vidences which enliven the prospects of publick affairs. I am very respectfully, Dr Sir, yr most obt and very hume servt, DANIEL ROBERDEAU. 683. WILLIAM WILLIAMS TO THE GOVERNOR OF CONNECTICUT (JONATHAN TRUMBULL).1 Hond Sir 2 YORK TOWN Octo. 11th, 1777 Congress have been some Days engaged on the Confederation Plan, and have decided the great Question in favor of each States having one Vote tho greatly opposed by a number, and to the great dissatisfaction of Virginnia, and are now upon the mode and proportion of contribution. sundry plans are proposed, that of numbers is very strongly and forceably opposed, and the appearance is at present against it but I do not much expect we shall be able to find one attended with so few Exceptions or more equitable, tho I am certain this is far from perfect.3. . Sir 684. ELIPHALET DYER TO JOHN SULLIVAN.1 YORK TOWN, Octobr 11th 1777 I had the pleasure of hearing your letter read in Congress yesterday I was pleased with your manly Justification and Appeal, but as I had often rise[n] in Congress for your Vindication against the Unjust and Malign Calumny of your Enemies, (which every good brave spirited and Virtuous man will have) I could not bare after you had often braved and defyed every danger from the Enemies of your Country you should prove a Coward when attacked by your personal ones of your own Country; sink under unjust reproach, and submit to the servile humiliating Terms of your Cruel foes, who have Attackd you with the poisonous darts of Calumny in order to effect the very purpose of your quitting the Army which in the Close of your letter you tamely yield to them. Sir, you that have braved every danger for the sake of your Country: are you afraid of the reproach of your dastardly foes who by and by if you boldly attack them and maintain your ground which you are well able to do must servilely hide themselves behind the Curtain and sink under your Superior Merit. Sir you are not alone, you have friends enough in Congress and among your Countrymen who dare, and will support you against all their Malice and Envy which has allready recoild in a great measure on their own heads and must soon terminate I dare say in their own Confusion. if you will only maintain your ground and boldly disdain to leave the field to the Triumph of your Enemies, all their Attacks [683] Hist. Soc. of Pa., Conarroe Coll., I. 15. 2 See the Journals, Oct. 7, and nos. 680, 681, ante. 3 See the Journals, Oct. 8-11, 13, 14; cf. nos. 680, 681, ante, and nos. 701, 712, 723, [684] Haverford College, Roberts Coll., 722. 749, post. will only tend to Illustrate your carracter and make your Virtues displayd in the Cause of your Country more and more Conspicuous. if I had time and it was proper in the way of a letter I could give you a satisfactory account how your Enemies prevailed to Induce Congress to come into those hasty resolves which touch you so terribly I know you must feel them and you ought to some of your friends I think yeilded too much and believe they thot for the publick good. Sch-ler and St-C-r2 were continually brot on the stage, and no one but a N E-d man could satisfye their resentments, and to have taken one of a low Carracter, would not answer their purpose. Wherefore as they were to be brot to a Court of Enquiry so must you, as they must be recalled till an Enquiry could be had, so must you or our Conduct must be deemed partial. this had an unhappy effect on some unwarry, and incautious the bate took, it catched in an unlucky hour, or I may say moment, and was as soon repented of by some. they were brot to their senses before the Genll letter come but that put it in their power to reverse the sudden decree * a Court of Enquiry I dare say will Terminate much more to your honor than if your friend could have avoided it. but Sir Never Yield to the Enemies of your Country nor to the Malignity of your personal foes till, Providence, which I trust if you Continue and persevere in Virtue and the glorious cause in which your Engaged will give you a Compleat Victory over both, or if you must dye boldly die a martyr and not with the reproach of a suicide Am as ever have been your sincere friend and with much esteem [P. S.] they begin to repent. Persevere. ELIPHT DYER a short line from you would be very acceptable and gratefully recievd. Majr Genll Sullivan 685. THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS (JOHN HANCOCK) TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.1 YORK TOWN: PENNSYLVANIA Sir, The Information that the Enemy have at different Times compelled our Troops who are Prisoners with them to labour, and that a Number are at this Time actually engaged in throwing up some Works at and near Kengsington, is of such a Nature that Congress think it incumbent on them to enquire into the Truth of it. They have therefore 2 Schuyler and St. Clair. 