A School History of the United States Part 14

CHAPTER XI

THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE

[Ill.u.s.tration: Statue of the Minute Man at Concord]

%129%. When the 10th of May, 1775, came, the colonists had ceased to pet.i.tion and had begun to fight. In accordance with the Ma.s.sachusetts Bill, General Thomas Gage had been appointed military governor of Ma.s.sachusetts. He reached Boston in May, 1774, and summoned an a.s.sembly to meet him at Salem in October. But, alarmed at the angry state of the people, he fortified Boston Neck,--the only land approach to the city, and countermanded the meeting. The members, claiming that an a.s.sembly could not be dismissed before it met, gave no heed to the proclamation, but gathered at Salem and adjourned to Concord and then to Cambridge. At Cambridge a Committee of Safety was chosen and given power to call out the troops, and steps were taken to collect ammunition and military stores. A month later at another meeting, 12,000 "minute men" were ordered to be enrolled. These minute men were volunteers pledged to be ready for service at a minute's notice, and lest 12,000 should not be enough, the neighboring colonies were asked to raise the number to 20,000.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map of Country around Boston]

%130. Concord and Lexington.%--Meantime the arming and drilling went actively on, and powder was procured, and magazines of provisions and military stores were collected at Concord, at Worcester, at Salem, and at many other towns. Aware of this, Gage, on the night of April 18, 1775, sent off 800 regulars to destroy the stores at Concord, a town some twenty miles from Boston. Gage wished to keep this expedition secret, but he could not. The fact that the troops were to march became known to the patriots in Boston, who determined to warn the minute men in the neighborhood. Messengers were accordingly stationed at Charlestown and told to ride in every direction and rouse the people, the moment they saw lights displayed from the tower of the Old North Church in Boston. The instant the British began to march, two lights were hung out in the tower, and the messengers sped away to do their work.[1]

[Footnote 1: The ride of one of these men, that of Paul Revere, has become best known because of Longfellow's poem, _Paul Revere's Ride._ Read it. ]

The road taken by the British lay through the little village of Lexington, and there (so well had the messengers done their work), about sunrise, on the morning of the 19th, the British came suddenly on a little band of minute men drawn up on the green before the meeting house. A call to disperse was not obeyed; whereupon the British fired a volley, killing or wounding sixteen minute men, and pa.s.sed on to Concord. There they spiked three cannon, threw some cannon b.a.l.l.s and powder into the river, destroyed some flour, set fire to the courthouse, and started back toward Boston. But "the shot heard round the world" had indeed been fired.[2] The news had spread far and wide. The minute men came hurrying in, and from farmhouses and hedges, from haystacks, and from behind trees and stone fences, they poured a deadly fire on the retreating British. The retreat soon became a flight, and the flight would have ended in capture had they not been reenforced by 900 men at Lexington. With the help of these they reached Charlestown Neck by sundown and entered Boston.[3] All night long minute men came in from every quarter, so that by the morning of April 20th great crowds were gathered outside of Charlestown and at Roxbury, and shut the British in Boston.

[Footnote 2: Read R. W. Emerson's fine poem, _Concord Hymn._ ]

[Footnote 3: Force's _American Archives,_ Vol. II.; Hudson's _History of Lexington,_ Chaps. 6, 7; Phinney's _Battle of Lexington;_ Shattuck's _History of Concord,_ Chap. 7. ]

When the news of Concord and Lexington reached the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont, they too took up arms, and, under Ethan Allen, captured Fort Ticonderoga on May 10, 1775.

%131. Congress becomes a Governing Body.%--The first Continental Congress had been chosen by the colonies in 1774, to set forth the views of the people, and remonstrate against the conduct of the King and Parliament. This Congress, it will be remembered, having done so, fixed May 10, 1775, as the day whereon a second Congress should meet to consider the results of their remonstrance. But when the day came, Lexington and Concord had been fought, all New England was in arms, and Congress was asked to adopt the army gathered around Boston, and a.s.sume the conduct of the war. Congress thus unexpectedly became a governing body, and began to do such things as each colony could not do by itself.

%132. Origin of the Continental Army.%--After a month's delay it did adopt the little band of patriots gathered about Boston, made it the Continental Army, and elected George Was.h.i.+ngton, then a delegate in Congress, commander in chief. He was chosen because of the military skill he had displayed in the French and Indian War, and because it was thought necessary to have a Virginian for general, Virginia being then the most populous of the colonies.

Was.h.i.+ngton accepted the trust on June 16, and set out for Boston on June 21; but he had not ridden twenty miles from Philadelphia when he was met by the news of Bunker Hill.

%133. Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775.%--On a narrow peninsula to the north of Boston, and separated from it by a sheet of water half a mile wide, was the village of Charlestown; behind it were two small hills.

