Show 38 n r 1 installment 14 washington wa in his prime and all the forty three years of his strena ous life he had been at school to learn how such a task as this was to be performed he had found the army not only without proper discipline and equipment but actually without powder ind the winter had come and was passing away before even that arl mary and perilous need could be sup piled the men of that extemporized army had been enlisted but for a few months service when their brief terms of enlistment ran out they in continently took themselves off and washington s most earnest appeals to the continental and provincial con grosses to provide tor longer enlistments and an adequate system of recruitment cruit ment did not always suffice to prevent his force from perilously dwindling away under bis very eyes providence favors the patriots it was a merciful providence that disposed the british to he quiet in bos ton such authority as be had washing ton used to the utmost and with a diligence and foresight which showed all bis old policy of thorough under his orders a few fast vessels were fitted out and armed as priva at the nearest sate ports mar volunteers in the army were put aboard them for crews and the enemy s supplies were captured upon the seas and brought overland the much needed powder and all into the american camp while men odwar which might have swept the coast lay just at band in the harbor keeping things stirred up no opportunity was missed either to disturb the british or to get what the army needed and the ministers at home as well as the commanders in boston grew uneasy and apprehensive in the presence of so active and watch tul an opponent lie was playing the game boldly even a bit desperately at times more than once as the slow months of siege dragged by he would have hazarded surprise and sought to take the city by storm had not the counsel of his officers persistently restrained him fighting in the north only in the north was there such fighting as be wished to see montgomery had pushed through the forests and taken montreal novem her 1775 at the same time washington had sent a force of some twelve hundred men under benedict arnold to see what could be done against the little garrison at quebec the journey had cost arnold four bun dred men but with what he had left he had climbed straight to the heights of abraham and summoned the british at their gates when they would neither surrender nor fight he had sat down to wait tor montgomery and when he came with barely five hundred men had stormed the stout defenses in a driving snow storm in the black darkness that came just before the morning on the last day of the year had ery not been killed in the assault the surprise would have succeeded and arnold nad no cause to be ashamed of the gallant affair though it was it heartened the broons before boston to think what might be done under such officers fra washington visits camp ali monotony of the long anxious leabon was broken at cambridge by a touch now and again of such pleasures as spoke of home and gracious peace in midwinter mrs washington had driven into camp come all the way from virginia with proper escort in her coach and tour her horses be stridden by black postil ions in their livery of scarlet and white and she had seemed to bring with her to the homely place not only the ceremonious habit but the genial and bos potable air of virginia as well many a quiet entertainment at head quarters coaxed a attle ease of mind out of the midst of even that grim and trying work while she was aln ra 4 fr r washington ready to strike with the first month of spring washington determined to cut inaction short and make a decisive stroke he had been long enough with me army now to presume upon its conal dence and obedience though be 01 ol lowed his counsels siege can non had been dragged through the unwilling forests all the way from ticonderoga the supplies and the time had come and on the morning of the ath 0 march 1776 the british stared to see ramparts and cannon on dorchester heights U was like the work of the genii of aladdin a wonderful lamp declared one of their astonished officers occupies dorchester heights why they had themselves neglected to occupy the hills ot dorchester and had waited so patiently till washing ton should have time and such guns as he needed was a question much pressed at home in england and their stupidity was rewarded now they bad themselves to be amused all by a furious cannon adang out 0 roxbury lUa and east cambridge while two thousand men a battery of heavy ordnance and hundreds of wagons and ox carts with timber bales ot hay spades crowbars hatchets hammers and nails had been gotten safely to the dorchester hills when they saw what had happened they thought ot the assault upon bun kers hill and hesitated what to 0 o A violent storm blew up while they waited rendering an attack across the water impracticable and when the calmer morning ot the ath dawned it was too late the american position was too strong neither the town nor the harbor could safely be held under fire from dorchester heights the british evacuate there was nothing for it but to evacuate the place and no one gain