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New Brunfwiek, N. J>« Historical Oubj Publicjations V 
 
 Blazing the Way to 
 Final Victory 
 
 Washington's Order of 
 29 August 1781 
 
 READ BEFORE THE GLUB 
 20 May 1920 
 
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 Published ON THE 
 Fiftieth jAnniveRsary of the 
 
 - FotrNfilNd OF THE ClXTB 
 
 ' 16 December 1920 
 
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New Brunswick, N. J., Historical Club Publications 
 
 Proceedings of the Fifth Anniversary of the New Brunswick 
 Historical Club, December. 16, 1875 (Unnumbered) 
 
 Adoption of the Constitution of the United States by New Jersey 
 
 Commemorative Exercises, 16 December 1887 
 
 With an Appendix 
 
 II. 
 
 Rutgers (Queen's) College and Medical Degrees 
 
 A Paper Read Before the Club by David D. Demarest, D.D, LLD. 
 
 December 21, 1893 and January 18, 1894 
 
 III. 
 
 The Charter of the City of New Brunswick of Dec. 30, 1730 and 
 
 Early Ordinances of the City 
 
 With an Appendix 
 
 February 1913 
 
 IV. 
 List of Readers and Subjects of Papers 1870-1914 
 
 V. 
 
 Blazing the Way to Final Victory, Washington's Order of 
 
 29 August 1781 
 
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New Brunswick, N. J., Historical Club, Publications V 
 
 Blazing the Way to 
 Final Victory 
 
 Washington's Order of 
 29 August 1781 
 
 READ BEFORE THE CLUB 
 20 May 1920 
 
 Published on the 
 
 Fiftieth Anniversary of the 
 
 Founding of the Club 
 
 16 December 1920 
 
 Digitized by Microsoft® 
 
Digitized by Microsoft® 
 
Blazing the Way to Final Victory 
 
 1781 
 
 When the news of the alHed triumph at Yorktown arrived in 
 France, early in November, 1781, Franklin wrote to Washington: 
 "All the world agree that no expedition was ever better planned, 
 or better executed. It brightens the glory that must accompany 
 your name to the latest posterity." And Vergennes, chief in the 
 French administration, asserted: "History offers few examples of 
 a success so complete." Has the transport of that moment resolved 
 itself into the settled judgment of our generation? Was the happy 
 result at Yorktown an exploit for the ages? 
 
 English historians, as a rule, are slow to concede to Washington 
 first rank as a soldier, however ready they may be to acclaim the 
 greatness of his character. Goldwin Smith, declaring that Wash- 
 ingfton was indispensable to the cause, denies that he is one of the 
 greatest captains, for he "never won a battle." F. W. Fortescue 
 in his "History of the British Army," says of Washington: "His 
 fame as a military commander rests on the surprise at Trenton and 
 on his march from the Hudson to the Chesapeake in 1781. Yet 
 though every Englishman must admire him as a very great man 
 and a brave and skilful soldier, it is, I think, doubtful whether he 
 has any claim to be regarded as a really great commander in the 
 field. He was not, it is true, a soldier by profession, but neither 
 was Cromwell and I take it that few would venture to rate Wash- 
 ington as a general so highly as Cromwell." 
 
 Knight in his "Popular History of England," gives a more favor- 
 able judgment, saying of the Yorktown campaign: "Those qualities 
 of a commander, which are, at the least, as important, if not so 
 dazzling, as the ability to 'set a squadron in the field' have been 
 rarely displayed more signally than in the prudent care of Wash- 
 ington that no disorder should ensue from the sudden change in 
 his whole plan of operations. He had to provide against the chance 
 of attack on his march from New York to Trenton and he adroitly 
 managed to lead Clinton to believe that the march was a feint — " 
 
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 Perhaps the finest summary of the qualities of Washington, con- 
 stituting him a standard among men, is that of Thackeray, who in 
 his "Virginians" allows one of his characters to declare, when com- 
 paring Washington with Wolfe: "Here indeed is a greater than 
 Wolfe. To endure is greater than to dare; to tire out hostile for- 
 tune ; to be daunted by no difficulty ; to keep heart when all have lost 
 it; to go through intrigue spotless; to forego ambition when the 
 end is gained; who shall say this is not greatness, or show the 
 Englishman who has achieved so much?" 
 
