«История Соединенных Штатов, Том 2»

[1775]

By the spring of 1775 Massachusetts was practically in rebellion. Every

village green was a drill-ground, every church a town arsenal. General

Gage occupied Boston with 3,000 British regulars. The flames were

smouldering; at the slightest puff they would flash out into open war.

On the night of April 18th people along the road from Boston to Concord

were roused from sleep by the cry of flying couriers--"To arms! The

redcoats are coming!" When the British advance reached Lexington at

early dawn, it found sixty or seventy minute-men drawn up on the green.

"Disperse, ye rebels!" shouted the British officer. A volley was fired,

and seven Americans fell dead. The king's troops, with a shout, pushed

on to Concord. Most of the military stores, however, which they had come

to destroy had been removed. A British detachment advanced to Concord

Bridge, and in the skirmish here the Americans returned the British

fire.

Map of the United Colonies at the Beginning of the Revolution.

"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,

Here once the embattled farmers stood,

And fired the shot heard round the world."

[Footnote: From R. W. Emerson's Concord Hymn, sung at the completion of

the Battle Monument near Concord North Bridge, April 19, 1836.]

Bunker Hill and Breed's Hill.

A Profile View of the Heights of Charlestown.

The whole country was by this time swarming with minute-men. The crack

of the rifle was heard from behind every wall and fence and tree along

the line of march. The redcoats kept falling one by one at the hands of

an invisible foe. The march became a retreat, the retreat almost a rout.

At sunset the panting troops found shelter in Boston. Out of 1,800

nearly 300 were killed, wounded, or missing. The American loss was about

ninety. The war of the rebellion had begun.

All that day and the next night the tramp of minute-men marching to

Boston was heard throughout New England, and by April 20th Gage was

cooped up in the city by an American army. May 25th, he received large

re-enforcements from England.

On the night of June 16th a thousand men armed with pick and spade stole

out of the American camp. At dawn the startled British found that a

redoubt had sprung up in the night on Breed's Hill (henceforward Bunker

Hill) in Charlestown. Boston was endangered, and the rebels must be

dislodged. About half-past two 2,500 British regulars marched silently

and in perfect order up the hill, expecting to drive out the "rustics"

at the first charge. Colonel Prescott, the commanding American officer,

waited till the regulars were within ten rods. "Fire!" A sheet of flame

burst from the redoubt. The front ranks of the British melted away, and

His Majesty's invincibles retreated in confusion to the foot of the

hill. Again they advance. Again that terrible fire. Again they waver and

fall back. Once more the plucky fellows form for the charge, this time

with bayonets alone. When they are within twenty yards, the muskets

behind the earthworks send forth one deadly discharge, and then are

silent. The ammunition is exhausted. The British swarm into the redoubt.

The Continentals reluctantly retire, Prescott among the last, his coat

rent by bayonets. Joseph Warren, of Boston, the idol of Massachusetts,

was shot while leaving the redoubt. The British killed and wounded

amounted to 1,054--157 of them being officers; the American loss was

nearly 500. The battle put an end to further offensive movements by

Gage. It was a virtual victory for the untrained farmer troops, and all

America took courage.

Plan of Bunker Hill.

A. Boston Battery. B. Charlestown.

C. British troops attacking. D. Provincial lines.

Bunker Hill Battle.

From a Contemporary Print.

Two days before, Congress had chosen George Washington

commander-in-chief, and on July 2d he arrived at Cambridge. Washington

was forty-three years old. Over six feet in height, and

well-proportioned, he combined great dignity with ease. His early life

as surveyor in a wild country had developed in him marvellous powers of

endurance. His experience in the French and Indian War had given him

considerable military knowledge. But his best title to the high honor

now thrust upon him lay in his wonderful self-control, sound judgment,

lofty patriotism, and sublime courage, which were to carry him, calm and

unflinching, through perplexities and discouragements that would have

overwhelmed a smaller or a meaner man.

Washington fought England with his hands tied. The Continental

government was the worst possible for carrying on war. There was no

executive. The action of legislative committees was slow and

vacillating, and at best Congress could not enforce obedience on the

part of a colony. Congress, too, afraid of a standing army, would

authorize only short enlistments, so that Washington had frequently to

discharge one army and form another in the face of the enemy. His troops

were ill-disciplined, and scantily supplied with clothing, tents,

weapons, and ammunition. Skilled officers were few, and these rarely

free from local and personal jealousies, impairing their efficiency.

[1776]

Washington found that the army around Boston consisted of about 14,500

men fit for duty. He estimated the British forces at 11,000. All the

fall and winter he was obliged to lie inactive for want of powder.

Meantime he distressed the British as much as possible by a close siege.

In the spring, having got more powder, he fortified Dorchester Heights.

The city was now untenable, and on March 17, 1776, all the British

troops, under command of Howe who had succeeded Gage, sailed out of

Boston harbor, never again to set foot on Massachusetts soil.

Joseph Warren.

June 28th, a British fleet of ten vessels opened fire on Fort Moultrie,

in Charleston harbor, S. C. The fort, commanded by Colonel Moultrie,

returned the fire with remarkable accuracy, and after an engagement of

twelve hours the fleet withdrew, badly crippled. This victory gave

security to South Carolina and Georgia for three years.

The discomfited fleet sailed for New York, where the British forces were

concentrating. The plan was to seize the Middle States, and thus keep

North and South from helping one another. August 1st, 2,500 English

troops and 8,000 Hessians arrived. The effective British force was now

about 25,000. Washington was holding New York City with about 10,000 men

fit for duty.

Driven from Long Island by the battle of August 27th, and forced to

abandon New York September 15th, Washington retreated up the Hudson, and

took up a strong position at White Plains. Here the British, attacking,

were defeated in a well-fought engagement; but as they were strongly

re-enforced on October 30th, Washington fell back to Newcastle. Early in

November, guessing that they intended to invade New Jersey and advance

on Philadelphia, he threw his main force across the Hudson.

General Howe.

