find the colonists continually exalting skirmishes into and effects, on surrendering their arms. " The Bostonians at once interpreted effects into the whole of their merchandise, and Gage, in consequence, countermanded his permission. On the 10th of May the second congress met at Philadelphia. Lord Dartmouth had sent a circular to the governors of the colonies, to obstruct and, if possible, prevent the appointment of delegates to this congress; but it had had no effect. The delegates had everywhere been easily elected, and Franklin, having arrived on the 5th of May in Philadelphia, was in time to be added to the number already chosen there. The battle of Lexington had heated the blood of the delegates, and they assembled in no very pacific mood. They elected Peyton Randolph president, and, soon after, on his retirement, John Hancock, owner of the Liberty, sloop. They assumed the name of the congress of the UNITED COLONIES, and rejected with contempt the poor conciliatory bill of lord North, as it had already been deservedly treated by the provincial assemblies. They immediately issued a proclamation prohibiting the export of provisions to any British colony or fishery still continuing in obedience to Great Britain; or any supply to the British army in Massachusetts Bay, or the negotiation of any bill drawn by a British officer. They followed the example of the New England congress, of ordering the issue of paper money to the extent of two millions of dollars; and the history of this paper money is curious. It became so rapidly depreciated in 1777, two years from this time, that ten additional millions, voted in 1779, were valued only at two hundred and fifty-nine thousand in specie! The whole sum they raised betwixt 1775 and 1779 were two hundred millions of dollars, and the losses sustained by the people by this money never were made up by the Americans on the achievement of their independence. Fearon, in his travels in the United States, in 1818, says: "The nation have not redeemed their notes, nor, I presume, will they ever. I boarded at the house of a widow lady, whose family had been utterly ruined by holding these notes." Congress ordered the military force of the colonies to be placed on an efficient footing. They called into existence a body of men, besides the provincial militia, to be maintained by the United Colonies, and to be called continental troops, which distinction must be kept in mind during the whole war. They then made a most admirable choice of a commander-in-chief in the person of colonel George Washington. We have met Washington as a youth acting as a The provincial congress of Massachusetts now established themselves at Water-town, about ten miles from Boston, and issued orders for raising an army of thirty thousand men, thirteen thousand of them to be of that province. They dispatched letters and messengers to the several colonies of Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island for assistance and further co-operation. They appointed Ward captaingeneral, Thomas lieutenant-general, and Gridley chief engineer. They also dispatched John Darly, of Salem, to England, to convey the account of the battle of Lexington to Franklin, and with an address to the people of England, declaring that they would never submit to the tyranny of a cruel ministry, but would die or be free. Franklin, how-surveyor, and setting out the new lands of the colonies under ever, had sailed for America, and the Massachusetts agency was left in the hand of Arthur Lee, who was ordered to communicate the particulars at once to the city of London, and to circulate them through the newspapers. The congress next ordered the issue of one hundred thousand pounds in paper money, in such small sums as should circulate as currency. This was the first step into the miseries of war, a paper currency not having been used in Massachusetts for a quarter of a century, and certain, if the war continued, to suffer fearful depreciation. The inhabitants of Boston, not relishing the idea of a blockade, applied to Gage for permission to retire. He replied that they were at liberty to do so with their families the rudest and simplest conditions of life. We have next met him sharing the unfortunate defeat of general Braddock, when he had a narrow escape of his life. In 1758 he resigned his commission in the Virginian militia; the next year married, and for sixteen years followed the unambitious life of a country gentleman, and was fortythree years of age when called by his countrymen to head their army. Washington was distinguished by no brilliancy of genius; he had no taste for reading or intellectual pursuits, but for farming, managing with great exactness his accounts, and for the enjoyment of domestic life. But he was endowed with strong good sense, great firmness of purpose, and calmness of judgment; and, above all, by a noble up A.D. 1775.] WASHINGTON APPOINTED COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 123 of which he should, and through the war did, keep a very exact account, in six days, or on the 21st of June, set out for the army at Boston. The spirits