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NAPOLEON AND THE QUEEN OF PRUSSIA AT TILSIT 
 
 AT THI-« PLACE, IN EASTERN PRUSSIA, THE TREATY OF PEACE BETWEEN FRANCE AND RUSSIA, AN** 
 ALSO BETWEEN FRANCE AND PRUSSIA WAS SIG' ED, JULY 7th 1807 
 
NAPOLEON CROSSING THE ALPS 
 
DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
HEROISM OF COLONEL GAZE AT THE BATTLE OF INKERMANN 
 
/ 
 
 Heroes of History 
 
 AND THEIR 
 
 Grand Achievements, 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 GRAPHIC ACCOUNTS OF MEN AND WOMEN WHOSE DARING 
 DEEDS HAVE GIVEN THEM WORLD-WIDE FAME 
 
 COMPRISING 
 
 HEROES OF LAND AND SEA 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 PIONEERS AND THEIR THRILLING ADVENTURES; NAVAL AND 
 
 MILITARY COMMANDERS ; EXPLORATIONS IN THE TROPICS AND 
 
 POLAR REGIONS; HEROINES OF THE BATTLEFIELD AND 
 
 HOSPITAL; LIFE SAVERS ON OUR TEMPESTUOUS 
 
 COASTS; JUVENILE HEROES. ETC., ETC. 
 
 By Henry Davenport Northrop 
 
 Author of "Grandest Century in the World's History;" "Excelsior Writer and Speaker;" 
 "World-Renowned Authors and their Masterpieces of Poetry and Prose," Etc. 
 
 Embellished with Hundreds of Superb Phototype- and Lkfc Engravings 
 
 NATIONAL PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 235 to 243 South American St. 
 PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
 
THE LIBRARY OF 
 CONGRESS, 
 
 Two Copies Received 
 
 OCT 9 
 
 1903 
 
 ft Copynghl 
 
 Entry - 
 
 CLASS &. 
 
 "7* J 
 
 XXc. No 
 
 COPY 
 
 1° 
 
 
 ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, N TKF- YEAR 1903, P* 
 
 D. Z. HOWELL 
 
 In the office of the librarian of congress, AT WASHINGTON, t). C, U. 6 A« 
 
>v 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 MEN and women who perform noble and heroic deeds merit the 
 admiration of all intelligent people. This work contains the bril- 
 liant records of the world's heroes and heroines, and pays them 
 the honor of being the makers of history. It tells the absorbing story 
 of their struggles and sacrifices, their devotion to duty and splendid 
 triumphs. 
 
 The work begins with Pioneer Heroes. Daniel Boone, with only 
 his rifle for a companion, has thrilling adventures with the Indians; Kit 
 Carson shows himself to be a heroic leader and guide. John C. Fre- 
 mont plants the Stars and Stripes on the highest peak of the Rockies, 
 and earns the proud title of "The Pathfinder." These are the heroes of 
 the wilderness, our nation's advance guard, preparing the way for civil- 
 ization. 
 
 In the part on Naval Heroes the great "Masters of the Sea" are 
 grouped together, and graphic accounts are furnished of their heroic 
 achievements, including Paul Jones, Lord Nelson, Commodore Perry 
 Farragut, Cushing, Dewey, Schley, Wainwright, Sampson and many 
 others. Their personal heroism is the wonder of all readers, and the 
 theme of song and story. Among Military Heroes the first is our own 
 "Immortal Washington," followed by Putnam, Ethan Allen, Nathan 
 Hale, Molly Pitcher, Napoleon, Duke of Wellington, Grant, Meade, Lee, 
 "Stonewall" Jackson, Sherman, Sheridan, Roosevelt, and other heroic 
 patriots whose majestic figures are seen through the hot hail of battle, 
 "contending for an idea." 
 
 Let it be understood that the object of this superb work is to afford 
 examples of men and women who stood at the post of duty in spite 
 of sacrifices and dangers, and command the world's admiration. 
 
4 - PREFACE. 
 
 Brave souls they were who have lifted the veil from unknown coun- 
 tries and shown the world the marvels of the "Dark Continent," and the 
 realms of eternal snow and ice. Livingstone, DuChaillu, Stanley in the 
 Tropics, and Franklin, Kane, Peary, and others, in the Arctic regions, 
 are magnificent heroes of Exploration. Their exploits are fully recorded. 
 Obstacles confronted them, but they did not halt ; dangers beset them, 
 but th£y faced them with dauntless courage; often their lives were in 
 peril, but they pressed on, and to these brave explorers we are indebted 
 for all we know of the dark lands of the tropics and the frozen mysteries 
 of the polar world. 
 
 Noble women have followed recent wars, and by their gentle minis- 
 tries have saved the life of many a poor soldier, and have comforted the 
 dying moments of others. Florence Nightingale on the blood-stained 
 fields of the Crimea ; Clara Barton, Annie E. Wheeler, daughter of 
 General "Joe" Wheeler, and others in our civil war and war with Spain, 
 and the grand host of women who have performed deeds worthy of 
 ministering angels, illumine the glowing pages of this sumptuous work. 
 
 Their smile cheered tne weary sufferers of the hospital and the field 
 of carnage; they whispered words of comfort to the dying; men who 
 had fought and bled kissed the shadows of the grand heroines as they 
 passed. The reader follows their experiences with wonderful interest. 
 
 In addition to these, the reader is charmed with the record of 
 toils and sacrifices on the part of such moral heroines as Frances E. 
 Willard and Ellen M. Stone, captured by Turkish brigands. 
 
 All honor and praise to the dauntless men and women who save the 
 lives of those imperilled by storm and shipwreck, such life savers as 
 Grace Darling, Captain James, and many others. Crowns are not good 
 enough for their reward. Through storm, angry waves and darkness, 
 this work tells how they hurry to the rescue. 
 
 This magnificent work is a splendid record of the world's heroes and 
 heroines. It ought to be the companion of every person in our country. 
 It is worthy of a place in every American home. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Daniel Boone. 
 His Early Life — Famous as Sharpshooter — Captive among the Indians — 
 Adventures on the Frontier — Capture of Three Girls by the Savages 
 — Dangers and Trials of the Settlers — Heroism of a Little Gar- 
 rison — Boone's Life Saved by a Noted Spy — Wounded in a Desperate 
 Fight — Adopted into an Indian Family — Defense of Fort at Boones- 
 borough — Victory after a Fearful Siege — Boone's Last Days — Grand 
 Pioneer 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Kit Carson. 
 Famous Trapper and Guide — Daring Exploits in the West — Encounters 
 with the Indians — A Picturesque Horseman and Hunter — Capture 
 of Large Herds of Cattle — Trading with the Indians — Lucky Escape 
 from Climbing Bears — Receives a Painful Wound in the Neck — 
 Pursuit of Horse Stealers — Deadly Shot in the Nick of Time — 
 Return to the Home of Boyhood — Enthusiastic Welcome — Fremont 
 Secures Carson for a Guide — Splendid Achievements on the 
 Frontier 62 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 John C. Fremont. 
 Styled 'The Pathfinder" — Ignorance of the Public Concerning the 
 Great West — Expedition of Hardy Explorers — Friendly Meeting 
 with the Indians — Crossing the Rocky Mountains — Lakes and 
 Canyons — Interest in Fremont's Discoveries — Terrible Journey of 
 Forty Days — Explorer Becomes Renowned — Promoted for his Grand 
 Achievements — New Routes Discovered to the Pacific Coast — High 
 Honors Bestowed on Fremont — Nominated for President 80 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Captain John Paul Jones. 
 Hero of a Desperate Fight — Captured Valuable Prizes — Severe Gale- 
 Exploit of a Cutter — Gallant Young Lieutenant Dale — Warning 
 Given of a Hostile Force — Brave Crew — Killed by Bursting Guns— 
 
 5 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 Runs Ship on the Enemy — Vessel Badly Shattered — Brave Reply 
 of the American Commander — Ships Supposed to be Sinking — 
 Great Loss of Life on Both Sides — Medal Awarded to Jones by Con- 
 gress — Astonishing Deeds • 97 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Admiral Lord Nelson. 
 Far-famed Hero of Trafalgar — Appointed to an Important Command — 
 Battle of Cape St. Vincent — Cruises in the Mediterranean — Battle 
 of the Nile — Nelson Promoted for His Brilliant Victories — Hot Pur- 
 suit of the French Fleet —Presentiment of Approaching Death — 
 Fast and Furious Battle of Trafalgar — Wonderful Nerve of the 
 Dying Hero — Mourning for the Master of the Sea — Strong and Orig- 
 inal Genius — Called by Tennyson the Greatest Sailor 125 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Commodore Stephen Decatur. 
 Hero of Tripoli — Son of a Prominent Naval Man — Officer on Shipboard at 
 the Age of Nineteen — Embarks in a Dangerous Undertaking — Enters 
 the Harbor of Tripoli to Rescue an American Ship — Enemy Thrown 
 into a Panic — Great personal Heroism — Narrow Escape from Death 
 — Our Naval Power a Surprise — Presented by Congress with a 
 Sword — Sad End of a Gallant Career. 142 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Commodore Oliver H. Perry. 
 Hero of Lake Erie —Born to be a Sailor — Extraordinary Valor in Battle 
 — Offered Services to His Country — Leader of an Important Expe- 
 dition — Ships in Line of Battle — Murderous Fire by a Whole Bat- 
 tery — Almost a Complete Wreck — Gallant Lieutenant Struck Down 
 by a Shot — Perry Pushes Off in an Open Boat — Loud Cheers All 
 Along the Line— Enemy's Ships Haul Down Their Flag—" Met the 
 Enemy and They are Ours" — Saved by a Woman's Prayers — 
 Perry's Personal Appearance 148 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Commodore Thomas M'Donough. 
 Hero of Lake Champlain — Young Officer Severely Wounded — Line of 
 Battle Formed — Loud Cheers when a .Rooster Crowed — American 
 Ships Badly Damaged — Manoeuvring for Advantages — Lamentable 
 
CONTENTS. 7 
 
 Destruction of Life — Vessel Riddled by Over a Hundred Balls — 
 Gallant Conduct of American Officers — M'Donough's Splendid Skill 
 and Bravery — Victory Receives Universal Praise 168 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Buchanan and Worden. 
 Heroes of the Merrimac and Monitor — Great Naval Battle — Monster 
 Fitted to Create Terror — Impenetrable Coat of Mail — Sinking of the 
 Ship Cumberland — On Fire in a Number of Places — Merrimac 
 Unable to Get Near Land — Arrival of the Monitor — Singular Look- 
 ing Vessel — Commander Worden — Monitor Begins the Attack — 
 Battle Royal Between Giants — David and Goliath Among Warships 
 — Shots that Produced Startling Effects — Little Lion of the Navy — 
 Fight Revolutionized Naval Warfare • 183 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Admiral David G. Farragut. 
 Hero of New Orleans and Mobile Bay — At School when a Boy in Wash- 
 ington — Commander in the Mexican War — Master of Details of 
 Seamanship — Established Navy Yard in San Francisco — In Com- 
 mand of the Steam-sloop-of-war Hartford — Battle of Mobile Bay — 
 In the Rigging of the Hartford — Weeps at the Loss of His Men — 
 Splendid Public Reception — Grade of Admiral Created for Farragut 
 — Heroic Commander — Thorough Scholar 200 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Commander William B. Cushing. 
 Birth and Early Training — Story of the Albemarle — Parrot Rifles and 
 Dahlgren Guns — Directions for the Combat — Shot that Went Clear 
 Through — Monster Anchored and Guarded — Bold Attempt to Cap- 
 ture a General — Cushing' s Report of His Famous Exploit — Air 
 Thick with Bullets — Conspicuous Bravery of a Naval Officer — 
 Cushing Promoted for Gallant Conduct 207 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Admiral George Dewey. 
 
 Hero of Manila— Parentage and Early Education — Anecdotes of Young 
 
 Dewey — Encounter with a School Teacher — Naval Officer Under 
 
 Farragut — Saves Life of a Sailor — Made Commander of Asiatic 
 
 Squadron — Battle of Manila — Every Spanish Ship Destroyed — 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 Cool and Undaunted in Battle — Presented by Congress with a Medal 
 and Sword — Personal Traits and Characteristics 202 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 Lieutenant Richmond P. Hobson. 
 Narrow Entrance of Harbor of Santiago — Hobson' s Bold and Dangerous 
 Plan — Names of the Heroes — How the Signal Was to be Given — 
 Hobson's Last Directions — Merrimac Lost Her Rudder — Soldiers 
 Firing from the Cliffs — Every Man Obeyed Orders — Heroic Conduct 
 of American Sailors — Hobson and Men Saved by Spanish Admiral 
 —Types of the Whole American Navy 234 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Admiral William T. Sampson. 
 
 Renowned Naval Tactician and Commander — Highest Rank at Naval 
 
 Academy — Cool Intrepidity in Danger — In Command of North 
 
 Atlantic Squadron — Brilliant and Interesting Record — Planned the 
 
 Famous Naval Battle of Santiago • 249 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Admiral Winfield Scott Schley. 
 
 A Popular Hero — In Command of Gunboat in Civil War — Voyage to 
 
 North Polar Regions — Made Commander of the Flying Squadron — 
 
 Superb Courage and Cool Head — Spanish Fleet at Santiago — Great 
 
 Naval Victory — Schley a Fine Representative of the American Sailor 
 
 — Many Gallant Exploits 256 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 Commander Richard Wainwright. 
 Destruction of Cruiser Maine — Wainwright' s Faithful Services — Every 
 Inch a Sailor — His Personal Appearance — Fighting Not a Safe Busi- 
 ness — Desperate Race of Spanish Ships at Santiago — The Little 
 Gloucester's Part in the Battle — Sinks Two Spanish Vessels — Re- 
 ceives the Surrender of the Spanish Admiral — Modest Officer of 
 Peerless Bravery 266 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 Joan oe Arc. 
 Contest Between Kings — Maid of Orleans — Places Herself at the Head 
 of an Army — Awakes Enthusiasm Among the Soldiers — Gives 
 Orders in Name of Heaven — Appeared on a Beautiful Black 
 
CONTENTS. 9 
 
 Horse — Regarded as Invincible — A Decisive Victory — Coronation of 
 Charles VII— Joan Wonnded — Popular Tide Turns Against Her — 
 Mockery of a Trial — Convicted and Suffers Death at the Stake. 274 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 George Washington. 
 Hero of the American Revolution— Dutiful and Affectionate Son — Master 
 of Military Strategy — Defeat of General Braddock — Commander-in- 
 Chief of American Army — Battles and Reverses — Washington the 
 Main Stay of the Patriots — His Brilliant Victories — Help from 
 France — Surrender of Cornwallis — Independence Won after a Long 
 and Bloody Struggle — Washington the Hero of the Hour — Elected 
 First President — Second Term as President — Immortal " Father of 
 His Country." 294 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 General Israel Putnam. 
 Parentage and Early Life — New England Farmer — Large Wool Grower 
 — Sly Old Wolf— Putnam Shows His Bravery by Entering Wolfs 
 Den — Captured by Indians in French and Indian War — Rescued from 
 Being Burned Alive — Leaves Plow in the Field for Bunker Hill — 
 Wonderful Courage — Execution of a Spy — Leader in Many Battles 
 — Plunge on Horseback Down a Precipice — Thrilling Deeds and 
 Example — Honors Freely Bestowed on " Old Put." 294 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 Colonel Ethan Allen. 
 Hero of Ticonderoga — Boston Besieged by Twenty Thousand Men 
 — iVssault With Eighty-Three Soldiers — Patriotism of the Americans 
 — a In the Name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Con- 
 gress" — Allen Sent to Canada — Captured and Held as a Prisoner 
 — Finally Exchanged— Grand Type of Heroic Souls 337 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 Sergeant William Jasper. 
 Hero of Fort Moultrie — Curious Fort — Regiment of Famous Riflemen 
 — British Fleet in Charleston Harbor — Furious Engagement- 
 Standard Shot Away — Flag Replaced by Jasper — Storm of Shot and 
 Shell — American Shots Very Destructive — Jasper Presented by 
 
10 CONTENTS. 
 
 Governor Rutledge With His Own Sword— Gallant Services Under 
 
 General Marion. 343 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 Captain Nathan Hale. 
 Noble Specimen of a Yonng Man — Officer in Revolutionary Army — Sent 
 Out as a Spy by Washington — Captured and Sentenced to Death- 
 Receives Ignominious Treatment — Courageous Bearing Under 
 the Gallows — Regrets He Has Only One Life to Loose for His 
 Country — Compared by Depew with Andre — Monument to Hale in 
 
 His Native Town 352 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 Molly Pitcher. 
 Heroine of the Battle of Monmouth — Laundry Women in Washington's 
 Army — Husband an Artilleryman — Shot Down in Battle — Molly 
 Springs Forward and Takes His Place at the Gun — Fought to the 
 End of the Battle — Admired for Bravery — Presented by Washington 
 With Commission of Sergeant — Granted Half Pay During Life 
 — Her Monument at Carlisle. 357 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 Napoleon Bonaparte. 
 Marvelous Military Genius — From an Obscure Corporal to a World 
 Renowned Emperor — Commander-in-Chief of Italian Army at the 
 Age of Twenty-Six. — In Paris — French Army — Series of Remark- 
 able Victories — Coronation as Emperor — Terror of His Name — 
 Disastrous Campaign Against Moscow — Amazing Command Over 
 Men — Battle of Waterloo — Napoleon's Sun Goes Out in Darkness 
 — Banished to St. Helena — His Death — Removal of His Remains to 
 
 Paris — Splendid Tomb of Napoleon 361 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 Duke of Wellington. 
 Hero of Waterloo — Battle that Changed the Map of Europe — Features 
 of the Battlefield — Furious Charges— "Up, Guards, and at Them." 
 British Cavalry — Napoleon's Old Guard — Honors for the " Iron 
 Duke " — Noble Character — Renowned Achievements — Distinguished 
 in Peace as Well as in War — Great Public Demonstration at Fun- 
 eral — Sarcophagus in Crypt of St. Paul's 374 
 
COiNTKNTS. 11 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 General Andrew Jackson. 
 Hero of New Orleans — Character as a Boy — Leader Among Playmates — 
 In the Army— Ordered to the Gulf of Mexico— Battle of New 
 Orleans — Masterly Defenses — Firm and Resolnte as President- 
 Received Title of " Old Hickory "—A Self-Made Man.. 388 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 General T. J. ( u Stonewall") Jackson. 
 Son of an Enginer — Cadet at West Point — Handsome and Animated 
 Face — Careful in Little Things — Commander of a Brigade in Our 
 Civil War — Silent as a Sphynx — Brave as a Lion — Helps to Defend 
 Richmond — Jackson in the Maryland Campaign — At Chancellors- 
 ville — In an Exposed Position — Wounded by His Own Men — Died 
 from Pneumonia — Symptoms of Pleurisy — " Let us Pass over the 
 River and Rest Under the Trees." 398 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 General George G. Meade. 
 Hero of Gettysburg — Illustrious Grandfather — Meade's Education — At 
 the United States Military Academy — Leader in the Mexican War — 
 Employed in the Construction of Lighthouses — Commands Second 
 Brigade of Pennsylvania Reserves — Brigadier General of Volun- 
 teers — At Battles of Mechanicsville, Gaines's Mills and Glendale — 
 At Second Battle of Bull Run — Drove Everything before Him at 
 Fredericksburg — In Command of the Army of the Potomac — Great 
 Victory at Gettysburg — Promoted to be Brigadier General in the 
 Regular Army — His Name Held in High Honor 406 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 General George E. Pickett. 
 Splendid Type of Hero — Man for Grand Deeds — Casts His Lot with Vir- 
 ginia — Brigadier General — At the Carnage of Seven Pines — Game 
 Cock Brigade — Pickett Severely Wounded — Ready to Perform His 
 Duty — Desperate Assault — Appalling Carnage — Wild Yells of Defi- 
 ance — Men Riddled with Grape Shot — Field Strewn with the Dead — 
 Pickett Retires to Richmond — One of the World's Greatest Cavalry 
 Commanders 413 
 
12 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 General Philip H. Sheridan. 
 
 Daring Cavalry Commander — Promoted for Efficient Services — Com- 
 mands a Division in Army of the Cnmberland — At Battle of Stone 
 River— " Here Are All that Are Left."— At Battle of the Wilder- 
 ness — Enemy Routed and Scattered — "Face the Other Way, 
 Boys." — Made Major General in the Regular Army — Personal 
 Gallantry — Hero of Remarkable Exploit — Commands Department 
 of the Gulf— Entitled to Respect and Admiration ... 421 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 General William T. Sherman. 
 
 Member of a Distinguished Family — Graduate of West Point — Scholar 
 and Soldier — Engaged in Various Pursuits — Brigadier General of 
 Volunteers — Goes to Defense of Memphis — Promoted for Gallantry 
 at Vicksburg — Great March to the Sea — Capture of Savannah — 
 Receives Surrender of Johnston — Quiet Life after the War — Goes 
 on the Retired List — Admired by Friends and Foes Alike 428 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 General Robert E. Lee. 
 From Well Known Family— Felt Bound by His State's Act of Seces- 
 sion — Opinions Concerning It — Important Battle — Successful Plan 
 of General Lee — His Military Tactics — Battle of Antietam — Capture 
 of Harper's Ferry — Operations Around Fredericksburg—" Fighting 
 Joe Hooker " — Attacks Grant with Smaller Force — Tried to Save 
 the Lives of His Men — Defeated at Gettysburg — Duty His Watch- 
 word — Beloved by Associates 438 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 General Ulysses S. Grant. 
 
 Hero of Federal Army — His Career at West Point — In the Mexican 
 War — In Service at Various Places — Hardware and Leather Clerk- 
 Raised Company of Volunteers — Colonel of an Illinois Regiment- 
 Capture of Forts Henry and Donaldson — At Corinth — Commander- 
 in-Chief— Vast Plans for Campaigns — Aided by Able Generals — Final 
 Campaign — Receives Surrender of Lee 447 
 
CONTENTS. 13 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 President Theodore Roosevelt. 
 Famous Leader of the Rough Riders — Belongs to Distinguished Family 
 — Education at Harvar din the New York Legislature—Police Com- 
 missioner — On a Western Ranch — Assistant Secretary of the Navy 
 — His Career in Cuba — Nominated for Vice-President — Noble Bearing 
 When McKinley was Assassinated — Administration Signalized by 
 Important Measures — Popular Hero 457 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 DuChaillu, Livingstone, Stanley, Franklin, Kane and Peary. 
 
 Paul DuChaillu — Explorations in Africa — Discovered Animals and Birds 
 — First Explorer to Capture a Gorilla — Encounter With a Savage 
 Beast — David Livingtone — Renowned Medical Missionary — Travels 
 in Africa — Discoveries of Great Importance — Henry M. Stanley — 
 Finds Livingstone— Adventures in the Dark Continent — Public 
 Welcome on His Return — Sir John Franklin — Hero of Arctic Dis- 
 covery — Efforts to Find Him and Afford Relief— Elisha Kent Kane 
 — Went in Search of Franklin — Renowned for His Achievements 
 — Lieutenant Peary . . 465 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 Florence Nightingale, Clara Barton, Mrs. Joseph Hawley, Etc. 
 
 Early History of Miss Nightingale — Member of a Wealthy Family — 
 Terrible Sufferings of Soldiers in the Crimea — Goes with a Band 
 of Trained Nurses — Idolized by the Sick and Wounded — Long- 
 fellow's Beautiful Tribute to Her — Clara Barton — Heroic Services 
 in Our Civil War — Ministering Angel in Many Battles — Joins the 
 Red Cross Relief Corps — In Europe — Her W T ork in Cuba — Harriet 
 F. Hawley — Excellent Work Among Wounded Soldiers — Annie E. 
 Wheeler — Daughter of General "Joe" Wheeler — A Natural Nurse 
 — Well Known in War with Spain — Appreciated Services 522 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 Heroes and Heroines of Life Saving Service. 
 Dangers of the Great Deep — Story of Grace Darling — Great Admiratior: 
 for Her Heroic Act — Feted by Titled and Wealthy Persons — Captain 
 
14 CONTENTS. 
 
 Joshua James — Saved Over One Hundred Lives— Wreck on Massa- 
 chusetts Coast — Heroes of Monomoy — Boston's Liberality 578 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 Model Heroism. 
 Frances E. Willard — Family History — Career as a Teacher — Her Work 
 of Reform — Founder of Woman's Temperance Union — Her Brilliant 
 Gifts — Ellen Stone — American Missionary in the East — Kidnapped 
 by Turkish Brigands — Her Recovery — Sammy Belnap — How He 
 Helped " Old Put "—A Juvenile Hero 589 
 
WASHINGTON IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 
 
" " ; — . .. , —7- — — 
 
 wr : '^' "' 
 
 ADMIRAL JOHN PAUL JONES 
 
PIONEER HEROES 
 
 AND THEIR 
 
 THRILLING ADVENTURES 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 HIS EARLY LIFE — HOME IN THE WILDERNESS — DANGERS AND HARDSHIPS. 
 BATTLES WITH THE INDIANS — WONDERFUL ESCAPES FROM HIS FOES. 
 HEROIC LEADER OF CIVILIZATION — HIS ROMANTIC HISTORY. 
 
 THE name of Daniel Boone, as one of the pioneers, has gone aronnd 
 the world. Long ago it was celebrated wherever men admired 
 courage, or loved to read stories of individual sacrifice and daring. 
 Captain Cook had sailed around the globe, bringing home with him 
 accounts of men that were scarcely known in the popular imagination ; 
 but Boone set out with calmness, as if he were obeying a religious 
 inspiration, and buried himself in the wilderness. It required great 
 resolution to do what he did ; and yet it seemed to come to him as easily 
 as play to a child. 
 
 Daniel Boone was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in the year 
 1735, on the nth of February, and was nearly three years youngei 
 than Washington, at the time of the Revolution. He was a boy of 
 remarkably good constitution, which was about the best inheritance 
 his parents could leave him. At three years of age he removed, with 
 the family, to what is now the city of Reading, Berks County— then, 
 however, but a meagre and exposed post on the outskirts of the wilderness. 
 The Indians threatened the peace of the settlement at all times. It was 
 not safe to go out of the reach of the dwelling, unless precautions were 
 taken against sudden attacks from the red men. Ambushes were likely 
 to be sprung upon the settlers on every side. 
 
 It was in a school of danger like this that Boone, then scarcely 
 more than a child, received his first lessons in life ; and it may be 
 2 17 
 
18 DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 believed they were rugged and lasting ones. There he learned all about 
 the tricks and traits of the Indians. The talk was chiefly upon them 
 and their wily habits. He learned the dangers of the life his parents 
 led, and was, at the same time, taught to love perfect simplicity. 
 
 FAMOUS AS A SHARPSHOOTER. 
 
 Of course he learned to use the gun as soon as he had the strength 
 to carry it about with him. He became an expert marksman very early. 
 Sharp shooting, in fact, was necessary almost to his existence ; and if not 
 so at the time, it became so in a great many startling adventures after- 
 wards. As he grew up, his love of hunting and solitude became more 
 and more noticeable. 
 
 He would go off alone in the woods, with nothing but his gun for 
 company, all day. Many a story is told of his wonderful feats, such as 
 the number of animals he brought down with his unerring bullets, or 
 the fierce and successful encounters he was wont to have with the den- 
 izens of the forest. Trie whole settlement looked upon him with pride, if 
 not with hope ; for they saw in him those shining qualities that give 
 lasting fame to the frontiersman and pioneer. 
 
 Having acquired the fame of a hunter, it was natural enough that 
 he should think of no other occupation in life. So he soon began to grow 
 restless under the restraints of home, and finally went out from beneath 
 his father's roof and built a little hut in the forest, where he played the 
 hermit and woodsman to his heart's content. The wild beasts roamed 
 all around him by day, and their howlings made a dismal concert for 
 him at night. He was alone ; yet the solitude never became oppressive 
 to him. He had yearned for just such a life since he began to know 
 what life was worth. The walls of his hut were hung around with skins 
 of animals, trophies of his skill and .daring. 
 
 Thinking to better their condition, the Boone family, in 1753, 
 moved to North Carolina. Here young Daniel Boone lived until he 
 arrived at manhood. About this time great events were transpiring in 
 the world, and grander ones were preparing. The French and English 
 
DANIEL BOONE. 19 
 
 were at war with eacli other, and the contest was transferred to this 
 continent, where it was waged with terrific fury. It was along through 
 these years that Israel Putnam was getting his valuable experience as a 
 soldier in the neighborhood of Lake George, fighting bravely against the 
 French and Indians. Washington, too, was schooling under Braddock 
 in the Western wilderness, having already acquired the quick eye and 
 firm foot, in his perilous enterprises as a surveyor in the depths of the 
 forest. 
 
 Daniel married Rebecca Bryan, the daughter of a worthy neighbor, 
 and with his young bride set out to make a home for himself in the 
 wilderness, some distance from the place where the Boone family resided. 
 Here they lived a life of solitude, surrounded by Indians and wild beasts, 
 their cabin being the only one for a long time in that part of the Yadkin 
 Valley. Boone's love of the wilderness not being sufficiently gratified 
 here, he planned an expedition into Kentucky, then almost unknown. 
 In June, 1769, he halted with five companions on the Red River, a branch 
 of the Kentucky. 
 
 PARTED IN THE WILDERNESS NEVER TO MEET AGAIN. 
 
 For a long time, matters went on swimmingly. They were becom- 
 ing more and more accustomed to their new life, and even began to calcu- 
 late upon the propriety of returning to North Carolina for their families. 
 Fearing nothing from the approach of the red man, they presently forgot 
 to take those precautions which were, in fact, essential to their daily 
 safety, and so invited dangers when they might just as well have repelled 
 them. It was a fatal mistake for this little party of pioneers to separate ; 
 yet they were thoughtless enough to do so, and the most disastrous con- 
 sequences followed. They divided up- — one party being composed of 
 Stewart and Boone ; the other four men went exploring in another 
 direction. Henceforth their ways diverged forever. Neither party saw 
 the other again. 
 
 As Boone has himself narrated, the Indians surprised him and his 
 companion when they ought to have been on the watch, and carried them 
 
20 DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 off prisoners. This was an entirely new phase of life for onr forest 
 hero. A man who, all his life, has had the free range of forest and field, 
 wonld not be likely to keep quiet in a state of sudden imprisonment. 
 His spirit would chafe sorely, and he would find himself impatient once 
 more to be free. But Daniel Boone was a philosopher, and could see at ; 
 a glance what was most prudent and safe. As soon as he comprehended 
 his novel and dangerous situation, he made up his mind to keep calm and 
 resign himself to his fate. By this means he would disarm the suspi- 
 cions of the savages, and have more abundant opportunities to make his 
 escape. Patience is a rare virtue, all the books and moralists tell us ; 
 and few men would have had the sagacity, as Boone had, to see that his 
 fate hung entirely on his practice of that one quality. 
 
 A CAPTIVE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 He was a captive for seven days. At the end of that time, they 
 lay down at night in the midst of their tawny guard, and disposed them- 
 selves for sleep. At the still midnight hour, when the silence of the 
 wilderness is indeed awful, Boone raised his head and looked around him. 
 By the deep and steady breathing of his savage captors, he knew they 
 were fast locked in slumber. Then, he felt, his opportunity had come. 
 Cautiously awakening his companion, they both regained their feet, took 
 their rifles from the keeping of the Indians, and crept out of the little 
 camp. They both felt that discovery would have been certain death ; 
 and therefore they pushed forward in the midnight gloom with redoubled 
 courage and energy. But they succeeded in eluding their captors, and 
 commenced their wanderings together again. 
 
 They went to their old camp ; but their former companions were 
 gone. Everything betokened disappointment and desolation. The camp 
 had been broken up, and appearances indicated violence and plunder. 
 From this point they never again found traces of those four men. Their 
 fate remains to this day a sealed mystery. Whether they fell victims to 
 the bloody rage of the Indians, who had surprised them in their fancied 
 security, or they had wandered away in different directions, and, weary 
 
DANIEL BOONE. 21 
 
 and despairing, had laid their bones in the undiscovered solitudes of the 
 wilderness, no man lives that can tell. And thus sadly ended the career 
 of the discoverer and early eulogist of Kentucky, John Finley ; that man 
 whose vivid reports of this new western paradise kindled enthusiasm in 
 so many bosoms on the banks of the peaceful Yadkin. 
 
 LIVED BY HUNTING GAME, 
 
 Boone and Stewart were therefore left alone Their sole reliance, 
 both for subsistence and defence, was on their unerring rifles. They 
 built a hut to protect themselves against the influence of the wintry 
 weather, and hunted and watched, waiting patiently for the spring to 
 open. In the month of January, they espied a couple of men coming 
 towards them. Looking closer they saw they were white men. What 
 must have been the feelings of our hero to find that one of them was 
 Squire Boone, his youngest brother ! Squire brought news from Daniel's 
 wife and children ; and Stewart was rejoiced to get intelligence from the 
 settlement. The circumstances that led to the discovery of Boone's little 
 camp by the new comers, were never described ; but it seems, at least, 
 like the most marvelous piece of good fortune on record. 
 
 A second time this little party separated. Daniel Boone and Stewa** 
 pursued one course, and Squire Boone and his friend — whose name even 
 is not known — followed another. One would think they had already 
 learned a better lesson. The consequence was, Stewart was surprised 
 and slaughtered by the Indians, while Daniel Boone made his escape ; 
 and his brother Squire's companion becoming alarmed, probably thought, 
 in a fit of desperation, to find his way back alone to Carolina, and was 
 never heard of again alive. It is said that a skeleton was long afterwards 
 found in the region, which was believed to have told the tale of his dark 
 and mysterious fate. Thus were the brothers Boone left the only white- 
 occupants of that vast territory, the real pioneers in the march of civili- 
 zation that has been going forward to the West, from that trying and 
 doubtful day to these jubilant and prosperous days of our own. 
 
 In order to effect a real settlement in that region, it was necessary 
 
22 
 
 DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 tured. 
 
 THE PIONEER HERO, DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 Daniel would remain where he was, 
 
 to bring forward 
 recruits, animals 
 and provisions. 
 The question was 
 how was this best 
 to be done ? Dur- 
 ing their winter 
 discussions at the 
 fi r e, the Boone 
 brothers had can- 
 vassed it very 
 freely, and con- 
 cluded at last what 
 was best to be at- 
 tempted. The pow- 
 der was low, and 
 bullets were scarce 
 for the rifles ; if 
 these two items 
 failed, all was lost. 
 Hence it was im- 
 portant that some- 
 thing should be 
 done as soon as 
 possible. Daniel 
 Boone was all 
 ready for the sac- 
 rifice, and his 
 brother Squire was 
 quite as willing to 
 perform his part. 
 The plan was ma- 
 and Squire would travel 
 
DANIEL BOONE. 23 
 
 back alone to North Carolina, to obtain recruits and supplies. It was a 
 distance of inany hundred miles. A bolder project was never under- 
 taken than that which makes the names of these two devoted Boone 
 brothers immortal. 
 
 Young Squire Boone came back. He had traversed that long dis- 
 tance, to and fro, without a companion, and at last he stood by his brother's 
 side again. He had faithfully kept his promise to return. He brought 
 along Avith him a pair of horses, with provisions. He brought welcome 
 news from the brave hunter's wife and family. He brought tidings oi 
 the murmur of the people at the foreign rule that oppressed them, and 
 possibly of the recent Boston Massacre, which sent a thrill of horror 
 through the country. The horses were invaluable, and yet a source of the 
 greatest anxiety ; for they were just what would be most likely to betray 
 them into the hands of the Indians. They could not be hidden, as the 
 brothers could hide themselves. They would not fail to testify their 
 presence at any and at all times to the Indian. For eight months these 
 two men roamed over the tract of territory upon which they had entered, 
 and were not once molested. 
 
 BOONE RECEIVED HOME WITH WONDER AND DELIGHT. 
 
 The brothers then made a slow and tiresome journey back to North 
 Carolina, with the intention of inducing as many families as possible to 
 emigrate and found a settlement in Kentucky. After his long absence, 
 Daniel Boone was received with delight and wonder by his family and 
 old acquaintances. At length a little party was made up to migrate to 
 the wilds of Kentucky. It consisted of only the two Boone families — 
 those of Daniel and Squire ; those who had thought they would go, not 
 feeling quite ready when the time really came. The Boones, however, 
 determined to set the example, and to leave that, and their description ot 
 the new country westward, to do their own work upon the minds of the 
 people in the Yadkin settlements. They set forth on the 25th day of 
 September, 1773, taking along with them some cattle and horses. 
 
 Courage generally makes its own conquests ; and by the time this 
 
DANIEL BOONE. 25 
 
 little party reached Powell's Valley, they found, to their astonishment 
 and delight, that the stories of the new country had persuaded five more 
 families to join the projected expedition, together with a band of some 
 forty strong and determined men, all well armed for the enterprise and 
 its dangers. It was truly a great accession. At the head of this band 
 of pioneers Daniel Boone was placed, by virtue of his character and 
 experience, and at once led them out into the western wilderness, across 
 the long dreaded mountains. 
 
 A BRUTAL MASSACRE BY THE SAVAGES. 
 
 But a cloud rested upon them ere long, whose shadow served 10 
 obscure all their plans. They had proceeded safely on their journey till 
 the ioth day of October, seeing nothing of the Indians, so much dreaded 
 by all, when a most sad fatality overtook them, rending the heart of the 
 leader with grief. It seems that a part of the company, seven in number, 
 had gone back a little way to collect together some of the cattle that had 
 wandered a little from the main body ; and, fearing no danger because 
 they had hitherto met with none, they became in a degree thoughtless 
 about keeping the usual watch. In an unguarded moment they were set 
 upon by a party of savages, who had stealthily tracked them along, and, 
 without the slightest warning, six out of the seven were cruelly butchered! 
 Of these six, a young son of Daniel Boone, only seventeen years of age, 
 was one. The main body of the pioneers heard the sounds proceeding 
 from the fight while it was going on, and at once rushed to the scene ; 
 but they reached the spot only to find that all had been slain but one, 
 and the young and brave son of Boone among them. The seventh had 
 managed to make his escape. 
 
 Here was a sorrowful beginning indeed. Slaughter on the very 
 threshold of the undertaking. They did not dare to think of going on 
 for the forest might be swarming with bloodthirsty savages. 
 
 It was resolved to fall back to the settlements on the Clinch River. 
 Here Boone remained six months, patiently waiting for the time when 
 he could carry out his cherished project. At length he was engaged as 
 
26 DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 the agent of a Carolina company in purchasing the land on the south 
 side of the Kentucky River. A company of surveyors and settlers went 
 forward with him, his own family remaining behind, and in 1775 he built 
 a stockade fort on the site now occupied by Boonesborough. 
 
 BUILDING A STRONG FORT. 
 
 Having planned the fort, the party sprang to the work with earnest 
 vigor, feeling how important its completion was to their own safety. The 
 structure was built close by the river, one end resting on the bank, and 
 the whole extending back for a distance of two hundred and sixty feet. 
 It was a hundred and fifty feet wide. The style of it is as follows ; large 
 pieces of timber were sharpened and one end driven into the ground, very 
 much like common pickets, and within the enclosure thus formed were 
 the several cabins and huts of the party. It may not seem as if such a 
 defence could amount to a great deal, but it did, for all that ; the Indians 
 knew nothing of the hiding places that might be stowed away in this 
 rude fort, while, at the same time, it afforded the settler a better advan- 
 tage over his artful enemy ; the forest and the cane-brake were well 
 understood by the savage, who there had everything on his side ; but the 
 fort was a puzzle whose key he did not know how to get hold of. Still, 
 there was one strong objection to this fort : it was close by the woods at 
 one end, thus affording the savage every chance to approach the settlers, 
 and still be concealed from them. 
 
 At each corner of this great enclosure was built a strong log hut, 
 with its hewn ends projecting outwardly, thus making the whole a more 
 enduring defence than before. The cabins, or huts, were likewise con- 
 structed side by side, with rough and heavy logs, making it next to 
 impossible to overcome their united strength. Then the few gates needed 
 were stout and heavy, difficult to be moved at all, and capable of success- 
 fully resisting any assault, even from overwhelming numbers. 
 
 To build this fort required from the istof April till the 14th of June. 
 In other words, it was begun just before the battle of Lexington, and 
 completed just before the battle of Bunker Hill. Important events were 
 
DANIEL BOONE. 27 
 
 transpiring, at that time, as well on the seaboard as far back in the wild- 
 erness. One man lost his life at the hands of the Indians, while the 
 work was going on, and that was all. The natives of the forest conld not 
 bnt regard the bnilding of this fort among them, in the very heart of 
 their noble hnnting-gronnds, with greater jealonsy even than the 
 laying ont of the road ; hence they were aronsed to making concerted 
 movements to destroy it and its white inmates together. To have lost 
 bnt one man by them, dnring the progress of the work, therefore, was a 
 great deal less misfortnne than might reasonably have been expected. 
 
 HIS JOURNEY BACK TO VIRGINIA. 
 
 Boone, by this time, felt as if he wonld like to go back and see his 
 wife and children again. To this end, he determined to leave the garri- 
 son where they were, duly cautioning them against surprises at the hands 
 of the savages, and impressing on them the necessity of having a certain 
 amount of cleared land close by. 
 
 We have not the particulars of this journey of Boone back to Vir- 
 ginia ; it is enough to know that it was made in safety, and that his 
 heart was gladdened once more to find himself in the arms of his beloved 
 wife and children. He resolved, this time, to be separated from them 
 no more. He meant, when he returned, to take them along with him. 
 Now that the new fort at Boonesborough was completed, and defended 
 by an armed and watchful garrison, he felt secure in the thought of 
 taking his little brood out into the forest wilds, and knew, too, what a 
 blessed influence the presence of wife and children would have over him. 
 The path westward was now open ; men and women could go forward in 
 it and people the country. 
 
 Boone's wife and daughters were all ready to start. How that jour- 
 ney was made, we have, unfortunately, no particular record. Boone 
 himself says of it, in his narrative, only this, — that it was "safe, and 
 without any other difficulties than such as are common to the passage." 
 They stood, at length, on the banks of the Kentucky River. No white 
 females had put their feet there before them. Of the women of this 
 
28 DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 country, they were the pioneers ; a young wife, and daughters in the 
 very blush of girlhood and innocence. How rough and hard their wood- 
 land life was, it is not easy at this day to imagine. It was an unusual 
 thing for anyone then to be taken sick and die in his own bed ; when 
 death overtook men in the forest, it was always a death of violence. In 
 illustration of the feelings begotten of such a state of things, the fol- 
 lowing impressive incident is related : 
 
 "An old lady, who had been in the forts, was, many years later, 
 describing the scenes she had witnessed in those times of peril and 
 adventure ; aud, among other things, remarked that, during the first two 
 years of her residence in Kentucky, the most comely sight she beheld 
 was seeing a young man dying in his bed a natural death. She had 
 been familiar with blood, and carnage, and death, but in all these cases 
 the sufferers were the victims of the Indian tomahawk and scalping- 
 knife ; and that on an occasion when a young man was taken sick and 
 died after the usual manner of nature, she and the rest of the women sat 
 up all night, gazing upon him as an object of beauty ! " 
 
 DISASTER TO A COMPANY OF PIONEERS. 
 
 That must indeed have been a rugged way of life which subjected 
 women to trials like these ; which made it desirable even to see a person 
 die in a bed, because death by the tomahawk and the scalping-knife had 
 become so common. 
 
 Boone brought out with him, on this return journey to the fort, 
 several of the families that turned back before, when the little party was 
 assailed by the Indians. These families knew him well, had seen him 
 tried in the fiery furnace of affliction, and were content to repose their 
 safety in his keeping. But they had not all gone very far together, 
 before they separated. The precise reason for this step is not known, 
 and probably never will be. Boone pushed on, while the remainder, or 
 the greater part of them, lagged behind. They lost their way. Theii 
 cattle and stock strayed away from them. They were like sheep with- 
 out a shepherd. And after many reverses*, sufferings, and irritating 
 
DANIEL BOONE. 29 
 
 disappointments, they managed at last to reach the fort at Boones- 
 borongh by the pathway that was marked ont for them. They had at 
 least learned one lesson by this idle dissatisfaction ; they knew the worth 
 of the man they had deserted. 
 
 One fort naturally suggested another. Each was the nucleus, or 
 center, for a wide settlement. This position of Boone being so strong, 
 it lent encouragement to the rest to believe they might establish others 
 equally strong. So they began to radiate. Pretty soon, there was a fort 
 here, and another fort there ; yet the increase was steady and slow, for 
 each new post was, at best, but a rash experiment It was not 60 plain, 
 even yet, that the settlements did not exist as much by the leniency of 
 the Indians, as by the aid of anything else. Were they disposed, there 
 was little doubt that they might at any time have overwhelmed the little 
 band of white men with their numbers. 
 
 CAPTURE OF THREE YOUNG GIRLS BY THE INDIANS 
 
 A circumstance transpired on the 14th of July, 1776, that caused a 
 great excitement throughout the settlement. The narrative has already 
 been well given by Mr. Peck, in his sketch of Boone's life, drawn from 
 the statement of John Floyd, and from sources additional ; and we prefer 
 to give it in the words of Mr. Peck himself: — 
 
 "On the 14th of July, 1776, Betsey Callaway, her sister Frances, and 
 Jemima Boone, a daughter of Captain Daniel Boone, the two last about 
 fourteen years of age, carelessly crossed the river opposite to Boones- 
 borough in a canoe, at a late hour in the afternoon. The trees and 
 shrubs on the opposite bank were thick, and came down to the water's 
 edge. The girls, unconscious of danger, were playing and splashing the 
 water with the paddles, until the canoe, floating with the current, drifted 
 near the shore. Five stout Indians lay there concealed ; one of whom, 
 noiseless and stealthy as the serpent, crawling down the bank until he 
 reached the rope that hung from the bow, turned its course up the stream, 
 and in a direction to be hidden from the fort. The loud shrieks of the 
 captured girls were heard, but too late for their rescue. The canoe, their 
 
SO DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 only means of crossing, was on the opposite shore, and none dared- to 
 risk the chance of swimming the river, under the impression that a large 
 body of savages was concealed in the woods. 
 
 " Boone and Callaway were both absent, and night set in before their 
 return and arrangements could be made for pursuit. Next morning, by 
 daylight, we were on the track, but found they had totally prevented our 
 
 CAPTURE OF THE BOONE AND CALLAWAY GIRLS. 
 
 following them, by walking some distance apart through the thickest 
 canes they could find. We observed their course, and on which side we 
 had left their trail, and traveled upwards of thirty miles. We then 
 imagined that they would be less cautious in traveling, and made a turn 
 in order to cross their trace, and had gone but a few miles before we found 
 their tracks in a buffalo path ; pursued and overtook them on going about 
 ten miles, just as they were kindling a fire to cook and get ready for a 
 substantial meal. 
 
DANIEL BOONE. 31 
 
 "Our study had been more to get the prisoners, without giving the 
 Indians time to murder them after they discovered us, than to kill them. 
 We discovered each other nearly at the same time. Four of us fired, and 
 all rushed on them, which prevented them from carrying away anything 
 except one shot-gun, without ammunition. Mr. Boone and myself had a 
 pretty fair shot, just as they began to move off. I am well convinced I 
 shot one through, and the one he shot dropped his gun ; mine had none. 
 The place was very thick with canes, and being' so much elated on recov- 
 ering the three little broken-hearted girls, prevented our making further 
 search. We sent them off without their moccasins, and not one of them 
 with so much as a knife or a tomahawk." 
 
 PREPARING TO MAKE AN ATTACK ON THE SETTLERS. 
 
 It so happened — or else it was so arranged beforehand — that on this 
 very same 14th of July on which the three young girls were stolen from 
 the vicinity of the fort, the Indians all around had divided their forces 
 into distinct parties, and determined to make a series of attacks on the 
 different settlements, whenever, and as often, as circumstances would 
 allow. They beheld the increase of the white numbers with great jeal- 
 ousy. They dreaded, too, the protection the forts gave them. If they 
 could be allowed to fight on their own ground, and in their own way, it 
 would all be to their advantage ; but this placing the whites under cover 
 was something they could not understand. These attacks were kept up 
 from that time forward with great regularity. No day was free from sus- 
 picion that the Indians were close at hand ; no night was so calm and 
 quiet that all slept in their beds without dreams of a stealthy foe in 
 their midst, with tomahawk and scalping-knife brandished above their 
 heads. 
 
 Of all the places at which the Indian aimed his hatred, the Boones- 
 borough Fort was the chief. Here he thought the whole white power 
 was centered. Here, too, his British companions-in-arms taught him to 
 look for the greatest danger to his rule and his land. Hence he watched 
 every movement in its vicinity with a wily temper indeed. Whenever he 
 
32 
 
 DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 could find the occupants of the fort in the least degree exposed, he did 
 not fail to make his cruelty felt and remembered. 
 
 There were but three forts in Kentucky at the time of which we 
 are speaking ; that at Boonesborough, which was the most important 
 one — that at Harrodsburgh— and what was known as Logan's Fort. At 
 Boonesborough there was a garrison of but twenty-two men; at Logan's 
 
 Fort of only fifteen ; and Har- 
 rodsburgh held sixty -five — 
 more than both the others to- 
 gether. That is, there were 
 only one hundred and two men 
 to hold the entire frontier 
 against the assaults of Indians 
 and British combined ; and by 
 the treaties that had been 
 formed between the latter and 
 the former, it was easy for a 
 mixed army to be precipitatec 
 upon this little handful oj 
 settlers from the line of post* 
 along to the north, that woulc 
 crush them out of existence 
 It is said that about three hun 
 dred of the settlers had gon< 
 SQUAW AND PAPOOSE. back to Virginia again, eithe: 
 
 disheartened at the prospects, or grown too timid to remain and hole 
 their position. This of course entailed more severe service on the fev 
 who remained at their post ; they were on the watch continually ; al 
 had to take their turns, and take them pretty often, too, as they were ii 
 constant danger from their foes. 
 
 Finally there was a concerted movement among the savages to mak» 
 a descent on the fort at Boonesborough ; they had waited and watched t< 
 v see what the great strength of the pioneers consisted in, and now, having 
 
DANIEL BOONE. 33 
 
 perfectly satisfied themselves, they resolved to surround the whites in a 
 body and endeavor to destroy them. The garrison at Boonesborough 
 was exceedingly small ; the Indians came down upon them in numbers 
 exceeding one hundred. Of course, there was dangerous odds against 
 the whites. They made their attack on the 15th of April. It was a 
 sudden and terrible one. Their savage natures had been aroused to the 
 highest pitch of excitement. They dashed, like waves upon rocks, 
 against the feeble enclosure of the settlers in the wilderness. The forest 
 rang again with their shrill shouts and cries. Their lithe and dusky 
 forms peopled the solitudes as the white men had never seen them 
 peopled before. They came on with the yells of infuriated beasts, strik- 
 ing terror into the hearts of all who heard them. 
 
 GENERAL MASSACRE THREATENED. 
 
 It appeared, for a time, as if the little fort was much too frail to 
 withstand the wild onset. They behaved as if nothing could keep them 
 from pouring in a living stream into the fort, and visiting the little gar- 
 rison with a general massacre. The white settlers made sorry work 
 among them with their unerring rifles. How many of the savages were 
 thus picked off was never known ; for they were careful to conceal their 
 losses by carrying off their dead and wounded. Yet it was believed, with 
 good reason, that they were sore sufferers. Their unexpected losses 
 served to make them still more ferocious. They raved and stormed 
 against the entrenched garrison with the fury of desperation. But it was 
 to no purpose. The skill and coolness of the white man were more than 
 a match for the Indian. 
 
 They sullenly turned their backs, therefore, and plunged into the 
 shadows of the wilderness. Now they knew what it was to meet the fire 
 of the brave white settlers. It must have tasked them still more to bear 
 their dead away with them, especially when so sorely fatigued with the 
 results of a vain and bloody assault against a determined foe. That, 
 however, was their usual practice, which they would have followed in the 
 present case, if it had cost every one of them his life. The evidences of 
 
34 DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 the desperate combat were all around the locality. The garrison, to be 
 sure, did not lose but a single man, which was a very slight misfortune 
 for them, under such threatening circumstances. 
 
 They must have thought themselves fortunate to remain masters of 
 their position. 
 
 The savages were not satisfied with this ; it only whetted their 
 appetite f)r more. Like the wolf, having once tasted blood, they would 
 
 INDIAN AMUSEMENTS— CANOE-RACE BETWEEN SQUAWS. 
 
 follow up their ferocious instincts wherever they led them. The men 
 within the fort looked for a speedy renewal of the attack, n r were they 
 disappointed in their expectations. The Indians came out of the forest 
 in dense and dark legions, on the 4th of July. They numbered a larger 
 mass than ever. They came and sat down before the rude fortress as 
 for a regular siege, resolved either to fight or starve their determined 
 enemy out. The numbers stood about two hundred Indians to one white 
 man ; overwhelming odds, truly, and apparently discouraging. 
 
 For forty-eight hours the savages kept up the siege. Every white 
 
DANIEL BOONE. 35 
 
 man's head that was exposed in the least, was dnring that period in 
 imminent danger. They howled and shrieked, they whooped and yelled 
 in their barbarous frenzy, expecting that the deadly terror they wonld 
 thus strike into the hearts of the white men within the fort would some- 
 how lead to their easier overthrow. The wild beasts themselves, coming 
 from their forest lairs, could not have made night more hideous than did 
 these Indians, with their unearthly yells and cries. Those within the 
 fortress, however,were not inspired with terror,but rather with desperation. 
 
 HEROISM OF THE LITTLE GARRISON. 
 
 Too well they knew that this was their last chance to hold or lose 
 all — and they might the latter. The fighting between the opposing parties, 
 during the time the place was thus besieged by the Indians, was as close 
 as any that had yet occurred. The little garrison came off, however, with 
 the loss of but a single man, as in the previous contest ; fewer were 
 wounded, too, than before. The courage of Daniel Boone in this 
 encounter was especially conspicuous ; he dared all that any brave man 
 could dare, and exercised a wariness that made him an equal match even 
 for the Indian. 
 
 Soon after this, other settlers began to come into the forts, and were 
 received with manifestations of the greatest joy. When a garrison was 
 reduced to the dimensions of this, the slightest accession to its numbers 
 could not but be hailed with delight. Forty-five men arrived from North 
 Carolina, in the last week of July, and a hundred more came from Vir- 
 ginia in the latter part of August ; making an accession of valuable men 
 to the settlement really worth speaking of. All along through the sum- 
 mer and into the autumn, they continued to have skirmishes with the 
 Indians, but they always came out best from each encounter. There was 
 no end, apparently, to the ingenuity practised 03^ the savages in selecting 
 the time and mode of their attacks. At any hour of the day, they were 
 liable to beset the party of white men hunting in the forest ; and through 
 the still night hours there was no cessation from fears of their presence. 
 
 Boone was wary and watchful. The red man himself was not more 
 
36 DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 than a match for him in that respect. And in addition to this trait of 
 cantion and judgment, he possessed all the attributes of the highest 
 courage. No mere military man could inspire followers with deeper con- 
 fidence than he. He never hesitated to lead wherever any dared to follow. 
 A man now appeared upon the field, who was destined to play a bril- 
 liant and important part in the early history of the western country. His 
 name was George R. Clarke. No greater military man has ever asso- 
 ciated his name with the annals of our early western settlements. A > a 
 brave man, he had long been familiarly known in the old Virginia colony, 
 and he enjoyed the confidence of Lord Dunmore, the royal Governor, in a 
 marked degree. The latter had even offered him a military commission 
 under British authority, but that he had nobly declined. 
 
 THREE GARRISONS ENTRENCHED ON THE FRONTIER. 
 
 There were three important garrisons on the northwestern frontier 
 that were occupied by the British and Indians — at Detroit, Vincennes, 
 and Kaskaskias. The young reader who is not familiar with their loca- 
 tion, will do well to make himself acquainted with the same by referring 
 to the map. Clarke saw that there was but one way by which to intimi- 
 date the savage, and that was by striking a vigorous and decisive blow 
 at once. He therefore resolved to make a concerted attack on each of 
 these three fortresses, surprising the garrison perhaps into a surrender. 
 He wanted bold men to work with him. He looked around to find those 
 who, while as cautious and wary as the Indian himself, were still as fear- 
 less as lions to go out into an encounter. 
 
 The first thing done by General Clarke was to select and organize a 
 board of forest rangers, or spies, who could track their solitary way in 
 the deep wilderness, hover on the outskirts of the enemy, and fetch and 
 carry reports with the utmost promptness and reliability. The payment 
 for their services, it was pledged by Clarke, should be made by Virginia. 
 All along the Ohio banks they traveled, taking their lives in their 
 hands. The men of our time can have no conception of the perils with 
 which th^y were environed. Clad in their hunting toggery — moccasins, 
 
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DANIEL BOONE. 37 
 
 buckskin breeches, and a hunter's shirt of leather, and armed with the 
 keen knife and inseparable rifle, they plunged into dense growths of 
 forest, and tracked paths through the close-serried ranks of the cane., 
 with the same sense of security with which the savage trod those wildsi 
 himself. The work to be done by the spy, therefore, courageous as it 
 was in the largest sens:, was attended with a great deal more danger on 
 the western frontier, than within range of the enemy's sentinels on the 
 Atlantic border in peaceful settlements. 
 
 ROMANTIC STORY OF A WESTERN SCOUT. 
 
 Prominent among all brave and memorable western scouts, or spies, 
 is the name of Simon Kenton. He performed a vast deal of invaluable 
 work at this particular juncture. There was a secret cause for his thus 
 taking to the perils and excitements of a spy among the Indian forts, 
 which deserves narration. Boone made choice of him immediately, con- 
 fiding to him some of his deepest projects for the reduction of the enemy's 
 fortresses and the defence of his own. Of a more sincere and beautiful 
 friendship than that which existed between Boone and Kenton, the his- 
 tory of no early state, east or west, furnishes any example. The name 
 of Simon Kenton — or Simon Butler, as it came to be — is indissolubly 
 associated with that of Boone all over the west. Boone's choice of the 
 man for the service required, showed the deepest insight on the part of 
 the great pioneer. 
 
 Kenton, early in life, was deeply in love with a young woman, who 
 failed to return his passion. She preferred another beau to him. This 
 was more than the hot blood of the young man could endure. When 
 his lady-love called her friends together to witness the ceremony of her 
 marriage, Simon Kenton was present, uninvited ; he did not care to be 
 invited ; he could witness that ceremony without going through a needless 
 form of that kind. Of course his presence created much excitement in 
 the bridal party, and, in the custom of those rude times, there was a tussle 
 between the successful and unsuccessful young man, which resulted 
 rather in the latter' s discomfiture. He vowed vengeance, however, and 
 
38 DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 watched his opportunity. It was not long in coming round. The two 
 young fellows met. Kenton got the better of his adversary, and used 
 him savagely. Supposing he had taken his life, he fled for the shelter of 
 the forest. Changing his name to that of Simon Butler, he entered on a 
 life of wild excitement and reckless daring, which could be desired by no 
 living mortal except, perhaps, to keep down internal excitements 
 immeasurably stronger and deeper. There are a great many stories told 
 throughout the west, of his extreme sufferings in certain cases, when he 
 fell into the hands of the Indians. It is said that he was eight times 
 compelled to run the gauntlet, which was no slight undertaking, nor 
 holding out many chances of escape finally ; he was three times fastened 
 to the stake ; and once he came very near being sacrificed by a blow ^^ l n 
 an axe, or tomahawk ; thus he was in constant danger. 
 
 BOONE'S LIFE SAVED BY A NOTED SPY. 
 
 More than once, Simon Kenton was instrumental in saving Boone's 
 life. Kenton was on the .watch, one day, standing at the gate of the fort. 
 He was about going forth on the service of a spy. His rifle was loaded, 
 and he was otherwise equipped for his work. It was quite early in the 
 morning. A couple of men belonging to the fort were out in the fields 
 not far off, engaged in hoeing. Suddenly Kenton observed that the men 
 were fired upon. He knew instantly that Indians were at hand. Finding 
 themselves unhurt, the two men started and ran with all speed for the 
 fort. The savages followed as rapidly. One of the poor fellows was 
 overtaken within a few rods of the fort, and tomahawked in sight of 
 Kenton himself. The latter put his rifle to his shoulder, drew the trig- 
 ger, and the savage who had done the deed fell dead in his tracks. 
 Revenge was in swift pursuit. 
 
 The Indians were very bold in approaching so near ; but they had 
 learned not to fear the white man, from familiarity with his presence. 
 Furthermore, they were there in such strength that the risk they run 
 was slight indeed. Boone was within the fort at the time Kenton fired 
 his rifle with such effect at the Indian. The sound was an alarm for his 
 
DANIEL BOONE. 39 
 
 practised ear, and, with ten trusty men, lie started off after the savages. 
 The latter did not run, but seemed inclined to stand their ground. Boone 
 and his little party were speedily fighting in the midst of them. Ken- 
 ton's quick eye saw one savage in the act of taking deadly aim at Boone 
 himself, and he shot him dead on the spot, before his bullet could per- 
 form its fatal errand, and saved the great pioneer. 
 
 BOONE WOUNDED IN A DESPERATE FIGHT. 
 
 So sudden was the alarm — it being at an early hour of the morning 
 — that Boone had thought only of making an instantaneous sally and driv- 
 ing the invaders of! with a dash ; he had not stopped to calculate in how 
 large force they might be, nor what were the chances of his coming off 
 victorious. He was struck aback with surprise, therefore, to find himself 
 and his ten followers completely surrounded ! The hostile Indians had 
 managed to place themselves in considerable numbers between him and 
 the fort ! There was but one way by which he might save himself, and 
 that was by rushing furiously against the foe. He made a rush — such 
 as only men like him ever dare to attempt — calling out to his followers 
 to fire upon the red-skins, and plunge into their ranks. They did as 
 they were ordered ; and, but for the deadly fire of the Indians themselves, 
 who were prepared to resist such an onset, they would have cut their way 
 through safely and successfully. The Indians fired simultaneously with 
 the rush the party made at them. 
 
 Boone himself was wounded, and fell to the ground. Six others, 
 also, received bullets from the savages' guns. An Indian at once dashed 
 forward as the white men fell, and raised his tomahawk to knock out the 
 brains of the prostrate Pioneer ; but the keen eye of Kenton was upon 
 him, and an unerring ball followed the course of the eye in a twinkling. 
 Down came the Indian to the ground, biting the dust in the agony of 
 death. Kenton was proving himself invaluable. Boone was carried into 
 the fort with his leg broken ; the rest were also got in with great haste, 
 and then the gates were shut fast against the foe. The Pioneer never 
 forgot the obligations he owed to his generous preserver. It is true, he 
 
40 DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 could not give them expression, except in words, yet they lived none 
 the less deeply in his large and noble heart. 
 
 This is but one of the many similar scenes that were enacted at that 
 
 NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS IN COSTUME. 
 
 time on the frontiers of Kentucky. There was hardly any life but that 
 which comprise,! alarms and surprises. All labor outside the fort was 
 
DANIEL BOONE. 41 
 
 performed only under the protection of well armed guards, and at partic- 
 ular hours of the day. The land was held at the greatest possible cost, 
 both of labor and endurance. Men slept on their rifles. They did not 
 stir out without them. A watchful guard had to be kept all the time, 
 lest a wily red fellow might by some chance stealthily creep up and sur- 
 prise them. There were skirmishes, too, continually. Scarcely a week 
 passed over, without one or more of them. 
 
 Having been shut in for so many months in " le fort without the 
 means of making their usual sallies out for provisions of this and that 
 sort, it naturally fell out that the garrison began pretty soon to suffer 
 from the lack of salt. They could not live much longer, at least in a 
 state of comparative health, unless they could procure salt. They well 
 knew of certain places along the course of the streams, where salt was 
 to be had in plenty, the wild beasts of the forest having revealed to them 
 the important secret in ths first place. Accordingly an expedition was 
 planned to procure at these places the much needed commodity. 
 
 WENT WITH TRUSTY RIFLES AND BRAVE HEARTS. 
 
 When a measure of this sort was to be taken, Boone was the man 
 all ready to enlist in it. A party of men, all abundantly armed, was 
 made up for the expedition. Thirty men set forth. They knew full well 
 what they were about to undertake, and went prepared with trusty rifles 
 and stout hearts. Their destination was to what was known as the Blue 
 Licks, one of the most famous and valuable places for the free production 
 of salt known in Kentucky. There was many a fierce and bloody con- 
 flict fought at and near this place, and the entire neighborhood forms 
 one of the most important of all the localities that helped make up, for 
 Kentucky, the title of the " dark and bloody ground." 
 
 Splendid hotels, with numerous out-buildings, occupy the spot now, 
 attracting to it the most gay and fashionable of all the pleasure-seekers 
 of the land. It would hardly be recognized as the same spot which orig- 
 inated so many bloody encounters between the white settler and the 
 ferocious red man of the forest. 
 
42 DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 After a cautious and quite slow march — necessarily so, because of 
 the unseen dangers that lurked everywhere around them — Boone and 
 his brave little band of thirty men arrived in safety, and without the 
 loss of a single one of their number, at the place, and began immediate 
 operations. They set their salt kettles in which to evaporate the water 
 from the spring, and went about the task of manufacturing the salt 
 required for the use of the garrison. It was important that the work 
 should be done with great dispatch, for the moment the Indians found 
 out what they were at, there would come an end to their operations. 
 
 SCENE COMMEMORATED IN OUR CAPITOL. 
 
 Sundry exciting incidents occurred while this little party were at 
 the springs, and among the rest one which our government has thought 
 worthy of preservation in stone, in a sculptured group ornamenting the 
 rotunda of the Capitol at Washington. Evidently the story has been 
 made to fit the well known character of Boone, but we tell it in the very 
 words it has been told in.before : 
 
 1 ' Boone, instead of taking part in the diurnal and uninterrupted 
 labor of evaporating the water, performed the more congenial duty of 
 hunting to keep the company in provisions while they labored. In this 
 pursuit, he had one day wandered some distance from the bank of the 
 river. Two Indians, armed with muskets — for they had now generally 
 added these efficient weapons to their tomahawks — came upon him. His 
 first thought was to retreat. But he discovered, from their nimbleness, 
 that this was impossible. His second thought was resistance, and he 
 slipped behind a tree to await their coming within rifle-shot. He then 
 exposed himself, so as to attract their aim. The foremost leveled his 
 musket. Boone, who could dodge the flash at the pulling of the trigger, 
 dropped behind his tree unhurt. The next object was to cause the fire 
 of the second musket to be thrown away in the same manner. He again 
 exposed part of his person, a daring thing to do according to our present 
 ideas, but we must remember that the muskets of those days were the 
 old-fashioned flint-lock. 
 
DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 43 
 
 " Tlie eager Indian instantly fired, and Boone evaded the shot as 
 before. Both the Indians, having thrown away their fire, were eagerly 
 striving, but with trembling hands, to reload. Trepidation and too much 
 haste retarded their object. Boone drew his rifle, and one of them fell 
 dead. The two antagonists, now on equal ground, the one unsheathing 
 his knife, and the other poising his tomahawk, rushed toward the dead 
 body of the fallen Indian. Boone, placing his foot on the dead body, 
 
 DANIEL BOONE'S FIGHT WITH THE SAVAGES. 
 
 dexterously received the well-aimed tomahawk of his powerful enemy on 
 the barrel of his rifle, thus preventing his skull from being cloven by it. 
 In the very attitude of striking, the Indian had exposed his body to the 
 knife of Boone, who plunged it in his body to the hilt, and was again 
 the hero in a personal encounter." 
 
 A party of Indians who were on their way to capture the fort at 
 Boonesborough came suddenly upon Boone while hunting in the woods 
 near the salt springs. Seeing that resistance was useless, he was com- 
 
44 DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 pelled to surrender himself and his little band, who were fortunate 
 enough to escape being killed, as they probably would have been if they 
 had engaged in a fight with the red men. Instead of going forward to 
 capture the fort, as they could easily have done, since there were few to 
 defend it, the Indians marched their prisoners to Chillicothe, which was 
 their leading settlement in that section. 
 
 BOONE AND HIS COMPANIONS SENT TO DETROIT. 
 
 Desirous of acquainting their white allies, the British, with the 
 results of their prowess, the Indians sent off Boone and ten chosen men 
 of the captured party through the wilderness, and across rivers and 
 creeks, to the British fort at Detroit. General Hamilton was in command 
 at that noted place, and it is charged that, in obedience to the spirit of 
 the alliance then existing between the British and Indians, he had offered 
 large sums of money for all the scalps of the white men that the Indians 
 might bring in. He has the credit, however, of humanely telling the 
 savages that he preferred living prisoners to scalps, which was so much 
 in his favor when sentiments so civilized were not in the fashion. 
 
 They were about three weeks in making the journey, which they did 
 with some difficulty. Boone all the while pretended to be contented with 
 his lot, and thus deceived his captors the more. Little is recorded of the 
 journey itself; he is mute respecting it. Arrived at Detroit, he became 
 at once the observed of all. Hamilton, the British commander, knew 
 much about him, because he could not well help knowing in what esteem 
 he had been held by Governor Dunmore, of Virginia. The officers and sol- 
 diers showed him many personal attentions, which he greatly prized, and 
 repeatedly placed their funds at his disposal. He was escorted around 
 wherever he chose to go in the neighborhood, by his Indian guides, all 
 the while professing himself satisfied with his new fortunes. Hamilton 
 offered the Indians as large a sum as one hundred pounds sterling, or 
 five hundred dollars, for his ransom, but the Indians refused the offer 
 unconditionally. They knew how valuable a prize they had in the per- 
 son of the Pioneer of Kentucky. 
 
GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN 
 
GEN. P. H. SHERIDAN 
 
COMMANDER RICHARD WAINWRIGHT 
 
DANIEL BOONE. 45 
 
 He stayed at Detroit for a inonth, at no time betraying the least dis- 
 content or desire to escape. The Indians were anxions to adopt him, 
 knowing what valuable service he conld render them, and he appeared 
 to be qnite agreeable to their wishes. He knew his only safety depended 
 upon his falling in apparently with all their plans. They finally returned 
 with him to their old village of Chillicothe, arriving there after a long 
 and tedious journey. Boone says, in his biography, he was well treated 
 by the Indians, made himself friendly with them, was adopted, according 
 to their custom, into a family, where he became a son, and had a great 
 share in the affection of his new parents, brothers, sisters and friends, 
 yet all the time feeling extreme anxiety concerning the fate of + he fort 
 at B^onesborough and watching an opportunity to escape. 
 
 CEREMONY OF ADOPTION INTO AN INDIAN FAMILY. 
 
 In order to become a member of the tribe, and particularly to be 
 admitted into the family of the chieftain, he was obliged to go through 
 certain ceremonies that must have cost his feelings a large sacrifice ; but 
 he considered the object to be gained more than anything else. The}' 
 took him and plucked out, spear by spear, all the hair from his head, 
 with the exception of a single lock on the top of the skull, called the 
 tuft-lock, which was about three inches in diameter ; then they put him 
 through the process of having the white blood washed out of him ; next 
 he was carried to the council house, where he listened to a set speech, 
 setting forth the dignity of his new character, and the services expected 
 of him as the son of a chief, and the member of the tribe. Finally he 
 submitted himself to be painted all about the face, in most fantastic 
 devices, and then he sat down with the rest of them to a feast, and to the 
 pipe, which is symbolic of peace and fraternity. Boone's best friend 
 would not have been likely to recognize him, had he seen him thus 
 metamorphosed. 
 
 Every day he studied how he might make his preparations most 
 skillfully for escape. The Indians kept a close watch on him, though 
 he believed they had confidence in his integrity. When they gave him 
 
46 DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 bullets with which to go out on his hunting excursions, they were care- 
 ful to count them, and observe on his return if he had secreted any for 
 his own use in the future. But even here Boone was too shrewd for 
 them ; for he would use but slight charges of powder, and the bullets he 
 would cut in two. Besides sending him out to hunt and bring in wild 
 game for them, the savages set him at work making salt ; this they knew 
 he could do, for when he was surprised and captured by them, he was 
 
 INDIANS PAINTING WHITE MEN. 
 with a party that were engaged in this very occupation. There were 
 salt springs on the Scioto River, and thither he was forced to go and 
 ? manufacture this indispensable commodity for his dusky captors. The 
 Indian was too proud to do menial work, and therefore left it for his 
 squaws and his captives. Boone did not in any one point disappoint 
 their expectations. He worked industriously and cheerfully ; he pro- 
 duced liberal supplies of the article they wanted, and they bestowed on 
 him their praise for his valuable services. 
 
DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 47 
 
 All this time, they were without their old leader at the fort at 
 Boonesborough. More than four months had elapsed already, and noth- 
 ing had been heard of him. Presently, however, news arrived in a round- 
 about way at Boonesborough that their leader had been carried off to 
 Detroit. That was all they could learn of his fate. They supposed now 
 that he was altogether in the hands of the British, and that the Indians 
 would have no more to do with him. And not having heard further 
 respecting his disposal, the general 
 conclusion was that he had been car- 
 ried still further away into the wilds 
 of Canada. Little thought the} 7 that, 
 at that very hour, he was so near them, 
 the adopted son of a powerful Shawa- 
 nese Chief, and secretly plotting how 
 he couid best get back to them again ! 
 But, without Boone, they seemed to 
 give up all ; he had so long been 
 their guiding spirit, animating them 
 to exertion, that when he was lost, 
 all seemed to be lost with him. Hence 
 they fell off in their watchfulness 
 against the enemy, and even suffered 
 the fort itself— the last hope and stay f * J ^\.^^^^ 
 of their existence— to be neglected. SHAWANESE CHIEF. 
 
 Satisfied in her own mind that she should not hear from her husband 
 again, the wife of Daniel Boone started off with her little family — except- 
 ing one daughter — for the home of her parents in North Carolina. She 
 made the journey on horseback, carrying her few effects along with her 
 the best way she could. It was a sorrowful journey indeed for her. Since 
 coining out into the western country, she had sacrificed her eldest boy 
 and lost her husband. Were there anything now left to stay for, she 
 would willingly have remained on the frontier ; but she despaired of ever 
 seeing her husband again, and the condition of the settlers at Boones- 
 
48 DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 borough was fast becoming so precarious that she could not but see the 
 folly of staying only to throw her life away. Safely, though slowly, that 
 brave woman, with her little brood abo*. t her, found her way back through 
 the frowning wilderness, hundreds of miles, to Carolina. Few of her sex 
 could be found willing to undertake such a journey even in these times ; 
 what is to be thought of the courage of her who freely set out on it, in 
 times of peril like that, when the forest was alive wi;h dangers from sav- 
 age and beast, and not even a regular trail was to be followed from one 
 point to another ? Surely, that she was entirely worthy of her noble 
 husband. She arrived home in safety, as every reader is glad to know. 
 
 SAVAGES PREPARE TO CAPTURE THE FORT. 
 
 To return to Boone himself. When he had finished making salt and 
 gone back to the Indian settlement at Chillicothe, he was not a little sur- 
 prised to find that his captors had been making preparations, in his 
 absence, to proceed in full force against the fort at Boonesborough. There 
 were four hundred and fifty of their bravest warriors, all ready to set out 
 on the expedition. This fact caused him to hasten his plans. He began 
 to hurry now, where he had acted leisurely before. But it would not 
 answer for him to betray the least anxiety, or even suspicion ; therefore 
 he pretended not to notice that anything appeared different to him from 
 what was usual. 
 
 In this way he could overhear the whole of their talk, and get at the 
 meaning of their plans. They had no idea, either, that he had so good 
 a knowledge of their language ; but Daniel Boone was a man who put 
 everything that came in his way to good use, at one time or another. 
 He heard them talk of the weakness of the fort at that particular time ; 
 of the carelessness with which it was garrisoned ; of the neglect into 
 which it had fallen ; and of their expectations to surprise and capture it 
 beyond the possibility of a doubt. No one can imagine with what pangs 
 his heart was visited, for he believed that at the fort were still his wife 
 and children ; still he was forced to appear perfectly calm, or all would 
 be lost. It was a trial such as ver\^ few men could go through. Nay, 
 
DANIEL BOONE. 49 
 
 more and harder than this ; he had even to flatter and cajole the rascals 
 whenever they did something which they deemed worthy of praise. 
 Even upon the preparations that were making all aronnd him for this 
 very enterprise, he was forced to look with complacency and apparent 
 satisfaction. 
 
 He knew he mnst escape, and that speedily. Yet with the utmost 
 caution. A single hasty movement, a single false step, however slight, 
 would betray all. The 16th of June came. Up to that very day, the 
 Indians had felt no suspicion of his intention. On that morning he was 
 going out again, with their consent to engage in hunting. He rose 
 early, took his gun, secreted a small piece of venison to allay hunger, 
 and started off. His heart swelled, courageous as it always was, to think 
 of the great risk he was running. They would easily overtake him, if 
 they should suspect for what he had gone forth ; and once overtaken, his 
 doom was sealed. They would never have permitted him to live to 
 deceive them again. He was intensely excited, and yet he kept cool. 
 To get a fair start was his great object. He knew quite as much of 
 the wilderness as they, and would not be afraid to trust his own skill in 
 woodcraft against theirs. He w r as in the prime of life, too, fresh and 
 active ; and he felt no fear, great as were the odds against him, unless it 
 should come from some unforeseen mischances. 
 
 FAST JOURNEY TOWARD THE FORT. 
 
 For four days and nights he kept traveling, always in the direction 
 of the fort, and, in the course of that time, he said that he ate but a single 
 meal ! The distance to Boonesborough was one hundred and sixty miles. 
 This was at the rate of about forty miles a day. The single meal eaten 
 by him on the road consisted of a wild turkey that he shot himself, after 
 he had got safely across the Ohio River. When once he had passed 
 this dividing line, he began to feel more at his ease, though still anxious, 
 and all the time steadily pushing forward for the fort. It was his great 
 care, too, to mislead his pursuers, or throw them off the trail ; this cost 
 him much trouble. He swam rivers, forded creeks, waded through 
 
50 
 
 DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 swamps and marshes, and found his way through forests and almost 
 impenetrable canebreaks. He listened to every sound, lest it might be a 
 dusky pursuer. He was no swimmer, or at least a very indifferent one, 
 and he doubted if he should be able to cross the Ohio safely, especially 
 
 as its current was much 
 swollen at that season of 
 the year. 
 
 But when he came 
 to that great stream, flow- 
 ing on so majestically, he 
 had the luck to find a 
 canoe that had drifted 
 into the bushes on the 
 bank near by, into which 
 he jumped with no sort 
 of ceremony ; and he 
 paddled himself to the 
 opposite shore as fast as 
 ever boat was propelled 
 by oars before. It is said 
 there was a hole in one 
 end of the canoe, but that 
 he manged to stop ef- 
 fecually, and in a very 
 reasonable time. It was 
 INDIAN CHIEF AND HIS WIGWAM. certainly providential 
 
 that it happened to be hidden there in the bushes, and so he recog- 
 nized the incident. When he reached the fort at last, and duly made 
 himself known to his former comrades, they looked upon him as upon 
 one risen from the dead. He was some time engaged in satisfying them 
 of his identity, and afterwards in narrating his story from beginning 
 to end. 
 
 It grieved him to learn that his wife and children had gone, but it 
 
DANIEL BOONE. 51 
 
 was too late to help that. He set about directing the needed repairs for 
 the fort, knowing far better than the garrison what were the preparations 
 making, and what now were the many times heightened motives for 
 investing and destroying it. All his energy was brought to bear upon 
 this single thing. Where it was weak — at the gates, the flankers, the post- 
 erns, or the bastions — he made it strong again. He infused into the 
 settlers an activity and enthusiasm they had not displayed since the 
 days when he used to arouse them to exertion before. 
 
 PREPARED FOR A HEROIC DEFENSE. 
 
 In the short space of ten days they were all right again, ready to 
 receive any sort of a visit — outside, of course — which their old enemies 
 might think best to make. This time he felt sure that the fort would 
 be compelled to stand a siege it had never passed through before. He 
 had seen with his own eyes the large preparations made by the Indians 
 to invest and capture it. He had heard their talk about the matter with 
 his own ears, and could not be deceived. Hence he well knew that when 
 the next wave rolled in upon them, it would be the most terrible of any 
 that had hitherto given them a shock. Against this he was bound to 
 make all possible preparation. Besides suspecting what he did, he had, 
 it seems, heard directly from the Indians at Chillicothe. One of his com- 
 rades had made his escape also, and came in with fresh reports of what 
 the Indians were doing. They were all up in arms about his having 
 left them in the style in which he did, and vowed vengeance on his 
 devoted head for having so thoroughly deceived them. They held a 
 great council forthwith. The matter was fully debated. It would not 
 do to let a prisoner like that escape. They would teach him that the 
 pride of the red man could not thus be offended with impunity. 
 
 They, in their turn, too, were informed how the improvements in 
 the fort went on. It was evident to them that the old hand of the mas- 
 ter was there again. The intelligence of the strengthening of the white 
 man's fortress excited them inexpressibly. They were impatient to be 
 off, and make the assault they were resolved upon. They knew that 
 
52 DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 ever} 7 day's delay now only added to the white man's strength. The 
 talk was long and earnest. It was obvious to them that they had no 
 common enemy to deal with now, and they remembered that he was 
 familiar with all their habits, their customs, and their weaknesses. He 
 had shown the Indian, if no other white man had done it before him, 
 that he was more than a match for him on his own ground, that he was 
 acquainted with his tricks and traps, and knew how to keep himself out 
 of them ; and the Indian with all his boasted cunning, must needs be on 
 the alert, or he would suddenly find himself outwitted by the very enemy 
 he pretended to hold in such contempt and disdain. 
 
 INDIANS RESOLVE TO MASSACRE THE WHITES. 
 
 After Boone's escape the Indians formed the grand plan of extermi- 
 nating the whites altogether. To accomplish a purpose so fell as this, 
 required the active strength of the entire nation. They rallied far and 
 near. All their braves, young and old, assembled in force, prepared to 
 carry out the plan proposed. From this Indian village and that they 
 came in, duly equipped for the bloody enterprise. The old Shawanese 
 sachem — he who had adopted Boone as his own son — was at the head. 
 His heart could never consent to forgive the deceit that had been prac- 
 ticed upon it by his pale-faced son. If he could taste the sweetness of 
 revenge now, he would feel in a degree compensated for what his pride 
 had suffered. It did not take a long time, therefore, for the village at 
 Chillicothe to fill up with recruits. 
 
 Boone was on the alert. He knew the character of the foe, and the 
 necessity of timely preparation against their approach. He had made 
 the fort strong and whole again, and felt assured that it was capable of 
 offering an irresistible defence against them. And thus prepared, he 
 sallied out with a party of nineteen men, determined to oppose them even 
 before they reached Boonesborough. He would fain surprise their scout- 
 ing parties, and perhaps cut them off ! It was a plan entirely character- 
 istic of Boone, and worthy of his tried courage and boldness. Instead 
 cf waiting for them to come to him, he would go out to them. In this 
 
DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 53 
 
 sally from the fort, he and his party traversed a distance of one hundred 
 and sixty miles. They struck off for the Scioto River, near which they 
 
 FLIGHT OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 suddenly fell in with a party of thirty Indians, who were on their way 
 down to join the main body of the enemy at Chillieothe, 
 
54 DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 The place where they met was at an Indian village on a creek known 
 as Paint Creek. A battle was at once fonght between the two parties. 
 Boone proved more than a match for the red-skins, whom he compelled to 
 flee with the loss of one of their nnmber killed, and two wonnded. The 
 fellows made rapid tracks for their friends at Chillicothe, bearing along 
 with them the nnwelcome tidings of the affray. Of course the Indian 
 leaders there were astonished beyond measure to learn that their old 
 enemy had shown boldness enough to come out from the fort and offer 
 them battle. Nothing now was thought of but to go forth, and overtake 
 and destroy him, and all his men. 
 
 THE ENEMY APPEAR IN FULL FORCE. 
 
 But Boone was prepared for a movement like this. He had no idea 
 of being caught away from home by the main body of the Indian forces. 
 Having once tested the quality of his men in an open fight in the forest, 
 he was quite satisfied to retire with them to the advantages of shelter 
 again. They had tasted danger outside, and the Indians, too, had been 
 taught a wholesome lesson ; and that was all Boone wanted. It was some- 
 thing, at least, to show the savages that they need not consider them- 
 selves safe from assault in any place, or at any time. Having compelled 
 them to abandon their little settlement at Paint Creek, and leave their 
 baggage, together with several horses, behind them, he was for the time 
 satisfied. He was absent but a single week on this warlike excursion, 
 in which time he had struck terror into the very heart of the enemy. 
 
 As soon as he reached the entrenchments of the fort again, Boone 
 put the entire garrison on the look-out for the foe ; it was certain now 
 that they would soon be there. The men at the fort waited and watched 
 patiently. They were soon repaid, too, for their trouble. Before long, the 
 wilderness was alive with Indians, all armed for the final struggle. They 
 came prepared to blot the settlement at Boonesborough out of existence. 
 Their faces were painted after the most hideous fashion, and their bodies 
 were clad with the most unique and oddly-assorted apparel. They came 
 and sat down before the fort in full strength. The forest resounded with 
 
DANIEL BOONE. 55 
 
 their hideous yells and war-whoops. Stalwart forms appeared from the 
 distant shadows, every one the impersonation of hatred and revenge. 
 They scowled the defiance they might in vain have tried to speak. On 
 the right hand and the left, and far away in the front, these native war- 
 riors threw out their terrible threats. Boone felt that hope had gone — 
 except it came through exertion. It was idle to expect quarter from an 
 enemy that had been so many times baffled. If they once effected an 
 entrance within their fortified enclosure, there was an end of all things 
 earthly for them. It was truly a dismal contingency to contemplate, but 
 it doubtless lent fresh courage to the settlers, for it was the terrible 
 courage that is born of despair, that dies, but never surrenders. 
 
 GARRISON CALLED ON TO SURRENDER. 
 
 The commander of this body of Indians was none other than Du 
 Quesne himself who gave a name to a fort which will ever go with our 
 history, and with which that of Washington himself is associated. Black- 
 fish, the Shawanese sachem, held command with, not under him. There 
 were about four hundred and fifty Indians in the besieging force, and a 
 dozen Canadians. 
 
 The little fort that was the object of all this preparation, garrisoned 
 but sixty-five men. So few against so many ; seven outside, against one 
 inside ! What a forlorn hope indeed did they entertain ! There were help- 
 less women and children within the walls to protect, too. They all waited 
 for the first movement to be made. 
 
 It was made ; but very differently from the stereotyped Indian 
 method. Instead of rushing at the gates with their hideous whoops and 
 yells, a different course was pursued. The savages adopted the method 
 of the white armies in cases of siege, and sat down and asked the garrison 
 to surrender, sending a messenger to the fort with that modest request. 
 Boone answered that he wanted two days in which to consider. It appears 
 that, as soon as he knew of the straits to which he was likely to be 
 reduced, he despatched a messenger to the East, describing his condition, 
 and soliciting immediate aid. It was to Col. Arthur Campbell that he 
 
56 DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 sent the request, and within the two days specified he would be likely to 
 hear from him. It was simply to gain time, therefore, that he put off an 
 answer to the summons. If Campbell should happen to come forth from 
 the forest unexpectedly to the Indians, then he could himself sally out 
 and attack them from the front, while the force of Campbell would fall 
 upon them from the rear ; and between the two fires, their strength must 
 melt away. Military men wonder at the motive that could have induced 
 Du Quesne to consent to the terms tendered by the garrison ; yet it is 
 possible that he thought he might obtain by diplomacy what he was not 
 so certain to secure by assault, and the glory would be greater. At any 
 rate, he influenced Blackfish and his party to wait the two days asked 
 for by Boone, which was all that was wanted. Meantime, too, the garrison 
 could complete the arrangements necessary for sustaining still more 
 successfully the threatened siege. 
 
 READY FOR A LONG SIEGE, 
 
 Du Quesne certainly showed a humane spirit. He allowed the 
 women and children, in the interval, to go out and get water from the 
 spring, with which to help along existence during the trial that was before 
 them. The cattle, too, were all got in through the posterns — a very 
 necessary assistance in carrying the garrison through the siege. But 
 Boone himself was very careful to give the enemy no advantage ; especially 
 was he solicitous that they should not capture his own person, for then 
 the whole object of the expedition would be over. Hence, while he freely 
 exposed himself to their sight, he was careful to remain under protection 
 of the fort. In his going out and coming in, he became quite familiar 
 with the enemy, many of whom knew him well at the Chillicothe village 
 and would have been glad enough to lay their hands on him now. 
 
 But the time grew short. The two days were nearly spent. No 
 Colonel Campbell yet, emerging with succor from the shadows of the 
 forest. The answer was to be finally given. All the good that could be 
 gained by the delay, had already been gained ; the garrison had been 
 supplied with beef and water to stand the test and trial of a long siege. 
 
DANIEL BOONE. 57 
 
 He saw now that lie must act ; words were idle. So lie collected his little 
 handful of men around him, and asked them which they preferred — resist- 
 ance or surrender. He knew for himself that surrender was certain death, 
 and resistance, at the worst, could be no more ; yet he deferred to the 
 opinions of the others. They were all ready with their answer ; they 
 would resist till the last hour of their lives — they would never capitulate. 
 Death itself was preferable to disgrace of that character. 
 
 Therefore they made ready to fight. They understood how much 
 more numerous the enemy were than themselves, but they would fight, 
 nevertheless. The commander of the besieging force demanded his 
 answer. Boone stood boldly on the ramparts and gave it — "We will fight 
 so long as a man lives to fight, " said he. It was enough. The die was 
 cast. From that moment their lives depended on a successful resistance. 
 It was said that the bold and brave manner of Boone struck dismay into 
 their hearts. At any rate, their leaders must have seen how foolish they 
 were in permitting the garrison to provision themselves as thoroughly 
 as they did. But the siege did not begin even then. Du Quesne was not 
 willing to give up his arts of diplomacy, thinking he might yet win by mere 
 
 words. 
 
 PROPOSAL FOR TREATY ACCEPTED. 
 
 So he returned a reply to Boone's answer, telling him that Governor 
 Ham,... on, at Detroit, wished to make prisoners of the garrison, but not 
 to destroy them, and he requested him to send out nine men from the 
 fort to make a treaty, in which case the forces outside would be with- 
 drawn, and all would go back home without, any trouble. In his account 
 of the affair, Boone says, " This sounded grateful to our ears, and we 
 agreed to the proposal." He agreed to it because he knew that Hamilton 
 felt friendly towards him, and he further knew that if they fell into the 
 hands of the besiegers as regular prisoners, there was no hope for their 
 lives. 
 
 On consultation, it was resolved to select the nine men desired and 
 send them out. Boone, of course, was at their head. His brother was 
 likewise of the party. The very best men of the garrison, in fact, were 
 
58 DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 the ones selected. Yet they determined not to go beyond the protection of 
 the fort itself. The distance they ventured was one hundred and twenty 
 feet from the walls. The accurate shooters of the garrison, with sure 
 rifles at their shoulders, held their muzzles in such a position as to 
 protect them. The leading men of the opposite party came up on the 
 same ground. It was plain, however, that they took precaution to protect 
 themselves as much as the others. There they met, professedly with 
 only peaceful intentions, but in reality dreading each the power and 
 threats of the other, and entertaining mutual suspicions. 
 
 BASE TREACHERY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 The Canadian captain proposed the terms. In order to test the 
 sii. .erity of the besiegers, and for nothing more, Boone and his party 
 consented to sign them outright, even though the conditions were such 
 as they well knew they could not agree to. Boone employed the occasion 
 as a mere ruse, in order to find out their real meaning and intention. The 
 treaty, therefore, was signed. Blackfish, the old Shawanese chief, then 
 rose and commenced a speech. The Indians came forward at the same 
 moment. He said it was customary, on the conclusion of a treaty of 
 peace, for the parties to the treaty to come and shake hands with one 
 another. Boone and his other eight men were alive to suspicion, but still 
 they consented to go through with the ceremony. 
 
 The moment hands were joined, a signal was given by Black- 
 fish, by previous concert, and three Indians sprang forward to each 
 white man, to make a captive. But, fortunately, the whites were fully 
 prepared for them. They broke away from the grasp of professed 
 friendship, and ran for the fort. A general firing began. The party 
 stationed at the fort let off their guns to protect their fleeing comrades, 
 and the Indians commenced firing in return. Boone had thus unmasked 
 their whole scheme, and had literally drawn their fire. Their entire 
 plan was now exposed. The brother of Boone, Squire Boone, was 
 wounded, but all the rest escaped as by a miracle. Nine men out of the 
 jaws of four hundred and sixty ! It was indeed a miracle. 
 
DANIEL BOONE. 59 
 
 Having secured their retreat within the fort, and closely shut and 
 fastened the gates, they made instant readiness to sustain the worst that 
 might come. And immediately, too, the siege began in good earnest. 
 The Canadian and the Indian united their skill and perseverance. For 
 nine days and nights this trial proceeded. It is impossible to convey to 
 the reader any proper idea of what the garrison in that time went 
 through. They were few in numbers, and their hopes were feeble. 
 They were far from their friends, far from all succor and sympathy. 
 The enemy could keep constant watch, and not suffer ; but if the gar- 
 rison watched, as they must, they were so few that all would be likely 
 in the end to be exhausted. Every man during that memorable siege 
 of nine days, proved himself a hero. The great West knows not how 
 much it owes to the exertions of these same brave pioneers, who were 
 willing and ready to endure so much. The firing of bullets from the 
 outside was incessant ; it literally rained bullets, by the hour at a time. 
 
 FURIOUS FIGHTING ON BOTH SIDES. 
 
 But the men in the fort were prudent, and used their ammunition 
 only to the best advantage. They fired only when they were pretty sure 
 to hit. The savages sheltered themselves as well as they could in the 
 belt of the forest hard by, but even then the marksmen within the fort 
 were much too sure for them. To show the amount of ammunition 
 used by the foe, it is only necessary to note what Boone himself said 
 about it, "that after they were gone, we picked up one hundred and 
 twenty-five pounds of bullets, besides what stuck in the logs of our fort, 
 which certainly is a great proof of their industry." 
 
 It is related among the incidents of the siege, that a negro had 
 deserted from the fort, who was known to be skilled in the use of the 
 rifle. Anxious to commend himself to his newly-found friends, he 
 climbed into a tree, and began to do serious execution. Boone 
 heard what was going on, and looked out for the fellow. As soon 
 as he saw his head, he fired a bullet into it, and the negro fell 
 dead to the ground. Boone's daughter also was wounded — the only 
 
60 DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 one who had remained behind when her mother set out on her return 
 to Carolina. 
 
 At length, exasperated to find that they could gain no advantage 
 thus, the savages resolved to try another plan. They set fire to the fort ! 
 The flames were soon spreading ! Whatever was done, must be done 
 instantly. A young man was bold and brave enough to risk his life in 
 the attempt to quench the flames. He succeeded in his effort. The fort 
 was saved. Seeing this, the Indians thought they might as well give it 
 all up. They took counsel among themselves forthwith, and resolved 
 to withdraw without delay. There was no use in keeping up the attempt 
 to subdue an enemy who the Great Spirit had willed, should not be sub- 
 dued. But before they withdrew, they resorted to one expedient more. 
 They attempted to undermine the fort. Boone, however, was on the 
 alert, and foiled them with a counter-mine. They felt that they were 
 vanquished, and gave it up. 
 
 VICTORY AFTER A FEARFUL SIEGE. 
 
 The siege had lasted in all, from the 8th to the 20th day of August. 
 It was a memorable affair in the history of the West, and cannot be 
 dwelt on too long or too often by those who, in this day, enjoy the bene- 
 fits that were secured to them by these bravest of all pioneers. Nothing 
 more desperate in all history is recorded, when we take into account the 
 circumstances of the time, and the several incidents of the occasion. 
 To the last day of their lives, the men who participated in these stirring 
 scenes were wont to recall them with expressions of the deepest emotion. 
 They could never forget the fearful trials to which, in that brief time, they 
 were subjected. 
 
 The savages went their own way. They hated to give over their 
 darling design to make a captive of the man who was the acknowledged 
 life and soul of the settlement, knowing very well the sort of man they had 
 once had in their hands. But it seemed they were not fated to have him 
 in their power very soon again. All their plans had certainly failed to 
 retake him. They vanished as they had come. 
 
DANIEL BOONE. 61 
 
 The brief and modest statement of the Pioneer, after the siege of 
 Boonesborongh was raised, is as follows : u Soon after this, I went into 
 the settlement, and nothing worthy of place in this account passed in 
 my affairs for some time." His successful holding out at the fort, how- 
 ever, was an act memorable enough of itself to answer for his lifetime ; 
 for, had this little frontier fortress gone, with the clouds of misfortune 
 that were gathering over the American cause in the Atlantic States, 
 there is no telling if it would have been possible to recover from the 
 blow at all. More depended on this very defense of Boonesborough than 
 the careless reader of our* history is aware of. 
 
 He says of himself again : "Shortly after the troubles at Boones- 
 borough, I went to my family, and lived peaceably there. The history 
 of my going home (to North Carolina) and returning with my family, 
 forms a series of difficulties, an account of which would swell a volume, 
 and, being foreign to my purpose, I omit them." 
 
 On the admission of Kentucky to the Union, Boone lost his property 
 for want of formal titles, and retired in 1798 in disgust into the wilderness 
 of Missouri, which did not become United States territory till 1803. In 
 181 2 his claim to a tract of land was allowed in recognition of his services, 
 but when the territory was ceded by Spain to the United States it was 
 found that his title was not valid, on account of his failure to have it prop- 
 erly recorded. 
 
 He died at Charette, on the Missouri River, September 26, 1820. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 KIT CARSON. 
 
 FAMOUS TRAPPER AND GUIDE — DARING EXPLOITS 
 IN THE WEST — ENCOUNTERS WITH THE INDIANS 
 — A PICTURESQUE HORSEMAN AND HUNTER- 
 VALUABLE SERVICES AS EXPLORER. 
 
 There are men who are exactly fitted for a rough, wild, pioneer life. 
 They are at home amidst dangers and perilous expeditions. Strong in 
 body, superb in courage, reckless to some extent, and ever ready for any 
 difficult undertakfng, they lead where other men scarcely dare to follow. 
 
 Such a man was Kit Carson, whose many adventures form a thrill- 
 ing history, and whose name will always be associated with the march 
 of civilization toward the shores of the Pacific. He was a man of great 
 courage, daring intrepidity, heroic bearing, and wonderful nerve and 
 endurance. If he had been a bandit and robber, instead of a trusty and 
 brave guide, he would have terrorized half a continent. 
 
 Christopher Carson, familiarly known under the appellation of K_ 
 
 Carson, was one of the most extraordinary men of the present era. His 
 
 fame has long been established throughout this country and Europe, as 
 
 a most skilful and intrepid hunter, trapper, guide and pilot of the prairies 
 
 and mountains of the far West, and Indian fighter. But his celebrity 
 
 in these characters is far surpassed by that of his individual personal 
 
 traits of courage, coolness, fidelity, kindness, honor, and friendship. The 
 
 theatre of his exploits was extended throughout the whole western portion 
 
 of the territory of the United States, from the Mississippi to the Pacific, 
 
 and his associates were some of the most distinguished men of the present 
 62 
 
KIT CARSON. 
 
 63 
 
 age, to all of whom lie became an object of affectionate regard and marked 
 respect. 
 
 It appears, from the various declarations of those most intimate with 
 Christopher Carson, as well as from a biography published a number of 
 years before his death, that he was a native of Madison county, Kentucky, 
 and was born on the 24th of December, 1809. Colonel Fremont, in his 
 exhaustive and interesting report of his Exploring Expedition to Oregon 
 and North California, in 1843-44, says that Carson was a native of Boons- 
 
 OLD HOME OF THE FAMOUS GUIDE, KIT CARSON, AT TAOS, NEW MEXICO, 
 lick county, Missouri ; and from his long association with the hunter, he 
 probably makes the statement on Carson's own authority. The error, if 
 .it is an error, may have arisen from the fact that Carson's father moved 
 from Kentucky to Missouri, when Christopher was only one year old. 
 He settled in what is now Howard county, in the central part of 
 Missouri. 
 
 When Mr. Carson removed his family from Kentucky, and settled 
 in the new territory, it was a wild region, naturally fertile, thus favoring 
 his views as a cultivator ; abounding in wild game, and affording a splen- 
 
64 KIT CARSON. 
 
 did field of enterprise for the hunter, but infested on all sides with Indians, 
 often hostile, and always treacherous. As Mr. Carson united the pursuits 
 of farmer and hunter, and lived in a sort of blockhouse or fort, as a pre- 
 caution against the attacks of the neighboring Indians, his son became 
 accustomed to the presence of danger, and the necessity of earnest action 
 and industry from his earliest childhood. 
 
 ENTERED EARLY UPON A TRADER'S LIFk. 
 
 At the age of fifteen, Kit Carson was apprenticed to a saddler. This 
 trade requiring close confinement, was, of course, utterly distasteful to a 
 boy already accustomed to the use of the rifle, and the stirring pleasures 
 of the hunter's life, and at the end of two years, his apprenticeship was 
 terminated, for Kit voluntarily abandoned the further pursuit of the 
 trade, and sought the more active employment of a trader's life. His 
 new pursuit was more congenial. He joined an armed band of traders in 
 an expedition to Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico. This, at that 
 period, 1826, was rather a perilous undertaking, on account of the Indian 
 tribes who were ever ready to attack a trading caravan, when there was 
 any prospect of overcoming it. No attack was made on the party, how- 
 ever, and no incident of importance occurred, if we except the accident to 
 one of the teamsters who wounded himself by carelessly handling a 
 loaded rifle, so as to render it necessary to amputate his arm. In 
 this operation Carson assisted, the surgical instruments being a 
 razor, an old saw, and an iron bolt, heated red hot, in order to apply 
 the actual cautery. Notwithstanding this rough surgery, the man 
 recovered. 
 
 After spending a winter at Taos and learning the Spanish language, 
 Carson returned to Santa Fe and became a teamster. Here he secured a 
 position as interpreter to a tradesman, but there was not enough of adven- 
 ture about such a life for a young man whose chief enjoyment was in the 
 chase and in roaming over the prairies and through the woods. He was 
 plainly cut out for a pioneer, an adventurer in the best meaning of the 
 term, and he was never so happy as when pursuing wild game or encoun- 
 
KIT CARSON. 
 
 05 
 
 tering the dangers attending an expedition against the red men. He 
 soon joined a party of hunters and trappers to punish the Indians for 
 their depredations against the white settlers, though they really set out 
 to trap for beaver. 
 
 They did not fall in with the Indians, of whom they were in pursuit, 
 until they had reached the head of one of the affluents of the Rio Gila, 
 
 INDIANS ATTACKING THE HOUSE OF A WHITE SETTLER, 
 
 called Salt River. Once in presence of their enemies they made short 
 work with them, killing fifteen of their warriors, and putting the whole 
 band to rout. Such occurrences were by no means unfrequent, as w*. 
 shall see in the course of this narrative. A small body of experienced 
 hunters and trappers, confident in their superior skill and discipline, 
 never hesitates to attack a greatly superior number of Indians, and it 
 was a rare thing that success did not attend their daring. The Indian is 
 
66 
 
 KIT CARSON. 
 
 not fond of a "fair stand np fight." He prefer^ stratagem and ambush, 
 and reverences as a great "brave," the warrior who is most successful in 
 circumventing his enemies, and bringing off many scalps without the 
 loss of a man ; but when a considerable number of Indians are shot 
 
 down in the first onset, the remain- 
 der are very apt to take to flight in 
 every direction. 
 
 Carson joined a company of 
 trappers under command of Cap- 
 tain Young, and we next find him 
 in California. Here, in the beau- 
 tiful valley of the Sacramento, the 
 party hunted such animals as were 
 valuable by reason of their skins. 
 At this stage of our narrative we 
 have the story of two expeditions 
 which Carson led against the In- 
 dians, while they trapped upon the 
 Sacramento, which give proof of 
 his courage and thorough education 
 in the art of Indian warfare, which 
 had become a necessity to the trav- 
 eler on the plains, and in the 
 mountains of the western wilds. 
 With his quick discrimination of 
 character, and familiarity with the habits of the race, he could not but 
 know the Digger Indians were less bold than the Apaches and Caman- 
 ches, with whom he was before familiar. 
 
 The Indians at the Mission San Gabriel, were restive under coerced 
 labor, and forty of them made their escape to a tribe not far away. The 
 mission demanded the return of these fugitives, and being refused, gave 
 battle to the neighboring tribe, but were defeated. The Padre sent to the 
 trappers for assistance to compel the Indians not to harbor their people. 
 
 APACHE SQUAW AND CRADLE. 
 
KIT CARSON. 67 
 
 Carson and eleven of his companions volunteered to aid the mission, 
 and the attack upon the Indian village resulted in the destruction of a 
 third of its inhabitants, and compelled them to submission. Captain 
 Young found at this mission a trader to take his furs, and from them 
 purchased a drove of horses. 
 
 Directly after his return, a party of Indians contrived to drive away 
 sixty horses from the trappers, while the sentinel slept at night. Carson, 
 with twelve men, was sent in pursuit. It was not difficult to follow the 
 fresh trail of so large a drove, yet he pursued them a hundred miles, 
 and into the mountains, before coming up with them. The Indians sup- 
 posed themselves too far away to be followed, and were feasting on the 
 flesh of the stolen horses they had slaughtered. Carson's party arranged 
 themselves silently and without being seen, and rushing upon the Indian 
 camp, killed eight men, and scattered the remainder in every direction. 
 The horses were recovered, except the six killed, and partly consumed, 
 and with three Indian children that had been left in camp, they returned 
 to the joyful greetings of their friends. 
 
 CAPTURE OF LARGE HERDS OF CATTLE AND HORSES. 
 
 While on the Colorado, Young's party discovered a company of 
 Indians (with whom they had had a previous skirmish), as they were 
 coming out from Los Angeles, and charging suddenly among them, suc- 
 ceeded in taking a large herd of cattle from them, in the Indians' own 
 style. The same week an Indian party came past their camp in the 
 night, with a drove of a hundred horses, evidently just stolen from a 
 Mexican town in Sonora. The trappers, with their guns for their pil- 
 lows, were ready in an instant for the onslaught, and captured these 
 horses also, the Indians hurrying away for fear of the deadly rifle. The 
 next day they selected such as they wanted from the herd, choosing of 
 course the finest, and turning the rest loose, to be taken again by the 
 Indians, or to become the wild mustangs that roamed the plains of North- 
 ern Mexico, in droves of tens of thousands, and which could be cap- 
 tured and tamed only by the use of the lasso. 
 
68 
 
 KIT CARSON. 
 
 Mr. Young and his party trapped down the Colorado and up the 
 Gila with success, then crossed to the vicinity of the New Mexican copper 
 mines, where they left their furs and went to Santa Fe. Having pro- 
 cured their license to trade with the Indians about the copper mines, 
 they returned thither for their furs, went back to Santa Fe and disposed 
 of them to great advantage. The party disbanded with several hundred 
 
 TRADING WITH THE INDIANS, 
 dollars apiece, which most of them expended as sailors do their earnings 
 when they come into port- 
 
 Of course Carson was hail fellow well met with them for a time. He 
 had not hitherto taken the lesson that all have to learn, that the ways of 
 pleasure are deceitful paths ; and to resist temptation needs a large 
 amount of courage — larger perhaps than to encounter any physical dan- 
 ger ; at least the moral courage it requires is of a higher tone than the 
 physical courage which would carry one through a fight with a grizzly 
 
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 ADMIRAL GEORGE DEWEY 
 
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KIT CARSON. 
 
 60 
 
 bear triumphantly ; that the latter assists the former; indeed that the 
 highest moral courage must be aided by physical bravery, but that the 
 latter may exist entirely independently of the former. 
 
 Carson learned during this season of hilarity the necessity of saying 
 No ! and he did so persistently, knowing that if he failed in this he 
 would be lost to himself and to everything dear to life. He was now 
 
 CAMP OF THE NEZ PERCES. 
 twenty-one, and though the terrible ordeal of poverty had been nobly 
 borne, and he had conquered, the latter ordeal of temptation from the sud- 
 den possession of what was to him a large sum of money, had proved 
 for once, too much. And it is well for him perhaps it was so ; as it 
 enabled him to sow his wild oats in early youth and prepare for his 
 heroic life work. 
 
 In the autumn Carson joined another trapping party under Mr. 
 Fitzpatrick, whom we shall have frequent occasion to mention hereafter. 
 They proceeded up the Platte and Sweet Water past Goose Creek to the 
 
70 KIT CARSON. 
 
 Salmon River, where they wintered, like other parties, sharing the good 
 will of the Nez Perces Indians, and having the vexations of the Black- 
 feet for a constant fear. Mr. Fitzpatrick, less daring than Carson, 
 declined sending him to pnnish this tribe for their depredations. 
 
 In the spring they came to Bear River, which flows from the north 
 to Salt Lake. Carson and fonr men left Mr. Fitzpatrick here, and went 
 ten days to find Captain Gaunt in the place called the New Park, on 
 the head waters of the Arkansas, where they spent the trapping season, 
 and wintered. While the party were wintering in camp, being robbed 
 of some of their horses by a band of sixty Crow Indians, Carson, as usual, 
 was appointed to lead the party sent in pursuit of the plunderers. With 
 only twelve men he took up the trail, came upon the Indians in one of 
 their strongholds, cut loose the animals, which were tied within ten feet 
 of the fort of logs in which the enemy had taken shelter, attacked them, 
 killed five of their warriors, and made good his retreat with the recovered 
 horses ; an Indian of another tribe who was with the trappers bringing 
 away a Crow scalp*as a trophy. 
 
 ENCOUNTERS WITH INDIAN HORSE STEALERS. 
 
 In the spring, while trapping on the Platte River, two men belong- 
 ing to the party deserted and robbed a cache, or underground deposit of 
 furs, which had been made by Captain Gaunt, in the neighborhood. Car- 
 son, with only one companion, went off in pursuit of the thieves, who, 
 however, were never heard of afterwards. 
 
 Not finding the plunderers, Carson and his companion remained at 
 the old camp on the Arkansas, where the cache had been made, until 
 they were relieved by a party sent out from the United States with sup- 
 plies for Captain Gaunt' s trappers. They were soon after joined by a 
 party of Gaunt' s men, and started to his camp. On their way they had 
 repeated encounters with Indians attempting to steal their horses, but 
 easily beat them off and saved their property. 
 
 On one occasion, when Carson and the other trappers were out in 
 search of " beaver sign, " they came suddenly upon a band of sixty war- 
 
KIT CARSON. 71 
 
 riors well armed and mounted. In the presence of such a force their only 
 safety was in flight. Amid a shower of bullets from the Indian rifles, 
 they made good their escape. Carson considered this one of his narrow- 
 est escapes. 
 
 Not long after this Carson had an adventure with two grizzly bears 
 which he considered one of the most perilous he ever met with. He had 
 gone out from the camp on foot to shoot game for supper, and had just 
 brought down an elk, when two grizzly bears came suddenly upon him. 
 His rifle being empty, there was noway of escape from instant death but 
 to run with his utmost speed for the nearest tree. He reached a sapling 
 with the bears just at his heels. Cutting off a limb of the tree with his 
 knife, he used that as his only weapon of defence. When the bears climbed 
 so as nearly to reach him, he gave them smart raps on the nose, which 
 sent them away growling ; but when the pain ceased they would return 
 again only to have the raps repeated. 
 
 LUCKY ESCAPE FROM CLIMBING BEARS. 
 
 In this way nearly the whole night was spent, when finally the bears 
 became discouraged, and retired from the contest. Waiting until they 
 were well out of sight, Carson descended from his unenviable position, 
 and made the best of his way into camp, which he reached about day- 
 light. The elk had been devoured by wolves before it could be found, 
 and his three companions were only too glad to see him, to be troubled 
 about breakfasting on beaver, as they had supped the night before ; for 
 trappers in camp engaged in their business had to resort to this kind of 
 food when they could obtain no other. 
 
 Carson for the fall hunt joined a company of fifty, and went to the 
 country of the Blackfeet, at the head waters of the Missouri ; but the 
 Indians were so numerous, and so determined upon hostility, that a 
 white man could not leave his camp without danger of being shot down ; 
 therefore, quitting the Blackfeet country, they camped on the Big Snake 
 River for winter quarters. 
 
 During the winter months, the Blackfeet had in the night run off 
 
72 
 
 KIT CARSON. 
 
 eighteen of their horses, and Kit Carson, with eleven men, was sent to 
 recover them, and chastise their temerity. They rode fifty miles 
 through the snow before coming up with the Indians, and instantly 
 made an attempt to recover their animals, which were loose and quietly 
 
 grazing. 
 
 The Indians, wearing snow shoes, had the advantage, and Carson 
 
 INDIAN VILLAGE IN WINTER. 
 
 readily granted the parley they asked. One man from each party 
 advanced, and between the contending ranks had a talk. The Indians 
 informed them that they supposed they had been robbing the Snake 
 Indians, and did not desire to steal from white men. Of course this 
 tale was false, and Carson asked why they did not lay down their arms 
 and ask for a smoke, but to this they had no reply to make. However, 
 both parties laid aside their weapons and prepared for the smoke ; and 
 
KIT CARSON. 73 
 
 the lighted calumet was puffed by every one of the savages and the 
 whites alternately, and the head men of the savages made several long 
 non-committal speeches, to which, in reply, the trappers came directly 
 to the point, and said they would hear nothing of conciliation from 
 them until their property was returned. 
 
 RECEIVES A PAINFUL WOUND IN THE NECK. 
 
 After much talk, the Indians brought in five of the poorest horses. 
 The whites at once started for their guns, which the Indians did at the 
 same time, and the fight commenced. Carson and a comrade named 
 Markland, having seized their rifles first, were at the lead, and selected 
 for their mark two Indians who were near each other and behind 
 different trees ; but as Kit was about to fire, he perceived Markland's 
 antagonist aiming at him with death-like precision, while Markland 
 had not noticed him, and, on the instant, neglecting his own adversary, 
 he sent a bullet through the heart of the other savage, but at the 
 moment saw that his own enemy's rifle was aimed at his breast. He 
 was not quite quick enough to dodge the ball, and it struck the side of 
 his neck, and passed through his shoulder, shattering the bone. 
 
 Carson was thenceforward only a spectator of the fight, which con- 
 tinued until night, when both parties retired from the field of battle and 
 went into camp. 
 
 Carson's wound was very painful and bled freely, till the cold 
 checked the flow of blood. They dared not light a fire, and in the cold 
 and darkness Carson uttered not a word of complaint, nor did even a 
 groan escape him. His companions were earnest in their sympathy, 
 but he was too brave to need it, or to allow his wound to influence the 
 course they should pursue. 
 
 In a council of war which they held, it was decided that, as they 
 had slain several Indians, and had themselves only one wounded, they 
 had best return to camp, as they were in unfit condition to continue the 
 pursuit. Arriving at camp, another council was held, at which it was 
 decided to send thirty men under Captain Bridger, to pursue and chas- 
 
74 KIT CARSON. 
 
 tise these Blackfeet thieves. This party followed the Indian trail 
 several days, but finally returned, concluding it was useless to search 
 further, as they had failed to overtake them. 
 
 We next find Carson in a hunting and trapping party of a hundred, 
 of which he was one of the leaders, organized to trap on the Yellowstone 
 and the head waters of the Missouri. 
 
 DANCES AROUND A WINTER FIRE. 
 
 The winter's encampment was made in this region, and a party of 
 Crow Indians which was with them, camped at a little distance, on the 
 same stream. Here they had secured an abundance of meat, and 
 passed the severe weather with a variety of amusements, in which the 
 Indians joined them in their lodges, made of buffalo hides. These lodges, 
 very good substitutes for houses, are made in the form of a cone, spread 
 by the means of poles spreading from a common centre, where there was 
 a hole at the top for the passage of smoke. These were often twenty 
 feet in height, anpl as many feet in diameter, where they were pinned to 
 the ground with stakes. In a large village the Indians often had one 
 lodge large enough to hold fifty persons, and within were performed their 
 war dances around a fire made in the centre. During the palmy days of 
 the British Fur Company, in a lodge like this, only made, instead, of 
 birch bark, Irving says the Indians of the north held their "primitive 
 fairs," outside the city of Montreal, where they disposed of their furs. 
 
 There was one drawback upon conviviality for this party, in the 
 extreme difficulty in getting food for their animals ; for the food and fuel 
 so abundant for themselves did not suffice for their horses. Snow covered 
 the ground, and the trappers were obliged to gather willow twigs, and 
 strip the bark from cotton wood trees, in order to keep them alive. The 
 inner bark of the cottonwood is eaten by the Indians when reduced to 
 extreme want. Besides, the cold brought the buffalo down upon them 
 in large herds, to share the nourishment they had provided for their 
 horses. 
 
 Spring at length opened, and gladly they again commenced trapping; 
 
KIT CARSON. 
 
 75 
 
 first on the Yellowstone, and soon on the headwaters of the Missouri, 
 where they learned that the Blackfeet were recovered from the sickness 
 of last year, which had not been so severe as it was reported, and that 
 they were still anxious and in condition for a fight, and were encamped 
 not far from their present trapping grounds. 
 
 Carson and five men went forward in advance "to reconnoitre," and 
 
 INDIANS HUNTING WILD BUFFALOES. 
 
 found the village preparing to remove, having learned of the presence of 
 the trappers. Hurrying back, a party of forty-three was selected from 
 the whole, and they unanimously selected Carson to lead them, and 
 leaving the rest to move on with the baggage, and aid them if it should 
 be necessary when they should come up with the Indians, they hastened 
 forward, eager for a battle. 
 
 Carson and his command were not long in overtaking the Indians, 
 and, dashing among them, at the first fire killed ten of their braves, but 
 
76 KIT CARSON. 
 
 the Indians rallied, and retreated in good order. The white men were in 
 fine spirits, and followed up their first attack with deadly result for three 
 full hours, the Indians making scarce any resistance. Now their firing 
 became less animated as their ammunition was getting low, and they had 
 to use it with extreme caution. The Indians, suspecting this from the 
 slackness of their fire, rallied, and with a tremendous whoop, turned upon 
 their enemies. 
 
 Now, Carson and his company could use their small arms, which 
 produced a terrible effect, and which enabled them again to drive back 
 the Indians. They rallied yet again, and charged with so much power, 
 and in such numbers, they forced the trappers to retreat. 
 
 A DEADLY SHOT IN THE NICK OF TIME. 
 
 During this engagement, the horse of one of the mountaineers was 
 killed, and fell with his whole weight upon his rider. Carson saw the 
 condition of the man, with six warriors rushing to take his scalp, and 
 reached the spot ifl time to save his friend. Leaping from the saddle, he 
 placed himself before his fallen companion, shouting at the same time 
 for his men to rally around him, and with deadly aim from his rifle, shot 
 down the foremost warrior. 
 
 The trappers now rallied about Carson, and the remaining five 
 warriors retired, without the scalp of their fallen foe. Only two of them 
 reached a place of safety ; for the well aimed fire of the trappers leveled 
 them with the earth. 
 
 Carson's horse was loose, and as his comrade was safe, he mounted 
 behind one of his men, and rode back to the ranks, while, by genera* 
 impulse, the firing upon both sides ceased. His horse was captured and 
 restored to him, but each party, now thoroughly exhausted, seemed to 
 wait for the other to renew the attack. 
 
 While resting in this attitude, the other division of the trappers 
 came in sight, but the Indians, showing no fear, posted themselves 
 among the rocks at some distance from the scene of the last skirmish, 
 and coolly waited for their adversaries. Exhausted ammunition had 
 
CLARA BARTON 
 
gBJfg@fp>^i 
 
 HEROES OF THE RED CROSS IN INDIA 
 
LIEUTENANT ROBERT E. PEARY 
 RENOWNED ARCTIC EXPLORER. 
 
FRANCES WILLARD 
 
 FROM HER LATEST PHOTOGRAPH 
 
KIT CARSON. 
 
 77 
 
 been the cause of the retreat of Carson and his force, but now, with a 
 renewed supply and an addition of fresh men to the force, they advanced 
 on foot to drive the Indians from their hiding places. The contest was 
 desperate and severe, but powder and ball eventually conquered, and the 
 Indians, once, dislodged, scattered in every direction. The trappers con- 
 sidered this a complete victory over the Black feet, for a large number of 
 
 A CHIEF IN WAR COSTUME. 
 
 their warriors were killed, and many more were wounded, while they 
 had but three men killed, and a few severely wounded. 
 
 We afterward find Carson at what was known as Bent's Fort, where 
 he forsook trapping for several years, and became hunter to the fort, 
 supplying with his rifle food for the forty inmates of that place. When 
 game was scarce, his task was sometimes difficult, but skill and experi- 
 ence enabled him to triumph over every obstacle. It is not strange that 
 
78 KIT CARSON. 
 
 with such long experience Carson became the most skilful of hunters, 
 and won the name of the " Nestor of the Rocky Mountains." Among 
 the Indians he had earned the undisputed title of "Monarch of the 
 Prairies." 
 
 It was while engaged as hunter for the fort, Carson took to himself 
 an Indian wife, by whom he had a daughter, who forms the connecting 
 link between his past hardships and his subsequent greatness ; for that 
 he was emphatically a great man, the whole civilized world has acknowl- 
 edged. The mother died soon after the daughter's birth, and Carson, 
 feeling that his rude cabin was scarcely the place in which to rear his 
 child, determined, when of a suitable age, to take her to St. Louis and 
 secure for her those advantages of education which circumstances had 
 denied to him ; and, accordingly, when his engagement at the fort had 
 expired, he went to St. Louis for that purpose, embracing on the route 
 the opportunity of visiting the home of his boyhood, which he had not 
 seen for sixteen years. 
 
 SAD CHANGES IN HOME OF BOYHOOD. 
 
