13, 1776], and his command devolved upon General Sullivan.' At about the same time intelligence reached the chief that a British squadron, under Sir Peter Parker (who, as we have seen [page 247], was defeated at Charleston), had sailed into Narraganset Bay [December 8th], taken possession of Rhode Island, and blockaded the little American fleet, under Commodore Hopkins," then lying near Providence. This intelligence, and a knowledge of the failure of operations on Lake Champlain,' coupled with the sad condition of the main army of patriots, made the future appear gloomy indeed.*

It was fortunate for the patriot cause that General Howe was excessively cautious and indolent. Instead of allowing Cornwallis to construct boats, cross the Delaware at once, overwhelm the patriots, and push on to Philadelphia, as he might have done, he ordered him to await the freezing of the waters, so as to cross on the ice. He was also directed to place four thousand German troops in cantonments along the Jersey shore of the river, from Trenton to Burlington, and to occupy Princeton and New Brunswick with strong British detachments. Both Congress and Washington profited by this delay. Measures for re-organizing the army, already planned, were put in operation. A loan of five millions of dollars, in hard money, with which to pay the troops, was authorized. By the offer of liberal bounties, and the influence of a stirring appeal put forth by Congress, recruits immediately flocked to Washington's standard at Newtown. Almost simultaneously, Lee's detachment under Sullivan, and another from Ticonderoga, joined him; and on the 24th of December he found himself in command of almost five thousand effective troops, many of them fresh and hopeful. And the increased pay of officers, the proffered bounties to the

8

6

Both Sullivan and Stirling, who were made prisoners on Long Island [page 254], had been exchanged, and were now again with the army. Lee was captured at Baskingridge, where Lord Stirling resided, and remained a prisoner until May, 1778, when he was exchanged for General Prescott, who was captured on Rhode Island. See page 271. 2 Note 1, page 307.

General Gates was appointed to the command of the army at the north, after the death of General Thomas [note 2, page 243]; and during the summer and autumn of 1776, Colonel Arnold became a sort of commodore, and commanded flotillas of small vessels in warfare with others prepared by General Carleton (the British commander in Canada), on Lake Champlain. He had two severe engagements (11th and 13th of October), in which he lost about ninety men; the British about forty. These operations were disastrous, yet they resulted in preventing the British forces in Canada uniting with those in New York, and were thus of vast importance.

Although the Americans had generally suffered defeats, they had been quite successful in making captives. The number of Americans taken by the British, up to the close of 1776, was four thousand, eight hundred and fifty-four; the number of British taken by the Americans, was two thousand, eight hundred and sixty. In addition to men, the Americans had lost twelve brass cannons and mortars, and two hundred and thirty-five made of iron; twenty-three thousand, nine hundred and seventy-nine empty shells, and seventeen thousand, one hundred and twenty-two filled; two thousand six hundred and eighty-four double-headed shot; a large quantity of grapeshot; two thousand eight hundred muskets: four hundred thousand cartridges; sixteen barrels of powder; five hundred intrenching tools; two hundred barrows and other instruments, and a large quantity of provisions and stores.

The Americans took every boat they could find at Trenton, and cautiously moved them out of the river after they had crossed.

6

Each soldier was to have a bounty of twenty dollars, besides an allotment of land at the close of the war. A common soldier was to have one hundred acres, and a colonel five hundred. These were given to those only who enlisted to serve "during the war."

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Page 234.

A small village north of Bristol, about two miles from the Delaware. According to the adjutant's return to Washington on the 22d of December, the American army numbered ten thousand one hundred and six men, of whom five thousand three hundred and ninety-nine were sick, on command elsewhere, or on furlough, leaving an effective force of four thousand seven hundred and seven.

soldiers, and the great personal influence of the commander-in-chief, had the effect to retain in the service, for a few weeks at least, more than one half of the old soldiers.

