Washington the Soldier

by Henry B. Carrington

CHAPTER I.
	PAGE
Early Aptitudes for Success	[1]
CHAPTER II.
The Ferment of American Liberty	[10]
CHAPTER III.
The Outbreak of Repressed Liberty	[20]
CHAPTER IV.
Armed America needs a Soldier	[31]
CHAPTER V.
Washington in Command	[41]
CHAPTER VI.
British Canada enters the Field of Action	[50]
CHAPTER VII.
Howe succeeds Gates.—Closing Scenes of 1775	[58]
CHAPTER VIII.
America against Britain.—Boston taken	[68]
CHAPTER IX.
Systematic War with Britain begun	[82]
CHAPTER X.
Britain against America.—Howe invades New York	[93]
CHAPTER XI.
Battle of Long Island	[101]
CHAPTER XII.
Washington in New York	[114]
CHAPTER XIII.
Washington tenders, and Howe declines, Battle.—Harlem Heights and White Plains	[125]
CHAPTER XIV.
The First New Jersey Campaign.—Trenton	[134]
CHAPTER XV.
The First New Jersey Campaign developed.—Princeton	[150]
CHAPTER XVI.
The American Base of Operations established.—The Second New Jersey Campaign	[160]
CHAPTER XVII.
British Invasion from Canada.—Operations along the Hudson	[171]
CHAPTER XVIII.
Pennsylvania invaded.—Battle of Brandywine	[181]
CHAPTER XIX.
Washington resumes the Offensive.—Battle of Germantown	[192]
CHAPTER XX.
Jealousy and Greed defeated.—Valley Forge	[198]
CHAPTER XXI.
Philadelphia and Valley Forge in Winter, 1778	[210]
CHAPTER XXII.
From Valley Forge to White Plains again.—Battle of Monmouth	[221]
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Alliance with France takes effect.—Siege of Newport	[238]
CHAPTER XXIV.
Minor Events and Grave Conditions, 1779	[246]
CHAPTER XXV.
Minor Operations of 1779 continued.—Stony Point taken.—New England relieved	[255]
CHAPTER XXVI.
Shifting Scenes.—Temper of the People.—Savannah	[263]
CHAPTER XXVII.
The Eventful Year 1780.—New Jersey once more invaded	[269]
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Battle of Springfield.—Rochambeau.—Arnold.—Gates	[282]
CHAPTER XXIX.
A Bird’s-eye View of the Theatre of War	[294]
CHAPTER XXX.
The Soldier tried.—American Mutiny.—Foreign Judgment.—Arnold’s Depredations	[304]
CHAPTER XXXI.
The Southern Campaign, 1781, outlined.—Cowpens.—Guilford Court-house.—Eutaw Springs	[312]
CHAPTER XXXII.
Lafayette in Pursuit of Arnold.—The End in Sight.—Arnold in the British Army	[323]
CHAPTER XXXIII.
New York and Yorktown threatened.—Cornwallis inclosed by Lafayette	[333]
CHAPTER XXXIV.
British Captains outgeneraled.—Washington joins Lafayette	[344]
CHAPTER XXXV.
The Alliance with France vindicated.—Washington’s Magnanimity.—His Benediction	[352]
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Washington’s Prediction realized.—The Attitude of America pronounced	[366]
Appendix A.—American Army, by States	[377]
Appendix B.—American Navy and its Career	[378]
Appendix C.—Comparisons with Later Wars	[380]
Appendix D.—British Army, at Various Dates	[383]
Appendix E.—Organization of Burgoyne’s Army	[387]
Appendix F.—Organization of Cornwallis’s Army	[388]
Appendix G.—Notes of Lee’s Court-martial	[389]
Glossary of Military Terms	[393]
Chronological and Biographical Index	[397]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS.

