he went to North Britain in pursuit of this inheritance, he failed of obtaining an acknowledgment of his claim by government; yet, among his friends and acqnaintances, he received by courtesy the title of lord Sterling. He discovered an early fondness for the study of mathematics and astronomy, and attained great eminence in these sci

ences.

In the battle on Long Island, August 27, 1776, he was taken prisoner, after having secured to a large part of the detachment, an opportunity to escape, by a bold attack, with four hundred men, upon a corps under lord Cornwallis. In the battle of Germantown, his division, and the brigades of general Nash and Maxwell, formed the corps of reserve. At the battle of Monmouth, he commanded the left wing of the American army.

He died at Albany, January 15, 1783, aged 57 years. He was a brave, discerning, and intrepid officer.

MAJOR GENERAL BENEDICT ARNOLD.

Benedict Arnold, a Major General in the American Revolutionary army, and infamous for deserting the cause of his country, early enlisted on the side of his country. His mind was formed for bold and desperate enterprise, and in numerous instances he supported the character of a bold and intrepid officer. He was also a sordid and infamous traitor.

On hearing of the battle of Lexington, he marched with a company of men to the head quarters of the American Army at Cambridge, where he arrived April 29, 1775. Soon after his arrival he was appointed Colonel by the Massachusetts committee of safety, and commissioned to raise 400 men for the expedition against Ticonderoga. He immediately repaired to the vicinity of Lake Champlain, and uniting with Colonel Allen and his party, partook of the honours of that bold and successful enterprise. In September following, Arnold was invested with the command of 1100 men, detached on the arduous expedition of penetrating through the unexplored wilderness to Quebec. Colonel Burr, late Vice-President of the United States, was of this party. During this expedition, Arnold conducted with unexampled resolution, fortitude, and patience. In December 1775, Arnold reached Quebec, and being second in command under Gen. Montgomery, led a party in the boldest and most spirited manner to the attack of the city on one side, while an assault was made on the other by Montgomery, who was killed. Though the attack was unsuccessful, nothing could exceed the manly effort, and desperate valour of Arnold on this occasion. Advancing with the utmost intrepidity through a narrow path, exposed to an incessant fire of grape shot, as he approached the first barrier he received a musket ball in the leg, which shattered the bone, and he was carried off to the camp.

In January 1776 Arnold was promoted to the rank of Brigadier, and had command of the remains of one army in their retreat to

Crown-Point. In his rout through Montreal, he took from the merchants a very considerable amount of goods, under circumstances which implicated his honor and character. In the same year Arnold gallantly distinguished himself in a naval engagement on Lake Champlain. In 1777 he also exhibited the character of an intrepid soldier at Danbury, Conn. In approbation of his gallant conduct in this action, in which he had one horse killed and another wounded, Congress resolved, that a horse properly caparisoned, be presented to Gen. Arnold. In May following he was created a Major-General.

In the battle, near Stillwater, September the nineteenth, he conducted with his usual intrepidity, being engaged, incessantly, for four hours. In the action of October the seventh, after the British had been driven into the lines, Arnold pressed forward, and under a tremenduous fire, assaulted their works, from right to left. The intrenchments were at length forced, and with a few men he actually entered the works; but his horse being killed, and he himself badly wounded in the leg, he found it necessary to withdraw, and as it was now almost dark, to desist from the attack.

Being rendered unfit for active service in consequence of his wound, after the recovery of Philadelphia, he was appointed to the command of the American garrison. When he entered the city, he made the house of governor Penn, the best house in the city, his head quarters. This he furnished in a very costly manner, and lived far beyond his income. He had wasted the plunder, which he had seized at Montreal, in his retreat from Canada; and at Philadelphia, he was determined to make new acquisitions. He laid his hands on every thing in the city, which could be considered as the property of those who were unfriendly to the cause of his country. He was charged with oppression, extortion, and enormous charges upon the public, in his accounts; and with applying the public money and property to his own private use.

