Part 11

After serving eight years, he declined to be a candidate a third time--thus establishing a precedent that no President shall serve a third term. In 1796 Washington delivered a farewell address to the people he had led and served. He retired to private life, but did not live long to enjoy his well-earned rest. December 14, 1799, he died and was buried at his home at Mount Vernon. The eulogy pronounced on him by “Light Horse Harry” Lee well said that he was “First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life.”

Philip Schuyler

Philip Schuyler was a member of an old Dutch family in New York, which had extensive possessions on the river Hudson. Under a French tutor, he received a better education than was usual in colonial days. He was an energetic manly lad, and early learned to ride and skate, to shoot and manage a boat. He grew up an intelligent man and a good woodsman, trained in the learning of the frontiers.

His father died when he was eight years old; Philip was the eldest son and when he attained his majority, according to the English custom he became master of his father’s wealth. This did not accord with Schuyler’s Dutch ideas of justice nor with his native generosity; he divided the property equally with his brothers and sisters.

In the French and Indian war Schuyler, like Washington and others, gained the military experience which was later to be so valuable to his country. In his subordinate position there came no opportunity for him to distinguish himself especially, but he served with credit and honor. A characteristic story is told of him on this campaign. The troops were crossing the Oswego river and as the boats were crowded a wounded prisoner was about to be left behind. Schuyler quietly put his gun and coat in a boat, took the prisoner on his back, swam across the stream, and put the wounded man in charge of a surgeon before he rejoined his company.

It was largely through Schuyler’s influence that New York joined Virginia and Massachusetts first in protesting and then in fighting against the oppressions of England. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress and was appointed by Congress a major-general--a place to which he was entitled by his position and services and by his experience in the French and Indian War. He was, however, unpopular from the first with Samuel Adams and the leaders of the New England party. They could not forget that he was of Dutch descent, and a native of the colony which had quarreled with New England about boundary lines.

On the morning of June 21, 1775, George Washington, Philip Schuyler, and Charles Lee rode out of Philadelphia, going northward to the seat of war. Washington was to assume command of the army at Cambridge and Schuyler was to take charge of the troops in New York and lead an expedition against Canada. The three horsemen had gone about twenty miles when they met a courier bringing Congress tidings of the battle of Bunker Hill.

“Did the militia stand fire?” asked Washington eagerly. When informed that they did, he exclaimed, “The Liberties of the country are safe!”

During the ride to New York, Washington and Schuyler learned to know and esteem each other and the friendship begun then was never broken.

The position of the state of New York made its control a matter of great importance. The little settlement--it was seventh in population of the sparsely-settled colonies--was midway between the northern and the southern colonies. If it were under British control, it would be a wedge to separate them. Philip Schuyler was stationed in the northern part of the province. His illness made it necessary for Montgomery to take charge of the army sent against Quebec. As soon as Schuyler was able to move, he set to work to raise men and supplies, advancing his own funds for the purpose when those furnished by Congress proved pitifully inadequate. To the impatient and sometimes irritated letters of the young patriot, Washington sent words of encouragement and counsel, saying, “In a little time we shall work up these raw materials into a good manufacture. I must recommend to you, what I endeavor to practice myself, patience and perseverance.”

In the campaign of 1777 the British, now largely reinforced, planned to occupy New York and so to separate the northern and the southern colonies. General Burgoyne was to lead eight thousand men down Lake Champlain; Colonel St. Leger was to go down the valley of the Mohawk from Oswego; and General Howe was to come up the Hudson. This force of thirty-three thousand men was to take possession of New York.

At first it seemed as if the British were to succeed. They marched on Ticonderoga, “the door to Canada,” which Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold had captured in May, 1775. The British general determined to place his cannon on a rocky height commanding the fort. He was told that the height was inaccessible for cannon. “Where a goat can go, a man can go,” he said; “where a man can go, he can haul up a gun.” The cannon was put in place and commanded the fort. St. Clair, seeing that it was useless to resist, abandoned the fort and withdrew through the woods to join Schuyler. At the news that Ticonderoga was taken King George rushed into the queen’s room, exclaiming, “I have beat them; I have beat all the Americans!”

It was impossible for the American forces to meet Burgoyne’s large, well-equipped army in open fight. They fell back, destroying bridges, felling trees across the roads through the ravines and swamps; the way was so obstructed that Burgoyne’s army could march only about a mile a day. Each day’s march took it further from its base of supplies and weakened its forces, while each day added numbers and strength to the patriots. An act of atrocity on the British side caused many to join the colonial army who had hesitated before. Some Indians from Burgoyne’s army killed and scalped Jane McCrea, a beautiful young girl for whom they had been appointed guides. The colonists were indignant with the English for making common cause against their own countrymen with the savages.

At Bennington a detachment of Burgoyne’s army was attacked by General Starke. “Before night we must conquer or Molly Starke is a widow,” he cried, as he led his men to victory. An English force of about two thousand men marched up the Mohawk and attacked Fort Stanwix, or Schuyler, at the head of the river. The men in the fort prepared to resist to the last. They cut up their shirts and cloaks to make a flag, the Stars and Stripes, which they raised with cheers. General Herkimer gathered the militia and went to their rescue. On the way the militia was attacked and General Herkimer’s leg was shattered by a bullet. Refusing to be borne from the field, he sat puffing at his pipe and calmly directing his troops. In this battle of Oriskany both sides sustained severe losses. The British advance was checked but they continued to besiege Fort Schuyler.

General Schuyler called a council of war and suggested the sending of reinforcements to the fort but the officers objected to thus weakening the army which would have to oppose Burgoyne. Schuyler was unwilling to leave the brave men to their fate. “Gentlemen,” he said, “I shall take the responsibility upon myself. Where is the brigadier that will take command of the relief? I shall beat up for volunteers to-morrow.”

Arnold, ever ready for a daring deed, offered to take charge of the expedition. On the way he seized two Tories and sent them to the British army to announce that large patriot forces were advancing. The Indian allies were already discontented. At this tidings they deserted, and the British force broke up and retreated without striking a blow.

As affairs were in this favorable condition, General Schuyler was superseded in command. He had been blamed for the surrender of Ticonderoga and the New England delegates, disliking him from the first, lent a ready ear to the charges against him. Congress asked Washington to appoint his successor, but the commander-in-chief refused to countenance the act of injustice, and Congress appointed Gates. Schuyler had borne the heat and burden of the campaign; now he had to look on while the rewards of victory went to Gates.

Schuyler accepted the situation in a noble and patriotic spirit. “I am far from insensible of the indignity of being ordered from the command of the army at a time when an engagement must soon take place,” he wrote to President Hancock. “It, however, gives me great consolation that I shall have an opportunity of evincing that my conduct has been such as deserved the thanks of my country.”

After the two battles of Saratoga the British were forced to retreat. They were hemmed in by the American troops and, October 17, 1777, Burgoyne and his army of five or six thousand men surrendered to Gates. It was this victory, you remember, which led France to declare for the colonists.

After the battle of Saratoga, Schuyler treated the prisoners with great consideration, especially the women and children. He courteously entertained General Burgoyne, who had had his house burned and his estate laid waste.

“Is it to me who have done you so much injury that you show so much kindness?” asked Burgoyne.

“That is the fate of war; let us say no more about it,” was the answer.

Later on, Schuyler insisted upon a court martial to investigate his conduct; it acquitted him, and Congress approved the verdict “with the highest honor.” Washington wished him to resume command but he refused. However, he served his country ably in Congress and in the Senate of his native state. He died in November, 1804.

Nathanael Greene

As a general Nathanael Greene ranks next to Washington in the esteem of the American people. His father was a Quaker clergyman who lived in Rhode Island. Nathanael as a boy worked on the farm, at the blacksmith’s forge, and in a grist mill. He generally had a book at hand and spent his leisure minutes in study; by his own exertions, without ever having much schooling, he became a well-educated man. No one would have imagined that this hard-working young Quaker, in his drab clothes and broad-brimmed hat, was to become a fearless leader of the patriot bands.

He was a young man when the Revolution began. He became convinced that the battle-field must decide the cause of the colonists, and, despite the Quaker views in which he had been trained, he wished to join the fight for freedom. As soon as he heard of the battles of Lexington and Concord, he started to Boston to take the part of his oppressed countrymen. When the Continental army was organized, Rhode Island voted to raise sixteen hundred men to be commanded by Greene.

For four years he served in the north, winning the esteem and confidence of Washington. He was with Washington in the retreat through New Jersey and aided in the brilliant attacks at Trenton and Princeton. In the battle of Brandywine he saved the day. His troops were stationed in the rear; as the retreating forces fell back, at Greene’s command the ranks opened and let them pass, then closed again. Thus he kept his troops formed in line of battle and held the British army in check, till night came; then he withdrew to the main army. In the battle of Germantown, too, Greene bore a brave part, and by his courage and endurance he cheered Washington during the dark days at Valley Forge.

During the first years of the war the north was the battle field. The south was almost unmolested except for the attack in 1776 on Fort Moultrie which was gallantly defended. In December, 1778, however, General Clinton sent thirty-five hundred men by sea from New York; these troops easily captured Savannah which was defended by only six hundred men. The British forces made themselves masters of the country defended only by scattered bands of patriots. In the spring of 1780, Clinton himself with eight thousand men went by sea to Charleston and captured the city. Leaving Cornwallis to complete the conquest of the South, Clinton returned to the north. It seemed as if the southern colonies were to be torn from the patriots.

In this emergency General Gates was sent to take command in the south. By overcoming Burgoyne with the army prepared by Schuyler and led by Morgan and Arnold, he had won fame and popularity, and was regarded as equal or superior to Washington. He was defeated at Camden by Cornwallis with a smaller force. Gates led the retreat, or stampede, of the militia, while a brave German, De Kalb, with one-third of the army stood at bay against the whole British army and met an honorable death. “We look on America as at our feet,” said an English statesman when the news of this battle was received in England.

But it was a general not a people which the English had defeated. The brave settlers on the frontier rallied in their own defense. In October, 1780, they surrounded Ferguson’s troops at King’s Mountain, captured or killed the entire force, and disbanded before the English could attack them. “A numerous army appeared on the frontier drawn from Nolachucky and other settlements beyond the mountains whose very names had been unknown to us,” wrote Lord Rawdon.

Two months later, December, 1780, a general was sent to the southern colonies who was worthy of the troops he was to command. This was Greene. The outlook was not promising. Without provisions, military stores, or clothing, and lacking means to provide them, Greene took charge of an army of about two thousand starving, ragged men. Opposed to him were well-disciplined, well-provisioned troops. But his brave soldiers were commanded by such men as William Washington, Morgan, “Light Horse Harry” Lee, Marion, and Sumpter. The patriots were cheered by the victory of Cowpens, won by Morgan’s men, January 17, 1781, over the bold and savage Tarleton.

Greene was not able to withstand the large and well-equipped British army; as Cornwallis approached, he fell back, going northward. By looking at a map, you can see the position of the troops. Behind them were three rivers, the Catawba, the Yadkin, and the Dan. The patriots’ effort was to keep a river between them and their enemy; the British endeavor was to overtake the little American army between two rivers, where it would be easy to destroy it. The march became a race for the rivers. Cornwallis destroyed the baggage of the army, beginning with his own personal luggage, and his men marched as light infantry. The patriots hurried on through the mud and rain, over the snow and frozen roads; for them it was a march for life and death; the men were allowed three hours’ sleep and they had but one meal a day. They pressed on, crossed the Catawba in safety, and in safety crossed the Yadkin; unless they were overtaken before they reached the Dan, they would be safe. Cornwallis thought that they would seek the fords of the Dan and he marched in that direction; Greene, however, hurried toward a ford where boats were collected and the army crossed the river. After a vain march of two hundred and fifty miles, in which his losses had been greater than in battle, Cornwallis was compelled to retrace his steps. He said of his opponent: “Greene is as dangerous as Washington,--he is vigilant, enterprising, and full of resources.”

Greene received reinforcements; though most of them were raw and untrained men, he knew that a battle must be risked while his ranks were full. He marched back to Guilford Court House, where a battle was fought, March, 1781. The raw troops were not able to withstand the attack of the British regulars, and the patriots were defeated. Though defeated, Greene remained in control of much of North Carolina; Cornwallis went northward, entered Virginia, and advanced to his fate at Yorktown. Greene’s troops were attacked at Hobkirk’s Hill, April, 1781, and defeated by Lord Rawdon who had succeeded Cornwallis in command. The men deserted the guns and it was not until Greene himself rushed forward and seized the ropes that the men rallied to drag off the precious artillery.

That fall, in the fiercely-contested battle of Eutaw Springs, Greene held his own. Though he won few decisive victories in pitched battle against the British regulars, he gradually drove the enemy from Georgia and the Carolinas, till only a few fortified towns were left in their control. Greene drew his lines closer and closer around Charleston and at last the British were forced to evacuate the city. This really ended the war in the south.

When peace was declared in 1783, Greene returned to his home in Rhode Island. Two years later, he went to Georgia to make his home on an estate there which was presented to him as a reward for his gallant services. He did not long survive to enjoy his well-won fame, dying in June, 1786.

