THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE
[Illustration: Statue of the Minute Man at Concord]
%129%. When the 10th of May, 1775, came, the colonists had ceased to
petition and had begun to fight. In accordance with the Massachusetts
Bill, General Thomas Gage had been appointed military governor of
Massachusetts. He reached Boston in May, 1774, and summoned an assembly
to meet him at Salem in October. But, alarmed at the angry state of the
people, he fortified Boston Neck,--the only land approach to the city,
and countermanded the meeting. The members, claiming that an assembly
could not be dismissed before it met, gave no heed to the proclamation,
but gathered at Salem and adjourned to Concord and then to Cambridge. At
Cambridge a Committee of Safety was chosen and given power to call out
the troops, and steps were taken to collect ammunition and military
stores. A month later at another meeting, 12,000 "minute men" were
ordered to be enrolled. These minute men were volunteers pledged to be
ready for service at a minute's notice, and lest 12,000 should not be
enough, the neighboring colonies were asked to raise the number
to 20,000.
[Illustration: Map of Country around Boston]
%130. Concord and Lexington.%--Meantime the arming and drilling went
actively on, and powder was procured, and magazines of provisions and
military stores were collected at Concord, at Worcester, at Salem, and
at many other towns. Aware of this, Gage, on the night of April 18,
1775, sent off 800 regulars to destroy the stores at Concord, a town
some twenty miles from Boston. Gage wished to keep this expedition
secret, but he could not. The fact that the troops were to march became
known to the patriots in Boston, who determined to warn the minute men
in the neighborhood. Messengers were accordingly stationed at
Charlestown and told to ride in every direction and rouse the people,
the moment they saw lights displayed from the tower of the Old North
Church in Boston. The instant the British began to march, two lights
were hung out in the tower, and the messengers sped away to do
their work.[1]
[Footnote 1: The ride of one of these men, that of Paul Revere, has
become best known because of Longfellow's poem, _Paul Revere's Ride._
Read it. ]
The road taken by the British lay through the little village of
Lexington, and there (so well had the messengers done their work), about
sunrise, on the morning of the 19th, the British came suddenly on a
little band of minute men drawn up on the green before the meeting
house. A call to disperse was not obeyed; whereupon the British fired a
volley, killing or wounding sixteen minute men, and passed on to
Concord. There they spiked three cannon, threw some cannon balls and
powder into the river, destroyed some flour, set fire to the courthouse,
and started back toward Boston. But "the shot heard round the world" had
indeed been fired.[2] The news had spread far and wide. The minute men
came hurrying in, and from farmhouses and hedges, from haystacks, and
from behind trees and stone fences, they poured a deadly fire on the
retreating British. The retreat soon became a flight, and the flight
would have ended in capture had they not been reënforced by 900 men at
Lexington. With the help of these they reached Charlestown Neck by
sundown and entered Boston.[3] All night long minute men came in from
every quarter, so that by the morning of April 20th great crowds were
gathered outside of Charlestown and at Roxbury, and shut the British
in Boston.
[Footnote 2: Read R. W. Emerson's fine poem, _Concord Hymn._ ]
[Footnote 3: Force's _American Archives,_ Vol. II.; Hudson's _History of
Lexington,_ Chaps. 6, 7; Phinney's _Battle of Lexington;_ Shattuck's
_History of Concord,_ Chap. 7. ]
When the news of Concord and Lexington reached the Green Mountain Boys
of Vermont, they too took up arms, and, under Ethan Allen, captured Fort
Ticonderoga on May 10, 1775.
%131. Congress becomes a Governing Body.%--The first Continental
Congress had been chosen by the colonies in 1774, to set forth the views
of the people, and remonstrate against the conduct of the King and
Parliament. This Congress, it will be remembered, having done so, fixed
May 10, 1775, as the day whereon a second Congress should meet to
consider the results of their remonstrance. But when the day came,
Lexington and Concord had been fought, all New England was in arms, and
Congress was asked to adopt the army gathered around Boston, and assume
the conduct of the war. Congress thus unexpectedly became a governing
body, and began to do such things as each colony could not do by itself.
%132. Origin of the Continental Army.%--After a month's delay it did
adopt the little band of patriots gathered about Boston, made it the
Continental Army, and elected George Washington, then a delegate in
Congress, commander in chief. He was chosen because of the military
skill he had displayed in the French and Indian War, and because it was
thought necessary to have a Virginian for general, Virginia being then
the most populous of the colonies.
Washington accepted the trust on June 16, and set out for Boston on June
21; but he had not ridden twenty miles from Philadelphia when he was met
by the news of Bunker Hill.
%133. Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775.%--On a narrow peninsula to the
north of Boston, and separated from it by a sheet of water half a mile
wide, was the village of Charlestown; behind it were two small hills.
