Adopted Son by David A Clary

Author:David A Clary
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2007-01-30T05:00:00+00:00

HE MADE IT A RULE TO FOLLOW GENERAL WASHINGTON IN EVERYTHING

The appointment of Gates was Congress’ last major intervention into the military conduct of the war. When Washington proposed sending Greene to replace him in September, the lawmakers agreed. He sent Steuben along with him. Before they started south, word arrived of an American victory at Kings Mountain, South Carolina, on October 7, 1780, when frontier riflemen whipped a corps of British regulars and Tory partisans, taking hundreds of prisoners and about 1,400 stand of arms. Cornwallis pulled back into middle South Carolina.61

Lafayette poured out letters to France, begging for more aid. When he learned that Henry Laurens, on his way to Paris to plead the American case, had been captured at sea by the British, he asked Adrienne to see Vergennes about getting him freed. She tried, but Laurens finished the war in the Tower of London, accused of “high treason.”62

On October 7, 1780, the Light Division raided Bergen, New Jersey, bagging fifteen prisoners without losing a man. Lafayette and Hamilton drew up a plan for a larger raid on Staten Island; Lafayette also recommended his friend for a line command, but Washington turned that down. They marched out in the dark of October 27, but the quartermasters did not show up with the promised boats. Lafayette called it off, blistering the quartermasters for their “many blunders.” “I confess, my dear general,” he raged, “that I cannot reconcile my feelings to the idea that by this neglect I have lost a most happy opportunity.” He felt frustrated not only on his own account but also “for all the officers and men who had promis’d themselves so much glory on the occasion.”63

Lafayette looked for other ways to take a shot at glory, and almost daily he and Washington discussed taking the offensive. On October 30, he proposed an assault on Fort Washington, at the northern end of Manhattan. The French court had often complained to him about the inactivity of the American army, he said. Washington cooled him off. He wanted to do something, but with the French idle at Newport there was no support for the attack. “It is impossible my dear Marquis,” he told him; “we must consult our means rather than our wishes, and not endeavour to better our affairs by attempting things, which for want of success may make them worse.”64

Washington asked his generals how to help Greene in the South, and Lafayette proposed that he lead his Light Division in that direction. When his spies told him that Clinton might leave New York, he renewed the proposal; failing that, he wanted to take a stab at Staten Island again. He kept pressing for action, but the Main Army lacked the resources to match his ambitions. The heaviest blow fell on November 26. Preparing to go into winter quarters, Washington disbanded the Light Division, returning its men to their home regiments.65

When Washington asked his generals to recommend someone for adjutant general, Hamilton approached Lafayette for help getting the job.

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