said their departure by the they were all embarked eight thousand troops and nine hun dred loyalist citizens of boston and had set sail towards the north for hal cifax they were obliged to leave be bind them more than two hundred cannon and a great quantity of military stores of every kind powder mus bets gun carriages small arms what ever an army might need when established him self in general howes headquarters in mrs edwards comfortable lodging bouse at the bead of state street he could congratulate himself not only on a surprising victory brilliantly won but on the possession besides of more powder and better stores and equipments than he could have dreamed of in his camp at cambridge he caught up bis landlady s little 1 granddaughter one day set her on his knee as he liked to do and asked her smiling which she liked the bet ter the redcoats or the provincials the redcoats eald the child ah my dear bald the young gen oral a blithe light in his blue eyes they look better but they don t fight the ragged fellows are the boys for fighting washington leaves boston but he did not linger at boston he knew that its capture did not end but only deepened the struggle reinforcements would be poured out of england with the spring and the next point of attack would ungues tlona bly be new york the key to the hudson here again was a city flanked about on either hand by water and corn banded by heights the heights of brooklyn A garrison must be left in boston and new york must be held tor the most part by a new levy as raw as organized and equipped as factious as uncertain in capacity and purpose as that which had awaited his discipline and guidance before boston an ever changing army it was an army always a making and to be made the sea was open moreover the british could enter the great harbor when they pleased the insurgents had no naval force whatever with which to withstand them oa the water there were a score of points to be defended which were yet without defence on the long island where the town la yand round about the spreading arms of th sea that enclosed it and there were but eighteen thousand militiamen mus for the formidable task in the midst of an active loyalist alon the thing must be ver tubeless vital to hold the hudson the command of the hudson would very likely turn out to be the corn mand ol 01 the continent and the atrue gle was now to be to the death it was too lute to draw back the royal had in fact been everywhere openly thrown off even in the middle colonies where al le glance and opinion hung still at so doubtful a balance por washington the whole situation must have deemed to be summed up in what had taken place in his own colony at homo dunmore raid and destroy Dunin nrc when he fled to the men 5 of war in the bay had called upon all who were loyal to follow him had even offered freedom to all slaves and servants who would enlist in the force he should collect for the purpose of reducing the colony to a proper sense of its duty unable to do more he had ravaged the coasts on either hand upon ane bay and bad put men ashore within the rivers to raid and burn making norfolk with its loyal ast 1st merchants his headquarters and rendezvous driven thence by the provincial he bad utterly destroyed the town by fire and was now upon glynnn island striking when he could as before at the unprotected hamlets and plantations that looked everywhere out upon the water virginia s only executive these nine months and more had been her committee of safety of which edmund pendleton was president carolina declare independence washington had hardly begun his work of organization and defence at new york before north carolina april 12 1776 authorized her delegates in the congress at philadelphia to join in a declaration of in depend encel and the next month may 16 the congress advised the colonies to give over all show and predence pretence pre tence of waiting tor or desiring peace or accommodation to form complete and independent governments of their own and BO put an end to the exercise of every kind of authority under the crown the next step was a joint declara alon of independence upon a motion mada in congress by richard henry lee in eager obedience to the express bidding of a convention met in the hall of the burgesses at williamsburg burg to frame a constitution for virginia many still unconvinced ills motion was adopted by the votes of every colony except new york it was a bitter thing to many a loyal man in the colonies to see such things done and peace rendered am possible not even those who counted themselves among the warmest friends of the colonial cause were agreed that it was wise thus to throw off one government before another was put in its place while there was as yet no bet ter guidance in that districted time than might be had from a body of gentlemen in philadelphia who pos hessed no power but to advise but the radicals were in the sad die washington for no compromise washington himself came down from new york to urge that the step be taken ho deemed such radicalism wise for he wished to see compromise abandoned and all minds set as sternly as his own in the resolve to fight the fight out to the bitter end 1 