The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1916-02-15
COUNTRY'S DEBT
TO WASHINGTON
Probably the Only Man Who
Could Have Won Liberty
for the People.
Difficulties Which He Had to Encoun-
ter Were Almost Insurmountable
Lack of Proper Training
Hampered Continentals in
All Their Battles.

- GORGE WASHINGTON, the
4 commander OF the American
armies, knew better than any
one else the offensive and de-
fensive value Of the forces under him;
and he has left q vivid written record
Of the relative value Of unframed
shoTt-term men and of a disciplined
lOng-term body made of individuals of
the same class. He plainly expressed
his opinion, fully confirmed by military
men since his time, of the army need
ed by this country when, soon after
the disaster at Camden, he wrote to
congress: What we need is a good
army, not a large one"
Probably no war was ever carried
on where the one side was represent
ed in the field by SO great proportion
Of unorganized troops, not under a
central national control, and no great
commander, before or since, has ever
succeeded with so rapidly shifting
body of badly equipped men.
Bunker Hill Analysed.
At the battle of Bunker Hill, an
army of unframed American minute
men and militia, under the command,
however, of veteran officers like Pres
colt, Stark, Putnam and Knowlton of
the higher rank, and among the lower
officers a sprinkling of men expert
enced in the French and English wars,
from behind intrenchments hastily
erected, but of value against low-pow-
er armament, successfully resisted
two attacks of well-organized and
disciplined British veterans, with a
loss to the latter of / 1854 killed and
wounded. But these same troops, by
virtue not of superior individual cOur-
age, but of their combined valor and
discipline, were rallied by their we'll
trained officers, made a third charge,
and, although outnumbered, succeeded
in driving the Americans, at the point
Of the bayonet, from their trenches,
their supply Of powder being exhaust
ed and their muskets not having bay
OnetS.
The American force was justly
proud Of its resistance and of the
heavy punishment it had inflicted, but
the result was, in spite of it's good
fight, a defeat to it's arms-perhaps
only through failure in the quarter
masters department. The British,
however, carried the hill on account
of the better discipline of their line,
the better control of their officers, and
because their supply of ammunition
was not exhausted. And they there
by prevented the success Of the CO.
lonial military plan.
Continental Weakness.
This story in various ways was
many times repeated in the war of
the revolution, always with the same
result. In spite of the brilliant gen
eralship Of Washington, Greene,
Schuyler, Lee and others, the Ameri-
cans did not win a single victory over
the British regular troops when the
latter were not outnumbered
A brief examination of the powers
Of the Continental Congress will show
what were the chief causes of this
weakness in our armies that led SO
hear to the collapse of our national
defense and caused the intense anxiety
and distress to Washington and the
band OF patriots about him in the army
and in congress-
The congress presented as able and
devoted men as were ever gathered in