The Beginner's American History Part 14

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BOSTON "TEA-PARTY."]

133. The king closes the port of Boston; Congress meets at Philadelphia; the names American and British; what General Gage tried to do.--The king was terribly angry; and orders were given that the port of Boston should be closed, so that no s.h.i.+ps, except the king's war-s.h.i.+ps, should come in or go out. Nearly all trade stopped in Boston. Many of the inhabitants began to suffer for want of food, but throughout the colonies the people tried their best to help them.

The New England towns sent droves of sheep and cattle, New York sent wheat, South Carolina gave two hundred barrels of rice; the other colonies gave liberally in money and provisions. Even in England much sympathy was felt for the distressed people of Boston, and in London a large sum of money was raised to help those whom the king was determined to starve into submission.

The colonies now sent some of their best men to Philadelphia to consider what should be done. As this meeting was made up of those who had come from all parts of the country, it took the name of the General or Continental Congress.[14]

About this time, too, a great change took place; for the people throughout the country began to call themselves Americans, and to speak of the English troops that the king sent over here as British soldiers.

In Boston General Gage had command of these soldiers. He knew that the Americans were getting ready to fight, and that they had stored up powder and ball at Concord,[15] about twenty miles from Boston.

One night he secretly sent out a lot of soldiers to march to Concord and destroy what they found there.

[Footnote 14: Congress: this word means a meeting or a.s.sembly of persons. The General or Continental Congress was an a.s.sembly of certain persons sent usually by all of the thirteen American colonies to meet at Philadelphia or Baltimore, to decide what should be done by the whole country. The first Congress met in 1774, or shortly before the Revolution began, and after that from time to time until near the close of the Revolution.]

[Footnote 15: Concord (Con'cord).]

134. Paul Revere;[16] the fight at Lexington and Concord; Bunker Hill.--But Paul Revere, a Boston man, was on the watch; and as soon as he found out which way the British were going, he set off at a gallop for Lexington, on the road to Concord. All the way out, he roused people from their sleep, with the cry, "The British are coming!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: PAUL REVERE'S RIDE.]

When the king's soldiers reached Lexington, they found the Americans, under Captain Parker, ready for them. Captain Parker said to his men, "Don't fire unless you are fired on; but if they want a war, _let it begin here_." The fighting did begin there, April 19th, 1775; and when the British left the town on their way to Concord, seven Americans lay dead on the gra.s.s in front of the village church. At Concord, that same day, there was still harder fighting; and on the way back to Boston, a large number of the British were killed.

The next month, June 17th, 1775 a battle was fought on Bunker Hill in Charlestown, just outside of Boston. General Gage thought the Yankees wouldn't fight, but they did fight, in a way that General Gage never forgot; and though they had at last to retreat because their powder gave out, yet the British lost more than a thousand men.

The contest at Bunker Hill was the first great battle of the Revolution; that is, of that war which overturned the British power in America, and made us a free people. Many Englishmen thought the king was wrong. They would not fight against us, and he was obliged to hire a large number of German soldiers to send to America. These Germans had to fight us whether they wanted to or not, for their king forced them to come.

[Footnote 16: Revere (Re-veer').]

135. Colonel Was.h.i.+ngton at Mount Vernon; Congress makes him General Was.h.i.+ngton, and sends him to take command of the American army.--At the time the battle of Bunker Hill was fought, Colonel George Was.h.i.+ngton was living very quietly at Mount Vernon. His brother Lawrence had died, and Mount Vernon was now his home. Was.h.i.+ngton was very well off: he had a fine estate and plenty of slaves to do the work on it; but when he died, many years later, he took good care to leave orders that all of his slaves should be set free as soon as it could be done.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WAs.h.i.+NGTON AT MOUNT VERNON.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: WAs.h.i.+NGTON TAKING COMMAND OF THE AMERICAN ARMY AT CAMBRIDGE.]

Congress now made Colonel Was.h.i.+ngton general, and sent him to Cambridge, a town just outside of Boston, to take command of the American army. It was called the Continental Army because it was raised, not to fight for the people of Ma.s.sachusetts, but for all the Americans on the continent, north and south. Was.h.i.+ngton took command of the army under a great elm, which is still standing. There, six months later, he raised the first American flag.[17]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE NORTHERN STATES IN THE REVOLUTION.]

[Footnote 17: See a picture of this and the other flags of the Revolution in paragraph 142.]

136. American sharpshooters;[18] Was.h.i.+ngton's need of cannon and powder; the attack on Canada; the British driven out of Boston.--Men now came from all parts of the country to join the Continental Army.

Many of them were sharpshooters. In one case an officer set up a board with the figure of a man's nose chalked on it, for a mark. A hundred men fired at it at long distance, and sixty hit the nose. The newspapers gave them great praise for their skill and said, "Now, General Gage, look out for _your_ nose."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "NOW, GENERAL GAGE, LOOK OUT FOR _your_ NOSE."]