The nearer of the two to Charlestown was Breeds Hill. Just beyond it was
Bunker Hill, and as the two overlooked Boston and the harbor where the
British ships lay at anchor, the possession of them was of much
importance. The Americans, learning of Gage's intention to fortify the
hills, sent a force of 1200 men, under Colonel Prescott, on the night of
June 16, to take possession of Bunker Hill. By some mistake Prescott
passed Bunker Hill, reached Breeds Hill, and before dawn had thrown up a
large earthwork. The moment daylight enabled it to be seen, the British
opened fire from their ships. But the Americans worked steadily on in
spite of cannon shot, and by noon had constructed a line of
intrenchments extending from the earthwork down the hill toward the
water. Gage might easily have landed men and taken this intrenchment in
the rear. He instead sent Howe[1] and 2500 men over in boats from
Boston, to land at the foot of the hill and charge straight up its steep
side toward the Americans on its summit. The Americans were bidden not
to fire till they saw the whites of the enemy's eyes, and obeyed. Not a
shot came from their line till the British were within a few feet. Then
a sheet of flames ran along the breastworks, and when the smoke blew
away, the British were running down the hill in confusion. With great
effort the officers rallied their men and led them up the hill a second
time, to be again driven back to the landing place. This fire exhausted
the powder of the Americans, and when the British troops were brought up
for the third attack, the Americans fell back, fighting desperately with
gunstocks and stones. The results of this battle were two fold. It
proved to the Americans that the British regulars were not invincible,
and it proved to the British that the American militia would fight.
[Footnote 1: General William Howe had come to Boston with more British
troops not long before. In October, 1775, he was given chief command.]
[Illustration: BOSTON, CHARLESTOWN, ETC.]
%134. Washington takes Command.%--Two weeks after this battle
Washington reached the army, and on July 3, 1775, took command beneath
an elm still standing in Cambridge. Never was an army in so sorry a
plight. There was no discipline, and not much more than a third as many
men as there had been a few weeks before. But the indomitable will and
sublime patience of Washington triumphed over all difficulties, and for
eight months he kept the British shut up in Boston, while he trained
and disciplined his army, and gathered ammunition and supplies.
%135. Montreal taken.%--Meanwhile Congress, fearing that Sir Guy
Carleton, who was governor of Canada, would invade New York by way of
Lake Champlain, sent two expeditions against him. One, under Richard
Montgomery, went down Lake Champlain, and captured Montreal. Another,
under Benedict Arnold, forced its way through the dense woods of Maine,
and after dreadful sufferings reached Quebec. There Montgomery joined
Arnold, and on the night of December 31, 1775, the two armies assaulted
Quebec, the most strongly fortified city in America, and actually
entered it. But Montgomery was killed, Arnold was wounded, the attack
failed, and, six months later, the Americans were driven from Canada.
[Illustration: Bunker Hill Monument]
%136. The British driven from Boston, March 17, 1776.%--After eight
months of seeming idleness, Washington, early in March, 1776, seized
Dorchester Heights on the south side of Boston, fortified them, and so
gave Howe his choice of fighting or retreating. Fight he could not; for
the troops, remembering the dreadful day at Bunker Hill, were afraid to
attack intrenched Americans. Howe thereupon evacuated Boston and sailed
with his army for Halifax, March 17, 1776. Washington felt sure that the
British would next attack New York, so he moved his army there in April,
1776, and placed it on the Brooklyn hills.
%137. Independence resolved on.%--Just one year had now passed since
the memorable fights at Concord and Lexington. During this year the
colonies had been solemnly protesting that they had no thought of
independence and desired nothing so much as reconciliation with the
King. But the King meantime had done things which prevented any
reconciliation:
1. He had issued a proclamation declaring the Americans to be rebels.
2. He had closed their ports and warned foreign nations not to trade
with them.
3. He had hired 17,000 Hessians[1] with whom to subdue them.
[Footnote 1: The Hessians were soldiers from Hesse and other small
German states.]
These things made further obedience to the King impossible, and May 15,
1776, Congress resolved that it was "necessary to suppress every kind of
authority under the crown," and asked the colonies to form governments
of their own and so become states.
On the 7th of June, Richard Henry Lee, acting under instructions from
Virginia, offered this resolution:
Resolved
That these United Colonies are, and of
right ought to be, free and independent states, that
they are absolved from all allegiance to the British
Crown, and that all political connection between them
and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be,
totally dissolved.
Prompt action in so serious a matter was not to be expected, and
Congress put it off till July 1. Meanwhile Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin
Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston were
appointed to write a declaration of independence and have it ready in
case it was wanted. As Jefferson happened to be the chairman of the
committee, the duty of writing the declaration was given to him. July
2, Congress passed Lee's resolution, and what had been the United
Colonies became free and independent states.
[Illustration: Campaigns of 1775-1776]
[Illustration: %The Pennsylvania Statehouse, or Independence Hall[1]]
[Footnote 1: From the _Columbian Magazine_ of July, 1787. The tower
faces the "Statehouse yard." The posts are along Chestnut Street. For
the history of the building, read F. M. Etting's _Independence Hall._]
%138. Independence declared.%--Independence having thus been decreed,
the next step was to announce the fact to the world. As Jefferson says
in the opening of his declaration, "When, in the course of human events,
it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands
which have connected them with another ... a decent respect to the
opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which
impel them to the separation." It was this "decent respect to the
opinions of mankind," therefore, which now led Congress, on July 4,
1776, to adopt the Declaration of Independence, and to send copies to
the states. Pennsylvania got her copy first, and at noon on July 8 it
was read to a vast crowd of citizens in the Statehouse yard.[1] When
the reading was finished, the people went off to pull down the royal
arms in the court room, while the great bell in the tower, the bell
which had been cast twenty-four years before with the prophetic words
upon its side, "Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the
inhabitants thereof," rang out a joyful peal, for then were announced to
the world the new political truths, "that all men are created equal,"
and "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
rights," and "that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness."