3 New England. 4 Dyer begins with a reference to the proceedings, Oct. 10, upon Sullivan's letter of Sept. 27, but the latter part of his letter relates to earlier stages of the attack on Sullivan. See the Journals, Sept. 9 (p. 727 n.), 10, 14, 16, Oct. 10, 16, 20, and nos. 645, 647, 681, ante, 686, 702, post. 1685] Library of Congress, Letters to Washington, XCI. 77; Letters to Washington (ed. Sparks), II. 3. directed that a Flag be immediately dispatched to Genl. Howe to know whether there is any Foundation for the Report; and I am to request you will send a Flag for this Purpose as soon as you conveniently can.2 Sir, 686. THOMAS BURKE TO JOHN SULLIVAN.1 YORK Oct. 12, 1777. I was present at the action of Brandywine and saw and heard enough to convince me that the fortune of the day was injured by miscarriages where you commanded 2 I understood you were several days posted with the command on the right wing; that you were cautioned by the Commander in Chief early in the day to be particularly attentive to the enemy's motions, who, he supposed would attempt to cross higher up the creek and attack your flank; that you were furnished with proper troops for reconnoitering, and yet you were so ill informed of the enemy's motions, that they came up at a time and by a route which you did not expect; that you conveyed intelligence to the Commander in Chief which occasioned his countermanding the dispositions he had made for encountering them on the rout by which it afterwards appeared they were actually advancing: That when at length the mistake was discovered you brought up your own Division by an unnecessary circuit of two miles, and in the greatest disorder, from which they never recovered, but fled from the fire of the enemy without resistance. That the miscarriages on that wing made it necessary to draw off a great part of the strength from the centre, which exposed Gen. Wayne to the superiority of the enemy. I heard officers in the field lamenting in the bitterest terms that they were cursed with such a commander; and I overheard numbers during the retreat complain of you as an officer whose evil conduct was forever productive of misfortunes to the army. From these facts I concluded that your duty as a General was not well performed, otherwise the enemy's motions on the wing where you commanded would not have been unknown to you during a great part of the day of action; nor could they have advanced by an unknown and unexpected rout, for you ought to have made yourself well acquainted with the ground. Nor would you have brought up your troops by an unnecessary circuit and in disorder, which exposed them to be surprised and broken. I also concluded that the troops under your command had no confidence in your conduct, and from the many accounts I had officially received of your miscarriages I conceived and am still possessed of an opinion that you have not sufficient talents for your rank and office, tho' I believe you 2 The resolve referred to, passed Oct. 11, stands erased in the Journals and is marked false intelligence". [686] Library of Congress, Force Trans., Sullivan Papers, p. 183; Harvard Univ. Lib., Sparks MSS., XX. 338. 2 See nos. 645, 647, 681, 684, ante, and no. 702, post. have strong dispositions to discharge your duty well. I consider it as one essential part of my duty to attend to the appointments of the army and where I perceive that any person so unqualified as I deem you to be, has got into a command where incompetence may be productive of disasters and disgrace, it is my duty to endeavour at removing him. In discharge of this I gave to Congress all the information I was able, carefully distinguishing what I saw, what I heard, and from whom as far as I was acquainted with persons I urged your recal with all the force I could, and thought it and still do think it necessary for the public good: because in all your enterprises and in every part of your conduct, even as represented by yourself, you seem to be void of judgment and foresight in concerting, of deliberate vigour in executing, and of presence of mind under accidents and emergences; and from these defects seem to me to arise your repeated ill success. These seem to me to form the great essentials of a military character. Nor