common cause of all the Colonies. The military experience which he had gained on the Canadian frontier twenty years before, under Shirley, together with his local influence and personal popularity, and above all, his ardor in the cause of American liberty, led to his being unanimously chosen by the people of Morris county to command a regiment of militia, which he had been instrumental in raising in the summer of 1775; and the legislature of the province confirmed the choice, and commissioned him accordingly.

He displayed his characteristic energy and activity in recruiting and organizing his regiment, supplying arms at his own expense to such of his men as were unable to arm themselves. Whilst engaged in this duty, he was ordered to organize two regiments of regular troops, which Congress had directed to be raised in New Jersey for the general service. He visited in rapid succession the various parts of the province to procure recruits, collect arms and ammunition, and prepare barracks. In a few days, he succeeded in completing the regiment intended for his own command, the head-quarters of which were established at Elizabethtown. Immediately afterwards he commenced preparations to defend any vessels that might take refuge in the neighbouring waters of New Jersey from molestation by the British cruisers in the harbour of New York; and he asked authority from Congress to take for the public use from any merchant vessels that might arrive whatever ammunition they might have on board, on the payment of its value. This suggestion was adopted. Having reason to believe that the king's governor in New Jersey, William Franklin, son of Dr. Franklin, was likely to undertake something in favor of the royal cause, he caused him to be placed under guard. Having subsequently issued a proclamation in the king's name for assembling the provincial legislature, Franklin was removed to Connecticut by order of Congress, and guarded there as a prisoner.

Early in January, 1776, Stirling received a letter from General Washington, then commanding the army by which Boston was invested, advising him that the British were fitting out an expedition, which the general believed to be destined against Long Island, and possibly against New York itself. He stated that he had detached General Lee to take command in New York, and prepare for its defence, and to

overawe Long Island, where many of the inhabitants were disaffected; and he directed Stirling to reinforce Lee with troops from New Jersey.

Whilst he was executing these orders, intelligence reached him that a transport for the ministerial army at Boston was hovering off Sandy Hook in distress, waiting for assistance from the king's ships in New York. Supposing her to be laden with arms and ammunition, he immediately started for Amboy, seized a pilot-boat which lay there, and manned her with volunteers to attempt the capture of the transport. He was joined by three boats from Elizabethtown, under Colonel Dayton. They found the ship nearly twenty miles seaward from Sandy Hook, and immediately boarded, captured, and brought her into Elizabethtown. She proved to be laden with coal and provisions. Though Stirling felt a natural regret that the ship was not laden with arms and ammunition, as he had conjectured, yet the capture was a serious annoyance to the enemy. Provisions were already becoming scarce in Boston, and fuel was in such requisition to meet the rigors of a severe winter, that many of the houses were demolished for fire-wood. The promptness with which this little naval enterprise was conceived, and the spirit with which it was conducted, at once established his character for zeal, activity, and gallantry, and gained for him and his followers one of the earliest votes of thanks from Congress. At the same time, he zealously exerted himself to check the attempts, that were made by the disaffected and avaricious, to ship provisions and wood from New Jersey for the aid of the troops in Boston.

On the 4th of February, 1776, he received orders from General Lee to march with his regiment to New York. He set out the following day, and crossing the Hudson with difficulty through the running ice, reached New York on the 6th. There he found no commissary of provisions, and was obliged to supply his regiment with rations by such ways and means as he could devise. On the 1st of March, Stirling was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, and his commission was forwarded to him in a highly complimentary letter from the President of Congress. General Lee being soon after detached to take the command in the Southern Colonies, Stirling remained for a season in the chief command at New York. He immediately directed his efforts to cutting

off the communication between Staten Island, off which the king's ships lay, and Long Island, by stationing parties along the shores of the bay, to watch the movements of the enemy, check their depredations, and destroy their boats, as opportunity offered. He also made great exertions to prepare quarters in New York for the American army, under Washington, who proposed to march thither as soon as the royal forces should leave Boston, which it was evident they could not long continue to hold.

The forces under Stirling, including the New Jersey and Connecticut troops, and volunteers from the city, amounted to two thousand men. It being apprehended, that the fleet and army from Boston would proceed at once to New York, to occupy that place permanently, and endeavour to divide the Colonies by opening a communication through Hudson's river and the Lakes with Canada, every effort was made to strengthen the defences of the place. Stirling called for additional troops from New Jersey and Connecticut, and fortified the most commanding points on Long Island and at New York, being aided by the inhabitants in throwing up the works. In addition to other motives to exertion, he was stimulated by the assurance of Washington, "that the fate of this campaign, and of course the fate of America, depends upon you, and the army under your command, should the enemy attempt your quarter." Though Washington reinforced him after General Howe had embarked a portion of his forces with an apparent intention to depart from Boston, still, lest his preparation might be only a feint, Washington could not withdraw his troops until the British fleet and army departed, on the 17th of March. Then he broke up his camp, and proceeded with his army by detachments to New York.

