Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 5.djvu/137

A.D.1775.]

rightness of character, which inspired all around and under him with confidence. He relied firmly on the guidings of Providence; and if Providence indicated by one thing more than another its intention to set America free, it was by providing so unpresuming yet worthy a herb on that side, and just at the same time taking away the only man on the British side whose genius for war was indisputable. Clive just then fell by his own hand, and the rest of the English generals were of that wretched mediocrity which is produced by the routine of the war-office, instead of the system of putting, as Chatham did, military genius in the van.

The congress voted Washington five hundred dollars per month, with the rank of commander-in-chief, and with four major-generals and eight brigadier-generals under him. Amongst these it is noteworthy that two Englishmen and one Irishman were included. Horatio Gates was a godson of Horace Walpole's, who had served with distinction against Martinico; Lee was a very eccentric man, a lieutenant-colonel in the British service, but who, from some unknown cause, had become bitterly hostile to the English ministry, and had been induced by Gates to purchase lands in Virginia. Montgomery was a native of Ireland, who went over from our ranks. Wood and Putnam, already in the camp before Boston, were become, one a major-general, the other a brigadier.

The moment that the congress assumed this military attitude, and issued its orders to the provincial assemblies, the British government seemed to fall everywhere. The governors took to flight, and committees of safety were appointed, and their places supplied by persons of their selecting. Washington having accepted the nomination of commander-in-chief, but declined the offered salary, declaring that he would only accept the payment of his expenses, of which he should, and through the war did, keep a very exact account, in six days, or on the 21st of June, set out for the army at Boston. The spirits of the Americans had been raised by the success of attempts against the forts of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, on Lake Champlain. Early in the spring, some of the leading men of Connecticut, and chief amongst them Wooster and Silas Deane, projected this expedition, as securing the passes into Canada. The volunteers who offered for this enterprise were to march across the frontiers of New York, and come suddenly on these forts. They were joined on the way by what were called the "Green-Mountain Boys," three hundred in number, under Ethan Allen, an active partisan of that district, and at the same time an old friend of captain La Place, who was in command at Ticonderoga. They advanced secretly through the woods to the shores of Lake Champlain, and sent forward one Noah Phelps, a self-appointed captain of the volunteers, to reconnoitre. The wretched condition of carelessness existing in these important outposts, notwithstanding the alarming state of the colonies, may be known by the result. Phelps, disguised as a countryman, entered the fort on pretence of seeking a barber; and, whilst roaming about in feigned search of him, noted well the ruinous condition of the fort, and the utter negligence of the guard. The next day, Ethan Allen went alone to the fortress, ostensibly on a visit to his friend the commander, leaving his troops concealed in the wood. He represented that he wanted to conduct some goods across the lake, and borrowed twenty of La Place's soldiers to help him. These men he made dead drunk; and then, rushing suddenly to the fort, where La Place had only twenty-two soldiers more, he compelled them in their surprise to lay down their arms, set a guard over them, and entered his friend's bed-room and pronounced him a prisoner. La Place demanded by whose authority; and Allen replied, on that of "the Great Jehovah and the continental congress."

Flag of the Colonists.

This Allen, so far from being a religious enthusiast, as you might suppose from his language, was a notorious disbeliever in Christianity, and had written a book called "Reason, the only Oracle of Man." He certainly had his reason in much more active play than his drowsy antagonists. He hastened to secure a hundred iron cannon, fifty swivels, two mortars, ten tons of musket-balls, three cart-loads of flints, a hundred stand of small-arms, and other military stores. He then advanced against the fort of Crown Point, where he found only a garrison of twelve men, and immediately