barely escaped a surprise. The same afternoon Cornwallis discovered his mistake, and saw that his nimble adversary was again about to elude his grasp. He crossed into the right road, the road to Irvin's Ferry, and continued the pursuit.

It was a question of speed now. Lee and O'Hara were constantly in sight of each other, and more than once within musket shot. The marksmen on the legion flanks could hardly stay their hands at the tantalizing sight. But Williams's stringent orders withheld them from a useless hazard. Yet wherever a water-course crossed the way or a defile retarded for a moment the steps of the Americans, their pursuers would rush forward and try to throw themselves upon the rear. More than once the pursued paused and prepared themselves for an encounter. Soon, however, it became evident that there was little to gain by such a waste of strength, and both parties held on their way at even pace as if they had been parts of the same

army.

The

Day waned, and pursuers and pursued breathed more freely as they saw the grateful evening shadows deepen into night. We shall get some rest now," said the men. But Cornwallis still held on, and Williams dared not halt. The night was dark, the wind was cold, and a drizzly mist filled the air. Suddenly the cavalry in advance saw the tree-tops before them lighten up as with the blaze of many fires. As the van pressed forward, the flames grew brighter, and presently a long row of watch fires came into view. hearts of the Americans sank within them. "Alas, all this toil for such an ending! Has Cornwallis succeeded at last, and hemmed Greene in between the river and a superior army?" Then came a sudden impulse. If this is the main army, the army on which the safety of the south depends, we will throw ourselves upon the enemy, and buy our brethren's safety with our blood." The noble words passed from mouth to mouth, and reached the ear of Williams. He turned to Greene's last letter. This had been his halting ground two nights before, and some friendly hand must have fed the fires till now.

At last Cornwallis halted, and Williams, keeping far enough in advance to secure space for his videttes and guards, gave the welcome order to rest. Fires were quickly kindled, and all who were not on guard laid themselves down by the grateful blaze, and slept with their arms by their sides. At midnight, Cornwallis was again a-foot, prepared for the final struggle. One more day and his triumph was sure. Therefore, putting forth all his strength, he drove in the American videttes, and pressed on. And ever in the dark, wet night, and over the broken and frost-bound roads, both armies held on their way cheerfully, for both knew that the end was near. Daylight found them still struggling through mist and mire, and many weary miles were passed before the order to halt was heard again. A much needed hour was given to each army for breakfast, and rest, and onward they pressed once more. Then, somewhat later, a horseman was seen approaching the American van at full speed. Breathless, with joyful haste, begrimed and bespattered with mire, he dashed up to Williams and handed him a letter. It was from Greene, written at two of the same afternoon. "The greater part of our wagons are over," it said, "and the troops are crossing." The welcome tidings passed swiftly from mouth to mouth, and then up went a shout - hurrah and hurrah- till the air rang with it. It reached

the British army; and the British general, as he listened, must have found something ominous in the sound. Still he continued the pursuit. With evening another missive came with the auspicious date, "Irvin's Ferry, 5 1-2 o'clock. All our troops are over, and the stage is clear. The infantry will cross here, the horse below. Major Hardman had posted his party in readiness on this side, and the infantry and artillery are posted on the other, and I am ready to receive and give you a hearty welcome."

That night the American army slept on the north bank of the Dan. It was long since they had slept so sweetly, and never had their spirits been lighter. And when they woke at dawn, and saw through the cold, gray air, the paling watchfires of the enemy on the opposite bank, their hearts beat high with exultation; not merely that present doubt and fear were over, not merely that they could give rest to their weary limbs and satisfy to the full the cravings of hunger, but because their safety was the safety of the south, and in their own triumph they foresaw the triumph of their holy cause. Officer and soldier met with radiant smile and beaming eye. Around every watch-fire there were tales of risks run, feats performed, and privations endured. Loud were the praises of Williams and his gallant light troops; earnest the commendations of Carrington, who had done staff duty and field duty through those anxious days, and done both so well. But louder and more earnest still were the expressions of their admiration for Greene, who had foreseen every danger, provided for every contingency, and inflicted upon the British arms the severest blow which they had received in the whole course. of the southern war.

