stores and forty-nine prisoners, was immediately surrendered. Crown Point was taken the same day, and the capture of a sloop of war soon afterwards made Allen and his brave party complete masters of lake Champlain.

In the fall of 1775, he was sent twice into Canada, to observe the dispositions of the people, and attach them, if possible, to the American cause. During this last tour, colonel Brown met him, and proposed an attack on Montreal, in concert. The proposal was eagerly embraced, and colonel Allen with one hundred and ten men, near eighty of whom were Canadians, crossed the river in the night of the 24th of September. In the morning he waited with impatience for the signal of colonel Brown, who agreed to co-operate with him; but he waited in vain. He made a resolute defence against an attack of five hundred men, and it was not till his own party was reduced, by desertions, to the number of thirty-one, and he had retreated near a mile, that he surrendered. A moment afterwards a furious savage rushed towards him, and presented his firelock with the intent of killing him. It was only by making use of the body of the officer, to whom he had given his sword, as a shield, that he escaped destruction.

He was now kept for some time in irons and treated with great severity and cruelty. He was sent to England as a prisoner, being assured that the halter would be the reward of his rebellion when he arrived there. After his arrival, about the middle of December, he was lodged for a short time in Pendennis castle, near Falmouth. On the 8th of January, 1776, he was put on board a frigate and by a circuitous route carried to Halifax. Here he remained confined in the jail from June to October, when he was removed to New York. During the passage to this place, captain Burke, a daring prisoner, proposed to kill the British captain and seize the frigate; but colonel Allen refused to engage in the plot, and was, probably, the means of preserving the life of captain Smith, who had treated him very politely. He was kept at New York, about a year and a half, sometimes imprisoned and sometimes permitted to be on parole. While here, he had an opportunity to observe the inhuman manner, in which the American prisoners were treated. In one of the churches, in which they were crowded, he saw seven lying dead at one time, and others biting pieces of chips from hunger. He calculated, that of the prisoners taken at Long Island and fort Washington, near two thousand perished by hunger and cold, or in consequence of diseases occasioned by the impurity of their prisons.

Colonel Allen was exchanged for colonel Campbell, May 6, 1778, and after having repaired to head quarters, and offer

ed his services to general Washington in case his health should be restored, he returned to Vermont. His arrival on the evening of the last of May, gave his friends great joy, and it was announced by the discharge of cannon. As an expression of confidence in his patriotism and military talents, he was very soon appointed to the command of the state militia. It does not appear, however, that his intrepidity was ever again brought to the test, though his patriotism was tried by an unsuccessful attempt of the British to bribe him to attempt a union of Vermont with Canada. He died suddenly at his estate in Colchester, February 13, 1789.

Colonel Allen possessed a mind naturally strong. vigorous and eccentric, but it had not been improved by an early edu cation. He was brave in the most imminent danger, and possessed a bold, daring, and adventurous spirit, which neither feared dangers nor regarded difficulties. He was also ingenuous, frank, generous and patriotic, which are the usual accompanying virtues of native bravery and courage. He wrote and published a narrative of his sufferings during his imprisonment in England and in New York; comprising also various observations upon the events of the war, the conduct of the British, and their treatment of their prisoners.

ALLEN, EBENEZER, was one of the first soldiers of the revolution. He was in the party that went against Ticonde roga. With forty men he went upon the hill Defiance, and carried the fortress without loss of a man. He also distinguished himself in the battle of Bennington; taking advantage of a breastwork of rocks, he contended with the front of the enemy, till he caused a temporary retreat. He was among those who exerted themselves in making Vermont a separate state, and lived to see not only the wilderness subdued, where he first ploughed the ground, but the places filled with inhabitants. The account of his death is mentioned in the newspapers of the year 1805.

ALLEN, MOSES, minister of Midway, Georgia, and a distinguished friend of his country, was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, September 14, 1748. He was educated at the college in New Jersey, where he graduated in 1776, and was licensed by the presbytery of New Brunswick, February 1, 1774, and recommended by them as an ingenious, prudent, pious man. In March following he preached first at Christ's church parish, about twenty miles from Charleston, in South Carolina. Here he was ordained, March 16, 1775, by the Rev. Mr. Zubly, Mr. Edmonds and William Tennent. He preached his farewell sermon in this place, June 8, 1776, and was soon afterwards established at Midway, to which place he had been earnestly solicited to remove.

The British army from Florida under General Prevost dispersed his society in 1778, and burned the meeting house, almost every dwelling house, and the crops of rice then in stacks. In December, when Savannah was reduced by the British troops, he was taken prisoner. The continental officers were sent to Sunbury on parole, but Mr. Allen, who was chaplain to the Georgia brigade, was denied that privilege. His warm exhortations from the pulpit, and his animated exertions in the field exposed him to the particular resentment of the British. They sent him on board the prison ships. Wearied with a confinement of a number of weeks in a loathsome place, and seeing no prospect of relief. he determined ta attempt the recovery of his liberty by throwing himself in the river, and swimming to an adjacent point; but he was drowned in the attempt on the evening of February 8, 1779, in the 31st year of his age. His body was washed on a neighboring island, and was found by some of his friends. They requested of the captain of a British vessel some boards to make a coffin, but could not procure them.