The fortunes of the American army were now at the lowest ebb, so that

had Howe been an efficient general it must have been either captured or

entirely destroyed. Through the treason of Adjutant Demont, who had

deserted to Lord Percy with complete information of their weakness,

Forts Washington and Lee were captured, November 16th and 20th, with the

loss of 150 killed and wounded, and 2,634 prisoners, besides valuable

stores, small arms, and forty-three pieces of artillery. Manhattan

Island was lost. General Charles Lee, with a considerable portion of the

army, persistently refused to cross the Hudson. Washington, with the

troops remaining, was forced to retreat slowly across New Jersey, the

British army, under Cornwallis, at his very heels, often within

cannon-shot. The New Jersey people were lukewarm, and many accepted

Cornwallis's offers of amnesty. Congress, fearing that Philadelphia

would be taken, adjourned to Baltimore. December 8th, Washington crossed

the Delaware with less than 3,000 men. The British encamped on the

opposite bank of the river. The American army was safe for the present,

having secured all the boats and burned all the bridges within seventy

miles.

Map of Manhattan Island in 1776, showing the American Defences, etc.

General Charles Lee.

Although intended for a caricature, this is considered an excellent likeness.

Washington was soon re-enforced, and now had between five and six

thousand troops. He determined to strike a bold blow that would

electrify the drooping spirits of the army and the country. At Trenton

lay a body of 1,200 Hessians. Christmas night Washington crossed the

Delaware with 2,400 picked men. The current was swift, and the river

full of floating ice; but the boats were handled by Massachusetts

fishermen, and the passage was safely made. Then began the nine-mile

march to Trenton, in a blinding storm of sleet and hail. The soldiers,

many of whom were almost barefoot, stumbled on over the slippery road,

shielding their muskets from the storm as best they could. Trenton was

reached at eight o'clock on the morning of the 26th. An attack was made

by two columns simultaneously. The surprise was complete, and after a

half hour's struggle the Hessians surrendered. Nearly 1,000 prisoners

were taken, besides 1,200 small arms and six guns. Washington safely

retreated across the Delaware.

[1777]

Cornwallis, with 7,000 men, hurried from Princeton to attack the

American army. But Washington, on the night of January 2, 1777, leaving

his camp-fires burning, slipped around the British army, routed the

regiments left at Princeton, and pushing on northward went into winter

quarters at Morristown.

The next campaign opened late. It was the last of August when Howe, with

17,000 men, sailed from New York into Chesapeake Bay, and advanced

toward Philadelphia. Washington flung himself in his path at Brandywine,

September 11th, but was beaten back with heavy loss. September 26th the

British army marched into Philadelphia, whence Congress had fled.

October 4th, Washington attacked the British camp at Germantown. Victory

was almost his when two of the attacking parties, mistaking each other,

in the fog, for British, threw the movement into confusion, and

Washington had to fall back, with a loss of 1,000 men.

In December the American commander led his ragged army into winter

quarters at Valley Forge, twenty-one miles from Philadelphia. It was a

period of deep gloom. The war had been waged now for more than two

years, and less than nothing seemed to have been accomplished. Distrust

of Washington's ability sprang up in some minds. "Heaven grant us one

great soul!" exclaimed John Adams after Brandywine. Certain officers,

envious of Washington, began to intrigue for his place.

Meanwhile the army was shivering in its log huts at Valley Forge. Nearly

three thousand were barefoot. Many had to sit by the fires all night to

keep from freezing. One day there was a dinner of officers to which none

were admitted who had whole trousers. For days together there was no

bread in camp. The death-rate increased thirty-three per cent from week

to week.

Just now, however, amid this terrible Winter at Valley Forge, Baron

Steuben, a trained German soldier, who had been a pupil of Frederick

the Great, joined our army. Washington made him inspector-general, and

his rigorous daily drill vastly improved the discipline and the spirits

of the American troops. When they left camp in the spring, spite of the

hardships past, they formed a military force on which Washington could

reckon with certainty for efficient work.

Baron von Steuben.

[1778]

The British, after a gay winter in Philadelphia, startled by the news

that a French fleet was on its way to America, marched for New York,

June 18,1778. The American army overtook them at Monmouth on the 28th;

General Charles Lee--a traitor as we now know, and as Washington then

suspected, forced into high place by influence in Congress--General Lee

led the party intended to attack, but he delayed so long that the

British attacked him instead.

The Americans were retreating through a narrow defile when Washington

came upon the field, and his Herculean efforts, brilliantly seconded by

Wayne, stayed the rout. A stout stand was made, and the British were

held at bay till evening, when they retired and continued their march to

New York. Washington followed and took up his station at White Plains.

CHAPTER V.

THE NORTHERN CAMPAIGN

[1775]

At the outbreak of hostilities the thoughts of the colonists naturally

turned to the Canadian border, the old battleground of the French and

Indian War. Then and now a hostility was felt for Canada which had not

slumbered since the burning of Schenectady in 1690.

May 10, 1775, Ethan Allen, at the head of a party of "Green Mountain

Boys," surprised Fort Ticonderoga. Crown Point was taken two days later.

Two hundred and twenty cannon, besides other much-needed military

stores, fell into the hands of the Americans. Some of these heavy guns,

hauled over the Green Mountains on oxsleds the next winter, were planted

by Washington on Dorchester Heights.

In November, 1775, St. Johns and Montreal were captured by a small force

under General Montgomery. The Americans now seemed in a fair way to get

control of all Canada, which contained only 700 regular troops. It was

even hoped that Canada would make common cause with the colonies. Late

in the fall Benedict Arnold led 1,000 men up the Kennebec River and

through the wilderness--a terrible journey--to Quebec. Here he was

joined by Montgomery. On the night of December 30th, which was dark and

stormy, Montgomery and Arnold led their joint forces, numbering some

3,000, against the city. Arnold was to attack the lower town, while

Montgomery sought to gain the citadel. Montgomery had hardly passed the

first line of barricades when he was shot dead, and his troops retreated

in confusion. Arnold, too, was early wounded. Morgan, with 500 of his

famous riflemen, forced an entrance into the lower town. But they were

not re-enforced, and after a desperate street fight were taken

prisoners.

