An Address Delivered at the Centennial Celebration of the Battle of Germantown: October 4, 1877

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AN ADDRESS

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DELIVERED AT THE

CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION

OF THE

BATTLE OF GERMANTOWN.

OCTOBER 4, 1877.

BY

M. RUSSELL THAYER.

PHILADELPHIA:
COLLINS, PRINTER, 705 JAYNE STREET.

1878.

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HARVARD

ADDRESS.

The period of the Revolution is the heroic age
of America. Its great battles stand along the
stream of its history as the pyramids stand upon
the Nile, towering above all other objects and
reducing all other things w^ithin their horizon to

a common inferiority. And there they will stand
forever — the imperishable monuments of the cou-
rage, endurance, and patriotism of our fathers.
They are to us what Salamis and Plataea were to
the ancient Greek, what the battles of the Punic
Wars were to the Roman — undying examples of
that fortitude and self-devotion which are born of
every great struggle for freedom and independence.
We do well, therefore, to keep fresh in our re-
membrance the several stages in that memorable
contest which emancipated us from foreign con-
trol, and laid the foundations of our present pros-
perity and power ; to celebrate, on appropriate
occasions, the great events which are the land-

AN ADDRESS.

marks of the struggle; to dwell with pride upon
the particular instances which put to severest trial
the courage and constancy of our ancestors, and
to recall the victories and disasters which were
alike illumined by their virtues. Nor is this em-
ployment less appropriate or becoming because
the event which we celebrate to-day was not
crowned with that complete success which the
great man who planned it expected, nor because
the victory which seemed within his grasp was
snatched from his hands by those unforeseen acci-
dents which often decide the fate of battles. As
the defeat of Thermopylae is not less honorable to
Grecian arms than the great day of Plataea, or as
the disaster of Cannae does not less illustrate the
valor of republican Rome than the victory at
Zama, which forever relieved Italy from the inva-
sions of Carthage, so the repulse of Germantown
is not less honorable to Washington and his com-
panions than the victories of Trenton, of Mon-
mouth, or Yorktown.

Standing therefore to-day upon one of the bat-
tle-fields of the Revolution, let us pause for a
moment from the pursuit of the less noble objects
which occupy our daily lives. Let us turn back
the current of our thoughts to contemplate briefly
the circumstances which surrounded the struggle,
when, a hundred years ago, this battle was fought.

AN ADDRESS. 5

and consider its influence upon the general cause
then at stake. So shall we learn from the diffi-
culties, the discouragements, and sacrifices of that
day to value properly the eflTort which was here
made, and to draw the lesson that perseverance,
courage, and endurance in a great and just cause

m

will in the end overcome all obstacles which op-
pose it, and bring it complete and lasting success.
It is a familiar story, but we will do well on this
occasion and on this spot to recall it.

The year 1777 opened darkly enough for the
cause of Independence. " I confess," wrote Robert
Morris, "things look gloomy.'' When, in Feb-
ruary of that year, Franklin and Deane, the Ame-
rican Commissioners at Paris, proposed to the
English ambassador to exchange a hundred British
prisoners for an equal number of American prison-
ers in England, Lord Stormont proudly replied :
"The King's ambassador receives no applications
from rebels unless they come to implore H's Ma-
jesty's mercy."

Nor, in the existing state of affairs did his arro-
gance seem inexcusable. The disastrous retreat
from Long Island, the battle of White Plains, and
the flight through New Jersey, had reduced the
army of Washington from 9000 to 3000 men,
and these were half clad, poorly fed, and many of
them without shoes. The fact is attested by many

AN ADDRESS.

