Claiborne Davenport Chapter Two, Valley Forge and Monmouth

Washington implored Congress but appealed to a highest
authority in this painting by John C. McRae.

I need to keep a promise. Last year I ended my blog by promising folks I would keep them updated on my research concerning my ancestor Claiborne Davenport.  I began my article about Claiborne trying to ascertain as to weather the family oral tradition about him being personally saved by General George Washington could have been plausible or simply myth. I believe that the incident is more than plausible and probably quite true. Claiborne fought in close proximity with Washington on several occasions. Claiborne’s military record shows that he spent the majority of his time in the army serving in the 1^st Virginia regiment until the bitter winter of December 1777, when the army was in winter quarters at Valley Forge. It was here that the Virginia regiments were reorganized and consolidated. It was at this time that the commanding officers of the regiments were sent home to recruit new soldiers to fill the badly depleted ranks. It was at this time that I believe Claiborne was reassigned for a short time into the 7^th Virginia regiment commanded by Colonel McClenachan from March 1777 until May 1778.  In the muster rolls of Valley Forge Claiborne is listed as being part of Brigadier General William Woodford’s brigade. Woodford commanded the 3^rd, 7^th, 11^th, and 15^th Virginia regiments. The 7^th entered Valley Forge as part of Stirling’s division but left assigned to Major General Marquis de Lafayette’s division.  His company captain was still listed as Capt. Charles Fleming though Fleming was killed in action in Jan. 1777 at the battle of Princeton, which I have already detailed.

Lafayette and Washington at Valley Forge

Here at Valley Forge the army suffered greatly from privation as they built log cabins and suffered terribly from lack of supplies.  The army suffered great losses as soldiers died of disease and exposure to the bitter winter snows. Washington implored for the Continental Congress to act in appropriating supplies before the army would be decimated by such loss.  The muster rolls of Claiborne’s regiment shows that they entered Valley Forge with 427 soldiers assigned, and a mere 46 souls fit for duty. When they left Valley Forge the regiment showed 376 soldiers assigned and 226 soldiers fit for duty. 

 In spite of all the suffering the army continued to drill and prepare. Here the troops were drilled and instructed by Baron Von Stueben, a Prussian trained officer who spoke little English but was able to communicate in French using French speaking  American officers as interpreters.  It is said that Steuben could parade up and down the line in full dress uniform cursing at the troops in German and in French, and failing to get the proper attention, would enlist the aid of Captain Benjamin Walker to curse at them in English. He drilled the soldiers relentlessly in close order drill and in the art of rapid fire of the musket. I quote from http://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge/served/steuben.html “Warfare in the Eighteenth Century was a comparatively simple matter, once the battle was joined. Combat was at close range, massed-fire melee, where rapidity of firing was of primary importance. Accuracy was little more than firing faster than the opposing line. Much of the Regulations dealt with the manual of arms and firing drills. But battle was close-order drill, and speed of firing could only be obtained by drilling men in the handling of their firearms until the motions of loading and firing were mechanical”

Von Steuben drilling at Valley Forge

This much needed drilling form such a professionally trained soldier was crucial to the success of the struggling American Continentals who were mostly farmers and shop keepers with the temerity to face seasoned British regulars. 

As the bitter winter of 1777 gave way to the summer of 1778, June saw Washington pressing his newly trained army into action against British general Clinton in New York.

The battle of Monmouth was fought in stifling heat and was one of the longest battles of the Revolutionary war It is here that I believe General Washington saved Claiborne from death by calling him from the path of a firing canon. The act I believe took place at Combs’s Hill where Claiborne’s regiment was posted.   I quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Monmouth “The Battle of Monmouth was an American Revolutionary War (or American War of Independence) battle fought on June 28, 1778 in Monmouth County, New Jersey. The Continental Army under General George Washington attacked the rear of the British Army column commanded by Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton as they left Monmouth Court House (modern Freehold Borough). It is known as the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse.

Unsteady handling of lead Continental elements by Major General Charles Lee had allowed British rearguard commander Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis to seize the initiative but Washington's timely arrival on the battlefield rallied the Americans along a hilltop hedgerow.Sensing the opportunity to smash the Continentals, Cornwallis pressed his attack and captured the hedgerow in stifling heat. Washington consolidated his troops in a new line on heights behind marshy ground, used his artillery to fix the British in their positions, then brought up a four gun battery under Major General Nathanael Greene on nearby Combs Hill to enfilade the British line, requiring Cornwallis to withdraw.