Mr. Allen, notwithstanding his clerical function, appeared among the foremost in the day of battle, and on all occasions sought the post of danger as the post of honor. The friends of independence admired him for his popular talents, his courage, and his many virtues. The enemies of independence could accuse him of nothing more, than a vigorous exertion of all his powers in defending what he conscientiously believ ed to be the rights of his injured country.

ALEXANDER, WILLIAM, commonly called lord Sterling, a major-general in the American army, in the revolu tionary war with Great Britain, was a native of the city of New York, but spent a considerable part of his life in New Jersey. He was considered by many as the rightful heir to the title and estate of an earldom in Scotland, of which country his father was a native; and although, when he went to North Britain in pursuit of this inheritance, he failed of obtaining an acknowledgment of his claim by government; yet, among his friends and acquaintances, he received by courtesy the title of lord Sterling. He discovered an early fondness for the study of mathematics and astronomy, and attained great eminence in these sciences.

In the battle on Long Island, August 27, 1776, he was taken prisoner, after having secured to a large part of the detachment an opportunity to escape by a bold attack, with four hundred men, upon a corps under lord Cornwallis. In the battle of Germantown, his division and the brigades of Generals Nash and Maxwell, formed the corps de reserve. At the battle of Monmouth he commanded the left wing of the American army.

Ramsay, in his history of the American revolution, gives the following account of the battle of Monmouth:

"The royal army passed over the Delaware into New Jersey. General Washington, having penetrated into their design of evacuating Philadelphia, had previously detached general Maxwell's brigade, to co-operate with the Jersey militia in obstructing their progress, till time would be given for his army to overtake them. The British were encumbered with enormous baggage, which, together with the impediments thrown into their way, greatly retarded their march. The American army, having, in pursuit of the British, crossed the Delaware, six hundred men were immediately detached, under colonel Morgan, to reinforce general Maxwell. Washington halted his troops, when they had marched to the vicinity of Princeton. The general officers in the American army, being asked by the commander in chief, "Will it be advisable to hazard a general action? answered in the negative, but recommended a detachment of fifteen hundred men, to be immediately sent, to act as occasion might serve, on the enemy's left flank and rear. This was immediately forwarded under general Scott. When sir Henry Clinton had advanced to Allentown, he determined, instead of keeping the direct road towards Staten Island, to draw towards the sea coast and to pass on towards Sandy Hook. General Washington, on receiving intelligence that sir Henry was proceeding in that direction towards Monmouth court-house, despatched one thousand men under general Wayne, and sent the marquis de la Fayette to take command of the whole advanced corps, with orders to seize the first fair opportunity of attacking the enemy's rear. General Lee, who, having been lately exchanged, had joined the army, was offered this command, but he declined it, as he was in principle against hazarding an attack. The whole army followed at a proper distance, for supporting the advanced corps, and reached Cranberry the next morning. Sir Henry Clinton, sensible of the approach of the Americans, placed his grenadiers, light infantry and chasseurs, in his rear, and his baggage in his front. General Washington increased his advanced corps with two brigades, and sent general Lee, who now wished for the command, to take charge of the whole, and followed with the main army to give it support. On the next morning orders were sent to Lee, to move on and attack, unless there should be powerful reasons to the contrary. When Washington had marched about five miles, to support the advanced corps, he found the whole of it retreating by Lee's orders, and without having made any opposition of consequence. Washington rode up to Lee and proposed certain questions to Lim, which

implied censure. Lee answered with warmth and unsuitable language. The commander in chief ordered colonel Stewart's and lieutenant colonel Ramsay's battalions, to form on a piece of ground, which he judged suitable for giving a check to the advancing enemy. Lee was then asked if he would command on that ground, to which he consented, and was ordered to take proper measures for checking the enemy, to which he replied, "your orders shall be obeyed, and I will not be the first to leave the field." Washington then rode to the main army, which was formed with the utmost expedition. A warm cannonade immediately commenced, between the British and American artillery, and heavy firing between the advanced troops of the British army, and the two battalions which general Washington had halted. These stood their ground, till they were intermixed with a part of the British army. Lieutenant colonel Ramsay, the commander of one of them, was wounded and taken prisoner General Lee continued till the last on the field of battle, and brought off the rear of the retreating troops.

"The check the British received, gave time to make a disposition of the left wing, and second line of the American army in the wood, and on the eminence to which Lee was retreating. On this some cannon were placed by lord Sterling, who commanded the left wing, which, with the co-operation of some parties of infantry, effectually stopped the advance of the British in that quarter. General Greene took a very advantageous position, on the right of lord Sterling. The British attempted to turn the left flank of the Americans, but were repulsed. They also made a movement to the right, with as little success, for Greene with artillery disappointed their design. Wayne advanced with a body of troops, and kept up so severe and well directed a fire, that the British were soon compelled to give way. They retired and took the position which Lee had before occupied. Washington resolved to attack them, and ordered general Poor to move round upon their right, and general Woodford to their left; but they could not get within reach before it was dark. These remained on the ground which they had been directed to occupy during the night, with an intention of attacking, early next morning, and the main body lay on their arms in the field to be ready for supporting them. General Washington reposed himself in his cloak, under a tree, in hopes of renewing the action the next day. But these hopes were frustrated: The British troops marched away in the night, in such silence, that general Poor, though he lay very near them, knew nothing of their departure. They left behind them, four officers and about forty privates, all so badly wounded,