UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
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 Received iCnj . { 9O 
 
 Accession No. Q / 6 9 j Class No. 
 
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HISTORICAL SERIES BOOK III PART I 
 
 STORIES 
 
 OF OUR COUNTRY 
 
 COMPILED AND ARRANGED 
 
 BY JAMES JO HO N NOT 
 
 NEW YORK : CINCINNATI : CHICAGO 
 
 AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 
 
1 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1887, 
 BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 
 
 E-P 2 
 
PEE FACE. 
 
 THE Icelanders, who live amid the cold and desolation 
 of almost perpetual winter, have a proverb which says 
 that " Iceland is the best land the sun shines upon." In 
 spite of all their hardships and privations, they cherish 
 an intense love of country, and, when transported to more 
 genial climes, many a poor exile has pined away his life 
 from pure home-sickness. The Icelander loves his coun 
 try, not for what it produces, not for its beauty, not for 
 its riches, but because it is his home. In the little hut, 
 half buried in the snow, he was born, and there he 
 grew up under the watchful providence of mother-love. 
 Around him were loving kindred father, brothers, sis 
 ters, grandparents, and all and in this spot, where home- 
 love was born, are concentrated the profounder emotions 
 of his nature. But the home reaches out to other homes, 
 and patriotism, or love of country, is born and becomes a 
 dominating sentiment in his heart and brain. 
 
 This sentiment of love of country and loyalty to its 
 interests is not the monopoly of a nation or a race, but 
 belongs to all men and all ages. Having its birth at the 
 fireside, it is nurtured by the story of the daring, the 
 suffering, the courage, and the endurance which made 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 homes possible. Whether heard from grandfather s knee 
 or read from books, no child ever tires of such stories, 
 and there grows up within him a resolve that the bless 
 ings which cost so much shall be preserved. This form 
 of pure patriotism may be greatly stimulated by work in 
 school. 
 
 By the use of this little work the pupil has all the aids 
 to reading which characterize ordinary reading-books 
 lessons for practice, variety in style, and all the necessities 
 of elementary elocution. Besides these, he gets all the 
 interest that the story excites, the knowledge which it un 
 folds, and the sentiment which it imparts, and the read 
 ing-lesson becomes a potent force in mental and moral 
 development. 
 
 The spirit of adventure shown by the old navigators ; 
 the hardy endurance of the early settlers ; the sturdy in 
 dependence of their sons ; and the wise and unseliish 
 patriotism of Washington and his compatriots, can not 
 fail to inspire a love for this America of ours which 
 will cherish its virtues, remove its imperfections, and pro 
 tect it from all enemies, without and within. 
 
OONTENTSc 
 
 I. Ponce de Leon 
 
 II. De Soto 
 
 III. John Smith and Pocal.ontis 
 
 IV, Henry Hudson. 
 
 V. Massasoit 
 
 VI. Roger Williams 
 
 VII. King Philip 
 
 VIII. The Indian Bible 
 
 IX. The Three Regicides 
 
 X. Deerfield and the St. Regis Bell 
 
 XI. The Charter-Oak 60 
 
 XII. Witchcraft 
 
 XIII. The Acadian Exiles 
 
 XIV. William Penn and the Indians 72 
 
 XV. The Pine- Tree Shillings 77 
 
 XVI.. The Old French War 81 
 
 XVII. George Washington 85 
 
 XVIII. Patrick Henry 
 
 XIX. Israel Putnam 98 
 
 XX. The Youth of Franklin 108 
 
 XXI. John Paul Jones 115 
 
 XXII. The Awakening 123 
 
 XXIII. General Marion 126 
 
 XXIV. Washington crossing the Delaware . . . . 131 
 
5 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 XXV. Ethan Allen and Ticonderoga 135 
 
 XXVI. Valley Forge 140 
 
 XXVII. Burgoyrie and Saratoga 146 
 
 XXVIII. The Baroness Riedesel 151 
 
 XXIX. Arnold and Andre 155 
 
 XXX. Champe 160 
 
 XXXI. Stony Point 106 
 
 XXXII. Yorktovvn 170 
 
 XXXIII. Perry and Lake Erie ... 177 
 
 XXXI V. The Star-Spangled Banner 187 
 
 XXXV. Battle of New Orleans. ... 192 
 
 XXXVI. Buena Vista. . 199 
 
TJTNIV 
 
 ^FOH^ 
 
 STOKIES OF OUK OOUNTKY. 
 
 PONCE DE LEON. 
 
 lo ONE of the companions of Columbus in his 
 voyage of discovery was Ponce de Leon. He \vas 
 the first Governor of Porto Rico, a small island 
 sixty miles east of Hayti, and he it was who sailed 
 on a voyage of discovery among the Bahamas in 
 search of the fabled Fountain of Youth. There 
 was a story abroad in Porto Rico, and it had be 
 fore been told and widely believed in Old Spain, 
 that somewhere there was a clear spring, the waters 
 of which were bubbling up in the midst of a vast 
 forest, and that he who should bathe in these 
 waters would have his youth restored, and his ug 
 liness would be turned into beauty. It was thought 
 that this spring existed upon an island among the 
 Bahamas. 
 
 2. De Leon was an old man, and wanted to 
 become young. Impressed with the truth of the 
 story, he sought that wonderful fountain. After 
 cruising awhile among the Bahamas, he landed 
 on the peninsula of Florida, in the harbor of St. 
 
8 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 Augustine. It was Palm-Sunday when he landed. 
 That day is called by the Spaniards Pasqua de 
 
 f lores ; and it so hap 
 pened that at the time of 
 this landing it was the 
 spring season, and flow 
 ers were blooming on 
 every side. Very appro 
 priately, therefore, on ac 
 count of Palm - Sunday, 
 and the floral display 
 \ S about him, De Leon called 
 
 the land Florida. 
 Ponce de Leon, 3. He supposed Flor 
 
 ida to be an island like 
 
 Cuba, and he took possession of it in the name of 
 the Spanish monarch. Feeling that he ought not 
 to make further conquests without a royal com 
 mission, he sailed for Spain to obtain one. But 
 he had failed to find the Fountain of Youth. He 
 had plunged into every stream and pond, hoping 
 to rise from it young and blooming ; but he only 
 grew older, and began to enter upon his second 
 childhood. He was afterward appointed Governor 
 of Florida, and was killed while on an expedition 
 against the natives. 
 
 4. After his death, no one ever directly searched 
 for the Fountain of Youth, yet the story was gen- 
 
DE SOTO. 9 
 
 erally believed, and many an adventurer, while 
 searching for gold, kept his eye out for the magic 
 spring. At first, it was supposed to be near the 
 coast, but afterward it was said to be situated in 
 the very center of the peninsula. But, while 
 many a head has grown gray in Florida explora 
 tion, there is no record that any baths in the land 
 of flowers have ever yet changed the wrinkles of 
 age into the smooth skin of youth. 
 
 II. 
 
 DE SOTO. 
 
 1. " IN the year 1538, Fernando de Soto planned 
 an expedition to explore the interior of Florida, as 
 all North America was then called, in search of 
 El Dorado, a populous and wealthy region sup 
 posed to exist there. By permission of the Span 
 ish monarch, he undertook the exploration and 
 conquest of Florida at his own risk and expense. 
 He was commissioned governor - general of that 
 country and of Cuba for life. Leaving his wife 
 to govern Cuba during his absence, he sailed, in 
 June, 1539, and landed at Tampa Bay with a force 
 of six hundred men in complete armor. 
 
10 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 2. " There lie established a small garrison, and 
 then sent most of the vessels of his fleet back to 
 Cuba. He found a Spaniard who had learned 
 the native language. Taking him with him as in 
 terpreter, De Soto marched with his force into the 
 interior. For five months they wandered among 
 the swamps and Everglades, fighting their way 
 against the natives, when they reached the fertile 
 regions of the Flint River, in the western part of 
 Georgia. There they passed the winter, within a 
 few leagues of the Gulf, making, through exploring 
 parties, some new discoveries, among which was 
 the harbor of Pensacola. 
 
 3. " Early in May they broke up their encamp 
 ment, and, marching northeasterly, reached the 
 head-waters of the Savannah River. After a brief 
 tarry there, they turned their faces westward, and, 
 on the 2 8 tli of October, came upon a fortified 
 town, near the junction of the Alabama and Tom- 
 bigbee Rivers. A battle of nine hours duration 
 ensued. Thousands of the half -naked Indians 
 were slain, and their village reduced to ashes. 
 Several of the mailed Spaniards were killed, and 
 the victory availed De Soto nothing. All his bag 
 gage was consumed, and much provision was de 
 stroyed. 
 
 4. " The wild tribes, for many leagues around, 
 were aroused bv this event, De Soto went into 
 
DE SO TO. 
 
 11 
 
 winter-quarters in a deserted Indian village on the 
 Yazoo There he was attacked by the swarming 
 natives, bent on revenge. 
 The town was burned, all 
 the clothing of the Span 
 iards, together with many 
 horses and nearly all the 
 swine which they brought 
 from Cuba, were destroyed 
 or carried away, and sev 
 eral of the whites were 
 killed. Early in the 
 spring, the shorn invaders 
 pushed westward, and dis 
 covered the Mississippi or 
 Great River, 
 
 5. " They had marched for months, ever strain 
 ing their wearied eyes for a gladsome sight of the 
 Hidden River, when, on a bright summer morning 
 in June, 1541, the coveted goal was at last reached, 
 As their foremost horsemen broke from the for 
 est, and eagerly galloped up a gentle slope, they 
 found themselves suddenly upon a steep bluff, and 
 at their feet rolled the waters of a mighty river, 
 such as their eyes had never yet beheld in this 
 world. Their hearts were too full of gratitude, 
 we are told, to utter words of thanks, or even of 
 wonder. They halted and gazed at the great mys* 
 
12 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 tery till their eyes overflowed and their pent-up 
 feelings escaped in one great cry of delight. 
 
 6. "The river, it is said, was almost half a 
 league wide. If a man stood still on the other 
 side, it could not be decided whether he was a 
 man or not. The river was of great depth, and of 
 a strong current ; the water was always muddy ; 
 there came clown the stream, continually, many 
 trees and timber. Two hundred canoes, laden 
 with armed and painted Indians, came dashing 
 down the current to greet the new-comers ; the 
 chieftain s boat, gorgeously appareled, led the gay 
 procession, and every canoe was bright with wav 
 ing plumes and clanging shields. 
 
 7. " The delighted Spaniards eagerly drank in 
 the rare sight. They looked with fierce covetous- 
 ness at the populous towns that dotted the coun 
 try, and at the mighty river that was to be their 
 key to the land of gold. For many months they 
 sailed on its waters, and marched along its banks, 
 wintering within sight of the river. But another 
 great tragedy was approaching, to add new gloom 
 and new mystery to the annals of the Hidden 
 River. In the following spring De Soto fell sick, 
 refused to yield to the advice of his friends and 
 the promptings of Nature, and died. 
 
 8. "Who can tell the deep grief, the over 
 whelming sense of desolation that his death caused 
 
DE 80TO. 13 
 
 in the hearts of his followers, his faithful friends ? 
 Decimated by disease and constant warfare ; 
 stripped of all comforts of their wonted food, 
 and even of scanty clothing; weighed down by 
 grief for the lost ones, and by sore fears for the 
 future, they were suddenly robbed of their leader, 
 
 Death of De Soto. 
 
 who had watched over them with fatherly care, en 
 couraged them by his example, and cheered them 
 by his indomitable spirit. The happiest issue, the 
 brightest hope they had dared to cherish, was tc 
 
i4 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 float down the mysterious river through hosts of 
 hostile nations, to be carried, they knew not 
 whither. 
 
 9. " But first they had to perform their last 
 solemn duty to the beloved chieftain ; to secure 
 his remains against the fierce hatred and bitter re 
 venge of the Indians. At a place not far, proba 
 bly, from the Chickasaw Bluffs, they cut down a 
 gigantic oak-tree, carefully hollowed out the im 
 mense trunk, and in this strange coffin deposited 
 the body of their great leader. Then, on a dark 
 and gloomy night, with the cross leading them on 
 ward, and unspeakable grief in their hearts, they 
 marched in solemn procession to the river-bank. 
 Not a word was heard save the low chanting of 
 the priest. The very voices of Nature seemed to 
 be hushed, and only the steady, unceasing surge 
 of the sullen waters filled the air with its low, 
 murmuring sounds. 
 
 10. "Thus they reached a tongue of land jut 
 ting out into the river, and forcing it to narrow its 
 channel and to deepen its bed, and here, in a place 
 where the waters were nineteen fathoms deep, they 
 deposited all that remained of their great chieftain, 
 to rest there, safe from the scent of brutes and the 
 passions of men, till his soul was to reawaken on 
 the banks of a pure river of water of life. Thus 
 the discoverer of the Mississippi sleeps beneath 
 
JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS. 15 
 
 its waters, adding another mystery to the many 
 that give the Hidden River such charms in the 
 eyes of philosophers and historians." 
 
 Romance of History. 
 
 III. 
 JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS. 
 
 1. NEARLY one hundred years had gone by 
 since the discovery of Columbus before the Eng 
 lish made any attempt to form a settlement in 
 America. In the year 1585 a ship-load of men 
 were sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh, in part to 
 found a colony and in part to search for gold. 
 They landed on Roanoke Island, in Albemarle 
 Sound, on the coast of North Carolina. But they 
 proved to be a faint-hearted people, for the next 
 year they all returned home. In 1587 Sir Walter 
 sent another expedition to the same point, and 
 the foundation of a city was laid. When search 
 was made for the settlers a year later they could 
 not be found, and to this day their fate is un 
 known, but it is supposed that they were mur 
 dered by the Indians. Some eighteen years later 
 a more successful enterprise was formed, and the 
 first permanent settlement was effected. 
 
16 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 2. "On December 19, 1606, three small vessels 
 glide down the river Thames, spreading their sails 
 for a voyage across the Atlantic. There are two 
 hundred and five persons on board the vessel. 
 They are leaving England to found a state in a 
 wilderness thousands of miles away. Of the par 
 ty, four are carpenters, twelve laborers, and forty- 
 eight gentlemen, who look upon labor as a degrad 
 ing occupation. One of the gentlemen is Captain 
 John Smith, who is not thirty years of age, but 
 who has had an adventurous life. He was born 
 only a short distance from where Dr. Wycliffe 
 lived, in 1576. 
 
 3. " When he was a school-boy he had such a 
 longing to be a sailor that he sold his books and 
 satchel to get money enough to go to sea ; but 
 just then his father died, and left him a good deal 
 of money, and he concluded to remain in England 
 and be a merchant. He was a headstrong boy, 
 and so wild and reckless that his friends were 
 glad when he entered the service of Lord Wil- 
 loughby, who sent him to France with his son 
 Penguin. He did not get on very well with his 
 patron, who soon dismissed him, giving him money 
 enough to get back to England ; but John, instead 
 of going home, enlisted with the Dutch to fight 
 the Spaniards." 
 
 4. After being shipwrecked on his return to 
 
JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS. 17 
 
 England, he was introduced by Mr. David Hume 
 to King James. As the king had nothing for .him 
 to do, he built a hut in the forest, and began to 
 study military science, that he might become a 
 general. Discontented with this life, he sailed for 
 Germany, to serve the emperor in fighting the 
 Turks. In France he is robbed of all his money. 
 On his way to Italy he is thrown overboard by the 
 Pilgrims on the ship, who regarded John as a 
 Jonah, because he was a heretic. But he swam 
 ashore and joined the " Fiery Legion " of the Aus 
 trian army. 
 
 5. After several duels and hand-to-hand fights 
 with the Turks, he was at last captured and sent 
 by a pasha to the shore of the Black Sea, where 
 he is set at thrashing wheat, with an iron collar 
 riveted about his neck. When one day the pasha 
 rode to see him he was thrashing with his flail. 
 The Turk cut him with his whip, and Smith re 
 turned the compliment by giving the Turk a 
 whack on the head with his flail. Then he sprang 
 upon the Turk s horse, and after riding for four 
 teen days reached the Russian frontier, and made 
 good his escape. After again fighting the Span 
 iards, he embraces this opportunity to seek his 
 fortunes in the New World. 
 
 6. " On April 26, 1607, the vessels enter the 
 Chesapeake Bay and anchor under a point of land 
 
18 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 which the colonists call Point Comfort. The In 
 dians gaze upon the vessels with wonder. Captain 
 Newport quiets their fears, and makes them pres 
 ents. Captain Smith is sent to open friendly in 
 tercourse with the great chief of the Indians. He 
 finds the chief wearing a crown of deer-horns, col 
 ored red, with two eagle s feathers in his hair, and 
 a piece of copper dangling on one side of his head. 
 His body is painted crimson and his face blue. 
 The chief receives him courteously, smoking a 
 pipe, and then handing it to Captain Smith. 
 
 7. "The ships sail up a noble river, which 
 Captain Newport names James, in honor of the 
 king. He comes to a beautiful island, where he 
 selects a place for a town, erects houses and a fort, 
 and names it Jamestown, the first permanent Eng 
 lish settlement in the new home of liberty. The 
 colonists go ashore. The gentlemen are unaccus 
 tomed to hardship, nor are they used to labor. 
 The summer sun blazes in the heavens. Their 
 provisions are damaged ; the water is unwhole 
 some. Fever sets in, and in a few days nearly 
 every man, excepting the laborers, is down with 
 fever. Four die in a single night. The governor, 
 Edward Wingfield, is a selfish, grasping man, who 
 has come to the New World to amass wealth. He 
 reserves all the choice things for himself, and 
 raises a quarrel between himself and his captains, 
 
JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS. 19 
 
 who make a prisoner of him, and appoint John 
 Ratclrffe in his place. 
 
 8. "The provisions are nearly exhausted, and 
 Captain Smith, with six men, goes in a boat to 
 purchase corn from the Indians. A conflict takes 
 place, in which three Indians are killed. They 
 are compelled to bring to the boats of Captain 
 Smith a large quantity of corn, with turkeys, 
 ducks, and venison. Smith leaves his large boat, 
 and, with two soldiers, ascends the Chickahominy 
 in a canoe. His two companions are killed, and 
 he is taken prisoner. He tells them that the colo 
 nists have terrible weapons, and will destroy them 
 all. He writes a note to the colonists to fire their 
 cannon. 
 
 9. " The Indians arrive at Jamestown with the 
 letter, and are amazed to see that everything hap 
 pens just as Smith said it would. Their captain 
 must be a supernatural being, for he can make 
 paper talk. They bring back some gunpowder, 
 which they intend to sow in the spring, and so 
 raise their own powder. Captain Smith is taken 
 before the great chief, Powhatan, who wears a 
 dress made of raccoon-skins, with a crown of red 
 feathers. He sits upon a platform, with his two 
 daughters by his side, the oldest fifteen, the 
 youngest thirteen years of age. They bring a 
 bowl of water that he may wash his face, and a 
 
20 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 bunch of feathers for a towel. Then he has his 
 trial, and is condemned to die. An Indian rolls a 
 stone into the wigwam, and the captain s head is 
 laid upon it. Two warriors raise their clubs to 
 beat out his brains. His time has come; yet he 
 does not tremble. The Indians shall see that the 
 white man can die without a sign of fear. 
 
 10. " The youngest girl by the side of the great 
 chief gazes upon the scene. Her heart is in com 
 motion. A bound, and she is bending over him, 
 shielding him from the clubs ready to descend 
 upon his skull. i Do not kill him ! do not kill 
 him ! The chief loves his daughter, and for her 
 sake spares the captain s life, and sends twelve 
 warriors to conduct him in safety to Jamestown. 
 Captain Smith finds the colony divided. There 
 are forty persons in all, but half of them have 
 seized the vessel in the James, and are abandoning 
 the place, intending to sail to England. 
 
 11. "Captain Smith loads a cannon and aims 
 it at the vessel. * Return, or I will sink you ! 
 The conspirators, awed by the command, return 
 to the shore, and at the last moment the colony 
 is saved from dissolution. Pocahontas is their 
 friend. She comes often to town, bringing pro 
 visions. The Indians who come with her learn to 
 respect the man who has no fear of death. In a 
 short time a great boat filled with white people 
 
JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS. 21 
 
 will come from the sea/ he says to them, and in a 
 few weeks Captain Newport sails up the James, 
 with one hundred and twenty immigrants. Now 
 the brave man is a prophet ; he can tell what is 
 going to happen, and they stand in fear of him. 
 The new-comers are nearly all gentlemen, who 
 despise labor, and have come expecting to find 
 gold as plentiful as in Peru, 
 
 12. "The gentlemen are idlers, but Captain 
 Smith compels them to work. Some of them are 
 terribly profane, and he makes a law that for 
 every oath they utter they shall have a canful of 
 cold water poured down their backs. He discovers 
 that the chief, Powhatan, though professing friend 
 ship, is conspiring against the colony, and resolves 
 to seize him ; but two worthless fellows flee to 
 Powhatan with information of his intentions. 
 And now Pocahontas comes with counter-informa 
 tion that her father intends to kill the English. 
 Suddenly they are surrounded by a great crowd of 
 savages. Captain Smith seizes the chief by the 
 hair, and with his pistol at the breast of the savage 
 makes him promise submission, 
 
 13. "Captain Smith has been three years in 
 Virginia. Had it not been for him, the colony 
 would have perished. He is terribly burned by 
 an explosion of gunpowder, and resolves to return 
 to England. He bids farewell to the colonists, 
 
22 
 
 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY, 
 
 some of whom are glad to be rid of a man who 
 has compelled them to labor, while others can not 
 keep back the tears when they remember how 
 his wisdom, endurance, and bravery more than 
 
 UllSt^.; I 
 
 Marriage of Pocahontas. 
 
 once have saved them from destruction. He re 
 turns to England, draws a map of his explora 
 tions, which he presents to King James, who holds 
 him in high esteem." 
 
JOHN SMITH AND POOAHONTA8. 23 
 
 14. Iii 1612, after Smith had returned to Eng 
 land, Pocahontas, for the bribe of a copper kettle, 
 was treacherously betrayed into the hands of Cap 
 tain Argall, and by him kept as a prisoner in or 
 der to obtain advantageous terms of peace with 
 Powhatan. The Indian king offered five hundred 
 bushels of corn for her ransom ; but before her re 
 lease was effected a mutual attachment sprang up 
 between her and John Rolfe, a young English 
 man, whom she afterward married, 
 
 15. Accompanied by her husband, Pocahontas 
 went to England in 1616, where she was received 
 at court with the distinction of a princess. The 
 bigoted King James was highly indignant because 
 one of his subjects had dared to marry into a royal 
 family, and absurdly feared that Rolfe might lay 
 claim to the crown of Virginia. She remained in 
 England about a year ; and when on the point of 
 returning to America with her husband, in 1617, 
 she sickened and died at Gravesend. The Lady 
 Rebecca (as she was called in England) had many 
 and sincere mourners. She left one son, Thomas 
 Rolfe, who afterward became a distinguished man 
 in Virginia, and from whom John Randolph, of 
 Roanoke, was descended. 
 
24 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 IV. 
 
 HENRY HUDSON. 
 
 1. "THE storks are building their nests on the 
 chimney-tops in Amsterdam. The spring has 
 come in its beauty. William Brewster and his 
 fellow-Pilgrims, in this year of 1609, are hard at 
 work ; but quite likely they have time to stop for 
 a few moments 011 this 25th day of May, to take 
 a look at a vessel, the Half-Moon, which is just 
 starting for a long voyage, in search of a new route 
 to China. Henry Hudson, an Englishman, Cap 
 tain John Smith s friend, is skipper. He stands 
 upon the deck issuing orders. The sailors bid 
 good-by to their friends, and the Half-Moon 
 slowly moves away. 
 
 2. "The winds are fair, and in less than a 
 month Captain Hudson is at Cape North; but 
 there he encounters terrible storms. The air is 
 thick with mist. There are dense fogs, and ice 
 fields block his way. He is not a man, however, 
 to turn back at once to Amsterdam ; but presses 
 on westward, loses his foremast in a fearful storm, 
 reaches the Banks of Newfoundland, where the 
 crew catch a great supply of fish, and on July 
 17th he enters Penobscot Bay. From there he 
 sails south, and drops anchor in Chesapeake Bay, 
 
HE NET HUDSON. 
 
 in Delaware Bay, at Sandy Hook, and at the 
 mouth of the great North River of the New Neth 
 erlands the Hudson. 
 
 3c " The Indians put out in their canoes from 
 the shores, come on board the ship, bringing to 
 bacco, corn, and bear 
 skins, which they gladly 
 exchange for knives and 
 trinkets. The next day 
 Captain Hudson sends a 
 party of sailors on shore, 
 where they find a great 
 company of Indians, who 
 give them tobacco and 
 dried currants. The next 
 day Captain Hudson sails 
 through the Narrows, 
 
 and finds himself in a beautiful and spacious har 
 bor. He sends a boat to the shore ; but suddenly 
 the Indians let their arrows fly, and John Coleman, 
 one of the sailors, is killed. His comrades bury 
 the body on a point of land, which they call Cole- 
 man s Point. 
 
 4. "On the 12th of September the Half-Moon 
 begins her voyage up the great river. The In 
 dians, astonished at the sight, come around the 
 ship in great numbers, bringing corn and tobacco, 
 and making signs for knives and beads. Two 
 
 Henry Hudson. 
 
26 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 days later the ship is amid the Highlands, and 
 the sailors look out upon the lofty mountains that 
 remind them of the Rhine. 
 
 5. "On September 18th Captain Hudson goes 
 ashore near the present village of Castleton, to 
 visit the great chief of the region, who has seven 
 teen wives, and who has corn and beans enough to 
 lead three ships like the Half -Moon. The chief 
 gives him a dinner of baked dog, and a dish of 
 pigeons, which the squaws place before them in 
 wooden bowls painted red. The chief would 
 like to have him stay on shore overnight ; and 
 when he discovers that the captain is about to 
 return to the ship, he orders his warriors to 
 break their arrows and throw them in the fire, 
 to let him know that no harm shall come to 
 him. For supper they have pumpkins, grapes, 
 and plums. 
 
 6. "The Half-Moon makes her way to Al 
 bany, where, finding that the ship can go no 
 farther, Captain Hudson sends a party in boats to 
 explore the river He makes a feast to the Indian 
 chiefs on board the ship, giving them brandy. 
 One drinks so much that he becomes intoxicated, 
 and rolls upon the deck ; the others, not knowing 
 what to make of it, leap in their canoes and hasten 
 ashore ; but return, bringing presents, and are much 
 pleased to find the chief has come to life again, and 
 
HENRY HUDSON. 27 
 
 who is anxious to stay with the white men, who 
 have such strong water. 
 
 7. " Little does Captain Hudson think that at 
 that moment Samuel Champlain is only a few 
 miles distant, exploring the shores of the lake 
 which bears his name, and that, after a century 
 has rolled aw^ay, the great battle for supremacy 
 between France and England will be fiercely waged 
 along its peaceful shores. Retracing his course, 
 Captain Hudson drops anchor in Haverstraw Bay, 
 where an Indian, running his canoe under the stern 
 of the vessel, climbs into the cabin- window, and 
 steals Captain Hudson s clothes ; but the mate see 
 ing him, seizes a musket and shoots him. The In 
 dians on the ship, amazed at the lightning, the 
 smoke, and the roar of the gun, leap like frogs 
 into the water, and swim for their boats. 
 
 8. " Captain Hudson sends a boat filled with 
 sailors to recover the stolen goods. One of the 
 Indians in the water lays hold of the boat to 
 upset it, but a sailor chops off his hand, and the 
 Indian sinks to rise no more. The next day hun 
 dreds of Indians come in their canoes to attack 
 the ship, but Captain Hudson brings a cannon to 
 bear upon them. There is a flash, a roar, a boat 
 smashed, and those in it killed or wounded. The 
 others flee in consternation before the white man s 
 thunder and lightning. 
 
28 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 9. " After a little while two canoes filled with 
 savages put off from the shore and approach the 
 ship rapidly ; but there conies a second flash, and 
 a rattle of musketry. One of the boats is riddled 
 by the shot, and the poor creatures go down one 
 by one, while those in the other canoe pull for the 
 shore. They are powerless before the strangers. 
 The Half -Moon reaches the sea, spreads her sails, 
 and on November 7th casts anchor in Dartmouth 
 Harbor, England, whence Captain Hudson sends 
 an account of his voyage to Holland; but King 
 James will not permit him to sail thither. The 
 king is jealous of the Dutch. Henry Hudson 
 is an Englishman, and no Englishman shall be 
 permitted to aid them in making new discoveries 
 in the Western world. 
 