 Of course, he found everything changed. Many of those whom he 
 had known as men and heads of families, were now grown old, while 
 more had died off ; but by those to whom he was made known, he was 
 recognized with a heartiness of welcome which brought tears to his eyes, 
 though his heart was saddened at the changes which time had wrought. 
 His fame had preceded him, and his welcome was, therefore, doubly cor- 
 dial, for he had more than verified the promise of his youth. 
 
 Thence he proceeded to St. Louis, with the intention of placing his 
 daughter at school, but here, to his great amazement, he found himself 
 a lion; for the advent of such a man in such a city, which had so often 
 rung with his deeds of daring and suffering, could not be permitted to 
 remain among its citizens unknown or unrecognized. He was courted 
 and feted, and, though gratified at the attentions showered upon him, 
 found himself so thoroughly out of his element, that he longed to return 
 to more pleasant and more familiar scenes — his old hunting grounds. 
 
KIT CARSON. 79 
 
 Having accomplished the object of his visit to St. Louis, in placing 
 his daughter under proper guardianship, he left the city, carrying with 
 him pleasing, because merited, remembrances of the attentions paid to 
 him, and leaving behind him impressions of the most favorable char- 
 acter. Soon after he reached St. Louis, he had the good fortune to fall 
 in with Colonel Fremont, who was there organizing a party for the 
 exploration of the far western country, as yet unknown, and who was 
 anxiously awaiting the arrival of Captain Drips, a well-known trader and 
 trapper, who had been highly recommended to him as a guide. 
 
 FREMONT SECURES CARSON FOR A GUIDE. 
 
 Kit Carson's name and fame were as familiar as household words 
 to Fremont, and he gladly availed himself of his proffered services in 
 lieu of those of Captain Drips. It did not take long for two such men 
 as John C. Fremont and Kit Carson to become thoroughly acquainted 
 with each other, and the accidental meeting at St. Louis resulted in the 
 cementing of a friendship which has never been impaired — won as it 
 was on the one part by fidelity, truthfulness, integrity and courage, 
 united to vast experience and consummate skill in the prosecution of the 
 duty he had assumed — on the otner by every quality which commands 
 honor, regard, esteem and high personal devotion. 
 
 And now Carson's name is embodied in the archives of our country's 
 history, and no one has been more ready to accord to him the credit he 
 so well earned than Fremont, who had the good fortune to secure, at the 
 same time, the services of the most experienced guide of his day, and 
 the devotion of a friend. 
 
 The adventures of Carson were henceforth to be shared by the great 
 explorer, and the subjoined account of Fremont's expeditions only 
 enhances the renown and splendid achievements of Kit Carson. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 JOHN C. FREMONT. 
 
 STYLED "THE PATHFINDER" — TRIUMPH OVER 
 GREAT DIFFICULTIES — PERSONAL COURAGE 
 AND ENDURANCE — CELEBRATED EXPLORATIONS. 
 NOMINATED FOR PRESIDENT. 
 
 The discovery and exploration of the large ter- 
 ritory lying west of the Mississippi River are due 
 to John C. Fremont more than to any other man, although it may be 
 doubted whether he could have achieved such brilliant success except 
 for the co-operation of Kit Carson, the intrepid hunter and guide. 
 
 Fremont was. apparently born to be an explorer. Dangers did not 
 appall him ; difficulties did not discourage him ; wild Indians did not 
 daunt his splendid courage ; hardships did not weaken his firm resolu- 
 tion. He planted the Stars and Stripes on the highest peak of the Rocky 
 Mountains. 
 
 He was born at Savannah, Georgia, January 31, 181 3. He was a 
 remarkably bright boy, and at the age of fifteen, entered Charleston 
 College, South Carolina. For two or three years after leaving college 
 he was a teacher of mathematics on some of our naval schoolships. The 
 interest in opening up the country and building railroads had grown 
 very fast, and Fremont decided to leave the sea and become a Govern- 
 ment surveyor and civil engineer. He helped to lay out the railroad 
 routes through the mountain passes of North Carolina and Tennessee, 
 and after that he was one of a party that explored some of the then 
 unknown sections of Missouri. 
 
 Before this latter work was finished, he was promoted to the rank of 
 ^econd lieutenant of the map-making or topographical engineers ; and 
 80 
 
JOHN C. FREMONT. 
 
 81 
 
 three years later, when he was twenty-eight years old, he had an unlooked- 
 for appointment from the Government to explore and survey the Des 
 Moines River. Mr. Fremont was deeply in love just then with 
 young Miss Jessie Benton, a daughter of a United States Senator from 
 Missouri. Her parents were much opposed to having her marry a Gov- 
 ernment officer ; so it was with a heavy heart that the young man set out 
 for the frontier wilderness of Iowa, and the land of the Sacs and Fox 
 Indians along the Des Moines banks. 
 He did his work well, and when 
 he returned in the fall, the Bentons 
 agreed that, since he was in every 
 way worthy as a man, they would 
 forgive his being an officer, and con- 
 sent to the marriage. This happy 
 event was of importance to more peo- 
 ple than themselves alone ; for by 
 her energy and powers of mind Mrs. 
 Fremont was not only a direct help 
 to her husband in carrying out the 
 most important explorations ever 
 made under the United States Gov- 
 ernmentjbut she cheered and encour- 
 aged him to keep up heart and push 
 on through many years of work and 
 hardship, often clouded by injustice warrior in costume of dog dance. 
 and disappointment. The expedition to the Des Moines settled the pur- 
 pose of Mr. Fremont's life. 
 
 He then learned enough of the great Western country to know that 
 the Government and the citizens who were gathered along the Atlantic 
 seaboard really knew almost nothing of the truth about the uninhabited 
 portions of their land ; that the extravagant tales which had been told 
 by adventurous traders and travelers were mostly false ; that probably 
 a great portion of the country could be used for farm lands and manu- 
 
82 JOHN C. FREMONT. 
 
 facturing towns, and that railway routes could probably be laid across 
 the whole continent. Filled with a desire to open up these treasures of 
 knowledge, he applied to the War Department for permission to survey 
 the whole of the territory lying between the Missouri River and the 
 Pacific Ocean. 
 
 The request was granted and means provided for an expedition to be 
 fitted out, especially to find a good route from the Eastern States to Cali- 
 fornia, and to examine and survey the South Pass of the Rocky Moun- 
 tains — the great crossing place for emigrants on the way to Oregon. It 
 was his own wish to have this order, for he knew — though he did not 
 then say so — that if the Government had this particular section explored 
 and surveyed, it would fix a point in the emigrants' travel, and also show 
 an encouraging interest in their enterprise. On the 2d of May, with his 
 instructions and part of his supplies, Lieutenant Fremont left Washing- 
 ton for St. Louis, which was then a good-sized town on the borderland of 
 the Western wilderness, and already a commercial centre. 
 
 EXPEDITION OF HARDY EXPLORERS. 
 
 There he collected his party and finished fitting out the expedition. 
 About twenty men joined him — mostly Creoles and Canadians who had 
 been employed as traders for fur companies, and who were used to the 
 Indians and all the hardships of the rough life they should have to lead. 
 Besides these men, he had a well-known hunter, named Maxwell, for their 
 guide, and the celebrated mountaineer, Christopher Carson — or Kit Car- 
 son, as he was usually called — who was both bold and cautious, and knew 
 more about the West than almost any hunter in the country. 
 
 This was the little band that, armed and mounted, set out with their 
 gallant leader on his first exploring expedition. They found him a man 
 full of determination and self-reliance, having skill and patience and 
 many resources, and who grew stronger in his purpose when perils and 
 discouragements lay in his path. His men were well chosen, spirited 
 and adventurous, while most of them were also hardy and experienced. 
 Most of the party rode on horseback, but some drove the mule carts that 
 
JOHN C. FREMONT. 83 
 
 carried the baggage, instruments and what food it was thought necessary 
 to take along. Tied to the carts were a few loose horses and some oxen 
 to be killed on the way for fresh meat. After they had crossed Missouri 
 and reached Chouteau's Landing — where Kansas City now stands — they 
 felt that their journey was really begun. 
 
 Starting here at the mouth of the Kansas, they followed its winding 
 course across the northeastern corner of Kansas State, and pushed on 
 into Nebraska, until they reached the barren banks of the Platte. Then 
 they followed that stream, taking the direction of the Southern fork, 
 when they reached the division, and following where it led almost to 
 Long's Peak. Then they changed their line of march, and keeping near 
 the banks of the Northern fork, pushed on to Fort Laramie. 
 
 FRIENDLY MEETING WITH THE INDIANS. 
 
 This was reached in safety in the middle of July, the travelers 
 having had only one great buffalo fight and one encounter with the 
 Arapahoe Indians in the course of their journey. The meeting with the 
 Indians turned out a friendly one, though it would not have been so 
 but for Maxwell, who had traded with the tribe, and knowing the war- 
 riors, shouted to the leader in the Arapahoe language, just in time to 
 prevent a fray. The chief was riding on furiously, but at the sound of 
 words in his own speech from the white men, he wheeled his horse round, 
 recognized Maxwell, and gave his hand to Fremont in a friendly 
 salute. 
 
 At Fort Laramie reports were heard of trouble among the Indians 
 and white people between the Platte and the Rocky Mountains, and the 
 explorers were told that their lives would be in danger if they went any 
 further west until matters were quiet again. But Fremont and his men 
 thought that probably the stories were exaggerated, and resolved not to 
 be daunted by them. So, after a few days of rest, they got ready to start 
 out. Just as they were about to depart, four friendly chiefs appeared 
 with a letter, warning Fremont of danger from bands of young warriors 
 if he went further. 
 
84 
 
 JOHN C. FREMONT. 
 
 He received their warning very respectfully, as well as thanking 
 them for their kindness, and also made a pretty little speech in answer 
 to theirs : " When you told us that your young men would kill us," he 
 said. " you did not know that our hearts were strong and you did not see 
 the rifles which my young men carry in their hands. We are few, and 
 you are many and may kill us, but there will be much crying in your 
 
 villages, for many of your young 
 men will stay behind, and forget to 
 return with your warriors from the 
 mountains. Do you think that our 
 great chief" — meaning the Presi- 
 dent — " will let his soldiers die and 
 forget to cover their graves ? Be- 
 fore the snows melt again, his war- 
 riors will sweep away your villages 
 as the fire does the prairie in the 
 autumn. See! I have pulled down 
 my white houses, and my people 
 are ready ; when the sun is ten 
 paces higher we shall be on the 
 march. If you have anything to 
 tell us you will say it soon." 
 
 The chiefs were not expecting 
 such words in reply, but they liked 
 mandan INDIAN CHIEF. the bold spirit of the white man 
 
 from the East, and what they soon had to say was that they would 
 send one of their young warriors to guide the party. It was a 
 little favor of only one man, but it was everything to the explorers, for 
 — as both they and the Indians knew — his presence in the party was 
 sure protection for them against all the savages they might meet. 
 Fremont heartily accepted the courtesy, and at evening the com- 
 pany set out for the distant region of the Rockies. 
 
 Now their real difficulties began. Soon they entered a most deso- 
 
JOHN C. FREMONT. 
 
 85 
 
 late country, where, the interpreter assured them, they were likely to die 
 of starvation if they went very far. They had only food enough left to 
 last for ten days, and the gallant leader called his men together and told 
 them that he intended to push on, but that all who wished to had his 
 permission to turnback. "Not aman," he says, "flinched from his under- 
 taking." One or two, who were not ve^ strong, he sent back to the 
 nearest fort, but the rest kept close to him till their aim was reached. 
 li When our food is gone, we'll eat the horses," said one of them. 
 
 The most difficult part of the whole 
 expedition was now ahead of them, and it 
 was necessary to go as lightly weighted as 
 possible ; so they hid all the luggage they 
 could spare in the bushes or buried it in 
 the billows of sand that were banked up 
 near the Wind River. Then they care- 
 fully removed all traces of what they had 
 done so the Indians would not discover 
 their stores and steal them. A few days' 
 march brought them to the water-shed of 
 the Pacific and Mississippi slopes, and 
 then to the object of their search — the 
 great, beautiful South Pass. 
 
 Instead of the rocky height they had 
 expected, they saw a gently rising sandy plain stretched beyond the 
 gorge, and the much-dreaded crossing of the Rockies was an easy matter. 
 Entering the Pass and going up into the mountains, they found the 
 sources of many of the great rivers that flow to the Pacific. Further on, 
 they discovered a beautiful ravine, beyond which lay the fair water called 
 Mountain Lake — " set like a gem in the mountains," and feeding one of 
 the branches of the Colorado River. 
 
 The expedition had now fulfilled its orders from the Government, 
 but the leader did not give the word to return until he had gone up the 
 lofty height of Wind River Peak — now known as Fremont's Peak — that 
 
 ONE OF FREMONT'S GUIDES. 
 
86 
 
 JOHN C. FREMONT. 
 
 stands in majestic grandeur near the Pass. The summit was reached 
 after a most difficult climb, and Fremont himself was the first white man 
 to stand on its narrow crest, and to look out upon the country from the 
 highest point in the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 On one side- lay numberless lakes and streams, giving their waters 
 into the Colorado, which sweeps them on to the Gulf of California ; in 
 
 FREMONT'S EXPLORING EXPEDITION APPROACHING ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 
 
 the other direction he saw the lovely valley of the Wind River, the 
 romantic home from which the Yellowstone carries its waters to the 
 Missouri, away to the east ; in the north he saw the snow-capped summits 
 of the Trois Tetons, where the Missouri and the Columbia rise, and the 
 lower peaks that guard the secret of the Nebraska's birth. 
 
 Between, beyond and all around were lesser peaks, gorges, rugged 
 cliffs, and great walls of mountain rock, broken into a thousand bold, 
 fantastic figures, and standing up in weird and striking grandeur. A 
 thousand feet below him, steep, shining ice-precipices towered above fields 
 
JOHN C. FREMONT. 87 
 
 of snow, gleaming spotless white. "We stood/' said Fremont, "where 
 human foot had never stood before, and felt the thrill of first explorers." 
 When the travelers were again at the base of the peak, and all their 
 explorations and discoveries had been carefully noted, and their speci- 
 mens of rock, plants and flowers gathered together, they turned their 
 faces homeward. They found their hiddeu stores, made up their train 
 once more, found the camp of the men who had remained behind, and, 
 glad with their success, took up the eastward march. 
 
 GREAT INTEREST IN FREMONT'S DISCOVERIES. 
 
 A full report of the expedition was soon sent to Congress, and in a 
 short time Fremont's discoveries became a subject of great interest in 
 both Europe and America. From Fremont's Peak he had brought some 
 of the flowers that he found growing beside his path ; a bee that had 
 flown up to them soon after they reached the summit ; the rock that 
 formed the peak, and the rugged, shelving mountain, above which it 
 reared its icy, snow-capped head. Over the whole course of his extended 
 trip, he obtained the height both of plains and mountains, latitude and 
 longitude ; he reported the face of the country, whether it was fertile or 
 barren, whether traveling over it was easy or difficult, and the practi- 
 cability of certain routes for public highways. 
 
 The grand features of nature were clearly described in fittir g lan- 
 guage, and in some cases he illustrated them by drawings. Military 
 positions were pointed out, and in all other ways a thorough examination 
 and survey was made of a vast portion of the national possessions which, 
 up to this time, had been unused, unknown and unappreciated. Europe 
 and America praised the manner in which the expedition had been man- 
 aged, and the Government, well pleased with the wonderful results he 
 had obtained, appointed Lieutenant Fremont to set out on another journey 
 at once, and to complete the survey between the State of Missouri and 
 the tide-water regions of the Columbia River. 
 
 This was just what he wanted to do. A trip to the top of Wind 
 River Peak and back had but revealed to him what vast secrets of the 
 
88 
 
 JOHN C. FREMONT. 
 
 Western country there were yet to be discovered, and lie lost no time in 
 getting ready to leturn. With some of his old companions and several 
 new ones, he soon made up a band of about forty men, who left Kansas 
 with him just one year after the first expedition had started. The route 
 
 this time lay in a 
 northwesterly direc- 
 tion — before, it had 
 been almost west. 
 
 In four months 
 they traveled over 
 seventeen hundred 
 miles, reaching the 
 Great Salt Lake 
 early in the autunm, 
 and before winter 
 began they had 
 found the Columbia 
 and followed it to its 
 mouth. The same 
 careful observations 
 and surveys were 
 taken along the route 
 of this journey as 
 had made the other 
 so valuable, especi- 
 ally in the region of 
 FREMONT at A point on the Columbia river. the Great Salt Lake, 
 about which no true accounts had ever been given before. 
 
 Although Fremont had fulfilled the orders of the Government when 
 he reached the mouth of the Columbia, this was really but a small part 
 of what he intended to do upon this expedition. The vast region beyond 
 the Rocky Mountains — the whole western slope of our continent — was 
 but little known then in aiiy way, and not at all with accurate, scientific 
 
JOHN C. FREMONT. 89 
 
 knowledge. This, Fremont longed to go through and explore. At first 
 he intended to begin doing so by returning home through the Great 
 Basin — now Utah — between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada ; 
 but he took another direction finalh — a route through almost an unknown 
 region between the Columbia and Colorado — that led them further west, 
 showed them California, and resulted, at a later time, in securing to the 
 United States that rich country, which was then owned by Mexico. 
 
 TERRIBLE JOURNEY OF FORTY DAYS. 
 
 The cold winter came on almost before they had started, and they 
 had not gone far before they found themselves in a desert of snow where 
 there was nothing for either men or horses to eat, while between them and 
 the fertile valleys of California was the rugged, snow-covered range of 
 the Sierra Nevada Mountains. They tried to get some of the Indians to 
 show them the way over this great barrier ; but the savages declared that 
 it could not be crossed — no human being had ever crossed it, and no 
 guide would consent to go with them for any amount of money. But they 
 said there was an opening further south, and gave Fremont some direc- 
 tions as to where it might be found. So the party took the risk of guiding 
 themselves, and kept on in their cold and desolate march. 
 
 When they reached the pass, it was only to see toward the west a 
 still greater range before them. It was plain that they would get lost if 
 they attempted to push on alone, and they had gone too far now to turn 
 back. At last they found a young Indian, who, for a very large present, 
 would undertake to guide them. On the ist of February they started 
 out, and after a terrible journey of forty days they reached the Sacra- 
 mento River, and a comfortable resting-place at Sutter's Fort, the place 
 where gold was found four years later. Half of their horses had perished, 
 and the men were so weak and thin that it was two months before they 
 were able to go on again. 
 
 Fremont did not attempt to go any further into California ; but when 
 spring opened and the men were well enough to travel, gave the word for 
 home. They crossed the Sierra Nevada, and making their route as nearly 
 
90 JOHN C. FREMONT. 
 
 due east as possible, they passed by the Great Salt Lake, crossed the 
 Rocky Mountains through the South Pass, halted at several places they 
 had become acquainted with before, and reached the Kansas country in 
 July. There the ground was known to them, and the rest of the journey 
 was quite smoothly and quickly made. 
 
 By midsummer Fremont had reported himself to the Government 
 and was once more with his family. He learned then that a letter of 
 recall had been sent to him after he started ; but that his wife held it 
 back, seeing that it was upon some false charges, made by his enemies, 
 at Washington. So he had really made this journey as a fugitive, but 
 Mrs. Fremont's act was approved when her husband returned with a name 
 that went over Europe and America for the great and valuable discoveries 
 he had made in the northwest territory, and the terrible hardships he had 
 endured to make the expedition successful. 
 
 PROMOTED FOR HIS GRAND DISCOVERIES. 
 
 In spite of the efforts that were made against him by some political 
 opponents, Congress accepted his labors, gave him another appointment, 
 and when he again went out — which was as soon as his reports were fin- 
 ished — it was with the rank and title of captain in the United States 
 Engineers. His object this time was to find out more about the Salt 
 Lake and other portions of the Great Basin, and to explore the coasts of 
 California and Oregon. After several months of discovery and careful 
 surveys of the streams and watersheds between, he again crossed the 
 Sierra Nevada in midwinter and went down into the rich and beautiful 
 country lining the Pacific shore. 
 
 This territory was then held by the Mexicans, and while he left his 
 men at San Joaquin to rest, Fremont himself went on to Monterey, the 
 capital, to ask of Governor Castro permission to explore his country. 
 The request was granted at first, but as news of war between the 
 United States and Mexico arrived just then, the permission was recalled 
 with orders that the travelers leave the country at once. But this the 
 dauntless captain did not intend to do, so he built a rude fort of logs in a 
 
JOHN C. FREMONT. 91 
 
 strong position on the Hawk's Peak Mountain, about thirty miles from 
 Monterey, and with his sixty-two men waited for an attack from the 
 Mexican forces, which, under General Castro, encamped themselves in 
 the plain below. 
 
 They watched him for four days and then deciding not to fight, 
 allowed him to go on his way through the Sacramento Valley to Oregon. 
 Before he had gone very far he was met by a party that had been sent out 
 to find him, with orders from the United States to act for his nation in 
 case Mexico should form a treaty with England to pass California into 
 the hands of Great Britain. 
 
 General Castro soon threatened to attack the Americans settled along 
 the Sacramento, but before he had time to do so, Captain Fremont 
 marched rapidly to their rescue, collecting them in his band as he went 
 along, so that by the month of July the whole of northern California had 
 passed out of the hands of the Mexicans and into those of the United 
 States, and Fremont, the conqueror, was made governor of the land and 
 raised to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the army. 
 
 SURRENDERED TO THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Meanwhile the Government had resolved to make a sweeping con- 
 quest of the rest of the territory, if possible, and have our possessions 
 extend from ocean to ocean. Commodore Sloat, who commanded the 
 United States squadron on the Pacific, seized Monterey, where Fremont 
 soon joined him with a hundred and sixty mounted riflemen ; and at about 
 the same time there arrived Commodore Stockton, of the navy, with orders 
 from Congress to conquer California. The Mexicans still held the south- 
 ern portion of the territory, but the towns of San Francisco, Monterey, 
 and Los Angeles were all taken without much resistance, and at the end 
 of six months Upper California was surrendered to the United States. 
 
 When this was about completed General Kearney arrived with a 
 force of dragoons, and disputed Commodore Stockton's right to be mili- 
 tary governor of the territory. A quarrel arose, in which Fremont took 
 the side of the commodore, who had made him major of the California 
 
92 
 
 JOHN C. FREMONT. 
 
 battalion, and civil governor of trie country ; but when the matter was 
 carried to Washington and settled by the Government in favor of Kear- 
 ney, he recognized his position and obeyed his orders. But the general 
 would not forgive his former allegiance to Commodore Stockton, and 
 arrested him and made him return to Washington with his own men by 
 the overland route, treating him very disrespectfully all the way. 
 
 u My charges,," said Fremont, a are of misconduct, military, civil, 
 
 political, and moral, 
 
 aud such that,if true, 
 would make me unfit 
 to be anywhere out- 
 side of prison." He 
 demanded a trial by 
 court-martial, which 
 might have cleared 
 him if he had taken 
 pains to get evidence 
 upon his innocence ; 
 but as he did not, 
 he was pronounced 
 
 SOUTHWEST FROM SANTA FE. g u iltV of mutiny 
 
 and disobedience and ordered to leave the Government service. 
 
 But the court requested President Polk not to confirm their verdict ; 
 ae did not, and granted Fremont a pardon, with permission to keep his 
 position in the army. This he would not accept ; he refused to receive 
 as a favor that to which he had a right, or to go about as an officer par- 
 doned of offenses he had never committed. So he resigned his commis- 
 sion, and at the age of thirty-five, became a private citizen. 
 
 Although he was still a young man, it seemed to him for a time that 
 he had nothing to look forward to in life ; but he soon made up his mind 
 to undertake another exploring expedition. This had to be on his own 
 responsibility and at his own expense ; but he soon succeeded in getting 
 a party together and fitting it out. 
 
JOHN C. FREMONT. 93 
 
 He was doubly anxious now to find some good routes from the States 
 to the new possessions on the Pacific, for in February of this year — 1848 — 
 gold had been found on the Sacramento River, and many people were 
 already starting out to dig for the precious ore. So far there was no 
 direct route to California. A long and dangerous journey across Kan- 
 sas, Colorado, Utah and Nevada, and through the Rockies and Sierras, 
 could be made by land, or a voyage by way of the Isthmus of Panama 
 could be made by water. These were 
 the best possible ways of getting there. 
 Fremont's desire was to find a route 
 which could be made into a safe and direct 
 public line of travel, and it was with 
 this object in view that he soon started jjj 
 out with his little band. This time he 1 
 went to the South, crossing the northern 
 part of Mexico, and following the Rio 
 Grande del Norte toward California. The 
 beginning of the journey as far as Santa 
 Fe was made successfully ; but from 
 there it became a tour of distress — the 
 saddest Fremont ever undertook. 
 
 The route lay through a country 
 inhabited by Indians then at war with AN early miner in California. 
 the United States, which was danger enough ; but, added to this, 
 winter was just coming on, and while they were in the most perilous part 
 of their journey, among the snow-covered Sierra, the guide lost his way. 
 Finally they were forced to turn back, but before they could get to Santa 
 Fe one-third of their men had died of cold and hunger, and all of their 
 mules and horses had perished. 
 
 Even this terrible experience did not alter Fremont's resolve to find, 
 if possible, a southern pass to the Pacific coast. He hired thirty new 
 men to go with him and once more set out, more determined to succeed 
 than ever. After a long search he was rewarded, for in the spring of 
 
 t^msf^ 
 
94 JOHN C. FREMONT. 
 
 1849 — when the gold fever was getting to its height — with the cruel Sierra 
 behind him, he again came in sight of the Sacramento River. 
 
 Two years before he had bought a very large tract of land, on which 
 there were rich gold mines, and he had resolved, when he left the States, 
 to remain upon these after he had found a southern pass, and not go back 
 to the East to live. So now he settled down, worked his mines, and began 
 to prepare a home for his family. The enthusiasm about gold was draw- 
 ing thousands of men to the Territory from all parts of America and 
 from Europe, so that California soon had enough people to become a 
 "State. Fremont took a great deal of interest in this growth in the coun- 
 try he had discovered to the United States and won for the Government, 
 and he worked very earnestly to have it made a free State. 
 
 HIGH HONORS BESTOWED ON FREMONT. 
 
 Meanwhile, he was not forgotten at Washington. President Taylor 
 soon called upon him to run a boundary line between the United States 
 and Mexico, and wjien that was done, California having been taken into 
 the Union, he was chosen by the Legislature to represent the new 
 State in the Senate at the national capital. It was during this term 
 that the King of Prussia and the Royal Geographical Society of 
 London awarded him the honor of their medals for his services as an 
 explorer. 
 
 He went to Europe after his term was over, and was treated with 
 great respect by many of the most eminent people of the time. Mr. Fre- 
 mont spent a few years at about this time in looking after his own affairs, 
 but he had not yet given up exploring the great territory of the West. 
 When — on his return from Europe — he found the Government preparing 
 to survey three railroad routes across the continent, he again fitted out 
 an expedition of his own to find a good southern route to the Pacific. 
 This time he was successful. 
 
 He went without much difficulty to the place where the guide had 
 lost his way in the expedition of 1848, and, following the course, which 
 had been described to him by the mountain men whom he asked, he 
 
JOHN C. FREMONT. 
 
 95 
 
 finally succeeded in picking out a route of safe passes all the way to 
 the Golden State. But this was not secured without terrible hardships. 
 The country was barren, bleak and cold; the provisions of the party 
 gave out, and for fifty days the men lived on the flesh of their horses. 
 Sometimes they had nothing at all to eat for forty-eight hours at a time. 
 
 Progress, too, was slow. For awhile they only made a hundred 
 miles in ten days; and so deserted was the region that for three times 
 that distance, they 
 did not meet a single 
 human being, not 
 even a hardy Indian, 
 for the winter was 
 unusually severe, 
 and even the savages 
 did not venture far 
 into the dangerous 
 passages, where the 
 air was full of snow 
 and fogs. 
 
 In this terrible 
 distress Fremont 
 feared that his men 
 would be tempted to 
 eat each other, and so 
 he called them to 
 him one day, and in 
 the solemn stillness of the great ice mountains he made them take off 
 their hats, raise their hands to heaven and swear that they would 
 instantly shoot the first man that should attempt to appease his hunger 
 with the flesh of a comrade. 
 
 Little by little they kept pushing on, and at last all obstacles were 
 overcome, the fair California valleys were reached, and the jaded, frost- 
 bitten band entered San Francisco. One man only was missing. He, 
 
 INDIANS VIEWING A TRAIN OF CARS ON THE CENTRAL 
 PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
96 JOHN C. FREMONT. 
 
 poor fellow, was courageous to the last, and died like a soldier, in his 
 saddle ; and like a soldier his comrades buried him on the spot where 
 he fell. 
 
 The rest, though worn almost to skeletons, survived, and Fremont 
 forgot his sufferings in the joy of having gained the object of his journey, 
 
 BELTS OF IRON FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC. 
 
 The Central Pacific Railroad was begun in a few years, and the 
 region being richly stored with vast quantities of iron, coal and timber, 
 the workmen were supplied with much of their materials as they went 
 along. In a dozen years more the great task was completed, and cars 
 were running from East to West, carrying tourists and emigrants by the 
 thousands and spreading prosperity and civilization to the benefit of, not 
 this nation alone, but of all people in the civilized world. The Northern 
 and the Southern Pacific roads have followed the first one, opening up 
 other sections, and calling forth and using the resources of the land all 
 the way across the continent, placing our country first among all coun- 
 tries in several of the most important articles in the world's commerce. 
 
 Among all the men who have devoted themselves to the success of 
 these roads, there is no one to whom the nation owes more than to 
 Fremont — who first surveyed the regions — northern, central and southern, 
 and who well merits the title, the " Path-finder of the Rocky Mountains." 
 
 The survey of the Central Pacific was the last great exploration of 
 his life. In 1856 he was almost elected President by the then new 
 Republican party, in the contest with James Buchanan ; he was also 
 named for the next President, but withdrew in favor of Lincoln. *At the 
 beginning of the Civil War he was made major-general in the army, and 
 during the first year had command of the Department of the Mississippi. 
 He lost this because he ordered that slaves should be freed by all in his 
 district who were in arms against the Union. President Lincoln thought 
 he was taking the step too soon, but gave him another command a few 
 months later, from which he resigned in June, and left the conflict 
 entirely. Fremont died July 13, 1890. 
 
PART II. 
 
 GREAT NAVAL HEROES 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CAPTAIN JOHN PAUL JONES. 
 
 HERO OF A DESPERATE FIGHT — HIS RECKLESS BRAV- 
 ERY — HAND TO HAND ENCOUNTER — MANY THRILL- 
 ING ADVENTURES — AWARDED MEDAL BY CONGRESS. 
 
 Our American navy, both in its early and later history, has gained 
 magnificent victories. Its superb achievements on the sea have rivalled 
 the heroic exploits of our military forces on land. The grand qualities 
 that make up the highest type of sailor have been exhibited manv times 3 
 from the period of the Revolution down to our war with Spain. 
 
 One of the most desperate fights on the water occurred between the 
 warship Serapis and the Bonhomme Richard. It was the first naval 
 engagement that proved the prowess of the American sailor, and gave 
 our heroes of the sea a renown that forms the most glowing record of 
 our history. This remarkable action is interesting not only on account 
 of its bloody and desperate character, and on account of the sensation it 
 produced at the time, but because it illustrates one phase of our great 
 struggle for independence. 
 
 The hero of this action, John Paul, was born at Kirkcudbright, in 
 Scotland, July 6th, 1747 ; and was sent to sea, as an apprentice, at the age 
 of twelve. He afterwards made voyages as mate of a slaver, then an 
 honored and recognized employment for a portion of the English mer- 
 chant marine. At twenty-one he had command of a vessel in the West 
 India trade, so that his merits as a seaman were early recognized. He 
 afterwards became a trader in a vessel of his own. At the age of twenty- 
 7 07 
 
98 JOHN PAUL JONES. 
 
 six he left the sea ; and adopted the name of Jones. The reason for 
 this does not clearly appear. He may have had some old scores to clear ; 
 and, settling in a new world, may have thought a new name necessary. 
 In December, 1775, he was appointed a first lieutenant in the 
 United Colonial Navy, and ordered to the Alfred, our first flag-ship. He 
 hoisted the first flag of the Colonies afloat ; a yellow flag, with the pine 
 tree and rattlesnake. In this ship he participated in several actions and 
 was afterwards in command of the Providence, when he only escaped 
 capture by excellent seamanship. He made many prizes in this ship. 
 
 CAPTURED MANY VALUABLE PRIZES. 
 
 On October 10th, 1776, he was named the eighteenth naval captain, 
 and, in command of the Alfred and Providence, captured a valuable 
 armed ship, and other prizes, again eluding recapture by good seaman- 
 ship. He next went to European waters in command of the Ranger, 18, 
 and there received from a French squadron, the first salute to the Stars 
 and Stripes, by this time adopted. 
 
 He cruised in English waters, burning ships at White Haven, and 
 spiking guns in batteries on shore ; and then attempted to carry off 
 the Earl of Selkirk. In this he failed, but having carried off some of 
 that nobleman's plate, was branded by the English as a pirate. This 
 epithet came with a bad grace from a nation then celebrated for thorough 
 " looting" of every place which came into their hands, in India, and 
 elsewhere. The real oflence was that Jones was an English subject, 
 who had renounced his allegiance, and was serving against the mother 
 country ; like all the rest of those engaged in the Revolution. During 
 this cruise in the Ranger he took the Drake, of 20 guns. 
 
 After this he received from the French government an old India- 
 man, called the Due de Duras, which he renamed the "Bonhomme 
 Richard, " or Poor Richard, in allusion to the publication by Benjamin 
 Franklin. He had some other armed vessels, mostly " letters of marque,' * 
 under his command. 
 
 The Bonhomme Richard had 40 guns, and a mixed crew, of various 
 
JOHN PAUL JONES. 99 
 
 nationalities. Jones sailed under such hampering restrictions that he 
 was prevented from carrying out many promising projects ; but at last, 
 on the 23d of September, he fell in with a Baltic fleet of merchantmen, 
 convoyed by the English frigate Serapis, 44 guns, and the Countess of 
 Scarborough, 20 guns. The result of the engagement which ensued 
 will be given hereafter. 
 
 DRIVEN BACK BY A SEVERE GALE. 
 
 To continue the sketch of Jones himself, we may say that, in 1780, 
 the year after this action, he sailed for the United States, in the Ariel, 
 but lost his masts in a severe gale of wind, and was obliged to return to 
 France ; whence he sailed again and arrived safely, about the beginning 
 of 1 78 1. He was then launched in the America, 74 guns, which was pre- 
 sented by our Government to the French ; and he made a cruise in her 
 as a volunteer. 
 
 In 1783 he was prize agent of the United States in Europe ; and 
 finally, in 1787, while in Denmark, he resigned, and entered the Russian 
 navy — hoisting his flag, as rear admiral, in the Vladimir, on the 28th 
 of June, 1788. He found so much jealousy and enmity towards him 
 that he resigned in about a year. Afterwards he resided in Holland and 
 France, and was appointed Commissioner of the United States to Algiers 
 — but his death occurred at this time, at the age of forty-five. 
 
 And now, to return to his cruise in the Bonhomme Richard : — Paul 
 Jones had obtained so much celebrity for his cruise in the Ranger, that, 
 after that ship departed for America he remained in France, in the hope 
 of receiving a more important command. During the years 1778-9 
 various projects were discussed, in which he was to have a part. One 
 idea was to make a descent upon Liverpool, with a body of troops to be 
 commanded by La Fayette. These plans all came to nothing, and his 
 offers of service were repulsed ; until at last a singular arrangement was 
 proposed to him. 
 
 M. de Sartine, French Minister of Marine, in a letter of February, 
 14th, 1779, states that the king of France has decided to purchase, and 
 L.ofC. 
 
100 JOHN PAUL JONES. 
 
 put at the disposition of Captain Jones, the Duras — an old Indiaman of 
 some size, then at V Orient. To this vessel were added three more, pro- 
 cured by means of M. le Ray de Chaumont, a banker who had connec- 
 tions with the French Ministry. Dr. Franklin, who, as Minister of the 
 United States, was supposed, in a legal sense, to direct the whole affair, 
 added the Alliance, 32, by virtue of authority from Congress. 
 
 THE SHIPS AND THEIR COMMANDERS. 
 
 The vessels thus procured formed a little squadron, composed of the 
 Bonhomme Richard, Alliance, Pallas, Cerf, and Vengeance. The Pallas 
 was a purchased merchantman ; the Vengeance a small purchased brig ; 
 the Cerf was a large cutter, and, with the exception of the Alliance, the 
 only vessel of the squadron built for war purposes. All but the Alliance 
 were French built, and they were placed under the American flag by the 
 following arrangement : the officers received appointments, which were 
 to remain valid for a limited period only, from Dr. Franklin, who had 
 been furnished blank commissions, to fill at his own discretion, ever since 
 he had arrived in Europe. 
 
 The vessels were to show the American ensign and no other. In 
 short, the French ships were to be considered as American ships during 
 this particular service : and when it was terminated they were to revert 
 to their former owners. The laws and provisions made for the American 
 navy were to govern, and command was to be exercised, and to 
 descend, according to its usage. Such officers as already had rank in the 
 American navy took precedence, agreeably to dates of commission, and 
 new appointments were regulated by priority of appointment. 
 
 By especial provision, Captain Jones was to be commander-in-chief, 
 a post which his original commission entitled him to fill, as Captain 
 Landais, the only other regular captain in the squadron, was his junior. 
 The joint right of the American Minister and of the French Government 
 to direct the movements of the squadron was recognized. 
 
 It is not exactly known from what source the money was obtained 
 to fit out this squadron ; and it is likely that it never will be known, 
 
GENERAL JOHN C. FREMONT. THE RENOWNED EXPLORER 
 
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JOHN PAUL JONES. 101 
 
 especially as the French Revolution destroyed so many records, public 
 and private. Although the name of the king was used, it is possible 
 that private adventure was at the bottom of the enterprise, although the 
 French Government furnished vessels and the use of its stores. Dr. 
 Franklin expressly stated that he made no advances for the ships 
 employed. 
 
 As everything connected with this remarkable expedition has inter- 
 est for us, it is as well to go a little further into the composition of the 
 force fitted out by Jones. After many delays, the Bonhomme Richard 
 was equipped and manned. It was intended to cast 18-pounders for her, 
 but as that would take too much time, old 12's were substituted. With 
 this change in armament, the Richard, as she was called by the sailors, 
 got ready for sea. She was, properly, a single-decked ship, that is, carry- 
 ing her armament on one gun-deck, with the usual additions on the 
 quarter-deck and forecastle. 
 
 PLACES GUNS IN POSITION FOR THE FIGHT. 
 
 But Commodore Jones, with a view to attacking the enemy's large 
 convoys, caused 12 ports to be cut in the gun-room, below, where six old 
 18-pounders were mounted, with the intention of fighting all of them on 
 the same side, in smooth water. It was foreseen that these guns could 
 only be of use in moderate weather, or when engaged to leeward, but the 
 ship's height admitted of them, and it was done. 
 
 On her gun-deck proper the ship had twenty-eight ports, the regular 
 construction of an English 38-gun ship at that time. Here the 12 
 pounders were placed. On her quarter-deck and forecastle were mounted 
 eight 9's ; making, in all, a mixed armament, rather light, to be sure, of 
 42 guns. If the six 18's were taken away, the ship would have been 
 what was called a 32-gun frigate. She was a clumsy vessel, built many 
 years before, with the high, old-fashioned poop, which resembled a tower. 
 
 With a vessel of this singular armament and unwieldy construction, 
 Jones was compelled to receive on board a crew of very doubtful com- 
 position. A few Americans filled officers' positions ; but the crew 
 
102 JOHN PAUL JONES. 
 
 embraced representatives of more than twelve nationalities. To keep this 
 motley crew in order, one hundred and thirty-five marines, or soldiers, 
 were put on board. These were nearly as much mixed, as to nation- 
 alities, as the sailors. Just as the squadron was about to sail M. le Ray 
 de Chaumont appeared at 1' Orient, and presented a concordat or agree- 
 ment, for the signature of all the commanders. This looked very much 
 like a partnership in a privateering expedition, and was the cause of 
 much after disobedience among Jones' captains. 
 
 On June 19, 1779, the ships sailed, bound south, with a small convoy 
 of vessels. These they escorted safely into the Garonne, and other ports; 
 but not without repeated exhibition, thus early, of disobedience of orders, 
 and unseamanlike conduct, which marked the whole career of this 
 squadron, so ill assorted and manned. While lying to, off the coast, the 
 Alliance, by lubberly handling, got foul of the Richard, and lost her 
 mizzen-mast ; carrying away, at the same time, the head, cutwater and 
 jib-boom of the Richard. This necessitated a return to port, to refit. 
 
 EXPLOIT OF THE CUTTER CERF. 
 
 When at sea again, and steering to the northward, the Cerf cutter 
 was sent in chase of a strange sail, and parted company. The next morn- 
 ing she engaged a small English cruiser, of 14 guns, and caused her to 
 strike, after a sharp fight of an hour ; but she was forced to abandon her 
 prize by the approach of an enemy's vessel of superior force. The Cerf 
 went into 1' Orient again. 
 
 On the 23d three enemy's vessels-of-war were seen by the squadron; 
 and, having the wind, they ran down in a line abreast, when, most proba- 
 bly deceived by the height and general appearance of the Richard, they 
 hauled up and escaped under a press of sail. On the 26th the Alliance 
 and Pallas parted company with the Richard, leaving that ship with the 
 Vengeance brig only, for consort. On reaching the Penmarks, a head- 
 land of Finisterre, the designated rendezvous, the missing vessels did not 
 appear. On the 29th, the Vengeance having gone by permission into 
 Groix Roads, the Richard fell in with two more English cruisers, which, 
 
JOHN PAUL JONES. 103 
 
 after some hesitation, also ran, evidently under the impression that the 
 Richard was a two-decker. 
 
 Jones had reason to be satisfied with the spirit of his crew on this 
 occasion, the people manifesting a strong disposition to engage. At last, 
 on the 30th, the Richard ran into Isle Groix, off l'Orient; and about the 
 same time the Pallas and Alliance came in. Then another delay occurred. 
 A court was convened to inquire into the conduct of Captain Landais, of 
 the Alliance, in running foul of the Richard. Both ships also had to 
 undergo repairs. Luckily, just then a cartel arrived from England, 
 bringing more than one hundred exchanged American seamen, most of 
 whom joined the squadron. 
 
 GALLANT YOUNG LIEUTENANT DALE. 
 
 This was a most important accession to the crew of the Richard, and 
 that of the Alliance. Neither of these ships had had many Americans 
 among their crews. Among those who came from the English prisons 
 was Mr. Richard Dale, who had been captured as a master's mate, in the 
 Lexington, 14 guns. This young officer did not reach France in the 
 cartel, however, but had previously escaped, came to 1' Orient, and joined 
 the Richard. Jones soon learned his worth, and, in reorganizing his ship, 
 had made him first lieutenant. 
 
 The Richard had now nearly one hundred American seaman on 
 board, and all the officers were native Americans, but the commander and 
 one midshipman. Many of the petty officers were Americans also. In a 
 letter of August nth, Jones states that the crew of the Richard consisted 
 of 380 souls, including 137 soldiers, or marines. On the 14th of August 
 the squadron sailed a second time, from Groix Roads ; having the Frencli 
 privateers, Monsieur and Granville, in company, and under Jones' orders. 
 The first parted company almost immediately, on account of differences 
 concerning a valuable prize, and another was taken the day she left. 
 
 On the 23d the ships were off Cape Clear, and while towing Richard's 
 head round, in a calm, the crew of the boat, which happened to be manned 
 by Englishmen, cut the tow-line and escaped. Mr. Lunt, the sailing- 
 
104 JOHN PAUL JONES. 
 
 master, manned another boat, and taking four marines, pursued the fugi- 
 tives. A fog came on, and Mr. Lunt not being able to find the ships 
 again, fell into the hands of the enemy. Through this desertion, and 
 its immediate consequences, the Richard lost twenty of her best men. 
 
 The day after this escape the Cerf cutter was sent close in, to recon- 
 noitre, and to look for the missing people ; and, for some unexplained 
 reason, this useful vessel never rejoined the squadron. There appeared to 
 have been no suspicion of any treachery on her part, and we are left to 
 conjecture the cause of her disappearance. A gale of wind followed, dur- 
 ing which the Alliance and Pallas separated, and the Granville parted 
 company, by order, with a prize. The separation of the Pallas was 
 caused by the breaking of her tiller ; but that of the Alliance was due to 
 the unofficerlike and unseamanlike conduct of her commander. 
 
 DESPERATE EFFORT TO AVOID CAPTURE. 
 
 On the morning of the 27th, the brig Vengeance was the only vessel 
 in company with the commodore. On August 31st, the Bonhomme 
 Richard, being off Cape Wrath, the northwest extremity of Scotland, 
 captured a large English letter-of-marque, bound from London to 
 Quebec ; a circumstance which proves the expedients to which their 
 shipmasters were then driven to avoid capture, this vessel having gone 
 north about, to escape the cruisers on the ordinary track. While in 
 chase of the letter-of-marque, the Alliance hove in sight, having another 
 London ship, from Jamaica as a prize. 
 
 Captain Landais, of the Alliance, was an officer who had been obliged 
 to quit the French navy on account of his unfortunate temper. He now 
 began to show a disorganizing and mutinous spirit ; pretending, as his 
 ship was the only real American vessel in the squadron, that that fact 
 rendered him superior to Jones, and that he should do as he pleased with 
 his ship. That afternoon a strange sail was made, and the Richard 
 showed the Alliance's number, with an order to close. Instead of obey- 
 ing the signal, Captain Landais swore, and laid the head of his ship in 
 the opposite direction. Other signals were disobeyed ; and the control 
 
JOHN PAUL JONES. 105 
 
 of Commodore Jones over trie ship, which ought to have been the most 
 efficient of the squadron, may be said to have ceased. 
 
 Jones now shaped his course for the rendezvous he had appointed, 
 in hopes of meeting the missing ships, and the Pallas rejoined him, 
 having captured nothing. From then until the 13th of September the 
 squadron continued its course round Scotland ; the ships separating and 
 rejoining constantly, and Captain Landais assuming power over the 
 prizes, as well as over his own vessel, that was altogether opposed to dis- 
 cipline and to marine usage under the circumstances. 
 
 PROJECT DEFEATED BY HEAVY GALE. 
 
 On the 13th of September the Cheviot Hills were in sight from the 
 ships. Understanding that a 20-gun ship, with two or three man-of-war 
 cutters, were lying at anchor off Leith, in the Frith of Forth, Commodore 
 Jones planned a descent upon that town. At this time the Alliance was 
 absent, and the Pallas and Vengeance having chased to the southward, 
 the necessity of communicating with those vessels caused a fatal delay, 
 and ruined a promising project. The attempt was at last made, but 
 when the men were actually in the boats the ships were driven out of the 
 Frith by a heavy blow; and when in the North Sea one of their prizes 
 actually foundered. 
 
 The design was so audacious that it is probable the English would 
 have been taken by surprise ; and no doubt much damage would have 
 been done to them, but for the gale. Dale, a modest, and prudent 
 man, thought so. 
 
 After this bold project was abandoned, Jones appears to have medi- 
 tated another still more daring ; but his colleagues, as he bitterly styles 
 his captains, refused to join in it. We do not know what it was ; but 
 only that the officers of Jones' own ship heartily approved it. Jones 
 had much respect for the judgment of Captain Cottineau, of the Pallas, 
 and as he disapproved of it, it was dropped. 
 
 The Pallas and Vengeance even left the Richard — probably with a 
 view to prevent the attempt to execute this nameless scheme ; and the 
 
106 JOHN PAUL JONES. 
 
 commodore was compelled to follow his captains to the southward or lose 
 them altogether. Off Whitby they came together again, and on Sep- 
 tember 2 ist the Richard chased a collier ashore, near Flamborough 
 Head. 
 
 The next day she was at the mouth of the Humber, the Vengeance 
 being in company, and several vessels were taken or destroyed. Pilots 
 were enticed onboard, and a knowledge of the state of things inshore 
 obtained. It appeared that the whole coast was alarmed, and that many 
 persons were burying their plate. By this time about a dozen vessels 
 had been taken, and rumor increased the number. No vessels had ever 
 before excited such local alarm on British shores, for centuries. 
 
 SENT IN CHASE OF A BRIG. 
 
 Under the circumstances Commodore Jones did not think it prudent 
 to remain so close in with the land, and he accordingly stood out under 
 Flamborough Head. Here he was joined, next day, by the Pallas and 
 Alliance. This was' on the 23d of September. 
 
 The wind was light from the southward, the water smooth, and 
 many vessels in sight, steering in different directions. About noon the 
 squadron, with the exception of the Cerf and the two privateers, being 
 all in company, Jones manned one of the pilot-boats he had detained, and 
 sent her in chase of a brig, which was lying to, to windward. On board 
 the little vessel were Mr. Lunt, the second lieutenant, and fifteen men, 
 all of whom were absent from the ship for the rest of the day. 
 
 In consequence of the loss of the two boats off Cape Clear, the 
 absence of the party in the pilot-boat, and the number of men that had 
 been put in prizes, the Richard was now left with only one lieutenant, and 
 with but little more than three hundred souls on board, exclusive of pris- 
 oners. Of the latter there were about one hundred and fifty in the 
 Richard. 
 
 The pilot-boat had hardly left the Richard when the leading ships 
 of a fleet of more than forty sails were seen stretching out on a bowline 
 from behind Flamborough Head, turning down to the south. From 
 
JOHN PAUL JONES. 107 
 
 previous intelligence this fleet was immediately known to be the Baltic 
 ships, under the convoy of the Serapis, 44 guns, Captain Richard Pearson, 
 and a hired ship that had been put into the king's service, called the 
 Countess of Scarborough. The latter was commanded by Captain 
 Piercy, and mounted 22 guns. 
 
 As the interest of the succeeding details will principally centre in 
 the two ships, the Serapis and Bonhomme Richard, it may be well to 
 give a more minute account of the actual force of the former. At 
 that period 44' s were usually built on "two decks , and such was the con- 
 struction of this ship, which was new, and was reputed to be a fast vessel. 
 On her lower gun-deck she mounted 20 18-pound guns ; and on her upper 
 gun-deck 20 9-pound guns ; and on her quarter-deck and forecastle ten 
 6-pound guns ; making an armament of fifty guns. She had a regularly 
 trained man-of-war's crew of 320 souls, of whom fifteen are said to have 
 been Lascars, and was fully equipped for action. 
 
 WARNING GIVEN OF A HOSTILE FORCE. 
 
 When Jones made out the convoy, the men-of-war were inshore, 
 astern, and to leeward, probably with a view to keeping the merchantmen 
 together. The officials at Scarborough, perceiving the danger into which 
 this fleet was running, had sent a boat off to the Serapis, to apprise her 
 of the presence of a hostile force, and Captain Pearson fired two guns, 
 signaling the leading vessels to come under his lee. These orders were 
 disregarded, however, the headmost ships continuing to stand out from 
 the land. 
 
 Jones, having ascertained the character of the fleet in sight, showed 
 signal for a general chase, and another to recall the lieutenant in the 
 pilot-boat. The Richard then crossed royal yards. These signs of hos- 
 tility alarmed the nearer English merchant ships, which hurriedly 
 tacked, fired alarm guns, let fly their top-gallant sheets, and made other 
 signals of the danger they found themselves in, while they now gladly 
 availed themselves of the presence of the men-of-war to run to leeward, 
 or else seek shelter close in with the land. 
 
108 JOHN PAUL JONES. 
 
 The Serapis, on the contrary, signaled the Scarborough to follow, 
 and hauled boldly out to sea, until she got far enough to windward, 
 when she tacked, and stood inshore again to cover her convoy. 
 
 The Alliance being much the fastest vessel of the American squad- 
 ron, took the lead in the chase, speaking the Pallas as she passed. It 
 has been proved that Captain Landais told the commander of the latter 
 vessel on this occasion, that if the stranger proved to be a fifty-gun ship, 
 they had nothing to do but to escape. His subsequent conduct fully 
 confirms this, for no sooner had he run down near enough to the two 
 English vessels-of-war to ascertain their force, than he hauled up and 
 stood off from the land again. This was not only contrary to all regular 
 order of naval battle, but contrary to the positive command of Jones, 
 who had kept the signal to form line flying, which should have brought 
 the Alliance astern of the Bonhomme Richard and the Pallas in the van. 
 Just at this time the Pallas spoke the Richard, and inquired what station 
 she should take, and she was directed at once to fall into line. 
 
 THE RICHARD'S GALLANT CREW. 
 
 Captain Cottineau was a brave man, who subsequently did his duty 
 in the action, and he had only thought that, because the Richard had 
 suddenly hauled up from the land, her crew had mutinied, and that she 
 was being run away with. Such was the want of confidence in the 
 force so singularly composed, and such were the disadvantages under 
 which this celebrated combat was fought. So far, however, from medi- 
 tating retreat or mutiny, the crew of the Richard had gone cheerfully 
 to their quarters, although every man on board was conscious of the 
 force of the enemy with whom they were about to contend ; and the 
 spirit of the commanding officer appears to have communicated itself to 
 his men. 
 
 It was now quite dark, and Jones was compelled to use a night- 
 glass to follow the movements of the enemy. It is probable that the 
 darkness added to the indecision of the Captain of the Pallas, for even 
 after the moon rose it was thick, and objects at a distance were seen 
 
J J8>: **W pi > 
 
 LORD NELSON CARRIED BELOW ON THE "VICTORY." 
 
 WHERE THE GREAT ADMIRAL BREATHED HIS LAST A SHORT TIME LATER. THE LAST WORDS HE UTTERED WERE: 
 
 THANK GOD, I'VE DONE MY DUTY." 
 
GENERAL "STONEWALL" JACKSON 
 
 THE FAMOUS CONFEDERATE COMMANDER 
 
GENERAL GEORGE G. MEADE 
 
JOHN PAUL JONES. 109 
 
 with difficulty. The Richard continued to stand steadily on, and at 
 about half-past seven she came up with the Serapis, the Scarborough 
 being a short distance to leeward. The American ship was to wind- 
 ward, and, as she slowly approached, Captain Pearson hailed. The 
 answer returned was purposely equivocal, and both ships delivered 
 their broadsides at almost the same moment. 
 
 MANY KILLED BY BURSTING GUNS. 
 
 As the water was quite smooth, Jones had relied very much upon the 
 eighteen-pounders which were in the Richard's gun-room ; but at this 
 first discharge two of the six that were fired burst, blowing up the deck 
 above and killing or wounding many of the people stationed below. This 
 disaster rendered it impossible to make the men stand at the other heavy 
 guns, as they could have no confidence in them. It at once reduced the 
 broadside of the Richard to about one-third less than that of her opponent 
 and the force which remained was distributed among the light guns in a 
 disadvantageous manner. In short, the battle was now between a twelve- 
 pounder and an eighteen-pounder frigate, with the chances almost pre- 
 ponderatingly in favor of the latter. 
 
 Jones himself said that after this accident his hopes rested solely 
 upon the twelve-pounders that were immediately under the command of 
 his First Lieutenant, Dale. The Richard, having backed her top-sails, 
 exchanged several broadsides, when she filled again and shot ahead of 
 the Serapis, which ship luffed across her stern and came up on the 
 weather quarter of her antagonist, taking the wind out of her sails, and 
 in her turn passing ahead. 
 
 All this time, which was about half an hour, the fire was close and 
 furious. The Scarborough now drew near, but it is uncertain whether 
 she fired or not. The officers of the Richard state that she raked them 
 at least once, but her commander reported that, owing to the smoke and 
 darkness, he was afraid to discharge his guns, not being able to make out 
 which ship was friend and which foe. 
 
 Unwilling to lie by and be uselessly exposed to shot, Captain Piercy 
 
110 JOHN PAUL JONES. 
 
 edged away from the combatants, exchanging one or two broadsides, at a 
 great distance, with the Alliance, and shortly afterward was engaged at 
 close quarters by the Pallas, which ship compelled him to strike to her, 
 after a creditable resistance of about an hour. 
 
 Let us now return to the principal combatants. As the Serapis kept 
 her luff, sailing and working better than the Richard, it was the inten- 
 tion of Captain Pearson to pay broad off, across the Richard's fore-foot, as 
 soon as he had got far enough ahead. But making the attempt, and find- 
 ing he had not room, he put his helm down, to keep clear of his adver- 
 sary, and this double movement brought the two ships nearly in a line, 
 the Serapis leading, the Richard being dangerously near her foe. 
 
 JONES RUNS HIS SHIP ON THE ENEMY. 
 
 By these evolutions the English ship lost some of her way, while 
 the American, having kept her sails trimmed, not only closed but actu- 
 ally ran on board of her antagonist, bows on, a little on her starboard 
 quarter. The wind* being light, much time was consumed in these 
 manoeuvres, and nearly an hour had elapsed between the firing of the 
 first gun and the moment when the vessels got foul of each other in 
 the manner just described. The English thought it was the inten- 
 tion of the Americans to board, and for some minutes it was uncertain 
 whether they would do so or not, but the position was not safe for 
 either party to pass into the opposing ship. 
 
 There being at this time a complete cessation of the firing, Captain 
 Pearson hailed and asked whether the Richard had struck. " I have not 
 yet begun to fight," was the answer from Jones. The Richard's yards 
 were then braced aback and, the sails of the Serapis being full, the ships 
 separated. 
 
 As soon as they were far enough apart, the Serapis put her helm 
 hard down, laid all aback forward, shivered her after sails, and wore short 
 round on her heel, with a view, most probably, of luffing up across the 
 Richard's bow, in order to rake her. In this position the Richard would 
 have been fighting her starboard, and the Serapis her port guns ; but 
 
JOHN PAUL JONES. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Jones, by this time, had become convinced of the hopelessness of success 
 against so much heavier metal ; and so backed astern some distance, 
 filled on the other tack, and luffed up, with the intention of meeting the 
 enemy as he came to the wind, and of laying him athwart hawse. 
 
 In the smoke and dim light, one or the other party miscalculated the 
 
 distance, for the vessels 
 came foul again, the bow- 
 sprit of the English vessel 
 passing over the poop of the 
 American. As neither had 
 much way the collision did 
 but little injury, and Jones, 
 with his own hands, imme- 
 diately lashed the enemy's 
 head-gear to his mizzen- 
 Hymast. The pressure on the 
 after sails of the Serapis, 
 which vessel was nearly 
 before the wind at the time, 
 brought her hull round, and 
 the two ships gradually 
 fell close alongside of each 
 other, head and stern; the 
 j ib-boom of the Serapis giv- 
 ing way with the strain. A 
 spare anchor of the English 
 
 JOHN PAUL JONES. ship now hooked in fa 
 
 quarter of the American, and additional lashings were got out on board 
 the latter, to secure her opponent in this position. 
 
 Captain Pearson, who was a brave and excellent officer, was fully 
 aware of his superiority in weight of metal ; and he no sooner perceived 
 that the vessels were foul than he dropped an anchor, in the hope that 
 the Richard would drift clear of him. But, of course, such an expectation 
 
112 JOHN PAUL JONES. 
 
 was futile, as the yards were interlocked, the hulls pressed close together, 
 there were lashings fore and aft, and every projection aided in holding 
 the two ships together. When the cable of the Serapis took the strain, 
 the vessels slowly tended, with the bows of the Serapis and the stern of 
 the Richard, to the tide. 
 
 At this time the English made an attempt to board, but were repulsed, 
 with trifling loss. All this time there was a heavy fire kept up from the 
 guns. The lower ports of the Serapis having been closed as the vessel 
 swung, to prevent boarding, they were now blown off, to allow the guns 
 to be run out ; and cases actually occurred in which the rammers had to 
 be thrust into the ports of the opposing ship, in order to be entered in 
 the muzzles of their proper guns.- It was evident that such a state of 
 things could not last long. In effect, the heavy metal of the Serapis, in 
 one or two discharges, cleared all before it, and the main-deck guns of 
 the Richard were almost abandoned. Most of her people went upon the 
 upper deck, and a great number collected on the forecastle, where they 
 were safe from the battery of the Serapis ; continuing the fight by throw- 
 ing grenades and using muskets. 
 
 AMERICAN VESSEL BADLY SHATTERED. 
 
 At this stage of the action, then, the Serapis was tearing the Ameri- 
 can to pieces, below, at each discharge of her battery ; the latter only 
 replying to the English fire by two guns on the quarter-deck, and three 
 or four of her twelve-pounders. To the quarter-deck guns Jones suc- 
 ceeded in adding a third, by shifting a gun from the port side ; and all 
 these were used with effect, under his own eye, until the close of the 
 action. He tried to get over a second gun, from the port side, but did 
 not succeed. 
 
 The fight must now have been decided in favor of the English, but 
 for the courage and activity of the people aloft. Strong parties were 
 placed in the tops, and, after a sharp and short contest, the Americans 
 had driven every man of the enemy from the upper deck of the English 
 frigate. After this they kept up so sharp a fire of small arms upon the 
 
JOHN PAUL JONES. 113 
 
 quarter-deck of the English ship as to keep it clear, shooting down many 
 in the operation. 
 
 Thus, this singular condition of affairs obtained, that, while the Eng- 
 lish had the battle very much to themselves, below, the Americans had 
 control of their upper deck and tops. Having cleared the latter, some of 
 the American seamen laid out on the Richard's main-yard, and began to 
 throw hand grenades down upon the deck of the British ship ; while the 
 men on the Richard's forecastle seconded these efforts by casting gren- 
 ades, and other combustibles, through the ports of the Serapis. 
 
 MANY KILLED BY DISASTROUS EXPLOSION. 
 
 At length one man, in particular, became so bold as to take up his 
 post on the extreme end of the yard ; and being provided with a bucket 
 of grenades and a match, he dropped the explosives upon the enemy, one 
 of them passing down the Serapis' main hatchway. The powder boys of 
 the English ship had got up more cartridges than were needed at the 
 moment, and had carelessly laid a row of them along her main deck, 
 parallel with the guns. 
 
 The grenade which came down the hatch set fire to some loose powder 
 on the deck, and the flash passed to these cartridges, beginning abreast 
 of the mainmast, and running away aft. The effect of the explosion was 
 awful. More than twenty men were instantly killed; many of them 
 being left with nothing on them but the collars and wrist-bands of their 
 shirts, and the waist-bands of their duck trousers. 
 
 The official returns of Captain Pearson, made a week after the action, 
 show that there were no less than thirty-three wounded on board then, 
 still alive, who had been injured at this time ; and thirty of them were 
 said to be in great danger. 
 
 Captain Pearson reported that the explosion destroyed nearly all the 
 men at the five or six aftermost guns of the Serapis ; and, altogether, 
 nearly sixty of the Serapis' men must have been instantly disabled. 
 
 The advantages thus obtained by the coolness and intrepidity of the 
 
 topmen of the Bonhomme Richard, in a measure restored the chances 
 s 
 
114 JOHN PAUL JONES. 
 
 of the fight, and, by lessening the fire of the enemy, enabled Jones to 
 increase his. And in the same degree that it encouraged the Americans 
 did it diminish the hopes of the English. 
 
 One of the guns, directed by Jones himself, had been for some time 
 firing against the mainmast of his enemy ; while the two others were 
 assisting in clearing his decks with grape and canister. Kept below 
 decks by this double attack, where they had a scene of horror before their 
 eyes in the agonies of the wounded, and the other effects of the explosion, 
 the spirits of the English crew began to droop, and a very little would have 
 caused them to surrender. From this despondency they were tempo- 
 rarily raised by one of the unlooked-for events which characterize every 
 battle, whether afloat or ashore. 
 
 EXCHANGING BROADSIDES AT A DISTANCE. 
 
 After exchanging the ineffectual and distant broadsides with the 
 Scarborough, as already mentioned, the Alliance had kept standing off 
 and on, to leeward of the two principal ships, and out of the direction of 
 their shot, when, about half-past eight, she appeared, crossing the stern 
 of the Serapis, and the bow of the Richard, and firing, at such a distance, 
 and in such a way, that it was impossible to say which vessel would suf- 
 fer the most. 
 
 As soon as she had drawn out of range of her own guns, her helm 
 was put up, and she ran down near a mile to leeward, and hovered about, 
 aimlessly, until the firing had ceased between the Pallas and the Scar- 
 borough, when she suddenly came within hail, and spoke both vessels. 
 Captain Cottineau, of the Pallas, earnestly entreated Captain Landais, of 
 the Alliance, to take possession of his prize, and allow him to go to the 
 assistance of the Richard, or else to stretch up to windward in the Alli- 
 ance, and go to the succor of the commodore. 
 
 After some delay, Captain Landais took the very important duty of 
 assisting his consort into his own hands, and, making two long stretches, 
 under top-sails only, he appeared, at about the time at which we have 
 arrived in the story of the fight, directly to windward of the two ships 
 
JOHN PAUL JONES. 115 
 
 which were locked together in mortal combat. The head of the Alliance 
 was then to the westward. This ship then opened fire again, doing at 
 least as much damage to friend as foe. Keeping away a little, she was 
 soon on the port-quarter of the Richard ; and some of the people of the 
 latter affirmed that her guns were discharged until she had got nearly 
 abeam. 
 
 Many voices now hailed to inform the Alliance that she was firing 
 into the wrong ship ; and three lanterns were shown in a line on the off- 
 side of the Richard, which was the regular signal for recognition in a 
 night action. An officer was then directed to hail, to command Captain 
 Landais to lay the enemy on board ; and the question being put as to 
 whether the order was understood, an answer was given in the affirmative. 
 
 STRATEGIC MOVEMENTS OF THE CONTENDING SHIPS. 
 
 As the moon had now been up for some time, it was impossible not 
 to distinguish between the two vessels. The Richard was all black, 
 while the Serapis had yellow sides ; and the impression among the people 
 of the Richard was that Landais had intentionally attacked her. 
 
 Indeed, as soon as the Alliance began to fire, the people left one or 
 two of the twelves on board the Richard, which they had begun to fight 
 again, saying that the English in the Alliance had got possession of the 
 ship and were helping the eneni}^ 
 
 The Alliance's fire dismounted a gun, extinguished several battle- 
 lanterns on the main deck, and did much damage aloft. This ship now 
 hauled off to some distance, always keeping the Richard between her and 
 the enemy ; and then she re-appeared, edging down on the port beam of 
 her consort, and hauling up athwart the bows of that ship and the stern of 
 her antagonist. The officers of the Richard reported that her fire then 
 recommenced, when by no possibility could her shot reach the Serapis, 
 except through the Bonhomme Richard. In fact, it appears that this 
 Landais was one of those men who, for generations, affected the French 
 character for seamanship and conduct in naval battles. 
 
 There were, and are, many excellent French seamen, and as builders 
 
116 JOHN PAUL JONES. 
 
 of vessels they are unexcelled. But some men, like Landais, at that 
 time had destroyed their reputation afloat. 
 
 Ten or twelve men appear to have been killed on the forecastle of 
 the Richard at this time, that part being crowded, and among them an 
 officer of the name of Caswell, who, with his dying breath, maintained 
 that he had received his death wound from the friendly vessel. 
 
 After crossing the bows of the Richard and the stern of the Serapis, 
 delivering grape as he passed, this "lunatic Frenchman " ran off to lee- 
 ward again, standing off and on, and doing absolutely nothing for the 
 remainder of the fight. It was as if a third party, seeing two men fight- 
 ing, should come up and throw a stone or two at them both, and then 
 retire, saying he had rather the little fellow whipped. 
 
 JONES' SHIP BADLY DAMAGED. 
 
 The fire of the Alliance certainly damaged the Bonhomme Richard, 
 and increased her leaks ; and the latter vessel by this time had leaked 
 so much through her shot-holes that she had begun to settle in the water. 
 Many witnesses affirmed that the most dangerous shot-holes received by 
 the Richard were under her port bow and port-quarter ; or, in other 
 words, where they could not have been received from the Serapis. But 
 this is not entirely reliable, as it has been seen that the Serapis luffed up 
 on the port-quarter of the Richard in the commencement of the action, 
 and, forging ahead, was subsequently on her port bow, endeavoring to 
 cross her fore-foot. These shots may very possibly have been received 
 then, and as the Richard settled in the water, have suddenly increased 
 the danger. On the other hand, if the Alliance did actually fire while 
 on the bow and quarter of the Richard, as appears by a mass of testimony, 
 the dangerous shot-holes may have very well come from that ship. 
 
 Let the injuries have been received from what quarter they might, 
 soon after the Alliance had run to leeward again an alarm was spread 
 throughout the Richard that she was sinking. 
 
 Both the contending ships had been on fire several times, and the 
 flames had been extinguished with difficulty ; but here was a new enemy 
 
JOHN PAUL JONES. 117 
 
 to contend with, and, as the information came from the carpenter, whose 
 duty it was to sound the pump-well, it produced a good deal of alarm. 
 
 The Richard had more than a hundred English prisoners on board ; 
 and the master-at-arms, in the hurry of the moment, and to save their 
 lives, let them up from below. In the confusion of such a scene, at night, 
 in a torn and sinking vessel, the master of the letter-of-marque that had 
 been taken off the north of Scotland, passed through a port of the Richard 
 into one of the Serapis, where he reported to Captain Pearson that a few 
 minutes would probably decide the battle in his favor, or carry his enemy 
 down, as he (the captain of the privateer) had been liberated in order to 
 save his life. 
 
 BRAVE REPLY OF THE AMERICAN COMMANDER. 
 
 Just at this moment the gunner of the Bonhomme Richard, who had 
 not much to do at his quarters, came on deck, and not seeing Commodore 
 Jones, or Mr. Dale, both of whom were occupied with the liberated pris- 
 oners, and believing the master (the only other superior officer of the 
 ship) to be dead, he ran up on the poop, to haul down the colors, and, as 
 he believed, save all their lives. 
 
 Fortunately, the flag-staff had been shot away, and as the ensign 
 already hung in the water he had no other means of letting his intentions 
 be known than by bawling out for quarter. Captain Pearson now hailed^ 
 to inquire if the Richard demanded quarter, and Commodore Jones, hear- 
 ing the hail, replied "No." 
 
 It is probable that the reply was not heard ; or, if heard, supposed to 
 come from an unauthorized source ; for, encouraged from what he had 
 heard from the escaped prisoner, by the cries, and by the confusion which 
 appeared to reign on board the Richard, the English captain directed his 
 boarders to be called away, and, as soon as they were mustered, he 
 directed them to take possession of the prize. Some of the Englishmen 
 actually got upon the gunwale of the American ship, but, finding board- 
 ers ready to repel boarders, they precipitately retreated. The Richard's 
 topmen were not idle at this time and the enemy were soon driven below 
 
118 JOHN PAUL JONES. 
 
 again, with loss. In the meantime Mr. Dale (who was afterwards Com- 
 modore Dale) had no longer a gnn which could be fought, and he 
 mustered the prisoners at the pumps, turning their consternation to 
 account, and probably keeping the Richard afloat by this very blunder 
 that had come so near losing her. Both ships were now on fire again, and 
 both sides, with the exception of a very few guns on board each vessel, 
 ceased firing, in order to turn to and subdue this common enemy. 
 
 ENEMY LOSING HOPE OF VICTORY. 
 
 In the course of the battle the Serapis is said to have been on fire 
 no less than twelve times ; while, towards its close, as will be seen in the 
 sequel, the Bonhomme Richard had been burning all the time. As soon 
 as order was restored in the American ship, after the gunner's call for 
 quarter, her chances of success began to increase ; while the English, 
 driven under cover, appeared to lose the hope of victory. Their fire 
 slackened very materially, while the Richard again brought a few guns 
 to bear. 
 
 It was an example of immense endurance on either side ; but as time 
 went on the mainmast of the Serapis began to totter, and her resistance, in 
 general, to lessen. About an hour after the explosion, or about three hours 
 and a half after the first gun was fired, and about two hours and a half 
 after the ships were lashed together, Captain Pearson hauled down his 
 colors with his own hands, his men refusing to expose themselves to the 
 fire of the Richard's tops. 
 
 As soon as it was known that the English colors were down, Mr. 
 Dale got upon the gunwale of the Richard, and laying hold of the main- 
 brace pendant, swung himself on board the Serapis. On the quarter-deck 
 he found the gallant Captain Pearson, almost alone, that officer having 
 maintained his post throughout the whole of this close and murderous 
 engagement, proving himself a man of great nerve and ability. 
 
 Just as Mr. Dale addressed the English captain the first lieu- 
 tenant of the Serapis came up from below, to inquire if the Richard had 
 struck, as her fire had entirely ceased. Mr. Dale informed the English 
 
JOHN PAUL JONES. 119 
 
 officer that lie had mistaken the position of things, the Serapis having 
 struck to the Richard, and not the Richard to the Serapis. Captain 
 Pearson confirming this, his surprised subordinate acquiesced, offering 
 to go below and silence the guns on the main deck, which were still 
 playing on the American ship. To this Mr. Dale would not consent, 
 but passed both the English officers at once on board the Bonhomme 
 Richard. 
 
 The firing below then ceased. Mr. Dale had been closely followed to 
 the quarter-deck of the Serapis by a midshipman, Mr. Mayrant, with a 
 party of boarders, and as the midshipman struck the quarter-deck of the 
 prize, he was run through the thigh with the boarding pike, in the hands 
 of a man who was ignorant of the surrender. Thus did the close of this 
 remarkable sea fight resemble its other features in singularity, blood be- 
 ing shed, and shot fired, while the boarding officer was in amicable dis- 
 course with his prisoners. 
 
 JONES ORDERS THE VESSELS SEPARATED. 
 
 As soon as Captain Pearson was on board the Bonhomme Richard 
 and a proper number of hands sent to Mr. Dale, in the prize, Commodore 
 Jones ordered the lashings to be cut, and the vessels to be separated, 
 hailing the Serapis, as the Richard drifted from alongside of her, and 
 ordering her to follow his own ship. Mr. Dale had the head-sails of the 
 Serapis braced sharp aback, and the helm put down, but the vessel did 
 not obey either the canvas or the helm. 
 
 Mr. Dale was so surprised and excited at this that he sprang from 
 the binnacle, to see the cause, and fell, full length, on deck. He had 
 been severely wounded in the leg, by a splinter, and until that moment 
 had been ignorant of the injury. He had just been picked up and 
 seated, when the master of the Serapis came up and informed him of the 
 fact that the ship was anchored. By this time Mr. Lunt, the second 
 lieutenant, who had been away in the pilot-boat, had got alongside, and 
 came on board the prize, when Mr. Dale gave him charge, the cable was 
 cut, and the ship followed the Richard, as ordered. 
 
120 JOHN PAUL JONES. 
 
 Although this protracted aud bloody contest had now ended, the vic- 
 tors had not done with either dangers or labors. The Richard was not 
 only sinking from shot-holes but she was on fire, so that the flames had 
 got within the ceiling and extended so far that they menaced the maga- 
 zine, while all the pumps, in constant use, could barely keep the water in 
 the hold from increasing. 
 
 Had it depended upon the exhausted crews of the two combatants, 
 the ship must soon have foundered ; but the other vessels now sent men 
 on board to assist. So imminent did the danger from the fire become 
 that all the powder left was got on deck, to prevent an explosion. In this 
 manner did the night of the battle pass, with one gang always at the 
 pumps and another fighting the flames, until about ten o'clock in the 
 forenoon of the 24th*, when the fire was got under. 
 
 BOTH SHIPS SUPPOSED TO BE SINKING. 
 
 Before daylight that morning eight or ten Englishmen, of the Rich- 
 ard's crew, had stolen a boat of the Serapis and made their escape, land- 
 ing at Scarborough. Several other men of the Richard were so alarmed 
 at the condition of the ship that during the night they jumped overboard 
 and swam to the other vessels. At daylight an examination of the ship 
 was made. Aloft, on a line with those guns of the Serapis which had not 
 been disabled by the explosion, the timbers were nearly all beaten in or 
 beaten out, for in this respect there was little difference between the two 
 sides of the ship. It is said, indeed, that her poop and upper decks 
 would have fallen into the gunroom but for a few futtocks which the 
 shot had missed. 
 
 So large was the vacuum, in fact, that most of the shot fired from 
 this part of the Serapis at the close of the action must have gone through 
 the Ricljard without touching anything. The rudder was cut from the 
 stern-post and her transoms were nearly driven out of her. All the after 
 part of the ship, in particular, that was below the quarter-deck, was torn 
 to pieces, and nothing had saved those stationed on the quarter-deck but 
 the impossibility of elevating guns which almost touched their object. 
 
JOHN PAUL JONES. 121 
 
 The result of the examination was to convince everyone of the im- 
 possibility of carrying the Richard into port in the event of its coming 
 on to blow. Commodore Jones reluctantly gave the order to remove the 
 wounded, while the weather continued fair. 
 
 The following night and a portion of the succeeding day were 
 employed in this duty, and about nine in the morning the officer who was 
 in charge of the ship, with a party at the pumps, finding that the water 
 had reached the lower deck, at last abandoned her. About ten the Bon- 
 homme Richard wallowed heavily, gave another roll, and went down, 
 bows foremost. 
 
 The Serapis suffered much less than the Richard, as the guns of the 
 latter were so light, and so soon silenced, but no sooner were the ships 
 separated than her main-topmast fell, bringing with it the mizzen-top- 
 mast Though jury-masts were erected the ship drove about, nearly 
 helpless, in the North Sea until the 6th of October, when the remains of 
 the squadron, with the two prizes, got into the Texel, the port to which 
 they had been ordered to repair. 
 
 GREAT LOSS OF LIFE ON BOTH SIDES. 
 
 In this battle an unusual number of lives were lost ; but no authenti- 
 cated report seems to have come from either side. The English stated 
 the loss of the Richard to have been about three hundred in killed and 
 wounded. This would include nearly all on board that ship, and was, of 
 course, a mistake. The muster-roll of the Richard, excluding the marines, 
 which roll was in existence long after, shows that 42 men were killed, or 
 died of wounds very shortly, and that 41 were wounded. No list of the 
 casualties of the marines is given. This would make a total of 83 out of 
 2.27 souls. But some of those on the muster-roll were not in the battle 
 at all, for both junior lieutenants, and about 30 men with them, were 
 absent in prizes. 
 
 There were a few volunteers on board who were not mustered and, 
 so, if we set down 200 as the regular crew during the action, we shall 
 not be far wrong. Estimating the marines at 120, and observing the same 
 
122 PAUL JONES SEIZING THE SILVER PLATE OF LADY SELKIRK, 
 
JOHN PAUL JONES. 123 
 
 proportion for casualties, we shall get 49 for the result, which will make 
 the entire loss of the Richard one hundred and thirty-two. It is known, 
 however, that in the course of the action the soldiers suffered out of pro. 
 portion to the rest of the crew, and as general report made the gross loss 
 of the Bonhomme Richard 150, it is 
 probable that this was about the 
 number. 
 
 Captain Pearson made a partial 
 report, putting his loss at 117, admit- 
 ting, at the same time, that there were 
 many killed who were not reported. 
 Probably the loss of the two ships was 
 about equal, and that nearly or quite 
 half of all engaged were either killed 
 or wounded. 
 
 In a private letter, written some 
 time after, Jones gives an opinion that 
 the loss of men in the two ships was 
 about equal. Muster-rolls were loosely 
 kept in those days. 
 
 That two vessels of so much force 
 should be lashed together for more 
 than two hours, making use of artil- 
 lery, musketry and all the other means 
 of offence known to the warfare of the 
 day, and not do even greater injury to 
 their crews, must strike every one with 
 astonishment. But the fact must be 
 ascribed to the peculiarities of the battle, which, by driving the English 
 under cover early in the fight, and keeping the Americans above the 
 chief line of the fire of their enemy, in a measure protected each side 
 from the missiles of the other. As it was, it was a most sanguinary 
 conflict, with a duration prolonged by unusual circumstances. 
 
 MEDAL AWARDED TO JOHN PAUL 
 JONES BY CONGRESS. 
 
124 JOHN PAUL JONES. 
 
 The arrival of Jones and his prizes in the Texel excited mnch 
 interest in the diplomatic world. The English demanded that the prizes 
 should be released and Jones himself given up as a pirate. The Dutch 
 Government, though favorable to the Americans, was not prepared for 
 war, and therefore temporized. A long correspondence ensued, and the 
 following expedient was adopted. The Serapis, which had been refitted, 
 was transferred to France, as was the Scarborough, while Jones took 
 command of the Alliance, Landais having been suspended, and ordered 
 to quit the country. Landais was afterward restored to command, but 
 deposed again on the ground of insanity, and eventually discharged the 
 service. 
 
 Jones was absent from home for about three years, during which 
 time his exploits were numerous and of the most astonishing character. 
 He was denounced as a pirate by the English, who became so alarmed 
 by his achievements that many people did not feel safe even in London. 
 Some of the timid ones looked out on the Thames, half expecting to 
 see the terrible fellow lay their city under tribute. At. one time he 
 landed on the coast of Scotland, and, appearing at the residence of the 
 Earl of Selkirk, captured a large amount of silver plate and booty. 
 But he treated the earl's household with great courtesy, and the plate 
 that was seized at the time is now in the possession of the members of 
 the Selkirk family. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 ADMIRAL LORD NELSON. 
 
 FAR-FAMED HERO OF TRAFALGAR — HIS BRILLIANT 
 NAVAL CAREER — NOBLE CONDUCT IN THE FACE 
 OF DANGER — SPLENDOR OF HIS DEEDS ACKNOWL- 
 EDGED BY HIS COUNTRYMEN. 
 
 "England expects every man to do his duty." 
 This was the order that Nelson signalled from his ship to every other 
 British ship when about to attack the enemy in the historic battle of 
 Trafalgar. The words are as immortal as the brilliant deeds and the 
 honored name of the great admiral. 
 
 He was the dread of his foes and the pride of his countrymen. 
 During the time in which he was a naval commander he might justly 
 have been styled the master of the sea. Brave even to rashness, quick 
 in decision, unbounded in resources, almost adored by his men, he had 
 all the qualities that belong to the invincible leader and commander. 
 He was one of those heroic souls who appear from time to time and 
 change the history of the world. He appeared to have a genius for 
 managing ships in conflict. Doubtless this was partly due to that 
 innate heroism and courage of which he was a shining example. 
 
 Horatio, Viscount Nelson, English admiral, was born on the 29th of 
 
 September, i758,at Burnham Thorpe in Norfolk, of which parish his fathei 
 
 was rector. He entered the navy in 1770, under the patronage of his 
 
 uncle, Captain Maurice Suckling ; made a voyage to the West Indies in 
 
 a merchant ship; served in the Arctic expedition of 1773, and was 
 
 afterwards sent to the East Indies in the Seahorse. Two years of the 
 
 climate severely tried his constitution, never very strong, and he came 
 
 home, invalided, in September, 1776. In April, 1777, he passed his exam- 
 
 125 
 
126 
 
 ADMIRAL LORD NELSON, 
 
 mation, and by the interest of his mother's family was at once promoted 
 to be lieutenant of the Lowestoft frigate, with Captain Locker. In her 
 he went to Jamaica, where he was taken by the admiral into the flagship, 
 
 LORD NELSON. 
 
 and on December 8th, 1778, was promoted to command the Badger brig, 
 
 from which, six months later, he was posted to the Hinchingbrook frigate. 
 
 In January, 1780, he commanded the naval force in the expedition 
 
 against San Juan ; in the heavy boat-work up the pestilential river his 
 
ADMIRAL LORD NELSON. 127 
 
 health broke down, and he returned to England in an apparently dying 
 condition. A few months' rest and careful treatment, however, restored 
 him ; and in August, 1781, he commissioned the Albemarle, in which, 
 after a winter in the North Sea, he went to North America, where he 
 joined the squadron under Lord Hood, and made the acquaintance of 
 Prince William Henry, afterwards William IV., with whom he always 
 maintained the most cordial relations. In the spring of 1784 he was 
 appointed to the Boreas frigate, again for service in the West Indies, 
 where, by enforcing the Navigation Act against the Americans, he 
 aroused the ill-will of the merchants, which took effect in numerous 
 actions for damages. The law, however, was clear on the point, and 
 Nelson's proceedings were sustained, though not without causing him 
 much trouble and annoyance. 
 
 APPOINTED TO AN IMPORTANT COMMAND. 
 
 Whilst on this station he married Mrs. Nisbet, the widow of a Dr. 
 Nisbet of Nevis, niece of Mr. Herbert, the president of the island ; and 
 on the Boreas being paid off, in December, 1787, he with his wife retired 
 to Burnham Thorpe, where he lived for the next five years. His frequent 
 applications for employment were unsuccessful, till, on the imminence 
 of war with France in January, 1793, he was appointed to the Agamemnon 
 of sixty-four guns, in which he accompanied Lord Hood to the Mediter- 
 ranean. When Toulon was given up to the allies Nelson was ordered 
 to Naples to urge the necessity of troops being sent at once to their 
 assistance ; on his return he was employed in the blockade of Corsica, 
 and in the following spring commanded the naval brigade which largely 
 conduced to the reduction of Bastia and of Calvi, where an unlucky 
 blow from a bit of gravel, scattered by a shot, destroyed the sight of one 
 of his eyes. In 1795 he was with the fleet in the two actions fought by 
 Admiral Hotham outside Toulon. In both, the French were defeated 
 with some loss, but they were allowed to escape, and Nelson in his private 
 letters expressed an angry opinion that more might and ought to have 
 been done. 
 
128 
 
 ADMIRAL LORD NELSON. 
 
 In the autumn of 1795 Hothani was succeeded by Sir John J er vis, 
 and during the whole of 1796 the strictest blockade of Toulon was 
 enforced, Nelson being for the most part, as in preceding years, with a 
 small squadron in the Gulf of Genoa, where he put a stop to all coasting 
 traffic, and commanded the road along the shore so completely as to 
 warrant his assertion that, had he had an adequate force, the invasion of 
 
 VIEW OF THE CITY OF LISBON. 
 
 Italy would have been impossible. Towards the close of the year Spain 
 concluded a treaty of alliance with France, and sent her fleet into the 
 Mediterranean to co-operate with the French. Jervis thus found himself 
 opposed by very superior forces ; and, with Spain and Italy both in 
 hostile hands, his position was no longer tenable. He withdrew the 
 troops from Corsica, and retired to Gibraltar, and afterwards to Lisbon. 
 He was, however, determined that the Spanish fleet, which had been 
 
ADMIRAL LORD NELSON. 
 
 129 
 
 instructed to join the French at Brest, should not pass ; and, on its 
 endeavoring to do so, met it off Cape St. Vincent on February 14th 1797, 
 and inflicted on it a signal defeat. 
 
 This was rendered more decisive by the action of Nelson, who, 
 having been appointed commodore, with his broad pennant on board the 
 
 BATTLE OF CAPE ST. VINCENT. 
 
 Captain, was in the rear of the line, and, interpreting a manoeuvre of 
 the Spanish admiral as an attempt to reunite the two divisions of his 
 fleet, which Jervis had separated, wore out of the line to meet him, and 
 for nearly half an hour withstood, single-handed, the attack of the whole 
 Spanish van. When support arrived and the Spaniards fled, the Captain 
 had suffered severely ; and Nelson, being unable to join in the pursuit, 
 let his ship fall foul of the Spanish San Nicolas, which he boarded and 
 
130 ADMIRAL LORD NELSON. 
 
 took possession of, and, leading his men across her deck to the San Josef, 
 took possession of her also. 
 
 Nelson's conduct on this occasion deservedly won for him the cross 
 of the Bath ; and, being promoted in due course to be rear-admiral, he 
 continued with the fleet off Cadiz till, in July, 1797, he was sent with a 
 small squadron to seize a richly-laden Spanish ship which had taken 
 refuge at Santa Cruz. He was instructed to levy a heavy contribution 
 on the town if the treasure was not given up ; but the troops which he 
 had asked for were not granted, the ships were powerless, and the landing 
 force at his disposal was quite inadequate. With it, such as it was, how- 
 ever, the attack was made on the night of July 21st ; but in the darkness 
 the boats missed the mole, and landing irregularly were repulsed with 
 severe loss. Nelson himself had his right elbow shattered by a grape- 
 shot. He was carried on board his ship, where the arm was amputated, 
 but on rejoining the fleet he was compelled to return to England. 
 
 CRUISES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. 
 
 In the following March, 1798, he hoisted his flag on board the Van- 
 guard of seventy-four guns, and sailed from St. Helens to rejoin the fleet 
 off Cadiz. He was immediately sent into the Mediterranean in command 
 of a small squadron, with orders to ascertain the object of the French 
 armament at Toulon. The secret, was, however, too well kept ; and the 
 Vanguard, being dismasted in a violent gale, was obliged to put into San 
 Pietro off Sardinia to refit, while the French expedition sailed on its way 
 to Egypt. On June 7th Nelson was reinforced by ten sail of the line ; 
 but his frigates had all parted company, and, under some misapprehen- 
 sion of orders, did not rejoin him. He was thus left without means of 
 learning anything about the French further than that they had sailed 
 from Toulon. 
 
 His hope to get news at Naples proved vain, and it was only when 
 he arrived off Messina that he heard that the French had captured Malta, 
 but had sailed again some days before. Their destination was unknown ; 
 he conjectured that it might be Egypt, and he hastened thither, only to 
 
ADMIRAL LORD NELSON. 
 
 131 
 
 find that there was no trace of them. He had in fact passed within a few 
 leagues of them, but without seeing them. He returned by the coast of 
 Asia, put into Syracuse, where he watered, and was meditating going up 
 the Archipelago to Constantinople, when he at last learned that, after all, 
 they had gone to Egypt. Thither he immediately followed, and on the 
 evening of August ist found their fleet lying at anchor in Aboukir Bay. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF THE NILE, OR ABOUKIR. 
 
 His plans had long before been formed and discussed with the several 
 captains under his orders, everything was ready, and no explanatory 
 signals were needed. His fleet was numerically inferior to that of the 
 French, and became still more so by the accident of the Culloden getting 
 aground and being unable to take any part in the battle but the wind 
 was blowing along the French line, and, by concentrating his attack on 
 
132 ADMIRAL LORD NELSON. 
 
 the weather end of it, it was crushed by superior force, while the leeward- 
 most ships were unable to render any assistance ; and thus, creeping 
 gradually down the line, he captured or destroyed the whole, with the 
 exception of the two rear-most ships, and two of the frigates, which fled. 
 Never, in recent times, had there been a victory so complete, so 
 overwhelming ; and when Nelson, with his shattered fleet, returned to 
 Naples he was the object of an enthusiastic adoration which knew no 
 bounds. The queen, in her intense hatred of the murderers of her sister, 
 welcomed their conqueror with all the ardor of a passionate nature ; and 
 Lady Hamilton, the wife of the English ambassador, fell on his breast 
 in a paroxysm of hysterical rapture. 
 
 "BARON NELSON OF THE NILE." 
 
 • 
 
 At home, Nelson was raised to the peerage by the title of Baron 
 Nelson of the Nile ; parliament voted him a pension of ^2000 a year, 
 and the East India Company awarded him a sum of ^10,000. Turkey 
 and Russia sent him handsome and costly presents, and the king of 
 Naples conferred on him the title of Duke of Bronte, in Sicily, with an 
 estate valued at ^3000 a year, though during Nelson's life its revenues 
 seem to have been in abeyance. 
 
 On January, 1st 1801, Nelson was promoted to be vice-admiral, and 
 a few days later was appointed second in command of the expedition 
 ordered to the Baltic, under Sir Hyde Parker. He hoisted his flag in the 
 St. George, but that ship being too large for the approaches to Copen- 
 hagen, he moved into the Elephant when the attack was determined on. 
 The whole conduct of this attack was entrusted to Nelson, with the 
 smaller ships of the fleet, Parker, with the others, remaining at anchor 
 some miles distant. After a furious combat of from three to four hours' 
 duration, the enemy's ships were subdued. The shore batteries still 
 continued to fire, till Nelson sent a flag of truce on shore to point out 
 that the worst sufferers from the continued engagement were the crews 
 of the beaten ships, which received a great part of the fire of both 
 parties. 
 
ADMIRAL LORD NELSON. 133 
 
 A suspension of hostilities was agreed on to permit of the prisoners 
 being removed ; and this led to an armistice, which the news of the 
 czar's death shortly afterwards converted into a peace. Nelson, who was 
 raised a step in the peerage and became a viscount, succeeded Parker as 
 commander-in-chief ; but, his health having given way, he was permit- 
 ted to return to England. He arrived in the beginning of July, and was 
 at once ordered to undertake the defence of the coast, in view of the pre- 
 parations for invasion which were being made in France ; and though 
 he failed in an attempt to destroy the flotilla collected in Boulogne, his 
 watch was so vigilant that the boats never ventured from under the pro- 
 tection of their chains and batteries. 
 
 IN HOT PURSUIT OF THE FRENCH FLEET. 
 
 On the renwal of the war, Nelson was at once sent out to the Medi- 
 terranean, where, with his flag in the Victory, he cruised for more than 
 eighteen months in front of Toulon, drawing back occasionally to Mada- 
 lena for water and refreshment. During one of these absences, in March, 
 1805, tne French fleet put to sea under the command of Vice-admiral 
 Villeneuve, and got clear away to Gibralter, to Cadiz, and to Martinique, 
 where they expected to be joined by the fleet from Brest. Nelson, how- 
 ever, though delayed for six weeks by his ignorance of where Villeneuve 
 had gone, was only twenty days behind him ; and Villeneuve, deceived 
 as to the English numbers, and unwilling to risk an engagement which 
 might frustrate his ulterior object, hastily returned to Europe. Nelson 
 again followed, again outsailed his enemy, and arrived off Cadiz some 
 days before the French approached the shores of Europe. 
 
 At daylight on Monday, the 21st of October, they were discovered 
 when some leagues from Cape Trafalgar, six or seven miles to the east- 
 ward. Nelson was then upon deck, and regarded the enemy with the 
 victor's prophetic eye. Signal was made to bear down in two lines ac- 
 cording to arrangement, and prepare for battle, after which he descended 
 to his cabin, and at seven o'clock wrote down the following prayer : 
 
 "May the great God whom I worship grant to my country, and for 
 
134 ADMIRAL LORD NELSON. 
 
 the benefit of Europe in general, a great and glorious victory ! and may 
 no misconduct in any one tarnish it ! and may humanity, after victory, 
 be the predominant feature in the British fleet ! For myself, individu- 
 ally, I commend my life to Him who made me, and may His blessing 
 light upon my endeavors for serving my country faithfully! To Him 
 I resign myself and the j ust cause which is entrusted to me to defend. 
 Amen ! Amen ! Amen ! " 
 
 He wrote also a memorandum recapitulating the public services* of 
 Lady Hamilton, and bequeathing her, as well as his adopted daughter, 
 to the generosity of his country and his loyal friends. 
 
 PRESENTIMENT OF APPROACHING DEATH. 
 
 It was noticed that on this occasion he showed none of that joyous- 
 ness of spirit peculiar to him on the eve of a great enterprise. He was 
 serenely calm ; but evidently a presentiment of coming death guided all 
 his thoughts. Of Captain Blackwood he asked what he should consider 
 as a victory. There was no sign of hesitancy or weakness on the part 
 of the enemy, and Blackwood answered, therefore, that the capture of 
 fourteen sail of the line would be a grand result. " I shall not be satis- 
 fied with less than twenty," replied Nelson. 
 
 Soon afterwards, Blackwood, in taking leave of his admiral to return 
 on board his own frigate, observed that he hoped they should in a few 
 hours meet again. Nelson answered calmly, " My dear Blackwood, I 
 shall never again speak to you." Probably he spoke in this way because 
 he had estimated the inequality of the contest, and felt that the inequal- 
 ity could be met only by a daring and an intrepidity inspired to an 
 extraordinary degree of fervor by his personal example. Hence he de- 
 termined on an exposure of his life which amounted to chivalrous reck- 
 lessness. 
 
 He wore his admiral's uniform, with four stars embroidered on its 
 left side, the emblems of the orders to which he had been admitted. His 
 officers solicited him to put on a plainer dress, as it was known that there 
 were many riflemen amongst the 4000 troops on board the French ships. 
 
ADMIRAL LORD NELSON. L35 
 
 But no, what he had won he would not lay aside, and there he stood on 
 the quarter-deck of his stately flag-ship, a mark for the enemy — one 
 whose life was worth a legion of common lives. 
 
 In advancing, Lord Nelson, as commander-in-chief, led the weather 
 column in the Victory, and Collingwood, as second in command, the lee 
 column in the Royal Sovereign. Nelson's last signal was the immortal 
 one, "England expects every man to do his duty" — a signal which, when 
 made known, was hailed by every man with a hearty cheer. 
 
 BEGINNING OF THE GREAT STRUGGLE. 
 
 This signal flew from the masthead of the Victory exactly at twelve 
 o'clock, and the action instantly began by the leading ships of the British 
 columns attempting to break the enemy's compact array, the Victory, 
 about the tenth ship from the van, the Royal Sovereign about the twelfth 
 from the rear. When Collingwood began the attack and forced his 
 passage, Nelson turned round to his officers and exclaimed, " Look at 
 that noble fellow ! Observe the style in which he carries his ship into 
 action ! ' ' 
 
 At four minutes past twelve the Victory opened its fire on the 
 enemy's van while ranging along their line, and in almost a quarter of 
 an hour afterwards, finding a gap through which she could pass, she fell 
 on board the eleventh and twelfth ships. She was followed by the 
 Temeraire, which also fell on board one of them. Thus these four ships 
 were for a considerable time huddled up into a knotted group, so that the 
 flash of almost every gun fired from the Victory set fire to the Redoubt- 
 able, her more immediate adversary. In this juncture a curious specta- 
 cle might be seen ; that of numerous British seamen in the midst of a 
 tremendous fire, coolly pouring buckets of water to extinguish the 
 flames on board their enemy's ship, that both might not be involved in 
 one common destruction. 
 
 Nelson would fain ha^e opened the contest by ranging ahead of 
 Admiral Villeneuve's flag-ship, the Bucentaure, in order to have placed 
 the Victory ahead of her, and astern of his old opponent, the huge San. 
 
136 ADMIRAL LORD NELSON. 
 
 tissima Trinidada. The Bucentaure, however, shot ahead, and compelled 
 the Victory to pass under her stern, raking it heavily, and to luff up on 
 the starboard side. The Bucentaure poured four broadsides into the 
 British flag-ship before Nelson ordered his ports to be opened. Then, 
 indeed, all his guns, double-shotted, crashed in such a storm of deadly 
 missiles that the French vessel literally heeled with the concussion. But 
 he sought even higher game ; he had selected for his target the Trini- 
 dada, and laying the Victory alongside of her, he ordered the ships to 
 be lashed together, a most daring thing to do. 
 
 FAST AND FURIOUS BATTLE. 
 
 The melee now grew fast and furious ; the dense clouds of battle 
 were lighted up incessantly by the flashes of cannon and musketry, and 
 with the crash of falling masts and yards mingled the cheers of the Brit- 
 ish seamen at every fresh indication of coming victory. As was his 
 wont when the conflict deepened, Nelson was light of heart and gay of 
 spirit. His fin, as he pleasantly termed the stump of his right arm, 
 moved the shoulder of his sleeve up and down with the utmost rapidity, 
 a sign that he was greatly pleased. 
 
 Captain Hardy, fearful that Nelson's star-embroidered uniform 
 would point him out as a special object to the French marksmen, again 
 
 £1.' 
 
 entreated him to change his dress'br assume a great-coat ; but he simply 
 observed that he had not yet time to do so. In the meantime the enemy's 
 fire continued very heavy and well directed. Of no marines stationed 
 on the poop and quarter-deck, upwards of 80 were either killed or 
 wounded. Mr. Pascoe, the first lieutenant, was severely wounded while 
 conversing with the admiral, and John Scott, his secretary, was shot 
 through the head while standing by his side. Captain Adair, of the 
 marines, almost at the same moment, experienced a similar fate. 
 
 This was about a quarter past one ; a few minutes later Captain 
 Hardy observed a marksman on the rigging top of the Bucentaure, 
 which there lay on the Victory's quarter, taking deliberate aim at Nel- 
 son, and had scarcely time to exclaim, " Change your position, my lord! 
 
ADMIRAL LORD NELSON. 
 
 137 
 
 I see a rascal taking aim at you ! " when the fatal bullet struck the hero. 
 Entering over the top of his left shoulder, it penetrated through his 
 lungs, carrying with it a portion of the epaulette, and lodging in the spinal 
 marrow of the back. It is said that the French immediately raised an 
 exultant shout. What is certain is that the marksman was instantly 
 
 BATTLE OF CAPE TRAFALGAR. 
 
 brought down by a well directed shot from Mr. Pollard, a young mid- 
 shipman of the Victory, who thus became his admiral's avenger. Nelson 
 was prevented from falling by Captain Hardy, who caught him in his 
 arms, and to whom he said with a smile : " They have done for me at 
 last." 
 
 As he was being removed below he covered his face and his stars 
 with a handkerchief that his crew might not recognize him, and observ- 
 ing that the tiller-rope was too slack, requested that Captain Hardy 
 
138 ADMIRAL LORD NELSON. 
 
 should be told to get it tightened. All the surgeons being busily 
 engaged with the wounded, he insisted, with his usual generosity, on 
 waiting until his turn. A brief examination revealed the fatal character 
 of his wound, and Nelson, remarking the change in the surgeon's coun- 
 nance, calmly said, " It is, I perceive, mortal ! " 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Scott, the chaplain, now came to attend him. Nelson, 
 who was racked with physical anguish, gradually lost his collectedness, 
 and uttered incoherent sentences in reference to Lady Hamilton and his 
 adopted daughter. At times he expressed an eager desire for drink, 
 and continually partook of lemonade. Towards the close his mind 
 recovered its serenity, and he sent for Captain Hardy, inquiring how 
 many of the enemy's ships had been captured. On being told that 
 twelve had certainly struck, he exclaimed, " What, only twelve ! there 
 should have been at least fifteen or sixteen by my calculation. How- 
 ever," he added after a short pause, " twelve are pretty well." 
 
 WONDERFUL NERVE OF THE DYING HERO. 
 
 He desired Captain Hardy to bear his affectionate remembrance to 
 Lady Hamilton and his adopted daughter, Horatia, and to inform them 
 that he had left them as a legacy to his king and country, in whose 
 service he willingly yielded up his life. " Will you, my dear Hardy ? " 
 he anxiously inquired, and, on receiving an immediate promise, he said, 
 " Kiss me, then." Kneeling, Captain Hardy respectfully pressed his 
 lips to the wan cheek of the dying hero. 
 
 Nelson then requested that his affectionate regards might be pre- 
 sented to his brave officers and men, and said that he could have wished 
 once more to have beheld his beloved relatives and friends, or even to 
 have remained till he had seen the fleet in safety ; but, as neither was 
 possible, he felt resigned, and thanked God for having enabled him to 
 do his duty to his king and country. He had lingered for nearly three 
 hours, when the approach of death became rapid and decided. " Doctor," 
 he said to his chaplain, " I have not been a great sinner, and, thank 
 God, I have done my duty ! " 
 
ADMIRAL LORD NELSON. 139 
 
 Then, as if asking a question and seeking consolation, he repeated 
 with sorrowful pathos, "Doctor, I have not been a great sinner? " And 
 when the doctor was too deeply affected to reply immediately, " Have 
 I ? " he eagerly interrogated. In a final access of pain he cried aloud 
 and impressively, "Thank God, I have done my duty ! Thank God, 
 I have done my duty!" These were his last words. Consciousness 
 seemed afterwards to leave him, and he gradually passed away like 
 one who falls slowly into a profound sleep. 
 
 Nelson was dead. 
 
 In a few words we may indicate the completeness of the victory 
 which was thus solemnly consecrated by the great seaman's blood. 
 Twenty of the French and Spanish men-of-war surrendered ; and of 
 those that escaped the destruction of Trafalgar, four were captured on 
 the 6th of November by Sir Richard Strachan. The navies of France 
 and Spain never recovered during the war from this heavy blow, which 
 cast adrift all Napoleon's schemes of an invasion of England, and 
 assured to the British an undisputed maritime ascendancy. 
 
 MOURNING FOR THE "MASTER OF THE SEA." 
 
 " We have lost more than we have gained !" said George III., when 
 the two-fold intelligence reached him of the victory of Trafalgar and 
 the death of Nelson. And this was the feeling of the British people, 
 with whom the " hero of the Nile" had always been an idol. They 
 forgot his minor defects of character, and remembered only that he was 
 a great seaman, the greatest, perhaps, the world had ever produced, the 
 one man who brought to bear upon war at sea a genius as brilliant as 
 that which Marlborough and Wellington displayed in military opera- 
 tions. Lord Malmesbury writes, " I never saw so little public joy. The 
 illuminations seemed dim, and, as it were, half-clouded by the desire of 
 expressing the mixture of contending feelings, every common person in 
 the streets speaking first of their sorrow for him, and then of the 
 
 victon^." 
 
 The day of the hero's funeral— January 9th, when through streets 
 
140 ADMIRAL LORD NELSON. 
 
 crowded with saddened and weeping spectators the procession passed on 
 to St. Paul's — was a day of such general and profound grief as England 
 has seldom known. To this feeling one of the minor singers gave 
 expression in verse which emotion rises above the ordinary level : 
 
 " To thy country thou com'st back, 
 Thou conqueror, to triumphal Albion cam'st 
 A corse. I saw before thy hearse pass on 
 The comrades of thy perils and renown. 
 The frequent tear upon their dauntless breasts 
 Fell. I beheld the pomp thick gathered round 
 The trophied car that bore thy graced remains 
 Through armed ranks, and a nation gazing on. 
 Bright glowed the sun, and not a cloud disdained 
 Heaven's arch of gold, but all was gloom beneath. 
 A holy and unutterable pang 
 Thrilled on the soul. Awe and mute anguish fell 
 On all. Yet high the public bosom throbbed 
 With triumph." 
 
 STRONG AND ORIGINAL GENIUS. 
 
 It has been well said of Nelson that, in deed as in speech, he was 
 intuitive and impetuous. His genius had a strong strain of originality ; 
 it rebelled against tradition and conventionalities ; it spurned professional 
 restraints as hotly as it levelled its attacks against the foe. It was a 
 bold, daring, independent genius, which no danger could daunt and no 
 responsibility intimidate. At the fight off Cape St. Vincent, without 
 waiting for orders, Nelson seized the moment of victory, darted out of 
 the line, and swooped down on the enemy like an eagle. At Copenhagen 
 he absolutely ignored Sir Hyde Parker's signal of recall. And he was 
 justified in doing this by his confidence in his power to do great things. 
 
 All his sayings were in keeping with his fiery, romantic, invincible 
 spirit — the spirit of one of Plutarch's heroes, or rather, perhaps, of one 
 of the Paladins of chivalrous legend. " When in doubt, fight ! " he 
 said to young Lord Cochrane, afterwards a naval commander of no 
 ordinary distinction. "Victory or Westminster Abbey ! " "Laurel or 
 
ADMIRAL LORD NELSON. 141 
 
 cypress ! " " England expects every man to do his dnty ! " His hatred 
 of the French was like that of the Crnsader of old against the Moham- 
 medan ; it was almost a religion. It lent a fierce defiant glow to his 
 patriotism, and responded to the sympathies of a people then engaged 
 in a war for very existence with an aggressive, tyrannical, and Napo- 
 leonic France. 
 
 He had a wonderful power of inspiring affection and confidence ; 
 here was not an English sailor who would not have followed blithely 
 wherever Nelson led. His capacity for command was unbounded ; his 
 seamanship was great ; his tactical skill unequalled. The completeness 
 of his victories is the most striking thing about them ; he did something 
 more than defeat the enemy's fleet, he destroyed it. 
 
 Yet it must in truth be said that Nelson's victories were no more 
 complete than Admiral Dewey's at Manila, or that of our North Atlantic 
 squadron at Santiago. Nor were they more destructive to the enemy than 
 the assaults of Farragut during our Civil War. The genius and daring 
 of these great naval heroes will never be eclipsed even by the fame of 
 Nelson, of whom Tennyson wrote : 
 
 "Thine island loves thee well, thou famous man, 
 The greatest sailor since our world began." 
 
COMMODORE STEPHEN DECATUR. 
 
 HERO OF TRIPOLI— HIS YOUTH AND GALLAN- 
 TRY — A DARING EXPLOIT — PRESENTED BY 
 CONGRESS WITH A SWORD — SAD END OF A 
 BRILLIANT CAREER. 
 
 Away back in. the early part of the nineteenth century we had 
 great naval commanders, h One of these was Stephen Decatur. Commo- 
 dore Decatur came of a seafaring stock. The love of the waves was 
 inherited from his father, who was a prominent naval man. When 
 eight years of age young Decatur made his first voyage under his 
 father's care, and it is said that even at this early period he determined 
 to follow the footsteps of his sire. Through the aid of Commodore 
 Barry, on April 30, 1796, he obtained a warrant as midshipman, and 
 was placed on board of the frigate United States. At that time he 
 was only nineteen years of age ; a handsome boy, well formed, cour- 
 ageous, graceful and attractive. 
 
 Decatur labored hard to make himself master of his profession, and 
 he soon became a skilful officer, competent to command and direct, and 
 worthy of extreme respect. His superior officers soon recognized his 
 ability and exceptional merits. 
 
 He became a famous naval hero in our little Tripolitan war. At 
 
 the beginning of the century there were many American vessels upon 
 
 the seas, carrying goods to all parts of the world ; and they had to 
 
 share the fate of the ships of other nations from the pirates of the 
 
 Mediterranean Sea. For several of the Mohammedan States upon the 
 
 northern shore of Africa — Tripoli, Tunis, Algeria and Morocco — made a 
 142 
 
COMMODORE STEPHEN DECATUR. 143 
 
 business of robbing all the passing merchant vessels they could catch, 
 unless they were well paid for letting them alone. 
 
 After the Americans had made peace with England they began to 
 think about the right of paying robbers to let them alone. So, in 1803, 
 when Tripoli asked for a larger sum than usual, it was refused. Of 
 course, the angry little State began at once to capture our vessels, 
 thinking to bring us to terms. But still President Jefferson refused, 
 and, instead of the money, he sent out the little American navy of gun- 
 boats. Among the other officers was Stephen Decatur, then first lieuten- 
 ant on board the Argus. He was only about twenty-three years old, but he 
 had been in the navy four years and had already become known as a brave 
 and skilful officer, with a talent for managing men as well as ships. 
 
 EMBARKS IN A DANGEROUS UNDERTAKING. 
 
 After the little squadron had been in the Mediterranean for some 
 time, one of the vessels, the Philadelphia, in some way, got aground in 
 the harbor of Tripoli, and was captured. Decatur asked permission of 
 the commander, Commodore Preble, to try to get her back. This, the 
 chief said, could not be done, but after awhile he told Decatur that he 
 might go and burn the frigate so that the Tripolitans could never use 
 her. The lieutenant set about the task at once. 
 
 The Intrepid, a small boat, was made ready, twenty men were 
 picked out of the squadron's crew, and, one calm, dark night, under 
 Decatur's command, the party set out on their perilous errand. 
 
 The Philadelphia was a good-sized frigate, carrying forty guns, and 
 now she was surrounded with other gunboats and batteries, ready to fire 
 on the Americans at any moment. Decatur managed to enter the harbor 
 and get alongside of the Philadelphia before the Tripolitans knew that the 
 peaceable-looking little vessel was manned by the hated "Americanoes." 
 Then they raised a great cry and rushed on deck, but it was too late. 
 Decatur and his men were on board, with drawn swords. The frightened 
 men of Tripoli were in too great a panic to fight, so in five minutes the 
 deck was cleared, and before they regained their senses the ship was in 
 
144 
 
 COMMODORE STEPHEN DECATUR. 
 
 flames from stem to stern and the Intrepid was gliding safely ont of the 
 harbor. 
 
 For this gallant deed, Dacatur was made a captain and presented 
 with a sword by Congress. More decided measures were soon taken 
 against the power of the Mediterranean pirates. A land expedition 
 attacked them on the easterly side, while the town was also bombarded 
 
 from the harbor, 
 
 and Decatur, with 
 
 three American 
 
 gunboats, had a 
 
 desperate fight 
 
 with nine of the 
 
 enemy's vessels. 
 
 He succeeded in 
 
 capturing two of 
 
 them, by a close 
 
 and sharp conflict. 
 
 Just after the first 
 
 one was taken, he 
 
 commodore decatur. heard that his 
 
 brother, James Decatur, had boarded another ship whose commander 
 
 had pretended to surrender, and had been treacherously slain by the 
 
 enemy. 
 
 Calling to his men to follow, he rushed on board of the murderer's 
 vessel, seizing the treacherous commander, and killed him in a deadly 
 hand-to-hand struggle. Decatur's men, following close upon him, had 
 surrounded him in the fight and beaten back the Tripolitans that tried to 
 force their way to the relief of their chief. One, more successful than the 
 others in eluding the Americans' swords, was just aiming a fatal blow 
 at Decatur, when one of his followers, who had lost the use of both arms, 
 rushed up and received the blow intended for Decatur on his own head. 
 Several attacks were now made upon Tripoli by Commodore Preble, 
 in each of which Decatur took an active part. His name, it is said, 
 
COMMODORE STEPHEN DECATUR. 
 
 145 
 
 became a terror all along the Barbary coast, and helped to frighten the 
 Bey or chief of the State into making peace the next year, when he heard 
 
 DECATUR AND THE DEY OF ALGIERS, 
 that he was coming to attack him again as one of the leading commanders 
 £ a still larger force than Preble's. 
 
 While our government was busy with England, in the war of 1812, 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
146 COMMODORE STEPHEN DECATUR. 
 
 the Dey of Algiers — seeming not to think of how affairs between America 
 and his neighbors of Tnnis and Tripoli had ended — employed some of his 
 ships in seizing our merchant vessels and holding Americans in slavery ; 
 bnt he did not keep it np long after the Great Britain affairs were settled. 
 Three months after Decatur returned to New York from Bermuda, he 
 was at the head of a squadron bound for Algeria. In a month he passed 
 the straits of Gibraltar, and captured two of the Algerine squadron. He 
 then pushed on to the State and soon convinced the Dey that the best 
 thing he could do would be to immediately sign a treaty promising never 
 more to molest American ships again, and to restore at once all the 
 Americans he held captives. 
 
 OUR NAVAL POWER A SURPRISE. 
 
 The work accomplished by Decatur caused the whole of Europe to 
 respect the naval power of the United States. They had done what none 
 of the old navies dared to attempt. They had put a stop to the piracies 
 of the Barbary States, and were the means of freeing the ships of Europe 
 as well as of America from their robberies and from the heavy taxes they 
 had demanded from all nations for many years. 
 
 During the seven years of peace that followed the Tripolitan wars, 
 Commodore Decatur was put in command of a squadron in the Chesa- 
 peake Bay, and a little later of the frigate Chesapeake. And then, 
 although he was but 28 years old, he received the rank and title of 
 commander of the navy. 
 
 When the War of 181 2 broke out, he was guarding the entrance to 
 Chesapeake Bay, and his first act after the outbreak was to capture the 
 English frigate, Macedonia, for which act Congress voted him a gold 
 medal. 
 
 After the War of 181 2, Commodore Decatur held the office of navy 
 commissioner for five years, until his death, which occurred in a duel with 
 Commodore Barron. It had once been Decatur's duty, as a member of 
 court martial, to try Commodore Barron for misconduct, and from that 
 day Barron imagined that Decatur was his personal enemy, and insisted 
 
COMMODORE STEPHEN DECATUR. 147 
 
 upon challenging him to a duel, a challenge which, in those days, no 
 man considered it honorable to decline. And thus it was that Commo- 
 dore Decatur ended his brilliant career on the 2 2d of March, 1820, 
 Decatur was born at Sinnepuxent, Maryland, January 5, 1779. 
 
 His name will always hold high rank among the heroes of our navy, 
 of whom there are many that have distinguished themselves. Although 
 we are not what would be called a maritime people, and make no boast 
 of ruling the sea, yet whenever the emergency has been presented, 
 our sailors have proved that they were masters of the situation. Let the 
 country be grateful to them. The men who "go down to the sea in 
 ships" and brave not only the dangers of the deep, but the added dangers 
 of battle with a formidable foe, should be honored and rewarded by their 
 countrymen. 
 
 All the honors bestowed on Decatur were but poor compensation to 
 a man who, one might almost say, sailed round the world in search of 
 death. Or, if not seeking death, he was prepared for it whenever de- 
 manded in the path of duty. And finally, not only was his death 
 lamented, but especially the barbaric manner in which it occurred. 
 Fortunately, public sentiment concerning dueling has changed, and the 
 man who gives the challenge is now considered the coward. 
 
COMMODORE OLIVER H. PERRY. 
 
 HERO OF LAKE ERIE — BORN TO BE A SAILOR — 
 EXTRAORDINARY VALOR IN BATTLE — FORE- 
 MOST RANK IN THE GALLERY OF GREAT COM- 
 MANDERS — GRAPHIC STORY OF HIS EXPLOITS. 
 
 The temples reared to their deities by the 
 pious inhabitants of Greece and Rome, and even 
 the temple erected and devoted to Jehovah by Solomon have been 
 razed to their foundations ; but the memories of their patriotic warriors 
 still live in the minds, not only of their countrymen, but of all civilized 
 men The martial deeds of Leonidas and Alexander, of Cincinnatus 
 and Scipio, of the Maccabees and their like have outlasted the granite 
 and the marble, the silver and the bronze. The United States, brief 
 as has been her existence as a nation, has not lacked martial spirits to 
 carry our beautiful banner into the fiercest frays, and in no battles 
 have finer traits of valor been displayed than in our naval wars. 
 
 Among our foremost naval heroes may well be rated Oliver Hazard 
 Perry. He was born at Newport, Rhode Island, in 1785. 
 
 At thirteen, when his father retired to Westerly, a small village, 
 Oliver could boast of being exceedingly well educated for one of his few 
 years. He was an inveterate reader — fortunately of the best class of 
 books, by which his mind was expanded, while his morals were improved. 
 He, however, did not settle down into a demure boy ; he was as fond of 
 innocent sport as any of his companions, and freely participated in all 
 that was going on among his boyish associates, particularly in rowing 
 and sailing. But this love of sport did not make Oliver indifferent to 
 the future. On the contrary, the future hero was deeply thinking about 
 148 
 
COMMODORE OLIVER H. PERRY. 140 
 
 his future professiou. His mother's ancestors had many of them been 
 engaged in warlike deeds, and her animated recitals of the battles in 
 which they had figured had filled the lad's Soul with longings to parti- 
 cipate in similar adventures. 
 
 As he was scarcely ever out of sight of the sea in daylight, a person 
 of his active habits and fearless disposition naturally desired to be a 
 sailor, while his father's eminence as a nautical man put it in his way 
 to enter the navy. At Newport, in 1806, at a social entertainment, Oliver, 
 now a lieutenant in the navy, first became acquainted with the young 
 lady whom he afterwards married. Miss Elizabeth Champlin Mason 
 was only sixteen, but already she displayed much of the beauty, talent, 
 and many other admirable qualities which afterwards characterized her 
 through life. 
 
 About this time Perry was associated with his friend, Lieutenant 
 Samuel G. Blodgett, to attend to the building of seventeen gunboats at 
 Newport. This marks the high opinion already entertained at Wash- 
 ington of his abilities and reliableness. In June of 1807, Perry pro- 
 ceeded to New York with his fleet of gunboats, but not before he had 
 been accepted by Miss Mason as her lover. 
 
 DIRECTED TO BUILD FLOTILLA FOR GOVERNMENT. 
 
 So well satisfied was the government with Lieutenant Perry's 
 management of the gunboat building at Newport, that they forthwith 
 ordered him to begin the construction of a flotilla of similar vessels at 
 Westerly. This employment lasted until April, 1809, when the con- 
 struction was finished. During a visit to Washington, Perry obtained 
 a year's leave of absence, and availed himself of that honorable leisure 
 to make Miss Mason his wife. 
 
 While the brave officer and his young wife were enjoying themselves 
 on their wedding tour, the probabilities of trouble with England daily in- 
 creased. The British cruisers continued to overhaul and search American 
 vessels, even in our own waters, seizing seamen under various pre- 
 texts, frequently alleging that they were English deserters. Not only 
 
150 COMMODORE OLIVER H. PERRY. 
 
 were the outrages most illegal, but they were generally accompanied 
 with aggravating insolence or downright brutality. 
 
 Toward the close of the year, Perry endeavored again to get into 
 active service, not only engaging the offices of influential friends, but 
 addressing the Secretary of the Navy personally, thus : 
 
 OFFERED SERVICES TO HIS COUNTRY. 
 
 " I have instructed my friend, Mr. W. S. Rodgers, to wait on you 
 with a tender of my services for the Lakes. There are fifty or sixty 
 men under my command that are remarkably active and strong, capable 
 of performing any service. In the hope that I should have the honor of 
 commanding them whenever they should meet the enemy, I have taken 
 unwearied pains in preparing them for such an event. I beg, therefore 
 sir, that we may be employed in some way in which we can be service- 
 able to our country." 
 
 On February ist, 1813, Perry received a communication that greatly 
 cheered him. Commodore Chauncey, in reply to a letter of his, said 
 that he had urged the Secretary to order him to the Lakes. This letter 
 conveyed a high compliment from the commodore. " You are the very 
 person that I want for a particular service, in which you may gain repu- 
 tation for yourself and honor for your country." 
 
 He was to be given command of the fleet which it was determined 
 to organize on the waters of Lake Erie. Accordingly, Perry was directed 
 to proceed with all due haste to the lake, taking with him a detachment 
 of his best sailors from Newport. Two powerful brigs were to be built, 
 and launched on the lake. " You will, doubtless, command in chief. 
 This is the situation Mr. Hamilton mentioned to me two months past, 
 and which, I think, will suit you exactly ; you may expect some warm 
 fighting, and, of course, a portion of honor." So wrote his friend 
 Rodgers. 
 