Washington reprimands Lee and rallies his men to regain
the initiative.

Finally, Washington tried to hit the exhausted British rear guard on both flanks, but darkness forced the end of the engagement. Both armies held the field, but the British commanding General Clinton withdrew undetected at midnight to resume his army's march to New York City.

Molly Pitcher legend is born on top of Combs Hill

While Cornwallis protected the main British column from any further American attack, Washington had fought his opponent to a standstill after a pitched and prolonged engagement; the first time that Washington's army had achieved such a result. The battle demonstrated the growing effectiveness of the Continental Army after its six month encampment at Valley Forge, where constant drilling under officers such as Major General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben and Major General Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette greatly improved army discipline and morale. The battle improved the military reputations of Washington, Lafayette and Anthony Wayne but ended the career of Charles Lee, who would face court martial at Englishtown for his failures on the day. According to some accounts, an American soldier's wife, Mary Hays, brought water to thirsty soldiers in the June heat, and became one of several women associated with the legend of Molly Pitcher.” The Battle of Monmouth was significant because it proved that the Continental Army could indeed stand toe to toe with the more Experienced and hardened British troops and stand their ground in battle.  The aforementioned Wiki article said, “The British official casualty return reported 65 killed, 59 dead of "fatigue", 170 wounded and 64 missing. The American official return stated 69 killed, 161 wounded and 132 missing (37 of whom were found to have died of heat-stroke, other estimates increase the losses to 1,134 British and 500 American casualties.”As an interesting point Washington's horse died of heat stroke that day.

General Charles Cornwallis

      Here at Monmouth Claiborne was positioned along the line of batteries of Combs hill awaiting the orders by Washington to repulse the British lines coming up the hill should they succeed in overwhelming the forward force commanded by Gen Anthony Wayne. 

"Mad " Anthony Wayne

Wayne’s continentals were positioned in the hedgerow about midway down the hill,. British General Cornwallis personally led a determined attack against Washington’s right wing commanded by General Green’s division. At times the troops engaged in hand-to-hand combat with bayonet, yet Washington held and repulsed the British by concentrated musket volley and heavy enfilading canon from both wings in cross fire against the British.
A determined attack by British grenadiers overwhelmed Wayne’s command at the hedgerow forcing him to fall back to the main Continental line at the top of the crest.  The British temporarily held the hedgerow but were finally repulsed once again by the musket volley and concentrated cannonading from atop the hill.

modern view from atop Comb's hill looking to the hedgerow

The combination of musket volley from Green's regiments at the crest of Comb’s hill and the combined Cannonade from both flanks caused horrendous damage of the British, losing five high ranking officers within five minutes of the opening of the attack. After this engagement the British having been repulsed with heavy loss retired to a stronger position across the ravine to the east.  Cannonading continued between the two armies till 6:00pm, but no further attacks were made.  Both armies were generally worn out from the punishing heat of the day. The sun was quickly setting in the West preempting Washington’s plan to take the offensive to the British. Washington decided to make the attack in the morning. He gave orders to set out the pickets for the night and then retired himself to rest at the base of a large tree trunk for the night guarded by Claiborne’s Virginians.  When Washington awoke in the early morning of the 29th the British had left fires burning as a ruse and marched out in the night toward sandy hook arriving there the following day.

After the battle of Monmouth the Virginia regiments were once again realigned under the arrangement of White Plains in September of 1779. The 9^th Virginia was absorbed into the remnants of the 1^st regiment. In May a second reorganization had 5th, 7th, 10th, & 11^th Virginia Regiments consolidated into the First Virginia. It was during this time that Col. William Davies took over temporarily as commander of the Virginians while their normal commanders were home recruiting troops. Claiborne remaining in the 7^th Virginia, however found himself drafted into an elite corp or soldiers that were hand picked by General Washington along with their new commander, The famous “Mad Anthony” Wayne. . The same Anthony Wayne that had distinguished himself so well as the commander of the troops below Claiborne in the hedgerow at Monmouth. The mission that Claiborne was about to be a part of was a daring and dangerous endeavor that was kept so secret that only Washington and few others knew of it.  Stay tuned; I will leave you with this tease until the next post. 

