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them in a boat, during the action, to determine whether he should not endeavour, to withdraw them, and was enraptured with the ardour they displayed. They assured him they would only lose the fort with their lives; and the mortally wounded breathed their last, exhorting their fellow-soldiers to the most heroic defence of the place.

Although the British troops had been landed on Long Island for the purpose of attacking the fort on the land side, no attempt was made to execute this part of the plan. Why it was not made, or whether, if made, it would have been successful, cannot be ascertained. General Clinton asserted that the water between the islands, which he had understood to be only eighteen inches deep, was in reality seven feet, and consequently impassable. This effect is said to have been produced by a long series of eastern winds.

The engagement continued till the darkness of the night compelled a suspension of it. The ships were by that time evidently in such a condition, as to be unfit to renew the action the next day. The Bristol had lost one hundred and eleven men; and the Experiment, seventy-nine. Captain Scott, of the one, lost his arm; and Captain Morris, of the other, was mortally wounded. Lord William Campbell, late. Governor of the province, who served as a volunteer on board one of these vessels, was also mortally wounded: and both ships were

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so shattered, as to inspire the hope that they would be unable to repass the bar. About nine o'clock they slipped their cables and moved off. A few days afterwards the troops were re-embarked, and all further designs against the southern colonics were, for the present, relinquished. The squadron sailed for New York, in pursuance of orders which had been given by Sir William Howe, while in Halifax, but which had not been received by Sir Henry Clinton till he had anchored off the bar of Charlestown.

The attack on Fort Moultrie was supported by the British seamen with their accustomed bravery, and the slaughter on board the ships was uncommonly great. The loss of the Americans, in killed and wounded, was only thirty-five men*.

Great and well-merited praise was bestowed, by his country, on Colonel Moultrie, who commanded the fort, and on the garrison, for the resolution displayed in defending it. Nor was the glory acquired, on this occasion, confined to them. All the troops that had been stationed on the island partook of it; and the thanks of the United Colonies were voted, by Congress, to General Lee, Colonel Moultrie, Colonel Thompson, and the officers and men under their command, who were engaged in repulsing the enemy on the twentyeighth of June.

Ann. Reg.-Ramsay.-Gordon.-And Letters of Gen. Lee.

This fortunate event, for such it may well be termed, though not of much magnitude in itself, was, like many other successes attending the American arms in the commencement of the war, of great importance in its consequences. By impressing on the colonists a conviction of their ability to maintain the contest, it increased the number of those who resolved to resist British authority, and assisted in paving the way to a declaration of independence...

The Congress, which assembled in 1775, had adjourned with strong and sincere hopes that the differences between the mother-country and the colonies would soon be terminated to their mutual satisfaction. But the speech of the King, on opening the British Parliament, and the first proceedings of the grand legislature of that nation, demonstrated the fallacy of these hopes. Every arrival from Europe continued to bring additional intelligence of the inflexible resolution of the administration still to prosecute the war, and of the immense preparations making for the ensuing campaign. This information evinced the necessity of exertions equally vigorous on the part of America. The letters of the Commander in Chief respectfully, but earnestly, urged Congress to the adoption of measures which might enable him to give to the country that protection which was expected from its army. The government of the union was

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not insensible of the importance of the crisis, nor indisposed to meet it with a competent force; but, unaccustomed to the great duties of conducting a war of vast extent, they could not estimate rightly the value of the means employed, nor calculate the effects which certain causes would produce. Large additional emissions of paper money was resolved on; and requisitions had been made, on the several colonies, for quotas of men sufficient to constitute a respectable army, But they relied too confidently on being able to call out, on any emergency, a force adequate to the occasion. They relied too much on the efficiency of such a force, and they depended too long on the spirit of patriotism which was believed to animate the mass of the people.

Under these impressions, the regular army for the middle colonies, which was weakened by ordering regiments, originally destined to serve in it, to the aid of the troops in Canada, was not recruited in time by additional requisitions; nor were those measures taken, which would fill the battalions actually ordered to be raised. It was not till the twenty-sixth of June, that the representations of the Commander in Chief could obtain a resolution, directing soldiers to be enlisted for three years, and offering a bounty of ten dollars to each recruit. In consequence of their adhering to a system of mistaken economy, soldiers were voted in greater numbers

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numbers than could be raised, and many of the regiments remained incomplete.

That zeal for the service, which was manifested in the first moments of the war, had long since begun to abate; and though the determination to resist became more general, that enthusiasm, which prompts individuals voluntarily to expose themselves to more than an equal share of the dangers and hardships to be encountered, for the attainment of a common good, was visibly declining. The progress of these sentiments seems to have • been unexpected; and the causes producing such effects had not been sufficiently attended to.

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General Washington, who had always conceived that the grand efforts of the royal army would be directed towards the Hudson, having left a small detachment, under the command of Major-General Ward, to complete certain works, designed for the security of Boston, hastened himself, immediately after the evacuation of that place, with the main body of his army to New York. He arrived there on the 14th of April, and continued, with unremitting exertions, the preparations which had been before directed for the reception of the enemy.

It was cause of some surprise to him to find that an uninterrupted intercourse had been kept up between the inhabitants and the British ships lying in the harbour: thus, not only the wants of the latter were abundantly supplied, but an evil of in

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