of Mr. Custis, a young lady, to whom he had been for some time strongly attached, and who, to a large fortune and a fine person, added those amiable accomplishments, which fill with silent felicity the scenes of domestic life. His attention for several years, was principally directed to the management of his estate, which had now become considerable. He was, at this period, a respectable member of the legislature of Virginia, in which he took a decided part in opposition to the principle of taxation, asserted by the British parliament. He also acted as a judge of a county court. In 1774, he was elected a member of the first congress, and was placed on all those committees whose duty it was to make arrangements for defence. In the following year, after the battle of Lexington, when it was determined by congress to resort to arms, colonel Washington was unanimously elected commander in chief of the army of the united colonies. All were satisfied as to his qualifications, and the delegates from New England were particularly pleased with his election, as it would tend to unite the southern colonies cordially in the war. He accepted the appointment with diffidence, and expressed his intention of receiving no compensation for his services, and only a mere discharge of his expenses. He immediately repaired to Cambridge, in the neighbourhood of Boston, where he arrived on the second of July. He formed the army into three divisions, in order the more effectually to enclose the enemy, intrusting the division at Roxbury to general Ward, the division on Prospect and Winter Hills to general Lee, and commanding himself the centre at Cambridge. Here he had to struggle with grea difficulties, with the want of ammunition, clothing, and magazines, defect of arms and discipline, and the evils of short enlistments; but instead of yielding to despondence, he bent the whole force of his mind to overcome them. He soon made the alarming discovery, that there was only sufficient powder on hand to furnish the army with nine cartridges for each man. With the greatest caution, to keep this fact a secret, the utmost exertions were employed to procure a supply. A vessel which was despatched to Africa, obtained, in exchange for New England rum, all the gunpowder in the British factories;

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and in the beginning of winter, captain Manly captured an ordnance brig, which furnished the American army with the precise articles of which it was in the greatest want. In September general Washington despatched Arnold on an expedition against Quebec. In February, 1776, he proposed to a council of his officers, to cross the ice, and attack the enemy in Boston, but they unanimously disapproved of the daring measure. It was, however, soon resolved to take possession of the heights of Dorchester. This was done without discovery, on the night of the 4th of March, and on the 17th, the enemy found it necessary to evacuate the town. The recovery of Boston induced congress to pass a vote of thanks to general Washington and his brave army.

In the belief that the efforts of the British would be directed towards the Hudson, he hastened the army to New York, where he himself arrived on the 14th of April. He made every exertion to fortify the city, and attention was paid to the forts in the highlands. While he met the most embarrassing difficulties, a plan was formed to assist the enemy in seizing his person, and some of his own guards engaged in the conspiracy; but it was discovered, and some who were concerned in it were executed. In the beginning of July, general Howe landed his troops at Staten Island: his brother, lord Howe, who commanded the fleet, soon arrived; and as both were commissioners for restoring peace to the colonies, the latter addressed a letter upon the subject, to George Washington, esquire;" but the general refused to receive it, as it did not acknowledge the public character with which he was invested by congress, in which character only he could have any intercourse with his lordship. Another letter was sent to "George Washgton, &c. &c. &c." This, for the same reason, was ejected. After the disastrous battle of Brooklyn, on the it of August, in which Sterling and Sullivan were taken prisoners, and of which he was only a spectator, he withdrew the troops from Long Island, and in a few days he resolved to withdraw from New York. At Kipp's hay, about three miles from the city, some works had en thrown up to oppose the enemy; but, on their approach, the American troops filed with precipitation

