Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1862-11-25

winter months An army OF nearly Il HllliloH
men, under officers of approved experience
and energy, ought surely to relieve this rebel
GAIA of its gates before the winter is over.
The difficulties are great, but the means OF
overcoming them have been supplied with
magnificent generosity unparalleled in the
annals of war.
There is an interesting and very striking
contrast between the second winter campaign
under Washington and that just beginning.
He counted his forces by thousands where we
count them by hundreds of thousands and
led them in the name of country which,
without individual assistance, was too poor to
pay them the miserable bounty that was prom
ised to keep them in the field. The war be-
gun at Lexington on the 18th of April, 1775
During that year the American troops were
animated with a common desire, and Coop
Grated together with singular enthusiasm
The second year gave rise to dissensions in
camp. Selfish men obtained power and
cursed the cause they were pretending to
serve. immortality, INSTRUMENTATION, and
desertion brought their accommodating load
When the winter of 1875 approached, his
prospects could not have been more hopeless,
or the condition of the American cause more
discouraging. In December, so confident
were the British that the contest was at an end
and that peace would follow the taking of
Philadelphia, that CORVALLIS had actually re-
turned to New York on purpose to sail for
England! He had not counted upon the bril-
liant little campaign, commencing with the
Christmas battle at Trenton, and ending with
the New Years victory at Princeton, which,
though carried on during the forlornest of
winters, shed kind of summer glory upon
our arms.
On the evening of Christmas day l776,
Washington gathered some twenty four hun
dred men few miles above Trenton, intend
ing to surprise body of Hessians, fifteen
hundred strong, and a troop of British light
horse quartered there. The Delaware was
filled with floating ice, and snow and sleet
filled the air. The surprise, which was in
tended to be consummated at midnight was
delayed to nearly morning; but, thanks to
the convivial habits of the Hessians, the sur
prise was none the less complete and effect
ual. The Hessian commander fell while vain
ly attempting to rally his troops, and forty or
fifty of his men were killed or MORALLY wound
ed, while one thousand of the rest were taken
prisoners. Modest as such an exploit APP
pears in comparison with the great move
ments which are now in progress, it was the
I'm nir int in tbo NJ tho -
the revolution. 1t revived the dropping spir-
its of the patriots 1t changed the contempt
of the British for their valor into respect and
fear. 1t encouraged Washington, feebly as
he was supported to commence aggressive
movements, and make up in vigor what he
lacked in numbers and in power.
On the lst of January, 1777, he had massed
at Trenton perhaps five thousand men. On
the Sd of January, was fought the battle at
Princeton, which, considering the odds against
him, and the excellent generalship by which
he conquered, placed Gen. Washington in the
front rank of the soldiers of his time. Twice
while that battle was pending, the slow and
incautious CORVALLIS was outwitted and then
whipped-W ashington himself leading his few
and choice troops, many of whom, including
some of his most beloved and accomplished
officers, slept in death that night upon the
snowy battlefield. Frederic the Great of
Prussia, when he read the record of these
brilliant days, said that ''the achievements of
Washington and his little band of compatriots,
between the 25th OF December and the 4th of
January following, were the most brilliant of
any recorded in the annals of military per-
fOrmances."
MIssoURI.-The St. Louis Democrat pub
lishes a stirring appeal to the representatives,