The war for American independence was marked by many critical events which were beyond human control or remedy. Some of these changed the relations of contending armies in a single night. More than once, a few hours of unexpected rain, wind or fog, were enough to assure lasting results. These determining events, because belonging to the sphere and operation of physical laws, are not beyond the recognition of nature's Master. They testify very clearly at least, the absolute uncertainty of the best human plans, whether for peace or war, and the value of the promptness which seizes every opportunity as it passes, and thus gives shape to material issues which are ripe for solution.
“The Man must be bad indeed who can look upon the events of the American Revolution without feeling the warmest gratitude towards the great Author of the Universe whose divine interposition was so frequently manifested in our behalf.” So stated George Washington. It is a fact that many who fought for American independence believed that more than human effort secured our freedom. Was our good fortune blind luck, or something more?
Taken from, Carrington, Henry B. "Battles of the American Revolution" (New York: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1876). Edited by Gary M. Bohannon.
The war for American independence was marked by many critical events which were beyond human control or remedy. Some of these changed the relations of contending armies in a single night. More than once, a few hours of unexpected rain, wind or fog, were enough to assure lasting results. These determining events, because belonging to the sphere and operation of physical laws, are not beyond the recognition of nature's Master. They testify very clearly at least, the absolute uncertainty of the best human plans, whether for peace or war, and the value of the promptness which seizes every opportunity as it passes, and thus gives shape to material issues which are ripe for solution.
A few facts are grouped together in advance of their relations to specific battles, to illustrate the principle.
Early in the month of November, 1775, the expedition of Arnold to Canada was rashly pushed through a pathless wilderness to the shore of the river St. Lawrence. The possibilities of success were fair, if the invader could have struck the feeble and astonished garrison promptly upon arrival. Sleet and rain continuing for several days, kept the adventurer fast at Point Levi, and prepared the way for his signal failure.
On the morning of August twenty-eighth, 1776, just after the battle of Long Island, a drizzling mist, succeeded by heavy rain which continued for most of the day, retarded the approach of the British army to the American entrenchments at Brooklyn, and prevented the fleet itself from approaching New York. Toward evening the rain ceased, and work was resumed upon the British lines.
August twenty-ninth was a second day of rain; but every hour was improved by Washington to collect all kinds of boats, including sloops, scows, and row-boats, with view to rescue his army from impending capture. The masterly execution of the retreat was made possible by an unexampled fog, which lingered until the last detachment had taken passage. The wind itself, which threatened to drive the boats toward sea, shifted suddenly and quickened the transit. The fog lifted. The wind, so long unpropitious, had detained the British fleet at the Narrows, while by the change which had done so much for the Americans, that fleet was borne up the bay to assert control of the harbor and river passage, but too late to foil the movement of the American commander.
On the evening of the thirtieth of October, 1776, Earl Percy joined Lord Howe, then encamped in front of the American lines at White Plains, and it was resolved to storm the works at daybreak following. A northeaster came down upon the camps at midnight, raging wildly for nearly twenty-four hours ; but before the advance was attempted, Washington had again rescued his army by withdrawal to the heights of North Castle, and occupied a position too strong to warrant assault.
On Christmas night, 1776, the parting ice at McConkey's Ferry, nine miles above Trenton, on the Delaware river, admitted of the safe passage and landing of one column of the American army, although other divisions were foiled in like attempts at ferries still nearer Trenton, and thus the battle of Trenton made its stamp upon the entire history of the struggle. It impressed all nations with respect for the prudence, courage, and faith of Washington, and relieved the American troops of the impression that the Hessians were a peculiarly fierce and invincible race.
The renewal of the offensive by Washington on the first of January, 1777, by again crossing the river, and in force, during comparatively mild weather, was followed by the abrupt closing of the Delaware, not sufficiently for safe retreat over the ice, but solid enough to threaten his entire force with destruction or capture. The same extreme cold froze the roads, made them passable for artillery and men, and the whole situation was so skillfully improved, that the action at Princeton followed, and his retreat to secure winter-quarters on the heights of New Jersey, not only saved his command, but threatened the British posts about New York and affected the entire New Jersey campaign.
The battle of Brandywine which occurred September eighth, 1777, was not accepted by Washington as decisive of the fate of Philadelphia. After a brief rest, the armies were again face to face September sixteenth, near White House Tavern, twenty miles from Philadelphia, Washington seeking the issue. General Howe skillfully turned the right flank of the American army, and skirmishing had begun, when a storm of unusual severity put arms and ammunition out of condition for use, filled the small streams, parted the combatants, and ultimately gave to the British the barren acquisition of the city.
The sudden renewal of the offensive at Germantown, on the fourth of October following, and with large promise of success, was neutralized and turned into a repulse by the interposition of dense fog which confused the troops and compelled a retreat, but thereby secured the column from the pressure of overwhelming forces which Cornwallis hastened from Philadelphia to the support of General Howe.