Greene alone had no time for exultation. Even during the retreat he had found the time for writing which he could not find for sleep; and now the last boat had hardly reached the shore when his pen was again at work. "On the Dan River," he writes to Jefferson, the same evening, "almost fatigued to death, having had a retreat to conduct for upwards of two hundred miles, manoeuvering constantly in the face of the enemy, to give time for the militia to turn out and get off our stores.'

"The miserable situation of the troops for want of clothing," he writes to Washington, "has rendered the march the most painful imaginable, many hundreds of the soldiers marking the ground with their bloody feet. The British army is much stronger than I had calculated upon in my last. I have not a shilling of money to obtain intelligence with, notwithstanding my application to Maryland for that particular purpose. Our army is in good spirits, notwithstanding their sufferings and excessive fatigue." And to Steuben: "We have been astonishingly successful in our late great and fatiguing retreat, and have never lost in one instance anything of the least value."

When the tidings reached the North, Washington wrote: You may be assured that your retreat before Cornwallis is highly applauded by all ranks, and reflects much honor on your military abilities."

**GREENE'S FIRST CAMPAIGN AT THE SOUTH. And thus ended the first act of this eventful drama. In December Greene had found the enemy in possession of South Carolina and Geor gia, which they held by a line of posts extending from the seaboard to Augusta and Ninety-Six ;

with an army of between three and four thousand men in the field, and several hundred more in garrison, with large bodies of loyalists prepared to rise at their approach, and North Carolina open to Cornwallis from the south, and to Arnold from the north. By a judicious division of his forces he had secured to himself the advantage of the initiative, and compelled his antagonist to engage in a series ef hazardous movements which gave the American arms one brilliant victory, lured the English general from his base, compelled him to fight a battle two hundred miles from his communications, on ground of his adversary's choosing, and in which victory, producing all the results of defeat, left him encumbered with sick and wounded, in the midst of "timid friends and bitter enemies. Then North Carolina was freed from the presence of the enemy. Cornwallis led his decimated battalions into Virginia, and ceased to be the immediate opponent of Greene. As time passed away, and events were seen in their mutual dependence, the Battle of Guilford was recognized as the turning point of the southern war.

nurseryman at that place, and died in the year 1822. The family were in humble circumstances, and Downing's education was confined to the teaching of the academy at Montgomery, near his native town. At the age of sixteen he joined his brother in the management of his nursery. He formed soon after the acquaintance of the Baron de Liderer, the Austrian Consul-General, and other gentlemen possessed of the fine country estates in the neighborhood, and began to write descriptions of the beautiful scenery about him, in the New York Mirror and other journals. In June, 1838, he married the daughter of J. P. De Wint, Esq., his neighbor on the opposite side of the Hudson. His first architectural work was the construction of his own house, an elegant Elizabethan cottage. In 1841, he published his Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, adapted to North America, with a view to the Improvement of Country Residences, with Remarks on Rural Architecture. It was highly successful, and orders for the construction of houses and decoration of grounds followed orders for copies to his publishers. He next published in 1845, The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America. In 1846 he was invited to become the editor of the Horticulturist, a small monthly magazine published in Albany. He accepted the charge, and wrote an essay a month for it, until the close of his life.

In 1849 he added Additional Notes and Hints to Persons about Building in this country, to an American reprint of Wightwick's "Hints to Young Architects."

In 1850 he visited England for the purpose of obtaining a competent assistant in the large architectural business which was pressing upon him. He remained only during the summer,