Washington rode towards the lines, and made every exertion to prevent the disgraceful flight. Such was the state of his mind at this moment, that he turned his horse towards the advancing enemy, apparently with the intention of rushing upon death: but his aids seized the bridle of his horse, and rescued him from destruction. New York was, on the same day, September 15th, evacuated. In October he retreated to the White Plains, where, on the 28th, a considerable action took place, in which the Americans were overpowered. After the loss of forts Washington and Lee, he passed into New Jersey, in November, and was pursued by a triumphant and numerous army. His army did not amount to three thousand, and it was daily diminishing; his men, as the winter commenced, were bare-footed, and almost naked, destitute of tents, and of utensils with which to dress their scanty provisions; and every circumstance tended to fill the mind with despondence. But general Washington was undismayed and firm. He showed himself to his enfeebled army with a serene and unembarrassed countenance, and they were inspired with the resolution of their commander. On the 8th of December he was obliged to cross the Delaware; but he had the precaution to secure the boats for seventy miles upon the river. While the British were waiting for the ice to afford them a passage, as his own army had been reinforced by several thousand men, he formed the resolution of carrying the cantonments of the enemy by surprise. On the night of the 25th of December, he crossed the river, nine miles above Trenton, in a storm of snow mingled with hail and rain, with about two thousand four hundred men. Two other detachments were unable to effect a passage. In the morning, precisely at eight o'clock, he surprised Trenton, and took one thousand Hessians prisoners, one "thousand stand of arms, and six field pieces. Twenty of the enemy were killed, and of the Americans, two were killed, and two frozen to death, and one officer and four privates wounded. On the same day he recrossed the Delaware, with the fruits of his enterprise; but in two or three days passed again into New Jersey, and concentrated his forces, amounting to five thousand, at Trenton. On the approach of a superior enemy, under

Cornwallis, January 2, 1777, he drew up his men behind Assumpinck creek. He expected an attack in the morning, which would probably result in a ruinous defeat. At this moment, when it was hazardous, if not imprac ticable, to return into Pennsylvania, he formed the reso lution of getting into the rear of the enemy, and thus stop them in their progress towards Philadelphia. In the night, he silently decamped, taking a circuitous route through Allentown to Princeton. A sudden change of the weather to severe cold, rendered the roads favourable for his march. About sunrise his van met a British detachment on its way to join Cornwallis, and was defeated by it; but as he came up, he exposed himself to every danger, and gained a victory. With three hundred prisoners he then entered Princeton. During this march many of his soldiers were without shoes, and their feet left the marks of blood upon the frozen ground. This hardship and their want of repose, induced him to lead his army to a place of security on the road to Morristown. Cornwallis in the morning broke up his camp, and alarmed for his stores at Brunswick, urged the pursuit. Thus the military genius of the American commander, under the blessing of divine Providence, rescued Philadelphia from the threatened danger, obliged the enemy, who had overspread New Jersey, to return to the neighbourhood of New York, and revived the desponding spirit of his country. Having accomplished these objects, he retired to Morristown, where he caused his whole army to be inoculated with the small-pox, and thus was freed from the apprehension of a calamity which might impede his operations during the next campaign.

On the last of May he removed his army to Middlebrook, about ten miles from Brunswick, where he fortified himself very strongly. An ineffectual attempt was made by sir William Howe to draw him from his position by marching towards Philadelphia; but after Howe's return to New York, he moved towards the Hudson, in order to defend the passes in the mountains, in the expectation that a junction with Burgoyne, who was then upon the lakes, would be attempted. After the British general sailed from New York, and entered the Chesa

peake in August, general Washington marched immediately for the defence of Philadelphia. On the 11th of September he was defeated at Brandywine, with the loss of nine hundred in killed and wounded. A few days afterwards, as he was pursued, he turned upon the enemy, determined upon another engagement; but a heavy rain so damaged the arms and ammunition, that he was under the absolute necessity of again retreating. Philadelphia was entered by Cornwallis on the 26th of September. On the 4th of October the American commander made a well planned attack upon the British camp at Germantown; but in consequence of the darkness of the morning, and the imperfect discipline of the troops, it terminated in the loss of twelve hundred men in killed, wounded, and prisoners. In December, he went into winter quarters at Valley Forge, on the west side of the Schuylkill, between twenty and thirty miles from Phitadelphia. Here his army was in the greatest distress for want of provisions, and he was reduced to the necessity of sending out parties to seize what they could find. About the same time a combination was formed to remove the commander in chief, and to appoint in his place general Gates, whose successes of late had given him a high reputation. But the name of Washington was too dear to the great body of Americans to admit of such a change. Notwithstanding the discordant materials of which his army was composed, there was something in his character which enabled him to attach both his officers and soldiers so strongly to him, that no distress could weaken their affection, nor impair the veneration in which he was generally held. Without this attachment to him, the army must have been dissolved. General Conway, who was concerned in this faction, being wounded in a duel with general Cadwalader, and thinking his wound mortal, wrote to general Washington," you are, in my eyes, the great and good man." On the 1st of February, 1778, there were about four thousand men in camp unfit for duty for want of clothes. Of these, scarcely a man had a pair of shoes. The hospitals also were filled with the sick. At this time the enemy, if they had marched out of their winter quarters, would easily have dispersed the American army. The appre

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