1782.

STATE OF THE AMERICAN ARMIES.

177

It was not merely in this case that the patience of Wash ington was tried by the slowness and unwillingness of Congress. His correspondence at that period teems with complaints, unheeded complaints, of his necessities. No measures were taken to maintain the war, if necessary, for another year, or to satisfy the troops, who murmured and sometimes mutinied from their long arrear of pay. In like manner they were left almost destitute both of clothing and of food. It is hard to say, whether the southern army under General Greene, or the northern under General Washington, endured the most. Thus writes Greene: "For upwards "of two months more than one-third of our men were en"tirely naked, with nothing but a breech-cloth about them, "and never came out of their tents; and the rest were as "ragged as wolves. Our condition was little better in the "article of provision. Our beef was perfect carrion, and "even bad as it was we were frequently without any." Thus writes Washington: "It is vain, Sir, to suppose that mili"tary men will acquiesce contentedly in bare rations, when "those in the civil walk of life, unacquainted with half the "hardships they endure, are regularly paid the emoluments "of office. Only conceive then the mortification they must "suffer, even the General Officers, when they cannot invite "a French officer, a visiting friend, or a travelling ac"quaintance to a better repast than stinking whiskey hot "from the still, and not always that, and a bit of beef with"out vegetables will afford them.... I could give anec"dotes of patriotism and distress which have scarcely ever "been paralleled, never surpassed, in the history of man"kind. But you may rely upon it, that the patience and "long-sufferance of this army are almost exhausted, and "that there never was so great a spirit of discontent as at "this instant. It is high time for a peace!" *

melted a much harder nature than Marie Antoinette's. "My husband (Sir "Charles) given over by his physicians a few hours before the news "arrived, and not in a state to be informed of the misfortune; my daughter "seized with a fever and delirium, raving about her brother; &c."

*The letter of Greene (as given in Gordon's History, vol. iv. p. 292.) Mahon, History. VII.

12

So far indeed had the spirit of discontent spread in the American army, that it was aimed not only at the Congress but at the Republican form of government itself. In the month of May, 1782, Washington received a communication on the part of several of his officers desiring to make him chief of the State, and, if possible, with the title of King. But no feeling of ambition could lure that great and good man from the path of duty. He replied to this overture, that he must view it with abhorrence and reprehend it with severity.*

In the West Indies, Sir George Rodney had come back from England and resumed the chief command. But the shafts of calumny still pursued him from home. The party prejudice against him may be forgiven in a landsman like Burke; less readily in that experienced Admiral to whom the naval administration was entrusted. Lord Keppel, whom we have seen so keenly sensitive to any supposed slight or disparagement to himself, appears to have acted with the coldest disdain, with the most unjustifiable severity towards an officer, it may be said without offence, greatly his superior in professional renown. Not only did he decide on recalling Rodney from the post which he so ably filled, but he did so without one expression of kindness or concern; he did so not even in his own hand or name, but in a dry official letter from his Secretary, Mr. Stephens. That letter of revocation bears date the 1st of May. But even before that date Rodney, by the blessing of Providence, had secured to all ages his country's glory and his own, and turned the Rockingham Ministers, however unwillingly, from his contemptuous recall to his promotion and his praise. **

is dated August 13., and that of Washington to the Secretary at War, October 2. 1782. Yet the Secretary at War (General Benjamin Lincoln), writing to Dr. Franklin, in the course of this very autumn, thought himself entitled to state: "We have now a better army in the field than we have had at any "time before during the war. They are well clothed and in high dis"cipline." See Franklin's Works, vol. ix p. 413.

Washington's Writings, vol. viii. pp. 300. and 353.

**The biographer of Rodney (Life by General Mundy, vol. ii. p. 331.) and, after him, the biographer of Keppel (Life by the Hon. and Rev. Thomas Keppel, vol. ii. p. 380.), throw out some surmises that in recalling Rodney

