United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Campaigns; Washington, George, 1732-1799
General Putnam was placed in command at New York, and General Greene
took charge of the defences on Brooklyn Heights and of their completion.
On the first day of June Congress resolved that six thousand additional
troops should be employed from Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
Connecticut, and New York, to reënforce the army in Canada, and that two
thousand Indians should be hired for this same field of service. To this
proposition General Schuyler keenly replied: “If this number, two
thousand, can be prevented from joining the enemy, it is more than can
be expected.”
As early as the fifteenth of February Congress had appointed Benjamin
Franklin, Samuel Chase, and Charles Carroll, as Commissioners to visit
Canada and learn both the exact condition of the army and the temper of
the people. Rev. John Carroll, afterwards Archbishop of Maryland,
accompanied them, and reported that “negligence, mismanagement, and a
combination of unlucky incidents had produced a disorder that it was too
late to remedy.” Ill-health compelled the immediate return of Franklin,
but the other Commissioners remained until the evacuation of Canada. The
scourge of small-pox, to which General Thomas became a victim, and other
diseases, together with the casualties of the service, had cost more
than five thousand lives within two months, and the constant change of
commanders, ordered by Congress, hastened the Canadian campaign to a
crisis. Scattered all the way from Albany to Montreal there could have
been found companies of the regiments which Congress had started for
Canada, and which Washington and the country could so poorly spare at
such an eventful and threatening period. General Sullivan had been
succeeded by General Gates, but with no better results. Sullivan had
under-estimated the British forces, and when apprised of the facts, of
which the American Commander-in-Chief had not been advised in time, he
wrote: “I now only think of a glorious death, or a victory obtained
against superior numbers.” The following letter of Washington addressed
to Congress, enclosing letters intimating the desire of General Sullivan
to have larger command, indicates Washington’s judgment of the
situation, and is in harmony with his habitual discernment of men and
the times throughout the war. He says: “He (Sullivan) is active,
spirited, and zealously attached to our cause. He has his wants and his
foibles. The latter are manifested in his little tincture of vanity
which now and then leads him into embarrassments. His wants are common
to us all. He wants experience, to move on a large scale; for the
limited and contracted knowledge which any of us have in military
matters, stands in very little stead, and is quickly overbalanced by
sound judgment and some acquaintance with men and books, especially when
accompanied by an enterprising genius, which I must do General Sullivan
the justice to say, I think he possesses. Congress will therefore
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