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*"Y OF MICHIGAN
DATE DUE



173,3
S 5 H


CHILD'S HISTORY
OF THE
UNITED STATES.
e “” Bºſ
* -
* ~ * *
º
JOHN.GILMARY SHEA, LL.D.,
27 g :
AUTHoR of THE “Discovery of THE MISSISSIPPI,” “EARLY voyages, HISTORY Oy
27
NEW FRANCE, MEMBER OF THE NEW YORK, MASSACHUSETTS, MARYLAND,
AND OTHER HISTORICAL SOCIETIES.
VOLUME I.
NEW YORK I
M*M E N A M Y, HESS, & CO.,
735 BROADWAY.
Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
McMENAMY, HESS & CO.,
In the office of the Ilibrarian of Congress at Washington.
* t
- -?
Gr J.
* , - . .” “... º.º. :
* * * * -
* f *. *.
º " tº.
HISTORY OF THE UNITED STA' S,
RECOUNTED TO THE YOUNG.
P. R. E L U D E.
TEIE SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY AWAKENED.
The Crusades made the East known to the Kingdoms of Western Europe—Travels of Mis-
sionaries and Traders—The Atlantic—What was known of it—St. Brendan's Isle—What it
was Iceland, Greenland—The way to the Indies around the Cape of Good Hope—Ro-
mantic Story of the Madeira Islands—Geography and its Cultivation in Italy.
THE Crusades and their romantic history are known at least in outline
to all. Few have not read of those wonderful wars in which armies
from all the new-formed kingdoms of Western Europe poured down
upon Asia to rescue the tomb of Christ, the Holy Sepulchre, from the
hands of the Mohammedans. The prodigies of valor achieved by God-
frey de Bouillon, Richard Coeur de Lion, Tancred, Louis IX., the
Knights of the Temple, and of St. John of Jerusalem, will ever possess
the charm of a romance. All Europe burned with the fever of excite-
ment. The very children were roused to action and sought to take part
in the expeditions which absorbed all minds. One of the strangest
episodes of the whole period of these wars, was the Crusade of the
Children, undertaken in 1212 by an army of brave, but misguided
boys.
4 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
One great and good result came forth from the Crusades, although
they failed in their main object. People learned more of the East, of its
science, its fabrics, its plants, its riches of every kind. A spirit of travel
was awakened. Missionaries set out to announce the gospel to distant
lands; merchants hastened to open new avenues of trade. All Europe
was astir. The accounts brought back by Carpini and Rubruquis, who
penetrated into Tartary, opened a new world. Then Marco Polo, the
greatest of early travellers, pushed on till he reached Cathay, or China,
and astonished men with his accounts of the strange people of that
land. Catalani next described the wonders of Asia, and Mandeville gave
a book of travels in which he introduced the most extraordinary stories.
Then commerce reawakened from its long sleep, and trade between the
various Christian States, and between them and distant lands, was ex-
tended with remarkable rapidity. In the commercial operations which
sprang up, Genoa and Venice took the lead : their ships were not con-
fined to the Mediterranean, but sought the shores of the Atlantic The
sciences of Geography and Navigation became in Italy favorite studies,
and were cultivated to an extent not common in other parts of Europe,
with rare exceptions.
But most of the Kings of those times were too much taken up with
wars and pleasures to give any attention to such severe studies, or
encourage them as they should. Italy, where there were free Repub-
lics, full of commercial activity, and then the religious centre of Chris-
tendom, had the most learned geographers and navigators, as Well as
the most skillful naval commanders.
Other nations, therefore, for several centuries, looked as a matter of
course to Italy for the latest improvements in all that regarded navigation
and the sea. Kings even hired ships from these Italian Republics to aid
THE UNITED STATES. 5
them in their wars. This will explain to us why so many Italian naviga-
tors took part in the early discoveries of America—Columbus, Cabot,
Vespucius, Werrazzani.
But the explorers did not all go by the way of the Mediterranean.
The people on the shores of the Atlantic had from the earliest times made
voyages that seem incredible when we know the wretched kind of WeS-
sels in which they sailed. The earliest known vessels of the British isles
were coracles, and our readers would hardly think of venturing out to
sea in them now. They were simply a strong basket of wicker-work,
covered with a hide drawn tightly over it while still soft.
In these flimsy boats the natives of the British Isles ventured out to
Sea, crossed over to the mainland of Europe, and even carried on war-
like and piratical expeditions.
As the West was converted to Christianity, zealous missionaries set
out in these coracles to carry the truth to parts which were yet Pagan.
The most famous of all these early voyages is that of St. Brendan,
Abbot of Clonfert, who died in 577, in the western part of Ireland.
This brave and adventurous missionary sailed with a party of compan-
ions, born and bred like himself on that wild coast, out into the Atlantic,
in vessels of wicker and ox hides, and evidently reached Iceland. His
authentic narrative was soon lost sight of, but the minstrels and story-
tellers made his voyage the most popular narrative of the Middle Ages.
According to the story in this form, of which there are many versions in
different languages, he met floating islands made of crystal, with churches,
houses, and palaces, and all the furniture in them of the same sparkling
material. He mistook a large sleeping fish for an island, and his party,
landing on it unawares, was nearly engulfed. He finally came to an
island, where there was a mountain of fire, evidently the mouth of hell,
6 : A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
and where devils, by hurling fiery stones at them, drove them from the
shores. Interwoven with all this are meetings with hermits and won-
derful personages. It is easy to see the icebergs in this, and understand
how the story grew ; the whale is easily recognized ; and in the volcanic
island we see Iceland with its Mount Hecla. The natives flocking to
the shore to oppose the new comers were naturally supposed to be hurl-
ing the stones which came from the volcano.
When Iceland was subsequently discovered and colonized, and thus
took its place in geography, no one thought of identifying it with St.
Brendan's Island; but out of his story grew two islands, the island of
Demons, which in most early maps figures on the northwest coast of
America from Labrador to Greenland ; and a second St. Brendan's Isle
which was supposed to be off the Canaries. This island, the story grew,
used to appear and then vanish, and the traditions of Spain and other
countries made it the residence of some great personage in their history,
whom the people believed to be living in a sort of retirement, to reap-
pear one day in this world and save his country.
A volume would scarcely contain all that has been written about
St. Brendan's voyage and his wonderful island.
But the existence of St. Brendan's island west of the Canaries was
long so firmly believed, that expeditions were frequently sent out to
reach it. They returned unsuccessful, or perished and were no more
heard of Articles from the shores of America driven on the Azores
and Canaries were all naturally supposed to come from St. Brendan's
Island, and kept up the common faith in its existence. All this made
men familiar with the thought of voyages out into the unexploreč
WaterS.


Page Missing
in Original


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in Original


Volume
THE UNITED STATES. 9
Under the leadership of Ingulph they colonized Iceland in the ninth
century, and that remote island became before long a centre of learning
and religion in the north. Soon after, Eric the Red discovered and
colonized Greenland in the 10th century. At this time these North-
men were all pagans, fierce and cruel. Leif, the son of Eric, however,
returning to Norway became a Christian, and in the year 1000 brought
out clergy who converted the pagan settlers in Greenland. -
As we now know that land, we can scarcely conceive how a colony
could have been planted and grown up on that desolate shore. But it
is evident that it was then washed by the Gulf Stream, and enjoyed a
comparatively mild climate.
The settlement of the Northmen in Greenland subsisted down to the
middle of the fifteenth century, and there is extant a bull of Pope Nicho-
las as late as 1450, recommending the piety of the Bishop of Garda, who
had erected a fine church at that place in Greenland : and the ruins of
this church have, it is thought, been recently discovered.
But if these hardy Northmen had passed beyond St. Brendan's, they
too had their strange lands further on. One was White Man's Land or
Greater Ireland: the other was a country called Winland, or land of
Wines, to which some of their people actually went.
From the vague account given in one of the Icelandic sagas or poems
as to Winland, many attempts have been made to decide exactly where
it was . Nearly two hundred years ago, a very learned little book
called “A History of Ancient Winland,” was published at Copenhagen,
and within a year or two an American scholar has been endeavoring to
explain it all, but there are not many who put much faith in the matter,
and those who believe that the Old Mill at Newport is a Scandinavian
ruin, erected by the early Northmen, are very few indeed.
I0 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
The people of the North were thus actually colonizing the New
World; but while the declining settlement in Greenland was struggling
for existence against the Esquimaux or Skroelings, who had become
very hostile, and finally destroyed it utterly, the people of Southern
Europe seem not to have made any attempts in this direction. Some,
however, think that the hardy Bretons of France, and the Basques,
a maritime people, living in France and Spain on the shores of the Bay
of Biscay, reached Newfoundland at an early day and there began to
take codfish; but they were not learned navigators; they wrote no
books and drew no maps.
The great mariners of southern Europe were, however, pushing dis-
coveries in another direction. As the Crusades had failed, Asia Minor
and Egypt remained in the hands of the Mohammedans, who viewed all
Christians passing through their land with jealousy. If the Christian
ships could sail around Africa and so reach the rich lands of India and
Cathay, they might carry on a profitable trade, with which the Saracens
and Turks could not interfere. The Carthaginians were said to have
done it. So the minds of men began to turn in that direction.
About the middle of the fourteenth century French vessels began to
trade down the coast of Africa, and actually reached Guinea. Genoese
and Catalans discovered the Canaries, and the island of Madeira was
next added to the list of discoveries.
As to the discovery of Madeira, so called from a Portuguese word
meaning wood, the island having been found covered with beautiful
trees, a very romantic story is told.
In the reign of Edward III., Anna d'Arſet, a noble young English
lady, fell in love with a poor young man named Robert Macham. As
her family were endeavoring to force her to a marriage with a wealthy
TEIE UNITED STATES. , - 11
suitor whom she loathed, they resolved to fly to France. To facilitate
their plans, a friend of Robert entered the service of Anna's guardians
as a groom, and was thus able to attend her on her daily rides near the
seashore, and arrange the plans of the lovers. Robert found a vessel
suited for their purpose, and when it was ready, she rode down to meet
the small boat in which he was to come ashore for her. Their secret
had however been discovered. As she neared the shore and recognized
her lover's boat approaching, she heard a clatter of hoofs and saw her
pursuers approaching. She spurred her spirited steed into the surf, rid-
ing as far as he would bear her, and thus was received by Robert, com-
pletely discomfiting her pursuers. The vessel, though with but a scanty
crew, at once hoisted sail. But the next day a terrible storm came on.
Day came and went, with no cessation of the tempest, and the frail ves-
sel, driven before the gale, was hurried into strange seas. No land was
seen till on the thirteenth day, green hills, rich in tropical vegetation,
greeted their eyes. Robert and Anna fanded with a few of those on
board, and were delighted with the beauties of the new-found isle; but
before they had recovered from the fatigues of their terrible voyage an-
other storm drove their vessel off. They were on the Island of Ma-
deira, separated from Christendom. Poor Anna, worn out by by her
hardships and excitement, could not rally even in this beautiful spot—
she sank rapidly, and died the third day. Robert buried her at the
foot of a tree where she had spent much of her time in prayer; but his
own days were sealed. In less than a week he too breathed his last,
and was laid beside her. Their comrades hastened to leave a spot
fraught with such melancholy memories. They succeeded in reaching
the coast of Morocco in their small boat, to find their former comrades
of the vessel already in slavery there. A Spaniard, also held in bond-
12 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
age, learning their story, was able after his return to Spain to guide a
Portuguese ship to the island tomb of the unfortunate lovers. Such is
the romantic story of the discovery of Madeira.
The Azores, or Vulture Islands, were next discovered in 1448 by Dom
Gonzalo Vello, Commander of Almouros, and on Corvo, one of the
islands of this group a statue was found, with an inscription on the ped-
estal in strange characters that none could decipher. And this statue,
so the story goes, pointed westward with its right hand, as if to show
that there the great discovery was to be made.
The next year Anthony Nolli, a Genoese navigator, discovered the
Cape Verde Islands.
Meanwhile in Europe students had taken up the ancient geographers
Ptolemy and Strabo. Editions of Ptolemy were printed with all the later
discoveries. Maps were drawn, and all who sought to advance in the
sea service studied and compared what was handed down from the past
with what was discovered day by day.
There was at that time in Europe a thoughtful, studious man, mak-
ing marine charts and maps for sea captains, selling books of geography
to students, though doubtless studying well every book before he parted
with it, for many of his books still preserved are covered with his notes.
He was a man of action, too ; he could command a ship and guide it
skillfully in the fiercest of storms, or on the least frequented coasts. Nor
was he lacking in bravery. He had met the Mohammedan corsairs and
repulsed them, though he bore scars that showed how dear victory cost
him. This man was to make a discovery that would throw in the shade
the discoveries of all before him, change completely the current of
men's thoughts, and raise up a new order of things. This man Was
Christopher Columbus. -

P A R T 1.
CELAPTER I.
The early Life of Christopher Columbus—His first Woyages—Terrible Naval Engagement
near Lisbon—His wonderful Escape—His Scheme of crossing the Atlantic—Genoa, Venice
and Portugal refuse to aid him—Home in Genoa-At Palos—Father Marchena and the
Convent of Santa Maria de la Rabida—He starts for the Court of Ferdinand and Isa-
bella. -
GENOA, one of the great commercial republics of Italy, a city of long
historic fame, was the birthplace of Christopher Columbus. His family
were genteel—not above honest toil, but people of culture. His father
Dominic possessed some small property at Genoa and places near it,
and at the same time was a comber and weaver of wool. They were
therefore comfortably off, and Christopher was born in a house belong-
ing to his father outside the city walls where the road winds off to the
little town of Bassagno. Tradition, which recent proof sustains, shows
that the future glory of Genoa was baptized on the hillside church of
Santo Stefano di Arco by the Benedictines who presided there.
He was the eldest son, and the hope of the house. His father sought
to give him an opportunity to acquire knowledge greater than his own
home afforded him. The commencement of an education had been laid
in Genoa, and before he reached his tenth year Christopher was sent to
Pavia. Here some one attached to the University for three years in.
16 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
structed the boy, who evidently showed aptness for learning, and dili-
gence. At his early age he could not have followed the course of the
University, but he acquired the rudiments, a knowledge of Latin, and
Some insight into mathematics. But he was naturally a student and a
lover of books.
Back again to the narrow street of Genoa, where his father's place of
business was, came the boy, his imagination fired by the glimpse into
learning, the open sea beckoning him to its life of adventure and free-
iom. Obedient to his father, whom he ever honored through life, he
took his place in the workshop and sought to mould himself to the
quiet life of commerce. But he yearned for action in the career where
his grand-uncle was already famous.
At fourteen he was already on shipboard. Docile, prompt, eager to
learn, eager to advance, he was one to win his way with his commander
and with all. His voyages carried him over most of the Mediterranean,
from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Archipelago. That sea was at that
time swept by corsairs which sailed under the Crescent, and made war
on all Christian flags. Every merchant-ship went armed, and a sea-
fight was often the incident of a voyage. Young Christopher in one of
these engagements received a deep wound, which, though healed at the
time, broke out in his later years and endangered his life.
In 1459 Christopher had become an officer under his grand-uncle,
who commanded a fleet for King René, of Anjou, then seeking to win
his kingdom of Naples. It is evident that young Christopher did his
duty well, for René sent him in command of a vessel to cut out a gal-
ley from Tunis, which had become notorious for its ravages on Chris-
tian commerce.
A few years after this we find him on the Atlantic, commanding a
THE UNITED STATES. 17
vessel in a Genoese fleet, under Colombo il Mozo. His native State
was at war with the sister republic of Venice, and they were on the
lookout for some rich vessels of the Queen of the Adriatic. They
finally came upon them between Lisbon and Cape Saint Vincent. It
was a sad spectacle to see Italians thus arrayed against each other, but,
CONVENT OF SANTA MARIA LA RABIDA AT PALOs.
as is usual in such wars, the feeling was intense on both sides. All day
long the Venetians gallantly resisted the attack of the Genoese. Chris-
topher Columbus had grappled one of the Venetians, and in the hand
to hand fight on her deck had nearly forced her to yield, when she took
fire. In a moment both vessels were in flames. But the ships were so

18 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
bound together by spars and cordage, as well as grappling-irons, that
Columbus was unable to disengage his vessel from her burning anta-
gonist. The combat ceased, and as the fires would soon communicate
to the powder, the recent antagonists plunged into the sea, the only
rivalry being to reach the shore, which a line of breakers showed them
some five miles distant. Columbus struck out manfully, spent as he
was with the terrible fight, but in his exhausted state he would never
have reached the shore had not Providence thrown in his way a large
oar, by the aid of which he at last reached land, to turn and look back
on the sea, beneath which lay all that remained of the noble vessel he
so lately commanded.
At Lisbon, which he had thus strangely reached, he found his brother
Bartholomew making and selling charts, and dealing in books of navi-
gation, the great Prince Henry having made Lisbon a resort of expe-
rienced naval men. The society of these men was very attractive to
Christopher, who, joining his brother in business, made it lucrative
enough to enable him to send remittances to his father, whose commer-
cial affairs had not prospered. While perfecting his knowledge of geo-
graphy and arriving at the final theory as to transatlantic voyages, he
married Doña Philippa Perestrello, daughter of an Italian navigator
who had made many voyages of exploration and died Governor of
Porto Santo, one of the Madeira Islands. The papers of this naviga-
tor aided him still more, and King Alphonsus, at one of his audiences,
showed Columbus some enormous reeds that had been driven across
the Atlantic. As early as 1474, we know, by letters of the celebrated
Italian cosmographer Toscanelli, that Columbus had already laid before
him his plan of reaching Cathay by sailing westward, and that his mo-
tive was the extension of Christianity. But he was not yet ready to
* THE UNITED STATES, 19
submit his plan to the world. This he did in 1476. Like a true son
of Genoa he first proposed it to that republic ; but they shrunk from
undertaking to test it. Wenice viewed it with no greater favor.
Discouraged at this, Columbus, weary of the shore and study, from
time to time made short voyages, with some extending to the Ger-
man Ocean and to the north Atlantic, even beyond Iceland.
At last there came an opportunity to lay his favorite plan before the
King of Portugal, who began to show an interest in new discoveries.
The plan of Columbus was referred to a committee of learned men, one
of them being a cosmographer of some note. They rejected it as un-
wise ; but the King favored it so much, that listening to unworthy ad-
vice, he secretly sent off a vessel to test the soundness of the views of
the Genoese navigator. Providence did not permit treachery to suc-
ceed. Columbus, crushed with disappointment and afflicted by the
death of his faithful, loving wife, fled from Lisbon in 1484, taking by
the hand his son Diego, and was soon once more in Genoa.
But he could not rest. His faith in his plan was intense, and he was
no longer of an age when he could waste time in inaction. Again he
endeavored to enlist the Republic of Genoa, and failing he set out with
young Diego for Spain, entering it unheralded and unknown.
A little out of the petty seaport town of Palos, in Southern Spain, on a
high promontory looking over the sea, nestled in the pines that clothe its
summit stood a little Franciscan convent, built on the ruins of an old
pagan shrine. At the door of this rambling old-time structure Colum-
bus one day knocked, as many a wayfarer did, to ask a little refreshment
for his son. The Guardian of the Convent, Friar John Perez de Mar-
chena, entered as he was admitted, and, struck by the whole bearing of
the stranger, asked him of the object of his journey. From one in his
20 A CHILD’s HISTORY.
guise, the reply was strange enough. He was from Italy on his way to
Court to lay an important plan before the Kings, for so Spaniards
always called Ferdinand and Isabella, each being monarch of a separate
state.
If Padre Marchena was surprised to find his strange guest a man of
such ability and enterprising mind, Columbus was no less delighted to
find in the Guardian of the little convent of Santa Maria de la Rabida,
not only a kind-hearted man, but one of great learning, scientific attain-
ments, and an excellent cosmographer, prized especially by Queen Isa-
bella for his wonderful acquirements and his solid piety and humility,
which induced him to prefer hiding his abilities at Palos, rather than
display them in the sunshine of the Court.
A friendship was at once formed, close and strong, between the two
men, and the deep religious feeling of Columbus, and his studies, made
their union lasting. Columbus and his son became the welcome guests
of the friars, and in this haven Columbus enjoyed a repose to which he
had long been a stranger. IIere, guided by this learned man, he ex-
tended his studies, and spent much time in prayer. At last, with a
higher, nobler courage, with his plan more firm than ever, and an array
of learning to maintain it, he set out for the court, bearing a letter
strongly commending his project to a man of great influence with the
sovereigns. With the freedom of a Friend this good man obtained
and handed him a sum of money to meet his expenses, and crowned
his friendly acts by taking on himself the care of young Diego's educa-
tion and support. Columbus now bent his way to Cordova, to renew
proposals that had been elsewhere rejected.
(See a ll.)
ANNA D'ARPET EscAPING TO HER LOVER-

CELAPTER II.
Position of the Spanish Kingdoms—Columbus at Court—His Plan rejected—Employed by
Queen Isabella—Returns to Palos in order to go to France—Padre Marchena again—
Queen Isabella resolves to send him out—The little Fleet fitted out at Palos—The Portu-
guese endeavor to defeat his Voyage—The open Sea—Alarm of Sailors—Land l—He takes
Possession in the Name of Isabella—Voyage Home—The Portuguese again—Enters Lisbon
—Received by the King—At Palos—Pinzon and Columbus—The Discoverer proceeds to
Court to announce his success. -
THE condition of Spain at this period was a peculiar one, not easily
understood without a knowledge of its past history.
When the Roman Empire fell, under the attack of the hordes of bar-
barians who overran it, and planted new kingdoms in various parts,
Spain fell into the hands of the Goths, a warlike race who sprang from
what is now called Sweden. These Goths became Christians and ruled
over Spain for many years, till in the year 711, the Saracens or Moors,
who had embraced the religion of Mohammed and conquered all the
northern part of Africa, arrived at the straits between Spain and
Africa, then called the Pillars of Hercules, but was now to be called
Gibraltar, the mountain of Tarifa, one of their leaders.
It depended now on the Goths, whether the religion of Mohammed
should enter Europe, or be checked. The Goths were brave, but their
king was a wicked tyrant, and his nobles were so incensed at him that
some of them actually invited in the Saracens, who reduced all Christians
to slavery, giving them no choice between the Koran and the sword,
death or the religion of Mohammed.
22 A CHILD'S HISTORY.
Roderic, the last of the Gothic kings, met the Saracens in battle in
Xerez, and after a bloody engagement was totally defeated and slain,
though many believed that he escaped and was shut up, doing penance in
some cave or some lonely island, to reappear one day and recover his
kingdom. -
But the Gothic monarchy fell at Xerez. The Saracens swept over
Spain, reducing it all to their power. Only a few brave Christians, under
a prince named Pelayo, retiring to the mountains of Asturias, defied the
Saracens, and after defeating them in several battles secured their inde-
pendence.
Meanwhile, the Saracens established kingdoms, which ruled with
great splendor and magnificence, cultivating art and Science. But
the little Christian kingdom of Pelayo gained strength, and other Chris-
tian kingdoms were gradually formed as they recovered part of the land
from the Saracens. Of these the most important were Aragon and
Castile, and on the Atlantic, that of Portugal. At last, Ferdinand, king
Aragon, married Isabella, Queen of Castile in her own right, and united
the two great kingdoms of Spain. But the people were jealous. Each
State remained independent of the other ; Ferdinand led the troops of
Aragon, and Isabella those of Castile, in the war they undertook to
overthrow Granada, the last of the Moorish kingdoms. They were not
styled King and Queen of Spain, but the “Catholic Kings.”
It was to their court at Cordova that Columbus proceeded : but the
Moorish war absorbed all thoughts, and Isabella, though favorably in-
clined, could promise to aid him only when the war should be ended. His
plans were laid before a committee of learned men, none of them how-
ever navigators or of great geographical knowledge. They decided
against it. Still Columbus was kindly treated and employment given
THE UNITED STATES, 23
him suited to his abilities. He married again and remained for six years
in vain urging his favorite project. Then he gave it up, and returning to
Palos, announced to his friend Padre Marchena his intention of going
to France. The good friar wrote to Queen Isabella urging her not to
lose so great an opportunity. One of her officers, Luis de Santangel,
warmly espoused his cause, and when Granada fell, on the 30th of Decem-
ber, 1491, all seemed to promise a speedy success. But when they began
to treat the matter seriously with Columbus they took alarm at the mag-
nitude of his claims. He was to be Admiral of the Ocean, Viceroy of
all new found lands, and to receive one tenth of all the gold, precious
stones and other commodities exported from them. At last all fell
through, and Columbus started for Cordova to take leave of his family
before proceeding to France.
Then Queen Isabella decided to send him out on his voyage of ex-
ploration, if she had to pledge her jewels to obtain the money. An offi-
cer was soon galloping after Columbus. On the 30th of April a patent
was issued, creating him Grand Admiral of the Ocean, Viceroy of all
the islands and mainland he might discover, and making the dignities
hereditary in his family. The little fleet of three vessels was to be fitted
out at Palos, but it was not got ready except with great difficulty, so
foolhardy did the project seem to the shipowners and seamen of that
maritime place. At last, by the aid of Martin Alonzo Pinzon, who had
seen at Rome a map showing land beyond the Atlantic, and had faith
In the project, the vessels were equipped.
An old heavy carrack, furnished by the town of Palos, was named by
Columbus the Santa Maria; it was old, but still serviceable, and
became his flagship. The Pinta, and the Niña, the latter belonging
to the Pinzons, completed the important squadron, which carried in
24 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
all a hundred and twenty men, royal officers, physicians, and a gold-
smith to test what might seem to be precious metals. In this party there
were an Englishman and an Irishman. After piously attending divine
service in the chapel of La Rabida, they moved in procession to the
shore and embarked. Early on the third of August, 1492, Columbus,
having. completed all his arrangements, and commended his under-
taking to the Almighty, in his friend's little church on the shore,
stepped on board his flagship, and hoisting his flag gave the order to
sail. He steered at once to the Canaries. Here he made some neces-
sary repairs on the Pinta, and altered the sails of the Niña. Here too
he heard that three Portuguese vessels had been sent out to capture him
and defeat his expedition. But he eluded them, and his flotilla went,
boldly into the unexplored sea. That soon assumed a character new to
the oldest mariners; and what perplexed Columbus sorely, the needle in
the mariner's compass no longer pointed due north, but inclined west-
ward. For a time all went well. Twice the cry of land was raised by
Pinzon, claiming the pension promised by Queen Isabella, but it was
a mere delusion. Then men grew sullen, mutinous and threatening.
The life of Columbus was in danger. At last he stood alone. On the
seventh of October, led by the Pinzons, the men of all the vessels rising
in arms demanded that Columbus should abandon his mad project and
sail back. Never did his greatness of soul display itself more nobly.
He awed them into submission. He had started to go to the Indies and
he intended to pursue the voyage till, by the help of God, he found it.
That night was spent in watching, and as Columbus urged, in prayer.
Atten o'clock, as he stood on the poop of the Santa Maria, he discerned a
light moving in the darkness. The Pinta then ran ahead, and at two in
the morning a sailor on board that caravel, John Rodriguez Bermejo
№.
----|
（）：
|
ABDUCTION OF JENNIE. McRAE.

*.

THE UNITED STATES.
discovered land. The cannon booming over the western wave an-
nounced the glad tidings, and Columbus, kneeling, intoned the TE DEUM,
which was chanted with heartfelt joy. The ships now lay to in a reef-
harbor of immense size, till morning should enable them to approach
land safely.
On Friday, October 12, the rising sun discovered to their eyes an
island clad in verdant groves of the mangrove tree; a lake whose
PORTRAIT OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
clear waters flashed
in the morning sun
lay near the inviting
shore. No sight could
be more charming to
mºn whom long ab-
sence from land had
driven almost to fren-
zy. Anchoring in the
harbor, Columbus, now
flushed with pardona-
ble pride at the tri-
umphant success, ar-
rayed in a scarlet man-
tle, and bearing the
royal standard with the figure of Christ Crucified, landed in his
cutter, as did the commanders of the other vessels.
Planting the
cross he knelt to adore the Almighty, kissing the earth to which
His hand had guided the vessels.
Uttering a prayer of singular
beauty, which history has preserved, he rose, and named the
island San Salvador, Holy Saviour.
Then drawing his sword he form-

26 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
ally took possession in the name of Queen Isabella for her kingdoms of
Castile and Leon.
The island was called by the natives Guanahani, and now bears the
name of Turk's Island. And from Hawk's Nest Reef Harbor there
burst on the view of the great discoverer so many islands around, that
he knew not which to visit.
Some of the party now wandered around, full of wonder at strange
plants, and flowers, and birds. Others with axes shaped a large cross.
No human beings were seen, but at last a few naked forms appeared
and cautiously drew near. The Europeans in their dress and arms were
a strange spectacle to them, as they with their copper tint, their beard-
less faces, their want of all clothing, were to the Spaniards. A friendly
intercourse began, and all was gladness. -
Columbus planted the cross where he had set up the royal banner,
and intoned hymns to thank God in a Christian spirit. Then con-
tinuing his voyage, he discovered several other islands, to which
he gave the names of Santa Maria de la Concepcion, Isabella, in
honor of the Queen, Fernandina, in honor of the King. Then he
reached the great island, Cuba, which he named Juana, in honor of
the daughter of Isabella, and finally, Hispaña, which, however, retains
its Indian name, Hayti.
While exploring this maze of islands the Santa Maria stranded, and
became a total wreck. The great discoverer then erected a little fort on
the shore of Hayti, in the territory of the friendly Cacique Guacana-
gari, and leaving in it forty-two of his best men, sailed homeward in
the Niña and Pinzon in the Pinta.
Terrible storms were encountered, and Columbus, fearing that he
should never see Europe again, drew up an account, which he enclosed
THE UNITED STATES.
27
FAC SIMILE OF THE FIRST LETTER OF COLUMBUS,
Published in 1493,
From the only known copy in the Ambrosian Library, Milan.
Commencement
W |Eliopol queſt qugaurºiápagºrbela grate
ºśvictoriaquetioſºnºbºaºnuival:
§ºvogeſcriuo eſtapozlafflſåbrºpakotºo ºxtrºj
º ºf bagpaſt alaaſubias colaatu'abaquelosthi
- ſtriñuogſleptreppaufosſiloxcºmebietot,
boubeyo falcuuy muchâ33ſlag poblabaggºngº ſºw
numeróy bellastódagberguabo poſ;ſſiºpºſits alºng
comptegonyväderatcaleſtéoùayuðut ſuccöttabicbo:
(Diose of the Letter.
alaeſpaña masatodos lostriſtianostetnam aqui refrige
rtop gamauciaſtoſ.gm clfedboaſiab turfechatulaca,
laudia ſobzelasyſlagotcamaría ayw.otſºbzero, ſºillº
quatrociºurost moutntay tregà06,
Saratoquemantarys flatuiraute,
Thymaqueyanābcutroculacatta.
Peſpuesbeſtatſcriptopeſtandoenmar by ſatillaſaloo
tanto viemtocòuigo.uſlyſatſte quemebafechobeſcalºar
lognamos pozcºtaqim ºutſtepuertoloclyſpona opäſſue
launayoumaranillabelmäbo abomdeacoºbeeſcrimiraſms
alºa. Eatodaslaºyubiasbeſiempreballano lostenpo
tales couldeutnayo abombe pofup entrytijëiaszbolui
encrouſſalºo queſtaetorturitasticbambetºnioprºbi
asgowitudopózeſtamarøyen aquatodos losboutées
belatuatoucjamagomo tammal guitrnomouitätä8 per
Stoasbematics,ſºtbaarſſtaðiðemaco.




28 A CHILD’s HISTORY.
in a cask, in a cake of wax, and set adrift. At last, however, the Niña
reached the Azores, but the Portuguese treacherously seized some of his
men who landed to offer up their prayers in a chapel by the sea. With
some difficulty he obtained their release, and continuing his voyage, on
the 4th of March he was off the mouth of the Tagus, and, not without
great risk, succeeded in bringing his storm-racked caravel into the road-
stead of Rastello. Being thus driven into the waters of Portugal he
wrote to the King, who at once invited him to Court. In spite of his
chagrin at his own want of spirit in declining the offers made by Colum-
bus, John II. now received him as he would a prince. Columbus had
written letters to two officers of the Court of Queen Isabel, as well as
to the sovereigns themselves. He was however anxious to reach them
in person. At Palos the crew of the Niña were received as men res-
cued from the grave. To add to the general joy, in the midst of their
exultation the Pinta, Pinzon's vessel, came slowly up the bay. It had
been driven to the Bay of Biscay, whence Pinzon had written to the
Court. -
After fulfilling at La Rabida and other shrines vows made amid their
perils and storms, Columbus with some of his party proceeded to Bar-
celona by way of Seville, bearing with him in his triumphal progress
seven natives of the new-found world, with gold and animals, birds and
plants, all alike strange to the eyes of Europe.
CHAPTER III.
Columbus is solemnly received by Ferdinand and Isabella at Barcelona—His second Voyage
—Other Nations enter the Field of Discovery—Voyages of Cabot and Vesputius—The Name
of the latter gives a Title to the New World—Columbus sails on his third Woyage—His
Enemies—Bobadilla—Columbus arrested and sent to Spain in irons—His fourth Voyage—
He beholds the Destruction of his Enemies by the Hand of Providence—Reaches the Coast
of North America—Returns to Spain—Dies at Walladolid—Strange Migrations of his Body
—His Tomb at Havana.
THE fifteenth of April, 1493, was a glorious day for Barcelona. The
whole city was astir. The great discoverer of a New World was to
enter the city and be solemnly received by Ferdinand and Isabella. Be-
neath a canopy of cloth of gold, on two thrones, sat the Queen of Cas-
tile and the King of Aragon: and on a rich seat by them the Prince
Royal. An arm-chair awaited him, who now approached. At the
shouts of the people and the sound of music all eyes turned towards the
city gates, and ere long the banner of the expedition was seen by the
courtiers around the throne, as the procession made its slow way
through the wondering crowd. The sailors of the Niña, with the
strange products of the New World, trees and shrubs, fruits and aro-
matics, rude golden articles, the arms of the natives, birds, animals,
and, strangest perhaps of all, several Indians wondering and wondered at.
Richly attired, but modest, Columbus, advanced. The Sovereigns arose
from their thrones to meet him, and extended their hands to welcome
the great Discoverer. He bent his knee in reverence, but they would
30 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
not permit it. Isabella bade him be seated and covered as a grandee
of Spain. Then at their request he made his report of that wonderful
voyage and explained how strange and new the islands were in their
people, and their productions. All listened with breathless attention
to this unlooked-for result of what had so long been regarded as a dream.
It was the triumph of Columbus, the triumph of Isabella.
Then in that spirit of religion which influenced him and made him
deem himself specially raised by God to bear the name of Christ to the
New World, he expatiated on the field thrown open to Christianity, all
were moved to tears. -
Columbus's own letters, and letters of Peter Martyr and others, spread
the news through Europe. Printing was then fifty years old, and the
letter was printed in Spanish, in the strange gothic letter of the period.
Of this book only one copy is now known, and we give a facsimile of a
page, that our young readers may see what printing was in that day,
and what the first book in American history resembled. Latin was,
however, the universal language, and the letter of Columbus to Sanchez,
translated into Latin, was printed again and again.
The favor of the rulers of Spain did not end in the pomp of the re-
ception. Substantial honors were bestowed on Columbus, and a large
and well equipped fleet was at once prepared in which he was to carry
over a large body of settlers, domestic animals, and all necessary for oc-
cupying the territory. The Grand Admiral with a stately retinue pro-
ceeded to Cadiz, and on the 25th of September, embarked in his second
voyage in the Maria Galanta, with two other large caracs and fourteen
caravels. Among those who sailed with him were Padre Marchena
and the illustrious Las Casas. He reached Dominica on the 3d of No-
vember, and soon after an island to which he gave the name of his flag-
THE UNITED STATES. 31
ship, Maria Galanta. Keeping on he discovered and named others of
the Windward Islands, and then reached Porto Rico, called by the natives
Boriquen. When he arrived at St. Domingo he found his fort in
ruins. His men had all been massacred. Insubordination had broken
out, and all had perished in various ways, though Guacanagari, true to
Columbus, had endeavored to save them. Saddened as he was at this
news, Columbus proceeded to found, at a suitable spot, the city of Isa-
bella, the first European town in the New World. When the works in
this city were well advanced, he sent back part of his fleet to Spain, and
establishing a post further inland, proceeded on his voyage of discovery
visiting Cuba, Jamaica and some smaller islands. Then he gave his
whole attention to his settlement, which was in a very distracted con-
dition, many of the settlers being turbulent and mutinous, with but
little inclination to any serious work. Columbus, himself regarded with
jealousy as a foreigner, had, notwithstanding his high rank as Admiral
and Viceroy, great difficulty in establishing order. When he had, as he
supposed, placed all on a better footing, he sailed back to Spain in 1496,
leaving in command his energetic brother Bartholemew. On reaching
Spain he found that his enemies had not been idle there, and that a
strong prejudice had been created against him.
His two successful voyages were now the theme of conversation in
Europe: and the courts which had ridiculed his projects and the re-
ward he claimed, now saw their error and sought to retrieve it. Portu-
gal had, we have seen, been the first to attempt to prevent Columbus
from succeeding, and now protested against the famous line of demarca.
tion drawn by Pope Alexander VI. between the Spaniards and Portu-
guese, and against the Papal Bull confirming the Spanish right of dis-
covery. *A
32 - A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
England, where Bartholomew had pleaded in vain, now determined to
attempt a voyage of exploration. It seems strange that the route of
St. Brendan was again followed.
In 1496, John Cabot, a Venetian, by long residence if not by birth,
was in England, where he had been established for some years. Full
of energy he applied to the King, Henry VII., for a patent to seek new
lands.
The cautious, money-loving King issued a patent authorizing
Cabot and his three sons to search for islands, provinces or regions in
the Eastern, Western or Northern seas, and as vassals of the English
King to occupy the territory, but they were to bring all the products of
the new found lands to the city of Bristol, and pay one fifth into the
royal treasury, a provision very characteristic of a King who in his last
will drove a close bargain as to the price of the religious services to be
performed after his death.
Under this patent, John Cabot, accompanied by his son Sebastian,
sailed from Bristol in May, 1497, with a single ship, to seek a northern
passage to China. After a pleasant voyage of what he estimated to be
seven hundred leagues, on the 24th day of June, 1497, he reached
land at about the fifty-sixth degree of north latitude, among the frozen
cliffs of Labrador. He had discovered North America in its most un-
promising part. Seeking the northwest passage he ran along the coast
for many leagues, planted the standard of England and the lion of St.
Mark for Venice. Then he started again across the Atlantic, noticing
two islands which he had not time to visit.
This summer trip of three months gave England her claim to North
America.
His return gratified all England, from king to peasant, and
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THE UNITED STATES. 33
though it had revealed only a barren land, led to further grants from
Henry VII.
This same year there sailed another explorer, and the most fortunate
of all, for by a strange accident his name was given to the New World.
This was Americus Vesputius, born at Florence, in Italy, in 1451, who
had been for some time in Spain directing the commercial affairs of
Lorenzo de Pier Francesco, one of the princely family of Medicis. He
met Columbus in 1496, and seems to have enjoyed his friendship. In
May, 1497, he sailed on a voyage of exploration, and running as he
estimated a thousand leagues, passing the islands discovered by Colum-
bus, reached the mainland. It is not easy to determine his course, but
he seems to have reached Honduras and to have coasted north along
the shore of the Gulf of Mexico till, doubling the southern cape of
Florida, he again emerged on the Atlantic and ran northward for a month
along our seaboard, to an excellent harbor where he built a small vessel.
Thence he sailed back, reaching Cadiz in October, 1498.
By some, this voyage has been doubted, by others it is supposed to
have been along South America, But a more careful examination leads
us to the conclusion that to Americus Vesputius is due the honor of
being the first to explore the extensive line of coast which our Re-
public holds, on the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico; and that he did
so While the Cabots, starting from the north, were in part examining
our Atlantic seaboard.
But while his countrymen were thus revealing to the world the exist-
ence of a new and mighty continent, teeming with animal and vegetable
life, rich in all that nature can give, but occupied only by roving bands
of savage men, Columbus was detained in Spain by the intrigues of his
enemies and by the dull delays of stupid or malicious officials.
34 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
It was not till May, 1498, that he so far overcame all these obstacles
as to be able again to embark : and in that month he set out on his
third and most unhappy voyage. *
That same month saw Sebastian Cabot sail from Bristol with two
ships, and a number of volunteers eager to share in the perils and ro-
mance of the undertaking. He crossed the Atlantic, and in the 55th de-
gree found himself in the midst of icebergs, which threatened him with
destruction while they filled all hearts with wonder. In spite of the
danger he sailed on, till on the 11th of June he reached an open sea
which inspired him with hopes of reaching China; but his men became
alarmed and compelled him to seek a milder climate. Running down
along the coast he saw the immense shoals of codfish on the banks of New
foundland, so numerous, some accounts say, that his ship could hardly
get through them. Then they began to see inhabitants clad in skins, and
opened trade with them. Of his voyage we have unfortunately no de-
tailed accounts. He went south till he was at the latitude of Gibraltar
and the longitude of Cuba, probably near Albemarle Sound, whence he
steered back to England. In his northerly course he saw the polar
bear feeding on fish, and apparently described its contests with the wal-
ruses, which it so often attempts to surprise asleep on the ice, but which,
almost powerless there, seeks to gain the water and drag the bear
down.
Vesputius and Cabot enjoyed lives of honor and respect. Both were
frequently employed by monarchs and received substantial marks of
favor. Cabot, in the Spanish service, visited Brazil, explored the La
Plata, and was honored by Ferdinand with the title of Pilot Major of
Spain, while Emperor Charles V. employed him in new discoveries,
and when he returned to England, sought by great offers to induce him
THE UNITED STATES. 35
to return. But he preferred England and died at Bristol in 1557, en-
joying a pension given by Edward VI.
Vesputius was highly appreciated by the Spanish Kings, who knew
his skill in cosmography, as geography was then called, and in the pre-
paration of charts, recording the latest discoveries, to guide the ships
constantly starting out of Spanish ports. But the King of Portugal
for a time obtained his services, and he not only sailed on several Span-
ish expeditions, but commanded Portuguese fleets in which he explored
the South American coast. He, too, held the title of Pilot Major un-
der the Spanish Kings. Some have charged Americus Vesputius with
gross injustice to Columbus in robbing him of the honor of discovering
the New World by affixing his own name to it. But there is really no
ground for this charge, and though the name America was formed from
his Christian name, it was not done by him. The thing came about in
this way: In 1507 a celebrated geographer named Waldseemuller
published at St. Dié, a little town in Lorraine, one of the provinces re-
cently taken from France by Prussia, a little work entitled “Cosmo-
graphiae Introductio,” and to it he added an edition of the four voyages
of Vesputius, which had fallen into his hands. Not being familiar, it
would seem, with the voyages of Columbus, he ascribed all the honor
to Vesputius, and on his map first introduced the name America of
this book there seems to have been a large edition, as it found its way
to all parts of Europe, and as the name was more short and convenient
than the term used by the Spaniards, “The Indies,” it was adopted on
maps generally.
In this same eventful year, Vasco de Gama, doubling the Cape of
Good Hope, sailed through the Indian Ocean and planted the flag of
Portugal on the shore of Hindostan.
36 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
On the 30th day of May, 1498, Columbus, for whom Providence
had in store its greatest trials, sailed with six caravels from the Port o
San Lucar de Barrameda, a Spanish port not far from Seville.
A French fleet lay in wait for him. Steering a southerly course, he
touched at Madeira, whence he dispatched three vessels to St. Domin-
go, under command of his brother-in-law, Pedro de Arana, designing
himself, though in ill health, to make a voyage of discovery before pro-
ceeding to that island in person. Taking a southwesterly course, he
came before long into the region of those tropic calms, where the sun
pours down its fatal heat, and not a breath of air seems to ruffle the
surface of the ocean. For a week his vessels rolled like logs. Then,
when wind came, he steered more northerly, suffering greatly, as the
long calm had nearly exhausted their supply of water. Finally, on the
last day of July, three mountain-peaks were seen, and to this island
Columbus gave the name of Trinidad. in honor of the Trinity.
Near it he perceived a strong current, as if some mighty river were
sweeping into the sea. When the tide rose, a still stranger spectacle
met his eye ; an immense tidal wave, rising as high as his masts, came
rolling on, and bearing his caravel up, met the river current, standing
like a Watery mountain. He was off the mainland of South America,
at the mouth of the Orinoco. In memory of his peril, he called it the
Dragon's Mouth.
Exploring the coast for some days, he landed on Sunday, and plant-
ing a cross, had divine service celebrated. Friendly intercourse was
opened with the natives, but Columbus, suffering from gout, and nearly
blind from an affection of the eyes, felt that he must reach his colony in
St. Domingo. There, Francisco Roldan, the judge in the colony, had re-
volted against Bartholomew Columbus, because he sought to protect the
THE UNITED STATES. 37
Indians from the oppressions of men who sought gold by the most
wicked means. Bartholomew had failed to quell the troubles, and even
the crews of the vessels sent on from Madeira were won over by the
malcontents.
Columbus himself arrived sick, exhausted, and, from the condition of
his eyes, unfit for active duties.
He endeavored to conciliate, and pardoning the offenders, allowed all
who chose to return to Spain in some vessels then ready to set sail.
But they did not go till they had wrung from him humiliating condi-
tions -
He then endeavored to restore peace on the island ; but Roldan and
his party had driven the Indians to a spirit of retaliation and revenge.
While endeavoring to appease these, fresh troubles arose among the
settlers, and an attempt was made to assassinate Columbus, and he was
on the point of flying with his brothers in a ship from the island.
Well would it have been for him had he done so. His enemies had
reached Spain, and given their own version of affairs. The Chamber at
Seville, intrusted with the management of affairs beyond the Atlantic,
was already strongly prejudiced against Columbus. King Ferdinand,
who had never been a warm friend to the great explorer, now declared
against him openly. Even Isabella was staggered by the charges against
him.
A sudden and terrible blow was prepared for Columbus.
The sovereigns resolved to send over a Commissary to restore order
in the colony. For this post, requiring the highest qualities, they se-
lected a mere tool of his enemies—a soldier unacquainted with the laws,
a headstrong, violent man, brutal and unforgiving. This was the Com-
mander Francis de Bobadilla.
38 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
While Columbus was absent from the city of San Domingo, engaged
in establishing a strong fort at Conception, Bobadilla arrived with two
caravels. He announced himself as Commissary sent to judge the
rebels, but on landing, read his patents and an ordinance conferring on
him the government and judicature of the islands and mainland of the
Indies; and an order requiring Columbus to deliver up all the fortresses
and public property into his hands. He at once seized not only these
but the private property and papers of Columbus, many of which have
never since been found.
But he was a little afraid that Columbus might resist, so he sent a
Franciscan to induce the Admiral to meet him. Bartholomew was then
at Xaragua, and Diego Columbus alone in San Domingo.
Columbus came in good faith, with no force to protect him. Seeing
him about to fall into the trap, Bobadilla seized Diego Columbus, put
him in irons, and sent him on board a caravel. When Columbus him-
self arrived, Bobadilla not only refused to see him, but gave orders for
his immediate arrest. Thus was the discoverer of the New World,
without the charge of a single crime, without investigation while holding
his commission as Viceroy of the Indies, seized, hurried off to a prison,
and manacled like a malefactor. No one was allowed to approach him,
and no explanation given. Bartholomew was next seized and put in
irons on a caravel apart from Diego.
We have seen what the shattered health of Columbus was on reach-
ing San Domingo. Labor and anxiety had worn him down since his
arrival. And now he lay on the stone floor of his dungeon, with very
scanty clothing, suffering from pain, and denied any but the coarses
prison fare. -
Then Bobadilla went to work to secure depositions from all who had
THE UNITED STATES. 39
opposed Columbus; and when he had collected enough false charges to
give color to his infamous acts, he sent an officer named Vallejo, with a
body of soldiers, to bring Columbus from his dungeon.
“Whither do you take me, Vallejo 7" asked the great man, who, feel-
ing that no law, human or divine, was respected by his enemies, supposed
he was to be led to the scaffold. . -
“On board the Gorda, your Excellency,” replied the young officer,
who was not destitute of respect for the illustrious victim.
“Is this true, Wallejo 7" -
“By the life of your Excellency,” replied the young officer, “I swear
that I am about to conduct you to the caravel to embark.”
With little delay he was carried forth, emaciated, sick, and helpless,
and thus in irons borne to the hold of the Gorda, to which his two
brothers had been already removed. And early in October the vessel
weighed anchor, and he who had just crowned his explorations by dis-
covering the mainland of the New World, was hurried across the Atlantic
like a criminal.
When from the deck of the vessel the shores of Hispaniola could no
longer be discerned, the officers came to the illustrious man to beg him
to allow them to remove his fetters. Columbus refused. They were put
upon him in the name of their Sovereigns and he would not violate their
orders. - - -
A letter of his to a friend at Court reached there before any report
of Bobadilla's, and was at once shown to Queen Isabella. Horrorstruck
at the injustice to the great Discoverer, she ordered him and his brothers
to be at once set at liberty, and supplied with money to proceed to
court. She received him with tears. His conduct was justified, Boba-
dilla removed, but Ferdinand thwarted his return to the New World.
40 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
It was not till May, 1502, that Columbus was able to sail once more
out into that ocean which he has made the pathway of the nations. He
reached San Domingo, but was not allowed to enter port. To his ex-
perienced eye the air was full of portents of a coming tempest. A fleet
rode at anchor in the harbor, ready to sail to Spain. It bore the brutal
Bobadilla, his greatest enemy, Roldan, and many more who had bitterly
persecuted him. They had accomplished their work, and having by
every cruelty amassed riches, were now returning to Spain. Forgetting
their hostility to him, Columbus warned them not to sail till the storm
had passed. To their inexperienced eyes, all was serene. They laughed
Columbus to scorn. Forth sailed the gay fleet, but in a moment all
changed. The hurricane came on in all its fury, sweeping over sea and
land with resistless power. Columbus was equal to the emergency
which he had foreseen. Clear as a bell, amid the rattling of the spars
and the whistling of the cordage, came his wise Orders. His little fleet
weathered the storm ; but when the wind died away and the sea grew
calm, the gay fleet of his enemies had vanished. It had gone down
with all their ill-got wealth. Pursuing his voyage of discovery, Columbus
reached Honduras and coasted along to Panama. This was his last voy-
age. Amid severe storms he finally reached Spain, on the seventh of
November, 1503. Shattered in health by all that he had undergone,
he lay sick at Seville when another blow came, the death of his true friend,
Queen Isabella. His health now rapidly declined. He reached Walladolid,
but it was only to die neglected and forgotten in a poor room at an inn .
the walls unadorned except by the chains which bound his limbs on the
Gorda, and which he had never allowed out of his sight after that period
of suffering. Columbus breathed his last May 20, 1506, surrounded by
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THE UNITED STATES. 43
his sons and a few faithful friends, comforted with all the rites of the
religion to which he was so devoted in life.
He was buried as he directed, with his chains in his coffin, among the
Franciscans of Walladolid; but in 1573 was transferred with pomp to the
Carthusian convent of Santa Maria de las Grutas, at Seville. His jour-
neys were not, however, ended. In 1536 the bones and chains of Co-
lumbus crossed the ocean, and were deposited on the right of the high
altar of the Cathedral of San Domingo ; but when Spain lost the
island, in 1795, she removed them, as her great treasure, to the Cathe-
dral of Havana, where their place is marked by the monument which
closes our history of this remarkable man.
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TOMB OF COLUMBUS, IN THE CATHEDRAL, HAVANA.











C H A P T E R IV .
Attempts to conquer and colonize—The French—The Spaniards—Ponce de Leon and the
Fountain of Youth—Wasquez de Ayllon and King Datha—Verrazano and the stories about
him—Gomez—The Expedition of Pamphilo de Narvaez — Wonderful escape of Cabeza
de Vaca —De Soto and the disastrous end of his splendid expedition—The French,
under Cartier and Roberval, attempt to settle Canada—Story of Margaret Roberval.
WHEN Columbus passed away in his neglected retirement at Wallado-
lid, the world had begun to see the result of his great work. The dis-
coveries and explorations of Columbus himself, of Vesputius, Cabot and
Cortereal, had established the fact that the New World, now to be known
by the name of America, was no part of Asia, but a vast continent ex-
tending from the extreme north, where it was lost among the Arctic ice,
down past the equator, on almost to the southern pole.
While the French were engaged in some voyages to the northern
parts, a strange delusion led the Spaniards, in their spirit of adventure,
to Florida. In 1515, John Ponce de Leon, one of the old com-
rades of Columbus, sailed from Porto Rico in three vessels, and
on Easter Sunday, March 27th, discovered a land clad with rich-
green trees, and balmy with flowers. The day is known in the
Spanish calendar as Pasqua Florida, and the name seemed to him so ap-
propriate that he gave the new land the name of Florida, which it has
continued to bear amid all the changes and revolutions of more than
46 - A C*IILD S HISTORY OF
two hundred and fifty years. Finding a good port, he landed on the
8th of April, and was the first who took possession in the name of any
European monarch of any part of the United States. Spain thus
planted her standard. As he sailed along the coast, he found the Indi
ans so hostile that they killed several of his men. But he was delighted
with the new land, and resolved to obtain a patent for it and for Bimini.
According to some, this old warrior had heard that Florida contained a
fountain of perpetual youth, bathing in which took away all marks of
age, and gave the veteran the freshness and vigor of his early years
To win and bathe in this fountain was, he thought, worth a man's most
earnest efforts.
A patent was easily secured, but John Ponce had to fight the Caribs
of Porto Rico, and it was not till 1521 that he sailed with two vessels to
take possession of Florida and settle there ; but other Spaniards had
w meantime visited the shore, and had difficulties with the Indians, and he
found them more fierce than before. His party was driven to the ships,
and he was carried on board so badly wounded that he died soon after
reaching Cuba, without having found the Fountain of Perpetual Youth.
Of these Spanish voyagers to Florida, the most famous, or infamous,
was Lucas Wasquez de Ayllon, of Toledo, who was driven, in 1520, on
the coast of South Carolina, near the Coosaw River, where a gigantic
cacique or king, named Datha, ruled over the province of Chicora.
Near this realm there had formerly lived, so the Indians told him, men
with tails and rough skins, who lived on raw fish.
The natives at first regarded the Spaniards with wonder and alarm,
but as they acted kindly the natives grew friendly, and Datha sent fifty
Indians loaded with fruits to the Spaniards, receiving them with great
joy. Ayllon used this confidence to allure a hundred and thirty of the
THE UNITED STATES, 47
Indians on board his vessels, and then sailed off, disregarding the cries
and tears of their unhappy relatives on the shore. One of his ships
perished, the other reached San Domingo, where his wicked act was con-
demned, and where almost all his captives died of grief.
After the death of Ponce de Leon, this bad man obtained a patent
for Florida, and in 1524 landed with a large force. He marched a day's
journey inland to a large town, where the Spaniards were well received
for four days. Then the Indians suddenly attacked them by night, and
slaughtered them all. Before those on the shore and in the ships knew
the fate of their companions, they too were attacked with such fury that
many perished, and the survivors were barely able to sail off.
A voyage very important in its results was that made in 1524, by
John Werrazano, a Florentine navigator, in the French service, whose
family numbered several known as cosmographers.
The Spaniards tell queer stories about this navigator. They say he
was a famous pirate, and that he it was who, in 1521, captured a rich
treasure ship, in which Hernan Cortes sent over to the Emperor King
Charles W., an immense quantity of gold, jewels, and precious articles of
various kinds, which he had secured in his capture of Mexico.
A letter of Werrazano published many years after, tells us that after
cruising off the coast of Spain with four vessels, he started in one, the
Delphine, on a voyage of discovery. Sailing from the Canary Islands
January 17, 1524, he ran across the Atlantic, in the most stormy
weather, and reached our shores in latitude 34 degrees north—that is, as
you will see on a map, about Wilmington, on the uninviting coast of
North Carolina. Seeing no harbor he sailed south, but soon turned
northward and ran along the coast, following the changes in the sea-
boardline, occasionally sending parties ashore to examine the country till
48 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
he came to New York harbor. This, he is supposed to have been the
first white man to enter and to admire. Then he sailed again and en-
tered Narraganset Bay. Here he traded with the friendly natives, then
ploughed his way once more, along the coast of New England and Nova
Scotia, to the fiftieth degree, near Cape Breton, already discovered by the
Bretons, whence he sailed back to France, arriving in July.
The country which he had thus visited seemed full of attractions,
rich and fertile, with natives disposed to be friendly, except at the north,
He did not land or take possession ; but one of his sailors, attempting to
swim ashore, would have been drowned but for the humanity of the
natives. -
Ramusio, who first published Werrazano's account, and knew many of
his friends, calls him a gallant gentleman and says that he proposed to
King Francis I. to colonize and christianize the lands he had discovered ;
but that sailing again to our shores he was killed, with several of his peo-
- ple who attempted to land, and that they were roasted and devoured by
the natives before the eyes of those in the vessels, who were unable to
save or avenge them. On the other hand the Spanish historians say
that he was captured in 1524, and hung by their countrymen.
Such is the strange mystery that hangs over John Werrazano, whose
narrative seems to have first suggested the name of Rhode Island.
Some tidings of a French exploration may have reached Spain, for,
after a grand consultation of Spanish and Portuguese pilots, at Badajoz,
in Spain, as to the possibility of finding a passage to the Moluccas, be-
tween Florida and Newfoundland, Stephen Gomez, an old companion of
Magellan, was sent out in a single ship by the Emperor, Charles W., in
December, 1524. He, too, reached our Atlantic coast, and ran along,
entering the harbors of New York and New England. Failing to find
THE UNITED STATES. 49
a passage, he filled his ship with Indians, to sell as slaves, and so sailed
back to Spain. It was at first reported to the court that he had brought
a cargo of cloves, (called in Spanish clavos,) and the court were greatly
delighted, but when it was found to be (esclavos) slaves, the Emperor
was greatly displeased, and severely condemned Gomez.
These various voyages established the fact that our coast contained no
strait running to the Pacific.
A very imposing attempt to settle the country was made by the
disastrous expedition of Pamphilo de Narvaez, an old antagonist of
Cortes in Mexico. The Emperor, Charles W., had given him a grant of
all the territory of Florida from the Atlantic to the Rio de Palmas, a
river which empties into the Gulf of Mexico, between Matamoros and
Tampico.
He set out with a considerable fleet in June, 1527, carrying sol-
diers and a large body of actual settlers, intending to begin a col-
ony on the Rio de Palmas. His pilot was incompetent, and in a storm -
they were driven on the coast of Florida, near Tampa Bay, and there,
on the 15th of April, 1528, he landed and took possession. Then send-
ing his ships on to meet him at a bay which the pilot pretended to know,
Narvaez, with 300 men, forty of them mounted, set out to explore the
territory along the Gulf. They found a miserable country, with few
natives, and were soon reduced to great straits. At St. Mark's Bay,
where they expected to find their vessels, no signs of them appeared.
Thus abandoned they set to work and beat up their stirrups, spurs, and
iron implements, to make saws, axes, and nails, and at last constructed
five rude boats. Their shirts were made into sails, horsehair and pal-
metto bark made them ropes, while the flesh of their horses and corn
taken from the Indians enabled them to live. They had now been five
50 A CHILD’s HISTORY or
months on our southern shore. So in September the survivors, number.
ing 50 men, set out in these boats to make their way to Rio de Palmas.
On the 30th of October they reached the mouth of the mighty river,
Mississippi, but the current was too strong for their wretched boats to
enter. Here they parted. Narvaez kept close in shore, but his boat
was at last driven out to sea and lost. Two other boats, one com-
manded by Cabeza de Vaca, reached an island on the coast of Texas,
where they fell into the hands of the Indians, and for many years were
held as prisoners. At last, in 1534, Cabeza de Vaca, with three others,
one of them a negro, escaped, and striking inland, travelled on amid
great perils and hardships, dressed like Indians, in skins, and differing
little from them. They finally reached, after a time, the more civilized
towns of New Mexico, and keeping On from town to town, and from
tribe to tribe, they early in May, 1536, entered the Spanish settlement
of San Miguel, in Sonora, having gone almost completely across the
continent in that eight year's march. t
The appearance of these few men, as sole survivors of the great ex-
pedition of Pamphilo de Narvaez, filled men with astonishment, and all
listened with wonder to their stories of the interior of the continent.
They had much to tell of wild tribes, of the bison plains, with their im-
mense herds, of the strange towns of New Mexico.
Cortez, who had conquered Mexico, himself set out with a fleet to ex-
plore the Pacific coast, and discovered California in 1538.
A force was also dispatched, in 1539, from Culiacan, a province of
Mexico, with a negro. who had been with Cabeza de Vaca as guide.
They pushed on till they reached the Rio Grande, where the negro was
killed and the expedition returned, a friar, named Mark of Nice, who
saw the New Mexican towns only at a distance, giving his impressions


TIIE UNITED STATES. 51
which proved to be very far from the truth. Another expedition, under
Wasquez Coronado, set out in 1538, and advanced to the town of Zuñi,
which they attacked and took, May 11th, 1541. This town was built on
a rocky height, but instead of being a city with walls of stone, proved
to be a small place, containing only two hundred warriors, with no gold
or riches to tempt the Spaniards. These New Mexican towns, which
still subsist as they did three hundred years ago, are built on high and
almost inaccessible rocks, the houses all fronting on a square within.
Outside there are no doors or openings. Each story sets back a little,
leaving a platform which they reach by ladders, and so go on up till
they come to the roof where they enter. They were more civilized than
the wild Indians, and built these towns of adobes, or sunburnt bricks, as
a defence against their enemies. They were a quiet, simple people, cul-
tivating the soil, raising maize, beans, pumpkins, and cotton ; but they
had no gold or precious stºs .5° Coronado, after visiting other towns,
pushed on to find Quivira, ãºrce about which great stories were told,
but he found only the bison plains. So, after wintering in New Mexico,
he returned ; vessels had meanwhile ascended the Colorado for a con-
siderable distance.
All this country seemed unpromising, and no Spanish settlement was
attempted.
But while these explorations were going on, produced by the reports
of Cabeza de Vaca, another Spanish officer was bold enough to attempt to
follow in the path of Pamphilo de Narvaez. This was Hernando de Soto,
who had been with Pizarro in the conquest of Peru. “He desired to
surpass Cortez in glory and Pizarro in wealth.” He offered to conquer
Florida at his own cost, and Charles V. readily granted him a patent.
His fame gathered noblemen from all parts. Never had there been an
52 A CHILD S HISTORY OF
expedition so well appointed. Six hundred men in glittering armor
and costly dresses gathered on the fleet which sailed in 1538, from San
Iſlucar in Spain, as gaily as if going on an excursion of pleasure.
In May, 1539, this expedition landed on the coast of Florida at
Tampa Bay, and began a march of exploration and conquest, after send-
ing back the ships. Wandering for months along the shore of the gulf
towards Pensacola he at last struck inland, and came to the Ogeechee,
then along to the headwaters of the Coosa, and so on to the town of Ma-
villa, on the Alabama. This was a town of well built cabins, better than
any they had seen. The Spaniards, weary of their hard life and mar-
ches, wished to occupy it. The natives flew to arms. A terrible bat-
tle ensued, the first between white men and Indians on our soil that
can really be called a battle. Soto gained part of the town and stored
his baggage there, but with cavalry and armor and musketry his troops
did not rout the Indians without great difficulty. They seemed in-
numerable and fought with desperation. At last, when they saw that
their arrows and darts could not repel the invaders, and that the ground
was strewn with the bodies of their bravest warriors, they set fire to
the town and retreated. Soto had won the battle of Mavilla, and killed
more than two thousand of his enemy : but eighteen of his mail-clad
men had been killed and a hundred and fifty wounded ; nearly a hun-
dred horses were killed or crippled and all his baggage had perished in
the burning town.
His gallant array now stood destitute, weakened, and disappointed.
Ships just then arrived at Pensacola, but he was too proud to return and
acknowledge his failure. So he marched north, and wintered in Chicasa,
a town in the Chickasaw country, in the north of what is now the State
of Mississippi. In the spring he wished to force the natives to carry the
THE UNITED STATES. 55
burdens of his force, now reduced to five hundred men. But this fierce
tribe set fire to the town, and attacked the invaders by night. Soto re-
pulsed them with loss, but many of his horses and live stock perished,
and arms and armor were ruined by fire, and they had so little clothing
left that they were almost as naked as the Indians. But no thought of
return entered Soto's mind ; he must find a new Mexico or Peru, or he
would perish in the attempt. -
Then he came to the Mississippi, and could gaze in wonder at that
mighty river, of which Narvaez had seen only the mouth. After long
toil, he made barges and crossed with the remnant of his force. He
struck northward till he nearly reached the Missouri, then finding only
bison plains and a few scanty tribes, turned south again and passed the
winter on the Washita. In the spring he was again on the Mississippi,
at the mouth of the Red.
Below, all seemed a weary waste of cane-brake, and the Indians re-
presented it as almost uninhabited. Soto sank under his disappoint-
ments and hardships. Struck down by a malignant fever, he received
little care and attention. But he felt death at hand, and calling all
around him he named his successor, and giving them his last instructions,
prepared to meet his end. On the 21st of May, 1542, he breathed his
last, and anxious to conceal his death from the Indians, they performed
his funeral rites at night, and then consigned his body, wrapped in a
mantle, to the waters of the Mississippi. Such was the sad ending of
the pomp and show that opened his march, such the result of his long
search for realms of gold. Muscoso, his successor, attempted to reach
Mexico by land, but finally returned to the Mississippi, and building
boats, descended its turbid and rapid current to the Gulf. More fortu-
nate than Narvaez, he reached Tampico, in September, 1543.
56 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Such was the only result of Spanish attempts at conquest. They all
failed, but Spain claimed all our country, and knew the whole coast and
much of the interior. All were not fierce soldiers; one missionary,
Cancer, sought to win the natives by kindness, he landed alone, but he
was killed almost instantly.
While Spain was thus wasting men and means in the vain pursuit of
rich kingdoms that had no more existence than the Fountain of Youth,
France acted more wisely. She did not seek gold; but her sturdy
honest fishermen were gathering real wealth on the banks of Newfound-
land. Chabot, the sagacious Admiral of France, under King Francis I.,
saw that it would be essential to explore, and, if possible, colonize the
adjacent continent. To command the expedition, he selected an expe-
rienced captain of St. Malo, named James Cartier, and presented him
to the King. He sailed from St. Malo, April 20th, 1534, with two ves-
sels, carrying more than a hundred men. He soon came in sight of New-
foundland, and after sailing nearly around it, discovered Chaleurs Bay,
and took possession at Gaspé, rearing a cross, with a shield bearing the
lilies of France. He entered the port of Brest, on the Labrador coast,
already a well-known station.
After advancing as far as Anticosti Island, but without apparently re-
cognizing the river St. Lawrenee, he sailed back. His report was so
favorable that he was sent out the next year. His little fleet, the Grande
Hermine, the Little Hermine, and the Emerillon, after his crew had
like truly Christian men venturing on a long voyage, besought the aid
of heaven in the house of God, sailed May 16, 1535. Many gentle-
men went as volunteers, and two clergymen. The vessels were sepa-
rated by storms, but met again safely at Blanc Sablon, a place visited
on his first voyage. He then entered a large bay, which he named the
THE UNITED STATES. 57
Gulf of St. Lawrence, in commemoration of the day on which he dis-
covered it, the 10th day of August.
Two young Indians, whom he had taken to France with him, and who
had learned French, now proved useful as pilots. They told him that a
great river, Hochelaga, ran up into the country, narrowing in as far as
Canada, and that then it went on so far that nobody had ever been at
the end of it. So Cartier sailed on, discovered the deep river Sa-
guenay, which runs down amid such wild mountain scenery; and
keeping on, came to an island now called Orleans. Then he found at
a narrow part of the river a rocky height, on which was perched the
Indian town of Stadaconé, ruled over by Donnacona, the Agouhanna or
Chief of Canada. This was Quebec.
He anchored his vessels in the St. Charles, and found the natives
friendly and well-disposed, but they endeavored to dissuade him from
ascending the river, telling him terrible stories about its dangers, and
even getting up a kind of masquerade to frighten him.
But Cartier went on in his boats, till he came to the present Montreal,
where he found the well-built Indian town of Hochelaga, with a triple
row of palisades, standing amid wide fields of Indian corn, beans, peas,
and squashes. This town contained fifty large cabins, made neatly of
bark sewed together, and divided into rooms, each of which contained a .
family. The people took the French for visitors from heaven, and
brought them their sick and crippled to be cured.
Cartier then ascended the mountain of Montreal, whence he could
descry the Green Mountains of Vermont.
The Indians pointed out the upper waters of the St. Lawrence, which
they told him could be navigated for three moons, while another river.
on the north of the island led to other lands. Encouraged by the pros-
58 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
pect before him, Cartier returned to his ships, around which a little fort
had been thrown and planted with cannon. During the winter, scurvy
broke out among his men and many died till they learned a cure from
the Indians. In the spring he sailed for France carrying off Donnacona
and some of his chief men, an act which cannot be justified.
He was not able to return at once to Canada. It was not indeed till
1540 that Francis de la Roque, Sieur de Roberval, whom Cartier had
interested in American
affairs, obtained a pa-
tent, making him Lord
of Norembegua, as the
State of Maine was
then called, and Vice-
roy of Canada. Car-
tier was commissioned
to command the fleet,
and extensive prepa-
rations were made.
Spain took alarm, and
spies were sent to all
JACQUES CARTIER, DISCOVERER OF CANADA. the ports of France to
find out the object of the expedition. When tidings came that
it was to attempt a settlement in the far north, the Spaniards
breathed more freely, but it was decided that any attempt of the
French to settle Florida must be crushed at once. On the 23rd of May,
1541, Cartier sailed with a fleet of five ships, well equipped and supplied
with provisions for two years. Their passage was stormy and it was only
after three months buffetting with wind and wave that he anchored before

THE UNITED STATES. 59
Stadaconé. The natives eagerly asked for their chief and his com-
panions, but they had all died in France, though it does not seem that
they were treated with unkindness.
Cartier selected as the spot for his settlement a point now called Cap
Rouge, a little above Quebec, and here he laid up his vessel and erected
a fort, which he called Charlesbourg Royal. This was the first white
post planted on the continent north of Mexico. Leaving the Wiscount
de Beaupré in command, Cartier ascended the river to explore and ex-
amine. During the winter troubles arose with the Indians, in which
two Frenchmen were killed. In the spring the colonists, discouraged
by the hardships and uneasy at Roberval's delay in coming with sup-
plies, forced Cartier to embark for France, and Charlesbourg Royal
was abandoned. Near Newfoundland they fell in with Roberval, but
Cartier's people were utterly discouraged, and kept on to France.
Roberval entered the St. Lawrence, and anchoring at Charlesbourg
Royal, which he named France Roi, restored Cartier's fort. He then
examined the upper part of the river, sent expeditions to explore the
Saguenay and the coast of Labrador. But the colony did not prosper.
It was not formed of the right material—men of principle, willing to
labor and wait patiently. Many died of scurvy and other diseases, or
by accidents. At last, when all were heartily discouraged, their eyes
were gladdened by the sight of a vessel sailing up under French colors.
It was Cartier, come with orders from the King, summoning Roberval
to return to France with all his people. The order was promptly
obeyed, and France abandoned the St. Lawrence.
Of Roberval's voyage a strange story is preserved by an old chroni-
cler. Among those on board his vessels were his niece, Margaret Ro-
berval, and a young gentleman, to whom she had been secretly married
60 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
against the wishes of her family. As they came near Newfoundland,
Roberval discovered the fact, and, inexorable in his anger, put them
ashore with his niece's nurse on an island said to be that still called Isle
de la Demoiselle, though the old chronicler supposes it to be the Isle of
Demons, which our readers will remember. The unfortunate people
built a log house, and when their store of pilot-bread was exhausted,
lived altogether on roots, berries and wild-fowl, of which numbers fre-
quented the island. Occasionally larger game was found ; but the
young man's health began to fail, and ere many months, in spite of all
Margaret's care, he breathed his last, and she was left a widow. A
child born amid these dreary scenes soon followed its father. The old
nurse, her comfort and companion, was the next to be summoned by
death, and poor Margaret remained utterly alone beside her three
graves. She was however a woman of undaunted courage. She felt
that activity alone could preserve her health and life. She had learned
to use her husband's arms, and fearlessly encountered even the white
bear in its visits to the island, using the fur and flesh for her clothing
and food. She lived in hope of being found by some vessel approach-
ing that shore, and to attract them she kept up almost constant fires on
the highest point of her island. When she had spent two years and
five months on the desolate strand, her fires were seen by a Breton cod-
fishing vessel. They were somewhat afraid to approach, but humanity
prevailed. Margaret, after kneeling to say a farewell prayer by the
graves of her loved ones, went on board with the furs she had gathered
in her hunting excursions.
While France was thus attempting to settle in the north, Spain had
now securely planted her colonies in Mexico and Peru, and her ships,
richly laden, were constantly passing through the Gulf of Mexico on
THE UNITED STATES. 61
|
their way to Spain. Many of these in the fierce tropical storms wele
unable to withstand the fury of the tempest, and were driven on the
northern shore of the gulf. The natives here, who had not forgotten
the visits of Narvaez and Soto, massacred the crews of the ship-
wrecked vessels, or spared them only for a slavery as bad as death.
It was therefore decided to plant a colony at some convenient spot on
our southern coast, and in 1559 Don Tristan de Luna was sent from
Wera Cruz with thirteen vessels, carrying no less than 1,500 men with
several clergymen, friars of the Dominican order, to attend to the spir-
itual affairs of the colony and convert the natives.
Tristan landed in Pensacola Bay on the 14th of August, and was
just preparing to send back a ship with intelligence when a terrible
storm came on, which destroyed every one of his ships. Many were
lost, including all on board the ship ready to sail. While looking
around for what could be saved, they found a sloop standing with all
its cargo, more than a cannon-shot from the shore, as if set there by
human hands.
Instead of building a vessel to send for relief or to carry off part of
his large force, he set to work to explore, endeavoring to live on the
Indians; but he was soon reduced to great straits, with nothing but
acorns, nuts and roots for food. However he formed an alliance with
the Coosas, and part of his army with them made war upon a tribe on
the banks of the Mississippi who seem to have been the Natchez.
At last, however, he fitted out a boat and sent word to Havana of his
distress. Angel de Willafañe soon appeared to take command, out he
abandoned the country in 1561, leaving Don Tristan, who gallantly hoped
to succeed in establishing a post. But the viceroy of Mexico soon
ordered him to return and Pensacola was deserted.
C H A P T E R v.
FRANCE, SPAIN AND ENGLAND ATTEMPT TO SETTLE OUR SHORES.
Coligny resolves to establish a Huguenot colony in Florida—Ribaut establishes Charlesfort
on Port Royal—Captain Albert de la Pierria—Mutiny—The Survivors saved by the
English–Laudonniere builds Fort Caroline on the St. John's, Florida—A Revolt—
Some turn Pirates—Relieved in Distress by Hawkins–Ribaut arrives—The Spaniards
resolve to crush the Colony—Melendez sent out—The Fleets meet at Caroline—Melen-
dez retires and builds St. Augustine—Ribaut pursuing him wrecked—Melendez takes
Caroline—His Cruelty—Inhuman Treatment of the Wrecked—The Massacre of the
French avenged by Dominic de Gourgues—Subsequent History of Florida—Raleigh
and his Efforts—Tobacco and Potatoes—A Settlement finally made at Jamestown.
Soon after the discovery of America, Europe was convulsed by the
Reformation and by the religious wars and troubles to which it gave
rise.
France was the scene of a terrible strife, in which Catholic and Pro-
testant contended for the mastery. At the head of the Protestant or
Huguenot party was the able Gaspar de Coligny, Admiral of France.
In one of the moments of peace during this war, he resolved to plant
a colony in America that might afford a refuge for those of his faith, if
in the doubtful struggle before them, they should be worsted.
Charles IX., who esteemed Coligny, favored his project ; and the
Admiral selected for its execution John Ribaut, of Dieppe, an experi-
enced navigator and brave man. Many gathered to join the expedition,
but as usually happened, few fitted for such an undertaking. Ribaut
sailed from Dieppe on the 18th of February, 1562, in two roberges, a
THE UNITED STATEs. 63
kind of small vessel. A low, well-wooded point, at Matanzas inlet, on
the Florida coast, was the first land made, but he ran along till he came
to a beautiful bay, to which he gave the name it still bears, Port Royal.
Here, on the 20th of May, amid the moss-draped oaks, which had
grown for centuries, the towering pines, the fragrant flowers, he planted—
probably on Parris Island—a stone carved with the arms of France, and
took possession of the new land.
He then threw up Charlesfort, so named in honor of Charles IX., pro-
bably near what is now called Archer's creek, not far from Beaufort.
Here Ribaut left twenty-six men, under Albert de la Pierria, and then
sailed back to report how attractive a land they had found. These men
for a time enjoyed their new life, but they were indisposed to work,
their commander was harsh and incompetent. They finally mutinied and
killed him, then put to sea in a wretched boat which they built. On the
ocean their provisions were soon exhausted, and they had devoured
one of their number to save the rest, when an English ship picked them
up.
Coligny did not despair. In 1564 he sent out Laudonniere with three
ships, which in June, 1564, reached the mouth of the St. John's. Here
Laudonniere erected a triangular fort of earth, called Fort Caroline,
eighteen miles up the river. The country was beautiful and attractive,
but the settlers were ill chosen. There was no order, no industry, no
religious worship, nothing to mark a well-regulated colony. They de-
pended on the natives for food, and to obtain it they used entreaty,
stratagem, and even force. Some mutinied, and compelled Laudonniere
to sign an order permitting them to depart. Then they equipped two
vessels, and set out to cruise as pirates against the Spaniards. This
sealed the doom of the colony.
64 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Spain had viewed with jealous fear all attempts to settle Florida.
Her commerce already suffered terribly from cruisers which ran out
from ports of England and France, sometimes recognized by the Gov-
ernments, sometimes mere pirates. If either of these nations got a foot-
hold in Florida, so near the route of all the rich ships from Mexico, the
Spaniards would be ruined. They took alarm at Cartier's colony, distant
as it was ; the present attempt was one they resolved to put down, more
especially as it already assumed in their eyes a piratical character.
There was then in Spain a brave man bowed down by heavy grief, a
naval commander full of energy and resolution. He sought from King
Philip II. permission to sail for Florida to seek his son whose vessel had
been wrecked on that dangerous coast, but whom he hoped to find still
alive. -
It was proposed to him to conquer Florida, and when news came of
Ribaut's colony, to root out the French. He sailed in July, 1565, with a
large fleet, but arrived almost alone at Porto Rico, his vessels having
been scattered in a storm. With his usual promptness he resolved not
to wait for the other vessels but kept on to Florida, making the coast
on the 28th of August. A fine haven that he found he named St. Au-
gustine, but he only reconnoitered it at this moment. Then he coasted
along looking for the French.
Laudonniere's colony had gone on from bad to worse. Starvation
stared them in the face, when one day Sir John Hawkins, the slave mer-
chant, entered their harbor and not only liberally relieved their distress,
but sold them a vessel in which to leave Florida. While all were pre-
paring for the voyage, sails were again descried, and ere long the flag of
France floating to the breeze cheered every heart. Ribaut had arrived
on the 28th of August with seven ships bearing settlers and supplies.
-
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THE UNITED STATES. 65
His vessels rode at anchor before the fort, as Melendez bore down
in the San Pelayo, with four other ships of his squadron. His reply
to the French hail was stern and plain, terrible and cruel. “I
am Pedro Melendez, of Spain, with strict orders that I cannot dis-
obey: every Catholic I will spare, every Protestant shall die.” The
French ships, unprepared for action, cut their cables and stood out
to Sea. Melendez gave chase, but failing to overtake them, returned
to St. Augustine. There two of his officers were already landing
guns, stores, and troops, founding the first permanent settlement on
our soil, our oldest city, St. Augustine. Aware that a decisive struggle
must now take place, Melendez pushed on the works to put himself
in a position of defense in case of attack. And he acted wisely.
By the bedside of Laudonniere, then sick, the French had held
their council. Ribaut, against the will of Laudonniere, determined
to take all the best of häºrce On the ships, and sail down to St.
Augustine, so as by a bold attack to crush Melendez and his new
Colony. He sailed, leaving Laudonniere sick, with a half-ruined fort
and a motley collection to defend it. is
On the morning of the 11th, Melendez saw that the French were
upon him. Off the harbor were Ribaut's ships, black with men. He
must fight now, not the unprepared fleet of the first day, but Ribaut,
eager and ready. While his men appealed to heaven to save them,
the experienced Spanish sea-captain scanned the heavens. There
he read a coming tempest, and ere long he felt that St. Augustine
Was Safe, as he saw the French ships wrestling with the hurricane.
His own action was prompt. The French fort was clearly left un-
guarded. In spite of remonstrance and almost a mutiny, he marched
with a good force overland, wading breast-high through everglade
66 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
and morass, swarming with alligator and serpent, from St. Augustine
to the St. John's, and on the morning of the 21st of September he
burst into Fort Caroline during a driving rain. The Spaniards cut • ?
down all before them without mercy. Before Melendez gave the order
to spare the women and children, at least a hundred of the French
had fallen. Seventy were spared : Laudonniere, with a few others,
reached the French vessels that had remained in the harbor. The
Sun rose on a scene of horror, and lit up the Spanish flag floating
above the fort. Leaving a garrison, Melendez returned to St.
Augustine.
It was subsequently charged that he hung his prisoners to trees,
with an inscription: “I do this not as to Frenchmen, but as to here-
tics,” but the story is of a later date.
Melendez had returned in triumph to St. Augustine, when one
day Indians came to announce that a French ship had been wrecked
to the southward, and that the men were unable to cross an arm
of the sea. Melendez hastened down. It was one of Ribaut's vessels.
The cruel Spaniard gave dubious words: the starving French sur-
rendered, and were butchered in cold blood. Again tidings came of
another and larger party. This was Ribaut himself, and those who
had been in his ship. The French commander in vain endeavored to
make terms. He and his whole force surrendered, and they too were
butchered. A few, wrecked near Cape Canaveral, were spared,
but the French colony in Florida was utterly extirpated, and Spain
held the land for centuries.
France was filled with indignation at the cruel massacre, but the
King sought no redress. One man, Dominic de Gourgues, resolved
to avenge Ribaut. Obtaining a commission to proceed to the coast
THE UNITED STATES. 67
of Africa, he sailed there, and after a fight with the Portuguese and
some negro tribes, took in, it would seem, his cargo of slaves, and
sailed to Cuba. There he announced to his men his purpose to attack
the Spanish fort on the St. John's. His proposal was received with joy.
He soon was off the harbor, and running up the coast, landed.
The Indians came flocking to the French flag. Saturiva, a chief,
readily joined him to attack the Spaniards, whom he hated.
The force of French and Indians was soon on the march. Through
the fragrant woods of Florida, with the beautiful magnolia and the
live-oak, where birds of strange hue and all the denizens of the
swamps met the eyes of the French, they plodded steadily on, if the
story is at all true. A small Spanish outpost lay north of the St.
John's. It was carried by storm.
Then the Indians swam across the St. John's, and the French, open-
ing a cannonade across it, passed over in a single boat. A second
post was soon taken.
All was now alarm at the Spanish fort San Matheo. The cry,
“The French are coming,” thrilled through every heart. But the
commander resolved to hold his ground. A party was sent out.
It was surrounded and cut to pieces. Then the Spaniards attempted
to escape by flight. The woods swarmed with red men, and every
Spaniard was killed or taken.
The victorious French leader then hung his prisoners on trees,
with this inscription : “I do this not as to Spaniards, but as to traitors,
robbers, and murderers.”
Such is the story of De Gourgues' vengeance, about which there
is some doubt.
Amid all this bloody work the city of St. Augustine was founded,
68 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
and still stands, a venerable place indeed ; with an ancient fort,
barracks that were once a convent, and everything to recall other
times and another land.
The foundations of St. Augustine were laid amid the din of arms
and warlike operations by sea and land. A fort was thrown up,
hastily at first, in September, 1565, but when all danger from the
French had passed, another was erected on the bar, and the city
begun in more regular form, Bartholomew Menendez being the first
alcalde. All the settlers were divided into squads, and required to
work on the buildings three hours in the morning, and as long in the
evening. Thus was St. Augustine built.
Peter Melendez, the governor, had meanwhile sailed to Havana
to collect his scattered fleet. As the ships arrived, he sent aid to
his establishments in Florida, and setting out with several vessels,
explored the coast, seeking in vain for any trace of his son. He
entered into friendly relations with the cruel and powerful chiefs
of Is and Carlos, and rescued a number of Spaniards, men and women,
who had been wrecked on the coast, where the Indians sacrificed
one every year to their gods. g
But troubles had arisen at St. Augustine and St. Matheo. Mutinies
broke out, and for a time, while the alcalde was among the Indians,
the insurgents held both places, but they were at last reduced. They
had, however, roused the Indians to war by their cruelty, and St.
Augustine was soon surrounded by hostile natives, who refused any
longer to sell the settlers provisions, and cut off all who left the
towns. Among those who fell was Captain Martin de Ochoa, the
bravest man in the colony, who was taken in an ambuscade. Em-
boldened by success, the Indians, gliding up by night, killed two
THE UNITED STATES. 69
sentinels on the walls of the ſort, and startled the astonished Spaniards
by showers of fiery arrows, with which they succeeded in setting fire
to the palmetto thatch on the store-house, which was destroyed with
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SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
all the munitions, pro-
visions, and clothing it
contained. The confla-
gration spread to the
dwellings, and all was
dismay and alarm in the
little town. In vain,
even by day, did the
Spaniards seek to drive
them off. The Indians,
lurking in the tall grass,
watched them fire, and
then, gliding along on
the ground like snakes,
sent their arrows with
terrible aim.
Melendez, hearing of
all these troubles, re-
turned to St. Augustine,
restored order, quieted
the Indians, and sup-
pressed the mutinies. He
then sailed up to St. Helena Sound, which you will see on the map
of South Carolina. There he built Fort St. Philip, leaving Stephen de
Alas in command, with one hundred and ten men. He had thus






































70 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
explored the coast from the Florida capes to South Carolina; but
he did not rest even then. He ascended the St. John's River and
sent expeditions and missionaries up even into Chesapeake Bay,
where, as early as 1570, a log-chapel was reared on the soil of
Virginia.
It seemed as if the whole coast was to become a colony of Spain.
But this man of energy was not to be long in Florida. Returning
to Spain, he was appointed by the king to command the Invincible
Armada for the invasion of England, and died in 1574, just as he
was about to sail with it.
With his death the interest in Florida declined ; the settlements
were confined to the part now known as Florida. There the Spaniards
Soon, by means of Zealous missionaries, gained the Timuquan and
Apalache Indians, although many of those devoted men lost their
lives in this good work. iº
In 1586, Sir Francis Drake, who had planted the flag of Queen
Elizabeth in California, identified his name with Florida. About
the 1st of June he appeared before the harbor of St. Augustine.
At the outer fort the garrison, after firing a few volleys at his ships,
retreated to the town. Drake took possession of the Fort St. John,
and advanced in his boats to St. Augustine. The garrison was only
one hundred and fifty strong, and these, with the inhabitants, retreated,
abandoning the town to Drake, who set it on fire ; and the first
American city, with its meat town-hall, church, and other buildings,
was entirely destroyed, and the fine gardens around it laid waste.
Drake then sailed on to destroy Fort St. Philip, but ran into Carolina
and relieved Raleigh's colony. The Spaniards returned to their
ruined city, and with help from Havana soon rebuilt it.
THE UNITED STATES. 71
Of the Subsequent history of Florida we need say little until the
period when it became part of the United States.
In 1638 the Apalaches declared war, and advanced to the very
gates of St. Augustine, but the Spaniards finally reduced them, and com-
pelled them to furnish a number of men to labor on the public works.
Another Indian war broke out in 1687, in which the Apalachicolas
and Creeks rose in rebellion because the Spaniards wished to remove
them from their towns to another district.
Many Indians at this time retired to the English colony of South
Carolina, and the Yamassees not only did so, but became a scourge
to Florida, Sacking and burning the settlements and missions.
The Spanish government, to keep off other nations on the Gulf.
founded Pensacola in 1693, but France and England hemmed her, in
and by frequent invasions destroyed the Indian towns, or drew off
the people, so that Florida became an insignificant colony.
England was not indifferent to America. Elizabeth had made her
kingdom powerful on the sea. She had defied Spain; she too, like
the Kings of France and Spain, could give away with her pen realms
in America. One day her favorite, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, inflamed
by Frobisher's discoveries at the North, and Sir Francis Drake's
exploration of our Pacific shore up to Oregon, asked of the great
Queen a patent. It was freely granted, and extensive territories were
assigned to him. But he did not live to establish a colony. His
end was sad.
He sailed to America in a fleet, but disasters overtook him. His
largest ship was wrecked. The brave Sir Humphrey was returning
in the Squirrel, a little bark of only ten tons burden, when terrible
Storms came on. No One who had been at sea had ever met with
72 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
such mountain waves or fierce wind. Every moment seemed the
last, but Sir Humphrey, Seated calmly on his deck, called out to those
on his other vessel, the Hind: “We are as near to heaven by sea as
by land.” They were the last words of the brave old sailor. During
the night the lights of the Squirrel suddenly disappeared. She had
sunk with all on board. -
His half-brother, the brilliant and unfortunate Sir Walter Raleigh,
obtained a patent as ample as Sir Humphrey's.
One summer day in July, 1584, two English ships lay to off the
coast of North Carolina. The land-breeze came off rich with the
perfume of flowers and spicy odors. The sky and sea were calm.
An entrance was easily found for the ships, and the natives on
Wocoken Island sprang up in wonder to see the great canoes come
bearing on towards their shore. From the anchored vessels came
boats of richly-clad men. The arms of England were set up, and
they gazed in wonder on the rich vegetation, the clustering grape-
vines, the forests, from which such flocks of birds arose as to deafen
with their cries. The timid natives welcomed them.
Returning, full of sanguine hopes, the explorers induced Raleigh
to send out a colony. Sir Richard Grenville brought out settlers
under Lane to occupy Roanoke Island. They did not understand
how to begin : they burned an Indian village, they treacherously
killed Wingina, a native chieftain or king. The prospect now grew
dark ; an ominous cloud was gathering. The colonists, who had not
labored to cultivate the soil, saw nothing but destruction. -
To their delight they one day beheld ships entering, which by their
build and by their flags were recognized as English. Sir Francis
Drake, cruising along, stopped in to visit his friends. He found
THE UNITED STATES. - 73
them in despair, and taking all on board, hoisted Sail for Eng-
land.
Twice more did Raleigh attempt to colonize North Carolina. Each
time the colonists, left unprovided, perished by the hands of the
red men. The State commemorates his efforts by giving his name
to her capital.
By Raleigh's efforts England gained only a knowledge of three
American plants, Indian corn, potatoes, and tobacco.
Sir Walter Raleigh acquired a taste for tobacco, and often in his
hours of relaxation solaced himself by smoking in the Indian fashion.
The story is told that one day, having sent his servant for a pitcher
of water, and lighted his pipe in the mean time, the poor faithful
fellow, when he returned, seeing his master enveloped in smoke,
supposed him on fire, and dashed the contents of his pitcher over him,
rousing Sir Walter from his reverie in rather an astonished attitude.
The potatoes he is said to have given to his gardener at Youghal,
Ireland. The man looked at them, smelt them, and bit them, on
the whole regarding them with great contempt, and, when he did
plant them, put them in an out-of-the-way place, bestowing no care
whatever on his master's American plants. The neglected potato
put out its shoots, but even its purple blossom did not win it favor.
At last, at the proper time, Sir Walter ordered the man to dig them
up. He obeyed joyfully, but was soon amazed at the multiplicity
of the roots. His astonishment grew when his master ordered them
to be boiled, and it was not till he had eaten one that he began to
look on the potato with favor.
It was soon cultivated extensively in Ireland, and thence intro-
duced into England and other parts. From the fact that it was cul-
74 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
tivated first in Ireland, it is sometimes called, even in this, its native
country, the Irish potato.
A number of men in England now took up the idea of a colony
in America. Several of them were men of experience, who knew
enough about America to carry out their plans successfully. King
James gave them an ample Patent in 1606, and two companies were
formed. The London Company, which obtained all the territory
between the thirty-fourth and thirty-eighth degree, soon set to work.
On the 26th of April a little fleet of three vessels, under the
English flag, entered the capes and anchored in Chesapeake Bay,
naming the capes, in honor of the King's sons, Charles and Henry.
The whole land seemed wonderfully attractive. After some deliber-
ation they ascended the James River, and landed fifty miles from
its mouth to lay the foundations of Jamestown, named, like the
river, in honor of the King.
CHAPTER WI.
Permanent Settlements of England and France—Virginia settled at Jamestown—Early Visits
of the Spaniards to the Chesapeake—Powhatan's Tribe—Captain John Smith—Argall—
Pocahontas, her Marriage and Death—First Legislature in America—What Jamestown
resembled—Opechancanough's War and Massacre—The Company suppressed—Virginia a
Royal Colony—The People—Spain settles New Mexico—The French in Acadia—Jesuits
in Maine—Romance of La Tour—Madame La Tour—Wars with New England—Acadia
conquered, becomes Nova Scotia—Quebec founded by Champlain–His Adventurous Career
—Character of the Colony—Wars with the Iroquois—Pieskaret—Montreal—Lambert Closse,
the Indian Fighter—The French at Onondaga.
NEWPORT's vessels, the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery,
driven by a fortunate storm beyond the North Carolina, coast, where
Raleigh had attempted to plant a colony, had sailed into the mag-
ſº
THE UNITED STATES. 75
nificent bay which still retains its Indian name, Chesapeake. The
English gazed around with thankfulness and wonder, and called the
point where they first anchored, Point Comfort. There are few
more beautiful bays : rivers, many of them navigable for miles,
pour their volume of water into this sheet, which, with its picturesque
banks, its charming islands teeming with wild fowl, its rich verdure,
might justify the expression of one of the new colony, that heaven
and earth seem never to have agreed better to frame a place for
man's commodious and delightful habitation.
They were not, however, the first to visit this delightful bay.
As early as 1540 some Spanish navigator anchored within the capes,
and gave the bay which opened so gloriously on his view the name
of St. Mary's Bay, which it long bore in Spanish maps. Soon after
Melendez settled Florida, Father Segura, with a band of Jesuit
missionaries, led by a native Virginian, who, taken to Spain, had
pretended to be a sincere convert to Christianity, penetrated far up
the Potomac, but were lured into the wilderness only to be ruth-
lessly murdered, and the whole party of zealous missionaries perished.
Melendez then sent ships to punish the murderers, and Spanish
vessels thus woke with the thunders of their artillery the shores of
the Potomac. The cruel tribe fled from the river southward, and
settled on the James.
When the English colony advanced up the James River to a spot
fifty miles from its mouth, this tribe was ruled by Powhatan, who
dwelt in savage grandeur on the Pamunkey River The settlers
for the new colony were, as usual, badly selected. There were
more men to play gentlemen than to fell trees, clear and dig the
ground, and put up houses. The queer King of England, James I.,
76 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
had given them plenty of laws, and on arriving the Council chose
Edward Maria Wingfield president. The most prominent man in
the colony, and the man best fitted to aid, was Captain John
Smith. They were so jealous of him that they expelled him from
the Council. Smith was a man who had seen much of the world.
He had been in Holland's war for freedom ; in the wars against the
Turks, where he fought like a hero; he had been a prisoner in their
hands, and escaped in a romantic manner. He was full of energy
and resource.
Those in command at once commenced to erect a fort on a tree-
clad peninsula, which at high tide was a perfect island. This fortifi-
cation was triangular in form, with a half-moon at each angle, and
from its log-walls four or five cannons frowned on the natives.
While the men were busy felling trees and squaring timber for
this work, Newport, with part of the company, ran up the river to
the falls, where they found a white boy, supposed to be the child of
members of Raleigh's unfortunate colony.
But even in this brief space the Indians began hostilities. On the
26th of May, 1607, the men working on the fort were startled by an
unexpected spectacle. The river seemed alive with canoes; the red
men, in all their war-paint, with cries and yells that struck terror to
the hearts of the new-comers, surrounded their island. Wingfield,
foremost in danger, at last drove the assailants off by means of his
cannon, but not till twelve of the colonists were killed or wounded.
Then the fort was completed with all haste, and the settlers began
to feel more secure ; but the neighboring marshes bred diseases that
swept off many ; until winter came with its wild-fowl and abundance
of game. Then Smith started out to explore. Wingfield was deposed.


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THE UNITED STATES. 79
One object of the Company in England was to find a stream leading
to the Pacific. Gomez, who visited the coast at an early day, con-
vinced the Spaniards that there was no such passage. As we now
know the geography of the continent, it seems very amusing to think
that Smith ascended the Chickahominy River to see whether it was
a short cut to China.
Leaving his boat in charge of two men he struck inland. But
his men disobeyed his instructions, and the crafty red men waylaid
and slew them.
Smith was soon a prisoner in the hands of hostile Indians. Full
of resources, he drew out his pocket-compass, and its wonders made
them regard him with awe. He was allowed to send a note to the
new fort, but was led in triumph from the villages on the Chickahominy
to the Indian villages on the Rappahannock and Potomac, and soon
through other towns.
A very pretty story is told by Smith in his later books, that
people now begin to doubt very much. Smith was at last brought
before Powhatan at Pamunkey. Seated on his mat-bed, with a
favorite wife on each side, surrounded by his gravest Sachems, this
Indian monarch received Smith as a distinguished prisoner. Water
was brought to him, and a feather fan to wipe his face and hands
upon, but the council held, doomed to death the stranger who came
spying into their land. The warriors, ready to avenge on him their
repulse at Jamestown, panted for his blood. He was led forth to
a stone, and a stalwart brave swung aloft the heavy stone hatchet
that was to crush his head. At this moment, Pocahontas, the daughter
of this Indian monarch, who had been watching breathlessly the pro-
ceedings, hoping that her father would relent, and spare one for
80 A CHILD’s IIISTORY OF
whom she felt all the childish attachment that a girl of twelve would
entertain for one who had always shown her a kindly interest, Sprang
forward and threw her arms around the neck of the doomed white pri-
soner, shielding him by her own body. The executioner paused, the
chieftain looked sternly at the group, but his daughter's words of appeal
changed his decision. Smith was saved, and sent back in safety to
Jamestown.
Such is the tale that is told in all lands, and shown in picture
and statue.
Smith found the colony reduced to forty men : he attempted to
introduce order, and then, in a voyage of three months, sailed all
around Chesapeake Bay, thoroughly exploring it, ascending many
of the rivers flowing into it, meeting Indians of various tribes, and
struck most of all by the gigantic Conestogas, who came down the
Susquehanna. His map is one of the best monuments to his fame.
On his return he became President of the Council, and as new
emigrants came in, including two women, the first seen in the colony,
he enforced industry and established order. Like Melendez at St.
Augustine, he required six hours' labor from all. Virginia was not,
however, long to enjoy his services. An explosion of gunpowder burnt
his hand so seriously as to defy the skill of the colony physician:
he sailed to Europe to secure better treatment for his wound, and
never returned, although he continued to take a deep interest in the
welfare of the colony, and did more by his writings than any other
to make it known.
He had no influence at court, no noble friends. Eminently fitted
as he was to explore a new country and to manage a new settlement,
much as he had done for Virginia, he received no royal grant he
THE UNITED STATES. 81
did not even obtain the deed of the lands he cleared or the house he
built.
Before Smith sailed, great changes had been made in England in
regard to Virginia affairs. The London Company solicited and
obtained a new Charter from the King. By this document, issued
June 2, 1609, the monarch granted to them all the coast for two
hundred miles north and south of James River, with power to appoint
a governor. They induced a good and upright nobleman, Thomas,
Lord De la Ware, to accept for life the office of Governor and
Captain-General of Virginia.
A fresh impulse was given. Nine ships, under Newport, carrying
more than five hundred emigrants, sailed from England, bearing Sir
Thomas Gates as deputy of the Governor. But only seven ships
ran through the hurricane, and reached the James River. Gates'
vessel stranded on the rocks of Bermuda, so that the new-comers,
with little respect for the authorities in Virginia, caused much
trouble.
With Smith's departure almost all semblance of government ceased.
Labor was neglected, provisions were wastefully consumed, the Indians
were provoked so that they refused all aid. Then came the famous
“Starving Time” of Virginia annals. Famine, disease, and war
ravaged the settlement. Some took to the sea as pirates. Of the
five hundred left by Smith there remained in six months only sixty.
When Gates anchored before Jamestown with two rude vessels
built in Bermuda, these spectral men, worn by famine, sickness, and
anxiety, came out to implore him to take them from the fated
place, looking like the ruins of some ancient town—houses pulled down
for firewood ; the blockhouse the sole refuge of the wretched remnant
82 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
of the hundreds who had settled there. All their stock, horses, swine,
poultry, had long since been devoured.
Gates was appalled. There was but one voice, and that was to
leave the spot. But he would not burn it, as some desired. Firing
a parting salute, they all sailed down the river on the 7th of June.
Jamestown was abandoned. -
In Hampton Roads they saw in the horizon the gleam of Sails.
Lord De la Ware had come with another band of emigrants and
supplies. He restored their hopes, and that night Jamestown was
again a busy settlement.
Lord De la Ware showed great ability, and the settlement began
to prosper. Emigrants poured in with abundant supplies, cattle and *
live stock; agriculture was encouraged. Jamestown was no longer a
mere garrison. Each settler received an allowance of land in fee
to improve for his own benefit, and a new settlement was begun at
Henrico in 1611. , -
Ill health soon compelled the good Governor to retire, but Vir-
ginia prospered under the strict rule of Sir Thomas Gates and Sir
Thomas Dale.
Samuel Argall, an unprincipled man, who plays an important part
in Virginia history, well-nigh involved the colony in an Indian War.
Pocahontas had on many occasions shown her friendship for the
English, but Argall used a treacherous Indian woman to entice
Powhatan's daughter into his vessel, and then detained her as a
prisoner. This captivity of Pocahontas had a romantic issue. She
was received at Jamestown with respect, and while negotiations Were
in progress with her father, a young gentleman, John Rolfe, already
remarkable as the first planter of tobacco in Virginia, Was greatly
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THE UNITED STATES. 85
struck by the amiable qualities of the Indian girl. He soon after
proposed marriage, and she accepted. After instruction by the clergy-
man of the colony, she was baptized and married with her father's
consent, her uncle, Opechancanough, attending to give the bride away.
The colony gathered into the little church to witness the spectacle ;
the planter, still young, full of energy, high-minded and graceful,
attired in the picturesque dress of gentlemen of that day; the bride,
beautiful as the wild deer of her forests, arrayed by the hands of the
English women in their dress, full of wonder at the strange ceremonial,
full of trust in her chosen husband. It was a day of joy to both
white and red man throughout the land of Virginia, and is handed
down as one of the great events of history in the paintings on the
walls of the Capitol.
It is sad to think that her life was so brief. She sailed to England
with her husband, and was received with all honor; but sickening
there, died before she could return to America.
There was now at last an English settlement on the American coast
that was destined to succeed. We can picture to ourselves what
Jamestown was. Not a city of marble palaces and well-paved and
lighted streets.
In the woods that covered the beautiful and fertile island, for island
it was at times, a good space had been cleared by the vigorous arms
of the settlers, and amid the fields, where corn and tobacco were
growing beside wheat and other European grains, stood the little
town. Two fair rows of houses lined its street, all of framed timbers,
two stories high, with a good garret. The public buildings were
three large and substantial store-houses, and the neat wooden church.
Around all was a good stout palisade, and at the West, on a platform,
86 * A CHILD’s IIISTORY OF
cannon were planted to prevent any sudden invasion by hostile
Indians. Outside of this palisade farm-houses and some finer dwell-
ings were Scatteréd in attractive spots, and for their protection there
were two block-houses, where sentinels kept watch that no Indian
War party swam over to the island, to steal unawares on the settlers
while at work in the fields or straying in the woods.
We cannot follow all the course of history: how Virginia flourished
under good Governor Yeardley, and how it suffered under such men
as Argall, who, after his treachery to Pocahontas, destroyed and robbed
French settlements in Maine and Nova Scotia, and then became Deputy
Governor of Virginia, to crush the colony by his tyranny and vexation.
The worst of such bad men in colonial times was that they were
unjust to the Indians, and provoked them to war, in which the
innocent settlers suffered.
Hitherto the colony had been governed in England, and the people
had no voice in making the laws under which they lived. This
could not last. A chance came. Friday, the 30th day of July,
1619, was a memorable day for America. On that day, in the chancel
of the church at Jamestown, gathered twenty-two burgesses, repre-
senting the different settlements. The minister, Mr. Buck, opened
the proceedings with prayer, and all retired to the body of the church.
Then each advanced, was sworn in by Governor Yeardley, and took
his seat. They elected John Pory Speaker, and he took his place
in front of the Governor. The laws of this first Legislature were
wise, seeking to restrain evil, to advance education, and to encourage
industry and piety.
Powhatan had remained constantly friendly to the English, but he
died in 1618, and his influence over the Indian tribes fell to Ope-
THE UNITED STATES. 87
chancanough. This Sachem was a dark, resentful man ; he never
forgot a wrong, and was insensible to kindness. The English, to
honor him, had built him a house in the European style, with doors
and windows, locks and keys. He was as delighted with it as a child
with a toy, and kept locking and unlocking the doors for hours with
evident delight. He professed the warmest friendship. A turbulent
and troublesome Indian was killed in some affray, and the authorities
at once sent to Opechancanough to explain the matter. He was
satisfied that the Indian was in fault, and declared that he was glad
to be rid of him. He said that the sky would fall sooner than he
would break the peace with the white people. Yet he was plotting
a general massacre. The Indians came and went into the houses
of the settlers, without arms or anything to excite suspicion. They
brought in game, deer, turkeys, fish, and furs to sell. On the night
of the 21st of March there were Indians at many houses, and the
planters urged them to stay, giving them food and lodging.
A man named Pace had an Indian living with him, and another
Indian came in. He soon disclosed to the other the projected mas-
sacre. Watching his opportunity, this true-hearted fellow crept
silently away. Pace, roused from his sleep, saw the dusky form
beside him. A whisper of caution, and the whole plot was revealed
to him. He sprang to his feet, and dressing in haste, stole down to
the river, and sped away in the darkness in his boat to Jamestown.
The little town soon turned night into day. All was stir and excite-
ment as messengers darted off to give alarm. -
Day broke before the distant plantations could be warned. Men
sat down to breakfast with their Indian guests, who were watching
the moment. Then they sprang for the planters' arms and began
88 A CIIILD’s HISTORY OF
cutting down young and old. Some rushed from their houses to
escape, but the savages were on their track with ferocious yells and
blood-stained weapons, and in every direction they saw similar sights,
till they at last sank down, tomahawked or shot. In a few hours
on that sad spring Friday, three hundred and forty-seven men,
women, and children were slain by their firesides with their own
weapons, and their mutilated bodies left on the ground. -
For a moment all was terror and alarm in Virginia. The enemy
had fled, but the settlers crowded to Jamestown and the other forts;
some hastened to embark for England. But as soon as the panic
was over, they prepared for a war of extermination on the Indians.
There was no chance of bringing them to battle, so the settlers
adopted the Indian plan. The Indians of Virginia were all of the
Algonquin race, cultivating little ground, living chiefly by fishing
and hunting, and they were accordingly much scattered. They had
no large palisaded towns, but occupied little hamlets in parties of
fifty or more. On these the settlers would steal as silently as Indians.
With a ringing hurrah they would dash in on them, cutting down some,
and if the rest escaped, it was only to behold from their lurking-
place their houses, nets, canoes, crops, given to the flames. Blood-
hounds were imported to track the fugitives through the woods, and
it became a part of Virginia law that no peace should be made with
the Indians. The red man soon had reason to curse the treacherous
course of Opechancanough.
Ring James I. made this massacre a pretext for dissolving the
Company under which Virginia had been settled and governed down
to this time. He laid all misfortunes at their door. He deprived
them of their Charter, and made Virginia a royal colony. Governors
THE UNITED STATES. 89
were now to be appointed by the Crown. The planters took alarm.
At every settlement meetings were held, and by general agreement
agents were sent to England to claim that under the new arrange-
ment the people should retain their Assemblies and make their own
laws. The State that was to produce a Washington, a Jefferson,
and a Patrick Henry, was thus early jealous of its rights.
James yielded reluctantly; but his Governors were carefully watched
by the Virginians, and one of them, Governor Harvey, falling under
suspicion, was forced to leave the country.
In the reign of Charles I., Virginia was administered by Sir William
Berkeley, an able Governor, who restored peace and harmony, and
so won Virginia to the royal cause, that it was the last English
possession that submitted to Parliament. When it did yield, it did
so almost as an independent power. The Virginians would not allow
Cromwell to appoint a Governor; they elected their own Governors
during the whole period of the Protectorate, and enjoyed free trade
with the world.
Thus was Virginia settled and thus it grew—men attached to the
Crown and Church of England, but still more attached to their
liberty. -
We have thus seen Spain and England. succeed in planting colonies
on our coast. Spain had penetrated to New Mexico, and John de
Oñate finally succeeded in ſounding San Gabriel, and soon after
Santa Fé, and missionaries began to convert to Christianity the half-
civilized natives who are known now as Pueblo Indians.
But in 1644 a general revolt of the red men took place. They
killed the Governor and missionaries, with many of the Spaniards,
only one town escaping. The Spaniards, however, soon recovered
90 - A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
the country, and held it till Mexico became free. It formed part
of that Republic till it was ceded to the United States by the Treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
But while Spain and England were thus gaining a foothold in our
territory, another European power succeeded in planting a colony
at the north, which was long to contend with the English colonies
for the mastery in North America. This was France. We have
seen how Cartier explored the St. Lawrence ; how Coligny, during
the wars of religion, attempted to settle Florida.
Though France failed in her first efforts to plant a settlement in
North America, she did not abandon the project. Her sons were
hardy, bold, adventurous, and at last they succeeded in laying the
foundation of a colony which for many years disputed with those
of England the control of our continent.
Under the name of New France it extended from the Kennebec
to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and west to Lake Superior and the
Valley of the Mississippi. -
Roberval obtained a Patent of vast extent. This passed through
several hands, and occasional attempts were made to settle, all of
which proved unsuccessful. -
In 1603, a man of clear head and great energy, Peter du Guast, Sieur
de Monts, became Lieutenant-General and Vice-Admiral of all the
country between the fortieth and forty-sixth degrees of latitude. This
Huguenot gentleman is the real father of French colonization. During
the stormy month of March he put to sea in two vessels, accompanied
by Samuel de Champlain, an experienced naval man, who had just,
following Cartier's route, ascended the St. Lawrence to the rapids.
After coasting along Nova Scotia, they entered Passamaquoddy Bay,
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THE UNITED STATES. 91
and began their settlement on a little island to which they gave the
name of Sainte Croix. Here they threw up a little fort, and with
willing industry began to clear away the cedars and pines from the
sandy soil, and erect dwellings. They planted grain, and made ready
MADAME DE LA PELTRIE WASHING AND DRESSING INDIAN CHILDREN.
to pass their winter, which promised to be severe. With no neighbors
nearer than St. Augustine, they endured all the trials of the severe
season, but disease thinned them sadly, and in the spring, while

