ARRIVAL OF THE FRENCH FLEET.

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and vied with the troops in spirit and courage. Meeting with such serious opposition, the general retreated to Elizabethtown Point, opposite Staten Island. In the mean time, Clinton having returned from Charleston with his victorious troops, ordered a reinforcement to support Knyphausen, who again advanced towards Springfield. General Greene opposed him with a considerable body of continental troops; but after a severe action, he was compelled by superior numbers to retire to a range of hills. He took post on the top of these, hoping to be attacked; but Knyphausen, having burned the town, retreated, and on the next day set out for New York. In this action the Americans lost about eighty men; the British considerably more.

Late in the spring, the Marquis La Fayette returned from France with the pleasing intelligence that his government had resolved to assist the United States by employing, this year, a respectable land and naval force in America. On his arrival he was joyfully received by all classes of the people; and Congress passed a highly complimentary vote of thanks to him for his exertions in behalf of America. In July, the French fleet arrived at Rhode Island, consisting of two ships of eighty guns, one of seventy-four, four of sixty-four, two frigates of forty, a cutter of twenty, an armed hospital-ship, and thirty-two transports, containing six thousand men. The fleet was commanded by the Chevalier de Ternay, and the troops by the Count de Rochambeau. The count brought information that the second division would follow him as soon as transports could be fitted out to receive them. A mutual regard for each other was instantly cultivated by the officers of the two armies; and General Washington recommended to his officers, in general orders, the placing a white relief on the American cockade, as an emblem of the alliance.

Owing to the scarcity of military stores and provisions in the American camp, the continental army was unprepared to act with their French auxiliaries on their arrival; and before anything could be effected, news arrived that the second portion of the French army was detained in the harbour of Brest

112

DESCRIPTION OF WEST POINT.

by a blockade; and in consequence, would not reach the American coast this year. All the brilliant hopes which had been raised of being able during this campaign to conclude the war by capturing all the British posts in the country, were now dashed to the ground, and general disappointment succeeded.

In September, Washington, accompanied by General Knox, La Fayette, and the other officers of his suite, made a visit to the Count Rochambeau, and the Chevalier de Ternay, at Hartford. He met them on the 21st of that month, and after arranging a plan of operations for the next campaign, he set out to return. During their absence, a scheme for delivering West Point into the hands of the enemy was discovered.

This post was of the greatest importance, inasmuch as it defended the camps of the American army on both sides of the North river, and commanded the river itself. Rocky ridges, rising one behind another, had rendered it incapable of being invested by less than twenty thousand men, and it was generally deemed impregnable. It was the strongest post of the Americans, affording the means of communication between the eastern and middle states, and in it were deposited their most valuable stores. At this time it was commanded by General Arnold. He had been among the first to take up arms in the cause of America, and from the time when, with Allen, he took Ticonderoga, in the first year of the war, until the battle of Stillwater, he had continued in the field, daily evincing proofs of the most determined bravery. At Stillwater, he received a wound in the leg from a musket-ball, which rendered him unfit for active service. When the British evacuated Philadelphia, he was appointed to the command of that place During his residence there he made the best house in the city, that of Governor Penn, his head-quarters. This he furnished in the most costly manner, and lived in a style far beyond his income. In his retreat from Canada he had wasted the plunder which he had seized at Montreal, and at Philadelphia he determined to make new acquisitions. He continued his extravagant course of living, and in order to support it, he had

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recourse to trade and privateering; but all his speculations and ventures were unsuccessful, and his creditors were importunate in their demands. Other schemes of raising funds failing, he had recourse to fraud and peculation. In July, 1779, he exhibited his accounts with heavy demands against the public; but the commissioners appointed to examine his accounts, rejected about one-half of the amount. Indignant at this treatment, he appealed from the commissioners to Congress. A committee appointed by that body confirmed the judgment of the commissioners, and even expressed an opinion that they had allowed the general more than he had a right to expect or demand. This provoked him to outrageous proceedings and expressions; and he was finally tried by a court martial, upon charges preferred by the Governor of Pennsylvania, found guilty, and sentenced to be reprimanded by the commanderin-chief. This sentence was approved by Congress, and soon after carried into effect.

