to Philadelphia to attack the English if they left the city. Here the Americans passed the winter of 1777-78, suffering every manner of hardship from the cold, poorly housed, badly clad, with scanty food, and many of them with no boots or shoes to protect their bare feet from the snow and ice. But through all the horrors of that dismal season Washington did not despair. Patient, hopeful and confident in their final success, he held up the courage of his men, and was firm in his refusal to leave the

point from which in the end he thought he could most injure the enemy. And despite the miseries of Washington's army, the American prospects were much brighter than they had been a year before-thanks to Schuyler and Gates in New York, whose victories over Burgoyne were far more important than Washington's ill-success in Pennsylvania.

The English greatly desired to gain control of the Hudson River, both because it would shut off New England from the rest of the country and because it was the easiest and most direct road to Canada. As the American position at Peekskill was too strong to be taken from the south, they determined to attempt it from the north; and so about the time that Washington was hastening to the defence of Philadelphia a British army of ten thousand men was moving from Canada under command of Sir Edward Burgoyne. Opposed to him was Gen. Schuyler with some five thousand men.

Ticonderoga was easily captured by Burgoyne, and Schuyler fell back before him towards Albany, destroying bridges and blocking up the road behind him as he proceeded. At the mouth of the Mohawk River, where it unites with the Hudson, both armies came to a halt, Schuyler awaiting the aid of more troops, and Burgoyne hesitating to attack the Americans in their strong position on the river islands where they had camped.

During the pause which followed, meant by Burgoyne to be a very brief one, but which proved in the end a fatal one to him, he sent out two expeditions, one to the west to take Fort Schuyler on the site of the present city of Rome (New York), and one to the east to attack Bennington (Vermont). The first was defeated by Benedict Arnold and driven into Canada. The other suffered as severely at the hands of Col. Stark, whose short and famous speech to his men before the battle: "There they are, boys; we must beat them to-day or this night Mollie Stark's a widow," will not soon be forgotten.

The British loss in these two engagements weakened Burgoyne most seriously, while the American force against him had in the mean time been strengthened by the arrival of fresh troops sent to its assistance by Congress. Prevented from retreating by the militia which had now closed up his

rear, he crossed to the west bank of the Hudson with the intention of descending the river and pushing his way through the American lines. In this he was checked by Gates, to whom Congress had given the command in place of Schuyler, and who, though he did not in the two battles of Bemis Heights and Stillwater succeed in driving the English from the field, yet so hemmed them in that they soon could neither advance nor recede. Burgoyne tried to hold his men together until Clinton, who he knew was on his way from New York, could arrive with reinforcements, but he was without provisions, his force had become reduced to six thousand men who were worn out with hunger and fatigue, and at last, on October 17, 1777, he surrendered to Gates at Saratoga.

Gates not only reaped the fruit of Schuyler's wellplanned campaign, but he took all the credit of the result, and was the hero of the hour. The gloom which had rested upon the country in consequence of the loss of Philadelphia and Washington's reverses in Pennsylvania lifted, and so great was the exultation and so popular was the victor that an effort was even made in Congress to deprive Washington of the chief command of the Continental Army and to give it to Gates. Happily for the republic it failed. Washington retained the command that he alone in the difficulties of the

BESIDES increasing the confidence of the patriots in their cause and removing the danger of any further attempt at an invasion from Canada, Burgoyne's defeat was of especial value to the Americans in securing for them the open aid of France in continuing the war. Her long enmity with England had already insured them her private sympathy and some secret help. But though she rejoiced when by the adoption of the Declaration of Independence the United States separated themselves from Great Britain, she feared at first that they would not be equal to the task they had assumed, and that if she became their ally the chief burden of the contest would fall upon her. The Saratoga victory lessened this fear and proved that the Americans would bear their full share in any war to which they were a party. She was, therefore, now willing to become publicly known as their

friend, and to enter into an alliance with them. Thanks mainly to Benjamin Franklin, who was the American agent in Paris throughout the Revolution, and who did much to shape public opinion there favorably to his country, a treaty was signed early in 1778 by which France agreed to send four thousand soldiers and sixteen ships of war to the assistance of the Americans.

This put a different face upon the war, and England became quite willing to grant to the United States all that she had previously refused them, and offered them freedom from taxation and representation in Parliament if they would give up the French alliance and join her in a war upon her old enemy. This the Americans declined to do. They neither wished to throw off their new friends nor to connect themselves again with Great Britain. Nothing but absolute independence would now content them.

