A History of the United States. Charles Kendall Adams

He fitted out a ship at his own expense, and, leaving wife and friends behind, devoted all his powers to the new cause. Along with ten other officers, he arrived in America in the spring of 1777.

      176. Reorganization of the American Army.—Congress now reorganized the army and conferred upon Washington powers that were practically those of a dictator. It also called for an army of seventy-eight thousand men, sixty-six thousand from the states and twelve thousand to be raised by Washington and to be subject only to national control. But as Congress had no power to enforce its laws, the full number of troops called for was never provided. The army was, however, somewhat enlarged in size and greatly improved in quality.

      References.—The same as at the end of Chapter VI.

[67]

Born, Westmoreland County, Virginia, February 22 (old style, February 11), 1732; died, Mt. Vernon, Virginia, December 14, 1799. Received only an elementary education; became a surveyor; served in French and Indian War; became a prominent planter; favored the patriotic cause; commander in chief, 1775–1783; presided over Convention of 1787; President, 1789–1797; commander in chief of provisional army, 1798.

[68]

Born, 1741; died, 1775. Graduated at Harvard and became physician in Boston; member of committee of correspondence, 1774; a noted orator; chairman of Committee of Public Safety and president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in 1775; actively engaged in raising volunteers in 1775; commissioned major general by the Provincial Congress, but waived his rank in favor of the veteran Prescott, and fought and died as a private soldier.

[69]	Born, 1729; died, 1814. Served under Wolfe at Quebec; commander in chief of British forces in America in 1775; was superseded by Sir Henry Clinton in 1778, though he was knighted for his successes about New York in 1776; was unsuccessful as a strategist, and noted for his indolence.

[70]

To the president of Congress he wrote: “There must be some other stimulus besides love of their country to make men fond of the service.” And again he wrote: “Such a dearth of public virtue; such a stock-jobbing and strife to obtain advantage of one kind and another, I never saw before, and I pray God’s mercy I may never be witness to again. I tremble at the prospect. Could I have foreknown what I have experienced, no consideration upon earth could have induced me to accept this command.”

[71]

Born, 1741; died, 1801. At the outbreak of the war in 1775 left his business in Connecticut to join the service; was commissioned colonel by the Massachusetts Provincial Congress; acquired immediate fame by his attack on Quebec; was advanced to brigadier general; was defeated by the British at Valcour Island in Lake Champlain, October, 1776; made a skillful retreat; took leading part in campaign against Burgoyne in 1777; was given command in Philadelphia, when he fell under the influence of prominent Tories, one of whose daughters he married; entered into correspondence under an assumed name with an officer of Howe’s army; sought and obtained command of West Point for the purpose of turning it over to the enemy; escaped to the British, from whom he received a sum of money, a brigadier generalship in the army, and the command of a force in Virginia. His last days were spent in England.

[72]

Born, 1742; died, 1786. Member of the Rhode Island assembly in 1770; joined a military company in 1774; became brigadier general in 1775; major general in 1776; showed great military talents at Dorchester Heights, Brooklyn, Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown; succeeded Gates in the South, 1780, and by his strategic skill in opposing Cornwallis and Lord Rawdon, cleared the South and drove Cornwallis into the position which resulted in the surrender at Yorktown. Washington regarded him as the most skillful of his generals, and posterity has confirmed this judgment.

[73]	Born, 1718; died, 1790. A noted ranger in the Indian Wars; served at Bunker Hill; major general, 1775; commanded in defeat of Long Island, 1776, in Highlands of the Hudson, 1777, and in Connecticut, 1778–1779; disabled by paralysis, 1779. Famed for fight with wolf, and for other exploits.

[74]

The American troops, notwithstanding the energetic threats of Washington, acted in a very cowardly manner and offered little resistance at Kipp’s Bay, and Howe had no difficulty in landing. Had he pushed rapidly across Manhattan Island, Putnam’s army would inevitably have been cut off. But Mrs. Lindley Murray, whose mansion stood on Murray Hill, invited the British officers to refresh themselves with luncheon, whereupon a halt was called, and they were detained for two hours. During this time Putnam with his army of four thousand marched up the west side of the island and soon joined Washington.

[75]	Born, 1731; died, 1805. Member of Continental Congress from South Carolina in 1775; defended Sullivan’s Island in 1776; defeated the British at Beaufort and defended Charleston in 1779; was governor of South Carolina in 1785 and 1794.

[76]

Born, 1732; died, 1794. Educated in England; was a leader of the Virginia House of Burgesses, 1761 to 1788; opposed the slave trade and the Stamp Act; was one of the first to suggest the famous committees of correspondence; was on the committee to draft the address of the First Continental Congress; drafted the address of the Second Congress; moved the Resolution of Independence; was very earnest in his opposition to the adoption of the Federal Constitution in 1788; was a prominent Anti-Federalist and United States senator, 1789 to 1792.

[77]

Born, 1743; died, 1826. Graduated at William and Mary College; became a lawyer and entered House of Burgesses in 1769; was active in Revolutionary agitation as a writer rather than as a speaker; drafted the instructions to the Virginia delegates and consequently was proscribed by Great Britain; soon after drafting the Declaration of Independence, left Congress to reënter Virginian politics, where as governor and legislator he exerted much influence in securing reforms; went to France as plenipotentiary in 1784; returned to America in 1789, just after the adoption of the Constitution; became first Secretary of State; wrote much to show his fears that the provisions of the Constitution would end in monarchy; became Vice President, 1797–1801; President, 1801–1809; retired to Monticello and founded the University of Virginia.