The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-06-28
LAST YEAR OF
THE REVOLUTION.

Certainly things looked desperate
enough that dark year. The congress
was sinking into more and more help
less inefficiency DefinDtive articles oi
confederation had been submitted to
the states nearly three years ago CNo-
vember, 177O, but they had not been
adopted yet, and the states had almost
ceased to heed the acquisitions of the
congress at ALL Unable to tax, it paid
its bills and the wages of it's troops IN
paper, which SO n-apldly fell in value
| that by the time the hopeless year 1880
was out men in the ranks found a
months pay too little with which to
buy even a single bushel of wheat.
Washington was obliged to levy sup
plies from the country round him Ia
feed his army; and in spite of their
staunch loyalty to him, his men grew
mutinous, in sheer disgust with the
weak Faithless government they were
expected to serve. Wholesale deSertion
began, as many as one hundred men a
month going over to the enemy, to get
at least pay and food and clohirg. The
country seemed not so much disTnayed
as worn out and Indifferent: weary of
waiting and hoping; looking stolidly to
see the end come. Washington was
helpless. Without the cooperation OF
naval force, it was Impossible to do
more than hold the British in New
York. France was bestirring herse .
again, indeed. On the 10th of July a
/ French fleet put in at Newport am !
under Count Rochambeau. a most
sensible and capable officer. who was
| directed to join Washington and put
himself entirely under his command
! But powerful British fleet presently
made its appearance in the Sound the
French admiral dared not stir: Ro-
/ chambeau dared not leave him without
! succor; and the reinforcements that
were TO have followed out of France
/ were blockaded in the harbor of Brest
Then, while things stood so, treason
was added. Benedict Arnold, the man
whom Washington trusted with a deep
affection, and whom the army loved
for his gallantry, entered into CORE
spondence with the enemy; arranged
to give West Point and the posts de-
| pendent upon it into their hands, and,
/ his treason suddenly detected, escaped
without punishment to the British
| sloop of war that waited in the river
/ for the British agent in the plot Wash
ington was at hand when the discov
cry was made. His aides were break
fasting with Arnold when the traitor
was handed note which told him
he was found out, and Arnold had
scarcely excused himself and made
good his flight when the commander
in-chief reached the house. When
| Washington learned what had hap
pened, it smote him so that mighty
sobs burst from him, as if his great
| heart would break, and all the night
through the guard could hear him pac-
ing his room endlessly in a lonely vigil
with his bitter thoughts. He did not
in his own grief forget the stricken
wife upstairs. GO to Mrs. Arnold"
he said to one of his officers, and tell
Ter that though my duty required that
no means should be neglected to ar
rest Arnold, / have great pleasure in
acquainting her that he is now safe
on board a British vessel Arnold had
deemed himself wronged and insulted
by Congress-but what officer that
Washington trusted might not? Who
could be trusted if such men turned
traitors?
But a sudden turning of affairs
marked the closing of the year. Corn
wallis had penetrated too far into the
Carolinas; had advanced into North
Carolina, and was beset, as Burgoyne
had been, by a rising of the country.
He lost 1900 men at Kings Mountain
(Oct. Z, 1880, as Burgoyne had lost
1000 at Bennington; and everywhere,
as he moved, he found himself checked
by the best officers the long war had
bred-Nathanael Greene, who had been
Washington's right hand the war
through; Henry Lee. the daring master
of cavalry, whom Washington loved;
the veteran Steuben; Morgan, who had
won Saratoga with Arnold and parti-
san leaders a score, whom he had
learned to dread in that wild forested
country. He was outgeneralled; his
forces were taken in detail and beaten,
and he himself was forced at last into
Virginia. By midsummer 1871, all his
interior posts were lost, and he was cut
off from Charleston and Savannah by
a country he dared not cross again.
In Virginia, though at first he raided
as he pleased, he was checked more
and more s the season advanced by
q growing force under Lafayette; and
by the first week in August he had
taken counsel of prudence, and estab-
lished himself, 1000 strong, at York
town, near the sea, his base of sup
plies. Then it was that Washington
struck the blow which ended the war.
At last Rochambeau was free to move;
at last a French fleet was at hand to
block the free passage of the sea. The
Count de Grasse, with % ships of the
line, 6 frigates, and 10000 men. was in
the West Indies and in August sent
word to Washington that he was about
TO bring his whole fleet to the Chesa-
peake, as Washington had urged.
Either the Chesapeake or New York
had been WaShington'c prayer to him.
Making as if he were but moving about
New York from north to south for
some advantage of position, Washing
ton suddenly took 1000 continentals
and 1900 Frenchmen, under Rocham-
beau, all the long 400 miles to York
river in Virginia, 20 find CORVALLIS
already entraDped there, as he had
planned, between Grasses fleet in the
bay and Lafayette intrenched across
the peninsula with 5000 men, now the
French had loaned him 5000. A few
weeks seige and the decisive work
was done 70 the admiration of Corn
wallis himself; the British army was
taken. The generous Englishman
could not withhold an expression of his
admiration for the extraordinary skill
with which Washington had struck an
the way from New York with 5000
men as easily as if with 600 BUT.
after all, he added, your exceHency' s
achievements in New Jersey were such
that nothing could surpass them. -
From General Washington" by
woodrow Wilson, in Harper's Maya
zine for July.
STAGE SCENERY AFFECTED BY VI
TASCOPE.
The unquestioned success of the Vita