The nearer of the two to Charlestown was Breeds Hill. Just beyond it was Bunker Hill, and as the two overlooked Boston and the harbor where the British s.h.i.+ps lay at anchor, the possession of them was of much importance. The Americans, learning of Gage's intention to fortify the hills, sent a force of 1200 men, under Colonel Prescott, on the night of June 16, to take possession of Bunker Hill. By some mistake Prescott pa.s.sed Bunker Hill, reached Breeds Hill, and before dawn had thrown up a large earthwork. The moment daylight enabled it to be seen, the British opened fire from their s.h.i.+ps. But the Americans worked steadily on in spite of cannon shot, and by noon had constructed a line of intrenchments extending from the earthwork down the hill toward the water. Gage might easily have landed men and taken this intrenchment in the rear. He instead sent Howe[1] and 2500 men over in boats from Boston, to land at the foot of the hill and charge straight up its steep side toward the Americans on its summit. The Americans were bidden not to fire till they saw the whites of the enemy's eyes, and obeyed. Not a shot came from their line till the British were within a few feet. Then a sheet of flames ran along the breastworks, and when the smoke blew away, the British were running down the hill in confusion. With great effort the officers rallied their men and led them up the hill a second time, to be again driven back to the landing place. This fire exhausted the powder of the Americans, and when the British troops were brought up for the third attack, the Americans fell back, fighting desperately with gunstocks and stones. The results of this battle were two fold. It proved to the Americans that the British regulars were not invincible, and it proved to the British that the American militia would fight.

[Footnote 1: General William Howe had come to Boston with more British troops not long before. In October, 1775, he was given chief command.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOSTON, CHARLESTOWN, ETC.]

%134. Was.h.i.+ngton takes Command.%--Two weeks after this battle Was.h.i.+ngton reached the army, and on July 3, 1775, took command beneath an elm still standing in Cambridge. Never was an army in so sorry a plight. There was no discipline, and not much more than a third as many men as there had been a few weeks before. But the indomitable will and sublime patience of Was.h.i.+ngton triumphed over all difficulties, and for eight months he kept the British shut up in Boston, while he trained and disciplined his army, and gathered ammunition and supplies.

%135. Montreal taken.%--Meanwhile Congress, fearing that Sir Guy Carleton, who was governor of Canada, would invade New York by way of Lake Champlain, sent two expeditions against him. One, under Richard Montgomery, went down Lake Champlain, and captured Montreal. Another, under Benedict Arnold, forced its way through the dense woods of Maine, and after dreadful sufferings reached Quebec. There Montgomery joined Arnold, and on the night of December 31, 1775, the two armies a.s.saulted Quebec, the most strongly fortified city in America, and actually entered it. But Montgomery was killed, Arnold was wounded, the attack failed, and, six months later, the Americans were driven from Canada.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bunker Hill Monument]

%136. The British driven from Boston, March 17, 1776.%--After eight months of seeming idleness, Was.h.i.+ngton, early in March, 1776, seized Dorchester Heights on the south side of Boston, fortified them, and so gave Howe his choice of fighting or retreating. Fight he could not; for the troops, remembering the dreadful day at Bunker Hill, were afraid to attack intrenched Americans. Howe thereupon evacuated Boston and sailed with his army for Halifax, March 17, 1776. Was.h.i.+ngton felt sure that the British would next attack New York, so he moved his army there in April, 1776, and placed it on the Brooklyn hills.

%137. Independence resolved on.%--Just one year had now pa.s.sed since the memorable fights at Concord and Lexington. During this year the colonies had been solemnly protesting that they had no thought of independence and desired nothing so much as reconciliation with the King. But the King meantime had done things which prevented any reconciliation:

1. He had issued a proclamation declaring the Americans to be rebels.

2. He had closed their ports and warned foreign nations not to trade with them.

3. He had hired 17,000 Hessians[1] with whom to subdue them.

[Footnote 1: The Hessians were soldiers from Hesse and other small German states.]

These things made further obedience to the King impossible, and May 15, 1776, Congress resolved that it was "necessary to suppress every kind of authority under the crown," and asked the colonies to form governments of their own and so become states.

On the 7th of June, Richard Henry Lee, acting under instructions from Virginia, offered this resolution:

Resolved

That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

Prompt action in so serious a matter was not to be expected, and Congress put it off till July 1. Meanwhile Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston were appointed to write a declaration of independence and have it ready in case it was wanted. As Jefferson happened to be the chairman of the committee, the duty of writing the declaration was given to him. July 2, Congress pa.s.sed Lee's resolution, and what had been the United Colonies became free and independent states.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Campaigns of 1775-1776]

[Ill.u.s.tration: %The Pennsylvania Statehouse, or Independence Hall[1]]

[Footnote 1: From the _Columbian Magazine_ of July, 1787. The tower faces the "Statehouse yard." The posts are along Chestnut Street. For the history of the building, read F. M. Etting's _Independence Hall._]

