George Washington's Commission as Commander-in-Chief

  I was sifting through some old notes today and came across this and thought I would post it. It's George Washington's commission from the Continental Congress, dated June 17th, 1775, appointing him as General and Commander-in-Chief of the army of the "United Colonies." Washington was unanimously selected as the Commander-in-Chief on June 15th. He accepted on June 16th, and the commission was drafted and signed by John Hancock as President and Charles Thomson as Secretary on the 17th.

   John Hancock had ambitions for this post and was very perturbed when John Adams, with Samuel Adams' concurrence, nominated Washington. Hancock thought himself somewhat of a military man and liked to refer to himself as "Colonel Hancock." He, indeed was appointed as "Captain of the Company of Cadets with the rank of Colonel" in the Massachusetts militia in Boston. This was largely a ceremonial post  as the unit was called the "Governor's Guard". The only real military experience Hancock had was to lead the company of cadets on parade through the streets of Boston. Hancock's first act after his appointment was to advertise for two fifers in the Boston papers, presumably to accompany him as he marched through the streets. General Gage revoked this commission shortly after he arrived in Boston in May of 1774. Later in February of 1776 Hancock was appointed a Major-General in the Massachusetts Militia.

   Charles Thomson was born in Ireland but emigrated to the colonies as a young boy. He later made his home in Pennsylvania and was referred to by John Adams as the "Samuel Adams of Philadelphia." Thomson served as secretary of the Continental Congress throughout its existence and his name appears, as secretary, on the Declaration of Independence. Thomson's tenure as secretary was not without problems as members sometimes had problems on the manner in which Thomson recorded their remarks. On one occasion, James Searles a delegate and friend of  both John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, started a cane fight on the floor of the Congress by attacking Thomson after alleging that Thomson had misquoted him in the Minutes. Both men received slashes to the face. Who says that a secretary's position is without danger?

Washington's Commission

  

The Benedict Arnold/Dr Benjamin Church Jr Confrontation - Part Three

Osprey Men-at-Arms drawing of Benedict Arnold in the uniform of Captain of the 2nd Connecticut Foot Guards.

                                                               
   The electrifying news that the two British Forts in New York had fallen with little effort was brought to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in the saddlebags of Ethan Allen's friend, John Brown of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Naturally Allen's version quickly became the accepted version of the taking of Ticonderoga and the delegates were soon writing home calling Allen a "hero of the revolution." The euphoria  with which Brown's news had been initially greeted soon turned to consternation since many politicians were not prepared for the provocative act of seizing British forts and Crown property. The Continental Congress set up a committee on New York military affairs to be headed by the forty-three year old delegate from Virginia, Colonel George Washington. Allen and Arnold were instructed to take a complete inventory of everything taken from the Crown's fort and be prepared to return everything if peace negotiations were successful. Obviously, the Congress was not aware of the looting that had occurred. In a May 18th, 1775 resolution, the Congress urged the New York Provincial Congress to ask New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut to send in reinforcements, since the Continental Congress was not sure it had the authority to do so itself. This request, however, only created more controversy since New York, badly split over taking part in what they saw as a Massachusetts-bred revolt, had been officially ignoring all requests for aid by Allen and Arnold. But now, for the first time, the New York Committee of Safety joined with New England in opposing the Continental Congress's recommendation that Ticonderoga and Crown Point be evacuated thus leaving the New England and New York frontiers undefended.
   The Massachusetts Committee of Safety which had, until now, not publicly acknowledged Arnold's role in the campaign, now praised his efforts. The Committee Chairman, Dr Joseph Warren, according to the journal of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, wrote to Arnold that the Committee "highly approved" of his conquests and further had learned that Connecticut and New York were making "ample provisions" to reinforce him. (Reading between the lines, Arnold could determine that this was the Committee's way of saying that Massachusetts would not reinforce him.) Dr Warren went on to state that he and the committee were chagrined to hear of the command dispute between Arnold and Allen  and that Allen had, in three consecutive letters to them, asked to be relieved of command. The committee assured Arnold that it placed the "greatest confidence" in his "fidelity, knowledge, courage and good conduct"; they asked that he "at present dismiss the thoughts of quitting your important command." The letter, spread over the minutes of the Congress, clearly stated that Arnold was in overall command of the revolutionary forces on the frontier, especially in the absence of any conflicting commission from another colony's congress.
   In the meantime, the energetic Arnold set his sights on Canada. The British had a seventy ton sloop, a vessel essential for mounting a counter-assault on Ticonderoga and Crown Point from Canada, as well as a garrison of unknown size in the fortress town of St Jean, 25 miles into Canada. Arnold decided on a pre-emptive strike and, on about dawn on May 18, 1775, Arnold and about 35 men overwhelmed a sergeant and twelve regulars guarding the old and decaying French works at St. Jean. More importantly, Arnold seized the sloop from a sleeping crew of seven. Seizing another nine bateaux, five of which were sea (lake) worthy, Arnold made his escape back to Ticonderoga.

