Chapter 9

_Effects of the Battle_.--The news that American blood had been spilled flew like wild-fire. Patriots came pouring in from all sides. Putnam left his cattle yoked in the field, and without changing his working clothes, mounted his fastest horse, and hurried to Boston. Soon twenty thousand men were at work building intrenchments to shut up the British in the city. Congresses were formed in all the colonies. Committees of safety were appointed to call out the troops and provide for any emergency. The power of the royal governors was broken from Massachusetts to Georgia.

[Footnote: Israel Putnam, familiarly known as "Old Put," was born in Salem, Mass., 1718. Many stories are told of his great courage and presence of mind. His descent into the wolf's den, shooting the animal by the light of her own glaring eyes, showed his love of bold adventure; his noble generosity was displayed in the rescue of a comrade scout at Crown Point, at the imminent peril of his own life. He came out of one encounter with fourteen bullet-holes in his blanket. In 1756, a party of Indians took him prisoner, bound him to a stake, and made ready to torture him with fire. The flames were already scorching his limbs, and death seemed certain, when a French officer burst through the crowd and saved his life. At Fort Edward, when all others fled, he alone fought back the fire from a magazine in which were stored three hundred barrels of gunpowder, protected only by a thin partition. "His face, his hands, and almost his whole body, were blistered; and in removing the mittens from his hands, the skin was torn off with them." The British offered him money and the rank of major-general if he would desert the American cause; but he could neither be daunted by toil and danger, nor bribed by gold and honors.]

BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL (June 17).--The patriot leader, Gen. Ward, having learned that the British intended to fortify Bunker Hill, determined to anticipate them. A body of men, under Col. Prescott, were accordingly assembled at Cambridge, and, after prayer by the president of Harvard University, marched to Charlestown Neck. Breed's Hill was then chosen as a more commanding site than Bunker Hill. It was bright moonlight, and they were so near Boston that the sentinel's "All's well," was distinctly heard. Yet so quietly did they work that there was no alarm. At daylight the British officers were startled by seeing the redoubt which had been constructed. Resolved to drive the Americans from their position, Howe crossed the river with three thousand men, and formed them at the landing. The roofs and steeples of Boston were crowded with spectators, intently watching the troops as they slowly ascended the hill. The patriot ranks lay quietly behind their earthworks until the red-coats were within ten rods, when Prescott shouted "Fire!" A blaze of light shot from the redoubt, and whole platoons of the British fell. The survivors, unable to endure the terrible slaughter, broke and fled. They were rallied under cover of the smoke of Charlestown, which had been wantonly fired by Gage.

Again they were met by that deadly discharge, and again they fled. Reinforcements being received, the third time they advanced. Only one volley smote them, and then the firing ceased. The American ammunition was exhausted. The British charged over the ramparts with fixed bayonets. The patriots gallantly resisted with clubbed muskets, but were soon driven from the field.

[Footnote: General Warren was among the last to leave. As he was trying to rally the troops, a British officer, who knew him, seized a musket and shot him. Warren had just received his commission as major-general, but had crossed Charlestown Neel in the midst of flying balls, reached the redoubt, and offered himself as a volunteer. He was buried near the spot where he fell. By his death America lost one of her truest sons. Gage is reported to have said that his fall was worth that of five hundred ordinary rebels.]

_The effect_ upon the Americans of this first regular battle was that of a victory. Their untrained farmer soldiers had put to flight the British veterans. All felt encouraged, and the determination to fight for liberty was intensified.

CAPTURE OF TICONDEROGA (May 10).--Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold led a small company of volunteers to surprise this fortress. As Allen rushed into the sally-port, a sentinel snapped his gun at him and fled. Making his way to the commander's quarters, Allen, in a voice of thunder, ordered him to surrender. "By whose authority?" exclaimed the frightened officer. "In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!" shouted Allen. No resistance was attempted. Large stores of cannon and ammunition, just then so much needed by the troops at Boston, fell into the hands of the Americans, without the loss of a single man. Crown Point was soon after as easily taken. (Map opp p. 120.)

[Footnote: Ethan Allen was a native of Connecticut. With several of his brothers he emigrated to what is now known as Vermont. At that time a dispute had arisen between the colony of New York, on the one hand, and the colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, on the other, with reference to the territory. The governor of New Hampshire, regardless of the claims of New York, issued grants of land so extensively that the region became known as the _New Hampshire grants_. New York having obtained a favorable decision of the courts, endeavored to eject the occupants of the land. Ethan Allen became conspicuous in the resistance that ensued. The "Green Mountain Boys" made him their colonel, and he kept a watchful eye on the officers from New York, who sought by form of law to dispossess the settlers of farms which had been bought and made valuable by their own labor. The Revolutionary War caused a lull in these hostilities, and the Green Mountain Boys turned their arms upon the common enemy. Allen afterward aided Montgomery in his Canadian expedition, but, in a fool-hardy attempt upon Montreal, was taken prisoner and sent to England. After a long captivity he was released, and returned home. Generous and frank, a vigorous writer, loyal to his country and true to his friends, he exerted a powerful influence on the early history of Vermont.]