%138. Independence declared.%--Independence having thus been decreed, the next step was to announce the fact to the world. As Jefferson says in the opening of his declaration, "When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another ... a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation." It was this "decent respect to the opinions of mankind," therefore, which now led Congress, on July 4, 1776, to adopt the Declaration of Independence, and to send copies to the states. Pennsylvania got her copy first, and at noon on July 8 it was read to a vast crowd of citizens in the Statehouse yard.[1] When the reading was finished, the people went off to pull down the royal arms in the court room, while the great bell in the tower, the bell which had been cast twenty-four years before with the prophetic words upon its side, "Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof," rang out a joyful peal, for then were announced to the world the new political truths, "that all men are created equal,"

and "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights," and "that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

[Footnote 1: The declaration was read from a wooden platform put up there in 1769 to enable David Rittenhouse to observe a transit of Venus.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The royal arms]

%139. The Retreat up the Hudson.%--A few days later the Declaration was read to the army at New York. The wisdom of Was.h.i.+ngton in going to New York was soon manifest, for in July General Howe, with a British army of 25,000 men, encamped on Staten Island. In August he crossed to Long Island, and was making ready to besiege the army on Brooklyn Heights, when, one dark and foggy night, Was.h.i.+ngton, leaving his camp fires burning, crossed with his army to New York.

Howe followed, drove him foot by foot up the Hudson from New York to White Plains; carried Fort Was.h.i.+ngton, on the New York sh.o.r.e, by storm (November 16, 1776); and sent a force across the Hudson under cover of darkness and storm to capture Fort Lee. But the British were detected in the very nick of time, and the Americans, leaving their fires burning and their tents standing, fled towards Newark, N. J.

%140. The Retreat across the Jerseys.%--Was.h.i.+ngton, meanwhile, had gone from White Plains to Hackensack in New Jersey, leaving 7000 men under Charles Lee in New York state at North Castle. These men he now ordered Lee to bring over to Hackensack, but the jealous and mutinous Lee refused to obey. This forced Was.h.i.+ngton to begin his famous retreat across the Jerseys, going first to Newark, then to New Brunswick, then to Trenton, and then over the Delaware into Pennsylvania, with the British under Cornwallis in hot pursuit.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

%141. The Surprise at Trenton.%--Lee crossed the Hudson and went to Morristown, where a just punishment for his disobedience speedily overtook him. One night while he was at an inn outside of his lines, some British dragoons made him a prisoner of war. The capture of Lee left Sullivan in command, and by him the troops were hurried off to join Was.h.i.+ngton. Thus reenforced, Was.h.i.+ngton turned on the enemy, and on Christmas night in a blinding snowstorm he recrossed the Delaware, marched nine miles to Trenton, surprised a force of Hessians, took 1000 prisoners, and went back to Pennsylvania.

The effect of this victory was tremendous. At first the people could not believe it, and, to convince them, the Hessians had to be marched through the streets of Philadelphia, and one of their flags was sent to Baltimore (whither Congress had fled from Philadelphia), and hung up in the hall of Congress. When the people were convinced of the truth of the report, their joy was unbounded; militia was hurried forward, the Jerseymen gathered at Morristown, money was raised; the New England troops, whose time of service was out, were persuaded to stay six weeks longer, and, December 30, 1776, Was.h.i.+ngton again entered Trenton.

Meantime Cornwallis, who had heard of the capture of the Hessians, came thundering down from New Brunswick with 8000 men and hemmed in the Americans between his army and the Delaware. But on the night of January 2, 1777, Was.h.i.+ngton slipped away, pa.s.sed around Cornwallis, hurried to Princeton, and there, on the morning of January 3, put to rout three regiments of British regulars. Cornwallis, who was not aware that the Americans had left his front till he heard the firing in his rear, fell back to New Brunswick, while Was.h.i.+ngton marched unmolested to Morristown, where he spent the rest of the winter.

%142. The Capture of Philadelphia.%--Late in May, 1777, Was.h.i.+ngton entered New York state. But Howe paid little attention to this movement, for he had fully determined to attack and capture Philadelphia, and on July 23 set sail from New York. As the fleet moved southward, its progress was marked by signal fires along the Jersey coast, and the news of its position was carried inland by messengers. At the end of a week the fleet was off the entrance of Delaware Bay. But Lord Howe fearing to sail up the river, the fleet went to sea and was lost to sight.

Was.h.i.+ngton, who had hurried southward to Philadelphia, was now at a loss what to do, and was just about to go back to New York when he heard that the British were coming up Chesapeake Bay, and at once marched to Wilmington, Del.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

It was the 25th of August that Howe landed his men and began moving toward Was.h.i.+ngton, who, lest the British should push by him, fell back from Wilmington, to a place called Chadds Ford on the Brandywine, where, on September 11, 1777, a battle was fought.[1] The Americans were defeated and retreated in good order to Chester, and the next day Was.h.i.+ngton entered Philadelphia. But public opinion demanded that another battle should be fought before the city was given up, and after a few days he recrossed the Schuylkill, and again faced the enemy. A violent storm ruined the ammunition of both armies and prevented a battle, and the Americans retreated across the Schuylkill at a point farther up the stream.