There were about fifteen hundred Hessians,' and a troop of British light horse, at Trenton, and these Washington determined to surprise. The British commanders looked with such contempt upon the American troops-the mere ghost of an army-and were so certain of an easy victory beyond the Delaware, where, rumor affirmed, the people were almost unanimous in favor of the king, that vigilance was neglected. So confident were they that the contest would be ended by taking possession of Philadelphia, that Cornwallis actually returned to New York, to prepare to sail for England! And when Rall, the commander of the Hessians at Trenton, applied to General Grant for a reinforcement, that officer said to the messenger, "Tell the colonel he is very safe. I will undertake to keep the peace in New Jersey, with a corporal's guard.” How they mistook the character of Washington! During all the gloom of the past month, hope had beamed brightly upon the heart of the commander-inchief. Although Congress had adjourned to Baltimore [December 12, 1776], and the public mind was filled with despondency, his reliance upon Providence in a cause so just, was never shaken; and his great soul conceived, and his ready hand planned a bold stroke for deliverance. The Christmas holiday was at hand- —a day when Germans, especially, indulge in convivial pleasures. Not doubting the Hessians would pass the day in sports and drinking, he resolved to profit by their condition, by falling suddenly upon them while they were in deep slumber after a day and night of carousal. His plan was to cross the Delaware in three divisions, one a few miles above Trenton, another a few miles below, and a third at Bristol to attack Count Donop at Burlington. Small parties were also to attack the British posts at Mount Holly, Black Horse, and Bordentown, at the same time.

On the evening of Christmas day [1776], Washington gathered twentyfour hundred men, with some heavy artillery, at McConkey's Ferry, eight or nine miles above Trenton. They expected to cross, reach Trenton at midnight, and take the Hessians by surprise. But the river was filled with floating ice, and sleet and snow were falling fast. The passage was made in flat-boats; and so difficult was the navigation, that it was almost four o'clock in the morning [December 26] when the troops were mustered on the Jersey shore. They were arranged in two divisions, commanded respectively by Greene and Sullivan, and approached Trenton by separate roads. The enterprise was eminently successful. Colonel Rall, the Hessian commander, was yet indulging in wine at the end of a night spent in card

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Page 246.

Alarmed at the approach of the British, Congress thought it prudent to adjourn to Baltimore. A committee to represent that body was left in Philadelphia, to co-operate with the army. Congress assembled at Baltimore on the 20th.

Page 275.

• Taylorsville is the name of the little village at that place. The river there, now spanned by a covered bridge, is about six hundred feet in width, and has a considerable current.

playing, when the Americans approached, a little after sunrise;' and while endeavoring to rally his affrighted troops, he fell, mortally wounded, in the streets of Trenton. Between forty and fifty of the Hessians were killed and fatally wounded, and more than a thousand were made prisoners, together with arms, ammunition, and stores. Five hundred British cavalry barely escaped, and fled to Bordentown. Generals Ewing and Cadwalader, who commanded the other two divisions, destined to attack the enemy below Trenton, were unable to cross the river on account of the ice, to co-operate with Washington. With a strong enemy so near as Burlington and Princeton, the commander-in-chief thought it imprudent to remain on the Jersey shore, so with his prisoners and booty he re-crossed the Delaware on the evening after his victory.

BATTLE AT TRENTON.

This was indeed a victory in more aspects than that of a skillful military operation. The Germans under Dunop, on the river below, thoroughly alarmed, fled into the interior. The Tories and pliant Whigs' were abashed; the friends of liberty, rising from the depths of despondency, stood erect in the pride and strength of their principles; the prestige of the Hessian name, lately so terrible, was broken, and the faltering militia, anxious for bounties and honors, flocked to the victorious standard of Washington. Fourteen hundred soldiers, chiefly of the eastern militia, whose terms of enlistment would expire with the year, agreed to remain six weeks longer, on a promise to each of a bounty of ten dollars. The military chest was not in a condition to permit him to fulfill his promise, and he wrote to Robert Morris, the eminent financier of the Revolution, for aid, and it was given. Fifty thousand dollars, in hard money, were sent to the banks of the Delaware, in time to allow Washington to fulfill his engagement."

The victory was also productive of more vigilant efforts on the part of the

Rall spent the night at the house of a loyalist, named Hunt. Just at dawn, a messenger, sent by a Tory on the line of march of the patriots, came in hot haste to the colonel. Excited by wine, and intent upon his game, that officer thrust the note into his pocket. Like the Athenian polemarch, who, when he received dispatches relative to a conspiracy, refused to open them, saying, "Business to-morrow," Rall did not look at the message, but continued his amusement until the roll of the American drum, and the crack of his rifle, fell upon his dull ears, and called him to duty. 2 Note 4, page 226.

