Henry Knox (20 page)

The two armies faced each other on Tuesday, September 16, and Knox drew his guns in line for battle. The British did not attack, however, and a torrential downpour erupted in what became known as a battle of the clouds. Knox was forced to move the field guns as the army tried to find a better position. The rain soaked the ammunition and dampened the gunpowder. Because
of poorly made cartouche boxes, 400,000 cartridges became saturated. The men, without tents, had no shelter and had nowhere to protect their provisions. "This was a most terrible stroke to us, and owning entirely to the badness of the cartouch-boxes which had been provided for the army," Knox wrote Lucy. "This unfortunate event obliged us to retire.“
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Knox moved with the army three miles north to Yellow Springs the next day and then on to nearby Warwick Furnace, where he and his men frantically tried to clean the guns and find fresh gunpowder. Meanwhile, Washington had to guard miles of the river along the Schuylkill in an attempt to prevent the British from crossing and marching to Philadelphia. Without provisions, his men could do little to bar the enemy's way. Cavalry riders reported that the royal troops had pushed toward Swede's Ford along the river. Washington sent Alexander Hamilton, Captain Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee (father of Robert E. Lee), and eight light horsemen to burn flour mills on the Schuylkill that might provide critical supplies for Howe's army, which was already strained for provisions. As Hamilton worked along the river at Valley Forge on Thursday, September 18, the advance troops of British soldiers appeared. He escaped with three other soldiers to a flat-bottom boat but was unable to destroy another ferry that could carry fifty men. All he could do was leave it adrift. As Hamilton and the soldiers battled a swift current, the redcoats raked the boat with musket fire. One of the oarsmen was killed and another wounded. When Hamilton reached the opposite shore, he wrote a frantic message to John Hancock in Philadelphia: "SIR: If Congress have not left Philadelphia they ought to do it immediately without fail; for the enemy have the means of throwing a party this night into the city.“
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The message arrived in the capital by midnight, and congressmen were awakened and warned to take flight before morning, when the British were expected to arrive. Delegates quickly packed their belongings and critical papers and began streaming out of the city, each choosing their own route of escape, beginning around 3
A.M.
on Friday, September 19. They headed north to Trenton, bound for Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

That same morning, Knox moved his guns with the rest of the army, which recrossed the Schuylkill to the east to stay between Howe's army and Philadelphia, guarding the fords. Most of the men waded into the river and then remained wet up to their chests as they marched throughout the morning darkness to take up positions along the banks. Howe tried to divert Washington's army before trying to cross the Schuylkill. On Sunday afternoon, September 21, the British marched twelve miles to the right of the
American line. Knox moved with the army to meet them. When night fell, the redcoats kindled large fires, then countermarched and crossed unopposed at Swede's Ford. General Wayne's division was near the rear of the British at Paoli, where he hoped to attack the king's soldiers as they tried to cross the river. His division was discovered, and the redcoats ambushed his force on September 21. The British removed the flints from their muskets to prevent any accidental firing from signaling their approach as they crept though the woods. They were undetected until they launched their bayonet assault. In brutal hand-to-hand fighting, fifty-three Americans were killed with bayonet wounds and a hundred were wounded, compared to just eleven British casualties.

