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horse, and, looking out, discovered the commander-inchief alighting from a jaded charger in the courtyard. He immediately summoned Doctor Craik, and to the eager inquiry, "Is there any hope?" Craik mournfully shook his head. The general retired to a room to indulge his grief, requesting to be left alone. In a little while the poor sufferer expired. Washington, tenderly embracing the bereaved wife and mother, observed to the weeping group around the remains of him he so dearly loved, "From this moment I adopt his two youngest children as my own."* Absorbed in grief, he then waived with his hand a melancholy adieu, and, fresh horses being ready, without rest or refreshment, he remounted and returned to the camp.

* These were Eleanor Parke Custis, who married Lawrence Lewis, the favorite nephew of General Washington, and George Washington Parke Custis - the latter, the author of these Recollections.

NOTE.-After the foregoing chapter was in type, I found in the Philadelphia Sunday Despatch, in one of a series of articles on the History of Chestnut street, from the pen of one of the editors, the following extract from an old paper, entitled the Allied Mercury or Independent Intelligencer, of the date of fifth November, 1781, which relates to the British banners surrendered at Yorktown, mentioned in a note on page 249 of these Recollections :

"On Saturday last (November 3, 1781), between three and four o'clock in the afternoon, arrived here twenty-four standards of colors taken with the British army under the command of Earl Cornwallis. The volunteer cavalry of this city received these trophies of victory at Schuylkill, from whence they escorted and ushered them into town amidst the acclamations of a numerous concourse of people. Continental and French colors, at a distance, preceded the British, and thus they were paraded down Market street to the state-house. They were then carried into Congress and laid at their feet.

The crowd exulting fills with shouts the sky,
The walls, the woods, and long canals reply:
Base Britons! Tyrant Britons-knock under,
Taken 's your earl, soldiers and plunder.
Huzza! what colors of the bloody foe,
Twenty-four in number, at the State-House door;
Look: they are British standards, how they fall
At the president's feet, Congress and all."

CHAPTER VII.

WASHINGTON'S LIFE-GUARD.

NUMBER AND UNIFORM OF THE GUARD-THEIR APPEARANCE AND DISCIPLINE- THE FaithLESS GUARDSMAN-GUARD BORROWED FOR IMPORTANT EXPEDITIONS - THE AFFAIR AT Barren HILL-LAFAYETTE IN PERIL-ALLEN M'LANE-ESCAPE OF THE REPUBLICANSPASSAGE OF THE SCHUYLKILL-THE LIFE-GUARD AT MONMOUTH - MORGAN'S MERRIMENT — LAST SURVIVOR OF THE GUARD.

THE Life-Guard was a select corps, composed of a major's command, or about one hundred and fifty men.* Caleb

Among the Connecticut troops who were engaged in the battle of Bunker's Hill, was a company under Captain Thomas Knowlton, who was mortally wounded in a skirmish on Harlem plains, on the sixteenth of September, 1776. His was one of the best-disciplined companies in the crude army that gathered so suddenly near Boston, after the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord became known. This company and others were formed into a battalion known as the Connecticut rangers, to the command of which Knowlton was appointed, with the rank of LieutenantColonel. It formed a part of the central division of the army at Cambridge, after Washington had taken the chief command, and was under his immediate control. The corps soon held the same enviable position, as to discipline and soldierly deportment, as Captain Knowlton's company had done; and the commander, proud of his battalion, made it a sort of voluntary body-guard to the general-in-chief, and called it Congress's own."

This appellation produced some jealousy in the army, which Washington perceived; and, on the eleventh of March, 1776 (a few days before the termination of the siege of Boston), he ordered a corps to be formed, of reliable men, as guard for himself, baggage, &c. He directed them to be chosen from various regiments, specifying their height to be "from five feet nine inches, to five feet ten inches, and to be handsomely and well made." It consisted of a major's command-one hundred and eighty men. Caleb Gibbs, of Rhode Island, was its first chief, and bore the title of captain-commandant, having three lieutenants. When this corps was formed, that of Knowlton was no longer regarded with jealousy, as a special favorite, although it continued to be so in the estimation of Washington.