For this conduct the government of Pennsylvania exhibited formal charges against him, and Congress decided that he should be arrested, and tried by a court Martial. He was sentenced to be reprimanded by the commander in chief, which being approved by Congress, was carried into execution. From this time, probably, his proud spirit revolted against his country. The acquisition of West-Point would give value to treason, while its loss would mortally wound his former friends, and he traitorously resolved upon delivering it into the hands of the enemy. With this intent he became solicitous to be invested with the command of West-Point. Without a suspicion of his patriotism, Gen. Washington yielded to the solicitations of Arnold and transferred him to that command, on the ground that in consequence of his wounds he was unable to perform the active duties of the field. He immediately opened a correspondence with Sir Henry Clinton, with the view of putting the important post, which he commanded, into the hands of the British general. The arrangements

were soon made, and Major Andre was selected by Sir Henry for maturing the treason of Arnold. But just as their schemes were ripe for execution, Heaven interposed in favour of the American cause, and blasted the base designs of the traitor. Major Andre was takeu while passing the American lines, and papers, fully disclosing his business and Arnold's guilt, were found upon him. Andre took immediate measures to inform Arnold of his capture, and the traitor, thus becoming acquainted with his danger, escaped. Arnold fled to NewYork, and was immediately made a brigadier general in the British army, which rank he preserved throughout the war. He continued in active service during the war, and chiefly distinguished himself for pillaging and wantonly murdering the defenceless.

It is said, that while on an expedition in the Chesapeake, Arnold enquired of an American captain, whom he had taken prisoner, what the Americans would do with him if he should fall into their hands. The captain at first declined giving him an answer, but upon being repeatedly urged to it, he said, "Why, sir, if I must answer your question, you must excuse my telling you the plain truth; if my countrymen should catch you, I believe they would first cut off that lame leg, which was wounded in the cause of freedom and virtue, and bury it with the honours of war, and afterwards hang the remaind er of your body in gibbets." From the conclusion of the war till his death, general Arnold resided chiefly in England. He died in Glou cester-place, London, June 14, 1801.

MAJOR GENERAL HORATIO GATES.

Major General Gates was born in England, and educated to the profession of arms. He was an officer under the unfortunate Braddock, in the year 1755. Sustaining a high military reputation, and zealously supporting the violated rights of his adopted country, he was appointed Adjutant General by Congress, and accompanied General Washington to his head quarters at Cambridge, in July, 1775. In June, 1776, he was invested with the chief command of our retreating forces from Canada. In this capacity he effected nothing brilliant, until the capture of Burgoyne at Saratoga. This was a glorious victory, and may be considered as deciding the war of the revolution. The fruits of this victory were of incalculable importance, and the government and people vied with each other in expressing their gratitude to the conquering general. But Gen. Gates is not fully and exclusively entitled to the applause acquired by that victory. It was fortunate for Gen. Gates that the retreat from Ticonderoga had been conducted under other auspices than his, and that he took the command when the indefatigable labours of Gen. Schuyler, and the courage of Stark and his mountaineers, had already ensured the ultimate defeat of Burgoyne.

"In November, 1777, Congress having new modeled the board of war, appointed Gen. Gates the president, and he entered on the du

ties of the office, but retained his rank in the army. The subject of this sketch was destined to experience in a remarkable manner, the humiliating vicissitudes of fortune. He had the conducting of the most prosperous, and the most disastrous of the military enterprizes in the war. In June, 1780, General Gates was by Congress vested with the chief command of our army in the southern states. In a general battle at Camden, Aug. 15th, being the first and only encounter which he had with Lord Cornwallis, he suffered a total defeat, and was obliged to fly from the enemy for personal safety, and thus was the prediction of Gen. Lee, when Gates was vested with the command, that his northern laurels would be exchanged for southern willows, verified. It would, however, be great injustice to attribute the misfortune altogether to the commander, under his peculiar circumstances; a large proportion of his force consisted of raw militia, who were panic struck, and fled at the first fire; their rout was absolute and irretrievable. It may be observed, nevertheless, that his conduct in some respects on this occasion, did not meet the approbation of those who must be admitted as competent judges of the military operations of that fatal day. Proudly calculating on the weight of his name, and too confident in his own superiority, he slighted the counsel which he ought to have respected, and hurrying impetuously into the field of battle, his tide of prosperity ebbed as fast at Camden, as it had flowed at Saratoga."*