 10. "The next year, 1610, Henry Hudson 
 was sent out by an association of gentlemen, and 
 in that voyage discovered the great bay at the 
 north, called Hudson s Bay, where he wintered. 
 In the spring of 1611 he endeavored to complete 
 his discoveries, but, his provisions failing, he was 
 obliged to relinquish the attempt and make his 
 way homeward. Going out of the straits from the 
 bay, he threatened to set one or t\vo of his muti 
 nous crew on shore. These, joined by others, en 
 tered his cabin by night, pinioned his arms behind 
 him, and with his sons, and seven of the sick and 
 
MASSASOIT. 29 
 
 most infirm on board, he was put into a shallop 
 and set adrift. He was never heard of afterward." 
 
 C. 0. Coffin. 
 
 V. 
 MASSASOIT. 
 
 1. UPON the advent of the Pilgrims in 1620, 
 Eastern Massachusetts was inhabited by an Al 
 gonquin tribe known as the Wampanoags, whose 
 chief ruler was Massasoit. For some time sickness 
 had prevailed to such an extent among the Indians 
 along the coast that they all moved farther inland. 
 For this reason the Pilgrims found the land de 
 serted, and no one to dispute their possession. 
 
 2. During the winter, while nearly the whole 
 colony were prostrate, and death was busy with 
 its victims, the guards were alarmed at the ap 
 proach of an Indian. Disposed at first to regard 
 him as an enemy, they were reassured by his 
 friendly signs, and he advanced, crying out, 
 "Welcome, Englishmen! " This proved to be Sa- 
 moset, one of the subjects of Massasoit, and before 
 the winter was over he proved his friendship by 
 bringing fresh venison to the almost starving peo 
 ple. 
 
30 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 3. In the spring, at his instance, Governor 
 Bradford sent a pressing invitation to Massasoit to 
 pay them a visit, and afc last the invitation was 
 accepted. At the appointed day the Indian king 
 made his appearance with a retinue of warriors, 
 but for a long time, through fear and distrust, 
 they kept within the shade of the forest. At length 
 the Indians were reassured by the representations 
 of Samoset, and the king, accompanied by his 
 principal chiefs, advanced for the interview. He 
 was met half-way by Governor Bradford, accom 
 panied by Miles Standish, and, escorted by a drum 
 and fife, they took their way to the council-cham 
 ber at Plymouth. 
 
 4. Here a feast had been prepared for them, 
 and the Indians hearts were made glad by the 
 bountiful repast, and by the presents which each 
 received. Before returning, the preliminaries of a 
 treaty had been discussed, and a day appointed 
 for its ratification. Nothing occurred to mar the 
 pleasant relations between them, and a solemn 
 treaty was made, which confirmed the Pilgrims in 
 the title to their lands, and put an end to their 
 fears. 
 
 5. This treaty continued in force as long as 
 Massasoit lived, and the contracting parties often 
 had an opportunity to perform essential service to 
 each other. Until their first harvest was ready, 
 
MASSAS01T. 31 
 
 starvation frequently stared the settlers in the 
 face, but it was repeatedly averted by presents 
 from Samoset and other Indians, who almost made 
 their home among their English friends. 
 
 6. In the autumn news was brought that Mas- 
 sasoit w r as stricken with a grievous fever and was 
 nigh unto death. At once Edward Winslow and 
 two attendants set out to his relief. They .found 
 the king tossing on a bed of un tanned skins in a 
 little hut on the hill-side. The September day was 
 nearly as hot as July, but yet the hut was shut 
 up as much as possible, and the air inside was 
 rendered stifling by a multitude who had as 
 sembled to assist the pow-wows or priests in 
 driving away the evil spirit. The lips of the 
 sufferer were parched, and he rolled his eyes in 
 delirium. 
 
 7. At once Winslow commenced operations. 
 He cleared the hut of all but one attendant. Then 
 he let in the fresh air of heaven, and cleansed 
 the patient of the filth that had been allowed to 
 accumulate. Then moistening the parched lips 
 with water, he administered some simple medi 
 cine, and the patient fell into a grateful slumber. 
 In the morning he awoke weak, but refreshed, and 
 in his right mind. Comprehending the situation, 
 he placed himself unreservedly in the hands of 
 Winslow, and again closed his eyes. Hour by 
 
32 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 hour he improved, and at the end of three days he 
 was able to be up and walk about. 
 
 8. His gratitude to Winslow was without 
 bounds, and the whole tribe were anxious to es 
 cort their best friend back to Plymouth. Massa- 
 soit exclaimed, " Now I know the English are true 
 friends " ; and, as long as he lived, the struggling 
 settlers had substantial proofs of his gratitude and 
 friendship. 
 
 9. The relations between the whites and the 
 Indians, so happily begun, unfortunately were not 
 established in other parts of the New England 
 colonies ; but even when a bloody war raged in 
 Connecticut between the settlers and the Pequots, 
 the Plymouth Colony was carefully guarded from 
 attacks by the vigilance of the friendly Wampa- 
 noags. 
 
 VI. 
 
 ROGER WILLIAMS. 
 
 1. ROGER WILLIAMS, the apostle of toleration, 
 was born in Wales, in 1599, and was educated at 
 Oxford. He became a minister in the Church of 
 England, but, on account of his views of religious 
 liberty, he was obliged to leave the Church of 
 
ROGER WILLIAMS. 
 
 33 
 
 England and become a non-conformist, like the 
 Puritans. At the age of thirty-two, in the year 
 1631, he came to Boston, a few months after the 
 arrival of Winthrop and his colony. He, like the 
 rest of the Puritans, fled from English persecution. 
 But he differed with the Puritans in the colonies. 
 
 2. They held that the civil authorities had a 
 right to command the opinions of their citizens. 
 Roger Williams, on the other hand, though mild 
 in disposition and manner, openly expressed his 
 conviction that the civil magistrate should restrain 
 bad conduct and crime, but never control opinion. 
 So, finding himself looked upon with suspicion by 
 the authorities, Williams left 
 
 the Massachusetts colony, and 
 joined the settlement at Ply 
 mouth. Here he remained 
 two years, and by his charity, 
 virtues, and purity of life 
 won the hearts of all. 
 
 3. The people of Salem 
 called him to be their minis 
 ter; and now, having an op 
 portunity to speak in the pub 
 lic ear, he was in constant trouble with the 
 clergy. The magistrates insisted on the pres 
 ence of every man at public worship. Williams 
 opposed this law. To compel men to unite with 
 
34 STORIES OF OUR COUNTHY. 
 
 those of different opinions lie regarded as an open 
 violation of their natural rights ; and to drag 
 them to public worship against their will he 
 thought was like requiring hypocrisy. Both the 
 magistrates and the clergy were alarmed, and 
 they began to denounce Williams. The more 
 severely they opposed him, the more earnest did 
 he become in urging his views of toleration, until 
 he himself became somewhat intolerant. 
 
 4. " He denounced King James as a liar. He 
 declared that the settlers had no right to the lands 
 they occupied ; that these belonged to the Indians. 
 He raised a tumult about the Red Cross of St. 
 George, which the colonists still carried in the na 
 tional banner. At last he boldly denounced the 
 churches of New England as anti-Christian, and 
 excommunicated such of his parishioners as held 
 intercourse with them. The magistrates became 
 greatly irritated, and, on a charge of treasonable 
 conduct, Williams was arraigned before the Gen 
 eral Court at Boston. There he stood alone in de 
 fense of his noble principles, for his congregation, 
 and even the wife of his bosom, could not justify 
 all his words and acts. 
 
 5. "Yet he was unmoved, and declared him 
 self ready to be bound and banished, and even to 
 die in New England, rather than to renounce the 
 truth that shed its light on his mind and con- 
 
ROGER WILLIAMS. 35 
 
 science. Every effort to reduce him from his er 
 rors was unavailing, and he was ordered to leave 
 
 o/ 
 
 the colony within six weeks. He obtained leave 
 to remain until the rigors of winter had passed ; 
 but, continuing to express his peculiar views, the 
 court determined to ship him to England imme 
 diately. Hearing that a warrant had been issued 
 for his arrest, he set out, with a few followers, for 
 the vast, unexplored wilds, of America. 
 
 6. " In the midst of deep snows and biting 
 winds they journeyed toward Narragansett Bay. 
 1 For fourteen weeks he was severely tossed in a 
 bitter season, not knowing what bread or bed did 
 mean. At last he found refuse with the Indian 
 
 o 
 
 sachem Massasoit, whom he had known at Plym 
 outh ; and in the spring, under a grant from that 
 sachem, commenced a settlement at Seekonk, on 
 the Pawtucket River, just within the limits of the 
 Plymouth Colony. Many of the ministers of that 
 colony wrote friendly letters to him, for he was 
 personally beloved by all. Then Winslow, -who 
 was the governor of the colony, wrote a letter to 
 Williams, in which he suggested his removal be 
 yond the limits of the colony to prevent trouble. 
 
 7. " Williams heeded the advice of Winslow, 
 and entering a canoe, with five others, paddled 
 down the Seekonk or Pawtucket, almost to its 
 mouth, and landed on a bare rock upon the west 
 
36 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 side of the river, and commenced a new settlement. 
 From the principal Indian chiefs he obtained a 
 grant for this purpose. He named his new set 
 tlement Providence, l in commemoration of God s 
 providence to him in his distress. i I desired, he 
 said, < it might be for a shelter for persons dis 
 tressed for conscience. And so it became, for 
 men of every creed there found perfect freedom 
 of thought. 
 
 8. " Although every rood of land belonged to 
 Williams by right of deed from the Narragansett 
 sachem, not a foot of it did he reserve to himself. 
 He practiced his holy precepts, and gave away 
 
 his lands and other estates to them that he thought 
 
 t 
 
 most in want, until he gave it all away. Nor was 
 there any distinction made among the settlers, 
 1 whether servants or strangers ; each had an 
 equal voice in the affairs of government. The 
 Massachusetts people believed that the fugitives 
 must perish politically, yet they thrived wonder 
 fully, and the impress of that first system is yet 
 seen upon the political character of Rhode Island. 
 And the founder of this colony earned a character 
 which was described by those opposed to him as 
 one of the most distinguished men that ever lived, 
 a most pious and heavenly-minded soul. 
 
 9. " The Christian charity of Roger Williams 
 was remarkably displayed after his banishment 
 
KING PHILIP. 37 
 
 from Massachusetts. In 1637 the Pequots tried 
 to induce the Narragansetts to join them in a gen 
 eral war upon the whites, and particularly against 
 the Massachusetts people. Williams informed the 
 latter of the fact, and they desired his mediation. 
 So, forgetting the many injuries received from 
 those who now needed his favor, he set out on a 
 stormy day, in a poor canoe, upon the rough bay, 
 for the cabin of Canonicus. The Pequots and 
 Narragansetts were assembled in council. The 
 former threatened him with death, yet he remained 
 there three days and nights. God wonderfully 
 preserved me, he said, and helped me to break 
 in pieces the designs of the enemy. 7 Notwith 
 standing this great service, the Massachusetts court 
 refused to revoke Williams s sentence of banish 
 ment." 
 
 Lossing. 
 
 VIL 
 . KING PHILIP. 
 
 1. MASSASOIT died about the year 1653, at an 
 advanced age, having been from their first arrival 
 the friend of the English, though he would never 
 consent to adopt Christianity. About that time 
 his two sons Wamsutta and Metacom, came to 
 
38 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 Plymouth, and in open court professed their friend 
 ship for the English, and desired that names 
 should be given them. Wamsutta received the 
 name of Alexander, and Metacom was named 
 Philip. Alexander succeeded his father, but, upon 
 accusation that he had made war upon certain 
 friendly Indians, he was seized and brought to 
 Plymouth. He died within three days. 
 
 2. Philip, the younger brother, succeeded Alex 
 ander, and appeared at Plymouth to profess his 
 friendship, and obtain recognition as sachem of the 
 Wampanoags, that being the chief tribe under his 
 rule. On account of the treatment of Alexander, 
 distrust had deepened between the English and 
 Indians. It became evident that Philip was or 
 ganizing an alliance among the various tribes, and 
 preparing for war. In 1675 he was summoned to 
 appear at Plymouth and submit to an examination 
 in regard to his conduct. And here comes in the 
 name of an Indian who, whether designedly or 
 not, caused the outbreak of hostilities. 
 
 3. John Sassamon belonged to a family of 
 Eliot s "praying Indians." He renounced Chris 
 tianity and went over to King Philip; then re 
 pented and was received back by Eliot. Still he 
 visited Philip, and reported what he saw and 
 heard to the English. About the time Philip 
 was cited to appear at Plymouth, Sassamon made 
 
KING PHILIP. jc* 39 
 
 one of his visits to the Wampanoags. It was his 
 last. His body was found thrust through a hole 
 in the ice, with his neck broken, and his hat and 
 gun near by, as if he had committed suicide. A jury 
 decided that he had been murdered, and three prom 
 inent Indians were seized, convicted, and hanged. 
 
 4. The young men of their tribe instantly re 
 taliated by an attack upon an English settlement, 
 which was burned, and in and near it several per 
 sons were slain. Thus began King Philip s War. 
 It lasted over a year, and not one open battle took 
 place. Everywhere in the out-settlements, and 
 near the villages, the savages pounced upon their 
 victims, or shot them from ambush, and all New 
 England was kept in terror. 
 
 5. Philip, on his side, carried on this war with 
 single-handed energy and talent. He had to watch 
 and resist, openly and secretly, all who would not 
 join him, besides the multitudes who deserted, be 
 trayed, and opposed him. The New Hampshire 
 tribes mostly withdrew from the contest. The 
 praying Indians, of whom there were thousands, 
 either remained neutral, or turned against their 
 own race. One of Philip s own tribes forsook him 
 in his misfortunes; and the Pequots and Mohe- 
 gans of Connecticut kept the field against him 
 from the very first clay of the war to the last 
 
 6. Philip is said to have wept over this dis- 
 
40 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 tressed condition of things. He relented, perhaps, 
 savage as he was, at the idea of disturbing the long 
 amity which his father had preserved. But the 
 die was cast, and, though Philip never smiled after 
 that memorable hour, his whole soul was bent 
 upon the business before him. Day nor night 
 scarcely was there rest for his limbs nor sleep for 
 his eyes. The strength of his own dominions was 
 about six hundred warriors, ready and more than 
 ready for the war-cry. His situation during the 
 last few months of the war was so deplorable, and 
 yet his courage was so great, that we can only look 
 upon him with pity and admiration. 
 
 7. His success for some time had been tremen 
 dous, but the tide began to turn. The whole 
 power of the colonies was in the field, aided by 
 scouts of his own race. The mere physical en^ 
 durance of Philip was almost incredible It is by 
 his hair-breadth escapes, indeed, that he is chiefly 
 visible during the war. Occasionally the English 
 come close upon him ; he starts up like a roused 
 lion, plunges into the river or leaps the precipice ; 
 and nothing more is seen of him for months. 
 
 8. Only a few weeks after the war commenced, 
 lie was surrounded in the great Pocasset Swamp, 
 and obliged to escape from his vigilant enemies by 
 rafting himself, with his best men, over the Taun- 
 ton River, while their women and children were 
 
KING PHILIP. 
 
 41 
 
 sm 
 
42 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 left to be captured. On his return to the same 
 neighborhood the next season, a captive guided 
 the English to his encampment. Philip fled in such 
 haste as to leave his kettle upon the fire ; twenty 
 of his comrades were overtaken and killed, and he 
 himself escaped to the swamp. 
 
 9. Here his uncle was shot soon afterward, at 
 his side. Upon the next day Captain Church, dis 
 covering an Indian seated on a fallen tree, raised 
 his musket and deliberately aimed at him. " It is 
 one of our own party," whispered a savage, who 
 crept behind him. Church lowered his gun, and 
 the stranger turned his head. It was Philip him 
 self, musing, perhaps, upon the fate that awaited 
 him. Church fired, but his royal enemy had al 
 ready fied down the bank. He escaped from a 
 close and bloody skirmish a few hours afterward. 
 
 10. Philip was now a desolate and desperate 
 man, the last prince of an ancient race, without 
 subjects, without territory, accused by his allies, 
 betrayed by his comrades, hunted like a spent deer 
 by blood-hounds, in daily danger of starving, and 
 with no shelter day or night for his head. All his 
 chief counselors and best friends had been killed. 
 His brother was slain in the Pocasset Sw^amp ; his 
 uncle was shot down at his own side ; and his wife 
 and son were captured. 
 
 11. At the head of a few followers who still 
 
KING PHILIP. 43 
 
 remained alive and continued faithful to him, he 
 returned to his home at Mount Hope. But the 
 white forces under Captain Church closely fol 
 lowed him, and gave him but a few hours to rest. 
 At their approach he took refuge in a neighboring 
 swamp, but his hiding-place was soon discovered, 
 and was completely surrounded. As the little 
 army of Captain Church closed in, Philip was seen 
 watching one of the entrances to the swamp. He 
 was shot, it is said, by one of the friendly Indians 
 which constituted a portion of the invading force. 
 
 12. Philip was far from being a mere barbarian 
 in his manners and feelings. There is not an in 
 stance to be met with of his having maltreated a 
 captive in any way, even while the English were 
 selling his own slaves abroad, or torturing and 
 hanging them at home. The famous Mrs. Kow- 
 landson speaks of meeting with him during her 
 doleful captivity. He invited her to call at his 
 lodge ; and, when she did so, bade her sit down, 
 and asked her if she would smoke. On meeting 
 her again, he requested her to make some garment 
 for his child, and for this he paid her a shilling. 
 
 13. Philip did and endured enough to immor 
 talize him as a warrior, a statesman, and we may 
 add a high-minded and noble patriot. He fought 
 and fell miserably, indeed, but gloriously the 
 avenger of his own household, the worshiper of 
 
44 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 his own gods, the guardian of his own honor, a 
 martyr for the soil which was his birthplace, and 
 for the proud liberty which was his birthright. 
 
 Thatcher. 
 
 VIII. 
 THE INDIAN BIBLE. 
 
 1. WHAT a task would you think it, even with 
 a long lifetime before you, were you bidden to 
 copy every chapter, and verse, and word in the 
 family Bible ! Would not this be a very heavy 
 toil ? But if the task were, not to write off the 
 English Bible, but to learn a language utterly un 
 like all other tongues, a language which hitherto 
 had never been learned ; to learn this new variety 
 of speech, and then to translate the Bible into it, 
 so carefully that not one idea throughout the holy 
 book should be changed what would induce you 
 to undertake this toil ? Yet this was what the 
 apostle Eliot did. 
 
 2. It was a mighty work for a man, now grow 
 ing old, to take upon himself. And what earthly 
 reward did he expect from it ? None ; no reward 
 on earth. But he believed that the red-men were 
 the descendants of those lost tribes of Israel of 
 
THE INDIAN BIBLE. 
 
 45 
 
 whom history has been able to tell us nothing for 
 thousands of years. Sometimes, while thus at 
 work, he was visited by learned men, who desired 
 to know what literary work Mr. Eliot had in 
 hand. They, like himself, had been bred in the 
 studious cloisters of a university. They had grown 
 gray in study ; their eyes were bleared with por 
 ing over print and mauu- 
 script by the light of the 
 midnight lamp. 
 
 3. And yet how much 
 had they left unlearned! 
 Mr. Eliot would put into 
 their hands some of the 
 pages which he had been 
 
 writing ; and behold ! the 
 
 gray -headed men stammered 
 over the long, strange words, 
 like a child in his first attempts to read. Then 
 would the apostle call to him an Indian boy, one 
 of his pupils, and show him the manuscript which 
 had so puzzled the learned Englishman. " Read 
 this, my child," said he ; " these are some brethren 
 of mine, who would fain hear the sound of the 
 native tongue. 7 
 
 4. Then would the Indian boy cast his eyes 
 over the mysterious page, and read it so skillfully 
 that it sounded like wild music. It seemed as if 
 
4(5 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 the forest leaves were singing in the ears of Ms 
 auditors, and as if the roar of distant streams were 
 poured through the young Indian s voice. Such 
 were the sounds amid which the language of the 
 red -man had been formed ; and they were still 
 heard to echo in it. The lesson being over, Mr. 
 Eliot would give the Indian boy an apple or a 
 cake, and bid him leap forth into the open air, 
 which his free nature loved. The apostle was 
 kind to children, and even shared in their sports 
 sometimes. 
 
 5. Occasionally, perhaps, the governor and some 
 of the councilors came to visit Mr. Eliot. Per 
 chance they were seeking some method to get the 
 better of the forest people. They inquired how 
 they might obtain possession of such and such a 
 tract of rich land. Or they talked of making the 
 Indians their servants ; as if God had destined 
 them for perpetual bondage to the more powerful 
 white man. Perhaps, too, some warlike captain, 
 dressed in his buff coat, with a corslet beneath it, 
 accompanied the governor and councilors. Lay 
 ing his hand upon his sword-hilt, he would de 
 clare that the only method of dealing with the 
 red-men was to meet them with the sword drawn 
 and the musket presented. 
 
 6. But the apostle resisted both the craft of 
 the politician and the fierceness of the warrior. 
 
THE INDIAN BIBLE. 47 
 
 " Treat these sons of the forest as men and breth 
 ren," he would say ; " and let us endeavor to make 
 them Christians. Their forefathers were of that 
 chosen race whom God delivered from Egyptian 
 bondage. Perchance he has destined us to deliver 
 the children from the more cruel bondage of igno 
 rance and idolatry. Chiefly for this end, it may 
 be, we were directed across the ocean." 
 
 7. Impressed by such thoughts as these, he 
 sat writing in the great chair when the pleasant 
 summer breeze came in through the open case 
 ment ; and also when the fire of forest logs sent 
 up its blaze and smoke, through the broad stone 
 chimney into the wintry air. Before the earliest 
 bird sang in the morning the apostle s lamp was 
 kindled ; and at midnight his weary head was not 
 yet upon its pillow. At length, leaning back in 
 his great chair, he could say to himself, with a 
 holy triumph, " The work is finished ! " 
 
 8. King Philip s War began in 1675, and ended 
 with the death of Philip in the following year. 
 Philip was a proud, fierce Indian, whom Mr. Eliot 
 had vainly endeavored to convert to the Christian 
 faith. It must have been a great anguish to the 
 apostle to hear of mutual slaughter and outrage 
 between his own countrymen and those for whom 
 he felt the affection of a father. A few of the 
 praying Indians joined the followers of King Philip. 
 
48 STORIES Of OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 A greater number f ought on the side of the Eng 
 lish. In the course of the war, the little commu 
 nity of red people whom Mr. Eliot had begun to 
 civilize was scattered. But his zeal did not grow 
 cold ; and only about five years before his death 
 he took great pains in preparing a new edition of 
 the Indian Bible. 
 
 Hawthorne. 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE THREE REGICIDES. 
 
 1. NEW HAVEN became famous as the "city of 
 refuge " for three of the English regicides, or judges 
 who condemned Charles I to death. They were 
 Generals Goffe and Whalley, and Colonel Dixwell. 
 Whalley was descended from a very ancient fam 
 ily, and was a relative of Oliver Cromwell ; Goffe 
 was the son of a Puritan divine, and married a 
 daughter of Whalley ; Dixwell was a wealthy 
 country gentleman of Kent, and was a member of 
 Parliament in 1654. On the restoration of Charles 
 II to the throne of his father, many of the judges 
 were arrested, thirty were condemned to death, 
 and ten were executed. The three above named 
 escaped to New England. Goffe and Whalley ar- 
 
THE THREE REGICIDES. 49 
 
 rived at Boston in July, 1660, and took up their 
 residence in Cambridge. 
 
 2. Feeling insecure there, they removed to New 
 Haven, where their unaffected piety won for them 
 the confidence and esteem of the people, and par 
 ticularly of the minister, Mr. Davenport. Their 
 apparent freedom from danger lasted but a few 
 days. The proclamation of Charles, offering a large 
 reward for their apprehension, and the news that 
 pursuers were on the scent reached them at the 
 same time, and they were obliged to flee. They 
 took shelter in a rocky cavern, on the top of West 
 Eock, where they were supplied daily with food 
 by their friends. They shifted their place of abode 
 from time to time, calling each locality Ebenezer, 
 and occasionally appeared publicly in New Haven. 
 On one occasion they sat under the Neck Bridge, 
 upon Mill River, w^hen their pursuers passed over, 
 and several times they came near falling into their 
 hands. The people generally favored their escape, 
 and for their lives they owed much to Mr. Daven 
 port. 
 
 3. About the time when the pursuers were ex 
 pected in New Haven, Mr. Davenport preached 
 publicly upon the text, "Take counsel, execute 
 judgment ; make thy shadow as the night in the 
 midst of noonday ; hide the outcasts ; betray not 
 him that wandereth," etc. The sermon had the 
 
50 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 effect to put the whole town upon their guard, 
 and made the people resolve on the concealment 
 of the "outcasts." The following anecdote is re 
 lated of Goffe while he was in Boston : 
 
 4. A fencing-master erected a stage, and upon 
 it he walked several days, defying any one to com 
 bat with swords. Goffe wrapped a huge cheese 
 in a napkin for a shield, and, arming himself with 
 a mop filled with dirty water from a pool, mounted 
 the stage and accepted the challenge. The fencing- 
 master attempted to drive him off, but Goffe skill 
 fully received the thrusts of his sword into the 
 cheese. At the third lunge of his antagonist Goffe 
 held the sword fast in his soft shield long enough to 
 smear the face of the fencing-master with the mop. 
 
 5. Enraged, the challenger caught up a broad 
 sword, when Goffe exclaimed, with a firm voice : 
 " Stop, sir ; hitherto, you see, I have only played 
 with you, and not attempted to harm you ; but if 
 you come at me now with a broadsword, know 
 that I will certainly take your life." Goffe s firm 
 ness alarmed the fencing-master, who exclaimed : 
 " Who can beat you ? You must be either Goffe, 
 Wh alley, or the devil, for there was no other man 
 in England could beat me ! " 
 
 6. In the autumn the regicides left New Haven 
 and went to Hadley. While there, eleven years 
 afterward, King Philip s War took place. While 
 
THE THREE REGWIDES. 51 
 
 the people of the town were in their meeting-house, 
 observing a fast, a body of Indians surrounded 
 them. The continual expectation of such an event 
 made the inhabitants always go armed to worship. 
 They were so armed on this occasion, and sallied 
 out to drive off the savages. 
 
 7. At that moment there appeared in the midst 
 of them a man of venerable aspect and singular 
 costume, who placed himself at the head of the 
 people, and by causing them to observe strict mili 
 tary tactics, enabled them to disperse the assail 
 ants. The stranger disappeared. The people be 
 lieved an angel had been sent them to lead them 
 and effect a victory. The angel \vas General Goffe. 
 Goffe and Whalley died at Had ley, and it is sup 
 posed that their bodies were secretly conveyed to 
 New Haven. In the old burying-ground in that 
 city, in the rear of the Center Church, are stones 
 which bear the initials of the regicides. 
 
 Lossing. 
 
52 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 X. 
 
 DEERFIELD AND THE ST. REGIS BELL 
 
 1. "ON the last night of February, 1704, a 
 party of French and Indians, under Major Ronville, 
 came from Canada to the little town of Deerfield, 
 in the colony of Massachusetts. The settlers had 
 been warned by the Mohawk Indians of their dan 
 ger. A stockade had been erected and sentinels 
 placed, but they had retired as morning broke, and 
 the people were waked from their sleep by the war- 
 whoop. The enemy was within the place ; no re 
 sistance was possible. Forty-seven were killed, 
 and over a hundred in number were carried off as 
 prisoners. 
 
 2. " The village was set on fire, and all the 
 buildings except one house and the church were 
 burned. In an hour after sunrise, before the few 
 who escaped could give the alarm, the stealthy 
 savages were on their return. The wretched cap 
 tives had their clothes taken from them, and no 
 food given them except nuts and acorns, and scraps 
 of dogs flesh. The weak who could not keep up 
 with the rest were killed, except such children as 
 pleased the Indians, and for them they made 
 sledges. All who could walk were forced to car 
 ry burdens. Such as reached Canada were sold as 
 
DEERFIELD AND THE ST. REGIS BELL. 53 
 
 slaves, but were kindly treated, and allowed to be 
 ransomed by their friends. 
 
