It was Thursday, July 11, 1776.
New York had heard the Declaration.
The king’s statue had fallen.
Washington had warned his army against disorder.
Now George Washington, 44, had to warn Congress about something larger.
The British appeared ready to strike.
In a July 11 letter to John Hancock, Washington reported that a prisoner from the British 10th Regiment said enemy forces “hourly expect Admiral Howe and his Fleet.”
The same prisoner said the “prevailing Opinion” was that “an Attack will be made immediately on their arrival.”
Independence had reached the army.
War was closing on New York.
The DX Brief
- Washington wrote to John Hancock from New York on July 11, 1776.
- He ordered the “Two remaining Continental Regiments in the Massachusetts bay” to march immediately “for the defence of this place.”
- Washington reported that 400 or 500 Connecticut Light Horse had arrived and agreed to stay as long as needed.
- A British prisoner told the Americans that enemy forces “hourly expect Admiral Howe and his Fleet.”
- The same prisoner said the “prevailing Opinion” was that “an Attack will be made immediately on their arrival.”
- Washington’s general orders that day told Spencer’s Brigade to be ready to march at 4 a.m. and warned officers to keep the troops clean as summer sickness threatened the army.
Washington moves the men
The Declaration gave the army its cause.
It did not give Washington time.
By July 11, he had already started pulling more troops toward New York.
Washington told Hancock that he had ordered the “Two remaining Continental Regiments in the Massachusetts bay” to march immediately “for the defence of this place.”
That place was New York. The city had become the center of the war.
British forces already held Staten Island. More ships and troops were expected. Washington knew Manhattan, the Hudson, and the surrounding waterways could decide whether the new United States survived its first military test after declaring independence.
This was not ceremony anymore.
It was defense.
Help was arriving, but not enough
Washington also told Congress that part of the Connecticut Light Horse had reached New York.
Four or five hundred of them had come in, he wrote, and they had agreed to stay as long as “Occasion may require.”
That mattered.
The men had arrived quickly because they thought help would be needed before militia reinforcements could reach the city.
But even help created problems.
The horsemen wanted to keep their horses nearby instead of sending them away. Washington told Congress they had pastured the horses around Kingsbridge at half a dollar per week each and left it to Congress to decide whether to cover the cost.
The detail feels small.
It was not.
Washington was trying to defend New York while managing men, horses, supplies, pay, health, routes, intelligence, and Congress.
Even a revolution needed accounting.
Smallpox threatened the army
The British were not Washington’s only concern.
Disease threatened his troops too.
In a separate letter to Maj. Gen. Artemas Ward the same day, Washington reacted to news that smallpox had appeared among troops in Boston.
“It is extremely unlucky that the small pox should prevail in the Army at this time,” Washington wrote.
He still wanted the healthy regiments sent forward.
The crisis left him little choice.
Washington told Ward to keep infected or suspected men separate from those who were well. He warned that “Every precaution” was needed to prevent “fatal consequences” if smallpox spread through the army.
That was the July 11 reality.
The commander in chief needed every available man.
He also knew one outbreak could weaken the army before the British even attacked.
The enemy eyes the Hudson
Washington’s intelligence reports also pointed toward the Hudson River.
In the letter to Hancock, he said a deserter reported that the British warships Asia, Chatham, and Greyhound had weighed anchor the previous morning.
The word was that they intended to pass up the North River above the city and cut off American communication with New Jersey.
They did not try it that day. But the warning was clear.
The British understood the geography. If they could control the waterways, they could squeeze Washington’s army, disrupt movement, and threaten the American line between New York and New Jersey.
The Declaration had declared independence.
The Royal Navy could test whether America could defend it.
Admiral Howe was expected
The most urgent warning came from a captured British soldier.
Washington told Hancock that a prisoner from the 10th Regiment said British forces “hourly expect Admiral Howe and his Fleet.”
The prisoner also said a vessel had already arrived from Howe.
Then came the line that mattered most.
Washington wrote that the “prevailing Opinion” among the enemy was that “an Attack will be made immediately on their arrival.”
That was the danger Washington wanted Congress to understand.
The British did not need months.
They might need only the fleet.
Orders for 4 a.m.
Washington’s general orders on July 11 matched the urgency in his letter. He ordered Gen. Joseph Spencer’s brigade to hold itself ready to march the next morning at 4 a.m.
He also warned officers about the summer heat.
Warm weather created “the greatest danger” that troops would grow unhealthy unless officers and men paid attention to cleanliness, he said.
That sounds ordinary.
It was not.
Washington was trying to hold together an army under pressure from every side.
Ships threatened the rivers.
Disease threatened the camps.
The British army threatened the city.
And Congress needed to know that independence had entered its next phase.
Why it mattered
July 11, 1776, showed how quickly the Revolution moved from declaration to danger.
Two days earlier, Washington’s army heard the Declaration of Independence.
One day earlier, Washington warned against “riot and want of order” after the king’s statue came down.
Now he told Congress that Admiral Howe’s fleet was expected and that a British attack could come immediately.
The new nation had made its claim.
Washington had to defend it.
Men had to move.
Supplies had to arrive.
Disease had to be contained.
The Hudson had to stay open.
And New York had to hold long enough for the United States to survive its first test after independence.
The Declaration told the world what Americans claimed.
On July 11, Washington showed Congress what that claim would cost.
Tomorrow on Road to Independence
July 12, 1776: British warships ran past American batteries and up the North River as Washington reported that Admiral Howe’s arrival appeared confirmed.
Follow the full Road To Independence series here.
Provided by Dallas Express