[1776]

A dreary and useless blockade was maintained for several months; until

in May the garrison sallied forth and routed the besiegers. The British

were successful in several small engagements during the summer of 1776;

and the Americans finally had to fall back to Crown Point and

Ticonderoga.

Richard Montgomery.

[1777]

In June of the next year a splendid expedition set sail from St. Johns

and swept proudly up Lake Champlain. Eight thousand British and Hessian

troops, under strict discipline and ably officered, forty cannon of the

best make, a horde of merciless Indians--with these forces General

Burgoyne, the commander of the expedition, expected to make an easy

conquest of upper New York, form a junction with Clinton at Albany, and,

by thus isolating New England from the Middle and Southern States, break

the back of the rebellion.

Ticonderoga was the first point of attack. Sugar Loaf Mountain, which

rose six hundred feet above the lake, had been neglected as too

difficult of access. Burgoyne's skilful engineers easily fortified this

on the night of July 4th, and Fort Ticonderoga became untenable. General

St. Clair, with his garrison of 3,000, at once evacuated it, and fled

south under cover of the night. He was pursued, and his rear guard of

1,200 men was shattered. The rest of his force reached Fort Edward.

The Death of Montgomery at Quebec.

The loss of Ticonderoga spread alarm throughout the North. General

Schuyler, the head of the Northern department, appealed to Washington

for re-enforcements, and fell back from Fort Edward to the junction of

the Mohawk and Hudson.

Meanwhile Burgoyne was making a toilsome march toward Fort Edward.

Schuyler had destroyed the bridges and obstructed the roads, so that the

invading army was twenty-four days in going twenty-six miles. Up to this

point Burgoyne's advance had been little less than a triumphal march;

difficulties now began to surround him like a net.

Burgoyne had arranged for a branch expedition of 700 troops and 1,000

Indians under St. Leger, to sail up Lake Ontario, sweep across western

New York, and join the main body at Albany. August 3d, this expedition

reached Fort Schuyler, and besieged it. A party of 800 militia, led by

General Herkimer, a veteran German soldier, while marching to relieve

the fort, was surprised by an Indian ambush. The bloody battle of

Oriskany followed. St. Leger's further advance was checked, and soon

after, alarmed by exaggerated reports of a second relief expedition

under Arnold, he hurried back to Canada.

At Bennington, twenty-five miles east of Burgoyne's line of march, the

Americans had a depot of stores and horses. Burgoyne, who was running

short of provisions, sent a body of 500 troops, under Baume, to capture

these stores, and overawe the inhabitants by a raid through the

Connecticut valley. About 2,000 militia hastened to the defence of

Bennington. General Stark, who had fought gallantly at Bunker Hill and

Trenton, took command. August 16th, Baume was attacked on three sides at

once, Stark himself leading the charge against the enemy's front. Again

and again his men dashed up the hill where the British lay behind

breastworks. After a fight of two hours Baume surrendered, overpowered

by superior numbers. Re-enforcements which came up a little later were

driven back with considerable loss. The Americans took 700 prisoners and

1,000 stands of arms.

General Herkimer at the Battle of Oriskany.

Burgoyne's situation was becoming dangerous. The failure of St. Leger

and the heavy loss at Bennington seriously disarranged his plans. The

troops detached to defend the posts in his rear had reduced his force to

about 6,000. He was greatly hampered by lack of provisions. Meanwhile

the American army had increased to 9,000. Schuyler had been supplanted

by Gates, who on September 12th advanced to a strong position on Bemis

Heights in the town of Stillwater. The right wing of the army rested on

the Hudson, the left on ridges and wood. In front was a ravine. On the

19th Burgoyne advanced to the attack in three columns. That led by

General Fraser, which tried to turn the American left, was the first to

engage. Arnold's wing, including Morgan's riflemen, met Fraser's

skirmishers a mile from the American lines. They were soon forced to

fall back; Burgoyne's central column came up, and the fight became

general. The battleground was covered by thick woods, with occasional

clearings, and the troops fought at close range. Four hours the battle

raged hotly. The British artillery was taken and retaken again and

again. Thirty-six of the forty-eight British gunners were either killed

or wounded. At sunset the Americans withdrew to their fortified lines,

leaving Burgoyne in possession of the field. It was a drawn battle, but

virtually a victory for the Americans. The British lost about 600, the

Americans half as many.

General John Stark.

Burgoyne's situation was now critical in the extreme. In the heart of

the enemy's country, his forces melting away while his opponents were

increasing, nearly out of provisions and his connections with his base

of supplies threatened by a party assailing Ticonderoga, Burgoyne's only

hope was that Clinton would force a passage up the Hudson. But the

latter, after capturing Forts Clinton and Montgomery early in October,

fell back to the lower Hudson and left Burgoyne to his fate.

October 7th, Burgoyne advanced a picked body of 1,500 men to reconnoitre

the American lines. Morgan's riflemen were sent out to "begin the game."

The fighting soon became even hotter than in the previous battle. In an

hour the whole British line was retreating toward the camp. At this

point Arnold, whom, because of his preference for Schuyler, Gates had

deprived of his command, filled with the fury of battle, dashed upon the

field and assumed his old command. The soldiers greeted him with cheers,

and he led them on in one impetuous charge after another. The enemy

everywhere gave way in confusion, and at dusk the Germans were even

driven from their entrenched camp. The British loss was fully 600.

General Horatio Gates.

The next day Burgoyne retreated to Saratoga, followed by Gates. The fine

army, which had set out with such high hopes only four months before,

was now almost a wreck. Eight hundred were in the hospital. On the 12th

the army had but five days' rations. Burgoyne could neither advance nor

retreat, and on the 17th he surrendered. The army were allowed free

passage to England on condition that they would not re-engage in the

war. The Americans got 35 superb cannon and 4,000 muskets. The Sunday

after the surrender, Timothy Dwight, afterward President of Yale

College, preached to Gates's soldiers from Joel ii. 20, "I will remove

far off from you the northern army."

