served with great distinction as governor-general of India, reached the grade of field-marshal, the highest in the British army, was made a knight of the garter and raised in the peerage to a marquisate. In our Revolutionary War he played the most important part among the British generals, though he did not hold the chief command. It is worthy of note that, like General Howe, he felt great sympathy for the Americans, and disapproved of the harsh measures of the British government which had driven them to rebellion.

On the arrival of Parker's fleet it was decided to capture the city of Charleston and overrun South Carolina. To ward off the blow General Charles Lee had been sent to Charleston, but did little more than to meddle and hinder. He laughed loudly at a fortress of palmetto logs which Colonel William Moultrie built on Sullivan's Island and manned with twelve hundred troops. Lee had never seen anything of the sort in Europe, and would have ordered Moultrie to dismantle and abandon it, but Governor Rutledge overruled him. On the 28th of June a furious attack was made by the fleet, and kept up for ten hours, but the palmetto fort was victorious. At the end of the fight only one of its guns had been dismounted, while the British ships were badly cut up, and several of them rendered quite unseaworthy. Clinton then sailed away to take part in the operations around New York, and the southern states were left unmolested for two years. By many of the people, especially at the North, Lee got all the credit for this brilliant. victory, and his reputation was much increased thereby.

§ 5. FIRST GREAT DEFENSIVE CAMPAIGN.

Arrival of Lord Howe. - When General Howe was driven from Boston, he steered for Halifax, there to await the arrival of reinforcements from England, and the fleet of his brother Richard, Earl Howe, who had been appointed admiral of the fleet for North America, and commissioner to arrange matters peaceably, if possible, and prevent the further continuance of the war. The two brothers were widely different in their habits and dispositions.

William was easy and indolent; Richard was energetic and enterprising. His name ranks high in the list of England's great sailors. He was a skilful seaman and brave commander, and his men used to say of him, "Give us Black Dick, and we fear nothing."

Lord Howe arrived in New York harbor on the 12th of July. His brother had arrived a few days before, with twenty-five thousand troops, whose white tents might now be seen dotted about over the picturesque hills of Staten Island. It had been expected that New York would be the first point to be attacked by the British, and Washington had moved his army thither from Boston early in April. Fortifications had been erected by Lee, and the American troops, some eighteen thousand in number, were guarding as well as they could the exposed water front of New York Island. On the Hudson river there were garrisons at Forts Washington and Lee, and at Paulus Hook, now known as Jersey City. From across the East river the heights of Brooklyn commanded New York, just as Dorchester Heights commanded Boston, and here nine thousand men were posted under Putnam. General Howe decided to strike at this point, and disperse or capture this force. Battle of Long Island. The village of Brooklyn stood on a kind of peninsula, formed by the deep inlets of Wallabout Bay on the north, and Gowanus Cove on the south. A line of entrenchments and strong redoubts extended across the neck of the peninsula, from the bay to a swamp and creek emptying into the cove. To protect the rear of the works from the enemy's ships, a battery was erected at Red Hook, the southwest corner of the peninsula, and a fort on Governor's Island, nearly opposite. About two miles and a half in front of the line of entrenchments, a range of hills, densely wooded, extended from southwest to northeast, forming a natural barrier across the island. It was traversed by three roads. One, on the left of the works, stretched eastwardly to Bedford, and then by a pass through the Bedford Hills to the village of Jamaica; another, central and direct, led through the woody heights to Flatbush; a third, on the right of the lines, passed by Gowanus Cove to the Narrows and Gravesend Bay. The occupation of this range of hills, and the protection of its passes, was entrusted to General Sullivan,

tion. The neglect of them, however, proved fatal. Sir Henry Clinton immediately detached a battalion of light-infantry to secure the pass; and, advancing with his corps at the first break of day, possessed himself of the heights. He was now within three miles of Bedford, and his march had been undiscovered. Having passed the heights, therefore, he halted his division for the soldiers to take some refreshment, preparatory to the morning's hostilities. About midnight General Grant moved from Gravesend Bay, with the left wing. He proceeded along the road leading past the Narrows and Gowanus Cove, toward the right of the American works. A picket guard of Pennsylvanian and New York militia, under Colonel Atlee, retired before him fighting to a position on the skirts of the wooded hills. In the meantime, scouts had brought in word to the American lines that the enemy were approaching in force upon the right. General Putnam ordered Lord Stirling1 to hasten with the two regiments nearest at hand, and hold them in check. These were Haslet's Delaware, and Smallwood's Maryland regiments; the latter the macaronis, in scarlet and buff, who quite outshone their yeoman fellow-soldiers in homespun. They turned out with great alacrity, and Stirling pushed forward with them on the road toward the Narrows. By the time he had passed Gowanus Cove, daylight began to appear. Here, on a rising ground, he met Colonel Atlee with his Pennsylvania provincials, and learned that the enemy were near. Indeed, their front began to appear in the uncertain twilight. Stirling ordered Atlee to place himself in ambush in an orchard on the left of the road, and await their coming up, while he formed the Delaware and Maryland regiments along a ridge from the road, up to a piece of woods on the top of the hill. Atlee gave the enemy two or three volleys as they approached, and then retreated and formed in the wood on Lord Stirling's left. By this time his lordship was reinforced by Kichline's riflemen, part of whom he placed along a hedge at the foot of the hill, and part in front of the wood. General Grant threw his light troops in the advance, and posted them

1 William Alexander, of New Jersey, claimed the title to the lapsed earldom of Stirling, and was always called Lord Stirling by the Americans.

in an orchard and behind hedges, extending in front of the Americans, and about one hundred and fifty yards distant.

It was now broad daylight. A rattling fire commenced between the British light troops and the American riflemen, which continued for about two hours, when the former retired to their main body. In the meantime, Stirling's position had been strengthened by the arrival of Captain Carpenter with two field-pieces. These were placed on the side of the hill, so as to command the road and the approach for some hundred yards. General Grant, likewise, brought up his artillery within three hundred yards, and formed his brigades on opposite hills, about six hundred yards distant. There was occasional cannonading on both sides, but neither party sought a general action. Lord Stirling's object was merely to hold the enemy in check; and the instructions of General Grant, as we have shown, were not to press an attack until aware that Sir Henry Clinton was on the left flank of the Americans.

During this time, Heister had commenced his part of the plan by opening a cannonade from his camp at Flatbush, upon the redoubt, at the pass of the wooded hills, where Hand and his riflemen were stationed. On hearing this, General Sullivan rode forth to Colonel Hand's post to reconnoiter. Heister, however, according to the plan of operations, did not advance from Flatbush, but kept up a brisk fire from his artillery on the redoubt in front of the pass, which replied as briskly. At the same time, a cannonade from a British ship upon the battery at Red Hook contributed to distract the attention of the Americans.

In the meantime terror reigned in New York. The volleying of musketry and booming of cannon at early dawn had told of the fighting that had commenced. As the morning advanced, platoon firing and the occasional discharge of a field-piece were heard in different directions. Washington was still in doubt whether this was but part of a general attack, in which the city was to be included. Five ships of the line were endeavoring to beat up the bay. Were they to cannonade the city, or to land Fortunately, a strong head-wind baffled all their

troops above it?