ILLUSTRATIONS.
		PAGE
Washington		[Frontispiece.]
[Hall’s engraving from the St. Memin crayon.]
Washington at Four Periods of his Military Career		[40]
[From etching, after Hall’s Sons’ group.]
Washington at Boston		[80]
[From Stuart’s painting, in Faneuil Hall, Boston.]
Washington before Trenton		[143]
[From Dael’s painting.]
Washington in his Room at Valley Forge		[207]
[From the painting by Scheuster.]
MAPS.
I.	—Outline of the Atlantic Coast	[1]
II.	—Boston and Vicinity	[69]
III.	—Battle of Long Island	[105]
IV.	—Operations near New York	[125]
V.	—Capture of Fort Washington	[132]
VI.	—Trenton and Vicinity	[144]
VII.	—Battle of Trenton: Battle of Princeton	[151]
VIII.	—Operations in New Jersey	[161]
IX.	—Attack of Forts Clinton and Montgomery	[179]
X.	—Battle of Brandywine	[186]
XI.	—Battle of Germantown	[196]
XII.	—Operations on the Delaware	[202]
XIII.	—Operations near Philadelphia	[204]
XIV.	—Encampment at Valley Forge	[211]
XV.	—Battle of Monmouth	[224]
XVI.	—Outline Map of Hudson River	[255]
XVII.	—Battle of Springfield: Operations from Staten Island	[283]
XVIII.	—Lafayette in Virginia	[339]
XIX.	—Operations in Chesapeake Bay	[355]
XX.	—Siege of Yorktown	[357]

WASHINGTON THE SOLDIER.

CHAPTER I.
EARLY APTITUDES FOR SUCCESS.

The boyhood and youth of George Washington were singularly in harmony with those aptitudes and tastes that shaped his entire life. He was not quite eight years of age when his elder brother, Lawrence, fourteen years his senior, returned from England where he had been carefully educated, and where he had developed military tastes that were hereditary in the family. Lawrence secured a captain’s commission in a freshly organized regiment, and engaged in service in the West Indies, with distinguished credit. His letters, counsels, and example inspired the younger brother with similar zeal. Irving says that “all his amusements took a military turn. He made soldiers of his school-mates. They had their mimic parades, reviews, and sham-fights. A boy named William Bustle, was sometimes his competitor, but George was commander-in-chief of the school.”

His business aptitudes were equally exact, methodical, and promising. Besides fanciful caligraphy, which appeared in manuscript school-books, wherein he executed profiles of his school-mates, with a flourish of the pen, as well as nondescript birds, Irving states that “before he was thirteen years of age, he had copied into a volume, forms of all kinds of mercantile and legal papers: bills of exchange, notes of hand, deeds, bonds, and the like.” “This self-tuition gave him throughout life a lawyer’s skill in drafting documents, and a merchant’s exactness in keeping accounts, so that all the concerns of his various estates, his dealings with his domestic stewards and foreign agents, his accounts with government, and all his financial transactions, are, to this day, monuments of his method and unwearied accuracy.”

Even as a boy, his frame had been large and powerful, and he is described by Captain Mercer “as straight as an Indian, measuring six feet and two inches in his stockings, and weighing one hundred and seventy-five pounds, when he took his seat in the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1759. His head is well shaped though not large, but is gracefully poised on a superb neck, with a large and straight rather than a prominent nose; blue-gray penetrating eyes, which were widely separated and overhung by heavy brows. A pleasing, benevolent, though a commanding countenance, dark-brown hair, features regular and placid, with all the muscles under perfect control, with a mouth large, and generally firmly closed,” complete the picture. The bust by Houdon at the Capitol of Virginia, and the famous St. Memin crayon, fully accord with this description of Washington.

His training and surroundings alike ministered to his natural conceptions of a useful and busy life. In the midst of abundant game, he became proficient in its pursuit. Living where special pride was taken in the cultivation of good stock, and where nearly all travel and neighborly visitation was upon horseback, he learned the value of a good horse, and was always well mounted. Competition in saddle exercise was, therefore, one of the most pleasing and constant entertainments of himself and companions, and in its enjoyment, and in many festive tournaments that revived something of the olden-time chivalry of knighthood, Washington was not only proficient, but foremost in excellence of attainment.