 1702.) but he avoided the disagreeable Yankee trick of standing by and prodding people until they did their work.

About a fortnight after the Congress had received this paper. General Schuyler reached the lakes. His reception might have been predicted. Arriving after nightfall at a post near Ticonderoga, he found that the sentinel, hearing of his approach, had gone off to awaken the guard, ‘ in which he had no success ; and a second guard also lay buried in ‘the soundest sleep.’ (8 – Schuyler to Wash., July 18, 1775: 4 Force, II., 1685.)

So far as concerned the grand plan of campaign, he himself summarized the case in this wise: ‘except thirteen or fourteen batteaus, that were built at Fort George, not one earthly thing was prepared. I had saw-mills to repair, timber and every other individual thing to procure, gun-carriages to build, vessels of force to construct.’ Neither had the polite method of taking things for granted been working well at New York. Nothing that his requisition called for had arrived. ‘ The pitch, oakum and nails I wish to have sent with all possible despatch,’ he had specified; but they had not been seen. There was not even a definite report about them; nor about anything else, except that Mr. Curtenius, the Manhattan Commissary, had concluded in the course, of a week that it would cost too much to send the oars. ‘Everything is wanted; I am destitute of every material for making the necessary preparations,’ he admitted to Trumbull three days later. (9 – Schuyler to Alb. Com., Nov, 2, 1775: 4 Force, III., 1524. Id. to N. Y. Cong-.; July 3, 1775: + Force, II., 1536. Id to Id., July 21, 1775: 4 Force, II., 1704. Id. to Cong., July 21 ; ib., 1702. Id. to Trumbull, July 21, 1775: ib., 1704.)

So, then, buried in the forest primeval, with Montgomery on the edge of it not far away, Schuyler had to begin struggling for supplies at the far mouth of the Hudson; and even now, instead of sending a competent man to expedite the business, he thought it safe to rely upon letters.

On the twenty-seventh of July, he assured the Provincial Congress that it was ‘ indispensably necessary that not one moment’s delay should be made’ in forwarding the stores mentioned in the requisition; and at length some of the articles happily arrived. August the fifteenth, he begged for the rest, and in particular for the artillery stores, with ‘ not one moment’s delay.’ Six days later, the New York Congress wrote that the articles wanted had been sent, and must have been delayed on the way; but, after ten days more, they explained that Mr. Curtenius, considering the order for artillery stores too general, had done nothing about it, and ‘supposed’ that somebody else had ‘ procured what was necessary ‘ ; yet these ‘ various articles in the artillery branch,’ about which nobody made sure at either end of the line, were so essential that Schuyler said he could not ‘ make a substitute for any’ of them. ‘ Some bullet moulds,’ ordered at the same time, the Congress went on to say, ‘ will be sent you by Captain Goforth. They would have been sent sooner, had not the Commissary been obliged to get them made here.’ Possibly Schuyler felt inclined, at this point, to invoke the rule of three, and figure out the length of time necessary to complete his order for these articles, if two months were required, to manufacture ‘ some.’ Yet they were by no means luxuries: ‘We cannot do anything without the bullet moulds,’ he wrote.” (10 – Schuyler to N. Y. Cong., July 27, 1775: 4 Force, II., 1735. Id. to id., Aug. 15, 1775: 4 Force, III., 141. N. Y. Cong, to W. I.iv., Aug. 21, 1775 : ib., 540. Id. to Schuyler, Sept. 1, 1775 : ib., 571. Schuyler to N. Y. Cong., Aug. 23 : ib., 243.)

When the troops raising at Albany were known to be in need of blankets, instead of despatching an approximate number at a venture, the authorities at New York wrote up for a ‘ return … of the number of blankets wanting,’ which meant nearly or quite a week’s delay. Indeed, trusting to a letter might cost far more time than that. One despatch of Schuyler’s — and that a pressing one — took fifteen days to make the journey down, and was not answered by the New York Congress for over a week. (11 – Montg. to N. Y. Cong., Aug. 8, 1775: 4 Force, III., 67. Loss of time: N. Y. Cong, to Schuyler, Aug. 8, 1775 (ib., 525); Schuyler to N. Y. Cong., July 16, 1775 (4 Force, II., 1671)

