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GERMANY SCOURED For more TROOPS.

an exchange for the same number of Americans. His communication to Lord Stormont-the English Ambassador at Paris,—received no attention. This neglect was followed by a remonstrance so earnest, that it at last called forth the following contemptuous reply: The king's ambassador receives no applications from rebels, unless they come to implore his majesty's mercy.' This was thoroughly British ; but how politic it was, became evident enough from subsequent events. Insults, and cruelties the most brutal, were all through the war resorted to with our seamen, until the very word impressment made the eyes of American sailors flash fire. For the next half a century, it discolors the diplomatic correspondence of the two countries; it tinges their histories; it darkens the pages of romance, and casts a far-reaching shadow over the British name. A blind persistence in that policy brought on the Second War with England, and hurried us to the verge of others, until the good sense and illuminated statesmanship of Ashburton and Webster, finally removed this fruitful cause of trouble in the Treaty of Washington.

More Mercenary Troops.-Unable to recruit her army at home, England ɔnce more turned to the continent, casting all other reliances aside except the power of gold to purchase men in the open markets of Germany. The 'subsidized kinglings' who were engaged in the trade in soldiers' needed money, and they could sell subjects. The tiny Prince of Waldeck, impressed eighty-nine of his unwilling subjects, and kept them locked up in the fortress of Hameln ready for use. The Prince of Cassel raised ninety-one recruits, and four hundred and sixty-eight yagers; and by forced impressment, theft, and other doubtful means,' Hesse-Cassel, in the year '77 raised 1,450. But this hardly made good Washington's work at Trenton, while the work of pestilence at Brunswick had in two months carried off more than three hundred 'as able men as ever stood in the ranks of the army.' All Hessians, too, being objects of special animosity, were marked out for vengeance, wherever sharpshooters got sight of them.

The Margrave of Brandenburg-Anspach, kinsman of George III., and nephew to Frederick of Prussia, furnished two regiments of 1,200 men, ' tall, neatly-clad, handling their bright and faultless arms with dexterity, spirit, and exactness.' No means were too infamous for the little tyrants who became the willing kidnappers of British Ministers.' Money was lavishly spent, while

The subsidized princes sought for men outside court of Vienna, in the name of Maria Theress, and of their own lands, and forced into the service not Joseph the Second, reclaimed their subjects and desertmerely vagabonds and loose fellows of all kinds, but ers. any unprotected traveller or hind on whom they could lay their hands. The British agents became sensitive to the stories which were told of them, and to the excessive defamation' which they encountered. The rulers of the larger states felt the dignity of the empire insulted. Frederick of Prussia never disguised his disgust. The court of Vienna concerted with the Elector of Mentz, and the Elector of Treves to throw a slur on the system. At Mentz, the yagers of Hanau who came first down the Rhine were stopped, and eight of them rescued by the elector's order, as his subjects or soldiers. From the troops of the landgrave of Hesse, eighteen were removed by the commissioners of the eccles astical prince of Treves. At Coblentz Metternich, the active young representative of the

Still more formidable was the rankling discontent of the enlisted men. The regiments of Anspach could not be trusted to carry ammunitions or arms, but were driven on by a company of trusty yagers well provided with both, and ready to nip a mutiny in the bud. Yet eighteen or twenty succeeded in deserting. When the rest reached their place of embarkation at Ochsenfurton-the-Main, the regiment of Bayreuth began to march away and hide themselves in some vineyards. yagers, who were all picked marksmen, were ordered to fire among them, by which some of them were killed. They avenged themselves by putting the yagers to death. The Margrave of Anspach, summoned by express, rode to the scene in the greatest haste, leaving his watch on his table, and without a shirt to change

The

TRYON'S FORAY INTO CONNECTICUT.

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their virtue, if they had any, was tested, and their vices, in which they abounded, were ministered to. But all this scouring of Germany ended in raising only 3,600 men, while from Great Britain and Ireland during the entire year of 1777, only 3,252 recruits were raised to send to New York, and 726 to Canada.

How this scanty Supply was eked out-Enlistments of the Disloyal in America. For this odious and unscrupulous work, Governor Tryon was appointed the general officer. He was a daring, relentless, unscrupulous man. As early as 1768, while in the service of the king in North Carolina, he had displayed these qualities so well, that he had been transferred to New York, where his sanguinary conduct earned for him a name of lasting infamy.' His name had been made familiar through the Carolinas, and along the banks of the Mohawk, as a man who never wavered in his loyalty to the king, who hesitated not to call into requisition whatever means would promote his object-holding out standing offers for the scalp of any patriot, or a bribe to any republican to desert the national cause. He became the leader of the Tories and Royalists of the North in the Revolution.

