To Try Men's Souls - George Washington 1 (46 page)

“Are you certain?” Washington asked intensely.

“That is it, sir,” the surgeon announced gravely.

“This is indeed a wonder.”

The surgeon said nothing, head lowered.

“Sir, I wish I could say the same for the days ahead. A hundred, perhaps two hundred or more are so gravely ill that today’s exertions will surely lay them in their graves.”

“What?”

“Sir, exhaustion, dysentery, consumption, exposure. A hundred, perhaps two hundred, will die within days as a result of what happened this day.”

Washington did not reply. Could not reply.

“Are you certain of that?”

“I am sorry, sir. But this army is worn out. Disease, exposure. Even such a simple thing as want of shoes can be as deadly as any enemy bullet.”

He nodded silently, his sense of elation now damped.

“I felt you should know.”

“It was your duty to report this,” Washington replied sadly.

“Yes, sir.”

The surgeon turned as if to leave, hesitated, then reached into his jacket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper.

“Sir, I feel compelled to give this to you.”

“What is it?”

“That boy, sir. The one you ordered to be brought directly to me.”

“Yes?”

“Do you know his name?”

He stood there, unable to reply, and then wearily shook his head.

“I am sorry, I do not.”

“Sir, he asked that I give this to you.”

The surgeon held out the balled-up piece of paper.

Washington could not reply, taking it. It was sodden, wet.

“Go on with your report.”

“Sir.” The surgeon hesitated.

“Go on.”

“He died an hour ago. Severe consumption and exposure, sir. I felt you should know.”

“Did you get his name?” Washington asked woodenly.

“No, sir.”

“I see.”

“Before he died, the boy asked that I give this to you. ‘General Washington, please ask him,’ the boy said.”

The surgeon hesitated, obviously filled with emotion.

“Sir. He pressed the paper into my hand and then just slipped away. Sorry, sir, but he was far beyond hope even when he was brought to me. He never should have joined the march last night.”

Washington could not speak.

“I’m sorry, sir. Felt I should honor his wishes by giving you this.”

“Of course,” Washington whispered softly.

“Anything else, sir?”

General George Washington could not reply.

“I’ll have a full written report by morning, sir,” the surgeon said. “And pray there shall be no more fighting for a long time to come.”

Washington looked over at him and sighed. “That, my good man, is a prayer I fear shall not be answered. The fighting has only just begun.”

The surgeon, nodded his understanding and left, disappearing into the shadows.

Billy Lee stood silent beside him, torch in hand.

George Washington opened the paper given to him by the surgeon.

He held it up close. Of late his eyes were beginning to grow weak, a failing that only Billy Lee knew of, so far.

He held the paper close, Billy Lee by his side, gazing down as well.

“These are the times that try men’s souls . . . ,” he read aloud. Ever so gently General George Washington folded the paper up and slipped it into his pocket.

He looked to Billy Lee and nodded. The man who had been his companion for so many years understanding the gesture, lowered the torch and drew away, but not so far that he could not see.

Alone, in the dark . . . he knelt in the snow and ice. With head bowed General George Washington, commander of the armies of these United States of America, began to pray.

These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it
NOW
, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly:——’Tis dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to set a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as F
REEDOM
should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared, that she has a right [
not only to
TAX
] but “
to
BIND
us in
ALL CASES WHATSOEVER
,” and if being
bound in that manner
is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious, for so unlimited a power can belong only to G
OD
.

Whether the Independence of the Continent was declared too soon, or delayed too long, I will not now enter into as an argument; my own simple opinion is, that had it been eight months earlier, it would have been much better. We did not make a proper use of last winter, neither could we, while we were in a dependent state. However, the fault, if it were one, was all our own; we have none to blame but ourselves. But no great deal is lost yet; all that Howe has been doing for this month past is rather a ravage than a conquest, which the spirit of the Jersies, a year ago would have quickly repulsed, and which time and a little resolution will soon recover.

I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that G
OD
almighty will not give up a people to military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have so earnestly and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by every decent method which wisdom could invent. Neither have I so much of the infidel in me, as to suppose, that H
E
has relinquished the government of the world, and given us up to the care of devils; and as I do not, I cannot see on what grounds the king of Britain can look up to heaven for help against us. A common murderer, a highwayman, or a housebreaker, has as good a pretence as he.

’Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country. All nations and ages have been subject to them: Britain has trembled like an ague at the report of a French fleet of flat bottomed boats; and in the fourteenth century the whole English army, after ravaging the kingdom of France, was driven back like men petrified with fear; and this brave exploit was performed by a few broken forces collected and headed by a woman, Joan of Arc. Would, that Heaven might inspire some Jersey maid to spirit up her countrymen, and save her fair fellow-sufferers from ravage and ravishment! Yet panics, in some cases, have their uses; they produce as much good as hurt. Their duration is always short; the mind soon grows thro’ them, and acquires a firmer habit than before. But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain for ever undiscovered. In fact, they have the same effect on secret traitors, which an imaginary apparition would have upon a private murderer. They sift out the hidden thoughts of man, and hold them up in public to the world. Many a disguised Tory has
lately shown his head, that shall penitentially solemnize with curses the day on which Howe arrived upon the Delaware.

