the handful of men remaining beyond the St. Lawrence, and as well, in the loss of Montgomery, one of the bravest and wisest of the patriot generals. Washington felt deep sorrow at the reverse of his arms and a poignant personal grief at the loss of his friend and companion in arms. The difficulty. of reinforcement was met and a fresh force dispatched against Canada. Its failure to accomplish the desired result is a matter of general history, and its incidents cannot be followed here, but the news from the North redoubled Washington's anxiety to protect New York and the Hudson, since the British bade fair to command the St. Lawrence, if not the Sorel and Lake Champlain. In the meantime something was to be done in central New York. Tryon county was a nest of tories. Sir John Johnson's strong and isolated house at Johnstown, was being made a rallying place; Johnson had armed his Scotch tenantry and Indian neighbors, fortified his hall, and, with all the bravery of an old feudal knight or Highland chieftain, had sent out his defiance to the colonies In case the necessity for opposing the ascent of the Hudson should arise, Johnson might prove more than an annoyance to the rear of the continental force. Hence Schuyler was dispatched from Albany to suppress the internal uprising. This he succeeded in doing, secured the capitulation of Sir John, placed that doughty champion on his parole, and brought away in triumph the arms, stores, and ammunition which had been accumulated at the hall.

Thus, for the time, New York and Boston became the centres of interest. Washington sadly regretted that he had been overruled in his plan to attack the latter at an early day in the siege. That which he most desired was a decisive engagement, before the British government should reinforce their American army to such a degree as to make the venture unsafe. As he himself said, they had been waiting for nearly a year for the river to freeze, so that an assault in force might be made upon the city, and when the much desired opportunity came the council of war deemed the attempt undesirable. In the meantime the army, the people, and even Congress were becoming restive under their continual inaction, and many, ignorant of the true condition of affairs, were ready to blame the commander that more had not been done. One of Washington's letters to Mr. Reed-letters which by their open confidence give the best knowledge of the general's perplexities and troubles in those trying times—says: "My own situation is so irksome to me at times that, if I did not consult the public good more than my own tranquility, I should long ere this have put everything on the cast of a die. So far from my having an army of twenty thousand men, well armed, I have been here with less than one-half that number, including sick, furloughed, and on command; and those neither armed nor clothed as they should be. In short, my situation has been such that I have been obliged to use art to conceal it from my own officers."

The winter thus wore away, until came the month of February Gage

had long since given way to Howe, as commander of the British forces. Spring was at hand, and, with its coming, active operations were to be looked for. Clinton was prowling along the southern coast, with unknown destination, but no uncertain object. He felt the coast of Virginia, but found the colonial forces too strong to warrant molestation. Then he sailed away to the southward, to meet, later, a defeat at the hands of the gallant Moultrie. In the meantime some reinforcements had come to Washington, at Boston; Knox had returned from Ticonderoga, with much needed artillery, and a supply of ammunition had been received from New York. The time to strike had evidently come. Washington called upon the colony of Massachusetts to hold its militia in readiness, and laid his plans to arm Lechmere Point, already fortified by Putnam, with heavy ordnance, to seize and fortify Dorchester heights, and thus, commanding the town from both north and south, to force Howe either to an engagement, or to evacuation. He also contemplated holding the works at Lechmere, with a body of picked men, under Putnam, who should, in case of a general attack upon the Dorchester works, at once move upon the city from the opposite side. This was a beautifully laid plan; its execution was wonderful. The night of Monday, March 4th, was set for the attempt. During the nights of the 2d and 3d, the army was kept busy in preparing gabions and large, compact bundles of hay, to be used in erecting works, which the frozen condition of the ground rendered difficult. In the meantime a heavy artillery fire was kept up with the intention of diverting attention from the work of preparation, and answered by the British. In this it proved quite successful. How little of its real meaning was suspected, may be gathered from the fol lowing excerpt, from a letter written on the 3d, by a British officer to a friend at home: "For these last six weeks, or near two months, we have been better amused than could possibly have been expected in our situation. We had a theater, we had balls, and there is actually a subscription on foot for a masquerade. England seems to have forgotten us, and we have endeavored to forget ourselves. But we were aroused to a sense of our situation last night, in a manner unpleasant enough. The rebels have been, for some time past, erecting a bomb battery, and last night began to play upon us. Two shells fell not far from me. One fell on Colonel Monckton's house, but luckily did not burst until it had crossed the street. Many houses were damaged, but no lives lost. The rebel army is not brave, I believe, but it is agreed, on all hands, that their artillery officers are at least equal to ours."