. I

eye-witnesses that the snowy roads were for many
miles stained by their bloody footprints. They
seemed, indeed, but a flying rabble before the
well-appointed battalions of Howe and Cornwal-
lis. A small reinforcement, the brilliant surprise
of Trenton, and the bold attack on the rear of
Howe's army at Princeton, lit up for a brief mo-
ment the surrounding gloom with some bright
rays of hope, and then the darkness settled again
as the Continental army went into winter quarters
at Morristown. Washington had indeed saved
Philadelphia for a time, protected Pennsylvania,
wrested the greater part of New Jersey from the
enemy, and driven him back upon his base at New
York. But the future, nevertheless, was full of
discouragement and apprehension. The forces un-
der the command of Sir William Howe amounted
to 35,000 men, well supplied , and equipped with
everything necessary to make successful war. It
was apparent that if America was to be victorious
in the struggle her people must rise to still greater
heights of patriotism ; must resolve to make still
greater sacrifices, and to endure for some years at
least the hardships and suflTerings of war.

The great source of our weakness was that
America was without a government, and conse-
quently without credit and without power. The
authority of Congress was confined to mere recom-

h

AN ADDRESS. 7

mendations of measures to the Executives and
Legislatures of the several States. The State Gov-
ernments, themselves newly established, inexpe-
rienced in the exigencies demanded by the evils
which threatened the common welfare, with pop-
ulations divided in sentiment on the great question
which had been submitted to the arbitrament of
arms, were afraid to resort to decisive measures in
order to raise troops and levy taxes for the expenses
of the war. Besides which, having until lately
been accustomed to regard themselves as different
communities, with distinct and often hostile inte-
rests, they carried into their new condition of life
and into their new forms of polity the jealousies,
suspicions, and selfishness of rival and independent
States, a result much contributed to by the extent
of the country, the sparseness of the population,
the difficulty of communication, and the absence
of traditional ties. In a word, the union which
was born of the Declaration of Independence was
in its infancy, and consequently in that state of
comparative helplessness which characterizes that
period of existence in the lives of States as well as
of men. Our army would not have wanted men,
nor our soldiers shoes, provisions, clothing, tents,
blankets, and pay, had not Congress, the common
agent appointed by the States to carry on the war,
been destitute of that authority, that power to

8

AN ADDRESS.

command and to compel others to obey; without
which every pretended government is but a shadow.
"Certain I am," wrote Washington, "that unless
Congress is vested 'with powers competent to the
great purposes of the war, or assume them as a
matter of right, and they and the States act with
more energy than they have hitherto done, our
cause is lost !"

The Declaration of Independence, while it ani-
mated the patriotic party with fresh courage and
urged them to greater exertions, added strength
also to the Tories by alienating and driving into
opposition many who were before strenuous advo-
cates of resistance for the redress of grievances,
but who were opposed to separation, as unnatural,
unnecessary, and injurious. General Howe's pro-
clamation of amnesty and pardon to all who should
return to their allegiance, and of reward to all
who should perform meritorious service to the
Royal cause, was not without considerable effect.
Amid the general gloom many who were wavering
went over to the side of the King. There was
soon a formidable minority who not only refused
to aid the cause of independence, but who openly
gave their support to the Crown. Everywhere at
home a new line of separation was drawn. Com-
munities, and often families, were divided. The
war was in some respects a civil war, as well as a

^

AN ADDRESS. 9

rebellion and revolution. In England the Decla-
ration dried up the popular sympathy of English-
men in our behalf. A few great leaders of the
opposition, indeed, still denounced the war. But
it was in vain that Burke wrote: "The war with
America is fruitless, hopeless, and unnatural;" that
Fox declared that it was impossible to conquer
America; and that Chatham still thundered for the
unconditional redress of our grievances.* The heart
of England was hardened against us, and she set
herself deliberately to the work of our subjugation.
Fresh troops were sent from Great Britain. Hesse
Cassel, Brunswick, Anspach, Waldeck, Hanau, and
other petty German Principalities, were ransacked
for recruits, the petty lords of these diminutive
States receiving for the services of their subjects
an average bounty of $36 a head. Where now
are Hesse-Cassel and Anspach and Waldeck and
Hanau and all the rest of them? The armies in
America were largely reinforced, and Howe in
New York and Burgoyne in the North prepared
to enter upon the campaign of 'jj which was to
crush out the Revolution and finish the war.