Still more surprising proved another case. In his requisition, Schuyler called for enough tents to shelter about three thousand five hundred men, six men to each. A large part of them, at least, were urgently needed by the Connecticut regiment, for the troops, crowded into unhealthy barracks, were not only suffering but sickening; yet no tents for these men arrived. Hinman, apparently, did not discover the difficulty; but Schuyler, on reaching the ground, sent word to the Connecticut authorities. Without delay, Trumbull despatched an express to New York (July 25), asking whether the need could not be supplied there, as Schuyler suggested. ‘ This Colony, ‘ he explained, ‘ is so far exhausted of materials for making tents, that it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to furnish them in any tolerable season.’ In any case, the expense would fall upon the Continental treasury; and, with their customary politeness, the New Yorkers undertook to do the business. (12 – Needed : Schuyler to Trumbull, July 18, 1775 (4 Force, II., 1685) ; Id. to Hancock. July 28, 1775 (ib., 1745)- Trumbull to Schuyler and N. Y., July 24, 25 1775: ib., 1721, 1726. In N. Y. Cong., July 28: ib., 1807.)

Weeks passed. On August the twenty-first, Trumbull begged them to forward the tents ‘in the most speedy manner possible, the season being far advanced,’ and added: ‘ You are pleased to mention our remitting the money for them. You may rely that, if the expense is not seasonably defrayed by the Continental Congress, this Colonv will not fail of doing it though they have already, without grudging, advanced near £150,000, this currency. ‘ In reply, the authorities of New York reported that all the tents they had ‘and all the materials that could be procured’ had been forwarded with troops of their own. It looked unpromising for the Connecticut men in the rains and heavy dews. For some time Schuyler had been ‘trembling’ for them, anticipating ‘dreadful havoc’ as the consequence of exposure; but happily, after a little more delay, those polished Rip van Winkles awoke, rubbed their eyes, and did precisely what should have been done more than a month earlier: ordered sailcloth and duck purchased, workmen engaged, and the tents despatched in small lots as fast as completed. Slumber so profound has no memories ; and, on the first day of September, the Congress assured Schuyler, ‘We have lost no time in getting tents made. ‘ (13 – Trumbull to N. Y. Cong., Aug. 21, 1775 : 4 Force, III., 224. N. Y. Cong, to Trumbull, Aug. 25, 1775; ib., 432. Schuyler to N. Y. Cong., Aug. 23, 1775 : ib., 243. N. Y. Cong., Aug. 29; ib., 564. N. Y. Cong, to Schuyler, Sept. 1 : ib , 571 )

Hinman’s regiment numbered almost one thousand, and Easton’s nearly two hundred. In addition to these troops. Congress proposed that Schuyler should have only ‘ those called Green Mountain Boys’ and ‘ other men in the vicinity of Ticonderoga.’ Albany had set on foot the raising of four companies, and two hundred and five of these volunteers were on duty at Fort .George when Schuyler arrived there; but the Congress of the Colony stopped the enterprise. The tale of the Green Mountain Boys, though longer, had an equally unsatisfactory denouement. Ethan Allen burned to see his brave legion recognized in the service, with his own swinging sabre at the front, and begged as much of the very Colony that had set a price on hishead, as’ the first favor ‘ hehad ever asked of it. The favor was granted, and Schuyler issued the necessary orders at once for levying the proposed five hundred; but, as they were to form an independent corps and elect their own officers, ‘disputes and jealousies’ among themselves produced a deadlock. Finally, how- ever, ‘ the old farmers,’ as Allen styled them, got together in Dorset at the end of July, and by a nearly unanimous vote, leaving the colonelcy vacant, selected Seth Warner to command the regiment as the lieutenant-colonel, prob- ably deeming him a better military leader than Allen. But this did not raise the men, and Schuyler gave up all hopes of them for the present. (14 – Return of July 15 (4 Force, II., 1667):— Hinman: at Ti., 478; Or. Pt., 293; north end of Lake George, 98 ; Ft. George, 104=973 ; Easton: at Ti., 40 ; Or. Pt., 109; at Pt. George, 25=174 ; N. Y. troops at Ft. George, 205. Journ. Cong., Tune 23, 1775. Secret Journ. Cong., July i, 1775. N. Y. Cong, to Alb. Com,, June 7, 1775: 4 Force, II., 1280. Allen to N.Y. Cong., June 2, 1775: 4 Force, II., 891. N. Y. Cong., July 4, 1775: ib., 1336. Schuyler to Hancock, July 3, 21, 1775: ib., 1535, 1702. Allen to Trumbull, Aug. 3, 1775: 4 Force, III., 17. Vt. Hist. Soc. Coll., I., p. 9. Schuyler to Hancock, July 21, 1775: 4 Force, II., 1702.)

