the battle of Lexington, when it was determined by congress to resort to arms, Colonel Washington was unanimously elected commander in chief of the army of the united colonies. All were satisfied as to his qualifications, and the delegates from New-England were particularly pleased with his election, as it would tend to unite the southern colonies cordially in the war. He accepted the appointment with diffidence, and expressed his intention of receiving no compensation for his services, and only a mere discharge of his expenses. He immediately repaired to Cambridge, in the neighbourhood of Boston, where he arrived on the second of July. He formed the army into three divisions, in order the most effectually to enclose the enemy, intrusting the division at Roxbury to Gen. Ward, the division on Prospect and Winter Hills to Gen. Lee, and commanding himself the centre at Cambridge. Here he had to struggle with great difficulties, with the want of ammunition, clothing, and magazines, defect of arms and discipline, and the evils of short enlistments; but instead of yielding to despondence he bent the whole force of his mind to overcome them. He soon made the alarming discovery, that there was only sufficient powder on hand to furnish the army with nine cartridges for each man. With greatest caution to keep this fact a secret, the utmost exertions were employed to procure a supply. A vessel, which was despatched to Africa, obtained in exchange for New-England rum all the gunpowder in the British factories ; and in the beginning of winter captain Manly captured an ordnance brig, which furnished the American army with the precise articles, of which it was in the greatest want. In September, General Washington despatched Arnold on an expedition against Quebec. In February, 1776, he proposed to a council of his officers to cross the ice and at

tack the enemy in Boston, but they unanimously disapproved of the daring measure. It was however soozi resolved to take possession of the heights of Dorchester. This was done without discovery on the night of the fourth of March, and on the seventeenth the enemy found it necessary to evacuate the town. The recovery of Boston induced congress to pass a vote of thanks to Gen, Washington and his brave army.

In the belief, that the efforts of the British would be directed towards the Hudson, he hastened the army to New-York, where he himself arrived on the fourteenth of April. He made every exertion to fortify the city, and attention was paid to the forts in the Highlands.— While he met the most embarrassing difficulties, a plan was formed to assist the enemy in seizing his person, and some of his own guards engaged in the conspiracy; but it was discovered, and some, who were concerned in it, were executed.

In the beginning of July, Gen. Howe landed his troops at Staten Island. His brother, Lord Howe, who commanded the fleet, soon arrived; and as both were commissioners for restoring peace to the colonies, the latter addressed a letter upon the subject to 66 George Washington, Esq." but the general refused to receive it, as it did not acknowledge the public character, with which he was invested by congress, in which character only he could have any intercourse with his lordship. Another letter was sent to George Washington, &c. &c. &c." This for the same reason was rejected.

After the disastrous battle of Brooklyn, on the twenty-seventh of August, in which Stirling and Sullivan were taken prisoners, and of which he was only a spectator, he withdrew the troops from LongIsland, and in a few days he resolved to withdraw from New-York. At Kipp's Bay, about three miles from the city, some works had been

thrown up to oppose the enemy; but, on their approach, the American troops fled with precipitation. Washington rode towards the lines, and made every exertion to prevent the disgraceful flight. He drew his sword, and threatened to run the cowards through; he cocked and snapped his pistols; but it was all in vain. Such was the state of his mind, at this moment, that he turned his horse towards the advancing enemy, apparently with the intention of rushing upon death. His aids now seized the bridle of his horse and rescued him from destruction. New-York was on the same day, September the fifteenth, evacuated. In October he retreated to the White Plains, where, on the twenty-eighth, a considerable action took place, in which the Americans were overpowered. After the loss of Forts Washington and Lee, he passed into New-Jersey, in November, and was pursued by a triumphant and numerous enemy. His army did not amount to three thousand, and it was daily diminishing; his men, as the winter commenced, were barefooted and almost naked, destitute of tents and of utensils, with which to dress their scanty provisions; and every circumstance tended to fill the mind with despondence. But Gen. Washington was undismayed and firm. He showed himself to his enfeebled army with a serene and unembarrassed countenance, and they were inspired with the resolution of their commander. On the eighth of December he was obliged to cross the Delaware; but he had the precaution to secure the boats for seventy miles upon the river. While the British were waiting for the ice to afford them a passage, as his own army had been reinforced by several thousand men, he formed the resolution of carrying the cantonments of the enemy by surprise. On the night of the twenty-fifth of December he crossed the river, nine miles above Trenton, in a storm of snow, mingled with

