Lafayette Outgenerals the British Commanders
That General Lee was treacherous to the cause which he pretended to espouse, there is ample proof. A few years ago a manuscript in the handwriting of Lee, prepared while that officer was a prisoner in New York and addressed to General Howe, containing a plan for the speedy subjugation of the colonies, came into the possession of George H. Moore, LL.D., who published it, with many facts, which clearly show that the writer had been a traitor, undoubtedly, from the fight in Charleston Harbor in June, 1776, until the battle at Monmouth, in June, 1778. All the while that he was in command during that time, he was acting in bad faith toward the Americans. His influence in the army was, at all times, mischievous. Exceedingly selfish and thoroughly unprincipled, bad in morals and courage, he loved neither God nor man. He died in poverty and obscurity in Philadelphia, in October, 1782. By his will written a few days before his death, he bequeathed his soul to the Almighty, and his body to the earth, saying: "I desire, most earnestly, that I may not be buried in any church or church-yard, or within a mile of any Presbyterian or Anabaptist meeting-house, for, since I have resided in this country, I have kept so much bad company when living, that I do not choose to continue it when dead." He was buried in the churchyard of Christ Church, Philadelphia, with military honors.
D'Estaing, with a French fleet, arrived in the Delaware on the 8th of July, 1778, accompanied by M. Gerard, the first minister of France accredited to the United States government, and Commissioner Deane. Howe's fleet was anchored off Sandy Hook, to co-operate with the army in New York. D'Estaing proceeded to attack it, but when he arrived there, the British vessels were all in Raritan Bay, safe from the guns of the heavy French ships that drew too much water to allow them to cross the bar above Sandy Hook. General Sullivan, commanding in the east, was preparing to attempt the expulsion of the six thousand British troops then holding Rhode Island; and, at the special request of Washington, D'Estaing sailed for Narragansett Bay, with thirty-five hundred land troops, to assist in the enterprise. He arrived off Newport at the close of July, accompanied by young John Laurens as aide and interpreter, and the admiral and general arranged a plan of operations.
Washington had instructed Sullivan to arrange his troops in two divisions, and sent Greene to command one of them, and Lafayette to command the other. A requisition had been made upon New England for troops, and in twenty days Sullivan's army was swelled to ten thousand effective men. On the appearance of the French fleet off Newport, the British caused several ships-of-war and galleys, carrying more than two hundred guns, to be burned.
On the 8th of August, the French vessels ran past the batteries near the entrance to Narragansett Bay. Arrangements had been made for the landing of the French troops, and the invasion of Sullivan's army on the 10th; but the latter, discovering on the 9th that the British outposts at the northern end of the island had been abandoned, crossed over from Tiverton on that day. At the same time the fleet of Lord Howe, which had been reinforced from England, appeared off Newport; and on the morning of the 10th, D'Estaing sailed out past the English batteries, to fight him. A stiff wind was then rising from the northeast. Both commanders long contended for the weather-guage (to keep to the windward)-so long that before they were ready to begin the wind had increased to a hurricane and scattered both fleets. It blew so furiously that spray from the ocean was carried over Newport and incrusted the windows with salt. The French fleet was much shattered, and went to Boston for repairs, and Howe sailed back to Sandy Hook. The storm, which ended on the 14th, had burst with terrible fury on the American camp, spoiling much of their ammunition, overturning tents, and damaging provisions.