 3. " Among the captives were Rev. John Wil 
 liams, the pastor of Deerfield, his wife, and five 
 children. The wife was killed by the Indians on 
 the way. Mr. Williams was released in 1706, and 
 on his return published The Redeemed Captive, 
 a narrative of his sad adventures. His wife Eu 
 nice deserves a name among the saints. She did 
 not leave her Bible behind, and the wondering 
 savage looked at her as, when they rested, she 
 turned to its pages for consolation. At last she 
 could go no farther, and sank down to die. Her 
 husband cheered her with the hope of the house 
 not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 
 
 4. " A tomahawk ended her sufferings, and her 
 husband said, i She rests in peace, in joy unspeak 
 able and full of glory. Of her children, three 
 sons became ministers of the gospel, and one daugh 
 ter, having been adopted by Christian Indians in 
 Montreal, would not leave them. She married a 
 son of the family, and when, years after, she vis 
 ited her friends in Deerfield, it was in an Indian 
 dress, which, with Indian customs, she never laid 
 aside. She cluno^ to her husband and children. 
 
 o 
 
 Others of the children of this captivity became 
 hunters and trappers." 
 
 5. To know the reason for the attack upon 
 
54: STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 Deerfield we must go back a little in history. 
 Nearly a hundred years before, French Catholic 
 missionaries obtained a foothold amono* the Iro- 
 
 o 
 
 quois, or Five Nations, and established themselves 
 in the Mohawk Valley, near the present village of 
 Fonda. The Indian name for the place was Cough- 
 newaga, by which it is now locally known. The 
 priests were pious and devoted, and their work 
 soon bore fruit. Many of the savages, especially 
 among the Mohawks, gave up the belief of their 
 fathers and espoused Christianity. Their conver 
 sion, although it did not entirely civilize, made 
 them more peacefully inclined, and quite a settle 
 ment grew up around the mission station. 
 
 6. After several years of varied success, the 
 work of the missionaries roused the jealousy of 
 the Mohawk chiefs, and persecutions commenced. 
 The ceremonies of the church were interrupted, 
 and the members of the little community were 
 subjected to all kinds of annoyances and indigni 
 ties. At last, one of the missionaries, a devoted, 
 peace-loving Christian, was set upon and murdered. 
 The other priests and their Indian converts found 
 that their only choice lay between death and flight, 
 and they resolved upon the latter. 
 
 7. The Mohawks, content with their leaving, 
 did not molest them on their journey. The exiles 
 took up their line of march down the valley to 
 
DEERFIELD AND THE ST. REGIS BELL. 55 
 
 the Hudson, tlience north to Canada by the way 
 of Lake Champlain. They found refuge among 
 the Canadian Algonquins, hereditary enemies of 
 the Iroquois. In a short time, the converted In 
 dians of both races were formed into a church, and 
 first established themselves near the Lachine Rap 
 ids, on the St. Lawrence River. A few years later 
 they moved farther up the river, and found a per 
 manent resting-place at the point where the forty- 
 fifth parallel, the boundary between the United 
 States and Canada, strikes the river. Here, in the 
 little village of St. Regis, partly in New York and 
 partly in Canada, their descendants still live. 
 
 8. Lossing thus relates the strange story of St. 
 Regis and its bell : " St. Regis is an old Indian vil 
 lage, the first upon the river St. Lawrence within the 
 territory of the United States. It contains a small 
 church built about the year 1700. When com 
 pleted, the priest informed the Indians that a bell 
 was important to their worship, and they were or 
 dered to collect furs sufficient to purchase one. 
 They obeyed, and the money was sent to France 
 for the purpose. The French and English were 
 then at war. The bell was shipped, but the vessel 
 that conveyed it fell into the hands of the Eng 
 lish, and was taken to Salem, Massachusetts, in the 
 fall of 1703. 
 
 9. " The bell was purchased for a small church 
 
56 
 
 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
DEERFIELD AND THE ST. REGIS BELL. 57 
 
 in Deerfield, on the Connecticut River, the pastor 
 of which was the Rev. Mr. Williams The priest 
 of St. Regis heard of the destination of this bell, 
 and as the Governor of Canada w T as about to send 
 out an expedition, under Major Ronville, against 
 the colonies of New England, he exhorted the In 
 dians to accompany him and get possession of it. 
 They arrived at Deerfield in the evening of Feb 
 ruary 29, 1704. During the night they attacked 
 the unsuspecting villagers, killed forty-seven, and 
 made one hundred and twelve prisoners. 
 
 1 0. " The bell was conveyed in triumph through 
 the forest to Lake Champlain, to the spot where 
 Burlington now stands, and they buried it with 
 the benedictions of Father Nicolas, the priest of 
 St. Regis, who accompanied them. Thus far they 
 had carried it, by means of timber, upon their 
 shoulders. They hastened home, and returned in 
 early spring with oxen and sled to convey the sa 
 cred bell, now doubly hallowed in their minds, to 
 its destination. 
 
 11. "The Indians of the village had never 
 heard the sound of a bell, and powerful was the 
 impression upon their minds when its deep tones, 
 louder and louder, broke the silence of the forest, 
 as it approached their village at evening, suspended 
 upon a cross-piece of timber, and rung continually 
 by the delighted carriers. It was hung in the 
 
58 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 steeple with solemn ceremony. On tlie subject of 
 this story, Mrs. Sigourney wrote her beautiful 
 poem entitled " The Bell of St. Regis," in which 
 occur these lines : 
 * Then down from the burning church they tore 
 
 The bell of tuneful sound ; 
 And on with their captive train they bore 
 That wonderful thing toward their native shore, 
 The rude Canadian bound. 
 
 12. But one sad day the bell cracked, and the 
 sweet tones were heard no more. The whole church 
 went into mourning, and its services were robbed 
 of half their solemn import. Years passed by, 
 but at length, in 1838, the situation became un 
 bearable. The bell was taken down from the stee 
 ple, and committed to a party of Indians chosen 
 and specially consecrated for the purpose. Care 
 fully was it placed upon a sledge, and with a suffi 
 cient team of horses it was taken over the rough 
 roads of Northern New York to the city of Troy. 
 
 13. It was jealously cared for by day and 
 guarded by night. Unwinking eyes kept watch 
 until the final destination was reached. The watch 
 continued until every piece of the sacred relic disap 
 peared in the flames of the bell-foundry, and equally 
 vigilant eyes watched the liquid metal as it was 
 drawn out and poured into the mold. During 
 the cooling the suspense was nearly overpowering. 
 
DEERFIELD AND THE ST. REGIS BELL. 59 
 
 But at length the black sand was thrown aside, 
 and the bell came out in its original shape, with 
 no ugly scar to mar the beauty of its tones. With 
 hearts beating in joy and triumph, the bell was 
 taken back to St. Regis, where it was met with a 
 joyous welcome. A solemn holiday was devoted 
 to its hanging in the belfry ; and, to-day, the mem 
 bers of this primitive Indian church are called 
 to their devotions by its silvery voice proclaiming 
 " the glad tidings of great joy, peace on earth and 
 good-will to men." 
 
 14. There is still another romance connected 
 with the little church of St. Regis. Its minister, 
 for many years during the second quarter of the 
 present century, was the Rev. Eleazar Williams, 
 of Indian descent, but with so little color as readily 
 to pass for a white man. Some Frenchman visit 
 ing the place noticed the great resemblance of Mr. 
 Williams to Louis XVI, the Bourbon monarch exe 
 cuted in 1794 ; and a story was at once put in circu 
 lation that he was the Dauphin, who had escaped 
 from the hands of his cruel jailers, and had found 
 refuge in the wilderness of America. A book was 
 written in support of the claims of Rev. Mr. Will 
 iams to the throne of France ; but investigation 
 showed conclusively that both the princes perished, 
 and that, were they alive, Mr. Williams had no 
 claim to their kinship. 
 
60 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY, 
 
 XI. 
 
 THE CHARTER-OAK. 
 
 1. " DURING the reign of Charles II," says 
 " Grandfather s Chair," " the American colonies 
 had but little reason to complain of harsh or ty 
 rannical treatment. But when Charles died, in 
 1685, and was succeeded by his brother James, 
 the patriarchs of New England began to tremble. 
 King James was bigoted, and was known to be of 
 an arbitrary temper ; and our forefathers felt that 
 they had no security, either for their religion or 
 their liberties. 
 
 2. "The result proved that they had reason 
 for their apprehensions. King James caused the 
 charters of all the American colonies to be taken 
 away. The old charter of Massachusetts, which 
 the people regarded as a holy thing, and as the 
 foundation of all their liberties, was declared void. 
 The colonists were no longer freemen ; they were 
 entirely dependent on the king s pleasure. At 
 first, in 1685, he appointed Joseph Dudley, a na 
 tive of Massachusetts, to be Governor of New 
 England. But, soon afterward, Sir Edmund An- 
 dros, an officer of the English army, arrived, with 
 a commission to be Governor-General of New Eng 
 land and New York 
 
THE CHARTER-OAK. 61 
 
 3. " The king had given such powers to Sir 
 Edmund Andros that there was now no liberty 
 nor scarcely any law in the colonies over which he 
 ruled. The inhabitants were not allowed to choose 
 representatives, and consequently had no voice 
 whatever in the government, nor control over 
 the measures that were adopted. The councilors 
 with whom the Governor consulted on matters of 
 state were appointed by himself. This sort of 
 government was no better than an absolute des 
 potism." 
 
 4. But Connecticut refused to give up her 
 charter, and here begins the history of the charter- 
 oak. In October, 1687, Andros went to Hartford, 
 at the head of a troop of soldiers, to demand the 
 charter. The General Court was in session, and 
 before it Andros pressed his demand, and declared 
 that the government with this charter was at an 
 end. He permitted the subject, however, to be 
 debated, and Governor Treat defended their right 
 to the charter, describing the sufferings the early 
 settlers had endured in making their home in the 
 wilderness. The charter, all this time, lay in a 
 box on the table. 
 
 5. The debate continued till evening, when 
 the candles were lighted. A large and excited 
 multitude had collected at the building. Andros 
 ordered the charter to be handed him, and reached 
 
62 STOLIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 out his hand for it. Suddenly the lights were put 
 out. The crowd shouted. Captain Wadsworth 
 
 Andros demanding the Charter of Connecticut. 
 
 seized the charter and carried it away in the dark 
 ness. There was a venerable oak in front of the 
 mansion of Samuel Wyllys, a magistrate of the 
 colony. In a cavity in the heart of this oak the 
 charter was hid. 
 
 6. " The famous charter-oak, in the city of 
 Hartford," says Lossing, "was standing in the 
 height of its glory, and estimated to be six hun- 
 
THE CHARTER-OAK. 63 
 
 ared years old, when the good Hooker and his fol 
 lowers planted the seeds of a commonwealth there. 
 It was on a slope of Wyllys s Hill. During a lull 
 in the storm at the autumnal equinox, in 184S, I 
 stood in Charter Street, sheltered by a friend s 
 umbrella, and sketched that venerable tree a 
 4 gnarled oak indeed. Its circumference, a foot 
 from the ground, was twenty -five feet. 
 
 7o " The orifice through which the charter of 
 the Commonwealth of Connecticut was thrust, on 
 the memorable night of the 31st of October, 1687, 
 was smaller at the time of my visit (scarcely ad 
 mitting my hand) than in the days of Andros, but 
 the cavity remained the same. Sixty years ago a 
 lady wrote of the charter-oak, saying : i Age seems 
 to have curtailed its branches, yet it is not ex 
 ceeded in the height of its coloring or richness of 
 its foliage. The cavity which was the asylum of 
 our charter was near the roots, and large enough 
 to admit a child. 
 
 8. " Within the space of eight years that cavity 
 has closed, as if it had fulfilled the divine purpose 
 for which the tree had been reared." On a stormy 
 night in August, 1854, the old oak was prostrated ; 
 and now almost every particle of it is in some 
 pleasing form wrought by the cunning hand of ait, 
 and cherished as a memento of a curious episode 
 m our colonial history. 
 
64: STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY, 
 
 XII. 
 
 WITCHCRAFT 
 
 1. SIR WILLIAM PIIIPPS became Governor oi 
 Massachusetts in 1692. Almost as soon as he as 
 sumed the government, he became engaged in 
 a frightful business, which might have perplexed 
 a wiser and better cultivated head than his. This 
 was the witchcraft delusion, which originated in 
 the wicked arts of a few children. They belonged 
 to the Rev. Mr. Pains, minister of Salem. These 
 children complained of being pinched and pricked 
 with pins, and otherwise tormented by the shapes 
 of men and women, who were supposed to have 
 power to haunt them invisibly, both in darkness 
 and daylight. 
 
 2. Often, in the midst of their family and 
 friends, the children would pretend to be seized 
 with strange convulsions, and would cry out that 
 the witches were afflicting them. These stories 
 spread abroad, and caused great tumult and alarm. 
 From the foundation of New England, it had been 
 the custom of the inhabitants, in matters of doubt 
 and difficulty, to look to their ministers for coun 
 sel. So they did now ; but, unfortunately, the 
 ministers and wise men were more deluded than 
 the illiterate people. Cotton Mather, a very learned 
 
WITCHCRAFT. 65 
 
 and eminent clergyman, believed that the whole 
 country was full of witches and wizards, who had 
 given up their hopes of heaven, and signed a cove 
 nant with the evil-one. 
 
 3. Nobody could be certain that his nearest 
 neighbor or most intimate friend was not guilty of 
 this imaginary crime. The number of those who 
 pretended to be afflicted by witchcraft grew daily 
 more numerous ; and they bore testimony against 
 many of the best and worthiest people. A min 
 ister, named George Burroughs, was among the 
 accused. In the months of August and Septem 
 ber, 1692, he and nineteen other innocent men and 
 women were put to death. The place of execution 
 was a high hill, on the outskirts of Salem ; so that 
 many of the sufferers, as they stood beneath the 
 gallows, could discern their habitations in the town. 
 
 4. The martyrdom of these guiltless persons 
 served only to increase the madness. The afflicted 
 now grew bolder in their accusations. Many peo 
 ple of rank and wealth were either thrown into 
 prison or compelled to flee for their lives. Among 
 these were two sons of old Simon Brad street, the 
 last of the Puritan governors. Mr. Willard, a 
 pious minister of Boston, was cried out upon as a 
 wizard in open court. Mrs. Hale, the wife of the 
 minister of Beverly, was likewise accused. Philip 
 English, a rich merchant of Salem ? found it neces- 
 
66 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 sary to take flight, leaving his property and busi 
 ness in confusion. But, a short time afterward, 
 the Salem people were glad to invite him back. 
 
 5. The boldest thing the accusers did was to 
 cry out against the Governor s own beloved wife. 
 Yes, the lady of Sir William Phipps was accused 
 of being a witch, and of flying through the air to 
 attend witch-meetings. When the Governor heard 
 this, he probably trembled. 
 
 6. Our forefathers soon became convinced that 
 they had been led into a terrible delusion. All the 
 prisoners on account of witchcraft were set free. 
 But the innocent dead could not be restored to 
 life ; and the hill where they were executed will 
 always remind people of the saddest and most hu 
 miliating passage in our history. 
 
 Hawthorne. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 THE ACADIAN EXILES. 
 
 1. THE conquest of Acadia, now Nova Scotia, 
 occurred near the beginning of the French War in 
 1755. "Three men sailed from Boston, under 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Winslow, on the 29th of May, 
 for the expedition against Nova Scotia. This 
 
THE ACADIAN EXILES. 67 
 
 Winslow was the great-grandson of the Plymouth 
 patriarch, and grandson of the commander of the 
 New England forces in King Philip s War. At 
 the Bay of Fundy he was joined by three hundred 
 British regulars, and, advancing against the French 
 forts, took possession of them in five days ; and, no 
 sooner did the English fleet appear in the St. John s 
 River, than the French, setting fire to their fort at 
 the mouth of the river, evacuated the country. 
 
 2. The English thus, with the loss of about 
 twenty men, found themselves in possession of the 
 whole of Nova Scotia. Then the question arose, 
 What was to be done with the people ? Acadia 
 was the oldest French colony in Nova Scotia and 
 America, having been settled by Britons sixteen 
 years before the landing of the Pilgrim fathers. 
 Thirty years before the present war, the Treaty of 
 Utrecht, made between the English and French, 
 had given Acadia to Great Britain. Yet the set 
 tlement remained French in spirit, character, and 
 religion. 
 
 3. By the terms granted to the Acadians 
 when the British took possession, they were ex 
 cused from bearing arms against France, and were 
 thence known as "French neutrals." From the 
 time of the Peace of Utrecht, they appear, how 
 ever, almost to have been forgotten, until the pres 
 ent war brought them, to their great misfortune, 
 
68 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 back to remembrance. Their life had been one 
 of Arcadian peace and simplicity. Neither tax- 
 gatherer nor magistrate was seen among them. 
 Their parish priests, sent over from Canada, were 
 their supreme head. 
 
 4. By unwearied labor they had secured the 
 rich, alluvial marshes from the rivers and sea, and 
 their wealth consisted in flocks and herds. Their 
 houses, gathered in hamlets, were full of the com 
 forts and simple luxuries of their position. Their 
 clothing was warm, abundant, and home-made, 
 spun and wove from the flax of their fields and 
 the fleeces of their flocks. Thus were the Aca- 
 dians prosperous and happy as one great family of 
 love. Their population, which had doubled within 
 the last thirty years, amounted at this time to 
 about three thousand. 
 
 5. Unfortunately, these good Acadians had 
 not strictly adhered to their character of neutrals. 
 Three hundred of their young men had been taken 
 in arms, and one of their priests was detected as 
 an active French agent. It was resolved, there 
 fore, to remove them from their present position, 
 in which they had every opportunity of aiding the 
 French. Lawrence, Lieutenant-Governor of Nova 
 Scotia, Boscawen, and Mostyn, commanders of the 
 British fleet, consulted with Belcher, Chief-Justice 
 of the province, and the result was a scheme of 
 
THE ACADIAN EXILES. 69 
 
 kidnapping and conveying them to the various 
 British provinces, although, at the capitulation of 
 Beau Sejour, it had been strictly provided that the 
 neighboring inhabitants should not be disturbed. 
 
 6. But, no matter; they must be got rid of, 
 for there was no secure possession for the English 
 while they, bound by all the ties of language, 
 affection, and religion to France, remained there. 
 A sadder incident of wholesale outrage hardly oc 
 curs in history than this. The design was kept 
 strictly secret, lest the people, excited by de 
 spair, should rise en masse against their oppressors. 
 Obeying the command, therefore, to assemble at 
 their parish churches, they were surrounded by 
 soldiers, taken prisoners and marched off, without 
 ceremony, to the ships for transportation. 
 
 7. At Grand Pre, four hundred men, unarmed, 
 came together, when Winslow, the English com 
 mander, addressed them as follows : " Your lands 
 and tenements, cattle of all kinds, and live stock 
 of all sorts, are forfeited to the crown, and you 
 yourselves are to be removed from this province. 
 I am, through His Majesty s goodness, directed to 
 allow you to carry off your money, and your house 
 hold goods, as many as you can without crowding 
 the vessels you go in." They were the king s 
 prisoners ; their wives and families shared their 
 lot ; their sons, their daughters, the whole amount- 
 
a?! 
 
THE ACADIAN EXILES. 71 
 
 ing to about three thousand souls. They had left 
 home in the morning; they were never to return. 
 Wonderful it seems that Heaven left such an out 
 rage on humanity unavenged on the spot. 
 
 8. The 10th of September was the day of trans 
 portation. They were marched down to the vessels 
 six abreast; the young men first, driven forward 
 by the bayonet, but not a weapon was allowed to 
 them. It was a scene of heart-breaking misery, 
 and, in the confusion of embarkation, wives were 
 separated from husbands, parents from children, 
 never to meet again. It was two months before 
 the last of the unhappy people were conveyed 
 away, and, in the mean time, many fled to the 
 woods. But even this availed nothing. The piti 
 less conquerors had already destroyed the harvests, 
 to compel their surrender, and burned their former 
 homes to the ground. 
 
 9. Some of these poor, unhappy people were 
 sent to every British North American colony, where, 
 broken-hearted and disconsolate, they became bur 
 dens on public charity, and failed not to excite 
 pity by their misery, in spite of the hatred to them 
 as Catholics. Some few made their way to France, 
 others to Canada, Santo Domingo, and Louisiana. 
 To those who reached the latter country, lands 
 were assigned above New Orleans, still known as 
 the Acadian coast. 
 
72 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 10. A number of those sent to Georgia con 
 structed rude boats, and endeavored to return to 
 their beloved homes on the Bay of Fundy. Gen 
 erally speaking, they died in exile, the victims of 
 dejection and despair. It will be remembered that 
 one of the finest poems America has produced, 
 " Evangeline," by Longfellow, is founded on this 
 cruel and unjustifiable outrage on humanity. 
 
 Mary Howitt. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 WILLIAM PENN AND THE INDIANS. 
 
 1. Iisr consideration of the services of Admiral 
 Penn, James II granted to his son, William Penn, 
 the whole territory now covered by the States of 
 New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In 1682 Penn 
 sailed from England, with two thousand colonists, 
 to take possession of his immense farm. He landed 
 near the mouth of the Delaware River, and called 
 the place Philadelphia, or the City of Brotherly 
 Love. Penn had been converted to the peace 
 principles of the Friends, as they called themselves, 
 or the Quakers, as they were named by others 
 The country took the name of Pennsylvania, and, 
 
WILLIAM PENN AND THE INDIANS. 73 
 
 as its affairs were conducted with prudence and 
 wisdom, it flourished from the very start. 
 
 2. The country assigned to him by the royal 
 charter was yet full of the original inhabitants, 
 and the principles of William Penn did not allow 
 him to look upon that gift as a warrant to drive 
 away the Indians from their own land. He had, 
 accordingly, the preceding year, appointed his 
 commissioners to treat with them for the fair pur 
 chase of a part of their lands, and for their joint 
 possession of the remainder ; and the terms of the 
 settlement being now nearly agreed upon, he pro 
 ceeded, very soon after his arrival, to conclude the 
 settlement, and solemnly 
 
 to pledge his faith, and 
 to ratify and confirm the 
 treaty, in sight of both 
 the Indians and planters. 
 
 3. For this purpose, a 
 grand convocation of the 
 tribes had been appointed 
 near the spot where Phila 
 delphia now stands; and 
 it was agreed that he 
 and the presiding sachems 
 
 should meet and exchange faith under the spread 
 ing branches of a huge elm- tree that grew on the 
 bank of the river. On the day appointed, accord- 
 
74 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 ingly, an innumerable multitude of the Indians 
 assembled in that neighborhood, and were seen, 
 with their dark faces and brandished arms, mov 
 ing in vast swarms in the depth of the woods 
 which then overshadowed the whole of that now 
 cultivated region. 
 
 4. On the other hand, William Penn, with a 
 few friends, advanced to meet them. He came, 
 of course, unarmed, in his usual plain dress, with 
 out banners, or mace, or guard, or carriages ; and 
 only distinguished from his companions by wear 
 ing a blue sash of silk network, and by having in 
 his hand a roll of parchment, on which was en 
 grossed the confirmation of the treaty of purchase 
 and amity. As soon as he drew near the spot where 
 the sachems were assembled, the whole multitude 
 of Indians threw down their weapons, and seated 
 themselves on the ground in groups, each under 
 his own chieftain; and the presiding chief inti 
 mated to William Penn that the nations were ready 
 to hear him. 
 
 5. Having been thus called upon, he began : 
 " The Great Spirit," he said, " who made him and 
 them, who ruleth the heaven and the earth, and 
 who knew the innermost thoughts of man, knew 
 that he and his friends had a desire to live in 
 peace and friendship with them to the utmost of 
 their power. It was not their custom to use hos- 
 
WILLIAM PENN AND THE INDIANS. 75 
 
 tile weapons against their fellow - creatures, for 
 which reason they had come unarmed. Their ob 
 ject was not to do injury, and thus provoke the 
 Great Spirit, but to do good. They were there 
 met on the broad pathway of good faith and good 
 will, so that no advantage was to be taken on 
 either side, but all was to be openness, brother 
 hood, and love." 
 
 6. After these and other words, he unrolled 
 the parchment, and conveyed to them, by the in 
 terpreter, the conditions of the purchase. Among 
 other things, they were not to be molested in their 
 lawful pursuits, even in the territory they had 
 alienated, for it was to be common to them and 
 the English. If any disputes should arise between 
 the two, they should be settled by twelve persons, 
 half of whom should be English and half Indians. 
 
 7. He then paid them for the land, and made 
 them many presents besides from the merchandise 
 which had been spread before them. Having done 
 this, he spread the parchment on the ground, ob 
 serving again that the ground should be common 
 to both people. He then added that he would 
 not do as the Marylauders did that is, call them 
 children and brothers only for often parents whip 
 their children too severely, and brothers sometimes 
 would differ ; neither would he compare the friend 
 ship between them to a chain, for the rain might 
 
76 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 sometimes rust it, or a tree might fall and break 
 it ; but he should consider them as the same flesh 
 and blood with the Christians, and the same as 
 if one man s body had been divided into two 
 parts. 
 
 8. He then took up the parchment, and pre 
 sented it to the sachem who wore the horn in the 
 chaplet, and desired him and the other sachems to 
 preserve it carefully for three generations, that 
 their children might know what had passed be 
 tween them, just as if he himself had remained to 
 repeat it. The Indians, in return, made long and 
 stately speeches, in which they pledged themselves 
 to live in love with William Penn and his chil 
 dren, as long as the sun and moon should endure. 
 And thus ended this famous treaty ; of which 
 Voltaire has remarked, with so much truth and 
 severity, " that it was the only one ever concluded 
 between Christians and savages that was not rati 
 fied by an oath, and the only one that was never 
 broken." 
 
 9. Such, indeed, was the spirit in which the 
 negotiation was entered into, and the corresponding 
 settlement conducted, that, for the space of more 
 than seventy years, and so long as the Quakers 
 retained the chief power in the government, the 
 peace which had been thus solemnly concluded 
 was never violated. We can not bring ourselves 
 
THE PINE-TREE SHILLINGS. 77 
 
 to wish that there were none but Quakers in the 
 world, because we fear it would be insupportably 
 dull. But, when we consider what great evils 
 daily arise from the ambition and irritability of 
 sovereigns and ministers, we can not help thinking 
 that it would be best to choose all those ruling 
 personages out of that plain, pacific, and sober- 
 minded sect. 
 
 xv. 
 
 THE PINE-TREE SHILLINGS. 
 
 1. IN the early colonial days Captain John 
 Hull was the mint-master of Massachusetts, and 
 coined all the money that was made there. This 
 was a new line of business ; for, in the earlier days 
 of the colony, the current coinage consisted of gold 
 and silver money of England, Portugal, and Spain. 
 These coins being scarce, the people were often 
 forced to barter their commodities instead of sell 
 ing them. For instance, if a man wanted to buy 
 a coat, he perhaps exchanged a bear s skin for it. 
 Musket -bullets were used instead of farthings. 
 The Indians had a sort of money, called wampum, 
 which was made of clam-shells ; and this strange 
 sort of specie was taken in payment of debts by 
 
78 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 the English settlers. Bank-bills had never been 
 heard of. 
 
 2. As the people grew more numerous, and 
 their trade one with another increased, the want 
 of current money was more sensibly felt. To sup 
 ply the demand, the General Court established a 
 coinage of shillings, sixpences, and threepences. 
 Captain John Hull was appointed to manufacture 
 this money, and was to have about one shilling 
 out of every twenty to pay him for the trouble of 
 making them. Then all the old silver in the col 
 ony was handed over to Captain John Hull. The 
 battered silver cans and tankards, and silver buck 
 les, and broken spoons, and silver buttons, and hilts 
 of swords were thrown into the melting-pot to 
 gether. But by far the greater part of the silver 
 consisted of bullion from the mines of South 
 America, which the English buccaneers had taken 
 from the Spaniards and brought to Massachu 
 setts. 
 
 3. All this old and new silver being melted 
 down and coined, the result was an immense 
 amount of shillings, sixpences, and threepences. 
 Each had the date, 1652, on the one side, and the 
 figure of a pine-tree on the other. Hence they 
 were called pine-tree shillings. 
 
