continental congress in September, 1774. It was decided to raise
a colonial army, and, June 15, 1775, Washington was appointed its
commander-in-chief. In his speech accepting the office he refused to
receive pay for his services, saying that only his expenses in the
service should be repaid him at the end of the war. June 21 he left
Philadelphia and rode to Massachusetts to take charge of the troops. On
the third of July, at Cambridge under a great elm-tree still known as
“Washington’s elm,” he assumed command of the army. He was an imposing
figure, a tall handsome man dressed in a blue coat with buff facings
and buff small clothes or knee trousers. The army of which he took
command, was, he said, “a mixed multitude of people, under very little
discipline, order, or government.” These troops, about sixteen thousand
in number, had most of them been enlisted for but a short time and they
lacked provisions and supplies,--above all, ammunition. Throughout
the war there was scarcity of ammunition and the enemy’s stores of
powder and ball and firearms were the most welcome part of an American
victory. During the first months, however, the Americans had more
experience of defeat than of victory.
In the spring of 1776 the Americans took possession of Dorchester
Heights and the British evacuated Boston a few days later. When their
fleet put to sea, Washington marched across the country, hoping to keep
them from landing in New York. But the enemy were too strong for him
and they took possession of the city.
Up to this time the patriots had been fighting for their rights as
British colonists. July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence
was adopted and the fight was now for freedom. Of this Washington
said, “When I first took command of the army I abhorred the idea of
independence, but I am fully convinced that nothing else will save us.”
At Cambridge Washington had used a flag with thirteen stripes of red
and white, and the red and white cross of the British flag in the
corner; in 1777 Congress adopted as the national flag one with the
stripes but having, instead of the British cross, thirteen stars to
represent the thirteen colonies.
As we said, the Americans were unable to prevent the British from
landing in New York. Then the patriots were defeated in the battle
of Long Island and Washington was forced to retreat. Pursued through
New Jersey, he crossed the river into Pennsylvania, with about three
thousand ragged, hungry, discouraged soldiers. It was now winter and
it was supposed that the troops would go into winter quarters. But
Washington did not wish to give up the year’s campaign without striking
one successful blow. By a sudden march the day after Christmas, he
surprised and captured a force of one thousand Hessians at Trenton
and then he defeated an English force at Princeton. These victories
inspired hope and the patriots began the campaign of 1777 with renewed
courage.
But it was a year of reverses. The patriots were defeated at Brandywine
in September and at Germantown in October and went into winter quarters
at Valley Forge in December in a pitiable condition. They lacked
clothing, food, military stores. The campaign in the north was more
successful. At Saratoga General Gates won a signal victory and Burgoyne
was forced to surrender his army. It was this victory which led the
French to declare in favor of the colonists.
There was formed a conspiracy to depose Washington and to put at the
head of the army General Gates who had won the victory of the campaign.
Congress, however, supported Washington and collected men and supplies
for a new campaign. The army was drilled in the winter of 1778 by Baron
von Steuben, a Prussian officer who had served under Frederic the Great.
In 1778 the British evacuated Philadelphia and Washington attacked them
at Monmouth. Here he had a clash with General Charles Lee; his temper,
usually under control, rose at what he considered General Lee’s failure
to perform his duty.
The little army marched north and encamped near White Plains. In
this vicinity it remained during the year. During the campaign of
1779 also, Washington remained in the Highlands of the Hudson on the
defensive. The next year came French aid. That same year the plot of
General Arnold to surrender West Point to the English was discovered
from papers in the possession of a captured spy. This spy, the brave
young General André, paid the penalty with his life; the traitor Arnold
escaped to the British.
In 1781 brilliant victories were won at the south by General Greene,
General Morgan and by Marion, called “the Swamp Fox.” That same year
Washington, aided by the French troops, invested Lord Cornwallis’s men
at Yorktown, and forced them to surrender.
