The Glorious Cause (76 page)

H
ENRY
K
NOX

The modest, obese bookseller who becomes the self-taught master of Washington’s artillery is appointed to succeed George Washington as the second commander in chief of the American army. In that post for only a year, he becomes secretary of war in 1785, though that office is not yet given official status by the constitution. He remains in that position under President George Washington until 1794.

He falls into the trap that ensnares so many continental officers, and involves himself in land speculation in what becomes the state of Maine. He is nearly bankrupted, though he and Lucy continue to own a sizable piece of farmland near Thomaston, Maine. After resigning his position under Washington, he moves his family to their home there, called Montpelier, which is one of the finest mansions in that part of the country.

Lucy gives him twelve children, of whom only three reach adulthood. Throughout Knox’s life, he and Lucy continue to inspire the admiration of their friends for their childlike affection toward each other. They become the center of society in their small world, and Knox’s lust for food and high living is well known. On one occasion he writes, “On July Fourth, we had a small company of upwards of five hundred people.”

He dies in September 1806, at age fifty-six. Lucy lives until 1824, her widowhood described by friends as a “joyless endurance.”

C
HARLES
L
EE

After being removed from the field by Washington at the Battle of Monmouth, Lee never again serves the country in any public capacity. He is outraged at the humiliation handed him by the commanding general, and requests a formal court-martial to clear his name of the
“cruel injustice”
Washington has inflicted upon him. Instead of clearing his name, he is convicted of all charges. His continued criticism of the rank amateurism in Washington’s army inspires Frederick von Steuben, Anthony Wayne, and John Laurens to challenge him to duels. The only actual confrontation is with Laurens, who gives Lee a minor wound.

In July 1779, he returns to his home in Virginia, and in January 1780, the congress officially dismisses him from the army. He dies in Philadelphia in 1782, at age fifty-one.

D
ANIEL
M
ORGAN

After retiring to his home in the Shenandoah Valley, he returns briefly to service under Lafayette to assist in the defense against Tarleton’s Virginia raids, but his health continues to plague him, and by mid-1781, his days of active service in the Revolution are at an end.

In 1794, he accepts Washington’s request to serve during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania, returns home to Virginia, where he is elected to Congress in 1797. He takes his four hundred ninety-nine scars to his grave in Winchester, Virginia, in 1802, at age sixty-six.

Morgan is one of only eight men to be awarded congressional gold medals for his service during the war.

H
ORATIO
G
ATES

After his humiliation at the Battle of Camden, Gates returns to his home in Virginia. Incensed at the widespread and vocal disregard for his abilities, he demands an official inquiry into his performance. In 1782, a congress that is focused on the much more important task of forging a peace clears him of misconduct, though no one will speak publicly on his behalf. Returning briefly to the army, Gates is the power behind much of the fiery talk aimed at inciting the army to lay siege to the congress, which Washington defuses.

After the peace treaty, Gates returns to Virginia, suffers the death of his wife, and soon proceeds to offer his hand in marriage to several prominent women, including the widow of the heroic General Richard Montgomery, who was killed at Quebec. His quest finally lands him a marriage to a wealthy New Yorker. He dies in 1806, at age seventy-eight.

A
NTHONY
W
AYNE

Promoted to major general in 1783, “Mad Anthony” retires to the plantation given him as a reward for his service to the state of Georgia. But he discovers that farming is not always profitable, and after several financial setbacks, he returns to his home in Pennsylvania, where he serves in the assembly, and then, in 1791, is elected to Congress.

He serves the army again in an attempt to deal with Indian violence in western Pennsylvania, and in 1794, routs a large force of Indians, bringing an effective end to the conflict. On the journey home, he is stricken by illness, and dies at Erie, Pennsylvania, in December 1796. He is fifty-one.

F
REDERICK
VON
S
TEUBEN

He leaves the army in March 1784, and is granted full citizenship by his adopted country. He moves to New York City, and establishes himself as a lion of society. Always an honored guest at parties, he obliges with his martial bearing and boisterous manner. Though popular with the New York society ladies, he never marries. Granted a pension by Congress, and a significant land grant in New York state, he retires to his new home in the Mohawk Valley. He is stricken by a sudden, unexplained illness, and dies, November 1794, at age sixty-four. Leaving no heirs, his estate is bequeathed to the two adjutants who had served him throughout his experience in the American war, Majors Walker and North.

In 1910, in recognition of his extraordinary contribution to American independence, Congress erects a statue of him in Washington, D.C. A duplicate of this statue is erected the following year in Potsdam, Prussia.

T
ENCH
T
ILGHMAN

Washington’s most trusted and loyal aide resigns from the army in December 1783. He returns to Maryland, settles, and marries, in Baltimore. With an eye toward learning the relatively new business of banking, he is assisted by Robert Morris in establishing a small financial company. But he dies suddenly in 1786, at age forty-two.

H
ENRY
“L
IGHT-
H
ORSE
H
ARRY
” L
EE

Lee remains with Nathanael Greene for the concluding chapters of the war and distinguishes himself and his Legion in every major fight Greene undertakes.

In February 1782, he resigns from the army, claims ill health. He returns home to Virginia, marries his cousin, Matilda Lee, who dies in 1790. He then marries Anne Carter in 1793. He is asked by Washington to command the troops organized to put down the Whiskey Rebellion, and succeeds in restoring the peace without the loss of a single man. He serves in the United States Congress for five years, until 1788, as governor of Virginia until 1795, and returns to Congress in 1799.