92 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Champlain explored the coast as far as Cape Cod, de Monts sought
a new site for his colony. He at last decided upon Port Royal, and
to it transferred his settlement, and Maine was abandoned.
Port Royal did not thrive, however; it was a mere trading-post in
the hands of French nobles and gentlemen. But Champlain, in 1608,
carried out a wiser plan, and began a settlement at Quebec. Below
the cliff he landed, July 3, 1608, and laid out a fort. Cape Diamond,
tall and bare, and the green heights of Point Levi echo to the wood-
men's axes as they level the trees which lined the shore. Champlain
is there, directing and guiding, himself an example to the rest. In
a few weeks a strong wooden wall enclosed three buildings and a
garden spot, while cannon bristled from a platform looking out on
the river. Over this floated the flag of France, sometimes to droop,
but soon to recover and hold its own here for more than a hundred
and fifty years.
Thus were the two colonies of Acadia, or Nova Scotia, and Canada
begun.
Jesuit missionaries began to labor among the Indians near Port
Royal, but a new proprietor of the place was unfriendly to them.
By the aid of a French lady of rank, Madame de Guercheville, they
began in 1613 a missionary settlement at Mount Desert Island, on
the coast of Maine. They had scarcely landed and commenced
building, when Argall, from Virginia, escorting some fishing vessels
near there, heard of it, and without any authority attacked and broke
up the settlement, killing one of the missionaries, and plundering all.
Hearing of the establishment at Port Royal, he visited and plundered
that also.
Port Royal was soon restored, and in time Acadia was possessed
THE UNITED STATES. 93
by two proprietors, d'Aulnay and La Tour. Of the latter we may
here relate an interesting incident. His father joined the English,
and receiving many honors, offered to go over and persuade his son
to yield his post or join the English. With a considerable force he
approached his son's fort, but that gentleman, true to his flag,
spurned his father's base offers in a truly noble letter, and prepared
to defend himself. He held his own so manfully that the elder
La Tour, defeated and remorseful, became the suppliant. To return
to England after his failure he durst not do, so he threw himself on
the mercy of his son, who assigned him a house outside of his fort,
and there maintained him.
Subsequent to this La Tour became involved in difficulties with
d’Aulnay. Both sought aid from New England to carry on the
war against his own countrymen, whose little posts were dotted along
the deeply indented shores of Maine and Nova Scotia. Had they
worked in harmony, they might have built up a flourishing colony.
Once, during their struggle, in 1645, d'Aulnay learning that La Tour
had left his fort on the St. John's with a slight garrison, marched to
attack it with all the force he could muster. But he did not find it an
easy task to reduce it. Madame La Tour, with only a handful of men,
determined to defend the place to the last. To the summons of
d’Aulnay she returned a bold, defiant answer. The fire of her cannon
and musketry was such as to drive her assailants off; but on the
fourth day one of her men deserted, and d’Aulnay learned how small
a force opposed him. But she would not yield. As d'Aulnay was
scaling the wall she rushed forward at the head of her little garrison to
repel his assault. D'Aulnay, amazed at such courage, proposed terms,
and having obtained such as she deemed honorable, the brave lady
94 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
surrendered, but the treacherous d’Aulnay on entering seized and
hanged all her men but One, compelling the brave lady to witness
their execution with a rope around her own neck. The shock was
such that three weeks after this gallant lady and devoted wife breathed
her last. . -
With these few incidents in Acadian history we return to Champlain
and his colony. - -
The Indians whom Cartier had found on the St. Lawrence had
disappeared. Its banks were lined by roving bands of the Montagnais,
called by the New Yorkers in olden time Adirondacks. These
brought in furs to the French posts to trade. Other tribes heard
of it, and the Algonquins on the Ottawa came down in fleets of birch
canoes, loaded with skins of beaver, moose, and deer, to trade with
the bearded men who came in mighty ships from over the sea.
Other Indians, still of a totally different race, living in palisaded
towns, and raising corn and tobacco, beans and squashes, in great
plenty on the shores of Lake Huron, and called Hurons by the French,
also made their way to Quebec. Champlain made all these wild
and savage tribes friends to his little colony. But to be their friend
he had to help them against their great enemy. This was a nation
occupying what is now New York, from the Hudson almost to Niagara.
The French called them Iroquois; the English, when they came to
know them, termed them Five Nations, for they comprised the
Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas.
Against these the allies required Champlain to join them in war.
So, in the early Summer of 1609, he ascended the St. Lawrence with
a few Frenchmen in a shallop and a large force of Indians. He
entered the Sorel River and ascended till the rapids prevented his
THE UNITED STATES. 95
further progress. Then, sending back his boat, he went on with the
Indians and entered the lake which bears his name. On the 30th
of July, as the sun was sinking behind the Adirondacks, they came in
sight of a fleet of Iroquois canoes on the lake. The hills around
echoed back the yells and cries of the foemen. Both parties made
for the shore and prepared for battle on the morn. With the dawn
the Iroquois sallied forth from their hastily made fort, led by chiefs
with tall plumes. As they came on, Champlain stepped forth from
the midst of his allies, in his helmet and cuirass, his arquebuse in his
hand. The Iroquois gazed in wonder at this new warrior, but his
fire-arms soon laid one chief low and another beside him. Then his
allies poured on the astonished Iroquois a shower of arrows. They
stood their ground, sending volley after volley at the allies, till
Champlain's two comrades, who had approached under cover of
bushes, opened fire. Then the Iroquois broke and fled in terror,
pursued by Montagnais and Huron and Algonquin along the banks
of the lake.
Such was the first Indian battle in Canadian history, fought on the
shore of Lake Champlain.
Quebec was slowly growing, with its profitable trade, each year
beholding the wide river before it swarm with canoes from the remote
west, bearing to the French post skins of animals hunted even as
far west as Lake Superior. Champlain was the soul of all. Year
after year he was on the Atlantic, hastening to France to engage
some high noble to obtain the title of Viceroy and give his influence
to Canada; or sailing back with well-chosen men and needed supplies.
In 1615 he brought out several priests of the Franciscan Order to
minister in his colony and convert the Indians. These simple-minded,
96 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
devoted men, with the Jesuits who soon joined them, gave a religious
tone to the colony. With one of them, the adventurous Father
Caron, Champlain set out for the country of the Huron Indians, and
while the priest reared his altar in a rude cabin, amid the dusky
denizens of the wild Canadian forest, Champlain prepared to march
with a Huron force to attack some allies of the Iroquois in New York
State. With a large Huron force they left the palisaded towns of
that nation as the Indian summer deluded the French by its sudden
warmth. They threaded in their canoes the long line of lakes and
rivers leading to Lake Ontario. No human habitation met their eye.
It was all wilderness, tenanted only by the wild beast and ſowl.
Hunting and fishing, the army leisurely made its way till it reached
the broad expanse to which these tribes gave the name we still
retain, Ontario, beautiful lake. Across its surface, now ploughed
by steamers, these light bark canoes bore the host of warriors, and
were then hidden in the woods on the southern shore. A march
into the interior of the beautiful western part of New York, brought
them to the large palisaded town of their enemies. Champlain pre-
pared huge machines to overtop the rude wall, but his allies were
rash and ungovernable, and their attacks ſailed.
Disregarding the protections he devised, they rushed up to the
foot of the palisade to fire it; but from the gallery above the defenders
hurled stones and poured down water from their large bark reservoirs.
Their arrows darkened the air, and Huron after Huron fell dead or
wounded. Champlain, fighting gallantly, received two wounds, and
at last found the Hurons bent on abandoning the siege. They re-
treated to their canoes, galled all the way through the forest-paths
by the arrows of their foe. At last they reached their canoes, and
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THE UNITED STATES. 97
were once more on Lake Ontario. Such was the second battle fought
by the French to secure the territory of New York.
Various trading-companies from time to time controlled Canada,
but Cardinal Richelieu at last formed one known as The New France
Company. Under this, Canada had already begun to increase, when
an English fleet in 1628 ascended the river and destroyed a French
post. A summons came to Champlain to surrender Quebec : but
though Kirk, the English commander, had just intercepted his supplies
from France, he answered boldly, “I will hold Quebec to the last.”
Kirk looked up at the rocky height of Quebec, and at the little fort,
and feared to attack. The next year he returned. Champlain and
his little colony had almost perished during that dreary winter.
He surrendered, and the flag of England waved over Cape Diamond.
Champlain was almost recaptured on the St. Lawrence by a French
vessel, but was taken to England. -
In 1632, Canada was restored to France, and Champlain returned
as Governor. A new impulse was given to colonization, and Cham-
plain directed the little colony with great wisdom, till this Father
of New France died peacefully on the 25th of December, 1635.
He left a name unsullied and unimpeached. He was a skillful navi-
gator, a brave commander, a prudent Governor, and a sincere,
upright, practical Christian.
At this time posts existed at Quebec, Tadoussac, Three Rivers,
and near Montreal, while the Jesuit missions extended from the
mouth of the St. Lawrence to the Huron country, and a college was
opened by them at Quebec, the earliest seat of learning in Northern
America.
Soon after the death of Champlain the Iroquois renewed their war
98 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
on the Hurons, and prevented the French from carrying out a
projected settlement in that part. But the missionaries stood their
ground, and though exposed to all the horrors of Indian cruelty,’
did not falter.
Meanwhile a religious fervor was excited in France, and pious
people were eager to aid the growth of Canada. In 1639 a ship
arrived at Quebec, and from it came Ursuline nuns to open schools
for French and Indian girls, and Hospital nuns to tend the sick. As
they landed they knelt to kiss the soil of the New World. With the
Ursulines came a young widow, Magdalen de la Peltrie, who fled from
the gayeties of France to give her fortune and her assistance to the
Ursulines. Without becoming a nun she founded their convent and
shared their labors. A venerable ash-tree still stands within the
enclosure of the Ursuline convent at Quebec, beneath whose leafy
shade this devoted lady, two hundred years ago, washed with her
own hands and dressed in civilized garments the first little red pupils
sent to the Ursulines to instruct. Her zeal was not momentary ; she
spent her whole life in Canada, aiding in every good work, and
when she died, in 1671, was mourned by the whole colony. .
In the general movement in favor of Canada, Sillery, a Knight
of Malta, sent means to found a settlement for Christian Indians, and 8,
pious association in 1642 founded the city of Montreal. This city
became the bulwark of Canada, for almost immediately a new Iroquois
war broke out, and the Five Nations attacked alike the French and
their allies. Father Jogues, a Jesuit missionary, was captured and
carried off a prisoner to the Mohawk, where one of his companions was
put to death, and he himself, after undergoing fearful tortures, was at last
with difficulty rescued by the kind-hearted Dutch colonists at Albany.
THE UNITED STATES. 09
To defend Canada and check the inroads of the Mohawks, Mont-
magny, the Governor of Canada, whom these Indians called Onontio,
built a fort at the mouth of the Sorel. -
One day, while the Governor's bark lay in the rapid Sorel, and the
Soldiers were busy on the fortification, the yell of the Indian broke
the stillness of the forest, and a volley from Dutch muskets in their
dusky hands rattled among them. Corporal du Rocher rallied his
men, and the Mohawks, losing several of their braves, fled in confusion.
The annals of Canada abound in heroic achievements.
Ahasistari, a Huron chief, when Father Jogues was taken, refused to
abandon him. “I vowed to share thy fortunes, whether death or life.
Lo, brother, here I am to keep my vow !” He had been the terror
of the Mohawks. Once, on Lake Ontario, he was surprised by a
large force of Iroquois war canoes. “We are dead ' " cried his
braves, “let us fly * “No no l’ he exclaimed, “let us meet them
rather,” and seizing his paddle, made his canoe skim over the water
towards them. Then, with a bound, he sprang into the foremost
canoe, tomahawked one man, dashed two others into the water on
either side, and upset the canoe. Before they could realize their
position, he was swimming around with one hand and dealing with
the right deadly blows with his terrible hatchet at every Mohawk
head struggling in the water. With loud cries the other Mohawk
canoes took flight, pursued by the Hurons, who picked up their
gallant chief.
Montreal could boast of a great Indian fighter in the town major,
Lambert Closse, whose skill and bravery often saved that frontier
town from the Indians. One day in July, 1651, when the broiling
sun poured down on the little town beneath the mountain of Montreal,
e
100 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
*
and all seemed to languish under the influence, the Sisters of the
Hospital were startled by an Indian yell. Mohawks had glided
into the town and crept up a ditch to their very door. Closse, with
sixteen men, had been stationed there, and though the enemy were
two hundred, he fought them steadily, almost hand to hand, from
Sunrise till the sun sank again in the west. Every sally told, for
where Closse charged the Indians gave way, knowing his deadly
aim and the weight of his arm. At one time they swarmed over
the wall in such force that he could not drive them back, when his
only cannon, loaded to its utmost, suddenly burst, killing one French-
man, but hurling a number of the Indians into the air in fragments
and filling the rest with terror.
On another occasion the watch-dogs warned the Governor of
Montreal that Indians were prowling around. Closse was sent out
to reconnoitre. His scouts discovered the enemy ; but he was in-
stantly surrounded by several hundred Indians, who came on with
fierce yells from the forest around, whose reddening autumn leaves
were a banner of war. Closse saw at a glance his danger, and
knowing an abandoned house near, made a bold push and cut his
way through the enemy. They reached it with little loss, and, once
inside, barricaded it well and cut loop-holes. Taken aback by his
bold dash, the Mohawks had paused ; now, convinced of their error,
they dashed on, but his deadly rifles carried death through their
ranks. He kept up the fight till all his powder was gone, then a
gallant fellow named Baston, under cover of their last volley, dashed
out and reached Montreal at a run. With panting words he told the
situation. Ten men started out with him, carrying ammunition and a
Small cannon. While some reached the house, the rest attacked
THE UNITED STATES. - 101
the enemy in the rear, and then Closse, Sallying out, routed them
with terrible slaughter. -
The war was not constant. There were occasional lulls. Peace
was made with great ceremony at Three Rivers, in July, 1645, and
the Mohawks promised to bury the hatchet forever. Yet, when
Father Jogues went as a missionary to their towns, he was seized
and cruelly butchered.
Then the war was renewed. One of their first acts was to surprise
and kill by treachery Pieskaret, a great Montagnais chief, a friend
of the French, who, unsuspicious of hostilities, welcomed a party as
friends and was killed on the spot.
This Pieskaret was one of the bravest and most crafty of Indians on
record. Once, with four comrades, he set out from Three Rivers,
resolved to make the Iroquois pay dearly in atonement for the slaughter
of his countrymen. Each of his party had three muskets loaded with
two bullets chained together. º
Grim and silent, they paddled steadily up the Sorel. An Iroquois
war party of fifty braves, in ten canoes, at last emerges in their sight,
and loud yells arise at the prize so near their grasp. Pieskaret
and his men raise their death chant, standing erect ready for their
inevitable doom. But as the enemy are about to seize them, their
chant dies away, each stoops to seize a weapon, and fifteen bullets
are sent through the frail elm-bark canoes of the Mohawk braves.
In a moment the whole war party was floundering in the rapid river,
while Pieskaret paddled on, shooting and tomahawking, sparing only a
few to lead off as prisoners to grace his triumph.
Another time, as the snows began to disappear beneath the genial
warmth of spring, and all travel was suspended, he set out alone.
102 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
With infinite toil he threaded the intricacies of the woods, with their
deep ravines and swelling torrents, till he came near the Mohawk
country. Then he reversed his snow-shoes, putting the point behind.
At last the smoke curling from the bark lodges showed him that a
town was reached. Concealing himself till night, he stole under
cover of darkness into a cabin, cut down all there, and bore off their
scalps to his lurking-place. With the dawn came the wild yells,
the death cry, and the Mohawks swarmed out to find the assailant.
They found tracks entering the village, none going out. Three nights
in succession he did the same. The Mohawks durst not sleep. Still
Pieskaret watched, and stole warily around till he caught a Mohawk
nodding at his post. He struck him down ; but his victim gave his
death cry. The whole village rushed out. Pieskaret, the fleetest
runner known, soon distanced them, and hid himself. A party in
pursuit stopped near by to rest. Pieskaret, ever on the alert, returned,
tomahawked them, and then made his way to the St. Lawrence with
the bloody trophies of his campaign.
The Iroquois cantons poured an immense force into the Huron
country, taking town after town, slaying many, carrying off some
as prisoners, and putting others to death with the most fearful
tortures. The Jesuit missionaries stood fearlessly by their flocks.
Fathers John Brebeuf and Gabriel Lalemant were tortured for hours,
enclosed in resiny bark, which was set on fire, burned from head
to foot with heated stones and iron, scalped, their flesh cut away and
devoured before their eyes, till death put an end to their sufferings
and crowned their triumph. Nor were they the only ones : in the
Huron towns, on their pious journeys among peaceful tribes, the
missionaries were slain amid their pious labors.
THE UNITED STATES. 103
In a short time Upper Canada was a desert, and the French posts
on the St. Lawrence were in a state of siege.
At a moment when all seemed lost, the Iroquois of their own
accord appeared, bearing the white flag. Men could scarce believe
their senses when these fierce warriors offered peace and invited the
French to begin a settlement at Onondaga, and establish missions
there.
On the northern shore of Lake Onondaga the French settlement
of St. Mary's, with its Christian mission, was begun in 1656, and the
truths of the gospel were proclaimed from the Mohawk to the Niagara.
Everything betokened success, when signs which there was no mis-
taking, warned them that the treacherous savages were planning their
massacre. The nearest post was Montreal, and to reach it seemed
impossible.
A plan was formed. Silently and cautiously they made several
large boats within their houses, and collected there all canoes that
could be obtained. When all was ready, a young man, who had been
adopted by the Onondagas, met the chiefs.
“I must give a feast to my red brothers, a bounteous feast, where
all must be eaten.” -
“It is well.” -
The little bundles of sticks denoting the number of days to the feast
were distributed. All the live-stock were killed, and the feast began.
By the rules of the Indians each brave is compelled to eat all set
before him, and the French heaped the bark platters. Music and
dances varied the entertainment, and they ate away till it was far
into the night. Then the gorged and weary Savages crawled to their
lodges, and were soon lost in a heavy slumber. When all had become
104 - A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
still in the Indian village, the French got down their last boats, and
loading them, embarked. All night long they plied the paddle and
the oar, and day saw them beyond pursuit. The wide, open lake,
Ontario, is reached at last, and keeping well off shore, they threaded
the Thousand Islands and darted down the St. Lawrence to Montreal.
Meanwhile, their guests, after sleeping far into the day, roused up,
and by degrees strolled to the French settlement. All was still.
“They sleep heavy,” said the Indians. But when the sun began to
descend towards the west their curiosity became excited. There Was
no answer to their knock. At last, some bolder than the rest, climbed
and reached a window and entered. From room to room they wan-
dered. The Frenchmen had gone. Then they were perplexed. “The
Frenchman had no boats,” said they. “He has gone by magic, he has
walked through the air, for he has left no trail on land.”
Again the French colony was scourged by a desolating Indian War,
interrupted by occasional gleams of peace, due, especially, to Garakon-
thie, an Onondaga chief, who became a Christian and sought to bring
his tribe to the arts of Christianity and peace.
In 1662 a change took place in the government, by which the
Company ceased to control Canada, and it became a royal pro-
vince.
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THE UNITED STATES. . 105
CHAPTER WII.
New Netherland—Hudson's Discovery—Christiaensen—Valentine and Orson—Block builds
the “Onrust,” the first New York vessel—New York and Albany Settled—Treaty of Tawa-
sentha-Dutch West India Company—Purchase of New York Island—The New Nether-
land—Indian Troubles—Captain Underhill and the Battle of Strickland's Plain—The
Swedes on the Delaware—They are reduced by Stuyvesant—Troubles with New England–
New Netherland taken by the English. -
ON the 3d of September, 1609, a little two-masted yacht of not
more than eighty tons, such as gentlemen now use for pleasure,
cautiously sailed in between Coney Island and Sandy Hook, and
anchored in a bay that seemed alive with fish. From the masthead
floated the orange-white-blue banner of Holland, but the commander
WàS all English navigator of long experience, who had sailed to find
here what Smith sought up the Chickahominy, a passage to India.
All around was beautiful. A white sandy beach, with its plum-
bushes, then towering Oaks, pine, and cedar, meadows of rich green
grass, enamelled with the flowers of early autumn, the iron-weed with
its purple masses, the thistle and deep, dark, Sumach berries, with
snowy masses of aster. Around him was a noble harbor, a capa-
cious basin which received the waters of large rivers. Ere long the
Half Moon was approached by canoes, dug-outs of wood, with natives
wondering at his little craft, as though it were some Ark of the
earliest, or Great Eastern of latest date. In mantles of feathers and
robes of fur, with rude copper necklaces, they at first gazed in Won-
der: when at last they saw that the new-comers were men, they ap-
proached with beans and clams to offer. Cautiously did Henry Hudson
enter Newark Bay, and sailed up the river that still bears his name,
till he anchored beneath the shadow of the majestic Catskills. Further
106 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
on he landed in an Indian canoe. A feast was spread for him
by a chief: pigeons were shot for their guest, and a dog prepared ;
but Hudson did not stay to enjoy it, though the Indians, to dispel
all fear, broke their bows and arrows and threw them into the fire.
Near where Albany stands he traded for several days, and gave
liquor to the Indians so freely, that the tribes long retained the memory
of this first revel and use of drinks that were to prove their ruin.
On his way down he had a collision with the natives, and killed
several of them near Fort Washington. Then, hoisting sail, he glided
into the bay and was soon once more on the open sea. Reaching
England first, he sent a report to Holland, but was detained by the
government, and not allowed to return in person to his Dutch em-
ployers.
But the way was opened to the energetic sons of Holland. Dutch
ships at once began to run over and carry on trade with the natives
for furs. Henry Christiaensen, of Cleves, the real father of the Dutch
colony of New Netherland, led the way, and on his second voyage, in
1611, with Adrian Block, who has left his name to an island which
you will find near Narragansett Bay, took back a good ship-load
of furs and two young men, sons of Indian chiefs on the Hudson.
In allusion to the old fairy tale, and probably from their different dispo-
sitions, the Dutch called these two young men Valentine and Orson.
They were educated in Holland, and subsequently returned to the
Hudson, but were of little service to the Dutch. Orson was an Orson
indeed : not long after he caused Christiaensen's death, and was shot
down on the spot.
In 1613 Block met with a misfortune. His little vessel, while in
the waters near Manhattan Island, took fire and was destroyed.
THE UNITED STATES. 107
So he wintered on the island, dreaming, perhaps, of the great city one
day to cover it. Block's log-cabins were the first white dwellings
in the State. With stout heart he and his men set to work to repair
their loss, and the yacht Onrust, which they built, was the first vessel
ever launched in New York waters. So began the settlement and
industry of New York.
The next year Christiaensen threw up a little block-house on
Castle Island, just below Albany. It was called Fort Nassau, and
our readers can readily picture it to their own minds. As you
approached the island you saw a stockade of stout timbers, fifty-eight
feet square. If you landed and made your way up the low island,
you found that the fort was surrounded by a ditch eighteen feet wide.
Crossing this, you entered the palisade to find a substantial Dutch
trading-house, twenty-six feet wide by thirty-six long. To this came
in canoes, Mohegans from the east, Mohawks and River Indians from
the west, to Sell the furs taken in their winter hunts.
It was soon after this that Christiaensen, who had made ten Voyages
from Holland to the Hudson, met his death as we have mentioned,
a Sad end to his active career.
The States-General, as the Government of Holland was called,
now began to notice the new acquisition. They named the country
New Netherland, authorized a trading company, and in 1614 issued
a charter. Thus the Dutch colony took its place. Manhattan, which
is the Indian word for island, became a well-known place.
The little Dutch colony now sought the alliance of the most powerful
Indian tribe in the land, the Iroquois, or Five Nations, and in 1617
concluded a treaty with them at Tawasentha, or Norman's Kill.
This treaty, held with delegates from various tribes, and especially
108 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
with the powerful Mohawks, became the great bulwark of the colony.
From that day the Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas, Onondagas, and
Senecas looked upon the colonists as friends, and by the influence
they exercised over the other tribes, prevented many hostilities. In
fact, they never wavered, even when the English took the colony,
but continued friendly down to the time of our Revolution, when the
British Government used them to desolate our frontier settlements.
The Dutch, centering at Manhattan, explored the coast as far as
Narragansett Bay and the Delaware ; but the Connecticut and Dela-
ware were claimed as the limits of the colony. -
In 1621 a great company of merchants was formed, called the
Dutch West India Company, and to it New Netherland was conveyed.
The colony remained in the control of this Company till the time of
the English conquest. It set to work with activity to increase the
settlement and extend trade. Colonists came over and settled where
Albany now stands, and in 1622 Fort Orange was erected there.
Another fort grew up near Gloucester, New Jersey, on the banks of
the Delaware, while the rocky island of Manhattan began to be dotted
with houses. Around these posts ground was cleared, grain planted,
and an industrious, simple, thriving population was formed. -
Under Cornelis Jacobsen May, the first Director or Governor of New
Netherland, live-stock in considerable quantities was sent over in
1624, and the Indians saw for the first time horses, cattle, sheep,
and swine, domestic animals of which they had no idea.
The next Director, Peter Minuit, is famous for a purchase which
he made. He bought Manhattan Island of the natives for sixty
guilders, equal to about twenty-four dollars, and this paid in trinkets,
and what was worse, in liquor.
THE UNITED STATES. 109
We have seen what Jamestown, the first English town, was. What
New York was in those days we can also tell pretty well. Below
what is now the Bowling Green, negro slaves who had been brought
in, were building Fort Amsterdam ; near its rising walls were the
bark houses of the Dutch settlers, made at first much like those of
the natives; each man lived on his own little farm, and all were busy,
some building more substantial houses, some trading with the Indians,
the mechanics plying their different trades, while cattle browsed in the
rich meadows. There was no church or minister; the settlers met for
worship in a large room in a horse mill, to which a bell, captured
from a Spanish vessel, called them to the services, which were directed
by two men, called Consolers of the Sick. a
They were good-hearted, cheerful, industrious, practical people,
without the reckless misgovernment of the early settlers at James-
town. w
In 1626, Wan Krieckebeeck, Commandant at Fort Orange, foolishly
intermeddled in an Indian war, and with six men joined a Mohegan
war party against the Mohawks; but they had not gone many miles
before they were suddenly attacked. A shower of flint-headed arrows
swept through their ranks. The Dutch commander and three of his
men were killed, the rest fled; two of them, Portuguese soldiers, barely
escaped, one of them being severely wounded in the back while
swimming a river. Fortunately for the Dutch the Mohawks did not
follow up this victory, but became friendly again, and the Dutch,
taught by this lesson, never again attacked them.
A great event took place in 1631. The Dutch West 'India Com-
pany, to show the importance of the colony, built at New Amsterdam,
as New York was then called, a ship called the New Netherland, of
110 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
six hundred tons. It was the largest vessel yet built in America,
and probably one of the greatest merchant vessels of its time in the
world. The little town must have watched its progress, and grown
wild with enthusiasm, when it at last glided down into the Water,
and was duly named, with a bottle of wine broken over the bow.
And when, fully rigged, she took in her cargo of furs and other New
Netherland commodities, how all followed her with their eyes as she
moved grandly down to the Narrows, beyond Sandy Hook, to the
open sea! Every man felt a personal pride in the noble ship, every
timber of which grew in the colony, and which bore out a cargo of
purely colonial productions.
But while all were thus prospering, a terrible massacre occurred on
the Delaware, caused by a trifling thing. At Swanendael, near where
Lewiston is now, the Dutch had planted a post with the arms of
Holland painted on a tin plate. An Indian chief took this down to
make pipes of it. Hossett, the Dutch commander, made great com-
plaints at this insult to his country. The Indians, not understanding
this, but supposing it to be what they call some big medicine, killed
the chief and brought his scalp to the Dutch. His family, to avenge
his death, planned a general massacre of the Dutch, and while they
were all scattered in the fields at work, three of the boldest entered
Hossett's house, pretending they had come to buy some articles, and
as he came down the ladder, killed him. A large dog kept at the
little fort caused them some alarm, but they killed it with twenty-five
arrows, and then stole out and cut down all the settlers one by one.
Then the silence of the grave hung over the desolate valley.
The Dutch were more successful on the Connecticut, where, in 1633,
Arendt Wan Curler bought of the Pequods and Mohegans land for a
THE UNITED STATES. I 11
meadow South of Little River, near the present city of Hartford.
Here the little fort Good Hope was erected, and with its cannon
tried to hold the river. But the people of New England had also
learned to trade in furs, and they, in spite of the Dutch, ran past
Fort Good Hope and settled at Windsor. In a few years they took
possession of the mouth of the river, and the Dutch were driven back
towards the Hudson.
New Dutch settlements grew up on the Delaware, but in 1638 a
Swedish colony came over under Peter Minuits, and established
Fort Christina, near Wilmington. The Dutch protested, but the
Swedes held on ; emigrants came over, and a little Swedish settlement
was formed, with its Lutheran church. They cultivated friendship with
the Indian tribes, and showed more zeal than the Dutch or Virginians
did to convert them to Christianity.
The Dutch colony advanced steadily. The fruits of Europe were
planted and throve, and all was prosperous, when Indian troubles
arose in 1640, and Governor Kieft sent an expedition against the Rari-
tans which ravaged their fields and killed many. The Raritans, who
had really done the Dutch no wrong, retaliated by attacking the Dutch
settlements on Staten Island.
Then a Westchester Indian murdered a man on Manhattan Island, and
as his tribe refused to give him up, on the ground that he did it to retal-
iate the murder of his uncle by the Dutch, Kieft sent an expedition
against them, and they made peace, promising to give up the murderer.
Other hostilities followed; the whole colony was alarmed, and
from the Mohawk came tidings that that fierce tribe were at war with
the French, and actually had a French missionary in their hands, on
whom they had inflicted terrible cruelties.
112 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Kieft massacred Indian parties at Jersey City, Corlaer's Hook, and
on Long Island. Then the war became general; the Dutch were
attacked in the fields and on rivers, and at last found it necessary
to raise an army. They gave command to Captain John Underhill, an
old Indian fighter from New England. Anne Hutchinson's settlement
was, however, destroyed by the Westchester Indians, and Lady
Moody's plantation at Gravesend was saved only by the bravery
of the colonists, who were attacked by a host of Indians; but a settle-
ment at Maspeth was broken up. -
Fort Amsterdam was a scene of confusion : from all parts the
settlers came crowding in with all they could save from their burning
houses and fields, and while famine threatened the land, Kieft, the
author of all the mischief, coolly sent off to the West Indies two
shiploads of grain.
It was while the little town on Manhattan Island was in such a
state of distress, that the missionary Isaac Jogues, whom the Dutch
at Albany had rescued, visited it, and gives us a description which is
very interesting. It was then, as it has always since been, a place
for men of all languages and religions. -
As the war went on, Underhill destroyed two Indian villages near
Hempstead, Long Island, killing more than a hundred.
In another expedition, marching over rocks and Snow from Green-
wich, he came up to an Indian village, standing out in the strong
moonlight from the mountain behind. It was full of Indians, who
yelled defiance. On charged the Dutch ; but the Indians Sallied
bravely out, fighting till a hundred and eighty lay dead on the snow,
and many Dutch fell under the Indian arrows. Then Underhill
managed to fire the village, and of the seven hundred Indians only
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A CHILD’s HISTORY. 115
eight escaped ; all the rest were slain or perished in the flames. Such
was the battle of Strickland's Plain, the most terrible Indian battle in
early New York annals.
At last, in 1645, a great council of the Indian tribes convened at
Fort Amsterdam. And in front of it, under the open sky, in view
of the noble harbor, Sachems of all the tribes seated themselves in
grave silence in presence of the Governor and Council, and solemnly
Smoking the pipe of peace, bound themselves to eternal friendship
with the Dutch.
Under Peter Stuyvesant, who became Governor in 1647, a more
vigorous government was established, and order introduced. But
the English kept encroaching from the Connecticut, and the Swedes
were troublesome on the Delaware. At last the Swedes, under
Rising, seized Fort Casimir. . . .
Then, one Sunday in September, 1655, the largest armament that
had ever yet sailed out of New York Bay, started for the Delaware.
There were seven vessels, led by the flag-ship the Balance, Captain
Frederick De Koninck, and carrying in all nearly seven hundred
II].62]]. .
Stuyvesant himself was in command. Fort Casimir was soon re-
taken, and the Dutch fleet anchored in the mouth of the Brandywine,
and invested Fort Christina on all sides. Finding it useless to attempt
a defence, Rising, the Swedish Governor, capitulated, Sept. 25, 1655,
and the Swedish colony in America ceased to exist.
But meanwhile New Amsterdam was in danger. Provoked by
the murder of a squaw, Indians from Stamford to Esopus, and from
the banks of the Hudson, gathered, nearly two thousand in number.
Before daybreak their fleet of canoes reached the lower end of the
116 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
island, and scattered through the streets of the sleeping town. They
did not at once commence hostilities, though they robbed several
houses. When day came, the authorities in the fort called the Sachems
to a conference, and made them promise to leave the town before
Sunset; but towards evening they killed two men ; then the people
rallied and drove the Indians to the canoes. Why they hesitated to
destroy the town in the morning is not known; but now roused, they
ravaged Hoboken, Pavonia, now Jersey City, and Staten Island,
killing a hundred settlers, and carrying off a hundred and fifty more,
leaving naught but ruins and ashes where all had been thriving
farms. -
Stuyvesant's return restored confidence: many of the captives were
recovered, but he was not strong enough to punish them for the
massacre.
When, however, the Esopus Indians attacked the settlement there,
killing many and burning several of their prisoners at the stake,
Stuyvesant led an expedition against them in September, 1659, but
was unable to follow them in their forest retreats. The next year he
took some prisoners and sent them to the West Indies as slaves.
This and the capture and death of their chief Preummaker forced the
Esopus Indians to ask peace, and a treaty was solemnly concluded
by Stuyvesant in the presence of delegates of tribes from the Mohawk
to the Susquehanna. -
But they did not forget their comrades sold into slavery, and in
1663 again attacked the Dutch, killing twenty-one and carrying off
nearly fifty prisoners. An expedition under Kregier started in pur-
suit over rocks and mountains, and at last, in September, overtook
them at Shawangunk Kill. Here a desperate fight took place, but
THE UNITED STATES. 117
Papequanaehen, the Esopus chief, and fourteen warriors fell; the rest
fled, and Kregier took many prisoners, recovered most of the Dutch
captives, and returned in triumph.
But the colony was doomed. The English Government had de-
termined to seize it. Charles II. granted New Netherland to his
brother James, Duke of York, and in August, 1664, an English fleet
anchored within the bay and Summoned Stuyvesant to surrender.
The Dutch Governor hesitated. Nicolls, the English commander,
Occupied Brooklyn, and anchored two ships before the wretched fort.
Even then Stuyvesant would have resisted, but he yielded to the voice
of the people, and on the 6th of September, 1664, a capitulation was
agreed to, and New Netherland became New York.
CHAPTER VIII.
The Settlement of New England—The Pilgrim Fathers—Landing at Plymouth Rock—Miles
Standish—Massachusetts Bay—New Hampshire—Roger Williams and Mrs. Hutchinson—
Providence Plantations and Rhode Island Founded—Settlement of Hartford and New
Haven–The United Colonies—The Pequod War—John Eliot, the Apostle of the Indians—
Persecution of the Quakers—Settlement of Maryland—Toleration—Indian Relations—Civil
War.
THE colonies thus far settled on the coast, were formed by the
spirit of adventure or commerce. Religious affairs were attended
to in Virginia, New Sweden, New Netherland, but other colonies
were now to be formed in which religion was the motive and the
absorbing idea.
England had, at the Reformation, separated from the Church of
Rome. During the reign of Edward VI. a new church organization
118 & A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
was established, which, under Elizabeth, consolidated into the Church
of England. Many of the people, however, and especially those who
in Queen Mary's reign had been in Geneva, wished many things
altered which were retained by the Church of England. These were
known as Separatists, Independents, and Puritans.
Elizabeth and her successor, James I., wished to compel all to join
the Church of England, and severe laws were passed against Catholics -
who clung to Rome, and the Puritans, who deemed the Church of
England not sufficiently reformed. They could worship God according
to the dictates of their conscience only in concealment and by stealth.
Among the Puritan congregations thus formed, was one guided by -
John Robinson, at Scrooby, in Yorkshire. After suffering for more
than a year, they resolved to seek refuge in Holland, where the
Church of the land was in harmony with their views, and where some
of their fellow-believers were already settled.
A Dutch captain was approached, and passage secured in his ship
for a large party. But he was a traitor. The Pilgrims, long used to
caution, stole down by night, and reached the ship with such of their
household goods as they could carry without exciting suspicion. They
trod the deck, and rejoiced in their escape from pursuivants.
But the anchors were not hoisted, no preparation made to sail, and
ere long the vessel was boarded by the minions of the law, and the
whole party hurried to the shore and confined in prison. Yet they
did not lose heart.
The next spring an unfrequented heath in Lincolnshire, where the
wide Humber seeks the ocean, silent, serious men gathered with their
families, modest, shrinking women, fearful children. All felt the im-
portance of the moment, and its danger. The boats from the ship at
THE UNITED STATES. 119
last came through the curling waves, and some embarked. All was
yet safe, but, as a boat sped onward to the ship, the cries of women
and children, still left behind, thrilled them to the heart. The soldiery
were upon them ; shots came rattling towards the boat; the helpless
ones on the shore were surrounded and dragged off. Agony filled
the hearts of those on the ship and those on shore; but the magistrates,
unable to send to their homes those who no longer had a home, soon
allowed them to follow their husbands and fathers.
In Holland they found welcome from their countrymen and from the
Dutch at Amsterdam, but as some dissensions grew up, Robinson
removed to Leyden, and he and his flock, by severe industry, man-
aged to live. But there was much around that was new and Strange.
They thought of America. Their first idea was to settle in New
Netherland, but the Dutch authorities declined. Then they applied
to the Virginia Company, and after great difficulty obtained a Patent
which was in reality never used. But it decided their action.
Then all was activity in the little colony of exiles at Leyden. Every
preparation that their poverty permitted was made for the long and
venturesome voyage to an unknown land.
All did not go : Robinson and many more were to remain at
Leyden. These accompanied the Pilgrims to Delft Haven, where
they were to embark on the Speedwell. There they feasted together.
Robinson, their pastor, performed prayer, and with floods of tears the
Pilgrims were escorted to the ship in silence, each heart being too full
for words.
At Southampton they met the Mayflower, and the emigrants were
divided between the two vessels. There they bore away for the
American coast. The Speedwell did not do justice to her name. In
120 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
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a few days she proved unseaworthy. They put back to Plymouth.
Some remained in England : all who could find room embarked in the
Mayflower, one of the famous ships in American history, that many
families look back to as the noble ark that bore their ancestors to our
shores.
Sailing on the 6th of September, the little vessel bore one hundred
and two souls, men, women, and children. The equinoctial storms
swept the Ocean, and their voyage was long and dangerous. At last
the first glimpse of land cheered their sinking hearts. They were near
Cape Cod, and ran South, but soon turned back and anchored within
the cape.
Within the cabin they now drew up a covenant, or agreement, for
their future government, as they had no Charter, not being in the limits
of the Virginia Company. It was the first self-governing community
in America. -
Bleak as was the coast, and appalling as was the idea of wintering
there, all were eager to land. Boats set out to explore the coast and
seek a suitable harbor. These parties suffered greatly in their ex-
amination of the sandy, snow-clad shore. At last they decided upon
Plymouth Harbor, as it has henceforth been called. Here, on the 21st
of December, 1620, they landed on a rock that is as famous as the
Mayflower that anchored before it.
There was no time for rest. At once the axe rung in the sharp
winter air. On a bold hill overlooking the bay a rude fort was thrown
up and their few cannon planted on it. At its foot two rows of huts
Were laid out and staked, to accommodate nineteen families. Leyden
Street still marks the path on which these first white houses stood.
This was not done in a day. For weeks they toiled incessantly in



A CHILD’s HISTORY. 123
snow, and sleet, and rain. But there was cessation. No necessity
seemed to dispense with the sacred day of rest. The first Sunday
of the Pilgrims, when they met for solemn worship, not in grand
cathedral or plainest room, but under the winter sky, with no pro-
tection but the rude tent beside them, is a picture of their earnest faith
and sincerity. -
But the severities of the winter on the bleak coast, with such shelter
as they could form, prostrated many. Death entered the little com-
munity, and before the spring came to cheer them with hope, one-half
the little colony lay buried on the bank. h
But none were disheartened. They had found some Indian corn
buried by the natives, and had used it, intending, when required, to
make compensation. With the spring they would plant and be able to
do for themselves. .
Then Providence sent them Squando. He was an Indian who had
been taken to London, where he had learned English and been well
treated. He joined the Pilgrims, and was useful in a thousand ways.
He showed them how and when to catch fish ; to use the bony fish that
came in shoals, as a manure for the sandy sail, planting the corn, so to
say, in fish ; he was their interpreter with his countrymen. He was
their faithful friend till they closed his eyes in death.
Early in the spring an Indian of commanding presence stalked into
the little village, and said in English, well enough to be understood :
“Welcome, Englishmen . " It was Samoset, a neighboring chief, and
never did friendly words come sweeter to human ears.
They had seen few Indians, and now learned that sickness had
nearly left the land a desert. Plymouth Colony had begun. In
England, meanwhile, King James had, in 1620, incorporated a new
124 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Company, called the Council of Plymouth, consisting of forty members,
and had bestowed upon them all the territory of North America
between the fortieth and forty-eighth degrees, with the fisheries, and a
heavy duty on the tonnage.
The little colony, falling within the jurisdiction of this Company,
Solicited a Charter, and obtained one in 1621. John Carver, chosen
the first Governor, on board the Mayflower, died from the hardships
of the first winter, and William Bradford was chosen. Their military
leader, should occasion require his services, was Miles Standish.
Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags, who dwelt north of Narragan-
sett Bay, came soon to visit the Pilgrims, and was received with all the
ceremonies their poverty permitted. A treaty of friendship was soon .
formed, and Massasoit was always true to his pledge. Canonicus, the
chief of the Narragansetts, was not so amicable. One day an Indian
stalked in, bearing a bundle of arrows tied in a rattlesnake's skin, from
this chieftain, his challenge and defiance. Governor Bradford replied
in the same language of signs. He stuffed the serpent's skin with
powder and ball, and sent it back. This awed the chieftain and
prevented a war.
The first Indian troubles arose from no fault of the Plymouth
settlers. They had come to America by the help of a kind of stock
Company, in which some English merchants had advanced money.
One of these, a man named Weston, thinking that his money would
not repay him soon enough, sent over a set of settlers on his own
account. Like most of those who came to other settlements, these
were idle, thriftless men. They intruded themselves on the people
of Plymouth for some months, consuming their scanty provisions, but
doing nothing to help the colony. At last they began their own settle-
THE UNITED STATES. 125
ment at Wissagusset, now Weymouth, on the South shore of Massa-
chusetts Bay. As such men always did, they soon began to feel a
want of provisions, and attempted to obtain a supply from the Indians
by violence. The natives formed a plot to destroy all the English on
the coast. A terrible fate thus menaced the little band at Plymouth.
Their friend Massasoit lay dying, but hearing, as he lay stretched on
the mat in his wigwam, the danger of his allies, he sent to warn them.
Standish was authorized by the colony to act. With a promptness
that has made his name famous among Indian fighters, this brave man
marched at once upon Wetawamot, the head of the conspiracy, sur-
prised and killed him with several of his men. The reckless band who
had brought about these troubles, broke up their settlement, and
Plymouth remained the only white post in what is now Massachusetts.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who had befriended the Pilgrims, and was
gratified by their success, obtained for himself and John Mason a grant
for a tract which he styled Laconia, extending from Salem to the
Kennebec. They began the work of colonization lavishly, and sent
out men who on the whole proved worthy settlers, though few in
number. Portsmouth and Dover in New Hampshire, settled by these
pioneers, rank next to Plymouth as the oldest New England towns.
Other settlements were started at various points along the shore,
most of which failed. Among these was one begun by Wollaston and
conducted for a time by Morton, a ro s g fellow, who called the place
Merry Mount, set free the indentured servants, erected a maypole,
and kept up a wild career, till the people of Plymouth, shocked at his
conduct, sent an armed party which arrested Morton and sent him out
of the country.
The founders of Plymouth were Separatists. The Puritans did not
126 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
wish to separate from the Church of England, but to remain in it and
reform it. These, now still more stern and severe, founded Massa-
chusetts Bay. The originator of the project was Mr. White, a Puritan
clergyman of Dorchester, England, who, after rousing the interest of
his fellow-believers, obtained from the Plymouth Company the grant
of a large tract from the Charles to the Merrimac, and three miles
beyond each of those rivers. To carry out the new settlement, John
Endicott, a stern, courageous man, was chosen as Governor.
In June, 1628, he was sent out with a small party, including his
own family. More fortunate than the Pilgrims, they arrived in Sep-
tember, and gathering the scattered settlers on the coast founded
Salem. Charles I. incorporated the adventurers under whom the
colony was founded as “The Governor and Company of Massachusetts
Bay in New England.” Colonists soon poured in, chiefly from Boston
in Lincolnshire, and clergymen of Puritan views were sent as guides
for the new settlers; some, who came full of attachment to the Church
of England, were promptly sent back. At first the government of the
colony was managed in England, but as soon as it was transferred to
America, there was a great increase in the number and rank of the
emigrants, many being persons of high character, wealth, and learning.
In 1630 fifteen ships sailed from England for Massachusetts Bay,
bearing about a thousand emigrants, carrying all that was needed for
a permanent and successful sºment It was the most important
expedition that had yet sailed from England for the New World.
John Winthrop, the new Governor, with Dudley and others, em-
barked on the Arbella, so called in compliment to Lady Arbella
Johnson, one of the emigrants. They arrived in June, and settled
Boston. From the time they said their last “Farewell, England l’ to
THE UNITED STATES. 127
the receding shores of their native land, till they reached that of their
hopes, religious services were maintained daily on the ships. The
same spirit prevailed when they landed, and in all the little settlements
formed as at Plymouth, a religious tone prevailed. They disregarded
King and Bishop, they formed their own church discipline, elected their
pastors, and made their Geneva Bible their sole guide and law.
Thus were Boston, Dorchester, and Watertown added to the list of
settlements. -
Although the new colonists were not subjected to the terrible priva-
tions and hardships which the Pilgrims at Plymouth experienced, still
they had much to suffer. Those sent out under Endicott to prepare the
way had done little, and had no provisions laid up. The sea Voyage
had brought sickness and debility; delays in forming suitable shelter,
and a severe winter told sadly on the community, so that before
December two hundred died. Some lost heart in the Spring, and
returned to England, but the great majority remained.
In a General Court held in 1631, they carried their religious views
so far as to allow no man to become a freeman, or vote, who was not a
church member ; and as the number of these was small, not one-fourth
the men were ever allowed to vote.
Driven from England by harsh measures, they had little idea them-
selves of religious freedom. In their zeal they wished to force all to
embrace their views or depart. Genuine religious freedom, the right
of every one to hold his own religious views without dictation from the
State, or loss of his civil rights, is one of the happy doctrines of our
times.
Massachusetts grew. Settlers came over year by year; ferries were
established ; water-mills and wind-mills brought the elements to roll the
I28 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
wheels for man's use, and the coasting vessels of the thriving colonists
ran along the coast, to the Dutch at New Amsterdam, and their fellow-
Englishmen in Virginia.
The Indian tribes respected their energy and activity. The Sachem
of the Mohegans came from the Connecticut with glowing accounts of
that valley, to invite the Puritans to settle there as a protection
against the Pequods; the Nipmucks sought their protection against the
Mohawks; Miantonomoh, the Narragansett warrior, became the guest
of Winthrop.
So strong did the settlers feel, that when the English Government
appointed a Royal Colonial Commission, to revise the laws, regulate the
Church, and revoke Charters, Massachusetts prepared to resist, and
appointed men to manage the threatened war.
Troubles were, however, to begin at home. Among the emigrants
who came over to Boston in the Lion, in 1631, was Roger Williams, a
young and enthusiastic clergyman. He claimed a larger freedom of
opinion than the Puritans relished, and yet had himself many strangely
fanatical ideas. He did not join the Church at Boston, but was re-
ceived at Plymouth, and after a time welcomed by Endicott at Salem.
There, by declaiming against the cross in the English flag, he induced
Endicott to cut it out. The General Court of Massachusetts condemned
Salem for receiving him, and when Williams remonstrated, they passed
sentence of banishment against him, though, as winter was migh, they
allowed him to remain at Salem till spring. His friends increased day
by day. The Boston clergy sent to seize him in mid-winter, and ship
him off to England. Three days before the officers reached Salem,
Williams, bidding adieu to his family, left that settlement during a
storm, plunging into the wintry woods. Fourteen weeks he wandered
-
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A CHILD’s HISTORY. 131
on, often with no house but a hollow tree, suffering from hunger, cold,
and hardship. The lodges of Massassoit at Mount Hope and of Canon-
icus at last offered him a shelter. The country on the Narragansett
Bay was now the object of his future plans. Here, beyond the limits
of previous Patents, the high-minded Williams already prepared to found
a new colony, which should be a home of religious and civil freedom.
A beautiful bend on the Seekonk River, now known as Manton's
Cove, invited him. Massassoit granted him lands, and here in the
spring Williams began to build and plant. But his friend Winthrop
warned him that he was within the limits of Plymouth, so he left his
cleared fields and his half-built house. In June, 1636, a frail Indian
canoe bore him with five companions to the spot now called Slate Rock.
As they glided to the shore some Indians from the heights welcomed
them with the friendly salutation, “What cheer, Netop, what cheer?”
Keeping on to the mouth of the Mooshausic River, he landed, and
upon the beautiful hillside rising from the river's edge, he descried a
spring, and around it commenced the settlement which in a spirit of
thankfulness he named Providence. A beautiful city now covers the
spot, but Roger Williams' spring is not forgotten or neglected. One
doctrine of his had given offence in Massachusetts. He maintained
that even under a Patent from the King, men should buy the lands
of the Indians. True to this, he purchased of Canonicus and Mianto-
nomoh the lands he required, jealous as those chiefs were of English
intrusion. He paid for the lands out of his own scanty means, but
gave lands to settlers who came in as a free gift.
The little community throve under this kindly spirit, binding them-
selves to obey all orders made for the public good by the majority of
the settlers.
132 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
The severity shown towards Roger Williams did not crush all free-
dom of thought at Massachusetts Bay. A gifted and brilliant woman,
Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, began to express religious views that did not
harmonize with what was already firmly established. The meetings at
her house were attended by many persons of superior intelligence and
Worth. Among those who embraced her opinions was a clergyman of
the name of Wheelwright, who became her firm supporter. There had
come over, about these times, a brilliant public man of high rank and
influence in England, Sir Henry Vane. The people of Massachusetts
were so taken with him, that in spite of his youth and his ignorance of
their systems, they chose him Governor. His ideas could not be
cramped by the narrow system of Massachusetts, and he lost his
popularity by advocating the cause of Mrs. Hutchinson. At last he
resolved to leave a place so uncongenial, and sailed back to England.
There he took an active part in the Puritan movement that overthrew
Charles I., and finally died on the scaffold.
Mrs. Hutchinson, Wheelwright, and Aspinwall, who had threatened
to appeal to the King, were then put on trial as heretics, and all their
adherents were deprived of arms. -
A large number of the people thus proscribed by the General Court
determined to seek another home. A party under John Clarke and
William Coddington set out for the Delaware. But Williams, who
entertained them kindly, advised them to settle on Narragansett Bay.
They visited the spot he suggested, a charming island in the bay, and
decided to abandon their journey southward. By the influence of
Williams they obtained from the chiefs of the Narragansetts a grant of
Rhode Island, paying forty fathoms of white wanpum for it; and each
settler also paid the Indians for his lands.
THE UNITED STATES. 133
As the last signs of winter were wearing away, and spring flowers
were here and there struggling to be seen, at the close of March, 1638,
John Clarke, William Coddington, and their sixteen associates began
SIR HENRY WANE, GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY.
at Pocasset, or Portsmouth, the settlement of Rhode Island, to be
governed by the laws of the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings.
These two little communities prospered in the kindly simple govern-

134 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
ment, and, though Massachusetts continued to show hostility by
carrying off Baptist settlers, and punishing them for not obeying
Massachusetts laws, Williams more than once, by his influence with the
Indians, saved Massachusetts from bloodshed. These two little colonies
continued separate for some years, till, in 1663, Clarke obtained from
Charles II. a Patent uniting them under one government.
We have seen how some English settled on the Connecticut in spite
of the Dutch and their Fort Good Hope. Others followed : Windsor,
Hartford, and Wethersfield were founded ; but the settlement was
unimportant, till June, 1636, when the Rev. Mr. Hooker set out
with an emigrant party of one hundred men, women, and children, and
after a two weeks' slow journey through the almost pathless woods,
driving their cattle over mountain and stream, warned of danger by the
howling of the wolf and other wild beasts, cautious and prudent, they
at last reached Hartford. The new Colony of Connecticut took form.
Quinnipiack, on Long Island Sound, invited another band of emi-
grants, led by the pious merchant Theophilus Eaton and the Rev. John
Davenport, who, in April, 1638, founded the colony of New Haven,
which rivalled Massachusetts in the strictness of its religious views,
allowing none but church-members to become freemen, and admitting
members very sparingly. On the first Sunday after their arrival,
April 18th, Mr. Davenport preached to his flock beneath a spreading
oak, and for nearly thirty years continued to minister to them. For
nearly as many years Eaton was elected Governor at every annual
election.
There were thus scattered along the New England shore a series of
little colonies, Plymouth, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Providence
Plantations, New Haven, and Hartford, each independent of the others,
THE UNITED STATES. 135
and following out its own ideas: all formed by industrious, steady men,
and thriving, growing, from day to day.
The New England settlements on the Atlantic coast occupied a part
where the natives were too few and scattered to cause alarm. Those
in Connecticut were, however, near the large and unfriendly tribe of
Pequods. Lawless men provoked trouble. The crew of a small
trading vessel were killed on the Connecticut in 1633, and soon after a
settler was murdered on Block Island. The Pequods then prepared
for a general war, and urged the Narragansetts and Mohegans to join
them and exterminate the English. Roger Williams set out in a
wretched canoe. Through storms, wind, and high seas, he made his way
to the house of the Sachem of Narragansett. The Pequod was there
already with his fresh scalps, and unawed by their fierce looks,
Williams, at the risk of life, stayed till he had won the Narragansetts,
and saw the Pequods depart Smothering their disappointment.
Connecticut prepared to meet the coming war. A force under John
Mason, aided by Uncas, and sixty Mohegan braves, sailed down the
Connecticut, and met at its mouth a reinforcement from Massachusetts
Bay under Underhill. Their allies, the Narragansetts, looked at the
little force of white men doubtfully.
“Your design is good,” said Miantonomoh ; “but your numbers are
too weak to brave the Pequods, who have mighty chieftains and are
skillful in battle.” They little knew the power of the white men in
War, and were now to see it.
The Pequods lay east of the river Thames, and Mason marched
westward. Two hours before dawn the New England army advanced
to assault a Pequod fort that crowned a hill by the Mistic. Each felt
that he must conquer now or there was no safety for their new homes.
136 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
The barking of their dogs roused the Indians, and with loud cries of
“Owannux, Owannux l’ they prepared to resist. Their weapons
were no match for the muskets and swords, but they were brave and
numerous: as one fell, another took his place. “We must burn
them l’ shouted Mason, as he applied a blazing brand to a cabin.
The English drew off from the burning town. The palisades now pre-
vented all escape of the doomed tribe. As they attempted to climb,
they were shot down; if they attempted a sally they were cut down.
Six hundred Indians, men, women, and children, perished. The sun
rose on the ruins of the town and the half-consumed bodies of its
population.
The Pequods rallied and attacked the New England troops as they
retired, but were again defeated. The rest of the tribe then fled,
and were hunted down without mercy ; every wigwam was burnt,
every cornfield laid waste. Sassacus, the last chief of the Pequods,
fled to the Mohawks, who slew him and sent his bloody scalp to
Boston.
Emigration to the New England colonies increased under the severe
measures of Charles I. against all who did not conform to the Estab-
lished Church. When the Long Parliament met in England, two
hundred and ninety-eight ships had borne to the shores of New England
twenty-one thousand two hundred souls. The wigwams and sheds that
first sheltered the settlers, had been succeeded by well-built houses;
fifty towns and villages had been formed, there were nearly as many
churches, and these orderly communities drew abundant crops from
their generally poor soil; their flocks and herds multiplied, while
trade in fish, and lumber, and grain, and furs, increased. A public
School was established at Cambridge in 1636, which soon took the name
A CHILD'S HISTORY.. 139
of Harvard College, from a generous clergyman who gave it his library
and half his fortune. In 1639 the first printing-press north of the Gulf
of Mexico was set up, and Stephen Daye, the pioneer American
printer, struck off “The Freeman's Oath,” and the next year printed
the Bay Psalm-Book.
In 1642, New Hampshire, by the will of its people, who were
barassed by disputes of proprietors, Was annexed to Massachusetts
Bay, under separate laws, church-membership not being required for
the privilege of freeman. Massachusetts then attempted to annex the
colonies on Narragansett Bay.
There was soon felt a necessity for a union among the scattered
colonies: Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven,
formed the United Colonies of New England. The object of the con-
federacy was mutual protection against Dutch, French, and Indians.
The general affairs, especially the making of peace or war, and all
negotiations with the Indians, were confided to two Commissioners from
each colony. This union lasted for fifty years, and did much to
strengthen New England, and paved the way for a more general
union of all the Colonies, and eventually for the United States of
America. &
The short war between Miantonomoh, the Narragansett chief and
the Mohegans, did not disturb the white settlements. Uncas and his
Mohegans defeated Miantonomoh, who had attacked them with a thou-
sand braves. They took the haughty chief prisoner, and left his fate to
the Commissioners of New England. These would not interfere, and
Uncas put him to death.
During the war between England and Holland, in 1654, New
England for the first time was drawn into European quarrels, and the
140 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
wars of the Old World then began to be fought in the New. Canada
had, a few years before, proposed that neutrality should always exist
in America, whatever wars might take place in Europe, but the Com-
missioners declined the offer. Had it been accepted, some of the
bloodiest pages in American History would have been unwritten.
A New England expedition under Sedgwick, in 1654, prepared to
attack New N etherland, but as peace was made in Europe, the expedi-
tion turned northward and conquered Acadia, as the French called
Nova Scotia, although there was no war between England and France.
There was not, at first, much zeal among the New England settlers
for the moral improvement of the Indians. They did not make any
attempt to raise them from their Savage, heathenish ways; but some
of their friends in England wrote, reminding them of what the French
and Spaniards were doing. Among those who then devoted them-
selves to this good work, the most renowned was the Rev. John Eliot,
minister of Roxbury, usually called the Apostle of the Indians. There
were at the time nearly twenty tribes of Indians in New England, but
they were all of the same great Algonquin nation, and their languages
were much alike. Mr. Eliot set to work to study the language of the
tribe nearest to him. There was no grammar or dictionary ; he had to
make these for himself. But at last he mastered it so far that he could
preach in it, and on the 28th of October, 1646, he preached to the
Indians at Nonantum, now Newton, the first sermon in their own
tongue. And it is a curious fact that just about the same time a
French missionary from Canada began to preach to the Indians on the
Kennebec. -
. These two good men met a few years later in friendly intercourse,
each able to appreciate the labors of the other. -


THE UNITED STATES. 141
Eliot's sermon led to much inquiry, and the medicine men took
alarm and tried in every way to stop his labors, but Eliot was un-
daunted; he visited all the Indians in Massachusetts and Plymouth
Colonies as they then extended. Five years' labors bore their fruit.
On a pleasant spot on Charles River a little town of Christian Indians
had grown up, with its neat church amid the clustering wigwams. It
was a wild village, for it was hard to civilize them, and they never
took readily to the white man's way of working. Still Eliot labored
on, the church was regularly organized, he printed the New Testament,
and then the Bible, in their language, and trained up several Indian
ministers. His Bible was the first copy of the Scriptures printed in
America, and was a work of immense difficulty, as the Indian languages
are very different from those of Europe, and some of the words in it are
so fearfully long that the very sight gf them raises a laugh
Firm, zealous, benevolent, he was the father of the Indians, exercis-
ing an influence over them that no other missionary or other white man
obtained ; and he was their constant protector. His delight was to be
among his red children, instructing them, telling of Christ and a better
World. e
While this picture of Massachusetts history cannot but please us,
there is another that is sad. Among the sects that arose in England
was one founded by George Fox, the Society of Friends, commonly
called Quakers. In England they met great opposition from the
Established Church and f’le Puritans. When two of them arrived at
Boston in 1656, the whole colony took fire. The trunks of the two
Quakeresses were searched, their books were burned, they were
examined as witches, imprisoned, and finally sent back to England,
as several others were who came afterwards. A severe law was then
142 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
passed against them, and Quakers coming in were fined and flogged;
the law even directed an ear to be cut off and the tongue to be bored
if they were convicted a second and third time. Growing more in- "A
tolerant, they next made the penalty banishment, and if a banished
Quaker set foot on the soil of the United Colonies, he was to die.
Late in October, 1659, while the woods were a picture of beauty, in
all the rich tints of autumn, a crowd gathered around a gallows erected
at Boston, and Mary Dyar, an old adherent of Mrs. Hutchinson, with
three other Quakers, was led out to die. The ropes were fastened
around their necks, and they had prepared to die, when Mary was
reprieved. “Let me suffer as my brethren,” she cried, “unless you
will annul your wicked law.” But as her companions swung in the
sight of heaven, they carried her beyond the limits of the colony.
The resolute woman returned, and this time they hung her.
Two others were condemned to die; but the bold Wenlock Christison
awed his very judges: “I demand to be tried by the laws of England,
and there is no law there to hang Quakers!” They sentenced him,
but shrunk from hanging him. They expelled the staunch Christison
and his companions.
The Puritans were not the only sufferers in England: the penal laws
passed against the Catholics, or adherents of the old Church, were
of fearful severity and they were enforced with rigor. At last Sir
George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, a member of the Virginia Company,
and highly esteemed by James I., having become a Catholic, resolved
to found a colony where those who shared his opinions might freely
worship God. An attempted settlement in Newfoundland failed. He
then wished to colonize part of Virginia, but they would not admit him.
Returning to England, he solicited from Charles I. a Patent for ter-
THE UNITED STATES. 143
ritory in America. He died while the affair was in progress, but on
the 20th of June, 1632, a Charter of Terra Maria, or Maryland, was
issued to his son, the new Lord Baltimore. This nobleman fitted out
two vessels, The Ark and The Dove, in which two hundred emigrants,
nearly all gentlemen of respectability, embarked with two clergymen, to
found in the New World a colony, where they might freely worship God.
They sailed in November. After a long and stormy winter passage,
in which the Ark was for a time at the mercy of the Winds and waves,
they, late in February, came in sight of Point Comfort in Virginia.
On the banks of the Potomac they found mighty forests, stretching
as far as the eye could reach, a rich and fertile soil, a Sweet and balmy
air. The natives came down with every mark of hostility, but con-
fidence was soon established.
On Blackstone Island they landed and threw up a little fort, March
25th, 1634, divine service being devoutly offered up by Father
Andrew White, to consecrate their new colony to the Lord. The
Governor, Leonard Calvert, then planted a cross, as the emblem of
Christianity and civilization.
The priests at once opened intercourse with the native chiefs, and
Maryland so gained their good will, that the colonists never had any
trouble with the Indian tribes within its borders, to whom these good
men could announce the gospel.
As their permanent settlement, Governor Calvert finally selected
the village of the Yaocomico Indians, and, like Roger Williams,
believing it necessary to purchase lands of the natives, he bought from
them their village and the country around. The Governor then took
possession of the place, and named the town St. Mary's. The settlers
at first occupied the Indian wigwams till they had erected houses.
144 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Soon all was bustle and activity, building the guard-house and stores,
into which all their goods were carried. While this work was pushed
rapidly on, a small craft bore into their river the Governor of Wir-
ginia. Calvert received him on his ship, and invited all the neigh-
boring Indian chiefs to dine with them, seating the friendly King
of Patuxent between himself and Governor Harvey. When the
buildings were ready, the colonists landed with much pomp, with
Cannon firing and banners waving. A large Indian wigwam was the
first church, and Maryland was from the first a religious colony, but
one that offered to all who came, freedom to worship God according as
their conscience directed.
The Charter of Maryland gave the power to make laws to the free-
men and the Lord Proprietor. The first Assembly met early in 1635,
and another in 1638. In these some contention arose as to the right
to propose the laws, but it was finally conceded to the colonists.
The new settlement grew steadily, being formed of earnest, indus-
trious men; the Indians continued friendly. Tayac, King of the
Piscatoways, having been won to civilization and Christianity, was
solemnly baptized in a bark chapel at his town, in 1640; and Ana-
coston, a neighboring Sachem, came to live among the whites as one
of them.
The Susquehannas and the Indians on the eastern shore were
enemies of the Christian Indians, whom the Marylanders had occasion-
ally to protect ; but the great trouble in the early annals of Mary-
land was given by a man named Clayborne, who claimed as a prior
settler under the Virginia Charter. During the civil war in England,
Clayborne sided with the Parliament, and for a time got the upper
hand in Maryland.


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A CHILD’s HISTORY. 147
Governor Calvert was obliged to fly; the clergy were seized and
sent to England ; many of the settlers were robbed and banished ; but
the Governor having raised a force in Virginia, crossed the Potomac,
surprised the enemy, and re-entered St. Mary's in triumph. He died a
few years after, and was buried at St. Mary's, regarded as a great and
good man by the colony which he had founded.
Under Governor Stone, in 1649, was held a famous Assembly, which
established liberty of conscience “for all professing to believe in Jesus
Christ.” This is one of the greatest glories of Maryland, that men of
all denominations of Christians there joined hands together, worship-
ing God each according to the dictates of his own heart, none seeking
to force another to change his views.
Clayborne, for a time, overthrew Governor Stone, and in an Assembly
passed severe and cruel laws, totally unlike the mild and gentle spirit
that had actuated the early settlers. Stone took up arms, but in a
hard-fought battle, March 25th, 1655, was defeated, wounded, and
taken prisoner by the Puritans, who put several of the prisoners to
death in cold blood.
Cromwell, to whom Lord Baltimore appealed, condemned the whole
proceedings against Stone, and Fendall was appointed Governor.
For a time progress was made towards restoring peace and harmony,
but then Fendall began to plot against Lord Baltimore, and had
obtained an appointment as Governor from the Assembly, when Crom-
well died, and the authority of the Commonwealth came to an end.
148 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
CHAPTER IX.
The Indian Tribes—Their Divisions—Their Complexion—Habits—Dress—Houses and Mode
of Life—Their Wars—Religion—No Domestic Animals—Their Care of the Dead—Hiero-
glyphics—The Mound-Builders.
WE have seen how different the various colonies were in their origin.
The Atlantic coast was settled by men of various nations, of various
religious views, so that each colony had a peculiar character of its own.
In the designs of Providence these were steps preparing for the blend-
ing of all into one nation, in another century to take its place among
the proudest of the world.
In tracing the rise of each little community, Indian tribes have been
mentioned. A few words as to these people, whom our ancestors found
possessing the land, are here required ; for every one should know
something of those who went before us.
The Indians on the coast, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to
North Carolina, were all of one family, which is now called the Algon-
quin. The tribes belonging to this family extended inland far beyond
the utmost limits to which the English colonies then reached. The
French, who were more daring, had by their missionaries and traders
pushed by way of the St. Lawrence and the Lakes westward to Lake
Superior. All along the way to the Lakes and the Mississippi they
found tribes speaking dialects of the Algonquin, and none who did not,
except one set of nations, who were completely surrounded by these
Algonquins. The Algonquins and Adirondacks in Canada, the Chip-
pewas, Ottawas, Pottowatomies, Illinois, and Miamis, at the West,
the Narragansetts, Mohegans, and Pequods, of New England, the
THE UNITED STATES. 149'
Mohegans of New York, the Delawares of Pennsylvania, the Pow-
hatans, and most of the Virginia and Maryland tribes were Algonquins,
and resembled each other in their mode of life and the language they
spoke. Surrounded by them were the Hurons, near the lake that
bears that name, the Five Nations in New York, the powerful Susque-
hannas, the Nottoways in Virginia, with some smaller tribes, and the
Tuscaroras in Carolina. Near them lay the Cherokees, and south
again were the Creeks, or Muscogees, and the Choctaw tribes, with
whom the Spaniards had most to do.
These Indians were all much alike in color and habits, with differ-
ences, of course ; some being a little more industrious, others more
debased. Their color was nearly that of copper. Their only clothing
at first was skins, and this was very scanty: men in some parts wore
only a breech-cloth, and women a short petticoat, sometimes only of
moss. The men looked with disdain on all work except war, hunting,
or fishing; everything else was left to the women. The Algonquins
depended almost entirely on hunting, and had no permanent villages;
moving about, pitching their tent-like wigwams of bark, or skins, or
mats, as they chose, often suffering greatly in the severe winters.
The Five Nations, Hurons, and other tribes of that family, were more
industrious ; they built pretty substantial bark houses, each to hold
Several families, and surrounded them all by a strong palisade, some-
times two or three, one within the other. Around the top of the
palisade, inside, they had stones to throw down on any enemy, and
large bark vessels of water to prevent their setting fire to the palisade.
Outside were their fields, where they raised Indian corn, tobacco,
squashes, and beans.
They made their canoes, like their houses, of the bark of trees, and
150 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
in some parts of the trunk of a tree, hollowed out. The Algon-
quins made the best canoes, using birch bark, while the Iroquois used
elm bark. The Algonquins also made very useful and curious Snow-
shoes, an oval frame of wood, held together by a network of sinews.
With these they traveled easily on the surface of the snow, without
sinking, and in this way hunted in winter, overtaking the deer, whose
sharp hoof cut through the frozen surface of the snow.
The Indians knew nothing of the use of metals; native copper found
at the West was rudely fashioned into ornaments, but never into a
cutting instrument. Their arrow and spear heads were made of stone,
and these are still often dug up in Some parts of the country. Their
hatchets, or tomahawks, were made also of stone, With a groove on
each side, by which they were tied fast to the handle. Of course their
houses were nearly destitute of what we would call furniture; they
had no chairs, no tables, no bedsteads, and the young Indian girl had
no looking-glass but the water of the nearest stream. They made bark
vessels to hold water, or hollowed them out of a piece of Wood ; in
many parts they made rude pottery, but they had nothing that they
could put over the fire. They boiled water by heating stones red-
hot, and dropping them into the vessel of water. The flesh of the
animals they killed was broiled or roasted over the fire, or baked
in a sort of oven made in the ground, a hole lined with stones. In
this they built a fire, and when the stones were hot, they took out the
fire, put the meat in, and covered it up close till it was cooked. In
dressing the skins of animals they were quite expert, rendering them
very soft and durable. -- -
Although so poorly off, both men and women were fond of finery,
tattooing and painting their faces and bodies with the most glaring
----
§
|×
：
§.
-
-
-
º
Error, THE APOSTLE OF THE INDIANS, PREACHING. To His Flock.


THE UNITED STATES. 151
colors, made from plants or earths. Porcupine quills, feathers, the
claws of birds and animals, all served to adorn their persons; but
what was the most precious thing to them, and served as decoration,
and almost as money, was Wampum, a kind of beads made of the clam-
shell. Belts of this constituted wealth ; they were given at all treaties
to confirm the different articles, and were the only thing that passed as
money. After the whites came and began to buy furs, beaver skins
were also in many colonies a kind of money, in transactions with the
Indians and among the whites. -
In war the natives were very cruel; they did not fight pitched
battles, but tried generally in smalk bands to surprise their enemy, or
take them unawares. They killed men, women, and children, without
distinction : if they took any prisoners they either adopted them into
the tribe to take the place of some whom they had lost, or they tor-
tured them, tying them to a stake, burning them from head to foot,
cutting off and devouring their flesh before their eyes, and continuing
these tortures till the poor victim expired. The prisoner never asked
mercy ; he sang his death-song, taunted his enemies, boasted how
many he had killed and tortured, called them squaws or women—in a
word, did all he could to provoke them.
Their great trophy was the scalp of their enemies. As soon as an
enemy fell they ran up, and cutting the skin around just below the
hair, tore off the skin and hair together, with loud yells. In their
warlike expeditions they carried very little provisions, generally only
parched Indian corn, and they endured hunger and hardship with
great courage.
Their ideas of religion were very strange. The Algonquin nations
believed in spirits called Manitoo, so that they easily got the idea of
152 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
God as the Kitchemanitoo, or Great Spirit. The Five Nations believed
in a god called Agreskoy. They worshiped him by sacrifices of
animals and of prisoners taken in war. They all believed in evil spirits,
and were more anxious to appease them than to worship the good.
They had no temples or priesthood, at least among these Northern
tribes. The only class that approached that of priests, were those
whom white people called Medicine Men.
They were the great propagators of all the superstitions; they pre-
tended to be in league with the evil spirits, and to be able to tell the
future and cure diseases. They pretended that diseases were caused
by evil spirits, and went through a series of horrible ceremonies and
noises to drive them out. They attached great importance to dreams,
and believed that if a person did not obtain what he dreamed of, it
would cause sickness, and perhaps his death.
An Indian chief once came to Sir William Johnson and told him that
he had dreamed that Sir William had given him his fine red coat
with gold-lace trimmings. Sir William found that he had to give it to
him or the man's death might be laid to his charge. But he determined
to be even with him. So, some time after, he met the old chief and
told him that he had dreamed that their tribe had given him a large
tract of fine land that he had set his eye on. This made the Indian
groan, but dreams were dreams; the tribe gave the land, but asked
that they should all now stop dreaming. *
The Indians had no domestic animals, no horses or cows, goats,
sheep, or swine; the only animal around their houses was the dog.
They had, therefore, no carriages or wagons of any kind; they had
no roads but footpaths, or trails, leading from village to village, or to
their fishing stations. Along these all had to be carried on the backs
A CHILD'S HISTORY. 155
of their women and prisoners. They were very expert with their
canoes, and would run them down very dangerous rapids; when they
ascended the rivers, and came to falls and rapids, they took their light
canoes out of the water and carried them on their shoulders above the
difficult part. These places the French called Portages, and the word
has come into common use, although our ancestors always called them
Carrying Places.
The Indians took great care of their dead. Some tribes buried
infants under the trail leading out of the village; some bent down a
young tree and bound the child, wrapped up in skins, to the highest
branch, and let it fly back again, so that the little one was far up from
the wild beasts, among the birds and blossoms. Generally each body,
wrapped up, was buried in the ground or placed on a scaffolding near
the village. When this was done, after some years, there was a Feast
of the Dead. The bones of their dead were taken down by each
family, wrapped up in furs, and these, with some of their most valuable
articles, were all buried together in a long trench. Games and
curious ceremonies continued for several days at these Feasts of the
Dead. Occasionally, farmers and others, in digging, come on these
Bone Pits, or Indian graves. -
What we have said of these tribes is true for all those who occupied
any part of what is now embraced in our happy Republic, except a
small portion on the Rio Grande, that is now called New Mexico.
Our readers will remember their strange houses of several stories,
and their more extensive cultivation, as well as the advance they had
made in civilization, weaving the wool of the Rocky Mountain sheep.
None of the Indian tribes in our Northern parts had any system of
nothing but the rudest hieroglyphics on bark or skin, or
Writing ;
156 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
occasionally on stone, were ever attempted, and these told only of
some hunting exploits or success in War. They had no monuments of
any kind to preserve the memory of past events, no literature, and few
tales or legends even of great warriors and their deeds.
Some strange traditions intermingled with wild dreams, as to the
origin of men, and the life to come, or of the way in which the tribe
reached the place where the whites found it—this was all.
The Micmac Indians, near the Gulf of St. Lawrence, were the only
tribe who had anything like a general system of hieroglyphics; and
theirs has been preserved, and is still in use, missionaries finding it
such a help, that books have been printed in it.
In Mexico the system of hieroglyphics was very full, and much of
their history is preserved in monuments that can still be read. The
Peruvians preserved a knowledge of events by knotted cords, called
quipos, but this plan was far inferior to the Mexican.
The languages of the Indian tribes were very different from any
known to Europeans, and the construction of their sentences was so
different, that it was found almost impossible to give anything like a
close translation. The missionaries who, for the love of God, set to
work to learn these languages, in order to preach Christ to these poor
benighted people, had terrible work at first. They had to go to the
cabins and learn the names of things, and so keep on, day by day, till
they had a good stock of words, and could try to talk some, writing
down all they could to help others. Of these missionaries, Pareja, in
Florida; Sagard, Brebeuf, Chaumonot, Bruyas, Rale, in Canada; Eliot,
Roger Williams, Edwards, in New England; Campanius, in New
Sweden, and White, in Maryland, were in the earliest times those who
succeeded best in mastering these languages.
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INDIANS ATTACKING TILE EARLY SETTLERS



THE UNITED STATES. 157
This will give some idea of these tribes as they were first found.
The whites supplied them with iron articles, and cloth, which they
used instead of furs; they also, unfortunately, Sold them liquor, and
this the Indians never could use in moderation. It led them into great
crimes, drunkenness and murder, often causing the death of white
settlers and so bringing on Wars.
If one Indian killed another, they always made it up by presents of
wampum. When they killed a white man they wished to do the same,
“cover the body,” as they said, with presents. But the whites would
insist on punishing the man. The Indians did not understand this,
and would refuse to give him up. They thought it hard that if liquor
given by white men set an Indian so crazy that he killed a white man,
they must have their warrior killed ; they thought their plan of pres-
ents best. The French generally adapted themselves better to the
Indian style, and in such cases took presents and maintained peace,
while the Dutch and English drew on themselves disastrous wars.
All the Indian tribes had traditions that they had come from a
distance, generally from the West or Northwest, towards the Atlantic
coast. As the country became more settled, white people discovered
mounds in various parts, some of them very curious in shape, like
birds, animals, or men, in Wisconsin; in rings and lines in other parts;
in the South like pyramids of steps. These seem to be the work of
tribes who were in the country before the Indians. Some of them con-
tained remains of the dead, with articles curiously carved, showing
much more skill than any Indians we know, and sometimes very good
figures of birds and animals of the tropics. As we do not know any-
thing more about these people than what the mounds tell us, they are
generally called the Mound-Builders.
158 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
B A R T I I.
THE COLONIES TROM THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. TO THE
REIGN OF GEORGE III.
CHAPTER I.
The English Kings and Parliament begin to take part in American Affairs—General View of
the Country—Reign of Charles II.-Connectict and Rhode Island receive Charters—Philip's
Indian War—New York—Penn founds Pennsylvania—Carolina founded—Virginia and
Maryland.
ALL the colonies established on the Atlantic shore had been settled
under Patents granted by European Governments, but the English
monarchs, from the days of Queen Elizabeth to those of Charles, had
not concerned themselves much about America after signing the
Patents and affixing their great seal. People whom nobody missed
had gone over there to settle in a wild country among Savage men, and
that was all about it. Cromwell tried to get the Puritans to leave
New England, and settle in the West Indies and in Ireland. Under
him, too, the Puritans attempted to obtain the mastery in Maryland,
and he shipped many thousands from England, and especially from
Ireland, who were sold as slaves in the colonies.
When Charles II. came to the throne, the colonies of New England,
Maryland, and Virginia had so increased, that their importance could
not be overlooked. Maryland and Virginia hailed with joy the Res-
toration of the royal power, but Massachusetts lamented the fall of the
THE UNITED STATES. 159
Puritan Commonwealth, and looked forward with anxiety to the course
of the new King. It was known that the Quakers and others had
made great complaints in England of their severity and strictness.
They sought to avert the storm by an address to the King, but they
did not comply with the recommendations contained in his letter of reply.
Winthrop, Governor of Hartford, a man of learning, polished and
adroit, went to England, and was so favorably received by Charles II.,
that he obtained a very favorable Charter, establishing the new colony
of Connecticut, embracing not only Hartford but New Haven also.
The colonists of New Haven were highly indignant at this step, but,
though supported by Massachusetts, were at last forced to submit to
the new arrangement.
Less obstinate in his views, Winthrop had seen the wisdom of
making their system agree more with that of England, by giving, the
right to vote more freely, and not confining it to their own church-
members. -
The famous Charter issued May 10th, 1662, established “The Gov-
ernor and Company of the English Colony of Connecticut in New
England in America.” The Governor and House of Deputies were to
be elected every year. º
Clarke had been no less prompt to secure favorable terms for the
colony of Roger Williams, and on the 8th of July, in the same year,
Charles II. issued another Charter, creating the “English Colony of
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.”
These Charters gave the first tokens of a new era of liberality.
They provided that no person within the said colonies should be
molested or called in question for any difference in matters of religion
which did not actually disturb the civil peace.
160 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
While these colonies were organized under their new Charters,
Massachusetts and Plymouth remained firm. They gave fair words,
but did not comply with the King's wishes, or adapt their forms to the
English laws.
Charles did not act precipitately. He was a man of pleasure, but
his brother James, Duke of York, was a man of system, as well as
great industry, and had displayed bravery on Sea and land. He took
a lively interest in American affairs, and the commerce of England.
He seems to have been the first who had any enlarged views of the
English interests in America.
New England and Maryland were separated by the Dutch colony,
and the French in Canada were very active and energetic. Their
missionaries and traders were already busy south of Lake Ontario, and
they had made one attempt to settle there. If these pushing French-
men got possession of the Dutch colony, it would give the English no
end of trouble. So James hunted up English claims for New Nether-
land, and obtained from Charles II., on the 12th of March, 1664, a
Charter granting him all the territory between the Connecticut and the
Delaware, and also of the tract between the Rivers Pemaquid and
St. Croix, in what is now the State of Maine. The Dutch had settled
the larger tract, and had occupied it for many years; England and
Holland were at peace, but this did not weigh much.
Commissioners were appointed and sent over, with several ships of
war and a body of soldiers. They were to land first at Boston and
present a letter from the King, asking, among other things, the aid of
the colonies to reduce the Dutch.
At the close of a long summer day, as the Sabbath stillness in
Boston was beginning, two ships of war, the Guinea and Elias, came to

THE PINE TREE SHILLING. *HE LORD BALTIMORE shilling,

A CHILD’s HISTORY. 163
anchor off the Long Wharf at Boston. They were the first vessels of
the English navy that had ever seen that harbor.
A General Court was called. After some delay an order was issued
for two hundred volunteers against the Dutch. They also modified
Somewhat their laws, allowing men not church-members to vote under
certain conditions, but these were such that few could benefit by
them.
The expedition sailed for New Netherland, and, as we have already
seen, reduced that colony, which became New York. The flag of
England soon floated from the Kennebec to the Chesapeake, and the
English King could look with pride on the new country rising beyond
the Atlantic, where the laws, the language and the spirit of England
were to be perpetuated. , *
There was even for a moment the project of conquering Canada, and
thus making England Supreme in the northern portion of America.
Life in these colonies differed greatly. New England was strict
and sombre. Amusements were almost unknown. Christmas and
other holidays, kept up in England, and on this side in Virginia and
Maryland, with great merriment, were forbidden. Dancing, and all
games of cards or dice, even bowling and other games of exercise,
Were prohibited as well, while in Virginia the richer planters lived the
life of the English gentry, and sports were freely indulged in. Vir-
ginia raised tobacco and smoked it freely, but in New England it was
a serious matter, especially on Sunday. The strict observance of that
day was the great point of New England life. It began on Saturday
at Sunset, and lasted till the sunset again. During that time no child
could play in the streets, no travelling was permitted. All had to attend
the meeting-house in the place. But though religion was thus ob-
164 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
served, there were some points in which their customs seem Strange
now. They had, at first, nothing like Sabbath-schools for catechising
the young ; and the children of church-members only were baptized.
The marriage and the funeral took place without the presence of a
clergyman, which is now so general.
We have seen how they broke up Morton's settlement at Merry
Mount, and one of his great offences in their eyes was his planting a
Maypole and keeping up Mayday. -
In Virginia the Church of England prevailed, and its services were
performed regularly, without question or dispute. Maryland had
Episcopalians, Puritans, and Catholics. In New York, with its Dutch
population, into which some English had already crept, the people were
strict Calvinists, adhering to the Church in Holland, and under the
Dutch rule no other worship was allowed by law ; but the people were
good-natured, and seldom troubled their neighbors about religious
matters. They loved enjoyment in a quiet way, and dancing and
merry-making never came amiss. They kept up the holidays of the old
Country, With some sports that occasionally brought laws to check them,
such as goose-pulling and pail-tipping. Paas, or Easter, Christmas,
and New Years, were the great holidays. The last was devoted to
Visits to each other, and in every house a table was Spread with good
things for the guests. Christmas was the holiday of little ones, who
expected from St. Nicholas, or Santa Claus, a visit with presents if they
had been good, or, if they had been naughty, a rod from Ruprecht.
The colonists had always found a difficulty in the want of money,
and tobacco, beaver-skins, wanpum, or peague, Were at times used as
Substitutes. Lord Baltimore struck in England coins for Maryland,
which are now very rare, and prized by collectors. Massachusetts
THE UNITED STATES. 165
struck the first coins issued in America. These are known as Pine
Tree money, as they bear on one side a rude figure of a pine-tree.
The first pieces struck were plain pieces of silver, with NE and XII
or WI stamped on them, but in October, 1652, the General Court of
Massachusetts directed the establishment of a mint, and authorized the
striking of shilling, six-penny, and three-penny pieces. They bore a
double ring, enclosing a tree with the word MASATHVSETs around, and
on the other side, NEW ENGLAND, 1652.
The striking of these coins gave offence in England, as only sover-
eigns are considered as entitled to coin money, and in this country now
only the United States Government, by the Constitution, has this
right. - -
Mr. Hull was the mint-master of Massachusetts, and received a
certain percentage for all the money he struck. This gave rise to a
curious story that is told about him and the Pine Tree shillings.
When his daughter was married to Mr. Sewell, the father said nothing
about any portion for her. But the marriage went on, and while all
the guests were congratulating the married couple, in the way that
Puritan fashions permitted, in came two serving-men lugging huge
scales, such as are used in warehouses. Old Mr. Hull made his
daughter get into one scale, which she did with open eyes and mouth,
wondering whether she was to be sold by the pound ; but the servants
came back, lugging an iron-bound chest, which, at his direction, they
emptied on the floor, and out came the fresh, flashing Pine Tree
shillings. Then the chest was put in the scale, and the shillings filled
in till the young lady rose gradually from the floor, and swung easily,
just balancing her weight in silver. “There, son Sewell,” cried the &
good mint-master, “take these shillings as my daughter's portion.
166 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Use her kindly, and thank Heaven for her, for it is not every wife that
is worth her weight in silver.” -
Another story relating to these pieces is also told. After the Res-
toration, the coining of this Pine Tree money was made one of the
charges against Massachusetts. The agent of the colony took one of
the later issues, in which the rude tree was rather bushy, and pre-
sented it to the King, telling him that his faithful subjects in Massa-
chusetts had put the oak-tree on their coin to commemorate his escape
from his enemy by hiding in an oak-tree. “Jolly dogs,” said the
Merry King, “jolly dogs ’’ and he made no further trouble about the
matter. You may recognize these coins by the illustrations we give.
When Stuyvesant, on the 29th of August, 1664, at the head of his
Dutch garrison, marched out of the little earthen Fort Amsterdam with
colors flying, drums beating, and matches lighted, he led his sullen
troops down Beaver Street, to the North River, to embark on the
West India Company's ship Gideon. Then, while the people, whose
houses clustered around the fort, looked on, the red flag of England,
with the cross of St. George, was run up the flagstaff of Fort James
and saluted by the guns of the English fleet, and the Lord High
Admiral was the Proprietor of New York.
Colonel Richard N. icols. as Governor, established the Duke's laws for
the government of the colony. When Sunday came, after the Dutch
had ended their service in the church within the fort, the chaplain of the
English forces performed the services of the Church of England, and
for many years this one edifice served for both ; nor has the kindly
feeling then established ever been disturbed. •
Fort Orange surrendered to Colonel Cartwright, who immediately
formed a treaty with the Mohawks and Senecas, and the change of pos-
THE UNITED STATES. 167
session throughout was effected so promptly that a French expedition
against the Mohawks were thunderstruck, as they approached Fort
Orange, to find floating over it the red flag of England. It had become
Albany, a name given in honor of the Duke's Scotch title.
One of the first things that marked the change of ideas was the
establishment of a race-course on Hempstead Plains, Long Island. It
continued for many years to be the favorite annual resort of the
Governors of New York and of the Long Island farmers.
The Duke of York wished to extend colonization, and readily
granted, June 23d, 1664, to John, Lord Berkeley, and Sir George Car-
teret a part of his newly-acquired territory, giving it the name of New
Jersey, in compliment to Carteret, who had gallantly defended the
Island of Jersey against Cromwell.
Under this grant, Captain Philip Carteret came out with a small
body of settlers in the Philip, in 1665, and in August landed at the
head of his colonists on the soil of New Jersey, with a hoe on his
shoulder, to show that he was to become a planter himself. The spot
chosen as the capital of the new colony was a spot on the Kills, where
four families had already planted themselves under authority from
Nicolls. Carteret named the spot Elizabethtown, in honor of the wife
of Sir George.
But the Dutch were not going to let the English have their American
colony without a struggle. They prepared to meet England on the sea,
but the Duke of York, with a fleet which included some of the ships
and officers who reduced New York, defeated the Dutch Admiral
Opdam at Lowestoff. Then France joined Holland, and the war
became general.
The Duke of York at once sent over to Nicolls to try, with the aid
168 A CHILD'S HISTORY of
of New England, to reduce Canada, with which the Mohawks were
already at War.
This was the first English project against Canada. But Massachu-
setts and Connecticut declined to act in the matter. Canada was so far
away, beyond rocky mountains and howling deserts, that it would be
impossible to march there. Some mounted men were sent out from
Hartford, who went a hundred and twenty miles to find the way to
Canada, but came back disheartened.
The French made an alliance with the Onondagas, and built forts on
the Richelieu, and Fort St. Anne on La Motte Island, in Lake Cham-
plain. This last post, begun in July, 1666, was the first white settle-
ment in what was one day to be the State of Vermont.
Soon after, the French, to reduce the Mohawks to peace, invaded
their canton and burned their towns. There was little chance of the
English reducing Canada.
Nicolls even began to feel uneasy for New York. The Dutch, after
defeating an English fleet in the Thames, were scouring the Atlantic.
A Dutch fleet under Krynssen captured an English man-of-war and
twenty-five other vessels on James River, and filled Virginia with con-
sternation. r -
But the war came to an end, and, at the treaty of Breda, Holland
gave up all claim to New York. -
Still the peace did not last long. Again the English and Dutch fleets
meet in battle at Solebay, off the English coast, and the Duke of
York fought with courage, Colonel Nicolls, his first New York Gov-
ernor, being killed by his side in the action.
In 1673, two Dutch admirals, Evertsen and Binckes, entered the
Chesapeake, and captured a tobacco fleet in spite of the frigates that
A CHILD’s HISTORY. 171
protected it. Then they sailed for New York, and in August anchored
near Staten Island.
Lovelace, the new English Governor, was in Connecticut, and Man- *
ning, the commander of Fort James, was too weak to cope with such a
force; but though the fleet was within musket-shot of the fort, he refused
to surrender. The fleet then opened fire, and Fort J ames replied ; but
six hundred Dutch soldiers landed, back of where Trinity Church now
stands, and, encouraged by the Dutch settlers, advanced to storm the
fort, which, seeing no hope of resistance, surrendered, and the Dutch
flag floated again over the place.
New Jersey became again part of New Netherland. The eastern
end of Long Island alone resisted the Dutch, with aid from Connec-
ticut, but the Dutch captured many New England coasting vessels, and
excited alarm all along the coast. The Treaty of Westminster came at
last, in 1674, by which England recovered a province of such immense
importance to her.
But during this time France had not been idle. She not only by
her missionaries had won the Onondagas and other western cantons,
but had built Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario, and extended her
missions and explorations to the country around the great Lakes. All
the tribes learned to look with respect to the Governor of Canada,
Ononthio, and the King of France, the Great Ononthio, as the Iroquois
called him. , ºr'
In 1673, Joliet, a young French Canadian, accompanied by Father
Marquette, a pious missionary, descended the Wisconsin to the Mis-
sissippi, and glided down that river in their bark canoe, till they came
to the towns of the friendly Arkansas. Then, seeing that this great
river must empty into the Gulf of Mexico, and afraid that they might
172 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
fall into the hands of the Spaniards, they slowly paddled their way up
against the strong current, and ascending the Illinois River, reached
Lake Michigan.
The illustrious Marquette set out later to winter among the Illinois,
and plant a mission ; but his health failed. He planted his rude cabin
at Chicago, the first white habitation at the place, but though he
recovered sufficiently to go on to the town of the Kaskaskias, he died
by the shore of Lake Michigan, as he was striving to reach Mackinaw.
Robert Cavelier, better known as the Sieur de la Salle, followed up
Marquette and Joliet. He was commandant of Fort Frontenac at
Toronto; he threw up a fort at Niagara, and there built the Griffin,
the first vessel that ever navigated the waters of Lake Erie, intending
to carry on a great trade in furs, of which he had the monopoly.
He reached Illinois, and there built Fort Crevecoeur, or Broken
Heart, for his troubles began. The Griffin, sent back from Mackinaw,
was never seen again—lost in a storm or destroyed by Indians. He
made his way back to Fort Frontenac almost alone, and led out a new
party, only to find his fort abandoned and his men scattered. He
finally, however, descended the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico in
1682. Hennepin, a Franciscan friar connected with his expedition,
had already, in 1680, ascended the Mississippi to the Falls of St.
Anthony, which owes its name to him.
La Salle then returned to France and fitted out an expedition to
found a settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi, but he missed it,
and was landed on the coast of Texas. While trying to reach the
Mississippi overland, he was killed by his own men. *
By these discoveries France claimed all the north and interior of
North America, and was hemming England close in to the Atlantic
º
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THE UNITED STATES. 173
coast Long after this, French maps showed the English colonies as a
little strip on the shore, while half of North America was New France.
New England, on religious grounds, did not like the French as
neighbors in what is now Maine and Nova Scotia, but did not see her
great danger. Virginia was too far from the frontier, but the Duke of
York saw the necessity of action. On recovering New York, his
instructions to his Governors, Andros and Dongan, were to keep the
French north of the lakes, to win the Five Nations to the English side,
and to occupy Maine.
This began the great struggle between France and England for the
control of North America.
While New York was again rapidly becoming more like the neigh-
boring English colonies, New Jersey began to grow. Berkeley, one
of the owners, sold his share to two Quakers, one of whom, Fenwick, in
July, 1675, founded Salem, on the Delaware, and, as this part was set
off as a separate colony, called West Jersey, many of their fellow-
believers settled there. Carteret then grew tired of his American
interests, and sold out to a number of Quakers, of whom William Penn
was the chief one. They obtained a new grant from the Duke of York,
and founded Perth Amboy. All these things brought out settlers.
Baptists from New England settled at Middletown Point; Presby-
terians at Newark and Elizabethtown ; so that New Jersey presented
a greater variety in its settlers than any other colony, and what is best
of all, they lived in peace.
But while New York and New Jersey were thus gaining, New
England was suddenly plunged into a terrible war. The labors of the
missionaries to convert the Indians had not met with any success
among the great Southern tribes, the Pokanokets, or Wampanoag, the
174 d A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Niantics, the Narragansetts, and Mohegans. Massasoit, chief of the
Pokanokets, left two sons, Wamsutta and Metacom, who, wishing
English names, received from the Court at Plymouth the names of
Alexander and Philip. The latter was soon sole chief, and for some
years maintained a friendly attitude : but he was gloomy, and looked
with no favor on the rapid increase of the English. Gradually sus-
picions and rumors of Indian plots came.
One day John Sausman, an Indian preacher at Natick, who had
long lived with Philip, came hastening in to Plymouth. He had just
paid a visit to his old friend the chief, and what he saw told him that
Philip meant mischief. The chief of the Pokanokets was summoned.
He obeyed, but in a few days Sausman was found murdered. Three
Indians were arrested for the crime, tried, and executed, to the great
indignation of the red men. In their eyes Sausman was a traitor,
deserving death. The three men had obeyed the orders of their chief,
and the Indians demanded vengeance.
On the 20th of June, 1675, while the little village of Swanzey lay in
all the stillness and quiet of a New England Sabbath, the wild yell of
the native braves proclaimed that a deadly war had begun. Two
houses in flames showed the alarmed people that all was in danger.
Men gathered together in the strongest houses; watches were set; but
the Indians clustered around the town, house after house was pillaged,
and every incautious man cut down and scalped.
The Indians were armed with good muskets, and were as expert in
handling them as any white. They were, then, no mean foe. As the
news came in, a force was raised and marched under Captain Moseley,
an old West Indian buccaneer, to punish the Indians. Philip attacked
them on the march and even advanced on them in force, but Was
... THE UNITED STATES. 175
driven off. Then that chief left Mount Hope, and with his flying army
began ravaging the Plymouth territory. Fires blazed from Dartmouth,
Taunton, and Middleborough. The roadsides were dotted with the
bodies of settlers slain in their fields or tomahawked by the Indians as
they hurried them along. Savage, entering Mount Hope, found eight
heads of settlers set up on poles. -
Meanwhile the settlers were endeavoring to win over the Narragan-
setts, hoping to keep that important tribe from joining the hostile
Indians; but, though they gave fair words, other tribes unexpectedly
flew to arms. Captain Hutchinson, sent to Brookfield to induce the
Nipmuck Indians to be peaceful, fell into an ambush. The Nipmucks
had already taken up the hatchet, and Philip was soon in their midst,
fierce for slaughter, and desperate in his plans.
Brookfield was besieged. A large house had been fortified, and the
survivors of Hutchinson's party and the settlers were all huddled
together there. The messengers for aid who were sent out perished,
and all around the house seemed alive with the furious foe. All
night long the blazing arrows came down on the devoted house,
and it required every eye and every hand to prevent a conflagra-
tion. -
The Indians pushed up combustibles to the house, and sought to fire
it, but by brave sallies the garrison drove them off and extinguished
the flames. Then, to the joy of all their thankful hearts, the rain came
pouring down, and they could rest and hope. -
Just after Sunset, on that fifth August day, their hearts bounded :
they heard aſar the clatter of many hoofs, and amid a rattling fire from
the Indians, in rode old Major Willard, a gray-haired veteran, with
forty-Seven heavy-armed men. Brookfield was saved, and the Indians,
176 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
who had lost nearly eighty in killed and wounded, retired to their
swamps and fastnesses.
Every town in New England was now in alarm, and prepared to
meet a sudden attack.
The wily enemy stole cautiously about, never attacking where they
saw preparations. Thus the summer wore away. On the 1st of Sep-
tember the people of Hadley were gathered in their meeting-house for
a solemn fast, and their good fire-locks were stacked along the aisle,
when a yell showed that they were surrounded. Out they rushed to
meet the enemy, but the affair was so sudden that all was confusion,
and they would have been shot down like sheep, had not a white-haired
man of old-fashioned dress suddenly appeared. Like some veteran
commander he gave the word in a clear, ringing voice. Order was
restored ; one good volley into the Indian foe, and a headlong charge
with pike and sword sent them flying from the town. The men of
Hadley looked around for their champion and deliverer, but he had
vanished as mysteriously as he had come:
Long after, the mystery was solved. Colonel Goffe, one of the three
judges of Charles I., who fled to New England, was then concealed in
Mr. Russel's house in Hadley. As all were in the meeting-house, he did
not fear observation, and went to a window to enjoy a look at the beauties
of creation, which he so seldom gazed upon. He had seen the Savages
come stealing in Indian file over the hill and down upon them. Full of
his old military ardor he rushed to the spot in time to form the startled
colonists, and lead them to victory. Then he fled to his concealment.
There was another desperate fight at Bloody Brook. So little of the
crops planted in New England could be gathered, that after Hadley
was abandoned, a party was sent to finish threshing the grain already
A CHILD’s HISTORY. 179
in the barns. As the well-loaded wagons were slowly fording Bloody
Brook on their return, the men stopped to gather wild grapes that
hung from the vines festooning the dense trees. From every side
poured out a stream of fire. The forest was alive with Indians.
Down, down, went the brave fellows Scarce a man escaped. Old
Moseley at Hadley heard the firing, hastened up, and attacked the
Indians in their work of Scalping and plundering ; but though, as usual
in battle, his wig was hung on a bush and got many a bullet intended
for his head, Moseley could not drive them off. They seemed countless.
Towards night, when his men were ready to drop with weariness, they
heard the roll of the drum. Major Treat had come down the river
with a hundred sturdy men and fifty faithful Mohegans. Then, at last,
they drove the enemy from Bloody Brook.
Scarcely a Massachusetts settlement was left on the Connecticut.
Springfield was saved with difficulty, after seeing many fine dwellings
in flames.
The Narragansetts had, at first, promised peace, but they protected
Philip's men, and the danger was that at an unguarded moment they
might dash down on the settlements. The colonies resolved to take
the first step. The Narragansetts were called upon to renew the peace.
They held aloof in sullen silence. All through New England troops
gathered for the attack on this powerful tribe, and the Narragansetts
concentrated the warriors of their tribe and allies from far and near,
at the swamp-fort in South Kingston. Here, on an island reached only
by a frail bridge, stood their wigwams, enclosed in well-planted rows
of palisades.
Through the dreary snow-covered land and leafless forests, the army
of the colonists marched, with no shelter at night, wading through the
180 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
drifts by day. At noon, on the 19th of December, they came in sight
of the fort, and without delay formed to attack it. On in the van went
the men of Massachusetts, Plymouth and Connecticut supporting.
A general yell burst from the enclosed Narragansetts; it was answered
by the hearty cheers of the New England men. The marksmen,
picking their antagonists, opened fire on both sides. Down in the
storm of flame and bullet went many a brave leader, but the colonists
dashed into the fort; the Narragansetts, nerved to despair, crowded
down upon them. Foot by foot, with gallant men falling, the New
Englanders were forced back out of the fort that had cost so much.
They gathered in set determination. Another rush, and they are in
again, never to be dislodged. The wigwams were fired, and ere long
s they held the ruined fort, strewn with the dead bodies of hundreds of
the foe, and of seventy of their own brave men, while a hundred and
fifty more lay writhing in pain.
With the snow falling fast around them, the army took up its home-
ward march, bearing on rude litters their wounded.
The power of the Narragansetts was forever broken.
The war continued all along the frontier. Lancaster was taken while
the minister, Rowlandson, was seeking relief, and his wife's sufferings
form a pathetic story. Captain Pierce, of Plymouth, lured into
ambush by Canonchet, perished with most of his force. Town after
town had to be abandoned. But the Indians began to suffer for food,
and had to scatter more widely. In the spring they received a ter-
rible blow from Denison of Connecticut, who defeated several Narra-
gansett parties, and captured the great Canonchet and two other
Sachems. The haughty chief refused to submit, and was put to death
by the Mohegans. -
THE UNITED STATES. 181
In May, Captain Turner, forgetting all he had suffered as a Baptist,
gallantly led a force from Boston. A long night-march brought them
at daybreak to an Indian camp at the falls that have ever since borne
his name. Dismounting, they secured their horses, and, as stealthily
as Indians themselves, glided up to the camp of their Savage enemy,
who became aware of their presence only by the volley that poured in
among them. The scene that followed is one not easily described. It
was one in which wild confusion, despair, and frenzied efforts were
blended. The surprise was complete. The resistance was short and
irregular. The Indians taken at a disadvantage, the rapid stream
before them made escape hopeless; the white men almost encircled
them. Man, woman, and child eagerly sought the covers; most
were cut down, while some, seeking to escape by swimming the -
river, were hurried over the falls or shot in the water. Three
hundred Indians fell, and the largest supply of provisions and am-
munition that the hostile tribes possessed was destroyed. But while
the New Englanders were exulting over this victory, the woods again
re-echoed the fierce yell of the red man, and a fresh body of Indians
dashed upon them, surprising them as completely as they had sur-
prised. Fortunately, Turner was able to keep his men in good order;
they steadily fought their way through, and, recovering their horses,
began their retreat. The whole country swarmed with Indians. Their
march was under constant fire, and brave Captain Holyoke, covering
the retreat, suffered terribly, though he fought like a hero, and charged
the Indians repeatedly, driving them to their coverts. Turner was
killed while crossing Green River, and Holyoke led the survivors
of his gallant band to Hatfield, which the Indians soon after at-
tacked.
182 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Major Talcot, of Connecticut, also showed himself a good Indian
fighter, in his defense of Hadley, and in his glorious battle-week in
June, when he defeated the Indians in four different engagements,
leaving two hundred and fifty of their braves stark on the soil. So
heavy were his blows that for the first time Indians came in and sub-
mitted to the mercy of the whites.
In all these battles and fights, Philip, the prime. mover of all, was
never seen by the New Englanders, and it was not certainly known
where he was ; but in the second year, when the spirit of the Indians
was broken, he appeared and was nearly captured in a fight in which
several of his family were killed or taken, and he himself escaped only
by flinging away even his ammunition. Captain Church, a famous
Indian fighter, was close on his track, and Philip's band, almost all
relatives of his own, was daily thinned. The Sachem seems to have
come back to die at his ancient home. His wife and son were soon
captured, to be sold into West Indian slavery. His comrades began
to despair. One talked of submission. Philip slew him. The brother
of his victim fled to Church, and guided his troops to Mount Hope.
They reached the spot at midnight, and lay down in the bushes.
When day broke the Indians perceived that they were surrounded,
and attempted to cut their way through. At one point an Englishman, --
and Alderman, a friendly Indian, were posted. Philip, half dressed,
dashed past them; both fired the Englishman's gun missed, but Alder.
man's sent a bullet through the heart of the chief. He fell upon his
face in the mud and water, with his gun under him.
The great Philip, last of the Pokanokets, or Wampanoags, was no
more. " With a cruelty learned from the Indians, they mangled the
remains of the once haughty Sachem. His hands were carried as
º
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---


THE UNITED STATES. 183
trophies to Boston, and his head to Plymouth, where it was exposed
upon a pole on Thanksgiving Day. Many Indians, especially Praying
Indians, who had joined the enemy, were then hanged, and for months
the gibbet was never without a victim. Others were shipped off to the
West Indies and sold as slaves, to toil away their lives beneath the
sun of the tropics.
This ended the war in that part of New England; but along the
coast of Maine, where the Indians had many private wrongs to complain
of the war still raged furiously, till not an English settlement remained
from Casco Bay to the Penobscot. A little fort on Arrowsick Island
was taken by a bold stratagem. The Indians stole up to the sentinel,
and as he turned to enter the fort before his successor came out, they
rushed into the fort with him, and &ut down nearly all the garrison in
a few moments. •
During one of the lulls of the war in this section, a party of four
hundred Indians came to York and proposed peace to Major Waldron,
the commander there. He got up a sham fight the next day, near the
fort. When the Indians had fired their muskets, he surrounded them
with his men and took the whole party prisoners. Half of them he
allowed to go, the rest were sent to Boston, thence to the West Indies,
to be sold as slaves. This cruel act of treachery the Indians never
forgave ; it rendered them more furious. York, Wells, Black Point,
Were destroyed, and the midnight sky was lighted up with blazing
houses and barns. They even ventured out in boats and captured
twenty fishing vessels, killing all on board.
At last, peace was made at Casco, in April, 1678, with Madocka-
wando and other Eastern chiefs, and New England could breathe freely.
Sad was the change in the happy Smiling landscape, where industry
184 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
and thrift had built up so fair a colony. Ten or twelve towns had
been utterly destroyed; forty others, more or less burned down ; five or
six hundred stalwart men had fallen in battle or been cut down un-
awares, or, worst of all, had perished amid all the refinements of
Indian torture. As you rode along, you met everywhere scenes of
desolation, ruin, and distress. Every family was in mourning, thou-
Sands were destitute, the public debts of the colonies were more than all
the personal property.
While Massachusetts was in this distress, she began to reap the
reward of her refusal to modify her institutions and laws so as to con-
form to those of England. Charles II. began to follow the matter up.
Maine, west of the Kennebec, was now, by a decision of the Courts,
adjudged to the heir of Gorges, and though Massachusetts purchased
his rights, this did not help them. In 1678, Charles established New
Hampshire as a royal province, and restored Mason, the old patentee,
to his rights; but the people there were of the same mind as those of
Massachusetts, and royal Governors, collectors, and other officers,
for some time had a sorry time of it.
Massachusetts did not take warning ; the King's letters were met by
long, evasive responses, and the agents of the colony were instructed
to make all possible delay. But the King acted promptly; proceedings
were begun in the Court of King's Bench, to set aside the Charter of
Massachusetts, on the ground that they had violated it; and, as tech-
nical objections arose, new proceedings were begun in the Court of
Chancery, under which the Charter was declared void in 1684, and
Massachusetts became a royal province.
New York was gradually assuming the form of an English colony,
and the people becoming accustomed to English rule. Under Thomas
A CHILD’s HISTORY. 187
Dongan, who came out as Governor in 1683, an Assembly was called,
and New York began to make laws for Self-government. Dongan WaS
one of the ablest colonial Governors ever intrusted with power in
America, and labored earnestly to build up the colony, and to extend
its limits to the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario. Of the French power
he was the steady antagonist.
The Assembly, convened under this able man, passed a Charter of
Liberties, establishing freedom of conscience, and guaranteeing all the
liberties held dear by Englishmen.
The Five Nations formally submitted as subjects to the King of Eng-
land, and Dongan restrained them from annoying other colonies, allow-
ing none to treat with them except through the Governor of New York.
To the southward another colony was now begun. William Penn
had become interested in New Jersey, and thus learned the fitness of
the New World as a home for emigrants. The English Government
owed him a large sum, which had been due to his father, Admiral
Penn. The Duke of York had esteemed the father and liked the son.
Charles had no money to pay old debts, but Penn offered to take as
compensation a grant of land in America, and James recommended his
brother to grant him all the land north of Newcastle, and between the
fortieth and forty-third degrees.
On the 6th of March, 1681, the charter was issued under the Great
Seal. Penn proposed to call the land New Wales; but as this was not
liked, he suggested Sylvania, from its abounding in forests, but Charles
insisted on putting Penn before this, to honor the Admiral, and so it
became Pennsylvania.
Penn was made absolute proprietor, with power to ordain laws,
appoint officers, and enjoy general authority ; but the laws were to be
188 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
assented to by the freemen of the province, and be approved by the
King, and no taxes were to be raised except by the Provincial
Assembly. To provide for any such case as had arisen in New
England, it was provided that Episcopal clergymen, approved by the
Bishop of London, were to reside in the province without molesia.
tion. ... • ... •
Thus the old colony of New Netherland had grown into New York,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the counties on the Delaware, which
now form the little State of Delaware. These were claimed by the
Duke of York as part of New York, and by Lord Baltimore as part of
Maryland. Penn bought from the Duke all his rights to them. He
sent out William Markham as Deputy Governor in 1681, with three
ship-loads of emigrants, and full instructions. In September of the
following year, Penn prepared to go himself to take possession of his
new province. In a beautiful letter he took leave of his wife and
family, then, with six hundred of his fellow-believers, he set sail in
September, 1682, for the new abode of peace, where they were to
begin what they called the Holy Experiment.
The passage was long, and the frequent deaths among the passengers
cast a gloom over them all. At last, on the 27th day of October,
William Penn landed at Newcastle. Swedes, Dutch, and English
were already settled in the new province, and they numbered between
two and three thousand, plain, strong, and industrious people, living
in peace with each other and the native tribes. The disposal of the
territory to Penn was regarded favorably. The news of his landing
was soon spread far and wide, and on the next day, in the presence of
a crowd of the settlers of the various tongues, his deeds were produced;
the agent of the Duke surrendered the territory by solemnly delivering
*en Nºs treaty
with the INDIANS UNDER THE ELM TREE. Ar shackamaxon.

dº-
.*

THE UNITED STATES. 189
earth and water, and Penn, as proprietor, pledged himself to grant
liberty of conscience and civil freedom.
He visited the various settlements, finding the land good, the air
clear and sweet, the springs plentiful, and provisions good and easy to
come at, an innumerable quantity of wild fowl and fish; in fine, he
says, “What an Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would be well contented
With.”
Before leaving England he had addressed a letter to the Indians,
and as soon as he had seen the position of his province, he held his
first grand treaty with them. Beneath the great elm-tree at Shacka-
maxon, on the northern edge of his future city of Philadelphia, William
Penn, surrounded by a few friends in the peaceful garb of his sect,
with no military parade or arms, met the assembled delegates of the
Indian tribes. From the tribes on the waters of the Delaware came
the clans of that name; Shawnees from the interior, and the stately
Conestogas from the Susquehanna, all met beneath the wintry sky and
the leafless branches of the elm. Distinguished simply by his blue
silk sash, Penn addressed them, not to purchase lands, but to form the
covenant of friendship which he had offered.
“We meet,” he said, “on the broad pathway of good works and
good will ; no advantage shall be taken on either side, but all shall be
openness and love. I will not call you children, for parents sometimes
chide their children too severely; nor brothers only, for brothers
differ. The friendship between me and, you I will not compare to a
chain ; for that the rains might rust, or the falling tree might break.
We are the same as if one man's body were to be divided in two parts;
we are all one flesh and blood.”
The children of the forest were touched by these words of peace,
190 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
and from that day to this, the Indian has recognized in the Quaker a
friend indeed. They received the presents of Penn with sincerity, and
with hearty friendship they gaye the highest and most solemn guar-
antee known to the eastern tribes, the belt of wampum &
Thus was the foundation of Pennsylvania laid: peace with the
Indians, liberty and toleration for all. A General Convention met at
Chester in December, and framed the laws for the province. All were
free, all were equal ; no taxes were to be laid but by law; every man
could vote, and, without regard to religion, could be elected to office.
Sunday was to be a day of rest, and stage-plays, bull-baits, and cock-
fights were prohibited. -
Having selected a site for his city, Penn bought the land of the
Swedish settlers who occupied it, and on a neck of land between the
Schuylkill and Delaware, well suited for a town by the convenience of
the rivers, the firmness of the land, the pure springs and healthy air, he
in January, 1683, laid out his city, to which he gave the name of
Philadelphia, meaning Brotherly Love.
Vast were the hopes of Penn, but he little dreamed of its future
greatness; that in less than a century it was to be the cradle of a great
Republic, Soon to bear its starry flag from ocean to ocean.
In two years Philadelphia had grown from four little cottages to six
hundred houses, and the schoolmaster and the printing-press had
begun their work. &
Having given his colony the form and impulse his amiable heart
desired, and erected a modest brick house for himself, Penn returned
to England in 1684, bidding a touching farewell to the colonists and to
the virgin city Philadelphia.
In Virginia, after the restoration of the royal power under Charles
THE UNITED STATES. 191
II., the aristocratic feelings recovered, and the Church of England
was established, and maintained by laws almost as severe as those
which upheld Congregationalism in New England. The Governor,
Sir William Berkeley, bore himself very haughtily, and much discon-
tent prevailed. At last Indian troubles gave it an occasion to show
itself.
The Conestogas, or Susquehannas, as they are sometimes called,
from the river on which they dwelt, had, after a long war, been
disastrously defeated by the Senecas and other Iroquois tribes, and
driven down into Maryland and Virginia. In the confusion of their
hasty entrance into these colonies, several outrages were committed,
which were charged upon them, but were more probably the work of
the Senecas. +
Some of the Conestoga chiefs met a party of settlers to justify them-
selves and make terms of peace, but the settlers, in the heat of passion,
murdered them. Old Berkeley rebuked this sternly. “If they had
killed my father and my mother, and all my friends, yet if they had
come to treat of peace, they ought to have gone in peace.”
The crime brought terrible consequences. The wretched Conesto-
gas, finding those among whom they sought a refuge to be as great
enemies as the Senecas, commenced a war in earnest, and from Mount
Vernon to the falls of the James they roamed, slaying and devastating,
till they deemed their dead chiefs avenged. Then they offered peace,
but the colonists rejected it. Other Indian tribes who had wrongs to
complain of now followed the example of the Conestogas, and Virginia
was plunged into the horrors of Indian war.
The Governor and his aristocratic associates did nothing to allay the
storm ; but the people rose. Choosing as a leader Nathaniel Bacon a
192. A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
brave and eloquent young planter, they demanded leave to rise and
protect themselves. Berkeley haughtily refused.
Where the James River leaps into the low-lands, lay the plantation
of the enthusiastic popular leader. The savage enemy made a dash
here, and killed several of his men. He had declared that if another
white man fell he would raise troops without authority. Five hundred
men soon rallied to his standard, and he marched against the Indian
foe. Berkeley proclaimed them rebels, and raised troops to pursue
them, but the people, tired of the tyranny of the Governor and
Assembly, rose and compelled the Governor to dissolve the Assembly.
Bacon, having driven off the Indians, returned in triumph, was elected
to the Assembly, and made Commander-in-Chief. This legislature
passed many acts to secure the liberties of the people, but Berkeley
refused to sign Bacon's commission. That young leader, fearing
treachery, withdrew, and returned at the head of an armed force.
The old Cavalier met them undaunted. Baring his breast, he cried,
* A fair mark, shoot | * “I will not,” replied Bacon, “hurt a hair of
your head, or of any man's ; we are coming for the commission to save
our lives from the Indians.” g
Berkeley finally yielded, and Bacon, after rebuking the Council for
the exorbitant taxes, abuses of Government, and the misery of the
country, obtained a regular commission. At the head of his eager
soldiers he drove the Indians from their lurking-places in forests and
swamps, and was about to bring the war to a close by a vigorous cam-
paign, when Berkeley proclaimed him a traitor. Bacon appealed to
the people, and a general rising answered his call. Berkeley fled, but,
raising some troops and Indians, by aid of the English ships then in
Virginia waters, he returned to Jamestown and again proclaimed
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A CHILD’s HISTORY. 195
Bacon a traitor. That popular leader was soon before the place with
his forces. Under the mild light of a September moon, a rude in-
trenchment was thrown up. Berkeley's motley horde lost heart, many
fled to the ships, the rest deserted the town, and Bacon entered. Fear-
ful that he could not hold it against the reinforcements that Berkeley
might receive from England, Bacon set fire to the village, two of his
chief adherents applying the torch to their own houses. The little
church, the new State House, soon caught, and the cradle of Virginia,
with all its recollections, was soon a mass of flames. To Berkeley's fleet,
anchored twenty miles below the town, it proclaimed the determination
of Virginians to be free, even at the sacrifice of all they possessed.
The ruins of the church-tower that survived, still stand as a monu-
ment to mark the spot connected with the names of Gosnold, Smith,
Powhatan, Pocahontas, and Bacon.
When Bacon came up to the opposing army, there was no battle.
The Governor's troops joined him. In the midst of his triumph,
Bacon fell sick and died. The people were left without a leader.
Berkeley, securing some capable men, defeated parties of the popular
troops, and hanged Hansford, a gallant young planter, who fell into his
hands. Others followed to the gallows, till twenty-two of the best and
purest men in Virginia had perished. Others died in prison. Every-
where estates were confiscated and people driven from their homes.
Virginia was filled with wretchedness, misery, and tears. When
tidings of this vindictive cruelty reached England, the kind-hearted
Charles II. exclaimed : “The old fool has taken away more lives in
that naked country, than I for the murder of my father.”
A squadron took out English troops to Virginia, the first who ever
entered an American province. Sir William Berkeley returned to
196 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
England, but Bacon's movement left Virginia with less freedom than it
had before.
Maryland enjoyed comparative quiet during the reign of Charles II., e.
and though one of its officers was concerned in the killing of the Sus-
quehanna chiefs, the colony condemned him, and avoided war.
Pennsylvania was not the only new colony which dates from this
reign. A number of English noblemen, anxious to be lord proprietors
in America, obtained, on the 24th of March, 1663, a grant for the
Province of Carolina, extending from the thirty-sixth degree of north
latitude to the river San Matheo, since called the St. John. Lord
Clarendon, the Duke of Albemarle, Lord Ashley Cooper, Sir William
Berkeley, and Sir George Carteret, whose names we have met already
with Lord Berkeley, and Sir John Colleton formed this body of pro-
prietors.
The land was not wholly unoccupied. Settlers from New England
had planted themselves there, and from time to time Virginians had
explored it and attempted settlements. These new colonists purchased
lands from the Indians, and were framing a simple government for
themselves. Berkeley, acting as Governor of Virginia, and one of the
proprietors of Carolina, appointed as Governor of the Virginia pioneers
William Drummond, who convened the first Assembly of northern
Carolina, and organized the Government in 1666.
The year before, Sir John Yeamans was appointed by the proprietors
Governor of a party of settlers from Barbadoes, who purchased a tract
on Cape Fear River, near the New England settlers.
Elated by the progress of colonization, the proprietors obtained a
new Charter, giving them a vast territory extending to the Pacific
Ocean. Then the philosopher Locke drew up a Constitution and laws
THE UNITED STATES. 197
for this great territory, in which there were to be nobles of different
ranks, proprietaries, landgraves, and caciques. William Sayle was
appointed the first Governor, but it was found impossible to put in
force the laws that seemed So wise to philosophers and statesmen in
England. At last the proprietaries wrote to the colonists, “Settle
order among yourselves.”
Sayle's party of emigrants touched at Port Royal, and then settled,
in 1670, on the Ashley River, at the first high land. This was the
commencement of South Carolina. But the spot was not favorable for
commerce, and on the neck of land between the Ashley and Cooper
Rivers soon grew up a town, called, in honor of the King, Charleston.
IEmbowered in evergreen trees, with flowers of rich perfume, it was
long a spot that attracted settlers in spite of its unhealthy air.
If the proprietaries did not establish their elaborate laws, they did
encourage emigration, and settlers poured in from New England and
New York, from Barbadoes, and from England, Ireland, Scotland, and
Holland. Then came the Huguenots, expelled from France by Louis
XIV. -
To mould all these different classes into one community was not
easy, but it was finally accomplished, and perhaps the pretensions of
the proprietaries hastened it, for in a little while all the settlers agreed
to oppose them and their authority.
198 - A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
CHAPTER II.
Reign of James II.-James projects a Union of the Colonies—New York invaded—Connec-
ticut and the Charter Oak—Indian Troubles in Maine—Fall of James—Reign of William III.
—Andros seized—Old Governments resumed in New England—William neglects America
—Sad Condition of New York—Leisler—Indian Wars—Waldron—Lachine—Schenectady—
Salmon Falls—Casco—Phips fails to take Quebec—William sends a Governor to New York
—-Leisler refuses to submit—Taken—Hanged—New Charter for Massachusetts—The Witch
Trials—Captain Kidd.
JAMES II., Duke of York, came to the throne of England on the
death of his brother, Charles II., in 1684. As a Catholic he was
distasteful to the people of England, and it was evident that his reign
would be short. Under other auspices he might have been one of the
best English rulers. He was a brave and capable commander, well
acquainted with the commerce of England, and one of the few Kings
who took a real interest in American affairs.
One of his projects was to unite the colonies together. When he
became King he was proprietor of New York; Massachusetts was a
royal province ; Connecticut and Rhode Island had just been organized
under charters. He united Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and
the Narragansett country under Joseph Dudley as Governor; and he
prepared to annex other colonies to this new government. Then, for
the first time, the service of the church established by law in England,
was performed in Boston.
Dongan, the Governor of New York, was busy checking the French,
who, provoked by the raids of the Five Nations, invaded the Seneca
country with a considerable force, led by the Marquis de Denonville,
Governor of Canada.
The Senecas met him on his way inland, and for a time a fierce battle
raged. Soldiers from the battlefields of Europe, Canada militia, fron-
THE UNITED STATES. 199
tiersmen, Indian allies of the French, representing tribes from the
shores of Maine to the shores of Lake Superior, all met to do battle
with the Iroquois on the soil of New York. The action was sharp, and
many noted braves fell, but the Iroquois drew off, and the French
entered their ruined towns. Denonville then restored La Salle's fort
on the Niagara, and claimed all western New York. Dongan supported
his allies with arms and ammunition, and endeavored to win the
western tribes to England.
James, a more patriotic Englishman than his careless brother,
Charles II., supported Dongan, and when the French King complained,
insisted that the Iroquois were his subjects, and that as such he would
protect them. The French proposed, and James agreed to, a perfect
neutrality in America in case of future war.
Following up his plan of forming the colonies into one powerful gov-
ernment, James had sent out the active and capable Sir Edmund Andros,
as Governor General of the Territory and Dominion of New England.
He landed in Boston in December, 1686, with an imposing force of
British troops. One of his first steps was to induce Connecticut to sur-
render her Charter into his hands, so that he could make that province
part of his territory. He soon after, in pursuance of instructions based
on erroneous reports that Connecticut had submitted, left Boston with
several of his council, and some sixty grenadiers as his guard. For
the first time such a retinue dashed in its pomp and glitter through the
New England woods.
At Hartford the General Court was in session, and Andros called
for the surrender of the Charter, which the people prized so dearly.
A pleasing tradition was long kept alive by the reverence paid
to the famous tree at Hartford, called the Charter Oak, which braved
200 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
the winds till it was blown down in a great storm in August, 1856.
The story is that after Andros had secured one copy of the Charter,
and all were looking on in sadness and gloom, the lights were suddenly
extinguished as Andros stretched out his hand to grasp the other.
There was delay in relighting the hall, and then the Charter had van-
ished. Lieutenant Joseph Wadsworth had secretly carried it off and
hidden it in the hollow of this old oak. But there are doubts as to
this story, and though the Charter was probably concealed in the tree,
Wadsworth had apparently secured it previous to the coming of
Andros. -
Dongan's experience and his warnings now induced James to con-
solidate, if possible, all the English colonies into one, so as to give the
Indians a greater idea of English power, and more easily check the
French. New Jersey was also placed under Andros, and then New
York, so that all the colonies from the fortieth degree, except Penn-
sylvania, were incorporated into one vast province as the Dominion of
New England. Sir Edmund Andros was the Viceroy, and Captain
Francis Nicholson, Lieutenant Governor. -
Like Dongan, Andros eagerly watched the French, and sent the
Rose frigate to Penobscot to break up a French settlement and trading-
post of the Baron de St. Castin. The property of that nobleman was
seized and carried off, and the act cost New England dearly. St.
Castin, or Castine, as the English settlers called him, had come over to
Canada as a young ensign in a French regiment. When it was dis-
banded he had grown to like the New World, so he wandered off to
the coast of Maine, and planted his tent among the Indians on the
Penobscot. He liked them so well that he married a daughter of
Madockawando, and exerted immense influence over the Indians all
*
A CHILD’s HISTORY. 203
along the coast, and thus carried on a very large and profitable trade.
The Indians considered him as one of their great chiefs, and looked
upon the injury done him as a wrong against them, which they resolved
to retaliate. -
While Andros was at Albany, looking after the Indian affairs of
New York, tidings came that troubles had arisen at Penobscot. The
Indians had risen, and Massachusetts sent a force to put them down.
Andros, anxious to avoid a war, hastened across the country to Boston,
and raising a force of eight hundred men, went to Maine in the depth
of winter, sharing all the hardships of the troops, though many perished
on the march. - -
The Indians fled to the woods, and the troops were unable, after all
their hardships, to bring them to action. Andros was now reaping the
harvest he had sown. The whole coast of Maine was in danger, and
to secure the scattered settlements, he planted a number of garrisons
along the coast.
James was no longer on the English throne. His nephew and son-
in-law, William, Prince of Orange, had invaded England and been
acknowledged as King, with Mary as Queen.
Utterly unlike James, William seems to have taken no interest in
American affairs, and he was not, like James, a man to busy himself
with them. Instead of dispatching definite instructions at once to all
the American colonies, he acted with hesitation, and showed no care or
promptness. He left everything in confusion.
.This was the cause of terrible troubles and border-Wars on this side
of the Atlantic.
When the Revolution took place in England, Andros was still in
Maine. He returned to Boston. There a revolution also took place.
204 A. CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Seeing it hopeless to attempt to maintain his authority, Andros was on
his way to embark on the Rose frigate, when he was induced to meet
Bradstreet and others at the council chamber. There he was arrested
and thrown into prison.
A Council of Safety assumed the Government in Massachusetts.
Plymouth reinstated its old Governor and its old Administration.
Connecticut brought out her hidden Charter, and Governor Treat
resumed his duties. . . .
Opening the dispatches addressed by William to Andros, the Council
of Safety proclaimed William and Mary.
No colony, indeed, made any resistance, but troubles took place in
New York and Maryland. In the last, as no instructions arrived, the
deputies of Lord Baltimore hesitated to proclaim William and Mary.
But an association was formed, headed by a disreputable man named
John Coode, who was soon after indicted and fled. A revolution took
place, a Government was formed which William sanctioned, and
finally, in 1691, he made Maryland a royal province, appointing Sir
Lionel Copley Governor.
In New York matters were even more serious. Nicholson, the
Lieutenant Governor, finding that Andros was a prisoner, sought in
vain to obtain his release. He convened the Common Council of the
city, and, to quiet the people, proposed that part of the city militia
should mount guard in the fort. One of the seven militia captains,
Jacob Leisler, saw an opportunity to raise himself. Ignorant, fanatical,
ambitious, he began by letters and speaking to excite distrust and
trouble. In a little while half the people of New York believed that
Nicholson had threatened to burn New York and massacre the
people.
·
THE FAMoUs CHARTER OAK AT HART FORD, CONNECTICUT-