THE SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS (May 10) met at Philadelphia in the midst of these stirring events. It voted to raise twenty thousand men, and appointed General Washington commander-in-chief. A petition to the king was also prepared, which he refused to receive. This destroyed all hope of reconciliation.

CONDITION OF THE ARMY--On Washington's arrival before Boston, he found the army to number but fourteen thousand men. Few of them were drilled; many were unfit for service; some had left their farms at the first impulse, and were already weary of the hardships of war; all were badly clothed and poorly armed, and there were less than nine cartridges to each soldier. Washington at once made every exertion to relieve their wants, and in the meantime kept Gage penned up in Boston.

EXPEDITION AGAINST CANADA--Late in the summer General Montgomery, leading an army by way of Lake Champlain, captured St. John's and Montreal, and then appeared before Quebec. Here he was joined by Colonel Arnold with a crowd of half-famished men, who had ascended the Kennebec and then struck across the wilderness.

_Attack upon Quebec_.--Their united force was less than one thousand effective men. Having besieged the city for three weeks it was at last decided to hazard an assault. In the midst of a terrible snow-storm they led their forces to the attack. Montgomery advancing along the river, lifting with his own hands at the huge blocks of ice, and struggling through the drifts, cheered on his men. As they rushed forward a rude blockhouse appeared through the blinding snow. Charging upon it, Montgomery fell at the first fire, and his followers, disheartened, fled. Arnold, mean while, approached the opposite side of the city. While bravely fighting he was severely wounded and borne to the rear. Morgan, his successor, pressed on the attack, but at last, unable either to retreat or advance against the tremendous odds, was forced to surrender. The remnant of the army, crouching behind mounds of snow and ice, maintained a blockade of the city until spring. At the approach of British reinforcements the Americans were glad to escape, leaving all Canada in the hands of England.

* * * * *

1776.

EVACUATION OF BOSTON (March 17).--Washington, in order to force the British to fight or run, sent a force to fortify Dorchester Heights by night. In the morning the English were once more astonished by seeing intrenchments which overlooked the city. A storm prevented an immediate attack; a delay which was well improved by the provincials. General Howe, who was then in command, remembering the lesson of Bunker Hill, decided to leave, and accordingly set sail for Halifax with his army, fleet, and many loyalists. The next day Washington entered Boston amid great rejoicing. For eleven months the inhabitants had endured the horrors of a siege and the insolence of the enemy. Their houses had been pillaged, their shops rifled, and their churches profaned.

[Footnote: The boys of Boston were wont to amuse themselves in winter by building snow-houses and by skating on a pond in the Common. The soldiers having disturbed them in their sports, complaints were made to the inferior officers, who only ridiculed their petition. At last a number of the largest boys waited on General Gage. "What!" said Gage, "have your fathers sent you here to exhibit the rebellion they have been teaching you?" "Nobody sent us," answered the leader, with flashing eye; "we have never injured your troops, but they have trampled down our snow-hills and broken the ice of our skating-pond. We complained, and they called us young rebels, and told us to help ourselves if we could. We told the captain, and he laughed at us. Yesterday our works were destroyed for the third time, and we will bear it no longer." The British commander could not restrain his admiration. "The very children," said he, "draw in a love of liberty with the air they breathe. Go, my brave boys, and be assured, if my troops trouble you again, they shall be punished."]

ATTACK ON FORT MOULTRIE (June 28).--Early in the summer an English fleet appeared off Charleston, and opened fire on Fort Moultrie.

[Footnote: This fort was built of palmetto logs, which are so soft that balls sink into them without splitting the wood. Here floated the first republican flag in the South. In the early part of the action the staff was struck by a ball, and the flag fell outside the fort. Sergeant Jasper leaped over the breastwork, caught up the flag, and springing back, tied it to a sponge-staff (an instrument for cleaning cannon after a discharge), and hoisted it again to its place. The next day Governor Rutledge offered him a sword and a lieutenant's commission. He refused, saying, "I am not fit for the company of officers; I am only a sergeant."]

So fearful was the response from Moultrie's guns, that at one time every man but Admiral Parker was swept from the deck of his vessel. General Clinton, who commanded the British land troops, tried to attack the fort in the rear, but the fire of the southern riflemen was too severe. The fleet was at last so badly shattered that it withdrew and sailed for New York. This victory gave the colonists great delight, as it was their first encounter with the boasted "Mistress of the Seas."