Gen. Gates died, without posterity, at his customary abode near New York, on the 10th of April, aged 78 years.

MAJOR GENERAL NATHANIEL GREENE.

This gallant officer was born in the town of Warwick, Kent county, Rhode Island, in or about the year 1741; and was the second son of a respectable citizen of the same name.

She

After the skirmishes of Lexington and Concord, when a spirit of resistance spread, like wild-fire over the continent-Rhode Island was not deficient in her contributions for the general defence. raised three regiments of militia, the command whereof was given to Mr. Greene, who was nominated brigadier-general. The liberty, safety and prosperity of his country being exposed to imminent danger, the pacific principles of quakerism, in which he had been educated, proved insufficient to combat the ardent spirit of liberty, with which his bosom glowed.

He led the troops under his command to Cambridge,; and was present at the evacuation of Boston.

General Greene's merit and abilities, as well in the council as in the field, were not long unnoticed by Gen. Washington, who reposed in him the utmost confidence; and paid a particular deference to his advice and opinion, on all occasions of doubt and difficulty.

*Thatcher's Journal.

He was appointed Major General by Congress, the 26th of August, 1776. Towards the close of that year he was at the Trenton surprise; and, at the beginning of the next, was at the battle of Princeton, two enterprizes not more happily planned, than judiciously and bravely executed, in both of which he highly distinguished himself, serving his noviciate under the American Fabius.

At the battle of Germantown, he commanded the left wing of the American army-and his utmost endeavours were exerted to retrieve the fortune of that day, in which his conduct met with the approbation of the commander in chief.

The situation of affairs at the south, induced Gen. Washington to appoint Gen. Greene to the command of the American forces in the southern district. He arrived at Charlotte on the second day of December, 1780, accompanied by Gen. Morgan, a brave officer, who had distinguished himself to the northward, in the expedition against Burgoyne. He found the forces he was to command, reduced to a very small number, by defeat and by desertion. The returns were nine hundred and seventy continentals, and one thousand and thirteen militia. Military stores, provisions, forage, and all things necessary, were, if possible, in a more reduced state than his army. His men were without pay, and almost without clothing: and supplies of the latter were not to be bad, but from a distance of two hundred miles. In this perilous and embarrassed situation, he had to oppose a respectable and victorious army.

After he had recruited his forces with all the friends to the revolu tion that he could assemble, he sent a considerable detachmen under Gen. Morgan to the western extremities of the state. This force, which was the first that had for a considerable time appeared there, on the side of the Americans, inspired the friends of liberty with new courage, so that numbers of them crowded to the standard of Gen. Morgan, who at length became so formidable, that Lord Cornwallis thought proper to send Col. Tarleton to dislodge him from the station he had taken. This officer was at the head of a thousand regular troops, and had two field pieces. He came up on the 17th of January, 1781, at a place called Cowpens, with Gen. Morgan, whose force was much inferior, and was composed of two thirds militia, and one third continentals. An engagement was the immediate conse

quence.

Upwards of five hundred of the British laid down their arms, and were made prisoners;-a very considerable number were killed. Eight hundred stands of arms, two field-pieces, and thirty-five baggage-waggons fell to the victors, who had only twelve killed, and sixty wounded.

About the beginning of March, he effected a junction with a continental regiment, and two considerable bodies of Virginia and Carolina militia. He then determined on attacking the British commander without loss of time, being persuaded,' as he declared in his