[Footnote 1: The declaration was read from a wooden platform put up
there in 1769 to enable David Rittenhouse to observe a transit
of Venus.]
[Illustration: The royal arms]
%139. The Retreat up the Hudson.%--A few days later the Declaration
was read to the army at New York. The wisdom of Washington in going to
New York was soon manifest, for in July General Howe, with a British
army of 25,000 men, encamped on Staten Island. In August he crossed to
Long Island, and was making ready to besiege the army on Brooklyn
Heights, when, one dark and foggy night, Washington, leaving his camp
fires burning, crossed with his army to New York.
Howe followed, drove him foot by foot up the Hudson from New York to
White Plains; carried Fort Washington, on the New York shore, by storm
(November 16, 1776); and sent a force across the Hudson under cover of
darkness and storm to capture Fort Lee. But the British were detected in
the very nick of time, and the Americans, leaving their fires burning
and their tents standing, fled towards Newark, N. J.
%140. The Retreat across the Jerseys.%--Washington, meanwhile, had
gone from White Plains to Hackensack in New Jersey, leaving 7000 men
under Charles Lee in New York state at North Castle. These men he now
ordered Lee to bring over to Hackensack, but the jealous and mutinous
Lee refused to obey. This forced Washington to begin his famous retreat
across the Jerseys, going first to Newark, then to New Brunswick, then
to Trenton, and then over the Delaware into Pennsylvania, with the
British under Cornwallis in hot pursuit.
[Illustration]
%141. The Surprise at Trenton.%--Lee crossed the Hudson and went to
Morristown, where a just punishment for his disobedience speedily
overtook him. One night while he was at an inn outside of his lines,
some British dragoons made him a prisoner of war. The capture of Lee
left Sullivan in command, and by him the troops were hurried off to join
Washington. Thus reënforced, Washington turned on the enemy, and on
Christmas night in a blinding snowstorm he recrossed the Delaware,
marched nine miles to Trenton, surprised a force of Hessians, took 1000
prisoners, and went back to Pennsylvania.
The effect of this victory was tremendous. At first the people could not
believe it, and, to convince them, the Hessians had to be marched
through the streets of Philadelphia, and one of their flags was sent to
Baltimore (whither Congress had fled from Philadelphia), and hung up in
the hall of Congress. When the people were convinced of the truth of the
report, their joy was unbounded; militia was hurried forward, the
Jerseymen gathered at Morristown, money was raised; the New England
troops, whose time of service was out, were persuaded to stay six weeks
longer, and, December 30, 1776, Washington again entered Trenton.
Meantime Cornwallis, who had heard of the capture of the Hessians, came
thundering down from New Brunswick with 8000 men and hemmed in the
Americans between his army and the Delaware. But on the night of January
2, 1777, Washington slipped away, passed around Cornwallis, hurried to
Princeton, and there, on the morning of January 3, put to rout three
regiments of British regulars. Cornwallis, who was not aware that the
Americans had left his front till he heard the firing in his rear, fell
back to New Brunswick, while Washington marched unmolested to
Morristown, where he spent the rest of the winter.
%142. The Capture of Philadelphia.%--Late in May, 1777, Washington
entered New York state. But Howe paid little attention to this movement,
for he had fully determined to attack and capture Philadelphia, and on
July 23 set sail from New York. As the fleet moved southward, its
progress was marked by signal fires along the Jersey coast, and the news
of its position was carried inland by messengers. At the end of a week
the fleet was off the entrance of Delaware Bay. But Lord Howe fearing to
sail up the river, the fleet went to sea and was lost to sight.
Washington, who had hurried southward to Philadelphia, was now at a loss
what to do, and was just about to go back to New York when he heard
that the British were coming up Chesapeake Bay, and at once marched to
Wilmington, Del.
[Illustration]
It was the 25th of August that Howe landed his men and began moving
toward Washington, who, lest the British should push by him, fell back
from Wilmington, to a place called Chadds Ford on the Brandywine, where,
on September 11, 1777, a battle was fought.[1] The Americans were
defeated and retreated in good order to Chester, and the next day
Washington entered Philadelphia. But public opinion demanded that
another battle should be fought before the city was given up, and after
a few days he recrossed the Schuylkill, and again faced the enemy. A
violent storm ruined the ammunition of both armies and prevented a
battle, and the Americans retreated across the Schuylkill at a point
farther up the stream.
[Footnote: 1 Among the wounded in this battle was a brilliant young
Frenchman, the Marquis de Lafayette, who, early in 1777, came to America
and offered his services to Congress as a volunteer without pay.]