Then it was that Robert Morris not only evinced his faith in the success of the patriot cause, and his own love of country, but he tested the strength of his credit and mercantile honor. The sum was large, and the requirement seemed almost impossible to meet. Government credit was

low, but confidence in Robert Morris was unbounded. On leaving his office, musing upon how he should obtain the money, he met a wealthy Quaker, and said, "I want money for the use of the army." "Robert, what security canst thou give?" asked the Quaker. "My note and my honor," promptly replied Morris. "Thou shalt have it," as promptly responded the lender, who offered him a considerable sum, and the next morning it was on its way to the camp of Washington. Robert Morris was a native of England, where he was born in 1733. He came to America in 1744, and became a merchant's clerk in Philadelphia. By the force of industry, energy, and a good character, be arose to the station of one of the first merchants of his time. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and was active as a public financier, throughout the war. Toward its close [1781], he was instrumental in establishing a national bank. After the war, he was a state legislator, and Washington wished him to be his first Secretary of the Treasury, but he declined it. By land speculations he lost his fortune, and died in comparative poverty, in May, 1806, when a little more than seventy years of age. See his portrait on next page.

invaders. Believing the rebellion to be at an end, and the American army hopelessly annihilated, when Washington, with his shivering, half-starved troops, fled across the Delaware, Cornwallis, as we have observed, had returned to New York to embark for England. The contempt of the British for the

"rebels," was changed to respect and fear, and when intelligence of the affair at Trenton reached Howe, he ordered Cornwallis back with reinforcements, to gain the advantage lost. Congress, in the mean while, perceiving the necessity of giving more power to the commander-in-chief, wisely clothed him [December 27] with all the puissance of a military dictator, for six months, and gave him absolute control of all the operations of war, for that period.' This act was accomplished before that body could possibly have heard of the victory at Trenton, for they were then in session in Baltimore.

Inspirited by his success at Trenton, the panic of the enemy, and their retirement from the Delaware, Washington determined to recross that river, and act on the offensive. He ordered General Heath, who was with quite a

When Congress adjourned on the 12th, to meet at Baltimore, almost equal powers were given to Washington, but they were not then defined. Now they were so, by resolution. They wrote to Washington, when they forwarded the resolution, "Happy is it for this country, that the general of their forces can be safely intrusted with unlimited power, and neither personal security, liberty, nor property, be in the least degree endangered thereby." At that time, Congress had given General Putnam almost unlimited command in Philadelphia. All munitions of war there, were placed under his control. He was also authorized to employ all private armed vessels in the Delaware, in the defense of Philadelphia. See note 1, page 246.

large body of New England troops at Peekskill,' to move into New Jersey with his main force; and the new militia levies were directed to annoy the flank and rear of the British detachments, and make frequent attacks upon their outposts. In the mean while, he again crossed the Delaware [December 30th], with his whole army, and took post at Trenton, while the British and German troops were concentrating at Princeton, only ten miles distant. Such was the position and the condition of the two armies at the close of the second year of the War for Independence-the memorable year when this great Republic of the West was born.

CHAPTER IV.

THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. [1777.]

THE strange apathy of nations, like individuals, in times of great danger, or when dearest interests depend upon the utmost vigilance and care, is a remarkable phase in human character, and the records thereof appear as monstrous anomalies upon the pages of history. Such was the case with the executive and legislative power of the British nation during the momentous year of 1776, when the eye of ordinary forecast could not fail to perceive that the integrity of the realm was in imminent danger, and that the American colonies, the fairest jewels in the British crown, were likely to be lost forever. Such an apathy, strange and profound, seemed to pervade the councils of the British Government, even while the public mind of England was filled with the subject of the American rebellion. Notwithstanding an army had been driven from one city' [March, 1776], a fleet expelled from another' [June], their colonies declared independent [July 4], and almost thirty thousand of their choice troops and fierce hirelings had been defied and combatted" [August], Parliament did not assemble until the last day of October, to deliberate on these important mat

ters.

Then the king, in his speech, congratulated them upon the success of the royal troops in America, and assured them (but without the shadow of good reason for the belief) that most of the continental powers entertained friendly feelings toward Great Britain. During a dull session of six weeks, new supplies for the American service were voted, while every conciliatory proposition was rejected; and when Parliament adjourned, in December, to keep the Christmas holidays, the members appeared to feel that their votes had crushed the rebellion, and that, on their re-assembling in January, they would be invited to join in a Te Deum at St. Paul's, because of submission and peace in

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Page 247.

3 Page 249.

4 Page 251.

On the east bank of the Hudson, at the entrance to the Highlands, forty-five miles from the city of New York. See page 270. Page 253. The Te Deum Laudamus (We praise thee, O God) is always chanted in churches in England, and on the continent, after a great victory, great deliverance, etc. There is something revolting in