Univr [HE ] IBRARY [HE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA GIFT OF THE HONNOLD LIBRARY HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION. REVERE'S RIDE." Page 21 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION B T. Wi^ HALL ILLUSTRATED BY W. B. GILBERT And Others NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY TO OUR BOYS AND GIRLS. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Causes of ' the Revolution Our Debt to the Christian Church The- Sons of Liberty The Boston Massacre Sam Adams' Regiment The Boston Tea Party Patrick Henry i CHAPTER II. The Boston Port Bill General Gage The First Continental Congress "The Minute-men" Joseph Warren Paul Revere Lexington and Concord 17 CHAPTER III. The Country Rises John Stark and Israel Putnam The Battle of Bunker Hill Death of Warren Washington Appointed Commander-in-Chief His Subordinate Gen- erals The Siege of Boston 28 CHAPTER IV. Benedict Arnold His Troubles with Allen Invasion of Canada Terrible March Through the Wilderness. 50 CHAPTER V. Schuyler and Montgomery Montgomery's Capture of St. John's The Storming of Quebec 61 V CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. Preparations for the Defence of New York Lee and Meultrie The little of Fort Moultrie 74 CHAPTER VII. The Battle of Long Island 87 CHAPTER VIII. The Retreat from New York Arrival of Lee The Battle of White Plains Defences of the Highlands of the Hud- son Preparations for the Defence of New Jersey 97 CHAPTER IX. The Capture of Fort Washington Washington's Brilliant Retreat Through the Jerseys The Schemes and Capture of Lee The Storming of Fort Washington 112 CHAPTER X. The Battles of Trenton and Princeton 1 24 CHAPTER XI. Arnold's Battle on Lake Champlain European Volunteers Promotions Arnold's Disappointment Tryon at Dan- bury Meigs at Sag Harbor 141 CHAPTER XII. Howe Leaves the Jerseys Murder of Miss McCrea Siege of Fort Stanwix Battle of Oriskany Battle of Benning- ton 1 53 CHAPTER XIII. The Two Battles of Bemis Heights Surrender of Bur- goyne First Battle of Bemis Heights 166 CONTENTS. vii CHAPTER XIV. Capture of General Prescott The Movements of General Howe Battle of the Brandywine 177 CHAPTER XV. Surprise and Defeat of Wayne Howe Takes Philadelphia The Battle of Germantown 191 CHAPTER XVI. Successful Defence of Forts Mercer and Mifflin Capture of Forts Montgomery and Clinton The Conway Cabal Capture of Forts Mercer and Mifflin Gates at the head of the Board of War 202 CHAPTER XVII. Exposure of the Conway Cabal Consternation of Gates Steuben at Valley Forge Downfall of Conway The sign- ing of the Treaty with France Howe Superseded by Clinton The Mischianza 214 CHAPTER XVIII. The Evacuation of Philadelphia The Battle of Monmouth Clinton's Retreat to New York Court-Martial of General Lee 224 CHAPTER XIX. Tardy Arrival of the French Fleet Expedition Against New- port The Fleets Dispersed by a Storm Sullivan's Dis- appointment and Retreat The Wyoming Valley Mas- sacre Murder and pillage by the British 235 CHAPTER XX. The British in Florida and Georgia Storming of Stony Point Sullivan's Expedition Against the Wyoming Valley Murderers Further Marauds Siege and Surrender of Charleston Marauds of Tarleton and Ferguson 243 viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXI. Arnold's Difficulties His Marriage Investigated by a Com- mittee of Congress Court-Martialed His Treasonable Correspondence with Clinton Arnold and Andre Cap- ture of Andre and Flight of Arnold Execution of Andre Story of Nathan Hale 252 CHAPTER XXII. Knyphausen's Invasion of New Jersey The Murder of Mrs. Caldwell Knyphausen's Second Attempt Gates Appointed to Command the Southern Army Sumterand Marion The Battle of Camden 263 CHAPTER XXIII. Cornwallis' Advance into North Carolina The Battle of King's Mountain Sumter vs. Tarleton The Battle of the Cowpens 275 CHAPTER XXIV. Greene Takes Command and Commences his Famous Re- treat The Crossing of the Catawba, the Yadkin and the Dan Rivers Cornwallis Abandons Pursuit He Retires to Hillsborough and is Followed by Greene Battle of Guilford Court House The Victor Retreats Greene Moves into South Carolina 287 CHAPTER XXV. The Situation in Virginia Greene Moves upon the British The Battle of Eutaw Springs Cornwallis Joins Arnold Lafayette Follows Cornwallis Washington's Change of Plans Cornwallis Moves to Yorktown He is Bottled up there 297 CHAPTER XXVI. The Siege of Yorktown Storming of the Redoubts Sur- render of Cornwallis End of the Revolution 306 CHAPTER XXVII. The Naval Heroes of our Revolution 313 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION CHAPTER I. CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION OUR DEBT TO THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH THE SONS OF LIB- ERTY THE BOSTON MASSACRE SAM ADAMS' REGIMENT THE BOSTON TEA PARTY PAT- RICK HENRY. IF I should ask you, Boy, to tell me what were the causes of the American Revolution, you would promptly answer The Stamp Act, Taxation With- out Representation, and The Quartering of Eng- lish Troops upon the Colonists. Your 'answer would be correct. These were the immediate causes. As a matter of fact, however, there were other, deeper and more important causes, and these were as old as the colonies themselves. Religious freedom, the very thing that drove many of the English and French colonists to the new land, was in danger as soon as England began to tighten her hold on the colonies. This she did as soon as the colonists had planted themselves securely and become a prosperous, money-making 2 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION community, firmly established and rapidly devel- oping. Until then she paid little or no attention to the colonies, and the colonies were equally glad to pay as little attention to the government of England. Like loyal citizens they helped the kings of England in their wars, and fought French and Indians time and again for the mother coun- try. In one of these expeditions they even suc- ceeded in capturing Louisburg in Canada, which was then held by the French. Now this was no trifling achievement. This city was fortified at great expense in the same manner that European cities were fortified under the system of Vauban, a famous military engineer. Being newly fortified the work was done very scientifically and the city was known as the Gibraltar of America. Indeed the French were as much surprised at its capture as the English would be to-day to hear of the capture .of Gibraltar. Now while the colonists were helped by the English ships in this under- taking, they really effected the capture of the city themselves. The ships prevented the French ships from bringing reinforcements to the belea- guered town, but the colonists, consisting mostly of backwoodsmen and sailors, did the actual fight- ing against the fortifications. These backwoodsmen and sailors already knew ho\> fight at sea and against Indians as well as, if not _ tter than, any other men, and when they captured this great fortified town they were very HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 3 much elated. They suddenly perceived that they could fight against regular soldiers with success, and even take the most scientifically fortified cities. Perhaps they got too good an opinion of their ability. At any rate they began to feel quite independent and masterful, and the king became alarmed. He gave Louisburg back to the French in order that it might be a menace to the colonists and hold them in check. This was a nice fatherly way of providing for his subjects in America, was it not ? He laid them open to attack from the French and Indians, because he was afraid of their growing importance and strength. To this extent also he prevented them from developing, which they had been doing in a wonderful way, wresting New York from the Dutch, and the southern col- onies and what was then the great unknown West from the Spanish and French. So the king gave orders to the governors of his colonies, as our States were then called, to be more severe with their people, and he began to insist that they collect taxes to be paid to England to help carry on her wars. He made little or no attempt to interfere with religion, but the colonists feared that he might in time, and it is safe to say that he would have done so if he ever acquired sufficient power over his American colonies, for there was a great diversity of religions in Amer- ica even at that time, and the English n^'on had an established church. 4 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION Now this matter of religious freedom, the right to worship God in the manner dilated by one's conscience, was a matter of vast importance to these American colonists. It was dearer to them than life itself. Boston in fact, is situated upon land that was once the property of a hermit, one William Blackstone, who lived alone with his books in order that he might be free in his religion. It is hard to realise such a state of affairs in our day when everyone recognises the right of another to believe what his conscience tells him to believe and to worship God as he pleases, in our day, when the whole world is aroused to such a state of sympathy with the misfortunes of one poor Hebrew soldier, Captain Dreyfus of the French army, that the French are fearing that they have lost all their friends and allies by persecuting the man. There have been times when good Chris- tians would have rejoiced at the persecutions of a man whether he was innocent or guilty, merely because he was a Hebrew. But those times, for- tunately, have passed. So the desire for religious freedom, you see, was the first step towards social equality and personal freedom. This is one of the many things for which we have to thank the Christian church. And as the personal and political freedom, and equality of men is due in this measure to the Christian church, so the freedom of women, which in your day will extend to their right to vote and HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 5 hold any description of political office, is due to the freedom of men. What mighty blessings have come from the deep religious conscience of those old colonists ! And they are more than you think, Boy, in a practical way. None but men and women of such stern, intrepid character could have settled permanently in a country so bleak and in many ways uninviting as the Eastern shores of America. The ground had to be freed from countless rocks, the forest from murderous Indians and the forests cleared away before the beautiful farms of the East were possible. It is a very fortunate thing that our country was discovered from the East and not from the West therefore. If We had been discovered from the West the first colonists would have landed in a Paradise, almost certainly in a land of wonderful plenty. Their life would have been one of comparative ease, and they would never have bred a race of men strong enough or even inclined to develop the rugged East, which is now the richest and greatest portion of the country. There was still another cause which is generally overlooked, for this suspicion and growing hatred of the colonies for the mother country. As far back as 1740 an attempt was made by an English naval officer, Commodore Knowles, to impress American seamen into the naval service of Eng- land. One winter day in Boston he swooped down on the wharves and carried away to his ships, 6 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION not only skilled American seamen, but also ship carpenters and boys. There was an immediate riot. The town was ablaze with indignation, and excitement ran high. The Revolution might have started then and there had it not been for the English Governor Shirley, who became frightened and made the Commodore return the men to their homes. It is strange to think that the cause of the war of 1812 with England came near bringing on the Revolution a generation before the proper time. For you will remember that these English- men, who want to impress us with their friendli- ness now, wanted to impress our citizens for serv- ice on their warships when we were a weak, young nation. You will see therefore that matters were gradu- ally drawing to a climax, coming to a focus as we say. The English government was becoming alarmed at the growing strength of the colonies. The colonists were commencing to fear for their religious and personal freedom. The English government was beginning to tax the colonies. The colonists were beginning to perceive the in- justice of taxing them except for their own bene- fit, and of taxing them for the support of the gen- eral government of England, in which they had no representation. The English government was becoming weak and poor from constant wars. The colonists were commencing to appreciate their strength from their success in the French and HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 7 Indian wars. The whirlwind was gathering force, was commencing to revolve and when it finally burst upon England it revolved things so com- pletely that we call the war it produced our American Revolution. In autumn of 1760 George the Third ascended the throne of England. His ambitious mother coached him in the following words : " Be King, George ; be King.*' He answered that he would be King indeed and like most kings began to look about immediately for more money for his empty treasury. To get it he and his parliament proceeded to tax the colonies. He was the first j. English monarch since King John to attempt to tax subjects of his except by their own representa- tives. We can laugh at the poor fool to-day. But that piece of his idiocy was a tragedy then. To-day, on account of the late war with Spain, and our present war in the Philippines, we pay a tax on business papers, legal documents and many other things. We do it cheerfully, as we are taxed by our own representatives in Congress and by our own consent. But in 1763 Lord Bute proposed that the American colonists should pay such a tax for the benefit of King George the Third and his empty coffers. In 1765 such an act was passed, and the trouble began. The people were dis- mayed. It meant not only expense to them, but a blow at their liberties. Benjamin Franklin was in England at the time. He wrote to America, 8 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION " The Sun of Liberty is set ; the Americans must light the lamps of industry and economy." In America, " No taxation without representation " became the watchword of the people. Bands of men determined to preserve the rights of the col- onists were formed in New York, Boston, and many other of the principal cities and towns. They called themselves " Sons of Liberty " and declared that they would prevent the enforcement of the Stamp Act. To-day we call them the " Fathers of Liberty." These men were all heroes of our Revolution, as was Franklin, though the latter and perhaps some of the former did not take part in the actual conflict. The people rose as one man. A general con- gress was called to meet in New York. There was a prompt riot in Boston, which the king then considered the most impudent and unruly city in his colonies. There the Sons of Liberty marched through the town shouting " Liberty, property, and no stamps." They frightened Lieutenant- Governor (afterwards Governor) Hutchinson, a Tory (that is, an adherent of the English govern- ment) nearly out of his wits, and hung effigies of Lord Bute on the trees. The Sons of Liberty committed no violence, but an unruly rabble that followed them plundered the government store- houses and wrecked Hutchinson's house. These acts were condemned by the Sons of Liberty, but they did not abate their opposition to the Stamp HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 9 Act. On the contrary, they destroyed the stamp paper sent over by England, and the New York congress petitioned the king and parliament. As no one would use the stamps business was brought to a standstill, even in the courts and customs houses. Eventually, in 1766, parliament repealed the Stamp Act. Right here, Boy, it is only fair to the English to say that there were in England at this time prominent men, who recognised the rights of the colonists and who did all in their power to influ- ence the king and parliament to observe these rights. Such men were Conway, Pitt, Burke and Barr. Again in our civil war, when the great mass of the English people wanted to side with the South and help break our country in two, there were men who successfully opposed the move- ment. The leader of these men was the celebrated John Bright, who, by the way, did not believe in war at all, but who did believe it was necessary to free the slaves. Foolish King George was not through with the colonies, however. Two years after the repeal of the Stamp Act he sent troops to Boston. The people indignantly refused to furnish them with a barracks and they were camped, therefore, on Boston Common, and quartered in Faneuil Hall and the Town House. In the harbour the Eng- lish kept a fleet of eight men-of-war. The Royal Officers now thought they were able to take care io HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION of the Sons of Liberty without trouble. But nothing is more apt to bring about a disturbance of the peace than the constant association of nat- ural enemies, and the people soon began to con- sider the red-coated British soldiers as such. There were a number of encounters between the people and the "lobster-backs" as the people called the soldiers, because of their red coats. The most important of these occurred on March 5, 1770, This was called the Boston Massacre. Some young men quarrelled with a sentry who challenged them as they were going home. A crowd gath- ered. Soldiers ran to the aid of the sentry, headed by a Captain Preston. Some of the soldiers fired. Three citizens were killed and eight wounded. The drums brought the two regiments of soldiers and the excited people of the town to the scene. More trouble appeared to be inevitable. But Gov- ernor Hutchinson appeared on the balcony of the Town House and promised that a full investiga- tion should be made and Captain Preston gave himself up for trial. The next day a great meet- ing was held in Faneuil Hall, and the people sent a committee to Hutchinson demanding the with- drawal of the troops from the town. Sam Adams, who is called the " Father of the Revolution," was at the head of the committee. He was a prominent Boston lawyer and a leader among the colonists. He was a young man when Knowles made his attempt to impress the Boston THE BOSTON TEA PARTY." Page 13 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION n sailors, and you may be sure that such an event made a deep impression on his mind. He wrote many articles for the newspapers, taking the side of the colonists, and even wrote a petition to the king, to which the latter paid no attention. By his advice the patriots throughout all the colonies agree " to eat nothing, drink nothing, wear noth- ing " that came from Great Britain. This was to prevent the British from collecting taxes on certain articles which were imported from the mother country, for parliament and foolish George III. had again attempted to tax the Americans. At this suggestion women gave up wearing hand- some dresses made from imported cloths and put spanning wheels in their drawing-rooms, with which they proceeded to produce the necessary stuffs to clothe the colonists. Homespun became the fashionable wearing apparel and all gave up drinking tea. It was Samuel Adams who appeared before Governor Hutchinson and demanded that the two regiments of British troops be withdrawn from Boston. Governor Hutchinson tried to satisfy him with one, but Sam was as firm as a rock, and the mortified Governor, burning with rage, was compelled to assent. After that those two regi- ments of British troops were called " Sam Adams' Regiments." What a scene that must have been when Sam Adams clothed in plain homespun stood before the Governor and his twenty-four 12 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION councillors and a number of British officers, the former resplendent in powdered wigs, gold-laced hats and scarlet waistcoats, and the latter in their brilliant