Congress, which had returned to Philadelphia from Baltimore, now fled to
Lancaster and later to York, Pa., and (September 26, 1777) Howe entered
Philadelphia in triumph. October 4, Washington attacked him at
Germantown, but was repulsed, and went into winter quarters at
Valley Forge.
[Illustration]
%143. New York invaded.%--Though Washington had been defeated in the
battles around Philadelphia, and had been forced to give that city to
the British, his campaign made it possible for the Americans to win
another glorious victory in the north. At the beginning of 1777 the
British had planned to conquer New York and so cut the Eastern States
off from the Middle States. To accomplish this, a great army under John
Burgoyne was to come up to Albany by way of Lake Champlain. Another,
under Colonel St. Leger, was to go up the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario
to Oswego and come down to Mohawk valley to Albany; while the third
army, under Howe, was to go up the Hudson from New York and meet
Burgoyne at Albany. True to this plan, Burgoyne came up Lake Champlain,
took Ticonderoga (July 5), and, driving General Schuyler before him,
reached Fort Edward late in July. There he heard that the Americans had
collected some supplies at Bennington, a little village in the
southwestern corner of Vermont, whither he sent 1000 men. But Colonel
John Stark met and utterly destroyed them on August 16. Meanwhile St.
Leger, as planned, had landed at Oswego, and on August 3 laid siege to
Fort Stanwix, which then stood on the site of the present city of Rome,
N.Y. On the 6th the garrison sallied forth, attacked a part of St.
Leger's camp, and carried off five British flags. These they hoisted
upside down on their ramparts, and high above them raised a new flag
which Congress had adopted in June, and which was then for the first
time flung to the breeze.
[Illustration: Flag of the East India Company]
%144. Our National Flag.%--It was our national flag, the stars and
stripes, and was made of a piece of a blue jacket, some strips of a
white shirt, and some scraps of old red flannel.[1]
[Footnote 1: The flags used by the continental troops between 1775 and
1777 were of at least a dozen different patterns. A colored plate
showing most of them is given in Treble's _Our Flag_, p. 142. In 1776,
in January, Washington used one at Cambridge which seems to have been
suggested by the ensign of the East India Company. That of this company
was a combination of thirteen horizontal red and white stripes (seven
red and six white) and the red cross of St. George. That of Washington
was the same, with the British Union Jack substituted for the cross of
St. George. After the Declaration of Independence, the British Jack was
out of place on our flag; and in June, 1777, Congress adopted a union of
thirteen white stars in a circle, on a blue ground, in place of the
British Union. After Vermont and Kentucky were admitted, in 1791 and
1792, the stars and stripes were each increased to fifteen. In 1818, the
original number of stripes was restored, and since that time each new
state, when admitted, is represented by a star and not by a stripe.]
[Illustration: Flag of the United Colonies]
[Illustration: British Union Jack]
%145. Capture of Burgoyne.%--When Schuyler heard of the siege of
Fort Stanwix, he sent Benedict Arnold to relieve it, and St. Leger fled
to Oswego. Then was the time for the expedition from New York to have
hurried to Burgoyne's aid. But Howe and his army were then at sea. No
help was given to Burgoyne, who, after suffering defeats at Bemis
Heights (September 19) and at Stillwater (October 7), retreated to
Saratoga, where (October 17, 1777) he surrendered his army of 6000 men
to General Horatio Gates, whom Congress, to its shame, had just put in
the place of Schuyler. Gates deserves no credit for the capture. Arnold
and Daniel Morgan deserve it, and deserve much; for, judged by its
results, Saratoga was one of the great battles of the world. The results
of the surrender were four fold:
1. It saved New York state.
2. It destroyed the plan for the war.
3. It induced the King to offer us peace with representation in
Parliament, or anything else we wanted except independence.
4. It secured for us the aid of France.
[Illustration: %Flag of the United States, 1777%]
%146. Valley Forge.%--The winter at Valley Forge marks the darkest
period of the war. It was a season of discouragement, when mean spirits
grew bold. Some officers of the army formed a plot, called from one of
them the "Conway cabal," to displace Washington and put Gates in
command. The country people, tempted by British gold, sent their
provisions into Philadelphia and not to Valley Forge. There the
suffering of the half-clad, half-fed, ill-housed patriots surpasses
description.
But the darkest hour is just before the dawn. Then it was that an able
Prussian soldier, Baron Steuben, joined the army, turned the camp into a
school, drilled the soldiers, and made the army better than ever. Then
it was that France acknowledged our independence, and joined us in
the war.
%147. France acknowledges our Independence.%--In October, 1776,
Congress sent Benjamin Franklin to Paris to try to persuade the French
King to help us in the war. Till Burgoyne surrendered and Great Britain
offered peace, Franklin found all his efforts vain.[1] But now, when it
seemed likely that the states might again be brought under the British
crown, the French King promptly acknowledged us to be an independent
nation, made a treaty of alliance and a treaty of commerce (February 6,
1778), and soon had a fleet on its way to help us.
[Footnote 1: For an account of Franklin in France, see McMaster's _With
the Fathers_, pp. 253-270.]
%148. The British leave Philadelphia.%--Hearing of the approach of
the French fleet, Sir Henry Clinton, who in May had succeeded Howe in
command, left Philadelphia and hurried to the defense of New York.