Soured at the treatment he had received, his proud spirit revolted from the cause of America. He now sought for the command of an important post which would give a value to treason, and enable him to meet his pecuniary difficulties with British gold. He applied for the command of West Point, the Gibraltar of America; a recommendation of him for that post was given to Washington, by a member of the New York delegation; and General Schuyler also requested the commander-in-chief to confer the appointment on Arnold. Washington replied that as there was the prospect of an active campaign, he should be gratified with the aid of Arnold in the field; but intimated that if the appointment requested should be more pleasing to him, he should receive it. Arnold soon after came to the camp, and renewed in person the former applications. He was offered the command of the left wing of the army, which was then advancing against New York. He declined this, under the pretext that, in consequence of his wounds, he was unable to perform the active duties of the field. The command of West Point was then immediately conferred upon him.

III.-15

114

ARNOLD'S TREASON.

Previous to receiving the appointment, Arnold had signified by letter to Colonel Robinson, his change of principles, and desire of joining the royal army. This led to a correspondence and negotiation between him and Sir Henry Clinton. His plan was to put the British in possession of the fortress by drawing the garrison out to fight the enemy in the defiles, and leaving unguarded a designated pass, by which they might surprise and carry the works, while his troops would be compelled to surrender, or be cut to pieces. Arnold having signified his intention of delivering West Point to the enemy, Major André, Adjutant-General of the British army, was selected as the person to whom the arrangements for the execution of the treason should be committed. After some correspondence had passed between them, in a mercantile style, and under the feigned names of Gustavus and Anderson, the Vulture sloopof-war moved up the North river, and took a station near enough to be convenient, without exciting suspicion.

Washington being absent from the neighbourhood, on the night of the 21st of September, Arnold sent a boat to the Vulture, which received André and brought him to the beach, without the posts of both armies, with a pass, under the name of John Anderson. Arnold met him at the house of a Mr. Smith; but before their conference was finished, daylight appeared, and for fear of discovery, André was secreted through the day within the American posts, his regimentals, in which he had come ashore, being concealed by a surtout coat. When on the following night he proposed to return to the Vulture, the boatmen refused to take him, that vessel having moved her position farther down the river, to avoid an American battery. In this extremity, he was induced by Arnold to lay aside his regimentals, and attempt to reach New York by land. In order to facilitate this attempt, Arnold gave him a passport, authorizing John Anderson "to go to the lines at White Plains, or lower, if he thought proper, he being on public business." André set out on horseback, and passed all the guards and outposts without suspicion, until he was near the British lines, when on the 23d of September, as he

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was riding along in fancied security, one of three militia-men, who were employed as a scouting party between the lines, springing suddenly from his covert by the roadside, seized his bridle and stopped his horse. Instead of producing his pass, André, with a singular want of self-possession, asked the man where he belonged, and being answered, "to below," replied immediately, "and so do I." He then declared himself to be a British officer on urgent business, and begged that he might not be detained. The other two militia-men now came up, and André discovered his mistake; but it was too late to repair it. His confusion was so great that they proceeded to search his person, until in his boot they found his papers. These were in Arnold's hand-writing, and contained exact returns of the state of the forces, ordnance, and defences at West Point and its dependencies, with the artillery orders, critical remarks on the works, an estimate of the number of men commonly on duty to man them, and a copy of a report that had been laid by Washington before a council of war, on the sixth of the month.

André offered his captors a purse of gold, with his valuable watch, to let him pass; but they nobly disdained his temptation, as well as the offer of permanent provision and future promotion, if they would convey and accompany him to New York. They conducted him to Colonel Jameson, who had command of the scouting parties of militia. As these men were placed thus near the enemy by Arnold's orders, the colonel and his officers had such suspicions of him, that they determined to seize him at all events, had he come down among them. Nevertheless, Jameson was the means of Arnold's escape. When André was brought before him, fearful of involving Arnold, he supported his name of Anderson, and procured permission from the colonel to write a note to Arnold, acquainting him with Anderson's detention. After this note had been despatched, André addressed himself by letter to General Washington, stating his real name and rank, enclosing all the papers which he had on his person when taken, and endeavouring to show that he did not come under