 4. When the mint-master, Captain John Hull, 
 had grown very rich, a young man by the name of 
 
THE PINE-TREK SHILLINGS. 79 
 
 Samuel Sewell came a-courting his only daughter. 
 His daughter, Betsy, was a fine, hearty damsel, by 
 no means as slender as some young ladies of our 
 own days. On the contrary, having always fed 
 heartily on pumpkin-pies, doughnuts, Indian pud 
 dings, and other Puritan dainties, she was as round 
 and plump as a pudding itself. With this round, 
 rosy face did Samuel Sewell fall in love. As he 
 was a young man of good character, the mint-mas 
 ter very r,eadily gave his consent. " Yes, you may 
 take her," said he, in his rough way ; " and you ll 
 find her a heavy burden enough ! " 
 
 5. On the wedding-day, John Hull dressed 
 himself in a plum-colored coat, all the buttons of 
 which were made of pine-tree shillings. The but 
 tons of his waistcoat were sixpences, and the knees 
 of his small-clothes were buttoned with silver 
 threepences. Opposite to him, between her bride- 
 maids, sat Miss Betsy. She was blushing with all 
 her might, and looked like a full-blown peony, 
 or a great red apple. There, too, was the bride 
 groom, dressed with as much finery as the Puri 
 tan laws and customs would allow. His hair 
 was cropped close to his ears, because Governor 
 Endicott had forbidden any man to wear it below 
 his ears. 
 
 6. The mint-master was pleased with his son- 
 in-law, especially as he had courted Miss Betsy 
 
80 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 out of pure love, and had said nothing at all about 
 her portion. So, when the marriage ceremony 
 was over, Captain Hull whispered a word to two 
 of his men, who immediately went out, and soon 
 returned lugging a large pair of scales. " Daughter 
 Betsy," said the mint-master, a get into one side of 
 these scales." Miss Betsy or Mrs. Sewell, as we 
 must now call her did as she was bid, like a du 
 tiful child, without any question of the why and 
 wherefore. But what her father could mean, un 
 less to make her husband pay for her by the pound, 
 she had not the least idea. 
 
 7. " And now," said honest John Hull to the 
 servants, " bring that box hither." The box to 
 which the mint-master pointed was a huge, square, 
 iron-bound, oaken chest. The servants tugged 
 with might and main, but could not lift this enor 
 mous receptacle, and were obliged to drag it across 
 the floor. Captain Hull then took a key from his 
 girdle, unlocked the chest, and lifted its ponderous 
 lid. Behold ! it was full to the brim of bright 
 pine-tree shillings, fresh from the mint ; and Sam 
 uel Sewell began to think that his father-in-law 
 had got possession of all the money in the Massa 
 chusetts treasury. 
 
 8. Then the servants, at Captain Hull s com 
 mand, heaped double handfuls of shillings into 
 one side of the scales, while Betsy remained in the 
 
THE OLD FRENCH WAR. 81 
 
 other. Jingle, jingle, went the shillings, as hand 
 ful after handful was thrown in, till, plump and 
 ponderous as she was, they fairly weighed down 
 the young lady from the floor. u There, son Sew- 
 ell ! " cried the honest mint-master, " take these 
 shillings for my daughter s portion. Use her kind 
 ly, and thank Heaven for her. It is not every wife 
 that s worth her weight in silver ! " 
 
 Hawthorne. 
 
 XVI. 
 THE OLD FRENCH WAR. 
 
 1. THE English and the French were the prin 
 cipal claimants for the territory now occupied by 
 the Eastern United States. The French had colo 
 nies on the St. Lawrence, and the English on the 
 Hudson, and for many years these settlements did 
 not interfere with each other. But, as the rule of 
 each extended, they at last came into collision, and 
 then came war. The main route of communication 
 between the Hudson and the St. Lawrence was by 
 the way of Lake Champlain, and hence the valley 
 of this lake became the battle-field for the two 
 most powerful nations of the world contending for 
 a continent. 
 
82 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 2. The woods of the North were populous with 
 fighting-men. All the Indian tribes uplifted their 
 tomahawks, and took part either with the French 
 or English. The rattle of musketry and roar of 
 cannon disturbed the ancient quiet of the forest, 
 and actually drove the bears and other wild beasts 
 to the more cultivated portion of the country in 
 the vicinity of the seaports. The first important 
 conflict occurred at the battle of Lake George, in 
 1755, when the gallant Colonel Williams, a Mas 
 sachusetts officer, was slain, with many of his 
 countrymen. But General Johnson and Gen 
 eral Lyman drove back the enemy, and mortally 
 wounded the French leader, Baron Dieskau. A 
 gold watch, pilfered from the poor baron, is still in 
 existence, and marks each moment of time, with 
 out weariness, although its hands have been in 
 motion ever since the hour of battle. 
 
 3. In the first years of the war there were 
 many disasters on the English side. Among these 
 was the loss of Fort Oswego in 1756, and of Fort 
 William Henry in the following year. But the 
 greatest misfortune that befell the English during 
 the whole war was the repulse of General Aber- 
 crombie, with his army, from the ramparts of Ti- 
 conderoga in 1758. He attempted to storm the 
 walls, but a terrible conflict ensued, in which more 
 than two thousand Englishmen and New-England- 
 
THE OLD FRENCH: WAR. 83 
 
 ers were killed and wounded. The slain soldiers 
 now lie buried around that ancient fortress. When 
 the plow passes over the soil, it turns up here and 
 there a moldering bone. 
 
 4. Up to this period, none of the English gen 
 erals had shown any military talent. Shirley, the 
 Earl of Loudoun, and General Abercrombie, had 
 each held the chief command at different times ; 
 but not one of them had won a single important 
 triumph for the British arms. This ill success 
 was not owing to the w^ant of means ; for, in 1758, 
 General Abercrombie had fifteen thousand soldiers 
 under his command. But the French general, the 
 famous Marquis de Montcalm, possessed a great 
 genius for war, and had something within him that 
 taught him how battles were won. 
 
 5. At length, in 1759, Sir Jeffery Amherst 
 was appointed Commander-in-chief of all the Brit 
 ish forces in America. He was a man of ability 
 and a skillful soldier. A plan was now formed for 
 accomplishing that object which had so long been 
 the darling wish of the New-Englanders, and which 
 their fathers had so many times attempted. This 
 was the conquest of Canada. Three separate ar 
 mies were to enter Canada from different quarters. 
 One of them, commanded by General Prideaux, 
 was to embark on Lake Ontario and proceed tp 
 Montreal. The second, at the head of which was 
 
84 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY, 
 
 Sir Jeffery Amherst himself, was destined to reach 
 the river St. Lawrence by way of Lake Chain- 
 plain, and then go down the river to meet the 
 third army. This last, led by General Wolfe, was 
 to enter the St. Lawrence from the sea and ascend 
 the river to Quebec. It is to Wolfe and his army 
 that England owes one of the most splendid tri 
 umphs ever written in her history. 
 
 6. Wolfe led his soldiers up a rugged and lofty 
 precipice, that rose from the shore of the river to 
 the plain on which the city stood. This bold ad 
 venture was achieved in the darkness of night. 
 At daybreak tidings were carried to the Marquis 
 de Montcalm that the English army was waiting 
 to give him battle on the Plains of Abraham. This 
 brave French general ordered his drums to strike 
 up, and immediately marched to encounter Wolfe. 
 
 7. He marched to his own death. The battle 
 was the most fierce and terrible that had ever been 
 fought in America. General Wolfe was at the head 
 of his soldiers, and, while encouraging them on 
 ward, received a mortal wound. He reclined against 
 a stone in the agonies of death, but it seemed as if 
 his spirit could not pass away while the fight yet 
 raged so doubtfully. Suddenly a shout came peal 
 ing across the battle-field : " They flee ! they flee ! " 
 sgid for a moment Wolfe lifted his languid head. 
 " Who flee ? " he inquired. " The French," replied 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 85 
 
 an officer. " Then I die satisfied," said Wolfe, and 
 expired in the arms of victory. We may consider 
 the French War as having terminated with this 
 great event. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 1. WHEN George Washington was just enter 
 ing manhood, he was appointed by the Governor 
 of Virginia as a peace commissioner, to traverse 
 the wilderness, five hundred and sixty miles in 
 breadth, until he should arrive at some French 
 post on the waters of the Ohio. The enterprise 
 was considered so perilous that no one could be 
 found who would undertake it until Washington 
 volunteered. He was then but twenty years and 
 six months of age. When Governor Dinwiddie, 
 a sturdy old Scotchman, eagerly accepted his prof 
 fered service, he exclaimed, " Truly you are a brave 
 lad, and if you play your cards well you shall 
 have no cause to repent your bargain." 
 
 2. Washington took with him eight men, two 
 of them Indians, with horses, tents, baggage, and 
 provisions, and plunged into the pathless forest. 
 The gales of approaching winter sighed through 
 
86 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 the tree-tops. The falling snow whitened the sum 
 mits of the mountains, and the streams came roar 
 ing from the hills and flooded the valleys. Fol 
 lowing their Indian guides, they soon reached the 
 Monongahela River, and, passing down its waters 
 in a canoe, in eight days they reached the mouth 
 of the Alleghany, where the junction of the two 
 streams forms the Ohio, and where Pittsburg now 
 stands. He then followed down the Ohio River 
 one hundred and twenty miles, accomplished all 
 the purposes of his mission, and, after an absence 
 of about four months, returned again to Williams- 
 burg, the capital of Virginia, to make his report 
 to the Governor. 
 
 3. The Legislature of the State of Virginia 
 was then in session at Williamsburg. Washington 
 entered the gallery. The Speaker saw him, and 
 immediately rose and proposed that " the thanks 
 of the House be given to Major Washington, who 
 now sits in the gallery, for the gallant manner in 
 which he has executed the important trust lately 
 reposed in him by his Excellency the Governor." 
 Every member rose and saluted Washington with 
 applause. Overwhelmed with confusion in being 
 thus the object of all eyes, he endeavored to make 
 some acknowledgment of this high honor, but he 
 was quite unable to utter a word. The Speaker 
 came happily to his relief, saying : " Sit down, Ma- 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 87 
 
 jor Washington ; your modesty is alone equal to 
 your merit." 
 
 4. The Governor, a rash, headstrong man, 
 much to the dissatisfaction of the colonists gen 
 erally, promptly decided that the king s territories 
 were invaded, and immediately organized a force 
 to drive away, kill, or seize as prisoners, all per 
 sons not the subjects of the king who should at 
 tempt to take possession of the lands on the Ohio, 
 or any of its tributaries. Washington was now 
 appointed colonel, and, with a band of about four 
 hundred men, again commenced his march through 
 the vast wilderness to drive the French from the 
 Ohio. But the French, with their Indian allies, 
 were on the alert. The peril of Washington was 
 great. He was surrounded with snares. Hostile 
 bands from different points, it was reported by 
 the Indian scouts, were crowding down upon him. 
 Washington was then but twenty-two years of 
 age. He had never heard the shrill whistle of a 
 bullet thrown in anger. 
 
 5. One dark and stormy night, as floods of rain 
 deluged the forest, some Indians came to the camp 
 and informed Washington that a detachment of 
 the French were very near, and were marching to 
 take him by surprise. The night was dark even 
 to blackness. The raging storm howled through 
 the tree-tops, and the mountain streams were 
 
88 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 swollen into roaring torrents. Immediately Wash* 
 ington took forty men, leaving the rest to guard 
 the camp, and, guided by the Indians, all night 
 clambered over the rocks and fallen trees as he 
 groped his way through the intricate paths of the 
 forest. In the early dawn of the dark and dreary 
 morning, his party reached an encampment of 
 friendly Indians which they were seeking. With 
 these rude allies Washington continued his ad 
 vance toward the position occupied by the unsus 
 pected French. 
 
 6. It was the 28th of May, 1754. Suddenly 
 the forest echoed with the rattle of musketry and 
 the war-whoop of the savage. The conflict was 
 short. Jumonville, the French commander, and 
 ten of his men, almost immediately fell, and the 
 rest of the party, twenty - two in number, were 
 taken prisoners. This was the first battle that 
 ushered in the long, cruel, and bloody French and 
 Indian War of seven years. 
 
 7. Early the next spring (1755) General Brad- 
 dock landed in Virginia with two regiments of 
 regular troops from Great Britain. It was sup 
 posed that such a force would sweep all opposition 
 away. With such fool-hardy confidence as igno 
 rance gives, Braddock marched boldly into the 
 wilderness. Colonel Washington was induced to 
 accompany General Braddock as aide-de-camp. 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 89 
 
 Washington urged caution, but in vain. They ar 
 rived within ten miles of Fort Duquesne, not hav 
 ing encountered any foe. Braddock was without 
 an anxiety or a doubt. He fancied that neither 
 Frenchman nor Indian would dare to meet him. 
 Washington was conscious of their peril, and begged 
 to lead the march with the Virginia volunteers, to 
 guard against an ambush. But the English de 
 spised the Americans, and concealed not their pride 
 and contempt. Washington was deeply wounded 
 in his feelings by this treatment. 
 
 8. They entered a wild defile. Lofty trees 
 extended in all directions. A luxuriant growth 
 of underbrush, reaching nearly as high as the 
 men s heads, covered the ground. Silence and 
 solitude reigned ; not a leaf moved ; not a bird-cry 
 was heard. Suddenly, like the burst of thunder, 
 came the crash of musketry, and a tempest of lead 
 swept through the astonished ranks. Crash fol 
 lowed crash in quick succession before, behind, 
 on the right, on the left. No foe was to be seen. 
 Yet every bullet accomplished its work. The 
 ground was already covered with the dead. Brad- 
 dock stood his ground with senseless, bull-dog 
 courage, until he fell. After a short scene of 
 confusion and horror, when nearly half the army 
 were gory in death, the remnant broke in wild dis 
 order and fled. The ambush was entirely success- 
 
90 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 ful. Six hundred of these assailants were Indians. 
 They laughed the folly of Braddock to scorn. 
 
 9. This was just what Washington expected. 
 He did everything which skill and courage could 
 do to retrieve the disaster. Two horses fell under 
 him ; four bullets passed through his coat. About 
 eight hundred were killed or wounded, while the 
 invisible foe lost not more than forty. Washing 
 ton stationed the Virginia provincials, each man 
 behind a tree, according to the necessities of forest 
 warfare, and thus checked the retreat, and saved 
 the army from total destruction. He endeavored 
 to rally the British regulars, but " they ran away," 
 he says, " like sheep before the hounds." The dis 
 astrous battle of the Monongahela added much re 
 nown to the name of Colonel Washington. 
 
 10. The situation of Virginia was now terrible. 
 The savages had lapped their tongues in blood. 
 Their fierce natures were roused by the terrible 
 excitements of war. The whole frontier, extend 
 ing three hundred and sixty miles, was exposed to 
 their ravages. Horrible beyond all imagination 
 were the scenes that ensued. Conflagration, mur 
 der, and torture became the amusement of prowl 
 ing bands of savages. It became a matter of im 
 perative policy to detach the Indians from French 
 influence, and to curtail the French occupation, or 
 altogether crush it out. For three years Washing- 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON, 91 
 
 ton devoted himself, day and night, to this humane 
 yet arduous enterprise. He rapidly acquired fame 
 and influence. His advice was listened to and 
 heeded. By a bold march, in the stormy month 
 of November, 1758, Fort Duquesne was wrested 
 from the enemy, and the French power upon the 
 Ohio ceased forever. Not long after this the Can- 
 adas surrendered to the heroism of Wolfe, and 
 thus, after seven years of awful carnage and woe, 
 the colonies enjoyed the blessings of peace. 
 
 11. Washington returned to beautiful Mount 
 Vernon, rich in the gratitude and love which his 
 heroism and self-sacrifice so abundantly merited. 
 He was now twenty-six years of age. On the 6th 
 of January, 1759, he married Mrs. Martha Custis, 
 a lady of great worth and beauty. She was the 
 mother of two children by a former husband, a 
 son of six years and a daughter of four. This 
 union added to Washington s already considerable 
 estate a property of one hundred thousand dollars. 
 In the lovely retreat of Mount Vernon he enjoyed 
 fifteen years of such happiness as is seldom expe 
 rienced on earth. Days of calm, and cloudless skies, 
 dawned and faded away upon the tranquil lawn. 
 Washington was frugal, temperate, and methodi 
 cal in the highest degree. Every hour had its own 
 duty. He retired at nine o clock at night, whether 
 he had company or not, and rose at four in the 
 
92 
 
 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 morning. Though strict in the enforcement of 
 regular habits, he was kind to all the members of 
 his household. 
 
 12. As these 
 peaceful and 
 happy years 
 glided rapidly 
 away, a tempest 
 was gathering. 
 The year 1775 
 arrived. Wash 
 ington was for 
 ty - three years 
 
 of age. The 
 haughty Brit 
 ish minis 
 try, denying 
 to Americans 
 the rights of 
 British sub 
 jects, began 
 systematically 
 
 to oppress them. The Americans remonstrated. 
 The British ministry spurned their remonstrances 
 with scorn, and sent over disciplined armies to en- 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. x 93 
 
 force obedience. The Americans were too feeble 
 to command respect. They met in Congress, raised 
 an army, and unanimously chose George Washing 
 ton commander-in-chief. A more perilous office 
 man never accepted. Three millions of people, 
 without resources, without military supplies, with 
 out forts, without ships, boldly took up arms to en 
 counter the fleets and hosts of England, who held 
 the resources of the world in her lap. It was 
 David meeting Goliath. But Washington was the 
 man for the occasion. 
 
 13. The plains of Lexington were already red 
 with blood, and the conflict of Bunker s Hill sent 
 ite echoes through the world. To a friend in Eng 
 land Washington wrote : " The Americans will 
 fight for their liberties and property. Unhappy 
 it is, though, to reflect that a brother s sword has 
 been sheathed in a brother s breast, and that the 
 once happy and peaceful plains of America are 
 either to be drenched in blood or to be inhabited 
 by slaves." To the Congress that elected him he 
 said : " I beg leave to assure the Congress that, as 
 no pecuniary consideration could have tempted 
 me to accept this arduous employment, at the ex 
 pense of my domestic ease and happiness, I do not 
 wish to make any profit from it. I will keep an 
 exact account of my expenses. Those I doubt not 
 they will discharge. This is all I desire." 
 
94 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 1 4. Early in July Washington arrived at Cam 
 bridge, to take command of the army besieging 
 Boston. The ceremony of assuming the position 
 of his office took place under the shadow of a 
 majestic elm-tree, which stood for a hundred years, 
 revered and immortalized by the deed which that 
 day witnessed. He found in the vicinity of Boston 
 about fifteen thousand American troops, almost 
 totally destitute of all the necessary materials of 
 war. With firmness, judgment, and energy which 
 have never been surpassed, struggling against em 
 barrassments and disappointments, he availed him 
 self of every resource within his reach. 
 
 Ablott. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 PATRICK HENRY. 
 
 1. AT Hanover Court-House, nineteen miles 
 from Richmond, Virginia, " the old tavern and the 
 court-house are objects of much interest, from the 
 circumstance that in the former Patrick Henry 
 was a temporary bar-tender, and in the latter he 
 made those first efforts at oratory which burst 
 forth like meteors from the gloom of his obscuri 
 ty. He had passed his youthful days in apparent 
 
PATRICK HENRY. 
 
 95 
 
 idleness, and, lacking business tact and energy, he 
 failed in mercantile pursuits in which he was en 
 gaged. He became bankrupt, and no one was will 
 ing to aid him. He married at eighteen, and yet, 
 in the twenty-fourth year of his age, he had done 
 little toward supporting a wife." 
 
 2. As a last resort, he studied law. He applied 
 himself diligently for six weeks, when he obtained 
 a license, but for nearly three years he was " brief 
 less." At the age of twenty-seven he was em 
 ployed in the celebrated parsons case, and in Han 
 over Court-House, on that occasion, his genius was 
 first developed. The case was a controversy be 
 tween the clergy and the Leg 
 islature of the State relating 
 to the pay claimed by the 
 former. A decision of the 
 court in favor of the clergy 
 had left nothing undetermined 
 but the amount of damages. 
 Young Henry took part 
 against the clergy, and in his 
 plea his wonderful oratory 
 beamed out, for the first time, 
 in great splendor. Wirt has 
 vividly described the scene : " The array before 
 Mr. Henry s eyes was now most fearful. On the 
 bench sat more than twenty clergymen, the most 
 7 
 
96 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 learned men in the colony, and the most capable. 
 The court-house was crowded with an overwhelm 
 ing multitude, and surrounded with an immense 
 and anxious throng, who, not finding room to 
 enter, were endeavoring to listen without in the 
 deepest attention. 
 
 3. u But there was something still more embar 
 rassing than all this ; for in the chair of the pre 
 siding magistrate sat no other person than his own 
 father. Mr. Lyon opened the cause, and concluded 
 with a highly wrought eulogium on the benevo 
 lence of the clergy. And now came on the first 
 trial of Patrick Henry s strength. No one had 
 ever heard him speak before, and curiosity was on 
 tip-toe. He rose very awkwardly, and faltered 
 much in his opening. The people hung their 
 heads. The clergy were observed to exchange sly 
 looks with each other, and his father is described 
 as having almost sunk with confusion from his 
 seat. But these feelings were of short duration, 
 and soon gave place to others of a very different 
 character. 
 
 4. " His attitude by degrees became erect and 
 lofty. The spirit of his genius awakened all his 
 features. His countenance shone with a nobleness 
 which it had never before exhibited. There was 
 a lightning in his eye which seemed to rivet the 
 spectator. His action became bold, graceful, and 
 
PATRICK HENRY. 97 
 
 commanding, and in the tones of his voice there 
 was a peculiar charm, a magic, of which no one 
 can give an adequate description. In the language 
 of those who heard him on this occasion, l he made 
 their blood run cold and their hair rise on end. 
 They say that the people whose countenances had 
 fallen as he rose had heard but a few sentences 
 before they began to look up, then to look at each 
 other with surprise, as if doubting the evidence of 
 their senses. Then, attracted by some strong gest 
 ure, or fascinated by the spell of his eye, the 
 charm of his emphasis, and the commanding ex 
 pression of his countenance, they could look away 
 no more. 
 
 5. "In less than twenty minutes they might 
 be seen in every part of the house, on every bench, 
 in every window, stooping forward from their 
 stands, in death-like silence, as if to catch the last 
 strain of some heavenly visitant. The mocking 
 of the clergy was soon turned into alarm, and, at 
 one burst of his rapid and overwhelming invective, 
 they fled from the bench in terror. As for his 
 father, tears of delight streamed down his cheeks 
 without the power or inclination to repress them. 
 
 6. " The jury had scarcely left the bar when 
 they returned a verdict of one penny damages. A 
 motion for a new trial was made, but the court 
 overruled the motion by a unanimous vote. The 
 
98 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 people, who had with difficulty kept their hands 
 off their champion from the moment of the closing 
 of his harangue, no sooner saw the fate of the 
 cause finally sealed, than they seized him at the 
 bar, and, in spite of his own exertions and the 
 continued cry of Order ! from the sheriffs and 
 the court, they bore him out of the court-house, 
 and, raising him on their shoulders, carried him 
 about the yard in a kind of electioneering tri 
 umph." 
 
 XIX. 
 ISRAEL PUTNAM. 
 
 1. ISEAEL PUTNAM, one of the bravest officers 
 of the old French and Revolutionary Wars, was 
 born in Salem village, on Massachusetts Bay, Janu 
 ary 7, 1718. From earliest boyhood he was re 
 markable for his personal courage and as a lover 
 of generous deeds. Like Nelson, he might have 
 asked : " Fear ! What is fear ? I never saw it ! " 
 His frankness was as natural as it was free. He 
 despised concealment and hated deception. His 
 courage was often better than his judgment. On 
 his first visit to Boston, while yet a small boy, he 
 was jeered in the streets by a lad twice his age 
 
ISRAP:L PUTNAM. 
 
 99 
 
 and size, because of the coarse quality and rustic 
 fashion of his clothes. Israel s indignation was 
 kindled in a moment. He challenged his perse 
 cutor, and, in the presence of a cheering crowd, 
 the chubby little " pumpkin " from the fields 
 whipped the big boy to his heart s content. 
 
 2. Putnam, of whose personal courage and 
 bravery many other stories have been told, entered 
 upon his career as a soldier 
 at the age of thirty-seven. 
 The French War, undertak 
 en to repel the invasion of 
 the French upon the terri 
 tory of the colonists, did 
 much to unite in one spirit 
 the American colonists, and 
 to cultivate those soldierly 
 qualities that prepared them 
 for the greater straggle of 
 the War of Independence. 
 "The spring buds soon opened into leaves and 
 blossoms, and the colonial armies began to gather, 
 preparatory to the arrival of General Abercrombie, 
 who, with the young Lord Howe, led an army of 
 seven thousand regulars, nine thousand provincials, 
 and a heavy train of artillery, against Ticonderoga 
 in July, 1758." Just before leaving Fort Edward, 
 the commanding general sent Putnam, with sixty 
 
100 STORIES OF OUR GO UN TRY. 
 
 picked men, to range in the vicinity of South Bay, 
 near the head of Lake Champlain. 
 
 3. At about ten o clock one evening, while the 
 moon was bathing everything in its full light, a 
 fleet of canoes, filled with French and Indians, ap 
 proached. Putnam ordered perfect silence until 
 he should give a signal to fire. Just as the enemy 
 were in front of the ranges, a soldier hit his musket 
 against a stone. The people in the canoes were 
 startled, and the little vessels huddled together as 
 if in consultation. The moment was favorable for 
 the provincials, and Putnam and his men poured 
 a deadly volley upon the frightened foe, entirely 
 ignorant of the fact that they were provoking the 
 ire of the famous French Molang and five hundred 
 Canadians and Indians. 
 
 4. Molang soon discovered by the firing that 
 the provincials were few, and, landing a part of 
 his force, attempted to surround them. Putnam 
 was vigilant, perceived his danger, and retreated 
 in time to escape the snare. Just at dawn, while 
 on a rapid march, his party was fired upon by 
 mistake by provincial scouts, but with so little 
 effect that Putnam declared to their leader that 
 they all deserved to be hanged for not killing more 
 when they had so fair a shot. 
 
 5. Abercrombie collected his army at the head 
 of Lake George. The whole country from there 
 
ISRAEL PUTNAM. 101 
 
 to Ticonderoga was covered with, a dense forest. 
 The wilderness was swarming with hostile Indi 
 ans. The English and provincials pushed boldly 
 forward, led by Lord Howe, who was accompanied 
 by Major Putnam. Misled by incompetent guides, 
 they had just passed the falls, where the village of 
 Ticonderoga now stands, when a French picket 
 five hundred strong fell upon the left of Aber- 
 crombie s force. " Putnam, what means that fir- 
 ing ? " asked Lord Howe. " With your lordship s 
 leave," he replied, " I will see." " And I will ac 
 company you," said the nobleman. 
 
 6. Putnam tried to dissuade him. " If I am 
 killed, my lord," he said, " the loss of my life will 
 be of little consequence ; but the preservation of 
 yours is of infinite importance to this army." 
 Howe replied : " Putnam, your life is as dear to you 
 as mine is to me ; I am determined to go. Lead 
 on ! " At the head of one hundred men Putnam 
 darted forward, and they soon met the enemy s 
 advance. A bloody encounter ensued, and Lord 
 Howe was killed at the first fire. Putnam s party 
 were finally successful, and the army pressed for 
 ward toward the fortress. They were met at the 
 outworks with terrible opposition, and, after a 
 bloody conflict of four hours, Abercrombie fell 
 back to Lake George. 
 
 7. A few days after his return to Fort Edward, 
 
102 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 Major Putnam visited Fort Miller, on the west 
 side of the Hudson. One pleasant afternoon he 
 crossed over in a bateau to the eastern shore, 
 where he was surprised by a large number of 
 Indians, who suddenly appeared, some on land 
 rushing to the bank, and others sweeping down 
 the stream in their canoes. What should he 
 do? He might stay and be sacrificed, or at 
 tempt to cross the river and be shot, or go down 
 the roaring rapids a few rods below him. There 
 was no time for deliberation. He chose the 
 last course ; and, to the great amazement of 
 the savages, who dared not follow where a 
 canoe had never yet ventured, his bateau shot 
 down the foaming channels among the dangerous 
 rocks, and he reached the smooth waters below 
 in safety and escaped. The Indians after this 
 regarded him as a special favorite of the Great 
 Spirit, 
 
 8. Early in August Putnam and Eogers took 
 post at South Bay, with five hundred men, to 
 watch the movements of the enemy. It was soon 
 perceived that Molang, with a large body of 
 French and Indians, was stealthily traversing the 
 forest to get in the rear of the provincials. The 
 latter retreated toward Fort Edward. On the 
 margin of Clear River, a little distance from Fort 
 Ann, they fell into an Indian ambuscade. Put- 
 
ISRAEL PUTNAM. 103 
 
 nam s division was a little in advance of the others, 
 and received the first and most deadly onslaught 
 of the savages. The fight soon became general 
 and scattered. Man to man and hand to hand 
 they fought, with terrible desperation. Putnam 
 had laid several Indians on the forest - leaves, 
 when, as he presented his fusee to the breast of 
 a stalwart savage, it missed fire. 
 
