These words make one see, as one reads, the great Virginian in his noblest aspect—calm in the face of possible disaster, his spirit burning brightest on the very fuel of danger itself, his clear mind unclouded by what was likely to befall.
Each division, each regiment, each company, was given plain and practical orders for the expected conflict. And we may be sure that each man, private as well as officer, took heart as he looked upon the giant figure and listened to the steady directions and undismayed encouragement of his chief. Certain it is that John Marshall so felt and thought. A rare picture, this, full of life and color, that permits us to behold the growth in the young soldier's soul of that faith in and devotion to George Washington, seeds of which had been planted in his childhood days in the Blue Ridge home.
Finally the British, seeing the resolute front of the Americans and already bleeding from the fierce thrusts of Morgan's Virginia riflemen, suddenly withdrew to Philadelphia,[354] and Washington's army went into winter quarters on the hills of Valley Forge.
FOOTNOTES:
[217] Slaughter, 107-08. This was "the first minute battalion raised within this Commonwealth." (Memorial of Thomas Marshall to the Virginia Legislature for military "emoluments"; MS. Archives, Va. St. Lib.) Appendix IV.
[218] Washington to Mason, April 5, 1769; Writings: Ford, ii, 263.
[219] Meade, ii, 219.
[220] Binney, in Dillon, iii, 286.
[221] Ib.
[222] Statement of eye-witness. (Binney, in Dillon, iii, 287.)