America. The loss of General Mercer, a gallant officer, at Princeton, was the principal circumstance that allayed the joy of victory.

6. The following year, (1777,) was distinguished by very memorable events in favor of America. On the opening of the campaign, governor Tryon was sent, with a body of troops, to destroy the stores at Danbury, in Connecticut. This plan was executed, and the town mostly burnt The enemy suffered in their retreat, and the Americans lost general Wooster, a brave and experienced officer. General Prescott was taken from his quarters on Rhode Island, by the address and enterprise of Col. Barton, and conveyed prisoner to the continent.

7. General Burgoyne, who commanded the northern British army, took possession of Ticonderoga, which had been abandoned by the Americans. He pushed his successes, crossed lake George, and encaniped upon the banks of the Hudson, near Saratoga. His progress was however checked by the defeat of colonel Baum, near Bennington, in which he undisciplined militia of Vermont, under general Stark, displayed unexampled bravery and captured almost the whole detachment.

8. The militia assembled from all parts of New England, to stop the progress of General Burgoyne. These, with the regular troops, formed a respectable army, commanded by General Gates. After two severe actions, in which the generals Lincoln and Arnold behaved with uncommon gallantry, and were wounded, general Burgoyne found himself enclosed with brave troops, and was forced to surrender his whole army, amounting to seven thousand men, into the hands of the Americans. This happened in October. This event diffused a universal joy over America, and laid a foundation for the treaty with France.

9. But before these transactions, the main body of the British forces had embarked at New-York, sailed up the Chesapeake, and landed at the head of Elk River. The army soon began their march for Philadelphia. General Washington had determined to oppose them, and for this purpose made a stand upon the heights near Brandywine Creek. Here the armies engaged, and the Americans were overpowered, and suffered great loss.

10. The enemy soon pursued their march, and took pos session of Philadelphia toward the close of September. Not long after, the two armies were again engaged at Germantown, and in the beginning of the action the Americans had the advantage; but by some unlucky accident, the fortune of

the day was turned in favor of the British. Both sides suffered considerable loss; on the side of the Americans was General Nash.

11. In an attack upon the forts at Mud Island and Red Bank, the Hessians were unsuccessful, and their commander, Colonel Donop, killed. The British also lost the Augusta, a ship of the line. But the forts were afterwards taken, and the navigation of the Delaware opened. General Washington was reinforced with part of the troops which had composed the northern army, under General Gates; and both armies retired to winter quarters.

12. In October, the same month in which General Burgoyne was taken at Saratoga, General Vaughan, with a small fleet, sailed up Hudson's liver, and wantonly burnt Kingston, a beautiful Dutch settlement, on the west side of the river.

13. The beginning of the next year (1778) was distinguished by a treaty of alliance between France and America; by which we obtained a powerful ally. When the English ministry were informed that this treaty was on foot, they dispatched commissioners to America to attempt a reconciliation. But America would not now accept their offers. Early in the spring, Count de Estaing, with a fleet of fifteen sail of the line, was sent by the court of France, to assist America.

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14. General Howe left the Army, and returned to England; the command then devolved upon Sir Henry Clinton. June, the British army left Philadelphia, and marched for New-York. On their march they were much annoyed by the Americans; and at Monmouth a very regular action took place between part of the armies; the enemy were repulsed with great loss; and had General Lee obeyed his orders, a signal victory must have been obtained. General Lee, for his ill conduct that day, was suspended, and was never afterwards permitted to join the army.

15. In August, General Sullivan, with a large body of troops, attempted to take possession of Rhode Island, but did not succeed. Soon after the stores and shipping at Bedford, in Massachusetts, were burnt by a party of British troops.The same year, Savannah, the capital of Georgia, was taken by the British, under the command of Colonel Campbell. In the following year, (1779,) General Lincoln was appointed to the command of the southern army. Governor Tyron and Sir George Collier made an incursion into Connecticut, and burnt, with wanton barbarity, the towns of Fairfield and Norwalk.

16. But the American arms were crowned with success in bold attack upon Stony point, which was surprised and

taken by General Wayne, in the night of the 15th of July. Five hundred men were made prisoners, with a small loss on either side. A party of British forces attempted, this summer, to build a fort on Penobscot River, for the purpose of cutting timber in the neighboring forests. A plan was laid, by Massachusetts, to dislodge them, and a considerable fleet collected for the purpose. But the plan failed of success, and the whole marine force fell into the hands of the British, except some vessels which were burnt by the Americans themselves.

17. In October, General Lincoln and Count de Estaing made an assault upon Savannah; but they were repulsed with considerable loss. In this action, the celebrated Polish Count Polaski, who had acquired the reputation of a brave soldier, was mortally wounded. In this summer, General Sullivan marched with a body of troops, into the Indian country, and burnt and destroyed all their provisions and settlements that fell in his way.

18. On the opening of the campaign, the next year, (1780,) the British troops left Rhode Island. An expedition under General Clinton and Lord Cornwallis, was undertaken against Charleston, South Carolina, where General Lincoln commanded. This town, after a close siege of about six weeks, was surrendered to the British commander; and General Lincoln, and the whole American garrison, were made pri

soners.