I have never entertained an idea of an accommodation be said since I 1 heard of the measures which were adopted in consequence of the bunk ers hill fight and bis will hardened to the contest after the fashion that had always been characteristic of him when once the heat of action was up on him make difficulties he grew stern and spoke sometimes with a touch of harshness in the presence of his difficulties at new york because he knew that they were made tor him in no small part by americans who were in the brit ish interest and whom he scorned even while scrupulous to be just in what be did to thwart and master them it requires more serenity of tern per a deeper understanding and more courage than fell to the lot of marl borough to ride in this whirlwind said john adams and the young corn mander in chief had them all but his quiet was often that of a metal at white heat and he kindled a great fire with what he touched no strength of will however could suffice to hold new and its open harbor against a powerful enemy with such troops as washington could drill and make between april and july on the of june british trans ports began to gather in the lower bay within a few days they had brought thirty thousand men armed and equipped as no other army had ever been in america british hold staten island it was impossible to prevent their landing and they were allowed to take possession of staten island unopposed men of war passed untouched through the narrows nd made their way at will up the bi wd hudson unhurt by the batteries aion either chore general how remembered dorches ter and charlestown Charles town heights and di erected his first movement against washington s In trenched position on the hills of brooklyn where quite halt the american army lay for a little space he waited till bis brother ad maral lord howe should come to act with him in negotiation and corn mand lord howe offers pardon lord howe was authorized to offer pardon tor submission and very hon orally used a month and bore of good fighting time in learning that the colonists bad no desire to be pardoned no doubt we all need pardon from heaven for our manifold sins and transgressions wr governor trum aws i f bull a connecticut version 0 the gen eral feeling but the american who need the pardon of bla britannic majesty Is yet to be found i on the of august accordingly general inowe put twenty thousand men ashore at gravesend Grave send bay british drive the colonists on the bis arrangements for an overwhelming attack succeeding at every point he drove the five thou sand americans thrown out to oppose him back into their works uon the heights with a loss ot tour hundred killed and wounded and a thousand taken still mindful of bunker hill ha would not storm the entrenchments ments to which washington himself had brought reinforcements which swelled his strength upon the heights to ten thousand he determined instead to draw lines of siege si ege about them and at his leisure take army position stores and all decide to retreat washington seeing at once what howe intended and how possible it was decided to withdraw immediately before a fleet should be in the river and his retreat cut off it was a masterly piece of work the british commander was as much astonished to see brooklyn heights empty on the mornant of august 20 as he had been to see dorchester heights occupied that memorable morning six months before washington had taken ten thousand men across that broad river with all their stores and arms in a single night while a small guard kept up a sharp fire from the breastworks and no sound of the retreat reached the dull ears of the british sentries army demoralized but the sharp fighting and bitter defeat of the had sadly even shamefully demoralized washington s raw troops and he knew he must withdraw from new york all through september and a part of october he held what he could of the island fighting for ft almost mile by mile as he withdrew now cut to the quick and aflame with almost uncontrollable troll able anger to see what cowards his men could be again heartened to see them stand and hold ground like men even in the open the most that he could do was to check and thwart the powerful army pressing steadily upon his front and the tree fleet ehret his flanks ho repulsed the enemy at harlem heights september 1 he kept his ground before them at walta plains despite the loss of an outpost at chatterton hill october 28 he might possibly have foiled and harassed them the winter through had not gen oral green suffered a garrison of three thousand of the best trained men in the army to be penned up and taken with a great store of artillery and small arms besides in fort washing ton on tho island november 16 after such a blow there was nothing tor it but to abandon the hudson and retreat through new jersey dark days for patriots his generals growing bordi nate washington could not even col elect lect his divisions and unite his forces in retreat his men deserted by the score whole companies took their way homeward as their terms of en expired with the closing of the year barely three thousand men remained with him by the time he bad reached princeton TO BE CONTINUED |