Homegrown Terror by Eric D. Lehman

Author:Eric D. Lehman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Published: 2014-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Joseph Webb House in the foreground served as the meeting place for Washington, Rochambeau, Wadsworth, and Trumbull when the plans for Yorktown were made. If Silas Deane had not been under investigation by Congress, they would have probably used his house next door. Courtesy of the author.

The answer in 1781 seemed to lie in the French fleet under Admiral de Grasse reportedly on its way to the Caribbean. Washington wanted to attack New York and, as a “secondary object,” considered an expedition against Cornwallis and Arnold in Virginia. Without deciding between the two they agreed to gather their forces together outside of New York and wait to hear of the news of the French navy. As Washington put it, “the point of attack was not absolutely agreed upon, because it cannot be foreknown where the enemy would be most susceptible of impression.”43 They ate at Stillman’s Tavern together, sealing their mutual plan with wine and food.

Rochambeau left for Hartford the next day, and Washington stayed on to write letters. “Fixed with count de Rochambeau the plan of Campaign” he wrote in his diary of May 22. Meanwhile, his countryman Lafayette sparred with the British in Virginia, despite being hopelessly outnumbered. The young Frenchman also made good the backhanded promise to Arnold by opening communications with the new commander when he arrived. Perhaps because of this insult or perhaps because he always chafed under a superior officer, Benedict Arnold decided to return to New York, leaving Cornwallis to deal with the wily Lafayette. His reasons were attributed by Cornwallis to “indisposition” and by others to fear or money.44 He did need to secure his share of all the prizes his troops had looted, and sleeping each night with two pistols could have been wearing on his nerves.

It could also be that Cornwallis sent him back in order to secure his own command, and Arnold no doubt found the hierarchical politics of King George’s army just as frustrating as Washington’s. By June he would be safely back in British-controlled Manhattan. But the success of his raid had led, somewhat unintentionally, to a full-scale invasion and occupation of Virginia. It was there that the British forces in America would meet their ruin.

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