fear, and all were generously fed and clothed, and sent safely home-a line of policy which strengthened very much the British interests in Canada. In a few weeks the British forces were augmented by successive arrivals of English, and some Brunswick troops, to the number of thirteen thousand men, under Generals Burgoyne, Phillips, and Reidesel. The Americans had retreated, without stopping, to the Sorel, where they were reinforced by several battalions, intrenched themselves, and threw up works for defence. General Thomas died there of the small-pox, and the command devolved first upon Arnold, and then upon General Sullivan. After an ineffectual attempt to surprise the main body of the enemy at Trois Rivieres, it was found necessary to evacuate the whole province of Canada. The pursuit was divided into two columns; but the retreating army, though inferior in numbers, and under such serious disadvantages, baffled their pursuers completely. Sullivan retreated by the Sorel, and Arnold evacuated Montreal twenty-four hours before the enemy entered it. The army re-united at St. Johns, under the command of Sullivan, and having burnt the magazine, barracks, and batteaux, retired under the cannon of Crown Point, whither the enemy were unable to follow. The retreat was considered a masterly effort of military genius, and Congress voted their thanks to General Sullivan and his army, for their courage, fortitude, and skill.

Gen. Gates was soon after appointed to the northern command; and having collected a force of twelve thousand men, took up a position at Ticonderoga, which he fortified, and with the naval command of Lake Champlain, was able to check the immediate advance of the enemy in that direction.

The disasters of the Canada campaign were compensated, in part, to the general cause of the colonies, by the more fortunate issue of their defences in the southern colonies. In North Carolina, the royal governor, Martin, who had been obliged, at the beginning of the year, like Lord Dunmore of Virginia, to abandon the province, and take refuge on board of a man-of-war, continued to exercise his office, and encourage the assembling of soldiers, in behalf of the loyal cause. A large number, from sixteen to seventeen hundred, principally Scotch emigrants, collected under the command of one McDonald, expecting the arrival of the British forces under Lord Cornwallis, and Sir Peter Parker, designed for the southern campaign, and of General Clinton,

June, 1776.

who was on his way south from Boston. The provincial governor, Moore, collected some militia to oppose them, and stationed them, to the number of a thousand men, at Moore's Creek Bridge. The royalists hastily attacked them at that post, and as hastily retreated, with the loss of their arms amounting to fifteen hundred rifles, several hundred muskets, numerous waggons, a quantity of ammunition, and about seventy men killed. The Americans had but two men wounded. The attack was rash, and the flight a cowardly rout; the results were, the total loss of the province to the royalists, and the defeat of that portion of the British plan of the campaign. General Clinton arrived about the same time, in the Cape Fear, and Governor Martin embarked, with others of the royal adherents in North Carolina, to share in the enterprise against Charleston, now the main object of attack. A junction of the British forces was made at that point; the fleet under the command of Sir Peter Parker, consisted of two fifty gun ships, four frigates of twenty-eight guns each, two armed vessels of twenty and twenty-two guns, a sloop and gun boat. The land forces were 2500, in number. This armament crossed Charleston bar on the 4th of June, and anchored about three miles from Sullivan's Island, upon which fortifications had been erected, commanding the channel leading to the town. The fort was built of Palmetto wood, mounted twenty-six guns, 32's and 16's, and was garrisoned by a regiment of 375 regulars and a few militia, under the command of Colonel William Moultrie. Long Island, separated on the east from Sullivan's Island, was protected by a party of militia, to prevent the landing of the British troops to assault the fort on the land side. The militia of the colony had obeyed the summons of the provincial authorities, and about six thousand of them garrisoned the city. Every preparation within the power of the colonies had been made, to meet the expected attack. Lee, who had so promptly met Clinton in New York, had pushed on with extraordinary celerity, and again anticipated him at Charleston. The fleet experienced considerable difficulty and damage in crossing the bar, and on the eighteenth of June, after vainly summoning by proclamation the people to return to their allegiance to the British crown, and offering them pardon on submission, the attempt was made to reduce the fort. The two fifty gun ships, the Bristol and the Experiment, with two frigates, formed a line, and com

menced a tremendous fire upon the works. The other three vessels were stranded and could not come into action, and me of them, the Acteon, was lost, and burnt on the succeed, ng morning. The fire of the ships was returned with amazing spirit and intrepidity by the Americans, and with such great effect, that the Bristol was soon very nearly disabled, and dreadful slaughter was made in all the attacking vessels. The shot from the fort struck with a precision, which excited the admiration even of the enemy, and was kept up until their whole ammunition was expended. The British thought the fort silenced, but a supply of powder was soon furnished from the town, and the fire hotly maintained during the whole day, and until nine o'clock in the evening, when darkness put an end to the combat on both sides. During the night the British ships, excepting the Acteon, which was ashore, slipped their cables and dropped two miles down the river. They had been severely handled; the total loss of men killed and wounded was 225, including Admiral Parker, slightly, and Lord William Campbell, recent governor, mortally wounded. The Americans lost only ten men killed, and twenty-two wounded.

