equal in hazard or difficulty, or conducted with more consummate skill and daring courage. It was, too, accomplished without loss; filled the camp of the enemy with shame and astonishment, and shed an unfading lustre on the American arms. Some time after, he accompanied general Greene to the southern department of the United States, subsequent to the memorable and disastrous battle of Camden, which reduced under the power of the enemy the three states of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The many brilliant achievements which he performed in that difficult and arduous war, under this celebrated and consummate commander, it is not necessary to enumerate; they are so many illustrious monuments of American courage and prowess, which, in all future ages, will be the theme of historical praise, of grateful recollection by his countrymen, and of ardent imitation by every brave and patriotic soldier. Those states were recovered from the enemy. The country enjoys in peace, independence and liberty, the benefits of his useful services. All that remains of him is a grave, and the glory of his deeds.

At the close of the revolutionary war, he returned to the walks of civil life. He was often a member of the legislature of Virginia, one of its delegates to congress, under the confederation, and one of the convention which adopted the present constitution of the United States, and which he supported; three years governor of the state, and afterwards a representative in the congress of the United States, under the present organization.

While governor of Virginia, he was selected by president Washington, to command the army sent to quell the insurrection which had been excited from untoward and erroneous impressions in the western counties of Pennsylvania, in which he had the felicity to bring to order and obedience, the misguided inhabitants, without shedding the blood of one fellow citizen. He possessed this peculiar characteristic as a military commander, of being always careful of the health and lives of his soldiers, never exposing them to unnecessary toils, or fruitless hazards; always keeping them in readiness for useful and important enterprises. Every public station to which he was called, he filled with dignity and pro

priety. He died on the 25th of March, 1818, at the house of a friend, on Cumberland island, Georgia, on his return from the West Indies to his native state, Virginia, in the sixty-first year of his age.

In private life he was kind, hospitable and generous. Too ardent in the pursuit of his objects, too confident in others, he wanted that prudence which is necessary to guard against imposition and pecuniary losses, and accumulate wealth. Like many other illustrious commanders and patriots, he died poor.

He has left behind him a valuable historical work, entitled "Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States," in which the difficulties and privations endured by the patriotic army employed in that quarter; their courage and enterprise, and the skill and talents of their faithful, active, and illustrious commander, are displayed in never-fading colours; a work, to use the language of the publishers, by the perusal of which "the patriot will be always delighted, the statesman informed, and the soldier instructed: which bears in every part the ingenious stamp of a patriot soldier, and cannot fail to interest all who desire to understand the causes, and to know the difficulties of our memorable struggle. The facts may be relied on, "all of which he saw, and part

of which he was.

Fortune seems to have conducted him, at the close of his life, almost to the tomb of Greene, and his bones may now repose by the side of those of his beloved chief; friends in life, united in death, and partners in a neverdying fame.

LEE, EZRA, was a brave officer in the revolutionary army. It is not a little remarkable that this officer is the only man, of which it can be said, that he fought the enemy upon land, upon water, and under the water; the latter mode of warfare was as follows:

When the British fleet lay in the North River, opposite the city of New York, and while general Washington

had possession of the city, he was very desirous to be rid of such neighbours. A Mr. David Bushnell, of Saybrook, Connecticut, who had the genius of a Fulton, constructed a sub-marine machine, of a conical form, bound together with iron bands, within which one person might sit, and with cranks and sculls, could navigate it to any depth under water. In the upper part was affixed a vertical screw, for the purpose of penetrating ships' bottoms, and to this was attached a magazine of powder, within which was a clock, which, on being set to run any given time, would, when run down, spring a gun-lock, and an explosion would follow. This marine turtle, so called, was examined by general Washington, and approved. To preserve secrecy, it was experimented within an enclosed yard, over twenty to thirty feet water, and kept during day-light locked in a vessel's hold. The brother of the inventor was to be the person to navigate the machine into action, but on sinking it the first time, he declined the service.

