Memoirs, Correspondence and Manuscripts of General Lafayette Part 32

FROM GENERAL WAs.h.i.+NGTON TO LUND WAs.h.i.+NGTON.

(ORIGINAL.)

New Windsor, April 30, 1781.

Dear Lund,--I am very sorry to hear of your loss; I am a little sorry to hear of my own; but that which gives me most concern is, that you should go on board the enemy's vessels, and furnish them with refreshments. It would have been a less painful circ.u.mstance to me to have heard that, in consequence of your non-compliance with their request, they had burnt my house and laid the plantation in ruins. You ought to have considered yourself as my representative, and should have reflected on the bad example of communicating with the enemy, and making a voluntary offer of refreshments to them, with a view to prevent a conflagration.

It was not in your power, I acknowledge, to prevent them from sending a flag on sh.o.r.e, and you did right to meet it; but you should, in the same instant that the business of it was unfolded, have declared explicitly, that it was improper for you to yield to the request; after which, if they had proceeded to help themselves by force, you could but have submitted, and, being unprovided for defence, this was to be preferred to a feeble opposition, which only serves as a pretext to burn and destroy.

I am thoroughly persuaded that you acted from your best judgment, and believe that your desire to preserve my property, and rescue the buildings from impending danger, was your governing motive; but to go on board their vessels, carry them refreshments, commune with a parcel of plundering scoundrels, and request a favour by asking a surrender of my negroes, was exceedingly ill judged, and, it is to be feared, will be unhappy in its consequences, as it will be a precedent for others, and, may be, become a subject of animadversion.

I have no doubt of the enemy's intention to prosecute the plundering plan they have begun; and, unless a stop can be put to it by the arrival of a superior naval force, I have as little doubt of its ending in the loss of all my negroes, and in the destruction of my houses. But I am prepared for the event, under the prospect of which, if you could deposit in a place of safety the most valuable and less bulky articles, it might be consistent with policy and prudence, and a means of preserving them hereafter. Such and so many things as are necessary for common and present use must be retained, and must run their chance through the fiery trial of this summer. I am sincerely, yours.

TO GENERAL WAs.h.i.+NGTON.

(ORIGINAL.)

Camp Wilton, on James River, May 17, 1781.

Dear General,--My correspondence with one of the British generals, and my refusal of a correspondence with the other, may be, perhaps, misrepresented, I shall therefore give an account of what has pa.s.sed, and I hope your excellency and General Greene will approve of my conduct. On the arrival of our detachment at Richmond, three letters were brought by a flag, which I have the honour to inclose, and which, as commander of the troops in this state, it became my duty to answer.

The enclosed letters were successively sent in pursuit of General Phillips, who received them both with a degree of politeness that seemed to apologize for his unbecoming style. General Phillips being dead of a fever, an officer was sent with a pa.s.sport and letters from General Arnold. I requested the gentleman to come to my quarters, and having asked _if General Phillips was dead_,~[1] to which he answered in the negative, I made it a pretence not to receive a letter from General Arnold, which, being dated head-quarters, and directed to the commanding officer of the American troops, ought to come from the British general chief in command. I did, however, observe, should any officers have written to me I should have been happy to receive their letters. The next day the officer returned with the same pa.s.sport and letter, and informed me that he were now at liberty to declare that Phillips was dead, and Arnold was commander-in-chief of the British army in Virginia.

The high station of General Arnold having obliged me to an explanation, the enclosed note was sent to the officer of the flag, and the American officer verbally a.s.sured him that were I requested to put in writing a minute account of my motives, my regard for the British army was such that I would cheerfully comply with the demand.

Last evening, a flag of ours returned from Petersburg, who had been sent by the commander of the advanced corps, and happened to be on his way while the British officer was at our picquets. Inclosed is the note written by General Arnold, in which he announces his determination of sending our officers and men to the West Indies.

The British general cannot but perfectly know that I am not to treat of partial exchanges, and that the fate of the continental prisoners must be regulated by a superior authority to that with which I am invested.

With the highest respect, I have the honour to be, &c.

Footnote:

1. Gordon places the death of General Phillips on the 13th of May: he was very ill in his bed, when a cannon ball traversed his bed-room.

General Phillips commanded at Minden the battery whose cannon killed the father of M. de Lafayette.

FROM GENERAL PHILLIPS TO THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE.

(ORIGINAL.)

British Camp, at Osborn, April 28, 1781.