Fort St Jean - 1775

   Arnold was beside himself with joy and a sense of accomplishment. But the larger consequences of his actions eluded him. Americans under Arnold had now wantonly attacked a British fort 25 miles into Canada: the third flagrant act of rebellion by Arnold in eight days. When this news hit London, British officials, not surprisingly, concluded that the colonists were irrevocably committed to war. As a result, they were less willing to take seriously the conciliatory overtures of more cautious provincial politicians, who would keep trying to reconcile differences with the parent nation.

   We now have a situation for which the word confusion must have been invented. There was no clear cut command or political authority wishing to take responsibility for the Lake Champlain region in New York. Arnold was caught between the conflicting aims of the Continental Congress, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, the Connecticut Provincial Congress, New Hampshire and the various New York factions, not to mention his feud with Ethan Allen; all of whom clashed with his own ambitions. But our story is concerned primarily with the Massachusetts Provincial Congress which now decided to further muddy the waters. Foremost on the agenda for this Congress was to extricate Massachusetts from its commitments, especially its financial ones, in the Lake Champlain area. As a first step, the Congress wanted to see the records relating to the Committee of Safety's decision to send Arnold on "a secret warlike enterprise to the westward." Not sure "of the relation Colonel Arnold then stood, and now stands in to this colony," including his authority to raise a regiment to be in the pay of" Massachusetts, the delegates placed Arnold under their jurisdiction, at least until they shed him of all responsibilities in the Lake Champlain region. This, of course, meant getting rid of Arnold, and possibly even his regiment, as well.

   The Massachusetts Provincial Congress had the problem of funding  the massive siege of Boston, obviously its first priority.

    It now angled to have Connecticut and New York to take complete charge of the Champlain theater of war.  The delegates send a Colonel Henshaw to Watertown where the Massachusetts Provincial Congress was meeting to inform them of this development. The likelihood of Connecticut actually doing this was of little concern to Henshaw.

   It was obvious that Massachusetts was trying to wash its hands of Arnold, even, at one point, sending a communication in which it referred to Arnold as "Captain Arnold," his rank in the Connecticut militia.

  To be continued.



  

The Benedict Arnold/Dr Benjamin Church Jr Confrontation - Part Two

Late 19th century view of the capture of Fort Ticonderoga

  Down through the years, the capture of Fort Ticonderoga has been treated as an iconic event when, in fact,  the reality of what actually happened is nowhere near the legends that have surrounded it. What really happened in the early morning hours of May 10th, 1775  was that Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen, with perhaps around eighty of the Green Mountain Boys, swept past a sleeping  British sentry, overpowered a second guard and swept into the fort before the British even knew what was happening. Within ten minutes, the fort had been taken, the British garrison and about forty dependents captured, and four hundred Vermonters swarmed into the fort. Unfortunately, one of the first discoveries after capture of the fort was a a wardroom cellar underneath the officers' quarters housing ninety gallons of rum, enough liquor to keep the Green Mountain Boys drunk for three days. Allen made arrangements to send the prisoners back to Connecticut just before his boys felt compelled to celebrate their "victory" by getting roaring drink and plundering everything in the fort.

   Arnold, trapped in this drunken mess, attempted to assert his command authority. Without getting into all of the intricate details of the struggle between Arnold and Allen over who had command authority before the assault on Ticonderoga, suffice it to say that an uneasy compromise of a type of joint command prevailed before the assault. The Green Mountain Boys were not about to accept a commander that they had not elected, especially someone like Arnold, resplendent in a red uniform, who reminded them of the British officers they so despised. Not to mention that Arnold was a Connecticut citizen who held a commission in the Massachusetts militia, and that Connecticut had its own officers present with instructions to take the fort, compounded by the fact that they all were committing acts of rebellion and treason in another colony, New York, whose colonial leaders believed that Allen and his Green Mountain Boys were brigands and land thieves. A gigantic mess, but one that could be expected  now that separate and distinct colonies, with no real central authority, other than a fledgling Continental Congress still trying to come to grips with its own authority, had suddenly erupted into open rebellion against the crown.

