On September 14, 1780, there arrived and
anchored at Sandy Hook, New York, fourteen British ships of the
line under Rodney, the doughtiest of the British admirals afloat.
Washington, with his army headquarters at West Point, on guard to
keep the British from advancing up the Hudson, was looking for
the arrival, not of a British fleet, but of a French fleet, from
the West Indies. For him these were very dark days. The recent
defeat at Camden was a crushing blow. Congress was inept and had
in it men, as the patient General Greene said, "without
principles, honor or modesty." The coming of the British fleet
was a new and overwhelming discouragement, and, on the 18th of
September, Washington left West Point for a long ride to Hartford
in Connecticut, half way between the two headquarters, there to
take counsel with the French general. Rochambeau, it was said,
had been purposely created to understand Washington, but as yet
the two leaders had not met. It is the simple truth that
Washington had to go to the French as a beggar. Rochambeau said
later that Washington was afraid to reveal the extent of his
distress. He had to ask for men and for ships, but he had also to
ask for what a proud man dislikes to ask, for money from the
stranger who had come to help him.
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