1782. RODNEY'S ACTIVITY IN THE WEST INDIES.

179

At this time the Comte de Grasse, flushed with the recent reduction of the greater part of the Leeward Islands, was contemplating the more mighty conquest of Jamaica. He had retired to Port Royal in Martinico to collect and refit his naval force, and to take on board 5,000 troops with which he intended to effect a junction off St. Domingo with another Spanish armament. So confident were the Spaniards of success in this combined expedition, that General Galvez appointed to command their share in it, was, before he sailed from the Havanna, addressed in Council as the "Governor of "Jamaica." On the other hand, "I am come" thus wrote Rodney to the real Governor, "with a spirit firmly deter"mined to prevent so important a jewel being wrested from "the Crown of Great Britain..... "My fleet," he adds in another letter, "at present consists of thirty-six sail of the "line, though several of them are in very bad condition."* He had set cruisers off Port Royal to watch every movement of the enemy, and transmit it by a chain of frigates. On the 8th of April, the signal was accordingly made that the French they were thirty-three sail of the line - had unmoored and were proceeding to sea. The British fleet was anchored inSt. Lucia, but kept in constant readiness; thus in little more than two hours after the signal was received, all our ships were under weigh, standing towards the enemy with all the sail they could crowd. Sir George Rodney in the Formidable was at the head of the main fleet, while a separate division was commanded by Sir Samuel Hood in the Barfleur. It was the evident policy of the British chief to anticipate the junction of the French and Spaniards by forcing on a battle, which for the corresponding reason the French desired to postpone. "They kept at an awful distance," wrote Rodney to his wife. Some foreigner unversed in our common and colloquial phrases might here exclaim that it was the French

Keppel may have acted in obedience to Lord Rockingham, and against his own opinion. But of this plea there is no proof, and were it true, it is no

excuse.

* To Governor Dalling, March 5., and to Lady Rodney, March 9. 1782.

men's distance only that could strike his gallant heart with awe!

On the 9th there ensued a partial and indecisive cannonade, by which, however, two of the enemy's ships were much damaged and the rest in some measure delayed. Next night, one more of their ships was crippled by running foul of another, and produced a fresh delay. Thus, on the evening of the 11th, Rodney was enabled to bring up his fleet so close as to render inevitable for the morrow the conflict which he sought; and the night which ensued, was passed on both sides in anxious preparation.

It was at seven in the morning of the 12th of April, that the battle began. There was so little wind, that the six hindmost sail of Hood's division were becalmed and unable to come up until almost the end of the conflict; thus, allowing for three of the French disabled, the number of the ships engaging was exactly equal on each side. Rodney, on this memorable day, was the first, not indeed to invent or to devise, but to put in practice, the bold manœuvre known by the name of "breaking the line." His own ship, the Formidable, led the way, nobly supported by the Namur, the Duke, and the Canada. After taking and returning the fire of one half of the French force, under one general blaze and peal of thunder along both lines, the Formidable broke through that of the enemy. "In the act of doing so”. thus continues an eye-witness of the scene- "we passed within pistol"shot of the Glorieux of seventy-four guns, which was so "roughly handled that she was shorn of all her masts, bow"sprit, and ensign-staff, but with the white flag nailed to the "stump of one of her masts, and breathing defiance as it "were in her last moments. Thus become a motionless hulk, "she presented a spectacle which struck our Admiral's fancy "as not unlike the remains of a fallen hero; for being an in"defatigable reader of Homer, he exclaimed, that now was "to be the contest for the body of Patroclus."* In that

Narrative by Doctor (Sir Gilbert) Blane; Life by General Mundy, vol. ii. p. 230. In the Memoirs of Mr. Cumberland (vol. i. p. 410.) the men

1782. HIS GREAT VICTORY OVER COMTE DE GRASSE.

181

contest a most important advantage was already gained. For the enemy's fleet, being now, as it were, cut asunder, fell into confusion and could not again be combined. The French, however, still fought on with their usual high spirit and intrepidity; nor did the firing cease till sunset, nearly eleven hours from its first commencement. It was stated to Rodney by persons who had been appointed to watch, that there never was seven minutes' respite during the whole engagement, "which I believe," adds Rodney, "was the seve"rest ever fought at sea." At the close of the day, the English had taken five large ships and sunk another, besides two more which Sir Samuel Hood afterwards captured in their retreat. Thronged as were the French vessels with troops, the slaughter on board them was immense. It was computed, perhaps with some exaggeration, that in the two actions of the 9th and 12th together, they had 3000 slain and twice as many wounded; while the loss of the English in all kinds, did not much exceed 900.

In none of the French ships was the loss of men more severe, or the resistance braver, than in the Ville de Paris, where De Grasse himself commanded. That great ship, the pride of the French navy, and conspicuous far and near as overtopping all others in its size, seemed, as Rodney might have said, like one of Homer's heroes in the meaner ranks of war. De Grasse continued to fight long after the fortune of the battle was decided. It was only when the Barfleur, coming up at last, poured in a fresh broadside, and when, as is alleged, there were but three men left alive and unhurt on the upper deck - De Grasse himself being one of the three that the Ville de Paris struck her flag. "The thrill "of ecstasy" thus writes a by-stander, Dr. Blane, "that "penetrated every British bosom in the triumphant moment "of her surrender, is not to be described." So high, indeed, was the renown of that great ship, that when a King's messenger brought the news of the battle to Plymouth, some

tion of Patroclus is transferred to Rodney's Captain and friend, Sir Charles Douglas.