uniforms, and made them do what he demanded in the name of the people ! He, too, was one of the Heroes of the Revolution. On account of all this the English parliament made a concession to the " patriots," as they were now beginning to be called and to call themselves. It took off the tax on everything but tea. But the Americans were fighting the principle, and while a solitary article was taxed they felt that they must resist. The merchants, therefore, re- fused to import tea, and the patriots and their wives and daughters still declined to drink it. They made tea of raspberry leaves, of thyme, and other shrubs, and drank that instead. In con- sequence of this the merchants of England found themselves with a great deal of tea on their hands which they could not sell. These merchants were as short-sighted as the king and his advisers. They thought if they lowered the price of the tea Americans could be induced to buy it. So they lowered the price three pence a pound, which was very considerable reduction, loaded it on board ships and sent it across the Atlantic. The king was highly pleased at this act. When friends warned Lord North that an attempt to force tea upon the colonies would make trouble, the latter, who was the leader of the ministry, replied : HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 13 " The king will have it so. He means to try the question with the Americans." On their side the Americans were quite ready to have it tried. The Boston committee of correspondence (such com- mittees had been formed in all the colonies to keep each other advised so that they might act in con- cert) wrote the other committees that the tea would not be permitted to land, and the other commit- tees replied that they would act in the same way. The tea arrived in Boston in November, 1773, three shiploads of it. No one would buy it ex- cept Tory merchants who wanted it for Tory customers. The people, however, would not per- mit this. The people demanded that the tea be taken back to England. The ship captains could not take it back without a permit from the Cus- tom House, and the Customs Officers refused to grant the permits. They were king's officers, and it was their intention to seize the cargoes of tea if they were not landed within a certain time, which they had a right, by law, to do. They could then turn it over to the Tory merchants. The date on which this could be done was the 1 7th of December. It was necessary that the patriots should do something before that time. Accordingly, on the night of the i6th, a great number of Boston men disguised, some as Indians and others in all kinds of outlandish costumes, went on board the ships and threw the tea into the harbour. You may be sure that there was a i 4 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION merry Christmas in Boston that year for those people dressed in homespun. It will be seen that most of the events of im- portance at this time occurred in or near Boston. This was not because the other colonies did not feel and act in the same way that Massachusetts did. But Boston was the most rebellious port, and the king thought that by stamping out the trouble there he would teach a lesson to all. Boston was not the only port where tea was sent by the British merchants. But at the others the people compelled the ships to sail back. New York City was also burdened with the king's troops like Boston, but the people refused to sup- port them. In Virginia, as early as the Stamp Act, the eloquent Patrick Henry made a memo- rable speech in which he exclaimed : " Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third " Here a number of mem- bers of the legislature in which he was speaking cried, " Treason ! Treason ! " Henry waited a mo- ment for silence and then continued " may profit by their example. If that be treason make the most of it." Your mother has told you, Boy, that tea would make you nervous. Well, you may be sure that tea was making a great many people nervous in these old days. The three pence a pound in re- duction was sufficient to pay the tax, so as a mat- ter of economy the tax did not affect the colonists HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 15 at all. In addition the East India Company was willing to pay the tax itself. This company had seventeen million pounds of tea in its warehouses which it could not sell, and the company was threatened with ruin. Now George III. owned a great many shares in the company and the failure of the company would impoverish him, whereas if he could make the colonists buy the tea he would not only get the profit on his shares, but the tax also. That is the reason tea was picked^ out by him as the sole article to be taxed. " There must be one tax," declared the king, " to keep up the right." So the throwing of the tea into the harbour was a blow at the king's own pocket-book as well as at what he considered his royal prerogative to tax the people. To explain still further the fury of the people at this tax on tea, it must be explained that the people of Eng- land themselves did not have to pay any tax on tea. Indeed, the colonies were taxed unjustifi- ably in many ways. England cared nothing for her colonies except for what money she could wring from them, and what men she could obtain to aid her in her wars. The colonists were for- bidden to carry on manufactures except in a very small way, and were compelled to buy their man- ufactured goods of England. They might take iron ore from a mine, but they had to send it to England to be manufactured, at the same time paying a tax for exporting it. When it was man- 1 6 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION ufactured they bought it back and had to pay a tax for importing it. Nor were they permitted by England to carry on trade with any other country but England in most articles. All the furs caught by their hunters, and the fish caught by their fishermen, had to be sent to England. So with all the pitch, tar, turpentine, and ship timbers from their immense forests. In Maine every tree of more than twenty-four inches in diameter at a foot above the ground, could be cut down only for a mast for one of the king's ships. The colonies could not even sell freely to each other. To King George the colonies were much like the goose that laid the golden eggs. Like many another man he proceeded to kill that valu- able goose. CHAPTER II. THE BOSTON PORT BILL GENERAL GAGE - THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS THE " MINUTE-MEN "JOSEPH WARREN PAUL RE- VERE LEXINGTON AND CONCORD YOU can easily imagine, Boy, that the king was not in a very good humour when he heard of the Boston Tea Party. He made preparations at once to punish Boston and the Boston people. He had Lord North pass a bill in parliament ordering that after the i8th of June, 1774, no person should load or unload any ship until the town apologised and paid for the tea which had been destroyed. He recalled Governor Hutchinson to England and sent General Gage from New York to be military governor and enforce the Port Bill. Even Eng- lish vessels had to land their goods at Salem or Marblehead. This was a severe blow to the pros- perity of Boston, and of the entire colony. The wharves lay idle, the warehouses empty, merchants and traders had to stop business, which threw a great number of employees out of work. In ad- dition to this provisions grew scarce. They could not be obtained from the other colonies, as all freight was carried in those days by water. 2 I 7 i8 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION General Gage had another penalty to inflict upon the town also. He was ordered to carry out the Regulation Acts. These were orders of par- liament which quartered more troops upon the town, forbade the holding of town meetings with- out the consent of the governor, save once a year, and vested all the power of government in the governor and officers appointed by the king or governor. The people now had something to struggle for more important than freedom from taxation. They were now denied rights that belonged to every Englishman. They got around the provision forbidding them to hold but one town meeting a year by adjourn- ing that one meeting from time to time and thus making it last a year. Then they got together the people of the entire colony, or rather their representatives, and adopted some declarations called the "Suffolk Resolves." These declared that the people would obey a Continental Con- gress, and the people of Massachusetts invited the people of the other colonies to send delegates to a Continental Congress, to be held in Philadelphia. All the colonies sent delegates except Georgia. The Congress met in September, 1774. An ad- dress setting forth their grievances was sent to the king by this congress of the colonies, and the del- egates made an agreement to refuse to carry on any trade with Great Britain until their wrongs should be righted. The other colonies sympathised HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 19 with the people of Boston in more practical ways and sent them provisions whenever it was possible. All this alarmed General Gage, and he deter- mined to seize all the powder belonging to Massa- chusetts. Some he captured, together with two field-pieces that were in Cambridge. He failed to get some powder that was stored in Salem, how- ever. The colonists, on their side, foresaw war and began to prepare for it. Companies of militia were formed in every town and began to drill, under the instruction of veterans of the French and Indian wars. Alarm companies, called " Minute-men " for the reason that they were to be ready at a " minute's notice," held themselves ready to fight at any hour of the day or night. These were especially to guard the powder, arms and food that was being collected for what we may now call the American army, which was being formed in this hap-hazard but enthusiastic way. During the winter of 1774-1775 a good sttpply of food and powder for the use of the men who were to be food for powder, was collected at Wor- cester and Concord. General Gage determined to destroy these stores. He sent two officers as scouts to study the best roads to Worcester and Concord. These scouts reported that at Concord the Americans had fourteen pieces of cannon and two mortars, besides stores of flour, fish, salt, rice, 20 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION and a magazine of powder and cartridges. The cartridges to which they referred were probably sacks of powder for the cannon, as cartridges for muskets were unknown at the time. The brass cartridges with which you are familiar to-day were not used until comparatively recently. You will remember, Boy, that the Boston Mas- sacre occurred on March 5th. Now the people of Boston held a meeting on every March 5th after that to keep the event in mind. The favourite orator in Boston at this time was Joseph Warren, one of the most brilliant men in Massachusetts, who was afterwards killed at Bunker Hill. Now, on March 5, 1775, it was a dangerous proceeding to make a Boston Massacre oration. General Gage occupied the town with troops, and it was under- stood that there would be an attempt to keep Warren from speaking. A number of officers of the king's army actually did attend the meeting in Old South Church, but Warren made his speech nevertheless, and Sam Adams and John Hancock, \vho afterwards was the first man to sign the Dec- laration of Independence, sat on the platform. The officers tried to interrupt Warren in his speech and one of them held some bullets up in his hand to intimate that they were what the people might expect if they opposed the king any longer. But neither Warren nor the people were fright- ened. Things began to get warm for the more prom- HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 21 inent of the patriots, however, and Sam Adams and Hancock were obliged to leave Boston and take refuge in Lexington. All knew that General Gage meant to capture the cannon and stores in Concord, also. A number of mechanics, therefore, organised to watch the doings of the British and give information by messenger to the people of Lexington and Concord. One of these men was Paul Revere, a copper-plate engraver, who had been a lieutenant of artillery in the provincial army during the French and Indian wars. On the 1 8th of April the soldiers were seen moving from the Common to the river. Word was sent to Warren, and he asked Paul Revere to warn the people of Lexington, and tell Hancock and Adams of their danger. Revere had promised the Charlestown people that he would hang a signal from the Old North Church when the sol- diers moved. One lantern would mean that they had passed out over the Neck (Boston Neck, not Charlestown Neck), and two would mean that they were crossing the river in boats. He hung out the two lanterns, then hurried to his own boat, and made direct for Charlestown. There he got a horse and rode out over Charlestown Neck, toward Lex- ington and Concord, alarming the people as he went. The British horsemen were patrolling the road, but by taking a roundabout way he escaped them and got safely to Lexington. Hancock wanted to stay and fight with the farmers, but 22 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION Adams, was wiser, and knew that Hancock and himself were more necessary for other work. "We belong to the cabinet," he said, quietly, and by his persuasions and the entreaties of Dorothy Quincy, who was to be married to Hancock, and who was in the house with Hancock's aunt, in- duced John to go to Woburn, where they would be safe. In the meantime Revere and two com- panions set out for Concord. Revere was cap- tured on the way, but one of the messengers suc- ceeded in getting to Concord. Thus the whole country round was alarmed. Captain Parker had command of the Americans at Lexington. He assembled his men, but when he learned that the British were still far away, he told his men to go and rest until called together again. They had loaded their guns, and for the sake of safety (just as we take a cartridge out of a gun to-day, when it is not to be used) Captain Parker's militia fired a volley. This volley was heard by the British officers who had captured Paul Revere, and they took his horse and let him go. While Revere was dashing over Charlestown Neck, Gage's troops (about nine hundred gren- adiers and light infantry) began marching from their landing place toward Lexington. They marched in silence and supposed themselves un- noticed. Suddenly they heard the firing of guns and the pealing of church bells. Their secret was out. Colonel Smith, who commanded the HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 23 British, immediately sent back to Boston for rein- forcements and sent Major Pitcairn, with a small body of men, on rapidly to Lexington. Pitcairn soon began meeting American scouts, who had been sent foward to watch for the approach of the British. He captured all of these save one Thaddeus Bowman, who eluded the soldiers and galloped back to Lexington to give the alarm that the British were near. Captain Parker had the drums sounded and gathered his men together. After his command had loaded their muskets with powder and ball, he delivered to them one of those characteristic short, sharp speeches, so common with Americans. " Don't fire," said he, " unless fired upon ; but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here." It began right there. Pitcairn waited for Colonel Smith to catch up with him. Then the entire body advanced against Captain Parker and his handful of men. "Ye villains, ye rebels, disperse," cried Pitcairn. A shot was fired by the British and followed by others. The Americans returned the fire. Then, being frightfully outnumbered, they slowly re- treated, still firing. Eight of them had been killed and ten wounded. But two Englishmen were wounded. The British gave three cheers and passed on to Concord, greatly elated. It was seven o'clock on a beautiful spring morn- ing when the British entered Concord. It was 24 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION a great day, this April 19, 1775, Boy. The greatest movement in the history of the world for the freedom of mankind began on this spring day in the pretty town of Concord. The fruit trees were in bloom and the fields were already green with the growing grain. They looked more like a playground for children than a scene for a battle. And you know how happy and peaceful all people feel on an early spring morning. But the men of Concord were very tired this morning. They had been working all night removing and concealing stores. They got most of them out of harm's way. But the British found about sixty barrels of flour, which they split open, some wooden spoons and trenches and three cannon. They burned the wooden articles and knocked the trunnions off the cannon. (The trunnion of a cannon is the short cylindrical projection on either side which rests on the carriage.) They also found about five hundred pounds of cannon balls, which they threw into the Concord millpond, and into various wells. Then the British divided. Part of them remained to hold the bridge which crossed the Concord River, while another moved on to the house of Colonel Barrett, where they expected to find more supplies and part remained in Con- cord. At Colonel Barrett's they found some wheels for gun carriages, and were in the act of burning them when they heard firing at the bridge. They promptly hurried back. The Americans HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 25 had formed on a hill and were attacking the bridge. The two parties united and retreated to the centre of the town, where they joined the third party. About noon the British set off on their return to Boston. They had accomplished all they could, but it was not nearly as much as they had hoped to accomplish. By this time the whole country was alarmed, and the country people had flocked from near and far. The roadsides, along which the British marched, were lined with minute-men and militia, who crouched behind the famous stone walls of New England or dodged from tree to tree like Indians and kept up an incessant fire upon the British troops. The march soon became a retreat, and the English commander tried to protect his main body by sending out flankers on either side, just as we do in war in these days. But the flankers fought in vain. Every min- ute more patriots arrived and their fire grew hotter and hotter. The British all the while were be- coming more and more fatigued. The retreat soon became a rout and the rout almost a panic. At Lexington the panic became an actual fact. The regular troops, the pride of England, broke into a run. Their officers had to throw themselves in front and threaten death to the disobedient in order to restore any semblance of order. They were on the point of complete exhaustion when they were met by the reinforcements Colonel Smith 2 6 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION had wisely asked for when he heard the pealing of the bells and the firing of the guns the night be- fore. These reinforcements proved to be an entire brigade of British troops under the command of Lord Percy. They formed a hollow square, and the tired and beaten troops of Colonel Smith rushed within it and flung themselves on the ground to regain their breath. Now even Lord Percy became alarmed, and he cut the rest very short. The retreat was again taken up under much the same circumstances as before. The people of Charleston heard the sounds of the approaching guns. Messengers warned them of the cruelties of the British, who in a spirit of revenge were burning houses along the road and murdering the helpless inmates. Terrorised, the people of Charlestown fled out over the Neck into the country. Pell-mell into the town ran the British in great confusion hunting for refuge from the awfu^ storm of bullets the Americans were sending after them. They asked for shelter, and the select men of Charlestown agreed to prevent further pursuit provided the British would not harm the town. Percy willingly agreed and the pursuit was ended. The Ameri- cans set a guard on Charlestown Neck, and the next day the British crossed back to