of the Americans had been raised by the success of attempts against the forts of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, on Lake Champlain. Early in the spring, some of the leading men of Connecticut, and chief amongst them Wooster and Silas Deane, projected this expedition, as securing the passes into Canada. The volunteers who offered for this enterprise were to march across the frontiers of New York, and come suddenly on these forts. They were joined on the way by what were called the "GreenMountain Boys," three hundred in number, under Ethan Allen, an active partisan of that district, and at the same time an old friend of captain La Place, who was in command at Ticonderoga. They advanced secretly through the woods to the shores of Lake Champlain, and sent forward one Noah Phelps, a self-appointed captain of the volunteers, to reconnoitre. The wretched condition of carelessness existing in these important outposts, notwithstanding the alarming state of the colonies, may be known by the result. Phelps, disguised as a countryman, entered the fort on pretence of seeking a barber; and, whilst roaming about in feigned search of him, noted well the ruinous condition of the fort, and the utter negligence of the guard. The next day, Ethan Allen went alone to the fortress, ostensibly on a visit to his friend the commander, leaving his troops concealed in the wood. He represented that he wanted to conduct some goods across the lake, and borrowed twenty of La Place's soldiers to help him. These men he made dead drunk; and then, rushing suddenly to the fort, where La Place had only twenty-two soldiers more, he compelled them in their surprise to lay down their arms, set a guard over them, and entered his friend's bed-room and pronounced him a prisoner. La Place demanded by whose authority; and Allen replied, on that of "the Great Jehovah and the continental congress." rightness of character, which inspired all around and under him with confidence. He relied firmly on the guidings of Providence ; and if Providence indicated by one thing more than another its intention to set America free, it was by providing so unpresuming yet worthy a hero on that side, and just at the same time taking away the only man on the British side whose genius for war was indisputable. Clive just then fell by his own hand, and the rest of the English generals were of that wretched mediocrity which is produced by the routine of the war-office, instead of the system of putting, as Chatham did, military genius in the van. The congress voted Washington five hundred dollars per month, with the rank of commander-in-chief, and with four major-generals and eight brigadier-generals under him. Amongst these it is noteworthy that two Englishmen and one Irishman were included. Horatio Gates was a godson of Horace Walpole's, who had served with distinction against Martinico; Lee was a very eccentric man, a lieutenant-colonel in the British service, but who, from some unknown cause, had become bitterly hostile to the English ministry, and had been induced by Gates to purchase lands in Virginia. Montgomery was a native of Ireland, who went over from our ranks. Wood and Putnam, already in the camp before Boston, were become, one a major-general, the other a brigadier. The moment that the congress assumed this military attitude, and issued its orders to the provincial assemblies, the British government seemed to fall everywhere. The governors took to flight, and committees of safety were appointed, and their places supplied by persons of their selecting. Washington having accepted the nomination of commander-in-chief, but declined the offered salary, declaring that he would only accept the payment of his expenses, This Allen, so far from being a religious enthusiast, as you might suppose from his language, was a notorious disbeliever in Christianity, and had written a book called "Reason, the only Oracle of Man." He certainly had his reason in much more active play than his drowsy antagonists. He hastened to secure a hundred iron cannon, fifty swivels, two mortars, ten tons of musket-balls, three cart - loads of flints, a hundred stand of small-arms, and other military stores. IIe then advanced against the fort of Crown Point, where he found only a garrison of twelve men, and immediately afterwards secured Skenesborough, the fortified house of heads, whilst the Yankees were gathering in their front and major Skene, and took his son and his negroes. Benedict Arnold, formerly a druggist and horse-dealer, of Newhaven, but now appointed a colonel of militia, had hastened from another point to support Allen. He assisted him to secure Crown Point, and then he put out a number of men on batteaux and flat-bottomed boats, and surprised a schooner lying at St. John's, at the north end of Lake Champlain, the only vessel of war on that lake. Allen and Arnold, however, did not long agree. Arnold held the schooner, calling himself high admiral of those waters, and Allen remained in possession of Ticonderoga. Arnold soon returned to the army before Boston, but Allen remained at the fort till the middle