As I was with the troops at Fort Lee, and marched with them to the edge of Pennsylvania, I am well acquainted with many circumstances, which those, who live at a distance, know but little or nothing of. Our situation there was exceedingly cramped, the place being on a narrow neck of land between the North river and the Hackensack. Our force was inconsiderable, being not one fourth so great as Howe could bring against us. We had no army at hand to have relieved the garrison, had we shut ourselves up and stood on the defence. Our ammunition, light artillery, and the best part of our stores, had been removed upon the apprehension that Howe would endeavor to penetrate the Jersies, in which case Fort Lee could be of no use to us; for it must occur to every thinking man, whether in the army or not, that these kind of field forts are only for temporary purposes, and last in use no longer than the enemy directs his force against the particular object, which such forts are raised to defend. Such was our situation and condition at Fort Lee on the morning of the 20th of November, when an officer arrived with information, that the enemy with 200 boats had landed about seven or eight miles above: Major General Green, who commanded the garrison, immediately ordered them under arms, and sent express to his Excellency General Washington at the town of Hackensack, distant by the way of the ferry six miles. Our first object was to secure the bridge over the Hackensack, which laid up the river between the enemy and us, about six miles from us and three from them. General Washington arrived in about three quarters of an hour, and marched at the head of the troops towards the bridge, which place I expected we should have a brush for; however, they did not chuse to dispute it with us, and the greatest part of our troops went over the bridge, the rest over the ferry, except some which passed at a mill on a small creek, between the bridge and the ferry, and made their way through some marshy grounds up to the town of Hackensack, and there passed the river. We brought off as much baggage as the wagons
could contain, the rest was lost. The simple object was to bring off the garrison, and march them on till they could be strengthened by the Jersey or Pennsylvania militia, so as to be enabled to make a stand. We staid four days at Newark, collected in our out-posts with some of the Jersey militia, and marched out twice to meet the enemy on information of their being advancing, though our numbers were greatly inferiour to theirs. Howe, in my little opinion, committed a great error in generalship, in not throwing a body of forces off from Staaten Island through Amboy, by which means he might have seized all our stores at Brunswick, and intercepted our march into Pennsylvania. But, if we believe the power of hell to be limited, we must likewise believe that their agents are under some providential control.

I shall not now attempt to give all the particulars of our retreat to the Delaware; suffice it for the present to say, that both officers and men, though greatly harassed and fatigued, frequently without rest, covering, or provision, the inevitable consequences of a long retreat, bore it with a manly and martial spirit. All their wishes were one, which was, that the country would turn out and help them to drive the enemy back. Voltaire has remarked, that king William never appeared to full advantage but in difficulties and in action; the same remark may be made on General Washington, for the character fits him. There is a natural firmness in some minds which cannot be unlocked by triffles, but which, when unlocked, discovers a cabinet of fortitude; and I reckon it among those kind of public blessings, which we do not immediately see, that G
OD
hath blest him with uninterrupted health, and given him a mind that can even flourish upon care.

I shall conclude this paper with some miscellaneous remarks on the state of our affairs; and shall begin with asking the following question, Why is it that the enemy have left the New-England provinces, and made these middle ones the seat of war? The answer is easy: New England is not infested with Tories, and we are. I have been tender in raising the cry against these men, and used numberless
arguments to shew them their danger, but it will not do to sacrifice a world to either their folly or their baseness. The period is now arrived, in which either they or we must change our sentiments, or one or both must fall. And what is a Tory? Good God! what is he? I should not be afraid to go with an hundred Whigs against a thousand Tories, were they to attempt to get into arms. Every Tory is a coward, for servile, slavish, self-interested fear is the foundation of Toryism; and a man under such influence, though he may be cruel, never can be brave.

But, before the line of irrecoverable seperation be drawn between us, let us reason the matter together: Your conduct is an invitation to the enemy, yet not one in a thousand of you has heart enough to join him. Howe is as much deceived by you as the American cause is injured by you. He expects you will all take up arms, and flock to his standard with muskets on your shoulders. Your opinions are of no use to him, unless you support him personally, for ’tis soldiers, and not Tories, that he wants.

I once felt all that kind of anger, which a man ought to feel, against the mean principles that are held by the Tories: A noted one, who kept a tavern at Amboy, was standing at his door, with as pretty a child in his hand, about eight or nine years old, as most I ever saw, and after speaking his mind as freely as he thought was prudent, finished with this unfatherly expression, “
Well! Give me peace in my day
.” Not a man lives on the Continent but fully believes that a seperation must some time or other finally take place, and a generous parent would have said, “
If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace;
” and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty. Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them. A man can easily distinguish in himself between temper and principle, and I am as confident, as I am that G
OD
governs the world, that America will never be happy till she gets clear of foreign dominion.
Wars, without ceasing, will break out till that period arrives, and the Continent must in the end be conqueror; for though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.