The simple-hearted Sergeant Jasper died grasping the banner presented to his regiment at Fort Moultrie. D'Estaing refused to give further aid; thus again deserting the Americans when help was most needed.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (July 4, 1776).--During the session of Congress this summer, Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, moved that "_The United Colonies are, and ought to be, free and independent states._" This was passed by a majority of one colony. A committee was appointed to draw up a DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. At two o'clock on the fourth of July, its report was adopted.

[Footnote: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston, composed this committee.]

[Footnote: During the day the streets of Philadelphia were crowded with people anxious to learn the decision. In the steeple of the old State House was a bell on which, by a happy coincidence, was inscribed, "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." In the morning, when Congress assembled, the bell-ringer went to his post, having placed his boy below to announce when the Declaration was adopted, that his bell might be the first to peal forth the glad tidings. Long he waited, while the deliberations went on. Impatiently the old man shook his head and repeated, "They will never do it! They will never do it!" Suddenly he heard his boy clapping his hands and shouting, "Ring! Ring!" Grasping the iron tongue, he swung it to and fro, proclaiming the glad news of liberty to all the land. The crowded streets caught up the sound. Every steeple re-echoed it. All that night, by shouts, and illuminations, and booming of cannon, the people declared their joy.]

CAMPAIGN NEAR NEW YORK.--General Howe, after evacuating Boston, went to Halifax, but soon set sail for New York. Thither also came Admiral Howe, his brother, with reinforcements from England, and General Clinton from the defeat at Fort Moultrie. The British army was thirty thousand strong. Washington, divining Howe's plans, now gathered all his forces at New York to protect that city. He had, however, only about seven thousand men fit for duty.

[Footnote: Parliament authorized the Howes to treat with the insurgents. By proclamation they offered pardon to all who would return to their allegiance. This document was published by direction of Congress, that the people might see what England demanded. An officer was then sent to the American camp with a letter addressed to "George Washington, Esq." Washington refused to receive it. The address was afterward changed to "George Washington, &c., &c." The messenger endeavored to show that this bore any meaning which might be desired. But Washington understood the sophistry and refused any communication which did not distinctly recognize his position as commander of the American army.]

BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND (Aug. 27).--The British army landed on the southwest shore of Long Island. General Putnam, with about nine thousand men, held a fort at Brooklyn and defences on a range of hills south of the city. The English advanced in three divisions. Two of these attacked the defences in front, while General Clinton, by a circuitous route, gained the rear. The patriots were fighting gallantly, when, to their dismay, they heard firing behind them. They attempted to escape, but it was too late. Out of five thousand Americans engaged, two thousand were lost.

[Footnote: Many of the captives were consigned to the Sugar House on Liberty Street, and the prison-ships in Wallabout Bay. Their hard lot made the fate of those who perished in battle to be envied. During the course of the war, over 11,000 American prisoners died in these loathsome hulks. Their bodies were buried in the beach, whence, for years after, they were washed out from the sand by every tide. In 1808, the remains of these martyrs were interred with suitable ceremonies near the Navy Yard, Brooklyn; and, in 1878, they were finally placed in a vault at Washington Park.]

(Map opposite p. 120.)

Had Howe attacked the fort at Brooklyn immediately, the Americans would have been destroyed. Fortunately he delayed for the fleet to arrive. For two days the patriots lay helpless, awaiting the assault. On the second night after the battle, there was a dense fog on the Brooklyn side, while in New York the weather was clear. At midnight the Americans moved silently down to the shore and crossed the river. In the morning, when the sun scattered the fog, Howe was chagrined to find his prey escaped.

[Footnote: The Americans embarked at a place near the present Fulton Ferry. A woman sent her negro servant to the British to inform them of the movements of the Americans. He was captured by the _Hessians_, who were Germans from Hesse Cassel, hired to fight by the British government. These, not being able to understand a word of English, detained him until the morning. His message was then too late.]

WASHINGTON'S RETREAT.--The British, crossing to New York, moved to attack Washington, who had taken post on _Harlem Heights_. Finding the American position too strong, Howe moved up the Sound in order to gain the rear. Washington then withdrew to _White Plains_. Here Howe came up and defeated a part of his army. Washington next retired into a fortified camp at _North Castle_. Howe, not daring to attack him, returned to New York and sent the Hessians to take _Fort Washington_, which they captured after a fierce resistance (Nov. 16).

[Footnote: Washington desiring to gain some knowledge of Howe's movements, sent Captain Nathan Hale to visit the English camps on Long Island. He passed the lines safely, but on his way back was recognized by a tory relative, who arrested him. He was taken to Howe's headquarters, tried, and executed as a spy. No clergyman was allowed to visit him; even a Bible was denied him, and his farewell letters to his mother and sister were destroyed. The brutality of his enemies did not, however, crush his noble spirit, for his last words were, "I regret only that I have but one life to give to my country."]

