He

was able to take the field with five thousand men. proceeded up the Savannah River in the direction of Augusta; but at the same time his antagonist, General Prevost, crossed that stream and marched rapidly against Charleston. General Lincoln was obliged to turn back, and the British soon made a hasty retreat. The Americans followed, overtook the enemy at a place called Stone Ferry, ten miles west of Charleston, and attacked but were repulsed with considerable losses. Prevost, however, avoided battle, and fell back to Savannah. From June until September military operations were suspended, for the season was one of intense heat, and neither General chose to follow or engage the other.

It was at this juncture of affairs that Count D'Estaing, who had been cruising with the French fleet in the West Indies, arrived at Charleston to co-operate with General Lincoln in the reduction of Savannah. Discovering the intent of the Americans, Prevost withdrew his forces within the defenses of that city and stood at bay. On the 12th of September the French, numbering six thousand, effected a landing near Savannah and advanced to the siege. General Lincoln, however, was slow in arriving before the city. On the 16th D'Estaing, acting without the assistance of the Americans, demanded a surrender; but Prevost answered with defiance. A siege was begun and pressed with vigor. The city was constantly bombarded, but the defenses were strong and were little injured. On the 23d of September Lincoln arrived, and D'Estaing entered into co-operation for the reduction of the city. At length he notified the American commander that the place must be taken by assault, and the morning of the 9th of October was named as the time for the hazardous attack.

Before sunrise on that morning the allied French and Americans moved forward against the British redoubts.

At one time it seemed that the works would be carried, for the attack was made with great spirit and determination. The flags of Carolina and France were planted on the parapet, but they were soon hurled down by the British. It was in the mêlée along the walls that Sergeant Jasper, the hero of Fort Moultrie, was killed. The allied columns were driven back with fearful losses. Count Pulaski was struck with a grapeshot and borne dying from the field. D'Estaing retired on board the fleet; Lincoln retreated to Charleston; and Savannah remained in the hands of the British.

It was on the 23d of September in this year that Commodore John Paul Jones, cruising off the coast of Scotland with a fleet of French and American vessels, fell in with a British squadron, and a bloody and famous battle ensued. The Serapis, a British frigate of forty-four guns, engaged the Bon Homme Richard, the flag-ship of Paul Jones, in a deadly encounter. After a terrific cannonade the two ships came within musket-shot, and each was riddled by the fire of the other. At last the ships were lashed together. The Americans, or rather the crew of the Bon Homme Richard (for that crew was made up of many nationalities) boarded the Serapis, and the latter was obliged in blood and fire and ruin to strike her colors. Already, however, the Bon Homme Richard had become unmanageable and was in a sinking condition. Jones hastily transferred his men to the conquered vessel, and his own ship went down. Of the three hundred and seventy-five men who composed Paul Jones's crew three hundred were either killed or wounded.

Thus, indecisively and with certain heroic episodes, ended the year 1779. The colonies had not yet won their independence. The French alliance, sad to say, had brought but little seeming benefit. The national treasury was

bankrupt. The patriots of the army were poorly fed and were paid for the most part with unkept promises. Nor was there any weakening on the part of the enemy. Great Britain still supported the war with unabated vigor. True, her anger had now been diverted somewhat from the colonies. to her ancient rival, France; but Parliament and the King were still for war and the subjugation of America. The levy of sailors and soldiers now made amounted to a hundred and twenty thousand, while the expenses of the war department were raised to twenty million pounds sterling. The cloud of war rested ominously over our thirteen struggling States and the day of independence still seemed far

away.

The winter of 1779-80 Washington passed at his headquarters near Morristown, while the main body of his army lay encamped on the southern slope of Kemball mountain, sufficiently near to be called into immediate service in case of necessity. The winter was so excessively severe as to retard operations, and was spent in no greater activity than watching the British on Staten Island and in foraging for provisions, for the army was so inadequately provided that self-preservation compelled a resort to marauding levies upon surrounding barnyards. The cold and privations were so great that the scenes at Valley Forge were re-enacted, and but for the influence which Washington exerted his army would no doubt have mutinied, as it was more than once upon the eve of doing.

CHAPTER XVI.

DURING the progress of the Revolution many circumstances showed that the future results of the conflict were to be felt beyond the Alleghanies and to the Father of Waters. At this period, more than ever before, adventure began to find the gaps of the mountains and to set a resolute face toward the setting sun. More generally, we may say, that the progress of the Revolution assumed a continental significance. While the main drama was enacting in the central part of the Old Thirteen States, between the Hudson and the Savannah, certain important episodes occurred in the then Far West-episodes of which little more than the rumor was heard near the principal scene of conflict. We shall in this place insert a brief chapter narrating the two leading exploits of this kind, beginning in personal heroism and resulting in the ultimate addition of a large and important area to the Union.

The first of these events was the colonization of Kentucky, the defense of that territory against the natives, and its final conquest by the whites. So far as personal agency was concerned, this was the result of the adventures of the great frontiersman, Daniel Boone. The life and character of this remarkable personage were unique. He was without doubt the greatest of his kind. He was nature's man, and though from one point of view he may be said to have contemned civilization, from another he made a way for it. His character was highly typical, and his influence diffused itself through all the primitive and border life of the Middle Western States.

Boone was a native of the county of Bucks, Pennsylvania. He was born on the 11th of February, 1735. His ancestors came out of Exeter, England, and arriving in America, joined the Society of Friends. When young Daniel was thirteen years of age, his father removed to Holman's Ford, on the Yadkin, in North Carolina. In this frontier situation but little education could be acquired. Daniel Boone grew up with no attainments beyond the ability to read and write. He took to the solitudes of the forest, and gained, while he was yet young, such skill in woodcraft as few men have ever possessed. When he was twenty years of age he married Rebecca Bryan, and make a backwoods home of his own. But it was not long until approaching civilization vexed him even in that solitary region, and leaving his family, he sought the untrodden wilds of Kentucky.

The territory so-called was at that time only the unknown extension of Virginia beyond the mountains. It was in May, 1769, that Boone set out into the unbroken regions of the West. He was alone. How he lived none might ever know. His native wit stood him in hand, and his experience enabled him to baffle the Indians. He made himself acquainted with some of the better parts of Kentucky, and was one of Lord Dunmore's principal agents in the conduct of the petty conflict called Dunmore's War. Boone finally selected as the nucleus of a future settlement the left bank of the Kentucky River, and there constructed a fort on the site of the town which to this day bears the name of Boonesborough.

The reader will have in mind the relations that had existed between the frontiersmen of France and England in the New World. The French and Indian War had been fought, to the general advantage of the English interest. French settlements, however, remained in the West, and in these there was ill-concealed hostility to the English and