tion and prayer, and followed by an impetuous rush upon the enemy, The minister descended from the pulpit to take his place at the head of his company or even in the ranks. In the company of minute-men of Danvers the deacon was captain and the minister lieutenant; for none, in those days, seemed to doubt that duty to God comprised duty to the state which secured them the privilege of worshipping God according to their own interpretation of his word. And thus it came to pass that when the alarm was sounded on the night of the 18th of April, thousands answered the call. Already, ten days before the battle of Lexington, the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts had resolved that an army ought to be raised, and had appointed delegates to ask New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut to co-operate with them in raising it. And meeting again as soon as they could after the battle, children of the Puritans as they were, the knowledge that it was Sunday did not prevent them from setting themselves earnestly to their work. The army was fixed at 30,000 men; the Massachusetts contingent at 13,600. ton. But already the army was gathering. Already from every town and village men of strong hearts and stern resolve were crowding the roads to BosThe plough was left in the furrow, the plane on the work-bench. Father and son marched side by side; the preacher in the midst of his flock. "Numbers passed our river yesterday at the upper ferry," says a colonel of Newburyport, writing for orders. "Four companies went through this town on their way to you: we have a party of men from this town; upwards of one hundred on their march to you." And not from Massachusetts only. "The ardor of our people is such that they cannot be kept back," writes the Committee of Correspondence from Connecticut. The fight was still going on when the tidings that the British were out reached Rhode Island. In the placid little hamlet of East Greenwich the Kentish Guards were instantly mustered, and, pushing forward, had already reached the banks of the Pawtucket, when an order from the Tory Governor, Wanton, called them back. Two of them, recent outcasts from the Quaker meeting, held on, and arrived at Roxbury in time to see the inpouring of the yeomanry, and hear lips, still stern with the excitement of battle, describe the disastrous flight of the British and the eager pursuit of the Americans. By the 21st, twenty thousand men were assembled. O for a warning voice, a voice from history, a voice from philosophy, a voice from some one read in the contradictions of the human heart, to say to their leaders, "now is your time: make sure of them all for the war, the whole war, in this, the moment of fiery enthusiasm ; for too surely will the moment of discouragement follow, when the stout-hearted will hesitate, the faint-hearted will turn back." But no such voice was heard. "If I have not enlisting orders immediately," writes Ward on the 24th, "I shall be left alone." The orders came the enlistments began; the rolls were filled; but not for the war. Here, then, is the first, the fundamental error: an error never to be repaired. You will readily understand why men fell into this error. They did not believe that the war would last. They did not see whither the road they had entered on would necessarily lead them. "A few acts of firmness," said the King and his ministers," and the Colonists will submit."* "A resolute, unanimous resistance," said the Colonists, "and the King and his ministers will give way." Equal short-sightedness, equal infatuation on both sides, and an eight years' war for illustration and commentary.† Who should command this motley army, was one of the first questions that presented itself; who should clothe and feed it, was another. Congress had not yet adopted it. Massachusetts had called for it but still it was the army of Massachusetts, with the equally independent armies of New Hampshire, of Connecticut, and of Rhode Island, for voluntary auxiliaries. Gradually, as the necessity of a single head came to be felt, General Ward, the Massachusetts general, was accepted as com *Washington to Bryan Fairfax (Works, Vol. V. p. 248). † See particularly a letter of R. H. Lee to Washington (Sparks's Correspondence of the Revolution, à. 52). But each Colony continued to mander-in-chief. It soon became evident that something more was required to infuse a spirit of unity into elements like these. There could be no strength without union, and of union the only adequate representative was the Continental Congress. To induce the Congress to adopt the army in the name of the United Colonies was one of the objects towards which John Adams soon directed his attention. With the question of adoption came the question of commander-in-chief; and here personal ambition and sectional jealousies manifest themselves in ways whereon it would be useful to dwell. Washington's was, of course, the first name that occurred to Northern and Southern men alike; for it was the only name that had won a continental reputation. But some New-England men thought that this New-England army would do better service under a New-England commander; and some Southern men were not prepared to see Washington put so prominently forward. Then New England was divided against herself. Ward had warm advocates, and John Hancock had aspirations for the high place which were not always concealed from the keen eyes of his colleagues. Among Washington's opponents were some "of his own household," Pendleton of Virginia being the most persistent of them all. At last John Adams moved to adopt the army, and appoint a general; and a few days after-Thursday, the 5th of June, the interval having been actively used to win over the little band of dissenters - Washington was chosen by a unanimous vote. The next day the organization of the army was reduced to a definite plan, two major-generals, eight brigadiers, with an adjutant-general, a quartermaster-general, a paymaster-general, and a chief engineer. On the 19th, the number of majorgenerals was raised to four. It was not without new heart-burnings that these lists were filled up. Ward, though propitiated with the first place on the roll of major-generals, could not forget that he once cherished aspirations to a place still higher. John Hancock is said never to have felt cordially towards John Adams after the day which had nipped his hopes of military glory so remorselessly in the bud. Spencer was unwilling to make way for Putnam; Thomas, for Pomroy. Similar pretensions and similar piques displayed themselves as the work of organization went on. There were discontented colonels as well as discontented generals; captains who would have been colonels, and lieutenants who thought .t hard that they were not made captains. Harder still was it for a Massachusetts soldier to serve under an officer from Rhode Island; a NewHampshire soldier under an officer from Connecticut.* Hardest of all, when, at a later day, New * Washington to Reed, November 8, 1775 (Sparks, III. 151); also, December 25, 1775 (Ibid., III. 214). |