visiting with great delight those perfect examples of his art, the great country seats of England. In the same year appeared his Architecture of Country Houses; including Designs for Cottages, Farm-houses, and Villas. In 1851 he was commissioned by President Fillmore to lay out and plant, in pursuance of an act of Congress, the public grounds in the city of Washington, lying near the White House, Capitol, and Smithsonian Institution. He was actively employed in this and other professional labors of a more private character, when on the 27th of July he embarked with his wife on board the steamboat Henry Clay for the city, on his way to Newport. As they proceeded down the river it was soon found that the boat was racing with its rival the "Armenia." It was too common a nuisance to excite alarm, until the boats were near Yonkers, when the Henry Clay was discovered to be on fire. In passing from the lower to the upper deck Mrs. Downing was separated by the crowd from her husband, and saw him no more, until his dead body was brought to their home the next day. He was seen by one of the passengers throwing chairs from the upper deck of the boat, to support those who had leaped overboard, and a little after struggling in the water, with others clinging to him. He was heard to utter a prayer, and seen no more. Rural Essays were collected and published in 1853, with a well written and sympathetic memoir by George W. Curtis, and "A Letter to his Friends," by Miss Bremer, who was Mr. Downing's guest during a portion of her visit to this country, and a most enthusiastic admirer of the man and his works.

His

Downing's employments have undoubtedly exercised a great and salutary influence on the taste of the community. His works, in which he has freely availed himself of those of previous writers on the same topic, have been extensively read, and their suggestions have been realized on many an acre of the banks of his native Hudson, and other favorite localities. His style as an essayist was, like that of the man, pleasant, easy, and gentle. manly.

EDMUND FLAGG.

EDMUND FLAGG is descended from an old New England family, and the only son of the late Edmund Flagg, of Chester, N. H. He was born in the town of Wiscasset, Maine, on the twentyfourth day of November, 1815. He was graduated at Bowdoin in 1835, and immediately after went to the West with his mother and sister, passing the winter at Louisville, where he taught the classics to a few boys, and was a frequent contributor to Prentice's "Louisville Journal." He passed the summer of 1836 in wandering over the prairies of Illinois and Missouri, writing Sketches of a Traveller for the "Louisville Journal," which were afterwards published in a work entitled The Far West.

During the succeeding fall and winter, Mr. Flagg read law with the Hon. Hamilton R. Gamble, now Judge of the Supreme Court of Missouri, and commenced practice in the courts. In 1838, he edited the "St. Louis Daily Commercial Bulletin," and during that fall published The Far West in two volumes, from the press of the Harpers. In December, he became connected

with George D. Prentice, Esq., in the editorship of "The Louisville Literary News-Letter." In the spring of 1840, in consequence of ill health, he accepted an invitation to practise law with the Hon. Sargent S. Prentiss, of Vicksburg, Miss., a resident of that place.

In 1842, Mr. Flagg conducted the "Gazette" published at Marietta, Ohio, and at the same time wrote two novels-Carrero, or The Prime Minister, and Francis of Valois, which were published in New York. In 1844-5, he conducted the "St. Louis Evening Gazette;" and, for several years succeeding, was "Reporter of the Courts" of St. Louis County. In the meantime, he published several prize novels, among which were The Howard Queen,

Blanche of Artois, and also several dramas, successfully produced in the theatres of St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, and New York.

In the spring of 1848, Mr. Flagg went out as Secretary to the Hon. Edward A. Hannegan, American Minister to Berlin. The appointment afforded him an opportunity to travel over England, Germany, and France. On his return, he resumed his residence and the practice of the law at St. Louis. In 1850, he received the appointment of consul for the Port of Venice, under the administration of President Taylor. He visited England and Wales, travelled through central Europe to Venice, and entered upon the duties of his consulate, corresponding in the meantime with several of the New York Journals. In the fall of 1851, he visited Florence, Rome, Naples, and the other Italian cities, and in November embarked at Marseilles for New Orleans. On his arrival, he proceeded to St. Louis, and took charge of a democratic newspaper at that place.

In the following year, his last work was published in New York, in two volumes, entitled Venice, The City of the Sea. It comprises the history of that capital from the invasion by Napoleon, in 1797, to its capitulation to Radetzky, after its revolution, and the terrible siege of 1848 and '49. A third voluine, to be entitled North Italy since 1849, is, we understand, nearly ready for publication.