On Monday evening, under cover of a heavy cannonade, two thousand men, with three hundred wagons, laden with intrenching tools, set out, under command of General Thomas, from the lines at Roxbury and Dorchester. A line of bundles of hay had been ranged along the exposed side of the Neck, to protect the moving troops, in case of discovery. Arrived

upon the heights, the party divided, and the arduous work of fortification was begun. The scene, taken in its full significance, was indeed an impressive one. Washington was himself on the ground. The moon was out, and far below, on one side, could be seen the streets and fortifications of the beleaguered city; beyond the bay, with its silent fleet; on the other hand lay the camp of the little army of the patriots. Between, working silently, save for the blows of mattocks upon the frozen ground, the thud of falling clods, and now and then a whispered order, the busy workers, upon whose silence and industry so much depended; on either hand, the roar of the guns, and, overhead, the shrill shrieking of the shells. Discovered too soon, the guns or bayonets of the British would drive the pioneers from their posts, and the reduction of Boston would be delayed until too late. But it was not discovered until daylight revealed to the astonished gaze of the awakened British two forts, so far advanced as to protect the workers within from the guns of the city. Howe saw them and exclaimed: "The rebels have done more work in one night, than my whole army would have done in one month." What a position for Howe, the chosen officer of the King! He had but shortly before written to his superiors, at home, that nothing was to be feared from the rebel army; that he would be pleased at an attack, and would hold Boston, until reinforcements should come. In the face of this self-satisfied boast, he now saw before him no other prospect than either to make an assault upon the superior position of the continental force, the wise placing of which counterbalanced all his advantages, derived from the training, discipline and equipment of troops, or to stultify himself before the home government by an evacuation of the city. It is probable that the latter course, from the first, appealed to his wisdom, but the former had the advocacy of his pride, and that fact decided his course.

All day, on the 5th of March, cannon thundered, and shot and shell poured into the opposing fortifications. The Americans were enthusiastic and confident, and the British dogged and desperate. A night attack had been determined upon by Howe, and, before darkness fell, two thousand five hundred men had been embarked for the service. But the God of battles willed that no attack be made; with the falling of the sun arose the wind, and before preparations for advance were completed, the surf was dashing high and dangerous upon the farther shore, and, for that night at least, it was necessary to forego the project. The next day and the next night were tempestous as well, and, through it all-the storm and darkness at night, the storm and iron hail by day-the Americans labored upon their defenses, so that, at last, when the wind fell and the sea was calm, Howe saw that, to force his men up that steep ascent, in the face of such fearful odds, would be no better than murder; hence he decided upon evacuation, and orders to that effect were promulgated. The city was at once the scene of wildest confusion; the lighter artillery, stores, and arms; the sick and

wounded; the wives and families of officers and soldiers; the tories, their families and household goods-all these were to be embarked. In addition there was a great work of destruction performed; such heavy ordnance as could not be removed was dismounted, or otherwise rendered useless; orders were given to remove to the fleet all clothing, and cotton, and woolen goods, which might be of value to the continental army, and, acting upon these orders, shops and private dwellings were sacked, and even furniture and pictures defaced and destroyed. Howe was determined not to make capitulation, but he dropped hints to some patriotic citizens, that if the army were allowed to embark unmolested, the city would be spared, but, otherwise, it would be burned behind them. This report reached Washington, and, knowing that the sufferers by such a retaliation would be those of certain sympathy with himself, he allowed the embarkation to proceed, hastened to the point of absolute confusion by the erection of a battery on Nooks' hill, accomplished in the face of a fierce cannonading, on the 16th of March. At 4 o'clock, on the 17th of March, the troops and loyalist citizens began to move aboard the seventy-eight vessels which lay in the harbor; on the same day a continental force entered the city, and, on the day following, Washington himself made his informal entry.

