Page 185. Nathan Hale. Nathan Hale was a great-grandson of John Hale, first minister of Beverly, Massachusetts. He was born in 1755, and graduated from Yale in 1773. Little is known of his personal history.
Page 188. Trenton and Princeton. From McCarty's "National Song Book," iii, 88. McCarty says it was written from the dictation of an old lady who had heard it sung during the Revolution.
Page 204. Lord North's Recantation. These verses were written by "a gentleman of Chester," England, and first appeared in the "London Evening Post."
Page 205. General Howe's Letter. From Upcott, v, 45.
Page 208. British Valor Displayed; or, The Battle of the Kegs. This ballad was occasioned by a real incident. Certain machines in the form of kegs, charged with gunpowder, were sent down the river to annoy the British shipping then at Philadelphia. The danger of these machines being discovered, the British manned the wharfs and shipping and discharged their small-arms and cannons at everything they saw floating in the river during the ebb tide.—Author's note.
David Bushnell, inventor of the American torpedo, constructed the machines, which were so arranged as to explode on coming in contact with anything. Hopkinson's verses, which swept from colony to colony, did much to relieve the strain of those early months of 1778, and were perhaps worth as much, in tonic and inspiration, as the winning of a battle would have been.
Page 208. Sir William. Sir William Howe, commanding the British army.
Page 208. Mrs. Loring. Wife of Joshua Loring, the notorious commissary of prisoners.
Page 208. Sir Erskine. Sir William Erskine.
Page 214. King Hancock at their head. John Hancock commanded the second line of Massachusetts militia in this movement.