Show V 1 MA 07 TIM BY THE NT ENT E installment 15 congress in ito ita right fright removed to Palt baltimore imore hundreds of persons hurried to take the oath of allegiance upon ile howee wee offer of pardon and the british co mandera manders deemed the rebellion at an end they did not understand the man they were fighting denting when he had put the broad delaware between his dwindling regiments and the british at his heels he stopped undaunted to collect force and give his opponents a taste of his quality such an exigency only stiffened ills temper and added a touch of daring to ills his spirit lees fiasco and capture charles lee hie second in command hoping to make tome Lome stroke for himself upon the hudson had withheld full halt half the army in a safe post upon tho the river in direct disobedience to orders while the british drove washington southward through new jersey but lee was now happily in the hand of the enemy taken at an unguarded tavern where he lodged and most of tile the troops he be had withdrawn found their way at last to washington beyond tile the delaware desperate efforts at recruiting were made washington strained his authority to the utmost to keep and equip his force and excused himself to lo congress very nobly A character to lose he said an estate to forfeit the inestimable blessing of liberty at stake and a life devoted must bo my excuse what he planned and did won him a character with tits his foes boar the year was out he had collected six thousand men and was ready to ehrike a blow at the weak extended line lies hessian mercenaries for the most part which howe had left to hold the delaware on christmas day washington reade tits his advance and ordered a crossing to be made in three divisions under cover of the night only his own division twenty five hundred aundre strong effected tile the passage ten hours perilous work to td cross the storm swept river in uhe pitchy darkness amidst the hazards 0 floating lee ice but not a man or a gun was lost there was a nine miles march through driving arising snow and sleet itter the landing before trenton could be reached the point of attack and two men were frozen to death as they went famous order general sullivan sent gent word th that at the pina ants were wet tell him to use she bayonet said washington tor for kho iho town must be taken and it was ta kenin the early morning at the point of the bayonet with a loss of but two t a or three men Z the surprise was complete colonel rahl the commander of df the place was mortally wounded at ai the first onset and nine hundred hessians surrendered rendered ur at discretion when he bad gotten his prisoners safe gite on the south side of the river washington once more advanced to occupy the town plays a perilous game it was a perilous place to be n no 0 doubt with the great stream behind him but the line was everywhere broken now that its center had bad been taken i had been withdrawn from the river in haste baste abandoning its cannon even and its baggage at burlington and washington calmly dared to play the game ho he had planned it was not howe who came to meet him but the gallant cornwallis Cornwall ls no mean tit tin adversary bringing eight thousand men washington let him come sll all the way to Delp delaware ware without him belf stirring except to put a small tributary stream between his men and ahe he advancing cold columns and the confident englishman went to bed that night exclaiming at last we have run down the old fox and well bag him in the morning the fox escapes then while a small force kept the camp fires burning and worked audibly at the ramparts the cold night through the fox was up and away ile he put the whole of his force upon the he road to princeton and now new bruns wick he know knew cornwallis Corn walls stores must be be As the mornings light broade broadened ed lito into day january 3 1777 lie ho met the british detachment at princeton in the way and drove it back in a decisive rout a keen ardor coining into his bis blood as he saw the sharp work done an old fashioned virginia fox hunt gentlemen he exclaimed shouting the view halloo lind had his troops been fresh and properly shod to outstrip CorA cornwallis Cornwall wallis ls at their heels he would have pressed on to new brunswick Brunsw lck and taken the stores there but he had bad done all that could be done with dispatch and withdrew straight to the heights of morristown the patriots winners Corn cornwallis Cornwa wallIA llla could only back to now york dy by the end of the tha month the he americans were everywhere afoot the he held no posts in new jerrey hut fatt paulus hook amboy and nov new brunswick and washington had alfard Is cvik ir picc proclamation commanding all win 1 ird d accepted general howes it ter fer of pardon either to withdraw with in the british lines or to take the oath ot of allegiance to the united states men alen loved to tell afterwards how frederick the great had bad said it was waa the most brilliant campaign of at the century congress took steps before the winter was over to secure long enlistments and substitute a veritable army tor for the three months levies with which washington had hitherto been struggling to make shift pledges hla his private fortune after the affair at trenton washington had been