Lafayette in the Somewhat United States

While recuperating from his leg wound, Lafayette wrote to Washington and formally asked for a command. Washington had Nathanael Greene send Lafayette to Gloucester with several hundred men to count the number of British soldiers stationed there. His men killed 20 of the British and took many more prisoners. Greene wrote to Washington that Lafayette wanted to be where the most intense fighting was. Three days later, Washington gave Lafayette formal command of a division of Virginians.

Vowell gives a history of the Conway Cabal, a failed attempt to oust George Washington as commander of the Continental Army. A brigadier general named Thomas Conway wrote to Congress and requested a promotion. Washington was unimpressed with Conway’s skills, said so publicly, and suspected that Conway wanted to replace him.

Conway then wrote to General Gates. The letter referred to Washington as a weak commander who could lose the war. Washington confronted Conway about the letter, who denied it. Conway then asked Congress to accept his resignation. Congress refused and promoted him to inspector general of the Continental Army, which required him to report to Congress, not to Washington.

On December 19, Washington led his men to Valley Forge, where they spent a brutal winter, inadequately clothed and fed. Vowell calls the winter trials at Valley Forge a “monstrous administrative and humanitarian fiasco, a self-inflicted wound” (152) and compares it to the modern-day mismanagement of Veterans Affairs hospitals.

Conway arrived at Valley Forge, prepared to inspect the camp and the troops, but Washington sent him away. Washington’s foes in the Conway cabal then sent Lafayette on a mission to invade Canada but did not give him enough men or supplies. He stopped in Albany and wrote letters to Washington, complaining of the pointlessness of the errand.

While Lafayette was in Albany, Baron von Steuben arrived at Valley Forge to instill discipline. He was another veteran of the Seven Years’ War and had a reputation of being a rigorous adherent to drilling. Washington assigned him to retraining the men. He soon was impressed enough by Steuben to appoint him as Inspector General of the Continental Army. Conway, who had been appointed to the position by Congress weeks earlier, quit and returned to France. The Conway Cabal was over.

Washington recalled Lafayette to Valley Forge. Soon, Silas Deane brought letters to the camp, including news that France formally recognized the independence of the United States. Benjamin Franklin, Deane, and Arthur Lee had signed the Treaty of Alliance on February 6. Lafayette received a letter from Adrienne, informing him that Henriette, their daughter, had died.

Regarding the Treaty of Alliance, Vowell contends:

Anyone who accepts the patriots’ premise that all men are created equal must come to terms with the fact that the most obvious threat to equality in eighteenth-century North America was not taxation without representation but slavery (177).

The British parliament abolished slavery in 1833, 30 years before Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. If America had reconciled with England, slavery could have ended decades earlier.

Henry Clinton replaced William Howe as the commander of the British Navy. In June 1778, Washington, Lafayette, General Charles Lee, and other officers discussed a strategy of attack on Clinton’s forces. Lee was second in the command structure. He had expected to have Washington’s job when the war began and always resented his position. Prior to the strategy meeting, Lee was a prisoner of the British. He had only recently been returned to the Americans as part of a prisoner exchange, and Washington suspected that Lee may have acted treasonably while detained.

Washington decided to attack Clinton at Monmouth. He offered command of five thousand troops to Lee, who declined. Washington gave Lafayette the command instead, and Lee changed his mind, claiming he would be ashamed if a junior officer such as Lafayette took his post. Lafayette agreed to step down, and Lee took command. But on the day of the battle, Lee ordered a retreat instead of attacking Clinton’s rear guard as Washington requested. Lee was court-martialed afterwards. In 1857, evidence surfaced suggesting that Lee had in fact collaborated with the British.

Washington won the Battle of Monmouth, although some historians contend that the battle was a draw. Weeks later, France entered the war and raised the spirits of the Continental Army further. When France joined the war, many Americans thought the war would end quickly. But five years would pass before the war ended, and it would be three years before Washington led another battle.

In 1778, four French frigates and 12 French ships appeared off the Jersey shore. The French commander was Admiral Charles Hector, Count d’Estaing and Lafayette’s cousin-in-law. Washington envisioned a joint effort between d’Estaing’s ships and his own Continental troops, during which they would retake New York. However, d’Estaing decided that a sand bar near the channel into New York Harbor would be too small for his largest ships. D’Estaing was not as seasoned as other French commanders, which may have been a factor in his timidity.

Washington then convinced d’Estaing to sail north to Newport, which the British controlled. Washington also sent Lafayette north with two thousand men to join the admiral. In Rhode Island, d’Estaing met with American General John Sullivan to discuss strategy. They argued about which fleet would attack Newport first. They received word that a British fleet was on its way, and d’Estaing took his ships to meet them, only to get bogged down in a storm for three days. Sullivan did not hear from d’Estaing’s fleet for a week. When he did, d’Estaing reported that his ships were too damaged to fight, and he was taking them to Boston for repairs. Nathanael Greene and Lafayette tried to change d’Estaing’s mind, but he would not listen.