John Paul Jones

Our First Naval Hero

The American army during the Revolution was, for the most part, led by native Americans; the officers of English birth were for one reason and another less popular and less successful than the Americans. This, however, was not the case with the American navy, created and manned to meet the exigency of the time. The twenty-six vessels did valiant service, capturing during the first two years of the war eight hundred merchantmen and gaining many brilliant victories. The man whose achievements shed most luster upon it was a Briton.

John Paul, known to us as Paul Jones, was the son of a Scotch gardener. In childhood he showed a love for the sea and he became a sailor when he was twelve years old. One of his first long voyages was on a ship which came to Virginia for a cargo of tobacco. He studied naval history and tactics, though he remained in the merchant-service. There he rose in rank, until he became captain of a trading-vessel. When he was about twenty-five, his brother, who had settled in Virginia, died and John Paul, for by this name he was still known, took charge of his estate. He does not seem to have been a successful farmer, and he led an uneventful life until the Revolution began. Then he offered his services to Congress. We do not know why he cast his lot with his adopted country instead of his native one, but he gave it faithful and brilliant service, without pay or allowance.

From this time, however, he dropped his real name of John Paul and chose to be known as John Paul Jones--perhaps because he did not wish his friends and countrymen to know that he was aiding the “rebel” cause.

He was at first appointed to a subordinate position. In the early part of 1776 the first American squadron, with Paul Jones first lieutenant on one of its vessels, the Alfred, sailed to the Bahama Islands. Its mission was to take the military supplies so needed by the Americans from the forts on New Providence. The Americans were unable to enter the harbor, and the expedition would have been a failure but for Paul Jones. He had been informed that there was a good landing near the harbor, and he undertook to guide the Alfred to it. He did so and the other ships followed. They seized the military stores, including a hundred cannon, and sailed back to America.

Soon after this Paul Jones was given charge of a little sloop and sent to sea on a six-weeks’ cruise. He had encounters with several English frigates and on more than one occasion his vessel was saved only by his courage and seamanship. At the end of his cruise he returned to Newport with sixty-six prizes. The gallant and successful captain was deprived of command by a jealous superior officer and for several months he was without a ship. He repeatedly asked Congress for a ship and he requested that it might be a good one, “for I intend to go in harm’s way,” he said--and he generally carried out his intention.

While on shore Jones gave Congress valuable advice about fitting out a navy. He recommended that “1. Every officer should be examined before he receives his commission. 2. The ranks in a navy should correspond to those in an army. 3. As England has the best navy in the world, we should copy hers.”

In June, 1777, he was put in command of the Ranger and over this he hoisted, for the first time on the seas, the American flag, the Stars and Stripes, lately adopted by Congress. He thought that the most effective way to wage war was to “carry it into the enemy’s country.” Accordingly he went to Whitehaven on the English coast, where nearly three hundred vessels were in harbor. He took his men ashore in two boats and ordered them to set fire to the ships, while he surprised the two batteries and the fort and spiked their cannon. When he returned to the harbor, he found that his orders had been disobeyed,--not one ship had been fired. It was now day and the people were aroused, but Paul Jones was unwilling to go without carrying out a part of his plan and with his own hand he set fire to the largest ship.

The English made many attempts to seize the doer of this daring deed, and at one time there were forty-two British ships on the waters seeking to capture the bold rover. One of the ships which set out to capture the Ranger was the Drake. Jones met it in battle and defeated and captured the English vessel which had more guns and better-trained and better-equipped men than his.

The Ranger was recalled to defend the coast of America, and for months Paul Jones was in France without a ship. At last he was given an old trading-vessel fitted out as a war-ship. He called it Bon Homme Richard, the French name for Poor Richard in honor of his friend Franklin’s Poor Richard of the almanac. In September, 1779, Commodore Jones sailed toward the English coast with four small vessels. There he met two large English war-ships that were convoying, or accompanying, a fleet of forty merchant-vessels. The merchant-vessels took refuge on the English coast, and the war-ships advanced to fight. The shots of the English ship, the Serapis, inflicted so much injury on the Richard that Captain Pearson of the Serapis thought it was sinking and asked the American commander, “Has your ship struck?”

“I have not yet begun to fight,” was Jones’s stern reply.

He had the two vessels lashed together. Then, with his own hands helping to work the guns, he directed the fight with dauntless resolution. His ship was riddled with shot and on fire; still he refused to yield; when the vessel seemed sinking, he drove his prisoners to the pumps and made them work for life itself. One of his ships, instead of coming to his aid, fired on him. His situation seemed desperate. Captain Pearson called again to know if he had struck and he answered, “No,--that if he could do no better he would sink with his colors flying.”