Boston. In the meantime the news of the battle was being carried far and wide, and the roads leading to Boston were crowded with troops hastening to HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 27 join the patriot forces. The battle of Lexington had opened the war of the Revolution. The farmers left their ploughshares, the mechanics their tools all grasped their guns and flocked to Cambridge. All night and all day they tramped the roads converg- ing towards Boston. At Lexington the British made their first attack on the patriots. At the Concord Bridge the patriots made their first attack upon the British regulars with the terrible effect eventually that we have seen. There is a monument upon the battle-field of Concord, upon which are carved four lines from a poem written by Ralph Waldo Emerson : " By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world." CHAPTER III THE COUNTRY RISES JOHN STARK AND ISRAEL PUTNAM THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL DEATH OF WARREN WASHINGTON APPOINT- ED COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF HIS SUBORDINATE GENERALS THE SIEGE OF BOSTON THE news of the battles of Lexington and Con- cord went to the limits of the colonies as fast as strong men and good horses could carry it. Everywhere there was a call to arms. Throughout Massachusetts and her neighbouring colonies, wherever men were within reaching distance, they flocked to the scene of the immediate trouble as fast as they could travel. Colonel John Stark, a New Hampshire veteran of the French and Indian wars, was in his saddle and headed for Boston within ten minutes after hearing of the fights of April I9th. Israel Put- nam left his home without stopping to change his farmer's clothes and rode a hundred miles to Cambridge in twenty-four hours. Putnam was a man of wonderful daring and great impetuosity, who for ten years had been a soldier of renown in fighting against French, Indians and Spanish. He was one of what we will have to call the giant HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 29 heroes of the Revolution. Immediately upon his arrival at Cambridge he was put in command by common consent. He declared for war to the last extremity and was commissioned brigadier- general by the assembly of Connecticut at once. Patriots poured in from every quarter and soon there were ten thousand of them surrounding the British forces in Boston. Although they were simply undisciplined farmers, General Gage did not dare venture out of Boston to attack them. He remembered very keenly the results of that disastrous expedition he had sent to Lexington and Concord. In fact he was for a time .in a precarious situation. But on the 25th of May Generals Howe, Clinton and Burgoyne arrived from England with reinforcements. The British now numbered five thousand, but they had no doubt that they were far more than equal to the ten thousand untrained patriots, who knew noth- ing of military evolutions and whose usefulness in war consisted only of the ability to shoot straight. "We'll soon find elbow room," said General Burgoyne, complacently. They did and that was about all they found. General Gage was equally confident. He even offered to pardon all rebels who would return to their loyalty with the exception of Samuel Adams and John Hancock. But the Americans were not seeking pardon. The English decided 3 o HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION to fortify the hills of Charlestown. Their plans were promptly conveyed to the Americans, and Putnam and Colonel Prescott (an old soldier) were anxious to steal a march on the British and fortify those hills themselves. Warren thought this enterprise foolhardy and did not agree to it. He was overruled, however; and on the night of the i6th of June twelve hundred men under the leadership of Prescott started to build a redoubt (which is a small fortification) on Bunker Hill. Breed's Hill, which was still nearer Charlestown, seemed to be a better point to fortify, however, and they went on to it. During the night as they worked they could hear the British sentries on the ships and the sentries around Boston calling off the hours of the night. Each sen- tinel's post, Boy, has a number and commencing with No. i each calls off the hour. All save No. I add " All's well " to the call. No. I does not say this until the call has gone all around and he hears it from the last sentry, when he announces " All's well." This shows that the sentinels are all at their posts, all awake and that, literally, all is well on their posts. At the break of day the sentinel on the British man-of-war Lively dis- covered the works that were being erected and gave the alarm. The ship immediately com- menced to cannonade the redoubt. The guns woke the British officers, and when they saw the redoubt they could hardly believe their eyes. It HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 31 commanded Boston and the British commanders saw that a battle was inevitable as soon as the Americans put their cannon in it. An immedi- ate assault was decided on. This was called : THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. A British battery on Copp's Hill now opened fire on the low, grim-looking redoubt of the Americans and soon other ships and the remain- ing batteries of the British joined in making a perfect rain of iron upon the redoubt. The twelve hundred men, however, went silently on digging their fortifications. Everyone knew that the first actual battle of the war was now to take place. Crowds lined the shore and the roofs of the houses in Boston were black with people looking on. The fire was too hot for the Americans to com- plete their breastworks as far as they deemed it necessary, so they took advantage of a rail fence that ran down to the river (the Mystic), piled another rail fence o'n top of it and filled the spaces between with hay. It was just completed when John Stark came up with some New Hampshire and Connecticut troops, and he took his stand behind this rude protection. At two o'clock War- ren arrived. He had not approved of the plan, but he had promised to help defend the works. Warren feared to risk the effect a possible defeat would have on the country. Putnam and Prescott took the contrary view and thought only of the 32 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION effect a glorious battle would have on the people. When Warren arrived Putnam offered to serve under Warren's orders, but Warren insisted that Putnam keep the command. Such was the spirit of our heroes of the Revolution. How different it was from the struggle of ambitious men to obtain high command for their own personal glory in the late war with Spain ! About three o'clock the British line advanced to the attack. Putnam rode along the American lines and ordered his men to hold their fire until the redcoats were within eight yards of the redoubt, and then to fire low, not higher than the waist-bands of the British. On came the red- coats in two dense columns, one commanded by Howe and the other by his subordinate Pigot. Their flags were flying and their drums were beating and they were a magnificent sight to the onlookers in Boston and Charlestown. Their bay- onets flashed in the sunlight and they seemed to have no fear of ill-success: Every now and then they halted in their march to deliver a few volleys at the redoubt. In the redoubt, how- ever, all was silence. Those undisciplined farmers were obeying orders like veterans one of the remarkable traits of American volunteers even to this day. At last the redcoats reached the eight- rod dead line that Putnam had established. " Fire " rang out the sonorous command in the redoubt, and a sheet of flame leaped out in an- HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 33 swer to it. The ranks of the British fell in rows, but those in rear pressed on. Rank after rank fell like the first, and at length, astounded and panic- stricken they wavered, broke and fled to the foot of the hill. The patriots were wild with joy. Their cheers were echoed from all sides and they thought their battle was completed. But such was not the case. At the foot of the hill the British officers could be seen rallying their men and forming them for another charge. Putnam, observing this, mounted his horse and galloped back over the Neck for re- inforcements. But the Neck was under too terri- ble a fire to be faced by anyone but a dare devil like Putnam, and he could not urge any more troops forward. So he hastened back to the re- doubt. When he arrived the British columns were again on the march up the hill. Charlestown had now been set on fire by the British in the hope that the smoke would settle upon the redoubt and blind the eyes of the sure -shooting patriots. But a favourable breeze carried the smoke seaward. It but added, therefore, to the awfulness and solem- nity of the scene. The second assault of the British was but a repetition of the first. Indeed they suffered even more than they did in the first charge, and some of the soldiers, after running back to the foot of the hill, continued on to the boats and tried to make their way back to Boston. 2 34 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION Their officers prevented them, however, and they were soon reinforced by troops under Clinton, who had been sent across for that purpose. Again they advanced to the charge. The British had been reinforced, while the Americans had failed to get the help which Putnam went after. This time the British came clear on to the breastwork, and the two armies fought over it. But the ammunition of the Americans had given out and they were without bayonets. In this ex- tremity they fought with their clubbed muskets until they were slowly driven from the field. Stark behind his rail fence held his ground long enough to cover the retreat of the rest and saved the army from capture; Putnam rode among the men wild with anger and mortification, and tried to get them to rally on Bunker Hill. But his efforts were in vain. Warren, too, did his utmost to stop the retreat, and standing between the American lines and the British, pointed to the mottoes on their flags and begged the troops to stand. While he was in this exposed position a British officer who knew him snatched a musket from one of his soldiers, aimed at Warren and killed him. The Americans retired to Winter and Prospect Hills, and night closed the conflict. Two thousand men were left dead and dying on the battle-field, of whom nearly fifteen hundred were English. Although the battle-field remained in the hands of the British, the battle was practi- 2 S h < CC u X h vj HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 35 cally a victory for the Americans, and was soon recognised to be such by the British themselves. The news spread over the country like wild-fire, and had precisely the effect that Putnam and Prescott had predicted and struggled for. The patriots were greatly cheered, though all wept over the fall of Warren, who was one of those un- fortunate heroes who die too soon to learn of the glory they have won. His wife had died before him, but his orphaned children lived to know the gratitude of the whole people. In the meantime the Second Continental Con- gress met at Philadelphia. On the motion of John Adams, of Massachusetts, George Washing- ton, of Virginia, was appointed Commander-in- Chicf of all the American forces. It is hardly necessary to tell an American boy much about George Washington. They all know that he was a man of tremendous will power, strong passions and an equally strong physique. In fact he was a giant. He was born in West- moreland County, Virginia, on February 22, 1732, and was now forty-three years of age. It is a strange thing, is it not, Boy, that the shortest month in the year contains the birthdays of our two most illustrious men, Washington and Lincoln ? But we could afford to give the whole twenty-eight days of February up to holiday sport if each one was the birthday of an American like them. Both of them were of great height and 36 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION both were fitted exactly to the needs of the peo- ple in their two greatest emergencies. In every other way they were different, however. Wash- ington was a descendant of very aristocratic fam- ilies, while Lincoln's people were obscure. Wash- ington was of handsome appearance and of very elegant manners, while Lincoln was ungainly and rather rough. Washington held himself rather above people engaged in mere trade, while Lincoln was not only a tradesman at one time in his life, but had been practically a common labouring man. Again, Washington was a natural-born soldier, while Lincoln was far from that. Lincoln needed a complement in the nature of a great soldier like Grant, while Washington was all in all himself. Lincoln was probably never under actual fire, though he was a volunteer in the Black Hawk war. Yet Lincoln was killed by the first shot that was, in all probability, ever fired at him. On the contrary Washington went through several wars, often exposing himself recklessly, and was never hit. Even the Indians, who made Washington a mark and tried to kill him at any cost, eventually gave up in despair, concluding that he bore a charmed life and was especially protected by the Great Spirit. Washington was extremely fastid- ious in his dress, while Lincoln was careless in that matter. It would seem, however, that both of these great men had been especially trained for the great HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 37 part they were to play in their country's history. Especially was this so of Washington. Long be- fore the war of the Revolution was thought of, Washington had earned a reputation as a soldier of great ability, and his fame as such had even gone abroad to other lands. After his first battle in the French and Indian Wars he wrote the famous words " I have heard the bullets whistle and believe me, there is music in the sound." This sounded like bombast to the people of Eng- land, and when they heard that Washington was appointed Commander-in-Chief of what they called " the rebel army " they laughed at him. They did not appreciate the fact that he was a natural- born soldier, and they did not know the great value of his services at Braddock's memorable de- feat, when he saved the routed army from utter annihilation. Nor did they realise that from In- dian warfare he had learned a mode of fighting which they did not understand at all. At that time European armies fought in dense masses after the manner of the soldiers of Marl- borough and Frederick the Great. Indeed the art of war was not very well developed in many ways at the time. The muskets of the period were not very deadly at a distance, and troops often, if not always, fought hand to hand. Two armies would draw up facing each other and simply fight it out until one side or the other gave way. Frederick the Great invented a system of massing 3 8 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION a greater number on one end of his line than the enemy had, and would break down a flank by sheer superiority of numbers. The flank once broken, he would turn and roll his opponent's army back on itself until it became panic-stricken and fled. Even Napoleon would not be able to understand the science of war as it is to-day. In his time there was no such accurate firing as there is to-day. Men blazed away at each other indis- criminately, and the shots fell where they would. Our own General Jackson, at the battle of New Orleans, gave the world its first lesson in the use of actual trained marksmen. His riflemen slaugh- tered the regiments of Pakenham, who fought in dense masses. Yet these troops of Pakenham had fought under him in the army with which Welling- ton beat Napoleon's best Marshals, and eventually Napoleon himself. The patriots of the Revolution were probably quite the equal of the British soldiers as marks- men, but they were wholly without discipline and so lacking in military training that it was impos- sible for them to make a simple change of front on the field of battle. In addition they were now too self-confident. The battle of Bunker Hill made them think for a time that it would be easy enough to whip the British under anything like equal conditions, and as a consequence they did not see the need of the severe discipline neces- sary to an army. HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 39 On this account it was well that a -man of the foresight, patience and endurance of Washington, was put in supreme command. He started for Cambridge on the 2ist of June, 1775. He had gone but part of the way when he met a courier, who brought tidings of the battle on the I7th. When told how the militia had behaved he was greatly pleased, and exclaimed : " The liberties of the country are safe." Even he did not then re- alise the gigantic task he had to perform. He reached Cambridge on the second of July, and on the 3d took command under the great elm near the Common in Cambridge. So, you see, Boy, if Washington had taken command of the army we would celebrate the event on the same day that we do the Declaration of Independence. Washington found a motley assemblage of men when he looked over his army of volunteers. Coming from different parts of the country they were, of course, dressed very differently from each other. Some wore the blue coats with yellow trimmings of the Continentals ; some had even the red uniforms in which they had fought for the English, in the wars with the French. The Vir- ginians were dressed in the garb of backwoods- men, and the fishermen and sailors of the New England colonies wore their typical round jacket. Some even wore homespun or brown jeans. There was great rivalry between these men from different sections, just as there had always beeu rivalries 40 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION among the colonies, and a few fist fights resulted. But as a rule they realised that for the first time they were united in a common cause, and all soon became comrades in the best sense of the word. Washington found their camps very rude affairs, indeed. Most of the tents were hastily con- structed out of sails, and there were not nearly enough of these. Most of the troops lived in rude huts made out of stone, brick, planks any- thing they could get. There was little military discipline and less attempt at military instruction. The officers knew as little about the art of war or even ordinary drilling, which is the A BC of the art of war, as the men. The, only troops who were an exception to this rule were those of Rhode Island, headed by Nathaniel Greene. These had good tents, were properly equipped and main- tained a correct camp discipline. As Washing- ton's first duty was to teach just such discipline, and bring order out of the chaos he saw around him, Greene's troops became an object lesson for the rest of the army. Besides appointing Washington Commander- in-Chief, the Continental Congress had appointed four major-generals and eight brigadier-generals. You know, Boy, that the next higher office than colonel is brigadier-general. The brigadier com- mands a brigade, which is composed of two or more regiments. When two or more brigades are united they form a division, and are commanded HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 41 by a major-general. When two or more divisions are united they form an army corps. This corps, also, is usually commanded by a major-general. When two or more army corps are united they form an "army," which is usually designated by some geographical distinction, such as the " army of the Tennessee " or the " army of the Potomac." This army may be commanded by a major-general, a lieutenant-general, or by the plain general and the plain rank of " general " is the highest in the army. Since the Revolution the President of our country is always the Commander-in-Chief both of the army and navy. Now, as he has a great many things to do, he usually turns over the com- mand of the army to his Secretary of War. The latter, as a rule, is chosen for political rather than military reasons, and as a result the heads of the war and navy departments are more apt to be lawyers