Was.h.i.+ngton wanted to drive General Gage and the British soldiers out of Boston, but for months he could not get either cannon or powder.

Benjamin Franklin said that we should have to fight as the Indians used to, with bows and arrows.

While Was.h.i.+ngton was waiting, a number of Americans marched against the British in Canada; but the cold weather came on, and they nearly starved to death: our men would sometimes take off their moccasins[19] and gnaw them, while they danced in the snow to keep their bare feet from freezing.

At last Was.h.i.+ngton got both cannon and powder. He dragged the cannon up to the top of some high land overlooking Boston harbor. He then sent word to General Howe, for Gage had gone, that if he did not leave Boston he would knock his s.h.i.+ps to pieces. The British saw that they could not help themselves, so they made haste to get on board their vessels and sail away. They never came back to Boston again, but went to New York.

[Footnote 18: Sharpshooters: men who can fire and hit a small mark with a bullet at a long distance.]

[Footnote 19: Moccasins (mok'ka-sins): Indian shoes made of deerskin.]

137. The Declaration of Independence; "Down with the king!"

Was.h.i.+ngton is driven from New York and across the Delaware River.--Was.h.i.+ngton got to New York first. While he was there, Congress,[20] on the 4th of July, 1776, declared the United States _independent_--that is, entirely free from the rule of the king of England. There was a gilded lead statue of King George the Third on horseback in New York. When the news of what Congress had done reached that city, there was a great cry of "Down with the king!" That night some of our men pulled down the statue, melted it up, and cast it into bullets.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "DOWN WITH THE KING!"]

The next month there was a battle on Long Island,[21] just across from New York City; the British gained the victory. Was.h.i.+ngton had to leave New York, and Lord Cornwallis, one of the British generals, chased him and his little army clear across the state of New Jersey.

It looked at one time as though our men would all be taken prisoners, but Was.h.i.+ngton managed to seize a lot of small boats on the Delaware River[22] and get across into Pennsylvania: as the British had no boats, they could not follow.

[Footnote 20: Congress: see footnote 14 in paragraph 133.]

[Footnote 21: See map in paragraph 135.]

[Footnote 22: See map in paragraph 135.]

138. Was.h.i.+ngton's victory at Trenton, New Jersey.--Lord Cornwallis left fifteen hundred German soldiers at Trenton on the Delaware. He intended, as soon as the river froze over, to cross on the ice and attack Was.h.i.+ngton's army. But Was.h.i.+ngton did not wait for him. On Christmas night (1776) he took a large number of boats, filled them with soldiers, and secretly crossed over to New Jersey.[23] The weather was intensely cold, the river was full of floating ice, and a furious snow-storm set in. Many of our men were ragged and had only old broken shoes. They suffered terribly, and two of them were frozen to death.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WAs.h.i.+NGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE RIVER.]

The Germans at Trenton had been having a jolly Christmas, and had gone to bed, suspecting no danger. Suddenly Was.h.i.+ngton, with his men, rushed into the little town, and almost before they knew what had happened, a thousand Germans were made prisoners. The rest escaped to tell Lord Cornwallis how the Americans had beaten them. When Was.h.i.+ngton was driven out of New York, many Americans thought he would be captured. Now they were filled with joy. The battle of Trenton was the first battle won by the Continental Army.

[Footnote 23: See map in paragraph 135.]

139. Our victory at Princeton, New Jersey; the British take Philadelphia; winter at Valley Forge; Burgoyne beaten; the king of France agrees to help us.--Was.h.i.+ngton took his thousand prisoners over into Pennsylvania. A few days later he again crossed the Delaware into New Jersey. While Cornwallis was fast asleep in his tent, he slipped round him, got to Princeton,[24] and there beat a part of the British army. Cornwallis woke up and heard Was.h.i.+ngton's cannon. "That's thunder," he said. He was right; it was the thunder of another American victory.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WAs.h.i.+NGTON ON HORSEBACK.]

But before the next winter set in, the British had taken the city of Philadelphia, then the capital of the United States. Was.h.i.+ngton's army was freezing and starving on the hillsides of Valley Forge,[25]

about twenty miles northwest of Philadelphia.

But good news was coming. The Americans had won a great victory at Saratoga, New York,[26] over the British general, Burgoyne.[27] Dr.

Franklin was then in Paris. When he heard that Burgoyne was beaten, he hurried off to the palace of the French king to tell him about it. The king of France hated the British, and he agreed to send money, s.h.i.+ps, and soldiers to help us. When our men heard that at Valley Forge, they leaped and hurrahed for joy. Not long after that the British left Philadelphia, and we entered it in triumph.

[Footnote 24: Princeton: see map in paragraph 135.]

[Footnote 25: Valley Forge: see map in paragraph 135.]

[Footnote 26: Saratoga: see map in paragraph 135.]