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HOWE'S CHANGE OF PLAN

727 the Americans could move made it very difficult to force on Washington the indispensable general action.

It was partly because he believed Washington would risk a pitched battle for Philadelphia1 that Howe wished to make his main effort against that city, but neither Philadelphia nor New York nor Boston was of such vital importance economically or politically as to warrant the colonists staking their all for its retention. An agricultural population, scattered over a wide expanse with indifferent communications, was not to be touched by capturing cities, as the British were to find in very similar circumstances in South Africa between 1900 and 1902. The problem before the British generals strikingly resembles that which Napoleon's marshals faced in the Peninsula thirty years later when to defeat Spanish regulars in pitched battles was child's play, but the elusive and irrepressible guerrillas offered a determined and effective opposition impervious to normal forms of pressure. In America it was not the "continental" troops who were the dangerous enemy, but the irregulars who swarmed round the British encampments, impeding the collection of supplies and raiding isolated posts. They scattered directly a push was made against them, posed as peaceful farmers if the British occupied their district in force, but took arms again whenever they moved on. As in Spain between 1808 and 1813, a conquered district only remained quiescent while effectively occupied, and the size of the colonies made their effective occupation even more impracticable than that of Spain, while the British commanders never disposed of a fifth of the French force in the Peninsula.

A long pause followed Trenton. Howe endeavoured, not without success, to increase his force by recruiting Loyalists, over a dozen corps being raised. Minor operations were frequent and the British gained many successes. In April, for example, Cornwallis surprised a post at Boundsbrook, killing and taking 120 enemy with only seven casualties, while Tryon, the ex-Governor of New York, despite vigorous opposition, successfully raided an important depôt at Danbury. Still this minor warfare gave the Americans experience, inured them to war and cost the British more than a pitched battle.1 But the main interest of the period lies in the despatches which were passing between America and Whitehall. Howe's letter of 30 November reached Germain on 30 December, that of 20 December with its all-important change of plan was twice as long in transit and only arrived on 23 February.5 For the original plan Howe had demanded 35,000 men, exclusive of those in Canada, and to complete that number he needed 15,000 reinforcements. Germain, while declaring that he could provide barely half this number, apparently assumed 1 Howe's speech of 22 April 1779; Parl. Hist. xx, 692. *Corresp. of George III, III, 441.

3 N.R.S. xx, 143; Howe to Germain, 22 May, C.O. v, 94.
4 Stuart, p. 102.

Stopford-Sackville MSS, п, 32.

that the balance could be found by recruiting Loyalists and then, despite Howe's letter of 20 December, drew up a detailed plan for the force from Canada which Burgoyne was to command. This assumed definitely that Burgoyne's main object was to unite with Howe, and the letter of 26 March, which communicated it to Carleton, spoke definitely of Burgoyne's placing himself under Howe's orders on reaching Albany. Yet three weeks earlier Germain had written to Howe approving of the changes proposed in his letter of 20 December.1

The scheme for the advance from Canada was partly Burgoyne's. He had returned to England on winter leave and had urged upon Germain that the main body should move by Lake George or Skenesborough to the Hudson while a small column advanced from Oswego down the Mohawk River as a diversion. The plan looked better on a small scale map than on the ground, where the practical difficulties of traversing the almost trackless forests were more obvious than at Whitehall. But Burgoyne had served in Canada, if Germain had not, and he should have appreciated the obstacles better, even if he may be excused for not realising how formidable the New England militia would prove in their native woods. Still the physical difficulties, though enormous, were not insuperable, and, had the original plan been followed, the line of the Hudson might have been secured. Howe cannot by pleading ignorance of Burgoyne's instructions avoid responsibility for leaving the force from Canada to advance unsupported, for on 24 May he had received from Whitehall a copy of Carleton's orders, though Germain would have neglected to send it had not his subordinates taken steps to secure its despatch.2 At that moment Howe had already decided to attack Philadelphia by sea, but he was still at New York and could have changed his plans and proceeded up the Hudson. He continued his preparations, however, unmoved, apparently absolving himself of responsibility by the thought that he had already (5 April) written to acquaint Carleton with his intentions and warn him that he could not do much to assist Burgoyne, though he would "endeavour to have a corps on the lower part of Hudson's River sufficient to open the communications by shipping through the Highlands...which corps may afterwards act in favour of the Northern Army". Germain, replying on 18 May3 to Howe's letter of 2 April, approved the proposed move by sea, but added that he hoped whatever Howe "meditated against Philadelphia" might be executed in time for him "to co-operate with the army ordered to proceed from Canada", a suggestion which betrays conclusively Germain's inability to grasp the bearing of Howe's proposals and displays his limitations as a practical strategist. Actually July came before Howe was off to Philadelphia. His • Knox MSS, p. 276.

