George Washington's Indispensable Men by Arthur S. Lefkowitz

Author:Arthur S. Lefkowitz [Lefkowitz, Arthur S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780811768085
Publisher: Stackpole Books
Published: 2018-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

Hamilton was fortunate that he found a wealthy woman whom he loved. He was an ambitious young man who had worked hard to achieve some success in his life. He had also made two excellent decisions in his life since the start of the Revolution. One was accepting Washington’s invitation to be his aide-de-camp and the second was his decision to marry Elizabeth, which aligned him with the respectable and important Schuyler clan of New York.

News reached Morristown that the British had captured Charleston. The fall of the city further dampened American morale and sent the already depleted Continental currency notes into a deeper inflationary tailspin. Washington and his staff learned that Lieutenant Colonel Laurens was a prisoner of war, but unhurt. As was the custom, both sides moved to exchange captives but this procedure could take many months, sometimes years to negotiate. In the interim, officers were frequently afforded the courtesy of being put on their parole, promising on their word not to return to rejoin the fighting until they were exchanged.37 There is a curious entry in the Journals of the Continental Congress for July 10, 1780, relating to Laurens’s exchange: “Resolved, For special reasons that the Board of War do take the most speedy measures for the exchange of Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens, one of General Washington’s family, and now a prisoner of war on parole.”38 Laurens was probably being afforded special treatment through the influence of his father. Whatever special efforts were made to try and quickly exchange Laurens unfortunately did not work. He was captured in May 1780 and had to wait to be traded as part of a general prisoner exchange that took place in early November of that same year. Laurens was luckier than some of the officers who were captured at Charleston who remained as prisoners on parole for almost two years.

Young Laurens was on parole when he set sail from Philadelphia on August 13, 1780, aboard the brig Mercury. He was accompanying his father, who was on the start of his mission to negotiate a treaty and a loan from Holland. The lieutenant colonel traveled as far as Fort Penn where he bid his father farewell and watched his ship continue downriver toward the open sea. The Mercury was in the midst of its Atlantic crossing when it was intercepted and captured by the HMS Vestal, a twenty-eight-gun frigate, off the coast of Newfoundland on September 3, 1780. Realizing that his ship was about to be boarded, Henry Laurens threw his official papers overboard but it was too late. They were retrieved by the British, who discovered his identity and mission.39 Laurens was taken in chains to England where he claimed diplomatic immunity, which was ignored. He was interrogated and confined in the Tower of London on suspicion of high treason. Held in tight confinement Laurens was twice offered a pardon if he agreed to renounce his allegiance to America and join the British side. He refused both times. The Continental

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