A treaty of peace, made in September, 1783, ended the war which,
as Pitt said, “was conceived in injustice, nurtured in folly, and
whose footsteps were marked with blood and devastation.” In November
the British evacuated New York and on December the fourth Washington
read his farewell address to the army. He resigned his commission to
Congress, thinking that his remaining days were to be spent in private
life at the home he loved.
But his country needed him still. Victory had been won indeed, but the
debt and burden of war remained. Congress with its limited delegated
power was unable to settle matters, and there seemed danger that the
colonies, united in their struggle against British oppression, would
drift apart. Washington had won public confidence; it was he who could
best advance the work of peace. He presided over the Convention of 1787
which framed a Constitution for the newly-established United States.
This was adopted by the required number of states and Washington
was unanimously chosen President of the United States. On April 30,
1789, he assumed the duties of the office in New York, which was the
first seat of national government. He entered upon the performance
of his work as president with the conscientious attention which he
gave to all matters. He aided to organize the different departments
of the government and appointed as their heads the ablest men in the
country--Hamilton, Jefferson, and others. He never openly allied
himself with either the Federalist party led by Hamilton or the
Democratic-Republican party led by Jefferson, but strove for union and
peace.
After serving eight years, he declined to be a candidate a third
time--thus establishing a precedent that no President shall serve a
third term. In 1796 Washington delivered a farewell address to the
people he had led and served. He retired to private life, but did not
live long to enjoy his well-earned rest. December 14, 1799, he died and
was buried at his home at Mount Vernon. The eulogy pronounced on him by
“Light Horse Harry” Lee well said that he was “First in war, first in
peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none
in the humble and endearing scenes of private life.”
Philip Schuyler
Philip Schuyler was a member of an old Dutch family in New York, which
had extensive possessions on the river Hudson. Under a French tutor,
he received a better education than was usual in colonial days. He was
an energetic manly lad, and early learned to ride and skate, to shoot
and manage a boat. He grew up an intelligent man and a good woodsman,
trained in the learning of the frontiers.
His father died when he was eight years old; Philip was the eldest son
and when he attained his majority, according to the English custom
he became master of his father’s wealth. This did not accord with
Schuyler’s Dutch ideas of justice nor with his native generosity; he
divided the property equally with his brothers and sisters.
In the French and Indian war Schuyler, like Washington and others,
gained the military experience which was later to be so valuable to his
country. In his subordinate position there came no opportunity for him
to distinguish himself especially, but he served with credit and honor.
A characteristic story is told of him on this campaign. The troops
were crossing the Oswego river and as the boats were crowded a wounded
prisoner was about to be left behind. Schuyler quietly put his gun and
coat in a boat, took the prisoner on his back, swam across the stream,
and put the wounded man in charge of a surgeon before he rejoined his
company.
It was largely through Schuyler’s influence that New York joined
Virginia and Massachusetts first in protesting and then in fighting
against the oppressions of England. He was a delegate to the
Continental Congress and was appointed by Congress a major-general--a
place to which he was entitled by his position and services and by his
experience in the French and Indian War. He was, however, unpopular
from the first with Samuel Adams and the leaders of the New England
party. They could not forget that he was of Dutch descent, and a native
of the colony which had quarreled with New England about boundary lines.
On the morning of June 21, 1775, George Washington, Philip Schuyler,
and Charles Lee rode out of Philadelphia, going northward to the seat
of war. Washington was to assume command of the army at Cambridge and
Schuyler was to take charge of the troops in New York and lead an
expedition against Canada. The three horsemen had gone about twenty
miles when they met a courier bringing Congress tidings of the battle
of Bunker Hill.
“Did the militia stand fire?” asked Washington eagerly. When informed
that they did, he exclaimed, “The Liberties of the country are safe!”
During the ride to New York, Washington and Schuyler learned to know
and esteem each other and the friendship begun then was never broken.