1 Stopford-Sackville MSS, 11, 50-60.
3 C.O. V, 94.

HOWE'S MOVE AGAINST PHILADELPHIA

729 start had been delayed by difficulties in providing transport and by want of camp equipment which only arrived at the end of May.1 Before sailing he had advanced (12 June) towards Quibbletown, hoping that Washington might fight, but the Americans would not abandon their defensive, and Howe, thinking their position too strong to attack, withdrew towards Amboy. The move lured Washington from the security of his hills, and Howe, turning about, marched rapidly back in hopes of a battle. He narrowly missed success: Cornwallis routed Stirling's division, taking three guns, but Washington managed to evade an outflanking movement and the great heat soon forced Howe to abandon the pursuit, whereupon, withdrawing to Staten Island, he started embarking (29 June). For all the enunciations of sound doctrine which fill his despatches he had again failed to follow his own precepts and force on a general action, though by obliging Washington to concentrate he had prevented him from detaching troops to oppose Burgoyne or to impede a landing in Pennsylvania. The claim that Washington had outmanoeuvred Howe and prevented an overland march to Philadelphia is refuted by the documentary evidence that Howe had notified Germain in April that he would move by sea.

It was not till 25 August, however, that Howe disembarked at the Head of Elk in Chesapeake Bay. He had left 9000 troops at New York and 3000 at Rhode Island, and had 16,000 men with him.a Foul winds had delayed the transports and then the naval officers pronounced Delaware Bay, where Howe had intended landing, unsuitable for disembarkation, whereupon the fleet spent nearly three weeks working against unfavourable winds to make the Chesapeake. All the advantage of surprise which an "amphibious" operation should have given was thus lost: Washington, whom Howe's movements had greatly puzzled, had ample time to reach Pennsylvania, much relieved by the direction Howe had taken and confident in New England's ability to cope with Burgoyne.

That general had some 7000 regulars, half British, half German, but his hopes of substantial support from the Canadians had been disappointed, for barely 250 presented themselves. He had also the questionable advantage of the assistance of a large Indian contingent. He had himself written characteristically of "desiring to keep up their terror and avoid their cruelties",5 and it is doubtful whether either side ever derived the least benefit from their services. In a pitched battle they were useless, in partisan warfare they met their match in the backwoodsmen, while the atrocities they could not be prevented from perpetrating inflamed feeling and provoked retaliation.

1 Howe to Germain, 3 June, C.O. v, 94; Corresp. of George III, ш, 451.
2 Howe to Germain, 5 July, C.O. v, 94.

3 Knox MSS, p. 132; Corresp. of George III, 1, 462.

4 "States" given in C.O. v, 94.

5 Burgoyne to Howe, 6 Aug. 1777, C.O. v, 94.

Burgoyne's appointment was a virtual censure on Carleton. If criticisms of Carleton's want of enterprise had not been confined to Germain and his friends,1 personal hostility of old-standing undoubtedly made the Secretary of State exaggerate Carleton's culpability for the disappointing results achieved in 1776 and make it an excuse for giving him instructions almost insultingly precise and detailed. He was left with under 4000 men and confined to the task of supporting Burgoyne. This duty, however, he performed with such energy and zeal3 that Burgoyne could start operations on 20 June and reach Ticonderoga ten days later. That place had been strongly garrisoned, but Phillips, one of Burgoyne's brigadiers, detected a weak spot in the position and by planting guns on it he rendered the place untenable. On 6 July the garrison evacuated it, but retiring hastily on Castleton were overtaken and routed by Burgoyne's advance guard in a sharp-fought action at Hubbardtown (7 July), while the British flotilla caught up and destroyed the boats in which they were trying to remove their stores. By 10 July Burgoyne's main body had reached Skenesborough, little over twenty miles from the Hudson. On the map success seemed almost assured: Germain wrote exultantly of "Burgoyne's rapid progress" and "the fair prospect of an earlier junction": in practice these twenty miles were miles of trackless forest, intersected by numerous watercourses which needed bridging before Burgoyne's boats and heavy guns could be got forward, and it took three weeks' incessant toil to reach the Hudson at Fort Edward (30 July), forty miles above Albany.1

