White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1933-05-11

Of courage since their recent drubbing.
They had seen men shattered by can
non-balls and ripped by bayonets.
With little experience they had no
heart for that kind of weather. A
panic spread among them and soon
they were all in retreat.
General Washington hurrying to the
scene met and tried to rally them.
They could not be turned. They went
on leaving him exposed to the adj
vancing enemy. A new Washington
was now with Colin Cabot who had
been riding at his side. Mortified and
dismayed, the Chief was in a rage
He snapped his pistol at the retreating
men. He threw it on the ground. He
threatened them with his sword. "My
+d!" he exclaimed, "are these the
kind of men must depend upon?"
In anger he turned his horse toward
the enemy. It seemed as If he were Of
a mind to end his humiliation in a
brave and sudden sacrifice rather than
join the rout of men fleeing from their
duty. Colin Cabot seized the Bride of
the white horse and turned his head.
In moment they were behind hill
riding rapidly northward. The Chief
was himself again. The revolution was
not dead. In the two minutes of time
just behind them the tide of war had
turned. AS they rode along the young
colonel got vision of it's effect upon
human history. He writes:
I'm this hour the one great captain
in our force got baptism which made
him equal to all Encouragement"
A sense of shame overlook the fee
ing men. The next day they fought
well. A force of English light troops
were roughly handled by Connecticut
and Virginia men and nearly de-
stroyed. three hundred Of the enemy
being killed and wounded 1t was
victory Followed by the British the
American army made its way to the
western side of the Bronx River val
ley where retreat was possible.
The Chief advised the evacuation Of
Fort Washington on the North river.
Greene, in whom he had much conf
dence, opposed his plan. The blus-
tering, rocco General Lee was in COM
mand Of it. He was then saying that
his army and that Of Washington must
each stand on it's own bottom. Soon the
fort surrendered with a loss of two
thousand men. It was not an unquali-
fed misfortune, for Lee was at heart
a traitor The less power in his hands
the better.
Late in November, Washington de-
feated an effort to surround him while
he was retreating with daily losses to
New Jersey. When he had crossed the
North river only three thousand of his
men were with him. They were de-
pendable. They were willing to die for
the man who led them. The retreat
continued to the shore of the Della
ware without tents. or entrenching
tools. The weather resisted them with
snow and cold wind. The men were
poorly clad. The feet of many were
naked or covered with blanket rags.
Those were the first days Of shivering
and bloody footprints. Lee was or
dered to cross the river. He loitered
at his post and was captured on the
way by dragons.
But the time was near when the
enemy was to be filled with dismay by
the genius Of the big American Chief
in the Fabian arts of swift movement,
fr,1c CT nd 30
a decisive battle is expensive and
when it is suddenly discovered that
the enemy has safely moved to parts
unknown, the effect is disheartening.
Crossing three thousand miles of sea
to make war in strange, unfamiliar
setting, is at best costly enterprise.
The expense of it was vastly in
creased by corrupt administration
Of it's finances and scarcity of ships
and seamen. Food went bad on the
long journeys and was soon store Of
maggots. Horses starved to desth,
men rotted with scurvy and were
thrown into the sea or came through
sickened by the hundred and unfit for
service to be a charge on supplieA
Chaos and confusion were at war with
each other. General Washington knew
that continued Illustration and delay
must, soon or late, break the spirit of
the strongest empire.
December 8, 1776, Washington
crossed the Delaware and broke down
all the bridges. He had Communicated
every boat on many miles of the river.
While the last men in the rear were
landing, the British van, baffled in it's
pursuit, arrived on the shore behind
them. The little army was safe in the
shelter of forest.
Col. Alexander Hamilton, slight
but handsome youth, scarcely twenty
years of age. had handled his artil-
lery company so admirably in the re
treat that Washington summoned him
to headquarters that evening. The
young man spent an hour in confer
ence with the Chief. al
With no bridges and no boats, Howe
cautioned his troops on the New Jersey
shore at Trenton, Bordentown, White