The position of the state of New York made its control a matter of
great importance. The little settlement--it was seventh in population
of the sparsely-settled colonies--was midway between the northern and
the southern colonies. If it were under British control, it would be a
wedge to separate them. Philip Schuyler was stationed in the northern
part of the province. His illness made it necessary for Montgomery
to take charge of the army sent against Quebec. As soon as Schuyler
was able to move, he set to work to raise men and supplies, advancing
his own funds for the purpose when those furnished by Congress proved
pitifully inadequate. To the impatient and sometimes irritated letters
of the young patriot, Washington sent words of encouragement and
counsel, saying, “In a little time we shall work up these raw materials
into a good manufacture. I must recommend to you, what I endeavor to
practice myself, patience and perseverance.”
In the campaign of 1777 the British, now largely reinforced, planned
to occupy New York and so to separate the northern and the southern
colonies. General Burgoyne was to lead eight thousand men down Lake
Champlain; Colonel St. Leger was to go down the valley of the Mohawk
from Oswego; and General Howe was to come up the Hudson. This force of
thirty-three thousand men was to take possession of New York.
At first it seemed as if the British were to succeed. They marched
on Ticonderoga, “the door to Canada,” which Ethan Allen and Benedict
Arnold had captured in May, 1775. The British general determined to
place his cannon on a rocky height commanding the fort. He was told
that the height was inaccessible for cannon. “Where a goat can go, a
man can go,” he said; “where a man can go, he can haul up a gun.” The
cannon was put in place and commanded the fort. St. Clair, seeing that
it was useless to resist, abandoned the fort and withdrew through the
woods to join Schuyler. At the news that Ticonderoga was taken King
George rushed into the queen’s room, exclaiming, “I have beat them; I
have beat all the Americans!”
It was impossible for the American forces to meet Burgoyne’s large,
well-equipped army in open fight. They fell back, destroying bridges,
felling trees across the roads through the ravines and swamps; the
way was so obstructed that Burgoyne’s army could march only about a
mile a day. Each day’s march took it further from its base of supplies
and weakened its forces, while each day added numbers and strength to
the patriots. An act of atrocity on the British side caused many to
join the colonial army who had hesitated before. Some Indians from
Burgoyne’s army killed and scalped Jane McCrea, a beautiful young girl
for whom they had been appointed guides. The colonists were indignant
with the English for making common cause against their own countrymen
with the savages.
At Bennington a detachment of Burgoyne’s army was attacked by General
Starke. “Before night we must conquer or Molly Starke is a widow,”
he cried, as he led his men to victory. An English force of about
two thousand men marched up the Mohawk and attacked Fort Stanwix, or
Schuyler, at the head of the river. The men in the fort prepared to
resist to the last. They cut up their shirts and cloaks to make a
flag, the Stars and Stripes, which they raised with cheers. General
Herkimer gathered the militia and went to their rescue. On the way
the militia was attacked and General Herkimer’s leg was shattered by
a bullet. Refusing to be borne from the field, he sat puffing at his
pipe and calmly directing his troops. In this battle of Oriskany both
sides sustained severe losses. The British advance was checked but they
continued to besiege Fort Schuyler.
General Schuyler called a council of war and suggested the sending of
reinforcements to the fort but the officers objected to thus weakening
the army which would have to oppose Burgoyne. Schuyler was unwilling to
leave the brave men to their fate. “Gentlemen,” he said, “I shall take
the responsibility upon myself. Where is the brigadier that will take
command of the relief? I shall beat up for volunteers to-morrow.”
Arnold, ever ready for a daring deed, offered to take charge of the
expedition. On the way he seized two Tories and sent them to the
British army to announce that large patriot forces were advancing. The
Indian allies were already discontented. At this tidings they deserted,
and the British force broke up and retreated without striking a blow.
As affairs were in this favorable condition, General Schuyler was
superseded in command. He had been blamed for the surrender of
Ticonderoga and the New England delegates, disliking him from the
first, lent a ready ear to the charges against him. Congress asked
Washington to appoint his successor, but the commander-in-chief refused
to countenance the act of injustice, and Congress appointed Gates.