THE UNITED STATES. 205
A slight quarrel about a sentinel soon brought things to a point.
Never had New York been so excited. The drums were beat, and the
citizens appeared in arms. Leisler's company entered the fort and
took possession. It was at first agreed that the various captains should
command in turn, but Leisler soon had all in his own hands, proclaimed
the Prince of Orange, and the people supposed that it was to be again
a Dutch colony.
Nicholson, finding himself stripped of all power, sailed for England.
Bayard and other members of the Council retired to Albany, and
attempted to organize Government there. Leisler then had himself
appointed by his men Commander-in-Chief of the province, and
addressed a letter to William and Mary.
England and France were now at war, and both parties claiming
rule in New York were full of fight. At Albany the Five Nations
were encouraged to war on the French. The treaty of neutrality
effected at the wish of Louis XIV. was disregarded, and the colonists
sought a war with Canada, and were ready to use the Indians against
that province.
This was one of the most unfortunate steps in our history. All the
horrors which for many years desolated our frontiers, might have been
avoided.
The French wished peace and wished to avoid Indian hostilities.
Finding that they must have war, they went to work with a will.
The garrisons established by Andros in Maine had been withdrawn.
The Indians, siding with the French, chanted the war-song from the
Connecticut to the St. John's. Waldron's treachery had never been
forgotten, and was now to be avenged.
One stormy night some squaws came to the garrison houses at
206 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Cocheco, asking shelter till morning. No tidings of the coming war
had reached Waldron, so they were carelessly admitted.
At midnight they threw open the doors, and the Pennacook braves
rushed in, shrieking and yelling. Many were cut down at once; but
every Indian thirsted to reach Waldron. The old man, wakened by
the noise, leaped out of bed. “What now what now 7" he cried, as
he rushed on the Indians, sword in hand. So fierce was his rush that
they gave way before him, but as he turned to get other arms, they
sprang on him, struck him down senseless, and then dragged him to the
hall.
There they seated him in a chair on top of a table, and exclaimed,
“Who shall judge Indians now 7" After a time they surrounded him
again, brought out his books, and laid them on the table before him ;
then, in mockery of his way of trading, each Indian stepped up and
crying, “I cross out my account l” with his knife drew a deep gash
across the old man's breast ; and so they went on, till the veteran,
fainting from loss of blood, and murmuring “Oh Lord! oh Lord ' " fell
forward on a sword.
Cocheco was soon a mass of fire; house and mill alike sent up their
volumes of flame, lighting up the scene; twenty-two settlers lay dead,
and by the gleams of firelight the dusky warriors were seen hurrying
away nearly as many more prisoners.
A little girl, Seven years old, a grand-daughter of Major Waldron,
during the attack was sent by the Indians to an inner room to tell the
people to come out. She hid, but was found and dragged off, half
clothed and barefooted. Her sufferings were terrible : her Indian
master once was going to kill her, and actually set her up against a
tree and aimed at her; another time an Indian girl pushed her off a
THE UNITED STATES. 207
high rock into the river, and she nearly drowned, but she dared not
tell for fear of worse treatment. Once they stole off in the morning
and left her, covered with the Snow, alone in the woods. The poor
little thing went crying after them through the wilderness, tracing them
by their trail on the snow. Another time they made a great fire, and
threatened to roast her alive, but she ran to her master, and clasping
her little arms round his tawny neck, promised to be good, and
touched his heart.
Such were the horrors which the colonies brought on themselves,
when all might have been avoided.
The Five Nations, instigated by the people of New York, dealt a
still heavier blow on Canada. Fifteen hundred braves of the League,
with some English, all well armed, set out to invade Canada. Never
had such a force of red men taken the field. Through the forests they
marched to Lake Champlain, where they built their fleet of canoes.
No scouts warned the French of their approach. They glided down
with noiseless stroke into the St. Lawrence, and passed Lake St. Louis
during the fierce hailstorm that came on during the night of the fifth
of August. Their canoes soon ran silently on the shore at La Chine,
a few miles above Montreal. The little French village lay buried in
slumber. The war-whoop roused them to fall beneath the balls of the
Indians or their murderous hatchets. Men, women, and children per-
ished, and, firing the town, the Indians added to the horrors of the
scene, and prevented all escape. Here and there a brave man would
attempt to defend himself and those dear to him. Few escaped. Those
who fell into the hands of the Indians alive underwent every torture
that savage fury could invent. Children were put alive on spits, and
their mothers forced to turn them before a fire. All night long the
208 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
hideous Orgies and cruelties of the Indians continued. The Sun rose on
a scene of indescribable horror. Only two houses in the whole village
remained, and not a living inhabitant; all else was blood and ashes.
Two hundred people had perished ; a hundred and fifty more were
hurried off as captives.
Denonville, Governor of Canada, sent out Lieutenant Robeyre with
a detachment to hold Fort Roland. The Indians attacked it with such
fury that the little garrison were soon surrounded by dead. But it
was all in vain. The foe were countless, and the little band was thinned
till the brave Robeyre, faint and wounded, stood alone.
Du Luht, whose name has been given to a new town on Lake
Superior, was more successful, when encountering two canoes of Iroquois
on the Lake of the Two Mountains. Plying their paddles with hot
haste, the Iroquois rushed upon him. Du Luht forbade a man to
fire, and the Iroquois bullets, fired in haste, rattled harmlessly by.
Quick struck the paddles till the range was sure; then, at his word, his
deadly volley poured into the Iroquois canoes. Every bullet told.
Eighteen braves lay writhing in their riddled canoes; four plunged
into the water to seek safety by swimming, but of the whole band only
one escaped.
But all was alarm in Canada. Fort Frontenac was abandoned
and fired, and a mine with a slow match lit to blow it up. The
Indians, going to attack it, found ammunition and plunder to reward
them.
Four days after the attack on Lachine, a hundred Christian Indians
from a French mission on the Penobscot, appeared before Fort Pema-
quid, on the coast of Maine. Coming partly by sea, and partly by
land, they found the people utterly unprepared. They rushed furiously
A CHILD’s HISTORY. 211
through the village, breaking into the houses, and slaughtering all
before them.
Captain Weems in the fort opened fire with his cannon, but the
Indians took to some stone houses and behind a rock that jutted out.
A regular frontier fight began. Each watched his antagonists keenly,
and every exposed body was instantly a mark for a ball. At last the
sun began to decline, and wishing to close the matter at once, an
Indian summoned Weems to surrender.
“I.am tired,” replied the undaunted man ; “I am tired, and must
go to sleep.”
All night long the rattle of musketry was kept up, and with daylight
the fire into the fort was terrible. Weems, finding it hopeless, agreed
to capitulate, and the Indians allowed all who survived to march out
and embark. The Indians, with a self-restraint not often seen, stove
in a cask of rum which they found in the fort. -
All was now confusion at New York. King William, after Nichol-
son's return to England, sent out a letter addressed to him at New
York. Leisler opened it, and declared that it made him Lieutenant
Governor, and imprisoned all who opposed him. He harassed the
people of Albany in order to make them submit to his rule.
Amid all this confusion, Count Frontenac, the new Governor of
Canada, was preparing to avenge the bloody massacre of Lachine. In
the very heart of a Canadian winter, three expeditions of French and
Indians started out over the snow and ice. One from Montreal aimed
at Schenectady ; another, from Three Rivers, at Salmon Falls, and a
third, from Quebec, at the settlement on Casco Bay. -
Schenectady was the frontier town, and, in spite of the dangers of a
time of war, was merry as winter could make it. One Saturday after-
212 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
noon, Talmage, who commanded the little garrison in the fort, urged
the people to be cautious, as warnings had come. The people laughed
at his fears, and gayly spent the afternoon in their warm houses. The
gates of the palisades, even, were left open, and they set up snow men
there as mock sentinels.
While all this foolery was going on, the French and Indian force,
under Saint Helene and Manteht, were almost within gunshot.
Weary, hungry, and numbed with cold, they waited till every light
disappeared in the doomed village. At midnight they charged through
both gates at once into the place, and attacked Talmage's fort. The
war-whoop rang through the village ; houses were fired, and a general
slaughter ensued.
Stout Adam Vrooman defended his house like a hero, and the
French gave him quarter; they spared a widow's house, and endeav-
ored to save the minister, who was, however, killed. Sixty persons
were slain in that bloody night. Twenty-five escaped from the place,
and lighted by the glare of their burning houses, hastened almost naked
through the deep snows to Albany; one of the wounded, Simon
Schemerhorn, who had succeeded in finding a lame horse, reaching that
city early on Sunday morning, to terrify all with his fearful tidings.
The other expeditions of the French were equally successful. Her-
tel, with the men of Three Rivers, pushed on till his scouts recon-
noitred Salmon Falls, now Berwick, in New Hampshire. In three
parties they attacked three garrisoned houses, one supplied with
cannon. The yell of the Indian was met by a bold cheer; but one by
one the defenders fell, and the survivors surrendered. Then the in-
waders applied the torch. The settlement was in flames, and the In-
dians slaughtered on all sides the herds of cattle in the burning stables.
THE UNITED STATES. 213
The people of Portsmouth heard of the disaster, and gave chase to
the enemy. Hertel halted at the narrow bridge over Wooster River.
The brave New Englanders dashed over it, firing rapidly. Hertel,
trained to border fighting, let them approach and rushed upon them.
With terrible loss the men of Portsmouth were hurled back, and
Hertel continued his retreat.
The fort at Casco Bay was invested by Portneuf's party. Some of
them by night stole up almost to the gate, and lay in ambush. At
daybreak Robert Greason fell into the trap and was slain. The scalp-
halloo told the garrison of their danger ; fifty men boldly Sallied forth
to meet them. A desperate hand to hand fight followed. Only four
men out of fifty ever lived to re-enter the fort. Still the place held out,
but as Hertel joined him, Portneuf pushed the siege quickly, and at
last Casco surrendered.
All the northern colonies were now in consternation. The French
might rouse every Indian against them.
Leisler urged all the colonies to join in a union for the reduction of
Canada ; and, as their authority was no better than his, they agreed,
and the first North American Colonial Congress met at New York in
1690. They agreed to raise an army of eight hundred and fifty-five
men to conquer Canada. This seems a very insignificant force indeed;
and when Fitz-John Winthrop, the commander, reached Lake Cham-
plain and found the Indians dying of small-pox, and discontented, he
returned to Albany, and the whole expedition came to nothing, though
Captain John Schuyler, with some whites and Indians, made a bold
dash into Canada, and ravaged La Prairie, destroying houses, barns,
and cattle, killing and carrying off many of the French settlers.
Massachusetts fitted out a fleet under Phips to attack Port Royal,
214 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
a French post, now replaced by Annapolis, in Nova Scotia, intending,
if successful, to sail round into the St. Lawrence, and take Quebec.
No such fleet had ever sailed out of an American port, and the
greatest hopes were built on its success. Port Royal had before baffled
English attacks ; but when, on the 19th of May, 1690, the French
guards on the coast saw the fleet, they started in all haste to warn the
commander of the fort. - Despairing of being able to make any defense,
he capitulated, but Phips pillaged the place, demolished the chapel, and
treated the people harshly. They were never again to be long under
French rule, and their history is a very sad and pitiable one. War
had put them under a government that they could not love, and which
looked on them with dislike. i
Phips, flushed with victory, determined to attack Quebec. Storms
delayed him, and it was not till October 14th that he anchored with
thirty-four sail near that city. Frontenac, the Governor of Canada,
finding Montreal safe from Leisler's army, had hastened back to
Quebee, and had fortified it with great skill.
He was ready for the fight. In a little while a boat came rowing
from the New England fleet, the white flag flying at the bow. Before
it reached land a French boat met it, and received Phips' messenger,
who was blindfolded and led into the Castle of Quebec. The cunning
French led him by a roundabout way, so that he heard plenty of
soldiers marching, and rattling of guns, to make him think the place
was full of troops. When his bandage was taken off he stood in the
presence of the haughty old Count, who was surrounded by his officers
and the great dignitaries of the colony. He handed to Frontenac the
summons of Phips, and an insolent one it was, and taking out his
watch, said that he could not wait for his answer more than an hour.
* MA, or waidros’
s
GRAND-LAU-HTER.
+


THE UNITED STATES. 215
The French officers were furious ; but Frontenac sternly told him, “I
will not keep you waiting that long for my answer. Here it is. I
know no King William. . . I will answer your master by the mouth
of my cannon. Let him learn that this is not the way to summon a
man like me !” -
As soon as the boat with its white flag had carried the messenger
back to the New England fleet, the batteries of Quebec opened. One
of the first balls carried away Phips' flag, and it floated so near the
shore that a French boat ran out and secured it, and for many a day
it hung as a trophy in the old Cathedral.
Phips replied with the cannons of his ships, and landed his army
to attack the city, but the shore swarmed with Canadians and Indians,
who seemed innumerable. Every tree seemed to shelter an Indian
marksman. They bounded around the army, dodging from rock to
rock, from tree to tree. At last Frontenac ordered up a battalion of
his regular troops, old French veterans, and Phips' army was forced
back to the water's edge. - -
So it went on for several days, fighting on land, while the ships and
fortifications cannonaded each other furiously. At last, baffled on
shore, Phips withdrew his men, leaving his cannon to the French,
and with his shattered ships fell down the St. Lawrence. -
Canada, wild with exultation and joy, reared a church to Our Lady
of Victory, but Massachusetts heard the tidings with dismay. The
expense of the expedition had been enormous, and the expected plunder
did not come to pay it. For the first time paper money was issued.
Massachusetts, having no money, printed promises to pay.
In New York the people tried to escape the cost by denying
Leisler's power to impose taxes. -
216 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Amid all these troubles, King William had sent over no Governors,
no instructions. The American colonies were all acting for themselves.
It seems as if he cunningly wished them to be weakened and ruined.
At last he appointed Colonel Sloughter Governor of New York, with
Major Richard Ingoldsby as Lieutenant Governor, but they did not
Sail from England till December, and then Sloughter went to Bermuda,
So that Ingoldsby arrived first at New York. He demanded possession
of the fort for the King's forces and their stores. Leisler was very
angry at the demand, and, provoked to find that some of the old
Council were reappointed, refused to give up the fort. * - -
Ingoldsby then landed his troops with great caution, and quartered
them in the Stadt House, or City Hall. The Council appointed by
Ring William, except two whom Leisler kept in prison, met, but the
Governor did not arrive.
Leisler, however, was gathering men in his fort, and had his cannon
trained to bear on the city, so the Council summoned militia from the
other counties. Leisler then summoned the Lieutenant Governor to
disband his forces, and on his refusal opened fire upon them, himself
discharging the first cannon in this mad and desperate attempt. The
fire of the fort was returned, and several were killed in this civil War.
The next day the firing went on till news came that the frigate
Archangel was at the Narrows with Governor Sloughter on board.
Word was at once sent to him, and he came up in all haste. He read -
his commission, took the oaths, swore in the Council, and then sent to
demand the fort. Leisler still refused.
The next day Ingoldsby, by the Governor's command, advanced
and required all in the fort to ground their arms and march out, prom-
ising pardon to all but Leisler and his Council. Now, full of alarm at
A CHILD’s HISTORY. 219
the difficult position into which they had got, they all submitted.
Leisler and his chief adherents were imprisoned, and brought to trial.
Leisler and his son-in-law, Milborne, refused to plead, but they were
convicted of holding the King's fort against the King's Governor, and
sentenced to death. -
The whole colony was now greatly excited, some praying for the
prisoners' pardon, others clamoring for their punishment. The Indians
ascribed all the disasters to Leisler, and showed great hostility to him.
So Sloughter at last, by the advice of his Council, ordered their execu-
tion. It is said by some that he signed the death-warrant after being
well plied with wine at a dinner-party.
Amid a driving rain on Saturday, May 16, 1691, Leisler and Mil-
borne were conveyed from their prison to a gallows erected near the
present Sun Office. There, receiving the last consolations from
Domine Selyns, the Dutch minister, Leisler, whose word had for nearly
three years been law in New York, made his dying speech, and was
swung off as a felon. He and Milborne were buried at the foot of the
gallows.
For years after this, New York was distracted by the violent oppo-
sition of the Leisler and anti-Leisler parties.
William at last began to consider American affairs. After much
endeavor on the part of the New England agents, a new Charter was
drawn up for Massachusetts, but it was not altogether to the liking
of the people. The ideas of King James were to some extent shared
by William ; he, too, wished to consolidate the colonies and increase
the royal power. So Massachusetts under the new Charter was a pretty
large colony, as you will see on any map. It included the old Massa-
chusetts Bay and Plymouth, Maine, Nova Scotia, and all between them.
220 - A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
The people were no longer to elect their Governor, or appoint their
judges; the Governor was to be named by the King, and the Governor
and Council appointed the Judges. If any man felt dissatisfied with
the decisions of the highest court in Massachusetts, he could now appeal
to the Privy Council in England.
Every form of Christianity, except the Roman Catholic, obtained
freedom of worship, and in this point the Charter agreed with all others
issued at this time. Catholics were not admitted to the rights of their
fellow-Christians as long as the British rule lasted, nor were Jews more
than barely tolerated. *
The new Government in Massachusetts was no longer in the hands
of the Church, and from this time ceased to direct Ecclesiastical
matters; each church managed its own affairs. g
To please the people of the colony, William allowed the agents of
Massachusetts, the chief of whom was a famous minister, the Reverend
Increase Mather, to suggest names for the officers to be appointed by
the crown ; William Phips, who had been so unsuccessful at Quebec,
was accordingly appointed, and he came out in 1692 with the new
Charter.
The people were not very well pleased, but the new Government was
organized, with Phips as Governor.
Then commenced one of the strangest and most terrible affairs that
ever occurred in the country, the Witchcraft Delusion in New England,
in which many innocent persons perished ; and after all, some little
Scamps of deceitful children were at the bottom of it all.
The first important case in which a person was tried for witchcraft,
was that of a woman named Glover, in 1688. She was one of the
thousands of poor Irish people who had been torn from their own homes
THE UNITED STATES. 221
and sold as slaves in America. She had defended her daughter
against a charge of stealing made by the daughter of John Goodwin, a
girl of thirteen. This girl, to secure revenge, pretended to be be-
witched by Glover. Three others of the family joined her. Instructed
apparently in tricks taught them by Indian nurses, they pretended to
be deaf, then dumb, then blind, then they would all purr like so many
cats. Ministers were called in, and poor old Mrs. Glover, “the wild
Irishwoman,” was arrested. One way of trying the witches was to
make them say the Lord's Prayer. The poor creature said it in Irish;
but they could not tell whether she said it right or not ; she said it in
Latin, but, being a poor ignorant creature, made a few mistakes; but *
in English she could not say it, for the simple reason that it was
not her language; she had learned it after a fashion in New England,
but no one had taught her English prayers. So, says our great histo-
rian Bancroft, the ministers and Goodwin's family had the satisfaction
of getting her condemned as a witch and executed, for she was only a
friendless emigrant.
It is horrible to think that children could have played such pranks
as brought this poor woman to such a terrible death.
For a time, political affairs kept this witchcraft business back, but in
1692 it began again, and again children were at the bottom of it. The
family of the Reverend Samuel Parris, minister in Salem village, was
the next field. They had an Indian slave named Tituba, with whom
the children were a great deal. She taught them a number of tricks—to
imitate fits, frothing at the mouth, ventriloquism, and many of the arts
of the Indian medicine-men, and filled their minds with all manner of
superstitions. When they began to do their pranks before their
parents, a doctor was called in ; as he could make nothing of it, he
222 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
said they were bewitched. Mr. Parris had been at variance with some
of his people, and the cry was raised that his children were bewitched.
Immediately people around were accused as witches, and conviction -
and death came much quicker after accusation than they do in our days.
Martha Corey did not believe there were any witches, so she was
accused and hung ; the Nurses, Cloyses, and Mr. Putnam left the
church in disgust, Rebecca Nurse was hung, Sarah Cloyse imprisoned,
and Putnam escaped only by making his house a fortress, and standing
ready to fight for his life. A poor old woman, Sarah Good, was
pointed out by the children as a witch, arrested, tried, and sentenced
to die. Even her little child, five years old, was also arrested as a
witch, and put in prison, loaded with heavy chains | While they were
dragging Sarah Good off, the cruel minister, Nicholas Noyes, told her
she was a witch, and she knew she was a witch. “You are a liar,”
cried the doomed woman, “and God shall give you blood to drink.”
Twenty-five years after, Noyes was seized with a bleeding from the
lungs, and died actually drinking blood!
Once the girls began they had to keep up, they went through all
their contortions, accused one and another, twisting into all possible
attitudes, stiffened as in death, crying out at intervals charges such as:
“There is the black man whispering in Cloyse's ear! There's a yellow
bird flying round her head.”
Every one present was moved with sympathy for these poor
children, some ten in all; and all eagerly clamored for the punishment
of the accused. Rebecca Nurse was a lady universally esteemed, the
jury acquitted her, but the Chief Justice kept them confined till they
found her guilty, so perfectly mad had people become.
Then the greatest victim came : George Burroughs, minister of
THE UNITED STATES. 223
Salem before Mr. Parris, and, in fact, his rival. He was a man of
herculean strength, and had often amused his friends by feats showing
his immense power. He is said to have put his finger into the barrel
of a gun, and held the weapon out at arm's length. All this was now
brought out as proof of diabolical power. He was tried, hung, and
buried beneath the gallows.
Old Giles Corey would not plead, that is, would not answer “Guilty”
or “Not Guilty.” For refusing to plead, the punishment in those days
was fearful. It was to be pressed to death. And Giles Corey was
pressed to death. A large board was placed on his breast as he lay
flat on the ground, and weights laid on, increasing till he died, three
mouthfuls of bread being given him the first day, and three sups of
water from the nearest stagnant pool the next, and so on to the end.
The horrors of these scenes roused protests in New England and
abroad. People began to think. They shuddered at what they had
done. The girls soon showed by their lives what they really were.
One, Ann Putnam, repented and confessed.
Such was the great witchcraft delusion of New England, in which a
lot of good-for-nothing children led the most learned and shrewdest
men of New England to murder innocent people.
Before this horrid work stopped, twenty people were executed, fifty-
five more were sentenced to death, and the prisons contained a
hundred and fifty more awaiting trial.
King William sought to control the colonies by a new method. He
made Fletcher, the royal Governor of New York, Commander-in-Chief
of the militia of Connecticut. The people opposed this as a violation
of their Charter, and were not disposed to submit. -
One pleasant day in October, 1693, Fletcher appeared in Hartford
224 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
to read his commission and assume authority. William Wadsworth,
the senior captain, was drilling the train-bands on the village green,
when Fletcher advanced and bade Bayard of New York read his com-
mission. Before the first word could reach the ears of the militia,
Wadsworth ordered the drums to beat. Fletcher commanded silence,
and once more Bayard began to read. Once more the drums beat.
“Silence l’ exclaimed Fletcher. “Drum, drum ! I say,” shouted
Wadsworth, adding, as he turned to the Governor of New York, “If
I am interrupted again I will make the sun shine through you in a
moment!” The cowardly Fletcher, awed by a gasconading threat of
an old country militia captain, retired fuming and storming, and his
royal master explained his orders so as to leave Connecticut in peace.
New England had suffered so severely in the campaigns against
Canada, that they made no further attempt to wrest that province from
the French. But the New Yorkers were bolder. A small force of
colonists and Indians, under Peter Schuyler, marched stealthily up
through the woods of northern New York, and entering Canada,
approached La Prairie, a little village opposite Montreal. A consider-
able French force was stationed in a fort here, and a body of Indians
lay near it. Schuyler, however, resolved to strike a blow. Favored
by the darkness, his men stole silently along, and were almost up to
the fort just as the first light of day began to appear in the east, when
a French sentinel caught sight of them. He fired his piece and called
“To Arms.” The soldiers had had a merry-making, deeming their
enemies in New York. Confusion reigned supreme.
The sentinel's alarm roused them all. He was a brave man, and
firing again, killed a Mohawk Indian, but was himself cut down. On
dashed Schuyler and his men into the quarters of the Canadian militia.
44%.
-

ADrder of Lieut. Gov. Leiſler, with 2lutograph and stal.
By The Liev Governr &c.
AHESE are in his Majties name to Will & Require you to forwarne & forbid all
T #ſons in yo' Bayliwick to go on board ye Ship Jacob Win Maffon Comandr &
that you forthwº Cauſe good & true Watch to be kept that no #ſon goes aboard of him
weh may pilote him through 'helgate & if any #ſon refuſe to obey you that him or them
you ſeize & bring before me to anſwer for their Contempt. Given under my hand &
ſeale this 3o 8ber in yº Second Year of their Majº Reigne 1690.
To ye Conſtables of harlem & bouwery Cºcºa.
㺠- º
LEISLER's PROCLAMATION.


A CHILD’s HISTORY. 227
An irregular fire met them, but the militia and Ottawas soon broke.
St. Cyrque, the French commander, brought up his regulars, but
Schuyler formed his men and poured in a deadly volley that made the
valley echo. St. Cyrque was mortally wounded, and several gallant
officers beside him ; but he would not leave the field. Other troops
coming up, at last forced Schuyler from his position, and he drew off,
fighting those sent in pursuit. But a brave French party got between
him and his boats, and, well covered by trees, kept up a desperate
fight. It was frontiersman and Indian against frontiersman and Indian.
Every tree was a cover, and every man, on either side, that was
exposed for a moment became a mark. It was at last a hand to hand
fight, and a deadly one. Paul, a celebrated Huron, and young Le
Bert were killed on the French side, and Schuyler reached his boats
only after terrible loss, and without flag or baggage. -
The Mohawks soon after defeated a French party at the Long
Rapid, on the Ottawa ; so that Frontenac resolved to punish their
aggressions. In January, 1693, a French force on snow-shoes marched
down through the desolate land, and destroyed the three Mohawk
villages, meeting a desperate resistance at one of them, and being hotly
pursued on their homeward march. It was a terrible undertaking to
attempt to carry on Warfare in such a season. There was no hope for
the wounded or weary.
Then there was a series of Indian raids, and proposals of peace, but
finding them all come to nothing, Frontenac marched with a large force
of French regulars, militia, artillery, and Indians of a host of different
tribes, to attack Onondaga. Fort Frontenac had been restored, and from
it this great army set out. It landed at the mouth of the Oswego, and
marched up, dragging the cannon by hand, and the boats too at the falls.
228 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Night came on before they reached Onondaga, but a bright light
reflected from sky and woodland told that the Onondagas had fired
their town and fort, and retired. When the French reached it there
was nothing but smouldering ruins. The vast expedition was useless;
there was no enemy to fight. One old man, found in the woods, was
tortured by them with fearful cruelty.
Wandreuil, leading a detachment to Oneida, burned the fort and
villages of that tribe, rescued many French prisoners, and cut down all
their corn.
This was the last French invasion of what is now New York. They
had at different times ravaged all the cantons but one, but had not done
the Five Nations any great injury, or broken their spirit. Had France
been able to hold the territory of these fierce Indians, the struggle of
the colonists against them would have been a doubtful one. The
Canadians were good fighters, and their frontiersmen took readily to
Indian ways, and in the border fights were dreaded by the English
colonists and Indians. At New York the people and the Indians
began to think they would do better to avoid fighting. º
New England, however, suffered most in this war. The Abenaqui
tribes had received so much injustice at the hands of the colonists, that
they were implacable. Led by a French officer named Willieu, they
swept like a torrent through the country. Oyster River, now Durham,
New Hampshire, was first attacked, and the stout garrison-houses were
surrounded by the whooping, yelling foe. In spite of the stubborn
defense every place was carried and destroyed. -
Taxus, one of the chiefs, even dashed into Massachusetts with a band
of fifty braves, and came like a whirlwind on Groton. Lieutenant
Lakin's house was the first attacked. A sheet of flame and a volley
THE UNITED STATES. 229
repulsed them, but on they came with fierce yells and stubborn deter-
mination. They carried it at last, and hurried off with a dozen
prisoners, leaving twenty Scalped and weltering in their blood.
, The colonists burned to avenge these raids, but having seized some
Indians who came to Fort Pemaquod with a flag of truce, the Indians
and French invested that fort in 1696. Chubb, the commander, when
summoned to surrender, replied that if the sea were covered with
French vessels, and the land with Indians, he would not surrender.
But Iberville's ships and St. Castin's skill were too much for him ; just
before the enemy were ready to storm the place, Chubb surrendered.
Fort Pemaquod was then utterly destroyed.
Three Massachusetts ships, proceeding to attack St. John, had
already been met by Iberville, who, with his French and Micmacs,
engaged them and captured the Newport, of twenty-four guns, to the
great dismay and indignation of Massachusetts, who had always con-
trolled the Sea.
The war between England and France, known in this country as
King William's War, lasted till 1697, when a treaty of peace was
made at Ryswick.
King William's war did not affect the more southerly colonies, but
they did not find that monarch more favorable to their liberties than
James. In a most arbitrary fashion William deprived Penn of Penn-
sylvania, and Lord Baltimore of Maryland, making them, like almost
all other provinces, royal colonies. Penn was even arrested in Eng-
land, and imprisoned more than once, but the noble old man trusted
to the justice of his cause. The royal Governor sent to Pennsylvania
had a sorry time of it, and Penn was at last allowed to return. Penn
was ready to meet the wishes of the people. He invited them “to
230 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
keep what was good in the Charter, to lay aside what was burdensome,
and to add What may best suit the common good.”
Gradually a new government was formed that was acceptable. But
the three counties on the Delaware had organized a separate govern-
ment under William Markham in 1691, and they were jealous of their
independence. They did not wish to be annexed to Pennsylvania
again, and they succeeded. T.
The new government of these colonies was full of liberty and tolera-
tion.
Maryland, under the royal sway, underwent many changes. The
seat of government was removed from St. Mary’s to Annapolis. The
Episcopal Church was established by law, and, though some toleration
was gradually given, the Catholics who had founded the colony were,
down to the time of our own glorious Revolution, deprived of all rights
as citizens, and their religion proscribed. Lord Baltimore finally, to
regain his power in Maryland, became a member of the Church of
England.
But while William encouraged intolerance in the provinces, and
apparently liked to see the colonists adverse to each other on religious
grounds, he did not like them to claim their liberties. g
Whenever the Maryland Legislature wished to claim the privileges
of the Great Charter of England—the Magna Charta extorted from
King John—or passed any Bill of Rights and Liberties, William
vetoed it. -
Virginia, under Nicholson and Andros, who were so unpopular in
New England, prospered. Andros first collected the records of the
colony, and thus saved materials for its history, and established a Post-
office to diffuse more readily information through the province.
THE UNITED STATES. 231
Nicholson, in 1691, conferred a lasting benefit on Virginia by found-
ing William and Mary College, which, next to Harvard, is the oldest
in the country. It became the great seat of learning for the southern
colonies, and from its walls came forth the noblest patriots of the next
century.
During the reign of William and Mary the Carolinas were in a
constant turmoil of dissension, but it all turned to toleration and free-
dom. It had a season of happiness while the honest Quaker Archdale
was Governor; he brought all to his own peaceful and just ideas, and
won the friendship of the Spaniards by restoring to Florida Christian
Indians who had been torn from that province to be sold as slaves.
So, if we look at what was gained in America during the reign of
William and Mary, there is little to cheer us. At the North, bloody
and desolating border wars; civil strife in New York, Maryland, and
Carolina; a steady increase of royal power, with Governors established
under it; Admiralty Courts were established, the English laws of
trade were enforced, the Church of England established by law. It
did not look as if the people were working their way to freedom, but
they were. -
As soon as the peace left France free to carry on her plans in
America, Iberville, who had been so energetic at Fort Pemaquid, and
who, though a Canadian, was deemed one of the ablest commanders in
the French navy, was sent out to complete La Salle's last undertaking.
He reached the mouth of the Mississippi in 1700, with two frigates and
some other vessels, and explored the great river for some distance,
planting the French arms at the mouth. In May he began the first
French settlement on the Gulf of Mexico, at Biloxi, in the present
State of Mississippi. A fort was erected, and the colonists began to
232 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
clear and cultivate the soil. The colony did not prosper, the settle-
ment was moved to Mobile, and finally New Orleans was founded.
As in all other French colonies, missionaries at once began to labor
among the Indians, but their success was not great. The Indians of
the South showed little inclination. Missionaries were killed at dif-
ferent times, still they did some good; and Louisiana, though feebly,
grew at last to be a comparatively thriving colony.
Every few years some man is reported to be wasting time and
money hunting along the coasts of the Northern States for treasures
hidden away by Captain Kidd. If all the money spent in looking for
Kidd's money were put together, it would make an enormous fortune.
Captain Kidd was a real person, and he flourished at the time of
which we are writing. England had for many years encouraged men
who were little better than pirates—Hawkins, Drake, and others—to
plunder Spanish ships. The English colonies, as they grew up, found
it profitable to trade with pirate ships, who ran into their harbors to
obtain provisions and dispose of their plunder. Sometimes they had
letters of marque as privateers, from some European Sovereign then at
war, as a mask for their real object. Other expeditions were fitted
out directly from the colonies, and many wealthy families owe their
origin and importance to such shameful work.
At last, however, such complaints were made, that William III.
ordered the Earl of Bellomont, whom he had made Governor of New
York, to suppress piracy. It was resolved to get up an expedition,
and a ship was purchased by Bellomont, Robert Livingston, of New
York, and several Englishmen of rank. The object was about as bad
as piracy, for the King was to have one-tenth of the profits. Of this
ship, Kidd, who had distinguished himself in the West Indies, was
A CHILD’s HISTORY. 235
made captain, and he had two commissions, one to cruise against the
French, the other to proceed against the pirates in the American seas.
He sailed from England in the Adventure galley, and capturing a
French ship on the passage, brought her into New York. There he
gathered a larger crew, and sailed to the East Indies. Here he began
a series of indiscriminate attacks on any vessels that seemed worth
capture, and even attacked the Mocha fleet, though convoyed by two
men-of-War, one English and one Dutch. -
- Falling in with the ship Royal Captain, his crew wished to capture
it, but Kidd struck the leading mutineer, Moore, on the head with a
bucket, so that he died.
Soon after, however, he captured some Moorish vessels, and a very
rich Armenian ship, The Quedagh Merchant.
But news had now reached England of his career, and he was pro-
claimed a pirate. So he ran over to the West Indies, and leaving the
Quedagh Merchant, came to New York in the sloop Antonia, setting a
returned pirate with his plunder ashore in Delaware Bay. He landed
Some treasure on Long Island, and sent more to New York. Lord
Bellomont was in Boston, and Kidd wrote to him, offering to justify his
course. Bellomont induced him to come to that city, as Kidd, in fact,
did, with his wife and children, who had come from New York to join
him. There he was suddenly arrested, though not till he had made a
desperate fight, continued to the very presence of Bellomont, into
whose lodgings he rushed. All his property was seized, embracing
one thousand one hundred and eleven ounces of gold, two thousand
three hundred and fifty-three ounces of silver, with many jewels and
goods as valuable as the precious metals.
A ship of war soon bore him off to England; and as William made
236 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
a grant to the Earl of Bellomont and others of all the treasure taken
from Kidd, all concerned were anxious to have him put out of the way.
He was tried for killing Moore, and soon convicted, for he had no'
witnesses or counsel. He was hanged, and the odium attached to the
whole affair checked all piracy in America, as no one any longer
ventured to have anything to do with it.
How far Kidd was false to his instructions will never be known; but
he was evidently carrying out the views of the men of rank, who really
profited by his evil deeds. *
<>
CHAPTER III.
Reign of Queen Anne—She involves the American Colonies in the War of the Spanish suc-
cession.
Q
THE Treaty of Ryswick had enabled the English colonies in America
to repair their losses, and once again turn their attention to the peace-
ful arts of trade, agriculture, and manufactures. This happy time did
not last long. .’ -
On the death of William III., Anne, the second daughter of James
II., became Queen of England. She at once found herself involved in
a war that convulsed all Europe; a war to divide Spain, or at least to
prevent a French prince from ascending the throne of that country.
This war again plunged the American colonies into the most terrible
distress. England sent her fleets out on the ocean, and her armies to
the Continent, but English homes were as happy as ever. To the
colonist in America war was a very different thing, it left his home, the
º
~º
-


THE UNITED STATES. 237
fruit of long years of toil, it left his life, and the lives of his wife and
children, at the mercy of the Savages. -
In King William's War France was alone engaged ; in Queen Anne's,
Spain and France were united, so that there was danger from Florida
on the south, and Canada on the north.
South Carolina began the operations in America. James Moore, the
Governor, raised a considerable land and naval force to reduce
Florida. His land forces of militia and Indians under Colonel Daniel
attacked first the Spanish missions in Guale, now Amelia, and other
islands on the Georgia coast. The Indians here had been converted,
and in no small degree civilized, by the Franciscan missionaries. A
Quaker, wrecked on the coast, was taken from one village to another
till he got to Carolina, his whole party being kindly treated in all,
received in the large building in the centre of each town, used for
storing goods, holding their Indian councils, and entertaining travelers.
All these peaceful villages were ravaged by Moore, who killed many
of the people, and carried off great numbers as slaves, and three of the
missionaries as prisoners.
The Spaniards in St. Augustine, warned by tidings of this hostile
inroad, soon beheld this force at their gates, while a fleet of fourteen or
fifteen vessels prepared to attack them from the sea.
That ancient city, which had already suffered severely in olden time,
was again ravaged in November, 1702, the church and Franciscan
convent burned, and the little town almost completely laid in ashes.
But the Governor, Don Joseph de la Cerda, was a sturdy old
Spaniard, he threw himself into the castle, and bade defiance to the
enemy.
Moore had not guns heavy enough to reduce it. He sent to Jamaica
238 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
for aid, but the Spanish Viceroy of New Spain had been warned, and
as Spaniard and Carolinian looked eagerly to the Sea, one fair morning
in 1703, they saw the tapering masts of ships. Every heart throbbed
with anxious expectation. Slowly the vessels rise to view—two
Spanish men-of-war. All was dismay in the camp of Moore. To be
caught between the garrison, fierce to revenge their desolated city, and
the formidable force arriving, would be ruin. Abandoning his ships,
ammunitions, and stores, Moore began to retreat along the road
traversed years before by Menendez. With thinned ranks he re-
entered his own colony. Carolina was in dismay. The failure of the
expedition plunged them in debt, and, unable to pay it, South Carolina
issued paper money.
Burning to wipe away the disgrace, Moore prepared to strike at a
weaker point. On the Bay of Apalache were numerous towns of
Indians, converted and partially civilized by the Spanish missionaries.
The chiefs had learned to read and write. They were peaceful, con-
tented, and happy with their flocks and herds. Towards the close
of December, 1705, Moore, with fifty white men and a thousand
heathen Indians, burst like a furious torrent on this happy Christian
community. •
Ayavalla was first attacked, the church fired, the missionary killed,
and numbers of the Indians slain or hurried off to endure savage
tortures. Some few attempted to withstand the enemy, but they were
defeated. The Spanish commander with his little garrison hastened up
with such Indians as he could gather, but was repulsed. The whole
land was filled with blood and slaughter, and the trail of the retiring
army was marked by the corpses of the missionaries and their converts.
The Apalache nation was forever scattered.
THE UNITED STATES. 239
The next year a French fleet menaced Charleston ; but where the
French effected a landing they met a desperate resistance.
While Carolina was thus suffering from her unwisely rushing into a
European war, she had received a gift that was to be of great value.
A vessel from Madagascar, touching at Charleston, presented to the
Governor a bag of seed-rice. This does not seem as great an event in
history as a battle ; but from it grew one of the great staples of
Carolina—its valuable rice-fields.
When it became evident that another war was at hand, the northern
colonies acted differently. New York, although it had in the Five
Nations, or Iroquois, a powerful body of friendly Indians, who liked
War better than peace, felt little inclination to cope again with the
active French Canadians, who made up for lack of numbers by energy
and daring. The French were always disposed to remain neutral, and
let the mother countries fight out their own battles in Europe, so New
York and Canada agreed to keep quiet, and thus avoided all the
horrors of War. -
Dudley, Governor of Massachusetts, hesitated and finally refused, so
New England chose to fight the French alone. The Indians in Maine
were already in arms to avenge the plundering and injury done to
their chief, the young Baron de St. Castin.
When the French found that they must carry on the war, they went
to work as Moore did in the South; they raised bodies of militia and
Indians to attack New England. *
Lieutenant Beaubassin, with a flying corps, dashed through New
England like a meteor, ravaging and destroying. All the country
from Casco to Wells was in a conflagration. One wintry night in
March, Hertel de Rouville, with two hundred and fifty men, while the
240 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
sentinels at the little village of Deerfield, on the banks of the Connecticut,
were away from their posts, walked in snow-shoes over the drifted Snow
to the very top of the palisades intended to protect the little village.
Suddenly the fierce war-whoop rung out on the cold night air. The
danger against which they had been warned was upon them in all its
terror. Strong men seized their weapons and prepared to fight to the
last. The shrieking children were gathered by their mothers to avoid
the first rush of the savage foe, and gain time to appeal for mercy.
Each family must prepare for captivity or death.
Thirty-five of the people were killed, and numbers hurried off as
captives to Canada; a long weary march through snow and ice. Their
sufferings were terrible, and early accounts give a touching picture of
all they underwent.
Such cruelties are terrible, but New Englanders might have avoided
them, as New York did, and can blame only their own rulers. The
French did not consider it wrong for them to act as the English did in
Carolina.
The minister of Deerfield, the Rev. Mr. Williams, with his family,
were hurried away among the prisoners, and when Mrs. Williams'
strength failed she was tomahawked. When peace came he returned
to New England, but his youngest child, Eunice, remained with the
Indians, and finally married a chief. Long years after, in the dress of
an Indian squaw, she came to visit her relatives at Deerfield, but they
could not prevail upon her to stay ; she returned to her new home.
One of her descendants, Eleazar Williams, some few years ago made
quite a sensation by claiming to be really Louis XVII., the boy King
of France, who is said to have died in prison in France Soon after the
execution of his father, King Louis XVI.
THE UNITED
STATES.
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A CHILD'S HISTORY. 243
“In the following years Indians, singly or in bands, stealthily
approached towns in the heart of Massachusetts, as well as along the
coast, and on the southern and western frontiers.” Every forest seemed
known to them in all its intricacies, and not a spot in New England
was safe. “Children, as they gamboled on the beach ; reapers, as
they gathered the harvest ; mowers, as they rested from using the
scythe ; mothers, as they busied themselves about their household
duties, or sat singing to their innocent babes in the cradle beside them,
were victims to an enemy who disappeared the moment a blow was
struck,” and who was sure to be present the moment vigilance re-
laxed. ^e
In vain did the colonial government offer bounties for scalps. So
few were actually taken, that it has been estimated that every scalp
taken by New England in this war cost them three thousand dollars.
As the war went on, a council of Indian delegates was held at
Montreal in 1708, and a formidable expedition planned against New
England. But the plan was not carried out.
A small party under des Chaillons and Rouville, not finding the
other parties at the rendezvous at Lake Winnipiseogee, resolved to
strike a blow at Haverhill. This place was then a cluster of cottages
and log cabins round the meeting-house, almost hidden in the woods
that lined the banks of the gentle Merrimac. In a feeling of perfect
security all gave themselves to sleep one August night, little dreaming
that the neighboring wood concealed the dreaded foe. At daybreak,
after prayers, Rouyille gave the signal of attack, and they rushed into
the village, slaying all before them. Few escaped the first fire and
charge. The escape of Mary Wainwright was strange indeed. Her
husband was slain at the first fire ; but she fearlessly unbarred the door,
244 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
and with a cheerful countenance invited the Indians to enter. She pro-
cured readily all they asked for, and when they demanded her money,
she went to another room as if to get it, and gathering up all her
children but one, succeeded in escaping. 1 *
Two Indians approached Swan's house. With his wife he endeavored
to keep them from entering the door, which had no bar. But the two
stalwart Indians were too much for their strength ; the door yielded,
and Swan bade his wife fly, as he could hold out no longer. She was
not one to fly. Seizing a sharp-pointed spit from the wide fire-place, she
drove it into the exposed body of the foremost Indian, who was crowd-
ing through the half-open door. With a yell he bounded off, and his
comrade, equally dissatisfied, supported him with many expressive
Indian grunts, giving the Swans time to make their escape.
But Rouville was in a critical position: the noise of battle had
aroused the villages far and near, and from every town and hamlet
came hurrying bands of armed men, mounted and on foot. The French
party struck into the woods, but soon found their retreat intercepted.
Then a desperate fight ensued. Dashing down everything they bore
except their arms, the French and Indians dashed into the ambuscade.
The rifle rang out for a moment, but then it was a deadly fight, hand
to hand and man to man. With the loss of several of his officers,
x Hertel at last cut his way through and succeeded in reaching Canada,
though hotly pursued. -
: The colonies now implored Queen Anne to deliver them from such
scenes by sending a force sufficient to conquer Canada. They had
tried to reduce Port Royal, and failed before the vigorous defense of
Subercase. - - - - -
Vetch prepared the plan of a campaign, and a large force was raised
CAPTAIN
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THE UNITED STATES. 245
in the colonies. The Five Nations threw aside their neutrality, and
reluctantly agreed to join the English.
The army of the colonies gathered at Albany, and, under Nicholson,
once Lieutenant-Governor of New York, marched as far as Lake
Champlain. A fleet of fifteen ships of war, under Sir Hovenden
Walker, was sent out from England with forty transports and five regi-
ments of Marlborough's veteran troops. It came over to Boston, and
taking on board New England troops, sailed for Quebec. In that city
all was anxiety and alarm, for news came in that Port Royal had finally
yielded to a New England force and British ships. Taken for the last
time by England, who was now to retain it, this place became An-
napolis. .
Vaudreuil, the Governor-General of Canada, set to work to put his
capital in a state of defense. Engineers threw up new works, and
every one, women as well as men, labored to make the city im-
pregnable. Time wore on, and Canada, all anxiety, saw no enemy.
Montreal was not attacked by the large army reported by French
Scouts on Lake Champlain ; and the fleet that had left Boston did
not appear. At last a vessel came with tidings that the English
fleet had been wrecked near the mouth of the St. Lawrence. French
vessels hastened down. The shore was strewn with dead, and with
the remains of eight transports and their cargoes, which had been
driven on the rocks and dashed to pieces by Admiral Walker's
obstinacy. Nearly a thousand persons perished ; Walker saved several
hundred others, and sailed away, his only achievement being the con-
quest of Cape Breton as he sailed back.
Nicholson, hearing of the disaster, and finding his Indians hostile to
him—for they were dying of small-pox, and insisted that the English
246 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
had given them clothes infected with that disease—broke up his camp
and retired.
Thus, for a second time, Canada saw herself saved as if by the hand
of heaven. To commemorate this, the new church at Quebec was
styled Our Lady of Victories.
But the war had now come to an end. Louis XIV., exhausted and
broken, was ready to secure peace at the sacrifice of his American
possessions. By the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, France gave up to
England Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Hudson Bay, with all the
fur trade in those northern parts.
The American colonies gained nothing directly, and those at the
north now found themselves overwhelmed with the debts they had
been forced to contract in this long war.
Notwithstanding the constant military and naval operations that
engrossed so much of her reign, Queen Anne took an interest in the
religious affairs of the colonies beyond that shown by any other
English sovereign. She was ardently attached to the Church of Eng-
land, and through her Governors did all she could to have it estab-
lished in the American colonies. It got a foothold in New York, and
made some progress even in Quaker Pennsylvania, though the Governors
she sent out were not always a credit to the Church they so stren-
uously upheld. Queen Anne made many presents of altar silver to the
American churches, some of which are preserved to this day, and those
who can show Queen Anne's plate feel a pardonable pride.
Perhaps the worst Governor sent out by Anne was Lord Cornbury,
whom she appointed Governor of New York and New Jersey. He
was a near relative of the Queen, but a most worthless scamp. His great
amusement was to dress himself in a lady's clothes and in that guise
THE UNITED STATES. 247
promenade up and down on the ramparts of the fort. He attempted
to make the Established Church the only one in the colony, and
excited great discontent by his prosecution of the Rev. Mr. Mackemie,
a Presbyterian clergyman ; for, although people talked of religious
freedom, it generally meant only that one party was to have it all its
own way, and the rest submit.
The foreign wars were not the only troubles of the American colonies
during the reign of Queen Anne. North Carolina had received a
number of emigrants from the German provinces on the Rhine, to
whom lands were assigned in the district still occupied by the Tusca-
roras, a tribe of the same origin as the Five Nations in New York,
Warlike, haughty, and suspicious. Instead of purchasing what lands
they wanted from the native chieftains, as Roger Williams, Lord
Baltimore, and William Penn had done, the authorities of North
Carolina sent their Surveyor-General Lawson to lay off the territory
for settlement. When he appeared on their lands with Graffenried,
the leader of the German emigrants, the wrath of the Tuscaroras was
roused to fury. -
Ignorant of the Indian character, or unsuspicious of danger, perhaps
despising the Savage inhabitants, Lawson and Graffenried kept on with
their work, selecting spots for settlement. While on the upper waters
of the Neuse, they were suddenly seized by sixty Tuscaroras, arrayed
in their war-paint and armed to the teeth. They were forced to travel
all night long, as the silent braves hurried in Indian file through the
Woods. When morning broke they came to a Tuscarora village, and
were delivered to a chief. In a short time a council of the Sachems of
the nation gathered, and after a debate of two days, they decreed that
Lawson, who came to sell their lands, and the stranger who came to
248 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
Occupy them, should die. The large fire was kindled, the ring was
drawn around the victims, and strewn with flowers. Round the white
men sat the chiefs in two rows ; behind them were three hundred of
the tribe, going through the wild dances with which they keep up
every important occasion. Then the moment came, and though Graf-
fenried, as less guilty in their eyes, was then spared, Lawson perished
amid the flames and the tortures which the yelling braves inflicted as
they gathered around him.
Graffenried, horrorstruck, with the yells of the Indians and the dying
moans of Lawson ringing in his ears, awaited the same fate. But his
life was spared ; and when, a month later, he was allowed to depart
and make his way to the settlements, he traveled on in vain. Where
thriving little villages had, with all their busy life, dotted the country,
he found only blackened logs, ashes, and the remains of the dead.
German and Huguenot settlers had been swept away. The Indians
had planned a general attack; bands were sent out in all directions,
every village was surrounded, and the lighting of some house or barn
gave the signal of attack. Then the furious red man, full of one idea—
that he must exterminate the whites, or be driven from the lands of
his fathers, rushed upon the unsuspecting whites. Night was made
hideous with the scenes of slaughter, as the braves, with a pine-torch
in one hand, and a tomahawk in the other, pursued the flying settlers,
cutting them down without mercy, tracking them into the woods and
wherever they sought refuge. For three days the massacre continued
along Albemarle Sound, till the savages stopped from sheer exhaustion
in their bloody work.
North Carolina, in alarm, called on the neighboring colonies. Spots-
Wood, of Virginia, tried to aid them by securing the fidelity of part of
THE UNITED STATES. 249
LoNG SAULT RAPIDS ON THE OTTAwa, scene of MANY INDIAN FIGHTS.
the Tuscaroras, who had not taken part in the massacre, but the
Virginia Assembly began to quarrel with the Governor, and nothing
was done.
Gallant South Carolina was prompt at the call of humanity. She
had managed her Indians better, and Barnwell, calling out the militia,
rallied around him friendly Indians whom their wise policy had
secured. Cherokees and Creeks, Catawbas and Yamassees, marched
with Barnwell on that long expedition through the unbroken forest.
As they approached the scene of war, the Indian scouts brought word
that the Tuscaroras were intrenched in a rude fort on the Neuse. On
the map you can almost mark it in the upper part of Craven County.
But there were no cravens on either side. Although a few North

250 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Carolina militia joined Barnwell, he could not storm the Indian fort.
The Tuscaroras fought better than the New England Indians; with
all the superior tactics of the white man, Barnwell failed to dislodge
them. Surrounded by difficulties, he at last brought them to terms
of peace.
But as the army returned it wantonly attacked and carried off
friendly Indians, and again North Carolina was desolated by midnight
raids and slaughters. The government of the colony was in a wretched
condition. All was disorder, there was no head, no capacity to lead.
Amid it all came the yellow fever sweeping through the land. North
Carolina lay helpless. But Spottswood, the Governor of Virginia, at
last Succeeded in winning part of the Tuscaroras, while the South
Carolina army under Moore attacked one of their forts on the Neuse
with such fury that he took it, capturing eight hundred of the enemy.
Then the remainder were hunted down to sell as slaves, or if they re-
sisted, to cut down and scalp, so as to receive the bounty now offered
by government for these bloody trophies.
At last the hostile part of the Tuscaroras, finding it impossible to
hold the ground against the Carolinians, resolved to abandon their
native soil for which they had fought so bravely; they moved north-
ward through the wilderness to their kindred, the Five Nations in New
York, and settled near Oneida Lake.
While the English were thus undergoing in the South all the horrors
of Indian warfare, which Virginia and New England had so often
experienced, the French, for the first time, were at War with one of the
nations in their own territory. The Foxes, a turbulent western tribe,
promised the Iroquois and English to burn Detroit, massacre all the
French, and place the English in possession of that important point.
THE UNITED STATES. 251
*
They gathered in force around the little western town, and drew the
Rickapoos and other Indians into the plot.
Joseph, a Christian of the Fox Nation, warned the French com-
mandant of the coming attack. That officer acted promptly : he threw
his little garrison and the Settlers into the fort, and destroyed all
the houses that could aid the enemy in attacking him.
The Indians on whom he could depend were off on their hunt.
Fleet sped his messenger through the woods and by the rivers to
summon all to his aid. Prompt at his call came Huron, Pottawatami,
Sac, Menomonee, Illinois, Osage, and Missouri. The Foxes were not
dismayed. Twenty braves in all their war-paint came yelling up to
the fort, defying the French.
When the allies moved, the Foxes withdrew to their own fort, and
to escape the terrible fire kept up, dug rifle-pits in the ground. Then
the besiegers raised scaffolds so as to fire down into the fort. The
Foxes were cut off from water, and suffered terribly from thirst, but
they raised the red flag and declared they had no Father but the Eng-
lish. Every now and then proposals would be made, but were refused,
and the Foxes kept up the fight, shooting fiery arrows into the French
fort, till their own fort was full of dead bodies, and many had deserted.
Then they managed to escape to a peninsula running out into Lake
St. Clare, and still called Presque Isle. Here, after a desperate fight
which lasted four days, they surrendered. The men in arms were
nearly all put to the sword ; the rest of the men, with the women and
children, were divided as slaves among the allies of the French.
Thus dearly did the first Indian allies of the English pay for their
devotion to the cause.
England failed to gain a foothold in the West, but the Treaty of
2
5
2
A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
Utrecht, signed April 11, 1713, gave to England supremacy in the
fisheries, the entire possession of Hudson Bay, Newfoundland, and
Nova Scotia: and France agreed not to molest the Five Nations, who
were recognized as subject to the dominion of Great Britain.
The next year Queen Anne died.
CHAPTER IV.
Reign of George I.-His Neglect of America—The Yamassee War in South Carolina—War
with the Abenakis in Maine—Death of Father Rale—Lovewell's Fight.
WITH the death of Queen Anne ended the house of Stuart, and
George, Elector of Hanover, a German prince, ascended the throne of
England—a dissolute man, ignorant of the language, and indifferent to
the interests of the people over whom he was called to reign.
For the American colonies he cared still less. They prospered by
the neglect of the house of Hanover, and when their prosperity
tempted the third George to oppress them, he lost them forever to
England.
Of this reign the great feature is the steady struggle of the people
against the royal Governors, by which the feelings of liberty grew
deeper and stronger in all minds. And as the same trials produced
sympathy between the different colonies, it tended to unite them more
closely together.
The first great event of this reign was ushered in on the 15th of
April, 1715,6-ood Friday in that year. The Yamassees, who had em-
igrated from Florida to South Carolina, and done good service in the
TEIE UNITED STATES. 253
Tuscarora war. Now they were bent on mischief English traders
were at Pocotaligo, and Nairne, an English agent, had come to treat
of a firmer peace, ignorant of the vast Indian conspiracy. Suddenly
the slaughter began. One boy escaped to the Woods, running like a
deer for life. To avoid the Indian trails was his Only safety ; the
thickest woods were his course. After nine Weary days he reached a
garrison. Seaman Burroughs, a man of great strength and courage,
broke through the Indians who encircled him, and trusting to his fleet-
ness of foot, struck out for the settlements. The red furies were on his
trail, arrow and tomahawk and ball whizzing past him ; twice they
came truer to the savage aim, and tore through his flesh; but he kept
manfully on, the blood streaming from his wounds. Running ten miles
and swimming one, he reached Port Royal with his tale of terror and
dismay. That town was at once abandoned, and in ships and canoes
the inhabitants fled to Charleston. Around that city the Indian bands
narrowed in, halting only to torment with all their savage fury the
planters, with their wives and children, who had fallen into their hands.
Governor Craven raised a force and met the confederated warriors on
the banks of the Salkehachie, in April, 1715. The battle was a bloody
one, and though it lulled for a time, was again furiously renewed,
neither side showing any inclination to yield. The air resounded with
savage yells; every tree covered a warrior, and arrows and bullets in
showers met the steady onset of the Carolinians. At last they routed
the savage foe, and pursued them beyond the limits of Carolina. The
Yamassees returned to Florida, the Uchees and Appalaches retired
southward. South Carolina was delivered from its savage foe, but not
till four hundred of the colonists had perished by midnight assassina-
tion, in torture, or in battle.
254 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Then came trouble at the North. The Treaty of Utrecht left Maine
free from all claim of France, but the native tribes were friendly to the
French, and were converts of the French missionaries. The New
Englanders they disliked as intruders on their lands. Chiefs were
seized and sent to Boston, and, though ransomed, were detained.
Hostilities began, the English seizing the young Baron de St. Castin,
and a force under Westbrooke ravaging their villages and pillaging the
house and chapel of the missionary Rale at Norridgewalk, on the Ken-
nebec, and another on the Penobscot.
In a second attack on Norridgewalk the New England troops Sur-
prised the place, and killed many of the tribe, bearing away, too, in
triumph the scalp of Father Rale, whom they slew at the foot of his
mission cross.
The Abnakis were broken by these heavy blows, but the War still
continued between small parties. Among those raised on the English
side, the most famous is that of John Lovewell, who, meeting the
Indians with their own tactics, did much to check them. His fights
were numerous, but the most deadly was that at the pond that now
bears his name, near Fryeburg, in which he fell.
After the most desperate of the conflict was over, Chamberlain, one
of the bravest Indian fighters of his time, spent with the exertion and
the heat, made his way to the water's edge to get a drink of Water and
to wash out his gun, which was foul from constant firing. Just as he
emerged from a copse of willows and set foot on the pebbly shore, he
saw opposite him the stalwart form of Paugus, the most famous of the
Indian braves. Both had come for the same objects. All now de-
pended on celerity; each begun to clean his rifle, and they seemed to
keep time with each other. Both rifles were ready to the moment.
THE UNITED STATES. e 255
“Now, Paugus,” said Chamberlain, “I’ll have you,” and he began to
load with care. “Na, na, me have you,” replied Paugus, loading
as rapidly. At the same moment each poured in the powder, rammed
in the wad, dropped in the bullet, and sent it home. Paugus began to
prime his rifle ; Chamberlain struck his gunstock a sharp blow on the
ground, his rifle primed itself. Before Paugus could cover him with
his deadly rifle, Chamberlain aimed coolly and true, his bullet passed
through the heart of Paugus, as the chieftain's ball, uncertainly aimed,
cut through Chamberlain's hair. The hunter gathered up the trophies
of his victory, and hurrying back to where the fight was going
on in all its fury, shouted that Paugus was slain. Paugus! Paugus!
was echoed from tree to tree ; the Indians looked in vain for the form
of their chief, and, convinced that he had fallen, abandoned the struggle
and stole away into the depth of the forest.
In this bloody fight fell, too, the Rev. Mr. Frye, whose name is
preserved in the neighboring town. He, too, had slain a chief, and
had just raised aloft his bleeding scalp, when he fell, pierced by an
avenging bullet.
While the English colonies were thus struggling with Indians within
their borders, France was making gigantic efforts to build up a great
empire in America. She built Mobile to check the Spaniards, and in
a brief war twice took Pensacola. She claimed the whole valley of
the Mississippi, on the ground that as she held the mouth of the river
all land up to the source of every stream emptying into it belonged to
her. And this, in fact, was a generally received principle. But this
view left the English colonies only the coast. Streams that rose in
Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, ran into the Mississippi; they
could not give up all this to France, but the French gained the Indians,
250 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
even those who had long known the English : she founded Natchez in
1716; New Orleans in 1718; Fort Niagara in 1721, and soon after
Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, while the Delawares and Shawnees
on the Ohio hoisted the white flag of France. All the great routes to
the Mississippi by the Ohio, Wabash, Illinois, and Wisconsin rivers
were in the hands of the French ; they were commencing the planting
of sugar in Louisiana, opening trade with Mexico, mining on Lake
Superior and in Minnesota. Had the French government applied
itself to increase Louisiana, it would have become formidable to the
English colonies, but its affairs were left to companies and individuals,
and Law used it to found a gigantic system of fraud, known as the
South Sea Bubble. So completely was the sway of France established,
that a Canadian in Louisiana, du Tisnet, purchasing a compass, set out
overland through the wilderness, and fearlessly made his way to Que-
bec, and gathering his family, returned by the same route to the banks
of the Mississippi.
England did little to enlarge the bounds of her colonies, though by
erecting Fort Dummer, in 1724, she secured what is now Vermont.
During the reign of George I., the Baltimore family regained control
of Maryland, the Earl of Baltimore having, in 1715, abjured the
Catholic religion, and conformed to the Church of England.
But if a Lord Proprietor thus regained power, the Proprietaries of
South Carolina, in 1719, completely lost all power, the Assembly
having in that year renounced all dependence on the Proprietaries,
and declared themselves a royal province. Johnson, the last Gover-
nor for the Proprietaries, endeavored to check the popular movement.
But the militia were called out, and from every ship and fort floated
the flags to cheer them on. In the King's name Johnson commanded

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A CHILD'S HISTORY. 259
sº
Parris to disperse his men. Parris answered : “I obey the Conven-
tion,” and the King, before whom the people laid their claims, appointed
as first Royal Governor, Nicholson, a man thoroughly familiar with
American affairs, having held rule in New York, Maryland, and Vir-
ginia, and led the Canada and Port Royal expeditions. His first act
was a firm treaty of peace with the Cherokees.
CHAPTER W.
Reign of George II.-The English Government prevents American Manufactures and Com-
merce—Good Effect produced—Oglethorpe and the Settlement of Georgia—Tomochichi—
The Cherokee's Answer—Position of the English Colonies–The French Law's Projects—
The Natchez-Massacre of the French–Escape.of. Doutreleau–The Choctaws attack the
Natchez—Louboi's Operations—The War with Spain—Oglethorpe's Campaign against St.
Augustine-Monteano invades Georgia—The War with France. The New England Troops
take Louisburg–It is restored to France—The French on the Ohio–George Washington
—He is sent to occupy the Ohio–Defeats J umonville—Capitulates at Fort Necessity—The
War begins.
GEORGE II., who came to the throne of England, 1727, was as much
unused to the affairs of that kingdom as his father had been ; but he
Was active and warlike, and his reign was not destined to be one of
peace; and before its close the American colonies were called upon to
pour forth in the cause of England the blood of their brave Sons, and
the fruits of their honest labor.
And yet the hostility to the colonies which began with William III.
continued. Under George II, the King, and Parliament, jealous of
American prosperity, sought to cripple them. Various branches of indus.
try Were prohibited by laws passed in this reign. Hats manufactured
in one colony could not be sent into another; no Colony was allowed
260 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
to manufacture any iron-ware, or enter largely into the manufacture of
bar-iron ; they were not permitted to carry on any trade with the colo-
nies of other nations. So the colonies were cut off from manufac.
tures and from a market. England kept all in her own hands; what
America raised must go to England at England's price, and what goods
America needed she had to buy in England at England's prices. s
The consequence was that all the specie was drawn out of the colo-
nies, and paper money had to be issued. As things grew worse this
could not be redeemed, and sank rapidly in value.
As this distress became general, a spirit of resistance spread through
the colonies, and intercourse increased. Each colony began to take
more interest in the others, and they were drawn more closely to each
other.
Another evil was the slave-trade, which England encouraged, as it en-
abled her to draw money from the colonies, for she had the monopoly
of taking slaves from Africa, and supplying America with this class,
who were eventually in our days to be the cause of a terrible war.
England wished, by introducing negro slaves, who could never mix
with the settlers and claim the rights of British subjects, to prevent
the colonies from becoming too strong.
Yet in spite of all obstacles raised by the English Government the
American colonies increased in population, extent, and wealth. The
tendency of settlement was along the Atlantic coast, and some at-
tempts were made to form a new colony south of Carolina.
General James Oglethorpe, a kind-hearted but often visionary man,
was the successful planter of Georgia. His benevolent heart had been
touched by the suffering of poor debtors in England, of whom hun-
dreds languished in prison under the cruel laws of that day, with no
THE UNITED STATES. - 261
means to pay their debts, and cut off from any work by which they
could ever hope to do so. -
For them and for Protestants driven by war from their German
homes, he resolved to found a colony in America, and in June, 1732,
he obtained from George II. a patent for Georgia.
England caught up his enthusiasm ; money was voted by Parlia-
ment, and contributed by the wealthy, and in November Oglethorpe
sailed, with a hundred and twenty emigrants. While the settlers were
landing at Beaufort, Oglethorpe ascended the Savannah river. A high
bluff, about half a mile from the village of the Yamacraws, seemed
to him the spot for his capital. On the site of Savannah he was wel-
comed by Tomochichi, the Yamacraw chief, who offered him a bison-
skin with a head and feathers of an eagle painted on the well-dressed
inside surface. “The feathers of the eagle are soft, and signify love,”
said the chief; “the buffalo skin is warm, and signifies protection.
Therefore, love and protect our little families.” Four beautiful pine-
trees protected the tent of Oglethorpe where he thus made his cove-
nant of friendship with the red man. And here, on the 12th day of
February, 1733, he received the little flotilla, the sloop and periaguas
that bore to Savannah the settlers, who soon laid out the plain, rough
houses on its regular streets.
Delegates of the various Indian tribes came, all friendly to the new
colony. A treaty was soon signed with the Creeks, by which Georgia
claimed all the territory from the Savannah to the St. John's.
A Cherokee came. “Fear nothing,” said Oglethorpe, “but speak
freely.” “I always speak freely,” replied the haughty warrior, “why
should I fear? I am now among friends; I never feared even among
my enemies.” Even the Choctaws came, declaring that they preferred
262 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
the English to the French, who had just been building forts in their ter.
ritory.
For while the new colony had on the south the feeble Spanish colony
of Florida, the French were endeavoring to control the Indians up to
the very coast. If you look on the map of the United States, you can
See the thirteen English colonies as they were at last formed, New
Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, and Georgia. These were gradually extending further
into the interior, but had scarcely gone beyond the first ranges of
mountains, or the main rivers. Maine depended on Massachusetts, and
was confined to settlements on the coast. Fort Dummer, erected on
the site of the city of Brattleboro’, in 1724, was the frontier post of New
England, and became the cradle of Vermont. New York was pro-
tected by the Five Nations, and had a fort at Oswego, but the settle-
ments, had not gone beyond the banks of the Hudson and Mohawk.
The French were scattered all through the interior, and the English
settlers knew that part of the country only from French books. The
French had a fort, at Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, erected in 1724,
and another at Niagara, and were preparing to occupy the head waters
of the Ohio. They held Michigan with forts and trading settlements
at Detroit, Mackinaw, and Sault St. Marys; they had a fort at Win-
cennes in Indiana; Fort Chartres, in Illinois, with settlements at Kas-
kaskia and Cahokia ; a settlement at Green Bay. By these forts and
Settlements they controlled all the Indians of the northwest, and of
the various tribes none were hostile to them except the Foxes.
At the mouth of the Mississippi Louisiana had grown; New Orleans
was settled, Mobile was solidly planted; there were posts at Natchito-
THE UNITED STATES. 263
ches, on the Arkansas, and among the Natchez and Choctaws, planta-
tions were dotted all along the river. Slaves had been introduced
there also, and the cultivation of Sugar begun.
During a brief war with Spain, the French took Pensacola from the
Spaniards, who afterwards retook but could not hold it, though the
French restored it again when peace was made, in 1721.
A strange attempt to aid the settlement of Louisiana was made
about this time. A Scotchman, named Law, started, in France, a gigan-
tic company for colonizing Louisiana. Such exaggerated accounts
were given that all the people were crazy for shares in the company;
every one was going to make a fortune in a few days. Settlers and
slaves were sent out, cities and towns were planned on paper; but at
last the bubble burst, and in the ruin and disaster into which France
was plunged, the colony of Louisiana was forgotten. Many settlers re-
turned, but the colony was too firmly planted to perish.
A terrible blow was now to fall upon it.
The Natchez were a peculiar tribe of Indians, differing from most of
those east of the Mississippi. They had a rude oval temple in which
a perpetual fire was kept burning, and they worshiped the sun. Their
chief, as descended from that god of day, was called the Great Sun, and
his cabin stood on a knoll near the temple. There were two classes
in the tribe, one consisting of nobles, the other apparently a Choctaw
tribe which had been reduced to captivity and bondage.
The French had from the first had trading posts among this tribe,
and Iberville had planned a city there named Rosalie. Gradually, set-
tlers planted their cabins there, and under wise commandants all went
well. In 1729, however, an overbearing, brutal officer named Chopart
was sent to Natchez. Full of avarice, he wished to become an exten-
264 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
sive planter, and as no spot seemed to him richer or better than that
where the chief village of the Natchez stood, he ordered them to re-
move from it. At this outrage the Natchez were roused to fury, and
they determined to defeat the plans of the unscrupulous man.
They sent to the neighboring tribes to tell their grievances. The
Choctaws had long wished the destruction of the Natchez, who were
old enemies of theirs. They now pretended great sympathy, and pro-
posed a general massacre of the French. Tunners went from tribe to tribe,
and many nations joined in the conspiracy. The Arkansas and Illinois
were known to be devoted to the French, but except them, almost all
the tribes near the Mississippi were engaged in it, while English trad-
ers, who hoped to secure the whole Indian commerce of the southwest,
urged them on.
On the morning of the 28th of November, 1729, the Natchez, induced
by the arrival of boats from New Orleans with rich cargoes, began the
work of blood. They were well armed, and the French were taken
unawares; almost every man was slain before the Sun had reached
noon. Brave officers who had ever been their friends, the pious mis-
sionary, whose life and words had ever been devoted to the Indians, the
mechanics who had so often given them a welcome, and done them ser-
vice, all were butchered ; and the Great Sun sat in the shed of the store-
house of the company smoking his pipe, while his braves piled around
him the heads of the French. The settlement at Natchez was swept
away. Nowhere had any resistance been made except at the house
of La Loire, one of the officers. He was surprised near his house and
attempted to cut his way through, but though he killed four Natchez,
he was finally dispatched, overborne by numbers. The people in his
house made a brave defense; the Natchez rushing up were received
THE UNITED STATES. 265
with a deadly volley ; six fell dead before they carried the house, and
then to find only Some dead bodies; the rest of the brave defenders had
escaped.
Two hundred of the French perished ; their wives and children
were in the hands of the Natchez as slaves.
The Yazoos and other tribes slew the French among them ; a mis-
sionary, Father Souel, missionary to the Yazoos, being slain with the rest.
Another missionary had a most extraordinary adventure. This was
Father Doutreleau, a missionary in Illinois. He was on his way to New
Orleans, and had proposed to stop at the Yazoo post on New Year's,
and perform divine service with the missionary there. Finding that he
could not reach there in time, he landed at a pleasant spot, and pre-
pared his little altar to say mass. His boatmen meanwhile, seeing a
flock of water-fowl, fired their guns into it, and then, as the priest was
all ready, returned to join in the service of the day. Just at this mo-
ment Some Indians came up from a canoe, and hailing the French as
friends, all knelt down, the Indians behind. The clergyman had pro-
ceeded with the service only a few moments when the Indians, who
were Yazoos in the plot, fired on the French. One of the men fell
dead, the others sprang to their feet and rushed to the boat. The
priest, wounded in the arm, knelt to receive the death-blow, but as the
Indians, firing hastily, again missed him, he too, in his vestments, as
he was, started for the boat, and had to wade into the water to reach it,
for his men, supposing him dead, were already pushing off. The Indians
were close upon him, and their last fire sent a charge of small-shot into
his mouth. Provisions, arms, all were left ashore, and the little party
could escape only by speed, and to distance the fleet canoes of the In-
dians seemed impossible.
266 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
There was an old gun in the boat, with a broken lock, which they
were taking to New Orleans. As the Indians gained on them they
would aim this at them, and the red men, dodging to avoid the shot, lost
headway. In this way the fugitives eluded them, and after narrowly
escaping at Natchez, where the Indians tried to lure them ashore,
reached the French camp.
When the first terrible news came to New Orleans, all was con-
sternation and dismay. They knew not whom to trust. Every Indian
seemed an enemy. The only hope seemed to be in securing the aid of
the Choctaws, and the brave Swiss, de Lusser, started at the risk of his
life for that tribe, to sound their feelings, and, if possible, secure their
aid and friendship.
Le Sueur, one of the great early explorers of the northwest, who had
'begun to work the rich mines of Minnesota, gained the Choctaws com-
pletely, for the crafty tribe now hoped rich pay from the French, and
plunder in abundance from the Natchez, when that nation was de-
stroyed. -
While the French army was slowly advancing from New Orleans to
punish the Natchez, Le Sueur and his Choctaws reached the scene of
blood, and suddenly attacked the enemy, on the 27th of J anuary, with
such fury that he killed eighty, took many prisoners, and delivered
fifty-three of the French from their terrible captivity, as well as a hun-
dred and fifty negroes. •
Some days after, Loubois came up with the French force and be-
sieged the Natchez in their forts, but the Indians made a brave re-
sistance. Loubois' regular soldiers were miserable fellows picked up in
France, and were of little service, but the colonists and negroes
fought bravely ; the Choctaws were eager for plunder. At last, on the
THE UNITED STATES. 267
25th of February, 1730, the Natchez gave up the French prisoners in
their hands to the Choctaws, and then stole away by night.
Some took refuge among the Chickasaws ; a part kept up the war,
attacking every French boat. The largest of these bodies took post on
the Washita, where they were invested by the French in J anuary,
1731, and compelled to surrender. The Great Sun, with other chiefs,
fell into the hands of the French, who sold all their prisoners, some
four hundred, as slaves in the West Indies.
Another party pretended to submit, and asked to be received among
the Tonicas, a tribe faithful to the French, and led by a brave Christian
chief. But the Natchez only sought revenge : they suddenly rose on
the Tonicas, and slew the chief and many of his people before they
were driven out. Another party attacked the French post at Natchi-
toches, but the gallant St. Denys called to his aid friendly Indians, and
even his Spanish neighbors, and the Natchez were utterly defeated.
By this time Louisiana again became a royal province, and Bienville,
the founder of the colony, was once more Governor. He undertook
to chastise the Chickasaws. An expedition from Louisiana was to as-
cend the Tombigbee, and attack their towns, while another from Illi-
nois invaded them on the north.
The expeditions moved in May, 1736. The Louisiana force made its
way with great difficulty up the Tombigbee, and marched to attack the
first Chickasaw fort. But they found it a strong place, with the Eng-
lish flag floating over it, for English traders had helped to fortify it.
After several brave attempts to storm the fort, Bienville, who had suf.
fered considerable loss, abandoned the siege and retreated.
The Illinois force, under Vincennes and d'Artaguette, reached the
Yalabusha, and seeing nothing of the Louisiana army attacked the
268 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Chickasaws. They carried two forts, but, in the third, the little force
of brave northwestern pioneers was nearly cut to pieces. Vincennes and
d'Artaguette fell into the hands of the enemy, with many others
Wounded ; their brave chaplain, Father Senat, remained to share their
fate. Voisin, a brave boy of sixteen, commanded the retreat, and
through a thousand dangers led the survivors back to Illinois. When
all danger was past the Chickasaws burnt all their prisoners at the
stake, only a few escaping to the English in Carolina.
Another expedition against the Chickasaws, in 1739, was equally
fruitless. These Indians were the barrier of the English colonies, and, -
in the struggle now coming on, they, with the Six Nations, helped in no
small degree to turn the scale of victory.
The English colonies were now advancing to freedom. Newspapers
became a great help, diffusing knowledge and discussions of public mat-
ters among the people. On the 24th day of April, 1704, the Boston
News-Letter, the first newspaper ever issued on the continent, appeared
in Boston. Others grew up in other colonies, and some gave great dis-
pleasure to government by their boldness and freedom. John Peter
Zenger, the proprietor of a New York paper, was put on trial. To en-
Sure his conviction, the judges struck off the list of lawyers all who took
up his case. But a brave old lawyer from Philadelphia, Andrew
Hamilton, came on to defend him. So eloquent was his defense that the
jury brought in a verdict of “Not guilty,” and the freedom of the
press was established. 5%
Meanwhile the youngest of the colonies was involved in a border
war. Georgia had grown with a rapidity seen in no other British prov-
ince. The disinterestedness and zeal of Oglethorpe brought in num-
bers of industrious settlers, all eager to improve the country and ad-
A CHILD’s HISTORY. 271
vance their own fortunes by honest toil. Some Jews were sent out by
merchants of that faith in London; German Protestants, from Salz-
burg, founded Ebenezer; Scotch Highlanders settled New Inverness,
other villages arose, and Oglethorpe built Frederica, a strong fort on
St. Simon's Island, and, claiming the St. John as his boundary, planted
Fort St. George on an island at its mouth. Spain protested against
this, but affairs were almost all arranged between the two countries,
when George II., in 1739, declared war against Spain, and prepared
to attack the Spanish colonies in America. Admiral Vernon, victori-
ous at Porto Bello, was ordered to prepare for a new expedition. All
the American colonies north of Carolina were called upon to fur-
nish men, and they did. Vernon sailed to attack Carthagena, but was
utterly defeated, losing in all nearly twenty thousand men. Few of
the colonists who went on that fatal expedition ever lived to see their
native land. Vernon would be justly forgotten had not a spot on the
Potomac been named in his honor, which, as the residence of the illus-
trious Washington, was to be forever a spot revered by every Ameri-
can heart. ---.
The Carolinas and Georgia had not been called upon to join in Ver-
non's expedition, as they were under Oglethorpe to conquer Florida.
With the forces of Georgia and South Carolina, he invaded the Span-
ish province, and took Fort Picolata, and awaited only for his Indian
allies and tardy Carolina militia to advance upon St. Augustine.
At last, in June, 1740, with six hundred English regulars, four hun-
dred militia, and a body of Creek Indians, he advanced to the walls of
St. Augustine. The Spanish commander, Monteano, had prepared to
meet them ; his garrison was strong and brave; in frequent Sallies he
broke through the English lines, causing great loss, so that at last Ogle-
\
272 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
thorpe saw his naval support sail off, and his militia and Indians de-
part. He then retreated.
The Spaniards, in their turn, sent a fleet to attack the Georgia posts.
Fort William, on Cumberland Island, was attacked by Monteano, and
with difficulty relieved by Oglethorpe.
Monteano then landed to attack Frederica; but Oglethorpe, with the
eye of a soldier, had placed it so that its defense was easy ; a road be-
tween a wood and a marsh led to it. Here, his Highlanders, from the
wood, covered by the trees, attacked Monteano's advance, and a des-
perate fight ensued. The Spaniards fought gallantly, and did not give
up the attempt to cut their way through till after losing two hundred of
their men, their dead strewing the ground that has ever since been
called the Bloody Marsh.
Oglethorpe was so full of his Spanish affairs that he wrote letters to
the other colonies warning them against Spanish agents in disguise.
One of his letters came at an unfortunate time at New York. In 1741,
some tinners at work on the roof of the church in the fort set it on fire,
and all the buildings there were destroyed. In a few days it was gen-
erally believed that it was set on fire by negroes, and that there was a
negro plot to burn the city. Many negroes were arrested, tried, and
executed. Oglethorpe's letter gave people a new idea. They were
already half crazy with fear, and now began to arrest white people.
A poor non-juring clergyman, who lived by teaching, was tried under
a law against Catholic priests, passed in Bellomont's time, and also as
the prime mover of the whole plot. He too was hanged, with several
others, and many negroes burned at the stake. For a time no man was
safe, but at last the delusion passed over, and few cared to admit that
they had any hand in it.
THE UNITED STATES. 273
But the northern colonies were now to feel all the horrors of War.
Almost all the countries of Europe had become involved in the difficul-
ties, and France was also at war with England, in 1744. News reached
the strong French fort at Louisburg, and they at once prepared for ac-
tion. A force under Duvivier surprised the little English garrison at
Canseau, destroyed the fishery, the fort, and the other buildings, and
carried off eighty men as prisoners of war to Louisburg. An Indian
force also besieged Annapolis.
New England burned to reduce Louisburg, and an expedition was
soon fitted out. New York sent artillery, and Pennsylvania provis-
ions; New England furnished all the men, Massachusetts alone send-
ing three thousand men. The expedition, intended to overthrow the
power of France and the Catholic religion, set out headed by a chap-
lain bearing an axe to hew down the crucifixes on the churches. The
fleet of a hundred vessels bore the army, under Colonel William Pep-
perell, to Canseau. There, fortunately, Commodore Warren, with a
British squadron, joined him, and on the 30th of April, 1745, they
came in sight of Louisburg. It was a strong place for fishermen, and
farmers, and mechanics to take. Its walls, forty feet thick, and from
twenty to thirty in height, were surrounded by a ditch eighty feet wide,
and were mounted by nearly two hundred cannon, while the garrison of
sixteen hundred men, six hundred of them regular troops, seemed to
make it madness to think of reducing it.
But the sturdy men of New England did not give up. With stub-
born perseverance they set to work in their own way to take the stout
fortress on which France had spent millions under the direction of her
best military engineers. They knew nothing about zigzags and paral-
lels; but they resolved to plant their batteries and make a breach in
18
274 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
the stout walls. A large morass prevented their reaching a suitable spot,
so they built sledges, and the sturdy lumbermen dragged the cannon over
the marsh on these. Waldo's and Tidcomb's batteries were soon play-
ing on the stout walls of the French fortress, which returned the
fire vigorously ; and the French, by their Canadians and Indians in the
woods, galled the New England troops. Day after day the firing went
on, but there seemed no hope of reducing the place. The wise naval
officers pooh-poohed the idea, and laughed at provincial militia taking
such a fortress. Even the cool New England men began to tire, and four
hundred attempted to take the island battery, but the French met them
desperately, and the colonial troops drew off, leaving sixty dead, and
more than a hundred prisoners. But the Shirley frigate, under brave
Captain Rous, enabled Commodore Warren's fleet to capture the Vigi-
lant, a French man-of-war coming with ammunition and supplies to the
relief of the fort. - &
When Duchambon, the French commander, saw this, he lost heart
and began to despond. Soon after, from his ramparts, he beheld all in
activity on sea and land. The fleet and the provincial army were pre-
paring for a joint attack on the fort.
Then, on the 17th of June, 1745, Duchambon surrendered the
strongest fortress on the American continent to an army of undisci-
plined New England men, who had just laid down their tools in their
workshops, or their ploughs in the fields. The colonies in America
showed their power, and had achieved the greatest success won by
English arms in this war. The city of Louisburg was a perfect Wreck,
Scarcely a house had escaped during the bombardment.
For his achievement, Colonel Pepperell was knighted, and made a
colonel in the British army; as was also Governor Shirley.
THE UNITED STATES. 275
New England was wild with joy and exultation, and France, burning
with anger, sent fleets to recover Louisburg, but disaster after disaster
thwarted all her plans, although these naval forces created great alarm
all along the New England coast.
There were no important operations in this war between Canada and
the colonies, although the Indians in the French service, and small par-
ties, ravaged the New England frontiers. The Six Nations took no part
in the war. They sent an embassy to ask the French to keep the war
parties out of their cantons and hunting grounds. The French desired
nothing better, and as the English authorities no longer asked neutrality,
the colonies were exposed to the old border ravages.
At Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, the French had their Fort St.
Frederic, commanding the entrance to Canada. From this the French -
officer posted there, De Croisilles, sent out the war parties in all direc-
tions. Besides their old missions in Canada, the French had established
a new one at the mouth of the Oswegatchie, to which they attracted num-
bers of the braves of the Six Nations, who were discontented with the
English. -
The most important blow struck was the capture of Saratoga, by
a French force under Marin, in November, 1745. That spot, since
the seat of so much fashion and gayety, the very home of luxury and
enjoyment, was then a straggling frontier village, made up, like most of
those in New York, of various elements, Dutch, English, and German.
It was soon taken, and the flourishing place, with its mills and block-
house, and farm-houses, far and near, given to the flames, while the
cattle were slaughtered in the fields. Thirty of the people were killed
in the attack, and sixty hurried off as prisoners, with a large number of
negro slaves.
276 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Fort Massachusetts, on Hoosac river, in what is now the town of
Adams, was the frontier post on the New England side, and this was
constantly beset by prowling bands of Indians. One day, as Sergeant
Hawks and J ohn Miles were riding on a horse, they were fired at by
two skulking Indians, and both wounded. Miles escaped to the fort, but
Hawks fell from his horse. The Indians rushed upon him to scalp him.
Desperation gave him courage, he rallied his strength, and seizing his
gun covered one of them. This turned the tables. One Indian jumped
down the bank, the other took to a tree and cried for quarter. Hawks,
dizzy and confused, kept calling for help, and when it came the Indians
had fled, one leaving his gun, which he durst not return to pick up.
In August, 1746, a force of French and Indians under Rigaud de
Vaudreuil invested Fort Massachusetts. The little fort had a garrison
of only twenty-two men, and the French force numbered several hun-
dred, but Sergeant Hawks resolved to show fight, and though he had
only a few pounds of powder, kept up the fight for twenty-four hours,
and then surrendered on favorable terms. - .
This war came to a close by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in Octo-
ber, 1748, but the spring of the following year had opened before it
was known in New England, or relieved the farmers on the frontiers
from the danger of skulking Indians. - -
Then all was peace again, treaties were made with the tribes in
Maine, and hopes entertained of a long season of peace.
New England was doomed to see Louisburg, which had cost her so
much blood, and time, and treasure, restored to France by this treaty,
without any compensation being made to the colonies whose conquest
was thus disposed of.
At the South, Oglethorpe, who had begun the war to establish his
wreck of walker's Fleet in the st. Lawrence.


THE UNITED STATES. - 277
claim as far south as the St. John's, saw the line between Georgia and
Florida fixed where it now is, at the St. Mary's.
The treaty, hastily concluded, did not settle the important northern
boundary with the French, and in consequence, the bold Canadian par-
tisan officer, La Corne, took Beaubassin, which Cornwallis retook after a
bloody assault and built Fort Lawrence. On the other side, Captain
Rous, in the Albany, attacked and took, off Cape Sable, a brigantine
from Quebec. On both sides the feeling was bitter, and a new war
seemed threatening.
The statesmen of Europe were, however, cooler and less disposed
to renew hostilities. These matters were all arranged, and by degrees
the war spirit in America calmed down.
Before the close of the war a Congress of Governors met delegates
of the Indian nations at Albany, with a view of strengthening all the
tribes in the English interest, so as to aid in the reduction of Canada.
Though their assistance was not immediately needed, the conference
was continued, as the colonies had at last awaked to the necessity of
meeting the French in the west.
The colonists had in the last war fought side by side with the Eng-
lish by land and sea, and had met French regulars as well as Canadian
militia. They began to think that they were pretty good soldiers them-
selves, and English governors found that the spirit of independence
was growing.
In spite of the odious restrictions put by England on American
manufactures and trade, the colonies grew rapidly. Industry, intelli-
gence, Schools, and papers were doing their work.
New England had relaxed somewhat, but still maintained a high
moral tone. Boston was the wealthiest and most thriving town, and
278 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
the houses of the merchants showed its prosperity. In the principal
houses of Boston, there was a great hall ornamented with pictures, and
a great lantern, and a velvet cushion on the window-seat that looked
into the garden. A large bowl of punch was often •. placed in the hall,
from which visitors might help themselves as they entered. On either
side was a great parlor, and a little parlor or study. These were fur-
nished with great looking-glasses, Turkey carpets, window-curtains, and
Valances, pictures and a map, a brass clock, red leathern-back chairs,
and a great pair of brass andirons. The chambers were well supplied
with feather-beds, warming-pans, and every other article that would
now be thought necessary for comfort or display. The pantry was well
filled with substantial fare. Silver tankards, wine-cups and other ar-
ticles of plate were not uncommon, and the kitchen was completely
choked with pewter, iron, and copper utensils.
The wealthier Virginians also made much display, while New York
presented a more homely and simple life. They breakfasted on tea
without milk, and Sweetened with a small piece of sugar passed around.
The dinner was light, meat not being always served up.
Our young readers will wonder that many things familiar to them
were then unknown. To kindle the fire in the morning, they had to
get a spark in the tinder-box by striking a flint on a steel, and then
they lighted, at this spark, a match of shaving tipped with brimstone.
A candle or whale-oil lamp was then lighted. There were no lucifer
matches, and no gas. The immense chimneys had their wood fires
kept in place by andirons; there was no coal mined then or used ; and
stoves were unknown. -
No canals or railroads facilitated travel or the conveyance of goods;
no steamboats puffed along the rivers and Sounds. Steam was unknown
THE UNITED STATES. 279
in the factory or the mine. News traveled slowly. Affairs in Maine
would be heard of in Georgia in perhaps a month's time.
After the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, a new spirit of activity awoke;
and all felt that something must be done to keep the French off the
Ohio. Both countries aimed at one point, so as to control that river
and the West. This point was the junction of the Alleghany and Mo-
nongahela rivers. None of the English colonies wished to go to the
expense of establishing a fort there ; and the geography of the coun-
try was so little known that it was supposed to be in Virginia, and
Pennsylvania paid little attention to it. At last a company was formed
called the Ohio Company; but France was preparing to occupy it. She
had forts at Niagara, Presqu'ile, now Erie, and at Venango. The French
attacked Piqua, killing and capturing the English traders, with many
Indians, including the king of the Piankeshaws, who was put to death.
Then they prepared to occupy the valley with a large force.
Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, had been urgent in his letters to
the dissolute king, George II., and now at last obtained leave to re-
monstrate with the French. - -
For the perilous task he selected a young Virginian officer, a good
son of a widowed mother, clear-headed, active, energetic, brave, and
adventurous—George Washington, then just twenty-one, a surveyor, ac-
customed to the woods and mountains. Following the Indian trail,
with Christopher Gist, an old frontiersman, as his guide, they struck the
Indian trails, and reached the forks of the Ohio, for which the struggle
had begun. Here he saw as in a vision, the future city of Pittsburg.
Pushing on he met Tanacharison, the Half-king, as he was called, a
steady friend of the English colonies. At Wenango, he found the French
posted. The French officer in command was sanguine that his country
280 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
would hold the Ohio. “The English can raise two men to our one,”
said he, “but they are too dilatory to prevent any enterprise of ours.”
They had some reason to say So, for the Canadians were prompt, active,
and accustomed to discipline. They marched at once on receiving or-
ders. In the English colonies, there was always disputing and debat-
ing, and a regiment was not put into the field till after a long wrangle
between Governor and Assembly.
Where Waterford now stands Washington found Fort le Boeuf,
commanded by le Gardeur de St. Pierre, a veteran Canadian officer,
whose long career had enabled him to obtain a complete mastery over
the Indians, who both feared and loved him.
Washington presented his letters, but got a soldier's reply. “I am
here by the orders of my general, to which I shall conform with exact-
ness and resolution.”
The young envoy of Virginia then retraced his way through the
wilderness, to report to the Governor at Williamsburg the defiant atti-
tude of the French.
. This was the first public act of Washington, then only twenty-two
years of age. His journal was made public, and drew attention to him as
one well fitted to undertake any perilous expedition, to command men,
and cope with experienced European officers. Thus early did Wash-
ington impress men with his singular ability for public affairs. Near
Bridge's Creek, Virginia, where the pilgrim can no longer discern any sign
of the homestead that once opened its hospitable doors, is a slab recording
the fact that here, on what is now reckoned the 22d of February, 1732,
George Washington was born. He was the oldest son of Augustine
Washington, by Mary Ball, his second wife; but his boyhood was not
spent at his birth-place. His father removed to an estate in Stafford
GEORGE WASHINGTON IN HIS BOYEIOOD.



A CHILD’s HISTORY. 283
County, and here young George grew up. His elder brothers, fruits
of a former marriage, were sent to England for education, but George
enjoyed only the common advantages of planters' Sons, few of whom
pursued studies beyond the ordinary branches of an English education.
He was but eleven years old when his father died, and his future train-
ing, as well as the care of his property, devolved on Mary Washington.
Most great men owe their greatness in no small degree to a mother,
and this is eminently so with George Washington. She possessed solid
sense and decision, was strict in her discipline, and deeply religious, in-
spiring her children with a love for all that related to God's service,
not by harshness, but by counsel and example.
Washington ever felt the deepest love and reverence for his mother,
and never failed to show it.
As he advanced, he was fond of adventure, of sports in the open air,
of riding, and of life in the woods. He grew up hardy and vigorous
in mind and body. His first choice was the sea, and through the influ-
ence of his brother Lawrence, and Lord Fairfax, an English nobleman,
then residing in Virginia, he obtained a midshipman's warrant in the
English navy. His luggage had actually gone on board, when his moth-
er's heart failed, and he abandoned his scheme of a naval career.
Resuming his studies at school, George, now with his mind attracted
towards the army and navy, resolved to improve in all the branches
that would be of service to him, and especially cultivated mathematics.
He had several good qualities; he was very methodical, accurate, and
persevering. He had that magic of method which of itself works won-
ders. He was soon a leader. His school-fellows appealed to him to
decide the disputes which arose among them, and in every project he
was looked up to as a chief. He delighted in athletic sports, and by
284 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
*
his readiness in them, as in his studies, commanded the respect and af.
fection of his young associates.
Even after leaving school he continued his mathematical studies, and
eagerly went through all works within his reach that treated of military
affairs, from the mere drill of the private soldier to the management of
armies or fortification of posts.
At the age of sixteen, he set out with the surveyor's chain and com-
pass, to lay out estates possessed by Lord Fairfax, beyond the Blue
..Ridge. This practice in woodland life was of great service to him. Lines
were to be run through wood and morass, over mountain and stream, in a
district far from any settlement. He had to work hard and fare hard,
cook his own meals, and often hunt for them, and for months he was a
stranger to bed or roof.
The hardship did not discourage the boy, whom heaven was thus
training for a great work. The position of public surveyor was be-
stowed upon him, and, as it was evident that his abilities fitted him for
the post, George Washington was, at the age of nineteen, chosen to
command one of the military districts into which Virginia was divided ;
this gave him the rank of Major, and pay amounting to a hundred and
fifty pounds a year. Major Washington immediately set to work to
organize and equip the militia in his district. But he was called from
his duties to accompany his brother Lawrence to the West Indies; yet
the voyage did not restore his failing health ; and before he was twenty-
one, George was the head of the family, intrusted with the manage-
ment of Lawrence's estate at Mount Vernon, for the widow and infant
daughter.
His next public duty was momentous indeed. Adjutant General
of the Virginia forces, well acquainted with the frontiers, he was dis-
THE UNITED STATES. 285
patched on that first mission, which has led us into this sketch of his
life. *
So alarming did the French position seem to Governor Dinwiddie,
that he urged the Assembly of Virginia to raise men and money to
keep the disputed lands for the English race. But the Legislature was
less far-sighted than the Governor. They hesitated, they doubted, but
at last raised £10,000 for the protection of “the settlers on the Mis-
sissippi.” Several additional companies were raised, and of the regi-
ment Washington was appointed Lieutenant Colonel. His practised
eye had marked the spot where Pittsburg now stands, darkening the
sky with the smoke of its thousand furnaces. By his advice, Captain
Trent was sent on with forty-one men, to build a fort at this point, and
raise the English flag. He was sent on himself with his companies to
occupy the new work, but at Wills' Creek heard that it was too late.
The French, while the Assembly were debating with Dinwiddie, had
acted promptly. Already the energetic Marin had led a considerable
force towards the Ohio, and had built one fort, and was erecting an-
other, when he died, to the great regret of the French. Contrecour, who
succeeded him, pushed forward with six or seven hundred men, and fall-
ing suddenly on Trent's party, dispersed them, and seizing the fort, com-
pleted it, the Chevalier le Mercier, a French engineer, directing the
works. -
On hearing these tidings, Washington began to intrench himself at
Great Meadows; but learning that a French detachment was ap-
proaching him, resolved to meet it; and early on the morning of May
28th, pushed on, with the Half-king, and a force of Virginians and In-
dians. They came upon the French, under Jumonville, in a rocky
wood, where they had thrown up some huts to protect them from the
286 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
rain. On seeing the English approach, the French flew to arms. Ju-
monville attempted to act in his character as envoy, and began to read
a summons, requiring the English to withdraw, but Washington gave
the order to fire, and after a brief skirmish, Jumonville and ten of
his Canadians were killed and Scalped, and twenty-one taken prisoners.
This began a new and terrible war, that changed the whole future of
North America. a
The French heard these tidings with indignation. In their eyes it was
a base assassination, and in Canada and France, all clamored for redress.
Contre.coeur, at Fort Duquesne, acted promptly. Dispatching couriers
to Quebec, to inform the Governor of the commencement of hostilities,
he sent out de Williers, with a force, to attack Washington. The young
Virginian officer, now colonel by the death of Fry, seeing his critical
position, had sent for reinforcements; and had fallen back to Great
Meadows, where he threw up Fort Necessity, a little work which he
hoped to hold till relief came. But the only reinforcement was a com-
pany from South Carolina, under Captain Mackay. As daring and ad-
venturous as the French, Washington, leaving Mackay at the fort,
again advanced to meet the enemy, but, as Indian Scouts soon warned him
of the approach of a formidable French and Indian army, he fell back.
Fort Necessity was at once invested. It was in a clearing between
two wooded hills, and was garrisoned by five hundred men, with ten
pieces of artillery. De Williers had six hundred Canadians, and a hun-
dred Indians. Taking advantage of the position of the fort, the French
and Indian sharp-shooters, posted in the trees on the hillside, kept
up a deadly fire into the interior of the fort, silencing the guns, as it
was death to approach them. When more than fifty of his men lay
dead and wounded in the little fort, Washington, finding it impossible to
THE UNITED STATES. 287
use his cannons, or even his rifles, against a foe whom he could not see,
capitulated, the French allowing them to return to Virginia with every-
thing except their artillery, retaining only two, Robert Stobo and Van
Braam, as hostages for the restoration of the French taken prisoners at
Jumonville's defeat. This capitulation took place July 4, 1754; and
Washington, leaving his fort in the hands of the French, returned to
Wills' Creek, where Fort Cumberland was erected to protect the now
exposed frontier.
The hostages were taken to Fort Duquesne, and treated with great
courtesy; but Stobo, violating his parole, sent a plan of the fort and
details of the French forces to Washington. When this was discovered
he was arrested, tried, and condemned to death. His life was, how-
ever, spared, though he had to undergo a long and very severe impris-
onment. He failed in one effort to escape, but at last, winning the fa-
vor of the jailer's daughter, he got away from Quebec, with several
other prisoners. Their adventures are almost incredible.
Finding a bark canoe, they started in it, and finally reached the
southern bank of the St. Lawrence. Here they lay hid in the woods
watching the parties in pursuit of them. At night they started down
the river in their canoe, and for ten nights kept on their way, lying
hid by day, and keeping alive by means of some provisions which they
took from two Indians. Coming in sight of a French sloop, they sur-
prised it, just as their canoe had become useless. Eluding a French
frigate, they kept on more boldly, but were nearly wrecked. Just
then they fell in with a French schooner, well armed and supplied,
which they also took, and in it, after a thirty-eight days' voyage from
Quebec, reached Louisburg.
Dinwiddie had urged so strongly a general action on the part of the
288 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
colonies, that a Convention of Committees of the Assemblies of New
York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the New England colonies met at
Albany, in June, 1754. -
Twenty-five delegates from all the colonies, from New Hampshire to
Virginia, were thus brought together, to form a plan for closer union,
and though Virginia sent none, de Lancey of New York acted in her
name, with full instructions from Dinwiddie, the projector of the scheme.
The sachems of the Six Nations had also been summoned to a great
council at Albany, and sent their wisest chieftains. Every voice de-
clared that America could prosper only by a union of all the colonies.
Governors appointed from England, patriots born and nurtured on
American soil, all agreed in this. The irregular action of the separate
colonies led only to disaster. Even the Indians taught them that they
must unite or perish. “Look at the French,” said an Iroquois chief,
. they are men ; they are fortifying everywhere. But, we are ashamed
to say it, you are like women, without any fortifications. It is but
one step from Canada hither, and the French may easily come and
turn you out of doors.”
A committee was accordingly appointed to draw up a plan of union.
They were all eminent men ; Benjamin Franklin, with Hutchinson of
Massachusetts, Hopkins of Rhode Island, Pitkin of Connecticut, Tas-
ker of Maryland, and Smith of New York. But Franklin had already
conceived and matured a plan which he presented and which was
adopted. -
It was a remarkable plan, foreshadowing the Republican Union
which was to be formed in a few years. Philadelphia was to be the
seat of the proposed Federal Government; at its head was to be a
Governor General appointed by the King. Then there was a grand
THE UNITED STATES. 289
council of members elected by the Legislatures of the different colonies,
according to the amount of contributions raised by them, no colony,
however, to have less than two nor more than seven. The Governor
General was to nominate all military officers, and the council all civil
officers; no money was to be issued except by the order of the Gov-
ernor and council. - 4,
Each colony was still to manage its own concerns, but this new gov-
ernment was to establish new settlements, raise an army and navy,
and apportion taxes among the colonies.
This plan was adopted after considerable debate, but did not meet
with general favor. In England it was looked upon with distrust; and
the colonies feared that it would deprive them of liberties.
But Franklin lived to see it carried out on even a grander scale
than he dreamed of
Benjamin Franklin, who thus came prominently before the people of
England and America, is one of the most illustrious of our country-
men. Men have been esteemed great for a time, but gradually sink
out of sight. This is not the case with Franklin. His fame still
abides.
Son of Josiah Franklin, one of a race of sturdy blacksmiths at Ec-
ton, England, who, in the reign of James II., emigrated to New Eng-
land, Benjamin was born at Boston, January 17, 1706. His mother
was the daughter of Peter Folger, the old Nantucket poet. On the
stone which covers their remains at Boston, their son inscribed, “He
was a pious and prudent man ; she a discreet and virtuous woman.”
At the age of eight, Benjamin was sent to the public grammar school,
where he learned to read, and write a clear, bold hand. In figures he
did not excel. His School time was short. At the age of ten he was
19
290 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
taken into his father's tallow chandlery, but his brother James arrived
from England two years after this, with material to set up a printing
office. Benjamin was apprenticed to him. He was a great reader, but
he stuck to Some good books as his favorites, among them the Specta-
tor, Cotton Mather’s “Essays to do Good,” and De Foe's “Essay on
Projects.”
When his brother started the “New England Courant,” he became a
contributor, but not daring to offer them openly, for fear of having
them rejected contemptuously, he slipped them by night under the
door, and then listened with satisfaction to the praise bestowed on
them.
The paper was a spicy one, and soon got into trouble in those strict
days, so that before long, Benjamin found himself free from his appren-
tice's indentures. Quarreling with his brother, he raised money by
selling his books, and made his way in a sloop to New York, and so on
to Philadelphia, rowing part of the way on the Delaware.
He entered Philadelphia tired, hungry, and almost penniless, one
Sunday morning in the Fall of the year 1723. His person and his
clothes were dirty; his pockets stuffed with shirts and stockings; for
those were days of immense coats, and waistcoats, and cavernous pock-
ets. Topped off with a broad-brimmed hat, he was an odd figure in-
deed. He made his way to a baker's and bought three penny rolls, and
wº amazed to find them so much larger than in Boston. As he had no
room in his pockets, he walked on with a roll under each arm, munch-
ing the other. In this comical guise, he passed the house of Mr. Read,
on Market Street, and excited the merriment of Miss Deborah, who, in
all her Sunday finery, stood laughing at the uncouth young man, little
dreaming that she was laughing at her future husband. He strolled on
THE UNITED STATES. 291
eating, and as one good Philadelphia roll satisfied him, he gave the other
two to a poor woman and her child. He then entered the great Meet-
ing-house of the Quakers, and as it was a silent meeting, the
weary traveler soon fell asleep, and rested quietly till the service
ended.
He soon found employment as a printer, and found a friend in Sir
William Keith, Governor of Pennsylvania, who urged him to set up in
business for himself. His father declining to advance the money, Keith
sent Franklin to London to purchase material, promising to send him
a draft for the necessary amount. But great men sometimes have very
short memories, and young Franklin found he had gone on a fool's er-
rand. He was not one to be disheartened, but went to work at his
trade, and, after a stay of nearly two years in London, finding an op-
portunity to go into business in Philadelphia, returned. But death
soon broke up the concern, and Franklin went back to Keimig, his old
employer. He was soon proprietor, editor, and printer of the Ga-
zette, married Deborah Read, and became a prominent and active man.
Hispaper abounded in short essays, in pointed sayings, and patriotic hints.
His “Poor Richard's Almanac * became very popular from the max-
ims which it contained, and was subsequently published under the
title of “The Way to Wealth.”
In 1736, he began public life, as clerk of the General Assembly.
He was soon after made Deputy Postmaster, established the first mag-
azine published in America, and projected the American Philosophi-
cal Society, and the Pennsylvania Hospital.
He had just received his appointment from London, as Postmaster
General for the colonies, when he was sent to the Congress at Albany,
which has led us into this sketch of his life.
292 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
CHAPTER VI.
Reign of George II. Continued—Commencement of the Reign of George III.--War with
France renewed—General Braddock sent over with English Regulars—His Plans—He at-
tempts to take Fort Du Quesne—Defeated and killed—The unfortunate Acadians—Baron
Dieskau sent out by France—Defeated and taken on Lake George—Montcalm takes Oswe-
go—Louisburg taken by Boscawen, and Amherst—Abercrombie defeated by Montcalm at
Ticonderoga–Bradstreet takes Fort Frontenac—William Pitt—Forbes advances on Fort
Du Quesne—Sustains a Defeat—French evacuate Pittsburg–Johnson defeats d’Aubry and
takes Niagara—Amherst drives the French from Lake Champlain–Wolfe at Quebec—Bat-
tle of the Heights of Abraham—Wolfe and Montealm—De Levi defeats Murray and be-
sieges Quebec—Canada surrenders—Close of the War.
ENGLAND and France were still at peace, and the English govern-
ment gave the French King every assurance of their wish to maintain
friendly relations, but at the same time prepared to send over to Amer-
ica a. formidable force of regular troops to conquer Canada. While the
French government was instructing du Quesne, the Governor General
of Canada, to act only on the defensive, to avoid bloodshed, and to
strengthen Canada by Indian alliances, Edward Braddock, Major Gen-
eral and Commander-in-Chief of the English forces, was on his way
with a regiment of British regulars across the Atlantic, and soon arrived
in the Chesapeake. He was a harsh, brutal man, strict in discipline,
and brave. - - - . -
He met the Governors of several colonies at Williamsburg; but
found no revenue raised, and no likelihood that any would be. His in-
structions had increased the general suspicion of the colonists, for it
was laid down that the colonial officers were to have no rank when
serving with the King's officers. Eager as Washington was to fight in
the cause of the colonies, he resigned in disgust.
While matters were in this unpromising condition, France, at last
EARLY ADVENTURE OF GENERAL PUTN-AM.


