he remonstrated* strongly to congress on the impolicy of their resolutions, and stated the long train of evils, which were to be apprehended from them. But on this subject congress remained inflexible, and the officers designated as the objects for retaliation, were kept in rigorous confinement, until general Lee was declared to be a prisoner of war.

The resolutions of congress, too, respecting the prisoners taken at the Cedars, produced no small degree of embarrassment and chagrin to the commander in chief. On the allegation that the terms of capitulation had been infracted on the part of the enemy, and that the savages had been permitted to murder some of the prisoners, and to plunder others, they withheld their sanction from the agreement entered into by general Arnold with captain Foster, and refused to allow other prisoners to be returned in exchange for those liberated under that agreement, until the murderers should be given up, and compensation should be made for the baggage said to have been plundered. The fact alleged was by no means so clearly established, that the common opinion of mankind must, at once, have been pronounced in favour of the justice of the decision made by congress. Indeed it was explicitly denied by some American officers, who were among the prisoners,

* See Note, No. I. at the end of the volume.

CHAP. I.

1776.

1

CHAP. L. and particularly by captain Sullivan, who had 1776. been delivered up as one of the hostages for the performance of the treaty.

Sir William Howe pressed general Washington very closely on this subject. He reminded him of the importance of a punctilious observance of faith, plighted in engagements like that made by general Arnold; and he persisted to hold the commander in chief personally bound for an honourable compliance with military stipulations entered into by an officer under his authority.

General Washington felt the keenness of the reproach, and was urgent with congress to change their resolutions on this subject; but his remonstrances were for a long time unavailing.

After the sufferings of the prisoners in New York had been extreme, and great numbers had perished in confinement, the survivers were liberated and sent out for the purpose of being exchanged; but so miserable was their condition, that vast numbers of them died on their way home. For the dead, as well as the living, the British general claimed a return of prisoners; and on the peremptory refusal of general Washington to comply with this demand, and on his refusing also to exchange lieutenant colonel Campbell, and some Hessian officers taken at Trenton, until general Lee. should be declared a prisoner of war, a very.

offensive letter was written to him by lieutenant CHAP. I. colonel Wolcott, who had been employed to 1776. settle the terms of a general cartel, which produced an angry correspondence between the commanders of the two armies, which exhibits the charges of the one, and the defence of the other.

The complaints of America on this subject seemed the better founded, because sir William Howe had rejected an application 'made to him by general Washington, to permit an agent for furnishing their prisoners with necessary supplies, to reside in New York.

exertions

The advantages derived by America from Maritime her maritime exertions, have already been of America. cursorily noticed. Notwithstanding the efforts made in every other direction, it would have been absolutely impracticable to have obtained sufficient quantities of ammunition for the immediate use of the army but for some fortunate captures, and successful enterprises, made at sea, either by the ships of war belonging to the public, or by privateers fitted out by individuals. The supplies of that essential article, even with the aid derived from this source, were precarious, and entirely inadequate to the exigencies of the war; but without those aids, it would seem that the military operations of the army must not only have been enfeebled, but entirely suspended.

1776.

CHAP. I. It was not in the capture of ammunition and arms only, that the enterprising naval spirit of the Americans rendered essential service to their country. The non-importation agreements which preceded the war, and excluded the usual supply of goods for ordinary consumption, had left the continent, in a great measure, destitute of articles necessary to clothe its inhabitants in the accustomed manner. Internal manufactures had supplied, but in a very small degree, the deficiency produced by non-importation; and when congress proceeded to raise an army, the continent scarcely afforded the clothes or blankets necessary for its use. The sufferings for these articles, though greatest in the army, were extended to citizens in private life. The want of them was felt universally. This want was relieved, in some degree, by captures from the enemy at sea. The goods thus taken would, at any period, and in any state of things, have constituted an item well worth attention; but at this time, they were of inestimable value. The prizes made by the American cruisers in the year 1776, are said, by some English authors, to have been estimated at one million sterling; and their amount is believed, in America, to have been more considerable. It has been stated by persons conversant with that subject, that the captures made by the cruizers of Massachussetts alone, exceeded those made by

33

France and Spain in any one year of the war | CHAP. I, which terminated in 1763.

Unfortunately, congress did not in time adopt the system of clothing their troops themselves; and though in the beginning of 1776 the secret committee was charged with taking measures to import a large quantity of clothing, yet they did not arrive to supply the demands of that year. For want of those timely exertions which probably would have been made, had the system of furnishing clothes from the continental stores been originally adopted, many prize clothes, which might have saved from disease and death, soldiers exposed to the hardships of a winter campaign, were suffered to pass into the hands of private individuals. In the eastern country, where these prizes were generally brought, the local governments were able to make some provision for the clothing of their quotas of troops; but the sufferings of the quotas of the middle and southern states, as far as Virginia inclusive, during the severe winter campaign of 1776...7, were

extreme.

It having been understood that a large quantity of ammunition was in the royal magazines in the island of New Providence, commodore Hopkins with the fleet consisting of five vessels, the largest of which carried twenty, nine pounders, on her lower deck, and six, ten pounders on her upper deck, was

VOL. III.

1776.