Benf. Franklin

The benefits from the French treaty proved to be less in the troops and ships sent to this country, which until the closing acts of the war were of little real aid, than in the money and supplies loaned by France to Congress. For these were the great needs of the time. The government, hastily formed when the war first broke out, and which consisted only of the Continental Congress, was a very imperfect one and with very indefinite powers, and it had great difficulty in obtaining money to pay the soldiers and to buy necessary supplies, so that the loans from France were of the greatest service to the Americans in aiding them to carry on the war. Another important result of the treaty was the European war it caused between France and Spain on the one side and Great Britain on the other, and this helped the Americans by preventing England from devoting so much attention to this country. All of these things combined made the assistance of France at this time extremely valuable to the Revolutionists, for without it the war would undoubtedly have lasted many more years than it did.

When the news of the formation of the French alliance reached Philadelphia, General Clinton, who had succeeded Howe in the command, decided to

withdraw to New York in order to strengthen the British forces there as much as possible before the arrival of the expected French fleet. Washington, still encamped at Valley Forge, awaiting this opportunity, hastened after him in the hope of detaining him in New Jersey until the French should come. At Monmouth the two armies met and fought, but darkness came upon them before any decisive result was reached, and during the night Clinton succeeded in drawing off his men to New York. Had it not been for what was afterwards thought to be treachery on the part of Gen. Charles Lee in retreating when he had been ordered to attack, Washington might have won the battle. Lee was second in command, and at the outbreak of the war was regarded as one of the most brilliant officers on our side. For his conduct at Monmouth, followed by insolence to Washington, he was dismissed from the service.

Clinton transferred his forces from Philadelphia to New York in June, 1778. In July the French arrived, but their larger vessels were unable to enter the harbor of New York, so that the attack upon that city was abandoned, and the French sailed to the West Indies to defend their possessions among those islands. Washington, after the battle of Monmouth, resumed his old position on the Hudson near Peekskill, with a line extending

across to Morristown, ready to meet the British if they ventured towards New England, Philadelphia, or Camden-the three points most likely to be the objects of any land-attack from New York. This position he maintained for three years, carefully

watching every sign of movement of the enemy, and by his vigilance preventing their doing anything of moment either in the Middle States or in New England. During the remainder of the war the principal events took place in the South.

THE close of the year 1778 saw the first of the operations in the South, when an expedition sent by Clinton (by sea) captured Savannah. Augusta soon followed, and before long all of Georgia was overrun by British troops from New York and Florida. As yet the United States had practically no navy, and the French war vessels were rarely at hand when needed, so that no matter how strong Washington's land-blockade around New York might be, he was without any means of preventing Clinton from shipping his men to whatever port in the country he desired.

Congress had built a few naval vessels, but they had either been captured by the English or were too small to contend against the British frigates. A little later on a few ships were obtained from France, and fitted out as American men-of-war. One of these, named the "Bonhomme Richard," under command of Paul Jones, met two frigates off the northeastern coast of England (Sept., 1779), and there was fought one of the most notable battles in naval history. Jones lashed his ship to the "Serapis " (one of the frigates), and a hand-to-hand struggle followed, in which the loss of life on both sides was something enormous. The " Serapis" finally surrendered, but the "Richard" was so badly damaged that she sank the next day. The other frigate was captured by two smaller vessels, consorts of the "Bonhomme Richard," and this was the only part they took in the fight. No other engagement of any great consequence occurred on the ocean during the war.

But though the American navy during the Revolution was little more than a name (if it was even that), American privateersmen were something much more real, and the destruction inflicted by them upon British commerce was so very serious that it formed an important element in the war, and caused the English trading-classes to become very desirous of bringing the contest to a speedy end. Some of the privateersmen acted under the authority of

The British having gained control of Georgia, and kept it despite a vigorous attempt of Gen. Lincoln (the American commander in the South) to retake Savannah (Sept., 1779), they next turned their attention to South Carolina, and early in 1780 a large force sailed from New York under command of Clinton himself and, aided by troops from Georgia, laid siege to Charleston. Lincoln defended it to the best of his ability, but was at length compelled to surrender it (May, 1780), and with it his army of

his soldiers twice outnumbered the enemy, caused him quickly to give way to Gen. Nathanael Greene, who proved himself to be the one man for the work. Cautious, brave and alert, he kept the enemy constantly busy in long pursuits and in numerous battles, in which he was almost uniformly beaten, but in which the British losses were so much heavier than his own that his defeats were almost as valuable as victories would have been. He was ably seconded by Marion, Sumter, Morgan and other brilliant Southern cavalry officers, who,

which might have been disastrous to the American cause. This was the treason of Benedict Arnold.

When the British left Philadelphia Arnold was given charge of the city, and there, tempted to spend more than he could afford, he used public money for his own purposes. For this, at the direction of Congress, he was reprimanded by Washington. Smarting with mortification and burning with revenge, he yet concealed his real purposes and after a time applied for the command of West Point. This was granted by Washington, who still had