To Rejoice or to Despair?
What did the Declaration of Independence mean for the American Colonists? The Continental Army was created. Local Militias were formed, men were pulled away from their homes. Communities were divided into those who were loyal to the crown, those who supported the American Cause and those who were against violence of any kind.
November 1776, the London Magazine, shows Lord North standing on a platform holding a letter announcing successful campaigns by the British troops in America. A distraught woman, ‘America’, holding a liberty cap, sits at the base of the platform.
Americans were faced with more than a decision of allegiance. It was a total disruption of their lives as they knew it.
July 4th, 1776-December 31, 1776
The British Army needed men to fight. They asked for men to enlist, but through the course of the war, they were not above conscripting soldiers.
Satirical print with Justice Wilmot leading a band of ragged and crippled soldiers. c.1770-80 Etching © The Trustees of the British Museum
They were not alone in this practice. An account from the 1776 diary of a Quaker woman, Sarah Logan Fisher, shares the tale of disruption and conscription for the American Cause.
"A party of armed men went about the city [Philadelphia] to shut up the shops and break up the schools by an order of the committee of Safety... a company of men came to take Tommy's name down and to look at our servant boy Jim with an intention if he was big enough to take him by force for a soldier, but as he was under 15 they left him, tho' they took several others not much older."
For every man conscripted there was another who enlisted willingly, Like John Erwin, who on July 9, 1776, enlisted as a Second Lieutenant in the "Flying Camp," within Joseph Hart's Bucks County Battalion, Lt. Col. William Baxter commanding.
Soldiers went door to door to collect supplies from settlers, as well. Guns were collected from non-associators, and everyday supplies for the soldiers collected sometimes by force, as described in another entry of Sarah's Diary.
" Men by order of the Committee of Safety came for Blankets. They took two by force"
The War set neighbor against neighbor and throughout its tenure, the Bucks County Committee of Safety, served as Judge and Jury. Several times in 1776 it censured residents for speaking out against the Patriotic Cause.
Jacob Scout in June of 1776 was forced to apologize for his accusation in front of witnesses that the patriots were " going to open a door to Eternal Tyrrany and give a loose to every Usurper [such as] the Cursed Congress and Committee of Safety."
Minutes of the Committee of Safety, Bucks County, Pennsylvania 1774-1776, The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. vol. XV, 1891
In one Committee of Safety Meeting, Ebenezer Owen refused to deliver his gun and "Uttered expressions...violent to the enmity the the Libertys of America" and Jeremiah Dungan, Jr. was forced to pay a fine to the Committee to ensure the good behavior of his enslaved man Samson who " had become obnoxious to the Associators in his neighborhood and that they were afraid he would injure their families during their absence."
Minutes of the Committee of Safety, Bucks County, Pennsylvania 1774-1776, The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. vol. XV, 1891
Not all men were conscripted into fighting, some with special essential work were exempted from fighting. Such was the case for the Durham Furnace employees who were supplying cannon and shot for the Continental Army
What of the lives of the soldiers? The Continental Congress promised all those who enlisted a uniform, a gun and regular rations of beef, bread, and beans. Instead they had only the gear and weapons they brought from home, and barely enough food to keep them alive.
Even the uniforms promised were not always provided as is the case for the soldiers who enlisted in the Flying Camp, a mobile military unit created by George Washington with troops always in motion to keep the enemy in continual alarm.
Instead, General Washington recommended "the adoption of hunting shirts and breeches". His intention was to masquerade the troops as marksmen "which might have its terrors for the enemy."
John Erwin's experience as a Second Lieutenant of the the Flying Camp exposed him to the violence of battle. In August 1776 he fought in the Battle of Long Island. It began with violent lightning storms the evening before, with lightning falling in masses like sheets of fire to the earth.
The Continental Army fought four times their number and many of Erwin's fellow soldiers were slain and over 1000 imprisoned.
The taking of New York City by the British on September 15th sent shock waves throughout the colonies. A substantial British Fleet had entered New York Bay on June 29. Additional British ships from the Mediterranean, the West Indies and the Florida Coast soon joined them.
