together with what Washington was lending to the Government from his own fortune, kept the forces together, by restoring their confidence and inducing them to reënlist. After this, Morris ably managed all of the money affairs of the Revolution.

174. Battle of Princeton. Washington's army now followed him with zeal, and a few days after the battle of Trenton he was able to surprise and defeat the enemy at Princeton, on January 3, 1777. The remainder of the winter was spent comfortably at Morristown, in northern New Jersey, where the volunteers, who now arrived in increased numbers from the several States, were carefully drilled.

At first, Washington's men had not understood his cautious methods of waiting and watching for chances to injure the enemy; but by this time they had gained confidence in him, and all realized that their leader was a really great general.1

175. Distinguished volunteers from Europe. In the

LAFAYETTE

summer of 1777 Washington was joined by several well-trained officers from European armies, who had obtained permission to aid the Americans. One of these was Baron Steuben, of Prussia, a celebrated military engineer, who helped to drill the raw Continentals and make them over into good fighting material. Others were Baron de Kalb, a German veteran who came with Lafayette, and served as a general, and two Polish officers, Pulaski and Kosciuszko.

But most noted of these Eu

1 Washington's success was partly due to his being a close and constant student of military art. Throughout the Revolution, he read as many military books as possible, and always sought to test his own ideas by those of European generals.

ropean volunteers was the Marquis de Lafayette, a young French nobleman but nineteen years old. Being made a general in our army, he clothed and equipped many of the men in his command, and became a warm friend of Washington and of the United States. During the war, and until his death long years afterward, he was idolized by our people, who admired his frank, winning manners, and his democratic ideas.1

176. Burgoyne's surrender. Although Washington and the greater part of his army had left the Hudson River in 1776, Howe had not as yet been able to control the HudsonChamplain route to Canada, for Ticonderoga was still in the hands of the Americans. But in the summer of 1777 General Burgoyne, of the British army, at the head of nearly ten thousand regulars, besides many Loyalists and Indians, came south from Canada and captured the famous fortress.

Burgoyne had expected to be joined on the Hudson River by two other British expeditions one was to have come up the river from Manhattan Island under Howe himself; another, consisting of Indians and Loyalists under Colonel St. Leger, was to march from Oswego down the valley of the Mohawk River. Had these three columns joined as planned, no doubt they would have been able to capture the entire route between New York Bay and the St. Lawrence River, and thus sever New England from the rest of the country. If that had been done, the American States could not then have all united in helping each other, and the Revolutionary cause would probably have failed then and there.

But through some mischance Howe failed to receive his orders from England to assist Burgoyne, so did not go north

1 Lafayette was born in 1757, of a family long distinguished in French history. After the war he returned to his native country, where he also became a general; but in the French Revolution he was not radical enough to suit its leaders, and fled to Belgium. He passed several years in political prisons in Austria, and suffered greatly. When Napoleon won, he was set free and again became prominent in France. In 1824-25 he revisited the United States by invitation of Congress, and was everywhere received with great enthusiasm. Ten years later he died in Paris.

ward to meet him; and St. Leger, while laying siege to Fort Schuyler,1 was defeated in a fierce ambush near Oriskany, by a body of buckskin-clad backwoods riflemen under General Herkimer.

Burgoyne was thus left alone to grapple with the Americans, and soon found himself surrounded by great numbers

of New England

Painting by F. C. Yohn. Courtesy, Glens Falls Life Insurance Co.
THE SURRENDER OF BURGOYNE

Saratoga, about a third of all the King's troops then in America.3

Many military experts in Europe had closely watched this campaign for cutting off New England from the rest of the country. When it failed, they believed that, under so persistent and competent a commander as Washington, the Americans had now a fair chance to win, if only they could hold out long enough.

177. Battles of Brandywine and Germantown. While

1 Fort Schuyler, formerly called Fort Stanwix, at what is now Rome, New York, had the honor, in this campaign, of being, probably, the first fort to fly the "Stars and Stripes" of the new nation, on August 3, 1777. The first regular battle fought under the new flag was Brandywine.

2 While Burgoyne was struggling through the wilderness south of Lake Champlain, he sent a thousand of his men to Bennington, Vermont, to capture supplies. This foraging expedition was attacked by a body of frontier farmers under Colonel John Stark, who killed or captured nearly nine hundred of the redcoats.

3 The historian Creasy calls the engagement near Saratoga one of the fifteen decisive battles of the world.

these important events, which he directed from a distance, were taking place in the North, Washington himself was having bad fortune. He had outwitted the British in New Jersey, so that they had failed to reach Philadelphia by marching across that State. But now came news that Howe had landed seventeen thousand men from ships, at the head of Chesapeake Bay, and intended to march overland

THE AMERICAN ENCAMPMENT AT VALLEY FORGE

from that point to Philadelphia, where Congress was then assembled.

Washington hurried to the defense of that body, but his troops were just then in poor condition, and he met defeat on Brandywine Creek, September 10, 1777. Two weeks later the British entered Philadelphia and soon secured control of the Delaware River, up which they could now bring their ships direct to the town. The Americans tried to drive out the invaders from the suburb of Germantown, but were again repulsed.

The season now being late, Washington felt obliged to go into winter quarters at Valley Forge, a hilly region about twenty miles northwest of the city.

178. The dreadful winter at Valley Forge. Howe and his officers had a gay season in Philadelphia, where the Loyalists freely opened their houses to them, and gave dinners and balls in their honor. In striking contrast, Washington and his army were suffering severely on their cheerless hillsides. They passed the long and harsh winter in rude log huts, with insufficient fuel, clothing, and food, and were the miserable victims of camp diseases, caused by poor nourishment and unsanitary conditions.

When the British were approaching Philadelphia, the autumn previous, Congress had fled first to Lancaster; then to York, where several of its members formed a conspiracy to remove Washington, whom they charged with incompetency, because he so often retreated, and to put in his place General Gates. These men did not then understand, as the best of the soldiers did, that Washington's courage, patriotism, self-sacrifice, and wisdom, as well as his military genius, were the real backbone of the Revolution.1

During these sad months at Valley Forge the great Virginian was feeding his comrades at his own expense, and trying to drill the new recruits to become efficient soldiers. Although he seldom lost his patience, he did so at this time, and from his dreary camp wrote indignantly, "Two thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight men are unfit for duty because they are barefoot or otherwise naked. It is a much easier thing to draw remonstrances in a comfortable room, by a good fireside, than to occupy a cold, bleak hill, and sleep under frost and snow without blankets."

179. France aids the United States. After the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Congress had sent to France three commissioners, headed by Franklin, who was now famous in Europe as a scientist and public man, to ask England's ancient enemy to aid the Americans in their struggle for independence. The French hesitated at first,

1 This conspiracy is called in history the "Conway cabal," because it was managed by General Conway, a meddlesome French officer, who was disappointed because Washington did not want him promoted. Conway resigned in 1778, and returned to France.