01:17 PM EDT on Thursday, June 29, 2006

BY GERALD M. CARBONE
Journal Staff Writer

Baron von Knyphausen marched 6,000 troops over a bridge of boats connected by planks spanning Staten Island Sound. He came into New Jersey on June 6, 1780, buoyed with the news of a big British victory in Charleston, S.C., and with the belief that Washington's troops were ready to mutiny.

Von Knyphausen hoped to rouse the local Loyalists and win support from Washington's mutinous troops. He'd be sorely disappointed on both counts.

Von Knyphausen's troops torched the first village they marched through, Connecticut Farms; there they also shot dead Hannah Caldwell, the wife of a local minister.

Instead of friendly Loyalists, von Knyphausen encountered angry New Jersey militia who drove his men from Springfield, N.J., clear back to the pontoon bridge beyond Elizabeth Town.

The two sides held their positions for a couple of weeks, each puzzled by the actions of the other.

Washington grew tired of waiting. He could see no logic behind von Knyphausen's attack; he assumed it must be a feint to draw attention, with a major assault to follow on the American fortress at West Point, N.Y. Washington put most of his men in motion toward West Point, keeping only 1,000 regulars plus militia in Springfield, all under the command of Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene.

On June 9, Greene wrote to his wife from the burned village of Elizabeth Town: What their further intentions are we know not; and therefore have to wait their motions.

'Those brave soldiers'

The sun rises early in mid-June, and on this day, June 23, 1780, it had been up about an hour when alarm guns boomed over Greene's Army camp. Drummers beat "to arms," a snappy rift announcing the approach of an enemy force.

Greene was then encamped in Springfield, a place that he described as that beautiful village nestled betwen the foothills of the Watchung Mountains and the clear Rahway River.

From his post Greene saw about five thousand Infantry with a large body of Cavalry and fifteen or twenty pieces of Artillery marching his way. Their march was rapid and compact.

Greene, grossly outnumbered with only 1,000 regulars and perhaps 1,500 militiamen, posted his troops on the high ground behind the town. He assigned Col. Israel Angell's Second Rhode Island Regiment with one cannon to harass the British as they crossed the bridge spanning the Rahway River. As at Red Bank in 1777, a Hessian commander once again confronted Rhode Island regulars.

Dr. James Thacher, a Continental surgeon, wrote in his diary that day:

"Colonel Angell's regiment of Rhode Island with several small parties, were posted at a bridge over which the enemy were to pass, and their whole force of five or six thousand men was actually held in check by those brave soldiers for more than forty minutes, amidst the severest firing of cannon and musketry.

"The enemy, however, with their superior force advanced into the village and wantonly set fire to the buildings. We had the mortification of seeing the church and twenty or thirty" houses and stores crackling with fire.

Washington heard that Greene was retreating in the face of a much-larger enemy; he reluctantly turned his troops around to help him. But Washington had only marched 5 miles when word came from Greene at 11 a.m. that he'd need no help. After burning Springfield, von Knyphausen's troops had retreated back into New York.

This was the last battle of any size fought in the North, as King George III had dictated a new strategy to bring the Rebels to heal: subdue the southern Colonies and the more rebellious places would fall for lack of supplies.

Greene reported losses of 14 killed and 74 wounded, while observing: The inhabitants of Elizabeth Town inform us, that they counted eighteen wagon load of dead and wounded British and Hessian troops straggling back to New York.

Greene wrote to Washington from Springfield: I lament that our force was too small to save the town from ruin. I wish every American could have been a Spectator, they would have felt for the sufferers and joined to revenge the injury.

The French in Newport

Summer 1780 brought big goings on to Newport:

in mid-July a fleet of French warships dropped anchor in Newport Harbor, using the town as a staging area for a planned invasion of New York.

From camp in New Jersey, Greene worried that his fellow Rhode Islanders would be rude to their French guests. He told cousin Griffin to act in that polite and friendly way, which I know you are very capable of. . . . I hope the inhabitants of the State will exert themselves a little, to convince the French Officers, that we give them a most cordial reception. But such is the state of Human Nature, and the caprice of mankind, that it is ten to one if we ever part with the same good will toward each other, that we came together with.

Actually, Greene need not have worried. The people of Rhode Island treated the French well, his wife, Caty, among them. On a trip to Newport she invited French officers to visit her at Coventry, and one Claude Blanchard accepted the offer:

"Mrs. Greene received us very kindly," he wrote. "She is amiable, genteel and rather pretty. As there was no bread in her house, some was hastily made; it was of meal and water mixed together; which was then toasted at the fire; small slices of it were served up to us. It is not much for a Frenchman. . . .