 On the auspicious 2 2d of February, Capt. Perry started for Sackett's 
 Harbor. It was a difficult, disagreeable, and even hazardous journey. 
 At the very outset, a violent tempest met him in crossing to Narragan- 
 
COMMODORE OLIVER H. PERRY. 151 
 
 sett. But difficulties inspired instead of daunting him. He spent but 
 a few hours taking leave of his family — as it seemed, possibly forever. 
 He had for companion his brother Alexander, a boy of twelve ; they 
 traveled in an open sleigh a great part of the route. 
 
 The interval between Perry's arrival at Sackett's Harbor and the 
 4th of September was spent by the vigilant and painstaking officer in a 
 series of operations as important, if not as brilliant to read of, as 
 winning battles. He had to be continually urging lagging officials to 
 forward supplies and men. More particularly was he deficient in 
 medical men and officers, both commissioned and warrant. It must be 
 remembered that he had to meet a squadron of the British navy, and 
 that that Power had just come out of a series of naval wars in which 
 their officers had had a practical education in maritime fighting, in which 
 the greatest navies of the old world had been completely annihilated. 
 The English sailors were mostly veterans, trained to the use of large 
 and small guns, while the marines proper have always been deservedly 
 classed as the flower of their country's infantry. 
 
 LEADER OF AN IMPORTANT EXPEDITION. 
 
 With us, on the contrary, the few officers that survived from our 
 small wars on the Mediterranean pirates had been honorably dismissed 
 from the navy, and had obtained situations in mercantile service, and 
 were scattered in sailing vessels over distant seas. Our marine corps 
 scarcely amounted to a corporal's guard to every vessel. As we had no 
 navy yards like England's, France's, or even Sweden's, in which millions 
 upon millions of dollars' worth of timber, canvas, cordage, chains, 
 anchors, guns and such necessary munitions had been accumulating 
 for decades of years, it fell to Perry's lot to be builder, provider, pur- 
 veyor, and even paymaster for the whole expedition. 
 
 Meanwhile General Harrison, commanding the Western levies, was 
 impatiently urging the young naval officer to break the British power 
 on the Lakes, and thus afford his army an opportunity to commence 
 active operations against the common enemy. It was about this time 
 
152 COMMODORE OLIVER H. PERAY. 
 
 that Perry obtained reliable news as to the strength of the British 
 sqnadron nnder Captain Robert H. Barclay : 
 
 " The Detroit, of five hundred tons and nineteen guns, all long, 
 except two twenty-four pound carronades ; the ship Queen Charlotte, of 
 four hundred tons and seventeen guns, three of them being long guns, 
 the Detroit and Queen Charlotte having each one of the long guns on a 
 pivot ; the schooner Lady Prevost, of two hundred and thirty tons and 
 thirteen guns, three being long guns ; the brig Hunter, of one hundred 
 and eighty tons and ten guns ; the sloop Little Belt, of one hundred 
 tons and three guns, two long twelves and one long eighteen, and the 
 schooner Chippeway, of one hundred tons, mounting one long eighteen, 
 making in all sixty-three guns, thirty-five of which were long." 
 
 PITTED AGAINST A VETERAN OFFICER. 
 
 Captain Barclay was one of Nelson's officers at Trafalgar, and was 
 badly wounded in that battle ; he was known to be skilful, courageous, 
 and ambitious of honorable renown. The officers under him were of 
 approved capacity and courage. By official report his crews consisted of 
 four hundred and seventy sailors and marines. Add the officers, and 
 the count stood at full five hundred men. 
 
 The fleet under Oliver Hazard Perry consisted mainly of vessels of 
 less than five hundred tons ; the Lawrence and Niagara were the only 
 ships that exceeded that tonnage, and consequently could not be rated 
 as men-of-war. The bulk of the American squadron were weakly built 
 and had not even bulwarks of any strength. Their principal armament 
 was long guns. The brigs mounted each twenty guns, two long twelves 
 and eighteen thirty-two pound carronades. It was only by forcing the 
 fighting and coming quickly to close quarters that these could be made 
 to tell. Captain J. D. Elliott commanded the Niagara. The other 
 officers were excellent seamen and of unquestioned courage, but they were 
 mere tyros as naval officers. The whole force, in officers and men, of 
 our squadron amounted to four hundred and ninety ; of these, one 
 hundred and sixteen were on the sick lists of the different vessels on the 
 
COMMODORE OLIVER H. PERRY. 
 
 153 
 
 morning of the action, seventy-eight cases being of bilions fever. In 
 tonnage, guns and men, the British force outnumbered ours. 
 
 Just previous to the ioth of September, Perry became satisfied that 
 Barclay intended to give battle. Accordingly he summoned his officers 
 to meet him on the quarter-deck of his ship, the Lawrence, and furnished 
 them each with their corrected instructions — we quote from Mackenzie's 
 spirited recital — and he further explained to them verbally his views 
 with regard to whatever contingency might occur. He now produced a 
 battle-flag, which he had caused to be privately prepared by Mr. Ham- 
 bleton before leaving Erie, and the 
 hoisting of which to the main royal 
 mast of the Lawrence was to be bis 
 signal for action — a blue flag, bearing 
 in large white letters, " Don't give 
 up the ship ! " the dying words of 
 the hero whose name she bore. 
 
 When about to withdraw, he stated 
 to them his intention to bring the 
 enemy from the first to close quar- 
 ters, in order not to lose by the short 
 range of his carronades, and the last 
 emphatic injunction with which he 
 dismissed them was that he could not, 
 in case of difficulty, advise them bet- 
 ter than in the words of Lord Nelson, " If you lay your enemy close 
 alongside, you cannot be out of your place! " 
 
 On the ioth of September, Barclay's fleet was observed coming 
 towards ours. After some very delicate evolutions, Perry told bis 
 sailing-master to lead in a certain direction. The officer showed that 
 such a plan bad its disadvantages. " I care not," said Perry, " let to 
 leeward or to windward ! they shall fight to-day." 
 
 The Lawrence was ready for action by ten o'clock, when the enemy 
 hove to in line of battle on the larboard tack, advancing at about three 
 
 COMMODORE PERRY. 
 
154 COMMODORE OLIVER H. PERRY. 
 
 knots an hour. The weather was glorious, and the British vessels, with 
 their royal ensigns and newly-painted hulls glistening in the bright 
 sunshine, formed a magnificent spectacle. - Never had two braver fleets 
 contended for the mastery. 
 
 Controversialists have sought to diminish the skill and bravery of 
 either of the officers and men ; but the gallant heroes who had done all 
 the fighting did but little of the writing. 
 
 The English commander had arranged his fleet with the Chippeway, 
 of one long eighteen pivot, leading ; the Detroit, of nineteen guns, next ; 
 the Hunter, of nineteen guns, third ; the Queen Charlotte, seventeen 
 guns, fourth ; the Lady Prevost, of thirteen guns, fifth ; and the Little 
 Belt, of three guns, last. 
 
 IN LINE OF BATTLE AND EAGER FOR THE FRAY. 
 
 Captain Perry, passing ahead of the Niagara, got into position to 
 match the Detroit, placing the Scorpion, of two long guns, ahead, and the 
 Ariel, of four short twelves, on his weather bow, where, with her light 
 battery, she might be partially under cover. The Caledonia, of three 
 long twenty-fours, came next, to encounter the Hunter ; the Niagara 
 next, so as to be opposite her designated antagonist, the Queen Char- 
 lotte ; and the Somers, of two long thirty-twos, the Porcupine, of one 
 long thirty-two, Tigress, of one long twenty-four, and Trippe, of one 
 long thirty-two, in succession towards the rear, to encounter the Lady 
 Prevost and Little Belt. 
 
 The line being formed, Perry now bore up for the enemy, distant, at 
 ten o'clock, about six miles. He now produced the lettered burgee which 
 he had exhibited as the concerted signal for battle. Having unfurled it, 
 he mounted on a gun-slide, and, calling his crew about him, thus briefly 
 addressed them : "My brave lads ! this flag contains the last words of 
 Captain Lawrence ! Shall I hoist it ? " " Ay, ay, sir ! " resounded from 
 every voice in the ship, and the flag was briskly swayed to the main- 
 royal masthead of the Lawrence. The answer was given by three such 
 rousing cheers as few but American sailors know how to give. 
 
COMMODORE OLIVER H. PERRY. ]~^ 
 
 Slowly but steadily our fleet went on in the direction of the leading 
 line of the foe, the leading vessels under reefed sails, but the remainder 
 having every yard of canvas set that could possibly draw. No prepa- 
 rations remained to make at this hour. 
 
 Captain Perry, now having made all right in reference to his public 
 duties, seized a few moments to attend to his private matters, giving 
 instructions what was to be done provided he fell in the approaching action. 
 All official papers were prepared with sinkers, to be thrown overboard, 
 while he destroyed all his private documents. " It appeared," says Mr. 
 Hambleton, " to go hard with him to part with his wife's letters. After 
 giving them a hasty reading he tore them to ribbons, observing that, let 
 what would happen, the enemy should not read them, and closed by 
 remarking, 'This is the most important day of my life.' " 
 
 A thrilling bugle blast from the Detroit rang over the waters, and 
 was followed by vehement cheering from the British sailors. 
 
 SIGNALS GIVEN FOR THE BATTLE. 
 
 It was now within a few minutes of noon, the Detroit having reached 
 within between one and two miles of our leading vessel. The Detroit 
 began the fight by sending a round shot at the Lawrence. It, however, 
 fell short of its mark. The proper signals were now flown for every 
 ship to engage her designated antagonist. The Ariel, Scorpion, Law- 
 rence and Caledonia were in their proper stations, in the rotation given, 
 distant from each other less than a cable's length. Some distance 
 astern the other vessels were drawing into action. 
 
 In a few moments the Detroit's second shot came hurtling over the 
 waves, striking the Lawrence and tearing through the bulwarks. 
 Instantly the long guns of the British squadron sent their shot in the 
 direction of the American ships, some of them missing, but some carry- 
 ing death in their train. Just at noon the Lawrence was suffering from 
 the severe fire of the British, which she returned from her twelve- 
 pounder. Perry now, by speaking trumpet, ordered the Caledonia and 
 the Niagara to discharge their long guns. The vessels still further 
 
156 COMMODORE OLIVER H. PERRY 
 
 astern also commenced cannonading, but they were too far off to do any 
 material injury. 
 
 The Lawrence was at a great disadvantage in fighting the Detroit, 
 as this latter vessel was armed almost entirely with long guns, while 
 Perry had to depend almost entirely on the carronades. For this reason 
 Perry was impatient for his own ship and his consorts to close with all 
 possible haste. Elliott, of the Niagara, received and transmitted the 
 order to the line, but for some inexplicable reason be did not apply the 
 order to his own conduct, but held off, occasionally discharging shots 
 from her twelve-pounder, without damaging the enemy. 
 
 MURDEROUS FIRE BY A WHOLE BATTERY. 
 
 The Lawrence kept firing on toward the British line, every moment 
 receiving shot in her hull and spars. Trying the experiment, he found 
 that his shot fell short, so he ceased firing until quarter past noon ; then 
 he let fly his entire starboard broadside when he was less than four 
 hundred yards away. Then, as he neared the Detroit he discharged a 
 quick and murderous fire into her. The Lawrence, however, had mean- 
 while been terribly riddled by the Detroit and her sister craft. But now 
 the action was continued by her with augmented fury, and, notwith- 
 standing the overpowering odds with which she was assailed, the whole 
 battery of the enemy, amounting, in all, to thirty-four guns, being 
 almost entirely directly against her, she continued to assail the enemy 
 with steady and unwavering effort. 
 
 In this unequal contest she was sustained by the Scorpion and 
 Ariel on her weather bow. The commander of the Caledonia, animated 
 by the same gallant spirit and sense of duty, followed the Lawrence into 
 action, and closed with her antagonist, the Hunter ; but the Niagara 
 had not made sail when the Lawrence did, but got embarrassed with the 
 Caledonia. One of the British vessels, in the smoke, had closed up 
 behind the Detroit, and opened her fire at closer quarters upon the Law- 
 rence. In this unequal contest the Lawrence continued to struggle 
 desperately against such overpowering numbers. 
 
COMMODORE OLIVER H. PERRY. 157 
 
 The first division of the starboard guns was directed against the 
 Detroit, and the second against the Queen Charlotte, with an occasional 
 shot from her after-gnn at the Hunter, which lay on her quarter, and 
 with which the Caledonia continued to sustain a hot though unequal 
 engagement. The Scorpion and Ariel, from their stations on the weather 
 bow of the Lawrence, made every effort that their inconsiderable force 
 allowed. The smaller vessels away in the stern of Perry's line were 
 far too distant to be of any service. The will was not wanting, but the 
 ability was not there. Terrific as were the odds against the Lawrence, 
 being in the ratio of thirty-four guns to her ten in battery, she con- 
 tinued, with the aid of the Scorpion, Ariel and Caledonia, to sustain the 
 contest for more than two hours with great bravery. 
 
 ALMOST A COMPLETE WRECK. 
 
 At this time, however, her rigging had been much shot away, and 
 was hanging down or towing overboard ; sails torn to pieces, spars 
 splintered and falling upon deck, braces and bowlines cut, so as to render 
 it impossible to trim the yards or keep the vessel under control. Such 
 was the condition of the vessel aloft ; on deck the destruction was even 
 more terrible. One by one the guns were dismounted until only one 
 remained that could be fired ; the bulwarks were riddled by round shot 
 passing completely through. The slaughter was dreadful. 
 
 All this while Perry continued to keep up a fire from his single 
 remaining carronade, though to man it he was obliged to send repeated 
 requests to the surgeon to spare him another hand from those engaged 
 in removing the wounded, until the last had been taken. It is recorded 
 by the surgeon that when these messages arrived, several of the wounded 
 crawled upon deck to lend a feeble aid at the guns. 
 
 The conduct of Perry throughout this trying scene was well calcu- 
 lated to inspire the most unbounded confidence in his followers, and to 
 sustain throughout their courage and enthusiasm. When a gap would 
 occasionally be made among a gun's crew by a single round shot or a 
 stand of grape or canister, the survivors would for a moment turn to 
 
158 COMMODORE OLIVER H. PERRY. 
 
 Perry, exchange a glance with him, and step to fill the place of their 
 comrades. 
 
 In the hottest of the fight, Yarnall, the first lieutenant, came to Perry 
 and told him that the officers in the first division under his command 
 were all killed or disabled. Perry sent him the required aid ; but soon 
 after he returned with the same complaint of a destruction of his officers, 
 to which he replied : "You must endeavor to make out by yourself; I 
 have no more to furnish you." 
 
 GALLANT LIEUTENANT STRUCK DOWN BY A SHOT. 
 
 We may give another incident to show the carnage which occurred 
 on the deck of the Lawrence, and the destruction by which her commander 
 was so closely surfounded. The command of the marines of the Law- 
 rence was intrusted to Lieutenant John Brooks, a gay, amiable, and 
 intelligent young officer, whose numerous good qualities were enhanced 
 in their effects by the rarest personal beauty. He was addressing Perry 
 with a smile and in an animated tone, with regard to some urgent point 
 of duty, when he was struck down by a shot. The terrible hurt made 
 him utter an agonized cry, and he besought Perry to shoot him dead. 
 He was tenderly taken below decfk. 
 
 Little Midshipman Perry, then but twelve years old, had his clothes 
 rent, and received more than one ball through his hat, when a part of a 
 hammock was torn from its netting and dashed against the lad's side. 
 As it luckily happened he was merely stunned, and the captain saw him 
 again on duty in a few minutes. 
 
 The critical moment had now arrived which was to call out all the 
 best qualities of a great commander. Nothing like it had ever occurred 
 before in all the strange mutations of a naval action. When the last 
 cannon of the Lawrence had been rendered unserviceable ; when but 
 twenty persons, including his little brother and himself, were able even 
 to make a show of being able-bodied, it became evident that some new 
 measure must be resorted to. Heretofore, in such a case, there had been 
 but one way : to strike the flag. And such a course could have been 
 
COMMODORE OLIVER H. PKRRY. lf><> 
 
 honorably taken. But Perry was " made of sterner stuff," and his whole 
 soul seemed imbued with Lawrence's noble motto, " Don't give up the 
 ship." 
 
 He had striven with might and main to get his vessels built and 
 launched ; he had hurried his superiors into furnishing him with sup- 
 plies and men ; he had given General Harrison to hope that his squadron 
 would strike a blow that would cut the Gordian knot by which the eager 
 armies of the West were bound, as Samson by the green withes ; he had 
 evidently made up his mind that he would never be taken out of his ship 
 unless he was sewed up in a hammock. Moments now were priceless, 
 and Perry rapidly made up his mind what to do. The Lawrence was 
 helplessy drifting, sailless and rudderless, when, as for a moment the smoke 
 was blown away, he was able to take the bearings of his surroundings. 
 Lieutenant Forrest called his attention to the queer way in which the 
 Niagara was handled. She was well on the larboard beam of the Law 
 rence ; the Caledonia, at the same time, was passing on the starboard 
 beam, between the enemy and Perry's stricken ship. Forrest said plainly 
 that the Niagara was evidently determined not to help them ; as she 
 seemed to carefully avoid coming into close action. " Then I must fetcb 
 her up," was Perry's sententious remark. And he quickly called his boat. 
 
 PERRY PUSHES OFF IN AN OPEN BOAT. 
 
 He wss convinced that the Niagara was scarcely injured at all ; and 
 he vowed that the flag of his country should not be pulled down on any 
 vessel that he was on board of. His reliable second was at once placed 
 in command of what was now little more than a floating hulk. The 
 boat was at the larboard gangway, the word was given, the oars took 
 water, but ere they shoved off, Perry exclaimed, "If a victory is to be had, 
 I'll have it ! " 
 
 When Perry shoved off" in the boat that bore "Caesar and his for- 
 tunes," it was just half past two. The Niagara was at that moment pass- 
 ing her larboard beam, some half mile away. The wind had increased, 
 and she was quickly going away from the British fleet. Perry stood at 
 
160 COMMODORE OLIVER H. PERRY. 
 
 his full height, his breast charged with the grandeur of his design ; to 
 take a fresh vessel, and dash back in the midst of the enemy, who had 
 already deemed him whipped, and once again try conclusions with his 
 stubborn adversary. Had not Perry been something more than merely 
 a brave officer, the idea would never have occurred to him. 
 
 But, as we have seen, almost from his infancy he had been on the 
 water. He had played on the rolling logs in the harbor before he ever had 
 any experience in managing a skiff, and he had rowed and sailed in every 
 sort of craft that could be kept afloat on the stormy, tide-vexed shores of 
 Narragansett. So that it was second nature for him, for the nonce, to 
 leap into a boat, and stand proudly erect in her. Nelson, it is said, used 
 to get seasick in a gun-brig, so he certainly would never have thought 
 of an admiral taking to a barge in the height of a furious battle. 
 
 STANDS ERECT IN THE FACE OF THE ENEMY. 
 
 So it will be seen that it was almost providential that Perry pos- 
 sessed the qualifications that he owned. Quick as had been the captain's 
 resolve and its execution, the enemy almost as quickly saw his design. 
 
 Great guns and musketry were rapidly sending their missiles, in the 
 hope of sending the little boat to destruction. In vain Perry's crew 
 begged of him to be seated, and it was only when they declared that 
 they would not pull another stroke while he remained standing that he 
 finally yielded. It hardly needs telling that the brave fellows, some 
 wounded and dying, followed every movement of Perry and his brave 
 crew as they made the desperate passage from ship to ship; and as 
 they saw him step on the deck of the Niagara they saluted him with 
 soul-fraught cheers. 
 
 As there was nothing to be gained by keeping the Lawrence a mere 
 floating target for British guns, her few remaining officers held a brief con- 
 sultation and resolved to surrender. As the colors fluttered down, their 
 descent was saluted with cheers by the foe, who knew too well the stuff of 
 which her gallant defenders were made. About this time young Brooks 
 died, and Mr. Hambleton, the purser, volunteering to a post of danger, 
 
COMMODORE PERRY'S VICTORY ON LAKE ERIE. 
 
 11 
 
 161 
 
162 COMMODORE OLIVER H. PERRY. 
 
 had his shoulder fearfully torn. He was working at the last gun that 
 fired a shot. 
 
 The British had their hands too full in working out their own safety 
 to give any further heed to the condition of the Lawrence. When Perry 
 reached the deck of the Niagara, he was met at the gangway by Captain 
 Elliott, who inquired how the day was going. Captain Perry replied, 
 badly ; that he had lost almost all of his men, and that his ship was a 
 wreck ; and asked what the gunboats were doing so far astern. Captain 
 Elliott offered to go and bring them up ; and Captain Perry consenting, 
 he sprang into the boat and went off on that duty. 
 
 LOUD CHEERS ALL ALONG THE LINE. 
 
 Perry at once ordered that the Niagara should be prevented from 
 escaping out of action. The top-gallant sails were set, and the signal for 
 " close action" was given. As the pennants were seen, loud cheers 
 resounded down the line. By great efforts Lieutenant Holdup Stevens, 
 who had been astern of the line in the Trippe, soon closed up to the 
 assistance of the Caledonia, and the remaining vessels approached rapidly, 
 to take a more active part in the battle, under the influence of the increas- 
 ing breeze. 
 
 The helm had been put up on board the Niagara, sail made, and the 
 signal for close action hove out at forty-five minutes after two, the instant 
 after Perry had boarded her. With the increased breeze, seven or eight 
 minutes sufficed to traverse the distance of more than half a mile which 
 still separated the Niagara from the enemy. The Detroit made an effort 
 to wear, in order to present her starboard broadside to the Niagara, 
 several of the larboard guns being disabled. As this evolution com- 
 menced on board the Detroit, the Queen Charlotte was running up under 
 her lee. The evolution of wearing, which was not quickly enough done 
 on board the Queen, resulted in the latter running her bowsprit and 
 head-booms foul of the mizzen rigging of the Detroit. 
 
 The two British ships were thus foul of each other and they so re- 
 mained, when the Niagara, shortening sail, went slowly under the bows 
 
COMMODORE OLIVER H. PERRY. 163 
 
 of the Detroit, within short pistol-shot, and sent a broadside into each 
 vessel ; so that, entangled as they were, they received fearful showers of 
 grape and canister. The sterns of the Little Belt and the Lady Prevost 
 were treated to the same awful fire, while the marines, by their skilfully 
 aimed shots, swept their decks. At this juncture the small vessels also 
 came into close action to windward, and poured in a destructive fire of 
 grape and canister ; their shot and that of the Niagara, whenever it missed 
 its mark, passing the enemy and taking effect reciprocally on our own 
 vessels, which were thus exposed to danger. 
 
 ENEMY'S SHIPS HAUL DOWN THEIR FLAGS. 
 
 All resistance now ceased ; an officer appeared on the taffrail of the 
 Queen to signify that she had struck, and her example was immediately 
 followed .by the Detroit. Both vessels struck in about seven minutes 
 after the Niagara opened this most destructive fire, and about fifteen 
 minutes after Perry took command of her. The Hunter struck at the 
 same time, as did the Lady Prevost, which lay to leeward under the guns 
 of the Niagara. The battle had begun on the part of the enemy at a 
 quarter before meridian ; at three the Queen Charlotte and Detroit sur- 
 rendered, and all resistance was at an end. As the cannonade ceased 
 and the smoke blew over, the two squadrons, now owning one master, 
 were found completely mingled. Now a glorious yet sad time had come. 
 The form of taking possession of the British captured ships was to be 
 gone through with. When our boarding officer reached the Detroit, she 
 was in a fearful state. Her bulwarks were in slivers, strong oak as they 
 were ; the Lawrence's carronade shots were sticking in her sides. The 
 deck looked like a veritable slaughter-house. 
 
 Agrapeshot had lodged in Captain Barclay's thigh making a fearful 
 wound. The brave man had been taken below when senseless, but on 
 recovering consciousness he was carried on deck to see if resistance was 
 hopeless. Then the Niagara threw in her fire, and a second grapeshot, 
 passing through the right shoulder, fractured the blade to atoms. 
 
 The rest of the enemy's vessels were found to be also much cut to 
 
164 COMMODORE OLIVER H. PERRY. 
 
 pieces, especially the Queen Charlotte, which had lost her brave com- 
 mander, Captain Finnis, very early in the action ; her first lieutenant 
 had been soon after mortally wounded, and the loss of life on board of 
 her was very severe ; she was also much cut to pieces both in hull and 
 spars. The other vessels suffered in like proportion. The Lady Prevost 
 had both her commander and first lieutenant wounded, and, besides other 
 extensive injury, had become unmanageable from the loss of her rudder. 
 Lieutenant Bignal, commanding the Hunter, and Campbell, the Chippe- 
 way, were also wounded, thus leaving only the commander of the Little 
 Belt fit for duty at the close of the action. 
 
 Indeed, in the official account of Commodore Barclay, it is stated 
 that every commander and every officer second in command was disabled. 
 The total of killed, and wounded rendered by Commodore Barclay in his 
 official report was forty-one killed, including three officers, and ninety- 
 four wounded, nine of whom were officers. The returns, on account of 
 the condition of the commanders and their seconds in command, could not 
 have been very complete, and the numbers of killed and wounded are 
 believed to have been greater. The killed of the British squadron were 
 thrown overboard as they fell, with the exception of the officers. 
 
 SCENES TO MAKE ONE SHUDDER. 
 
 On every side were to be seen objects calculated to harrow the most 
 obdurate heart. And our own vessels were full of scenes that made the 
 boldest shudder. Our whole fleet had lost twenty-seven brave men 
 killed outright, while ninety-six had been wounded. 
 
 But the lamentation over the heroic victors and their worthy antag- 
 onist could not lessen the brilliancy of this splendid victory. The 
 British were superior in almost every way : their vessels were larger, 
 their guns heavier, their sailors better trained, and their marines were 
 veterans; while the commander and many of his subaltern officers had 
 been in many battles under the glance of " Britannia's god of war," as 
 Byron styled Horatio Nelson. To the nautical skill, ready invention, 
 and indomitable prowess of one man the victory was in great part due, and 
 
COMMODORE OLIVER H. PERRY. 165 
 
 that man had but just attained his twenty-seventh year ; and strangest 
 fact of all, he had never seen a naval battle ! He had dashed boldly into 
 action with the Lawrence, counting upon the support of those immedi- 
 ately around him, and trusting that the rear of his line would soon be 
 able to close up to his support. 
 
 Passing from the Lawrence under the enemy's fire, saved from death, 
 as if miraculously, by the protecting genius of his country, he reached 
 the Niagara, and by an evolution unsurpassed for genius and hardihood, 
 bore down upon the enemy, and dashed with his fresh and uninjured 
 vessel through the enemy's line. It- was thus that the battle of Lake 
 Erie was won, not merely by the genius and inspiration, but eminently 
 by the exertions of one man. 
 
 "MET THE ENEMY AND THEY ARE OURS." 
 
 As soon as Perry had taken all precautions for securing his numer- 
 ous prisoners and seeing to the comfort of the wounded, he lost no time 
 in communicating the result of the battle to the expectant General 
 Harrison. For this victory was of paramount importance to the further- 
 ance of his plans. The great victory was announced in this brief way : 
 
 " Dear General : We have met the enemy, and they are ours. Two ships, 
 two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop. 
 
 " Yours, with very great respect and esteem, 
 
 " O. H. Perry." 
 
 To the Secretary of the Navy he also wrote at once. His despatch 
 
 read as follows : 
 
 " U. S. Brig Niagara, off the Westernmost Sister, head of 
 Lake Erie, Sept. 10, 1813, 4 P. M. 
 " Sir : It has pleased the Almighty to give to the arms of the United 
 States a signal victory over their enemies on this lake. The British squadron, con- 
 sisting of two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop, have this moment sur- 
 rendered to the force under my command, after a sharp conflict. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 "O. H. Perry." 
 
 Not a solitary syllable of self-glorification. He tamely terms that 
 a u sharp conflict" which bears comparison with any naval conflict ever 
 
166 COMMODORE OLIVER H. PERRY. 
 
 fought. The ships were as speedily as possible brought to auchor. So 
 
 few were his guards that he had to take extra precautions to prevent a 
 
 possibility of the prisoners rising during the night. 
 
 Perry, at the request of his officers, had hitherto worn a uniform 
 
 round jacket ; he now resumed his undress uniform, and, standing on the 
 
 after part of the deck, received the officers of the different captured 
 
 vessels as they came to tender the surrender of their vessels and their 
 
 own submission as prisoners. At the head of them was an officer of the 
 
 Forty-first Regiment, who acted as marine officer on board the Detroit, 
 
 and was charged by Commodore Barclay with the delivery of his 
 
 sword ; he was in full dress. When they had approached, picking their 
 
 way among the wreck and carnage of the deck, they held their swords 
 
 with the hilts towaiids Perry, and tendered them to his acceptance. With 
 
 a dignified and solemn air, the most remote possible from, any betrayal 
 
 of exultation, and in a low tone of voice, he requested them to retain 
 
 their side-arms ; inquired with deep concern for Commodore Barclay and 
 
 the wounded officers, tendering to them every comfort his ship afforded, 
 
 and expressing his regret that he had not a spare medical officer to send 
 
 to them. 
 
 SAVED BY A WOMAN'S PRAYERS. 
 
 As it was impossible to reserve all the killed of the Lawrence for 
 burial on shore, the seamen were buried at nightfall alongside, the 
 able-bodied of the crew, so much less numerous than the killed, being 
 assembled around to perform the last sad offices. His little brother, 
 though he had received several musket-balls through his dress, had met 
 with no injury, and was now dozing in his hammock. An allusion to 
 these facts awakened the same sense of a controlling Providence which, 
 in beginning his report, had led him to ascribe the victory to the pleasure 
 of the Almighty. " I believe," he said, " that my wife's prayers have 
 saved me." 
 
 For this brilliant victory Perry was made a captain and received 
 from Congress a gold medal. In the Capitol at Washington, is a mag- 
 nificent historic painting, which represents the hero of Lake Erie 
 
COMMODORE OLIVER H. PERRY. 167 
 
 passing in a small open boat from the Lawrence to the Niagara through 
 the fiery storm of battle. 
 
 The personal appearance of Perry is thus described by one who 
 was well acquainted with him : " He was lofty in stature, and of a most 
 graceful contour. He was easy and measured in his movements, and 
 calm in his air. His brow was full, massive and lofty, his features 
 regular and elegant, and his eye full, dark and lustrous. His mouth 
 was uncommonly handsome, and his teeth large, regular and very white. 
 The prevailing expression of his countenance was mild, benignant and 
 cheerful, and a smile of amiability, irresistibly pleasing, played in con- 
 versation about his lips. His whole air was expressive of health, fresh- 
 ness, comfort and contentment, bearing testimony to a life of temperance 
 ^nd moderation." 
 
 Perry died of yellow fever in the Island of Trinidad, in August 
 1819. At the proper time a national vessel was despatched to convey 
 the remains to Newport, where a granite monument records his acts but 
 cannot help to immortalize his fame. 
 
COMMODORE THOS. M'DONOUGH 
 
 HERO OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN — RARE MAN FOR 
 AN EMERGENCY — EXPERT IN NAVAL TAC- 
 TICS — REWARDED BY CONGRESS AND THE 
 NATION FOR HIS GREAT VICTORY. 
 
 In the Autumn of 1814, the British contem- 
 
 plated an invasion pf the northern and least populous counties of New 
 York, with a large force, following the route laid down for General Bur- 
 goyne, in his unfortunate expedition of 1777. It was most probably- 
 intended to occupy a portion of the northern frontier, with the expecta- 
 tion of turning the circumstance to account in the pending negotiations, 
 the English commissioners soon after advancing a claim to drive the 
 Americans back from their ancient boundaries, vr^h a view to leave 
 Great Britain the entire possession of the lakes. 
 
 In such an expedition, the command of Champlain became of great 
 importance, as it flanked the march of the invading army for more than 
 a hundred miles, and offered many facilities for forwarding supplies, as 
 well as for annoyance and defence. Until this season, neither nation 
 had a force of any moment on the water, but the Americans had built a 
 ship and a schooner, during the winter and spring ; and when it was found 
 that the enemy was preparing for a serious effort, the keel of a brig was 
 laid. Many galleys, or gunboats, were also constructed. 
 
 The American squadron lay in Otter Creek, at the commencement 
 of the season ; and near the middle of May, as the vessels then launched 
 were about to quit port, the enemy appeared off the mouth of the creek, 
 with a force consisting of the Linnet brig, and eight or ten galleys, under 
 the orders of Captain Pring, with a view to fill the channel. For this pur- 
 
 168 
 
COMMODORE THOMAS M'DONOUGH. 
 
 169 
 
 pose two sloops loaded with stones were in company. A small work 
 had been thrown np at the mouth of the creek some time previously, by 
 Captain Thornton of the artillery, and Lieutenant Cassin was despatched 
 with a party of seamen, to aid that officer in defending the pass. After a 
 cannonading of some duration, the enemy retired without effecting his 
 object, and the vessels got out. In this affair, no one was hurt on the 
 side of the Americans, although shells were thrown from one of the 
 galleys. 
 
 On the other hand, the English were not idle. In addition to 
 the small vessels they had possessed 
 the previous year, they had built the 
 brig just mentioned, or the Linnet, 
 and as soon as the last American ves- 
 sel was in frame, they laid the keel of 
 the ship. By constructing the latter, 
 a great advantage was secured, care 
 being taken, as a matter of course, to 
 make her of a size sufficient to be 
 certain of possessing the greatest 
 force. The American brig, which was 
 called the Eagle, was launched about 
 the middle of August ; and the 
 English ship, named the Confiance, 
 on the 25th of the same month. 
 
 As the English army was already collecting on the frontier, the 
 utmost exertions were made by both sides, and each appeared on the lake 
 as he got ready. Captain M'Donough, who still commanded the Ameri- 
 can force, was enabled to get out a few days before his adversary ; and 
 cruising being almost out of the question on this long and narrow body 
 of water, he advanced as far as Plattsburg, the point selected for the 
 defence, and anchored, the 3d of September, on the flank of the troops 
 which occupied the entrenchments at that place. 
 
 About this time, Sir George Prevost, the English commander-in- 
 
 COMMODORE M'DONOUGH. 
 
170 COMMODORE THOMAS M'DONOUGH. 
 
 chief, with a force that probably amounted to 12,000 men, advanced 
 against Plattsburg, then held by Brigadier General Macomb at the head 
 of only 1,500 effectives. A good deal of skirmishing ensued; and from 
 the 7th to the nth, the enemy was employed in bringing up his batter- 
 ing train, stores, and reinforcements. Captain Downie, late of the Mon- 
 treal, on Lake Ontario, had been sent by Sir James Yeo, to command on 
 this lake, and render all possible aid to the infantry. 
 
 YOUNG OFFICER SEVERELY WOUNDED. 
 
 On the 6th, Captain M'Donough ordered the galleys to the head of 
 the bay, to annoy the English army, and a cannonading occurred which 
 lasted two hours. The wind coming on to blow a gale that menaced the 
 galleys with shipwreck, Mr. Duncan, a midshipman of the Saratoga, was 
 sent in a gig to order them to retire. It is supposed that the appearance 
 of the boat induced the enemy to think that Captain M'Donough himself 
 had joined his galleys ; for he concentrated a fire on the galley Mr. Dun- 
 can was in, and that young officer received a severe wound, by which he 
 lost the use of his arm. Afterwards one of the galleys drifted in, under 
 the guns of the enemy, and she also sustained some loss, but was 
 eventually brought off. 
 
 Captain M'Donough had chosen an anchorage a little to the south 
 of the outlet of the Saranac. His vessels lay in a line parallel to the 
 coast, extending north and south, and distant from the western shore 
 near two miles. The last vessel at the southward was so near the shoal, 
 as to prevent the English from passing that end of the line, while all 
 the ships lay so far out towards Cumberland Head, as to bring the enemy 
 within reach of carronades, should he enter the bay on that side. The 
 Eagle, Captain Henley, lay at the northern extremity of the American 
 line, and what might, during the battle, have been called its head, the 
 wind being at the northward and eastward ; the Saratoga, Captain 
 M'Donough' s own vessel, was second ; the Ticonderoga, Lieutenant Com- 
 mandant Cassin, third ; and the Preble, Lieutenant Charles Budd, last. 
 The Preble lay a little farther south than the pitch of Cumberland 
 
COMMODORE THOMAS M'DONOUGH. 171 
 
 Head. The first of these vessels just mentioned was a brig of 20 guns, 
 and 150 men, all told ; the second a ship of 26 guns, and 212 men ; the 
 third a schooner of 17 guns and no men; the last a sloop, or cutter, of 
 7 guns and 30 men. 
 
 The galleys, on an average, had about 35 men each. The total force of 
 the Americans present consisted, consequently, of 14 vessels, mounting 
 86 guns, and containing about 850 men, including officers and a small 
 detachment of soldiers, who did duty as marines, none of the corps having 
 been sent on Lake Champlain. To complete his order of battle, Captain 
 M'Donough directed two of the galleys to keep in-shore of the Eagle, and 
 a little to windward of her, to sustain the head of the line ; one or two 
 more to lie opposite to the interval between the Eagle and Saratoga ; a 
 few opposite to the interval between the Saratoga and Ticonderoga ; and 
 two or three opposite the interval between the Ticonderoga and Preble. 
 The Americans were, consequently, formed in two lines, distant from 
 each other about 40 yards ; the large vessels at anchor, and the galleys 
 under their sweeps, for the purpose of greater safety. 
 
 SUPERIOR STRENGTH OF THE ENEMY. 
 
 The force of the enemy was materially greater than that of the 
 Americans. The whole force of Captain Downie consisted of sixteen or 
 seventeen vessels, as the case may have been, mounting in all ninety- 
 five or ninety-six guns and carrying about 1000 men. 
 
 On the 3d of September the British gunboats sailed from Isle aux 
 Noix under the orders of Captain Pring to cover the left flank of their 
 army. On the 4th that officer took possession of Isle au Motte, where he 
 constructed a battery and landed some supplies for the troops. On the 
 8th the four larger vessels arrived under Captain Downie, but remained 
 at anchor until the 1 ith, waiting to receive some necessaries. At daylight 
 on the morning just mentioned, the whole force weighed and moved 
 forward in a body. 
 
 The guard-boat of the Americans pulled in shortly after the sun had 
 risen and announced the approach of the enemy. As the wind was 
 
172 COMMODORE THOMAS M'DONOUGH. 
 
 fair, a good working breeze at the northward and eastward, Captain 
 M'Donougli ordered the vessels cleared and preparations made to fight at 
 anchor. Eight bells were striking in the American squadron as the 
 upper sails of the English vessels were seen passing along the land, in 
 the main lake, on their way to double Cumberland Head. The enemy 
 had the wind rather on his port quarter. The Finch led, succeeded by 
 the Confiance, Linnet and Chubb ; while the gunboats, all of which, as 
 well as those of the Americans, had two latine sails, followed without 
 much order, keeping just clear of the shore. 
 
 LINE OF BATTLE FORMED. 
 
 The first vessel that came round the Head was a sloop, which is said 
 to have carried a company of amateurs, and which took no part in the 
 engagement. She kept well to leeward, stood down towards Crab Island 
 and was soon unobserved. The Finch came next, and soon after the 
 other large vessels of the enemy opened from behind the land and hauled 
 up to the wind in a line abreast, lying-to until their galleys could join. 
 The latter passed to leeward and formed in the same manner as their 
 consorts. The two squadrons were now in plain view of each other, 
 distant about a league. As soon as the gunboats were in their stations, 
 and the different commanders had received their orders, the English 
 filled, with their starboard tacks aboard, and headed in towards the 
 American vessels in a line abreast, the Chubb to windward and the Finch 
 to leeward, most of the gunboats, however, being to leeward of the latter. 
 
 The movements of the Finch had been a little singular ever since 
 she led round the Head, for she is said not to have hove-to, but to have 
 run off half way to Crab Island with the wind abeam, then to have tacked 
 and got into her station after the other vessels had filled. This move- 
 ment was probably intended to reconnoitre or to menace the rear of the 
 Americans. The enemy was now standing in, close-hauled, the Chubb 
 looking well to windward of the Eagle, the vessel that lay at the head of 
 the American line, the Linnet laying her course for the bows of the same 
 brig, the Confiance intending to fetch far enough ahead of the S9 r atogr 
 
COMMODORE THOMAS M'DONOUGH. 173 
 
 to lay that ship athwart hawse, and the Finch, with the gunboats, 
 standing for the Ticonderoga and Preble. 
 
 As a matter of course the Americans were anchored with springs. 
 But not content with this customary arrangement, Captain M'Donough 
 had laid a kedge (small anchor) broad off on each bow of the Saratoga, 
 and brought their hawsers in upon the two quarters, letting them hang 
 in loops under water. This timely precaution gained the victory. 
 
 LOUD CHEERS WHEN A ROOSTER CROWED, 
 
 As the enemy filled the American vessels sprung their broadsides to 
 bear, and a few minutes were passed in the solemn and silent expectation 
 that, in a disciplined ship, precedes a battle. Suddenly the Eagle dis- 
 charged, in quick succession, her four long eighteens. In clearing the 
 decks of the Saratoga some hen-coops were thrown overboard, and the 
 poultry had been permitted to run at large. Startled by the reports of 
 the guns a young cock flew upon a gun-slide, clapped his wings and 
 crowed. At this animating sound the men spontaneously gave three 
 cheers. This little occurrence relieved the usual breathing time between 
 preparation and the combat, and it had a powerful influence on the known 
 tendencies of the seamen. 
 
 Still Captain M'Donough did not give the order to commence, 
 although the enemy's galleys now opened, for it was apparent that the 
 fire of the Eagle, which vessel continued to shoot, was useless. As 
 soon, however, as it was seen that her shot told, Captain M'Donough him- 
 self sighted a long twenty-four and the gun was fired. This shot is said to 
 have struck the Confiance near the outer hawse-hole, and to have passed 
 the length of her deck, killing and wounding several men and carrying 
 away the wheel. It was a signal for all the American long guns to open, 
 and it was soon seen that the English commanding ship, in particular, 
 was suffering heavily. Still the enemy advanced, and in the most gal- 
 lant manner, confident if he could get the desired position that the great 
 weight of the Confiance would at once decide the fate of the day. 
 
 But he had miscalculated his own powers of endurance. The 
 
174 COMMODORE THOMAS M'DONOUGH. 
 
 anchors of the Confiance were hanging by the stoppers, in readiness to be 
 let go, and the bower was soon cnt away, as well as a spare anchor in the 
 port fore-chains. In short, after bearing the fire of the American vessels 
 as long as possible, and the wind beginning to baffle, Captain Downie 
 fonnd himself reduced to the necessity of anchoring while still at the dis- 
 tance of about a quarter of a mile from the American line. The helm 
 was put a-port, the ship shot into the wind, and a kedge was let go, while 
 the vessel took a sheer and brought up with her starboard bower. In 
 doing the latter, however, the kedge was fouled and became of no use. 
 
 POSITIONS OF CONTENDING SHIPS, 
 
 In coming to, the halyards were let run and the ship hauled up her 
 courses. At this time the Linnet and Chubb were still standing in, 
 farther to windward, and the former, as her guns bore, fired a broadside 
 at the Saratoga. The Linnet soon after anchored, somewhat nearer than 
 the Confiance, getting a very favorable position forward of the Eagle's 
 beam. The Chubb kept under way, intending, if possible, to rake the 
 American line. The Finch got abreast of the Ticonderoga, under her 
 sweeps, supported by the gunboats. 
 
 The English vessels came to in very handsome style, nor did the 
 Confiance fire a single gun until secured, although the American line 
 was now engaged with all its force. As soon as Captain Downie had per- 
 formed this duty, in a seamanlike manner, his ship appeared a sheet of 
 fire, discharging all her guns at nearly the same instant, pointed princi- 
 pally at the Saratoga. The effect of this broadside was terrible in the 
 little ship that received it. After the crash had subsided Captain M'Don- 
 ough saw that nearly half his crew was on the deck, for many had been 
 knocked down who sustained no real injuries. 
 
 It is supposed, however, that about forty men, or near one-fifth of 
 her complement, were killed and wounded on board the Saratoga by this 
 single discharge. The hatches had been fastened down, as usual, but 
 the bodies so cumbered the deck that it was found necessary to remove 
 the fastenings and to pass them below. The effect continued but a 
 
COMMODORE THOMAS M'DONOUGH. 175 
 
 moment, when the ship resumed her fire as gallantly as ever. Among 
 the slain was Mr. Peter Gamble, the first lieutenant. By this early loss 
 but one officer of that rank, acting Lieutenant Lavellette, was left in the 
 Saratoga. Shortly after Captain Downie, the English commanding 
 officer, fell also. 
 
 On the part of the principal vessels the battle now became a steady, 
 animated, but, as guns were injured, a gradually decreasing cannonade. 
 Still, the character of the battle was relieved by several little incidents 
 that merit notice. The Chubb, while manceuvering near the head of the 
 American line, received a broadside from the Eagle that crippled her, and 
 she drifted down between the opposing vessels until near the Saratoga, 
 which ship fired a shot into her and she immediately struck. 
 
 CONSIDERED A FAVORABLE OMEN. 
 
 Mr. Piatt, one of the Saratoga's midshipmen, was sent with a boat to 
 take possession. This young officer threw the prize a line and towed her 
 down astern of the Saratoga, and in-shore, anchoring her near the mouth 
 of the Saranac. This little success occurred within a quarter of an hour 
 after the enemy had anchored, and was considered a favorable omen, 
 though all well knew that on the Confiance alone depended the fate of 
 the day. The Chubb had suffered materially, nearly half of her people 
 having been killed and wounded. 
 
 About an hour later, the Finch was also driven out of her berth, by 
 the Ticonderoga ; and being crippled, she drifted down upon Crab Island 
 Shoal, where, receiving a shot or two from the gun mounted in the bat- 
 tery, she struck, and was taken possession of by the invalids belonging 
 to the hospital. At this end of the line, the British galleys early made 
 several desperate efforts to close ; and soon after the Finch had drifted 
 away, they forced the Preble out of the American line, that vessel cut- 
 ting her cable and shifting her anchorage to a station considerably in- 
 shore, where she was of no more service throughout the day. The rear 
 of the American line was certainly its weakest point ; and having com- 
 pelled the little Preble to retreat, the enemy's galleys were emboldened 
 
176 COMMODORE THOMAS M'DONOUGH. 
 
 to renew their efforts against the vessel ahead of her, which was the 
 Ticonderoga. This schooner was better able to resist them, and she was 
 very nobly fought. 
 
 Her spirited commander, Lieutenant Commandant Cassin, walked 
 the taffrail where he could watch the movements of the enemy's galleys, 
 amidst showers of canister and grape, directing discharges of bags of 
 musket-balls, and other light missiles, effectually keeping the British at 
 bay. Several times the English galleys, of which many were very gal- 
 lantly fought, closed quite near, with an intent to board ; but the great 
 steadiness on board the Ticonderoga beat them back, and completely 
 covered the rear of the line for the remainder of the day. So desperate 
 were some of the assaults, notwithstanding, that the galleys have been 
 described as several times getting nearly within a boathook's length of 
 the schooner, and their people as rising from the sweeps in readiness to 
 
 spring. 
 
 AMERICANS BADLY DAMAGED. 
 
 While these reverses and successes were occurring in the rear of the 
 two lines, the Americans were suffering heavily at the other extremity. 
 The Linnet had got a very commanding position, and she was admirably 
 fought; while the Eagle, which received all her fire, and part of that of the 
 Confiance, having lost her springs, found herself so situated, as not to 
 be able to bring her guns fairly to bear on either of the enemy's vessels. 
 Captain Henley had run his topsail-yards, with the sails stopped, to the 
 mast-heads, previously to engaging, and he now cut his cable, sheeted 
 home his topsails, cast the brig, and running down, anchored by the stern, 
 between the Saratoga and Ticonderoga, necessarily a little in-shore of 
 both. Here he opened afresh, and with better effect, on the Confiance 
 and galleys, using his larboard guns. But this movement left the Sara- 
 toga exposed to nearly the whole fire of the Linnet, which brig now 
 sprung her broadside in a manner to rake the American ship on her bows. 
 
 Shortly after this important change had occurred at the head of the 
 lines, the fire of the two ships began materially to lessen, as gun after 
 gun became disabled ; the Saratoga, in particular, having had all her 
 
COMMODORE THOMAS M'DONOUGH. 177 
 
 long pieces rendered useless by shot, while most of the carronades 
 were dismounted, either in the same manner, or in consequence of a dispo- 
 sition in the men to overcharge them. At length but a single carronade 
 remained in the starboard batteries, and on firing it, the navel bolt broke, 
 the gun flew off the carriage, and it actually fell down the main hatch. 
 By this accident, the American commanding vessel was left in the middle 
 of the battle, without a single available gun. Nothing remained but to 
 make an immediate attempt to wind the ship. 
 
 MANEUVERING FOR ADVANTAGES. 
 
 The stream anchor suspended astern, was let go accordingly. The 
 men then clapped on the hawser that led to the starboard quarter, and 
 brought the ship's stern up over the kedge ; but here she hung, there 
 not being sufficient wind, or current, to force her bows round. A line 
 had been bent to a bight in the stream cable, with a view to help wind 
 the ship, and she now rode by the kedge and this line, with her stern 
 under the raking broadside of the Linnet, which brig kept up a steady 
 and well-directed fire. The port batteries having been manned aud got 
 ready, Captain M'Donough ordered all the men from the guns, where 
 they were uselessly suffering, telling them to go forward. 
 
 By rowsing on the line, the ship was at length got so far round 
 that the aftermost gun would bear on the Confiance, when it was instantly 
 manned, and began to play. The next gun was used in the same man- 
 ner, but it was soon apparent that the ship could be got no farther round, 
 for she was now nearly end-on to the wind. At this critical moment, 
 Mr. Brum, the master, bethought him of the hawser that led to the lar- 
 board quarter. It was got forward under the bows, and passed aft to the 
 starboard quarter, when the ship's stern was immediately sprung to the 
 westward, so as to bring all her port guns to bear on the English ship, 
 with fatal effect. 
 
 As soon as the preparations were made to wind the Saratoga, the 
 
 Confiance attempted to perform the same evolution. Her springs were 
 
 hauled on, but they merely forced the ship ahead, and having borne the 
 12 
 
178 COMMODORE THOMAS M'DONOUGH. 
 
 fresh broadside of the Americans, until she had scarcely a gun with 
 which to return the fire, and failing in all her efforts to get round, about 
 two hours and a quarter after the commencement of the action, her com- 
 manding officer lowered his flag. By hauling again upon the starboard 
 hawser, the Saratoga's broadside was immediately sprung to bear on the 
 Linnet, which brig struck about fifteen minutes after her consort. 
 
 The enemy's galleys had been driven back, nearly or quite half a 
 mile, and they lay irregularly scattered, and setting to leeward, keeping 
 up a desultory firing. As soon as they found that the large vessels had 
 submitted, they ceased the combat, and lowered their colors. At this 
 proud moment, it is believed, on authority entitled to the highest respect, 
 there was not a single English ensign, out of sixteen or seventeen, that 
 had so lately been flying, left abroad in the bay ! 
 
 LAMENTABLE DESTRUCTION OF LIFE. 
 
 In this long and bloody conflict, the Saratoga had twenty-eight men 
 killed, and twenty-nine wounded, or more than a fourth of all on board 
 her; the Eagle thirteen killed, and twenty wounded, which was sustain- 
 ing a loss in nearly an equal proportion ; the Ticonderoga six killed, and 
 six wounded ; the Preble two killed ; while on board the ten galleys, only 
 three were killed, and three wounded. The Saratoga was hulled fifty- 
 five times, principally by twenty-four-pound shot ; and the Eagle, thirty- 
 nine times. 
 
 According to the report of Captain Pring, of the Linnet, dated on 
 the 1 2th of September, the Confiance lost forty-one killed, and forty 
 wounded. It was admitted, however, that no good opportunity had then 
 existed to ascertain the casualties. At a later day, the English them- 
 selves enumerated her wounded at eighty-three. This would make the 
 total loss of that ship 124 ; but even this number is supposed to be 
 materially short of the truth. The Linnet is reported to have had ten 
 killed, and fourteen wounded. This loss is also believed to be consider- 
 ably below the fact. The Chubb had six killed, and ten wounded. The 
 Finch was reported by the enemy to have had but two men wounded. 
 
 
COMMODORE THOMAS M'DONOUGH. 
 
 179 
 
 No American official report of the casualties in the English vessels 
 has been published ; but by an estimate made on the best data that could 
 be found, the Linnet was thought to have lost fifty men, and the two 
 smaller vessels taken, about thirty between them. No account what- 
 ever has been published of the casualties on board the English galleys, 
 though the slaughter in them is believed to have been very heavy. 
 
 SCENE OF THE BATTLE OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 
 
 As soon as the Linnet struck, a lieutenant was sent to take posses- 
 sion of the Confiance. Bad as was the situation of the Saratoga, that of 
 the prize was much worse. She had been hulled 105 times ; had prob- 
 ably near, if not quite, half her people killed and wounded ; and this 
 formidable floating battery was reduced to helpless impotency. 
 
 As the boarding officer was passing along the deck of the prize, he 
 
180 COMMODORE THOMAS M'DONOUGH. 
 
 accidentally ran against a lock-string, and fired one of the Confiance's 
 starboard gnns. Up to this moment the English galleys had been slowly 
 drifting to leeward, with their colors down, apparently waiting to be taken 
 possession of; bnt at the discharge of this gnn, which may have been 
 understood as a signal, one or two of them began to move slowly off, and 
 soon after the others followed, pulling but a very few sweeps. It is not 
 known that one of them hoisted her ensign. Captain M'Donough made 
 a signal for the American galleys to follow, but it was discovered that 
 their men were wanted at the pumps of some of the larger vessels, to 
 keep them from sinking, the water being found over the berth-deck of 
 the Linnet, and the signal was revoked. As there was not a mast that 
 would bear any canvas among all the larger vessels, the English galleys 
 escaped, though they went off slowly and irregularly, as if distrusting 
 their own liberty. 
 
 GALLANT CONDUCT OF AMERICAN OFFICERS. 
 
 Captain M'Donough applauded the conduct of all the officers of the 
 Saratoga. Mr. Gamble died at his post, fighting bravely ; Mr. Lavallette, 
 the only lieutenant left, displayed the cool discretion that marks the 
 character of this highly respectable and firm officer, and Mr. Brum, the 
 master, who was entrusted with the important duty of winding the ship, 
 never lost his self-possession for an instant. Captain Henley praised 
 the conduct of his officers, as did Lieutenant-Commandant Cassin. The 
 galle} T s behaved very unequally ; but the Borer, Mr. Conover ; Netley, 
 Mr. Breese ; one under the orders of Mr. Robins, a master, and one or 
 two more, were considered to have been very gallantly handled. 
 
 There was a common feeling of admiration at the manner in which 
 the Ticonderoga, Lieutenant-Commandant Cassin, defended the rear of 
 the line, and at the noble conduct of all on board her. 
 
 The Saratoga was twice on fire by hot shot thrown from the Con- 
 fiance, her spanker having been nearly consumed. No battery from the 
 American shore, with the exception of the gun or two fired at the Finch 
 from Crab Island, took any part in the naval encounter ; nor could any, 
 
COMMODORE THOMAS M'DONOUGH. 181 
 
 without endangering the American vessels equally with the enemy. 
 Indeed the distance renders it questionable whether shot would have 
 reached with effect, as Captain M'Donough had anchored far off the land, 
 in order to compel the enemy to come within range of his short guns. 
 
 The Americans found a furnace on board the Confiance, with eight 
 or ten heated shot in it, though the fact is not stated with any view to 
 attribute it to the enemy as a fault. It was an advantage that he pos- 
 sessed, most probably in consequence of the presence of a party of 
 artillerists, who had a share in the hot fight. 
 
 COMMANDER'S SPLENDID SKILL AND BRAVERY. 
 
 Captain M'Donough, who was already very favorably known to the 
 service for his personal intrepidity, obtained a vast accession of reputa- 
 tion by the results of this day. His dispositions for receiving the attacks 
 were highly judicious and seamanlike. By the manner in which he 
 anchored his vessels, with the shoal so near the rear of his line as to cover 
 that extremity, and the land of Cumberland Head so near his broadside 
 as necessarily to bring the enemy within reach of his short guns, he made 
 all his force completely available. The English were not near enough, 
 perhaps, to give to carronades their full effect ; but this disadvantage was 
 unavoidable, the assailing party having, of course, a choice in the distance. 
 
 All that could be obtained, under the circumstances, appears to have 
 been secured, and the result proved the wisdom of the actual arrange- 
 ment. The personal deportment of Captain M'Donough in this engage- 
 ment, like that of Perry in the battle of Lake Erie, was the subject of 
 general admiration in his little squadron. His coolness was undisturbed 
 throughout all the trying scenes on board his own ship, and although lying 
 against a vessel of double the force, and nearly double the tonnage of the 
 Saratoga, he met and resisted her attack with a constancy that seemed to 
 set defeat at defiance. The winding of the Saratoga, under such circum- 
 stances, exposed as she was to the raking broadsides of the Confiance and 
 Linnet, especially the latter, was a bold, seamanlike, and masterly measure, 
 that required unusual decision and fortitude to imagine and execute. 
 
182 COMMODORE THOMAS M'DONOUGH. 
 
 Most men would have believed that, without a single gun on the side 
 engaged, a fourth of their people cut down, and their ship a wreck, 
 enough injivry had been received to justify submission ; but Captain 
 M'Donough found the means to secure a victory in the desperate con- 
 dition of his own vessel. 
 
 Captain M'Donough, besides the usual medal from Congress, and 
 various compliments and gifts from different states and towns, was pro- 
 moted for his services. Captain Henley also received a medal. The 
 "legislature of Vermont presented the former with a small estate on Cum- 
 berland Head, which overlooked the scene of his triumph. The officers 
 and crews met with the customary acknowledgements, and the country 
 generally placed the victory by the side of that of Lake Erie. In the 
 navy, which is better qualified to enter into just estimates of force, and 
 all the other circuirfstances that enhance the merits of nautical exploits, 
 the battle of Plattsburg Bay is justly ranked among the very highest of 
 its claims to glory. 
 
 The consequences of this victory were immediate and important. 
 During the action, Sir George Prevost had skirmished sharply in front 
 of the American works, and was busy in making demonstrations for a 
 more serious attack. As soon, however, as the fate of the British squad- 
 ron was ascertained, he made a precipitate and unmilitary retreat, aban- 
 doning much of his heavy artillery, stores, and supplies, and from that 
 moment to the end of the war, the northern frontier was cleared of the 
 enemy. 
 
 The gallant sailor who won the battle of Lake Champlain lives in 
 history as Commodore M'Donough. He died in 1825. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 REAR ADMIRAL BUCHANAN 
 
 AND 
 
 LIEUTENANT WORDEN 
 
 HEROES OF THE MERRIMAC AND MONITOR 
 —FAMOUS NAVAL BATTLE — THE DAVID 
 sD AND GOLIATH OF WARSHIPS — COOL BRAVERY OF COM- 
 MANDERS — FIGHT THAT REVOLUTIONIZED NAVAL WARFARE. 
 
 In tracing the history of the great western campaign of onr Civil 
 War, in 1862, it will be noticed that an important part was played by 
 gunboats on the Tennessee and Ohio rivers. It was naturally to be 
 expected that war vessels, suitably constructed, would play an equally 
 important part in the bays and rivers more to the east, and which 
 connect themselves with the waters of the Atlantic. 
 
 One of the great events of the early part of 1862 was the appear- 
 ance in Hampton Roads of the powerful iron-clad man-of-war Merrimac, 
 which had been reconstructed by the Confederate Government and named 
 Virginia. When the Norfolk Navy Yard was abandoned by the 
 Nationals, this vessel was scuttled and sunk. In her original form she 
 was a powerful steam frigate of forty guns, and she had cost the govern* 
 ment, for building and furnishing her, a sum not less than a million 
 and a quarter dollars. The Confederates found little difficulty in raising 
 her, and the hull being in perfect condition, a substantial basis existed 
 for the construction of a gigantic and dangerous vessel. 
 
 A plan was furnished by Lieutenant John M. Brooke, formerly of 
 
 the National navy ; and, reconstructed after the fashion of the shot-proof 
 
 raft which had been used in Charleston harbor, she became one of the 
 
 strongest and most destructive engines of war which had ever been seen 
 
 183 
 
184 BUCHANAN AND WORDEN. 
 
 floating on any waters. When properly cut down she was covered with 
 an iron roof projecting into the water. ' At or below the water line the 
 mail extended the opposite way, so that a shot striking above the water- 
 mark would glance upward, and below the water mark would glance 
 downward. She was simply a broadside ironclad with sloping armor. 
 Her great bulk enabled her to carry a formidable battery. She was 
 armed with a powerful steel beak, and carried eleven guns, with a one 
 hundred-pound rifled Armstrong at each end. 
 
 A MONSTER FITTED TO CREATE TERROR. 
 
 Such a monster might well be a terror as a surprise. It was known 
 that the vessel was undergoing reconstruction, and" that it was intended to 
 make her a terrible engine of war ; but strange rumors were circulated 
 to her disadvantage- by the Confederate authorities ; and it is probable 
 that, until she was seen at Hampton Roads, she was somewhat despised 
 by the officers of the National navy. The Southern newspapers artfully 
 circulated that " the Merrimac was a failure," and, the wish being father 
 to the thought, the statement was too readily believed by the Federals. 
 Her commander was Franklin Buchanan, who was born in Baltimore, 
 and entered the navy about 1815. He was captain when the Civil War 
 broke out, but resigned his commission in 1861, entered the Confederate 
 service, and was noted for his bravery and his ability in handling war 
 craft. He commanded the iron-clad Tennessee in Mobile Bay, August, 
 1864, where he was defeated by Admiral Farragut and taken prisoner. 
 
 The intrepid Buchanan, as we have said was the commander of the 
 Merrimac, and his exploits on this occasion stamped him as a hero of 
 the highest rank. About noon, on Saturday, the 8th of March, observ- 
 ers at Fortress Monroe saw a strange object, " looking like a sub- 
 merged house, with the roof only above water," moving down the 
 Elizabeth River toward Hampton Roads. It was the dreadful Merrimac. 
 Two smaller armed steamboats accompanied her. Almost immediately 
 after their appearance, two other Confederate gunboats came down from 
 Richmond and took positions in the James River, a little above Newport 
 
BUCHANAN AND WORDEN. 185 
 
 News. Signal guns were at once fired from the Union batteries and by 
 the ships Cumberland and Congress, lying off and blockading the James 
 River, to give warning to the rest of the National fleet. 
 
 Accompanied by the two smaller vessels the Merrimacmoved steadily 
 on towards the Cumberland and Congress. The Congress, a sailing 
 frigate, was commanded by Lieutenant Joseph B. Smith. The sloop of 
 war, Cumberland, 24 guns and 376 men, was commanded temporarily by 
 Lieutenant George Morris. Pursuing the Congress, and giving and 
 receiving a broadside, the Merrimac made straight for the Cumberland. 
 This vessel had been placed across the channel so as to bring her broad- 
 side to bear on her antagonist ; and as the Merrimac approached she 
 opened upon the monster and poured forth a rapid fire. It was no use. The 
 heavy shot from the nine and ten inch guns of the Cumberland glanced 
 from her rival's shield of iron, " like so many peas. " The Merrimac 
 seemed stunned for an instant by the weight of the shot ; but she quickly 
 recovered ; and having increased her speed, she rushed against the 
 Cumberland, striking her with her steel prow about amidships, and 
 " literally la}dng her open. " 
 
 AN IMPENETRABLE COAT OF MAIL. 
 
 Before striking the Cumberland, the Merrimac had received some 
 seven or eight broadsides ; but they produced no impression on her 
 invulnerable coat of mail. As she struck, she opened her ports and 
 poured in on the unfortunate Cumberland, now rapidly filling with water, 
 a most destructive fire. The Cumberland fought well ; but the combat 
 was unequal. Buchanan gradually drew off the Merrimac ; and again 
 opening his ports, he rushed against his disabled antagonist, this time 
 completely crushing in her side. 
 
 It was now all over with the Cumberland. Giving a parting fire to 
 the monster which was retiring from the ruin it had wrought, with 
 apparent indifference, Morris ordered his men to jump overboard and save 
 themselves. This was quickly done ; and in a few minutes afterwards, 
 the vessel went down in fifty-four feet of water, carrying with her about 
 
186 
 
BUCHANAN AND WORDEN. 187 
 
 one hundred of dead, sick and wounded, who conld not be moved. The 
 topmast of the Cumberland remained partially above the water, with her 
 flag flying from its peak. 
 
 It was now nearly four o'clock in the afternoon. Having finished 
 the Cumberland, the Merrimac now turned her attention to the sailing 
 frigate Congress. We have seen that just as the Merrimac appeared by 
 the way of the Elizabeth River two other vessels came down the James, 
 as if by a preconcerted arrangement. These vessels were the Yorktown 
 and the Jamestown, or, as the latter was now called, the Patrick Henry. 
 While the Merrimac was engaged with the Cumberland, the Yorktown 
 and the Jamestown, which had successfully passed the National batteries 
 at Newport News, had tackled the Congress. Until the Cumberland 
 went down the Congress made a gallant and successful resistance. With 
 the help of the Zouave, she then managed to run aground undercover of 
 the strong batteries just named. 
 
 ON FIRE IN A NUMBER OF PLACES. 
 
 There she was beyond reach of the Merrimac' s prow, but she was not 
 beyond the range of her guns. As soon, therefore, as that vessel came 
 up she opened fire upon the unfortunate Congress, which could not reply 
 with her stern guns, one of which was soon dismounted by the Merrimac's 
 shot and the other had the muzzle knocked off. Lieutenant Smith, Act- 
 ing Master Moore and Pilot William Rhodes, with nearly half the crew, 
 were killed or wounded. The Merrimac moved backward and forward 
 slowly, firing at a range of less than a hundred yards. The Congress 
 now took fire in several places. 
 
 Further resistance would have been worse than foolishness, and so 
 Lieutenant Prendergast hauled down the flag. A tug came alongside to 
 haul her off, but the batteries on shore drove off the tug, and the Merri- 
 mac, despite the white flag which was flying over her in token of sur- 
 render, again opened fire upon the battered and helpless vessel. Later 
 in the day the Merrimac returned and set the Congress on fire by red- 
 hot shot, and her magazine exploded with a tremendous noise. 
 
188 BUCHANAN AND WORDEN. 
 
 Those of her crew which survived the first attack had meanwhile 
 made good their escape. About one half of the whole, 218 out of 434, 
 responded to the call of their names next morning at Newport News 
 In little more than two hours the Merrimac had destroyed two of the 
 best ships in the National service ; and Buchanan, her commander, had 
 the satisfaction — if satisfaction it was — of killing or drowning more thar 
 three hundred of his old comrades. 
 
 HURRIED TO THE SCENE OF ACTION. 
 
 When the Merrimac first made her appearance in the early part of 
 the day, the flag-ship of the National squadron, the Roanoke, Captain 
 John Marston, and the steam frigate Minnesota, Captain Van Brunt, 
 were lying at Fortress Monroe, several miles distant. These were at 
 once signalled to hurry forward to the assistance of the Cumberland, the 
 Congress, and the other vessels now so sorely menaced. It was not pos- 
 sible for them to be forward in time to render any effective aid. Flag- 
 officer Marston had responded to the signal as quickly as possible. His 
 own ship was disabled in its machinery ; but, with the help of two tugs, 
 he set out for the scene of action. 
 
 The Minnesota was ordered to hasten in the same direction. When 
 passing Sewall's Point, the Minnesota came within range of a Confeder- 
 ate battery there, and had her mainmast crippled. This, however, was 
 not the only misfortune which she was destined to experience ; she drew 
 twenty-three feet of water ; and although it was known that the water 
 was dangerously shallow, it was thought that, the botton being soft, it 
 would be possible to push her through. It was a mistake. When with- 
 in about a mile and a half of Newport News, the vessel grounded and 
 stuck fast. 
 
 While in this helpless condition, the Merrimac, having destroyed 
 the Cumberland, and having retired after her first attack on the Con- 
 gress, came down upon her. Fortunately it was not possible for the 
 Merrimac to get within a mile of her intended victim, her own heavy 
 draught preventing a nearer approach. At this distance, an ineffective 
 
BUCHANAN AND WORDEN. 189 
 
 fire was opened by both vessels. Some of the smaller armed steamboats 
 ventured nearer, and with their rifled guns killed and wounded several 
 men on board the Minnesota. Some of these, however, paid dearly for 
 their rashness ; for, grounded as she was, her guns were ably handled, 
 and with great rapidity. 
 
 It was now seven o'clock ; and counting, no doubt, on an easy victory 
 on the morrow, the Merrimac, with her companion ships, retired behind 
 Sewall's Point. The Minnesota still lay fast in the mud ; and although 
 during the night several attempts were made to get her off, it was found 
 impossible to move her. The Roanoke and the St. Lawrence, on their 
 way to the scene of conflict, had both got aground ; but with the rising 
 tide they were relieved, and moved down the Roads. 
 
 CRISIS OF IMMENSE IMPORT. 
 
 It was Saturday night, March 8th, and when the sun went down the 
 prospect for the following morning was the reverse of cheering to the 
 National commanders. There could be no doubt that the Merrimac 
 would renew the battle in the morning. In such a case, the result, 
 unless some unexpected aid arrived, would be disastrous in the 
 extreme. The Minnesota would be the first victim, and helpless as she 
 was, her destruction was certain. If any of the other vessels were 
 spared they would surely endeavor to make their escape. The harbor of 
 Hampton Roads would be lost. The Merrimac would be free to prose- 
 cute her work of destruction. Fortress Monroe would be in danger, and 
 who could say that the harbor of New York was safe while such a 
 monster was afloat ? 
 
 General Wool, commander of Fortress Monroe, telegraphed to 
 Washington that the capture of the Minnesota was all but certain, and 
 that " it was thought the Merrimac, Jamestown and Yorktown would 
 pass the fort to-night." It was the opinion of that officer that if the 
 Merrimac, instead of passing on, attacked the fortress, it would not be 
 possible to hold the place for more than a few days. 
 
 Happily relief was at hand. At nine o'clock that night the 
 
190 BUCHANAN AND WORDEN. 
 
 Monitor, Ericsson's new iron-clad turret ship, arrived at Fortress Monroe 
 from New York. This vessel, which was a dwarf beside the Merrimac, 
 and which was of novel form and appearance, had been built at Green 
 Point, Long Island, New York, under the direction of its inventor, 
 Captain John Ericsson — a Swede by birth, but who had been a resident 
 of the United States for twenty years. Ericsson had already won dis- 
 tinction as a practical scientist in Sweden and in England, and in 1842, 
 having come to the United States, he built for the government the United 
 States steamer Princeton, the first screw-propeller in the world. The 
 Monitor was one of three vessels — the other two were the Galena and 
 the New Ironsides — which were constructed to meet the emergency and 
 by special requirement of the government. 
 
 SINGULAR LOOKING VESSEL. 
 
 Ericsson's plan was to secure the greatest possible power, both for 
 attack and resistance, with the least possible exposure of surface. The 
 hull of the Monitor admirably met all those requirements. It was buoyant, 
 yet it was almost entirely under water. It presented to the enemy a 
 target which was wonderfully small, but which, because of the concen- 
 tration of iron and timber, was absolutely impregnable — proof against 
 the heaviest artillery of the day. Concentration was Ericsson's object 
 in the construction of the hull, so far as defence or resistance was 
 concerned. He followed the same plan in regard to the offensive part of 
 the ship. 
 
 In the centre of his raft-like vessel he fixed a revolving cylinder of 
 wrought iron, of sufficient diameter to allow of two heavy guns and just 
 high enough to give the gunners standing room. When finished the 
 total length of the Monitor was 172 feet. This covered the armor and 
 what is called the " overhang." The length of the hull proper was 124 
 feet. Her total beam over armor and backing was 41^ feet — the beam 
 of the hull proper being 34 feet. Her depth was n feet; her draught 10 
 feet. The diameter of the turret inside was 20 feet ; the height was 9 
 feet; the thickness 8 inches, there being 5 inches of wrought iron and 3 
 
BUCHANAN AND WORDEN. 191 
 
 feet of oak. The total weight, with everything on board, was 900 
 tons. 
 
 As an engine of war, the Monitor was, in the strictest sense of the 
 word, a novelty. Nothing of the kind had ever before existed. Not un- 
 naturally, therefore, very different opinions prevailed as to the fitness of 
 the vessel for the purposes contemplated. Had the Monitor gone to the 
 bottom as she slid from the stocks at Greenpoint, she would only have 
 fulfilled the predictions and justified the expectations of many promi- 
 nent scientific men who were present when she was launched. The 
 strange-looking little ship, as we shall presently see, was to have a dif- 
 ferent and more glorious future. 
 
 According to the terms of the contract the Monitor was not to be 
 accepted by the government until her seagoing powers were tested, and 
 until she had made trial of her strength with the heaviest guns of the 
 enemy. This, therefore, was her trial trip ; and never, perhaps, in the 
 history of any ship of war was a trial trip more severely tested or more 
 completely successful. Lieutenant John L. Worden was in command. 
 
 COMMANDER OF THE MONITOR. 
 
 Worden was born in Westchester county, New York, March 12, 1818. 
 He entered the navy in 1834, and became a lieutenant in 1840. In April, 
 1 86 1, he was sent as a bearer of despatches to Fort Pickens or Pensacola. 
 He was arrested as he was returning by land, and was kept in prison 
 seven months. After leaving command of the Monitor, he was made 
 captain in February, 1863, and commanded the ironclad Montauk in the 
 operations against Fort Sumter in April of that year. In June, 1868, 
 he was appointed a commodore. His superb courage, admirable skill as 
 a commander, and noble qualities as a man, are fully recognized in our 
 naval history. 
 
 Having assumed command of the Monitor, he started with the odd 
 little craft from New York. The weather was extremely rough. For 
 three days the Monitor battled with the storm ; but more than once 
 victory was doubtful. The sea rolled over her decks, the turret alone 
 
192 BUCHANAN AND WORDEN. 
 
 being above the water. At one time the tiller-rope was thrown off the 
 wheel, and the situation was really critical. The draft pipe was choked 
 by the pouring down of the water ; and but for the ventilation obtained 
 through the turret, the men would have been suffocated. More than 
 once during the vogage the fires were extinguished. After such a voyage 
 the crew, as was to be expected, were completely exhausted. 
 
 We have seen . that the Monitor reached Fortress Monroe at 9 
 o'clock, on the evening of Saturday, the 8th of March. But for this 
 storm the Monitor might have been up in time to prevent the disaster 
 of the previous day ; for it is now known that the Confederates, informed 
 by spies of the forwardness of the Monitor, had made almost super- 
 human efforts to have the work on the Merrimac finished, so as to give 
 her an opportunity of destroying the National fleet at Hampton Roads 
 before her great rival could appear on the scene. 
 
 ON THE EVE OF THE GREAT COMBAT. 
 
 As it was, Lieutenant Worden lost no time after his arrival at 
 Fortress Monroe. Within a few minutes he had reported to the flag 
 officer in the Roads, received orders and sailed to join the disabled fleet. 
 Soon after midnight, on the morning of the 9th, he anchored his little 
 vessel alongside the Minnesota. 
 
 Never did relief arrive more opportunely. It was a night to be re- 
 membered — that of the 8th of March, 1862, at Hampton Roads. The 
 Confederates were flushed with success. The Nationals were downcast, 
 as well they might be, but by no means desperate. Norfolk was illumi- 
 nated; and the Confederate officers and sailors were rejoicing and carous- 
 ing with her grateful citizens. On the one side, there was the certain 
 conviction that to-morrow would bring with it an easy victory. On the 
 other side there was a sullen determination to resist to the last, and a 
 dim, ill-defined hope that some effective aid was to be expected from the 
 strange little vessel which had just arrived. 
 
 As the night wore on, the waters and the adjacent coast were 
 brilliantly lit up by the flames of the burning Congress ; and ever and 
 
BUCHANAN AND WORDEN. 193 
 
 anon, at irregular intervals, a shotted gun would boom over the dull 
 waters and startle the quiet air, as the spreading flames ignited its 
 charge. The ship had been burning for ten hours, when, about one 
 o'clock, the fire having reached the magazine, she blew up with a terrific 
 noise, filling the air and strewing the waters far and wide with masses 
 of burning timber. 
 
 Sunday morning broke beautiful and clear. The Congress had dis- 
 appeared ; but the masts and yards of the Cumberland projected above 
 the water, and her ensign was flying in its accustomed place. As sad 
 evidences of the suddenness of her destruction, the dead bodies of her 
 brave defenders floated in large numbers around the ship. Before the 
 sun had fully revealed himself, and paled by his brighter light the lurid 
 flames of the burning fragments of the Congress, the Merrimac was seen 
 coming down from Sewall's Point. Evidently she was bent on complet- 
 ing the work of the previous day. The drums of the Merrimac beat tr 
 quarters and there were quick preparations. 
 
 GAVE ORDERS FOR INSTANT ATTACK. 
 
 Worden was ready. Taking his position at the peep-hole of the 
 pilot-house of the Monitor, he gave orders for an immediate attack. The 
 Merrimac made direct for the Minnesota, and from the course she took 
 it was apparently the intention of her commander to capture that vessel, 
 if possible, and carry her back as a prize to Norfolk, where hundreds of 
 people lined the shores, awaiting his triumphant return. As she 
 approached the stern guns of the Minnesota opened upon her, but to little 
 purpose , for the stacks and the sloping sides of the huge monster had 
 been smeared with tallow, and the shot, heavy as it was, glanced harm- 
 lessly off. Meanwhile the little Monitor, to the astonishment of all, ran 
 out from under the Minnesota's quarter and placed herself alongside of 
 the Merrimac, completely covering the Minnesota " as far as was possi- 
 ble with her diminutive dimensions." 
 
 The contrast was striking. It was more — it was almost ridiculous. 
 
 David and Goliath ! It seemed as if the Merrimac had but to move upon 
 13 
 
194 BUCHANAN AND WORDEN. 
 
 the insignificant, almost invisible thing, touch it with her iron prow, and 
 make an end of it forever. But it was not so. This other giant had 
 found more than a match in this other stripling. The Merrimac let fly a 
 broadside, and the turret of the Monitor began to revolve. Both vessels, 
 as we have shown already, were heavily armed. The Merrimac had on 
 each side two 7^-inch rifles and 4 9-inch Dahlgrens. The Monitor had 
 in her turret two 11-inch guns, each capable of flinging a shot of 168 
 pounds. The turret kept revolving , but the ponderous shot of the Mon- 
 itor rattled in vain against the mail-clad sides of the Merrimac. Broad- 
 side followed broadside in rapid succession, but the heavy metal dis- 
 charged by the guns of the Merrimac made no impression on the wrought- 
 iron citadel of the Monitor, which stood like a Gibraltar. 
 
 BATTLE ROYAL BETWEEN GIANTS. 
 
 Unlike as were the two ships, it was really a battle of giants. " Gun 
 after gun," says Captain Van Brunt, of the Minnesota, "was fired by 
 the Monitor, which was returned with whole broadsides from the enemy, 
 with no more effect apparently than so many pebble stones thrown by a 
 child, clearly establishing the fact that wooden vessels cannot contend 
 with iron clad ones , for never before was anything like it dreamed of by 
 the greatest enthusiasts in maritime warfare." After the first vigorous 
 onset there was some manoeuvring for positions, the Monitor seeking the 
 port holes of the Merrimac, the latter all the while pouring her heavy 
 shot on the invulnerable turret of her plucky little antagonist. One bolt 
 from a rifle-gun struck the turret squarely, and penetrated the iron. " It 
 then broke short off and left its head sticking in." 
 
 Five times the Merrimac attempted to run the Monitor down, but on 
 each occasion she received, at the distance of a few feet, the heavy shot 
 of the 11-inch guns. In one of these encounters the Merrimac got 
 aground, and the Monitor, being light of draught, steamed easily around, 
 moving and hitting like a skilled pugilist, her lightning-like fire striking 
 her antagonist at every vulnerable point. The Merrimac began to show 
 signs of punishment. Her armor plate was bending under the blows. 
 
BUCHANAN AND WORDEN. 195 
 
 As if despairing of accomplishing anything definite or satisfactor}^ 
 
 with the Monitor, the Merrimac turned away from her agile and rather 
 
 dangerons antagonist and renewed her attack on the Minnesota. Van 
 
 Brunt, as he himself tells us, was on his guard, and gave the monster a 
 
 warm reception. He opened upon her all his broadside guns, with a 
 
 ten-inch pivot gnu besides. So terrific was the broadside that " it was 
 
 enough," to quote Van Brunt's language, " to blow out of the water any 
 
 timber built ship in the world." It produced, however, but very little 
 
 effect. 
 
 MONITOR CHASES HER ANTAGONIST. 
 
 The Merrimac gave a hearty response. From her rifled bow gun 
 she flung one of her terrible shells, which went crashing through the 
 side of the Minnesota, exploding on its way two charges of powder, and 
 finally bursting in the boatswain's apartments, tearing four rooms into 
 one and setting the ship on fire. Another shell burst the boiler of the 
 tugboat , Dragon, which lay alongside the Minnesota. During the 
 encounter, which was brief, the guns of the Minnesota had hit the Mer- 
 rimac at least fifty times, producing little or no impression. 
 
 A second time the Monitor comes to the aid of the Minnesota. The 
 Merrimac finds it necessary to change her position, and in doing so, 
 again gets grounded. The Minnesota again finds her opportunity, and 
 her heavy guns are opened on her stranded foe. The broadsides are 
 now telling on the thick armor-plates of the Merrimac. Catesby Jones, 
 who was in command, Buchanan having been wounded on the previous 
 day, evidently regarded his situation as critical, and, accordingly, as 
 soon as he got the Merrimac afloat, he turned her prow toward Norfolk. 
 The Monitor gave chase. Irritated by the pertinacity of the little ship, 
 the Merrimac turned round on her pursuer and rushed upon her at ful] k 
 speed, as if resolved to run her down. It was a vain attempt, although, 
 judging from the appearance of things, it was by no means either 
 unnatural or unwise 
 
 The huge beak of the Merrimac grated on the deck of the Monitor 
 and was wrenched. Such a blow had sent the Cumberland down on 
 
196 BUCHANAN AND WORDKN. 
 
 the Saturday. Such a blow, had it been possible to deal it, would doubt- 
 less have proved equally fatal to the Minnesota, or indeed to any wooden 
 ship afloat. It left the Monitor uninjured. The little vessel glided 
 nimbly out from under her antagonist, and in doing so, the two ships 
 being almost in actual contact, she opened upon her with one of her 
 heavy turret guns, striking her with a force which seemed to crush in 
 her armor. Quick as lightning the concentrated shot of the Merrimac 
 rattled against the turret and pilot-house of the Monitor. The encounter 
 was terrific ; but the armor of both vessels was shot-proof, and for the 
 first time in naval warfare, heavy and well-directed cannon were found to 
 be comparatively worthless, doing little damage. 
 
 SHOTS THAT TOLD WITH STARTLING EFFECT. 
 
 At this stage the Monitor hauled off for the purpose of hoisting 
 more shot into her turret. Catesby Jones, imagining that he had 
 silenced his small but formidable antagonist, made another move towards 
 the Minnesota. Before he had time to open fire, the Monitor was steaming 
 up towards him. He changed his course at once; and it was now notice- 
 able that the Merrimac was sagging at her stern. A well-directed shot 
 from the Monitor had hit the Merrimac at the junction of the casemate 
 with the ship's side and caused a leak. Another shot about the same 
 moment had penetrated the boiler of one of the Merrimac's tenders, 
 enveloping her in steam, and scalding a large number of her crew. 
 Latterly the Monitor had been firing low, and every shot told with 
 greater or less effect 
 
 The Monitor, however, was not to be allowed to escape uninjured. 
 The last shot fired by the Merrimac was the most effective. It struck 
 the pilot-house of the Monitor opposite the peep-hole through which 
 Worden at that moment was looking. It cut the iron plank in two, 
 inflicted a severe wound on Worden, and knocked him senseless to the 
 floor, Lieutenant Green, who commanded the guns, and Chief Engineer 
 Steiners, who worked the turret, being at the same moment stunned and 
 stupefied, but not severely injured. Green and Steiners recovered 
 
BUCHANAN AND WORDRN. 197 
 
 quickly enough to keep the gunners at work ; but Worden did not for 
 some time recover consciousness. When he did so, his first question 
 was, " Did we save the Minnesota ? " 
 
 The battle was now ended. The Merrimac steered at once for 
 Norfolk. The Monitor soon afterwards steered for Fortress Monroe, the 
 severe mishap which had befallen her commander preventing her from 
 following up her victory and forcing the battle to a surrender. Worden 
 was really badly injured. His face was much disfigured and he was 
 completely blind. Removed to the city of Washington, his life for a 
 time was despaired of; but he revived, and, being unwilling to retire, he 
 rendered his country further good service before the war was ended. As 
 soon as the Merrimac retired the Minnesota was got afloat by throwing 
 some of her heavy guns overboard. She was saved. The battle which 
 began as early as eight o'clock in the morning was waged with great 
 ferocity until after mid-day. The little Monitor did noble work and won 
 a most decided victory over a very formidable foe. 
 
 THE LITTLE LION OF THE NAVY. 
 
 She acquired a reputation such as was never before enjoyed by any 
 ship of war. Pilgrimages were organized and undertaken to visit the 
 scene of the conflict and the victory, and all ranks and classes of the 
 people, from the President downward, rushed to see the "little wonder' 7 
 — the strange vessel which had done such effective work. The excite- 
 ment was not confined to this country alone. The success of the 
 Monitor created a profound interest throughout the civilized world, and 
 nowhere more than in the British Isle. It was felt and confessed not 
 only that sea-girt nations must in future depend for protection on other 
 than wooden walls, but that a new and terrible engine of war had been 
 constructed. The battle of Hampton Roads had read the world a 
 lesson. 
 
 In a masterly lyric, the scenes on board the Cumberland have been 
 celebrated by the well-known poet, George H. Boker. We append his 
 spirited production, which is a fine tribute to the valor of our Jack Tars. 
 
198 
 
 BUCHANAN AND WORDEN. 
 
 " Stand to your guns, men ! " Morris 
 cried ; 
 
 Small need to pass the word; 
 Our men at quarters ranged themselves 
 
 Before the drum was heard. 
 
 And then began the sailors' jests : 
 "What thing is that, I say ?" 
 
 "A 'long-shore meeting-house adrift 
 And standing down the bay?" 
 
 "So shot your guns and point them 
 straight : 
 
 Before this day goes by, 
 We'll try of what her metal's made " 
 
 A cheer was our reply. 
 
 "Remember, boys, this flag of ours 
 
 Has seldom left its place ; 
 And where it falls, the deck it strikes 
 
 Is covered with disgrace. 
 
 "I ask but this ; or sink or swim, 
 
 Or live or nobly die, 
 My last sight upon earth may be 
 
 To see that ensign fly ! " 
 
 Meanwhile the shapeless iron mass 
 Came moving o'er the wave, 
 
 As gloomy as a passing hearse, 
 As silent as the grave. 
 
 Her ports were closed ; from stem to 
 stern 
 No sign of life appeared : 
 We wondered, questioned, strained our 
 eyes, 
 Joked — everything, but feared. 
 
 She reached our range. Our broadside 
 ' rang; 
 
 Our heavy pivots roared ; 
 And shot and shell, a fire of hell. 
 
 Against her side we poured. 
 
 God's mercy ! from her sloping roof 
 
 The iron tempest glanced, 
 As hail bounds from a cottage-thatch, 
 
 And round her leaped and danced. 
 
 On, on, with fast increasing speed, 
 
 The silent monster came, 
 Though all our starboard battery 
 
 Was one long line of flame. 
 
 She heeded not; no guns she fired; 
 
 Straight on our bows she bore; 
 Through riving plank and crashing frame 
 
 Her furious way she tore. 
 
 Alas ! our beautiful, keen bow, 
 
 That in the fiercest blast 
 So gently folded back the seas, 
 
 They hardly felt we passed. 
 
 Alas ! alas ! my Cumberland, 
 That ne'er knew grief before, 
 
 To be so gored, to feel so deep 
 The tusk of that sea-boar. 
 
 Once more she backward drew apace; 
 
 Once more our side she rent, 
 Then, in the wantonness of hate, 
 
 Her broadside through us sent. 
 
 The dead and dying round us lay. 
 But our foemen lay abeam ; 
 
 Her open port-holes maddened us, 
 We fired with shout and scream. 
 
 We felt our vessel settling fast ; 
 
 We knew our time was brief; 
 "Ho ! man the pumps !" But they whc 
 worked 
 
 And fought not. wept with grief. 
 
 From captain down to powder-boy, 
 
 No hand was idle then: 
 Two soldiers, but by chance aboar \ 
 
 Fought on like sailor men. 
 
BUCHANAN AND WORDEN. 
 
 199 
 
 And when a gun's crew lost a hand, 
 Some bold marine stepped out, 
 
 And jerked his braided jacket off, 
 And hauled the gun about. 
 
 Our forward magazine was drowned, 
 
 And up from the sick bay- 
 Crawled out the wounded, red with blood, 
 
 And round us gasping lay; — 
 
 Yes, cheering, calling us by name, 
 Struggling with failing breath 
 
 To keep their shipmates at the post 
 Where glory strove with death. 
 
 With decks afloat and powder gone, 
 
 The last broadside we gave 
 From the guns' heated iron lips 
 
 Burst out beneath the wave. 
 
 "Up to the spar deck ! save yourselves !" 
 Cried Selfridge. "Up my men ! 
 
 God grant that some of us may live 
 To fight yon ship again ! " 
 
 We turned: we did not like to go; 
 
 Yet staying seemed but vain, 
 Knee-deep in water; so we left; 
 
 Some swore, some groaned with pain. 
 
 We reached the deck. There Randall 
 stood : 
 
 "Another turn, men — so ! " 
 Calmly he aimed his pivot gun : 
 
 " Now, Tenny, let her go ! " 
 
 It did our sore hearts good to hear 
 
 The song our pivot sang, 
 As rushing on from wave to wave 
 
 The whirring bomb-shell sprang. 
 
 Brave Randall leaped upon the gun, 
 And waved his cap in sport; 
 
 *' Well done ! well aimed ! I saw that 
 shell 
 Go through an open port ! " 
 
 It was our last, our deadliest shot ; 
 
 The deck was overflown ; 
 The poor ship staggered, lurched to 
 port, 
 
 And gave a living groan. 
 
 Down, down, as headlong through the 
 waves 
 
 Our gallant vessel rushed; 
 A thousand gurgling, watery sounds 
 
 Around my senses gushed. 
 
 Then I remember little more ; 
 
 One look to heaven I gave, 
 Where, like an angel's wing, I saw 
 
 Our spotless ensign wave. 
 
 I tried to cheer. I cannot say 
 
 Whether I swam or sank; 
 A blue mist closed around my eyes,. 
 
 And everything was blank. 
 
 When I awoke, a soldier lad, 
 
 All dripping from the sea, 
 With two great tears upon his cheeks, 
 
 Was bending over me. 
 
 I tried to speak. He understood 
 The wish I could not speak. 
 
 He turned me. There, thank God ! 
 the flag 
 Still fluttered at the peak ! 
 
 And there, while thread shall hang to 
 thread, 
 
 Oh, let that ensign fly ! 
 The noblest constellation set 
 
 Against the northern sky — 
 
 A sign that we who live may claim 
 
 The peerage of the brave; 
 A monument that needs no scroll, 
 
 For those beneath the wave. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 ADMIRAL DAVID G. FARRAGUT 
 
 HERO OF NFW ORLEANS AND MOBILE BAY — EN- 
 TRUSTED WITH A PRIZE VESSEL AT THE AGE OF 
 TWELVE — MADE A NAVAL COMMANDER — BRIL- 
 LIANT EXPLOITS AND SUPERB VICTORIES — HAND- 
 SOME PRESENT FROM THE CITIZENS OF NEW YORK. 
 
 In 1776, George Farragut, the father of the admiral, emigrated to 
 this country. He.was born in Minorca in 1755, and traced his lineage 
 through a long line of notable ancestors, back to Don Pedro Farragut, 
 who was in the service of James I, King of Aragon. He took an active 
 part in the Revolutionary War, and served the United States as " muster 
 master of the militia of the District of Washington (East Tennessee), 
 employed in actual service for the protection of the frontiers of the 
 United States south of the Ohio, from the 1st of March, 1792, to the 26th 
 of October, 1793." In 1810-11, he was sailing master of an expedition 
 to the Bay of Pascagoula, and afterwards became magistrate at Pasca- 
 goula. 
 
 He had five children — three sons and two daughters. Of the former, 
 David G. Farragut, was born at Campbell's Station, near Knoxville, 
 Tenn., on the 5th of July, 1801. From his earliest years, he was inured 
 to hardships and dangers by land and sea. His first experience on the 
 sea was extremely distasteful to him ; but hi* father, by constantly tak- 
 ing him out on the water in all sorts of weather, soon overcame his fears, 
 and a strong attachment to the sailors life replaced his first feeling of 
 distaste. When David was but a little over eight years of age, he was 
 adopted by Commodore Porter who had formed a warm friendship for 
 David's father, and was taken by the commodore to Washington, where 
 
 he was put to school. 
 200 
 
ADMIRAL DAVID G. FARRAGUT. 
 
 201 
 
 During his stay at Washington, he aroused the friendly interest of 
 Paul Hamilton, Secretary of the Navy, who assured him that on the 
 completion of his tenth year, he should receive a midshipman's warrant. 
 
 ADMIRAL DAVID G. FARRAGUT. 
 
 The boy then attended school at Chester, Pa., and on the 17th of December, 
 1810 — several months before the promised time — he received the appoint- 
 ment in the navy, and served in the following summer under Commodore 
 Porter, who commanded the Essex. David accompanied Porter on his 
 
 \ 
 
202 
 
 ADMIRAL DAVID G. FARRAGUT. 
 
 cruise to the West Indies in 1812, and throughout the war of that year 
 displayed a precocity that was remarkable. 
 
 He was but twelve years of age, but was entrusted with one of the 
 prize vessels captured by Commodore Porter ; and it is related of the 
 young prize master, that when the captain of the captured vessel flew 
 into a fury at his diminutive captor's orders, and rushed below to load 
 up his pistols, David, with a coolness of an old seaman, took complete 
 command of the crew, issued his orders promptly, and informed the 
 
 captain that if he came on deck with his 
 pistols he would be thrown overboard. 
 He took part in the bloody battle between 
 the Essex and the Phcebe and Cherub, 
 where he performed the duties of captain's 
 aide, quarter-gunner, powder boy, and in 
 fact everything that was required of him, 
 as he states in his journal. 
 
 On his return after the war, he 
 again attended school at Chester, Pa. 
 He sailed to the Mediterranean in 181 5 
 under Captain William M. Crane in the 
 Independence, again in 1816 on the 
 Macedonian, and a third time in 181 7 
 on which occasion he made a very extensive cruise, spending nine 
 months with the United States Consul at Tunis, studying languages 
 and mathematics. He made still another cruise in the Mediterranean 
 in 1819, this time as acting lieutenant on the Shark, and in the 
 following year sailed home to pass his examination. In May, 1822, 
 he was appointed to the sloop-of-war John Adams, carrying the United 
 States representatives to Mexico and Guatemala, and upon his return 
 joined the schooner Greyhound, of Commodore Porter's fleet, and assisted 
 in the expedition against the freebooters of the West Indies. 
 
 He was subsequently made executive officer of the flagship Seagull 
 of the same fleet, and remained in that position during a cruise amongst 
 
ADMIRAL DAVID G. FARRAGUT. 203 
 
 the riffs of the Gulf. In the year 1823, ne was married to Miss Susan 
 C. Marchant, and in July of that year was ordered to the command of the 
 Ferret, but during his voyage contracted the yellow fever and was taken 
 to Washington, where he was placed in the hospital until his recovery. 
 He received the commission of lieutenant and was assigned to the 
 Brandy wine in 1825, on which vessel he again cruised in the Mediter- 
 ranean, returning home in May 1826. From then until 1828, he re- 
 mained at Norfolk, Va., with the exception of the first four months after 
 his return, which were spent attending lectures at Yale College. Dur- 
 ing the next ten years, he was in command of various vessels, cruising 
 chiefly about the northern coasts of South America and in the Gulf; and 
 at the end of that time, he spent two years at home, taking care of his 
 invalid wife, who died in 1840 ; serving on court-martial, and learning 
 the trade of carpenter. From 1841-43, he was again cruising in South 
 American waters, and in December of the latter year he married Miss 
 Virginia Loyall, a very superior woman in character and cultivation. 
 
 COMMANDER IN THE MEXICAN WAR. 
 
 During the Mexican War, he obtained command of the Saratoga, 
 and sailed to Vera Cruz with the purpose of capturing the castle of San 
 Juan d'Ulloa, but found on his arrival that the castle had just sur- 
 rendered to the land forces. On his return in 1848, he was appointed to 
 the Norfolk Navy Yard, and in 1850 was engaged at Washington in com- 
 piling a book of ordnance regulations for the navy — a work which 
 occupied him about a year and a half, at the end of which he returned 
 to Norfolk. 
 
 From 1854 until 1858, he was establishing a navy yard on Mare 
 Island, in the bay of San Francisco ; and in July, 1858, he commanded 
 the Brooklyn, conveying the United States Minister R. M. McLane to 
 Vera Cruz, Mexico. During the latter part of i860 and the beginning 
 of 1861, Farragut was at Norfolk ; but, as the symptoms of war grew 
 more pronounced, he was notified that his free expression of Northern 
 sentiments was distasteful. He therefore moved to Baltimore with his 
 
204 ADMIRAL DAVID G. FARRAGUT. 
 
 family, and later to Hastings-on-the-Hudson, where he remained nearly 
 
 a year. 
 
 In December, 1861, he was suddenly ordered to Washington to join 
 
 an expedition against New Orleans, and was placed in command of the 
 
 i steam sloop-of-war Hartford. His orders were "to collect such vessels 
 
 as can be spared from the blockade, and proceed up the Mississippi River 
 
 and reduce the defenses which guard the approaches to New Orleans, 
 
 when you will appear off that city and take possession of it under the 
 
 guns of your squadron." In the expedition an army of 15,000 men, 
 
 commanded by General Benjamin F. Butler, constituted the land force, 
 
 Farragut's fleet consisted of " six sloops-of-war, sixteen gunboats, 
 
 twenty-one mortar schooners and five other vessels — carrying in all over 
 
 200 guns. 
 
 MASTER OF DETAILS OF SEAMANSHIP. 
 
 From the 18th of April the advance began. Farragut was a perfect 
 master of all the details of seamship, and it was with extreme caution at 
 every step, and with the exercise of the most consummate skill and 
 bravery, that he successfully passed the Confederate obstructions — com- 
 pletely destroying the Confederate fleet sailing close to the forts (Jackson 
 and St. Philip) on either bank of the river and silencing their guns by 
 sweeping broadsides, until at length, on the 25th of April, the City of 
 New Orleans was at his mercy — he having lost during the expedition 
 37 men and one vessel. The forts surrendered to Commodore Porter on 
 April 28. It was Farragut's wish immediately afterwards to capture 
 Mobile, but he was retained in the Mississippi for the purpose of effect- 
 ing an opening throughout the whole length of the river. On July 16, 
 he received the commission of rear-admiral. 
 
 In the spring of 1863, ne assisted General N. P. Banks in the siege 
 of Port Hudson, blockading the mouth of the Red River and remaining 
 there until the surrender of Port Hudson on July 8. He then sailed to 
 New York in the Hartford, and was received at that place with great 
 public enthusiasm. His vessel was found, on examination, to have 
 received 240 shots during her service of the past nineteen months. 
 
ADMIRAL DAVID G. FARRAGUT. 
 
 205 
 
 In 1864, he was again at the Gulf, awaiting an opportunity for an 
 attack 011 Mo- 
 bile. Later he 
 was reinforced 
 by several 
 iron-clads and 
 troops under 
 General Gor- 
 don Granger. 
 On August 
 5th the attack 
 began, and 
 was conduct- 
 ed with even 
 greater care 
 than the ad- 
 vance on New 
 Orleans. It 
 was Farra- 
 gut's habit to 
 issue the most 
 minute in- 
 true t ions to 
 cover every 
 possible con- 
 tingency, and 
 in this en- 
 gagement he 
 surveyed the 
 whole field of 
 action from a 
 
 position in the map showing city of mobile and its defences. 
 
 port main rigging of the Hartford, which led the fleet into the bay 
 
206 ADMIRAL DAVID G. FARRAGUT. 
 
 The Confederate fleet was compelled to surrender after a terrible loss of 
 life on both sides. 
 
 The National fleet lost 335 men, the Confederate fleet losing only a 
 few, many more having been killed in the forts ; 280 Confederate pris- 
 oners were taken, and a few days later the forts surrendered. At the 
 close of this bloody fight the quartermaster said that the admiral came 
 on deck at the time that the bodies of the killed were laid out, and, he 
 adds, "It was the only time I ever saw the old gentleman cry ; but tears 
 came in his eyes like a little child." 
 
 SPLENDID PUBLIC RECEPTION. 
 
 Farragut's health gave way in November, and, returning home, he 
 reached New York on December 12, where another public reception was 
 given him, and he* was presented with a purse of $50,000 to purchase a 
 New York home. On July 6, 1865, he was tendered a complimentary 
 dinner by the Union Club of Boston, on which occasion Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes read a poem composed in honor of the admiral. 
 
 In July of the following year Congress created the grade of admiral 
 and assigned it to Farragut, who assumed command of the Franklin 
 and cruised for some time in European waters, during which he visited 
 Minorca, the home of his ancestors. He returned and visited California 
 in 1869. The following summer he spent at the house of Rear-admiral 
 Pennock, in Portsmouth, N. H. One day he stepped aboard a dismantled 
 sloop-of-war in the harbor, and, after a short visit, almost pathetic in its 
 suggestion of former days, he went on shore, remarking sadly: " That is 
 the last time I shall ever tread the deck of a man-of-war." His words 
 proved prophetic indeed; for on August 14, 1870, his spirit passed away. 
 
 Farragut was a skilled and heroic commander, a thorough and cultured 
 scholar, and a Christian man whose character was notably honest and 
 pure. We append the last lines of the tribute of Dr. Holmes : 
 " I give the name that fits him best — 
 
 Ay, better than his own — 
 The Sea-king of the Sovereign West, 
 Who made his mast a throne." " 
 
COMMANDER WM. B. CUSHING. 
 
 HERO OF A DARING DEED — DESTRUCTION 
 OF THE IRONCLAD ALBEMARLE — IN THE 
 JAWS OF DEATH — WORLD-RENOWNED AT 
 THE AGE OF THIRTY — AN UNRIVALLED 
 CAREER IN THE NAVAL SERVICE. 
 
 " No man in our navy," says J. T. 
 Headley, " at his age has ever won so brilliant a reputation." This 
 was said of Commander William B. Cushing, a brave naval officer, born 
 in Wisconsin, about 1842. 
 
 During our Civil War the sounds and waters of North Carolina 
 were early the scenes of important enterprises by the combined army 
 and navy of the United States. The Hatteras forts, Roanoke Island, 
 Newberne, Plymouth and other places were early captured, some of them 
 after regular actions. A position was gained from which the important 
 inland communication was threatened, which was vital to the Confed- 
 eracy, while the commerce of the sound was, for the time beiug, entirely 
 destroyed. It was important for them to regain what they had lost, and 
 to this end they put forth every effort. Among other means they com- 
 menced and hastened to completion a formidable ironclad vessel. 
 
 In June, 1863, Lieutenant-Commander C. W. Flusser, an excellent 
 and throughly reliable officer, had reported that a battery was building 
 at Edward's Ferry, near Weldon, on the Roanoke River, to be cased with 
 pine sills, fourteen inches square, and plated with railroad iron. The 
 slanting roof was to be made of five inches of pine, five inches of oak, 
 and railroad iron over that. 
 
 Unfortunately, the light draught iron-clads, which would have been 
 
 207 
 
208 COMMANDER WILLIAM B. CUSHING. 
 
 on hand to meet this vessel, turned ont failures, and the light wooden 
 gun-boats and « double enders" employed in the ^.^^^ 
 her She was aceompanied by a ram, which the Unrou fleet had no 
 vessel fit to meet. In April, 1864, the Albemarle being completed, the 
 Confederates were ready to carry out their plan of attack, winch was the 
 first to recapture Plymouth, by the assistance of the ram, and then 
 
 IRON-CLAD GUNBOAT. 
 
 send her into Albemarle Sound to capture or disperse our fleet. A fore, 
 of ten thousand men, which they had collected, made an advance and 
 
 gained possession of the town. 
 
 Lieutenant-Commander Flusser was then at Plymonth with foui 
 vessels, the Miami, " a double ender," and three ferry-boats, armed 
 with nine-inch guns, and exceedingly frail in structure, called the South- 
 field Ceres and Whitehead. At half-past nine, on the evening of Apnl 
 x8th he wrote to Admiral Lee that there had been fighting there a. 
 
COMMANDER WILLIAM B. CUSHING. 201) 
 
 day, and he feared the enemy had. had the best of it. " The ram will be 
 down to-night or to-morrow. I shall have to abandon my plan of fighting 
 the ram lashed to the Sonthfield. I think I have force enough to whip 
 the ram, but not sufficient to assist in holding the town, as I should 
 like." Six hours after writing this, Flusser lay dead upon the deck of 
 his ship. Very early on the morning of the 19th of April the White- 
 head, which had been stationed up the river, reported that the ram was 
 coining down and evidently meant business. 
 
 EAGER TO JOIN IN BATTLE. 
 
 The Whitehead was in a critical position when she discovered the 
 ram, for she was between her and a southern battery. Some obstruc- 
 tions had been placed to stop the Albemarle, but she passed them easily. 
 A narrow passage or " thoroughfare " led down to Plymouth beside the 
 main channel, and the Whitehead managed to run into this, unperceived 
 by the ram, and so got down ahead of the Confederate vessel, which did 
 not attack until half-past three in the morning. When the ironclad was 
 seen coming down, the Miami and Southfield were lashed together, and 
 Flusser, from the Miami, ordered them to meet her at full speed. 
 
 The Albemarle came on silently, with closed ports, and struck the 
 Miami a glancing blow on her port bow, doing some damage but causing 
 no leak. She then crushed the side of the Southfield, so that she at 
 once began to sink. As she passed between the two vessels, the forward 
 lashings parted and the Miami swung around. The after lashings were 
 cut, and, after a number of the Southfield's men had succeeded in reach- 
 ing the Miami that vessel steamed off down the river, leaving her 
 consort to sink. The officer left in command by Flusser' s death thus 
 speaks of this unfortuate affair: 
 
 " As soon as the battery could be brought to bear upon the ram, 
 
 both steamers, the Southfield and Miami, commenced firing solid shot 
 
 from the one-hundred-pound Parrot rifles and eleven-inch Dahlgren guns, 
 
 they making no perceptible indentations in her armor. Commander 
 
 Flusser fired the first three shots from the Miami personally, the third 
 14 
 
210 COMMANDER WILLIAM B. CUSHING. 
 
 being a ten-second Dahlgren shell, eleven-inch. It was directly after 
 that fire that he was killed by pieces of shell ; several of the gnnboat's 
 crew were wonnded at the same time. 
 
 " Onr bow hawser being stranded, the Miami then swnng round to 
 starboard, giving the ram a chance to pierce ns. Necessity then required 
 the engine to be reversed in motion, to straighten the vessel in the 
 river, to prevent going on the bank of the river, and to bring the rifle- 
 gnn to bear upon the ram. During the time of straightening the 
 steamer the ram had also straightened, and was making for us. From 
 the fatal effects of her prow upon the Southfield, and of our sustaining 
 injury, I deemed it useless to sacrifice the Miami in the same way." 
 
 The gunboats being driven off, the Confederates captured Plymouth 
 on April 20th. As it was expected that the Albemarle would at once 
 enter the Sound, and attack the squadron there, all possible preparations 
 were made to meet her and give her a warm reception. 
 
 DIRECTIONS GIVEN FOR THE COMBAT. 
 
 Four of the squadron were " double enders," the Miami, Matta- 
 besett, Sassacus and Wyalusing. The smaller vessels were the Ceres, 
 Commodore Hull, Seymour and Whitehead. They were all armed with 
 9-inch guns and 100-pound rifles. The senior officer in the sounds, Cap- 
 tain M. Smith, ordered the large vessels to pass as close as possible to 
 the ram, delivering their fire, and rounding to immediately for a second 
 discharge. He also suggested the vulnerable points of the ram, and 
 recommended that an endeavor be made to foul her propeller, if possible. 
 
 He also directed, among other things, that a blow of the ram should 
 be received as near the stern as possible, and the vessel rammed was to 
 go ahead fast, to prevent her from withdrawing it, while the others 
 attacked the propeller. If armed launches accompanied the ram they 
 were to be met by the smaller vessels, with shrapnel, when approaching, 
 and hand grenades when near. He leaves the question of ramming to 
 each commander, on account of the peculiar construction of the " double- 
 enders." 
 
COMMANDER WILLIAM B. CUSHING. 211 
 
 Small steamers were placed on picket, at the mouth of the Roanoke, 
 and on the 5th of May the ram made its appearance, and chased the 
 picket boats in. Signals were made, and the vessels got under way, and 
 stood up to engage the ironclad. The Albemarle was accompanied by a 
 small steamer which she had captured not long before. At about half- 
 past four in the afternoon the Albemarle opened the battle by a shot 
 which destroyed a boat and wounded several men on board the Mattabe- 
 sett. The second shot damaged the same vessel's rigging. By this time 
 the Mattabesett was very near the little steamer, which immediately 
 surrendered. 
 
 The Mattabesett then gave the ram a broadside, at about one hun- 
 dred and fifty yards, then rounded to under her stern, and came up on 
 the other side. Her shot either broke, or glanced off the ram's armor, 
 without any effect. She had the muzzle knocked off of one of her two 
 guns, by a shot from the ram, but continued to use it during the 
 remainder of the action. The Sassacus came gallantly on, in like manner, 
 delivering her fire at the Albemarle. The latter then attempted to ram 
 the Sassacus, but the latter crossed her bows, by superior speed. 
 
 SHOT THAT WENT CLEAR THROUGH. 
 
 At this time the ram had partially turned, and exposed her side to 
 the Sassacus, when the wooden double-ender rushed at her, under full 
 steam, in hope of either crushing in her side, or of bearing her 
 down until she should sink. The Sassacus struck the ironclad fairly, 
 and received, at the same moment, a 100-pounder rifle shot, which went 
 through and through her. She struck the Albemarle a heavy blow, 
 careening her, and bearing her down till the water washed across her 
 deck. 
 
 The Sassacus kept her engines going, in the attempt to push the ram 
 down, while many efforts were made to throw hand grenades down her 
 deck hatch, and powder down her smoke stack, but without success, as 
 there was a cap upon the stack. 
 
 Soon the ram swung round, and as soon as her guns would bear 
 
212 COMMANDER WILLIAM B. CUSHING. 
 
 another ioopound rifle shot went through the side of the Sassacus, 
 through her coal bunker, and crashed into her starboard boiler. 
 Instantly the whole ship was filled with steam, which scalded and suffo- 
 cated her crew. All her firemen were scalded, and one was killed; 
 and twenty-one men were instantly placed hors de combat. She was 
 forced to withdraw from action. 
 
 The other gunboats continued the fight, and the Miami endeavored 
 to explode against the ram a torpedo which she carried. But the Albe- 
 marle was skilfully handled, and succeeded, each time, in avoiding the 
 blow. Two of the other gunboats endeavored to foul the propeller of the 
 ram by laying out seiner in her track. Although the nets seemed all about 
 her, she escaped them. An observer from the shore has likened this 
 curious scene to a number of wasps attacking a large horny beetle. In 
 fine, the Albemarle proved invulnerable to the guns of the gunboats, 
 even when discharged almost in contact with her sides. 
 
 CAME OFF BEST IN DESPERATE ENCOUNTER. 
 
 The action lasted for three hours, or until night came on. Every- 
 thing that brave men could do to destroy the enemy it was their duty to 
 encounter, was done by the gunboats, but the ironclad went back to 
 Plymouth without serious damage, and without the loss of a man, after 
 being the target, at short range, for more than two hundred shot from 
 ii-inch and 9-inch guns, and more than one hundred shot from 100- 
 pounder rifles. 
 
 The gunboats, other than the Sassacus, were very much damaged, 
 and it was plain that they were unfit to meet the Albemarle, however 
 ably handled or gallantly fought. The ram came out again on the 24th 
 of May, but did not enter the Sound, apparently fearing torpedoes. The 
 next day a party left the Wyalusing in a boat, with two torpedoes, to 
 endeavor to destroy the Albemarle, as she lay at Plymouth. 
 
 They carried the torpedoes across the swamps on a stretcher, and then 
 two of the party swam across the river with a line, and hauled the tor- 
 pedoes over to the Plymouth shore. These were then connected by a bridle, 
 
COMMANDER WILLIAM B. CUSHING. 218 
 
 so tli at they should float down and strike on each side of the ram's bows. 
 Unfortunately, they were discovered, and the plan failed. 
 
 Lines of torpedoes were then placed at the mouth of the Roanoke, 
 to destroy the ram if she should come down again, and as this proceed- 
 ing could not be kept secret, the ironclad did not again venture down. 
 She lay quietly at Plymouth until the latter part of October, a constant 
 threat to our fleet in the sounds, and preventing any attempt to recapture 
 the town. She was very securely moored to a wharf, and a guard of 
 soldiers was placed on board, in addition to her crew. 
 
 MONSTER ANCHORED AND GUARDED. 
 
 Every night fires were made on shore, to prevent the approach of an 
 enemy unseen. More than this, she was surrounded by large logs, 
 moored some thirty feet from her hull, all round, to keep off any boat 
 which might approach with a torpedo. From the mouth of the Roanoke 
 to where the Albemarle lay is about eight miles, and the stream there 
 about two hundred yards wide. 
 
 The banks were well picketed by the enemy. About a mile below 
 Plymouth was the sunken wreck of the Southfield, and about her were 
 some schooners, which also formed a picket station in mid-stream. It 
 seemed impossible for a boat to get up the river and not be discovered, 
 and yet Lieutenant William B. Cushing, of the United States Navy, not 
 only undertook to do so, but succeeded in destroying this formidable craft, 
 "the terror of the sounds." 
 
 x\dmiral Ainmen, of the Navy, has given a capital sketch of Cushing, 
 in the "United Service Magazine," from which we shall borrow freely: 
 
 "William B. Cushing was born in Wisconsin, in November, 1842, 
 and entered the Naval Academy in 1857, Dut resigned in March, 1861, 
 entering the naval service afloat, as an Acting Master's Mate. His dis- 
 position and temperament would not permit him to remain at a naval 
 school in time of war, as he would not have been able to give a single 
 thought to theoretical study. 
 
 "In October, 1861, he was restored to his rank as Midshipman, and 
 
214 COMMANDER WIL.UAM 15. CUSHING. 
 
 on the 16th of July following lie was, with many other young officers, 
 made a Lieutenant, owing to the exigencies of the service growing out 
 of the civil war. Henceforth, for nearly three years, his career was sin- 
 gularly conspicuous in deeds of daring, in a service where a lack of 
 gallantry would have brought disgrace. It is plain, therefore, that it 
 was the sagacity of his plans and his boldness in carrying them out the 
 distinguished him. 
 
 " At the close of the war he was barely twenty-two and a half years 
 of age, rather slightly built, about five feet in height, and boyish looking. 
 He had large gray eyes, a prominent aquiline nose, yellowish hair, worn 
 quite long, and withal, a rather grave expression of countenance. When 
 speaking, his face would light up with a bright and playful smile. A 
 comrade likened his springy, elastic step, high cheek bones and general 
 physiognomy to that of an Indian. The first impression of a stranger 
 who heard him speak, either of what he had done or hoped to do, would 
 be that he was a boaster — but with those who knew him best there was 
 no such idea ; his form of speech was a mere expression, frankly uttered, 
 of what he had done, or what he intended to do." 
 
 A SIMPLE AND UNASSUMING MANNER. 
 
 The foregoing is Admiral Ammen's estimate of the man. To some 
 of it the writer must dissent. He accompanied Cushing on a short jour- 
 ney soon after the Albemarle affair, while the country was still ringing 
 with his brilliant exploit, and when steamboats, railroads and hotels were 
 refusing to accept any money from either him or his chance companions ; 
 and all sorts and conditions of men were being introduced to him, to have 
 the honor of shaking his hand ; and yet a more simple, boy-like, unas- 
 suming manner no one placed in such a position ever had. 
 
 He early received command of a small steamer, engaged in block- 
 ading, and would make expeditions in the inland waters in his boat, 
 sometimes lying concealed all day, but always having some definite ob- 
 ject commensurate with the risks involved. He more than once obtained 
 important information in this way. 
 
COMMANDER WILLIAM B. CUSHING. 215 
 
 Not only did he have frequent engagements in his little vessel with 
 field batteries of the enemy, but was successful in destroying schooners 
 with supplies, saltworks and other things which tended to cripple his 
 enemy. 
 
 In the winter of 1864, when blockading the Cape Fear River, Cush- 
 ing determined to pay a visit to Smithville in a boat, with only six men. 
 In entering the river, he had to pass Fort Caswell, and at Smithville, 
 two miles above, he knew there was a battery of five guns, and a consid- 
 erable garrison. About eleven o'clock at night he landed, one hundred 
 yards above the battery, came into the village, and into a large house with 
 1 piazza, which was the headquarters of General Hebert. 
 
 BOLD ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE A GENERAL. 
 
 A major and captain of the general's staff were about going to bed, 
 in. a room on the piazza, when, hearing footsteps, and supposing his 
 servant was there, the major threw up a window, and a navy revolver was 
 at once thrust in his face, with a demand for surrender. He pushed the 
 pistol aside, and escaped through the back door, calling to his compan- 
 ion to follow as the enemy were upon them. The latter failed to under- 
 stand and was taken prisoner by Cushing and carried off. He pushed off 
 down the river, knowing that an immediate alarm would be given. It 
 was a beautiful moonlight night, but Cushing escaped unharmed. 
 
 This audacious effort to capture General Hebert was characteristic 
 of Cushing, and was only frustrated by the fact that the general happened 
 to spend the night in Wilmington instead of his own quarters. 
 
 At the capture of Newbern, Cushing distinguished himself in com- 
 mand of a battery of navy howitzers. In landing in the marsh, Cushing 
 had lost his shoes, and, while pressing on, he encountered the servant of 
 a Captain Johnson, of the army, who had a pair of spare boots slung over 
 his shoulder. Cushing asked who was the owner of the boots, and 
 said: u Tell the captain that Lieutenant Cushing, of the Navy, was bare- 
 footed, and has borrowed them for the day," and then put on the boots 
 in haste, and pursued his way to the fight. 
 
216 COMMANDER WILLIAM B. CUSHING. 
 
 In the destruction of the Albemarle we see Cnshing in another, and 
 a truly heroic light. The newspaper correspondents had managed to 
 make his task as difficult as possible, for they had, for several weeks, 
 apprised the public, and of course the enemy, that Cushing was on his wa} 
 from the North with a torpedo boat, to blow up the Albemarle. No method 
 could have been taken to render the enemy more watchful, and the 
 destruction of the ironclad impossible. 
 
 We have already spoken of the " cordon" of logs enclosing her as 
 in a pen ; the extra guards and fires, the howitzers ready loaded, and the 
 pickets down the river. The enemy was very vigilant, and Cushing's 
 approach was discovered. Yet we find him perfectly cool amidst a heavy 
 fire from small arms and howitzers, standing forward in his launch, 
 pushing his way at full speed over the logs, and only intent upon lower- 
 ing his torpedo and striking the enemy's vessel at the proper time. He 
 did this most effectually, but, at the very moment of doing so, a shell 
 from one of the heavy guns of the Albemarle struck the torpedo boat, 
 and she went down, swamped by the column of water and spray which 
 rose high in the air when the torpedo exploded. 
 
 CUSHING'S REPORT OF HIS FAMOUS EXPLOIT. 
 
 Nothing could be more graphic or characteristic than Cushing's 
 report of the affair, as follows : 
 
 "Albemarle Sound, N. C, 
 
 "October 30, 1864. 
 
 " Sir : — I have the honor to report that the ironclad Albemarle is 
 at the bottom of the Roanoke River. On the night of the 27th, having 
 prepared my steam launch, I proceeded up towards Plymouth with thir- 
 teen officers and men, partly volunteers from the squadron. The dis- 
 tance from the mouth of the river to the ram was about eight miles, the 
 stream averaging in width some two hundred yards, and lined with the 
 enemy's pickets. 
 
 " A mile below the town was the wreck of the Southfield, surrounded 
 by some schooners, and it was understood that a gun was mounted there 
 to command the bend. I therefore took one of the Shamrock's cutters 
 
COMMANDER WILLIAM B. CUSHING. 217 
 
 in tow, with orders to cast off and board at that point, if we were 
 hailed. 
 
 ki Our boat succeeded in passing the pickets, and even the Southfield, 
 within twenty yards, without disco veiy, and we were not hailed until by 
 the lookouts on the ram. The cutter was then cast off, and ordered 
 below, while we made for our enemy under a full head of steam. The 
 Confederates sprung their rattle, rang the bell, and commenced firing, 
 at the same time repeating their hail, and seeming much confused. 
 
 " The light of a fire ashore showed me the ironclad made fast to 
 the wharf, with a pen of logs around her, about thirty feet from her side. 
 
 "Passing her closely, we made a complete circle, so as to strike her 
 fairly, and went into her, bows on. By this time the enemy's fire was 
 very severe, but a dose of canister, at short range, served to moderate 
 their zeal and disturb their aim, much to our advantage. 
 
 AIR THICK WITH BULLETS. 
 