Gates deserved little credit for the defeat of Burgoyne. Put forward by

New England influence against Schuyler, the favorite of New York, he but

reaped the results of the labors of Herkimer at Oriskany, of Stark at

Bennington, and of Schuyler in obstructing Burgoyne's advance and in

raising a sufficient army. Even in the two battles of Stillwater Gates

did next to nothing, not even appearing on the field. Arnold and Morgan

were the soul of the army on both days. Arnold's gallant conduct was at

once rewarded by a major-generalship. Schuyler, underrated and even

maligned in his day, had to wait for the approval of posterity, which he

has now fully obtained.

The surrender of Burgoyne was the most important event of the war up to

that time. It was of immense service at home, raising the country out of

the despondency which followed upon Brandywine and Germantown. Abroad it

disheartened England, and decided France to acknowledge the independence

of America and to send military aid. From the end of this year, 1777,

victory over England was a practical certainty.

CHAPTER VI.

THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGNS

[1778]

After the summer of 1778 little of military importance occurred at the

North. July and November of that year were marked by bloody Indian

massacres at Wyoming, Pa., and Cherry Valley, N. Y., the worst in all

that border warfare which was incessant from the beginning to the end of

the Revolution. In August an unsuccessful attempt to regain Newport was

made by General Sullivan, co-operating with a French fleet under

D'Estaing. In the spring and summer of 1779, Clinton, who lay at New

York with a considerable army, closely watched by Washington, sent out

to Connecticut and the coasts of Virginia a number of plundering

expeditions which did much damage. "Mad Anthony Wayne" led a brilliant

attack against Stony Point on the Hudson, captured the British garrison,

and destroyed the fortifications. This year was also marked by a great

naval victory. Paul Jones lashed his vessel, the Bonhomme Richard, to

the British Serapis, off the northeast coast of England, and after a

desperate fight of three hours forced the Serapis to surrender.

But the brunt of the war now fell on the South, where the British,

unsuccessful in the Northern and Middle States, hoped for an easy

conquest. The capture of Savannah in December, 1778, and of Augusta the

next month, laid Georgia prostrate. The royal government was re-instated

by Prevost, the British general. Our General Lincoln, who had been

placed in command of the Southern army, assisted by D'Estaing with his

fleet, besieged Savannah, but on October 9, 1779, was repulsed with

heavy loss.

[1780]

In the spring of 1780 Clinton arrived from New York with a fleet and

troops. Charleston, S. C, was besieged by land and sea. Lincoln was

compelled to surrender with his whole army. Beaufort, Ninety-Six, and

Camden capitulated in rapid succession. Marauding expeditions overran

the State. President Andrew Jackson carried to his grave scars of hurts,

one on his head, another on his hand, given him by Tarleton's men when

he was a boy at Waxhaw. The patriots lay helpless. The loyalists

organized as militia and joined the British. Clinton, elated by success,

hoped to force the entire population into allegiance to the king. The

estates of patriots were sequestered. Any Carolinian found in arms

against the king might be, and multitudes were, hung for treason.

Clinton even issued a proclamation requiring all inhabitants to take

active part on the royalist side. Sumter, Marion, and other leaders,

gathering around them little companies of bold men, carried on a

guerilla warfare which proved very annoying to the British. They would

sally forth from their hiding-places in the swamps, surprise some

British outpost or cut off some detachment, and retreat with their

booty and prisoners before pursuit could be made.

John Paul Jones's Medal.

"Joanni Pavlo Jones" "Classis Praefecto." "Comitia American"

John Paul Jones's Medal (Reverse).

"HOSTIVM NAVIBVS" "CAPTIS AVTFVCATTS"

"AD ORAM SCOTIAE XXIII SEPT."

"MDCCLXXVIII."

"Dupre E"

But the British army in South Carolina and Georgia was 7,000 strong.

Help must come from without. And help was coming. Washington detached

from his scanty army 2,000 Maryland troops and the Delaware

regiment--all veterans--and sent them south under De Kalb, a brave

officer of German blood, who had seen long service in France. Virginia,

though herself exposed, nobly contributed arms and men. Gates, the

laurels of Saratoga still fresh upon his brow, was, against Washington's

judgment, appointed by Congress to succeed Lincoln.

Cornwallis, whom the return of Clinton to New York had left in command,

lay at Camden, S. C. Gates, as if he had but to look the Briton in the

eye to beat him, pompously assumed the offensive. On August 15th he made

a night march to secure a more favorable position near Camden.

Cornwallis happened to have chosen the same night for an attack upon

Gates. The two armies unexpectedly met in the woods, nine miles from

Camden, early in the morning of the 16th. Gates's force, increased by

North Carolina militia, was between 3,000 and 4,000. Cornwallis had

about 2,000. The American position was strong, a swamp protecting both

flanks, but at the first bayonet charge of the British veterans the raw

militia threw away their guns and "ran like a torrent." The Maryland and

Delaware Continentals stood their ground bravely, but were finally

obliged to retreat. De Kalb fell, with eleven wounds.

General Sullivan.

This heroic foreigner had been sent hither by Choiseul before the

Revolution to report to the French minister on American affairs, and at

the outbreak of war had at great cost cast in his lot with our fathers.

Sent south to aid Lincoln, he arrived only in time to be utilized by

Gates. De Kalb was the hero of Camden. Wounded and his horse shot from

under him, on foot he led his stanch division in a charge which drove

Rawdon's men and took fifty prisoners. Believing his side victorious he

would not yield, though literally ridden down by Cornwallis' dragoons,

till his wounds exhausted him. Two-fifths of his noble division fell

with him.

The whole army was pursued for miles and completely scattered. Arms,

knapsacks, broken wagons, dead horses strewed the line of retreat. The

Americans lost 900 killed and as many more prisoners. The British loss

was less than 500. Gates, who had been literally borne off the field by

the panic-stricken militia, rode in all haste two hundred miles north to

Hillsborough, N. C, where he tried to organize a new army.

