hundred and fifty men, Wayne surprised it on the night of July 16th, and took it with five hundred and forty-three officers and men. A detachment from West Point was to have made a simultaneous attack upon Fort Lafayette, at Verplanck's Point, on the opposite side of the river, but as this was not effected, Wayne was unable to hold Stony Point, and on the eighteenth, he destroyed and abandoned it; but the movement checked Clinton's advances in other directions. Lee wrote to Wayne that he considered this the most brilliant affair of the war, on either side, and also the most brilliant he knew in history. "The assault of Schweidnitz by Marshall Laudon," he declared inferior to it.

*

The affair at Stony Point was followed by a surprise of the garrison at Paulus Hook (now Jersey City), by Major Henry Lee ("Light-horse Harry"), afterwards General Lee, father of the late General Robert E. Lee. Lee set out on the eighteenth of August, and after taking nearly two hundred prisoners, including three officers, effected his escape with but two men killed and three wounded.

The year was memorable also for an attempt to retake Savannah, made by Lincoln, aided by the French fleet under d'Estaing. It was not successful, and resulted in a loss of a thousand lives, including that of Pulaski. To the disasters of the year must be added the failure of an expedition to the Penobscot, planned by Boston in August, the incursion of the British into Virginia in May, and the sacking of

The celebrated Baron Gideon Ernst Von Laudon took Schweidnitz by assault, without investment, from the Prussians, during the "Seven Years' War," October 1st, 1761.

NAVAL SUCCESSES.

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New Haven, Norwalk and Fair Haven by General Tryon in July. These last were raids against unprotected and unarmed peoples, and were disgraceful to civilization.

The British shipping had suffered greatly all through the war from American cruisers, which had taken millions of dollars' worth of prizes before this time. During 1779, one captain took into Boston eight prizes of the value of a million dollars, while eighteen were taken into New London. Still there

was really no American navy. The navy grew out of the needs of the people. The first movement was made in this direction after the British sloop-of-war Falcon had begun to make depredations along the New England coast in 1775. The men of Gloucester repulsed Linzee, captain of this vessel, in August, when he entered their harbor in chase of a schooner. After a fight of several hours, Linzee lost thirty-five In June a sloop was taken from the British at

men.

Machias, Maine, and her armament was put on another vessel which was used to intercept ships entering Boston harbor. In September commissions were given authorizing the taking of supplies at sea, and after the burning of Falmouth (October, 1775), the New England Colonies slowly equipped a small fleet which became the nucleus of the American navy. After the capture of the Nancy, the movement was more rapid. The cruisers had merely attacked merchant vessels, though with the aid of Spain and France they had almost destroyed British commerce. Under the name of "Paul Jones,' a young Scotchman named John Paul had offered his services to the government at the end of 1775, and hoisted (as is said) the first American flag* ever thrown to the breezes, on the Alfred, the flag ship of a squadron of eight vessels that sailed from the Delaware River. He had captured many prizes on different vessels, when, early in 1778, he harrassed the coasting trade of Scotland, and attempted to carry off an earl, thinking that it might lead to a profitable exchange of prisoners. In May he arrived at Brest with two hundred prisoners, nearly twice as many as

*The London Chronicle of July 27th, 1776, said that "the colors of the American fleet have a snake with thirteen rattles, the fourteenth budding." In 1751, Franklin's paper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, had said "We do ask fish, but thou givest us serpents," and it was soon afterwards suggested that a cargo of rattlesnakes should be sent to London, for distribution in St. James' park. In 1754, to stimulate concerted action against the French and Indians, the Pennsylvania Gazette placed at its head a design representing a rattlesnake cut into eight parts, with the motto "Join, or die." In 1776, this was improved upon by representing the snake in thirteen parts, one for each State.

† He was only baffled in this attempt by the earl's absence.

EXPLOITS OF PAUL JONES.

315

his crew, and endeavored to get a better command from the commissioners to France. Correspondence

failing, he was struck by the saying in "Poor Richard's almanac," "If you would have your business done, go; if not, send." Thereupon he went to Paris, and succeeded, changing the name of the vessel entrusted to him to Le Bon Homme Richard, in compliment to Franklin. With this poor vessel he encountered two English ships of war, in September, in the English Channel, and after the most terrible naval battle ever fought, carried the fleet into a Dutch. port as prizes, and was received in France with great honor, the king presenting him a sword. Congress afterward voted thanks to him, and caused a gold medal to be struck and given him. There were no more important naval fights than those of Paul Jones during the war. Philip Freneau, the poet, wrote verses on this victory, in which he said, referring to the flag:

Go on, great man, to scourge the foe,
And bid the haughty Britons know

They to our thirteen stars shall bend;
The stars that clad in dark attire
Long glimmered with a feeble fire,
But radiant now ascend.

The winter of 1779-80 was one of extreme severity. Washington wrote that the army had not experienced so much distress at any period of the war. He was at Morristown, New Jersey. The Hudson was frozen over, and New York, which Clinton had left early in 1780, to go to the South, was in such a state that he could have approached it readily over the ice, but he was unable to move. A great deal of

his difficulty arose from the depreciation of the continental currency. By March, 1780, it required forty dollars of paper money to buy one dollar of specie.* New Jersey suffered, for the army was obliged to forage on the region around, though it must be said that both the army and the citizens bore their trials with fortitude and patience. Washington was disquieted also by a court-martial which was assembled at Morristown to try General Arnold for acts while in command at Philadelphia, in 1778.† He was pronounced guilty of irregular and imprudent conduct, and the sentence was confirmed by Congress on the twelfth of February, 1780. Washington was obliged to reprimand Arnold, and he did it with consideration, complimenting him on his previous record; but it seems to have stirred up the vile spirit of the future traitor, and to have led to his final downfall.

*The depreciation of the currency is shown by the following table: March 1st, 1778, one dollar in specie was worth $1.75 in paper; Sept. 1st, 1778, it was worth $4.00; March 1st, 1779, it was worth $10.00; Sept. 1st, 1779, it was worth $18.00; March 1st, 1780, it was worth $40.00; Dec. 1st, 1780, it was worth $100.00; and by May 1st, 1781, one dollar in coin would buy from $200.00 to $500.00 of paper money.

†These acts of Arnold are referred to in a letter written by Richard Peters, who was secretary of the Board of War from 1776 to 1781, to Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State under Washington, published in Breck's "Recollections." Peters says that he was sent to Philadelphia, in June, 1778, by orders of Washington, to secure clothing and stores secreted by persons who had remained in the city during its occupation by the British, and that when he left, he placed fifty thousand dollars in Arnold's hands to pay for stores. This money Arnold converted to his own use, purchasing a country-seat with a portion of the proceeds. He was also detected in appropriating public stores to his own use. Peters adds: “When his traitorous conduct at West Point became public, neither Colonel Pickering nor myself were the least surprised at it."