 "Paymaster Swan, of the Otsego, was wounded near me, but how 
 many more I know not. Three bullets struck my clothing, and the air 
 seemed full of them. In a moment we had struck the logs just abreast 
 of the quarter port, breasting them in some feet, and our bows resting 
 on them. The torpedo boom was then lowered, and by a vigorous pull 
 I succeeded in diving the torpedo under the overhang and exploding it 
 at the same time that the Albemarle's gun was fired. A shot seemed to 
 go crashing through my boat, and a dense mass of water rushed in from 
 the torpedo, filling the launch, and completely disabling her. 
 
 " The enemy then continued his fire at fifteen feet short range, and 
 demanded our surrender, which I twice refused, ordering the men to 
 save themselves, and, removing my own coat and shoes, springing into 
 the river, I swam with others into the middle of the stream, the Con- 
 federates failing to hit us. The most of our party were captured, some 
 were drowned, and only one escaped besides myself, and he in another 
 direction. Acting Master's Mate Woodman, of the Commodore Hull, 
 I met in the water half a mile below the town, and assisted him as best 
 I could, but failed to get him ashore. 
 
 "Completely exhausted, I managed to reach the shore, but was too 
 weak to crawl out of the water until just at daylight, when I managed 
 to creep into the swamp close to the fort. While hiding, a few feet from 
 
218 COMMANDER WILLIAM B. CUSHING. 
 
 the path, two of the Albemarle's officers passed, and I judged, from 
 their conversation, that the ship was destroyed. 
 
 " Some hours' travelling in the swamp served to bring me out well 
 below the town, when I sent a negro in to gain information, and found 
 that the ram was truly sunk. Proceeding to another swamp I came to 
 a creek, and captured a skiff belonging to a picket of the enemy, and 
 with this, by eleven o'clock the next night, had made my way out to the 
 Valley City. 
 
 CONSPICUOUS BRAVERY OF A NAVAL OFFICER. 
 
 " Acting Master's Mate William L. Howarth, of the Monticello, 
 showed, as usual, conspicuous bravery. He is the same officer who has 
 been with me twice in Wilmington harbor. I trust he may be promoted 
 when exchanged, as well as Acting Third Assistant Engineer Stotes- 
 bury, who, being for the first time under fire, handled his engine 
 promptly and with coolness. 
 
 " All the officers and men behaved in the most gallant manner. I 
 will furnish their names to the Department as soon as they can be 
 procured. 
 
 " The cutter of the Shamrock boarded the Southfield, but found no 
 gun. Four prisoners were taken there. The ram is now completely 
 submerged, and the enemy have sunk three schooners in the river to 
 obstruct the passage of our ships. I desire to call the attention of the 
 Admiral and Department to the spirit manifested by the sailors on the 
 ships in these sounds. But few men were wanted, but all hands were 
 eager to go into action, many offering their chosen shipmates a month's 
 pay to resign in their favor. 
 
 " I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 "W. B. CUSHING, 
 
 "Lieutenant, U.S.N; " 
 " Rear- Admiral D. D. Porter, 
 
 "Commanding N. A. Squadron : 
 
 " The name of the man who escaped is William Hoftman, seaman 
 on the Chicopee. He did his duty well, and deserves a medal of 
 honor, 
 
 " Respectfully, 
 
 "W. B. CUSHING, U. S. N." 
 
COMMANDER WILLIAM B. CUSHING. 219 
 
 dishing, for this daring piece of service, was himself advanced to 
 the rank of lieutenant-commander. 
 
 Such men are never mere imitators, and his unvarying success in 
 whatever he undertook was due to his clever planning and admirable 
 execution. Attempts by those of inferior qualities in such respects would 
 end in their capture or death. 
 
 PROMOTED FOR HIS GALLANT CONDUCT. 
 
 After the close of the war he was for some two years executive officer 
 of the Lancaster, a position which required close attention and study to 
 fulfill its duties in the best manner. 
 
 Afterwards he served three years in command of the Maumee, on the 
 Asiatic station. He was promoted, in the regular order of vacancies, to 
 commander, January 31, 1872, and soon after was ordered to the com- 
 mand of the Wyoming, on the home station, and was relieved at the end 
 of a year, the vessel being put out of commission. 
 
 In the spring of 1874 he was ordered to the Washington Navy Yard, 
 and the following August was detached at his own request. He then 
 seemed in impaired health and expressed a desire to go South ; after the 
 lapse of a few days he showed signs of insanity, and was removed to the 
 Government Hospital, where he died, December 17, 1874, at the age of 
 thirty-two years and thirteen days. 
 
 His becoming insane was a great regret and surprise to his many 
 friends and admirers, in and out of the naval service ; it was, however, a 
 consolation for them to know that it was not the result of bad habits or 
 of causes within his control. His misfortune, and that of the naval ser- 
 vice to which he belonged, was seemingly a lack of rigid early training, 
 necessary to healthful thought in ordinary times, and to a continued 
 development of those points in naval education which are so useful in 
 peace and so essential to success in the higher grades. 
 
 There are few Cushings in the histories of navies ; they can have no 
 successful imitators ; they pass away, as it were, before they reach their 
 destined goal, regretted and admired. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ADMIRAL GEORGE DEWEY. 
 
 HERO OF MANILA — INCIDENTS OF HIS EARLY LIFE — 
 TRAINING UNDER FARRAGUT — GREAT VICTORY 
 OVER THE SPANISH FLEET — MAGNIFICENT WEL- 
 COME ON HIS RETURN FROM THE PHILIPPINES. 
 
 On May ist, •1898, our country was thrilled by the news of a great 
 naval victory over the Spanish fleet in Manila harbor. The commander 
 of our Asiatic squadron received orders to destroy or capture the 
 Spanish ships. How triumphantly he performed his task is known to 
 the whole world. 
 
 Personal interest, of a very pronounced and specially gratifying 
 kind, naturally centred in the hero of this signally successful expedi- 
 tion. Its leader was Commodore George Dewey, commanding the 
 United States Asiatic squadron (flagship, the protected cruiser Olympia 
 — Captain C. V. Gridley). Commodore Dewey comes of the best New 
 England stock. His father was Dr. Julius Y. Dewey, of Montpelier, 
 Vermont, a man held in high esteem in the community in which he 
 dwelt. The Deweys, indeed, are the leading people of their native town, 
 and few public movements affecting the welfare of the village are under- 
 taken without consulting the family. George Dewey was born at Mont- 
 pelier, Vt, December 26, 1837. 
 
 For a time he attended the public school in the village, after which 
 
 he took a preparatory course in the military school at Northfield, in his 
 
 native State. At this period he formed the determination to enter the 
 
 United States Navy, but the design did not at first meet the approval of 
 
 his father. The latter, indeed, endeavored to dissuade the lad from his 
 220 
 
ADMIRAL GEORGE DEWEY. 22i 
 
 purpose, for the elder Dewey had no liking for the roving and uncertain 
 life of a sailor, and deemed the influences of a seafaring career unsuited 
 to the higher development of his son's character. He desired the youth 
 to take up a profession, and to be content with such a career as he might 
 achieve by the steady pursuit of some home vocation. The son's 
 wishes finally prevailed, however, and his father procured his admis- 
 sion to the naval academy at Annapolis, which he entered at the age 
 cf seventeen. 
 
 By the older people of Montpelier, George Dewey is remembered as 
 a bright but reckless, harum-scarum lad. There was nothing too hazard- 
 ous for him to undertake. While a pupil at the district school of Mont- 
 pelier, young Dewey was mixed up in a schoolboy's plot which earned 
 him a good thrashing, which he probably remembers to this day. The 
 flogging was administered by Major Pangborn, the village dominie, for- 
 merly editor of the Jersey City Journal. Prior to the coming of Major 
 Pangborn as head of the school, the boys had coerced several masters. 
 
 DECIDED TO MASTER NEW TEACHER. 
 
 Soon after the new incumbent was installed it was decided by the 
 boys that his mettle should be tried. Young Dewey was chosen by his 
 comrades to make the test. By misplaced confidence, or by the treachery 
 of some one engaged in the plot, the Major heard of it, and Dewey was 
 called from his seat one day during a session of the school. He, how- 
 ever, refused to respond to the call, and the other bo}^s chuckled and 
 awaited events. They had not long to wait, for Master Pangborn walked 
 quietly down to where Dewey was seated, and, with the grasp of a Her- 
 cules, took the lad by the collar, and, lifting him from his seat, marched 
 him up to the master's desk. At this dread tribunal he was accused of 
 being the leader in the plot, and was interrogated as to his accomplices. 
 He however refused to divulge their names, and was also secretive in 
 regard to his own plans. The dominie, thereupon, administered a sound 
 thrashing, after which, so the story goes, young Dewey was escorted 
 home, where he was put to bed and kept there for several days as a 
 
mm 
 
 1. YOUNG DEWEY IN THE APPLE TREE. 2. DEWEY AND HIS SISTER 
 GIVING A THEATRICAL ENTERTAINMENT IN THE BARN. 3. HIS 
 FIRST VOYAGE. 4. CHASTISED BY HIS SCHOOLMASTER. 
 222 
 
ADMIRAL GEORGE DEWEY. 223 
 
 further punishment and atonement. The episode serves to illustrate 
 the quality of courage and determination in the lad, inasmuch as the 
 rigor and severity of the punishment for misdemeanors in the district 
 schools of those days were no light things to brave. 
 
 It denoted a rather rare quality in a youth to undertake, as Dewey 
 undertook, the leadership of such a plot, and the lad bore an enviable 
 record for such enterprises in his youth among his schoolmates and 
 friends. He was, however, too big-hearted to harbor resentment against 
 the schoolmaster, and afterwards, it is related, there grew up between 
 pupil and pedagogue the most friendly feeling and attachment. 
 
 ANECDOTES OF YOUNG DEWEY, 
 
 It is related that the first time Major Pangborn saw young Dewey 
 he was in an apple tree bent as usual on mischief. Another story told of 
 him relates to his having gotten up a theatrical performance in the barn, 
 with his sister as the star performer. On one occasion she was ill and 
 forgot her part. " Make it up then as you go along," said the young show- 
 man, "the performance must go on." Still another story is told of his 
 venturesome passage with a horse and wagon across a deep creek, when 
 his clothing was well soaked and he came near drowning. These 
 anecdotes show the spirited nature of the boy. 
 
 Four years after entering the naval academy at Annapolis, the 
 future admiral was graduated in the class of 1858, which included not 
 a few youths who have since distinguished themselves in the country's 
 naval service. As a midshipman, he was dispatched on a practice cruise 
 on the Wabash, and on board of her he spent two years in the Mediter- 
 ranean, doing duty on the European station. After his return to America, 
 he took a brief furlough at home, and in i860 returned to Annapolis to 
 be examined for a commission. His standing in the examination, 
 together with his creditable record on graduating, earned him the rating 
 of third in his class. 
 
 On the breaking out of the civil war, Dewey received his commission 
 as a lieutenant, and joined the Gulf squadron, under the pennant of 
 
224 
 
 ADMIRAL GEORGE DEWEY. 
 
 Admiral Farragut. Dewey was assigned to the Mississippi, a seventeen- 
 gun steam sloop of the old side-wheel type, under Commander Melanch- 
 thon Smith. Dewey's war record dates from the firing on Fort Sumter, 
 in 1 86 1. His first serious taste of war was when the West Gulf squad- 
 ron forced a passage up 
 the Mississippi River 
 ahead of Farragut. 
 How exciting this ex- 
 pedition was at times 
 may be judged from 
 the fact that in pass- 
 ing the batteries of St. 
 Philip the ship was so 
 near the shore that the 
 gunners aboard her 
 and the Confederate 
 artillerymen in the for- 
 tifications exchanged 
 oaths as they dis- 
 charged their volleys 
 at each other. 
 
 Dewey did splendid 
 service with the West 
 Gulf squadron, and 
 may be said to have 
 received his first real 
 " baptism of fire," when 
 Farragut ran the 
 gauntlet from the forts below New Orleans, and forced the surrender 
 of that stronghold. A later enterprise on the same river resulted 
 in the grounding of the Mississippi in the middle of the night oppo- 
 site port Hudson, where she was riddled with shot and set afire by 
 the enemy's batteries, so that officers and crew had to abandon her and 
 
 OFFICER DEWEY 
 
 LEAVING THE 
 "MISSISSIPPI." 
 
 BURNING SHIP 
 
ADMIRAL GKORGE DEWEY. 
 
 22i 
 
 make their way as best they could to the other shore before the fiames 
 reached her magazine and she exploded. 
 
 The waters of the Mississippi, which is at the best a treacherous 
 river, were being fairly churned into fountains of foam by the shot and 
 shell, and the explod- 
 ing hot metal was run- 
 ning into the water at 
 every seeming inch of 
 space. In the midst 
 of all this a sailor who 
 jumped overboard was 
 struck. He was too 
 badly wounded to catch 
 hisswimmingpaceas he 
 struck the water. Lieu- 
 tenant Dewey saw this 
 incident in all the dark- 
 ness and fearful noise, 
 and without hesitation 
 he jumped overboard, 
 put his arm around the 
 wounded sailor, held 
 him until he got his 
 strength again, and 
 helped him into shallow 
 water. Then he went 
 back to his ship and 
 
 ^ m DEWEY SAVING THE LIFE OF A SAILOR WHO HAD 
 
 remained there until ■* jumped from the burning ship. 
 
 every man had left. This was an action after Farragut's own heart, 
 
 and the admiral instantly mentioned him for promotion. Dewey 
 
 was hardly out of swimming reach of the ship when the magazine 
 
 exploded. 
 
 One of the crew recalls an order given by Dewey that night for the 
 15 
 
226 ADMIRAL GEORGE DEWEY. 
 
 whitewashing of the decks, that the gunners might see to do their grim 
 work. The order, though an unusual one, was expedient, since all lights 
 were forbidden while the vessel slipped by the forts without being discov- 
 evered. This reminiscence, says a recent writer, is of special interest 
 now, in view of the way Dewey made his entrance into the harbor at 
 Manila in the darkness of that early May morning, in 1898, when he 
 sank or wrecked the whole of Admiral Montojo's Spanish fleet. 
 
 Other notable engagements in which Dewey figured during the civil 
 war were those at Donaldson ville in 1863, where he was on one of the 
 gunboats, and at Fort Fisher in the winter of 1864-5, as an officer of the 
 Agawam. Receiving his commission as lieutenant-commander in March, 
 1865, he served for two years on the Kearsarge and the Colorado, and 
 was after this attached to the naval academy for a further period of two 
 years. In 1870 he was given command of the Narragansett, and during 
 his five years' charge of her rose to the rank of commander. 
 
 MASTER OF ALL DETAILS. 
 
 It is said of Dewey, that had he been in the army he would probabh^ 
 have been an engineer, for his is the order of mind adapted to the engi- 
 neer corps. He is an officer who knows every detail of the ship under 
 his command, and is master of the mechanical problems which play so 
 large a part in modern naval warfare. 
 
 In 1882, Commodore Dewey, then being attached to the Lighthouse 
 Board, took his next spell of sea duty in command of the Juniata, of the 
 Asiatic squadron. On reaching a captaincy in 1884, he was given 
 charge of the Dolphin, one of the first vessels of the "new navy." 
 From 1885 to 1888, he commanded the Pensacola, then the flagship of 
 the squadron doing duty in European waters. This service afloat was 
 followed by a shore duty of considerable duration, in the course of which 
 Dewey served first as chief of the Bureau of Equipment at the Navy 
 Department, and afterwards, and for the second time on the Lighthouse 
 Board. Two years later, 1896, he was raised to the rank of Commodore 
 and made head of the Board of Inspection and Survey. Early in 1898, 
 
ADMIRAL GEORGE DEWEY. 
 
 227 
 
 he was given command of the Asiatic squadron, and in that responsible 
 post found the opportunity for distinction. Here, as in his earlier 
 career, Commodore Dewey proved himself the right man in the right place. 
 The vessels comprising the Asiatic squadron were the Olympia (flag- 
 ship), the Baltimore, Raleigh, Concord, Boston, Petrel, and the dispatch 
 boat McCulloch. They were at Hong Kong when the commodore heard 
 of the declaration of war with Spain, and presently he received instruc- 
 
 . i 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 M ji /fill 
 J0? -^ /ft 
 
 1 *% : ; I 
 
 
 J / 1 
 
 mm ■■ ■ ■ ' : :'MA 
 
 
 
 
 UNITED STATES CRUISER OLYMPIA. 
 
 ADMIRAL DEWEY' S FLAGSHIP AT THE BATTLE OF MANILA. 
 
 tions which led him to take his fleet out of port and proceed to sea. 
 How signally Dewey improved the occasion to distinguish himself and 
 win glory for his country's cause was for a time the world's wonder. 
 Nor in the trying position in which, after his great victory, he was placed, 
 has he shown himself in any other light than the pride and hero of the 
 hour. The phenomenal victory he won at Manila on the morning of the 
 ist of May, 1898, forms one of the brightest pages in our naval history. 
 The famous engagement took place in the chief harbor (Manila) of 
 the principal island (Luzon) of the Philippine group, whither Dewey had 
 
228 
 
 ADMIRAL GEORGE DEWEY. 
 
 steamed after leaving Hong Kong with his fleet. Passing the forts on 
 Corregidor Island, at the mouth of the harbor of Manila, in the moon- 
 light before the dawn of Sunday, May ist, and disregarding the mines in 
 the channel, Dewey stealthily led his fleet well within the harbor and took 
 up position facing the inner port of Cavite and the Spanish fleet lying at 
 
 MANILA HARBOR— SCENE OF THE GREAT BATTLE, 
 
 anchor in front of the fortifications of the port. Here, at daybreak, the 
 American ships were discovered by the Spanish and firing at once began 
 by the forts, which was speedily taken up by Montojo's fleet. The 
 engagement lasted two hours, at the end of which a glorious victory was 
 won by Dewey and his gallant command. 
 
 A study of its incidents shows the battle to have been fought and 
 
ADMIRAL GEORGE DEWEY. 
 
 22H 
 
 won by remarkable strategy on the part of the American commander 
 and by the advantages of coolness, daring and good marksmanship, 
 added to the splendid manoeuvring and seamanlike tactics of Dewey's fleet. 
 So skilfully conducted was the fight, and so terrific and well-aimed the 
 storm of shot and shell poured into the Spanish vessels, that within the 
 comparatively short period of the engagement the whole of the enemy's 
 fleet was destroyed. 
 
 The achievement was rendered more notable by the fact that, whiU 
 
 GREAT AMERICAN VICTORY IN THE HARBOR OF MANILA. 
 
 every Spanish vessel was either sunk, fired or otherwise destroyed, the 
 attacking fleet suffered no casualty, nor was there a loss of a single 
 American life. This was chiefly due to the tactics of keeping the attack- 
 ing fleet in constant motion during the engagement and by the rapid 
 firing and splendid marksmanship of the American gunners. When the 
 Spanish disasters were first noticed the circling line of devastation drew 
 nearer to the enemy's ships, and in closing in first, one and then another 
 of the Spanish vessels were placed hors de combat. 
 
230 ADMIRAL GEORGE DEWEY. 
 
 Admiral Montojo's flagship, the Reiua Cristina, was the first to suc- 
 cumb. Beiug soou wrapped iu flames, the Isle de Meudanao approached 
 her and took off the admiral and such of the officers and crew as were 
 able to seek safety. Presently, however, the rescuing vessel herself 
 burst into names, while the Don Juan de Austria, receiving a shot which 
 exploded her magazine, went down with all hands on board. As the Don 
 Juan sank, the Castilla, the second largest ship of the Spanish fleet, 
 burst into flames, and the remainder were either sunk or ran into shoal 
 water to escape punishment, and the batteries at Cavite were silenced. 
 So complete was the destruction and fearful the loss of Spanish life and 
 treasure, that the victory dazed and paralyzed the Spaniards, though they 
 fought with desperation and showed great bravery. 
 
 EVERY SPANISH SHIP DESTROYED. 
 
 Further resistance, of course, was hopeless, seeing that every Span- 
 ish ship was absolutely destroyed, sunk, set on fire, or otherwise disabled. 
 At this juncture, Commodore Dewey humanely turned his attention to 
 the care of the Spanish wounded, and sent a laconic message to the Span- 
 ish authorities in Manila, informing them of the victory and discreetly 
 warning theni that " one more shot fired from the shore would be the sig- 
 nal for a bombardment which would lay the city in ruins." He then 
 dispatched the Mc.Culloch to Hong Kong, to carry the news of the day's 
 glorious doings, modestly set forth, to be cabled to the Government and 
 war authorities at Washington. 
 
 The reception of the news, not only at the seat of government but 
 throughout the United States, was most enthusiastic and elicited high 
 praise for the thoroughness of the victory. Nor was the fact overlooked 
 that it was won at no loss of American life and without any serious dam- 
 age to any of the American fleet. President McKinley sent the hero of 
 the hour congratulatory messages, and made him an acting-Rear Admiral, 
 besides recommending, in a special message to Congress, a vote of thanks 
 from that body. This was unanimously passed, in a joint resolation of 
 both Houses, which also included thanks in the name of the American 
 
ADMIRAL GEORGE DEWEY. 
 
 231 
 
 people, to all officers and men who had taken part with Dewey in the 
 
 engagement. 
 
 Nor did the gallant Admiral's services end with the victory. Many 
 delicate duties had to be performed and much responsibility incurred, 
 in not only holding what had been gained at Manila, but in compelling 
 
 STREET SCENE IN MANILA— PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 
 
 the native insurgents to submission until reinforcements should arrive 
 from the United States, when a combined attack, by sea and land, was to 
 be made upon the Philippine capital. This took place on the 13th of 
 August, when Admiral Dewey, in concert with a land force under Major- 
 General Merritt bombarded the Spanish fortifications, and, after advanc- 
 ing on the works, compelled the town to surrender. Just before the 
 assault, the Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines (General 
 
232 
 
 ADMIRAL GEORGE DEWEY. 
 
 Augusti) hastened on board a German ironclad and fled from the islands. 
 The surrender, which included 7,000 prisoners, took place two days before 
 news of the armistice between the forces of the two countries reached 
 Manila, and put the coping-stone upon Dewey's work at the Philippines. 
 -It also placed the United States in possession of Manila and its har- 
 bor, with probably the whole island of Luzon, and thus gave the nation 
 an important strategic base of operations, should these at any time be 
 contemplated, in the Pacific, in the vicinity of Chinese waters. The vic- 
 
 MEDAL PRESENTED TO ADMIRAL DEWEY. 
 
 tory, moreover, establishes the fame of Dewey beyond peradventure, and 
 ensures him a high place among the great naval heroes of history. 
 
 Personally, Admiral Dewey is held in high esteem in the service, and 
 is greatly liked by all his men. He is a manly type of the modern naval 
 officer, brave, alert, resourceful, and with a large and varied experience, 
 both ashore and afloat. For many years he has been faithfully perform- 
 ing the tasks allotted to his varying ranks, and doubtless he little 
 dreamed, as the time drew near for his retirement from the service, that 
 he was destined to perform a feat which would render his name famous 
 and distinguish himself above his fellows. 
 
 He is of compact build and of medium height, with a finely-chiseled 
 
ADMIRAL GEORGE DEWEY. 23? 
 
 face, and hair sprinkled now with gray. He has clear, keen eyes, and 
 his firmly-set lips are indicative of decision of character. His manner is 
 quiet and studiously courteous, though on occasion he can be peremptory 
 and decisive. Though a man of daring, he possesses the qualifying and 
 restraining quality of good sense, and his good judgment is rarely at 
 fault. Socially he is a great favorite in Washington, where he is known 
 as a club-man, a good horseman, and a skilled athlete. He is fond of 
 society, and rarely appears after dinner, when at the Capital, except in 
 evening dress. In these varied characteristics he differs little from other 
 naval officers who have been trained in the same school. 
 
 THE ADMIRAL'S CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 Admiral Dewey's first wife was a Miss Goodwin, daughter of the 
 War Governor of New Hampshire. She died in 1875. Their one son, 
 George Dewey, in speaking of his father's personal characteristics, said: 
 " He is deliberate, cool, business-like, without fear, gentle, very fond of 
 children, good-hearted and kind to everyone. He is thorough in every- 
 thing he undertakes, energetic, determined, and a good disciplinarian. 
 In the matter of fighting, he believes in being alwaj^s prepared, and, 
 when the time comes, in striking quickly, and with deliberate intent. 
 His chief aim is to put the enemy, as soon as he possibly can, in the posi- 
 tion where he cannot continue the fight. He believes that our ships 
 and men are the best fighting material in the world. Farragut is his 
 model of a naval commander." 
 
 When Admiral Dewey returned from Manila, the scene of one of 
 the most famons victories in naval history, he was welcomed by millions 
 of his countrymen. New York and surrounding places seemed to have 
 poured out their entire population to welcome the hero. Such a demon- 
 stration had never been witnessed before in our country. Wherever he 
 went there was a loud acclaim and enthusiastic demonstration on the 
 part of the entire populace. 
 
 He was made an admiral, and Congress presented him with a sword 
 in honor of his world-renowned achievements. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 LIEUT. RICHMOND P. HOBSON. 
 
 TYPE OF THE HEROIC SAILOR — EARLY LIFE 
 AND NAVAL EDUCATION — DARING EXPLOIT 
 IN THE HARBOR OF SANTIAGO — HIS ELO- 
 QUENT TRIBUTE TO THE BRAVERY OF OUR 
 JACKIES — PERSONAL TRAITS. 
 
 Many deeds of valor were performed in onr war with Spain. It 
 will be remembered that the fleet of the Spanish Admiral Cervera was 
 shnt np for a long time in the harbor of Santiago on the southern coast 
 of Cuba. The most thrilling episode of the long blockade, and one that 
 will be marked in history as an act of the highest heroism, was the sink- 
 ing of the ship Merrimac, early on the morning of Friday, June 3, 1898, 
 by Richmond P. Hobson, and seven men, in the narrow channel leading 
 into the harbor of Santiago, thus " bottling up" Cervera's fleet so that 
 only a single ship at a time could escape from the harbor. 
 
 While the blockading fleet was ceaseless in its vigilance, there was 
 danger that the enemy might come out at any time and some of the ves- 
 sels, at least, escape. With Cervera's fleet were some torpedo boats, at 
 that time, because of their speed, feared by the cruisers and bat- 
 tleships, and one night two of them had come out of the harbor and 
 threatened the Texas, but had gone back without making any attack or 
 doing any damage. 
 
 The situation was a trying one, and all over our country people were 
 anxious as to the outcome. Many wondered why Sampson and Schley 
 did not go into the harbor, like Dewey at Manila, and "capture or 
 destroy the enemy," to use a now famous phrase. At the same time, 
 
 now and then, was to be found one to suggest that the Spanish fleet 
 234 
 
LIEUTENANT RICHMOND P. HOBSON. 
 
 235 
 
 should be bottled up. Under date of May 25th, a newspaper correspond- 
 ent wrote : " The harbor of Santiago is very narrow, and at its entrance 
 a half a dozen old iron steamers laden with stone should be sunk. In 
 this way, the Spanish fleet will be bottled and corked up." 
 
 The same thought had occurred to Lieutenant Hobson, at that time 
 assistant naval constructor on Admiral Sampson's flagship, and he 
 promptly proposed to attempt the deed himself, assisted by a few volun- 
 teers. The plan was approved by Admiral Sampson. Volunteers were 
 
 ARMORED SUBMARINE TORPEDO MONITOR. 
 
 SHOWING ARRANGEMENT BELOW DECK. 
 
 called for and whole cheering crews stepped forward for the hazardous 
 adventure. About one hundred in the New York, one hundred and forty 
 in the Iowa and like proportions in the other vessels volunteered. Mr. 
 Hobson picked three men from the New York and three from the Mer- 
 rimac. Besides them one man went as a stowaway against orders. 
 
 The names of these seven men, whose heroism will be traditional 
 in naval annals were : Daniel Montague, of Brooklyn, 29 years old, chief 
 master-at-arms of the New York; George Charette, 31 years old, of 
 Lowell, Mass., gunner's mate on the New York ; J. C. Murphy, coxswain 
 of the Iowa ; Osborn Deignan, 24 years old, coxswain of the Merrimac ; 
 
236 
 
 LIEUTENANT RICHMOND P. HOBSON. 
 
 John F. Philips, 36 years old, of Boston, machinist on the Merrimac ; 
 Francis Kelly, 35 years, of Glasgow, Scotland, a water tender, and R. 
 Clansen, coxswain of the New York, who went without orders. The 
 Merrimac had on board six hundred tons of coal. 
 
 The plan had been well thought out by Lieutenant Hobson, and 
 every detail had been foreseen. Sitting in his cabin on the flagship just 
 before leaving on his perilous trip, Hobson said : "I shall go right into 
 the harbor until about four hundred yards past the Estrella battery, which 
 is behind Morro Castle. I do not think they can sink me before I reach 
 
 HARBOR AND FORTIFICATIONS OF SANTIAGO. 
 
 THE CROSS SHOWS WHERE THE MERRIMAC WAS SUNK. 
 
 somewhere near that point. The Merrimac has seven thousand tons 
 buoyancy, and I shall keep her full speed ahead. She can make about 
 ten knots. When the narrowest part of the channel is reached I shall 
 put her helm hard aport, stop the engines, drop the anchors, open the 
 sea connections, touch off the torpedoes and leave the Merrimac a wreck, 
 lying athwart the channel. 
 
 1 ' There are ten 8-inch improvised torpedoes below the water line on 
 the Merrimac' s port side. They are placed on her side against the bulk- 
 heads and vital spots, connected with each other by a wire under the 
 ship's keel. Each torpedo contains eighty-two pounds of gunpowder. 
 Each torpedo is also connected with the bridge, and they should do 
 
LIEUTENANT RICHMOND P. HOBSON. 237 
 
 their work in a minute, and it will be quick work even if done in a minute 
 and a quarter. 
 
 t( On deck there will be four men and myself. In the engine room 
 there will be two other men. This is the total crew and all of us will be 
 in our underclothing, with revolvers and ammunition in the watertight 
 packing strapped around our waists. Forward there will be a man on 
 deck, and around his waist will be a line, the other end of the Hne being 
 made fast to the bridge, where I will stand. 
 
 HOW THE SIGNAL WAS TO BE GIVEN. 
 
 u By that man's side will be an axe. When I stop the engines 1 shall 
 jerk this cord, and he will thus get the signal to cut the lashing which 
 will be holding the forward anchor. He will then jump overboard and 
 swim to the four-oared dingy which we shall tow astern. The dingy is 
 full of life buoys, and is unsinkable. In it are rifles. It is to be held 
 by two ropes, one made fast at her bow and one at her stern. The first 
 man to reach her will haul in the tow line and pull the dingy out to star- 
 board. The next to leave the ship are the rest of the crew. The quar- 
 termaster at the wheel will not leave until after having put it hard aport 
 and lashed it so; he will then jump overboard and take his chances 
 with the others. 
 
 "Down below the man at the reversing gear will stop the engine, 
 scramble on deck, and get over the side as quickly as possible. The man 
 in the engine room will break open the sea connections with a sledge 
 hammer, and will follow his leader into the water. This last step insures 
 the sinking of the Merrimac, whether the torpedoes work or not. By this 
 time I calculate the six men will be in the dingy, and the Merrimac will 
 have swung athwart the channel to the full length of her three hundred 
 yards of cable, which will have been paid out before the anchors were cu 
 loose. Then all that is left for me is to touch the button. I shall stand 
 on the starboard side of the bridge. The explosion will throw the Merri- 
 mac on her starboard side. Nothing on this side of New York City will 
 be able to raise her after that." 
 
238 LIEUTENANT RICHMOND P. HOBSON. 
 
 " And you expect to come out of this alive ? " asked a companion of 
 Mr. Hobson. 
 
 Mr. Hobson said : "I suppose the Estrella battery will fire down on 
 us a bit, but the ships will throw their searchlights in the gunners' faces, 
 and they won't see much of us. Then, if we are torpedoed, we should 
 even then be able to make the desired position in the channel. It won't 
 be so easy to hit us, and I think the men should be able to swim to the 
 dingy. I may jump before I am blown up. But I don't see that it makes 
 much difference what I do. I have a fair chance of life either way. If our 
 dingy gets shot to pieces we shall then try to swim for the beach right 
 under Morro Castle. We shall keep together at all hazards. Then, we 
 may be able to make our way alongside and perhaps get back to the ship. 
 We shall fight the sentries or a squad until the last, and we shall only 
 surrender to overwhelming numbers, and our surrender will only take 
 place as a last and almost uncontemplated emergency." 
 
 HOBSON'S LAST DIRECTIONS. 
 
 Just before the Merrimac started on her last desperate run, she was 
 hailed by one of the newspaper boats. Hobson' s last words to the cor- 
 respondents were : " Now, pardon me, but in case you gentlemen write 
 anything of this expedition, please don't say anything individually about 
 its members until you know." 
 
 He accented the last word ; and the inference was plain — until 
 you know we are dead, would have filled out the sentence. While the 
 correspondents were on the bridge of the Merrimac, a young officer from 
 the Marblehead came aboard on business. As he left he said : " Shall 
 we send you fellows over some breakfast ? We would be delighted, and 
 « can do it just as well as not." 
 
 " Never mind about the breakfast, old man," responded Mr. Hobson^ 
 "but if you can send some coffee we would be very glad. You see wa 
 are swept pretty clean here, and none of us have had a drop of coffee 
 since da\^ before yesterday." 
 
 It was a trivial incident, but coming from a man doomed to almost 
 
LIEUTENANT RICHMOND P. HOBSON. 239 
 
 certain death, it seemed to add the last touch of the pathetic to a situa- 
 tion heartbreaking enough in itself. 
 I Lieutenant Hobson thus describes his thrilling exploit : 
 
 "It was about three o'clock in the morning when the Merrimac 
 entered the narrow channel and steamed in under the guns of Morro 
 Castle. The stillness of death prevailed. It was so dark that we could 
 scarcely see the headland. We had planned to drop our starboard anchor 
 at a certain point to the right of the channel, reverse our engines and 
 then swing the Merrimac around, sinking her directly across the channel. 
 This plan was adhered to, but circumstances rendered its execution im- 
 possible. When the Merrimac poked her nose into the channel our 
 troubles commenced. The dead silence was broken by the wash of a 
 small boat approaching us from the direction of the shore. I made her 
 out to be a picket boat that was on the lookout. 
 
 MERRIMAC LOST HER RUDDER. 
 
 " She ran close up under the stern of the Merrimac and fired several 
 shots from what seemed to be 3- pounder guns. The Merrimac' s rudder 
 was carried away by this fire. That is why the collier was not sunk 
 across the channel. We did not discover the loss of the rudder until 
 Murphy cast anchor. We then found that the Merrimac would not 
 answer to the helm, and were compelled to make the best of the situa- 
 tion. The run up the channel was very exciting. The picket boar, had 
 given the alarm, and in a moment the guns of the Vizcaya, the Almi- 
 rante Oquendo and of the shore batteries were turned upon us. 
 
 " Submarine mines and torpedoes also were exploded all about us, 
 adding to the excitement. The mines did no damage, although we could 
 hear rumbling and feel the ship tremble. We were running without 
 lights, and only the darkness saved us from utter destruction. When 
 the ship was in the desired position and we found that the rudder was 
 gone I called the men on deck. While they were launching the cata- 
 maran I touched off the explosives. 
 
 " At the same moment two torpedoes, fired by the Reina Mercedes, 
 
240 
 
 LIEUTENANT RICHMOND P. HOBSON. 
 
 struck the Merrimac amidships. I cannot say whether our own explo- 
 sives or the Spanish torpedoes did the work, but the Merrimac was lifted 
 out of the water and almost rent asunder. As she settled down we 
 scrambled overboard and cut away the catamaran. A great cheer went 
 up from the forts and warships as the hold of the collier foundered, the 
 
 Spaniards thinking that the Merrimac was an 
 American ship trying to enter the harbor. 
 
 u We attempted to get out of the harbor in 
 the catamaran, but a strong tide was running, 
 and daylight found us still struggling in the 
 water. Then for the first time the Spaniards saw 
 us, and a boat from the Reina Mercedes picked 
 us up. It was then shortly after five o'clock in 
 the morning, and we had been in the water 
 more than hour. We were taken aboard the 
 Reina Mercedes and later were sent to Morro 
 Castle. In Morro we were confined in cells in 
 the inner side of the fortress, and were there 
 the first day the fleet bombarded Morro. I 
 could only hear the whistling of the shells and 
 the noise they made when they struck, but I 
 judged from the conversation of the guards 
 that the shells did considerable damage. 
 
 " After this* bombardment Mr. Ramsden, 
 international signal code, the British Consul, protested, and we were 
 removed to the hospital. There I was separated from the other men 
 in our crew, and could see them only by special permission. Montague 
 and Kelly fell ill, suffering from malaria, and I was permitted to visit 
 them twice. Mr. Ramsden was very kind to us, and demanded that 
 Montague and Kelly be removed to better quarters in the hospital. 
 This was done. 
 
 " As for myself, there is little to say. The Spanish were not dis- 
 
 posed to do much for the comfort 
 
 any 
 
 of the prisoners at first, but 
 
LIEUTENANT RICHMOND P. HOBSON. 241 
 
 after our army had taken some of their men as prisoners our treatment 
 was better. Food was scarce in the city, and I was told that we fared 
 better than the Spanish officers." 
 
 The next morning Hobson recounted his experiences more fully. 
 
 "I did not miss the entrance to the harbor," he said, " as Ensign 
 
 Powell in the launch supposed. I headed east until I got my bearings 
 
 and then made for it, straight in. Then came the firing. It was grand, 
 
 flashing out first from one side of the harbor and then from the other, 
 
 from those big guns on the hills, the Vizcaya, lying inside the harbor, 
 
 joining in. 
 
 SOLDIERS ON THE CLIFFS FIRING WILDLY. 
 
 "Troops from Santiago had rushed down when the news of the 
 Merrimac' s coining was telegraphed, and soldiers lined the foot of the 
 cliffs firing wildly across and killing each other with the cross fire. Only 
 three of the torpodoes on her side exploded when I touched the button. 
 
 " Her stern ran upon Estrella Point. Chiefly owing to the work 
 done by the mine she began to sink slowly. At that time she was across 
 the channel, but before she settled the tide drifted her around. We were 
 all aft, lying on the deck. Shells and bullets whistled around. Six-inch 
 shells from the Vizcaya came tearing into the Merrimac, crashing into 
 wood and iron and passing clear through, while the plunging shots from 
 the fort broke through her decks. 
 
 "'Not a man must move,' I said, and it was only^owing to the 
 splendid discipline of the men that we all were not killed, and the shells 
 rained over us and minutes became hours of suspense. The men's 
 mouths grew parched, but we must lie there till daylight, I told them. 
 Now and again one or the other of the men lying with his face glued to 
 the deck and wondering whether the next shell would not come our way 
 would say, ' Hadn't we better drop off now, sir ? ' but I said, ' Wait till 
 daylight.' It would have been impossible to get the catamaran any- 
 where but on to the shore where the soldiers stood shooting, and I hoped 
 that by daylight we might be recognized and saved. The grand old 
 Merrimac kept sinking. I wanted to go forward and see the damage 
 
 16 
 
242 LIEUTENANT RICHMOND P. HOBSON. 
 
 done there, where nearly all the fire was directed. One man said that il 
 I rose it would draw all the fire on the rest, so I lay motionless. 
 
 " It was splendid the way those men behaved. . The fire of the 
 soldiers, the batteries and the Vizcaya was awful. When the 
 water came up on the Merrimac's decks the catamaran floated amid the 
 wreckage, but she was still made fast to the boom, and we caught hold of 
 the edges and clung on, our heads only being above water. A Spanish 
 launch came toward the Merrimac. We agreed to capture her and run. 
 Just as she came close the Spaniards saw us, and half a dozen marines 
 jumped up and pointed their rifles at our heads sticking out of the water. 
 
 SAVED BY THE SPANISH ADMIRAL. 
 
 "Is there any officer in that boat to receive a surrender of prisoners 
 of war?" I shouted. An old man leaned out under the awning and 
 waved his hand. It was Admiral Cervera. The marines lowered their 
 rifles, and we were helped into the launch. Then we were put in cells in 
 Morro Castle. It was a grand sight a few days later, to see the bombard- 
 ment, the shells striking and bursting around El Morro. Then we were 
 taken into Santiago. I had the court martial room in the barracks. My 
 men were kept prisoners in the hospital. From my window I could see the 
 arm y moving, and it was terrible to see these poor lads moving across the 
 open and being shot down by the Spaniards in the rifle pits in front of me." 
 
 Hobson was overjoyed at getting back. He looked well, though some- 
 what worn. On the whole, the Spaniards treated him better than 
 might have been expected. Mr. Ramsden, the British consul at Santiago, 
 was tireless in his efforts to secure comfort for Hobson and his men. The 
 young hero knew nothing about the destruction of Cervera's fleet until he 
 reached the army line. He could not understand his promised excep- 
 tional promotion, but was overjoyed to learn the news that his bravery 
 had been recognized by the people. 
 
 A few weeks after Hobson's famous exploit he received an over- 
 whelming, enthusiastic welcome iu New York. The Grand Opera House 
 was crowded by an applauding audience, many of them government 
 
LIEUTENANT RICHMOND P. HOBSON. 243 
 
 officials and distinguished citizens. His speech was a remarkable narra- 
 tive of his daring deed, as well as an eloquent tribute to the American sailor. 
 " Although I have been associated," he said, " with the sailor but a 
 brief number of years, it has been long enough for me to learn to know 
 him. My first experience with him — and his experiences are the only 
 things a sailor can talk about — was on a cruise just after I left the Naval 
 Academy. Several cadets had gone overboard to swim. Some of them 
 were too venturesome and swam too far from the ship. One of them was 
 seized with cramps. He cried out to those on board to send a boat to 
 him. The sailors heard him. First one threw off his jacket, leaped 
 overboard and started with strong strokes to save the cadet. Others 
 began to jump overboard from the rail, from the gangways, from the 
 boom, until finally the officer of the deck had to give the order through 
 the bo' sun : ' Let no more men go overboard ! ' 
 
 HEROIC CONDUCT OF AMERICAN SAILORS. 
 
 "I have seen the sailor show the same heroism in a storm at sea. 
 A dear classmate of mine fell from the topmast and struck the water, 
 apparently lifeless. The lifeboat crew was called away. Into it piled 
 the men. It was lowered. The high sea capsized it, and there were 
 seven struggling men in that angry sea instead of one to be rescued. 
 The other lifeboat was called out. It was hardly necessary to give that 
 order, though. The men were already at their posts and the boat was in 
 the water before the words of command had been uttered. The struggling 
 men in the water were all saved. 
 
 "Such was my introduction to Jacky. Do you wonder that I love 
 and respect the sailor? Every experience I have had since has strength- 
 ened the opinions and impressions I first formed concerning him. I have 
 had occasion to see Jacky when he was sorely tempted. I have always 
 found him equal to such emergencies, a credit to himself and to the 
 service. I feel that certain features of the recent incident in which Jacky 
 played his part, and in which I had special opportunity for observing his 
 conduct, should be referred to here. It is known that when the word was 
 
244 
 
 LIEUTENANT RICHMOND P. HOBSON, 
 
 sent out for volunteers to go into Santiago on the doomed Merrimac the 
 sailors literally fell over each other to volunteer. The list on board the 
 New York had run up to over one hundred, and the list signalled from 
 the Iowa was 140 men, before the order was passed that no more volun- 
 teers were needed. 
 
 " When a few out of this nuinbei nad been assigned to stations on 
 
 the Merrimac, the direc- 
 tions for them were to 
 lie flat on their faces 
 alongside of the post 
 of duty until they had 
 performed the deed 
 which they were in- 
 structed to perform 
 Some stood by the gear, 
 some were in the en- 
 gine-room, some by the 
 torpedoes, and so on. 
 They were to remain 
 where they were posted 
 until the signal was 
 given and they had 
 done their part in 
 jH making the expedition 
 a success. The order 
 was that no man should 
 pay attention to the fire of the enemy. He was not even to look 
 back over his shoulder to see where the fire was coming from. It 
 was also understood that if any man was wounded he should pay no 
 attention to his wound nor call the attention of anybody else to it, but 
 should place himself in a sitting, kneeling, or any other posture that he 
 could, so that when the signal came he could perform the simple duty 
 assigned him. 
 
 TURRET OF A UNITED STATES BATTLESHIP. 
 
LIEUTENANT RICHMOND P. HOBSON. 245 
 
 " And they carried out their instructions to the letter. They 
 remained there on that ship, each man at his post, until their duty was 
 performed. They laid there until five of the seven torpedoes had been 
 shot away by the enemy's fire. The steering gear also had been shot 
 away. The projectiles from the enemy's guns were coming so fast that 
 it seemed as though they came more in a stream than singly. Yet those 
 Jackies laid there to do their duty as instructed, and never flinched. 
 
 NOT A MAN DISOBEYED ANY ORDER. 
 
 " Again, when the work was done and the crew assembled again at 
 the appointed place, and the Merrimac began to sink under them slowly, 
 because only two of the seven torpedoes that were to sink had been fired; 
 when for ten minutes that crew of Jackies lay there on their faces at the 
 rendezvous, and the projectiles were exploding just in front of them, the 
 simple order was given that no man should move until further orders. 
 If there ever was a time and conditions when the principle of every man 
 taking care of himself was justifiable, when men would have been excused 
 for going overboard — going anywhere so long as they got away from 
 where they were — it was on board the Merrimac those ten minutes. But 
 not a man stirred. They waited for the order, feeling all the time the ship 
 sinking beneath them, and seeing the shells exploding all around them. 
 
 " A few minutes later, when the same group of Jackies was in the 
 water, clinging with their heads j ust above water to the rounded corners 
 of the catamaran and the enemy's picket-boats came pouring in with 
 their lanterns to find something living — then again the impulse was just 
 as strong and as natural to get away from those picket-boats and to strike 
 out for the shore. But the simple order was given that no man should 
 move until further orders. There, clinging to that catamaran for nearly 
 an hour, those men remained, every one of them, without a murmur. 
 
 " When, that afternoon — the same afternoon as the striking, — by 
 command of the gallant Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish fleet, Ad- 
 miral Cervera (hisses, which were smothered by loud cheering in. which 
 Lieut. Hobson joined), the personal effects of that crew of Jackies were 
 
246 LIEUTENANT RICHMOND P. HOBSON. 
 
 brought off from the ship to the prison in the boat that was sent to 
 Admiral Sampson to tell of our safety, one of the men was allowed to 
 come over to me while the distribution of our effects was being made. 
 This man, who was the spokesman for all the rest, said, after referring 
 to what they had just been through: 'We would do it over again 
 to-night, sir.' 
 
 " The next day, when, for all those sailors knew, the remnants of 
 the inquisition were to be applied to get information from the prisoners, 
 those Jackies had another test. A Spanish major, backed by several 
 soldiers, began to question them. As he did so, the Spanish soldiers 
 made significant signs like this. (Lieut. Hobson drew his hand across 
 his throat.) The Jackies simply laughed at them. When the Spanish 
 major urged the question as to the object of bringing the Merrimac in in 
 the way we did, George Charette, acting as spokesman, replied : 
 
 TYPES OF THE WHOLE AMERICAN NAVY. 
 
 " ' In the United States Navy, sir, it is not the custom for the sea- 
 man to know or to inquire the object of his superior officer.' 
 
 "Now, friends, if you will draw a proper deduction and regard these 
 men of the Merrimac as simple types of the whole United States Navy, 
 if you will properly look upon this little incident of the Merrimac as 
 simply characteristic of the readiness of the men of the navy as a whole 
 to do any duty that they are called upon to do, no matter how hazardous, 
 you will have acquired a more or less complete and proper idea of the 
 American Jacky. " 
 
 We have read of the noble six hundred 
 
 Who rode to the gate of hell ; 
 How cannon roared right and left o. them, 
 
 And many a noble man fell. 
 
 They were ordered, and each did his duty ; 
 
 A soldier must always obey — 
 But the volunteer eight Yankee seaman 
 
 Have eclipsed the six hundred to-day. 
 
LIEUTENANT RICHMOND P. HOBSON. 247 
 
 There was death both below and above them, 
 
 Torpedoes and bullets and shell ; 
 They steamed from our fleet in the midst of it, 
 
 And their comrades wished them farewell. 
 
 God guarded these kings of the ocean, 
 
 He honored the brave and the true ; 
 The nation salutes to their honor ; 
 
 The enemy honored them, too. 
 
 Hobsoii is considered one of the ablest men who ever graduated from 
 the Naval Academy. Like most geniuses he was regarded as peculiar. 
 Men who were at the Naval Academy while he was there say his 
 classmate? at first attempted to make life miserable for the quiet, studi- 
 ous boy, but found that he could resent their actions in a way that made 
 them desist before he had been in the academy very long. He was only 
 fifteen years old when he went to Annapolis, and his most marked charac- 
 teristic was his use of words seldom in the vocabulary of a youngster of 
 his age. One of his classmates says that Hobson was hazed a great deal 
 in his plebe year, and many a dignified officer had the honor of standing 
 him on his head and making him do all sorts of ridiculous things. One 
 day Hobson resented the annoyance to which he was subjected by older 
 cadets in these words : 
 
 " I do not desire, and neither will I tolerate, any more of your scur- 
 rilous contumely." 
 
 PLODDED AWAY AND GRADUATED SECOND IN HIS CLASS. 
 
 At another time, Hobson was fishing from the end of the old Santee 
 wharf, and a passing classmate asked him what he was doing. " Merely 
 indulging in piscatorial pursuits," said the future hero of the Merrimac 
 exploit. But while other cadets had fun at his expense, Hobson plodded 
 away and graduated from the academy second in his class. 
 
 Many stories are told of Hobson, illustrating his grit and his 
 defiance of custom. He is said to have no respect for red tape. An officer 
 at San Francisco tells this tale of him : 
 
 "When Hobson was in the fourth class year, an order was issued 
 
248 LIEUTENANT RICHMOND P. HOBSON. 
 
 that cadets in authority should be careful in reporting their classmates 
 in the performance of any of their duties. Hobson was leader of a sec- 
 tion and reported some of the members for some breach of discipline. 
 Thereupon the class put Hobson in Coventry; that is, he was ostracised, 
 none of his class speaking to him or having anything to do with him, 
 Hobson then buckled right down to his books, and by the end of his 
 third class year was at the head of his class. Then they decided to 
 revise their judgment, but Hobson said : 
 
 " l No, gentlemen, you have got on without me these three years 
 and I'll manage to worry along without you for the remaining year,' and 
 he did. For four years this young man had not a social associate among 
 any of the cadets at the academy. He never spoke to a cadet without 
 addressing him as 'mister,' and insisted on the same treatment. In his 
 first class year he was a four-striper, or the cadet in command of the bat- 
 talion, and never before had there been a better drilled or more efficient 
 lot of cadets." 
 
 It was Mr. Hobson who proposed the establishment of a post 
 graduate course at the Naval Academy for cadets who intended to enter 
 the Construction Corps. Before that time all constructors were edu- 
 cated abroad. Mr. Hobson was placed in charge of the course, and 
 through that means he found a way of going with Admiral Sampson';; 
 squadron just before the war began. It was his idea that constructor? \ 
 should be assigned to sea duty in time of hostilities on account of their 
 knowledge of construction of ships, which would enable them to poim; 
 out the vital parts of an enemy's vessel and thus assist commanding 
 officers in conducting engagements. He also succeeded in having his 
 class of construction students assigned to the squadrons engaged in 
 operations. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ADMIRAL WILLIAM T. SAMPSON. 
 
 RENOWNED NAVAL TACTICIAN AND COMMANDER — 
 FIRST AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY— IN COMMAND OF 
 THE NORTH ATLANTIC SQUADRON — EXPLOITS IN 
 OUR WAR WITH SPAIN. 
 
 William Thomas Sampson was born February, 1840, near Palmyra, 
 in the State of New York. The farm upon which Sampson was born is 
 called Mormon Hill farm, owing to the fact that upon this property 
 Joseph Smith, the Mormon chief, made the excavation which, he claimed, 
 resulted in the discovery of the golden plates of the Book of Mormon. 
 Unlike some of the officers in the American navy, Sampson does not 
 come of distinguished naval lineage. He was of humble parentage, his 
 father being a laborer, and his earliest education was picked up by 
 desultory attendance at country schools. His ambition to learn, how- 
 ever, kept him at his books in the intervals of wood-cutting or similar 
 occupations, and he diligently studied such text-books as were within 
 his reach. He was an example of an ambitious country boy, who meant 
 to make something of himself. 
 
 When the future admiral was seventeen he obtained, through the 
 
 interest of Representative Morgan, an appointment as midshipman in the 
 
 United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. After four years of study 
 
 at this institution he graduated first in his class, just before the opening 
 
 of the Civil War. At the outbreak of the latter Sampson was not old 
 
 enough to obtain a command, so his first service in the navy was on board 
 
 the frigate Potomac of the South Atlantic squadron, where he remained 
 
 one year as master. During his first year at sea his services were so 
 
 249 
 
250 ADMIRAL WILLIAM T. SAMPSON. 
 
 acceptable to the superior officers that he was promoted second lieuten 
 ant. While participating in the evolutions of the South Atlantic squad- 
 ron he served on board the John Adams and the Patapsco. 
 
 It was the fate of Lieutenant Sampson, then twenty-five years of 
 age, to be acting as executive officer on board the iron-clad Patapsco, of 
 the blockading fleet before Charleston, when that vessel was blown up in 
 Charleston harbor by a torpedo and sank in fifteen seconds, on January 
 15, 1865. There were few of the younger officers in the navy at this 
 time who had so good a record, and this incident in his career reflected 
 credit on him for his striking coolness and nerve. He was senior officer 
 on the monitor Patapsco, under Lieutenant-Commander S. P. Quack- 
 enbush, January 15, 1865. On the evening of the 15th the Patapsco and 
 the Lehigh were sent up the channel to drag for torpedoes, and, if possi- 
 ble, to learn the nature and positions of any obstructions placed in the 
 channel by the Confederates. Sampson was on the top of the turret, and 
 the Patapsco was drifting slowly up the harbor, when suddenly a terrific 
 explosion was heard that fairly stunned him. 
 
 ORDER GIVEN TO MAN THE BOATS. 
 
 " My first impression on hearing the report," he said in his official 
 report, " was that a cannon-shot had struck the overhang just below the 
 water ; but the column of smoke and water which at the same instant 
 shot upward convinced me of the real nature of the explosion. The order 
 to start the pumps was immediately given by me down through the tur- 
 ret. So impracticable did the execution of the order appear the next 
 instant that I did not repeat it. Immediately after the order was given 
 to man the boats. Although these orders were issued in rapid succes- 
 sion, only the officer of the deck, who stepped from the turret into the 
 boat, and one man had time to obey the last order before the boat was 
 afloat at the davits. 
 
 " Owing to the wise precaution of having the picket boats near at 
 hand, all those who were on deck at the time were saved. None escaped 
 from below except the engineer and the fireman on watch, and one man 
 
ADMIRAL WILLIAM T. SAMPSON. 251 
 
 who passed through from the berth-deck into the fire-room and up the 
 hatch. 
 
 " From my position on the ridge-rope round the turret, while steer- 
 ing the vessel, I was not able to avail myself of the order to man the 
 boats. I was soon picked up by one of the picket launches, and immedi- 
 ately ordered the officer in command to pull up the harbor in the hope of 
 picking up others, which was quickly done." 
 
 COOL INTREPIDITY IN DANGER. 
 
 In his report to the Secretary of the Navy the commanding office 
 said : "The cool intrepidity displayed by Lieutenant Sampson, my exec 
 utive officer, deserves the highest praise." Sampson afterwards became 
 known throughout the service for just such qualities as he displayed on 
 board the Patapsco. In 1866, while serving on the Colorado, Sampson 
 received his commission as lieutenant commander. From 1868 to 1871 
 he was at the Naval Academy as instructor, and in 1872 and the fol- 
 lowing year he was cruising in Europe and elsewhere on the Congress. 
 In 1874 he reached the grade of commander, in which capacity he served 
 on the Alert, a third-rate vessel. Subsequently he was despatched to the 
 Asiatic station in command of the Swatara. 
 
 A turn of shore duty followed from 1876 to 1878 at the Naval Acad- 
 emy, and in 1882 he was stationed at the Naval Observatory — a position 
 which he held till 1885. While stationed at the Naval Observatory he 
 was sent as a delegate to the International Prime Meridian and Time 
 Conference, held at Washington in 1884. He also acted as a member of 
 the Board on Fortifications and Other Defences, which convened at Wash- 
 ington in 1885. From 1886 to 1890 he was superintendent of the Naval 
 Academy. In 1889 he attained the rank of captain, and in that year was 
 delegate from the United States to the International Maritime Confer- 
 ence held at Washington. He was next ordered to the Pacific coast to 
 take command of the new United States cruiser San Francisco, and 
 since the formation of the new navy Captain Sampson commanded the 
 battleship Iowa, one of the most formidable of modern war vessels. 
 
252 ADMIRAL WILLIAM T. SAMPSON. 
 
 Subsequently he took charge of the Ordnance Bureau, ordnance mat- 
 ters and torpedo work having been for many years past Captain Samp- 
 son's special duty. On the 24th of March, 1898, Captain W. T. Samp- 
 son was promoted from the command of the battleship Iowa to succeed 
 Admiral Sicard as commander of what was officially termed " The North 
 Atlantic Squadron." Rear Admiral Sicard retired from this command 
 on account of ill health. " The North Atlantic Squadron" consisted of 
 the principal ships of the United States navy which had assembled off 
 Key West in anticipation of war with Spain. On the 21st of April, 
 1898, the President authorized him to hoist the flag of a rear admiral, 
 and thus made him the senior flag officer of the entire fleet of the United 
 States war vessels on the Atlantic coast. 
 
 Admiral Sampson thus suddenly became the most prominent man 
 of the. hour in the United States navy in the approaching struggle with 
 Spain. At the time of his appointment as rear-admiral, Captain 
 Sampson was serving as president of the Maine Board of Inquiry, in 
 which capacity he manifested on all occasions sound judgment and a 
 high order of efficiency. 
 
 APPOINTED COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 
 
 His appointment as commander-in-chief of the North Atlantic 
 naval station caused some surprise in naval circles. Captain Sampson 
 was the fourth ranking captain in the service ; but the choice was popular 
 and was amply j ustified by after events. No doubt those qualities of 
 coolness and deliberation which caused his selection as president of the 
 Maine Court of Inquiry led to his being chosen to command the North 
 Atlantic Squadron. While his career had run in comparatively quiet 
 grooves, when compared with certain other officers in the service, his 
 record is none the less brilliant and interesting. He graduated from the 
 Naval Academy, as we have seen, first in his class and stood high in 
 all subsequent examinations — as an officer, as a scientist, and as an 
 engineer. 
 
 When the San Francisco was first put in commission under Captain 
 
ADMIRAL WILLIAM T. SAMPSON. 
 
 253 
 
 Sampson, he set the whole force on board to work so vigorously that all 
 visitors on board the vessel, Americans and foreigners, pronounced her 
 to be in the finest condition of any ship they had ever seen. In his 
 duties he was careful and painstaking, and was a strict disciplinarian. In 
 person Admiral Sampson was slight in figure, and possessed an earnest and 
 handsome face. He was much loved and respected by those under him. 
 While chief of the Ordnance Bureau, Captain Sampson's health suffered 
 
 BOMBARDMENT OF SAN JUAN BY ADMIRAL SAMPSON'S FLEET. 
 
 severely from the close sedentary habits, which his duties imposed, anc he 
 tried to counteract the bad effects by all sorts of athletic exercises at 
 home. He had been twice married, and had two sons and four daughters. 
 On Sunday, July 3d, 1898, occurred the battle off Santiago de Cuba in 
 which the Spanish fleet of Admiral Cervera was destroyed by the Amer- 
 ican blockading squadron commanded by Admiral Sampson. At the 
 eventful moment of the attempted escape of the Spanish fleet from the 
 harbor Admiral Sampson was on the flagship New York, four miles 
 east of the blockading station, and seven miles from the harbor entrance 
 
254 
 
 ADMIRAL WILLIAM T. SAMPSON. 
 
 where the batue took place. Admiral Sampson had intended to land at 
 Siboney to consult with General Shafter, commander of the land forces 
 in Cuba, to discuss the situation, as a more definite understanding 
 between the operations proposed of the land and sea forces had been 
 rendered necessary by the unexpectedly stubborn resistance of the 
 Spanish garrison of Santiago. 
 
 While the American commander was thus absent the Spanish 
 
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 VESSELS OF THE SPANISH FLEET OFF SANTIAGO. 
 
 squadron appeared in the channel to make a dash through the line of 
 blockade. The commander of the second division, Commodore Schley, 
 took up the chase and led the fleet to victory until the New York, with 
 Admiral Sampson on board, came up, and the latter resumed command. 
 The expediency of Admiral Sampson's leaving the post of blockade 
 at this time has given occasion for some adverse criticism. There is no 
 question, however, that a meeting between the two leaders of the land 
 and sea forces was necessary at this time for a better understanding of 
 the joint mode of attack on Santiago. It was unfortunate, perhaps, for 
 
ADMIRAL WILLIAM T. SAMPSON. 255 
 
 xAdmiral Sampson that the Spanish fleet shonld have chosen just that 
 particular hour for its attempted escape, but the result of the encounter 
 could not have been more favorable to the American fleet than it was. 
 It is therefore of little purpose to speculate on the conduct of the chief 
 officer in charge. He had manifested his skill in manoeuvring tactics 
 :n former occasions, and, as has been noted, there were excellent reasons 
 in the existing situation why Admiral Sampson should seek a consulta- 
 tion with General Shafter. The battle of Santiago speaks highly for 
 the skill and care of Admiral Sampson in maintaining the efficiency of 
 his fleet, and for holding the officers and men under his charge in proper 
 readiness for the work they were there to do. If the Admiral cannot be 
 called a showy and dashing officer, he undoubtedly possessed high and 
 equally admirable qualifications for his important command. 
 
 He died at Washington May 6, 1902, sincerely mourned by a large 
 circle of friends and admirers, all of whom were able to testify to his 
 nobfe qualities as a man and his great ability as an officer. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ADMIRAL WINFIELD S. SCHLEY. 
 
 HEROIC COMMANDER AT THE BATTLE OF 
 SANTIAGO — COOL AND COURAGEOUS — FINE 
 REPRESENTATIVE OF THE AMERICAN SAILOR 
 — A POPULAR HERO — MANY GALLANT EX- 
 PLOITS AND BRAVE DEEDS. 
 
 The desperate bravery of the Spaniards in our war with Spain was 
 more than matched by our great commanders, one of whom was Winfield 
 Scott Schley. He was born in Frederick County, Maryland, October 9, 
 1839. He entered the Naval Academy at Annapolis at the age of fifteen, 
 and two years later was appointed an acting midshipman. He graduated 
 from the academy in i860, and began his seafaring life by making the 
 voyage to Japan on board the United States vessel which escorted the 
 Japanese embassy back to their own country in that year. 
 
 He served on board the United States frigate Niagara in China and 
 Japan, and remained abroad until the call to arms of the Civil War 
 required the presence of all the United States forces, naval and military. 
 The exigencies of the war at that time brought officers forward very rap- 
 idly, and Schley was promoted to be master early in 1861, and was 
 ordered to the United States frigate Potomac. While serving in her his 
 daring and gallantry secured him the first prize-ship of the war, the 
 General Parkhill. He was present on board the Potomac at the occupation 
 of Mexico, early in 1862, by the combined powers of England, France and 
 Spain. He was next engaged with the Western Gulf Squadron, on the 
 Potomac, in the blockade of Mobile Bay, where he took a prominent part 
 in numerous adventures with the enemy's boats on the latter attempting 
 to run the blockade. 
 
 256 
 
ADMIRAL WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY. 257 
 
 When the Potomac was turned into a shore-ship, Schley was given 
 command of the gunboat Winona, of the West Gulf blockading squadron. 
 In her he patroled the Mississippi River for a year, and during this time 
 took part in many encounters. He made the original reconnoissance 
 preparatory to the attack upon Port Hudson, at which time the Winona 
 received ninety-eight shells in her hull and suffered the loss of eighteen 
 men, though succeeding in evading capture. He was engaged in several 
 operations with field batteries on the river, and afterwards took part in 
 the various engagements which led to the capture of Port Hudson, in 
 Louisiana, from March 16 to July 9, 1863. He participated in several 
 skirmishes, and in cutting out, under heavy fire, two schooners engaged 
 in conveying supplies to the Confederate forces. 
 
 NEVER OUT OF ACTIVE SERVICE. 
 
 After the assault upon Port Hudson, in which he took part, bchley 
 remained six months longer on the river service occupied in preparations 
 tending to reduce that stronghold. He was commissioned as lieutenant 
 July 18, 1862, only two years after leaving the Naval Academy. During 
 his service with the West Gulf squadron, Schley had served on the steam- 
 sloop Monongahela and subsequently on the Richmond. At the close of 
 the Civil War, Schley was ordered to the Pacific coast to serve in the 
 Pacific squadron. From 1864 to 1866, he was attached to the steam gun- 
 boat Wateree, as executive officer, and performed various missions of a 
 perilous character, being present at the bombardment of Valparaiso and 
 Callao by the Spanish fleet, and during the same cruise he suppressed, at 
 Middle Chincha Island and at La Union, Honduras, an insurrection 
 among the Chinese coolies. 
 
 At the latter place he landed with one hundred men to protect the 
 custom-house and United States consulate during the revolution. He was 
 commissioned a lieutenant-commander in July, 1866, and, upon his return 
 from the Pacific, was ordered to the United States Naval Academy, where 
 he remained until 1869, as instructor. At the close of his period of shore 
 service at the academy he was appointed lieutenant-commander of the 
 
 17 
 
258 ADMIRAL WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY. 
 
 United States ship Benicia, and served in her on the Asiatic station until 
 1872. While on board the Benicia, Schley took part in an attack on the forces 
 defending the fort on the Salee River, in Corea, wherein the Coreans 
 were taught a lesson in regard to the power of the United States that they 
 will probably long remember. 
 
 The Coreans had treacherously attacked and fired on the United 
 States survey-boats in the Han River. After waiting some time for an apol- 
 ogy or explanation from the Corean government, and as none was forthcom- 
 ing, Lieutenant-Commander Schley was ordered to take charge of the land 
 expedition of chastisement, consisting of 650 men and seven howitzers. The 
 valor of the United States marines and the splendid marksmanship of the 
 Dahlgren batteries on land greatly assisted Schley and his command, and 
 the Rv^ fortifications were destroyed as fully as shell, sword, shovel, fire 
 and sledge could do the work. After administering this punishment, 
 Schley landed his forces safely on the decks again, and at an early oppor- 
 tunity thereafter the Coreans made a treaty of peace. On this occasion, 
 as on all others requiring dash, courage and coolness, Schley did not lack 
 the necessary qualities. 
 
 VOYAGE TO NORTH POLAR REGIONS. 
 
 When the Greely relief expedition was organized, in 1884, Schley 
 was sent in command of it to the North Polar regions, and on June 2 2d, 
 he rescued Lieut. Greely and six survivors off Cape Sabine, and brought 
 them home with characteristic promptitude. Partly as a reward for his 
 service he was promoted by President Arthur to be chief of the Bureau 
 of Equipment and Recruiting in the Navy Department in which post he 
 served until 1888. He was reappointed to the same position by President 
 Cleveland, but resigned the office in 1889. 
 
 While in the Bureau he was promoted to a captaincy, and in leaving 
 the position was in the same year given command of the new cruiser 
 Baltimore, and served with her on the North Atlantic, European, and 
 South Pacific stations. During his command of the Baltimore, he carried 
 back to Stockholm, Sweden, the remains of the late John Ericsson, the 
 
ADMIRAL WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY. 
 
 259 
 
 distinguished inventor of the Monitor. Schley was in command of the 
 Baltimore during the complications and trouble with Valparaiso, Chile, 
 in 1891. In 1893, he was called to do duty as lighthouse inspector of 
 the third lighthouse district at Tompkinsville, New York. He was made 
 chairman of the Lighthouse Board, April 15, 1897, an( ^ later served as 
 president of the same board. It will be seen from this chronicle of duties 
 and adventures that Commodore Schley is the hero of a particularly lively 
 
 TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF THE SPANISH FLEET NEAR SANTIAGO. 
 
 career. He is a man of tireless activity and possesses a brain fertile in 
 expedients. 
 
 In May, 1898, Schley was promoted to be commodore, and was given 
 command of the Flying Squadron. On the third of July, 1898, occurred 
 the memorable battle of Santiago de Cuba, one of the liveliest achieve- 
 ments in modern naval warfare. In the battle Commodore Schley was 
 destined to perform the chief act of his life. In the temporary absence 
 of Admiral Sampson, the command of the blockading fleet fell upon 
 Commodore Schley, and he performed his duties with the highest credit 
 
260 ADMIRAL WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY. 
 
 to himself and to his country. For the first time in history great battle- 
 ships of modern construction were pitted against each other and the 
 expected action off the coast of Cuba was looked forward to with great 
 interest by all students of scientific naval warfare. 
 
 The Spanish fleet included four great war vessels, each of 7000 tons 
 displacement. Their armament embraced a number of ten and eleven- 
 inch guns, and though the American battleships were somewhat larger 
 and heavier, and their armament included some thirteen-inch guns, it 
 was not entirely due to the odds against Spain that her fleet was 
 destroyed. It was due more to the level and decisive action of Schley and 
 to his fine tactics in conjunction with the other captains of the American 
 
 war vessels. 
 
 SUPERB COURAGE AND COOL HEAD. 
 
 Admiral Sampson was miles away on a reconnoitering cruise at the 
 hour of Admiral Cervera's fatal attempt to dash out of the harbor at San- 
 tiago, and it was well for the American forces that the officer ranking 
 next in command was one so competent as Commodore Schley. The 
 destruction of the enemy's ships on the occasion could not have been more 
 effectively accomplished and reflected great credit on Schley and the other 
 commanders of the American vessels. The superb courage and resource- 
 ful brain of Commodore Schley on this occasion gained him the honor 
 of leading the great fight which closed Spain's sea power in the New 
 World. In all the history of naval warfare nothing like this result has 
 been chronicled, and the crushing of Spain's fleet by Schley and his 
 brave men gives to them a lasting place of honor among the heroes of 
 great American sea fights. 
 
 The reader will be interested in the details of the battle at Santiago, 
 in which our Jack Tars displayed such splendid valor. 
 
 The fleet of Admiral Cervera had long been shut up in the harbor 
 of Santiago, and during the two days' fighting gave effective aid to the 
 Spanish infantry by throwing shells into the ranks of the Americans. 
 Cervera's fleet, consisting of the armored cruisers Cristobal Colon, 
 Almiraute Oquendo, Infanta Maria Teresa and Vizcaya, and two torpedo- 
 
ADMIRAL WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY. 
 
 261 
 
 boat destroyers, the Furor and the Pluton, which had been held in the 
 harbor of Santiago de Cuba for six weeks by the combined squadrons of 
 Rear-Admiral Sampson and Commodore Schley, was sent to the bottom 
 of the Caribbean Sea off the southern coast of Cuba. 
 
 Admiral Cervera made as gallant a dash for liberty and foi the pres- 
 ervation of his ships as has ever occurred in the history of naval war- 
 fare. In the face of overwhelming odds, with uothing before him but 
 inevitable destruction or sur- 
 render if he remained any 
 longer in the trap in which 
 the American fleet held him, 
 he made a bold dash from the 
 harbor at the time the Ameri- 
 cans least expected him to do 
 so, and, fighting every inch of 
 his way, even when his ship 
 was ablaze and sinking, he 
 tried to escape the doom which 
 was written on the muzzle of 
 every American gun trained 
 upon his vessels. 
 
 The Americans saw him 
 the moment he left the harbor 
 and commenced their work of admiral cervera 
 
 destruction immediately. For an hour or two they followed the flying 
 Spaniards to the westward along the shore line, sending shot after shot 
 into their blazing hulls, tearing great holes in their steel sides, and 
 covering their decks with the blood of the killed and wounded who had 
 fallen during the action. 
 
 At no time did the Spaniards show any indication that they intended 
 to do otherwise than fight to the last. They displayed no signals to 
 surrender even when their ships commenced to sink and the great, dark 
 clouds of smoke pouring from their sides showed they were on fire. But 
 
262 ADMIRAL WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY. 
 
 they turned their heads toward the shore, less than a mile away, and ran 
 them on the beach and rocks, where their destruction was completed in 
 an incredibly short space of time. 
 
 Heavy explosions of ammunition occurred every few minutes, send- 
 ing curls of dense white smoke a hundred feet in the air and causing a 
 shower of broken iron and steel to fall in the water on every side. The 
 bluffs on the coast line echoed with the roar of every explosion, and the 
 Spanish vessels sank deeper and deeper into the sand or else the rocks 
 ground their hulls to pieces as they rolled or pitched forward or sideways 
 with every wave that washed upon them from the open sea. 
 
 SENT BOAT TO SAVE SPANISH ADMIRAL. 
 
 Admiral Cervera escaped to the shore in a boat sent by the Glouces- 
 ter to the assistance of the Infanta Maria Teresa, and as soon as he 
 touched the beach he surrendered himself and his command to Lieu- 
 tenant Morton and asked to be taken on board the Gloucester, which 
 was the only American vessel near him at the time, with several of his 
 officers, including the captain of the flagship. The Spanish admiral, 
 who was wounded in the arm, was taken to the Gloucester, and was 
 received at her gangway by her commander, Lieutenant Commander 
 Richard Wainwright, who grasped the hand of the graybearded admiral 
 and said to him : 
 
 " I congratulate you, sir, upon having made as gallant a fight as 
 was ever witnessed on the sea." 
 
 Lieutenant Commander Wainwright then placed his cabin at the 
 disposal of the Spanish officers. Al that time the Spanish flagship and 
 four other Spanish vessels had been aground and burning for two hours, 
 and the only one of the escaping fleet which could not be seen at this 
 point was the Cristobal Colon. But half a dozen curls of smoke far down 
 on the western horizon showed the fate that was awaiting her. 
 
 The Cristobal Colon was the fastest of the Spanish ships, and she 
 soon obtained a lead over the others after leaving the harbor, and 
 escaped the effect of the shots which destroyed the other vessels. Sbe 
 
ADMIRAL WINFIELI) SCOTT SCHLEY 
 
 263 
 
 steamed away at great speed with the Oregon, New York, Brooklyn and 
 several other ships in pursuit, all of them firing at her constantly and 
 receiving fire themselves from her after guns. There seemed no possi- 
 bility whatever for, her escape, and while her fate was not definitely 
 known for some time, it was predicted from the words of Captain Robley 
 D. Evans, of the Iowa, who returned from the westward with 340 
 prisoners from the Vizcaya. 
 
 In answer to an inquiry, he shouted through the megaphone : " I 
 left the Cristobal Colon far to the westward an hour ago, and the Oregon 
 
 THE BATTLESHIP IOWA. 
 
 was giving her thunder. She has undoubtedly gone with the others, and 
 we will have a Fourth of July celebration in Santiago to-morrow." Cap- 
 tain Evans, who had been in the thick of the engagement up to the time 
 he took the Vizcaya' s officers and crew from the shore, said that to the 
 best of his knowledge not one American ship had been struck. The 
 torpedo-boat Ericsson, which also returned from the westward at about 
 the same time, made a similar report, saying it was believed no man was 
 injured on board the American ships, though another report had it tha" 
 one man was killed aboard the Brooklyn. This report was afterward.-; 
 confirmed. 
 
264 
 
 ADMIRAL WINFIKLD SCOTT SCHLEY. 
 
 Another account by an eye-witness gives additional particulars of 
 the great battle : "Three of the Spanish cruisers that were bottled up in 
 Santiago harbor and two torpedo-boat destroyers were pounded into help- 
 less hulks by the guns of Admiral Sampson's fleet on Sunday in a vain 
 attempt to escape from the harbor. The vessels were beached in a last 
 effort to save as many of the lives of the crews as possible. Admiral 
 Cervera, on board the Maria Teresa, headed his fleet in the attempt to get 
 away rt about half-past 9 o'clock. So little were the Americans expect- 
 
 THE BATTLESHIP OREGON. 
 
 ing the dash that the flagship New York was cruising up the coast to the 
 east and returned only in time to see the finish of the fight and to fire a 
 shot or two at the torpedo-boat destroyers. 
 
 'The Iowa, Indiana, Oregon, Massachusetts, Texas, Brooklyn and 
 the converted yacht Gloucester, formerly the Corsair, formed in position 
 to give battle as soon as the Colon was sighted rounding the wreck of the 
 Merrimac. 
 
 " The American vessels did not open fire at once ; they waited until 
 Cervera' s ships were out of the range of Morro's guns before giving battle. 
 
ADMIRAL WIN FIELD SCOTT SCHLEY. 265 
 
 Cervera headed to the west, the Colon in the lead, followed by the Vizcaya 
 and Oqnendo and the destroyers, all firing rapidly. 
 
 "All of the American battleships opened fire at once, and the Spanish 
 were soon in a hurricane of shot and shell, but the Teresa kept on bravely 
 till when ten miles from the westward of Morro Castle, Admiral Cervera 
 turned his vessel to the shore and beached her. She was blazing in a 
 score of places, but her guns kept at work and the white flag never showed 
 until she was completely disabled. 
 
 "The Oquendo and Vizcaya were opposed to the Iowa, Texas and 
 Indiana, and went down to defeat with fearful swiftness, covering only 
 about half the distance made by the Colon before their captains ran them 
 ashore. Their crews fought with desperate bravery, but their courage 
 was no match for the courage of our men, added to their superb gunnery. 
 The Spanish shells went wild for the most part, but the American gun- 
 fire was marked by merciless precision. The two cruisers, both on fire, 
 were beached not more than one-quarter of a mile apart." 
 
 The annihilation of the Spanish fleet was an absorbing topic among 
 naval officials at Washington, and they gave most generous praise to 
 Commodore Schley for the notable manner in which he directed the fight, 
 when the immediate command fell to his lot. The Commodore's friends 
 predicted that if he secured an opportunity he would render good account 
 of the fighting ability of the American navy, and they were glad this 
 opportunity was afforded. 
 
 It was one more, and perhaps the greatest achievement in a long 
 line with which Commodore Schley's name has been associated ; others 
 included the relief of the Greely Arctic expedition and the command 
 of the Baltimore at Valparaiso when war was imminent as a result of a 
 mob attack on the American blue jackets. In recognition of his services 
 he was made Admiral. 
 

 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 COMMANDER WAINWRIGHT. 
 
 ONE OF THE NAVAL HEROES OF SANTIAGO— 
 HIS LITTLE BOAT SINKS TWO SPANISH 
 VESSELS — RECEIVES THE SURRENDER OF 
 THE SPANISH ADMIRAL — A MODEL OFFICER 
 OF PEERLESS BRAVERY. 
 
 To the names of Dewey, Schley and other heroes of our navy, who 
 distinguished themselves in the war with Spain, must be added that of 
 Richard Wainwright. At the battle of Santiago he was in command of 
 the Gloucester, a small vessel which was nothing more than a yacht that 
 had been '" converted, " in other words, changed and fitted up for naval 
 service. 
 
 The gallantry displayed by Wainwright during the engagement and 
 the heroic service he rendered with his plucky little craft were the wonder 
 and admiration of our whole country. He showed himself to be not only 
 a brave fighter, but a most gallant sailor and gentleman ; and although 
 a man of no dandy traits, but rather of rough and stern qualities, he 
 proved that beneath this exterior garb he carried a noble and generous 
 nature. His share is a large one in the glory of our victory over the 
 Spanish fleet. 
 
 "Mark my words, if Dick Wainwright ever gets to close quarters 
 with a Spanish ship there'll be a fight to the finish ; and, sink or swim, 
 Wainwright will make a name for himself that will live as long as there 
 is a navy." The prediction was made only a short time before the war 
 broke out by a naval officer in Key West ; it was verified off Santiago. 
 
 From that awful moment when Wainwright stood beside his captain 
 
 on the sinking quarter-deck of the Maine, when this ship was blown up 
 - 266 
 
COMMANDER RICHARD WAINWRIGHT. 
 
 26' 
 
 in the harbor of Havana, and gave the order to lower away the boats, he 
 looked forward to some snch opportunity as that which has now linked his 
 name with the Gloncester in the memorable battle that was so disastrous 
 to the warships of Spain. 
 
 No man knew better than he the ghastly horrors that followed that 
 
 MORRO CASTLE, HAVANA, CUBA. 
 
 night in Havana harbor. No man was more certain than he that the 
 Maine disaster was not an accident, and none was better qualified to 
 reach a jnst conclusion. During all the long weeks following the dis- 
 aster it was Wainwright who toiled beside the wreck and above it, from 
 dawn till dark, directing the divers' work, recovering the bodies of the 
 dead, familiar with every development of evidence, the confidant of 
 every grim secret brought to light by the submarine research. 
 
 Long after Captain Sigsbee and all his other subordinates had been 
 
268 
 
 COMMANDER RICHARD WAINWRIGHT. 
 
 relieved of their painful task, Wainwright, the sole surviving officer of 
 the Maine left in Havana harbor, pulled down the weather-stained flag 
 that had floated day and night from the shrouds of the wrecked battle- 
 ship. When Wainwright left Havana the United States Government 
 relinquished its sovereignty over the Maine. 
 
 The personality of the man who, with his battery of little six- 
 pounders, braved the fire of Spain's dreaded destroyers, and sent the 
 Pluton and the Furor ashore ablaze and riddled, is of no more than 
 
 WRECK OF THE UNITED STATES CRUISER MAINE IN THE HARBOR OF HAVANA 
 
 passing interest. Wainwright is a sailor to the core. Six feet tall or 
 more, but a trifle too lean to look athletic, he is, nevertheless, a man 
 for action. He is one of those men whose anatomy seems all brains and 
 bone and sinew. Still on the junior side of middle life, he is old enough 
 to have a face that impresses one as serious, until the keen blue eyes 
 light up with merriment or, it may be, with scorn. 
 
 As he appeared after the wreck of the Maine, his skin was bronzed 
 to the color of leather by exposure to the tropical sun. He always wore 
 
COMMODORE RICHARD WAINWRIGHT. 26<> 
 
 a weather-beaten undress naval coat, much the worse for wear. Indeed, 
 he had no other left from the wreck than the one he had on his back. 
 He was the busiest man in Havana except, perchance, the good chaplain, 
 Father Chidwick, and the undertaker, but he always had time for a 
 smiling greeting and a firm hand grasp, and was ever ready to talk 
 except when questions intruded on forbidden ground. No man in the 
 service observed more faithfully than he the department's injunction of 
 secrecy on all topics pertaining to the sinking of the Maine. Yet 
 Wainwright' s views were no great secret. You could read them in his 
 rigid face and hard set jaw as he went about his gruesome work. 
 
 ONLY WAITED HIS OPPORTUNITY. 
 
 Captain Sigsbee betrayed no secret when he said, speaking of his 
 executive officer : ' Wainwright felt very vindictive about the Maine 
 disaster, and was always longing for a chance to get at the Spanish. I 
 used to laugh at his bellicosity, it was so extreme. It was not the kind, 
 however, which expends itself wholly in talk." 
 
 Verily, if ever a man remembered the Maine, Dick Wainwright did. 
 Big-hearted, as are most brave men, the death of 266 of his gallant sub- 
 ordinates left a wound that would not heal. He was as popular with 
 them as with his fellow-officers. Though a strict disciplinarian, the 
 Maine's executive officer during the two months he had been attached to 
 the ship in that capacity had won his way to their hearts. 
 
 Lacking somewhat the charming personality, the magnetism and 
 the rare conversational powers of his chief, Captain Sigsbee, Wainwright 
 had endeared himself by his sterling, manly qualities and unassuming 
 manner. He was prompt always in action, a master of the duties of his 
 profession, firm, without severity, strict, but not a martinet ; dignified 
 always, but haughty never — in short, an almost perfect type of the 
 trained American seaman. Quarter-deck and forecastle alike voted him 
 a thoroughbred officer. 
 
 Small wonder the hero of the Gloucester felt that he had a long 
 score to settle when he plunged his little pleasure yacht into the thick of 
 
270 COMMANDER RICHARD WAINWRIGHT. 
 
 the fight and pumped his baby battery against the ribs of every Spanish 
 craft in sight. But Wainwright was a generous foe. As Bayard Taylor 
 has said, "The bravest are the tenderest." When the gray-haired admiral 
 of Spain was brought, a prisoner of war, aboard the Gloucester, broken 
 in spirit and wounded in body, Wainwright received him at the gangway 
 with outstretched hand : 
 
 " I congratulate you, sir, upon having made as gallant a fight as was 
 ever witnessed on the sea." Generous, chivalric words, these, and we 
 can well imagine the cordial hand grasp that attended them, and the 
 unstudied courtesy with which the commander of the victorious Gloucester 
 turned over the privacy of his own cabin, while the defeated admiral was 
 left alone with his grief. Wainwright' s taciturn face is a stranger to 
 tears, but he could understand the sorrow of one who weeps for his 
 slaughtered comrades and his stricken ship. 
 
 FIGHTING NOT A SAFE BUSINESS. 
 
 Commander Wainwright, among other officers, was detailed to write 
 a treatise discussing the following question : "If about to go into action, 
 what disposition would you make of your small boats with a view of 
 securing the greatest safety of your men ? " 
 
 Wainwright' s reply was an able one. The pith of it, however, was 
 substantially contained in the following : "If about to go into action in 
 comparatively shallow water, I should, if time permitted, strip the vessel 
 clear of her small boats and moor them safely at a distance until after 
 the fight. If pressed for time, I should simply put them adrift. If about 
 to go into action in deep water, I should set my boats adrift anyhow, 
 leaving the ship and her officers and crew to take the chances of war. 
 Fighting cannot be made a safe business." 
 
 Mr. Wainwright probably inherits his fighting instinct. He is a son 
 of old Commodore Wainwright, and comes of good fighting stock. His 
 appointment to the Naval Academy was from the District of Columbia, 
 and during his course he attended strictly to his studies, was always 
 ready for any duty assigned him, and, although not regarded as a bril- 
 
COMMANDER RICHARD WAINWRIGHT. 271 
 
 liant cadet, it was predicted that lie would prove his solid worth and show 
 strong qualities if the opportunity for doing so ever came to him. 
 
 His heroism will appear from the accounts given of the battle at 
 Santiago. The Spanish ships came out of the harbor, not with any 
 thought that our fleet could be defeated, but with the hope of escaping. 
 The lookout on the American vessels, which were lying five to ten miles 
 off the entrance to the harbor, sighted them immediately. Most of the 
 American cruisers were at the usual Sunday morning quarters without 
 thought of anything as surprising as the Spanish fleet making its 
 appearance. 
 
 There was great excitement at once, and very rapid action all along 
 che American lines. The signal for u full speed ahead" was running 
 from bridge to engine room of every ship, and the entire fleet commenced 
 to move in shore towards the Spanish, and the great twelve and thirteen- 
 inch guns of the battleships and the smaller batteries on the other vessels 
 fired shot after shot at long range, striving to get near the foe. 
 
 A DESPERATE RACE FOR SAFETY. 
 
 As the ships ran in toward the shore it soon became evident that 
 the Spaniards had not come out to make an aggressive fight, for they 
 turned to the westward as soon as they had cleared the harbor, and started 
 on their race for safety, at the same time sending answering shots at the 
 American ships as fast as the men could load and fire the guns. The 
 Brooklyn, Massachusetts, Texas, Oregon and Iowa were nearer the Span- 
 iards than any others of the American vessels, but still most of them 
 were too far away to get an effective range. They crowded on all steam, 
 however, in preparation for the chase, never stopping their fire for one 
 moment. 
 
 The Gloucester, a fast little yacht that could not boast of any heavier 
 battery than several six-pounders and three-pounders, was lying off 
 Aguadores, three miles east of Morro, when the Spaniards came out. 
 At first she joined in the attack upon a large vessel and then held off, 
 Captain Wainw right concluding to reserve his efforts for the two torpedo 
 
272 COMMANDER RICHARD WAINWRIGHT. 
 
 boat destroyers in the rear. The Gloucester steamed after them when 
 they appeared, and chased them to a point five miles west of Monro 
 pouring shot after shot into them all the time. Her efforts bore abund- 
 ant fruit, for to her belongs the credit for the destruction of both of the 
 destroyers. She fired 1400 shots during the chase, and it was not long 
 before both destroyers were on fire and plainly disabled. 
 
 Notwithstanding this, they both returned the Gloucester's fire, aud 
 a shower of small shells fell all around the yacht. The Furor evidently 
 determined that she would not stand the fire any longer, and she put 
 about and headed back for Santiago. Then the Gloucester simply 
 smothered her with shots from her rapid-fire guns, and running like the 
 wind, forced her to turn and again head westward. 
 
 CREW TOOK TO THEIR EOATS. 
 
 Smoke commenced to rise from the Furor's sides, and sht put in 
 towards the shore. Before she had gone far, what was left of her crew 
 abandoned her and took to the boats, reaching the shore later. By that 
 time she was a mass of flame, and was drifting about helplessly. The 
 Pluton was in the same distressed condition, and was also headed for the 
 shore, running up alongside of a low bluff, where she soon pounded to 
 pieces and finally broke in two completely. It was a most dangerous 
 landing place for her crew, and but about half of them reached the shore 
 alive. 
 
 The Gloucester did not go any further west, but lay off shore and 
 sent a boat to the assistance of the crews of the destroyers. It did not 
 take the flames long to reach the Furor's magazine, and there were two 
 terrific explosions, probably of the gun-cotton aboard of her, which blew 
 holes in her bottom. Her stern sunk immediately, and as it settled in 
 the water her bow rose straight in the air and she went to the bottom in 
 perpetual oblivion, giving out a hissing, scalding sound as she disap- 
 peared below the surface. 
 
 From his position on the bridge of the Gloucester Lieutenant-Com- 
 mander Wainwright watched the flames and smoke roaring through the 
 
COMMANDER RICHARD WAINWR1GHT. 27:5 
 
 decks of the three greatest warships of the Spanish navy, which were 
 soon to be reduced to nothing but shattered masts and twisted smoke- 
 stacks protruding above the water. It was not strange, therefore, that he 
 remarked to his brother officers beside him : " The Maine is avenged ! " 
 When the Pluton and the Furor sank the Gloucester's boat picked 
 up as many of the survivors as she could find on the shore. The pris- 
 oners of war included the captains of both boats. None offered any 
 resistance, and all were glad to go to the Gloucester, as they feared an 
 attack from the Cubans. 
 
 SAD FATE OF THE SPANISH ADMIRAL. 
 
 Soon after Admiral Cervera reached the shore and surrendered he 
 was taken to the Gloucester at his own request. There was no mis- 
 taking the heartbroken expression upon his face as he took the proffered 
 hand of Lieutenant-Commander Wainwright and was shown to the lat- 
 ter' s cabin, but he made every effort to bear bravely the bitter defeat that 
 had come to him. He thanked the captain of the Gloucester for the 
 words of congratulation offered on the gallant fight, and then spoke 
 earnestly of his solicitude for the safety of his men on shore. 
 
 An eye-witness of the engagement says : " A most dramatic feature 
 of the battle was the contest between the torpedo-boat destroyers and 
 the Gloucester. The latter was struck several times, and is the only 
 American vessel reported damaged. At first the Gloucester fired upon 
 them with her six pounders, but they ran past her and engaged the bat- 
 tleships. Finding the fire too hot, they turned and attacked the Glouces- 
 ter again until both destroyers were afire and had to be beached. Their 
 crews threw themselves into the surf to save their lives. Just before 
 this the New York came up and assisted in giving the finishing blow to 
 the destroyers. There was explosion after explosion from the beached 
 vessels." 
 
 Wainwright not only proved himself to be a dauntless fighter, but 
 
 a considerate and generous conqueror, and with a heart as tender as that 
 
 of a woman. 
 18 
 
JOAN OF ARC 
 
 RENOWNED MAID OF ORLEANS — HER RELIGIOUS 
 ENTHUSIASM — LEADS AN ARMY AND GAINS VIC- 
 TORIES — THWARTED BY HER ENEMIES — HER 
 TRAGIC MARTYRDOM — MOST ILLUSTRIOUS OF 
 THE HEROINES OF HISTORY. 
 
 The writer of this history has often met the female peasants in the 
 sonth of France riding to market, in a manner which may perhaps 
 amuse the reader. They were dressed in white muslin caps, with very 
 broad and full borders, flying back from the face. With these they wore 
 long, gay-colored calico mantles, floating behind them in the wind. 
 
 They were mounted on immense shaggy horses, stretching forth a 
 stout limb horizontally from the pack-saddle on which they sat, along each 
 side of the horse's neck. The feet and ankles were defended from the 
 weather by wooden shoes and short scarlet stockings, the latter closely 
 gartered round the calves of the legs, while the hem of the petticoat was 
 tucked carefully under the garters, so as to secure the warmth of the 
 knees, which must otherwise have remained uncovered. 
 
 How these equestriennes could keep their seats in this awkward and 
 insecure position while their horses trotted briskly along was matter of 
 astonishment to the writer, until one of them good-humoredly explained 
 the mystery by remarking that " habit makes all things easy." 
 
 It is asserted that in former days females of every rank rode on 
 
 horseback in a similar manner, and that it was not then considered 
 
 either unfeminine or ungraceful. Whether this be true or not there 
 
 was, at the period of which we write, one female, at least, whose 
 274 
 
JOAN OF ARC. 275 
 
 dexterity on horseback excited universal admiration, and became well 
 worthy of record. She was a young peasant girl of the province of 
 Lorraine, who, to assist in supporting her parents, had hired with the 
 proprietor of a small inn at a village called Domremy, where her chief 
 employment was leading and sometimes riding, the horses of the inn- 
 keeper to water. She was of perfectly irreproachable life and amiable 
 character, possessing a degree of intellect which those around her had 
 not acuteuess to perceive, although it in general attracted the notice of 
 
 travelers. 
 
 A CONTEST BETWEEN KINGS. 
 
 Her occupation, which afforded little or no scope for the improve- 
 ment of her mind, had of late procured her hourly opportunities of 
 hearing the current news of the day, and of learning all the reports 
 which were at this time carried to and from the city of Orleans. Her 
 ardent mind became inflamed with sentiments of pity for Charles VII., 
 and interest in the siege on which his fate depended. At this time the 
 rival factions of the Orleanists and Burgundians desolated France by 
 their wars — the former supporting Charles VII. for the throne, and the 
 atter Henry V., of England. 
 
 The sufferings of the brave and loyal defenders of the town, and, 
 above all, the distresses of their monarch, filled the maiden's thoughts by 
 day, and influenced her dreams by night. She was seized with an 
 enthusiastic desire to aid her sovereign in this, his extremity, and felt 
 that, since hope was abandoned by all others, the voice of even such an 
 humble individual as herself might possibly rouse the universal feeling 
 of pity into a spirit of active exertion, calculated to serve his cause. 
 At all events, her making the attempt could, she thought, do no injury. 
 
 " A mouse once set a lion free ; 
 A slave a king ; — then why not she ? " 
 
 So argued this simple peasant girl, who probably imagined, like 
 many wiser persons, that " all things are possible to those who think them 
 so." What is there that an eager mind will not attempt ? and what is 
 
276 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 there, indeed, which it may not achieve, if its ardor is wisely directed ? 
 What pity, then, that wisdom and enthusiasm are so seldom found 
 working together, hand in hand. The young person of whom we speak, 
 from constantly ruminating on the subject of her sovereign's wrongs, 
 at length began to feel that the desire with which her soul was filled had 
 been kindled by divine inspiration, and that she was destined to become 
 the means of effecting the deliverance of Charles VII. 
 
 SETS OUT ON HER PERILOUS EXPEDITION. 
 
 She foresaw all the peril that must attend her attempt, whether it 
 should prove successful or otherwise ; but she felt within herself a 
 degree of courage" and intrepidity that told her she could, in such a cause, 
 encounter any danger, endure any fatigue, and submit to every hard- 
 ship and privation. She therefore cast away the diffidence attendant on 
 her low station, as well as the timidity naturally belonging to her char- 
 acter, and, unknown to any person, set out from Domremy, whence, 
 making her way to Vaucouleurs, the nearest town of any note, she at 
 once demanded an interview with the governor. 
 
 Compliance with the demand was at first rudely refused, and the 
 denial was positively and frequently repeated ; but she expected difficulty 
 and was not discouraged. Her unceasing and importunate solicitations 
 at length obtained admission to the mayor, from whom she instantly 
 entreated a safe conduct to the presence of her king, saying she had 
 information to communicate to his private ear, which would reverse his 
 present evil fortune, and place him securely on the throne of his 
 ancestors. 
 
 The governor, when at length induced to hearken to her strange 
 assertion, perceiving that such an idea, however wild and visionary, 
 might prove beneficial to Charles, by raising a superstitious confidence 
 amongst his subjects, gave her, after some hesitation, the escort she 
 required, and Joan d'Arc (for so the maid was called) forthwith set out, 
 attended by a guard of soldiers, to the residence of the prince. Charles was 
 then living in retirement at Chinon, where a note being delivered to him 
 
JOAN OF ARC. 277 
 
 from the governor of Vaucouleurs, instantly procured our heroiue 
 admission to his presence. 
 
 Nothing could exceed the astonishment of the king on seeing a 
 young peasant girl ushered into his apartment, who stood for some time 
 silently scrutinizing the company. So soon as she could summon 
 courage to speak she fixed her eyes on Charles, and said that she was 
 come by the appointment of Heaven to assist in raising the siege of 
 Orleans, and that she would, when that achievement was effected, con- 
 duct him to the city of Rheims, there to be crowned and anointed king 
 of France. There was something in the dauntless manner, humble 
 appearance, but still more in the wild assertion of this young person, 
 that made it impossible for Charles, or those around him, to refuse her 
 their attention ; nor could they, after she had withdrawn, dismiss from 
 their minds the subject of her conversation. 
 
 PRONOUNCED BY CLERGY A TRUE PROPHETESS. 
 
 Knowing the character of the French people, they were struck with 
 a conviction of the good effects which might result from her strange pre- 
 dictions if, at the present momentous crisis of affairs, they should 
 awaken hope, and inspire the disheartened soldiers with renewed 
 courage. That greater publicity might be given to her prophecy, they 
 expressed an entire disbelief of all she had uttered, but convened a 
 council of learned clergy to examine her predictions, and declare 
 whether or not she was to be considered a false prophetess, or one on 
 whom the nation might with safety rely. 
 
 The council immediately met, and found it to their interest to say 
 she was a true prophetess; and as stratagems are unhappily thought 
 allowable in war, they publicly avowed their opinion that she was 
 divinely inspired ; asserting that she had known the king amongst a 
 number of other persons, although she had never before beheld him, and 
 that she had mentioned several circumstances concerning his private 
 life, such as she could only have discovered by inspiration. This put 
 the question beyond doubt in the minds of the ignorant; but besides, 
 
278 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 she had, it was reported, commanded to be brought to her from the 
 Church of St. Catherine de Fierbois, a certain sword which had lain 
 there unobserved for centuries, describing its marks and tokens, exactly 
 as it was found, and declaring that with that miraculous weapon she 
 would lead the French to victory. 
 
 Crowds of grave and learned men, who came to atteud the council, 
 left Chinon, either believing or pretending to believe, that she was an 
 instrument in the hand of Heaven, destined to work out the deliverance 
 of France. 
 
 The people, hearing the rumors which were afloat concerning the 
 prophetess of Domremy, flocked to the king's standard, anxious to share 
 in the glory of ner enterprise. French and English, besieging and 
 besieged, were alike excited and astonished by the story ; but while it 
 encouraged the followers of Charles, it damped the ardor of the British 
 soldiers ; and their commander saw with indignation and alarm, a spirit 
 of superstitious dread taking place of the dauntless bravery, for which 
 his troops had been hitherto distinguished. 
 
 GAVE ORDERS IN THE NAME OF HEAVEN. 
 
 Meantime Joan d'Arc was preparing alike for combat and conquest. 
 Her first act was to send a letter to the generals who command the besieg- 
 ing army, ordering them, in the name of the Great Being who held the 
 fate of nations in His hands, to raise the siege of Orleans, and march 
 quickly out of the kingdom, as the only method of saving themselves 
 from divine wrath. 
 
 The Duke of Bedford, commander of the British, and his officers, 
 professed to deride, alike the maid, her letter, and her predictions ; say- 
 ing, the affairs of Charles must be reduced to alow ebb, indeed, when he 
 could confide in the assistance of such a champion. Some, however, 
 amongst them, as well as the greater number of their soldiers, appeared 
 strongly impressed with an idea that this extraordinary woman was 
 appointed by Providence to place Charles on the throne. Bedford, alone, 
 continued to repel the supposition, and felt incensed by the probability 
 
 
JOAN OF ARC. 279 
 
 that it might finally lead to the defeat of his troops, and to the destruc- 
 tion of all those conquests which he had so nearly completed. He 
 evinced the utmost contempt for the superstitious credulity, which 
 appeared to be rapidly turning an army of veteran warriors into a herd 
 of timorous serfs ; and continued his schemes and operations exactly as 
 if the maid of Domremy were not in existence. 
 
 But our heroine felt similar contempt for his derision, and daunt- 
 lessly hastened forward the work which she had begun. 
 
 APPEARED ON A BEAUTIFUL BLACK HORSE. 
 
 The friends and relatives, with recruits of every description, who 
 daily crowded around her, were marshalled among the regular troops, 
 numbering in all 6,000, and on an appointed day, attended by two of her 
 brothers, she appeared at their head, mounted on a beautiful black 
 charger, ready to review them in person, in presence of the king. She 
 was clad in the military costume of a knight, bearing in her hand the 
 consecrated sword before mentioned ; and displaying such skill and dex- 
 terity in manoeuvring her soldiers, and managing her war horse that 
 shouts of enthusiastic applause rent the air, as she passed before the 
 people. 
 
 Having ordered her men to confess themselves, according to the 
 Catholic faith, before their departure on the intended enterprise, she set 
 out on her march, towards the town of Blois, attended by her attached 
 brothers, who never afterwards forsook her. At this town a convoy, with 
 provisions for the suffering inhabitants of Orleans, had been long wait- 
 ing for some leader, possessed of sufficient hardihood to conduct it past 
 the redoubts of the besieging army. But the convoy, it is believed, 
 might have remained there until now (so great was the terror of the 
 English arms) had not the heroine, with her miraculous sword and con- 
 secrated standard arrived, and volunteered to lead it forward. 
 
 Meantime the people within the walls were reduced to a state of 
 famine, which made a speedy death, even by the sword of their enemies, 
 appear preferable to the lingering tortures they had long endured. 
 
280 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 Numbers had sunk under disease and want, and the day, nay the 
 hour, was approaching, when the exhausted survivors must be compelled 
 to open their gates, and throw themselves on the mercy of their con- 
 querors. Rumors now, however, reached them through some chance 
 stragglers who had escaped the vigilance of their foes, telling of a mys- 
 terious prophetess, who was coming herself to set them free. The 
 dreaded hour of capitulation was, therefore, delayed. The watchmen on 
 the towers forgot the agonizing pangs of hunger, whilst, gazing beyond 
 the redoubts of the enemy, they hoped to descry some signs of the prom- 
 ised deliverer ; but days passed on, and no such liberator appeared. 
 
 At length, on one side of the city, were heard sounds of war ; and 
 at a short distance.from their outposts, the English observed a formidable 
 force, hastening to attack them. 
 
 ARRIVAL OF TROOPS AT A CRITICAL MOMENT. 
 
 As many troops as could be spared were immediately collected by 
 Bedford, from the bridge, and from all the surrounding intrenchments, 
 and every preparation was quickly made for battle. The attack com- 
 menced, and was received by the English with their accustomed bravery, 
 which, through the exertions of their general, appeared likely to be 
 crowned with complete victory ; but whilst the anxious inhabitants 
 watched from the ramparts the issue of this engagement, terrified by the 
 rapid success of their foes, they descried a body of French troops 
 approaching the town from an opposite quarter, covering a small squad- 
 ron of boats, which stole quietly up the river, almost within gunshot of 
 the fortifications on the bridge. 
 
 The detachment by whom the little fleet was guarded, placed itself 
 in battle array on the river's bank ; whilst a female, standing erect in 
 the foremost boat, carrying in one hand a glittering sword, and with the 
 other waving a standard before her followers, conducted her little train 
 of vessels to the opposite shore ; and even within sight of the enemy, 
 boldly disembarked her troops and provisions. 
 
 The garrison, within the towers of the bridge, looked with astonish- 
 
JOAN OF ARC. 281 
 
 ment on the scene; and reduced as they were in number, dared not qnit 
 the fortifications which the French stood ready to seize, should their 
 troops move forward to intercept the supplies. 
 
 Even Lord Suffolk himself, the hitherto intrepid and successful 
 defeuder of the bridge, viewed with surprise, not unmingled with admira- 
 tion, the progress of this little party and the dauntless bearing of its 
 female leader; appearing to be at length struck with the common belief, 
 that she was led forward under divine guidance. The passage of the 
 river was made good. The troops and provisions disembarked, and then 
 headed by their inspired conductress, the detachment marched straight 
 forward to the city and appeared ready to enter. 
 
 MARCHED THROUGH THE GATES IN SAFETY. 
 
 Those gates which the inhabitants apprehended must be opened 
 to admit the enemy, were now, in trembling silence, cautiously un- 
 barred, and the Maid of Orleans, for so from this moment she was 
 named, with her entire convoy, entered in safety. The gates were 
 once more closed, the bars drawn, and, as they shut in the last soldier 
 of the escort, a shout of exultation burst like a peal of thunder, within 
 the walls; even the sick and dying lending their feeble voices to assist 
 in that triumphant cry, the sound of which brought hope and joy to 
 each and every desponding heart. Every bell in the city was instantly 
 in motion, and the tumultuous clang of triumph and rejoicing was 
 carried even to the ears of the besiegers, increasing their mortifica- 
 tion, and seeming to assure them that their day of victory was hastening 
 to its close. 
 
 The provisions, which had been introduced to the town, would now, 
 they knew, enable the garrison to hold out for a protracted length of 
 time; and their augmented terror confirmed their belief that the 
 enchantress, who had hitherto achieved such wonders, was raised up for 
 the utter destruction of the English. The relief to the inhabitants of 
 Orleans, therefore, was doubly advantageous to the cause of the French 
 king ; and even the supply of provisions was lightly regarded by the 
 
282 JOAN OF ARC 
 
 famishing garrison, in comparison with the joy of having their miracu- 
 lous protectress safely enclosed within their walls. 
 
 From this moment the state of the contending parties appeared 
 reversed; and already the former conquerors were looked upon as con- 
 quered. But there was still much to be done; and our bold enthusiast, 
 hourly confirmed in the belief that she was protected by the hand of 
 Heaven, felt eager to meet her enemies in the field. 
 
 She delayed only for a short time to let the garrison gather strength ; 
 and then, collecting around her all who were able for the enterprise, 
 made a vigorous sally from the walls, and bravely attacked the English 
 intrechments. One of the strongest forts was seized without resistance, 
 the terrified soldiers having scarcely ventured to strike a blow in their 
 own defence, and the garrison was brought captive to Orleans, increasing 
 the exultation of its inhabitants. 
 
 CAME TO REGARD HER AS INVINCIBLE. 
 
 After these repeated successes, both the followers and adversaries 
 of the warlike maiden considered her invincible ; and the strength and 
 courage of the English diminished as rapidly as that of the French in 
 creased. 
 
 Her next exploit was to attack the fortifications on the bridge, as 
 possession of that pass was indispensable to her final success. These 
 were, therefore, boldly assailed, but not so easily captured. The Duke 
 of Bedford before obeying a new and mortifying summons to depart for 
 England, had hastened to the spot, and endeavored to revive the drooping 
 courage of his troops, by promising to lead them in person once more to 
 victory. Through his exertions, the French were driven back, and their 
 valiant conductress forced for a short time to retire ; but, knowing that 
 the slightest reverse of fortune would cancel all her claims to invincibil- 
 ity, she returned ; and standing alone, waving her sacred banner in the 
 air, besought her flying troops to renew the charge. Her glowing 
 countenance, animated gestures, and vehement exhortations, recalled the 
 renegades ; they renewed the attack; and emulating the courage of their 
 
JOAN OF ARC AT THE STORMING OF ORLEANS, 
 
 283 
 
C84 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 all-conquering leader, rushed with such impetuosity upon the English, 
 that they were on the point of carrying the day when an arrow, which 
 had been aimed at Joan by one of the English archers, struck her in the 
 neck and compelled her to stay her course. 
 
 All seemed now lost ! Those who observed the disaster stood still in 
 despair ; but, seeming completely to despise the accident, she com 
 manded the officers who stood near her to advance and lead their com- 
 panions to victory, declaring she would make but an instant's delay, and 
 speedily overtake them. She then retired a few paces, pulled out the 
 arrow with her own hand, had the blood staunched, and, remounting her 
 horse, galloped back to her troops, just in time to plant her sacred 
 standard on the ramparts of the captured fortress, which now afforded 
 all the friends of Charles free access to the town. 
 
 RAPTURE AT THE DECISIVE VICTORY. 
 
 How shall we describe the ■ rapture of the citizens at this decisive 
 victory ? The Duke of Bedford conquered in person, the bridge laid 
 open, the town no longer surrounded, and its inhabitants free ! It was 
 not with shouts of applause that Joan was welcomed back at this her 
 third entrance ; it was rather with the silent homage of reverential awe, 
 which they considered due to a supernatural power. 
 
 The English had lost in these engagements above six thousand men ; 
 and what was still more fatal to their cause, the survivors appeared 
 entirely deprived of that intrepid hardihood for which they had been so 
 long renowned. None of the generals had the slightest power to revive 
 their courage, except the Duke of Bedford himself ; and, as if to sink 
 the troops still deeper in despondency, he was, at this moment of theii 
 utmost need, called away from them to England on some frivolous pre- 
 tense. 
 
 Lord Suffolk, who was left in the command, whilst endeavoring to 
 combat their credulity, felt unable to deny the various proofs which his 
 ni~:i brought forward, of the maiden being guided by supernatural power. 
 Nor did his declaration that, if so, she must be aided by a diabolical, not 
 
JOAN OF ARC. 285 
 
 a divine spirit, tend to restore their courage or dispel their superstitious 
 forebodings ; since they naturally replied that the chastenings of a benev- 
 olent being would be greatly preferable to the persecutions of a mali- 
 cious one. 
 
 Perceiving that it was vain any longer to oppose a feeling which was 
 iikely to bring destruction on the entire army, Suffolk determined to raise 
 che siege, and, in the dead of night, commenced a retreat. 
 
 GATES OPEN AND ENEMY IN FULL RETREAT. 
 
 He was immediately followed, and driven from the walls b} 7 the 
 maid of Domremy. "Behold my first prophesy fulfilled! " she exclaimed, 
 on returning with her victorious forces, after chasing the besiegers to a 
 considerable distance. "Did I not say that I would raise this siege, and 
 put to flight the enemies of my country ? Now, if there be no unneces- 
 sary delay, I will with equal certainty fulfil my second prediction, and 
 have my prince crowned at the city of Rheims with the honors due to a 
 sovereign of France. " 
 
 But improbable as the recapture of Orleans had once appeared, this 
 new undertaking seemed still less probable ; for Rheims, which stood at 
 a considerable distance, was in the hands of an exasperated eneni}^ who 
 occupied the entire country, and could with ease defend every road or 
 pass which led to it against the comparatively small force which Joan 
 commanded. Nothing, however, seemed to her now impossible. She 
 immediately urged Charles to commence the enterprise, and he being 
 resolved to follow her wishes in all respects, very soon set forward on the 
 expedition. Their army consisted of twelve thousand men, who were 
 prepared to fight their passage through every danger and difficulty. But 
 difficulty and danger seemed to fly before them. 
 
 On approaching the first garrison town, which they had intended to 
 besiege, it instantly threw open the gates and surrendered to Charles as 
 its lawful sovereign. All the cities along their line of inarch followed 
 this example, and long before his arrival at Rheims, ambassadors came 
 to inform him that the gates were open, that his enemies had fled, and 
 
286 
 
 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 that every preparation was already made for his coronation in that 
 
 sacred place. 
 
 Arrived in safety within its walls, the ceremony was in a short 
 
 time completed. 
 During its per- 
 formance the Maid 
 of Orleans stood 
 by the side of her 
 * youthful monarch, 
 clad in a shining 
 armor, and still 
 bearing the sacred 
 standard, which 
 she at times tri- 
 umphantly waved 
 over his head, at- 
 tracting, by her 
 gestures and ap- 
 pearance, more at- 
 tention than was 
 bestowed on the 
 sovereign himself. 
 The spectators, 
 as they surveyed 
 this scene, whic] 
 had been produce< 
 by such a train of 
 wonders, rent the 
 air with acclama- 
 coronation OF CHARLES vil. tions, and believed 
 
 that no recompense would be too great for her who had achieved them ; 
 
 but nothing was further from her own thoughts than the idea of reward. 
 
 The awful and impressive ceremony had scarely ended, when, the natural 
 
JOAN OF ARC. 287 
 
 feelings of her sex overcoming her assumed character, she burst into a 
 violent flood of tears. 
 
 Flinging herself on the ground, and embracing her sovereign's 
 knees, she thanked Heaven that her prophecy had been so happily 
 accomplished, and that she had been made instrumental in its fulfil- 
 ment, declaring that since her wishes for his success were now fully 
 achieved, she had no other desire than to return to her family and 
 resume her former humble and peaceful mode of life. Having in this 
 manner taken leave of Charles and solicited permission to depart, she 
 withdrew from the assembly and prepared with her brothers to rejoin 
 their affectionate and anxious parents. 
 
 PENSION AND PATENT OF NOBILITY. 
 
 But the newly crowned king, desiring that she should remain in 
 his camp to establish the throne on which she had placed him, persuaded 
 her to accept a large pension and patent of nobility for herself and family^ 
 and continue in his service. All generous and noble-minded persons 
 rejoiced at her having obtained a reward, which they considered due to 
 her important services ; but the generals of the army, and many persons 
 of rank and distinction in the country, began to wish that the renown of 
 their achievements had equalled that of this poor peasant girl, and to 
 envy her, not only the fame of her exploits, which had now spread over 
 every country of Europe, but also the fortune which her merits had 
 procured. 
 
 The British continued the conflict and the Duke of Bedford had 
 Henry V. crowned king at Paris. Following the advice of Joan, Charles 
 marched his army to the entrance of the metropolis, and stopped on the 
 heights of Montmartre to demand admission, offering at the same time, 
 in return for the expected compliance, a free pardon to the inhabitants 
 for all former offences against his crown. But the friendly summons was 
 unheeded, and the king was unwillingly obliged to commence an attack. 
 After four hours of unsuccessful assault, Charles, feeling mortified and 
 disappointed at meeting with such determined resistance where he had 
 
288 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 expected immediate submission, once more withdrew his troops into 
 a place of safety. 
 
 In retiring it was observed that Joan was nowhere to be found, and it 
 was now reported that she had not been seen since the commencement of 
 the attack. Search was made for her and at length she was discovered, 
 lying dangerously wounded in one of the trenches where she had 
 remained unheeded during the entire battle, having been knocked down 
 by the first fire and left to her perilous fate. 
 
 SOON RECOVERED FROM HER WOUND. 
 
 She was carried safely to Bourges, a town in the neighborhood where 
 the king resolved to pass the winter ; and where she soon recovered from 
 her wound; but her influence over the soldiery was greatly diminished. 
 They had latterly observed that she was liable to misfortunes, and sub- 
 ject to mistakes and errors like other persons. Her former services, 
 therefore, began to be undervalued and forgotten. Each soldier, on look- 
 ing backto past events, recollected some share of merit which he thought 
 he might claim to himself, and the generals especially felt an hourly 
 increasing jealousy of the fame which Joan had acquired. To try, 
 however, what use could still be made of her remaining influence over 
 distant parts of the army, Charles, by the advice of his most experienced 
 officers, sent her to the relief of Compeigne, a town then closely besieged 
 by the Duke of Burgundy and already in such extremity that it was 
 daily expected to surrender. Here, it was hoped, she might still exert 
 some influence; and on her approach to the city, the inhabitants, finding 
 that she was coming to their succor, felt sure of deliverance. She 
 hastened forward unperceived to one of the outposts of the town expect- 
 ing to take it by surprise, but just as she imagined herself on the point 
 of effecting her purpose, she was in her turn surprised by a party 
 of the besiegers, who assailed her troops with such determined spirit 
 that the whole body, including her hitherto intrepid brothers, were 
 quickly put to flight. 
 
 Her officers, jealous of her fame, made, it was believed, no exertion to 
 
JOAN OF ARC. 289 
 
 recall their men; but Joan, desperate from the near prospect of defeat, 
 stood to her post, bravely urging the troops to turn on their pursuers. 
 Her efforts were, however, vain. An archer, seeing her stand alone in 
 her bold attempt to rally, rushed forward and made her prisoner. 
 Having seized her horse by the bridle, he rudely pulled her to the 
 ground and carried her to the teut of his commanding officer. At sight 
 of her capture, the triumphant shouts of the whole besieging army 
 announced to the besieged that their expected deliverer was a captive. 
 
 The Duke of Bedford, as stated in a former chapter, had for a length 
 of time eagerly desired to make the Maid of Orleans his prisoner. The 
 unfortunate captive was purchased by him from the officer, into whose 
 hand she had fallen ; and was kept in close confinement for several 
 weeks, whilst debates were held throughout the army as to the manner 
 in which it would be expedient to treat her. 
 
 HER SPLENDID ACHIEVEMENTS. 
 
 What her feelings must have been during that period, may easily 
 be imagined. At one moment, reflecting on all that she had achieved for 
 her king and country, she felt aware that if ever monarch had been 
 indebted to a subject for his crown, Charles VII. was that king. She 
 had roused his people from their terror of the English arms, had taught 
 them to conquer, and had established the kingdom firmly in his hands 
 even when that kingdom had seemed irretrievably lost. Surely, then, 
 not only he, but the nation at large, would purchase her redemption at any 
 price. Months, however, passed away, and no ransom was offered ; no 
 effort made to set her at liberty ; no exertion attempted even to soften 
 the severity of her confinement, until, at length, it became evident that 
 she was already forgotten. 
 
 " Now that my services have accomplished their object," sighed she 
 in the solitude of her prison, " I am no longer needed, no longer thought 
 of. The French commanders, with their new jnouarch at their head, felt 
 perhaps well pleased to have a low-born peasant girl confined, where her 
 actions can never again tarnish the glorv of their achievements." 
 
 19 
 
fc 290 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 Then followed a hopeless desire to see the two beloved brothers who 
 had attended and protected her through all the snares and dangers of 
 her military career ; to behold once more her humble home, to embrace 
 her affectionate parents ! What would she not now have given that she 
 had gone back to them at the moment when her conscience first warned 
 her to pursue that course. Why, why had she not fled from tempta- 
 tion and returned to her home, happy in the accomplisment of her first 
 project ? But regrets were now unavailing ; neither brother nor parent 
 could gain admittance to her prison, and it was plain that she was inten- 
 tionally left to her fate. 
 What that fate was likely 
 to become was a question 
 which now rose with in- 
 tense anxiety to her mind. 
 An opinion that the king, 
 on whom she had con- 
 ferred so many benefits, 
 would not in the end for- 
 sake her, and that the 
 nation would never leave 
 her to perish, took posses- 
 sion of her imagination. 
 Again, she was assailed 
 with the desire of inspiring a belief that she was divinely taught. When 
 questioned on the subject in her prison, she continued to assert that she 
 was indeed an appointed minister of the Almighty, and that she had been 
 often favored in her solitary cell by visits from his angels, who brought 
 her the revelations of his will. 
 
 The Bishop of Beauvois, her own countryman, who was in league 
 with the British, on pretence that she had used the arts of magical incan- 
 tation, falsehood, and enchantment within his diocese, presented a peti- 
 tion to the Duke of Bedford, desiring to have his prisoner tried as a 
 sorceress. A council of inquiry was immediately opened in the city of 
 
 CASTLE OF ROUEN. 
 
 
JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 291 
 
 Rouen, where the little English king then held his court, at which a great 
 number of French prelates, together with one English bishop, whose 
 name we should blush to mention, were appointed to act as her accusers 
 and judges. 
 
 Far from being dismayed at these proceedings, the Maid of Orleans 
 
 ROUEN, THE OLD CAPITAL OF NORMANDY. 
 
 now hoped that the hour of her emancipation was drawing rapidly near. 
 What, she exclaimed, had she to fear? If justice had its course, there 
 was no possible chance of her being condemned, since the entire tenor of 
 her conduct towards France merited reward, not punishment. Under 
 this impression the enthusiast hailed rather than lamented the approach 
 of the day which was announced for the commencement of her trial. 
 
 The day of trial at length arrived, and multitudes of both French 
 
292 
 
 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 and English assembled to hear the examination and witness the deport- 
 ment of the Maid of Orleans. The conrt was seated, and all things 
 solemnly prepared ; guards were sent to the prison, with directions to 
 clothe the prisoner 
 
 in the male attire 
 which she had her- 
 self voluntarily 
 adopted, and to 
 bring her in armor, 
 but loaded with 
 chains, through the 
 public streets for 
 the purpose of let- 
 ting the populace 
 behold her degra- 
 dation. 
 
 The court was 
 in session sixteen 
 days. On the 
 charge of wearing 
 male attire, and 
 other offences 
 equally frivolous, 
 as well as on the 
 charge of profane- 
 ness and hypocrisy 
 in declaring she 
 was divinely com- 
 missioned to de- MARTYRDOM OF JOAN OF ARC. 
 liver her country, she was convicted and sentenced to be executed. 
 Her queenly bearing and invincible courage made no impression on her 
 foes, who had prejudged her, and, in their own minds, had already pro- 
 nounced her a heretic. As such, her fate was decreed. 
 