Washington followed, and, coming up with the rear guard of the enemy at
Monmouth in New Jersey, fought a battle (June 28, 1778), and would have
gained a great victory had not the traitor, Charles Lee, been in
command.[2] Without any reason he suddenly ordered a retreat, which was
fortunately prevented from becoming a rout by Washington, who came on
the field in time to stop it.
[Footnote 2: After remaining a prisoner in the hands of the British from
December, 1776, to April, 1778, Lee had been exchanged for a
British officer.]
After the battle the British hurried on to New York, where Washington
partially surrounded them by stretching out his army from Morristown in
New Jersey to West Point on the Hudson.
%149. Stony Point.%--In hope of drawing Washington away from New
York, Clinton in 1779 sent a marauding party to plunder and ravage the
farms and towns of Connecticut. But Washington soon brought it back by
dispatching Anthony Wayne to capture Stony Point, which he did (July,
1779) by one of the most brilliant assaults in military history.
%150. Indian Raids.%--That nothing might be wanting to make the
suffering of the patriots as severe as possible, the Indians were let
loose. Led by a Tory[1] named Butler, a band of whites and Indians of
the Seneca tribe of the Six Nations[2] marched from Fort Niagara to
Wyoming Valley in northeastern Pennsylvania, and there perpetrated one
of the most awful massacres in history. Another party, led by a son of
Butler, repeated the horrors of Wyoming in Cherry Valley, N.Y.
[Footnote 1: Not all the colonists desired independence. Those who
remained loyal to the King were called Tories.]
[Footnote 2: By this time the Five Nations had admitted the Tuscaroras
to their confederacy and had thus become the Six Nations.]
%151. George Rogers Clark%.--Meantime the British commander at
Detroit tried hard to stir up the Indians of the West to attack the
whole frontier at the same moment. Hearing of this, George Rogers Clark
of Virginia marched into the enemy's country, and in two fine campaigns
in 1778-1779 beat the British, and conquered the country from the Ohio
to the Great Lakes and from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi.
%152. Sullivan's Expedition%.--In 1779 it seemed so important to
punish the Indians for the Wyoming and Cherry Valley massacres that
General Sullivan with an army invaded the territory of the Six Nations,
in central New York, burned some forty Indian villages, and utterly
destroyed the Indian power in that state.
%153. The South invaded%.--For a year and more there had been a lull
in military operations on the part of the British. But they now began an
attack in a new quarter. Having failed to conquer New England in
1775-1776, having failed to conquer the Middle States in 1776-1777, they
sent an expedition against the South in December, 1778. Success attended
it. Savannah was captured, Georgia was conquered, and the royal governor
reinstated. Later, in 1779, General Lincoln, with a French fleet to help
him, attempted to recapture Savannah, but was driven off with dreadful
loss of life.
These successes in Georgia so greatly encouraged the British that in the
spring of 1780 Clinton led an expedition against South Carolina, and
(May 12) easily captured Charleston, with Lincoln and his army. By dint
of great exertions another army was quickly raised in North Carolina,
and the command given to Gates by Congress. He was utterly unfit for it,
and (August 16, 1780) was defeated and his army almost destroyed at
Camden by Lord Cornwallis. Never in the whole course of the war had the
American army suffered such a crushing defeat. All military resistance
in South Carolina was at an end, save such as was offered by gallant
bands of patriots led by Marion, Sumter, and Pickens.
%154. The Treason of Arnold.%--The outlook was now dark enough;
but it was made darker still by the treachery of Benedict Arnold. No
officer in the Revolutionary army was more trusted. His splendid march
through the wilderness to Quebec, his bravery in the attack on that
city, the skill and courage he displayed at Saratoga, had marked him
out as a man full of promise. But he lacked that moral courage without
which great abilities count for nothing. In 1778 he was put in command
of Philadelphia, and while there so abused his office that he was
sentenced to be reprimanded by Washington. This aroused a thirst for
revenge, and led him to form a scheme to give up the Hudson River to the
enemy. With this end in view, he asked Washington in July, 1780, for the
command of West Point, the great stronghold on the Hudson, obtained it,
and at once made arrangements to surrender it to Clinton. The British
agent in the negotiation was Major John André, who one day in September
met Arnold near Stony Point. But most happily, as he was going back to
New York, three Americans[1] stopped him near Tarrytown, searched him,
and in his stockings found some papers in the handwriting of Arnold.
News of the arrest of André reached Arnold in time to enable him to
escape to the British; he served with them till the end of the war, and
then sought a refuge in England. André was tried as a spy, found guilty,
and hanged.
[Footnote 1: The names of these men were Paulding, Williams, and Van
Wart.]
%155. Victory at Kings Mountain.%--After the defeat of Gates at
Camden, the British overran South Carolina, and in the course of their
marauding a band of 1100 Tories marched to Kings Mountain, on the border
line between the two Carolinas. There the hardy mountaineers attacked
them (Oct. 7, 1780) and killed, wounded, or captured the entire band.