 The judgment of American historians as to Washington's rank as 
 a soldier has been largely determined, perhaps biased, by a contem- 
 plation of his character in its aggregate of qualities, military, political 
 and other, and their mutual adjustment, rather than merely the sol- 
 dierly qualities, and further, by a view of the vast results flowing 
 from the Yorktown capitulation. John Fiske in his "American Revo- 
 lution," says: "Had anyone predicted eight months before, that 
 Washington on the Hudson and Cornwallis on the Catawba eight 
 hundred miles apart, would so soon come together and terminate the 
 war on the coast of Virginia he would have been thought a wild 
 prophet indeed. For thoroughness of elaboration and promptness of 
 execution, the movement on Washington's part was as remarkable as 
 the march of Napoleon, in the autumn of 1805, when he swooped 
 from the shore of the English Channel into Bavaria and captured the 
 Austrian Army at Ulm." 
 
 It seems to be true that the riiost painstaking and expert analyses 
 of Washington's character and ability fail to dissociate his capacity 
 for military command from the qualities of the statesman and the 
 man. It is a subordinate though integrant part of the whole. 
 
 The events of the five months from May to November 1781 
 reveal Washington's military qualities in their full exercise, but also 
 and only as a part of those which render him one among the fore- 
 most. 
 
 Washington had a forefeeling that the year 1781 was to be de- 
 cisive of the fate of America. The early months brought a clear 
 challenge to the master-spirit. On the one hand, difficulties were 
 at their height, but obstacles must be made conditions of success. 
 The strain of six long years was telling on the tried souls of patriots. 
 
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 The Articles of Confederation, finally and just now adopted, were 
 already proving their inadequacy. The Congress, though it had 
 made some reforms in method and had shifted financial management 
 and responsibility to Robert Morris, was dilatory, if not incompe- 
 tent for real government. Money and men and supplies were woe- 
 fully lacking. The foe was strongly intrenched in two of the great 
 gateways of the continent, in New York and Charleston, and Corn- 
 wallis was active in his purpose to subdue Virginia and to control 
 the Chesapeake. 
 
 On the other hand, there was inspiring promise. Greene had 
 done his great work in the south. Lafayette, that fine blend of zeal 
 and prudence, was showing his mettle in Virginia. The alliance 
 with France was, at the end of three years, ready to prove its worth 
 on land and sea. Thus, disadvantages and advantages united in a 
 challenge to the American Commander in Chief. Could he devise 
 and execute a plan which would subdue the former, "turning neces- 
 sity to glorious gain," and command the latter and so compel fortune 
 to do his bidding? 
 
 The situation demanded two military qualities of high, perhaps 
 highest, order ; first, to conceive a plan, large, comprehensive, perfect 
 in details, accurate in its calculations; and secondly, so fashioned as 
 to be instantly re-adjustable at the quick touch of chance. As never 
 before in his experience the protagonist of the cause had to deal 
 with elements of time and large distances, of land and sea, of home 
 and allied France, and his thrust must strike the vulnerable spot as 
 chance and the enemy should expose it. And Washington met the 
 challenge. 
 
 The French forces were at Newport, Rhode Island, the American 
 at New Windsor on the Hudson. Washington summoned Rocham- 
 beau to Wethersfield just below Hartford, where in a conference on 
 the 21st of May, the plan was devised, definite in scope and purpose 
 and detail, yet including the indefiniteness of a possible necessity 
 for rapid re-adjustment. Pursuant to the preliminary part of the 
 plan, the French and American troops were joined in June in the 
 vicinity of New York. Reconnoitering, manoeuvers, skirmishes, and 
 the offer of battle to Sir Henry Qinton, consumed the summer 
 until the middle of August. The British Commander had intrenched 
 
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 himself more firmly in New York Island and had received re- 
 inforcements of men and ships. The French foresaw difficulties, 
 dangers, perhaps the impossibility of the success of an attempt by 
 their fleet, should it come, to force a passage into New York harbor 
 and control it. Then came the lightning change. 
 