THE UNITED STATES. 293
convinced of the bad faith of England, sent reinforcements to Canada,
under the veteran Dieskau. The English Government sent Admiral Bos-
cawen in pursuit of the French fleet; he overtook it, and without any
declaration of war, captured two of the French ships off Cape Race.
Thus the war began on the ocean.
The rest of the French fleet, with Dieskau and Vaudreuil, the new
Governor General of Canada, himself a Canadian by birth, reached
Quebec.
Braddock, at Alexandria, proposed four expeditions against the
French. Lieutenant Governor Lawrence, of Nova Scotia, was to drive
the French from all that district; Sir William Johnson, who had great
influence with the Six Nations, was to lead a force of militia and Indi-
ans to reduce Fort St. Frederic at Crown Point; Governor Shirley, of
Massachusetts, was to take Niagara, unless Braddock himself captured
it after taking Fort Du Quesne, which he said could detain him only three
or four days. -
At last, after great difficulties, Braddock got his army in motion, and
at Cumberland two thousand effective men were assembled. Washington
attended Braddock as one of his aids. Daniel Morgan, famous in his
Jersey village as a wrestler and a deadly marksman, was a wagoner.
On the 19th of June, Braddock, by Washington's advice, left Dun-
bar behind, and pushed on more rapidly with twelve hundred picked
men. Washington knew something of the frontier life, and knew that
the French were prompt and active.
On the 8th of July, they were within twelve miles of Fort Du Quesne.
The French authorities had given up all hopes of saving it; the Indians,
whose runners had brought in tidings of the great English force, looked
upon resistance as hopeless. One man felt too proud to yield without a
294 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
blow. Daniel Lienard de Beaujeu had just been made commandant of
Fort Du Quesne and the French troops on the Ohio. He called on the In-
dians to go out with his small force and meet the enemy. They treated
him as a madman. Then he resolved to go with his handful of Cana-
dians. As he filed out with his petty force, after attending divine ser-
vice in the chapel of the fort, he tauntingly told the Indians to go to
Quebec, and report that they had seen him go to die, and had not dared
follow him. Stung at this, they took up their arms, and marched with
his little band.
Beaujeu's intention was to ambuscade the ford of the Monongahela,
but the refusal of the Indians had made him lose precious moments.
As that glorious summer day dawned on the river and the woods that
lined it, Beaujeu, a tall, slight man, in his frontier-dress, with only his
officer's gorget or crescent at his neck to mark his rank, himself, at the
very head of his men, came full in sight of the British and American
force moving up from the river-bank. The burnished arms gleamed in
the summer sun ; the regular tread of the infantry, the gay uniforms
and lines of cannon, all were before him. He did not recoil. Waving
his carbine over his head, he ran on towards the English, leaping and
cheering on his men. On rushed Canadian and Indian, with yell and
cries. The English advance, under Gage, was swept back; before they
could recover their senses, their artillery was captured, and they were
driven back on the vanguard, while the Canadians and Indians, taking
to the trees on the flanks, by their deadly volleys increased the confu-
sion and dismay. Braddock hurried on, and drew up his remaining guns,
but there was no enemy in view. The forests echoed with the thunder
of cannon, as the balls tore through the ancient trees, but still the fight
went on ; the French pressing steadily on them. At last Beaujeu,
THE UNITED STATES. 295
their commander, fell, but Dumas took command. For two hours the
English kept up the battle, few of them getting a glimpse even of their
enemy. The regulars, at last, terrified by the yells and by the strange
kind of warfare, lost all control, fired at random, even killing their offi-
cers, and at last broke and ran. Sir Peter Halket and twenty-six offi-
cers were killed, and seven hundred and fourteen men killed or
wounded; of Braddock's aids, Washington alone was alive ; two horses
were killed under him ; his clothes torn by bullets, for an Indian chief
aimed repeatedly at one in whom he saw a dangerous enemy. “Some
potent Manitou guards his life,” said the Indian. “ By the all power-
ful dispensations of Providence I have been protected.” Braddock
had mounted his sixth horse, when a bullet entered his side and he
fell mortally wounded. Then all was confusion. The Virginia troops
under Washington covered the flight, and were nearly cut to pieces.
Of three companies scarcely twenty men were left alive.
As this disorderly horde rushed panting into Dunbar's camp, that
officer caught the panic. He destroyed his cannon, stores, and baggage
to the value of £100,000, and evacuated Fort Cumberland, to retreat
to Philadelphia, burying Braddock by the way-side, near Fort Necessity.
The ground, still known as Braddock's field, was in the hands of the
French. The forest glade was strewn with dead and wounded, with
artillery, arms, equipments. Never had such a victory been achieved,
and at So slight a cost, for the French lost only three officers and thirty
Iſl{2|[l. . *
Beaujeu, who died in the arms of victory, was borne to Fort du
Quesne through the woods. It was a strange funeral, as chiefs, in the
spoils of English officers, with their faces and bodies in all their war-
paint, with scalp, yell, and rattle of firearms, stalked beside the bier
296 - A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
of one who had shown such skill and valor. The old friar in the fort
chanted a requiem mass and consigned the body of Beaujeu to earth
in the little cemetery of the fort.
Such was the battle of the Monongahela, as the French call it, or
Braddock's Defeat, as it is generally known in our annals
Unexpected as a victory to the French, it filled them with enthusi-
asm ; unexpected as a defeat to the colonies, and to England, it did
precisely what was required at the moment. All were now ready to
vote money and raise men to carry on the war. This fighting the
French was a serious business.
The British general selected by the crown, full of pride in the supe-
rior military skill of the Old World, was shamefully defeated, and killed
at the very first step by a handful of provincials, and all his great
plans of conquest were scattered to the winds, his best army lost, with
all its artillery and munitions.
Of all the plan of Braddock, but one part had succeeded, and that
was one of the greatest crimes in American history ; this was the
seizure of the Acadians.
After the conquest of Acadia, or Nova Scotia, the French Govern-
ment invited the French settlers in that colony to remove to Cape Breton;
but as the English Government, unwilling to have the country depopu-
lated, offered them inducements to stay, they unfortunately remained.
Their position was one of great difficulty, then and ever after. Many
would have emigrated, if they could have sold their farms, but there
was no one to buy. They naturally sympathized with the French and
did not wish to fight against them. From time to time they were subject-
ed to many hardships and oppressive acts, but always lived in hope of
better times, endeavoring to keep peacefully in their quiet settlements.
A CHILD’s HISTORY. - 299
They were now called upon to take a new oath of allegiance, in
which they would swear to fight against their countrymen, and as
it was known that they would refuse, preparations were made to de-
stroy their settlements and carry them off. Had they been enemies, such
an attack on them, when unarmed and defenseless, and the ravaging
of their country, would have been a horrible deed ; but they were act-
ually under the protection of the laws of the Government which thus
treated them.
On the 2d of September, Winslow arrived with a fleet, and sum-
moned all the men to meet in the church at Grandpré, on Friday the
5th. When they had entered, he read a proclamation declaring all"
their property forfeited and themselves prisoners.
They were then marched down to the shore, and in squads sent on
board the ships; their families sent separately, no regard being paid to
family ties or affection. Seldom has such a scene been witnessed, of
cold-blooded malignity on the one hand, or of such sudden and unex-
pected calamity. And while they were huddled on the bleak shore, or
proceeding to the ships, they saw the savage soldiery firing their vil-
lages, burning church, and house, and barns, so that the whole country
was in flames; at least a thousand buildings were thus destroyed, and
fifteen thousand unfortunate people torn from their homes, and hurried
away to a strange land. Had they been taken to France, they would
have found sympathy and relief, but, with a cruelty that was fiendish,
they were scattered all along the coast, from New Hampshire to Geor-
gia. They were cast ashore without any means of support; with no
place before them but the poor-house. Many, by unheard-of hardships,
reached their countrymen in Louisiana or Canada; many on their
way were arrested and taken off again.
300 + A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Five of their leading men, who had been put ashore in Pennsylvania,
petitioned the brutal and ignorant Lord Loudun, the British Com-
mander-in-Chief, for some relief, but he seized them and sent them to
England, asking that they should be impressed into the navy as common
Sailors, although all men of dignity and wealth in their own land.
Bancroft says of these unfortunate people : “I know not if the an-
nals of the human race keep the record of sorrows so wantonly inflict-
ed, so bitter, and so perennial as fell upon the French inhabitants of
Acadia.”
The army intended to attack Fort St. Frederic, at Crown Point, con-
•sisted of New England militia, and was commanded by William John-
son. Fort Edward was erected, and Johnson, at the end of August,
advanced to the shore of Lake George, and encamped with his force of
three thousand four hundred men. *
Dieskau, the French commander; seeing him so dilatory and care-
less, resolved to attack Fort Edward. He advanced along Wood Creek,
but his guides led him astray, and being nearer to Johnson's camp, he
determined to attack it.
Johnson, startled to hear that the French were actually in his rear,
sent a force under Colonel Williams of Massachusetts, and Hendricks,
the old Mohawk chief, to relieve Fort Edward. His first intention was
to send out only a scouting party, but Hendrick, the old Mohawk chief,
said: “If they are to fight, they are too few ; if they are to be killed,
they are too many.” Accordingly, a detachment of twelve hun-
dred marched out. The French and Indians posted themselves in
ambush at Rocky Brook, four miles from Lake George, in a
semicircle on both sides of the route, concealed on the left by the
thickets in the swamps, and on the right by rocks and trees.
THE UNITED STATES. 301
\
The French Mohawks let their New York countrymen pass, then from
every rock and tree came the deadly ball, as the rocks echoed back the
rattle of musketry. Williams and Hendrick fell, the former near a large
boulder still shown as Williams' rock; Nathan Whiting, of New Haven,
restored order, and by rallying from time to time, and keeping up a
fire, managed to save part of the force.
At the camp all was confusion. A few cannon were brought up
from the lake, and the axe flashed as the sturdy arms hewed down
trees to form some kind of intrenchment. Dieskau came in view of
the enemy about eleven o'clock in the morning, having reached an em-
inence overlooking Johnson's camp, and the American troops, from
their position, saw the polished arms of the French on the hill-top, glit-
tering through the trees, as platoon after platoon passed down. Die-
skau's army was discontented and weary. The Indians and Canadians
asked time to rest before attacking the enemy ; the French Mohawks
actually halted ; then the Abnakis did the same, and the Canadians,
seeing something wrong, hesitated. Without waiting to form a plan of
action, or giving his men time to rest and recover, Dieskau charged with
his regulars according to European ideas of war. They came down
the hill into the clearing in splendid style, and under a terrible fire
from the New England troops, who lay flat down behind their intrench-
ment of trees, the gallant French endeavored to push their way into
the camp. For five hours the fight was maintained, till nearly all the
French regulars perished; the Indians and Canadians, galled by the
English artillery, and utterly demoralized, giving them but feeble sup-
port. At last the regulars gave way. Dieskau had received three
wounds, and finding that he could not be carried from the field, calmly
sat down on a stump to meet his fate. Then the English troops charged
302 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
from their camp; a renegade Frenchman shot the unfortunate general,
giving him a wound from which he never recovered.
The French rallied at their battle-field of the morning, and were rest-
ing there when they were suddenly attacked and routed by some New
Hampshire troops, under the brave Captain McGinnis, who fell in the
arms of victory.
So ended the third engagement fought on that bloody 8th of Sep-
tember, 1755, in which nearly a thousand men were killed and
wounded.
In this battle Johnson was wounded early in the action, and the bat-
tle was really fought and gained by General Lyman of Connecticut,
but the merit of the American was overlooked, while Johnson obtained
all the credit, a large grant of money from Parliament, and was created
a baronet.
He neglected to take advantage of his victory, and building Fort
William Henry on the site of his camp, allowed the French to occupy
and fortify Ticonderoga, while he returned to Albany.
Shirley was to have met Braddock at Niagara, but he got no further
than Oswego, where he built a new fort, which he left in command of
Mercer and returned.
During the Winter, Shirley, in a Congress of Governors, planned the
campaign for 1756; but war had been declared at last in Europe, and
England sent over Lord Loudun, as Commander-in-Chief, with Aber-
crombie as next in command, and a large force of soldiers with tents,
ammunition, and artillery for a long campaign, and German officers to
drill the American militia.
Abercrombie reached Albany, and quartered his troops on the citi-
zens. News came in that a French army was advancing on Oswego,
*
THE UNITED STATES. 303
which had just been supplied with provisions by Bradstreet, but Aber-
crombie and Loudoun, with ten or twelve thousand men at their or-
ders, lay inactive.
The Six Nations, disgusted at such conduct, sent to the French to
propose neutrality. •
The French were not inactive. They were, indeed, preparing to at-
tack Oswego, and on the 27th of March, 1756, a convoy of provisions
and supplies for Oswego was surprised near Fort Bull by a French party
from Fort Presentation, now Ogdensburg, under the command of Lieu-
tenant de Lery. But this attack warned the little garrison of Fort
Bull, and they prepared to hold the post. De Lery attacked it, and
after a stubborn fight the French entered the fort. But the cry of
alarm rose, the desperate garrison had fired the powder-magazine, and
the French had barely time to draw off when, with a roar like thunder,
an explosion sent in all directions the material of the fort, and the
valuable munitions stored there. Thus, by the inaction of the English
generals, the line of forts carefully prepared by the provincial authori-
ties was broken and Oswego isolated. Then the energetic de Williers
posted himself at the mouth of Sandy Creek, and by his vigilance and
activity completely cut Oswego off from all relief.
France had seen the English armaments cross the Atlantic. She,
too, sent her well-trained regulars, with abundant supplies, and at their
head one of the knightliest of men, the Marquis de Montcalm, whose
brother is remembered in history as one of the infant prodigies. This
capable Soldier, a man able to understand what war in America was to
be, hastened at once to Ticonderoga, examined all the country around
it, and took measures for its defense. Then he resolved by secrecy
and celerity to take Oswego. Some of his troops were already at Fort
304 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Frontenac; he led others in person from Montreal, regiments of regulars,
and a large force of Canadians and Indians. On the morning of the 4th
of August he reviewed his troops at Fort Frontenac ; before midnight,
on the 6th, he was at anchor in Sackett's Harbor.
The English had for years been fortifying Oswego. The main fort
was on the right bank of the river, a large stone building surrounded
by a wall flanked by bastions. On the other bank of the river frown-
ed Fort Ontario, erected more recently. This outpost was at once in-
vested, and though the garrison held out for a day, they at last, at night-
fall, spiked their guns and retreated to Fort Oswego, under cover of
the darkness.
Montcalm occupied the fort at once, and turned the cannons on Fort
Oswego, while Rigaud, with a detachment, crossed the river under fire,
and gained a wooded height beyond the fort, cutting it off from another
little work called Fort George. The next morning a furious fire was .
opened upon the fort, and at eight o'clock, Colonel Mercer was killed,
and the wall was soon breached. Just as Montcalm was preparing to
storm the place, Littlehales, at ten o'clock, hoisted the white flag.
Montcalm gave them no time, but insisted on an immediate surrender,
for he had intercepted a letter announcing that General Webb was on
his way to relieve the fort, General Loudoun having at last concluded
that there was some danger. By eleven o'clock the capitulation was
signed, and Shirley's and Pepperell's regiments, sixteen hundred strong,
marched out as prisoners of war, to be sent down the St. Lawrence.
More than a hundred cannon, six vessels of war, a large number of
boats, and great quantities of ammunition and provisions remained with
the forts in the hands of the prompt and energetic Montcalm. He
planted the cross and the arms of France, then demolished the forts
THE UNITED STATES. 305
almost in sight of Webb, who, learning the full extent of the dis-
aster, retreated with the haste he should have shown in coming.
Loudoun quartered his useless army on New York and Philadelphia,
leaving the French in possession of the frontiers, and the Indians
ravaging all the distant settlements.
But while the English commanders were thus losing valuable time,
and the Governors of the colonies were planning the next campaign,
there was hot work going on. Lake Champlain, even in mid-winter,
was a battle-ground. Among the American rangers at Fort William
Henry were men who were one day to occupy no inconsiderable place
in their country's history, John Stark and Israel Putnam.
Many were the exploits of the rangers. Soon after the opening of
the year 1757, Stark, with seventy-four men, started down the frozen
surface of the lake on a scout. Between Ticonderoga and Crown
Point they saw a French party of ten or eleven sledges come dashing
on, gay and merry. A sudden dash, a brisk fire, three sledges are
captured, with seven prisoners. The rest give the alarm, and out
swarm a party of French and Indians, more than double the number
of Stark's force. He gained a rising ground, and a covert of trees.
There he kept up the fight all day long. At night he effected a
retreat, with a loss of twenty killed and missing. This exploit won
Stark his first promotion.
Israel Putnam had been fond of adventure from his boyhood in
Connecticut; and many stories are told showing his fearless courage
and persistent daring. One of our historical scholars has worked hard
to show that they are all only stories, but we shall tell some, and if
the reader believes them, we cannot help it.
One day, he, with a party of boys, espied a fine bird's nest on a very
- 20
306 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
high tree. “I’ll wager,” said young Israel, “that there is not a boy
for ten miles around that can get that nest,” and when all agreed, still
turning their longing looks at the unattainable prize, he cried out, “I’ll
try.” Up he swarmed, and reached the limb, but it was too slender to
bear his weight ; still he attempted to climb out on it; a crackling
sound was heard, but though his young comrades, full of terror, cried
out to him not to venture, on he went. “I’ve got it,” he shouted, but
his cry was premature, the limb broke and he fell. Fortunately his
trowsers caught in one of the lower limbs, and there he hung head
downward. - -
“Put, are you hurt?” they asked. “No,” he replied, “but I can't
get down unless some one can get up here and cut me clear.” There
was no knife among them, and seeing their hesitation, he called out to
one who had a rifle,
“Jim Randall, fire at the little branch that holds me, and if you are
a good shot save me.”
“But you'll fall!”
“Jim Randall, will you fire l’’ and fire he did ; the ball struck, the
splinters flew, and Putnam fell to the ground, escaping with a few
bruises. When they had picked him up, and he could breathe, he
stuck his hand into his pocket and drew out the nest: “I said I
would get that nest, and I was bound to have it.”
His adventure with the wolf some years later was a famous one,
and was repeated in various forms in Schoolbooks for years.
An old she-wolf had ravaged the sheepfolds of all the Pomfret far-
mers, and was finally tracked to a cave on the Connecticut. All at-
tempts to worry and smoke her out failed. Then Putnam ventured in
with a torch in one hand, and a rope attached to his leg, that he might
THE UNITED STATES. 307
be drawn out if necessary. He found the cavern slope down for Some
fifteen feet, then, after a level of ten, ascend for about sixteen feet. He
kept steadily on till his torchlight flashed in the eyes of the savage
brute. Jerking the rope he was drawn out, and entering with his rifle,
killed her as she was springing on him. As soon as he fired they
drew him out, but he went back to drag her out. -
Early in the war he had enlisted a number of his neighbors, and re-
ported himself at Fort William Henry. -
As March, 1757, wore on, Peter Francis de Rigaud, a brother of
the Governor of Canada, set out on a winter expedition against Fort
William Henry, a march of a hundred and eighty miles, in show-shoes,
t dragging their provisions on sledges, using dogs to draw them over the
smooth ice. Such was the service to which the hardy Canadians
were inured. On the night of the 16th, the eve of St. Patrick's day, they
came in sight of the fort, as they had planned ; for knowing that there
were many Irishmen in the British regulars, they counted on a general
merrymaking in the fort, and very little watchfulness for any enemy.
They had reckoned well. The liquor flowed free and fast, but Stark,
who was temporarily in command of the Rangers, many of whom were
Irish, fearful of mischief, forbade the sutler to issue any spirits to the
men without a written order, and then pretended to have such a lame
hand that he could not write one. While all is merry within, a French
pioneer tries the ice without with his axe, then a rush is made with
scaling-ladders to surprise the fort. Stark's foresight saved it. The
Rangers held them at bay, and after a sharp struggle, brave Rigaud drew
off, finding his force too small; but he burned three vessels, three hun-
dred batteaux, large boats for carrying troops, and the huts of the Ran-
gers within their pickets, and the store-houses. If he failed to carry
308 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
William Henry, at leas the prevented any English movement against
Fort Carillon at Ticonderoga.
Loudoun now formed a new plan. Leaving Bouquet to watch the
Carolina frontier, Stanwix the West, and Webb at Lake George, he pre-
pared, with the New England and Nova Scotia forces, to take Louisburg.
The slow English general impressed four hundred men at New York, and
seized vessels, and, with his army, including five thousand regulars who
had just come over under Lord Howe, he sailed to Halifax. There he
heard what he should have learned before, that Louisburg was
held by a very strong garrison, and covered by a large French fleet.
His whole work was useless, and he sailed back to New York without
striking a blow.
The French had been wide awake. “Now is our time,” said they.
Montcalm, with fresh troops from France, and Indians from the West,
was preparing to move on Fort George ; and the French forts on the
lake were all strong, with intrenched camps between them. Montcalm
was soon on the spot, showing officers and men an example of endurance
and watchfulness. The French parties swarmed around the English
posts. No one could venture out. Marin in one expedition returned
with forty-two scalps. But the American boatmen boldly held the
lake. The Ottawas resolved to teach them a lesson. On the 24th
of July, they ambuscaded Colonel Palmer's barges. The Indians
1ushed on his party suddenly, terrified them by their yells, so that only
two barges escaped, all the rest were taken or sunk ; a hundred and
sixty of the Americans perished, nearly as many, including eight offi-
cers, were taken prisoners.
Then on the plain above the portage of Lake George, Montcalm held
a general council of all his Indian allies, tribes from the banks of Lake
A CHILD’s HISTORY. 311
Superior and Lake Michigan, to tribes on the sea-coast of Maine. To
the Iroquois, as the most numerous, he gave the great Wampum belt
of six thousand beads, which was to bind them all together. The Iro-
quois gave it in turn to the Ottawas, and other western tribes.
Then, slowly and cautiously, he moved up the lake to attack the
fort. On the morning of the 2d of August, the Indians launched
boldly out into the lake, and in a long line of canoes stretched across
its beautiful bosom, making the shores echo with their furious war-cry.
The English garrison under Colonel Monro were taken by surprise.
They were surrounded on all sides. La Corne with his Canadians cut
them off from the Hudson, Montcalm with his main body occupied the
skirt of the wood on the west side of the lake, and detachments burned
all the English barracks, and cut off the stragglers.
Webb lay at Fort Edward with four thousand men, and could have
called out the militia, but he did nothing, leaving the gallant Monro and
his garrison cf five hundred, and the seventeen hundred in the camp to
their fate. On the 4th of August, Montcalm summoned him to surren-
der, but Monro's answer was a defiance. Then the siege began, and
the artillery soon opened on the fort, and the French lines narrowed
in. At last, when half his guns had been dismounted and his ammuni-
tion was almost spent, Monro hung out a flag of truce.
The siege had cost the English one hundred and eight killed, one
hundred and fifty wounded ; while that of the French, though the attack-
ing party, had not been half that number.
Lieutenant Colonel Young met Montcalm in the French trench.
The French general at once summoned the Indian chiefs, that they
might concur in the terms granted, and adhere to them. At noon, the
capitulation was signed. The English, pledging themselves not to
312 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
serve against the French for eighteen months, were to be sent to Fort
Edward under an escort, with their private effects, leaving all the arms
and munitions of war; all the French and Indian prisoners were to be
liberated. Montcalm had kept all intoxicating drinks from his Indi-
ans, and urged the English to destroy everything of the kind in the fort.
At night, the English garrison retired to the camp under French guard,
and Montcalm occupied the fort. By a fatal imprudence, the English
neglected to destroy the liquor, and, what was worse, gave it freely to
the Indians. The night was a hideous debauchery. At daybreak, as
the English troops filed out, the drunken Indians began to plunder and
then to tomahawk them. Many—thirty, perhaps fifty—were slain ; others
fled to the woods. The little French escort was powerless ; Montcalm
hurried up with his officers, and a corps of troops, and many were
wounded in attempting to save the English. At last they gathered fifteen
hundred of the terror-stricken people, and in all haste guided them to
Fort Edward. Others, in the midst of the French, reached Fort Wil-
liam Henry again, and for days cannon were fired, and Scouting parties
sent out till five hundred more were collected, who were escorted to
Albany.
This massacre, more than the battle, filled all with terror. Webb lay
shivering at Fort Edward ; Albany, in danger, called on New England
for aid; people west of the Connecticut were ordered to destroy their
wagons and drive in their cattle. Loudoun, whose pompous plans
were to demolish French power, proposed to encamp on Long Island so
as to save the British colonies'
Montcalm demolished the fort, however, and withdrew. His Cana-
dians had their harvests to gather in, for these men alternately fought
and tilled the soil. The vast stores of the English army were a treas-
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THE UNITED STATES. - 313
ure to Canada, and were won with a loss of only fifty-three
II] GI1.
The English were driven from Lake Champlain, now left to its solitude;
they were driven from Lake Ontario; they had been driven from the Ohio.
France seemed to predominate in North America. England and her
colonies were humiliated. Yet the power of France hung by a thread.
Canada was really exhausted, and abandoned by the unworthy King
of France, whose name and whose vile favorites' names are never ut-
tered, even now, by old Canadian-French without the expression of the
deepest contempt. “I shudder,” wrote Montcalm, in February, 1758,
“when I think of provisions. The famine is very great.” “For all our
success New France needs peace. Otherwise, sooner or later it must
fall, such are the numbers of the English, such the difficulties of our
receiving supplies.” . .
Bread was dealt out by weight to soldiers and inhabitants. The
only hope was in the wonderful genius of Montcalm, and the misman-
agement of the English commanders.
But a new spirit had been infused into English affairs. Pitt was
called to the ministry by the will of the English people. His vigorous
mind gave order and system to the whole conduct of the war.
As before, three several expeditions were set on foot. A fleet, under
Admiral Boscawen, was to bear to Cape Breton an army under the
cautious Jeffrey Amherst and James Wolfe, whose singular military
ability had been already remarked. General Forbes, with another
army, was to accomplish what Braddock had failed in, the conquest of
the Ohio Valley; while the army to operate against the French on Lake
Champlain, and reduce the enemy's forts, Carillon at Ticonderoga, and
St. Frederic at Crown Point, was to be commanded by Abercrombie,
314 - A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
with whom Pitt associated Lord Howe as the real soul of the enter-
prise. - -
The armies were to be well officered, and to lack nothing really re-
Quired.
Boscawen's fleet of twenty-two ships of the line and fifteen frigates,
in June, 1758, was discerned from the walls of Louisburg. Under the
fire of the frigates, the army of ten thousand men landed, through the
Surf-beaten, rocky shore, Wolfe leading the first division, and jumping
into the water to form his men, and charge the French battery and
abattis of felled trees. The French were driven in and the place in-
vested. Thus one point was gained. Wolfe, heading the light infantry
and Highlanders, soon gained another, surprising the lighthouse bat-
tery on the northeast of the harbor entrance.
Then for more than a month the siege went on, the English ships and
batteries hurling their shells into the doomed place till it was but a
heap of ruins. The French ships in the harbor were burned or cap-
tured by Boscawen. -
The Chevalier de Drucour had done all that a brave man could. On
the 27th of July, 1758, he capitulated, the French forces were sent to
France, and the English commander took possession of Cape Breton and
Prince Edward's Island.
Louisburg, once a thriving city, with the strongest fortress in the
New World, was left to decay. It is now only a mass of ruins, one of
the cities of the past, like Jamestown and St. Mary's.
That same month beheld another and still more formidable English
army at Lake Champlain. Nearly ten thousand provincial troops from
New England, New York, and New Jersey, among them Roger's ex-
perienced and daring Rangers, had gathered, with their own officers and
THE UNITED STATES. 315
chaplains, and beside, them lay the more soldierly-looking camp, where
six thousand regulars, trained in battle-fields and campaigns of the Old
World, prepared for action. It was by far the largest body of white
troops ever assembled in North America. This host embarked on the
beautiful waters of Lake George, in more than a thousand batteaux and
boats, with their artillery on rafts, all gay with flags, while the martial
strains from the bands woke the echoes. All day long, under a cloud-
less sky, the fleet moved on undisturbed by the appearance of a foe-
man. Landing at Sunset, at Sabbath Day Point, they began to talk
over the fight of the coming day.
Montcalm, in himself a host, vigilant, active, farsighted, had been
long aware of the force approaching him. His Fort Carillon was
strongly placed. He improved its advantages by destroying bridges
and encumbering roads. His own position, on a height, he fortified by
felling trees, and using every natural impediment. He called in all
his outposts but one under de Trepezec, and every man plied the axe
to strengthen and defend the lines.
Early the next morning, the English, under Howe, landed on the
west side of the lake, about a mile above the rapids. Bourlamaque,
sent out to watch their movements, fell back slowly. De Trepezec,
misled by guides, suddenly came upon the English advance near Trout
Brook. Without regarding the disparity of numbers, de Trepezec
charged; the contest was short and desperate ; half the French per-
ished, half remained prisoners, but the cause of English Supremacy
lost Lord Howe, who fell at the head of his men. Abercrombie with-
drew his troops to their landing-place. The next day he prepared to
attack Montcalm in form. A triple line was formed, out of cannon-
shot ; rangers, boatmen, and light infantry in the van; then the pro-
*-*.
316 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Vincial troops; the regulars forming the third line. Johnson, who came
up with his Indians, took no part.
Montcalm's little force were still laboring at their intrenchments,
When the cannon sounded to bid them drop axe, and spade, and pick,
and seize their muskets. De Levi had come in the night before with
four hundred men, and they were all sanguine. Montcalm, at a point
where his keen eye could sweep the line, threw off his coat for a hot day's
Work. The English regulars were to pass through the provincials, and
carry the French line with a charge of bayonets. The French were to
keep motionless till the order to fire. Thus, without a shot on either
side, the English line moved on. Up and up the rocky hill-side, , it
moved in splendid style, till it became disordered amid the rocks, and
trees, and rubbish. Then, from the whole French line, came a well-de-
livered and continuous fire of cannon and musketry. Officers and men
Went down by hundreds, but, though Abercrombie was far in the rear,
the officers in the field fought like heroes; again and again, they led
up their men to assail the less complete parts of the French lines, and
endeavoring to turn their left, where Bourlamaque repulsed them till
he was dangerously wounded, and was hard pressed. The fate of the day
seemed to waver, when Montcalm sent reinforcements that saved his
line.
For three hours the attacks were incessant, and the whole force was
thrown on the French centre and left. Again Montcalm and de Levi
were at hand, and the English line repulsed. One last desperate
charge on the centre, and the battle was over; the English line fell
back in such disorder that they fired into each other. The battle of
Ticonderoga was lost. Two thousand English lay dead or wounded on
the bloody slope.
THE UNITED STATES. 317
Abercrombie, in fright and consternation, with an army four times
that of Montcalm, fled to his boats in disorder, and did not feel safe till
he had the lake between him and the French.
To keep up the panic, Montcalm sent out daring parties. One of
these seized a convoy between two of Abercrombie's forts. Rogers
with his rangers attempted to surprise them. A brisk action occurred,
in which Putnam, commanding the rear, was captured with twelve or
fourteen rangers. His men were cut down at once. Himself, too noble
a prize, was bound to a tree, and a tomahawk, hurled in wantonness,
laid open his cheek. The stake would have been surely his fate had
not Marin, a French officer, rescued him, and finally, after many hard-
ships at the hands of the Indians, enabled him to reach Montreal.
Bradstreet, a provincial officer, had early in the campaign asked
leave to operate against Fort Frontenac, now Kingston. At last Aber-
crombie listened to him. Bradstreet, with twenty-seven hundred men
of New York and Massachusetts, and a few Indians, pushed on to Os-
wego, whence he passed in boats across Lake Ontario, and on the 25th
of August landed within a mile of the fortress by which France con-
trolled the lake.
The French garrison, astounded at the unexpected appearance of an
English force, fled, leaving a few to surrender to Bradstreet the fort,
with the armed vessels under its guns, and all the supplies intended
for Fort du Quesne, and the other frontier posts, which were thus
doomed. Bradstreet's success thus secured that of Forbes, who, with
an army of Highlanders from South Carolina, Royal Americans, two
fine Virginia regiments under Washington, prepared to reduce Fort du
Quesne. Wayne was here as a boy to see what war was like, and the fu-
ture painter, West, was able here to see subjects for his pencil in later days.
3.18 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
Bouquet, who was in the advance, detached eight hundred High-
landers and Virginians under Grant to reconnoitre. Grant, unaware
that Aubry had reached the French fort with a reinforcement, con-
ceived the plan of taking it. He advanced in sight, and posted his
men so as to cut off a party Sallying out. But Aubry rushed out with
his whole force, attacking Grant with Such fury along his whole line,
that he gave him no time to get his men together, but routed his whole
command so completely that Grant fled, leaving nearly three hundred
killed or prisoners. Grant, a few moments before elated with the idea
of victory, was himself taken.
Forbes, who was dying with a fatal malady, came slowly on ; so
slowly, that Washington at last obtained leave to push on more rapidly
with a part of the force. On the 24th of November, 1758, the general
encamped within ten miles of the fort. Then de Lignery, the French
commander, who had long been out of provisions, and of goods to win
the Indians, set fire to the fort which had begun the war; lighted by
the flames, his boats pushed off, some for Fort Machault, Some for the
Mississippi. The next day, the English army took possession of the
spot, which at the suggestion of Forbes, was named in honor of the
statesman who had planned the conduct of the war. Pittsburg is still
a monument of his ability, and of the gratitude felt towards him in
America. -
One of their first cares was to visit Braddock's field, and inter the
bones of their countrymen who fell in that disastrous day.
Both parties prepared for the campaign of 1759. Pitt planned
again three expeditions, and sent from England men and supplies to
ensure their success. France did nothing to save Canada, and that
colony was left in its hour of supreme danger to battle for its own ex-
THE UNITED STATES. 319
istence, and for the honor of France. Wolfe, with an army of eleven
thousand men, was to be conveyed by Admiral Saunders' fleet up the
St. Lawrence, where he was to reduce Quebec. Amherst, who was
made Governor of Virginia, and commander-in-chief of the English
armies in America, was to sweep through Lake Champlain, and occupy
Montreal, while an army under Prideaux was to capture Fort Niagara,
now almost isolated.
To save, if possible, this last post, Montcalm sent, in April, Captain
Pouchot, a skillful engineer, with three hundred regulars and Cana-
dians, all he could spare. It was not in hopes of holding Niagara, but
solely to divert the English forces from Canada. Pouchot at once
strengthened his fortifications, and tried to gain the Senecas, who knew
him well. He also called on Lignery, at the Ohio, and Aubry, in Illi-
nois, for aid. º
Meanwhile General Prideaux, with two battalions from New York,
a battalion of Royal Americans, two English regiments, and artillery,
with a large Indian force under Sir William Johnson, advanced to re-
duce the fort, of which the ruins are still visible on the flat, narrow
promontory jutting out into the rapid Niagara. They embarked on
Lake Ontario, at Oswego, and soon landed near the fort, which was
at once invested in form. Pouchot was summoned to surrender, but re-
turned a decided refusal. Then the siege began, Pouchot returning
Prideaux's fire with effect; shortly after the English general was killed
by the bursting of one of his own mortars, and the command devolved
on Johnson, who followed up his plans with skill and judgment. Pou-
chot’s only hope was in the forces that d’Aubry and Lignery might
collect. At last an Indian brought in letters announcing their approach.
De Lignery had gathered the French on the Ohio, with all friendly In-
320 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
dians; d'Aubry came at the head of Illinois settlers and Indians,
amounting in all to about twelve hundred men.
Johnson prepared to receive them, and check any sally from the
fort. He threw his light infantry, supported by grenadiers and troops
of the line, between the fort and the falls, with his Indians on the
flanks, and in ambush.
Aubry and Lignery charged impetuously, but failed to move the
British line, while the English Indians galled their flanks so, that when
the English advanced, they were thrown into disorder and broken. An
utter rout ensued, de Lignery, Aubry, with many officers, were wound-
ed and taken, others were cut down in the pursuit, in which the Indians
and English slaughtered without mercy. Among the rest, the Rev. Mr.
Virot, the chaplain of the French force, was taken and hewed to pieces.
Pouchot, from his fort, saw what seemed a mere skirmish; when he
learned the full extent of the disaster, and the retreat, towards Detroit,
of the survivors, he looked at the ruined walls of his fort, and capitu-
lated with his brave handful of men, which had held in check the well-
appointed force of Johnson.
De Levi then took post at Ogdensburg, to prevent Prideaux descend-
ing at once on Montreal. Amherst sent Gage to drive him from that
position, but Gage, like Amherst, loitered, and Montreal, menaced by
two armies, and almost defenseless, still remained in the hands of the
French. Conscious of their inability to resist the British artillery and
army, the French troops under Bourlamaque abandoned their lines at
Fort Carillon, Ticonderoga, and retreated, leaving only a small garri-
son in the place. A few days later, these and the garrison of Fort
Frederic fell back to Isle aux Noix, and the flag of France ceased to
float over the soil of New York. -

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A CHILD’s HISTORY. 323
Amherst might then have occupied Montreal, and co-operated with
Wolfe before Quebec, but he merely sent a detachment to destroy the
Abenaki town of St. Francis, and then prepared to go into winter
quarters.
Wolfe's army had meanwhile, in June, been borne within sight of
Quebec, by Saunders' fleet of forty-four men-of-war, frigates, and
armed vessels. On the 26th of June, the whole armament arrived of
Isle Orleans, on which they disembarked the next day.
Wolfe could now, on the spot, see the magnitude of the task assigned
to him. Louisburg was fortified by science, but there, nature aided
science to make the place nearly impregnable. Every point for miles
above and below the city, was fortified and defended, and Montcalm,
directing, animating all, was no unworthy antagonist.
The English fleet lay anchored in the river, controlling it. The
French first attempted to destroy or cripple the fleet, by sending down
fireships, but these were grappled by the sailors and towed away from
the shipping.
The English army lay encamped across Isle Orleans, and soon occu-
pied Point Levi, planting batteries of mortars and heavy artillery to
bombard the city at the narrowest part of the river. Red-hot balls
and shells poured into the ill-fated city. The night was lighted up by
the glare of these rocket-like engines of destruction, as they curved
over the river, and fell into Quebec. Flames shot up in all directions,
lighting up the scene far and near. Fifty houses were set on fire in a
single night, the lower town was demolished, the upper town greatly
injured.
This was kept up for a month, but no impression was made, and the
French seemed to have no idea of surrender.
324 - A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Wolfe resolved to force Montcalm to an action. He tried the line of
the Montmorency, but could not discover a place through which he
could force his way. Then he explored above the city, but in vain.
Almost desperate, he selected a landing-place at Montmorency. The
grenadiers and Royal Americans landed, and without waiting for Sup-
port, ran hastily towards the French entrenchments, from which they
were hurled back in disorder. Other troops came up, but Wolfe saw
it would be useless to sacrifice his men in a vain attempt. He re-em-
barked, having lost four hundred men.
Murray, sent above Quebec, dispersed some invalids and women
at Deschambault, and heard of the fall of Niagara, and of the French
retreat from Ticonderoga and Crown Point. Wolfe looked now for
Amherst, but no messenger even came from that general.
Wolfe then laid before his three brigadiers three plans for attacking
Montcalm. All were rejected, and it was determined to convey four
or five thousand men above the town, and draw Montcalm from his im-
pregnable position to an open action, Wolfe, himself, began to examine
the shore almost inch by inch. He himself discovered the cove
which now bears his name. He saw the narrow path winding up, and
the petty force that held its termination on the summit. Here he
resolved to land his troops by surprise.
Montcalm, believing the worst danger past, had sent de Levi with a
detachment to Montreal. Bougainville was watching the English along
the shore.
Admiral Holmes was at once sent with some ships to hold Bougain-
ville. Saunders set the active James Cook, soon, like Bougainville, to be
known by his voyage around the world, to sound near Beaupré as if
for a landing. Then Wolfe, on the 13th of September, with Monckton
THE UNITED STATES. 325
and Murray, and about half the force, set off in boats, and glided
down. They soon reached the cove, hidden by the over-hanging rock,
and were taken for a French party expected with provisions. Wolfe
and the troops leaped ashore; the light infantry and Highlanders
clambered up the steep hill-side, aided by the stunted trees and shrubs,
and after a brief skirmish, dispersed the picket and guard under de
Wergor at the summit. The heights gained, the rest followed, and at day-
break, Wolfe, with a small army of veterans, and four cannon from an
abandoned battery, was drawn up on the Plains of Abraham, so called
from Abraham Martin, one of the earliest settlers of Quebec. Mont-
calm believed it only a small party. When the truth was made clear,
he saw that the decisive moment was come. “They have at last got to
the weak side of this wretched garrison,” he cried ; “we must crush
them before noon.”
He at once ordered the Guyenne regiment to the heights to watch
the enemy, and leaving only fourteen hundred at Beauport, in the in-
trenched camp, moved with the rest. He sent off to call in Bougain-
ville, but the messengers lost precious time. De Levi too was sum-
moned, though too far distant to arrive in time.
The French troops had more than three miles to march, a hill-side to
climb, and heavy grain-fields to cross. They came almost at a run,
and reached the battle-field exhausted, while Wolfe's men had enjoyed
four hours' rest.
The two armies were about equal in numbers, but Wolfe's was com-
posed of well-disciplined regulars, while half of Montcalm's were mili-
tia and Indians. -
Separated by a little rising ground, the two forces cannonaded each
other for about an hour, while the skirmishers kept up a fire of musketry.
326 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Montcalm's army, with the regulars and artillery as the centre, had
its right, of the Quebec and Montreal militia, resting on the Sainte
Foye road, the left, composed of Montreal and Three River militia,
stretching to the hill overlooking the river. Wolfe was drawn up be-
fore a series of knolls which shielded him from the guns of Quebec.
Monckton was on his right, at the Samos wood, and Townshend on his
left.
Montcalm led the army impetuously to the attack; the English, by
Wolfe's orders, held their fire till the French were within forty yards,
then poured in a steady, well-directed fire. It was fearfully destruc-
tive. Montcalm's two brigadiers, de Sennezergues and Fontbrune, were
killed, and the whole French thrown into confusion. Wolfe, who had
been cheering on his men, in spite of two slight wounds, now led a
charge at the head of his grenadiers upon the French left. It gave
way, and only a part, covered by trees, kept up the fight, galling the
English flank. In the midst of this success, a third ball struck Wolfe
in the breast, inflicting a mortal wound. “Support me,” he cried, to an
officer near him ; “let not my brave fellows see me drop.” He was
carried to the rear, and an officer supported him, as they raised him to
take a drink. “They run, they run,” said the officer, looking over the
field. “Who run ?” asked the dying hero. “The French,” replied the
officer, “are giving way everywhere.” “Now, God be praised, I die
happy!” said Wolfe, as he expired.
Montcalm did all that he could to rally his men, and retrieve the
day. While covering the retreat of his force, he too was mortally
wounded near the St. John's gate. Two grenadiers ran to his support,
and by their aid he entered the city, replying with his usual courteous
grace to the expressions of commiseration from some ladies. A sur-
THE UNITED STATES. i 327
geon pronounced his wound fatal. He gave the last directions, and
said: “I leave the affairs of the King, my dear master, in good
hands. I have always entertained great esteem for the talents and
ability of General de Levi.” With his dying hand he wrote to
Townshend, commending the prisoners, both French and Canadians, to
his humanity. Then he gave himself entirely to preparation for a
Christian death.
Bougainville arrived in time to see the rout of the French army.
Townshend feared to engage him, and he himself, not venturing to re-
new the battle, drew off.
The defeat of Montcalm left Quebec at the mercy of the English.
Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada, wrote to de Ramsay, who was in
command at Quebec, not to wait for an assault, but to raise the white
flag as Soon as his supplies were exhausted.
There were, indeed, only a few days’ provisions in the place, so that
Ramsay, seeing no hope of relief, capitulated on the 18th September.
The campaign of Wolfe and Saunders on the St. Lawrence had thus
been brilliant and successful, and we can only regret that Wolfe tar-
nished his name by fearful cruelties on the Canadian villagers, many of
whom were butchered in cold blood, amid their blazing homes.
Amherst lay inactive, and in the spring moved his army of ten
thousand men to Oswego, although the French had abandoned all their
Works between Lake Champlain and Montreal, and, as we shall see fur-
ther on, it was not till nearly a year after Wolfe's glorious victory and
death that Amherst entered Montreal.
The American colonies had been induced to look upon some infringe-
ments on their liberties as military necessities growing out of the war
with Canada, and like many nations in history, they were deluded by
328 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
this; but they awoke in time. They already began to fear that their
freedom was menaced. In its exultation, the English Government
threw off the mask, and by resorting to odious and illegal Writs of As-
sistance to enforce the British Acts of Trade, drew on itself the hos-
tility of almost all the colonists.
CHAPTER WII.
Reign of George III.—The Cherokee War—The Treaty of Peace with France—Florida taken
in exchange for Havana—Pontiac's Conspiracy—England resolved to tax America—Stamp
Act Riots in America—Battle of Golden Hill—Boston Massacre—The Tax on Tea—Resist-
ance of America—The Boston Tea Party—North Carolina Regulators—New Indian War.
WHILE his American affairs were in this position, George II. Suddenly
died of apoplexy, and on the 25th of October, 1760, his grandson,
George III., ascended the throne, inheriting in Europe the kingdom of
England and the Electorate of Hanover, and possessing half the north-
ern continent of America, in itself a realm whose government required
the utmost justice and wisdom. While the northern colonies were en-
gaging the French, Carolina was involved in an Indian War, by the mere
wantonness of an English Governor, self-sufficient and ignorant like most
of his class. The Cherokees had ever been friends of the English, as the
neighboring colonies had often recognized. In the wars, their braves had
served faithfully, but no notice was taken of them, and although they
had left their fields untilled to serve in the army, no provision was
made for their wives and children, or for themselves on returning to
their untilled fields. Half starving, these braves, on their way home,
here and there, took the food they needed to reach their villages. The
colonists pursued them and killed several.
A spirit of revenge was excited. Two soldiers were killed at Telli-
3.
THE UNITED STATES. 329
—
quo, in revenge. This was the act of a few. The nation disavowed
them, and sought to renew the former alliance and friendship.
But Governor Lyttleton demanded the murderers; and when they
hesitated, stopped all ammunition and goods on their way to the In-
dian towns. All was excitement in the Cherokee towns, and they saw
no way to peace except by taking up arms.
Lyttleton called on the neighboring colonies, and friendly tribes, for aid.
Oconostata, the great warrior of the Cherokees, came to Charleston.
Lyttleton repulsed him rudely. “I love the white people,” said the
chief; “they and the Indians shall not hurt one another; I reckon my-
self as one with you.”
But Lyttleton was bent on an Indian war: “I am now going with a
great many of my warriors to your nation,” was his fierce reply,
“in order to demand satisfaction of them. If you will not give it when
I come to your nation, I shall take it.”
He set out from Charleston with the Indian envoys under guard, and,
by his display of force, compelled the Cherokees to sign a treaty of
peace in December, retaining hostages for its fulfillment.
His exultation at this was unbounded, but he little knew the Indian
character. They were brooding over the matter, with hearts full of
fury. Oconostata resolved to rescue the hostages, and the very treaty
was a declaration of war. The commandant at Fort Prince George
was lured out into an ambuscade and shot. It was the death-knell of
the hostages, who were all butchered. As this became known, the
mountains echoed with the war-song, and, obtaining ammunition from
Louisiana, the Cherokees burst like a destroying hurricane along the
frontier. The Muskogees, or Creeks, seemed ready to join them, and
Carolina was in imminent peril.
330 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Amherst was called upon for aid. He ordered Montgomery and
Grant from the Ohio, with Highlanders and Royal Americans. At
Ninety-six these regulars joined a body of Carolina rangers. They
moved rapidly into the Cherokee country, and, using Indian tactics
against the red men, came by Surprise on the village of Little Keowee.
Though the barking of a dog gave an alarm, it was too late. The Eng-
lish burst in upon them, slaughtering nearly all, sparing only some wo-
men and children. The other towns in the beautiful Keowee valley
were then abandoned by the Cherokees, and given to the flames by the
army. These villages were all beautifully situated ; with neat houses,
and well-filled storehouses of Indian corn. The Cherokees, taken ut-
terly by surprise, and never dreaming of so prompt an invasion, had
made no preparations. All was destroyed, and the articles left in the
houses, money and Watches, Wampum and skins, enriched the sol-
diery.
Montgomery sent to offer peace before treating the other towns in
like manner. But the haughty chief made no reply. Then Mont-
gomery crossed the Alleghany. No enemy was seen till he reached
the Little Tennessee. One day, towards the end of June, 1760, as he
was pushing along the muddy bank of the river, through a broken
valley covered with dense undergrowth, the Cherokees suddenly
sprang from the bushes, and a withering volley staggered the line. The
officer leading the advance, the gallant Morrison, fell, but there was no
flight, no disorder; the Highlanders and provincials drove the enemy
from their coverts, and chasing them from height to hollow, made the
wilderness ring with their cheers and shouts. But the victory cost
Montgomery twenty killed and seventy-six wounded.
He was now Sadly perplexed. To go on with his wounded was diffi-
-
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THE UNITED STATES. 331
cult indeed ; and this he must do to relieve Fort Loudoun. So, deceiv-
ing the Cherokees by kindling fires, he fell back, and on the 1st of July
reached Fort Prince George.
Fort Loudoun was left to its fate. It surrendered to Oconostata on
the 8th of August, and the garrison, two hundred men, were sent to-
wards Carolina. At Telliquo, the fugitives were surrounded; Demeré,
the commander, and twenty-six officers and men, were killed for the
murdered hostages. The rest were taken back and divided among the
tribes. Attakullakulla, the head chief of the Cherokees, who possess-
ed little real authority, was friendly to the whites. He resolved to
rescue Stuart, an old friend of his, who was now a prisoner. To save
him from being compelled to fight against his countrymen, Attakulla-
kulla, or Little Carpenter, as the Carolinians called him, took him off,
pretending that he required his aid in hunting. Once in the woods, the
chief struck for Virginia, and for nine days and nights travelled on
through the wilderness as only an Indian could travel, till at last they
encountered a Virginia detachment.
Montgomery's campaign had but made the Cherokees resolute and
vindictive. Yet he resolved to depart, and, in spite of all the entreaty
of the people, sailed for New York with part of his force. -
It required another tedious expedition under Grant, in 1761, to close
the war. Another battle was fought on the banks of the Little Ten-
nessee, in which the Cherokees were again defeated. Then the new
Cherokee towns and settlements were wasted, and four thousand na-
tives left homeless. Their spirit was broken. They sought peace.
While this war, provoked by a haughty and ignorant English Gover-
nor, was desolating Carolina, England nearly lost Canada. Amherst
loitered with his army on the way to Montreal. Murray lay in Que-
332 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
bec. Bougainville had come up too late to save Montcalm's army on
the Heights of Abraham ; but his forces joined de Levi. That able
general attempted to surprise the city in midwinter, but finding it im-
practicable, laid siege to Quebec, in the early spring, with an army of
ten thousand men. On the 28th of April, Murray marched out of the
city, and attacked the French line at Sillery wood. The French, under
Bourlamaque, met the onset, and charged in turn so furiously that
Murray, fearing to be completely surrounded, fled in disorder to the
eity, leaving a thousand men on the field, and his fine train of artillery.
De Levi, who had lost only three hundred men, pushed on, and opened
trenches against the town. The English garrison, now sadly cut down,
labored earnestly to hold out till aid came. De Levi pushed on to cap-
ture Quebec before vessels could reach it. All eyes were turned to-
wards the river in fear and hope. At last vessels were seen, men-of-
war were approaching. Every eye was strained to see the first flag.
To Murray, the white flag would be a signal of ruin ; to de Levi, one
of triumph. It was the English fleet. The last hope of France was
gone. De Levi, baffled, abandoned his now useless guns.
On the 7th of September, Amherst met Murray before Montreal.
Vaudreuil, the last French Governor, had long expected the day. He
capitulated, and surrendered to England all Canada, and the North-
West. \
On the 8th of September, 1760, the French rule ended.
The war in the northern part of the continent closed. The British
flag floated undisputed from Hudson Bay almost to the Gulf of Mexico,
and from the shores of Lake Superior and Michigan to the Atlantic.
But, in Europe, the war was raging more fiercely than ever; almost all
the Continental powers being arrayed against England and Prussia. To
THE UNITED STATES. 333
carry on the war with Spain, George III., who had now ascended the
throne, succeeding his grandfather, George II., in October, 1760, called
on his American subjects to aid in reducing Havana. On the 30th of
July, 1762, after a siege of twenty-nine days, in which the brave
Spanish commander, Don Luis de Velasco, was mortally wounded,
Moro castle was taken by storm, by a combined force of English regulars,
West India negroes, and sturdy militia, from New England and New
York, Putnam among them, with others who had last fought in the
chilly borders of Canada. Many of our brave soldiers perished before
Havana, in this fatal midsummer campaign in the tropics, and left their
bones to decay on that Cuban shore. Havana, and all its wealth, with
the castle, fell into the hands of the British. -
When, at last, in November, peace was restored, England gave up
this conquest for Florida. She also received a cession of all Louisiana,
to the Mississippi, except the island of New Orleans; all Canada,
Acadia, Cape Breton, all the French possessions, except the two little
islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, that you can scarcely find on
your map. At the same time, France ceded Louisiana to Spain, and
the lilied flag ceased to float on the continent of North America, where,
but a few years before, her maps showed almost the whole continent as
French.
The treaty was definitively signed at Paris, February 10th, 1763.
England had taken possession of all that France claimed as Canada.
In September, 1760, Amherst had despatched Rogers, whose rangers
had done such signal service against the French, to take possession of
Detroit, the key to the West, as well as of Michilimackinac and other
posts. -
Where Cleveland now stands, he was confronted by Pontiac, the
334 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
chieftain of the French Indians, who haughtily demanded his business
in that country, without his permission.
Rogers explained to him that the flag of France had fallen, and that
he went to take possession of the French posts, to live in peace with all
the tribes. After some deliberation, he consented to their progress, and
even saved them from an ambuscade of Detroit Indians. Rogers, sending
on Vaudreuil's instructions to the French commander, landed with his
rangers opposite Detroit, and encamped. An officer was sent over, the
French garrison filed out, and laid down their arms; the militia were
then disarmed, the French flag was lowered, amid the yells of the In-
dians. Forts Miami and Ouiatenon, with Michilimackinac, were soon
after occupied.
In all the West, one French fort alone was left, that of Fort Chartres
in Illinois.
The western tribes found that a new rule had begun.
They did not like it.
From the banks of the Niagara to the shores of Lake Superior,
from Lake Erie to the Gulf of Mexico, there was a fast growing hate
of the English, and their colonists. Could France have called out this
spirit a few years before she might have saved Canada.
The discontent that pervaded all the tribes, prepared them for any
plot. All that was required was a leader, and this soon appeared in
Pontiac, Chief of the Ottawas, said by some to have been himself a
Catawba. Nature had made him a leader of men; he was already re-
wered by all the Indian tribes of the northwest as a hero, a man of
prowess in war, of wisdom in council, a man of integrity and human-
ity, as they regarded it. -
He soon formed a vast conspiracy among the tribes, for a simultane-
THE UNITED STATES. 335
ous attack on the English posts. He himself was to surprise Detroit. His
preparations were crafty indeed. Announcing to Gladwin, the com-
mander, that he would in a few days pay him a visit with some of his
braves, he, in the Indian villages around the fort, prepared his men for
the work of slaughter. Securing saws and files, they cut off the bar-
rels of their guns so that they could hide them under their blankets.
And with these, and knives and tomahawks, sharpened to their keen-
est edge, the chieftain, with about three hundred of his braves, stalked
into the fort on the 7th of May. Pontiac bore a wanpum belt, white
on one side, green on the other ; when he turned this his men were to
begin the work.
But Gladwin had been warned the day before by an Ojibwa girl, and
was ready for the emergency. Pontiac rose, holding the fatal belt,
and began to address Gladwin, professing strong attachment to the
English, and desiring to smoke the pipe of peace. As he raised the
belt, Gladwin made a slight motion with his head, a sudden clang of
arms rang from the hall without, and the long roll of the drum drowned
the voice of the chief. Pontiac hesitated, and closing his address, sat
down, baffled and perplexed.
Gladwin answered in a few words. He wished the friendship of all
the tribes, but if they preferred war, stern vengeance should follow the
first hostile act. Unwisely, perhaps, he allowed the braves to depart, for
the next morning hostilities began. An English party Sounding on
Lake Huron, were seized and murdered.
On the 10th, Pontiac summoned Gladwin to surrender, and, on his
refusal, massacred an old English woman and a sergeant, the only
persons of English race who lived outside the fort. Two English offi-
cers were also surprised and murdered on Lake St. Clair.
336 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
For six hours, the besieging Indians, skulking behind bushes, houses,
knolls, or flying rapidly past, poured their deadly shots into the embra-
sures of the fort, carrying balls in their mouths so as to lose no time *
in loading. They finally drew off, to begin preparations for a regu-
lar siege, and so deceived Gladwin, that he sent out two officers to
treat with them. All the Indians in that part had joined Pontiac ex-
cept the Christian Hurons, whom the missionary Potier long restrained,
but even he, at last, failed to control them, and they were forced to
join the forces of Pontiac.
On the 16th of May, a party of Indians appeared at the gate of
Fort Sandusky. Ensign Paulli, the commander, admitted seven as old
acquaintances and friends, and all sat down to smoke. Suddenly a sig-
nal was given, and Paulli was seized, bound, and carried out. Every
soldier and trader in the post was already murdered.
The old Jesuit mission on the St. Joseph's had become a British
post, under command of Ensign Schlosser. On the 25th, a party of
Pottawatamies appeared in friendly guise, and were admitted. In less
than two minutes Schlosser was seized, and all his men but three
butchered and scalped.
On the 13th of May, Lieutenant Cuyler had left Fort Niagara, and
embarked from Fort Schlosser, just above the Falls, with ninety-six
men, ammunition, and provisions for Detroit. Meeting no enemy, he
landed carelessly at Point Pelee, near the mouth of Detroit river, and
was preparing to encamp, when he was suddenly attacked by a body
of Hurons or Wyandots. Cuyler formed his men around the boats, and
a vigorous fire of musketry was kept up, but the Indians made a furi-
ous charge, and the English troops were thrown into confusion and fled
to their boats. Two boats, with thirty or forty men, escaped, the rest
A CHILD’s HISTORY. 339
were taken in triumph past Detroit, where the disappointed garrison
saw this sad result with heavy hearts. The prisoners in one boat,
when nearing an English vessel off the fort, rose on their guards, and
amid the fierce volleys of the Indians, who pursued them, managed to
reach the vessel; all the rest were tortured and butchered.
At Fort Miami, near the present Fort Wayne, the commander was
enticed out to visit a pretended sick woman. He was at once shot
down, and his men were soon surprised and murdered.
At Fort Wea, in Indiana, they were captured in a similar way, but
there were kind-hearted French settlers near who purchased their
lives.
Thus, fort after fort, so recently garrisoned by English soldiers, dis-
appeared utterly. Officers and men were alike English ; had colonial
troops been employed, they would have been better fitted to deal with
the Savages.
Strange was the fall of Fort Michilimackinac. The story is that of
a terrible game of La Crosse.
On the 2d of June, the Ojibwas living near assembled near the fort
to play this game now so popular in Canada and England. They invi-
ted Major Etheridge and his garrison to witness it. All was calm and
peaceful. The gate of the stockade was open ; the officers, and some
of the little garrison, looked on from the top of the palisades.
As the game went on, the ball was driven nearer and nearer, and
there were often shouts of applause at a good hit. Suddenly, after a
close struggle, the ball came spinning from the midst of the players to-
wards the entrance to the fort. On rushed the players, and passing
their squaws, caught from under the women's blankets knives and toma-
hawks, then rushed with yells of fury into the fort. Etheridge and
340 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Leslie were seized, while every Englishman in or out of the fort, was
butchered without mercy. Only one man escaped, Alexander Henry, a
trader, who was hid away by a Pawnee woman, a slave to one of the
French residing there. But he was finally discovered, and had long to
suffer the cruelties and privations of an Indian captive.
At Fort Presqu'ile, where Erie now stands, the brave Ensign Chris-
tie made a gallant fight for two days, but finally surrendered. He and
his men were taken as prisoners to Detroit.
The garrison at Fort Le Boeuf was attacked, but escaped by night;
that at Fort Venango fell, no man knows how, for none was ever seen
alive to tell its story.
Fort Pitt and Fort Ligonier were menaced, and finally attacked ; the
out-lying Settlements were in flames ; five hundred families from the
frontiers of Maryland and Virginia fled to Winchester.
Thus Detroit was left alone in the West. Again Amherst tried to
relieve it, and finally threw sixty men into it, in June. Late in July,
Dalyell arrived with two hundred and sixty men, entering under cover
of night. Full of confidence, this young officer wished at once to make
a midnight Sally on the Savage foe. Gladwin, who had seen enough
Indian fighting to know what it was, opposed this, but at last yielded.
Before three in the morning, Dalyell Sallied out with nearly two hun-
dred and fifty picked men, keeping along shore, and protected by two
boats. After a short march, they came to an Indian intrenchment, from
which poured out such a deadly volley that the whole body was thrown
into confusion. Twenty of the English were killed, and twice as many
lay wounded on the battle-field of Bloody Run. Rash, but brave,
Dalyell fell while trying to bring off his wounded, and his gay uniform
and Scalp decked the dusky forms of savages.
TEIE UNITED STATES. 341
This triumph filled the Indians with exultation. No tribe now hesi-
tated. All gathered around Pontiac, who held Detroit besieged by a
thousand men.
The English military authorities were roused to something like en-
ergy. Bouquet, a Swiss officer of merit, was sent with a considerable
force to relieve Fort Pitt, and reinforce Detroit. As he approached
Fort Pitt, he was suddenly attacked by the Indians who had been in-
vesting that fort. Bouquet and his officers were fit for their task, and
the soldiers, chiefly Highlanders, were cool and experienced. All day
long, on the 5th of August, they fought the Savage foe, and at night
they lay on their arms at Edge Hill. The morning showed the Indians
in force on every side. Bouquet saw but one course; an Indian one.
Posting two companies in ambush, he pretended to retreat in disorder.
With wild yells, the Indians rushed on in pursuit in wild confusion,
when suddenly, from the right, and left, and front, came the rattle of
the deadly musketry. The Indians, crowded together, were shot down
in numbers, then, panic-struck, fled, routed and defeated.
Bouquet had won the day, but his killed and wounded were one-
fourth of his force, his horses were almost all killed, and it was with
great difficulty that in four days he reached Fort Pitt.
But the joy which filled all hearts at Bouquet's success, was damped
by an unexpected disaster at Devil's Hole, near Niagara.
At that spot, the road winds near a fearful precipice. On the 13th
of September, a numerous train of wagons and pack-horses proceeded
from the lower landing to Fort Schlosser, and the next morning returned.
As they reached this dangerous spot, they were suddenly greeted by
- the blaze and rattle of a hundred rifles, and before the smoke lifted, the
Indians dashed out with tomahawk and scalping-knife. Horses and
342. - A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
men, in wild panic, went over into the boiling current; many were mur-
dered and scalped in the road. In less time than it takes to record it,
all was over. Stedman, who commanded the party, cut his way *
through and escaped. A drummer-boy who went over the precipice
was caught by his drum-strap in the branch of a tree, and succeeding at
last in quietly getting a foothold, hid away in a hollow of the rock till all
was still. At the firing, some soldiers from a little camp rushed out to save
the train. They were ambuscaded and cut to pieces; a few only reached
Fort Niagara. The Indians who thus opened the war in New York
were the Senecas, one of the Six Nations, whom Sir William Johnson
was supposed to control so completely.
A reinforcement for Detroit, under Major Wilkins, miscarried, and
everything seemed desperate. The first effective measures towards a
general pacification proceeded from the French in Illinois. De Noyon,
a French officer, still in command at Fort Chartres, sent belts, and mes-
sages, and calumets of peace to all the tribes, declaring to them that
the King of France had given up all his territories to the King of Eng-
land, and urging all the tribes to bury the hatchet, and take the English
by the hand.
On this, the Wyandots and some other tribes made peace, and
abandoned the siege of Detroit. Then Bradstreet arrived with a con-
siderable force, large enough, indeed, to have overawed all, but he
acted feebly, and the Indians in bands still ravaged the frontiers,
burning and slaughtering. A party of rangers came on a schoolhouse
in the woods. All was suspiciously still within. They entered. There
lay the teacher dead on the floor, with his Bible in his hand, and his
nine pupils scattered around him, all scalped, and all dead but one, who -
was carefully tended and recovered.
THE UNITED STATES. 343
But if Bradstreet acted feebly, Bouquet did not. By rapid move-
ments, by stern and unwavering decision, which no Indian wiles could
move, he compelled them to stop hostilities, and give up all their prison-
ers. The return of the prisoners led to many touching scenes. Mem-
bers of families long mourned as dead, were again clasped in loving
arms. An old woman had lost her daughter nine years before. In the
crowd of female captives, given up by the Indians, she discovered one
in whose swarthy and painted face she thought she could still trace the
likeness of her lost darling. She addressed her in all the endearing
words a mother can employ, but the girl, who had forgotten almost
every word of English, gave no sign of recognition. The poor old mo-
ther complained bitterly, that the child whom she so often fondled on
her knee had forgotten her in her old age. Colonel Bouquet watched
the scene, touched with pity. A thought struck him as she uttered
these words. “Sing her,” he exclaimed, “the song you used to sing
to her when a child.” The woman obeyed. Almost instantly a bright
look came into the girl's face, she hesitated as if trying to recall some-
thing long past, then sprang into her mother's arms. The chord had
been touched.
Pontiac retired from Detroit, and after vain endeavors to rouse
other tribes to join him, calmly awaited proposals of peace. Croghan
soon appeared ; the various tribes submitted to the English power; and
at last, British troops were enabled to reach Fort Chartres, where the
last French flag floated till late in the year 1765. It may seem strange
to our readers, but the English officers, finding it impossible to reach it
through the hostile tribes in the West, had twice attempted to go in
boats up the Mississippi, and twice been driven back by a few
Indians.
344 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Pontiac was soon after killed at Cahokia, by an Illinois Indian, whom
an Englishman had hired to assassinate the great chieftain of the
West.
—º-
-
CHAPTER VIII.
State of the Colonies after the Conquest of Canada—England's Exertions in America—Jeal-
ousy of the Colonies—She resolves to tax them, and maintain a large Army among them—
The Stamp Act proposed—American Opposition—Its final Passage.
THE conquest of Canada and Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and New-
foundland, and the cession of Florida, and all Louisiana east of the
Mississippi, gave England a vast territory in America, with none to
dispute it. Canada had a hardy, industrious population, adapted to
its severe climate ; Florida, however, became almost a desert, as the
Spaniards retired to Cuba. The colonies, during the war, had not, in-
deed, borne the main brunt, as in former wars, but, by their aid, had
contributed to all the great operations, and there was not a colony
which had not given the wealth and blood of her people for the tri-
umph of England. But the colonies were not to share in the fruits of
the victory. No part of the conquered territory was to benefit them.
England garrisoned it with her own troops, and, as we have seen, sta-
tioned regulars in the Western forts.
The old colonies were perhaps unwise in not offering to do this ; it
would have strengthened their power wonderfully, and removed one
pretext for England's maintaining an army in America. But England,
already jealous of the growing power of America, resolved to keep an
army of ten thousand men there. To support these, and pay some of
the cost of the last war, required money, and it was found that the
THE UNITED STATES. 345
colonies did not readily raise money for others to spend, so it was de-
termined to tax America by Act of Parliament. Many wise men op-
posed it, as one old principle of English liberty was, that there should
be no taxation without representation ; so that for an English Parlia-
ment, where the colonies were not represented, to tax the colonies, was
against all right. But the ministry held to the plans. They discussed one
plan and another. Of all, one only seemed easily managed, and that was
a Stamp Tax. In our times, we have seen the Government of the
United States resort to this means of raising money; every check, every
receipt, every deed or mortgage, every contract, wills, and many law
documents were of no value, unless a stamp was attached. In our
times the stamp is printed separately, and fastened to the paper by
gum. In the olden time, the royal stamp was impressed upon the pa-
per or parchment, really stamped on it. Paper thus stamped had to
be bought of Government officers for the various uses, as a higher or
lower stamp was required. - -
The colonies were indignant at this measure, and at the severity
with which the English Government was enforcing the navigation laws,
seizing their shipping on various pretexts for trading contrary to Eng-
lish laws. They had suffered severely during the war, and had spent
their substance lavishly. For several years together, they had raised
more men, in proportion, for service than England had ; in the trading
towns, one-fourth of the profits of their commerce was annually paid
for the support of the war, and in the country the taxes were half the
rent of the farms. As for maintaining an army there was no necessity.
The Spaniards west of the Mississippi were their nearest neighbors.
For a century, they had held their own alone, against French and In-
dians, and could now easily manage the Indians.
346 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Their representations, however, were unheard, though the eloquent
book of James Otis, “The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted,”
Set Some of the most sensible men thinking. New York and Massa-
chusetts sent over strong remonstrances, but really, people knew little,
and cared less, about America.
At last the matter came up in Parliament. Charles Townshend, the
leader of the party for taxing America, dwelt on all England had done
for America. “And now,” he concluded, “will these American chil-
dren, planted by our care, nourished up by our indulgence to a degree
of strength and Opulence, and protected by our army, grudge to con-
tribute their mite to relieve us from the heavy burthen under which we
lie 2 ”
There was in that House one who had fought under Wolfe, who knew
America and the Americans. Such an argument roused him to indig-
nant eloquence. As Townshend sat down, Barré rose, and with eyes
darting fire, and out-stretched arms, exclaimed : “ They planted by YoUR
care / No ; your oppression planted them in America. They fled from
your tyranny to a then uncultivated, inhospitable country, where they
exposed themselves to almost all the hardships to which human nature
is liable, and, among others, to the cruelties of a Savage foe, the most
subtle, and I will take upon me to say, the most formidable of any peo-
ple upon the face of God's earth ; and yet, actuated by principles of
true English liberty, they met all hardships with pleasure, compared
with those they suffered in their own country, from the hands of those
who should have been their friends. They nourished up by YoUR indul-
gence / They grew up by your neglect of them. As soon as you began
to care about them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule
them, in one department and another, who were perhaps the deputies
THE UNITED STATES. 347
of deputies to some members of this house, sent to spy out their liber-
ties, to misrepresent their actions, and to prey upon them ; men, whose
behavior upon many occasions has caused the blood of those SoNs of
LIBERTY to recoil within them ; men promoted to the highest seats of jus-
tice, some who, to my knowledge, were glad, by going to a foreign
country, to escape being brought to the bar of a court of justice in
their own.
“They protected by YoUR arms / They have nobly taken up arms in
your defense ; have exerted a valor amidst their constant and labori-
ous industry, for the defense of a country whose frontier was drenched
in blood, while its interior parts yielded all its little savings to your
emolument. -
“And believe me—remember, I this day told you so—the same spirit
of freedom which actuated that people at first will accompany them
still.
“But prudence forbids me to explain myself further. God knows I do
not at this time speak from motives of party heat; what I deliver are
the genuine sentiments of my heart. However superior to me in gen-
eral knowledge and experience, the respectable body of this House may
be, yet I claim to know more of America than most of you, having
seen, and been conversant in that country. The people, I believe, are
as truly loyal as any subjects the King has ; but a people jealous of
their liberties, and who will vindicate them, if ever they should be vio-
lated. But the subject is too delicate; I will say no more.”
This speech had a thrilling effect, and was copied in all the papers in
the American colonies, beginning with New London. The name of
SoNS OF LIBERTY was caught up and echoed through the land.
But the ministry were powerful, and on the 27th of February, 1765,
348 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
the Stamp Act passed in the House of Commons by a vote of two hun-
dred and forty-five to forty-nine ; nearly five to one. In a few days,
the House of Lords agreed to the bill. The King was laboring under
an attack of insanity, and the bill was signed by commission.
By the Stamp Act and the Navigation Acts America was bound
in fetters. Her trade with all other countries except England was
crushed ; her manufactures suppressed, and a scheme begun by which
every dollar of their property could be wrung from the people.
The tidings were received with consternation. In Virginia, the legis-
lature was in session. Patrick Henry had just been elected a member
to fill a vacancy. His maiden speech was one to urge the adoption of
resolutions which he proposed, claiming for Virginians equal rights and
franchises with the people of Great Britain, and above all, the right of
being taxed only by representatives of their own choice. A stormy
debate ensued, and many threats were uttered. Many members sought
to moderate the impassioned orator, but Patrick Henry, full of the
greatness of the danger, cried out: “Tarquin and Caesar had each his
Brutus; Charles the First his Cromwell; and George the Third”—“Trea-
son,” shouted Robinson, the speaker, already a defaulter to the colony.
“Treason, treason,” shouted the adherents of English power, while
Henry, fixing his eye on Robinson, as if to wither him for his interrup-
tion, continued without faltering—“may profit by their example.”
Carried away by his eloquence, the resolutions were passed. As
rapidly as the mails of that day could bear the Virginia paper to other
colonies, these resolutions were reprinted, and all America was
aflame.
In New York, resistance was universally talked of. The odious act
was printed, and hawked about as “The Folly of England and Ruin of
WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM.



THE UNITED STATES. - 349
America." Associations of Sons of Liberty were organized in all the
colonies. Merchants met, and resolved to use no stamps, to stop im-
porting English goods, or buying them from any one, till this odious
law was repealed. Home manufactures were to be encouraged, and
home-spun goods were to be the mark of a true patriot.
The British officers embittered this feeling by their tyranny. Men
were impressed for the British navy, and this led to resistance and re-
taliation. Thus, at Newport, the boat of an offending English captain
was seized and burnt on the common amid the cheers of the people.
Everywhere the people, by processions, by burning in effigy the ob-
noxious ministers, by raising liberty-poles, showed their determination
to resist.
At Boston, in August, Oliver, the Gºvernor, with Bute and Gren-
ville, was hung in effigy, and a vast multitude, in great order, bearing
the images on a bier, marched directly through the old State House,
shouting, “Liberty, Property, and no Stamps,” and, demolishing a
frame building, said to have been intended for a Stamp-office, they
used the material for a bonfire, in which they consumed the effigies.
Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson ordered the colonel of the militia to
beat an alarm. “My drummers,” said he, “are in the mob.” He
then attempted to disperse the crowd by the aid of the sheriff, but was
glad to escape with his life.
Everywhere it was declared that the Stamp Act was a violation of
Magna Charta, and of no force. All determined that no stamps should
be issued or used. Those who had accepted appointments as Stamp-offi-
cers were forced to resign. By October, not a Stamp-officer was to be
found, and on the 1st of November the Act was to go into operation.
At New York, Lieutenant Governor Colden resolved to receive the
350 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
stamps himself, and was supported by Major James, the commander of
the troops, who boasted that he would cram the Stamp Act down the
people's throats with the point of his sword, and promised, with twenty-
four men, to drive all its opponents out of New York. Yet Colden fled
to the fort, and got marines from a man-of-war to protect him. He
would have fired on the people, but was menaced with the fate of Por-
teus, at Edinburgh, who was hanged by a mob.
When the day came, a vast torchlight procession, such as New York
has always delighted in, promenaded the streets, bearing a scaffold with
effigies of the Governor and the Devil, and banners inscribed, “The
Folly of England and the Ruin of America.” They went down to the
fort, and, fearless of its cannon, knocked at the gate, then broke open Col-
den's coach-house, and placing the figures in his elegant vehicle, bore
them around the town, and finally burned them, with the fragments of
his carriage and sleigh, at the Bowling Green.
James's house was also visited, and his furniture taken for a bonfire,
as a punishment for his bravado.
In every large town there were demonstrations showing the public
feeling. At Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, the bells were tolled as
for a funeral. Liberty was dead. Notice was given to her friends to
attend. A coffin neatly adorned, and bearing the inscription, “LIBERTY,
AGED CXLV. YEARs,” issued from the State House, to the sound of muffled
drums, while minute guns boomed as the sad procession moved along.
A funeral oration was delivered, but as the deceased revived, the in-
scription was altered, the bells rang out a merry peal, and all was joy
and exultation.
These were the acts of the populace, led by the Sons of Liberty, and
had there been only this, the ruling powers in England might have
THE UNITED STATES. 351
treated it all as the freaks of a mob, that would soon be forgotten.
Many, indeed, were of this opinion, and thought that after a while the
people would get used to paying the tax, and not regard it.
The liberties of a country are always lost in this way. Some little
incroachment is suffered under a plausible pretext, then another is add-
ed, and people wake up at last to find that all their liberties have
been swept from them.
It was not so with our forefathers. They were vigilant and prized
their liberties. While the people thus showed their feeling, the lead-
ing statesmen of America met in Congress at New York, on the 7th of
October, 1765. This was the first Continental Congress. Delegates
came from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania,
Maryland, and South Carolina, with informal delegations from Delaware,
New Jersey, and New York. Their object was to consider the safest
groundwork on which to rest American liberty. They elected as chair-
man Timothy Ruggles of Massachusetts, and continued in Session for
fourteen days. Sterling patriots were there, James Otis, Robert and
Philip Livingston, Thomas McKean, and Caesar Rodney, with Lynch,
Gadsden, and Rutledge of South Carolina ; some were less true and
decided, but they all agreed on the necessity of union and resistance to
oppression. They adopted a Declaration of Rights, written by John
Cruger, a petition to the King, drawn up by Robert R. Livingston,
with bold and eloquent memorials to both Houses of Parliament, from
the pen of the able James Otis.
These statesmen implored the King and Parliament, in calm and dig-
nified language, to pause in their illegal course, which could only bring
misery to both countries.
When tidings of all this reached England, and the acts of the Con-
352 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
gress were printed there, a general excitement ensued. Merchants saw
a profitable trade ruined. Manufactures had to stop. People were
thrown out of employment. So the merchants and manufacturers of
England turned on Parliament as the cause of their ruin, and joined
in the petitions of the colonies.
The matter came up in Parliament. Pitt was again the defender of
the rights of the Americans. e
“We are told,” he cried, “that America is obstinate; America is
almost in open rebellion. Sir, I rejoice America has resisted : three
millions of people so dead to all the feelings of liberty, as voluntarily
to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves
of all the rest. . . . I know the valor of your troops, I know the skill of
your officers, I know the force of this country; but in such a cause
your success would be hazardous. America, if she fell, would fall like
a strong man ; she would embrace the pillars of the State, and pull
down the Constitution with her. Is this your boasted peace? not to
sheathe the sword in the scabbard, but to sheathe it in the bowels of
your countrymen? The Americans have been wronged, they have been
driven to madness by injustice. I will beg leave to tell the House in a
few words what is really my opinion. It is that the Stamp Act be re-
pealed absolutely, totally, immediately.”
America looked to this great statesman as their friend and champion.
His statue was erected in various parts. That in New York stood in
Wall Street, till the English occupied the city during the Revolution ;
and then the soldiers, hating him as one who encouraged the colonists in
their ideas of liberty, broke off the head, and mutilated the statue.
The broken remains of the statue of William Pitt are still preserved in
the Historical Society in New York, a monument of his integrity, of the
A CHILD'S HISTORY. 355
respect our fathers entertained for him, and of the British hatred of
American liberty.
Benjamin Franklin was then in England. He was examined before
the House of Commons. His answers were, like all he said, clear,
plain, and to the point. They asked him whether the people of Amer-
ica would submit to the Stamp Act if it was moderated. He answered,
bluntly and plainly : “No, never, unless compelled by force of arms.”
General Conway brought in a bill for its repeal, and after much dis-
cussion it was repealed by a vote of two hundred and seventy-five to
one hundred and sixty-seven.
The odious act was indeed removed, but Parliament passed another
act, claiming the power to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever.
In America, the news of the repeal was received with unbounded
joy and exultation. It was the first victory won. But the wise states-
men who had grown up in the various colonies saw that it was but the
beginning. In fact, in 1767, the ministry in England proposed to lay a
duty on paint, paper, glass, and lead, and also on tea, which had be-
come a very common article in America. Pitt was stricken down with
illness; scarcely a voice was raised for America, and the bill passed.
New York had given offense by refusing, through her Assembly, to quar-
ter soldiers on the people, so Parliament, growing bolder, by a new act,
restrained the New York Assembly from any further powers till it sub-
mitted to the will of England.
Again, all America was in a flame. “What is it we are contending
against 7” says Washington. “Is it against paying a duty of three
pence per pound on tea, because burdensome 7 No, it is the right only
that we have all along disputed.” Public meetings were called, pamph-
lets issued full of eloquence and political wisdom. It was resolved
356 A CHILD’S HISTORY OF
again to use no English manufactures. Massachusetts Sent a petition to
the King, and a circular to the other colonies. The English ministry
called on Massachusetts to rescind the circular as rash. The answer,
was defiant. …
Officers were sent over to collect the custom-house duties. John
Hancock's sloop Liberty was seized, on a charge of smuggling, in June,
1768, and placed under the guns of a man-of-war. A riot at once
broke out in Boston ; the custom-house officers barely escaped with life.
Their boat was dragged in triumph through the city, and then burned
on Boston common, while the custom-house officers, frightened out of
their senses, fled to the Romney man-of-war. As if this were not enough,
the commander of the Romney began to impress men to serve on his
ship, in direct violation of an Act of Parliament.
The indignation of the people, roused by this, was kindled to fury,
when they learned that two regiments had been summoned from Hali-
fax, and would soon land in Boston.
The people called on Governor Bernard to convehe the General
Court, or Legislature. He refused. Then the people met in Conven-
tion, and again addressed the King.
The next day the troops arrived. Massachusetts refused to provide
them quarters, so they were landed under cover of the ships-of-war,
and with loaded muskets, and fixed bayonets, the hated foreign soldiery
marched into Boston. One regiment was placed in Faneuil Hall, the
other encamped on the common, and the next day, Sunday, took pos-
session of the State House, and patrolled the streets. - -
The Legislature of Virginia was in session. It denounced the con-
duct of the Government so boldly that Governor Botetourt dissolved
it. They met as a Convention, and passed resolutions against im-
THE UNITED STATES. 357
porting British goods. Boston, Salem, New York, and Connecticut
followed. Then the General Court of Massachusetts met : it refused to
proceed to business till the troops were removed. So the Governor at
last prorogued them and went to England.
Alarmed at the storm, yet stubborn still, the Parliament repealed
all the duties except that on tea.
Troubles had already begun in America between the red-coats, as
the soldiers were now called, and the people.
In New York, the English party succeeded in getting a majority in
the Assembly, and that body agreed to give quarters to the troops.
The soldiers lost no opportunity of showing their contempt for the peo-
ple. In January, 1770, a party of them attempted to cut down and
blow up a liberty-pole which had been erected in the Park; they at-
tacked some citizens who denounced them, and finally succeeded at
night in leveling it. The Sons of Liberty called a meeting, and de-
clared the soldiers enemies of the peace. The soldiers replied by scur-
rilous placards, and two of them, while posting these libels up, were ar-
rested. An attempt of the soldiers to rescue their comrades led to
what was long known in New York as the Battle of Golden Hill.
Though the soldiers were reinforced from the barracks, the citizens, un-
armed as they were, disarmed and dispersed them, though not till sev-
eral citizens were severely wounded. The soldiers were completely
overcome, when their officers appeared and ordered them to their bar-
racks. One young man, who in this struggle wrested a musket from a
British soldier, carried it through the whole Revolutionary war, and
lived to a great age, to see his country among the greatest nations on
the earth, and his descendants still cherish, as a relic, the musket won
by Michael Smith, the Liberty Boy.
358 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
In Boston a similar feeling arose. The people, abused by the soldiers,
proceeded to extremes. On the 5th of March, a mob collected around
the soldiers, and pressed on them so that they called for assistance.
Captain Preston sent eight men with unloaded muskets to aid them.
The mob then began to pelt the soldiers with snow-balls, and anything
they could find. The soldiers loaded their muskets, but the mob, led
by Crispus Attucks, a mulatto, rushed on, and Attucks dealt a terrible
blow at Captain Preston, which the Captain parried. It struck a bay-
onet from a soldier, which Attucks seized. A struggle ensued, till at
last a soldier who had been struck down sprang up and shot Attucks
dead. Five other soldiers fired. Three men were killed, and five
wounded.
The tumult in Boston then became fearful. The cry was: “The
soldiers are risen.” The Governor endeavored to allay the excite-
ment. The soldiers were ordered to their barracks. The next day,
Preston and several of the soldiers were arrested for murder, for our
forefathers thought more of their liberties than we do in our days, and
soldiers had no right to shoot down the people without an order from a
magistrate, and certain forms of law.
This was called the Boston massacre. The victims were buried with
solemn ceremonies, and for years an oration was delivered as the anni-
versary of the Boston massacre came around; so deep was the feeling
against the attempt of the army to crush the liberties of the people.
The trial of Captain Preston and his soldiers was an important event.
It lasted six days. They were defended by two of the purest patriots,
John Adams and Josiah Quincy, jr. Two were convicted of man-
slaughter, the rest acquitted.
As the news of this affair spread through the continent, the feeling
THE UNITED STATES. 359
grew more intense. Up to this time the people had been asking their
rights as British subjects; they asked their British liberties. Now they
became Americans. The very name of British became odious. Every-
thing that represented the British Government was odious. It required
only a trifle anywhere to bring on a collision.
At Newport, an armed revenue schooner, the Gaspee, had been very
active in enforcing the revenue laws, and annoyed all the American
vessels entering Narragansett Bay. Lieutenant Duddington, the com-
mander, an ignorant bully, made himself doubly obnoxious by compel-
ling all vessels to take down their colors in his presence, firing into
them in case of neglect. He insolently refused to show Governor
Wanton, of Rhode Island, his commission or orders. All was accord-
ingly ripe for any opportunity to give him and his masters a lesson in
good manners and common sense.
On the 9th of June, 1772, Captain Lindsay's packet, Hannah, the regu-
lar packet from New York, came in sight. Lindsay did not lower his flag,
and Duddington at once gave chase. Knowing every inch of the bay, Lind-
Say ran close in to a point near Namguit, where he knew not one pilot in
ten could go safely, and soon, looking back, he chuckled to see the Gaspee
run aground hard and fast. On he sailed, full of triumph, when a new
idea entered his head. Why not get rid of the Gaspee altogether ?
On reaching Providence, he told where she lay, and as she could not
get off before flood-tide, men's minds were soon made up. John Brown,
a leading merchant, had eight long-boats prepared, and at dusk a man
Went around with a drum calling on volunteers to meet. Between ten
and eleven o'clock at night, the boats, manned by Brown, Captain
Abraham Whipple, and other brave fellows, numbering sixty-four in
all, pushed out in silence. As they closed in around the Gaspee,
360 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
they were hailed by a sentinel on her deck, and as no reply came from
the boats, he roused Duddington, who ran up in his shirt, and ordering • ,
off the boats, fired a pistol at them ; with the flash of his weapon came
a flash from the boat, and he fell wounded to the deck. The assailants
then boarded the Gaspee, and after dressing Duddington's wound or-
dered the crew to leave the schooner, taking their commander and all
they or he owned. As soon as the last of them left the Gaspee, and
no great time was given, the captors set fire to the Schooner, and as the
flames licked up the masts and rigging, they pulled off through the
darkness, while far and near, the people, seeing the light, spread the
tidings that the boys had burned the Gaspee.
The next day, Governor Wanton issued a proclamation, offering a
reward for the perpetrators of the audacious act. Admiral Montague
came down, and blustered and threatened. The English Government
sent out a special commission, and offered five thousand dollars reward
for the leader, and half as much for the arrest of any other person en-
gaged in the destruction of the Gaspee; not a man, woman, or child
could be found in Rhode Island who knew anything about it. Money
did not tempt the poorest to become an informer. These cases showed
that the colonies would no longer submit.
England, too proud to retract, was embarrassed. She made the Colo-
nial Governors and judges independent of the people, by paying their
salaries. Governors dissolved or prorogued Assemblies, but this did
not help matters. The East India Company had its storehouses in
England full of tea, that Americans liked, but refused to buy. So the
English Government resolved to send some over to America, as the
American merchants would not order any.
This caused a new excitement. Philadelphia led off by a public
THE UNITED STATES. 361
meeting, which denounced as an enemy of his country every man who
aided or abetted in unloading, receiving, or selling the tea. Merchants
to whom the tea was consigned were required to pledge themselves not
to receive it.
In Boston, similar meetings were held, but the consignees refused.
The vessels arrived. A mass meeting was held at Faneuil Hall, which
directed the ships to be moored at a certain wharf, and set a guard to
watch them. The consignees wished to land and store it till fresh orders
came from England, but the people insisted that the ships should take it
back.
The Governor and the custom-house officers would not yield, and re-
fused to give them a clearance, or let them go without one. An excit-
ed multitude gathered at the old South Church, still standing. Speeches
were made to confirm them in their resolutions, and at last darkness
began to cover the scene. Suddenly, in the gallery, a man disguised as
a Mohawk Indian raised a war-whoop. It was caught up and repeated
without. “Hurra for Griffin's wharf!” was now the cry, and the
meeting hastened down to where the three tea-ships lay. The disguised
men boarded the tea-ships, and, while the crowd looked on in silence,
they took out three hundred and forty-two chests of tea, broke them
open, and poured the contents into the waters of Boston harbor. Their
task did not end till every chest was emptied. When the last chest
disappeared over the side of the vessel, the word was given to retire,
for they did not touch a thing belonging to any of the ships. One
of the men, however, had noticed that one of the party, who evidently
liked a cup of tea, had filled his pockets. He caught hold of him, cry-
ing: “No, boys, here's another chest!” and made him empty it all
out. The crowd then dispersed without further noise or trouble.
362 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
As they moved away, they passed a house where Admiral Mon-
tague was. In his indignation, he raised the window and cried out:
“Well, boys, you've had a fine night for your Indian caper, haven't
you? But mind, you've got to pay the fiddler yet.” “Oh, never mind,”
shouted Pitt, one of the leaders, “never mind, Squire; just come out
here, if you please, and we'll settle the bill in two minutes!”
That very night, men who had come in from the country to attend
the meetings carried back the news, and it quickly spread. Paul Re-
were was sent as an express messenger, to bear the information to New
York and Philadelphia. Every eye kindled with joy at this solution of
the great difficulty. The ships for New York were driven off by storms,
and when they did arrive, the pilots, in obedience to the Committee of
Vigilance, would not bring the vessels up, so they sailed back to Eng-
land. Those for Philadelphia, finding matters no better there, did the
same. At Charleston tea was indeed landed, but they had to store it in
damp cellars, where it was soon ruined. -
The tea matter had proved as signal a failure as every other.
One colony had especial troubles of its own. This was North Caro-
lina. It had been cursed beyond all others with a needy set of office-
holders, sent there to wring money from the people under any and every
pretext. The most exorbitant taxes were levied, and yet the provin-
cial treasury was empty. The land abounded in informers, the vilest
of the vile, but there was no justice to bring to account those who were
defaulters to the treasury. Driven to desperation, a number of the
poor people formed a secret society, and, under the name of Regulators,
entered into a compact, binding themselves by oath not to pay any
taxes at all, until all exorbitant fees were abolished, and official em-
bezzlement punished and prevented. They saw no hope except in Self-
THE UNITED STATES. 363
government, and a speedy release from the unchristian and plundering
crew who had poured in on them.
The wanton seizure of the horse of one of the Regulators, as he was
riding to Hillsborough, led to a collision. The people rescued the
horse, and several shots were fired from among the crowd into the roof
of the house of Fanning, the military commander. On the 30th of
April, 1768, the Regulators held a general meeting at Rocky
River, and drew up a petition to the General Assembly. Fanning, on
this, seized Herman Husbands and William Butler, two prominent lib-
eral men, who had not, however, joined the Regulators. They were
thrown into prison, and treated with all severity. When Husbands was
brought to trial, his innocence was so clear, that even a packed jury and
an unscrupulous judge had to acquit him. The heavy charges brought
by the Regulators against Fanning, led to his trial. The court had to
convict him on six indictments, so they fined him one penny, and fined
three poor Regulators fifty pounds apiece. At the next election, Hus-
bands was chosen to the Assembly, but was expelled. Tryon, the
** Governor, then arrested the patriot, and threw him into prison, and
forced the Assembly to pass a Riot Act by which people could be tried
in any Superior Court, no matter how distant from their homes—an
atrocity unheard of in any free country.
The Regulators gathered in the woods, and resolved to use the last
resource. Honor and good faith prompted them to join for the rescue
of Husbands. Tryon was intimidated. The patriot was set free. The
Regulators remained in arms till it was agreed that the differences
should be left to an umpire.
Fanning and Tryon were bent on revenge. Sixty-one Regulators
were at once indicted, and Tryon raised troops to march into the dis-
364 A câILD’s HISTORY OF
affected counties. His progress was marked by the destruction of
wheat-fields and orchards, the burning of every house which was found
empty, and the plundering of all stock and produce. The terrified
people fled like sheep before a wolf. At the Great Alamance, the Reg-
ulators had gathered, and chosen James Hunter as their general, a man
universally esteemed. He did not wish to fight the Governor, and
made proposals. The Governor required them to lay down their arms
and submit absolutely. On their refusal, he opened with his cannon on
the people. Many of the Regulators retired; the rest for two hours
stood their ground, retiring after a time behind trees, till they had
nearly expended their ammunition. Then, having lost twenty, they re-
tired, leaving nine of the King's troops dead on the field, and sixty-one
wounded. Some were taken in the pursuit, and one of these Tryon
hanged the next day on a tree, without any form of trial.
This was the first regular battle between Americans and royal
troops, led by a Royal Governor ; and James Few was the first patriot
martyr who laid down his life for the cause of self-government and
freedom in America. Twelve others were soon after hanged, having
undergone the mockery of a trial. -
With this blood on his soul, Tryon confiscated the lands of the Reg-
ulators, and sailed to New York, of which he had been appointed Gov-
€1"Il OI’.
Foreign rule, extortion, fraud, and corruption had triumphed for a
time in North Carolina. The insolent extortioners and officers taunted
the Regulators, telling them that Alamance was their court of record!
Driven from their homes by such miseries, many of the people of
North Carolina crossed the mountains, and settled in the valley of the
Watauga. Here, in 1772, they founded a republic by a written associ-
THE UNITED STATES. - 365
©
ation, appointed James Robertson their Governor, and formed their own
laws. Thus British misgovernment overshot itself. It led some Ameri-
cans to set themselves up as a separate State, independent of the au-
thority of the British King—a lesson all were soon to learn.
Thus, in the Republic of Watauga, began Tennessee. About the
same time, a trader named Finley, who had crossed the mountains from
Virginia, came back with such a glowing account of the country there
that Daniel Boone caught his enthusiasm, and set out to explore with
Finley and John Stuart. In May, 1769, they were in the valley of the
Kentucky. They were surprised by Indians, who were already hostile,
and looked with jealousy on any white intrusion. In spite of this,
Boone returned to Virginia for a band of settlers. They were driven
back, but a treaty was finally made, and, opening the first blazed-road
through the woods, he founded Boonesborough, on the Kentucky River,
in 1775.
Daniel Boone is the type of the American pioneer. He was the
founder of Kentucky, the great hunter and Indian fighter of the early
West. His perils, his adventures with the Indians, would fill a vol-
ume. Of them we shall speak more hereafter.
The hostilities of the Indians on the frontier at this time were such
that Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, called out the militia, and
the little army moved in two divisions, one under the Governor, the
other under General Andrew Lewis. The latter division reached Point
Pleasant, on the Ohio. Here he was about to cross, when his active
scouts came in announcing that a large Indian force was drawn up quite
near them, consisting of Shawnees, Mingoes, Wyandots, and Cayugas,
led by Cornstalk, a warrior of great renown. Colonels Lewis and
Fleming were sent out to meet them. The troops advanced in two
366 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
&
lines, but had not proceeded a hundred yards before the Indians opened
on them. Both colonels fell wounded, and their men retreated. They
were rallied by the gallant Colonel Field, and a desperate battle ensued.
The Indians had thrown up a breastwork of logs and trees, and from
this they poured their deadly volleys into the Virginians, repelling their
brave and repeated charges. The day was far spent, when three com-
panies, under Captains Shelby, Matthews, and Stuart, ascended Crooked
Creek, which there entered the Kanhawa, and stealing up quietly under
cover of the high bank, suddenly opened on the Indian rear. Suppos-
ing that Colonel Christian had come up with expected reinforcements,
the red men at last fled, having fought from morning to night, with a
steadiness seldom shown by Indians. -
In this bloody and hard-fought battle, seventy-five Virginians were .
killed, and a hundred and forty wounded, while the Indians lost about
the same number.
Cornstalk, soon after this, induced his confederate Indians to make
peace, and a treaty was concluded in 1774. He was an Indian pos-
sessing many noble qualities, and it is sad to have to state that he was
shortly after murdered by some white men.
DEATH OF GENERAL WOLFE AT QUEBEC.



THE UNITED STATES. 367
P A R T III.
TEIE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
CHAPTER I.
George III. loses America—The Continental Congress—The Boston Port Bill—The Quebec
Act—The Continental Congress meets—Provincial Congress—Battle of Lexington and
Concord–Siege of Boston—Capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point—Congress organizes
an Army—George Washington Commander-in-Chief—Battle of Bunker Hill–The Invasion
of Canada—Failure to take Quebec—Death of Montgomery.
THE news of the proceedings in Boston in regard to the tea, and the
general opposition throughout the country, was received in England
with great indignation, but there was no thought of an altered policy.
The English Government has never seen any way except to put the peo-
ple down.
Boston was to be punished. They resolved to deprive her of her
trade as far as they could. A bill was brought into Parliament, and
passed almost without opposition, closing the port of Boston. All the
officers concerned in the collection of his Majesty's customs at Boston
were removed, and no goods were to be landed or discharged, laded or
shipped, from that rebellious port. -
By another act, the Governor was authorized to appoint all officers,
and these officers were to choose jurymen ; town meetings Were pro-
hibited by law. Another act authorized the Governor to send any one
indicted for murder, or other capital offense, committed in aiding the
authorities, to another colony, or even to England, to be tried there ;
thus giving to Massachusetts the wicked plans pursued in North Caro-
368 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
lina. While these acts, and a new one for quartering troops, were in-
tended to crush down the old English colonies, Parliament endeavored
to conciliate Canada. That province, after the peace, had been really
governed by the few British officials, and a few worthless men who had
accompanied the British army—Sutlers, bummers, and people of the
lowest character. Every means was adopted to rob, insult, and oppress
the Canadians in their civil and religious rights. At last, the Govern-
ment, seeing So much trouble arising in the old colonies, began a new
course, fearing lest France might step in to recover Canada. The Que-
bec Act, as it was called, left the Canadians under the French law, to
which they had been so long accustomed; and created a legislative
council for their Government. They were also restored to the full en-
joyment of their religious rights, their clergy were left in possession of
the church property and the tithes which had previously been paid
them. At the same time, the boundaries of the province were extend-
ed to the Ohio.
While this toleration of the Canadians was just in itself, and secured
their fidelity, it was regarded in the older colonies with great suspicion
and indignation. The Catholic religion was very unpopular; the Eng-
lish Government had itself constantly inflamed the people against it;
the colonies had for years contributed men and money to reduce Cana-
da, with the avowed object of putting down the Catholic religion there,
and now to have it established in that very colony by the power of
England, was too much for them to bear. In this, and its extension to
the Ohio, they saw only a scheme for their destruction.
The Boston Port Bill drew out the most eloquent protests of the
statesmen of Massachusetts. The Assembly of Virginia, of which
Washington was then a member, at once passed an order deploring the
A CHILD’s HISTORY. 3.71
act, and appointed a day of fasting to implore the Divine interposition to
avert the civil war which they saw threatening the land. Lord Dun-
more at once dissolved the Assembly.
The General Court of Massachusetts were as decided. The Gover-
nor, General Gage, adjourned the court to Salem, but they adopted res-
olutions encouraging the people of Boston, and when the Governor de-
clined to appoint a day for public prayer, appointed one themselves.
Their decisive act was that appointing delegates to the General Con-
gress of the Colonies, which was to meet in Philadelphia, in September.
Governor Gage, learning what was going on, sent his secretary to dis-
solve the House, but that functionary found the doors locked, so he
bawled out the Governor's proclamation on the steps leading to the
chamber in which the patriotic Assembly was in session.
It terminated their acts as a royal assembly, but they continued to
sit till all their business was completed.
The closing of the port of Boston filled that town with distress, but
none thought of yielding. From all parts, beginning with generous and
patriotic South Carolina, contributions poured in to aid unfortunate Bos-
ton.
Throughout the country assemblies were held, and delegates chosen to
the coming Continental Congress. In every village and town, men were
drilling, and preparing for military service ; those who had acquired ex-
perience in the late wars with the French and Indians, were looked
upon as leaders, and gave the influence of real soldiers. The boys and
girls were busy casting bullets and making cartridges; the men were
putting in order the firearms in their hands, or securing new ones.
The English Government was also preparing for war. Looking on Bos-
ton as the centre of the trouble, they resolved to overawe it by a large
372 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
military force. Troops were ordered from Ireland, Halifax, Quebec, and
New York. As these came in, Gage seized and prepared to fortify Boston
Neck. When he proceeded to seize some powder in Cambridge, all New
England was aroused, and, as the report spread that the British army
and navy were firing on Boston, no less than thirty thousand men in
arms began to march on the city. Gage was shut up in Boston. His
power as Governor of Massachusetts was at an end ; for it was not re-
spected beyond the lines of his soldiers.
While things were in this state, the Continental Congress met in Phil-
adelphia, on the 5th of September, 1774. With the delegates of North
Carolina, who came in a few days later, they were in all fifty-three dele-
gates, representing twelve colonies, Georgia not having as yet acted.
They met at Smith's tavern, and prepared to select a place for their
permanent sessions. The carpenters of Philadelphia offered their plain
but spacious hall, and from respect for the mechanics it was accepted
by a large majority. This building became, as it were, the cradle of
the American Republic. Peyton Randolph, late speaker of the As-
sembly of Virginia, was unanimously chosen president, really, though
not in name, the first President of the United States. Among the mem-
bers were Patrick Henry, George Washington, Richard Henry Lee,
Samuel and John Adams, John Jay, Stephen Hopkins, the aged pa-
triot of Rhode Island, Gadsden, and Rutledge, of South Carolina. The
most eminent men of the various colonies were now brought together.
They were known to each other by fame, but had hitherto been stran-
gers. The meeting was awfully solemn. The object which had called
them together was the liberties of three millions of people.
Patrick Henry opened the proceedings of this important body with
one of his most eloquent and comprehensive discourses.
THE UNITED STATES. 373
Then the Congress proceeded to lay the groundwork of their action ;
to make the last appeal to the rectitude of the people of England.
They were no revolutionists; their earliest acts showed, that for the
sake of peace they would yield even some of their cherished rights.
But the case of Massachusetts required a distinct and plain statement.
They resolved “That this Congress approve the opposition of the inhabi-
tants of the Massachusetts Bay, to the execution of the late Acts of Par-
liament; and if the same shall be attempted to be carried into execu-
tion by force, in such case, all America Ought to support them in their
opposition.
The Quebec act, and ten others, were declared to be such infringe-
ments and violations of the rights of the colonies, that the repeal of
them was essentially necessary, in order to restore harmony between
the colonies and Great Britain.
They bound themselves to stop almost all commerce with England,
and, while it refused to petition Parliament, the Continental Congress
addressed the King, the people of Great Britain, and the people of the
neighboring provinces who had not joined the movement, but who were
now invited to make common cause with them.
“We ask,” said this Congress to George III., “we ask but for peace,
liberty, and Safety. We wish not a diminution of the prerogative, nor
the grant of any new right. Your royal authority over us, and our
connection with Great Britain, we shall always support and maintain;”
and they besought of the King, “as the loving father of his whole
people, his interposition for their relief, and a gracious answer to their
petition.”
Then this famous body adjourned, to meet in May.
Parliament treated with scorn the temperate demands of the Ameri-
374 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
can colonies through their Congress. On Thursday, the 9th of February,
1775, the Chancellor of England, the speaker of the House of Com-
mons, and most of the members of both Houses of Parliament, pro-
ceeded in state to the palace, and in presence of the representatives of
the great powers of Europe, presented to George III. a sanguinary
address, declaring “that a rebellion actually existed in the province of
Massachusetts Bay,” and they “besought his Majesty to adopt measures
to enforce the authority of the Supreme Legislature, and solemnly as-
sured him that it was their fixed resolution, at the hazard of their lives
and properties, to stand by him against his rebellious subjects.”
In reply, George III. pledged himself, speedily and effectually, to
enforce obedience to the laws, and the authority of the Supreme Legis-
lature.
Thus, with all the pomp of the Old World, George III., with his Par-
liament, in presence of the civilized world, threw away the scabbard,
and declared war upon his own colonies, and his own people.
While Massachusetts, left without a Government, was reorganizing
under a Provincial Congress and Committee of Safety, England was
preparing to crush her. Gage was to be superseded. William Howe
was to be sent over as Commander-in-Chief, and under him, as Major-
Generals, Henry Clinton and John Burgoyne. Admiral Howe was to
command the fleet that was to bear to the American shores the over-
powering force, and to him were given powers as pacificator; but in
case of failure, the English authorities made no secret of their intention
to use the French Canadians, Indians, and negroes, to crush the people
of America into submission.
When the Convention met in Virginia, some faint-hearted men look-
ed at their weakness, their utter want of means to oppose the great
THE UNITED STATES. 375
and powerful mother-country. This roused Patrick Henry, who saw
that the day of conciliation was past. |
“Are fleets and armies,” he exclaimed, “necessary to a work of
love and reconciliation ? These are the implements of subjugation, sent
over to rivet upon us the chains which the British ministry have been
so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them 2 Shall we try
argument? We have been trying that for the last ten years; have we
anything new to offer? Shall we resort to entreaty and supplication ?
We have petitioned—we have remonstrated—we have supplicated—
and we have been spurned from the foot of the throne. In vain may
we indulge the fond hope of reconciliation. There is no longer room
for hope. If we wish to be free, wes must fight ! I repeat it, Sir, we
must fight! An appeal to arms, and to the God of Hosts, is all that is
left us!
“They tell me that we are weak; but shall we gather strength by ir-
resolution ? We are not weak. Three millions of people, armed in the
holy cause of Liberty, and in such a country, are invincible by any force
which our enemy can send against us. We shall not fight alone. A
just God presides over the destinies of nations; and will raise up
friends for us. The battle is not to the strong alone ; it is to the vigi-
lant, the active, the brave. Besides, we have no election. If we were
base enough to desire it, it is too late to retire from the contest. There
is no retreat but in submission and slavery. The war is inevitable—
and let it come ! let it come!
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of
chains and slavery 2 Forbid it, Almighty God I know not what
course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me
death !”
376 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
These words rang through the country, and for years were on the
lips of all. They embodied the sentiments of a nation.
Dunmore, in alarm, seized the powder of the colony, stored at Wil-
liamsburg. Virginia rose in arms, as Massachusetts had done.
It was evident that the slightest thing would now precipitate actual
hostilities.
The decisive act was not long delayed.
In the beautiful little town of Concord, near which Winthrop, the
father of Massachusetts, had given counsel, and Eliot, the Indian apos-
tle, spoken his words of Christian doctrine, the Massachusetts Provin-
cial Congress had gathered the trifling store of ammunition and arms
which they could raise to defend their soil. Gage resolved to seize and
destroy the magazine. Eight hundred picked men, grenadiers and light
infantry, were sent out stealthily from Boston, but their movements
were watched. General Warren had already sent off one messenger to
Lexington. Paul Revere, the other, rowed over Charles River, and
stood by his horse watching the steeple of the Old South. There a
friend stood, watching the movements of the troops, ready to show one
light if they were to move by land, two if by water. Suddenly the signal
flashed out—a single light. Revere read its meaning at a glance, and rode
on hard and fast. Two British officers attempted to intercept him, but
he led them into a mire, and dashed on over the flinty road. His voice
rang out at every house, the minute-men were roused, the whole line
of country, through which the British hoped to steal like thieves in the
night, was on the alert. The ringing of bells and the firing of guns,
told the troops that all their precautions were wasted. The alarm was
spreading wide and fast. It was to be no holiday excursion.
The people, roused by Revere, everywhere turned out and removed
THE UNITED STATES. - 377
the stores and ammunition, in small quantities, to hiding-places in
woods and thickets. At Lexington, on the village green, the militia of
the place were drawn up, and John Parker, captain of the beat,
ordered his hundred and twenty men to load with ball, but not to fire
till the enemy commenced hostilities.
As Colonel Smith, the English commander, advanced, he felt that his
task was one of difficulty. Sending on Major Pitcairn of the marines,
to Secure the bridges over Concord River, he sent back a hurried mes-
Sage to General Gage for reinforcements.
Captain Parker dismissed his men, as the enemy did not appear.
An escaped prisoner at last announced the approach of the enemy.
At the roll of the drum seventy men assembled on the green, not half
of them armed. Leading thirty-eight armed men to the north end of
the green he formed them, just as Pitcairn came up on that bright
Spring morning, April 19th, 1775.
Brandishing his sword, the British officer advanced and shouted
with an oath : “Lay down your arms, you rebels, or you are all dead *:
men ; ” but as the patriots did not flinch he gave the word to fire. A
rattle of musketry followed ; Parker, seeing it useless to attempt to
resist, ordered his men to disperse. In their retreat a second volley
killed and wounded several.
Colonel Smith came up as the life-blood of these patriots dyed the
green turf and cried to Heaven for vengeance.
He pushed on with his whole force to Concord, where the militia,
seeing his numbers, retired. Smith cut down the Liberty-pole, and
began to destroy the flour, cannon, and such other stores as they could
find.
While they were scattered in this work, the Massachusetts minute-
378 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
men and militia were gathering around them. When these were in
sufficient force, Colonel Barrett formed them and marched upon Con-
cord bridge, Major Buttrick in the van. The English posted at the
bridge opened fire; several of the Americans fell, but a volley from
the whole of Buttrick's line cut up the English, three lieutenants
being seen to fall. The English fell back till the grenadiers came up
to their support. Colonel Smith was now alarmed. He had not accom-
plished his work, and if he attempted to remain would probably soon be
a prisoner with his whole command. He collected his scattered parties
and prepared for a hasty retreat. About noon he moved out of Con-
cord ; but though he had entered it without opposition, he now found
the hills through which his road ran, held by excited patriots. A
constant rattle of musketry told on his line. Many were shot down,
others gave out exhausted, the rest hurried on, panic-stricken. Just
as they were reaching Lexington, Captain Parker's company poured
in a volley with hearty good-will. At Lexington, which he entered
after two hours' fight, Smith, to his great joy, met Lord Percy at
the head of a thousand men, with two field-pieces, sent to his rescue.
The fresh troops opened to receive in their centre the remnant of
Smith's command, who were utterly exhausted.
Then the retreat was resumed ; but the Americans, now organized
under General Heath, with troops constantly pouring in, hung on
their rear, galling them by a rapid and deadly fire. At Bunker's
Hill Percy formeds his men into line and awaited an attack ; but
General Heath did not deem it wise. He posted his guard, and held
the Neck with his little army.
The boasting British troops had become a defeated fugitive force,
cooped up in the city, with an actual army at its very doors.
THE UNITED STATES. 379
Such was the battle of Lexington, the first in the Revolutionary
War, for war had now began in earnest; there was no Way but to fight
it out. The American loss in this series of skirmishes was eighty-five
killed, wounded, and missing. On the English side, Colonel Smith,
Captain Lawrence, and sixty-four men were killed, one hundred and
seventy-eight wounded, and twenty-six missing.
The night preceding the outrage at Lexington, there were not fifty
people in the whole colony that ever expected any blood would be
shed : the night following, the King's governor and the King's army
found themselves closely beleaguered in Boston.
All was changed. Boston was the central point to which the citizen
soldiery hastened from all parts of New England. Veterans of the
old French war led on their townsmen. Stark, from New Hampshire,
was on the march ten minutes after the news came in ; Putnam, of
Connecticut, though a man of sixty, hastened from his field to the
Camp.
The Massachusetts Provincial Congress, while sending to England
proof that the troops were the aggressors, issued paper money, seized
forts and arsenals, raised troops, and organized the army.
Boston was besieged by a force of twenty thousand men, who form-
ed a line of encampment from Roxbury to the Mystic River. Of this
army Artemas Ward was appointed Captain General, and he proceed-
ed at once to organize and prepare it for active service. -
Canada was always, in the eyes of the colonists, a point of danger,
and Benedict Arnold proposed to the Massachusetts and Connecticut
governments an expedition against it. Before he could gather a
force for the purpose, the hardy men of Vermont were in the field for
the same object, under Ethan Allen. Arnold joined them, and finding
380 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
them unwilling to recognize his authority, acted as a volunteer. They
reached the lake, but for want of boats could transport over its placid
waters only eighty-three of their men. These formed silently in the
shadow of the fort, just as day was beginning to break, and, led by
Allen and Arnold, pushed boldly up the height to the sally-port. The
sentinel on duty, startled as if men had come up out of the lake, snap-
ped his musket at the advancing force ; but as it missed fire, he re-
treated through a covered way. On pushed the Americans close
upon him, and disarmed another sentinel, after he had wounded one of
the officers. Reaching the parade they formed in two lines, facing
the barracks on both sides, and gave three huzzas. The garrison,
startled from their beds, rushed to the parade, and were at once seized.
Allen and Arnold were already at the quarters of Captain Delaplaine,
the commander of the fort, demanding his surrender. The astonished
British officer, with his clothes in his hand, asked Allen, in his bewil-
derment, by what authority he demanded a surrender. “In the name
of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress,” replied Allen.
Delaplaine, half dressed, with his frightened wife looking over his
shoulder, surrendered, May 9th, 1775. The whole garrison became
prisoners of war, but what was of more importance, this exploit gave
America nearly two hundred cannon, and a large quantity of military
stores of the utmost value to them.
The next day Colonel Seth Warner took possession of Crown Point,
which contained more than a hundred pieces of artillery.
Arnold’s troops had now come up, and capturing a small schooner
he sailed down the lake, and took Fort St. John, with the King's
sloop of war, George III., and a number of batteaux. With part of
the stores thus obtained he returned to Fort Ticonderoga.
ſae
|№.
*
№.
№№|-
№.，
..….…
THE BOSTON TEA PARTY—DESTRUCTION OF THE TEA IN BOSTON HARBOR.


TEIE UNITED STATES. 381
A few undisciplined men had thus, in a moment, captured the forts
which the French had so long held against all the power of England.
The effect was tremendous. It roused enthusiasm, gave the Americans
war-material, and prevented English operations against New York.
On the day after the surrender of Ticonderoga, the Continental
Congress met at Philadelphia. Peyton Randolph was chosen Presi-
dent, and for Secretary they elected Charles Thomson, who held the
important office during the whole period of the Revolution. As Ran-
dolph's presence was necessary in Virginia, John Hancock, of Massa-
chusetts, a merchant who had been prominent from the first on the
side of Liberty, was chosen President.
All felt that the time for conciliation was past, yet once more ad-
dresses were framed. It was the last effort; a justification, as it were,
of what they were now to do as a government.
Congress voted to put the colonies in a state of defense; it ordered
the enlistment of troops, the erection of forts, the purchase of arms,
ammunition, and supplies. To meet this, it authorized the issue of
paper money to the amount of three millions of dollars, inscribed
“The United Colonies.” Massachusetts had already called upon Con-
gress to assume direction over the forces before Boston, and the Con-
tinental Congress, as the national government, did not only this, but
proceeded to select a commander-in-chief of the armies. From the
outset George Washington, of Virginia, seemed most acceptable. He
was nominated June 15th, and unanimously chosen. Never had
---
*-*
choice been wiser.
The next day Washington returned thanks for the signal honor
conferred upon him, and begged to decline receiving any pay for his
services. All he asked was the payment of his expenses, and of these
382 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
he kept a strict account. Four Major Generals were chosen, Arte-
mas Ward, Israel Putnam, Philip Schuyler, and Charles Lee, while
Seth Pomeroy, Richard Montgomery, David Wooster, William Heath,
Joseph Spencer, John Thomas, John Sullivan, and Nathaniel Greene,
were chosen Brigadier Generals.
Washington hastened his preparations, and, on the 21st of June,
left Philadelphia to take command of the army in the field.
An important battle had already been fought. Gage, shut up in
Boston and unable to obtain any supplies from the country, resolved
to occupy some of the hills around. The Americans, equally vigilant,
resolved to defeat any such attempt. As the first rays of the morning
lit up the bay and the adjacent shores, a sentry, pacing the deck of the
Lively man-of-war, saw on Breed's Hill the lines of a redoubt, which
had sprung up like magic in the night; while sturdy men were still
plying pick and shovel, extending and strengthening these threatening
works. The ship was at once all excitement, and the captain, sending
a boat ashore to General Gage, opened fire. *º-
This work had been thrown up by a small body of troops under
Colonel Prescott, the veteran Gridley acting as engineer. It was
now held by Prescott's regiment and a Connecticut detachment under
Captain Knowlton, some of the force having already withdrawn. As
the sun rose, every spot in the city from which the hill could be seen,
was filled with eager spectators. From Copp's Hill and from the men-
of-war came the occasional puffs of smoke and thunder of cannon, but
there was no answer from the hill, where the work went steadily on.
Then the English ships and batteries clustered together, and down
through the streets of Boston to the Long Wharf, went, with steady
tramp and all the glitter of burnished arms and regular equipments,
THE UNITED STATES. 383
two regiments of British troops, with grenadiers and light infantry
leading the line; similar bodies were moving down to the Battery and
North Battery.
They are at last all at the water's edge; the barges are filled, Gene-
rals Howe and Pigot, with their brilliant staffs, at the head. Now from
the Lively, and the Somerset, and Falcon, there rained on the hill a
perfect hurricane of balls and shells; while floating batteries, and a
transport with a man-of-war, commanded the Neck, ready to open fire.
Amid the din and roar of this artillery, the troops land on the
east side of the peninsula, near the mouth of the Mystic. Prescott,
whose tall and manly form had been seen from the city on the
breastwork during the hottest fire, understands the plan. His di-
minished force, his imperfect works, make a defense of the hill hope-
less ; to his joy, the English halt at the first rising ground, and begin
to eat. His men have no food but what is in their knapsacks. The
barges move back to Boston. Howe asks more troops. Prescott throws
Gridley, with his few field-pieces and Knowlton's men, towards the
enemy, with no defense but a fence, part of rails, and part of stone.
A cheer tells his brave few that aid is at hand. Though General
Ward thinks it only a feint, Colonel John Stark comes marching to the
spot, with part of two regiments from his State. Where his practiced
eye sees the greatest need, he draws up his men. Pomeroy and War-
ren came as volunteers; Putnam was there too. Thus stood the brave
fifteen hundred. Howe sees Pitcairn land with fresh troops, and or-
ders the Copp's Hill battery to fire on Charlestown. The shells soon set
it in a blaze, and the Somerset, ere long to lie a wreck on Cape Cod,
sends men to complete its destruction. The large and noble town is in
one huge blaze, the steeples towering as great pyramids of fire.

384 - A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
It is half-past two. The British line is all activity. Howe addresses
his men. The ships and batteries keep up a tremendous cannonade, and
up the hill-side, through the long grass, in the bright sunlight, move
the three thousand veterans of England. Howe pushes toward the rail
fence, Pigot moves on the breastwork. There all is silent. The enemy
are within eight rods, when Prescott gives the word. A deadly volley
bursts on the English line; every shot was aimed and told ; nearly the
whole front rank is down. For several minutes the irregular but dead-
ly fire poured upon them. They break in dismay, and the splendid
line rolls in disordered masses down the hill; some to rush to the
boats, others to halt at the word of command.
Howe fares no better. From the rail fence comes a fire that sweeps -
whole ranks before it. The King's troops recoil, and down, down the
slope they reel in confusion.
The British officers prepare for another assault. More cautiously,
the two bodies mount the deadly slopes. Again the silence is broken
by a musket-fire as fatal as before ; but, nerved to it, the regulars press
on till human nature can stand no more. Howe, almost alone, reaches
the fence, with companies cut down to nine or ten men, and scarcely
an officer by him. Again the British retreat ; Clinton hurries over
from Copp's Hill; Howe plants his cannon to rake the breastwork,
and again a charge is made.
Within the American lines the exhausted heroes stand ; weary,
spent with hunger, toil, and fighting, many with not a grain of powder
left. The breastwork is abandoned. A stand is made at the redoubt.
A deadly volley from it staggers the English line, but it moves on with
fixed bayonets. Pitcairn falls as he enters the redoubt, which is now
Scaled on all sides, the Americans contesting the ground with the butt-

Mºlſ (ºlº N ſºlº lººt)

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A CHILD’s HISTORY. 387
ends of their muskets, and even with stones. Prescottat last gives the or-
der to retreat, and the little band, sadly thinned, cut their way through.
Knowlton and Stark then follow. A fiery ordeal is before them. Bunk-
er's Hill and Charlestown Neck are swept by the enemy's cannon, and
as they hurry over the Neck the loss is deadly, worse than in the fight.
But at last they are in the camp, and throw themselves down to rest.
England has won one little hill on American soil, at the cost of over
a thousand killed and wounded—more than double the loss of the
Americans. But the patriots mourned the death of General Warren,
the head of the Provincial Government of Massachusetts, a man of
energy, eloquence, and power. -
Joseph Warren, whose name long stood next to that of Washington
in the affections of America, was born at Roxbury in 1740, the son of
a farmer, who died when Joseph was only fifteen. After graduating
at Harvard, young Warren studied medicine and soon attained emi-
nence. He was one of the earliest Sons of Liberty, and was one of
the real leaders of the popular movement. He was President of the
Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, and, four days before his death,
Was appointed Major General, although he never assumed any com-
mand. He was shot in the head just as he was leaving the trenches,
and was buried on the field by the enemy.
Colonel William Prescott, the almost unnoticed hero of Bunker's
Hill, was born in Groton in 1726, his father and grandfather having
been members of the Council of Massachusetts. He served against
Louisburg, and won the battle of Bunker's Hill. At a later date, he
held General Howe in check for six days, at Throgg's Neck. His
merit was overlooked, however, and he soon after retired to private
life.
388 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
On the 3d of July, Washington, who had hastened forward, reached
the forces and took command of the Continental Army. His first care
was to organize and discipline it for actual service. It was posted on **
the heights around Boston, forming a line from Roxbury on the right,
to the Mystic River on the left, a distance of twelve miles.
Gage held Boston, Bunker's Hill, and Charlestown Neck, with a fine
army of eleven thousand men: but the city, cut off from all supplies
from the country in midsummer, was very unhealthy.
Neither party for a time made any movement, Washington from
want of powder and a wish to organize his army, Gage from inability
to see where he could strike an effective blow.
Congress, which had now received delegates from Georgia, was try-
ing to win the Canadians and Indians, and, but for the old religious
animosity in the colonies to the faith of the Canadians, would have
gained them. The Johnson family, who possessed great power with the
Six Nations, induced that powerful body to take up the hatchet for the
English.
Franklin, who had labored so earnestly in England for the colonies,
now returned and became Postmaster General, aiding by his counsels
the patriotic movement.
Canada was now, as in early days, a source of anxiety. The colonists
had never felt safe while it was in the hands of France, so now
they could not feel easy while it remained under the power of
Great Britain. The liberties given by England to the French Cana-
dians had excited the complaints of the older colonies, yet now they
wished to win these Canadians. An address was prepared, offering
them the same privileges they enjoyed, but this was too late ; too much
hostility had been shown to them, to induce the Canadians as a body
THE UNITED STATES. 389
to join the American cause, although numbers actually took part with
it. Congress therefore determined, as the first great movement of the
war, to seize Canada. Two expeditions were prepared; one, under
Generals Schuyler and Montgomery, was to move down Lake Cham-
plain; the other could not go by sea as in colonial days, for America
had no fleet to cope with the English navy. The expedition was there-
fore sent through the wilderness of Maine.
Schuyler falling sick, General Montgomery, with about two thousand
men from New York and New England, laid siege to Fort St. John, the
first British post in Canada. Fort Chambly was taken and some
slight advantages gained, though Sir Guy Carleton, the British com-
mander, captured Colonel Ethan Allen and a small party which was
boldly advancing on Montreal.
Carleton raised a force to relieve Fort St. John, but Montgomery held
the Sorel River, and the British commander, finding the defense hope-
less, fled from Montreal. Major Preston, commander of Fort St. John,
on hearing that no relief could be expected from Carleton, surrendered.
The British general fled down the St. Lawrence, but his party was
stopped by an American force, and though Carleton managed to escape
in the disguise of a Canadian habitant, the rest of his party surren-
dered.
Montgomery occupied Montreal, but his army was thinned by deser-
tion. He could not, however, hesitate. His only course was to push
on to Quebec, with a force of only three hundred men, hoping there to
be joined by the force with which General Arnold was to march through
the woods of Maine. That energetic commander took the field about the
middle of September, and with an endurance and hardihood almost
unparalleled in history, pushed on through every obstacle. By boats,
390 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF '
where possible ; crossing no less than seventeen portages at the frequent
rapids ; marching through almost unbroken forest, Arnold pushed bravely
on. Enos, his second in command, deserted him with part of the force,
but the diminished party, enfeebled by sickness, with scanty food and
little ammunition, kept on to attack the most powerful citadel in North
America.
Though winter was fast closing around them, they went barefooted
for days together, exposed frequently by day and night to drenching
storms. Many sank down stiffening in cold and death. They ran out of
provisions, and were kept from absolute starvation by eating their dogs,
gnawing their leather shoes and belts. Yet, on the 8th of November, 1775,
they reached Point Levi, and crossing at Wolfe's Cove, climbed to the
Plains of Abraham. The little army, drawn up to attack that city of Que-
bec and its garrison of eighteen hundred men, was only some five hundred
effective men. A flag sent to summon the city was fired upon, and Arnold
had no alternative but to await the coming of Montgomery, to whom he
sent dispatches. On the 1st day of December, in the midst of the bitter
winter weather, the two little armies met. Through driving snow-
storms, they marched on Quebec, and began the siege, rearing batteries
of snow and ice. But their guns made no impression on the stout
walls. At last it was determined to storm the lower town.
On the last day of the year, in the thick gloom of the early morn-
ing, while the snow was falling fast and drifting heavily, Montgomery,
at the head of his New York troops, pushed on along the shore from
Wolfe's Cove. Under Cape Diamond stood the first obstacle, a block-
house commanded by Captain Barnsfare, with a few sailors and militia.
A palisade checked Montgomery's approach. This removed, the gal-
lant general led his men to the assault, when a volley of grape-shot
THE UNITED STATES. 391
swept the pass. Montgomery fell dead, and his aides-de-camp were
cut down, with many of his men. The rest retreated.
Arnold, on the other side, in assaulting the first barrier, was badly
wounded, but Morgan, taking command, led his men on. At the second
barrier a desperate fight ensued, but American valor triumphed. They
did not long enjoy the advantage, for Carleton, relieved by the repulse
of Montgomery, sent a force to take Morgan in the rear, and his whole
force of four hundred and twenty-six men were compelled to sur-
render.
Arnold drew off the remains of the two forces, and for a time kept
up a blockade of the river, but after a while, the urgent necessities of
the States made it impossible to send any force to Canada, and the
army fell back in a wretched condition to Crown Point. -
Montgomery, the hero of the campaign, a noble-hearted Irish gentle-
man, was greatly regretted by the Americans, and even the enemy re-
spected him. He was honorably buried by General Carleton, but in
1818, his remains were removed to New York city, where those who
stop a moment in their busy walk along Broadway, may see his monu-
ment in the front wall of St. Paul's Church.
During the operations against Canada, Washington had held the Brit-
ish force in Boston, unable to take offensive measures for want of pow-
der, and the coming and going of his troops.
American cruisers captured supplies intended for Boston, but the
English fleet bombarded Falmouth, now Portland, Maine, reducing to
ashes that fine town, with its four hundred houses and stores. New-
port, and indeed every seaport, was threatened with a similar fate.
Some people in America still had hopes that England would now re-
lent and prefer giving the colonies their just rights to embarking in
392 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
a long, and perhaps disastrous war. Little did they know the stubborn
character of George III., or the men around him. The Parliament at
its next session dissipated all such hopes. They resolved to send
twenty-five thousand men to crush America. As England then could
not well raise so large a force, they determined to hire them on the Con-
tinent. Russia had just been at war with Turkey, and it was proposed
to hire her brutal soldiery, but the British Government finally concluded
a bargain with the Grand Duke of Hesse Cassel, hiring nearly eighteen
thousand men, at exorbitant rates. Though gathered from all parts,
these men were in America always called Hessians.
By a refined cruelty, a law was passed for seizing all American
ships at sea, confiscating the cargoes, and forcing all on board to serve
in the British navy.
In the colonies, English rule was virtually at an end. Lord Dun-
more, Governor of Virginia, was a fugitive on board a man-of-war,
plundering and destroying the colony. Norfolk felt the full force of
his wrath, and was utterly laid in ruins.
Governor Wright, of Georgia, was also a fugitive on an English ship,
as was Governor Tryon of New York. That colony abounded, how-
ever, in adherents to the British cause, who were now called Tories.
The Johnsons, with the Highlanders settled in the Mohawk Valley, and
the Six Nations were all on the English side, and soon openly took the
field to co-operate with the British forces in Canada. Sir John Johnson
raised two battalions of Royal Greens, and Brant, the famous Mohawk
chief, rallied his savage braves to destroy his old white friends and
neighbors.
Early in 1776, Washington resolved to occupy Dorchester Heights,
and force Howe to evacuate Boston. On the night of the 4th of March, -
THE FIGHT AT LEXINGTON

THE UNITED STATES. - 393
a furious cannonade was kept up. Bombs fell into all parts of the city,
and the British garrison were kept busy in extinguishing the flames.
When day dawned, the English, to their dismay, found Dorchester
Heights crowned by two forts, sufficiently advanced to shelter those
within from musketry.
The English admiral scanned them, and declared that if the Ameri-
cans were not dislodged he could no longer remain in the harbor with-
out risking his whole fleet.
Howe saw no alternative but to attack the works. His recollection of
Bunker Hill did not make him Sanguine of success, yet he nerved him-
Self to it. But a furious wind sprang up, and Lord Percy, who was to
land on the flats near the Point, could not embark. Violent storms set
in, which prevented Howe's operations, though they did not prevent
Washington from strengthening his new works. Colonel Mifflin pre-
pared a new Weapon—hogsheads of sand and stones to roll down on the
enemy, so as to break and disorder his lines in charging up the hill.
Howe was in a terrible dilemma. He had not transports enough to
carry off his troops at once. If he embarked only a part the rest
would be captured, so he resorted to threats of destroying the city if
he Were not allowed to retire peaceably. Washington, to save Boston,
remained a quiet spectator of the retreat of the English. The city pre-
sented a melancholy sight. All was havoc and confusion, for the sol-
diery, in spite of orders, committed a great deal of ravage. Nor was
it only the army that departed. Fifteen hundred Tories, with their
families, and such valuables as they could carry, had no choice but to
follow the Soldiers of the crown whose cause they had espoused. Thus,
the city was full of disorder, grief, and misery. At last, on the 17th
of March, all Were on board.
394 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
The rear guard was scarcely out of the city, when General Washing-
ton entered with colors displayed, drums beating, and every mark of
victory and triumph, amid the shouts and cheers of the patriotic citi-
zens, who had so long heroically suffered the grinding tyranny of a
foreign army, the most hateful Scourge of a free people.
Artillery, ammunition, and horses, were left by the English, and
soon after British vessels, ignorant of the fall of the city, entered and
were captured, giving many soldiers as prisoners, and, the best prize
of all, fifteen hundred barrels of powder. -
America was filled with exultation at this long desired result. She
was free from the hated British troops. Nowhere in the thirteen colo-
nies had the army of England a foot-hold. Congress caused a fine
medal to be struck. It bears on one side a fine head of Washington,
with the inscription, GEORGIO WASHINGTON, SUPREMO Dvor ExERCI-
Tvvy, ADSERTOR LIBERTATIs, CoMITIA AMERICANA--The American
Congress to George Washington, Commander-in-chief of the Forces,
Assertor of Iliberty. The other side represented Washington and his
staff on the heights overlooking the city and harbor of Boston. Be-
low, troops are marching into the city, others marching out, or in
boats, seeking the English fleet. The inscription is, HosTIBUS PRIMO
FUGATIS.—The enemy for the first time put to flight. BosToni UM RE-
CUPERATUM, XVII. MARTII, MDCCLXXVI—Boston recovered, March
17, 1776. . *
Washington was not, however, one to be deluded by false hopes.
New York, with its strong Tory element, would welcome the British
forces in spite of the devoted Sons of Liberty, and the English Govern-
ment would make a strong effort to take and hold the city, which, by
the Hudson River, commanded communication with Canada.
THE UNITED STATES. - 395
Washington had scarcely entered Boston, before he despatched the
main body of his army to New York, leaving General Ward to fortify
Boston, which the English might attempt to molest, but would not at-
tempt to occupy again.
Though the evacuation of Boston left no organized British force on
American soil, there were many sympathizers with the English Govern-
ment, who were ready to take up arms.
The Highlanders of North Carolina were the first to take the field.
Early in 1776 a large force assembled under Donald McDonald, whom
Martin, the Royal Governor of the colony, had appointed a Brigadier
General. He raised his standard at Cross Creek, now Fayetteville,
and prepared to overrun the State. An English fleet was expected,
and it was confidently hoped that all opposition would be crushed.
General James Moore, a true patriot and splendid officer, resolved
to defeat this well-laid plan. By one stratagem and another, he held
McDonald in inaction till he had assembled the militia. With these
he occupied important points, so as to weave a complete web
around McDonald.
Moore Creek Bridge was the only point where the Tory saw any pros-
pect of breaking through Moore's line. Upon this his force marched on
the 27th of February, commanded by Captain Macleod. The bagpipes
played the tunes that had so long cheered on the Scotch rushing to
battle, and they counted on an easy victory over the Americans.
They came down in gallant style to the bridge, beyond which Colo-
nel Lillington and Caswell had thrown up an intrenchment after re-
moving most of the planking of the bridge.
In spite of this the Highlanders attempted to cross on the timbers,
but, under the deadly fire of the Americans, Captains Macleod and
396 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Campbell were cut down, and the whole force thrown into confusion.
They retreated with the loss of thirty killed and wounded : but there
was no escape. The North Carolina minute-men closed around them ;
McDonald and eight hundred and fifty of his men were taken prisoners,
disarmed, and discharged, while all their fine war material and fifteen
thousand pounds sterling, in gold, fell into the hands of the patriots.
A few days before, the Cove of Cork was a scene of activity. A
fleet had gathered there to take on board nearly seven full regiments
of well-drilled troops, under command of Lord Cornwallis. The fleet was
commanded by an able Admiral, Sir Peter Parker, and it was intend-
ed by this display of force to crush the patriots of the Southern States.
When, in May, the fleet appeared off Cape Fear, and heard of the
disastrous defeat of McDonald, General Clinton issued a proclamation
urging the people to return to their duty ; but it was too late.
Congress, at Philadelphia, after a consultation with General Wash-
ington, had proceeded to vigorous measures. The colonies were urged
to stop all acts in the King's name, and to organize suitable govern-
ments by their own authority. Rigorous measures were also adopted
in regard to Tories, who were to be compelled to declare their senti-
ments openly and depart, or submit to the new government and re-
main.
The advice had been generally followed, and all signs of British
power ceased. .
Anxious to strike a blow in the South before proceeding to New
York, where they were to join General Howe, Clinton resolved to at-
tack Charleston.
On the 1st of June intelligence reached that city of the approach of
the British naval and military force. Preparations were at once made
THE UNITED STATES. 397
to defend the city. North Carolina had just crushed the first armed
effort of British sympathizers; South Carolina was now to meet the
first attack of England's veteran army and navy. The President of
the Convention issued orders which were heartily carried out, and
General Charles Lee, sent South for the defense of Charleston and
the Southern department, gave order and system to the whole defense.
On Sullivan's island a little fort of palmetto logs was thrown up to
hold the channel. On one bastion floated the Union flag, on the other
the crescent flag of South Carolina. Its little garrison was composed
of some three hundred and fifty men, of the Second South Carolina reg-
iment, and a company of artillery, all commanded by Colonel William
Moultrie, who had done good service in Indian wars. Without the
fort lay another little force under Colonel Thompson.
The splendid spectacle of an English fleet coming into action was
Soon presented to their eyes, as vessel after vessel came up and took
position, while, from the transports, troops were landed on Long Isl-
and, which was separated from that occupied by the Americans only by
a passage generally fordable. The thunders of cannon and mortar
Soon rang out, as a tremendous fire opened on the fort, but though
shells came bursting within, the cannon balls sank harmlessly into the
Soft palmetto logs. Then the Sphynx, Acteon, and Syren, were or-
dered to run up between the island and the city. They ran on a shoal.
Two got off, indeed, but the Acteon stuck fast, and finding it impossible
to get off, or endure the fire of the fort, her officers and crew abandon-
ed her the next day, after setting her on fire. She did not blow up,
however, before the bold garrison sent off a detachment which secured
much valuable property from her, and fired some of her guns on the
English admiral's ship.
398 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
So fierce a fire did they return to the fleet, that their ammunition
was nearly exhausted, when General Lee managed to send them a fresh
supply. Then the firing on both sides was renewed, and kept up till
nearly ten o'clock; the English troops that landed on Long Island had
been mere spectators of the Scene, unable to cross the deep passage to
Sullivan's Island. -
The English fleet slipped its cables, and quietly dropped down, leav-
ing the Americans victorious.
In this glorious defense of Fort Moultrie, Sergeant Jasper made his
name immortal. The South Carolina flag, riddled by the British fire,
was at last shot away, and fell outside the works. Jasper jumped over
amid the hottest fire, and securing the crescent flag of his State, coolly
fastened it to a sponge-staff, and leisurely planted it in its old position.
The next day, Sir Peter Parker, considering the damage done his
vessels, which were riddled by balls, with masts disabled and shot away,
and rigging cut to pieces, and a large number of his officers and men
killed and wounded, thought it his wisest course to give up the attempt.
The great question now engaging the public mind in America was
their future government; the authority of England had been finally set
aside; no longer were laws enacted or courts held in the name of
George III., yet they had established no new government that other
nations could recognize. Independence was now the cry of the patri-
ots. They felt that they must announce to the world that they were
an independent people, with a government of their own choice. In
April, North Carolina instructed her delegates in Congress to concur
with those of the other States in a declaration of Independence. The
next month, the Virginia Convention instructed her delegates to pro-
pose the great measure. Massachusetts, by a formal election, direct-
THE UNITED STATES. 399
ed her delegates to vote for it : Rhode Island did the same. With
all this authority in favor of the step, the wise statesmen of the
Continental Congress did not move hastily. At last, on the 7th of
June, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, introduced a resolution
declaring that the United Colonies are and ought to be free and inde-
pendent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the Brit-
ish crown, and that all political connection between them and the state
of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved.
All the members of that noble body were not yet prepared for this
decisive step. Some still clung to hopes of reconciliation, and the ties
which bound them to the country of their forefathers. The delegates
of Pennsylvania and Maryland received formal instructions to oppose
independence. A long and earnest debate followed. Lee, with John
Adams, argued most eloquently in favor of independence, while Dick-
inson, a pure patriot, whose Farmer's Letters had stirred every Ameri-
can heart, spoke earnestly against it.
The resolution was finally postponed to the 1st day of July, and
a committee appointed to prepare a Declaration of Independence.
This committee consisted of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin
Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston.
Meanwhile, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and New Jersey instructed
their delegates to vote for the great measure; Maryland finally adopted
the same course.
On the 1st of July, the resolution was adopted by Congress, all the
colonies voting for it except Delaware and Pennsylvania.
The committee submitted the Declaration of Independence drawn
up by Jefferson. It was discussed, and, with some amendments, Was
passed on the 4th of July, 1776, at two o'clock in the afternoon.
400 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
All day long, Philadelphia had been in a state of wild excitement,
and a dense crowd had stood around Carpenters' Hall awaiting the re-
sult of the deliberations. All day long, a man had stood beside the bell.
in the steeple—the old bell, still preserved with its inscription, as
if placed there by Providence. A boy stood below to tell him when
to ring, but the hours went by, and the old man doubted. At last -
a shout told the result, and the boy, clapping his hands, cried
out: “Ring! ring !” and the old bell rang out the birth of a
nation.
Copies, which had been printed, were posted up, and crowds gathered
to read them, while from the steps of the old hall John Nixon, in his
stentorian voice, read it aloud, amid the cheers and plaudits of the
people.
The night was lighted up by bonfires and illuminations, while the
thunder of cannon rang out, and the quiet city of William Penn was
wild with such an excitement as had never before been witnessed in its
staid streets.
That day the Declaration was signed by John Hancock, President of
the Continental Congress; but it was ordered to be engrossed, or care-
fully copied out, and signed by all the members. Every member ex-
cept Dickinson affixed his name. Some, not present on that day,
signed it subsequently, the last being Matthew Thornton of New
Hampshire, who, in N ovember, closed the list of signers, numbering in
all fifty-six.
This great paper, the Magna Charta of America, should be known
by every child of the republic, committed to memory in early youth,
that its principles and spirit may guide him through life, teaching him
to love liberty, and respect the liberty of others.
A CHILD’s HISTORY. 403
A DECLARATION OF THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN
CONGRESS ASSEMBLED.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with
another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate
and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God
entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that
they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident—that all men are created
equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, de-
riving their just powers from the consent of the governed ; that when-
ever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is
the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new
government, laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing
its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that gov-
ernments long established should not be changed for light and tran-
sient causes ; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown, that man-
kind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to
right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably
the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute des-
potism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government,
and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been
the patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity
which constrains them to alter their former systems of government.
404 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of re-
peated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the estab-
lishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let
facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary
for the public good. º
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and press-
ing importance, unless suspended in their operations till his assent
should be obtained ; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected
to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large
districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of
representation in the Legislature—a right inestimable to them, and
formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncom-
fortable, and distant from the repository of their public records, for
the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing,
with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause
others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of anni-
hilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise ; the
State remaining, in the mean time, exposed to all the dangers of inva-
sions from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for
that purpose obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners;
refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and rais-
ing the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
THE UNITED STATES. 405
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his as- l
sent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of
their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. -
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms
of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without
the consent of our Legislatures.
He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior
to the civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign
to our constitutions, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving assent
to their acts of pretended legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;
For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any mur-
ders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States;
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world ;
For imposing taxes on us without our consent;
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury;
For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offenses;
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring
province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging
its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instru-
ment for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies;
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws,
and altering, fundamentally, the forms of our governments;
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves in-
vested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
406 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his pro-
tection, and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, º
and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries,
to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny already be-
gun, with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in
the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized
nation.
He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high
seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners
of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrection among us, and has endeavor-
ed to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian
savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruc-
tion of all ages, sexes, and conditions.
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress
in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered
only by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by
every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free
people.
Nor have we been wanting in our attentions to our British brethren.
We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legis-
lature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have re-
minded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement
here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and
we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disa-
vow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connec-
THE UNITED STATES. 407
tions and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of
justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the
necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them as we hold
the rest of mankind–enemies in war—in peace, friends.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America,
in general Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the
world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the au-
thority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and de-
clare that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and
independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the
British crown, and that all political connection between them and the
state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ; and that,
as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, con-
clude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other
acts and things which independent States may of right do. And for
the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection
of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our
fortunes, and our sacred honor.
Expresses carried the Deckſration from town to town. Everywhere
it was hailed with joy. It was read in churches and public gatherings;
in the camp and at the fireside.
After the evacuation of Boston by the English forces under Gen-
eral Howe, and their departure to Halifax, Washington felt that New
York would be attacked. After sending on a part of the army, under
General Putnam, he followed with all his available force, and when he
had laid his plans before Congress, began to prepare for the defense of
that important city. Congress voted to reinforce his army with thir-
teen thousand militia from the northern colonies, and ten thousand

408 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
more from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. The approaches
to the city, by the North and East Rivers, were defended by strong in-
trenchments. Sunken vessels and other obstructions were placed in
the river, and chains placed across where practicable. Troops, under
Generals Greene and Sullivan, were placed on Long Island to prevent
the enemy's approach in that way, and the army was protected by a
series of works thrown up around Brooklyn.
Such was the position of affairs, when, on the 9th of July, Washing.
ton received at Head-Quarters, No. 1 Broadway, in the city of New
York, the Declaration of Independence. At six o'clock that evening
it was read by his order at the head of each brigade, and was welcomed
by the loud huzzas of the troops. The people, led by the Sons of
Liberty, received it with the wildest enthusiasm, and they rushed down
to the Bowling Green, where stood a leaden equestrian statue of
George III., richly gilt, and still bright, for it had been erected only
six years before. Ropes were fastened to this effigy of the monarch,
whose reign in America had ceased, and it was soon by sturdy hands
leveled in the dust, and hacked in pieces, to be melted up and run
into bullets for the use of the army.
The Declaration was read from the steps of Faneuil Hall, by Colonel
Crafts, on the 17th, and at its close the immense crowd raised a loud
hurrah, which was kept up till it was drowned in the thunders of cannon.
At Charleston, the people gathered under the branches of a wide-
spreading live oak, the famous Liberty Tree, afterwards cut down by
Sir Henry Clinton, and an expedition against Florida was immediately
planned. From North to South, there was but one sentiment, one re-
solve.
Every sign of royal power, the King's arms, crowns, and emblems of
THE UNITED STATES. 409
monarchy were at once demolished, and names were changed to bury
them in oblivion.
The various States then proceeded to alter their old charters, or adopt
new constitutions for their future government. The form of govern-
ment in Connecticut and Rhode Island was so democratic, that it re-
quired no change. In this work of reorganization, New Hampshire
and New Jersey led the way, having adopted constitutions before the
Declaration of Independence, while Massachusetts, moving slowly, did
not complete her work until 1779.
A great struggle was now to take place at New York. On the 29th
of June, 1776, General Howe arrived at Sandy Hook, with ships and
transports, bearing his army, strengthened in numbers, military stores,
and material. The very day that New York was exulting in the Dec-
laration of Independence, and demolishing the statue of the King, Howe
landed nine thousand men at the Quarantine ground on Staten Island.
They encamped on the heights, and the flag of England was raised
again on our soil. Tories flocked to his standard from all parts. Those
in New York city formed a plot to capture Washington, and give him
up to General Howe. Some of Washington's guards were so base as
to be bought up by British gold to betray their commander, but the
plot was discovered, many arrested, and one of the most guilty
hung.
In a few days after Howe's landing on Staten Island, another fleet
entered New York Bay. It was Lord Howe, bringing another army
and supplies. On the transports, and on Staten Island, were now thirty
thousand British and Hessian troops.
On the 22d of August, four thousand men were thrown over to
Long Island, and landed at Gravesend. The rest of the army and ar-
410 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
tillery soon followed, the Americans having no fleet to command the
bay.
The two armies were now face to face. Unfortunately, at this criti-
cal moment, General Greene, who commanded the American lines on
Long Island, fell sick, and he was replaced by the aged but now incom-
petent General Putnam. In spite of Washington's orders, he neglected
to guard important passes. Clinton perceived the negligence. On the
26th, de Heister and his Hessians pushed up to Flatbush, Cornwallis
to Flatland. The post at Bedford, left entirely unguarded, was seized
and occupied by Sir Henry Clinton, during the night, while Putnam,
deluded by Grant, sent off General Sterling to oppose that British gen-
eral, who was advancing from the Narrows, and Sullivan was ordered
up to strengthen the force in front of the Hessians.
Clinton, securing the pass, soon scattered the American forces there,
and gained the rear of Sullivan's line. While Heister was pressing
them hard in front, Clinton suddenly assailed their rear. Hemmed in
between, the two divisions, the Americans fought desperately, continu-
ing the unequal contest till noon, when the survivors, seeing the strug-
gle hopeless, surrendered.
Lord Stirling had held Grant in check till Cornwallis approached.
To secure his retreat he attacked Cornwallis so gallantly at Gowanus,
that he would have effected his retreat had not de Heister appeared ;
and Stirling, with part of his force completely surrounded, was com-
pelled to surrender, though the remainder of his troops, with consider-
able loss, crossed a creek and marsh and escaped.
The battle was a series of skirmishes of detached bodies fighting
against an enemy three times their number, with no able general di-
recting the whole movement of the army.
THE UNITED STATES. 411
The army of the United States lost a thousand prisoners, and about
two hundred in killed and wounded. The English loss was about four
hundred. p
This was a terrible disaster to the new country. Nearly twelve
hundred of the flower of the army was lost, with two good generals,
and the rest of the force on Long Island was in imminent danger.
Howe, encamped before the American works, prepared to attack
them next day with the aid of the fleet.
Washington had hastened to the spot, and saw Howe's error in not at-
tacking his lines at once. The morning of the 28th dawned, but a dense
fog covered the scene. Washington brought up fresh troops and kept
up a constant skirmishing, till he saw the English fleet preparing to
move. Still protected by the fog, he gathered all the boats around
Brooklyn and New York, and while the enemy, though so near, were
utterly unsuspicious of the movement, Washington evacuated his lines.
Regiment after regiment passed over ; Washington and his staff, in the
saddle all night, remaining till the last company embarked. Then
they too crossed, and the fog, which had in the hands of Providence
so protected their retreat, liſted. The English entered the deserted
American lines, then galloped down to the shore of the East River
only to see the last American boats reaching the New York side.
Howe was thunderstruck at thus being deprived of the fruit of his
victory, the certain capture of the whole force.
The effect of the battle of Long Island was disastrous and almost
fatal to the cause of Liberty. Soldiers deserted by hundreds ; whole
regiments vanished ; officers resigned in disgust. ac
It was a critical moment. Admiral and General Howe had come with
power to treat with the Americans. They had already sought to open
412 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
negotiations with General Washington, but as their letter was address-
ed simply to George Washington, Esqr., and when this was re-
fused, to George Washington, Esquire, etc., etc., etc., the Commander
of the American Forces refused to receive it, or any other communica-
tion that did not recognize his rank. He gave Adjutant General Pat-
terson clearly to understand that the effort of the Howes was useless;
they had simply power to grant pardon ; the Americans had done
nothing for which they could accept any pardon.
After the battle of Long Island, Howe thought that Congress might
not be as firm as General Washington, so he despatched General Sul-
livan, a prisoner in his hands, to offer to Congress a renewal of the over-
tures for peace. Congress appointed Franklin, John Adams, and Edward
Rutledge a committee to wait upon the Howes. They met on Staten
Island, but the Howes had no authority except to receive submission to
the crown, while Congress would listen to no terms but independence.
Washington was now unable to hold New York city, and a retreat
became imperative. To find out exactly the plans of the enemy, he
sent the brave Connecticut patriot, Nathan Hale, inside the enemy's
lines. As he was returning to Washington with the information he
was captured, tried, and hung as a spy. Every brutality was shown to
him by the Provost-marshal. He was not allowed a clergyman or
even a Bible, and the letters which with his dying hand he penned to
his mother and sisters were brutally destroyed. Hale, the martyr,
met his fate with unflinching courage. His last words were, “I only
regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” This wanton
cruelty was long remembered by the Americans as a justification for
the utmost severity toward the enemy under similar circumstances.
Howe, at last, with his ships in the North and East River sweeping
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INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILA DELPHIA, whºke. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPEN.
DENCE WAS SIGNED.


THE UNITED STATES. 413
New York island with their fire, began to land his troops at Kip's
Bay. The American troops posted there to oppose his landing, fled
without striking a blow, and Washington, after a vain attempt to rally
them, dashed his hat on the ground, exclaiming: “Are these the men
with whom I am to defend America’ ” So reckless was he of his own
safety that he would have been taken prisoner had not his aides seized
the reins of his horse and hurried him away.
Washington now retreated up the island, and part of his army would
have been captured had not the English halted at Murray Hill, where
Mrs. Robert Murray purposely delayed the English officers.
General Howe occupied New York city, to his intense satisfaction,
but that very night a fire broke out, which destroyed upwards of a
thousand buildings, and nearly laid the whole city in ashes. Each
party accused the other of having set the city on fire, and several per-
sons were hung on the spot on suspicion.
As Washington fell back the English advanced, but a brisk action
took place on Harlem plains, in which Colonel Knowlton drove an
English detachment back to their lines with great spirit, losing his life
in his gallant charge.
Washington then evacuated New York island except Fort Washing-
ton, where he left a garrison. Howe pursued him, held in check for a
time at Throgg's Neck by Prescott, the hero of Bunker's Hill. At
White Plains the two armies again came face to face ; Chatterton's Hill,
on Washington's extreme right, was held by General McDougall, with
about sixteen hundred men. After some skirmishing Howe at last
attacked this position with three columns of his best troops, comprising
thirteen regiments. The American troops, except a body of militia,
fought with steady valor, contesting the ground inch by inch, and more
i
414 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
than once repulsing the well-trained and numerous body of assailants.
When at last they could no longer hold it they drew off in good
order and joined Washington's main army.
The English army lost so severely in this preliminary movement,
that Howe relinquished his idea of making a general attack on Wash-
ington's intrenched line. He had expected to find an army complete-
ly demoralized by the disaster on Long Island, but found that it was
still determined and resolute.
Fort Washington was now completely isolated. The troops could
not be removed in the face of the enemy : but the commander, Colonel
Magaw, resolved to hold it to the last: although the English command-
er, when summoning him to surrender, threatened to put all to the
sword if he refused. The English assailed his position with four
columns, but their advance was steadily contested. General Knyp-
hausen, however, with his Hessians, finally gained the height, and Ma-
gaw, perceiving further resistance useless, surrendered with his garrison
prisoners of war. Nearly three thousand American soldiers were thus
lost to Washington, with valuable supplies, but the occupation of the
fort had been against his advice.
... The cause of freedom looked desperate. Washington, with a little
,”
k army of about three thousand men, was confronted by an English army
of ten times his numbers, which daily received accessions of Tories.
Washington had meanwhile crossed to Hackensack and retreated
through Newark, New Brunswick, and Princeton to Trenton, where
he crossed into Pennsylvania.
General Cornwallis followed him step by step, and entered Trenton
as Washington's last boats were crossing the Delaware.
A reinforcement of two thousand Pennsylvania troops under General
THE UNITED STATES. 415
Mifflin, enabled Washington to guard the passes of the river, and col-
lect all boats that could be useful to the enemy. General Lee, with a
division of the army, was still in New Jersey, and while slowly moving
to join Washington, he was captured in his quarters at some distance
from his troops. General Sullivan, who had been exchanged, took
command, and soon joined Washington ; General Gates also came in
with the remnant of the army of Canada. But all this made up an in-
significant force to face the powerful and exultant army of England,
which held New York and New Jersey completely in their hands. It
was a period of deepest gloom for the cause of America.
Rhode Island, too, was occupied by Sir Henry Clinton and a force of
British and Hessians, escorted by a squadron of men-of-War.
Congress, which had retired to Baltimore, endeavored to arouse the
people to action, but all were disheartened. The glorious results they
had expected were changed to disasters.
Still, such a crisis had been foreseen, and Congress had already sent
envoys to France and Spain to urge those countries to acknowledge
American independence and give them aid in war material. Ben-
jamin Franklin, regarded in France as one of the first philosophers of
the age, exercised by his popularity a most favorable influence.
France agreed to supply arms indirectly. She allowed vessels to be
fitted out in her ports to cruise against the English, and, without break-
ing with the neighboring kingdom, gave every evidence of her good-
will towards the Americans.
All this, however, was but matter for hope, and before relief came,
the cause of America might be desperate, Congress had been raising
troops for short terms. Washington showed the danger of this, and
the necessity of raising and maintaining for the War, a large force of
416 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
regular troops, whose experience should not be lost to the country
just as they became good soldiers. Seeing the perilous condition of
affairs, Congress invested him with power to raise sixteen additional
battalions of infantry, three thousand light horse, three regiments of
artillery and engineers, appoint officers, call on the States for militia,
appoint all army officers under the grade of Brigadier-General, and,
by a stretch of power most unusual, to take supplies when needed for
the army, if the inhabitants refused to sell, allowing them a reason-
able price.
… To carry on the war, Congress had issued paper money, of which
some of our readers may have seen time-worn specimens. This was
called Continental Currency. The patriotic portion took this readily
at first, but the Tories and those indifferent to the cause refused it.
Washington was invested with authority to arrest and confine any
, man that refused to take it. -
w . With these powers in his hands Washington gave new life to the
, , army. The soldiers felt confidence that their wants would be seen to,
and that justice would be done to them in all cases. They felt that
they were indeed an army gathered in a noble cause.
2 Washington needed now but one thing to give his army new life and
courage. This was, to strike a blow at the enemy that would rouse
the drooping energies of the country, and fill the army with confidence.
With the keen eye of an able general he watched his enemy.
Howe, with an overpowering force, flushed with victory, looked with
contempt on Washington and his handful of soldiers beyond the river.
He feared nothing from them, and lay in perfect security.
Here was Washington's opportunity. He formed his available forces
into three divisions; he prepared to re-cross the Delaware on Christ-
A CHILD’s HISTORY. 419
mas eve and attack the Hessians who held Trenton. The river was
full of floating ice, a most perilous moment to attempt to carry over
troops in the face of an enemy. He himself, with his main body,
moved quietly up to McKonkey's Ferry, nine miles above Trenton ;
there he crossed in the intense cold, during a heavy storm of rain and
hail that drove the Hessians in doors. The passage of the river
was slow and dangerous, and it was not till four o'clock that he reach-
ed the Jersey shore.
General Cadwallader was to cross at Bristol, and move on the
enemy at Bordentown and Mount Holly.
Washington formed his troops in two divisions. One, under Gene-
ral Sullivan, took the river road, and Washington himself, with Greene,
took the Pennington road.
The gayeties and merry-makings in the German camp had been
kept up till a late hour : then all was still in the little town, and
naught was heard but the driving sleet and snow. Not an ear listened
to the approach of the two American columns, plodding on over icy
roads, while men actually froze to death on the march. Suddenly the
alarm rang out. Greene is in the town; three minutes more and
Sullivan's men, with a cheer, pour into the western side. The Hessian
drums beat to arms; quick as thought the well-drilled soldiers form
under the eye of Colonel Rahl. But he is hemmed in between the
Americans and Assanpink Creek, while a battery of six guns under
Washington's own eye opens on him. Rahl trains two guns to oppose
him, but Captain Washington and Lieutenant James Monroe are down
on the gunners, and though wounded in the charge, capture the pieces
when ready to fire.
Rahl drew his men out of the town and, forming them in an orchard,
420 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
resolves to make a desperate effort to regain Trenton. “Forward, all
who are grenadiers of mine,” he cries, and leads a fierce charge on
Washington's line. A rattling volley meets them ; Rahl falls mortally
Wounded : his men turn and retreat along the Princeton road; but
Hand's riflemen are in their front with their deadly weapons; other
troops are on their flank. Bewildered, lost, the Hessians throw
down their arms. The battle is over. Rahl, supported by sergeants,
approaches General Washington and delivers up his sword, then is
conveyed to his quarters to die.
Trenton was won. Two men frozen to death, two killed and a few
|- wounded, was all the Americans lost, to purchase a victory that gave
.
them a thousand prisoners, with their artillery, ammunition, wagons,
and arms.
Cadwallader had been unable to effect a crossing, so Washington,
unwilling to risk anything, retired again beyond the Delaware with
his prisoners and spoils.
This brilliant victory filled his army with confidence, and in propor-
"tion mortified the enemy. The British drew back from the Delaware
to Princeton. Cornwallis, about to return to England, was recalled to
resume his command in New Jersey, and watch the troublesome
American army.
On the 30th of December Washington took post at Trenton, where
he was immediately joined by Generals Cadwalader and Mifflin, each
with eighteen hundred Pennsylvania militia ; and Washington, by
promises of a bounty, induced the New England troops, whose time of
service would be up in a few days, to remain for six weeks. He pre-
pared to strike another blow, and formed his army for immediate action.
So ended the year 1776, the year of American independence.
THE UNITED STATES. 421
CHAPTER II.
£ampaign of 1777—The Operations in New Jersey—Cornwallis confronts Washington at Tren.
ton–Washington's masterly Movement on Princeton—The Battle of Princeton—Death of
General Mercer–British Attacks on Peekskill and Danbury—Death of General Wooster—
Meigs at Sag Harbor—Washington in Winter-quarters at Morristown—The glorious Stars and
Stripes—Movements of the Armies in New Jersey–The British evacuate the State—Lafay-
ette comes to America–Howe lands his Army at the Head of Chesapeake Bay.—Washington
meets him at Brandywine—A hard-fought Battle—Congress leaves Philadelphia—Howe
takes Possession of the City—Washington attacks the British at Germantown—A Victory
almost gained—Operations on the Delaware—The Battle of the Kegs—Washington in Win-
ter-quarters at Valley Forge—Burgoyne, from Canada, invades New York—Ticonderoga
lost—Schuyler and his Policy—Burgoyne begins to suffer from Want of Provisions—Defeat of
Baume and his Hessians at Bennington—General Stark—St. Leger sent to attack Fort Schuy-
ler—Battle of Oriskany-–Death of General Herkimer–Arnold relieves the Fort—Sad Fate
of Jane McCrea—Burgoyne defeated at Stillwater—Another Battle—Burgoyne attempts to
retreat—His Surrender—Clinton ascends the Hudson.
THE New Year opened strangely. The English officers, who had ex-
pected to pass a gay winter in comfortable quarters, with all the amuse-
ments in which army officers have so delighted, and which make them
so popular with the ladies, were roused to good hard work, marching
and fighting. The generals found that they had an enemy who was
watchful and untiring. Howe despatched Cornwallis at once to New
Jersey, to restore order, get the army in a strong position, and prevent
Washington from doing any further harm.
Cornwallis, getting his troops well in hand at Princeton, where he
overtook General Grant already on the march, pushed on to Trenton
with a considerable force, leaving three regiments at Princeton under
Colonel Mawhood. He was so much harassed by strong parties sent
out by Washington to impede his progress, and obstruct the roads, that
it was almost night when he finally reached Trenton, and came in view
422 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
of the American army. Washington's lines lay beyond the Assanpink,
in a strong position, well fortified, and as the British advanced, the
American skirmishers retired by the bridges and fords, which were all
well defended. The critical moment had come. The two armies were
face to face, but though Washington's force was made up chiefly of
militia, and men whose services would expire in a few days, Cornwallis
summoned up his remaining troops, to make sure of crushing the lit-
tle American army.
Within those lines whose fires he could see gleaming along the creek,
a council of war was held in the house of Miss Dagworthy. General
St. Clair proposed a bold manoeuvre, which all immediately adopted.
His plan was to leave the fires burning, and men enough at work to
keep up the appearance of occupation, while the army moved stealth-
ily down to Princeton to surprise Colonel Mawhood in Cornwallis's
I'ê3.I’.
The baggage was sent off to Burlington, and at midnight the march
began. Taking the Quaker-road through the woods, as safer, their pro-
gress was slow, as the road was still full of stumps. It was daylight be-
fore they came in sight of Princeton, and Mawhood was already on the
march to join Cornwallis with two regiments. Near the old Quaker
meeting-house, General Mercer, with the advance of Washington's
army, and Mawhood came in sight. A hill near at hand was at once
the object of both. Mercer soon held it, and as Mawhood came up
poured in volley after volley from the true rifles of his men; but Maw-
hood was full of pluck. He led a charge of bayonets before which
Mercer's men broke, leaving their general on the field. He surrendered,
but was beaten down and bayoneted with wolfish cruelty by the Hes-
sians.
THE UNITED STATES. 423
Washington rallied the fugitives, and with his artillery checked
Mawhood's pursuit. The British commander, however, charged bravely
again to capture Washington's guns, but was driven back to the hill,
from which the City Cavalry of Philadelphia, in a splendid charge, head-
ed by Washington himself, finally drove him. Mawhood, with one reg-
iment, then retreated towards Trenton ; his other regiments, after
a brief stand at the college-buildings, fled in disorder to New
Brunswick.
Cornwallis, completely deceived, and supposing Washington still be-
fore him, was roused from his mistake by the booming of cannon in his
rear. At once his camp was in motion. Forming his army, he march-
ed in all haste towards Princeton ; but Washington had destroyed the
bridges; so that before he could come up, Washington, after pursuing
the fugitive regiments of Mawhood's force, left the low country of Jer-
sey, in which these operations had been carried on, and striking to the
ranges of hills and mountains beyond, advanced to Morristown, where
he established his winter-quarters.
In this brilliant action, where all his men showed great resolution,
except the militia who deserted Mercer, Washington suffered slight
loss, except in officers, while the English loss in killed, wounded,
and missing, was nearly a thousand. Like the affair at Trenton,
this achievement filled the country with hope, and gave the American
commander a very great reputation in Europe as well as in
America.
One of the good effects of Washington's victories was the exchange
and release of a number of American prisoners who had been held at
New York. Their sufferings had been fearful beyond description. And
during the whole war, the treatment of the American prisoners was a
l
424 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
disgrace to England which can never be effaced. Churches, sugar-
houses, prisons, were crowded with the unfortunate captives: then pris-
on-ships were used ; harsh treatment, decayed food, want of proper ac-
commodations, and of all means for maintaining cleanliness, swept away
these patriots by thousands. The martyrs were buried near Trinity
Church, and at the Wallabout in Brooklyn, and they merit a higher
glory in the eyes of their countrymen than if they had died on the
field of battle. Such a death seems glorious to all, but it is over in a
moment, while the lingering death of the martyrs of the prisons and
prison-ships was prolonged by every device that malignant ingenuity
could devise. -
Howe lay inactive at New York, with his splendid army, awaiting
reinforcements. He sent out one expedition to destroy some stores at
Peekskill, and another to Danbury, Connecticut. The aged General
Wooster engaged the latter force with a handful of brave men, but
was mortally wounded. Arnold happened to be near, and he gathered
a small force, but was wounded and repulsed in an attack on the Eng-
lish, who accomplished their object.
To retaliate for this predatory warfare, Colonel Meigs crossed over
from Connecticut, and destroyed valuable English shipping and stores
at Sag Harbor.
About this time Washington raised on his camp at Morristown the
flag which had been formally adopted by Congress, with thirteen
stripes, alternately red and white, and a blue union with thirteen stars,
forming a new constellation—the glorious Stars and Stripes that have
for nearly a century waved over the land, and floated on every sea, and
under the skies of every clime. -
Washington had been busily organizing the troops which Congress
THE UNITED STATES. 425
had raised throughout the States. Those at the North were stationed
at Ticonderoga and Peekskill. Those of the Middle and some Southern
States were collected in New Jersey. He thus awaited Howe's move-
ments. Twenty-four thousand muskets from France came Seasonably
to hand, and toward the end of May, Washington advanced to Middle-
brook, near New Brunswick. Howe moved out, endeavoring to draw
him from his strong position, and failing in this, evacuated New Jersey,
and crossed over to Staten Island.
New Jersey had suffered terribly from the movements of the armies,
and the plundering of the English, and especially the Hessian troops.
Every county showed its pictures of desolation, its ruined homesteads,
its slaughtered people, women stripped of everything wandering in
the woods and mountains, houseless children, starving people.
While Washington was watching Howe, to see at what point he in-
tended to strike, ready to hasten to thwart it, he met one who was to
be closely associated with him throughout the war, the Marquis de
Lafayette. At a dinner given by some French officers to one of the
sons of George III., who happened to be in France, Lafayette heard
of the American struggle. Though told by an enemy, there was
enough to rouse the enthusiasm of the young and gallant officer. Leav-
ing his wife in France, he hastened to America to offer his services to
the new Republic. He asked no pay, and desired only active service.
His example found followers; de Kalb, Steuben, Kosciusko, Pulaski—
officers trained in the wars of Europe, came to give America their ex-
perience and discipline.
The summer wore away, and Howe's policy was still in doubt. At
last, in August, Washington ascertained that the British had entered -
the Chesapeake, and landed at the head of Elk River, evidently with a
426 A CHILD’s. HISTORY OF
view to march on Philadelphia. He advanced and took post along the
Brandywine, to contest the passage of the fords of that river, especially
Chadd's Ford, where his main army was drawn up, while General
Armstrong and the Pennsylvania militia formed his left wing, and Gen-
eral Sullivan, with Stephens and Stirling, held the upper ford on his right.
Howe moved upon him in two columns; that on the right, only as a
feint, moved on Chadd's Ford, while the left column, under Lord Corn-
wallis, moved up so as to cross the stream, and turn Washington's
right flank. A dense fog concealed his movements. This movement
was discovered late, and Sullivan moved down to attack Cornwallis.
His left was on the Brandywine; both flanks were protected by woods,
and his artillery well placed. As the day was declining, there was a
glitter over Osborne's Hill, and down swept the English force in three
columns. The cannon thundered along both lines, and the fiercest con-
flict yet seen in the war was soon raging. While the English came on
to the charge again and again, with desperate courage, they were steadily
hurled back from the American lines. For an hour they fought muzzle
to muzzle. At last Stephens' brigade wavers and falls back, Sullivan's
yields, but Lord Stirling and Conway hold their own against Cornwal-
lis's whole force. General Sullivan and Lafayette gallop up after en-
deavoring to bring the other troops again into action. Sullivan's aids
are killed by his side, Lafayette is wounded. Even they feel that they
must draw off the brave fellows or lose them. Washington had been
watching Knyphausen, expecting an attack at Chadd's Ford. Leaving
General Wayne to hold the Hessians in check, he hastened to support
Sullivan with all the force he could draw off under General Greene. He
met his gallant men in full retreat, and, opening to receive them, General
Greene formed his men in a strong position and kept Cornwallis at bay.
THE UNITED STATES. 427
Knyphausen at last attacked Wayne and Maxwell. For a time the
Americans here sustained the onset as bravely as men could wish, but
tidings came of the rout of the right wing. Then a retreat was or-
dered. It became a flight, for, abandoning artillery and stores, they
retreated to the rear of General Greene.
The battle of the Brandywine, fought to save Philadelphia, and fought
under great disadvantages, cost Washington nearly thirteen hundred
men in killed, wounded, and prisoners.
He fell back to Chester and Germantown. That he could save Phil-
adelphia was now clearly impossible. Congress removed from that
city all its stores and magazines, and prepared to hold its sessions
elsewhere. -
Howe, after sending the butcher Grey to surprise General Wayne
at Paoli, which he did with the blood-thirsty spirit of a tiger, occupied
Philadelphia, and proceeded to remove the obstructions with which the
Americans had studded the Delaware, and which would prevent the
fleet from coming up to Philadelphia. While his army was thus weak-
ened by detachments, Washington, who was at Skippack Creek, moved
on the 30th of October to attack the British forces at Germantown. A
column under Sullivan and Wayne, entering by the main street, was to
attack the British centre and left; another under Greene and Stephens,
marching down the Lime-kiln road, was to attack their right, while two
columns of militia turned their flanks. General Greene was unable to
arrive in time, so that Wayne attacked the British right before he came
up. Sullivan and Conway defeated the enemy's left, and drove it
steadily through the village ; and the enemy's right was utterly defeated
by Generals Wayne and Greene ; but the victorious army became con-
fused in the fog, so that parties fired into each other. The English
.428 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
colonel, Musgrave, who had occupied Chew's house in their rear, held
out, and the firing of cannon there gave the impression that the Eng-
lish had gained their rear just as General Grey came up to them in
front. A rapid retreat took place, but without disorder, Washington
retiring with all his artillery. The battle was a sanguinary One,
though productive of no decisive result, the loss on each side being
nearly a thousand. -
Washington then retired to Skippack Creek, and Howe, feeling that
he could not risk any more such engagements, drew all his forces into
the city of Philadelphia. The reduction of the forts below him on
the Delaware was his great object, but it was no easy matter.
Colonel Donop, with twelve hundred Hessians, was sent to attack the
Rhode Island Colonel Greene, at Red Bank, while five men-of-war
were to aid in the operation. So ably did Greene defend his post,
Fort Mercer, that the assailants, after a desperate conflict, retreated in
disorder, leaving their commander, Donop, mortally wounded, a prisoner
in the hands of the Americans, and losing nearly four hundred men.
The men-of-war fared as badly, two, the Augusta and Merlin, ground-
ed, and were set on fire and destroyed by the Americans.
Fort Mifflin, situated on Mud Island, a low reedy spot about seven
miles below Philadelphia, was next attacked. It had a garrison of
three hundred men, under Lieutenant-Colonel Smith of Baltimore.
There were guard-boats and galleys in the channel, and Washington
sent what relief he could spare.
On the 10th of November the English opened fire from batteries on
land and floating ones, as well as from the men-of-war. A perfect
storm of shells and balls rained on the devoted fort. Smith fell
dangerously wounded. Fleury, the engineer, was struck down ; the
THE UNITED STATES. 429
commander of the artillery was killed. The garrison was thinned by
the deadly fire. Towards midnight Major Thayer, the commander, set
the ruins on fire and retired to Fort Mercer.
Two days after, Cornwallis marched against that post, and as noth-
ing could be done to save it, the American forces withdrew.
The galleys and other vessels then endeavored to pass above Philadel-
phia. Some succeeded under cover of night, others were burned to
prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy.
The English were now complete masters of Philadelphia, and the
Delaware down to the sea. This result had been purchased at a serious
loss of men and time, and really was of little advantage, for Washington
was encamped at Whitemarsh, fourteen miles from Philadelphia, in a
strong position carefully fortified.
Howe felt that he could attempt no further operations till he brought
Washington to an action. To draw the American general from his
lines, he marched out of Philadelphia with his army on the night of
the 4th of December, every precaution having been taken to make the
movement a complete surprise on General Washington.
But the council of war had been held in the house of Lydia Darrah, a
Quakeress, whose patriotism, though not evinced, was true and deep.
Alarmed at this secret council of the British officers, she stole to the
door of the room were they were deliberating on the night of the
2d, and heard enough to see Washington's danger ; then crept back
to bed. When the council broke up, they rapped at her door that
she might let them out. She let them knock Some minutes, and then
came out as if roused from a deep sleep.
The next morning she asked leave to go to Frankford for flour for
her family, and having reached the mill she left her bag, and then
430 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
hastened on with all her might towards the American outposts, quiver-
ing in every limb with anxiety. At last she saw an American officer ap-
proaching. She begged him to dismount and walk with her. Panting
with her exertion she told him all she knew, and bade him hasten to Gen-
eral Washington, but not to betray her, as she was in the enemy's hands.
While, with a heart relieved and full of thankfulness, the good woman
plodded homeward, Colonel Craig galloped to the camp. Washington
at once prepared, and when Howe came up with his forces he found
the American lines manned, the artillery ready to open upon him, all
in fact ready to give him a warm reception. After a little skirmish-
ing he returned to Philadelphia, unable to explain how his plan got
wind. Lydia Darrah was not suspected, for, as one of the officers told
her, “I know you were asleep, for I knocked three times at your
door before I could rouse you.” And she very truthfully declared
that no other of her family was up that night.
Washington soon after broke up his encampment here, and fell
back with his exhausted army to Valley Forge, twenty miles from Phil-
adelphia, where he passed the winter with terrible privation and suf-
fering, which have made the camp famous as the darkest hour in the
struggle for American independence. His army reached Valley Forge
on the 19th of December, and at once began felling trees to build log
huts on the slopes where they were to encamp. Washington's head-
quarters were at the house of Mr. Potts, an old house still standing.
Around him on regular streets, like a little city, were the huts of the Con-
tinental soldiers. Howe, in Philadelphia, enjoyed comfortable quarters
and abundance of supplies. Washington, through the dilatory action
of Congress and the frauds of those who had undertaken to furnish
supplies, Saw. his army almost perish with hunger and cold. For want
|×
DEATH OF MONTGOMERY AT QUEBEC.

THE UNITED STATES. 431
of horses, the men had to yoke themselves to wagons. As winter ad-
vanced the suffering increased. For a week at a time the troops were
without any kind of flesh-meat, and the farmers around, disaffected
to the new government, refused to sell them grain or cattle. Sickness
broke out among them and numbers died. Never did a cause look
more gloomy, but Washington never despaired. Isaac Potts, in whose
house he lodged, once came upon the general's horse tied to a sapling,
and in a thicket near by he saw Washington on his knees in prayer,
his cheeks wet with tears. -
We turn now to the Northern department. After the disastrous
invasion of Canada, the scanty American, force, with a small body of
Canadians who had joined them, fell back to Ticonderoga and Crown
Point.
The English had meanwhile sent out German and English troops to
Canada, and a large army now occupied that province under General
Burgoyne. Canadians, with Indians and Tories from New York,
brought by the influence of the Johnson family, swelled his ranks.
He resolved to take the offensive and to sweep down to New York,
annihilating the American forces on his way, and thus crushing out the
rebellion in that colony.
Towards the latter part of June, 1777, he encamped near Crown
Point and there gave a war banquet to his Indians, addressing them
in a speech intended to inflame their zeal, although in words he enjoin-
ed on them humanity and all the usages of civilized men, denouncing
all scalping or murder of those not engaged in hostilities.
At the approach of the enemy, the Americans posted at Crown
Point retired to Ticonderoga; General St. Clair held that fort with
about two thousand half-armed men and boys. He was not aware
432 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
of the large force under Burgoyne, or its reinforcements. He at-
tempted to defend Ticonderoga, although he had not force enough to
man his lines.
Burgoyne took possession of Mount Hope and Mount Defiance,
planting batteries to command St. Clair's position. St. Clair by night
sent off his stores in batteaux to Whitehall, and then marched for the
same place. Burgoyne soon discovered the movement, although a fire
had been kept up on his works to mislead him. He overtook the
boats at Whitehall, and the Americans destroyed them, with the mills
and stores there, to prevent their falling into his hands. General
Frazer, with a force of Hessians and English, pursued St. Clair's rear,
and overtook them at Hubbarton in Vermont. The Americans, about
twelve hundred in number, under Colonels Seth Warner and Francis,
faced the enemy : but at the first volleys the militia fled, leaving seven
hundred men to bear the brunt. The battle raged furiously for some
time, and the Americans, though Colonel Francis was killed while
checking a retreat, held their ground till General Riedesel came dash-
ing up with his Hessians. Then the remnant of the American force
retreated to Rutland and Castleton, pursued by the Hessians. The
English had won the day, but at the cost of two hundred men killed
and wounded ; the American loss, including prisoners, being more than
three hundred : but the heaviest disaster was the loss of Ticonderoga,
a hundred and twenty-eight cannon, stores, and provisions.
At the same time Colonel St. Leger, with a force of English, Tories,
and Indians, was moving by way of Oswego on Fort Schuyler, now
Rome, where Colonel Gansevoort commanded a small garrison. To
relieve this place, a force assembled under brave old General Herki-
mer, but they were rash and disregarded his calm advice. While
A CHILD’s HISTORY. 435
*
pushing on towards the fort they were suddenly attacked by a party
in ambush, under command of Brant and Sir John Johnson. The
Americans were at first thrown into confusion as the Indians burst on
them from their coverts, with deadly volleys and yells of fury, but
they speedily recovered and ſought like veterans. Brave old Herki-
mer had his horse killed under him, by a ball which pierced his own
leg. But he made his men seat him on his saddle at the foot of a
large beech tree, and, lighting his pipe, he continued to give his orders
with the utmost composure till the enemy retreated. For nearly an
hour the woods resounded with the crack of rifles, the cheers of the
Americans, the yells of the Indians and Tories. Both fought with the
utmost desperation, most of the combatants being old friends and
neighbors, with scarcely a stranger among them. It was almost a
hand to hand fight, and was suspended only when a furious storm
came on. The British then drew off, but Herkimer formed his men in
a better position. He had seen the Indians rush on his men after firing,
and cut them down. Now he put two men at a tree, one to fire at a
time. When the British renewed the attack, and, after seeing the
flash of an American's rifle, rushed up to despatch him before he could
load again, they caught the rifle-ball or the hatchet of the second
American. So severely did the Indians suffer by this new style that
they drew off, and Major Watts rushed forward to the attack with his
Royal Greens, a Tory regiment raised in the valley. The sight of these
men stung the Americans to madness. As these traitors advanced,
the Americans poured in a deadly volley, then burst from their coverts
like so many furies, and attacked them with bayonets, knives, or with
the butts of their muskets. Amid this came the thunder of cannon
from the fort. Gansevoort was coming. The English, to deceive them,
436 A. CHILD’s HISTORY OF
sent a party with their coats turned ; the Americans were about to
open and receive them when the fraud was detected. So fierce was
the attack on his party, that they were all killed or driven back in
panic ; and the Indians, terrorstruck, fled with them. The sortie from
the fort, under Colonel Willett, completed the rout of St. Leger, who
lost all his camp equipage, clothing, stores, private papers and baggage,
with five British flags.
Yet St. Leger rallied his men and even sent an officer to demand
the surrender of the fort. It was indignantly refused ; and Colonel
Willett hastened in person to Albany for relief. General Arnold
marched to relieve the fort, and using a half crazy fellow named Hon
Yost Schuyler he filled St. Leger's Indians with such terrible ideas of
his immense force, that St. Leger's besieging force, to the great as-
tonishment of Colonel Gansevoort and his garrison, suddenly broke
up their encampment and fled in haste, leaving tents, artillery, and
baggage behind them.
Thus ended the siege of Fort Schuyler.
Brave General Herkimer was carried to his home, but his wound
proved fatal. He died a few days after, revered to this day in the val-
ley of the Oriskany, where he fought so nobly.
Burgoyne had now control of Lake Champlain and Lake George,
but his further progress was delayed by want of provisions. He ex-
pected to live off the country, but was soon disappointed. The
Americans had provisions stored at Bennington, in Vermont. That
State, with the rich pastures in the valleys of the Green Mountains,
abounded in horses, with which, too, he hoped to mount his dragoons.
A body of nearly five hundred men, Hessians, Tories, and Indians,
Sallied out from Fort Edward, under the command of Lieutenant-Colo-
THE UNITED STATES. 437
nel Baume, guided by Governor Skene. All was gay as a holiday ex-
cursion, but when tidings came that the Americans had mustered,
eighteen hundred strong, at Bennington to meet him, the matter began
to look serious. Still Baume felt himself strong enough, and he push-
ed on over the dusty road in the hot August Sun. At Wan Schaick's
Mill, near North Hoosick, he captured some flour, and was joined by
a few Tories, who increased his hopes of success.
John Stark, at the call of the General Court of New Hampshire,
left his farm to take command of the suddenly raised forces of the
State. On the 13th of August, hearing of the enemy's approach, he
sent out Colonel Gregg with two hundred men. As this party came
upon Baume's force it fell back till Stark came up, and formed his
men in line of battle ; Baume, seeing a considerable force thus check-
ing his advance, halted on a high ground overlooking a bend of the
Walloomscoick Creek. Stark, to draw him from this ground, as
well as to obtain reinforcements, fell back. Militia came pouring in.
The Rev. Mr. Allen of Pittsfield came at the head of his flock.
“General,” said he, “the people of Berkshire have often been summon-
ed to the field without being allowed to fight, and if you do not give
them a chance, they have resolved never to turn out again.” “Well,”
said Stark, “do you wish to march now while it is dark and raining?”
“No, not just this moment,” was the reply. “Then,” said the gene-
ral, “if the Lord shall once more give us sunshine and I do not give
you fighting enough, I’ll never ask you to come out again.”
During the night the rain ceased, the day dawned bright and clear,
and both prepared for action.
Stark sent two parties, one under Colonel Nichols, the other under
Colonel Herreck, to attack Baume's right and left wings from the rear.
438 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
About three o'clock, the rattle of musketry told that the attack had be-
gun. Then Stark, in front, sprang to his saddle, and gave the word,
“Forward.” On to the hill-top swept his main body, full in view of .
the advance of Baume's force, a Tory party intrenched just over the
river, while the Hessian intrenchment, now wreathed in Smoke, lay be-
yond. “See there, men,” cried Stark, “there are the red-coats. Be-
fore night they are ours, or Molly Stark will be a widow !” The mili-
tia answered with a shout that sent a thrill through every Tory heart,
as Stark swept down, and the battle began in earnest. The Tories
were driven from their intrenchment, and hurled back over the creek
into the Hessian lines. The Indian allies of the British, disliking the
look of affairs, fled with loud yells. Then the stubborn fight began.
Baume's troops fought desperately, keeping their columns unbroken,
till every charge of powder was gone. The Americans as bravely
charging upon them, regardless of their cannon and defenses. For a
time, the dragoons with their sabres endeavored to cut their Way
through, but at last were compelled to yield. Almost the whole party
surrendered as prisoners of War.
Burgoyne, in his first instructions, had directed Baume to sweep
through Vermont, and join him at Albany, bringing horses by the
thousand. But Baume's letters led him to think there might be a little
trouble, so he sent Lieutenant-Colonel Breyman, to reinforce him. Just
as Stark, having secured his prisoners, was going to let his men plunder
the camp of the vanquished, Breyman came upon the field. Stark re-
called his men, and with Colonel Seth Warner, who came up with fresh
troops, renewed the battle with the fresh foe. Both sides fought des-
perately, as long as daylight lasted. Then Breyman retreated to:
wards Saratoga, pursued by the Americans.
THE UNITED STATES. 439
With a loss of thirty killed and forty wounded, Stark had captured
seven hundred and fifty prisoners, four cannon, ammunition-wagons,
muskets, and killed more than two hundred of the enemy.
This deprived Burgoyne of a thousand men, and, with St. Leger's
defeat, disheartened the Tories and Indians. America was filled with
exultation. Stark, who had been so ill treated by Congress that he had
left the army, was made a brigadier-general without the asking, and a
new spirit was aroused in all.
Disappointed in his hopes of drawing relief from Vermont, or the
Mohawk valley, Burgoyne saw no alternative but to push on. Yet,
before him was a really great general ; not a showy, noisy man, but one
clear of head, cool, careful, and practical. General Schuyler had col-
lected the militia, and, while risking skirmishes, avoided a battle with
Burgoyne's veterans, delaying his progress by destroying bridges, cut-
ting up the roads, digging pit-falls, and creating every obstacle that in-
genuity could devise. On the 13th and 14th of September, Burgoyne
reached the plain of Saratoga, and encamped within nine miles of
Schuyler's camp at Stillwater. Towards this Burgoyne advanced cau-
tiously; Arnold, who was sent out with fifteen hundred men, failing to
check his advance.
On the 19th of September, Burgoyne made his first attack on the
American lines, where Schuyler, sacrificed to the clamors of a few, had
been succeeded by General Gates. The Americans lay around Bemis’
tavern, their line well defended by breastworks and redoubts. Gener-
al Gates commanded the right in person, between the river and the
high ground, while General Arnold held the height with his left. Be-
tween the armies were two deep ravines closely wooded. Burgoyne's
force moved through these obstacles to the attack. Down on his right
440 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
came Morgan's rifles, and General Arnold in support: but as Gates
would not send reinforcements, they were unable to turn General Fra-
zer's flank.
Arnold, ever ready in resource and boldness, marched across under
cover of the woods, and suddenly burst down like a torrent on Burgoyne's
centre. His left and right wings dared not leave their positions to aid
their commander, and though General Phillips and General Riedesel
did come up, the battle lasted furiously for four hours, until darkness
put an end to the action. Then the Americans drew off, and the Eng-
lish remained in possession of the field, having lost about six hundred
killed and wounded out of thirty-five hundred. The American loss
was much less.
Yet Burgoyne had not reached, much less attacked, the American
lines; his provisions were nearly exhausted ; he heard nothing of Sir
Henry Clinton, who was to have co-operated with him from New York;
a retreat to Canada was almost impossible. Every day skirmishing was
kept up, weakening his men, while it gave courage and experience to
the American troops, whose numbers were constantly increasing. In
vain Burgoyne despatched messengers to Sir Henry Clinton ; in vain
he looked with anxious eyes for the expected relief.
On the 7th of October, receiving no information, he resolved to make
an attack on the American left. Phillips, Riedesel, and Frazer moved
out in gallant style, with the Indians and Tories on their left. Again
Morgan began the battle, and the Americans attacked Burgoyne's line
simultaneously on both flanks and in the centre. Burgoyne ordered up
fresh troops to cover the retreat, which he now saw to be inevitable.
It was too late. The grenadiers and Germans, under Ackland and
Riedesel, on the low ridge, had already given way before the onset of
THE UNITED STATES. 441
the men of New Hampshire, New York, and Connecticut. The gallant
General Frazer, bringing up the Twenty-fourth to cover their retreat,
was killed by a ball from a tree, sent by Morgan's deadly rifles. In-
stead of menacing Gates' lines, Burgoyne began to fear for his own.
Back he hastened, leaving six cannon on the field, which was strewn
with his dead and wounded.
Well might he fear, for Arnold, who had headed his men in the des-
perate attack on Burgoyne's centre and left, was determined to
strike a blow to show how unjustly Gates had treated him. Encourag-
ing his men to the wildest enthusiasm, he pushed on to the enemy's
line, and when Patterson's brigade, caught in an abattis, was driven
back, he led up Jackson's regiment and furiously attacked Lord Bal-
carras in his intrenchment, and, failing to carry it, stormed and held
the part of Burgoyne's intrenchment held by Colonel Breyman—Ar-
nold's horse being killed under him just as he was entering the works,
by a ball which fractured the general's leg.
During the night Burgoyne abandoned his lines, and fell back to a
new position. His retreat had begun, his doom was sealed; Gates
sent off detachments to cut off his retreat, by demolishing bridges and
impeding the roads.
Burgoyne halted at Fish Creek and called a council of war. There
was no alternative. On the 16th of October a convention was signed,
by which this once formidable army capitulated to General Gates.
Two lieutenant-generals, two major-generals, three brigadier-generals,
a long line of inferior officers and men, making up five thousand seven
hundred and sixty-three men, with all their artillery, arms, and
ammunitions, were surrendered on the plains of Saratoga.
The English forces left in Ticonderoga and Crown Point, retired in
442 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
all haste to Canada. The citizen soldiers, gathered to meet this well-
appointed army, in spite of the pompous proclamations of its general
menacing them with all the terrors of war, beheld regiment after regi-
ment file out and lay down their arms, after a series of engagements
in which the boasted superiority of English regulars had been proved
a delusion. -
Burgoyne had waited in vain for a movement from New York under
Clinton. That general had not been utterly remiss. But all these
British generals were beginning to find that America was a large
country, and that to hold much territory, required very large armies.
When Clinton should have moved from New York up the Hudson
River, he found that he had not men enough to do so safely, and leave
a force to hold New York. Every day he looked anxiously seaward
for ships with fresh troops from England. There, as usual, delays took
place, and it was not till October that Clinton could begin his cam-
paign. On the Highlands, on the western bank of the beautiful Hud-
son, about fifty miles above New York, the Americans had planted Fort
Clinton and Fort Montgomery, to prevent the enemy from passing up.
Under the guns of the fort a boom was stretched across the river,
with an immense iron chain in front, and a heavy wood-work called a
chevaux-de-frise sunk behind it. Above this again lay a frigate and
Some galleys, to prevent any attempt to force a passage. Below, on
the opposite site, frowned Fort Independence. General Putnam had
his head-quarters at Peekskill, just below, and with a force of two
thousand men commanded the river.
Clinton sailed up with three thousand men in the ships of war un-
der Commodore Hotham, and landed near Peekskill. Putnam fell
back to the heights in the rear of Peekskill, calling on Governor
TIIE UNITED STATES. 443
Clinton for reinforcements, and utterly neglecting to strengthen his
forts. Clinton, leaving part of his force to amuse the old general,
threw his army across to Stony Point, and at once marched around
behind the Dunderberg mountain to attack Fort Clinton and Fort
Montgomery. He had nearly reached them before he was discovered.
Parties which had been sent out were met and driven in by the
British columns, which now moved simultaneously on the two forts.
The little parties of Americans under Bruyn, McClaghrey, Fenno,
fought desperately but in vain ; in vain did the little garrisons of the
forts keep up a cannonade and musketry fire from their works. They
were too few. Sir Henry Clinton advanced on Fort Clinton through a
long abattis, and under a severe fire. At his word, his men, with fixed
bayonets, without firing a shot, charged and carried the works. So too,
at Fort Montgomery, Lord Rawdon led on his grenadiers to the
charge, and though Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell fell at the head of
his division, they too, carried the works before them.
The English fleet was in the river, to aid if necessary, but by a
single blow, the elaborate American defenses were swept away. The
fleet destroyed the boom and chain ; the American vessels endeavored
to escape up the river, but, failing, were set on fire. The other forts
were abandoned, and to heighten the panic and dismay, the English
wantonly destroyed Continental Village and Esopus. The victory
was complete. The British were masters of the Hudson.
In the action at the forts, the Americans lost about two hundred
and fifty men, but the English did not secure many prisoners, as most
of the garrisons escaped when the enemy entered the works. Had
Clinton at once sailed up with his force and occupied Albany, the victory
at Saratoga would have been useless, but he returned to New York.
444 * A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Genera. Burgoyne was received with great courtesy by General
Schuyler, whose beautiful house he had recently destroyed. Struck
with Schuyler's generosity the British general said: “You show me
great kindness, though I have done you much injury.” “That was
the fate of war,” nobly replied Schuyler, “let us say no more about it.”
Burgoyne's troops were marched to Boston to be sent to England,
but troubles arose and they were removed to Virginia, and there de-
tained as prisoners till they were formally exchanged. Gates, instead
of reporting his victory to Washington, as his Commander-in-chief, dis-
patched an officer to Congress. A vote of thanks was passed to him
and his army, and a medal was struck to commemorate his success.
Among the incidents connected with Burgoyne's campaign is the
fate of Jane McCrea, which excited universal commiseration. This
beautiful young lady was the daughter of a Presbyterian clergyman
at Jersey City, but on the death of her father there, went to reside
with her brother near Fort Edward. Here her affections were won
by a young man named David Jones, who sided with the English Gov-
ernment, and, proceeding to Canada, became a lieutenant in the divis-
ion of Burgoyne's army commanded by the brave General Frazer.
As the English army approached Fort Edward young McCrea prepared
to retire to Albany, for he was a staunch Whig : but Jenny, with her
Tory lover and many Tory friends, felt no alarm, and lingered with
some friends, though her brother sent for her. She at last promised
to join him next day. That morning some Indians stealthily approach-
ed the house. All fled to the cellar, but the Indians, dashing in, seized
Mrs. McNeil and Jenny, and dragged them off towards Burgoyne's
camp. A negro boy, seeing this, ran to Fort Edward to give the
alarm ; a party was sent out, which fired on the Indians, but they
º


THE UNITED STATES. 445
escaped. When the pursuit ceased, the Indians stripped Mrs. McNeil
to her chemise and led her to the camp, where she almost immediately
met General Frazer, who was related to her. While reproaching him
with sending Indians to attack innocent settlers, the other Indians
came up, and to her horror she beheld Jane McCrea's scalp dangling
from the belt of one. She charged him with having massacred her
young friend, but the Indians denied it.
As it was long currently reported and believed, the Indians them-
selves quarreled about her at the pine-tree long pointed out to travelers,
and finally murdered her, carrying off her scalp. They pretended that
she was slain by a ball from the American party, but in such a case
an Indian would scarcely carry off in triumph her scalp. Burgoyne
summoned the Indians to council, and demanded the surrender of the
man who bore off the scalp, to be punished as a murderer; but he
finally pardoned him for fear of losing all his Indians.
Young Jones, horrified at this picture of war, and heart-broken,
wished to throw up his commission, but was not permitted to do so.
He purchased the scalp of his betrothed, and, with his brother, desert-
ed from the English army soon after, and retired to Canada. There he
lived many years, keeping up in sorrow and solitude the anniversary
of the death of the beautiful Jane McCrea.
During all the period from the Declaration of Independence, and
virtually before that act, the Continental Congress had governed the
country, but without any definite understanding with the States, or
document stating its powers. Wise men had been devising plans for
this general government. In November, 1777, Articles of Confeder-
ation were adopted, and submitted to the States for their ratification.
These Articles of Confederation should be known. Under them,
446 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
each State was to have not less than two nor more than four members
in Congress; the delegates from each State having together one vote
in all deliberations: and these delegates were paid by the State
which they represented.
This Congress had the sole right of determining peace and war,
sending and receiving ambassadors, treating with foreign countries,
establishing a post-office, coining money. They had the right to make
requisitions on the States for their quota of troops; and to appoint all
army officers except regimental ones, and all navy officers.
When Congress was not in session, a committee of the States, consist-
ing of one delegate from each, controlled the affairs of government.
Congress elected a president, who could not serve more than one year
in three.
The Union was declared perpetual, and no alteration was to be made
in any State unless agreed to in Congress, and confirmed by the legisla-
ture of every State. No two or more States were to make any treaty,
confederation, or union among themselves, without consent of Congress.
These articles were now submitted to the States. -
We will close the history of this eventful year by an account of a
curious panic which occurred among the British troops in Philadelphia.
David Bushnell, of Connecticut, anxious like many of the patriots to rid
his country of the British fleet in the Delaware, turned his ingenuity to
the invention of a torpedo to effect this desirable object. He made kegs
of powder to float down the stream, so arranged, by machinery, that on
striking any hard substance, they would explode. He sent several
down, but unfortunately, that very night, the English ships were hauled
into docks to avoid the ice ; but one of the kegs, meeting some obstacle,
exploded. It filled all Philadelphia with alarm. For several days the
THE UNITED STATES. 447
English soldiers and sailors watched the river with the most unwinking
gaze. Everything that could excite suspicion was fired at. It so hap-
pened that a sudden rise of the river, occasioned by a thaw, flooded a
cooper's yard above the city, and down the river went the casks, bob-
bing up and down. As this fleet was descried by a sentinel, he fired
an alarm gun. Down to the docks poured the soldiers, who, seeing so
many kegs, supposed them all Bushnell torpedoes sent down for their
destruction. A fire was opened on them from every dock and ship,
and kept up vigorously till the tide had borne them all down, or they
had been so riddled that they sank.
#
“The cannons roar from shore to shore.
The small arms loud did rattle;
Since wars began I’m sure no man
E’er saw so strange a battle.
The rebel dales, the rebel vales
With rebel trees surrounded,
The distant woods, the hills and floods
With rebel echoes sounded:”
sung Francis Hopkinson in his ballad “The Battle of the Kegs,” written
on the occasion, and long immensely popular.
In March, 1776, Congress despatched Silas Deane, a commercial and
political agent, to France, and at a later day sent commissioners to other
countries of Europe, from whom aid might be expected. From France
especially, an alliance was hoped ; the supplies of arms indirectly given,
the accession of a nobleman so illustrious as the Marquis de Lafayette,
and the unconcealed friendship manifested by the French ministry, all
filled America with hopes of direct aid, and especially with the hope
that France would acknowledge the independence of the United States,
setting an example that other countries would readily follow.
448 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
But though Dr. Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee, as commis-
sioners, met Vergennes in December, 1776, they could not induce
the French government to take a step which must bring on a war with
England.
America offered her a share in the cod fisheries, excluding all other
nations, half of Newfoundland, and any islands in the West Indies that
might be reduced, but still France hesitated, although she continued to
aid the United States through a fictitious mercantile house in the
West Indies.
When the reverses of war made the American cause look less hope-
ful, France was still less inclined to act rashly.
The surrender of Burgoyne gave a new aspect to affairs. Although
Washington, on whom great hopes were founded, had as yet achieved
no striking success, this victory of the northern army excited universal
astonishment. England began to hope that the United States, disgusted
with French delay, would accept terms which England might honorably
offer; while Louis XVI. felt that he must now act, if at all.
Lord North introduced into Parliament conciliatory bills about tax-
ing the colonies; allowing the colonies themselves to apply the proceeds
of the tax, as though America would, for a moment, entertain any
such proposals.
On the 16th of December, Gerard, secretary to the French Council of
State, informed the American Commissioners that, after a long and ma-
ture deliberation, his majesty had determined to recognize the independ-
ence of, and to enter into a treaty of commerce and alliance with, the
United States of America; and that he would not only acknowledge
their independence, but actually support it with all the means in his
power.



THE OLD REDGE sºlº)0L.
McMENAMY HESS & MACDAVIII.

Tøj

HANNAH ERWIN ISRA SAVING THE CATTLE.


A CHILD’s HISTORY. 451
France saw that if North, coming at last to understand the real state
of the case, acknowledged the independence of the United States, and
formed an alliance with her late colonies, France would be exposed to
great danger. Her interest was to prevent any such alliance, and thus
pursue the friendly course she had hitherto adopted.
Thus closed the year 1777, full of fresh hopes for American freedom,
although this cheering intelligence did not for some months reach her
shores. -
We have seen how one Pennsylvania woman, Lydia Darrah,
served her country, while the English occupied Philadelphia. Another,
Hannah Erwin Israel, showed undaunted courage.
Soon after the fall of the city, the British seized her husband and
brother on the information of Tory neighbors, who reported that Mr.
Israel had declared openly that he would sooner drive his cattle as a
present to General Washington, than receive thousands of dollars in
British gold for them. &
The two prisoners were conveyed on board the Roebuck frigate,
lying in the Delaware, and orders were at once given to dispatch a
Squad of soldiers to drive off and slaughter all Mr. Israel's cattle,
which were then in full sight, grazing in the meadows.
Mrs. Israel, a young and beautiful woman, only nineteen years of
age, slight in person, and retiring in disposition, was roused by the
Wrongs of her country and her own. She was on the lookout, gazing
towards the vessel in which those dear to her were confined, when she
Saw boats push towards the land, full of soldiers. In a moment she
divined their purpose, and resolved to baffle it. Taking a boy eight
years old, she started for the meadow, and began to drive the cattle
towards the barnyard, some distance back, where she knew the sol-
452 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
diers would not dare to venture, for fear of being surrounded by the
farmerS. Befº she got the herd well started, the soldiers reached
the field, and called on her to stop, threatening to fire.
“Fire away !” cried the heroic woman, and the volley rattled around
her, but providentially missing her, while it startled the cattle so that
they dashed madly off.
Little Joe fell to the ground in terror, but Mrs. Israel, catching him
up, ran on, and putting up the bars secured her cattle, leaving the Sol-
diers to return empty-handed.
CHAPTER III.
Campaign of 1778—Alliance with France—North's Bills of Conciliation—Their Rejection—
British Cruelty—Battle of Monmouth—Conduct of General Lee—Arrival of Admiral d'Es-
taing's Fleet—Operations in Rhode Island—D'Estaing engages the British and sails off—
Retreat of Sullivan–Savage Cruelty of the English—Massacre at Wyoming—Massacre at
Paoli—At Little Egg Harbor—The English capture Savannah—Clarke reduces Illinois.
ON the 6th of February, 1778, a treaty of commerce between France
and the United States of America was signed by Franklin, Deane,
and Lee, representing the United States of America, and Gerard, rep-
resenting the French Government; a treaty of defensive alliance was
also signed, in case England should declare war against France for thus
recognizing her colonies. France agreed to maintain the liberty, sov-
ereignty, and independence, absolute and unlimited, of the United States,
as Well in matters of government as of commerce.
America thus took her place among the powers of the earth, by the
acknowledgment of one of the greatest powers of Europe.
THE UNITED STATEs. 453
In March, France communicated to England the commercial treaty.
By April, North's conciliatory bills reached America and were widely
scattered. They were sent to Washington, who laid them before Con-
gress, urging that nothing short of independence should be thought of
for a moment. Congress did not delay to express the opinion of the
country. On the 22d of April, less than a month after the bills reached
America, Congress unanimously resolved that the offers of the British
ministry could not be accepted.
How could they, indeed 2 Never had the British shown, on Ameri-
can soil, more bitter hatred, or more unrelenting and merciless cruelty.
Washington and his little army lay at Valley Forge, enduring priva-
tions that make us shudder to read, while the English in Philadelphia
received plentiful supplies from the farmers who thought less of patriot-
ism than of a good market. At last Washington sent General Wayne
into New Jersey, to obtain provisions and horses. One of Wayne's
parties was surprised at Quentin's Bridge, and many killed on the spot,
others driven into a creek and left to drown, while many, after surren-
dering, were bayoneted without mercy. The people of New Jersey,
regarding the whole affair more as a murder than warfare, have always
called it the massacre at Quentin's Bridge. Another party was surpris-
ed by night at Hancock's Bridge, and bayoneted in their beds, with the
citizens of the place, no resistance being made, and no quarter given. In
the little battle at Crooked Billet, where General Lacey, though sur-
prised, gallantly drew off his men, with merely the loss of his baggage,
the British soldiers not only bayoneted and hacked the wounded, but ,
actually gathered buckwheat straw around them, and set them on fire,
as they lay, too weak to try to extinguish the flames. The cruelties of
the Indians at Coble's Hill, in Schoharie county, where Brant began
454 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
his work of blood, do not exceed in Savage ferocity those of the civil-
ized soldiers of the English army.
| Such were the acts of the men who now offered what they called Con-
ciliation Bills.
Ten days after Congress rejected the insidious proposals, news reach-
ed Congress of the final step taken by France. The treaties were im-
mediately ratified, and the news, as it spread through the country, was
received with the wildest enthusiasm. Louis XVI., and his minister
Wergennes, were now regarded with an affection and respect that
George III. and his ministers had so utterly failed to obtain.
Valley Forge put on a garb of joy. The event was celebrated with
appropriate religious ceremonies, and the day closed with an entertain-
ment, enlivened by music and patriotic toasts.
Congress, in an address to the people, warned them against the in-
sidious offers of England, and roused their patriotism to new efforts
and new sacrifices, worthy of the admiration of Europe, which would
now watch them with a deeper interest than ever. In June, the Earl
of Carlisle, with Eden and Johnstone, the English Commissioners, ar-
rived, and sent their proposals to Congress. Its reply was prompt and
firm. “The acts of the British Parliament, the commission from your
sovereign, and your letter, suppose the people of these States to be
subjects of the crown of Great Britain, and are founded on the idea
of a dependence which is utterly inadmissible. -
“Congress are inclined to peace, notwithstanding the unjust claims
from which this war originated, and the savage manner in which it has
been conducted. They will, therefore, be ready to enter upon the con-
sideration of a treaty of peace and commerce, not inconsistent with
treaties already subsisting, when the King of Great Britain shall dem-
THE UNITED STATES. 455
onstrate a sincere disposition for that purpose.” The baffled and dis-
appointed commissioners, after endeavoring to buy some of the patriots,
returned to England.
According to one of the actors in the Revolution, Johnstone, in an
interview with Mrs. Ferguson, of Philadelphia, desired her to mention
to Joseph Reed, a member of the Continental Congress, that if he
would promote the object of their commission, he might have any office
in the colonies in the gift of his Britannic Majesty, and ten thousand
pounds in hand. Spurning the idea, Reed told Mrs. Ferguson that he
was not worth purchasing, but such as he was, the King of England
was not rich enough to do it.
The alliance between the United States and France might result at
any moment in a war between England and the French king. If a
French fleet blockaded the Delaware, the English army at Philadel-
phia would be captured as certainly as Burgoyne's had been.
Sir Henry Clinton succeeded Howe, at Philadelphia. All the mer-
rymakings, festivities, mischianzas, and tournaments, with which the
British officers had amused themselves and their Tory friends in that
city, ceased. Anxiety became general.
Clinton resolved to retreat across New Jersey to New York, but
kept his own counsels wisely, endeavoring to mislead Washington as
to his plans. Unfortunately, General Ilee, next in command to Wash-
ington, and long jealous of his chief, had, while a prisoner in the hands
of the British, betrayed the cause of America, by recommending
plans for its subjugation. He now continued the same treacherous
course by thwarting Washington's plans. The American commander
had at once divined Clinton's design, and proposed crossing at once
into Jersey to prevent it. Lee argued against it, and so plausibly, that
456 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
most of the generals sided with him. However, Washington began to
interrupt and break up the roads that Clinton must take. At last,
the English general's course was seen. He sent off in ships, the pro-
vision-trains, heavy baggage, German troops, and loyalists.
A little before dawn, on the 18th of June, the British army left Phil-
* - . . . .
adelphia, and commenced crossing the Delaware river at Gloucester
Point, three miles below. Steadily the boats plied to and fro, the
muskets glittering in the sunlight, as detachment after detachment
landed. By ten o'clock, Pennsylvania, to her joy, beheld the last of
her oppressors reach the Jersey shore. In a few hours Clinton was
encamped at Haddonfield with his force, and an immense baggage train
stretching for miles.
Washington's forecast was justified. Although he had yielded to the
opinion of his generals, he made every preparation for a rapid move-
ment. Everything was ready. Eager for action, Wayne and Greene
moved out of Valley Forge, and crossed the Delaware at Coryell's
Ferry. Morgan, with his rifles, hastened on to reinforce Maxwell, who,
with the sturdy Jersey militia, was disputing the road with Clinton, of.
ten compelling him to halt, and draw up in line.
Again Washington held a council of war. Lee earnestly opposed
attacking the enemy, and again his influence prevailed. Clinton was
pushing on to New Brunswick, his long line of troops and baggage-
wagons stretching out for twelve miles, halting to build bridges and
repair the roadways.
His first object was the Raritan, but Washington was in his path;
so he struck towards Sandy Hook, by way of Monmouth.
In spite of the decision of a new council of war, Washington
resolved on a general engagement. As Lee opposed it, he gave
THE UNITED STATES. 457
Lafayette command of the advance: but Lee, soliciting the post,
obtained it.
Clinton saw before him the Heights of Middletown. Gain this and
he could defy Washington. On the night of Saturday, June 27, the
American commander ordered Lee to attack Clinton as soon as he
moved, and thus prevent his gaining the heights; he was instructed
to send out parties to watch the enemy's movements. Success depend-
ed on celerity and vigilance, Lee showed neither.
Before he moved, Dickinson's New Jersey militia engaged the en-
emy, and reported to Washington. Again the aides-de-camp dashed
down with orders to Lee, and Washington put his army in motion; the
men prepared for hot work under the broiling sun, throwing off their
packs and coats. -
While Lee lay idle, or pushed on uncertainly, Clinton, sending Knyp-
hausen ahead with the baggage, came down from the high ground on
which he had encamped, and, to cover the baggage, attacked Wayne,
who had advanced upon him. He prepared also for a general attack
on Lee. That officer now found himself confronted by the best English
troops, and, to the disgust of his men, ordered a retreat. This was
done in great confusion and indignation, no one knowing why or
Whither.
Washington, pressing on, with his men full of ardor, came on retreat-
ing soldiers. Unable to believe their story, he threatened to have
them whipped. He soon found it too true. He rode forward in a fury
of passion never before witnessed. He halted the troops as they came
up and formed them in line for action. At last, Lee rode up, and
Washington demanded the meaning of his conduct. Quick, furious
words passed.
458 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Washington formed his advance again, and asked Lee whether he
would retain command or not. “Your orders shall be obeyed,” said
Lee ; “I shall not be the first to leave the ground.”
Clinton, having driven in Lee, called back all the troops he could.
Then the battle began. Lee endeavored now gallantly to hold his
ground ; but under a terrible cannonade the English moved steadily
on. The Americans, after a stubborn fight, gave way; a stand was
made ata hedgerow, and the American artillery sweeps their line. But
the cavalry and a bayonet charge again break the Americans. Here
a woman roused the patriots to still greater exertion. Mary Pitcher
had accompanied her husband into action. He fell beside his cannon,
killed by one of the enemy's balls. It was about to be abandoned,
when Mary, who had come up with a pail of water for her husband,
saw him dead. She seized the rammer and vowed to avenge his death.
She handled her cannon all day with skill and courage, which won her
a sergeantcy and half-pay for life. But no effort could hold the posi-
tion. Lee fell back on the main army, and Washington formed in a
woody height, Stirling on his left and Greene on his right. Wayne,
posted in an orchard on a height behind a barn, met the first onset of
the British veterans, as he had done in the morning. On came the
grenadiers under Monckton, but, as they crossed the hedge, Wayne's
deadly fire sent them back. Then Monckton roused his men for a
bold decisive charge, and Wayne, telling his men to pick the officers,
lay as silent as the foe who came so gallantly on. At last the sheet of
fire bursts forth ; Monckton is down, every officer is down, but the
grenadiers rally around their commander. A furious struggle ensues;
but the grenadiers are hurled back, and Monckton is borne to the rear
of the American line to die.
THE UNITED STATES. 459
Clinton's attack in all points failed. He threw his main body on
Lord Stirling, but the American left stood like a rock, and Clinton,
shattered by the artillery, fell back ; then he formed again and moved
upon the American right. There Greene met him manfully, and du
Plessis Mauduit with his artillery took him in the flank, so that Clinton
gave up and fell back to a strong position, with Woods and morasses on
his flank and a narrow pass in front. Washington prepared to attack
him, but night came on, and during the darkness Clinton stole rapidly
away, leaving his wounded on the field, and hurried on to Sandy
Hook.
With his men overcome by heat and exertion, Washington deem-
ed it unwise to pursue the enemy and risk another action. Lee had
deprived him of the opportunity of capturing the whole British force.
While the British ships bore Clinton's well-beaten force to New
York, Washington marched northward, and, crossing the Hudson, en-
camped at White Plains. &
Such was the hard-fought battle of Monmouth, on one of the hottest
summer days, where men dropped dead from heat alone.
Lee demanded a trial, and was found guilty of misbehavior before
the enemy, and disrespect to his Commander-in-chief. In consequence
he was suspended from his command for a year, and never rejoined
the army.
Clinton had moved none too soon. Early in July, at the very time
that he reached New York, a fine French fleet, commanded by the
Count d'Estaing, appeared off the coast of Virginia. He had sailed
from Toulon in April, intending to prevent the English from escaping
out of Philadelphia. Contrary winds had delayed him. Finding that
the bird had flown, he sailed at once to Sandy Hook. Here, none but
460 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
ish fleet lay inside, and that the bar was dangerous. Lord Howe
drew up his little fleet inside Sandy Hook, and gathered all the ves-
sels he could find in the bay so as to give the appearance of a large
fleet, and d'Estaing, completely outwitted, sailed off.
The next operation was the reduction of Rhode Island, in which
d'Estaing, by sea, and General Sullivan, with a detachment from Gene-
ral Washington's army, were to co-operate. D'Estaing with his fleet
occupied all the channels, but Sullivan had been delayed. On the 9th
of August, while fretting at this loss of time, sails were seen in the
horizon, and ere long, Howe's fleet, which had received a considerable
reinforcement, appeared in sight. The impatient French admiral,
though Sullivan was just ready to begin the operations, and the Eng-
lish garrison, under General Pigot, was a certain prize, sailed out to
meet Lord Howe. A great deal of manoeuvring followed, and before
they could come to action a violent storm came on which dispersed
both fleets. Howe sailed back to New York and d'Estaing to New-
port, both with fleets in a shattered condition. Sullivan had already
begun the siege, but the storm did great damage to his tents, arms,
and ammunition. When d'Estaing returned he was ready to attack
the English lines, but to his dismay the French admiral announced his
intention of proceeding to Boston. In vain General Greene and
General Lafayette endeavored to alter his determination, but all was
fruitless. He sailed off, and his conduct excited general indignation.
Sullivan, deserted by the fleet, had to abandon the siege and commence
a retreat. Pigot pursued him, and a very hard-fought battle ensued
at Quaker Hill, in which the loss was severe on both sides. Sullivan at
last repulsed his assailants, and was thus enabled to reach the main-land
THE UNITED STATES. 461
just before Clinton arrived with four thousand men and a light fleet to
the relief of Newport. Finding that Sullivan had escaped him, Clin-
ton sent Grey with the fleet to ravage the coast; and in carrying out
the Savage order, this man of blood, as he had already shown himself,
destroyed all the shipping in Acushnet River, burned Bedford and
Fairhaven, and committed great ravages in Martha's Vineyard.
Washington, with the prudence and moderation which were so char-
acteristic of him, did all in his power to smooth over the disagreement
at Newport, and calm the general resentment. It was all the more ne-
cessary, as Gerard had just arrived as Minister Plenipotentiary from
the French King, the first ambassador to the new republic.
And now ensued a series of bloody tragedies, far different from the
battle-fields, where disciplined armies meet according to the usages of
War between civilized nations. Indian massacres and massacres that ri-
valed those of the furious savage, were now to leave an ineffaceable
stigma on the British name.
Wyoming, in the valley of the Susquehanna, was a spot whose beau-
ties have been written in prose and verse, so that its name is familiar
to all. Its fertile soil, its rich beauty, its adaptation to every want,
had drawn to its bosom a band of industrious settlers, and nowhere in
the land were there a finer set of American yeomen. As the Indians
had shown some hostility, forts were thrown up, and in August, 1776,
Congress ordered two companies to be raised for the defense of the
valley. In 1778, tidings came of a British expedition intended to lay
waste this beautiful tract. The people called in vain on Congress and
Connecticut, to which State they were still reckoned to belong. Con-
gress did at last make an effort, but so ill-managed that it was useless.
On the morning of the 30th of June, 1778, Colonel John Butler, with
462 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
four hundred Tories and six hundred Indians, chiefly Senecas, under
Grengwatoh, entered the head of the valley and posted themselves in
ambush.
The river was lined on both sides with little forts, to which the peo-
ple retreated for safety. From Fort Jenkins, the first of these, is-
sued forth this joyous morning seven men and a boy to their daily
toil, utterly unsuspicious of danger.
Towards evening the work of death begun; the little party were sur-
rounded, but bravely defended their lives; all were killed or taken
but the boy, John Harding, who threw himself into the river, and lying
under the willows that fringed the bank, with his mouth only above
the water, escaped notice.
The rattle of musketry and the yells of the savage foe gave the
alarm through the valley. The settlers rallied, and put themselves
under the command of Colonel Zebulon Butler, a cousin of the Tory
leader. Forty Fort became the post of the Americans. John Butler
demanded its surrender, but it was sternly refused. Zebulon Butler
would have held his post till aid came, but the younger men were eager
to go out and meet the enemy, whom they could see plundering and
ravaging. At last the gates were thrown open, and the little force of
three hundred, old men and young, men of rank and plough-boys, all
shouldering their muskets, marched out. Near the blazing Fort Winter-
moor, which the Tories had fired, the two parties met. The Tories and
Indians lay flat on the ground, awaiting the American approach. Ad-
dressing his men in words fitted to rouse their courage, Colonel Zebulon
approached to within a hundred yards of the enemy. Here the firing be-
gan, and for an hour raged furiously. Then the Indians gained a Swamp
and threw the American left into disorder. In its endeavor to re-form
THE UNITED STATES. 463
the confusion increased, and Grengwatoh rushing forward with his
Senecas, the Americans met this hand to hand charge fighting desper-
ately. But the right was also broken. There was no hope but in a
prompt retreat, and the Indians gained their rear to prevent this.
The only place of crossing the river was far below. Many fell in the
attempt to reach it. In this bloody conflict Henry Pensil, a Tory,
slew his own brother, who begged for mercy. Others were
butchered by neighbors and men who had often received favors
at their hands. Those who fell into the hands of the Indians under-
went every form of cruelty that their ingenuity could devise. Esther,
a woman chief, with her own hand tomahawked sixteen prisoners who
were ranged in a circle, surrounded by Indians. Two others in the
circle, Lebbeus Hammond and Joseph Elliott, burst through the war-
riors and escaped almost miraculously. When night put an end to
the pursuit and massacre, two hundred and twenty-seven American
scalps were dangling from the waists of the Tories and Indians, whom
the English authorities had sent on this work of blood. Only five
prisoners remained alive.
Many, seizing a little provisions from their homes, fled to the woods,
in hopes of reaching other settlements, bearing everywhere the terri-
ble tale of the Wyoming massacre.
Colonel Denison, with a small body of those who escaped, regained
Forty Fort, but when Colonel John Butler demanded its surrender,
he yielded, no longer able to hold out. Colonel Zebulon and his
Continentals having retired, John Butler declared distinctly that they
were to be given up to the Indians.
The Tory leader, after destroying the houses and driving off the live
stock, retired from the valley.
464 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
This was not the only Indian raid on the American frontiers. Daniel
Boone, with a party of twenty-seven, was captured, and carried off by
the Indians to Chillicothe, and then to Detroit. He was finally adopted
by the Shawnees, but in June, 1778, effected his escape, and making a
journey of a hundred and sixty miles, with no provision except one
meal, which he had concealed in his blanket, reached Boonesborough,
just as the Indians were preparing to attack it. He found the fort utterly
unfit for defense. His wife and children, whom he yearned to see, were no
longer there. Thinking him dead, Mrs. Boone had gone back to her
father's house in North Carolina. Boone at once called the people together
and told them of their imminent danger. Every man Sprang to work.
The fort was put in repair, with new bastions, and stout gates; stock
was brought in, provisions and ammunition obtained, a garrison formed,
and parties sent out on a Scout.
It was none too soon. On the 8th of August, a party of Canadians
and Indians, commanded by Captain Duquesne, demanded their surren-
der. The answer came back : “We are determined to defend our fort
as long as a man of us lives.” Yet Duquesne lured out Boone and eight
others under pretense of treating for peace, and basely endeavored to
seize them after articles had been signed. Then the attack began in
earnest, but so ill did the enemy manage that they soon lost courage,
and on the 20th of August retired.
Then Boone plodded his solitary way to North Carolina, where his
wife and children welcomed him as one risen from the dead. Some-
what later, Colonel Hartley led an American force into the Indian
country on the Susquehanna, where he ravaged their towns, but this
only drew the Indians down on Cherry Walley.
A small Continental force was there under Colonel Alden, a New
A CHILD’s HISTORY. 467
England officer, little used to Indian fighting. The post was surprised
- by Walter Butler, and his Indian and Tory demons. A general massa-
cre took place. Whole families were swept away, the assailants sparing
neither age nor sex. Thirty-two of the inhabitants, principally women
and children, and eleven Continental soldiers were killed, and all the
houses were burned, with their barns and stores of grain and hay, leav-
ing nearly two hundred people to perish or starve, without food or
shelter ; some of them families always zealous for the royal cause.
The English regulars were now jealous of their Indian allies, and
soon showed that they could equal them in cruelty. A party of New
Jersey Light Horse lay at Old Tappan, or Harrington, on the Hacken-
sack River. Against them, Cornwallis sent the butcher General Grey,
while other detachments assailed other parties. The dragoons were
surprised in their beds, and while incapable of resistance, and begging
for compassion, were butchered in cold blood. Similar cruelty was
shown in the surprise of Count Pulaski's legion, at Little Egg Harbor,
in October, where the English were led by a deserter.
The English Government approved and encouraged these atrocities,
hoping to terrify the Americans into submission, but the result was just
the reverse. It filled the whole country with a deep-seated hatred of
the British nation; and many who had still hesitated, and had hitherto
clung to the British side, seeing that their lives and property were at
the mercy of these cruel mercenaries, heartily joined their fellow coun-
trymen. Congress formally announced its intention to retaliate for
these cruelties if they were not stopped.
Admiral Byron, who had succeeded Lord Howe, attempted to bring
d'Estaing to action, but the French admiral, escaping out of Boston,
sailed to the West Indies. An English fleet, bearing a considerable
468 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
military force, followed him, and Sir Henry Clinton, seizing the oppor-
tunity of the absence of a French fleet, dispatched Lieutenant-Colo-
nel Campbell with Commodore Hyde Parker to attack the Southern
States, and on the 23d of December, Campbell occupied Tybee Island,
and calling on Governor Prevost of Florida for aid, prepared to at-
tack Savannah.
General Robert Howe, the American commander, could muster only
seven hundred men, but he marched from Sunbury and took up a
strong position to defend Savannah. Campbell amused him with a
feigned attack in front, while a part of his force, under Sir James
Baird, guided by a negro, turned his right flank and attacked him
from the rear. Then Campbell began the attack in front with
vigor. Howe's right wing was captured almost entire, while the centre
managed to retreat with severe loss. The left wing, in attempting to
retreat through a swamp, lost many, who perished in the treacherous
ooze. The city, with all its stores and arms, and most of the Ameri-
can force, were thus captured. -
In less than ten days the enemy was firmly established in Georgia,
where the people, recent settlers, had not moved promptly with the
other colonies in the struggle for freedom, and had of late shown little
inclination to respect the orders of Congress; now they flocked by
hundreds to the King's officers, and made their peace at the expense
of their patriotism. Thus Georgia became, in a few months, one of
King George's most loyal possessions. - -
Previous to this disaster, Washington had ordered General Lincoln
to take charge of the Southern Department, and as the campaign for
the year was clearly over, prepared to go into winter-quarters on
both sides of the Hudson, his line extending from Danbury to the
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- THE UNITED STATES. 469
Delaware, completely encircling New York, and so arranged, that
each detachment could be easily supported.
We have mentioned the operations of the French fleet, but have
Said nothing hitherto of the efforts of America on the sea.
The Colonies had never maintained any navy, or possessed men-of-
War. During the operations against Canada, New England had fitted
out vessels, but such vessels were utterly unfitted to cope with the
mighty navy of England. -
What was done on the sea was the work of single vessels, either
fitted out as men-of-war, under the authority of Congress, or privateers.
The first naval action of the Revolution took place off Machias, in
May, 1775.
The Margaretta, an armed schooner in the King's service, lay there,
protecting two sloops which were loading with lumber for Boston.
The news from Lexington had aroused the people, and such at-
tempts were made to seize the captain of the Margaretta that he drop-
ped down the river. Joseph Wheaton and Dennis O'Brien resolved
to seize her. They surprised one of the sloops, and were joined by
Jeremiah O'Brien, an athletic, gallant man, well known in the place. All
present volunteered when he took command, and the sloop, with a gen-
tle breeze from the northwest, sailed down on the schooner, her crew
strangely armed with some twenty fowling-pieces, thirteen pitchforks,
and a dozen axes.
Captain Moore saw danger in its approach, and at once hoisted sail;
but, in rounding a bold point of land, the schooner carried away her
boom. But he got a new one from a passing vessel and stood out to
Sea. The sloop kept up the chase and soon overhauled the Margaret-
ta. Moore opened a heavy fire on the sloop, killing one man, but the
470 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
fire was returned, killing the Margaretta's helmsman and clearing her
deck. The sloop now ran so close to the schooner that her bowsprit was
fast in the shrouds, and the Maine marksmen were pouring in deadly
volleys. Moore fought well, sending grenades into the sloop till he
was shot down. With his fall the battle ended. The schooner Sur-
rendered, the English flag was lowered, and the first naval victory
was gained for the United Colonies of America.
Thus was a well-equipped English vessel taken by a motley crew of
men from the fields, with fowling-pieces and pitchforks.
During Arnold's operations on Lake Champlain, in October, 1776,
Quite a naval action took place between two little fleets on the lake.
Arnold had three Schooners, a sloop, and five gondolas, poorly armed,
and equipped by men ignorant alike of seamanship and gunnery.
General Carleton brought down seven hundred men from Montreal and
also equipped a fleet. º
Arnold anchored his little fleet across the narrow channel, between
Walcour's Island and the shore south of Plattsburg. Early on the
morning of the 11th of October the enemy appeared, and sweeping
around the island, bore down on Arnold's fleet from the south. Their
force consisted of a ship, a snow, three schooners, and smaller craft,
well manned by Sailors and marines from the royal vessels in the St.
Lawrence.
The action began, and notwithstanding the odds against the Ameri-
cans, was desperately contested till darkness closed the combat. In
this battle the Royal Savage, one of Arnold's vessels, was so badly
cut up that she was run ashore and fired, and a gondola sunk soon
after.
Seeing it impossible to sustain another action, Arnold resolved to
THE UNITED STATES. 471
escape with his vessels, all of them badly crippled. He passed unper-
ceived through the English fleet and nearly reached Crown Point,
when a Southerly wind stopped his course. A sudden change enabled
the British vessels to move first, and they bore down on Arnold's
squadron. Near Split Rock the battle was renewed. The Washing-
ton soon struck, and General Waterbury and his men were captured.
The Congress fought till she was a perfect wreck, when she was run
up a creek and fired, with five gondolas. Of the little fleet only two
schooners, a sloop, two galleys, and a gondola escaped.
The skill, bravery, and obstinate resistance of General Arnold and
his men, in this new style of warfare, against a vastly superior force
of experienced men, was hailed as a great achievement on the part
of Americans. It was clear that they could become good sailors as
well as good soldiers.
Congress, on the 13th of December, 1775, established a navy. The
frigate Randolph, a fine new vessel of thirty-two guns, under Captain
Biddle, was one of the first to take the sea with the flag of the United
States.
After making many captures, he sailed from Charleston in February,
1778, with a squadron, comprising the Randolph, General Moultrie,
Polly, Notre Dame, and Fair American. The object was, to engage
the Carysfort, an English frigate, which, with two smaller vessels, had
been cruising off Charleston. He failed to find the British squadron,
but fell in with the Yarmouth, a sixty-four gun vessel commanded by
Captain Vincent. The action opened, and the Randolph kept up a
tremendous fire, pouring in three broadsides to the Yarmouth's one,
and the smaller vessels doing their part well for about twenty minutes,
when Captain Nicholas Biddle of the Randolph was wounded in the
472 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
thigh, and almost at the same instant the Randolph blew up. Of her
whole crew none escaped but four men, whom the Yarmouth picked
up five days after, floating on a piece of wreck, During this time they
had managed to sustain life by Some rain-water, which they caught in
a blanket. -
After this disaster, the rest of the American Squadron made good
their retreat. .
Late in September, 1778, the United States frigate Raleigh, of thirty
guns, commanded by the gallant Captain John Barry, sailed from Boston,
convoying two vessels. She was soon chased by two English men-of-
war, the Experiment, of fifty guns, and the Unicorn, of twenty-two. On
Sunday afternoon, September 27th, the Unicorn overhauled Barry.
and the battle began. Barry kept up the fight till night-fall, gaining
such advantages over the Unicorn that she would have struck had
not the Experiment come up. Against this desperate odds Barry
struggled for half an hour, when he resolved to make for land. He
ran his ship aground on Fox Island, in Penobscot Bay, but before he
could get off his sick and wounded and fire her, the English captured
her, with a few men still in her. Barry's courage and ability Were
highly approved in this well-fought action.
Arnold was not the only New England officer who showed naval
ability. During the operations in Narraganset Bay, the English, to
close the East Passage, stationed there a fine stout schooner, the Pigot,
well armed and equipped, and commanded by Lieutenant Dunlap of
the Royal Navy. As she barred the entrance she proved a great annoy-
ance to the American army, so that Major Talbot resolved to capture
her. He fitted out the Hawk, a small sloop, and with sixty men
drifted down at night past the forts, then hoisting sail stood for the
TIIE UNITED STATES. 473
Pigot. Just as the sentries discovered her, the Hawk's jibboom tore
away the boarding-netting of the schooner Lieutenant Helms and fifteen
men of the Rhode Island line boarded the Pigot; at one point, the
crew of the Hawk at another. The British crew fled below. Dunlap,
roused from his berth, attempted to defend his vessel, but he was dis-
armed and secured. Without the loss of a man on either side the
Pigot was captured, and on the 29th of October, 1778, the Hawk and
her prize sailed into Stonington. Congress promoted the gallant Tal-
bot to a Lieutenant-Colonelcy for his naval exploit.
While the main armies were contending on the Atlantic coast, an
important blow had been struck in the West. Lieutenant-Colonel
George Rogers Clark, under a commission from Patrick Henry, led
an expedition to reduce the Illinois country. Recruiting a little army
among the frontier men from Pittsburg to Carolina, he started down
the Ohio as far as the Falls, where Louisville has since been
built. -
From this point he began his march on Kaskaskia, and by night OIl
the 4th of July completely surprised it, bursting into the fort and se-
curing the commander, Rocheblave, without losing a man or shedding
a drop of blood. He at once convened the inhabitants, and by the in-
fluence of the Rev. Mr. Gibault, the priest of the place, won them all
to his side, and thus was secure from Indian attack, as the red men
still were greatly attached to the French. Many of the French set-
tlers even entered his ranks, and he thus was able to take posses-
sion of Cahokia and Vincennes. *.
Many of the Indian tribes came in to treat of peace, although some
gained to the English side showed hostility. Towards these Clark
acted with great resolution and boldness. He opened friendly inter-
474 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
course with Leyba, the Spanish commander on the other side of the
Mississippi, for that was then Spanish territory.
The English were thus completely baffled, but when an expedition from
Pittsburg against Detroit, under General McIntosh, failed, Governor
Hamilton, the English commander at Detroit, resolved to make an
effort to regain the Illinois country.
He advanced on Vincennes, then held by Captain Helm and one
man. Planting a cannon in the open gate of the fort, Helm called
out, “Halt ’’ as Hamilton approached. The British commander de-
manded the surrender of the place. “No man shall enter until I
know the terms,” was Helm's firm reply. Hamilton answered, “You
shall have the honors of war,” and then the fort surrendered with its
garrison of two.
Hamilton next advanced towards Kaskaskia, but did not dare to at-
tack Clark, although he had eight hundred British and Indians. He
even dismissed most of his Indians, sending some to ravage the front-
ier. Clark at once marched on Vincennes, and, after a vigorous
fight, captured it, with Hamilton and all his remaining force. The
British commander was sent to Virginia, where he was treated with
great severity, in consequence of his cruelty to American prisoners
and his instigation of Indian atrocities.
With a little reinforcement Clark would have reduced Detroit also,
and completely annihilated English influence in the West. As it was,
his coolness, bravery, and singular judgment in dealing with the
French and Indians, made his campaign a complete success.
THE UNITED STATES. 475
CHAPTER IV.
Campaign of 1779—Operations in the South—Georgia—Invasion of South Carolina—Battle
of Stono Ferry—The British invade Connecticut—Storming of Stony Point—Sullivan's Expe-
dition against the Six Nations—Penobscot—Paulus Hook—Commodore Paul Jones—The
great Fight between the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis–Siege of Savannah by d'Es-
taing and Lincoln—Spain joins France—Continental Money. sº
THE opening of the new year saw the British under General Pre-
vost in full possession of Georgia. General Lincoln strained every
nerve to save South Carolina. He appealed urgently to the patriot-
ism of the citizens. He at last gathered, at Purysburg, on the Savan-
nah, a force of three thousand men, equal in numbers to Prevost's force,
but totally undisciplined men, most of them being raw levies.
With all his superiority Prevost hesitated to enter South Carolina,
as the country was a dangerous one for military movements. At last,
however, he sent Major Gardner to seize Port Royal. General Moul-
trie was at once sent to confront him. About four o'clock in the
afternoon of the 3d of February, he came in sight of the enemy.
With his men formed in a strong position across the road, he awaited
Gardner's approach. For three quarters of an hour a sharp action en-
sued, the militia, utterly uncovered, standing their ground manfully.
At last a well-directed ball dismounted Gardner's only field-piece, and
the enemy began to move off, leaving part of their wounded, and
losing in the pursuit several men and arms.
This little affair roused the courage of the Americans, but Prevost
had agents actively at work among the Tories in South Carolina.
Gained by his promises, a party of Tories under Colonel Boyd began
their march towards Augusta to join the British, marking their path-
way by robbery, violence, and devastation.
476 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Colonel Andrew Pickens took the field to meet him, and also to in,
tercept the Tory Colonel Hamilton of North Carolina. While watch-
ing the latter, Boyd managed to cross the Savannah. Pickens gave
chase, and while Boyd's men were busy at Kettle Creek slaughtering a
drove of cattle which they had just captured from the plantations,
Pickens came down in perfect military order. The fire of the senti-
nels startled the Tories from their false Security. Boyd was no coward.
He rallied his men and retreated in tolerable order, but Pickens press-
ed steadily on. When, after an hour's struggle, Boyd fell dangerously
wounded, his whole party, forty of whom were killed and many wound-
ed, fled in all directions; a small party reached the British camp.
Others surrendered and begged for mercy. Some of these were tried
for treason, and five leaders among them were executed. This blow
completely disheartened the Carolina Tories, who made no further at-
tempts on any large scale to aid the British. The hopes raised by these
successes were blasted by the utter defeat of General Ashe, with the
North Carolina militia and Georgia Continentals. He allowed himself
to be surprised and routed by Prevost at Briar Creek, on the 3d of
March. This event deprived General Lincoln of one-fourth of his
forces, Secured the British the possession of Georgia, and opened com-
munication between them and the Tories and Indians.
To cover Augusta, where the Georgia legislature were to meet,
Lincoln moved up the river, leaving General Moultrie to watch Pre-
vost, who he did not suppose would make any important move. Pre-
vost, however resolved to capture Charleston before Lincoln could
come to its relief. He drove Moultrie before him, that gallant officer
in vain appealing for militia to enable him to engage the enemy.
On the 11th of May, Prevost, by rapid marches, crossed the Ashley
THE UNITED STATES. 477
River, and summoned Charleston to surrender. Governor Rutledge
gained time by negotiations, and meanwhile, Lincoln, convinced at last
of Prevost's design, was hastening to relieve the capital of South Caro-
lina. Prevost, who had intercepted a letter from General Lincoln, be-
gan his retreat, making his way to the islands on the coast, where ves-
sels could reach him.
On the 20th of June, Lincoln attacked seven hundred British troops,
well posted at Stono Ferry. The Highlanders, outside the enemy's
works, met the American attack with great gallantry, and were almost
annihilated. Then Lincoln attacked the strong English lines, but rein-
forcements, which Moultrie was too late to intercept, gave the British a
superiority, and Lincoln withdrew. 4.
This action, however, hastened the withdrawal of the British forces
from South Carolina : but they bore with them plunder of all kinds,
taken from the country through which they passed. They pillaged
everything, and in this exceeded anything of the kind in the whole
war. Slaves were carried off in droves, and then sent to the West In-
dies and sold.
This was now the policy of the British Government. They seemed
to have felt that they must lose America, but they determined to
leave it, if possible, a desert. The war was to be carried on by rav-
aging and plunder.
So in May, Sir George Collyer, commanding the British fleet,
took on board eighteen hundred men under General Matthews, to raw-
age Virginia. Anchoring his vessels in Hampton Roads, Collyer landed
General Matthews at Portsmouth. From this place, small parties were
sent out to ravage and plunder naval and military stores; vessels of all
kinds, and property of every kind were carried off or wantonly destroyed.
478 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
In a few days, a fertile country became one vast scene of smoking
ruins. When the people remonstrated, they were told : “We are
commanded to visit the same treatment upon all who refuse to obey the
King.” w *
Washington, meanwhile, had been unable to undertake any import-
ant movement. His army was small. Congress did little to increase
the force, or even to clothe and pay the officers and men actually in
service, many of whom were suffering greatly. People generally
seemed to think that the French would do everything, and a general
apathy prevailed. Not even militia organizations were kept up to pre-
vent the constant English raids and incursions.
While things were in this condition, Sir Henry Clinton, on the 1st
of June, moved up the Hudson, and attacking the unfinished American
works at Stony Point, captured them, taking the whole garrison prison-
ers of war. He at once put Stony Point and Verplanck's Point in
a strong state of defense. It was his intention to attack West Point,
but Washington was on the alert to preserve that position, which com-
manded the river.
Unable to effect his object, Clinton resolved to ravage and plunder
Connecticut, as he had done Virginia. Again Sir George Collyer's fleet
sailed out of New York, this time bearing a force under Major-General
Tryon, and General Garth.
On Monday, the 5th of July, these forces landed at East and West
Haven, and prepared to attack the city of New Haven. Some Yale
students and other young men drove back Garth's advance, but the
British general advanced to West Bridge. There he met so stubborn
an oppposition that he retired, and, crossing higher up, entered New
Haven by another road. Tryon met a sturdy opposition to his landing,
THE UNITED STATES. 479
but finally disembarked, and marched on New Haven. The British gen-
eral threatened to burn the city, but after plundering the inhabitants of all
their valuables, and destroying much furniture that they could not re-
move, and all the public stores, they marched down next day to Rock-
fort, and re-embarked.
On the 8th, they landed at Fairfield, and, meeting little opposition,
entered the town, from which most of the people had fled. Those who
remained were subjected to the worst brutalities, and then the town
was set on fire. Two meeting-houses, eighty-three dwellings, forty-
Seven storehouses, with the schools and county-house, were all de-
stroyed.
Norwalk was the next point cf attack. As Tryon marched on this
place, Captain Stephen Betts, with only fifty Continentals, met him,
and handled him so roughly that he did not venture to cross the
bridge and enter the place till Garth came up. Here the work of
destruction was renewed. More than two hundred houses and stores,
with barns, mills, and shipping, were ruthlessly destroyed.
Such was the notorious expedition against Connecticut, of which the
people of America have ever retained the most intense indignation.
While the British were engaged in these disgraceful operations,
Washington, after personally reconnoitering Stony Point, determined to
wrest it from the hands of the enemy. He confided this important ex-
pedition to one of his best generals, Anthony Wayne.
That general made it one of the most memorable exploits in Ameri-
can wars, and as long as the history of the country is read, men will
commemorate Wayne's capture of Stony Point.
The place which bears the name is a rough little promontory jutting
out into the Hudson, about forty miles above New York. The river
480 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
washes nearly the whole rocky side, and a deep marsh covers the rest.
Through this marsh there was but one passage-way, though, where it
skirted the river, a sandy beach was seen at low tide.
Wayne cautiously approached the British position, and forming his
men into two columns, moved on, with forlorn hopes of Pennsylvania
troops at the head of each column. To distinguish his men in the night
attack, each soldier stuck a piece of white paper in his hat. At half-
past eleven o'clock at night, the two columns, in perfect silence, ad-
vanced. At a little stream they separated, one to take the eastern
side, the other the western side of the works. Between them, Major
Murfey, with some North Carolina light troops, made an open attack.
The English, alarmed by an outpost at the water's edge, manned the
works. Grape and musketry poured down on Murfey's advancing col-
umn, but from the American line not a sound was heard. Through
the marsh and water, over abattis and obstructions of every kind,
Wayne's grim, resolute men, with fixed bayonets, pushed steadily on.
The darkness is lighted up by volley after volley, but they never stag-
ger or waver. They reach the parapet, and creeping through or clam-
bering over, are inside the works. Both columns at the same instant rais-
ed the appointed cry : “The fort's our own " Colonel Fleury, the
first to enter the fort, struck the British standard with his own hand. The
garrison maintained a desperate hand-to-hand fight, but at last, seeing
their numbers thinning, and the Americans in complete possession, they
surrendered. General Wayne, wounded in the head, had fallen outside
the works, and was now brought in bleeding, but victorious, to receive
the submission of the British commander.
The guns were at once run out and pointed at Fort Lafayette, and
the English vessels in the river. They were startled at this first notice
a ~~~~~~7~ re-re-rr ------- -
A. łłll LLP 5 tilişi Ujić Ya - 483
of a change of owners in Stony Point, and the ships made all haste
to escape down the river.
Wayne's exploit deprived the enemy of nearly seven hundred men,
besides ordnance and stores to an immense amount.
This achievement arrested Clinton in his devastation of Connecticut.
He hastened back to New York, and dispatched troops to relieve Col-
onel Webster in Fort Lafayette ; McDougal, when dispatched by
Wayne to reduce that post, having moved too late. Washington, find-
ing Stony Point alone of no importance to hold, evacuated it, when
Clinton again posted a strong garrison there.
Not far off, on the 22d of July, a stubborn fight occurred between
Brant with his savage warriors and a small force. Brant had plunder-
ed and burned Minisink: Colonel Hathorn, of Warwick, with others,
rashly pursued him. The adroit Indian divided his antagonists by a
stratagem. Eighty occupied the summit of a hill. These Brant now
attacked. Sheltered behind trees and rocks, the Americans kept up
a constant and telling fire, from ten in the morning till late in the
afternoon. Then a brave fellow who held the key of the position fell.
Brant saw his advantage and pushed in, attacking the little American
party on all sides. They fled, and, pursued by the Savage foe, were
slaughtered without mercy, as were the wounded, who had been re-
moved and placed under the care of a surgeon.
One only received quarter, who, it is said, made a Masonic signal
of distress, which Brant, himself a Freemason, respected.
In the Northward again, the clang of battle resounded. Colonel
Maclean, from Halifax, stationed himself on the Penobscot. A fleet
was at once fitted out under Commodore Saltonstall, bearing four
thousand militia, under Generals Lovell and Wadsworth, to dislodge
484 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
him. A British fleet impeded the landing, but Lovell at last began
the siege of Maclean's works. He erected his battery, and for a fort-
night kept up a most vigorous cannonade, and preparations were made
to assault the fort. But suddenly intelligence came that Sir George
Collyer was approaching, with a large naval force. Lowell abandoned
the siege, and embarked all his troops. As he stood out to sea, Col-
lyer's fleet hove in sight. Flight was no longer possible. The Warren,
a fine new frigate, and fourteen other vessels, were either taken or
blown up. The transports managed to land the troops on the wild,
uncultivated coast, and many men perished, as without provisions they
endeavored, through the dense woods of Maine, to reach the towns
and villages.
Such was the disastrous result of a well-appointed expedition fitted
out by Massachusetts.
A brilliant feat of arms, however, cheered the American heart.
Wayne's exploit at Stony Point had aroused the emulation of officers
and men.
The British in New York had a post at Paulus Hook, now Jersey
City, which proved a great annoyance. Major Henry Lee, a dashing
Virginia officer, popularly known as “Light Horse Harry,” proposed
to Washington to surprise it. The English position consisted of re-
doubts and block-houses well supplied with artillery, and protected by
abattis and marshes. The ground was then far different from what the
present city shows. The post could be approached by land only by
way of the New Bridge over the Hackensack.
On the morning of the 18th of August, with the summer Sun pour-
ing down on the valley, Lee moved from Paramus with two hundred
Maryland troops, and at New Bridge was joined by three hundred
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Virginians and some dragoons. With these he advanced, but the Wir-
ginians, from various reasons, withdrew. With his remaining petty
force he reached the enemy's works, through the marsh and under a
brisk fire. But his rush was so impetuous, that before the British
had time to fire a single piece of artillery he gained possession of the
main work, while Captain Forsyth captured a house known as “Num-
ber Six,” with several officers and soldiers quartered there.
Without discharging a single musket, Lee had taken the place and
had the whole garrison prisoners, except a few Hessians who had
thrown themselves into a small work.
Across the river he could see New York, roused by the alarm-guns,
all in excitement. In a short time troops would pour in upon him.
So, securing his prisoners he began his retreat, and though pursued, he
repulsed the enemy at English Neighborhood Creek and returned in
1-3 Al Al
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wounded, and deprived the enemy of two hundred.
Far more important was the expedition set on foot late in the sum-
mer against the Six Nations. These Indians had, from the settlement
of New York by the Dutch, been friendly to the colonists, and had never
made war upon them, till civilized England instigated them to deeds
of blood and massacre on their old friends and neighbors.
We have seen how terribly they carried out the fearful work at
Wyoming, Cherry Walley, Mohawk Valley, and Minisink. The whole
country demanded their chastisement. Pennsylvania, New York, and
Connecticut, the last as proprietors in a measure of Wyoming, called
upon Congress to act. Washington had already decided upon a plan
of action, and when Congress proposed it, at once offered the com-
mand of the expedition to General Gates, who declined: Sullivan
486. . A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
took his place. Two bodies of troops were to move upon the In-
dian country; Sullivan's corps, from Easton, by way of Wyoming,
while New York troops, under General James Clinton, where to
move from Canajoharie by way of Otsego Lake. Sullivan was de-
layed by various petty obstacles, but Clinton, damming up the
outlet of Otsego Lake, was enabled to float down the Susquehanna
the batteaux he had collected, and also to overflow and damage the
Indian fields on the river. - -
The forces united on the 22d of August. On the 27th they ravaged
the Indian fields at Chemung. Two days after they came upon the
Indians, who had taken up a strong position near where Elmira now
stands. They lay in a bend of the river; protected in front by a
breastwork of logs. They concealed this by bushes, hoping to escape
observation till Sullivan's army was passing, when they would make a
sudden attack. They were discovered, however, and skirmishing was
kept up till the whole army arrived. The hills on the flank of the
Indians were the essential point to carry. General Poor charged up
the hill on their left with great coolness and bravery. Every rock
and tree and bush shielded its man, from behind which rang out the
sharp crack of the deadly rifle. The Indians yielded only inch by
inch, darting from tree to tree as they were pressed back, but keeping up
their fire; Brant, in the thickest of the fight, rousing his men by word
and example. As he saw Poor steadily pressing to his left flank, he
made a desperate effort to rally his men and force Poor back. On
they came, yelling and whooping like infuriate demons, but they could
make no impression on the American line, which soon turned the left.
Then from the Indian line rose the retreat halloo, and they fled
precipitately, leaving their packs, scalping-knives, and tomahawks.
·
GENERAL ANTHONY WAYNE-

