TEARS OF THE FOOT GUARDS

ADAGIO - STAVE XVIII

A D A G I O

S T A V E

XVIII

August 1777

London – The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser 31st July, 1777:

LOST, this SUMMER,

in the enclosures about New-York, In North America,

The BRITISH ARMY.

Whoever can give an account of it to his Majesty's

Secretary of War, shall not only receive a large premium,

but have the high honour of kissing his Majesty's hand.

A part of it is said to have been seen, in the Spring,

near Danbury; but its stay was so short,

that its tracks were not deep enough to be traced.

******************

Thirty days out of New York – 15,000 rank and file on the water again, choking the decks and crammed into holds: soldiers, women, baggage and arms, horses, carts and wagons, Loyalists too, packed and tidy, bobbing in a tub.

Billy, now Sir Billy, Knight of the Bath, took 'em to Sea. Not that he liked it, the Sea's a damn Monster, but American topography was not a Friend, especially with Washington holding it.

Winter '77 – the Forage War: Spanktown, Quibbletown, Drake's Falls. Fifty-eight actions, nine hundred casualties in drips and drabs foraging for vittles. In June, Billy tried a final smash, a pincer movement near Short Hills, New Jersey – Washington came down from the ridge on Watchung Mountains and displayed on the plains from the Scotch Plains to Quibbletown. A rolling fight to a pitched battle – Musket Balls like Showers of hail stones . . . Cornwallis with eleven thousand to break Washington's flank – Alexander's twenty-five hundred. The Rebels, of course, got the worst – a hundred killed and the loss of three brass cannon. Billy's loss not so much – thirty wounded, five killed and only one officer, a Foot Guards captain – the Light Company's impetuous Captain Finch trying to take the cannon with sword and pistol by himself . . . Actually did. Drove 'em off single handed, then spied the august Alexander and shouted at him: Come here, you damned rebel, and I will do for you! (a nice flair if truly said), to which Alexander ordered four marksmen to unload on him, the bright, happy boy . . . His parents will receive him in a box.

Billy then took off, flying on Canvas Wings – better to fight the Sea than cross Hostile Country – too many defiles to stretch an Army out, an Army that must carry all it had. It is but a string of vulnerable bands. Burgoyne must find it so coming down from Montreal, even with the finest Troops, even in Victory. How the Rebels must snipe at him. But on the Water, there's no spying eyes. No trees to hide the Enemy. Away from shore, it's you with Invisibility. Bo-Peeping on the Ocean – where'd he go? Up the Hudson to link with Burgoyne? On the Delaware to take Philadelphia? Off the Cape for another go at Charleston? Philadelphia first, then Albany – Billy's sound plan – sail south away from the coast and take the Capital by means of the Delaware or the Chesapeake. Establish order and then march north to link with Burgoyne. Does he need linking?

Every general disliked it except for Cornwallis and Grant. Then news: Burgoyne had captured Ticonderoga. Howe was free and wrote Burgoyne on 17th July: