Lafayette (26 page)

Both men put aside—and quickly forgot—their differences and got on with the business of the Revolution. Washington bowed to French sensitivities and military tradition and agreed to deal directly with Rochambeau, and he deferred to Rochambeau’s inclination to remain in Rhode Island until reinforcements arrived from France. In fact, thirty British vessels had blockaded the French port of Brest and ended any possibility of French reinforcements, while another thirteen British frigates and ships of the line sailed into New York, to make that port all but impregnable.

Without French support to launch a major offensive, Washington reorganized his forces, shifting to a defensive posture. He put the heroic general Benedict Arnold in charge of the quiet northern fortifications at West Point, an important defensive position, but far from any likely battle activity. After his daring capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, Arnold suffered a crippling wound in the disastrous American assault on Quebec the following year, and his injuries left him reluctant to assume any more battlefield commands. As a result, Washington gave Lafayette command of the Light Division, a unit more likely to see battlefield action as an advanced element of the Continental army, encamped nearly fifty miles south on the west bank of the Hudson River, opposite New York.

Lafayette’s division was an elite corps of about 2,000 light infantry,
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made up of carefully selected companies from the New Hampshire, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania lines. He clothed them in handsome uniforms he had bought in France, along with swords, cockades, and epaulets for officers, and distinctive patches and red and black plumes for every soldier. Steuben-style drills each day transformed them into the snappiest, most distinctive unit in the northern army, renowned for their
unmatched esprit de corps. Divided into two companies, under Generals Enoch Poor and Edward Hand, the Light Division had four cannon and 100 riflemen and included among its officers Lafayette’s former aide Colonel Jean-Joseph Gimat and a young Virginia major, Henry Lee, who commanded the 300-man Light Horse Corps. They carried their own pennants that Lafayette had had fabricated in France, bearing the Latin motto
Ultimo Ratio
—“the final reckoning.” Although the motto was new to Americans, Louis XIV had embossed all his cannons with the words
Ultimo Ratio Regum
, “the king’s final reckoning,” to inspire fear in the enemies of France. Lafayette bought himself an appropriate horse “of a perfect whiteness and the greatest beauty” for a knight to lead and inspire his men in battle. He was breathtaking atop his horse, leading his proud, handsomely equipped division—truly, the legendary knight of old he had always imagined himself. “They were the pride of his heart,” said Dr. James Thacher, “and he was the idol of their regard.”
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Lafayette would later recall proudly that “the affection between the members of that corps and its leader became legendary in the American army. Like the traveler who brings home presents from distant lands for family and friends, [I] had returned from France with a costly collection of ornaments for my soldiers, swords for officers and their junior officers, and banners for the battalions. This troop of chosen men, well drilled and disciplined, were easily recognized by their red and black plumes.”
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By the end of August, however, he and they had seen no action. Like two boxers, the English and Patriot forces bobbed, weaved, and feinted in various directions, but, in the end, they stayed put. None of the supplies France had promised arrived, however, and the American army’s condition deteriorated. Moreover, Congress had been unable to persuade all the states to contribute men, arms, or supplies. Congress grew so discouraged by its impotence that it talked of dissolving and ceding all authority to Washington—in effect, giving him dictatorial powers to impress soldiers and confiscate supplies and specie.

On September 17, 1780, Washington took matters into his own hands and set out by coach for Hartford, Connecticut, to meet Rochambeau. With him were Lafayette, Hamilton, Brigadier General Henry Knox, commander of artillery, a handful of aides, and a cavalry escort. The next day, they stopped to lunch with General Arnold, near West Point. Lafayette and Arnold had met—and liked each other—two years earlier at the time of the abortive Canadian invasion. After lunch, Arnold ferried Washington and the others across the Hudson before returning to his command. Washington promised to stop at West Point on his return to inspect the fortifications and dine with Arnold and his wife, the Philadelphia socialite Peggy Shippen.

Three days later, the Washington party reached Hartford, to booming cannons—thirteen rounds—and the cheers of the staunchly Patriot citizenry. Washington, Lafayette, Rochambeau, de Ternay, and French ambassador La Luzerne spent the next two days in private meetings, with Lafayette translating for Washington. By the end of the second day, they issued an unusual document, written in French, in two columns, with the left-hand column representing Rochambeau’s point of view, paragraph by paragraph. Washington’s answers to each point appeared in the right-hand column:

The discussions produced such complete agreement—especially on the failure of French strategists at Versailles to estimate British strength correctly—that there was no need to translate the document into English. “There was perfect understanding between the Americans and French, who seem entirely satisfied with the generalissimo [Washington],” Lafayette wrote to Adrienne after the conference. “I do not know when the troops of the two nations will be combined under his orders, but I am sure they will work together in complete harmony.”
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Rochambeau, de Ternay, La Luzerne, and Washington agreed the Americans would need a land force of no less than 30,000 troops—10,000 of them French—to dislodge the British from New York, and a powerful fleet of no less than thirty ships of the line. La Luzerne pledged to send the agreement to Versailles with his recommendation that the French court adopt and act on it. Both the French and American commanders would keep their forces in their current positions until they received a response.