than soldiers. Nothing could be worse than an arrangement of this kind, and it is to be hoped that when the boys of your age become grown men and voters, you will make some change in the arrangement of affairs. Even at the present day a lawyer is at the head of the war department. He knows nothing whatever of military affairs, and yet the country is at war in the Philippines. It reminds one, Boy, of the opera Pinafore, where one of the principals became ruler " of the Queen's navee " because for years he had polished up the handle (" so carefullee ") of the ttg front 42 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION door that gave entrance to the office of the law- yers for whom he worked. Once in our short his- tory a man was appointed Secretary of the Navy, who had never been on a ship in his life. On his first visit to a man-of-war he saw that it was not solid like the toy boats he used to cut out of a shingle when he was a boy, and he exclaimed in astonishment, "My, it's hollow," to the great amusement of the naval officers who surrounded him. But to return to Washington and his patriots : the officers appointed major-generals were Israel Putnam, Artemas Ward, Charles Lee and Philip Schuyler. The brigadier-generals were Seth Pomeroy, Richard Montgomery, William Heath, Joseph Spencer, David Wooster, John Thomas, John Sullivan and Nathaniel Greene. In their respective grades they ranked in the order named. Washington himself was a major-general as well as commander-in-chief. Of these General Ward resigned in less than a year, though he commanded the right wing of Washington's army during the siege of Boston. He was a lawyer and a man of incorruptible integrity, but not a soldier of any great attainments. General Heath served during the entire war, but did not get into the thick of the conflict. He was a man of ability, however. He had a command under Washing, ton during the latter's famous retreat through New j^ork, and commanded the troops in New HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 43 York while Washington was in the New Jersey campaigns. Later he took command of Boston and had charge of the prisoners captured when Burgoyne surrendered and was again put in command of the Highlands when Washington was besieging Cornwallis. General Thomas was a veteran of the French and Indian wars. He served during the siege of Boston, and after- wards accompanied Montgomery's expedition to Canada. On the death of Montgomery he succeeded to the command, but could not get on with General Arnold and the latter left him. He was eventually obliged to retreat from Canada. On the retreat he was taken with the smallpox and died. General Wooster also took part in the invasion of Canada. After the failure of the expedition he took command of the militia of Connecticut and died heroically at the head of his men when the traitor Arnold attacked Danbury. Some of the other brigadier-generals rose to high position during the war, and of them I will tell you later. Of these Greene is the most conspicuous example. He was the lowest rank- ing brigadier-general but eventually became the greatest general of the war, save only Washington. Had the latter been killed during the war Greene would probably have taken his place at the head of the army. In addition to these generals Horatio Gates was made Adjutant to the army with the rank of 44 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION brigadier-general. Of him also there is much yet to be said. Of course there were many more major-generals and brigadier-generals appointed from time to time during the war. The worst disappointment Washington received when he took command at Cambridge was the discovery of the fact that the army was very short of powder. He had been told that there were three hundred barrels of it on hand. He found that there were actually but thirty. Many of his cannon, too, were useless. Under such circum- stances Washington could not take the offensive against the British in Boston. People wondered why he did not drive them out, but Washington would not tell the reason. He did not propose to let the British learn the secret, for if they had known it they would have attacked him and driven him away. In fact the British generals were afterwards severely criticised for not doing this. The months passed by in the meantime, and the people became impatient. It is always the way in war. The stay-at-homes lose control of their nerves and patience and hysterically cry for an immediate victory. Such was the case in our civil war. The people of the North demanded action so strenuously that General McDowell was at length obliged to yield to them and fought the first battle of Bull Run when he was unprepared to do so. Even then he was beaten by the ac. cHental arrival of Confederate reinforcements. HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 45 This made him a victim of circumstances and he deserves the greatest sympathy. He was one of the most brilliant generals in the North, but the loss of this battle made the people lose confidence in him. The authorities say that he planned the battle as well as Napoleon could have planned it, and he had turned the enemy's left wing and was on the [Joint of driving them from the field when the reinforcements falling upon his undisciplined men from the rear threw them into a panic. There was a similar feeling when the war with Spain occurred, and but for it our troops would have gone to Cuba better supplied. When you are a man, Boy, if the country is unfortunate enough to get into a war, use your influence with the people against this foolish impatience which has always handicapped our generals. Washington was the kind of man who could not be disturbed by the clamours of the people, however, and he waited until he was ready. Fortune favoured him. Ethan Allen captured the fort at Ticonderoga and with it large supplies of cannon, mortars, howitzers, lead and flints, as well as powder. This was quite a feat, you may be sure. Allen, at the head of two hundred and thirty men, surprised the fort, drove the sentry away after his gun had failed to explode, and running to the room where the British com- mander was sleeping demanded the immediate surrender of the fort "In the name of the great 46 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION Jehovah and the Continental Congress." This made Allen at once a prominent man, but while with the army of Montgomery in the invasion of Canada he carelessly permitted himself to be captured. He was shipped to England a prisoner in irons, and was not exchanged until 1778. He was then appointed a brigadier-general, but per- formed no active military service after his pro- motion. His capture of military supplies, however, was a windfall. Washington immediately sent Henry Knox to bring the much-needed stores to Cam- bridge. Knox had a hard time getting means of transportation, but eventually he made strong sleds (it being winter time) and with eighty yoke of oxen succeeded after many difficulties in get- ting them to Cambridge in February of 1776. In the meantime Washington occupied his army by throwing up fortifications around Boston. When they were completed he had a line of defences nearly nine miles in length, which stretched from the Mystic River to Dorchester Neck. This com- pletely shut up the British in Boston, though they could escape by sea at any time. Unfortunately the colonies did not at that time have any navy. The British had a hard time of it in Boston, however. Food was scarce and fuel scarcer. Pork and beans was their staple dish. They had little or no fresh meat. General Gage's wife was an American and Putnam sent her fresh meat for HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 47 her own table several times. This may seem a queer thing to do considering the circumstances. But in some way or other Washington always heard promptly of all of General Gage's plans, and it has been supposed that the wife of the English general was the source of his information. Early in the winter, however, General Gage was recalled to England, and General Howe was placed in command. He was considered a more aggressive commander than Gage, but did nothing except wait for an attack from Washington. When Knox arrived with the cannon, the latter immediately mounted the guns in the batteries he had erected and fired some shots into Boston to alarm the British. Then he began fortifying points still nearer to Boston. On the 5th of March he fortified Dorchester Heights. It was the anniversary of the Boston Massacre which made the Americans work with a redoubled will. In one night they threw up intrenchments as they had previously at Bunker Hill, and at daybreak the astonished English beheld two forts looking down upon them. " The rebels have done more in one night than my whole army would have accomplished in a month," exclaimed Howe. The British bom- barded the works, but did not succeed in driving the Americans, who were still at work, away. Washington expected that the British would attack the works as soon as they saw them, and 48 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION was prepared for a battle. If the British did attack them it was planned 'that Putnam was to cross the Charles River and take Boston while part of the British were away making this attack. But the British were slow. Howe decided to make a night attack. But a furious storm arose, the surf ran high and the boats could not make a landing. The storm continued through the following day, and by the time it had ceased the American works were too strong to be taken by assault. The British now began to think seriously of getting away from Boston. There was no telling what this energetic American general might do next, and it would not do to have the king's fine army captured. They did not care to be disturbed while leaving, either, for that might result in great loss to them ; so they had the Tories of the town send a letter to Washington stating that if he permitted the British troops to leave in peace they would spare Boston, but if he attacked them while they were embarking on their vessels they would set the town on fire. Washington did not reply but he ordered the firing to cease in his batteries and waited for the British to move out. He was well content to capture the town and drive the British away. Howe did not move out, however, so Washing- ton gave him a huge prod by erecting a fortifica- tion on another hill called Nook's Hill, from which his cannon could rake the streets of the HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 49 city. This was on the i6th of March, and then the English began to make haste about moving. On the i /th they boarded their boats, accompanied by many Tories with their families. When they retreated from Charlestown they abandoned the redoubt they had captured on Breed's Hill, leav- ing dummies made of straw to represent their sentinels. The patriots discovered the trick shortly and immediately took the redoubt and followed on into Boston. Here the streets were strewn with " crow's feet " to bother the pursuers. These crow's feet are iron prongs. To-day every farmer has a better thing than any number of " crow's feet " in his barbed wire fences. These are the worst things ever invented to bother an army while marching. They were invented by Americans and were first used for military pur- poses against the Americans in the war with Spain. The British sailed first to Halifax and then to New York, and Washington took full possession of Boston, which was not thereafter disturbed during the war. No one could now sing the praises of Washing- ton too highly. The whole country was filled with joy at his success, and Congress presented him with a large gold medal in recognition of his services. A few months later, on the 4th of July, the Declaration of Independence was signed and given to the world. Thereafter the colonies began to call themselves States. 4 CHAPTER IV BENEDICT ARNOLD HIS TROUBLES WITH ALLEN INVASION OF CANADA TERRIBLE ' MARCH THROUGH THE WILDERNESS DURING the siege of Boston other events were happening. One of these was the capture of Ti- conderoga by Ethan Allen, where, Boy, you will remember a number of cannon and general mili- tary stores fell into the hands of the Americans. Now it will be interesting to you to watch how men come into prominence in this war which had just begun, notice their character and the in- fluence their personality had upon events of the war. This man Ethan Allen was a strong, headlong man to whom fear was utterly unknown. He was heart and soul with the American cause, and was well suited to what we call to-day " guerilla" war- fare. He could make a dashing exploit with a few men, but he was without the military training or the naturally scientific mind to handle a large body. War is not a mere matter of fighting. It is a science. Allen was a good fighter at the head of a few men. But even in guerilla warfare he was, as HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 51 you have been told, too rash, and was captured through the fault of his own rashness. His fail- ings were well understood, and that is probably the reason why he did not take much of a part in the war after his exchange had been effected. But side by side with Allen when -he entered the fort at Ticonderoga was another man who was one of the most remarkable characters the Revolu- tion brought forth. We can hardly call him a Hero of the Revolution, however, though he, too, was an utter stranger to fear, had the qual- ities of a general which Allen lacked, and fought and bled for America. The name of this man ? Well, in the chapel of the military academy at West Point, there are a number of shields com- memorating the names of the generals of the Revo- lution. On one of these shields the name is chipped out. The name thus erased as a solemn warning to the young men who are being trained to be officers of the United States army is " Benedict Arnold." And that was the name of the man who entered the gates of the fort at Ticonderoga side by side with Ethan Allen. You guessed the name, of course, because he was t the only traitor to the American cause during the Rev- olution. American boys are brought up to hate his memory, and well they should be. He not only went over to the British for money and an of- fice in their army, but he tried to betray some of our forts into their hands. Nevertheless the man 52 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION is to be pitied more than hated at this late day. He had been treated badly by the Continental Congress. He had deserved much from the peo- ple, and he saw others gather the laurels that rightfully belonged to him. But he was by no means the only sufferer in that and in many other ways. There was a course open to him both honourable, proper and sensible. He could have resigned his commission and re- tired to private life. Many other of our revolu- tionary generals either resigned or were on the point of doing so several times. One of the most methodical, General Schuyler, was time and again on the point of resigning. One of the most he- roic and at the same time most modest, General Montgomery, put his resignation in the hands of his subordinate officers during his invasion of Canada, and took it back only at their urgent re- quest. One of the most resolute, able and daring, General Stark, who won one battle of importance while in command of the Americans who fought it, and was the immediate cause of one of Wash- ington's most glorious victories, actually did re- sign for exactly the cause that angered Arnold. In our civil war no less a personage than General Grant almost made up his mind to resign under a somewhat similar provocation. Arnold, however, was too inflammable. When there was fighting it seemed to be a physical demand of his najure. He craved excitement much as did General Lee, HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 53 who was one of the high ranking major-generals of whom I shall tell you more presently. Fate, with its strange perversity, put these two men, Allen and Arnold, side by side at the open gate of Fort Ticonderoga, the first clean-cut vic- tory of the war. Fate put Arnold constantly in similar positions later in the war. To his credit it can be said that he seemed to have a great re- spect for Washington, and, had he been kept con- stantly with the main army under Washington's immediate eye, he might have come through the war with sufficient honour to satisfy even his ambition. Arnold had been an adventurous man from youth, and at the breaking out of the war was captain of a company of Guards at New Haven. The news of the fighting at Boston brought the townspeople together on the public green, and among them he was the most conspicuous. He gathered together sixty volunteers, took the am- munition belonging to the town from the select- men by a show of force and marched at once to Cambridge. From the Massachusetts Committee of Safety he obtained the commission of Colo- nel with power to raise four hundred men and make an expedition against Ticonderoga. He started at once for Western Massachusetts to raise men ; but on arriving at Stockbridge learned to his intense disappointment that another expedi- tion was ahead of him. This was the expedition 54 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION headed by Ethan Allen who had been sent out with the same purpose by the Connecticut people. He stopped but long enough to appoint officers to recruit for him and then posted on with but a servant after Allen. He caught up with the latter when they were within a forced march (about twenty-five miles) of Ticonderoga. Here he pro- duced his commission and demanded command. There was trouble at once. Arnold was in the right to a certain extent, but he waived his claim event- ually and suffered Allen to command while he went along as a volunteer. When the fort was taken he again claimed command, but the Connecticut Committee de- clared Allen to be commander-in-chief of the gar- rison rather an important name for so small a position, was it not ? But the colonies were but just beginning to learn the necessity for a more cen- tralised form of government, and there was trouble on account of such conflict of authority for many years after the commencement of the Revolution. Arnold appealed to the legislature of Massachu- setts, but before hearing from them headed a single company of about fifty men, who had been enlisted under his authority, and moved against another British outpost on the Sorel River called St. John's, sailing down Lake Champlain on a schooner. This he captured, getting there just ahead of the arrival of Allen, whom he met on the way back. HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 55 The Massachusetts legislature, hearing some untrue reports about Arnold, sent a committee to inquire into his conduct. When they found him he was at Crown Point, which had fallen into American hands with Ticonderoga, busily prepar- ing to defend it against an expected attack from Canada. He was furious when he learned of the mission of the committee, and more so when he learned that he was to be put under the command of a Colonel Hinman. So he resigned his com- mand, discharged his men who sided with him, and started post haste for Cambridge. The fact was that he had done nothing but what his war- rant and commission entitled him to do. He was a creditor to the Massachusetts Committee to the extent of five hundred dollars (one hundred pounds), which in those days was a much larger sum, comparatively, than it is to-day ; and, what was worse, he ranked Colonel Hinman, and de- clined to serve under a subordinate officer. No doubt, as early as this, the seeds of his eventual treason were sown by this unfortunate act of the Massachusetts legislature. It does seem, indeed, as though the man could not obtain justice from the countrymen he was so anxious to serve. To you, to-day, Boy, Canada seems like an- other country ; and from what you read in the papers and study in " current events " at school, it seems to be more English than England itself. In those days it was a province like the rest of the 56 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION colonies, but it was far less English than they were. It had been captured from the French but some years before, and was garrisoned in many places by English troops. The people loved the English even less than our own people did, but Canada had been the scene of warfare too long for the Canadians to relish another struggle unless they received substantial aid from the Americans. It was thought moderately certain that they would rebel, however, if their English oppressors were driven out ; and the Continental Congress con- cluded to send an expedition against Canada. Be- sides gaining help from the Canadians, a successful expedition ot this sort would protect the Americans from any English expedition that might easily be started from Canada, and also protect their fron- tier towns from ravages by the Tories of Northern New York, and the Indian allies of the English, for it was already discovered that the heartless English government meant to make use of sav- ages in their warfare against their own blood. Generals Schuyler and Montgomery were already planning an expedition by way of Lake Cham- plain and Washington now conceived the idea of sending another through the north woods of Maine against Quebec. Even to-day the northern portion of Maine is a wilderness. Imagine, then, what it must have been in those days. Such an expedition would have the effect of a tremendous surprise on the English at Que- HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 57 bee, and the city would probably be taken with ease, but the difficulty of getting through those woods seemed almost beyond the possibility of being surmounted. Washington was not the man to abandon an idea because it seemed difficult. He wanted only a man who would overcome obstacles. Arnold was just such a man. Washington knew that nothing short of death could stop him. More- over, Washington had a very good opinion of Arnold's abilities, and considered that he had been dealt with unfairly. To Arnold, therefore, went the command. He was given a command of eleven hundred men, including a battery of artillery and a company of Virginia riflemen, under the celebrated Morgan. Arnold was to sail from Newburyport to the Kennebec, ascend the latter, and strike across to the Dead River, following up the Dead to its source. From this point he was to- cross the watershed to the sources of the Chaudiere, which flows in an opposite direction and enters the St. Lawrence, near Quebec. In those days the quick- est and easiest means of travel were by water ; and if you will look at the map in your geography you will see that Washington had picked out, what seems at a glance, to be an easy route. But those rivers ran through a dense uninhabited forest, they were filled with rapids and falls and winter was approaching. 