Massachusetts, with the British in Boston to look after, could do little elsewhere; but Connecticut, besides aiding at Cambridge and the lakes, had cheerfully sent Wooster’s command to help defend New York in case of need, and the Continental Congress finally despatched a thousand of these men up the Hudson, under Colonel Waterbury, to reinforce the northern army. (15 – Johnston, Record, p. 39. Schuyler to Cong., July 15, 1775 : Cont. Cong. Papers, 153, I., p. 37. Secret Journ. Cong., July 1, 17, 1775. Wooster to Hancock, July 22, 1775: Cont. Cong. Papers, 161, II., p. 249.)

Meanwhile, Schuyler had been looking at home for troops. About the time of his election as major-general. New York had voted to raise four regiments, and he called speedily for some of these. Soon after taking command at the lakes, he notified the Provincial Congress that he felt ‘very anxious to have the New York troops’ with him. About a week later, the pitch of his voice rose: ‘I do most, most earnestly entreat’ for soldiers. An- other week passed, and Ethan Allen reported, ‘No troops from New York, except some officers, are yet arrived.’ Eleven days more went by, and Hinman observed invidiously, ‘ The Province of New York abounds with officers, but I have not had my curiosity gratified by the sight of one private.’ Some of these troops had, however, appeared at Albany, though with empty powder-horns; and more were coming. August the eighth, four companies of the First New York regiment scrambled into the waiting sloops at Manhattan, under the nose of the British man-of-war Asia, for their inspiring voyage up the Hudson; and two weeks later, as the whip-poor-wills began their vespers, Lieutenant-Colonel Ritzema, leading their van, saluted at Ticonderoga. Yet so loosely had affairs been managed, that after more than a week of August had gone by. Captain H. B. Livingston, a very wide-awake officer, with his company almost full, had to inquire to what regiment he be- longed. (16 – N. Y. regts. : Mag. Am. Hist., 1881, p. 403. N. Y. Com. Safety, July 15, 1775: 4 Force, II., 1730. Schuyler to N. Y. Cong., July 21, 1775 ib., 1704. Id. to id., July 27, 1775: ib., 1735. Allen to Trumbull, Aug. 3, 1775: 4 Force, III., 17. Hinman to Trumbull, Aug. 14, 1775: ib.. 135. Montg., Albany, Aug. 10, 1775; ib., 80. At N. Y. and Ti. : Foxcroft to Todd, Aug. 10, 1775 (Can. Arch., Q, 11, p. 221) ; Ritzema, Journal, Aug. 8, 21. H. B. Liv. to N. Y. Cong., Aug. 8 4 Force, III., 67.)

And, after all, these men proved too often little more than a burden, for they came unprepared to fight.

‘ Our Troops can be of no service to you; they have no arms, clothes, blankets or ammunition; the officers no commissions; our Treasury no money; ourselves in’debt,’ the New York Committee of Safety had moaned. Common self-respect forbade Livingston’s company to march, for it had received ‘no hat, shirt, waistcoat, breeches, stockings or shoes,’ not to mention the trifle of weapons. Clinton advanced with six companies; but only three of them had arms in good order, and one had none at all. Lieutenant-Colonel Van Cortlandt arrived at Albany with four companies. Three of the four had no blankets; many of the men lacked ‘ shirts, shoes, stockings, underclothes’ ; they were, ‘in short, without anything fit for a soldier except a uniform coat; and not more than thirty guns, with four Companies, fit for service.’ Not one tent could be found for them, and there were no barracks. Lacking arms enough for a proper guard. Van Cortlandt had to keep them together, when on shore, with clubs and canes. But mostly they stayed penned up in the boats; and there they cried in desperation, ‘ Give us guns, blankets, tents, et cetera, and we will fight the devil himself; but don’t keep us here in market-boats, like a parcel of sheep or calves!’ As for money, the New York Congress had none, and Schuyler appealed to Connecticut for aid; but enough could not be got from any source. Van Cort- landt’s men clamored for ‘cash’ among other things; and for a long time H. B. Livingston drew from his own pocket all that he paid his men. (17 – N. Y. Com. Safety to Schuyler, July 15, 1775 : 4 Force, II., 1730. H. B. Liv to N Y. Cong.. Aug. 8, 10, 1775: 4 Force, III., 67, 79. Doubtless the men had something to wear, but nothing- fit to march in. Chnton ■ H. I.iv., Jr., to N Y. Cong., Aug., 2g, 1775 (ib., 452). Van C. to N. Y. Cong., Aug. 28, 1775; ib., 447. Schuyler to Hancock, June 30, 1775: 4 Force, II,, 1138.)

