Reign of George III. (Continued.) page 2

Fortunately for him, the English in Boston were benumbed with that kind of lethargy which God sends when he means to punish a nation. The affairs of the commissariat, though they had the command of the sea, and had plenty of ships to bring in provisions, were managed with that ineffable neglect, which has made that department of our service, down to our time, the scorn of the whole world. In the terrible weather of this winter the troops suffered miserably from want both of fuel and food, and they were compelled to pull down houses for the timber for their fires. The officers tried to get through this wretchedness the best they might by establishing a theatre, holding balls, and projecting masquerades. They observed that England seemed to have forgotten them, and they tried to forget themselves.

This was the condition of things when, early in March, Washington commenced acting on the defensive. He threw up entrenchments on Dorchester, now South Boston heights, overlooking and commanding both Boston town and harbour. Taking advantage of a dark night, on the 4th of March he sent a strong detachment to the heights, who, before mining, threw up a redoubt, which made it necessary for general Howe to dislodge them, or evacuate the place. It seems amazing, after the affair of Bunker's Hill, that Howe had not seen the necessity of occupying the post himself. He now, however, prepared to attack the redoubt, and the soldiers were eager for the enterprise. The vanguard fell down to William Castle, at which place the ascent was to be made; and on the morrow, the 5th of March, the anniversary of what was termed the massacre of Boston, the fight was to take place. A violent storm, however, arose, rendering the crossing of the water impracticable. By the time that it ceased, the Americans had so strengthened their works, that it was deemed a useless waste of life to attempt to carry them. The only alternative was the evacuation of Boston. Howe had long been persuaded that it would be much better to make the British headquarters at New York, where there were few American troops, and where the king's friends were numerous; and this certainly was true, unless he had mustered resolution and sought to disperse his enemies when they were in a state of disorder and deficiency of ammunition that insured his certain success. As it was, he was now most ignominiously cooped up, and in hourly jeopardy of being shelled out of the place. He had obtained the permission of his government for this movement, and he now set about it in earnest. When, however, he came to embark, another example was given of that shameful neglect which pervaded the whole of the British civil department of the military service, at that day, and which has continued to our day. When the transports were examined, they were found totally destitute of provisions and forage. " Never," says one of the officers, " were troops in so disgraceful a condition, owing entirely to Great Britain being fast asleep!"

No direct compact was entered into betwixt Howe and Washington regarding the evacuation; but an indirect communication and understanding on the subject was entered into - through the " Select Men " of Boston - that no injury should be done to the town during it, provided the troops were unmolested in embarking. Before departing, however, the English totally dismantled and partly demolished Castle William. On the 17th, the last of the British troops were on board; and that afternoon Boston was entered in triumph by general Putnam, at the head of the vanguard. About two thousand of the royalist inhabitants fled with the English army. Many of these unfortunate people abandoned large properties and depended entirely on the rations allowed them from the army stores, rather than trust to the tender mercies of their countrymen. The departing fleet of one hundred and fifty sail lay for ten days in Nantasket Roads. Washington entered the town in triumph the day after the entry of Putnam, and was received with every demonstration of joy by the inhabitants, thus released from an irksome restraint, whilst the prominent republicans, who had fled into the country, now flocked in again, and took possession of their homes and employments. Washington did not feel secure till be saw the British fleet under sail, for he seems by his letters to have but little faith at this time in the men of Massachusetts. He wrote - " I am taking every precaution I can to guard against the evil; but we have a kind of people to deal with who will not fear danger till the bayonet is at their throats, and then they are susceptible enough of it."

Howe, who, with seven thousand soldiers and more than one thousand sailors, did not feel himself safe at New York till the new reinforcements should arrive, sailed away to Halifax - a circumstance which gave the appearance of a retreat to his change of location, and had thus a bad effect in more ways than one. Washington, who was informed of his final destination, immediately marched with the greater part of his army to New York, and thence went himself to Philadelphia to concert future measures with the congress. This body, in commemoration of the surrender of Boston, ordered a medal to be struck in honour of it, and that it should bear the effigy of Washington, with the title of the assertor of the liberties of his country. The medal was cast in France.