[Map: %CAMPAIGNS IN THE SOUTH 1778-1781%]
%156. Victory at the Cowpens%.--Meantime a third army was raised for
use in the South and placed under the command of Nathanael Greene, than
whom there was no abler general in the American army. With Greene was
Daniel Morgan, who had distinguished himself at Saratoga, and by him a
British force under Tarleton was attacked January 17, 1781, at a place
called the Cowpens, and not only defeated, but almost destroyed.
Enraged at these reverses, Cornwallis took the field and hurried to
attack Greene, who, too weak to fight him, began a masterly retreat of
200 miles across Carolina to Guilford Courthouse, where he turned about
and fought. He was defeated, but Cornwallis was unable to go further,
and retreated to Wilmington, N.C., with Greene in hot pursuit. Leaving
the enemy at Wilmington, Greene went back to South Carolina, and by
September, 1781, had driven the British into Charleston and Savannah.
Cornwallis, as soon as Greene left him, hurried to Petersburg, Va. A
British force during the winter and spring had been plundering and
ravaging in Virginia, under the traitor Arnold. Cornwallis took command
of this, sent Arnold to New York, and had begun a campaign against
Lafayette, when orders reached him to seize and fortify some
Virginian seaport.
%157. Surrender of Cornwallis.%--Thus instructed, Cornwallis selected
Yorktown, and began to fortify it strongly. This was early in August,
1781. On the 14th Washington heard with delight that a French fleet was
on its way to the Chesapeake, and at once decided to hurry to Virginia,
and surround Cornwallis by land while the French cut him off by sea.
Preparations were made with such secrecy and haste that Washington had
reached Philadelphia while Clinton supposed he was about to attack New
York. Clinton then sent Arnold on a raid into Connecticut to burn New
London, in the hope of forcing Washington to return. But Washington kept
straight on, hemmed Cornwallis in by land and sea, and October 19, 1781,
forced the British general to surrender.
%158. The War on the Sea.%--The first step towards the foundation of
an American navy was taken on October 13, 1775. Congress, hearing that
two British ships laden with powder and guns were on their way from
England to Quebec, ordered two swift sailing vessels to be fitted out
for the purpose of capturing them. Two months later Congress ordered
thirteen cruisers to be built, and named the officers to command them.
Meantime some merchant ships were purchased and collected at
Philadelphia, from which city, one morning in January, 1776, a fleet of
eight vessels set sail. As they were about to weigh anchor, John Paul
Jones, a lieutenant on the flagship, flung to the breeze a yellow silk
flag on which were a pine tree and a coiled rattlesnake, with this
motto: "Don't tread on me." This was the first flag ever hoisted on an
American man-of-war.
Ice in the Delaware kept the fleet in the river till the middle of
February, when it went to sea, sailed southward to New Providence in the
Bahamas, captured the town, brought off the governor, some powder and
cannon, and after taking several prizes got safely back to New London.
Soon after the squadron had left the Delaware, the _Lexington_, Captain
John Barry in command, while cruising off the Virginia coast, fell in
with the _Edward_, a British vessel, and after a spirited action
captured her. This was the first prize brought in by a commissioned
officer of the American navy.[1]
[Footnote 1: John Barry was a native of Ireland; he came to America at
thirteen, entered the merchant marine, and at twenty-five was captain of
a ship. At the opening of the war Barry offered his services to
Congress, and in February, 1776, was put in command of the _Lexington_.
After his victory he was transferred to the twenty-eight-gun frigate
_Effingham_, and in 1777 (while blockaded in the Delaware) with
twenty-seven men in four boats captured and destroyed a ten-gun schooner
and four transports. When the British captured Philadelphia, Barry took
the _Effingham_ up the river; but she was burned by the enemy. In 1778,
in command of the thirty-two-gun frigate _Raleigh_, he sailed from
Boston, fell in with two British frigates, and after a fight was forced
to run ashore in Penobscot Bay. Barry and his crew escaped, and in 1781
carried Laurens to France in the frigate _Alliance_. On the way out he
took a privateer, and while cruising on the way home captured the
_Atalanta_ and the _Trepassey_ after a hard fight. As Barry brought in
the first capture by a commissioned officer of the United States navy,
so he fought the last action of the war in 1782; but the enemy escaped.
When the navy was reorganized in 1794, Barry was made senior captain,
with the title of Commodore. In 1798 he commanded the frigate _United
States_ in the war with France. He died in 1803.]
In March, 1776, Congress began to issue letters of marque, or licenses
to citizens to engage in war against the enemy; and then the sea fairly
swarmed with privateers.
In 1777 the American flag was seen for the first time in European
waters, when a little squadron of three ships set sail from Nantes in
France, and after cruising on the Bay of Biscay went twice around
Ireland and came back to France with fifteen prizes. As France had not
then acknowledged our independence, they were ordered to depart. Two did
so; but one of them, the _Lexington_, was captured by the British, and
the other, the _Reprisal_, was wrecked at sea.
%159. Paul Jones.%--Meanwhile our commissioners in France, Benjamin
Franklin and Silas Deane, fitted out a cruiser called the _Surprise_.
