The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-06-13
Material for a Good Army.

acti' e, jealous in the cause, and of
UNREASONABLE courage"
There was time enough and to spare
In which to learn his armys quality.
Our lines Of defence are now COM
pleted," he could tell Lund Washing
ton on the goth Of August, "as near SO
at least as can be-we now wish them
to come out as soon as they please;
but they discover no inclination to
quit their own works of defense; and
as it is almost impossible for US to
get at them, we do nothing but watch
each others motions all day at the
distance of about a mile"
An Immense Correspondence.
He could even turn away from
military affairs to advise that spin
ming should go forward with all pos
sible despatch" on the estate at home.
and to say, Il much approve of your
sowing wheat in clean ground al
though you should be late in doing
it,"
Once more he settled to the old IA
miliar work, this time upon a great
scale, OF carrying a difficult enterprise
forward by correspondence Letters
to the Continental Congress at Phila-
dephia, letters to the provincial con-
crosses of the New England colonies,
letters to subordinate sometimes in
sbordinate) officers at distant posts.
letters to intimate friends and in
nuentlal men everywhere, setting
forth the needs and situation of the
army, advising measures of organiza-
ton, supply, and defense, pointing out
means that might be used and mis-
takes that must be avoided, command
ing, dissuading. guiding, forecasting.
poured steadily forth from those busy
headquarters, where the commander
in-chief was always to be found. in
tent, deeply employed, calmly impera-
tive, never firing, never hesitating.
never storming, a leader and master
OF men and affairs.
Washington was in his prime, and
all the forty-three years of his strenu-
Gus life he had been at school to learn
how such task as this was to be per
formed
He had found the army not only
without proper discipline and equip
ment, but actually without powder;
and the winter had come and was
passing away before even that pri-
mary and perilous need could be sup
piled.
The men Of that extemporized army
had been enlisted but for a few.
months service. When their brief
terms of enlistment ran out they in
continently took themselves off; and
Washington's most earnest appeals to
the continental and provincial con-
crosses to provide for longer enlist
ments and an adequate system of re-
cruitment did not always suffice to
prevent his force from perilously
dwindling away under his very eyes.
Providence Favors the Patriots.
It was merciful providence that
disposed the British to lie quiet in Bos-
ton
Such authority as he had, Washing
ton used to the utmost, and with a
diligence and foresight which showed
all his old policy of Thorough.
Under his orders few fast vessels
were fitted out and armed as priva-
teers at the nearest safe ports. Mar
blehead volunteers in the army were
put aboard them for crews, and the
enemy's supplies were captured upon
the seas and brought overland-the
much-needed powder and all-into the
American camp, while men-of-war
which might have swept the coast
lay just at hand in the harbor.
Keeping Things Stirred Up.
No opportunity was missed either TO
disturb the British or to set what the
army needed; and the ministers at
home, as well as the commanders in
Boston, grew uneasy and apprehensive
in the presence of SO active and watch
full an opponent.
He was playing the game boldly,
even bit desperately at times. More
than once, as the slow months of siege
dragged by, he would have hazarded
a surprise and sought to take the city
by storm, had not the counsel Of his
officers persistently restrained him.
Fighting in the North.
Only in the north was there such
fighting as he wished to see
Montgomery had pushed through the
forests and taken Montreal (Novem-
Der 18th. 1879. At the same time
Washington had sent a force of some
twelve hundred men, under Benedict
Arnold, to see what could be done
against the little garrison at Quebec.
The journey had cost Arnold four hun
dred men; but with what he had left
he had climbed straight to the
Heights of Abraham aud summoned
the British at their gates.
When they would neither surrender
nor fight, he had sat down to wait for
Montgomery; and when he came, with
barely five hundred men, had stormed
the stout defenses, in a driving snow
storm, in the black darkness that