With Americans of Past and Present Days Part 6

[27] Three Saint-Simons took part in the American War of Independence, all relatives of the famous duke, the author of the memoirs: the Marquis Claude Anne (1740-1819), the Baron Claude (retired, 1806), and the Count Claude Henri (1760-1825), then a very young officer, the future founder of the Saint-Simonian sect, and first philosophical master of Auguste Comte.

[28] January 7, 1781. (Rochambeau papers.)

[29] _Histoire des Troubles de l'Amerique Anglaise_, by Soules; Clinton's copy, in the Library of Congress, p. 360.

[30] January 15, 1781.

[31] Specimens exhibited by the doctor's descendant in the Fraunces's Tavern Museum.

[32] In English in the original.

[33] _Voyages de M. le Marquis de Chastellux dans l'Amerique Septentrionale, dans les annees 1780, 1781 et 1782_, Paris, 1786, 2 vols., I, 118.

[34] Now the property of the Charity Organization Society. See _A History of the Vernon House_, by Maud Lyman Stevens, Newport, R.I., 1915. Ill.u.s.trated.

[35] To Rochambeau, June 30, 1781.

[36] This island's aspect fifteen years later is thus described by Duke de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt: "Enfin nous sommes arrives a King's Bridge dans l'ile de New York, ou le terrain, generalement mauvais, est encore en mauvais bois dans les parties les plus eloignees de la ville, et ou il est cependant couvert de fermes et surtout de maisons de campagne dans les six ou sept milles qui s'en approchent davantage et dans les parties qui avoisinent la riviere du Nord et le bras de mer qui separe cette ile de Long Island." _Voyage_, V, 300.

[37] The convoy was carrying to England the enormous booty taken by Rodney at St. Eustatius. Eighteen of its s.h.i.+ps were captured by La Motte-Picquet (May 2, 1781) and thus reached France instead of England.

Toward the Hessians, however, the feeling was different. Some had deserted to enlist in Lauzun's legion, but they almost immediately counterdeserted, upon which Rochambeau wrote to Lauzun: "You have done the best in deciding never to pester yourself again with Hessian deserters, of whom, you know, I never had a good opinion." Newport, December 22, 1780.

[38] July 8, 1781.

[39] April 13, 1781. (Rochambeau papers.)

[40] July 14, 1781.

[41] In June, 1867, by S.A. Green, who printed it with an English translation: _My Campaigns in America, a journal kept by Count William de Deux-Ponts_, Boston, 1868.

[42] The house at the entrance of the Pont-Neuf, where the _Pet.i.t Dunkerque_ was established, being then the most famous "magasin de frivolites" in existence, survived until July, 1914. The sign of the shop, a little s.h.i.+p with the inscription, "Au Pet.i.t Dunkerque," was still there. It has been preserved and is now in the Carnavalet Museum.

[43] Was.h.i.+ngton's joy was in proportion to the acuteness of his anxieties; only three days before he was writing to Lafayette: "But, my dear marquis, I am distressed beyond expression to know what has become of Count de Gra.s.se, and for fear that the English fleet, by occupying the Chesapeake, toward which, my last accounts say, they were steering, may frustrate all our prospects in that quarter.... Adieu, my dear marquis; if you get anything new from any quarter, send it, I pray you, _on the spur of speed_, for I am almost all impatience and anxiety."

Philadelphia, September 2, 1781.

[44] September 7, 1781.

[45] Graves had rightly supposed that, to have been able to start so quickly, de Gra.s.se must have caused some of his s.h.i.+ps to cut their anchors' cables, marking the spot with buoys. The two frigates had been sent to gather those buoys, and were bringing several as a prize to the English admiral, when they were captured. (_Journal Particulier_, by Count de Revel, sublieutenant in the regiment of "Monsieur-Infanterie,"

p. 131.) On the 15th of September Was.h.i.+ngton wrote to de Gra.s.se: "I am at a loss to express the pleasure which I have in congratulating your Excellency ... on the glory of having driven the British fleet from the coast and taking two of their frigates."

[46] _History of the Campaigns of 1780 and 1787_, by Lieutenant-Colonel Tarleton, commandant of the late British Legion, Dublin, 1787, pp. 403 ff.

[47] A minute "Journal of the Siege" was kept by Mr. de Menonville, aide major-general, a translation of which is in the _Magazine of American History_, 1881, VII, 283.

[48] The city of Gloucester consisted of "four houses on a promontory facing York," but very well defended by trenches, ditches, redoubts, manned by a garrison of 1,200 men. (Count de Revel, _Journal Particulier_, p. 171.) A detailed account of the Gloucester siege is in this journal. Choisy "had previously won a kind of fame by his defense of the citadel of Cracow, in Poland." (_Ibid._, p. 139.)

[49] As early as 1796, when La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt visited it, the city, formerly a prosperous one, had become a borough of 800 inhabitants, two-thirds of which were colored. "The inhabitants," says the traveller, "are without occupation. Some retail spirits or cloth; some are called lawyers, some justices of the peace. Most of them have, at a short distance from the town, a small farm, which they go and visit every morning, but that scarcely fills the mind or time; and the inhabitants of York, who live on very good terms with each other, occupy both better in dining together, drinking punch, playing billiards; to introduce more variety in this monotonous kind of life, they often change the place where they meet.... The name of Marshal de Rochambeau is still held there in great veneration." _Voyage dans les Etats-Unis_, Paris, "An VII," vol. VI, p. 283.

