George Howe

“ Howe ought to die now, for she has done the best that she will ever do." I was not of this opinion, feeling myself still "full of days' works," [p. 277] although I did not guess at the new experiences which then lay before me.
While the war was still at its height, I received a kind letter from Hon. George Bancroft, conveying an invitation to attend a celebration of the poet Bryant's seventieth birthday, to be given by the New York Century Club, of which Mr. Bancroft was the newly-elected president. ”

“ Howe's widow survived him many years, leaving behind her ‘many curious pieces of mechanism of her father's constructing’ (White, Nat. Hist. and Antiq. of Selborne, 1880, p. 23) . There is a portrait of Howe by Sir Peter Lely, an engraving of which by C. Sherwin is prefixed to Sir George Bromley's ‘Collection of Original Royal Letters,’ 1787, opp.p. xxix. A collection of his letters from Hanover (1705-6) to George Stepney, the diplomatist, is preserved in the Brit. Mus. Addit. ”

“ When we returned to the mine, we found Steve and Shrady in conversation. They were planning an excursion and asked us to join them. We expressed pious disapproval of letting up on the job the minute George’s back was turned. Steve’s answer was, “That’s a crock. I haven’t taken a day off in two weeks. You can do as you like, me lads; I’m off to see the wizard.” The two of them climbed into the sporty Mercedes-Benz convertible which Shrady had recently acquired, and drove off down the mountain.
“I have an idea,” said Lamont. “They can have their fun today. ”

“ The performances concluded with a satirical poem given by a layman, and describing the indignation of an elegant ecclesiastic at the visit of a man in poor and shabby clothes. His complaint is answered by a friend, who remarks:—
La vostra eccellenza
Vorrebbe tutti i poverelli ricchi."
Your Excellency
would have every poor fellow rich."
The presence of the celebrated phrenologist, George Combe, in Rome at this time added much to Dr. Howe's enjoyment of the winter, and to mine. His wife was a daughter of the great actress, Mrs. Siddons, and was a person of excellent mind and manners. ”

“ If Howe, the dull and lethargic, should awake from his dream of conquering America by taking now and again an isolated town, and should break for the north with twenty thousand men, the fortunes of the young republic would come to their severest test.
In that event, Washington knew well enough what he meant to do. He would march his main army to the Hudson, unite with the strong body of troops which he kept there constantly, contest every inch of the country and the river with Howe, and keep him at all hazards from getting to Albany. ”

“ When I got out to Third Army Headquarters the next morning, George had already come and gone. I would have liked to ask Posey about their conversation but he didn’t seem to be in a chatty mood—at least not on that subject. However, he did have a few caustic things to say about “people from high headquarters who [108] have nothing better to do than travel around and interrupt the work of others.” ”

“ Howe had the fixed idea that to follow the capture of New York by that of Philadelphia, the most populous city in America, and the seat of Congress, would mean great glory for himself and a crushing blow to the American cause. If to this could be added, as he intended, the occupation of the whole valley of the Hudson, the year 1777 might well see the end of the war. An acute sense of the value of time is vital in war. Promptness, the quick surprise of the enemy, was perhaps the chief military virtue of Washington; dilatoriness was the destructive vice of Howe. ”

“ There would be a big job protecting and salvaging works of art in Japan. He didn’t think that a program had been planned. He had offered his services. He had already told us that he had asked for this assignment, but we had never considered it as a possibility of the present or even of the immediate future. Now it looked as though it might materialize at once. In any case he was going up to Frankfurt the day after tomorrow to find out.
“As senior officer, Tom,” George said, “you will take over as headman of the team. I’ll take you down to see Colonel Davitt before I go. ”

“ On the 28th, Howe came up to Washington's position, and found the Americans quite equal in numbers, strongly intrenched, and awaiting his attack with confidence. He hesitated, doubted, and finally feeling that he must do something, sent four thousand men to storm Chatterton Hill, an outlying post, where some fourteen hundred Americans were stationed. There was a short, sharp action, and then the Americans retreated in good order to the main army, having lost less than half as many men as their opponents. With caution now much enlarged, Howe sent for reinforcements, and waited two days. ”

“ Since Howe had decided to attack from the head of Chesapeake Bay there was little to prevent him from landing his army on the Delaware side of the peninsula and marching across it. By sea it is a voyage of three hundred miles round a peninsula one hundred and fifty miles long to get from one of these points to the other, by land only a dozen miles away. Howe made the sea voyage and spent on it three weeks when a march of a day would have saved this time and kept his fleet three hundred miles by sea nearer to New York and aid for Burgoyne. ”

“ We parted from them with sincere regret when Sir Henry Clinton, who, succeeding Sir William Howe in the chief command, saw no reason to change the latter's plan in this matter, sent us to the American army in exchange for Belfort and others.
[Pg 261]
Chapter Twenty-three—George Washington's Mercy
"Bob," said Marcel, as we rode under escort towards the American army, "the British have dealt handsomely with us,—we have no right to complain of Sir William Howe,—but how about the Americans?"
"The Americans are our countrymen." ”

“ Howe's mistakes only have their place in the procession to inevitable disaster. Once in the thick 118 of fighting he showed himself formidable. When he had landed at Elkton he was fifty miles southwest of Philadelphia and between him and that place was Washington with his army. Washington was determined to delay Howe in every possible way. To get to Philadelphia Howe had to cross the Brandywine River. Time was nothing to him. He landed at Elkton on the 25th of August. Not until the 10th of September was he prepared to attack Washington barring his way at Chadd's Ford. ”