Without a doubt, shrewder planning and more activity could have saved no little precious time, — possibly a full month; yet assuredly some of the difficulties wore horns of no ordinary sharpness. Little powder, for example, could be found anywhere in the Colonies. For some time past, Orders in Council had prohibited the export of ‘Gunpowder, or any sort of Arms or Ammunition’ from Great Britain. Two weeks after the capture of Ticonderoga, the Albany Committee stated that the New Englanders had carried ofi almost every pound of powder that could be spared; yet the posts on the lakes were so poorly supplied that, when Congress awoke to the situation at the north, it had to beg ammunition of Philadelphia for them. ‘We are credibly informed,’ said Trumbull at the end of May, ‘that there are not five hundred pounds of powder in the city of New York,’ and at the middle of August that place was entirely destitute of so necessary an article. ‘For God’s sake,’ cried the New York Committee of Safety to the Delegates of the Colony at Philadelphia, ‘For God’s sake, send us money, send us arms, send us ammunition !’ (18 – Council: 4 Force, II., 277 : Dartmouth’s circular, Oct 19, 1774: Emmet Coll. Alb. Com., May 23, 1775: 4 Force, II., 841. Secret journ. Cong , June 26, 1775. Trumbull to Mass. Cong., May 2g, 1775: Journ. Mass. Cong., p. 709. N. Y. Cong, to Montg., Aug. 12, 1775: 4 Force, III., 529. N. Y. Com. Safety, July 15, 177s ; 4 Force, II., 1788.)

Meanwhile, the greatest exertions were made to supply the lack. In June, Congress urged the gathering of saltpetre and sulphur; and, besides appointing a committee to manufacture the former, explained to the public how it could best be made. In August, the Essex Gazette published a recipe for producing saltpetre; and the Earl of Effingham declared later in the British House of Lords that by this time ‘ a saltpetre work was become a necessary appendage to a farm.’ Franklin oEfered a plan, by which the sweepings of the streets and the rubbish of old buildings were to be ‘made into mortar, and built into walls, exposed to the air, and once in about two months scraped, and lixiviated, and evaporated.’ A bounty of three shillings a pound was offered by Rhode Island for any quantities produced in the Colony, and Robert R. Livingston set up a powder-mill at Rhinebeck on the Hudson, the last of June, with four mortars and a dozen ‘ pounders. ‘ For some time, Schuyler had a sort of monopoly of this establishment; but his needs outran all the sources of supply. (19 – Journ. Cong., June 24, 1775. Essex Gazette, Aug. 24, i775′ Earl: 4 Force, VI., 301. Franklin: 4 Force, II., 956. Bounty: 4 Force. III., 232. Rhinebeck: R. R. Liv. to N Y. Cong., June 26, 1775 (4 Force, II., 1106). Monopoly: N. Y. Cong, to R. R. Liv., Aug. 18, 1775 (4 Force, III., 535).

Arms gave almost as much trouble. ‘Badly, very badly armed, indeed,’ Schuyler described the men at the lakes generally; and no doubt it was trying to find guns of all varieties of bore, and many guns out of repair. Yet that was not so bad as to find no arms at all. (20 – Schuyler to Hancock, July 21, 1775 , 4 Force, II., 1702. Id. to N. Y. Cong., Aug. 23, 1775: 4 Force, III., 243.)