Whilst general Howe was making for Halifax, some of the reinforcements from England arrived at Boston. To add to the miserable series of blunders committed by the British generals there, Howe had left no cruisers in the bay to warn English vessels approaching that the town was now in American hands. The consequences were - as might have been expected - disastrous. Scarcely was Howe's fleet out of sight when several store ships sailed right into the harbour, and fell into the hands of Washington. One of these vessels contained no less than fifteen hundred barrels of gunpowder, and a large stock of arms and tools necessary for the army. The Americans declared this supply of arms, and especially of powder, a direct act of Providence in their favour; and, in fact, Providence would seem to have stupefied the wits of the English for the purpose of effecting the independence of America. Scarcely was this disaster complete when lieutenant-colonel Campbell, with seven hundred of the expected troops from England, ran also into the harbour, and was secured. To add to the effect of this most inconceivable negligence on the part of Howe, he had been compelled, for want of room on board the wretched transports, to leave behind two hundred and fifty pieces of cannon, half of which were serviceable, four large mortars, one hundred and fifty horses, twenty-five thousand bushels of wheat, and a quantity of provender and provisions. Perhaps there never was a more amazing instance of culpable disregard of common sense and care. If Howe could not have carried off these things, he could at least have destroyed them, and not have left them to support the enemy against him. But this was only the beginning of such strange doings.

In Canada, the management of the war was more successful. To maintain the war in that quarter, the congress had ordered nine regiments to be raised. One of these was to be raised in Canada itself, and, for this purpose, a commission was given to Moses Hazen, who had formerly been a captain of rangers, under Wolfe. This man went over to the American cause for the rank of colonel, and was to form his regiment of Canadians. He was not, however, very successful. The Canadians were not to any extent disaffected to the British government, and by no means well affected to the New Englanders, who were bitterly bigoted against catholics, which the Canadians chiefly were. Besides, Hazen was furnished chiefly with the congress paper money, in which the Canadians had no faith. Congress was therefore obliged to send coined money, though dreadfully short of it themselves. To reassure the Canadians, they passed a resolution to restore, at the end of the war, whatever their army had taken from them, and to make compensation for all damages and injuries. When Hazen and Arnold saw that the Canadians would neither enlist nor bring provisions to their camps, without cash payment, they commenced plundering for all that they wanted, and thus confirmed that people in their hatred of the Americans. They, moreover, insulted the Canadians by ridiculing their rites of worship.

Miserably as Arnold had passed the winter in his camp, as spring approached he again planted his batteries above Quebec, but produced so little effect, that Carleton lay still in expectation of his reinforcements on the breaking up of the river. On the 1st of April general Wooster arrived, and took the command, much to the disgust of Arnold, who was sent to command a detachment at Montreal. On the 1st of May, general Thomas, who was to be supreme in command, arrived, and found the forces amounting to about two thousand men. Many had already quitted the army and gone home, their term being up, and many more were on the eve of doing so. Had he had anything like an efficient force, the time was gone for employing it. The river was now for opening; and on the 6th of May three

English ships had made their way up to Quebec, full of troops. Two companies of the 29th regiment and one hundred marines were immediately landed amid the rejoicings of the inhabitants; and general Carleton gave instant orders to issue forth and attack the American lines.

But general Thomas, conscious that, so far from being able to take Quebec, he should be himself taken, unless he decamped with all haste, was already on the move. General Carleton pursued him vigorously, and the retreat of the Americans became a regular rout. They threw themselves into boats at the Three Rivers, leaving behind them all their artillery and stores, as well as the sick, who were numerous, the smallpox having broken out amongst them. Numbers of the enfeebled Americans were scattered through the woods, where many of them perished of exhaustion. To his honour, general Carleton issued a proclamation, that all such fugitives giving themselves up should receive all the necessaries and comforts that their cases required; and, as soon as their health was restored, should be at liberty to return to their own provinces. He also ordered all officers of militia to have diligent search made through the woods for such unhappy fugitives, and for the payment of all necessary charges incurred in this service.

