The Asgill Affair or Huddy-Asgill Affair was a diplomatic incident during the American Revolution named after a British army officer, Captain Charles Asgill (and Captain Joshua "Jack" Huddy).
In retaliation for the execution of a Patriot officer, George Washington ordered the death of a British officer chosen by lot from prisoners; this selected Asgill. This was in direct contravention of the Articles of Capitulation signed when British forces surrendered at Yorktown which protected Asgill.
As allies to the Americans and signatories to the surrender document, the French monarchy became involved and let it be known that such measures would reflect badly on both the French and American nations, conveying the message through the French Foreign Minister, the comte de Vergennes, who wrote to Washington on 29 July 1782. After six months the Continental Congress agreed that Asgill should be released to return to England on parole.
Background
After the capitulation of the British forces at Yorktown in 1781, skirmishes and retaliatory acts between the Patriots and Loyalists continued. Loyalist Philip White was killed by Patriot militiamen in March 1782. According to The Economist, "Accounts of his death differ: his brother Aaron, captured with him, signed an affidavit attesting that he was killed while trying to escape. Aaron later recanted, claiming that his captors had threatened to kill him unless he signed; the truth, he now maintained, was that the American militiamen had executed Philip White in cold blood". Peter Henriques writes that "According to Loyalist accounts, his arms had been cut off and his legs broken and his corpse mutilated almost beyond recognition and shoveled into a makeshift grave".
In reprisal, Loyalists in Monmouth, New Jersey executed Captain Jack Huddy (who was not present when White was killed) on 12 April. Patriots in Monmouth sent General George Washington a petition demanding justice, indicating they would act if Washington did not. Huddy's execution was sanctioned by William Franklin, who signed the death warrant but was carried out by Richard Lippincott, who was eventually court martialled by the British for this crime, but was exonerated on account of him only having obeyed orders.
On 3 May 1782, Washington ordered General Moses Hazen, head of a prisoner-of-war camp in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to select a British officer equal in rank to Huddy and not protected by any agreement with Great Britain to be hanged. Upon learning that there were no prisoners fitting this description, Washington, on 18 May, ordered Hazen to select from among protected officers. Carrying out this order put the U.S. in violation of the terms of the Yorktown surrender, which protected prisoners of war from acts of retaliation.
Asgill's captivity
Washington's solution
On 27 May 1782, lots were drawn at the Black Bear Tavern, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with Asgill's name being drawn by a drummer boy, together with the paper marked "Unfortunate", which put him under threat of execution. Asgill's fellow officer, Major James Gordon, protested in the strongest terms to both General Washington and Benjamin Lincoln, the Secretary of War, that this use of a lottery was illegal. In reporting the result to Carleton, Gordon also noted that "The delicate manner, in which General Hazen communicated his orders to the British officers, shows him to be a man of real feeling, and the mild treatment the prisoners have met with since we came to this place deserves the warmest acknowledgements of every British officer".
According to William M. Fowler, as soon as Washington had given the order to take a hostage, he realised that what he had done was morally suspect and likely illegal. While Congress endorsed Washington's actions, others disagreed and Alexander Hamilton considered them "repugnant, wanton and unnecessary". Historian Peter Henriques described it as a serious error of judgement - "Indeed the general's major error in judgment triggered the ensuing crisis."
Hazen, who had been in charge of the proceedings, wrote to Washington to inform him that as he had ordered, a young captain had been selected and was on his way to Philadelphia, accompanied by Major James Gordon, though Asgill stayed that night in Gordon's rooms and the pair did not depart until the following day. In the final paragraph of his letter, Hazen told Washington that Gordon had identified two possible unconditional prisoners, describing the potential replacements for Asgill as "of the Description which your Excellency wishes, and at first ordered". Hazen concluded: "It have [sic] fallen to my Lot to superintend this melancholy disagreeable Duty, I must confess I have been most sensible affected with it, and [do] most sincerely wish that the Information here given may operate in favour of Youth, Innocence, and Honour". There was money for the group’s expenses on the journey, and they had been given names of influential people in Philadelphia who might offer assistance. "It is reported that he even told the dragoons to follow all of Major Gordon's orders that did not affect the security of the prisoner". From Philadelphia, Asgill was sent on to Chatham, New Jersey. Asgill was initially held at the house of Elias Dayton, but subsequently at Timothy Day's Tavern.
Vanderpoel writes that Washington's "apparent willingness to sacrifice a capitulation prisoner in direct violation of a treaty which he himself had signed, (a willingness which English historians have declared to be the one blot upon the otherwise irreproachable character of the American hero), may be accounted for by the circumstances of the case, and his belief in the absolute necessity of retaliation; but it cannot be explained why, when he learned that the Americans had two British officers in their hands who were unconditional prisoners, he did not instantly stop all proceedings relating to Asgill, and insist that one of them should take his place".
According to T. Cole Jones, "When Washington received word of the selection, he immediately regretted it". Washington wrote to Benjamin Lincoln, admitting that "Colo. Hazen's sending an officer under the capitulation of York Town for the purpose of retaliation, has distressed me exceedingly". Cole explains Washington's quandary: "Executing Asgill would violate the treaty of capitulation and break his word to Cornwallis. On the other hand, 'if some person is not sacrificed to the Manes of poor Huddy', he thought that 'the whole business will have the appearance of a farce'".