General Lincoln.

The gloom created at the North by this defeat was deepened by the

startling news that Benedict Arnold, the hero of Saratoga, had turned

traitor. Smarting under a reprimand from Washington for misconduct,

Arnold agreed with Clinton to surrender West Point. The plot was

discovered by the capture of Clinton's agent, Major Andre, who was hung

as a spy. Arnold escaped to the British lines.

There was now no organized American force in the Carolinas, and

Cornwallis began a triumphant march northward. The brave mountaineers of

North Carolina and Virginia rose in arms. October 7th, 1,000 riflemen

fell upon a detachment of 1,100 British, strongly posted on King's

Mountain, N. C, and after a sharp struggle killed and wounded about 400,

and took the rest prisoners. In this battle fell one of the Tory

ancestors of the since distinguished American De Peyster family.

The King's Mountain victory filled the patriots with new hope and zeal,

and kept the loyalists from rising to support the British. Cornwallis

marched south again.

General Marion in Camp.

Gates was now removed and General Nathaniel Greene placed in charge of

the Southern department. Greene was one of the most splendid figures in

the Revolution. Son of a Rhode Island Quaker, bred a blacksmith,

ill-educated save-by private study, which in mathematics, history, and

law he had carried far, he was in 1770 elected to the legislature of his

colony. Zeal to fight England for colonial liberty lost him his place in

the Friends' Society. Heading Rhode Island's contingent to join

Washington before Boston at the first shock of Revolutionary arms, he

was soon made brigadier, the initial step in his rapid promotion.

Showing himself an accomplished fighter at Trenton, Princeton,

Germantown, Monmouth, and the battle of Rhode Island, and a first-rate

organizer as quartermaster-general of the army, he had long been

Washington's right-hand man; and his superior now sent him south with

high hopes and ringing words of recommendation to the army and people

there.

Marquis de Lafayette.

[1781]

Greene's plan of campaign was the reverse of Gates's. He meant to harass

and hinder the enemy at every step, avoiding pitched battles. January

17, 1781, a portion of his army, about 1,000 strong, under the famous

General Daniel Morgan, of Virginia, another hero of Saratoga, was

attacked at Cowpens, S. C., by an equal number of British under the

dashing Tarleton. The British, riddled by a terrible cross-fire from

Morgan's unerring riflemen, followed up by a bayonet charge, fled, and

were for twenty-four miles pursued by cavalry. The American loss was

trifling. Tarleton lost 300 in killed and wounded, and 500 prisoners,

besides 100 horses, 35 wagons, and 800 muskets.

Benedict Arnold.

Cornwallis began a second march northward. Greene's force was too weak

to risk a battle. His soldiers were poorly clad, and most of them were

without tents or shoes. He therefore skillfully retreated across North

Carolina, chased by Cornwallis. Twice the rivers, rising suddenly after

Greene had crossed, checked his pursuers. But on March 15th, re-enforced

to about 4,000, the Quaker general offered battle to Cornwallis at

Guilford Court-House, N. C. He drew up his forces on a wooded hill in

three lines one behind the other. The first line, consisting of raw

North Carolina militia, fled before the British bayonet charge, hardly

firing a shot. The Virginia brigade constituting the second line made a

brave resistance, but was soon driven back. On swept the British

columns, flushed with victory, against the third line. Here Greek met

Greek. The Continentals stood their ground like the veterans they were.

After a long and bloody fight the British were driven back. The

fugitives, however, presently rallied under cover of theartillery, when

Greene, fearing to risk more, withdrew from the field. The British lost

500; the Americans, 400, besides a large part of the militia, who

dispersed to their homes. Cornwallis, with his "victorious but ruined

army," retreated to the southern part of the State. The last of April he

forsook Carolina, and marched into Virginia with 1,400 men.

Arnold's Escape.

Greene, his force reduced to 1,800, carried the war into South Carolina.

Defeated at Hobkirk's Hill, near Camden, and compelled by the approach

of General Rawdon to raise the siege of Ninety-Six, he retreated north.

Meantime Marion and Lee had brought about the evacuation of Camden and

Augusta. Rawdon soon evacuated Ninety-Six, and moved toward the coast,

followed by Greene.

A ceaseless guerilla warfare was kept up, attended with many

barbarities. Slave-stealing was a favorite pursuit on both sides. It is

noteworthy that the followers of Sumter, fighting in the cause of

freedom, were paid largely in slaves. The whole campaign was marked by

severities unknown at the North. The British shot as deserters all who,

having once accepted royal protection, were taken in arms against the

king. In a few cases Americans dealt similarly with Americans fighting

for the British, but in general their procedure was infinitely the more

humane.

General Nathaniel Greene.

The battle of Eutaw Springs practically ended the war in the South. The

British were victorious, but all the advantages of the battle accrued to

the Americans. The British loss was nearly 1,000; the American, 600. In

ten months Greene had driven the British from all Georgia and the

Carolinas except Wilmington, Charleston, and Savannah.

Destiny decreed that Washington should strike the last blow for his

country's freedom on the soil of his own State. Cornwallis found himself

in Virginia, the last of May, at the head of 7,000 troops. He ravaged

the State, destroying $10,000,000 worth of property. Lafayette, pitted

against him with 3,000 men, could do little. In August Cornwallis

withdrew into Yorktown, and began fortifications. Lafayette's quick eye

saw that the British general had caged himself. Posting his army so as

to prevent Cornwallis's escape, he advised Washington to hasten with his

army to Virginia. Meanwhile a French fleet blocked up the mouth of

Chesapeake Bay and of James River and York River, cutting off

Cornwallis's escape by water. The last of September Washington's army,

accompanied by the French troops under Rochambeau, appeared before

Yorktown. Clinton, deceived by Washington into the belief that New York

was to be attacked, was still holding that city with 18,000 men. The

American army, 16,000 strong--7,000 French--began a regular siege.