Early in July, the Congress of New York voted to convene all the blacksmiths in town, and ask whether they could produce gun-barrels, bayonets, and ramrods; and, further, to send across the ocean for ‘ four complete sets of Lock-Smiths to make Gun-Locks ‘ ; but, in spite of that heroic vote, it frankly admitted, five or six weeks later, ‘ Arms cannot be had here. ‘ Ten shillings were offered each soldier who would furnish himself with a suitable musket; but even this did not fill the void. Despairing of enough guns, Massachusetts decided to furnish ‘good Spears ‘ to her troops, and even to let the manufacturer work on them Sundays,— an appalling sign of urgency. Indeed, Colonel Porter received orders to go personally, ‘ procure a Scythe, and carry it to a Blacksmith to be fixed for a Spear’ in such a manner as he should think fit, and bring it before the Congress ‘when fixed’; while the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, after requesting Franklin to obtain the model of a pike, recommended that arm, on the authority of Marshal Saxe, for the double purpose of tent-pole and weapon. (21 – N. Y. Cong., July 6, 1775: 4 Force, 11., 1342. N. Y. Cong, to Montg., Aug. 12, 1775: 4 Force, III., 529. Bonus Fernow, N.Y., I., p. 17. Mass. Cong., June 19, 24, 1775; 4 Force, II., 1425, 1443. Pa. Com. Safety, July 6 ; Aug. 26, 1775: 4Force, II., 1771 ; III., 510.)

As Congress appointed a committee to search for lead ore, there was evidently no adequate stock of the metal in sight. Drums and fifes, armorers and armorers’ tools, broad-axes for hewing lumber, cartridge- paper and every sort of artillery stores, counted ia the list of wants. Roads and bridges needed constant repairs. ‘ The troops sicken alarmingly fast,’ reported Schuyler; a quarter of Easton’s regiment fell out; yet no hospital had been provided, nor even medicines. In fact. Dr. Church informed Samuel Adams in August that the drug stores of Massachusetts were empty ; and probably the neighboring Colonies had no better stocks. To transport the barrels of pork and flour all those muddy and rocky leagues through the wilderness — about sixty-five miles besides the water-carriage — was no slight labor. Still heavier were hogsheads of molasses ; yet spruce beer seemed essential to counteract the efiects of salt meat, and save the men from drinking the ill-reputed water ol Lake Champlain. The horses and oxen almost gave out, for a drought had ‘scorched up every kind of herbage.’ The stock of flour ran so low that Schuyler had to stop Waterbury’s regiment at Albany ‘ to prevent their starving ‘ ; quantities of the painfully won supplies were lost through carelessness on the road or wastefulness — mainly the result of inexperience — in distributing them; money became so scarce that the Albany committee put out a thousand pounds in paper on its own account ; and, in round terras, if any possible difficulty failed to be mentioned by some one, it was apparently by an oversight. (22 – Ore. : Secret Journ. Cong., July 31, 1775. Schuyler to N. Y. Cong., July 3, 27, 1775: 4 Force, II., 1536, 1735. Troubles: H. I,iv., 4 Force, III., 452 ; Schuyler, 4 Force, II., 1645, 1702, 1762, III., 17, 135 ; Hinman, 4 Force. II., 1538 ; S. Mott, 4 Force. III., 18 ; Church to S. Adams, Aug. 22, 1775. S. Adams Papers. Beer; Anburev. Travels, I,, p. 139. (See N. Y. Cong., June 29: 4 Force, II., 1332), Water: Truiribull, Autob., p. 28. )

War is the grand opera of nations, the supreme act of the State, the final result of special abilities, technical training, studious equipment, and elaborate organization; and it was now as if the good people of Beaver Meadow, hearing of the King’s intention to hunt there, should undertake to give Parsifal ou a week’s notice.

Under all these trials the men behaved as well as could reasonably have been expected. Schuyler felt disappointed that well-to-do and high-bred citizens did not compose the ranks; but he might have reflected that, no matter how glorious the cause of L,iberty, those who enjoyed a rough existence or could get nothing better to do were the persons most likely to present themselves. They were far from bad, however, as a whole. Quite a number of them felt inclined to swear occasionally; but, on the other hand, a Connecticut ofiicer ordered ‘the good & holsome Laws [against profanity] Put in Execution for the Futer,’ piously observing, ‘I dont see How any of us Can Expect y° Blessing of God when his Holy Name is so Often Prophan*?.’ Another forbade ‘all wrestling and gaming of every kind in camps ‘ ; and a soldier recorded with astonishment how, at a critical point, the teamsters drove all day ‘as if it had not been Sunday.’ Men could scarcely be heathenish under such conditions. But they did complain bitterly of what seemed needless hardships ; and, when Van Schaick reported that every- thing was lacking, it was only a corollary to add, as he did, that ‘scarce anything’ could be heard in the camp at Albany save ‘mutinies.’ Some deserted,— of course ; and certain unruly ones had to be given a taste of ‘Moses’ law, i. e., thirty-nine’ stripes, — but this also was to be expected. (23 – Journ. Capt’. Jos. Smith, Aug. 20. Barlow, Ord. Book, Aug. 27, Van Schaick to N. Y. Cong., Aug. 2g, 1775 : 4 Force. HI., 451. Desertions : Schuyler to N. y. Cong., Aug. 10, 1775 (ib., 177). Stripes; Letter, Aug. 25, 1775 (ib., 434.)

