“I have the honor to surrender to the loveliest woman the sword surrendered to me by one of the bravest of men.”
The Royal Order of Military Merit with the title of Chevalier and the gift of a gold-mounted sword were conferred upon him by the king of France. Upon returning to America, he was given the rank of Head of the Navy.
Remarkable as was the career of Paul Jones, the winds did not always set in his favor. Many times was his life bark driven through the waters of bitter disappointment. But “all that he was, and all that he did, and all that he knew, was the result of self-help to a degree unexampled in the histories of great men. ”
The flag of the Ranger, saluted by the French fleet, was transferred by Jones to the Bon Homme Richard, and, says he, in his journal as given by Buell, “was left flying when we abandoned her; the very last vestige mortal ever saw of the Bon Homme Richard was the defiant waving of her unconquered and unstricken flag as she went down. And as I had given them the good old ship for their sepulcher, I now bequeathed to my immortal dead the Flag they had so desperately defended, for their winding sheet.” Here was: “the only flag,” says one, “flying at the bottom of the sea, over the only ship that ever sunk in victory.”[1]
And everywhere,
The slender graceful spars
Poise aloft in the air
And at the masthead
White, blue, and red,
A flag unfolds, the Stripes and Stars.
Ah, when the wanderers, lonely, friendless,
In foreign harbors shall behold
That flag unrolled,
’Twill be as a friendly hand
Stretched out from native land,
Filling his heart with memories
Sweet and endless.
Longfellow.
[1] In Preble’s “History of the Flags of the United States,” it is given that when the Bon Homme Richard was sinking the flag was transferred to the Serapis, and was afterward presented by the Marine Committee to James Bayard Stafford of the Bon Homme Richard for meritorious services.
WHERE THE STARS AND STRIPES UNFURLED
BURGOYNE was in the enemy’s country. He was cut off from reënforcements. His very efforts to separate the colonies now recoiled upon his own armies. He could neither advance nor retreat with safety. For two weeks the opposing armies had stood opposite each other without fire. In desperation the British general now hazarded another battle. After a sustained and terrible struggle Burgoyne went down in defeat. His best and bravest officers were lost and seven hundred of his men were killed. General Frazer, beloved by every British soldier and respected by those opposed to him, had fallen at the hands of one of Morgan’s riflemen, of whom it was said, they could strike an apple in mid-air and shoot out every seed.
On the American side Benedict Arnold, although divested of his command, had ridden to the front of his old regiment and became “the inspiring genius of the battle.” He charged right into the British lines and received a severe wound. He received also the disapproval of General Gates and the reprimand of Congress. The battle raged furiously until nightfall, when the proud Briton who had boasted “the British never retreat” fled under cover of the darkness. He gained the heights of Saratoga, where he found himself completely hemmed in by the Americans. With but three days’ rations between his army and starvation, he was forced to surrender. While he was holding consultation with his officers concerning this, a cannon ball passed over the table at which they were sitting, and, no doubt, hastened their conclusions.