 
JOAN OF ARC. 293 
 
 Her answers to the charges brought against her were laid before the 
 University of Paris, and condemnation was pronounced against her as a 
 servant of the evil spirit, who by impious inventions and pretended 
 revelations had deluded the people and injured the cause of religion. 
 For these foul crimes, as her warrant said, she was sentenced by the 
 Romish Church to be burned at the stake in the market square of Rouen. 
 
 The fanciful persuasion of her being an inspired person again took 
 possession of her mind. Even when she was led forth from the prison 
 to the place of execution, and saw the awful preparations complete, and 
 the people whom she had delivered assembled in crowds to witness her 
 death, the certain expectation that a heavenly deliverer would be sent 
 to her rescue upheld and comforted her to the last ; thus in some degree 
 frustrating the determined malice of her enemies. 
 
 CALM AND RESOLUTE WHEN BOUND TO THE STAKE. 
 
 Though bound to the stake she was mild and quiescent as a lamb 
 from the same happy belief ; and it was not until the flames began to 
 envelope her person that she became sensible of her situation. At 
 length they gathered closely around her, and at that awful moment the 
 spectators heard her, while she grasped her crucifix, calling fervently 
 on her Redeemer for intercession and pardon. 
 
 Amongst the friends and relatives of the Maid of Orleans, sorrow 
 for her untimely loss seems to have been swallowed up by grief and 
 shame at the stigma affixed upon her memory, and by indignation at 
 her unmerited condemnation and inhuman execution. Her brothers 
 and her widowed mother loudly appealed against the decision of the 
 University of Paris, and never relaxed their efforts at Rome until the 
 case was brought before the Ecclesiastical Court for reconsideration. 
 Twenty-five years after her execution, Calixtus re-examined the charges 
 on which she had been condemned, when the judgment was reversed, 
 and the injustice of the sentence under which she had suffered openly 
 declared. 
 
 Joan was born in 141 1, and was crowned a martyr May 31st, 143 1. 
 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 HERO OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION — DUTIFUL 
 AND AFFECTIONATE SON — CALM AND RESOLUTE 
 IN DANGER — COMMANDER OF THE AMERICAN 
 ARMY — LEADER IN THE GREAT STRUGGLE FOR 
 FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE — FIRST PRESIDENT 
 — FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY. 
 
 George Washington was born in Virginia, at the family homestead 
 on Bridges Creek, on the 2 2d of February in the year 1732. He was the 
 second son of Augustine and Mary Washington. George was the eldest 
 son of his mother, but there had been two children by his father's first 
 wife : Laurence and Agustine. Many of Washington's biographers 
 have written scores of pages to show that he was descended from a line 
 of noble knights and gallant cavaliers. But the truth is that very little 
 has been certainly proved, except that his family had been of some con- 
 sequence in England, and that two brothers, John and Andreas Wash- 
 ington, bought land and settled in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 
 
 1657- 
 
 The boy George had as good schooling as could be obtained in the 
 
 neighborhood, and at an early age acquired a fair knowledge of the usual 
 branches of learning to be obtained at a common school. Laurence, his 
 elder brother, had been educated in England, and notwithstanding the 
 .disparity in their ages they became very fond of each other. Laurence 
 accompanied the English Admiral Vernon on an expedition to the West 
 India Islands. He had a position as captain in the army, and behaved 
 very creditably both in camp and under fire. It is possible that his 
 brother's service as a soldier may have influenced George's future 
 294 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 295 
 
 career. Still it required no prompting to make a man a soldier in the 
 stirring times in which the young Washington lived. 
 
 It was fortunate not only for George Washington, but for his country, 
 that at his father's death he was left, in common with the other children, 
 to the exclusive care and control of his mother, Mary. Never had a son 
 a better mother. As he was now about eleven, he was just at an age in 
 which the seeds of rectitude and religion could well be planted in his 
 heart, and his good parent had both the ability and the disposition to 
 prepare him to fill any station in life with honor. The intention of the 
 family was to give George such an education as would enable him to 
 occupy the position of a first-class man of affairs. Consequently, a col- 
 legiate course was not attempted ; but as far as reading, arithmetic, 
 writing, and other branches in the line of the useful were concerned, he 
 was thoroughly instructed and was fully competent. 
 
 EDUCATION SUCH AS HE NEEDED. 
 
 Indeed the knowledge of accounts, of bookkeeping, commercial 
 letter-writing, and similar lines were of vast use to him when he came to 
 scan the bills of paymasters, commissaries, and the like. Through his 
 brother, Laurence, who held both a business and a social relation to the 
 rich Fairfax family of Virginia, George became quite intimate with its 
 various members, who lived in princely style at their seat of Belvoir, on 
 the River Potomac, at a little distance from the since famous Mount 
 Vernon. 
 
 The youthful Washington made himself perfect in the art of survey- 
 ing land. From the wild, inaccurate way in which patents of thousands 
 of acres of rich land had been given or sold, it had become very important 
 that metes and bounds should be set ; consequently, the services of a 
 competent and reliable surveyor were in great demand, and he obtained 
 a profitable situation as surveyor and manager to the opulent William 
 Fairfax. 
 
 Soon, too, Lord Fairfax, becoming cognizant of his ability and in- 
 tegrity, employed him in surveying his extensive estates on the far side 
 
296 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 of the Blue Ridge, as that persevering race, the American squatter, was 
 already making a home in the rich domain. This was his earliest 
 plunge into the forest wilds. Although not yet in his eighteenth year, 
 he so successfully carried out his instructions that on his return he 
 received pay at the rate of sixteen dollars a day. 
 
 No youth was better fitted for the dangerous, exacting, but, to one 
 
 of his nature, pleasantly exciting 
 duties, than was the young sur- 
 veyor. Day after day, and often 
 night after night, he traversed 
 that goodly land, now the abode 
 of material wealth and great pop- 
 ulations ; then sparsely in- 
 habited by a few solitary 
 hunters or wandering sav- 
 ages. Often for hundreds of 
 miles he had to blaze a path 
 for himself if he wished to 
 return the same way. Some- 
 times for hours, or maybe for 
 whole days, he would be as- 
 cending mountains, or almost 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON. sliding down declivities, or 
 
 swimming rivers " where ford there was none," living on the plainest 
 and scantiest fare. 
 
 Occasionally the hard climbing would be varied by wading 
 through morasses, or breaking a way through tangled briers and thorns. 
 When night came his fitful slumbers would be rudely broken by the 
 screech of the wild cat, or the blood-curdling cry of the panther, or the 
 weird and mournful shriek of the great owl. Often it would be impossible 
 to get even the semblance of repose ; for at times darkness and storms 
 would overtake the undaunted young surveyor where the wet soil would 
 render it impossible to get dry branches to make even a pretence for a 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 297 
 
 bed. Then, when to advance was dangerous, and to retrace his steps 
 impossible, he would fall into restless slumbers, leaning on the shoulders 
 of his tractable and faithful horse, until the first streak of dawn would 
 sufficiently lighten the gloomy hemlocks to enable him to continue on 
 his pathless course. Not one man in ten thousand would have perse- 
 vered in such a career. Scarcely ever did twenty-four hours pass in 
 which he was not face to face with death. 
 
 But even then, in his almost boysh days, he had one talismanic 
 word, " Duty," and to that he conformed. Little he thought, in these 
 long, solitary marches, of the high destinies that awaited him in the by 
 no means distant future. But that Providence which " shapes our ends 
 rough-hew them as we may," was doubtless even then toughening the 
 sinews and hardening the muscles that were to stand the strain of the 
 battles of Long Island and Monmouth. He was about this time appointed 
 a public surveyor, a position at once of trust and profit. 
 
 A MASTER OF MILITARY STRATEGY. 
 
 While still quite young his native province bad called for his martial 
 services, and he had cheerfully responded, and while acting as aide-de- 
 camp to the British general he evinced such a knowledge of strategy as 
 is seldom found in so youthful an officer. Before the action he gave his 
 gallant but over-courageous commander such advice as would have saved, 
 had it been heeded, the army from defeat and the general from death. 
 Washington recommended that the woods in front of them should be 
 carefully searched by scouts before the main advance of the army entered 
 them. This wholesome advice was disregarded, with the fatal result 
 that the large vanguard of the British was suddenly assailed by a fierce 
 shower of bullets from the muskets of the French and their numerous 
 Indian allies. 
 
 General Braddock and a large number of his officers and men were 
 slain, as they were thus surprised and thrown into disorder. Indeed, 
 that the defeat had not been turned into a total rout was mainly owing 
 to the skill, bravery, and judgment displayed by the young Virginian, 
 
298 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 who covered the retreat with his provincials, and occasionally turned 
 upon the pursuing French troops. This battle occurred in the year 1755, 
 when Washington was but twenty-three years of age. 
 
 In the year 1752, Laurence Washington died, having in vain tried 
 the West Indies to cure him of consumption. George had accom- 
 panied his brother on the voyage, but having to return to Virginia, he 
 left Laurence, who proceeded to the island of Bermuda, but soon returned 
 
 
 DISASTROUS DEFEAT OF GENERAL BRADDOCK. 
 
 to die at home, in the thirty-fourth year of his age. He left his wife 
 and only daughter to the care of George. His will directed that Mount 
 Vernon should, in case of the demise of the daughter before she was of 
 age, go to his widow, and at her death become the property of George. 
 Although he had but just passed his majority he fulfilled his task as 
 executor with great judgment and fidelity. 
 
 A singular incident, exemplifying the modest nature of this great 
 man, occurred when he first entered the House of Burgesses, the title 
 given to the popular assembly in Virginia. Mr. Speaker rose, and in 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 299 
 
 the name of the House thanked him for the eminent services he had 
 performed for his province. Reluctantly rising the brave soldier, who 
 could calmly face a blazing battery, stuttered, blushing like a young maid, 
 and in vain essayed to utter a word. The Speaker happily remarked : 
 " Mr. Washington, please be seated. Your modesty equals your valor, 
 and that surpasses the power of any language I possess." 
 
 On the ioth of May, 1775, the second Continental Congress met at 
 
 INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 Philadelphia. The proceedings of this body were moderate and delib- 
 erate. A petition to the king was drawn up and forwarded to England, 
 denying any intention tc separate from Great Britain, and asking only 
 for redress of the wrongs of which the colonies complained. A federal 
 union of the colonies was formed, and Congress assumed and exercised 
 the general government of the country. Measures were taken to estab- 
 lish an army, to procure military supplies, and to provide a navy. A 
 loan of $2,000,000 was authorized, and the faith of the " united colonies " 
 
300 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 pledged for its redemption. The troops before Boston were organized as 
 a Continental army and were placed nnder the control of Congress. 
 Washington, then a member of Congres, was appointed commander-in- 
 chief of this army. As soon as he received his commission he set out 
 for the army. 
 
 Washington reached the army before Boston a few days after the 
 battle of Bunker Hill, and at once assumed the command. By extraor- 
 dinary exertions he succeeded in bringing the force to a tolerably 
 effective condition. Boston was regularly invested, and the siege was 
 pressed with vigor. On the 4th of March, 1776, Washington seized and 
 fortified Dorchester Heights, overlooking and commanding the town and 
 harbor from the south. The city being thus 
 rendered untenable, the British were forced to 
 evacuate it, which they did on the 17th of 
 March, and sailed for Halifax. 
 
 In the meantime a force had been sent to 
 invade Canada from two points, under General 
 
 Richard Montgomery and Colonel Benedict WM cn^n"Tu^o*Z*iin£ 
 Arnold. The principal event of the invasion was an attack upon Quebec 
 by the forces of Montgomery and Arnold. It was unsuccessful. Mont- 
 gomery was killed, and Arnold, who succeeded to the command, was 
 wounded and was forced to retreat. The expedition accomplished nothing 
 of permanent value, and was compelled to return to the colonies after 
 suffering great losses and many hardships. 
 
 A British fleet attacked and burned Falmouth (now Portland), in 
 Maine, and committed many outrages on the coast of Virginia. A 
 powerful fleet, under Sir Peter Parker, attacked Fort Moultrie, in the 
 harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, for the purpose of forcing its way 
 to that city. It was repulsed with heavy loss, June 28th, 1776. During 
 the year 1776 the Americans sent out several cruisers, which captured a 
 number of British vessels laden with stores for their army. These 
 captures enabled Washington to do much towards equipping the force 
 under his command. 
 
 WASHINGTON'S PEW IN CHRIST 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 301 
 
 Congress took measures for the active prosecution of the war. Sup- 
 plies were drawn from the West Indies ; powder mills and cannon 
 foundries were provided for on a small scale ; thirteen frigates were 
 ordered to be constructed (a few of which eventually got to sea) ; a com- 
 mittee of war, one of finance and a secret committee, to which was 
 intrusted the negotiations of the colonies with foreign powers and per- 
 sons abroad friendly to the cause, were appointed. Finally, on the 4th 
 of July, 1776, Congress adopted, on behalf of the colonies, a declaration 
 
 of independence of the British crown. 
 The colonies now took their stand as 
 free and independent States. At the 
 same time a plan for the general govern- 
 ment of the United States, known as the 
 Articles of Confederation, was adopted. 
 As he supposed that the British 
 would attack New York, Washington 
 transferred his army to that place im- 
 mediately after his occupation of Boston. 
 He had not long to wait, for General 
 Howe soon arrived in New York bay 
 with his army, and in June was joined 
 BS by his brother, Admiral Lord Howe, 
 with reinforcements and a strong fleet. 
 The British army now numbered 30,000 men, a large part of whom were 
 Hessian troops, hired from the government of Hesse-Cassel, in Germany, 
 by the king of England. The troops were landed on Staten Island, and 
 preparations were made for attacking the city of New York. Before 
 proceeding to hostilities Lord Howe issued a proclamation to the people 
 of America, offering a free pardon to all who would lay down their arms 
 and accept the king's clemency. The proclamation produced no effect 
 whatever, for the Americans were convinced that they could expect but 
 a poor regard for their rights and liberties at the hands of King George. 
 Washington's force was vastly inferior to that of the enemy. He 
 
 HOUSE IN WHICH JEFFERSON WROTE THE 
 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
302 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 was compelled to divide it, and to place a portion of it on Long 
 Island, in order to cover the approaches to New York City. The force 
 on Long Island was attacked and defeated by the British on the 27th of 
 August, 1776. By a skilful retreat on the night of the 29th, Washington 
 withdrew his troops from Long Island to New York. Howe was greatly 
 mortified at the escape of the Americans, and prepared to shut them up 
 and capture them in New York, but Washington withdrew from that 
 city and retreated to the mainland. After some indecisive encounters, 
 the American army crossed the Hudson into New Jersey. The British 
 followed up their success, and Washington was obliged to abandon the 
 Hudson and retreat across New Jersey to the Delaware, which he crossed 
 near Trenton. He halted in Pennsylvania, and the British made no 
 effort to pass the river, unwilling to risk the chances. 
 
 THE AMERICAN CAUSE NOW GLOOMY. 
 
 The American cause now seemed gloomy indeed. New York and 
 New Jersey were lost to the patriots, and Washington had with him in 
 Pennsylvania only 4000 half starved and badly clothed men. The 
 British had by this time taken possession of the island of Rhode Island, 
 and had made a descent upon Baskingridge, New Jerse)^, and had cap- 
 tured General Charles Lee. By December, 1776, the cause of the colo- 
 nies seemed so desperate that the people generally began to abandon the 
 hope of success, and many of them commenced to make their peace with 
 the royal authorities. 
 
 At this hour, when everything was so gloomy, Washington was 
 calm and hopeful. He had expected reverses, and they did not dismay 
 him. He was resolved to maintain the struggle to the last possible 
 moment, and exerted himself to cheer the little band of heroes who 
 remained faithful to the cause. Feeling that the situation of affairs 
 demanded some decisive action on his part, he determined to attack and 
 drive back the Hessians who constituted the advanced guard of the 
 British army, and who occupied an exposed position on the Delaware, 
 between Trenton and Burlington. He crossed the Delaware with a 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 303 
 
 portion of his army, in open boats, in the midst of snow and floating ice, 
 on the night of December 25th, 1776, and abont eight o'clock on the 
 morning of the 26th attacked the Hessians at Trenton and defeated 
 
 WASHINGTON CALLS ON COLONEL RAHL. 
 
 them. He took 1000 prisoners, 1000 stand of arms, six brass cannon 
 and four standards. 
 
 On the night of the 26th, he recrossed the Delaware and returned to 
 his camp in Pennsylvania. A few days later, having received a small 
 reinforcement, Washington crossed the Delaware once more, and took 
 
304 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 position at Trenton. General Howe hurried a force of 7000 men, under 
 Lord Cornwallis, towards Trenton to crush Washington's army. By a 
 brilliant march around the British left, Washington eluded Cornwallis 
 and hurried towards New Brunswick to seize the stores of the 
 British army. On the third of January, 1777, while on the march, he 
 defeated a strong British force at Princeton. He abandoned his 
 
 WASHINGTON'S QUARTERS AT MORRISTOWN, NEW JERSEY, 
 movement on New Brunswick, and marched to Morristown, where he 
 went into winter quarters with his army. He was so active during the 
 winter that the British confined themselves to the shores of Raritan 
 bay, and did not venture again into the interior of the State. 
 
 The victories of the American army were so brilliant and audacious 
 that they not only startled the British, who had believed the war 
 virtually over in the north, but aroused as if by magic the drooping 
 spirits of the American people, and did much for the cause in the eyes 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 305 
 
 of foreign nations. Congress now invested Washington with dictatorial 
 powers for a specified time; troops were enlisted for three years in- 
 stead of one year, which was the original term; and agents were sent to 
 
 WASHINGTON AND LAFAYETTE. 
 
 foreign countries to procure the recognition of the independence of the 
 United States, and assistance in the prosecution of the war. 
 
 When the campaign of 1777 opened, the prospects of the country 
 
 20 
 
306 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 had so far improved that Washington found himself at the head of an 
 army of 7000 men. Sir William Howe made repeated efforts to draw 
 him into a general engagement, but Washington completely out- 
 generaled him, and Howe withdrew his army from New Jersey to Staten 
 Island. Soon after this he sailed with 16,000 men to the Chesapeake, 
 which he ascended to Elkton, in Maryland, where he landed his forces 
 and advanced through Delaware towards Philadelphia, which was the 
 seat of the federal government. 
 
 DISASTER OF THE BRANDYWINE. 
 
 Washington, who had moved south of the Schuylkill, in anticipa- 
 tion of this attempt, endeavored to check Howe's advance at the passage 
 of the Brandywine, on the nth of September, but was defeated with the 
 loss of 1,000 men. Congress withdrew from Philadelphia to Lancaster, 
 and then to York, Pennsylvania. The British occupied Philadelphia a 
 few days after the battle. On the 4th of October the American army 
 made a vigorous attack upon the British force at Germantown, seven 
 miles from Philadelphia, but was repulsed. 
 
 In the north the American forces were more successful. General 
 Burgoyne, with a force of 7,000 British and German regulars, and a 
 considerable body of Canadian^ and Indians, entered New York from 
 Canada by way of Lake Champlain, during the summer of 1777. Crown 
 Point and Ticonderoga were evacuated by the Americans, and Burgoyne 
 pushed on in triumph as far as Fort Edward, on the Hudson. From 
 this point he sent a strong detachment to Bennington, in Vermont, to 
 destroy the stores collected there by the Americans. This force was 
 routed with heavy loss by the militia of Vermont and New Hampshire 
 under General Stark, near Bennington, on the 16th of August, 1777 
 General Gates was now appointed to the command of the American army 
 confronting Burgoyne, and his force grew larger every day by reinforce- 
 ments of militia from New England and New York. Burgoyne attacked 
 him on the 19th of September at Behmus' Heights, and a severe but 
 indecisive battle occurred. A second and more decisive engagement was 
 
ATTACK ON CHEW'S HOUSE AT THE BA 
 
 GERMANTOWN. 307 
 
308 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 fought on the 7th of October. Burgoyne was considerably worsted and 
 endeavored to retreat, but upon reaching the vicinity of the town of Sar- 
 atoga, was surrounded and forced to surrender his entire army on the 
 17th of October. This was one great step nearer the end. 
 
 GRAND VICTORY FOR THE AMERICAN ARMS. 
 
 This victory, the most important of the war, greatly elated the 
 Americans and cheered their friends in Europe. It advanced the bills 
 of the Continental Congress, which had become greatly depreciated, and 
 had the effect of inducing the French government, which had secretly 
 encouraged and aided the colonies from the first, to recognize the inde- 
 pendence of the States. In February, 1778, a treaty of friendship, com- 
 merce and alliance was signed at Paris between the United States and 
 France, Great Britain seemed to realize now, for the first time, that she 
 was about to lose her colonies, and endeavored to repair her mistakes. 
 On the nth of March, 1778, Parliament repealed the acts that hid been 
 so obnoxious to the Americans, and subsequently sent three commis- 
 sioners to settle the differences between the two countries. As these 
 commissioners had no authority to treat with the United States as an 
 independent nation, Congress refused to enter into any negotiations with 
 them. 
 
 Washington's army passed the winter of ijjj-j8 at Valley Forge, 
 about twenty miles from Philadelphia. The troops suffered terribly 
 from hunger, exposure, and the dreadful privations to which they were 
 subjected, but remained with their colors through it all. Their devotion 
 was rewarded in the spring by the news of the alliance with France, 
 which reached them in May, 1778, and was greeted with demonstrations 
 of the liveliest joy. 
 
 The real crisis in the war had now come. The resources of the 
 colonists were about exhausted, and however bold courage may be, it 
 cannot subsist on empty air. An army must be fed and clothed. 
 Although the alliance with France was of no great material benefit to 
 us, it did help to encourage our troops. 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 ,°>()<) 
 
 Sir William Howe's course did not give satisfaction at home, and lie 
 was removed from his command in America, and was succeeded by Sir 
 Henry Clinton, who was ordered by his government to evacuate Phila- 
 delphia and concentrate his forces at New York, as the - French fleet 
 might be expected in the Delaware at any moment. On the 18th of 
 June, Clinton withdrew his forces from Philadelphia, and set out across 
 New Jersey for 
 New York. Wash- 
 ington pursued 
 h i m promptly, 
 and came up with 
 him at Monmouth 
 Court House. 
 
 A severe but 
 indecisive en- 
 gagement oc- 
 curred between 
 the two armies. 
 At its close Clin- 
 ton resumed his 
 retreat to New 
 York, and re- 
 mained there for 
 
 the rest of the summer, without seeking to renew hostilities with 
 Washington. A few days after Clinton's evacuation of Philadelphia, 
 the French fleet under Count D'Estaing arrived in the Delaware. 
 Finding his enemy gone, the French admiral sailed for New York. 
 The British fleet took refuge in Raritan bay, whither the larger 
 vessels of the French were unable to follow them. In August the 
 Americans made an attempt, in concert with the French fleet, to capture 
 the British force at Newport, R. I. The French afforded so little aid 
 that the enterprise failed. D'Estaing withdrew from the coast soon after 
 this, and sailed to the West Indies, having rendered little practical aid. 
 
 VALLEY FORGE, PENNSYLVANIA, WHERE WASHINGTON'S ARMY 
 WENT INTO WINTER QUARTERS. 
 
10 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 The finances of the country were in the greatest confusion. Fortu- 
 nately the wisdom and unshrinking patriotism of Robert Morris, an 
 eminent merchant and member of Congress from Philadelphia, saved 
 them from ruin. When the public credit failed, he borrowed large sums 
 of money for the use of Congress, for the payment of which he pledged 
 his own credit. On the whole, however, the cause of the States was 
 much improved. Besides the alliance with France, they had the secret 
 encouragement of Spain. They had confined the British to the territory 
 _ ._..._. = ____,^_^._... : ._-._ __ held by that army in 
 
 1776, and their own army 
 was larger and better 
 disciplined than it had 
 ever been. 
 
 In 1 7 79 the principal 
 military operations were 
 transferred to the South. 
 I Savannah had already 
 been captured on the 29th 
 of December, 1778, by an 
 expedition sent from New 
 York by Sir Henry Clin- 
 
 WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS AT VALLEY FORGE. ton . an( ^ fay ^ e summel - 
 
 of 1779, the whole State of Georgia was in the hands of the British. In 
 September, 1779, the French fleet and the American army, under Gen- 
 eral Lincoln, attempted to recover Savannah, but were repulsed with a 
 loss of 1000 men. 
 
 On the 1 6th of June, 1779, Spain declared war against England, and 
 in the summer of that year the French king, influenced by the appeals 
 of Lafayette, who had visited France for that purpose, agreed to send 
 another fleet and a strong body of troops to the aid of the Americans. 
 The cruisers of the United States did great damage to the British 
 commerce at sea, and in British waters, and John Paul Jones, with a 
 squadron of three ships, fought and won one of the most desperate 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 and sanguinary battles in naval history, within plain sight of the English 
 coast. 
 
 Sir Henry Clinton, in obedience to instructions received from 
 England, now withdrew the detachment from Newport, and concen- 
 trated his army at New York. Early in 1780, leaving a strong garrison 
 under General Knyphausen to hold New York, he sailed with the bulk 
 of his army to the South, and laid siege to Charleston, which was held 
 by General Lincoln with a force of about 7,000 Continentals and militia. 
 After a gallant defence the city and the garrison were surrendered to 
 Clinton on the 17th of May, 1780. By the 1st of June, the British had 
 overrun the better 
 part of South Caro 
 lina, and Clinton 
 was so well con- 
 vinced of the com- 
 pleteness of its 
 subj ugation that he 
 went back to New 
 York, leaving the 
 command in the 
 South to Lord Corn- 
 wallis. 
 
 Small bands of WASHINGTON'S HOUSE, HIGH STREET, PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 partisan troops, under Marion, Sumter, and Pickens, and other leaders, 
 now sprang up in various parts of South Carolina, and maintained 
 a vigorous guerrilla warfare, from which the enemy suffered greatly. 
 Congress soon after sent General Gates to command the forces in 
 the South. Gates' success at Saratoga had made him the idol of the 
 hour, and it had even been suggested by a few discontented persons that 
 he should supersede Washington himself. His northern laurels were 
 soon " changed to southern willows." Cornwallvs met him at Camden 
 on the 1 6th of August, routed him with the loss of 1,000 men, and drove 
 him into North Carolina. By the close of the summer, the only 
 
312 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 No. 
 
 Thirty Dollars. 
 
 THE Bearer is en- 
 titled to receive Thirty 
 Spanijh milled DOL 
 LARS, or an equal 
 [Sum in Gold or Silver, 
 iccording to a Refo- 
 [ution of CONGRESS 
 of the 14th January, 
 
 1779- 
 
 lo Dollars. 
 
 American force left in South Carolina was the little band under 
 
 Marion. 
 
 Cornwallis, feeling that his commnnications with Charleston were 
 
 safe followed Gates' beat- 
 en army into North Caro- 
 lina, about the middle of 
 September intending to 
 continue his advance into 
 Virginia. On the 7 th 
 of October, a strong de- 
 tachment of his army 
 was totally defeated with 
 heavy loss, at King's 
 Mountain, in North Caro- 
 lina, by the miltia of that 
 State. This was a severe 
 Marion and 
 
 ^//> 
 
 ^V 
 
 SPECIMEN OF CONTINENTAL CURRENCY. 
 
 blow to the British commander, and checked his advance. 
 
 Pickens about the same time renewed their operations in South Caro 
 
 linawith such activity that Cornwallis became 
 
 alarmed for his communications, and fell back 
 
 to Winnsborough, South Carolina. 
 
 In the North the British commander 
 vainlv endeavored to draw Washington into 
 a general engagement, in which he felt con- 
 fident that his vast preponderance of numbers 
 would give him the victory. Washington 
 warily avoided being caught in the trap, and 
 on the 23d of June, General Greene inflicted 
 
 such a stinging defeat upon a British force at jy f ^vO 
 
 Springfield, N. J., that Clinton withdrew to ^^^ C6zmtr£J 
 New York, and remained there for the balance of tne year. After the 
 battle of Camden, General Greene was sent to the Carolinas to succeed 
 Gates in the command of the Southern army. 
 
 
GEORGK WASHINGTON. 
 
 313 
 
 On the ioth of July, 1780, a French fleet and 6,000 troops under the Count 
 de Rochambeau, reached Newport, R. I. In September, during the ab- 
 sence of Washington at Hartford, Conn., whither he had gone to arrange 
 a plan of operations with the French commander, it was discovered 
 that General Benedict Arnold, one of the most brilliant officers of the 
 Continental army, had agreed to deliver into the hands of the British 
 the important fortress of West Point, which he commanded at that time. 
 
 WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS AT NEWBURGH, NEW YORK. 
 The discovery of the plot put an end to the danger with which it threat- 
 ened the cause. The traitor Arnold escaped, but Major Andre, a British 
 officer, through whom Arnold had conducted his negotiations with Sir 
 Henry Clinton, and whose capture had revealed the plot, was hanged as 
 a spy. 
 
 Towards the close of the year, Great Britain having discovered that 
 the United States and Holland were secretly negotiating a treaty, declared 
 war against the Dutch. The campaign of 1781 opened with the brilliant 
 victory of the Cowpens, won over the British under Colonel Tarleton, 
 
314 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 by General Morgan, on the 17th of January. On the 15th of March the 
 battle of Guilford Court House was fought in North Carolina, and 
 resulted in a victory for the British. Cornwallis was unable to follow 
 up his victory, and withdrew to Wilmington on the coast. On September 
 8th, the British forces under Colonel Stewart were defeated in the bloody 
 battle of Eutaw Springs by General Greene, and were compelled to retire 
 
 VIEW OF YORKTOWN^ VIRGINIA. 
 
 to the neighborhood of Charleston, to which they were confined during 
 the remainder of the war. 
 
 Meanwhile Cornwallis, after resting and recruiting his army at 
 Wilmington, had advanced into Virginia, driving before him the hand- 
 ful of troops under Lafayette, Wayne and Steuben, who sought to stay his 
 inarch. While in Virginia he occupied himself chiefly in destroying 
 private property, and at length, in August, 1781, in obedience to orders 
 from Sir Henry Clinton to occupy a strong defensive position in Vir- 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 15 
 
 ginia, intrenched himself at Yorktown, near the entrance of York river 
 into the Chesapeake bay. 
 
 Washington, whose army had been reinforced on the Hudson by 
 the French troops under the Connt de Rochambeau, was anxious 
 to attack New York, and preparations were made for a com- 
 
 SURRENDER OB' LORD CORNWALLIS 
 
 bined attack on that city. A message was received at this juncture 
 from the Count de Grasse, the French admiral in the West Indies, who 
 announced that he had sailed for the Chesapeake. This led to an im- 
 mediate change in the plan of operations determined upon by Wash- 
 ington, and he resolved to transfer his army at once to Virginia and 
 attempt the capture of Cornwallis. Skilfully deceiving Sir Henry Clin- 
 ton into the belief that New York was the threatened point, and thus 
 preventing him from sending assistance to Cornwallis, Washington 
 moved rapidly to Virginia, and arrived before the British works at York- 
 town with an army of 16,000 men on the 28th of September, 1781. 
 The enemy's position was at once invested by land, and the French fleet 
 
316 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 cut off all chance of escape by water. The siege was prosecuted with 
 vigor, and on the 19th of October Cornwallis, having exhausted all his 
 resources, surrendered his army of 7,000 troops with all his stores, 
 cannon, and several ships-of-war. 
 
 This victory virtually closed the war. It produced the wildest joy 
 in America, and compelled a change of ministers in England. Lord 
 North and his cabinet retired from office on the 20th of March, 1782, and 
 the new administration, perceiving the hopelessness of the struggle, re- 
 solved to make peace. 
 Commissioners for that 
 purpose were appointed, 
 and orders were sent to the 
 British commanders in 
 America to desist from fur- 
 ther hostilities. A pre- 
 liminary treaty of peace 
 was signed at Paris be- 
 tween the United States 
 united states mint, Philadelphia. a nd Great Britain, on the 
 
 30th of November, 1782, and a formal treaty on the 3d of September, 
 1783, all the nations concerned in the war, taking part in this treaty. 
 By this treaty Great Britain acknowledged her former colonies to be 
 free, sovereign, and independent States, and withdrew her troops from 
 New York on the 25th of November 1 782. Savannah and Charleston were 
 evacuated in the following month. 
 
 The great war was now over, and the republic took its place in the 
 family of nations ; but it was terribly weakened by its efforts. Its 
 finances were in the most pitiful condition, and it had not the money to 
 pay the troops it was about to disband, and who were really suffering for 
 want of money. Considerable trouble arose on this account, but Wash- 
 ington succeeded in effecting an arrangement to the satisfaction of the 
 soldiers. The army was disbanded immediately after the close of the 
 war, and on the 23d of December, 1783, Washington resigned his com- 
 
INAUGURATION OF WASHINGTON AS FIRST PRESIDENT. 
 
 317 
 
318 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 mission into the hands of Congress, and retired to his home, at Monnt 
 
 Vernon. 
 
 It was fonnd that the articles of confederation were inadequate to 
 
 WASHINGTON'S HOME AT MOUNT VERNON, VIRGINIA. 
 
 the necessities of the republic, and after much discussion a new constitu- 
 tion was framed by a federal convention at Philadelphia, in 1787, and 
 was adopted by the States. It went into operation on the 4th of March, 
 1789. The city of New York was designated as the seat of government. 
 Washington was unanimously chosen the first President of the 
 United States, and John Adams Vice-president. They went into office 
 on the 30th of April, 1789. The first measures of Washington's admin- 
 istration greatly restored the confidence of the people in the government. 
 
GKORGK \VASIiI\GTON. 310 
 
 Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury, inaugurated a series 
 of reforms, which were eminently beneficial. The debts of the old 
 confederate government and of the States themselves were all assumed 
 by the United States; a bank of the United States (which went into 
 operation in February, 1794), was incorporated, and a national mint was 
 established at Philadelphia. An Indian war in the West was prosecuted 
 to a successful termination, and the neutrality of the republic with 
 regard to the parties engaged in the wars springing out of the French 
 revolution was faithfully maintained. 
 
 Washington and Adams were re-elected in 1792. The French 
 republic made great efforts to embroil the United States in a war with 
 England, but the}'' were met with firmness by Washington, who 
 demanded the recall of M. Genet, the French Minister. The demand 
 was complied with by France. In 1794, a treaty was negotiated with 
 England, in settlement of the questions left unsettled by the revolution. 
 In 1792 a formidable outbreak, in opposition to the excise law, known as 
 the whiskey insurrection, occurred in Western Pennsylvania. It was 
 suppressed by the federal government in 1794. Three new States were 
 admitted into the Union during Washington's administration — Vermont, 
 in 1 791 ; Kentucky, in 1792, and Tennessee, in 1796. 
 
 Washington was urgently importuned to be a candidate for a third 
 presidential term, but declined a re-election, although it was certain there 
 would be no opposition to him. His action in this respect has become 
 the settled policy of the government. In September, 1796, he issued a 
 "Farewell Address" to his countrymen, warning them of the dangers 
 to which their new system was exposed, and urging them to adhere 
 firmly to the principles of the Constitution as their only hope of liberty 
 and happiness. 
 
 Such, in brief, was the glorious career of the immortal "Father of 
 his Country." 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM. 
 
 ANECDOTES OF HIS EARLY LIFE — A HERO 
 OF BUNKER HILL — NOBLE SERVICES REN- 
 DERED HIS COUNTRY — HIS PLUNGE DOWN 
 A PRECIPICE — A STURDY CHARACTER AND 
 ILLUSTRIOUS PATRIOT. 
 
 Almost every popular favorite lias his nickname. They called 
 General Jackson »' Old Hickory;" General Taylor was known everywhere 
 through the camp by the name of " Old Zack " ; and, not to interpose 
 too many instances between our own times and his, General Israel 
 Putnam, of Revolutionary memory, was better known by the whole army 
 under the familiar title of " Old Put " than either by the military rank 
 he had honestly earned or the simple Scriptural name his father and 
 mother gave him. 
 
 Israel Putnam was born in Salem, Mass., on the 7th day of January, 
 1718. His mother had twelve children, of whom he was the eleventh in 
 order. The house still stands in which he was born, and is exactly half 
 way, on the turnpike, between Newburyport and Boston. He was cour- 
 ageous, and sometimes reckless, when a boy, but his disposition was not 
 quarrelsome. When he was assailed, he stood his ground without flinch- 
 ing ; but he was not in the habit of picking quarrels with any one. 
 
 When he went up to Boston for the first time in his life, one of the 
 young town-fellows, a great deal older and bigger than himself, saw him 
 coming along the street in his dress of plain homespun, staring at the 
 signs and the windows, and taken up, as almost every true rustic is, at 
 least once, with what he saw and heard around him, and, thinking, to 
 320 
 
GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM. 321 
 
 have some fun out of the country fellow, he taunted him with his dress, 
 his gait, his manners, and his general appearance. Young Putnam bore 
 it as well and as long as he could. He looked around and saw that a 
 crowd had collected, who seemed to be enjoying themselves at his expense. 
 His blood rose at length, and he determined to submit no longer. Sud- 
 denly he turned upon the ill-mannered city youth, and gave him such a 
 thorough flogging on the spot as not only silenced his impudence, but 
 likewise drew forth the instant admiration of the crowd who were, but a 
 moment before, so willing to enjoy his own humiliation. This single 
 little affair was wholly characteristic of the man, as he afterwards showed 
 himself on a wider theatre. He was twenty-one years old when he was 
 married, which event occurred in the year 1739. His wife was Miss 
 Hannah Pope, whose father — Mr. John Pope — lived in Salem also ; and 
 their family afterwards counted four sons and six daughters. The year 
 after he married he emigrated from Salem to the town of Pom fret, in 
 Connecticut, where he had bought a tract of land for the purpose. 
 There was no better farmer in his day, the whole country round, than 
 young Mr. Israel Putnam proved himself to be. 
 
 ONE OF THE LARGEST WOOL GROWERS. 
 
 He found that his land was especially adapted to the raising of 
 sheep, and, accordingly, he bent his energies to the production of wool. 
 So successful was he in this enterprise in a brief period of time, that he 
 was popularly reckoned one the largest wool growers of the country, and 
 his profits accumulated at a rate that soon put him in circumstances 
 beyond the possible reach of poverty or want. 
 
 It was owing altogether to his having taken so extensive an interest 
 
 in the raising of sheep that his adventure with the wolf became a piece 
 
 of history. During several seasons he seemed to have suffered from 
 
 rather hard luck, both in his crops and his live stock ; what with 
 
 drought, and dry rot, and hard winters, he felt that his losses, continued 
 
 through several ensuing years, were quite as large as he was able to 
 
 submit to. But when it came to the losses in his sheep fold, which were 
 21 
 
322 GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM. 
 
 more and more severe every winter, he roused himself to see if the mis- 
 chief could not by some means be stopped where it was. It was pretty 
 conclusively proved that the work of slaughter was performed by a 
 single she wolf, who, with her new family of whelps every year, came 
 from a long distance to get her regular winter's living off the fatlings of 
 his hillsides and pastures. Nor was he the only sufferer by her bold 
 depredations. Nearly all the neighboring farmers were forced to submit 
 to these losses, as well as himself, and they were quite ready to under- 
 take, with him, the destruction of the ravenous creature who was 
 committing such a general havoc in the neighborhood. 
 
 A VERY SLY OLD WOLF. 
 
 This she wolf was an old jade, and very sly and shrewd withal. 
 
 Almost every year the hunters, with their dogs, had fallen in with some 
 
 - 
 of her whelps, and made an end of them on the spot ; but they never 
 
 could manage to come upon her in ' a position from which she did not 
 
 possess the cunning to somehow escape. Once they had succeeded in 
 
 getting her to put her foot into a steel trap ; but rather than wait for 
 
 them to come to a final settlement with her for her many crimes, she 
 
 concluded she had better lose her toes and make the best of her way off 
 
 without them. She preferred to sacrifice these, and so save her skin 
 
 whole. 
 
 Putnam got together five of his neighbors, therefore, and laid before 
 
 them his proposal to hunt the old wolf down ; not to give her any 
 
 further rest or peace until they got her into a place from which there 
 
 could be no escape. The arrangement was that the}^ were to take turns 
 
 at the business, two at a time, and follow her up day and night till she 
 
 w r as traced to her den, unless they might have the good luck to destroy 
 
 her before she reached it. It was early in the winter when the pursuit 
 
 began,, and, as it happened, a light snow had fallen to aid them in their 
 
 design. The clipped toes of the creature's feet, too, would assist the 
 
 hunters in following her track, of which fact they were not slow to take 
 
 advantage. 
 
GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM. 
 
 323 
 
 At an early hour on the second morning after setting out, they had 
 succeeded in driving her into her den in a rocky ledge, situated some 
 three miles to the north from Putnam's house, and within the limits of 
 the town of Pomfret. She was carefully watched by one of the men, 
 while the other went to give the alarm to the farmers around. It was not 
 long before the woods in the vicinity of the cave were swarming with the 
 male inhabitants of the town, including a pretty large sprinkling of boys. 
 
 After a council of war had been held, and a close scrutiny of the 
 retreat chosen by their 
 crafty enemy had been 
 indulged in, it was gener- 
 ally concluded that the 
 wolf was not such a great 
 fool in going into this 
 cavity as they might have 
 thought her. She was, 
 to all intents and pur- 
 
 poses, 
 
 in her fortress. 
 
 GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM. 
 
 How should they go to 
 
 work to get her out ? At 
 
 first they tried tantaliza- 
 
 tion, — sending in their 
 
 dogs, who came out again 
 
 yelping and crying, with 
 
 lacerated skins, and torn and bloody noses, showing how skilfully she 
 
 had used her claws in her own defence. They could not prevail on the 
 
 dogs that had tried the entrance once to go in the second time. 
 
 So they next hit upon the plan to stuff in lighted bundles of straw, 
 sprinkled liberally with sulphur, hoping thus to smoke her out. They 
 very truly argued that, if she could stand that, she must be too much 
 for them to think of attacking. Accordingly, the straw was piled in, and 
 set on fire. The dense volumes of smoke rose and rolled slowly into the 
 cave, and they thought the}' were going to secure their game this time 
 
324 GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM. 
 
 without any further trouble. But they looked, and continued to look, in 
 vain for the appearance of anything like a wolf. The smoke could not 
 have reached her, or, if it did, it failed to have the effect upon her they 
 had calculated. 
 
 Time was wearing on in this way, and nothing seemed likely to come 
 of all their labor at last. It wanted now but about a couple of hours to 
 midnight. They were not willing to go home and leave their dreaded 
 enemy where she was, unharmed, and free to repeat her bloody mischief. 
 
 PUTNAM CRAWLS INTO THE WOLF'S DEN. 
 
 Finally it became difficult to endure this state of suspense any longer, 
 and Putnam took his resolution. It was a bold, and no doubt a very 
 reckless, one ; but when he considered, in a flash of his thought, the 
 amount of the losses incurred by his neighbors, as well as himself, from 
 the depredations oT this ravenous wild beast, he wondered how it was 
 possible for any one to hesitate. He declared he would go down and 
 meet the old wolf himself. The farmers were overwhelmed with astonish- 
 ment, and tried to dissuade him from carrying out his rash purpose. But 
 all they could say had no effect whatever upon him. He was determined 
 to put an end to the existence of the wolf, and to do it on that very night 
 
 Well aware of the fear inspired in a wild animal by the sight of fire, 
 lie provided himself with a large quantity of birch bark, torn into shreds, 
 before going into the cave, and lighted a sufficient number for his imme- 
 diate purpose. These furnished all the light he had by which to guide 
 himself along the winding passages of the rocky cavern. Stripping off 
 his coat and waistcoat, with a lighted torch in one hand he entered 
 the dark aperture at near midnight, crawling slowly upon his hands and 
 
 ■knees. 
 
 The mouth of the wolf's den was about two feet square. From this 
 point it proceeds downwards about fifteen feet, then it runs horizontally 
 for some ten feet more, and afterwards it ascends very easily for sixteen 
 feet towards its termination. The sides of the cave are of solid rock, 
 and quite smooth ; the top and bottom are of the same material ; it is 
 
GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM. 325 
 
 but three feet in width, and in no part can a man stand upright. Putnam 
 groped his way along by the aid of his flaring and smoking torches. 
 
 All was still as a tomb, and his feeble torchlight was able to pene- 
 trate but a little distance into the surrounding gloom. He was obliged 
 to advance slowly, and every few moments it became necessary for him to 
 renew his torch, which he did with the greatest care, lest it might go out 
 in the lighting, and he be left in the profoundest darkness. 
 
 ARRESTED BY THE BEAST'S GLARING EYES. 
 
 After creeping over the ten feet of the level portion of the cave, he 
 came to the ascent. Onward he dragged his slow and toilsome way, till 
 his progress was suddenly arrested by the sight of a pair of glaring eye- 
 balls at the very extremity of the cavern. There sat the old wolf her- 
 self; and, as she saw the flash of the torch he carried in his hand, she 
 gnashed her teeth and uttered a low and threatening growl. The brave 
 and venturesome young farmer took a hasty view of things in the cave, 
 and then gave a kick at the rope which his friends had tied about one of 
 his legs before he made the descent, by way of precaution. 
 
 Fearing that the worst had befallen him, they pulled more excitedly 
 at the rope than was necessary ; and, before he could have protested 
 against rough treatment, he found himself dragged out upon the ground 
 before the mouth of the cave, with " his shirt stripped over his head, aud 
 his skin severely lacerated." The}'' had heard the growl of the wolf 
 outside, aud feared that he was involved in a struggle with her for life 
 or death. Besides, it was known that he had carried no weapons into 
 the cave with him, and they were more solicitous on that account. 
 
 This time, however, he loaded his gun, took more torches, and went 
 down better prepared for the encounter. He knew his way along, of 
 course, better than before ; but he was now burdened with his musket. 
 When he came in sight of the wolf again, she was in the same place and 
 position, but appeared a great deal more dissatisfied with his company. 
 
 The account of his early biographer and personal friend states that 
 she wore an aspect of great fierceness — " howling, rolling her eyes, 
 
326 GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM. 
 
 snapping her teeth, and dropping her head between her legs. She was 
 evidently in the attitude and on the point of springing at her assailant. 
 At that critical moment he levelled his piece, aiming directly at her 
 head, and fired. Stunned with the shock, and suffocated with the smoke 
 of the powder, he immediately found himself drawn out of the cave." 
 But this time his friends took a little more care not to strip his shirt 
 over his shoulders, nor to tear his skin against the jagged edges of 
 the rock, as they had done before. 
 
 LYING DEAD ON THE FLOOR OF THE CAVE. 
 
 He allowed a few moments for the smoke to escape from the cham- 
 bers of the cavern, and then went in again to secure his prize. On ex- 
 amination he found his old enemy lying dead on the floor of the cave at 
 its further extremity, in a pool of blood. He had taken aim to some 
 purpose. In order to satisfy himself that she was really dead, he applied 
 his torch to her nose ; she made no signs of life. Accordingly, he seized 
 her by her ears, gave the rope around his leg an exulting kick, and out 
 he went, with his precious prize dragging after him, into the midst of the 
 crowd at the mouth of the cavern, who showered their praises and con- 
 gratulations upou him without stint. They set up a shout of delight 
 that filled the wintry woods with its echoes. Their arch enemy at length 
 lay stretched out stark and stiff at their feet. 
 
 From that hour Israel Putnam was a hero in the eyes and mouth of 
 everybody. He came very soon to be known far and wide as the slayer 
 of the old she-wolf that had made such havoc with the farmers' folds, 
 and people loved to repeat a story that had such decided elements of 
 daring in it ; for it excited them quite as much in the telling as it did 
 others in the hearing. The story grew, too, as it travelled, and Putnam's 
 fame, of course, grew along with it. He was known among the officers 
 cf the army with whom he fought during the Seven Years' War as 
 u the Old Wolf." 
 
 A dozen years after this incident the French and Indian War broke 
 out, and Putnam entered the service of his country. This he did from 
 
GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM. 327 
 
 the purest and most noble motives. Where he was most needed, there 
 he was most always found. He distinguished himself in the French 
 war by his reckless courage and adventurous spirit, and, being captured 
 by the Indians near Ticonderoga, in 1758, he had a narrow escape from 
 death. Two hundred of them were conducting him to Ticonderoga, and 
 soon came into what seemed the very heart of the wilderness. Here 
 
 INDIANS TORTURING A WHITE CAPTIVE. 
 
 they stopped and held a consultation. It was resolved at length to take 
 their prisoner and roast him to death by a slow fire ! Such fiendish 
 torture was exactly suited to their savage instincts. Accordingly they 
 stripped him of his clothes, bound him to a tree, and piled faggots and 
 brushwood around him. He looked on in courageous silence, and pre- 
 pared his thoughts for the end that seemed near at hand. 
 
 His tormentors began to yell and dance around him. The fire was 
 kindled and the names began slowly to creep up towards him. The 
 
328 GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM. 
 
 savages screamed in wild delight. The fire grew hotter and hotter, and 
 the suffering victim, writhing and twisting, turned himself from side to 
 side. The first time the fire was kindled a sudden fall of rain quenched 
 it, but after the sec ond trial it burnt with great rapidity. The more he 
 writhed in his speechless agony, the louder the savages yelled in their 
 
 INDIAN SCALP DANCE AFTER A SUCCESSFUL RAID. 
 
 wild delight, and the more frantic became their motions in their barbaric 
 dances He fixed his thoughts on the loved ones at home, and made 
 ready to die whenever the last moment should come. 
 
 Suddenly a French officer came dashing up through the crowd, 
 kicked away the burning faggots and branches, cut the thongs by which 
 he was tied to the • tree, and released him. He had heard of these 
 
GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM. 
 
 320 
 
 inhuman barbarities of the Indians towards their distinguished captive, 
 and hastened on to save him from the fate which he knew awaited him. 
 Had he come a few minutes later, it would probably have been all over 
 with. He passionately upbraided the Indians for their cruelty, and took 
 the prisoner under his own charge for the rest of the journey. 
 
 Putnam suffered excessively all the way to Ticonderoga, although 
 he was treated with kindness and courtesy. When he reached that 
 fortress he was pre- 
 sented a prisoner to 
 Marquis Montcalm, 
 the French com- 
 mander, by whom he 
 was soon after sent 
 under a proper escort 
 to Montreal. Col. 
 Peter Schuyler was a 
 prisoner there with 
 others at the time, 
 and he paid Putnam 
 great attention and 
 civility. It was 
 through his influence 
 that he was finally ex- 
 changed for a French putnam leaving the plow for bunker hill. 
 prisoner, captured by Col. Bradstreet at the assault on Frontenac, now 
 Kingston, in upper Canada. In Montreal, too, Major Putnam became 
 acquainted with a lovely prisoner, Mrs. Howe, whom he escorted back in 
 safety to her friends in New England. His final release was hailed with 
 joy by his numerous friends throughout the combined English and 
 Provincial army. They had never expected to see him alive again. 
 
 After this Putnam led a quiet life at home for ten years, during which 
 time he made his farmhouse into an inn and became very prominent 
 among a society called the Sons of Liberty, the object of which was to 
 
330 GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM. 
 
 further the cause of American Independence. In 1775, after the battle 
 of Concord, he was given the command of the forces of Connecticut. He 
 was at work in the field when he heard that he was wanted to resist the 
 British invasion ; he left his plow standing and hurried to join the army. 
 At the battle of Bunker Hill, which was one of the first battles of the 
 Revolution and was fought just across the bay from Boston, he was the 
 highest officer in command, although he offered that position to General 
 Warren. He was a marked figure everywhere." 
 
 "WAIT TILL YOU SEE THE WHITES OF THEIR EYES." 
 
 A brief account of the battle will show Putnam's intrepid bravery. 
 Nut a word was spoken, apparently, as the splendid army of Great Britain 
 slowly toiled up the hill in the hot sun. The Americans kept out of 
 sight, and waited almost impatiently for the enemy's approach. There 
 were now fifteen hundred brave hearts within those intrenchments, eagei 
 to engage with the foe. Putnam told the men, as he passed hastily along 
 the lines, dusty and perspiring, not to waste their fire, for powder was 
 very scarce. "Wait", said he, "till you seethe whites of their eyes, 
 and then take aim at their waistbands ! Fire low — and pick off the 
 commanders, with the handsome coats ". Prescott gave the same orders 
 to those within the redoubt. So did the other officers all along the lines, 
 behind the breastworks and the rail-fence. 
 
 The moment the front ranks of the enemy came near enough, the 
 word was given to fire. The execution was beyond description. Not a 
 single shot seemed to have been wasted. The British, fell down in solid 
 ranks, like grass befoie the scythe of the mower. Another volley followed 
 from behind the intrenchments, and then another, each doing as terrible 
 work as the first ; and instantly the whole body of the British were struck 
 with terror and broke and ran like sheep down the hill. Some of the 
 Americans were so overjoyed to behold the result that they leaped over 
 the rail fence, and would have pursued them down to the water's edge • 
 but they were prudently field in check by their officers. 
 
 It was not long before Gen. Howe succeeded in rallying his defeated 
 
GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM. 
 
 331 
 
 troops once more, and bringing them up to the attack as before. The 
 Americans made ready for them as rapidly as they could. Putnam had 
 ridden in hot haste across to Bunker Hill, and tried in vain to bring back 
 the additional troops — fragments of regiments — posted there, so that 
 they might take part in the battle. When the British came up to the 
 
 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 
 
 attack the second time, there were no more Americans in the engagement 
 than before. Fonr hundred men arrived from Boston, nnder command 
 of Major Small. Gen. Howe led the way this time, telling his me:: 
 they need not go a foot further than he was willing to go himself. This 
 time they played their artillery with considerable effect. They were 
 obliged to march over the dead bodies of their companions, which lay in 
 rows all around them on the hillside. 
 
332 GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM. 
 
 The Americans behind their intrenchments waited nntil they came 
 within the prescribed distance, and then ponred in a volley that did even 
 more murderous work than they had done before. Whole ranks of 
 officers and men alike were swept down before this resistless fire. Gen. 
 Howe found himself at one time standing almost entirely alone. The 
 troops were filled with direst confusion. It was more than their officers 
 could do to hold them together. The broken ranks could not be closed 
 up and made whole with the help of any exertions. No threats had the 
 least effect upon the panic-stricken regulars. Alarmed and dispirited, 
 and overwhelmed with double confusion, they turned their backs in a 
 body and ran off down the hill, beyond the reach of the Provincials' 
 deadly rnusketrv, and tried to find a place of safet}\ 
 
 BRITISH GENERAL BECOMES DESPERATE. 
 
 General Clinton, the British commander, saw the rout that had been 
 created by the s'tubborn Provincial militia, and felt mortified and cha- 
 grined ; so much so that he hastily threw himself into a boat, and, some 
 five hundred more following, crossed over with the reckless resolution of 
 serving as a volunteer. A part of the British officers protested against 
 marching up the hill again, to meet with certain destruction ; but Howe 
 had by this time found out where the weakest points in the works lay — 
 between the breastworks and the rail fence — and determined to make one 
 final effort to carry it. It is also related that some careless soldier within 
 the redoubt was heard to say something about the scarcity of the ammu- 
 nition ; and this fact, when reported to the officers, gave a little more 
 encouragement to the enemy. 
 
 General Howe, therefore, led the third attack against the American 
 left, especially against the point on the slope between the breastworks 
 and the rail fence. General Pigot, aided by General Clinton and his 
 forces, marched up to attack the redoubt, aiming also to turn the 
 American right. The orders to the British soldiers were to take the 
 fire of the Americans, and then to charge bayonets and scale the works. 
 This is what they should have done in the first place ; and what they 
 
GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM. 333 
 
 would have done, had they known how short the Americans were of 
 ammunition. 
 
 On came the British, at length, for the third time. The Americans 
 stood firm and resolute in their lines, prepared to receive them. The 
 British artillery soon turned the breastworks, however, sweeping the 
 whole line of their interior. The Americans were of course thus driven 
 within the redoubt, the breastwork being abandoned. But they had 
 taken sure aim before they left, and brought down many a proud British 
 officer. General Howe himself was wounded in the foot. There was 
 but one round apiece to the Provincials now, and when they had 
 expended their first fire they knew they must make a hand-to-hand fight 
 of it. Hence they fired with just as great precision as before, every 
 shot bringing down its man and creating fearful havoc. 
 
 A FIGHT WITH FIXED BAYONETS. 
 
 Then it was that they were put to their true mettle. From that 
 moment it was every man for himself. The British came jumping over 
 the walls of earth, with fixed bayonets. They were received with showers 
 of stones in their faces, with muskets used like clubs over their heads, 
 and with resistance in every possible style. The fight was man against 
 man. Every inch of ground was stoutly contested. The redoubt was 
 already fast filling up with the enemy, and the Americans saw that noth- 
 ing was left them but to retreat. 
 
 Putnam covered their retreat in person, and was not more than 
 twelve rods distant from the enemy, and fully exposed to their fire. He 
 came to one of the field-pieces that had been deserted, which he roundly 
 swore should not be given up to the enemy. Only one man could 
 be found to remain with him ; and he was in another moment shot 
 down at his side, and the rapid advance of the British with fixed 
 bayonets drove him from the cannon also. Colonel Trumbull, the painter 
 of the Revolution, has represented Putnam, in his great battle piece at 
 the National Capitol, in the act of defending this field-piece and covering 
 the retreating militia. 
 
334 GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM. 
 
 The painter has attired him in a splendid bine and scarlet uniform, 
 whereas his dress on that day was strikingly different from that, and 
 more trnly befitted the characrer of the man and the natnre of the work 
 he was engaged in. An old soldier, who was in the fight on that day, 
 has told ns exactly how the General was clad, and how he locked. He 
 says that he rode about the hill, and across the neck between Charles- 
 town and Cambridge, in order to report to General Ward, — "without 
 any coat, in his shirt sleeves, and with an old felt hat on his head." 
 This was certainly more a dress for useful than for ornamental pur- 
 poses, and would not be likely to encumber or embarrass any one who 
 had hard and hasty work to do. He was stripped for battle. 
 
 "OLD PUT" COVERS HIMSELF WITH GLORY. 
 
 In this famous battle Putnam covered himself with glory. Against 
 a desperate foe he and his brave yeomanry fought with surpassing des- 
 peration and bravery. " Old Put." was the very life and hero of Bunker 
 Hill. He was next appointed by Congress a Major-General, and held 
 command of the troops at New York, and in August, 1776, at Brooklyn 
 Heights, where he was defeated by the British General Howe. This did 
 not discourage him, but he went right on as if nothing had happened, 
 feeling sure that success would come later. 
 
 He afterwards held various commands, and in 1777 was appointed 
 to the defense of the Highlands of the Hudson. While at Peekskill a 
 lieutenant in a British regiment was captured as a spy and condemned 
 to death. Sir Henry Clinton, a British commanding oificer, sent a flag 
 of truce to Putnam threatening vengeance if the sentence was carried 
 out. Putnam wrote a brief reply that Sir Henry could understand 
 without much trouble. It was as follows : 
 
 "Headquarters, 7th August, 1777. Edmund Palmer, an officer in 
 the enemy's service, was taken as a spy lurking within our lines ; he has 
 been tried as a spy, condemned as a spy, and shall be executed as a spy, 
 and the flag is ordered to depart immediately. Israel Putnam. P. S.— 
 He has accordingly been executed." 
 
GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM. 
 
 In 1778, Putnam made his famous escape from Governor Tryon's 
 dragoons in Western Connecticut by riding down the stone steps at a 
 place called Horseneck. 
 
 Try on marched with a detachment of fifteen hundred men from 
 King's Bridge over to Horseneck, or what is now known as West Green- 
 wich. Gen. Putnam was there at Horse- 
 neck with a small force of only a hun- 
 dred and fifty men to oppose the ad- 
 vancing enemy. He was stationed on 
 the brow of a steep hill, and had but 
 two iron cannon with him, but without 
 drag ropes or horses. He determined, 
 however, to show the enemy that he 
 would not run as long as there was a 
 chance to harass them, or do them any 
 mischief. 
 
 The field pieces were loaded and 
 fired several times at them as they came 
 up, performing considerable execution. 
 Resolved to put a stop to such a pro- 
 ceeding at once, the British General 
 ordered a party of dragoons, supported 
 by the infantry, to charge upon the 
 cause of the mischief. Seeing what 
 they were determined to do, and feeling THE MINUTE MAN. 
 
 certain that there was no use in trying to oppose his little handful of 
 men to the large body of the enemy at hand, Gen. Putnam told his 
 soldiers to retreat at the top of their speed into a swamp near by, where 
 the cavalry could not enter to molest them. 
 
 He then waited himself till the men had all got off safely, and when 
 the dragoons had come almost within a sword's length of him in their 
 impetuous chase, he took a mad plunge down the precipice, while their 
 horses recoiled and the riders looked on with a feeling of astonishment 
 
330 GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM. 
 
 that almost amounted to horror. They dared not continue the pursuit, 
 so fearfully precipitous was the descent over the rocks and stones. It 
 was a feat of reckless daring, especially for a man well along in years, 
 that was quite worthy of one who, in his younger days, went down alone 
 into a cave after a hunted wolf at midnight. 
 
 The road led round the hill, but he was far beyond their reach before 
 they could recover themselves sufficiently to set out after him by that 
 way. They hastily sent a volley of bullets in pursuit of him, as he 
 plunged down the rocky steep ; one of them went through his hat, but 
 not a hair of his head was injured. There were from seventy-five to 
 one hundred rude stone steps laid on this declivity to assist the people 
 from below in climbing the hill to the ordinary services on Sunday at 
 the church on the brow of the same. Putnam's horse took him in a zig- 
 zag direction down these steps and landed him safely in the plain. 
 
 And thus one of the brightest pages in our American annals is 
 illumed by the heroic spirit, the sturdy honesty and religious character, 
 the thrilling deeds and splendid example of " Old Put." He died May 
 19, 1790, having served his country nobly. 
 
 Let all who read these pages remember the daring achievements 
 and willing sacrifices of those old heroes of the Revolution. They did 
 not count their lives dear to them, and when their country called them 
 to the defence of American independence they sprang into the breach 
 and risked everything for their great cause. It is something to belong 
 to a nation that has such a thrilling and illustrious history. We believe 
 the sons of the present generation are worthy of the sires who gained 
 our liberties. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 COLONEL ETHAN ALLEN. 
 
 ERO OF TICONDEROGA— "IN THE NAME OF THE 
 GREAT JEHOVAH AND THE CONTINENTAL. CON- 
 GRESS " — A MAN FOR DESPERATE VENTURES — 
 HIS SUFFERINGS IN CAPTIVITY. 
 
 It is well-nigh impossible for us, at this day, fully to realize the 
 intense and burning indignation which was aroused throughout the 
 length and breadth of the land by the news of the battle at Lexington, 
 in the beginning of the American Revolution. Blood had been shed • 
 and the blood of murdered brethren cried from the ground for vengeance. 
 Volunteers immediately abandoned their occupations and hastened on 
 towards the scene of action, and within a few days Boston was besieged 
 by the outraged people. 
 
 The gallant Stark, of New Hampshire, ten minutes after the news 
 reached him, was on his way to join the patriot force. Israel Putnam, 
 of Connecticut, sixty years of age, was peacefully occupied in ploughing 
 when the tidings of the battle arrived, and he left his plough in the 
 field, and without even going to his house, sped on his way to the camp. 
 All Virginia was aroused. Lord Dunmore, the royal Governor, at- 
 tempted to seize upon military stores, which caused great excitement, 
 and nothing but timely concession on the part of the governor prevented 
 bloodshed. 
 
 In New York, in Philadelphia, and farther south, the spirit of the 
 people showed how deeply they sympathized with their countrymen in 
 Massachusetts. It was felt everywhere that the sword had been drawn. 
 
 and that now the contest must be decided by the sword. "Unhappy is 
 
 22 3:J7 
 
338 COLONEL ETHAN ALLEN. 
 
 it," said Washington, writing to Fairfax, in England, a nobleman and 
 friend of the first President, in regard to the deplorable commence- 
 ment of hostilities at Lexington, " to reflect that a brother's sword has 
 been sheathed in a brother's breast, and that the once happy and peace- 
 ful plains of America are to be either drenched with blood or inhabited 
 by slaves. Sad alternative ! Bnt can a virtuous man hesitate in his 
 choice ? " 
 
 The Massachusetts Congress was in session at the time, and imme- 
 diately took measures for sending depositions to England, to prove — as 
 was no doubt the case — that the British troops were the aggressors. 
 They also, while professing undiminished loyalty to the king, " appealed 
 to heaven for the justice of their cause, and determined to die or be free." 
 The forts, magazines and arsenals were speedily seized upon by the 
 people in all directions, and preparations were made for war. 
 
 TWENTY THOUSAND MEN AT BOSTON. 
 
 Troops were raised, and a new issue of paper money made. Boston 
 was soon besieged by a force of twenty thousand men, who formed a line 
 of encampment from Roxbury to the River Mystic. Artemas Ward was 
 appointed captain-general of the troops thus brought together from the 
 neighboring colonies, who promptly determined to sustain Massachusetts 
 in the impending struggle. 
 
 Some bold spirits, perceiving clearly that war was at hand, had con- 
 ceived a plan for capturing Ticonderoga and Crown Point. Ethan Allen, 
 with his Green Mountain Boys, less than three hundred in number, 
 assembled at Castleton, May 2d, and were there joined by Benedict 
 Arnold, who had also set out on the same errand. Arnold had a colonel's 
 commission from Massachusetts, and claimed the command ; but the 
 Vermonters refused flatly, and he was forced to serve as volunteer or not 
 at all. 
 
 The party arrived at Shoreham, opposite Ticonderoga, on the night 
 of the 9th of May. Never dreaming of such a thing as an attack, the 
 vigilance of the garrison was quite relaxed. Having obtained a boy, 
 
COLONEL ETHAN ALLEN. 
 
 339 
 
 named Nathan Beman, as a guide, Allen and Arnold crossed over during 
 the night with only eighty-three of their men, the rest being unable to 
 follow them for want of a supply of boats. Landed under the walls 
 of the fort, they found their position extremely critical ; the dawn was 
 beginning to break, and unless they could succeed in instantly sur- 
 prising the garrison, they ran themselves the most imminent risk of 
 capture. 
 
 Ethan Allen did not hesitate a moment, but, drawing up his men, 
 briefly explained to them the position of affairs, and then, with Arnold 
 
 CAPTURE OF TICONDEROGA BY ETHAN ALLEN. 
 
 by his side, hurried up immediately to the sally-port. The sentinel 
 snapped his fusee at them, and, rushing into the fort, the Americans 
 followed close at his heels, and, entering the open parade, awoke the 
 sleeping garrison with three hearty cheers. The English soldiers started 
 from their beds, and, rushing below, were immediately taken prisoners. 
 
 Meanwhile Allen, attended by his guide, hurried up to the chamber 
 of the commandant, Captain Delaplace, who was in bed, and, knocking at 
 his door with the hilt of his huge sword, ordered him in a stentorian voice 
 to make his instant appearance, or the entire garrison should immedi- 
 ately be put to death. The commandant appeared at his door, half- 
 
;40 
 
 COLONEL ETHAN ALLEN. 
 
 dressed, "the frightened face of his pretty wife peering over his shoulders." 
 Gazing in bewildered astonishment at Allen, he exclaimed, " By whose 
 authority do you act ? " " In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Con- 
 tinental Congress!" replied Allen, with a flourish of his long sword, and 
 we are sorry to say, with an oath following it. 
 
 There was no alternative and Delaplace surrendered. Two days after- 
 wards, Crown Point was surprised and taken. More than two hundred 
 pieces of artillery and a large and valuable supply of powder, which was 
 greatly needed, fell into the hands of the Americans. By these daring 
 
 movements, the 
 command of 
 Lakes George 
 and Champlain 
 was won, and 
 the great high- 
 way to Canada 
 was thrown 
 open. 
 
 Before the 
 close of 1775, 
 British author- 
 ity had been 
 
 VIEW OF MONTREAL FROM MOUNT ROYAL. overthrown in 
 
 all the colonies. The royal governors were compelled to espouse the 
 cause of the home country or give way to those that would. The Ameri- 
 cans made the mistake, which has been repeated more than once since, 
 of believing that Canada would make common cause with them against 
 Great Britain. While the long siege of Boston was pressed, an expedi- 
 tion was made into that province. When it became known that General 
 Carleton, governor of Canada, was preparing to re-occupy Crown Point 
 and Ticonderoga, General Philip Schuyler was ordered to proceed without 
 delay to Ticonderoga, thence to advance into Canada and take possession 
 of Montreal and St. John's. While the boats for the transport of the 
 
COLONKL ETHAN ALLEN. 341 
 
 troops were building, Schuyler sent parties across the border to learn the 
 sentiments of the people, and to gather needed information. On their 
 return they reported that the people were friendly, and that the militia, 
 which did not number more than seven hundred, refused to serve under 
 French officers. 
 
 Schuyler's second in command was Richard Montgomery, formerly 
 an officer in the British army, and a daring Irish leader who had done 
 valiant service. Schuyler falling ill, the command devolved on the Irish- 
 man. An armed camp was formed on the Isle Aux Noix, and a boom 
 thrown across the channel to prevent passage by the enemy's sloops-of- 
 war. In several small conflicts that followed, the Americans showed 
 such insubordination and cowardice that Montgomery was filled with 
 rage, and expressed regret that he had ever undertaken to lead them. 
 Nevertheless he invested St. John's with all possible vigor, while Schuyler 
 at Albany did his utmost to forward men and supplies. 
 
 CAPTURED AND HEAVILY IRONED. 
 
 One of Montgomery's officers was Ethan Allen, the hero of Ticon- 
 deroga. With the wild courage natural to him, he went to Chambly to 
 raise a force of Canadians. Having recruited eighty he united them 
 with thirty Americans, and set out to capture Montreal. He left Lon- 
 guel on the night of September 24th, and hastened to Long Point. Re- 
 enforcements had been promised him there, but did not appear. He 
 could not retreat, and, therefore, made the bravest defense possible 
 against a force four times as large as his own, but was finally compelled 
 to surrender, with all his men who could not escape. He was heavily 
 ironed and sent to England, where he remained a prisoner for some time. 
 
 Thence he was sent to New York, where he remained a year and a 
 half, before he was exchanged for Colonel Campbell. His health having 
 been greatly impaired, he returned to Vermont, where he was appointed 
 to command the militia. His patriotism was firm, and he indignantly 
 rejected the bribes offered by the British. He died suddenly, at his 
 estate at Colchester, February 13, 1789. 
 
342 COLONEL ETHAN ALLEN. 
 
 Ethan Allen was a good type of the heroic sonls who won onr inde- 
 pendence. He was an titter stranger to hardship and danger, taking no 
 account of the sacrifices demanded in the service of his country. His 
 three hundred "Green Mountain Boys" were like himself; his spirit 
 animated them, and they were ready for any call, even at the risk of life. 
 His capture of Ticonderoga has always been spoken of as one of the 
 thrilling incidents of the Revolution, and every historian of our great 
 struggle has awarded him merited praise and honor. 
 
 If anything can be said to his detriment, it is that he was too ven- 
 turesome. He was the kind of man who never stopped to consider con- 
 sequences. His personal bravery made him a most formidable foe, and 
 if the enemy were ten times as strong as his own force, he still rushed 
 into the storm of battle. He was the sturdy champion of whatever he 
 believed to be right, being a man of strong convictions, resolute in main- 
 taining them, aild never yielding a hair's breadth to expediency or fear. 
 He had that personal magnetism which belongs to all great leaders, and 
 with better opportunities would have left behind him even a more bril- 
 liant name as a patriot and hero. 
 
ulo 
 
 SERGEANT WILLIAM JASPER. 
 
 HERO OF FORT MOULTRIE — FLAG OF SOUTH 
 CAROLINA INSCRIBED WITH " LIBERTY" — 
 STANDARD SHOT AWAY — JASPER'S BRAVE 
 DEED— PRESENTED BY GOVERNOR RUTLEDGE 
 WITH HIS OWN SWORD — HIS GALLANT SER- 
 VICES UNDER MARION. 
 
 You must bear iu niiud that not only were the patriots in our Revo- 
 lution forced to combat with the British invaders of their country, but 
 that they had enemies at home. These were men who believed it wrong 
 to fight for their independence, and who thought the rule of King 
 George III. the best that the colonies could have. Many of the Tories 
 were cruel and treacherous, and while their patriotic neighbors were 
 away from home fighting for liberty, injured their property, sometimes 
 burning their houses and shooting the members of their families. When 
 brave enough to face danger they would either join the British invaders 
 or form companies of their own to fight against their fellow-citizens. It 
 is probable that some of the Tories were honest in theii belief, but no 
 one can justify their brutalities. 
 
 There was a severe conflict in North Carolina between the patriots 
 and Tories, in which the latter were defeated with a heavy loss. So 
 completely were the traitors crushed, that for a time it was hard work 
 to find one in that part of the country. 
 
 The British commanders, Clinton, Cornwallis and Parker, showed 
 
 no great eagerness to engage in their work. The first-named general 
 
 having reached Wilmington, awaited the arrival of the fleet and re-in- 
 
 forcements. The ships came in one by one, the first arriving on the 
 
 343 
 
344 SERGEANT WILLIAM JASPER. 
 
 third of May, 1776, with Admiral Parker. This delay gave the Conti- 
 nentals good opportunity to prepare themselves for the attack. 
 
 Christopher Gadsen was colonel of the first patriot regiment, and 
 William Moultrie commanded the second. There was also a regiment 
 of riflemen, all famous marksmen, while their colonel, William Thomp- 
 son, was the best shot of all. Tories were plentiful in vSouth Carolina, 
 
 FORT MOULTRIE, CHARLESTON HARBOR. 
 
 but they were pretty well scared, and when North Carolina sent a regi- 
 ment to her neighbor's help, all danger to the patriots from the rear was 
 removed. 
 
 It was easy to see the importance of Charleston. The British 
 General Clinton could do nothing without the help of his fleet, and that 
 fleet was powerless until it had possession of Charleston harbor. The 
 South Carolinians saw this from the first, and did not wait until the 
 
SERGEANT WILLIAM JASPER. 345 
 
 danger was upon them before preparing for it. Scarcely was the news 
 of Lexington known when they began fortifying the harbor. They 
 knew their turn would soon come, and they did not mean to be caught 
 napping. 
 
 On the north side of the entrance to the harbor lay Sullivan's Island 
 — low, marshy and wooded — while on the south side was James Island, 
 much larger. Gadsen was intrenched on the latter, and Moultrie and 
 Thompson were on Sullivan's Island, which is six miles distant from 
 Charleston. The streets of the town were barricaded and a large force 
 was kept under arms to resist the assault that was sure to come, in case 
 the outer defenses were carried. The most important of these was the 
 fort erected by Moultrie on Sullivan's Island, opposite the place where 
 the channel ran closest to the shore. No vessel could reach Charleston 
 without passing that fort, and as long as the vessels were held at bay 
 Charleston was safe, and the inhabitants felt at ease. 
 
 A CURIOUS FORT. 
 
 The walls of the fort were made of palmetto logs, and the spaces 
 between filled with sand, so that the walls were over a dozen feet in 
 thickness. The middle of the fort was a swamp. The work was not 
 finished when called upon to resist the tremendous assault of the fleet. 
 The front was completed, and thirty-one guns were mounted on it. 
 There was room for a thousand men, but the garrison numbered only 
 four hundred. 
 
 Copies of the royal proclamation offering pardon to such as would 
 lay down their arms were sent to the patriots, but of course that work 
 was thrown away. General Lee, the commanding American officer, 
 watched the preparations making by Moultrie and shook his head. 
 
 u Itis impossible with these defenses to keep back the fleet," he 
 said, with the positiveness of one who was sure he was right. " I do not 
 believe you can hold out half an hour. The fort will be knocked all to 
 pieces." 
 
 "Then we'll lie behind the ruins," replied Moultrie, "and keep at it." 
 
346 SERGEANT WILLIAM JASPER. 
 
 " You have no means of retreat," added Lee. " If you are defeated 
 the slaughter will be dreadful." 
 
 " We're not going to be defeated, general." 
 
 This was brave talk, but it did not quiet the fears of the command- 
 ing officer. He was in favor of abandoning the place, or at least of 
 building a bridge of boats from the island to the mainland, but Colonel 
 Moultrie was so urgent that Lee gave him his own way. 
 
 Clinton and Cornwallis agreed that the best plan was to land on a 
 sandbank, and then pass to Sullivan's Island by means of a certain ford 
 said to exist at low water. On the 17th of June, twenty-five hundred 
 British disembarked on this patch of sand, only to be tormented by 
 mosquitoes, the blazing sun and a lack of good water. It was the worst 
 time of the year for people unused to the flaming skies of the south. 
 And now, when the invaders came to examine the supposed ford it was 
 found to be fully, seven feet deep at low water. It looked as if the only 
 way to get across was for the soldiers to walk on stilts, to ride on each 
 other's shoulders, or to swim. None of these methods could be adopted, 
 and there was little prospect, therefore, of Clinton giving help to the fleet. 
 
 BREASTWORKS GUARDED BY RIFLEMEN. 
 
 After repeated delays, the attack was opened on the 28th of June, 
 1776. Parker was confident he could reduce the fort and defeat the large 
 body of Continentals encamped on the island in the rear of the fort. 
 The Americans had an advanced post at one extremity of the island, 
 where the men were protected by sand-hills and myrtle bushes, with 
 breastworks thrown up in the rear, and guarded by a large number of 
 riflemen. On the left was a morass, and on the right a couple of guns 
 commanded the spot where it was expected Clinton would land his men. 
 
 About the middle of the forenoon of that hot June day, the British 
 fleet, numbering ten men-of-war, and carrying two hundred and fifty-four 
 guns, sailed up the channel, the Bristol, flying Admiral Parker's pennant, 
 being third in line. Over the fort fluttered the flag of South Carolina, 
 blue in color, with a silver crescent and a single word, "Liberty." 
 
SERGEANT WILLIAM JASPER. 
 
 347 
 
 J* 
 
 The garrison grimly awaited the approach of the ponderous hulls, 
 slowly sweeping forward, with a wealth of bellying canvas above. As 
 they swung one after another into range, Moultrie sent a few cannon 
 balls whistling 
 towards them, 
 but the ships 
 made no reply 
 until they had 
 dropped anchor 
 in position be- 
 fore the fort. 
 Then their 
 "thunders shook 
 the mighty 
 deep." Spouts 
 of name shot 
 from the throats 
 of hundreds of 
 cannon, and tons 
 of metal went 
 hurtling overthe 
 water towards 
 the fort. When 
 the smoke clear- 
 ed away, Ad- 
 miral Parker 
 and his officers 
 expected to see 
 the fortifications 
 splintered and American marksman in a tree. 
 
 shattered as if by a myriad of thunderbolts. General Lee and a vast 
 crowd, many with glasses, intently watched the result from Charleston. 
 
 There was scarcely a sign that the fort had been struck. The 
 
348 
 
 SERGEANT WILLIAM JASPER. 
 
 palmetto logs were the best material that could have been used. They are 
 spongy and fibrous, and when struck by a cannon ball the wood does not 
 splinter, but seems to absorb the metal. Of course, the heavy balls did 
 
 some damage, 
 and the sand 
 
 often flew aloft 
 in showers ; but 
 the result was 
 highly pleasing 
 to the Ameri- 
 cans and equally 
 disappointing to 
 the British. Ad- 
 miral Parker, 
 however, con- 
 cluded that it 
 would merely 
 take him a little 
 longer than was 
 anticipated to 
 demolish the de- 
 fenses that dis- 
 puted his pas- 
 sage to the city. 
 Most of the 
 shells that 
 curved over into 
 the fort fell into 
 the marsh in the 
 centre, where 
 
 SERGEANT JASPER RECOVERS THE FLAG AMIDST A FIERY 
 STORM OF SHOT AND SHELL. 
 
 they were. quenched by the water and mud, and sputtered out without 
 harming anyone. No one could have shown more coolness and bravery 
 than Colonel Moultrie. He smoked his pipe, growled now and then 
 
SERGEANT WILLIAM JASPER. 349 
 
 as a twinge of gout shot through his leg, and, limping back and forth 
 inspired all with his own courage. The weather was excessively hot, 
 and banks of sulphurous vapor almost suffocated the defenders, as they 
 fought half naked. Their well-aimed shots crashed through the rigging 
 and hulls of the ships with tremendous effect. 
 
 Suddenly the flag at the southeast bastion fell to the beach. The 
 flagstaff had been cut in two by a ball from one of the vessels. Sergeant 
 William Jasper bounded through one of the embrasures, seized the 
 ensign, climbed the wall amid a furious fire, waved the flag defiantly at 
 the enemy, and securing it on a pike, coolly fixed it in place, and jumped 
 down among his comrades. It was a magnificent deed of valor. 
 
 AMERICAN SHOTS VERY DESTRUCTIVE. 
 
 The British showed great bravery, but they could not equal the 
 damage inflicted by the American shots, aimed with so much skill. 
 Everybody on the quarter-deck of the flag-ship Bristol was either killed 
 or wounded ; and, for a time, Admiral Parker was the only one who 
 stood there unhurt. Captain Morris was struck in the neck, and shortly 
 after his right arm was shattered by a chain shot. He passed quietly 
 below, had his arm amputated and dressed, after which he returned to 
 the quarter-deck, where he continued to direct the action of the ship 
 until a shot passed through his body and his voice was hushed forever. 
 
 Toward the latter part of the day, the hopes of the assailants were 
 raised by the slackening of the American fire. It looked as if the fleet 
 was about to prevail, and the faces of the spectators in far away Charles- 
 ton paled with anxiety. But Colonel Moultrie never dreamed of yielding. 
 He filled his pipe again, and sent word to General Lee that his ammuni- 
 tion was low, and that he must have more at once. At that time only 
 enough was left for the musketry, in case the British landed. 
 
 Moultrie had asked for ammunition earlier in the day. Now, when 
 he saw how bravely his men were fighting while he hobbled painfully 
 about, it is not strange that he lost patience and used some vigorous 
 language, because his request for a time was unheeded. When he first 
 
350 SERGEANT WILLIAM JASPER. 
 
 applied to Lee, the general was not inclined to grant his request, reply- 
 ing that if the ammunition was expended he should spike his guns and 
 retreat. Governor Rutledge, who was in Charleston, forwarded . five 
 hundred pounds of powder to Moultrie with the request that he should 
 not be quite so free with his cannon, and two hundred pounds were re- 
 ceived from a schooner lying at the back of the fort. 
 
 During the afternoon some reinforcements were sent by Lee with 
 orders to support the advance guard under Thompson, at the east end of 
 the island. A little later, General Lee went over to Moultrie and sighted 
 several of the cannon. Struck with the skill and courage of the patriots, 
 he said with a smile : " I don't think I am needed here, colonel ; I will 
 go back to town and tell the folks how well you are getting along." 
 
 EXPEDITION AGAINST CHARLESTON ABANDONED. 
 
 Lee took his departure. The day was very long, but when the sun 
 went down, and darkness crept over the harbor and city, the fire still 
 continued. The thousands that were gazing in the direction of the com- 
 batants could see only the red flash of the ships' broadsides and the 
 answering crimson jet from the walls of the fort, and could hear, after 
 long intervals, the resounding boom of the cannon. 
 
 It was nine o'clock when Admiral Parker, who was slightly wounded / 
 decided to withdraw. The ships slipped their cables, and the expedition 
 against Charleston was abandoned. The British had lost two hundred 
 and five men killed and wounded, while of the Americans ten were killed 
 and twenty-nine wounded. Three of the vessels had grounded on a sand 
 bank. Two of them were got off during the night, and the third was 
 fired and abandoned by the crew. While she was burning, a number of 
 Americans boarded her, captured her colors, fired some of the guns at 
 Parker's squadron, filled three boats with her sails and stores, and got 
 safely away before she blew up. 
 
 Nothing could be more complete than was the triumph of the 
 Americans. The key to the south, as it may be called, had been held 
 against the utmost efforts of the British army and fleet, and that section 
 
SERGEANT WILLIAM JASPER. 351 
 
 of our country was safe for the time. General Lee wrote to Washington 
 that he was " captured" by the coolness and bravery of the defenders 
 under twelve hours' fire. Had Colonel Moultrie been a young and vain 
 man he would have been ruined by the praises he received. The fort was 
 named for him, his regiment was presented with two beautiful banners, 
 and congratulations poured on him from every quarter. All Charleston 
 flocked to the fort after the departure of the fleet. General Lee admitted 
 his mistake as to the strength of the defenses. He reviewed the regiment 
 on the 30th of June, the date of the presentation of colors by the ladies of 
 Charleston. Governor Rutledge visited the garrison on the 4th of July, 
 and expressed the gratitude of South Carolina. Congress, at a later 
 date, voted its thanks to Lee, Moultrie and Thompson, and to the officers 
 and soldiers under their command. Governor Rutledge presented 
 Sergeant Jasper his own sword and a lieutenant's commission, but he 
 modestly declined the latter on the ground that he could neither read 
 nor write. 
 
 Had not his education in his boyhood been neglected he might, by 
 his native force of character and daring bravery, have risen to a high com- 
 mand in the army. He will always be remembered, however, for his 
 courageous act in rescuing the lost flag and planting it again in the face 
 of the foe, despite the hot hail of battle that raged around him and 
 threatened him every moment with death. 
 
 One cannot read the history of the Revolution without coming upon 
 the valiant deeds of such brave spirits as Sergeant Jasper, yet it is safe 
 to say that a multitude of heroes have never been commemorated, and 
 the story of their heroism has never been told. The best part of his- 
 tory may be buried in obscurity. Without any thought of future fame, 
 those old-time patriots stood nobly at the post of duty, and many of them 
 died "unhonored and unsung." 
 
 If we delve in the obscurity that shrouds the achievements of the 
 heroic souls who won our liberties, we should find names, all unknown, 
 that are as shining as any now blazoned on the pages of history. 
 
U^^C^^s^ 
 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 CAPTAIN NATHAN HALE. 
 
 SENT BY WASHINGTON TO THE BRITISH 
 CAMP FOR INFORMATION — CAPTURED AND 
 TRIED AS A SPY — HIS HEROIC CONDUCT- 
 REGRET THAT HE HAD ONLY ONE LIFE 
 TO LOSE FOR HIS COUNTRY— HIS NAME 
 AND MEMORY HELD IN HIGHEST HONOR. 
 
 The greenest of laurels should be placed on the head of the patriot 
 who suffers for his country, and no one whom history has eulogized is 
 more worthy of such honor than the young and noble hero, Nathan 
 Hale. He was born of fine old Puritan stock in Coventry, Connecticut, 
 June 6th, 1755. 
 
 When the first guns of the Revolution sounded over the hills and 
 vales of New England, Hale gave up his position as school teacher and 
 was made captain in the patriot army under Washington. He imme- 
 diately became noted for his manliness, courage, obedience to duty, and 
 bravery in the face of danger. 
 
 The battle of Long Island had been fought, and Washington's dis- 
 pirited army was scattered up and down Manhattan Island. He was in 
 complete ignorance of the movements of the enemy, who were com- 
 manded by General Howe and were encamped on Long Island, holding 
 possession of the shore along the East River for several miles. Wash- 
 ington was eager to obtain information concerning their number and 
 next probable movements. Upon such information depended his own 
 movements and the fate of his anny. 
 
 His appeals to American officers, and to a French sergeant in the 
 
 anny to undertake the hazardous exploit of entering the British lines £>u 
 352 
 
CAPTAIN NATHAN HALE. 
 
 353 
 
 I spy brought no response. No one was willing to undertake so perilous 
 an expedition. . At this critical moment Captain Nathan Hale stepped 
 forward and volunteered to go. His services were immediately accepted. 
 He well knew the dangerous nature of his mission, but did not shrink 
 from it ; he was not the man to consult his own safety when duty called. 
 Hale passed in disguise to the British camp, but on his return was 
 apprehended and carried before Lord William Howe, by whom he was 
 
 HALE, IN DISGUISE, ENTERS THE CAMP OF THE ENEMY. 
 
 ordered for execution the next morning. He was denied a Bible and the 
 aid of a clergyman. The letters full of fortitude and resignation which 
 he had written to his mother and sister, were destroyed. 
 
 As a spy, his execution would, of course, be public — we know that 
 it was so — would be attended with the ordinary formalities — all that were 
 calculated to strike terror — and with many in addition, for the purpose 
 of accumulating disgrace — and in the case under consideration, we 
 know, was accompanied with every contrivance which brutality could 
 suggest to wound the sensibilities of the victim. 
 
 His arms then, probably, pinioned close behind him — over his body 
 
 a coarse white gown or jacket trimmed with black, the winding sheet of 
 23 
 
354 CAPTAIN NATHAN HALE. 
 
 the scaffold — on his head a cap of white, trimmed too with black — near 
 him a box of rough pine boards, his coffin, borne in a cart,, or upon the 
 shoulders of attendants — before him a guard leading the way — behind 
 him another guard with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets — in the rear 
 )f these Cunningham, Provost. Marshal, with other officers, as formal 
 witnesses of the event — and near, mulatto Richmond, the common hang- 
 man of the Provost, bearing a ladder, and with a coil of rope about his 
 neck — such were the circumstances, it may fairly be presumed, under 
 which Hale moved to the place of his execution — there where some tree 
 sent out from its ill-omened trunk a rigid horizontal limb, or where from 
 among the bones of those already dead, two straight poles, supporting 
 a cross beam in their crotches, shot into the air — and where, just beneath, 
 a heap of earth, thrown freshly out, marked a new-made grave. 
 
 .CURIOUS CROWD SEES EXECUTION. 
 
 Early morning as it was, the sun hardly risen, yet quite a crowd 
 was collected around the spot — many whom the fire in the city had 
 kept out of their beds all night — men and women — a few American wag- 
 oners, who, impressed from Long Island into the British forage service, 
 happened to be in town — some soldiers and officers of the royal army, 
 and among these last that officer of the British Commissariat Depart- 
 ment, whose narrative is one of our chief sources of information. 
 
 But in all that crowd there was not one face familiar to Hale — not 
 one voice to whisper a word of consolation to his dying agony. Yet 
 though without a friend whom he knew — though denied that privilege 
 granted usually to the meanest criminal, the attendance of a chaplain — 
 though degraded by every external mark of ignominy — yet did his spirit 
 not give way. His gait, as he approached the gallows, in spite of his 
 pinioned arms, was upright and steady. No offending soldier to whom 
 the choicer penalty has been assigned to receive the shot of his comrades, 
 ever, in the midst of sympathy, and with the consciousness that he was 
 allowed at least a soldier's death, marched more firmly to kneel upon his 
 coffin than did Hale to meet the felon's doom. 
 
CAPTAIN NATHAN HALE. 355 
 
 Through all the horror of his situation he maintained a deportment 
 so dignified, a resolution so calm, a spirit so exalted by Christian readi- 
 ness to meet his fate, and by the consciousness of duty done, and done 
 in the holy cause of his country, that his face, we cannot but think, must 
 have worn almost the aspect of a seraph's — lifted as it was at frequent 
 intervals to heaven, and so radiant with hope, heroism, and resignation. 
 
 REGRETS HE HAS ONLY ONE LIFE. 
 
 Thus looking, he stood at last — the few simple preparations being 
 ended — elevated on one of the rounds of the gallows ladder — ready for 
 the fatal fall. The coarse voice of Cunningham, whose eye watched 
 every arrangement, was now heard scoffingly demanding from his victim 
 his dying speech and confession — as if hoping that the chaos of Hale's 
 soul at that awful moment would lead him to utter some remark, strange 
 or ridiculous, which might serve to glut the curiosity of the crowd, or be 
 remembered as a kind of self-made epitaph by a "rebel captain." 
 
 Never was torturer more cheated of his purpose — never a victim 
 endowed with utterance more sublime ! One glance, it is said, at Cun- 
 ningham — one slight momentary contraction of his features into con- 
 tempt — and he turned his look, filled again with holy energy and sweetness 
 upon the spectators — now impressed, most of them, with solemn awe — 
 and some of them, the females, not forbearing to sob aloud. 
 
 With a voice full, distinct, slow — which came mournfully thrilling 
 from the very depths of his being — in words which patriotism will forever 
 enshrine, and every monument to Hale's memory sink deepest into its 
 stone, and every temple of liberty blazon highest on its entablature — at 
 the ver}^ moment when the tightening knotted cord was to crush the life 
 from his young body forever — he ejaculated — as the last immortal testa- 
 ment of his heroic soul to the world he was leaving — " I only regret that 
 I have but one life to lose for my country ! " 
 
 Maddened to hear a sentiment so sublime burst from the lips of the 
 sufferer, and to witness visible signs of sympathy among the crowd 
 Cunningham instantly shouted for the catastrophe to close. "Swing 
 
356 CAPTAIN NATHAN HALE. 
 
 the rebel off I" — we conceive we hear him vociferating even now — "swing 
 him off!" The ladder disappeared — the cord strained from the creaking 
 beam or bongh — and with a sndden jerk, the body of Hale dangled con- 
 vulsively in the air. A few minutes fluttering to and fro — a few heavings 
 of its noble chest — its manly limbs at moments sharply bent by the 
 pang — it at last hung straight and motionless from its support. 
 
 All was still as the chambers of death. The soul of the martyr 
 had fled ! 
 
 Major Andre was condemned as a spy within the American lines, and 
 was ordered by Washington to be executed. Hon. Chauncey M. Depew 
 thus contrasts the two men, Hale and Andre : "While Andre was tried 
 by a board of officers, and had ample time and every facility for defence, 
 Hale was summarily ordered to execution the next morning. While 
 Andre's last wishes and bequests were sacredly followed, the infamous 
 Cunningham tore from Hale his letters to his mother and sister, and 
 asked him what he had to say : 'All I have to say/ was Hale's reply, 
 1 is that I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.' His 
 death was concealed for months, because Cunningham said he did not 
 want the rebels to know they had a man who could die so bravely. 
 
 " And yet, while Andre rests in that grandest of mausoleums, where 
 the proudest of nations garners the remains and perpetuates the mem- 
 ories of its most eminent and honored, the name and deeds of Nathan 
 Hale have passed into oblivion, and only a simple tomb in a village 
 churchyard marks his resting-place. The dying declarations of Andre 
 and Hale express the animating spirit of their several armies, and teach 
 why, with all their power, England could not conquer America. ' I call 
 upon you to witness that I die like a brave man,' said Andre, and he 
 spoke from British and Hessian surroundings, seeking only glory and 
 pay. 'I regret that I have only one life to lose for my country,' said 
 Hale ; and with him and his comrades self was forgotten in that absorbing, 
 passionate patriotism which pledges fortune, honor and life to the sacred 
 cause." 
 

 MOLLY PITCHER. 
 
 HEROINE OF THE BATTLE OF MONMOUTH— 
 TAKES THE PLACE OF HER HUSBAND WHO 
 FELL IN THE FIGHT — HER COURAGE AND 
 ENDURANCE — HER HISTORV — HER MONU- 
 MENT AT CARLISLE. 
 
 It was the custom during the American Revolution for women, 
 generally wives of private soldiers, to follow the armies into the field as 
 laundry women. The records of Sir Henry Clinton's English army 
 show this fact, and to some extent this was true of the Americans. 
 Every regiment had women who did duty in laundering for the officers 
 and had quarters assigned them and wagons to carry them from 
 place to place. The records of the battle of Monmouth show that these 
 camp followers of Sir Henry's army were sent from Philadelphia around 
 the Delaware Bay to New York in ships or transports. 
 
 In Washington's army the same custom was followed. There were 
 doubtless a number of women who followed Washington to Monmouth 
 and so on to New Brunswick, and who, after the war, settled here and 
 there throughout the country. 
 
 Molly Pitcher's rijht name was Mary Ludwig. She was the daughter 
 of John George Ludwig, and was born on October the 13th, 1744. She 
 was employed as a domestic at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in the family of 
 General William Irvine. She was married to John Hays, a barber, July 
 the 24th 1769. He enlisted in Proctor's First Pennsylvania Artillery, 
 and was followed by his wife. 
 
 No account of the battle of Monmouth is complete without this story 
 
 357 
 
358 MOLLY PITCHER. 
 
 of Molly Pitcher. Some years ago the people of New Jersey built a 
 monument on the field were the battle was fought. On this monument 
 several scenes are pictured in bronze reliefs. The pictures are such as 
 you might draw with your pencil on paper, only they are in bronze and 
 so do not fade or wear out The fact that Molly is remembered on this 
 monument shows that she did something worthy of honor. 
 
 WORE A COCKED HAT AND FEATHER. 
 
 As the story goes she was a powerful woman dressed in the skirts of 
 her own sex, the coat of an artilleryman, cocked hat and feather. It 
 was a strange and unprecedented thing for a woman to go into battle. It 
 is only by absolute necessity, in defence of right, justice and liberty, that 
 man should ever be compelled to draw the sword, and all our natural 
 instincts rebel against the thought of woman found on the battlefield, 
 except to nurse the sick and wounded. Yet the sentiment of patriotism 
 and love of country are no less strong in the gentler sex than in the 
 masculine part of humanity. 
 
 The battle of Monmouth was fought June 28, 1778. General 
 Washington was the commander on the American side, and General 
 Clinton on the other. Before the real battle commenced, one American 
 battery and another English, that were not very far from each other, began 
 a hot fire. Molly's husband was connected with the American battery 
 and was helping to serve the guns. The day was very warm and he and 
 the other artillerymen suffered very much from thirst. Molly was not 
 far away watching the fight. She saw that the men were thirsty, and, 
 obtaining a bucket, she began to bring water for them from a neighbor- 
 ing spring. 
 
 While thus engaged she saw her husband fall. She ran to his aid, 
 but he was dead when she reached him. Just then poor Molly heard the 
 officer order the gun removed, because, as he said, he could not fill the 
 post with so brave a man as he had lost. Molly's patriotism got the 
 better of her fear, and facing the officer, she asked to be allowed to take her 
 husband's place. Her request was granted, and she handled the gun 
 
MOLLY PITCHER. 359 
 
 with such skill and courage that every one who saw her was filled with 
 admiration. 
 
 The attention of General Washington was called to Molly's brave 
 act, and it has been said that he gave her the rank of sergeant, and she 
 was granted half-pay during life. She was known afterward as Captain 
 Molly. Her story is certainly a very thrilling one, and such as we 
 seldom read in history. Men, you know, are expected to do the fighting 
 and women to do the nursing, and for a woman to stand beside her dead 
 husband and help to work a battery, with the battle raging around her 
 like a hurricane, shows the heroic spirit by which she was actuated. 
 
 RESOLVED TO AVENGE HER HUSBAND'S DEATH. 
 
 An additional account of Molly's story, much the same as already 
 narrated, is as follows: 
 
 The particular incident of the battle of Monmouth, in which Molly 
 made such a name for herself, may be described as follows: The enemy 
 having attacked Livingstone's and Varnum's brigade, which lined a hedge 
 row across an open field, some American artillery took post on a knoll 
 in the rear of this fence, but the British cavalry and a large body of in- 
 fantry, skilled in the use of the bayonet, charging upon the Americans, 
 broke their ranks. It was during this part of the action that Molly dis- 
 played great courage and presence of mind. 
 
 While her husband was managing one of the field pieces, she con- 
 stantly brought him water from a spring near by. A shot from the enemy 
 killed him at his post, and the officer in command, having no man able to 
 fill his place, ordered the piece to be withdrawn. Molly saw her husband 
 fall as she came from the spring, and also heard the order. She dropped 
 her bucket, seized the rammer, and vowed that she would fill the place of 
 her husband at the gun and avenge his death. 
 
 She performed the duty with a skill and courage which attracted the 
 attention of all who saw her. On the following morning, covered with 
 dirt and blood, General Greene presented her to Washington, who, admir- 
 ing her bravery, conferred upon her the commission of sergeant. The 
 
;; 
 
 360 MOLLY PITCHER. 
 
 French officers, charmed by the story of her bravery, made her man 
 presents. She wonld sometimes pass along the French lines with h 
 cocked hat, and get it almost filled with crowns. 
 
 Some years after the thrilling incident at Monmonth she married 
 George McKolly, another soldier; this name was also written McCanley, 
 and so appears on Molly's tombstone. She lived for many years at the 
 Carlisle Barracks after the Revolution, cooking and washing for the 
 soldiers. Subsequently she kept a small store in Carlisle. 
 
 Bold Molly of Monmouth's Home was for years one of the show 
 places of Carlisle, and it really seems a pity that the time at last came 
 when this relic of one of the most famous characters of the Revolutionary 
 period had to be torn down. In the cemetery left to the city by William 
 Penn, Molly Pitcher's monument is to be seen among the graves of the 
 old inhabitants, bearing the following inscription : 
 
 MOLLIE McCAULEY 
 Renowned in History as 
 
 "Mollie Pitcher ", 
 The Heroine of Monmouth. 
 
 Died January 22, 1823, 
 Aged Seventy-nine Years. 
 Erected by the Citizens of Cumberland County, 
 July the Fourth, 1876. 
 
 Molly was a type of those brave women who in various ways 
 rendered important services to our resolute patriots in the Revolution. 
 Women cheered their husbands, sons and lovers on to victory. They 
 endured the toil, sacrifices and bereavements without murmuring or 
 complaint. To them largely is due the credit for our victories, many of 
 them gained only by the most desperate valor. They counted nothing 
 dear to them in the great cause that meant either liberty or death. 
 
ogg 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 MARVELOUS MILITARY GENIUS — FROM AN OB- 
 SCURE CORPORAL TO A WORLD-RENOWNED 
 EMPEROR — PERSONAL TRAITS AND PECU- 
 LIARITIES — DOWNFALL AT WATERLOO- 
 BANISHMENT AND DEATH — ONE OF THE 
 MOST FAMOUS CHARACTERS IN HISTORY. 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the most remarkable characters recorded 
 in history, and distinguished alike for his extraordinary fortunes, his 
 civil talents, and his military genius, was one of the numerous family 
 of an advocate of Ajaccio, in Corsica, and was born there August 15, 
 1769. After receiving the rudiments of a classical education, he entered 
 the military school at Brienne, where he was distinguished by the 
 gravity of his character and his sedulous study of mathematics. 
 
 Even his sports partook of his graver pursuits, and we are told that 
 he was successful in the little military operations which he undertook. 
 On the occurrence of a day which was commonly considered a holiday, 
 Bonaparte's instructors confined him and his companions to the school 
 grounds. The young engineer constructed a mine with great ingenuity, 
 which, in exploding, blew down the walls and enabled the juvenile rebels 
 to escape. When he could enlist no young recruits in his mimic army, 
 Napoleon would use flints as substitutes for soldiers, and marshal them 
 with great care. 
 
 A boy who disturbed his array was severely punished by Napoleon. 
 Many years after when the imperial diadem was on his head, Napoleon 
 was informed that one of his old schoolmates desired an interview. This 
 gentleman assured the chamberlain that the emperor would recollect 
 
 361 
 
362 
 
 NAPOLKON BONAPARTE. 
 
 him if he mentioned that there was a deep scar on his forehead. When 
 the emperor was informed of this he said, " I do not forget how he got 
 that scar — I threw a general at his head at Brienne." 
 
 At sixteen he received the commission of second lieutenant in the 
 regiment of Lafere, which he joined at Valence. At twenty he was pro- 
 moted to a captaincy, and in December, 1793, obtained the command of 
 the artillery in the attack on Toulon, then occupied by the English, and 
 
 MALMAISON— FAVORITE RESIDENCE OF NAPOLEON I. 
 
 contributed by the originality of his plans to the success of their opera- 
 tions. In 1794 he was commandant of the artillery in the army of Italy, 
 and so much distinguished himself that in May, 1795, he was made 
 general of infantry. In 1795, when some of the sections of Paris rose 
 in insurrection against the convention, the command of the conventional 
 troops was entrusted to him and he gained a complete victory. He was 
 at that time very thin, although distinguished for corpulency in the 
 latter part of his life. 
 
 On one occasion he gained a bloodless victory over the rabble whose 
 
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 363 
 
 exertions were stimulated by a very fat old woman. " There," cried she, 
 "look at the soldiers ! they're the wretches that fatten in idleness while 
 we starve." " Look at her and look at me," said Napoleon, " and tell us 
 which is the fattest." This raised a laugh, and the populace dispersed 
 
 BONAPARTE DISSOLVING THE COUNCIL OF FIVE HUNDRED. 
 
 quietly. On this, as on many other occasions, his knowledge of human 
 nature was apparent. 
 
 In his twenty-sixth year, Napoleon was appointed commander-in- 
 chief of the army of Italy, and commenced his brilliant operations in 
 that capacity, in April, 1796. He successively defeated the Austrians 
 and Piedmontese at Montenotte, Millesimo, Mondovi and L,odi, forcing 
 the king of Sardinia to make peace, and overrunning Lombardy, the 
 Venetian States, the States of the Church, and Naples, in spite of every 
 
364 NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 exertion of the Austrians and their allies, during which he gained a 
 series of brilliant and decisive victories, and compelled Austria, in 1797, 
 to make peace at Campo Formio. 
 
 In 1798, he took the command of the army destined against Egypt, 
 and on his passage from Toulon captured Malta. He afterwards landed 
 at Alexandria and overran Egypt and Syria, everywhere victorious 
 except at Acre, where, for want of besieging artillery, he was repulsed 
 by Sir Sydney Smith. In October, 1799, the misgovernment of France 
 and the disasters which had befallen the French troops induced him to 
 return, and being received as a savior by the French nation, on the 9th 
 of November he effected a revolution in Paris and was proclaimed first 
 consul of the republic by general public consent. 
 
 CROSSED THE ALPS WITH HIS ARMY. 
 
 After offers of peace to the confederates, which were rejected, he 
 crossed the Alps with an army of recruits, and in June, 1800, gained the 
 battle of Marengo and re-acquired possession of Italy. A general peace 
 was the consequence. In 1802, he was elected consul for life, and in 
 May, 1804, he assumed the title of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 
 and on December 2, was crowned at Paris by the Pope. In March, 1805, 
 he was declared king of Italy, and in May crowned at Milan. He had 
 previous^ established his military order of the Legion of Honor and 
 distributed the crosses which were the distinguishing badges. 
 
 Of all to whom the cross of the legion of honor was tendered, Lafayette 
 alone had the courage to decline it. Napoleon, either from want of trne 
 perception of moral greatness, or because the detestable servility of re- 
 turning emigrants had taught him to think there was no such thing as 
 honor or independence in man, exclaimed, when they told him that 
 Lafayette refused the decoration, " What, will nothing satisfy that man, 
 but the chief command of the National Guard of the Empire ?" Yes, 
 much less abundantly satisfied him — the quiet possession of the poor 
 remnants of his estate, enjoyed without sacrificing his principles. 
 
 In September, 1805, the confederacy of European powers being 
 
CORONATION OF NAPOLEON. 
 
 305 
 
366 NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 renewed, he invaded Germany, and at Ulm captnred 30,000 Anstrians. In 
 November lie entered Vienna, and on December 2, gained the battle of 
 Austerlitz, over the emperors of Rnssia and Austria, after which he con- 
 cluded peace with Austria, created the electors of Bavaria and Wirtem- 
 berg kings, and made his elder brother, Joseph, king of Naples. In 
 October, 1806, he invaded Prussia, and on the 3d of that month gained a 
 decisive victory at Jena and Auerstadt, by which the whole Prussian 
 monarchy, and Germany to the Baltic, came under his authority. 
 
 TERROR OF NAPOLEON'S NAME. 
 
 The "Man of Destiny" had now filled Europe with the terror of his 
 name, the bare mention of which shook the crowned heads of the oldest 
 monarchies of the continent with palsied apprehension. In vain the 
 dagger, the mine, and the bowl had been prepared for him. His star had 
 not yet begun to decline from the zenith. Napoleon was almost 
 miraculously preserved from poison. It is well known that he was an 
 inveterate snuff-taker. When his mind was deeply engaged his snuff- 
 box was in constant requisition. He once left his apartment for a few 
 moments, and returned to take his box from the mantelpiece. He thought 
 the snuff felt somewhat strangely, and calling to a dog that was lying near 
 him, administered a pinch. The poor animal soon rolled over in the 
 agonies of death, and Napoleon thenceforth kept his snuff in his waistcoat 
 pockets, which he had sheathed with tin. 
 
 November 20th, he promulgated at Berlin the famous decree by which 
 he proposed to exclude the trade of Britain from all the ports of the con- 
 tinent. ,:In June, 1807, having overrun Poland, he totally defeated the 
 emperor of Russia at Eglan and Friedland, after which an interview took 
 place between them on a raft on the Niemen, followed by the treaty of 
 Tilsit. In November of that year he marched an army into Lisbon, driving 
 the Portuguese court to the Brazils ; and on December 1, created his 
 younger brother, Jerome, king of Westphalia. On May 5, 1808, was con- 
 cluded the treaty by which Charles IV ceded to the emperor all his rights 
 in the crown of Spain. Joseph, brother of the emperor, was proclaimed 
 
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 36' 
 
 king of Spain on the 6th of June. On the 27th of September, in the same 
 year, Napoleon had an amicable interview with the emperor of Russia at 
 
 BATTLE OF AUSTERLITZ. 
 
 Erfurt, and they jointly proposed peace with England, which was rejected. 
 On the 29th of October the emperor departed from Paris and placed 
 
368 NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 himself at the head of the army in Spain, the right wing of which pur- 
 sued Sir John Moore to Corunna, while he marched to Madrid and seated 
 his brother on the Spanish throne ; but in the meantime the Austrians 
 took the field; Napoleon hastened to oppose them, and gained suc- 
 cessive victories at Abensburg, Eckmuhl and Ratisbon. On the 16th 
 of December, 1809, he divorced the empress, Josephine, and on the 2d 
 of April, 1 8 10, married Maria Louisa, archduchess of Austria. The 
 20th of March, 181 1, was signalized by the birth of his son, who was 
 crowned king of Rome amidst public rejoicings. 
 
 DISASTROUS CAMPAIGN AGAINST MOSCOW. 
 
 In 1 81 2, he assembled a great army in Poland and invaded Russia, 
 and having at the Borodino, and at Moskwa, gained two bloody victories, 
 he entered Moscow on the 14th of September ; that city, having been 
 afterwards burned by the Russians, became untenable, and the French 
 retreated for winter quarters towards Poland, but an early and unusual 
 frost setting in during their march, they lost their horses, were com- 
 pelled to abandon their artillery, and three-fourths of the army perished 
 or were made prisoners. On this Napoleon returned to Paris, and Poland 
 and Prussia were occupied by the Russians. 
 
 In April, 181 3, Napoleon again took the field against the Prussians 
 and gained the victories of Lutzen, Bantzen and Wartzen; but the Aus- 
 trians and Bavarians joined the confederacy against him, and he was 
 attacked at Leipsic by the combined armies of the European nations, 
 being forced to abandon that city with immense loss, and retreat to Metz, 
 thereby abandoning his German conquests. In 1814, the confederates 
 having passed the Rhine, penetrated, after various battles, to Paris, which 
 being surrendered by Marshals Marmont and Mortier, Napoleon concluded 
 a treaty with the allies at Fontainebleau, by which he agreed to retire to 
 the island of Elba, with provision for himself and .family. 
 
 In March, 181 5, Napoleon embarked with 600 of his guards and 
 made a sudden descent in Provence. On the 10th, he entered Lyons ; on 
 the 20th, Paris in triumph. His banners flew from steeple to steeple, 
 
RETREAT OF THE FRENCH FROM MOSCOW. 
 
 869 
 
370 
 
 NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 until they finally waved in the wind from the pinnacles of Notre Dame. 
 On the ist of June, he held the meeting in the Champ de Mar, and soon 
 joined the army on the Belgian frontier, where, on the 16th, he defeated 
 Blticher at Ligny with a loss of 22,000 men. On the 18th, was fought 
 the bloody battle of Waterloo, in which the French army was com- 
 pletely defeated. The following account of the conduct of Napoleon 
 at the battle of Waterloo is from the journal of a French officer: 
 
 "He has ruined us — he 
 I has destroyed France and him- 
 jgj self; — yet I love him still. It 
 is impossible to be near him 
 and not to love him : he has 
 so much greatness of soul — 
 ■ such majesty of manner. He 
 bewitches all minds ; approach 
 him with a thousand preju- 
 dices, and you quit him filled 
 with admiration : but then, 
 his mad ambition ! his ruinous 
 infatuation ! his obstinacy 
 without bounds ! Besides, he 
 i§ was wont to set everything 
 upon a cast : his game was 
 all or nothing ! Even the bat- 
 the arch of triumph -parts. tle f Waterloo might have 
 
 been retrieved, had he not charged with the guard. This was the reserve 
 of the army, and should have been employed in covering his retreat 
 instead of attacking ; but, with him, whenever matters looked desperate, 
 he resembled a mad dog. He harangues the guard — he puts himself at 
 its head — it debouches rapidly — it rushes upon the enemy. 
 
 "We are mowed down by grape — we waver, — turn our backs — and the 
 rout is complete. A general disorganization of the army ensues, and 
 Napoleon, returning to himself, is cold as a stone. The last time I saw 
 
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 371 
 
 hiin was in returning from the charge, when all was lost. My thigh had 
 been broken by a musket shot in advancing, and I remained in the rear, 
 extended on the ground. Napoleon passed close to me ; his nose was 
 buried in his snuff-box, and his bridle fell loosely on the neck of his 
 
 NAPOLEON AFTER THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 
 
 horse, which was pacing leisurely along. A Scotch regiment was ad- 
 vancing at the charge in the distance. The Emperor was almost alone. 
 Lallemande only was with him. The latter still exclaimed, l All is not 
 lost sire ; all is not lost ; — rally, soldiers, rally!' The Emperor replied 
 not a word. Lallemande recognizes me in passing, 'What ails you, 
 Raoul !' ' My thigh is shattered by a musket ball.' ' Poor devil, how 
 
372 NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 I pity you ! how I pity you ! Adieu — adieu ! " The emperor said not a 
 word. 
 
 " When, after the disaster at Waterloo, Napoleon came back in 
 desperation to Paris, and began to scatter dark hints of dissolving the 
 representatives Chamber, repeating at Paris the catastrophe of Moscow, 
 and thereby endeavoring to rouse the people of France to one universal 
 and frantic crusade of resistance, Lafayette was the first to denounce the 
 wild suggestion. He proposed a series of resolutions, announcing that 
 the independence of the nation was threatened, declaring the Chambers 
 a permanent body, and denouncing the instant penalties of high treason 
 against all attempts to dissolve it. The same evening he proposed, in 
 the secret assembly of the council of state, the abdication of Napoleon. 
 The subject was again pressed the following day ; but the voluntary act 
 of the emperor anticipated the decision." 
 
 SURRENDERED HIMSELF TO HIS CONQUERORS. 
 
 On the 8th of July, the king returned to Paris ; and on the 15th of 
 July, Napoleon surrendered himself to the English at Rochefort. He 
 only asked permission to pass the remainder of his days in England, 
 under an assumed name, and in a private character, but he was conveyed 
 to St. Helena, as a prisoner of state. A few officers of his suite accom- 
 panied him. In the island he was treated with great indignity and 
 meanness until his death, which was the result of an intestine disorder, 
 and took place May 5, 1821. In his last moments, he was delirious, and 
 his last words — tete d^ armee — proved that he fancied himself at the head 
 of his troops, watching the fluctuating current of a battle. He was buried 
 in a little valley where a simple slab marks the place of his repose. In 
 1840, his remains were removed to Paris and placed in a magnificent 
 mausoleum under an imposing dome. 
 
 Napoleon, in person, was below the middle size ; and, in the latter 
 part of his life, quite corpulent. His straight, brown hair fell over a broad, 
 high forehead ; his complexion was clear olive, and his features, regular 
 and classical. An air of subdued melancholy was the prevailing charac- 
 
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 373 
 
 teristicof his countenance in repose ; but lie had the power of dismissing 
 all expression from his features, when he chose to baffle scrutiny. At 
 such times the curious observer might gaze upon his still, grey eye and 
 quiet lip without finding any indication of the thoughts which were pass- 
 ing within. 
 
 Napoleon was ambitious — and committed some of the crimes to which 
 ambition leads. He drenched the sands of Egypt and the snows of 
 Russia, and the plains of Germany, and Italy, and Spain with the best 
 blood of France and the best of Europe : yet he was not destitute of the 
 feelings of humanity, and, as he rode over a field heaped with the dead 
 and dying victims of his ambition, his fine eye would fill with tears. 
 But feeling without repentance is of no avail. Yet if Napoleon was 
 lavish of the lives of others, he was no less prodigal of his own ; and 
 often proved that he possessed a soldier's soul, amidst the hottest fire of 
 the enemy. If he laid his grasp upon nations — 
 
 " Their ransom did the general coffers fill." 
 
 He often pardoned, but he never failed to reward. It was thus that 
 he attached his soldiers to him with indissoluble bonds. A thousand 
 proofs may be given of their attachment to their emperor. At Waterloo 
 one man was seen, whose left arm was shattered by a cannon ball, to 
 wrench it off with the other, and throwing it up in the air, he exclaimed 
 to his comrades, Vive P Empereur! When he took his final farewell of 
 France, all wept, but particularly Savary, and a Polish officer who had 
 been exalted from the ranks by Bonaparte. He clung to his master's 
 knees ; wrote a letter to Lord Keith, entreated permission to accompany 
 him, even in the most menial capacity, which could not be granted. 
 
 With men like these to follow him, Napoleon had the power of 
 choosing his own course. Circumstances did not force him into the path 
 he followed : — he was, in a degree, the controller of his fate — a free agent, 
 with ample means to gratify his wishes. He might have been a Wash- 
 ington — he preferred to be a Caesar. 
 
DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 HERO OF WATERLOO— COMMANDER OF ALLIED ARMIES 
 AGAINST NAPOLEON — HIGHEST HONORS BESTOWED 
 ON HIM— HIS NOBLE CHARACTER AND RENOWNED 
 ACHIEVEMENTS— DISTINGUISHED IN PEACE AS WELL 
 AS IN WAR— LONG AND BRILLIANT CAREER. 
 
 Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, the celebrated English 
 general and statesman, was born May ist, 1769, at Dungan Castle, 
 County Meatn, Ireland, or, as some authorities state, in Dublin. He was 
 educated at Eton, and at the Military School of Angers, France, and 
 after serving with distinction in Flanders, went to India (then governed 
 by his brother, the Earl of Mornington, afterwards Marquis Wellesley) 
 with the rank of colonel. In that country he soon became commander- 
 in-chief of the British and native forces, and routed the Mahrattas at 
 Assay e, 1799. He had a formidable foe to contend with and proved his 
 ability as a masterly leader of his troops. 
 
 The Mahrattas were a body of wild and warlike mountaineers, who, 
 for several centuries, resisted lawful authority and were in a state of 
 almost constant rebellion. After many long and bloody contests with 
 the British and their allies, they were at length subdued and reduced to 
 a state of dependence, the finishing stroke being inflicted by Wellington. 
 In this sanguinary struggle he distinguished himself as a commander 
 and gave promise of his future brilliant career. 
 
 After his return home, he was sent in command of a division into 
 Denmark, and there defeated the Danes at Kivge. Next, he was des- 
 patched into Spain, previously resigning the office of Chief Secretary for 
 
 Ireland, to which he had been appointed in 1807. His exploits in Spain 
 374 
 
DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 375 
 
 and Portugal are identified with the chief events of the Peninsular War, 
 as it is called. Defeating the French at Oporto, 1809, Wellington 
 crossed the Douro, and, entering Spain, defeated them again at Talavera. 
 Constructing the lines of Torres Vedras, he gained the victory of Busaco, 
 followed by those of Sadubal, Fuentes d'Onore, and Albuera, and in 1812 
 
 BATTLE OF BUSACO. 
 
 stormed Ciudad Rodrigo and took Badajoz. In the same year he defeated 
 the French at Salamanca, drove them out of Madrid, occupied Burgos, and 
 in 1813, encountered and defeated them at Vittoria. Retreating out of 
 Spain, he followed in pursuit, and fought the " Battles of the Pyrenees," 
 and, early in 1814, gained the victories of Orthez and Toulouse, after 
 which hostilities were suspended by the abdication of Napoleon. On the 
 return of the latter from Elba in 1815, Wellington was appointed com- 
 
376 DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 mander- in-chief of the allied army dispatched to resist his invasion 
 of Flanders. 
 
 After the opening battles of Ligny and Qnatre Bras, the Dnke 
 encountered Napoleon on the plain of Waterloo, June 15, and after an 
 obstinate and bloody struggle, once more was victorious. Entering Paris 
 in the July following, he prevented Blucher, who commanded the Prus- 
 sians, from destroying the Bridge of Jena, and committing other acts of 
 vandalism; and by favoring the restoration of Louis XVIII., prevented 
 the dismemberment of France. Appointed to the command of the army 
 of occupation in that country, Wellington, by his influence, prevailed 
 upon the allied powers to shorten the term from five to three years. In 
 1827, ne succeeded the Duke of York as commander-in-chief, and in 
 1828 became prime minister of England, and in 1834 Secretary for 
 Foreign Affairs in Sir Robert Peel's cabinet. 
 
 BATTLE THAT CHANGED THE MAP OF EUROPE. 
 
 Wellington won his proudest distinction at the battle of Waterloo, 
 where, in one of the most gigantic and bloody struggles known to 
 history, he overthrew Napoleon, put an end to his brilliant, meteoric 
 career, and changed the map of Europe. We present the reader with a 
 full and accurate account of this great battle, in which Wellington 
 showed his masterly and heroic qualities as a military commander. 
 
 The great battle which ended the twenty-three years' war of the first 
 French Revolution, and which quelled the extraordinary man whose 
 genius and ambition had so long dominated the world, is j ustly regarded 
 as one of those remarkable events that appear at long intervals and deter- 
 mine the fate of nations. Europe, long tossed by wars and convulsions, 
 at length breathed peacefully. Suddenly Napoleon Bonaparte escaped 
 from Elba and the whole scene was changed as if by the magic of an evil 
 spirit. The exertions which the allied powers made at this crisis to 
 grapple promptly with the French emperor have truly been termed 
 gigantic, and never were Napoleon's genius and activity more signally 
 displayed than in the celerity and skill by which he brought forward ail 
 
DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 377 
 
 THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON— COMMANDER OF THE ALLIED ARMIES, 
 the military resources of France, which the reverses of the three preced- 
 ing years, and the pacific policy of the Bourbons during the months of 
 their first restoration, had greatly diminished and disorganized. 
 
DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 379 
 
 He re-entered Paris on trie 20th of March, 1815, and by the end of 
 May, besides sending a force into La Vendee to put down the armed 
 risings of the Royalists in that province, and besides providing troops 
 under Massena and Suchet for the defense of the southern frontiers of 
 France, Napoleon had an army assembled in the northeast for active 
 operations under his own command, which amounted to between 120 and 
 130,000 men, with a superb park of artillery, and in the highest possible 
 state of equipment, discipline and efficiency. 
 
 The approach of the many Russians, Austrians, Bavarians and other 
 foes of the French emperor to the Rhine was necessarily slow; but the 
 two most active of the allied powers had occupied Belgium with their 
 troops while Napoleon was organizing his forces. Marshal Bliicher was 
 there with 116,000 Prussians, and the Duke of Wellington was there also 
 with about 106,000 troops, either British or in British pay. 
 
 EATTLEFIELD WITH RIDGES AND VALLEYS. 
 
 The reader may gain an accurate idea of the localities of the battle 
 by picturing a valley between two and three miles long, but generally 
 not exceeding half a mile in breadth. On each side of the valley there 
 is a winding chain of low hills, running somewhat parallel with each 
 other. The declivity from each of these ranges of hills to the inter- 
 vening valley is gentle but not uniform, the undulations of the ground 
 being frequent and considerable. The English army was posted on the 
 northern, and the French army occupied the southern ridge. 
 
 The artillery of each side thundered at the other from their respective 
 heights throughout the day, and the charges of horse and foot were made 
 across the valley that has been described. The village of Mont St. Jean 
 is situated a little behind the centre of the northern chain of hills, and 
 the village of La Belle Alliance is close behind the centre of the southern 
 ridge. The high road from Charleroi to Brussels runs through both 
 these villages, and bisects, therefore, both the English and the French 
 positions. The line of this road was the line of Napoleon's intended 
 advance on Brussels. 
 
380 DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 There are some other local particulars connected with the situation 
 of each army which it is necessary to bear in mind. The strength of the 
 British position did not consist merely in the occupation of a ridge of 
 high ground. A village and ravine, called Merk Braine, on the Duke of 
 Wellington's extreme right, secured him from his flank being turned on 
 that side ; and on his extreme left, two little hamlets, called La Haye and 
 Papillote, gave a similar though a slighter protection. It was, however, 
 less necessary to provide for this extremity of the position, as it was on 
 this (the eastern) side that the Prussians were coming up. 
 
 WATCHED EACH OTHER ANXIOUSLY. 
 
 Behind the whole British position was the great and extensive forest 
 of Soignies. No attempt was made by the French to turn either of the 
 English flanks, and the battle was a day of straght forward fighting. 
 
 The night, of the 17th was wet and stormy; and when the dawn of 
 the memorable i8thof June broke, the rain was still descending heavily. 
 The French and British armies rose from their dreary bivouacs and began 
 to form, each on the high ground which it occupied. Toward nine, the 
 weather grew clearer, and each army was able to watch the position and 
 arrangements of the other on the opposite side of the valley. 
 
 The two armies were now fairly in presence of each other, and their 
 mutual observation was governed by the most intense interest and the 
 most scrutinizing anxiety. In a still greater degree did these feelings 
 actuate their commanders, while watching each other's preparatory 
 movements, and minutely scanning the surface of the arena on which 
 tactical skill, habitual prowess, physical strength, and moral courage 
 were to decide, not alone their own, but in all probability, the fate of 
 Europe. 
 
 Apart from national interest and considerations, and viewed solely 
 in connection with the opposite characters of the two illustrious chiefs, 
 the approaching contest was contemplated with anxious solicitude by the 
 whole military world. Need this create surprise when we reflect that 
 the struggle was one for mastery between the far-famed conqueror ol 
 
DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 381 
 
 Italy and the victorious liberator of the Peninsula ; between the tri- 
 umphant vanquisher of Eastern Europe, and the bold and successful 
 invader of the south of France ! Never was the issue of a single battle 
 looked forward to as involving consequences of such vast importance — 
 of such universal influence. 
 
 It was approaching noon before the action commenced. Napoleon, 
 in his memoirs, gives as the reason for this delay , the miry state of the 
 ground through the heavy rain of the preceding night and day, which 
 rendered it impossible for cavalry or artillery to manoeuvre on it until a 
 few hours of dry weather had given it its natural consistency. It has 
 been supposed, also, that he trusted to the effect which the sight of the 
 imposing array of his own forces was likely to produce on the part of the 
 allied army. 
 
 The Belgian regiments had been tampered with ; and Napoleon had 
 well founded hopes of seeing them quit the Duke of Wellington in a 
 body, and range themselves under his own eagles. The duke, however, 
 who knew and did not trust them, had guarded against the risk of this 
 by breaking up the corps of Belgians, and distributing them in separate 
 regiments among troops on whom he could rely. 
 
 BEGAN BATTLE WITH FIERY VALOR. 
 
 At last, at about half past eleven o'clock, Napoleon began the battle 
 by directing a powerful force from his left wing under his brother, Prince 
 Jerome, to attack Hougoumont. Column after column of the French now 
 descended from the west to the southern heights, and assailed that post 
 with fiery valor, which was encountered with the most determined 
 bravery. The French won the copse round the house, but a party of the 
 British Guards held the house itself throughout the day. With varying 
 fortunes and heroic bravery on both sides the battle continued. 
 
 The second line of the allies consisted of two brigades of the English 
 infantry, which had suffered severely at Quatre Bras. But they were 
 under Picton, and not even Ney himself surpassed in resolute bravery 
 that stern and fiery spirit. Picton brought his two brigades forward, side 
 
382 DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 by side, in a thin, two-deep line. Thus joined together, they were not 
 3000 strong. With these Picton had to make head against the three 
 victorious French columns, upward of four times that strength, and who, 
 encouraged by the easy rout of the Dutch and Belgians, now came con- 
 fidently over the ridge. 
 
 The British infantry stood firm ; and as the French halted and began 
 to deplo}^ into line, Picton seized the critical moment : a close and deadly 
 volley was thrown in upon them, and then with a fierce hurrah the British 
 dashed in with the bayonet. The French reeled back in confusion ; and 
 as they staggered down the hill, a brigade of the English cavalry rode in 
 on them, cutting them down by whole battalions, and taking 2000 pris- 
 oners. The British cavalry galloped forward and sabred the artillery- 
 men of Ney's seventy-four advanced guns, and then cutting the traces 
 and the throats of the horses, rendered these guns totally useless to the 
 French throughout the remainder of the day. In the excitement of success, 
 the English cavalry continued to press on, but were charged in their turn, 
 and 'driven back with severe loss by Milhaud's cuirassiers. 
 
 FAILURE OF THE FURIOUS ATTACK. 
 
 This great attack (in repelling which the brave Picton had fallen) 
 had now completely failed ; and, at the same time, a powerful body of 
 French cuirassiers, who were advancing along the right of the Charleroi 
 road, had been fairly beaten after a close hand-to-hand fight by the heavy 
 cavalry of the English household brigade. Hougoumont was still being 
 assailed, and was successfully resisting. 
 
 Troops were now beginning to appear at the edge of the horizon on 
 Napoleon's right, which he too well knew to be Prussians, though he 
 endeavored to persuade his followers that they were Grouchy' s men coming 
 to aid them. It was now about half-past three o'clock ; and though 
 Wellington's army had suffered severely by the unremitting cannonade 
 and in the late desperate encounter, no part of the British position had 
 been forced. Napoleon next determined to try what effect he could 
 produce on the British centre and right by charges of his splendid cavalry, 
 
DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 HEROIC CHARGE OF THE ENGLISH CAVALRY AT WATERLOO. 
 
 brought on in such force that the duke's cavalry could not check them, 
 
 Fresh troops were sent to assail La Haye Sainte and Hougoumont, 
 
 the possession of these posts being the emperor's unceasing object. 
 
384 DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 Squadron after squadron of the French cuirassiers accordingly ascended 
 the slopes on the duke's right, and rode forward with dauntless courage 
 against the batteries of the British artillery in that part of the field. The 
 artillerymen were driven from their guns, and the cuirassiers cheered 
 loudly at their supposed triumph. But the duke had formed his infantry 
 in squares, and the cuirassiers charged in vain against the impenetrable 
 hedges of bayonets, while the fire from the inner ranks of the squares 
 told with terrible effect on their squadrons. 
 
 Time after time they rode forward with invariably the same result ; 
 and as they receded from each attack, the British artillerymen rushed 
 forward from the centres of the squares, where they had taken refuge, 
 and plied their guns on the retiring horsemen. Nearly the whole of 
 Napoleon's magnificent body of heavy cavalry was destroyed in these 
 fruitless attempts upon the British right. 
 
 WATERLOO OR HOPELESS RUIN. 
 
 Napoleon had then the means of effecting a retre; . His Old 
 Guard had yet taken no part in the action. Under cover of it, 
 he might have withdrawn his shattered forces and retired upon the 
 French frontier. But this would only have given the English and 
 Prussians the opportunity of completing their junction ; and he knew 
 that other armies were fast coming up to aid them in a march upon 
 Paris, if he should succeed in avoiding an encounter with them, and 
 reti eating upon the capital. A victory at Waterloo was his only alterna- 
 tive from utter ruin, and he determined to employ his Guard in one 
 bold stroke more to make that victory his own. 
 
 Between seven and eight o'clock, the infantry of the Old Guard 
 was formed into two columns, on the declivity near La Belle Alliance. 
 Ney was placed at their head. Napoleon himself rode forward to a spot 
 by which his veterans were to pass ; and as they approached he raised 
 his arm, and pointed to the position of the allies, as if to tell them, that 
 their path lay there. They answered with loud cries of " Vive 1' Em- 
 peror ! " and descended the hill from their own side into that " valley of 
 
DUKE OK WELLINGTON. 385 
 
 the shadow of death," while their batteries thundered with redoubled 
 vigor over their heads upon the British line. 
 
 Meanwhile, the British guns were not idle ; but shot and shell 
 plowed fast through the ranks of the stately array of veterans that still 
 moved imposingly on. Several of the French superior officers were at its 
 head. Ney's horse was shot under him, but he still led the way on foot, 
 sword in hand. The front of the massy column now was on the ridge 
 of the hill. To their surprise, they saw no troops before them. All they 
 could discern through the smoke was a small band of mounted officers. 
 One of them was the duke himself. The French advanced to about fifty 
 yards from where the British Guards were lying down, when the voice 
 of one of the band of British officers was heard calling, as if to the ground 
 before him, u Up, guards, and at them ! " 
 
 POURED VOLLEY OF SHOT ON ENEMY. 
 
 It was the duke who gave the order ; and at the words, as if by 
 magic, up started before them a line of British Guards four deep, and in 
 the most compact and perfect order. They poured an instantaneous 
 volley upon the head of the French column, by which no less than three 
 hundred of those chosen veterans are said to have fallen. The French 
 officers rushed forward, and, conspicuous in front of their men, attempted 
 to deploy them into a more extended line, so as to enable them to reply 
 with effect to the British fire. 
 
 But Maitland's brigade kept showering in volley after volley with 
 
 deadly rapidity. The decimated column grew disordered in its vain 
 
 efforts to expand itself into a more efficient formation. The right word 
 
 was given at the right moment to the British for the bayonet charge, 
 
 and the brigade sprang forward with a loud cheer against their dismayed 
 
 antagonists. In an instant, the compact mass of the French spread out 
 
 into a rabble, and they fled back down the hill pursued by Maitland's 
 
 men, who, however, returned to their position in time to take part in the 
 
 repulse of the second column of the Imperial Guard. 
 
 This column also advanced with great spirit and firmness under the 
 25 
 
386 DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 cannonade which was opened upon it, and, passing by the eastern wall of 
 Houo-oumont, diverged slightly to the right as it moved up the slope toward 
 the British position, so as to approach the same spot where the first 
 column had surmounted the height and been defeated. This enabled 
 the British regiments of Adam's brigade to form a line parallel to the 
 left flank of the French column, so that while the front of this column 
 of French guards had to encounter the cannonade of the British batteries 
 and the musketry of Maitland's guards, its left flank was assailed with a 
 destructive fire by a four-deep body of British infantry, extending all 
 along it, and acting together like clockwork. 
 
 SKILL AND BRAVERY WERE IN VAIN. 
 
 In such a position, all the bravery and skill of the French veterans 
 were in vain. The second column, like its predecessor, broke and fled, 
 taking at first a lateral direction along the front of the British line 
 toward the river of La Haye Sainte, and so becoming blended with the 
 divisions of French infantry, which, under Donzelot, had been pressing 
 the allies so severely in that quarter. The sight of the Old Guard broken 
 and in flight checked the ardor which Donzelot' s troops had hitherto dis- 
 played. They, too, began to waver. Adam's victorious brigade was 
 pressing after the flying guard, and now cleared away the assailants of 
 the allied centre. 
 
 But the battle was not yet won. Napoleon had still some battalions 
 in reserve near La Belle Alliance. He was rapidly rallying the remains 
 of the first column of his guards, and he had collected into one body the 
 remnants of the various corps of cavalry, which had suffered so severely 
 in the earlier part of the day. The duke instantly formed the bold 
 resolution of now himself becoming the assailant, and leading his suc- 
 cessful though enfeebled army forward, while the disheartening effect of 
 the repulse of the Imperial Guard on the French army was still strong, 
 and before Napoleon and Ney could rally the beaten veterans themselves 
 for another and fiercer charge. 
 
 As the close approach of the Prussians now completely protected 
 
DUKK OF WELLINGTON. 387 
 
 the duke's left, lie had drawn some reserves of horse from that quarter, 
 and had a brigade of Hussars under Vivian fresh and ready at hand. 
 Without a moment's hesitation, he launched these against the cavalry- 
 near La Belle Alliance. The charge was as successful as it was daring; 
 and as there was now no hostile cavalry to check the British infantry in 
 a forward movement the duke gave the long-wished for command for a 
 general advance of the army along the whole line upon the foe. 
 
 It was now past eight o'clock, and for nine deadly hours had the 
 British and German regiments stood unflinching under the fire of artil- 
 lery, the charge of cavalry, and every variety of assault that the compact 
 columns or the scattered skirmishers of the enemy's infantry could 
 inflict. As they joyously sprang forward against the discomfited masses 
 of the French, the setting sun broke through the clouds which had 
 obscured the sky during the greater part of the day, and glittered on the 
 bayonets of the allies, while they in turn poured down into the valley and 
 towards the heights that were held by the foe. 
 
 Almost the whole of the French host was now in irretrievable con- 
 fusion. The Prussian army was coming more and more rapidly forward 
 on their right, and the Young Guard, which had held Planchenoit so 
 bravely, was at last compelled to give way. Some regiments of the Old 
 Guard in vain endeavored to form in squares. They were swept away 
 to the rear; and then Napoleon himself fled from the last of his many 
 fields, to become in a few weeks a captive and an exile. The battle was 
 lost by France past all recovery. The victorious armies of England and 
 Prussia, meeting on the scene of their triumph, continued to press 
 forward and overwhelm every attempt to stem the tide of ruin. 
 
 The army under the Duke of Wellington lost heavily in killed and 
 wounded on this terrible day of battle. The loss of the Prussian army was 
 ■\ ven greater. At a fearful price was the deliverance of Europe purchased. 
 
 Wellington, the " Iron Duke," died in 1852, and with the most 
 imposing obsequies was entombed in the crypt of St. Paul's, London 
 His funeral was a national demonstration, the entire nation bestowing 
 every mark of honor and eulogy upon the illustrious dead. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
 HFRO OF NEW ORLEANS — STORY OF HIS GAL- 
 LANT ACHIEVEMENTS — RUGGED AND POSITIVE 
 CHARACTER — THE SEVENTH PRESIDENT OF 
 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 The War of the Revolution had not swept far into the Carolinas 
 before it reached the Waxhaw Settlement and the home of Andrew 
 Jackson. He was " Little Andy " then, an active, daring lad of thirteen, 
 the most mischievous boy in the neighborhood, always " up to" some 
 prank and always getting into trouble. He had first attended an " old 
 field school," which was a log hut in one of the pine forests that spring 
 up in the South on old fields which have been used for raising cotton 
 until they will grow no more. 
 
 Andy's father had died before he was born, and his mother was poor, 
 but she succeeded in having him go away to school, where he was studying 
 for college. But he had time to learn little more than reading, writing, 
 and arithmetic before the war closed the school houses of the South an< 
 filled the minds of young and old with other thoughts than of stud}'. 
 Andy's daring spirit was roused by the stirring reports that reached 
 him. He was lively, fond of jumping, foot racing, and wrestling — a 
 regular little soldier even as a school boy. He was slender, and more 
 active than strong, so very often he was thrown. 
 
 One of his playfellows used to say, "I could throw him three times 
 out of four, but he never would stay throwed. He was plucky even then, 
 
 and never would give up." He was rather hard to get along with among 
 
 388 
 
GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON. 389 
 
 boys of his own age, but there was nothing he would not do to defend 
 the younger boys, who accepted him as their leader. 
 
 When the sweep of war reached their district, Andrew and his two 
 larger brothers were wild with eagerness to join in " for Congress " and 
 against the British. So the three boys — Andy only thirteen years old — 
 mounted their horses and went out with little parties that scoured the 
 country, breaking up the small posts of the enemy and doing what deeds 
 of service they could to help on their country's cause. 
 
 WASTED ONE WHOLE YEAR. 
 
 After the surrender of Cornwallis the Waxhaw people went back to 
 their homes, from which they had been driven by fear and the enemy ; 
 but Andrew unsettled for study, too young and not prepared for work, 
 remained in the city. One year, to his own shame, he wasted in trying 
 to have a good time, and two others were of little account to him, but 
 suddenly making up his mind that he would have to go to work at some- 
 thing if he would succeed in life, he left his gay friends and went back 
 to the country. He taught school for awhile, and in the winter of 1785 
 began to study law at Salisbury. There was at this time a fine oppor- 
 tunity for young men to work their way up in the world through the 
 profession of law. The Tory barristers, who beforetime had had the 
 largest share in this business, were now shut out, and the many changes 
 in the c mntry called loudly for others in the profession to take their 
 places, for old Whig lawyers had more than they could do. After two 
 or three years of faithful study, Andrew was licensed to practice, and 
 before long he was appointed Solicitor for the Western District of South 
 Carolina, which is now Tennessee. 
 
 He was gay and spirited, brave, but not rash, prudent, but no coward 
 — just the man for a frontier settlement harassed by Indians. His red 
 neighbors soon found out his nature, and while they feared him they 
 also admired him, and called him the "Pointed Knife" and the "Sharp 
 Arrow." Every time there was an outbreak, Jackson took the lead against 
 them, always showing so much courage and judgment, both in meeting 
 
390 GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
 the Indians and in quieting them, that his name became quite famous 
 throughout the vicinity- and he was inad~ major-general of the new 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
 State of Tennessee, which was formed about eight years after he moved 
 out there. 
 
 He also did a great deal in organizing this State, helping to plan 
 the Constitution, representing it in Washington at different times, both 
 in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, and after that he 
 held the office of Judge of the Supreme Court. 
 
GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON. 391 
 
 When the second war with Great Britain was declared, he easily 
 raised a force of twenty-five hundred volunteers, and offered their ser- 
 vices and his own to the Government, in June of 1812. Although his 
 troops were accepted, they were not given anything much to do until the 
 next fall, when they were sent out against the Creek Indians, whom 
 they completely routed, ending entirely this Indian outbreak, sometimes 
 called the Creek War, and breaking forever the Indian power in North 
 America. It was during this campaign that once, when the food gave 
 out, Jackson set his men the example of eating hickory-nuts to keep 
 from starving, and gained by it the name of u Old Hickory." Because 
 of the skill and energy shown in this hard and dangerous undertaking, 
 Jackson was appointed a major-general of the regular army. He was 
 then forty-seven years old, hardy, active and energetic ; one of the most 
 popular men in the country and had a strong following. 
 
 ORDERED TO THE GULF OF MEXICO. 
 
 He was not now kept back, as when he first entered the war. In 
 the fall of 18 1 4, when an invasion of the British was expected in the 
 South, he was ordered to the Gulf of Mexico to oppose them. In the 
 first place, he seized Pensacola, which belonged to Spain, but was used 
 by the British, and then he moved his army to New Orleans, for although 
 that was a gateway for invasion, it was so poorly defended that the Eng- 
 lish might almost have taken it without any effort. In about two weeks 
 after he arrived in the "Crescent City" the invasion began, but Jackson 
 not only succeeded in keeping the enemy out until the defenses were 
 finished, and repulsed their attack on New Year's Day, but also met their 
 veteran troops, which far outnumbered his own, in the great assault on 
 the 8th of January, and defeated them with great loss to the British from 
 the deadly fire of his artillery and the unerring aim of his Kentucky 
 and Tennessee riflemen. 
 
 To the British — says Jackson's biographer — there was a loss of two 
 generals and seven hundred men killed, and fourteen hundred wounded, 
 and five hundred prisoners — the result of twenty-five minutes' work, iu 
 
392 GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
 which Jackson's loss was eight killed and thirteen wounded. This deed 
 gave " Old Hickory " an everlasting popularity among his countrymen. 
 
 OSCEOLA, CHIEF OF THE SEMINOLES. 
 
 It was one of the most brilliant and decisive victories ever gained in 
 America, and raised Jackson's rank to that of about the greatest general 
 
GKNKRAL ANDREW JACKSON. 393 
 
 in the country. It was the last conflict of the war. The treaty had 
 already been signed at Ghent, and the news of peace would have reached 
 America before the engagement if there had then been the means of 
 quick communication across the Atlantic that there now are. 
 
 After Spain had ceded Florida to the United States, General Jackson 
 was made Governor of the Territory. Later he was United States Sena- 
 tor from Tennessee for a second time, and became a candidate for Presi- 
 dent in the campaign in which John Quincy Adams was elected. But in 
 the next canvass he ran again and succeeded ; four years later he was 
 re-elected, more popular than ever ; and at the end of his second term he 
 had so much influence that, because of his support, Van Buren became 
 the next President, although Calhoun, the other candidate, was far more 
 popular in himself, especially at the South. 
 
 FIRM AND RESOLUTE AS PRESIDENT. 
 
 He showed great firmness and judgment as President, and held to 
 what he thought right against any amount of opposition. After a long 
 struggle he succeeded in destroying the Bank of the United States, and 
 took the first steps toward having for our country an independent 
 Treasury and a specie currency. 
 
 The chief military exploit of "Old Hickory" was his famous vic- 
 tory at New Orleans, a detailed account of .which is as follows : In the 
 month of December, 1814, fifteen thousand British troops, under Sir Ed- 
 ward Packenham, were landed for the attack of New Orleans. The 
 defence of this place was intrusted to General Andrew Jackson, whose 
 force was about six thousand men, chieffy raw militia. 
 
 At daylight on the morning of the 8th of January, the main body 
 of the British, under their commander-in-chief, General Packenham, were 
 seen advancing from their encampment to storm the American lines. 
 On the preceding evening they had erected a battery within eight hun- 
 dred yards, which now opened a brisk fire to protect their advance. The 
 British came on in two columns, the left along the levee on the bank of 
 the river, directed against the American right, while the right advanced 
 
 1 
 
GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON. 395 
 
 to the swamp, with a view to turn General Jackson's left. The country 
 being a perfect level, and the view unobstructed, their march was observed 
 from its commencement. They were suffered to approach, in silence and 
 unmolested, until within three hundred yards of the lines. 
 
 This period of suspense and expectation was employed by General 
 Jackson and his officers in stationing every man at his post, and arrang- 
 ing everything for the decisive event. When the British columns had 
 advanced within three hundred yards of the lines, the whole artillery at 
 once opened upon them a most deadly fire. Forty pieces oi cannon, 
 deeply charged with grape, canister, and musket-balls, mowed them down 
 by hundreds ; at the same time the batteries on the west bank opened 
 their fire, while the riflemen, in perfect security behind their works, as 
 the British advanced took deliberate aim, and nearly every shot took 
 effect and made havoc among the enemy. 
 
 JACKSON'S MASTERLY DEFENSES. 
 
 Through this destructive fire the British left column, under the 
 immediate orders of the commander-in-chief, rushed on with their 
 fascines and scaling ladders, to the advance bastion on the American 
 right, and succeeded in mounting the parapet ; here, after a close con> 
 flict with the bayonet, they succeeded in obtaining possession of the 
 bastion, when the battery planted in the rear for its protection opened 
 its fire, and drove the British from the ground. On the American left 
 the British attempted to pass the swamp and gain the rear, but the 
 works had been extended as far into the swamp as the ground would per- 
 mit. Some who attempted it sank in the mire and disappeared ; those 
 behind, seeing the fate of their companions, seasonably retreated and 
 gained the hard ground. The assault continued an hour and a quarter ; 
 during the whole time the British were exposed to the deliberate and 
 destructive fire of the American artillery and musketry, which lay in 
 perfect security behind their breastworks of cotton bales, which no balls 
 could penetrate. 
 
 At eight o'clock, the British columns drew off in confusion, and 
 
396 GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
 retreated behind their works. Flushed with success, the militia were 
 eager to pursue the British troops to their intrenchments, and drive them 
 immediately from the island. A less prudent and accomplished general 
 might have been induced to yield to the indiscreet ardor of his troops ; 
 
 STEAMBOAT LOADING WITH COTTON. 
 
 but General Jackson understood too well the nature of both bis own and 
 his enemy's force, to hazard sucb an attempt. Defeat must inevitably 
 have attended an assault made by raw militia upon an intrenched camp 
 of British regulars. The defence of New Orleans was the object; nothing 
 was to be hazarded which would jeopardize the city. The British were 
 suffered to retire behind their works without molestation. The result 
 was such as might be expected from the different positions of the two 
 armies. General Packenham, near the crest of the glacis, received a ball 
 
GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON. 397 
 
 in his knee. Still continuing to lead on his men, another shot pierced 
 
 his body and he was carried off the field. 
 
 Nearly at this time, Major-General Gibbs, the second in command, 
 
 within a few yards of the lines, received a mortal wound and was removed. 
 
 The third in 
 command, Major 
 General Keane, 
 at the head of 
 his troops near 
 BB the glacis, was 
 severely wound- 
 ed. Before eight 
 o'clock, the three 
 generals were 
 carried off the 
 field, two in the 
 agonies of death 
 and the third 
 entirely dis- 
 abled ; leaving 
 upwards of two 
 thousand of 
 their men, dead, 
 
 THE PLAIN OF CHALMETTE— SCENE OF THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. dying, and 
 
 wounded or prisoners, on the field of batttle. 
 
 As already stated, Jackson was afterward elected President, and in 
 this, the highest office in the gift of his countrymen, he was the same 
 bold, resolute and sagacious leader he had proved himself to be in battle. 
 
 Andrew Jackson was born March 15, 1767, in what was called the 
 Waxhaw settlement, either in North or South Carolina, it is not known 
 which, although he believed himself a native of the Southern State. He 
 died at his country-seat, the Hermitage, near Nashville, Tennessee, 
 June 8, 1845. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 GENERAL T. J. JACKSON. 
 
 ( " STONEWALL JACKSON." ) 
 
 BRAVE AND CONSCIENTIOUS COMMANDER — ALWAYS AT 
 THE HEAD OF HIS COLUMN — WOUNDED BY AN UNFORTU- 
 NATE MISTAKE — HIS CHRISTIAN COURAGE AND HEROISM 
 — HOW HE RECEIVED HIS NAME OF " STONEWALL." 
 
 We deem it appropriate to apprise the reader of the fact that this 
 volume contains true accounts of real heroes and heroines, men and 
 women who, by reason of their moral and physical courage, are entitled 
 to be called such. Heroism may be exhibited in any cause demanding 
 personal bravery, hardships and sacrifices. We pass no judgment 
 whatever upon the merits of the great Civil War which, for a time, rent 
 our country in twain, only desiring to recount the valiant deeds of those 
 who distinguished themselves in this gigantic struggle, and whose 
 names will stand forever more on the pages of American history. 
 
 One of these was General T. J. JacEsbn, a man of lofty character 
 and unimpeachable integrity. 
 
 The figure of "Stonewall" Jackson stands forth with and entirely 
 unique individuality among Southern leaders. He was a man in many 
 respects sui generis, with a leaven of something resembling Cromwell's 
 "Roundheads" in his composition. There was the same deep devotion, 
 the same fiery onslaught, the same unquailing courage ; but the puritan- 
 ical cant in his case had become a sweet, unassuming sincerity and simple 
 faith. He came of English parentage, his great-grandfather having 
 emigrated from London to Maryland in 1748. Here he married Elizabeth 
 Cummins, and shortly after removed to West Virginia, where he founded 
 a large family. 
 
 898 
 
GENERAL T. J. JACKSON. 
 
 399 
 
 His father was an engineer and died before his son's recollection. 
 His mother died when he was ten years old, and her saintly death is said 
 to have made a profound impression on the lad. A bachelor uncle, 
 Cummins Jackson, assumed the responsibility of bringing him up. He 
 was a very delicate child, but the rough life of a Virginia farm strength- 
 ened his constitution. He became a constable for the county while a 
 mere stripling, and at the age of eighteen he was appointed cadet at 
 
 West Point. The class register 
 places his birthplace at Clarks- 
 burg, West Virginia ; the date 
 January 21, 1824. His academ- 
 ical preparation had been im- 
 perfect, and he did not attain a 
 high grade. 
 
 On his graduation ir ^846 
 he was ordered to Mexico, and 
 became a lieutenant in Magrud- 
 er's battery, taking part in Gen- 
 eral Scott's campaign from Vera 
 Cruz to the City of Mexico. He 
 was twice breveted for good 
 conduct at Churubusco and 
 •stonewall- JACKSON. Chapultepec. When the United 
 
 States army was withdrawn from Mexico, he was for a time on duty at 
 Fort Hamilton in New York harbor. 
 
 In 185 1, on his election as professor of philosophy and artillery 
 tactics at Virginia Military Institute, he resigned from the army. His 
 appearance and manner at this time have been sympathetically described 
 by the lady who subsequently became his sister-in-law : "He was of a 
 tall, very erect figure, with a military precision about him which made 
 us girls all account him stiff; but he was one of the most polite and 
 courteous of men. He had a handsome, animated face, flashing blue 
 eyes, and the most mobile of mouths. He was voted eccentric in oui 
 
400 GENERAL T. J. JACKSON. 
 
 little professional society, because lie did not walk in the same conven- 
 tional grooves as other men. It was only when we came to know him 
 with the intimacy of hourly converse that we found that much that 
 passed under the name of eccentricity was the result of the deepest 
 underlying principle, and compelled a respect which we dared not 
 withhold. He was an extremely modest man, and not until he asked 
 the hand of my sister Elinor in marriage, and the records of his army- 
 life were placed before my father (the Rev. Dr. Junkin, President of 
 Washington College), did we know that he had so distinguished himself 
 in the Mexican War." 
 
 Then, as ever after, Jackson weighed his lightest utterances in "the 
 balances of the sanctuary," and so ruled his life, we are told, that "he 
 never even inadvertently fell into the use of the common expressions 
 involving the wish that any event or circumstance were different from 
 what it was. To do so would, in his opinion, have been to arraign 
 Providence," so conscientious was the man. 
 
 CAREFUL IN LITTLE THINGS. 
 
 " Don't you wish it would stop raining?" was the careless remark 
 put to him by his wife after a week of wet weather. " Yes," was his 
 smiling reply, " if the Maker of the weather thinks it best." "He never 
 posted a letter," his sister-in-law tells us, "without calculating whether 
 it would have to travel on Sunday to reach its destination, and if so he 
 would not mail it till Monday morning." He took much interest in the 
 improvement of slaves, and conducted a Sunday-school for their benefit 
 which continued in operation a generation after his death. 
 
 A few days after the secession of Virginia, but before any active hos- 
 tilities had commenced, Jackson was ordered to Harper's Ferry to drill 
 the military bands that were gathering there from all quarters. When 
 Virginia joined the Confederacy a few weeks later, he was relieved by 
 General Joseph E. Johnston, and then became commander of a brigade 
 in Johnston's army, which rank he held at the battle of Bull Run. In 
 that action the left of the Confederate line had been turned and the troops 
 
GENERAL T. J. JACKSON. 401 
 
 holding it driven back some distance. Disaster was imminent, and 
 Johnston was hurrying up troops to support his left. Jackson's brigade 
 was the first to get into position, and checked the progress of the Federal 
 forces. The broken troops rallied upon his line; other reinforcements 
 reached the threatened point; the Confederates assumed the aggressive, 
 and wrenched a victory from the very jaws of defeat. In the crisis 
 of the struggle General Bernard E. Bee, in rallying his men, said: 
 "See, there is Jackson standing like a stone wall; rally on the Virgin- 
 ians ! " Bee fell almost immediately after, but his exclamation con- 
 ferred upon the Confederate brigadier-general a baptism that became 
 immortal and made him " Stonewall " Jackson. 
 
 SILENT AS A SPHINX, BRAVE AS A LION. 
 
 Early in March, 1862, he was at Winchester with 5000 men, while 
 General N. P. Banks was advancing against him from the Potomac. 
 Jackson's instructions were to detain as large a hostile force as possible 
 in the valley without risking the destruction of his own troops. The 
 subtlety of his strategy, the rapidity of his marches and the originality 
 of his manceuvers during this period have found many skilled chroniclers 
 and admiring critics. Silent as a sphinx, brave as a lion, his un- 
 expected disappearances and mysterious descents upon his enemy at the 
 weakest points inspired something akin to terror in the breast cf the 
 Federal soldier. On May 25, 1862, he defeated Banks at Winchester, 
 driving him beyond the Potomac, and effecting large captures of pris- 
 oners and stores. On June 8, at Cross Keys, he delivered battle to 
 Fremont, and after a long and bloody conflict night found him master of 
 the field. 
 
 Leaving Ewell's brigade on the ground, he that night marched the 
 
 rest of his tired but victorious army to Port Republic, reaching the bridge 
 
 at dark. General Imboden arrived soon after, and found "Stonewall" 
 
 Jackson in a humble room, "lying on his face across the bed, fully 
 
 dressed, with sword, sash and boots all on. The low-burnt tallow candle 
 
 on the table shed a dim light, yet enough by which to see and recognize 
 26 
 
402 
 
 GENERAL T. J. JACKSON. 
 
 his pers on. 
 'General,' I said, 
 'yon made a 
 glorious wind- 
 ing up of your 
 four weeks' work 
 yesterday.' — 
 'Yes,' lie replied, 
 'God blessed our 
 army again yes- 
 terday, and I 
 hope, with His 
 protection and 
 blessing, we 
 shall do still 
 better to-day.' ' 
 Sure enough 
 that day he 
 routed McDow- 
 ell's column, and 
 drove it from 
 the battle-field, 
 before Shields or 
 Fremont could 
 get there to ren- 
 der assistance. 
 "The 'Stone- 
 wall' brigade 
 never retreats ; 
 follow me !" he 
 map OF northern Virginia. cried during the 
 
 engagement, as he placed himself at their head. 
 
 The same authority has given me a pen picture of Jackson on the 
 
(.KNERALT. J. JACKSON. 403 
 
 battlefield. "The fight was just hot enough to make him feel well. His 
 eyes fairly "blazed. He had a way of throwing up his left hand with the 
 open palm toward the person he was addressing." Once he was asked 
 how it was that he could keep so cool, and appear so utterably insensible to 
 danger, in such a storm of shell and bullets. "He instantly became 
 grave and reverential in his manner," writes Imboden, "and answered in 
 a low tone of great earnestness. 'Captain, my religious belief teaches me 
 to feel as safe in battles as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. 
 I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter 
 when it overtakes me.' " 
 
 OFF FOR RICHMOND TO UNITE WITH LEE. 
 
 After the action at Port Republic the Federal forces retreated to the 
 lower Shenandoah, while "Stonewall" Jackson hastened by forced marches 
 to Richmond, to unite with General Lee in attacking McClellan. On 
 June 27, 1862, at Gaines's Mills, he turned the scale where Fitz-John 
 Porter was overthrown. He also took part in the subsequent operations 
 during McClellan' s retreat. During this period there was some social 
 hobnobbing and interchange of civilities at times between the privates of 
 the opposing armies. One lean "Johnny" was loud in his praise of 
 "Stonewall " Jackson, saying: "He's a general, he is. If you uns had some 
 good general like him, I reckon you uns could lick we uns. 'Old Jack' 
 marches we uns most to death." 
 
 "Does your general abuse you — swear at you to make you march ?" 
 inquired one of his listeners. "Swear !" replied the Confederate, "no, 
 Ewell does the swearing; 'Stonewall' does the praying. When 'Stone- 
 wall' wants us to march he looks at us soberly, just as if he was sorry for 
 we uns, but couldn't help it, and says, 'Men, we've got to make a long 
 march.' " 
 
 About the middle of July, 1862, Lee detached Jackson to Gordons ville 
 for the purpose of looking after his old adversaries of the Shenandoah 
 Valley, who were again gathering under General John Pope. On the 9th 
 of August he encountered the Federal army under Pope and McDowell 
 
404 GENERAL T. J. JACKSON. 
 
 at Cedar Run, and drove it back in disorder. On the 25th of the same 
 month he crossed the Rappahannock at Hinson's Mill, four miles above 
 Waterloo Bridge. When sunset came next day he was many miles in 
 the rear of Pope's army, moving in the direction of Washington. On 
 the afternoon of the 26th Pope's army broke away from its strong 
 position to meet Jackson's daring and unexpected move. 
 
 JACKSON IN THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN. 
 
 In the Maryland campaign, two weeks later, General Jackson had 
 charge of the operations which resulted in the investment and capture of 
 the post at Harper's Ferry, with 13,000 men and 70 cannon, while Lee 
 held back McClellan at South Mountain and along the Antietam. 
 "Stonewall" Jackson lost little time in contemplating his victory; when 
 night came he started for Shepherdstown, and on September 17 the fierce 
 battle of Sharpsjpurg was fought. In this bloody contest Jackson com- 
 manded the left wing of the Confederate army, against which in succcession 
 McClellan hurled Hooker's, Mansfield's and Sumner's corps. With deci- 
 mated lines Jackson maintained himself throughout the day near the old 
 Dunker church, while one of his divisions — A. P. Hill's, which had been left 
 at Harper's Ferry — reached the field late in the day, and defeated Burn- 
 side's corps, which was making rapid and deadly progress against the Con- 
 federate right flank. 
 
 In the spring of 1863, when Hooker's movement upon Chancellors ville 
 was fully developed, Lee ordered Jackson's corps to move up to meet him. 
 On the morning of May 1, Jackson met Hooker emerging from the Wilder- 
 ness that surrounds Chancellors ville, and at once assumed the defensive 
 with such fierce impetuosity that the Federal commander withdrew into the 
 fastnesses of the Wilderness, and established lines of defence. At sunrise, 
 May 2, 1863, Jackson was in the saddle and on the march. All the livelong 
 day he pursued his tedious and dreary way through the Wilderness. Be- 
 tween 8 and 9 p. m. Jackson, with a small party, rode forward beyond his 
 own lines to reconnoitre. He passed the swampy depression and began 
 the ascent of the hill towards Chancellorsville, when he came upon a line 
 
GENERAL T. J. JACKSON. 405 
 
 of Federal infantry lying on their arms. Fired at by one or two muskets, 
 he tnmed his horse and came back toward his own line. 
 
 As he rode back to the Confederate troops, just placed in position, 
 the left company, unaware of his presence in front of them, began firing, 
 and two of his party fell from their saddles, dead. Spurring his horse 
 across the road to his right, he was met by a second volley from the right 
 company of Pender's North Carolina brigade. Under this wild volley 
 the general received three balls almost synchronously ; one penetrated 
 the palm of his right hand, and was extracted that night ; a second 
 passed circuitously round the wrist of his left arm, and escaped through 
 the hand ; a third traversed the left arm half way from shoulder to 
 elbow, and splintered the large bone of the upper arm. His horse darted 
 aside from the line of fire into the thick brush, and the general's fore- 
 head was badly scratched. As he lost his hold on the bridle-rein, he 
 reeled from the saddle, and was caught in the arms of Captain Milbourne, 
 of the Signal Corps. 
 
 " Oh, general ! " cried Pender, who was soon on the scene, " I hope 
 you are not seriously wounded. I will have to retire my troops to 
 re-form them, they are so much broken by this fire." Jackson, rallying 
 his strength, with firm voice said : u You must hold your ground, Gen- 
 eral Pender ; you must hold your ground, sir !" This was the hero's 
 last command on the field. General Lee received the mournful tidings 
 late at night with profound grief. This was his manly note of sympathy: 
 
 u General : I have just received information that you were wounded. 
 I cannot express my regret at the occurrence. Could I have directed 
 events, I should have chosen, for the good of the country, to have been 
 disabled in your stead. I congratulate you upon the victory which is 
 due to your skill and energy." 
 
 Pneumonia set in, with some symptoms of pleurisy, and on the 
 quiet Sabbath afternoon of May 10, 1863, he died. A few minutes before 
 his dissolution, lie raised himself in bed and said: " No, no, no; let us 
 pass over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees." Peace to his 
 -ashes !• His remains rest under the trees. 
 
GENERAL GEORGE G. MEADE. 
 
 HERO OF GETTYSBURG — LED AN ADVANCE IN 
 THE MEXICAN WAR — HIS FAMILY HISTORY 
 AND MILITARY TRAINING — PROMOTED FOR 
 GALLANT SERVICES — COOL AND SKILLFUL 
 COMMANDER. 
 
 The name of Meade has been intimately associated with various 
 public and national movements during the past hundred years. George 
 Meade, the grandfather of General Meade, was a signer of the non- 
 importation resolutions of 1765, and was notably patriotic during the 
 Revolution, subscribing large sums of money to aid the government in 
 defraying the war expenses, and in other ways manifesting his sturdy 
 allegiance to the cause of the United States. He was associated also 
 with many prominent public actions in the city of Philadelphia, of which 
 he was a resident. 
 
 His son, Richard Worsam, was a merchant and ship-owner, trading 
 between America and Spain. During the Peniusular War he exported 
 thousands of barrels of flour, placing Spain in a state of indebtedness to 
 him from which, in her extremely low financial state, she was unable to 
 free herself. In his endeavors to collect the amount due him he was 
 summarily disposed of for a time by imprisonment in the prison of Santa 
 Catalina at Cadiz. There he remained for two years, when he was 
 released through the action of the United States Minister. He was the 
 worthy sire of one of our most conservative and efficient generals. 
 
 In 1819, the treaty of Florida was made between America and Spain, 
 
 and, according to the terms of that treaty, our government was to receive 
 
 Florida, and in return to assume the responsibility of discharging all debts 
 40G 
 
GKNKRAL GEORGE G. MEADE. 
 
 •107 
 
 on the part of Spain to American citizens. Mr. Meade therefore returned 
 to this country armed with a certificate for $491,153.62 — the amount due 
 him — signed by the king of Spain. Then came a long, fruitless course 
 of solicitation. Bills were passed through the Senate, and the ablest 
 lawyers — including Webster, Clay and Choate — were engaged, but all to 
 no end ; and to this day, in spite of the correctness of the documentary 
 proofs, the famous Meade claim has profited nothing to the family^. 
 
 This was General Meade's 
 father ; and it was on December 
 31, 1S15, while he was living in 
 Cadiz, Spain, that General George 
 Gordon Meade was born. The 
 family returned to America when 
 George was about three years of 
 age, and it was at Philadelphia, 
 and afterwards at Salmon P. 
 Chase's school in Washington, 
 and at Mt. Hope Institution, near 
 Baltimore,that he received his first 
 education. 
 
 He then entered the United 
 States Military Academy, gradu 
 ating in 1835, and serving first 
 with the thirdartillery in Florida, GE0RGE G - MEADE - 
 
 in the war against the Seminoles. Neither the climate nor his sur- 
 roundings, however, were congenial to him there, and before a year had 
 passed he was so reduced in health that the necessity for a change 
 became evident. He was therefore sent with a party to Arkansas, and 
 from there was ordered to ordnance duty at Watertown Arsenal, Massa- 
 chusetts. From this duty he resigned October 26, 1836, and entered into 
 civil engineering work on the railroad at Pensacola, Florida. 
 
 During the years 1838 and 1839 he was engaged by the War Depa^- 
 ment on the government survey of the Sabine River and the Delta of the 
 
408 GENERAL GEORGE G. MEADE. 
 
 Mississippi ; and in the year following lie was employed on survey work, 
 first on the boundary line between the United States and Texas, and after- 
 wards in the north on the boundary between the United States and 
 British America. 
 
 Up until the opening of the Mexican War General Meade's employ- 
 ment was almost continuously in government survey at one place and 
 another. In December, 1840, he was married to Margaretta, daughter 
 of John Sergeant. He remained on the northeastern boundary, connected 
 with the corps of topographical engineers, until the end of the year 1843, 
 and during the following two years was engaged in the survey of Dela- 
 ware Bay. His rank in the above corps was that of second lieutenant. 
 
 LED THE ADVANCE ON INDEPENDENCE HILL 
 
 During the Mexican War he was connected with the staff of General 
 Zachary Taylor, and shared in the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la 
 Palma. His first service of note, however, was in the battle of Monterey, 
 in which he was serving under General Worth. In this engagement he 
 led the advance 011 Independence Hill, and took part later in the march 
 to Tampico. In appreciation of his brave conduct at this time he was 
 breveted first lieutenant. He took part in the siege of Vera Cruz, and 
 in this battle served as a member of the staff of General Robert Patterson. 
 This ended for a time his active field service ; for, from the }^ear f his 
 return from Mexico (1847) until the opening of the Civil War, he was 
 again engaged in survey work. 
 
 During 1847-49 he was employed in the construction of light-houses 
 on the Delaware Bay, and later in surveying the Florida reefs. On 
 returning to Delaware in 1850 he was made first lieutenant of the topo- 
 graphical engineer corps. In 185 1 he was sent again to the Florida 
 reefs, where he was engaged for five years in light-house construction,, 
 and in 1856 was made captain of the corps conducting the. geodetic 
 survey of the Northern lakes. 
 
 At the beginning of the Civil War General Meade was placed in 
 command of the second brigade Pennsylvania reserves in the Army of the 
 
GENERAL GEORGE G. MEADE. 
 
 409 
 
 Potomac. He was made brigadier-general of volunteers, and in June, 
 1862, was promoted in the topographical engineer corps to the rank of 
 major. His future services were, however, devoted to his brigade, and 
 during 1862 he took part in the battles of Mechanicsville, Gaines's 
 Mills, and Glendale. In the last-named battle he was badly wounded, 
 
 BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. 
 
 and compelled to leave the army for a time. He had been removed to 
 Philadelphia ; but his wound recovering more rapidly than was at first 
 expected, it was not long before he was able to rejoin his army and enter 
 again into active service. 
 
 The enemy was at this time advancing toward Washington, and it 
 was therefore at a most critical juncture of the war that General Meade 
 
410 
 
 GENERAL GEORGE G. MEADE. 
 
 resumed command of his brigade, opposing the advance of the Confed- 
 erate army and sharing in the second battle of Bull Run. When the 
 enemy later on invaded Maryland, General J. F. Reynolds being absent, 
 General Meade was in command of the whole division of Pennsylvania 
 reserves. He rendered distinguished services in the battles of South 
 Mountain and Antietam ; and in the latter engagement, in which General 
 Hooker was wounded, General Meade was assigned on the battlefield to 
 
 POSITIONS DURING THE FIRST DAY'S FIGHT AT GETTYSBURG. 
 
 the command of Hooker's corps, and was complimented for his skill and 
 bravery. 
 
 To the reputation already secured in these battles General Meade 
 added materially, in November, 1862, in the battle cf Fredericksburg. 
 The enemy was commanded by u Stonewair'Jackson,and during the battle 
 the only marked advantage that was gained by the National forces was 
 won by General Meade's division, which drove everything before it, and 
 penetrated the enemy's lines as- far as their reserves. Two horses were 
 
GENERAL GEORGE G. MEADE. 
 
 II 1 
 
 shot under General Meade during the action. Had the whole National force 
 accomplished as much in proportion, the results of that battle would have 
 been different ; but General Meade, after having made a most gallant 
 attack, and having won a great advantage, was compelled to fall back 
 through lack of sufficient support. 
 
 Shortly after this engagement General Meade was made inajor- 
 
 CONFOr, BITTY. 
 
 POSITIONS DURING SECOND AND THIRD DAYS AT GETTYSBURG. 
 
 general and commanded the fifth corps, taking part in the battle of Chan- 
 cellorsville, where, after having successfully overcome considerable 
 resistance, he was unfortunately recalled and ordered to his former posi- 
 tion. The lack of good management in this battle was owing largely to 
 the fact that General Hooker was stunned by a cannon ball, thus leaving 
 the army at a most important point without sufficient command. It 
 became evident soon after that the Confederate army intended marching 
 
412 GENERAL GEORGE G. MEADE. 
 
 further north. While affairs were so disposed General Hooker requested 
 further reinforcement, and, on this being refused by the President, 
 suddenly sent in his resignation — General Meade being placed in 
 command of the army. 
 
 This was the most trying time of Meade's experience. He was 
 unfamiliar with the army at large and its resources, and a most important 
 action was pending. Not a moment was to be lost, and yet he was not 
 in possession of all the knowledge essential to a commander. It was in 
 June, 1863, and while Lee's army was moving north, that the National 
 forces were lying near Frederick, Md. General Meade's purpose was to 
 follow the Confederate army in a parallel line, to prevent a descent on 
 Baltimore, and, on finding a fitting place, to engage Lee in battle. In 
 this manner the two armies approached Gettysburg, and on July 1 the 
 first action of that eventful battle took place. General Reynolds led the 
 advance National forces on that day, but was driven back by the Confed- 
 erate army, Reynolds himself being killed. 
 
 General Meade sent General W. S. Hancock ahead with additional 
 forces. The result of that terrible third day of the battle, the 3rd of 
 July, and the importance of that result to the interests of the Northern 
 cause, is well known and appreciated. As long as the Civil War is 
 remembered, so long will the gallant and hard-earned victory at Gettys- 
 burg be recorded, with the warmest praises of the able military leadership 
 of General Meade, and the efficient and skilful assistance of General 
 Hancock. In view of his valuable and illustrious services, General 
 Meade was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general in the regular army, 
 his commission dating from July 3, 1863. 
 
 During the years 1866-1872 he commanded successively the Depart- 
 ment of the East, the Military District of Georgia and Alabama, the 
 Department of the South (comprising Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, 
 Florida, and the Military Division of the Atlantic). 
 
 He died in Philadelphia on November 6, 1872, of an attack of pneu- 
 monia, which was aggravated by the results of the wound he had received 
 at the battle of Glendale. 
 
r< I 7 K * :< ■ u >ffi^f^ f '- Aril- -v^- ^ ^ -^ ^-.-.t^g^r ^ .^ i r ^SH5 "."IS 
 
 pw^ 
 
 GENERAL GEORGE E. PICKETT. 
 
 SPLENDID TYPE OF HERO— A MAN FOR 
 GREAT DEEDS— HIS DESPERATE CHARGE 
 AT GETTYSBURG — DASHES INTO THE 
 THICKEST OF THE APPALLING CARNAGE 
 — ONE OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST CAV- 
 ALRY COMMANDERS. 
 
 The Virginian whose name stands at the head of this article was an 
 ideal soldier — the very embodiment and type of a hero born for immortal 
 deeds ; and on the memorable snmmer day to be described further on he 
 made a mark in history to snrvive as long as the language of glorious 
 emprise is read among men. Pickett was born at Richmond, Ga., on 
 January 25, 1825. It was merely the anniversary birthday of Burns who 
 in his "Scots wa hae wi' Wallace bled" gave the world its noblest battle- 
 song. He also gave mankind that striking image, to be so thrillingly 
 realized by Pickett at Gettysburg, of his Scottish forefathers in the battle- 
 field struggling forward "red wet-shod." 
 
 The young Virginian was appointed to the Military Academy from 
 
 Illinois, and graduated in 1846. He served in Mexico ; was made second 
 
 lieutenant in the second infantry March 3, 1847 ; was at the siege of Vera 
 
 Cruz ; and, in brief, was engaged in all the battles that preceded the 
 
 assault and capture of the City of Mexico. Duty next took him to Texas, 
 
 and subsequently he was on garrison duty in the northwestern territory 
 
 at Puget Sound. At that time the dispute between our government and 
 
 Great Britain respecting the northwestern boundary was in petulant 
 
 progress, and Captain Pickett was ordered with sixty men to occupy 
 
 San Juan Island. 
 
 413 
 
414 
 
 GENERAL GEORGE E. PICKETT 
 
 This movement excited the rage of the British governor, who sent 
 three vessels of war to summarily eject Pickett from his position. To 
 use an expressive slang phrase of our day, the Virginian u didn't scare 
 worth a cent." With quiet emphasis he forbade the landing of the troops 
 from the vessels. "I shall order my men to fire," he said, " if a man of 
 them lands on this island." No doubt there would have been a collision 
 but for the opportune arrival upon the scene of the British admiral, by 
 whose order the issue of force was postponed. 
 
 On June 25, 1861, he resigned from the army, feeling that he must, 
 
 as a man of honor and a 
 Virginian, share the destiny 
 of his State. In February, 
 1862, Pickett was made 
 brigadier-general in Long- 
 street's division under 
 Joseph E. Johnston, then 
 called the Army of the Poto- 
 mac, but which subse- 
 quently became the Army 
 of Northern Virginia. Pie 
 took a prominent part in 
 the work of carnage at 
 View of the Chickahominy near Mechanicsville. Seven Pines. On June 1 
 
 1862, the National forces under McClellan, having thrown across the 
 Chickahominy two additional divisions under the command of General 
 Sumner, attacked Pickett's brigade, which was supported by that of 
 General Pryor. 
 
 The attack was vigorously repelled by these two brigades, "the brunt 
 of the fight falling upon General Pickett." After this his brigade, in the 
 retreat before McClellan up the Peninsula, and in the seven days' battle 
 around Richmond, won such a reputation that it was known as the 
 "Game-Cock Brigade." At the battle of Gaines's Mills, fought June 27, 
 1862, he took a distinguished part and was severely wounded 
 
T— I 
 
416 GENERAL GEORGE E. PICKETT. 
 
 The principal part of the Federal army was on the north side of the 
 Chickahominy. Hill's division of the Confederate forces met this large 
 force with impetnous conrage. Some of his brigades were broken. The 
 National forces were steadily gaining gronnd. Jackson had not arrived. 
 It was a critical moment. Three brigades under Wilcox were ordered 
 forward against the Federal left flank, to make a diversion in favor of the 
 attacking columns. Pickett's brigade, making an independent diversion 
 on the left of these brigades, developed the strong position and force of 
 the Federals in Longstreet's front. 
 
 ORDERS FOR A GENERAL ADVANCE. 
 
 The latter at once resolved to change the feint into an attack, and 
 orders for a general advance were issued. At this moment "Stonewall" 
 Jackson arrived, and the air was rent with shouts. Pickett's brigade, 
 supported by part of Anderson's brigade, swept on to the charge with 
 fierce grandeur. Along the whole Confederate line the troops pressed 
 steadily forward, unchecked by the terrible fire from the National forces. 
 In this furious onslaught Pickett fell, severely wounded in the shoulder, 
 and was unable to rejoin his command until after the first Maryland 
 campaign. He was then made major-general, with a division composed 
 entirely of Virginians. At the battle of Fredericksburg his division 
 held the centre of Lee's line and took a conspicuous part in the rout of 
 Burnside that followed. We come now to the battle of Gettysburg. 
 
 There is little doubt that General Lee accepted the results of the 
 first and second days' battles as success for his army, for he had gained 
 possession of the ground from which he had driven the Union forces, and 
 he had captured a large number of prisoners, and had added a large 
 number of field guns to his artillery corps. On the morning of the third 
 day he had reconnoitred the Federal position from the college cupola, and 
 had come to the conclusion that the left centre was the weakest part in 
 the Union lines. "With that discovery," says a competent military 
 authority, "he determined upon a move, the grandest ever conceived by 
 a commanding general, and, as the result proved, the most fatal. One 
 
GENERAL GEORGE E. PICKETT. 417 
 
 formidable obstacle stood in the way of his hopes — the Federal artillery. 
 By opening an attack along the entire line with his own gnns, he hoped 
 to be able to destroy many of the enemy's, besides exhausting his stock 
 of ammunition; so that when the crucial test of the day came — the 
 breaking of the Federal line at the left centre — their heavy guns would 
 be practically useless for defensive purposes. 
 
 READY TO PERFORM HIS DUTY. 
 
 " What was to be the next move, was a question in the minds of both 
 armies during the calm which succeeded the cannonading. In the 
 morning Lee had told Longstreet to order Pickett's division, which 
 belonged to his corps, to make an attack in force on the Federal left 
 centre. Pickett had been apprised of the work cut out for him, and, like 
 the brave officer he was, held himself in readiness to perform his duty." 
 His division, consisting of three brigades under the commands of 
 Armistead, Garnett and Kemper, lay in a clump of woods, almost directly 
 opposite the objective point which they were to attack. The three 
 brigades were made up of fifteen Virginia regiments, all tried and 
 true men, who had won many laurels on the battlefields of their native 
 State. 
 
 At noon there was a deep calm in the warm air. General Lee 
 determined to mass his artillery in front of Hill's corps, and under cover 
 of this tremendous fire to direct the assault on the National centre. To 
 this end more than a hundred pieces of artillery were placed in position. 
 On the opposite side of the valley might be perceived, by the gradual 
 concentration of the Federals in the woods, the preparations for the 
 mighty contest that was at last to break the ominous silence. At 
 12.30 p. m. the shrill sound of a Whitworth gun pierced the air. 
 Instantly more than 200 cannon belched forth their thunder at one time. 
 
 "It was absolutely apalling," an officer writes. "The air was 
 
 hideous with most discordant noise. The very earth shook beneath our 
 
 feet, and the hills and rocks seemed to reel like drunken men. For an 
 
 hour and a half this most terrific fire was continued, during which time 
 27 
 
418 GENERAL GEORGE E. PICKETT. 
 
 the shrieking of shell, the crash of falling timber, the fragments of rocks 
 flying through the air, shattered from the cliffs by solid shot, the heavy 
 mutterings from the valley between the opposing armies, the splash of 
 bursting shrapnel, and the fierce neighing of wounded artillery horses, 
 combined to form a picture terribly grand and sublime." 
 
 Part of this time Pickett's division had been lying listening in the 
 woods, but during the last half hour they had been moved into position. 
 The time had now come. The hour was ripe for the fruition of the 
 hopes of the Confederacy. Pickett mounted his white charger, and, 
 riding up to Longstreet, asked for orders. "Is the time for my advance 
 come?" he asked his general. "He repeated the question," writes Long- 
 street, "and without opening my lips I bowed in answer." "Sir," cried 
 Pickett, "I shall lead my division forward." 
 
 A MOST DESPERATE ASSAULT. 
 
 At the head of his command he rode gallantly and gracefully down 
 the slope into this thunderous scene of carnage. Longstreet has told 
 how he looked, with his "jauuty cap raked well over his right ear, 
 and his long auburn locks, nicely dressed, hanging almost to his shoul- 
 ders. He seemed rather a holiday soldier than a general at the head of 
 a column which was about to make one of the grandest and most desper- 
 ate assaults recorded in the annals of wars." 
 
 His coolness is illustrated by an incident which occurred shortly 
 after he had given orders to his brigade commanders to prepare for 
 the charge. "He was sitting on his horse," says a Confederate colonel 
 of artillery, "when General Wilcox rode up to him, and, taking a flask 
 of whiskey from his pocket, said: 'Pickett, take a drink with me. In an 
 hour you will be in hell or glory ! ' 'Be it so, General Wilcox,' returned 
 Pickett, taking the proffered drink; 'whatever my fate I shall do my duty 
 like a brave man.' " 
 
 Down the hill went the 5000 Virginians with the precision and 
 regularity of a parade. When a short distance from their starting point, 
 they obliqued to the right and then to the left, so as to secure cover in 
 
GENERAL GEORGE E. PICKETT. 419 
 
 the undulations of the ground over which they were crossing. As they 
 reached the Emmittsburg road, the Confederate guns, which had fired 
 over their heads to cover the movement, ceased, and there stood exposed 
 those devoted troops, as a cloudburst of flame, shot and shell came thun- 
 dering from the ridge into their ranks. There was no halting, no 
 wavering. Through half a mile of shot and shell pressed Pickett and 
 his men. It was no sudden impetus of excitement that carried them 
 through this terrible ordeal, where every inch of air vibrated and 
 thrilled with the wing of death, and where every footprint was "red-wel 1 ' 
 with the dew of destruction and terrible slaughter. 
 
 WILD YELLS OF DEFIANCE. 
 
 Steadily the heroic 5000, with rapidly thinning ranks, pressed 
 forward. When within a short distance of the Federal line, their wild 
 yells of defiance were heard above the thundering of the guns. Onward 
 they dashed with a wild disordered rush. Garnett, whose brigade was in 
 advance, fell dead within a hundred yards of the Union front. His 
 men rushed madly upon the 69th and 71st Pennsylvania regiments, who 
 had been awaiting the oncoming attack. General Hancock threw a force 
 on Pickett's flank, and two of Armistead's regiments were frightfully cut 
 up and disorganized by this movement. Armistead, swinging his 
 sword wildly, urged his men forward, and reached the front rank, where 
 he was shot down; but Pickett is unscathed in the storm. His flashing 
 sword has taken the key of the enemy's position, and again and again 
 the Confederate flag is lifted through the smoke. 
 
 "With what breathless interest we watched the struggle," writes the 
 Confederate officer already quoted. "General Lee, from a convenient 
 point, stood calmly looking at the struggle. Not an expression of the 
 face or an action indicated that he had other than hopes of success. He 
 was imperturbable as a rock. What emotions swayed his soul at that 
 supreme moment he and God alone knew." 
 
 The first line of the Federals was driven back upon the earthworks 
 near the artillery. There the work of death was renewed with frightful 
 
420 GENERAL GEORGE E. PICKETT. 
 
 slaughter. Charges of grape-shot were fired into Pickett's men with 
 terrible effect. The contestants became mixed in a confused mass, the 
 only way of distinguishing one from the other being the blue and gray 
 uniforms. The fighting became like that of an infuriated mob. " Con- 
 federates and Federals faced each other with clubbed muskets, their faces 
 distorted with the fury of madmen. Commands were useless; they 
 could not be heard above the din. A clump of trees j ust within the angle 
 wall became the objective point of the Confederates. Armistead resolved 
 to take it. Placing his hat on his sword, he rallied about him 150 men, 
 who were willing to follow wherever he would lead. Rushing forward with 
 his gallant band, he reached a Federal gun, and just as he had adjured 
 his followers to 'give them the cold steel, boys!' he fell dead in his tracks, 
 pierced with bullets." 
 
 The death of this gallant officer marked the complete failure of the Con- 
 federate assault, and, beaten but undismayed, the remnant of Pickett's 
 men retraced their way across the field now strewn with their dead. 
 Riding up to General Lee, Pickett dismounted, and saluting, said in a 
 voice tremulous with emotion: "General, my noble division has been 
 swept away." "It was all my fault; get together and let us do the best 
 we can toward saving that which is left us," was Lee's quiet reply. 
 
 Thus at Gettysburg the right arm of the Confederacy was broken, 
 and it must always stand out in the Confederate annals like 
 
 "Flodden's fatal field, 
 
 Where shivered was fair Scotland's spear, 
 
 And broken was her shield." 
 
 After the war General Pickett returned to Richmond, where he 
 spent the remainder of his days as a life insurance agent, and died a* 
 Norfolk, Va., July 30, 1875. 
 
GEN. PHILIP H.SHERIDAN. 
 
 BRILLIANT AND DARING CAVALRY 
 LEADER — HIS FAMOUS EXPLOIT IN 
 THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY — MAG- 
 NETIC COMMANDER — QUICK TO 
 DECIDE AND BOLD TO EXECUTE — 
 HIS DAZZLING CAREER. 
 
 General Sheridan was born in Albany, N. Y., March 6, 183 1, and 
 received his early education at the public schools of that city. He entered 
 West Point Academy as a cadet in July, 1848, and was a classmate of 
 Generals James B. McPherson, John M. Schofield and John B. Hood. 
 During his life at West Point a quarrel arose between himself and a 
 cadet file-closer, in consequence of which young Sheridan was suspended 
 from the academy. He was allowed to return at the end of a year, how- 
 ever, and graduated July 1, 1853. 
 
 On the same day he was appointed brevet second lieutenant in the 
 3d infantry, serving in Kentucky, Texas and Oregon. In November, 
 1854, he became second lieutenant in the 4th infantry, and in 1861 was 
 promoted to first lieutenant. In May of the same year he was appointed 
 captain of the 13th infantry, and in December he was chief quartermaster 
 and commissary of the army in Southwestern Missouri. Between April 
 and September, 1862, he served as quartermaster under General Halleck 
 during the Mississippi campaign. 
 
 At the time of the advance upon Corinth he was selected for active 
 
 field service, made colonel of 2d Michigan cavalry, and at the beginning 
 
 of July was ordered to make a raid on Booneville. He availed himself so 
 
 well of this first opportunity for display of military skill, and performed 
 
 421 
 
422 
 
 GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 
 
 such efficient service during that month, that he was rewarded by the 
 appointment as brigadier-general of volunteers, and in October of the 
 same year commanded the nth division of the Army of the Ohio, and 
 participated in the battle of Perry ville ; and the success of the National 
 
 forces in this en- 
 
 gagement may be 
 largely credited 
 to the gallant ac- 
 tion of Sheridan. 
 After carrying 
 ^ relief to Nash- 
 
 I ville in the month 
 
 II following, he was 
 placed in com- 
 mand of adivision 
 of the Army of 
 the Cumberland. 
 His share in the 
 battle of Stone 
 River, December 
 31 and January 1, 
 was prominent 
 and in the highest 
 degree commend- 
 able. He was act- 
 ing under Gen- 
 
 philip H. sheridan. eral Rosecrans— 
 
 General Bragg, commanding the Confederate army opposing. Sheridan 
 was compelled to stand the brunt of the fight, and at one time the 
 fate of the day rested on him. It was only by the most courageous 
 resistance, the most daring and brilliant action, that he was enabled 
 with his own division to hold the entire opposing force in check while 
 Rosecrans should have opportunity to form new lines ; and General 
 
GP;NRRAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 423 
 
 Bragg was at length forced to fall back, leaving Sheridan with but a 
 handful of men. "Here are all that are left," said Sheridan to Rosecrans 
 after that engagement. 
 
 In recognition of his valiant behavior he was made major-general of 
 volunteers, and during March, 1862, pursued Van Dorn to Columbia and 
 Franklin, taking many prisoners. During the summer of that year he 
 participated in the capture of Winchester, crossed the Cumberland 
 Mountains and Tennessee River, and assisted in the terrible battle of 
 Chickamauga in September. 
 
 The battle of Mission Ridge was the occasion of some of Sheridan's 
 most dashing and brilliant service during the war. This occurred in 
 November, and in this engagement Sheridan's distinguished action first 
 recommended him to the favorable opinion of General Grant, under whose 
 direction that battle was conducted. From that day forth Grant marked 
 Sheridan as pre-eminently a man to be selected for important service, 
 where skill and daring should be required. 
 
 HEROIC CAVALRY LEADER. 
 
 On April 4, 1864, Grant placed Sheridan in command of the cavalry 
 corps of the Army of the Potomac, and in this capacity he participated 
 with Grant in the battle of the Wilderness in May. As a cavalry leader 
 Sheridan was now at his best and thoroughly at home. The next few 
 weeks saw a series of brilliant, dashing raids, success following success 
 until, by the end of June, scarcely a company of the Confederate forces 
 in Virginia had escaped suffering at one time or another from his fierce 
 onslaughts. Having under his command similar men to himself, in 
 Merritt, Custer and others, he cut his way by quick, daring charges, 
 from place to place, harassing and threatening the enemy at every point. 
 In August Sheridan was appointed commander of the Army of Shenan- 
 doah — consisting of the 6th corps, two divisions of the 8th, and two 
 cavalry divisions — while a few days after his command was extended to 
 the Middle Military Division. 
 
 The duty that now lay before him was to rout the enemy from th'j 
 
424 GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 
 
 Valley of Virginia and destroy their supplies. This was a portion of 
 General Grant's plan. The latter was stationed with the Army of the 
 Potomac at City Point, opposing Lee. Sheridan's force had been aug- 
 mented by the 18th corps under Emory, while the opposing Confederate 
 army was commanded by Early. In spite of the great confidence which 
 Grant placed in Sheridan, he was willing to give the final order only with 
 great caution. Going from City Point to Harper's Ferry, Grant met 
 Sheridan, and instructed him to remain quiet until Lee had drawn away 
 some of the Confederate force in the valley. Immediately after this was 
 done, the final order was given and Sheridan was instantly on the 
 
 advance. 
 
 ENEMY ROUTED AND SCATTERED. 
 
 General Grant's report reads as follows : " He was off promptly on 
 time, and I may add that I have never since deemed it necessary to visit 
 General Sheridan, before giving him orders." Starting on September 
 19, Sheridan met General Early crossing the Opequan, and routed him 
 completely, pursuing him through Winchester past Fisher's Hill, thirty 
 miles south, and through Harrisonburg and Staunton, finally scattering 
 his forces throughout the passes of the Blue Ridge. He then ordered 
 a detachment under Torbert to devastate Staunton and the adjoining 
 country, so that Early's troops might be unable to find means of leaving 
 should they return there and endeavor to reorganize. In this rout, 
 Sheridan took 5000 prisoners and five guns. His forces were now rest- 
 ing near Cedar Creek, and Sheridan himself, appointed brigadier-general 
 in the regular army for his successes, had gone to Washington. 
 
 The Confederate army, in the meantime, received a considerable rein- 
 forcement from Longstreet, and, acting with the utmost celerity and 
 secrecy, crossed the Shenandoah, and on October 18 approached within a 
 short distance of the camp of the National forces. Early in the morning , 
 of the next day, they suddenly attacked the camp, utterly suprised 
 Sheridan's army and forced it to make a precipitate retreat. Sheridan 
 had by this time reached Winchester, twenty miles distant, and, hearing 
 the sounds of a battle, leaped on horseback and covered the twenty miles 
 
GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 425 
 
 with breathless speed, meeting his retreating troops at about ten o'clock. 
 With his arrival, the men took heart again and almost instantly the tide 
 of the battle changed. " Face the other way, boys," he shouted ; " we 
 are going back." 
 
 And back they went, carrying overwhelming victory with them. 
 The Confederate troops partially disorganized, were devoting themselves 
 chiefly to plundering the camp, and were least of all things expecting 
 such a spirited return of the force which they had so recently routed. 
 The part of the Confederate army still in line was thrown back and 
 overwhelmed, while the whole force was scattered and pursued as far as 
 Mt. Jackson. Then, acting under Grant's orders, Sheridan completely 
 devastated the valley, thus destroying all possible resources of the enemy 
 in that region. Sheridan's ride was one of the most brilliant and suc- 
 cessful exploits of the Civil War, and has been deservedly immortalized 
 in painting and sculpture, as well as by the well-known poem by R. 
 Buchanan Read, which celebrates his famous ride. 
 
 FOR PERSONAL GALLANTRY AND MILITARY SKILL. 
 
 Sheridan was made major-general in the regular army, and the 
 President's order reads : "For personal gallantry, military skill, and just 
 confidence in the courage and patriotism of his troops, displayed by Philip 
 H. Sheridan on the 19th of October at Cedar Run — where, under the 
 blessing of Providence, his routed army was reorganized, a great national 
 disaster averted, and a brilliant victory achieved over the enemy for the 
 third time in pitched battle within thirty days — Philip H. Sheridan is 
 appointed major-general in the United States Army, to rank as such from 
 the 8th day of November, 1864." In honoi of Sheridan's victories Grant 
 ordered that a salute of a hundred guns should be fired by each of his 
 armies, and he further stated of Sheridan : "I have always thought him 
 one of the ablest of generals." 
 
 Sheridan's greatest raid was in March, 1865, with 10,000 cavalry, 
 which extended from Winchester to Petersburg. During this raid he 
 met Early at Waynesboro, routed and put sued him to Charlottesville. 
 
426 
 
 GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 
 
 Afterwards, joining the Army of the Potomac, he served with consum- 
 mate skill and bravery at the engagement of Five Forks, which was one 
 of the most decisive of the war, and had much to do with compelling Lee 
 
 SHERIDAN'S CAVALRY CHARGE AT CEDAR CREEK. 
 
 to evacuate Petersburg and Richmond. Grant, speaking of Sheridan's 
 action, said : "Here he displayed great generalship.' J 
 
 The remaining few days of the war Sheridan was engaged in harass- 
 ing the army of Northern Virginia, carrying his raids as far down as 
 
GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 427 
 
 South Boston, N. C, and as late as the 24th of April — several days after 
 Lee's surrender and the formal close of the war. 
 
 During the years immediately following the war Sheridan served as 
 commander in various departments throughout the country. From July, 
 1866, to March, 1867, he commanded the Department of the Gulf. From 
 September of the latter year until March, 1868, he assumed charge of 
 the Department of the Missouri, with headquarters at Fort Leavenworth, 
 Kansas, during which he was engaged in a campaign against the Indians. 
 He then was placed in command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, 
 holding headquarters at Chicago. Congress had revived the rank of 
 lieutenant-general and general-in-chief for Grant, and upon his election 
 to the presidency in 1869, Sherman, who had followed him as lieutenant- 
 general, became general-in-chief, and Sheridan was promoted to the 
 lieutenant-generalship. 
 
 Sheridan visited Europe in 1870, and was present with the German 
 staff during a portion of the Franco-Prussian War. He was married iu 
 1879 to Miss Rucker, a daugther of General D. H. Rucker, of the United 
 States Army. In 1883 General Sherman retired, leaving Sheridan his 
 successor as general-in-chief of the United States Army. The last years 
 of General Sheridan were very quiet. In May, 1888, he contracted the 
 illness which proved fatal to him a few weeks later. 
 
 Like all the eminent generals of our late war, he has left behind him 
 in his personal memoirs the record of his distinguished services to his 
 country. His courage was indomitable, and from the very jaws of defeat 
 he frequently sprang to victory. Faithful and trustworthy in the perform- 
 ance of duty assigned him, he was far more than this. His unflinching 
 bravery in moments of utmost danger, his brilliant and daring leadership, 
 and his rare military skill — which at times seemed almost inspiration — 
 entitle him to the highest place in the admiration and esteem of his fellow- 
 countrymen. 
 
GEN. WILLIAM T. SHERMAN. 
 
 HIS WONDERFUL MARCH TO THE SEA — MEMBER 
 OF A DISTINGUISHED FAMILY — A FEARLESS 
 LEADER IN DIFFICULT UNDERTAKINGS — HERO- 
 ISM AT THE BATTLE OF SHILOH — MADE LIEU- 
 TENANT-GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 
 
 In 1634, three Shermans came from England to this country. Of 
 these three, two were brothers ; and the third, a cousin ; and to one of 
 these brothers; Rev. John Sherman by name, General W. T. Sherman 
 traces his lineage. The family first settled in Connecticut, whence a 
 later branch moved to Lancaster, Ohio ; and in that place, on the 8th of 
 February, 1820, General Sherman was born. His father, a lawyer, and for 
 five years judge of the Supreme Court, was the head of a large family, 
 William Tecumseh being the sixth of the eleven children. 
 
 After his father's death, William was adopted by Thomas Ewing, 
 and attended school in Lancaster until 1836, when he became a cadet at 
 West Point, a classmate of George H. Thomas, and graduated standing 
 sixth in a class of 42. In 1840, the year of his graduation, he was com- 
 missioned as second lieutenant in the 3rd artillery, and his first service 
 was in Florida, where a small remnant of the Indian War still remained. 
 In 1 84 1, he was placed in command at Picolata as first lieutenant. He 
 served later at Fort Morgan, Ala., and Fort Moultrie, Charleston harbor ; 
 but neither of these places were calculated at that time to satisfy a taste 
 for war, the latter being more of a fashionable summer resort for the in- 
 habitants of Charleston than a site for active military service. Sherman 
 was more than the ordinary practical military man, with a taste for 
 adventures. 
 
 428 
 
GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN. 429 
 
 Both at West Point and in his first days of service, he displayed 
 those superior qualities of the scholar and soldier combined which earned 
 for him his later position of honor. His ideals were ever high, and he 
 
 WILLIAM T. SHERMAN. 
 
 was always seriously impressed with the glory and honor of service to his 
 country. In 1843, ne hegan the study of law, and this not with the pur- 
 pose of practising at the bar, but simply to make of himself a more skil- 
 ful and intelligent soldier. All his friends knew what was his chief 
 ambition and aim. 
 
430 
 
GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN. 431 
 
 In the Mexican War he acted as adjutant to Generals S. W. 
 Kearny, P. S. Smith and Colonel Mason, and for his service in California 
 he was breveted captain. In 1850, he returned to Washington, and on 
 May 1st married Miss Ellen Boyle Ewing, a daughter of his old friend, 
 at that time Secretary of the Interior. Sherman, shortly after his 
 marriage, was appointed captain in the commissary department and was 
 sent to St. Louis and New Orleans. As all his old West Point mates 
 were pursuing quiet paths of life, and there seemed to be little chance 
 of promotion in such peaceful times, Sherman resigned his commission 
 in September, 1853, and accepted an appointment as manager of a branch 
 bank of Lucas, Turner & Co., of San Francisco. 
 
 ENGAGED IN VARIOUS PURSUITS, 
 
 The following few years his life and pursuits were varied. The 
 banking firm closed up its affairs in 1857 ; and in 1858-9, Sherman 
 practiced law in Leavenworth, Kansas ; and in the year following, super- 
 intended the State Military Academy at Alexandria, La. On the seces- 
 sion of that State, however, he went to St. Louis, where he was for a 
 brief period the president of the Fifth Street Railroad. 
 
 On the opening of the Civil War, Sherman entered with heart and 
 soul into the cause of the Northern States. On the 13th of May, 1861, 
 he was commissioned colonel of the 13th regiment of infantry, to be com- 
 manded by General Scott, then at Washington. Sherman was placed in 
 command of a brigade in Tyler's division of the army, marching to Bull 
 Run. This brigade consisted of the 13th, 69th and 79th New York, and 
 the 2d Wisconsin regiments, which in the terrible engagement that fol- 
 lowed suffered serious losses. 
 
 In August, Sherman was made brigadier-general of volunteers, and 
 was sent from the Army of the Potomac to serve under General Anderson 
 in Kentucky. In November, General Buell relieved him of this com- 
 mand, and Sherman was ordered to report to General Halleck, who placed 
 him in command of Benton Barracks. 
 
 It was in February, 1862, that General Grant moved on Forts 
 
432 
 
GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN. 433 
 
 Henry and Donelson, and after their capture Sherman was placed in 
 command of the 5th division of the Army of the Tennessee. In the 
 battle of Shiloh, Sherman's service was especially notable. This occurred 
 on the 6th and 7th of April ; and as Sherman's position was in the very 
 centre of the fight, an excellent opportunity was afforded him of showing 
 his superior mettle. Of his behavior during that engagement, General 
 Grant wrote in his report : "I feel it a duty to a gallant and able officer, 
 Brigadier-General W. T. Sherman, to make mention. He was not only 
 with his command during the entire two days of the action, but displayed 
 great judgment and skill in the management of his men. To his in- 
 dividual efforts, I am indebted for the success of that battle." General 
 Halleck also says : " Sherman saved the fortunes of the day on the 6th, 
 and contributed largely to the glorious victory of the 7th." 
 
 ORDERED TO THE DEFENSE OF MEMPHIS. 
 
 General Halleck became general-in-chief, with Grant appointed to 
 the command of the Department of the Tennessee, and with this change 
 Sherman was made major-general of volunteers, and was ordered by 
 General Grant to Memphis, with directions to place the city in a state 
 of defense. The next move of the National forces was against Vicks- 
 burg, which was covered by a Confederate army commanded by General 
 Pemberton ; and in the advance, Sherman proceeded with his forces 
 from Memphis to Wyatt, turning Pemberton' s left, who retreated to 
 Grenada. The plan then proposed and attempted was that Sherman 
 should return to Memphis with one brigade, reorganize a sufficient force, 
 and move down the river in gunboats against Vicksburg, conducted by 
 Admiral Porter, while Grant retained Pemberton in check at Grenada. 
 
 Natural causes, however, rendered this plan impracticable, and 
 shortly after General McClernand, arriving with orders from the Presi- 
 dent to assume command of the expedition, the Army of Tennessee was 
 divided into the 13th, 15th, 16th and 17th corps, and Sherman was 
 placed in command of the 15th. In the engagement which followed 
 
 shortly after, and which ended with the capture of Vicksburg on July 4, 
 28 
 
434 GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN. 
 
 1863, General Sherman's service was most active, and as a reward for his 
 able and brilliant share in that notable fight he was appointed brigadier- 
 general in the regular army. 
 
 At this time, Rosecrans was expelling the enemy from Central 
 Tennessee, and after forcing them from Chattanooga and fighting the 
 terrible battle of Chickamauga, he was compelled to rest in Chattanooga 
 awaiting relief for his depleted force. Sherman was ordered with his 
 corps to proceed by way of Memphis towards Chattanooga, but received 
 on his way orders from Grant to march with all speed to Bridgeport, on 
 the Tennesseee. In the sharp action which took place shortly afterwards 
 at Mission Ridge, Sherman's corps was the centre of the enemy's attack. 
 Without treating that engagement in detail, it may be said that Sherman's 
 best service there was in drawing the enemy to his flank, enabling 
 Thomas to make a successful attack upon the ridge. 
 
 THE GREAT MARCH TO THE SEA. 
 
 On the 25th of November, the enemy were driven before Sherman 
 in the roads north of the Chickamauga. On December 3, under Grant's 
 orders, he proceeded to Burnside's relief at Knoxville, and after render- 
 ing sufficient assistance returned to Chattanooga. During the early 
 part of 1864, Sherman was engaged at Jackson and Meridian, break- 
 ing up Confederate combinations and destroying communications. In 
 March, Grant assumed command of the armies, and Sherman was placed 
 in command of the Mississippi division, comprising the Departments of 
 the Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland and Arkansas, with headquarters at 
 Nashville. For his recent services in the Chattanooga campaign, 
 General Sherman received the formal thanks of Congress. It was on the 
 10th of April that he received final orders to move against Atlanta, and 
 the great triumphal march began which has ever since been associated 
 in words of highest eulogy with the name of Sherman. His advance 
 towards Atlanta was steady and sure. 
 
 Pressing the opposing force under General Johnston constantly 
 backward, he began the direct attack on Atlanta, July 17. In the several 
 
GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN. 
 
 435 
 
 battles at Peach Tree Creek, Ezra Church, and again on the east side of 
 the city, the National forces were notably snccessfnl. Sherman sent 
 General Thomas to Nashville to resist the advance of General Hood — 
 an expedition that resulted in the disastrous defeat of the latter. 
 
 INTERVIEW BETWEEN GENERALS SHERMAN AND JOHNSTON. 
 Sherman, with the remainder of his forces, moved on against Savannah, 
 finding nothing now to oppose his advance. Savannah was promptly 
 taken, and General Sherman wrote to President Lincoln : "I beg to 
 present you, as a Christmas grift, the City of Savannah, with 150 heav}' 
 guns, plenty of ammunition, and 25,000 bales of cotton." The victory 
 was hailed with rejoicing. 
 
436 GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN. 
 
 The march of Sherman has received many a tribute of praise, but 
 the value of the achievement cannot be too highly estimated by the 
 adherents to the Northern cause. In August he was appointed major- 
 general in the regular army, and in January following he again received 
 the thanks of Congress. Sherman, leaving Savannah in February, 
 marched north, meeting some opposition, but reaching Goldsboro on 
 March 24th, where he met Schofleld. Leaving his troops there, he 
 joined the conference of General Grant, Admiral Porter and President 
 Lincoln at City Point. This interview over, and the policy adopted 
 which brought the war to a close soon after, he returned to Goldsboro, 
 ready to cut off Lee's retreat or to reinforce Grant in front of Richmond 
 for a final attack, if necessary. 
 
 ASKED SHERMAN THE TERMS OF SURRENDER. 
 
 On April 12, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, and Johnston, 
 receiving the news at Greensboro, sent a message to Sherman on the 
 14th asking on what terms he would receive a surrender. The terms 
 arranged in the interview and correspondence which followed were con- 
 sidered by the government as entirely too lenient, and they were there- 
 fore disapproved of, and the matter was re-negotiated. This slight to 
 General Sherman was undeserved, for an examination of the matter will 
 reveal the fact that he acted throughout the part of a courteous, con- 
 siderate and humane commander. The great tide of feeling in Washing- 
 ton, aroused by the assassination of President Lincoln, may have given 
 partial cause for the curt manner in which the government treated the 
 matter. General Sherman's behavior throughout was above reproach. 
 On the President requesting to see him, he stated in his interview that 
 the offense to him lay in the tone and style of the publication, the 
 insinuations it contained and the false inferences it gave rise to, and not 
 the disapproval on the part of the government, of his terms of agree- 
 ment with Johnston. 
 
 In the grand review at the close of the war, and in fact on all fitting 
 public occasions, General Sherman received the genuine and enthusiastic 
 
GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN. 437 
 
 tributes which he had well earned. His life after the war was very quiet. 
 From June, 1865, to March, 1869, he had headquarters at St. Louis, com- 
 manding the Military Division of the Mississippi, comprising the Depart- 
 ments of the Ohio, Missouri and Arkansas. In July, 1866, he became 
 lieutenant-general, and on the election of General Grant to the presidency, 
 in 1869, Sherman succeeded him as general and took up his headquarters 
 at Washington. 
 
 On February 8, 1884, he was placed, at his own request, on the 
 retired list, with full pay, leaving General Sheridan his successor as 
 general-in-chief. To his military honors was added the degree of 
 LL. D., conferred upon him by Dartmouth, Yale, Harvard and Prince- 
 ton, in recognition of his superior worth as a scholar as well as a soldier. 
 The sterling qualities which General Sherman displayed on the battle- 
 field commanded the admiration of friends and foes alike, while the 
 genuine, noble and sympathetic heart which beat within his breast made 
 friends of foes, and won for him the love and respect of a nation. 
 He died, February 14, 1891. 
 
 General Sherman came from a distinguished family. He was a 
 brother of the Hon. John Sherman, who was for many years United 
 States Senator from Ohio, and the author of several important measures, 
 which gave him a wide celebrity. General Sherman was an illustrious 
 example of the cultivated scholar and statesman in war. While a brave 
 and competent commander, he was a true and noble citizen, a loyal 
 friend, and a patriot whose absorbing passion was love of country. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 FAMOUS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE 
 CONFEDERATE ARMIES — HIS MASTERLY 
 GENERALSHIP — HANDSOME PRESENCE 
 AND CORDIAL MANNER — TYPE OF THE 
 NOBLEST KIND OF SOLDIER — TOUCH- 
 ING SCENES IN HIS MILITARY CAREER 
 
 Lord Wolseley, who visited General Lee's headquarters in 1862 
 subsequently wrote that "Lee is stamped on my memory as a being apart 
 and superior to all others in every way." The man who elicited this some- 
 what extravagant eulogium was descended from fine stock. The Lees 
 of Virginia, to whom the eminent Confederate soldier owed his origin, 
 were an illustrious family of the State that has been designated the 
 "Mother of Presidents." He was the son of the Revolutionary General 
 Henry Lee, known as "Light-horse Harry," and was graduated from 
 West Point in 1829, ranking second in a class of forty-six, and was com- 
 missioned as second lieutenant in the engineers. 
 
 At the beginning of the Mexican war he was assigned to duty as 
 chief engineer of the army under General Wool, with the rank of cap- 
 tain. His abilities as an engineer and his conduct as a soldier won the 
 special recognition of General Scott, who attributed the fall of Vera Cruz 
 to his skill, and repeatedly singled him out for commendation. He was 
 thrice breveted during the war, his last brevet to the rank of colonel 
 being for services at the storming of Chapultepec. 
 
 In 1852 he was assigned to the command of the Military Academy 
 at West Point, where he remained about three years. He wrought 
 great improvements in the academy, notably enlarging its course of 
 438 
 
GKNERAL ROBKRT E. LEE. 
 
 439 
 
 stud}-, and elevating it to a rank equal to that of the best military 
 schools of Europe. On April 20, 1861 — three days after the Vir- 
 ginia Convention adopted an ordinance of secession — Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Lee resigned his commission in the United States Army, in 
 obedience to his conscientious conviction that he was bound by the act of 
 his State. 
 
 At that time, in a letter to his sister, the wife of an officer in the 
 National army, he gave the only authenticated expression of his 
 opinion and sentiments on the 
 subject of secession : — 
 
 " We are now, " he wrote, 
 11 in a state of war which will 
 yield to nothing. The whole 
 South is in a state of revolution, 
 into which Virginia, after a long 
 struggle, has been drawn ; and 
 though I recognize 110 necessity 
 for this state of things, and 
 would have forborne and pleaded 
 to the end for redress of griev- 
 ances, real or supposed, yet in 
 my own person I had to meet the 
 question whether I should take 
 part against my native State. 
 
 "With all my devotion to 
 the Union, and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I 
 have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my 
 relatives, my children, my home. I have therefore resigned my com- 
 mission in the army, and, save in defence of my native State — with 
 the sincere hope that my poor services may never be needed — I hope 
 I may never be called upon to draw my sword." 
 
 Repairing to Richmond, he was made commander-in-chief of the 
 Virginia State forces, and in May, 1861, when the Confederate govern- 
 
 v 
 
 ROBERT E. LEE 
 
440 GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 ment was removed from Montgomery to Richmond, lie received his 
 commission as full general. During the early months of the war he 
 rendered inconspicuous services in the western part of Virginia. In the 
 autumn he was dispatched to the coast of South Carolina, where he 
 planned and in part constructed the defensive lines which successfully 
 lesisted all efforts directed against them till the very close of the war. 
 General Lee was ordered to Richmond on March 13, 1862, assigned to 
 duty "under the direction of the President, " and " charged with the 
 conduct of miltary operations in the armies of the Confederacy. " 
 
 ONE IMPORTANT BATTLE. 
 
 The campaign of the preceding year in Virginia had embraced but 
 one battle of importance; it was that known as Bull Run or Manassas, 
 and the Confederate success there had not been followed by any demon- 
 stration more actwe than an advance to Centreville and Fairfax Court- 
 house, with advanced posts on Mason's and Munson's Hills. Meantime 
 McClellan had been more or less successfully wrestling with the problem 
 of converting raw levies into disciplined troops, and reorganizing the 
 National army. When, after many delays, he was finally prepared to 
 advance, the Confederates retired to the south side of the Rappahannock, 
 whereupon McClellan transferred his base of operations to Fort Monroe; 
 and advanced upon Richmond by way of the Peninsula. 
 
 To counteract this move, General Joseph E. Johnston removed his 
 army to Williamsburg, leaving Jackson's division in the valley, and 
 E well's on the line of the Rappahannock. In May Johnston fell back to 
 make his stand in defence of Richmond, immediatey in front of the town* 
 McClellan advanced to a line near the city with his army of more than 
 100,000 men, and, under the mistaken impression that Johnston's force 
 outnumbered his own, waited for McDowell, who was advancing with 
 40,000 men from the neighborhood of Fredericksburg, to join him. To 
 checkmate the advance of this reinforcement, General Lee ordered Ewell 
 to join Jackson, and directed the latter to attack Banks in the Shenan- 
 doah Valley, drive him across the Potomac, and thus seem to threaten 
 
GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE. 441 
 
 Washington. The strategy was entirely snccessfnl. Washington was 
 alarmed and McDowell was recalled. 
 
 McClellan now etablished himself on the Chickahominy, with a 
 part of his army thrown across the stream. A flood came in the end of 
 May, and, believing that the swollen river had effectually isolated this 
 force, General Johnston attacked it on May 31. Thus eventuated the 
 battle of Seven Pines, or Fair Oaks, in which Johnston was seriously 
 wounded. McClellan now fortified his lines, and General Lee confronted 
 him with a great army, and with the full confidence of the Confederate 
 government. Lee's preparations were promptly and energetically 
 executed. His capacity as a strategist and commander was first demon- 
 strated in that brilliant series of conflicts known as the " Seven Days' 
 Battle," by which he frustrated McClellan's plans against Rchmond. 
 
 SUCCESSFUL PLAN OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 "General Lee's plan," say Messrs. Nicolay and Hay in their Life of 
 Abraham Lincoln, "was to herd and drive down the Peninsula a magnifi- 
 cent army, superior in numbers to his own, and not inferior in any other 
 respect — if we except the respective commanders-in-chief. The measure 
 of success he met with will always be a justification of his plan." 
 
 Having thus raised the siege of Richmond, Lee's ambition was to 
 transfer the scene of operations to a distance from the Confederate 
 capital, and thus relieve the depression occasioned in the South by the 
 general retreat of its armies in the West. McClellan lay at Harrison's 
 Landing, below Richmond, with an army that was still strong, and 
 "while the Confederate capital was no longer in immediate danger, the 
 withdrawal of the army defending it would invite attack and capture, 
 unless McCellan's withdrawal at the same time could be compelled." 
 
 For effecting this, General Lee calculated on the excessive anxiety 
 felt at the North for the safety of Washington. If he could so dispose 
 of his forces as to place Washington in actual or apparent dan- 
 ger, he felt assured that McClellan's army would be speedily 
 recalled. The series of movements and manoeuvres that followed cul- 
 
442 STUART'S CAVALRY CUTTING TELEGRAPH WIRES. 
 
GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE. 44P, 
 
 ruinated on the morning of August 29, on the same field that the first 
 battle of Manassas or Bull Run was fought in 1861. Pope's army, rein- 
 forced by McClellan' s, was in position, and battle was joined in the 
 afternoon. After many determined but unsuccessful assaults upon 
 Lee's lines, the National army was driven across Bull Run to Centre ville. 
 The way now seemed clear to the Southern commander. The esprit 
 de corps of his army was at the highest pitch. He felt that he could act 
 on the aggressive and transfer the scene of operations to the 
 enemy's territory. " The plan involved the practical abandonment of his 
 communications; but the region into which he proposed to march was 
 rich in food and forage, and with the aid of his actve cavalry under 
 Stuart, he trusted to his ability to sustain his army upon the Northern 
 territory." The advance movement was at once inaugurated. 
 
 THE BATTLE AT ANTIETAM. 
 
 On September 5, the army, 45,000 strong, crossed the Potomac 
 and took up a position near Frederick, Md., from which it 
 might move at will against Washington or Baltimore, or invade Penn- 
 sylvania. Simultaneously ''Stonewall" Jackson had been dispatched to 
 Harper's Ferry, which, with 11,000 men and all its extensive stores, fell 
 into his hands. Both Lee and McClellan reached Sharpsburg, and on 
 the 17th of September battle was joined. 
 
 "The conflict of Sharpsburg or Antietam," says a writer on the war, 
 "is called a drawn battle. It was such if the immediate result is con- 
 sidered. There might be no actual advantage in the fight, but 
 McClellan had partly gained his point, and Lee's invasion of Northern 
 territory was brought to an end. On the other hand, if we include the 
 capture of the garrison at Harper's Ferry, Lee had inflicted greater loss 
 upon the enemy than he had suffered. " 
 
 The order assigning General Burnside to succeed McClellan in com- 
 mand was received at General Lee's headquarters, at Culpepper Court- 
 house, about twenty-four hours after it reached Warrenton. 
 
 Burnside s plan of campaign was to threaten Richmond by an advance 
 
444 GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 over a short line, while at the same time he kept Washington covered. He 
 made his base npon the Potomac, and planned to cross the Rappahannock, 
 at Fredericksburg. Lee moved promptly to meet this new advance, and 
 occupied a line of hills in the rear of the town. In the engagement that 
 followed the National commander lost nearly 13,000 men, while the 
 Southern loss was but a trifle beyond 5000. Without effecting anything, 
 the Northern army recrossed the River on December 15, and military 
 operations were suspended for the winter. 
 
 After the retreat General Lee went to Richmond "to suggest other 
 operations," according to Longstreet; ''but was assured, that the war 
 was virtually over, and that we need not harass our troops by marches 
 and other hardships. Gold had advanced in New York to 200, and we 
 were assured by those at the Confederate capital that in thirty or forty 
 days we would be recognized and peace proclaimed. General Lee did 
 not share in this belief." 
 
 OPERATIONS AROUND FREDERICKSBURG. 
 
 "Fighting Joe Hooker, " who succeeded Burnside in command of the 
 Army of the Potomac, planned a campaign for the purpose of driving 
 Lee out of his intrenched position at Fredericksburg. His plan was well 
 conceived, and we are assured that "no operation of the war so severely 
 tested the skill of the Confederate commander, or so illustrated his 
 character, as did the campaign that followed." About the end of April, 
 1863, Sedgwick, with 30,000 men, crossed below Fredericksburg, while 
 Hooker, with the main body, crossed the fords above. 
 
 Leaving about 9000 men in Fredericksburg, Lee marched, on May 
 1, to meet Hooker's advance, which he encountered, attacked and 
 drove back to Chancellorsville. Dividing his force, he sent Jackson 
 with one division of the army to strike Hooker in the rear. 
 In the fighting that followed, Jackson received a mortal wound from 
 the fire of his own men; but in the end the Northern army was 
 "driven with great loss from the field." Meantime Sedgwick had carried 
 the position at Fredericksburg, and had in turn been driven across the 
 
446 GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 river by Lee. These contests raised the confidence of General Lee's 
 army to the highest pitch, and he again resolved to carry the scene of 
 active operations to Northern soil. 
 
 The campaign of 1864 began with the advance of the Northern army 
 under General Grant, who crossed the Rapidan on May 4 with 120,000 
 men. Lee's opposing force was about 60,000, and he attacked his adver- 
 sary with his usual promptitude and courage. Lee's plan of striking the 
 flank of Grant's army as it passed through the Wilderness has been pro- 
 nounced above critcism, yet Grant's persistent hammering and superior 
 force told the inevitable tale. "It's no use killing these fellows; half a 
 dozen take the place of every one we kill ; " is said to have been a 
 common remark in Lee's army at this time. 
 
 Pages might be filled with the touching scenes of the great com- 
 mander's surrender. "General," cried one of his men, 'take back the 
 word 'surrender*' it is unworthy of you and of us. I have a wife and 
 children in Georgia; I have made up my mind to die, but not to sur- 
 render." Lee placed his arm around the brave fellow's neck, and, with 
 tears streaming down his face, said: "We have done all brave men can 
 do. If I permitted another man to be slain, I would be a murderer." 
 
 General Lee laid down his sword in a manly, magnanimous manner, 
 without moroseness or sullen vexation. His mind was pure, his 
 character upright. In a remarkable degree he exhibited that inflexible 
 devotion to duty which is exemplified in a perfect readiness to sink the 
 consideration of self. As the biographers of Abraham Lincoln most 
 truly and eloquently say: "Lee's handsome presence and cordial manner 
 endeared him to his associates, and made friends of strangers at first 
 sight." Three days after his death, which occurred October 12th, 1870, 
 his remains were buried beneath the chapel of the University at Lexing- 
 ton. In accordance with his request, no funeral oration was pronounced. 
 
GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
 
 COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE FEDERAL ARMIES 
 IN OUR CIVIL WAR — TWICE PRESIDENT OF THE 
 UNITED STATES — PERSONAL TRAITS — RAPID 
 RISE IN THE ARMY — BRILLIANT NAME ON THE 
 HONOR ROLL OF OUR NATIONAL HEROES. 
 
 General Grant, commander of the Union Army in the Civil War, 
 and twice President of the United States, was born at Point Pleasant, 
 Clermont Connty, Ohio, on the 27th of April, 1822. He was the eldest 
 son of his parents, Jesse R. Grant and Hannah Simpson — people of mod- 
 est and humble circumstances. General Grant's early years were spent 
 in assisting his father in farm work and obtaining what rudiments of 
 education the village school afforded. 
 
 In the spring of 1839 he became a cadet in the United States Mili- 
 tary Academy at West Point, and it was at this time that his name 
 acquired the middle initial which has caused so much curiosity. Thomas 
 L. Hamer, M. C, who appointed the young cadet to his position, had 
 always heard him called by the name Ulysses, and supposing that this 
 was his first name and that his middle name was probably that of his 
 mother's family, entered him on the official appointment as Ulysses S. 
 Grant, instead of Hiram Ulysses Grant, as he had been christened. Fre- 
 quent notification was given to the officials concerning this error, but, 
 as no one felt authorized to correct it, he was compelled to carry his new 
 initial through life. 
 
 Young Grant graduated in 1843, an d was immediately commis- 
 sioned as a brevet second lieutenant, attached to the 4th Infantiy, on 
 
 447 
 
448 
 
 GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
 
 duty at Jefferson barracks, not far from St. Louis. In 1845 ne became 
 second lieutenant and accompanied his regiment to Corpus Christi, join- 
 ing the army there under command of General Zachary Taylor. He 
 
 rendered excellent 
 service in various 
 battles in Mexico 
 under Generals Tay- 
 lor, Scott and Worth, 
 for which he was on 
 several occasions 
 commended highly 
 by his superior offi- 
 cers. For brave ac- 
 tion in the battle of 
 Molino del Rey, Sep- 
 tember 8, 1847, ne 
 was breveted first 
 lieutenant ; and in 
 the advance against 
 the City of Mexico, 
 on September 14, he 
 carried out the daring 
 and novel project of 
 mounting a howitzer 
 in the belfry of an 
 adjacent church, for 
 the purpose of driv- 
 ing the enemy from 
 grants boyhood DAYS in OHIO. a defensive work, an 
 
 idea that resulted so successfully that General Worth sent for him 
 and personally complimented him. 
 
 A few days after the entrance of the City of Mexico he was pro- 
 moted to first lieutenant. With the withdrawal of the troops in iP48 
 
GKNERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
 
 441) 
 
 lie obtained leave of absence, and went to St. Louis. It was here that 
 he married on the 22d of August, 1848, Miss Julia B. Dent, a sister of 
 one of his West Point classmates. During the next four years he was 
 ordered to service successively at Sackett's Harbor, N. Y., Detroit, Mich., 
 Panama, California, and Fort Vancouver, Oregon. 
 
 In 1853 he was appointed captain of a company at Humboldt Bay, 
 Cal. Growing dissatisfied with this service, however, he resigned his 
 
 LIEUTENANT GRANT GOING FOR AMMUNITION AT MONTEREY. 
 
 commission in July of the year following, and engaged in farming near 
 
 St. Louis, and later in real estate business in the same city. In i860 
 
 he was compelled, through lack of success, to give up real estate, and went 
 
 to Galena, 111., where he entered his father's hardware and leather store 
 
 as a clerk. When the news of the firing on Fort Sumter flashed through 
 
 the country about a year later, Captain Grant took a decided stand for 
 
 the Union, raising a company of volunteers, whom he drilled thoroughly 
 
 and accompanied to Springfield, 111. 
 29 
 
450 
 
 GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
 
 He was appointed mustering officer by Governor Yates, of Illinois, 
 
 and later colonel 
 of the 2 1 st Illi- 
 nois Regiment of 
 Infantry. This 
 regiment he con- 
 ducted to the 
 town of Mexico, 
 Mo., where Gen- 
 eral Pope was 
 stationed, and on 
 July 31, 1 861, was 
 appointed under 
 Pope to the com- 
 mand of three 
 regiments of in- 
 fantry and a sec- 
 tion of artillery. 
 In August he be- 
 came brigadier- 
 general of volun- 
 teers and a few 
 days afterwards 
 was directed to 
 report at St. 
 Louis, where he 
 was placed in 
 command of the 
 District of South- 
 ern Missouri, his 
 headquarters be- 
 ing at Cairo. During the remainder of the year he was engaged in an 
 expedition against Colonel Jeff. Thompson's Confederate forces and in 
 
GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
 
 451 
 
 endeavors to suppress efforts at secession in Kentucky. Early in the 
 following year, 1862, he conceived the plan of capturing Forts Henry and 
 Donelson by the combined efforts of troops and gunboats. General 
 Halleck, to whom he applied, however, slighted his plan, and it was only 
 after urgent application and repeated suggestion that he was enabled to 
 carry it out. 
 
 On the first of February, however, his expedition started, and, with 
 the capture of Fort Henry and later of Fort Donelson, after several days 
 of desperate fighting in harsh weather, the name of General Grant was 
 borne on the clarion note of triumph through every town in the Northern 
 States. This was 
 one of the signal 
 victories of the 
 Civil War, and 
 it was accom- 
 plished with an 
 amount of stra- 
 tegic skill that 
 might well com- 
 mand the ad- 
 miration even of 
 his foes. He was 
 
 at this time made major-general, a promotion of which he was very 
 shortly afterwards deprived for pushing forward without orders from his 
 superiors in command. On this account he was also compelled to remain 
 at Fort Henry ; but on March 13 his services were again required at 
 Corinth. General Grant considerably strengthened the forces there, and 
 immediately after the battle of Corinth turned his attention towards 
 Vicksburg, with the purpose of capturing it. He started on this expedi- 
 tion on November 3, and through all the winter and spring toiled against 
 obstacles greater than he had ever encountered before, and under the most 
 disadvantageous circumstances, with the eventful siege of Vicksburg the 
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 GRANT'S HEADQUARTERS NEAR FORT DONELSON, 
 
452 
 
 GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
 
 In this campaign he was materially assisted by General Sherman. 
 After a series of minor victories, General Grant was enabled at last on 
 May 1 8 to close his forces about the outworks of Vicksburg and drive 
 the enemy within. He had a force of 71,000 men to conduct the siege 
 and protect himself from General Johnston's army attacking him in the 
 rear. His lines, therefore, were pushed closer and closer, and General 
 Pemberton, commander of the Confederate troops within the city, at 
 
 length asked for an armistice. 
 General Grant's reply, however, 
 was, "Unconditional surrender," 
 and on July 4th the city was 
 his. This surrender, with that 
 of Port Hudson later, opened 
 the Mississippi to the Gulf. In 
 recognition of these services 
 General Grant was made major- 
 general in the regular army, 
 p and was presented with a gold 
 medal by Congress, together 
 with a formal expression of 
 thanks to him and his army. 
 
 In October he was placed in 
 command of the departments of 
 the armies of the Tennessee, 
 the Cumberland and the Ohio. After service in this command during 
 the winter he was called to Washington in March, and received from 
 the President his commission as lieutenant-general, this rank having 
 been revived by act of Congress during February. He was also placed 
 in command of all armies, and established his headquarters at Culpepper, 
 Va., with the Army of the Potomac, in the latter part of the month. 
 General Grant, now fully in command, determined to organize a sys- 
 tematic and combined movement against the Confederate forces. 
 
 His idea was to form the National forces into several distinct 
 
 ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
 
GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
 
 453 
 
 armies, these to act at the same tim 2 against the Confederate force oppo- 
 sing them, and to continue vigorous action so as to prevent any detach- 
 ments on the part of the enemy for relief or raiding purposes. This 
 policy was pursued as steadfastly as possible, with the assistance of 
 Generals Sherman, Sigel, Sheridan and others, in various quarters, Gen- 
 eral Grant remaining with the Army of the Potomac and directing his 
 forces chiefly against General Lee. Sherman conducted his triumphant 
 march to the sea with the purpose in mind of joining the Army of the 
 Potomac later. This, it had been first determined, should be accomplished 
 by transporting 
 Sherman's army 
 by sea to Vir- 
 ginia ; but this 
 plan was given 
 up, and the de- 
 termination was 
 formed of march- 
 ing north by 
 land. Sheridan 
 then marched 
 through the Val- 
 ley of Virginia, grant writing dispatches before crossing the rapidan. 
 defeating Early and scattering the forces under his command ; then, 
 turning toward the East, he turned round the north of Richmond and 
 joined the Army of the Potomac. Grant was then ready for his final 
 campaign. President Lincoln visited him at City Point, where he was 
 then stationed, and held a conference with him, in which Sherman and 
 Admiral Porter also participated. Sherman then rejoined his army, 
 the President returned to Washington, and the great campaign began 
 for which General Grant had long been planning, and which ended in 
 Lee's surrender at Appomattox, in April, 1865. 
 
 Immediately after the close of the war General Grant hastened to 
 Washington to stop the further manufacture and purchase of war 
 
454 
 
GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT. 455 
 
 materials. In the months that followed the enthusiastic greetings to 
 General Grant knew no bounds. Wherever he went he was feted and 
 hailed throughout the Northern States as the hero of the Civil War. 
 Congress also, in July, 1866, created the grade of general, a higher rank 
 than had before existed in the army, and General Grant received his 
 commission for this rank as a reward for his faithful and worthy service. 
 In 1868 he was unanimously nominated by the Republican Convention 
 at Chicago as a candidate for the presidency and defeated the Democratic 
 candidate, Horatio Seymour, receiving 214 electoral votes to 80 for his 
 opponent. His renomination in 1872 secured for him 286 electoral 
 votes to 66 for Mr. Greeley, after a canvass marked for its exciting and 
 aggressive character, and abounding in personal abuse on both sides. 
 
 TRIUMPHAL TRIP AROUND THE WORLD, 
 
 On retiring from his second administration; General Grant deter- 
 mined to visit the countries of the Old World, and sailed for England on 
 the 17th of May, 1877. The distinguished concourse of men that assem- 
 bled to see him depart formed only the first of a long series of public 
 tributes which greeted him at every point during his travels. From 
 royalty of all nations he received honors rarely bestowed on the most 
 distinguished of their own people, and his trip around the globe was 
 one continued pageant, representing on every hand the most enthusiastic 
 manifestations of welcome. At the Republican Convention of 1880 his 
 name was again presented as a candidate for the presidency, and, but for 
 the traditional sentiment against a third presidential term, it may fairly 
 be believed that his nomination would have been secured. 
 
 In 1881 General Grant settled in New York City, spending his sum- 
 mers at Long Branch. He had hitherto had neither the leisure nor the 
 inclination for literary work, his only effort in this line having been a 
 vindication of General Fitz-John Porter in the North American Review ; 
 but in 1884, when he was somewhat straitened in circumstances on 
 account of the great losses incurred by reason of his unfortunate connec- 
 tion with Ferdinand Ward, he was engaged to write a series of articles 
 
456 GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
 
 on the war of the rebellion for the Centnry Magazine, treating of his 
 
 principal campaigns. 
 
 This led to his purpose of writing a complete work comprising his 
 
 personal memoirs- — a work upon which he was engaged up to the time of 
 
 his death, and which has had since an enormous sale. During the summer 
 
 of 1884 the first symptoms of the disease which finally proved fatal made 
 
 their appearance. He struggled bravely through the year, hastening 
 
 the preparation of his work, setting himself in the face of great bodily 
 
 suffering to complete the volume, the sale of which was to provide for 
 
 his family. In June, 1885, he was removed to Mount McGregor, near 
 
 Saratoga, where he lived for five weeks, immediately surrounded by his 
 
 family and closer friends, and the centre of a greater circle of a nation 
 
 and world of sympathetic watchers. His work was completed but a few 
 
 days, when, on July 23, 1885, he passed away, and the sombre shadow 
 
 of death fell across a name high on the honor roll of our national 
 
 heroes. 
 
 AN EXAMPLE OF TRUE NOBILITY. 
 
 General Grant was a modest, unassuming man, and these are the 
 characteristics of true greatness. Bombast and pretense were foreign to 
 his nature. Reared in humble life and unknown until our Civil War 
 broke out, he never forgot his early circumstances and surroundings. 
 He was a plain man, a rebuke to proud, self-conceited, airy men who 
 have wonderful opinions of their own superiority and expect you to 
 worship them accordingly. 
 
 It is remarkable that a poor, unknown and modest citizen should 
 have risen so rapidly to the highest position in the army and nation. It 
 shows military genius of the most brilliant order. Persistency and per- 
 severance were his marked qualities, and these are good for young or 
 old, and are the sureties of that success we are all seeking. 
 
gStessrQ 
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 BRILLIANT LEADER OF THE " ROUGH RIDERS " 
 IN OUR WAR WITH SPAIN — SUPERB HEROISM 
 AT THE BATTLE OF SAN JUAN — PERSONAL 
 CHARACTERISTICS — ADMIRED BY THE 
 MASSES — ACHIEVEMENTS AS PRESIDENT. 
 
 Presidents die, but our government continues with unimpaired vital- 
 ity. Stocks fall, but values remain. The government of this Republic 
 is based on the bedrock of the constitution, and has in it, we fondly hope, 
 the principle of immortality. A stricken nation wept for its beloved 
 President, William McKinley, but its grief had in it no element of serious 
 doubt or apprehension for the future. There was no interregnum. Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt was President of the United States. 
 
 No man ever came to the president's office so young as he, but for 
 twenty years he had been in the public eye. He had had more political 
 experience and had been more in touch with public events than a large 
 number of our presidents previous to their inauguration. He had been 
 all his life a student of our history and of public questions. He is a man 
 of high standards and strong convictions and intense patriotism. 
 
 His impetuous zeal and earnestness in whatever he undertakes has 
 been heretofore one of the main sources of his strength and political 
 success. Tempered and sobered by the grave responsibilities of his new 
 position, these qualities, wisely directed, will make his administration a 
 power for good, full of solid achievement that makes for the peace and 
 happiness of the people. While, therefore, the nation mourned with 
 unaffected grief for our beloved and honored president, William McKinley, 
 
 457 
 
458 
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 there was no cause for alarm or uneasiness for the future. In the lan- 
 guage of President McKinley, in one of his public addresses, "The 
 structure of the fathers stands secure upon the foundations on which they 
 raised it, and is to-day. as it has been in the years past, and as it will be 
 in the years to come, the Government of the people, by the people, for the 
 people. Be not disturbed. There is no fear for the Republic." 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt was born in New York city on October 27, 1858, 
 
 and comes from a family that 
 for generations has been noted 
 for its wealth, social position, 
 high intelligence, disinter- 
 ested public spirit, general 
 usefulness and philanthropy. 
 The part acted by Presi- 
 dent Roosevelt in our war 
 with Spain gave him great 
 prominence and showed the 
 sterling characteristics of the 
 man. General Wheeler's offi- 
 cial account of the first battle 
 at Santiago, officially known 
 as the battle of Sibony, or La 
 Quasina, thus refers to the 
 famous Rough Rider: 
 
 "Colonel Wood's regi- 
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. ment was Qn the extreme left 
 
 of the line and too far distant from me to be a witness of the individual 
 conduct of the officers and men ; but the magnificent bravery shown by the 
 regiment under the lead of Colonel Wood testifies to his courage and skill 
 and the energy and determination of his officers, which have been marked 
 from the moment he reported to me at Tampa, Fla., and I have abundant 
 evidence of his brave and good conduct on the field, and I recommend 
 him for the consideration of the Government. I must rely upon his report 
 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 459 
 
 to do justice to his officers and men, but I desire personally to add that 
 all I have said regarding Colonel Wood applies equally to Colonel 
 Roosevelt. 
 
 "I was immediately with the troops of the first and tenth regular 
 cavalry, dismounted, and I personally noticed their brave and good con- 
 duct, which will be specially mentioned by General Young." 
 
 "There must have been nearly fifteen hundred Spaniards in front 
 and to the sides of us," said Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt just after the 
 fight. "They held the ridges with the rifle pits and machine guns, and 
 hid a body of men in ambush in the thick jungle at the sides of the road 
 over which we were advancing. Our advance guard struck the men in 
 ambush and drove them out. But they lost Captain Capron, Lieutenant 
 Thomas, and about fifteen men killed or wounded. 
 
 FIRING THAT WAS ACCURATE AND HEAVY. 
 
 " The Spa.ni.sh firing was accurate, so accurate indeed that it sur- 
 prised me, and their firing was fearfully heavy. I want to say a word 
 for our own men," continued Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt. " Every 
 officer and man did his duty up to the handle. Not a man flinched." 
 
 From another officer who took a prominent part in the fighting, 
 more details were obtained. " When the firing began," said he, "Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel Roosevelt took the right wing with Troops G and K, 
 under Captains Llewelyn and Jenkins, and moved to the support of 
 Captain Capron, who was getting it hard. At the same time, Colonel 
 Wood and Major Brodie took the left wing and advanced in open order 
 on the Spanish right wing. Major Brodie was wounded before the troops 
 had advanced one hundred yards. Colonel Wood then took the right 
 wing and shifted Colonel Roosevelt to the left. 
 
 " In the meantime, the firing of the Spaniards had increased in 
 volume ; but, notwithstanding this,' an order for a general charge was 
 given, and with a yell the men sprang forward. Colonel Roosevelt, in 
 front of his men, snatched a rifle and ammunition belt from a wounded 
 soldier, and cheering and yelling with his men, led the advance. In a 
 
460 
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 moment the bullets were singing like a swarm of bees all aronnd them, 
 and ev u ry instant some poor fellow went down. On the right wing Cap- 
 tain M Clintock had his leg broken by a bullet from a machine gun, while 
 
 PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT AS A HUNTER IN HIS YOUNGER DAYS 
 
 four of his men went down. At the same time, Captain Luna, of Troop 
 F, lost nine of his men. Then the reserves, Troops K and E, were 
 ordered up. 
 
 " There was no more hesitation. Colonel Wood, with the right 
 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 401 
 
 wing, charged straight at a block-house eight hundred yards away, and 
 Colonel Roosevelt, on the left, charged at the same time. Up the men 
 went, yelling like fiends, never stopping to return the fire of the Spaniards, 
 but keeping on with a grim determination to capture the block-house. 
 "That charge was the end. When within five hundred yards of the 
 
 COLONEL ROOSEVELT AND TWO TROOPERS OF THE ROUGH RIDERS. 
 
 coveted point, the Spaniards broke and ran, and for the first time we had. 
 the pleasure, which the Spaniards had been experiencing all through 
 the engagement, of shooting with the enemy in sight." 
 
 Said an officer of high rank : "I cannot speak too highly of Colonel 
 Theodore Roosevelt. He is every inch a fighter, and led a charge of 
 dismounted cavalry against men in pits at San Juan successfully. It was 
 
4G2 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 a wonderful charge, and showed Roosevelt's grit. I was not there, but 
 I have been told of it repeatedly by those who saw him on the hill." 
 
 Two reports made by Colonel Roosevelt to his superior officer in 
 front of Santiago in July were given ont by the War Department at 
 Washington, December 22, 1898. Both reports describe the operations 
 of the Rough Riders in the battle of San Juan. 
 
 In his first report, dated July 4th, he mentions by name many of 
 the troopers who distinguished themselves by their bravery. This part 
 of the report, which was made by Roosevelt, as lieutenant-colonel in 
 charge of the regiment, to Colonel Wood, temporarily in charge of the 
 brigade, gave well-merited praise to our gallant soldiers. 
 
 NOMINATED FOR VICE-PRESIDENT. 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt was the most conspicuous hero of our war with 
 Spain. Upon his return he was elected Governor of the State of New 
 York. In this responsible office he exhibited the same robust qualities 
 and decision of character that had distinguished him through all his 
 public career. Against his own protests he was nominated, in 1900, for 
 the office of Vice-President and was, with Mr. McKinley, elected by a 
 large majority. 
 
 In the nominating convention, Colonel Young, of Iowa, presented 
 his name and spoke as follows : 
 
 " On the ship Yucatan was that famons regiment of Rough Riders 
 of the far West and the Mississippi Valley (applause). In command of 
 that regiment was that fearless young American, student, scholar, 
 plainsman, reviewer, historian, statesman, soldier, of the middle West by 
 adoption, of New York by birth. That fleet sailed around the point, 
 coming to the place of landing, stood off the harbor, two years ago 
 to-morrow, and the navy bombarded that shore to make a place for land- 
 ing, and no man who lives who was in that campaign as an officer, as a 
 soldier, or as a camp follower, can fail to recall the spectacle ; and, if he 
 closes his eyes he sees the awful scenes in that campaign in June and 
 July, 1898. 
 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 4G3 
 
 u And the leader of that campaign of one of those regiments shall 
 be the name that T shall place before the Convention for the office of 
 Vice-President of the United Slates (applause). 
 
 " Now, gentlemen of the Convention, I place before yon this distin- 
 guished leader of Republicanism of the United States ; this leader of the 
 aspirations of the people whose hearts are right, and this leader of the 
 aspirations of the yonng men of this country. Their hearts and con- 
 sciences are with this yonng leader, whom I shall name for the Vice- 
 
 "i'Mi^ ;.:.-■--.. 
 
 OBVERSE. 
 
 ->'- .;<-"• z 
 
 REVERSE. 
 
 MASONIC MEDALLION OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, PRESENTED TO PRESIDFNT ROOSEVELT AT 
 CELEBRATION OF THE 150th ANNIVERSARY OF WASHINGTON'S INITIATION AS A MASON. 
 
 Presidency of the United States — Theodore Roosevelt, of New York." 
 (Loud cheering.) 
 
 When the roll of States was called, it is needless to say every delegate 
 voted for Roosevelt with one exception, and that was himself. A dem- 
 onstration of the wildest and most enthusiastic character, and lasting 
 half an hour, followed the announcement that Roosevelt was the nomi- 
 nee for Vice-President. Palms were waved, the standards of the various 
 delegations were hurried to the platform, the band attempted to make 
 itself heard amid the loud acclaim, processions of excited, cheering dele- 
 gates marched up and down the aisles, and the popular New York Gov- 
 ernor was congratulated by as many as could get within reach of him. 
 
 The tragic scenes attending the death of President McKinley will 
 ever remain in the memory of the present generation. Mr. Roosevelt 
 
464 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 was suddenly called to take the reins of our national government. 
 He reassured the people at once by stating it would be His aim to 
 pursue absolutely unbroken the line of public policies which President 
 McKiuley had marked out for the republic. 
 
