This week in Revolutionary War history, let’s check up on what was going on 250 years ago in the early United States. Last week, the British encroached on American positions outside New York, and the Americans kept falling back toward White Plains. The Continental Army put up a good defense, but outnumbered, outgunned and undersupplied, their chances seemed to be diminishing as the British made camp two miles outside General George Washington’s new headquarters.
On October 25, 1776, battered Americans had no time to fortify their new positions in White Plains following their withdrawal from Manhattan before the British already came upon them. Washington’s General Orders urge caution and discipline in their patrolling, as he struggles to find a way to bolster defenses. Lieutenant Colonel Robert Hanson Harrison of Maryland, who is also Washington’s military secretary, writes to President John Hancock, saying, “The whole of our army is now here and on the neighboring heights — our removal and that of the stores, have been attended with a great deal of trouble, owing to the scarcity and difficulty of procuring wagons; however, they are nearly effected and without any loss.”
He adds that the army is busy defending the main passes, likely why he writes rather than the general. The Americans now wait for an imminent battle, one which will decide the fate of winter ahead and, seemingly, the fate of the new republic.
The next day, 70-year-old Benjamin Franklin sets sail from Philadelphia aboard the USS Reprisal on his important emissary voyage to France. His mission: secure military and economic assistance from King Louis XVI. The mission will not be an easy one. Though France feels jubilation at the British imperial ambitions staggering, it requires some convincing to get involved. Franklin’s journey is the pushing of a domino that will both secure America’s future and set the world alight.
The battle on October 28 would be a short one. The roughly 3,000 Americans under Washington are outnumbered 2-to-1. Skirmishes erupt on the outskirts of White Plains, with the Americans falling back up Chatterton Hill. The British and Hessians push hard, led by Johann Rall of Hesse-Cassel, not sacrificing their advantage. Eventually, outflanked to their right, the American line disintegrates. Upwards of 500 Americans are killed and many more captured. Washington retreats north, blanketed by sudden rains and (luckily, again) heavy fog.
Alexander Hamilton serves in this army as the Captain of the New York Provincial Company of Artillery, whose guns are later famous for raining down fire from above, though contemporary reports show the army’s quick retreat means the American artillery may not have even been fired.
The day following the battle, Lieutenant Colonel Harrison again writes to Hancock, describing the battle that has befallen them, saying, “The situation of our affairs not permitting his excellency to write himself, I have it in charge to inform you, that on yesterday morning about ten o’clock the enemy appeared in several large columns in our front.” He describes the British flanking of the American forces and their retreat. He ends the letter, saying, “The enemy coming on so suddenly has distressed us much. They are now close at hand, and most probably will in a little time commence their second attack — we expect it every hour perhaps it is beginning I have just heard the report of some cannon.”
From the White Plains HQ, increasingly surrounded, the Americans collect themselves and assess their diminishing options.
On October 31, King George III addresses Parliament for the first time since the Declaration of Independence spread across the world. He says, “Nothing could have afforded me so much satisfaction as to have been able to inform you, at the opening of this session, that the troubles, which have so long distracted my colonies in North America, were at an end; and that my unhappy people, recovered from their delusion, had delivered themselves from the oppression of their leaders, and returned to their duty: but so daring and desperate is the spirit of those leaders, whose object has always been dominion and power, that they have now openly renounced all allegiance to the crown.”
He finishes his address by reaffirming his desire to reclaim America, saying, “No people ever enjoyed more happiness, or lived under a milder government, than those now revolted provinces: the improvements in every art, of which they boast, declare it; their numbers, their wealth, their strength by sea and land, which they think sufficient to enable them to make head against the whole power of the mother-country, are irrefragable proofs of it. My desire is to restore to them the blessings of law and liberty, equally enjoyed by every British subject, which they have fatally and desperately exchanged for all the calamities of war, and the arbitrary tyranny of their chiefs.”
It is around this time that Thomas Paine was writing the first volume of The American Crisis, where he would say, “These are the times that try men’s souls.”
This Week in Revolutionary War History
By Sam Bishop