The constitutional union., 1861-02-08
1DVENTIRE OF l BRITISH
 &CLDIER.

In the year l719, when the war with Amer lea was conducted with great spirit upon that continent, division of the British army was encanped on the bank of a river in position so favored by nature that it was difficult for any military art to surprise 1t. War in Amer ica was rather a species of hunting than regular campaign. If you fight with art, said Washington to the soldiers, you arc sure to be defeated. Acquire discipline en- ough to act in concert, and the uniformity of combined attack and our country will prove the best of engineers" So r.a was this maxim Of the American genera. hat the English soldiers had to contend with little else. The Americans had incorporated the Indians into their ranks, and had made them useful ina species of war to which their hab- its of life peculiarly fitted them. They sallied out of their imrenetrable forests and iunelcs, and, with their arrows and tomahawks, com mitted daily waste upon the British army, surprising their sentnels, cutting of their stragglers, and, even when the alarm was given, and pursuit commenced, they fled with a swiftness that the speed of cavalry could not oyertake, into r0ckSand tastnesses Whither 1t was dangerous to pursue them. h order to limit as far &s possible, this species oi war, in which there was so much loss and so little honor, 1t was the custom with every regiment to extend it's outpootS to great distance be- yond the encampments; to station sentnals in the woods; and keep constant guard around the main body 4 regiment oi; foot was, at this time, stationed upon the confines of the boundless Savannah. Its particular office was to guard every avenue of approach to the main body; the sentMels whose posts penetrated into the woods were supplied by the ranks, and the service of this regiment was thus more hazardous than that of any other. Its loss was likewise greater. The sentinels were perpetually surprised on their posts by the Indians, and what was most astonishine, they were borne off their stations without communicating any alarm, or being heard of after. Not trace was left of the manner in which they had been conveyed away, except that, upon one or two occasions, few drops of blood had appeared upon the leaves which covered the ground. Many i'm puted this unaccountable disappearance to treachery, and suggested, as an unanswerablc argument, that the men thus surprised might at least, have fired their muskets and c0nmu- cated the alarm to the contiguous posts Oth- CTS, however, who could not be brought to consider it as treachery, were content to re- ceive it as a mystery, which time would explain
 One morning the sentinels having been stationed as usual over night, the guard went at sunrise to relieve apost which extended a considerable distance into the wood The sentinel was gone the surprise was great j; but the circumstance had occurred before They left another man. and departed, wishing him better luck ( You need not be afraid, !" said the man with warmth, !" shall not de- sert" The relief-guard returned to the guard house The sentinels were replaced every four hours, and, at the appointed time, the guard again marched to relieve the post. To their inexpressible astonishment, the man was gone. They searched around the post, but no traces could be found of his disappearance. It was necessary that the station, from a stronger motive than ever, should not remain