Schuyler had borne the heat and burden of the campaign; now he had to
look on while the rewards of victory went to Gates.
Schuyler accepted the situation in a noble and patriotic spirit. “I am
far from insensible of the indignity of being ordered from the command
of the army at a time when an engagement must soon take place,” he
wrote to President Hancock. “It, however, gives me great consolation
that I shall have an opportunity of evincing that my conduct has been
such as deserved the thanks of my country.”
After the two battles of Saratoga the British were forced to retreat.
They were hemmed in by the American troops and, October 17, 1777,
Burgoyne and his army of five or six thousand men surrendered to Gates.
It was this victory, you remember, which led France to declare for the
colonists.
After the battle of Saratoga, Schuyler treated the prisoners with
great consideration, especially the women and children. He courteously
entertained General Burgoyne, who had had his house burned and his
estate laid waste.
“Is it to me who have done you so much injury that you show so much
kindness?” asked Burgoyne.
“That is the fate of war; let us say no more about it,” was the answer.
Later on, Schuyler insisted upon a court martial to investigate his
conduct; it acquitted him, and Congress approved the verdict “with
the highest honor.” Washington wished him to resume command but he
refused. However, he served his country ably in Congress and in the
Senate of his native state. He died in November, 1804.
Nathanael Greene
As a general Nathanael Greene ranks next to Washington in the esteem
of the American people. His father was a Quaker clergyman who lived
in Rhode Island. Nathanael as a boy worked on the farm, at the
blacksmith’s forge, and in a grist mill. He generally had a book at
hand and spent his leisure minutes in study; by his own exertions,
without ever having much schooling, he became a well-educated man. No
one would have imagined that this hard-working young Quaker, in his
drab clothes and broad-brimmed hat, was to become a fearless leader of
the patriot bands.
He was a young man when the Revolution began. He became convinced that
the battle-field must decide the cause of the colonists, and, despite
the Quaker views in which he had been trained, he wished to join the
fight for freedom. As soon as he heard of the battles of Lexington
and Concord, he started to Boston to take the part of his oppressed
countrymen. When the Continental army was organized, Rhode Island voted
to raise sixteen hundred men to be commanded by Greene.
For four years he served in the north, winning the esteem and
confidence of Washington. He was with Washington in the retreat
through New Jersey and aided in the brilliant attacks at Trenton and
Princeton. In the battle of Brandywine he saved the day. His troops
were stationed in the rear; as the retreating forces fell back, at
Greene’s command the ranks opened and let them pass, then closed again.
Thus he kept his troops formed in line of battle and held the British
army in check, till night came; then he withdrew to the main army. In
the battle of Germantown, too, Greene bore a brave part, and by his
courage and endurance he cheered Washington during the dark days at
Valley Forge.
During the first years of the war the north was the battle field. The
south was almost unmolested except for the attack in 1776 on Fort
Moultrie which was gallantly defended. In December, 1778, however,
General Clinton sent thirty-five hundred men by sea from New York;
these troops easily captured Savannah which was defended by only six
hundred men. The British forces made themselves masters of the country
defended only by scattered bands of patriots. In the spring of 1780,
Clinton himself with eight thousand men went by sea to Charleston and
captured the city. Leaving Cornwallis to complete the conquest of the
South, Clinton returned to the north. It seemed as if the southern
colonies were to be torn from the patriots.
In this emergency General Gates was sent to take command in the south.
By overcoming Burgoyne with the army prepared by Schuyler and led by
Morgan and Arnold, he had won fame and popularity, and was regarded
as equal or superior to Washington. He was defeated at Camden by
Cornwallis with a smaller force. Gates led the retreat, or stampede, of
the militia, while a brave German, De Kalb, with one-third of the army
stood at bay against the whole British army and met an honorable death.
“We look on America as at our feet,” said an English statesman when the
news of this battle was received in England.