Thus ended one of the most remarkable military episodes in the history of the world. There have been more brilliant and showy achievements, but none greater in the true sense of greatness. Washington was called to be commander in chief of an army yet to be created from the heterogeneous material called together by the emergencies at Concord and Lexington, and lying before Boston with no allegiance' save to their respective colonies, recognizing no obligation to obey any but their own immediate officers, utterly undisciplined as were the Parisian street mobs of '93, ill clothed, ill armed and ill equipped. Coming as the representative of a new central power, as yet but half recognized, and under the guns of a veteran army, skillful in war, equipped with all of war's best appliances, he organized not one but two armies; he for months held the flower of the British army cooped, like fowls, in Boston, when, at times, he had not ten thousand efficient men to array against them, and on at least one occasion had not powder to fire a cannon, after filling the cartridge boxes of his men. Again and again a prompt movement on the part of the British could not have failed of success, yet that movement was never made, and in spite of discontent from within the ranks, tardiness and lack of support in Congress, and criticism from without, he finally took the initiative and compelled the British to slink away from before his raw levies, without firing a shot or making a demonstration in resistance.

Washington went to Philadelphia in response to the summons of Congress, to find himself subjected to troubles as annoying as any he had met in the field. He had to overcome the conservative feeling which had not

yet learned to recognize as inevitable the separation of the colonies from the mother country. He labored under every disadvantage in convincing Congress of the necessity of reforming its military policy and placing the armies of the colonies upon an effective basis. His experience in the past had proved the truth of the epigram, "More soldiers are killed by the legislation of their friends than by the bullets of their enemies." He did not mince matters in his consultations at Philadelphia; he declared reconciliation to be a dangerous chimera; he quoted the action of the British in subsidizing foreign troops-news of which course had lately been received as indicating a similar view on the part of Great Britain. He did not go to Congress with the prestige of uniform success. As commander in chief he was compelled to bear the burthen of all the military operations of the country, and the later enterprises in Canada, under Thomas, had not resulted much more fortunately than those under Montgomery. After holding Carleton a prisoner in Quebec for more than five months, burning the suburbs and battering the walls of the city, the Americans had been compelled by the arrival of reinforcements, and by a sortie of Carleton, to retire to Point Deschamboult, sixty miles from Quebec, and await reinforcements. In the face of this disaster Washington succeeded in persuading Congress to provide that soldiers be enlisted for two years, and that a bounty of ten dollars be paid to every man so enlisting; that the army at New York, pending the carrying out of this arrangement, should be reinforced until the 1st of December, by a force of thirteen thousand eight hundred militia; that fire ships be constructed to prevent the entry of the British fleet into the harbor of New York, and that a flying camp of ten thousand troops be stationed in New Jersey for the protection of the middle colonies. In addition, Washington was given authority to call upon the militia of the adjacent colonies, in case of emergency.

Hitherto, the prosecution of the war had been clumsily and inadequately provided for, by the reference of war questions to various committees. The commander now urged the organization of a war department, and, as a consequence, was established a Board of War and Ordnance, consisting of five members, whose duties began January 12th. In the meantime Virginia had formulated the public opinion of the country by declaring in favor of independence. This movement, coming from his own colony, received the warmest commendation of Washington. The "spasm of common sense" which seized the Congress and resulted in all these enactments looking to the reform of the army, did not result in bringing about the final and most effective legislation until June of the year 1776. Had it come sooner its effect would have been vastly greater. The first enthusiasm of the war had passed away in the face of the hardships and privations of the service. Men who were ready at the outset to rush to arms with no question of pay, were not now to be tempted by the offered bounty, and