SIR,--It is a principle of the British army engaged in the present war, which they esteem as an unfortunate one, to conduct it with every attention to humanity and the laws of war; and in the necessary destruction of public stores of every kind, to prevent, as far as possible, that of private property. I call upon the inhabitants of Yorktown, Williamsburg, Petersburg, and Chesterfield, for a proof of the mild treatment they have received from the king's troops; in particular at Petersburg, when the town was saved by the labour of the soldiers, which otherwise must have perished by the wilful inactivity of its inhabitants.

I have now a charge of the deepest nature to make against the American arms: that of having fired upon the king's troops by a flag of truce vessel; and, to render the conduct as discordant to the laws of arms, the flag was flying the whole time at the mast head, seeming to sport in the violation of the most sacred laws of war.

You are sensible, sir, that I am authorized to inflict the severest punishment in return for this bad conduct, and that towns and villages lay at the mercy of the king's troops, and it is to that mercy alone you can justly appeal for their not being reduced to ashes. The compa.s.sion, and benevolence of disposition, which has marked the British character in the present contest, still govern the conduct of the king's officers, and I shall willingly remit the infliction of any redress we have a right to claim, provided the persons who fired from the flag of truce vessel are delivered into my possession, and a public disavowal made by you of their conduct. Should you, sir, refuse this, I hereby make you answerable for any desolation which may follow in consequence.

Your s.h.i.+ps of war, and all other vessels, not actually in our possession in James River, are, however, driven beyond a possibility of escaping, and are in the predicament and condition of a town blockaded by land, where it is contrary to the rules of war that any public stores should be destroyed. I shall therefore demand from you, sir, a full account of whatever may be destroyed on board vessels or otherwise, and need not mention to you what the rules of war are in these cases.

I am, sir, your most humble servant,

W. PHILLIPS.

FROM GENERAL PHILLIPS TO THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE.

(ORIGINAL.)

Camp at Osborn, April 29th, 1781.

Sir,--When I was at Williamsburg, and at Petersburg, I gave several inhabitants and country people protections for their persons and properties. I did this without asking, or even considering, whether these people were either friends or foes, actuated by no other motive than that of pure humanity. I understand, from almost undoubted authority, that several of these persons have been taken up by their malicious neighbours, and sent to your quarters, where preparations are making for their being ill treated; a report which I sincerely hope may be without foundation. I repeat to you, sir, that my protections were given generally from a wish that, in the destruction of public stores, as little damage as possible might be done to private property, and to the persons of individuals; but at any rate, I shall insist upon my signs manual being held sacred, and I am obliged to declare to you, sir, that if any persons, under the description I have given, receive ill treatment, I shall be under the necessity of sending to Petersburg, and giving that chastis.e.m.e.nt to the illiberal persecutors of innocent people, which their conduct shall deserve. And I further declare to you, sir, should any person be put to death, under the pretence of their being spies of, or friends to, the British government, I will make the sh.o.r.es of James River an example of terror to the rest of Virginia.

It is from the violent measures, resolutions of the present house of delegates, council, and governor of Virginia, that I am impelled to use this language, which the common temper of my disposition is hurt at. I shall hope that you, sir, whom I have understood to be a gentleman of liberal principles, will not countenance, still less permit to be carried into execution, the barbarous spirit which seems to prevail in the council of the present civil power of this colony.

I do a.s.sure you, sir, I am extremely inclined to carry on this unfortunate contest with every degree of humanity, and I will believe you intend doing the same.

I am, sir, your most obedient humble servant,

W. PHILLIPS.

TO MAJOR GENERAL PHILLIPS.

(ORIGINAL.)

American camp, April 30th, 1781.

Sir,--Your letters of the 26th, 28th, and 29th, came yesterday to hand.

The duplicate dated at Petersburg being rather of a private nature, it has been delivered to Major-General Baron de Steuben. I am sorry the mode of your request has delayed the civility that had been immediately intended.

From the beginning of this war, which you observe is an unfortunate one to Great Britain, the proceedings of the British troops have been hitherto so far from evincing benevolence of disposition, that your long absence~[1] from the scene of action is the only way I have to account for your panegyrics. I give you my honour, sir, that the charge against a flag vessel shall be strictly inquired into, and in case the report made to you is better grounded than the contrary one I have received, you shall obtain every redress in my power, that you have any right to expect. This complaint I beg leave to consider as the only part in your letter that requires an answer. Such articles as the requiring that the persons of spies be held sacred, cannot certainly be serious.

The style of your letters, sir, obliges me to tell you, that should your future favours be wanting in that regard due to the civil and military authority in the United States, which cannot but be construed into a want of respect to the American nation, I shall not think it consistent with the dignity of an American officer to continue the correspondence.

I have the honour to be, your most obedient servant,

LAFAYETTE.

Footnote:

1. General Phillips had been made prisoner at Saratoga.