Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 8.djvu/203

 The Siege of Boston Developed.

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��THE SIEGE OF BOSTON DEVELOPED.

By Henry B. Carrington, U.S.A., LL.D.

[Author of The Battles of the American Revolution, etc.]

��By order of the President of the United States, a national salute was fired, at meridian, on the twenty- fourth day of December, 1883, as a memorial recognition of the one hundreth anniversary of the surrender by George Washington, on the twenty- third day of December, 1783, at Annapolis, of his commission as commander-in-chief of the patriotic forces of America. This official order declares " the fitness of observing that memorable act, which not only signal- ized the termination of the heroic struggle of seven years for independ- ence, but also manifested Washing- ton's devotion to the great principle, that ours is a civil government, of and by the people."

The closing sentence of Washing- ton's order, dated April 18, 1783, may well be associated with this latest centennial observance. As he directed a cessation of hostilities, his joyous faith, jubilant and prophetic, thus fore- cast the future : " Happy, thrice happy ! shall they be pronounced, hereafter, who have contributed any- thing, who have performed the meanest office, in erecting this stupendous fabric of freedom and empire, on the broad basis of independence, — who have assisted in protecting the rights of human nature, and establishing an asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions."

The two acts of Washington, thus associated, were but th5 fruition of deliberate plans which were formulated

��in the trenches about Boston. The " centennial week of years," which has so signally brought into bold relief the details of single battles and has imparted fresh interest to many localities which retain no visible trace of the scenes which endear them to the American heart, has inclined the careless observer to regard the battles of the War for Independence as largely accidental, and the result of happy, or even of Provi- dential, circumstances, rather than as the fruit of well-considered plans which were shaped with full confidence in success.

Battles and campaigns have been separated from their true relation to the war, as a systematic conflict, in which the strategic issue was sharply defined ; and too little notice has been taken of the fact that Washington took the aggressive from his first assumption of command. The title " Fabius of America" was freely conferred upon him after his success at Trenton; but there was a subtle sentiment embodied in that very tribute, which credited him with the political sagacity of the patriot and statesman, more than with the genius of a great soldier. All contem- poraries admitted that he was judicious in the use of the resources placed at his command, that he was keen to use raw troops to the best possible disposal, and took quick advantage of every oppor- tunity which afforded relief to his poorly-fed and poorly-equipped troops, in meeting the British and Hessian regulars ; but there were few who pene-

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