 9. The Indian instantly sprang forward, seized 
 the major, bound him tightly to a tree, and then 
 resumed the conflict. Putnam s situation soon be 
 came extremely dangerous, for, as the combatants 
 changed ground, he was placed between the fire 
 of the two parties. Many bullets struck the tree ; 
 several went through his garments, but his person 
 remained unhurt. For an hour the fight raged 
 furiously around him, and then a young savage 
 amused himself by throwing his tomahawk into 
 the tree to which Putnam was tied, sometimes 
 within an inch of the prisoner s head. 
 
 10. The French and Indians were finally re 
 pulsed, and on their return toward Lake Cham- 
 plain they took Major Putnam with them. He 
 was continually exposed to insults and cruelties, 
 and his savage captors prepared to torture him to 
 death in the depths of the forest. They tied him 
 to a tree, piled fagots about him, commenced their 
 wild songs and dances, and kindled the fatal fire. 
 
104 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 Just then a thunder-peal burst over the forest, and 
 a sudden shower put out the flames. For a mo 
 ment the savages stood still in amazement. But 
 soon the pyre again smoked and blazed. Hope 
 died in the bosom of the hero as the fiery circle 
 grew hotter ; when suddenly a French officer 
 dashed through the row of savages, hurled them 
 right and left, scattered the blazing wood, and, 
 cutting the thongs which bound Putnam to the 
 tree, saved him from a horrible death. That de 
 liverer was Molang. A tender-hearted Indian had 
 informed him of the fray in the wilderness. 
 
 11. Molang was a brave and generous man, 
 and admired the character of Putnam. He has 
 tened to the rescue of a brave soldier, and severely 
 rebuked the Indians for their cruelty. Under his 
 protection the captive hero was sent to Ticon- 
 deroga, and then escorted to Montreal. He was 
 in a miserable plight on his arrival. He had neither 
 coat, vest, nor stockings ; his remaining garments 
 were tattered, his hair was matted with leaves and 
 blood, and his person was disfigured by wounds. 
 By the influence of Colonel Schuyler, he was after^ 
 ward exchanged, and permitted to return to his 
 family. 
 
 12. The spring of 1775 was exceedingly mild, 
 and long before the close of March daffodils peeped 
 from the brown earth, and bluebirds were singing 
 
ISRAEL PUTNAM. 105 
 
 among the budding branches. Early in April the 
 New England farmers were turning the furrows ; 
 and, on the memorable 19th, Putnam was prepar 
 ing his fields for oats and Indian corn. On that 
 morning the first thunder-peal of the tempest of 
 the Revolution, awakened at Lexington and Con 
 cord, rolled over New England, and before noon 
 the next day it fell upon the ear of the veteran 
 while he was plowing in his field. The intelli 
 gence was brought by a swift messenger, who 
 hastened onward from farm to farm, to spread the 
 " Lexington alarm," and arouse the minute-men. 
 
 13. The brave colonel of the old war stopped 
 not a moment to consider. He unyoked his cat 
 tle in the furrow, and said to the boy who had 
 been driving them, " Run, run to the house for my 
 coat ! " He then hurried to his stable, saddled a 
 fleet horse, and, without stopping to change his 
 clothes, he mounted the horse and hastened toward 
 Cambridge. He arrived there late at night, and 
 the next morning he was present at a second coun 
 cil of war, at which General Artemas Ward pre 
 sided, when a plan for a campaign was arranged. 
 
 14. During the winter of 1779 General Put 
 nam performed a daring feat, which has ever been 
 a popular theme for the story-teller and the poet. 
 He was at the house of a friend at Horseneck, 
 now West Greenwich, Connecticut, on a visit to 
 
106 
 
 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
ISRAEL PUTNAM. 107 
 
 that outpost, and while standing before a looking- 
 glass early in the morning shaving himself, he saw 
 the reflection of a body of " red-coats " marching 
 up the road from the westward. He dropped his 
 razor, buckled on his sword, and, half shaved, 
 mounted his horse and hastened to prepare his 
 handful of men to oppose the approaching enemy. 
 They were almost fifteen hundred strong. Putnam 
 confronted them with his one hundred and fifty 
 men, but, after the first fire, perceiving their over 
 whelming numbers, ordered a retreat. 
 
 15. It became a rout, and each sought safety 
 in his own way in the adjacent swamps. The gen 
 eral put spurs to his horse and sped toward Stam 
 ford, closely pursued by the British dragoons. He 
 came to a steep declivity, on the brow of which 
 the road turned northward, and passed in a broad 
 sweep around the hill. Putnam saw that his pur 
 suers were gaming on him, and, with the daring of 
 desperation, he left the road, wheeled his horse 
 while on full gallop down the rocky height, making 
 a zigzag course to the bottom, near where some 
 stone steps had been laid up to the church on the 
 height, gained the road, and escaped. The drag 
 oons dared not follow his perilous track, but sent 
 a volley of bullets after him, without effect. The 
 declivity down which the old soldier rushed is still 
 known as Putnam s Hill. Allott. 
 
108 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 XX. 
 
 THE YOUTH OF FRANKLIN. 
 
 1. IN the history of our country no name is 
 more honored and none deserves more honor than 
 that of Benjamin Franklin. Wise and sagacious, 
 he performed service for his country that was in 
 dispensable in the hour of her greatest need. 
 His was one of the most prominent figures in the 
 First Continental Congress, and he was one of 
 the five placed upon the committee to draft the 
 Declaration of Independence. Later, he was the 
 diplomat that secured the assistance of France, 
 and obtained for the United States a recognition 
 among the nations of the earth. At the close of 
 the war, the people instinctively turned to him 
 for advice in regard to the terms of union between 
 the States, and during the stormy debates of the 
 Constitutional Convention his voice was for peace 
 and conciliation ; and when insurmountable diffi 
 culties seemed to arise, he always could suggest 
 the way out. When he died, at a ripe old age, no 
 name on earth was more honored or revered. 
 
 2. The greatness of Franklin was not an acci 
 dent, but was achieved by a virtuous, industrious 
 life devoted to study and to the general welfare 
 of humanity. He inherited from his parents good 
 
THE YOUTH OF FRANKLIN. 
 
 109 
 
 health and a genial disposition, but not wealth. 
 The household into which he was born was in 
 that happy condition where 
 neither riches nor poverty 
 were burdensome. Each 
 day brought its own neces 
 sity of labor, but the re 
 wards of the labor were 
 sufficient for the day s ne 
 cessities, and so there was 
 never pinching want. 
 
 3. Franklin s father 
 was a tallow-chandler, and 
 his early years were spent 
 
 chiefly in the shop, where he learned to dip can 
 dles and perform such other work as might de 
 volve upon him. But, after he learned to read, he 
 always carried a book with him, and, while strict 
 ly attending to his mechanical work, his thoughts 
 were often far away from the dingy shop and the 
 uninteresting work. At an early age, and from 
 his own earnest solicitation, he was transferred 
 from the chandler s shop to a printing-office, under 
 the management of his elder brother. 
 
 4. Young Benjamin was mainly employed, 
 while in his brother s office, in very humble duties ; 
 but he did not by any means confine himself to 
 the menial services which were required of him 
 
110 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 as the youngest apprentice. In fact, he actually 
 commenced his career as an author while in this 
 subordinate position. It seems that several gen 
 tlemen of Boston, friends of his brother, iised to 
 write occasional articles for a newspaper which he 
 printed ; and they would sometimes meet at the 
 office to discuss the subjects of their articles, and 
 the effects that they produced. 
 
 5. Benjamin determined to try his hand at 
 this work. He accordingly wrote an article for 
 the paper, and, after copying it carefully in dis 
 guised writing, he put it late one night under the 
 door. His brother found it there in the morning, 
 and on reading it was much pleased with it. He 
 read it to his friends when they came in, Benjamin 
 being at work all the time near by, at his printing- 
 case, and enjoying very highly the remarks and 
 comments which were made. He was particularly 
 amused at the guesses that they offered in respect 
 to the author, and his vanity was gratified at find 
 ing that the persons they named were all gentle 
 men of high character for ingenuity and learning. 
 
 6. The young author was so much encouraged 
 by this attempt that he afterward sent in several 
 other articles in the same way. At length he 
 made it known that he was the author of the 
 articles. All were much surprised, and in conse 
 quence of this discovery he was regarded with 
 
THE YOUTH OF FRANKLIN. . HI 
 
 much consideration by his brother s friends, but his 
 brother did not appear to be much pleased. Ben 
 jamin was employed while in his brother s office, 
 sometimes in setting types, then in working off 
 the sheets at the press, and finally in carrying the 
 papers around the town to deliver them to sub 
 scribers. This gave him an opportunity to ac 
 quire experience and information. 
 
 7. In the efforts which young Franklin made 
 to improve his mind, he did not devote his time 
 to mere reading, but applied himself vigorously to 
 study. He was deficient, he thought, in a knowl 
 edge of figures, and so he procured an arithmetic, 
 of his own accord, and went through it himself 
 with very little or no assistance. Notwithstand 
 ing these advantages, however, Benjamin did not 
 lead a veiy happy life. He found his brother a 
 passionate man, and he was often used very rough 
 ly by him. 
 
 8. Finally, after the lapse of four or five years, 
 young Benjamin determined to seek his fortunes 
 in New York. The vessel upon which he took 
 passage soon sailed, and in three days she reached 
 New York, and Benjamin landed safely. He 
 found himself, however, in a very forlorn condi 
 tion. He had no letters of introduction, and. very 
 little money. He applied at a printing-office for 
 employment, but was told by the proprietor, 
 
112 STORIKS OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 whose name was Bradford, that he had men 
 enough, but that he had a son in Philadelphia 
 who had lately lost one of his principal hands. 
 So our young hero determined to go to that city. 
 
 9. On his journey he narrowly escaped ship 
 wreck, but at length reached Amboy in safety, 
 and thence he undertook to travel on foot through 
 New Jersey to Burlington, a distance of fifty miles. 
 It rained all that day, and the unhappy adventurer 
 heartily repented of having ever left home. At 
 length, after two days of weary traveling, he 
 reached Burlington in time to find that the regu 
 lar packet on the Delaware for Philadelphia had 
 sailed. In his perplexity he went to the house of 
 a woman from whom he had bought some ginger 
 bread when he first came into town. She offered 
 to care for him until the next packet should sail. 
 
 10. Our hero happened to be walking along 
 the shore of the river when a small vessel came by 
 on its way to Philadelphia, on which he took pas 
 sage, and, as there was no wind, he assisted the 
 men in rowing. AVhen they arrived at the city 
 Franklin paid the boatman a shilling for his pas 
 sage. He then counted up his money, and found 
 that it amounted to just one dollar. 
 
 11. The first thing he did was to go to a baker s 
 to buy something to eat. He asked for three 
 pence worth of bread. The baker gave him three 
 
THE YOUTH OF FRANKLIN. 
 
 113 
 
 good-sized rolls for that money. His pockets 
 were full of clothes and other things, and so he 
 
 walked off up the 
 street holding one of his 
 rolls under each arm and 
 eating the third. It is a singular circumstance 
 that, while he was walking through the streets 
 in this way, he passed by the house where the 
 young woman resided who was destined to become 
 his wife, and that she actually saw him as he 
 
114 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 passed, and took particular notice of the ridiculous 
 appearance he made, 
 
 12. It happened that, among the passengers 
 that had come down the river on board the vessel, 
 there was a poor woman, who was traveling with 
 her child, a boy of six or eight years of age. 
 When Franklin came down to the wharf he found 
 this woman sitting there with her child, both 
 looking quite weary and forlorn ; and as he had 
 already satisfied his hunger with eating one of the 
 rolls, he gave the other two to them. 
 
 13. It was in the fall of the year 1723 that 
 Franklin came thus to Philadelphia. During the 
 winter he worked industriously at his trade, and 
 spent his leisure time in reading and study. He 
 laid up the money that he earned, instead of 
 squandering it, as young men often do, in foolish 
 indulgences. He formed many useful acquaint 
 ances among the industrious and steady young 
 men in the town. He thus lived a contented life, 
 and forgot Boston, as he said, as much as he 
 could. 
 
JOHN PAUL JONES. 115 
 
 XXI. 
 
 JOHN PAUL JONES. 
 
 1. THE firing of the cannon at Lexington and 
 Bunker Hill, wMch brought the oppressed colo 
 nists the unwelcome fact of desolating war, was 
 also a signal to bad men to use the opportunity of 
 war to carry out their worst purposes. These men 
 fitted out vessels called privateers with which they 
 annoyed the settlements along the coasts, and 
 plundered and robbed defenseless people. They 
 also sailed upon the high seas, and seized many 
 a ship laden with merchants goods bound for 
 American ports. As a defense against these dep 
 redations, Congress found it necessary, in 1775, to 
 organize a navy. Accordingly, an order was is 
 sued to construct and equip six vessels for cruis 
 ing off the coasts of the Eastern colonies. 
 
 2. Among the commanders commissioned at 
 the same time was John Paul Jones, a little wiry 
 Scotchman, not more than twenty years of age. 
 He was slight in physical stature, with a thought 
 ful expression, and dark, piercing eyes. All the 
 greatness of a true hero slumbered in his brain, 
 his heart, and his sinews ; and it only needed the 
 electric spark of opportunity to awaken it to full 
 development. That spark was not long withheld ; 
 
116 
 
 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 and when the War for Independence had closed, 
 he had fought twenty-three battles on the sea; 
 made descents upon Great Britain or her colonies ; 
 snatched from her navy, by conquest, four large 
 ships; compelled her to fortify her home ports, 
 and to desist from cruel burnings in America, and 
 from torturing American seamen in prisons and on 
 prison-ships. 
 
 3. Among his many engagements and tri 
 umphs at sea, none, perhaps, is more interesting 
 
 and exciting than that 
 which occurred near 
 Leith, on the coast of 
 Scotland, in 1778. 
 Here he encountered a 
 merchant-fleet from the 
 Baltic, convoyed by the 
 Serapis, mounting forty 
 guns, and the Countess 
 of Scarborough, of twen 
 ty - four guns. The 
 Scotch people knew 
 Jones, and his approach 
 filled them with terror. 
 
 Late in the afternoon of the 16th of September, 
 his little squadron of four vessels was distinctly 
 seen from Edinburgh Castle. 
 
 4. The people believed that he was coming to 
 
JOHN PAUL JONES. 117 
 
 plunder and destroy ; and, at their earnest solicita 
 tion, the minister of the town, an eccentric, and 
 not always a very reverential man, led his flock to 
 the beach, and, kneeling down, prayed for deliver 
 ance : " Now, deer Laird," he said, " dinna ye 
 think it a shame for ye to send this rude piret to 
 rob our folk o Kirkcaldy, for ye ken they re poor 
 enow already, and hae naithing to spare ? " While 
 the minister was praying, the white caps began to 
 dot the Frith. A heavy gale swept over the 
 waters, and Jones was compelled to put to sea. 
 The good people of Kirkcaldy always regarded 
 that timely gale as an answer to the prayer of 
 Mr. Shirra, 
 
 5. But the providence that protected the peo 
 ple of Leith and the neighborhood did not shield 
 the convoy of the Baltic fleet from Jones s wrath 
 less than a week afterward. His squadron now 
 consisted of his own vessel, the Bon Homme Rich- 
 ard, the Pallas, the Vengeance, and the Alliance, 
 which was commanded by Landais, who was dis 
 posed to be disobedient. Jones pressed sail on the 
 Eichard and made chase, followed by the Pallas 
 and Vengeance. Slowly the Richard and Serapis 
 approached each other. Up went the red ensign 
 of the British navy, and was nailed to the flag 
 staff of the Serapis. 
 
 6. Sluggishly in the gentle breeze fluttered 
 
U8 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 the Stars and Stripes over the Richard,* as she 
 rounded to, her antagonist within pistol-shot dis 
 tance. The Serapis displayed two complete bat 
 teries, and a \vell-armed spar-deck, all lighted and 
 cleared for action. The Richard displayed her 
 heavy guns at the same time, when the English 
 commander hailed, " What ship is that ? " Jones 
 hurled an eighteen-pound shot in reply, that went 
 crashing through a port of the Serapis and splin 
 tered a gun-carriage. The tempest-cloud was now 
 riven, and the lightning and thunder of two heavy 
 broadsides flashed and boomed over the waters. 
 Thus began one of the most terrible sea-fights re 
 corded in history. 
 
 7. The Richard had a gun-room battery on 
 her lower deck which had served faithfully for 
 thirty years. At the first discharge, two of the 
 guns were burst killing almost every man in the 
 gun-room. The firing was incessant, and each 
 ship tried to gain an advantage over the other. 
 Their spars and rigging became entangled. The 
 great guns of the combatants were now almost 
 useless, and Jones at the head of his Amer 
 icans attempted to board the enemy. After a 
 sharp and close contest he was repulsed, and 
 Captain Pearson of the Serapis, who could 
 not see the American flag in the midst of the 
 smoke, cried out, a Has your ship struck ? " 
 
JOHN PAUL JONES. 119 
 
 Jones instantly replied, " I have not yet begun to 
 fight!" 
 
 8. It was now half-past eight in the evening, 
 and the conflict had raged for an hour. It grew 
 more furious, and from deck to deck of the en 
 tangled vessels the combatants rushed madly, fight 
 ing like demons. The Richard and her crew suf 
 fered terribly, yet they fought on. She had been 
 pierced by several eighteen-pound balls below 
 water, and leaked badly. 
 
 9. A new enemy now appeared. When the 
 Richard gave chase to the Serapis, Landais placed 
 the Alliance at a safe distance and looked calmly 
 on the unequal contest. When it had raged for 
 two hours, he ran toward the grappled ships, fired 
 a broadside into the Richard s quarter, and killed 
 several of her men. It was the right ship for him. 
 He had made no mistake, but was practicing foul 
 est villainy blackest treason. He hoped to kill 
 Jones, make an easy prize of the Serapis, and 
 gain all the honors of a great victory. 
 
 10. The courage of Jones quailed not in that 
 dreadful hour, nor were his wonderful efforts 
 slackened. Soon the commander of the Alliance 
 was badly wounded and his men were scattered. 
 Jones took his place. The marines in the tops of 
 the Richard soon killed or dispersed those of the 
 enemy, and they cast hand-grenades with such 
 
120 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 energy and success, that the Serapis was set on 
 fire in a dozen places at the same time. 
 
 11. In the midst of the appalling scene, when 
 both ships were on fire, the wounded carpenter of 
 the Richard said she must sink. The frightened 
 gunner ran aft to pull down the American flag, 
 but a round shot had carried away the ensign- 
 yard an hour before. Then the gunner cried : 
 " Quarter ! for God s sake, quarter ! Our ship is 
 sinking ! " He continued his cries until Jones 
 silenced him by hurling a discharged pistol at 
 his head, which sent him headlong down the 
 hatchway. 
 
 12. " Do you call for quarter? " shouted Cap 
 tain Pearson to Jones. " Never ! " responded the 
 lion-hearted commodore. " Then I ll give none ! " 
 replied Pearson, and immediately sent a party to 
 board the Richard. They were met at the rail by 
 Jones, with pike in hand, and, supposing he had 
 many at his back, the enemy retreated. At that 
 moment there was a sound of many feet rushing 
 to the upper deck of the Richard. The master- 
 at-arms had released all the prisoners on board. 
 One of them had escaped to the Serapis and in 
 formed the commander of the utterly crippled con 
 dition of the Richard. Encouraged by this infor 
 mation, Pearson renewed the battle with increased 
 vigor. 
 
JOHN PAUL JONES. 121 
 
 13. The situation of Jones was now extremely 
 critical. His ship was sinking, his heavy guns 
 were all silenced, except where he was fighting ; 
 some of his officers were determined on surrender 
 ing ; others were crying for quarter ; and a large 
 number of prisoners were free to do as they 
 pleased. Nothing ever appeared more hopeless 
 than his prospect of success. But he had re 
 sources in himself, at such an hour, possessed by 
 few men. He saw the affright of the prisoners 
 at the idea of sinking, and ordered them to the 
 pumps to save their lives. As he expected, the 
 first law of nature overcame their desire for lib 
 erty and duty to the king. 
 
 14. Suddenly, now, the flames began to creep 
 up the rigging of the Serapis, and in their glare, 
 and the full light of the moon, Jones saw that her 
 mainmast had been hewed almost asunder by his 
 double-headed shots. Pie immediately renewed 
 the assault at that point, and the tall mast reeled. 
 Captain Pearson perceived his danger, and, lacking 
 the courage and obstinacy of Jones in the mo 
 ment of great peril, he struck his flag, and surren 
 dered to his really weaker foe. 
 
 15. "It is painful," he said, in a surly manner 
 to Jones, " to deliver up my sword to a man who 
 has fought with a halter round his neck." Jones 
 preserved his temper, and courteously replied, as 
 
122 
 
 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 he returned the weapon : " Sir, you have fought 
 like a hero ; and I make no doubt your sovereign 
 will reward you in the most ample manner." 
 
 16. Even so it happened, for knighthood 
 awaited Captain Pearson at the hands of King 
 
 George III, because of his bravery on this occa 
 sion. It is said that when Jones was told of 
 the honor conferred upon his antagonist, he re 
 marked : " Well, he deserves it ; and if I fall in 
 with him again, I will make a lord of him ! " 
 
 Harper s Magazine. 
 
THE A WAKENING. 123 
 
 XXII. 
 THE AWAKENING. 
 
 1. WHEN the news of Lexington and Bunker 
 Hill spread through the country, the people were 
 wild with excitement, and immediate preparations 
 were made for war. Old muskets and swords 
 were brought out and repaired, and blacksmiths 
 everywhere were engaged in making new ones. 
 In every household the wheel and loom were busy 
 in spinning and weaving cloth for clothing and 
 blankets, and the whole country seemed about to 
 turn into one vast camp. 
 
 2. But the people were divided. While a 
 great majority supported the patriot cause, a 
 large and influential class still clung to the king. 
 The royalists were called Tories, and they called 
 the patriots rebels and traitors. In some commu 
 nities the feeling ran so high that there was dan 
 ger of civil war ; but in general the Tories were so 
 few in number that they kept very quiet, except 
 when protected by a British army. The propri 
 etors of large landed estates, which had been de 
 rived directly from the king, were usually Tories, 
 and frequently they strove with might and main 
 to stem the rising tide of patriotism. 
 
 3. The poet, Buchanan Read, has given a vivid 
 
124 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 picture of these times. He represents a country 
 scene, upon a beautiful spring morning. The 
 people had all assembled at the sound of the bell. 
 In his great square pew, in the center of the 
 church, was Berkeley, the lord of the manor, and 
 his family, and in humbler places sat the farmers 
 and mechanics with their wives and little ones. 
 While all seemed to respect the sacredness of the 
 place and the day, there was a frown upon the 
 brow^ of Berkeley, and significant smiles upon the 
 faces of his neighbors. 
 Then, the poet says 
 
 4. The pastor rose ; the prayer was strong ; 
 The psalm was warrior David s song ; 
 The text a few short words of might 
 " The Lord of hosts shall arm the right " 
 He spoke of wrongs too long endured, 
 Of sacred rights to be secured ; 
 Then from his patriot tongue of flame 
 The startling words for Freedom came. 
 The stirring sentences he spake 
 Compelled the heart to glow or quake, 
 And, rising on his theme s broad wing, 
 
 And grasping in his nervous hand 
 
 The imaginary battle-brand, 
 In face of death he dared to fling 
 Defiance to a tyrant king. 
 
THE AWAKENING. 125 
 
 5. Even as lie spoke, his frame renewed 
 In eloquence of attitude, 
 
 Rose, as it seemed, a shoulder higher ; 
 Then swept his kindling glance of fire 
 From startled pew to breathless choir ; 
 When suddenly his mantle wide 
 His hands impatient flung aside, 
 And, lo ! he met their wondering eyes, 
 Complete in all a warrior s guise. 
 
 6. A moment there was awful pause, 
 
 When Berkeley cried ; " Cease, traitor ! 
 cease ! 
 
 God s temple is the house of peace ! " 
 The other shouted : " Nay, not so, 
 When God is with our righteous cause : 
 
 His holiest places then are ours, 
 
 His temples are our forts and towers, 
 That frown upon the tyrant foe ; 
 In this, the dawn of Freedom s day, 
 There is a time to fight and pray ! " 
 
 7. And now before the open door 
 
 The warrior-priest had ordered so 
 The enlisting trumpet s sudden roar 
 Rang through the chapel o er and o er. 
 
 Its long reverberating blow, 
 So loud and clear, it seemed the ear 
 Of dusty Death must wake and hear; 
 
126 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 And then the startling drum and fife 
 Fired the living with fiercer life ; 
 While overhead, with wild increase, 
 Forgetting its ancient toll of peace, 
 The sreat bell swung as ne er before : 
 
 o o 
 
 It seemed as it would never cease ; 
 And every word its ardor flung 
 From off its jubilant iron tongue 
 Was, " War ! war ! war ! " 
 
 8. " Who dares " this was the patriot s cry, 
 As striding from his desk he came 
 " Come out with me in Freedom s name^ 
 For her to live, for her to die ? " 
 A hundred hands flung up reply, 
 A hundred voices answered, " I ! " 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 GENERAL MARION. 
 
 1. GENERAL FRANCIS MARION, born in South 
 Carolina in the same year that gave birth to George 
 Washington, was distinguished as one of the lead 
 ing officers of the War of Independence. His suc 
 cess in the campaign of South Carolina, where 
 
GENERAL MARION. 127 
 
 rivers and swamps abounded, brought him the 
 title of " Swamp-Fox." When he was encamped 
 at Snow s Island in 1780, he received a flag of 
 truce brought by the hands of a young British 
 officer who came blindfolded. 
 
 2. Having heard great talk about General 
 Marion, he fancied him some stout figure of a war 
 rior, such as O Hara, or Cornwallis himself. But 
 what was his surprise, when, led into Marion s 
 presence, and the bandage taken from his eyes, he 
 beheld in our hero a swarthy, smoke-dried little 
 man, with, scarce enough of threadbare homespun 
 to cover his nakedness ; and, in place of tall ranks 
 of gayly-dressed soldiers, a handful of sunburned, 
 yellow-legged militia-men some roasting potatoes, 
 and some asleep, with their black firelocks and 
 powder-horns lying by them on the logs ! Having 
 recovered a little from his surprise, he presented 
 his letter to General Marion, who perused it, and 
 soon settled everything to his satisfaction. 
 
 3. The officer took up his hat to retire. " Oh, 
 no," said Marion, "it is now about our time of 
 dining, and I hope, sir, you will give us the pleas 
 ure of your company to dinner." At mention of 
 the word "dinner," the British officer looked 
 around him ; but, to his mortification, he could see 
 no sign of a pot or pan, or any other cooking-uten 
 sil. " Well, Tom, 17 said the general to one of his 
 
128 
 
 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 men, " come, give us our dinner. 1 The feast to 
 which he alluded was no other than a heap of 
 
 sweet-potatoes, that were 
 snugly roasting under the 
 embers, and which Tom, 
 with his stick-poker, soon 
 released from their ashy 
 confinement, pinching 
 them every now and then 
 with his fingers to see 
 whether they were well 
 done. 
 
 4. "I fear, sir," said 
 the general, "our dinner 
 will not prove so palata 
 ble to you as I could 
 wish, but it is the best we have." The officer, 
 who was a well-bred man, took up one of the po 
 tatoes and began to eat, as if he had found a great 
 dainty. Presently he broke out into a hearty 
 laugh. Marion looked surprised. " I beg pardon, 
 general/ said he, " but one can not, you know, al 
 ways command himself." " I suppose," replied 
 Marion, " it is not equal to your style of living." 
 " No, indeed," quoth the officer, " and I imagine 
 this is one of your accidental Lent dinners. In 
 general, no doubt, you live a great deal better." 
 5. " Rather worse," answered the general, " for 
 
GENERAL MARION. 129 
 
 often we don t get even enough of this." " Heav 
 ens ! " rejoined the officer, " but probably, stinted 
 in provisions, you draw noble pay ? " " Not a 
 cent, sir," said Marion "not a cent." Heavens 
 and earth ! Then you must be in a bad box," 
 continued the officer. "I don t see, general, how 
 you can stand it." "Why, sir," replied Marion, 
 with a smile, "these things depend on feeling." 
 The Englishman said he did not believe it would 
 be an easy matter to reconcile his feelings to a 
 soldier s life on General Marion s terms. " Why, 
 sir," answered the general, " the heart is all, and, 
 when that is much interested, a man can do any 
 thing. Many a youth would think it hard to 
 make himself a slave for fourteen years. But let 
 him be head and ears over in love, and with such 
 a beauteous sweetheart as Rachel, and he will 
 think no more of fourteen years servitude than 
 young Jacob did. Well, now, this is exactly my 
 case. I am in love, and my sweetheart is Lib 
 erty." 
 