5 8 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION Washington expected that Arnold would finish his journey before actual winter set in, but the difficulties of the task were greater than he imagined. It was not until the I3th of Novem- ber, in this same wonderful year of 1775, that Arnold was able to transport his troops across the St. Lawrence. Even then he got only five hun- dred over, for immediate attack. Not the whole of the remainder had to remain on the south shore, however, for he had been deserted during the march by Colonel Enos and his command. He had, however, already accomplished, perhaps, the most wonderful march recorded in history. He had taken an invading army through two hun- dred miles of wilderness, carrying with him his artillery and stores, with no other means of trans- portation than birch-bark canoes, and the backs of his men. Even the canoes had to be carried at times. Provisions gave out, the faithful dogs that accompanied the men had to be killed and eaten, and, in the last extremity, the troops even boiled their moose-hide moccasins for such nour- ishment as could be extracted from them. Yet, in spite of all, this indomitable traitor, this man who never gave up anything but his country, suc- ceeded. It seems unfair that after accomplishing so much Arnold should eventually fail. Nor would he have failed but for just such a piece of treach- ery as he was later guilty of himself. He had HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 59 despatched letters to Generals Schuyler and Montgomery (having learned that they were nearing Montreal) by two Indians. These Indians played him false and took the letters to Caramhe, Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Canada, who immediately had all boats on the south shore of the St. Lawrence removed, and drew in rein- forcements from Nova Scotia. Arnold had to procure boats. A storm set in after he had obtained them. In the meantime Quebec was reinforced, also, by a force under a Scotch veteran named Maclean, and a frigate and sloop of war undertook to prevent the crossing. In spite of all, Arnold got over with his five hundred men, scaled the precipice, and stood on the Heights of Abraham, where Wolfe and Montcalm had fought for the possession of the same city years before. Had Arnold made an immediate assault in the early morning he might have taken the city. Quebec was a walled town, but the gate of St. John's was open, the guard boats not having as yet alarmed the city. His subordinate officers were not in favour of so rash a proceeding, however. So Arnold made the mistake of demanding the surrender of the place, making at the same time as imposing a show of his force as he could. He counted, also, on the support of the French in- habitants of Quebec. But the latter abjectly promised to aid the lieutenant-governor, and he was also supported by the sturdy Maclean. He 60 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION would not surrender. Neither would he come out from his entrenchments and fight a pitched battle, as Arnold hoped, though he meditated doing so after he had been again reinforced by the sailors and marines from the ships. So after several days of waiting before the walls, Arnold, hearing of Montgomery's capture of Montreal, sent to the latter for assistance and drew back about twenty miles to await his arrival. On the march to the new camp, Arnold passed a boat going towards Quebec bearing Carleton, the Governor, who was fleeing from Montgomery. This boat had put in at the very point Arnold had chosen for a camping ground. Had he been there a day earlier he would probably have cap- tured Carleton, and by doing so might have com- pelled the latter to surrender the city. At any rate it would have left a much weaker man in command to eventually thwart the combined forces of Montgomery and Arnold. Twice, therefore, had Fate played Arnold a cruel trick. After such superhuman effort he seems to have deserved much. We are warranted in wondering, Boy. if the Almighty, who rules our destinies, was not preventing Arnold from gaining too much renown in the early part of the war of the infant United States of America for independence. Had Arnold been able to betray a greater command to the British in later years it is doubtful whether our independence would have been achieved. CHAPTER V SCHUYLER AND MONTGOMERY MONTGOMERY'S CAPTURE OF ST. JOHN'S THE STORMING OF QUEBEC WE must now go back to the summer of 1775 once more, and consider the other invasion of Canada. This was the original project of both Ethan Allen and Arnold to move against Montreal by way of Lake Champlain. It was carried out, however, by entirely different men, and I shall therefore have to tell you about some other Revolutionary Heroes. Throughout New York there were many Tories. The colony was conquered from the Dutch, and the English settlers were of more recent arrival than in the New England colonies, and depended more upon the home government to support them against the original settlers. Indeed, had it not been for three eminent New York men whose names are familiar to-day, it is doubtful if New York would have followed the other colonies into the war for independence. These men were Schuyler, Clinton and Woodhull, of whom the 61 62 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION two first named were the chief supporters of the new cause, one representing the Dutch settlers and the other the Americans. The city of New York, itself, was filled with Tories, and'there were many in the upper part of the colony ; and these latter, in alliance with Canadians and Indians, threatened the people of New Hampshire and New England generally. Philip Schuyler was a member of the second Continental Congress, and was one of the four orig- inal major-generals appointed by that body. So he became the natural commander of the patriots in New York. This gave him control of the forts captured by Allen and Arnold and, logically, of the expedition against Montreal. He was a man of fine education, a civil and military engineer, and had, like the others, military experience in the training school of the patriots, the French and Indian wars. He was ordered to invade Canada in Septem- ber, but fell sick and had to turn the. command of the expedition over to General Montgomery. He then transferred his headquarters to Albany and held the Tories and Indians in check, protected the line of communications of Montgomery's army and forwarded supplies to it. Richard Montgomery was a native of Ireland, and had been an officer in the English army. After serving in the French and Indian wars with the regular English army (and thus obtaining a HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 63 knowledge of the country he was later to operate in), he conducted himself with great gallantry in an English expedition against the French and Spanish West Indies. He afterwards resigned his commission in the English army, and, emigrat- ing to America in 1772, became a farmer in Rhinebeck. He was a handsome, quiet, dignified man, and sided at once with the colonies in their struggle against the crown. Congress made him a brigadier-general. He had no desire, he said, to abandon the quiet scheme of life he had prescribed for himself. But, to use his own words, " the will of an oppressed people, compelled to choose between liberty and slavery, must be obeyed." So he became one of Schuyler's two brigadier-generals. The other was Wooster. Schuyler's army for the invasion of Canada was to consist of about three thousand troops. While Schuyler was making his preparations he sent Montgomery on with one thousand men to Crown Point. Here Montgomery learned that Governor Carleton of Canada was making preparations to place several armed ships on Lake Champlain, and Montgomery pushed on to the upper end of the lake where it emptied into the Sorel (or Richelieu) River, to prevent Carleton from doing so. About this time Schuyler fell sick, and the command of the whole expedition fell upon Montgomery. Without waiting for his entire 64 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION army to collect Montgomery pushed on down the Sorel River to Fort St. John, which was held by a British garrison nearly as large as the army Mont- gomery now had with him. He made little prog- ress, therefore. His ammunition was scanty and his artillery ineffective. Moreover, a mutiny broke out in his army which would have broken it up but for Montgomery's eloquence and noble conduct. To get ammunition Montgomery sent a small force to capture Fort Chambly, which was situated still further down the river and which was but feebly garrisoned. In this way he ob- tained one hundred and twenty barrels of powder, and Fort St. John soon fell into his hands with its thousand prisoners and munitions of war. It was a very plucky fight the Americans were making, wasn't it, Boy? They had to capture their powder and cannon and most of their small arms from the British in order to fight the British. It is quite a matter of wonder how it was done. Montgomery now heard that Arnold with his small army was before Quebec just as Arnold had heard that Montgomery had captured St. John's. The country was delighted with Montgomery's success at St. John's and Congress appointed him a major-general. Montgomery immediately pushed forward to Montreal and captured it without trouble, at the same time gaining mastery over a large part of Canada. Here he received Arnold's message HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 65 telling of his repulse at Quebec and of the desti- tution of Arnold's army. Montgomery at once put himself at the head of but three hundred men and pushed on to Arnold's relief over the frozen ground and through the driving snow, for you will remember that it was now November and that means the full blast of winter in Canada. It is a pitiful picture we have here, of Montgomery's tall, handsome form pushing ahead through the snow storms leading and cheering on his little band of rescuers and going from a victory that had made him the darling of the country to defeat and certain death. It was the heart of winter when he joined Arnold, and when he did so these two men, so equally brave and yet so entirely different, cast about for some means to capture the city. They did not feel that they were strong enough to carry Quebec and they did not have a force strong enough to make a regular siege of the place. Their artillery consisted of only six can- non and a howitzer ; and when they placed these in a battery erected only forty rods from the walls of the town they utterly failed to make any effect upon it. There was now less hope than ever of help from within the town, for when Carleton had got safely into it the inhabitants who were friendly to the colonists and who hated and feared Carle- ton went out into the surrounding country in a body. 5 66 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION In the meantime the men began to suffer from the cold. They were insufficiently clad, and every day the cold was growing more intense and the snow deeper. To add to the distress smallpox broke out in the American camp. When men were attacked by it they wore little sprigs of hem- lock in their hats. Every day the sprigs increased in number, and the men were thrown into a panic by the plague that had come upon them. Oh, if Arnold had only followed his own inclination to assault Quebec at once that first morning when he stood with his five hundred men on the Heights of Abraham, instead of listening to the advice of his council of war ! In the meantime there was another mutiny which Montgomery had to quell, and at .length he saw clearly that he must take the town by assault at once or retreat. Men and offi- cers alike were for making the assault, and Mont- gomery gave the orders to make it on the night of the last day of that year full of importance to America, 1775 that year which had brought such an auspicious opening to the colonies in their struggle for independence and which was to end so disastrously. THE STORMING OF QUEBEC. Quebec was divided into two portions the up- per and lower towns. It was expected that the English garrison would expect an attack upon the upper town, exposed as it was more naturally. HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 67 Montgomery decided, therefore, merely to make a feint against this part of the city. Colonel Living- ston was to make an attack on the gate of St. John's and set fire to it. At the same time Major Brown was to make a feint on the bastion of Cape Diamond at the other end of the upper town. It was expected that these two false attacks would draw the greater part of the garrison into the upper town. In the meantime Arnold with three hundred and fifty of his own men and a small body under Captain Lamb, who had handled the artillery during the various futile bombardments with great skill, was to attack the lower town on the side furthest from the river ; while Montgom- ery with the remainder was to pass below the bastion attacked by Brown and defiling along the river attack the lower town from that side: All four attacks were to be made simultaneously at the discharge of a signal rocket. At two o'clock on the morning of the 3ist of December the various bodies repaired to their stations. Mis- takes began to occur immediately. The rockets were discharged too soon and Livingston failed to make his attack on the gate of St. John's. Mont- gomery descended from the heights successfully and surprised the first of the Canadian barriers after a march along the banks of the St. Lawrence. He pressed on to a blockhouse beyond. The defenders of the latter seemed to be panic-stricken for a time, and Montgomery, thinking victory 68 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION already in his grasp, shouted : " Push on, my brave fellows. Quebec is ours." When within forty yards of the blockhouse, however, the battery it contained suddenly opened fire and Montgomery and one of his aides fell dead. The commander of the New York troops, Captain Cheeseman, re- ceived a canister shot through the body and fell dead also while trying to push on. The next ranking officer was in the rear and Colonel Camp- bell, Montgomery's quartermaster-general, ordered a retreat. Montgomery's column therefore aban- doned the field, leaving its dead to fall into the hands of the enemy. Young Aaron Burr, who though a mere boy was an aide on Montgomery's staff, tried to carry back the body of his dead general, but was forced to abandon it or be cap- tured himself. One resolute rush after the dis- charge of that artillery and the blockhouse would have been captured, Montgomery would have entered the town and by aiding Arnold probably have captured it. As it was, the retreat of Mont- gomery's column left the whole British force free to turn against Arnold. Arnold's column was the forlorn hope. He had with him Morgan and Captain Lamb with one field- piece. Arnold headed the column in person (as Montgomery had his) with twenty-five men. After these came the artillery of Lamb with their single field-piece mounted on a sled. Behind the artil- lery came a company with scaling ladders, then HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 69 Morgan with his riflemen, and in rear of all the main body. The field-piece was carried as they knew they would have to take a battery on their route. The field-piece, however, was brought to a halt by a deep snowdrift. Nevertheless, the first battery or barrier was taken, though Arnold was wounded so severely that he had to be borne from the field. Morgan took command and pressed on. The fight at the second barrier was obstinate. Day was just dawning, and after severe fighting in which Captain Lamb was wounded by the last discharge of the enemy's cannon, the second barrier was taken. Morgan then entered the town. But the whole force of the British was now turned upon him and he had to take refuge with his men in a stone house. This they defended, firing from the windows until they heard of the death of Montgomery and the retreat of his column when Morgan was compelled to surrender. The fragments of the little army of Americans retreated a few miles from the town and threw up hasty intrenchments, supposing that Carleton would pursue them with his victorious garrison. But the latter was content with the safety of Quebec. To his credit be it said, that though a severe and harsh man he was struck with so much admiration for the daring of the Americans that he treated them with great humanity, and buried Montgomery's body with the honour due a soldier. 