[50] _Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States_, Philadelphia, 1812, II, 343. In the same spirit Pontgibaud notes that the British army laid down its arms "to the n.o.ble confusion of its brave and unfortunate soldiers." _Memoires du Comte de More_ (Pontgibaud), 1898, p. 104.

[51] Same good feeling on the Gloucester side. After the surrender, "les officiers anglais vinrent voir nos officiers qui etaient de service, leur firent toutes les honnetetes possible, et burent a leur sante."

(Revel, _Journal Particulier_, p. 168.) The British fleet appeared only on the 27th of October, at the entrance of the capes; thirty-one sails were counted on that day and forty-four on the next; after the 29th they were no longer seen. "Nous avons su depuis," Revel writes, "que l'Amiral Graves avait dans son armee le general Clinton, avec des troupes venues de New York pour secourir lord Cornwallis. Mais il etait trop tard; la poule etait mangee, et l'un et l'autre prirent le parti de s'en retourner." (_Ibid._, p. 178.)

[52] The work of Gabriel Brizard, a popular writer in his day: _Fragment de Xenophon, nouvellement trouve dans les ruines de Palmyre par un Anglois et depose au Museum Britannic.u.m--Traduit du Grec par un Francois_, Paris, 1783.

[53] General Eliott, later Lord Heathfield, defender of Gibraltar, well known in France not only as an enemy, but as a former pupil of the military school at La Fere.

[54] Mathieu-Dumas availed himself of his stay in Boston before sailing to go and visit, with some of his brother officers, several of the heroes of independence--Hanc.o.c.k, John Adams, Doctor Cooper: "We listened with avidity to the latter, who, while applauding our enthusiasm for liberty, said to us: 'Take care, take care, young men, that the triumph of the cause on this virgin soil does not influence overmuch your hopes; you will carry away with you the germ of these generous sentiments, but if you attempt to fecund them on your native soil, after so many centuries of corruption, you will have to surmount many more obstacles; it cost us much blood to conquer liberty; but you will shed torrents before you establish it in your old Europe.' How often since, during our political turmoils, in the course of our _bad days_, did I not recall to mind the prophetic leave-taking of Doctor Cooper. But the inestimable prize which the Americans secured in exchange for their sacrifices was never absent from my thought." (_Souvenirs du Lieutenant-General Comte Mathieu-Dumas, publies par son fils_, I, 108.) The writer notices the early formation of a "national character, in spite of the similitude of language, customs, manners, religion, principles of government with the English." (_Ibid._, 113.)

[55] _uvres_, 1865, I, 12.

[56] To Robert Livingston, Pa.s.sy, March 4, 1782.

[57] To Archibald Cary, June 15, 1782.

[58] White marble; signed and dated, Richard Hayward, London, 1773.

[59] _Memoires du Comte de More_ (formerly Chevalier de Pontgibaud), 1898, p. 56; first ed., Paris, 1827, one of Balzac's ventures as a printer.

[60] October 8, 1782. This letter, as well as the addresses, in the Rochambeau papers.

[61] A large bowl from the original set is preserved in the National Museum (Smithsonian Inst.i.tution) at Was.h.i.+ngton. It bears only the monogram and not the family arms. The wreath is of roses with a foliage which may be laurel.

[62] _Memoires, souvenirs et anecdotes_, I, 402.

[63] On which occasion the Marquis de Vaudreuil, in command of the fleet, wrote him from Boston, November 18, 1782: "Je suis vraiment touche, Monsieur, de ne pouvoir pas avoir l'honneur de vous voir ici; je m'estimais heureux de renouveler la connaissance que j'avais faite avec vous a Brest chez M. d'Orvilliers. Mais je ne puis qu'applaudir au parti que vous prenez d'eviter la tristesse des adieux et les temoignages de la sensibilite de tous vos officiers en se voyant separes de leur chef qu'ils respectent et cherissent sincerement." (Rochambeau papers.)

[64] An anecdote in the _Autobiography_ of John Trumbull, the painter, well shows how lasting were the feelings for the land and the people taken home with them by the French. The artist tells of his reaching Mulhouse in 1795, finding it "full of troops," with no accommodation of any sort. He is taken to the old general in command:

"The veteran looked at me keenly and asked bluntly: 'Who are you, an Englishman?'

"'No, general, I am an American of the United States.'

"'Ah! do you know Connecticut?'

"'Yes, sir, it is my native State.'

"'You know, then, the good Governor Trumbull?'

"'Yes, general, he is my father.'

"'Oh! mon Dieu, que je suis charme.... Entrez, entrez!'"

And all that is best is placed at the disposal of the newcomer by the soldier, who turns out to be a former member of the Lauzun legion. The artist adds: "The old general kept me up almost all night, inquiring of everybody and of everything in America." Some papers are brought for him to sign, which he does with his left hand, and, Trumbull noticing it, "'Yes,' said he, 'last year, in Belgium, the Austrians cut me to pieces and left me for dead, but I recovered, and, finding my right hand ruined, I have learned to use my left, and I can write and fence with it tolerably.'

"'But, sir,' said I, 'why did you not retire from service?'