If anyone would like to know more about the Battle of Monmouth, besides the above mentioned Wiki articles, I would recommend the eBook Battle of Monmouth; an oration on the hundredth anniversary celebration by Henry Armitt Brown.  This book was written in 1858 (I think) and gives a very detailed account of the battle.  It is written as if it were a teachers guide to the battle with notations for the teacher’s discussion points. Since the book is long out of copyright the book can be obtained free of charge in epub, pdf, kindle , daisy or other text formats at http://archive.org/details/battleofmonmouth01brow 

another good article on the battle of Monmouth 

http://www.mountvernon.org/educational-resources/encyclopedia/battle-monmouth

Reflection

My grandchildren Cy, Case, and Mally 

I can hardly believe that it has been a whole year since I have sat down to write in my blog. I have to admit that part of that reason has been a feeling of discouragement concerning its purpose and meaning. I began this blog as a means of collecting and publishing the oral as well as researched collection of our family’s history. It has been a labor of love for me because it has been a fascinating journey of discovery.  It has helped me flesh out the stories that were told to me as a young man by my great grandmother as well as my father and other members of the family. I have always been fascinated by history and I find it something that is so useful in life. We are not so unlike our ancestors. They faced in their own time all the same kinds of trials that we face.  History is the study of people and how they thought and how they reacted to the events of their time. What they did, what they said, how they overcame or how they failed to, is the story of how we came to be and why our world is the way that we find it today. We too must now play the roles assigned to us on this magnificent stage of life. What will we do? What will we say? How will we overcome? As we wake up every day to a world full of strange and almost unbelievable events unfolding before us. 

I had a conversation with my daughter Rebekah not long ago while we were driving somewhere. I shared with her my feelings about the purpose of my blog.  I told her I felt like my writings were not something that the younger generation seemed to care much about. My fascination with our family’s history seemed to be something unique to me, while my children seemed only casually interested. I wondered aloud if perhaps my efforts in researching and writing were an exercise that would probably die with me, while the younger generation have their minds on other things. She told me that it wasn’t that they were not interested, it was just that they were preoccupied with other things at this point in their lives. She said that she was a little worried about how absorbed I seemed with the subject and if perhaps I was romanticizing the era in which my great grandparents lived. She reminded me that the 1800’s were a difficult time to live in and that it probably would not have been an easy life.  She wondered if perhaps I was being obsessive with the whole thing and should be more engaged in the present.  She said she enjoyed my stories in the blog, but for now she was more concerned about other things. We had a conversation about the difference between the generation of the 1800’s and 1900’s compared to the young generation of today’s modern world.

                  In the past age time seemed to move much more slowly than in today’s world. Things did not change quickly in the past age. One generation lived not too much differently than the past generation. Technology moved at a much slower pace and one’s every day life was not necessarily greatly impacted every day by it.  One’s world was confined mostly to one’s little community and the every day life of making a living on the land and making it produce for survival. One might read a newspaper or book and expand the horizon of your world but travel was difficult and expensive and the events of the greater world did not necessarily immediately impact ones own daily routine. People lived in a much slower pace.  People interacted with others face to face in conversation as they saw each other on the streets, or at social occasions such as dances, or balls, or church services, weddings, and funerals. The art of conversation was common, and it served as a major part of one’s entertainment and source of news.  Families were close knit and very dependent on each other.  Fathers and sons worked together in the field or in the shop as they toiled together providing for the family.  A son knew his father from years of conversations and interaction in all kinds of situations.  Daughters toiled with their mothers and knew them as they conversed,keeping the house or working in the fields or shops. The families were generally close and remained so throughout their lives. The greatest part of what a young person would learn about survival, and the greater world came from his association with family members.

                  In contrast Today’s world seems to be progressing at an outrageous pace.  Travel today is relatively comfortable and cheap.  An automobile can take you from your home to half way across the nation in a few hours or days.  The world of our young people today has expanded far beyond their own little communities. With technology such as television, email, World Wide Web, automobile and jet flight they receive their education and their entertainment and news from sources far far away. They are exposed to every kind of event taking place in the world ranging from the innocent and beautiful act of a child, to the heinous and violent acts of a serial killer.  The headlines of today seem almost surreal as we are bombarded with information of all that is happening in the world about us.  Young people today are more in touch with each other through smart phones , texting , chat , and now even video chat.  A young person today may have friends not only from his own hometown but also from places throughout the state or in deed across the world by these technologies.