She sailed from Dunkirk on May 1, 1777, and the next week was back with
a British packet as a prize. For this violation of French neutrality she
was seized. But another ship, the _Revenge_, was quickly secured, which
scoured the British waters, and actually entered two British ports
before she sailed for America. The exploits of these and a score of
other ships are cast into the shade, however, by the fights of John Paul
Jones, the great naval hero of the Revolution. He sailed from
Portsmouth, N.H., November 1, 1777, refitted his ship in the harbor of
Brest, and in 1778 began one of the most memorable cruises in our naval
history. In the short space of twenty-eight days he sailed into the
Irish Channel, destroyed four vessels, set fire to the shipping in the
port of Whitehaven, fought and captured the British armed schooner
_Drake_, sailed around Ireland with his prize, and reached France
in safety.
For a year he was forced to be idle. But at last, in 1779, he was given
command of a squadron of five vessels, and in August sailed from France.
Passing along the west coast of Ireland, the fleet went around the north
end of Scotland and down the east coast, capturing and destroying vessel
after vessel on the way. On the night of September 23, 1779, Jones (in
his ship, named _Bonhomme Richard_ in honor of Franklin's famous _Poor
Richard's Almanac_) fell in with the _Serapis_, a British frigate. The
two ships grappled, and, lashed side by side in the moonlight, fought
one of the most desperate battles in naval annals. At the end of three
hours the _Serapis_ surrendered, but the _Bonhomme Richard_ was a wreck,
and next morning, giving a sudden roll, she filled and plunged bow first
to the bottom of the North Sea. Jones sailed away in the _Serapis_.
[Illustration: Benjamin Franklin]
In the Revolution the British lost 102 vessels of war, while the
Americans lost 24--most of their navy.
%160. Revolutionary Heroes.%--It is not possible to mention all the
revolutionary heroes entitled to our grateful remembrance. We should,
however, remember Lafayette, Steuben, Pulaski, and DeKalb, foreigners
who fought for us; Samuel Adams and James Otis of Massachusetts, and
Patrick Henry of Virginia, who spoke for freedom; Robert Morris, the
financier of the Revolution; Putnam who fought and Warren who died at
Bunker Hill; Mercer who fell at Princeton; Nathan Hale, the martyr spy;
Herkimer, Knox, Moultrie, and that long list of noble patriots whose
names have already been mentioned.
%161. The Treaty of Peace.%--The story is told that when Lord North,
the Prime Minister of England, heard of the surrender of Yorktown, he
threw up his hands and said, "It is all over." He was right; it was all
over, and on September 3, 1783, a treaty of peace (negotiated by
Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay) was signed at Paris.
Meantime the British, in accordance with a preliminary treaty of peace
signed in November, 1782, were slowly leaving the country, till on
November 25, 1783, the last of them sailed from New York.[1] Washington
now resigned his commission, and in December went home to Mt. Vernon.
[Footnote 1: They did not leave Staten Island in New York Bay till a
week later. For an account of the evacuation of New York see McMaster's
_With the Fathers_, pp. 271-280.]
%162. Bounds of the United States.%--By the treaty of 1783 the
boundary of the United States was declared to be about what is the
present northern boundary from the mouth of the St. Croix River in Maine
to the Lake of the Woods, and then due west to the Mississippi (which
was, of course, an impossible line, for that river does not rise in
Canada); then down the Mississippi to 31° north latitude; then eastward
along that parallel of latitude to the Apalachicola River, and then by
what is the present north boundary of Florida to the Atlantic.
But these bounds were not secured without a diplomatic struggle. As soon
as France joined us in 1778, she began to persuade Spain to follow her
example. Very little persuasion was needed, for the opportunity to
regain the two Floridas (which Spain had been forced to give to England
in 1763) was too good to be lost. In June, 1779, therefore, Spain
declared war on England, and sent the governor of Lower Louisiana into
West Florida, where he captured Pensacola, Mobile, Baton Rouge, and
Natchez. Made bold by this success, Spain, which cared nothing for the
United States, next determined to conquer the region north of Florida
and east of the Mississippi, the Indian country of the proclamation of
1763. (See map of The British Colonies in 1764.) The commandant at St.
Louis[2] was, therefore, sent to seize the post at St. Joseph on Lake
Michigan, built by La Salle in 1679. He succeeded, and taking possession
of the country in the name of Spain, carried off the English flags as
evidence of conquest. Now when the time came to make the treaty of
peace, Spain insisted that she must have East and West Florida and the
country west of the Alleghany Mountains, because she had conquered it.
France partly supported Spain in this demand. The country north of the
Ohio she proposed should be given to Great Britain, and the country
south to Spain and the United States.
[Footnote 2: It will be remembered that Spain now held Louisiana, or the
country west of the Mississippi. (See Chapter VIII.)]
[Illustration: RESULTS OF THE %WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE% BOUNDARY DEFINED
BY TREATY 1783. AND TERRITORY HELD BY GREAT BRITAIN 1783-1796., AND
SPAIN 1783-1795]
The American commissioners, seeing in all this a desire to bound the
United States on the west by the Alleghany Mountains, made the treaty
with Great Britain secretly, and secured the Mississippi as our
western limit.