More serious was the outcropping of old Colonial jealousies. The Connecticut men ‘think they are not well used,’ wrote David Welsh to his Governor; for now they were looked after by a New York commissary, and he, instead of issuing the rations promised by the Connecticut Assembly, decided that bread and pork were enough. Nor did it end with that. ‘ Several of the companies have no brass kettles to this day,’ complained Welsh; ‘ Several companies have no frying-pans ‘ ; ‘ The rum that comes, as far as I have seen, is worse than none,’ — a temperance lecture malgre lui; ‘I think there has not been one pound of soap bought for the army ‘; ‘A small matter of coffee and chocolate’ and a little sugar for the sick, but none for ‘ them that can keep about ‘ ; scarcely any vinegar, ‘ and that, all said, not worth anything’; ‘And why all the places of profit should be filled with men in York Government, I don’t know, and our people be obliged to do all the drudgery. … Is it because we have no man capable of anything but drudgery? Sir, unless you or somebody else sees to it, I don’t think we shall have one hundred and fifty men here by the middle of September or October from New-York Government. The advantage of their situation is such that it will make them rich. Are we to be wholly ruled by the Committee of New-York ? Is it for their unfaithfulness in the common cause ? . . . One of our men will do as much as six of them.’ Over against which — no doubt equally fair — could be set Ritzema’s description of the New England troops as destitute of order or discipline, — ‘Milites Rustici indeed.’ (24 – Welsh, Aug. 5, 1775: 4 Force, III., 46. Conn, rations: Hinman, Conn., p. 165. Schuyler’s comments: letter to Hancock, July 21, 1775 (4 Force, II., 1702). Ritzema, Journal, Aug. 21.)

Another result of the Colonial regime seemed no less unfortunate. Schuyler gave it out in orders that all the Connecticut men should sign the Continental Articles of War, but found after a time that nothing of the sort had been done. The officers admitted that they had not urged the matter upon the soldiers, but explained that ‘they found it would raise a defection in their minds which would injure the cause.’ In short, the soldiers felt that instead of being freemen, volunteering to serve their Colony for a limited time but not ceasing to be sovereign citizens, they would find themselves, if they should sign for the Continent, involved in a service ‘the end of which was uncertain,’ and would be, ‘perhaps, on no better footing than that of Regulars,’— in other words, mere slaves and minions. For the same reason, they sniffed suspiciously at the plan to muster them in due military form; and the commander had to yield at all points. (25 – Bedford to Hancock, Aug. 30, 1775: 4 Force, III., 460. Trumbull to Schuyler, Sept. 29, 1775, and Hinman to Trumbull, Oct. 12, in Trumbull Papers. Conn. Hist. Soc.)

When Montgomery cited Schuyler’s consequence in the province as a ground for electing him to a high command, he added, ‘But has he strong nerves?’ By this time the General’s letters had begun to answer that question. Sometimes he wrote in the simple, straight- forward, sensible style that no doubt represented the genuine and untroubled man. Sometimes, even when there was not a moment to waste, the gilt buttons of the major-general almost hid the cloth: ‘ I am happy to learn I shall soon be furnished with that necessary article, without which every kind of business goes on not only tardily, but disadvantageously; I lament it was not in your power to afford me a larger supply of the still more necessary article in military operations,’ — in other words, he was pleased to know that some money was coming, but sorry as much could not be said of powder. Some- times, his temper broke down into petulance or even peevishness: ‘ If those [deserters who have] gone are like some that remain, we have gained by their going off ‘; ‘ without an artillery ofiicer it will be almost needless to have cannon.’ And once he wrote President Hancock what — in view of the orders given him by Congress — would have seemed a twofold impertinence from any one less thoroughly recognized as a gentleman: ‘If Congress should think it necessary to build vessels of equal or superiour force to those building at St. John’s, a number of good ship-carpenters should be immediately sent up; although this year they would be of no service but that of transporting troops, even if we had them here, on account of the want of powder. ‘ (26 – Montg. : Note 1. Schuyler’s letters of July 10, 1775 : 4 Force, II.,’ 1621 ; Aug. 10: 4 Force, III., 177; Aug. 2, ib., 11. Orders: Secret Journ. Cong., June 27,1775.)