Knox realized that the British could march unopposed into Philadelphia. At a war council on Tuesday, September 23, at Pottsgrove, about twelve miles from the national seat, he agreed with the unanimous opinion of Washington's commanders that it was useless to attack the redcoats, given the shortage of ammunition and the need for reinforcements. "We fought one battle for it [at Brandywine]," he wrote Lucy on Wednesday, "and it was no deficiency in bravery that lost us the day. Philadelphia, it seems, has been their favorite object.“
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He was disappointed but not without optimism, seeing the loss of the city as merely a temporary setback and less of a challenge than liberating Boston had been the previous year. He thought Philadelphia would be difficult to defend. What bore him up was the realization that the Continental Army was becoming battle-hardened and the men were enduring the trials of war like veterans. "The troops in this excursion of ten days without baggage suffered excessive hardships—without tents in the rain, several marches of all night, and often without sufficient provision. This they endured with the perseverance and patience of good soldiers.“
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The royal troops crossed the creek at Schuylkill Falls, only five miles from Philadelphia. On Friday, September 26, the British, led by General Cornwallis, marched triumphantly into the city. They paraded up Second Street and posted guards around the city before setting up camp on the south side of town. The Tory
Rivington's Gazette
, owned by Knox's old business connection James Rivington, reported: "The fine appearance of the soldiery, the strictness of their discipline, the politeness of the officers, and the orderly behavior of the whole body, immediately dispelled every apprehension of the inhabitants, kindled joy in the countenances of the well affected, and has given the most convincing refutation of the scandalous falsehoods which evil and
designing men have been long spreading to terrify the peaceable and innocent. A perfect tranquility now prevails in the city.“
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Howe believed his best supply route was the Delaware River. He sent men to destroy the fortifications and obstacles that Knox had helped design and to build three batteries of their own. On Saturday, September 27, the crew of an American frigate in the river ran the vessel ashore after firing only one shot at a British battery. Knox wrote a letter to Colonel Henry Jackson on Thursday, October 2, calling the crew's actions "scandalous.“
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A siege of Philadelphia began. Knox and Washington's other counselors believed that the British could not hold the city unless they destroyed the American fortifications guarding the Delaware River, which Henry had helped plan. Howe needed free passage on the river to open supply lines with the British navy before the Delaware froze. Without open river channels, the British would starve. For the Americans, the key was maintaining the river defenses for just a few more weeks until the cold weather and ice forced British ships to set out to sea.

With the British forces dividing their attention between Philadelphia and the Delaware Capes, Washington decided on Friday, October 3, to order a march to attack the enemy north of the city at Germantown, Pennsylvania. That same day, he announced to his men the victory by General Gates over Burgoyne at Freeman's Farm near Saratoga, New York, on September 19. After the series of defeats and missteps around Philadelphia, Knox was hoping for similar success "before we go into winter quarters.“
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At 6
P.M.
, the army moved out in four columns for the thirteen-mile march to Germantown, each man carrying forty rounds of ammunition. By dawn Saturday morning, General Sullivan's division drove back the British pickets and rushed forward. The surprised royal troops fled, leaving their baggage behind, and the Americans gave chase through the enemy camp, capturing several cannons before pushing on with victory within their grasp. Knox was riding with Washington with the rear troops under General Lord Stirling. As the redcoats retreated, about 200 took protection in a stone mansion owned by Benjamin Chew, a former chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The redcoats barricaded the windows, creating a formidable fortress. Washington paused as musket fire opened from the mansion. Several of his staff, including Adjutant General Timothy Pickering and aide Alexander Hamilton, thought the army should keep marching to meet up with the lead columns and ignore the barricaded troops. Some recommended storming the house if the redcoats did not
quickly surrender, or leaving a regiment to keep them hemmed in during the battle.

Knox disagreed, however, and told Washington that it was against conventional military wisdom to bypass a fortification and leave enemy troops in a position to attack from behind. Washington agreed. Henry ordered his field guns to target the house. His men riddled the stone walls with grape and shot for an hour as riflemen pelted it with musket balls while the reserve troops halted on the road to Germantown. But the light three- and six-pound cannons caused only minor damage. The redcoats fired from windows at the American troops and the men trying to storm the house. Knox felt shots dart around him, and several of his gunners were hit. In desperation, troops began to call for the house to be set on fire. One man tried to approach the house with a torch but was shot. Knox's aide, Major Chevalier de Mauduit Du Plessis of France, and Washington's aide, Colonel John Laurens of South Carolina, volunteered to try. They crept up to the mansion and crawled to a window. Knox's aide climbed to the sill and forced open a shutter. A British soldier from inside screamed at him and pointed a pistol in his direction. Du Plessis responded sarcastically that he was taking a walk. A British officer demanded that he surrender or die, upon which another redcoat shot at the Frenchman and hit his own officer instead. The two aides raced back toward their troops under cover of American musket fire, and the British sent a line of shot in their direction. Laurens was hit in the shoulder, but Du Plessis was unharmed.