obliged to pledge his own private fortune tor for their pay to induce the men whose terms of calist enlistment were to expire on new years day more than half hla his force to stay with v ath him but a few weeks more ti till ill ilia his plan should be executed now he was authorized to raise regiments enlisted till the war should end and to exercise almost dictatorial powers in everything that might affect the discipline provisioning and success of his army there was need for the year witnessed fighting of tremendous consequence brave british plans I 1 the british struck for nothing less than complete possession of the whole state of now new york throughout the valleys of the hudson and the mohawk general leowe who had about twenty thousand men in new york city was waa to move up the hudson general burgoyne with eight thousand men from canada down lake champlain Champl aln colonel st leger with a small but bt sufficient force down into the valley of the mohawk Al striking from oswego on ontario and the colonies were to be cut in twain new england hopelessly r separated epa rated from her confederates by the converging sweep of three armies aggregating more than thirty three tho thousand asand men but only the coast country it turned out was tenable ground for british ll 11 troops ticonderoga falls sir guy carleton had attempted champlain Champl aln out of canada the year before and had gone back to quebec w without touching ticonderoga derga so BO disconcerted had he been by the price he had bad had to pay for his passage up the lake to a small force and an extemporized fleet under benedict arnold this time burgoyne with his asplen did army made short work of alcon ceroga july 1777 and drove general schuyler and his arm to their posts beyond the Ili hudson ldson but the farther he got from his base upon the lake into the vast forests of that wide frontier the more certainly did he approach disaster no succor came st leger was baffled and sent in panic back the way lie ho had come howe did not ascend the rl country swarmed ined with gathering ml mi litia they would not volunteer tor for distant campaigns but this invading host marching by their very homes into the deep forest roused them and tempted them as they had been roused at Co concord ricord and they gathered at its rear and upon its flanks as they had run together to invest boston A thou barid mand men burgoyne felt obliged to IY ice te e in gar garrison lison at 1 defog ceroga a thousand more sent to bennington to seize the stores there were overwhelmed and taken august 16 quite twenty thousand provincials presently beset him and he had but six thousand left wherewith to save himself a f ile he crossed the river for he still IN affa adf expected howe and there was stubborn fighting about saratoga september 10 october 7 in which arnold amold once more made his name in battle but the odds were too great bur goynes supplies were cut off his troops beaten there was nothing tor for it but capitulation october 17 lie he had been trapped and taken by a rising of the country washington Out outgeneral outgenerals generals howe I 1 lowe howe had not succored him partly because he lacked judgment and capacity partly because washington had thwarted him at every turn from his position at morristown washington could send reinforcements to the he north or recall them at will without delay and howo in his best gave him abundant time to do what ho he would it was sir williams purpose to occupy the early summer bummer ere burgoyne Dur goyne should need him in an attack on philadelphia on the ahe of june accordingly ho he threw a for force copf pt eighteen thousand men into new jersey but washington foiled him at each attempt to advance by hanging always upon tits his flank in such a position that lie he could neither be safely ignored nor forced to fight and the tha prudent howe ilowe abandoning the march withdrew once more to new york british come to philadelphia hut but ho did not abandon his bis project against philadelphia ile he deemed it the capital of the insurgent confederacy and wished to discredit congress arid and win men of doubtful allegiance to his standard by its capture and he reckoned upon some advantage in drawing washington after him to the southward away from Bur goynes field of operate operations carrl 0 13 in the north though july had bad com therefore and burgoyne must need him presently he put hla his eighteen thousand men aboard the fleet and carried them by sea to the chesapeake washington puzzled washington was sorely puzzled ile he had taken it for granted that howe w would go north and he had bad gone south howes in a manner abandoning burgoyne la Is so unaccountable he said that I 1 cannot help casting my eyes continually behind me and he followed very nery cautiously ready upon the moment to turn back test lest the movement should prove EL a feint but there was no mistake howe entered the delaware arid and being frightened thence by reports of obstructions in the river went a all 11 the I 1 long on g four hundred miles about tho the capes of chesapeake and put his army ashore at elkton forliti for its lits advance upon philadelphia P defeat but not rout it was then the of august washington met him september 11 behind the fords of the brandywine and unable to check