FLIGHT THROUGH NEW JERSEY.--Washington had now retired into New Jersey in order to prevent the British from marching against Philadelphia. Cornwallis, with six thousand men, hurried after him, and for three weeks pursued the flying Americans. Many of the patriots had no shoes, and left their blood-stained foot-prints on the frozen ground. Oftentimes the van of the pursuing army was in sight of the American rear-guard. At last Washington reached the Delaware, and all the boats having been secured, crossed into Pennsylvania. Howe resolved to wait until the river should freeze over, and then capture Philadelphia, meanwhile quartering his troops in the neighboring villages.

[Footnote: During this retreat, Washington repeatedly sent orders to General Lee, who was then at North Castle, to join him. Lee hesitated, and at last moved very slowly. Five days after this, while quartered in a small tavern at Baskingridge, remote from his troops, he was taken prisoner by the English cavalry. His capture was considered a great misfortune by the Americans, who thought him the best officer in the army. The British were greatly rejoiced, and declared they had taken the "American Palladium."]

CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY.--It was a time of deep despondency. The patriot army was a mere handful of ragged, disheartened fugitives. Many people of wealth and influence went over to the enemy. New York and Newport--the second city in size in New England--were already in the hands of the British, and they were likely soon to seize Philadelphia.

BATTLE OF TRENTON.--Washington thought it time to strike a daring blow. On Christmas night, in a driving storm of sleet, amid drifting ice, that threatened every moment to crush the boats, he crossed the Delaware with twenty-four hundred picked men, fell upon the Hessians at Trenton, in the midst of their festivities, captured one thousand prisoners, slew their leader, and safely escaped back to camp, with the loss of only four men--two killed and two frozen to death. (Map opposite p. 120.)

[Footnote: Hunt, a trader with friends and foes, a neutral, had invited Rall, the Hessian commander, to a Christmas supper. Card-playing and wine-drinking were kept up all night long. A messenger came in haste, at early dawn, with a note to the colonel. It was sent by a tory to give warning of the approach of the American forces. The negro servant refused admittance to the bearer. Knowing its importance, he bade the negro to take the note directly to the officer. The servant obeyed, but the colonel, excited by wine and the play, thrust it unopened into his pocket. Soon the roll of drums was heard, and before the pleasure-loving officer could reach his quarters the Americans were in pursuit of his fleeing soldiers.]

[Footnote: Before leaving Trenton, Washington and Greene visited the dying Hessian. It had been a time of splendid triumph to the American commander, but as he stood by the bedside, the soldier was lost in the Christian, and the victorious general showed himself in that hour only a sympathizing friend.]

_The effect_ of this brilliant feat was electrical. The fires of patriotism were kindled afresh. New recruits were received, and the troops whose term of enlistment was expiring, agreed to remain. Howe was alarmed, and ordered Cornwallis, who was just setting sail for England, to return and prepare for a winter's campaign.

* * * * *

1777.

BATTLE OF PRINCETON (Jan. 3).--Washington soon crossed the Delaware again, and took post at Trenton. Just before sunset Cornwallis came up. His first onset being repulsed, he decided to wait till morning. Washington's situation was now most critical. Before him was a powerful army, and behind, a river full of floating ice. That night, leaving his camp-fires burning to deceive the enemy, he swept by country roads around the British, fell upon the troops near Princeton, routed them, took three hundred prisoners, and by rapid marches reached Morristown Heights in safety. Cornwallis heard the firing and hurried to the rescue, but he was too late. The victory was gained, and the victors were beyond pursuit.

These exploits won for Washington universal praise, and he was declared to be the saver of his country.

[Footnote: Washington had forty cannon. At night-fall the ground was so soft that he could not move them; but, while the council was in session, the wind changed, and in two hours the roads were as hard as pavement. Erskine urged Cornwallis to attack the Americans that night, but he said he could "catch the fox in the morning." On the morrow the fires were still burning, but the army was gone. None knew whither the patriots had fled. But at sunrise there was a sound of firing in the direction of Princeton. The report of the cannon through the keen frosty air could be distinctly heard, but Cornwallis believed it to be distant thunder. Erskine, however, exclaimed, "To arms, general! Washington has outgeneraled us. Let us fly to the rescue at Princeton!"]

[Footnote: Frederick the Great of Prussia is said to have declared that the achievements of Washington and his little band, during the six weeks following Christmas, were the most brilliant recorded on the pages of military history.]

CAMPAIGN IN PENNSYLVANIA--Howe, having spent the next summer at New York, where he was closely watched by Washington, finally took the field, and manoeuvred to force the patriot army to a general fight. Finding the "American Fabius" too wary for him, he suddenly embarked eighteen thousand men on his brother's fleet, and set sail. Washington hurried south to meet him. The patriot army numbered only 11,000, but when Washington learned that the British had arrived in the Chesapeake, he resolved to hazard a battle for the defence of Philadelphia.