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THE TINITED STATES. 487
- * sº -* * * * * *-*. * * * * * * * *
Many of the Indians fell in the deadly battle, more in the
pursuit.
The nearest Indian village was destroyed, then Newtown, now El-
mira, with all its crops. Through the Seneca country pressed the
American army, resolved to punish their savage foe. French Cathar-
ine's, Appletown, Kandara, Ganundasaga, were all given to the flames.
The last was the chief town of the Senecas, a place of some sixty houses,
surrounded by thrifty orchards of apple and peach trees, and fine gar-
dens, showing the progress of these Indians, whom England had called
from their progress in civilization to replunge in barbarism.
After destroying other towns, Sullivan, when at Kanaghsa, sent out
Lieutenant Boyd with twenty-six men on a scout. He was intercepted
by a large body of Indians. With desperate energy he attempted to
cut his way through, but twenty-two of the party were killed, Boyd and
Sergeant Parker being made prisoners. Brant would have spared
them, but Butler, the Tory chief, gave them to the Indians to torture,
and they expired amid the most excruciating torments.
Having completely ravaged the Indian country, Sullivan marched
back to Wyoming.
Colonel Van Schaick had already this year, with a small body of men,
attacked Onondaga, killing and capturing some fifty men, and destroy-
ing fifty houses and great quantities of provisions. While Sullivan was
in the Seneca country, Colonel Brodhead, from Pittsburg, ascended
the Alleghany and ravaged the Indian villages and fields, although
there the Indians made some attempt at resistance.
These severe blows, although they did not deprive the Indians of
many warriors, left them nearly helpless, and convinced them of the
power of the Americans. In this way they were attended with no
488 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
little advantage, and experience had shown, that it was the only way
to produce an impression on these haughty warriors. -
The little American navy, though unable to cope with the gigantic
fleets of Great Britain, rendered, nevertheless, signal Services, and con-
tinued to show the world, by exploits on Sea as well as on land, that the
people of America were in earnest and determined to be free. England
was mistress of the seas, and few nations dared to cope with her on her
own element. Yet here were the United States fearlessly confronting
her. In 1776 the American cruisers, darting out from the numberless
ports on the Atlantic seaboard, swept away more than three hundred
English vessels. Roused by this, the King sent out the next year
seventy-seven men-of-war to cruise along the coast, yet, in the face of
this great naval force, the Americans captured four hundred and
seventy-six English merchantmen, some of them of very great value.
Occasionally, indeed, a privateer would be taken, to the great exultation
of the British and Tories, but they could not, by all the cruelties of
their prison-ships on the East River, or their Sugar-Houses in New
York city, deter bold and patriotic men from sallying forth on the
ocean to cripple the maritime strength of the oppressor.
Among the officers appointed to command in the navy was Captain
John Paul Jones, a man of great naval experience, and devoted heart
and Soul to the cause of American independence. -
Through the exertions of Dr. Franklin, a little fleet was fitted out
in France in 1779, and put under command of Paul Jones. It con-
sisted of the Bon Homme Richard, an old East Indiaman mounting
thirty-four guns, the Alliance, a new American frigate carrying thirty-
six guns, the Pallas, Wengeance, and Cerf. This fleet swept along
the coast of Great Britain and spread terror throughout the country,
THE - - *
º, sº STATES. 489
UNITED where the fate of South Carolina and Connecticut was, they supposed,
to become that of many a thriving town and village. As they had
robbed, plundered, burned, and desolated in America, so Americans
might justly burn and plunder in England.
On the 23d of September, 1779, Commodore Paul Jones, cruising
off Flamborough Head, England, discovered a large fleet of vessels.
He instantly recognized it as the Baltic fleet, coming up convoyed by
two British men-of-war; the Serapis, of forty-four guns, and the Coun-
tess of Scarborough, of twenty-two. Commodore Jones signalled his
ships to form a line and bear down on the enemy, but Captain Lan-
dais, of the Alliance, disobeyed his orders. Then Jones went into
action with the two English vessels.
It was now night, and the moon came out clear and bright, on a sea
almost as smooth as glass. The cliffs of the English coast were full
in view, lined with anxious spectators.
“What ship is that ?” hailed Captain Pearson of the Serapis.
“Come a little nearer and I will tell you,” was Jones' reply. “What
are you laden with ?” asked the British commander. “Round, grape,
and double-head shot,” was the answer of the gallant American
commander. The broadside of the Serapis then thundered out. Paul
Jones replied, but two of what he considered his best guns burst, kill-
ing several. Abandoning these useless guns, he kept up the battle
with those of less weight. The Serapis poured in her broadsides
with the regularity of a British man-of-war; Jones, after one or two
broadsides, ran ahead, but the Serapis luffed across his stern, pouring
in a heavy broadside and passing around and ahead. The Richard
ran into her, and in a moment threw out grappling-irons, but before
the Americans could board the Serapis, the latter contrived to get
490 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
free. In the next manoeuvre the two ships came side by side, and the
Richard again threw out her grappling-irons, and the anchor of the
- Serapis hooked fast on the Richard.
With the muzzles of their guns fairly touching, the cannonade kept
up furiously, the balls tearing through both hulls. They fought at the
guns below, they fought from deck to deck, they fought from the tops
and rigging. Seldom has history recorded such a fight. All working
of the ships ceased, as they lay head and stern, and drifted slowly to-
ward the land, till at last the Serapis cast out her anchor three miles
from shore. With a rush the British seamen attempted to board.
Back, bleeding and discomfited, they were repeatedly hurled, and from
the tops came grenades and well-aimed shots that finally cleared the
tops and deck of the Serapis. Below, the British had the advantage;
they were tearing the Richard's lower deck to pieces and driving the
Americans up.
The battle had lasted nearly an hour when the sails of the Serapis
took fire, and soon the tops of the Richard were in a blaze. Both
parties stopped the fight to extinguish the flames. Then the battle
was renewed. The fire broke out anew, but they extinguished it only
to renew the desperate fight. At last, one of the Richard's topsmen
climbed over to the maintop of the Serapis with a bucket full of gren-
ades, and began to light and drop them among the English sailors. One
at last fell among the cartridges. A fearful explosion ensued. More
than twenty were killed and forty wounded.
Just then the Alliance came up and poured in a broadside, doing as
much damage to the Richard as to the Serapis, and filling the Ameri-
can vessel with such confusion that the English prisoners were releas-
ed, and the gunner, Supposing himself the highest officer left, called.
THE UNITED STATES. 491
out Quarter The Commodore soon restored order, put the prisoners
at the pumps, and filled his crew with new hope of victory. He trained
new guns to bear on the Serapis, and at last, at half past one, Cap-
tain Pearson struck his colors with his own hand, no British tar, with
all their reputed gallantry, daring to expose himself to the deadly fire
of the American ship.
Lieutenant Dale passed on board and took possession, while Pearson
and his officers went on board the Richard, and surrendered their
swords to Commodore Paul Jones. But the haughty Englishman could
not forbear to insult his conqueror : “It is with great reluctance,” said
he, “that I am obliged to resign my sword to a man who may be said
to fight with a halter about his neck.” Commodore Paul Jones showed
his greatness of mind by replying: “Sir, you have fought like a hero,
and I make no doubt your sovereign will reward you for it in the most
ample manner.”
While the Richard and Serapis were engaged, the Pallas had attack-
ed and captured the Countess of Scarborough. The victory was won, but
the Richard was on fire and sinking. With great difficulty her crew
and the wounded were removed to the other vessels of the squadron.
She was a complete wreck, much of her timbers being completely swept
away by the cannon of the Serapis. The sun rose on the glorious ship
settling down in the sea; at ten o'clock her bows sunk, and she dis-
appeared.
Nearly three hundred men were killed and wounded on each of the
ships, so desperate had been the action. Its fame rang through Eu-
rope and America. The King of France presented Commodore Jones
with a splendid sword; the Empress of Russia invited him to her
navy and made him Rear-Admiral. Congress showed its appreciation
492 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
of his gallantry by the thanks of the nation and by Striking a gold
medal.
Admiral d'Estaing, with the French fleet, after refitting at Boston,
sailed to the West Indies, where Dominica, St. Vincent's, and Granada
were captured, and all the English possessions thrown into great alarm.
An English fleet was sent out to meet him, and a sharp but indecisive
action followed. The French Admiral was about to sail home, when he
received so strong an appeal from General Lincoln, and Governor Rut-
ledge, of South Carolina, that he sailed once more for the United
States, to co-operate with the American forces in reducing Savannah.
General Prevost, who held that city, was early warned of his dan-
ger, and sent to New York for aid. Experienced engineers strengthen-
ed the defenses of the city, and did all that was possible to make the
approach to the city dangerous to a fleet.
D'Estaing landed Dillon's regiment of the Irish Brigade, and other
troops, amounting in all to more than three thousand men. On the 15th
of September, General Count Pulaski, with his legion, joined them.
Then d'Estaing summoned the garrison to surrender.
Prevost asked time, and this enabled him to be reinforced by Colonel
Maitland.
When General Lincoln arrived with his army from Charleston, the
siege of Savannah was begun. The garrison made repeated sorties,
but the mortars and siege-guns began their work, seriously damaging
the town and burning many houses. The English fortifications were
not, however, much injured. Finding that the siege would be long,
d'Estaing, unwilling to remain longer on the coast, resolved to
abandon the siege unless an assault could be made. On the 9th of Octo-
ber, the bombardment was opened from all the batteries, and under
THE UNITED STATES. 493
Cover of this fire, the two columns of attack were formed, one under
General Dillon, to march along the foot of the bluff on the north side
of the town, the other, commanded by Admiral d'Estaing and General
Lincoln, to attack the Spring Hill redoubt, where the Augusta railroad
station now stands.
At the same time, General Huger, with a body of militia, was to
move on the South side of the town, to draw off the enemy, and, if pos-
sible, enter the town.
Dillon's column got entangled in the swamp, and lost severely by
the enemy's fire without being able to come into action.
The column under the French Admiral and the American General
moved splendidly on upon the Spring Hill redoubt, where Prevost had
gathered his choice troops. Under a murderous fire they scaled the
ramparts, and the French fleurs-de-lis, and the crescent of South Caro-
lina, were planted on the redoubt. They are shot down ; but in a mo-
ment they are up again. Again a gallant Carolinian falls. Sergeant
Jasper caught his State flag, and again reared it, but received his death-
wound. -
For nearly an hour a fearful struggle was kept up, but fresh English
troops came up, and the gallant men were forced back, through ditch
and abattis, down the bluff. Disheartened by the fearful slaughter of
their men, the allied commanders ordered a retreat. While this assault
was made, Count Pulaski had charged at the head of his legion in the
rear of the enemy's line, when he was struck in the groin and fell mor-
tally wounded. His Lieutenant seized his banner and continued to
lead on the charge, but the English now turned all their force upon him,
he too retreated, bearing off his dying commander.
General Huger's movement produced no result.
494 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
General Lincoln wished to continue the siege, but d'Estaing would
not consent to remain. He had lost severely, and was less disposed
than ever. Accordingly, the siege was raised, the French re-embarked,
the Americans crossed the river, and returned to South Carolina. In
loss of life, the attack on Savannah was one of the severest battles of
the war. The French lost in killed and wounded seven hundred, and
the Americans two hundred. The English loss was comparatively
Small.
During the siege of Savannah, Colonel John White, of Georgia, per-
formed an exploit worth recording. Twenty-five miles from Savan-
nah, on the Ogeechee, was an English post under a British captain,
with more than a hundred men, and five armed vessels. Late at night,
White, with six men, kindled fires, so as to look like a large encamp-
ment, and made noises to convey the same impression. Then he sum-
moned the English officer to surrender instantly. The captain sup-
posed that he was about to be attacked by an overwhelming force, laid
down his arms, and Colonel White marched a hundred and forty-two
British prisoners to Sunbury. General Washington had counted also
on d'Estaing's co-operation in a great movement against New York,
the key to the English position in America, as an attack upon it requir-
ed a naval force. But the failuré of the siege of Savannah, and
the subsequent dispersion of the French fleet in a storm, put an end
to all his hopes from that quarter. -
The operations of the year were accordingly closed and Washing-
ton prepared to go into winter-quarters. He selected these so as to
secure wood, water, and provisions, as well as to keep the enemy in
check. The army formed two divisions; the northern, under General
Heath, was to protect West Point and the adjacent country;
THE UNITED STATES. 495
Washington himself, with the principal division, retired to Morristown,
in New Jersey. - - .
If in this campaign Washington had effected little, the English had
accomplished nothing towards the subjugation of America. They had
scattered their forces and ravaged without mercy defenseless towns:
but, after this, they had never stepped out of their works or beyond
their lines.
Washington's army was small. The people, after the first enthusiasm
of the Revolution had subsided, had grown careless and indifferent ;
Congress was irresolute, and the Continental Currency issued by it
had become almost worthless, and was largely counterfeited by the
English Government. - -
It was a period of despondency for the best patriots in the land,
and for none more than for the illustrious Washington.
CHAPTER V.
Campaign of 1780—Sir Henry Clinton sails south, besieges and takes Charleston—Tarleton
begins his career of cruelty—Lord Cornwallis in the South—Sumter and Marion—Gates
sent South by Congress—His rashness—Defeated at Camden—DeKalb-General Greene—
King's Mountain—Patriotic women—Lord Stirling on Staten Island—Battle of Springfield.
ELATED by the success of Prevost in repulsing the allied attack on
his works at Savannah, Sir Henry Clinton resolved to seize the oppor-
tunity afforded by the absence of the French fleet from the coast, to
attack South Carolina. Admiral Arbuthnot, with a powerful fleet,
convoyed a number of transports, which now bore to Charleston a for-
midable force, with ample supplies of military stores and provisions. A
496 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
succession of storms nearly destroyed this armament, and actually
caused great loss, but it finally reached Savannah. The British army
then moved on Charleston. That city was held by General Lincoln,
with about one thousand men. His call for militia and for reinforce-
ments from the North was but slowly responded to, yet he resolutely
prepared to defend the town with the troops at his command. He
strengthened his works, planted cannon, sunk vessels in the channels,
and in other ways made them dangerous for the enemy's ships. Mean-
while Sir Henry Clinton gradually surrounded the town and approach-
ed the lines. On the night of the 1st of April, he threw up two re-
doubts within eight hundred yards of the lines held by the Americans.
In a few days his siege-line was complete, and the fleet passed Fort
Moultrie to support the army, suffering great damage from the fire of
the fort, and losing one transport.
Clinton and Arbuthnot then demanded the surrender of the city,
but Lincoln had received reinforcements—Continentals, under General -
Woodford, and North Carolina militia. He rejected the summons.
Then the siege began, and a fierce fire was kept up on the town
from the land batteries and shipping. On the 14th of April, an out-
post of Americans, under General Huger, was surprised by Colonel
Tarleton, whom a treacherous negro had guided.
A few days later, the already powerful force was swelled by a re-
inforcement; Cornwallis landed with three thousand fresh troops.
Lincoln saw now no hope, except in escaping to the open country.
The people of Charleston, fearful of the vengeance of the British
General, begged him to defend the place to the last. On the 21st,
Lincoln proposed to surrender the town and its dependencies, on con-
dition that the garrison and such of the inhabitants as wished to retire,
A CHILD’s HISTORY. 499
might be permitted to withdraw, with their arms, field-artillery, ammu-
nition, baggage, and such stores as they could carry, and that inhab-
itants unwilling to remain under British rule, should have a year to
dispose of their property. The English commander at once rejected
these terms. &
So the siege went on, the English steadily pushing ahead their
works, and on the 8th of May again summoned the city. Again Lin-
coln proposed terms, but Clinton demanded alterations, which Lin-
coln refused. That night the firing commenced once more, with greater
fury than ever. The doomed city was like one vast conflagration.
Shells streaming through the air in lightning curves, or bursting in
the streets and houses; the city on fire in five different places; cannon-
balls and shells hissing continually among the terrified people; here
an ammunition chest would blow up, and then, with a shock like an earth-
quake, some temporary magazine would explode.
Day brought no cessation to the terrible bombardment, and night
was again made lurid by its deadly glare. At last the Americans
were fairly driven from their guns, by the deadly fire through the
embraSureS.
Worn down with fatigue, Lincoln, at last, on the 11th of May, un-
conscious that a French fleet, under du Ternay, was rapidly approaching
to his relief, and seeing no hope of aid, renewed negotiations. The
English commanders, anxious to enter the place, agreed upon terms,
and articles were signed the next day.
Fifteen hundred Continental soldiers, with a large militia force, be-
came prisoners of war, and cannons, muskets, and military stores
fell into the enemy's hands.
This terrible blow gave the British possession of all the country
500 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
from North Carolina to the Gulf Clinton's first movements were
an earnest of what the South had to expect. He at once planned
three expeditions, one towards the Savannah ; another upon Ninety-
Six, a place on the Saluda, to dislodge the American force and rouse
the numerous Tories there ; while a third expedition, under the san-
guinary Colonel Tarleton, was sent towards North Carolina, to over-
take a small force under Colonel Buford, which had been marching
to reinforce Lincoln. After a sharp fight at Waxhaws, Buford was
defeated and his men slaughtered without mercy, quarter being refused,
and the wounded fairly hacked to pieces. They learned to their sor-
row what “Tarleton's quarter’ was. -
The other expeditions were no less successful. Sir Henry Clinton
offered pardon to all who submitted and asked it. Many yielded ; the
number of Tories increased. Even an address of congratulation to the
King found many signers. Emboldened by this, Clinton threatened
to treat as rebels all paroled prisoners not in the military service, who
refused to renew their allegiance to Great Britain, and enroll them-
selves as militia under the King.
Then came a period of fearful agony. Many heroically refused,
and appealed to the terms of capitulation. They were seized and
carried off to St. Augustine and elsewhere, and confined in loath-
some dungeons. Such was the fate of the venerable Christopher
Gadsden. The soldiers were confined in prison-ships and in filthy
Quarters, where numbers of them perished.
In consequence of this cruelty and violation of faith on the part of
the British commanders, many fled, and a partisan warfare sprang up.
Sumter, among the hills that line the Catawba and Broad ; Marion, amid
the swamps of the Pedee ; Pickens and Clarke on the Savannah, rallied
THE UNITED STATES. 501
around them brave and daring men, who thirsted to avenge their
country's wrong on the vile oppressor. Civil war raged in all its fury.
Deadly as the strife with the Tories was at the North, in the Caroli-
nas it was still more fearful. Assassination was of daily occurrence.
No one was safe on the public roads; no planter secure in his home.
The agents of the Government deluded the slaves by offers of emanci-
pation, and stimulated their worst passions against their masters.
Whole families were strangled by their slaves.
The sparsely settled condition of the country, which abounded in
large plantations, made it an easy country to overrun with the force at
the command of the enemy. It was, in this respect, far different from
the more densely settled parts of New England, New York, and Penn-
sylvania. -
Yet this very condition of affairs made the career of the patriot par-
tisans possible. Colonel Locke, with only four hundred men, in June,
after a fight showing more courage than discipline, dispersed a force
of Tories at Ramsour's Mill, under Colonel John Moore, numbering
thirteen hundred men.
Sumter was the next to take the field. On the 12th of July, Cap-
tain Christian Huck, an unprincipled Tory leader, whose name was
belied by his whole godless life, encamped in a lane on the plantation
of James Williamson, in what is now Brattonville. They had been ray-
aging far and wide, and thinking that the terror of their name had
driven off all the patriots, they slept in perfect security. Midnight had
scarcely struck when Captain Bratton cautiously approached, and be-
fore day dawned entered one end of the lane, and Captain McClure the
other, with some of the very best and bravest of Sumter's little force.
Like avenging furies, they sprang upon the sleeping desperadoes.
502 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Huck fought with energy, but the surprise was complete. The Tories
lost many, and were scattered to the winds; a few, under Huck himself,
escaping to Rocky Mount, pursued almost the whole distance by the -
patriots. This victory encouraged the Americans and disheartened the
Tories.
Bratton's plantation was quite near the scene of this gallant action,
and his own wife had just been visited by Huck, who demanded where
her husband was. Disdaining any evasion, the noble Woman promptly
replied : “In Sumter's army.” Huck endeavored to force her by
threats of violence to disclose her husband's place of concealment, lit-
tle dreaming that that gentleman was so soon to pay him an unceremo-
nious and unwelcome visit. Mrs. Bratton firmly refused to comply or
to express any submission to Great Britain; she refused, even when a
sharp reaping-hook was held to her throat by a brutal soldier, to force
her to renounce her fidelity to her native State.
Encouraged by his first success, Sumter attacked the British posi-
tion at Rocky Mount, and succeeding in firing their garrison-houses,
compelled them to hoist the white flag; but, as a storm came on, extin-
guishing the flames, they renewed the fight, and as his want of artil-
lery made it impossible to reduce them, he withdrew.
In a deep, rocky Valley, through which a stream runs roaring along,
there juts on one side a hanging rock which gives name to the place.
Here Lord Rawdon had posted five hundred regulars and Tories, un-
der Major Carden. While Sumter was at Rocky Mount, Major Davie
had approached Hanging Rock, and surprised a foraging party of three
Tory companies, which he utterly defeated, killing and wounding nearly
all, and capturing a large stock of horses and arms. Then Sumter
came up, and in three columns moved on the enemy's position. He
THE UNITED STATES. 503
fell in with a division of the British, about half a mile from their
camp. With a cheer and rush he was on them ; they did not wait to
contest the ground. Flinging away guns and arms of all kinds they
fled. A braver corps rallied, and made a stand in a wood, pouring a
deadly volley into Sumter's advance, and gallantly charging with the
bayonet; but the sharp-shooters in Sumter's corps soon brought down
the officers. Then the British lost heart and fled. Sumter, supplying
himself with ammunition, which he greatly needed, for he had gone
into the fight with only ten rounds to each man, pressed on to complete
his victory; but his men scattered to plunder the British camp. Thus
precious time was host, and before Sumter, charging in three columns
on the British line, drawn up in a hollow square, and protected by can-
non, could force them to surrender, reinforcements came up. The vic-
torious partisan, to his mortification, had to withdraw.
Though his success had not been complete, he had inflicted severe
loss, and checked the British career.
A few days before this, a scene occurred at Green Spring, which
may here be related. A party of patriots halted for the night at
Green Spring. Before daybreak, the clatter of a horse's hoofs put them
on the alert; the vidette soon recognized Mrs. Dillard, at whose house
they had received some refreshments the day before.
A Tory party, under Ferguson, had halted at her house soon after,
and a spy informed the leader as to the patriot force. To warn them she
slipped out of the house, bridled a colt, and, without a saddle, had
galloped to warn her friends. She had scarcely disappeared on a differ-
ent road homeward, when the dragoons and mounted riflemen dashed in,
supposing that they had completely surprised the Americans, till a tre-
mendous volley in front and on both flanks told them they must fight
504 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
desperately, as they did for twenty minutes, when they broke and re-
treated, leaving many dead on the field.
Francis Marion was as successful as Sumter in his operations, and,
by hardihood and daring, no less than by the republican simplicity of
his life, astonished the enemy and secured their respect.
Washington was not insensible to the condition of the Southern
States. He sent Baron de Kalb from Maryland with such troops of
the line as he could spare. This brave, upright officer advanced with
caution, gathering and disciplining the militia from Virginia and North
Carolina. He moved with caution, as he found difficulty in obtaining
provisions, and did not wish to expose his raw troops rashly. Wash-
ington wished General Greene to take full command in the South, but
Congress, led away by Gates' Saratoga renown, appointed him to the
command. General Gates joined de Kalb's army late in July. Aban-
doning the cautious course adopted by de Kalb, he pushed on towards
the English through a barren country. -
On the 13th of August he reached Clermont, with an army of four
thousand men. Lord Rawdon, who commanded the British force,
was at Camden, and saw that he must strike a decisive blow or retreat.
The latter step would be disastrous, as he would have to leave his
stores and his sick, and might never reach Charleston at all, if there
should be a general rising of the people.
Cornwallis hastened to join him, and resolved to fight. About ten
o'clock on the night of the 15th, Gates moved out to attack Corn-
wallis, and Cornwallis marched out to attack Gates, neither of them
aware of his opponent's movement. Suddenly, on a gentle slope in the
midst of an open forest of pine, the heads of the two armies met about
two o'clock. The American cavalry was driven back in some confusion,
MRS. BRATTON. HEROICALLY TEFYING CAPTAIN HUCK.

THE UNITED STATES. 505
and both armies prepared for a general action. Each army had its flanks
protected by an impassable swamp. Gates placed de Kalb and his regu-
lars on his right, the centre and left being militia. Against these
Cornwallis threw his veterans. The militia gave one irregular volley,
and then, throwing away their arms, fled from the field. One North
Carolina regiment alone stood its ground beside de Kalb's brave men.
That capable general held his ground, and even drove Lord Rawdon
back : and when Gates fled from the field, he endeavored to hold the
positions abandoned by the militia, against the whole British force.
Ably supported by Generals Gist and Smallwood, he kept the enemy
at bay for nearly an hour, with the Maryland and Delaware troops,
who had won laurels on northern fields. Gathering up for a decisive
charge, de Kalb put himself at the head of a regiment. On they
swept, but de Kalb fell, pierced by eleven womads'.His Aide-de-camp,
de Buysson, tried to save him from the brutal, énemy, who continued
to strike at him, and was wounded in the attempt. They then stripped
the dying general even of his shirt.
No longer sustained by the presence of their general, the brave
American corps gave way, and a small body, under Gist and Small-
wood, effected their retreat. The Delaware regiment was nearly an-
nihilated, the whole army was scattered to the winds ; the whole ar-
tillery, military stores, and ammunition were lost, and the killed,
wounded, and prisoners amounted to at least twelve hundred.
Thus, by the rashness and folly of Gates, the English were estab-
lished in full possession of the Southern States.
Sumter, who had driven the enemy from the Wateree, was startled
on the 18th by tidings of the rout of Gates' whole army. He at once
retreated, but Tarleton was already on his trail, moving rapidly, and
506 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
preventing any tidings from reaching him. Spent with marching and
the heat, Sumter's men threw themselves down to rest at Fishing
Creek. While Sumter, without hat, coat, or waistcoat, was sleeping
beside a wagon, and his men cooking or resting, Tarleton, who had
crept up unobserved, killing the videttes, burst into the camp, and
before the Americans realized their danger, their cannon and their
stacked muskets were in the ‘hands of the enemy. Flight was the
only resource, and in the panic many were killed. With scarcely any
loss, the British killed, wounded, or captured nearly five hundred of
Sumter's men, and took all his artillery and arms, utterly breaking up
his force.
Cornwallis, who had been in a critical position and in great perplex-
ity, was now master of the situation. Gates' army routed, Sumter para-
lyzed, Marion closely pursued, he felt so sure of South Carolina, that he
pressed on to occupy North Carolina, leaving orders to the officers in
his various posts, to punish with severity all who, after accepting
British protection or giving parole, had taken up arms. Numbers of
persons were seized and put to death, multitudes imprisoned, while
their families were driven penniless from their houses, which were seized
as confiscated property. The land was filled with blood and misery.
Cornwallis met no opposition on his march into North Carolina, ex-
cept from Colonel Davie, who not only checked his progress, but bold-
ly surprised Tarleton's legion at Wahab's plantation. Dividing his
men, he put his riflemen in a cornfield, and with his cavalry dashed up
to the house. The enemy fled without a blow, but were met by a
murderous fire from the rifles, which killed or wounded sixty of them.
Then Davie, seizing nearly a hundred horses and more than as many
stands of arms, rode off in Safety.
>
THE UNITED STATES. 5
07
At Charlotte this same able officer, with a handful of men, kept
Cornwallis at bay for a considerable time, and again struck terror into
Tarleton's legion, who at last refused to attack the Americans.
After occupying Charlotte and endeavoring to organize the Tories,
Cornwallis moved on Salisbury, but was suddenly brought to a halt
by a great disaster to the royal cause, which entirely changed his plans.
Major Patrick Ferguson, a brave and active officer, had been sent
to the borders of the Carolinas, to encourage the Tories and check
the movements of the American partisans. He was in command of a
force of nearly fifteen hundred regulars and Tories.
The American partisan officers resolved to cut him off. Far and
wide messengers went, and brave fellows prepared for the work.
From Carolina and Tennessee they began to move towards the spot,
under Colonels Shelby, Sevier, Campbell, McDowell, Cleaveland.
Ferguson sent at once in haste to Cornwallis, and began to retreat. So
rapidly, however, did the foe come on, that he saw any attempt at flight
would be useless. Reaching King's Mountain, a range extending for
Several miles, he took post on a stony ridge rising about a hundred
feet above the surrounding ravines. Here, in the scattered wood, he
resolved to await the attack. The Americans came up on the 7th of
October ; Shelby and Campbell in the centre began the attack, while
the others enclosed the hill. Then all dismounted and at once pushed
up the slopes. The American centre were met by Ferguson's regulars,
and in a bayonet-charge forced back. At it they went again with des-
perate valor. Cleaveland, on the right of the enemy, reached the sum-
mit, when Ferguson, turning on him, forced him back. Then again meet-
ing the centre, he held him at bay till Sevier, on the American right,
gained the hill and drove the left wing before him.
508 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Surrounded on all sides, Ferguson rushed from regiment to regiment,
encouraging some, directing others, and showing the most undaunted
valor, till a well-aimed rifleball brought him down. Then Captain
Abraham de Peyster, a New York loyalist, took command, but soon
found resistance hopeless. After an action of little more than an hour,
the British commander raised a white flag.
Eleven hundred and twenty-five men were killed, wounded, or cap-
tured in this battle, one of the most obstinately contested in the war.
The Americans, roused to fury by the cruelty and oppressions of the
British and Tories, were determined to carry the day; although they
were comparatively untried troops, and fewer in number than the
enemy.
This victory crushed all Tory influence in North Carolina. Corn-
wallis, who heard of Ferguson's defeat and death almost as soon as he
received his call for aid, retreated in all haste to Winnsborough, and
waited there for reinforcements, which he called for most earnestly.
Sumter was constantly hovering around the English forces, cutting
off foraging parties, intercepting supplies, and keeping all in con-
stant alarm. They felt that they must at any sacrifice punish his au-
dacity. Major Wemyss was sent to surprise the daring American,
but was himself received so warmly that his party was nearly cut to
pieces, the British officer being left wounded and a prisoner in Sumter's
hands.
Then Tarleton was again sent, and Sumter met him at Blackstock's
plantation. Tarleton came on with his usual dash, but before he could
charge, or even see Sumter's line, his rear was attacked and nearly
captured. Wheeling to charge these assailants they fell back across a
brook and up the slope of a hill, followed by Tarleton, who thought he
THE UNITED STATES. º 509
was sweeping all before him, when from fences and buildings came a
murderous fire from unseen foes. He tried to dislodge the Americans,
who were closing around him, and but for the gallantry of one of his
officers, who by a brave charge opened a way for Tarleton to retreat,
that officer would have been captured.
This closed the operations of the year in the South. That section
had displayed courage, devotedness, and heroism in the highest degree;
and had suffered in every way from the relentless foe
The previous winter had been so severe, that no operations of im-
portance were undertaken on either side, at the North, for several
months. Washington, awaiting the result of Lafayette's mission to
France, to secure a land force to co-operate with the Americans, lay
encamped at Morristown, in a strong mountain country.
The English had no foothold in New Jersey, yet they kept up a
post on Staten Island, and though Lord Stirling, early in th
e
Vy
rear, at-
tempted to break it up, his expedition effected nothing.
In June Sir Henry Clinton resolved to use Staten Island as the base
of operations, and to push forward force enough to seize and hold the
Short Hills, the key to Washington's position. It was to be one of the
decisive movements of the war. New York Bay was alive with boats
and crafts of all kinds, bearing to the island the Coldstream Guards
and the flower of the British host. *
General Knyphausen, with Generals Stirling, Mathew, and Tryon,
were in command. By night the troops passed over to Elizabethtown
Point. With day they advanced on the town, Simcoe's Queen's Ran-
gers in the van, with drawn swords and glittering helms, followed by
regiment after regiment, all in new uniforms, splendidly armed and
equipped.
510 - A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Colonel Dayton gave them a slight check, wounding General Stirling,
but Knyphausen pressed on through Elizabeth. As soon as he took
the Springfield road his object was seen. A beacon-fire was lighted
at Prospect Hill and a signal cannon fired. Washington, at Morris-
town, at once put his army in motion, and far and wide the militia re-
sponded to the call, gathering at their appointed mustering-places.
Beyond the village of Connecticut Farms, Dayton made a stand, and
for three hours held the enemy in check, at the defile near the Farm
Meeting-house, and even drove the enemy back.
The few Continentals and militia here engaged finally fell back to the
heights toward Springfield. Again Knyphausen pressed on, and again
the Sturdy Americans charged rapidly, attacking the enemy simulta-
neously in the centre and both wings, but they were again forced back
by the steady discipline of the mass of regulars. But they held the
bridge over the Rahway, and drove the enemy from it.
Washington was now so near, that Knyphausen, seeing his plan de-
feated, began to retreat. He plundered all the houses in Connecticut
Farms, and then Wantonly set them on fire, although there had been no
firing from any part of the village. The wife of the Rev. Mr. Cald-
well, a Presbyterian clergyman, was murdered by one of the English
soldiers, as she sat on the side of a bed surrounded by her children;
and this fiendish act was perpetrated just after the unfortunate lady
had given refreshments to some English officers. Her body was saved
with difficulty from the burning house.
Pursued by the militia, the English retreated that night during a ter-
rific thunder-storm, the darkness lit up by the flaming houses, and by
the lightning. On reaching the Point, they crossed over to Staten
Island, all except five hundred, who remained in an intrenched camp.
THE UNITED STATES. 511
Here they were attacked by General Hand, in a brief, indecisive
action.
The movement was, however, too important in Clinton's eyes to be
readily abandoned. Making a feigned movement up the Hudson, he
threw a still larger force over on Staten Island, and thence to Eliza-
bethtown Point, taking command himself in person.
Again through the pleasant town of Elizabeth moved a well-appoint-
ed British force, with cavalry and fine artillery. At the ruined houses
of Connecticut Farms they divided into two columns, one taking the
road through Vauxhall and Milburn, the other the Springfield road.
The former was checked at the bridge in front of Springfield, by Colo-
nel Angell, the latter at another bridge by Major Lee. But these
checks were only momentary. The British finally crossed the river,
and the Americans fell back to the heights behind Springfield
The country was all aroused, and Washington was sending reinforce-
ments, and a brigade to cut off the retreat of the enemy. Clinton saw
the strong position of the Continentals, and the increasing militia. He
was again baffled. The Short Hills were not to be captured but at a
fearful cost of life. Foiled completely in his object, he prepared to re-
treat, but wreaked his vengeance on Springfield, giving to the flames
nineteen dwellings, and the Presbyterian church.
During the action, the Rev. Mr. Caldwell, chaplain to Dayton's regi-
ment, seeing that the men needed wadding, galloped to the church,
and brought out an armful of psalm books, and as he handed them
around, he shouted : “Now, boys, put Watts into them l’’ He could .
not bear to see the murderers of his poor wife triumph.
As Clinton retreated, a body of regulars and militia pursued and
galled his force by constant attacks in the rear and flanks, till at last
512 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
the fugitive Britons escaped into their fortified lines at the Point, and
by a bridge of boats reached Staten Island.
The American loss had been slight; the British lost a general, and at
least five hundred men in killed and wounded.
Washington, supported by the gallantry of New Jersey, had thus
baffled the generalship of Sir Henry Clinton, but he was full of anxiety.
The power of Congress was declining, its requisitions on the States were
disregarded, each State seemed to think only of itself, and seemed re-
luctant to obey the general government. So low had the public credit,
and the Continental money fallen, that the army was kept together and
clothed by Subscriptions among the patriotic, and by the self-sacrifice
and industry of the women, who formed societies, and all labored to
Supply the necessary garments.
Among those most prominent in this good work, was Mrs. Sarah
Bache, daughter of Benjamin Franklin. She had taken an active part
in organizing a Society of ladies to furnish the soldiers with clothing,
and, on the death of Mrs. Reed, Mrs. Bache and four other ladies
formed a Sort of Executive Committee. The house of her father, where
she still resided, became a patriotic workshop. Here shirts and other
garments were cut out and made up ; money was also collected. She
was ardent, patriotic, and eloquent, and in her applications she showed
such perseverance and tact, that she wrung contributions from the most
reluctant.
º
º
M. C. E. N. P. K.E.A.R.N E-

MRS. STEELE & Gº! GIRºº.

CHILD’S HISTORY OF THE
UNITED STATES.
—º-
---
P A R T IV.
THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTION.
—º-—
-º-
CHAPTER I.
Effective aid from France on Sea and Land—Zealous and successful Efforts of Lafayette in
Favor of America—A Fleet under Admiral de Ternay brings over a French army under the
Count de Rochambeau—It lands at Newport—Hopes of America—Washington calls earn-
estly for Troops to enable him to strike a Decisive Blow—A Traitor—General Arnold in
Treaty with the Enemy to deliver up West Point—The Arrest of Major Andre reveals and
Defeats the Treachery—Arnold escapes to the English—Andre tried and executed.
THE settlement of the country, and its rapid development and
strength, were followed by acts of oppression on the part of the British
Government. The struggle which began at Lexington, had now lasted
several years. England had spent millions upon millions, and had
achieved so little that she seemed to look only to the injury she could
inflict on her once prosperous colonies, while America, exhausted by
the struggle, with her cities and fields ravaged and laid waste, seemed
unable to make the last effort for freedom.
In fact, all were despondent. Lafayette had studied the whole situ-
4 - A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
ation, and, risking capture by English cruisers, had gone to France, to
plead at the throne of Louis XVI. the cause of the country whose in-
terests were so dear to him.
There his enthusiasm and importunity overcame all obstacles. His
private means were spent in obtaining suitable equipments for the offi-
cers in his own immediate corps, and articles of prime necessity to all.
With the King and his Ministers, he employed such cogent arguments
that he finally induced the court to enter into his views. France re-
solved to send an army of her best soldiers across the Atlantic, to co-
operate with Washington, while the fleets with the white-lilied flag of
France held in check those that floated the Union Jack of England.
So much did Lafayette ask, and so much did he obtain, against the
advice of prudent old statesmen, that the prime minister, the Count de
Maurepas, said one day at the council-board : “How fortunate it is for
his Majesty, that Lafayette has not taken it into his head to strip Wer-
sailles of its furniture to send to his dear Americans; for the King
would be unable to refuse it.”
When the great step had been decided upon, Lafayette hastened
back to cheer General Washington with the glad tidings.
The French officers had caught the enthusiasm of Lafayette ; every
one was ready to take his place in the army sent to aid in securing
liberty in the Western World, while many, still smarting under the loss
of Canada, were eager to meet their old foes in America, and help to
deprive England of a richer territory than she had wrested from
France. The regiments for the American expedition were at last
selected ; an experienced general chosen ; then the equipments were
rapidly prepared.
On July 12, 1780, a French fleet of twelve vessels and thirty-two
A CHILD'S HISTORY. 5.
transports, under the Chevalier de Ternay, entered the harbor of New-
port. It bore a French army, commanded by the Count de Rocham-
beau, and numbering four thousand men. They had sailed from Brest,
on the 2d of May, and passed around by the Azores, engaging on the
way an English Squadron, under Captain Cornwallis. An English fleet,
under Admiral Graves, sailed from England on the same day, to inter-
cept de Ternay, but was driven back by a storm and did not overtake
him. Rochambeau, who was received by General Heath, landed his
troops and military stores, and encamped so as to cover Newport.
The long voyage had caused much sickness in his fleet, and many at:
once required medical care. The French were not, consequently, in a
condition to make any important movement.
Washington had strained every nerve to have his army in a condi-
tion to compare favorably with that of his ally, before they began their
campaign together. His great object was to take New York, where
the English had so long been in undisturbed possession. A plan for
the capture of the city was drawn up, and conveyed to General Ro-
chambeau, by Lafayette, who had returned from France just before the
sailing of the French corps. Rochambeau was to march to West-
chester County, New York, and join Washington, while the French.
fleet engaged that of the enemy under Arbuthnot. Graves arrived,
however, with his fleet, and the English were in this way far Superior
to the French on the water.
Clinton, with his usual energy, resolved to lose no time, and instead
of waiting to be attacked, if de Guichen's fleet arrived from the West
Indies to reinforce de Ternay, he resolved to attack Newport. The
English fleet at once sailed to blockade that port, and Clinton embarked.
with eight thousand of his best men to operate on land. Tidings of
6 - A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
his movement moved faster than he did, and at the call of General
Heath, the militia of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island,
took the field. New England was in arms, and as Clinton sailed up the
Sound, he saw evidences of active preparation. By the time he reach-
ed Huntington Bay, Long Island, he saw that his movement would
prove disastrous, and he returned hastily to New York, full of disap-
pointment and perplexity. If de Guichen arrived he would be taken
in a trap at New York. So he prepared for the worst; but the
French admiral had met Rodney in the West Indies, and in a furious
naval battle with that English commander, had suffered so severely
that he started back to France without stopping at Newport. This
was a terrible disappointment to Washington, while to Clinton it was an
unexpected release.
Yet Washington did not give up all hope. He met the French com-
manders at Hartford, and arranged a new plan, but the arrival on the
coast of Admiral Rodney, with eleven men-of-war, baffled all their
plans. The meeting of the great American general and the French
commanders, at Hartford, was impressive. The French were eager to
See the great patriot general, whom in early life they had regarded as
So great an enemy, now their ally against the very power for which he
then fought. Washington impressed them all. No French officer ever
spoke of him but in terms of admiration.
While this cordial co-operation of the French gave Washington
hope, the difficulties in the country made him despond. Half the time
his army was without provisions, and he saw no hope of a permanent
change. He had no magazines, and no money to form them. He saw
that Congress must raise money by loan, and not depend on taxes
alone: it must take plans to maintain a permanent army.
THE UNITED STATES. - 7
While his mind was thus burdened by great cares, on his return
from the conference, a terrible surprise came upon him. He sent on
word to General Arnold, at West Point, that he would breakfast with
him, but on reaching the post, found Arnold absent. Soon after papers
were placed in his hands. Arnold had fled to the British lines; a Brit-
ish officer who had come to arrange with him the treacherous deliver-
ance of the post into Sir Henry Clinton's hands was a prisoner. Well
might Washington be thunderstruck to find that one who had fought
so bravely on many a field had proved a traitor. Providence had
overruled the deep-laid schemes of treachery.
Arnold, a disappointed man, unable to bear as Washington did the
slights put upon him, and led into extravagance by his wife, had long
plotted treason to his country.
Sir Henry Clinton lured him to his evil work, by promises of rank in
the English army, and a large payment of money. Arnold obtained
the command at West Point only to deliver it up.
Washington's absence at Hartford afforded the opportunity he de-
sired. Sir Henry Clinton dispatched his adjutant-general, Major An-
dré, to concert the necessary measures with the treacherous Ameri-
can general. André did not wish to enter the American lines, and
asked to meet Arnold on the Vulture, an English man-of-war, then
lying in the Hudson, but Arnold declined, and they met in the gloom
of night, at the foot of a great hill, called Long Clove Mountain, just
below Haverstraw. There and, a few hours later, at Smith's house, the
whole plan was arranged.
André intended to proceed to the Vulture, and in her descend to
New York; but, without Arnold's knowledge, a battery had opened on
that vessel, and she dropped down. Unable to find any one to row.
8 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
him to the Vulture, he crossed the river at King's Ferry, and in dis-
guise. endeavored to reach the British lines. Near Tarrytown, a small
stream crosses the road, and runs through a deep ravine. André, who
had been guided by Smith as far as Pine's Bridge, had reached this
point, when he was stopped by John Paulding, Isaac Van Wart, and
David Williams, three young Americans, out to arrest Suspicious
characters. “Gentlemen!” said André, “I hope you belong to our
party.” “What party?” said Paulding. “The Lower Party,” re-
plied André. On their telling him that they did, he said, “I am a Brit-
ish officer, out in the country on particular business, and I hope you
will not detain me a minute.” Pulling out Arnold's pass, he dismount-
ed, and urged them to let him proceed, or they would bring themselves
into trouble, by thwarting the General's business which he had in hand.
The pass was all right, and they would have let him go had he not said
that he was a British officer, and showed a gold watch, which at that time
seems to have been proof positive that the owner was in British pay.
They took André into the bushes, and compelled him to strip to ex-
amine him. They found no papers, and began to think that they were
wrong, when, on drawing off his boots, they found papers between his
foot and stocking. They were documents from Arnold, giving the posi-
tion of the force at West Point, its strength, artillery, etc. Now thor-
oughly alarmed, André endeavored to buy them off, but they sturdily
refused. “No 1" said Paulding, “if you would give us ten thousand
guineas, you shall not stir one step.”
They conducted their prisoner to North Castle, the nearest military
post, and delivered him and the papers to Lieutenant-Colonel Jameson.
That officer, evidently bound to Arnold by some secret tie, attempted
to send André and the papers to that discovered traitor. Major Tall-
PAULDING. van waist, and WI: LLAMs capturiNG MAJOR ANDRB.

THE UNITED STATES. 9.
madge coming in prevented this, but Jameson sent word to Arnold of
André's arrest.
The traitor was at breakfast with his aides, when Jameson's letter
was placed in his hands. Controlling himself, he apologized for leaving
them, as urgent business required him to start at once. Hastening up
stairs, he told his wife the failure of the plot, and leaving her in a
swoon, he hastened to the river-side, and in a boat made his way to the
Vulture.
Such was the astonishing intelligence placed in Washington's hands.
The unfortunate André, detained by Tallmadge's wise resolution, wrote
to Washington, acknowledging his real name and rank. He was by
Washington's orders conveyed to West Point.
After making all the arrangements necessary for the safety of that
post, Washington appointed a court-martial for the trial of André. It
met in an old Dutch Church at Tappan. This court, composed of Gen-
erals Greene, Stirling, St. Clair, Lafayette, Steuben, Stark, and others
of the noblest sentiments, decided that Major André ought to be consid-
ered a spy, and suffer death. He was executed on the 2d of Octo-
ber, 1780.
Young, brave, talented, a general favorite with all, Major André's
fate excited the greatest sympathy in England. The fate of Captain
Hale has never met any such sympathy, and many Americans, even,
join in the English tide of opinion, forgetful of their own heroic Hale.
André now lies in Westminster Abbey, to which his body was re-
moved by the British Government in 1821.
Clinton made every effort to save André, but nothing short of the
surrender of Arnold would have availed him.
The desertion of Arnold, and the audacity with which he made re-
10 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
ligion a pretext for his treason, roused the indignation of every Ameri-
can. There was one thought in all minds, to capture and punish the
traitor. A bold, and almost desperate attempt was made by Sergeant
Champe, who, with Washington's knowledge, deserted to the enemy in
such a way that officers and men believed him a fit companion for Ar-
nold. The English did so, for he was rescued by them from the pur-
suit of American cavalry by some galleys in the river.
He enlisted in Arnold's legion, and formed a plan, by the aid of some
patriots in the city, to seize Arnold in the garden back of his house,
which he always entered about midnight. They were then to gag him
and row him over to Hoboken. On the very day fixed for the execu-
tion of this bold plan Arnold changed his quarters, and the opportu-
nity was lost.
The remarkable manner in which Arnold's treachery, so nearly car-
ried out, was defeated and brought to nought, excited admiration
on all sides. Washington himself said in a letter to a friend : “In no
instance since the commencement of the war, has the interposition of
Providence appeared more remarkably conspicuous, than in the res.
cue of the post and garrison at West Point.”
Among the closing events of this year's campaign was the brilliant
achievement of Major Benjamin Tallmadge, who, starting from Fair-
field, Connecticut, with eight boats, with eighty men of Sheldon's dra-
goons, crossed Long Island Sound, and at dawn on the 23d of Novem-
ber, unperceived by the enemy, rushed in three columns on their
works at Fort St. George, on the south side of Long Island. With
the cry of “Washington and Glory,” the three detachments scaled
the palisade and entered, carrying the main work within at the point
of the bayonet in less than ten minutes. After the British struck
THE UNITED STATES. 11
their flag, some of them, from one of the houses, opened a fire on the
Americans. The place was soon forced, and the violators of the rules
of war punished on the spot.
An English vessel lying near attempted to escape, but the guns of
the fort soon brought her to. After destroying a large quantity of
forage collected by the enemy at Coram, as well as the works at Fort
St. George, and much of the stores, Tallmadge loaded his prisoners
with what was most valuable and portable, and, reaching his boats,
sailed back in safety.
This exploit was all the more welcome to the patriots, as two little
forts in Northern New York had just been forced to yield to Major
Carleton, who invested them with a force of English, Tories, and
Indians: while Sir John Johnson was spreading terror through the
Mohawk Valley, with Brant and Cornplanter to aid him in his work of
desolation. The Middle Fort would have been surrendered by the
cowardly Major Woolsey, the commandant, but for Timothy Murphy,
a famous rifleman, who shot every Englishman who approached with a
flag, and so deceived Johnson as to their forces that he drew off. Dur-
ing all the fight Woolsey was among the women and children, or
crawling around inside the intrenchments on his hands and knees.
At the Lower Fort, Johnson was again repulsed; but many places
were given to the flames. Near Fort Paris the gallant Colo-
nel Brown, who had by order of General Van Rensselaer marched
out to meet the enemy, was overpowered by numbers and slain with
forty of his men. Van Rensselaer, after sacrificing this able officer,
lost time in pursuing Johnson, but at last took the field and came up
with the enemy at Klock's field. Johnson drew up to meet him, with
regulars on his right, and his Greens in the centre, Brant and his In-
12 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
dians on the left. But so impetuous was the American charge, led by
Morgan Lewis, Dubois, Cuyler, and the Oneidas under Colonel Louis,
that the enemy gave way and fled, losing severely in the action and
flight. But the inactive Van Rensselaer again allowed him to escape
and reach Canada, after many ravages and captures that the American
general should have prevented.
This closed the operations of the year. As winter approached
Washington went into winter-quarters, stationing the Pennsylvania
line near Morristown, the Jersey line at Pompton, near Paterson, the
New England troops at West Point, those of New York at Albany,
while the French remained in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
N
CHAPTER HI.
Campaign of 1781—Aspect of Affairs—Arnold leads an Expedition to Virginia, and is joined
by Phillips—Lafayette sent against him—The Campaign in Carolina—General Morgan's bril-
liant Victory at Cowpens—Greene's famous Retreat—Battle of Guilford Court House—Corn-
wallis, pursued by Greene, enters Virginia—Lord Rawdon in the Carolinas—Battle of Hob-
kirk's Hill–Siege of Ninety-Six—Death of Hayne–Lafayette and Cornwallis in Virginia
—Cornwallis at Yorktown—Washington and De Grasse concert a Movement against him—
Successful Co-operation—Cornwallis invested—Surrenders—Arnold ravages Connecticut.
WHEN the American Revolution began, it was considered in England
as a trifle, a petty insurrection, to be put down at once : it had become
a great and fearfully expensive war, and now the whole continent of
Europe was arrayed against England. France and Spain were openly
at war, and Holland, stung by England's arrogant assumption of a right
to seize enemies' goods on neutral vessels, also became involved in the
war, while Russia, Sweden, and Denmark formed an armed neutrality
which resolved to submit to no British exactions. There was scarcely a .
THE UNITED STATES. 13
clime where English ships and English soldiers were not engaged. This
made it all the more difficult to maintain their foothold in America. But
while they could not send over new armies to crush the Americans, the
latter were in a state of exhaustion. Their paper money was worthless,
their army unpaid, and ready to mutiny. On the 1st day of January,
1781, fifteen hundred of the Pennsylvania Line, driven by want, parad-
ed under arms and refused to obey orders. General Wayne rode
out to meet them, but when he drew his pistols on the boldest he was
encircled by a forest of bayonets pointed at his breast. “We respect
you, General, we love you,” said these men of his own State, “but
you are a dead man if you fire. Do not mistake us, we are not going
to the enemy; on the contrary, were they to come out you should
See us fight under you with as much resolution and alacrity as ever :
but we wish a redress of grievances and will no longer be trifled with.”
Congress finally made Satisfactory arrangements with these neglected
men. They showed that they were really patriots by their treatment
of some emissaries whom Clinton sent to win them over to the English
side. They gave them all up to the commanding general, and with
great Satisfaction saw them hanged. -
General Arnold, who had sailed from Sandy Hook on the 19th of
December, on the 30th entered Hampton Roads. No provision
had been made by Virginia, to meet a sudden invasion. So Arnold
Sailed up the James, with twelve hundred men in boats, convoyed by
the Hope and Swift, two small armed vessels. A battery at Hood's
Point, checked them during the night of January 3, 1781. The
next day, Arnold landed at Westover, and marched on Richmond.
Governor Jefferson removed the archives and called out the militia, but
only a few parties assembled, and these fled before Arnold without
14 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
making any resistance. The renegade entered the city, and after de-
stroying the foundry, public stores, and some government papers at
Westham, set fire to many of the public and private buildings in
Richmond. He then retired as rapidly as he had come. As the forces
could be organized, he was pursued, but Arnold succeeded in reaching
Portsmouth, opposite Norfolk. Here he was nearly caught, for the
Eveillé, a French man-of-war, with two large frigates, under de Tilly,
from Newport, entered the Chesapeake, but they were not able to
reach Portsmouth, one of the frigates having actually got aground in
the attempt. Anxious to secure the traitor, Washington proceeded to
Newport, and concerted with Rochambeau a movement of the French
fleet and army against him. Admiral Destouches accordingly sailed,
followed by the British admiral, Arbuthnot, who managed to intercept
the French fleet at the entrance of Chesapeake Bay. A naval battle
ensued, but without a victory on either side. Arbuthnot, however, ef-
fected his object, for Destouches sailed back to Newport, leaving Arnold
safe at Portsmouth, to be watched by the Virginia militia, under Baron
Steuben.
The English commander-in-chief seeing the ease with which Arnold
had reached Richmond, resolved to reinforce him, so as to Scourge
Virginia like the more southerly colonies.
In March, General Phillips was sent to the Chesapeake, with two
thousand men, and being Arnold's superior in rank, took command of
the whole English force in Virginia.
He at once began a course of plunder and destruction. He swept
through the peninsula between the York and James, destroying all the
public stores and tobacco. He then entered Petersburg, where he de-
stroyed immense quantities of tobacco and all the vessels lying in the
THE UNITED STATES. 15
river. Chesterfield Court-House and Manchester experienced the same
fate.
To relieve the State from the destructive inroads, Washington de-
tached General Lafayette, with part of the Northern army, and that
commander entered Richmond just before Phillips entered Manchester,
which lies opposite Richmond, on the James. The English general,
finding that he had an army to confront, retreated down the river.
When General Greene took command of the Southern army, he sent
Morgan to watch the enemy, while he himself strained every nerve to
restore and reorganize the shattered army confided to him. Morgan
had played his part well. By the sudden dash of his cavalry, under
Colonel Washington, at the Tories, near Ninety-Six, whom he sur-
prised and slaughtered almost to a man, he struck terror through the
Tories, and gave hope to the patriots. Cornwallis, anxiously awaiting
reinforcements, had resolved to make no movement till they came, but
he saw the necessity of crushing Morgan. So Tarleton was soon in the
saddle with a thousand men. He advanced with his usual rapidity,
crossing the Ennoree and Tiger. Morgan fell back towards the Broad,
but as Cornwallis was advancing on his rear, he resolved to make a
stand at Cowpens, in Spartanburg District, about three miles south of
the North Carolina line. Here, on some small ridges covered with
heavy red-oak and hickory, Morgan drew up his army; the militia of
the Carolinas, under General Andrew Pickens, were the first line. In
the second stood John Eager Howard, with Virginia veterans and
Continentals, completely concealed by the wood; Washington's cavalry,
with some Carolina mounted men, being in reserve. Morgan renewed
their courage and confidence by a stirring speech, and awaited the at-
tack. Tarleton drove in the American light troops in order to recon-
16 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
noitre Morgan's position, then formed his line, with the light infantry
on the right, his own legion in the centre, and the Seventh regiment on
the left. Then, at the head of his first line, he dashed upon Pickens.
The militia stood firm as a rock, and when the enemy were within forty
or fifty yards, poured in a well-directed volley. Tarleton's line was
staggered, but kept on ; then Pickens fell back, firing steadily, and
formed behind the second line. :
Supposing the victory won, Tarleton, with his usual impetuosity
rushed forward, hoping to make short work of the second line, direct-
ing his cavalry to attack the American left. But as the British horse
advanced, a furious volley from Morgan's reserve emptied many a sad-
dle and threw them into confusion, while Washington's cavalry swept
down upon them, and the American Sabre clashed on the legion hel-
mets with a hearty good-will. The spell was broken, Tarleton's caval-
ry, so long a terror, were driven back with terrible loss in men and
still greater in prestige. - - -
Tarleton himself found his charge met by Howard's stern line. The
fight was furious and deadly, but neither could move the other. Then
Tarleton brought up his reserve, a regular regiment, the Seventy-First,
and with them on one side and the cavalry on the other, again charged
the stubborn American line, that gave him such trouble as he had
never had before. Howard, perceiving that his flanks would be turned,
formed to receive them ; but as some confusion ensued, General Mor-
gan ordered the whole line to fall back.
Seeing this movement, Tarleton thought they were giving way, and
rushed forward in pursuit so madly that his lines were broken. Then
Morgan's voice rang out. His line halted, faced about, and hurled
into the disordered English masses such a withering volley that it was
GRACE AND RACHEL. MARTIN ARRESTING Two English officers.

THE UNITED STATES. 17
staggered, confused, and began to retreat. Then Howard's Continen-
tals, fixing bayonets, charged in a solid mass, and the British column
Was sent Whirling back in utter disorder. In vain Tarleton's cavalry
tried to cover the retreat; Washington was upon them, and again the
British horse fled. .
Tarleton escaped with forty of these cavalry, and some more subse-
quently reached Cornwallis' camp; his infantry was almost entirely
killed or taken, with his cannon, arms, Wagons, and colors. On this
bloody day the English had almost as many officers killed as Morgan
had men ; Morgan's killed and wounded being only seventy-two,
While Tarleton's loss was two hundred and thirty-nine killed and
Wounded, and five hundred prisoners. Cornwallis, dismayed at a re-
Sult so utterly unexpected, acted with decision ; he destroyed his bag-
gage and heavy stores, retaining only what was absolutely neces-
Sary, and started in pursuit of Morgan.
That general, anticipating such a movement, left the wounded pris-
oners at Cowpens with surgeons, and that evening crossed the Broad,
beginning a retreat which is one of the most famous in history.
The fords of the Catawba was the point that he must reach. Corn-
Wallis, actually nearer to it, was pressing on to intercept him. On the
evening of January 28th, Morgan reached Sherrard's Ford, and the
next day the militia passed it with his prisoners, Morgan himself in
the rear, with his Continentals and cavalry. Two hours later the
British Van reached the southern bank. It was too late to cross that
night, but before morning heavy rains made the ford impassable, and
there Cornwallis was forced to remain for three days, waiting for the
Waters to Subside.
Morgan sent forward his prisoners and captured stores and arms,
18 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
and then, with the Mecklenburg and Rowan militia, under General Da-
vidson, who had rallied to his aid, prepared to check Cornwallis.
Greene himself, leaving his main army under the command of General
Huger, hastened to Morgan's camp and took command. Cornwallis at
last resolved to force a passage at McCowan's ford. Here General
Davidson was posted. As the English column was approaching the
militia gave them a volley, but the English, avoiding their position,
moved farther up, and some, reaching land, formed and replied. Da-
vidson kept up his fire on those in the water and on land, killing the
highest English officer on the shore and unhorsing Lord Cornwallis, who
was still crossing. But the militia could not alone hold out against
the British force, and while retreating in a masterly manner, General
Davidson was shot through the heart.
General Greene on this resumed the retreat, anxious and harassed
as to his future plans, and in great distress for money. Alighting one
day, wet with rain, at the door of a hotel kept by Mrs. Steele, Greene
told Dr. Reed, who greeted him on the porch, that he was tired out,
hungry, and penniless. He sat gloomily down by the table in a room
to which he was shown, to await some refreshments. Instead of these
the landlady, who had overheard his remark, came in bearing two
small bags of specie, the savings of years, and handing them to the
general, she exclaimed : “Take these, General, you need them ; I can
do without them.” Such was the spirit of the undaunted women of
the South, ready to sacrifice everything for the cause of freedom.
Small as the offering was, it met a pressing want, and was thankfully
received by the General. His retreat was another race, the English
pushing on in close pursuit, so that their van was often in sight of the
American rear. Greene, however, crossed the Yadkin, on the night
A CHILD’s HISTORY. 19
between the 2d and 3d of February, after a sharp skirmish in which he
lost a few of his wagons. But he secured all the boats to prevent
Cornwallis from using them. The British commander reached the riv-
er too late to cross in the darkness. Again the opportunity slipped
from his grasp. A night of storm swelled the river, so that daylight
showed him the Americans beyond, and no ford or boats to reach them.
From the English artillery, a furious cannonade was opened on the
American camp, and directed especially against a small cabin among
the rocks, in which General Greene had established his head-quarters.
Here the American general was busy writing orders, dispatches, re-
ports, indifferent to the cannonade, although the balls tore off boards
from the frail structure.
Baffled, but not disheartened, Cornwallis marched up the river to
seek a ford, and General Greene, released from immediate pursuit,
pressed on.
On the 7th of February he formed a junction with the forces under
Generals Huger and Williams, at Guilford Court-House, thus uniting
all the army : but, till he received reinforcements, he did not wish to
risk a battle with Cornwallis. So he still kept on towards the Dan.
Cornwallis struck for the same point, both armies making daily most
extraordinary marches, tasking the endurance of their men to the very
utmost, without tents, with scant provisions, over wretched roads, and
through heavy rains ; the Americans, ragged and barefoot, marking their
route by their blood. .
Greene passed the Dan on the 14th, with his army, baggage, and
stores, having safely effected his masterly retreat of more than two
hundred miles.
Cornwallis, abandoning the pursuit, resolved to rouse the Tory spirit
20 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
in North Carolina, and sent Tarleton to the country between the Haw
and Deep rivers, to encourage the adherents of the English cause.
To thwart these plans of Cornwallis, Greene detached Lieutenant-Col-
onel Lee and General Pickens, to gain the British front, and check
any Tory movement. Getting on Tarleton's track, Lee pretended his
party to be a reinforcement sent to that officer. Two scouts of a Tory
party fell into the trap, and the whole body, some four hundred in
number, under Colonel Pyle, were suddenly confronted by Lee and his
men. They opened fire on the Americans, however, but the superior
discipline of Lee's command made the struggle a short though bloody
one. Nearly a hundred of the Tories were slain on the spot, and al-
most every survivor wounded, without the loss of an American on
Lee's side. Tarleton was only a mile off, but when some of the surviv-
ors of Pyle's party came dashing into his line wild with terror, their
exaggerated accounts so alarmed him that he recrossed the Haw in hot
haste, and did not draw bridle till he reached Hillsborough, cutting
down on the way a Tory party hastening to join him, as nothing
could convince him that they were not Lee's troopers in disguise.
In a few days after this blow, Greene, who did not believe in letting
things stagnate, moved on the enemy, recrossing the Dan into North
Carolina. Cornwallis at once retreated from Hillsborough. Greene
followed him up, and hovering around Troublesome Creek, made him-
Self very troublesome to his Lordship, moving in one direction one day,
in another the next, scouring the country with his light troops, and
perplexing him beyond measure, while it gave his own men confidence
and courage, and lessened their respect for their antagonists. So high
had Greene brought up the spirit of his men, that a small detachment
at Wetzell's mill held at bay for a considerable time the very flower
THE UNITED STATES. 21
of the British force. At last Cornwallis took post on the Alamance,
and here Greene, who had received reinforcements from Virginia and
North Carolina, resolved to give him battle, and advanced to Guilford
Court-House. Cornwallis, seeing his object, sent off his baggage and
stores under a strong guard, and moved out to meet General Greene on
the way, or attack him in his encampment.
Tarleton, supported by a brigade of the Guards, led the British line,
but had not gone far before they were confronted by Lee, who opened
by some irregular skirmishing, then suddenly made a furious dash, cut
to pieces a section of the British dragoons, and drove the remainder in
upon the Guards, whom Lee next attacked, inflicting severe loss,
sweeping all before him, till Cornwallis ordered up a fresh regiment,
the Welsh Fusileers. Then Lee fell back, and Cornwallis pushed
on till he came in sight of Greene. The American general was
drawn up on a large hill surrounded by other hills, most of them still
covered by woods, with dense undergrowth. His first line, occupying
the edge of the wood and two cleared fields, consisted of North Caro-
lina militia, under Generals Eaton and Butler. The second line in the
wood comprised Stevens' and Lawson's Virginia militia, while in a third,
on a hill, were stationed the Continental troops of the Maryland and
Virginia line.
Cornwallis drew up his army, and about one o'clock moved forward
with steadiness and composure upon the American forces. Greene's first
line opened an irregular fire, but when the British replied with a steady
volley, and charged with fixed bayonets, the militia turned and fled
through the second line. There the Virginia militia stood firm, while
Lee on their left, and Colonel Washington on the right, so galled the
enemy that he had to call up his reserves. For a time this brave
22 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
body of militia contended for victory with the best troops and ablest
officers in the British service, but at last it was forced to yield, and, re-
tiring, formed again behind the Continentals; though Campbell's rifles
and the Legion infantry still held their ground.
The first attack of the enemy was steadily repulsed by the sturdy
Continentals, but when other English troops came up, the second Mary-
land broke before the charge of the guards and grenadiers who pursued
them, till Colonel Gurley, with his veteran Marylanders, whom
the English had not seen, wheeled, and taking the British in the flank,
opened a destructive fire. The British, surprised at this unexpected at-
tack, met it with great resolution. A fierce conflict ensued. Small-
wood's veteran Marylanders, who had met the English at Brooklyn,
Chatterton Hill, Germantown, Camden, and Cowpens, were full of ardor
to achieve honor and fame. The English Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart
fell by the hand of Captain Smith, of the Maryland line. The fall of
their brave commander disheartened the Guards, they began to Waver,
when Colonel Washington's horse dashed down on them, and, Colonel
Howard ordering a charge of bayonets, the Guards were almost anni-
hilated. Americans and fugitives, in almost an inextricable mass, came
rolling towards Lord Cornwallis, who, massing his artillery, opened a
furious fire on friend and foe.
Howard's own regiment, meanwhile, was again attacked by Web-
ster and O'Hara with all the troops they could gather : and still far-
ther off, Campbell's militia was holding the Hessians at bay.
Greene felt that he had done enough, and ordered a retreat, which
he effected without loss, though pursued by the British reserve.
The battle of Guilford Court-House was well fought, and creditable
alike to both generals. It was a victory to Cornwallis, but a victory
TEIE UNITED STATES. 23
that cost him one-third of his army, and such a victory that another
like it would sweep his whole army away. From pursuers the English
became a retreating force, Cornwallis retiring so rapidly from the field
he had just won, that he left nearly a hundred wounded on the field.
Among his trophies were two six-pounders, captured from Burgoyne
at Saratoga, recovered by Cornwallis from Gates at Camden, recap-
tured by Morgan at Cowpens, and now again fallen into English hands.
This battle was the first step in the movements which terminated
in the overthrow of English power. Greene, beaten in the field, was
now pursuing the triumphant victor. -
Cornwallis, retreating rapidly, reached Wilmington. Greene on the
5th of April resolved on a new course, and instead of following up
Cornwallis, resolved to attack Lord Rawdon at Camden. This left
Cornwallis in perplexity. Should he pursue Greene, or make his way
to Virginia and leave Rawdon to fight it out? He settled the question
by marching to Petersburg in Virginia, where, on the 25th of May, he
took command of all the British forces in that State.
Greene moved rapidly down on Camden, but found Rawdon too
strongly posted to justify an attack. Learning, however, that Colonel
Watson was approaching the English general with reinforcements, he
resolved to intercept him. Sending off his heavy artillery and bag-
gage, he moved with celerity, and taking a good position awaited
Watson. Finding that he did not come, he returned to Hobkirk's Hill.
There Rawdon suddenly attacked him. Greene drew up his army
skillfully, and had flanked Rawdon on both sides and was crushing him
with his main body, when a panic arose in one of his best regiments,
the 1st Maryland. It spread to others, and Greene saw the victory
he had all but won slip from his grasp. He retreated to Saunder's
24 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Creek, Colonel Washington covering his march, and finally driving
the enemy's pursuing corps back to Camden.
Lord Rawdon had won the day after a hard fight, but that was all.
He had lost more than a fourth of his men, and reaped no benefit.
Watson did at last reach Rawdon, after being constantly harassed and
attacked by Marion, who, with Lee, on April 23d, captured Fort Wat-
son, a strong stockade, with its garrison of a hundred and fourteen
men. When Watson finally reached Camden, Rawdon marched out to
attack Greene ; but the position of the American general looked too
strong, and remembering Hobkirk's Hill he fell back to Camden, and,
setting fire to all the public buildings in the place, he retreated towards
Charleston, to the terror and dismay of the Tories who had joined him,
but now beheld themselves left to the vengeance of the patriots whom
they had oppressed. -
The English posts were everywhere assailed, and a general alarm
prevailed. Augusta was besieged, and General Pickens was soon
there to command the operations ; Marion was hammering away at
Georgetown, Sumter menaced Orangeburg, and Greene himself was
assailing Ninety-Six, a place so called in early times because it was
ninety-six miles from there to the Cherokee country.
Everywhere the patriots were exulting, and even women felt eager
to show their love of country. Grace and Rachel Martin, two young
married ladies whose husbands were in the field, heard that an Eng-
lish courier, escorted by two British officers, would pass near their
place with important dispatches. Arrayed in their husbands' clothes
and fully armed, they lay in wait in the woods, and as the three horse-
men came galloping on they sprang from the bushes, and presenting
their pistols, demanded the surrender of the party and their dispatch-
THE UNITED STATES.. 25
es. Taken utterly by surprise the officers submitted, gave up the
papers, but were allowed to depart on parole. Their captors van-
ished at once in the woods, and reaching their home resumed their own
dresses, after dispatching the documents to General Greene. They had
scarcely done so when a knock sounded at the door; the English officers,
returning to their starting-point, had stopped at this house to ask ac-
commodation for the night. The ladies, whom the officers did not at all
suspect, drew the story out of them, and then rallied them on being
captured by a couple of lads. “Had you no arms?” asked one of the
ladies with a merry laugh. “Yes!” they replied, “but we were taken
off our guard and had no time to draw them.” It was all the daring
heroines could do to play the part of hostesses without betraying them-
selves; but the two officers rode off next day, without the least idea
that the two fair ladies who had entertained them had been the daring
rebels in the wood.
Fort Motte, the house of the patriotic Mrs. Rebecca Motte, which |
the British had seized and surrounded by a stockade and other works,
was now an important point in the English line of forts. It was gar-
risoned by a hundred and fifty infantry, and some cavalry, under Lieu-
tenant McPherson. Marion and Lee, after their movements against
Watson, invested Fort Motte. They pushed on the works vigorously
and demanded a surrender. McPherson refused, and news soon came
that Rawdon was approaching on his retreat from Camden.
There seemed no way to reduce them in time except by firing the
house. This the American commanders were reluctant to do, as Mrs.
Motte was a widow who had suffered greatly for the cause. When
she heard of their hesitation, she at once told them she was gratified
with the opportunity of contributing to her country's good, and herself
26 - A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
brought a fine bow and arrow which had come from India, to enable
them to send fiery shafts into the roof of her own home. When the
English again refused to surrender, the arrows were discharged. The
roof was soon in a blaze, and the garrison prevented by a field-
piece from all attempts to extinguish the fire. Then McPherson hung
out the white flag and surrendered. -
Augusta was besieged by General Pickens and Colonel Lee, after
the latter had by a splendid dash captured Fort Galphin, where the
English had all their presents for the Indians in their interest—blan-
kets, ammunition, and other articles greatly needed by the Americans.
Of the two forts at Augusta, one, Fort Grierson, manned by a small
body of Georgia Tory militia, was soon attacked, and the men, abandon-
ing the works, were nearly all killed or taken in the attempt to reach
Fort Cornwallis. That was a larger and stronger work, held by nearly
six hundred men, Tories, Creeks, and Cherokees, under Lieutenant-
Colonel Browne, an officer of great ability. A long and obstinate
siege followed. The Americans had to construct towers to command
the enemy's works, while Browne, by sorties, mines, and every arti-
fice skill could command endeavored to baffle them. He was ever on
the alert, and no sooner did he detect a weak point in the American
line than he hurled a mass of men upon it. But his assailants were
sturdy men. In this siege occurred a rare scene in war, a charge of
bayonets met and repulsed. At last, on the 6th of June, Browne Sur- -
rendered, after having sustained very heavy loss.
One English post after another was thus swept away, and Lord
Rawdon, who had fallen back to Monk's Corner, was utterly unable to
save them. His only hope was that reinforcements might arrive in
time to enable him to regain lost ground. But on the 21st of May,
THE UNITED STATES. 27
Ninety-Six was invested by General Greene. It had been fortified
by the best English engineers, and was garrisoned by the very pick
of Northern and Southern Tories. Kosciusko, as engineer, directed
the works of the besiegers, which were steadily pushed forward, as the
Tory commander, Cruger, refused to surrender. Lord Rawdon had re-
ceived the reinforcements he had been looking for so wistfully, and
early in June marched to raise the siege of Ninety-Six. Greene sent
off Marion, Pickens, and Sumter, to hold him in check, and redoubled
his exertions to reduce the place. He cut off the garrison from water,
set fire to the buildings, and at last, on the 18th, made a general as-
sault. One of his columns entered the fort, but another was repulsed
with severe loss. He therefore abandoned the siege and drew off, as
Rawdon, who had eluded Generals Sumter and Marion, was rapidly ap-
proaching. The English general pursued him, but soon after, falling
back to Ninety-Six, evacuated that post and, followed by a herd of
Tories with their families and property, marched toward the Congaree
to meet detachments from Charleston. General Greene at once turned
back to cut him off, and Lord Rawdon retreated to Orangeburg.
Greene, who had been joined by Sumter and Marion, marched on that
place, but finding it too strong to assail safely, contented himself with
cutting off Rawdon's communications, by means of the partisan officers
and cavalry.
Greene's activity, skill, and perseverance gave the English no rest.
Rawdon's health failed and he returned to England, leaving Colonel
Stewart in command. It was a great advantage to General Greene to
have no longer before him the able general who had watched and
baffled him. After resting his troops on the high hills of the Santee,
he moved down late in August to attack the enemy, who were posted
28 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
at Eutaw Springs, about sixty miles from Charleston. Stewart, utterly
unaware of Greene's approach, had sent out a large detachment to
dig sweet potatoes in the plantations, and these were all captured.
When a party of his cavalry were driven in, he drew up his army to
receive the attack. The Americans cautiously approached, but attack-
ed with vigor. The battle soon became warm, and the Americans
were pressing the enemy steadily, when Stewart, bringing up his re-
serve, charged furiously, and Malmedy’s North Carolina regiment was
forced back. Fresh troops of that State were promptly pushed for-
ward. Fiercer than ever raged the battle ; Stewart fought with skill
and valor, and gathering all his strength charged so furiously that
again the American line was broken. Then General Greene moved
up the Virginia and Maryland brigades. With a hearty shout they
charged with fixed bayonets, while the Legion and State troops on the
wings, who had steadily held their own, pressed forward, and, Lee
turning the enemy's flank, Stewart was driven from the field. Major
Majoribanks on the English left alone held his ground, and he repulsed
and captured Colonel Washington, who attempted to cut him off.
Greene's army now poured into the English camp, and broke into
disorder to plunder the tents, which were all standing. Liquor passed
freely around, and a scene of revelry ensued. While a party of To-
ries held the other troops in check at a large brick mansion, Major
Coffin repulsed the American cavalry, and dashed into the camp, cut-
ting down the drunken rabble. Colonel Hampton, of South Carolina,
however, came up, and a desperate cavalry fight ensued in the camp,
till the English horse at last broke and fled, pursued by the Americans.
At the stone house they were compelled to fall back, and Majoribanks
wrested their cannon from them.
A CHILD'S HISTORY. 29
Thus, in this strange battle, the success seemed to waver, but Stew-
art was utterly beaten. Leaving his wounded, he retreated as rapidly
as possible to Charleston, with Marion and Lee hanging on his rear,
cutting off every small party that left the main body.
General Greene returned to the High Hills of the Santee. This
important victory crowned the glory of General Greene. The people
looked up to him as, next to Washington, their greatest general. Con-
gress voted its thanks and a gold medal to the hero of Eutaw Springs.
Among the gallant men who fell on that well-fought field, Lieuten-
ant-Colonel Campbell, of Virginia, deserves to be remembered.
While leading the charge that won the day, he fell mortally wounded,
and as he was borne off, asked who gave way. When told that the
British were fleeing at all points, he replied : “I die contented ’’ and
immediately expired. -
The retreat of Stewart filled the British and their adherents with
such alarm that many posts were abandoned, and the public stores
burnt. At Charleston, the gates were closed, and negroes were driven
out in gangs to fell trees, and impede progress by the road on the Neck.
The battle of Eutaw Springs, crowning the cautious policy of
Greene, closed the war in South Carolina. At the commencement of
the year, that State lay at the mercy of the invaders, completely over-
run by their troops, who held it in a grasp of iron by their series of
strong posts. At its close, the English were cooped up in Charleston,
and durst not venture twenty miles from the city. In November,
Greene moved down, and completely hemmed them in. Then Gener-
al Pickens marched to chastise the Cherokees, for having taken up
arms for the King. They were vanquished, and compelled to purchase
a peace by the cession of lands.
30 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Cornwallis, never dreaming of any such result, but sure that Raw-
don would be able to hold his own, had entered Virginia, and with re-
inforcements sent by Sir Henry Clinton, and the troops already there,
whose command also devolved on him by the death of General Phillips,
felt that he could ravage Virginia, as he had the more Southerly States.
Lafayette had an army of one thousand Continentals, twice as many
militia, and a cavalry force of sixty dragoons. Lord Cornwallis
laughed at this army, and in high glee wrote to England : “The boy
cannot escape me !” He found, however, that Lafayette, young as he
was, was a shrewd and cautious general, and avoided an action, yet
hung near him so that he could not divide his force. He once attempt-
ed to surprise Lafayette, but the Marquis, by getting a bold Jersey
soldier, Charley Morgan, to desert to the enemy, contrived so to mis-
lead and outwit Lord Cornwallis, that he escaped the danger.
Cornwallis entered Richmond in June, but, according to orders from
Sir Henry Clinton, moved down to Williamsburg. From that point
he sent out parties to drive in cattle, but Lafayette was on the Watch,
and one party got a pretty rough handling at Spencer's Ordinary.
Tarleton, however, dispatched against Charlotteville, moved with his
usual celerity, seized a number of the principal men of Virginia, as-
sembled there in convention, as well as a considerable quantity of mil-
itary stores and provisions. The great object of the raid was to secure
the person of the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas
Jefferson; he not only escaped, but saved a large part of the arms and
ammunition. Simcoe, sent against Baron Steuben, forced that general
to retreat in haste.
Cornwallis now crossed the James, and Lafayette, intending to attack
his rear, came upon him at Jamestown Ford, on the 6th of July. His
THE UNITED STATES. - 31
cavalry, supported by the rifles, made a vigorous onset, but Cornwallis,
prepared for such a movement, faced about, and his brigade of veter-
ans, with Hessians, light troops, and artillery, moved in splendid array
upon the American light troops. But the little corps held their own,
and received the English veterans with perfect coolness, keeping up a
steady fire till they were crowded back by overwhelming numbers to-
wards a dense wood. There, unknown to the English, stood Wayne of
Stony Point, with a small body of Continentals. Allowing the light
troops to fall past his corps, pursued by part of the British force, he
gave the word. Without firing a shot he charged with fixed bayonets
on Cornwallis's line. The English, astonished at this sudden attack, at-
tempted to hold their ground, but Wayne, after forcing them back
slightly, coolly withdrew his men, and retired half a mile. Here
Lafayette rallied his somewhat scattered force ; and Cornwallis, suppos-
ing from the boldness of the whole movement that it was a feint to
draw him into a trap, made no attempt to pursue him, but crossed over
to Jamestown Island before morning, with evident haste.
Clinton had called for part of his men, and Cornwallis was hastening
to Portsmouth, to ship them to New York, when new orders came.
Clinton had just received three thousand Hessians from Europe, so that
Cornwallis was to hold what he had. A proper place for a permanent
camp was the next consideration. Portsmouth did not suit, Point Com-
fort was talked of, but Cornwallis finally decided on Yorktown, on the
York river, with the village of Gloucester opposite. The water was
deep, so that the vessels of the royal navy could reach it safely. It
was a place easily defended, open to the sea, so that the troops could
easily embark for any further operations or to retreat.
Meanwhile, Washington was again concerting with the French naval
32. A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
and military commanders, a grand movement by land and Sea. He had
set his heart on the capture of New York, the centre of the British
power. De Grasse, the best of the French admirals yet seen in Ameri-
can waters, was in the West Indies with a very large fleet, and would
soon be on the coast of the United States. So Rochambeau marched
from Rhode Island with the French army, and joined Washington on
the Hudson, while the advance of the American army, under General
Lincoln, began to move down that river, and a vast number of flat-
bottomed boats came down from Albany to convey the troops. Clin-
ton called in all his outposts, and began to fortify his position on New
York Island, to sustain a vigorous siege.
Washington's call for troops had been, as usual, disregarded. He had
not actually men enough to besiege New York, and worst of all, tid-
ings came that De Grasse was sailing to the Chesapeake, not to New
York. -
To make the best of the case, Washington now resolved to move
rapidly down, and by the aid of the French fleet capture Lord Corn-
wallis. Sir Henry Clinton saw his movement, but thought it merely
a trick to draw him out of New York, so he kept on fortifying his posi-
tion. All Washington's movements confirmed his delusion. A bold
push was made at Kingsbridge, men were busy at boats and ovens, till
the combined armies were beyond his reach. On the 30th of August
they entered Philadelphia. The Count de Grasse was the same day
at the mouth of the Chesapeake, and at once in communication with
Lafayette and Washington. His light vessels ran up the Chesapeake
to the Head of Elk, to which Washington and Rochambeau pressed on-
With all speed. Everything worked like a charm. On the 25th of
September the last division reached Williamsburg, and Lafayette's
The M
ARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE, GENERAL IN THE ARMY OF THE REVOLUTION, FROM,
A FRENICH PRINT.


THE UNITED STATES. 33
force encamped there was united to that under Washington and Ro-
chambeau.
Sir Henry Clinton was now awakened to a sense of danger. He
had kept Admiral Graves to resist the French fleet at New York. Now
that Graves was joined by Hood, from the West Indies, he sailed
down to attack de Grasse. As he came in sight, the French admiral,
covering the entrance to the Chesapeake, so that Graves should not
slip in, formed to receive him. A sharp action ensued. De Grasse,
well supported by Vaudreuil, a Canadian, and Bougainville, an old
aide-de-camp of Montcalm, handled the British admiral so roughly that
he gave up all hopes of reaching Cornwallis, or injuring the French
fleet, and sailed back to New York. French troops were landed from
the fleet, and de Barras came up with his squadron from Newport,
bearing the heavy French siege guns.
On the 28th of September the allied army was in motion, and took
up a position within two miles of Cornwallis's line. The Americans
were on the left, the French on the right; across the river, the
British, at Gloucester, were surrounded on the land side by a French
force under de Choisy and General Weedon's Virginia militia.
Cornwallis, cheered by encouraging letters from Sir Henry Clinton pro-
mising speedy relief with a force offive thousand men, prepared to hold out.
The besiegers pushed on their operations, narrowing in their lines
around Yorktown. Continual skirmishes went on, till, on the night of
October 6th, General Lincoln opened his trenches within six hundred
yards of the English works. Cornwallis, on discovering it the next day,
made a desperate attack on the French troops holding the trenches,
but the Baron VioSmenil repulsed the English attack.
On the 9th, the siege guns were all in position, and Washington in
3
34 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
person fired the first cannon from the American line. The French also
opened fire. So fiercely did this artillery play on the English works,
that they withdrew their cannon from the embrasures, and scarcely
fired a shot in reply. Nor was it the enemy's works only that suffered.
Their shipping was cut up, the frigate Charon and three transports
were set on fire, and totally destroyed.
The English resumed their fire with vigor, and two redoubts in front
of their left gave so much annoyance that on the evening of the 14th
they were both attacked. A column of American light infantry, under
General Lafayette, moved upon the redoubt on the right; a column
under Baron de Viosmenil, of French grenadiers and chasseurs, as-
saulted that on the left.
By the pale light, the assaulting parties moved gallantly up without
firing a shot ; over the abattis and palisades they poured, without waver-
ing under the steady English fire. Both redoubts were carried almost
simultaneously, the French losing nearly a hundred men, and captur-
ing a larger English body. These works were at once used by the be-
siegers, and Cornwallis was completely covered by the heavy cannon
directed from all sides.
Yet he did not despair. Clinton's promised aid did not appear, but
he resolved to leave his sick and wounded in his camp, cross over to
Gloucester, and cut his way through to New York. He actually be-
gan to carry out his scheme. Two divisions of his army had reached
Gloucester, when a terrible storm arose. Day revealed his project.
Under a heavy fire, he fell back to his works at Yorktown. All hope
was gone. On the 17th, he opened negotiations. Two days after, the
posts of Yorktown and Gloucester were surrendered to the allied
French and American forces.
THE UNITED STATES. 35
This English army, which had destroyed fifteen millions of dollars
worth of property in Virginia, and which numbered seven thousand
men, became prisoners of war. General Lincoln, who had surrendered
to Cornwallis at Charleston, was appointed to receive his sword.
As rapidly as news could spread, the tidings of this great success ran
through the country. It reached Philadelphia by night, and the watch-
men, calling out the hour, as was the custom, shouted out : “ Cornwallis
has surrendered.” -
The great blow of the war had been struck. Clinton sailed from
New York the very day Cornwallis surrendered. He returned in all
haste, and Washington, after dispatching two thousand men to rein-
force General Greene, moved up to watch Clinton, and prevent any
further barbarous expeditions like that just conducted by Arnold
against New London. At that place, Fort Griswold was ably defended
by Colonel Ledyard. When at last overpowered, he surrendered ; the
British officer on entering cried : “Who commands this fort?” “I did,”
replied Colonel Ledyard, “but you do now,” at the same time present-
ing his sword. The brutal officer seized it and plunged it into his heart.
Then followed an indiscriminate massacre of the Americans. The
bloodthirsty marauders, after pillaging and firing the town, retired.
Some minor hostilities occurred, but it was evident that the war was
over. Parliament soon declared for peace. Negotiations were opened,
and Sir Guy Carleton, who succeeded Sir Henry Clinton, in letters to
Washington, announced that he had virtually suspended hostilities.
In the South, when General St. Clair joined General Greene, Wayne
WaS Sent to protect Georgia. The British general Clarke concentra-
ted his forces at Savannah, but as Wayne was advancing to invest him,
he was suddenly attacked by a strong force of Creeks, who showed
g
36 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
that they had acquired skill and discipline from the English. Wayne
repulsed his savage assailants, and this closed the war in Georgia.
Savannah surrendered in July, 1782.
Charleston alone remained in the hands of the enemy.
In December, Rochambeau's army, which had been in America two
years and a half, and had contributed So well to the great result, em-
barked at Boston.
Washington took up his head-quarters at Newburg, New York, await-
ing the termination of the long negotiations in Europe. At last, on the
30th of November, 1782, a provisional treaty of peace was signed at
Paris, which was approved and ratified by Congress the next year.
The war of the Revolution was ended. America had declared her
Independence, and in a seven years' war had established it.
The army, which had fought so nobly and patriotically, was in a state
of Suffering, with long arrears of pay due them ; with no homes, it
might be said, to welcome them. There were even projects of making
Washington a king, but he nobly repulsed all such offers, and by his
temperate and wise counsels induced them to trust to the justice of
Congress.
On the 19th of April, the cessation of hostilities was proclaimed in
the camp.
On the 30th of November, after the final treaty of peace was signed
(Sept. 3), the British evacuated New York city. Washington en-
tered, as it were, in triumph, and on the 4th of December he took
leave of his companions in arms, the generals who had been so closely
connected with him during the long struggle. His emotions were too
strong to be concealed. Filling a glass of wine, he turned to them
and said: “With a heart full of love and gratitude I now take leave
THE UNITED STATES. 37
of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosper-
ous and happy as your former Ones have been glorious and honorable.”
Each one then grasped in turn the hand of the Father of his Country,
and in silence Washington and his generals parted.
The commander who had swayed the destinies of a continent, now
modestly repaired to Congress, resigned his commission, and returned
to private life at Mount Vernon, astonishing the world by this unwont-
ed spectacle.
38 CHILD’s HISTORY OF
PART V.
THE REPUBLIC UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION AND.
- TJNDER THE CONSTITUTION.
—-º-
---
CHAPTER I.
The return to Peace—Articles of Confederation—Treaties with Foreign Countries—Indian Na-
tions—Northwest Territory organized—A desire for a better Union—A Convention called—
The new Constitution—It is accepted by eleven States—Close of the Continental Congress.
THE great struggle was over, peace once more reigned throughout
America. The army which had so gallantly struggled on through
every adversity was disbanded, and the soldiers had returned to their
homes to engage once more in cultivating the soil, or exercising the
various industries which contribute to a country's wealth. Washing-
ton, crowned with glory, regarded with admiration, not only by his
own country, but in Europe, was in retirement at Mount Vernon, re-
taining none of the power he had so long wielded.
There was much to do, to enable the country to recover from the
desolation of war.
Among the curious anecdotes of the struggle which now became pub-
lic, one of the strangest was that of Deborah Sampson, a young
Woman of Plymouth, Massachusetts, who, disguised as a man, enlisted
THE UNITED STATES. 39
in the army, in October, 1778. By her courage and fidelity as a sol-
dier, she gained the approbation of the officers, and was always ready
for the post of danger. She thus had many adventures, and did not
escape unharmed, having received several wounds. At last a severe
wound in the shoulder compelled her removal to an hospital, where
a brain fever set in, and she was soon supposed to be dead. It was
then for the first time seen that she was a woman. The physician in
charge took her to his house, and gradually restored her to health.
When she recovered, her commanding officer sent the young soldier to
General Washington with a letter. The soldier feared that her secret
had been discovered, and that the letter revealed it to the General-in-
Chief. When she presented the letter, she trembled as she had never
done on the field of battle. Washington allowed her to retire while
he read the letter. He then recalled her, and without a word, handed
her a discharge from the army, and a note containing some words of
advice, and money enough to enable her to reach some place where she
might make her home.
The United States, as recognized by the treaty of peace, embraced
thirteen States, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, to which the District
of Maine then belonged, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, which
claimed Vermont, as New Hampshire did also, New Jersey, Pennsyl-
Vania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, of which Kentucky formed part,
North Carolina, which then included Tennessee, South Carolina, and
Georgia, of which Alabama and Mississippi were then part. The
Mississippi River was, except near the mouth, the western boundary, sep-
arating the new republic from the Spanish territory of Louisiana on
the West. It was separated on the north from the British provinces,
by the great lakes and the St. Lawrence, as far as St. Regis, from
40 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
which a line ran east to the bounds of Maine. Florida was still held by
England, though it was soon after restored to Spain. The country
northwest of the Ohio was the great Indian country, the only whites
being a few of the old French settlers.
The country was governed by the Articles of Confederation, ratified
in 1781, all the powers being vested in Congress, composed of dele-
gates chosen by the various State governments. The President of
Congress was the virtual head of the republic, the personal represent-
ative of the sovereignty of the Union, and the ceremonial of his
household was regulated on that footing, those being days of great dig-
nity in men holding high office. The Presidents of Congress from the
commencement were Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, John Hancock, of
Massachusetts, Henry Laurens, of South Carolina, John Jay, of New
York, Samuel Huntington, of Connecticut, Thomas McKean, of Dela-
ware, John Hanson, of Maryland, Elias Boudinot, of New Jersey,
Thomas Mifflin, of Pennsylvania, Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia,
Nathaniel Gorham, of Massachusetts, Arthur St. Clair, of Pennsylva-
nia, and Cyrus Griffin, of Virginia.
But the government under the Articles of Confederation was found
difficult. Congress could lay no tax or duty. On all important points
it was necessary for a bill to have the votes of nine States before it
could pass, and then at least two members from each State were re-
quired to vote. The heavy debt contracted during the war was still
unsettled, and Congress could not induce the States to pay their several
proportions. The army and the creditors of government were clamor-
ous for money. The question of new States was urgent. Kentucky
and Tennessee wished to be admitted as States, denying the authority
of Virginia and North Carolina; Vermont was ready to join Canada,
THE UNITED STATES. 41
if she was not recognized as a State. Still, with all its weakness, the
new government made Some progress. It concluded treaties with
France, Russia, and Morocco, regulated the currency by adopting
the silver dollar of Spain as a standard, dividing it into a hundred
parts, called cents, thus establishing what is known as the decimal sys-
tem, much easier to calculate than the old pounds, shillings, and pence.
A mint was established in 1786, and copper coin were struck. The
greatest act of this period, was the success of Congress in inducing the
various States to give up all claim to the territory northwest of the
Ohio, for which Congress, July 13, 1787, by a celebrated ordinance,
established a regular government.
The poverty of the country was great. The States, urged by Con-
gress, endeavored to raise means to pay off the army and other debts.
The attempt to lay taxes caused great dissatisfaction. New England
showed the greatest discontent. In December, 1786, a body of insur-
gents in Massachusetts, took the field to obtain a redress of grievances,
and were led by Daniel Shays, who had been a captain in the Conti-
nental army. The Governor of Massachusetts issued a proclamation,
calling on the insurgents to disband, and urging the officers and cit-
izens of the commonwealth to suppress the treasonable work. But
the insurgents stood firm, and held several counties. Massachusetts
then applied to Congress, which raised a little army of one thou-
sand three hundred and forty men, but Massachusetts herself called out
the militia, and General Lincoln, at their head, marched against Shays,
who was threatening Springfield, then, as now, a great arsenal. It
had hardly been occupied by a part of the militia under General
Shepard, before the insurgents attacked it. Lincoln acted with great
energy and judgment, and without a battle, and very slight skir-
42 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
mishing, dispersed the insurgents, and drove their leaders from the
State. *- -
This, more perhaps than anything else, induced the States to yield to
the advice of Congress, recommending a Federal Convention to pre-
pare amendments to the Articles of Confederation. Virginia, Penn-
Sylvania, Delaware, Georgia, North Carolina, New York, Massachu-
setts, South Carolina, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, and New
Hampshire, in succession appointed delegates to the Convention. On
Friday, the 25th of May, twenty-nine delegates, representing nine
States, organized the Convention at the State-House in Philadelphia.
George Washington, who was present as a delegate from Virginia, WàS
at once appointed President of the Convention. The delegates were,
in general, men of the clearest mind and purest patriotism. All seemed
to feel that it was necessary to remodel entirely the general govern-
ment. On the 29th of May, Edward Randolph, of Virginia, laid be-
fore the Convention a scheme embracing a national legislature in two
houses, a national executive to be chosen by the legislature, and a ju- -
diciary. This scheme led to violent debates, the smaller States insist-
ing on equal representation in both Houses, while the larger States
wished the representation to be in proportion to the population. The
slave population was another difficulty. The small States wished
whites only counted as population, while the larger States, with many
slaves, wished all to be counted. The debates and discussion led to
compromises on various points. At last, on the 6th of August, 1787,
the committee appointed to embody the various points-decided; re-
ported, not any amendment of the old Articles, but a new Constitution. \
is Constitution,
This was put into shape by Gouverneur Morris. B
the national legislature preserved the name of Congress, so justly hon-
* .

THE UNITED STATES. 43
ored in America. The upper house was to be called a Senate, and
composed of two members elected from each State, the lower house
was to be called the House of Representatives, and to be composed of
members elected by the people of the Several States, each State to have
one representative for every forty thousand inhabitants, or as it was
finally made, at Washington's suggestion, thirty thousand ; a President
was to be chosen every four years, by electors selected by the people ;
Federal courts were to be established, with a judiciary, and the powers of
each branch of the government were laid down with remarkable clearness.
The Constitution, as proposed by the Convention, was then submitted
to Congress, to be laid before the States. By its terms, it provided that
when ratified by nine States it should be put into force.
When the new Constitution was made public, it aroused a strong
feeling of opposition. There was much in it that excited alarm, and
seemed to menace that liberty which had just been purchased by the
greatest sacrifices. Able papers were written in favor of the Consti-
tution and against it. A series of articles called the Federalist, written
by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay-earnestly supporting the Constitution,
produced a great impression, and are still regarded as the best exposition
of the Constitution, and as such are used in colleges as a text-book.
Gradually the soundest patriots prevailed. Delaware adopted the
Constitution in December. Her course was followed by more impor-
tant States, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massa-
chusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, and New Hampshire. By the
close of June, 1788, all these States had ratified it, making the nine
required by the terms of the Constitution to establish it as the law of
the land. These States did not, however, lie together; the three
great States of New York, Virginia, and North Carolina, broke the
44 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
other States into three groups. Virginia and New York were
strongly opposed to it, unless certain amendments were made ; but as
it was now necessary to accept or reject it, enter the Union, or set up as
independent republics, they at last reluctantly joined the rest. Of the
thirteen States which had stood side by side from the commencement
of the Revolutionary struggle, two only, North Carolina and Rhode
Island, stood aloof. North Carolina gave only a conditional approval,
while Rhode Island would not even call a convention to consider it.
The great work now before the country was to put the new scheme
of government in operation. Preparations were at once made for
elections in conformity with its provisions, for Representatives chosen
by the people directly, for Senators chosen by the legislature of each
State, and for presidential electors. All passed off with great harmony.
The Continental Congress now closed its labors, leaving all great
questions for the action of the new government. It had organized
Northwest Territory, which was governed by General St. Clair, who
published a code of laws, and wisely encouraged immigration and
colonization. Under the impulse thus given, Marietta arose, with set-
tlements at the mouth of the Miami, and Losantiville was started,
where Cincinnati now so proudly rears her head. Western New York
was rapidly filling up with emigrants from the Eastern States. The
Virginia emigrants in Kentucky felt that they needed a separate gov-
ernment, and applied for admission as a State, while the people of
Western Carolina, in what is now Tennessee, set up the State of
Frankland, which North Carolina, however, soon suppressed.
Such was the state of the country when the Continental Congress,
having achieved its great work, the Independence of America, dis-
Solved of itself.
THE UNITED STATES. 45
CHAPTER II.
GEORGE WASHINGTON PRESIDENT 1789–1797—His Cabinet—Peace made with the Creeks and
Cherokees–North Carolina and Rhode Island yield when treated as Foreign Countries—
The National Debt—War with the Miamies and Western Tribes—Defeat of General Har-
mar—Bank of North America—Vermont and Kentucky admitted—St. Clair defeated by
the Western Indians—Washington's Re-election—The French and their Ambassador, Genet
—The Algerine Corsairs—Wayne overthrows the Indians and concludes a Peace—The
Whisky Insurrection—Indian Boundaries—Treaty with Spain—Tennessee admitted—
Washington's Farewell Address—He returns to Mount Vernon.
THE American people in adopting the Constitution looked to one
man as alone capable of putting the government in operation. It
seems a simple thing now, but it is one of the few cases in history
where a government was set up and carried on successfully by the
will of the people, and the only one where distinctions of rank did
not exist, and a body of nobles control the destinies of the people. In
our happy land all were equal, but all recognized the purity of char-
acter and rare abilities of George Washington.
The people felt the necessity of wise and prudent men, and the
members of the first Congress included most of the eminent men of
the time.
The new Congress was to meet on the 4th of March, but owing to
the wretched state of the roads, and other delays, it was not until a
month later that the two houses organized. Meanwhile, the electors
chosen in the different States had met and transmitted to Congress, in
New York, their votes for President. These were opened on the 6th
of April. Sixty-nine votes had been given, and every one bore
first the name of George Washington. He was thus unanimously
elected President of the United States. Of the second vote cast by
the electors, thirty-four were given for John Adams, who thus became
46 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Wice-President. Official information was at once dispatched to the
President and Vice-President elect, and preparations at once begun
to inaugurate the new government with all possible Solemnity. At the
corner of Wall and Nassau streets stands a white marble building
erected for a custom-house, but now used by the Treasury Department.
Here in 1789 stood Federal Hall, which had been selected as the capi-
tol. The merchants of New York city, with commendable public
spirit, raised a large sum of money to put the building into such a state
as to fit it for the reception of Congress.
Mr. Adams, escorted by a troop of horse, came on and, having been
sworn into office, took his seat as President of the Senate. All now
awaited the coming of Washington. The President elect felt great
diffidence as to the step he was to take. He wrote to a friend
in confidence, “I tell you that my movements to the chair of govern-
ment will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit
who is going to the place of his execution ; so unwilling am I, in the even-
ing of life, nearly consumed in public cares, to quit a peaceful abode
for an ocean of difficulties, without that competency of political skill,
abilities, and inclination, which are necessary to manage the helm.”
But the confidence of the people in his wisdom and integrity reas-
'sured him. His journey from Mount Vernon to New York was like
a triumphal procession. Every village, town, and city through which
he passed, showed, by applause, by military honors, by addresses, by
triumphal arches, their desire to do him honor. As he passed the
bridge over the Schuylkill, a boy placed above dropped a civic crown
of laurel on his head. But the celebration at Trenton was the most
beautiful of all, and has never been forgotten. The ladies of that city,
which he had so gallantly rescued from the Hessians, had erected
THE UNITED STATES. 47
over the stream near the city, a beautiful triumphal arch. Amid
flowers and laurels at the top were the words: DECEMBER 26th, 1776.
On the curve of the arch stood out in bold gilt letters: “THE DEFEND-

ER OF THE MOTHERS WILL BE THE PROTECTOR OF THE DAUGHTERS.” -
North of this were ranged thirteen beautiful girls, arrayed in white,\
with coronets of flowers, to represent the thirteen States. Behind \
stood all the ladies of the town. As soon as Washington arrived be-
neath the arch, the girls began to sing a beautiful ode composed for
the occasion, and with the last lines :
“Strew, ye fair, his way with flowers,
Strew your hero's way with flowers,”
they scattered flowers from baskets in their hands, upon the path where
the Father of his Country was to pass.
Washington was deeply moved by this beautiful and touching ex- ;
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pression of gratitude.
The Governor of New Jersey escorted him to Elizabethtown Point,
where a Committee of Congress was in waiting to receive him. Here,
on the 23d of April, he embarked in an elegant barge of nineteen oars,
manned by thirteen pilots, all dressed in white. New York Bay was
alive with crafts of all kinds, decorated in the most holiday style ; many
with bands of music or singers. Amid all this pageantry, the thunder
of cannon, and the welcome shouts of the people, he reached Murray's
Wharf. There the Governor of the State, the foreign ministers, the
clergy of the city, with a large military force, met Washington, and con-
ducted him in procession to the residence prepared for his reception.
The Whole city was illuminated at night, and a general joy prevailed.
On the 30th all places of business were closed. Public service was
performed in all the churches. After that, about noon, Committees of
i
|
48 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Congress waited on Washington, who went in procession to Federal
Hall. On the balcony in front of that building, Chancellor Livingston
administered the oath of office, which Washington reverently repeated,
adding, as he kissed the Bible, “So help me God.” Then the Chancel-
lor turning to the people exclaimed in a loud voice : “Long live
George Washington, President of the United States.” . The shouts that
rose from the dense crowd below was like the roar of the ocean, and
the thunder of the artillery hardly rose above it.
The whole coyntry felt a sense of relief. If the country was to
prosper, it would.i. the hands of such a President and Congress.
Washington then entered the Senate Chamber and delivered his in-
augural address to the two houses. He next, with the Vice-President,
and the Senators and Representatives, proceeded to St. Paul's Church,
where prayers were offered by Bishop Provost. Thus was God recog-
nized in the whole ceremony of organizing the Government under the
Constitution.
The first important duty was to select a cabinet. For the time,
Washington selected John Jay as Foreign Secretary, and General
Knox as Secretary of War, and placed the Treasury in the hands of a
Board of Commissioners. -
The United States had border and other difficulties with England
and Spain which required to be adjusted, the more especially as Eng-
land, maintaining military posts in the West, really influenced the In-
dians to commit hostilities. In the southwest the Creeks, relying on
Spain, were at war with Georgia. The corsairs of the Barbary States
were plundering our ships. The treasury was empty, and all the ma-
chinery of the new government was to be set working.
Congress now organized the Departments of Foreign Affairs, War,

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THE UNITED STATES. 49
and the Treasury, as well as the Supreme Court of the United States;
fixed the salaries of the President and other officers, Washington ask-
ing that his salary should be limited to his actual expenses. For his
permanent Cabinet Washington chose Thomas Jefferson as Secretary
of Foreign Affairs, or of State ; Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the
Treasury; General Knox, Secretary of War ; Edmund Randolph, At-
torney-General; and he appointed John Jay Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court.
Congress passed in this session the laws most urgently needed, and
by its wisdom and harmony tended to confirm the general confidence.
During its recess Washington visited the Eastern States, everywhere
welcomed in the heartiest manner.
The next session took up the great question of the National Debt.
Hamilton, whose ability was remarkable, proposed that the United
States should adopt the war-debt of the states, fund the whole debt,
amounting to about seventy millions of dollars, and pay it off gradu-
ally. This was finally adopted, with some modification as to the
State debts.
It was also decided to make Philadelphia the seat of government
for ten years, after which it was to remove to some place on the Poto-
mac. The selection of this spot was finally left to Washington, Who
fixed upon the District of Columbia, a tract ten miles Square lying on
both sides of the Potomac. -
North Carolina and Rhode Island, finding that they must either en-
ter the Union, or be treated as foreign countries, and have custom-
houses established all along their frontiers, adopted the Constitution,
Rhode Island acting on the 29th of May, 1790.
North Carolina, moreover, ceded to Congress the Western territory
4
50 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
which she had hitherto claimed, and which was now organized as “The
Territory of the United States south of the river Ohio.”
The Indian question was the next difficulty to be met. Washington -
sent to the Creek country Colonel Willett, a brave officer, cautious and
politic. In conference with Alexander McGillivray, a half-breed who
was the head chief of the Creeks, he paved the way for peace. The
chief was the son of a Tory whose property had been confiscated ;
and he felt bitter on that account. However, McGillivray, with other
chiefs, were induced by Willett to accompany him to New York, where,
in August, 1790, a treaty was finally concluded, which for a time gave
peace to the South.
In the northwest, the Indians showed a determined spirit of hostility,
and there was no choice except to send an army to reduce and over-
awe them. They had such a low idea of the American power, that it
was necessary to make an impression. As the year 1789 was drawing
to a close, General Harmar arrived at Fort Washington, a fortification
erected on what is now Broadway, Cincinnati. He marched in with a
body of three hundred soldiers, to the great joy of the scattered set-
tlers of Ohio. It was not, however, till September, 1791, that prepara-
tions for a regular campaign were completed. Then militia from Penn-
sylvania and Kentucky came up, and taking the van, marched into the
interior. Harmar joined them with three hundred and twenty-five regu-
lars, making the whole force under his command nearly fifteen hundred
men. The Indians did not wait to engage so large a force, they fired
their villages, and fled, as Colonel Hardin approached at the head of
his Kentuckians. The latter detached a part of his men in pursuit,
but the Indians turned, and throwing the militia into disorder, killed
twenty-three, and scattered the whole party, so that only seven reached
THE UNITED STATES. 51
Hardin's camp. Colonel Hardin, however, pushed on, and destroyed
the rest of their towns, ravaging their fields. The army then returned
to Fort Washington, but as public opinion censured Harmar, he again
took the field. Near Chillicothe, he sent Hardin forward to meet the
enemy. Early in the morning this detachment reached the enemy, and
a severe engagement ensued. The Indians fought with desperate val-
or, and the militia gave way in spite of their gallant officers, many of
whom perished. The American loss was more than a hundred and fif-
ty. The Indians were, however, so severely handled that Harmar
drew back to Fort Washington unpursued.
A deep feeling of dissatisfaction prevailed as the news of this de-
feat spread through the country.
Congress at its next session had important matters under considera-
tion. England showed an unfriendly disposition, and all Europe was
evidently about to be involved in war, which would expose the United
States to difficulties. At home it organized a new territory south of
the Ohio, and prepared to select a district in which to establish the per-
manent capital of the United States. It was also necessary to raise
a revenue to meet the public debt. In January, 1791, an act was
passed laying a duty on spirituous liquors distilled in the United States.
The tax was light, but it caused great discontent. To regulate the
financial affairs of the country, the Bank of the United States was es-
tablished, on a plan proposed by Alexander Hamilton. This bank was
from the first a matter on which opinions were greatly divided both in
Congress and among the people, and ultimately became the question
between the two great parties in the country.
Washington, in a tour through the Southern States, received the
same warm welcome that always hailed him ; and as Congress had left
52 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
it to him to select the site for the capital, he finally decided on a spot
on the banks of the Potomac, partly in Maryland, and partly in Vir-
ginia, the district to be ten miles square, the new city to lie on the
Maryland side.
Though party spirit began to run high, no doubts were any longer
felt as to the success of the new government. The States still solicited
admission into the Union. Early in January, 1791, a Convention at
Bennington, Vermont, adopted the Constitution of the United States,
and applied for admission as a State. New York and New Hampshire
yielded, and Vermont was admitted by Act of Congress, February 18,
1791.
The repulse of Harmar had made the Indians only the bolder. Two
expeditions against the Miamis, on the Wabash, proved ineffectual.
General Arthur St. Clair, a veteran of the Revolution, and at one time
President of the Continental Congress, was now Governor of the Ter-
ritory northwest of the Ohio. To him was confided a general and de-
cisive campaign against the Indians. The frontiers, with their hardy
and industrious settlers, so long exposed to the midnight horrors of In-
dian warfare, now began to breathe freely, and the whole country felt
that the work of pacification would be sharp and prompt.
In October, 1791, he took the field at the head of an army of nearly
two thousand men. But so slowly did he advance towards the Wabash,
that his militia and the friendly Indians who had joined him abandoned
him in great numbers, and when, in November, he reached the Wa-
bash, and encamped on the banks of the St. Mary's, within a few miles
of the Miami villages, he had to wait for reinforcements, as his force
was reduced to fourteen hundred men. The Indians were not so blind
as to allow their opportunity to escape them. Meshecunnaqua, or, as
THE UNITED STATES. 53
the whites called him, The Little Turtle, was the chief of the Miamis,
and a man of great ability. He had watched and studied the policy of
the Americans, and had been in both battles against Harmar. With
Buckongehelas, he planned an attack on St. Clair's ill-guarded camp.
On the 4th of November, half an hour before sunrise, the war-whoop
rang out as they burst suddenly in full force on St. Clair's camp, their
main attack being on a part held by militia and raw troops, who fled
in utter terror across a creek into the camp of the regulars. On
rushed the Indians in pursuit, till St. Clair's first and second lines, has-
tily drawn up, met them with a steady fire of artillery and musketry.
For a moment the Indian line halted, but roused by their chiefs, one of
them in British uniform, they charged with a yell, while an incessant
fire was kept up from the ground, from among the grass, and from
every log and tree. The artillerymen in the centre were shot down
at their guns, the shrewd chiefs having picked out men to look to this,
and deprive St. Clair of the use of his cannon. The braves fairly toma-
hawked men at the guns. Two pieces were lost. In vain the regulars
charged ; the Indians fell back a few hundred yards, but advanced
again as soon as the troops retired. Another charge was as fruitless.
Twice were the cannon retaken, but it was impossible to use them.
The Indians swarmed on all sides; the troops, who had lost nearly all
their officers, were totally demoralized. More than half the rank and
file were killed, and there seemed little hope of escape for the rest.
The ground was covered with the dead and dying, the freshly Scalped
heads reeking with smoke ; the little ravine that led to the creek actu-
ally ran with human blood. It was now nine o'clock, when St. Clair,
who had three horses shot under him, rallied his men for a desperate
charge on the Indian line in his rear. The American army gained the
54 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
road, and abandoning the camp with all its equipments, artillery, and
baggage, began a retreat which Soon became a flight as the militia flung
away their arms and accoutrements. The remnant of the force, in dis-
order and panic, reached Fort Jefferson.
Never since Braddock's defeat had the whites suffered so disastrous
a defeat.
The whole frontier was again left exposed to the ravages of the In-
dians, now elated by victory, and full of contempt for the Ameri-
CallS.
In Congress, where so much depended on harmony, party spirit was
violent, and delayed public business. A bill for fixing the ratio of the
representation in Congress led to fierce debates, and as first passed
seemed to Washington so injudicious that he could not sign it, and re-
turned it with his veto. The act to increase the army met with no op-
position, for all felt the necessity of organizing an army to reduce the
western Indians. The coinage of money, however, led to violent de-
bates. A pattern piece had been struck, having on the reverse or tail,
ONE CENT, in a laurel wreath, with rºw below, and UNITY STATES OF
AMERICA around, and on the obverse or head, a head of Washington.
The republican party stigmatized this as favoring a monarchy, and to
please them, the head of a pagan goddess, Liberty, was substituted
for the head of Washington. The reverse was retained ; and in this
way the first regular American coin, the Cent, was struck in 1793.
The cents of that year are now very scarce and much prized.
For a time these discussions and party differences had not affected
General Washington, but gradually he was attacked with great vir-
ulence. That illustrious man, who had so reluctantly accepted office,
now weary of his painful position, with opposition even in his cabinet,
THE UNITED STATES. 55
wished to retire to private life at Mount Vernon. The true patriots,
however, looked with dread on this step, and the leading men of all
parties urged him so earnestly to become again a candidate that he
yielded. When the election came off Washington was again chosen
President, and Adams Vice-President.
The Indian affairs at the west were still a great source of care.
General Wayne had been appointed to command the forces, but a
strong party in the country were opposed to war, and clamored for a
peaceable settlement of the difficulties with the red men, although, be-
tween 1780 and 1790, fifteen hundred inhabitants of Kentucky had
been massacred in their homes, or carried off to endure the rigors and
tortures of Indian captivity. Nor had the frontiers of Virginia and
Pennsylvania suffered less. Yielding to the clamors of the peace
party, envoys were dispatched. Two officers, Colonel Harden and
Major Trueman, who were sent to negotiate with them, were barbar-
ously murdered. It was evident that nothing but a thorough campaign
against them would have any effect, especially as the English, in
spite of the treaty of 1783, still held several posts in the West,
where they supplied the Indians with arms, gave them hopes of
English aid, and filled their minds with hatred and contempt for the
Americans.
While this Indian difficulty, and the national debt, which Hamilton
was devising plans to meet, occupied the public mind, alarming news
arrived from Europe. France was in the midst of a bloody revolution.
Louis XVI., whom America had reason to respect, had perished on the
Scaffold, soon to be followed by his queen, Marie Antoinette. A gen-
eral war in Europe was imminent, the new republic having already be-
gun hostilities with England. Counting on the alliance and support
56 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
of the United States, the French republic sent out as ambassador to
Washington, Genet, a bold and enterprising man. Of the two parties
which had arisen in the United States, the republicans, headed by Jef-
ferson, sympathized with France, while the Federalists, who supported
Washington and Adams, could not approve the excesses committed in
France, and looked with alarm at the mad course on which that country
had entered. On his arrival at Charleston, in South Carolina, Genet
was warmly received by the Democratic clubs, which had been formed
in various parts of the United States, in connection with the Jacobin
club of Paris. Intoxicated by the honors thus done him, Genet began
a bold course ; he issued commissions, and fitted out privateers in the
United States, to sail against English commerce. Wessels captured by
these cruisers were brought into Charleston, and sold under the author-
ity of French consuls. All thoughtful men were alarmed. Washing-
ton issued a proclamation, warning people against being misled by such
foreign agents, but Genet, backed by the more ardent opponents of
Washington's administration, and its temperate policy, openly set gov-
ernment at defiance. A vessel fitted out under Genet's authority, eluded
the authorities, and sailed out of the Delaware. Washington, unwill-
ing to come to an open rupture with France, at last requested the gov-
ernment of that country to recall M. Genet, and Congress passed an
act prohibiting enlistment for the service of any foreign power, or the
fitting out of privateers, except by the authority of the United
States. -
Our affairs were at the same time in so difficult a position with Eng-
land, that this affair was most unfortunate. It exasperated the Eng-
lish government, which was already complaining of the United States,
alleging that they had violated the late treaty, by preventing English