In 1853 and 1854, Mr. Flagg contributed a number of articles illustrating the cities and scenery of the West to the United States Illustrated, published by Mr. Meyer of New York. Mr. Flagg has also written occasional poetical pieces for various magazines.*

In 1853, Mr. Flagg was called to the head of a bureau in the Department of State at Washington, by the late Secretary Marcy; and, in 1856-7, as Chief of Statistics, prepared a "Report on the Commercial Relations of the United States with all Foreign Nations," by order of Congress, of which 20,000 copies were published, in four quarto volumes, by that body. The character of this work may be inferred from the fact that the "Cyclopædia of Commerce," since published by the Messrs. Harper, gives credit to Mr. Flagg's report for some 400 pages of its valuable contents. Reports on the Cotton Trade,

The Native Poets of Maine,

and on the Tobacco Trade, as also numerous Annual Reports on Foreign Commerce, and on Emigration to the United States, prepared by Mr. Flagg, have made his name familiar to mercantile and commercial interests not only throughout the country, but in Europe. Rouher, the French Minister of Commerce, has pronounced the "Commercial Relations" unequalled by any work of the kind ever published; and the "Annales du Commerce Extérieur" and the 66 Journal des Economistes" have indorsed this judg

ment.

Mr. Flagg is understood to have in manuscript ready for the press a work on Italy since 1849, and an historical novel entitled "The Last of the Military Templars."

CHARLES DEANE,

The son of Dr. Ezra Deane, a physician of Biddeford, Me., was born in that town in 1813. He studied at a classical school and at Thornton Academy, in Saco, but he early decided to enter on mercantile life, and at the age of nineteen came to Boston, where he was for many years a prominent merchant. Having retired from business, he has since been a resident of Cambridge. Many years ago he formed a taste for the study of American, and particularly of New England, history. His collection of books formed in this period is one of the most valuable libraries in New England relating to its early history. Mr. Deane has received the honorary degree of master of arts from Harvard College; is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and also a member of the chief historical and kindred societies of the country. He has printed several works for private distribution, including Some Notices of Samuel Gorton (1850); The First Plymouth Patent (1854); A Bibliographical Essay on Governor Hutchinson's Historical Publications (1857); Wingfield's Discourse on Virginia (1860); Letters of Phillis Wheatley, the Negro-slave Poet of Boston (1864). Mr. Deane has also edited Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation (1856), and several volumes of publications for the Massachusetts Historical Society.

**Mr. Deane has been the Recording Secretary of the Massachusetts Historical Society since 1864, and has edited six volumes of its Proceedings. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1871 he received the degree of LL. D. from Bowdoin College.

In 1866 Mr. Deane edited a new edition, with an elaborate introduction and notes, of Captain John Smith's earliest work, dated 1608, and entitled, A True Relation of Virginia.* The reading of this little black-letter volume while printing Wingfield's Discourse on Virginia in 1860, led him to suspect that Smith's account of his rescue by Pocahontas, and only given in a book published sixteen years later (1624), was an embellishment of the author. This opinion was intimated in a note to Wingfield,

* Ante, vol. i., p. 5.

and was more elaborately stated in a note to the True Relation.

Mr. Deane, Mr. S. F. Haven of Worcester, and the Rev. A. P. Peabody, D. D., of Cambridge, were appointed delegates in 1866 to the Archæological Congress of Europe, by the American Antiquarian Society; but the war in Europe delayed the session a year. Mr. Deane, while abroad, continued his historical investigations, and on his return presented to the Society a verified copy of Jomard's edition of Sebastian Cabot's Mappe Monde. He also contributed to their journal, and had privately printed at Cambridge: Remarks on Sebastian Cabot's Mappe Monde. He edited the Records of the Council for New England, 1867, from a transcript procured at the expense of the President of the Society. In an able report presented on behalf of the Council in 1867, he urged upon archæologists the importance of a closer investigation of facts before attempting to construct theories thereupon.

