Alexander Graydon wrote his memoirs many years after he was captured with his regiment at Ft. Washington on Nov. 16, 1776. His book, beyond all others I have read, makes you feel a witness to a life in the 18th Century.
Graydon commanded a company of Col. Lambert Cadwallader's 3rd Pennsylvania Regiment of the line. This had been Shee's, but Col. Shee took a furlough before the Battle of Ft. Washington and never came back. The 3rd was made up of the scions of Philadelphia society families, but always fought alongside Col. Robert Magaw's 5th Regiment, which was just the opposite: rough frontiersmen from western Pennsylvania.
Graydon's account of the battle of Ft. Washington is just one incident in his book. He first achieved a brush with fame by being chosen to carry a message from Congress to Benjamin Franklin in Canada, where the good doctor was attempting to enlist those colonists in the revolution. Graydon intercepted him in the Champlain Valley and duly delivered his message. Then came the deployment to New York Island.
On picket duty on the night of September 20-21, 1776, Graydon looked south over Harlem Creek, where ``the heavens appeared in flames.'' It was New York City, nine miles distant, burning down, five days after its capture by Gen. Howe. The Americans were the fire bugs but Graydon did not know that.
Ft. Washington was to be Graydon's first and last battle. He was captured and paroled and returned to the army at Morristown, but refused to rejoin in protest over the shabby treatment accorded himself and others captured at Ft. Washington, especially Col. Rawlings, who applied but was passed over for a commission in favor of younger officers pushed to the fore by their states.
This protesting nature is all over Graydon's book. He offers many political criticisms of his times, such as the merciless treatment of Burr by President Jefferson, and gives a scathing analysis of the design of Ft. Washington and of the very idea of defending the place with so few troops. Don't blame the cowardice of the troops for the loss of the fort, he says, though Gen. Greene did just that. Lack of numbers alone explains the defeat. If this judgment reflects badly on the decisions of the Commander in Chief, he says, I cannot help it. A good man he undoubtedly was, but my respect for Washington must bow to my respect for the truth, and the truth is ``his record of military decisions is not without blemish.'' He also blames Col. Magaw., the fort's commandant, for bad judgment in defending northern Manhattan.
But he knew that politics demanded it. ``The country thought the fort impregnable,'' and it would have been ``too sudden a descent, from the high ground of Independence,'' to give up Manhattan Island without a fight.
During the battle, Graydon directed his raw troops against the British 42nd Highlanders, the famous Black Watch Regiment, which appeared in his rear at the Morris-Jumel Mansion. Graydon tells the exciting story of how he was captured, with many a sidelight, such as the British lieutenant who was convinced that the reason Washington was leading a rebellion was that he had gambled away his fortune and his wife's and this was the only way to win it back. Graydon told him this was mere British propaganda.
Anther very 18th Century story is how Graydon got paroled by Gen. Howe: his mother came from Philadelphia, got a pass from Washington through the lines, and pleaded with Howe in person.
After the war, Graydon settled down to business in Philadelphia. His memoirs end with a line that sums up the revolution and the dawning era of westward expansion. Remember that the freedom to settle the west, denied Americans by King George, was one of the main issues of the revolution. Graydon tells us of his move west to Harrisburg, where ``a new town is rising under my eyes on the magnificent banks of the Susquehanna.'' Despite his many criticisms of individual men and policies, he added: ``I would much rather be the encomiast than the satirist of my country.''
--- Frederick Cookinham