Thomas managed to reach Fort Chamblä and St. John's on the Sorel; but there he died, having taken the smallpox. Meantime, general Carleton had dispatched captain Forster against a place called the Cedars, about thirty miles to the westward of Montreal, on the river St. Lawrence. Forster only took with him two lieutenants, forty-eight soldiers, and about one hundred and twenty Indians. The Cedars was a place naturally strong, within a mile of the great falls of St. Lawrence; and the Americans had thrown up some formidable works. Forster set out on the 11th of May, only five days after the Americans commenced their flight, and on the 17th he landed at Point au Diable, within six miles of the Cedars, and marched into the woods surrounding that fort with much secrecy and address. He posted his men all round the fort, and then sent a party of Indians to cut off all communication with the island of Montreal, where Arnold lay. These Indians fell in with a number of men from the garrison, who had been out foraging, who fled into the fort, and thus gave the first intelligence of the English being at hand. Forster demanded the instant surrender of the fort; and on Major Butterfield, the commander, demurring, he gave him to understand that, should fighting take place, and any of the Indians be killed, nothing would prevent the Indians committing a fearful massacre. Butterfield agreed to give up the fort on condition of being allowed to retire to Montreal; but Forster refused, and began firing on the place. Butterfield then surrendered. The next day the Indians surprised a party of Arnold's men, sent to succour the fort, and brought them in prisoners, proposing to put them to death with their usual ceremonies. Forster, with the greatest difficulty, induced them to forego this barbarity, by distributing presents amongst them. He had now nearly five hundred prisoners in his hands, when he was attacked by Arnold with a strong party at Vaudreuil, about six miles to the westward of the Cedars. Arnold was compelled to retreat to St. Anne's, in the island of Montreal, where Forster entered into arrangements with him for an exchange of prisoners. Congress afterwards broke this cartel, on pretence that Forster had treated his prisoners with cruelty, whereas, he had really saved them from the tomahawks of the Indians. Congress carried this conduct still further. They demanded that Forster should be given ' up to them on a charge of murder. This breach of faith, says one of their own historians, presented a most unfortunate obstacle to the exchange of prisoners in future.

Carleton being, by the beginning of June, reinforced by still more troops from England, determined to follow the Americans. They had reached the Three Rivers, about midway betwixt Quebec and Montreal, and about thirty miles from the American headquarters on the Sorel, when general Sullivan, who had succeeded Thomas, sent two thousand men under general Thompson. His three chief regiments were commanded by colonels St. Clair, Wayne, and Irving. They got across the river and hoped to surprise the English; but it was daylight before they drew near the Three Rivers. They were descried in their boats, and briskly fired into from the banks. Landing with confusion, they sought a place where they could form and defend themselves; but they found themselves entangled in a labyrinth of streams and morasses. Then they were attacked, front and rear, by generals Frazer and Nesbit. Wayne was disabled by a wound, and, though they fought bravely, general Thompson and Colonel Irvine were taken prisoners, with two hundred of their men. In the suddenness of the surprise, no precaution had been taken to secure or destroy their boats; the remainder of the Americans, therefore, getting into them, pulled away and crossed.

Sullivan, who had hastened to support them, now, accompanied by St. Clair, made the best of his way back to Fort Chamble. Carleton pursued, but coming to the Sorel, instead of sailing up it, by which he might have reached Chamble nearly a day earlier than Sullivan, with a strange neglect he continued lying at the mouth of the river for a couple of days. Had he not done this, Arnold would have been intercepted at Montreal, and Ticonderoga, now defenceless, would have fallen into his hands. By this false step much damage to the king's cause ensued. Carleton, however, determined to seek out Arnold himself, and sent on general Burgoyne in pursuit of Sullivan. Burgoyne made quick pursuit; but the Americans were too nimble for both himself and Carleton. Arnold evacuated Montreal in all haste, and, crossing the river, joined Sullivan at St. John's, on the Sorel. There Sullivan proposed to make a stand, but his troops would not support him, for the whole army was in a state of insubordination. They set fire to St. John's, and retreated for Lake Champlain. Burgoyne marched rapidly after them; but, on reaching the head of the Sorel, he found they had escaped him by embarking on the lake, where he had no means of following them, but where they had numerous armed vessels. Sullivan and Arnold had encamped on the Isle aux Noix, a swampy place, where their men perished, many of them, of fever, and Burgoyne was obliged to satisfy himself with the thought that they were driven out of Canada.