19. General Gates was appointed to the command in the southern department, and another army collected. In August Lord Cornwallis attacked the American troops at Camden, in South Carolina, and routed them with considerable loss. He afterwards marched through the southern states, and supposed them entirely subdued. The same summer, the British troops made frequent incursions from New York into the Jerseys, ravaging and plundering the country. In some of these descents, the Rev. Mr. Caldwell, a respectable clergyman and warm patriot, and his lady, were inhumanly murdered by the savage soldiery.

20. In July, a French fleet, under Monsieur de Ternay, with a body of land forces, commanded by Count de Rochambeau, arrived at Rhode Island, to the great joy of the Americans.

21. This year was also distinguished by the infamous treason of Arnold. General Washington having some business to transact at Wethersfield, in Connecticut, left Arnold to command the important post of West Point, which guards pass in Hudson's Fiver, about sixty miles from New York,

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Arnold's conduct in the city of Philadelphia, the preceding winter, had been censured, and the treatment he received in consequence had given him offense. He determined to have revenge: and for this purpose he entered into a negotiation with Sir Henry Clinton, to deliver West Point and the army into the hands of the British.

22. While General Washington was absent, he dismounted the cannon in some of the forts, and took other steps to render the taking of the post easy for the enemy. But by a providential discovery, the whole plan was defeated. Major Andre, aid to General Clinton, a brave officer, who had been up the river as a spy, to concert the plan of operations with Arnold, was taken, condemned by a court-martial, and executed. Arnold made his escape by getting on board the Vulture, a British vessel which lay in the river. His conduct has stamped him with infamy, and, like all traitors, he is despised by all mankind. General Washington arrived in camp just after Arnold had made his escape, and restored order in the garrison.

23. After the defeat of General Gates, in Carolina, General Greene was appointed to the command in the southern department. From this period, things in this quarter wore a more favorable aspect. Colonel Tarleton, the active commander of the British legion, was defeated by General Morgan, the intrepid commander of the riflemen. After a variety of movements, the two armies met at Guilford, in North Carolina. Here was one of the best fought actions during the war. General Greene and Lord Cornwallis exerted hemselves, at the head of their respective armies; and although the Americans were obliged to retire from the field of battle, yet the British army suffered an immense loss, and could not pursue the victory. This action happened on the 15th of March, 1781.

24. In the spring, Arnold, who was made a brigadier-general in the British service, with a small number of troops, sailed for Virginia, and plundered the country. This called the attention of the French fleet to that quarter, and a naval engagement took place, between the English and French, in which some of the English ships were much damaged, and one entirely disabled.

25. After the battle at Guilford, General Greene moved toward South Carolina, to drive the British from their posts in that state. Here Lord Rawdon obtained an inconsiderable advantage over the Americans, near Camden. But Genera Greene more than recovered this disadvantage, by the bril liant and successful action at the Eutaw Springs, where

General Marion distinguished himself, and the brave Colonel Washington was wounded and taken prisoner. Lord Cornwallis, finding General Greene successful in Carolina, marched to Virginia, collected his forces, and fortified himself in Yorktown.

26. In the mean time, Arnold made an incursion into Connecticut, burnt a part of New London, took Fort Griswold by storm, and put the garrison to the sword. The garrison consisted chiefly of men suddenly collected from the little own of Groton, which, by the savage cruelty of the British officer who commanded the attack, lost, in one hour, almost all its heads of families. The brave Colonel Ledyard, who commanded the fort, was slain with his own sword after he had surrendered.

27. The Marquis de la Fayette, the brave and generous nobleman, whose services command the gratitude of every American, had been despatched from the main army to watch the motions of Lord Cornwallis, in Virginia. About the last of August, Count de Grasse arrived with a large fleet in the Chesapeake, and blocked up the British troops at Yorktown Admiral Greaves, with a British fleet, appeared off the Capes, and an action succeeded, but it was not decisive.

28. General Washington had before this time moved the main body of his army, together with the French troops, to the southward; and, as soon as he heard of the arrival of the French fleet in the Chesapeake, he made rapid marches to the head of the Elk, where, embarking, the troops soon arrived at Yorktown. A close siege immediately commenced, and was carried on with such vigor by the combined forces of America and France, that Lord Cornwallis was obliged to surrender.

29. This glorious event, which took place on the 19th of October, 1781, decided the contest in favor of America, and laid the foundation of a general peace. A few months after the surrender of Cornwallis, the British evacuated all their posts in South Carolina and Georgia, and retired to the main army in New York.

30. The next spring, (1782,) Sir Guy Carlton arrived in New York, and took command of the British army in America. Immediately after his arrival, he acquainted General Washington and congress, that negotiations for a peace had been commenced at Paris. On the 30th of November, 1782, the provisional articles of peace were signed at Paris, by which Great Britain acknowledged the independence and sovereignty of the United States of America.

31. Thus ended a long and arduous conflict, in which Great