   Arnold was thwarted in his attempt to assert control over the Green Mountain Boys' orgy of drunkenness and looting by Allen who took umbrage at anyone attempting to stop "his boys" from their "right to plunder". One wonders if Allen could have stopped them, even if he had wanted to do so. To underscore his authority, Allen had William Mott issue him a Connecticut commission so that he could keep command by authority of Connecticut ; when Arnold waived his Massachusetts commission in Allen's face, Allen could waive his Connecticut commission in Arnold's face.

   At one point, Arnold was faced with a looter who, sick and tired of Arnold's attempts to restore order and threatening the looters with military justice, leveled his musket at Arnold's chest and cocked it, threatening to kill Arnold if he continued to attempt to interfere with the looting. Arnold stared the man down and, after a few minutes, the man lowered his musket and went about his looting.

   When Silas Deane's brother arrived at the fort to assess the situation, he reported back to Connecticut that there was a war within a war at Ticonderoga. Ethan Allen and his land speculating mountain men were persecuting New Yorkers now in their power and were planning to hold the area and force their land claims on New York. Disgusted, Arnold confined himself to the officers quarters waiting arrival of his recruits from Western Massachusetts. He continued to write reports to his patron Dr Warren and the Massachusetts Provincial Congress.

   Arnold, for all his skills, was politically naive. As a popular leader in New Haven, the successful and wealthy Arnold, had relied on confrontation and intimidation to achieved his purposes. He was a neophyte in the realm of political debate and backroom politics. Within twenty four hours of taking Ticonderoga, Ethan Allen taught him how to play politics for private advantage and exposed Arnold as a naive and fumbling politician. So undeft was Arnold that, by the end of June 1775, he had nearly destroyed his prospects for continuing his military career.

   While Arnold stalked the fort and fired off letters to Warren, Allen was busy writing his account of the taking of Ticonderoga. Allen's accounts varied from day to day and for four years he continued to embellish them. In his first account to the Massachusetts Congress, Allen took sole credit for the capture of Ticonderoga, did not mention Arnold by name, but said that his friend and crony James Easton had led Arnold's fifty Massachusetts troops "with great zeal and fortitude. (Arnold later charged that Easton had cowered down by the boats along the lake, pretending to dry his musket until the attack was over.) Allen also praised his attorney friend, John Brown, who was well known in Massachusetts politics, stating that he had been involved in the attack when he had actually been in a tavern across the lake during it. The two men mentioned by Allen held personal grudges against Arnold. John Brown had worked in Arnold's cousin Oliver's law office in Rhode Island and was bitter towards the Arnold family after being fired. Tavern keeper Easton, like Brown, was a self-styled militia colonel who thought that he, not Arnold, should have been commissioned to lead the Massachusetts troops and now was working hard to discredit Arnold and gain Arnold's colonelcy.

  Allen continued to write letters to various officials and individuals in Massachusetts and Connecticut, embellishing and changing his account of the campaign to capture Ticonderoga and the other forts to serve his and his allies purposes.

   Arnold wrote to Cambridge with his final report only after learning of Allen and his friends' duplicity. To his friend and patron, Dr Warren, Arnold wrote:

Beg leave to observe, I have had intimation given me, that some persons had determined to apply to you and the provincial Congress, to injure me in your esteem by misrepresenting matters of fact. I know of no other motive they can have only my refusing them commission from the very simple reason that I did not think them qualified. However, gentlemen, I have the satisfaction of imagining I am employed by gentlemen of so much candor that my conduct will not be condemned until I have the opportunity of being heard.

  To add insult to injury, on May 12th, 1775, about fifty Green Mountain Boys under Seth Warner, most of whom had missed the Ticonderoga assault, seized the British fort at Crown Point. Together, Crown Point and Ticonderoga yielded 201 artillery pieces, some 100 of which were in usable condition. Eventually, fifty-seven of these pieces, the heaviest of which weighed a ton, were manhandled across the Berkshires, then the width of Massachusetts before being set up on Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston from the South. It was the placement of these guns, which threatened the British fleet in Boston harbor that forced the British to evacuate the city in mid-March 1776.

Crown Point

  

     All of this rancor and manuvering by Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold, James Easton, etc would play a part when Arnold returned to Cambridge and tried to deal with the effcts of all of this. It was then he would run into Dr Church.

To be Continued.