On the eleventh of October of the same year, when the army of Burgoyne had crossed the Fishkill, and was supposed to be in full retreat, General Gates pushed Morgan's rifle corps and the brigades of Nixon and Glover across the river under cover of a dense fog. A deserter gave warning and the movement was suspended. As the fog lifted, the entire army was seen to be in line of battle to meet the attack.
A succession of head winds delayed the fleet of Count D'Estaing during the voyage to America in 1778, so that Admiral Howe with drew his squadron from the Delaware river. The prompt evacuation of Philadelphia by General Clinton, pursuant to orders, was thus the means of saving both army and fleet.
A propitious voyage of the French squadron would have been fatal to both. The squadron of Lord Byron, which was to have sailed from England, when information was received of the departure of Count D'Estaing from France, was detained until June the fifth, and was so disabled by a storm as to be compelled to refit before taking the offensive on the American coast.
On the tenth day of August, 1778, a storm disabled both British and French fleets off the harbor of Newport, Rhode Island, deprived General Sullivan of the support of the French troops in the siege of that city, and compelled both a retreat from the island itself, and abandonment of the siege. Almost immediately after, General Clinton arrived with a reinforcement of four thousand British troops.
The supposed insecurity of the southern coast during the fall months, forced Count De Grasse to a premature assault, followed by defeat, at Savannah in the month of October, 1779, when completed trenches and adequate forces gave entire assurance of a successful siege. Two days after he left, his fleet was dispersed by a tempest.
On the ninth of January, 1780, General Lord Stirling took a force of twenty-five hundred men from Elizabethtown, New Jersey, to Staten Island in sleighs, crossing the river on the ice, for the purpose of attacking the British in their quarters. The harbor itself had been closed so that heavy cannon had been hauled across on the ice. Quite unexpectedly, the channel had opened between New York and the island, so that the British posts had been reinforced during that very day. The snow was three feet deep, and nearly five hundred men paid the penalty of frozen limbs for this mammoth midnight sleigh-ride.
On the twenty-ninth day of January, 1781, Lord Cornwallis marching between Broad and Catawba rivers, pursued Morgan with the hope of recapturing the prisoners which that officer acquired in the battle of Cowpens. The pursuit was successful. Night came on, and it was left for sunrise to assure the victory. Morgan crossed the Catawba. A heavy rain filled the river to its banks, and cut off further pursuit.
Morgan gained the banks of the river Yadkin on the second day of February. An equally sudden storm came on. Morgan swam his horses across the river, and transported his troops in batteaux, which he secured on the other bank, so that his pursuer again failed of success.
On the thirteenth day of the same month, Morgan having effected a union with Greene, the whole command successfully crossed the river Dan, and then renewed rain interposed the shield of an impassable barrier for a third time, and Lord Cornwallis, disheartened, abandoned pursuit and retired to Hillsborough.
At the critical period when the Count De Grasse entered Chesapeake bay with a formidable fleet of men-of-war and transports, to aid the American army in the reduction of Yorktown, a Franco-Spanish fleet of more than sixty sail was on its way to the West Indies to operate against the British colonies. The former fulfilled its mission. The latter, separated by storms, and thoroughly demoralized for any concerted action, returned to Europe, leaving the record of a profitless venture.
During the night of the sixteenth of October, 1781, when stillness pervaded the air, and a calm surface invited the attempt, the vanguard of the beleaguered army of Cornwallis crossed York river by boats and landed safely at Gloucester Point. It was the beginning of a brave and earnest effort to extricate his army from impending surrender, and to make a bold push for New York by land. Suddenly, without warning, a storm of rain and wind burst over the heads of the hopeful garrison. The detachment already over, was safely recalled, and the drama of the war proceeded to its catastrophe.
Such facts as are thus grouped from the record of the war of 1775-1781, are not exceptional. Neither was the overthrow of the Spanish Armada exceptional. The majority of large maritime expeditions have had similar vicissitudes, and the battle of Waterloo itself vibrated under the strokes of the storm king.
Such facts step in along the life record of nations, to show on the one hand, how utterly dependent are all human enterprises upon elements largely beyond human control, and on the other hand to demonstrate that wise and earnest men, resolute of will, and prompt to execute, have converted storm itself and seeming misfortune into permanent benefit, and have even rescued victory from the grasp of the elements themselves. It is a part of the philosophy of war to study such examples, and the American struggle is the history of seven years of characteristic fluctuations which worked in the direction of American Independence, even when hardships and misfortunes seemed to alternate during the operations of the contending armies.
It is not alone, however, in the realm of physical nature that life's issues bear the impress of external force. Opportunity is given to men and nations, and all probation is full of the neglect or improvement of opportunity. Slight causes, no less than those more impressive and prominent, give shape to issues and assure results.