nied by Generals Lee and Schuyler, and escorted by a volunteer troop of light horse which continued with him to New York. On his way he was everywhere received by the people with enthusiasm, and the respect to which his new rank entitled him. The particulars of the battle of Bunker's hill reached him at New York, and increased his anxiety to hasten forward to the army. Leaving Gen. Schuyler in command at New York, Washington again pursued his journey, escorted by volunteer military companies, to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he was met by a committee of the provincial Congress of that colony, which attended him to Cambridge. He arrived at the latter place on the second of July, and took the command of the army the next day.

At this time Gen. Washington found the British intrenched on Bunker's hill, having also three floating batteries in Mystic river, and a twenty-gun ship below the ferry between Boston and Charlestown. They had also a battery on Copp's hill, and were strongly fortified on Boston Neck. The Americans were intrenched at various points so as to form a line of siege around Boston and Charlestown.

The effective force of the American army placed under the command of Washington, amounted to fourteen thousand, five hundred men, raised in the New England colonies.* Several circumstances concurred to render this force very inadequate to active operations. Military stores were deficient in camp, and the whole amount in the country was inconsiderable. Under all these embarrassments, the general observed, that "he had the materials of a good army; that the men were able-bodied, active, zealous in the cause, and of unquestionable courage." He immediately instituted such arrangements as were calculated to increase their capacity for service. The army was distributed into brigades and divisions, and on his recommendation, general staff-officers were appointed. Economy, union, and system, were introduced into every department. As the troops came into service under the authority of distinct colonial governments, no uniformity existed among the regiments. In Massachusetts, the men had chosen their officers, and (rank excepted) were in other respects, frequently their equals. To form one uniform mass of these discordant materials, and to subject freemen, animated with the spirit of liberty, and collected for its defence, to the control of military discipline, required patience, forbearance, and a spirit of accommodation. This delicate and arduous duty was undertaken by General Washington, and discharged with great address. When he had made considerable progress in disciplining his army, the term for which enlistments had taken place was on the point of expiring. The commander-in-chief made early and forcible representations to Congress on this subject, and urged them to adopt efficient measures for the formation of a new army. They deputed three of their memSeveral companies of riflemen from Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, joined the army at Cambridge in September, having marched from four to seven hundred miles.

bers, Mr. Lynch, Dr. Franklin, and Mr. Harrison, to repair to camp, and in conjunction with him and the chief magistrates of the New England colonies, to confer on the most effectual mode of continuing, supporting, and regulating, a continental army. By them it was resolved to enlist 23,722 men, as far as practicable, from the troops before Boston, to serve till the last day of December, 1776, unless sooner discharged by Congress. In the execution of this resolve, Washington called upon all officers and soldiers to make their election for retiring or continuing. Several of the inferior officers retired. Many of the men would not continue on any terms. Several refused, unless they were indulged with furloughs; others unless they were allowed to choose their officers. So many impediments obstructed the recruiting service, that it required great address to obviate them. Washington made forcible appeals, in general orders, to the pride and patriotism of both officers and men. He promised every indulgence compatible with safety, and every comfort that the state of the country authorized. In general orders of the 20th of October, he observed:"The times, and the importance of the great cause we are engaged in, allow no room for hesitation and delay. When life, liberty, and property, are at stake; when our country is in danger of being a melancholy scene of bloodshed and desolation; when our towns are laid in ashes, innocent women and children driven from their peaceful habitations, exposed to the rigors of an inclement season, to depend perhaps on the hand of charity for support; when calamities like these are staring us in the face, and a brutal savage enemy threatens us and everything we hold dear, with destruction from foreign troops; it little becomes the character of a soldier to shrink from danger, and condition for new terms. It is the general's intention to indulge both officers and soldiers who compose the new army with furloughs for a reasonable time; but this must be done in such a manner as not to injure the service, or weaken the army too much at once."

In the instructions given to the recruiting officers, the general enjoined upon them, "not to enlist any person suspected of being unfriendly to the liberties of America, or any abandoned vagabond, to whom all causes and countries are equal and alike indifferent."

Though great exertions had been made to procure recruits, yet the regiments were not filled. Several causes operated in producing this disinclination to the service. The sufferings of the army had been great; fuel, clothes, and even provisions, had not been furnished them in sufficient quantities; the small-pox deterred many from entering; but the principal reason was a dislike to a military life. Much also of that enthusiasm which brought numbers to the field, on the commencement of hostilities had abated. The army of 1775 was wasting away by the expiration of the terms of service, and recruits for the new, entered slowly.* Unfortunately, an essential error had been committed in constituting the * Ramsay.

first military establishment of the Union, the consequences of which ceased only with the war. The soldiers were enlisted for the term of one year, if not sooner discharged by Congress. This fatal error brought the American cause more than once into real hazard.

General Washington had earnestly urged Congress to offer a bounty; but this expedient was not adopted till late in January; and on the last day of December, 1775, when the old army was disbanded, only nine thousand six hundred and fifty men had been enlisted for the army of 1776.

The general viewed with deep mortification the inactivity to which he was compelled to submit. His real difficulties were not generally known; his numbers were exaggerated; his means of acting on the offensive were magnified; the expulsion of the British army from Boston had been long since anticipated by many; and those were not wanting who insinuated that the commander-in-chief was desirous of prolonging the war, in order to continue his own importance.

Congress having manifested dispositions favorable to an attack on Boston, General Washington continued to direct his utmost efforts to that object. In January, 1776, a council of war resolved, "that a vigorous attempt ought to be made on the ministerial troops in Boston, before they can be reinforced in the spring, if the means can be provided, and a favorable opportunity should offer;" and for this purpose that thirteen regiments of militia should be required from Massachusetts and the neighboring colonies. The colonies complied with this requisition; but such was the mildness of the early part of the winter, that the waters continued open, and of course impassable.