 On the 14th of August advices arrived from DeGrasse, then in 
 command of the French fleet in the West Indies, that he was about 
 to bring to the continent 28 sail and a land force of 3,000 men, and 
 that he would make for the Chesapeake. The plan was adjusted 
 accordingly on the 17th of August and a week later the two armies 
 were across the Hudson, ferried from King's Bridge to Stony Point. 
 They were to march in four columns — two French and two Ameri- 
 can — the French by the more northerly route, to Whippany, near 
 Morristown, thence through the upper part of Somerset County to 
 Trenton, and thence on to the south. These two columns marched 
 one day apart, the rear column occupying at night the camp left for 
 them each morning by the advance column. The two American 
 columns were to separate at Chatham, name of happy omen, the 
 one marching to Bound Brook, thence to Princeton and Trenton and 
 on. The left column, preceded by Washington and led by Benjamin 
 Lincoln, general of well-deserved fame, was to take the route 
 through New Brunswick to Princeton and Trenton and on. 
 
 The foregoing considerations containing familiar history have 
 been presented by the writer of this paper as a setting for an order 
 of Washington issued in New Brunswick on the 29th of August 
 to Simeon De Witt. This son of Rutgers, graduated in 1776, was 
 in 1781 the geographer of the American Army, having been ap- 
 pointed by Congress the previous December to fill the position left 
 vacant by the death of Robert Erskine. The original of this order 
 of Washington has recently been acquired by Rutgers. It is a 
 holograph and not, as is the case of many of his orders and letters 
 in those crowded days of the great adventure, dictated to one of 
 his aids. It is here presented in a photographic copy and reads 
 as follows : 
 
 "Brunswick, Aug. 29, 1781. 
 
 "Sir : — Immediately upon receipt of this you will begin to Survey 
 the road (if it has not been done already) to Princeton — thence 
 
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 through Maidenhead to Trenton— thence to Philadelphia— thence to 
 the head of Elk through Darby, Chester, Wilmington, Christiana 
 bridge. 
 
 "At the head of Elk you will receive further orders. I need not 
 observe to you the necessity of noting Towns, villages and remark- 
 able Houses and places but I must desire that you will give me the 
 rough traces of your Survey as you proceed on as I have reasons 
 for desiring this as soon as possible. 
 
 "I am Sir 
 
 "Yr very Hble Servt. 
 
 "Go. Washington." 
 
 We of this community and of this college need not from motives 
 of local interest and pride assume that upon this order and its 
 execution hung the fortunes of the great enterprise. It was a cog 
 in the plan and played its part no doubt with some degree of im- 
 portance in the series of events. But aside from its relative value 
 in this respect, it has notable significance. 
 
 Washington arrived in New Brunswick from Chatham on the 
 28th of August 1781. Four years and nine months before, in 
 November, 1776, he had crossed from the north to the south bank 
 of the Raritan, then as now at the head of his army. Time and 
 events in this interval had wrought their shaping processes. Such 
 are not lost on men already great. For them too, four years in the 
 university of experience have value. In 1776 Washington had 
 planned to end the retreat at New Brunswick, here to make a stand, 
 here to fight a decisive battle. But here the Continental army was 
 melting like wax before the fire. Jersey and Maryland troops left 
 for home — their time was up. And the British in the pursuit were 
 but an hour's march away. Washington wanted an army, so he 
 wrote, "to look the enemy in the face." "Cruelly disappointed" as 
 his immediate purpose dissolved into a vanishing shadow, his spirit 
 saddened but uncrushed, thrusting his way through the November 
 mists, with unflinching resolution, he led the remnant of his army, 
 numbering less than 3,000 effectives, from this spot to the Delaware. 
 What a contrast in these two appearances of Washington in New 
 Brunswick! Now on the 29th of August 1781, a body of 5,000 
 troops of France are, at his bidding, in ordered and gay array 
 
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 making their march to the goal. The right column of the American 
 army are arriving in Bound Brook for their night's camping, as 
 Washington, preceding his column by a day, is entering New 
 Brunswick. Our army too had been trained and hardened by the 
 service and discipline of years and was composed in sufficient part 
 of veterans. Now the heavy footfall of the retreat of 1776 was to 
 become the elastic tread of confident victors. 
 
