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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Clinton do? The wounded officer of Jo- 

 hannisberg, the winner of Charleston, Sir 

 Henry Clinton, a lieutenant general and 

 former member of Parliament, enjoying 

 great repute, was holding New York, not 

 yet the second city of the world nor even 

 the first of the United States, covering 

 only with its modest houses, churches, 

 and gardens the lower part of Manhat- 

 tan, and reduced, owing to the war, to 

 10,000 inhabitants. 



But, posted there, the English com- 

 mander threatened the road on which the 

 combined armies had to move. He had 

 at his disposal immense stores, strong 

 fortifications, a powerful fleet to second 

 his movements, and troops equal in num- 

 ber and training to ours. 



There are periods in the history of 

 nations when, after a continuous series 

 of misfortunes, when despair would have 

 seemed excusable, suddenly the sky clears 

 and everything turns their way. In the 

 War of American Independence such a 

 period had begun. The armies of Wash- 

 ington and Rochambeau, encumbered 

 with their carts, wagons, and artillery, 

 had to pass rivers, to cross hilly regions, 

 to follow muddy tracks ; any serious at- 

 tempt against them might have proved 

 fatal ; but nothing was tried. It was of 

 the greatest importance that Clinton 

 should, as long as possible, have no inti- 

 mation of the real plans of the Franco- 

 Americans ; everything helped to mislead 

 him — his natural disposition as well as 

 circumstances. 



CUNTOX'S FATAL ERROR 



He had an unshakable conviction that 

 the key to the whole situation was New 

 York, and that the royal power in Amer- 

 ica, and he, too, Lieut. Gen. Sir Henry 

 Clinton, would stand or fall with that 

 city. Hence his disinclination to leave it 

 and to attempt anything outside. His in- 

 structions ordered him to help Cornwallis 

 to his utmost, the plan of the British 

 court being to conquer the Southern 

 States first, and then continue the con- 

 quest northward. But he, on the con- 

 trary, was day after day asking Corn- 

 wallis to send back some of his troops. 



A great source of light, and, as it 

 turned out, of darkness also, was the in- 



tercepting of letters. This constantly 

 happened in those days, to the benefit or 

 bewilderment of both parties, on land or 

 at sea. But luck had decidedly turned, 

 and the stars shone propitious for the 

 allies. We captured valuable letters, and 

 Clinton misleading ones. 



On the 1 8th of August the two armies 

 raised their camps, disappeared, and, fol- 

 lowing unusual roads, moving northward 

 at first for three marches, reached in the 

 midst of great difficulties, under a torrid 

 heat, greatly encumbered with heavy bag- 

 gage, the Hudson River and crossed it at 

 King's Ferry, without being more inter- 

 fered with than before. 



How can such an inaction on the part 

 of Clinton be explained? "It is for me," 

 writes Count Guillaume de Deux-Ponts 

 in his journal, the manuscript of which 

 was found on the quays in Paris and 

 printed in America, "an undecipherable 

 enigma, and I hope I shall never be re- 

 proached for having puzzled people with 

 any similar ones." 



The river once crossed, the double 

 army moved southward by forced 

 marches. Rochambeau, in order to has- 

 ten the move, prescribed the leaving be- 

 hind of a quantity of effects; and. this, 

 says Closen, "caused considerable grumb- 

 ling among the line," which grumbled, 

 but marched. 



The news, to be sure, of so important 

 a movement came to Clinton ; but, since 

 the stars had ceased to smile on him, he 

 chose to conclude, as he wrote to Lord 

 Germain on the 7th of September, "this 

 to be a feint." When he discovered that 

 it was not "a feint" the Franco-American 

 army was beyond reach. "What can be 

 said as to this?" Closen writes merrily. 

 "Try to see better another time," and he 

 draws a pair of spectacles on the margin 

 of his journal. 



Philadelphia's welcome 



The march southward thus continued 

 unhampered. They crossed first the Jer- 

 seys, "a land of Cockayne, for game, fish, 

 vegetables, poultry." Closen had the hap- 

 piness to "hear from the lips of General 

 Washington, and on the ground itself, a 

 description of the dispositions taken, the 

 movements and all the incidents of the 