“ The fate of the Revolution rested where it had been from the beginning, with Washington and his soldiers. Drive them beyond the mountains and there was no other army to fall back upon. On their existence everything hinged, and when Howe got back to Philadelphia, there they were still existent, still coherent, hovering on his flank, cooping him up in his lines, and leaving him master of little more than the ground his men encamped upon, and the streets his sentinels patrolled. When Franklin was told in Paris that Howe had taken Philadelphia, his reply was, "Philadelphia has taken Howe." ”

“ Howe incurred the bitter antagonism of many men who had been his staunch followers in all the political contests of Nova Scotia, and it was with the greatest difficulty that he was re-elected for the county of Hants as a minister of the crown. He remained in the government until May, 1873, when he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia. The worries of a long life of political struggles, and especially the fatigue and exposure of the last election in Hants, had impaired his health and made it absolutely necessary that he should retire from active politics. ”

“ Washington's army lay at the foot of some hills a dozen miles farther away. Howe had need to be wary, for Washington was the same old fox who had played so cunning a game at Trenton. The efforts of the British army were now centered on clearing the river Delaware so that supplies might be brought up rapidly by water instead of being carried fifty miles overland from Chesapeake Bay. Howe detached some thousands of men for this work and there was sharp fighting before the troops and the fleet combined had cleared the river. At Germantown Howe kept about nine thousand men. ”

“ On the eve of battle a heavy storm came on, which so injured the arms and munitions that with bitter disappointment he was obliged to withdraw; but nevertheless it is plain how much this forward movement meant. At the moment, however, it looked badly enough, especially after the defeat of Wayne, for Howe pressed forward, took possession of Philadelphia, and encamped the main body of his army at Germantown. ”

“ The British made terrible use of the bayonet. By the evening of the twenty-seventh the Americans, who fought well against overwhelming odds, had lost nearly two thousand men in casualties and prisoners, six field pieces, and twenty-six heavy guns. The two chief commanders, Sullivan and Stirling, were among the prisoners, and what was left of the army had been driven back to Brooklyn Heights. Howe's critics said that had he pressed the attack further he could have made certain the capture of the whole American force on Long Island. ”

“ Meanwhile the French had a great chance. On the 11th of July their fleet, much stronger than the British, arrived from the Delaware, and anchored off Sandy Hook. Admiral Howe knew his danger. He asked for volunteers from the merchant ships and the sailors offered themselves almost to a man. If d'Estaing could beat Howe's inferior fleet, the transports at New York would be at his mercy and the British army, with no other source of supply, must surrender. Washington was near, to give help on land. ”

“ The little town was soon aflame and the smoke helped to conceal Howe's movements. The day was boiling hot and the soldiers carried heavy packs with food for three days, for they intended to camp on Bunker Hill. Straight up Breed's Hill they marched wading through long grass sometimes to their knees and throwing down the fences on the hillside. The British knew that raw troops were likely to scatter their fire on a foe still out of range and they counted on a rapid bayonet charge 6 against men helpless with empty rifles. ”

“ A being who could see the movements of men as we watch a game of chess, might think that madness had seized the British leaders; Burgoyne on the upper Hudson plunging forward resolutely to meet Howe; Howe at sea sailing away, as it might well seem, to get as far from Burgoyne as he could; Clinton in command at New York without instructions, puzzled what to do and not hearing from his leader, Howe, for six weeks at a time ”

“ All this while the governor and his council contrived to control the assembly, sometimes by two or three votes, sometimes by a prorogation when it was necessary to dispose summarily of a troublesome question. Public opinion began to set in steadily against the government. The controversy between Lord Falkland and Mr. Howe reached its climax on the 21st February, 1846, when a despatch was brought down to the house, referring to the speaker, Mr. William Young, and his brother, George R. Young, as the associates of "reckless" and "insolvent" men—the reference being to Mr. ”

“ The northern and eastern sides of the island are washed by the Harlem River, flowing out of the Hudson about a dozen miles north of the city, and broadening into the East River, about a mile wide where it separates New York from Brooklyn Heights, on Long Island. Encamped on Staten Island, on the south, General Howe could, with the aid of the fleet, land at any of half a dozen vulnerable points. Howe had the further 88 advantage of a much larger force. Washington had in all some twenty thousand men, numbers of them serving for short terms and therefore for the most part badly drilled. ”

“ Criticism of what might have been is easy and usually futile. It might be said of Washington, too, that he should not have kept an army so far in front of his lines behind Brooklyn Heights facing a superior enemy, and with, for a part of it, retreat possible only by a single causeway across a marsh three miles long. When he realized, on the 28th of August, what Howe had achieved, he increased the 90 defenders of Brooklyn Heights to ten thousand men, more than half his army. This was another cardinal error. British ships were near and but for unfavorable winds might have sailed up to Brooklyn. ”

“ He showed, too, the utmost generosity toward the northern army, sending thither all the troops he could possibly spare, and even parting with his favorite corps of Morgan's riflemen. Despite his liberality, the commanders in the north were unreasonable in their demands, and when they asked too much, Washington flatly declined to send more men, for he would not weaken himself unduly, and he knew what they did not see, that the fate of the northern invasion turned largely on his own ability to cope with Howe. ”

“ George, USNR, described, 31; plans for repositories, 32; visits to Munich, 58, 59, 61-62, 106-107; advises Siegen evacuation, 118; as part of team, 128; introduces Howe and Moore to Alt Aussee mine, 134-144; opinion of Sieber, 154; loading techniques, 156-161; leaves for Pacific, 167-170, 178; on the “old masters,” 208; on removal of art works to the United States, 262; mentioned, 53, 66, 68, 77, 131, 149, 162, 180, 212, 245, 263 [333] Stradivarius violins at Innsbruck, 110 Strasbourg Cathedral, 27 Strigel, Bernhard, 198 Strobl, 131 Stuttgart, 228, 229, 282 Sudetenland, 89 Suk, Capt. ”