cornwallis Cornwall ls on his hank flank was defeated put cut tor for him film defeat was never rout his army was still intact and steady and lie he held his too foe yet another fortnight on the road ere capital could be entered september 27 burgoyne was by that time leep leab within the net spread for him at saratoga on the morning of the ath of october in a thick mist washington threw himself upon howes main 1 force forc e encamped across the village street of germantown and would have overwhelmed it in the surprising onset had not two of 0 his bis own columns gone astray in the fog attacked each other and so BO lost the moments opportunity port unity but an empty success general howe knew very soon how barren a success he had had bad the end of november came before he had bad made himself master of the forts upon the delaware below the capital and removed the obstructions from the river to give access to hla his fleet the british power was broken broke n and made fin an end of in the north and washington was still abband as menacing and dangerous as ever dr franklin was told in n paris that general howe had taken philadelphia philadelphia has taken ilowe howe ho be laughed winters at valley forge philadelphia kept howe safely through the winter and his off leers made themselves easy amidst a round of gay gazettes gayet ettes les in the complacent town while washington went to valley forge to face the hardships and the intrigues of a bitter season A deep demoralization fell that winter like a blight upon all the business of the struggling confederacy the congress in its exile at york had lost its tone and its command in affairs it would have lost it as completely in philadelphia no doubt tor for it was no longer the body it had been its best members were withdrawn to serve their respective states in the critical business now everywhere in hand of reorganizing their government and it itself was no government at all but simply a committee of at advice which the states heeded or ignored no redas as they pleased congress without power oftentimes but ten or twelve members could be got together to transact its business it suffered itself to fall into the hands of intriguers intrigue rs and sectional politicians it gave commissions in tile the army not according to aeilt but upon a plan carefully devised to til advance vance no more officers from one section than from another even men like john adams approving adams denounced claims of seniority and service as involving one of the most putrid corruptions corrupt ions ioni of absolute monarchy and I 1 suggested aug that the officers who did not relish the idea of seeing the several states given a share of the general fincers oin cers proportioned to the number of troops they had sent to the army had better take themselves oft off and see aee how bow little they would be ba missed plot to chief worst at all an ugly plot was hatched to dis displace washington and the various dla tempers or of differed en men for a brief season gave it it a chanca to succeed I 1 some were impatient of at washing tolls fabian policy us as they called it slid and would havo have hav o had him annihilate instead of merely chocking checking those in hosts my toast cried john adams to IB a short and violent war others envied washington his power and tits his growing tanie fame resented their own subordination and his supremacy pre macy and intrigued to put general gates in his place lad had not gates won at saratoga and washington lost at tile the brandywine and at germantown schuyler had prepared pared the victory in the north arnold ati and ld morgan had dono done the fighting that thai secured it lut but gates had obtained the command when all was ready and was willing to receive the reward with a political committee in charge of affairs nothing was impossible washington and his army wert were starving the while at valley forgo in desperate straits to get anything to eat or anything to cover them in that thai bitter season not because there were no supplies but because congress had disorganized the commissary depart and tho the supplies seldom reach ed the camp the country had not boon too hear lly fly stricken by the war abundant crops were everywhere sown and peacefully reaped and there wore were men enough to do the work of seedtime seed time urn and harvest the army chief sufferers sufferer it was wag only tho the army that was suffering tor for lack of food and lack ol of men the naked fact was that the th confederacy was falling apart for lack lach of a government local had overmastered over mastered national feeling and only a few men like washington held the breaking structure turo together steadfastness was nev DOT or shaken and mrs airs washington stanch lady that she was joined hirr even at valley forge the intrigue against him ho he watch ed in stern silence till it was ripe and evident then he crushed it with sud den exposure and turned away in con tempt hardly so much as aa mentioning it in his letters to ills his friends thell own artless zeal to advance theli views has destroyed them he said the idol of hla his men ills soldiers he succored and sup plied piled as he could himself sharing theli 9 3 I 1 privations and earning their love at ai he served them naked and starving I 1 as they the y are he |