Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 8).djvu/91

Rh manœuver his armies from red-coat generals' grasp, and the fretful complainings of the "times that tried men's souls" were alternately hushed in the presence of gloom and scattered in the hour of victory. But now the clash of personal interest and state pride rose loud about the chief executive, and advisers, who had once lost all thought of self in the common danger, now became uncertain quantities in the struggle for personal advancement, and bickered spitefully over matters of preferment and policy. The country which Washington loved never needed his services more than now when these untried problems of currency, debt, and policy—and now of war—came rapidly to the front.

The President's call for militia was answered with too great alacrity. A motley collection of Kentucky militia was assembling by the middle of September, and those from Pennsylvania reached Fort Washington on the twenty-fourth. The Kentuckians were formed into three battalions under Majors Hall, M'Mullen, and Bay, commanded by Lieutenant-colonel Trotter—under whom they were anxious to