DEDICATION

T

O the memory of that bold mariner, who, four hundred years ago,

discovered the Western Continent; and the brave colonists who

sacrificed the pleasures and comforts of the old world to undergo the privations, and face the dangers of an unknown wilderness;

To the memory of the Pilgrim Fathers who planted the seeds of freedom on American Soil; and the Revolutionary heroes who secured liberty for the most patriotic people, and laid the foundations of the greatest nation in all the annals of time;

To those brave defenders and noble citizens who have preserved and fostered the growth of our model institutions, made possible our wonderful progress and fortified the bulwarks of our strength in this

"Land of the Free and Home of the Brave,"

entitling our Great Country to sit upon the Throne among Nations as the Queen of Republics,

This Volume is Patriotically

DEDICATED

BY THE AUTHOR

PREFACE.

ever penned on earth. Yet the fact remains that the great mass of the American people are but imperfectly acquainted with it. There is a real need that we should know better than we do what we have done. It is only by a thoughtful study of our past that we can safely provide for the perils of the future. We have triumphed over adversity, and we are now called upon to bear the test of success. He can be no good citizen who is ignorant of his country's history.

In the preparation of this volume, no authority of importance has been overlooked; the author has carefully searched every source of information open to him; and has availed himself of every fact that could throw new light upon, or impart additional interest to, the subject under consideration.

Such is the land designed by God for the, noblest, most thrilling, and glorious story home of liberty. The people to whom He has intrusted it have not abused His goodness. In the short space of two centuries, the American people have grown from a small handful of hardy adventurers to a "mighty continental nation," increasing with a rapidity that is almost marvellous. They have built up their country on a scale of magnificence of which they are justly proud. They have covered it with powerful and free States, and splendid cities, connected by a network of railways, telegraphs, navigable rivers, and canals, which bind all the scattered parts into one solid whole. They have made a commerce and a system of manufactures before which the fabled wealth of Tyre sinks into insignificance. They have created a literature which commands the respect of the world; they have illustrated their history with deeds of arms not less splendid than their more peaceful achievements, and have given to the world names in every walk of life that will never die. They have shown that liberty and power can go hand in hand; they have made themselves a nation in which God is feared, and of which Christianity is the basis, in which ignorance and vice are despised, and in which the great lesson that liberty is possible only to an educated and virtuous people is being practically demonstrated.

This is a grand history-a record of the highest achievement of humanity-the

In the narration of military events, he has preferred to give each campaign as a whole rather than to mingle several by presenting the events in chronological order. At the same time he has sought to preserve the inter-relation of events in one field of operations to those in the others.

The book is offered to the public in the sincere hope that it may induce its readers to take to heart the lessons which our history teaches, and to set a higher value upon the precious heritage of constitutional liberty. which our fathers won for us with their blood, and handed down to us in trust for our chil dren's children.

CONTENTS.