BY AUGUST 21, THE NEW YORK BAY CONTAINED A FLEET OF 35 WARSHIPS AND 400 TRANSPORTS, CARRYING ABOUT 35,000 WELL-TRAINED MEN.
By September 16, It became obvious that it was not "tenable" for the Continental Army to hold the City of New York. One newspaper account shared, "that holding of it obliged us to divide our army into many weak parts."
"Three days since it was resolved to quit the town, and we have been removing ever since. We have taken almost everything out of the city, but lost some cannon and stores."
Throughout the war as the two armies alternately occupied and evacuated towns, cities, and battlefields, it was of grave concern to leave nothing of value behind.
Just as the COntinental army was forced to flee in the wake of the occupying British army, residents who aligned themselves with the patriotic cause, evacuated New York leaving homes and belongings behind. At the same time, Loyalists from other states fled across the line, into the city.
L'entr Triumphale de troupes Royales a Nouvelle Yorck der Einzug der Koniglichen Volcker in Neu Yorck//Grave par Francois Xav. Habermann, Library of Congress
Shortly after occupying New York City, a devastating fire broke out, burning for ten hours north of Broadway and destroying a quarter of the city buildings.
The British accused the rebels of causing the fire, while the Continental army blamed the British. Those surviving homes owned by known patriotic families were confiscated and assigned to British officers. Churches were converted into prisons, infirmaries, or barracks. Some of the common soldiers were billeted with civilian families. Loyalist refugees fleeing to New York City caused overcrowding, setting up tent cities on the charred ruins.
Representation du Feu terrible a Nouvelle Yorck (Representation of the great fire at New York) September 19, 1176
The Council of Safety and residents of every city, including Philadelphia, added occupation and arson to the growing list of fears as the War for Independence continued in 1776. The call came for the Militia to be raised.
On November 14th the Council called, "As you value the Safety of your County, and all that is dear and valuable to Men. We most earnestly solicit your immediate Assistance and that you will march all your battalion to this city with the least Delay. As nothing but the most hasty marching of militia will enable us to make a Stand."
Another excerpt from Sarah Logan Fisher's 1776 Diary details an account of the Council on Safety's actions regarding these concerns within the streets of Philadelphia.
According to Sarah, "The Council of Safety had the day before given the Wardens leave to patrol the City for Fear of Fire, which greatly alarmed the inhabitants...General Putnam issued a Proclamation declaring that any person that set Fire to the City should be capitally punished."
Sarah continued, "The evening before a Bellman had gone through the City, ordering every person to go this day, and assist in entrenching the city. If they did not their effects were to be seised, but there were few people who obeyed the summons."
While the residents of Philadelphia were shoring up the defenses of the city, John Erwin and the Flying Camp, had been constantly on the move.
endlessly marching, some 60 to 70 miles a day, never spending more than 2 days in any one place for all of September and October, before arriving at fort washington in November.
The entire garrison of Fort Washington came under fire with 2,837 men being captured, including Lieutenant John Erwin, on November 16, 1776. The defeat at Fort Washington has been called the heaviest suffered by the American army during the entire war, and Pennsylvania Flying Camp battalions had borne the major burden.
On November 16, 1776 John Erwin was captured and imprisoned on a British prison ship in New York Harbor. The holds of these ships were overcrowded, with anywhere from 400 to 1200 prisoners, and were rampant with disease, rotten food, contaminated water, suffocating heat or unbearable cold.
Sickness was a constant companion to soldiers both imprisoned and free. More soldiers died of Small Pox than in Battle. It was estimated that for every soldier who died in battle, ten died of disease.
Sarah's diary shares a melancholy account of Dr. Bond regarding sickness among the soldiers. "They have the True Camp Fever which is near to the Plague, he says 15 or 20 frequently die a day. That they bury 10 to a grave, and not a foot under ground. He thinks the disorder will spread and the Inhabitants here are in danger."