Cornwallis was doomed.

Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

General Daniel Morgan.

Two advanced redoubts of the British works were soon carried by a

brilliant assault in which the French and the American troops won equal

honors. On the 19th Cornwallis surrendered. The captive army, numbering

7,247, marched with cased colors between two long lines of American and

French troops, and laid down their arms.

The news of Cornwallis's surrender flew like wild-fire over the country.

Everywhere the victory was hailed as virtually ending the war. Bonfires

and booming cannon told of the joy of the people. Congress assembled,

and marching to church in a body, not as a mere form, we may well

believe, gave thanks to the God of battles, so propitious at last.

CHAPTER VII.

PEACE

[1782]

The peace party and spirit in England increased month by month.

Burgoyne's surrender had dissipated the hope of speedily suppressing the

rebellion. And as the war dragged on and Englishmen by bitter experience

came to realize the bravery, endurance, and national feeling of the

Americans, the conviction spread that three millions of such people,

separated from the mother-country by three thousand miles of boisterous

ocean, could never be conquered by force. Discouragement arose, too,

from the ill conduct of the war. There was no broad plan or consistency

in management. Generals did not agree or co-operate, and were changed

too often. Clinton and Cornwallis hated each other. Burgoyne superseded

Carleton, a better man. But for Lord Germain's "criminal negligence" in

waiting to go upon a visit before sending the proper orders, Clinton

might have met and saved Burgoyne.

There were enormous and needless expenses. By 1779 England's national

debt had increased 63,000,000 pounds; by 1782 it had doubled. Rents were

declining. The price of land had fallen one-third. Hence the war became

unpopular with the landed aristocracy. British manufacturers suffered by

the narrowing of their foreign markets. American privateers, prowling in

all seas, had captured hundreds of British merchant-men. English

sentiment, too, revolted at certain features of the war. Ravaging and

the use of mercenaries and Indians were felt to be barbarous. Time made

clearer the initial error of the government in invoking war over the

doubtful right of taxing America. An increasing number of lawyers took

the American view. Practical men figured out that each year of

hostilities cost more than the proposed tax would have yielded in a

century.

In February, 1778, Parliament almost unanimously adopted proposals to

restore the state of things which existed in America before the war, at

the same time declaring its intention not to exercise its right of

taxing the colonies. Washington spoke for America when he said, "Nothing

but independence will now do." The proposals were rejected by Congress

and by the States separately.

England's difficulties were greatly increased by the help extended to

America from abroad. France, eager for revenge on England, early in the

war lent secret aid by money and military supplies. Later, emboldened by

the defeat of Burgoyne, the French Government recognized the United

States as an independent nation. By a treaty, offensive and defensive,

the two nations bound themselves to fight together for that

independence, neither to conclude a separate peace.

The benefit from this treaty was moral and financial rather than

martial. At Yorktown, to be sure, the French forces rendered invaluable

aid. Without De Grasse's French fleet at the mouths of the York and

James rivers, the British might have relieved Cornwallis by sea. But

Congress needed money more than foreign soldiers, and without France's

liberal loans it is difficult to see how the government could have

struggled through.

Spain, too, joined the alliance of France and the United States and

declared war against England, though from no love for the young

republic. This action hastened the growth of public opinion in England

against the continuance of the American war. In the House of Commons,

Lord Cavendish made a motion for ordering home the troops. Lord North,

prime minister, threw out hints that it was useless to continue the war.

But George III., summoning his ministers, declared his unchanging

resolution never to yield to the rebels, and continued prodding the

wavering North to stumble on in his stupid course.

It was struggling against fate. The next year saw Holland at war with

England, while Catherine, Empress of Russia, was actively organizing the

Armed Neutrality, by which all the other states of Europe leagued

together to resist England's practice of stopping vessels on the high

seas and searching them for contraband goods.

Lord Cornwallis.

England was now involved in four wars, without money to carry them on.

North's majorities in Parliament grew steadily smaller. No doubt much of

the opposition was simply factious and partisan, but it had, after all,

solid basis in principle. England was fighting her own

policy--economically, for she was destined to free trade, and

politically, inasmuch as the freedom which our fathers sought was

nothing but English freedom.

The surrender of Cornwallis tipped the scale. Lord North, when he heard

the news, paced the room in agony, exclaiming again and again, "O God,

it is all over!" The House of Commons, without even a division, resolved

to "consider as enemies to His Majesty and the country" all who should

advise a further prosecution of the war. North resigned, and Shelburne,

Secretary of State in the new ministry, hastened to open peace

negotiations with Franklin at Paris.

Benjamin Franklin.

Benjamin Franklin, now venerable with years, had been doing at the court

of Versailles a work hardly less important than that of Washington on

the battlefields of America. By the simple grace and dignity of his

manners, by his large good sense and freedom of thought, by his fame as

a scientific discoverer, above all by his consummate tact in the

management of men, the whilom printer, king's postmaster-general for

America, discoverer, London colonial agent, delegate in the Continental

Congress, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, had completely

captivated elegant, free-thinking France. Learned and common folk, the

sober and the frivolous alike, swore by Franklin. Snuff-boxes,

furniture, dishes, even stoves, were gotten up a la Franklin. The old

man's portrait was in every house. That the French Government, in spite

of a monarch who was half afraid of the rising nation beyond sea, had

given America her hearty support, was in no small measure due to the

influence of Franklin. And his skill in diplomacy was of the greatest

value in the negotiations now pending.

These were necessarily long and tedious, but Jay, Franklin's colleague,

made them needlessly so by his finical refusal to treat till England had

acknowledged our independence by a separate act. This, indeed,

jeopardized peace itself, since Shelburne's days of ministerial power

were closing, and his successor was sure to be less our friend. Jay at

last receded, a compromise being arrived at by which the treaty was to

open with a virtual recognition of independence in acknowledging Adams,

Franklin, and Jay as "plenipotentiaries," that is, agents of a sovereign

power. Boundaries, fishery rights, and the treatment of loyalists and

their property were the chief bones of contention.

