“This Week in 1776” is an ongoing almanac of events from that year in the American Revolution. Be sure to check out my novel HEARTLANDERS.
Well lads, the high of victory in Boston is well and truly a distant memory, as the Patriot army has lost New York and it only gets worse from there.
New York
At the end of last week, lower west Manhattan caught fire. It is not known to this day who started it (the Brits arrested over 200 suspects but nobody was ever convicted.) Congress was upset with Washington but he affirmed to them that he never gave the order. Even so, it tactically aided the rebels more than the British, because now Manhattan was scorched and Howe had to waste man-hours and resources on it. Washington didn’t lament that either. He wrote to his cousin saying that it was either God or “some good honest fellow” who did what the army couldn’t.
That is the end of the Americans’ good news this week. We now check in on Nathan Hale and Robert Rodgers for some Ranger-On-Ranger violence.
What am I talking about? Nathan Hale was a Yale graduate, originally from Connecticut, and worked as a schoolmaster at the age of 21. He was also a captain in Knowlton’s Rangers, a short-lived unit of hand-picked infantry who were also trains as scouts and information-gatherers. A Loyalist counterpart to their unit was the Queen’s Rangers, led by Robert Rodgers, who would later defect to the Patriots and become the father of the U.S. Army Rangers. They still use his teachings to this day.
Unfortunately for Hale, he was caught by Rodgers and identified as a spy in New York. There was no lengthy trial or anything, as the rule of the day was the spies out of uniform can be immediately hanged. On the morning of the 22nd, Hale was hanged before a crowd. He’s famously said to have uttered “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country,” though this is a later memory by those present. Nevertheless a British diarist did record at the time that Hale was composed, and he said something to the effect that it was a good officer’s duty to obey his commander-in-chief.
The damn Brits hanged him and left his body as a display to the public, then buried him in an unmarked grave. May he rest in peace.
Washington is facing other problems with his troops. Lack of discipline and extremely low morale are seen everywhere. The camps is dirty and disorganized, and some of the soldiers are stealing ammo and powder, or they’re missing their posts. One private from Connecticut, Ebenezer Liffingwell, is sentenced to death for cowardice and for attempting to shoot an officer. (Read the full account of the incident here.) It sucks, but it’s the only way to keep other soldiers from thinking they can do this.
Washington writes to Congress that things are bad, desertion is high, and the army is falling apart. They need food and clothing before winter or they’re screwed.
Philadelphia
On September 24 it approves negotiating instructions for a treaty with France, and elects commissioners to the French court: Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee (who replaces Thomas Jefferson.) Secrecy is ordered; members may say only that Congress has taken steps for foreign alliance. Jefferson will decline; Arthur Lee later fills that slot.
Other committees are handling affairs with the army, with one focused on New York and the other on Ticonderoga, which is still a mess after Canada (I haven’t checked in on Benedict Arnold for a while.)
The South
Andrew Williamson (South Carolina) and Griffith Rutherford (North Carolina) meet up with their units and take stock of how the southern war is going with the Cherokee. Winter is coming so they split up and head home, burning what they pass. They don’t annihilate the Cherokee, they just leave them in dire straits for the winter. They scatter, and the threat is handled for now.
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Rodgers later got portrayed on film by Spencer Tracy in "Northwest Passage". I'm not sure if Hale has ever had a biopic made of his life...