On the morning of September 25, Washington and Lafayette left for West Point to inspect the towering greystone fortress on the bluffs above the
Hudson River. As they approached, they sent word to General and Mrs. Arnold of their imminent arrival and to expect them for lunch. Lafayette described the events that followed in a letter he wrote from West Point that evening to the French Ambassador:

When I left you yesterday morning, Monsieur le Chevalier, to come here to lunch with General Arnold, we were far from foreseeing the event I shall now describe to you. . . . West Point was sold, and it was sold by Arnold! The same who had covered himself with glory and signal services to his country recently signed a despicable pact with the enemy, and, but for our chance arrival at midday and a series of chance events that led to the fall of the adjutant-general of the British army into the hands of some [Patriot] farmers . . . West Point and the North River would probably have now been in the hands of the enemy. . . . The plan was to come up suddenly before West Point and to present all the appearance of an attack. Arnold intended to say that he had been surprised by a superior force.
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What Lafayette could not know was that Arnold had accepted £6,315 (about $50,000 in today’s currency) from British general Henry Clinton to commit treason. Without adding the obvious—that he, Washington, and Hamilton would also have been in enemy hands—Lafayette described the rest of the day’s harrowing events:

When we left Fishkill yesterday, we were preceded by one of my aides-de-camp and General Knox’s aide, who found General and Mrs. Arnold at table and who sat down to breakfast with them. During that time two letters were brought to General Arnold telling of the capture of a spy. He ordered a horse saddled, went to his wife’s room and told her that he was done for, and he ordered his aide-de-camp to tell Washington that he had gone to [the village of] West Point and would return in an hour.

On our arrival here, we crossed the river and went to examine the works. You can imagine our surprise when, on our return, we learned that the arrested spy was Major [John] André, adjutant-general of the English army; and that among the papers found on his person were a copy of an important council of war, the strength of the garrison and works, and observations on the means of attack and defense, all written in General Arnold’s hand.

We chased after Arnold, but he escaped in a boat to the English frigate
Vulture
, and, since no one suspected he was fleeing, none of the sentries thought to stop him. Colonel Hamilton, who chased after him, received soon after, under a flag of truce, a letter from Arnold to the general [Washington] giving no details to justify his treason, and an insolent letter from the English commander Robertson demanding release of the adjutant general, who had only acted with permission of General Arnold.

The first concern of the general [Washington] has been to assemble at West Point the troops that Arnold had dispersed, under various pretexts [to facilitate British capture of the fort]. We have remained here to supervise security of the fort. . . . We have summoned additional Continental Army troops, and since Arnold might convince Clinton to make a sudden attack, the army has been ordered to march on a moment’s notice.
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Arnold’s treason hurt Lafayette deeply, violating every principle of knightly chivalry that had been the foundation of his life. “I cannot describe to you, M. le Chevalier, to what degree I am astounded by this piece of news,” Lafayette went on:

In the course of a revolution such as ours it is natural that a few traitors should be found, and every conflict which resembles a civil war . . . must necessarily bring to light some great virtues and some great crimes. Our struggles have brought forward some heroes . . . [and] some great scoundrels. . . . But that an Arnold, a man who . . . had given proof of talent, of Patriotism, and, especially, of the most brilliant courage, should at once destroy his very existence and should sell his country to the tyrants whom
he had fought against with glory . . . confounds and distresses me . . . humiliates me to a degree that I cannot express. I would give anything in the world if Arnold had not shared our labors with us, and if this man, whom it still pains me to call a scoundrel, had not shed his blood for the American cause. My knowledge of his personal courage led me to expect that he would decide to blow his brains out.
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After discovering Arnold’s treason, Washington summoned Wayne and his troops to man the West Point fortifications, and he put Nathanael Greene in command. Before taking his new post, Greene convened a court-martial in the Congregational Church in Tappan, New York, on September 29, appointing Lafayette, Henry Knox, Lord Stirling, and eleven other major generals and brigadier generals to decide André’s fate. They were unanimous: captured using a false name, in civilian clothes, André had acted as a spy and had no recourse to treatment as a prisoner of war. They condemned the winsome young man to death, despite pleas from locals to spare him. At noon, on October 2, 1780, they hanged him from a gibbet atop a thickly wooded hill and buried his body there, several hundred yards from the church and the sacred ground where Patriot soldiers lay buried. He was twenty-nine years old.
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“He was an interesting man,” Lafayette wrote to Adrienne, “the confidant and friend of General Clinton; he conducted himself in such a frank, noble and honorable way that, during the three days we imprisoned him, I was foolish enough to develop a real liking for him. In strongly voting to sentence him to the gallows, I could not help regret what happened to him.”
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