The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1943-02-12

successfully through two other {
What were their prospects of
victory as they entered the Sec
ond year of those conflicts-the
War for American independence
and the War Between the
States?
eff George Washington and
Abraham Lincoln were alive to-
day." what message would they
give to the embattled America
of 1913?
When the second year OF the
Revolution began George Washing
ton found himself commander-in-
chief of what was little better than
"rabble in arms" To the men,
bers of the Continental congress he
had declared LEST some unlucky
event should happen, unfavorable
to my reputation, l beg it may be
remembered, by every gentleman in
the room, that I this day declare,
with the utmost sincerity, ! do not
think myself equal to the command
am honored with" :
Washington little realized then
how soon some unlucky event should
happen" nor what long success
sion of such misfortunes would devil
him for the next six years. But he
must have had foreshadowing OF
them, for, within week after he
assumed command of the army, he
was writing to his friend, Richard
Henry Lee: "We are in an exceed
ingly dangerous situation. We have
but about sixteen thousand effective
men in all this department, where
as, by the accounts which received
from even the first officers in COM
mand, had no doubt of finding be-
tween eighteen and twenty thousand;
out of these are only fourteen thou
sand fit for duty . :"
The smallness of his army was,
however, only one of his many prob
lens. Not only were the soldiers
poorly armed, poorly clothed and
poorly fed, but there was shocking
lack of discipline. Men accepted
bounties to enlist, then deserted inn
mediately.
Low Morale.
Morale among the officers was not
much better, for in their attitude
toward each other they reflected all
the jealousies and suspicious which
had prevented unity of the English
colonies in the struggle with the
French and Indians.
washington had to face not
only wholesale assertions and
furious mutinies among the pri-
vate soldiers, but also the most
exquisitely embarrassing feuds
among his officers with threats
of wholesale designations" writes
his biographer, Rupert Hughes.
ellis prudence, fairness and de-
v0tiOh to the government were
tested to the last degree i. 1t
seemed to him, and it seems to
the later inspector of the rec
Ords, that at this time Washing
ton was almost the only man in
America who had a sense of ma
tional entity and national duty.
The rest talked of liberty, and
indignation at tyrants, but their
interests were almost altogether
individual, municipal, or pro-
vincial."
Such was the situation as the year
1776 opened. Up in Canada Bene-
dict Arnold's forces had settled down
to their fruitless siege of Quebec.
Washington siege of Boston seemed
equally futile until early in March
when he occupied Dorchester
Heights. Then on st. Patrick's day
4 Lord Howe evacuated the city and
Washington and his motley army
marched in.
It was a victory for the Patriot
cause, of course, but it was far from
decisive. For Howe's army was still
intact and there was no telling
where it would strike next. Wash
ington guessed correctly that it
would be New York. So in April
he marched his army there only to
find himself in a nest of Tory in
trigue and, two months later, mar
rowly to escape assassination at the
hands Of a member Of his own body
guard.
Meanwhile, outside of Quebec, Ar
nold's army was rotting away with
cold, hunger and smallpox and by
the middle Of June its shattered
remnants had been chased out Of
Canada. Thus ended in failure the
expedition upon which Washington
had counted so much-the addition
Of the Canadians to the Patriot
cause.
While this was taking place, the
WI