Two

hail and rain, with about two thousand and four hundred men. other detachments were unable to effect a passage. In the morning, precisely at eight o'clock, he surprised Trenton, and took a thousand Hessian prisoners, a thousand stand of arms, and six field pieces. Twenty of the enemy were killed. Of the Americans two privates were killed, and two frozen to death; and one officer and three or four privates were wounded. On the same day he recrossed the Delaware with the fruits of his enterprise ; but in two or three days passed again into New-Jersey, and concentrated his forces, amounting to five thousand, at Trenton. On the approach of a superior enemy, under Cornwallis, January 2, 1777, he drew up his men behind Assumpinck Creek. He expected an attack in the morning, which would probably result in a ruinous defeat. At this moment, when it was hazardous, if not impracticable to return into Pennsylvania, he formed the resolution of getting into the rear of the enemy, and thus stop them in their progress towards Philadelphia. In the night he silently decamped, taking a circuitous route through Allen's Town to Princeton.-A sudden change of the weather to severe cold rendered the roads favourable for his march. About sunrise his van met a British detachment, on its way to join Cornwallis, and was defeated by it; but as he came up he exposed himself to every danger, and gained a victory. With three hundred prisoners he then entered Princeton.

During this march many of his soldiers were without shoes, and their feet left the marks of blood upon the frozen ground. This hardship, and their want of repose, induced him to lead his army to a place of security on the road to Morristown. Cornwallis, in the morning, broke up his camp, and alarmed for his stores at Brunswick urged the pursuit. Thus the mili

the advice of a council, he engaged | in the battle of Monmouth on the twenty-eighth; the result of which made an impression favourable to the cause of America. He slept in his cloak on the field of battle, intending to renew the attack the next morning; but at midnight the British marched off in such silence, as not to be discovered. Their loss in killed, was about three hundred; and that of the Americans sixty-nine. As the campaign now closed in the middle states, the American army went into winter quarters, in the neighbourhood of the Highlands upon the Hudson. Thus, after the vicissitudes of two years, both armies were brought back to the point, from which they set out. During the year 1779, General Washington remained in the neighbourhood of New-York. In January 1780, in a winter memorable for its severity, his utmost exertions were necessary to save the army from dissolution. The soldiers, in general, submitted with heroic patience to the want of provisions and clothes. At one time, they ate every kind of horse-food but hay. Their sufferings at length were so great, that in March two of the Connecticut regiments mutinied: but the mutiny was suppressed, and the ringleaders secured. In September, the treachery of Arnold was detected. In the winter of 1781, such were again the privations of the army, that a part of the Pennsylvania line revolted, and marched home. Such, however, was still their patriotism, that they delivered up some British emissaries to General Wayne, who hanged them as spies. Committing the defence of the posts on the Hudson to Gen. Heath, General Washington in August marched with Count Rochambeau for the Chesapeake, to co-operate with the French fleet there. The siege of Yorktown commenced on the twenty-eighth of September, and on the nineteenth of October, he reduced Cornwallis to the necessity of surrendering, with

upwards of seven thousand men, to the combined armies of America and France. The day after the capitulation, he ordered that those who were under arrest should be pardoned, and that divine service, in acknowledgment of the interposition of Providence, should be performed in all the brigades and divisions. This event filled America with joy, and was the means of terminating the war.

Few events of importance took place in 1782. In March, 1783, he exhibited his characteristic firmness and decision, in opposing an attempt to produce a mutiny, by anonymous letters. His address to his officers, on the occasion, displays in a remarkable degree his prudence, and the correctness of his judgment. When he began to read it, he found himself in some degree embarrassed, by the imperfection of his sight. Taking out his spectacles, he said,

These eyes, my friends, have grown dim, and these locks white in the service of my country; yet I have never doubted her justice.' He only could have repressed the spirit, which was breaking forth. On the nineteenth of April, a cessation of hostilities was proclaimed in the American camp. In June he addressed a letter to the governors of the several states, congratulating them on the result of the contest in the establishment of independence, and recommending an indissoluble union of the states, under one federal head, a sacred regard to public justice, the adoption of a proper peace establishment, and the prevalence of a friendly disposition among the people of the several states. with keen distress, as well as with pride and admiration, that he saw his brave and veteran soldiers, who had suffered so much, and who had borne the heat and burden of the war, returning peaceably to their homes, without a settlement of their accounts, or a farthing of money in their pockets. On the twenty-fifth

It was