 President Roosevelt's administration has been signalized by 
 several important measures, which have proved his sturdy character 
 and brilliant statesmanship. His action in settling the great coal strike 
 of 1902 was a masterly piece of business. After long and patient efforts 
 he succeeded in bringing the miners and operators together. He con- 
 tinued his negotiations for a settlement, and on October 14, induced the 
 operators to submit the whole matter to a Commission, which was 
 appointed by the President. With the most consummate tact and wise 
 proceedings the great strike was brought to a successful termination, and 
 the most threatening and gigantic industrial war of recent years was 
 ended to the satisfaction of all parties concerned. 
 
 THE QUALITIES OF NOBLE MANHOOD. 
 
 Trouble arose between the European Powers and Venezuela con- 
 cerning claims made by the former, and President Roosevelt was urged 
 to act as arbitrator. He wisely decided to take no part in the con- 
 troversy, and at his suggestion it was referred to the tribunal of the 
 Hague. He urged upon Congress, and succeeded in having passed a 
 bill for the construction of the Panama Canal. 
 
 From his example let all young persons learn the value of high 
 aims, hard work, conscientious endeavor, and a warm and generous 
 nature. Let them also learn that clean living, honesty of purpose and 
 self-reliance must be found in the make-up of every great character. 
 For these reasons the plain people believe in him. They know he is 
 more than a mere politician. His enthusiastic devotion to duty, and 
 the opportunities to show it, are what make him a hero. 
 
DU CHAILLU, LIVINGSTONE 
 AND STANLEY. 
 
 MARVELLOUS DISCOVERIES IN THE TROPICS 
 — NATIVE TRIBES — ADVENTURES OF 
 WORLD-RENOWNED EXPLORERS — LIGHT 
 ON THE DARK CONTINENT. 
 
 Paul Du Chaillu, an American by birth, but a Frenchman by 
 parentage, between 1856 and 1859, traversed the regions of Africa on the 
 line of the equator, and made scientific discoveries of great importance. 
 
 A second journey, in which Ashango Land was visited, and the 
 most westerly buttresses examined of the great mountain range supposed 
 to divide the continent of Africa nearly along the line of the equator, 
 was also fruitful of results, and the two expeditions may be looked upon 
 as steps towards the realization of that dream of the present age, the 
 connection of the eastern and western coasts of Central Africa, a dream 
 now become almost a waking reality by the conclusion of Stanley's 
 world-famous journeys. 
 
 Du Chaillu, whose expenses were paid by a Philadelphia scientific 
 
 society, arrived at the mouth of the Gaboon River, already dotted with 
 
 missionary settlements, early in 1856, having, in several years' residence 
 
 on the coast as a trader, acquired considerable experience in dealing 
 
 with the Mpongwes, the chief native tribe of the coast districts. Being 
 
 anxious to harden himself to the climate of the interior, so often fatal to 
 
 the white man, he took up his quarters at Baraka, eight miles up the 
 
 river, the station of an American mission founded about 1842. Here 
 
 our hero was most hospitably entertained, and the early part of his 
 30 465 
 
466 PAUL DU CHAILLU. 
 
 narrative is occupied in describing the results already achieved by tlie 
 little band of Christian teachers there at work, who devoted most of their 
 time to the instruction of the children, teaching them to read the Scrip- 
 tures in their own language, and to master the first principles of geog. 
 raphy and arithmetic. They hoped, by these means, gradually to 
 change the whole character of the Mpongwe race, many members of 
 which have good intellectual ability. 
 
 He spent four years exploring the region, two degrees on each 
 side of the equator, making many interesting discoveries and traveling 
 about 8000 miles, always on foot, and unaccompanied by white men. 
 The results of his travels excited uncommon interest, not only in the 
 scientific world, but among all classes of intelligent readers. A work 
 published on his explorations contained important contributions to geog- 
 raphy, the African tribes and the animals of the " Dark Continent." 
 
 DISCOVERED ANIMALS AND BIRDS. 
 
 His contributions to zoology related mainly to the gorilla and other 
 large apes. He shot more than 2000 birds, 60 of which were previously 
 unknown, and killed over 1000 quadrupeds. The latter were such as 
 live in the forests and jungles of Africa, some specimens of which have 
 been shown in our own country. His account of his travels seemed to 
 many persons incredible, and was sharply criticised, some of the critics 
 maintaining that the whole story was a myth, and was concocted to gull 
 the public. Especially was there incredulity concerning his descriptions 
 of the gorilla in his native haunts. 
 
 Du Chaillu's credit and veracity were, however, maintained by some 
 men of the highest eminence, and particularly by Sir Roderick Murchi- 
 son and Professor Owen. The substantial accuracy of his statements 
 was soon confirmed by a French expedition which explored the Ogoway 
 River, and vindicated the truthfulness of the great explorer's statements. 
 
 On his several journeys and the discoveries he made, Du Chaillu 
 published a number of works, one of the best known and most fascinat- 
 ing being " The Land of the Midnight Sun." The interest in his explo- 
 
PAUL DU CHAILLU. 407 
 
 rations centres chiefly in the gorilla, and we here append his graphic 
 
 account of a combat with that monster of the forest. The reader will 
 
 bear in mind that when he first returned to this country he brought with 
 
 him complete specimens, male and female, both skins and skeletons, in 
 
 excellent preservation. He was the first white man who killed a gorilla 
 
 with his own hand, or who had an opportunity to study its habits in its 
 
 native forests. 
 
 The adult male is from five to six feet high, though after death it 
 
 may be stretched beyond this. It far surpasses man in the dimensions 
 
 of the head, neck, body and arms and in the width of the shoulders : 
 
 some are said to measure from seven to nine feet from the end of one 
 
 outstretched hand to that of the other. It is principally an inhabitant 
 
 of the woods. Its favorite mode of progression is on all fours. When it 
 
 assumes the erect posture it flexes the arms upward or crosses them on 
 
 the nape in order to counterbalance the tendency of the trunk to fall 
 
 forward. 
 
 ENORMOUS JAWS OF GREAT STRENGTH. 
 
 Its strength is enormous not only in the jaws, which can crush the 
 barrel of a musket, but in the hands and feet, which it uses in attack and 
 defence. The males are very ferocious, generally attacking man and 
 animal intruding upon their haunts. If wounded the gorilla is more 
 terrible than the lion. They advance on the enemy in an erect position, 
 a few steps at a time, beating their breasts with both hands and roaring 
 terribly. When near enough they spring upon him and destroy him with 
 their powerful hands. Few monsters that roam the forest are furnished 
 with such powerful means of defence, or use them so savagely. It is 
 next to impossible to capture the full-grown gorilla alive. If, however, 
 the old ones can be despatched, the young gorilla can be taken. 
 
 The great gorilla, as slain by Du Chaillu — and he shot several large 
 males — did not, in any case, appear to die hard ; but it must be remem- 
 bered that he allowed the beast to get close upon him before he gave him 
 the fatal shot. It is, he says, a maxim with the well-trained gorilla hun- 
 ters to reserve their fire till the very last moment. Experience has shown 
 
468 PAUL DU CHAILLU. 
 
 them that — whether the enraged beast takes the report of the gun for an 
 answering defiance, or for what other reason unknown — if the hunter 
 fires and misses, the gorilla at once rushes upon him ; and this onset no 
 man can withstand. 
 
 One blow of that huge paw with its nails, and the poor hunter's 
 entrails are torn out, his breast-bone broken, or his skull crushed. It is 
 too late to re-load, and flight is vain. No animal is so fatal in its attack 
 on man as this, for the reason that it meets him face to face, and uses 
 its arms as its weapons of offence, just as a man or a prize fighter would — 
 only that it has longer arms, and vastly greater strength than the strong- 
 est boxer the world ever saw. " In all my hunts," says Du Chaillu, 
 "and encounters with this animal, I never knew a grown male to run off. 
 
 WAITING FOR A CHANCE TO FIRE. 
 
 " The hunter, looking with fearful care to his priming, stands still, 
 gun in hand, often for five weary minutes, waiting with growing ner- 
 vousness for the moment when he may relieve his suspense by firing. I 
 have never fired at a male at greater distance than eight yards, and from 
 fourteen to eighteen feet is the usual shot. At last the opportunity 
 comes ; and now the gun is quickly raised, a moment's anxious aim at 
 the vast breadth of breast, and then pull trigger. Fortunately, the gorilla 
 dies as easily as man ; a shot in the breast, if fairly delivered, is sure to 
 bring him down. He falls forward on his face, his long, muscular arms 
 outstretched, and uttering with his last breath a hideous death-cry, hall 
 roar, half shriek, which, while it announces to the hunter his safety, yet 
 tingles his ears with a dreadful note of human agony." 
 
 In his attack, at least upon man as his adversary, the male gorilla 
 has a mode of doing it that is very peculiar ; and if correct, as described 
 by Du Chaillu, it has the stamp of being remarkably uniform among 
 the species. The similarity of manner taken by several of these male 
 beasts, in going to the encounter, is quite surprising, since it looks like 
 the result of some drill, which these animals had previously put into 
 practice by concert. But the gorilla's brain warrants no such supposi- 
 
 
PAUL DU CHAILLU. 
 
 469 
 
 tion ; and his conduct, general and particular, gives proof of the presence 
 of only a slender amount of intelligence. "The corresponding small 
 amount of brain/' says Du Chaillu, "in the male gorilla, and the exces- 
 sive preponderance of the cerebellum or back brain, with its enormous' 
 strength, would seem 
 to corroborate our 
 opinion of the exces- 
 sive brutality of this 
 beast." How then, 
 is the uniformity of 
 the operation to be 
 accounted for ? Is it 
 in any way instinc- 
 tive? Here, however, 
 the oddly offensive 
 attitude put on by 
 the gorilla while en- 
 tering the scene of 
 conflict shall speak 
 for itself. 
 
 One day, after 
 traveling some hours 
 in search of the great 
 ape, Du Chaillu tells 
 us he found his first 
 gorilla in a dense and 
 impenetrable part of 
 the forest. "Sud- encounter with a gorilla. 
 
 denly Miengai, a native, uttered a little cluck with his tongue. Imme- 
 diately I noticed a noise, as of some one breaking down branches or 
 twigs of trees. This was the gorilla, I knew at once, by the eager and 
 satisfied looks of the men. We walked with the greatest care, making 
 no noise at all. The countenances of the men showed that they thought 
 
470 PAUL DU CHAILLU. 
 
 themselves engaged in a very serions undertaking. Suddenly as we 
 were creeping along, in a silence which made a heavy breath seem loud 
 and distinct, the woods were at once filled with the tremendous barking 
 roar of the gorilla. 
 
 "Then the underbrush swayed rapidly just ahead, and presently 
 before us stood an immense male gorilla. He had gone through the 
 jungle on his all-fours ; but when he saw our party he erected himself, 
 and looked us boldly in the face. He stood about a dozen yards from 
 us, and was a sight I think I shall never forget. Nearly six feet high, 
 with immense body, huge chest, and great muscular arms, with fiercely 
 glaring large deep gray eyes, and a hellish expression of face, which 
 seemed to me like some nightmare vision ; thus stood before us the king 
 of the African forest, a terrible creature to look at. 
 
 BREAST RESOUNDED LIKE A BASS DRUM. 
 
 a He was not afraid of us. He stood there, and beat his breast with 
 his huge fists till it resounded like an immense bass drum, which is 
 their mode of offering defiance ; meantime giving vent to roar after roar. 
 The roar of the gorilla is the most singular and awful noise heard in 
 these African woods, and closely resembles the roll of distant thunder 
 along the sky. 
 
 " His eyes began to flash fiercer fire as we stood motionless on the 
 defensive, and the crest of short hair which stands on his forehead began 
 to twitch rapidly up and down, while his powerful fangs were shown 
 as he again sent forth a thunderous roar. And now, truly, he reminded 
 me of nothing but some hellish dream-creature — a being of that hideous 
 order, half man, half beast, which we find pictured by old artists in some 
 representations of the infernal regions. He advanced a few steps — then 
 stopped to utter that hideous roar again — advanced again, and finalh 
 stopped when at a distance of about six yards from us. And here, just 
 as he began another of his roars, beating his breast in rage, we fired, and 
 killed him. 
 
 " With a groan, which had something terribly human in it, and yet 
 
PAUL 1)U CHAILLU. 471 
 
 was full of brutishness, he fell forward on his face. The body shook con- 
 vulsively for a few minutes, the limbs moved about in a struggling way, 
 and then all was quiet — death had done its work, and I had leisure to 
 examine the huge body." 
 
 This gorilla onset, then, is remarkable as being attended by 
 advances, halts, roars, and beatings of the breast, and it is all the more 
 striking since it is not the conduct of an individual alone, for this cele- 
 brated traveler and strongly nerved hunter says, that the others of this 
 species, shot by him, behaved in the very same way. 
 
 Paul Du Chaillu died at St. Petersburg, April 30, 1903. 
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 David Livingstone, missionary and explorer, was born on March 
 19, 1S13, at the village of Blantyre Works, in Lanarkshire, Scotland. 
 David was the second child of his parents Neil Livingston (for so he 
 spelled his name, as did his son for many years) and Agnes Hunter. 
 His parents were poor and self-respecting, typical examples of all that 
 is best among the humbler families of Scotland. 
 
 At the age of ten years, David left the village school for the neigh- 
 boring cotton mill, and by strenuous efforts he qualified himself at the 
 age of twenty-three to undertake a college curriculum. He attended 
 for two sessions the medical and the Greek classes in Anderson's Col- 
 lege, and also a theological class. In September, 1838, he went up to 
 London, and was accepted by the London Missionary Society as a 
 candidate. During the next two years he resided mostty in London, 
 diligently attending medical and science classes, and spending part of 
 his time with the Rev. Mr. Cecil, at Ongar in Essex, studying theology 
 and learning to preach. He took his medical degree in the Faculty of 
 Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow in November, 1840. 
 
 Livingstone had from the first set his heart on China, and it was a 
 great disappointment to him that the Society finally decided to send him 
 to Africa. To an exterior in these early years somewhat heavy and 
 uncouth, he united a manner which, by imiversal testimony, was irresist- 
 
472 
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 ibly winning, with a fnnd of genuine but simple Humor and fun that 
 would break out on the most unlikely occasions, and in after years 
 enabled him to overcome difficulties and mellow refractory chiefs when 
 all other methods failed. 
 
 Livingstone sailed from England on December 8, 1840. From Algoa 
 Bay he made direct for Kuruman the mission station, 700 miles north, 
 
 DR. DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 established by Hamilton and Moffat thirty years before, and there be 
 arrived on July 31, 1841. The next two years Livingstone spent in 
 traveling about the country to the northward, in search of a suitable 
 outpost for settlement. During these two years he had already become 
 convinced that the success of the white missionary in a field like Africa 
 is not to be reckoned by the tale of doubtful conversions he can send 
 home each year, — that the proper work for such men was that of 
 
DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 473 
 
 pioneering, opening up and starting new ground, leaving native agents 
 to work it out in detail. 
 
 The whole of his subsequent career was a development of this idea. 
 He selected the valley of Mabotsa, on one of the sources of the Lim- 
 popo river, 200 miles northeast of Kuruman, as his first station. It was 
 shortly after his settlement here that he was attacked by a lion which 
 crushed his left arm, and nearly put an end to his career. The arm was 
 imperfectly set, and it was a source of trouble to him at times through- 
 out his life, and was the means of identifyng his body after his death. 
 To a house, mainly built by himself at Mabotsa, Livingstone, in 1844, 
 brought home his wife, Mary Moffat, the daughter of Moffat of Kuru- 
 man. Here he labored till 1846, when he removed to Chonuane, 40 
 miles further north, the chief place of the Backwain tribe under 
 
 Sechele. 
 
 WHOLE TRIBE FOLLOW THEIR MISSIONARY. 
 
 In 1847, h e a g a i n removed to Kolobeng, about 40 miles westward, 
 the whole tribe following their missionary. With the help of and in the 
 company of two English sportsmen, Mr. Oswell and Mr. Murray, he was 
 able to undertake a journey of great importance to Lake Ngami, which 
 had never yet been seen by a white man. Crossing the Kalahari Desert, 
 of which Livingstone gave the first detailed account, they reached the 
 lake on August 1, 1849. In April next year, he made an attempt to 
 reach Sebituane, who lived 200 miles beyond the lake, this time in com- 
 pany with his wife and children, but again got no further than the lake, 
 as the children were seized with fever. A year later, April, 185 1, Living- 
 stone, again accompanied by his family and Mr. Oswell, set out, this 
 time with the intention of settling among the Makololo for a period. 
 
 At last he succeeded and reached the Chobe, a southern tributary 
 of the Zambesi, and in the end of June discovered the Zambesi itself 
 at the town of Sesheke. Leaving the Chobe on August 13, the party 
 reached Capetown in April, 1852. Livingstone may now be said to have 
 completed the first period of his career in Africa, the period in which 
 the work of the missionary had the greatest prominence. Henceforth 
 
474 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 he appears more in the character of an explorer, bnt it mnst be remem- 
 bered that he regarded himself to the last as a pioneer missionary, whose 
 work was to open np the country to others. 
 
 Having, with a sad heart, seen his family off to England, Living- 
 stone left the Cape on Jnne 8, 1852, and reached Linyanti, the capital 
 of the Makololo, on the Chobe, on May 23, 1853, was received in royal style 
 by Sekeletu, and welcomed by all the people. His first object in this 
 jonrney was to seek for some healthy high land in which to plant a 
 station. Ascending the Zambesi, he, however, found no place free from 
 the destructive tsetse insect, and therefore resolved to discover a route to 
 the interior from either the west or east coast. To accompany Living- 
 stone in his hazardous undertaking twenty-seven men were selected from 
 the various tribes under Sekeletu, partly with a view to open up a trade 
 route between their own country and the coast. 
 
 PUSHING ON INTO THE INTERIOR. 
 
 The start was made from Linyanti on November 11, 1853, and, by 
 ascending the Leeba, Lake Dilolo was reached on February 20, 1854. 
 On April 4th the Coango was crossed, and on May 31st the town of 
 Loanda was entered, much to the joy of the men, — their leader, how- 
 ever, being all but dead from fever, semi-starvation, and dysentery. 
 Livingstone speaks in the warmest terms of the generosity of the Por- 
 tuguese merchants and officials. From Loanda Livingstone sent his 
 astronomical observations to Maclear at the Cape, and an account of his 
 journey to the Royal Geographical Society, which in May, 1855, awarded 
 him its highest honor, its gold medal. Loanda was left on September 
 20, 1854, but Livingstone lingered long about the Portuguese settle- 
 ments. Making a slight detour to the north to Cabango, the party 
 reached Lake Dilolo on June 13th. 
 
 Here Livingstone made a careful study of the watershed of the coun- 
 try in what is perhaps the most complicated river system in the world. 
 He "now for the first time apprehended the true form of the river sys- 
 tems and the continent," and the conclusions he came to have been 
 
DAVID LIVINGSTONK. 475 
 
 esseutiallv confirmed by subsequent observations. The return journey 
 from Lake Dilolo was by the same route as that by which the party 
 came. Their reception all along the Barotse valley was an ovation, and 
 Linvanti was reached in the beginning of September. 
 
 For Livingstone's purposes the route to the west was unavailable, 
 and he decided to follow the Zambesi to its mouth. With a numerous 
 following, he left Liny an ti on November 8, 1855. A fortnight after- 
 wards he made the great discovery with which, in popular imagination, 
 his name is more intimately associated than with anything else he did — 
 the famous " Victoria" falls of the Zambesi, which after a second exam- 
 ination in hi j subsequent journey, he concluded to be due to an immense 
 fissure or fault right across the bed of the river, which was one means 
 of draining off the waters of the great lake that he supposed must have 
 at one lime occupied the centre of the continent. 
 
 REMARKABLE TROPICAL JOURNEY. 
 
 He had already formed a true idea of the configuration of the conti- 
 nent as a great hollow or basin-shaped plateau, surrounded by a ring of 
 mountains. Livingstone reached the Portuguese settlement of Tette on 
 March 2, 1856, in a very emaciated condition, and after six weeks, left 
 his men well cared for, and proceeded to Kilimane, where he arrived on 
 May 20, thus having completed in two years and six months one of the most 
 remarkable and fruitful journeys on record. The results in geography 
 and in natural science in all its departments were abundant and accurate ; 
 his observations necessitated a reconstruction of the map of Central 
 Africa. Men of the highest eminence in all departments of science tes- 
 tified to the high value of Livingstone's work. 
 
 In later years, it is true, the Portuguese, embittered by his unsparing 
 denunciations of their traffic in slaves, attempted to depreciate his work, 
 and to maintain that much of it had already been done by Portuguese 
 explorers. When Livingstone began his work in Africa it was virtually 
 a blank from Kuruman to Timbuctoo, and nothing but envy or igno- 
 rance can throw any doubt on the originality of his discoveries. 
 
476 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 On December 12, he arrived in England, after an absence of sixteen 
 years, and met everywhere with the welcome of a hero. He told his 
 story in his " Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa," with 
 straightforward simplicity, and with no effort after literary style, and no 
 apparent consciousness that he had done anything extraordinary. Its 
 publication brought what he would have considered a competency had 
 he felt himself at liberty to settle down for life. In 1858 he severed his 
 connection with the London Missionary Society, with whom, however, 
 he always remained on the best of terms, and in February, 1858, he 
 accepted the appointment of " Her Majesty's consul at Kilimane for the 
 eastern coast and the independent districts in the interior, and com- 
 mander of an expedition for exploring Eastern and Central Africa." 
 
 GREAT ZAMBESI EXPEDITION. 
 
 The Zambesi expedition, of which Livingstone thus became com- 
 mander, sailed from Liverpool in the government ship Pearl, on 
 March 10, 1858, and reached the mouth of the Zambesi on May 14, and 
 the party ascended the river from the Kongone mouth in a steam launch, 
 the Ma-Robert, reaching Tette on September 8. The remainder of 
 the year was spent in examining the river above Tette, and especially 
 the Kebrabasa rapids. Most of the year 1859 was spent in the explora- 
 tion of the river Shire and Lake Nyassa, which was discovered in Sep- 
 tember ; and much of the year i860 was spent by Livingstone in fulfill- 
 ing his promise to take such of the Makalolo home as cared to go. In 
 January of next year arrived Bishop Mackenzie and a party of mission- 
 aries sent out by the Universities Mission to establish a station on the 
 upper Shire. 
 
 After exploring the river Rovuma for 30 miles in his new vessel, the 
 Pioneer, Livingstone and the missionaries proceeded up the Shire to 
 Chibisa's ; there they found the slave trade rampant, desolating the 
 country and paralyzing all effort. On July 15, Livingstone, accompanied 
 by several native carriers, started to show the bishop the country. 
 Several bands of slaves whom they met were liberated, and after seeing 
 
DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 477 
 
 the missionary party settled in the highlands of Magomero to the sonth 
 of Lake Shirwa, Livingstone spent from August to November in explor- 
 ing Lake Nyassa. While the boat sailed up the west side of the lake 
 to near the north end, the explorer marched along the shore. He returned 
 
 DR. LIVINGSTONE AT WORK ON HIS JOURNAL, 
 more resolved than ever to do his utmost to rouse the civilized world to 
 put down the desolating slave trade. 
 
 On January 30, 1862, at the Zambesi mouth, Livingstone welcomed 
 his wife and the ladies of the mission, with whom were the sections of 
 the Lady Nyassa, a river steamer which Livingstone had had built at 
 his own expense, absorbing most of the profits of his book, and for which 
 he never got any allowance. When the mission ladies reached the mouth 
 of the Ruo tributary of the Shire, they were stunned to hear of the death 
 of the bishop and of Air. Burrup. This was a sad blow to Livingstone, 
 
478 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 seeming to have rendered his efforts to establish a mission futile. A still 
 greater loss to him was that of his wife at Shupanga, on April 27, 1862. 
 The Lady Nyassa was taken to the Rovuma. Up this river 
 Livingstone managed to steam 156 miles, but further progress was 
 arrested by rocks. Returning to the Zambesi in the beginning of 1863, 
 he found that the desolation caused by the slave trade was more horrible 
 and widespread than ever. It was clear that the Portuguese officials were 
 themselves at the bottom of the traffic. Kirk and Charles Livingstone 
 being compelled to return to England on account of their health, the doc- 
 tor resolved once more to visit the lake, and proceeded some distance up 
 the west side and then northwest as far as the watershed that separates 
 the Loangwa from the rivers that run into the lake. 
 
 BACK AGAIN IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Meanwhile *a letter was received from Earl Russell recalling the 
 expedition by the end of the year. In the end of April, 1864, Living- 
 stone reached Zanzibar in the Lady Nyassa, and on the 30th he set 
 out with nine natives and four Europeans for Bombay, which was reached 
 after an adventurous voyage of a month, and on July 23 Livingstone 
 arrived in England, He was naturally disappointed with the results of 
 this expedition, all its leading objects being thwarted through no blame 
 of his. For the unfortunate disagreements which occurred, and for 
 which he was blamed in some quarters, he must be held acquitted, as he 
 was by the authorities at home ; though it is not necessary to maintain 
 that Livingstone was exempt from the trying effects on the temper of 
 African fever, or from the intolerance of lukewarmness which belongs 
 to all exceptionally strong natures. 
 
 Still the results at the time, and especially those of the future, 
 were great. The geographical results, though not in extent to be com- 
 pared to those of his first and his final expeditions, were of high import- 
 ance, as were those in various departments of science. Details will be 
 found in his " Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its Trib- 
 utaries," published in 1865. 
 
DAVID LIVINGSTONK. 479 
 
 By Murchison and his other staunch friends Livingstone was as 
 warmly welcomed as ever. When Murchison proposed to him that he 
 should go out again, although he seems to have had a desire to spend 
 the remainder of his days at home, the prospect was too tempting to be 
 rejected. He was appointed consul to Central Africa without a salary, 
 and Government contributed only $2,500 to the expedition. The chief 
 help came from private friends. During the latter part of the expedition 
 Government granted him $5,000, but that, when helearnedof it, was devoted 
 to his great undertaking. The Geographical Society contributed $2,500. 
 The two main objects of the expedition were the suppression of slavery 
 by means of civilizing influences, and the ascertainment of the watershed 
 in the region between Nyassa and Tangan}dka. 
 
 SEARCHING FOR THE SOURCES OF THE NILE, 
 
 At first Livingstone thought the Nile problem had been all but 
 solved by Speke, Baker, and Burton, but the idea grew upon him that 
 the Nile sources must be sought farther south, and his last journey 
 became, in the end, a forlorn hope in search of the u fountains " of Herod- 
 otus. Leaving England in the middle of August, 1865, Y1SL Bombay, 
 Livingstone arrived at Zanzibar on January 28, 1866. He was landed 
 at the mouth of the Rovuma on March 22, and started for the interior 
 on April 4. His company consisted of thirteen Sepoys, ten Johanna 
 men, nine African boys from Nassick school, Bombay, and four boys 
 from the Shire region, besides camels, buffaloes, mules and donkeys. 
 This imposing outfit soon melted away to four or five boys. 
 
 Rounding the south end of Lake Nyassa, Livingstone struck in a 
 north-northwest direction for the south end of Lake Tanganyika, over 
 country much of which had not previously been explored. The Loangwa 
 was crossed on December 15, and on Christmas day Livingstone lost his 
 four goats, a loss which he felt very keenly, and the medicine chest was 
 stolen in January, 1868. Fever came upon him, and for a time was his 
 almost constant companion ; this, with the fearful dysentery and dreadful 
 ulcers and other ailments which subsequently attacked him, and which 
 
480 
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 "be had no medicine to counteract, no doubt told fatally on even his iron 
 frame. The Chambeze was crossed on January 28, and the south end of 
 Tanganyika reached March 31. 
 
 Here, much to his vexation, he got into the company of Arab slave 
 dealers, by whom his movements were hampered ; but he succeeded in 
 reaching Lake Moero. After visiting Lake Mofwa and the Lualaba, 
 
 STANLEY FINDING LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 which he believed was the upper part of the Nile, he, on July 18, discov- 
 ered Lake Bangweolo. Proceeding up the west coast of Tanganyika, he 
 reached Ujiji on March 14, 1869, u a ruckle of bones." Supplies had 
 been forwarded to him at Ujiji, but had been knavishly made away with 
 by those to whose care they had been entrusted. 
 
 Livingstone recrossed Tanganyika in July, and through the country 
 of the Manyuema he tried in vain, for a whole year, to reach and cross 
 
DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 481 
 
 the Lualaba, baffled partly by the natives, partly by the slave hunters, 
 and partly by his long illnesses. It was, indeed, not till March 29, 
 1 87 1, that he succeeded in reaching the Lualaba, at the town of Nyangwe, 
 where he stayed four months, vainly trying to get a canoe to take him 
 across. It was here that a party of Arab slavers, without warning or 
 provocation, assembled one day when the market was busiest and com- 
 menced shooting down the poor women, hundreds being killed or 
 drowned in trying to escape from the white savages. 
 
 WANTED TO PISTOL THE MURDERERS. 
 
 Livingstone had "the impression that he was in hell," but was help- 
 less, though his " first impulse was to pistol the murderers." The 
 account of this scene which he sent home roused indignation in Eng- 
 land to such a degree as to lead to determined, and to a considerable 
 extent successful, efforts to get the sultan of Zanzibar to suppress the 
 trade. In sickened disgust the weary traveler made his way back to 
 Ujiji, which he reached on October 13. Five days after his arrival in 
 Ujiji he was cheered and inspired with new life, and completely set up 
 again, as he said, by the timely arrival of Mr. H. M. Stanley, the richly 
 laden almoner of Mr. Gordon Bennett, of the New York Herald. Mr. 
 Stanley's residence with Livingstone was almost the only bright episode 
 of these last sad years. 
 
 With Stanley, Livingtone explored the north end of Tanganyika, 
 
 and proved conclusively that the Lusize runs into and not out of it. In 
 
 the end of the year the two started eastward for Unyanyembe, where 
 
 Stanley provided Livingstone with an ample supply of goods, and bade 
 
 him farewell. Stanley left on March 15, 1872, and after Livingstone 
 
 had waited wearily at Unyanyembe for five months, a troop of fifty-seven 
 
 men and boys arrived, good and faithful fellows on the whole, selected 
 
 by Stanley himself. Thus attended, he started, on August 15, for Lake 
 
 Bangweolo, proceeding along the east side of Tanganyika. His old 
 
 enemy, dysentery, soon found him out. In January, 1873, the party got 
 
 among the endless spongy jungle on the east of Lake Bangweolo, 
 31 
 
482 
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 Livingstone's object being to go round by the south and away west to 
 find the " fountains." 
 
 Vexatious delays took place, and the journey became one constant 
 wade below, under an almost endless pour of rain from above. The doc- 
 tor got worse and worse, but no idea of danger seems to have occurred 
 to him. At last, in the middle of April, he had unwillingly to submit 
 
 GRAND RECEPTION TO DR. LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 to be carried in a rude litter. On April 29, Chitanibo's village on the 
 Lulimala, in Ilala, on the south shore of the lake was reached. The last 
 entry in the journal is April 27 : " Knocked up quite, and remain — 
 recover — sent tobuy milch goats. We are on the banks of the Molilamo." 
 On April 30, he with difficulty wound up his watch, and early on 
 the morning of May 1, the boys found " the great master," as they called 
 him, kneeling by the side of his bed, dead. His faithful men preserved 
 the body in the sun as well as they could, and wrapping it carefully up, 
 
DAVID LIVINGSTON?:. 483 
 
 carried it and all his papers, instruments, and other things across Africa 
 to Zanzibar. It was borne to England with all honor, and on April 18, 
 1874, was deposited in Westminster Abbey, amid tokens of mourning 
 and admiration such as England accords only to her greatest sons. 
 Government bore all the funeral expenses. His faith full y kept journals 
 during these seven years' wanderings were published under the title of 
 the " Last Journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa," in 1874, 
 edited by his old friend, the Rev. Horace Waller. 
 
 In spite of his sufferings and the many compulsory delays, Living- 
 stone's discoveries during these last years were both extensive and of 
 prime importance as leading to a solution of African hydrography. No 
 single African explorer has ever done so much for African geography as 
 Livingstone during his thirty years' work. His travels covered one- 
 third of the continent, extending from the Cape to near the equator, and 
 from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. 
 
 TREATED AS A SUPERIOR BEING. 
 
 Livingstone was no hurried traveler ; he did his journeying 
 leisurely, carefully observing and recording all that was worthy of note, 
 with rare geographical instinct and the eye of a trained observer, study- 
 ing the ways of the people, eating their food, living in their huts, and 
 sympathizing with their joys and sorrows. It will be long till the tradi- 
 tion of his sojourn dies out among the native tribes, who, almost without 
 exception, treated Livingstone as a superior being ; his treatment of 
 them was always tender, gentle, and gentlemanly. 
 
 But the direct gains to geography and science are perhaps not the 
 greatest results of Livingstone's journeys. He conceived, developed and 
 carried out to success a noble and many-sided purpose, with an unflinch- 
 ing and self-sacrificing energy and courage that entitle him to take rank 
 among the great and strong who single-handed have been able materially 
 to influence human progress, and the advancement of knowledge. His 
 example and his death have acted like an inspiration, filling Africa with 
 an army of explorers and missionaries, and raising in Europe so pow- 
 
484 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 erful a feeling against the slave trade that it may be considered as having 
 received its deathblow. Personally Livingstone was a pnre and tender- 
 hearted man, full of humanity and human sympathy, simple-minded as 
 a child. The motto of his life was the advice he gave to some school 
 children in Scotland : " Fea.r God, and work hard." 
 
 HENRY M. STANLEY. 
 
 What Cicero was in eloquence, what Newton was in science, what 
 Clay and Webster were in statesmanship, this Stanley was in exploration 
 and adventure. For bold enterprise, for daring achievement, for uncon- 
 querable perseverance, for singular command of men, for intrepid bravery 
 in the face of danger, he stood unrivalled among the heroes of modern 
 times ; and this is saying much considering that modern history boasts 
 of such names as Livingstone and Du Chaillu in tropical discoveries and 
 Franklin, Kane and Peary in Arctic voyages and perils. 
 
 The Dark Continent yielded to him its mysteries, and when it 
 shall be changed by the onward march of civilization, the eulogies pro- 
 nounced upon him will be even more eloquent, and a large share of the 
 credit of redeeming the uncivilized wastes of Africa will be freely accorded 
 to him. 
 
 Like many men who have distinguished themselves in every field of 
 enterprise and discovery, Stanley came from very humble life, and by 
 force of native genius, resolute will and self-sacrificing devotion to his 
 w r ork, gained the foremost rank among the noble band of explorers whose 
 thrilling achievements have an interest surpassing that of the most mar- 
 velous tales of fiction. 
 
 Henry M. Stanley, although an American by residence and educa- 
 tion, was born at Denbigh, in Wales, in 1840. The names of his parents 
 were Rowland. They belonged to the very poor, yet, like many of the 
 peasantry in old countries, they possessed some sterling qualities of mind 
 and heart and character. These were reproduced in their son, who had 
 risen far above the surroundings of his childhood, and had become cele- 
 brated by achievements which never could have been predicted from the 
 
HENRY M. STANLEY. 
 
 485 
 
 circumstances of his early life. As it was not possible for him to be 
 cared for and supported at home, at the early age of chree years he was 
 placed in the almshouse at St. Asaph. Here it wa£ expected he would 
 
 HENRY M. STANLEY. 
 
 receive the care and training, both meagre indeed, which such an insti 
 tution was able to furnish. 
 
 Stanley remained at the almshouse until he was thirteen years old. 
 It seems probable that there is just here a space of several years which 
 is not accounted for, since the next we hear of him he was a teacher at 
 Mold, in Flintshire, endeavoring by this occupation to provide himself 
 
480 HENRY M. STANLEY. 
 
 with the means of taking a thorough course of study and completing his 
 education. It appears, however, that he remained at Mold only one year. 
 By this time the restless spirit of the youth had begun to show itself, and 
 he gave signs that his life would be one of adventure. Having shipped 
 at Liverpool as a cabin-boy on a vessel that was bound for New Orleans, 
 he thought he would try the New World and learn what fortune might 
 await him there. His youthful mind had been awakened by glowing 
 accounts of the open fields on this side of the Atlantic and the larger 
 opportunities which awaited industrious and enterprising young men. 
 
 THOROUGHLY HONEST AND COMPETENT. 
 
 Having arrived at New Orleans, he soon obtained employment with 
 a merchant named Stanley. This man was attracted by the frank, open- 
 hearted manner of the boy, and not only received him into his family, 
 but soon adopted him as his own. His friend and benefactor soon learned 
 that his confidence had not been misplaced ; that the impulsive Welsh 
 boy was capable of great things ; that he was honest and competent ; and 
 although at that time no prediction could have been made of the wonder- 
 ful career which lay before him, yet, even then, it could safely have been 
 said that in some capacity or other he was likely to become distinguished 
 above ordinary men. 
 
 Stanley's benefactor died intestate, or at least none of his property 
 fell to his adopted son. By the sudden bereavement which had over- 
 taken him he was left alone in the world and brought face to face with 
 the startling fact that he was to be the architect of his own fortune ; that 
 he was to find his surest helper in himself; that he could accomplish in 
 life just what his own capacity and push and genius would enable him 
 to bring to pass. In his case, as in that of others, it is interesting to 
 trace the chain of circumstances which led him on to the great under- 
 takings which have since startled the world. 
 
 He was seized with a strong desire to visit the Pacific coast. It is 
 not worth while here to recount the adventures and hardships which he 
 underwent in carrying out his cherished wish to acquaint himself with 
 
HENRY M. STANLEY. 487 
 
 the western part of our country ; the old saying that " where there is a 
 will there is a way " was fully illustrated ill this instance. For a time 
 he roamed over different parts of California ; gazed upon the romantic 
 scenes which that country affords ; made the acquaintance of miners as 
 the}' sat around their camp-fires ; listened to the tales of their exploits ; 
 wondered at the magnificent products of nature, the lofty trees of the 
 Sierras and the sublime scenery of the Yosemite Valley, and became 
 familiar with the character of the bold men who were attracted to this 
 region by the fascinating tales related of the discovery of gold. 
 
 Returning from California, it was but natural that, as he had previ- 
 ously resided in the South, he should identify himself with the confed- 
 erate army. To one like him there was something captivating about 
 the life of a soldier ; he was not in the habit of turning back from the 
 face of danger. His life hitherto had prepared him for just those 
 exploits which are connected with bold military achievements. And 
 although his connection with the confederate army was brief, it was 
 evident that he had the material in him for a good soldier ; in fact, it was 
 while carrying out one of his adventurous projects that he was captured 
 by the Union troops and was made prisoner of war. 
 
 A PRISONER OF WAR. 
 
 He was confined on board the iron-clad Ticonderoga, and here again 
 his manly bearing and frank, genial manner won him friends. The com- 
 mander of the vessel was willing to release him on condition that he 
 should join the United States navy. This he consented to do, although 
 there was not much about the life of a sailor that attracted him. By 
 this voluntary act he separated himself from the confederate army, and 
 became an ally of the Federal forces. He remained, doing such service as 
 was required of him, until the close of the war. Suddenly his occupa- 
 tion was gone, and again he seemed to be thrown upon the world. This 
 fact had no discouragements for him ; he took it as a matter of course. 
 It was not in the nature of things that so bright and spirited a young 
 man should long remain idle. Having had a taste of the excitement 
 
488 HENRY M. STANLEY. 
 
 of military campaigns, lie conceived the bold project of crossing the 
 Atlantic, and if opportunity offered, continuing his military career. 
 
 There was trouble in Turkey at this time on account of the upris- 
 ing of the Cretans, who, having borne their oppression until endurance 
 ceased to be a virtue, resolved to throw off the yoke under which they 
 had suffered. It was but natural that Stanley should feel sympathy for 
 any tribe or nation struggling for independence, and at once he resolved 
 to ally himself with the Cretans and take again the chances of war. 
 
 CAPTURED BY TURKISH BRIGANDS. 
 
 Stanley soon met with an adventure which shows the dangers 
 through which he passed and the kind of people he encountered. A 
 party of Turkish brigands made an attack upon him and robbed him of 
 all his money and extra clothing. This is not an unusual occurrence 
 in many parts o£ the East, where travelers run continuous risks and 
 are constantly exposed to the marauding disposition of reckless robbers 
 and brigands. At this time Mr. Morris was our United States Minister 
 at Constantinople, and the case was presented to him ; he immediately 
 interested himself in behalf of Stanley and brought the matter to the 
 attention of the Turkish officials. Mr. Morris was extremely helpful 
 to his fellow American, and having loaned him whatever was needful, 
 he continued his wanderings. It will be understood that during this 
 time letters were forwarded to the New York Herald, containing graphic 
 descriptions of eastern life and manners. Having accomplished what 
 he desired in this direction, Stanley set his face toward England and 
 once again arrived in the land of his birth, where the scenes of his early 
 boyhood were laid. 
 
 It is one of the characteristics of a noble nature that it does not 
 forget its early struggles and experiences. The remembrance of poverty 
 has no pain for the man who has risen above it and made himself the 
 master of circumstances. It is a tribute to Mr. Stanley's worth that he 
 did not forget the old almshouse, where his early days were spent. One 
 of the first things he did after arriving in England was to visit this very 
 
HENRY M. STANLEY. 489 
 
 place, there recalling scenes through which he had passed years before. 
 All accounts agree that this visit was very interesting ; it was so to 
 the one who was making it and also to those who were receiving it. The 
 children whom Stanley knew as inmates of this place had grown up and 
 most of them had gone out into the world, but " the poor ye have always 
 with you," and there were other little ones, with wan faces, whose sad 
 life appealed to the heart of the great traveler. 
 
 Stanley resolved to give these little people a right good dinner, and 
 we may be sure the intention was received with as much enthusiasm on 
 the part of those who were to partake of the dinner as it was formed on 
 the part of the benefactor who delighted the little ones. 
 
 AGAIN TRAVELING IN EUROPE. 
 
 The next year, 1868, found Stanley again in the United States, not 
 long to remain, however. A civil war was raging at this time in Spain. 
 Very soon we find Stanley again in Europe actually taking his position 
 upon the battlefields to be a spectator of the conflicts, then relating with 
 minuteness what had taken place, and giving a graphic description of the 
 scenes which he had witnessed. His letters at this time gave a very 
 accurate idea of Spanish affairs. He not only saw the events, but he saw 
 the forces which had produced them. For a long time there had been 
 political strife in Spain ; the position of the contending parties, the ideas 
 that were clamoring for the ascendent, all this was given as with a photo- 
 graphic lens by the brilliant correspondent, and was made known to the 
 world at large. The same promptness and energy which had previously 
 distinguished him came out vividly in his life in Spain. Just here we 
 have one of the most striking chapters in the career of the great explorer. 
 
 Livingstone had long been absent and the curiosity which was awak- 
 ened concerning his fate amounted even to anxiety. He had many per- 
 sonal friends in England and Scotland who had taken great interest in 
 his travels, and who were eager now to obtain some information concern- 
 ing him. The probabilities of his fate were freely discussed in news- 
 papers and journals, and among many the opinion prevailed that the 
 
490 HENRY M. STANLEY. 
 
 great discoverer would never return to his native land alive. The ques- 
 tion, "What lias become of Livingstone?" was agitating both hemispheres; 
 a singular instance of the interest which, by force of circumstances, will 
 sometimes gather around a single great character. 
 
 James Gordon Bennett was just the one to solve the all-perplexing 
 question. Was Livingstone alive ? If alive, in what part of Africa was he 
 located ? Or was he dead ? Could any intelligence of him be obtained? 
 Where was the bold spirit who would venture out into that wild 
 and threatening region and answer the questions which were so freely 
 raised concerning this one man ? It was believed that if the great ex- 
 plorer was alive, his trail could be followed, and, although it would cost 
 an almost superhuman effort, he could be found. To find him would be 
 sufficient glory for any one man, and the journal that should record such 
 an achievement as this would stand in the front rank of the great news- 
 papers of Amerita and England. 
 
 THE TWO GREAT EXPLORERS MEET. 
 
 The account given by Stanley himself of the commission received 
 from Mr. Bennett is somewhat amusing. It is as follows : On the six- 
 teenth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred 
 and sixty-nine, I was in Madrid, fresh from the carnage at Valencia. At 
 10 A. M. I received a telegram. It read, "Come to Paris on important 
 business." The telegram was from Mr. James Gordon Bennett, Jr., the 
 young manager of the New York Herald. 
 
 Down came my pictures from the walls of my apartments on the 
 second floor ; into my trunks went my books and souvenirs, my clothes 
 were hastily collected, some half washed, some from the clothesline half 
 dry, and after a couple of hours hasty hard work my portmanteaus were 
 strapped up and labelled "Paris." 
 
 At 3 P. M. I was on my way, and being obliged to stop at Bayonne 
 a few hours, did not arrive at Paris until the following night. I went 
 straight to the "Grand Hotel," and knocked at the door of Mr. Bennett's 
 room. 
 
HENRY M. STANLEY 491 
 
 "Come in," I heard a voice say. 
 
 Entering, I found Mr. Bennett in bed. 
 
 "Who are yon ?" he asked. 
 
 "My name is Stanley," I answered. 
 
 "Ah, 3'es ! sit down ; I have important business on hand for you." 
 
 After throwing over his shoulders his robe-de chambre, Mr. Bennett 
 asked, "Where do you think Livingstone is ?" 
 
 "I really do not know, sir." 
 
 "Do 3^ou think he is alive ?" 
 
 "He may be, and he may not," I answered. 
 
 "Well, I think he is alive, and that he can be found, and I am going 
 to send you to find him." 
 
 "What!" said I, "do you really think I can find Dr. Livingstone? 
 Do you mean me to go to Central Africa?" 
 
 MUST FIND THE LOST LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 "Yes, I mean that you shall go, and find him wherever you may hear 
 that he is, and to get what news you can of him, and perhaps" — deliver- 
 ing himself thoughtfully and deliberately — "the old man may be in 
 want: — take enough with you to help him should he require it. Of 
 course you will act according to your own plans, and do what you think 
 best — but find Livingstone !" 
 
 Said I, wondering at the cool order of sending one to Central Africa 
 to search for a man whom I, in common with almost all other men, be- 
 lieved to be dead, "Have you considered seriously the great expense you 
 are likely to incur on account of this little journey?" 
 
 " Well, I will tell you what you will do. Draw a thousand pounds 
 ($5,000) now, and when you have gone through that, draw another thou- 
 sand, and when that is spent draw another thousand, and when you have 
 finished that, draw another thousand, and so on ; but, Find Livingstone." 
 
 Surprised, but not confused at the order — for I knew that Mr. Ben- 
 nett when once he had made up his mind was not easily drawn aside 
 from his purpose — I yet thought, seeing it was such a gigantic scheme, 
 
492 
 
 HENRY M. STANLEY. 
 
 that lie had not quite considered in his own mind the pros and cons of 
 the case. 
 
 " Probably you will hear that Livingstone is on his way to Zanzibar ; 
 but if not, go into the interior and find him. If alive, get what news of 
 his discoveries you can; and if you find he is dead, bring all possible 
 
 NATIVES CONVEYING BOATS OVERLAND. 
 
 proofs of his being dead. That is all. Good night, and God be with 
 you." 
 
 " Good night, sir," I said ; " what it is in the power of human nature 
 to do I will do ; and on such an errand as I go upon God will be 
 with me." 
 
 The foregoing is Mr. Stanley's interesting account of the manner in 
 which he received one of the most important and difficult commissions 
 ever given to mortal man. The whole story shows the bold, quick, im- 
 
HENRY M. STANLEY. 
 
 493 
 
 pulsive nature of men who move the world. To think, is to decide ; to 
 decide, is to act ; to act, is to achieve. 
 
 In due time he arrived in Africa. Having started from Zanzibar 
 with an expedition, the formation of which gave him an opportunity to 
 show his perseverance and tact, he began his long search. Difficulties 
 that would have appalled other men at the outset were as nothing to 
 him : obstacles were cast aside as by a faith that moves mountains into 
 
 STANLEY SHOOTING HIPPOPOTAMI. 
 
 the sea. Threatening dangers did not turn him from his lofty purpose. 
 On he went, across plains, down through valleys, through tangled jun- 
 gles, over almost impassable rivers, displaying everywhere and always 
 the most wonderful heroism and endurance, until the world was startled 
 at his discovery and will evermore applaud his magnificent achievements. 
 No one who has never explored the wilds of Africa can understand 
 the nature of the undertaking which Stanley had before him. In our 
 
 
494 HENRY M. STANLEY. 
 
 land we can travel into almost ever section by railways, by stage coaches 
 or by steamboats. None of these facilities for traveling were to be fonnd 
 in Africa, at least in that part of it that Stanley was to visit. Some of 
 these means of transit could be created, but they were not in existence, 
 and to the explorer was left the double work not merely of conducting 
 the expedition, but also of preparing the way for it. 
 
 Thrilling tales have been told of the dangers attending all journeys 
 in the Dark Continent. Every book which has been written is alive with 
 these tales of adventure. No work has ever been published on Africa 
 which does not read more like a romance than reality. . We look upon 
 the map, we see the location of the various provinces, we trace the great 
 rivers winding their way towards the ocean, and, not understanding the 
 true character of the country, it may seem to us to be a simple thing to 
 pass from one point to another. It is much easier to travel by map than 
 in any other way. 
 
 When Livingstone went to Africa he could go but a little way inland 
 from the coast without finding his progress barred. While it was left to 
 Stanley to follow in his track, there was sometimes a difficulty in learning 
 the path which Livingstone had taken, and it was also very difficult for 
 a man unused to African exploration to complete so long a journey 
 without any previous experience. These things rendered Stanley's final 
 success all the more wonderful, and it is not surprising that all readers 
 become intensely interested in the story of the man and his exploits. He 
 not only found Livingstone, but crossed the Dark Continent from sea 
 to sea. 
 
 In 1890 he returned to London and met with a reception almost 
 royal in its splendor. He was feasted and feted everywhere ; the Royal 
 Geographical Society gave him a gold medal, and Oxford, Cambridge 
 and Edinburgh conferred on him honorary degrees. His marriage in 
 Westminster Abbey to Miss Dorothy Tennant, and his subsequent elec- 
 tion to Parliament gave a fitting climax to his brilliant career. 
 
SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 
 
 No record of human achievement is more daring and marvelous 
 thai: that of the bold Arctic navigators who, from time to time, have 
 explored this unknown world of icy desolation. In the year 1818, two 
 vessels were fitted out by the British government to proceed toward 
 the North Pole. Captain Sir John Ross and Lieutenant Parry were 
 appointed commanders. No former expedition had been fitted out on so 
 extensive a scale, or so completely equipped in every respect as this one. 
 The circumstance which stimulated the sending out of these vessels was 
 the open character of the bays and seas in those regions, very large 
 quantities of the polar ice having floated down into the Atlantic for the 
 previous three years. This expedition had instructions to discover th'- 
 northwest passage. 
 
 TRYING TO REACH THE NORTH POLE. 
 
 xAnother, under Captain Beechey and Lieutenant Franklin, after 
 ward Sir John Franklin, was to penetrate to the North Pole. The 
 objects of the latter expedition were entirely scientific. It passed north 
 between Greenland and Spitzbergen, but did not go much further. 
 Captain Ross sailed about sixty miles up Lancaster Sound, and 
 returned with the report that it was a bay, through which there was 
 no outlet to the ocean beyond. From York Factory an overland expedi- 
 tion under Lieutenant Franklin was sent out with instructions to explore 
 the north coast of America, from the mouth of the Coppermine river 
 eastward. He proceeded five hundred and fifty miles east of the Cop- 
 permine to Point Turn-again and then, having suffered great hardships, 
 returned to York Factory without accomplishing the object. 
 
 Franklin, in descending the Coppermine river, was accompanied 
 by a set of officers and men as heroic as ever trod a deck ; among the 
 former, were Dr. Richardson, Lieutenant Back and Lieutenant Hood; 
 and among the latter, a faithful seaman named Hepburn. The Copper- 
 mine river had never been thoroughly explored, and the enterprise was 
 one of great danger. Ascending the Hayes river on their inland route 
 
 to the Coppermine, they accomplished seven hundred miles of river 
 
 495 
 
496 
 
 SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 
 
 journey, over rapids and falls and obstacles and difficulties innumerable, 
 
 from which ordinary men would have turned back. 
 
 The setting in of the ice compelled them to relinquish their labors 
 
 in that direction for the present. Franklin, however, was not idle — it 
 
 was not in the na- 
 ture of the man to 
 be so — and there- 
 
 fore he, Back and 
 Hepburn started off, 
 in January, west- 
 ward, working up 
 eight hundred and 
 ^ fifty miles, until in 
 March they reached 
 Fort Chipewyan, 
 where many import- 
 ant observations 
 were made. In July, 
 he was joined by 
 Richardson and 
 Hood, and hoped to 
 winter that year at 
 the mouth of the 
 Coppermine. A 
 large party was 
 made up, consist- 
 ing of Franklin and 
 his friends, seven- 
 
 SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 
 
 teen French-Canadian travelers, three interpreters, and a considerable 
 number of Indians who were to act as guides and hunters under the 
 leadership of one Akaitcho. The start was all that could be desired, 
 game plentiful, and eve^thing promised well. 
 
 But as they advanced to the north, a change came over the spirit of 
 
SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 497 
 
 their dream ; food grew scarce, the difficulty of transit increased ; and at 
 last Akaitcho declared that to advance further meant for the whole 
 party to perish miserably. Franklin persisted, however, and would have 
 braved all the prophesied risks, till Akaitcho said : " I will send some 
 of my young men with you if you persist in going forward, but from the 
 moment they set foot in your canoes, I and my relatives shall mourn 
 
 LIEUTENANT BACK'S START— A JOURNEY OF FIVE HUNDRED MILES FOR FOOD. 
 
 for them as dead." Discretion being the better part of valor, Franklin 
 reluctantly determined to settle in winter quarters and continue the ex- 
 ploration in the summer. The place chosen for wintering was at Fort 
 Enterprise, near the head of the Coppermine. 
 
 During the winter, food grew scarcer and scarcer, until at last 
 starvation was threatened. In addition to their own party, the Indians 
 
 had to be provided for, and this greatly impoverished their resources. 
 32 
 
498 
 
 SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 
 
 The Indians knew this, and, with a generosity which Christian men 
 might sometimes imitate, gave their own food to the strangers who 
 seemed more to need it. "We are nsed to starvation, yon are not; " 
 they said. By-and-by a time came when the situation was gloomy in 
 the extreme ; ammunition, and other articles indispensable to the pro- 
 gress of the expedition, and food were fast failing. What was to be 
 
 RETURN WITH SUPPLIES WHEN DESPERATELY NEEDED. 
 
 done? There was only one course open, and that was to journey on 
 foot a distance of over five hundred miles to Fort Chipewyan, in the 
 depth of an Arctic winter, for supplies. 
 
 A volunteer was soon found. Lieutenant Back was not a man to 
 allow his comrades to perish while he had strength and vigor to save 
 them, and he undertook to perform the journey and obtain the needful 
 supplies. Day after day, he and his companions toiled on over ice and 
 
SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. L99 
 
 snow ; and night after night, braved the inclemency of the weather by 
 camping ont of doors. With snow-shoes galling their feet and ankles 
 till they bled profusely ; with only sufficient food to keep them from 
 starving, and, therefore, rendering them all the more susceptible to 
 cold ; with weather unusual in the severe region for its severity, on they 
 went, until, at last, they reached the station, procured four sledges, 
 laden to the full with needful things, and the promise of more to follow, 
 and then, after a brief rest, they set off again for Fort Enterprise. 
 
 During the journey, Back traveled eleven hundred and four miles, 
 and when he rejoined his companions it was to find that his unpre- 
 cedented journey was a success in every respect, for they had arrived at 
 a stage in their experience when the aid he brought was indispensable. 
 
 FAMOUS GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 
 
 In 1850, an expedition was sent out by Mr. Henry Grinnell, a mer- 
 chant of New York, in search of Sir John Franklin and his companions. 
 Mr. Grinnell's expedition consisted of only two small brigs, the Advance, 
 of one hundred and forty tons, the Rescue, of only ninety tons. The 
 command was given to Lieutenant E. De Haven, a young naval officer, 
 who accompanied the United States exploring expedition. Dr. E. K. 
 Kane, surgeon and naturalist, was one of the officers. The expedition 
 was absent a little more than sixteen months. Off the coast of Labrador 
 they met an iceberg making its way toward the tropics. The night was 
 very dark, and as the huge voyager had no u light out," the Advance 
 could not be censured for running foul. She was punished, however, by 
 the loss of her jib-boom, as she ran against the iceberg. 
 
 When the expedition reached Melville Bay, which, on account of its 
 fearful character, is also called the Devil's Nip, the voyagers began to 
 witness more of the grandeur and perils of Arctic scenes. Icebergs of 
 all dimensions came bearing down from the polar seas. They also 
 encountered immense floes, with only narrow channels between, and at 
 times their situation was exceedingly perilous. On one occasion, after 
 heaving through fields of ice for five consecutive weeks, two immense 
 
: M 
 
 
 p 
 
 
 II. I 
 
 II 
 
 il!! ;i ii>s-- 
 
 tiiillii 
 
 ■&■■ 
 
 ?,M Siiliill 
 
 
 5U0 
 
 A PASSAGE BY FRANKLIN'S SHIPS. 
 
SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 501 
 
 floes, between which they were making their way, gradually approached 
 each other, and for several hours they expected their vessels would be 
 crushed. An immense cake of ice, six or eight feet thick, slid under 
 the Rescue, lifting her almost "high, and dry," and careening her 
 partially upon her beam ends. By means of ice anchors (large iron 
 hooks) they kept her from capsizing. In this position they remained 
 
 BEECHEY HEAD. 
 
 about sixty hours, when, with saws and axes, they succeeded in reliev- 
 ing her. The ice now opened a little, and they finally warped through 
 into clear water. While they were thus confined, polar bears came 
 around them in abundance, greedy for prey, and the seamen indulged a 
 little in the perilous sports of the chase. 
 
 The navigators explored the coast at and near Cape Riley, and there 
 found in a cove on the shore of Beechey Island, or Beechy Cape, on the 
 
502 
 
 SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 
 
 east side of the entrance to Wellington Channel, unmistakable evidence 
 that Sir John Franklin and his companions were there in April, 1846. 
 There they discovered many articles known to belong to the British 
 navy, and some that were the property of the Erebus and Terror, the 
 ships under the command of Sir John. There lay, bleached to the 
 whiteness of the surrounding snow, a piece of canvas, with the name of 
 
 RELICS OF FRANKLIN'S EXPEDITION. 
 
 the Terror marked upon it with indestructible charcoal. It was very 
 faint, yet perfectly legible. 
 
 Near it was a guideboardlying flat upon its face, having been pros- 
 trated by the wind. It had evidently been used to direct exploring par- 
 ties to the vessels, or, rather, to the encampment on shore. The board 
 was pine, thirteen inches in length, and six and a half in breadth, and 
 nailed to a boarding pike eight feet in length. It is supposed that the 
 
SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 503 
 
 sudden opening of the ice caused Sir John to depart hastily, and in so 
 doing this pike and its board were left behind. They also found a large 
 number of tin canisters, such as are used for packing meats for a sea voy- 
 age; an anvil block; remnants of clothing, which evinced, by numerous 
 patches and their threadbare character, that they had been worn as long 
 as the owners could keep them on ; the remains of an India-rubber 
 glove, lined with wool ; some old sacks ; a cask, or tub, partly filled with 
 charcoal, and an unfinished rope-mat, which, like other fibrous fabrics, 
 was bleached white. 
 
 . But the most melancholy traces of the navigators were three graves 
 in a little, sheltered cove, each with a board at the head bearing the 
 name of the sleeper below. Thess inscriptions testify positively when 
 Sir John and his companions were there on their fatal voyage. 
 
 EXPEDITIONS SEARCHING FOR FRANKLIN. 
 
 Three expeditions were sent out in 184S to search for Franklin, and 
 later these were followed by several others, under the patronage of the 
 British government and Lady Franklin. Traces of the Franklin expedi- 
 tion were found in 1S50 at Cape Riley and Beechey Island, and articles 
 belonging to Sir John Franklin's officers were seen in possession of the 
 Esquimaux at Selby Bay, in 1S54, by Dr. Rae, but authentic information 
 concerning the fate of Franklin was only obtained in 1859. 
 
 An expedition sent out by Lady Franklin under Captain Francis 
 McClintock, passed, in 1857, through Baffin's Bay, Lancaster Sound, and 
 Prince Regent Inlet to Bellot Strait, whence sledge expeditions were 
 made to King William Land. Here, in 1859, were found relics of Sir 
 John Franklin's expedition. At Point Victory was found a tin case 
 containing a brief record dated May 2S, 1847, to the effect that the 
 expedition had passed the previous winter at Beechey Island, after 
 ascending the Wellington Channel, and returning by the west side of 
 Cornwallis Island. All the party were then well. 
 
 On the margin was another record, dated April, 1848, to the effect 
 that one hundred and five men under Captain Crosier had abandoned the 
 
504 SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 
 
 two vessels, that Sir John Franklin had died Jnne n, 1847, and tnat 
 the total deaths were nine officers and fifteen men. Quantities of clothing 
 were found, but no trace of the vessels. It was evident that the whole 
 expedition had perished. It seems that Sir John Franklin passed up 
 Lancaster Sound, explored Wellington Channel to a point further north 
 than was reached by those who were sent out to search for his party, and 
 wintered on Beechey Island. 
 
 In the spring and summer of 1846 he either navigated Bellot Strait, 
 or more probably pushed through Peel Sound, and finally reached Victoria 
 Strait, and thus supplied the only link wanting to complete a chain of 
 water communication between the two oceans. Thus Sir John Franklin 
 is the discoverer of the Northwestern Passage. 
 
 ELISHA KENT KANE. 
 
 Voyages in the Polar regions of North America began in the first 
 part of the seventeenth century, and from that time to this almost all 
 the important nations of the world have been continually making efforts 
 to reach the pole. From the first, the chief objects were to find water- 
 ways around both continents connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific 
 Oceans. The Northeast passage between Europe and Asia was success- 
 fully made by Russian and Danish expeditions ; while the Northwest 
 passage, which was first attempted by Sebastian Cabot and the brothers 
 Cortereal, was not actually found until about the year 1845, ^ n tne ^ ast 
 expedition of Sir John Franklin, who perished before he could make his 
 discovery known. 
 
 It was in search of this brave Englishman that the United States 
 undertook its first important Polar expedition, in which our greatest 
 Arctic explorer, Elisha Kent Kane, made his first journey to the Arctic 
 zone. 
 
 The expedition was started by Mr. Henry Grinnell, a wealthy New 
 York merchant, after Lady Franklin's appeal to our government to send 
 out a search party for her lost husband. Mr. Grinnell took up the enter- 
 prise at once. He laid the plans, and offered two vessels, supplies, extra. 
 
ELISHA KENT KANE. 
 
 505 
 
 pay to the men who would volunteer to go, and means for about all the 
 other expenses necessary to carry out the search and to make the expedi- 
 tion of scientific value, Then he used his influence to get Congress to 
 take charge of it. Volunteer officers were called for from the navy, and 
 at last everything was ready and placed in command of Lieutenant De 
 Haven. Dr. Kane was one of the under-officers — of no hieher rank than 
 
 DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 
 
 assistant surgeon. He was then a young man of thirty years, whose life 
 so far had been a continual fight against ill-health. 
 
 Although in the list of officers Dr. Kane started out as nothing more 
 than an assistant surgeon in the Advance, when the expedition returned 
 he had the honorable record of having been the most active and able man 
 in the party. Through all their journey — which began on the 22d of 
 May, 1850, and did not end until October of the next year— he was a 
 
506 ELISHA KENT KANE. 
 
 zealous worker, on the watch for the object of their search, and wideawake 
 to all discoveries of the region through which they had passed. 
 
 He kept a careful account of what was done, what was seen, and all 
 that happened in each day, records that were afterward published, and 
 made a most valuable and interesting history of the expedition. Several 
 times during the journey Dr. Kane was very sick, but his great interest 
 in all that was to be seen and done seemed to keep him from breaking 
 down entirely, as a man with less nerve would have done. 
 
 WONDERFUL AND IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES. 
 
 This expedition met some British relief ships in Lancaster Sound 
 and accomplished a journey as far north as a point in Baffin's Bay. They 
 discovered many wonderful and important things about these regions that 
 were before unknown to science, but they did not succeed in finding more 
 than a very few traces of Sir John Franklin — the graves of three of his 
 men, and a cairn or two and a small number of articles which some of 
 them had lost or thrown away. 
 
 This was but small success, but it gave hopes of more, so, a short 
 time after the return, Mr. Grinnell offered the use of the Advance for 
 another trip. This was put in charge of Dr. Kane, who had proved him- 
 self one of the greatest men of the first expedition, and able to undertake 
 much more than the duties of an assistant surgeon, great as they were at 
 certain times, and nobly as he filled them. 
 
 In addition to his other work he had formed a plan by which he 
 thought the search could be made more succesful than it had been. He 
 believed from the observations he had made that Greenland extended even 
 farther to the north than the American continent; he also thought that 
 it was safer to travel by land than by water when it was possible, and that 
 by such a route the parties could keep themselves supplied with food by 
 hunting. 
 
 After his return he spent several months in carefully thinking these 
 plans out, in laying them before prominent people interested in the search 
 for Franklin, and in lecturing about them and what had been seen in the 
 
KLISHA KENT KANK. 
 
 ro7 
 
 first Grinnell expedition. In this way he aroused a great deal of enthu- 
 siasm in the project of another journey. Its chief object was to find the 
 Sir John Franklin party, or at least to solve the mystery of their fate — 
 for Dr. Kane still believed that some of the number must be living some- 
 where among the remote Esquimaux villages. 
 
 During all this time Dr. Kane's health was very bad; and when every- 
 
 KANE AND HIS COMPANIONS BRAVING THE COLD 
 
 thing was ready he was hardly able to write to Congress about it; but he 
 
 was too courageous to give up, and besides he knew he would be better 
 in the colder climate. 
 
 In this journey, as in the first one, Dr. Kane was historian. He has 
 told us in his "Arctic Explorations" the full story of the expedition. 
 From New York the Advance carried her party directly to Greenland, 
 
508 
 
 ELISHA KENT KANE. 
 
 SHIPS AND ICEBERGS ARCHED BY THE MARVELOUS AURORA. 
 
 where their first sight of the cold country of the north was the "broad 
 valleys, deep ravines, mountains and frowning black and desolate cliffs" 
 that burst into view from beneath the dense curtain of a lifting fog. 
 
ELISHA KKNT KANE. 509 
 
 Then, with icebergs in full view around them, like castles in a fairy tale, 
 the}' worked their way along the western coast till they reached Smith's 
 Sound. 
 
 Sometimes the commander would spend whole days in the " crow's 
 nest" at the top of the mast, looking out for the best course for the ves- 
 sel, and keenly watching for all of interest to their search. The magnifi- 
 cent views which he saw from this lofty perch are often beautifully 
 described in his book. In one place he says : "The midnight sun came 
 out over the northern crest of the great berg, kindling variously-colored 
 fires on every part of its surface, and making the ice around us one great 
 piece of gem-work, blazing carbuncles and rubies, and molten gold." 
 
 HOW THEY PASSED THE ARCTIC NIGHT. 
 
 After being tossed and crashed about for some time in the gales of 
 Smith's Sound, it was found impossible to get the Advance through the 
 ice to the shore ; so they left her there, and fitting up ice-sledges, set out 
 on their search for the lost explorers and also to see if better winter quar- 
 ters could be found for the brig. The commander tells us in his book 
 how both of these errands were in vain, and how they came back and 
 prepared to pass the long cold Arctic night in Rensselaer Harbor. 
 
 Their stores and provisions were carried to a storehouse on Butler's 
 Island, and provision depots were also established at intervals further 
 north. This work was finished just as the " long, staring day," which 
 had clung to them more than two months, was drawing to a close, and 
 the dark night was beginning to settle down upon them. It was only at 
 mid-day that they could see to read the figures on the thermometer with- 
 out a light. The hills seemed like huge masses of blackness, with faint 
 patches of light scattered here and there, made by the snow. 
 
 The faithful journal records these days and their doings, relating 
 sorrowfully how the dogs fell sick from the darkness and the cold, and 
 almost a 1 l of them died in a sort of insanity, ending in lockjaw ; and how 
 great the travelers felt this loss when the glimmering light of day told 
 them that spring had come, and the time would soon be for them to go on. 
 
510 
 
 ELISHA KENT KANE. 
 
 The stations which they had begun to set up in the fall were 
 intended for provision depots, so that when the explorers went out on 
 their sledge journeys to search for the Franklin party, they would not 
 have to go back to the brig every time they needed supplies. Now, when 
 the first ray of light appeared, Dr. Kane sent out a party with a load of 
 provisions to establish another depot still further to the north ; but they 
 were overtaken by a gale and lost their way. They would have died 
 
 START OF KANE'S SLEDGE EXPEDITION. 
 
 if three of the men had not been able to grope their way back to the 
 vessel. Benumbed and exhausted, they stumbled into the brig unable 
 to talk. 
 
 But Dr. Kane knew their errand without the aid of words, and hur- 
 ried to the rescue of the others, with the strongest men in the boat. 
 Guided almost by instinct, he soon found them huddled together and 
 barely alive. " We knew you would come," they said ; " we were watch- 
 ing for you." He and his comrades had had a long march to find them, 
 
KL1SHA KKNT RANK. 
 
 511 
 
 and Had taken no sleep meanwhile, so they were suffering themselves by 
 this time ; but they did not stop to rest ; it had to be quick work to save 
 their comrades' lives. They sewed them up in thick bags of skin, then, 
 putting them in the sledges, they started back to the brig. This was a 
 journey of most terrible suffering from cold, hunger, and sleeplessness. 
 x\fter awhile nearly all the men were overcome with drowsiness and 
 grew delirious ; they reeled and stumbled as they walked, and finally one 
 
 THE PERILOUS JOURNEY 
 
 sat down and declared he would sleep before he stirred another step. Dr. 
 Kane let him sleep three minutes and then awakened him, and then 
 another three minutes and awakened him, till he was quite rested. This 
 worked so well that all were allowed a few such short naps before the 
 march was taken up again. But in spite of all their efforts, all but three 
 — Dr. Kane and two others — gave out before they reached the brig. 
 
 These poor fellows stumbled on to the last, so delirious that they 
 could never remember how they finally got to the vessel. There they 
 
512 ELISHA KENT KANE. 
 
 were at once taken care of and fresh men were sent out after the fallen 
 ones, who were only five miles away. Two of the party that were rescued 
 died from the terrible exposure. All the others got well. 
 
 A few more such attempts and perilous searches were made with ill- 
 success and great sickness, and another winter came and went. Then as 
 the vessel was still so firmly frozen in the ice that it was impossible to 
 
 VIEW OF SANDERSON'S HOPE, NEAR UPPERNAVIK, BAFFIN BAY. 
 get her out, Dr. Kane gave the order to leave her to her fate, and to pre- 
 pare for an overland journey to Upernavik, a whaling station on the west 
 coast of Greenland. This was thirteen hundred miles away. 
 
 Meanwhile the people at home were watching for news of the expe- 
 dition, and when the second winter came on and Dr. Kane did not return, 
 they began to feel anxious, and fitted out a relief expedition to go in search 
 of him. It left New York at about the same time the disabled explorers 
 
ELISHA KENT KANE. 513 
 
 started on their southward journey, and while it was sailing through the 
 open seas of the North Atlantic, Kane and his men were struggling over 
 ice and snow, all other thought lost but that of saving their lives. 
 
 This was the most perilous jouruey of the whole expedition ; the 
 toil and cold were severe enough, but besides these they had continually 
 to cross gaps in the ice, in which they were drenched with water. When 
 they reached a large opening and took to their boats — which they had 
 carried over the ice — they were almost always in danger of being crushed 
 in the floes. But worse than all these trials, was that of hunger. Their 
 provisions ran so low that a fortunate shot at a seal was all that saved 
 them from starving several times. 
 
 REACH OPEN WATER BEYOND ICE. 
 
 At last they caught glimpses of open water, beyond the ice, and 
 began to see signs of human beings ; a row-boat appeared, then a whaler, 
 and finally they sighted the safe harbor of Upernavik. Here the rescue 
 party found them, just as they were about to take passage in a Danish 
 vessel for the Shetland Islands ; and the heroic little band of the Second 
 Grinnell Expedition reached New York on the nth of October, 1855. 
 
 They had not succeeded in finding any of the Franklin party which 
 was a great disappointment to Dr. Kane and to all who had taken part in 
 the expedition ; but they had made such important discoveries and 
 explorations that Congress awarded the gallant commander a gold medal; 
 the Royal Geographical Society of London gave him another, and the 
 Queen another ; in fact, it is said that probably no explorer and traveler, 
 acting in a private capacity as such, has ever received greater tributes 
 of respect. 
 
 The results of his expedition comprise the survey and delineation 
 of the north coast of Greenland to its termination by a great glacier; the 
 survey of this glacier and its extension northward into the new land 
 named Washington, and a survey of the American coast. 
 
 Dr. Kane was born in Philadelphia, February 20, 1820. He died at 
 
 Havana, Cuba, February 10, 1857. 
 33 
 
ROBERT E. PEARY. 
 
 The most important Polar expedition of recent date, and the one 
 from which the greatest things were expected, was that nnder command 
 of Lieutenant Robert E. Peary. His great experience in Arctic work, 
 his persistence, his fine equipment and his intelligent, well-thought-out 
 plans, all gave promise of success in penetrating farther north than any 
 of his predecessors, and the possibility, even, of reaching the Pole itself. 
 Peary went north on his last trip in 1898. He had been communicated 
 with at intervals, the last word from him coming in August, 1901. He 
 was expecting then to make a final dash for the Pole early in the spring, 
 according to his plan of campaign, and much interest had been felt in 
 scientific circles as to the result achieved. 
 
 On July 14, the relief steamer Windward, provided by the Peary 
 Exploration Club, newly equipped and heavily provisioned, sailed from 
 New York to reach Lieutenant Peary at the appointed rendezvous at 
 Cape Sabine and bring him home. Mrs. Peary and the little daughter, 
 who was born in Greenland, accompanied the ship. On July 20, the 
 Windward took on coal at Sydney, Cape Breton, and sailed to the north. 
 On September 18, the Windward reached the same port on its return trip, 
 bringing Peary and the two other members of the expedition. Peary 
 and the others were in good health, but he was only just recovering from 
 an accident to one of his legs, which rendered him slightly lame. 
 
 BELIEVES NORTH POLE CAN BE REACHED. 
 
 Peary had to report that he did not discover the North Pole, but 
 said that in the last dash, with that object in view, he made important 
 discoveries. The most northerly point reached was 84 degrees, 17 min- 
 utes to the northwest of Cape Hecla. He still felt certain that the Pole 
 could be reached, and furthermore, if he were a man of independent 
 means, he would persevere until he succeeded. He thinks it can best 
 be reached from Franz Josef Land, which lies north of Russia, or from 
 Grant Land, in latitude 83 degrees, if winter quarters are established 
 as far north as possible. The mark made by Peary in the frozen path 
 
 514 
 
ROBERT E. PEARY. 
 
 515 
 
 to the Pole is higher thau any other on the Greenland route. Lock- 
 wood, in May, 1882, reached 83.24, or about 460 miles from the Pole. 
 Peary exceeded this by 53 minutes, about 61 miles. 
 
 Peary reported his operations since August, 1901. He left Erik 
 Harbor, in Ellsmere Land, August 29, to establish winter quarters 
 further north. All his Eskimos were taken sick, and by November six 
 
 KASER FRANZ-JOSEPH'S LAND. 
 
 adults and one child were dead. More Eskimos were gathered, survivors 
 of a tribe which had also been visited by a fatal epidemic. In February 
 a large depot of food was established sixty miles north of Cape Sabine, 
 and in March Peary started, with eighteen sledges, for Fort Conger, an 
 advance party with six sledges having preceded him. A further advance 
 was made to Cape Hecla, from where the real advance began. In Peary's 
 words : 
 
516 
 
 ROBERT E. PEARY. 
 
 " April i, started northward over the Polar Sea, with Henson, four 
 Eskimos and six sledges. Old noes, covered deep with snow, and inter- 
 sected with rubble ridges and lanes of young ice, were encountered from 
 the moment we left the ice foot. The same kind of traveling, except the 
 lanes of young ice, as found by the English expedition of 1876. After 
 six marches, open leads and floes in motion were encountered. Two 
 natives were sent back. 
 
 "As we advanced the floes became smaller, the pressure ridges on a 
 grander scale, and the open leads more frequent. Each day's march was 
 
 A VISIT TO THE ESQUIMAUX. 
 
 more perilous, and our general course deflected west by the character of 
 the ice. Finally, at 84.17 degrees north latitude, northwest of Hecla, 
 the polar pack became impracticable, and further efforts to advance were 
 given up. New leads and pressure ridges, with foggy weather, made our 
 return, in some respects, more trying than the advance. Hecla was 
 reached April 29, and Conger May 3. Leaving Conger May 6, Cape 
 Sabine was reached on the 15th. 
 
 "The ice broke up earlier than in 1901, and Payer Harbor was 
 blockaded almost continuously. The Windward bored her way through 
 the ice and entered the harbor the morning of August 5, and got out 
 again the same afternoon with scarcely fifteen minutes to spare before 
 
ROBERT E. PEARY. 
 
 517 
 
 the harbor was closed by the ice. The summer voyage has been without 
 mishap, and Windward, with her new engines, has made as good time 
 as the larger and more powerful ships that have been going north the 
 past ten years. 
 
 "The year at Payer Harbor was passed comfortably, though an 
 anxious strain, caused by the ravages of disease among my faithful 
 people, was not light. Food was abundant, and our supply of musk ox 
 and deer meat continued throughout the year. The northern sledge 
 trip in the spring was arduous but not marked by special exposure? 
 suffering or danger more than is necessarily incidental to serious Arctic 
 
 MUSK-OX HUNTING. 
 
 work. Equipment and personnel were satisfactory, and further advance 
 was vetoed by insuperable natural conditions." This was Peary's de- 
 liberate abandonment of his well-equipped expedition. 
 
 Though he has not yet reached the goal of his ambition, Lieutenant 
 Peary has achieved a record as a most indefatigable, earnest and success- 
 ful Arctic explorer. His last year was the twelfth consecutive year, and 
 the thirteenth in all, some portion of which he spent in the Arctic regions. 
 He went to Greenland in 1886, and practically crossed that continent at 
 that time. When he went again, in 189 1, he wintered on the west coast, 
 and in the spring went diagonally over the ice cap to a point on the 
 northeast coast of Greenland, never before visited. As he was yet on 
 
518 ROBERT E. PEARY. 
 
 the spot on July 4, 1892, he named the great indentation of the continent 
 which he found there, "Independence Bay." 
 
 The next time he visited the Arctic, in 1893, it was to stay two years. 
 Mrs. Peary accompanied him on this occasion, although she returned to 
 the United States the following summer. It was only a few weeks after 
 her arrival at the site chosen for the winter camp that first year that Mrs 
 Peary's only child was born. Peary made trips to the northward from 
 Anniversary Lodge, on Whale Sound, in the spring seasons of both 1894 
 and 1895. Furious storms and inadequate supplies thwarted his effort on 
 the first occasion. On the second, with two companions, he tramped up 
 to Independence Bay, on the north shore of Greenland, and came back 
 with only one dog and no food as the result of his trip. 
 
 A HUGE METEORITE. 
 
 In 1896, anc! again in 1897, Peary went north, and returned the 
 same season. On the former occasion he brought down some small 
 masses of iron, believed to be of meteoric origin, and in 1897 he brought 
 an immense block of the same character, said to contain nearly one hun- 
 dred tons of metal. 
 
 Before his next start, in 1898, Peary visited England, where he 
 received much attention from geographical and other scientific societies. 
 At this time he outlined his plans for the future in public lectures. To 
 that trip is due, perhaps, the gift of the ship Windward, then owned 
 by Mr. Harmsworth, and afterwards used by Jackson for an expedition to 
 Franz Josef Land. 
 
 Peary also received handsome backing from his own fellow country- 
 men. A club was organized, composed of twenty-five members, each of 
 whom was to contribute $1,000 a year for four years to promote Peary's 
 plans. It is under these auspices that his last expedition was equipped 
 and maintained. 
 
 Peary left for his last trip in July, 1898. He hoped to be able to 
 push the Windward up the west coast of Greenland through Smith Sound 
 and Robeson Channel, and establish a winter camp on Sherard Osborn 
 
ROBERT E. PEARY. 
 
 519 
 
 Fjord, near the eighty-second parallel of latitude. His intention was, 
 when early spring came, to start over the ice pack north of the continent 
 with dogs and sledges. But the ice prevented the Windward going more 
 
 PEARY AND PARTY CROSSING A HEAVY ICE-PACK. 
 
 than fifty miles above Cape Sabine, and the latter stayed there from 
 August 18, 1898, to August 2, 1899. A1 l during the autumn, winterand 
 spring sledge parties went out in various directions. Much geographical 
 data, for perfection of maps, was secured, and a great deal of game shot. 
 
520 ROBERT E. PEARY. 
 
 The most important of all these ventures was a journey in sledges 
 from the ship up to Fort Conger, on Lady Franklin Bay. This is on the 
 west side of Robeson Channel, and, though visited repeatedly since that 
 time (December, 1898) it had then been deserted ever since Greely's 
 party left it in 1883. While on the way Peary was overtaken by a severe 
 storm and one of his feet was frost-bitten. When he got back to his ship 
 again it was necessary to have several toes amputated. This experience 
 unfitted him for any attempt to reach the Pole, and none was made. 
 The Peary Club sent the Diana up in 1899 with food and mail, and she 
 returned two or three months later, preceded by the Windward. 
 
 REACHED MOST NORTHERN POINT. 
 
 Starting from Fort Conger with his faithful negro servant, Henson, 
 and five Eskimos on April 15, 1900, Peary crossed Robeson Channel on 
 the ice to Greenland. He pursued the plan of sending back his Eskimos 
 with their sleds as fast as the provisions loaded upon the latter were 
 exhausted, so that early in May he had with him only one strong team, 
 one Eskimo and Henson. Skirting the north coast, Peary reached the 
 cairn left by Lockwood in 1882 — then the furthest north reached by 
 man— on May 13, 1900. He rounded the northernmost point of Green- 
 land, in latitude 83.39, a ^ ew days later. This, by the way, is the 
 northernmost land yet trod by human feet. 
 
 Peary here pushed out upon the ice, in hope of reaching the Pole. 
 Eleven miles further north, in latitude 83.50, he found so wide a streak 
 of water that he could not cross. That settled his fate for 1900. Turn- 
 ing back to the land, he followed the coast on eastward, 160 miles beyond 
 Lockwood's " furthest," and within a degree of Independence Bay, 
 visited by him seven or eight years before. Fort Conger was reached 
 in safety on July ibth, almost three months from the time of his de- 
 parture. 
 
 To open up communication with Peary, in 1900, the Windward was 
 dispatched northward. Mrs. Peary went with the ship. It had been 
 planned to have the vessel return before cold weather, but the season was 
 
ROBERT E. PEARY. 521 
 
 not favorable. On the way up the Windward stopped first at Etah, and 
 then pushed on to Cape Sabine, where Peary had already arrived. The 
 ship remained there, or, rather, in Payer Harbor, close by — from August 
 15, until July, 1901. 
 
 Satisfied by the experience of a previous year that the ice pack 
 north of Greenland was not solid enough to encourage a fresh venture, 
 Peary decided that his attempt in the spring of 1901 should be made 
 from Grant Land, on the west side of Robeson Channel. He would 
 make Fort Conger his preliminary base again, and seek to leave the land 
 at Cape Hecla, said to be the northernmost point of land in the vast 
 archipelago west of Greenland. Late in the winter, therefore, instead 
 of staying down near his ship, Peary was quartered at Fort Conger. 
 
 April 5, 1 901, he started with Henson, one Eskimo, two sledges and 
 twelve dogs for the vicinity of Cape Hecla. On reaching the vicinity 
 of Lincoln Bay, he found the condition of the men and dogs was such 
 that he was obliged to turn back. Late in April, he started southward, 
 and arrived at Cape Sabine on his birthday, May 6th. Several weeks 
 later the Erik arrived from the south with mail and food. Then both 
 the relief ship and the Windward returned to lower latitudes, Mrs. Peary 
 coming home on her husband's own ship. The report of this last year's 
 accomplishment, as given earlier in this article, completes substantially 
 he record of these years of effort in the North. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 HEROINES OF THE HOSPITAL 
 AND BATTLEFIELD. 
 
 WOMEN WHO HAVE FOLLOWED ARMIES TO CARE FOR THE WOUNDED 
 AND DYING — MINISTERING ANGELS OF MERCY — NOBLE ART OF 
 NURSING — ONE ATTRACTIVE ELEMENT IN THE SAVAGERY OF WAR. 
 
 Among the .personal influences that have altered the everyday life 
 of the present century, the future historian will probably allot a promi- 
 nent place to that of Florence Nightingale. Before she took up the work 
 of her life, the art of sick nursing in England can hardly have been said 
 to exist. Almost every one had a well-founded horror of the hired nurse ; 
 she was often ignorant, cruel, rapacious, and drunken ; and when she was 
 not quite as bad as that, she was prej udiced, superstitious, and impervious 
 to new ideas or knowledge. 
 
 The worst type of the nurse of the pre-Nightingale era has been 
 portrayed by Dickens in his "Sairey Gamp" with her bottle of gin or rum 
 upon the "chimbley piece/' handy for her to put it to her lips when 
 she was "so dispoged." u Sairey Gamp" is one of the blessings of the 
 good old days which have now vanished forever ; with her disappearance 
 has also gradually disappeared the repugnance with which the profes- 
 sional nurse was at one time almost universally regarded ; and there is 
 now hardly any one who has not had cause to be thankful for the quick, 
 gentle, and skilful assistance of the trained nurse. 
 
 Miss Nightingale never favored the curiosity of those who would 
 
 wish to pry into the details of her private history. She was indeed so 
 522 
 
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 523 
 
 retiring that there is some difficulty in getting accurate information about 
 anything concerning her, with the exception of her public work. In a 
 letter she allowed to be published, she says, "Being naturally a very shy 
 person, most of my life has been distasteful to me." 
 
 It would be very ungrateful and unbecoming in those who have bene- 
 fited by her self- forgetful labors to attempt in any way to thwart her desire 
 for privacy as to her personal affairs. The attention of the readers of 
 this sketch will therefore be directed to Miss Nightingale's public work, 
 and what the world, and women in particular, have gained by the noble 
 example she set of how women's work should be done. 
 
 CARE OF THE SICK IS WOMEN'S WORK. 
 
 From time immemorial it has been universally recognized that the 
 care of the sick is women's work ; but somehow, partly from the low 
 standard of women's education, partly from the false notion that all paid 
 work was in a way degrading to a woman's gentility, it seemed to be 
 imagined that women could do this work of caring for the sick without 
 any special teaching or preparation for it ; and as all paid work was sup- 
 posed to be unladylike, no woman undertook it unless she was driven to 
 it by the dire stress of poverty, and had therefore neither the time nor 
 means to acquire the training necessary to do it well. 
 
 The lesson of Florence Nightingale's life is that painstaking study 
 and preparation are just as necessary for women's work as they are for 
 men's work. No young man attempts responsible work as a doctor, a 
 lawyer, an engineer, or even a gardener or mechanic, without spending 
 long years in fitting himself for his work ; but in old times women seemed 
 to think they could do all their work, in governessing, nursing, or what 
 not, by the light of nature, and without any special teaching and prepara- 
 tion whatever. There is still some temptation on the part of women to 
 fall into this fatal error. 
 
 A young woman, not long ago, who had studied medicine in India 
 only two years, was placed at the head of a dispensary and hospital for 
 native women. Who would have dreamt of taking a boy, after only two 
 
524 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 years' study, for a post of similar responsibility and difficulty? Of 
 course failure and disappointment resulted, and it will probably be a long 
 time before the native community in that part of India recover their 
 confidence in lady doctors. 
 
 Miss Nightingale spent nearly ten years in studying nursing before 
 she considered herself qualified to undertake the sanitary direction of 
 even a small hospital. She went from place to place, not confining her 
 studies to her own country. She spent about a year at the hospital and 
 4vitti$ing institution at Kaiserswerth on the Rhine in 1849^ This had 
 been founded by Pastor Fliedner, and was under the care of a Protestant 
 Sisterhood who had perfected the art of sick nursing to a degree unknown 
 at that time in 'any other part of Europe. 
 
 WEALTH NO OESTACLE TO HER LABORS. 
 
 From: Kaise'rswerth she visited institutions for similar purposes, in 
 other parts of Germany, and in France and Italy. It is obvious she could 
 not have devoted the time and money which all this preparation must 
 have cost if she had not been a member of a wealthy family. The fact 
 that she was so makes her example all the more valuable. She was the 
 daughter and co-heiress of a wealthy country gentleman of Lea Hurst in 
 Derbyshire, and Embly Park in Hampshire. As a young girl she had 
 the choice of all that wealth, luxmy, and fashion could offer in the way 
 of self-indulgence and ease, and she set them all on one side for the sake 
 of learning how to benefit suffering humanity by making sick nursing an 
 art in England. 
 
 In the letter already quoted Miss Nightingale gives, in reply to a 
 special appeal, advice to young women about their work : "1. I would say 
 also to all young ladies who are called to any particular vocation, qualify 
 yourselves for it, as a man does for his work. Don't think you can 
 undertake it otherwise. No one should attempt to teach the Greek lan- 
 guage until he is master of the language; and this he can only become 
 by hard study. 
 
 "2. If you are called to man's work, do not exact a woman's privileges 
 
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 525 
 
 — the privilege of inaccuracy, of weakness, ye inuddleheads. Submit 
 3 r ourselves to the rules of business, as men do, by which alone you can 
 make God's business succeed ; for He has never said that He will give 
 His success and His blessing to inefficiency, to sketchy and unfinished 
 work." 
 
 Here without intending it, Miss Nightingale drew a picture of her 
 own character and methods. Years of hard study prepared her for her 
 work ; no inaccuracy, no weakness, no muddleheadedness was to be found 
 in what she undertook ; everything was business-like, orderly, and 
 thorough. Those who knew her in the hospital spoke of her as combining 
 u the voice of velvet and the will of steel." 
 
 "BETTER THAN NURSE OR DOCTOR" 
 
 She was not content with having a natural vocation for her work, 
 [t is said that when she was a young girl she was accustomed to dress 
 :he wounds of those who were hurt in the lead mines and quarries of her 
 •erbyshire home, and that the saying was, "Our good young miss is 
 >etter than nurse or doctor." If this is accurate, she did not err by 
 lurying her talent in the earth, and thinking that because she had a 
 Latural gift there was no need to cultivate it. She saw rather that 
 >ecause she had a natural gift it was her duty to increase it and make 
 it of the utmost benefit to mankind. 
 
 At the end of her ten years' training, she came to the nursing home 
 and hospital for governesses in Harley Street, an excellent institution, 
 which at that time had fallen into some disorder through mismanagement. 
 She stayed here from August, 1853, till October, 1854, and in those four- 
 teen months placed the domestic, financial and sanitary affairs of the 
 little hospital on a sound footing. 
 
 Now, however, the work with which her name will always be asso- 
 ciated, and for which she will always be loved and honored, was about to 
 commence. The Crimean war broke out early in 1854, and within a very 
 few weeks of the commencement of actual fighting, every one at home 
 was horrified and ashamed to hear of the frightful disorganization of the 
 
526 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 supplies, and of the utter breakdown of the commissariat and medical 
 arrangements. The most hopeless hugger-mugger reigned triumphant. 
 The tinned meats sent out from England were little better than poison ; 
 ships arrived with stores of boots which proved all to be for the left foot. 
 (Muddleheads do not all belong to one sex.) The medical arrangements 
 for the sick and wounded were on a par with the rest. 
 
 Mr. Justin M'Carthy, in his History of Our Own Times, speaks of 
 the hospitals for the sick and wounded at Scutari as being in an abso- 
 lutely chaotic condition. "In some instances," he writes, "medical stores 
 were left to decay at Varna, or were found lying useless in the holds of 
 vessels in Balaklava Bay, which were needed for the wounded at Scutari. 
 The medical officers were able and zealous men ; the stores were provided 
 and paid for so far as our Government was concerned ; but the stores were 
 not brought to the medical men. These had their hands all but idle, 
 their eyes and squIs tortured by the sight of sufferings which they were 
 unable to relieve for want of the commonest appliances of the hospital." 
 
 MEN DYING LIKE SHEEP IN CAMP. 
 
 The result was that the most frightful mortality prevailed, not so 
 much from the inevitable risks of battle, but from the insanitary condi- 
 tions of the camp, the want of proper food, clothing, and fuel, and the 
 wretched hospital arrangements. Mr. Mackenzie, author of a History of 
 the Nineteenth Century, gives the following facts and figures with regard 
 to the total losses in the Crimea : "Out of a total loss of 20,656, only 2598 
 were slain in battle ; 18,058 died in hospital." "Several regiments became 
 literally extinct. One had but seven men left fit for duty ; another had 
 thirty. When the sick were put on board transports, to be conveyed to 
 , hospital, the mortality was shocking. In some ships one man in every 
 four died in a voyage of seven days. In some of the hospitals recovery 
 was the rare exception. At one time four-fifths of the poor fellows who 
 underwent amputation died of hospital gangrene. During the first seven 
 months of the siege the men perished by disease at a rate which would 
 have extinguished the entire force in little more than a year and a half." 
 

 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 527 
 
 When these facts became known in England, the mingled grief, 
 shame, and anger of the whole nation were unbounded. It was then that 
 Mr. Sidney Herbert, who was Minister of War, appealed to Miss Night- 
 ingale to organize and take out with her a band of trained nurses. It is 
 needless to say that she consented. She was armed with full authority 
 to cut the swathes of red tape that had proved shrouds to so many 
 soldiers. On the 21st of October, 1854, Miss Nightingale, accompanied 
 by forty-two other ladies, all trained nurses, set sail for the Crimea. They 
 arrived at Constantinople on the 4th of November, the eve of Inkerman, 
 which was fought on the 5th of November. 
 
 QUICK IMPROVEMENT IN HOSPITAL SERVICE. 
 
 Their first work, therefore, was to receive into the wards, which were 
 already filled by 2300 men, the wounded from what proved the severest 
 and fiercest engagement of the campaign. Miss Nightingale and her 
 band of nurses proved fully equal to the charge they had undertaken. 
 She, by a combination of inexorable firmness with unvarying gentleness, 
 evolved order out of chaos. After her arrival, there were no more com- 
 plaints of the inefficiency of the hospital arrangements for the army. 
 The extraordinary way in which she spent herself and let herself be 
 spent will never be forgotten. 
 
 She has been known to stand for twenty hours at a stretch, in order 
 to see the wounded provided with every means of easing their condition. 
 Her attention was directed not only to nursing the sick and wounded, 
 but to removing the causes which had made the camp and the hospitals 
 so deadly to their inmates. The extent of the work of mere nursing 
 may be estimated by the fact that a few months after her arrival ten 
 thousand sick men were under her care, and the rows of beds in one 
 hospital alone, the Barrack Hospital at Scutari, measured two miles and 
 one-third in length, with an average distance between each bed of two 
 feet six inches. 
 
 Miss Nightingale's personal influence and authority over the men 
 were immensely and deservedly strong They knew she had left the 
 
528 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 comforts and refinements of a wealthy home to be of service to them. 
 Her slight, delicate form, her steady nerve, her kindly, conciliating man- 
 ner, and her absolute self-devotion, awoke a passion of chivalrous feeling 
 on the part of the men she tended. Sometimes a soldier would refuse to 
 submit to a painful but necessary operation until a few calm sentences of 
 hers seemed at once to allay the storm, and the man would submit will- 
 ingly to the ordeal he had to undergo. 
 
 One soldier said, " Before she came here, there was such cursin' 
 and swearing, and after that it was as holy as a church." Another said 
 to Mr. Sidney Herbert, "She would speak to one and another, and nod 
 and smile to many more ; but she could not do it to all, you know — we 
 lay there in hundreds — but we could kiss her shadow as it fell, and lay 
 our heads on the pillow again, content." 
 
 WELCOMED BY WHOLE NATION. 
 
 This incident, of the wounded soldier turning to kiss her shadow as 
 it passed, was woven into a beautiful poem by Longfellow. It is called 
 " Santa Filomena." The fact that she had been born in, and had been 
 named after the city of Florence, may have suggested to the poet to turn 
 her name into the language of the country of her birth. 
 
 Miss Nightingale suffered from an attack of hospital fever in the 
 spring of 1855, but as soon as possible she returned to her laborious post, 
 and never quitted it till the war was over and the last soldier was on his 
 way home. When she returned to England she received such a welcome 
 as probably has fallen to no other woman ; all distinctions of party and 
 of rank were forgotten in the one wish to do her honor. 
 
 She was presented by the Queen with a jewel in commemoration of 
 her work in the Crimea, and a national testimonial was set on foot, to which 
 a sum of ^50,000 ($250,000) was subscribed. It is unnecessary to say 
 that Miss Nightingale did not accept this testimonial for her own personal 
 benefit. The sum was devoted to the permanent endowment of schools 
 for the training of nurses in St. Thomas's and King's College Hospitals. 
 
 Since the Crimea no European war has taken place without calling 
 
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 529 
 
 forth the service of trained bauds of skilled nurses. Within ten years of 
 Florence Nightingale's labors in the East, the nations of Europe agreed 
 at the Geneva Convention upon certain rules and regulations, with the 
 object of ameliorating the condition of the sick and wounded in war. By 
 this convention all ambulances and military hospitals were neutralized, 
 and their inmates and staff were henceforth to be regarded as non-com- 
 batants. The distinguishing red cross of the Geneva Convention is now 
 universally recognized as the one civilized element in the savagery 
 of war. 
 
 SANTA FILOMENA. 
 
 BY H. W. LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Whene'er a noble deed is wrought, 
 Whene'er is spoken a noble thought, 
 
 Our hearts, in glad surprise, 
 
 To higher levels rise. 
 
 The tidal wave of deepest souls 
 
 Into our inmost being rolls, 
 And lifts us unawares 
 Out of all meaner cares. 
 
 Honor to those whose words or deeds 
 Thus help us in our daily needs, 
 And by their overflow 
 Raise us from what is low. 
 
 Thus thought I, as by night I read 
 Of the great army of the dead, 
 The trenches cold and damp, 
 The starved and frozen camp ; 
 
 The wounded from the battle plain 
 
 In dreary hospitals of pain, 
 The cheerless corridors, 
 The cold and stony floors. 
 
 Lo ! in that house of misery 
 A lady with a lamp I see 
 
 Pass through the glimmering gloom, 
 And flit from room to room. 
 
 And slow, as in a dream of bliss, 
 The speechless sufferer turns to kiss 
 Her shadow, as it falls 
 Upon the darkened walls. 
 
 As if a door in heaven should be 
 Opened, and then closed suddenly, 
 The vision came and went, 
 The light shone and was spent. 
 
 On England's annals, through the long 
 Hereafter of her speech and song, 
 
 That light its rays shall cast 
 
 From portals of the past. 
 
 A lady with a lamp shall stand 
 In the great history of the land, 
 
 A noble type of good 
 
 Heroic womanhood. 
 
 Nor even shall be wanting here 
 The palm, the lily, and the spear, 
 
 The symbols that of yore 
 
 Saint Filomena bore. 
 
 "These French Zouaves,' ' wrote Dr. Russell, the celebrated corre- 
 spondent of the London Times, u are first-rate foragers. You may see 
 
 34 
 
530 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 them in all directions laden with eggs, meat, fish, vegetables (onions) 
 and other good things, while our fellows can get nothing. Sometimes, 
 our servant is sent out to cater for breakfast or dinner ; he returns with 
 the usual ' Me and the colonel's servant has been all over the town, and 
 can get nothing but eggs and onions, sir ;' and lo ! round the corner 
 appears a red-breeched Zouave or Chasseur, a bottle of wine under his 
 left arm, half a lamb under the other, and poultry, fish, and other lux- 
 uries dangling round him. ' I'm sure, I don't know how these French 
 manages it, sir,' says the crestfallen Mercury, and retires to cook the 
 eggs." 
 
 Some of the general officers, instead of directing their energies to 
 remedying this state of things, appear to have been chiefly concerned in 
 compelling men to shave every day, and to wear their leathern stocks on 
 parade. One of the generals, it is said, hated hair on the heads and faces 
 of soldiers with a kind of mania. " Where there is much hair," said he, 
 " there is dirt, and where there is dirt there will be disease ; " forgetting 
 that hair was placed upon the human head and face to protect it against 
 winds and weather such as these soldiers were experiencing. 
 
 LOUD CHEERS FROM THE SOLDIERS. 
 
 It was not until the army had been ten weeks in the field, and were 
 exposed to the blazing heat of summer, that the Queen's own guards 
 were permitted to leave off those terrible stocks, and they celebrated the 
 joyful event by three as thundering cheers as ever issued from the eman- 
 cipated throats of men. After six months' service, the great boon was 
 granted of permitting the men to wear a mustache, but not a beard. It 
 was not until almost all order was lost and stamped out of sight in the 
 mire and snow of the following winter, that the general in command 
 allowed his troops to enjoy the protection of the full beard. Nor were 
 the private habits of the men conducive to the preservation of their health. 
 
 Twenty soldiers of one regiment ' were in the guard-house on the 
 same day for drunkenness, at Gallipoli. As late as the middle of April 
 there was still a lamentable scarcity of everything required for the hos- 
 

 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 531 
 
 pital. "There were no blankets for the sick," wrote Dr. Russell, "no 
 beds, no mattresses, no medical comforts of any kind ; and the invalid 
 soldiers had to lie for several days on the bare boards, in a wooden house, 
 with nothing but a single blanket as bed and covering." 
 
 Every time the army moved it seemed to get into worse quarters, 
 and to be more wanting in necessary supplies. The camp at Aladyn, 
 where the army was posted at the end of June, was a melancholy example 
 of this truth. The camp was ten miles from the sea, in the midst of a 
 country utterly deserted, and the only communication between the camp 
 and the post was furnished by heavy carts, drawn by buffaloes, at the 
 rate of a mile and a half an hour ; and by this kind of transportation an 
 army of twenty-five thousand men, and thirteen thousand horses, had to 
 be fed. The scene can be imagined, as well as the results upon the com- 
 fort and health of the troops. 
 
 LAMENTABLE OUTBREAK OF CHOLERA. 
 
 In July the cholera broke out, and carried off officers and men of 
 both armies in considerable numbers. July the 24th, it suddenly appeared 
 in the camp of the light division, and twenty men died in twenty-four 
 hours. A sergeant attacked at seven, a. m., was dead at noon. What 
 was, at once, remarkable and terrible in this disease, it was often quite 
 painless. And yet, in the midst of all this horror and death, the soldiers 
 of both armies exhibited a wonderful recklessness. 
 
 "You find them," wrote Dr. Russell, "lying drunk in the kennels, 
 or in the ditches by the roadsides, under the blazing rays of the sun, 
 covered with swarms of flies. You see them in stupid sobriety, gravely 
 paring the rind off cucumbers of portentous dimensions, and eating the 
 deadly cylinders one after another, to. the number of six or eight, — ail 
 the while sitting in groups, in the open streets ; or, frequently, three or 
 four of them will make a happy bargain with a Greek, for a large basket- 
 ful of apricots, watermelons, wooden pears, and green gages, and then 
 the}^ retire beneath the shades of a tree, where they divide and eat the 
 luscious food till naught remains but a heap of peels, rind, and stones. 
 
532 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 They dilute the mass of fruit with peach brandy, and then straggle home, 
 or go to sleep as best they can." 
 
 Think of the military discipline which could compel the wearing of 
 stocks, forbid the growth of a beard, and permit such heedless suicide as 
 this, of men appointed to maintain the honor of their country's flag on 
 foreign soil ! How incredible it would be, if we had not abundant proof 
 of the fact, that, at this very time, a lieutenant-general issued an order 
 directing cavalry officers to lay in a stock of yellow ochre and pipe clay, 
 for the use of the men in rubbing up their uniforms and accoutrements ! 
 
 IN A RAINSTORM WITHOUT TENTS. 
 
 On the 13th of September, 1854, twenty-seven thousand British 
 troops were landed upon the shores of the Crimea, and marched six 
 miles into the country. There was not so much as a tree for shelter on 
 that bleak and destitute coast. The French troops who landed on the 
 same day had small shelter tents with them ; but in all the English host 
 there was but one tent. Towards night the wind rose, and it began to 
 rain. At midnight, the rain fell in torrents, and continued to do so all 
 the rest of the night, penetrating the blankets and overcoats of the troops, 
 and beating pitilessly down upon the aged generals, the young dandies, 
 the steady going gentlemen, as well as upon the private soldiers of the 
 English army, who slept in puddles, ditches, and watercourses, without 
 fire, without grog, and without any certain prospect of breakfast. One 
 general slept under a cart, and the Duke of Cambridge himself was no 
 better accommodated. This was but the beginning of misery. 
 
 On the following day, signals were made on the admiral's ship for 
 all the vessels of the great fleet to send their sick men on board the 
 Kangaroo. Thoughtless order ! In the course of the day, this vessel 
 was surrounded by hundreds of boats filled with sick soldiers and sailors, 
 and it was soon crowded to suffocation. Before night closed in, there 
 were fifteen hundred sick on board of her, and the scene was so full of 
 horror that the details were deemed unfit for publication. The design 
 was that these sick men should be conveyed on the Kangaroo to the 
 
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 533 
 
 neighborhood of Constantinople, to be placed in hospital. But when she 
 had been crammed with her miserable freight, she was ascertained to be 
 nnseaworthy, and all the fifteen hnndred had to be transferred to other 
 vessels. Many deaths occurred during the process of removal. 
 
 On the same day men were dying on the beach, and did actually die, 
 without any medical assistance whatever. When the hospital was about 
 to be established at Balaklava, some days after, sick men were sent 
 thither before the slightest preparation for them had been made, and 
 many of them remained in the open street for several hours in the rain. 
 
 TENTS THEIR ONLY SHELTER IN WINTER. 
 
 Winter came on — such a winter as we are accustomed to in and 
 near the city of New York or Chicago. The whole army were still living 
 in tents. No adequate preparation had been made, of any kind, for pro- 
 tecting the troops against such snows, and cold, and rain, as they were 
 certain to experience. This hurricane broke upon the camp early in the 
 morning of November the fourteenth, an hour before daylight, the wind 
 bringing with it torrents of rain. The air was filled with blankets, coats, 
 .hats, jackets, quilts, bedclothes, tents, and even with tables and chairs. 
 Wagons and ambulances were overturned by the force of the wind. 
 Almost every tent was laid prostrate. 
 
 The cavalry horses, terrified at the noise, broke loose, and the whole 
 country, as far as the eye could reach, was covered with galloping horses. 
 During the day the storm continued to rage, while not a fire could be 
 lighted, nor any beginning made of repairing the damage. Towards 
 night it began to snow, and a driving storm of snow and sleet tormented 
 the army during the night. This storm proved more deadly on sea than 
 on shore, and many a ship, stored with warm clothing, of which these 
 troops were in perishing need, went to the bottom of the Black Sea. 
 
 A few days after, Doctor Russell wrote : "It is now pouring rain — 
 the skies are black as ink — the wind is howling over the staggering 
 tents — the trenches are turned into dykes — in the tents the water is 
 sometimes a foot deep — our men have not either warm or water-proof 
 
534 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 clothing — they are out for twelve hours at a time in the trenches, — 
 they are plunged into the inevitable miseries of a winter campaign — 
 and not a soul seems to care for their comfort, or even for their lives. 
 
 "These are hard truths, but the people of England must hear them. 
 They must know that the wretched beggar, who wanders about the streets 
 of London in the rain, leads the life of a prince compared with the British 
 soldiers who are fighting out here for their country, and who, we are 
 complacently assured by the home authorities, are the best appointed 
 arm}^ in Europe. They are well fed, indeed, but they have no shelter, 
 no rest, and no defense against the weather. The tents, so long ex- 
 posed to the blaze of a Bulgarian sun, and now continually drenched by 
 torrents of rain, let the wet through 'like sieves/ and are perfectly useless 
 as protections against the weather." 
 
 DEMAND FOR EDUCATED NURSES. 
 
 The great horror was the neglect of the sick in the hospitals, and a 
 demand arose for a corps of skilful, educated nurses. There was but one 
 woman in England fitted by character, position, and education, to head 
 such a band. Sidney Herbert, a member of the British Cabinet, was an 
 old friend of Florence Nightingale's father. Mr. Herbert was thus 
 acquainted with the peculiar bent of Miss Nightingale's disposition 
 and the nature of her training. By a curious coincidence, and yet not 
 an unnatural one, she wrote to him offering her services, and he wrote 
 to her asking her aid, on the same day. Other ladies of birth and 
 fortune volunteered to accompany her, to whom were added some superior 
 professional nurses. October the 24th, 1854, Florence Nightingale, ac- 
 companied b}^ a clerical friend and his wife, and by a corps of thirty- 
 seven nurses, left England for the Crimea, followed by the benedictions 
 of millions of their countrymen. 
 
 They traveled through France to Marseilles. On their journey the 
 ladies were treated with more than the usual politeness of Frenchmen ; 
 the innkeepers and even the servants would not take payment for their 
 accommodation, and all ranks of people appeared to "be in most cordial 
 
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 535 
 
 sympathy with their mission. Among other compliments paid Miss 
 Nightingale by the press, one of the newspapers informed the public 
 that her dress was charming, and that she was almost as graceful as the 
 ladies of Paris. 
 
 From Marseilles they were conveyed in a steamer to Scutari, where 
 the principal hospitals were placed, which they reached on the 5th of 
 November. In all the town, crowded with misery in every form, there 
 were but five unoccupied rooms, which had been reserved for wounded 
 officers of high rank ; these were assigned to the nurses, and they at 
 once entered upon the performance of their duty. They came none too 
 soon. In a few hours wounded men in great numbers began to be 
 brought in from the action of Balaklava, and, ere long, thousands more 
 arrived from the bloody field of Inkerman. Fortunately the " Times " 
 commissioner was present to supply Miss Nightingale's first demands. 
 Some days elapsed, however, before men ceased to die for want of stores, 
 which had been supplied, which were present in the town, but which 
 could not be obtained at the place and moment required. One of the 
 nurses reported that, during the first night of her attendance, eleven 
 men died before her eyes, whom a little wine or arrow-root would almost 
 certainly have benefited and probably have saved. 
 
 NO TIME FOR RED TAPE. 
 
 Miss Nightingale at once comprehended that it was no time to stand 
 upon trifles. On the second day after her arrival six hundred wounded 
 men were brought in, and the number increased until there were three 
 thousand patients under her immediate charge. Miss Nightingale, one 
 of the gentlest and tenderest of women, surveyed the scene of confusion 
 and anguish with unruffled mind, and issued her orders with the calm- 
 ness that comes of certain knowledge of what is best to be done. 
 
 If red tape interposed, she quietly cut it. If there was no one near 
 who was authorized to unlock a storehouse, she took a few Turks with 
 her, and stood by while they broke it open. During the first week her 
 labors were arduous beyond what would have been thought possible for 
 
536 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 any one ; she was known to stand for twenty hours directing the labors 
 of men and women. Yet, however fatigued she might be, her manner 
 was always serene, and she had a smile or a compassionate word for the 
 suffering as she passed them by. 
 
 As soon as the first needs of the men were supplied, she established 
 a washing-house, which she found time herself to superintend. Before 
 that was done, there had been a washing contract in existence, the con- 
 ditions of which were so totally neglected by the contractor, that the 
 linen of the whole hospital was foul and rotten. She established a 
 kitchen, which she also managed to inspect, in which hundreds of gallons 
 of beef tea, and other liquid food, were prepared every day. She knew 
 precisely how all these things should be done ; she was acquainted with 
 the best apparatus for doing them ; and she was thus enabled, out of the 
 rough material around her — that is to say, out of boards, camp-kettles, 
 camp-stores, and blundering Turks — to create laundries and kitchens 
 which answered the purpose well, until better could be provided. 
 
 A MINISTERING ANGEL IN HOSPITALS, 
 
 She also well understood the art of husbanding skilful labor. When 
 a few nurses could be spared from the wards of the hospital, she set them 
 to preparing padding for amputated limbs, and other surgical appliances ; 
 so that when a thousand wounded suddenly arrived from the battlefield, 
 men no longer perished for the want of some trifling but indispensable 
 article, which foresight could have provided. 
 
 The " Times " commissioner wrote: " She is a ministering angel 
 in these hospitals ; and, as her slender form glides quietly along each 
 corridor, every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. 
 When all the medical officers have retired for the night, and silence and 
 darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be 
 observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary 
 rounds." What a picture is this ! 
 
 The same writer continues: "The popular instinct was not mis- 
 taken which, when she set out from England on her mission of mercy, 
 
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 537 
 
 hailed her as a heroine. I trust that she may not earn her title to a 
 higher though sadder appellation. No one who has observed her fragile 
 figure and delicate health can avoid misgivings lest these should fail. 
 With the heart of a true woman, and the manners of a lady, accom- 
 plished and refined beyond most of her sex, she combines a surprising 
 calmness of judgment, and promptitude, and decision of character." 
 
 Incredible as it now seems, the arrival of these ladies was far from 
 being welcomed either by the medical or military officers, and it required 
 all the firmness and tact of a Florence Nightingale to overcome the 
 obstacles which were placed or left in her way. Several weeks passed 
 before the hospital authorities cordially co-operated with her. A witty 
 clergyman remarked : " She belongs to a sect which unfortunately is a 
 very rare one — the sect of the Good Samaritans." 
 
 PERSONAL APPEARANCE AND ATTRACTIONS. 
 
 An excellent and liberal-minded chaplain, the Rev. S. G. Osborne, 
 in his work on the Hospitals of Scutari, describes, in the most interest- 
 ing manner, the appearance and demeanor of Miss Nightingale. " In 
 appearance," he says, " she is just what you would expect in any other 
 well-bred woman who may have seen, perhaps, rather more than thirty 
 years of life ; her manner and countenance are prepossessing, and this 
 without the possession of positive beauty ; it is a face not easily forgot- 
 ten, pleasing in its smile, with an eye betokening great self-possession, 
 and giving, when she pleases, a quiet look of firm determination to every 
 feature. Her general demeanor is quiet and rather reserved ; still, I 
 am much mistaken if she is not gifted with a very lively sense of the 
 ridiculous. 
 
 " In conversation, she speaks on matters of business with a grave 
 earnestness one would not expect from her appearance. She has evidently 
 a mind disciplined to restrain, under the pressure of the action of the 
 moment, every feeling which would interfere with it. She has trained 
 herself to command, and learned the value of conciliation towards others 
 and constraint over herself. I can conceive her to be a strict disciplin- 
 
538 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 arian ; she throws herself into a work as its head — as such she knows 
 well how much success must depend upon literal obedience to her every 
 order. She seems to understand business thoroughly. Her nerve is 
 wonderful ! I have been with her at very severe operations : she was 
 more than equal to the trial. 
 
 "She has an utter disregard of contagion. I have known her spend 
 hours over men dying of cholera or fever. The more awful to every 
 sense any particular case, especially if it was that of a dying man, her 
 slight form would be seen bending over him, administering to his ease 
 in every way in her power, and seldom quitting his side till death 
 released him." Only a Florence Nightingale could do this. 
 
 IN RAPTURES OVER BRIGHT FLOWERS. 
 
 Speaking of the delight which the sick take in flowers, she says: "I 
 have seen in fevers (and felt when I was a fever patient) the most 
 acute suffering produced, from the patient (in a hut) not being able to 
 see out of window, and the knots in the wood being the only view. I 
 shall never forget the rapture of fever patients over a bunch of bright- 
 colored flowers. I remember (in my own case) a nosegay of wild 
 flowers being sent me, and from that moment recovery becoming more 
 rapid. " 
 
 By this time, excursionists and yachtsmen began to arrive at the 
 Crimea, one of whom lent her a yacht, the use of which much aided her 
 recovery. When she first sailed in it, she had to be carried to the vessel 
 in the arms of men. 
 
 She remained in the Crimea a year and ten months, and reached home 
 again in safety, but an invalid for life, on the 8th of September, 1856. 
 All England felt that something must be done to mark the national 
 gratitude, and perpetuate the memory of it forever. Fifty thousand 
 pounds were raised, as already stated, almost without an effort, and it 
 was concluded at length, to employ this fund in enabling Miss Night- 
 ingale to establish an institution for the training of nurses. She sanc- 
 tioned and accepted this trust, and was chiefly employed afterwards 
 

 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 539 
 
 in labors connected with it. The Snltan of Turkey sent her a magnifi- 
 cent bracelet. The Queen of England gave her a cross beautifully 
 formed, and blazing with gems. The queen invited her also to visit her 
 retreat at Balmoral, and Miss Nightingale spent some days there receiv- 
 ing the homage of the royal family. 
 
 Not the least service which this noble lady has rendered the suffering 
 sons of men has been the publication of the work just referred to, entitled 
 "Notes on Nursing; what it is and what it is not," — one of the very few 
 little books of which it can be truly said that a copy ought to be in every 
 house. In this work, she gives the world, in a lively, vigorous manner, 
 the substance of all that knowledge of nursing, which she so labor- 
 iously acquired. Her directions are admirably simple, and still more 
 admirably wise, and are the result of experience. 
 
 CHIEF DUTIES OF A GOOD NURSE. 
 
 "The chief duty of a nurse," she says, "is simply this: 'To keep 
 the air which the patient breathes as pure as the external air, but 
 without chilling him.'" This, she insisted, is the main point, and is so 
 important that if you attend properly to that you may leave almost all 
 the rest to nature. She dwells most forcibly upon the absolute necessity, 
 and wonderfully curative power, of perfect cleanliness and bright light. 
 Her little chapter upon Noise in the Sick Room, in which she shows 
 how necessary it is for a patient never to be startled, disturbed, or 
 fidgeted, is most admirable and affecting. She seems to have entered 
 into the very soul of sick people, and to have as lively a sense of how 
 the} 7 feel, what they like, what gives them pain, what hinders or retards 
 their recovery, as though she were herself the wretch whose case she is 
 describing. If she had done nothing else in her life but produce this 
 wise, kind and pointed little work, she would deserve the gratitude of 
 suffering man. 
 
 The book, too, although remarkably free from direct allusions to 
 herself, contains much biographical material. We see the woman on 
 every page — the woman who takes nothing for granted, whom sophistry 
 
540 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 cannot deceive, who looks at things with her own honest eyes, reflects 
 upon them with her own fearless mind, and speaks of them in good, 
 downright, Nigthingale English. She ever returns to her grand, funda- 
 mental position, the curative power of fresh, pure air. Disease, she 
 remarks, is not an evil, but a blessing; it is a reparative process — an 
 effort of nature to get rid of something hostile to life. That being the 
 case, it is of the first importance to remove what she considers the chief 
 cause of disease — the inhaling of poisonous air. She laughs to scorn 
 the impious cant, so often employed to console bereaved parents, that 
 the death of children is a "mysterious dispensation of Providence." 
 No such thing. Children perish, she tells us, because they are packed 
 into un ventilated school-rooms, and sleep at night in unventilated 
 
 dormitories. 
 
 BLESSINGS OF PURE, FRESH AIR. 
 
 "An extraordinary fallacy," she says, " is the dread of night air. 
 What air can we breathe at night but night air ? The choice is 
 between pure night air from without and foul night air from within. 
 Most people prefer the latter. An unaccountable choice ! An open 
 window, most nights in the year, can never hurt any one." 
 Better, she remarks, shut the windows all day than all night. She 
 maintains, too, that the reason why people now-a-days, especially ladies, 
 are less robust than they were formerly, is because they pass the greater 
 part of their lives in breathing poison. Upon this point she expresses 
 herself with great force : — 
 
 "The houses of the grandmothers and great-grandmothers of this 
 generation (at least, the country houses), with front door and back door 
 always standing open, winter and summer, and a thorough draft always 
 blowing through — with all the scrubbing, and cleaning, and polishing, 
 and scouring, which used to go on — the grandmothers, and, still more, 
 the great-grandmothers, always out-of-doors, and never with a bonnet on 
 except to go church ; these things entirely account for a fact so often 
 seen of a great-grandmother who was a tower of physical vigor, descend- 
 ing into a grandmother, perhaps a little less vigorous, but still sound as 
 
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 541 
 
 a bell, and healthy to the core, into a mother languid and confined to 
 her carriage and her house, and lastly into a daughter sickly and 
 confined to her bed. 
 
 u For, remember, even with a general decrease of mortality, you may 
 often find a race thus degenerating, and still oftener a family. You may 
 see poor, little, feeble, washed-out rags, children of a noble stock, suf- 
 fering, morally and physically, throughout their useless, degenerate 
 lives ; and yet people who are going to marry and to bring more such 
 into the world, will consult nothing but their own convenience as to 
 where they are to live or how they are to live." 
 
 SMALL POX NOT ALWAYS FROM CONTAGION. 
 