do I think you the only officer in our army who is deficient in them. Nor were my endeavours to free the army from insufficient officers intended to be confined to you. I scarcely know your person, and was not conscious of any injury from you. For a particular reason I should have had great pleasure in justly forming a better opinion of you; but no reason can induce me to overlook the defects of officers on whom so much depends. Nor will any thing deter me from pursuing the measures suggested by my own judgment. I have now related every thing which I acted, with relation to you in Congress, together with my motives. I have set down every intelligence, and the opinion I gave concerning you. What hills you struggled for, what fires you sustained, I neither saw or heard of. Your personal courage I meddled not with. I had no knowledge of it and I was cautious to say nothing unjust or unnecessary. My objection to you is, want of sufficient talents, and I consider it as your misfortune, not fault. It is my duty as far as I can, to prevent its being the misfortune of my country. The purpose of this information is that you may indubitably know I gave Congress all the intelligence and opinions concerning you here set down; and then to ask you in direct terms if you meant the disrespectful expressions in your late letter to Congress on the subject of your conduct at Brandywine, to be applied to me? If you did sir, I must inform you, you are mistaken in the matter contained in those expressions. My demeanour was entirely devoid of parade and ostentation and entirely simple and attentive. I did not gallop my horse at all but when I attempted to rally some of your flying troops. The manner of those expressions, which I suppose you meant for wit and sarcasm, is as unbecoming the soldier as the gentleman, and inconsistent with that plain and dignified simplicity which ought to be the stile of persons in either rank. Were quaint witticisms my talent I should not [remainder missing].3 3 Sullivan's reply is in the Sparks MSS., XX. 342, and in Force Transcripts, Sullivan Papers, p. 185. See also McDougall to Sullivan, May 22, 1781, ibid., p. 248. 1 687. DANIEL ROBERDEAU TO THE PRESIDENT OF PENNSYLVANIA (THOMAS WHARTON, JR.).1 Dr. Sir. 2 YORK TOWN Octr. 14th. 1777 Your Letter for Genl. Gates waits an Express which I expect will go for the Northern Department in a day or two. . . . . I forgot to mention that Indian Affairs both North and South, are in the most promising train, and Colo. Morgans account now here, is no ways discouraging to the westward. Thro the medium of Congress a Rattletrap and Turkeys Tail was sent by numerous tribes at the Southward to their Brethren to the Northward, and Genl. Schyler informs that 140 had joined our Army and that many more were expected and what is more flattering that a number of the Tribe of St Francis had desired protection to their families, and liberty to remove to Connecticut. Some of the principle Articles of Confideration have passed, and I expect it will be finished in a few days, knowing this also is necessary to our Salvation.. 688. THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS (JOHN HANCOCK) TO Sir, YORK TOWN: PENNSYLVANIA October 14th. 1777. I have ordered one Thousand Copies of the Resolves relative to putting a Stop to any Intercourse between the Enemy in Philada. and the disaffected among us, to be printed at Lancaster, and to be forwarded thence to you for the Use of the Army.2. My Dear Son 1 689. HENRY LAURENS TO JOHN LAURENS.1 YORK TOWN 16 October 1777 I am writing in Congress and in the midst of much talk (not regular Congress) buz!" says one "I would if I had been Comm' of that Army with such powers have procured all the necessaries which are said to be wanted without such whining Complaints." "I would says 2d. have prevented the amazing desertions which have happened it only wants proper attentions at fountain head" 3d. It is very easy too to prevent intercourses between the Army and the Enemy and as easy to gain Intelligence but we never mind who comes in and who goes out of our Camp." [687]1 Haverford College, Roberts Coll., 724; Pa. Arch., first ser., V. 670. 2 A letter from Morgan was read in Congress Oct. 14. 3 See no. 679, note 4, ante. [688]1 Library of Congress, Letters to Washington, XCI. 82. 2 The resolves were passed Oct. 8. [689]1 S. C. Hist. Soc., John Laurens Papers. 2 The word is probably used to indicate the general buzz of conversation. It may, however, be the interjection buzz!, coming from the mouth of speaker number one. |