7 o HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION Arnold, wounded and in great agony, was carried back exposed for nearly a mile from musketry fire from the walls which were not more than fifty yards distance, and took command of the remnant of the army until he could be relieved by General Wooster, who was at Montreal. He immediately put his shattered remnant of an army into such shape that it was still dangerous to the security of Quebec. He declared that he had no thought of leaving the proud town until he entered it in triumph. " I am in the way of my duty and I know no fear," he wrote. Thus ended the storming of Quebec and it is sad to relate Arnold's expedition, for he did not enter the city in spite of his courageous words. He was rewarded, however, by being made a briga- dier-general. General Wooster did not take command of Arnold's army in person, however. He was over sixty years of age and hardly equal to the task. So Arnold with great pertinacity remained before the town all winter, blockading it with a force but half as large as the garrison. Sickness and deser- tions reduced this force. The Canadians who had hailed him as a deliverer were, now that he was beaten, afraid to further sympathise with him and all he effected was to cut off Quebec from some occasional supplies. In the spring, General Wooster reinforced him and took command. Arnold, having been again injured by the falling HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 71 of his horse, went back to Montreal. Then, in April, General Thomas took command. The latter determined on another assault. He planned to turn a fire-ship loose among the ships that lay off Quebec, and while the town was in the confusion that he expected would result from the ensuing conflagration he proposed to scale the walls with a force that now amounted to about two thousand men. But the fire-ship passed harmlessly by the shipping and the rest of the plan was of course abandoned. On the 6th of May, 1 776, Quebec was reinforced and General Thomas was compelled to retreat. This he did, first to Point Deschambault, and then to the mouth of the Sorel River, where he was reinforced by General Thompson. On the second of June General Thomas died of the small- pox and was succeeded in command of the Amer- ican forces in Canada by General Sullivan, who had arrived with still further reinforcements. The people were at last awake to the danger of being invaded in turn by the British from Canada. Throughout New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and New York the people were in a state of con- sternation. They were bitter in their criticisms of the conduct of affairs in Canada and placed the blame on the head of poor General Schuyler. They accused him of not furnishing the army in Canada with sufficient supplies or reinforcements, and they were particularly angry at his 'enient treatment of the Tories. 72 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION Schuyler, however, was upheld by Washington, and at the request of the latter did not resign as he wished to. In the meantime the English were "advancing from Quebec under the command of Maclean, and Sullivan sent General Thompson forward down the St. Lawrence to meet him. General John Sullivan was a lawyer of Durham, New Hampshire. He with a small force captured Fort William and Mary at Portsmouth at the commencement of hostilities, and as I have told you was one of the eight brigadier-generals origi- nally appointed by the second Continental Con- gress. He had served under Washington at Cambridge until the British evacuated Boston and was now taking his turn at commanding the army of invasion. His period of command was short and anything but brillant, though he en- tered upon his work with the greatest confidence. He was totally unaware that a large British army of 1,300 men had been landed in Canada and that the force of Maclean was but the advance of it. General Thompson pushed blindly into a British force vastly greater than his own at Three Rivers, and was completely routed. Sullivan, to his cha- grin, had to retreat himself to Crown Point, being joined on the way by Arnold, who barely made his escape from Montreal with the few hundred men with whom he had been holding the city. And at Crown Point Sullivan was superseded by HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 73 General Gates. The British under Burgoyne were following, and thus the American invasion of Canada ended in a British invasion of New York, which it was fondly hoped would split the colonies in twain. CHAPTER VI PREPARATIONS FOR THE DEFENCE OF NEW YORK LEE AND MOULTRIE THE BATTLE OF FORT MOULTRIE You will see, Boy, that in these early days of the Revolution, officers in the field were criticised quite as freely as they were in the Civil War, and in the war with Spain. Indeed in the first of our wars officer succeeded officer with more rapidity than in any other. This is due to the fact that some, though patriotic, were inefficient ; and also to the fact that each colony had its favourite sons, in whom it had great confidence, and whom it wanted to see promoted. To make things worse the Continental Congress was vested with limited powers, and it was not always wise in its actions. Very often it tu/ned the military authority in a colony over to the Provincial Assembly of that colony, so that if a general happened to be acting under the authority and directions of one colony, and in pursuit or retreat passed into another, he immediately came under the power of new supe- riors. In addition, these men were serving with little or no pay. Were they not heroes, indeed ? 74 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 75 I have told you of the importance of Canada and Northern New York. But the city of New York was more important still. Its harbour was full of British ships, many of them men-of-war, and the Governor (Tryon), who had been driven out by the people, was on one of these ships, and was intriguing with the Tories in the city. More- over, the ships were a matter of constant alarm to the inhabitants. They were in deadly fear of being bombarded by the ships. At the suggestion of John Adams, Washington finally decided to do something toward defending New York. He was doubtful of his authority, although he had been given extraordinary powers by Congress. Adams convinced him that he would not be arrogating authority. So in Jan- uary, before the fall of Boston, Washington sent Charles Lee, one of the original major-generals, on to New York. Lee, like Gates and Montgomery, had been an officer in the regular army of England. He was fiery, headstrong, wild and adventurous. His life reads more like a romance than a biography. He fought in and for more countries than America and England, and whenever there was a war in Europe he was pretty sure to be found in it. While a British officer in the French and Indian wars, he was adopted into the Mohawk tribe of Indians, who had taken a fancy to him, under the name of " Boiling Water," which seemed to them 76 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION appropriate to him. He afterwards caused Wash- ington a great deal of trouble ; but, it is to be said to his credit, that he gave up his property in Eng- land to fight for the American cause, and ran the risk of being hung as a traitor if captured by the English. The people looked up to him, therefore, with great respect and admiration, and called him the " Palladium of American Liberty." He ex- pected to be made commander-in-chief of the American army, but kept his chagrin to himself when Washington was made such. No doubt he thought that the future might bring him to the front in the course of time. But he was able, brave, earnest and vigorous. Lee raised troops in Connecticut and marched toward New York. The people of the city were greatly alarmed and begged that he would not enter the town, as they feared an immediate bom- bardment from the ships if he did enter, and com- mence to fortify the place. This did not deter Lee. He marched into town, sent word to the British ships that if they bombarded the town, the first house they set on fire would be the funeral pile of one hundred of their best Tory friends, and proceeded to fortify Brooklyn and Hell Gate, and to barricade the town itself. He was in the midst of these labours when Congress appointed him to the command of the army in Canada (that unfor- tunate army which had, we might say, almost as many commanders as men). Before he started HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 77 for this command, however, Congress heard that the British intended to invade the Southern col- onies. So they reversed their instructions and sent Lee, first to Virginia, and then to Charleston, S. C. After the departure of Lee for the South, the command devolved for a time upon Brigadier- General Stirling (often called Lord Stirling be- cause of his claim to a Scotch earldom, which he never succeeded in obtaining). Stirling was a distinguished scientist, and a brave and efficient officer. In many ways his judgment was not con- sidered sound, however, and he always served in a subordinate capacity under Washington. Stir- ling admired and loved Washington, and it was through Stirling that the Conway cabal and Gates' intrigue, of which I will tell you later, were dis- covered. When the British evacuated Boston and sailed away, Washington supposed that they would make direct for the port of New York. He therefore sent detachments under Generals Heath and Sul- livan (this, you know, was before Sullivan was sent with reinforcements for the army in Canada) to New York, and called on Congress to raise three thousand more troops for the defence of New York. To Putnam he gave the command of the whole army in New York, and the latter completed the defences of the town, begun by Lee, fortified King's Bridge, and the Highlands of the Hudson. j8 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION Putnam put even a firmer hand upon the Tories in New York than Lee had, and the town was under thorough martial law. General Howe sailed first for Halifax, but event- ually turned up at New York as Washington had surmised. In the meantime, Sir Henry Clinton was making preparations to invade the South (where Lee had been sent to prepare for him), and as I have told you, the British, under General Burgoyne, were preparing to drive the Americans out of Canada, and descend through New York. So the British had three campaigns arranged for this year of 1776, and no doubt King George thought that by the end of summer he would have downed the Rebellion, and decorated every scaf- fold in the colonies with swinging " rebels," as the British called us. He did not succeed, but to quote the word of a patriot, writing at the time, his armies did " set the continent a racing from Boston to Carolina." When Washington heard of the arrival of Ad- miral Howe's ships at New York (the admiral preceded his brother the general there), he left Bos- ton post-haste for the former city, arriving' on the 1 3th of April and took personal command. Know- ing that the general he had so cleverly driven out of Boston would soon appear, the commander-in- chief saw that the Howes would probably make Long Island the object of their first attack, and set General Greene at work completing the forti- HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 79 * fications of Brooklyn, and put him in command there. In all there were about ten thousand men available for duty on Long Island. The men were many of them sick, and the force was in- sufficient to meet the army of Howe. While Washington was studying the problem how best to employ this insufficient force, Congress pro- ceeded to ask him if he could not spare troops from that army to reinforce the army in Canada. It is a matter of wonder, is it not, Boy, which was the more perplexed man in the times of the nation's greatest needs Washington or Lincoln ? You see neither Congress nor Washington had yet learned of the large army that was being sent to Canada. Congress thought that Howe would sail back to Canada when he found Washington ready to meet him at New York, and make a campaign there. Or, that at the worst he would make a campaign against New York, and that possibly the best way to protect New York would be to make a vigorous offensive movement against Canada and draw Howe away to defend it. No one imagined that King George had soldiers to spare to make three distinct campaigns. And, as a matter of fact, King George had not. But he managed it, nevertheless. This is how he did it. Not content with waging war against his colonies and kinsmen with the sav- ages, he hired soldiers from the Duke of Brunswick, the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel and the Hered- 8o HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION itary Prince of Cassel. Nearly eighteen thousand of these he had hired just as he would have hired the use of so many animals, and the delicate- minded masters of these animals had let them out for so much pay for their use, and so much extra for every one killed. When Washington heard the first news of this arrangement, he proceeded promptly to the Con- gress, which was in session at Philadelphia, and made them understand the desperate situation of affairs. They, therefore, began to enlist men for three years (the best step they had yet taken in the right direction), and made preparations to reinforce the army in New York city with four- teen thousand men, giving Washington power to call on neighbouring colonies for more if it should seem necessary. King George's peculiar ideas in raising an army, therefore, but made the Amer- icans more determined to baffle him. When Washington returned to New York, a plot was hatched by Governor Tryon and his Tories (the names seem to go together beauti- fully, do they not ?) to assassinate Washington. Even some of Washington's body-guard were im- plicated in it. But the plot was discovered, Washington's life was saved, and the conspirators were punished, one of the body-guard being hung in a field near the Bowery Lane in the presence of twenty thousand spectators. On the 29th of June, 1776, General Howe ar- HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 81 rived before New York with his army. Five days later the colonies formally declared their inde- pendence with general rejoicing. This strength- ened Washington's hand. He was also rejoiced at this time to obtain the services of his old Virginia friend and veteran soldier Hugh Mercer, just appointed brigadier-general, whom he prompt- ly put in command of some Pennsylvania troops who were sent on to New Jersey to help Brigadier- General Livingston of that colony, defend it. Mercer had fought with Washington at Fort Duquesne, but Livingston was without military experience. He was a man of education and talent, however, and had great influence with his people. Washington had re-acquired the services of Reed as adjutant-general when Gates obtained a commission as major-general ; and just at this same time General Greene observed a young artillery officer who so impressed him by his ability that he took him to Washington. This was Alexander Hamilton. Washington soon soon found use for him. Volunteers from the country began to flock into the city, and the spirit of the whole people was greatly improved. More- over the arrival of the British before New York had precipitated matters. Tories and patriots (or Whigs, as they were often called) now took sides openly. On the 1 2th of July, two of the enemy's ships passed up the Hudson, exchanging fire with the 82 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION batteries. This was the first real fighting the people of New York had seen, and they were thrown into great alarm. Washington, himself, was alarmed also, for he feared thaf the forts erected on the Hudson would be unable to cope with them, being in an unfinished condition. To add to his perplexity there was a conflict of authority between Generals Schuyler and Gates, and General Sullivan, angered that Gates had been promoted over him, left the army gathered by the two former at Ticonderoga on leave of absence, hastened to Congress and offered his resignation. He was prevailed upon to recall it and joined Washington at New York. Congress, also, eventually made the peculiar decision be- tween Schuyler and Gates that the former was to command the army while it was in New York, and the latter while it was in Canada. This practically put Schuyler in command. Then came a piece of news to cheer Washington. Sir Henry Clinton had made an attack on Charlestown and had been repulsed. This introduces another Hero of the Revolu- tion. Before Lee arrived at Charlestown to take charge of its defence from the expected attack by Clinton, Colonel William Moultrie had been erect- ing batteries for the defence of that port. One of these was erected at Haddrell's Point ; the other, a complete fort, on Sullivan's Island. William Moultrie was born in the city which HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 83 he was now defending. He and Francis Marion, who was now a captain under him, had fought to- gether against the Indians. On the day that the battle of Bunker Hill was fought Moultrie was made a colonel and Marion a captain by the Provincial Congress of South Carolina. The fort he erected on Sullivan's Island, and which was named after him, he erected of palmetto logs and sand. To defend it Moultrie had but four hun- dred and thirty-five men and thirty-one cannon. When Lee arrived to take command he called the fort a " slaughter-pen " and proposed to abandon it. Governor Rutledge, however, would not per- mit the fort to be abandoned. Supposing that the main fight would be at Haddrell Point, Lee remained there and Moultrie fought the battle, although Lee crossed to the other fort in an open boat during the engagement and pointed some of the guns. THE BATTLE OF FORT MOULTRIE. Early in June, Clinton appeared before Charles- ton with a fleet of fifty vessels. He landed about two thousand troops on another island, and sin- gularly enough, on another " Long Island " and prepared for the attack. On the 28th all was ready and the English fleet sailed in to reduce Fort Moultrie, preparatory to the advance by land. There were nine ships of war with the fleet and they were permitted to come within point- 84 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION blank of the fort before the first gun was fired. The defenders knew little of gunnery and they probably did not care to engage the. ships at a range that would require an elevation of the guns. As it was they had been told by every one who was supposed to know that the fort would be re- duced by the ships in half an hour. When Moul- trie was asked what he would do then, he replied promptly, " We will lie behind the ruins and pre- vent the enemy from landing." The ships did not reply to the first volley, but advanced until they were abreast of the fort, when they clewed up their sails, dropped their anchors and started in to fight with a terrible broadside. Over a hundred cannon opened on the fort at once. Lee watched from Haddrell's Point. When the smoke lifted from that first awful broad- side from the ships he expected to see the fort in ruins. He was mistaken. The palmetto logs and the sand made an embankment that was impene- trable. And to his surprise there were no splinters from the palmetto logs. They simply closed silently over the balls, though the battlements shook from the broadsides. But the vessels shook also. The Americans were using their cannon as well as though they were their accustomed rifles. The British had a bomb vessel with them. But the bombs it threw sunk silently into a morass in the centre of the fort, and it soon went out of ac- tion riddled through and through. Then Moul- 85 trie turned every gun on the largest of the English vessels fifty-gun ships. The fire he poured in on these was terrible and he drove every man from their upper decks, which were slippery with blood. On one boat, the Experiment, nearly a hundred men were either killed or wounded in the first hour of the action. The Commodore fared no better. A cannon ball knocked a coat from the top of the parapet. The men laughed as it sailed away, and Moultrie took out his pipe and began to smoke in quiet joy. In the distance Charleston, like Boston at the battle of Bunker Hill, was black with spectators. Now Lee, more and more aston- ished at the ability of the " slaughter-pen," as he had called it, to hold out, came over in a boat. He was equally astonished at the coolness of Moultrie and his men. The idea of a few men in such a rude structure with but thirty-five cannon holding out against a fleet that carried two hun- dred and sixty-six guns all told seemed almost impossible to him. But Lee was an admirer of brave men, and he did not now come to take from Moultrie the credit of defending the fort. On the contrary he commended him and returned to his own post to send over more powder. He was equally enthusiastic in his praises of Moultrie and