During a short time, Stirling was superseded in the chief command at New York by Brigadier-General Thompson. He employed the interval in superintending the construction of additional works on the Jersey shore of the Hudson. General Thompson being soon after ordered to the Canada frontier, the chief command again devolved on Stirling, who continued to urge forward the completion of the defences. To the principal work on New York island he gave the name of Fort Washington; to that opposite it, on the Jersey shore, the name of Fort Lee, in compliment to

the officer who had planned the fortifications. Smaller works were constructed at Horen's Hook and Throg's Neck, to defend the approach by Hell Gate, while the approach to the city by land was guarded by a redoubt at McGowan's pass, near Haerlem. Intrenchments were also thrown up on Long Island, and forts erected or repaired at Red Hook and the Narrows, and on the small islands in the harbour.

General Washington reached New York with the remainder of his army, on the 14th of April, and assumed the chief command. General Howe, instead of proceeding at once, as was expected, to New York, had retired to Halifax, to await reinforcements from England. He arrived in New York towards the close of June, and landed on Staten Island on the 4th of July, the day on which Congress had solemnly proclaimed the independence of the United States. Being joined by his brother, Lord Howe, in command of a formidable fleet, the two were empowered as commissioners to treat of peace. They accordingly made overtures for this purpose; but as their powers extended to little beyond granting pardons to those who, as General Washington remarked, "had committed no fault, and therefore wanted no pardon," their overtures were ineffectual.

On the 22d of August, the British landed with nearly their whole force, under cover of their fleet, at Gravesend, on Long Island. General Putnam had the chief command on the island, and he remained within the line of fortifications which Stirling had erected. Under his orders, Generals Sullivan and Stirling were appointed to command without the lines. Only a portion of the American army had been ferried over to Long Island, probably to prevent the sacrifice of the whole; and General Washington did not assume the command in person. The object, therefore, was not a general and decisive battle, but a temporary check and annoyance; even this was considered perilous.

The centre of the British army, consisting of Hessians under General de Heister, occupied Flatbush. Earl Percy and Lord Cornwallis were on the right, and General Grant on the left. On the night of the 25th, General Clinton drew off the van of the British army to the eastward, and in the morning seized some heights which commanded the road from Jamaica to Brooklyn. General Grant, at the same time, advanced along the shore of the bay, at the head of the left

wing, with ten pieces of cannon. Stirling was directed by Putnam to oppose this advance with the two regiments nearest at hand. Early in the morning, he came in sight of the enemy, before whom our advanced parties were retiring. These he rallied, and skirmishing immediately commenced, the contending parties having come within one hundred and fifty yards of each other. The fire was kept up briskly for two hours, when the British light troops retired, though the cannonade continued on both sides.

Meantime, it became apparent from the firing that the British had turned the left wing of our force, and gained its rear, and that the centre also had given way, and was in full retreat. Stirling perceived that immediate retreat could alone save his own detachment from being made prisoners. Ordering the main body of his force to make the best of their way through Gowan's creek, he gallantly, and with great selfdevotion, placed himself at the head of four hundred of Smallwood's Maryland regiment, and attacked a corps under Lord Cornwallis, advantageously posted at a house at the mills, near which his detachment was to pass the creek. The attack was kept up with the greatest intrepidity, the small party having been checked five times, and rallied again, under his encouragement, with fresh ardor. They were on the point of driving Cornwallis from his station, when the approach of a British reinforcement compelled Stirling to draw off, in the hope of providing for the safety of the brave men who were still with him, those for whom they were sacrificing themselves having already effected their retreat. But fresh bodies of the enemy encountered him in every direction, keeping up a galling fire from several quarters. He succeeded in turning a hill-side, which covered him from the fire of the British, and was making a rapid retreat, when, meeting a fresh body of the enemy, he was compelled to surrender to the Hessian general, De Heister. He was soon taken on board of Lord Howe's ship, the Eagle.

Had not the enemy been allowed to turn the left of our army, from neglect of a precaution which had been specially enjoined by Washington, and had all parts of the line been defended with equal obstinacy with that intrusted to Stirling, the check to the British army would have been more effectual. Its advance would have been purchased by greater sacrifice, and Stirling would have been able to make good