Lee engages in several unwise business dealings, shows such an astounding lack of business sense that he becomes completely destitute. His creditors show no mercy to the former hero, and in 1808, he is confined for two years in a debtor’s prison. Upon his release, he travels to the West Indies, presumably to heal old war wounds, but more likely to escape his creditors. In 1818, returning to Virginia, he dies en route, and is buried at Cumberland Island, Georgia. He is sixty-two. In 1913, his remains are moved to the Lee family vault at the Lee Chapel at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He rests there alongside his son, Robert E. Lee.

Henry Lee’s memoirs, published in 1812, are widely considered one of the finest firsthand accounts produced during this era of American history.

S
ILAS
D
EANE

Attacked relentlessly by Arthur Lee’s influential friends in congress, Deane retires from public life a broken and humiliated man. He returns to France in 1781, and sinks into a personal despair that inspires him to write extremely unwise letters that pass through the hand of his secretary, Edward Bancroft, who is in fact a British spy. The letters are an exercise in bitterness, with Deane claiming that America should not continue its quest for independence. Bancroft reveals the letters so that they are made public in both England and America, and Deane has now sealed his fate. Accused not only of financial misdealings, but treason as well, he endures his remaining years in exile. He dies en route to Canada in 1789, at age fifty-two.

The man so responsible for engineering crucial French financial support does not receive his due until 1842, when Congress recognizes that Arthur’s Lee’s conspiracy against Deane was without basis, and that in fact Deane’s ledgers are accurate and his accounts entirely honest.

R
OBERT
M
ORRIS

The man so responsible for sorting out the financial quagmire of the Revolution rarely receives credit for repeatedly saving Washington’s army. Those in congress who possess none of Morris’ worldly understanding of commerce regard him instead as a man never to be trusted. Caught up in the controversy that surrounds Silas Deane, Morris’ services to congress draw to a close. Despite vicious criticism of his business practices from such notable writers as Thomas Paine, Morris still carries the enthusiastic support of George Washington, and Washington’s friends in congress, including John Adams. Morris is appointed superintendent of finances in 1781, a precursor to what will become the post of Secretary of the Treasury. With considerable financial assistance from the French, he founds the Bank of North America in 1782, and does much to prevent the utter collapse of the fledgling American economy. Receiving little support from either the congress or the states, he resigns in 1784. Exhausted and embittered, he declines Washington’s offer to serve as first Secretary of the Treasury, instead represents Pennsylvania in the United States Senate until 1795.

He continues to play a high-stakes game of business speculation, at one time owns the parcel of land that will eventually become the District of Columbia. He is dealt a serious financial blow by the aftermath of the French Revolution, and despite his considerable land holdings, finds himself with no liquid assets. Unable to pay his creditors, he is jailed for three years in a debtor’s prison, released under a clause in the new federal bankruptcy law. He dies in Philadelphia in 1806, at age seventy-three. To this day, Morris receives little credit for winning the financial battles that allowed the creation and sustenance of the Continental Army.

J
OHN
S
ULLIVAN

Having served with Washington from the siege of Boston, Sullivan never rises to the level of achievement of Washington’s other subordinates, notably Greene and Lafayette. His lackluster performance during most of the early years of the war is redeemed in 1779, when he is chosen by Washington to lead a large-scale assault into the Wyoming and Cherry Valleys of northern Pennsylvania. Sullivan leads a force of nearly four thousand men against a combined force of Indian nations, who, inspired by their alliance with the British in Canada, have pursued a campaign of brutal terror against the civilian population. Sullivan’s campaign is a complete success, is effective in removing hostile Indians from the region, and shocks the British in Canada.

He returns feeling the ill effects of the extraordinary physical ordeal, and resigns from the army in November 1779. He becomes active in New Hampshire politics, serves as attorney general, governor, and finally, as a judge. He dies in 1795, at age fifty-five.

A
LEXANDER
H
AMILTON

Washington’s aide yearns for service in the field, and after some acrimony develops between the two men, Hamilton is allowed to leave his headquarters post. Serving under Lafayette at Yorktown, Hamilton commands one of the two assaults against the final remaining British redoubts, and leads his men in a successful conquest of Redoubt #10.

He resigns from the army in December 1783, and moves to New York, where he opens a law practice. He founds a newspaper, the
New York Evening Post
, which becomes a mouthpiece for his strong views about the necessity of a strong central government. Appointed in 1787 to the Constitutional Convention, he becomes the leading advocate and most vocal supporter for what is now called the Federalist movement. He is appointed by Washington as first Secretary of the Treasury in 1789, and does much to salvage the young nation from the disastrous financial crisis in which it finds itself. He serves until 1795.

In his philosophy of Federalism, he becomes the polar opposite of Thomas Jefferson, and the two men become the leading spokesmen for their opposing causes. This serves to divide the government into distinct political parties, which survive in various forms throughout American history.

In 1795, he returns to his law practice, which becomes enormously successful. He returns to the army in 1798, to respond to a potential conflict with France, and is awarded the rank of major general.

Always vocal about his politics, Hamilton campaigns vigorously against John Adams for president. He then wages a hostile campaign against Aaron Burr for the privilege of running against Thomas Jefferson. Hamilton is widely quoted as calling Burr a “dangerous man,” and Burr responds by challenging him to a duel. In July 1804, they meet and Burr prevails. Hamilton dies the next day, and is buried at Trinity Church in New York City. He is forty-seven.

A
ND
A
CROSS THE
A
TLANTIC . . .

C
HARLES,
E
ARL
C
ORNWALLIS

On November 4, 1781, he leaves Yorktown and sails for New York, where he endures a final meeting with Henry Clinton. He returns to England the following spring, but receives surprisingly little condemnation for his part in the disasters of strategy that have plagued the English high command. In 1786, he is appointed to a much-sought-after position as governor-general of India, where he erases any stains from his American experience by his complete efficiency, both militarily and as the civil administrator of that part of the Empire. For his services, King George awards him the title of First Marquess Cornwallis, in 1793.