of June. He wrote to the New York congress, pointing out the immense advantages of keeping these lake forts, the keys of Canada. He and Arnold, during their brief co-operation, had planned an expedition into Canada. Allen assured the congress of New York that England could spare no power to defend Canada without weakening her army in the United Colonies, and declared that he would, with one thousand five hundred men, undertake to secure Montreal, and that, with no very large force, Quebec might be taken. These hints were afterwards acted upon. When Washington arrived at Boston, on the 15th of June, he found the English army augmented to ten thousand by fresh forces, under generals Burgoyne, William Howe, the brother of lord Howe, and Henry Clinton. Burgoyne we have formerly met with in Spain, where he showed considerable spirit; but none of the generals showed much here, though the soldiers were brave and welldisciplined, and could, if well commanded, have soon cleared the neighbourhood of the Americans. The American troops consisted of twenty thousand militia and volunteers, still in a most rude and confused condition, extended over a line of twenty miles in length, and only required an attack of five thousand men, led on by a general of courage and ability. They were, moreover, greatly deficient in powder and other necessaries. Now was the time to deal with them; every moment was of consequence, because it allowed the Americans to organise themselves, which they did actively. At this time, besides the want of ammunition and drilling in the army, there was much heart-burning amongst the officers. There was a decided opposition to the appointment of Lee and Gates; Wooster and Spencer loudly complained of Putnam being promoted over them; and Pomeroy, from mere disgust, quitted the service. But the English generals lay as if there was no urgent need of action, and as the most incompetent men alone could lie. Had a sudden movement on the neck been made from Boston, five hundred men could have broken and dispersed the Americans nearest to that position before the other illtrained troops, some of them at great distances, could have come up to their assistance; and they might have been easily beaten in detail by the simultaneous efforts of four good, spirited generals and ten thousand efficient soldiers. But a lethargy seemed to have seized Gage, and to have fallen from him on his coadjutors. The English soldiers could not understand what their generals meant by keeping them on the neck twisting their tails and powdering their on their flank in clouds; every day practising themselves in evolutions, condensing their line, and rendering more complete the blockade. In the month of May, governor Trumbull and the Connecticut assembly made some overtures to Gage, which much alarmed the people of Massachusetts, and the provincial congress now voted Gage a public enemy, and an instrument in the hands of tyrants, whom there was no further occasion to obey. They recommended the people to elect for themselves a governor, and council, and house of assembly, and to act in other respects as perfectly independent. On the 12th of June Gage offered a full pardon to all who would immediately lay down their arms, except John Hancock and Samuel Adams, whose offences were described as of too flagitious a character to merit pardon. The proclamation had no other effect than to provoke the Americans to more determined action. North of the peninsula of Boston, separated from it only by an arm of the sea, called the Charles river, about as broad as the Thames at London-bridge, stands Charlestown, built also on a peninsula, surrounded everywhere by navigable water, except a neck somewhat wider than Boston neck. On the peninsula of Charlestown were two eminences: the lower one, nearest to Boston, being called Breed's Hill, the higher and more remote, Bunker's Hill. These hills, which commanded Boston, would have immediately attracted the eye of any general of the least talent. But Gage had utterly neglected this most vital point; when it was urged on his attention, he still had continued to disregard it, and Burgoyne, Howe, and Clinton had been more than twenty days at Boston, with Bunker's Hill staring them in the face, without its suggesting an idea of their being commanded from it, when the army and the officers in Boston, on awaking on the morning of the 17th of June, suddenly saw the height of Breed's Hill covered with soldiers and military works, as by magic, and the Americans shouting and beginning to fire upon the town and shipping in the harbour. The Americans had marched on the evening of the 16th with orders to make themselves masters of Bunker's Hill. By some mistake, they had planted themselves on Breed's Hill, and instantly began to throw up a formidable redoubt and entrenchments, and to place their guns in battery. Though Boston and the fortified Neck were so near, and the water all round Charlestown swarming with men-of-war and transports, nothing whatever was observed of them till the morning dawned; then the Lively, sloop, and the battery on Copp's Hill, in Boston, began