inability to renew the fight the next day. Pringle pursued and brought the Americans to action near Crown Point. After a two hours' fight, a portion of the fleet escaped to Ticonderoga; but with only one galley, and five gondolas, Arnold would not surrender. He ran his ships ashore, landed his men and set the vessels on fire. The valor he displayed upon this occasion won him the highest reputation. On the 15th, Carleton took possession of Crown Point, the garrison retreating to Ticonderoga. He did not attempt to get possession of the latter post.

CAMPAIGN OF 1776.

T

HE triumphant issue of the campaign of 1775, in the neighborhood of Boston, was a source of gratification to the colonists. Washington was cordially

hailed as the deliverer of Massachusetts, and received a vote of thanks and a gold medal from Congress. But the power of Britain was yet to be felt. During the last session of parliament, the plan for the reduction of the colonies was fixed. The Americans were declared out of the royal protection, and, by treaties concluded between Great Britain and three states of Germany, 17,000 mercenaries were hired to aid in effecting their reduction.

The intelligence of these measures decided the question of independence. Protection and allegiance being considered reciprocal, the refusal of the one justified the withholding of the other. Reason and the passions were successfully appealed to by the leading patriots; and a pamphlet, entitled Common Sense, written by Thomas Paine, arguing in plain language the advantages and necessity of independence, effected a complete revolution in the feelings and sentiments of the great mass of the people. The plan of the campaign, formed by the British generals, included three objects-the relief of Quebec and the recovery of Canada; the possession of New York as the centre of operations; and the reduction of the southern colonies. The chief command of the forces was given to Sir William Howe, a prudent, rather than an enterprising general.

We have seen that Sir Guy Carleton effected the complete recovery of Canada. Before the main expedition could be got ready, it was determined to send an armament to reduce the southern colonies.

A squadron under command of Sir Peter Parker, conveying 2800 troops, under Sir Henry Clinton, arrived at Cape Fear in May, and it was then determined to attack Charleston, South Carolina, by sea and land. Meanwhile, the inhabitants had received intelligence of the approach of the armament, and made every exertion to put the capital in a state for defence. A fort was erected on Sullivan's Island, which is situated so near the channel leading up to the town, as to be a convenient post for annoying vessels approaching it. The garrison, consisting of 375 regulars and a few militia, was placed under the command of Colonel Moultrie.

On the 28th of June, 1776, Sir Peter Parker, with his formidable

squadron appeared before the fort, and between ten and eleven o'clock on that day, commenced the attack. The garrison made a gallant and resolute defence. Their fire was well-aimed and rapid. The ships were very much cut up, and the killed and wounded on board exceeded 200

men.

The fort, being built of soft palmetto wood, was little damaged, and the loss of the garrison only ten men killed, and twenty-two wounded. Some time before the attack on the fort, General Clinton with a body of troops, landed on Long Island, with the intention of crossing the narrow passage which divides the two islands, and attacking the fort in the rear. But General Charles Lee, who had been sent to take command of the forces at Charleston, stationed Colonel Thompson, with 700 or 800 men, at the east end of Sullivan's Island to oppose the crossing, and the project was abandoned. The inhabitants were fully prepared to meet the

enemy if they should attempt to land, and dispute every inch of ground with noble resolution. In the evening the firing ceased, the ships slipped their cables, and before morning they had retired about two miles from the island. Within a few days, the whole armament sailed for New York, having signally failed to accomplish its object. Congress passed a vote of thanks to General Lee, and Colonels Moultrie and Thompson, for their gallant conduct during the attack; and the fort was from that time called Fort Moultrie. The unsuccessful attack upon a slightly built fort by a powerful British armament could not but give the colonists a higher opinion of their own capability and tend to lower their estimation of their adversaries. The event relieved the southern states from the apprehension of invasion for more than two years, while the northern states were suffering the calamities of war.

We now return to the operations of the main army under Washington. Even while besieging Boston, the commander-in-chief foresaw that New York would be the centre of the enemy's attacks and subsequent operations, and General Lee was detached from Cambridge, to put Long Island and the city in a posture for defence. Early in April, Washington reached New York, and fixed his head-quarters there. The greater part of the army was under his immediate command; the remainder in Massachusetts and Canada. Seeing the necessity of raising a more formidable force than had yet been brought into the field, Congress, in June, instituted a flying camp, to consist of an intermediate corps between regulars and militia, and called for 10,000 men from the states of Pennsylvania,