Still, in spite of everything, the troops gathered. Most of them, turning their backs on rough but quaint and picturesque Albany, followed the Hudson, crossed and recrossed the diminishing stream, and marched briskly on through the shadows and odors of a wide pine belt. An opening suddenly revealed, then, a long, dark sheet of water in a setting of green mountains, and they hurried down about a mile of easy descent, passed the ground where Dieskau fell, shuddered in spirit over the horrors of Fort William Henry, glanced at Fort George, and embarked on a lake almost beautiful enough to console the first white man that saw it, poor Jogues, for the gauntlet and fire of the Iroquois. Here they gazed at the massive walls, verdure clad, that had ravished the eyes of Champlain, when he came up in his frail shallop and taught those same redmen the sound of a Frenchman’s gun; and, farther down, they wondered at the tremendous cliff where, as it was told, Rogers, the famous partisan, escaped from the Indians by a leap that none of them dared imitate. Some, if not all, passed a night on ‘ green feathers’ at Sabbath Day Point; and then, leaving Lake George, they traversed ground made pathetic b3′- ‘Mrs. Nabbecromby’s’ flight and Lord Howe’s fall, listened a moment to the roar of the Outlet, pondered sadly over the white bones of Abercrombie’s valiant soldiers, worthy of a better general, and, in a few minutes more, were marvelling at Old Ti. (27 – Carroll, journal, pp. 60-63. Schuyler to Hancock, Nov. 11, 1775: 4 Force, III., 1520. Jogues, Howe, Abercrombie; Parkman, Jesuits, p. 219 ; Montcalm, II., pp. 89, 115. Champlain : Thompson, Lake George, p. 8. Robbins. Journal, Apr. 21. Bones’ Vose, Journal, p. 8. )

Others, learning there were no boats for them on Lake George, lingered a little over the ruins and the memories of Fort Edward, and then, saying good-bye to their baggage and tents, pushed on by the right-hand trail for Wood Creek, with four days’ provisions in each haver- sack. The weather was often rainy, the path ‘ very wet and slippery, ‘ not one bridge the whole way, and only hemlock boughs for shelter; yet it all seemed nothing to ‘Americans engaged in so glorious a cause,’ as one of them phrased it. Near Skenesborough they saw where the Indians bound Putnam to the tree ; and one told another how the fire was actually kindled there to burn brave ‘ Old Put ‘ alive. And so they, too, arrived at the headquarters. One march over such ground was almost enough to make them veterans. (28 – Via Skenesborough : I,etters to N .Y. (4 Force, III., 433; 434) ; Parkman, Montcalm, I., p. 294; Trumbull, Journ., Aug. 10. No bridge; Trumbull, Autob., p. 26. Putnam, etc. : Vose, Journ., p. 7 ; Lossing, Field Book, 1., p. 140.)

Money, such as it was, now became plentiful, for Congress, besides forwarding one hundred thousand paper dollars to the northern army, authorized Schuyler to draw for two hundred thousand more, should they be necessary during its recess. Carpenters arrived at the very end of July; and the saws, nails, oakum, and pitch came at last. Axes gleamed and rang in the vast swaying arcades of the forest. Mighty giants of trees fell with a crash that banished the deer for miles around. Huge logs rolled into the Outlet, shot down the black current, whirled like straws in the rapids, flew end-over-end through the white falls, and finally assembled with elephantine gravity in the eddy below. The two little mills, each with one saw, twanged their nasal music up and down, purring in the clear wood or snarling at the knots; while the busy men flung now and then a loud halloo or a cheery bit of song into the echoing woods. Urged by Schuyler, the carpenters hammered and sawed from the rising to the going down of the sun, with but a scanty time for lunch; and so, little by little, two flat-bottomed vessels sixty feet long, and a fleet of bateaux with bottoms and garboard streaks of oak and sides of white fir, glided into the water. There was inspiration as well as good-fellowship in such a life. (29 – Journ. Cong., Aug. 1. W. Liv. to N. Y. Cong., July 29, 1775: 4 Force, II., 1753. Vessels, etc.: Schuyler to Franklin, Aug. 23, 1775 (4 Force, III., 242). Id. to Alb. Com., Nov. 2, 1775: ib , 1524. Bateaux: Id. to Hancock, Nov. 11, 1775 (ib., 1520); Kalm, Travels, III., p. 16.)