As the negotiations wore on it became apparent that Spain and France,

now that their vengeance was sated against England by our independence,

were more unfriendly to our territorial enlargement than England itself.

There still exists a map on which Spain's minister had indicated what he

wished to make our western bound. The line follows nearly the meridian

of Pittsburgh. This attitude of those powers excused our

plenipotentiaries, though bound by our treaty with France not to

conclude peace apart from her, for making the preliminary arrangements

with England privately. At last, on November 30, 1782, Franklin, Jay,

and John Adams set their signatures to preliminary articles, which were

incorporated in a treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United

States, France, and Spain, signed at Paris on September 3, 1783. David

Hartley signed for England. Our Congress ratified on February 14, 1784.

The treaty recognized the independence of the United States. It

established as boundaries nearly the present Canadian line on the north,

the Mississippi on the west, and Florida, which now returned to Spain

and extended to the Mississippi, on the south. Despite the wishes of

Spain, the free navigation of the Mississippi, from source to mouth, was

guaranteed to the United States and Great Britain. Fishery rights

received special attention. American fishermen were granted the

privilege of fishing, as before the war, on the banks of Newfoundland,

in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and in all other places in the sea where

the inhabitants of both countries had been accustomed to fish. Liberty

was also granted to take fish on such parts of the coast of Newfoundland

as British fishermen should use, and on the coasts, bays, and creeks of

all other British dominions in America. American fishermen could dry and

cure fish on the unsettled parts of Nova Scotia, Labrador, and the

Magdalen Islands. America agreed, for the protection of British

creditors, that debts contracted before the war should be held valid,

and should be payable in sterling money. It was also stipulated that

Congress should earnestly recommend to the several States the

restitution of all confiscated property belonging to loyalists.

"Done at Paris, this third Day of September,

In the Year of our Lord one thousand and seven hundred & eighty three.--

D. Hartley, John Adams, B. Franklin, John Jay"

Facsimile of Signatures to Treaty of Peace

[1783]

Peace came like a heavenly benediction to the country and the army,

exhausted by so long and so fierce a struggle. No general engagement

took place after the siege of Yorktown; but the armies kept close watch

upon each other, and minor skirmishes were frequent. Washington's 10,000

men were encamped near the Hudson, to see that Clinton's forces in New

York did no harm. In the South, Greene's valiant band, aided by Wayne

and his rangers, without regular food or pay, kept the British cooped up

in Charleston and Augusta.

Congress in due time declared cessation of hostilities, and on April 19,

1783, just eight years from the battle of Lexington, Washington read the

declaration at the headquarters of his army. The British had evacuated

Charleston the previous December. In July, Savannah saw the last of the

redcoats file out, and the British troops were collected at New York. On

November 25th, Sir Guy Carleton, who had superseded Clinton, embarked

with his entire army, besides a throng of refugees, in boats for Long

Island and Staten Island, where they soon took ship for England. "The

imperial standard of Great Britain fell at the fort over which it had

floated for a hundred and twenty years, and in its place the Stars and

Stripes of American Independence flashed in the sun. Fleet and army,

royal flag and scarlet uniform, coronet and ribbon, every sign and

symbol of foreign authority, which from Concord to Saratoga and from

Saratoga to Yorktown had sought to subdue the colonies, vanished from

these shores. Colonial and provincial America had ended, national

America had begun."

The American troops took possession of New York amid the huzzas of the

people and the roar of cannon. On November 25th, Washington with his

suite, surrounded by grateful and admiring throngs, made a formal entry

into the city whence he had been compelled to flee seven years before.

The time had now come when the national hero might lay down the great

burden which he had borne with herculean strength and courage through so

many years of distress and gloom. On December 4th he joined his

principal officers at the popular Fraunces's Tavern, near the Battery,

to bid them farewell. Tears filled every eye. Even Washington could not

master his feelings, as one after another the heroes who had been with

him upon the tented field and in so many moments of dreadful strife drew

near to press his hand. They followed him through ranks of parading

infantry to the Whitehall ferry, where he boarded his barge, and waving

his hat in a last, voiceless farewell, crossed to the Jersey shore.

Arrived at Annapolis after a journey which had been one long ovation,

the saviour of his country appeared before Congress, December 23d, to

resign the commission which he had so grandly fulfilled. His address was

in noble key, but abbreviated by choking emotion. The President of

Congress having replied in fitting words, Washington withdrew, and

continued his journey to the long-missed peace and seclusion of his

Mount Vernon home.

CHAPTER VIII.

AMERICAN MANHOOD IN THE REVOLUTION

[1775-1781]

It would be foolish to say that the Revolutionary soldiers never

quailed. Militia too often gave way before the steady bayonet charge of

British regulars, at times fleeing panic-stricken. Troops whose term of

service was out would go home at critical moments. Hardships and lack of

pay in a few instances led to mutiny and desertion. But the marvel is

that they fought so bravely, endured so much, and complained so little.

One reason was the patriotism of the people at large behind them.

Soldiers who turned their backs on Boston, leaving Washington in the

lurch, were refused food along the road home. Women placed rifles in the

hands of husbands, sons, or lovers, and said "Go!"

The rank and file in this war, coming from farm, work-bench,

logging-camp, or fisher's boat, had a superb physical basis for camp and

field life. Used to the rifle from boyhood, they kept their powder dry

and made every one of their scanty bullets tell. The Revolutionary

soldier's splendid courage has glorified a score of battle-fields; while

Valley Forge, with its days of hunger and nights of cold, its sick-beds

on the damp ground, and its bloody footprints in the snow, tell of his

patient endurance.