* ** We shall be forced ultimately to retract; let us retract while
we can, not when we must. I say we must necessarily undo these
violent, oppressive Acts ; they must be repealed — you will repeal
them ; I pledge myself for it that you will in the end repeal them ;
I stake my reputation on it. I will consent to be taken for an idiot
if they are not finally repealed/* — Speeches of the Earl of Chatham.

lO

AN ADDRESS.

In the mean time Congress, without revenue
and without credit, in vain sought a loan in
Europe, and were driven at last to more issues of
paper money, now daily becoming less valuable,
for it was not in the power of Congress to regu-
late the amount of such money in circulation, the
right to issue it being possessed by every local
government as well as by Congress, and this right
being liberally exercised. Regular soldiers were
recruited with difficulty, because of the uncer-
tainty of their pay and maintenance, while the
militia of the States came and went almost at their
pleasure; so that it has been well said that the
uncertainty of the numbers of the army was only
equalled by the uncertainty of their pay. Not-
withstanding these difficulties, however, the Army
of the North, under Schuyler, grew slowly to
respectable proportions, while Washington, with
greatly inferior forces, still maintained the unequal
and stubborn contest in the Middle States.

But Franklin and his associates, Silas Deane
and Arthur Lee, were slowly and surely winning
their way in France. Our privateers were already
admitted with their prizes to French ports.
Arms and munitions of war were borne to our
shores from the arsenals of France. Lafayette
and his companion, De Kalb, were afloat upon
the ocean in the Victory, Both arrived at

AN ADDRESS. I I

Charleston in the spring of ''jj. The latter, pro-
nounced by competent military authority the
ablest European officer in our army, destined to
be made Washington's inspector-general, and after
three years of service to fall gloriously for his
adopted country in the lost battle of Camden ;
the former to become the chosen friend of Wash-
ington, to live to enjoy the gratitude of the
country which he had assisted to save, and after
its liberties were established to commence a new
and extraordinary career in his native land. From
on board the Victory the hero had written to his
young wife: "From love to me become a good
American. The welfare of America is closely
bound up with the welfare of all mankind. It is
about to become the safe asylum of virtue, toler-
ance/ equality, and peaceful liberty." Thaddeus
Kosciusko had arrived in the previous autumn —
an engineer of no mean renown, thereafter to
fortify West Point, to plan for Greene the ap-
proaches to Fort Ninety-six, and to perform other
distinguished services, now gratefully remembered.
Following quickly came his countryman. Count
Casimer Pulaski, a daring soldier, afterwards to be
heard of at Brandywine, to be made a major-
general, and to give his life for the cause two
years later at the siege of Savannah. And the vet-
eran Steuben, aid-de-camp and lieutenant-general

I 2 AN ADDRESS.

of Frederick the Great, severe in discipline, exact
in drill, and wise in council. It is not too much
to say that these five men were worth more to our
cause than all the hirelings picked up by our
enemy in Germany were to them, Knyphausen
and Count Donop included, gallant and skilful
soldiers though they both were.

In the summer of 1777 George Clinton held
the forts in the Highlancfs of the Hudson.
Schuyler was in command of the Northern Army,
to be unjustly superseded by Gates in August.
Burgoyne was advancing from the lakes to the
head-waters of the Hudson. Howe, with his
well-appointed army, was at New York, with
strong detachments at Amboy and New Bruns-
wick ; and Washington, with his small army of
7500 men, watched him in security from his
mountain camp at Middlebrook. On the 14th of
June Congress resolved that the flag of the United
States should be thirteen stripes, alternate red and
white, with thirteen stars in a blue field for the
Union. The banner of a new nation was then
thrown to the breeze, and the great military
movements began which were to decide its fate

Such was the condition of affairs and such the
posture of the opposing forces when Howe, on
the 23d of July, sailed from New York with his
fine army of 18,000 men, in his fleet of 300 sail,