The Life-Guard appear to have been quite popular. Captain Harding, of Fair

Gibbs was the first captain-commandant, and was ably seconded by brave and gallant young officers. Their uniform consisted of a blue coat, with white facings; white waistcoat and breeches; black stock and black half-gaiters, and a round hat with blue and white feather.* field, Connecticut, writing to Governor Trumbull, on the twentieth of May, 1776, said: "I am now about fitting out another small sloop [privateersman], that was taken from a tory, that I have called the Life-Guard, to be commanded by Mr. Smedley, to cruise to the eastward," &c., &c. On the sixteenth of the same month, Washington, then in New York, issued the following order: "Any orders delivered by Caleb Gibbs and George Lewis, Esqrs., [officers of the general's Guard], are to be attended to in the same manner as if sent by an aid-de-camp."

We find no further mention of the Guard until in June following, when members of it were suspected of being engaged in an alleged conspiracy to assassinate Washington and his staff. This conspiracy was concocted by Governor Tryon, then a refugee on board of a British man-of-war in the harbor of New York, and the tories in the city and vicinity, at the head of whom was Matthews the mayor. They were made bold by the expected speedy arrival of a strong British land and naval force. It was arranged, that on the arrival of these forces, the tories were to rise, full-armed, to co-operate with them; that Kingsbridge, at the upper end of York island should be destroyed, so as to cut of all communication with the main land; that the maga zines should be fired, and Washington and his staff be murdered, or seized and given up to the enemy. The plan was hinted at by the voice of rumor, and suspicion of complicity rested upon one or two of the Life-Guard. One, named Hickey, was proved to have made arrangements to have poison placed in some green peas of which Washington was about to partake. He was hanged on the twenty-eighth of June, 1776. It is a singular fact, that the victim of this, the first military execution in the continental army, was a member of the body-guard of the commander-inchief, who were chosen for their trustworthiness.

"

*This description exactly corresponds with the device on a flag that belonged to the cavalry of the Guard, which is preserved in the museum at Alexandria, and of which I have a drawing. The flag is made of white silk, on which the device is neatly painted. One of the Guard is seen holding a horse, and is in the act of receiving a flag from the genius of liberty, who is personified as a woman leaning upon the Union shield, near which is the American eagle. The motto of the corps, CONQUER OR DIE," is upon a ribbon. Care was always taken to have each state, from which the continental army was supplied with troops, represented by members of this corps. It was the duty of the infantry portion to guard the headquarters, and to insure the safe-keeping of the papers and effects of the commanderin-chief, as well as the safety of his person. The mounted portion accompanied the general in his marches and in reconnoitering, or other like movements. They were employed as patrols, videttes, and bearers of the general's orders to various military posts; and they were never spared in battle.

The cavalry of the Guard was detailed from various corps during the contest.* In the earlier campaigns,

* A new organization of the Guard took place at the close of April, 1777, when Washington was at Morristown, in New Jersey. On the thirtieth of that month, he issued the following circular to the colonels of regiments stationed there :

“SIR: I want to form a company for my guard. In doing this, I wish to be extremely cautious, because it is more than probable that, in the course of the campaign, my baggage, papers, and other matters of great public import, may be committed to the sole care of these men. This being premised, in order to impress you with proper attention in the choice, I have to request that you will immediately furnish me with four men of your regiment; and, as it is my farther wish that this company should look well, and be nearly of a size, I desire that none of the men may exceed in stature five feet ten inches, nor fall short of five feet nine inches— sober, young, active, and well made. When I recommend care in your choice, I would be understood to mean, of good character, in the regiment-that possess the pride of appearing clean and soldierlike. I am satisfied there can be no absolute security for the fidelity of this class of people; but yet I think it most likely to be found in those who have family connections in the country. You will, therefore, send me none but natives. I must insist that, in making this choice, you give no intimation of my preference of natives, as I do not want to create any invidious distinction between them and the foreigners."