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THE UNITED STATES. 57
merchants from recovering debts due them by Americans before the
Revolution. The new cause of complaint arising from the seizure of
English ships by French privateers, fitted out in the ports of the
United States, made the feeling still more bitter. On our side, the
government complained that in violation of the treaty, England main-
tained posts in the West, in territory clearly belonging to the United
States, and had even established new military posts among the Indian
tribes, aiding and supporting them by agents in their midst to carry on
a savage warfare upon our frontiers. Another cause of complaint, and
one long maintained, arose from the arrogant claim made, and enforced
by English men-of-war, which constantly boarded American vessels,
and impressed men as sailors under the pretence, often totally unfound-
ed, that they were British subjects. They also, by their privateers
and men-of-war, seized many American ships on their way to France,
violating all the right of the United States as a neutral power.
For a time there was no intercourse between the two goverments,
but in 1791, England made the first step, by sending out Mr. George
Hammond as Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States.
Now that matters looked so much like war, Congress prepared to
lay an embargo on all ships and vessels bound to any foreign port, and
to sequestrate all debts due to British subjects, to make good all dam-
ages caused by British vessels. But tidings came that England had
modified her orders in council. Washington then nominated Chief Justice
Jay, as envoy extraordinary, to negotiate a new treaty, giving redress
for the past, and security for the future. In spite of this, however,
Congress would have passed an act prohibiting all intercourse with
Great Britain, had not the Vice-President, by his casting vote, defeated

it in the Senate.
58 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Laws were passed to make active preparations for the war which
seemed so near, by raising an army and navy.
Mr. Monroe was sent as minister to France, to endeavor to prevent
any action there that might increase our difficulties.
Portugal, which had long been at war with Algiers, and in a manner
protected other nations, by preventing the corsairs from coming out
through the Straits of Gibraltar, had now made peace, it was said, at
English suggestion, and several American vessels were soon after cap-
tured by those pirates, and their crews condemned to a life of slavery.
To redeem them was an object of solicitude to the American govern-
ment. A naval force would soon have effected this, but the opposition
resisted it, and it was finally resolved to purchase their freedom by the
payment of a million of dollars.
The Indian affairs in the West were, however, at last brought to a
settlement by the decision and energy of General Anthony Wayne.
Taking command too late in the year for an effective campaign, he
pushed on with his army to St. Clair's battle-field, and there erected
Fort Recovery, which he made his camp for the winter. In 1794, he
advanced cautiously. The regulars were a new organization called
“The Legion of the United States,” specially enrolled, and whom
Wayne had waited to drill, and form into good soldiers, and expert In-
dian fighters, before he exposed them to action. Every precaution
was taken to prevent surprise or panic.
Now that he was advancing into the heart of the enemy's country,
skirmishes took place, which gave experience and confidence. In Au-
gust, he erected Fort Defiance, at the junction of the Auglaize and
Miami. Leaving a garrison here, the army pushed on in high spirits,
the two thousand legion troops, with eleven hundred mounted Ken-
THE UNITED STATES. 59
*
tuckians, under General Scott. These were on the flanks in the march,
and between them and 'the main body were riflemen. On the 20th,
Price's battalion, in the van, received a warm fire from an unseen foe,
and was driven back. The enemy, comprising the Miamis and many
other tribes, were upon them in force, eager to contest the soil with the
Americans. They had selected their battle-ground wisely. They were
in a dense wood which lay in front of a recently erected British fort,
and they were protected by a quantity of trees thrown down by a tor-
nado, which formed an intrenchment almost impassable by horsemen.
They were drawn up in three lines with their left on the Maumee. +.
Their first movement was an attempt to turn the left flank of the
Americans, but as soon as the firing began, Wayne formed the legion
in two lines, and the first charged with trailed arms, to rouse the Indi-
ans with the bayonet from their coverts, behind logs, and in the grass,
and when they had dislodged them, to pour in a steady volley, and
press them so rapidly that they should not have time to load. The
second line was ordered to check the Indians who were endeavoring to
turn his left, and the cavalry skirting the river, and wheeling around on
the other wing, were to take them in flank. With one tremendous
shout, the legion sprang forward. The startled Indians sprang from
their ambush, and with a scattering fire fled, pursued by the terrible
volleys of the legion. Forty fell dead, others were carried off. Away
through the wood rolled the tide of battle, the Indians being driven for
an hour, with constant loss, for more than two miles, till the routed,
crestfallen braves at last sought shelter under the guns of the British
fort. So impetuous was this charge of Wayne's first line that the sec-
ond and the cavalry hardly got into the fight at all.
The victorious general halted to give his troops time to take some re-
60 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
freshments, then he marched down the river, and encamped within half
a mile of the British Fort Miami. Here he remained three days,
burning and ravaging the houses and cornfields all around the fort, and
within pistol-shot of it, and though the English commander attempted
to take a high tone, General Wayne was so decided that he cooled
down. The houses of English and Canadians among the Indians, fared
like the wigwams.
His complete victory cost Wayne about a hundred men. It was sup-
posed that it would bring the Indians to ask peace, but as they held out
ſº Wayne laid waste their whole country, and built forts in the very
heart of their settlements to prevent their return.
The spirit of the Indians was broken, and a general war all along
the frontiers was happily avoided.
The Miamis at last made overtures of peace, and on the 3d of Au-
gust, 1795, Wayne concluded a treaty at Fort Grenville, with the
Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatamies,
Miamis, Kikapoos, and Illinois. A boundary line was assigned to
them, and annual presents agreed upon in return for the lands which
they gave up forever. - tº
This triumph over the savage foe was complete : but while war was
thus banished from the frontiers, where the hardy backwoodsman was
pushing on as the pioneer of civilization, a dangerous insurrection
broke out in western Pennsylvania. The tax laid on spirituous
liquors was very unpopular, and excited discontent, which at last
resulted in acts of violence. In July, 1794, the marshal was shot at,
and the next day, a body of five hundred insurgents attacked the
house of the inspector, who had obtained a detachment of eleven
men from Fort Pitt for his protection. They were summoned to sur-
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THE UNITED STATES. 61
render, and finally did so, when the buildings had been set on fire,
and all escape was cut off. The insurgents seized the mails, and opened
all letters, to discover those in favor of enforcing the law. President
Washington saw the danger. If insurgents could thus defy the laws
of the United States all government was at an end. Governor Miſ-
flin, of Pennsylvania, did not believe the State militia able to quell
the insurrection. Washington, thereupon, by proclamation, called
upon all the insurgents to disperse and retire before the 1st of Sep-
tember. He also made a requisition on the Governors of New Jer-
sey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, for militia to form an
army of fifteen thousand men. The States responded to the call; the
militia turned out with uncommon alacrity. The army, under the
control of Governor Lee, of Virginia, marched into the country of
the insurgents, but found no body of men in arms to oppose them.
Overawed by this display of force, the insurgents lost all hope, their
leaders were arrested or fled, and the people whom they had led into
the rebellion submitted to the government. -
The government acquired new popularity by its exhibition of pow-
er, and still more by the leniency with which it treated the misguided
II162Il.
The arrival of the news of Jay's treaty was another source of dis-
content, and some riotous displays took place, designing leaders in-
ducing the people to believe that the honor and interests of the
country had been betrayed. But the people generally sustained
Washington, and refused to believe that he could have become a
traitor to his country. Now, when we look back at those times, with
the reverence for Washington which time has given, we can scarcely
believe that any American could have been so unjust towards him.
62 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Congress showed also its support of Washington's policy; the House
of Representatives voted money to carry out the treaty. By its terms,
England finally withdrew her troops from the western posts which
she had so long held to the annoyance and injury of our growing set-
tlements. She also made compensation for the illegal captures of
American vessels by her cruisers. On our side the government of
the United States secured to British creditors proper means for col-
lecting debts due them when the Revolution broke out.
As soon as British influence was removed from the West, Congress
passed an act regulating intercourse with the Indian tribes, and estab-
lishing a boundary along the western frontier, beyond which no white
man was to be allowed to go, either for hunting or pasturage, without
a pass. This vast Indian territory was separated into two parts by
Kentucky, but it comprised nearly one-half the whole territory of the
United States, which, our readers will remember, then extended only to
the Mississippi, and did not include Florida. Special provision was
made for the punishment of offenses committed by either whites or
Indians. Another step was taken for the improvement of the Indians,
by appropriating money to supply them with agricultural implements,
so that they might be induced to rely less on hunting, and cultivate
the ground like the whites. A great difficulty has always been, that
wicked and unprincipled traders corrupt the Indians, lead them into
intoxication, and then rob them in various ways. Laws were passed
to prevent this as far as possible.
All these steps produced a good feeling among the various Indian
tribes, and a general and secure peace enabled the hardy pioneers to
extend the settlements in all directions. -
On the west and south, the United States was bounded by Spanish
TEIE UNITED STATES. - 63
colonies. The western bank of the Mississippi, whatever of Louisi-
ana lay east of that river, and Florida, were held by Spain, so that
many questions arose between the two countries. On the 27th of Oc-
tober, 1795, a treaty was concluded with Spain, and ratified in the
following year, by which the bounds of Florida were fixed at the lim-
its set out in the treaty between the United States and Great Britain,
that is, from the Mississippi at 31° North, to the junction of the
Flint and Apalachicola, and thence to the head of the St. Mary's.
On the west, the boundary was to be the middle of the channel of
the Mississippi to the thirty-first degree of north latitude, the navigation
of the river remaining forever free to the citizens of both nations. For
purposes of trade, Americans were to have the right to store goods
for three months at New Orleans. Both parties also pledged them-
selves to use their best endeavors to restrain their Indians from com-
mitting any hostilities beyond their lines, and to refrain from tamper-
ing in any way with the Indian tribes of the neighboring State. Ano-
ther State was now ready to enter the Union. Tennessee had already
endeavored ineffectually to set up an independent government. They
went to work again in 1796, and, acting on their own responsibility,
declared themselves a State, adopted a constitution, and elected sena-
tors and representatives to Congress. These proceedings, as being
utterly irregular, were condemned, as Congress had not fixed the ter-
ritory of the new State, or directed the election. The want of due
formality was, however, overlooked, and Tennessee became the six-
teenth State in the Union.
Such were the chief acts of Washington's second administration.
It was now drawing to a close. He had organized the government
under the new constitution, and the United States had entered on a
64 - A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
career of peace and prosperity. With England and Spain, the coun-
tries whose colonies bordered on our land, we were at peace. France,
our old ally, showed a spirit of reckless hostility which might lead to
some trouble, but this afforded no grounds for alarm. At home, all
was prosperous; industry, agriculture, manufactures were thriving ;
the public debt was gradually decreasing, without any severe bur-
dens being imposed on the people ; the happiness and security en-
joyed here invited many from the Old World, and a large emigration
began from Ireland and France. Educational establishments were
multiplied, and New York adopted a system of common schools, to
extend to all the benefits of education. Pennsylvania hesitated
to follow in the same course only from a fear that education without
a religious basis may prove a curse and not a blessing.
Washington felt that his labor was complete. He had most reluc-
tantly accepted a second term ; it had been one of pain and anxiety.
It is sad to think how so great and good a man was assailed and ma-
ligned. He longed to return once more to his peaceful retreat at
Mount Vernon. He announced his intention of retiring in a Fare-
well Address, which is one of the greatest monuments of his wisdom
and patriotism.
He implored them to hold the Union between the States inviolable.
“It is of infinite moment,” says the Father of his Country, “that you
should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to
your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a
cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it. accustoming your-
selves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political
Safety and prosperity ; watching for its preservation with jealous
anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion
THE UNITED STATES. 65
that it can in any event be abandoned ; and indignantly frowning
upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion
of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which
now link together the various parts. For this you have every
inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or
choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concen-
trate your affections. The name of AMERICANs, which belongs to
you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of
patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local dis-
criminations.” -
“This government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced
and unawed ; adopted upon full investigation and mature delibera-
tion, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers
uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provis-
ion for its own amendments, has a just claim to your confidence and
support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquies-
cence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims
of true liberty.”
. He warned them against the violence of party Spirit, and against
the danger of one department of government encroaching on another.
He urged the establishment of institutions for the diffusing of knowl-
edge as the best security.
In regard to foreign nations, this wise man urged peace and justice,
avoiding excessive fondness, or antipathy, towards any ; avoiding all
occasions of being drawn into the disputes between foreign nations,
and, still more, preventing all interference of foreign governments in
our national affairs.
This address was everywhere received with profound reverence.
5
66 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
The various States, through their legislatures, responded to his patri-
otic and wise address. -
The third presidential election saw two great parties arrayed. The
Federalists, who supported the policy hitherto followed by Washington,
nominated John Adams for President, and Thomas Pinckney for Vice-
President. The Republicans, or antifederalists, took up Thomas Jeffer-
son as their strongest candidate. The election was an exciting one,
but it was soon evident that Adams was elected. Washington's mes-
Sage to Congress was touching, as he stood for the last time in the hall
of Congress, addressing the Senate and House of Representatives—for
his messages were always spoken by him ; not sent in writing, as is
now the custom. He closed with the wish that the Union which they
had formed for their protection might be perpetual.
The answer of the Senate was cordial; but, in the House, some im-
pulsive Republicans wished to strike out all words that expressed at-
tachment to Washington's character and person, all approbation of his
administration, or regret at his retiring from office.
When the electoral vote was counted in the House, John Adams
had seventy-one votes, and Thomas Pinckney only fifty-nine, some Fed-
eralists having voted for other candidates. Thomas Jefferson received
sixty-eight votes, and became, as the law was then, Vice-President,
although he had run for the presidency. This seems strange; but -
under the Constitution, each elector voted for two persons for Presi-
dent, and the one getting the highest number became President, the
one getting the next highest number became Vice-President.
Washington's administration closed ; he retired from office, and set
out for his own home at Mount Vernon. Everywhere on the road he
was welcomed with enthusiasm and reverence.
THE UNITED STATES. - 67
CHAPTER III.
JOHN ADAMS, SECOND PRESIDENT—1797–1801.
Affairs with France—Mississippi Territory organized—War with France on the Ocean—The
Alien and Sedition Acts—-Death of General Washington—Seat of Government removed to
Washington—Indiana Territory organized—Close of the War with France—Adams defeat-
ed in the next Election.
ON the 4th of March, 1797, John Adams was inaugurated as Presi-
dent, and after delivering his address, took the oath of office. He
was a patriot of the most incorruptible principles, calm, able, labori-
ous, but not always consistent or firm in pursuing a course which he
had adopted. He formed a cabinet which was not in harmony with his
own views or with itself. Pickering was Secretary of State, Wol-
cott, of the Treasury; the other members were McHenry and Lee.
The first object that claimed the attention of the new President, was
the relations of America with France. General Pinckney, Minister
Plenipotentiary to France, had been virtually expelled from the
country by the Directory, which then ruled in that republic. French
ships still continued to plunder American vessels. t
On the 25th of March, President Adams, by proclamation, convened
an extraordinary session of Congress. He recommended them to
provide effectual measures of defense in case war became ne-
cessary.
As a last effort for peace, General Pinckney, John Marshall, and
Elbridge Gerry, were appointed envoys to France. They set out,
but on reaching Paris, were met with insulting propositions from Tal-
leyrand, the French minister for Foreign Affairs. If the United States
68 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
would pay Talleyrand a quarter of a million of dollars, and loan to
France thirteen millions, they would be restored to favor. When they
declined absolutely to consider any such proposal, Pinckney and
Marshall were ordered to leave France, while Gerry, a republican,
was ordered to remain, under a threat of immediate war, if he retired.
It was in this correspondence that Pinckney used a phrase which
has become a motto for the country : “Millions for defense, not one
cent for tribute.”
Congress met before news of this arrived in America, for ships did
not cross the ocean rapidly in those days. When, however, the cor-
respondence reached the President, he laid it before Congress, and it
was at once published. It speedily roused the spirit of the whole
people. The land rung with preparations for war. Hopkinson com-
posed a patriotic song that has not yet been forgotten : “Hail Colum-
bia.”
Congress passed an act for retaliation, and by another increased
the army, and authorized the President to raise additional regiments,
and organized a provisional army.
When Marshall arrived, and reported in full the treatment to which
he had been subjected, Adams sent a message to Congress in which he
said: “I will never send another minister to France, without assur-
ance that he will be received, respected, and honored, as the repre-
sentative of a great, free, powerful, and independent nation.”
As soon as it was clear that a resort to arms would be necessary,
all eyes turned upon Washington, as the only man to be placed at the
head of the army. On the 3d of July, 1798, President Adams nom-
inated him Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the United States,
and the Senate confirmed his choice. The illustrious man accepted
~$
THE UNITED STATES. 69
the high office, and again, relinquishing his domestic retirement, as-
sumed the direction of the army. -
The Navy Department was now organized, and Benjamin Stoddart,
of Maryland, became first Secretary of the Navy. Thirty active
cruisers were ordered, and the treaties with France declared to be no
longer binding. Among other preparations for war, two acts were
passed which drew great odium on Adams, these were the Alien
and Sedition Acts.
Although war was not declared against France, vessels were author-
ized to resist French cruisers; privateers were fitted out, and three
frigates, the United States, commanded by Captain Barry, the Con-
stitution, Captain Nicholson, and the Constellation, Captain Truxtun,
with a number of smaller vessels, sailed out to meet the French.
The sudden appearance of so many American vessels astonished not
only the French, but also the English, who could not conceal their
chagrin to see the United States manifest such power on the ocean.
They even let their ill-temper carry them to violence, as in the case
of the attack of the British frigate Carnatic on a little American sloop-
of-war, the Baltimore. -
In June, 1798, the French privateer Le Croyable was captured, and,
under the name of the Retaliation, was sent to sea under Lieutenant
Bainbridge, but only to be recaptured by a French frigate.
On the 9th of February, 1799, the Constellation, Commodore Trux-
tun, fell in with a large ship which showed the Stars and Stripes, but
soon raised the tricolor. She was the Insurgente, Captain Barreault,
one of the fastest ships known. She returned the Constellation's fire
vigorously, injuring her masts and rigging, so that the fore-topmast
was saved only by the gallantry of midshipman David Porter, who cut
70 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
away the yards. Thus relieved, the Constellation poured into her an-
tagonist two or three raking broadsides, then shooting out of the smoke
of the combat, she wore round, and getting across the Insurgente's
stern was about to rake her when she struck. The French vessel was
much cut up, having lost seventy men killed and wounded. A few
other collisions took place. Merchant vessels were captured on both
sides, but France recoiled from her hostile attitude, asked indirectly for
a renewal of intercourse, and a minister was sent.
But while this was going on, the country continued to grow. Con-
gress organized the country between Georgia and Louisiana into a new
territory, under the name of Mississippi. A strong effort was made to
exclude slavery from the new territory, and Jefferson so planned it :
but this was finally defeated, and it became slave territory. A Gover-
nor was appointed, and the territory organized.
In spite of the firm position which he had assumed in regard to
France, President Adams suddenly resolved to renew negotiations, and
to the surprise of all, nominated William Vans Murray minister to that
country. This led to dissensions between him and his cabinet, and to
the breaking up of the Federal party; while the Republican party, un-
der the leadership of Jefferson, was daily gaining strength. At his sug-
gestion, Kentucky and Virginia adopted resolutions denouncing the
Alien and Sedition laws as violations of the Constitution of the United
States, and claiming the right in the States to nullify all such acts. It
is somewhat strange that Andrew Jackson, then an opponent of the
Federalists, was subsequently, as President, to put down with a hand
of iron these nullification doctrines, when set up by his native State,
South Carolina.
The country now experienced a terrible loss in the death of George
THE UNITED STATES. 71
Washington. That noble patriot, so much of whose life had been given
to his country's service, but now deprived of the consolation attend-
ant on public favor, had organized the army for any emergency. On
Thursday, December 12th, he spent several hours riding around his es-
tate, directing operations on various parts. The day was stormy, and
on his return, he was seized by a violent cold, accompanied with Sore
throat. During the night he became rapidly worse, and inflammation,
with fever, set in. He would not, however, allow a physician to be
summoned till morning. When Doctor Craik arrived, he was alarmed
at the symptoms, and at once called in consulting physicians. Various
remedies were resorted to, but in vain ; Washington's sufferings were
acute, and it was evident that the illustrious patient was rapidly sink-
ing. From the first, Washington was convinced that it was his last
sickness. Towards evening, on the 14th, he said to Doctor Craik :
“I die hard, Doctor, but I am not afraid to die. My breath cannot
last long.”
Thanking his physicians for their efforts to save him, he
asked them to resign him to the hands of Providence. Nothing fur-
ther was attempted. His agonized family and friends watched the mo-
ment of departure. He expired between ten and eleven o'clock at
night, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, maintaining his faculties to the
last. He was quietly interred on the Wednesday following.
Thus passed away the father of his country, one of the few immor-
tal names that were not born to die. There is no tarnish to the lustre
of Washington's glory. He was a patriot, pure and disinterested,
seeking only the good of his country, with no ambition except to serve
it, no desire to enrich himself from the taxes drawn from his fellow-
citizens. After holding the highest positions, military and civil, he
went back to his quiet home, no richer than he left it.
72 - A, CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Congress was then in session at Philadelphia. The news of his death
and of his illness arrived together, so that the sad tidings came unher-
alded. As soon as it became known, a motion was made in the House
to adjourn. The next day, John Marshall announced that the infor-
mation was but too true. After a brief but comprehensive view of
Washington's career and services, he moved that a joint committee
should be appointed “to devise the most suitable manner of paying
honor to the memory of the man, first in war, first in peace, first in the
hearts of his countrymen.” The Senate addressed, a letter to the Pres-
ident, to which President Adams replied in a touching eulogy on the
hero who had passed away.
The joint committee appointed by the two Houses resolved that a
marble monument should be erected in Washington, under which his
body, if the family consented, was to be placed ; and that a funeral
oration should be delivered in the Lutheran Church before both Houses;
that the President should recommend the people of the whole country
to wear crape on their arm for thirty days.
On the 26th of December, Henry Lee pronounced the eulogy on
Washington, before both Houses of Congress. Similar orations were de-
livered throughout the country, by Hamilton, Ames, Carroll, and other
eminent men. The anniversary of his birthday, February 22d, ar-
riving soon after, called forth fresh tributes to his memory.
Amid this general grief and respect, a few political fanatics ventured
to cast slurs upon his illustrious name, but they were frowned down by
an indignant people. They have long since been consigned to merited
oblivion, while Washington has constantly risen higher and higher in
the esteem and respect of his countrymen.
Washington was not one of those dazzling meteors which have as-
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THE UNITED STATES. 73
tonished and terrified the world by a brilliant but destructive course.
A warrior, he sought not conquest, but liberty; a ruler, he had no aim
but the happiness of the people; in all, he had no wish but justice.
Calm and unruffled in temper, prudent and steadfast in his resolutions,
prompt and decisive in action, he was never elated by success, nor de-
jected by failure. Though oſtener defeated than victorious in the field,
he was never routed, and thus, ever formidable to his antagonists, never
periling the cause by rashness, he brought the Revolutionary War to a
triumphant close. As President of the Convention, he was one of the
founders of the Constitution, showing great ability as a statesman. On
the establishment of a new government, he organized it amid difficulties
and opposition of various kinds. His full confidence in that form of
government has been justified by its triumphant career of nearly a cen-
tury ; but in our thankfulness for its blessings, and our prayers for its
future maintenance in its purity and integrity, we should remember
that Washington established it on a firm footing only at the loss of his
own popularity. #
The death of Washington quickened the movement for the perma-
nent establishment of the National Capital. The site of a Federal dis-
trict had been selected by Washington. One of the acts of the Con-
gress, on meeting in 1799, was to provide by law for the removal of
the United States Government to the city of Washington, henceforth to
be the permanent capital of the United States.
The new settlements had grown, so that new territorial governments
were needed to prepare for the gradual admission of new States. The
territory northwest of the Ohio was divided into two, and the west-
ern part became Indiana Territory; at the South, a government was
established for Mississippi Territory. So rapid was the increase of set-
74 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
tlements by emigrants, from the coast and abroad, that the Sale of pub-
lic lands became an important source of revenue. New laws were
passed to enable industrious settlers to buy land and pay for it gradu-
ally.
Although Mr. Adams had renewed negotiations with France, hostili-
ties were still carried on at sea, chiefly in the West Indies, where
France still held, though heaving with revolution, part of St. Domingo,
and ruled in peace several of the smaller islands. In the waters sur-
rounding these islands, our navy officers sought to win glory by meeting
the French navy, and profit by meeting her merchantmen. The new
century opened with a naval victory. On the first day of February,
1800, Captain Truxtun, in the Constellation, of thirty-eight guns, while
cruising off the island of Guadeloupe, discovered a vessel to the south-
east, steering west. Taking her for a large English merchant vessel,
Truxtun hoisted English colors, but the other vessel did not regard it.
Then Truxtun gave chase, crowding all sail. When near enough to
distinguish her, Truxtun found her to be a French frigate. He at
Once hauled down the Union Jack, and running up the Stars and
Stripes, prepared for action. The Wengeance, his antagonist, was a
French frigate of fifty-two guns. As the Constellation, having over-
taken her, was doubling the weather quarter of the Wengeance, the
French opened fire from her stern and quarter guns. As soon as he
could bear full on her, Truxtun gave her a broadside, and through the
night, from half past eight till nearly one, the two vessels, running free
side by side, sent broadsides into each other, till the Wengeance, with
fifty men killed and a hundred and ten wounded, and the hull cut up by
Truxtun's balls, drew out of the fight. The Constellation gave chase,
sure now of capturing her, but just then, all the shrouds having been
THE UNITED STATES. 75
cut by the Frenchman's fire, the Constellation's mainmast went by the
board, carrying a gallant young midshipman, named Jarvis, and several
men with it. This enabled the Vengeance to reach Curaçoa, though in
a sinking condition. Truxtun bore up for Jamaica. It was a well-fought
battle. The French vessel was heavier, carried sixteen more guns, and
nearly a hundred men more than the Constellation, yet she would in a
few minutes more have been compelled to strike. Congress showed
its appreciation of Truxtun's gallantry by striking a gold medal.
Napoleon Bonaparte had now risen to the head of the government
in France. With him a treaty was negotiated, but some of the articles
displeased the Senate, who refused to confirm them. Mr. Adams rati-
fied it as finally, and nominated a Minister Plenipotentiary.
In June, 1800, the public offices of government, with all its archives
and officials, were removed from Philadelphia to Washington ; and
somewhat later, Mr. Adams and his family took up their residence in
the President's house. In these days of railroads and rapid traveling
through our more densely settled States, it is amusing to look back to
that time and read of the President getting lost in the woods with his
family while on their journey from Baltimore to Washington. They wan-
dered around for hours, till a straggling negro at last came lounging
along that way, and guided the presidential party to the capital.
The public buildings were by no means ready, the place was a
wilderness, and it was for a long time a wretched place of resi-
dence.
The census, at the beginning of the century, showed a population of
five million three hundred and six thousand, being an increase of nearly
a million and a half in ten years, due in some measure to emigration
from abroad ; France sent her exiled clergy and nobility; Saint DO-
76 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
mingo, her planters flying from the infuriated negroes; Ireland, her
sturdy Sons, whose rising for freedom had been crushed in blood. Mr.
Adams' term of service was drawing to a close, and party spirit ran
high. Mr. Adams looked to a re-election, but among his own party, -
the Federalists, he had made many enemies, and alienated many of his
friends. Hamilton, one of the leaders of the Federal party, who had
carried on a vigorous contest with Burr in New York, had become
hostile to Mr. Adams, and Burr adroitly used this to injure both. The
election was an exciting one, and when the votes of the electors came
to be counted, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr received each sev-
enty-three votes, Adams sixty-five, and General Pinckney sixty-four.
The votes given for Burr and Pinckney were really given them for the
position of Vice-President, but as the Constitution then stood, each
elector voted for two persons, and the one who received the highest
number of votes became President, and the one who received the next
highest became Vice-President. One of the electors should have voted
for Jefferson without casting a vote for Burr. As it stood, there was
no election. Jefferson had seventy-three votes, and so had Burr. By
the Constitution, it had to go to the House of Representatives. There
the members voted by States, and the candidate who received the vote
of nine States would be President. Burr was a man full of plot and
schemes. He had been put forward only as a candidate for the Vice-
Presidency; but as he saw a chance to become President, he used all
his ability to secure his election in place of Jefferson. The Federals,
defeated as they were, were ready to defeat Jefferson. For days they
continued balloting without being able to effect an election. General
anxiety prevailed, and fears were entertained that they might not be
able to make a choice, but at last, on the 17th of February, 1801, six
THE UNITED STATES. 77
representatives agreed to vote blank, and Jefferson received the vote
of ten States, Burr of four, two not voting.
The few remaining weeks of his administration were uneventful.
Congress reorganized the United States Courts, and Mr. Adams. on the
3d of March, appointed judges under the new Act; a step which called
forth strong censure.
Without waiting for the inauguration of his successor, Mr. Adams,
early on the morning of the 4th of March, bid adieu to the Capital
and public life.
During this short administration, the yellow fever, which had been
* very destructive in 1793, renewed its ravages. Steps were taken in
New York and Pennsylvania for the gradual extinction of slavery.
Albany became the capital of New York.
The French Revolution, which abolished monarchy and aristocracy
in France, had done away with much of the old style finery of dress.
Its influence was felt in America. Short hair took the place of the
long powdered hair or wigs; loose trowsers were worn instead of the
tight knee-breeches; dark or black cloth was adopted for men's Wear
instead of gayer colors. In all social concerns, there was less formality
and display, and more simplicity was everywhere introduced.
78 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
CHAPTER IV.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, THIRD PRESIDENT—1801–1809.
War against Tripoli—Purchase of Louisiana–Lewis and Clarke's Expedition to Oregon—
Troubles with Florida—Burr's Conspiracy—English Outrages—Attack on the Chesapeake—-
New States and Territories.
JEFFERSON came into power as representing a new policy. All was
at peace, except that the Barbary States continued to plunder Ameri-
can ships, and carry off passengers and crews to be sold as slaves.
Under previous administrations, the party now in power had urged the
payment of money to redeem the captives rather than fit out a navy to
punish them. But the French war had brought a navy into existence,
and there was now no talk of paying money to those pirates.
One of Jefferson's first acts was to send out Commodore Dale, with
a squadron, to the Mediterranean Sea, to chastise Tripoli, the last offen-
der. Finding a Tripolitan frigate and brig near Gibraltar, he block-
aded them so that they could not get to sea. Then the little Enter-
prise, a twelve-gun schooner, under Lieutenant Sterrett, overtook a
Tripolitan fourteen-gun ship, and in a running fight of three hours
captured her, after killing or wounding fifty of the corsairs, without los-
ing one of his own men. He then threw her cannon and ammunition
overboard, and sent her adrift with one old sail. When the pirate
captain at last got back to Tripoli, he was paraded around on an ass.
Ohio had now gained so much in population, that she solicited admis-
sion as a State. Accordingly, Congress authorized the holding of a Con-
vention, which in 1802 adopted a very liberal Constitution. Under
THE UNITED STATES. 79
this it became a State on the 1st of March, 1803. Then the growth
of settlements on the Mississippi, in the Territory of that name, gave
promise of a new State. But suddenly news came that Spain had, by a
secret treaty, on the 1st of October, 1800, ceded back to France the
colony of Louisiana, which she had held for nearly forty years. There
was at once a change of system. The authorities at New Orleans re-
fused to carry out the treaty of 1783, so as to allow American vessels
to land their cargoes at New Orleans. All the American settlements
in the Mississippi valley were aroused, and many were in favor of rais-
ing an army and taking possession of Louisiana by force. Congress
acted more prudently, but the free navigation of the Mississippi was so
essential to the West, that a law passed authorizing the President to
call out an army of eighty thousand men, and two millions of dollars
were put at his disposal to purchase, if possible, the island of Orleans,
and the free navigation of the river. The navy was also increased ;
and as another war with France seemed possible, some who had been
strongly in favor of that country, now looked to England for aid.
Livingston, the American minister at the court of France, had in
vain endeavored to baffle the negotiations, and prevent the cession of
Louisiana to France. Failing in this, he opened a negotiation for the
purchase of New Orleans, and the adjacent territory on the Missis-
sippi. Bonaparte did not give the project a favorable consideration,
till it was evident that France must again plunge into war. Then
Bonaparte asked Livingston to make an offer for all Louisiana. The
American minister's instructions did not anticipate this, nor did those
of Monroe, who arrived to succeed him. But there was no time to ask
instructions. The American envoys offered ten millions of dollars;
the French government at first asked sixteen millions, but having
80 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
agreed that four millions should go to pay American claims, the bar-
gain was closed, and a treaty was signed on the last day of April, 1803.
The treaty secured to the inhabitants their liberty, property, and re-
ligious rights, and provided for their early admission as citizens, and
the organization of part of the territory as a State.
The treaty came as a surprise to the whole country, and was too
satisfactory a solution of the difficulty to allow much dispute. The
amount to be paid was trifling to a great and growing country, and it
gave the United States not only complete and exclusive control of the
Mississippi, from its source to the sea, but carried the American
boundary to the shores of the Pacific, for no limits west were ,
fixed.
When Congress met the treaty was confirmed, and money voted to
carry it out ; so that on the 20th December, 1803, Lausat, as commis-
sioner for France, formally transferred New Orleans to the American
commissioners, Wilkinson and Claiborne. The latter was appointed
by Congress to govern the new province for the time being. This was
not, however, intended to last. The next year, Louisiana was divided
into two parts; the portion south of the thirty-third degree of lati-
tude became the District of Orleans. This was to be under a governor
and council appointed by the President. Courts were established, and
preparations made for its admission as a State, as soon as the in-
habitants had become sufficiently accustomed to our government. The
northern part, called the District of Louisiana, was for the time made
dependent on Indiana Territory. It was even supposed to be so re-
mote, that it was proposed to remove all the Indians to it from the
States east of the Mississippi river. Most of it was an almost un-
known wilderness, but an expedition under Lewis and Clarke pene-
THE UNITED STATES. 81
trated to the Rocky Mountains, and crossing that ridge, reached the
head waters of the Columbia, to which they gave their names, and
then descended the Columbia to the Pacific, carrying the United
States flag across the continent.
The war with Tripoli was maintained, and in 1803, Commodore
Preble sailed with a squadron of seven vessels. While chasing a Tri-
politan ship, the Philadelphia, Captain Bainbridge, ran ashore and
was captured with all on board. The Pacha got her off, but Preble
resolved to destroy her. Decatur, with a small vessel, ran in, captured
her, and set her on fire. As all her guns were loaded ready for action,
the vessel, as she lighted up the city with her blazing hull and masts,
poured her deadly broadsides into Tripoli, till her magazine was reached,
when, with a terrible explosion, she disappeared. Preble, with his
inferior force, kept up a constant series of attacks on the place, and
tried by torpedoes to destroy the Tripolitan gunboats. Youssouf, dey
of Tripoli, had expelled his brother Hamet, and usurped his throne.
Hamet, having won the friendship of Eaton, the United States consul
at Tunis, formed a plan to recover his throne. Eaton and Hamet,
with seventy men from Preble's fleet, captured Derne by assault, and
de, eated Youssouf in two battles. This brought him to terms of
peace, by which the American prisoners were given up, but Hamet
was abandoned most unjustly. Tunis was then menaced, and thought
it best to send an ambassador to the United States. An American
squadron was kept in the Mediterranean, and for the first time, those
piratical nations began to see that their trade was at an end. -
Another presidential election was now at hand. Jefferson was
again chosen President, and George Clinton, of New York, Vice-Pres-
ident, by a large majority. Aaron Burr, who was set aside, smarting
6
82 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
under disappointed ambition, during the campaign challenged Alex-
ander Hamilton, and killed him in a duel at Weehawken.
Some troubles occurred on the Florida frontier, the Indians in that
province, aided by Englishmen, committing ravages. Steps were
taken to purchase that province from Spain. England showed her
hostility also by continuing to impress American seamen. The Brit-
ish naval commanders even carried their insolence so far as to attempt
to take men by force from vessels belonging to the American navy.
A new war seemed probable. In Europe, England and France were
issuing decrees in regard to neutral vessels, which made it almost im-
possible for American ships to be at sea. This led Congress to pass,
in 1806, an act to prohibit the importation of English manufactured
goods.
While the country was in this critical position with regard to Eng-
land, Colonel Burr well nigh.involved it in a war with Spain. Desper-
ate as a politician, he formed a plan for separating the Western States
and territories from the United States, and forming a new Republic,
which was at once to wrest Mexico from Spain. He tried to win over
General Wilkinson, who commanded the United States troops on the
Mississippi, but Wilkinson not only posted his troops so as to check
Burr's movements, but reported all he knew to the President. Burr
did not even then give up all hopes of success, but being at last Sur-
rounded, he surrendered to the governor of Mississippi Territory.
His trial was an event of great importance. It was a strange sight to
see a man, who had so recently, as Vice-President, acted as President
of the Senate, now brought to trial for high treason. He was defend-
ed with great skill, and acquitted.
The Berlin Decree of Napoleon, and the British orders in council
THE UNITED STATES. 83
were now in full operation, both condemning neutral ships to forfeit-
ure. Mr. Pinckney negotiated a new treaty with England, in which
that country yielded some points, but not the right of impress-
ment. This was so unsatisfactory to Mr. Jefferson, that he resolved
not to send the treaty to the Senate for confirmation. While attempts
were on foot to renew negotiations, an event occurred which justified
Jefferson. The Chesapeake, a thirty-eight-gun frigate, left the Chesa-
peake for the Mediterranean; just outside the Capes of Virginia, the
Leopard, a British vessel of fifty guns, came up and demanded several
men as deserters, and quietly prepared for action. On the refusal of
Commodore Barron, she opened fire, pouring a broadside into the
Chesapeake, and for a quarter of an hour kept up a steady fire; the
Chesapeake, unable to return her fire, at last struck, having had three
men killed and eighteen wounded, and the vessel, masts, and rigging
greatly cut up. The men taken from her were tried, and one of them
hung in cold blood. This outrage roused the indignation of the whole
country. The President, by a proclamation, forbade all English
armed vessels from entering any port of the United States, and pro-
hibited under penalties all intercourse with them. The English gov-
ernment endeavored to allay the storm by recalling the Admiral, re-
moving the Captain of the Leopard, and restoring the pretended de-
serters; for in almost every case the claim was a falsehood got up for
the occasion, and the men taken Americans. t
On the 22d of December, 1806, Congress laid an embargo, prohibit-
ing all American vessels from sailing to foreign ports, and excluding
all foreign vessels from taking out cargoes. This step caused great
distress in the country, and roused a strong feeling of opposition, es-
pecially in New England. England and France were not affected by
84 . A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
it, so that it did not produce the expected result, and it was finally
repealed in 1809.
Illinois Territory was organized about this time, embracing not only
the present State, but also Wisconsin. Thus terminated Jefferson's
presidential career. He long continued to be regarded as the head of
his party, and is still looked up to with reverence, as the most thorough-
ly democratic expounder of national policy. As Washington had de-
clined to serve more than two terms, Mr. Jefferson did not become a
candidate; but prepared to retire to private life, having, from the
opening of the Continental Congress, devoted himself almost entirely
to the cause of his country. As one of the greatest American states-
men, his influence still remains. In the election which took place,
there was scarcely any opposition. James Madison, of Virginia, put
forward as candidate for the presidency, and George Clinton, of New
York, nominated for the vice-presidency, were elected almost unani-
mously.
Among the important events which marked the administration of
Jefferson, was the successful operation of a steamboat, by Robert Ful-
ton, in 1807. Many, from the time of Fitch and Rumsey, had endeav-
ored to apply steam to navigation, but Fulton was the first who so far
succeeded as to run a steamboat on the Hudson to Albany.
His triumph revolutionized the whole navigation of the world.
THE UNITED STATES. 85
CHAPTER W.
JAMES MADISON, FOURTH PRESIDENT—1809–1817.
Trouble in Pennsylvania—The President and Little Belt—Indian Troubles in the West—War
with England—Hull's Surrender—Operations on the New York Frontiers—Queenstown, La.
Colle—Victories at Sea—Proctor's Victories in the West—Repulsed at Fort Meigs—Toronto
—The Niagara—Perry's Victory—Battle of the Thames—Tecumseh slain—The Creek War—
General Jackson—Battle of the Chippewa—Invasion of Maryland—Capture of Washington—
English repulsed at Baltimore—Macomb and McDonough at Plattsburg—Jackson in Flori-
da—Battle of New Orleans—Peace proclaimed—Final battles at Sea.
MR. MADISON selected for his cabinet, Robert Smith, of Maryland,
Secretary of State ; Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury;
William Eustis, Secretary of War; and Paul Hamilton, of South
Carolina, Secretary of the Navy. -
The great question was the relation of America to England. Eng-
land had never forgiven the Revolutionary War, and, as we have seen,
had done many unfriendly acts. Still Mr. Madison, sustained by the
voice of the country, was reluctant to resort to hostilities. Anxious
to escape the embarrassment of the embargo and non-importation
Acts, he began secret negotiations with David M. Erskine, then British
minister at Washington. Erskine engaged himself to obtain a repeal
of the orders in council, so far as they related to the United States.
But the English Government disavowed Erskine's acts, and matters
remained in the same uncertain position, non-intercourse being rigidly
enforced.
86 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
France made some overtures, but soon fell back, and both powers
continued to intercept American merchantmen.
At home, some troubles arose in 1809. A case at law, arising out
of the capture of a vessel during the Revolutionary War, involved
the Government of the United States in a contest with the State of
Pennsylvania. The Governor of the State ordered out the militia,
and placed a guard under the command of Captain Bright, to prevent
the United States marshal from serving any process of the United
States court; the marshal on his side called for two thousand men to
aid him, and the Governor of Pennsylvania, finding matters serious,
yielded, but this did not end the matter. Bright and his militiamen
were arrested, and tried for resisting the marshal, and after a long
trial, convicted. The whole affair thus resulted in confirming the
powers of the General Government.
In 1811, the Territory of Orleans was at, last made into a State, un-
der the name of Louisiana, although not without great opposition on
the part of the Federalists, who denied that Congress had any power
to create States out of the newly-acquired territory, so jealously did
our ancestors watch every movement of the new government, for fear
it might, in an unguarded moment, deprive them of the liberty they
prized so highly. After this time what had been called the District
of Louisiana was called Missouri.
Application was also made to erect Mississippi into a State, but it
was deferred, owing to the necessity of satisfying the State of Georgia,
in regard to her claims over its territory. --
The negotiations with France and England had failed to obtain a re-
peal of the obnoxious decrees and orders in council. The American
navy was too small to defend the immense number of American ships
THE UNITED STATES. 87
from all English cruisers, for even then American ships were found
in every sea. A lesson was, however, taught them on the 16th of
May, 1811. The frigate President, Commodore Rogers, was pursued
for a time by the English sloop-of-war Little Belt, Captain Bingham.
When the President hailed the Little Belt, she replied with a cannon-
ball. The American vessel, zealous for the national honor, prepared
for action. In a moment the vessels were engaged ; but after one or
two broadsides, the Little Belt had all her guns silenced, and her decks
strewed with the dead and wounded, no less than eleven men having
been killed and twenty-one wounded in this brief action, which left the
Little Belt little better than a wreck. The President then hailed
again, and this time received an answer. In the morning, Captain
Rogers sent down to offer assistance, which the Little Belt declined,
and Sailed off as best she could. This affair excited both countries, and
each nation justified its own vessel.
It was evident that war might break out at any moment. "Great
Britain had never ceased to tamper with the Western Indians, who saw,
With hatred and alarm, the rapid increase of the States. There was at
this time a Shawnee chief, famous alike for bravery in battle and elo-
quence in council. This was Tecumseh. With his brother, a noted
medicine-man, commonly known as the Prophet, he went from tribe to
tribe, urging the Indians to cast away the deadly firewater of the
whites, and all European goods, and to set their faces sternly against
Christianity and civilization, all alike being but devices for the destruc-
tion of the red race. The Wyandots, of Sandusky, a turbulent and
powerful tribe, were the first to join him. Then Tecumseh prepared
for actual War. His operations had not been unwatched. General
William Henry Harrison, then governor of Indiana Territory, invited
88 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Tecumseh to a conference at Vincennes. The chieftain came, but be-
haved with so much haughtiness that General Harrison broke off the con-
ference, and prepared to meet him in the field. In November, with a
Small force of regulars, Indiana and Kentucky militia, he advanced
upon the Prophet's town, at the junction of the Tippecanoe and Wa-
bash. When he came within a few miles of the town, the principal
chief came out with proffers of peace. General Harrison was too cau-
tious to be deceived, and prepared for action. When, at four the
next morning (Nov. 7), the gloom of night was deepened by the fierce
yells of the savages rushing furiously on his camp, Harrison was ready
to receive them. He maintained order, and met the assault with steady
courage. The bloody battle raged till the sun rose; then the baffled
savages withdrew utterly repulsed ; the Americans lost sixty-two killed
and about twice as many wounded. The loss of the Indians, who were
more exposed, was much greater. The battle of Tippecanoe was
one of the fiercest and hardest battles ever fought with the red men,
and it gave Harrison great and deserved renown. Tecumseh was not
present in the action, and the Prophet was on a hill going through his
incantations, while the warriors were battling fiercely below. Harri-
son's loss had, however, weakened him, so that after burning the Proph-
et's town, and establishing forts, he returned to Vincennes.
The West, roused by this Indian trouble, which they ascribed to Eng-
lish influence, were eager for war. The South also desired it, but New
England still advocated peace, exciting the contempt of the English,
who said that the United States could not be kicked into a war. On
the 4th of April, 1812, Congress laid another embargo on all vessels in
American waters; and on the 18th of June, President Madison, by the
authority of Congress, declared war against Great Britain.
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THE UNITED STATES. 89
Justified as the act was, it was rash, for the country was utterly un-
prepared, and communication through the country was very slow. The
President had authority to enlist twenty-five thousand men, to accept
fifty thousand volunteers, and to call out a hundred thousand militia
for the defense of the Sea coast and the frontiers. Henry Dearborn,
of New Hampshire, an officer of the Revolution, was appointed
commander-in-chief, with the rank of Major-General, with Wilkinson,
Hampton, Hull, and Bloomfield, as brigadiers.
General Hull was Governor of Michigan, and when war was declared,
he was marching against the Indians. He was ordered to invade Can-
ada, but before he was aware that war had been declared, the British
knew it, and seized his military stores. Undeterred by this, he crossed
the Detroit river, and advanced on Fort Malden, but by delay he lost
the opportunity of carrying the place. More active, the English took
Mackinac, with the help of the Indians, who now rallied in force to the
British standard, led by Tecumseh. Hull found himself cut off from
Supplies, and a detachment under Van Horn, sent out by him, was cut
off near Raisin river, by Tecumseh. The American general resolved
to fall back to Detroit, and sent Colonel Miller to open a road for his
convoy. General Proctor had joined Tecumseh, and taken up a strong
post at Maguazo. Colonel Miller attacked them with great skill, and
after an obstinate struggle, forced their position. But his victory was
fruitless. Hull was completely encircled. Meanwhile, General Brock,
Governor of Upper Canada, reached Malden with reinforcements. Hull
then retreated to Detroit, followed by Brock, at the head of the whole
British and Indian force, numbering thirteen hundred. He summoned
Hull to surrender, threatening, as usual with English commanders, to
give the men up to every species of Indian cruelty if he refused. Hull
90 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
called in all his troops, and hung out a white flag. On the 16th of
August, 1812, he surrendered the fort, garrison, stores, and the Terri-
tory of Michigan. As the tidings of this terrible reverse spread, the
Country was filled with indignation. Hull was tried, and having been
found guilty of cowardice, was sentenced to be shot, but was pardoned
by the President. -
Though hostilities had begun, negotiations were still kept up, and an
armistice was soon agreed to. England, however, still insisted, on her
right to stop American vessels, and impress all whom any English offi-
cer might suspect to be British subjects. How terribly American ship-
ping was injured by this wanton and cruel practice, may be seen by
the fact that, as Lord Castlereagh, an English minister, admitted, there
were no less than seventeen hundred bona fide American citizens, who
had thus been kidnapped, and were now compelled to serve against
their will in the British navy. The real number was three thousand,
and twenty-five hundred refusing to fight against their own country,
were confined with every ill-treatment in Dartmoor prison, England.
The American vessels on the ocean were scattered. The Nautilus
was soon taken by a British fleet, and the Constitution escaped cap-
ture only by the wonderful skill and seamanship of Captain Hull. The
first naval action occurred off the Great Banks of Newfoundland. The
British sloop-of-war Alert, of thirty-two guns, falling in, on the 13th
of August, with the Essex, Captain Porter, attacked her, thinking her
to be a merchantman. But when the Essex had for eight minutes
showed her metal, the Alert struck.
On the afternoon of the 19th of the same month, the Constitution,
Captain Hull, discovered the English frigate Guerriere, and gave chase.
Her Captain, Dacres, had boasted of his desire to meet an American
THE UNITED STATES. 91
man-of-war. As the Constitution bore down, the Guerriere opened
fire, but the Constitution came on grim and silent, till Hull got into the
position he wished ; then he opened. By the light of the moon the
battle went on. Broadside after broadside poured in upon the Guer-
riere, as fast as mortal men could send them. In half an hour's time,
the Guerriere was little better than a wreck, and Captain Dacres, hav-
ing lost more than a hundred in killed and wounded, surrendered to
Hull, who had lost only fourteen killed and wounded. The Guerriere
could not be taken into port, she was set on fire and blown up. All
America rung with exultation over this victory. Congress voted Cap-
tain Hull their thanks, and gave him and his gallant crew $50,000 as
prize money. In England, the news caused the utmost mortification.
That a British frigate had been taken in a fair fight, was the terrible fact
which they could not deny. America at once took her place in naval
history, as one to compete with England for supremacy. Other vic-
tories followed. The British sloop-of-war Frolic, of eighteen guns, fell in
with the United States sloop-of-war Wasp, of the same number of guns.
After a fierce and bloody fight, Captain Jones boarded the Frolic, to
find her deck covered with the dead and wounded. He lowered the
English flag himself, but such are the chances of war, before he could
get his own ship and his prize into order after the action, the Poictiers,
a British seventy-four, bore down and captured them. Then Captain
Decatur, in the United States, forty-four guns, met the Macedonian, car-
rying forty-nine. The action began, the vessels passing each other for
an hour, keeping up their fire; the American firing like a sharp-shooter,
true to aim. Just as the Macedonian supposed the United States had
given up, she took up a raking position across the stern of the Macedo-
nian. Then the British frigate struck her colors, having received a
92 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
hundred balls in her hull, and had a hundred and four of her crew
killed and wounded, though, on the United States, there were only
twelve. Before the close of the year, the Constitution, now under
Commodore Bainbridge, engaged the Java, of thirty-eight guns, and by
his true and rapid fire absolutely cut her up so that when she attempt-
ed to run down and board the Constitution, her foremast fell, her main-
opmast came down, and her bowsprit was sent flying by the American
guns. Spar after spar was cut away; her Captain killed, but her Lieu-
tenant kept up the fight manſully for a time, then struck. Bainbridge
had to blow her up, there was nothing left to take to port.
On land, the Government, by the utmost exertions, had collected
troops on the frontier at various points. General Dearborn stationed
on Lake Champlain an army of three thousand regulars, and two
thousand militia ; two thousand militia were posted at Sackett's Har-
bor, and six thousand more, under General Van Rensselaer, were at
Buffalo. The New York frontier was thus protected from invasion.
Besides this, Commodore Chauncey had been sent to Lake Ontario, to
fit out a flotilla, and check the operations of the British fleet in those
waters. He was soon in force on the Lake, and drove the British fleet
into Kingston. He then endeavored to make his little squadron a
fleet ready for any emergency. Commodore Elliot was equally busy
on Lake Erie.
It was evident that the real work of the war must soon come off. The
English opened the campaign by attacking Ogdensburg, New York, in
October, 1812, but after a short and decisive action, they were re-
pulsed by General Brown and his militia, and fell back.
On the 13th of October, General Van Rensselaer attempted to
cross the Niagara. His first detachment of two hundred and twenty-
THE UNITED STATES. 93
five men, under Colonel Wan Rensselaer, crossed to attack the British
posted at Queenstown. After mnch loss from a shower of musketry
and grape, they effected a landing, and, led up the rocks by Captains
Wool and Ogilvie, after the Colonel had fallen, they drove the English
behind a stone house, and silenced all their batteries. Then the roll
of the drum was heard, and General Brock came up with the Forty-ninth
British regiment, and forced the little American detachment to the very
verge of the precipice. One officer actually hoisted the white flag, but
Wool tore it away, and by a desperate charge drove the British back, -
and when their general, Van Rensselaer, was in vain endeavoring to
send over fresh troops, the militia declined to leave the State, and
only a thousand, under General Wadsworth, crossed. At three o'clock in
the afternoon the enemy rallied, and, aided by several hundred Indians,
attacked the American lines. With severe loss, the little force, under
Lieutenant-Colonel Scott, repulsed them. But the English were con-
stantly bringing up fresh troops. An hour later, reinforced by eight
hundred men under General Sheaffe, they again advanced. General
Wadsworth, with men exhausted by a day's constant fighting, without
food, and no hope of reinforcement or relief, had no alternative. He
made a gallant fight for a time, but as he could not retreat for want of
boats, he at last Surrendered, many, after laying down their arms, to be
butchered by the Savages whom England was not ashamed to array
against civilized men. This gallant but unfortunate day cost America
eleven hundred in killed, wounded, or taken ; while the English loss
was comparatively small.
Disgusted at this reverse, and the miserable inefficiency and incapac-
ity manifested in all departments, Wan Rensselaer resigned, and was
Succeeded by General Smythe, of Virginia.
94 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
The conduct of the Administration was far from creditable. The
War Department planned no campaign, and raised no army. It in-
vested the generals in command of the several divisions with discre-
tionary powers, and left everything to them, and the militia were
called out without any object, or any orders to guide them. The
whole year was spent in fruitless marches and countermarches, or in
unimportant skirmishes.
In October, Dearborn occupied the Indian town of St. Regis, which
lies partly in New York and partly in Canada, but advancing, he was
defeated in a movement against La Colle, and a month later, lost a
detachment in an action at Salmon river.
At Niagara, General Smythe issued a pompous address, and finally
sent a detachment under General Winder across the river. One de-
tachment under King gallantly carried a British battery, but being
unsupported, at last retreated, leaving a part to surrender to the Eng-
lish. In the West, Zachary Taylor, at Fort Harrison, on the Wabash,
found himself and his little garrison of fifty invested, in September,
by several hundred Indians, who attacked with great fury. Steadi-
ness and intrepidity disconcerted the savage foe, who drew off after
heavy loss.
Some expeditions took the field against the Indians, but beyond
destroying some of their towns near Peoria, no good was effected.
This virtually closed the campaign of 1812. Amid the excitement
of war, a presidential election had taken place. Mr. Madison was
again put forward as President, with Elbridge Gerry as Vice-President.
The candidates of the opposition, with whom the Federalists operated,
were De Witt Clinton, of New York, and Jared Ingersoll. Madi-
Son was re-elected by a large majority.
MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN ELLIS WOOL.
We introduce here a sketch of Wool, whose first exploits we have just briefly
noted. His career as an officer was long and glorious, extending over half a cen-
tury of our history.
He was born at Newburgh in 1789, in a house which had been
for a time the headquarters of General Wayne. Profiting by such
advantages for education as were afforded, and his own energy, he
was, before reaching manhood, owner of a bookstore in Troy, but only
to see his whole stock destroyed by fire. He was diligently studying
law when war was declared against Great Britain: but that act decided
his career for life. The friendship of De Witt Clinton obtained for
him a captaincy in the 13th Infantry on the 14th of April, 1812.
Rapidly acquiring the knowledge of his profession, he gained the first
and important success in the battle of Queenstown Heights, Oct. 13,
being for a time in command on the field, but, shot through both
thighs, he fell into the hands of the enemy. His exchange soon came,
and with it the commission of major in the 29th Infantry. Serving
still on the frontiers of his native State, he so distinguished himself
96 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
in the battle of Beekmantown, near Plattsburg, in September, 1814
that he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel, and retained in the reduced
army at the peace. His appointment as inspector-general of the army,
in 1821, shows the opinion formed of his merit. He was then lieu-
tenant-colonel, and in 1826 was made brevet brigadier-general. The
following years were employed in various important duties, a visit to
Europe to study foreign systems, the removal of the Cherokees, and
the coast defences.
The Mexican war found him a brigadier. He was ordered West, to
organize and forward volunteers. Rapidly discharging this duty, he
pushed on with the centre division assigned to him to San Antonio
de Bexar, to operate against Chihuahua or elsewhere, under Taylor's
Orders. He advanced to Parras, but here received orders from Taylor,
who heard of Santa Ana's approach, to join him at Agua Nueva. He
did so, and soon remarked the superior advantages of Buena Vista
for an action. On the 22d of February, 1847, being in command in
the absence of General Taylor, he at once occupied the all-important
position and opened the battle, holding Santa Ana's force of 20,000 at
bay till General Taylor came up and assumed command. The glory of
the day, both for the selection of ground and able handling of his
men, belongs therefore to Wool, who in consequence received a brevet
of major-general in May, 1848.
On Taylor's return General Wool commanded the army of occupa-
tion until the peace, exhibiting marked administrative ability in clear.
ing the country of robbers and guerillas, and restoring order.
He was subsequently in the department of the East, with his head.
quarters at Baltimore, and then at Troy, having in an interim been
appointed to the department of the Pacific, where in three months he
THE UNITED STATES. 97
put an end to an Indian war, and, by strictly enforcing the law against
violations of the neutrality laws, excited the ill-will of Jefferson Davis.
When the Southern States declared war against the national govern-
ment, Wool at once solicited active service, and in every way contrib-
uted to national success by forwarding the volunteers raised in his
department, and, among other things, saved Fortress Monroe by the
timely reinforcement dispatched to it. He was, however, ordered from
New York to Troy, but in August was assigned to the command of
Fortress Monroe, where he relieved General Butler. The department
thus assigned to him afforded no opportunity for active operations till
May 10, 1862, when he took possession of Norfolk. He was then made
major-general, and has since commanded at Baltimore and New York.
General Wool has thus filled a conspicuous and honorable position.
His talents, bravery, and military skill were always acknowledged, but
it was often evident that it was not desired to give them scope. Hero
of three wars, great in all, of spotless integrity and patriotism, he
nobly connects us with the glorious past.
7
LIEUT.-GENERAL WINFIFLD SOOTT.
WINFIELD Scott is a native of Virginia, having been born near
Petersburgh, in that State, June 13, 1786, and at the age of seventeen
was left an orphan by the death of his father and mother. The
former, William Scott, Esq., was a farmer, and the son of a Scottish
emigrant.
Winfield, left to his own resources, continued his studies at the
High School at Richmond; and after spending a year or two at the
venerable College of William and Mary at Williamsburg, attended a
course of lectures on the science of law, as part of the preparation
for the profession which he had chosen, and to the practice of which
he was, after studying with David Robertson, admitted in 1806. His
native State did not, however, seem to offer him the best field for a
young advocate: he accordingly removed to South Carolina, and had
taken the initiatory steps to enrol his name among the barristers or
that State, when the insolent attack made by England on the Chesa-
peake roused the nation to arms. President Jefferson, by proclamation,
forbid British armed vessels from entering the harbors of the United
States, and the people in various parts prepared for coming hostilities.
Scott caught the flame of patriotic ardor, and enrolled himself as a
member in a volunteer cavalry organization formed at Petersburgh,
and performed a tour of duty on Lynnhaven Bay. He also, by word
and pen, supported the course of Jefferson, as he subsequently did
that of Madison, and warmly advocated a war with Great Britain.
When Congress, on the 12th of April, 1808, passed an act to raise
eight new regiments, young Scott was not overlooked, but on May 3d
received from President Jefferson a commission as captain of light
artillery. Being assigned to duty under General Wilkinson, he pro-
ceeded to New Orleans in 1809. When his commanding officer was
THE UNITED STATES. - 99
removed the next year, Scott gave expression to an opinion, then very
generally entertained, that Wilkinson was not a stranger to Burr's
plans. For this he was court-martialed, and suspended for a year from
rank and pay. It redounds greatly to his credit, and is highly charac-
teristic, that the young officer, instead of flinging away his commission,
or spending the year in idleness or the mere pursuit of pleasure,
devoted himself assiduously to the study of his profession, so that,
when the period of probation closed, he was a far more accomplished
officer than before.
Such a spirit was appreciated; and in less than a month after the
declaration of war with England, he was, on July 6, 1812, commis-
sioned lieutenant-colonel in the Second Artillery, and ordered to the
Northern frontier. He covered with his artillery the passage of Van
Rensselaer's small force into Canada, at Queenstown, Oct. 13, 1812;
and after Wool had gained the Heights, and, killing Sir Isaac Brock,
repulsed his assault, Lieut.-colonel Scott crossed and took command,
Van Rensselaer having been wounded. But no preparations had been
made for a retreat; and when this became unavoidable in consequence
of the refusal of the militia to cross to their aid, Scott, with his petty
force of 225 men, after an obstinate fight against a superior force of
white, red, and black enemies, in which he routed the Indians and
checked the rest, surrendered with his whole command as prisoners of
war. Scott's life was in danger from the Indians, whom he had
severely handled on the Heights; and some of his soldiers of Irish
birth were in as great danger from the whites, who sent them to
England to be hanged as British subjects. Scott interfered, and
threatened retaliation; and on being soon after exchanged, induced
government to confine twenty-three English prisoners as hostages.
100 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
In January, 1813, Lieut.-colonel Scott was exchanged, and imn.e.
diately resumed active service, and joined Major-general Dearborn at
Fort Niagara as adjutant-general (chief of staff). Here he rendered
essential service in organizing the departments of the army; but in
the attack on Fort George (May 27th) he led the advanced guard,
landed his men with skill, formed his line, and in the face of the
enemy's bayonets carried the heights, and in a sharp action of twenty
minutes routed them. As they fled they fired mines, and in the ex-
plosion a piece of timber dashed Scott from his horse. He was up
in a moment, and, bruised as he was, was the first to enter the works
and haul down the English flag. In July he was appointed to com-
mand a double regiment, and soon after made a descent on York,
destroying considerable ammunition, arms, and stores. He was next
placed in command of Fort George, but in November joined Wilkinson
on the St. Lawrence, just in time to see his inglorious retreat.
On the 9th of March, 1814, he was promoted to the rank of
brigadier-general, and assigned to a command under Major-general
Brown. A camp of instruction was formed at Buffalo; and here he
evinced his extraordinary ability in forming soldiers, adopting the
modern French system.
When the troops were deemed reliable for action, Brown prepared
to cross the frontier. On the 3d of July Scott led his brigade over
Niagara river, and, driving the Marquis of Tweeddale, encamped at
Street's Creek, two miles from the English position behind Chippewa
river, where Riall was well intrenched. A plain, soon to become a
ground of a famous battle, lay between the two rivers, extending from
a dense wood to the Niagara.
On the 5th the battle began as Scott was drilling his men in the
THE UNITED STATES. 101
plain. The two armies met in the wood, where the British and Indians
drove in Porter's command. About four o'clock in the afternoon they
were seen advancing across the plain. Scott, whom Major-general
Brown, hastening to the rear to bring up Ripley, had left in command,
did not await their onset, but forming his line, with McNeil on the left
and Leavenworth on the right, pushed on, giving deadly volleys till
within eighty paces, when he charged. The British line broke and
fled, leaving over five hundred of their best men on the field. The
country resounded with the fame of Scott, and his success at Chippewa
raised the drooping spirits of the people. Two days after, the Ameri.
can army advancing, with Scott still in the van, came upon the enemy,
prepared to meet his onset, near Lundy's Lane. A warm musketry fire
met the head of his line. Scott pushed on without hesitation, and as
night closed in, a general action ensued. The enemy's right attempting
to flank his line, was repulsed with loss, his left broken, leaving only
his centre to maintain the contest. Covered by a battery on the hill,
it defied the American assaults till a charge of bayonets routed this
division also. Scott saw victory again perch on the eagles of his host,
when he was borne from the field at midnight, disabled by two severe
wounds. A grateful country rewarded him with the brevet of major-
general, bestowed July 25, 1814, and with a gold medal, presented “in
testimony of the high sense entertained by Congress of his distin-
guished services in the successive conflicts of Chippewa and Niagara,
and of his uniform gallantry and good conduct in sustaining the
reputation of the arms of the United States.” His wounds did not
allow him to resume active service during the war, but he was sent
to Europe on government service.
Soon after the peace of Ghent, General Scott married Miss Maria
102 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Mayo, of Richmond, and for many years during the profound peace
which prevailed, found no scope for his energies except in elevating
the character of the army wherever brought under his influence: com
piling with this view his “Infantry Tactics, or Rules for the Exercise
and Manoeuvres of United States' Infantry,” which the House of Repre-
sentatives ordered to be printed for army use. In 1832 he was sent
to the West to bring the Black Hawk war to a close, but the battle of
Bad Axe terminated hostilities before his arrival. He was then dis-
patched to Charleston to examine and strengthen the forts in the
harbor, so as to be ready for any hostile movement on the part of
South Carolina. The firmness and decision of Jackson saved the
country from civil war, and South Carolina receded from the unwise
course on which she had entered.
General Scott was next engaged in the Florida war, but did not
effect any result. His movements against the Creeks, in 1836, were
far more successful.
The Canadian revolution of 1837 next required his services. The
cause of the neighboring colony enlisted all the sympathy of Americans,
and was freely furnished. The government was anxious to prevent
this, regarding it as at variance with our treaty obligations to England.
It did not recognize the patriots as belligerents. Even the invasion
of American territory by an armed British force, which destroyed a
steamer near Niagara Falls, killing all on board, did not induce it to
swerve from the high position of impartiality which it had assumed.
General Scott organized a large regular and volunteer force on the
frontier, to enforce the laws of the country and be ready for any event.
The Madawaska troubles, in 1839, nearly involved the two nations
in war. Congress appropriated money, and authorized the raising of a
THE UNITED STATES. 103
volunteer force. Intercourse between the two governments ceased
British troops and Maine militia were hastening to the disputed terri.
tory, and a collision that would lead to war seemed unavoidable. For.
tunately General Scott and Sir John Harvey were men as calm and
sagacious as they were brave and capable in the field. They wisely
adopted a course which left the settlement of the boundary to nego-
tiation between the two governments, Maine and New Brunswick with-
drawing all troops from the disputed territory.
General Scott was now prominently before the people as a man of
counsel, and was one of three candidates for the Presidency in the
Whig Convention in 1839, where General Harrison was finally selected.
A high military position was, however, accorded to him on the death
of Major-general Macomb, June 25, 1841, at which time he was ap.
pointed major-general and commander-in-chief of the army.
The annexation of Texas, that fatal step in American history, made
ºfar with Mexico imminent, from the resolution of the administration
to seize all that the Texans had ever claimed. In this wild theory,
the march of a Mexican army across the Rio Grande into territory
where the Texans had never been, was declared an invasion of the
United States and an act of war. The force sent into Texas by the
President on the annexation was commanded by General Zachary Tay-
lor, who conducted the early military operations, erecting Fort Brown,
and defeating the Mexicans at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma.
It was proposed to send General Scott to take command, but he
showed a relactanee to supersede Taylor, and laid his own plans before
government. Politieal intrigues were now at work to create a new
office, and confer the command of the armies on some party favorite.
When Scott had arranged his plans, and laid before the President
104 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
the means necessary to carry out the war, he proceeded to the Rio
Grande, which he reached about the commencement of 1847. Here
he awaited the supplies of men and materiel to be provided for by
government, but the deliberations of Congress went on without any
evidence of an intention to carry out the campaign as devised by the
commander-in-chief, and Scott resolved to attempt the operation against
Vera Cruz and Mexico with the troops under his actual command, and
such as he could safely draw from the army of General Taylor. Direct.
ing Taylor to fall back, if necessary, to Monterey, he detached from his
own operations enough regulars to give him an effective force of 12,000
men. With these he sailed to Vera Cruz, which, with its castle, San
Juan de Ulua, he invested on the 12th of March. General Scott
formed his plans, landed his troops without loss, and planting his
batteries on the 22d, demanded the surrender of the city and fort.
So confident were all of the power of the Mexicans to stand the
siege, that the foreign consuls refused to avail themselves of the
safeguards offered by the American general. But the terrible bom.
bardment which ensued brought overtures of surrender on the 26th.
Three days later, Scott officially announced that the flag of the
United States floated over the walls of Vera Cruz and the castle of
San Juan de Ulua. Want of transportation delayed Scott for a time;
but on the 8th of April he began his march on the capital of Mexico,
and in a few days his army reaching the mountain range, found Santa
Ana ready to dispute their passage. That great general had attempted
to crush Taylor at Buena Vista, and then, without loss of time or dis.
couragement, marched in haste to oppose Scott. The battle of Cerro
Gordo, on the 18th of April, was planned and described by Scott in
his general orders, down to the very pursuit of the enemy. A new
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THE UNITED STATES. 105
road opened by him turned the enemy's flank and gained his rear
Twiggs and Harney storm the heights of Cerro Gordo, while Shields
carries a fort in the rear; and Pillow, unable to take the river batteries
before him, holds General La Vega, and insures his capture. The noon-
day sun beheld the American general in complete possession of the
field, and Santa Ana flying to Jalapa with only 8,000 men, destitute of
baggage and supplies.
Scott immediately pushed on in pursuit of the Mexicans, and occu-
pied Jalapa, Perote, and Puebla. A delay was then caused by the
negotiations of Mr. Trist, an envoy of the American government; but
as these did not result in terms of peace, General Scott convened his
generals, laid his plans before them, and with an army made more
effective by discipline, instruction, and needed reinforcements, marched
on Mexico. As his army drew near that city, the genius of the general
was displayed in his arrangements. Avoiding the Peñon, he turned
Lake Chalco, and menaced the city in the rear from San Agustin, on
the Acapulco road. Between him and the city were the strong points
of Churubusco, a well-defended téte-du-pont Contreras, separated from.
San Agustin by the Pedregal, a field of lava, and nearer yet the strong
and apparently impregnable Chapultepec. The hour had come for a
wager of battle for the capital. Santa Ana held the heights behind
Contreras with 12,000 men, and 7,000 more, under Valencia, were posted
in the camp of Contreras. Scott formed his plans at once. A reconnois.
sance by Lee of the engineers, and a sharp artillery duel between Ma-
gruder and the batteries at Contreras, showed the strength of the enemy.
Scott resolved to occupy Contreras and Ansalda, and attack General
Valencia's fortified position on the heights from the rear. His arrange-
ments were made so effectually, that when, on the 20th of August, in
106 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
a heavy rain that the soldiers had been exposed to all night long,
General Persifer F. Smith led his men up the hill, the Mexicans were
driven from the ground in seventeen minutes, and swept a broken
and thinning mass of fugitives to Mexico. -
By this brilliant action Santa Ana's well-laid line of defences was
broken. The Americans had flanked Churubusco, and taken San An-
tonio in the rear; but he still held out. A fierce battle ensued at
Churubusco. Worth stormed the téte-de-pont at the point of the
bayonet, Twiggs for three hours fought nobly to take the citadel,
which fell at last; and further on, Shields sustained the attack of
Santa Ana, and after a desperate conflict routed his forces. At every
point the Mexicans were beaten, slaughtered, captured, or pursued.
Kearney, with his dragoons, rode, with characteristic disregard of
danger, to the very gates of the city. The terrible day of battle had
been fought by nine thousand Americans against thirty-two thousand
Mexicans, and the losses were more than proportionate to these num-
bers, the Mexicans admitting their killed, wounded, and prisoners to
amount to 12,000, while Scott lost but one thousand.
The sacrifice of life induced Scott to lend an ear to propositions
of peace, and he was led into negotiations which were subsequently
broken off. Chanultepec still stood a barrier in his way. Molino del
Rey and the Casa de Mata were carried by storm on the 8th of Sep.
tember by General Worth, though at the cost of nearly one-fourth his
whole corps, so strong had the enemy rendered their position. Cha-
pultepec still remained. Lee, Beauregard, and Stevens reconnoitred the
approaches to the city, so as, if possible, to avoid the necessity for
assaulting the fortress. But it was the key of Mexico, and the attack
must be made. On the 11th, four batteries of siege guns were erected,
THE UNITED STATES. 10?
which opened the next day. On the 13th, a breach having been made,
Pillow and Quitman stormed the heights.
Scott had fulfilled his work. Skirmishing, indeed, succeeded, during
which Worth and Quitman gained a foothold in the city; but at night
Santa Ana fled from the city, and with the dawning day came the city
council to ask terms of capitulation. Scott declined, as the city was in
his possession, and he moved into it with his whole army.
The capture of the capital brought peace on the 2d of February,
'.848, and General Scott was suspended from command, and ordered to
appear before a court of inquiry, on charges preferred by General
Worth; but the court never made any decision, and Scott resumed
his position as commander-in-chief. w
The brilliant, able, and successful campaign in Mexico, begun with
inadequate means, and carried on as it was without the cordial support
of the administration, filled up the measure of Scott's glory. As par.
tisan objection died away, and the feelings caused in his subordinates
by his frequently overbearing and arrogant demeanor subsided, mer
began to recognize his great military ability. European military critics
accorded him a high degree of praise, which corroborated the feeling
of his countrymen. He was accordingly nominated by the Whig party,
in 1852, for the Presidency, and shared its adverse fortune.
In 1859 he was appointed brevet lieutenant-general, being thus
invested with a title never before held by any but Washington.
When the election for President, in 1860, by the bitter feelings
which it excited, menaced that overthrow of Republican institution
which the tyrants of Europe had so long prayed for, General Scott
had no uncertainty as to his course. The United States was his coun.
try: by its government he would stand or fall.
108 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
He made his military preparations to insure the peaceful inaugura.
tion of Abraham Lincoln, whom John C. Breckenridge, as president of
the Senate, had declared legally elected President of the United States.
When the Rebels, by intrigue, led their armies into Virginia and
forced it into secession, Scott made his plans for meeting them. Con-
trary to his own advice, he sent forward the army under McDowell,
which was defeated at Bull Run in July, 1861. -
This reverse came with terrible earnestness on the North. The
defeat of Scott startled them. His plans for crushing the rebellion -
of Davis and his associates were and still are unknown. The public,
which had fondly built its hopes of triumph on the generalship of
Scott, was unmanned by a single reverse, and the extravagant idea
which they had formed of him was changed into a kind of despond-
ency, and the veteran heard even his loyalty impeached
When the future unveils the cabinet secrets, we shall be able to
study and appreciate justly the plans of General Scott at this crisis,
and see how following them contributed to the victories, and disregard
of them to the disasters, of the American arms.
Sick, overtasked, broken by chronic disorders that prevented active
motion; General Scott felt the terrible blow. He was unmanned. As
suming all the blame of the late disaster, he resigned his high post
in spite of all remonstrance, and retired, on the 1st of November, 1861
from the command of the armies of the United States.
THE UNITED STATES. 109
CAMPAIGN OF 1813.
THE operations in the following year began in the West. The army
of the West, under General Harrison, was near the head of Lake
Erie, acquiring the discipline and skill necessary for action. The great
object was to recover Michigan, and wipe out the disgrace of Hull's
surrender. Kentucky, Ohio, and other States, sent their brave, though
inexperienced soldiers. On the 10th of January, General Winchester,
with eight hundred men, reached the Maumee Rapids. Hearing
that a British and Indian party had taken post on the river
Raisin, twenty-five miles south of Detroit, he sent forward a detach-
ment which dislodged the enemy, and held the place till he
came up. ".
The English general in that department was the active Proctor,
acting under Sir George Prevost, now commander of the British forces
in Canada. Proctor, hearing, at Malden, of Winchester's success, and
of his unguarded camp, gathered a force of fifteen hundred whites and
Indians, and crossing on the ice, suddenly attacked the American camp
at Sunrise, on the morning of the 22d. Though previously warned,
Winchester took no precautions. Proctor approached by night, in the
most profound silence, and at daybreak opened from artillery that he
had planted on Winchester's right, then charged with his regulars,
Indians at the same time assailing both American flanks. Though
taken so unawares, Winchester fought bravely, but with severe loss, till,
falling a prisoner into the hands of the Indians, he agreed to surrender
his whole force, on Proctor's promise that they should be protected from
the Indians; but the English commander, fearful of Harrison's ap-
proach, marched back to Malden, leaving the sick and wounded Amer-
110 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
icans without a guard. His Indians at once returned, and falling
upon the Americans, slaughtered and scalped many, hurrying others off
to Detroit, to be held for ransom, or into the woods, to be the sport
of their savage cruelty.
Harrison, marching up to join Winchester, heard of this disaster,
and falling back, erected Fort Meigs, and resolved to hold that posi-
tion at all hazards, despairing of being able to assume the offensive, as
the terms of many of the men were just out.
Madison, now re-elected for another term, reorganized his cabinet,
and endeavored to infuse more energy into the War Department. It
was not to be merely a war with Canada, and on the sea. English
fleets blockaded New York, Delaware, and Chesapeake Bays, and raw-
aged the whole coast.
Harrison had foreseen an English attack on Fort Meigs. It came
on the 28th of April. On that day, Proctor invested it with two
thousand English and Indians, throwing up batteries on both sides of
the river. On the fifth day of the siege, the beleaguered force were
cheered by the approach of General Greene Clay of Kentucky, with
twelve hundred men, whose impetuous charge scattered the English,
leaving a battery in their hands as a trophy. But Clay's inexperi-
enced soldiers forgot to spike the guns, and while scattered in pursuit
of the flying foe, were suddenly surrounded and captured by the rest
of Proctor's force. That general then attempted to resume the siege,
but his Indians, content, as usual, with one battle, wished to return
home, and soon withdrew in such numbers that Proctor abandoned
the siege and returned to Malden. -
The army in New York also took the field to invade Canada.
Early in May, Dearborn resolved to attempt the capture of York, now
THE UNITED STATES. 111
Toronto, Canada, the principal depot of supplies for the British posts
in the West. Commodore Chauncey took the troops on board at
Sackett's Harbor, and on the 27th of April, they landed on the beach
at York, under a heavy fire from British and Indians, under Colonel
Sheaffe. Led by the brave General Pike, the Americans drove the
English before them. After destroying one of the enemy's batteries, *
they were pressing on the main works, when a terrific explosion took
place. A magazine blew up, hurling fragments of stone and wood in
all directions. Numbers were killed on both sides, and General Pike
was mortally wounded. In the confusion, Sheaffe escaped towards
Kingston. The Americans captured York, with all the stores laid up
there by the British, and found a fresh American scalp suspended
over the speaker's chair in the Parliament House. Commodore
Chauncey burned the Parliament House, and destroyed much
war material that could not be removed, and some vessels
on the stocks. The victorious forces then returned to Sackett's
Harbor, with a large quantity of captured ammunition and
Stores. *
Having obtained reinforcements, Chauncey sailed to the Niagara
river, to invest Fort George. On the 27th of May, the advance, un-
der Colonel Scott and Major Forsythe, landed, followed by Boyd,
Winder, and Chandler's brigades. The enemy abandoned their works
without waiting to fire a shot, but treacherously laid trains to blow up
the magazine. Fortunately, the Americans entered in time to extin-
guish the match before it reached the powder. General Vincent, the
English commander, deeming Fort George untenable, retreated to Bur-
lington heights, pursued by the Americans. Instead of advancing in
person with all his force, General Dearborn sent on General Winder,
112 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
with one brigade, and soon after detached General Chandler to sup-
port him. The latter, taking command, resolved to attack the enemy
in the morning, and encamped without sufficient precautions on the
banks of Stony Creek.
Vincent saw his opportunity, and, as soon as it was dark, made a
Sudden attack on the American camp. The sentinels were bayoneted,
the guards passed, but the British Indians gave a yell that roused the
Americans, who were sleeping on their arms. A strange irregular fight
took place, in which Generals Chandler and Winder, getting by mis-
take among British soldiers, were carried off by them as prisoners in
their precipitate retreat, their general, Vincent, being lost in the
darkness, and found next day at a distance without sword or hat.
In this rather curious battle, about a hundred men were lost on
each side.
As soon as it became known in Canada that Chauncey had sailed
from Sackett's Harbor, General Sir George Prevost sailed from King-
ston, to attack that centre of American operations. His force consist-
ed of seven hundred men. A body of militia under Colonel Mills,
were stationed on the shore to dispute the landing of the enemy; but
they fled in spite of their commander, who was killed while trying to
rally them. Some block-houses held by Colonel Backus, and a small
body of regulars, held Prevost in check, and poured in deadly volleys
on his exposed men, so that when General Brown, who had gathered
a few of the militia, attacked Prevost in the rear, the British general
retreated in all haste to his ships, with no consolation except that of
seeing the American store-houses in flames, an over-zealous officer hav-
ing set them on fire on a false report of Brown's total defeat.
The English had not given up their operations in the West. On

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THE UNITED STATES. 113
the 21st of July, Proctor, aided by Tecumseh, appeared before Fort
Meigs, at the head of a force of British and Indians amounting to four
thousand. General Clay was in command, and he made so Vigorous a
defense, that Proctor, leaving his Indian ally to Watch the fort, attempt-
ed, with thirteen hundred British and Indians, to carry Fort
Stephenson, at Lower Sandusky, a slight work held by only a hun-
dred and fifty men, under the command of Major Croghan. Proctor
demanded an instant surrender, threatening, in case of refusal, to give
the garrison up to all the Savage barbarities of his Indians. Croghan
rejected the summons with scorn, Prevost opened with his heavy
guns, and having made a breach, attempted to take the fort by assault,
but Croghan planted his only cannon to sweep the gap, and the Eng-
lish column was met by such a shower of grape, and volley of rifles,
that they fled panic-stricken, leaving a hundred and fifty dead or
wounded. This gallant defense made young Croghan illustrious—he
Was but twenty-one—and damped the zeal of the Indians in the Eng-
lish interest.
Lake Erie was now to be the scene of naval operations. Commo-
dore Perry had been sent to fit out an American Squadron on that
lake. During the summer of 1813, he launched on those inland waters
a Squadron of nine vessels, mounting fifty-four guns, to hold in check
the British naval force, and co-operate with the American army in any
operations near the shores of the lake. On the 4th of August, 1813,
he sailed out to seek the British fleet, under Commodore Barclay, con-
sisting of six vessels, but carrying more guns than Perry's flotilla.
Not finding Barclay, Perry retired to Put-in Bay. To his joy, Bar-
clay at last appeared. Perry stood out to meet him, and obtained the
Weather gage, the advantage of the wind in his favor. Then hoisting
8
114 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
his flag with Lawrence's dying words for a motto, “Don’t give up the
ship,” he bore down on the enemy. The Lawrence, Perry's flag-ship,
was attacked by two of the enemy, and so cut up that she was a mere
wreck. Then Perry, leaving her in an open boat, through a hot fire
from every part of the enemy's line, carried his flag to the Niagara.
The battle went on furiously, the smaller American vessels coming up
at last. Perry managed with singular skill, and kept up such a con-
tinued and deadly fire, that at four o'clock every one of the British
flags struck, without their having been able to take possession of the
Lawrence, which actually lay at their mercy. Then Perry sent to
General Harrison the famous dispatch beginning with the words,
“We have met the enemy, and they are ours.”
The influence of this victory, the Battle of Lake Erie, was tremen-
dous. The capture of a whole British flotilla, after a severe action,
was in itself a triumph that raised the American fame throughout the
world. Its effect on the military operations was decisive. It gave
the Americans complete control of Lake Erie. It cut off Prevost
from Canada, and he accordingly retreated in all haste, crossed over
the Detroit, dismantled Malden, and endeavored to reach a strong po-
sition, where reinforcements could reach him. General Harrison, aid-
ed by Perry's fleet, was in hot pursuit. Detroit was recovered after
having been in the enemy's hands from the outset of the war. On the
4th of October, General Harrison came up with the British rear, near
the Moravian town, on the Thames, eighty miles from Detroit. Pre-
vost found that he must fight. He drew up his force of British and
Indians, across a narrow strip of land, between a swamp and the riv-
er. The next day the battle began. Proctor poured in a volley on
Harrison's advance, but Johnson's mounted rifles swept through the
THE UNITED STATES. L15
British line like a tornado, routing it so completely that no attempt
was ever made to rally, and Proctor himself fled with a few followers,
to be seen no more on the field. Tecumseh, with his Indians, made a
better stand. Posted in a marshy spot, they were not so easily rout-
ed. Johnson dismounted his men, and broke through to their rear ;
even then they would not yield, but hurled themselves on the infantry,
till checked by old General Shelby. Amid the din of battle rose the
voice of Tecumseh, encouraging his braves, till he fell, surrounded by
the flower of his warriors.
This battle of the Thames, the glory of Harrison and Colonel Rich-
ard M. Johnson, by whose hand Tecumseh is supposed to have fallen,
completely broke the power of the English in the West. Michigan
was recovered, the Indians completely crushed, and Upper Canada
menaced from the South and West. All that Hull had lost was now
regained, and even the cannon he surrendered, trophies of Saratoga
and Yorktown, were again restored to American custody. o
But if the Indian enemy at the North was checked, the influence
of Tecumseh and the Prophet had worked mischief at the South. That
chief had, in 1812, visited the Creeks, Cherokees, and Choctaws. The
young Creek braves rallied to his call. The settlements in Tennessee,
Georgia, and Mississippi, were ravaged by the savage foe, who obtain-
ed arms and ammunition from the British. Emboldened by success,
they next attacked Fort Mimms, in August, 1813, taking it by Sur-
prise, and putting the garrison to death, only seventeen out of three
hundred and fifty escaping. The threatened States then put forces in
the field; Tennessee in the van, with her brave sons, under General
Jackson. The Choctaws joined the Americans, and did good Service.
On the 2d of November, General Coffee advanced on the Creek town,
116 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Tallushatchee. They did not wait to be attacked, but went out to
meet him with such fury, that they were with difficulty repulsed.
Even then they kept up the battle, refusing quarter till they were al-
most all killed. A few days after, Jackson, protecting the friendly
Creeks of Talladega, fought another desperate battle. At the close
of November, General Floyd, of Georgia, obtained another signal
victory at Autossee, the Creek metropolis, on the Tallapoosa. The In-
dians were utterly defeated, the King and two hundred of his braves
slain, and the town given to the flames.
Thus far, the inhuman English policy of arming savages against the
American frontiers, so as to weaken and divide the national forces,
had utterly failed. It brought destruction only on those who had
been lured on by the English envoys.
Meanwhile, the American commander-in-chief, General Dearborn,
lay inactive in Canada. But the English were not disposed to allow
an invader to hold a position on their soil undisturbed. Colonel Bishop,
with a small force, determined to operate in the American rear, and
cut off Dearborn's supplies. He encircled his camp, occupied Fort
Erie, and crossing over to Black Rock, on the American side, on the
11th of June, dispersed the militia, and destroyed all the cannon and
provisions stored there. A body of regulars, militia, and Indians,
however, hurried up from Buffalo, and a second engagement took
place, in which Colonel Bishop was killed, and his troops compelled to
retreat.
Other minor operations were carried on by both sides, but Dearborn
was not relieved. To open communications, he sent Colonel Boerstler, to
attack a British force at Beaver Dams, collect provisions, and encourage
friendly Canadians. That officer, attacked in the woods by a few regu-
THE UNITED STATES. 117
lars under Lieutenant Fitzgibbon, and some Indians, Boerstler sup-
posed that he was surrounded by a British army, and surrendered
With his whole force.
Colonel Winfield Scott, convoyed by Chauncey, made another dash
at York, in July, destroyed more British stores, and rescued some
American prisoners. - -
General Dearborn, inefficient from age, was recalled in June, and
General Wilkinson appointed to command the army of the centre.
A new and more vigorous plan of action was projected by General
Armstrong, Secretary of War. It was resolved to capture Montreal.
Early in November, seven thousand men under Wilkinson moved
down the St. Lawrence in boats from French Mills. The British
were on the alert, and annoyed him so much from the shore, and from
gunboats in his rear, that he was compelled to land and come to ac-
tion. The battle of Chrysler's Field was severely contested—the
Americans losing General Covington and three hundred men—but ena-
bled him to advance to St. Regis. There he learned that the army
under Hampton, which was to co-operate with him, had fallen back; it
had been checked in its advance by a small Canadian force under Sal-
aberry, at Chateaugay, on the 21st of October. Wilkinson, finding
Hampton indisposed to co-operate with him, retired to winter quarters,
nothing at all having been effected.
General Harrison, dissatisfied with the state of affairs on the New
York frontier, returned to the West, leaving the command on the Ni-
agara frontier to General McClure. The American forces there were
chiefly militia, and when the time of service for which they had been
called out expired, they left, refusing to stay even for the large bounty
offered. Unable to hold his ground in Canada, General McClure de-
118 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
stroyed Fort George, and returned to New York State, having first
wantonly set fire to the town of Newark. Provoked at this, Prevost,
the English commander, crossed the river, took Fort Niagara, put the
garrison to the sword, and burned every village up to Niagara Falls,
while another detachment of his army gave Black Rock and Buffalo
to the flames, and destroyed a part of Perry's fleet. Prevost then, in
a proclamation, justified his conduct, but offered to conduct the war on
more humane principles, if the Americans would pursue a similar
course. And for all the pillaging and incendiary expeditions of the
English against the American towns and cities, England always gave
this same excuse.
Thus ended the campaign of 1813 on land.
On the ocean there were many engagements, some of them severe
naval battles between the cruisers of the rival powers. But the chief
service of the British fleet was the blockade of American ports; and on
the Southern coast, where Admiral Cockburn, known as the Henroost
Admiral, commanded, they plundered the country in a most unheard-
of fashion.
The American shipping in the Delaware River was destroyed by this
buccaneering admiral, in March, 1813, and the next month he can-
nonaded the town of Lewiston. Entering the Chesapeake, he plunder-
ed and burned Frenchtown, Havre de Grace, Georgetown, and Fred-
erictown. While attempting to reach Norfolk, his fleet was repulsed
by the Americans upon Craney Island, under the command of Major
Faulkner.
Few of the American frigates could get to sea. One of these, the
Hornet, Captain Lawrence, in February, discovered the Peacock, an
English brig-of-war, at anchor near Demerara. Although of Superior
THE UNITED STATES. 119
force, Lawrence cleared for action, and ordered his men to quarters.
The two vessels exchanged broadsides, but Lawrence soon ran him
close on board on the starboard quarter, and kept up such a telling
fire, that in fifteen minutes the British commander struck, hoisting a
signal of distress, for she was actually cut to pieces: her mainmast went
by the board as she struck, and before all her crew could be got off she
went down, carrying three of the Hornet's men with her.
The success of the American navy in the previous engagements had
elated them greatly, and led to rashness. The Shannon, a British ves-
sel, had been cruising for some time off Boston Harbor, defying any
American vessel in port to come out and meet her. Captain Lawrence,
just appointed to the Chesapeake, stung at this challenge, resolved to
accept it. The equipment of his vessel was not complete, he had not
his full complement of officers, his crew had just been shipped, and had
received little drilling, but he resolved to meet the Shannon, and sailed
out, June 1st, 1813. The Shannon opened, doing fearful execution,
but the Chesapeake answered with terrible broadsides. At last, how-
ever, she got locked to the Shannon by one of her anchors, so that she
was exposed to a raking fire. Captain Lawrence was mortally wound-
ed just as he was about to board. There were no officers left to lead
on the men, and in the confusion, Captain Brooke boarded the Chesa-
peake, which struck, in spite of Captain Lawrence's dying words:
“Don’t give up the ship.” This sea-fight is one of the bloodiest on
record. It lasted only fifteen minutes, yet in that brief space, a hun-
dred and forty-six were killed and wounded on the Chesapeake, and
eighty-three on the Shannon.
120 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
CAMPAIGN OF 1814.
THE first operations on land, in 1814, were in the Creek Territory.
The movements in the previous year had been in a manner independ-
ent and without concert, two from Tennessee, one from Georgia, and
one from Mississippi. The war had not, therefore, been brought to a
decisive point.
As these columns after gaining victory retired, the Creeks rallied,
and very soon began to assume the offensive. They resolved to attack
Floyd and the Georgia troops, and took the field against them ; but
the resolute Jackson was again approaching Emuckfau, where they
were posted. The Creeks at once changed their plans, and on the
21st of January, at dawn, attacked Jackson on his left flank. A warm
action ensued, but in half an hour the Creeks were repulsed and
driven back two miles. There they took up a position too strong to
be rashly assailed. Finding that Jackson would not attack, they
again advanced upon him, but General Coffee turned their left flank, ,
and by a splendid piece of strategy cut off a large body of them.
Their main attack on Jackson's line was stubborn and persistent; but
a general charge again routed them. Jackson's army was, however,
so weakened that he fell back to Fort Strother, keeping up a running gº
fight almost all the way.
No sooner were the Creeks relieved from fear of further movements
on Jackson's part than they turned their whole force on Floyd, attack-
ing him on the 27th with great spirit. After heavy loss on both sides
they were routed. -
Jackson was soon ready to make a decisive campaign. The Creeks
had intrenched themselves for their last stand at the Great Bend of
THE UNITED STATES. 121
the Tallapoosa. Their position was defended by a breastwork thrown
up with great care and judgment.
On the 27th of March, Jackson, with about three thousand men,
drew up in view of the enemy for a final struggle. Having dispatched
General Coffee to encircle the Bend on the river-side with his mounted
men and friendly Indians, he moved to the charge of the breastwork.
The regulars, led by Major Montgomery, scaled the rampart, and
though he fell, they poured over the intrenchment and drove the In-
dians to the shelter of the bushes. Routed from this, they fled to the
river, to be met by Coffee's withering fire. But they would not yield,
and even fired on a flag sent to offer them terms of surrender. Then
Jackson fired the brushwood, and amid the glare and blaze most of
them perished, few escaping the trap into which they had thrown
themselves. -
This victory gave a death-blow to the power and hopes of the
Creeks. They had fought bravely; four hundred and fifty-seven war-
riors lay dead on the ground—only four were taken.
After recruiting his army, Jackson, effecting a junction with the
Georgia troops, moved upon the Hickory Ground, where the remnant
of the warriors had gathered. But their spirit was broken. As the
army approached a deputation of chiefs came out to treat of peace.
Weathersford, the most cruel and relentless, who commanded in the
massacre at Fort Mimms, addressed Jackson with the greatest elo-
Quence :
“I am in your power,” said the chief; “do with me as you please.
I am a soldier. I have done the white people all the harm I could.
I have fought them, and fought them bravely. There was a time when
I had a choice and could have answered you ; I have none now—even
122 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
hope is ended. Once I could animate my warriors; but I cannot ani-
mate the dead. My Warriors can no longer hear my voice; their
bones are at Talladega, Tallushatchee, Emuckfau, and Tohopeka.
Whilst there was a chance of success I never left my post, nor suppli-
cated peace. But my people are gone; and I now ask it for my na-
tion and myself.”
Jackson had determined not to spare this man ; but his noble atti-
tude disarmed his resentment. Peace was made ; the Creeks retired
beyond the Coosa, and a line of posts Secured their fidelity.
The Indian allies whom England had roused against American
homes at the North and South were crushed. The war was to be car-
ried on by civilized men. England now made overtures of peace, led
less by any effect of the American operations than by the state of af.
fairs in Europe. Madison sent out commissioners to negotiate, but
before a treaty was signed Napoleon was overthrown and sent to
Elba. England, thus relieved of her great enemy in Europe, aban-
doned all ideas of peace with the United States. Instead of appoint-
ing commissioners to meet those sent by the American Government,
she sent over large bodies of her veteran troops, who were not imme-
diately needed in Europe. The American navy ...was scattered or
broken up, or shut up in the harbors by the British fleets, which block-
aded the whole coast. Everything served to announce that the real
fighting of the war was about to commence.
Although a large party in the United States opposed the war, and
crippled the power of the Government, preparations were made for the
great struggle. The army on the Niagara frontier was reorganized
and placed under the command of Major-General Brown, under whom
Scott and Ripley served as brigadiers. The earlier months of the
THE UNITED STATES. 123
year had not been marked by any important action. Wilkinson was
repulsed in an action with the enemy at La Colle, on the 30th of March,
and in consequence lost his command.
On the 5th of May, a British force of three thousand men landed
from a squadron before Oswego, which had none to defend it but Col-
onel Mitchell, with three hundred men. The object of the expedition
was to destroy the naval and military stores deposited at Oswego
Falls; but Mitchell held them at bay for two days, and so discouraged
them that they were afraid to push in land. They finally withdrew
on the 7th, having lost two hundred and thirty-five men.
When General Brown took command, he marched from Sackett's
Harbor to the Niagara. On the morning of the 3d of July, his ad-
vance, under Scott and Ripley, crossed the river and carried Fort Erie.
The garrison fell back to General Riall's entrenched camp at Chip-
pewa. On the 5th, Scott drove in the British outposts, and Riall,
who had crossed the Chippewa and dispersed the American volun-
teers before him, was driven back by Scott over the river at the point
of the bayonet. In this sanguinary battle, Riall lost five hundred
men. He then retreated to Burlington Heights, where he was joined
by General Drummond, who at once assumed command.
Now greatly outnumbering Brown, Drummond advanced to meet the
Americans. To prevent the loss of his magazines, Brown sent for-
ward Scott with his brigade and some artillery. About a mile from
Chippewa, Scott came upon Riall's whole army. It was near sunset,
but the armies engaged within sight and hearing of Niagara Falls.
From sunset to midnight the battle raged. Scott suffered severely,
but he maintained his ground, awaiting aid, till by a diversion he
routed the Canadian militia, and captured Riall himself. At nightfall
124 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Brown came up with Ripley's brigade, and threw himself in. front of
Scott. A British park of artillery had galled Scott terribly. Brown
ordered Colonel Miller to storm it. With the simple answer, “We will
try,” Miller pushed up the hill, and drove the men from the guns at
the point of the bayonet, exposed the whole time to a terrible fire.
That night the English advanced stealthily to recover their guns,
but soon recoiled before the American musketry. In half an hour they
again advanced, but after a severe conflict, in which Scott took them
in flank, they were again driven back. Rallying with desperate ener-
gy, they made a third attempt, in which bayonets were frequently
crossed, but it was all in vain. Drummond, after losing nearly nine
hundred men, at last drew off, leaving the Americans in quiet posses-
sion of the field, but with nearly as heavy a loss. Generals Brown
and Scott, who had both been wounded in this desperate battle,
left the field, and the command devolved on Ripley. That
general, after awaiting for half an hour any further movement
of the enemy, returned to his camp. The cannon so gallantly
captured were left on the field, as he had no means of removing
them. •
The American army then fell back to Fort Erie, where General
Gaines assumed command. Drummond was not yet discouraged.
With a force of five thousand men, he again advanced, and on the 4th
of August invested Fort Erie. At midnight, on the 15th of August, he
assaulted it in three columns. Gaines repulsed two of these columns,
but the third, with daring intrepidity, effected a lodgment in one bas-
tion, and held their position till a quantity of cartridges exploded.
Fearing that a mine was about to be sprung on them they retreated.
This assault cost Drummond nearly another thousand men, but he kept
THE UNITED STATES. 125
up the siege, till Brown; in a sortie, destroyed his advanced works, blew
up the magazines, spiked the guns, took four hundred prisoners, and
drove Drummond towards Chippewa. Then learning that General
Izard was on his way with reinforcements, Drummond retreated to
Fort George.
Fort Erie was, however, too exposed to hold safely; it was accord-
ingly dismantled and destroyed in November, and the American forces,
crossing the Niagara, took up their winter quarters at Buffalo, Black
Rock, and Batavia.
These were not the only operations on the northern frontier. When
Izard marched to relieve General Brown, Plattsburg was left quite ex-
posed, General Macomb having only fifteen hundred men to defend the
important line of Lake Champlain. General Prevost seized the oppor-
tunity to strike a decisive blow. He at once marched down with four-
teen thousand men, chiefly veterans, who had won distinction under
Wellington in Europe. His advance was covered by a fleet under
Commodore Downie. General Macomb at once called for militia, and
Commodore McDonough, a most efficient commander, prepared to meet
Downie on his element.
Prevost, on reaching Plattsburg, on the 6th of September, found
Macomb's little army, with a strong body of militia, drawn up in a
strong position beyond the Saranac, ready to dispute its passage. Com-
modore McDonough drew up his little fleet across the harbor to re-
ceive the English fleet, which bore down upon him on the 11th. A
desperate naval engagement ensued, on the waters of that beautiful
lake ; but after a contest of two hours and twenty minutes, Downie's
flagship struck, several others of his vessels did the same, a few escap-
ed, but the whole fleet was dispersed, and nearly all captured. Though
126 f A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
disheartened at this unexpected result, Prevost fought fiercely all day
long to cross the Saranac, but was bravely resisted. During the even-
ing, he retreated in haste, leaving his sick and wounded, with most of
his baggage and stores.
The evident intention of the British, to attack some city on the At-
lantic seaboard, kept the Administration in great alarm, but little was
done to meet the emergency, and the measures of defense taken were
tardy and ill-concerted. At last, on the 18th of August, Admiral
Cochrane entered the Chesapeake with a fleet of nearly sixty vessels,
bearing a division of Wellington's army, numbering four thousand men,
under the command of General Ross. To oppose this force, there
were in the waters of the bay only a small flotilla, commanded by Com-
modore Barney. The army under Ross, accordingly, landed on the 20th,
at Benedict, on the Patuxent, and at once moved on Washington, guid-
ed by negroes. - -
Armstrong, the Secretary of War, now made some hasty attempts to
defend the capital, and after great exertion, a motley host gathered at
Bladensburg, to check Ross. There were Maryland militia, under
Stansbury, a few of General Winder's regulars, sailors and marines
from Barney's flotilla, now abandoned and burned. The English came
up, exhausted and doubtful, but as their only chance lay in a bold dash,
they charged like veterans that they were. The militia broke and fled.
Barney and Miller, with their artillery, for a time checked the British
advance, but as the Annapolis regiment, and regulars supporting them,
at last gave way, the sailors and marines drew off, leaving their
wounded commanders on the field.
The ground was but a few miles from Washington, and the Presi-
dent and his cabinet had been on the field. They were swept away
THE UNITED STATES. 127
by the tide of fugitives. At Washington, all was panic and
alarm.
After a brief rest, Ross pushed on, and occupied Washington the
same day. With the vandalism characteristic of his nation, he burned
the Capitol and other public buildings, destroying the library of Con-
gress, and much of the national archives. Other public and private
property was destroyed. Europe had just seen capital after capital
captured, but had witnessed in no case such barbarous destruction as
disgraced the English in America. Ross felt this, and felt his danger:
fearing to be treated as a midnight incendiary if taken, he rapidly I’ê-
tired, leaving his wounded to the mercy of the Americans. The Brit-
ish fleet then advanced to Alexandria, and carried off an immense
quantity of flour, tobacco, and other merchandise.
While one crew of English marauders was thus ravaging and plun-
dering the shores of the Chesapeake, another was committing similar
acts on the coast of Maine and Massachusetts; and the British com-
manders officially announced in dispatches their intention to destroy
and lay waste every town they could reach. When Paul Jones, in the
Revolution, plundered Lord Selkirk's place, the English could not find
words to condemn it as an act that made him a pirate. Yet that was a
mere sudden act of private vengeance, while their course in America
was premeditated and planned. America was roused to make a vigor-
ous defense, so that when Cockburn landed Ross at North Point, on the
Patapsco, on the 12th of September, in order to attack and sack Balti-
more, they found more formidable preparations to receive them. The
fleet bombarded Fort McHenry, while Ross attempted to push forward
toward the city. They were soon checked by the advance of the mi-
litia, under General Stricker. A skirmish at once ensued, in which the
128 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
incendiary ROSS was killed. Colonel Brooke, his successor, driving on
the American advance, the action became general. The artillery
did great execution on both sides; but the militia, fighting for their
homes, held in check a superior force of English veterans for an hour
and a half. Forced back after killing and wounding nearly twice as
many of their opponents as they lost, they retired in order, till Gen-
eral Winder came up. Both parties slept on their arms. In the morn-
ing, Brooke reconnoitred the American lines, and hesitated. He con-
ferred with Cochrane, who had been pouring into Fort McHenry a per-
fect tornado of shells, but the brave commander, Major Armistead,
showed no signs of yielding. The English commanders were discon-
certed. Discomfited, the army retired to the shipping and with-
drew. º -
Baltimore was saved. The song, “The Star-spangled Banner,”
was composed at this time by Francis S. Key, who had been watch-
ing from Cochrane's ship, where he was detained, the flag at Fort
McHenry. -
The ravages of the coast were not ended. For four days Commo-
dore Hardy bombarded Stonington, Connecticut, although every at-
tempt to land was repulsed by the militia.
There seemed to be no violation of the laws of war to which the
English would not stoop. Pensacola was in Florida, then a Span-
ish province. An English squadron took possession of the forts, with
the connivance or consent of the Spanish authorities, and from it fitted
out an expedition of British and Indians against Fort Bowyer, at the
entrance of Mobile Bay. But this violation of neutral territory did
not avail them. Fort Bowyer made a vigorous defense : the British
were repulsed by the gallant Major Lawrence, who, with only one hun-
ſae
§
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GEN, ANDREW JACKSON, SEVENTH PRESIDEN's


THE UNITED STATES. 129
dred and thirty-two men, killed two hundred and thirty-two of the
British, and deprived them of a man-of-war.
General Jackson was not one to brook such action on the part of the
Spaniards. He demanded guarantees that they would not permit any
further hostilities from their territory, and as the Spaniards gave no
Satisfaction, Jackson, with two thousand Tennessee militia and some
Choctaws, marched on Pensacola, took it by storm, November 7th,
1814, drove the British to their shipping, and compelled the Spaniards
to surrender the town and forts unconditionally. The fleet sailed off,
leaving their Spanish friends in the lurch.
Returning to Mobile, Jackson heard that New Orleans was menaced.
It was then a city of twenty thousand inhabitants, chiefly of French
and Spanish origin, with little attachment yet to the new Government,
to which they were comparative strangers. Jackson could not count
here on any vigorous militia. Still he assembled his forces, and en-
deavored to protect the city. His preparations were rapid, but on the
12th of December, 1814, the British fleet anchored off Lake Borgne,
With one of the most imposing British armies yet seen on the continent.
Twelve thousand men, under Generals Pakenham, Keene, Lambert,
and Gibbs, landed after the American flotilla had been dispersed.
Jackson proclaimed martial law, and called on Tennessee and Missis-
Sippi for aid. It came slowly. By the 21st, he had five thousand men
at his command. The next day, twenty-four hundred of the enemy
reached the Mississippi, nine miles below New Orleans. Jackson, alive
to every advantage, at once led a part of his force to attack them the
following night, and, with the loss of a hundred, cut off four times that
number of the enemy. This roused the spirit of his men. They had
attacked these veterans, and caused them heavy loss.
9
130 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Four miles below the city, Jackson had thrown up a line of intrench-
ments. Here he now concentrated his troops, strengthening his hasty
fortifications with cotton bales, and anchoring a vessel in the stream to
cover his flank. On the 28th, Pakenham began the attack. He drove
in the American outposts, but after a seven-hours' cannonade, was com-
pelled to retire with loss. On the 1st of January, 1815, Pakenham
renewed the bombardment, but his guns were silenced and dismounted.
Three thousand Kentucky volunteers now came pouring into Jackson's
camp, so that all along his line of intrenchments he had the keen-eyed
marksmen of the West. He threw up works beyond the river, and
confidently awaited the attack. On the 8th, the final assault was made
by Pakenham and his three subordinate generals on the one bank of
the river, while Thornton, on the other, engaged the new American
works, and soon carried them. But Pakenham, as he came up, was met
by a tremendous cannonade; yet he pushed bravely on, till he came
within rifle-range, when a sheet of flame belched out, and the sharp-
shooters poured in volley after volley, aimed as at a target, by men
who rarely missed. With the instinct of soldiers, the British pressed on,
but their line wavered. Pakenham, attempting to restore order, was
killed ; Gibbs was mortally wounded, and Lambert, who took com-
mand, at last retreated, leaving two thousand dead and wounded on the
field. Their retreat soon became a flight. Their encampment was
reached to be abandoned, and the fugitives escaped to their ships.
This repulse and fearful slaughter of the British cost the lives of only
Seven killed and as many wounded on the American side.
So signal a victory made the country ring with joy. It was so deci-
sive, so complete a triumph of volunteers over regular European troops,
that it filled all with new hopes, and made Jackson the hero of the hour.
THE UNITED STATES. 131
Yet this battle was fought after peace had been signed. England,
while negotiating for peace, had been carrying on this savage war on
the American shores, hoping to inflict injury to the last moment. Close
on the tidings of the victory at New Orleans, news arrived at New
York that the commissioners sent out by the United States had actu-
ally negotiated a peace with England, and that Parliament had already
ratified the treaty. On its ratification by Congress, all hostilities were
to cease. This took place on the 17th of February, and the treaty of
Ghent thus put an end to this unfortunate war, in which the last battle
alone shed luster on American arms.
The news did not reach the vessels at sea for some time, and several
naval actions occurred. On the 20th of February, 1815, the Constitu-
tion, “Old Ironsides,” as the sailors called her, discovered two war
vessels of English trim near Lisbon. Captain Stewart at once gave
chase, and at Sunset, having overhauled them, he ranged ahead and
opened. His broadsides were answered ; then the battle went on hot
and heavy, till the combatants were fairly hidden in the smoke. When
it cleared, Stewart again opened, pouring in broadsides right and
left, till the Constitution reeled. One of the enemy, the Cyane, a
34-gun ship, was soon unmanageable, and she fired a gun to show that
she surrendered. Then the Constitution pursued the other, the Le-
vant, which soon struck, having five feet of water in her hold. The
gallant old Constitution had thus captured two vessels, killing and
wounding nearly eighty men, with very little loss to herself in men or
otherwise.
Away off by the Cape of Good Hope, in March, the sloop-of-war,
Hornet fell in with the British brig-of-war Penguin. The vessels
were about equally matched, and the battle was a desperate one. The
132 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
captain of the Penguin was killed in a daring attempt to board the
Hornet, and not only were the English tars beaten back, but they
were forced to strike, when their vessel was so cut up that the Ameri-
cans had to Scuttle her. In June, the Peacock compelled the Nautilus
to strike to her in the Straits of Funda. This was the last action of
the War, which closed, as it had begun, in the naval glory of America.
During the war on the ocean the English had captured sixteen hun-
dred and eighty-three American vessels of all sizes, but lost seven-
teen hundred and fifty.
Peace having been restored with Great Britain, and the fall of Na-
poleon having led to a general pacification in Europe, commerce re-
vived, and with it came general prosperity. The revenue from im-
ports rose in one year from four millions to thirty-seven millions of
dollars. Emigration, which had been checked, now increased, gain-
ing steadily from year to year, as people suffering from the effects of
war and oppression in the Old World heard of the land where all
men were free, and every man enjoyed the fruit of his labor.
With the peace the army was reduced to a small force of ten thou-
sand men, employed in garrisoning the forts and watching the Indian
frontier. The navy, however, was maintained, and proposals even
made for increasing it. As the Barbary States had resumed their old
insolence, Decatur was sent out to chastise Algiers, which had declared
war. He made short work of it. He captured the two largest ves-
sels in the Algerine fleet, and in June compelled the Dey to sign a
treaty on his quarter-deck. There were complaints also against the
Bashaws of Tunis and Tripoli, who had allowed English cruisers to
capture American vessels under their guns. For this, Decatur com-
pelled them to make indemnity, Tunis paying forty-six thousand dol-
THE UNITED STATES. 133
lars, and Tripoli twenty-five thousand. The Barbary States had never
been so humiliated. It was reserved for the young republic of Amer-
ica to chastise those foes of civilization, and give a decisive blow to
their system of piracy, which had endured for centuries. As every
one of the Barbary States had learned to respect the American flag,
their power was broken, and Europeans soon found courage to follow
the example of the United States.
There were few important events during the remainder of Madison's
administration. Indiana and Mississippi were admitted as States in
1816, and Alabama Territory organized. About the same time Church
and State were separated in Massachusetts. The Government at this
period began a plan for removing the Indians where possible beyond
the Mississippi River. By treaties with the Cherokees, Chickasaws,
and Choctaws, the Government acquired a vast territory, and many of
the Indians, preferring a hunter's life, moved over beyond the Missis-
sippi, where game was plentiful.
The administration of James Madison was now drawing to a close.
It had been one of difficulty and war, which he was obliged to carry
on without preparation, and under great obstacles. At the new elec-
tion, which took place this year, James Monroe, of Virginia, a Revolu-
tionary officer, who had served his country in many high and impor-
tant positions, was elected President, and Daniel D. Tompkins, of New
York, Vice-President.
134 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
CHAPTER WI.
JAMES MONROE, FIFTH PRESIDENT—1817–1825.
Indian Troubles—The Seminoles––Seizure of Spanish Forts—Florida Ceded to the United
States — The Treaty of Ghent—Alabama — Arkansas, Maine — The Missouri Compro-
mise—Lafayette Revisits the United States—The Monroe Doctrine—West India Pirates
Broken up.
MR. MoMROE was inaugurated at Washington in the Capitol, which
had begun to rise from its ashes. He began his administration with
happy auspices. There was no bitter political feeling; it was indeed
a time of harmony, peace, and tranquillity. The only embarrassment
was the distress caused by the stoppage of various manufactories
which had grown up during the war, but which could not now compete
with European goods. This threw many out of employment, and
would have caused great suffering had not the general activity carried
numbers of natives and emigrants westward to settle the new States
and Territories.
Monroe selected for his Cabinet, John Quincy Adams, as Secretary
of State ; William H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury; John C.
Calhoun, Secretary of War; Benjamin Crowninshield, Secretary of
the Navy, and William Wirt, Attorney General.
The Spanish Colonies in America were at this time almost all in a
revolution against Spain, and two piratical establishments grew up in
the disorder near the United States, one in Florida, the other in
Texas. These were broken up soon after the commencement of Mon-
roe's administration.
THE UNITED STATES. 135
A more serious trouble, and one that was to annoy the country for
years, arose in Florida. A fort of Seminoles, negroes, and Indians, on
the Apalachicola River, in the province of Florida, which then be-
longed to the Spaniards, gave shelter to the runaway slaves of Geor-
gia. Some troops under General Clinch, and Creeks under McIntosh,
a half-breed, invested the fort in September, 1816. They blew up the
magazine, killing three hundred and fifty men, women, and children.
On this the fort surrendered ; but Clinch, with a cruelty happily not
often to be met with in American generals, put the commanders to
death in cold blood.
This led to a new war. In November, 1817, General Gaines
marched against them, and burned an Indian town ; but the Seminoles
at once took the field with so brave a spirit, that General Gaines
had to call on the militia of Georgia to aid him. The War Department
ordered General Jackson to march with his Tennessee militia to the
seat of war. That active general built Fort Gadsden on the site of that
destroyed by Clinch. Then he marched east against the Seminole vil-
lage, which he burned without incurring any loss, and then, under the
pretext that the people there had aided the Indians, he seized the
Spanish fort at St. Mark’s, April 7, 1818. After this he attacked an-
other Indian fort at the mouth of the Suwanee, where the Indians under
Ambrister, an Englishman, in two considerable skirmishes, checked
him for a time ; but Jackson at last burned the town, took Ambrister,
and hanged him as well as another Englishman found at St. Mark's,
and two Indian chiefs. Pensacola was the only remaining Spanish
post, and on this Jackson at once advanced. The governor and garri-
Son retired from the town to Fort Barrancas, on Santa Rosa Island, at
the entrance to the bay. The American general compelled him, how-
136 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
ever, to surrender, and sent him to Havana with all the Spanish offi-
cials and troops. He even ordered General Gaines to march upon
St. Augustine.
As there was no war with Spain, this whole course was contrary to
right and law, and was severely censured ; but many people, deeming
the Spanish authorities responsible for the Indian hostilities, sustained
him. Spain was then almost powerless in America, nearly all her col-
onies having revolted. Florida was not a rich province, and had ceased
to be important to her. She protested against the invasion by Gen-
eral Jackson, but now at last showed a disposition to sell this whole
territory to the United States. After considerable discussion a treaty
was signed February 22, 1819, by which the United States agreed to
pay claims of her citizens against Spain amounting to five millions of
dollars, and in return Spain ceded Florida, and fixed the boundary
line between Louisiana and Mexico on the Gulf at the River Sabine.
It followed that river to the thirty-third degree, and then ran to the
source of the Arkansas. Thence westward the forty-second degree
was the boundary line.
The King of Spain at first refused to confirm this treaty, but, find-
ing that there was no alternative, as the Americans were actually in
possession of the country, finally ratified it in October, 1820, and for-
mal possession of St. Augustine was immediately given. That little
city came into the United States to rank as its oldest settlement. The
Spanish settlers, although secured by the treaty in all their rights,
generally emigrated to Cuba, and as few emigrants went Southward,
Florida increased in importance very slowly.
There were still some matters to be adjusted with England, so as to
prevent future difficulties. Under the treaty of Ghent a commission
THE UNITED STATES. 137
of citizens of the two countries was appointed to settle the boundary
line between the United States and the British possessions in Amer-
ica. The country in the interior was not well known when previous
treaties were made, and it was impossible to run the lines as there laid
down from incorrect maps. After long examination this commission,
in 1819, fixed the northern boundary by running a line through the St.
Lawrence and the great lakes, and making the forty-ninth degree the
boundary line between the United States and the British possessions,
from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. Beyond that no-
thing was decided, Oregon being left open to both parties for ten years.
The western territory was filling up with settlements, where before
all had been a wilderness, dotted here and there by an Indian village,
and traversed only by the red hunter and warrior, or the adventurous
white trapper. Many of the Indian tribes, the Chippewas, Ottawas,
Pottawatomies, Miamis, Delawares, Shawnees, Wyandots, sold to Gov-
ernment their rights in extensive tracts which they claimed as hunting
grounds, and agreed to remove beyond the Mississippi. Kentucky and
Tennessee also induced the Chickasaws to give up their claim to much
of the valuable territory of those two States. The lands thus acquired
were thrown open to settlers, and the backwoodsmen were soon clear-
ing, planting, and building, and the clatter of mills and forges, the
church-going bell, and the sounds of the village school began to be heard.
In 1819 the southern part of Missouri Territory was organized as a
separate government, under the name of Arkansas Territory. The
remaining portion at the north solicited admission as a State, and the
District of Maine, heretofore held by Massachusetts, also asked the
same right. Alabama was admitted in 1819; but a violent discussion
arose as to Missouri. The North had now generally abandoned sla-
138 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
very, and most of the States were passing laws to abolish it entirely.
In fact, the great emigration from Europe to America supplied those
States with labor which was cheaper than slave labor, so that those
who had refused to listen to arguments while it was profitable, were now
very quick to see that slavery was wrong. The great question came up
whether slavery should be permitted in the territory west of the Mis-
sissippi. The North wished it free; the men of the South wished to
have the right to emigrate there with their slaves when they saw fit.
Here began a struggle which was not ended till nearly fifty years
from this time, and then only, as we shall see, after one of the bloodiest
wars in history.
The bill for the admission of Missouri, as introduced, had a clause
excluding slavery : the matter was debated in Congress and discussed
throughout the country for two years, when a compromise was finally
agreed to on the last day of February, 1821. By this it was agreed
that slavery should be admitted in Missouri, and in all territory south
of Missouri and of a line running west from its southern boundary
line. This Missouri Compromise settled for a time this important ques-
tion, and Missouri was admitted as the twenty-fourth State of the
Union, August 21, 1821.
Mr. Monroe had already, in 1820, been re-elected President, and
Mr. Tompkins Vice-President, with scarcely a dissenting voice. The
second term was not marked by any great events. Provision was
made by Congress for the relief of the surviving soldiers of the Revo-
lution, a pension being allowed to each. Year by year they dropped
away, until at last, toward the close of the century from the time of
the Stamp Act troubles, the last of them passed away.
During Monroe's administration, a very favorable arrangement was
THE UNITED STATES. 139
made with Great Britain in regard to the right of American fishermen
to take cod on the Great Bank of Newfoundland.
An event which excited general interest and joy was the visit at this
time paid to the United States by General Lafayette. This visit of
the illustrious man to the country which he had served so nobly in his
youth, and where he was now welcomed as one of the founders of the
republic, was pleasing alike to the country and its guest. The Govern-
ment and the citizens vied with each other in doing him honor, and When,
after visiting a considerable portion of the United States, wondering
and gratified at its progress since the days when he suffered and fought
at the side of Washington—when, with a thankful heart, he prepared to
return to France, the Government prepared a fine frigate, the Brandy-
Wine, for his accommodation. Lafayette never again visited America.
He died in France soon after he had by his influence raised to the throne,
in 1830, Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans. As a gallant officer of our
Revolutionary army, and the man whose zeal, energy, and perseverance,
undaunted by obstacles, enabled us to win the alliance of France in our
hour of need, Lafayette will ever be an object of the nation's gratitude.
A doctrine put forward by President Monroe, and often spoken of,
had reference to European settlements in America. When Spain found
herself unable to reduce her revolted American colonies, she, in De-
cember, 1823, addressed a formal invitation to the Courts of Russia,
Prussia, Austria, and France, to send plenipotentiaries to Paris, to
adopt plans for assisting her. Such a concert of European powers
combining to interpose in American affairs, was fraught with danger, and
Monroe, in his message of Congress, declared that our Government
Would regard as directed against it, and would resist, any combination
of European Powers for colonization or any other purpose.
140 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
During the latter years of Monroe's second term, expeditions were
sent out to break up the nests of pirates who had been for years con-
stantly engaged in plundering the commerce of America in the West
Indies. The efforts were crowned with perfect success, although
it was difficult to pursue the pirates amid the small islands in which
they had their haunts. But Commodore Porter, in 1822 and 1823, with
a small fleet broke up their various rendezvous, and taught them such
a lesson that the bands scattered, and these depredations on our com-
merce were arrested.
As the administration of Mr. Monroe approached its close, it was
evident that the “era of good feeling,” as it was called, had passed
away. Party violence again seized the public mind. The nominations
for the Presidency had on former occasions been made by the members
of Congress, acting as a convention for the purpose. In this case they
nominated John Quincy Adams, but several independent candidates
appeared—General Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, Henry Clay of Ken-
tucky, and William H. Crawford of Georgia. Each candidate received
the support of his own section of the country, and the result was that
no one of the four received enough votes to secure his election. Jack-
son received more votes than any of the others, but as he did not ob-
tain more than them all, it was not sufficient.
In such cases the Constitution provided that the House of Repre-
sentatives should select the President. After a great deal of intrigue
and bargaining, such as had never yet been seen in America, Henry
Clay gave way, and his friends supporting Mr. Adams, he was elected
President of the United States. John C. Calhoun, of South Caro-
lina, had received in the election votes which made him Vice-Presi-
dent.
THE UNITED STATES. 141
CHAPTER WII.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, SIXTH PRESIDENT—1825–1829.
Internal Improvements—Death of Adams and Jefferson—Indian Troubles—Masonic Excite-
ment.
THE administration of John Quincy Adams was marked by few
important events. There was undisturbed peace, and a season of
great prosperity. By this time the fruits of Fulton's invention were
evident : without it the people of so vast a country would have been
long strangers to each other ; steam allowed ships to ascend the navi-
gable rivers with rapidity, and this brought the produce of all parts
to the great centres of trade. New York, anxious to secure the trade
of the West, which would evidently be the great grain-district of
America, as well as its best pasturage, began, under the auspices of
De Witt Clinton, the Erie Canal, to connect the FIudson River with the
waters of Lake Erie above the Falls. The great work was ridiculed
by many, and termed “Clinton's big ditch,” but it was completed at a
cost of five millions of dollars. When, in November, 1825, a canal-
boat from Buffalo reached New York, there was an enthusiastic cele-
bration, and all joined in exulting over this new avenue for trade.
During this administration, the first railroad was opened in the
United States.
It was the pioneer of that vast system of railways that now trav-
erse the country in all directions, uniting the Atlantic to the Pacific.
A still greater improvement was to be brought about by railroads,
on which cars were drawn by locomotives, which are steam engines
on wheels. A horse railroad was begun at Quincy, Massachusetts, in
1825; but in 1829 the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company imported
two locomotives of Stevenson's invention, and began the first railroad
142 - A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
for steam cars. The success of the experiment led to the formation of
companies in all parts, and railroads soon began to connect all the
great cities. -
A strange coincidence marked the 4th of July, 1826, the fiftieth an-
niversary of the Declaration of Independence. On that day, within
a few hours of each other, two signers of the Declaration, who had
successively filled the Presidential chair, Thomas Jefferson and John
Adams, both expired, each in his own State. Jefferson, almost with
his last breath, said, “Adams still lives,” little supposing that he, too,
was passing away. The disputes of their political career had been
forgotten ; both had long been regarded with reverence and respect, and
their death on so remarkable a day was an object of public mourning.
The same year witnessed the celebrated Morgan excitement in New
York, which led to the formation of an Anti-masonic party in that
State, which was long in power.
The election which took place in the autumn of 1828, and in which
Adams and Jackson were again opposed, was one of greater popular
excitement than had ever yet been seen in the United States. Popu-
lar gatherings were held, speeches made, and the newspapers entered
violently into the advocacy of their favorite candidate. It opened
that series of eagerly contested elections, so fraught with corruption,
fraud, intrigue, and violence, which had done so much to lower the
national character, and made the elections an affair of politicians by
driving away the quiet citizens.
Jackson, now supported by Crawford, was chosen by a large major-
ity, and John C. Calhoun was again elected Vice-President.
President Adams retiring, left a country at peace, the public debt
greatly diminished, and a large surplus in the treasury.
THE UNITED STATES. - 143
CHAPTER VIII.
ANDREW JACKSON, SEVENTH PRESIDENT—1829–1837.
Striking Inauguration—A Bad Policy—Cherokee Difficulties—The United States Bank—
Black Hawk War—Nullification in South Carolina–Seminole War—Texas becomes an
Independent Republic—Arkansas and Michigan Admitted—The Specie Circular.
THE inauguration of General Jackson was marked by a new and
striking feature. He took the oath surrounded by several of the sur-
viving officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary War, in which he
himself, as a spirited boy, had received a sabre-wound from a British
soldier.
His Cabinet was composed of Martin Van Buren, Secretary of
State ; Samuel D. Ingham, Secretary of the Treasury ; John H. Eaton,
Secretary of War ; John Branch, Secretary of the Navy; and John
McPherson Berrian, Attorney General.
Jackson was honest and patriotic, but he was intolerant of opposi-
tion, and wished all to bend to his firm will ; and his administration
was one of stormy contention.
He initiated a system which has been most injurious to the
country. Using the military maxim, “To the victors belong the
spoils,” he gave every office in his gift to his partisans in the late elec-
tion, and men were removed from office on no charge of unfitness or
neglect in the discharge of their duties, but simply on political grounds.
The condition of the Indian tribes led to the first trouble. The
United States had by several treaties guaranteed to the Cherokees
the territory held by them, and in which they had sole jurisdiction as
i44 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
an independent tribe. The State of Georgia resolved to extend the
State laws over it, and subject the Cherokees to them, without, how-
ever, giving them any of the rights of citizens. The Cherokees ap-
pealed to the Supreme Court, which at last gave a decision in their
favor on some points; but even on these Georgia refused to yield, and
Jackson really sustained Georgia. His great wish was to remove all
the Indians beyond the Mississippi. Finding that there was no alter-
native, a part of the Cherokees agreed to remove ; and in 1838, General
Scott was sent to their lands with a large body of troops to remove
the tribe, using force if necessary. Fortunately, the Cherokees sub-
mitted, and were placed west of Arkansas. .
An opposition to the United States Bank, which was then the de-
pository of the moneys belonging to the Government, was one of the
great, principles of the Jackson party. As the charter was about
to expire, the bank solicited its renewal, and after a long debate
in Congress, an act was passed in 1832; but President Jackson, on
the 10th of July, vetoed the bill, and subsequently removed the depos-
its and placed them in various State banks. -
Dreadful scourges, war and pestilence, also afflicted the country in
the year 1832. In the summer, the Asiatic cholera, which had ravaged
Europe, appeared simultaneously at Quebec and New York, and
spread over the whole country, sweeping off thousands, especially in
the large cities. - - - - -
During the spring of that year, the Sacs, Foxes, and Winnebagoes,
in Wisconsin, under Black Hawk, a Sac chief, began to ravage the
frontiers of Illinois, destroying many new villages, slaughtering fami-
lies, and giving all to the flames. United States troops under Colo-
nel Taylor, and Illinois militia under General Atkinson, were Sent
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FIELD OF CHAPULTEPEC.
E AquEDUCT NEAR THE BATTLE-
TH