According to A. G. Bradley, Sir Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, Commander-in-Chief, North America, "sent the earliest remonstrances both to Washington, who truly replied that he was powerless, and to congress, who would be satisfied with nothing but the blood of either Lippincott or Asgill".
News reaches London
Lady Asgill, and her daughters, first heard the news of events in Chatham, when Captain Charles Gould, a friend of Asgill's, had been repatriated and went to call on them in Richmond. The news reached London "on or about the 13th of July."
Ministers in Whitehall, London, were becoming involved in the events taking place in America. On 10 July 1782, Sir Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney, the British Home Secretary, wrote to Carleton, noting: "The News of that officer's being confined by Gen. Washington in direct contradiction to the Articles of Capitulation has struck every body [sic] with astonishment". Townshend wrote that "It is most probable that the current fate of this unfortunate affair will have been determined before this reaches you. But in case it should not, I can not help suggesting to your Excellency, that an application to M. de Rochambeau as a Party in the Capitulation seems to me a proper and necessary step" and that "M. de Rochambeau, and indeed Mr Washington too must expect that the execution of an officer under the circumstances of Captain Asgill must destroy all future confidence in Treatys [sic] & Capitulations of every kind, & introduce a kind of War that has ever been held in abhorrence among Civilized Nations".
On 14 August 1782, Townshend wrote to Carleton, noting that he had met King George III and that the king "cannot too highly approve of the very judicious Measure you have taken thereupon, and rests in full confidence that the footing on which it appears to have been placed by your Letter No 9 of the 17th of June, that Justice has taken its course, and that the perplexing affair has come to a final decision".
Four days later, on 18 August 1782, Carleton wrote to the Prime Minister Sir William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne,: "The present Crisis I thought favourable, and I have accordingly written to General Washington and accompanyed [sic] my Letter with the Minister of the Court Martial, and such other Documents as I thought necessary for my Purposes and his Information; but what his Resolutions or those of Congress will be in this Matter I am Yet to learn."
King Louis XVl and Queen Marie Antoinette's role
On hearing of her son's impending execution, Asgill's mother, Sarah Theresa, Lady Asgill (who was of French Huguenot origin), wrote to the French court, pleading for her son's life to be spared. Arthur Dudley Pierce writes that "Enemies the monarchs of France and Britain might be, but their courts had a common stake in the preservation of privilege and a common distrust if not fear of those democratic forces which seemed to have been unleashed in America". King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette ordered the comte de Vergennes, the Foreign Minister, to convey to General Washington their desire that a young life be spared. Since France had also signed the Treaty of Capitulation, protecting prisoners of war from retaliation, they too were bound to honour the terms. Asgill was thus protected by the 14th Article of Capitulation in the document of Cornwallis's surrender, safeguarding prisoners of war. Vergennes writes to Washington on 29 July 1782:
There is one consideration, Sir, which, tho it is not decisive, may have an influence on your resolutions — Capt. Asgill is doubless [sic] your Prisoner, but he is among those whom the Arms of the King contributed to put into your hands at York Town Altho' this circumstance does not operate as a Safe Guard, it however justifies the interest I permit my self to take in this affair. If it is in your power Sir to consider & to have regard to it you will do what is agreeable to their Majesties
In her desperation, Lady Asgill sent a copy of Vergennes letter to Washington herself, by special courier, and her copies of correspondence reached Washington before the original from Paris. Washington forwarded the correspondence to the Continental Congress, where it arrived on the very day they were proposing to vote to hang Asgill. Previously, a majority of the delegates were for execution and "a motion [had been] made for a resolution positively ordering the immediate execution". The letter was read aloud before the delegates. After several days of debate, on 7 November, Congress passed an act releasing Asgill. Congress's solution was to offer Asgill's life as "a compliment to the King of France." However, Asgill did not receive his passport to leave imprisonment in Chatham, New Jersey, until 17 November 1782.
Asgill's journey home
According to Ambrose Vanderpoel, Asgill left Chatham on 17 November, heading to New York with the intention of taking the first ship to sail for England. Mayo describes him as "riding for the British lines with Washington's passport in his pocket; riding, day and night, as hard as horse-flesh can bear it. And now, all breathless, all caked with the mire of the road, not pausing to make himself decent, he stands before Sir Guy Carleton".
Asgil had missed the packet boat Swallow, but was able to hire a small vessel, paying a crew to row it out to catch and allow him to board the Swallow. He reached England on 18 December.
Asgill persuaded the captain of the Swallow to accompany him to his parents' home, now known as Asgill House. Concerned that his parents would not have known whether he was dead or alive and about the impact the shock of his arrival might have on their health, Asgill asked the ship's captain to break the news by delivering them a letter informing them that he was alive and waiting to see them. Asgill hid in the bulrushes at the end of the garden. Asgill's mother was convinced that the captain was delivering bad news, and refused to leave her sickbed to take receipt of the letter. According to Mayo, the ship's captain explained that he had recently seen her son and that the situation was less bad than she imagined, and Lady Asgill then ran down to greet him.