A few days before making this requisition, Washington wrote as follows to the captain-commandant of his Guard Caleb Gibbs :

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"DEAR SIR: I forgot before you left this place to desire you to provide clothing for the men that are to compose my Guard—but now desire that you will apply to the clothier-general, and have them forwarded to this place, or headquarters, as soon as possible.

"Provide for four sergeants, four corporals, a drum and fife, and fifty rank and file. If blue and buff can be had, I should prefer that uniform, as it is the one I wear myself. If it can not, Mr. Mease and you may fix upon any other, red excepted. I shall get men from five feet nine to five feet ten, for the Guard; for such sized men, therefore make your clothing. You may get a small round hat, or a cocked one, as you please.

"In getting these clothes no mention need be made for what purpose they are intended; for though no extraordinary expense will attend it, and the Guard which is absolutely necessary for the security of my baggage and papers, &c., may as well be in uniform; yet the report of making a uniform (or if already made, of providing uniform) for the Guards, creates an idea of expense which I would not wish should go forth.

"That your arms may also be of a piece, I herewith enclose you an order on the com'y of stores for fifty muskets. I am, dear sir, your most obe'dt,

"GEO. WASHINGTON.”

from Baylor's regiment, which was called Lady Washington's Dragoons- uniform white, with blue facings, &c.* The Life-Guard, always attached to the headquarters, was admired as well for its superior appearance as for its high state of discipline; it being considered, in the olden time, a matter of distinction to serve in the Guard of the commander-in-chief.+

Lieutenant-Colonel Baylor's corps was one of the finest in the army. While lying at Old Tappan, near the Hudson, with his regiment, in fancied security, toward the close of September, 1778, he was surprised by General Grey (father of Earl Grey, late premier of England), of Cornwallis's army, and a large number of his men were brutally bayoneted while imploring quarter. Out of one hundred and sixty-four men, sixty-seven were killed or wounded. Lieutenant-Colonel Baylor was taken prisoner; and seventy horses belonging to the corps were butchered.

† After the reorganization of the Guard, in the spring of 1777, the number was considerably increased. In the spring of 1778, the Baron von Steuben arrived at the camp at Valley Forge, and assumed the office of inspector-general of the army. He selected one hundred and twenty men from the line, whom he formed into a special guard for the general-in-chief. He made them his military school, drilled them twice a-day, and thus commenced that admirable system of discipline by which he rendered most important service to the American cause.

Caleb Gibbs was still captain-commandant, and remained in that position until near the close of 1779, when he was succeeded by William Colfax, one of his three lieutenants, the other two being Henry P. Livingston, of New York, and Benjamin Grymes, of Virginia. Colfax became commandant while Washington was stationed at Morristown, and when the number of the corps was greater than at any other period during the war. He was born in Connecticut, in the year 1760, and at the age of seventeen he was commissioned as lieutenant of the continental army. He was in the battle at White Plains, where he was shot through the body. When he became the leader of the general's Guard, a strong attachment was formed between the commander-in-chief and the young subaltern. Washington often shared his tent and his table with him; and he gave the young man many tokens of his esteem. One of these the family of General Colfax yet possesses. It is a silver stock-buckle, set with paste brilliants. Colfax was at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, and he remained with the army until it was disbanded late in 1783. He then settled at Pompton, New Jersey, where he married Hester Schuyler, a cousin of General Philip Schuyler. In 1793, he was commissioned by Governor Howell, general and commander-in-chief of the militia of New Jersey. He was a presidential elector in 1798; and in 1810 he was commissioned a brigadier-general of the Jersey Blues, and was active during the earlier period of the war of 1812. He was appointed a judge of the Common Pleas of Bergen county, which office he

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