 On the subject of contagion she has decided and important opinions. 
 "I was brought up," she says, "both by scientific men and ignorant 
 women, distinctly to believe that small-pox, for instance, was a thing of 
 which there was once a first specimen in the world, which went on 
 propagating itself in a perpetual chain of descent, just as much as that 
 there was a first dog (or a first pair of dogs), and that small-pox would 
 not begin itself any more than a new dog would begin without there 
 having been a parent dog. Since then I have seen with my eyes, and 
 smelt with my nose, small-pox growing up in first specimens, either in 
 close rooms or in overcrowded wards, where it could not by any possi- 
 bility have been caught, but must have begun. Nay, more. I have seen 
 diseases begin, grow up, and pass into one another. Now, dogs do not 
 pass into cats. I have seen, for instance, with a little overcrowding, con- 
 tinued fever grow up ; and, with a little more, typhoid fever ; and, with 
 a little more, typhus ; and all in the same ward or hut. Would it not 
 be far better, truer, and more practical, if we looked upon disease in 
 this light? " 
 
 "Again," she says, "why must a child have measles? If you 
 believed in and observed the laws for preserving the health of houses, 
 which inculcate cleanliness, ventilation, whitewashing, and other means 
 (and which, by the way, are laws) as implicitly as you believe in the 
 
542 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 popular opinion (for it is nothing more than an opinion) that your child 
 must have children's epidemics, don't you think that, upon the whole, 
 your child would be more likely to escape altogether? " 
 
 She has a very pleasing and suggestive passage upon the kind of 
 conversation which is most beneficial to the sick. " A sick person," she 
 observes, "does so enjoy hearing good news; for instance, of a love and 
 courtship while in progress to a good ending. If you tell him onlv 
 when the marriage takes place, he loses half the pleasure, which, God 
 knows, he has little enough of; and, ten to one, but you have told him 
 of some love-making with a bad ending. A sick person also intensely 
 enjoys hearing of any material good, any positive or practical success of 
 the right. He has so much of books and fiction, of principles, and pre- 
 cepts, and theories ! Do, instead of advising him with advice he has 
 heard at least fifty times before, tell him of one benevolent act which has 
 really succeeded practically ; it is like a day's health to him. 
 
 POWER TO THINK BUT NOT TO DO. 
 
 " You have no idea what the craving of the sick, with undiminished 
 power of thinking, but little power of doing, is to hear of good practical 
 action, when they can no longer partake in it. Do observe these things 
 with the sick. Do remember how their life is to them disappointed and 
 incomplete. You see them lying there with miserable disappointments, 
 from which they can have no escape but death, and you can't remember 
 to tell them of what would give them so much pleasure, or at least an 
 hour's variety. They don't want you to be lachrymose and whining 
 with them ; they like you to be fresh, and active, and interesting ; but 
 they cannot bear absence of mind ; and they are so tired of the advice 
 and preaching they receive from everybody, no matter whom it is, 
 they see. 
 
 " There is no better society than babies and sick people for one 
 another. Of course you must manage this so that neither shall suffer 
 from it, which is perfectly possible. If you think the air of the sick- 
 room bad for the baby, why it is bad for the invalid, too, and therefore 
 
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 543 
 
 you will of course correct it for both. It freshens up the sick person's 
 whole mental atmosphere to see ' the baby.' And a very young child, if 
 unspoiled, will generally adapt itself wonderfully to the ways of a sick 
 person, if the time they spend together is not too long." 
 
 These passages give us a more correct conception of the mind and 
 character of Florence Nightingale than any narrative of her life which 
 has yet been given to the public. There has been nothing of chance in 
 her career. She gained her knowledge, as it is always gained, by faith- 
 ful and laborious study, and she acquired skill in applying her knowledge 
 by careful practice. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the example of Miss Nightingale had 
 much to do in calling forth the exertions of American women during 
 our late war. As soon as we had wounded soldiers to heal, and military 
 hospitals to serve, the patriotic and benevolent ladies of America thought 
 of Florence Nightingale, and hastened to offer their assistance ; and, 
 doubtless, it was the magic of her name which assisted to open a way 
 for them, and broke down the prejudices which might have proved insur- 
 mountable. When Florence Nightingale overcame the silent opposition 
 of ancient surgeons and obstinate old sergeants in the Crimea, she was 
 also smoothing the path of American women on the banks of the Potomac 
 and the Mississippi, and in our war with Spain. Her name and example 
 belong to the race which she has honored ; but to us, whom she 
 taught the art of nursing, and thus associated her name with the benev- 
 olent and heroic ladies of our land, she will ever be peculiarly dear. 
 
 Her career is a good example of overcoming obstacles by heroic 
 courage, indomitable will and a patience that never fails. She was calm 
 and self-possessed under the most trying circumstances. This is a 
 temperament that does not belong naturally to every one, but can be 
 cultivated. Trained nurses need to have rare qualities and experience 
 in order to succeed and perform well their very difficult work. It is a 
 noble and useful calling. 
 
CLARA BARTON. 
 
 Of those whom the first blast of our Civil War trump roused and 
 called to lives of patriotic devotion and philanthropic endeavor, some 
 were led instinctively to associated labor, and found their zeal inflamed, 
 their patriotic efforts cheered and encouraged by communion with those 
 who were like-minded. To these the organizations of the Soldiers' Aid 
 Societies and of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions were a necessity ; 
 they provided a way and place for the exercise and development of those 
 capacities for noble and heroic endeavor, and generous self-sacrifice, so 
 gloriously manifested by many of our American women. 
 
 But there were others endowed by their Creator with greater inde- 
 pendence of character and higer executive powers, who while not less 
 modest and retiring in disposition than their sisters, yet preferred to 
 mark out their own career, and pursue an independent course. 
 
 To this latter class pre-eminently belongs Miss Clara Barton. 
 
 Quiet, modest, and unassuming in manner and appearance, there is 
 beneath this quiet exterior an intense energy, a comprehensive intellect, 
 a resolute will, and an executive force, which is found in few of the 
 stronger sex, and which mingled with the tenderness and grace of refined 
 womanhood eminently qualifies her to become an independent power. 
 
 CAME FROM AN EXCELLENT FAMILY, 
 
 Miss Barton was born in North Oxford, Worcester County, Massa- 
 chusetts. Her father, Stephen Barton, Sr., was a man highly esteemed 
 in the community in which he dwelt, and by which his worth was most 
 thoroughly known. In early youth he had served as a soldier in the 
 West under General Wayne, the " Mad Anthony " of the early days of 
 the Republic, and his boyish eyes had witnessed the evacuation of Detroit. 
 
 The little Clara was the youngest by several years in a family of 
 two brothers and three sisters. She was early taught'that primeval ben- 
 ediction, miscalled a curse, which requires mankind to earn their bread. 
 Besides domestic duties and a very thorough public school training she 
 
 learned the general rules of business by acting as clerk and bookkeeper 
 544 
 

 CLARA BARTON. 545 
 
 for lier eldest brother. Next she betook herself to the district school, the 
 usual steppiug-stoue for all aspiring men and women in New England. 
 She taught for several years, commencing when very young, in various 
 places in Massachusetts and New Jersey. The large circle of friends 
 thus formed was not without its influence in determining her military 
 career. So many of her pupils volunteered in the first years of the war 
 that at the second battle of Bull Run she found seven of them, each of 
 whom had lost an arm or a le°:. 
 
 BEGINS AND CARRIES ON A PUBLIC SCHOOL. 
 
 One example will show her character as a teacher. She went to 
 Bordentown, N. J., in 1853, where there was not, and never had been, a 
 public school. Three or four unsuccessful attempts had been made, and 
 the idea had been abandoned as not adapted to that latitude. The 
 brightest boys in the town ran untaught in the streets. She offered to 
 teach a free school for three months at her own expense, to convince the 
 citizens that it could be done ; and she was laughed at as a visionary. Six 
 weeks of waiting and debating induced the authorities to fit up an unoc- 
 cupied building at a little distance from the town. She commenced with 
 six outcast boys, and in five weeks the house would not hold the number 
 that came. 
 
 The commissioners, at her instance, erected the present school build- 
 ing of Bordentown, a three-story brick building, costing four thousand 
 dollars ; and there, in the winter of 1853-4, she organized the city free 
 school with a roll of six hundred pupils. But the severe labor, and the 
 great amount of loud speaking required, in the newly plastered rooms, 
 injured her health, and for a time deprived her of her voice — the prime 
 agent of instruction. Being unable to teach, she left New Jersey about 
 the ist of March, 1854, seeking rest and a milder climate, and went as 
 far south as Washington. 
 
 While there, a friend and distant relative, then in Congress, volun- 
 tarily obtained for her an appointment in the Patent Office, where she 
 continued until the fall of 1857. She was employed at first as a copyist, 
 
546 CLARA BARTON. 
 
 and afterwards in the more responsible work of abridging original papers, 
 and preparing records for publication. As sHe was an excellent chirog- 
 rapher, with a clear head for business, and was paid by the piece and 
 not by the month, she made money fast, as matters were then reckoned, 
 and she was very liberal with it. 
 
 " I met her," says a friend, " often during those years, as I have 
 since and rarely saw her without some pet scheme of benevolence on her 
 hands which she pursued with an enthusiasm that was quite heroic, and 
 sometimes amusing. The roll of those she has helped, or tried to help, 
 with her purse, her personal influence or her counsels, would be a long 
 one ; orphan children, deserted wives, destitute women, sick or unsuc- 
 cessful relatives, men who have failed in business, and boys who never 
 had any business — : all who were in want, or in trouble, and could claim 
 the slightest acquaintance, came to her for aid and were never repulsed. 
 Strange it was*to see this generous girl, whose own hands ministered to 
 all her wants, always giving to those around her, instead of receiving, 
 strengthening the hands and directing the steps of so many who would 
 have seemed better calculated to help her. 
 
 SPECIAL ATTENDANT OF A SICK BROTHER. 
 
 " She must have had a native genius for nursing; for in her twelfth 
 year she was selected as the special attendant of a sick brother, and 
 remained in his chamber by day and by night for two years, with only 
 a respite of one half-day in all that time. Think, O reader ! of a little 
 girl in short dresses and pantalettes, neither going to school nor to play, 
 but imprisoned for years in the deadly air of a sick room, and made to 
 feel, every moment, that a brother's life depended on her vigilance. 
 Then followed a still longer period of sickness and feebleness on her 
 own part ; and from that time to the present, sickness, danger and death 
 have been always near her, till they have grown familiar as playmates, 
 and she has come to understand all the wants and ways and wayward- 
 ness of the sick ; has learned to anticipate their wishes and cheat them 
 of their fears. 
 
CLARA BARTON. 547 
 
 " Those who have been under her immediate care, will understand 
 me when I say there is healing in the touch of her hand, and anodyne 
 in the low melody of her voice. In the first year of Mr. Buchanan's 
 administration she was hustled out of the Patent Office on a suspicion 
 of anti-slavery sentiments. She returned to New England, and devoted 
 her time to study and works of benevolence. In the winter following 
 the election of Mr. Lincoln, she returned to Washington at the solicita- 
 tion of her friends there, and would doubtless have been reinstated if 
 peace had been maintanied. I happened to see her a day or two after 
 the news came that Fort Sumter had been fired on. She was confident, 
 even enthusiastic, and ready for her work. 
 
 WILLING TO GIVE ALL TO HER COUNTRY. 
 
 "For herself she had saved a little in time of peace, and she 
 intended to devote it and herself to the service of her country and of 
 humanity. If war must be, she neither expected nor desired to come out 
 of it with a dollar. If she survived, she could no doubt earn a living ; 
 and if she did not, it was no matter. This is actually the substance of 
 what she said, and pretty nearly the words — without appearing to sus- 
 pect that it was remarkable." 
 
 Three days after Major Anderson had lowered his flag in Charleston 
 Harbor, the Sixth Massachusetts Militia started for Washington. Their 
 passage through Baltimore, on the 19th of April, 1861, is a remarkable 
 point in our national history. The next day about thirty of the sick 
 and wounded were placed in the Washington Infirmary, where the Judi- 
 ciary Square Hospital now stands. Miss Barton proceeded promptly to 
 the spot to ascertain their condition and afford such voluntary relief as 
 might be in her power. Hence, if she was not the first person in the 
 country in this noble work, no one could have been more than a few 
 hours before her. 
 
 The regiment was quartered at the Capitol, and as those early vol- 
 unteers will remember, troops on their first arrival were often very poorly 
 provided for. The 21st of April happened to be Sunday. No omnibuses 
 
548 CLARA BARTON. 
 
 ran that day, and street cars as yet were not ; so she hired five colored 
 persons, loaded them with baskets of ready prepared food, and proceeded 
 to the Capitol. The freight they bore served as countersign and pass ; 
 she entered the Senate Chamber, and distributed her welcome store. 
 Many of the soldiers were from her own neighborhood, and as they 
 thronged around her, she stood upon the steps to the Vice-Presidents' 
 chair and read to them from a paper she had brought, the first written 
 history of their departure aud their journey. 
 
 SMALL BEGINNINGS OF MILITARY EXPERIENCE. 
 
 These two days were the first small beginnings of her military expe- 
 rience — steps which naturally led to much else. Men wrote home their 
 own impressions of what she saw ; and her acts found ready reporters. 
 Young soldiers whom she had taught or known as boys a few years 
 before, called to see her on their way to the front. Troops were gather- 
 ing rapidly, and hospitals- — the inevitable shadows of armies — were spring- 
 ing up and getting filled. Daily she visited them, bringing to the sick 
 news, and delicacies and comforts of her own procuring, and writing letters 
 for those who could not write themselves. Mothers and sisters heard of 
 her, and begged her to visit this one and that, committing to her care 
 letters, socks, jellies and the like. 
 
 Her work and its fame grew week by week, and soon her room, for 
 she generally had but one, became sadly encumbered with boxes, and 
 barrels and baskets, of the most varied contents. Through the summer 
 of 1862, the constant stock she had on hand averaged about five tons. 
 The goods were mainly the contributions of liberal individuals, churches 
 and sewing-circles to whom she was personally known. But, although 
 articles of clothing, lint, bandages, cordials, preserved fruits, liquors, and 
 the like might be sent, there was always much which she had to buy 
 herself. 
 
 During this period, as in her subsequent labors, she neither sought 
 nor received recognition by any department of the Government, by which 
 we mean only that she had no acknowledged position, rank, rights or 
 

 
 
 CLARA BARTON. 549 
 
 duties, was not employed, paid, or compensated in any way, had author- 
 ity over no one, and was subject to no one's orders. She was simply an 
 American lady, mistress of herself and of no one else ; free to stay a: 
 home, if she had a home, and equally free to go where she pleased, if 
 she could procure passports and transportation, which was not always 
 an easy matter. From many individual officers, she received most valua- 
 ble encouragement and assistance ; from none more than from General 
 Rucker, the excellent Chief Quartermaster at Washington. He fur- 
 nished her storage for her supplies when necessary, transportation for 
 herself and them, and added to her stores valuable contributions at times 
 when they were most wanted. She herself declares, with generous 
 exaggeration, that if she has ever done any good, it has been due to the 
 watchful care and kindness of General Rucker. 
 
 HER DUTY NOW AT HOME. 
 
 About the close of 1861, Miss Barton returned to Massachusetts to 
 watch over the declining health of her father, now in his eighty-eighth 
 year, and failing fast. In the following March she placed his remains 
 in the little cemetery at Oxford, and then returned to Washington and 
 to her former labors. But, as the spring and summer campaigns pro- 
 gressed, Washington ceased to be the best field for the philanthropist. 
 In the hospitals of the Gapitol the sick and wounded found shelter, food 
 and attendance. Private generosity now centered there ; and the United 
 States Sanitary Commission had its office and officers there to minister 
 to the thousand exceptional wants not provided for by the Army Regu- 
 lations. There were other fields where the harvest was plenteous and 
 the labors few. 
 
 Yet could she, as a young and not unattractive lady, go with safety 
 and propriety among a hundred thousand armed men and tell them that 
 no one had sent her ? She would encounter rough soldiers, and camp- 
 followers of every nation, and officers of all grades of character ; and 
 could she bear herself so wisely and loftily in all trials as to awe the im- 
 pertinent, and command the respect of the supercilious, so that she 
 
550 CLARA BARTON. 
 
 might be free to come and go at her will, and do what shonld seem good 
 to her ? Or, if she failed to maintain a character proof against even 
 innendoes, wonld she not break the bridge over which any snccessor 
 would have to pass ? These questions she pondered, and prayed and 
 wept over for months, and has spoken of the mental conflict as the most 
 trying one of her life. 
 
 She had foreseen and told all these fears to her father; and the old 
 man, on his death-bed, advised her to go wherever she felt it a duty to 
 go. He reminded her that he himself had been a soldier, and said that 
 all true soldiers would respect her. He was naturally a man of great 
 benevolence, a member of the Masonic fraternity, of the Degree of 
 Royal Arch Masons ; and in his last days he spoke much of the pur- 
 poses and noble charities of the Order. She had herself received the 
 initiation accorded to the daughters of Royal Arch Masons, and wore on 
 her bosom a Masonic emblem, by which she was easily recognized by the 
 brotherhood, and which subsequently proved a valuable talisman. 
 
 RESOLVES TO GO INTO ACTUAL BATTLE. 
 
 At last she reached the conclusion that it was right for her to go 
 amid the actual tumult of battle and shock of armies. And the fact 
 that she moved and labored with the principal armies in the North and 
 in the South for two years and a half, and that now no one who knows 
 her would speak of her without the most profound respect, proves two 
 things — that there may be heroism of the highest order in American 
 women — and that American armies are not to be judged of by the 
 recorded statements concerning European ones. 
 
 Her first tentative efforts at going to the field were cautious and beset 
 with difficulties. Through the long Peninsula campaign as each transport 
 brought its load of suffering men, with the mud of the Chickahominy 
 and the gore of battle baked hard upon them like the shells of turtles, 
 she went down each day to the wharves with an ambulance laden with 
 dressings and restoratives, and there, amid the turmoil and dirt, and 
 under the torrid sun of Washington, toiled day by day, alleviating such 
 
CLARA BARTON. 551 
 
 suffering as she could. And when the steamers turned their prows down 
 the river, she looked wistfully after them, longing to go to those dread 
 shores whence all this misery came. 
 
 But she was alone and unknown, and how could she get the means 
 and the permission to go ? The military authorities were overworked in 
 those da} r s and plagued with unreasonable applications, and as a class 
 are not very indulgent to unusual requests. The first officer of rank 
 who gave her a kind answer was a man who never gave an unkind reply 
 without great provocation — Dr. R. H. Coolidge, Medical Inspector. 
 Through him a pass was obtained from Surgeon-General Hammond, and 
 she was referred to Major Rucker, Quartermaster, for transportation. 
 The Major listened to her story so patiently and kindly that she was 
 overcome, and sat down and wept. It was then too late in the season to 
 go to McClellan's army, so she loaded a railroad car with, supplies and 
 started for Culpepper Court-House, then crowded with the wounded 
 from the battle of Cedar Mountain and in need of nurses. 
 
 FIRST TO VOLUNTEER AID. 
 
 With a similar carload she was the first of the volunteer aid that 
 reached Fairfax Station at the close of the disastrous days that culmi- 
 nated in the second Bull Run, and the battle of Chantilly. On these two 
 expeditions, and one to Fredericksburg, Miss Barton was accompanied by 
 friends, at least one gentleman and a lady in each, case, but at last a time 
 came, when through, the absence or engagements of these, she must go 
 alone or not at all. 
 
 On Sunday, the 14th of September, 1862, she loaded an army wagon 
 with supplies and started to follow the march of General McClellan. Her 
 only companions were Mr. Cornelius M. Welles, the teacher of the first con- 
 traband school in the District of Columbia — a young man of rare talent and 
 devotion — and one teamster. She traveled three days along the dusty 
 roads of Maryland, buying bread as she went to the extent of her means 
 of conveyance, and sleeping in the wagon by night. After dark, on the 
 night of the sixteenth, she reached Burnside's corps, and found the two 
 
552 CLARA BARTON. 
 
 armies lying face to face along the opposing ridges of hills that bound 
 the valley of the Antietam. There had already been heavy skirmishing 
 far away on the right where Hooker had forded the creek and taken posi- 
 tion on the opposite hills; and the air was dark and thick with fog and 
 exhalations, with the smoke of camp-fires and premonitory death. 
 
 There was little sleep that night, and as the morning sun rose bright 
 and beautiful over the Blue Ridge and dipped down into the valley, the 
 firing on the right was resumed. Reinforcements soon began to move 
 along the rear to Hooker's support. Thinking the place of danger was 
 the place of duty, Miss Barton ordered her mules to be harnessed and 
 took her place in the swift train of artillery that was passing. On reach- 
 ing the scene of action they turned into a field of tall corn, and drove 
 through it into a large barn. They were close upon the line of battle; 
 the enemy's shot and shell flew thickly around and over them; and in 
 the barnyard antt among the corn lay torn and bleeding men — the worst 
 cases — just brought from the places where they had fallen. The army 
 medical supplies had not yet arrived, the small stock of dressings 
 was exhausted, and the surgeons were trying to make bandages of corn 
 
 husks. 
 
 RENDERS HELP TO THE SURGEONS. 
 
 Miss Barton opened to them her stock of dressings, and proceeded 
 with her companions to distribute bread steeped in wine to the wounded 
 and fainting. In the course of the day she picked up twenty-five men who 
 had come to the rear with the wounded, and set them to work adminis- 
 tering restoratives, bringing and applying water, lifting men to easier 
 positions, stopping hemorrhages, etc., etc. At length her bread was all 
 spent; but luckily a part of the liquors she had brought were found to 
 have been packed in meal, which suggested the idea of making gruel. 
 A farm house was found connected with the barn, and on searching the 
 cellar, she discovered three barrels of flour, and a bag of salt which the 
 enemy had hidden the day before. Kettles were found about the house, 
 and she prepared to make gruel on a large scale, which was carried in 
 buckets and distributed along the line for miles. 
 
 
CLARA BARTON. 553 
 
 On the ample piazza of the house were ranged the operating tables, 
 where the surgeons performed their operations; and on that piazza she 
 kept her place from the forenoon till nightfall, mixing gruel and direct- 
 ing her assistants, under the fire of one of the greatest and fiercest battles 
 of modern times. Before night her face was as black as a negro's, and 
 her lips and throat parched with the sulphurous smoke of battle. But 
 night came at last, and the wearied armies lay down on the ground to 
 rest; and the dead and wounded lay everywhere. Darkness, too, had its 
 terrors; and as the night closed in, the surgeon in charge at the old farm 
 house, looked despairingly at a bit of candle and said it was the only one 
 on the place; and no one could stir till morning. 
 
 A THOUSAND DANGEROUSLY WOUNDED, 
 
 A thousand men dangerously wounded and suffering terribly from 
 thirst lay around, and many must die before the light of another day. 
 It was a fearful thing to die alone and in the dark, and no one could 
 move among the wounded, for fear of stumbling over them. Miss Barton 
 replied, that, profiting by her experience at Chantilly, she had brought 
 with her thirty lanterns, and an abundance of candles. It was worth a 
 journey to Antietam, to light the gloom of that night. On the morrow 
 the fighting had ceased, but the work of caring for the wounded was 
 resumed and continued all day. On the third day the regular supplies 
 arrived; and Miss Barton having exhausted her small stores, and finding 
 that continued fatigue and watching were bringing on a fever, turned 
 her course towards Washington. 
 
 It was with difficulty that she was able to reach home, where she 
 was confined to her bed for some time. When she recovered sufficiently 
 to call on Colonel Rucker, and told him that with five wagons she could 
 have taken supplies sufficient for the immediate wants of all the wounded, 
 that officer shed tears, and charged her to ask for enough next time. 
 
 It was about the 23d of October, when another great battle was 
 expected, that she next set out with a well appointed and heavily laden 
 train of six wagons and an ambulance, with seven teamsters, and thirty- 
 
554 CLARA BARTON. 
 
 eight mules. The men were rough fellows, little used or disposed to be 
 commanded by a woman ; and they mutinied when they had gone but a 
 few miles. A plain statement of the course she should pursue in case of 
 insubordination, induced them to proceed and confine themselves, for the 
 time being, to imprecations and grumbling. When she overtook the 
 army, it was crossing the Potomac, below Harper's Ferry. Her men 
 refused to cross. She offered them the alternative to go forward peaceably, 
 or to be dismissed and replaced by soldiers. They chose the former, and 
 from that day forward were all obedience, fidelity and usefulness. 
 
 HURRYING TOWARD RICHMOND. 
 
 The expected battle was not fought, but gave place to a race for 
 Richmond. The army of the Potomac had the advantage in regard to 
 distance, keeping for a time along the base of the Blue Ridge, while the 
 enemy followed tne course of the Shenandoah. There was naturally a 
 skirmish at every gap. The enemy were generally the first to gain 
 possession of the pass, from which they would attempt to surprise some 
 part of the army that was passing, and capture a portion of our supply 
 trains. Thus every day brought a battle or a skirmish, and its acces- 
 sion to the list of sick and wounded ; and for a period of about three 
 weeks, until Warrenton Junction was reached, the National army had no 
 base of operations, nor any reinforcements or supplies. The sick had to 
 be carried all that time over the rough roads in wagons or ambulances. 
 
 Miss Barton with her wagon train accompanied the Ninth Army 
 Corps, as a general purveyor for the sick. Her original supply of com- 
 forts was very considerable, and her men contrived to add to it every day 
 such fresh provisions as could be gathered from the country. At each 
 night's encampment, they lighted their fires and prepared fresh food and 
 necessaries for the moving hospital. Through all that long and painful 
 march from Harper's Ferry to Fredericksburg, those wagons consti- 
 tuted the hospital larder and kitchen for all the sick within reach, etc. 
 
 It will be remembered that after Burnside assumed command of the 
 Army of the Potomac, the route by Fredericksburg was selected, and the 
 
CLARA BARTON. 
 
 march was conducted down the left bank of the Rappahannock to a 
 position opposite that city. From Warrenton Junction Miss Barton 
 made a visit to Washington, while her wagons kept on with the army, 
 which she rejoined with fresh supplies at Falmouth. She remained in 
 camp until after the unsuccessful attack on the works behind Fredericks- 
 burg. She was on the bank of the river in front of the Lacy House, 
 within easy rifle shot range of the enemy, at the time of the attack of 
 the nth of December — witnessed the unavailing attempts to lay pontoon 
 bridges directly into the city, and the heroic crossing of the 19th and 
 20th Massachusetts Regiments and the 7th Michigan. 
 
 ORGANIZED HOSPITAL KITCHENS. 
 
 During the brief occupation of the city, she remained in it organiz- 
 ing the hospital kitchens ; and after the withdrawal of the troops, she 
 established a private kitchen for supplying delicacies to the wounded. 
 Although it was now winter, and the weather inclement, she occupied 
 an old tent while her train was encamped around ; and the cooking was 
 performed in the open air. When the wounded were recovered by flag 
 of truce, fifty of them were brought to her camp at night. They had 
 lain several days in the cold, and were wounded, famished and frozen. 
 She had the snow cleaned away, large fires built and the men wrapped 
 in blankets. An old chimney was torn down, the bricks heated in the 
 fire, and placed around them. The result was that they slept comfort- 
 ably until morning, when the medical officers took them in charge. 
 
 A circumstance which occurred during the battle of Fredericksburg, 
 will illustrate very strikingly the courage of Miss Barton, a courage 
 which has never faltered in the presence of danger, when what she 
 believed to be duty called. In the skirmishing of the 12th of December, 
 the day preceding the great and disastrous battle, a part of the Union 
 troops had crossed over to Fredericksburg, and after a brief fight had 
 driven back a body of the enemy, wounding and capturing a number of 
 them, whom they sent as prisoners across the river to Falmouth, where 
 Miss Barton as yet had her camp. The wounded Confederates were 
 
556 CLARA BARTON. 
 
 brought to her for care and treatment. Among them was a young 
 officer, mortally wounded by a shot in the thigh. Though she could 
 not save his life, she ministered to him as well as she could, partially 
 staunching his wound, quenching his raging thirst, and endeavoring to 
 make his condition as comfortable as possible. 
 
 MESSAGE FROM A MEDICAL DIRECTOR. 
 
 Just at this time, an orderly arrived with a message from the Medical 
 Director of the Ninth Army Corps requesting her to come over to Fred- 
 ericksburg, and organize the hospitals and diet kitchens for the corps. 
 The wounded officer heard the request, and beckoning to her, for he was 
 too weak to speak aloud, he whispered a request that she would not go. 
 She replied that she must do so ; that her duty to the corps to which 
 she was attached required it. 
 
 "Lady," replied the wounded man, "you have been very kind to me. 
 You could not save my life, but you have endeavored to render death 
 easy. I owe it to you to tell you what a few hours ago I would have died 
 sooner than have revealed. The whole arrangement of the Confederate 
 troops and artillery is intended as a trap for your people. Every street 
 and lane of the city is covered by our cannon. They are now concealed 
 and do not reply to the bombardment of your army, because they wish 
 to entice you across. When your entire army has reached the other 
 side of the Rappahannock and attempts to move along the streets, they 
 will find Fredericksburg only a slaughter pen, and not a regiment of 
 them will escape. Do not go over, for you will go to certain death I" 
 
 While her tender sensibilities prevented her from adding to the 
 suffering of the dying man, by not apparently heeding his warning, 
 Miss Barton did not on account of it forego for an instant her intention 
 of sharing the fortunes of the Ninth Corps on the other side of the 
 river. The poor fellow was almost gone, and waiting only to close his 
 eyes on all earthly objects, she crossed on the frail bridge, and was wel- 
 comed with cheers by the Ninth Corps, who looked upon her as their 
 guardian angel. She remained with them until the evening of their 
 
CLARA BARTON. 557 
 
 masterly retreat, and until the wounded men of the corps in the hospitals 
 were all safely across. 
 
 While she was in Fredericksburg, after the battle of the 13th, some 
 soldiers of the corps who had been roving about the city, came to her 
 quarters bringing with great difficulty a large and very costly and elegant 
 carpet. "What is this for?" asked Miss Barton. "It is for you, 
 ma'am," said one of the soldiers ; " you have been so good to us, that we 
 wanted to bring you something." " Where did you get it? " she asked. 
 u Oh ! ma'am, we confiscated it," said the soldiers. " No ! no ! " said the 
 lady ; " that will never do. Governments confiscate. Soldiers, when they 
 take such things, steal. I am afraid, my men, you will have to take it 
 back to the house from which you took it. I can't receive a stolen 
 carpet." The men looked sheepish enough, but they shouldered the 
 carpet and carried it back to the place from which it came. 
 
 TOILED ON AND INFUSED HOPE AND CHEERFULNESS. 
 
 In the wearisome weeks that followed the Fredricksburg disaster, 
 when there was not the excitement of a coming battle, and the wounded, 
 whether detained in the hospitals around Falmouth or forwarded through 
 the deep mud to the hospital transports on the Potomac, still with sad- 
 dened countenances and depressed spirits, looked forward to a dreary 
 future, Miss Barton toiled on, infusing hope and cheerfulness into sad 
 hearts, and bringing the consolations of religion to her aid, pointed 
 them to the only true source of hope and comfort. She was more than 
 a nurse to the body ; she spoke words of consolation. 
 
 In the early days of April, 1863, Miss Barton went to the South 
 with the expectation of being present at the combined land and naval 
 attack on Charleston. She reached the wharf at Hilton Head on the 
 afternoon of the 7th, in time to hear the crack of Sumter's guns, as they 
 opened in broadside on Dupont's fleet. That memorable assault accom- 
 plished nothing, unless it might be to ascertain that Charleston could 
 not be taken by water. The expedition returned to Hilton Head, and a 
 period of inactivity followed, enlivened only by unimportant raids, 
 
558 CLARA BARTON. 
 
 newspaper correspondence, and the small quarrels that naturally arise 
 in an unemployed army. 
 
 Later in the season, Miss Barton accompanied the Gilmore and 
 Dahlgren expedition, and was present at nearly all the military opera- 
 tions on James, Folly and Morris Islands. The ground occupied on the 
 latter by the army during the long siege of Fort Wagner, was the low 
 sandhills forming the seaboard of the island. No tree, shrub or weed 
 grew there; and the only shelter was light tents without floors. The 
 light sand that yielded to the tread, the walker sinking to the ankles at 
 almost every step, glistened in the sun, and burned the feet like parti- 
 cles of fire, and as the ocean winds swept it, it darkened the air and filled 
 the eyes and nostrils, causing great discomfort. 
 
 EXPOSED TO STORM AND BURNING SUN. 
 
 There was no defense against it, and every wound speedily became 
 covered with a concrete of gore and sand. Tent pins would not hold in 
 the treacherous sand, every vigorous blast from the sea overturned the 
 tents, leaving the occupants exposed to the storm or the torrid sun. It 
 was here, under the fire of the heaviest of the enemy's batteries, that 
 Miss Barton spent the most trying part of the summer. Her employ- 
 ment was, with three or four men detailed to assist her, to boil water in 
 the lee of a sandhill, to wash the wounds of the men who were daily 
 struck by shot, to prepare tea and coffee, and various dishes made from 
 dried fruits, farina, and desiccated milk and eggs. 
 
 On the 19th of July, when the great night assault was made on 
 Wagner, and everybody expected to find rest and refreshments within 
 the fortress, she alone, so far as we can learn, kept up her fires and 
 preparations. She alone had anything suitable to offer the wounded 
 and exhausted men who streamed back from the repulse, and covered 
 the sandhills like a flight of locusts. 
 
 Through all the long bombardment that followed, until Sumter was 
 reduced, and Wagner and Gregg were captured, amid the scorching sun 
 and the prevalence of prostrating diseases, though herself more than 
 
CLARA BARTON. 559 
 
 once struck down with illness, she remained at her post, a most fearless 
 and efficient co-worker with the indefatigable agent of the Sanitary 
 Commission, Dr. M. M. Marsh, in saving the lives and promoting the 
 health of the soldiers of the Union army. "How could you," said a 
 friend to her subsequently, "how could you expose your life and health 
 to that deadly heat?" "Why," she answered, evidently without a 
 thought of the heroism of the answer, "the other ladies thought they 
 could not endure the climate, and as I knew somebody must take care of 
 the soldiers, I went." It was a characteristic reply. 
 
 AGAIN ON DUTY IN WASHINGTON. 
 
 In January, 1864, Miss Barton returned to the North, and after 
 spending four or five weeks in visiting her friends and recruiting her 
 wasted strength, again took up her position at Washington, and com- 
 menced making preparations for the coming campaign, which from 
 observation, she was convinced would be the fiercest and most destruc- 
 tive of human life of any of the war. The first week of the campaign 
 found her at the secondary base of the army at Belle Plain, and thence 
 with the great army of the wounded she moved to Fredericksburg. 
 Extensive as had been her preparations, and wide as was the circle of 
 friends who had entrusted to her the means of solace and healing, the 
 slaughter had been so terrific that she found her supplies nearly ex- 
 hausted, and for the first time during the war was compelled to appeal 
 for further supplies to her friends at the North, expending in the mean- 
 time freely, as she had done all along, of her own private means for the 
 succor of the poor wounded soldiers. 
 
 Moving on to Port Royal, and thence to the James River, she pre- 
 sently became attached to the Army of the James, where General Butler, 
 at the instance of his Chief Medical Director, Surgeon McCormick, 
 acknowledging her past services, and appreciating her abilities, gave her 
 a recognized position, which greatly enhanced her usefulness, and 
 enabled her, with her energetic nature, to contribute as much to the 
 welfare and comfort of the army in that year, as she had been able to do 
 
5G0 CLARA BARTON. 
 
 in all Her previous connection with it. In January, 1865, she returned 
 to Washington, where she was detained from the front for nearly two 
 months by the illness and death of a brother and nephew, and did not 
 again join the army in the field- 
 By this time, of course, she was very generally known, and the 
 circle of her correspondence was wide. Her influence in high official 
 quarters was supposed to be. considerable, and she was in the daily 
 receipt of inquiries and applications of various kinds, in particular in 
 regard to the fate of men believed to have been confined in Southern 
 prisons. The great number of letters received of this class, led her to 
 decide to spend some months at Annapolis, among the camps and records 
 of paroled and exchanged prisoners, for the purpose of answering the 
 inquires of friends and supplying them with information. 
 
 PLAN .APPROVED BY PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 
 
 Her plan of operation was approved by President Lincoln, March 
 11, 1865, and notice of her appointment as " General Correspondent for 
 the Friends of Paroled Prisoners " was published in the newspapers 
 extensively, bringing in a torrent of inquiries and letters from wives, 
 parents, State officials, agencies, the Sanitary Commission and the 
 Christian Commission. On reaching Annapolis, she encountered 
 obstacles that were vexatious, time-wasting, and, in fact, insupportable. 
 Without rank, rights or authority credited by law, the officials there 
 were at a loss how to receive her. 
 
 The town was so crowded that she could find no private lodgings, 
 and had to force herself as a scarce welcome guest upon someone for a 
 few days, while her baggage stood out in the snow. Nearly two months 
 were consumed in negotiations before an order was obtained from the 
 War Department to the effect that the military authorities at Annapolis 
 might allow her the use of a tent and its furniture, and a moderate sup- 
 ply of postage stamps. This was not mandatory, but permissive ; and 
 negotiations could now be opened with the gentlemen at Annapolis. 
 
 In the meantime, the President had been assassinated, Richmond 
 
CLARA BARTON. 561 
 
 taken, and Lee's army surrendered. All prisoners were to be released 
 
 from parole, and sent home, and nothing would remain in Annapolis but 
 
 the records. Unfortunately these proved to be of very little service — 
 
 but a small percentage of those inquired for, were found on the rolls ; 
 
 and obviously these, for the most part, were not men who had been lost, 
 
 but who had returned. She was also informed, on good authority, that 
 
 a large number of prisoners had been exchanged without roll or record 
 
 and that some rolls were so fraudulent and incorrect, as to be worthless. 
 
 Poor wretches in the prisons seemed even to forget the names their 
 
 mothers called them. The Annapolis scheme was therefore abandoned, 
 
 with mortification that thousands of letters had lain so long unanswered, 
 
 that thousands of anxious friends were daily waiting for tidings of their 
 
 loved and lost. The pathos and simplicity of these letters was often 
 
 touching. 
 
 INQUIRIES FROM ANXIOUS FRIENDS. 
 
 An old man writes that he has two sons and three grandsons in the 
 army, and of two of the five he could get no tidings. Another say s she 
 knew her son was brave, and if he died, he died honorably. He was all 
 she had and she gave him freely to the country. If he be really lost she 
 will not repine ; but she feels she has a right to be told what became of 
 him. Many of the writers seemed to have a very primitive idea of the 
 way information was to be picked up. They imagined that Miss Barton 
 was to walk through all hospitals, camps, armies and prisons, and 
 narrowly scrutinizing every face, would be able to identify the lost boy 
 by the descriptions given her. Hence the fond mother minutely described 
 her boy as he remained graven on her memory on the day of his 
 departure. 
 
 The result of these delays was the organization, by Miss Barton, at 
 
 her own cost, of a Bureau of Records of Missing Men of the Armies of the 
 
 United States, at Washington. Here she collected all rolls of prisoners^ 
 
 hospital records, and records of burials in the prisons and elsewhere, and 
 
 at short intervals published Rolls of Missing Men, which, by the franks 
 
 of some of her friends among the members of Congress, were sent to all 
 36 
 
562 CLARA BARTON. 
 
 parts of the United States, and posted in prominent places, and in many 
 instances copied into local papers. The method adopted for the discovery 
 of information concerning these missing men, and the commnnication of 
 that information to their friends who had made inquiries concerning them 
 may be thus illustrated. 
 
 A Mrs. James, of Kennebunk, Maine, has seen a notice in the paper 
 that Miss Clara Barton of Washington will receive inquiries from friends 
 of " missing men of the Army," and will endeavor to obtain information 
 for them without fee or reward. She forthwith writes to Miss Barton 
 that she is anxious to gain tidings of her husband, Eli James, Sergeant 
 Company F, Fourth Maine Infantry, who has not been heard of since 
 the battle of . This letter, when received, is immediately acknowl- 
 edged, registered in a book, endorsed and filed away for convenient 
 reference. The answer satisfied Mrs. James for the time, that her letter 
 was not lost and that some attention is given to her inquiry. If the fate 
 of Sergeant James is known or can be learned from the official rolls the 
 information is sent at once. Otherwise the case lies over until there are 
 enough to form a roll, which will probably be within a few weeks. 
 
 TRYING TO FIND MISSING MEN. 
 
 A roll of Missing Men is then made up — with an appeal for informa- 
 tion respecting them, of which from twenty thousand to thirty thousand 
 copies are printed to be posted all over the United States, in all places 
 where soldiers are most likely to congregate. It is not impossible, that 
 in say two weeks' time, one James Miller, of Keokuk, Iowa, writes that 
 he has seen the name of his friend James posted for information ; that 
 
 he found him lying on the ground, at the battle of mortally 
 
 wounded with a fragment of shell ; that he, James, gave the writer a few 
 articles from about his person, and a brief message to his wife and 
 children, whom he is now unable to find ; that the national troops fell 
 back from that portion of the field leaving the dead within the enemy's 
 lines, who consequently were never reported. 
 
 When this letter is received it is also registered in a book, endorsed 
 
CLARA BARTON. 563 
 
 and filed, and a summary of its contents is sent to Mrs. James, with 
 the intimation that further particulars of interest to her can be learned by 
 addressing James Miller, of Keokuk, Iowa. 
 
 Soon after entering fully upon this work in Washington, and having 
 obtained the rolls of the prison hospitals of Wilmington, Salisbury, 
 Florence, Charleston, and other prisons of the South, Miss Barton ascer- 
 tained that Dorrance Atwater, a young Connecticut soldier, who had been 
 a prisoner at Andersonville, Georgia, had succeeded in obtaining a copy 
 of all the records of interments in that field of death, during his employ- 
 ment in the hospital there, and that he could identify the graves of most 
 of the thirteen thousand who had died there. 
 
 HEADBOARDS ON GRAVES OF SOLDIERS. 
 
 Atwater was induced to permit Government officers to copy his roll, 
 and on the representation of Miss Barton that no time should be lost in 
 putting up head-boards to the graves of the Union soldiers, Captain 
 James M. Moore, Assistant Quartermaster, was ordered to proceed to 
 Andersonville with young Atwater and a suitable force, to lay out the 
 grounds as a cemetery and place head-boards to the graves ; and Miss 
 Barton was requested by the Secretary of War to accompany him. She 
 did so, and the grounds were laid out and fenced, and all the graves, 
 except about four hundred which could not be identified, were marked 
 with suitable head-boards. On their return, Miss Barton resumed her 
 duties, and Captain Moore caused Atwater's arrest on the charge of 
 having stolen from the Government the list he had loaned them for 
 copying, and after a hasty trial by court-martial, he was sentenced to 
 be imprisoned in the Auburn State Prison for two years and six months. 
 The sentence was immediately carried into effect. 
 
 Miss Barton felt that this whole charge, trial and sentence, was 
 grossly unjust ; that Atwater had committed no crime, not even a techni- 
 cal one, and that he ought to be relieved from imprisonment. She 
 accordingly exerted herself to have the case brought before the President. 
 This was done ; and in part through the influence of General Benjamin 
 
564 CLARA BARTON. 
 
 F. Butler, an order was sent on to the warden of the Auburn Prison to 
 set the prisoner at liberty. Atwater subsequently published his roll of 
 the Andersonville dead, to which Miss Barton prefixed a narrative of the 
 expedition to Andersonville. 
 
 Her Bureau had by this time become an institution of great and 
 indispensable importance not only to the friends of missing men but to 
 the Sanitary Commission, and to the Government itself, which could not 
 without daily and almost hourly reference to her records settle the 
 accounts for bounties, back pay, and pensions. Thus far, however, it 
 had been sustained wholly at her own cost, and in this and other labors 
 for the soldiers she had expended her entire private fortune of eight or 
 ten thousand dollars. Soon after the assembling of Congress, Hon. 
 Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, who had always been her firm friend, 
 moved an appropriation of fifteen thousand dollars to remunerate her for 
 past expenditure, and enable her to maintain the Bureau of Records of 
 Missing Men, which had proved of such service. To the honor of Con- 
 gress it should be said, that the appropriation passed both houses by a 
 unanimous vote, a tribute to a worth}' woman. 
 
 MISS BARTON'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 
 
 In person Miss Barton is about of medium height, her form and 
 figure indicating great powers of endurance. Though not technically 
 beautiful, her dark expressive eye is attractive, and she possesses, evi- 
 dently unconsciously to herself, great powers of fascination. Her voice 
 is soft, low, and of extraordinary sweetness of tone. As we have said 
 she is modest, quiet and retiring in manner, and is extremely reticent in 
 speaking of anything she has done, while she is ever ready to bestow the 
 full meed of praise on the labors of others. Her devotion to her work 
 has been remarkable, and her organizing abilities are unsurpassed among 
 her own sex and equalled by very few among the other. 
 
 In 1869, she went to Geneva, and there first heard of the Red Cross 
 Society, which had been founded by Durrant about 1864. I n the Franco- 
 Prussian war, she did efficient service for the Red Cross. The German 
 
CLARA BARTON. 565 
 
 Emperor gave her the Iron Cross. In 1882, she succeeded in getting 
 this country to sign the Geneva convention. Her work as head of the 
 Red Cross Society in aiding the Johnstown flood sufferers and in the 
 Spanish war has added to her reputation as a philanthropist. 
 
 In May, 1903, Miss Barton paid a visit to Philadelphia and was wel- 
 comed with the respect and consideration due to her distinguished career. 
 Over a thousand persons attended a public reception tendered to her, 
 and greeted her with every demonstration of affection. 
 
 HARRIET F. HAWLEY. 
 
 Among the many thousands of patriotic women, during our Civil 
 War, who earnestly desired, from the first moment of the great struggle, 
 to take such part in it as a woman might, whose whole soul was in the 
 issues of the conflict, was Mrs. Harriet W. F. Hawley, a native of Guil- 
 ford, Connecticut. When Sumter was fired on, her husband, since 
 United States Senator for Connecticut, Joseph R. Hawley, was the editor 
 of the Hartford Evening Press. He at once laid down his pen, and 
 enlisted for the war — the first one enrolled in' the first volunteer com- 
 pany that was accepted by the State, and became its captain before it 
 was on its way to Washington. 
 
 During the first campaign, no opportunity was afforded Mrs. Hawley 
 to participate directly in the glorious work going forward, other than 
 that given to every woman at home, who labored in the work of equip- 
 ping the soldiers for the field, and forwarding to them such comforts as 
 were indispensable to the sick and wounded, thus helping to care for 
 our brave men at the front. 
 
 Indeed, it was not supposed by Mrs. Hawley' s friends that she would 
 ever be able to do anything more than home work in the war. With a 
 slight frame, a constitution not strong, health never firm, an organization 
 delicate and nervous, she seemed entirely unfitted to endure hardships. 
 But an indomitable spirit continually urged; and in the fall of 1862, her 
 long-hoped-for opportunity came. Her husband was in the Department 
 of the South, and in November, she obtained permission to go to Beau- 
 
566 HARRIET F. HAWLEY. 
 
 fort, South Carolina, with the intention of teaching the colored people, 
 whose first cry in freedom was for the primer. 
 
 But circumstances, and the necessities of the sick and wounded 
 soldiers, directed her into another field of labor, in which she continued, 
 with little intermission, until the war ended. She became a regular 
 visitor at the hospitals in Beaufort. Of her services here, and the like 
 at other places, it is not necessary to speak in detail ; we all know the 
 nature of the duties of the noble women who devoted themselves to hos- 
 pital work. 
 
 AT THE REGIMENTAL HOSPITALS. 
 
 In January, 1863, she went to Fernandina, Florida, where her hus- 
 band — then colonel, afterwards brevet major-general, and since governor 
 of Connecticut— was placed in command. Here, and afterwards at St. 
 Augustine, she was a regular visitor of the post and regimental hospitals, 
 remaining until November, when she rejoined her husband on St. 
 Helena Island, South Carolina, to which he had returned from the siege 
 of Charleston. During the winter, frequently, and as often as her 
 strength would permit, she visited the post hospital at St. Helena, and 
 the general hospitals at Beaufort and Hilton Head, especially exerting 
 herself when the ship-loads of wounded men arrived, after the battle of 
 Olustee, in February. 
 
 In April, 1864, when the Tenth army corps went north to join 
 Butler's expedition up the James, greatly desirous to be near the regi- 
 ment and brigade of her husband, in the individual welfare of the men 
 composing which her sympathies were strongly enlisted, she endeavored 
 to procure a situation as attendant or nurse at Chesapeake Hospital, to 
 which the wounded of that expedition were likely to be sent. 
 
 Failing to do so she went to Washington, and was placed in charge 
 of a ward in Armory Square Hospital. This hospital was at that time 
 one of the most arduous places of labor in the country, besides being, 
 from its low situation, subject to malarious diseases. Standing near the 
 Potomac, it usually received the most severely wounded, who arrived by 
 boat from below and could not be moved far. 
 
HARRIET F. HAWLEY. 507 
 
 Mrs. Hawley reached there the morning after the wounded began to 
 
 arrive from the battles of the Wilderness. Her ward was in the armory 
 
 itself; it was always large, and for a time contained more patients than 
 
 any other — ninety-seven during those dreadful April days. To add to 
 
 the horrors of her ward, it had no separate operating room, and surgical 
 
 operations were necessarily performed within it. The poor fellows who 
 
 arrived there, the mutilated wrecks of that fierce campaign, were so 
 
 exhausted by their marching before, and by the long journey after they 
 
 were wounded, that they died very rapidly. One day forty-eight were 
 
 carried out of the hospital, dying, with singular regularity, about one in 
 
 every half hour. The entire hospital was calculated to accommodate 
 
 about nine hundred, but it was made to take in over fourteen hundred for 
 
 a time. 
 
 HARDSHIPS SHE WAS COMPELLED TO ENDURE, 
 
 Surrounded by such scenes, a daily witness of the results of the 
 terrible Virginia campaign of 1864, Mrs. Hawley lived in this hospital, 
 in charge of the ward assigned her, for four months; months of the 
 severest labor, taxing her utmost strength; and drawing upon her 
 deepest sympathies, and that, too, in a climate peculiarly trying to a 
 Northerner. 
 
 In September her overtaxed energies gave way, and she was forced, 
 by illness, to relinquish her charge. She returned, however, to the same 
 ward in November, and remained in the hospital until March, 1865. The 
 writer visited this hospital in the May following, and found Mrs. Haw- 
 ley's name a cherished one there, many a poor fellow, lying on his weary 
 bed, speaking of her kindness and devotion with beaming face and tears 
 in his eyes. 
 
 After the capture of Wilmington, Brigadier-General Hawley was 
 assigned to the command of the southwest portion of North Carolina; head- 
 quarters at that city. Thither Mrs. Hawley followed him shortly, and 
 there encountered new horrors of the war of which she had already so 
 much sad experience. When Wilmington surrendered, it was in a 
 shockingly filthy condition, destitute of supplies, of medicines, of comforts 
 
5Q8 HARRIET F. HAWLEY. 
 
 for the sick. The conquering army which entered it was stripped for 
 
 marching and fighting, and poorly supplied with what the city so shortly 
 
 needed — hospital stores and clothing for the destitute. 
 
 When Mrs. Hawley arrived, nine thousand Union prisoners had just 
 
 been delivered there, recently released from Andersonville and Florence. 
 
 The North remembers in what sorry plight they were, all of them in 
 
 immediate need of food and clothing, and three thousand of them subjects 
 
 of hospital treatment. As if this were not enough, there came also a 
 
 motley crowd of refugees, which had hung upon the skirts of Sherman's 
 
 march — old men, women, and children, white and black, dirty, ragged 
 
 hungry, helpless. Such a conglomeration crowded into the little city — 
 
 never a healthy place — soon bred a pestilence, a sort of jail or typhus 
 
 fever. 
 
 MANY THOUSANDS IN GREAT WANT. 
 
 The medical. officers exerted themselves to the utmost; the Union 
 citizens and all good people contributed liberally such clothing as they 
 could spare, and what delicacies they had for the sick. But what could 
 they do to alleviate the suffering of so many thousands? The fever 
 increased in virulence, and those attacked died rapidly. At one time 
 there were four thousand sick soldiers, including a few wounded from 
 Sherman's army, in the extemporized hospitals of the city, the large 
 dwellings and the churches. Supplies could not be obtained, and it was 
 some time before even one clean garment could be given to each released 
 prisoner ; and meantime disease increased, and deaths multiplied. 
 
 The chief of the medical staff died, and others were seriously sick : 
 of five professional lady nurses from the North, three sickened, and two 
 died. One of the chaplains died, and another was severely ill ; and among 
 the detailed soldier nurses the pestilence was decidedly worse than any 
 battle — they died by scores. It is needless to say that Mrs. Hawley 
 exerted herself to the utmost to mitigate the sufferings by which she 
 was surrounded. She organized the efforts of the women who would 
 lend their aid, superintended the making of garments, went among the 
 refugees, visited the hospitals, shunning no danger, not even small pox. 
 
HARRIET F. HAWLEY. 569 
 
 Some idea of the condition of the town, and of the labors thrown 
 upon the few there who were competent to improve it, may be gained 
 from the following extract from a private letter, written about this time 
 by Mrs. Hawley, in the freedom of friendly correspondence, with no 
 thought of its publication. She wrote : 
 
 u You know that over nine thousand of our prisoners were delivered 
 to ns here ; and no human tongue or pen can describe the horrible con- 
 dition which they were in. Starving to death, covered with vermin, with 
 no clothing but the filthy rags they had worn during their whole impris- 
 onment — a period of from five to twenty months ; cramped by long 
 sitting in one position, so that they could not straighten their limbs ; 
 their feet rotted off! O God ! I cannot even now endure' to speak of it. 
 
 LACK OF HOSPITAL ACCOMMODATIONS. 
 
 " Of course, they brought the jail fever with them — it could not be 
 otherwise ; yet they must be fed, and cleansed, and clothed, and cared 
 for. There were no hospital accommodations here worth mentioning. 
 There were not doctors enough, and those here overworked themselves, 
 and caught the fever and died. Buildings of all sorts were converted 
 into temporary hospitals, and the nurses (enlisted men) fell sick at the 
 rate of fifty a day. 
 
 " The chaplains worked as only Christian men can work ; and they 
 sickened, too. Chaplain Eaton (Seventh Connecticut volunteers) died, a 
 real martyr. Mr. Tiffany (Sixth Connecticut) has barely struggled 
 through a most terrible attack of the fever, and is slowly recovering. 
 Another, whose name I cannot recall, is still very low, and can hardly be 
 expected to live. Three out of the five lady nurses sent by Mrs. Dix have 
 been very ill, and one, Miss Kimball, died this morning, resigned and 
 happy, as such a woman could not fail to be, yet leaving many friends 
 to mourn for her, and a place here that no one can fill. Such are our 
 sad experiences. 
 
 " Dr. Buzzell, the general medical officer, and one who cannot be too 
 highly spoken of, both as a man and a physician, died of the fever last week. 
 
570 HARRIET F. HAWLEY. 
 
 Dr. Palmer has since followed him ; but the terrible list of those dead 
 and still sick of the fever is too long for me to try to write it. It is only 
 within the last five days that they have received any hospital supplies ; 
 previous to that time many of the sick men were lying on straw spread 
 on the floor, although the Union citizens have given and done all in 
 their power. 
 
 il What could a few families do, from their private supplies, towards 
 furnishing three thousand nine hundred men with beds and bedding ? 
 Besides these, there were the convalescent ones to be clothed. Thank 
 God ! the vessel that the Sanitary Commission sent came soon, with nine 
 thousand shirts and drawers, so that when I first saw them, they had at 
 least so much in the way of clothing. 
 
 MATERIALS HURRIEDLY MADE UP. 
 
 "We got possession of twelve hundred yards of cotton cloth and 
 a bale of cotton. I called a meeting of the benevolent ladies of the place. 
 The Sanitary Commission gave us thread, and in a week's time the 
 materials were made up ; one hundred and thirty-eight pillow-cases, one 
 hundred and fifty-three pillows, eighty-four bed sacks, and as many 
 sheets. And now the hospitals are all tolerably well supplied, that is, 
 for battlefield hospitals. 
 
 " Of course many have been sent North — all who were able to go — 
 and many have died on the road ; }^et there are still many here. And, 
 as if this were not misery enough for one poor little city, Sherman sent 
 here six thousand refugees — black and white, old men, women, children, 
 and babies, with nothing but what they could carry on their backs, or, 
 as in a few cases, drag in a little old mule cart. 
 
 " And these poor wretches must be housed and fed, with the city 
 already crowded, and the fever spreading among the citizens. It is 
 impossible for you to imagine the misery which has stared me in th 
 face at every step since I have been here. I can find no words to describe 
 it. Why, this very afternoon I carried food and wine to a woman who 
 had been lying sick, for three days, on a little straw in an old wagon, in 
 
HARRIET F. HAWLEY. 571 
 
 an open shed, discovered accidentally by one of our officers. Of course 
 this is not an every day case, but it is a wonder that it is not. 
 
 " Many of these refugees have been sent North, and many more will 
 be ; but the mere fact of their being thus transported involves a vast 
 amount of labor, which must mostly fall upon the soldiers ; and the gar- 
 rison here is small, as small as it can be kept, and do the necessary work 
 and guard duty. And, besides all this, the city has been shamefully 
 neglected for many months, and it is fearfully dirty, and there is but 
 a small number of teams and wagons to do so great an amount of 
 scavenger work. 
 
 " It did, and still does, sometimes, look very hopeless here, on all 
 sides. You at the North will never be able to conceive or believe the 
 true condition of our prisoners. You may see all the pictures, and read 
 all the accounts, and believe, or think you believe, every word of them, 
 and then you will have but a faint idea. Men have lain on the ground 
 here dying, with the vermin literally swarming, in steady paths, up and 
 down their bodies, as ants go in lines about their ant-hills. 
 
 A DEPLORABLE CASE. 
 
 "One poor fellow, a sergeant, died in the house of a kind lady here, 
 whose limbs were so cramped by long sitting, through weakness, that 
 they could not be straightened, even when he died, so that his coffin had 
 to be made with the cover shaped like a tent, or house roof, to accommo- 
 date his knees. Women were afraid to walk over the plank sidewalks 
 where some of the prisoners had been congregated for a little time, through 
 fear of vermin. Men who had once been educated and cultivated, with 
 fine minds, were reduced to idiocy — to utter and hopeless imbecility." 
 
 By the arrival of supplies and aid from the North, the exertions of 
 the military authorities in cleaning the city, and the shipment North of 
 the prisoners, and many of the sick and wounded, the disease was at 
 length subdued, and by the latter part of June, though the town was 
 unhealthy, the worst was over. 
 
 In July Mrs. Hawley accompanied her husband to Richmond, the 
 
572 HARRIET F. HAWLEY. 
 
 latter being appointed chief of staff to Major General Terry, and, quar- 
 tered in the spacious and comfortably furnished mansion of the fugitive 
 chief of the Confederacy, she enjoyed a most needed rest from the labors 
 and turmoil of the camp and the hospital. Thus the summer passed, 
 and she looked forward to a speedy return home. 
 
 But the full price of her presence among the exciting scenes of the 
 war was not yet paid. In October, while returning from the battle 
 ground at Five Forks, whither she had gone, with an uncle, to find the 
 grave of his son (Captain Parmalee, of the First Connecticut Cavalry), 
 the ambulance in which she rode was overturned, and she received an 
 injury on her head, which for a long time made her life doubtful. Her 
 whole nervous system sustained an almost irreparable shock, and she 
 continued an invalid for many years. 
 
 Such is a brief sketch of one of the many noble women of the 
 country who haVe fought the good fight, sustained by a pure patri- 
 otism, the story of whose sacrifices will always be sweet and sacred in our 
 annals. 
 
 ANNIE E. WHEELER. 
 
 General Joe Wheeler not only went into our war with Spain him- 
 self, but his daughter became a prominent member of the Red Cross 
 organization and distinguished herself for her noble services in caring 
 for the sick and wounded soldiers. She had charge of the Red Cross 
 nurses at the Nautical Club Hospital, Santiago de Cuba, and proved her 
 superior qualifications for nursing the sick and ameliorating the suffer- 
 ings of the battlefield. 
 
 Clara Barton says in her Report on Relief Work in Cuba : " While 
 we were at Santiago we were joined by Mrs. Fanny B. Ward of Wash- 
 ngton, D. C; Miss Annie M. Fowler of Springfield, 111., and Miss Annie 
 Wheeler, of Alabama, a daughter of General Joe Wheeler, the celebrated 
 and much-liked cavalry leader. All of these ladies did splendid work 
 in their several fields, and hundreds of soldiers will gratefully remember 
 their kindly ministrations." 
 
ANNIE E. WHEELER. 573 
 
 To show the systematic and efficient manner in which the work 
 under Miss Wheeler's charge was carried on, we here append an extract 
 from the above report, which will also give the reader an insight into the 
 methods of the Red Cross throughout the Cuban campaign. 
 
 " The surrender of Santiago having been arranged to take place at 
 
 ten o'clock on the morning of July 17, and Miss Barton being anxious to 
 
 get to that city at the earliest possible moment, knowing full well the 
 
 terrible conditions that existed there, the steamer State of Texas 
 
 steamed down from Siboney that day to the entrance of Santiago Bay. 
 
 Miss Barton sent word to Admiral Sampson that she was ready to go into 
 
 the city whenever he was ready to have her ; and he answered that he 
 
 would send her a pilot to take her ship in as soon as the channel was 
 
 made safe by the removal of torpedoes that had been planted by the 
 
 Spaniards. 
 
 MISS WHEELER'S ARRIVAL AT SANTIAGO. 
 
 " Accordingly about 4.30 in the afternoon a Cuban pilot came aboard 
 the Texas from the flagship New York and we were soon on our 
 way to Santiago, where we arrived just before sundown. We came to 
 anchor just off the main wharf and Messrs. Elwell and Warner went 
 ashore to make arrangements for warehouse room and to engage men 
 to unload the ship on the morrow. 
 
 " Early the next morning the Texas was drawn up beside the 
 principal wharf and one hundred Cuban stevedores began the work of 
 discharging her. These poor fellows were a sorry looking crowd of 
 undersized and half starved men, the effects of their long fast being 
 plainly visible in their hollow cheeks and thin arms and legs. Many 
 women and children were on the wharf read}'- to sweep up any stray bits 
 of meal or beans that might escape from leaky sacks or boxes. 
 
 "As the stores came from the ship they were loaded on hand cars 
 and rolled to the land end of the wharf, where they were placed under 
 a large shed and a guard of soldiers was placed over them to keep back 
 the hungry people and dogs who hung around like a pack of famished 
 wolves. 
 
574 ANNIE E. WHEELER. 
 
 'A central committee of citizens was appointed, to whom was 
 deputed the dnty of dividing the city into districts, and of appointing 
 sub-committees of responsible persons to distribute the supplies to the 
 needy. All applications for relief from the sub-committees had to be 
 approved by the general committee, and then brought to the Red Cross 
 warehouse, where they were filled in bulk and sent back to the district 
 committees for distribution. In this way all confusion was avoided, and 
 our headquarters kept comparatively free from, crowding. 
 
 " By steady work and long hours the cargo of the State of Texas 
 was discharged, and she left on her return trip to New York on the fifth 
 day after her arrival ; and we were thus left without any means of trans- 
 portation that we could depend upon in any direction, the railroads being 
 broken, and there being none but government ships in the harbor. 
 
 RED 'CROSS ACTING THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 
 
 " The government not having many delicacies for its sick men, 
 and such as it had being so hard to get that those in quest of them could 
 hardly get their orders filled until their patients had died or recovered, 
 it was only natural that they should come to the Red Cross when they 
 needed anything of that kind, where it was only necessary to state the 
 need and write a requisition to be supplied with anything that we had 
 in stock. That this privilege was appreciated can be attested by 
 hundreds of chaplains, surgeons and officers ; and if it was abused in 
 rare instances, there is little to complain of when it is remembered how 
 many lives were thus saved, and how many poor fellows were made 
 comfortable and happy." 
 
 The Red Cross afforded Miss Wheeler an organization of trained 
 nurses through which she could carry on her patriotic and Good-Samar- 
 itan work. She went about her duties in a quiet, faithful, self-sacrificing- 
 way that showed at once her ability for the undertaking she had in 
 charge and her adaptation for the labors that were required. While her 
 distinguished father, the hero of many a battlefield, was leading his cav- 
 aliy and fighting for his country, his gifted daughter was assuaging the 
 
ANNIE E. WHEELER. 575 
 
 calamities and horrors of war by her personal devotion to the welfare of 
 our suffering heroes. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt, contrary to all precedent for a subordinate 
 officer, and almost in downright disobedience of military rules, demanded 
 that our regiments, after the surrender of the Spanish army, should be 
 removed to more healthful surroundings on Long Island. Thither Miss 
 Wheeler accompanied the soldiers, established another hospital and con- 
 tinued her ministrations in behalf of the sick and wounded. Her pres- 
 ence in camp was perpetual sunshine, the bright gleam of hope and good 
 cheer to the men who found it easy under inspiring helpfulness to bear 
 with heroic fortitude their ills and misfortunes. 
 
 Miss Wheeler is a type of many heroines who went to Cuba to afford 
 relief to our soldiers in hospital and camp. These noble women sub- 
 mitted to all sorts of annoyances, encountered every kind of danger 
 incident to war, and faced the perils and hazards of climate that our 
 brave " boys" might be befriended, and that all might be done for their 
 relief which woman's gentle hands and loving ministries could do. 
 These ministering spirits are heroines no less than the men are heroes 
 who obey their country's call and withstand the shock of battle. 
 
 While we write the names of onr statesmen, orators, and generals 
 high on onr nation's historic scroll, let the names stand side by side with 
 those of the grand army of women who are worthy of equal honor. 
 
 MARGARET L. CHANLER. 
 
 Miss Margaret Livingston Chanler, independently wealthy, mem- 
 ber of the Astor family, and a Red Cross nurse during the Spanish- 
 American war, figures prominently in Greater New York as the woman 
 in politics and charity. As vice president of the Women's Municipal 
 League she occupies an office in the Syndicate Building overlooking 
 City Hall, and this most active young woman keeps in close touch with 
 municipal affairs. 
 
 The league takes a sisterly interest in the proper government of the 
 city because of the prominent part it took during the last campaign and 
 
57G MARGARET L. CHANLER. 
 
 the great influence it exerted on behalf of good government. Not only 
 did the members make a house-to-house canvass and buttonhole voters 
 to cast their ballots for fusion, but they carried out their sympathy on a 
 still more practical line and about two weeks before election day a com- 
 mittee of the women went before the leaders at the Republican and 
 Citizen's Union headquarters with a certified check for $20,000 and turned 
 it over to the Campaign Committee with the remark: "Here, gentlemen, is 
 a contribution from the women of New York city who desire to see a 
 cleaner city administration." 
 
 ASSISTED TO OVERTHROW BAD GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Then, too, they distributed tracts, held meetings and in other ways 
 assisted in overthrowing bad government. 
 
 So that the Woman's League has an acknowledged right to keep 
 tabs on his Honor the Mayor, and to see that his subordinates are per- 
 forming their duties properly. Indeed, they even went so far as to ask for 
 an office in the City Hall building itself, but when it was explained that 
 all the available room was occupied and that the city was compelled to 
 rent space in the big skyscraper in the vicinity of the public buildings, 
 they withdrew their request. 
 
 Miss Chanler, who has been placed in charge of this bureau, is a 
 remarkable product of an ancient and wealthy family. Her standing in 
 a social way entitles her to occupy a position far up near the top of the 
 "400," and her wealth would enable her to maintain this place in a 
 fitting manner. But she does not care for the whirl of social life and her 
 money has given her less pleasure than the results obtained by her 
 activity along lines that are peculiarly her own. 
 
 When a state of war was declared between the United States and 
 Spain Miss Chanler at once volunteered to serve as a Red Cross nurse 
 without pay. Her offer was accepted and she went to the front with that 
 little band of women under Clara Barton. Miss Chanler proved to be a 
 capable nurse of wonderful energy, and at the camp of Montauk Point 
 she received high praise for her work. 
 
MARGARET L. CHANLER. 577 
 
 During the past few years Miss Chanler has been living quietly in 
 New York devoting much of her time to settlement work. When she was 
 prevailed upon to take charge of the City Hall office of the league, there 
 was much rejoicing among her associates for her acceptance carried with 
 it the assurance that the work would be well done. 
 
 Miss Chanler is virtually the executive head of women's part in the 
 control and government of New York. She receives reports from the 
 many branches of the league all over the greater city and acting upon 
 these she makes complaints or recommendations to the Mayor, and 
 sees to it that they are acted upon. On the whole, it is the most sys- 
 tematic attempt to make women a force in municipal affairs that has ever 
 been attempted, and has been attended with success. 
 
 KEEPING AN EYE ON CITY OFFICIALS. 
 
 Speaking of the hopes of the league she said : " The City Hall 
 office will be a sort of clearing house for the greater body. We expect 
 to have there representatives of all our larger committees who will be 
 familiar with the questions which may arise and who can act speedily. 
 For instance, should a complaint be made that the streets in a part of 
 the city were not being cleaned properly the representative of our Com- 
 mittee on Streets could present the facts to the Street Cleaning Commis- 
 sioner. 
 
 "The Mayor has taken a decided interest in our work and has 
 promised to aid us as far as he can. Already, he has made several sug- 
 gestions, and we are working upon them at the present time. It may 
 interest you to know that the women have taken a great interest in the 
 movement to abolish the Park Avenue Railroad tunnel. We sent a 
 petition signed by thousands of persons to Albany protesting against 
 the use of smoke in the tunnel and we shall continue the fight until the 
 unhealthy tunnel is gotten rid of." 
 
 The Women's League, which is made up of many of the most promi- 
 nent and public-spirited women in New York, has on its roll members 
 
 of distiguished families and persons of education, refinement and tact. 
 37 
 
CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 GRACE DARLING, CAPTAIN 
 JAMES AND OTHERS. 
 
 DANGERS ENCOUNTERED BY SAILORS— SHIP- 
 WRECKS ON STORMY COASTS— PERILS OF 
 MEN AND WOMEN WHO HURRY TO THE 
 RESCUE — DEEDS OF SPLENDID COURAGE. 
 
 The accounts of those who risk their own lives to rescue others who 
 are in danger from storm and shipwreck, furnish us with some of the 
 brightest examples of heroism. Almost every part of the Atlantic coast 
 is swept by gales or obscured by fogs at some season of the year. Our 
 government maintains life-saving stations at many ports, but it may 
 well be questioned whether these are sufficient in number or properly 
 furnished and maintained. 
 
 The salaries paid to the heroic men who man the life-boats and 
 sometimes succeed in rescuing scores of persons who otherwise would 
 go down to a watery grave, are thought not to be commensurate with 
 the hardships and dangers that are encountered. The number of lives 
 lost each year is much smaller than it would be except for the noble 
 deeds performed by the men who act as life-savers along our shores. 
 
 Even women have made themselves famous, as Grace Darling did, 
 by going out in the frail life-boat to save those who were in peril. This 
 woman's name is celebrated in the annals of heroism. She was the 
 daughter of William Darling, lighthouse-keeper on Lougstone, one of 
 the Fame islands, and was born at Bamborough, November 24, 181 5. 
 
 On the morning of September 7, 1838, the Forfarshire, a vessel 
 bound from Hull to Dundee, with sixty-three persons on board, struck 
 
 578 
 
GRACE DARLING. 579 
 
 the Harker's rock, among the Fame islands', and in fifteen minutes 
 forty-three persons were drowned. The vessel was seen by Grace Darling 
 from the lighthouse at a quarter to five lying broken on the rocks. 
 
 Darling and his daughter agreed that if they could get to her, some 
 of the shipwrecked crew would be able to assist them in getting back. 
 It was a hazardous undertaking, but if not promptly carried out, all on 
 board the ship would be lost. By wonderful skill and strength, they 
 brought their boat to where the sufferers, nine in number, crouched, 
 expecting every moment would be their last. There was one woman in 
 the company, and she was cared for first. 
 
 Besides her, four men were safely taken to Longstone. Two of the 
 men returned with Darling, and succeeded in bringing the remainder off 
 by nine o'clock in the morning. It was only by the greatest effort that 
 the survivors were all saved. The fact that a woman helped to row the 
 boat through the boiling surf, struck a note of admiration whenever the 
 story was told. The undertaking was a daring one, and was successfully 
 accomplished. It was one of those deeds which are applauded by the 
 public and eulogized. 
 
 The lighthouse at Longstone, solitary and unknown no more, was 
 visited by many of the wealthy and the great. Presents, testimonials and 
 money were heaped at the feet of Grace Darling, but she did not long 
 survive her change of circumstances. She died of consumption, after a 
 year's illness, on October 20, 1842, leaving a name that will always be 
 associated with the records of the noblest heroism. 
 
 CAPTAIN JOSHUA JAMES. 
 
 As already remarked, among the bravest men, whose valiant deeds 
 stand on the pages of history, those who man the life-saving stations 
 along our coasts hold a prominent place. We only hear of their 
 achievements when the thrilling tale is told of some vessel that has been 
 rescued from a watery grave. It has been said repeatedly that the life- 
 saving service has never received the recognition from the public which 
 it deserves, nor any adequate support by our government. It is difficult 
 
580 CAPTAIN JOSHUA JAMES. 
 
 to account for this, because the value of the service rendered must be 
 apparent to everybody. 
 
 The men who push out in their lifeboats to a shattered wreck are 
 never sure that they will return. Not only is there an insufficient 
 number of men scattered along our coasts, but since they do their work 
 in comparative obscurity, there are few to sound their praises. And yet 
 every year hundreds of lives are saved by these men, who take no account 
 of storm or danger when human life is in peril. Persons who happen to 
 be present at a life-saving station when the boat with its gallant rescuers 
 pushes off on its mission of mercy, can appreciate the wonderful services 
 rendered by these men to those who are in peril. 
 
 EQUIPPED FOR SAVING LIFE. 
 
 If you were on a shattered ship, ready to sink at any moment, you 
 would hail the sighfc of a lifeboat coming to your help, and would be apt 
 to bestow proper appreciation upon those who had undertaken your 
 deliverance. Life-saving stations are furnished with all the means ot 
 rescue. Sometimes it is impossible for the lifeboat to reach the ship, but 
 a line may be shot over the vessel from the shore, and an apparatus sent 
 out by which the passenger or the sailor may be safely landed. As an 
 illustration of this mode of rescue take the following from one of our 
 prominent journals. 
 
 " A Norwegian vessel named the Esras, of 266 tons register, bound 
 from Christiansand to Pamviauf, ran ashore on the Hasboro' sands about 
 8 o'clock in the evening. There she lay the whole night through, at 
 the mercy of the howling winds and huge seas, and during the hours of 
 darkness her mast went by the board. Next morning she dropped 
 anchor and found herself stranded on the Norfolk coast about opposite 
 East Runton. Her position was one of peril to the crew, and just before 
 6 o'clock the Cromer and Sheringham Rocket Brigades were summoned. 
 
 "The vessel lay at the mercy of huge breakers, and after about two 
 hours broke from her moorings and came broadside on the Runton beach 
 some 500 yards from land. The rocket apparatus was got to work, but 
 
CAPTAIN JOSHUA JAMES. 
 
 581 
 
 at first it failed. At the fifth attempt the Cromer rocket succeeded in 
 reaching the Esras and all the crew were saved. The work of the 
 Rocket Brigade 
 is deserving of 
 the highest com- 
 mendation. The 
 sight was watch- 
 ed with keen in- 
 terest by hun- 
 dreds of people." 
 
 From a Bos- 
 ton journal we 
 take the follow- 
 ing account of a 
 disaster that oc- 
 curred on our 
 Atlantic coast : 
 
 "The loss of 
 twelve lives off 
 the treacherous 
 shoals of Mono- 
 moy is said to be 
 the worst disaster 
 of its class that 
 has occurred 
 since the life-sav- 
 ing station was 
 established. And 
 what a magnifi- 
 cent service it ha LIFE-SAVING APPARATUS AT WORK. 
 
 been and is ; how rich in human achievement, how glorious in its record 
 of daring and sacrifice, how modest in its pretentions and its claims ! Its 
 field of operations is the angry and tumultuous sea. It is attended by 
 
•82 
 
 CAPTAIN JOSHUA JAMES. 
 
 no martial pomp ; it is stimulated by no artificial excitements. Those 
 who enlist in it have to rely upon their own stoutness of heart and stead- 
 fastness of purpose. 
 
 " They endure almost constant hardships; their life is an almost 
 continual struggle with the elements and their battles are always to save 
 and never to destroy their fellowmen. When they succeed, as^so often 
 they do, the names of these heroes are rarely mentioned. The papers 
 
 mmmmm 
 
 K 
 
 
 sMfffRsmPW 
 
 LIFE BOAT HURRYING TO THE RESCUE. 
 
 tell us that the life-saving station at such a point went to the relief of 
 the distressed crew. 
 
 " Yet epics have been built upon less than is covered by such a bald 
 and bare statement. The casual reader looks upon it all as a matter of 
 course. The rescuers have done what they were engaged to do. A 
 skirmish in the bush, a successful fight with savages will set his blood 
 tingling ; but he looks with indifference upon a battle with angry waves 
 through icy waters. His imagination is not kindled by these homely 
 exploits, and he goes home to dinner without another thought of the 
 
CAPTAIN JOSHUA JAMES. 583 
 
 terrible struggles and splendid achievements of these devoted men who 
 seem to find their reward in doing and not in glory or in gain. 
 
 "It is only when we contemplate totals that we get a truly realizing 
 sense of what this service means to our country, to our humanity, and 
 to the interests of those who go down to the sea in ships or trust their 
 ventures to its fickle mercies. It is a little over thirty years since this 
 service was established. In that time it has saved in various portions of 
 the country about ninety thousand lives, and property enough to pay 
 several times over the cost of maintenance. 
 
 ' These 90,000 witnesses have known something of the true worth 
 of these men, and their gratitude to them has doubtless been greater 
 than that which they feel toward any other class in the world. They 
 have known the dangers involved, the bravery and the skill that carried 
 them through their perlious duty. The saviors are constantly facing 
 dangers which the saved perhaps experience only once in a lifetime. 
 
 GENUINE TYPES OF A NOBLE CLASS. 
 
 "And some of the best and most genuine types of this noble class 
 were the men who went down at Monomoy. They knew what they had 
 to encounter better than anyone else ; but they did not flinch for an 
 instant. Whether life or death awaited them they would make the 
 attempt, and the men who still survive would face an equal peril to-day 
 with as little hesitation should the occasion arise." 
 
 Another journal furnishes an additional account of the same catas- 
 trophe. The article is appropriately headed : " The Heroes of Monomoy." 
 " Monomoy Point, where the sea tragedy occurred, when seven men 
 lost their lives in the vain effort to save five, is the most southerly point 
 of the mainland of Massachusetts. Just where Cape Cod bends its 
 elbow in the Atlantic Ocean surges a splinter of sand just downward, 
 and on the lower point is Monomoy Life Saving Station, all but two of 
 the crew of which were drowned trying to save the crews of two barges 
 stranded on Shovelful Shoal, three-quarters of a mile from the point. 
 
 " On Monday the weather grew thick. An easterly gale rose, and 
 
584 CAPTAIN JOSHUA JAMES. 
 
 the men aboard the stranded barges Hoisted a signal for help. It was a 
 fearful sea, but the men of Monomoy knew only the word of duty while 
 those signals of distress were flying. The boat was pushed off into the 
 hungry sea manned by eight of the nine men at the station, and after 
 mastering almost insurmountable difficulties the errand of mercy was 
 nearly accomplished, when a cross sea caught the boat and of the thirteen 
 men in it only one was left to tell the story. ' Dinner was all ready for 
 them,' said the one left at the station. ' The table was set and the coffee 
 and soup were hot on the stove. It was my cook week, and while the 
 rest of them took the boat out to the barge I had to stay behind and get 
 the meals ready. Perhaps that's why I'm here now.' And he continned : 
 ' There wasn't a braver, a better set of men anywhere on the coast than 
 these comrades of mine who have gone. They were friends all — never 
 a hard word, never anything out of the way except in jest ; as happy 
 a family as you ever saw. The worst night that any one of them had to 
 go out in never made any difference in their spirits.' 
 
 CARING FOR THE FAMILIES OF THE HEROES. 
 
 " Boston raised a fund to care for the families of these heroes of 
 Monomoy. It soon reached $14,000. But while this is the only material 
 comfort that can now be given the bereaved, some other tribute is due 
 the men who pushed out their boat into the angry sea and went on an 
 errand which to all but one of them meant death. Their names deserve 
 to be inscribed among the bravest of heroes who have lost their lives in 
 the service of humanity." 
 
 This is the story of Captain Joshua James. It is a simple story, 
 yet it is one well worth reading, for it is a narrative of a man known as 
 the world's greatest life saver. During his career of seventy-seven years 
 it is estimated that over one hundred persons were rescued by him from 
 death by drowning. " I shall die with my boots on," he often said, and 
 so he did die. One morning Captain James was sending his crew 
 through the drill at Point Allerton. 
 
 u Now, the next thing boys," he said, and fell unconscious. Doctors 
 
CAPTAIN JOSHUA JAMES. 
 
 585 
 
 were hastily sent for, but He had passed away. Heart disease, the doctors 
 said, was the cause of death. But these two words by no means express 
 the years of watching on the coast by night, the lonely vigils, the plunges 
 through the stormy 
 
 sea, and the daring 
 rescues which re- 
 quired the expendi- 
 ture of life's forces. 
 Captain James 
 was a well-known 
 character in Hull, 
 and a man of pic- 
 turesque appear- 
 ance. He was over 
 six feet tall, and he 
 was thin, but his 
 muscles were like 
 steel. The power 
 and determination 
 expressed in his 
 face were not con- 
 cealed in the six 
 inches of whiskers 
 which seemed to be 
 his only vanity. He 
 was known to all 
 seafaring men along 
 the Atlantic coast life-savers launching the lifeboat. 
 
 and respected and honored by them. For nearly thirty years he had 
 been connected with the life-saving service. At first he had a volun- 
 teer crew, but when the Government took charge of this work he was 
 made captain by a special act of Congress, as he was many years older 
 than the prescribed age. 
 
586 CAPTAIN JOSHUA JAMES. 
 
 Captain James was born in Hull. His father, Captain William 
 James, a native of Holland, came to this country about 1805. Esther 
 Dill, his mother, a lineal descendant of the earliest settlers of Plymouth 
 County, was noted for her philanthropy and bravery. She was a veritable 
 mother to the many men employed on her husband's vessels. When 
 only 44 years old she was accidentally drowned in the whirlpools of Hull 
 Gut. One of the noblest acts of bravery ever performed in the life-saving 
 service took place at Nantasket Beach, when Captain James and his crew 
 rescued the men of the three-masted schooner Ulrica and nearly lost 
 their own lives in the attempt. 
 
 The storm, which had been raging furiously, increased so rapidly 
 
 as to make an attempt to reach port impossible, and Captain Patterson, 
 
 of the Ulrica, decided to stand out in the open sea. About 6 o'clock in 
 
 the morning the Ulrica was off the lightship, and, soon after this 
 
 friendly beacon was sighted, there was a succession of sharp reports as 
 
 the sails were rent from their fastenings and blown away like shreds of 
 
 paper. 
 
 SEAS BREAKING OVER THE VESSEL. 
 
 The seas were breaking over the vessel, and the half-frozen crew 
 made preparations to get out the anchors. They were successful in this, 
 but the anchors did not hold, and the helpless craft was blown across 
 the bay and onto the sands of Nantasket, with her crew powerless to 
 save her. The Ulrica struck broadsides on, about 1500 feet off shore, 
 just opposite the Kenberma Station, at that part of the beach called 
 Strawberry Hill. Immense breakers pounded against her sides like a 
 battering ram, and in a few minutes, with a report like a cannon, the 
 back of the ship was broken in two. The Ulrica was seen by a boy 
 named Henry Baker, who sent word to the life-saving station at Stony 
 Beach, three miles away. 
 
 Captain James and his crew started for the scene of the wreck on a 
 special train, leaving two men to follow with the life-saving gun. When 
 they reached Kenberma, hundreds of persons had collected on the beach, 
 but they were powerless to aid the imperiled sailors. It looked like 
 
 
CAPTAIN JOSHUA JAMES. 587 
 
 instant death to face the raging storm. They conld see the crew of the 
 Ulrica in the darkness huddling together on the forward part of the 
 vessel. The waves were dashing over them, and now and again some 
 one lost his footing and was swept across the deck, but the men whose 
 business it was to save life were undaunted. 
 
 They launched their boat in the face of the fierce gale and before 
 they could grasp an oar an enormous breaker hurled them back upon 
 the beach. A second time were they driven back ; but the third attempt 
 was more successful. Slowly they proceeded toward the Ulrica. Waves 
 dashed over them every second, almost exhausting their strength. 
 Cheered by the words and spirit of their undaunted captain they had pro- 
 ceeded about one hundred and fifty yards, when a gigantic comber struck 
 the boat and threw it high in the air. Captain James lost his balance and 
 fell into the roaring waters. The other members of the crew managed 
 to retain their seats, but in the next minute they were washed ashore 
 500 feet from where they started. 
 
 BROUGHT SAFELY TO SHORE. 
 
 The instant the lifeboat struck the sand, every man plunged back 
 into the sea to rescue their captain, who was making an awful battle for 
 life in the roaring waters, which seemed to engulf him at every instant. 
 The scene was memorable. Many of the spectators on the beach were 
 so enthused at the sight that they, too, braved the surf to assist the 
 life-savers. Captain James was brought safely to shore ; but weak and 
 exhausted as he was, directed the firing of the Hunt gun, which at that 
 moment had arrived. 
 
 The first shot carried the life line among the rigging near the mast- 
 head, so that the men aboard the Ulrica were unable to get near it. 
 A second shot was fired, and again the line fell beyond the reach of the 
 exhausted and half-frozen sailors. On the third shot the hopeful life 
 line dangled again in the upper rigging. A few minutes later, however, 
 it fell across the deck, where it was secured by one of the men. 
 
 Unable to mount into the rigging, the poor fellows were obliged tc 
 
588 CAPTAIN JOSHUA JAMES. 
 
 fasten a hawser on the deck near the anchor chains. This allowed the 
 line to the shore to slacken so that it was impossible to work the breeches 
 buoy, and it seemed as if the crew must perish. When all hope seemed 
 abandoned, Captain James thought of a last plan. The big hawser still 
 held secure from shore to ship, and he thought that the lifeboat might 
 be pulled out to the doomed vessel by means of this rope. Another rope 
 
 CREW AND PASSENGERS ABANDONING THE WRECK. 
 
 was attached to the stern of the lifeboat, and then the brave fellows 
 j umped in to make a last effort to save the crew of the Ulrica. 
 
 Awaiting a favorable opportunity, the lifeboat was pushed off, and 
 then every man in her grasped the big cable and pulled with might and 
 main. The waves broke over the little band, and the water freezing, 
 covered them with ice. But they held on pluckily. Slowly and surely 
 the boat climbed the mountain waves and descended into green yawning 
 chasms, until the side of the stranded vessel was reached. 
 
MORAL HEROISM. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 Frances E. Willaxd — Ellen Stone— Sammv Belnap. 
 
 FIRMNESS FOR THE RIGHT — SACRIFICES FOR PRINCIPLE— LEADERS IN GREAT 
 LABORS FOR HUMANITY — CHARACTERISTICS OF MORAL HEROES. 
 
 One of the most observing women of these times is Mrs. Hannah 
 Whitall Smith. In writing of Frances E. Willard, this keen-eyed, 
 strong-hearted and judicially-minded woman says : "Miss Willard has 
 been to me the embodiment of all that is lovely and good and womanly 
 and strong and noble and tender in human nature. She is one of God's 
 best gifts to the American women of the nineteenth century. She has 
 done more to enlarge our sympathies, widen our outlook and develop our 
 gifts than any man or any other woman of her time." 
 
 A vast number of the best women of America who have been 
 inspired by the genius, cheered and encouraged by the sympathy, made 
 wise through her wisdom, and made victorious in the battle of life by 
 her enthusiastic, unyielding faith, know how true is this estimate of 
 Frances E. Willard, who was one of the most remarkable women of this 
 wonderful country. 
 
 Her career is evidence of what a gifted, consecrated woman can 
 accomplish for the good of her own sex, in fact, for the good of humanity. 
 Her mind was cultivated ; her eloquence was admitted by everybody ; 
 her sympathies were warm ; her zeal never grew weary, and her success 
 was a marvel. 
 
 She was the fourth in a family of five children in the home of Josiah 
 Flint Willard and Mary Thompson Hill Willard, and was born on 
 Thursday, September 28, 1839, at Churchville, Monroe county, New 
 York. Miss Willard' s father descended from Major Simon Willard, a 
 Puritan of Puritans, who, in 1634, at the age of thirty-one, emigrated 
 
 589 
 
590 FRANCES E. WILLARD. 
 
 from Kent county, England, to Massachusetts, where he could enjoy his 
 religious opinions undisturbed and unquestioned. 
 
 By the roadside in the suburbs of Concord, Massachusetts, may be 
 seen a large granite boulder, on which is the following inscription: "On 
 this farm dwelt Simon Willard, one of the founders of Concord, who did 
 good service for town and colony for more than forty years." Two pres- 
 idents of Harvard University, one pastor of Old South Church, Boston, 
 and the architect of Bunker Hill monument were among the immediate 
 descendants of Major Willard. The mother of Miss Willard descended 
 from a family in whose veins ran the best blood of Scotland and New 
 England. 
 
 In 184 1, at two years of age, little Frank Willard was carried in her 
 mother's arms from Churchville, New York, toOberlin, Ohio, the family 
 making the journey by carriage all the way. When seven years old, in 
 1846, the family moved on. Three emigrant wagons constituted the 
 Willard procession westward from Oberlin, Ohio, to Forest Home, near 
 Janesville, Wisconsin, where "indoors," under the best training of a 
 Christian household, and " outdoors " on the prairie, by Rock river side, 
 among blossoming orchards, flowering shrubs and widespreading fields 
 of wheat and corn, she spent twelve years of her girlhood. 
 
 WILLARD FAMILY GOES WEST. 
 
 At nineteen, in 1858, the Willard family removed to the western 
 shore of Lake Michigan, and settled down for a permanent home at 
 Evanston, then a flourishing town four } T ears of age, where had been 
 located the Northwestern University, the Garrett Biblical Institute, and 
 the Northwestern Female College. From 1858, as student, teacher, trav- 
 eler, and foremost woman in "every good work" in America, Evanston 
 was Miss Willard' s home. The student life of this wonderful woman 
 began in her very early childhood, when during the Ohio period of her 
 residence she came in contact with the spirit of Oberlin, listened to the 
 rehearsal of the students' declamations and orations, and was inspired 
 by the sermons of President Finney. 
 
FRANCES E. WILLARD. 591 
 
 At Forest Home, Wisconsin , a home school for the children was 
 established, where for five years Frances received instructions from the 
 world's best teacher, an intelligent Christian mother, until the little dis- 
 trict schoolhouse a mile away, became to the ambitious girl u a temple 
 of learning." In 1857 she became a pupil at the Milwaukee Female 
 College, and in 1858 entered the Northwestern Female College, at Evan- 
 ston, where, in 1859, she graduated with high honors. 
 
 WISHED TO BECOME A TEACHER. 
 
 Miss Willard' s chief ambition during her school days was to become 
 a teacher. Within the sixteen years between 1858 and 1874 she was a 
 successful teacher in eleven separate institutions of learning, in six dif- 
 ferent localities, and made her impress upon two thousand students who 
 to this day rise up and call her blessed, as in their strong manhood and 
 womanhood they gratefully remember the school days when Frances E. 
 Willard inspired them to be somebody. In 1870 she was chosen Presi- 
 dent of the Evanston College for Ladies, which institution was subse- 
 quently merged in the Northwestern University. Miss Willard was 
 made Professor of ^Esthetics in the University and Dean of the Faculty. 
 
 In June, 1874, she resigned these positions, the highest yet attained 
 by any woman, and forever terminated her calling as a pedagogue. She 
 turned her head and heart towards a work in which her achievements 
 are without a parallel. 
 
 Miss Willard from her childhood had been thoughtful on the 
 supreme question of life, the Christian religion. She was born in a 
 Christian household, and received religious training from the hour she 
 could prattle at her mother's knee. She demanded the why, and "how 
 do you know?" In her girlhood at Forest Home she was the heartiest, 
 happiest, rollicking youth in the neighborhood. Hers was a rarely 
 happy existence on the Wisconsin farm, where she could be seen riding 
 a horse for the corn-ploughing or galloping a mile away to water the 
 steed. She could fight a prairie fire as vigorously as any "hired man." 
 
 She organized her comrades without distinction of sex into two 
 
502 FRANCES E. WILLARD. 
 
 fighting forces, one of Indians attacking the frontier settlement, the other 
 of pale faces resisting the savage. On whichever side Frank Willard 
 commanded there was victory. From her outdoor sports and ramblings 
 in field and forest she turned to her books, and as eagerly studied as she 
 had played. She was somewhat averse to being interviewed on the sub- 
 ject of religion, but attentively read her Bible and the standard hymns of 
 the church. The home song-service stirred her soul more than sermon 
 or exhortation. Not until nineteen years of age did Miss Willard give 
 her heart to Christ, and her name to the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 but from that glad day she lived a life of rejoicing consecration to God. 
 Her father and sisters had all died. Her mother and herself con- 
 stituted the Willard household. They were poor as the world estimates 
 values, but rich in faith. At thirty-five years of age Miss Willard' s 
 only deposit from which she was to check for the support of her mother, 
 then " three score and ten," and herself was in the words of the Psalmist, 
 " Trust in the Lord and do good ; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and 
 verily thou shalt be fed." 
 
 WOMAN'S TEMPERANCE CRUSADE. 
 
 The Woman's Temperance Crusade, beginning in Ohio in the clos- 
 ing days of 1873, had inaugurated the "irrepressible conflict" between 
 the home and the saloon, a conflict which will not cease until there shall 
 be no legalized dram-shop where floats the Stars and Stripes. The 
 movement arrested the attention of Miss Willard, who had been rooted 
 and grounded in the total abstinence faith. The crusade stirred her 
 soul, and she made a solemn covenant that with God's blessing and 
 guidance she would become an active aggressive force against those mon- 
 strous evils, the drink habit and the liquor traffic, and would devote her 
 every energy to the utter overthrow of the latter as the only cure of the 
 former. 
 
 When her cherished plans and purposes as an educator had been 
 abandoned, the temperance work in all its departments filled her heart 
 head and hands. She immediately visited the Eastern cities and con- 
 
FRANCES E. WILLARD. 593 
 
 ferred with the leaders in Gospel temperance work. She listened to the 
 stirring words of Francis Mnrphy, who by the grace of Godhadjnst 
 been transformed from a drnnkard to a flaming herald of Gospel tem- 
 perance. She sat at the feet of Neal Dow and studied the problem of 
 legal prohibition. She received hearty, enthusiastic encouragement from 
 Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, who in that day was sowing with her own 
 hands the golden grain of which the harvest waveth now. She heard 
 Jerry McCauley in Water street tell the story of his redemption. 
 
 MARCHED WITH THE CRUSADERS. 
 
 In Pittsburg she marched with the crusaders, knelt with them on 
 pavements and on the sawdust floor of the saloon. She cried aloud to 
 God in prayer that startled the saloonkeeper and strengthened the 
 hearts of her comrades. Her voice led the host in singing " Rock of 
 Ages, Cleft for Me," and " Jesus, Lover of My Soul," and a thronging 
 multitude in the crowded streets of Pittsburg wondered at what they saw 
 and heard. Returning to Chicago she immediately began the work 
 she had never for a moment laid down. She rejected many most tempt- 
 ing offers of high place at a high salary in educational institutions. 
 Instead of happy, peaceful days in one of many professional chairs East 
 and West, she enlisted for war against the saloon, and on her banner 
 inscribed for " God and Home and Native Land." 
 
 She at once became President of the Woman's Temperance Organi- 
 zation in Chicago, and opened the first "headquarters" known to Woman's 
 Christian Temperance Union annals. She lived on half rations, frequently 
 on no rations, and walked many a mile that she might save the five- 
 cent fare for the prosecution of her work, or drop a nickel in the hand of 
 the drunkard's suffering wife or child. 
 
 At Cleveland, in November, 1874, convened a company of women 
 
 who organized the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and 
 
 elected as corresponding secretary thereof Miss Frances E. Willard. 
 
 Ready pen and eloquent words were needed at that hour of the beginning 
 
 of a movement that has filled the whole world with wonder. Miss Willard' s 
 38 
 
594 FRANCES E. WILLARD. 
 
 prophetic soul saw the coming conflict and the storms through which 
 they were to pass. 
 
 A resolution written by herself became the tnreshold over which the 
 National Woman's Christian Temperance Union stepped into usefulness 
 and conquest. It read as follows : " Resolved, That recognizing that our 
 cause is and will be contested by mighty, determined and relentless 
 forces, we will, trusting in Him who is the Prince of Peace, meet argument 
 with argument, misjudgment with patience, denunciation with kindness, 
 and all our difficulties and dangers with prayer." Miss Willard con- 
 tinued in the ofhce of corresponding secretary until her resignation in 
 1877: In committees and conventions, and on many platforms, she 
 bravely bore the banner of the Union. 
 
 HELPER IN THE MOODY MEETINGS. 
 
 In the Moody meetings in Chicago and Boston, in 1877, she rendered 
 magnificent service. In the latter city she discovered Anna Gordon, 
 whom she styled her "Litte Organist." It was a case of "love at first 
 sight." Miss Gordon from that very hour was her constant, devoted friend, 
 accomplished secretary, and helpful, loving, traveling companion. At 
 Indianapolis, in 1879, Miss Willard was elected President of the National 
 Woman's Christian Temperanc Union, and was re-elected annually, by 
 a substantially unanimous vote, by that most thoroughly intelligent and 
 conscientious body of women. In every State and Territory of our 
 National Union she traveled in the interest of the Temperance Union. 
 Her eloquent pleading in behalf of the homes of this land has stirred 
 the hearts of millions. 
 
 A separate and distinct political party, whose corner-stone would be 
 the overthrow of the beverage liquor traffic, and whose platform would 
 declare for the ballot for woman, had been boldly advocated by Miss 
 Willard in the earlier years of her close alliance with the temperance 
 cause. In her first annual address as President of the National 
 Woman's Christian Temperance Union at its convention in Boston in 
 1880, she said, "A horde of ignorant voters committed to the rum 
 
FRANCES E. WILLARD. 595 
 
 power fastens the dram-shop like a leech on our community; but let the 
 Republic take notice that our unions are training an army to offset this 
 horde, one which will be the only army of voters specifically educated to 
 their duty which has ever yet come up to the help of the Lord against 
 the mighty. 
 
 " For slowly, but surely, the reflex influence of this mighty reform, 
 born in the church and nurtured at the crusade altars, is educating 
 women to the level of the most solemn and ominous ideas : First, that 
 they ought to vote ; second, that they ought to vote against the grog- 
 shops." That was the skirmish line up to which steadily marched the 
 National Woman's Temperance Union and deployed its forces for the 
 
 conflict. 
 
 FOUNDED HOME PROTECTION PARTY. 
 
 " Home Protection Party" were the musical syllables Miss Willard 
 would weave as a name for the "third party " she saw by faith rising to 
 ultimate victory. In 1882, she, in Chicago, assisted in the organization 
 of the Prohibition Home Protection party. The national political con- 
 ventions of 1884 were all mermorialized by the National Woman's 
 Christian Temperance Union in behalf of the American home against 
 the American saloon. 
 
 Miss Willard presented the memorials in person. She and her good 
 cause found no favor in either the Republican, Democratic, or Greenback 
 conventions. She finally made a pilgrimage to the Pittsburg convention 
 of Prohibitionists, held in July, 1884, to which she had been delegated. 
 After her brief address and presentation of the memorial, it was adopted 
 by the convention by unanimous uprising. 
 
 Miss Willard was invited by the Kansas delegation of the conven- 
 tion to nominate in their behalf Governor St. John for the Presidency. 
 No other nominating speech in any national political convention of that 
 year compared with the eloquent words which gave Kansas' great leader 
 the hearty and unanimous nomination of the Prohibition party. 
 
 Miss Willard was one of the five women elected as delegates to the 
 General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church which convened 
 
596 FRANCES E. WILLARD. 
 
 in the Metropolitan Opera House, in the city of New York, May I, 1888. 
 The admission of women as delegates to the General Conference was the 
 subject of the first great debate in that body. The discussion was able 
 and in good temper. Upon a pure technicality the women were ruled 
 out of that General Conference. 
 
 In October following the General Conference, the National Woman's 
 Christian Temperance Union met in the same great opera house for 
 their annual convention. Among the more or less distinguished men- 
 folk invited by Miss Willard to seats by her side on the platform, and 
 by her asked to address the convention, was Dr. J. M. Buckley, the 
 leader in the discussion against the admission of women to the General 
 Conference. She felt no resentment and had no grudges. 
 
 HER LITERARY WORK. 
 
 But few pens were more busy than that held by Miss Willard. Her 
 "Glimpses of Fifty Years," is one of the most readable books. In it she 
 tells frankly and with fidelity the story of her " Fifty Years of Life." 
 The reader of that story will see passing in review the " welcome child," 
 the " romping girl," the "happy student," the " young teacher," the 
 "tireless traveler," the "temperance organizer," and the " politician and 
 advocate of woman's rights." 
 
 " Rest Cottage," at Evanston, Illinois, was the attractive home of 
 Miss Willard. In that charming household of women sat Mother 
 Willard, serene and joyful at eighty-five. " Rest Cottage" was the 
 executive mansion where the presiding genius, Miss Frances E. Willard, 
 surrounded by department secretaries, directed movements that will uplift 
 humanity the wide world over. 
 
 The Woman's Christian Temperance Union, designated as the 
 "Sober, Second Thought " of the woman's crusade against the saloon in 
 1874, has, under the masterly leadership of Miss Willard with its numer- 
 ous departments of work, become a powerful organization throughout 
 the land, and is now compassing the globe itself with its benign influences. 
 Mrs. Mary A. Livermore who had so large a place in the esteem of all 
 
FRANCES E. WILLARD. 597 
 
 Christian patriotic citizens, said it is " so grand in its aims, so superb in 
 its equipment, so phenomenal in its growth, and has done so much for 
 women as well as for temperance, that it challenges the attention of 
 Christendom and excites the hope of all who are interested in the welfare 
 of humanity." 
 
 When the National Council of Women was convened in Washington, 
 in March, 1888, for the furtherance of greater unity of thought, sympathy 
 and purpose, through an organized movement of women in conserving 
 the highest good of the family and the State, and the noble women of 
 that great council banded themselves together in a confederation of 
 workers committed to the overthrow of all forms of ignorance and injustice, 
 and to the application of the golden rule to society, custom and law, Miss 
 Willard was chosen President of the National Federation and enlisted 
 the organized womanhood of the land in an effort for solidarity among 
 women workers. 
 
 Miss Willard did with all her might whatsoever she could to hasten 
 the coming of Christ's advancing kingdom. No woman or man in America 
 had more welcoming doors swung wide open for their coming than Miss 
 Willard, with her Fidus Achates, Anna Gordon. The best homes in this 
 land and the lowliest homes were made happier and brighter with their 
 presence. 
 
 ELLEN STONE. 
 
 On September 3, 1901, Miss Ellen Stone, an American lady 
 missionary working in the Macedonian district of the Turkish Empire, 
 was captured by a band of the brigands which infest the Balkan mountain 
 ranges. Miss Stone was one of a party of sixteen, of whom fourteen were 
 released after being "held up" by the brigands and relieved of their 
 valuables. Those released consisted mainly of young native converts. 
 
 Miss Stone and Mrs. Tsilka, a graduate of the Presbyterian hospital 
 of New York, but a Bulgarian citizen, so not under the protection of the 
 United States, were carried away by the band. Miss Stone is a middle- 
 aged lady, but Mrs. Tsilka being young and pretty, it was feared that 
 she might be forced to marry one of the brigands as was the case with a 
 
598 ELLEN STONE. 
 
 young Frenchwoman captured some years ago. The same fate — or death 
 — was also reported to have been threatened to Miss Stone if her ransom 
 of $ 110,000 was not paid by October 8. 
 
 Large subscriptions were raised in America, but the whole amount 
 was not realized by that date, and the fate of Miss Stone was left in 
 painful suspense. Several letters were received from Miss Stone, from 
 which it appeared that she was fairly well treated, but that, owing to the 
 brigands being hard pressed by the Turkish and Bulgarian soldiery, 
 she and Mrs. Tsilka, who was expecting a child, had suffered considerably 
 through being rushed from one hiding place to another. Mr. C. M. 
 Dickinson, United States Consul-General at Constantinople, endeavored 
 to obtain Miss Stone's release, but for a long time without avail. 
 
 FOREBODINGS OF A PRINCE. 
 
 A correspondent in the brigand-haunted district wrote from Samokov 
 that such was the disturbance created by the capture of Miss Stone that 
 Prince Ferdinand brooded wearily over it as he sat in his solitary studio 
 at Sofia, wondering what kind of people these Americans must be, seeing 
 that their newspapers threatened to upset his "tin throne" merely because 
 an elderly lady had been kidnapped. 
 
 The Russian Minister called the American diplomatic agent "an ass" 
 because Consul-General Dickinson had higgled about the ransom. The 
 American representative made a bosom friend of the consul from Belgrade 
 because King Alexander's agent would conceal no secrets calculated to 
 injure Bulgaria. 
 
 The Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs propounded a sum in the 
 rule of three : Suppose Turkey has to pay 25,000 Turkish pounds for a 
 woman of over fifty summers, a woman who has practically finished her 
 life's work, and since according to Mohammedan ideas a man is worth 
 four times as much as a woman, how much will Turkey have to pay for 
 a young man kidnapped in the morning of a useful life ? 
 
 Miss Stone is better known throughout Bulgaria than in her native 
 State of Massachusetts for she spent twenty-three years in "the peasant 
 
ELLEN STONE. 
 
 599 
 
 State." In fact, Samokov, where she was the directress of the female 
 section of the 
 American Insti- 
 tute, knows her 
 better than 
 Chelsea, Mass., 
 where she was 
 born. 
 
 Miss Stone 
 is an excellent 
 h or s e-wo man. 
 She was thus 
 mounted, accom- 
 panying a party 
 of her Bible teach- 
 ers from Banisko 
 to Dj umia in 
 Macedonia, when 
 she was captured 
 and carried off by 
 forty brigands. 
 These "heroes of 
 the hills" showed 
 their chivalry by 
 taking the two 
 best horses be- 
 longing to the 
 itinerant mission- 
 aries and mount- 
 ing upon them 
 Miss Stone and 
 
 THE KIDNAPPED MISSIONARIES, MISS STONE AND MADAM 
 TSILKA, MEETING THEIR RESCUERS. 
 
 After the ransom had been paid, the ladies were brought into the pres- 
 ence of the search party. On the left in the background is the Albanian 
 who found the kidnapped party in the mountains at Gradachor. 
 
 her captive companion, Mrs. Tsilka, thus making provision for them. 
 But when they made the women ford a river up to their waists the 
 
GOO 
 
 ELLEN STONE. 
 
 Robin Hoods of the Balkans showed that they are degenerate descendants 
 of the chivalrous brigands who firmly believed if they molested a 
 defenceless woman they should die in a Turkish prison. They acceded, 
 however, to Miss Stone's request when they permitted her to take her 
 Bible and umbrella with her. 
 
 A student of Samokov, who was of Miss Stone's party and was 
 released the day following the capture, tells a sad story of how the 
 
 RANSOM OF THE MISSIONARIES : MADAM TSILKA MEETING HER HUSBAND. 
 
 brigands robbed him of his savings. He had upon him the money he 
 meant to pay for his next term's tuition. The brigands slowly went 
 through his pockets and left him penniless. A fellow captive was more 
 fortunate. He saved his watch by putting it in his hat. On the very 
 first day of their capture the brigands showed the captives a touch of 
 savagery by beating out the brains of a Turk with the butt ends of their 
 guns. 
 
 The captives were not permitted to look into the faces of their cap- 
 
ELLKN STONE. 601 
 
 tors, not because of the glory of their countenances, but because the 
 brigands held revolvers to their heads and declared they must not do so. 
 Miss Ma.ry Haskell, a daughter of the Rev. Dr. Haskell, and professor 
 at the American Institute of Samokov, had a nocturnal experience with 
 an emissary of Miss Stone's brigands which she will never forget. As 
 she slept dreaming of the sad fate of her former teacher, she heard a 
 decided knocking at her widow. Quickly rising she saw a young man 
 clothed in all the panoply of a brigand's armor. His words were few but 
 pointed. They amounted to this : 
 
 " Give this letter to your father. Look not into my face or you are 
 a dead woman. Say to your father that if he tells any one except those 
 mentioned therein of the contents of this letter I will murder you all. " 
 The brigand touched his hat and rode away. 
 
 EFFORTS TO FIND MISS STONE. 
 
 One of the most active and intelligent men who engaged in an effort 
 to find Miss Stone is the Rev. Mr. Baird, purser of the American Insti- 
 tute at Samokov. He went alone to Djumia and made every effort to get 
 into communication with the brigands. Upwards of $70,000 were finally 
 contributed to secure the release of the missionaries, and the brigands 
 agreed to take it and set their captives free. 
 
 A correspondent who followed the American Mission in search of 
 Miss Stone, thus describes the arrival of the ransom at Djuma-i-bala as 
 follows: "The Commandant and Saaddetdin Bey headed the procession 
 on prancing Arab steeds, and they were followed by ten travel-stained 
 troopers, a belt of cartridges around each man's waist, and a rifle laid 
 across his saddle. Next came three carriages, ramshackle conveyances, 
 all drawn by four horses. 
 
 "The first was closed, but through the dusty windows we saw a pile 
 of cases roped and wrapped in sacking. The second carriage contained 
 the men who had brought it from Constantinople — the second 
 Dragoman of the American Legation and the Deputy American Consul, 
 with the Montenegrin Cavasse. The third carriage held Messrs. Guar- 
 
602 ELLEN STONE. 
 
 joulo and Peet, and beside the driver sat another Cavasse in a gorgeons 
 bine and gold nniform. Captain Teffik Bey, the commander of the 
 gnard, rode alongside, and behind him, fifteen more troopers on jaded 
 steeds. As the procession entered the town the side alleys were packed 
 with inquisitive women, their yashmaks drawn tight over their faces, the 
 children clinging to the ample folds of their trousers. 
 
 "The soldiers walked alongside the cavalcade, talking to their com- 
 rades of the escort until an officer ordered them back. iVt every door and 
 window fez tassels trembled with excitement. The clatter of horses' feet 
 and the clank of sabres filled the air as the procession groped its way 
 through the dark and ill-paved streets of the bazaar." 
 
 A DRAMATIC INCIDENT. 
 
 The same correspondent who went with the party that rescued the 
 missionaries related the following: "A dramatic incident occurred on 
 the journey from Strumnitza to the railway after the ladies had been 
 released. As our . cavalcade reached the top of the Chipelli Pass, 
 Madame Tsilka's husband suddenly appeared. A scene of much emo- 
 tion followed, as he embraced the wife from whom he had so long been 
 separated. He was soon introduced to his seven weeks' old daughter, 
 and carried her down the mountain path." 
 
 Miss Stone arrived in America about six months after her capture. 
 Her coming was hailed joyfully by the multitude of persons who had 
 become deeply interested in her misfortunes. In all religious assemblies 
 she received an enthusiastic welcome. In many of our cities she was 
 greeted by large audiences, to whom she told in simple but most effective 
 language, the story of her hardships and subsequent release from the 
 hands of the cut-throats who had carried her away and held her captive 
 in the hope of obtaining a large ransom for her release. With, unaffected 
 manner and graphic details, she deeply interested people everywhere, 
 who followed with unabated interest her vivid account of her experiences 
 with the band of brigands, from whom it was feared at one time she 
 would not be able to escape. 
 
SAMMY BELNAP. 
 
 Sammy Beluap was a strong young boy of nine when the soldiers 
 of the Revolutionary Army came to the township of Redding, Connecti- 
 cut, for the winter of 1778. "Old Put," as everyone called the great fighter, 
 General Israel Putnam, had been keeping the tavern over in Brookline 
 before the war broke out, but when he came to the " Nutmeg" State, as 
 a hardy pioneer, he had settled at Pomfret, and his farm had adjoined 
 that of Sammy's grandfather, who had come from Danvers, Massachu- 
 setts, with him. 
 
 The famous general was very fond of boys — boys who were brave 
 and full of life. He had not forgotten that he was once one himself, 
 and we have seen how brave he was when a young man. Sammy was 
 just the kind of boy that the old general would like. He was full of life, 
 and, alas, full of mischief. So, when the general was riding through the 
 little village of Redding one afternoon soon after the three camps of the 
 Continental soldiers had been established, he saw Sammy and inquired 
 if there was not a son of Uriah Belnap living in the village. The gen- 
 eral was taking the first few moments of his leisure in looking up his 
 
 old friend. 
 
 ROSY FACE AND SMILING EYES. 
 
 Sammy never forgot the expression of his great rosy face and smil- 
 ing eyes, when he answered : 
 
 " Why, yes, sir ; he was my grandfather, and Samuel Belnap, who 
 lives over yonder, is my father." He wasalmost breathless, for he knew 
 the man on horseback, and he had heard a great deal about his bravery 
 in the midst of these trying days. But he was reassured at once, for the 
 great big general came down from his horse, and sitting on the curb, 
 took him in his arms, and began to tell him about his grandfather. 
 
 " I might have known you were Uri Belnap' s grandson, if I had 
 looked twice," he said, " for you are for all the world just like him, and 
 I'll wager he was just like you at your age! Those are your grand- 
 father's eyes, and I can see his nose and his mouth in you, and do you 
 
 603 
 
604 SAMMY BELNAP. 
 
 know, my son, I could sit here all the afternoon and tell you about your 
 
 grandfather ? He settled on the farm next mine, over yonder in Pomfret. 
 
 What would I not give for one hour of those old days ! And did he ever 
 
 tell you about the wolf we hunted for so long ? " 
 
 Sammy's eyes lighted up with pleasure at this. He had hardly 
 
 known how to receive the attention of his distinguished visitor, for he had 
 
 heard much to make him fear him ; but he was entirely won over now. 
 
 He had heard of that famous wolf hunt many times from his grandfather, 
 
 who had died in the Revolutionary cause, when he had gone with General 
 
 Putnam to Bunker Hill, and had spilled his blood in that encounter with 
 
 the British. 
 
 GOOD FIGHTER AT BUNKER HILL. 
 
 "But you must take me to your father, for I want to tell him how 
 well your grandfather fought that day in Charlestown ; General Wash- 
 ington has let me take my army near my old home for the winter, audit 
 will be the first time since the day of that battle I have had to tell Uriah 
 Belnap's son how his father fell in the foremost ranks, as fearless and 
 brave as man should be in these days — for these are trying times, my 
 son. Come, lead my horse up to your lioine." 
 
 The general sprang into the saddle, and Sammy proudly led his 
 guest to the house. When he had grown to manhood he was always 
 delighted to tell of that episode in his life, and another to which we 
 shall soon allude. 
 
 General Israel Putnam had three companies in the township of Red- 
 ding that winter, and he was Soon to take up his own quarters on Umpa- 
 waug Hill. Historians are sometimes wont to attribute to him acts 
 which seem brutal in these days ; but we should remember the times in 
 which he lived and the dangers of war, which tried him and other men 
 most sorely. The traditions which are alive to-day in his old home at 
 Brookline, and in the surrounding towns, give us a picture of a kindty, 
 gruff, hearty old man, who loved his friends and his friends' children, 
 and after the war decidedly the most popular landlord in the " Nutmeg " 
 State. 
 
SAMMY BELNAP. 605 
 
 And this is the man Sammy Belnap saw for the first time when he 
 was nine years old — the man he learned to worship as all small, genuine 
 boys worship heroes, for whom they would sacrifice their lives, if 
 need be. 
 
 The Continental army in General Putnam's charge contained many 
 discontented and discouraged men that winter. They were poorly clothed 
 and poorly fed, and the Connecticut Legislature had not paid them their 
 wages for many months. If you should chance to go to Redding to-day 
 you will see the places where these revolutionary camps stood. The 
 sites of the log cabins are clearly defined by heaps of stones, which are 
 the remains of the chimneys built on the outside. Their preservation 
 has been due in a great degree to a forest, which grew over the spot 
 where so many dramatic scenes took place more than a century ago. 
 The forest has now been cleared, and the State of Connecticut has pre- 
 served the place in a park named for General Putnam. 
 
 LITTLE HERO OF REVOLUTIONARY DAYS. 
 
 Our little hero of revolutionary days became greatly interested in 
 the camps, and the general became so fond of him that he at times would 
 raise him in his saddle and make the round of the soldiers' quarters. 
 
 " I am going to make you a good soldier like your grandfather," he 
 used to say, " and I want you to learn all about my army, so that you 
 may be a general, too, some day. We little know when this war may 
 end, my boy, in these days of shadow, and if our time does not see the 
 victory of liberty, we will train all little boys, so that when they are men 
 they will be able to whip the British." 
 
 Sammy's love for the general grew daily. He heard of the men who 
 deserted to the camp of the British, and his little face burned with indig- 
 nation to see the men who once fought for independence turning in their 
 selfishness to what they thought would be the winning side. Often he 
 "would climb the rocky cliff, which rises to-day, as it did then, high above 
 the camp, and watch the soldiers off parade walking about the barracks 
 and grounds, standing in groups, in their tattered and mud-stained uni- 
 
606 SAMMY BELNAP. 
 
 forms. How his little heart burned in eagerness to do something for the 
 cause of freedom ! He little dreamed that fate had destined him to be of 
 great service to the good old general. 
 
 When spring came and the fresh green was everywhere, and the 
 birds began singing, there were not a few of the men who longed to be 
 away from the scenes of war, and dreaded to face the hard fighting 
 before them. It was a frequent practice of these men to go to the camp 
 of the enemy, where they were cordially received, and given good food 
 and certain other things which they ought not to have had. As the 
 camps of General Putnam were soon to be broken, the deserter was 
 especially welcome, as he might furnish valuable information as to the 
 future movements of the army. 
 
 HARASSED BY DESERTERS. 
 
 "Old Put" was particularly tried by these deserters, and kept a 
 sharp omtlook for them. When captured, they generally found their 
 fate sealed by a brief court martial, whose verdict was either that they 
 be shot or hanged. Sammy listened one evening to the account of a 
 man who had sneaked away from camp a few days before and was 
 believed to be skulking about the place ; the general further suspected 
 that he was in communication with the Tories, and feared that the move- 
 ment he had planned for the next week would in this manner be 
 known to the enemy. 
 
 Sammy listened with wide-open eyes, and that night he lay awake a 
 long time thinking. His visits to the camp had been useful to him, for 
 he knew many soldiers by name, and there were more whose faces he 
 recalled. Now, he was quite sure he had seen the man in question the 
 day before, while he was gathering the spring flowers in the thicket of 
 pines, about two hundred rods from the cliff below which was the camp. 
 He had been engaged in earnest conversation with another person, 
 whose face Sammy had not seen. In a few minutes after Sammy 
 appeared, the pair separated, but neither returned to the camp. 
 
 Sammy thought this all over carefully, and went over it again and 
 
SAMMY BELNAP. 607 
 
 again, making certain plans which he intended to pnt into operation 
 very soon. 
 
 It happened that there was a cave near the top of the cliff, which 
 extended into the interior for several feet. There were a great many dry 
 leaves on the bottom, and Sammy often went during the hot afternoons 
 and sat and dreamed of being a soldier. The cave itself had a history, 
 and was named after King Philip, because there is a tradition that the 
 Indian King Philip had used it as a hiding place when closely pursued. 
 If you should go there to-day you will find it just as has been described. 
 The next day when the army was on the parade ground drilling, under 
 the severe gaze of General Putnam, Sammy denied himself one of the 
 greatest pleasures of his life, and hid himself in the cave. Here he 
 could dimly hear the sound of the tramping feet, but he was within 
 hearing of other sounds which finally came to his expectant ears. 
 
 OVERHEARD A CONVERSATION. 
 
 He heard what appeared to be two men engaged in earnest conversa- 
 tion. Sammy listened closely until at last he could distinguish words. 
 He listened for fully ten minutes, and, then, as silently as afield mouse, 
 he left his perch in the cave on the cliff and slowly descended. All the 
 time he could hear the voices of the men, but as he was below the top of 
 the cliff he was, of course, not seen. 
 
 When he reached the bottom he crawled carefully along, beneath 
 the underbrush. How his heart beat, and how much he longed to run ! 
 But he was too wise to do so for fear he would attract the notice of the 
 men. So he moved slowly, until he was hidden by a thick growth of 
 pines. Then he rose to his feet, and ran with all the speed his little legs 
 were equal to. 
 
 All this had taken ten minutes of precious time, although it takes 
 hardly one to tell it, and Sammy was afraid he would be too late. He 
 ran up to the general as fast as he could, stopped a moment and raised 
 his arm in salute just like a real soldier, then clambered up into the 
 saddle, and drew down the general's head and whispered in his ear. 
 
608 SAMMY BELNAP. 
 
 The general quickly wheeled his horse and rode toward an officer. 
 To Sammy's great delight, a small squad of soldiers soon moved in the 
 direction of the cliff. How long the minutes seemed after that ! Every 
 one was an hour to Sammy, and there were thirty of them before anything 
 happened. Then the report of a musket sounded in the distance, followed 
 by two more. All was silence for awhile, and the general sat eagerly 
 watching the cliff with Sammy in the saddle. 
 
 When the men appeared two of them bore a wounded man between 
 them, while the others led a prisoner. Then the soldiers cheered and 
 jeered. The two men had been surprised, for their pursuers had gone so 
 silently that they were not heard until they had almost come upon them. 
 Then one started to run and had been shot twice in the leg. The latter 
 was a British spy and the other the deserter. The old general was 
 greatly delighted. He raised Sammy to his feet on the saddle, and the 
 soldiers raised their arms in salute, and then cheered the little hero. 
 
 It was the proudest moment of Sammy's life ! That evening, as he 
 sat with the general and his father around the great fireplace, "Old Put" 
 took him on his knee and said: " Your grandfather is proud of you to- 
 night, my son, and hereafter I shall call you one of my soldiers 1" 
 

 
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