his men in his report to Washington later. During the fight the flag-staff on the fort was shot away, and both the people of Charleston and 86 HEROES OF OUJ3. REVOLUTION the British on ship and on shore supposed (with very different emotions) that the fort had sur- rendered. But the heroic Sergeant Jasper, whose name has become immortal for the act, jumped on the parapet and walked under fire over to where it had fallen, the whole length of the fort away, picked it up, bound it to a sponge staff and planted it on the bastion at the corner. When the powder gave out the British thought the defenders were weakening. But the first ter- rible volley after a new supply arrived showed them their error. All day long the fight kept up. For twelve hours ships and fort struggled for the mastery. At length, after nine o'clock at night, the fleet drew away completely cut up. One boat, the Acteon, had run aground, and to prevent her from falling into the hands of the Americans the British set her on fire. When the fire reached her magazine she blew up with an explosion that was heard for miles. This engagement saved South Carolina from danger. Moultrie was made a brigadier-general, and sent to the defence of Savannah, which was threatened by the enemy. Lee, after remaining some time in command at Charleston, was ordered to Philadelphia, and later went to the assistance of Washington in New York. CHAPTER VII. THE BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND. THE British force before New York, and now holding Staten Island, was no less than thirty-five thousand men. Howe had been reinforced by the troops under Sir Henry Clinton, who had been driven away from Charlestown, and by further reinforcements, from England. Washington knew, as the summer advanced, that the British were prepared for an attack on Long Island, and must have often wondered why they did not make it sooner. In the meantime, Putnam tried to capture the two boats that had sailed up the Hudson, by placing obstructions in the river below them under the guns of batteries on either shore. He then tried to set them on fire as they rode at anchor, by fire ships, which were being constructed in New York by Ephraim Anderson, adjutant of a New Jersey regiment, who had made the same sort of an attempt to set fire to the ships during the siege of Quebec. In- deed, it was Anderson's plan to attempt the destruction of the whole English fleet in this manner, though it was never carried out. 87 88 HEROES OK OWR REVOLUTION Putnam's fire-ships failed to set fire to the Eng- lish men-of-war, but they became alarmed when the attempt was made, for their safety, and con- cluded to drop down the river. Putnam was con- fident that they were as good as captured. He thought that his obstruction would hold them, and his batteries smash them into surrender. He was disappointed. The men-of-war were guided through the only opening in the obstruction by some never discovered traitor, and calmly sailed away to join the fleet anchored off Staten Island. As August drew on, it was apparent that the British were making ready for an attack on New York, and the city was thrown into a state of fever- ish excitement. Many of Washington's advisers now urged him to abandon the city. They feared that he would be cooped up in it much as he had cooped the British up in Boston, and be compelled to surrender. The great Commander-in-Chief, however, was unwilling to leave New York with- out making the best effort he could to defend it. He had but about seventeen thousand men to oppose to the thirty-five thousand of the enemy, but he expected to fight with an inferior force throughout the war, and he might as well do it now as at any other time. On the night of the 2ist of August, 1776, the British began to cross to Long Island, and by morning twenty thousand of the enemy had landed, or were preparing to land, at various HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 89 points. The American position stretched from Wallabout Bay to Gowanus Cove. To protect its rear, there was a battery at Red Hook and a fort on Governor's Island. The line of defences erected by General Greene consisted of intrench- ments and redoubts. Two and a half miles in front was a densely wooded range of hills, which General Greene had intended to fortify. Greene, however, had fallen sick with a fever, and the com- mand of the forces in Brooklyn had fallen on General Sullivan. Several thousand of the enemy landed at Gravesend and compelled Colonel Hand, who was stationed there to retreat to the wooded hills. Against these lines marched Sir Henry Clinton, the Earls of Cornwallis and Percy, and Generals Grant and Erskine, with nine thousand men and forty pieces of artillery. Lord Cornwal. lis took.up a position at Flatbush with the Eng- lish reserve, while the rest of the army stretched across Long Island from the Narrows to the vil- lage of Flatland. There were three passes through the wooded hills, and Cornwallis advanced to take the central one. Here he found Hand, and being ordered not to attack, camped for the night at the village of Flatbush. The intention of the British was to force the Brooklyn lines and take Brook- lyn Heights. The prospects of a battle again alarmed the inhabitants of the city, and they be- gan pouring from it. They feared, too, for some unexplainable reason, that Washington, if forced 90 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION to retreat, intended to set fire to New York. This, of course, he had no intention of doing. On the 24th, Washington crossed to Brooklyn to take a survey of the situation, but he was handi- capped by the condition of General Greene, who was too ill to even explain his plans. Colonel Hand had thrown up a redoubt on the central road, while the road from Flatbush to Bedford was guarded by Colonels Williams and Miles. The English were now stretched along in front of these hills. There had been continual skirmish- ing and fighting between the two armies, but as yet no serious encounter. Washington now saw that General Sullivan was unequal to the com- mand, being so new an arrival at the scene of ac- tion, and gave it to General Putnam. In the meantime, the British were continually augment- ing their force. Washington on returning to New York sent over still further reinforcements. The British plan of attack was to turn the left flank of the American army, and this Clinton did on the night of the 26th. He expected to be op- posed, but to his surprise he was not. Attacks were made in the early morning on the American right and centre to aid him, and a British ship cannonaded the battery at Red Hook. Washington was for a time perplexed as to whether New York was also to be attacked, or merely the lines on Long Island. At length, he concluded that the fighting was to be done only HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 91 on Long Island, and was ferried over in time to see the catastrophe resulting from the enemy's well laid plans. Sullivan, hearing the thundering of Clinton's cannon from Colonel Hand's redoubt near Flatbush, surmised the truth that he had been flanked on the left. He immediately ordered a retreat, but it was too lat^e. The British were well around by this time, and he was driven back. As the British were now advancing all along the line it was but a short time before the Americans on the heights were surrounded. They fought with fury, and were attacked with equal fury, the Hes- sians making a name for themselves as butchers, which is not yet forgotten by Americans. A few of the American army fought its way through to the lines, but the majority, including Sullivan him- self, were captured. All this could be seen by Washington. He saw his best troops cut down and captured, and knew he had nothing but militia left to man the works around Brooklyn. But even worse was to follow. General Stirling, who commanded the right of the American line on the hills, had been deceived by the forbearance of the British in not advancing against him, though they continued to engage with him. Supposing himself master of the field, therefore, and ignorant of the fate of the left, he remained in place until the British reserve under Cornwallis got in his rear. Then he under- stood the desperate situation he was caught in. 92 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION Washington supposed that he would surrender. Instead, he divided his force. He ordered half to retreat, and with -the other half boldly attacked Cornwallis. He and his little body of men fought desperately, but eventually were forced to sur- render. In the meantime, Washington, looking on, wrung his hands in agony at the carnage. The British forces now concentrated within a few hundred yards of the American redoubts. They could have carried them by assault, prob- ably, but the British commander, Howe, thought he could attain his object and lose fewer men by regular approaches. Consequently, he withdrew out of the reach of the American musketry fire and encamped for the night. The Americans lost two thousand men in killed, wounded and prisoners, out of about five thou- sand actually in the engagement. The British lost less than four hundred. The next day (the 28th) the British began plant- ing cannon and commenced to entrench. Rain, however, drove the British into their tents, while reinforcements arrived in small numbers in the American camp. The 2Qth was noticeable for a dense fog. Adjutant-General Reed and some other officers rode out, however, and discovered that the English ships were in a state of bustle and preparation. This boded evil. The officers galloped back, and Reed communicated the fact to Washington. To him, as to them, a movement HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 93 of the ships could mean but one thing an at- tempt to cut him off from New York, and the possible, if not very probable, capture of his whole army. Washington at once called a council of war, and it was decided to retreat to New York while there was yet opportunity. But even the retreat was a dangerous "piece of business. The sentries of the enemy were within a quarter of a mile of the American sentries, with the boats at hand, the crossing of so large a body of men over a strait three-quarters of a mile wide and swept by strong currents, must of necessity be slow ; and, should the enemy learn of it, disastrous. Washington himself arranged the plans. Secrecy and celerity were required. The troops were ordered to hold themselves in readiness to advance (which caused them a feeling of consternation, as their guns were rendered almost useless by the incessant rains); and so quickly did Colonel Hughes, the acting quartermaster-general, obey his orders, that all the water craft within fifteen miles was assembled at the docks by eight o'clock in the evening, though the orders were issued only at noon. General Mifflin, with the Penn- sylvania troops, was to remain on guard at the trenches with sentries posted quite as usual, until the main body had embarked, when he was to march quickly to tl\e docks and cross himself. Late in the evening the movement began. The central regiments moving to the rear as silently as 94 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION possible, and the flanks closing in as they went, and taking their places. Washington stationed himself at the ferry, su- perintending everything. All went well, save that a cannon was discharged while it was being spiked, and one of Washington's aides, by mistake, gave the order to Mifflin to withdraw before the proper time. The gun, however, failed to arouse the British camp, and Mifflin, upon being informed of his mistake by the astonished and angry Wash- ington, marched his men back to their posts. A Tory woman, whose husband had been put under guard by the Americans, sent a negro servant to inform the British of the movement in a spirit of revenge. He passed the American pickets suc- cessfully ; but, fortunately, when approaching the enemy's lines, fell into the hands of some Hessian guards who could not understand English, and he was locked up for the night. On such a trifling thing as that hung the fate of the American army. General Howe did not make any immediate preparations to attack New York, although he must have known the precarious situation Wash- ington's army was in. The fact of the matter was, Howe was ambitious to bring the war to a close and reunite the colonies to the mother coun- try. He had no authority from parliament to make terms with the Americans, but supposed that if he could come to an agreement with them it would HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 95 be ratified by his own government. He could make no terms with them, he knew, except such as meant a reunion with England. But he sup- posed the Americans thoroughly whipped by this time, and as thoroughly cowed. New York and Washington's army he considered his whenever he might wish to take it. Under these "circumstances he sent General Sul- livan under parole with an overture to Congress, although he would not recognise the authority of Congress, or, indeed, the legal existence of such a body. This put Congress in a dilemma. They wanted to treat with Howe, because, for all they knew, the negotiations might lead to independence and peace. But they also insisted on their right to represent the American people. In this dilem- ma they appointed a committee of three, consist- ing of John Adams, Edward Rutledge and Ben- jamin Franklin, to confer with Howe. It was arranged that Howe should consider this com- mittee merely a small body of private gentlemen of influence in the rebellious colonies, while Congress considered them, as they were, a com- mittee. The committee met General Howe on Staten Island, opposite Amboy, where Mercer was stationed with a small body of Pennsylvania and New Jersey troops, called by Washington a " flying camp" for the protection of New Jersey from marauders. The committee soon discovered that Howe had no authority to treat with them 96 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION along any lines which they were willing to con- sider, and the conference soon broke up without accomplishing anything. General Howe expressed regret, when they departed, that he "would be obliged to distress those for whom he had so much regard." Franklin assured him that the Americans would endeavor to lessen his pain by " taking good care of themselves."* CHAPTER VIII. THE RETREAT FROM NEW YORK ARRIVAL OF LEE THE BATTLE OF WHITE PLAINS DEFENCES OF THE HIGHLANDS OF THE HUD- SON PREPARATIONS FOR THE DEFENCE OF NEW JERSEY IN New York Washington was in a state of per- plexity. He fully realised the importance of holding New York if possible and the danger that lay in the attempt. The island peninsula of Manhattan is a particularly difficult one to de- fend, and a more difficult place to retreat from. Surrounded by water which was covered on three sides with the ships of the enemy, there was but one point where he might withdraw to the main- land. This was King's Bridge at the northern part of the island. As yet the British had made no move up the Harlem River, but they soon appeared at Hell Gate. In the meantime the enlistments of many of his troops were running out and they were returning to their homes. Worse still, a good part of the militia, disgusted, dejected and thoroughly fright- ened, marched off to their homes. Washington 7 97 9 8 did not attempt to dissuade them. He knew it would be almost useless, and he had no use for troops in such a frame of mind any way. Thus his army began to disintegrate, .until, as we shall see, by winter, he had but a handful left. After a council of war in which the generals disagreed, it was finally concluded to leave Put- nam with five thousand troops to the city itself to man the redoubts and batteries. Heath with nine thousand was to occupy the upper part of the island, to oppose any attempt of the enemy to land, while Greene was to occupy the central por- tion along Turtle Bay and Kip's Bay. Washing- ton located his headquarters some distance from the city. Foreseeing the end, however, Washing- ton began the removal of supplies from the city and island. On the I4th of September the British landed several thousand troops on the islands at the mouth of the Harlem River. The next day they attacked the militia at Turtle Bay and Kip's Bay. The latter fled at the first approach of the red- coats. Their panic and flight was joined in by two brigades Putnam had sent to aid them. While they were fleeing and their officers trying in vain to rally them, Washington appeared among them. He was so indignant that he lost all self-control, threw his hat on the ground in rage and snapped his pistols at the flying men. Indeed, he would have been captured by the HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 99 enemy then and there had not an aide grasped the bridle of his horse and led him away. He soon regained command of himself, however, and sent word in haste to Putnam to withdraw from the city to Harlem Heights, which he saw was the objective point of the British. Putnam promptly obeyed, making a forced march along the road nearest the Hudson. The day was terribly hot, the roads dusty and his army impeded by hosts of women and children who fled with it. Many men fell on the road from exhaustion and some died, but Putnam barely made good his escape. The very heat that caused his column so much trouble, tempted the British to halt at the house of a Quaker, named Murray, on Murray Hill, for refreshments. Murray was a patriot, and his wife, knowing that Putnam' s army was making its way but a mile distant, saw an opportunity to aid him. She placed cake and wine before the British officers in such abundance that they gladly lingered until it was too late. As it was, however, they crossed the island in time to capture some three hun- dred men of Putnam's army and kill about fifteen in a short encounter. Washington now made a fortified camp on the upper neck of Manhattan Island. Here it is but a mile in width and separated from the mainland by the Harlem River. It is high and rocky and easily defended, but not an easy place to escape ioo HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION from if an army is surrounded there. You have often seen it, Boy, if you have gone out to a base- ball game on the Elevated Road in New York. To-day it is built almost solidly with the dwell- ings of the citizens of New York. Fort Wash- ington is on one of these heights, and overlook- ing the Hudson was then one of Washington's defences for the Hudson River. Two miles north of Fort Washington is King's Bridge, which was Washington's road for retreat to the mainland. A mile and a half south of the fort, Washington stretched two lines of defences from the Harlem to the Hudson. There were also two advanced posts, one on the left, com- manded by General Spencer, and the other at McGowan's Pass, commanded by General Put- nam. Washington now made his headquarters at the country-seat of a Tory by the name of Roger Morris who, singularly enough, had been Washington's successful rival for the hand of a young lady, Miss Mary Philipse. The owners were of course away, but a portrait of the young lady which is still in existence is supposed to have been in the house, and we may wonder if Washington ever turned from the anxieties of war and the then failing fortunes of the American cause to look at it and think of the days of his early love. There was but one skirmish of any importance while Washington occupied this place. An ad- HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 101 vanced post was taken and the defenders driven in, after a brave resistance, by Lieutenant-colonel Knowlton, who had distinguished himself at Bun- ker Hill. Washington and his adjutant-general, Reed, rode out to reconnoitre. The enemy per- ceiving them sounded their bugles as the English do after a fox chase. This insult stung Washing- ton to the quick and he determined to take what appeared to him to be but a small advance of the enemy prisoners. So he sent a Virginia regiment under command of Major Leitch to assist Knowl- ton. These two tried to get in rear of the enemy, but the latter falling back they came upon his