The murderous Foray of Tryon into Connecticut.-On the 25th April, before the campaign of 1777 had fully opened, Governor Tryon, at the head of eighteen hundred British and Tories, landed on the shore of Long Island Sound, between Fairfield and Norwalk, with an expedition intended solely for pillage, burning, and murder. He destroyed a quantity of stores belonging to the patriots at Danbury, overpowered the guard of fifty under Colonel Huntington, and burned the town, murdering some of the unresisting inhabitants, and throwing their bodies into the flames of their dwellings. Sullivan, Arnold, and Wooster hastily assembled the minute men' from the whole neighborhood, and pursued the marauder to Ridgefield. Fierce and bloody skirmishing ensued, in which the Americans displayed the utmost valor. The venerable General Wooster had, so far back as 1745, participated in the siege of Lewisburg, serving with reputation as a captain in the British army; afterwards in the French and Indian war; and now, although seventy years old, in his full vigor, and promising to be of great future service, died that day, after conduct which would have covered a young captain with glory, leaving a record which endeared him not only to his native State, but to the whole country. Arnold, who fought with all his characteristic bravery, narrowly escaped; but he displayed such superb courage and skill, that Congress applauded his devotion, and presented him with a fine horse fully caparisoned for the field. Tryon had no reason to congratulate himself on the result,

He who by the superstitions of childhood and hallowed traditions was their land's father stood before them. The sight overawed them. They acknowledged their fault, and submitted to his severe reprimands. Four of them he threw into irons, and ordered all to the boats. Instead of the yagers, he in person assumed the office of driver; marched them through Metz in defiance of the elector; administered the oath of fidelity to the King of England at Nymwegen; and the

land's father never left his post till, at the end of March, in the presence of Sir Joseph Yorke, his children, whose service he had sold, were delivered by him in person on board the British transports at Sevavandell.-Bancroft, vol. ix.. pp. 316, 317.

I have no space for the record: Judge William W. Campbell, in his Border Warfare of New York-one of the most valuable contributions to local history that has ever been made-has portrayed Tryon's character,

346

EXPEDITIONS TO SAG HArbor and newport.

for he was closely followed up by Sullivan, who harassed him all the way to the coast; and when he reached Campo where his vessels lay, he was heavily raked by the artillery of the gallant Lamb. He lost nearly three hundred men during the expedition, while in killed and wounded it cost the Americans not half that number.

Brilliant Night Expedition to Sag Harbor.-The vigilance of the Americans lost no opportunity for daring and aggressive adventures. At Sag Harbor, on the eastern point of Long Island, large magazines of grain and forage had been made by the British. Colonel Meigs, who had been one of Arnold's bravest companions in the march to Canada, leaving Guilford, Connecticut, with a hundred and seventy men in whale-boats, May 22d, 1777, at two o'clock in the morning surprised and seized the post, burned twelve vessels with the store-houses and their contents, captured ninety prisoners, and reached Guilford after traversing nearly one hundred miles by land and water in twenty-five hours without losing a man.'

Another Dash.-On the night of the 10th of July the same season, an equally brilliant feat was performed by Colonel William Barton. With a few picked men, he crossed Narraganset Bay in whale-boats through the British fleet unobserved, and stealthily reaching the headquarters of the British General Prescott-the house still standing above Newport, a mile from the bay-seized him in bed, and took him across the bay to Warwick, where, soon after daybreak, he was sent in a carriage under a strong guard to Providence, and from thence transferred to Washington's headquarters, where, unfortunately, his exchange brought back no better man than General Charles Lee, whose redemption was very dear at that purchase.'

Tryon's chief Allies in the Work of enlisting the Tories.-The two most effi cient were De Lancey of New York, and Cortland Skinner of New Jersey. Their activity and adroitness were equalled only by the means at their dis posal for seduction and bribery; but with all these appliances during the whole season they enlisted only five or six hundred men each. To the honor of the American name it should be stated, that these were mostly foreigners; and to the honor of foreign nations it may, with equal justice, be said, they were renegades-bad men who had doubtlessly left their country for their country's good.

An Embassy to France.-In September, 1776, Congress appointed three commissioners to negotiate a Treaty of Alliance with Louis XVI. In the preceding spring, Silas Deane' had been sent to Paris by the Secret Com

! For this gallant service Congress voted thanks to Meigs and his men, and a beautiful sword to their commander. Sergeant Cummings was also promoted by Washington.

Congress, never slow to recognize any brilliant or patriotic service in the national cause, voted Colonel

Barton a splendid sword, and the rank and pay of a colonel in the army.

Silas Deane-In consequence of the extravagant contracts he had entered into, not authorized by his instructions, he was recalled, November 21st, 1777, and John Adams appointed in his place. He left