In face of such difficulties this was no mean achievement, but before Burgoyne could push on he must collect adequate supplies, and an attempt to raid an American depôt at Bennington, twenty miles south-east of Saratoga, ended in disaster (16 August), attributed by many to the employment on this errand of Germans, whose equipment and training were ill-suited to forest warfare. Shortly afterwards news came in of the failure of St Leger's diversion in the Mohawk Valley, mainly due to the misconduct of the Indians who provided half his force. Burgoyne could now appreciate the difficulties of his task more accurately than when in Germain's optimistic company, and, as he declared later, had his orders been less precise, he would not have ventured on a forward movement and might even have retired. However, feeling convinced that his orders, "both in the letter and spirit", left him "no latitude", and that his corps was "intended to be hazarded for the purpose of forcing a junction or at least of making a powerful diversion" in Howe's favour by making Washington detach troops,5 he advanced on 19 September against

1 Corresp. of George III, 1, 403, 406.

2 Knox MSS, p. 132; George III's Letters to Lord North (ed. Donne), II, 45.
3 Stopford-Sackville MSS, 11, 110; Anbury, Travels in N. America, 1, 30.

4 Stedman, C., History of the American War, I, 353.

5 Royal Institution MSS, 1, 140.

BURGOYNE IN DIFFICULTIES

731 the well-entrenched American position at Stillwater, ten miles south of Saratoga.

Burgoyne had little over 5000 effectives while his opponent Gates, who had recently secured the command by intrigue rather than merit, had nearer 14,000, for as Burgoyne advanced, the New England militia hastened to turn out to oppose him, and the militia of the Green Mountain and the "Hampshire Grants" (which later became Vermont) were "as good as any of their troops".1 Moreover, in Arnold, Gates had a subordinate far abler than himself, but for whose leadership and tactical skill Burgoyne's attack might have turned his position. Thus, although the gallantry and devotion of Burgoyne's British battalions, who bore the brunt of the fighting, left them in possession of the stubbornly-defended Bemis Heights, it was a Pyrrhic victory and increased Burgoyne's difficulties by saddling him with wounded.2 The Americans could far better afford their 1200 casualties than Burgoyne his 400,3 and he could only entrench himself on Bemis Heights and hold on. Germain's comment was "the best wish I can form is that he may have returned to Ticonderoga. What alarms me is that he thinks that his orders to go to Albany to force a junction with Sir W. Howe are so positive that he must attempt it at all costs". Burgoyne had certainly notified Germain that he knew of Howe's departure for Philadelphia, but apparently he was nevertheless relying unduly on Howe's guarded promise of 5 April to try to have a corps on the Lower Hudson which might act in favour of the Northern Army". But Howe had left Clinton too weak to respond effectively to Burgoyne's urgent appeals, though directly the arrival of drafts from England (at the end of September) let him he collected 3000 men to attack Forts Clinton and Montgomery which commanded the passage of the Hudson. The attack was well conducted and highly successful (7 October); both forts were taken, the American flotilla was destroyed, their casualties came to over 400, and the British ships ascended the Hudson to Esopus, sixty miles below Albany, where more batteries were stormed and more shipping and stores destroyed."

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These operations were too late and on too small a scale for Burgoyne's needs. On 9 October Clinton received a message stating that Burgoyne could retain his position till the middle of October if certain of being in touch with Clinton by then: otherwise he must retire before the ice set in. Even at this last Burgoyne was too optimistic. As Clinton's men were storming Fort Montgomery, Burgoyne's were moving out in the forlorn hope of extricating themselves by dislodging Gates. The odds against them were stupendous; they were forced back to their entrenchments and after desperate fighting had 1 Rayal Institution MSS, 1, 143. 2 Howe to Germain, 31 Oct., C.O. v, 94. 5 Ibid.

* Burgoyne to Clinton, 27 Sept. ibid. Knox MSS, p. 140.

• Clinton to Howe, 9 Oct., C.O. v, 94; and his letters in Rockingham Memoirs, 11, 334 seqq.

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