 6. The officer replied that, both as a man and 
 a Briton, he must certainly count this as a happy 
 state of things. " Happy ! " quoth Marion ; " yes, 
 happy indeed ; and I had rather fight for such 
 blessings for my country and feed on roots, than 
 keep aloof, though wallowing in all the luxuries 
 of Solomon. For, now, sir, I walk the soil that 
 
130 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 gave me birth, and exult in the thought that I am 
 not unworthy of it. I look upon these venerable 
 trees around me, and feel that I do not dishonor 
 them. The children of future generations may 
 never hear my name, but it gladdens my heart to 
 think that I am now contending for their freedom 
 and all its countless blessings." 
 
 7. When he returned to Georgetown, the offi 
 cer was asked by Colonel Watson why he looked 
 so serious. " I have cause, sir," said he, " to look 
 serious." " What, has General Marion refused to 
 treat 2 " " No, sir," said the officer. " Well, then, 
 has old Washington defeated Sir Henry Clinton, 
 and broken up our army ? " " No, sir, not that 
 neither, but worse." " Ah ! what can be worse ? " 
 continued the colonel. "Why, sir," said the offi 
 cer, " I have seen an American general and his 
 officers without pay, and almost without clothes, 
 living on roots and drinking water, and all for 
 liberty ! What chance have we against such 
 men ? " It is said Colonel Watson was not much 
 obliged to him for this speech. But the young 
 officer was so much struck with Marion s senti 
 ments that he never rested until he threw up his 
 commission and retired from the service. 
 
 Weems. 
 
WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE. 131 
 
 XXIV. 
 WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE. 
 
 1. THE crossing of the Delaware on the night 
 of December 24, 1776, and the following victories 
 at Trenton and Princeton, are among the most im 
 portant events of the Revolutionary War. A 
 cloud of gloom rested upon the country, and a 
 want of confidence made it difficult to raise money 
 to maintain military operations. These victories 
 gave the country new heart, and established its 
 confidence in "Washington as a great leader. 
 General Howe, commander- in-chief of the Brit 
 ish forces, remained in New York, committing the 
 conduct of the campaign in New Jersey to Lord 
 Cornwallis. This military commander extended 
 his long and weak line to the Delaware, hoping 
 ultimately to take Philadelphia. Washington s 
 masterly movement across the river, his success at 
 Trenton and Princeton, and his withdrawal toward 
 Monmouth instead of Philadelphia, entirely discon 
 certed the plans of the enemy. 
 
 2. Christmas-night was selected by Washing 
 ton for the execution of the enterprise. He well 
 knew the German habit of celebrating that day 
 with feasting and drinking, and reasoned wisely 
 on the probability of a large portion of the Hes- 
 
132 
 
 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 
 
WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE. 133 
 
 sian troops, that were stationed by the British at 
 Trenton, being half disabled by intemperate in- 
 diligence. The division with which Washington 
 was to cross the Delaware consisted of t\venty 
 four hundred men, with twenty pieces of artil 
 lery. The weather was cold. The river was 
 full of floating ice, and it was doubtful whether a 
 crossing could be effected. Washington superin 
 tended the whole in person, and it was four 
 o clock in the morning when the entire army, 
 with its artillery, had made its tedious and peril 
 ous way through the icy waters, and stood upon 
 the eastern shore in a bitter wind, and under a 
 storm of hail and snow. 
 
 3. As the day broke, a countryman came out 
 to chop wood for his fire, and some one of the 
 staff who rode with General Washington at the 
 head of the troops inquired where the picket lay. 
 u I don t know, I m sure," said the fellow, who had 
 no idea of getting himself into trouble. " You 
 need not be afraid to tell," said the aide ; " this 
 is General Washington." " God bless and prosper 
 you, sir," said the farmer; "there they are, and 
 just by the tree stands the sentry." They moved 
 on at a quicker pace. In another moment all was 
 confusion. 
 
 4. Washington had separated his troops into 
 three divisions. Each encountered the outguards 
 
134 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 at the same time, and a brisk skirmish ensued. 
 The Hessian drums beat to arms, and in a few 
 moments the disordered ranks were marshaled 
 into battle order by the brave Colonel Rail. The 
 Amei icans were pressing closer and closer, and 
 with deadly aim were thinning the Hessian ranks. 
 At length a bullet mortally wounded Colonel 
 Rail, and he fell from his horse pale and bleeding. 
 The victory of the Americans was complete. 
 They lost in the engagement only two privates 
 killed, and two others frozen to death. The ene 
 my lost six officers, and between twenty and thirty 
 men killed. About nine hundred non-commis 
 sioned officers and privates were made prisoners. 
 The trophies were six brass field-pieces, a thou 
 sand stand of arms, twelve drums, and four colors. 
 5. The British retreated to Princeton, and 
 Washington withdrew and entered Philadelphia 
 with triumphal greetings. On the 2d of Janu 
 ary, 1777, having again crossed the Delaware, 
 his guns were planted on the banks of the Assun- 
 pink, a small stream that empties into the river 
 below Trenton. " Now is your time to make sure 
 of Washington," said one of the British officers to 
 Lord Cornwallis. " The old fox can t escape this 
 time," said Cornwallis, " for the Delaware is frozen 
 and we have him completely in our power. To 
 morrow morning we will fall upon him, and take 
 
ETHAN ALLEN AND TICONDEROGA. 135 
 
 1 ill 11 and liis ragamuffins all at once." " If Wash 
 ington be the soldier I think him," replied the 
 officer, " you ll not see him to-morrow morning." 
 
 6. And so the event proved ; for Washington, 
 after setting the night-watch, and kindling a row 
 of fires along the bank of the creek, withdrew his 
 army so quietly that his departure was not sus 
 pected. And when, in the morning, they were 
 asking " Where can Washington be gone ? " the 
 booming of the cannon was heard in the direction 
 of Princeton. Then came the battle of Princeton, 
 the fall of General Mercer, and another victory 
 for our arms. 
 
 xxv. 
 ETHAN ALLEN AND TICONDEROGA. 
 
 1. THE fortress of Ticonderoga, near the out 
 let of Lake George, had long since been estab 
 lished by the French, and formed one of the keys 
 to all communication between New York and 
 Canada. It had surrendered to the English 
 forces in 1758. Soon after the battle of Lexing 
 ton, in 1775, the Provincial Assembly of Connect 
 icut appointed Edward Mott and Noah Phelps to 
 examine the condition and strength of this fort, and, 
 
136 
 
 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY, 
 
 if they found it expedient, to raise men and try to 
 capture it. They proceeded to Bennington, Ver 
 mont. 
 
 2. Here they found Colonel Ethan Allen, a 
 man of strong mind, vigorous frame, upright in all 
 
 his ways, fearless in 
 the discharge of his 
 duty, and a zealous 
 patriot. He joined 
 their expedition with 
 his Green Mountain 
 Boys, and the whole 
 party, two hundred 
 and seventy men, 
 reached Castleton at 
 dusk, on May 7th. 
 Here they were met 
 by Benedict Arnold, 
 who came with a com 
 mission from the Committee of Safety authoriz 
 ing him to command the expedition against Ti- 
 conderoga. This was objected to, and the sol 
 diers who were attached to Allen declared that 
 they would shoulder their muskets and march 
 home rather than serve under any other leader. 
 Arnold made a virtue of necessity, and united 
 himself to the expedition as a volunteer. 
 
 3. Allen marched to the shore of the lake op- 
 
ETHAN ALLEN AND TICONDEROGA. 137 
 
 posite Ticonderoga during the night. He applied 
 to a farmer named Burren for a guide, who offered 
 his son Nathan, a lad who passed a good deal of 
 his time within the fort with the boys of the gar 
 rison, and was well acquainted with every secret 
 way that led to or within the fortress. The 
 day began to dawn, and only the officers and 
 eighty-three men had crossed the lake. Delay 
 was hazardous, for the garrison, if aroused, would 
 make stout resistance. Allen, therefore, resolved 
 not to wait for the rear division to cross, but to 
 attack the fort at once. Then placing himself at 
 the head of his men, with Arnold by his side, 
 they march quickly but stealthily up the height 
 to the sally-port. 
 
 4. The sentinel snapped his fusee at the com 
 mander, but it missed fire, and he retreated within 
 the fort under a covered way. The Americans 
 followed close upon his heels, and were guided by 
 the alarmed fugitive directly to the parade within 
 the barracks. All the troops rushed into the pa 
 rade under the covered way, they gave a tremen 
 dous shout, and filing into two divisions, formed a 
 line of forty men each along the southwestern 
 and northwestern range of barracks. The aroused 
 garrison leaped from their pallets, seized their arms, 
 and rushed for the parade, but only to be made pris 
 oners by the bold New-Englanders. At the same 
 
138 
 
 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
ETHAN ALLEN AND TICONDEROGA. 139 
 
 moment Allen, with young Barren at his elbow as 
 guide, ascended the steps to the door of the quar 
 ters of Captain Delaplace, the commandant of the 
 garrison, and, giving three raps with the hilt of 
 his sword, with a voice of peculiar power ordered 
 him to appear, or the whole garrison would be 
 sacrificed. 
 
 5. It was about four o clock in the morning. 
 The loud shout of the invaders had awakened the 
 captain and his wife, both of whom sprang to 
 the door just as Allen made his strange demand. 
 Delaplace appeared in shirt and drawers, with the 
 frightened face of his pretty wife peering over 
 his shoulder. He and Allen had been old friends, 
 and, upon recognition, the captain assumed bold 
 ness, and authoritatively demanded his disturber s 
 errand. Allen pointed to his men, and sternly 
 exclaimed, " I order you instantly to surrender ! " 
 " By what authority do you demand it ? " said Dela 
 place. " In the name of the Great Jehovah and 
 the Continental Congress ! " thundered Allen, and, 
 raising his sword over the head of the captain, 
 ordered him to be silent and surrender immedi 
 ately. 
 
 6. There was no alternative. Delaplace had 
 about as much respect for the " Continental Con 
 gress " as Allen had for " Britons," and they re 
 spectively relied upon and feared powder and 
 
140 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 ball more than either. In fact, the Continental 
 Congress was but . a shadow, for it did not meet 
 for organization until six hours afterward, and its 
 " authority " was yet scarcely acknowledged even 
 by the patriots in the field. But Delaplace ordered 
 his troops to parade without arms, the garrison of 
 forty-eight men were surrendered prisoners of war, 
 and with the women and children were sent to 
 Hartford in Connecticut. 
 
 7. The spoils were one hundred and twenty 
 pieces of iron cannon, fifty swivels, two ten-inch 
 mortars, one howitzer, one cohorn, ten tons of 
 musket-balls, three cart-loads of flints, thirty new 
 carriages, a considerable quantity of shells, a ware 
 house full of material for boat-building, one hun 
 dred stand of small-arms, ten casks of poor pow 
 der, two brass cannon, thirty barrels of flour, 
 eighteen barrels of pork, and some beans and peas. 
 
 XXVI, 
 
 VALLEY FORGE. 
 
 1. SOON after the surrender of Burgoyne, in 
 October, 1777, the winter set in with uncommon 
 severity, and all active military operations were 
 
VALLEY FORGE. 141 
 
 postponed until spring. Washington with his 
 main army was in the vicinity of Philadelphia, 
 watching the movements of Lord Howe, and ready 
 to oppose raids into the country, or to attack the 
 city, should such a step seem advisable. But the 
 summer camp must be abandoned. The thin 
 shelter-tents were no protection from the pitiless 
 cold of bleak December. Some winter-quarters 
 must be sought not so near the city as to per 
 petually invite an attack, and not so far away as 
 to leave the enemy free from care and anxiety. 
 The place finally chosen was Valley Forge, fourteen 
 miles southwest of Philadelphia, within easy dis 
 tance of the routes which the British must take 
 should they try to return to New York. 
 
 2. But there were no houses at Valley Forge, 
 and some means of shelter must be provided. It 
 was about the middle of December w r hen Wash 
 ington gave the order to prepare the winter vil 
 lage for the army. The men were divided into 
 parties of twelve, each party to build a hut for its 
 own accommodation. The huts were fourteen by 
 sixteen feet, with walls six and a half feet high. 
 They were built of logs lined with clay. A rude 
 chimney was attached to each hut. The officers 
 quarters were similar to those of the men, but a 
 little larger. 
 
 3. While the men were at work the weather 
 
142 
 
 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY, 
 
 turned bitterly cold, and the suffering among them 
 was intense. They were poorly dressed, and there 
 
 
 Valley forge. 
 
 was no way within the power of Washington or 
 of Congress to provide them with new clothing. 
 
 4. Here is a description of one of these soldiers, 
 from an eye-witness : " His bare feet peep through 
 his worn-out shoes nearly naked, from the tattered 
 remains of an only pair of stockings, his breeches 
 hanging in strings ; his face wan and thin ; his 
 look hungry ; his whole appearance that of a man 
 forsaken and neglected." The officers were scarce- 
 
VALLEY FORGE. 143 
 
 ly better off. The uniforms were torn and ragged ; 
 the guns were rusty a few only had bayonets 
 No pay came from the Government, and many 
 times during the winter the army were on the 
 very verge of starvation. 
 
 5. That men were kept together during the 
 terrible winter reflects the highest credit upon 
 Washington, both for the fertility of his resources 
 and for the combined firmness and sympathy 
 which he displayed, winning the entire respect 
 and confidence of the men. His feelings are well 
 shown in the following extract from one of his 
 letters to Congress : 
 
 6. " No order of men in the thirteen States has 
 paid a more sacred regard to the proceedings of 
 Congress than the army ; for, without arrogance, 
 or the smallest deviation from truth, it may be 
 said that no histoiy now extant can furnish an 
 instance of an army s suffering such uncommon 
 hardships as ours has done, and bearing them with 
 the same patience and fortitude. To see men 
 without clothes to cover them, without blankets 
 to lie on, without shoes, for the want of which 
 their marches may be traced by the blood from 
 their feet, and almost as often without provisions 
 as with them, marching through the frost and the 
 snow, and at Christmas taking up their winter- 
 quarters within a day s march of the enemy, with- 
 
 10 
 
144- STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 ^ 
 
 out a house or hut to cover them till they could 
 be built, and submitting without a murmur, is a 
 proof of patience and obedience which, in my opin 
 ion, can scarcely be paralleled." 
 
 7. The horses died of starvation, and the 
 men harnessed themselves to trucks and sleds, 
 hauling wood and provisions from storehouse to 
 hut. At one time there was not a ration in camp. 
 Then the strong hand of Washington was felt, 
 and the soldiers saw that their confidence had not 
 been misplaced. He issued his orders, and com 
 pelled the people of the country about to bring 
 their stores of provisions to Valley Forge, that 
 they had been wont to sell to the British at Phila 
 delphia. 
 
 8. At one time, when the provisions were all 
 out, and the men nearly starved, a mutiny broke 
 out, several regiments refusing to obey orders 
 until they were paid. General Wayne was in the 
 immediate command, and no man in the army save 
 Washington was more respected. But in vain 
 did "Mad Anthony," as Wayne was called by his 
 men, expostulate and command. In the ardor of 
 his harangue he drew a pistol to menace the mu 
 tineers. In an instant a hundred muskets were 
 leveled at his head, and one of the leaders cried 
 out : " General, we love and respect you, but if you 
 fire you are a dead man. Do not think we are 
 
VALLEY FORGE. 145 
 
 about to desert ! Should the enemy appear, you 
 will see that we will fight as usual ; but we must 
 have our pay, so that we may not starve, and may 
 have clothes to cover our nakedness." The troops 
 remained under arms for several hours, but at 
 length Washington succeeded in inducing them to 
 return to their obedience. 
 
 9. About the first of March, when the greater 
 part of the winter had passed, Baron Steuben, a 
 trained Prussian officer, joined the army as a vol 
 unteer. He was at once made inspector of the 
 armies, and speedily the whole camp was turned 
 into a military school, and the patriot farmers and 
 artisans who had taken their lives in their hands 
 in defense of their country were soon converted 
 into an efficient and well-drilled soldiery. But 
 while we are enjoying all the comforts of life 
 under our Government, we should remember the 
 terrible winter at Valley Forge and its suffering 
 as one of the incidents which made our nation 
 possible. All honor to Washington and to his 
 brave, patient, suffering men ! 
 
146 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 BURGOYNE AND SARATOGA. 
 
 1. AMONG the most important events of the 
 War of the Revolution were the battles of Still- 
 water and Saratoga. By consulting the map, it is 
 easy to point out the localities of these battles. 
 In all the movements of the two armies it was 
 necessary to keep close to the lines of water com 
 munication, as in those days a railroad was not 
 thought of. Hence the Hudson River, reaching 
 from near the head of Lake Champlain to the city 
 of New York, was an important means of commu 
 nication for the carrying of troops and army sup 
 plies. In these battles, General Burgoyne, com 
 manding the British army, was nearly surrounded 
 by the Americans, who had cut olf his retreat to 
 the north, and his advance to Albany on the 
 south. 
 
 2. The battle of Still water was fought on the 
 19th of September, 1777. The British army num 
 bered about five thousand, and that of the Ameri 
 cans about seven thousand. The American army 
 was commanded by General Gates ; and with him 
 fought Benedict Arnold, who afterward became 
 a miserable traitor to the American cause. This 
 was one of the fiercest and most obstinate battles 
 
BURGOYNE AND SARATOGA. 
 
 147 
 
 of the war. Some of the Americans climbed tall 
 trees, and from these concealed perches, with skill 
 ful aim, picked off 
 the British officers 
 one by one. And 
 it is but just to say 
 that, to the prompt 
 action and bravery 
 of General Arnold, 
 the success of the 
 Americans was in 
 great measure due. 
 It is said that Gates 
 was jealous of Ar 
 nold s well - earned 
 reputation and 
 growing popularity 
 with the army. 
 
 3. On the 7th 
 of October the sec 
 ond battle of Still- 
 water was fought, 
 and in this engagement the brave English officer, 
 General Fraser, fell. Had General Burgoyne 
 been aware of the condition of the American 
 army after the first battle, he might easily have 
 won a victory. There were not forty rounds of 
 cartridges for each man, and not more than three 
 
148 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 days provisions. But on the 20th of September 
 supplies arrived, and on the 29th two thousand 
 New England troops joined the main army. This 
 second conflict was terrible indeed, "and in the 
 midst of the flame, and smoke, and metal hail, Ar 
 nold was conspicuous " ; but his horse was killed 
 under him, and he himself was severely wounded 
 in the same leg which had been badly lacerated by 
 a musket-ball at the storming of Quebec two years 
 before. 
 
 4. General Burgoyne was compelled to make 
 a hasty retreat toward Saratoga. Here, finding 
 himself completely surrounded, he was constantly 
 exposed to the fire of cannon and musketry of the 
 Americans. There was not a place of safety for 
 the sick, wounded, and dying, or for the women 
 and children of the officers and soldiers. There 
 was no secure place for a council. " None dared 
 go to the river for water, and thirst began to dis 
 tress the camp." The Indians and Canadians be 
 gan to desert him. There was not bread for three 
 days in store, and supplies were cut off, and the 
 last ray of hope had faded away. 
 
 5. On the morning of the 13th, Burgoyne 
 called a general council of all officers, including 
 captains of companies. Their deliberations were 
 held in a large tent, which was several times 
 perforated by musket-balls from the Americans. 
 
BUROOYNE AND SARATOGA. 149 
 
 Several grape-shot struck near the tent, and an 
 eighteen-pound cannon-ball swept across the table 
 at which sat Burgoyne and the other generals. 
 Their deliberations were short, as might be ex 
 pected, and it was unanimously resolved to open 
 a treaty with General Gates for an honorable sur 
 render. It was a bitter pill for the proud lieuten 
 ant-general, but there was no alternative. The 
 surrender was formally made on the morning of 
 the 17th. 
 
 6. As soon as the troops had laid down their 
 arms, General Burgoyne proposed to be intro 
 duced to General Gates. The latter was informed 
 of the approach of Burgoyne, and with his staff 
 met him at the head of his camp about a mile 
 south of Fish Creek, Burgoyne in a rich uniform 
 of scarlet and gold, and Gates in a plain blue 
 frock-coat. When within a sword s length, they 
 reined up and halted. Colonel Wilkinson then 
 named the gentlemen, and General Burgoyne, 
 raising his hat gracefully, said, "The fortune of 
 war, General Gates, has made me your prisoner." 
 The victor promptly replied, "I shall always 
 be ready to bear testimony that it has not been 
 through any fault of your Excellency." The other 
 officers were introduced in turn, and the whole 
 party repaired to Gates s headquarters, where a 
 sumptuous dinner was served. 
 
150 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 7. After dinner the American army was drawn 
 up in parallel lines on each side of the road, ex 
 tending nearly a mile. Between these victorious 
 troops the British army, with light-infantry in 
 front, and escorted by a company of light dra 
 goons, preceded by two officers bearing the Ameri 
 can flag, marched to the lively tune of " Yankee 
 Doodle." Just as they passed, the two command 
 ing generals came out together, and, fronting the 
 procession, gazed upon it in silence for a few mo 
 ments. What a contrast, in every particular, did 
 the two present ! 
 
 8. Burgoyne had a large and commanding per 
 son ; Gates was smaller, and far less dignified in 
 appearance. Burgoyne was the victim of disap 
 pointed hopes and foiled ambition, and looked 
 upon the scene with sorrow ; Gates was buoyant 
 with the first flush of a great victory. Without 
 exchanging a word, Burgoyne stepped back, drew 
 his sword, and, in the presence of the two armies, 
 presented it to General Gates. He received it 
 with a courteous inclination of the head, and 
 instantly returned it to the vanquished general. 
 They then retired together, the British army filed 
 off, and took up their line of march for Boston, 
 and thus ended the drama upon the heights of 
 Saratoga. 
 
THE BARONESS RIEDESEL, 15; 
 
 XXVIII. 
 THE BARONESS RIEDESEL. 
 
 lo MANY of the officers of General Burgoyne s 
 army were accompanied during the campaign by 
 their wives and children. Among the ladies of 
 the camp were Lady Ackland and the Baroness 
 Riedesel, whose experiences, after the defeat and 
 surrender of Burgoyne, have been graphically de 
 scribed by Baroness Kiedesel herself. "On the 
 7th of October," she says, " our misfortunes began. 
 I was at breakfast with my husband, and heard 
 that something was intended. On the same day I 
 expected Generals Burgoyne, Phillips, and Fraser 
 to dine with us. 
 
 2. " I saw a great movement among the troops. 
 My husband told me it was merely a reconnais 
 sance, which gave me no concern, as it often hap 
 pened. I walked out of the house and met several 
 Indians, in their war-dresses, with guns in their 
 hands. About four o clock in the afternoon, in 
 stead of the guests whom I expected, General Fra 
 ser was brought on a litter, mortally w^ounded. 
 The table, which was already set, was instantly 
 removed, and a bed placed in its stead for the 
 wounded general. I sat trembling in the corner. 
 The noise grew louder. The thought that my 
 
152 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 husband might, perhaps, be brought in, wounded 
 in the same manner, was terrible to me. I did not 
 know which way to turn. All the rooms were full 
 of sick. Toward evening I saw my husband com 
 ing home. Then I forgot all my sorrows, and 
 thanked God that he was spared to me. He took 
 me aside and said that everything was going badly, 
 and that I must keep myself in readiness to leave 
 the place, but not to mention it to any one. 
 
 3. " About eight o clock in the morning Gen 
 eral Fraser died. At six o clock the corpse was 
 brought out, and we saw all the generals attend 
 it to the mountain. The chaplain, Mr. Brudenell, 
 performed the funeral service, accompanied by con 
 stant peals from the enemy s artillery. Many can 
 non - balls flew close by me, and I had my eyes 
 directed toward the mountain where my husband 
 was standing amid the fire of the enemy, and, of 
 course, I could not think of my own danger. 
 
 4. "About two o clock in the afternoon we 
 again heard a firing of cannon and small-arms ; in 
 stantly all was alarm, and everything in motion. 
 My husband told me to go to a house not far off ; 
 but scarcely had we reached it before I discovered 
 five or six armed men on the other side of the Hud 
 son. Instinctively I threw my children down in 
 the calash, and then concealed myself with them. 
 At this moment the fellows fired, and wounded an 
 
THE BARONESS E1EDESEL. 153 
 
 already wounded English soldier, who was behind 
 me. Poor fellow ! I pitied him exceedingly, but 
 at this moment had no power to relieve him. 
 
 5. " A terrible cannonade was commenced by 
 the Americans against the house in which I sought 
 to obtain shelter for myself and children, under the 
 mistaken idea that all the generals were in it. 
 Alas ! it contained none but wounded and women. 
 We were obliged, at last, to resort to the cellar for 
 refuge, and in one corner of this I remained the 
 whole day, my children sleeping on the earth with 
 their heads in my lap. In this situation I passed 
 a sleepless night. Eleven cannon - balls passed 
 through the house, and we could distinctly hear 
 them roll away. One poor soldier, who was lying 
 on a table for the purpose of having his leg ampu 
 tated, was struck by a shot which carried away the 
 other. 
 
 6. " My reflections on the danger to which my 
 husband was exposed now agonized me exceeding 
 ly, and the thoughts of my children alone sustained 
 me. In this horrid situation we remained six days. 
 A cessation of hostilities was now spoken of, and 
 afterward took place. My husband sent a mes 
 sage to me to come over to him with my children. 
 I seated myself once more in my dear calash, and 
 then rode through the American camp. As I 
 passed on I observed and this was a great consola- 
 
154 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 tion to me that no one eyed me with, looks of re 
 sentment, but they all greeted us, and even showed 
 compassion in their countenances at the sight of a 
 woman with small children. I was, I confess, afraid 
 to go over to the enemy, as it was quite a new sit 
 uation to me. 
 
 7. " When I drew near the tents, a handsome 
 man approached and met me, took my children 
 from the calash, and hugged and kissed them, which 
 affected me almost to tears. You tremble, said 
 he, addressing himself to me ; be not afraid. 
 i No, I answered, you seem so kind and tender to 
 my children it inspires me with courage. He now 
 led me to the tent of General Gates, where I found 
 Generals Burgoyne and Phillips. All the generals 
 remained to dine with General Gates. The same 
 gentleman who received me so kindly now came 
 and said to me : You will be embarrassed to eat 
 with these gentlemen ; come with your children to 
 my tent, where I will prepare for you a frugal din 
 ner, and give it with a free-will. I said, You are 
 certainly a husband and a father, you have shown 
 me so much kindness. I now found that he was 
 General Schuyler." 
 
ARNOLD AND ANDR&. 
 
 155 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 ARNOLD AND ANDRE. 
 
 1. IN 1780 Benedict Arnold, who had in many 
 instances during the war proved himself a brave 
 soldier, though his character in other respects had 
 not been spotless, had charge of the important 
 fortress at West Point and other posts command 
 ing the Highlands. On these 
 
 depended the communications 
 between the different portions 
 of the army, as well as with 
 the country northward, from 
 which supplies were to be 
 drawn for its use. Arnold s 
 capacity as a soldier could 
 not be doubted, and no one 
 had dreamed that the faults 
 of his private character were 
 such as would be likely to 
 interfere with his duty as a military commander. 
 Love of money and selfishness were his great 
 faults, and they were particularly odious at a time 
 when so many men were periling all in the serv 
 ice of their country. 
 
 2. Arnold had been brought to trial for some 
 breach of trust, while in command at Philadelphia, 
 
156 STORIES Of OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 after General Howe s evacuation, and the disgrace 
 he then suffered probably rankled in his mind. It 
 is now known that he had been fifteen months in 
 correspondence with Sir Henry Clinton, of the 
 British army, with a view of betraying his coun 
 try ; and that he had sought the command at 
 West Point and its dependencies for the very pur 
 pose of doing this in the most effectual manner. 
 General Washington had gone to Hartford, to con 
 fer with the Count de Rochambeau, who had just 
 arrived from France with troops for the service of 
 the United States. General Greene was left in 
 conjjiiand during Washington s absence. This was 
 judged a favorable opportunity for putting into 
 operation the treacherous scheme which had been 
 so long plotting. 
 
