Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1897-12-14
THE HERO OF QUEBEC, SARA
TOGA AND COWPENS.
To the Editor ofthe Alexandria Gazette:

TOGA AND COWPENS.
To the Editor of the Alexandria Gazette:
For the information of an inquirer in
your paper and for others as well, I
have to state that the hero of Quebec,
Saratoga and Cowpens, alluded to in
my historic paper on "Washington's
Mill at Epsewasson" was no other per-
son than Daniel Morgan, the "wagon
boy" of the Occoquan river, which di.
vides the counties of Fairfax q nd Prince
William, Va. This boy in 1754, then
hardly twenty years of age, having,
by dint of frugal savings from his hir
ings as farm laborer in preceding years
acquired enough cash to bny wagon
and horses, was in the employ of John
B4llandine, an extensive iron mapufao-
turer, hauling iron ore to one of his
furnaces for the compensation of few
-hillings day. This furnace was sit
uated on the Occoquan just above the
upper bridge and Jannty's flour mills.
4 portion of the walls of it are yet
standing, mute but very suggestive
memorial of the man whose prominent
services as patriot, as an intrepid lead
tr and as q successful soldier in the
great struggle for American indepen
dencs the gratitude of this generation
aud the generations which preceded it
have been very slow to adequately es-
innate and appreciate.
Where the piles of Stag, overerown
with grass and struggling vines lie scat
t red around The old walls under
The towering granite cliff in the
dell so beautiful, close by the
dashipg waters which came down
(. ON The famous fields of Maoas-
sas, the party of the historic picnic OF
The seventh of August last chose as
most Fl ting place TO spread out and el
j " their noonday rerast, just as the
nearly hundred and fifty years before.
In the spring of 1855 wnen all of that
region was rife with wars alarm pre-.
ceding the disastrous French and Ind
an conflicts, when the drum and fife
of the recruiting sergeant was heard
amid the wilds, calling for volunteers
from among the pioneers; and General
Braddock and Governor Dinwiddie
came up with snowy retinue and dash
ing red coated guards in the vice regal
chariot from Williamsburg, and crossed
the Occuquan by the Colchester ferry
going to Alexandria, the newly founded
town of few hundred inhabitants, to
attend the council of war, Morgan's
adventurous spirit caught the military
enthusiasm of the times and forgetting
ore and furnace turned bis horses head
10 the same direction to join the expe-
dtion of British regulars and provincial
volunteers then making ready to start
for the mountains to engage the French
aud Indian forces. He offered his team
20 Braddock's auartermaster to haul up
upplies through the wilderness coun.
nv for the troops. His offer was &C
cepted and in brief time the wagon
boy was made master of the entire Wag-
on train in which capacity be displayed
80 much ability and tact, and especially
after the disastrous battle on the Mon
ongahela in directing the carrying of
of the wounded from the field, that he
was recognized by Colonel Washington
as fit person for promotion to higher
grades of service which in due time fol-
lowed.
Of the future brilliant career of
Daniel Morgan as a fighter in the sue
ceeding frontier Indian wars-of bis
part in the Arnold expedition to Qae-
oec in Its and of his marvellous ex-
ploits at Saratoga, Cowpens, and other
places during the Revolution which
won for him the rank Of major general
in the continental army the writer has
endeavored to give u general account
in his History of Colchester" and his
Hero OF five wars" both of which are
as yet unpublished.
Washington early took Morgan into
his confidence and always trusted him
implicitly through the years OF revolu-
tionary struggle; for he knew he was
as true as the magnet to the pole.
Like Greene and Stsrke and Putnam
his integrity was as rock. Gates ana
Arnold and Lee had each approached
him in his own ambitious interests
nrejudicial to the commander n-chief,
but be sternly rebuked their treachery
with merited scorn. Lafayette set
GREAT yslue on the services of Morgan
and loved him as brother, as his ru-
merous letters to him show. His e1-
ploits we're gszetted in his own coun-
try and in Europe, they were the
theme OF praise in Congress, IN the
French chamber of deputies aud even
in the British parliament, and General
Burgoyne after his surrender 10 MIN t aI
Saratoga told him "he commanded Inc
finest troops in the world" But tne
republic he so gallantly fought to es'
After hearing some friends continual
" praisiug Chamberlain's Collie, Cholera
and Diarrkea Remedy, Curtis Fleek, >