 Before Washington went to bed that night, it would seem that 
 he felt that a definite phase of the plan ended here, and here a new 
 one in its execution was to begin, for before retiring he makes this 
 entry in his expense account, to be submitted to Qyngress when his 
 job was done: "August 28. To expenditures on my march from 
 ye White Plains by way of King's Ferry to Brunswick, £38. .15. .0." 
 
 Up to this point the real objective in the plan had been concealed 
 with scrupulous care. At the first, only Washington and Rocham- 
 beau had conceived of it and devised it as a possibility. Events had 
 strengthened this possibility. It became a certainty and definite when 
 Washington learned of DeGrasse's intention, and on the 17th of 
 August he threw the whole force of his will and skill into its execu- 
 tion. To one and another of his chosen confidants, as necessity 
 required for the conduct of the campaign, Washington in strictest 
 confidence revealed the combined purpose — to Lafayette in Vir- 
 ginia, to Governor Trumbull in Connecticut, to Governor Livingston 
 in New Jersey, to Robert Morris in Philadelphia, to General Heath 
 deputed to command the troops left to guard the Hudson. 
 
 It is at this juncture that the order to DeWitt was written and 
 that it becomes of special significance in history, and of particular 
 interest to us of New Brunswick and of Rutgers. The order, brief 
 as it is, reveals many of the choicest characteristics of its author; 
 his commanding dignity, his unfailing courtesy, his knowledge of 
 this highway of the nation, his grasp of affairs and of the situation, 
 his alertness and his assurance of the final issue. Without dwelling 
 on this aspect of the order, it may be said that the fact of the 
 issuance of such an order at that moment and at this place gives it 
 large significance. Now and here the carefully concealed secret 
 could be divulged, for this was the last place where the feint of 
 a flank attack on New York by way of Staten Island, or of the 
 support of a French fleet off Sandy Hook, could longer deceive the 
 
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 enemy. Now all the world may learn the plan; the cloud-screen 
 may now be lifted and secrecy flung to the winds. Here too was 
 the c£isting of the die when the Raritan was crossed. When DeWitt 
 should set out to obey the order it would need no preternatural 
 shrewdness to penetrate the purpose of the march. Nor did Wash- 
 ington enjoin secrecy on DeWitt. The order was probably written 
 early on the morning of the 29th and as Washington was about to 
 mount his horse, for we find him on that same day, after the ride 
 of thirty-odd miles, writing letters and orders in Trenton. This 
 order means, as Washington swings away from the Raritan to the 
 southward, from the pretended to the real path, that enemy and 
 friend alike may learn his purpose as it emerges from concealment. 
 It was a challenge to the foe, it was a summons to his countrymen 
 to share his resolution and his assurance that the way was now to 
 be blazed to the goal. So the football leader in the mimic warfare 
 of his field calls out his signal to the team for the final effort. 
 
 The English historian, Trevelyan, in his "History of George the 
 Third and Charles James Fox," treating of this event in the Ameri- 
 can Revolution, says: "Washington knew that the surest way to 
 keep a secret was to keep it himself No man of all the thou- 
 sands who marched with Washington and Rochambeau during that 
 last week of August 1781 knew for certain whither he was bound. 
 Even generals of brigade and division supposed that their destination 
 was Staten Island and remained under that impression until they had 
 left New Brunswick behind." 
 
 So rapid was the movement, say the historians, that however much 
 the men might have begim to wonder, they had reached Philadelphia 
 before the purpose of the expedition was distinctly understood. At 
 Philadelphia, Washington and his army were met by Congress and 
 the people with an outburst of exulting hope. It was a response to 
 the exultant hope, which, close-locked in the breast of Washington 
 and a selected few, is when New Brunswick is passed to become the 
 possession of patriot America and the foreboding of the foe. The 
 order to DeWitt is a token that virtually at New Brunswick the 
 entrance gate to victory was flung open. The sending of the order 
 was like the pressing of the little electric button which releases power. 
 Four days after the order was dispatched to DeWitt, Sir Henry 
 