Mr. Deane has also communicated to the Massachusetts Historical Society, and superintended the private printing of, some valuable documents, with illustrative and historical notes. These comprise: The Last Will and Testament of Capt. John Smith, 1867, from a copy obtained at the Prerogative Office, Canterbury, England, with a reference to a visit made to his tomb at St. Sepulchre's Church, London; A Sermon preached at Boston, New England, etc., By the Rev. John Wheelwright, 1867, a celebrated Antinomian discourse preached in 1637: The Seal of the Council for New England, in the form of a letter to Dr. Palfrey, so conclusive in its identification that that author had an engraving of the seal imprinted on the titlepage of the subsequent editions of his History; a Memoir of George Livermore, 1869; Memoir of Robert Waterston, a Boston Merchant, 1869; The Forms in Issuing Letters Patent by the Crown of England, 1870, a paper relative to the royal intention in granting the Massachusetts Charter of 1628-9; Governor Bradford's Dialogue, or Third Conference between some Young Men born in New England, and some Ancient Men which came out of Holland and Old England, 1870. Letter of Sir John Stanhope to Secretary Davison, concerning Elder Brewster, 1871; Death of Mathew Cradock, 1871; General Washington's Head Quarters in Cambridge, 1873; Roger Williams and the Massachusetts Charter, 1874; Captain John Smith's New England's Trials, 1874. In 1870 he also wrote an introduction to a new photo-lithographic reprint of the celebrated sermon entitled: A Sermon Preached at Plymouth, in New England, Dec. 9, 1621: by Robert Cushman, Boston, John K. Wiggin, 1870.

RICHARD H. DANA, JR.,

THE author of "Two Years before the Mast," was born at Cambridge in 1815. He is the son of Richard H. Dana the poet. In his boyhood, he had a strong passion for the sea, and had he consulted his inclination only, would have entered the Navy. Influenced by the advice of his father, he chose a student's life at home, and entered Harvard. Here he was exposed to one of those

difficulties which college faculties sometimes put in the way of the students by their mismanagement. There was some misconduct, and an effort was made to compel one of the class to witness against his companion. Dana, as one of the prominent rebels, was rusticated. As it was on a point of honor, it was no great misfortune to him, the less as he passed into the family, and under the tutorship of the Rev. Leonard Woods, at Andover, now the president of Bowdoin-with whom he enjoyed the intimacy of a friend of rare mental powers and scholarship. On returning to Cambridge, an attack of measles in one of the college vacations injured his eye-sight so materially, that he had to resign his books. For a remedy, he thought of his love of the sea, and resolved to rough it on a Pacific voyage as a sailor, though he had every facility for ordinary travel and ad

venture.

On the 14th of August, 1834, he set sail accordingly in the brig Pilgrim from Boston, for a voyage round Cape Horn to the western coast of North America; performed his duty throughout with spirit, while the object of the voyage was accomplished in the traffic for hides, little thinking while toiling on the cliffs and in the unsteady anchorages of California of the speedy familiarity which his countrymen would have with the region, and returned in the ship in September, 1836, to the harbor of Boston.

In the year 1840, he published an account of this adventure in the volume Two Years before the Mast, a Personal Narrative of Life at Sea.* For this, he received for the entire copyright but two hundred and fifty dollars, a fact which shows the very recent low standard of American literary property. A publisher now could hardly expect so lucky a windfall. It was immediately successful, passing through numerous editions, being reprinted in London, where the British Admiralty adopted it for distribution in the Navy, and

*Harpers' Family Library, New York.

translated into several of the languages of the Continent, including even the Italian. It has been quoted, too, with respect for its authority on naval matters, by Lords Brougham and Carlisle in the House of Lords.

The work, written out from his journal and notes of the voyage, was undertaken with the idea of presenting the plain reality of a sailor's life at sea. In this, its main object, it has been eminently successful. It has not only secured the admiration of gentle readers on shore, but, a much rarer fortune, has been accepted as a true picture by Jack himself. A copy of the book is no unusual portion of the scant equipment of his chest in the forecastle. Its popularity is further witnessed by the returns of the cheap lending libraries in England, where it appears high on the list of the books in demand. The cause is obvious. The author is a master of narrative, and the story is told with a thorough reality. It is probably the most truthful account of a sailor's life at sea ever written. Its material is actual experience, and its style the simple straight-forward language of a disciplined mind, which turns neither to the right nor to the left from its object. It is noticeable, that in this universally read book, the writer uses the technical language of the ship; so that the account is to that extent sometimes unintelligible. On this, he makes a profound remark. "I have found," says he, "from my own experience, and from what I have heard from others, that plain matters of fact in relation to customs and habits of life new to us, and descriptions of life under new aspects, act upon the inexperienced through the imagination, so that we are hardly aware of our want of technical knowledge." It has, too, this advantage. A technical term can be explained by easy reference to a dictionary; a confused substitute for it may admit of no explanation. Good sense and good humor sum up the enduring merits of this book. It is life itself, -a passage of intense unexaggerated reality.