During the hottest of the fight, the flag of the fort was carried away by a shot, when Serjeant Jasper leaped down to the beach, in the face of the cannonading, and after recovering the flag, climbed up and fixed it again on the battlement. For this heroic action, he afterwards received a sword from Governor Rutledge, which he gratefully accepted, and the offer of a commission which he modestly declined.

No serious attempt was made by the British to attack the fort on the land side. A few troops were disembarked, on Long Island, but being opposed by Colonel Thompson's corps, they remained inactive.

Not long afterwards, the fleet abandoned the expedition, and returned to New York, to wait the arrival of General Howe, from Halifax.

Congress and the people, expressed the highest admiration of the defence of Charleston, especially that of the fort, which has ever since borne the name of its intrepid defender, and is called Fort Moultrie. Congress passed a special vote of thanks to General Lee, and Colonels Moultrie and Thompson, for their gallant and successful defence.

Its permanent effects were, the entire derangement of the British military plans, and the security of the whole Southern States from invasion for more than two years. Its present influence was highly encouraging to the spirit of the colonies, affording them just cause for triumph over an adversary of superior force, and as a victory counterbalancing the loss of their previous conquests in Canada.

General Howe, having waited for nearly two months, at Halifax, with the troops he had withdrawn from Boston, in expectation of the arrival of his brother, and the additional troops from England, at last sailed without them, and arrived in the latter part of June, off Sandy Hook. Admiral Howe soon followed with a large part of the reinforcement, and a powerful force was thus concentrated upon New York, then in the possession of Washington. The city, and Long and Staten Islands, were found fortified and defended with artillery. General Howe was joined by Tryon, late governor of the province, and a small number of refugees. On Staten Island a regiment of the inhabitants was embodied as a royal militia, and the British general was led to believe, that a large part of the people would readily join the royal standard.

Additional troops arrived soon after, and a well appointed and numerous fleet and army collected before the city, the possession of which was considered a most important point for the subjugation of the middle colonies.

The gathering of these formidable armaments did, however, only precipitate the final measure, which consummated the Revolution. In the constitution of human nature, the political separation of the two countries must have happened at some period not very remote; but violent measures were required to break asunder suddenly and completely the numerous ties of affection, kindred, and interest, of common ancestry, common language, the same literature, learning, and the arts, which would have retained a mutual dependence and relation, long after all political necessity for union, had ceased. The arbitrary pretensions of the Parliament had now for twelve years, alarmed the colonists for the safety of their most essential rights, and taught them to look with jealousy and distrust upon all the constituted au thorities of the mother country. Of late years these pretensions had been enforced with a haughty obstinacy and insulting disregard of the feelings and opinions of Ameri

cans, which could not fail to wound deeply the pride, and exasperate the sensibilities of a people, remarkable for elevation and independence of character; and the actual means employed for that purpose, had been marked by atrocious brutality, by the most wanton disregard of laws, constitutions, the plainest dictates of justice and the claims of ordinary humanity, and by an evident determination to crush, with the strong arm of military power, the complaints, as well as the rights and privileges of America. To this had now succeeded twelve months of open hostilities, a state of notorious war in which the king's troops were resisted at all points, his officers deposed and driven out of the country, his fortresses taken, his ships captured, and every energy exerted to subvert altogether his power in America, as too tyrannical to be endured. At this point, Independence had become a fact, which needed only a declaration by competent authority, to be universally admitted among the colonies. To continue further professions of obedience to a king against whom they were defending their dearest rights, at the hazard of every thing, would have been not only a gross hypocrisy, inconsistent with manliness of character, and firmness of principle, but would have been a political blunder, decidedly injurious to their prospects of success, and their hopes of aid in the struggle before them. They saw that a return to a cordial union with Great Britain, had become impossible under any circumstances; that violence, injustice, and wantonness of power on the one hand, and long continued dread, jealousy, anger, and finally hatred on the other, had made it vain to expect that harmony could ever be restored permanently, even with the most unlimited concessions by Great Britain. The recent acts of Parlia ment, and the concentration in America of such a vast force of English troops and foreign mercenaries, convinced them that no terms could be obtained short of submission without condition to foreign conquest, and a surrender of all they had been contending for as most precious, into the hands of triumphant conquerors.

Nothing therefore remained but to assume in the eyes of the world, that Independence, which their position in the controversy seemed so imperiously to require as a measure of honor and safety, and which existed in fact, in every colony that had subverted the king's powers, and assumed the functions of government. It was moreover considered