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 Clinton in New York first learned that he had been outgeneraled; 
 that the battle he had declined to fight when confronted by Washing- 
 ton and Rochambeau on the banks of the Hudson was to be fought 
 by his subordinate and rival, Cornwallis ; that the letters sent by Wash- 
 ington to be intercepted, to mislead the judgment of the British Com- 
 mander, and the boats assembled, were but a smoke screen. He knew 
 it now on the 2nd of September, the day when the French and Ameri- 
 can armies were passing through the streets of Philadelphia inspiring 
 in the acclaiming throngs of citizens the glad forefeeling of the 
 coming triumph. The order to DeWitt was a symbol that the anchor 
 of hope, shaped in the forge and heat of six long years, was here 
 lifted to the deck of the Ship of State as she was putting out into 
 the open. 
 
 The plan was developing, it was here unfolded, though its execution 
 was but in part achieved. Difficulties still lay in the way, obstacles 
 must be encountered, the carefully contrived engine of victory must 
 function properly through the nice adjustment of its parts and its pru- 
 dent manipulation. The empty war-chest must get, through the ex- 
 ertions of Robert Morris, at least enough to mept the pressing needs 
 of the unpaid soldiers who were dreading to tmdergo the humid 
 heat of the Virginia summer. Hazards and chance were in lurking, 
 so unforeseen as the impulse of DeGrasse at almost the last moment 
 to sail away to meet his engagements in the West Indies. DeGrasse 
 yielded to Washington's letter of entreaty, which carried the immortal 
 words : "A great mind knows how to make a personal sacrifice to 
 secure an important general good." Lafayette, bearing the letter to 
 DeGrasse, supplemented it with personal persuasion, and the mind 
 of DeGrasse in that moment and for that enterprise expanded to 
 greatness. 
 
 The spirit of universal hope was no longer one of trembling ex- 
 pectation but was becoming one of resolute confidence; and if the 
 whole transformation was not wrought in New Brunswick, it was 
 here to begin to manifest itself as Washington issued his command 
 to DeWitt. 
 
 It was on the 30th of August, the day after ^Yashington left New 
 Brunswick, that General Lincoln, designated at Yorktown to receive 
 
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 the sword of Cornwallis, arrived at "Brunswick Landing" at the 
 head of the left column of the American forces. 
 
 Accurate maps are an essential in war's outfit, as so clearly shown 
 in the late war of the world. How far DeWitt's "rough traces of 
 the Survey," to be sent to Washington as he "proceeded on," con- 
 tributed to the great result, we do not know ; but we do know that, 
 if he obeyed the instructions of the Commander-in-Chief, he was the 
 herald of the new day, and he may with right take in our grateful 
 hearts at least equal rank with Paul Revere, acclaimed in song and 
 story for a midnight ride. No doubt he did obey his instructions, 
 for Washington two years and a half later commends him to Jeffer- 
 son then engaged in framing the Ordinance for the survey of the 
 Western lands, as "sober, industrious and a very good mathema- 
 tician ;" and again, in 1796, in connection with the same kind of service 
 Washington says : "Mr. DeWitt is a man of profound knowledge in 
 mathematics and sufficiently skilled in astronomy." And Washington 
 was a surveyor by profession. Doubtless DeWitt obeyed this order. 
 
 In the nice balance of chance, which a single incident might disturb, 
 we may assume that the "rough traces" and their more finished form 
 played their proper part in tipping the beam in one scale of which 
 lay the fortunes of the new Republic. 
 
 It should be a source of inspiration to us, and to all succeeding 
 generations in this community, that here the plan of the great and 
 successful enterprise took the wings of the morning, that here the 
 order was issued to blaze the way to final victory, that this command 
 was given to a son of Queen's, now Rutgers, College — his commission 
 as herald of the approaching dawn. 
 
 Washington took command of the American Army at Cambridge, 
 unsheathing his sword close by the gates of Harvard, and with it, 
 steadfast of eye and hand and heart, pointed the way into the un- 
 known. At Brunswick, close by the gates of Rutgers— within them 
 indeed, it may be said, in view of this order to a son of this College- 
 Washington, the blade of his sword burnished to an unfading lustre 
 by the vicissitudes of long years, pointed to the spot, known to his 
 prophetic soul as the chosen place of victory. 
 
 Rutgers College. Austin Scott. 
 
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