General Washington, unwilling to relinquish the object, requested major-general Parsons to select a person, in whom he could confide, voluntarily to engage in the enterprise; the latter being well acquainted with the heroic spirit, the patriotism, and the firm and steady courage of captain Ezra Lee, immediately communicated the plan and the offer, which he accepted, observing, that his life was at general Washington's service. After practising the machine until he understood its powers of balancing and moving under water, a night was fixed upon for the attempt. General Washington and his associates in the secret, took their station upon the roof of a house in Broadway, anxiously waiting the result. Morning came, and no intelligence could be had of the intrepid sub-marine navigator, nor could the boat which attended him give any account of him after parting with him the first part of the night. While these anxious spectators were about to give him up as lost, several barges were seen to start suddenly from Governor's Island, (then in possession of the British,) and proceed towards some object near the Asia ship of the line; as suddenly they were seen to put about and steer for the island with springing oars. In two or three minutes an

explosion took place, from the surface of the water, resembling a water-spout, which aroused the whole city and region; the enemy's ships took the alarm; signals were rapidly given; the ships cut their cables and proceeded to the Hook with all possible despatch, sweeping their bottoms with chains, and with difficulty prevented their affrighted crews from leaping overboard.

During this scene of consternation the deceased came to the surface, opened the brass head of his aquatic machine, rose up and gave a signal for the boat to come to him; but they could not reach him until he again descended under water, to avoid the enemy's shot from the island, who had discovered him and commenced firing in his wake. Having forced himself against a strong current under water, until without the reach of shot, he was taken in tow, and landed at the battery amidst a great crowd, and reported himself to general Washington, who expressed his entire satisfaction that the object was effected without the loss of lives. Captain Lee was under the Asia's bottom more than two hours, endeavouring to penetrate her copper, but in vain. He frequently came up under her stern galleries, searching for exposed plank, and could hear the sentinels cry. Once he was discovered by the watch on deck, and heard them speculate upon him, but concluded a drifted log had paid them a visit. He returned to her keel, and examined it fore and aft, and then proceeded to some other ships; but it was impossible to penetrate their copper, for want of a resisting power, and hundreds owed the safety of their lives to this circumstance. The longest space of

time he could remain under water was two hours.

Captain Lee, during the war, ever had the confidence and esteem of the commander in chief, and was frequently employed by him on secret missions of importance. He fought with him at Trenton and Monmouth; at Brandywine the hilt of his sword was shot away, and his hat and coat were penetrated by the enemy's balls. On the return of peace, he laid aside the habiliments of war, and returned to his farm, where, like Cincinnatus, he tilled his lands, until called by the great commander in chief to the regions above.

He died at Lyme, Connecticut, on the 29th October, 1821, aged seventy-two years.

LINCOLN, BENJAMIN, was born in Hingham, Massachusetts, January 23, 1733. His early education was not auspicious to his future eminence, and his vocation was that of a farmer, till he was more than forty years of age, though he was commissioned as a magistrate, and elected a representative in the state legislature. In the year 1775, he sustained the office of lieutenant-colonel of militia, and having espoused the cause of his country as a firm and determined whig, he was elected a member of the provincial congress, and one of the secretaries of that body, and also a member of the committee of correspondence. In 1776, he was appointed by the council of Massachusetts a brigadier, and soon after a major-general, and he applied himself assiduously to training and preparing the militia for actual service in the field, in which he displayed the military talent he possessed. In October he marched with a body of militia and joined the main army at New York. The commander in chief, from a knowledge of his character and merit, recommended him to congress as an excellent officer, and in February, 1777, he was by that honourable body created a major-general on the continental establishment. For several months he commanded a division, or detachment in the main army, under Washington, and was in situations which required the exercise of the utmost vigilance and caution, as well as firmness and courage. Having the command of about five hundred men in an exposed situation near Bound Brook, through the neglect of his patroles, a large body of the enemy approached within two hundred yards of his quarters undiscovered; the general had scarcely time to mount and leave the house, before it was surrounded. He led off

his troops, however, in the face of the enemy, and made good his retreat, though with the loss of about sixty men killed and wounded. One of his aids, with the