AN ADDRESS. I 3

for the head of Elk River, where he arrived on
the 23d of August. On the next day, the 24th,
Washington led his troops, decorated vv^ith sprays
of green, through the crowded streets of Philadel-
phia, and the campaign, in which the. battle of
Germantown occupies so conspicuous a place, was
begun. I need not on the present occasion pursue
the details of subsequent movements, or speak of
Brandywine, of Wayne's surprise and the midnight
butchery at Paoli, or relate the events by which
Washington compelled Howe to consume thirty
days in a march of fifty-four miles to Philadelphia.
It is not within my province to describe the battle
which, after the occupation of that city, rolled
its furious tide through this peaceful village at
sunrise on the 4th of October, 1777. That is a
portion of this day's ceremonies which has been
assigned to another. How well he has performed
it you have already heard.*

Suffice it for me now to say that here, by the
side of this gently descending road, once but an
Indian trail through the laurel bushes, and where,
in 1683, the scholar, Francis Daniel Pastorius,
agent of the Francfort Land Company, settled his
frugal countrymen from the Palatinate; here on
these breezy uplands, then, as now, beginning to

• Dr. A. C. Lambdin's clear and interesting narrative of the
battle has lately been published in the ** Pennsylvania Magazine of
History and Biography*' (No. 4).

1 4 AN ADDRESS.

redden with the first tints of autumn, was struck
a blow for freedom which will be remembered
as long as the liberty which we enjoy shall survive.
It matters not that complete success was not
achieved. What hallows this day and this place
is the memory that on this spot many brave men
gave up their lives for their country. Thirty
miles away, at Bethlehem, while the battle raged,
lay one of their comrades, disabled by the wound
which he had received at Brandywine. Washing-
ton had said to the surgeon who attended him :
"Take care of him as if he were my own son/'
He was a major-general, an aid-de-camp to the
Commander-in-Chief, and but twenty years of
age. It was Gilbert De Lafayette. The Battle
of Germantown lasted but two hours and forty
minutes. It was a short but sharp and sanguinary
conflict, skilfully planned, and, in the beginning,
heroically fought. They who here fell are as
worthy of praise as if they had fallen in the arms
of victory. Their blood was mingled with the
morning dew. Their bodies repose in our ancient
burial-grounds and by the side of our green lanes.
But the work which they here did and the ex-
ample which they here set, endure unto this day,
and will endure, in the imperishable history of
their country, surviving all crumbling material
monuments erected to commemorate great deeds,
as the splendid elegy of Simonides still survives

AN ADDRESS. I 5

after more than 2000 years to perpetuate the
memory of those who fell in defence of Greece:

These to their land fame unextinguished gave,

Though death's dark cloud encompassed them around ;

Dying, they died not ; valor from the grave
Leads them on high, with glory's garland crown'd.*

It is of little importance now, except as a
matter of historic interest, to inquire by what
misfortune a victory already gained was turned
into a repulse and retreat. Whether it was owing
to the fog, which enveloped all things in its dense
folds, to Chew^s house, to Greene's tardiness on
the left, or Armstrong's inactivity on the right,
or to all combined. The fact remained that the
patriot army, inferior in numbers, ill-provided,
poorly armed, and consisting largely of raw and
undisciplined troops, had, regardless of the defeat
at Brandywine three weeks before, immediately
assumed the offensive, attacked the flower of the
British troops in their entrenchments, driving
them before them for two miles (from Mount
Airy to the Market House), and but for those
strange accidents which so often lie in wait to

* It is to be regretted that the author of this and of many other
beautiful metrical translations of the Greek Anthology which are
contained in the collection of Mr. George Burges of Trinity Col-
lege, Cambridge, over the initials M. A. S., is unknown. All that
we know is that they were written by a lady who insisted on con-
cealing her name from the public.

1 6 AN ADDRESS.

defeat great enterprises, would have compelled the
whole force to surrender or driven it into the
Schuylkill.