But it was a general not a people which the English had defeated.
The brave settlers on the frontier rallied in their own defense. In
October, 1780, they surrounded Ferguson’s troops at King’s Mountain,
captured or killed the entire force, and disbanded before the English
could attack them. “A numerous army appeared on the frontier drawn from
Nolachucky and other settlements beyond the mountains whose very names
had been unknown to us,” wrote Lord Rawdon.
Two months later, December, 1780, a general was sent to the southern
colonies who was worthy of the troops he was to command. This was
Greene. The outlook was not promising. Without provisions, military
stores, or clothing, and lacking means to provide them, Greene took
charge of an army of about two thousand starving, ragged men. Opposed
to him were well-disciplined, well-provisioned troops. But his brave
soldiers were commanded by such men as William Washington, Morgan,
“Light Horse Harry” Lee, Marion, and Sumpter. The patriots were cheered
by the victory of Cowpens, won by Morgan’s men, January 17, 1781, over
the bold and savage Tarleton.
Greene was not able to withstand the large and well-equipped British
army; as Cornwallis approached, he fell back, going northward. By
looking at a map, you can see the position of the troops. Behind them
were three rivers, the Catawba, the Yadkin, and the Dan. The patriots’
effort was to keep a river between them and their enemy; the British
endeavor was to overtake the little American army between two rivers,
where it would be easy to destroy it. The march became a race for the
rivers. Cornwallis destroyed the baggage of the army, beginning with
his own personal luggage, and his men marched as light infantry. The
patriots hurried on through the mud and rain, over the snow and frozen
roads; for them it was a march for life and death; the men were allowed
three hours’ sleep and they had but one meal a day. They pressed on,
crossed the Catawba in safety, and in safety crossed the Yadkin; unless
they were overtaken before they reached the Dan, they would be safe.
Cornwallis thought that they would seek the fords of the Dan and he
marched in that direction; Greene, however, hurried toward a ford where
boats were collected and the army crossed the river. After a vain march
of two hundred and fifty miles, in which his losses had been greater
than in battle, Cornwallis was compelled to retrace his steps. He
said of his opponent: “Greene is as dangerous as Washington,--he is
vigilant, enterprising, and full of resources.”
Greene received reinforcements; though most of them were raw and
untrained men, he knew that a battle must be risked while his ranks
were full. He marched back to Guilford Court House, where a battle
was fought, March, 1781. The raw troops were not able to withstand
the attack of the British regulars, and the patriots were defeated.
Though defeated, Greene remained in control of much of North Carolina;
Cornwallis went northward, entered Virginia, and advanced to his fate
at Yorktown. Greene’s troops were attacked at Hobkirk’s Hill, April,
1781, and defeated by Lord Rawdon who had succeeded Cornwallis in
command. The men deserted the guns and it was not until Greene himself
rushed forward and seized the ropes that the men rallied to drag off
the precious artillery.
That fall, in the fiercely-contested battle of Eutaw Springs, Greene
held his own. Though he won few decisive victories in pitched battle
against the British regulars, he gradually drove the enemy from Georgia
and the Carolinas, till only a few fortified towns were left in their
control. Greene drew his lines closer and closer around Charleston and
at last the British were forced to evacuate the city. This really ended
the war in the south.
When peace was declared in 1783, Greene returned to his home in Rhode
Island. Two years later, he went to Georgia to make his home on an
estate there which was presented to him as a reward for his gallant
services. He did not long survive to enjoy his well-won fame, dying in
June, 1786.
John Paul Jones
Our First Naval Hero
The American army during the Revolution was, for the most part, led by
native Americans; the officers of English birth were for one reason
and another less popular and less successful than the Americans.
This, however, was not the case with the American navy, created and
manned to meet the exigency of the time. The twenty-six vessels did
valiant service, capturing during the first two years of the war eight
hundred merchantmen and gaining many brilliant victories. The man whose
achievements shed most luster upon it was a Briton.