 3. Arnold had arranged with Sir Henry Clin 
 ton that the agent of this plot should be Major 
 Andre, adjutant - general of the British army. 
 Andre did not seek the service, though, when en 
 gaged in it, he used his best endeavors, as in duty 
 bound, to carry out its objects. Andre came up 
 the river in the sloop-of-war Vulture, as far as 
 Haverstraw Bay, and, by appointment with Ar 
 nold, landed on the west side of the river, where 
 the traitor awaited him. Arnold had engaged a 
 citizen, by the name of Joshua Smith, to conduct 
 Andre to the thick bushes in which he w^as con- 
 
ARNOLD AND ANDR& 
 
 157 
 
 cealed. " There they were left alone, and for the 
 first time the conspirators heard each other s 
 voice ; for the first time Arnold s lips uttered au 
 dibly the words of treason. There, in the gloom 
 of night, hidden from all human eyes, they dis 
 cussed their dark plans, and plotted the utter ruin 
 of the patriot cause. The hour of dawn ap 
 proached, and the conference was yet in progress. 
 Smith came, and warned them of the necessity for 
 haste. There was much yet to do, and Andre re 
 luctantly consented to mount the horse ridden by 
 Arnold s servant, and accompany the general to 
 Smith s house, nearly four miles distant. It was 
 yet dark, and the voice of a sentinel, near the vil 
 lage of Haverstraw, gave Andre the first intima 
 tion that he 
 was within the 
 American lines. 
 He felt his dan 
 ger, but it was 
 too late to re 
 cede. His uni 
 form was con 
 cealed by a long 
 
 T T . Arnold s Headquarters, opposite West Point. 
 
 blue surtout. 
 
 4 They arrived at Smith s house at dawn, and 
 at that moment they heard a cannonade in the 
 direction of the Vulture. This movement An- 
 
158 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 dre witnessed with anxiety ; but when the firing 
 ceased, his spirits revived. During that morning 
 the whole plot was arranged, and the day for its 
 consummation fixed. Andre was to return to 
 New York, and the British troops, already em 
 barked under the pretext of an expedition to the 
 Chesapeake, were to be ready to ascend the river 
 at a moment s warning. Arnold was to weaken 
 the various posts at West Point by dispersing the 
 garrisons. When the British should appear, he 
 was to send out detachments among the mount 
 ain gorges, under pretense of meeting the ene 
 my, as they approached, at a distance from the 
 works. 
 
 5. All the plans being arranged, Arnold sup 
 plied Andre with papers explaining the military 
 condition of West Point and its dependencies. 
 These he requested him to place between his 
 stockings and feet, and, in the event of accident, to 
 destroy them. He then gave him a pass, and, bid 
 ding Andre adieu, Arnold went up the river in 
 his own barge to headquarters, fully believing that 
 no obstacle lay in the way of the success of his 
 wicked scheme. Andre passed the remainder of 
 the day alone, and, as soon as evening came, ap 
 plied to Smith to take him back to the Vulture. 
 Smith refused this request, but offered to ride half 
 the night with Andre on horseback, if he would 
 
ARNOLD AND ANDRE. 159 
 
 take the land -route. This offer Andre was com 
 pelled to accept. 
 
 6. The following morning, after they had 
 parted, Major Andre set off alone on horseback 
 for New York, and while on his way, thinking 
 himself safe under the disguise of " John Ander 
 son," he was met and stopped by three young men 
 of the militia, who searched him, and found papers 
 in his boots. These papers were from General 
 Arnold, and contained an exact account of the 
 works at West Point, and other things that would 
 be of advantage to the enemy. The young men 
 committed their prisoner to the custody of Lieu 
 tenant-Colonel Jameson, who, completely bewil 
 dered, sent a messenger to Arnold, informing him 
 of the capture. 
 
 7. Poor Andre behaved like a man through all 
 the sad scenes that followed. His accomplish 
 ments, his amiable character, and his graceful 
 manners, excited universal interest, and nothing 
 was left untried to save him. It is said that 
 Washington even tried to have Arnold taken from 
 the hands of Sir Henry Clinton, in order that he 
 might be able to send back Andre in exchange. 
 The last request of the gallant officer was that he 
 might be spared the rope, and die a soldier s 
 death. But even this the stern laws of war for 
 bade. A court-martial sentenced him, and Wash- 
 
 11 
 
160 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 ington signed the death - warrant. Mr. Sparks 
 says : " There was no stronger trait in the char 
 acter of Washington than humanity ; the misfor 
 tunes and sufferings of others touched him keenly ; 
 and his feelings were deeply moved at the part he 
 was compelled to act in consenting to the death of 
 Andre." The fate of Arnold is well known. The 
 letter from Colonel Jameson gave him sufficient 
 warning to make good his escape. 
 
 Mrs. Kirkland. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 CHAMPE, 
 
 1. THE strong feeling of sympathy for Andre 
 was equaled by an intense hatred for Arnold, and 
 Washington cherished an ardent desire to capture 
 and punish this arch-traitor. To accomplish this 
 wish he called to his aid Major Henry Lee, the 
 commander of a brave legion of cavalry. Lee 
 named John Champe, the sergeant-major of his 
 corps, as every way qualified for this service, and 
 accordingly communicated to this soldier the 
 wishes of Washington. Champe was reluctant 
 to undertake the hazardous enterprise, not so much 
 from the personal risk involved, as on account of 
 
CHAMPE. 1T,1 
 
 the dishonor that might be attached to him for 
 deserting to the enemy. 
 
 2. At the earnest solicitation of the command- 
 er-in-chief, he finally consented, and during the 
 afternoon he made preparation to escape in the 
 night. The camp was several miles from the 
 Hudson, where lay a British man-of-war. In the 
 middle of the night the officer of the guard re 
 ported to Major Lee that one of the men had ap 
 proached the lines, and, when challenged, he had 
 put spurs to his horse and escaped. The major 
 said that probably the guard had mistaken a coun 
 tryman for one of the soldiers, but at last began 
 to issue orders to have the troops mustered. Soon 
 word was returned that Champe was missing, and 
 a party was organized to go in pursuit. After as 
 long a delay as he dared without exciting suspi 
 cion, Major Lee gave final orders to Lieutenant 
 Middleton, who was at the head of the pursuers 
 party. " Bring him in alive, if possible," said he, 
 u but shoot him if he resists." 
 
 3. With nearly an hour s start, Champe pur 
 sued his way at a rapid gait toward the river. 
 During the darkness the pursuers were obliged to 
 stop every little while to examine the tracks, so 
 as to be sure of taking the right road, and so were 
 delayed. In the morning the tracks were plainly 
 visible, and they rapidly gained ground. A little 
 
CHAMPS. 163 
 
 after daylight, Champe, upon reaching the summit 
 of a hill, looked back and saw his pursuers. He 
 immediately dashed on at full speed. Swift was 
 the night, and swift the pursuit. From the top 
 of the last hill overlooking the Hudson, Champe 
 made motions to the British ship, and a boat was 
 sent out to his assistance. Finding his pursuers 
 close upon him, he seized his portmanteau and 
 plunged into the river. The pursuers were checked 
 by firing from the boat, but Champe s horse was 
 captured and taken back to camp. This led the 
 soldiers to cry out, " The scoundrel is killed ! the 
 scoundrel is killed ! " And for a few minutes 
 Major Lee was in agony lest his faithful and in 
 trepid sergeant had met with a tragic end. The 
 report of Lieutenant Middleton, however, reas 
 sured him, and he patiently awaited results. 
 
 4. In the mean time Champe was taken on 
 board the British ship, and afterward sent to New 
 York. No one questioned the genuineness of the 
 desertion, for his rapid flight and plunge in the 
 water, had been witnessed by all on board the ship. 
 He was asked to enlist in the British service, and 
 he promised to give an answer after a few days 
 rest. He was soon in communication with the 
 secret spies of Washington who resided in New 
 York, and a plan of action speedily arranged. 
 
 5. For several weeks Arnold had been strictly 
 
164 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 watched. It was well known that he was prepar 
 ing to head an expedition about to sail, but the 
 destination of which was still a secret. A large 
 garden was attached to the house where the gen 
 eral had his quarters, and here every night he 
 spent an hour in walking before retiring. The 
 plan was as follows : A board was loosened in the 
 garden fence, which opened into an unfrequented 
 lane. Through this opening Champe and his aids 
 were to enter the garden and secrete themselves. 
 At a given signal a blanket was to be thrown over 
 Arnold s head, completely stifling his voice. He 
 was then to be carried through back streets to the 
 river, where a boat was in readiness to take him 
 to the Jersey shore. Should they be challenged 
 by a sentinel on the way, they would claim that 
 they were taking a drunken soldier to the guard 
 house. 
 
 6. The night was agreed upon, and everything 
 was in readiness. Major Lee sent a party with 
 led-horses to receive Champe and his prisoner 
 from the boat. Hour after hour passed, and no 
 boat appeared. The officer in charge anxiously 
 waited till the break of day, and then he reluct 
 antly gave orders to retreat, lest the party should 
 attract the attention of the enemy. The failure 
 was the result of a mere accident. On the very 
 day fixed for the enterprise Arnold changed his 
 
CHAMPE. 165 
 
 quarters to a place where he could more conven 
 iently superintend the embarkation of his troops ; 
 and Champe, who had enlisted, found himself on 
 shipboard. Here he remained until the forces 
 landed in Virginia, and then he again deserted and 
 made his way to the American lines. 
 
 7. Great was the astonishment of his old com 
 panions at his reappearance, and it was still greater 
 when they saw how cordially he was received by 
 Major Lee. The story of his adventures was 
 soon known, and he became the hero of the camp. 
 Knowing that he would be hanged if captured by 
 the enemy, he received an honorable discharge 
 from the army and a handsome reward for his 
 services. Seventeen years later Washington sought 
 him for the purpose of bestowing upon him a com 
 mission, but it was found that the gallant soldier 
 had moved to the wilds of Kentucky, and was 
 asleep in her soil. The failure to capture Arnold 
 sealed the fate of Andre, as Washington had now 
 no pretext for interfering with the due process of 
 military law. 
 
166 STORIES Of OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 STONY POINT. 
 
 1. ON the night of May 31, 1779, Sir Henry 
 Clinton sailed up the Hudson with several ships- 
 of-war and a lar^e force. He sent General Vaughn 
 
 o 
 
 with troops to the east shore. Both started at 
 midnight, Clinton to take Stony Point, Vaughn to 
 take Fort Lafayette. The twenty men at Stony 
 Point discovered Clinton s approach, and fled. Sir 
 Henry took possession of the fort, turned his guns 
 upon Lafayette, and the seventy men had to sur 
 render, for General Vaughn had cut off their re 
 treat. 
 
 2. Having captured the forts, Clinton set his 
 soldiers to work to make Stony Point a formida 
 ble fortress, which was not a difficult matter, for 
 the Point was a rocky hill projecting into the river, 
 with a marsh behind, over which the tide flowed, 
 and which was crossed by a causeway and bridge. 
 All communication between New England and the 
 other colonies was now r at West Point or above, 
 which was a great inconvenience to Washington, 
 who wished, if possible, to gain possession of 
 King s Ferry once more. But he had no troops to 
 spare to make a regular attack. If captured at all, 
 it must be by a surprise. 
 

 oV 5 * S 
 
 srazvr POINT. 167 
 
 3. There was one general in the army who was 
 well fitted to attempt the capture of Stony Point 
 by such a movement the general who, when a 
 school-boy, was always building forts, and marshal 
 ling his playmates ; neglecting his studies until his 
 good old uncle, who was educating him, gave up 
 in despair of his ever being a scholar. This was 
 General Wayne u Mad Anthony " the soldiers 
 called him, because he was terribly in earnest about 
 what he undertook. 
 
 4. General Washington met General Wayne at 
 Sandy Beach, fourteen miles from Stony Point, 
 to talk over the matter. Wayne was ready to 
 undertake such an enterprise. " I ll storm hell, 
 general, if you will only plan it ! " said Wayne. 
 " Hadn t we better try Stony Point first ? " Wash 
 ington replied. This was the plan : To make a 
 night-march ; the men with their muskets unload 
 ed, to cross the marsh at low tide ; a party in ad 
 vance with axes to clear away the abattis ; the sol 
 diers to wear white cockades, to distinguish one 
 another in the darkness, and rush with fixed bay 
 onets into the fort. 
 
 5. General Wayne and Colonel Febiger recon- 
 noitered the fort. A deserter informed General 
 Wayne in regard to its construction, and how the 
 cannon were placed. General Wayne selected his 
 troops, and thought out his plan of attack, but 
 
168 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 kept his plan to himself. At twelve o clock on 
 the 15th of July, a hot summer day, General 
 Wayne starts with his troops three regiments of 
 Continental light-infantry. He moves along nar 
 row roads so narrow and rocky and uneven, that 
 the men march some of the way in single file. 
 
 6. The sun goes down and the twilight comes 
 on. At eis;ht o clock the head of the column is at 
 
 o 
 
 Mr. Springstreet s, a mile and a half from the fort. 
 No man is allowed to speak. In silence the men 
 march, in silence they come into line, throw them 
 selves upon the ground, and eat their supper of 
 bread and cold meat. General Wayne forms his 
 men into two columns. The right column contains 
 Febiger s and Meigs s regiments and Major Hull s 
 battalion ; Colonel Butler s and Major Murfry s 
 troops compose the other. General Wayne will 
 command the right, and Colonel Butler the left. 
 The men do not know what they are to do. Up 
 to this time, Wayne has kept the plan to himself 
 and his chief officers. He orders each soldier to 
 pin a piece of white paper to his hat. They will 
 be able by that to distinguish friend from foe. 
 
 7. " We are going to attack the fort," he said, 
 " and the first man inside of it shall have five hun 
 dred dollars, and immediate promotion ; the sec 
 ond, four hundred ; the third, three hundred ; the 
 fourth, two hundred ; the fifth, one hundred. If 
 
STONY POINT. 169 
 
 any of you are so lost to the sense of honor as to 
 attempt to retreat or skulk, any officer is author 
 ized to put you to death. I shall share the dan 
 gers with you. This is the watchword, Tliefort 
 is our mvn ! 
 
 8. Till half-past eleven the men rest ; and the 
 brave general, having matured all his plans, writes 
 a letter to a friend in Philadelphia, asking him to 
 take care of his young children if he falls in the 
 assault. This done, the columns in silence move 
 toward the fort. A picket stands at the top of 
 the hill south of the bridge. Two men approach 
 him stealthily, and before he can give an alarm he 
 is a prisoner. A moment later, and the cannon 
 are flashing. On through the water, across the 
 miry marsh, to the hill, the troops move with un 
 loaded muskets. The bayonet is to win the vic 
 tory. Some fall, never more to rise ; but the others 
 work on, cutting away the timbers. They make 
 an opening, and the column, like water pouring 
 through a mill-race, rushes through. 
 
 9. A few minutes of hard work then, with 
 the bullets falling like hail about them, and the 
 men are streaming through the second opening, 
 and forming to rush upon the batteries. A shot 
 strikes the brave leader. He falls, with the warm 
 blood streaming over his face. " Forward ! for 
 ward ! Carry me into the fort ; let me die there ! " 
 
170 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 lie shouts. On, over rocks and fallen trees, led by 
 Fleury and Febiger, rush the men, to avenge the 
 fall of their leader. " The fort is our own ! " Feb 
 iger shouts. It goes up from five hundred voices. 
 Nothing can resist the furious assault. Over on 
 the left, Butler is sweeping over the breastworks. 
 " The fort is our own ! " is the answering cry, ring 
 ing out over the hills. 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 YORKTOWN. 
 
 1. THE year 1781 opened with brighter pros 
 pects for the American cause than that of any 
 year since the beginning of the war. The British 
 force in the North, under Sir Henry Clinton, 
 still held possession of New York, but it was so 
 hemmed in and so closely watched that any raid 
 by land was impossible. Their only way to move 
 was by water, and, during the previous year, sev 
 eral expeditions had been fitted out which had 
 burned some of the smaller places along the coast, 
 but which had done nothing to decide the fate of 
 the war. 
 
 2. But, while Sir Henry held New York, the 
 
YORKTOWN. 
 
 terrible Cornwallis was ravaging the South. Four 
 years ago they had learned, by the fate of Bur- 
 goyne, that there was danger in trying to march 
 through the Northern provinces, and they next 
 turned their attention to the more sparsely-settled 
 regions of South Carolina. The State was soon 
 overrun, and Georgia shared the same fate. Gen 
 eral Gates, the conqueror of Burgoyne, hastened 
 South, but his army was defeated and nearly an 
 nihilated at Camdeu. The arrogant British com 
 mander evidently thought that the rebellion was 
 nearly over, and that he was the appointed instru 
 ment to finish it. 
 
 3. Only two things now stood in the way of 
 his complete success : Marion the " Swamp-Fox," 
 as he was called kept up a partisan warfare in 
 South Carolina, keeping the British constantly 
 annoyed, cutting off their supplies and capturing 
 raiding parties. Then General Greene advanced 
 from the North, with an army that often suffered 
 defeat, but which Cornwallis found so formidable 
 that after each victory he felt obliged to retreat, 
 leaving the battle-field finally in the possession of 
 his adversary. 
 
 4. Leaving his plans half executed in the Car- 
 olinas, Cornwallis resolved to invade what he 
 termed "the opulent province of Virginia." In 
 May he began his march from Wilmington, North 
 
172 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 Carolina, and on the 20th of that month he reached 
 Petersburg. A force under Lafayette was too 
 small to arrest the progress of the advancing Brit 
 ish, and at one time it seemed that Virginia would 
 be overcome as the Carolinas had been the year 
 before. Greene was busy in reconquering the 
 South, and Washington was preparing to invest 
 New York, and so Lafayette could expect no aid 
 from either of them. 
 
 5. Two unexpected obstacles were now en 
 countered by the British commander. Lafayette 
 was re-enforced by a thousand Pennsylvanians un 
 der General Wayne, and Sir Henry Clinton gave 
 peremptory orders to send forward three thousand 
 men to assist in the defense of New York. Corn- 
 wallis reluctantly obeyed, and turned his army 
 from the path of victory in Central Virginia down 
 the peninsula, so as to reach a point on the bay 
 where he could be in communication with his 
 ships. He reached Yorktown during the first 
 week in August, where he went into camp, strong 
 ly intrenched himself, and awaited events. 
 
 6. Washington in the mean time was preparing 
 to attack Sir Henry Clinton at New York. A 
 large French fleet under the Count de Grasse was 
 expected to appear off New York Harbor about 
 the 1st of September, when the final assault was 
 to be made. But, on the 14th of August, the 
 
YORKTO WN. 173 
 
 news came that the destination of De Grasse was 
 the Chesapeake instead of New York. Washing 
 ton immediately changed his own plans so as to 
 co-operate with his allies. He issued his orders, 
 and soon his whole army was in light marching 
 order on their way south. So quietly was this 
 done that Clinton never knew the American army 
 was in motion until they were near the point of 
 their destination, and it was too late to impede 
 their march. On the 27th of September the army 
 had concentrated, and, in co-operation with the 
 French fleet, sat down to the siege of Yorktown. 
 
 7. Cornwallis scuttled his ships, to prevent 
 them falling into the hands of the French, but 
 prepared for a most vigorous defense. Washing 
 ton was anxious to press the siege, for almost any 
 day a British fleet might be expected, which would 
 drive De Grrasse away. Besides, he wished to take 
 advantage of the enthusiasm of the troops at the 
 prospect they had of speedily capturing the hated 
 Cornwallis. 
 
 8. On the night of the 14th of October a com 
 bined attack was made upon the works of the 
 enemy. The place was bravely defended, but 
 nothing could resist the desperate assault of the 
 French and American troops. Under a furious 
 fire of grape and canister, they charged across 
 the open space before the town, climbed the para- 
 
174 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 pets, and engaged in a hand-to-hand conflict with 
 the best and the bravest of Cornwallis s army. 
 The French saw with amazement that the rude 
 peasant soldiery of the Western wilds, in discipline, 
 valor, and achievement, was equal to the trained 
 battalions of Europe ; and the Americans viewed 
 the skill and courage of their allies with ever-in 
 creasing respect. The outposts were won, and the 
 British position was rendered untenable. Nothing 
 remained but to retreat or to surrender. But 
 Washington has so ordered his army that retreat 
 was impossible. 
 
 9. On the 17th of October, the anniversary of 
 the surrender of Burgoyne, as the allied armies 
 were about to recommence the assault, a flag of 
 truce made its appearance, asking a cessation of 
 hostilities with a view to surrender. Two days 
 after (October 19th), Cornwallis s whole force of 
 more than seven thousand men marched out and 
 laid down their arms. 
 
 10. The scene was one never to be forgotten in 
 the history of America. The day was bright with, 
 autumnal sunshine. The officers of three nations 
 were present dressed in their finest uniforms. The 
 buff and blue of Washington and his companions 
 compared well with the gayer colors of the French 
 and the deep scarlet of the English. In the pres 
 ence of the assembled allies the British troops 
 
YORKTOWN. 175 
 
 marched out in continuous columns and stacked 
 their arms. Their labor and danger were over for 
 the present, and they could rest, and so a feeling 
 of satisfaction mitigated the chagrin of defeat. 
 
 o o 
 
 Not so the officers ; their faces plainly showed 
 their bitter disappointment at a situation so strange 
 and unexpected. 
 
 11. On the part of the allies all was serene. 
 On the one side was the majestic figure of Wash 
 ington, with his military family and principal 
 officers by his side. Lafayette, Steuben, Knox, 
 Wayne, Hamilton, Lincoln, all were there. Op 
 posite them, dressed in the gorgeous uniform of 
 the Grand Empire, were De Grasse, Rochanibeau, 
 and their companions. Back of the officers were 
 drawn up the serried ranks of the allied armies. 
 As the British columns made their appearance, 
 they were received in silence, and not one word 
 of triumph was uttered to add to the humiliation 
 of the foe ; but every countenance shone with a 
 luster born of the thought of the hardships en 
 dured, the victory achieved, and of the beloved 
 homes which might now be sought after eight 
 weary years in camp and field. 
 
 12, Cornwallis, unable to bear the humiliation 
 of the scene, kept his tent, and commissioned Gen 
 eral O Hara to represent him on the momentous 
 occasion. Upon the presentation of the sword 
 
 12 
 
176 
 
 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 sent by Cornwallis as a token of liis surrender, 
 Washington waved his hand that it might be given 
 
 to General Lincoln, in 
 retaliation of a like hu 
 miliation put upon Lin 
 coln the year before at 
 the surrender of Savannah. But at last the pa 
 geant was over, the prisoners secured, and the day 
 spent and the War of the Revolution was prac 
 tically ended. 
 
 13. And well may Washington rejoice ! His 
 military policy had been successful, and his last 
 
PERRY AND LAKE ERIE. 177 
 
 strategy was crowned with final victory. Hence 
 forth he is to be ranked among the great military 
 commanders of the age. With retrospect he traced 
 all those weary years from Bunker Hill to York- 
 town, and with prophetic vision he saw, as a 
 consequence, stretching across a continent a coun 
 try smiling in peace and plenty, the home of 
 freemen, and the refuge of the oppressed of all 
 lands. No thought of personal ambition or ag 
 grandizement served to mar the beauty of this 
 vision, and the tired soldier gladly relinquished 
 almost unlimited power, and retired to his unpre 
 tending and beloved home at Mount Vernon. 
 
 XXXIII. 
 PERRY AND LAKE ERIE, 
 
 1. THE War of 1812 was a second struggle of 
 the United States to complete their independence 
 of British rule and interference. In this war the 
 opposing forces were often brought into action on 
 the seas and lakes. One of the gallant command 
 ers was Captain Lawrence, of the Chesapeake, who 
 had engaged with the British ship Shannon off the 
 harbor of Boston on June 5, 1813. In this encoun- 
 
178 
 
 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 ter Lawrence was killed by a musket-ball, and his 
 last words were, " Don t give up the ship ! " Three 
 months later occurred the bat 
 tle of Lake Erie, in which Com 
 modore Perry proved himself 
 to be one of the bravest of 
 American heroes, as will appear 
 by some extracts from the de 
 scription of this battle by B. J. 
 Lossing, the historian: 
 
 2. " Sail ho ! were the 
 stirring words that rang out 
 loud and clear from the mast 
 head of the Lawrence on the warm and pleasant 
 morning of the 10th of September, 1813. That 
 herald s proclamation was not unexpected to Perry. 
 Day after day, from the rocky heights of Gibraltar 
 Island, now known as Perry s Lookout, he had 
 pointed his glass anxiously in the direction of Mai 
 den. On the evening of the 9th he called around 
 him the officers of his squadron, and gave instruc 
 tions to each in writing, for he was determined to 
 attack the enemy at his anchorage the next day if 
 he did not come out. To each vessel its antagonist 
 on the British side was assigned, the size and charac 
 ter of them having been communicated to him by 
 Captain Brevoort, whose family lived in Detroit. 
 The Lawrence was assigned to the Detroit; the 
 
PERRY AND LAKE ERIE. 17Q 
 
 Niagara to the Queen Charlotte, and so on ; and 
 to each officer he said in substance, l Engage your 
 antagonist in close action, keeping on the line at 
 half-cable length from the vessel of our squadron 
 ahead of you. 
 
 3. "It was about ten o clock when the confer 
 ence ended. The moon was at its full, and it was 
 a spendid autumn night. Just before they parted, 
 Perry brought out a large square battle-flag, which, 
 at his request, Mr. Hambleton, the purser, had 
 caused to be privately prepared at Erie. It was 
 blue, and bore in large letters, made of white mus 
 lin, the dying words of the gallant commander of 
 the Chesapeake, * Don t give up the ship ! l When 
 this flag shall be hoisted to the main-royal mast 
 head, said the commodore, l it shall be your signal 
 for going into action. As the officers were leaving, 
 he said : i Gentlemen, remember your instructions. 
 Nelson has expressed my ideas in the words, "If 
 you lay your enemy close alongside, you can not be 
 out of your place." Good-night. 
 
 4, " The cry of Sail ho ! was soon followed 
 by signals to the fleet of Enemy in sight ! Get 
 under way ! and the voices of the boatswains 
 sounding through the squadron and echoing from 
 the shores the command, All hands up anchor, 
 ahoy ! At sunrise the British vessels were all 
 seen upon the northwestern horizon 
 
180 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 Six barks trained for battle, the red flag displaying, 
 By Barclay commanded, their wings wide outspread, 
 
 Forsake their stronghold, on broad Erie essaying 
 To meet with that foe they so lately did dread ! 
 
 Old Ballad. 
 
 5. " At a little past ten o clock Perry s line was 
 formed according to the plan arranged the previous 
 evening, the Niagara in the van. The Lawrence 
 was cleared for action, and the battle-flag bearing 
 the words i Don t give up the ship ! in letters large 
 enough to be seen by the whole squadron, was 
 brought out and displayed. The commodore then 
 addressed his officers and crew a few stirring words, 
 and concluded by saying : i My brave lads, this 
 flag contains the last words of Captain Lawrence. 
 Shall I hoist it ? Ay, ay, sir ! they all shouted, 
 as with one voice, and in a moment it was run up 
 the main -royal mast-head of the flag-ship, amid 
 cheer after cheer, not only from the Lawrence but 
 from the whole squadron. It was the signal for 
 battle. 
 
 6. " The sun was within fifteen minutes of the 
 meridian when the bugle sounded on board the 
 Detroit as a signal for action, and the bands of the 
 British squadron struck up Rule Britannia. A 
 shout went up from that little squadron, and a 
 twenty-four-pounder shot from the enemy s flag 
 ship was sent booming over the waters toward the 
 
PERRY AND LAKE ERIE. 181 
 
 Lawrence, then a mile and a half distant. It was 
 evident that Barclay appreciated the advantage of 
 his long guns and wished to fight at a distance, 
 while Perry resolved to press to close quarters be 
 fore opening his fire. 
 
 7. " That first shot from the enemy fell short. 
 Another, five minutes later, went crashing through 
 the bulwarks of the Lawrence. It stirred the 
 blood of her gallant men, but, at the command of 
 Perry, she remained silent. Steady, boys, steady! 
 he said, while his dark eye flashed with the excite 
 ment of the moment an excitement which was 
 half smothered by his judgment. Slowly the 
 American line, with the light wind abeam, moved 
 toward that of the enemy, the two forming an 
 acute angle of about fifteen degrees : 
 
 Sublime the pause, when down the gleaming tide 
 The virgin galleys to the conflict glide ; 
 The very wind, as if in awe or grief, 
 Scarce makes a ripple or disturbs a leaf. 
 