"Another country-house is pretty near, inhabited by two ladies, who compose all the society that Mrs. Greene has; in the evening she invited them to her house, and we danced."

Blanchard was not impressed with the dancing: "Neither the men nor the women dance well; all stretch out and lengthen their arms in a way far from agreeable."

Foraging missions

Gen. George Washington was obsessed with attacking the heavily fortified British garrison in New York; Greene thought Washington was tilting at windmills: Has not the project something "Don Quixotal" in it?" Greene wrote to a friend. Nonetheless he worked hard gathering boats and food and forage for the planned attack.

In a sarcastic letter that caused a commotion in Congress, Greene had resigned as quartermaster general in mid-July 1780; but he'd agreed to stay on until his replacement came to camp. With no money, Greene found it impossible to obtain the supplies he needed for Washington's adventure. Finally, Washington ordered Greene to take from local farmers whatever they had that he needed: "you will make the forage as extensive as possible in the Articles of hay and grain as well as in Cattle, hogs and sheep fit for slaughter; and horses fit for the use of the Army."

Soldiers sent on foraging missions used the order as an excuse to plunder. Their behavior so angered Greene that he decided to kill one of his own soldiers to set an example.

From Three Pigeons, N.J., Greene wrote to Washington on Aug. 26:

The instances of plunder and violence is equal to any thing committed by the Hessians. Two soldiers were taken that were out upon the business both of which fired on the Inhabitants to prevent their coming to give intelligence about abuses to Greene. I think it would have a good effect to hang one of these fellows in the face of the troops without form of a tryal. . . . if your Excellency will give permission I will have one hung up this afternoon where the Army is to march by.

Washington agreed, and the next day Greene reported to one of his cavalry officers, Light-Horse Henry Lee: I directed one fellow belonging to the 10th Pennsylvania Regiment, to be hung without judge or jury as an example to the rest. Lee could empathize; he had once beheaded a deserter and propped the head up in camp as an example to the rest.

Soon Greene would order another execution, the hanging of John André, the British officer who helped Benedict Arnold's treachery at West Point.

Enter Rochambeau

In Newport, Lafayette kept badgering the French Army's commander to attack New York City; he told the commander that the attack was also Washington's wish.

The commander -- Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur Comte de Rochambeau -- did not believe it. Rochambeau suspected this impetuous young officer was employing Washington's name to support his own ambitions.

Rochambeau and the admiral in charge of the French fleet at Newport decided that they had to speak with Washington in person to discuss their future operations.

Washington commanded his army from the field in northern New Jersey; he agreed to meet Rochambeau halfway, at the home of Jeremiah Wadsworth in Hartford, Conn.

On Sept. 16, 1780, Washington wrote to Greene:

"Tomorrow I set out for Hartford, on an interview with the French General and Admiral. In my absence the command of the army devolves upon you. I have so intire confidence in your prudence and abilities, that I leave the conduct of it to your discretion."

Greene felt flattered by having command of the American Army, joking to Caty: His Excellency is from camp, and I have the command of the army. This makes a great man of me for a few days.

The first few days of Greene's command passed easily enough; he wrote Washington an update: The army is without rum; food was scarce, but an impressment party turned up 200 head of cattle. And: There has been some firing on the East side of the North [Hudson] river at the shipping that lay near Tallard's [Teller's] Point; but I have no count of what effect it has more than to make the shipping move a little further from Shore.

The firing that Greene heard had forced the British sloop Vulture to slip back down the Hudson River without picking up a spy that it had previously dropped on the western shore. The capture of that spy would soon reveal the treason of America's most notorious traitor: Benedict Arnold.

gcarbone@projo.com / (401) 277-7434

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sources consulted for today's installment:

Boatner III, Mark M. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Stackpole Books: Mechanicsburg, Pa., 1994.

Kimball, Gertrude Selwyn, ed. Pictures of Rhode Island in the Past. Preston and Rounds Co.: Providence, 1900.

Hattendorf, John B. Newport, the French Navy, and American Independence. The Redwood Press: Newport, 2005.

Royster, Charles. Light-Horse Harry Lee and the Legacy of the American Revolution. Louisiana State University Press by arrangement with Alfred A. Knopf Inc.: Baton Rouge, 1981.

Scheer, George F., and Rankin, Hugh F. Rebels & Redcoats. Da Capo Press Inc.: United States of America, 1987. copyright The World Publishing Company, 1957.

Showman, Richard K., ed. The Papers of Nathanael Greene, Vol. VI. The University of North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill, 1991.

A continuing series.