to cannonade the new apparition on Breed's Hill. Gage then ordered a detachment of troops, under the command of general Howe and brigadier Pigott, to drive the Americans, at all costs, from that position. It was noon before Howe crossed the river and landed on the Charlestown peninsula; but then Howe perceived the strength of the Americans to be greater than had been supposed, and, halting, he sent for reinforcements. During every minute of this delay, the enemy was also receiving fresh reinforcements, a large body of whom were headed by Dr. Joseph Warren, a physician of Boston, lately elected president of the Massachusetts congress, and, by his own authority, nominated major-general, The English-now augmented to about two thousand men -marched on. There were several ways of ascending the hill, the best of which was to have landed in the rear of the American entrenchment, where the hill was easiest of ascent, and where the enemy had no batteries; the very worst was in front of the intrenchments, and where the hill was steepest, and most exposed to the fire of the camp above, and that of the riflemen in Charlestown. The English officers, as if perfectly demented, took the most arduous and destructive way. They advanced up the hill, formed in two lines, the right headed by general Howe, the left by brigadier Pigott. The left was immediately severely galled by the riflemen posted in the houses and on the roofs of Charlestown, and Howe instantly halted and ordered the left wing to advance and set fire to the town. This was soon executed, and the wooden buildings of Charlestown were speedily in a blaze, and the whole place burnt to the ground. Howe halted the right line till this was done; and Burgoyne, watching the scene from Boston, afterwards thus described it in a letter to lord Stanley, his brother-in-law: "Now ensued one of the greatest scenes of war that can be conceived. If we looked to the height, Howe's corps, ascending the hill in the face of entrenchments, and in very disadvantageous ground, was much engaged; to the left, the enemy pouring in fresh troops by thousands over the land; and, on the arm of the sea, our ships and floating batteries cannonading them. Straight before us, a large and noble town in one great blaze, and the church-steeples, being timber, were great pyramids of fire above the rest; behind us, the churchsteeples and heights of our own camp covered with spectators of the rest of our army which was engaged; the hills round the country also covered with spectators; the enemy all in anxious suspense; the roar of cannons, mortars, and musketry; the crash of churches, ships upon the stocks, and whole streets falling together, to fill the ear; the storm of the redoubts, with the other objects, to fill the eye; and the reflection that, perhaps, a defeat was a final loss to the British empire in America, to fill the mind; made the whole a picture, and a complication of horror and importance beyond anything that ever came to my lot to witness." The Americans reserved their fire till the English were nearly at the entrenchments, when they opened with such a deadly discharge of cannon and musketry as astonished and perplexed the British. The musketry continued one unintermitted blaze, for the men in the rear handed up to PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF BUNKER'S HILL. the front loaded guns as fast as the others were discharged. The English lines, amid smoke and slaughter, were swept back, numbers of the Americans shouting, in memory of past taunts, "Well, are the Yankees cowards?" Most of the men and the staff standing around general Howe were killed, and he stood for a moment almost alone. Some of the newer troops never stopped till they reached the bottom of the hill. To add to the misery of the soldiers, they were oppressed by their knapsacks, loaded with three days' provisions, with their muskets, one hundred and twentyfive pounds weight! though only about to scale a hill in face of their own camp, and should have been as lightly equipped as possible. This stupid management and the broiling sun doubled the arduous labour of climbing a rugged steep, up to the knees in grass, and amongst inclosures. The officers, however, speedily rallied the broken lines, and led them a second time against the murderous batteries. But here was discovered one of those disastrous pieces of mismanagement which so often disgrace our service. The balls sent from the ordnance department at Boston were too large for the field-pieces, and they were useless! Against the artillery and musketry of the Americans our men had only muskets to return the fire with. A second time they gave way. But general Clinton, seeing the unequal strife, without waiting for orders, and attended by a number of resolute officers, hastened across the water in boats, and, rallying the fugitives, led them a third time up the hill. By this time the fire of the Americans began to slacken, for their powder was failing, and the English, wearied as they were, rushed up the hill, and carried the entrenchments at the point of the bayonet. There was a loud hurrah, and 125 |