Spain at the same time secured the Floridas from Great Britain, and
insisting that West Florida must have the old boundary given in 1764,[1]
and not 31° as provided in our treaty of peace, she seized and held the
country by force of arms; and for twelve years the Spanish flag waved
over Baton Rouge and Natchez.[2]
[Footnote 1: See Chapter X.]
[Footnote 2: Read Hinsdale's _Old Northwest_, pp. 170-191; McMaster's
_With the Fathers_, pp. 280-292.]
The area of the territory thus acquired by the United States was 827,844
square miles, and the population not far from 3,250,000. Apparently an
era of great prosperity and happiness was before the people. But
unhappily the government they had established in time of war was quite
unfit to unite them and bring them prosperity in time of peace.
[Illustration: Washington's sword]
SUMMARY
1. In accordance with one of the Intolerable Acts, General Gage became
governor of Massachusetts in 1774.
2. Seeing that the people were gathering stores and cannon, he attempted
to destroy the stores, and so brought on the battles of Lexington and
Concord, which opened the War for Independence.
3. The Congress of colonial delegates, which met in 1774 and adjourned
to meet again in 1775, assembled soon after these battles, and assumed
the conduct of the war, adopted the army around Boston, and made
Washington commander in chief.
4. Washington reached Boston soon after the battle of Bunker Hill, which
taught the British that the Americans would fight, and he besieged the
British in Boston. In March, 1776, they left the city by water, and
Washington moved his army to the neighborhood of New York.
5. There he was attacked by the British, and was driven up the Hudson
River to White Plains. Thence he crossed into New Jersey, only to be
driven across the state and into Pennsylvania.
6. On Christmas night, 1776, he recrossed the Delaware to Trenton, and
the next morning won a victory over the Hessians. Then on January 3,
1777, he fought the battle of Princeton, and he spent the remainder of
the winter at Morristown.
7. In July, 1777, Howe sailed from New York for Philadelphia, to which
city Washington hurried by land. The Americans were defeated at the
Brandy wine, and the city fell into the hands of Howe. Washington passed
the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge.
8. Meantime an attempt had been made to cut the states in two by getting
possession of New York state from Lake Champlain to New York city, and
an army under Burgoyne came down from Canada. He and his troops were
captured at Saratoga.
9. In February, 1778, France made a treaty of alliance with us and sent
over a fleet. Fearing this would attack New York, Clinton left
Philadelphia with his army. Washington followed from Valley Forge,
overtook the enemy at Monmouth, and fought a battle there. The British
then went on to New York, while Washington stretched out his army from
Morristown to West Point.
10. So matters remained till December, 1778, when the British attacked
the Southern States. They conquered Georgia in the winter of 1778-1779.
11. In the spring of 1780 they attacked South Carolina and captured
General Lincoln. Gates then took the field, was defeated, and succeeded
by Greene, who after many vicissitudes drove the British forces in South
Carolina and Georgia into Charleston and Savannah, during 1781.
12. Meantime a force sent against Greene under Cornwallis undertook to
fortify Yorktown and hold it, and while so engaged was surrounded by
Washington and the French fleet and forced to surrender.
THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE
CAMPAIGNS OF 1775-1776
_In New England_.
1775. Concord and Lexington.
Continental Army formed.
Washington, commander in chief.
Battle of Bunker Hill.
1775-1776. Siege of Boston.
1776. Evacuation of Boston.
_In Canada_.
1775. Arnold's march to Quebec.
Montgomery's march to Montreal.
Capture of Montreal.
1776. Defeat and death of Montgomery at Quebec.
Americans return to Ticonderoga.
1776. Howe sails for New York.
Washington marches to New York.
The Declaration of Independence.
Capture of New York.
Retreat across the Jerseys.
Surprise at Trenton.
1777. Battle of Princeton.
Washington at Morristown.
Burgoyne and St. Leger move down from Canada to
capture New York state and cut the colonies in two.
St. Leger defeated at Fort Stanwix.
Burgoyne captured at Saratoga.
Howe sails from New York to Chesapeake Bay and
moves against Philadelphia.
Washington moves from New York to Philadelphia.
Battles of Brandywine and Germantown.
Philadelphia captured by the British.
1777-1778. Americans winter at Valley Forge.
1778. Alliance with France.
Fleet and army sent from France.
Clinton leaves Philadelphia and hurries to New York.
Washington follows him from Valley Forge.
Battle of Monmouth.
Washington on the Hudson.
CAMPAIGNS CHIEFLY IN THE SOUTH, 1778-1781.
1778. The South invaded.
Savannah captured and Georgia overrun.
1779. Clinton ravages Connecticut to draw Washington away
from the Hudson.
Wayne captures Stony Point.
Lincoln attacks Savannah.
1780. Clinton captures Charleston.
Campaign of Gates in South Carolina.
Battles of Camden and Kings Mountain.
Treason of Arnold.
1781. Greene in command in the South.
Battle of the Cowpens.
March of Cornwallis from Charleston.
Battle of Guilford Courthouse.
Cornwallis goes to Wilmington and Greene to South Carolina.
Cornwallis goes to Yorktown.
Washington hurries from New York.
Surrender of Cornwallis.
1782-1783. Peace negotiations at Paris.
1783. Evacuation of New York.
THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT