Chapter V: Preface: NEW YORK, Oct. 5, 1888 (2)

Benedict Arnold, born Jan. 14, 1741, in Norwich, Connecticut, ran away from home at the age of fifteen, and entered the military force of his native State, then marching to Albany and Lake George, to resist the French invasion. Growing weary of discipline, he deserted, returned home alone through the wilderness, and became a druggist’s clerk, afterward skipper of a New England schooner trading with the West Indies, and at times a horse-dealer. His spirit of adventure and his early taste of war led him to offer himself among the first who took the field when the American colonies began their struggle for independence. In conjunction with Col. Ethan Allen he surprised the garrison at Fort Ticonderoga on the 10th of May, 1775, capturing large stores of cannon and ammunition without the loss of a single man. Disagreeing with the officers of the party, and becoming bitterly jealous of Allen, Arnold left New York; and applying to Washington for service in the Continental army, he was given command of about five hundred men and despatched, by way of the wilderness, to join General Montgomery in an attack on Quebec. During the Canadian campaign, as during his service in New York, Arnold evinced the same traits of character,--dashing gallantry and perfect fearlessness when in action, with petty meanness, vindictiveness, arrogance, and covetousness at all other times. On the 10th of January, 1776, Congress bestowed on him the rank of brigadier-general, and after his defeat of Tryon at Danbury, and his daring heroism in bearing from the field the body of the gallant Wooster, he was promoted to the rank of major-general on the 2d of May, 1777. Being ordered again to the North, he did good service under Schuyler; but all his worst passions seem to have been aroused when Gates took command. The stirring events immediately preceding the surrender of Burgoyne prevented an open rupture, and Arnold’s reckless daring at the battle of Saratoga, though gaining the victory, resulted in rendering him a cripple for life. Incapacitated for active service, he was placed in command at Philadelphia when that city was evacuated by the British, on the 17th of June, 1778. At this point Arnold’s downward career began. There are just grounds to believe that he entered into a secret contract to enrich himself at the expense of the public; and finding many of the wealthiest of the citizens to be Tories, he used all his influence in their behalf, hoping, no doubt, for a pecuniary reward. His second marriage with Miss Shippen bound him still more closely to the Tory faction.[2] In November, 1778, Gen. Joseph Reed was elected president “of the executive council of the State” of Pennsylvania, and in the discharge of his duties, brought the delinquencies of Arnold to the notice of Congress. A court-martial on Jan. 26, 1780, sentenced him to be reprimanded by the commander-in-chief. In addition to the public disgrace, he was now cut off from various sources of revenue by which he had been striving to ward off a threatened bankruptcy, and his pecuniary affairs became sadly involved through extravagance and wild speculations. Unsuccessful in his attempt to obtain a loan from the French minister, De la Luzerne, he appears to have entered into correspondence with the British, but soon found that to obtain any considerable sum of money from that quarter, he must have control of some place worth the purchase. Accordingly, having many warm friends in Congress and in the army, he brought strong pressure to bear upon Washington to grant him the command of West Point. Yielding at length, though reluctantly, Arnold was assigned to this important post, and immediately put himself in direct communication with the British commander-in-chief, Sir Henry Clinton. On the night of the 21st of September, 1780, Major André was sent by the latter to obtain personally from Arnold all the information necessary to capture West Point and the posts on the line of the Hudson. Arnold’s elaborate plans, however, miscarried; André was captured, West Point saved, and Arnold obliged to fly. Though receiving the military rank and the money promised him by Sir Henry Clinton,--ten thousand pounds sterling and a commission as brigadier in the British army, he was almost as much detested by the English as by the Americans, and after some brutal outrages in Virginia and Connecticut, ended his days in obscurity in London, on the 14th of June, 1801.

[2] His first wife was Margaret, daughter of Samuel Mansfield
of New Haven, by whom he had three sons, Benedict, Richard,
and Henry.

MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE.

Marie Jean Paul Roch Yves Gilbert Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, was born at Chavagnac, in the province of Auvergne, France, on the 6th of September, 1757. He was educated at the military college of Duplessis, in Paris; graduating at sixteen, although offered a high position in the royal household, he preferred the career of a warrior, and at nineteen had risen to the rank of captain of dragoons. During the summer of 1776 his interest in the American colonies in their struggle for independence became so great that he determined to espouse their cause. Discouraged by all except his noble young wife, who sympathized with the oppressed colonists as warmly as he did, Lafayette persevered; and when the news of the disastrous termination of the campaign of 1776 reached France, he generously determined to offer not only his services, but also his wealth. Prohibited by the king from leaving Europe, he reached Spain in disguise, and with Baron de Kalb and ten other officers embarked for America. After a perilous voyage, they landed on the Carolina coast. Proceeding at once to Philadelphia, he offered his services as a volunteer and without remuneration. When his credentials had been examined, and his rank, wealth, and undaunted perseverance became known, he was appointed major-general July 31, 1777. His valor, coolness in the presence of danger, and military ability were shown on more than one occasion; but when our alliance with France involved that country in war, he applied to Congress for permission to return to France, for although he had incurred the displeasure of the king by coming to America, he was still that king’s soldier, and in the hour of need he felt he owed his first duty to his native land. Congress granted him the desired leave of absence, instructed its president to write him a letter of thanks for coming to America and for his valuable services, and directed our minister at Versailles to present him a sword, suitably engraved, as a token of the esteem and gratitude of the United States. His return to France was hailed with joy by the people, though the court for a time refused to notice him. Presently, however, he was given a command in the king’s own regiment of dragoons. A year later, March, 1780, he returned to the United States, and re-entering the army, was actively engaged until the close of the war. After the fall of Yorktown, he again asked leave of absence to visit his family. Arrived in France, he was at once made major-general in the French army, his commission to date from the surrender of Cornwallis.

In 1784, Lafayette paid a short visit to this country, being received everywhere with marks of love and respect. In 1785, he returned to Paris to find the finances of his country hopelessly involved, and the people ripe for revolution. Throughout his subsequent life he remained true to those high principles of honor, patriotism, and love of humanity, that had led him so warmly to espouse the cause of liberty and justice. Kept for years a prisoner in the most loathsome dungeons, his property confiscated, his wife doomed to the guillotine and only saved by the death of Robespierre, his son an exile but finding shelter in the home of Washington, he was at length restored to liberty by the power of Napoleon. In 1824, he was invited by Congress to revisit the United States. Though most of his friends and companions-in-arms had passed away, and a new generation had grown up, the whole nation united to welcome and do him homage. He died in 1834, leaving behind him the record of one who amid every temptation and allurement had remained the stanch, unwavering advocate of constitutional liberty.

BARON DE KALB.

Johann, Baron de Kalb, born in Hüttendorf, Bavaria, on the 29th of July, 1721, had gained in the armies of France the reputation of being a brave and meritorious officer. At the close of the Seven Years War, he married the daughter of a Holland millionnaire. In 1768, he came to this country as a secret agent of the French Government, and had already attained to the rank of brigadier-general in the French army, when he entered into an agreement with Silas Deane and Benjamin Franklin to join the Continental forces. Coming to this country with Lafayette, De Kalb’s services were at once accepted by Congress, a commission as major-general given him on the 15th of September, 1777, and the command of the Maryland division of the Continental army. Studious in his habits, exceedingly temperate in his diet, kindly and courteous of manner, his many noble and lovable traits endeared him to all with whom he was associated. For three years he served this country gallantly and well, sealing his devotion to liberty and justice with his life-blood. On the 16th of August, 1780, at Camden, South Carolina, while fighting against vastly superior numbers, and rallying his men by words of courage and deeds of valor, he fell, pierced with eleven wounds. He died three days after, saying to one who was condoling with him, “I thank you for your generous sympathy, but I die the death I always prayed for,--the death of a soldier fighting for the rights of man.”

Many years after, when Washington visited his grave, he exclaimed, “So there lies the brave De Kalb,--the generous stranger who came from a distant land to fight our battles and to water with his blood the tree of our liberty. Would to God he had lived to share its fruits!”

PHILIPPE CHARLES JEAN BAPTISTE TRONSON DU COUDRAY.

Philippe Charles Jean Baptiste Tronson du Coudray, born in Rheims, France, on the 8th of September, 1738, was educated to the vocation of a mining engineer, and ranked as one of the best in his native country, when in 1776, he offered his services to Silas Deane and Benjamin Franklin. These commissioners entered into an arrangement with Du Coudray by which, on condition of his furnishing certain military supplies, he was to enter the American service, with the rank and pay of major-general, and the command of the artillery. After several days’ debate on the subject, Congress did not see fit to ratify this agreement in full, Washington also expressing a doubt as to whether so important a command as that of the artillery should be vested in any but an American, or one attached by ties of interest to the United States. He was accorded his promised rank, however, being appointed major-general on the 11th of August, 1777, and placed in superintendence of the works being constructed on the Delaware. His service was of short duration, for on the 16th of September in the same year, while hastening, after the battle of Brandywine, to offer himself as a volunteer, he accidentally lost his life. While crossing the Schuylkill in a ferry-boat, his horse became unmanageable, plunged with him into the river, and he was drowned before any assistance could be rendered. The next day Congress passed a resolution directing his burial at the expense of the United States and with the honors of war.

ROBERT HOWE.

Robert Howe, born in Brunswick County, North Carolina, in 1732, was of English descent. He married young, took his wife to England, and lived for two years with some relatives. Returning to this country, he was appointed in 1766 commander at Fort Johnson in North Carolina. At the beginning of the Revolution, he was a member of the Committee of Safety for his native county, and with General Woodford was in command of Norfolk when that place was attacked and destroyed by Lord Dunmore, on the 1st of January, 1776. Prosecuting the war with vigor, Howe drove Dunmore out of Virginia. The Assemblies of North Carolina and Virginia recognized his services by a vote of thanks; Congress appointed him brigadier-general in the Continental army on the 1st of March, 1776; and on the 5th of May following, General Clinton excepted him when offering pardon in the king’s name to all Carolinians who would lay down their arms and return to their allegiance. The next year he was ordered to join the Southern army; and on the 20th of October, 1777, he was raised to the rank of major-general, and intrusted with an expedition against St. Augustine. After some successes, the destruction of one fourth of his army by an epidemic compelled him to abandon this project, and he was afterward assigned to duty in Georgia. Being defeated here, he joined Washington on the Hudson, and remained in active service at the North until the close of the war. In 1785, he was appointed a commissioner to treat with the Western Indians, and upon returning to his native State, was received with public honors and shortly after elected to the Legislature. Before the time arrived for him to take his seat, he died of fever on the 12th of November, 1785.

ALEXANDER McDOUGAL.

Alexander McDougal, born on the island of Islay, Scotland, in 1731, was brought to New York while still a child, by his father. At first Alexander followed the sea, took part in the French and Indian War as commander of two privateers,--the “Barrington” and the “Tiger,”--and then settling in New York City, became one of her successful merchants. Keenly alive to the aggressive steps taken by the home Government in her dealings with her American dependencies, he drew upon himself censure and imprisonment in 1769, by writing an address entitled, “A Son of Liberty to the Betrayed Inhabitants of the Colony,” in which he rebuked the Assembly for entering upon the favorable consideration of a bill of supplies for troops quartered in the city to overawe the inhabitants, and for rejecting a proposition authorizing the vote by ballot. An incarceration of twenty-three weeks in what is now the registrar’s office, made him the first martyr in the American struggle for independence. When set at liberty, he entered into correspondence with the master-spirits all over the country, presided over the celebrated “meeting in the fields” in 1774, was appointed colonel of the first Revolutionary regiment raised in New York, and was created brigadier-general in the Continental army on the 9th of August, 1776, and immediately went into active service. After the battle of Germantown and upon the recommendation of Washington, he was promoted to be major-general on the 20th of October, 1777. From the beginning of 1778 to the close of 1780, he was in command at various posts along the Hudson, but was summoned in the latter year to represent New York in Congress, and in 1781 was appointed minister of marine. In 1783, when the army went into winter-quarters at Newburg, he was chosen as head of the committee sent to Congress to represent their grievances. At the close of the war he was elected to the Senate of New York, and filled that position until his death on the 8th of June, 1786.

THOMAS CONWAY.

Thomas Conway, born in Ireland on the 27th of February, 1733, was taken by his parents to France when he was but six years of age. Educated in that country, he entered her army, and in 1777 had attained the rank of colonel and the decoration of the Order of St. Louis. Seeing in the American Revolution a chance of rapid promotion, he sought an interview with Silas Deane, and came to this country with his promise that he should be appointed to a high rank in the Continental army. Congress redeemed this promise on the 13th of May, 1777, by giving him the commission of a brigadier-general and assigning to him a command in Lord Stirling’s division. After taking part in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, he urged his friends in Congress to obtain promotion for him. Washington, divining his true character, and believing that his real motive in coming to America was self-aggrandizement rather than a devotion to the sacred cause of liberty, opposed his advancement as an injustice to more deserving officers.

Selfish, unscrupulous, and delighting in mischief, Conway was busily plotting against Washington; and being upheld by Gates, Mifflin, Dr. Rush, and others, he sought to displace him and elevate Gates to the position of commander-in-chief. This intrigue, known as the “Conway cabal,”[3] coming to the knowledge of Washington, he informed Conway of the discovery of the plot, whereupon the latter tendered his resignation. Congress, however, though fully cognizant of the charges against him, did not accept it, but on the contrary gave him his coveted promotion, advancing him to the rank of major-general on the 13th of December, 1777. Restless and ever dissatisfied, on the 28th of April, 1778, he wrote to Congress complaining of the post assigned him, and conditionally tendering his resignation; but the tide of favor had already turned, and Congress at once accepted his resignation unconditionally, thus forcing him to quit the army. During the following summer his caustic speech made him many enemies, and in a duel with General Cadwalader, growing out of some disparaging remarks of Conway concerning Washington, Conway was shot through the mouth, the bullet coming out of the back of his neck. He fell upon his face, but raising himself, said, “General, you fire with much deliberation and certainly with a great deal of effect.” Believing the wound mortal, a few days afterward Conway wrote an humble apology to Washington, retracting all he had ever said against the commander-in-chief. Contrary to his own and his surgeon’s supposition, however, he recovered; but meeting with a cold reception from his former friends, he soon after returned to France, re-entered the military service, and was appointed Governor of Pondicherry and the French settlements in Hindostan. His quarrelsome disposition involved him in a dispute with Tippoo Sahib which is said to have ruined French prospects in India. In 1792, he was sent to take command of the Royalist army in the south of France, but during the revolution which followed he was obliged to flee the country, and died about the year 1800.

[3] Conway cabal,--“A conspiracy to deprive Washington of the
command of the army.”

BARON STEUBEN.

Frederick William Augustus Henry Ferdinand von Steuben, known in this country as Baron Steuben, was born in Magdeburg, Prussia, on the 15th of November, 1730. The son of a soldier, his earliest recollections were of the camp. At the age of ten years, returning with his father from a campaign in the Crimea, he was placed in the Jesuit College at Neisse, and later transferred to that at Breslau, distinguishing himself at both as a mathematician. When but fourteen, he served with his father in the war of 1744, and was present at the siege of Prague. At seventeen, as a cadet, he entered a regiment of infantry, rose in two years to be ensign, and in four more to be lieutenant. As aide-de-camp to Frederick the Great of Prussia, he served in the Seven Years War, taking part in the celebrated battle of Prague. At the restoration of peace in 1763, he resigned his post in the army and was appointed to a position at court, commanding a liberal salary. In 1777, learning that the greatest weakness of the Americans lay in their ignorance of military tactics and want of thorough discipline, he left his life of ease in the Old World, and coming to the New, presented himself to Congress as a volunteer. If the cause were lost, they owed him nothing; if gained, he would expect remuneration equivalent to the salary he had resigned. His offer being accepted, he went to Valley Forge and began his great work, whereby our whole military system assumed new shape. On the 5th of May, 1778, Congress appointed him inspector-general of the army, with the rank of major-general, and no officer of that grade in the field did so much toward our ultimate success as did this born organizer and disciplinarian. The following year, he wished to take the field; but the American officers expressed so much dissatisfaction, on account of being outranked, that he withdrew his request and devoted himself to his old work, which to him must have seemed little better than that of a drill-sergeant. In 1780, he published a manual for the army that was of great value, and is still considered an authority. Written in German, it was translated into French, then into English, in which language it was wholly unintelligible to him. Warm-hearted and hospitable, he shared his last dollar with his suffering brother officers, and even at one time sold his horse that he might have the means of entertaining his camp guests. With a chivalrous regard for truth and honor, he despised the very name of Arnold. At review one day he heard the name of “Benedict Arnold” called over with those of some new recruits. Regarding its owner keenly for a few moments, and being pleased with his manly bearing, the baron said, “Young man, you must change your name; you are too respectable to bear the name of a traitor!” “What name shall I take, General?” “Take any other; mine is at your service.” Adopting the name of Steuben, the young man received a christening present of a monthly allowance, and eventually a large tract of land.

After the defeat of Gates, Baron Steuben was sent to Virginia to help General Greene, and when Arnold entered that State in the pay of the British, the baron used every endeavor to capture the traitor and bring him to justice. Serving actively at the siege of Yorktown, he was in command of the trenches when Cornwallis was summoned to surrender. Lafayette offered to relieve the baron; but he replied that European etiquette required him to remain at his post until the terms of the surrender were accepted or hostilities resumed. When the English flag was lowered to its American conquerors, Steuben’s men had the proud satisfaction of being foremost of those on duty. At the close of the war, he was sent to Canada to demand the surrender of all the posts along the frontier, but being unsuccessful in this mission, returned to headquarters. Upon the disbanding of the army, he retired to private life, resided in New York City for several years, while waiting for Congress to redeem its promise to pay him for his arduous and self-sacrificing services. In the mean time Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New Jersey voted him grants of land; but that from the last-named State he declined, because it had been the confiscated estate of a Tory who would be left destitute. New York now voted him a township near Utica, and Congress after an ungracious delay of seven years voted him a pension of $2,400 per annum. Retiring to his New York estate, he cleared sixty acres, built a log house, and spent the remainder of his life in dispensing a large-hearted hospitality, in agricultural pursuits, and the enjoyment of his valuable library. Once a year he visited New York City, but in 1795, while preparing for this annual trip, he was stricken with paralysis, and died on the 25th of November. By his own direction he was wrapped in his military cloak, and on his breast was placed the diamond star of the Order of Fidelity, which he had received from the Prince Margrave of Bavaria, and which he always wore. His funeral was attended by his neighbors, and was without pomp or military display of any kind. Colonel North, his favorite aid, inherited his property and erected a small monument to his memory.

WILLIAM SMALLWOOD.

William Smallwood, born in Kent County, Maryland, in 1732, was elected colonel of the Maryland battalion on the 2d of January, 1776; and on the 10th of July following, at the head of nine companies he joined Washington in New York. His troops took an active part in the battle of Brooklyn Heights on the 20th of August. Fighting desperately from sunrise until the last gun was fired at night, they lost nearly half their number. Again, on the 18th of October, at White Plains, the Maryland troops fought valiantly. Smallwood was severely wounded, and for his gallantry was commissioned brigadier-general by the Continental Congress on the 23d of October, 1776. At Fort Washington, November 16 of the same year, his troops again distinguished themselves, but with heavy loss in killed and wounded. In the summer of 1777, he joined Sullivan in his expedition against Staten Island, and when the British arrived in the Chesapeake, to Smallwood was intrusted the collecting and organizing of the Western Shore Maryland Militia. In the battle of Germantown, on the 4th of October, Smallwood’s troops retrieved the day, and captured part of the enemy’s camp. Stationed by Washington at Wilmington during the winter of 1777–78, he captured a British brig in the Delaware River, laden with stores and provisions. Ordered South with the army under Gates in 1780, his command behaved with their accustomed bravery at the disastrous battle of Camden, for which Smallwood received the thanks of Congress and was promoted to the rank of major-general on the 15th of September, 1780.

When Greene superseded Gates in command of the Southern army, Smallwood refused to serve under Baron Steuben, who was then his superior officer, and declared his intention of retiring, unless his commission was antedated two years. So absurd a claim could not be allowed, as besides there being no reason for changing the date, to comply would have thrown into confusion the entire list of major-generals. Smallwood, however, remained in service until the 15th of November, 1783, when Congress accepted his resignation. In 1785, his native State elected him to Congress and the same year chose him for governor. The latter office he held for three years and then retired from public life. He died in Prince George’s County, Maryland, on the 14th of February, 1792.

SAMUEL HOLDEN PARSONS.

Samuel Holden Parsons, born in Lyme, Connecticut, on the 14th of May, 1737, graduated at Harvard College in 1756, studied law and began its practice in 1759, was a member of the General Assembly of his native State from 1762 to 1774, was chosen colonel of militia in 1775, and appointed brigadier-general by Congress on the 9th of August, 1776. In 1779, he succeeded Putnam as commander of the Connecticut line of the army, was promoted to the rank of major-general on the 23d of October, 1780, and served with distinction to the end of the war. In 1785, Congress appointed him one of the commissioners to treat with the Indians at Miami; in 1788, President Washington made him judge of the Northwest Territory; and in 1789, in behalf of Connecticut, he treated as commissioner with the Wyandots and other Indians on the borders of Lake Erie. Returning from this mission to his home in Marietta, Ohio, he was drowned by the capsizing of his boat while descending the rapids of Big Beaver River on the 17th of November, 1789.

CHEVALIER DUPORTAIL.

Louis Lebègue Duportail, born in France, was educated at the military school of Mézières, and considered an excellent engineer. When Congress instructed our commissioners in Paris to secure a few good engineers, Duportail was one of the four thus selected; and these were the only ones engaged by the express authority of Congress. On his arrival in this country, he was appointed colonel of engineers and promoted to the rank of brigadier-general on the 17th of November, 1777. He wintered with the army at Valley Forge, and after the battle of Monmouth, when the enemy left Philadelphia, he was sent to ascertain what defences would be necessary to its security, and to plan fortifications for the Delaware. He also superintended the strengthening of the defences at Fort Clinton and at Boston. In 1779, he was charged with confidential despatches to Count d’Estaing, but the subsequent repulse of the French and American troops at Savannah, and the departure of D’Estaing, rendered this mission fruitless.

In 1780, being sent to join General Lincoln at Charleston, Duportail was captured, together with this officer, during the summer; but through the efforts of Congress, they were both exchanged in the autumn. In 1781, he carried despatches to the Count de Grasse, and later the same year had charge of the engineering operations at the siege of Yorktown, being specially mentioned by Washington in his despatches after the capitulation. On the 16th of November, 1781, Congress conferred on him the rank of major-general, and granted him a six-months furlough to visit his native land. He resigned his commission in the United States army on the 10th of October, 1783, and in 1788 was named maréchal-de-camp of the French army. In 1790, he was made minister of war, but resigned a year later, to accept a military appointment in Lorraine. Leaving the army in 1792, he returned to this country in 1794, and remained here until 1802, when, being recalled to France, he died at sea during the voyage home.

HENRY KNOX.

Henry Knox, born in Boston in 1750, lost his father at an early age. His mother’s income being a slender one, and his devotion to her being very great, he soon felt the need of personal exertion, and before attaining his majority, had established himself as a bookseller. Having a natural fondness for military tactics, he joined a company of grenadiers, and thus when the smouldering fire of dissatisfaction against taxation without representation burst into the flames of the Revolution, Knox had gained practical knowledge of warlike manœuvres. His father-in-law was a pronounced Tory; but his wife, sharing his own sentiments, helped him to escape from Boston that he might join the army. Appreciating our need of artillery, and knowing that no cannon were to be had except those in the old forts along the Canadian frontier, he volunteered to bring this ordnance to Washington’s camp at Cambridge, and accomplished this difficult and hazardous undertaking with such skill and courage that Washington rewarded him with the command of the artillery. This branch of the Continental service being attached to the main body of the army, Knox was in every battle where Washington fought, and never failed to exhibit the judgment, perseverance, and bravery that gained him success in the Canada expedition. On the 27th of December, 1776, Congress appointed him brigadier-general. At the battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778, he was wounded in his left hand. For his distinguished services at the siege of Yorktown in 1781, Congress appointed him major-general on the 22d of March, 1782. He was one of the three commissioners intrusted with the adjustment of the terms of peace. On the 25th of November, 1783, he received as Washington’s deputy the surrender of the city of New York; and his military career ended with the command of West Point. When the Continental army was about to be disbanded, he conceived the idea of forming a society of his old and dearly loved companions-in-arms. This was the origin of the Society of the Cincinnati, of which Knox was first vice-president.

At the close of 1783, Knox retired to his home in Maine, but in 1784, Congress, under the Articles of Confederation, appointed him Secretary of War, which office he held until, in 1795, Washington reluctantly accepted his resignation. It was during the time he was at the head of the War Department, and by his advice, that the United States Marine Service was organized. Retiring once more to his home in Maine, he dispensed the most princely hospitality, it being no unusual thing for him to entertain a hundred guests daily. When events threatened a war with France, and President Adams thought best to form an army, Knox was again appointed major-general. He died suddenly at his residence in Thomaston, Maine, in 1806.

WILLIAM MOULTRIE.

William Moultrie, born in England in 1731, came of good Scotch ancestry. His education was such as could be gained at that early day in the South Carolina colony to which his family had removed while he was still a child. In 1761, as captain of a company of volunteers, he marched against the Cherokee Indians, and gained much of that military skill that made him such a conspicuous character during the Revolution. In 1775, he was a member of the South Carolina Provincial Congress, and when that body authorized the seizure of the public arsenals, he was one of the patriot band who put this advice into practice. When news of the battle of Lexington reached South Carolina, he was appointed colonel of one of her regiments, and designed the flag--a blue field with a silver crescent in the right-hand upper corner--which her troops carried to their first victory. The driving of the British sloops-of-war from Charleston Harbor, the seizing of Fort Johnson, and finally the glorious victory at the Palmetto Fort on Sullivan’s Island, freed South Carolina for several years from the horrors and the devastations of war, and secured to Moultrie immortal fame and a prompt recognition of his military ability. He received the thanks of Congress; the fort he had so ably defended was named for him; and Sept. 16, 1776, he was raised to the rank of brigadier-general in the Continental army, with the duty of attending to the interests of South Carolina and Georgia. The campaign of 1779 brought a renewal of hostilities in the South, with most disastrous results. Repulsed and kept at bay for a while by Moultrie, the British finally concentrated their forces at Charleston, but badly provided as that city was for a siege, it held out for six weeks, until driven by famine to surrender. Moultrie was held a prisoner for two years, during which time he used all his influence in obtaining justice for his fellow-prisoners and the people of the country, and in vigorously keeping the enemy to the terms of the capitulation. Several attempts were made to induce him to resign his commission and enter the British service; and finally he was offered large sums of money and command of a regiment in Jamaica, to which he sternly replied, “Not the fee simple of all Jamaica should induce me to part with my integrity.” He was exchanged about the end of February, 1782, and promoted to the rank of major-general on the 15th of October of the same year.

When the British evacuated Charleston in December, the American army under General Greene resumed possession of it, Moultrie holding a conspicuous position in the triumphant procession. In 1785 and 1794, he was chosen Governor of South Carolina, discharging the duties of his office to the satisfaction of all. From the close of his second term until his death, which occurred in Charleston on the 27th of September, 1805, he enjoyed a well-earned and honorable repose.

The famous Palmetto Fort on Sullivan’s Island was constructed by Moultrie. The cannonade from the “Admiral’s Ship,” the “Bristol,” produced little effect upon the fort, owing to the soft spongy palmetto-wood. After a nine-hours engagement, Sir Peter Parker withdrew, with his ship almost a wreck.

SETH POMEROY.

Seth Pomeroy, born in Northampton, Massachusetts, on the 20th of May, 1706, was an ingenious and skilful mechanic, following the trade of a gunsmith. He entered the military service early in life, ranking as captain in 1744, and as major at the capture of Louisburg by the English in 1745. On the morning of the 17th of June, 1775, he entered Ward’s camp at Cambridge as a volunteer, having heard the artillery at Charlestown and feeling it a personal summons. Borrowing a horse from General Ward, he eagerly pushed on, but reaching the Neck and finding it swept by the fire from the British sloop-of-war “Glasgow,” lying in the harbor, he gave the horse to a sentry, and shouldering his gun, proceeded on foot, too honest to risk the life of a borrowed animal. Upon reaching the hill, and taking his place with Stark behind the rail-fence, he was recognized and greeted with shouts all along the line. On the 22d of June, 1775, Congress commissioned him senior brigadier-general; but this causing some dissatisfaction among the seven others raised to the same rank at the same time, he declined his appointment, and soon after retired to his farm. In 1776, however, when New Jersey was overrun by the British, he marched at the head of the militia of his own neighborhood to the rescue of Washington. He reached the Hudson River, but never returned, dying at Peekskill, New York, on the 19th of February, 1777.

DAVID WOOSTER.

David Wooster, born in Stratford, Connecticut, on the 2d of March, 1710, graduated at Yale in 1738. At the breaking out of the war between England and Spain in 1739, he entered the Provincial army with the rank of lieutenant, but subsequently was given command of a vessel built and equipped by Connecticut for the defence of her coasts. In 1745, he took part in the expedition against Louisburg as commander of the war vessel “Connecticut,” which conveyed the troops to Cape Breton. The next year he visited England and was given a captain’s commission with half-pay for life. Returning to America, he served through the French and Indian War; but when troubles began to arise between the American colonies and the mother country, approving the demands of the former, and believing his allegiance was due to them, he resigned his commission in the British army in 1774, and was one of the originators of the expedition by which Fort Ticonderoga was captured in May, 1775.

With the organization of the Continental army, Wooster was made brigadier-general on the 22d of June, 1775, and ordered to join Montgomery in the Canadian expedition. On the death of that officer, the command for a time devolved upon Wooster, and he acquitted himself to the satisfaction of Congress. Returning to Connecticut, he resigned his commission in the Continental service, but was made major-general of the militia of his native State. During the winter of 1776–77, he was employed in raising recruits and in protecting the military stores which had been collected at Danbury. On the 26th of April, 1777, Governor Tryon, at the head of two thousand British regulars, attacked the town, destroying the stores and retreating. Wooster and Arnold, collecting about six hundred militia, went in hot pursuit; but the undisciplined recruits gave way before the British artillery. Wooster, endeavoring to rally his men, exclaimed, “Come on, my boys! never mind such random shots!” when he was pierced through the body by a musket-ball. Carried back to Danbury, he lived but a few days, dying on the 2d of May, 1777. On the 17th of June, Congress passed appropriate resolutions, and voted $500 for the erection of a monument. This duty being neglected, the hero’s grave soon became unknown. In 1854, a handsome monument of Portland granite was erected to his memory in Danbury.