The battle produced a great effect upon the
country. Everywhere confidence revived, and
the cause was strengthened. For it was immedi-
ately perceived that the army had a commander
who, if he had self-control to avoid the rash ex-
posure of his men to forces superior in numbers
and appointments to his own, knew also when and
where to strike, and who would strike hard when
occasion offered. The battle of Germantown
satisfied the country that the Commander-in-Chief
would fight when it was proper to fight; that if
he possessed the prudence and caution of Fabius,
he possessed also the enterprise and daring of Scipio.
The thanks of Congress were given to General
Washington, his officers and soldiers, for their
brave exertions, "Congress being well satisfied that
the best designs and boldest efforts may sometimes
fail by unforeseen incidents, and trusting that on
future occasions the valor and virtue of the army
will, by the blessing of Heaven, be crowned with
complete and deserved success."

As one consequence of the battle General Howe
was closely shut up for the winter in the city,
where, defended by his chain of fourteen redoubts
extending from river to river, he passed his time
with his Tory friends in a manner which led

AN ADDRESS. 1 7

Franklin to remark that, instead of capturing Phil-
adelphia, Philadelphia had captured him, his chief
exercise during the winter being to turn out his
regiments occasionally in pursuit of Captain Allan
McLane and his restless band of troopers. Quickly
after the battle of Germantown came the news of
Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga, on the 17th of
October. The country was aflame with excitement,
and expected impossible things. The Council and
Assembly of Pennsylvania clamored for an imme-
diate attack on Philadelphia. Congress, by an
unanimous resolve, declared itself in favor of a
winter campaign — a winter campaign by soldiers
without shoes, without blankets, without tents,
and dependent, as their bitter experience soon
proved, upon forced contributions from the coun-
try people for their scanty food.

Abroad the political results of the battle of Ger-
mantown were of the most important character.
On the 1 2th of December, 1777, Vergennes, the
French Minister, in an interview with the Ameri-
can Commissioners, said: "Nothing has struck
me so much as General Washington's attacking
and giving battle to General Howe's army. To
bring troops raised within the year to this, prom-
ises everything." On the 17th of December
Franklin was informed by Gerard, the Minister's
secretary, by the King's order, that the King in
council had determined not only to acknowledge,
3

l8 AN ADDRESS.

but to support American independence. On the
6th of February, 1778, was concluded the treaty
of alliance between France and the United States;
and on the 8th of July D^Estaing arrived at the
Capes of the Delaware with his squadron of six-
teen ships-of-war, bringing 4000 French soldiers
to aid us in the struggle. It has been generally
supposed that the surrender of Burgoyne turned
the scale in our favor with the French ; but the
facts of history show how considerably the battle
of Germantown entered into and influenced that
fortunate result.

In England a widespread conviction began to
be entertained that the conquest of America was
impossible. On the 7th of April, ^78, the Duke
of Richmond proposed an address to the King,
recommending the recognition of the independ-
ence of the United States. His motion was op-
posed by Lord Chatham, who through all his bril-
liant career had been a strenuous opponent of the
war and the most eloquent defender of our rights.
Then occurred that most pathetic and sublime
scene, so powerfully painted by many historic
writers, as well as by the pencil of Copley, when,
coming into the House, leaning upon his son,
William Pitt, and his son-in-law. Lord Mahon,
all the peers rose, out of respect to him, as he
advanced slowly and with great difficulty to his
seat, and rising to answer the Duke of Richmond,

AN ADDRESS. 1 9

he raised one hand from his crutch, and casting
his eyes towards heaven, exclaimed : " I thank
God that, old and infirm, and with more than one
foot in the grave, I have been able to come to-day
to stand up in the cause of my country. My
Lords, I rejoice that the grave has not closed upon
me, that I am still alive to lift up my voice against
the dismemberment of this ancient and most no-
ble monarchy/* A few moments afterwards he
fell backwards in the agonies of death, and was
borne by his friends from the House, never more
to enter it. The Duke of Richmond's motion
was lost. Most willingly would they have con-
ceded all that America had originally asked, but
the dismemberment of the Empire, the loss of a
continent in the West, was still a result to which
the pride and patriotism of the British nation
could not consent, and the war went on.