At Bunker Hill an undisciplined body of farmers, ill-armed, weary,

hungry and thirsty, calmly awaited the charge of old British

campaigners, and by a fire of dreadful precision drove them back. "They

may talk of their Mindens and their Fontenoys," said the British

general, Howe, "but there was no such fire there." At Charleston, while

the wooden fort shook with the British broadsides, Moultrie and his

South Carolina boys, half naked in the stifling heat, through twelve

long hours smoked their pipes and carefully pointed their guns. At Long

Island, to gain time for the retreat of the rest, five Maryland

companies flew again and again in the face of the pursuing host. At

Monmouth, eight thousand British were in hot pursuit of the retreating

Americans. Square in their front Washington planted two Pennsylvania and

Maryland regiments, saying, "Gentlemen, I depend upon you to hold the

ground until I can form the main army." And hold it they did.

Heroism grander than that of the battlefield, which can calmly meet an

ignominious death, was not lacking. Captain Nathan Hale, a quiet,

studious spirit, just graduated from Yale College, volunteered to enter

the British lines on Long Island as a spy. He was caught, and soon swung

from an apple tree in Colonel Rutgers's orchard, a corpse. Bible and

religious ministrations denied him, his letters to mother and sister

destroyed, women standing by and sobbing, he met his fate without a

tremor. "I only regret," comes his voice from yon rude scaffold, "that I

have but one life to give for my country." It is a shame that America so

long had no monument to this heroic man. One almost rejoices that the

British captain, Cunningham, author of the cruelty to Hale, himself met

death on the gallows, in London, 1791. How different from Hale's the

treatment bestowed upon Andre, the British spy who fell into our hands.

He was fed from Washington's table, and supported to his execution by

every manifestation of sympathy for his suffering.

John Paul Jones.

The stanch and useful loyalty of the New England clergy in the

Revolution has been much dwelt upon--none too much, however. With them

should be mentioned the Rev. James Caldwell, Presbyterian pastor at

Elizabeth, N. J., who, when English soldiers raided the town, and its

defenders were short of wadding, tore up his hymn-book for their use,

urging: "Give them Watts, boys, give them Watts."

No fiercer naval battle was ever fought than when Jones, in the old and

rotten Bon Homme Richard, grappled with the new British frigate Serapis.

Yard-arm to yardarm, port-hole to port-hole, the fight raged for hours.

Three times both vessels were on fire. The Serapis's guns tore a

complete breach in the Richard from main-mast to stern. The Richard was

sinking, but the intrepid Jones fought on, and the Serapis struck.

Fight between the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis.

As the roll of Revolutionary officers is called, what matchless figures

file past the mind's eye! We see stalwart Ethan Allen entering

Ticonderoga too early in the morning to find its commander in a

presentable condition, and demanding possession "in the name of Almighty

God and the Continental Congress "--destined, himself, in a few months,

to be sailing down the St. Lawrence in irons, bound for long captivity

in England. We behold gallant Prescott leisurely promenading the Bunker

Hill parapet to inspirit his men, shot and shell hurtling thick around.

There is Israel Putnam--"Old Put" the boys dubbed him. He was no

general, but we forgive his costly blunders at Brooklyn Heights and

Peekskill as we think of him leaving plough in furrow at the drum-beat

to arms, and speeding to the deadly front at Boston, or with iron

firmness stemming the retreat from Bunker Hill. Young Richard Montgomery

might have been next to Washington in the war but for Sir Guy Carleton's

deadly grape-shot from the Quebec walls the closing moments of 1775.

Buried at Quebec, his remains were transferred by the State of New York,

July 8, 1818, to their present resting-place in front of St. Paul's, New

York City, the then aged widow tearfully watching the funeral barge as

it floated past Montgomery Place on the Hudson.

General Anthony Wayne.

During a four years' apprenticeship under Washington, General Greene had

caught more of his master's spirit and method than did any other

American leader, and one year's separate command at the South gave him a

martial fame second only to Washington's own. In him the great chief's

word was fulfilled, "I send you a general." A naked, starving army, an

empty military chest, the surrounding country impoverished and full of

loyalists--these were his difficulties. Three States practically cleared

of the royal army in ten months--this was his achievement. He retreated

only to advance, was beaten only to fight again. One hardly knows which

to admire most, his tireless energy and vigilance, his prudence in

retreat, his boldness and vigor in attack, his cheerful courage in

defeat, or his mingled kindness and firmness toward a suffering and

mutinous army.

John Stark, eccentric but true, famous for cool courage--how stubbornly,

with his New Hampshire boys, he held the rail fence at Bunker Hill, and

covered the retreat when ammunition was gone! But Stark's most brilliant

deed was at Bennington. "There they are, boys--the redcoats, and by

night they're ours, or Molly Stark's a widow." Those "boys," without

bayonets, their artillery shooting stones for balls, were little more

than a mob. But with confidence in him, on they rush, up, over, sweeping

Baume's Hessians from the field like a tornado. The figure of General

Schuyler comes before us--quieter but not less noble, an invalid, set to

hard tasks with little glory. His magnanimous soul forgets self in

country as he cheerfully gives all possible help to Gates, his

supplanter, and puts the torch to his own grain-fields at Saratoga lest

they feed the foe.

The Encounter between Tarleton and Colonel Washington.

And matchless Dan Morgan of Virginia, with his band of riflemen, tall,

sinewy fellows, in hunting-shirts, leggins, and moccasins, each with

hatchet, hunter's knife, and rifle, dead sure to hit a man's head every

time at two hundred and fifty yards. It was one of these men who shot

the gallant Briton, Fraser, at Bemis's Heights. Morgan became the ablest

leader of light troops then living. How gallantly he headed the forlorn

hope under the icy walls of Quebec, where he was taken prisoner, and at

Saratoga with his shrill whistle and stentorian voice called his

dauntless braves where the fight was thickest! But Cowpens was Morgan's

crowning feat. Inspiring militia and veterans alike with a courage they

had never felt before, he routs Tarleton's trained band of horse, and

then, skilful in retreat as he had been bold in fight, laughs at baffled

Cornwallis's rage.

Gladly would one form fuller acquaintance with other Revolutionary

leaders: Stirling, Sullivan, Sumter, Mad Anthony Wayne, of Monmouth and