JOSEPH FRYE.

Joseph Frye, born in Andover, Massachusetts, in April, 1711, was enterprising and intelligent, and at an early age represented his town in the General Court of the county. Entering the army, he was present at the siege of Louisburg and wrote the terms of the surrender. He was a colonel when Montcalm captured Fort William Henry in 1757. Being seized and stripped by an Indian, he was led away to torture; but overpowering and killing his captor, Frye fled into the woods, succeeded in eluding the savages, and after several days reached a place of safety. In June, 1775, the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts appointed Colonel Frye a major-general, and the 10th of January, 1776, Congress gave him the rank of brigadier-general in the Continental army. His age and infirmities, however, compelled him to retire soon after from active service. Removing with his family to the frontier of Maine, he founded the town of Fryeburg, and died there in 1794.

JOHN ARMSTRONG.

John Armstrong was born at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1758. He was an aid on General Gates’ staff, and served with him through the campaign against Burgoyne. On the 1st of March, 1776, he was appointed brigadier-general in the Continental service. In February, the following year, he received the appointment of adjutant-general of the Southern army, but in consequence of ill health was obliged to retire from the army for a time. After the war Armstrong was secretary of the State of Pennsylvania. In 1787 he was sent to Congress; from 1800 to 1802 he was United States Senator, and again in 1803–1810. From 1813 to 1814 he was Secretary of War. He was censured for his lack of success in preventing the British from sacking Washington City in 1814–15, and became very unpopular. He resigned in 1814, retiring to Red Hook, New York, where he died April 1, 1843.

WILLIAM THOMPSON.

William Thompson, born in Ireland about 1725, emigrated to the State of Pennsylvania. During the French and Indian War he was captain of a troop of mounted militia, and when in June, 1775, Congress ordered the raising of eight companies of riflemen by the State of Pennsylvania, Thompson was appointed colonel of the battalion. These troops were the first raised on demand of the Continental Congress, and reached the camp at Cambridge before the 14th of August; and on the 10th of November following, they repulsed a British landing party at Lechmere’s Point. On the 1st of March, 1776, Thompson was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general; and on the 19th he superseded Gen. Charles Lee in command of the troops in New York. In April, being ordered to Canada to reinforce General Thomas, he met the retreating army and took command during the fatal illness of that officer, but resigned it on the 4th of June to Gen. John Sullivan, by whose orders, two days later, Thompson made the disastrous attack on the British at Trois Rivières, resulting in the defeat of the Americans, and the taking prisoner of their general. Released on parole in August, Thompson returned to Philadelphia, but was not exchanged until two years later. He was never again actively employed in the service, but died near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 4th of September, 1781.

ANDREW LEWIS.

Andrew Lewis, born in Donegal, Ireland, about 1730, was of Huguenot descent, his father coming to this country in 1732, and being the first white resident in Bellefonte, Augusta County, Virginia. In 1754, he joined an expedition to take possession of the lands lying along the Ohio, in which he acquired great reputation by his conduct at Braddock’s defeat in 1755, and for the part he took in all the Indian wars down to the time of the Revolution. He served under Washington in various capacities, and was with him at Fort Necessity. He commanded an expedition to Sandy Creek in 1756, and was made prisoner in 1758 and taken to Montreal. In 1768, he acted as commissioner from Virginia, to conclude a treaty with the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix, New York. “About 1775, when hostilities began again on the western frontier of Virginia, he received the appointment of brigadier-general, and as commander-in-chief at the battle of Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, gained a victory over the Shawnee confederacy under the celebrated chief Cornstalk” in what was considered the severest engagement with the Indians up to that time.

On the 1st of March, 1776, Congress made Lewis a brigadier-general, much to the surprise and disappointment of Washington, who considered him entitled to a higher rank; and Lewis himself felt that he had been slighted, but his patriotism triumphed, and he accepted the inferior position. Ill health, however, caused him to tender his resignation on the 15th of April, 1777; but afterward he accepted a commission to treat with the Indians at Fort Pitt. On his way home from the Ohio, he was seized with a fever, and died in Bedford County, Virginia, on the 26th of September, 1780, when only forty miles from his home on the Roanoke River. His statue occupies one of the pedestals at the base of the Washington monument in Richmond.

JAMES MOORE.

James Moore, born in New Hanover, North Carolina, in 1737, was a lineal descendant of the Marquis of Drogheda, Ireland. He was a captain of artillery under Governor Tryon at the defeat of the Regulators at Alamance in 1771, and colonel of the first regiment of North Carolina troops that was raised for the defence of that State. In February, 1776, he was in command of the force a part of which, under Col. John A. Lillington and Col. Richard Caswell, won the first victory in the Revolution, at Moore’s Creek bridge near Wilmington, North Carolina, over fifteen hundred Scotch Tories. For this exploit he was promoted to be brigadier-general, March 1, 1776, made commander-in-chief of the Southern Department, and received the thanks of Congress. His military career, opening with such promise, was of short duration, as he fell a victim to climatic fever, dying on the 15th of January, 1777, at Wilmington, while on his way to join Washington.

BARON DE WOEDTKE.

Frederick William, Baron de Woedtke, born in Prussia about 1740, was for many years an officer in the army of Frederick the Great, where he attained the rank of major. Coming to Philadelphia with strong letters of recommendation to Benjamin Franklin from friends of America in Paris, he received from Congress a commission as brigadier-general in the Continental army on the 16th of March, 1776, and was ordered to join the Northern army under Schuyler. About three weeks before his death he took part in a council of war which decided, against the advice of Stark, Poor, Maxwell, and eighteen inferior officers, to abandon Crown Point and to retire to the strong ground opposite Ticonderoga, afterward known as Mount Independence. He died near Lake George, New York, on the 31st of July, 1776, and was buried with the honors due to his rank.

JOHN WHITCOMB.

John Whitcomb, born in Lancaster, Worcester County, Massachusetts, in 1720, served with distinction in the French and Indian War. On account of his advanced age, he was not called into service at the beginning of the Revolution; but his soldiers were so much attached to him that they would serve under no other commander. His appeals to their patriotism being unavailing to keep them in the army, he determined to join the ranks as a volunteer; but Colonel Brewster, his successor, learning his willingness to serve, relinquished the command of the regiment, and Colonel Whitcomb continued with it until he was made a brigadier-general, June 5, 1776, when he succeeded General Ward in charge of the troops in Boston. On the 13th of the same month he was made major-general. Soon after, he was permitted to resign; but he lived to see our independence firmly established, and died in 1812.

HUGH MERCER.

Hugh Mercer, born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1720, entered the army of Prince Charles Edward as assistant-surgeon, in 1745. The battle of Culloden, April 16, 1746, resulted in the total defeat of that unfortunate prince, sending him into exile, a proscribed wanderer, and scattering or exterminating his devoted followers. Emigrating to this country the following year, Mercer settled in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and in 1755 fought his first battle in America under the leadership of John Armstrong and with the rank of captain. At the battle of Kittanning in 1756, he was severely wounded; in 1758, as lieutenant-colonel he took part in the capture of Fort Duquesne, and was left in command of that important post. It was during this expedition that he became acquainted with Washington; and in 1775, a few days after the battle of Lexington, Mercer was among the first to appeal to his former comrade-in-arms for instructions as to the disposition of the Virginia troops, then arming in the cause of liberty. June 5, 1776, Congress appointed him a brigadier-general; and a few days later he joined the army at New York and entered the Continental service, under the immediate orders of the commander-in-chief. Gloomy forebodings filled the mind of even the stanchest patriots, as defeat followed defeat, and Washington with his brave band retreated through the Jerseys.

In December, at a council of war, a change of policy was agreed upon, and the unexpected and successful attack upon Trenton was the result, Mercer rendering most efficient service. The British, however, gathering their forces, made ready to retaliate; and the cause of liberty seemed lost, when Mercer boldly suggested by a night march to surprise them in their stronghold at Princeton. His advice was acted upon; but in that memorable battle--a battle that did more to secure us our independence than any other during the war--the brave General Mercer lost his life. Dismounted by the death of his horse, and separated from his command, disdaining to surrender, he met single-handed a detachment of the enemy, and was beaten to the earth by the butts of their muskets and stabbed by their bayonets. Carried by his aid from the battle-field to a neighboring house, he lingered for nine days in great agony, expiring on the 12th of January, 1777. His remains were taken to Philadelphia, where his funeral was attended by thirty thousand people. St. Andrew’s Society of that city have erected a monument to his memory at Laurel Hill Cemetery. Mercer County, Kentucky, was named in his honor.

JOSEPH REED.

Joseph Reed, born in Woburn, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in 1724, served during the French and Indian War. In 1765, he settled at Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire. When news of the battle of Lexington reached this peaceful neighborhood, he volunteered with many of his neighbors, and marched away to the camp at Cambridge, reaching there in time to participate in the battle of Bunker Hill, where with John Stark and the left wing of the army, posted behind a rail-fence, he aided in keeping the British at bay and covering the retreat of the main body from the redoubt. In 1776, he was ordered to join the reinforcements under Sullivan, marching to the relief of the American army in Canada. Reed, with many others, was attacked by small-pox, and after a long illness rose from his bed incapacitated for further active service. Congress, on the 9th of August, 1776, promoted him to the rank of brigadier-general, and he retained command for a while, hoping to regain his health and strength. Finding himself, however, unfit for duty, he retired shortly after on half-pay, and returned home nearly deaf and blind. He passed the remainder of his life in Fitzwilliam, enjoying the esteem and respect of all who knew him, and died at Fitchburg, Massachusetts, on the 13th of February, 1807.

JOHN NIXON.

John Nixon, born on the 4th of March, 1725, at Farmington, Massachusetts, entered the British army at the age of twenty, taking part in the expedition against Cape Breton and in the French and Indian War. He commanded a company of minute-men at Lexington, and a regiment at the battle of Bunker Hill. On the 9th of August, 1776, he received the appointment of brigadier-general. He was in active service until 1780, when ill health, and the effects of a severe wound received at Bunker Hill, compelled his resignation. He died on the 24th of March, 1815, at the ripe age of ninety.

JAMES CLINTON.