It is not for me now to trace its subsequent
history ; to follow the army in its retreat from
Germantown to the Skippack; to accompany it to
Whitemarsh, or on that dreary December march
to Valley Forge — a name which recalls the direst
sufferings of the whole war; to follow it in its
glorious pursuit of the British through New Jer-
sey in the following summer, or in its renewed
struggles, as the war rolled away to the southward,
where Gates, in the words of his friend Charles
Lee, was to exchange Northern laurels for South-

20 AN ADDRESS.

ern willows. Four long years of tireless effort, of
political embarrassments, of fierce conflicts, and
of various fortune lie between Germantown and
Yorktown — years which were to contain Mon-
mouth, Stony Point, Savannah, Charleston, Cam-
den, King's Mountain, the Cowpens, Guilford
Court House, Eutaw Springs, and many more bat-
tles of minor renown. They were years of great
anxiety, of great successes and great reverses ; of
great achievements, of great events, and of great
men. As often as we may go over the records of
those years, and review their stirring history, and
follow the lives of the great leaders who acted
their part in them, the sarne grand and majestic
form still towers above all surrounding objects ;
and we are impressed with the truth of those
words of a recent English historian, who says of
Washington: "No nobler figure ever stood in
the forefront of a nation's life,"

The place in which we stand is the central
point of a region rendered forever memorable in
the great contest for American Independence.
On these undulating fields and the paths which
traverse them, and in the gardens and orchards
which surrounded the houses of the peaceful vil-
lagers who then dwelt here, was fought the battle
which we commemorate to-day. Behind us are
the heights of Roxborough, where Armstrong and
his handful of Pennsylvania militia held in check

Ik.

AN ADDRESS. 2 1

the British left resting upon the Schuylkill, while
Washington with Sullivan and Wayne, supported
by Stirling with Maxwell and Nash — the latter to
fall upon the field — drove against their centre.
Near by, in front of us, are the roads along which
Greene and Stephen and McDougall and Small-
wood and Forman led their divisions to the attack
of the right and rear. Six miles away is the city
which was on that day contended for, where the
Declaration was promulgated, and the Continental
Congress sat. Below are Fort Mifflin and Red
Bank, so long and so gallantly defended. West-
ward, and not far away, are Barren Hill and Paoli
and Valley Forge, while in the near north lie
Chestnut Hill and Whitemarsh, whose wooded
hills, in December, ^^^^ blazed by night with the
thousand camp-fires of the hostile armies. Look
in whatever direction we may, we look upon
scenes which are hallowed by the sufferings and
sacrifices, the valor and endurance, of the men of
the Revolution, to whom, under the blessing of
Almighty God, we owe the independence and
prosperity which we now enjoy.

Great changes have taken place in the century
which has elapsed since that day. Our country
has grown to vast proportions. Its people have
increased from 3,000,000 to more than 40,000,000.
It has passed successfully through other great wars.
Civil strife has shaken, as with an earthquake, the

22 AN ADDRESS.

Structure whose foundations were so deeply laid in
public and private virtue, and they were found to
sustain the shock without injury. Slavery has been
abolished; and everywhere the people who inhabit
this broad domain live under free constitutions
and equal and just laws. If, when another century
shall strike on the dial of Time, our descendants
shall be able to assemble on this spot to celebrate,
without a blush and without remorse, the events
which we commemorate to-day, with the Govern-
ment undecayed, with the Constitution entire, with
the Union unbroken, and with free institutions
unimpaired, it will be because they have emulated
the public spirit, the self-denial, and devotion to
their country of the men of that day ; because
they have adhered to the principles and ideas
which animated them, and because, like them,
they have lived and wrought in humble depend-
ence upon that Divine Providence which regulated
their work and crowned it at last with victory and
peace.

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