Mr. Dana had, after his return from abroad, entered the senior class at Harvard, from which institution he was graduated in 1837, when he pursued his studies at the Law-School under Judge Story and Professor Greenleaf. His proficiency in these preparatory studies in moot courts and the exercises of his pen, showed his acute legal mind, and when he began to practise law his success was rapid. He was aided in maritime cases by the reputation of his book; while he employed his influence to elevate a much abused branch of practice, though in Boston it takes a higher rank from being pursued in the United States Courts. His practice is also extensive in the State Courts. ***

In 1850, Mr. Dana edited, with a preliminary preface, Lectures on Art and Poems, by Washington Allston,

His Seaman's Manual is a technical dictionary of sea terms, and an epitome of the laws affecting the mutual position of master and sailor. It is reprinted in England, and in use in both countries as a standard work.

The account of Dana in "Livingston's American Lawyers," Part iv. June 1852, contains references to his important cases up to the time when it was written.

Of late, Mr. Dana has been prominently before the public as a member of the Free-Soil party of Massachusetts, and in his vigorous opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law. His speech in the case of the negro Anthony Burns, in 1854, is noticeable, not only for its acute analysis of the evidence offered, but for its clear picturesque statement. The life-like character of some of its descriptions-though no personal remarks were made on any individual--inspired a cowardly, brutal street attack, in a blow struck at his head by a slung shot, which, had it varied a little, would have proved fatal.

In a later case, an argument before the Supreme Court of Maine,† at Bangor, July 22, 1854, in an action brought by a naturalized citizen of the Roman Catholic faith, for injuries in the removal of his child from the public school, in consequence of the parents' rejection of the ordinary version of the Bible read there, and consequent interference with the school regulations, Mr. Dana has pronounced not merely an eloquent, but an alle, legal, and philosophical argument in defence of the superintending school committee, and of the accepted translation of the Scriptures. His argument was sustained by the judgment of the court.

In 1853, Mr. Dana was prominently engaged in the State Convention of Massachusetts. His course there, in the discussion of topics of enlarged interest, determined his rank in the higher walk of his profession.

We are enabled on this point to present adequate authority in a letter on the sul ject from a leader in the Convention, the Hon. Ruius Choate.

Charles Ecribner, Esq.

BOSTON, Sept. 29, 1854.

SIR-I received some time since an inquiry respecting the position occupied by Mr. Dana in the Convention for revising the constitution of Massachusetts; to which I would have made an immediate reply, but for an urgent ei gagement. When I was relieved from that, I unfortunately had overlooked your letter, which I have only just now recovered.

The published debates of that body indicate quite well, though not adequately, the space he filled in the convention. He took a deep interest in its proceedings; attended its sessions with great punctuality, and by personal effort and influence, and occasional very effective speech, had a large share in doing good and resisting evil. He was classed with the majority in the body, consisting in a general way of those friendly to its convocation, and friendly to pretty extended and enter prising schemes of change; but on some fundamental questions he differed decidedly from them, and upon one of these--that concerning the tenure of judicial office-he displayed conspicuous ability and great zeal, and enforced with persuasive and important effect the sourdest and most conservative opinions. In general, there, as in all things, and in all places, he was independent, prompt, and firm; and was universally esteemed not more for his talent, culture, and good sense, than for his sincerity and honor. I differed often from him, but always with pain, if not self-distrust, with no interruption of the friendship of many years. I am very truly, Your serv't,

RUFUS CHOATE.

The Bible in Schools. Massachusetts Sabbath-School Society, Boston, 1855.