ture from this pernicious plan, became abso- CHAP. L lutely necessary.

From the same motives, some of the states gave large additional bounties. This, it was supposed by congress, would effectually destroy the recruiting business in other states where the same liberality was not used, and therefore, a resolution was passed, recommending, and insisting on a strict adherence to the precise system which had been proposed by the continental government.

A defect in the structure of the army, which was very seriously felt, was the want of engineers, artillery, and cavalry. During the campaign of 1775 and 1776, there existed but one regiment of artillery, no corps of engineers, and not a single troop of horse. General Lee, who commanded in the southern department, and whose experience of the utility of horse was not now to be acquired, very early pressed the necessity of employing troops of that description, and at his suggestion, a regiment was raised in Virginia to be commanded by colonel Bland. The active and extensive operations of 1776, disclosed fully to the commander in chief, the disadvantages to be combated by an army composed almost entirely of infantry. Among the militia of Connecticut were indeed a few cavalry; but the expense attending the maintenance of their horses prevented their being employed in the first instance, and when

1776.

CHAP. I. they were taken into service, it was soon per1776. ceived that better horses, than could be fur

nished by militia men, were indispensable to the duties required from them. Towards the close of that campaign, therefore, he urged on congress the importance to the service of making these improvements in the organization of the army; and his representations had the influence they merited.

It was determined to increase the corps of artillery to three regiments, the command of which was given to colonel Knox, now promoted to the rank of a brigadier general; to take Bland's regiment into continental pay; to raise a body of three thousand cavalry; and to enable general Washington to create a corps of engineers. In this important branch of the military art, the Americans were peculiarly defective. No state of things had heretofore existed which held forth inducements to study this essential part of the science of war. To acquire even a moderate proficiency in it, requires time, application, and experience. The foundation, therefore, of an able corps engineers, must be laid long before the advantages expected from them can be realized. Of consequence, the attention of congress could not have been directed too soon to this object.

of

The want of skill and experience in this important department, could not fail to be dis

played in the defensive works constructed in CHAP. I. the first instance by the Americans. Another 1776. mischief resulting from the same cause, was a disposition to place too much confidence in their fortifications, and to believe them stronger than they were in reality.

The defect of engineers among the native Americans,* rendered the employment of foreigners, in that important branch of service, indispensably necessary; and when the corps authorized by congress was formed, it was composed of French and Germans. General De Portaile, an officer of great reputed talents, was placed at its head.

* In the early part of the war, colonel Putnam, a very valuable officer from New England, appears to have been frequently employed in the capacity of an engineer. It cannot derogate from his merit to say, that it was impossible he could possess the professional skill which that department required.

CHAPTER II.

American army inoculated....General Heath moves down to King's bridge, but returns to Peck's-Kill without effecting any thing....Skirmishes....State of the army....Destruction of stores at Peck's-Kill....At Danbury....Expedition of colonel Meiggs to Sagg harbour....Sir William Howe moves out to Somerset court-house in great force ....Returns to Amboy....Endeavours to cut off the retreat of the American army to Middlebrook, but is disappointed....Lord Cornwallis skirmishes near the Scotch Plains with lord Stirling.... The British army embark.

1777. THE effect at first produced, by the proclama

tion published by lord and general Howe on taking possession of New Jersey, has been already noticed. The gloomy aspects then worn by the affairs of America, added to the hope of impunity for past offences held forth by this proclamation, produced a general disposition among the people of that state, to avail themselves of the promise it contained. Vast numbers acknowledged the royal authority, and nearly the whole of Jersey wore the appearance of a province once more within the pale of the British empire. Had the conduct of the British army been such as to cherish the expectation, that security to their persons and property was attainable by submission, it is not easy to say what limits could have been set to the anti-American spirit which had been so extensively manifested. Fortunately it was

not.

1777.

Whatever might be the wish, and the CHAP. II. exertions of the general to restrain them, they still considered and treated the inhabitants as conquered rebels, rather than as returning friends. No species of licentiousness was unpractised. The plunder and destruction of property was among the least offensive of the injuries sustained. The persons, not only of the men, but of that sex through which injuries least to be forgiven, and longest to be remembered, are received; were exposed to the most irritating outrage. Nor were these excesses confined to those who had been active in the American cause. The lukewarm, and even the loyalists themselves, not less than the friends of independence, were the victims of this indiscriminating spirit of rapine.

The effect of such proceedings among a people, whose country had never before been the seat of war; who were strangers to the ravages of a hostile army; who felt no original attachment to their invaders; but whose nonresistance had been occasioned solely by the hope of that security to their persons and property, which had been promised as the reward of submission to the royal authority; could not fail to equal the most sanguine hopes of the friends of the revolution. A sense of personal wrongs produced a temper, which national considerations had been found too weak to excite; and when the battles of Trenton and Princeton