Little by little, too, the army got into harness. Schuyler’s judgment and patience might possibly nod or snap, but his activity and zeal never slept; and a wave of calm good cheer came over the hills to him in the counsel of Washington: ‘I am sure you will not let any difi&culties, not insuperable, damp your ardor. Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.’ Montgomery, who came up from Albany after a while and took charge of the details, had been a captain in the regular British army, and knew the campaigner whether his name began with Tommy or with Jonathan. ‘ Good soldiers,’ he announced, would be ‘ cherished with the fond attention of an indulgent Parent,’ but ‘ the vicious, the disorderly and the disobedient’ would in due course be visited with deserved punishment. ‘Men having shown their reluctance in the Department wherein they may [be] usefull,’ it was given out in orders, ‘ the Commanding officer of that Reg’ will take Care that they do not go on the Expedition, as it is much suspected they have entered into the Service from mercenary views [rather] than from a generous Zeal for the Glorious Cause of America.’ (30 – Wash., Aug. 20, 1775: Writings (Ford), III., p. 86. Montg., Gen. Orders, July 19, 1775 ; MS. in the possession of Miss Sarah W. Adam ; Montg. ‘s Orderly Book, Aug. 24; Lib. of Cong. Remark XII.)

By the twentj’-fifth of August, a New Yorker felt able to report, very possibly with a friendly bias, that the men were ‘under as strict a discipline as any of the Regulars.’ With ‘the greatest plenty of salt and fresh provisions,’ ‘a gill of rum and as much spruce beer as they could drink every day,’ they could look forward cheerfully to ‘a smart brush’ with the red coats. At noon, when the hot August sun poured his drowsy beams upon the camps, the breeze from the lake drew softly over them; and at evening the air of the forest, laden with cool woodland odors, crept down from the hills to visit and refresh the tents. It was a rough yet pleasant schooling for something verj’ different, and the soldiers grew more and more confident. ‘As for my own part,’ wrote an ofllcer, ‘there is nothing gives me the least uneasiness.’ (31 – Letter to N. Y., Aug. 25 : Boston Gazette. Sept. 25, 1775. Remark XIII.)

Meanwhile the great issues— the security of the Colonies and the destiny of America — sharpened the call for their valor. On the fourth of July, the city of I,ondon directed its representatives in Parliament to demand, ‘Who are the advisers of those fatal measures which have planted Popery and arbitrary power in America ? ‘ but only to meet with another rebuff. Two days later, the Continental Congress really, though as yet unconsciously, decreed American independence by a Declaration ‘ setting forth the causes and necessity ‘ of taking up arms, one count in which was the ‘ certain intelligence,’ that Governor Carleton intended to fall upon the Colonies with Canadians and Indians, if he could persuade them to it. Another two days passed, and the Congress assured the people of Great Britain that ‘the powers vested in the governor of Canada gave us reason to apprehend danger from that quarter, and we had frequent intimations that a cruel and savage enemy was to be let loose upon the defenceless inhabitants of our frontiers.’ Within three weeks more, an appeal to the warm-hearted people of Ireland revealed again the fears and the determination of the Colonies. On the other side, the King’s face grew each day harder, and the plans of his government less pacific. (32 – London : 4 Force, II., 1072. Journ. Cong., July 6, 8, 28.)

Every motive urging the patriots to action was intensified; and on Lake Champlain to act was to advance. Time had been lost; but that signified now only the greater need of despatch. Equipment still lagged; but that only meant now that resolution and energy should make up the want. ‘When the sword is short, we take one step forward,’ said Hoche.

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