（~~^

THE UNITED STATES. 145
against them ; and though this body of white troops was thinned by
cholera and desertion, Colonel Taylor, by forced marches, overtook
the enemy on the 2d of August, at the mouth of the Iowa, and routing
the Indian braves, captured Black Hawk, and put an end to the war.
This Indian outbreak had scarcely been suppressed when a new dan-
ger appeared, greater than any that yet threatened the Goverment—
the danger of a dissolution of the Union. A tariff act, passed in 1832,
imposed duties which the Southern States deemed unjust and partial:
most of the States merely murmured, but South Carolina, refusing to
Submit, threatened to withdraw from the Union and set up an inde-
pendent government, for the first time claiming the right to secede.
Similar threats had been made during the war by some Northern
States, but they had never gone as far as in this case. South Carolina
prepared to resist by force of arms. Electing the eloquent Hayne
Governor, they began to organize troops, while Calhoun, resigning his
position as Vice-President of the United States, entered the Senate
Chamber as Senator from South Carolina, in order to make a final
effort there. The President, however, was too stern and peremptory a
man to brook opposition even in case of doubt : he issued a proclama-
tion, declaring his resolution to enforce obedience, and, if necessary, at
the point of the bayonet. His previous career gave proof that such a
threat Would not be an idle one. Congress, in a long and able debate,
in which Daniel Webster delivered a famous exposition of the Consti-
tution, Sustained the President, and South Carolina submitted, protest-
ing against the injustice done her. At this juncture, Henry Clay in-
troduced his plan of compromise, which was adopted, and the difficulty
Was avoided for the time. Yet it was clear that the time for compro-
mise Was nearly gone. Amid all this excitement a Presidential election
10
146 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
came off. The country at large sustained Jackson, who was re-elected,
with Martin Van Buren, of New York, as Vice-President.
About this time, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last of the sign-
ers of the Declaration of Independence, expired, at a moment when the
ge
work of the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention
seemed about to be destroyed.
A more serious Indian war than Black Hawk's now engaged atten-
tion, and for years cost blood and treasure without stint. This was
the Seminole War in Florida. The trouble with them began at the time
that General Jackson attacked their fort in Florida. They had then
become imbittered against the Americans. “Seminoles” means Wander-
ers, and the tribe that bears the name belongs to the Creek Nation, and
was formed chiefly of the fragments of tribes converted by the Spanish
missionaries, but almost exterminated by Georgia and South Carolina.
The proposal to remove them beyond the Mississippi excited the
strongest opposition, but the Government made a treaty in 1832, with
a few inferior chiefs, who pretended to act for the tribe. The Semi-
nole Nation, however, with Micanopy, their king, disavowed the acts of
these chiefs, and refused to depart. General Thompson, the Govern-
ment agent, hoping to overawe them, seized one chief, the gallant Os-
ceola, and put him in irons. The Seminole chief, in order to secure his
liberty, signed a treaty, but secretly laid plans for a bitter war on the
whites. He at once organized all the braves of the nation, and pre-
pared for a simultaneous attack on the various posts, and a general
ravaging of the country. The day before Christmas, 1835, was fixed
for the execution of his design. That day, Major Dade, with a hun-
dred and ten men, moved forward from Fort Brooke, on Tampa Bay,
to reinforce General Clinch, then at Fort Drane, near Orange Lake.
THE UNITED STATES. 147
That day, General Thompson was dining with some friends in a house
outside Fort King, where he was stationed. While the wine passed
briskly around, amid laughter and merriment, Osceola and a small
war-party burst in upon them. Thompson fell, riddled by fifteen bul-
lets: nearly every one of the party shared his fate; and Osceola, scalp-
ing the man who had so wronged him, drew off to the woods before
the garrison of the fort were aware of what had occurred. As Dade
rode along by Wahoo Swamp, amid the rank vegetation of the Florida
Everglades, flashes from every side announced the attack. Dade and
most of his men fell at the first volley. Thirty escaped, and throwing
up an intrenchment of logs, prepared to sell their lives dearly. But
Osceola, fresh from his exploit, bounded in among his braves, and led
them in a furious charge. Every soldier was slain but one, who,
wounded unto death, managed to reach the whites and tell the story of
Dade's detachment.
General Clinch collected all his forces, and marched to the Withla-
coochee ; but he too was suddenly attacked on the last day of the year,
and though he repulsed the Indians, his loss amounted to a hundred
killed and wounded, weakening his force so that he had to retreat.
General Gaines, who penetrated to the same spot in February, 1836,
was also attacked, and lost several men. Roused by the success of
the Seminoles, the Creeks took up arms, and Georgia and Alabama,
like Florida, were exposed to all the horrors of Indian war. Steam-
boats were taken, villages burned, and thousands were fleeing in
all directions from the homes which they had built up. General
Scott, however, took command, and; having speedily reduced the
Creeks, the Government immediately transported several thousands
of them to the territory assigned to them beyond the Mississippi.
148 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Georgia also moved. Governor Call, of that State, took command of
the forces, numbering two thousand men, and marching into Florida,
encountered the Seminoles at Wahoo Swamp, near the scene of Dade's
defeat, and twice repulsed them with loss, after a long and terrible
contest. The Seminoles then, for a time, discontinued all active hos-
tilities.
The rancor of political agitation about this time extended to reli-
gious matters, and, for the first time, America Was menaced with reli-
gious strife between its citizens. Violent publications kept up the ex-
citement, and a convent at Charlestown, Massachusetts, was burned by
a mob ; but the people at large showed a disapproval of such acts, and
the excitement died away, though it was renewed in after years, and
led to the formation of a political party.
Toward the close of the administration of General Jackson a strange
revolution was taking place near the borders of the United States.
Texas, one of the States of the Mexican Republic, had been first occu-
pied by the French, under La Salle, who, missing the mouth of the Mis-
sissippi, entered by mistake Matagorda Bay, and threw up a fort there.
This was soon after taken by the Indians, who massacred all but a few.
The Spaniards, who claimed the territory, sent a force to occupy the
country. The commander found only the victims of Indian fury, and
buried them. Spain then planted forts and missions in various
parts, and held the country till Mexico became free. Then Texas,
with Coahuila, formed one of the States of Mexico. Many Americans
gradually entered Texas, some of them taking slaves with them,
although slavery had been abolished in Mexico. These new settlers,
being strangers to the language, religion, and government of Mexico,
became greatly discontented, and much trouble ensued. When, in
THE UNITED STATES. I49
1835, the Federal Government at Mexico crushed down the State gov-
ernments, and renounced the federal system, the Texans took up arms
to resist this act, which they declared subversive of the original Con-
stitution of Mexico. They called on their Countrymen in the United
States to join them. The United States offered no obstacles, and such
numbers crossed the frontiers into Texas, that on the 2d of March,
1838, the people of Texas declared it an independent republic.
Santa Anna, President of Mexico, resolved to crush the rebellion, and
advanced into Texas at the head of an army. Having been defeated
and taken prisoner by General Houston at the battle of San Jacinto, on
the 21st of April, he made a treaty with the Texans, which the republic
of Mexico disavowed. Still Texas had virtually established her inde-
pendence, and was recognized as a republic by foreign powers.
Mexico made no further attempt to reduce it, and, under a separate
government, Texas, increasing by emigration from the United States,
became thoroughly American, and it was evident that it would soon
become part of the United States.
The intercourse between this country and foreign nations during the
whole period of Jackson's administration had been one of peace. The
only exception was a momentary difficulty with France, owing to old
claims connected with Napoleon's decrees, under which American ships
had been seized. To compensate the owners, France had agreed to pay
five millions of dollars, but neglected to do so. Jackson threatened
war, but by the intervention of England the affair was amicably ar-
ranged.
In June, 1836, Arkansas became a State, and in January following,
Michigan, a Northern State, was also admitted.
As Jackson's Second term was drawing to a close, the great political
150 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
parties prepared for a new election. The Democrats put forward Mar-
tin Van Buren as their candidate, while William Henry Harrison was
the choice of the Whigs. Van Buren was elected, but there was no
choice of Vice-President, no one of the candidates for that office re-
ceiving a sufficient number of Votes. The Senate, under the Constitu-
tion, then proceeded to elect one, and Richard M. Johnson was chosen.
Jackson's last act was to refuse his Sanction to an act passed to re-
peal his Specie Circular, which required all collectors of the public
revenue to take only gold and silver in payment. The whole country
was affected at the time by a spirit of wild speculation, and the country
was flooded with paper issued by banks, much of which ultimately
proved worthless. The Specie Circular caused much difficulty, but
has been adhered to as a wise rule.
After his stormy administration, Jackson retired to private life,
highly esteemed for his uprightness, integrity, and firmness, even by
those who questioned some of his acts.
CHAPTER IX.
MARTIN WAN BUREN, EIGHTH PRESIDENT—1837–1841.
Bankruptcy caused by Speculation—The Independent Treasury—The Seminole War—Death
of Osceola—Troubles in Canada—Wilkes's Exploring Expedition—The Maine Boundary.
THE spirit of speculation which had invaded the country, soon
brought about its natural result. The banks, which had increased the
amount of their loans day by day, at last took alarm. When men
could no longer get money freely from the banks, many were unable
to meet their obligations, and the consequence was a series of failures.
THE UNITED STATES. 151
In the city of New York, the failures amounted to a hundred millions
of dollars, and a similar state of affairs prevailed throughout the
country. Factories were stopped, and property of all kinds declined in
value, for there were few able to buy. The banks suspended specie pay-
ment, and Government, which had placed its moneys in various banks,
was unable to obtain gold and silver to pay the demands on the
treasury. -
The President, in his message to Congress, proposed that in future
the Government money should no longer be placed in banks for safe
keeping, but retained by the Government in its own treasury. This
excited great opposition, for people had come to look upon the public
money as something that could be used in the trade of the country ;
but the wisdom of the plan was evident, and the independent treasury
has always been maintained. º
The Seminole war still continued, the Indians from time to time mak-
ing fresh attacks. A treaty was made in March, 1837, by several
chiefs who came into General Jesup's camp at Fort Dade. By its
terms peace was restored, and the Seminoles agreed to remove beyond
the Mississippi. Still this was not the act of the whole tribe : a war
party still remained, weak in number, but full of resolution. Although
without skillful chiefs, and with an organized army of nine thousand
men against them, they continued the war. In the operations that fol-
lowed through the summer, Osceola was the leading spirit; and when,
in October, he and some other chiefs, with a band of seventy warriors,
entered Jesup's camp under the protection of a flag, Jesup seized and
confined them. Osceola was sent to Charleston, and died in Fort
Moultrie, where his grave is still shown. Many blamed Jesup's course,
but he considered himself not bound to keep the rules of war with one
152 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
who was ignorant of them and never shrank from treachery. He
deemed it better to close the war. Notwithstanding this severe blow,
the Indians kept the field ; but in December, Colonel Zachary Taylor
penetrated to the haunt of the Mickasuckies, and forced them to an ac-
tion on the northern border of Macaco or Okeechobee Lake. These
Indians, who had stubbornly refused all offers of pacification, were
drawn up, under their chief Aviaka, in a strong position near the lake.
Taylor, who, besides his regulars, had a corps of Mississippi volun-
teers under Colonel Gentry, immediately attacked their camp. The
battle lasted over three hours, and so desperately did the Indians fight,
that they routed the volunteers, who left their colonel dead on the
field. Taylor rallied the regulars; a part finally repulsed the Micka-
suckies, but those Indians drew off unpursued. Taylor's loss was
nearly a hundred and fifty killed and wounded, including several of
his most valuable officers.
This reverse broke the spirit of the Indians: many submitted, and
were removed, so that in May, 1839, General Macomb induced the re-
mainder to treat of peace. Yet again hostilities began, and Colonels
Harney and Worth finally reduced them in 1841, by penetrating to
their fastnesses, cutting down their crops, and sweeping off their cattle.
Peace was finally secured in 1842, after a seven-years war, which cost
America many millions of dollars and the lives of thousands.
In one point of view, this long and expensive war had been of ac-
tual service; it proved an excellent School for our army, and gradually
prepared officers for more important service.
Previous to the closing of this war, the United States was involved
in a trouble of another character on its northern frontier. Canada,
though its earlier privileges had provoked the Americans before the
THE UNITED STATES. 153
Bevolution, was now itself discontented with the British Government.
In 1837, the popular feeling rose so high that an insurrection broke
out, and as any cry for liberty finds a ready response in American
bosoms, many persons in the United States, and especially in the State
of New York, hastened to aid the cause of revolution by sympathy,
and by contributions of men, arms, and money. This sympathy be-
came so general on the northern frontier, that Government was
unable to repress it, and peace between the United States and Great
Britain was in great jeopardy. This state of things continued to the
close of Van Buren's administration.
Although the President by proclamation forbade all citizens of the
United States to interfere, and ordered troops to the frontier, many
continued to cross and take part in the struggle. Some of these were
killed in the actions which took place with the British forces; more
were taken prisoners, tried, and, on conviction, either hung or trans-
ported to Van Diemen's Land.
The English were exasperated at the conduct of the American sym-
pathizers, and retaliated by a violation of American soil. A party
of the insurgents on Navy Island, in Niagara River, kept up communi-
cation with the American shore by means of the steamer Caroline.
The English in vain endeavored to capture this little steamer during
her trips to and from the island. Failing in this, they sent over a de-
tachment to the American side, on the 20th of December, 1837. The
party cut the Caroline loose, after killing an American on the dock.
They then towed the steamer out into the stream, set her on fire, and
sent her over Niagara Falls with all on board of her, and she plunged
down that cataract with her unfortunate crew. This outrage excited
the public mind in the United States to the highest degree, but the in-
154 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
fringement of our national rights was never disavowed by the English
Government.
The United States had in many ways shown an interest in the ad-
Vancement of science, and had given all the encouragement that the
Constitution permitted to the General Government. Some of the States
began to collect in Europe documents relating to the early history of
the country, and at the same time caused accurate surveys to be made
of their territory, under competent men, who studied the geology, min-
eralogy, zoology, and botany, as well as the geographical position. So
admirably was this carried out, especially in New York, that no coun-
try can show a more noble monument than the Natural History of that
State.
The United States Government, to aid in this general movement,
sent out in 1838 an exploring expedition under Captain Wilkes,
which visited much of the Southern and Pacific Oceans, and after mak-
ing several important discoveries returned. Wilkes' report was full of
interest and value.
The ill-feeling which had been excited against Great Britain showed
itself in Maine, in 1839. The treaty of 1783, which fixed the boundary
between Maine and the adjacent English provinces, was based on in-
correct maps, and when they attempted to run the line, difficulties
arose, each side construing it so as to give them most territory. The
King of the Belgians was appointed an umpire between the two parties,
but his decision pleased neither of them. As the disputed tract was
valued for its timber, the people of Maine attempted to drive off the
New Brunswick lumbermen, and some on both sides were taken into
custody as trespassers by the opposite Governments. Some excitement
prevailed, but as the Governors of Maine and New Brunswick Soon
THE UNITED STATES. 155
came to an understanding, further collisions were prevented, and the
whole affair was left to higher authorities. *
Van Buren's administration had not met general approval. The
people, oppressed by the results of the revulsion of 1837, clamored
for a general bankrupt act.
Van Buren was again nominated by the Democratic party, while the
Whigs put up General William H. Harrison, with John Tyler for
Vice-President. The election was the most exciting and enthusiastic
ever yet seen in America. Log cabins were raised in all parts in honor
of Harrison, and the campaign was carried by violent speeches and
songs in favor of their candidate, and against the opposing one. Presi-
dent Van Buren was defeated by a large vote, receiving only sixty elec-
toral votes, while his antagonist received no less than two hundred and
thirty-four. William Henry Harrison became President, with John
Tyler as Vice-President.
CHAPTER X.
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, NINTH PRESIDENT—1841.
JOHN TYLER, TENTH PRESIDENT—1841–1845.
Mr. Tyler vetoes the United States Bank—The Maine Boundary–Rhode Island Troubles—
Patroon Troubles—Native American Party—The Mormons—Annexation of Texas.
GENERAL WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, born in Charles County, Vir-
ginia, in February, 1773, was the son of a signer of the Declaration
of Independence. He entered the army at an early age. As Governor
of Indiana Territory, he had won fame and distinction by his skillful
156 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
management of public affairs, and by his ability as a military com-
mander. Great expectations were entertained of reforms and changes,
under his Presidency, as a new political party now came into power.
To fulfill the wishes of the people, he issued a proclamation on the 17th
of March, calling an extra Session of Congress to meet in May. But
his administration was destined to close suddenly. His health was
broken, and the exertions attending his inauguration and the assump-
tion of the duties of his arduous office hurried him to the grave. Be-
fore he had accomplished any public act, he died after a short illness on
the 4th of April, 1841, at the age of sixty-eight, to the universal regret
of the nation. The Cabinet formed by President Harrison consisted
of the able and eloquent Daniel Webster as Secretary of State ; Thomas
Ewing, Secretary of the Treasury; John Bell, Secretary of War;
George Badger, Secretary of the Navy; Francis Granger, Postmaster
General, and John J. Crittenden, Attorney General.
By the provisions of the Constitution of the United States, John
Tyler, the Vice-President, now became President of the United
States. Like his predecessor, he was a native of Virginia, in which he
had always resided. Although not altogether in harmony with the
views of the late President, Mr. Tyler retained the same Cabinet; and
when Congress met on the last day of May under the call of Presi-
dent Harrison, his message recommended many of the projects already
agreed upon by the party. The Sub-Treasury Act was repealed ; and
a general bankrupt law passed with his approval. One of the great
objects of the Whig party was to restore the United States Bank,
which had been overthrown by Jackson. Accordingly, Congress passed
an act to revive it; but, to the great chagrin of those by whose votes he
had been raised to the Presidency, President Tyler vetoed the biii,
THE UNITED STATES. 157
seeing in it dangers to the country. For this he was warmly censured
by his party, and all the members of his Cabinet except Mr. Webster
resigned. He then appointed Walter Forward, Secretary of the Treas-
ury; John C. Spencer, Secretary of War; Abel P. Upshur, Secretary of
the Navy; Charles A. Wickliffe, Postmaster General, and Hugh S.
Legare, Attorney General. The last of these soon after died at
Boston. º
The boundary between Maine and the British Provinces—the
Aroostook difficulty—still excited trouble. Negotiations were now in
progress to solve the difficulty. Webster, as Secretary of State, con-
ducted the discussion with Lord Ashburton, the English envoy, and
in July, 1842, a treaty was signed at Washington, and soon after rat-
ified by both countries, by which the line was fixed, and described
with so much certainty as to remove all doubt as to its construction.
This treaty also settled the northern limit of New York, New Hamp-
shire, and Vermont, obviating all difficulty in that quarter.
Rhode Island had, down to this time, been governed under the
charter granted by Charles II., the last relic of the reign of the Stuarts.
This charter contained, however, great restrictions on the right of
suffrage, and a large party in that little State had long sought a more
liberal government. This the charter party refused, and, in conse-
Quence, a convention of the people assembled, which drew up a consti-
tution, and submitted it to the people. As it received the approval
of a majority of the voters, a new government was organized in May,
1842, with Thomas W. Dorr as Governor. The charter government
treated all these proceedings as illegal, and made the exercise of any
powers under the new constitution treason against the State. The
Suffrage party then attempted to obtain control of the State by force ;
158 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
but their efforts were defeated, and Dorr was compelled to leave the
State. He soon after returned, thinking that the excitement had
blown ever; but he was arrested, tried for treason, and, on his con-
viction, sentenced to imprisonment for life. This was a strange result
for America to witness. Dorr was soon released, and this ended the
struggle. The charter party had triumphed, but were forced to call
a new and more regular convention in 1844, which drew up a new
constitution suited to the wants of the people.
In New York, troubles occurred also between a party clinging to
old colonial ideas, and a party of reform. In several parts of the
State large tracts were held under old Dutch grants to a kind of lords
of the manor, called Patroons, who leased them out to those who culti-
wated the land. These leases had many feudal obligations; rent was
paid in produce ; farmers had to send their grain to particular mills;
and whenever a lease was transferred from one to another, a kind of
tax was levied.
All these conditions were so distasteful to Americans, that many of
the tenants objected ; and forming a party called Anti-renters, they de-
termined to resist the landlords, and any officer of the law who at-
tempted to serve any legal process on them. This disturbance spread
over most of Columbia, Rensselaer, and Delaware Counties, and for a
time set the State authorities at defiance. A deputy sheriff and some
others were killed in broad day, and many others brutally treated ;
but the Government at last crushed the insurrection, and brought the
murderers to trial. To avoid a renewal of the difficulties, most of the
landlords abolished the obnoxious features of their leases, and made
the rent payable in money.
A new political party appeared about this time, called the Native
THE UNITED STATES. 159
American party, formed to check the rapid increase and power of the
foreign element and the Catholic religion. It acquired considerable
strength in all the large cities of the North and East, where foreign
labor competed with native. Much was done to inflame the public
mind to a dangerous pitch, and serious riots broke out in Philadel-
phia, in May, 1844, in which many lives were lost, and many churches
and institutions burned and destroyed, the authorities showing great
inefficiency. When, however, the riots were renewed in July, the
State Government acted vigorously, and suppressed it at once, with
the help of militia drawn from adjacent counties.
The West, too, had its troubles. About the year 1830, a man
named Joseph Smith, living at Palmyra, in the western part of the
State of New York, pretended to have received a new revelation from
God, written in mystical characters on a series of plates which he
claimed to be pure gold. He pretended to decipher these characters,
and published the rhapsody under the name of the Book of Mor-
mon. Assuming to be a prophet, he founded a new religion; but as
his character became known, he was driven from place to place; but
everywhere managed to gain some proselytes. He and his followers
at last settled in Kirtland, Ohio; but as the hostility to them was re-
newed, the Mormons, now numbering several thousands, set out for
the West, and settled in Jackson County, Missouri. The people in
that part of the country rose in arms against them, and the Governor
ordered their expulsion. The State militia was called out, and in the
excitement they attacked the Mormons, killed many, and forced the
rest to leave the State. The fugitives now attracted the sympathy of
many who regarded them as deluded, but as most unjustly treated.
Settling in Illinois, in 1831, they founded the city of Nauvoo, where,
160 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
on the banks of the Mississippi, they laid the foundations of an im-
mense temple. Here they were at first welcomed by the people, and
Smith, Sending missionaries through the country, and even to Europe,
saw his believers increase with wonderful rapidity. He obtained from
the Illinois Legislature a favorable charter for his city; but, in a short
time, the public mind in Illinois became strongly excited against the
Mormons, who were accused of very heinous crimes. The country
rose in arms. Nauvoo was besieged, and several were killed on both
sides. A charge of murder was then brought against Joseph Smith,
and that leader, anxious to disarm the public hostility against him,
surrendered to the authorities to undergo a legal trial. But the mob
were unwilling to trust to the law ; they surrounded the place where
Joseph Smith and his brother Hiram were confined, and, bursting in,
murdered them with great brutality. The troubles were kept up : the
Mormons, so far from being disheartened by the death of their prophet,
looked up to Brigham Young as their head, and stood their ground.
Yielding at last to the storm, they resolved to emigrate to a part of
the country where they would be far from all neighbors, and set out
in a body for a long journey over the Plains, with all their cattle and
property, to the interior of California. -
All these things showed that changes were coming over the Ameri-
can people, who had long been so quiet and tolerant with each other.
Public excitements were increasing, and people were more easily led
to acts of violence. -
As yet, however, this spirit of turbulence had not gained sufficient
strength to check the general prosperity of the country. The contin-
ued tide of emigration enabled the Territories to fill up rapidly ;
and in March, 1845, an act of Congress was passed admitting two
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BEJOIulings AT FANEUIL HALL, BOSTON, AT THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTION

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THE UNITED STATES. 161
new States, one in the North, Iowa, the other in the South,
Florida.
Just previous to this, Texas, having come to an understanding with
ſ
the United States, ceased to be an independent republic. Resolutions
were adopted by the Congress of the United States for its annexa-
tion. After the battle of San Jacinto, Texas had maintained its inde-
pendence, but, owing to many difficulties, was not in a state of pros-
perity. The Mexican Government had never relinquished the hope of
again reconquering Texas, and as soon as the act of annexation to the
United States was accomplished, Almonte, the Mexican Minister, pro-
tested, but, the resolution of the United States Congress having been
ratified by Texas on the 5th of July, Texas, with undefined limits,
came into the Union as a State. The question of slavery arose in re-
gard to it, and by a compromise it was agreed that Congress should
have the power to form the territory into four States, and that, on such
division, all north of 36° 30' should be free States, while slavery
might exist south of that line.
While the public mind was occupied with the now imminent war
with Mexico, and with troubles in regard to the Oregon boundary
with Great Britain, a new election took place. Henry Clay, the can-
didate of the Whig party, who was in favor of negotiation, was defeated,
and James K. Polk, of Tennessee, was elected President, and George
M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, Vice-President.
11
162 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
CHAPTER XI.
JAMES K. POLK, ELEVENTH PRESIDENT—1845–1849.
The Mexican War—Battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma—Battle of Monterey—Con-
quest of California and New Mexico–Santa Anna—Scott at Vera Cruz—Battle of Buena
Vista—Capture of Vera Cruz—Battle of Cerro Gordo—Puebla taken–Contreras and Chu-
rubusco—Battle of Chapultepec-Mexico taken—Last Struggles of the Mexicans—Peace of
Guadalupe Hidalgo—Close of Polk's Administration.
WE have not in our sketch of the history had occasion to mention
James K. Polk, who was now raised to the Presidency. The great
men of the rival parties excited too much jealousy to be safely put
forward as candidates, and hence, men who were little known were
sometimes nominated. James K. Polk, born in North Carolina
in 1796, had from childhood resided in Tennesee, and had served in
the Legislature of that State and in Congress for many years.
Mr. Polk, on the day of his inauguration, appointed as his Cabinet,
James Buchanan, Secretary of State ; Robert J. Walker, Secretary of
the Treasury; William L. Marcy, Secretary of War; George Bancroft,
the historian, Secretary of the Navy ; Cave Johnson, Postmaster Gen-
eral; and John Y. Mason, Attorney General. The subject requiring
immediate action was the position of our affairs with Mexico. The
late President had already prepared for any emergency. When Texas,
in July, 1845, ratifying the resolution, became a State in the Union,
General Zachary Taylor entered it with an army.of occupation, num-
bering fifteen hundred men. The frontier between Texas and the adjoin-
ing Mexican States had never been settled. The Texans claimed to the
Rio Grande, while, in fact, they had no settlements, and were never
THE UNITED STATES. 163
able to exercise any authority beyond the Nueces. The United States
and Mexico might easily have adjusted a boundary, but Mexico felt
aggrieved and refused to treat, and the United States were eager for
war. Herrera, President of Mexico, was indeed anxious to avoid hos-
tilities, but he was forced to retire, and Paredes, a war candidate, be-
came President. In September, General Taylor encamped at Corpus
Christi, between the Nueces and the Rio Grande. His instructions
were “that the appearance of any considerable body of Mexican
troops in this territory would be regarded by the executive as an in-
vasion of the United States and the commencement of hostilities,”
although it had always been held by Mexican and never by Texan
troops. In January, 1846 Taylor was ordered to advance to the Rio
Grande. After encamping and leaving his stores at Point Isabel on the
25th of March, he moved to the mouth of the Rio Grande, and be-
gan to erect Fort Brown, opposite the Mexican city of Matamoras.
The Mexican settlers fled across the Rio Grande, and General
Ampudia arrived at Matamoras with a large force to drive the Amer-
icans beyond the Nueces. He at once summoned Taylor to withdraw
within twenty-four hours; but, before he could commence operations,
was succeeded by General Arista. That commander at once sent a
party of dragoons across the river. Taylor detached Thornton with
sixty dragoons to reconnoitre, but they were nearly all killed or taken
On the 24th of April by the Mexicans under Torrejon. This was the
first bloodshed in the war. The Mexicans then crossed in force, and
gained Taylor's rear, menacing Point Isabel. Having completed his
fort, Taylor marched on the 1st of May to the relief of that post. No
Sooner was he lost in the distance, than Arista began a bombardment
of Fort Brown, while he himself, with a considerable force, crossed the
164 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
river to assail it in the rear. The garrison made a vigorous defense,
and silenced the Mexican batteries; but when siege cannon were planted
in the rear, and Major Brown, the commander, was mortally wounded, sig-
mals were sent up for relief. Taylor at once marched from Point Isabel,
and on the 8th of May, at noon, came up with Arista, who had taken
post at Palo Alto. Taylor drew up his little army, and opened with his
artillery. A fierce cannonade followed, the Mexicans replying with spirit.
Then their cavalry, in splendid style, swept down on the American right.
Taylor's troops received them without flinching, and the artillery
and infantry drove them back. But this was all. The Mexican line
was unbroken by our cannonade and musketry. Arista, massing his
batteries, endeavored to silence the American guns, and, by a perfect
tempest of balls, for a time checked our fire, cutting down Major
Ringgold and Captain Page at their guns. Again and again his
splendid cavalry swept down in the vain endeavor to break the Amer-
ican lines. At last, despairing of the attempt, Arista drew off his
whole force, leaving Taylor in possession of the field. In this first
battle of the war, which lasted five hours, Taylor lost about fifty in
killed and wounded. Arista six times as many.
Early the next morning, Taylor resumed the march for Fort Brown.
At Resaca de la Palma he came upon Arista's army, well posted and
drawn up to receive him. Here the second battle was fought. The
Mexicans again endeavored to silence the American guns with their
well-handled artillery; but the American dragoons, under May, drove
the Mexican gunners from their pieces, and the American infantry, by
a bayonet charge, carried their best battery. Taylor's main body,
almost at the same instant, forced Arista's center from the ravine,
which they held. An irregular combat ensued, but the Americans
THE UNITED STATES. 165
pushed steadily forward, and drove the Mexicans from their intrench-
ments, capturing all their camp equipage. General La Vega and a
hundred men were made prisoners; eight cannons, three stand of col-
ors, and a quantity of military stores were captured. The Mexican
army was completely broken up, and Arista fled in disorder to Mata-
IIl Ol'ºl,S.
After this signal victory, Taylor pressed on to Fort Brown, and
relieved that post from its long bombardment. Then, in concert with
Commodore Connor, he took Barita, at the mouth of the Rio Grande,
and prepared to attack Matamoras; but that city surrendered on the
18th of May.
Before these operations were known in Washington, Polk had sent
a violent message to Congress, announcing that American blood had
been shed on American soil, and that war existed by the act of Mex-
ico. Congress immediately acted on this message, and on the 13th of
May passed an act authorizing the President to raise fifty thousand
volunteers, and appropriating ten millions of dollars to carry on the
war. As the motive of the war was conquest, and not the possession
of the disputed strip, a plan of campaign was formed for attacking
Mexico in various parts, and occupying her most valuable frontier
States. A fleet bearing an army was to sweep around South America,
to take possession of California, a State already explored by Fremont
and other American officers, and known to contain great mineral
wealth ; an “Army of the West” was to assemble at Fort Leaven-
worth, march to Santa Fé, take possession of New Mexico, and invade
the State of Coahuila; while an army of the Center was to operate
from Texas upon the heart of Mexico. Immediate steps were taken
to organize these armies and carry on the war.
166 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
On her side, Mexico formally declared war on the 23d of May,
and nerved herself for a deadly struggle with her powerful sister re-
public, whose resources seemed inexhaustible. General Taylor in the
mean time received reinforcements, chiefly of the newly raised volun-
teers, and, finding himself in September at the head of six thousand
men, resolved to advance upon Monterey, an important place in Northern
Mexico, the route to which had been opened by General Worth with
the first division. On the 19th of September, the whole American
army encamped within three miles of Monterey, which was held by
General Ampudia with an army of nine thousand men. Although a
strongly fortified town in a position protected by great natural de-
fenses, Taylor prepared to attack it. Cutting off Ampudia's supplies
by the Saltillo road, he began the siege on the 21st. An old palace
of the bishops, now a strong work, was the chief fortification. Gen-
eral Worth was dispatched to turn this, and attack the heights in the
rear. To cover his attack, Lieutenant-Colonel Garland, with another
division, attacked the lower town ; Butler and Quitman, with a third
division, carried the enemy's advanced battery, and secured a position
in the town. Meanwhile General Worth had encountered the enemy
in force, repulsed him with heavy loss, and carried two of the heights.
The next day Worth carried the palace itself, and entered the town,
while Quitman, in spite of all the efforts of the enemy to dislodge him,
fought his way, in from house to house, and reached the plaza or great
public Square found in all Spanish cities.
Ampudia then drew in his troops for a last struggle, but finding re-
sistance hopeless after the dreadful carnage, he offered to capitulate,
and on the 24th surrendered the city, marching out with all his
troops. In this sanguinary battle both regulars and volunteers dis-
THE UNITED STATES. - 167
played the greatest skill and courage. The American loss was one
hundred and twenty killed, and three hundred and sixty-eight wound-
ed, while that of the enemy was at least a thousand.
General Taylor placed Worth in command of Monterey, and en-
camped himself at Walnut Springs, three miles distant.
Another change was now to take place in Mexican affairs, which
seemed at first to promise the Americans a satisfactory solution of the
war question, but which proved a delusion. The Mexican Govern-
ment had thus far been in the hands of Paredes, an advocate of war.
General Santa Anna, then in Cuba, professed a desire for peace, so that
the administration at Washington came to an understanding with him,
and enabled him to pass through the fleet then lying before Vera
Cruz. No sooner, however, was that able man in his own country,
than he threw himself into the hands of the war party, assumed the
direction of affairs, and prepared to carry on the war with vigor. This
compelled the United States to adopt another series of plans.
The other operations of this campaign had meanwhile succeeded,
though not as intended. When Texas was annexed, Commodore Sloat
was off the coast of California. Believing that war actually existed,
he took Monterey, August 7, 1846. San Francisco soon followed
its fate ; and the best port on the Pacific fell into the hands of the
Americans to begin a new career. Colonel Fremont, who had ex-
plored the passes of the mountains, was also in California with a small
force, and he raised the American flag at San Juan. The Mexican
authorities did not yield without a blow.
Meanwhile, General Kearney, in command of the Army of the West,
had marched across the Western plains and through the mountain
passes, a distance of nine hundred miles, from Fort Leavenworth to
168 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Santa Fé, following the well-known track of the traders. The Mexi-
cans had anticipated no attack. Kearney met with no resistance: he
took possession of the country, and, having made Charles Bent gover-
nor, continued his march toward California, which he was also in-
structed to reduce. On the way he was met by a courier from Com-
modore Stockton and Colonel Fremont, informing him that California
was already in the hands of the United States. Sending back his
main army, he marched on with a hundred men, and with Stockton
and Fremont completed the subjugation of the province. Fremont
had been proclaimed governor, but Kearney proceeded to Monterey,
and there assumed the office of governor, and proclaimed that California
was annexed to the United States
Before proceeding to California, General Kearney had detached
Colonel Doniphan against the Navajo Indians. He compelled that
tribe to make peace, and then marched toward Chihuahua to join
General Wool. On the 22d of December he encountered a Mexican
force at Bracitos, whom he dispersed, and, pushing on through the
hostile country, on the last day of February found the Sacramento
Pass, eighteen miles from Chihuahua, held by four thousand Mexicans,
under General Trias. After a short but decisive struggle, in which
the Mexicans were completely routed, Doniphan pushed on, and on
the 2d of March took possession of that large city, and the province
of the same name. After giving his soldiers a short rest here after
their march of many thousand miles, he advanced to Saltillo, where
General Wool was encamped.
The authority of the United States in these conquered parts was
firmly established, and, though some outbreaks occurred, the Mexicans
were never able to regain possession of any part.
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atº TYLER, PRESIDENT OF THF WITED STATs.





THE UNITED STATES. 169
Having thus followed the operations of the armies on the northern
frontier of Mexico, we interrupt the narrative to sketch the career of
a meritorious officer who played a conspicuous part in Taylor's Cam-
paign.
GENERAL JOSEPH K. F. MANSFIELD, U. S. A.
KILLED AT SHARPSBURG, MARYLAND, SEPT. 17, 1862.
Joseph KING FENNo MANSFIELD crowned a long life of devotion
to his country by the holiest libation the heart can make in that
all but holiest of causes. His life eminently pure; a character too
gentle, it would seem for the stern career he chose, a modesty that
really wronged his country and himself—a mind of singular military
grasp, engineering science the most profound, success in every operation
confided to him, had all endeared the name of Mansfield to the Amer.
ican people; and though no party ever sought to raise him to su-
preme command, few officers would have received a more unanimous
vote of the highest confidence.
He was born at New Haven, December 22, 1803, his family hav-
ing been among the first settlers of the town, and among the earliest
of the colonists of New England, removing their home from Exeter,
in England, to Boston, in 1636; and migrating thence to New Haven,
in 1640. The father of the general, Henry S. Mansfield, had pro-
ceeded to Santa Cruz, in the West Indies; but on his death, his
widow, Mary King Fenno, of Middletown, returned to her native
village, and there reared her family, Joseph being the youngest of
170 -. A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
the six whom she was left to train for the battle of life. His boyhood
was pure and noble, full of generous ambition. Thus he pursued the
studies in the academy of his town to fit him for an entrance into
the Military School at West Point, which he entered, in 1817. Here
success attended him. He passed through the successive grades in the
cadet battalion, and, though the youngest in his class, was second in
rank when he graduated; and had even then, notwithstanding his
youth, been acting as assistant professor. His commission as second
lieutenant was deservedly in the engineers; and in this field, to
which his genius admirably fitted him, most of his life was spent.
Many of the most important works on our frontiers were, in a great
degree planned and constructed by him. Fort Hamilton, Fortress
Monroe, and, above all, Fort Pulaski, display his singular ability in
the science of fortification. Slow as was his promotion, for he was
ten years a second lieutenant and three a first lieutenant, his ability
was acknowledged by the readiness of government to avail itself of
his services in every branch of engineering, in planning fortifications,
as well as in harbor and river surveys and defences.
The Mexican war found him a captain, and as he was assigned
to General Taylor's command, he was thrown into the very van of
the fight. During the whole of Taylor's brilliant career Mansfield
was his engineer-in-chief—ever able, prompt, and sagacious. Be-
fore hostilities began, he made a reconnoissance and accurate survey
of the Texan coast, from Matagorda Bay to the Aransas river, enabling
the commandant to plan his first important movements. When the
advance to the Rio Grande was ordered, Mansfield planned the fort
at Point Isabel, and setting all at work, hastened to the banks of
the river opposite Matamoros, whither Taylor had preceded him.
TEIE UNITED STATES. 171
Here a fort and battery were to be planted, and to be held at all
odds. While Taylor returned to Fort St. Isabel with his army,
and prepared to meet the enemy, Mansfield toiled on, standing ever
girt for the fight; and, though galled by attacks from light troops
in the rear, and heavy batteries in front, for an entire week, he made
Fort Brown impregnable to any force the enemy could bring, and
soon beheld the victorious army of the Union advancing to his relief,
after routing the foe at Palo Alto, and Resaca de la Palma. The
services of Captain Mansfield, in the construction and gallant defence
of Fort Brown during the bombardment, were not unrewarded; the
brevet rank of major stimulated him to further triumphs.
The victories of May 8th and 9th, and the stubborn defence of Fort
Brown, made the Mexican commanders loth to meet the little army
except on ground of their own selection, and a slow defensive course
succeeded the bold promise of their early fierce assaults. Recrossing
the Rio Grande, they abandoned Matamoros and fell back to Mon-
terey. Onward pressed Taylor in pursuit, and on reaching that city,
Major Mansfield made a reconnoissance of the whole neighborhood
of the place, during the 20th of September, 1846, and pointed out
the importance of occupying and holding the Saltillo road, the surest
point of attack on the enemy's strong position. When the action
began, Lieutenant-colonel Garland was sent to make a diversion on
the enemy's front and right; but Mansfield was already in the ad-
vance, exploring the defences, and deciding on the point of attack.
Garland by instructions of the general, reported to him, ready to
attack where he should direct. Mansfield advised an immediate
advance into the city; and, though another officer thought the dan.
ger too great, he was too confident in the bravery of the troops,
172 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
and, after one glance at them, resolved to lead on. Ever in the van,
his quick eye grasping each weak spot, Mansfield pressed on amid
the concentrated fire of the enemy, till a further advance, amid the
narrow streets, was found too perilous, and then he advised Colonel
Garland to withdraw his forces to a safe position.
In the attack on the bishop's palace, the next day, he was shot
through the leg, but did not leave the field till the victory was
won. Then nature yielded, and only after a detention of six weeks,
in a bed of discomfort, was he able to resume his position in the
army, now advanced to the rank of brevet lieutenant-colonel.
The next year opened with a new series of operations; the
American army of occupation, diminished by the detachment of the
flower of its forces to the command of General Scott, was scattered;
and yet Santa Anna was at San Luis Potosi, rapidly preparing to
attack, and, if possible, crush Taylor's isolated corps. When that
general advanced on the Americans at Buena Vista, Wool began the
action, employing Mansfield to reconnoitre the enemy and the moun.
tain passes, and the latter spent the night on the ground, in the
very face of the enemy. When the action opened, Mansfield watched
the proceedings keenly, and seeing the plateau, the key of the Amer-
ican position menaced, and the enemy advancing on the height that
covered the left of Captain Washington's position at the pass, led
up McKee's Second Kentucky Regiment, and these, with Hardin's
regiment, and Bragg's, O'Brien's, and Sherman's Batteries, finally drove
the enemy from before them. It was at this critical moment that
he stood beside General Taylor, confident of the result, when Taylor
began to waver.
The close of the war with Mexico found Mansfield a colonel; and
ºr THE UNITED STATES. 173
F-
now resuming the more peaceful labors of engineer, he was stationed
in Boston harbor, but as a member of the board of engineers was fre.
quently employed elsewhere. On the 28th of May, 1853, he was
appointed to succeed McCall, as inspector-general of the army, with the
rank of colonel. This high and important trust required him to visit
every section of the country, and especially the remote frontier posts
in New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Oregon, and Washington Territory.
While the storm that has now burst in its fury was still lowering,
Colonel Mansfield was in Texas, and saw what the Government could
not credit, that the whole South would join in the Secession movement,
that war was inevitable, and that Texas, already desolated, would
be utterly ruined. He felt deeply the hesitancy and inaction of the
Government, which might so easily have prevented the fearful civil
war; for, to use his own expression, “a man-of-war or two might have
put an extinguisher on the whole bursting flame of Secession.”
He was called to Washington early in 1861, and for a time awaited
an appointment, his modesty not permitting him to push his claims for
the high command to which experience, success, and scientific attain-
ments entitled him. At last he was assigned to the Northwest, at
a moment when all the skill and experience were needed on the
new frontier about to be formed in the very heart of the country.
But scarcely had he reached his post when, impelled by fear for
the safety of Washington, the authorities began to look around them
for an engineer of more than ordinary ability. Colonel Mansfield was
recalled from the wilderness to the capital. On his way the fortu-
nately premature outbreak in Baltimore, took place, and convinced
men of the reality of danger. The destruction of railroad bridges by
order of Maryland authorities, prevented his reaching Washington by
174 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
rail, and he made his way on foot, alone. By the close of April, he
was in command of the troops at Washington, planning and erect-
ing those fortifications which have made the city safe from all at-
tack. The occupation of Alexandria was also his work.
Again was he promoted, and on the 17th of May, 1861, he be.
CàIſle 8. brigadiergeneral in the regular army. When the onward
movement was determined upon, General Mansfield used every ex-
ertion to insure its success, but was detained in Washington to await
the expected triumph of the Union arms. The terrible reverse of
Bull Run fell on the country like a stroke of the palsy. The con-
fidence of victory, the certainty of success, the reputation of Scott
were in a moment dashed; and confusion, doubt, and misgiving filled
every mind. The skilful engineering of General Mansfield, that had
encircled Washington with strong works, now the - refuge of a de-
feated and disorganized army, alone gave the country reason to hope
for the safety of the seat of government. - -
The changes in high command, and even in the departments of
the army, have been too many and too rapid for any but a close
student to follow or remember. On the 17th of August, 1861, one.
of these reorganizations superseded his command at Washington.
While awaiting a new appointment he paid a last visit to his family
and home, where his fellow-citizens anxiously awaited his coming,
eager to do honor to one so eminently useful. Honors met him in
that city where he was so beloved, and where, deeply imbued with
a desire to advance the sacred cause of education, he had erected
at his own expense a costly and commodious edifice for an academy
of young ladies.
On returning to Washington he was placed in command succes.
THE UNITED STATES. 175
sively at Fortress Monroe, Hatteras, Camp Hamilton, and Newport
News, places of trust indeed, but not commensurate with his talent,
or suited to the high rank which he bore, won by active service in
the field. With so much stirring around him, with engagements in
every district of the country, he chafed at his isolation, and pined
for active duties. When the Merrimac so boldly dashed upon the
Union fleet, he was at Newport News, and was almost killed by a
ball from her which entered his head-quarters; but he was at the
first sound ready to take his part, and his batteries in all probability
saved the Congress from the fate of the Cumberland.
Summoned soon after to Washington as a member of a court of
inquiry, he was next to his great satisfaction assigned to the Upper
Potomac, and then retained to inspect the defences at Washington.
This done, he prepared to take the field: with a premonition of his
approaching death, he said to a friend, “If I fall, have my body
sent to my friends at Middletown.” On Monday, September 14,
after riding all the previous day, he reached Middletown, Maryland,
and reported to General McClellan, then preparing to attack Lee,
who had, for the first time, led a Confederate force beyond the line
of Virginia. He was immediately placed in command of Banks's
corps of eleven thousand men, in two divisions, under Generals Wil-
liams and Green.
Two days later, the painfully memorable 17th day of the month,
he led his forces on to the battle at the early hour of 7 A. M. His
practised eye soon saw fear in the faces and movements of one of
the new regiments. The charge of the enemy was terrible, and
needed courage of no ordinary kind to withstand it. To inspire
the men, Mansfield ordered his aid to bring forward General Gordon's
176 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF º
brigade. In the mean time he pressed forward where the battle waxed
the hottest to inspirit the faltering. While thus throwing all the ardor
of his soul into the engagement, at the head of General Crawford's
brigade, a minié ball entered and passed entirely through his body,
piercing his right lung in its course. His noble steed shared the fate
ºf the battle with his rider, and fell wounded by three balls. The
engagement had been of but about an hour's continuance when these
results had been reached. The general was borne from the field to
die. He continued, however, to live for a day, and expired on Thurs.
day morning, a few minutes past eight o'clock. He died from ex
haustion, induced through loss of blood. -
True to the instincts of the patriot soldier to the last, his thoughts
were with the contending hosts. “How goes the battle?” was his
repeated inquiry. “How fares it with my associates in command 3"
When told that Hooker and Burnside had fallen, overwhelmed with
grief, he exclaimed: “Too bad—too bad! Poor fellows—poor fel.
lows!” When assured that it was well with our army, his joy seemed
great. When the report of the fall of our generals was contradicted, a
weight of sorrow seemed to have passed from his heart.
He expired at a farm-house between Cadysville and Sharpsburg;
and his remains were at once, in accordance with his expressed desire,
conveyed to Middletown, by his aid and his son, receiving on the
way the honors due his rank. The funeral services took place in
the North Church, of which he had been many years a member,
and after an eloquent address by the Rev. Mr. Taylor, the remains
of the good and gallant soldier was conveyed to the cemetery, followed
by the governor of the State, and a long line of military and citizens.
i


THE UNITED STATES. 177
But we return to the Mexican War:-Though the Mexicans had
been defeated in the field, and many of their provinces occupied,
their spirit was unbroken, and the Americans found that they must
strike at the capital, if they wished to conquer a peace.
There, Santa Anna, after outwitting them, was now preparing all
the resources of the republic for the ultimate struggle of the war.
The Government of the United States now formed a new plan of
operations, the first step in which was to attack and occupy Wera Cruz,
the chief Mexican port on the Gulf, and from that point move upon
Mexico itself. The plan was arduous and surrounded with difficulties.
Vera Cruz was defended by the strong fortress of San Juan de Ulua,
which had defied the French arms. The road from that port to Mex-
ico was a gradual ascent, abounding in narrow mountain-passes, where
a small force could hold an army at bay. . •
Preparations were, however, made to carry out this plan of cam-
paign. General Scott was directed to raise a new army, drawing such
forces as he could safely from General Taylor. This army he was to
lead in person. After making all necessary arrangements at Wash-
ington, he proceeded to Texas late in the year, to form his troops for
service as they arrived. In March, 1847, he concentrated all his
troops at Lobos Island, about a hundred and twenty-five miles north
of Vera Cruz, and on the 7th embarked from that point for Vera
Cruz, on a squadron commanded by Commodore Connor. Two days
later he appeared before that city with an army of thirteen thousand
IſleIl.
Santa Anna, who felt that he could depend on a vigorous if not suc-
cessful resistance to the Americans, when they should appear before
Wera Cruz, had resolved to act with vigor against Taylor, whose army
12
178 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
was much weakened. By unparalleled exertions he assembled an
army of twenty-two thousand men, and at the opening of the year lay
with these at San Luis Potosi, waiting his opportunity to strike an
effective blow. At last he resolved to hurl his whole force on Taylor
and crush him, before he marched to check Scott's advance.
In February, Taylor, with gloomy forebodings, heard of Santa
Anna's approach, and, calling in his various divisions, effected a junc-
tion with Wool at Agua Nueva. Then he fell back to a position of
remarkable strength near Buena Vista, eleven miles from Saltillo, and
there drew up his force, about six thousand strong, with his left on a
high mountain, and his right and front so covered by a series of
ravines as to be impracticable even for infantry.
Santa Anna, who believed the American general to be flying before
him, pushed on with his whole force, well equipped, but suffering sadly
for want of provisions. About noon on the 22d of February, Santa
Anna was within two miles of the American lines, and, assuring
Taylor that he was surrounded so that escape was impossible, called
on him to surrender.
A stern refusal showed Santa Anna that he must attack the Ameri-
can general in his strong position. Skirmishing began that day.
Santa Anna, finding the American left the only feasible point, de-
tached General Ampudia with light troops to occupy the mountain.
These were attacked by the American left, under Colonel Marshall,
and an active skirmishing was kept up till night closed on the scene.
At the same time a detachment of Mexican cavalry, under General
Miñon, was operating against General Taylor's rear. In the morning
Santa Anna again attacked Taylor's extreme left, and then threw him-
self on the centre. Repulsed here, he accumulated his forces, under
THE UNITED STATES. 179
Generals Lombardini and Pacheco, to force the left, then held by Lane.
The charge was a terrible one. In vain O'Brien's artillery hurled
its shot and shell into the advancing corps of Mexicans. It swept
steadily on. An Indiana regiment fled in confusion : the left wing
gave way. General Wool, in command in front, called in the
light troops on the mountain, and drew in his left. Santa Anna en-
deavored to follow up his advantage ; but Taylor, hurrying up from
the rear, threw fresh troops on the left. The battle was renewed with
fury. Again and again Santa Anna swept down with foot and horse
to break the line, but always with increasing loss. One of his de-
tachments, reaching the American rear, attacked the trains and bag-
gage at Buena Vista, but were checked and cut off from their main
body by Colonels Marshall and Yell.
Then Santa Anna, calling on his left and all his reserves, led the
last attack in person, sustained by General Perez and Pacheco. Again
the well-handled batteries of O'Brien and Bragg poured death into the
advancing columns; but Santa Anna pushed on, and made a fearful
charge. The level portion between the ravines became the scene of
furious encounter, of alternate attack and defense. The American
troops fought with desperate courage, conscious that retreat was im-
possible—that they must conquer or perish. However, the Kentucky
and Illinois regiments, after losing Colonels Clay, Hardin of the First
Illinois, and McKee, were driven back.
Once more Santa Anna endeavored to follow up the slight advan-
tage gained so dearly, but the terrible American artillery and the diffi-
culties of the ground checked him. He finally drew back; and when
night closed over the fearful day's battle, the two armies lay as they
had at daybreak.
180 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
In the morning, General Taylor prepared to renew the battle, but
he soon found that the work was done. The Mexicans had retreated
during the night, leaving their dead and wounded on the field. Such
was the eventful battle of Buena Vista, in which an American army
of five thousand men sustained for a whole day the repeated attacks
of an army four times its number. Taylor's loss was about three hun-
dred killed, and five hundred wounded, while Santa Anna's loss was
estimated at two thousand.
This glorious victory confirmed the American supremacy, and over-
threw the Mexican power in that portion of the country. General
Taylor centered his army at Monterey, and soon after returned to the
United States in consequence of difficulties with the War Department.
General Wool then assumed command of the army at Monterey.
Taylor's campaign had been most creditable to him as a commander.
There was nothing to dim the lustre of his army but occasional law-
less acts by some of the volunteers, among whom it was not easy to
enforce strict discipline.
His campaign from Palo Alto to Buena Vista had been a school
Where many officers were trained, who at a later day fought against
each other in the terrible civil war. Here Mansfield distinguished
himself as an engineer; Bragg, with his artillery; Halleck, Lowe,
Wallace, Richardson, and many others, in both the regular and volun-
teer service.
COLONEL JOHN W. LOWE, O. W.
KILLED AT CARNIFEx FERRY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1861.
JoHN WILLIAMSON Lowe, son of James B. Lowe and Katherine
Keenon, was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on the 15th of
November, 1809. They were a Scotch family, and were at one time
in comfortable circumstances; but financial disasters, and long-continued
ill health, reduced them to poverty. In 1817, they removed to Rah-
way, where John began the labors of life in the woollen factory of a
Mr. Cohue. Three years after they removed to New York, and the
next year his father died, leaving a widow—for he had married a second
time—and five children with no earthly support. Mrs. Lowe struggled
with her heavy charge, finding her greatest resource in her stepson, who
resolutely went to work, saying, “Mother, I will work for you and
these children as long as I can stand. We are not beggars yet.”
He found employment in the printing-office of the Bible House, and
for some years he worked hard learning his trade, and studying dili-
gently at night by the light of their solitary candle, watching over the
other children, and filling, as well as he could, his dead father's place to
them. He took care of them until they were able to take care of them.
182 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
selves, denying himself every thing until they were beyond the reach
of want.
About the only pleasures of his life at this time, to which he in later
years referred, grew out of his connection with a Thespian Society, and
with the New York Cadets, a military company at that time the pride
of the city, commanded by Captain James Riley. His love of theatricals
was a youthful passion, which soon died away; but his love of every
thing connected with military life, grew with his growth.
In 1833, he came West to seek his fortune, and settled in the town
of Batavia, Clermont county, Ohio. Here, while supporting himself at
his trade, he pursued with energy and steadfastness of purpose the study
of the law. In due time he was admitted to practice. Difficulties
innumerable presented themselves in his pathway, but he pushed on
through or over them all. Invincible determination and obstinate per-
Geverance, joined with the purest honor and high-toned courage, brought
him through, and gained him the respect of every man that knew him.
The Mexican War broke out, and although he had opposed heartily
the party whose policy brought it upon us, though his wife, his boys,
his business, gave him every reason to wish to remain at home, and a
sufficient excuse,_yet he said he knew something of military life and
military duties, his country needed his services, and he must go. A
company was raised in the county, the command of it offered to him;
he accepted it, and went, serving till his regiment, the Fourth Ohio, was
disbanded, in 1848. -
When peace was declared, he returned to his home, and again
devoted himself to the practice of his profession. A year or two after,
the cholera raged with extraordinary violence in Batavia and the sur-
rounding country. The care of the sick and the burial of the dead
THE UNITED STATES. 183
devolved upon the few to whom neither disease nor death was a terror.
The wife, the mother, with two or three other devoted men and women,
met the emergency, with him, in the true spirit of heroism and philan.
thropy. “It is just like a battle,” he would say to his faint-hearted
fellow-citizens, “and we are like a regiment under a terrible fire. Our
friends are falling all around us, and it may be our turn next; but let
us meet the enemy boldly. It is no more dangerous to stand than it
is to run.”
In 1855, he removed to Xenia, Ohio, where he resided at the time
of the beginning of this present war. The citizens came to him then
and said, “Our young men are volunteering, and you are the only
man in our county who knows what war is, and how to take care of
them, and make them soldiers. You must lead them.” He was no
longer young, and the sedentary life he had been leading had destroyed
almost all of the elasticity of his frame. He felt that he could not bear
the hardships of a campaign; but he heard the call of duty, and her call
he had never learned to disobey. As he went, he said—“I will never
return alive.”
Two days after the bombardment of Fort Sumter he led over a
hundred young men into the camp at Columbus, and expected to go the
next day east, to the defence of Washington. The Twelfth regiment
was organized, and he chosen unanimously its colonel. The election
was declared informal, and a new one ordered, and he was again chosen
to the position, without opposition. The capital of our country was no
longer in immediate danger, and the regiments at Columbus were
removed to Camp Dennison, near Cincinnati, for instruction in the
duties of soldiers.
Early in the following month the Twelfth was attached to General
184 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Cox's Brigade, and made a part of his force in the advance up the
Kanawha river. The general complimented it as the best regiment at .
that time under his command, and gave it always the position of honol
and danger. The only battle that it was necessary to fight to clear the
rebels out of the valley of the Kanawha was fought by the Twelfth, with
detachments from other regiments, all under the command of Colonel
Lowe. The following account of the movements and operations of that
day, the most momentous of his life, was written by the officers of the
Twelfth, and was found upon his person when he fell.
“Many remarks having been made in regard to the affair at Scarey
Creek, and the conduct of the officers and men of the Twelfth Regiment
having undergone some criticism in the newspapers of the day, we deem
it a duty to ourselves and our regiment, before the statements of imper-
fectly informed correspondents pass into and become history, to give an
impartial and accurate description of that fight.
“On the morning of the 17th of July, Colonel Lowe was ordered by
General Cox to take his regiment, with a detachment of the Twenty-first
Ohio, Captain Cotter's battery of two pieces of artillery, and a few
dragoons, to explore the country about Scarey, ascertain the position
and strength of the enemy, carry the point, if possible, and extend the
line of our operations to Coles Mouth, four miles further up the river.
The whole command did not number over one thousand men. Colonel
Norton, commanding the detachment from his regiment, the Twenty-
first, was assigned an advanced position, worthy of his gallantry and
experience.
“A strong force of skirmishers, under Major Hines of the Twelfth,
preceded the column, feeling the way cautiously along, until within a
quarter of a mile of Scarey, when they came upon the picket guards of
THE UNITED STATES. 185
the enemy, who fired their muskets and hastily retired. Knowing
nothing of the ground, or the position or the force of the enemy, the
column advanced slowly and carefully, the cavalry being sent on to
examine some buildings which stood on the brow of the hill in front
of us. They had scarcely shown themselves, when the rebels opened
upon us from two or three pieces of artillery, muskets, and rifles. Their
fire was severe, and the ground being entirely unknown to the com-
mander of the expedition, he was compelled to make the necessary
observations, and arrange the plan of attack in front of the rebel bat-
teries, before our forces could reply. The enemy was found to be
strongly posted on the brow of an almost inaccessible hill on the oppo-
site side of Scarey Creek, about four hundred and fifty yards from the
point at which the road by which we approached comes around another
hill into view. They had breastworks, and ample shelter for their
troops. Their right rested on the Kanawha river; their left on a high
and well-wooded mountain. The bridge at the mouth of Scarey had
been burned; and a row of houses and a fence extending out from the
river along the creek, furnished an excellent position for their riflemen.
“The disposition of our forces was promptly made. Captain Cotter
advanced his artillery to the brow of the hill on our side, and opened
fire in gallant style on the enemy's battery on the hill opposite. Major
Hines, with three companies, plunged into the valley on our right, and
attempted to scale the mountain and turn the left flank of the rebels.
Colonel Norton, with his detachment of the Twenty-First, and Lieuten-
ant-colonel White, with four companies of the Twelfth, were sent to the
left at a double-quick step down a steep hill, and under a galling fire,
to attack the right of the enemy on the river. The other three com-
panies of the Twelfth remained on the hill, to support the artillery, and
186 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
draw the fire of the enemy to the front, while our movements were being
made against each flank.
“So steady and accurate was our fire, especially that of Captain Cot-
ter's artillery, that in about twenty minutes, the enemy's cannon were
dismounted and silenced, his ammunition-wagon blown up, the rifle-
men in the mountain were in full run to their rear, and the day seemed
to be clearly our own. The movements on both flanks were pushed
forward with vigor. On our left, the riflemen were rapidly cleared out
of the houses and from behind the fence along the creek, but our men
encountered great difficulty in crossing the creek, which was nearly
waist deep in mud and water, and in ascending the steep bank on the
other side. Here was much of our hardest fighting, and here we suf.
fered our greatest loss. Colonel Norton fell severely wounded before
crossing the creek, and the command under Lieutenant-colonel White
pressed on in the face of a galling fire, climbed the steep bank, pene-
trated the enemy's lines—gradually, but surely gaining his rear. The
fight continued with every prospect of success, and without the least
indication of a reverse, until it was ascertained that our ammunition was
nearly expended. Entertaining no idea of a protracted fight, we had
brought with us but thirty rounds. About the time also that this
heart-sickening discovery was made, the glad shouts of the enemy, and
the long lines of men that were approaching in the distance, showed us
that strong reinforcements for them, both of infantry and artillery, were
at hand. They soon came up, and opened on us a heavy fire from their
artillery along the river-bank. Our whole force being already engaged,
and having no reserve to call into action, the colonel was compelled to
send the artillery to the rear, and our forces gradually withdrew, un-
pursued, and bearing off all our wounded not inside the enemy's lines
THE UNITED STATES. 187
The companies whose position had been on the right, though much
exhausted by their hard work on the mountain, suffered less than the
others, and came off in good order, forming our rear-guard.
“Judging from what we could see, and the ground occupied and
covered by the enemy, his force was originally about fifteen hundred
men, and bis reinforcements were from four to six hundred, with artillery.
It is evident, also, from the testimony of deserters, and others who had
excellent means of knowing, that their loss was very heavy—not less
than sixty-five killed, and wounded in proportion.”
In the latter part of August, Colonel Lowe went with his regiment
down the Kanawha and up the Ohio to Parkersburg; thence, to join
the army of General Rosecrans at Clarksburg. As soon as this general
had collected the force he considered necessary, and completed his
preparations, he started upon a long and weary march South through
Weston, Bulltown, Sutton, and Summerville, to open communication
with General Cox, at Gauley Bridge. Weak and borne down by dis-
ease as he was, the colonel kept his place at the head of his regiment,
sustained alone by his indomitable will. From Sutton he wrote to his
wife: “We are marched almost to death. We have met with one un-
ending succession of hills. They roll like the billows of the ocean, or,
rather, seem as though they were waves of a great ocean, which, at the
moment of their greatest agitation, had suddenly become solid.” And
again: “I feel as though my life's journey was nearly ended. The
chances of war render it very probable that this is so; but still, you
must not despond. God has given us many, very many happy hours
together, and if it be his will that we meet no more on this earth, you
must thank him, as I do, for the happiness he has already granted us,
and submit with resignation to his holy will.”
188 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
In his last letter to his wife, written four days before his death, and
which reached her the morning after the intelligence of his fall, he said:
“The clouds of war are gathering thickly about us, and I know not
what my condition will be when they lift above the scenes. I find
myself hoping, and it is now about my only hope, that I will soon be at
home a maimed soldier, to receive your care for a little time, and then
lay me down to my long rest. Wait yet a little longer, dearest, a week,
a day may relieve our suspense, and bring my fate upon me. God rules
over all things, and disposes of us as he thinks best. . . . And now,
dearest, good-night. May angels guard you and keep you. If I am
taken from you, remember that I have laid down my life in a great
cause, and in the line of duty. And don't give way beneath the stroke.
It is but death at any rate, and then a long eternity of rest and peace.
If we cannot meet again on earth, we will in heaven. Love to our chil-
dren, and to you a thousand kisses, my adored, my beloved wife.”
On the afternoon of September 10th, 1861, after a march of seven-
teen and a half miles, the Tenth, the foremost regiment in the advance
brigade, found itself in front of the rebel position they had marched so
far to find. The gallant Irishmen, without waiting until the other regi-
ments belonging to their brigade came up, charged at once upon it, and
the battle was begun. The Thirteenth next came into position, and
finally the Twelfth came near, led by its way-worn and weary colonel.
“Cannot any one tell me how to reach the field?” said he: “my brigade
is bearing the brunt of the battle. Tell me how to go to its assistance.”
The road was shown him, and in a few minutes he was with the Tenth,
directly in front of the battery, in the thickest of the fight. There, a
moment later, a ball pierced the centre of his forehead, and he fell to
rise no more.
THE UNITED STATES. 180
At the head of his men, in a sacred cause, in the hour of victory,
without a pang, died John W. Lowe, at the battle of Carnifex Ferry, in
Virginia, on the 10th of September, 1861.
General Cox, in reviewing his services, says: “I found that caution
was an element of his mind, which modified his courageous desire for
brilliancy of action; and that, with a full appreciation of the disadvan-
tages under which new and undisciplined troops must act, he preferred,
and, indeed, regarded it as a conscientious duty to act with a déliberate
prudence, which would risk as little as possible for the sake of mere
show or dash. Some, who could not understand how this quality was
connected with personal bravery, were inclined at one time to call his
courage as an officer into question. Those who had the best opportu.
nities of judging, and who were with him under fire, are unanimous in
testifying that he seemed wholly unconscious of personal danger, and
careful only for the lives of the men under his command.”
190 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Scott meanwhile was investing Vera Cruz and its renowned fortress.
He summoned the city to surrender, and on its refusal prepared to
bombard it. The fleet took up a position to give the most efficient aid, .
and batteries were planted on land in the best positions the engineers
could reach. On the 22d, the bombardment of the fortress and the
city began. The destruction in Vera Cruz was fearful, as nearly seven
thousand shot and shell were hurled into the devoted city. The loss
of life among the citizens, their wives and children, was terrible, one
of the sad barbarities of modern warfare. The Mexican commander,
General Landero, asked for a truce to allow non-combatants and neu-
trals to withdraw ; but Scott would not consent, and the fearful bom-
bardment went on till the 26th, when Landero made proposals for a
capitulation. Three days after, the garrison of five thousand men
marched out and laid down their arms, giving their parole not to Serve
in the war until exchanged. -
General Scott immediately occupied the city of Vera Cruz and the
castle of San Juan de Ulua, with two smaller forts, Santiago and
Concepcion, five hundred pieces of artillery falling into his hands.
This capture was effected with very slight loss, the Americans not
losing in all a hundred men, while the Mexicans are said to have had
nearly a thousand killed, and many more wounded. The reverse was
unexpected, and gave a terrible blow to the plans of Santa Anna, as it
was his strongest post, and was full of artillery and supplies.
He saw that his action must be prompt and vigorous. His bloody
repulse at Buena Vista had taught him that he was engaged with an
enemy most difficult to cope with. But he must now meet a victorious
army with comparatively raw troops. Gathering what forces he
could at the instant, he marched to check Scott's advance. It Was
THE UNITED STATES. 191
time. Scott had lost no time in landing wagons and other necessaries
for transportation. On the 8th of April, Twiggs's division moved for-
ward to the interior, like Cortez of old. Santa Anna was approaching
rapidly with his new army. Near the coast the territory of Mexico is
low, flat, and unhealthy. This is the Tierra Caliente ; then it begins to
rise gradually till in the interior it spreads out in one vast table-land.
When General Twiggs reached the little village of Plen del Rio, on
the limit of the Tierra Caliente, he found himself confronted by the
Mexican army under Santa Anna, drawn up in a very strong position
at the pass of Cerro Gordo, and numbering nearly twelve thousand
men, with artillery well planted. Before Twiggs could attack, Gen-
eral Scott came up with the main body, making his force in the field
about eight thousand five hundred men.
Early on the 17th, Twiggs began to cut a road through the brush-
wood, to reach Cerro Gordo without being exposed to a heavy Mexi-
can battery between that point and the American camp. Here the
battle began. Santa Anna hurried up to cheer on his men; but the
Americans, under Colonel Childs, drove him back, and occupied the
heights of Atalaya. The next day the American troops, under Gen-
eral Harney and Colonel Riley, from this point stormed the heights
of Cerro Gordo on different sides, and killing the Mexican com-
mander, General Vasquez, drove his force from the hill with terrible
loss. The victorious troops now found themselves within range of an-
other Mexican battery, and Colonel Riley, with General Shields,
were detached to take it. Shields fell severely wounded, but Baker
gallantly led on his men and drove the Mexicans from their guns.
All was now confusion. Santa Anna in vain endeavored to rally his
men to check the progress of the Americans. His army was totally
192 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
routed. The heavy Mexican battery nearest the American camp had
gallantly repulsed an assault led by General Pillow ; but seeing Santa
Anna routed, they hoisted a white flag, and surrendered, to the num-
ber of three thousand men. Scott's loss was sixty-three killed and three
hundred and sixty-seven wounded, while Santa Anna lost a thousand
killed and wounded, and three times as many remained as prisoners
of war in the hands of the American general. Santa Anna himself
with difficulty escaped from the field. Scott, having thus gained the
Eastern Cordilleras, pushed on to Jalapa, and having occupied the
strong castles of La Hoya and Perote, advanced upon the important
city Puebla de los Angeles. Perote was the strongest fortress in Mex-
ico after San Juan de Ulua, but it surrendered without firing a gun,
and no resistance was made at the strongly fortified city of Puebla,
with its population of eighty thousand people. Here General Scott
was compelled to halt in his career of victory. Three thousand of his
volunteers had served the time for which they had enlisted, and now
withdrew, lcaving him with too small a force to continue his progress.
This was all the more unfortunate, as it gave the brave and capable
Santa Anna time to recover from his series of defeats, and organize
Ile W plans for the defense of the menaced capital, as well as to gather
and drill the army to carry out his designs.
It was not till August that Scott, having been reinforced, so that he
had again an army of ten thousand men, resumed his march. They
had now left the unhealthy Tierra Caliente. The American soldiers
found their line of march traversing a beautiful, well-watered country,
with a fine climate. Before them rose the great Cordilleras, and as-
cending these, they looked down into the beautiful valley where
Mexico.lay amid its lakes.


THE UNITED STATES. 193
When Scott reached the city of Mexico the Government of the United
States had in vain endeavored to open negotiations. The Mexicans
Sternly refused every proposal of peace. Indeed, those in authority
durst not entertain for a moment any proposition. Santa Anna had
raised an army of twenty-five thousand men, with which he held all the
strong positions around the city, and stood ready to check the American
advance. General Scott, avoiding the regular Causeways leading to the
city, as they were all protected by fortresses, pushed on to San Augus-
tin. Here the Mexicans had made little preparation, for at this
point began the Pedregal, a broken field of lava, the remains of some
extinct volcano. This rough and sterile lava-bed was deemed impassa-
ble by troops, and no attempt was made to defend it, though General
Valencia lay beyond it with a force of six thousand men. Undeterred
by the nature of the ground, General Persiſer F. Smith, pushed on
across the Pedregal with his own brigade and those commanded by
Riley and Cadwallader. Shields pressed on steadily behind him. At
San Hieronymo, Smith came up with Santa Anna, but the Mexican
general fell back; and at three o'clock in the morning, in the pitchy
darkness, Riley advanced to assault the Mexican works at Contreras.
He soon carried them, and was in possession of the enemy's camp.
Smith's brigade had been attacked by Torrejon's Cavalry, but the Mexi-
can lancers with all their horsemanship and prowess could not stand
before Smith's brigade, which utterly routed them. Cadwallader,
Shields, and Pierce, who had been engaged holding in check Santa
Anna's reserves, now hemmed in the fugitives and cut them down.
The Mexicans were utterly defeated. Although the Americans as-
Sailed strong works, their loss was comparatively small, not exceeding
a hundred in all, while fifteen hundred Mexicans lay dead and wounded
13
194 - A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
on the field of Contreras, and a thousand more were prisoners, with
cannon, muskets, and stores. To the delight of the whole army
O'Brien's guns, so gallantly lost at Buena Vista, were here recov-
ered.
Having gained the position at Contreras, one great step was accom-
plished ; but Churubusco was the key to the city, and the assault upon
it was a much more serious affair. -
Santa Anna had posted himself, with an army of thirty thousand
men, in a strong position. An old church and convent had been made
part of his defenses, and strong fortifications covered the bridge by
which the Americans could best advance to the assault. Undismayed
by the numbers of the enemy or the strength of their works, the
American army came on in three divisions. Worth led the right to
attack the Mexican post covering the bridge, and drove them to the
fortifications, which opened on him. At these he led on his men.
Twiggs and Pillow rushed on with their gallant fellows to storm the
convent; while Shields, with the left, swept around to attack the
enemy's reserve in the rear. The struggle was desperate : the Mexi-
can fire of artillery and musketry swept through the small American
line, and it was again and again driven back from the convent and for-
tifications; but stubborn valor prevailed : both points were carried.
Shields and Pierce found the reserves intrenched, and they repeat-
edly charged amid a murderous fire without success. They could
neither carry the works nor demoralize the Mexicans; but a loud
American hurra rose above the din of battle. Worth, after carrying
the works before him, was sweeping down to take the Mexican
reserve in flank. Then the enemy gave way, and the American
commanders pushed on in hot pursuit to the very gates of the capital.
THE UNITED STATES. 195
Santa Anna had lost the battle of Churubusco, and his great army
was shattered; ten thousand men lay dead or wounded, or were grim
prisoners in the hands of General Scott. It had not been a bloodless
victory to that general. Of his army, less than ten thousand in all,
one thousand fell dead or wounded at Churubusco, with nearly a hun-
dred officers.
The city of Mexico was now really at the mercy of General Scott,
as Santa Anna could not have prevented his marching in and taking
possession ; but the Mexican commander resolved to make one more
effort. To gain time to rally his forces, he opened negotiations. Scott
fell into the snare, and, satisfied with what he had achieved, agreed to
an armistice. He was soon, however, convinced of his mistake ; and
finding that Santa Anna was insincere, and was merely amusing him
to gain time, he resolved to attack the city before all the fruit of the
victories at Contreras and Churubusco was lost.
But the conquest that might have been bloodless, was now to be pur-
chased at a heavy cost of life. The Mexicans had been fortifying their
position, and again breathed defiance. The point to be attacked by
General Scott in order to gain the city, was the fortress of Chapulte-
pec, and the defenses at its base. These consisted of a stone work
talled Molino del Rey, or the King's Mill, and the arsenal. Both were
filled with troops, and the interval between them was occupied by a
large force of infantry with artillery. Here Santa Anna himself, with
Generals Waldarez and Leon, awaited the American attack. General
Worth was ordered to lead the assault. Early on the morning of the
8th of September his corps advanced by starlight. On the right a
storming party under Wright attacked the Molino, but were driven
back by the volleys of the Mexicans with terrible loss. Smith and
196 A CHILD’s HISTORY.
Cadwallader, however, hastened up, and Garland burst on their flank.
These commanders at last drove the enemy from their strong position.
At the arsenal, on the left, the fight was of the fiercest description.
Here McIntosh led his brigade up gallantly to the assault, but he soon
fell wounded ; the next in command was killed, and finally the whole
brigade was driven back by the tremendous fire of the Mexicans. As
they recoiled from this almost impregnable position shattered and deci-
mated, the Mexican General Alvarez, with his cavalry, came rushing
down upon them ; but Sumner's dragoons and Duncan's battery met
this charge, and at last drove Alvarez from the field.
Duncan then opened on the arsenal, and by his steady and well-
directed fire dislodged the enemy from that position, which was imme-
diately occupied by our troops. So far, General Worth had carried the
last bulwark. He had accomplished the task assigned to him, but it
had been at fearful loss : of the brave men who went into that fight,
eight hundred, including fifty-eight officers, lay dead or dying, reducing
Scott's force to about three thousand men. Santa Anna, who had lost
two of his best generals, and nearly two thousand men, fell back, and
gathered the remainder of his troops on the southern front of the city.
Worth after this action dismantled the Mexican Works and resumed
his original position.
COLONEL E. D. BAKER, U. S. SENATOR.
KILLED AT THE BATTLE OF BALL's BLUFF, OCTOBER 21, 1861.
Among the saddest losses which have been inflicted upon the country
since the opening of the war, is that of the late lamented Edward D.
Baker, Colonel of the First Regiment of California Volunteers, and
Senator of the United States. Colonel Baker participated in the battle
which took place near Leesburg, in Virginia, on the afternoon of
Monday last, and fell at the head of his troops while waving his
sword and cheering on his men. By his death, the country is deprived
of one of its most eloquent advocates in the superior chamber of our
national legislature, and one of its most seasoned and fearless champions
in the field.
Colonel Baker, though his ripened years presented him to the
country as an accomplished lawyer and a soldier of repute, began life
under the most humble circumstances, and is indebted to no regular
scholarship, either in literature or arms, for the distinction which, in
both of these positions, he achieved. He was essentially one of those
spontaneous creations, which our noble institutions so frequently de.
velop, and which are most honorably known among us as “self-made
198 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
men.” And that Colonel Baker was a high specimen of that class,
may be seen by the difficulties which retarded him at his outset, and
by the pitch of elevation he attained.
The dead Senator was of English birth, but he came to this country
when five years of age, and by the choice of his father was settled in
Philadelphia, that Quaker neighborhood being especially congenial,
as the old gentleman was of the Society of Friends. In a few
years the parent died, and left Edward and a younger brother relation-
less, and unprovided. Labor, however, that common patron of the
well and willing, extended its resource through the occupation of his
father, and he obtained employment as a weaver in a small establish-
ment in South-street of that city. There he remained faithfully at work
for a considerable period of time, devoting his earnings, for a while,
to the support of his brother, and gradually instructing him, that he
might, in time, support himself. Possessed of an ardent imagination,
he naturally took a deep interest in reading, and his taste being stim-
ulated by the allurements of romance, enlarged, until it embraced the
whole range of Sober as well as of illusive literature. But none, how-
ever, saw in that patient, thoughtful, never-flagging boy the future
statesman whose youth was worthy of a lift. Modesty is a good maxim
for the manners of a youth, but genius always knows itself; and Edward
Baker, whose mind had dwelt upon the marvels of the West, feeling
within himself that confidence which innate strength inspires, deter-
mined to seek its broad and inviting platform for his future.
Youth needs but little preparation when it sets out to seek its for.
tune; and hope at all times requires but little backing. Edward,
though he had but little means to make the journey, communicated
his resolution to his brother, and the two young adventurers, with
THE UNITED STATES. 19 3
packs upon their shoulders, strong staffs in their hands, and stout,
hopeful hearts within their bosoms, set their faces towards the Alle-
ghanies. On foot they undertook their ascent, and on foot they
crossed; and so they trudged along, through broad intervening States,
until they found themselves in that portion of the then far West
which was known as Illinois. Here the young men paused and
cast their lot, Edward selecting Springfield as the special place of
residence. There, in a little while, he was enabled to turn to account
the legal reading which he had begun in Philadelphia; and having
a happy gift of language to help it into use, he soon was enabled to
make a living at the law. By fast degrees he rose, and ripening with
exercise, it was not long before he was among the most popular advo-
cates at the bar.
Through his prosperity he was now enabled to look beyond the
narrow circle of the private spites and griefs in which the mere attor-
ney is required to abuse his mind, and the broad field of politics
invited him to the discussion of more lofty topics. He embraced the
doctrines of the Whig party, and transferred his eloquence to the forum
with such effect that he soon won his way to Congress. He occupied
his seat in the House of Representatives with dignity and credit, and
was fast being recognized as one of the leaders of that body, when
the temptations of the Mexican campaign appealed to his ardent and
enthusiastic mind, and induced him to abandon civil life, and seek
an employment in the way of war. He went to Illinois, raised a regi-
ment, and took it to the Rio Grande. A pause in the campaign enabled
him to return temporarily to Washington, in order that he might
express himself upon the policy of the war and cast his votes; but
that done, he went back to his command, and followed its fortunes
200 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
on the line from Vera Cruz. All the actions of the contested road to
Mexico recognized his valor; and when Shields fell at the head of his
brigade at Cerro Gordo, it was Baker's distinguished fortune to rise
to the command, and to lead the New York regiments through the
bloody struggles of that day. Well do we mind the lofty look with
which the noble Senator, fifteen years more of snow being on his head,
told the people of this city of that circumstance, in April last, when,
all together, we pledged ourselves at Union Square, to avenge the
parricidal blow at Sumter | -
Returning to Illinois in triumph, Colonel Baker was again elected
to represent his district in the halls of Congress, and he served there
until 1850; but at the end of his term, he yielded to some views of
business, and went out for awhile to Panama. The local fever, how-
ever, soon drove him home, where being recruited in his health, a new
contagion touched his mind. This was the memorable epidemic which
directed universal attention to the Pacific shore; and yielding to the
fascination, the soldier who had become unsettled by the excitements
of the war, turned his footsteps to the new El Dorado of the West.
His fame had gone before him, and he was spared any efforts to pop-
ularize himself in this new field of effort. He took at once a superior
position at the bar of San Francisco; and a large proportion of the
heavy cases of the circuit sought the advantage of his treatment.
By common consent he was acknowledged to be the most eloquent
speaker in California; but a proof was in reserve, in a circumstance
beyond the mere limits of forensic eloquence, to create for him the claim
of being, perhaps, the most accomplished orator in the world. Brod-
erick, that noble young tribune, who had defended California from the
doom of Slavery, and stood the stern bulwark against the domineering
THE UNITED STATES. 201
hordes of Southern “Chivalry,” had been taken in the toils of a band
of pistol sharps, and slain.
“They have killed me because I was opposed to the extension of
Slavery and a corrupt Administration,” was the last declaration of the
dying Senator; and as the words fell from his lips, they became fire
in the heart of the weeping orator who helped to close his eyes.
The empire city of the Western Ocean was steeped in gloom at
the contemplation of the monstrous deed. All trade was stopped: no
sound of bustle was heard along the street; and, by common consent,
without pageant or parade, or any sound but the low, measured, muf.
fled throb of the church-bells, the dejected people, walking as if they
almost held their breaths, gathered in the main Square, and formed
themselves, like so many shadows, round the bier. At the foot of the
coffin stood the priest; at its head, and so he could gaze freely on the
face of his dead friend, stood the pale figure of the orator. Both of
them, the living and the dead, were self-made men; and the son of the
stone-cutter, lying in mute grandeur, with a record floating round that *
coffin which bowed the head of the surrounding thousands down in
mute respect, might have been proud of the tribute which the weaver's
apprentice was about to lay upon his breast. For minutes after the
vast audience had settled itself to hear his words, the orator did not
speak. He did not look in the coffin—nay, neither to the right nor
left; but the gaze of his fixed eye was turned within his mind, and
the still tears coursed rapidly down his cheek. Then, when the silence
was the most intense, his tremulous voice rose like a wail, and with an
uninterrupted stream of lofty, burning, and pathetic words, he so pene-
trated and possessed the hearts of the sorrowing multitude, that there
was not one cheek less moistened than his own. For an hour he held
202 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
them as with a spell; and when he finished, by bending over the calm
face of the noble corse, and stretching his arms forward with an impres-
sive gesture, exclaimed, in quivering accents, “Good friend! brave heart!
gallant leaderſ true hero! hail and farewell!” the audience broke forth
in a general response of sobs. Never, perhaps, was eloquence more
thrilling; never, certainly, was it better adapted to the temper of its
listeners. The merit of the eulogy divided public encomium with the
virtues of the deceased, and the orator became invested with the dead
senator's political fortunes. The senatorial field in California being,
however, not open to immediate occupation, Colonel Baker transferred
himself to Oregon, and there the glow of his last effort soon carried
him to the highest honors of that State. He was elected senator for
the full term of six years in 1860, and at the time of his death had
enjoyed its lofty honors only for two sessions. How he improved the
privilege of his place by great arguments in favor of the Constitution,
and by withering denunciations of the advocates of treason, has been
a matter of universal and applauding cognizance. He was, in fact, the
master debater of the war-term of Congress; and that he had the cour-
age to give his oratory force, the shrinking Benjamin, who withered
at his words, and the blanched Breckenridge, whom he “cast from the
Tarpeian rock,” can well attest.
But even these honors, and the acknowledged prominence which
he had won in his last powerful position, was not enough for his active
and daring spirit while the country was in arms. He left the Senate
to raise a regiment; and when that was ready, he led it to the field.
He fell, as we have stated, with the “light of battle” on his features;
his death being as eloquent as his life, and contributing by its noble
manner, a large compensation for his loss. The event, however, has
sº - THE UNITED STATES. 203
penetrated the nation with the deepest sorrow, and, at the same time,
it has laid a new obligation on our settlement with treason.
Upon the writer of this article, perhaps, the tidings of his loss
fell with a more startling effect than upon any person else. It was
our good fortune to know Colonel Baker well, and we had the honor
to entertain him as our guest at dinner, on an afternoon in the
month of August last. On that occasion, when we expressed (in
view of the recent disaster at Manassas) a natural concern as to the
deportment of his troops, he said: “Wilkes, I have some peculiar
notions as to the part I am to play in this extraordinary war; and
I want you to bear in mind that what I now say to you is not the
result of any idle fancy, or vague impression. It is doubtful if I shall
ever again take my soat in the Senate ſ”
To the look of surprise
which I turned upon him at this expression, he replied, “I am
certain I shall not live through this war, and if my troops should
show any want of resolution, I shall fall in the first battle. I cannot
afford, after my career in Mexico, and as a senator of the United
States, to turn my face from the enemy!” There was no gloom or
depression in his manner, but it was characterized by a temperate
earnestness which made a deep impression on my mind.
Lo! before October has shed its leaves, his sword lies upon his
pulseless breast, and his toga has become the cerements of the
grave.
“Good friend! brave heart l gallant leader I true hero! hail and
farewell !”
G. W.
NEw York, October, 24, 1861.
BRIG-GEN. HENRY BOHLEN, PENN, VOL.
KILLED AT FREEMAN's FORD, AUG. 22, 1862.
GENERAL HENRY BoHLEN, the subject of this notice, was the
youngest son of the late Bohl Bohlen, an eminent merchant of Phil-
adelphia, and founder of the commercial house of B. & J. Bohlen,
for more than half a century a very successful firm in the Holland
and East India trade.
He was born in the city of Bremen on the 22d October, 1810. His
parents at that time were travelling in Europe for pleasure. His father
being a naturalized, domiciled citizen of Philadelphia, placed him on
the same equality as to birth as if born on our own soil.
His early age was mostly spent in acquiring that taste and knowl.
edge of military matters which he displayed so much during the whole
of his after-life; and from the age of twenty-one years up to the ter.
mination of his mortal career, we find him, as opportunities occurred,
engaged in martial strife.
In 1880 he returned to Europe, for the double purpose of travel
and finishing his education; but the Belgian difficulties breaking out,
he was brought, through the kindness of some friends, to the favorable
notice of the illustrious Marquis de Lafayette, and through his influ
THE UNITED STATES. 205
ence obtained position as aid-de-camp on the staff of General Gerard,
and took part in the memorable siege of Antwerp. For his able
services in this campaign he received honorable mention.
In the year 1832 he returned to Philadelphia, and married the
eldest daughter of the late J. J. Borie, a prominent merchant of that
city, and in the same year established himself in business in the French
and West India trades. On the death of his uncle, John Bohlen, in
March, 1851 (his father died in 1836), he succeeded the old house of
B. & J. Bohlen, and at the time of his death was the senior of the
well-known house of Henry Bohlen & Co., general importers.
On the breaking out of the Mexican war, his heroic spirit burned
to be once more amid the clash of arms: he kept it in check for a
time, but finally yielded, and on the 31st of October, 1846, he left the
quiet pursuits of mercantile life, to follow again the fortunes of war.
General Worth, his cherished friend and companion, offered him a
position on his staff, which he accepted (reserving for himself the
right to defray his own expenses); and as volunteer aid to that
lamented chief, he participated in all the battles up to the triumphal
entry of the American army, under Major-general Scott, into the ancient.
capital of the Montezumas.
On the declaration of peace, he returned to his home, to follow
again the peaceful pursuits of business.
In 1851, the delicate health of a favorite son caused him to embark
again for Europe, with all his family, trusting that the more genial
climate of the interior of France would restore his boy to health;
which was only partially successful, and determined him, for a few
years at least, to make the continent his place of residence.
General Bohlen never forgot his country, and was ever proud to
206 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
be called an American. On the breaking out of the Crimean war, he
entered the service on the staff of a French general officer, and partook
in many of the severe conflicts of that well-remembered campaign,
during the siege, up to the storming and final surrender of Sebastopol.
On the bursting forth of the American rebellion, he had for some
time resided in Holland, at a small chateau near the Hague, surrounded
by a fond and devoted wife, affectionate children, and many friends,
encircled by all that could make life agreeable and attractive. When
the news reached Europe of the firing on and surrender of Fort Sum-
ter, the insult to the old flag caused him to bid adieu, as it proved, for
the last time, to his family, to return to the country so dear to him, and
draw his sword in defence of the government.
Embarking at Havre on the steamship Fulton, he came with all
haste, and reached Philadelphia in June, 1861, and immediately applied
for a position on the staffs of General McClellan and General McCall;
but finding no vacancies, he solicited of the War department permission
to recruit a regiment, which was at once granted. Immediately he set
about organizing a German regiment, and succeeded admirably, leading
to the field, as colonel, the Seventy-fifth, as fine a regiment, rank and
file, as had been recruited in Pennsylvania.
He left Philadelphia with his regiment, 800 strong, on the night of
the 27th September, 1861, for Washington, two companies yet remain-
ing to be filled, which after a couple of months were completed, and
joined him while yet in camp at Hunter's Chapel. All the expenses of
this regiment, such as bounties, recruiting expenses, and all incidentals,
were personally borne by himself, the officers not being allowed to
contribute.
In November following he was advanced to the position of colonel
THE UNITED STATES. 207
commanding, Third brigade, German division. His brigade was noted
for its discipline, celerity in the evolutions of the line, and proficiency
in the manual of arms.
In March, 1862, when Banks, whose army had been greatly reduced,
was compelled to retreat before Jackson, Bohlen's brigade had the
advance of the division in that terrible march from Warrenton up the
valley to Winchester. For days the soldiers were almost without food,
badly clothed, barefoot and without tents, bivouacking in fields cov-
ered with water, suffering as perhaps no other army has ever done,
except the rear of the grand army of Napoleon in its disastrous retreat
from Russia. -
In April, President Lincoln appointed him brigadier-general of
Volunteers, and sent his name to the Senate, which body unanimously
confirmed him shortly after.
In the battle of Cross Keys, fought by General Fremont in May,
1862, he acted with distinguished bravery, and contributed much to
our success; for this, as also for the skill which he displayed in
manoeuvring his men, he received several complimentary notices from
the leading journals of the country.
When the government united the armies of Banks, Fremont, and
McDowell under General Pope, General Bohlen still retained his com.
mand, ready, like a true soldier, to do his duty on all occasions.
General Pope was defending the long weak line of the Rappahannock,
which the enemy threatened to cross, and at last made a strong effort
at Rappahannock Station. General Sigel marched rapidly to the
vicinity of White Sulphur Springs, on the 21st of August, and threw
out pickets, which were attacked in the night by the Rebels. In the
morning it was evident that a large force had crossed. A sharp
208 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
ngagement ensued, and at last the enemy was driven back across the
river, and Sigel promptly bridging the river, Bohlen's brigade crossed.
The Seventy-fourth Pennsylvania crossed first, to feel the enemy;
and immediately after, the Sixty-first Ohio and Eighth Virginia, to
support the Seventy-fourth in case of an attack. In moving up the
road above Freeman's Ford, their advance was checked by four regi-
ments of Rebel infantry, who poured on them a murderous fire, and
drove back the Eighth Virginia in confusion. It was while personally
leading a charge of the Eighth for the fourth time, that this gallant
soldier fell mortally wounded, about six o'clock, P. M., pierced by a minié
rifle-ball in the region of the heart, and expired almost immediately.
General Bohlen was eminently a social man, and also enjoyed in a
great degree the confidence of those he took to companionship.
The members of the Philadelphia Club, who received his body on
the night of its translation from Washington to that city, will not soon
forget the solemnity of the occasion when his honored remains were
deposited on the bier under the old chandelier, on the spot where had
lain those of an Adams, a Clay, and a Webster. - -
Thus has passed away another of Pennsylvania's most distinguished
sons; our country lost a faithful officer and brave soldier; his family a
fond and affectionate husband and father; society a brilliant ornament,
and the poor a kind and generous benefactor. -
His many friends in this country, as well as in Europe, will ever
cherish the memory of so noble, so true a patriot. He leaves a wife
and three children, now in Europe, to mourn his untimely end.
His eldest son, aged 27 years, died at Baden Baden, Germany, on
the same day the general was shot here. This is mentioned as a
strange coincidence.
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THE UNITED STATES. 209
Chapultepec, a grim old fortress, towering high above them, remained
to be taken by Scott before the final storming of Mexico, the capital. Its
frowning heights, with the fortress, and military academy, held by men
now nerved with desperation, told that its rocky sides would run with
blood before the Stars and Stripes were planted on the summit.
General Scott in a council planned the assault. He erected four
heavy batteries to bear upon the fortress, and on the 12th of Septem-
ber began a heavy cannonade and bombardment. The next day
Twiggs moved around to make a feigned attack on the south ; while
two columns, one led by General Quitman, the other by General Pil-
low, moved forward by different roads to attack Chapultepec. The
Mexicans held the foot of the hill with artillery, but the American
artillery soon silenced the Mexican cannon and drove the men from the
guns. Then came the rush of the Americans. With a cheer the re-
doubt of the slope was taken, and the Mexican detachment driven up
the hill. Up in pursuit charged the Americans. Pillow fell wounded
before he reached the top, but the men pressed on. The fortress walls
are reached. Some plant ladders, others batter in the gates. They
swarm over the walls and through. Chapultepec is entered. But all
is not won. The Mexicans made a desperate fight, although they were
cut down on all sides. At last, seeing no hope left, they begged for
Quarter and surrendered.
General Scott soon reached the spot to look down on the humbled
capital. Now resolved to lose no advantage, he orders Worth with his
fresh men to attack the San. Cosme gate, and Quitman that of Belen.
The high causeways leading to these gates were defended by barri-
cades well manned and commanded ; but both American generals car-
ried them at a charge and reached * gates. Quitman actually en-
210 - A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
tered the city; but Worth met greater opposition, as Santa Anna threw
troops into the houses, and for a time checked Worth's advance; but,
breaking through from house to house, hoisting cannon to the house-
tops, he fought his way in. aſ
When night closed the two American commanders had effected a
lodgment in the city.
COLONEL JOHN S. SLOCUM. R. I. V.
KILLED AT BULL RUN, JULY 21, 1861.
JoHN S. SLoCUM, whose gallantry in the service of the United
States, attested in two wars, and crowned by a glorious death in
Virginia, was born in the town of Richmond, Rhode Island, on the 1st
of November, 1824. Not long after his birth his family removed to
Bristol, where John spent most of his earlier life, receiving his edu-
cation at the schools of the place, and subsequently at the Fruit Hill
and Marlborough Classical Schools, and at a Commercial Academy
in Hartford. His mind was active, and he learned more than books.
To manage a boat, to handle firearms, and to perform all the evolutions
of the manual, were part of his self-acquired education. During the
Dorr War-one of those earlier manifestations of that destructive spirit
which now seeks the utter annihilation of our national commonwealth, L
young Slocum rallied, as he ever did through life, to the cause of gov.
ernment. As a member of the National Cadets, he felt greater obli-
gations to render himself in fact, as in name, a citizen soldier. His
inclination for the career of arms was decided, and he but needed a
field, to achieve fame, and render his country service.
When the Mexicans sought to check the advance of the Americans,
THE UNITED STATEs. 211
on their territory along the Rio Grande, and war began, it soon became
evident that the standing army of the United States was totally inadequate
to the struggle. Each State resounded with the din of arms: volunteer
companies and regiments were raised. Slocum, in Rhode Island, raised
a company, and as soon as he succeeded in organizing it, proceeded to
Washington, where, as lieutenant of the company, he tendered their ser-
vices to the government. The secretary of war, Mr. Marcy, to whom he
first applied, declined receiving the company, for satisfactory reasons,
but suggested, in the course of a flattering interview, that he might bring
the company into the service by uniting it with the Massachusetts battal-
ion, which was preparing to leave for the seat of war. This proposal
Lieutenant Slocum declined, for the commendable reason that thereby
Rhode Island, his native State, and the home of his company, would he
shorn of the honor of a participation in the achievements of the battalion,
inasmuch as the laurels would be entwined around the brow of Massachu.
- setts, from which the battalion would hail.
Not being satisfied with the proposition of the secretary of war, the
gallant Slocum sought an interview with the president, Mr. Polk, and so
fervent was he in his desire to get the company into the service, so that
they might be known and recognized as Rhode Island soldiers, that he
remarked, with great earnestness, to the president, that, if he could ar-
range to accept their services as a Rhode Island company, they would
pay their expenses to Mexico, and that his father, before he left home,
had tendered him an advance of two thousand dollars. should it become
necessary for the company to pay its own transportation to the seat
of war.
The president seemed charmed with the gallant bearing and generous -
enthusiasm of the young soldier, and assured him that he would do any
212 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
thing in his power in furtherance of his laudable ambition. Soon after
wards, the bill of February 11, 1847, to authorize ten additional regi
ments, passed Congress, and in view of that measure the president, im,
pressed with a sense of his fitness for a commission, caused to be com.
municated to him his intention to appoint him among the first of the rank
of lieutenant that he should make in the authorized increase of the army.
In the first of the infantry regiments thus added to the then small regu.
lar army, and known as the ninth on the army list, John Stanton Slocum
was appointed first lieutenant on the 18th, a week after the passage
of the act. His captain was Joseph S. Pitman; the colonel, almost
from its organization, was Truman B. Ransom, who left the classic halls
of Norwich University, of which he was president, to fight the battles
of his country; while the major was Thomas H. Seymour, since gov-
ernor of Connecticut, a personal friend of Slocum, and the one from
whom perhaps more than any other he acquired his military tastes.
The new regiment was soon raised, organized, and fitted for service.
Its destination was the army of General Scott in Mexico, which it
reached in time to share in the series of glorious victories that attended
the American arms. At the battle of Contreras, on the 19th of August,
1847, the Ninth was one of the regiments ordered to attack the front
o, the enemy's works; and in consequence of the accident to General
Pierce, Colonel Ransom commanded the force which received the
enemy's fire, while Brigadier-general Smith assailed their rear. At
the moment agreed, Ransom pushing on with General Shields, each
on a different side, they routed a superior force of Mexicans opposed
to them, Ransom in twenty minutes dislodging them from a village
where they were strongly posted and covered. In the brilliant actions
of that and the following day, Lieutenant Slocum was eminent even
THE UNITED STATES. 213
amid the gallant men around; and his name is one of those to whose
activity the success was attributed by the commanding officers. This
gallant and meritorious conduct won him the brevet rank of captain.
At Chapultepec, Ransom, leading the storming party up the
heights in the face of a perfect sheet of fire, fell at the head of his
gallant regiment, in which Lieutenant Slocum, since the promotion of
his captain, commanded the company, and shared in all the glory of
the day. They drove the enemy from his exterior intrenchments and
positions, and held the counterscarp under the heaviest fire. The Ninth,
led by Seymour on Ransom's fall, scaled the parapet, entered the cita-
del, and struck the Mexican flag from the walls. The coolness and
bravery of Slocum on that terrible day won him the commission of
captain, but his well-earned rank was of short duration. The victories
of the American arms extorted peace, and with peace came the reduc-
tion of the army to its former scale. The Ninth was disbanded, and
Captain Slocum again returned to private life. As an officer, he had
endeared himself to his men not only by his skill and bravery, quali-
ties which always command the soldiers' admiration,--but by his sin-
gular attention to their wants. The drooping soldier on the march
was often relieved of his musket by Lieutenant Slocum; the soldier
almost perishing with thirst, who lay down in despair, was restored
and refreshed by a draught held to his lips by his lieutenant, who
ventured through all hazards to get it.
After the battle of Chapultepec, he had returned to the United
States, having been detailed to the recruiting service, which was his
last duty as an officer of the army.
The experience which he had acquired was appreciated in his
native State, and several corps of militia desired to avail themselves
214 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
of his able direction, but it was only by repeated urging that he took
command of the Mechanic Rifles.
His military taste led him to interest himself in James's new pro-
jectile, which he sought to introduce into Europe, and in testing which
he nearly lost his life. - *
In 1860, he was one of the Examining Board at West Point, and
as Secretary, made the Report of the Visitors. When the Rebellion
began, he was deeply pained, and too grieved in heart at the prospect
before him to rush madly forward. He had seen war in its reality.
In arms he would meet as foes the men beside whom he had fought
and bled for the glorious cause of their common country. Yet when
Colonel Burnside and Lieutenant-colonel Pitman offered themselves
to the governor of Rhode Island, that noble patriot dispatched a
messenger late in the night to ask Slocum to call upon him. A com-
mission of major in the First Rhode Island was offered and accepted
without a moment's hesitation. On the 20th of April, the regiment
marched to the relief of the threatened capital. As in the Mexican
War, Major Slocum won the affection of his men, and by his skill
and experience aided to make them effective soldiers. When a second
regiment was required from the State, Governor Sprague made him
colonel, and authorized him to raise it. Returning to Rhode Island,
he soon recruited a regiment, saw it properly equipped, drilled it
to a degree of efficiency, and again marched to the seat of war.
When the commander-in-chief resolved upon a forward movement
of the American army against the rebel forces, the Second Rhode
Island Regiment was assigned to Hunter's Division, and left Washington
on the afternoon of July 15th, and at night encamped with the rest
of Burnside's Brigade at Annandale, proceeding the next day to Fair.
THE UNITED STATES. 215
fax Court House, where they encamped. After occupying Centreville
till the famous Sunday, July 21st, the whole army moved on towards
the strong position occupied by the enemy, beyond the deep ravine,
through which the small river known as Bull Run held its course.
The Second Rhode Island Regiment, under Colonel Slocum, led the
advance of the division which crossed Cob Run and reached Bull
Run at Sudley's Ford on the extreme left of the enemy's line. From
the heights the rebels could be seen moving rapidly forward, and,
after a short rest, Colonel Slocum was ordered to throw out skirmishers
upon the flanks and in front. These soon engaged the enemy, and
Slocum bravely led on his regiment through the woods to the open
ground, opening the terrible battle of Bull Run. Their steady advance
was met by General Evans, but the enemy soon gave way under the
steady, resolute charges of Colonel Slocum. But in the moment of
his triumph, he fell mórtally wounded, his dying eye cheered with
the hope of victory, and his mind clouded by no foreboding of the
disaster that ensued. Well had he done his part, the gallant leader
of a gallant corps! In his official report, Colonel Burnside bears
honorable testimony to his worth. “The death of Colonel Slocum
is a loss, not only to his own State, which mourns the death of a
most gallant and meritorious officer, who would have done credit to
the service, while his prominent abilities as a soldier would have raised
him high in the public estimation. He had served with me as Major
of the First Regiment of Rhode Island Volunteers, and when he was
transferred to a more responsible position, I was glad that his services
had been thus secured for the benefit of his country.” His monument
will proudly bear the words: Contreras, Churubusco, Chapultepec,
Sudley Ford. - -
216 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Utterly broken and disheartened, Santa Anna fled from Mexico that
night with the remnant of his force.
The next morning a deputation came to propose a capitulation.
General Scott refused to listen to any proposals. He had taken the
city, and it was too late to talk about its surrender. Although there
was no force of regulars to oppose him, Some convicts, escaping from
prison, began to fire on the Americans. These were soon routed, and
Scott entered the ancient city of Montezuma, with his gallant and vic-
torious army grimy and warworn with a long campaign, and reduced
in the last desperate battles by the loss of more than fifteen hundred
II1011
Having established his headquarters, General Scott proclaimed mar-
tial law, and established a firm discipline, to prevent any such outrages
as had occurred in some other parts. So firm and just was the govern-
ment of the city, compared with the misgovernment and tyranny to
which they had been subjected, that many leading men of Mexico pro-
posed to General Scott to retain possession and give them a good and
permanent administration.
But the American general sought only to serve his country. He
had forced Mexico to submit.
His Government was to settle the terms with the conquered republic.
Peace was now certain ; but General Scott was soon after recalled, and,
leaving the army in Mexico, he returned to New York in the spring.
The fall of Mexico put a stop to hostilities in that vicinity; but
Santa Anna, recovering a little courage, once more appeared in the
field, and attempted to break the American line of communications.
Puebla was held by a small American force under Colonel Childs, and,
though besieged by a large body of Mexicans, refused to rurrender.
THE UNITED STATES. 217
Santa Anna joined the besiegers with his army, and used every exer-
tion to take the place before relief could reach it. --
Failing in this, he resolved to strike a blow in another Quarter, and
hearing that an American detachment under Lane was marching to
reinforce Colonel Childs, he attempted to intercept it. The two corps
met at Huamantla, on the 9th of October, and after a brief action,
Lane routed Santa Anna ; and pushing on to Atlixco, attacked the
Mexican guerilla Rea, who had cut off a hundred men of Major Lally's
command. On the 16th, he utterly routed Rea, killing and wounding
more than five hundred of his opponents.
Santa Anna, now a mere fugitive, rejected by the people whom he
had led on to resist the Americans, resigned all his offices, and the
government of Mexico devolved on Peña, who at once called a con-
vention to consider the critical state of Mexican affairs. It met at
Queretaro in November, and conforming to the expressed opinion of
Peña, appointed commissioners to treat of peace with the United
States. N. P. Trist, acting on the part of that republic, soon brought
negotiations to a close, and on the 2d of February, 1848, the commis-
sioners of the two nations signed a treaty of peace at Guadalupe Hi-
dalgo. This treaty, finally accepted by both Governments, and pro-
claimed by President Polk on the 4th of July, gave to the United
States the disputed territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande,
as to which the war had arisen, and in addition New Mexico and
California. The American Government on its side agreed to pay
Mexico fifteen millions of dollars, three millions in hand, and twelve
millions in four annual installments. They were to evacuate the Mexi-
can territory within three months. The war having thus closed, the
American army withdrew from Mexico in the course of the summer.
218 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF
Thus ended this war, glorious to our arms, but costing the lives of fifty
thousand citizens, and more than two hundred millions of dollars.
Our navy had little opportunity for winning distinction in this war.
It aided in the bombardment of San Juan de Ulua and Vera Cruz,
and in some minor operations on the coast. In one of these, at Tus-
pan, Ward, an officer of great ability, nearly lost his life.
—º-
-
JAMES HARMAN WARD, U. S. N.
KILLED IN THE ATTACK ON MATHIAS PoſNT, JUNE 27, 1861.
IT was a most severe loss to our service when an officer so superior
in all the science and practice of his profession as Captain Ward, fell,
not on the element where our navy rides, and where he was so com-
petent to lead a fleet to battle, but on a petty steamer on a narrow
river. A precious life was uselessly wasted: an arm of the service
deprived of a man whose equal could only be made in years of expe-
rience turned to profit by observation and study.
James Harman Ward was born at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1806.
His father, Colonel James Ward, a prominent citizen, was commissary-
general of the State during the war of 1812, and during a long life
enjoyed the highest esteem and respect. James Harman, his son, was
educated at the Vermont Military Academy, an able institution founded
at Norwich, Vermont, in 1820, by Captain Alden Partridge, and since
become the Norwich University. Here he received a good primary
training for the service which he had chosen-lectures on military
subjects, especially gunnery, being frequent and copious; and this he
always considered to have been an inestimable advantage, “because
more familiar knowledge is talked into youths than they can acquire
THE UNITED STATES. 219
in any other way. Study and recitation alone, without oral instruc-
tion, are insufficient.” From this academy, then justly a popular in-
stitution with the more cultivated gentlemen of the country as a school
of training for their sons, young Ward passed for a time to Trinity
College, Hartford.
On the 4th of March, 1823, he entered the navy as a midshipman,
on board of the Constitution, then commanded by the modest, religious
McDonough, the hero of Lake Champlain. To that great man he was
ever devotedly attached, and in one of his treatises shows how keenly
he felt the singular discourtesy shown to him by hauling down his broad
pennant, in the Mediterranean, in 1825,-an affront to his revered com-
mander which the young officer never forgot. From the moment Ward
entered the navy, he made it his profession for life, and he devoted
himself earnestly to acquire all knowledge necessary to fit him for
advancement to its highest honors. He sought no laurels but those
to be won in the Naval Service; and his works, which give him high
rank among professional writers, show how absolutely he renounced
all that could wean him from it. He saw with regret many, devoting
their talent to less severe and more remunerative study and work, at
last leave the Service, after having acquired a distaste for the sea and
the navy. In his own person he united, as he in later days earnestly
called upon the young officers to unite, intellectual cleverness with the
practical accomplishments of the trained, prompt, bold, and confident
Seaman. He accepted all orders, shirked no duty, preserving true self.
respect by rather suffering than practising injustice in the matter of
promotion.
Passing through the regular steps, he was made a lieutenant on the
3d of March, 1831, and was attached to the Mediterranean squadron.
220 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
From this time he was constantly in service of the most varied and
laborious character, in every class of vessel. He was many years on
the coast of Africa; and while on that statiºn, in command of a cor-
vette, compiled his Manual of Naval Tactics, undertaken to furnish
younger officers elementary aid to the great work of Father Paul Hoste,
the standard author on the subject, whose difficulty, however, often
makes him repulsive. This work was not published till 1858, and was
then extremely well received by the naval authorities, as eminently
suited to the purpose of an elementary manual. It will be of service
no less to the historical scholar, from its examination of some of the
naval battles and operations in our own annals, especially the battles
of Lake Champlain and Lake Erie, in which, as a scientific man, he
defended the plans of McDonough and Perry. He delivered in 1842 and
1843 a course of lectures on gunnery in Philadelphia, which attracted
considerable attention. But his great object at this period was to in-
duce the government to establish a Navy School, which should be for
his arm of the service what West Point is for the army. He was inde-
fatigable in impressing on all who could influence the result the advan-
tages, and, in fact, necessity, of such an institution. Fortunately for the
efficiency of our navy, now supplied with regular classes of well-edu-
cated young officers, his labors were successful. When it opened, he
was appointed one of the professors, and lectured on gunnery. Here
his elementary turn, and his peculiar manner of explanation, rendered
him of the utmost service to naval cadets. The subject of his lectures
he subsequently published in 1845, under the title of “Elementary
Instruction on Naval Ordnance and Gunnery.” This work, one of the
first scientific works written by any of our navy officers, led to beneficial
changes, and exercised a happy influence on the service. After leaving
THE UNITED STATES. 221
the academy, he watched its progress with great interest, and his views
in regard to its efficiency seem most wise. He believed that officers
drawn from active service should be connected with it, and not left
too long, for fear of their losing the true spirit of the navy. During
the Mexican war, which soon followed, he was attached to the Gulf
fleet, and nearly lost his life in the operations at Tuspan. -
At an early period after the introduction of steam into the navy,
he turned his attention to it, and with his habitual spirit studied the
whole subject thoroughly. To present the knowledge he had thus
acquired in a comprehensible form, he subsequently wrote his “Steam
for the Million” (Van Nostrand, New York, 1860). In 1849, he com-
manded the United States steamer Wixen, in the Gulf of Mexico, and
then, and subsequently, was enabled to appreciate and examine the
various problems presented by this new element in naval warfare,
thus far without any great operations from which to study its results.
He was made a commander in 1853; and being in England at the
close of the Crimean war, when the queen reviewed the Spithead fleet,
he was gratified to have a most accomplished captain in the royal navy
point out his vessel as a model of order, cleanliness, tone, discipline,
and high training, which even British officers might study with profit.
In 1857, he was appointed to the command of the receiving ship North
Carolina, lying at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a command of a kind
having its own peculiar difficulties, calling for such sufficient sway over
men in large bodies as restrains them under the temptations special
to a receiving-ship, a talent to be cultivated, a science to be studied,
as on it, anywhere, harmonious discipline and true military strength
largely depend.
His ability as a scientific naval officer was now recognized at home
222 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
and abroad. His correspondence with all engaged in similar studies
was very extensive, and he was consulted with the utmost confidence.
Sir Howard Douglas, like himself a master of the art of gunnery, was
one of his warm friends and correspondents.
When the treachery of the members of the late cabinet had fur-
nished the secession conspirators with arms and all the material of war,
and the Gulf States, confident in their power, openly set up an inde-
pendent government, Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens alone escaped the
grasp of treason. The relief of Fort Sumter became the great object
of the new administration. The known ability and science of Captain
Ward caused him to be at once summoned to Washington, to aid them -
by his counsels. He was retained at Washington, and organized the
Potomac flotilla, to the command of which he was appointed on the
16th of May, 1861, the Freeborn being the vessel under his immediate
charge.
The rebels began throwing up batteries along the bank of the
river, which was in their guilty hands. Ward at once formed a plan
of operations, unfortunately not adopted by those in power. On the
20th of May he captured, about ten miles below Fort Washington, two
schooners loaded with rebel soldiers, and actively proceeded to clear
the river. Ten days after, he reconnoitred Mathias Point, landing in
person with a small party, and satisfying himself that no fortifications
had been begun there. On the 31st, with the Freeborn, supported by
the Anacosta and Resolute, he cannonaded the rebel batteries at Acquia
Creek, until he silenced the three batteries at the railroad terminus, and
drew off only when his ammunition was exhausted, and shot poured like
hail from batteries on the heights, above the reach of his guns. During
the ensuing night the enemy repaired their works, and brought down
THE UNITED STATES. 223
the guns from the heights. In the morning Ward, aided by the Pawnee,
again opened on them, and kept up a rapid fire till the railroad build-
ings were destroyed, and the guns silenced. During the months of
June and July, Captain Ward was constantly on the move, and on the
26th of July he discovered indications of a movement for the erection
of a battery at Mathias Point by the rebels, and sent to the Pawnee for
two boats' crews to land and throw up breastworks. Men were landed
the next day, and a sand-bag breastwork thrown up before evening.
When all was ready, the men returned to their boats to go on board
for guns to mount on the work, when the rebels, ambushed in the
bushes that skirted the shore, suddenly poured in a destructive fire of
musketry. The crews immediately made for the steamer, the Freeborn
covering their retreat by an active fire, throwing shell with great pre-
cision. Captain Ward stood coolly by his gun, directing its fire, and
when his gunner was wounded took his place. As he was sighting the
gun, a minié ball struck him, inflicting a mortal wound, of which he
expired in about an hour.
His body was carried to the Navy Yard at Washington, and on
Saturday conveyed with due honor to the depot, on its way to New
York. It was received and laid in state on the North Carolina, where
he had been so recently the esteemed commander. Death had not
changed his honest, open, yet determined look; and his many friends
came to pay the last visit of respect to a brave and accomplished friend.
The funeral services of the Catholic rite were performed by the Bishop
of Hartford. The body was then taken to the steamer Granite State,
which bore it to Hartford. There the city prepared to honor its gal-
lant son. On the day of the funeral, the stores were closed, the bells
tolled, and after an imposing service in the cathedral, where the Rev
224 A CHILD’s HISTORY OF
Bernard O'Reilly, of the Society of Jesus, a personal friend of the
departed, made a most touching address, the body was borne through
the silent streets, followed by the civic authorities and the military of
the city, to his final resting-place, beside his parents. 1
In addition to the works which we have had occasion to mention,
Captain Ward drew up a set of rules and regulations for the govern-
ment of a ship, which are deemed models, as succinct, clear, and intelli.
gible. Many have adopted them without alteration, and they will prob-
ably be printed. His order-book is also highly spoken of He also
invented an improved gun-carriage, and projected other improvements,
—his ever active mind studying deeply every branch of science or me.
chanics having any bearing on his profession. In religion he examined
as thoroughly ; and as a result of his investigations entered the Catholic
Church, practising all its required duties with that manliness and true
nobility which were so strikingly characteristic of this noble son of
Connecticut. That State, rich in historic glories of the past, may now
point with pride to the honored graves of Lyon and Ward, her last
noble victims on the altar of nationality.


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