The delay at the Chew House cost the rear of the army a precious hour, when every moment was needed to reinforce the battlefront.

To add to the problems created by the cannon smoke, a heavy fog rolled in. Soon visibility was reduced to just twenty to thirty yards. At the vanguard of the American advance, an intoxicated General Adam Stephen became confused by cannon fire coming from the direction of the Chew House and believed the British were attacking the rear. He ordered his men to march in the direction of the booming guns, and coming upon their comrades under General Wayne's command in the heavy mist, they mistook them for hostile troops and fired. Wayne's men returned fire, believing the British were upon them.

The American lead columns were unable to see the enemy. Under the veil of murky fog, the British scrambled to re-form their lines and began to fire, forcing the American line to retreat and chasing them ten miles. The attempt to capture the Chew House by Knox and the reserve troops proved costly; the reserves were unable to help the front-line Continentals as they were pushed
back by the royal troops. The initial hopeful signs of an American victory soon gave way to the realization of another crushing defeat. Washington ordered his troops to fall back. Knox's men were able to bring off all the artillery except for one gun. The Americans had 1,000 men killed, wounded, or captured in the Battle of Germantown from the 10,000-man force, while the British lost half that number from 9,000 men. The drunken General Stephen was cashiered out of the service and his division was given to the Marquis de Lafayette.

Three days later, from Perkiomy Creek, about twenty-seven miles from Philadelphia, Knox wrote a report of the battle to the Massachusetts Council. He blamed the fog for the defeat and failed to mention his advice to attack the Chew House. "In this unusual fog it was impossible to know how to support, or what part to push," he wrote. But he was nevertheless upbeat. "This is the first attack made during this war by the American troops on the main body of the enemy; and had it not been [for] the unlucky circumstance of the fog, Philadelphia would probably have been in our hands. It is matter worthy of observation that in most countries which have been invaded one or two battles have decided their fate; but America rises after a defeat!"

But in a letter to Lucy, he acknowledged that the failure at the mansion played a part in stealing victory: "To this cause, in conjunction with enemy's taking possession of some stone buildings in Germantown, is to be ascribed the loss of the victory.“
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Knox had lost several men in the recent battles and had been fortunate to avoid being wounded. He tried to fill his ranks with men from other battalions, but these troops were inexperienced in the use of artillery. Washington wrote Congress, which had reconvened in Yorktown, Pennsylvania, asking that artillery units from other areas be assigned to join the fight there.

The Continental Army settled into a siege of Philadelphia, as Howe's men continued to try to capture patriot forts along the Delaware to open an avenue for their ships. Henry sent his aide, Du Plessis, who had distinguished himself at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, to head the artillery at the Delaware forts. During the day, Knox could hear cannon fire and could only wonder whose arms they were.

News arrived that Fort Montgomery, along the banks of the Hudson in New York, had fallen. Henry wrote Lucy on Monday, October 13, expressing exasperation that the inhabitants had not done more to support the post. "America almost deserves to be made slaves for her non-exertions in so important an affair."

Lucy was having troubles of her own. She had doubts if she had enough money or provisions to make it through the coming winter. Henry tried to console her in a letter: "I trust the same Divine Being who brought us together will support us. . . . I have sanguine hopes of being able to live this winter in sweet fellowship with the dearest friend of my heart." He assured her that the prospects around Philadelphia looked promising, and Gates's early success against Burgoyne in New York bode well for the cause. "For my own part I have not yet seen so bright a dawn as the prospect, and am as perfectly convinced in my own mind of the kindness of Providence towards us as I am of my own existence.“
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