bounty for enlistments, for while it was all very well to talk about a manâs patriotism, it never hurt to add a dollar or two to the persuasion.
[17]
GENERAL HOWE WENT IN and out of the village of Trenton in a hurry. He did not enjoy the Delaware River Valley, and he was rather annoyed that here in the Jerseys it should be colder than it was in New York City to the north, even though his weather experts told him that it was quite natural for the frost to settle into a river bottom such as this.
But New York was warmer in more ways than one. General Howe, who cherished women, found American ladies even more adorable than those he had left behind in England, particularly Mrs. Loring, blue-eyed, blond, gay, pretty, as addicted to cards as the general himself, and possessed of a most understanding husband. She became his mistress, his whist partner, and she kept his social schedule.
The rebels had fled New York City, for the bitter lesson of the young lad Nathan Hale, hanged for espionage in full view of the population, had driven home the fact that the city was occupied by a most determined enemy. Rebels who still remained slipped out of the town, especially those people of substance, leaving behind them a city whose âbetter peopleâ were of one heart with the British.
Sir William Howe felt at home there, and on December II, he hastened back to New York, where Mrs. Loringâs social book held a listing of six major balls, fourteen small but elegant dinner parties and any number of luncheons, which was not at all bad for a provincial capital.
In Philadelphia, not one ball. Even the flow of testimonial dinners for the members of Congress had dried up; the city was moody and depressed. And when Putnam and Reed decided that the Associators should leave the city and march up into Bucks County to join Washington, the city became even more depressed.
The Associators were an urban phenomenon. They had come into being with the Association, which had been set up in 1774 as a compact of merchants who agreed not to import, export or use British goods until the British were willing to redress the grievances of the colonies. Out of this had come a small volunteer movement of merchants, clerks, warehousemen, storekeepers, printers and other city folk who organized themselves into marching companies they called the Associators. There were about a thousand of these volunteers in Philadelphia, three companies of whichânumbering about two hundred men eachâColonel Joseph Reed took north to Trenton Falls.
They were self-conscious city people, and they marched stiffly, for all of their training. But they had uniforms, brown trousers and blue coats, and they had real knapsacks and ammunition pouches and muskets. When they entered the American encampment, the bearded, long-haired regulars, clothed in rags and pieces of man-blanket and horse-blanket, stared at them dumbly. And Washington, so easily moved by kindness or help, was more disturbed than relieved. Here was the very life blood of Philadelphia city, given up to him, and he found that he could not in all conscience take these men away from the defense of the city. Instead, he put them under the command of Colonel John Cadwalader, with instructions to use these men to defend the river bank against a British crossing, from a point about ten miles south of Trenton down around the bend to Bristol, the part closest to Philadelphia that might still be crossed.
[18]
IN ALL TRUTH, Washington was puzzled, and he felt the desperate sense of entrapment that a blind man knows in a situation of grave danger. Not only were the two divisions of his army lost to him and apparently beyond contact, but he simply did not know what the British were up to. He had to know. Again he begged his general officers to buy information and pay the spies and informers whatever they asked, no matter how loathsome they appeared.
Howe had marched his Highlanders and his British regulars in
[17]
GENERAL HOWE WENT IN and out of the village of Trenton in a hurry. He did not enjoy the Delaware River Valley, and he was rather annoyed that here in the Jerseys it should be colder than it was in New York City to the north, even though his weather experts told him that it was quite natural for the frost to settle into a river bottom such as this.
But New York was warmer in more ways than one. General Howe, who cherished women, found American ladies even more adorable than those he had left behind in England, particularly Mrs. Loring, blue-eyed, blond, gay, pretty, as addicted to cards as the general himself, and possessed of a most understanding husband. She became his mistress, his whist partner, and she kept his social schedule.
The rebels had fled New York City, for the bitter lesson of the young lad Nathan Hale, hanged for espionage in full view of the population, had driven home the fact that the city was occupied by a most determined enemy. Rebels who still remained slipped out of the town, especially those people of substance, leaving behind them a city whose âbetter peopleâ were of one heart with the British.
Sir William Howe felt at home there, and on December II, he hastened back to New York, where Mrs. Loringâs social book held a listing of six major balls, fourteen small but elegant dinner parties and any number of luncheons, which was not at all bad for a provincial capital.
In Philadelphia, not one ball. Even the flow of testimonial dinners for the members of Congress had dried up; the city was moody and depressed. And when Putnam and Reed decided that the Associators should leave the city and march up into Bucks County to join Washington, the city became even more depressed.
The Associators were an urban phenomenon. They had come into being with the Association, which had been set up in 1774 as a compact of merchants who agreed not to import, export or use British goods until the British were willing to redress the grievances of the colonies. Out of this had come a small volunteer movement of merchants, clerks, warehousemen, storekeepers, printers and other city folk who organized themselves into marching companies they called the Associators. There were about a thousand of these volunteers in Philadelphia, three companies of whichânumbering about two hundred men eachâColonel Joseph Reed took north to Trenton Falls.
They were self-conscious city people, and they marched stiffly, for all of their training. But they had uniforms, brown trousers and blue coats, and they had real knapsacks and ammunition pouches and muskets. When they entered the American encampment, the bearded, long-haired regulars, clothed in rags and pieces of man-blanket and horse-blanket, stared at them dumbly. And Washington, so easily moved by kindness or help, was more disturbed than relieved. Here was the very life blood of Philadelphia city, given up to him, and he found that he could not in all conscience take these men away from the defense of the city. Instead, he put them under the command of Colonel John Cadwalader, with instructions to use these men to defend the river bank against a British crossing, from a point about ten miles south of Trenton down around the bend to Bristol, the part closest to Philadelphia that might still be crossed.
[18]
IN ALL TRUTH, Washington was puzzled, and he felt the desperate sense of entrapment that a blind man knows in a situation of grave danger. Not only were the two divisions of his army lost to him and apparently beyond contact, but he simply did not know what the British were up to. He had to know. Again he begged his general officers to buy information and pay the spies and informers whatever they asked, no matter how loathsome they appeared.
Howe had marched his Highlanders and his British regulars in
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