flanks. The enemy were reinforced, so were Knowlton and Leitch, and a hot skirmish ensued. The enemy were driven back and pursued some distance. But the main body of the British were not far away and Washington, not wishing to bring on a general engagement, recalled the troops while they were flushed with the novel pleasure of chasing the enemy. Unfortunately, Knowlton was killed and Leitch mortally wounded in the fight. A tremendous fire raged in New York on the 2Oth, which was finally extinguished by the soldiers of Howe's army. Howe claimed that the fire was set at Washington's orders, which was false. Nevertheless Howe's soldiers promptly killed a number of patriots whom they found in the vicin- ity of the fire, on the suspicion that they were the incendiaries. io2 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION An exchange of prisoners was now effected. By this the Americans regained General Stirling, who was captured at Long Island, and Captain Morgan, who was captured at Quebec. The latter was pro- moted and given command of a rifle regiment which he was authorised to raise. This regiment became the celebrated body known as " Morgan's Riflemea" It was now October of 1776. To Washington's surprise Howe made no offensive movement save to send three ships of war up the Hudson to Dobb's Ferry. These ships broke through Put- nam's barriers as easily as they would have snapped a clothes-line. They worried Washington and caused great excitement among the people. Other and better barriers were hastily constructed to prevent them from being reinforced by other ships, and also to prevent them from returning down the river. These ships made more trouble for Washington than, perhaps, Howe ever dreamed they would. The inhabitants of the country threatened by them called loudly for protection. All of Washing- ton's advisers, save those interested in the lower part of the state, wanted him to retreat immedi- ately, not only to protect the country, but to save his army. The others, especially Clinton, who was deeply interested in the fate of the country Washington was then defending, wanted him to stay where he was and fight. HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 103 At this time, while Washington was sorely perplexed, General Lee arrived in camp from Philadelphia. He was fresh from the victory at Fort Moultrie, and was everywhere hailed as a deliverer. Even Washington was overjoyed at his arrival, and having a great respect for his military attainments, treated his views with un- usual consideration. In fact he made the mistake, at once, of merely suggesting orders to Lee, rather than absolutely giving them. We shall see how Lee took advantage of this fact. Washington immediately gave him command of the wing of the army above King's Bridge. At a council of war, too, held at King's Bridge, Lee's opinion finally confirmed Washington in his belief that he must retreat altogether from Manhattan Island, much to the disgust of General George Clinton, who was heart and soul for fighting it out then and there. Clinton was totally unable to perceive the meaning of the strategy to which Washing- ton was compelled to resort from time to time, and was disgusted at the policy of retreating. He was for saving New York. Washington would have retreated, in case of necessity, to the Alle- ghany Mountains themselves. Washington, at the express orders of Congress, left a strong garrison in Fort Washington, however, with orders that it should be held as long as possible. Washington now moved his army in the direc- tion of White Plains, as the British were already io 4 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION well advanced toward his rear and left flank. Before moving, however, he divided his army into four divisions, and assigned Generals Lee, Heath, Sullivan and Lincoln to command them. General Sullivan had recently been exchanged for General Prescott. General Lincoln was a Massachusetts man, who had been lately appointed major-general, and who had been, until recently, in command of the few troops left at Boston. General Greene was now in command of Fort Lee (the name of which had been recently changed from Fort Con- stitution in honour of Lee) on the Hudson, op- posite Fort Washington, and Colonel Magaw was in command at Fort Washington. THE BATTLE OF WHITE PLAINS It was the 23d of October, when Washington stationed himself in a camp at White Plains and fortified it. Howe (who was now General Sir William Howe, having been recently made a knight companion of the Bath for his success on Long Island) waited for a few days for supplies and reinforcements, and then pushed along the mainland towards New Rochelle, constantly har- assed by Colonel Glover with three regiments of Massachusetts infantry. Howe reached New Rochelle on the 2ist. Here he was reinforced by some Hessians and two regiments of light dra- goons. He had been trying continually to get in HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 105 rear of Washington's army by continual flank movements on Washington's left. As a result, when the two armies met at White Plains, Wash- ington was faced east to meet him. His right rested on a curve of the Bronx River, his left on a lake in the hills. His whole line was on high ground. The battle occurred on the 28th of Oc- tober. The position Washington had taken was but a temporary one for defence while he was collecting his stores. Though well chosen, it was commanded by several hills, which Lee wanted held. The only one which Washington had time to occupy, however, was Chatterton's Hill, on the right of his right flank, and separated from it by the Bronx and a marsh. To it he sent about two thousand men under General McDougall. The British army advanced in two columns, ac- companied by some of the recently landed cavalry of the British. The latter looked formidable in- deed to the militia, which as yet had fought against artillery and infantry only. As Washington ex- pected, the British concluded to take Chatterton's Hill before making a front attack upon him. For this purpose they sent Colonel Rahl with a brigade of Hessians to cross the Bronx further down the stream and attack the hill on one side, while a column under General Leslie attacked it from the other. They preceded the attack by a furious cannonade upon the hill, under cover of which Leslie hastily constructed a bridge across the 106 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION Bronx. While constructing the bridge they were severely handled by two pieces of artillery sta- tioned on the hill and commanded most ably by Alexander Hamilton, now a captain of artillery. When the bridge was finished Leslie's com- mand rushed over it and charged up the hill. Hamilton's field-pieces fired three volleys at them as they advanced, every ball ploughing through the column, so well were the pieces served. In the meantime Smallwood's Marylanders fired steady volleys at them with small arms. Colonel Rahl charged up the south side of the hill on McDougall's right flank. His men gave way, but he rallied them partially behind a stone fence. Here they stood until the British cavalry charged upon them, when they fired one volley and fled in absolute confusion. The left of the line on the hill fought more steadily and twice re- pulsed the British columns. Eventually, however, they were forced down the hill, and retired sul- lenly. At the foot of the hill on the north side, at the bridge by which they had gained the hill, they were met by General Putnam with a body of troops to reinforce them. His arrival was too late, however, and they retired into the camp. The loss of both armies was about equal. The British now commenced to fortify Chatter- ton's Hill. In the meantime they extended their right wing around Washington's left until their army formed a semicircle. But they did not HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 107 make another attack, as the day was well advanced. Washington took advantage of the delay to send back his sick and wounded and as much of his provisions as possible to the rear. At night the two armies camped within cannon-shot of each other's camp-fires. During the night Washington threw back his right wing to a better position, and constructed further intrenchments and re- doubts. These further defences appeared to be more formidable than they really were, as they were made by pulling up cornstalks with the ends to which the earth adhered turned towards the enemy, and covered with earth on top. These defences were thrown up with ease and in so short a time that they could be built to look like great solidly constructed works. On the 29th, there- fore, when Howe saw them, he concluded to post- pone his attack and send for reinforcements. In the meantime he, too, threw up intrenchments. Washington saw that if he remained in his present position he would eventually be outflanked by Howe, so, on the night of the 3ist of October, he retreated to the rocky hills near Northcastle, some miles in rear. Here he again set to work to for- tify his position, but Howe realised that he could not dislodge him from such a strong position as he now held, and on the night of the 4th of November he began a retrograde movement in the direction of Dobb's Ferry. For some time after Howe retired Washington io8 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION was in great perplexity as to what the enemy in- tended to do next. He did not suppose Howe would take his whole army to attack Fort Wash- ington, yet that seemed to be the only other point he could strike. Learning that Howe had col- lected a number of boats on the river, he concluded that the latter contemplated a foray through New Jersey. Howe settled the question by investing Fort Washington. The fort was now garrisoned by more men than it would hold, and as more British ships had as- cended the river past it and Fort Lee, and the enemy seemed to be able to get by whenever it so pleased them, Washington could not see what use it would be to expose the force at Fort Washing- ton to capture. He suggested to Greene that the garrison retire. Greene, however, was firmly con- vinced of the necessity for holding Fort Wash- ington. He claimed that the forts had done great damage to the British ships that had passed, and that the investment of the fort would keep at least twice the number of the garrison of the enemy's force busy and away from the main army. More- over Colonel Magaw, in command of the fort, was confident he could hold it against any and all comers, until the end of December at least. Both he and Greene insisted also that Magaw could retreat from it at will, and take off his stores with him. In the end Washington left matters in the discretion of Greene, in whom he had most im- HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 109 plicit confidence. Lee was at this time exceed- ingly jealous of Greene's influence with' Washing- ton, and advised the abandonment of the fort. Lee was right and Greene wrong, and I will tell you later of all that arose from this jealousy of Lee's. Washington now made preparations to distrib- ute his army so that it could defend the Jerseys as well as New York. He detached all the troops belonging to the states west of the Hudson to the Jerseys under the command of Putnam. Heath and Clinton with the New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut troops were to defend the High- lands of the Hudson. The remaining troops were to remain at Northcastle under the command of General Lee. Again Washington refrained from giving Lee positive orders, but left matters largely in his discretion, merely making certain recom- mendations. Among these recommendations was that of retreating to the passes of the Highlands should he be threatened with attack, for Washing- ton feared that the British preparations for an invasion of the Jerseys was but a feint to get him to weaken his army at Northcastle. Washington now joined Heath and made a tour of inspection of the forts along the river in the Highlands of the Hudson. On the I2th of Novem- ber, Washington crossed the Hudson below Stony Point, where the remainder of the army des- tined for the defence of the Jerseys was com- no HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION mencing its march. He did not proceed with them but went on to Fort Lee, as he was anxious about the condition of affairs at Fort Washington, and still more convinced that it would be well to abandon the fort. His departure left Lee and Heath with separate commands and separate in- structions, though Lee was the superior in rank. Heath, though brought up on a farm, had a pas- sion for military pursuits and had studied every treatise on the art of war in the English language. He considered himself well acquainted with the theory of war from the duties of a private soldier up. He was a man of peculiar character, scrupu- lous in obeying the letter of his instructions, but devoid of self-reliance and utterly opposed to any assumption of authority whatever. Washington remained some days at Fort Lee discussing with Greene the advisability of evacuat- ing Fort Washington. Indeed, he was disap- pointed that Greene had not already concluded to do so. But Greene was still of the opinion that the fort should be held, and Magaw still confident that he could hold it. Magaw mistakenly assumed that the British could not cross the Harlem, and that, therefore, he could retire at any time that he wished. Washington was still of the opinion that Howe meant something more by his inaction than the reduction of this fort, but the latter soon put all doubts on the subject at rest. On the night of HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION in the I4th he had thirty flat-bottomed boats sent up the Hudson past the fort, thence through Spuyten Duyvil Creek into the Harlem River, and thus supplied himself with means to cross the Harlem, and attack an unprotected part of the fort. Howe now summoned the fort to surrender, threatening to give no quarter if he was compelled to take it by storm. Washington was on a short visit of inspection- at Hackensack. Greene sent for Washington hurriedly, and threw reinforcements into an already overcrowded fort. Putnam was with him, and even he thought the fort capable of making a good defence. CHAPTER IX THE CAPTURE OF FORT WASHINGTON WASHING- TON'S BRILLIANT RETREAT THROUGH THE JERSEYS THE SCHEMES AND CAPTURE OF LEE THE STORMING OF FORT WASHINGTON EARLY on the morning of the i6th of Novem- ber, 1776, Colonel Magaw made his dispositions to repel attack. He had about three thousand men. The fort was built to accommodate but about one thousand. You must understand, Boy, that more could have been sheltered within the fort temporarily, but only that number could fight to advantage in it. As a matter of fact, a fort is constructed on mathematical principles, by which the amount of ground enclosed by the parapets will just about give comfortable living-room for the precise number of men needed to defend it. More can seek a refuge in it for a short time, but are useless incumbrances. So Magaw posted Colonel Cadwalader with an- other third in the outer lines, about two miles and a-half south of the fort. Colonel Rawlings, a celebrated Marylander, with a battery of three guns, was posted on a precipitous hill north of the 112 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 113 fort. Colonel Baxter, with the remainder, a bare regiment, was posted on the wooded heights bor- dering the Harlem River. Against the fort Sir William Howe planned four simultaneous attacks. Knyphausen, the Hessian commander, was to advance in two col- umns on the north. General Mathew was to cross the Harlem in flat boats and land on the right of the fort. Colonel Stirling was to attack the ex- treme left of the intrenchments. Lord Percy was to attack the right flank of the American intrench- ments facing New York. So two attacks were planned against the fort proper, and two against the line of works facing the city. About noon the attack began with a fierce can- nonading. Colonel Rahl led one \livision of Knyphausen's command, and the latter led the other in person. We shall have to remember Colonel Rahl, for he was destined to defeat and death, but a few weeks later, while celebrating Christmas. He succeeded in his difficult attack on the fort, however, while Knyphausen was badly handled by Rawlings. General Mathew was severely handled by Baxter, too. But he suc- ceeded in crossing the river and driving Baxter's men in after the gallant American had been killed by a British officer. This left Mathew free to turn against Cadwalader, who was well to the south, to cut him off from the fort. Cadwalader, however, did the greatest fighting ii 4 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION of the day. He manfully held his ground against Percy, until he heard of Stirling's attack on his left and rear. He even defended himself against Stirling also for some time, but was finally com- pelled to leave his intrenchments and make for the fort. And he had. to fight desperately to get to the fort, too, for he was all but surrounded. In the same way Rawlings was eventually at- tacked by Rahl, while he was easily holding Knyphausen. The combined columns of Hes- sians drove him into the fort, and now a second demand was made to the garrison to surrender, with the usual threat of no quarter if the British and Hessians were obliged to take it by storm. And that the threat was meant was plainly evi- dent ; as th Hessians had been giving no quarter in their previous attacks. From the opposite side of the Hudson, Wash- ington had been watching the engagement. He was delighted with Cadwalader's great fighting, but dismayed when he saw the latter give way. When he saw the Hessians in Lord Percy's com- mand bayoneting such of Cadwalader's men as could not escape into the fort, though they fell on their knees and prayed for quarter and mercy, Washington wept like a child. When he saw the flag go into the fort a second time he knew, of course, that it was another de- mand for a surrender. So he sent a message across to Magaw, telling the latter that if he could HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION 115 hold out until evening, he would try to bring the garrison off across the rjver during the night. This message was carried to Magaw by a very brave man, Captain Gooch, who crossed the Hud- son in a boat, and returning, had to dodge the Hessians, who were now surrounding the place, narrowly escaping death at the hands of their bayonets. The message that Captain Gooch brought from Magaw told Washington that all was over ; and soon after the great commander-in-chief suffered the humiliation of seeing the American flag hauled down from the fort and the English flag run up in its place. So Lee was right and Greene was wrong the Fort Washington and three thousand men were lost, the Hudson was practically orjbned to the British up to the Highlands, and the northern part of the state was threatened by Howe and his whole army. Washington immediately wrote to Lee. He really wanted to have Lee leave his encampment at Northcastle and fortify himself in the High- lands, thus adding to their protection and put- ting his own army in a place of safety. But he did not actually order Lee to make the move, and Lee did not do so. In his reply he made a slurring illusion to Greene as a man of inferior judgment. But his jealousy of Greene was soon to disappear in a greater one. Lee soon began to plot against Washington himself, who was now n6 HEROES OF OUR REVOLUTION blamed for trying to hold the fort. We know, however, that Washington held it at the urgent request of Congress and by the advice of a council of war of his officers, against his own better judgment. Short enlistments immediately began to have their effect in the reduction of the army on the west of the Hudson. In a very short time Wash- ington had but about two thousand men under his own command, and but about the same num- ber on the east of the Hudson. This was all that was left of the army of nearly twenty thousand that he had at the beginning of the campaign. This was one of Washington's gloomy periods. But he met it with the wonderful fortitude of a truly great