Late in February, appearances among the British troops indicated an intention to evacuate Boston. But as these appearances might be deceptive, General Washington determined to prosecute a plan which must force General Howe either to come to an action or abandon the town.

Since the allowance of a bounty, recruiting had been more successful, and the regular force had been augmented to fourteen thousand men. The commander-in-chief had also called to his aid six thousand militia. Thus reinforced, he determined to take possession of the heights of Dorchester and fortify them. As the possession of this post would enable him to annoy the ships in the harbor, and the soldiers in the town of Boston, he was persuaded that a general action would ensue. Should this hope be disappointed, his purpose was to make the works on the heights of Dorchester preparatory to seizing and fortifying other points which commanded the harbor, a great part of the town, and the beach from which an embarkation must take place in the event of a retreat.

To facilitate the execution of this plan, a heavy bombardment and cannonade were commenced on the British lines on the second of March, which were repeated on the succeeding nights. On the east of them a strong detachment, under the command of General Thomas, took posses

sion of the heights, and labored with such persevering activity through the night, that the works were sufficiently advanced by the morning nearly to cover them.

It was necessary to dislodge the Americans or to evacuate the town, and General Howe determined to embrace the former part of the alternative. Three thousand chosen men commanded by Lord Percy embarked, and fell down to the castle, in order to proceed up the river to the intended scene of action, but were scattered by a furious storm. Before they could be again in readiness for the attack, the works were made so strong that the attempt to storm them was thought unadvisable, and the evacuation of the town became inevitable.

This determination was soon known to the Americans. A paper signed by some of the selectmen, and brought out by a flag, communicated the fact. This paper was accompanied by propositions said to be made by General Howe, relative to the security of the town and the peaceable embarkation of his army. The advances of the American troops were discontinued, and considerable detachments were moved toward New York before the actual evacuation of Boston. That event took place on the seventeenth of March, 1776; and in a few days the whole fleet sailed out of Nantasket road, directing its course eastward; immediately after which the American army proceeded by divisions to New York, where it arrived on the fourteenth of April.*

Washington and the continental army were received with enthusiasm by the inhabitants of Boston. The legislature of Massachusetts presented the commander-in-chief with an address, congratulating him on the successful result of the siege of Boston, and expressing their obligations for the great services he had rendered to his country. The continental Congress also passed a unanimous vote of thanks to him, and a gold medal was ordered to be struck commemorative of the evacuation of Boston, and as an honorable token of the public approbation of his conduct.

General Howe, with the British army of about ten thousand men, and one thousand refugees or tories, sailed for Halifax in seventy-eight ships and transports; but anxious for the safety of New York, and apprehensive that the British commander might have concealed his real designs and directed his course to that important point, the American commanderin-chief had directed the march of his army to New York, as already stated. They went by land to Norwich, Connecticut, and thence by water through Long Island sound. When it was ascertained that the British fleet had put to sea, ten days after the evacuation of Boston, Washington set off for New York, passing through Providence, Norwich, and New London. At Norwich he had an interview with Governor Trumbull who came there to meet him. On the thirteenth of April he arrived in New York.t General Washington found it impracticable, or inconsistent with his du† Sparks.

* Marshall.

ties to carry out his original design of visiting his family at Mount Vernon in the winter, and attending for a short space to his private affairs. Mrs. Washington therefore joined him at headquarters at Cambridge, in December, 1775, where she remained till the next spring. This was her practice during the war. She passed the winters with her husband in camp, and returned at the opening of the campaigns to Mount Vernon.

His large estates were consigned to the care of a superintendent, Mr. Lund Washington, who executed the trust with diligence and fidelity. Notwithstanding the multitude of public concerns, which at all times pressed heavily, and which he never neglected, the thoughts of General Washington constantly reverted to his farms. In the midst of the most stirring events of the war, he kept up an unremitted correspondence with his manager, in which he entered into details, gave minute instructions, and exacting reports, relating to the culture of his lands, and every transaction of business. From the beginning to the end of the revolution, Lund Washington wrote to the general, as often at least as two or three times a month, and commonly every week, detailing minutely all the events that occurred on the plantation. These letters were regularly answered by the general, even when the weight and embarrassment of public duties pressed heavily upon him.

An extract from one of his letters to Lund Washington on these topics, dated December, 1775, will show a trait of character, and the footing on which he left his household at Mount Vernon.

"Let the hospitalities of the house, with respect to the poor, be kept up. Let no one go hungry away. If any of this kind of people should be in want of corn, supply their necessities, provided it does not encourage them in idleness; and I have no objection to your giving my money in charity, to the amount of forty or fifty pounds a year, when you think it well bestowed. What I mean by having no objection is, that is my desire that it should be done. You are to consider, that neither myself nor wife is now in the way to do these good offices. In all other respects, I recommend it to you, and have no doubt of your observing the greatest economy and frugality; as I suppose you know, that I do not get a farthing for my services here, more than my expenses. It becomes necessary, therefore, for me to be saving at home."

To detail all the operations of Washington in public affairs in the years which followed would be to repeat the history of the war of the American revolution, and, of course, greatly exceed the limits of the part of this work allotted to a memoir of his life. We can therefore only allude to the prominent events with which his personal history was connected during that eventful period, following him rapidly in his movements, until peace and the acknowledgment of American independence by Great Britain crowned his efforts in the cause of his country.

• Sparks