                  How does this impact today’s family? Do fathers and sons know each other better than in the past age? Do Mothers and daughters know each other more than in the past age? The family seems to me to be under constant assault.  In the past age a parent had much more time to instill certain values and morals in their young people without the continual bombardment of the outside world’s values competing for attention. Our modern methods of education, government subsidized public school systems, are taking on more and more of the roles that were traditionally unique to the parental domain. Fathers are working long hours no longer in the fields side by side with their sons, but instead in an urban environment, often only having a few hours in the evening with the family for interaction. Mothers are more likely to be working in a secular job rather than at home with the children. Young children are often more likely to be placed with childcare agencies rather than with family members.  Much of the interaction of family is reduced to evening hours, and that time distracted by television, computers and other forms of entertainment that do not necessarily promote family conversation.

                  Conversation is in fact in my view becoming a lost art, reduced to short “tweets”, or instant messages, or subjugated to conversation about what did you watch on TV, or see on utube, or what sports team won or lost, or did you hear what outrageous thing was said on the radio. At the pace of our modern lives a year is a long time, changes are happening so fast to our lifestyles that we can hardly keep up.  I feel I am on overload sometimes with the amount of information coming at me from every electronic messenger.

                  Have we as a society indeed progressed by all of this technology and information?  Is our daily lives richer and of better quality than the lives of our grandparents?  Surely one could argue that the modern age is full of wonderful blessings.  Medical technology has improved in amazing leaps and bounds and lives are enriched and saved when in the past age premature death would be the immanent result of disease or injury. Communication is a wonderful blessing. Being able to communicate with family and friends regardless of where they are on the globe is wonderful. I wonder still, in spite of all these blessings, at what cost?

                  Our young people are of necessity very much galvanized into the present. They are struggling to find their way in the world in spite of gail force winds of changing times. Trying to get educated, finding a job, finding a mate, and finding their way in a world that seems to jerk the rug out from under them every time they think they are finally on solid ground.  America today seems to be a society that has lost its way and every day we see the decline of its morals and values played out in the headlines. Our political leaders are desperately divided, our social institutions crumbling, and indeed the very fabric of our society seems strained to the breaking point.  Is it surprising that a young person who lives in a changing world where ten years ago seems like ancient history should wonder about the relevance of the past? In a world where every day seems to bring new breakthroughs in science, new technologies, new borders, maps, new possibilities never before imagined in the ability of man to explore this world and space beyond, what voice has the old?

                  Do the voices and ways of the past have real relevance in this “new” age? I think they do. In fact I believe that people are very much the same in every age. Indeed the most relevant history book of any age is the Bible. The Bible is in fact a history of the acts of the Spirit of God as He creating this world.  It’s the history of how God interacted with his creation mankind. God preserved in the form of history the most relevant message of all time the Gospel. We see in the preserved stories of the characters of the bible the great themes of life.  Virtue, faithfulness, courage, integrity, and the quest to know God is contrasted with the sin, cowardice and evil deeds of men as they play out on the ageless stage of the characters of the Bible.  We see through the Gospel, God in the form of man, Christ, sacrificed on the cross to redeem sinful mankind back into relationship with God. History from thousand of years ago is so relevant to today and indeed I believe it is only if we look back that we can see more clearly to face the Goliath’s of our own time.

my son and grandson Matt and little Mason

                  So I shall continue writing about our history.  I do not know who will read it or if it will have the desired affect on my children and grandchildren.  I myself can see why so much history is often lost.  It is simply that people are so busy living their lives that they have little time to stop and take stock of their lives and record it.  I would give anything to have had the opportunity to interview certain members of my ancestry.   They lived through some of the most interesting events of history and yet they left little record of what they thought, or how they decided what they would do in light of those events. I must search and follow the bread trails left by others that were close to them to understand what they lived through. What I do today by writing and keeping this little blog I speak to my children’s children to answer the question, who were you grandfather and what were you like? What did you think and how did you live and why did you do what you did? I speak to them of my Love for them and hopes that they will chose righteous paths. Know that their challenges are not unlike the challenges of others that went before. Know that as I sit here today I think of you my child who as of yet may not even be born. I love you, though we may never meet. I dream that though the prison bars of father time may separate, My spirit may somehow transcend time and speak words of wisdom and encouragement to you with this my little labor of love.