BOOK 1776. SECTION II. THE fortunes of Ireland at this moment were connected so intimately with the phases of war in America, that the student of the Irish revolution must keep himself reminded of the parallel events of the Transatlantic struggle. After the battle of Bunker's Hill the American lines were drawn closer round Boston. The opening of the year 1776 found General Washington established on Dorchester Heights, from which his cannon commanded the anchorage. Swarms of small privateers from the mouths of the New England rivers interrupted the provision ships coming in from the sea, and in March General Howe found it necessary to evacuate the city, and to remove his troops to some position where they could act with effect and be no longer straitened for supplies. Sir Peter Parker was foiled in the summer in an attack on Charleston, and encouraged by their signal successes, the representatives of the united colonies ventured their Declaration of Independence. These initial misfortunes hardened the spirit and roused the resolution of England. An attempt to enlist Canada in the revolt was a disas trous failure. Colonel Montgomery, who commanded the invading forces, was killed; his army which expected to be welcomed with enthusiasm was cut in pieces by the colonists and the British garrison at Quebec; and an American squadron on Lake Champlain was taken or destroyed. Lord Howe came out with large reinforcements to the Bay of New York, CHAP. I 1776. where he was joined by his brother Sir William and by the troops withdrawn from Boston. Lord Howe had brought with him power to negotiate, and it is possible that after the disappointment in Canada, had substantial concessions been now offered, the Declaration of Independence might have been reconsidered. The idea of separation was as yet unfamiliar, and the majority of the colonists were as loyal to the empire generally as they were tenacious of their liberties, and determined to assert them. Lord Howe, however, contented himself with offering pardon to those who would lay down their arms. General Washington held Long Island and the Island of New York itself with 17,000 men. The British generals intended if possible to take New York and use it from thenceforward as the base of their operations. Sir William Howe landed on Long Island a little to the North of Sandy Hook. He advanced along the harbour to Brooklyn, opposite the city, and on the 29th of August, on the ground where Brooklyn Park August 29. and Cemetery now stand, he encountered Washington, defeated him, drove him across into New York, and out of New York over the Hudson, and thence in the month following forced him back over the Delaware into the forest, apparently broken into ruin. Now still more would have been the time for Lord Howe to produce his commission to treat. But careless through the ease of their success the English forgot Lexington and Bunker's Hill. They regarded their work as done. They broke into separate divisions. They were surprised in detail at Princeton and Trenton, and severely punished. Sir William Howe gathered his broken detachments together, retreated slowly through New Jersey to New York, maneuvering BOOK VI. 1777. in vain to draw Washington into another general action, and the season being over, settled down in his winter quarters to lay his plans for a decisive campaign in the coming spring. New England was the heart of the insurrection. As soon as the snow had gone and roads and rivers were again open, General Burgoyne was to move south from Canada by Lake Champlain, cross the watershed, and descend the Hudson to Albany, where Sir Henry Clinton would meet him ascending the same river from New York. The New England States would thus be cut off from their allies, and tamed perhaps into a separate peace. Meanwhile Howe himself, whom the fleet enabled to select his own point of landing, could threaten Pennsylvania, and if he failed to reduce it could at least prevent Washington from operating against Burgoyne. Sir William Howe conducted his own share of the campaign with perfect success; he landed at the mouth of the Chesapeake, inflicted a destructive defeat on the Americans on the Brandywine, broke them again as fast as they recombined, finally drove the Congress out of Philadelphia, destroyed the forts which had been raised by Washington to prevent the entrance of the English ships into the Delaware, and sate down in the autumn with his fleet and army in full possession of the American capital. Far different was the fate of Burgoyne, whose task, to all appearance, was the easier of the two. Leaving Sir Guy Carleton in Canada with a force adequate for its defence, Burgoyne set out in the middle of June, with ten thousand of the best soldiers with which England could furnish him, a powerful train of field artillery, and a flying swarm of Indian I. 1777. allies, the warriors of the Six Nations who, useless for CHAP. purposes of real fighting, it was hoped would terrify the American imagination, and instead of terror produced only resentment by their cruelties, and a censure on their employment from the conscience of civilised mankind. He advanced unresisted as far as the head of Lake Champlain. The Americans had a fort at Ticonderoga, but they at once evacuated it on his appearance, and still without seeing an enemy, Burgoyne struck into the forest to make his way to Fort Edward, on the Hudson. Here his difficulties began. Roads there were few or none. The settlers driven to fury by the savages took their rifles and hung upon his skirts, interrupting his communications and cutting off his foraging parties. They closed in between him and Lake Champlain, and stopped his supplies from the rear. The country was swept clean in his front. He found himself dependent entirely on the stores which he carried with him, and was obliged to push forward at the utmost speed. The utmost speed was very small. It was enough for the Americans if they could impede his march. Hunger would then do their work for them. On the 30th of June Burgoyne had left Lake Champlain. In the middle of September he was still fifty miles from Albany, hemmed in, with provisions failing and unable to move. On the 19th he was attacked by the Americans and fought a severe battle without being able to extricate himself. Clinton, whom he contrived to inform of his situation, came forward up the river; but instead of pushing on through Albany contented himself with destroying villages and farmhouses in the expectation that he would draw the Americans off. They understood their advantage too well to BOOK VI. 1777. October 12. lose it. They could rebuild their houses. They might wait long before they could catch in a net another English army. As October opened, Burgoyne made one more desperate plunge and struggled a few miles further to Saratoga. There another battle followed, when he lost more of his guns. The Indians deserted him. His provisions gave out. He attempted to retreat, but it was too late. Half his force was sick or disabled, and on the 12th of October, with no alternative before him but destruction, he was compelled to lay down his arms. The impression produced by this catastrophe was of greater consequence by far than the material loss. It raised the Americans to the rank of a belligerent power, to be admired and recognised by the world. It decided France to revenge herself for the loss of her Transatlantic provinces by assisting, since she could not keep them for herself, in tearing them from her rival. Franklin, to whom England would not listen, repaired to Paris, where he was received with open arms. Then, at last, when the opportunity was gone, Lord North began to realise the magnitude of his task. Stunned by the surrender at Saratoga and finding his old enemy preparing to strike in, he recognised the necessity of a compromise, and a bill was hurried through Parliament, which six months previously the States would have accepted with gratitude. The pretension to tax the colonies directly or indirectly was totally and for ever abandoned, and Lord Carlisle and Mr. Eden were sent out as commissioners, with power to offer free trade, to offer seats in the English House of Commons if America wished to be represented there, to offer, even in the name of England, to share the debt which the colonists had incurred in maintaining |