 Tuckerman. 
 
 Signals were given for each vessel to engage its 
 antagonist. The battle now began on the part of 
 the Americans. 
 
 8. " Perry soon perceived that he was too far 
 distant to damage the enemy materially, so he 
 ordered word to be sent from vessel to vessel, by 
 trumpet, for all to make sail, bear down upon Bar- 
 
182 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 clay, and engage in close combat. The order was 
 transmitted by Lieutenant Elliott, who was sec 
 ond in command, but he failed to obey it himself. 
 For two hours the gallant Perry and his devoted 
 ship bore the brunt of the battle with twice his 
 force, aided only by the schooners on his weather- 
 bow and some feeble shots from the distant Cale 
 donia when she could spare them from her ad 
 versary the Hunter. During that tempest of war 
 his vessel was terribly shattered. Her rigging 
 was nearly all shot away ; her sails were torn into 
 shreds; her spars were battered into splinters; 
 her guns were dismounted. The carnage on her 
 deck had been terrible. Out of one hundred and 
 three sound men, twenty-two were slain and sixty- 
 one were wounded. 
 
 9. " He had fought as long as possible. More 
 than two hours had worn away in the conflict. 
 His vessel lay helpless and silent upon the almost 
 unruffled bosom of the lake. His last effective 
 heavy gun had been fired by himself, assisted by 
 his purser and chaplain. Only fourteen persons 
 remained on his deck, and only nine of these were 
 seamen. A less hopeful man would have pulled 
 down his flag in despair ; but Perry s spirit was 
 too lofty to be touched by common misfortunes. 
 From his mast-head floated the admonition, as if 
 audibly spoken by the brave Lawrence, Don t 
 
PERRY AND LAKE ERIE. 
 
 183 
 
 give up the ship. The Niagara was stanch, 
 swift, and apparently unhurt, for she had kept 
 far away from danger. He determined to fly to 
 her deck, spread all needful sail to catch the 
 stiffening breeze, bear down swift upon the crip 
 pled enemy, break his line, and make a bold 
 stroke for victory. 
 
 10. " With the calmness of perfect assurance, 
 Perry laid aside his blue nankeen sailor s jacket 
 
 Perry leaving his Flag-ship. 
 
 which he had worn all 
 day, and put on the 
 uniform of his rank, 
 as if conscious that he should secure a victory. 
 
184- STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 Yarnall, lie said, 1 1 leave the Lawrence in your 
 charge, with discretionary powers. He had al 
 ready ordered his boat to be lowered, his broad 
 pennant, and the banner with its glorious words, 
 to be taken down, but leaving the stars and stripes 
 floating defiantly over the battered hulk. With 
 these, his little brother, and four stout seamen 
 for the oars, he started upon his perilous voyage, 
 anxiously watched by Yarnall and his companions. 
 1 1. " He stood upright in his boat, the pennant 
 and the banner half folded around him, a mark 
 for the anxious eyes of his own men and for the 
 guns of the enemy. The latter discovered the 
 movement. Barclay, who \vas badly wounded, 
 and whose flag-ship was almost dismantled, w r ell 
 knew that, if Perry should tread the quarter-deck 
 of the fresh Niagara as commander, his squadron 
 would be in great danger of defeat. He therefore 
 ordered great and little guns to be brought to 
 bear upon the frail vessel, laden with a hero of 
 purest mold. Cannon-balls, grape, canister, and 
 musket-shot were hurled in showers toward the 
 little boat during the fifteen minutes that it was 
 making its way from the Lawrence to the Niagara. 
 The oars were splintered, bullets traversed the 
 boat, and the crew were covered with the spray 
 caused by the falling of heavy round and grape 
 shot in the water near. 
 
PERRY AND LAKE ERIE. 185 
 
 12. "Perry stood erect, unmindful of danger. 
 His men entreated him to be seated. At length, 
 when his oarsmen threatened to cease labor if he 
 did not sit down, he consented to do so. A few 
 minutes later they were all climbing to the deck 
 of the Niagara, entirely unharmed, and greeted 
 with the loud cheers of the Americans, who had 
 watched the movement with breathless anxiety. 
 Perry^was met at the gangway by the astonished 
 Elliott. There were hurried questions and an 
 swers. How goes the day ? asked Elliott. t Bad 
 enough, responded Periy ; why are the gun 
 boats so far astern ? I ll bring them up, said 
 Elliott. t Do so, responded Perry. He immedi 
 ately ran up his pennant, displayed the blue ban 
 ner, hoisted the signal for close action, and re 
 ceived quick responses and cheers from the whole 
 squadron. 
 
 13. "Perry s movement against the British 
 line was successful. He broke it ; passed at half 
 pistol-shot distance the ships of the enemy, and 
 poured in tremendous broadsides right and left 
 from double-shotted guns. He rounded -to and 
 raked the Detroit and Queen Charlotte, which 
 had got foul of each other. Close and deadly was 
 his fire upon them with great guns and musketry. 
 The fight was terrible for a few moments, and the 
 combatants were completely enveloped in smoke. 
 
186 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 It was three o clock in the afternoon when the 
 flag of the Detroit was lowered. The roar of can 
 non ceased ; and, as the blue vapor of battle was 
 borne away by the breeze, it was discovered that 
 the two squadrons were intermingled. The vic 
 tory was complete. The flag of the Lawrence 
 had indeed been struck to the enemy, but she 
 had not been taken possession of. She was yet 
 free, and, with a feeble shout that floated not far 
 over the waters, her exhausted crew flung out the 
 flag of their country from her mast-head. 
 
 14. "This triumph was a remarkable one in 
 American and British history. Never before had 
 an American fleet or squadron encountered an 
 enemy in regular line of battle, and never before, 
 since England created a navy and boasted that 
 
 < Britannia rules the wave/ 
 
 had a whole British squadron been captured. It 
 was a proud moment for Perry and his compan 
 ions. When Perry s eye perceived at a glance- 
 that victory was secure, he wrote, in pencil, on 
 the back of an old letter, resting it upon his navy 
 cap, that remarkable dispatch to General Harrison 
 whose first clause has been so often quoted, We 
 have met the enemy, and they are ours ! : 
 
TEE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. 187 
 
 XXXIV. 
 THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. 
 
 1. DUEING the War of 1812, and one year after 
 the battle of Lake Erie, occurred the attack upon 
 Fort McHeniy at Baltimore. While movements 
 were in operation on land, the British fleet was 
 preparing to perform a conspicuous part in the 
 drama. Frigates, schooners, and sloops had en 
 tered the Patapsco early on the morning of the 
 12th and anchored off Fort McHeury, beyond the 
 reach of its guns. During the night of the 12th, 
 the fleet made full preparations for an attack on 
 the fort on the morning of the 13th. Fort Me- 
 Henry was commanded by a brave soldier, and de 
 fended by gallant companions. 
 
 2. The bombardment from the vessels was con 
 tinued until seven o clock on the morning of the 
 14th, when it ceased entirely. The night had been 
 passed in the greatest anxiety by the inhabitants 
 of Baltimore, for in the maintenance of Fort 
 McHeniy was their chief hope for the safety of 
 the city. An incident which occurred at that time 
 gave birth to one of the most popular of our na 
 tional songs, " The Star-Spangled Banner," in which 
 that anxiety is graphically expressed. It was 
 written by Francis S. Key, who was a resident of 
 
188 
 
 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, and then 
 a volunteer in the light artillery commanded by 
 
 Major Peter. 
 
 3. Under a flag of truce 
 Mr. Key had been sent, in 
 company with General J. S. 
 Skinner, to seek the release 
 of Dr. Beames, whom the 
 British held as a prisoner. 
 The commander agreed to 
 release Beames, but Key and 
 his party were not permitted 
 to return just then, lest the 
 
 intended bombardment of Baltimore should be 
 disclosed. They were, therefore, brought up the 
 bay to the mouth of the Patapsco, and placed on 
 
THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. 189 
 
 board the ship Minden, under the guns of the frig 
 ate, where they were compelled to witness the ac 
 tion against Fort McHenry, which the admiral had 
 boasted he would carry in a few hours. Key watch 
 ed the flag that floated over the fort through the 
 day with an anxiety that absorbed every other emo 
 tion, until the gathering darkness threw its mantle 
 over the scene. In the night the bursting bombs 
 still spoke of successful resistance, and at early dawn 
 his eye was again greeted by the flag of his country. 
 4. It was under these circumstances that he 
 composed " The Star-Spangled Banner," descriptive 
 of the scenes of that doubtful night, and of his own 
 excited feelings. As the struggle ceases, upon the 
 coming morn, uncertain of the result, his eye seeks 
 for the banner of his hope, and he asks in doubt : 
 
 5. Oh, say, can you see by the dawn s early light 
 What so proudly we hailed at the twilight s 
 
 last gleaming 
 Whose broad stripes and bright stars through 
 
 the perilous fight, 
 
 O er the ramparts we watched, were so gal 
 lantly streaming ? 
 
 And the rocket s red glare, the bombs burst 
 ing in air, 
 
 Gave proof through the night that cur flag 
 was still there ! 
 
190 STGLIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet 
 
 wave 
 O er the land of the free and the home of 
 
 the brave ? 
 
 6. And then, as through the mists is dimly 
 seen the stripes and stars fluttering in the first 
 rays of the morning sun, he triumphantly ex 
 claims : 
 
 7. On that shore dimly seen through the mists of 
 
 the deep, 
 
 Where the foe s haughty host in dread si 
 lence reposes, 
 
 What is that which the breeze, o er the tower- 
 
 ing steep, 
 
 As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half dis 
 closes ? 
 
 Now it catches the gleam of the morning s 
 first beam, 
 
 In full glory reflected, now shines on the 
 stream ; 
 
 Tis the star-spangled banner ; oh, long may it 
 wave 
 
 O er the land of the free and the home of 
 the brave ! 
 
 8. The next two stanzas are in the spirit of 
 true prophecy inspired by the occasion : 
 
THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. 191 
 
 9, And where is that band who so vauntingly 
 
 swore 
 
 That the havoc of war and the battle s con 
 fusion 
 
 A home and a country would leave us no 
 
 more ? 
 
 Their blood has washed out their foul foot 
 steps pollution ! 
 
 No refuge could save the hireling and slave 
 
 From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the 
 grave ; 
 
 And the star-spangled banner in triumph 
 doth wave 
 
 O er the land of the free and the home of 
 the brave ! 
 
 10. Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall 
 
 stand 
 Between their loved homes and the war s 
 
 desolation ! 
 
 Blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven- 
 rescued land- 
 
 Praise the Power that hath made and pre 
 served us a nation ! 
 Then conquer we must, for our cause it is 
 
 just, 
 
 And this be our motto, "In God is our 
 trust ! " 
 
192 STORIES OF OUk COUNTRY. 
 
 And the star-spangled banner in triumph 
 
 shall wave 
 O er the land of the free and the home of 
 
 the brave ! 
 
 xxxv. 
 BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. 
 
 1. THE War of 1812 lasted about three years. 
 During the year 1814, the British army captured 
 and plundered many towns and cities on the 
 Southern coast, burned the Capitol and the Presi 
 dent s house at Washington, and attacked New 
 Orleans. General Andrew Jackson defended the 
 city with a much smaller force than that which 
 made the attack. He fortified the city with breast 
 works built of cotton-bales, and from behind 
 them repulsed the British army of twelve thou 
 sand, with a loss of but eight Americans killed. 
 This was the battle of New Orleans, and was fought 
 January 8, 1815. The treaty of peace had been 
 signed December 24, 1814, but the news of it had 
 not yet reached the contending armies. 
 
 2. At one o clock on the morning of this 
 memorable day, on a couch in a room of the 
 
BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. 193 
 
 McCarty mansion-house, General Jackson lay asleep 
 in his worn uniform. Several of his aides slept 
 on the floor in the same apartment, all equipped 
 for the field, except that their sword-belts were 
 unbuckled, and their swords and pistols laid aside. 
 Sentinels moved noiselessly about the building, 
 which loomed up large, dim, and silent in the foggy 
 night, among the darkening trees, Most of those 
 who slept at all that night were still asleep, and 
 there was as yet little stir in either camp to dis 
 turb their slumbers. 
 
 3. Dreaming of their Scottish hills and 
 homes, their English fields and friends, may have 
 been many brave Britons in their cold and wet 
 bivouac. O tardy Science, O Morse, O Cyrus 
 Field, why were you not ready with your oceanic 
 telegraph then, to tell those men of both armies 
 when they awoke that they were not enemies, but 
 friends and brothers, and send them joyful into 
 one another s arms ? The ship that bore the 
 blessed news of peace was still in mid-ocean, con 
 tending with its wintry winds and waves. How 
 much would have gone differently in our history 
 if those tidings had arrived a few weeks sooner ! 
 
 4. Jackson looked at his watch. It was past 
 one. " Gentlemen," said he to his dozing aides, 
 "we have slept enough. Rise. The enemy will 
 be upon us in a few minutes ! I must go and 
 
194 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 see Coffee." The order was obeyed promptly. 
 Sword-belts were buckled, pistols resumed, and 
 in a few minutes the party were ready to begin 
 the duties of the day. There was little for the 
 American troops to do but to repair to their posts. 
 By four o clock in the morning, along the whole 
 line of works, every man- was in his place, and 
 everything was ready. 
 
 5. The Mississippi was not visible, its waters 
 being covered with fog; nor was there a single 
 soldier, save our own little phalanx, to be seen, 
 or the tramp of a horse or a single footstep to 
 be heard, by way of announcing that the battle- 
 scene was about to begin. And the only words 
 which now escaped the officers were " Steady, men ; 
 steady, men ! " These warnings were quite unne 
 cessary, as every soldier was, as it were, transfixed 
 like fox-hunters, waiting with breathless expecta 
 tion, and casting significant looks one at the other 
 before Reynard breaks cover. 
 
 6. The suspense was soon over. Daylight 
 struggled through the mist. About six o clock 
 the head of the army was advancing at the steady, 
 solid British pace to the attack. The column 
 soon came up with the American outposts, who at 
 first retreated slowly before it, but soon quickened 
 their pace and ran in, bearing their great news, 
 and putting every man in the works intensely on 
 
BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. 195 
 
 the alert ; each commander anxious for the honor 
 of first getting a glimpse of the foe, and opening 
 fire upon him. 
 
 7. Lieutenant Spotts was the first man in the 
 American lines who descried through the fog the 
 dim red line of General Gibbs, the British com 
 mander s advancing column, far down the plain, 
 close to the forest. The thunder of his great guns 
 broke the stillness. Then there was silence again. 
 The fog lifted and soon revealed both divisions, 
 which seemed to cover two thirds of the plain. 
 Three cheers from Carroll s men ; three cheers 
 from the Kentuckians behind them ! 
 
 8. Steadily and fast the column of General 
 Gibbs marched toward the American batteries. 
 Astheyneared the lines, the well- aimed shot made 
 more dreadful havoc, cutting great lanes in the 
 column from front to rear, and tossing men aloft 
 or hurling them far on one side. At length, still 
 steady and unbroken, they came within range of 
 the small-arms, the rifles of Carroll s Tennessee- 
 ans, the muskets of Adams s Kentuckians, four 
 lines of sharp-shooters, one behind the other. Gen 
 eral Carroll, coolly waiting for the right moment, 
 held his guns mute till the enemy were within two 
 hundred yards, and then gave the word " Fire ! " 
 
 9. At first with a certain deliberation, after 
 ward in hottest haste, always with deadly effect, 
 
196 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 the riflemen plied their terrible weapon. The 
 noise was peculiar and altogether indescribable a 
 rolling, bursting, echoing noise, never to be forgot 
 ten by a man that heard it. Along the whole line 
 it blazed and rolled, the British batteries on the 
 other side of the river joining in the hellish con 
 cert. Imagine it ! Ask no man to describe it. 
 Our words were mostly made before such a scene 
 was possible. 
 
 10. Brief was the unequal contest. Colonel 
 Rennie, Captain Henry, Major King, three only of 
 the British column, reached the summit of the 
 rampart near the river s edge. " Hurrah, boys ! " 
 cried Rennie, already wounded, as the three officers 
 gained the breastwork "hurrah, boys! the day 
 is ours ! " At that moment, Seal s New Orleans 
 sharp-shooters, withdrawing a few paces for better 
 aim, fired a volley, and the three noble soldiers fell 
 headlong into the ditch. 
 
 11. A pleasant story connected with the ad 
 vance of Colonel Rennie s column is related. As 
 the detachments along the road advanced, their 
 bugler, a boy of fourteen or fifteen, climbing a 
 small tree within two hundred yards of the Ameri 
 can lines, straddled a limb, and continued to blow 
 the charge with all his power. 
 
 12. There he remained during the whole ac 
 tion, while the cannon-balls and bullets plowed 
 
BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. 197 
 
 the ground around him, killed scores of men, and 
 tore even the branches of the tree in which he 
 sat. At last, when the British had entirely aban 
 doned the ground, an American soldier, passing 
 from the lines, captured the little bugler and 
 brought him into camp. Here he was greatly as 
 tonished when some of the enthusiastic Creoles, 
 who had observed his gallantry, actually embraced 
 him, and officers and men vied with each other in 
 acts of kindness to so gallant a little soldier. 
 
 13. How long a time, does the reader think, 
 elapsed between the fire of the first American gun 
 and the total rout of the attacking column? 
 Twenty -five minutes ! Xot that the American 
 fire ceased, or even slackened, at the end of that 
 period ; but in the space of twenty -five minutes 
 the discomfiture of the enemy in the open field 
 was complete. The scene behind the American 
 works during the fire can be easily imagined. The 
 batteries alone at the center of the works, con 
 tributed anything to the fortunes of the day. 
 
 14. When the action began, Jackson walked 
 along the left of the lines, speaking a few words 
 of good cheer to the men as he passed the several 
 corps : " Stand to your guns. Don t waste your 
 ammunition ! See that every shot tells ! Give it 
 to them, boys ! Let us finish the business to-day ! " 
 Such words as these escaped him now and then ; 
 
198 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 the men not engaged cheering him as he went by. 
 At eight o clock, there being no signs of a re 
 newed attack, and no enemy in sight, an order 
 was sent along the lines to cease firing with the 
 small-arms. 
 
 15. The whole army crossed to the parapet, 
 and looked over into the field. What a scene was 
 gradually disclosed to them ! The plain was cov 
 ered and heaped with dead and wounded, as well 
 as with those who had fallen paralyzed by fear 
 alone. " I never had," Jackson said, " so grand 
 and awful an idea of the resurrection as on that 
 day. After the smoke of battle had cleared off, 
 I saw more than five hundred Britons emerging 
 from the heaps of their dead comrades and com 
 ing forward and surrendering as prisoners of war. 
 They had fallen at our first fire upon them, with 
 out having received so much as a scratch, and lay 
 prostrate, as if dead, until the close of the action." 
 
 16. The American army, to their credit be it 
 said, were appalled and silenced at the scene be 
 fore them. Seven hundred killed, fourteen hun 
 dred wounded, five hundred prisoners, were the 
 dread result of that twenty-five minutes work. 
 Jackson s loss, as all the world knows, was eight 
 killed and thirteen wounded. 
 
 Parton. 
 
BUENA VISTA. 199 
 
 XXXVII. 
 BUENA VISTA. 
 
 1. SOON after Texas was admitted into the 
 Union, a war broke out between the United States 
 and Mexico. The United States claimed Texas 
 as an independent country, while Mexico regarded 
 it as a revolted State. A United States army, 
 under General Taylor, took possession of the dis 
 puted territory, and this led to collisions with the 
 Mexican forces, and soon after to a declaration of 
 war. Then General Taylor was ordered to ad 
 vance across the Rio Grande into the Mexican ter 
 ritory. With a small force not exceeding five 
 thousand men, he crossed the river and drove away 
 the Mexican army sent to oppose him, and took 
 up his line of march for the important city of 
 Monterey. This place contained ten thousand in 
 habitants, and was held by a Mexican force of ten 
 thousand men. "With his little army Taylor boldly 
 advanced to the attack, and for three clays the 
 battle lasted, the Mexicans fighting bravely from 
 street to street. At last the determined valor of 
 the Northern soldiers won, and the Mexicans were 
 forced to capitulate. 
 
 2. Taylor remained at Monterey from Novem 
 ber to February, hoping that, with the fall of the 
 
200 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 city, tlie war would terminate. But, at the end 
 of that time, he was again ordered to advance. 
 His army now numbered in all only five thousand 
 men, and with this small force he marched into 
 the heart of a country of eight million inhabit 
 ants. In his advance he was obliged to traverse 
 narrow passes in the mountains to reach the plains 
 above ; and, after a toilsome march, he found him 
 self face to face with the Mexican general, Santa 
 Anna, at the head of an army of twenty thousand 
 men. 
 
 3. Knowing the disparity of forces, General 
 Taylor immediately took position in the pass of 
 Buena Vista, where he awaited the movement of 
 the Mexicans. The high, steep ridges and the 
 deep ravines of the pass were unfavorable to the 
 successful movement of a large body of men, and 
 Santa Anna found that it was impossible for him 
 to use all his force to the best advantage. Here 
 the battle took place on the 22d and 23d of Feb 
 ruary, 1847. The charge of the Mexicans upon 
 the American lines was strong and courageous, 
 and for a time was successful. The Americans 
 were driven back, and the retreat would have been 
 turned into a rout had it not been for the fine dis 
 cipline of the men and the obstinate valor of Gen 
 eral Taylor, who would not believe that he could 
 be beaten. 
 
BUENA VISTA. 201 
 
 4. The cavalry of the Americans did most ef 
 ficient service, and the Mexicans were perfectly 
 amazed to witness the quickness of movement and 
 rapidity of firing of the American light artillery. 
 A battery would be in place, and, before the 
 smoke of a discharge had blown away, it was seen 
 in full gallop to another part of the field, where 
 it could perform more deadly service. 
 
 5. Toward the close of the afternoon of the 
 second day, the Mexican attacks became more 
 feeble, and at last ceased altogether. General 
 Taylor disposed his forces so as to renew the 
 battle the next morning ; but it was found that 
 in the night Santa Anna had retreated, leaving 
 his camp and wounded in the hands of the victors. 
 The loss of the Americans in this conflict was six 
 hundred and forty-six, and that of the Mexicans 
 two thousand. Upon the retreat many of the 
 Mexicans deserted, and Santa Anna reached his 
 capital fleeing before an invading force of five 
 thousand, with a loss of upward of ten thousand, 
 or more than half his army. The success of Gen 
 eral Taylor brought his name before the public, 
 and in 1848 he was elected President of the 
 United States. An incident in the battle of 
 Buena Vista gave rise to Whittier s fine poem, 
 which follows : 
 
202 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 THE ANGELS OF BUENA VISTA. 
 
 6. Speak and tell us, our Ximena, looking northward 
 
 far away, 
 O er the camp of the invaders, o er the Mexican 
 
 array, 
 Who is losing? Who is winning? Are they far, 
 
 or come they near? 
 Look abroad, and tell us, sister, whither rolls the 
 
 storm we hear? 
 
 7. " Down the hills of Angostura still the storm of 
 
 battle rolls ; 
 Blood is flowing, men are dying; God have mercy 
 
 on their souls ! " 
 Who is losing? Who is winning? " Over hill and 
 
 over plain 
 I see but smoke of cannon clouding through the 
 
 mountain rain." 
 
 8. Holy Mother ! keep our brothers ! Look, Ximena, 
 
 look once more ! 
 " Still I see the fearful whirlwind rolling darkly as 
 
 before 
 Bearing on, in strange confusion, friend and foeman, 
 
 man and horse, 
 Like some wild and troubled torrent sweeping down 
 
 its mountain course ! " 
 
 9. Look forth once more, Ximena ! " Ah ! the smoke 
 
 has rolled away, 
 
BUENA VISTA. 203 
 
 And I see the Northern rifles gleaming down the 
 
 ranks of gray. 
 Hark ! that sudden blast of bugles ! There the troop 
 
 of Minon wheels ! 
 There the Northern horses thunder, with the cannon 
 
 at their heels. 
 
 10. " Jesu, pity ! how it thickens ! Now retreat and 
 
 now advance ! 
 Right against the blazing cannon shivers Puebla s 
 
 charging lance ! 
 Down they go, the brave young riders, horse and 
 
 foot together fall ; 
 Like a plowshare in the fallow, through them plows 
 
 the Northern ball ! " 
 
 11. Nearer comes the storm and nearer, rolling fast and 
 
 frightful on. 
 Speak, Ximena, speak and tell us, who has lost, and 
 
 who has won ? 
 " Alas ! alas ! I know not ; friend and foe together 
 
 fall: 
 O er the dying rush the living ; pray, my sisters, for 
 
 them all ! 
 
 12. u Lo ! the wind the smoke is lifting ; blessed Mother, 
 
 save my brain ! 
 I can see the wounded crawling slowly out from 
 
 heaps of slain ! 
 Now they stagger, blind and bleeding ; now they 
 
 fall, and strive to rise ; 
 Hasten, sisters, haste and save them, lest they die 
 
 before our eyes ! 
 
204 STORIES OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 13. " Oh, my heart s love ! Oh, my dear one, lay thy 
 
 poor head on my knee ! 
 Dost thou know the lips that kiss thee ? Canst thou 
 
 hear me ? Canst thou see ? 
 Oil, my husband, brave and gentle ! Oh, my Ber- 
 
 nal ! look once more 
 On the blessed cross before thee ! Mercy ! mercy ! 
 
 all is o er ! " 
 
 14. Dry thy tears, my poor Ximena ; lay thy dear one 
 
 down to rest ; 
 Let his hands be meekly folded, lay the cross upon 
 
 his breast ; 
 Let his dirge be sung hereafter, and his funeral 
 
 masses said : 
 To-day, thou poor, bereaved one, the living ask thy 
 
 aid. 
 
 15. Close beside her, faintly moaning, fair and young, a 
 
 soldier lay, 
 
 Torn with shot and pierced with lances, bleeding 
 slow his life away ; 
 
 .But, as tenderly before him the lorn Ximena 
 knelt, 
 
 She saw the Northern eagle shining on his pistol- 
 belt. 
 
 16. With a stifled cry of horror straight she turned away 
 
 her head, 
 
 With a sad and bitter feeling looked she back upon 
 her dead ; 
 
BUENA VISTA. 205 
 
 But she heard the youth s low moaning, and his 
 
 struggling breath of pain, 
 And she raised the cooling water to his parching lips 
 
 again. 
 
 17. Whispered low the dying soldier, pressed her hand 
 
 and faintly smiled. 
 
 Was that pitying face his mother s ? did she watch 
 beside her child ? 
 
 All his stranger words with meaning her woman s 
 heart supplied ; 
 
 With her kiss upon his forehead, " Mother ! " mur 
 mured he, and died. 
 
 18. "A bitter curse upon them, poor boy, who led tliee 
 
 forth, 
 From some gentle, sad-eyed mother, weeping lonely 
 
 in the North ! " 
 Spake the mournful Mexic woman, as she laid him 
 
 with her dead, 
 And turned to soothe the living, and bind the 
 
 wounds that bled. 
 
 19. Look forth once more, Ximena ! " Like a cloud be 
 
 fore the wind 
 Rolls the battle down the mountains, leaving blood 
 
 and death behind ; 
 Ah ! they plead in vain for mercy ; in the dust the 
 
 wounded strive. 
 Hide your faces, holy angels! O thou Christ of 
 
 God, forgive !" 
 
206 STORILS OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 20. Sink, O Night, among the mountains ! let the cool, 
 
 gray shadows fall; 
 Dying brothers, lighting demons, drop thy curtain 
 
 over all. 
 Through the thickening winter twilight, wide apart 
 
 the battle rolled. 
 In the sheath the saber rested, and the cannon s lips 
 
 grew cold. 
 
 21. But the noble Mexic women still their holy task pur 
 
 sued 
 Through that long, dark night of sorrow, worn and 
 
 faint and lacking food ; 
 Over weak and suffering brothers with a tender care 
 
 they hung, 
 And the dying foemen blessed them in a strange and 
 
 Northern tongue. 
 
 22. Not wholly lost, O Father ! is this evil world of 
 
 ours ; 
 Upward, through its blood and ashes, spring afresh 
 
 the Eden flowers ; 
 From its smoking hell of battle, Love and Pity send 
 
 their prayer, 
 And still thy white-robed angels hover dimly in our 
 
 air ! 
 
 f y 
 
 OF THK 
 
 THE ENDf UNIVERSITY 
 
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