The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1935-07-18

lJ summoned, the whole street was
III filled with men, marching silently
and swiftly, with moccasined feet, their rae
coon caps pushed back, the green thrums toss
ing on sleeve and thigh"
Il The boy rubbed his eyes. He must be dream
llngi And yet
ION they came, rank on rank, like brown deer
1erding through a rock run; and on the hunt
ing shirts, lettered in white across each breast
appeared the words: Liberty or Death?"
ii Spel-bound, the boy continued to watch that
torrent Of dusty riflemen passing without q
break" In another moment they were gone
heir long Looping stride had carried them through
the village and out of sight around the bend Of
the road which led to Cambridge. But In the
years to come when that boy became grand
father, he would tell his grandchildren: Eyes, I
saw the riflemen as they marched north to help
George Washington drive General Gage and his
Brftishers out of Boston-town."
On June II, 1775, the Second Continental con-
gress passed a resolution that "six companies Of
expert rifemen be Immediately raised in the
Colony Of Pennsylvania, two In the Colony of
Maryland and two In the Colony Of Virginia, and
that each company as soon as completed shall
march to join the army near Boston, to be there
employed as light infantry under the command
of the chief officer of that army" Pennsyl
yania's response was immediate and generous.
She raised nine companies instead of six and
by the middle Of July her rifemen were on the
march. By the end Of that month two of the
companies had reached Cambridge and by the
middle of August the entire Battalion Of Rifle
men," commanded by Col William Thompson,
Lieut. Col Edward Hand, Maj. Robert Magaw
and Captains John Lowdon, Michael Doudel,
George Nagel, Abraham Miller, Robert Cluggage,
James Chambers, William Hendricks, James Ross
Moff Cpoit hod fpd m WqShtnO-
ton and had become the Second Regiment of
the Army of the United States
Il Swift as had been the northward march Of
the Pennsylvania frontersmen, they found, upon
their arrival, that the rifemen of Virginia and
Maryland had been no less prompt in answering
the call of congress. Among the first of the
sharpsheoting gentry to reach the scene of action
was a company from Frederick county, Virginia,
commanded by stalwart fellow whose leader
ship of these men who bore the long rifle would
make him forever famous He was Daniel Morgan.
Within two years he had become an ensign
In the Virginia militia and during the Pontiac
uprising of 1853 he rose to a captaincy. At the
outbreak of Dunmores war in 1774 he was one
of the first to lead company of frontier militia
against the Indians.
Within ten days after receiving his commits
sion, Morgan had raised company of 96 Fred
erick county men, many Of whom had served
with him In the Dunmore war. On July ID. 1775,
he started north from Winchester. His march
ing orders, according to tradition was the laconic
and alliterative command: "a Decline for Bos-
ton, boysr Within 81 days he covered the dis
lance Of 600 miles, an average Of nearly 30 miles
q day, without losing single man through sick
ness or desertion.
"The achievement of Morgan and his SO men,"
says Nickerson In his book, "The Turning Point
Of the Revolution" "can be paralleled only by
that Of the five hundred men Of Marseilles who
in July, 1892, marched 500 miles from the torrid