posts on the Hudson, and occupy Albany his place of deposit. Two actions were fought, in which great courage was displayed. Both armies felt the magnitude of the stake; every officer, and every soldier acted, as if on his single arm the fate of the day depended. The slaughter was great, especially of the British; the glory was equal: to the enemy, for having sustained himself through two long and sternly contested battles against superior numbers; to America, for having with raw troops, chiefly undisciplined militia, checked a veteran army, conducted by a gallant and experienced chief, seconded with skill and ardor by his officers, and heroically supported by his soldiers. The second action was speedily followed by the surrender of the British force.* Conditions more favorable than the

by storm, which produced the immediate evacuation of the forts Independence and Constitution. Thus with an inferior force did the British general in a few days dispossess us of the Hudson river, believed to have been in a condition impregnable to any force then at the enemy's disposal. The military conduct of sir Henry, during this expedition, carried with it manifestations of genius far above the common order; but he stained his laurels, so gallantly won, by the cruel conflagration of the defenceless town of Esopus, then the depot of women and children.

*The expedition of sir Henry Clinton up the North river no doubt induced general Gates to admit, in the convention, the article which stipulated that the captive army should not serve against the United States until exchanged, and should be permitted in the mean time to return to England. Nevertheless the army of Burgoyne never did return to England, congress having for the first time stifled the fair claims of its enemy, under color of pretences as frivolous as was the detention of the army unjus

relative situation of the armies authorized were grant: ed by the conqueror; who in this act, as in all its appurtenances, manifested an immutable attachment to the claims of humanity. Conduct so estimable gave new lustre to the splendid victory, where heroism was adorned by clemency; illustrating the edifying truth, that glory is inseparable from virtue.

General Burgoyne in his official report bestowed great praise on his troops; but especially on the able and active support derived from the generals Philips, Reidezel and Frazier, the last of whom fell in the second action, lamented and admired. Brigadier Arnold and colonel Morgan, among a host of distinguished associates, took the lead on the side of America, and were particularly regarded by congress, and the nation, in the burst of applause which resounded throughout the United States, on the happy conclusion of the northern campaign.

The reception of the rival leaders, by their respective governments, was as different as had been their fate in battle. Gates was enrolled among the most celebrated heroes of the world, by congress, country, and army; while Burgoyne was not permitted to present himself to his sovereign, but, by the injustice of

tifiable. There was a very great disproportion of force. Gates' army consisted of 9,000 continental troops, and 4,060 militia; while that under Burgoyne amounted to 5,700 by the official statement of the number surrendered, which of course includes persons of every description. The British general rated his fighting force at 3,500, and that of Gates may be fairly estimated, including militia, at 8,500.

the very cabinet to whose former preference he owed his elevation, was deprived of all the rewards of his long service, and died in disgrace at court, adored by his gallant troops, the companions, the witnesses of his toil and peril; and esteemed by those of his countrymen, who would sensibly discriminate between incidental misfortune and deserved infamy.

Where is the general who ever more prodigally risked his life in his country's cause, than did the unfortunate Burgoyne? where the army which more bravely executed its leader's will, than did that which he conducted? what danger was avoided? what effort unessayed? what privation not submitted to? what dif ficulties not encountered? But all terminated in disaster; and the army, from whose prowess so much was expected, yielded to its equal in courage, to its superior in number.

To be unfortunate is to be disgraced: imperfect man! infatuated government! The Roman senate did not thus think: that illustrious body of sages examined the intention; the exertion, in conjunction with the issue, and made up their decision accordingly. Vanquished generals have been reanimated by their unvanquished senate, who, ever true to itself, was just to others. See Varro thanked after the loss of the battle of Cannæ, for not having despaired of the commonwealth. See the great Fabius, although for a time obscured by the machinations of detractors, hailed, in a long succession of the highest confidence," the shield of his country." But a Roman senate is too rarely to be found in the annals of power.

CHAPTER III.

WHILE this severe and eventful contest occupied. the armies of the north, Washington patiently waited. the development of sir William Howe's intention. This officer, commanding in chief the British forces, had left New York with 18,000 men completely appointed and equipped, under convoy of a powerful fleet, directed by his brother lord Howe.

Weighing from Sandy-Hook, in July, the fleet steered for the south, which general Washington supposed to be the intended course: but lest it might have been a feint to draw the American army far from the Hudson, with a view of returning with the first fair wind and seizing West Point, the American Thermopyla, washed by that river; Washington

* Properly so termed, whether we regard its natural difficulties, or its military importance. The high lands begin their ascent a little above King's Ferry on the Hudson, forty miles up the river from New York, communicating between Stony and Verplank's Point. In Pennsylvania and Maryland the same ridge of mountains is known by the name of the North Mountain, being the only one which passes through all the northern states. Continuing south, the Allegany, misnamed the back-bone of Anglican America, absolutely sinks, before it reaches the southern limit of Virginia, into the North mountain, or Blue Ridge. This spot, of precipice linked to precipice, now and then separated by a fissure

proceeded no farther south than to Bucks county, in Pennsylvania, sufficiently near, for his timely interposition, should sir William Howe suddenly change his direction. There, after a lapse of five weeks, he received information, that the fleet had entered into the Chesapeak, and was standing up that bay. He instantly decamped, and took a position on White-Clay creek, in the county of Chester, while his light troops extended to the vicinity of Elkton, in the state of Maryland; below which, at Cecil old court-house, the enemy disembarked on the 28th of August. With very

admitting the pass of men in single file, rugged, sharp and steep, was selected by Washington to hold safe the possession of the upper Hudson, indispensable to the free egress and regress between the north and the south; without which, military resistance could not be upheld. This mountainous region is computed to be twenty miles in breadth, alike rugged and impenetrable on botlt sides of the river near its margin. About midway, on its eastern bank, is Antony's Nose, 363 yards perpendicularly high; and opposite to it, 123 feet above the level of the river, is a spur of the mountain, with table land on its summit sufficient for the erection of works, separated from another spur by Preploap's kill or creek, (kill is the Dutch word for creek) presenting the same facility. Both these tops were fortified: the first called Fort Clinton, after the respectable and zealous governor of the state of New York; and the last named Montgomery, after the hero of Quebec.

Antony's Nose, in its first step of ascent, is washed by Peekskill, which falls into the Hudson, on the northern banks of which was erected Fort Independence; and six or seven miles above the Nose, towards the declivity of the high lands, is Fort Constitution. These were our land defences.