CHAPTER VII.

OPEN WAR.

Par'apet. A fortification, breast-high.

1775.

1. THE Continental Congress, which had sat for six weeks the previous autumn, now met again at Philadelphia. It is called the Second Continental May 10, Congress. The Provincial Congress of Massachusetts sent a letter recounting the affair at Lexington and Concord. It asked the Continental Congress to take charge of the army which was gathering about Boston, for troops were there from other colonies.

June 15,

2. Thereupon the Continental Congress assumed control of the military operations of all the colonies. It unanimously elected George Washington, of Virginia, General and Commander-in-Chief of 1775. the Army of the United Colonies. On the 17th of June it was agreed to raise two million dollars in the different colonies to meet the expense of the army.

They

3. The delegates to the Congress were by no means ready to separate the colonies from England. were bent only on maintaining the resistance which had been made, until England should right the wrongs of the colonies. Washington immediately set out for Cambridge. When he reached New York he heard an important piece of news.

4. On the evening of the 16th of June the Committee of Safety had sent troops to Charlestown, for they had heard that the British meant to occupy that place.

There they had thrown up fortifications upon a hill commanding Boston. The part of the hill nearest Boston was called Breed's Hill; behind it rose Bunker Hill.

5. The British had been unwilling to make an attack upon the camps about Boston, for that meant open war; but such a movement as this could not be overlooked. As soon as they espied the Americans intrenched, they sent troops across the river from Boston to dislodge them.

6. Three times the British regulars rushed up the hill. Twice they were driven back by the countrymen, who from behind a rude parapet and a rail fence coolly fired upon the redcoats. Then the Americans' ammunition gave out; and when the third attack came, they fired stones from their guns and slowly retreated, leaving the British in possession.

7. The battle of Bunker Hill had been fought. The Americans, led by Prescott and Putnam, had lost their June 17, brave General Warren; and about four hundred

1775.

tured.

and fifty men had been killed, wounded, or capThe British loss was more than twice as great. It was a bold movement of the Americans, and the colonial militia had stood the fire of the British regulars. When Washington heard this, he took fresh courage.

8. On the 3d of July Washington took command of the American army, beneath an elm still standing by He found a crowd of Cambridge Common.

July 3,

1775. brave, undisciplined soldiers, ill provided with arms, ammunition, and provisions. His first business was to organize them into an army, while he kept watch of the British in Boston.

9. The British army did not come out from the town; but some of the vessels which blockaded the harbor were sent down the coast and burned

Oct. 17,

1775.

George Washington, Father of his Country.

Born February 22, 1732; died December 14, 1799.

the town of Falmouth, now Portland. This was a direct act of war. It did much to weaken the lingering hope

of some Americans that the trouble was confined to Boston, and that there would be no general war. 10. Meantime the Americans had not been idle else

where. Ethan Allen, at the head of a party of mounMay 10, 12, taineers, surprised the British garrison at Fort

1775. Ticonderoga, and captured that fort, as well as Crown Point. These were on the old route to Canada; and men who had fought in the French and Indian War were eager to get possession of that country.

11. Two expeditions were planned. General Montgomery moved down Lake Champlain and captured Nov. 13, Montreal. Benedict Arnold secured Washington's approval, and with some of the forces which were besieging Boston, made a terrible march

1775.

through the wilderness of Maine to the St. Lawrence. He followed the plan Wolfe had adopted, and occupied the Plains of Abraham.

12. Arnold reached Quebec just as Montgomery entered Montreal. It was intended that the two armies should unite; but Arnold could not hold his position, and retreated to a less exposed place. After Montgomery arrived from Montreal, an attack was made. upon Quebec; but it was disastrous. Montgomery was killed, the British army was reinforced, and the Americans were obliged to abandon Canada.

Arnold's Route.

13. At the beginning of 1776 Washington, by the help of Congress, had succeeded in getting the army into shape. It was no longer a collection of little colonial armies. On the 1st of January he hoisted the Union flag, in compliment to the United Colonies. The present flag was adopted June 14, 1777.