act of hostilities befell, and nobly did the conscripts of the colonies hold their own. After a great destruction of the enemy, they slowly retired to an adjacent hill, where they were re-formed, and placed under the command of Brigadier General Sullivan. Major Andrew McClary, whose great size and desperate valor made him peculiarly conspicuous, fell while crossing "the Neck." Eighteen others of Stark and Reid's command were killed, and eighty-nine were wounded in the same eventful field.

The army awaited at Cambridge the arrival of General Washington, appointed commander-in-chief by the Continental Congress, in session at Philadelphia, on the same week the battle of Bunker Hill was fought. It is necessary to inquire what forces the new commander-inchief had at his disposal, and, for our purpose, what part of those forces were derived from the Irish settlements.

At the first Council of War, held at Cambridge, [July 9th, 1775,] it was found that "the Continental Army,' then investing Boston, was nominally 17,000 strong, but actually but 14,000. It was resolved to prosecute the siege, but that 22,000 were necessary. Of the four majors general, [Ward, Lee, Schuyler, and Putnam,] none were Irish; of the eight brigadiers general, two, Richard Montgomery, of New York, and John Sullivan, of New Hampshire, were Irish. Of the other officers we cannot now say what precise proportion our nation contributed; but we will find, in the course of the war, that a full third of the active chiefs of the army were of Irish birth or descent. Of the rank and file, New Hampshire's contingent were in great part of Irish origin; and in other colonies, recruiting prospered most in the Irish townships.

The command of the ordnance department was a post of the greatest importance, and the selection made by Washington, in this case, was most fortunate. Henry Knox, born in Boston, in 1750, was the son of Irish parents. Though early left an orphan, with a widowed. mother to support, he had risen against circumstances, from a book-binder's apprentice to be a prosperous pub

lisher, and a persevering student of tactics. He had early joined a local Grenadier Company, and learned with them the manual exercise. Married into the family of a British official, he never swerved from the cause of his country. He succeeded in inspiring his wife with his own patriotism, and in June both escaped from the city, she concealing on her person the sword with which her husband fought at Bunker Hill. Knox now undertook to bring to Cambridge the cannon taken on Lake Champlain by Ethan Allen; and, after incredible exertions against the difficulties of transit in those days, succeeded. These and Sullivan's guns formed the first artillery of the United States army, and Knox became its first master of ord

nance.

The Irish in New York early enlisted in the cause of the Revolution, and James Clinton, in 1775, was elected colonel of the third regiment raised in that colony. His brother-in-law, Colonel James McClearey, commanded in the same militia, and is called "one of the bravest officers America can boast.”* The elder brother, George Clinton, after the death of Montgomery, was appointed brigadier general for New York; and in 1776, with his two kinsmen, gallantly defended the unfinished forts on the Hudson, and held the Highlands against the repeated assaults of Sir H. Clinton.† By this check, he prevented the junction of that commander with General Burgoyne, which, with General Stark's victory at Bennington, cut

* Quoted in Hoosick's Life of De Witt Clinton.

On one occasion the brothers narrowly escaped capture. The anecdote is related by Dr. Joseph Young, a contemporary, who says, at the taking of the forts, "they both remained until it grew dark, and got mixed up with the enemy. The governor escaped in a boat to the east side of the river, and James slid down the very steep bank of a creek, which ran near the redoubt, and fell into the top of a hemlock tree, and made his escape by going up the bed of the brook, in which there was but little water at the time. When the enemy rushed into the redoubt, Colonel McClearey and a Mr. Humphrey, the cock of whose musket had been shot off, turned back to back, and defended themselves desperately. They were assailed on all sides, and would undoubtedly have been killed; but a British senator, who witnessed their spirit and bravery, cried out that it would be a pity to kill such brave men. They then rushed on and seized them; and when the colonel was brought to the British General Clinton, he asked where his friend George was? The colonel replied, "Thank God, he is safe beyond the reach of your friendship!". Washington and his Generals, vol. ii., p. 206.

him off from either base, and compelled his surrender at Saratoga, - a victory which completed the French alliance, and saved the revolutionary cause.

In Pennsylvania, where the Irish were more densely settled, their martial ardor was equally conspicuous. They inhabited chiefly in Ulster and Chester counties, and in Philadelphia. In the summer of 1775, Congress ordered the raising of several regiments in Pennsylvania, and, among the rest, gave commissions as colonel to Anthony Wayne, William Irving, William Thompson, Walter Stewart, Stephen Moylan, and Richard Butler, all Irishmen The regiments of Wayne, Irving, Butler, and Stewart, formed part of the famous "Pennsylvania Line." Thompson's was a rifle regiment. Moylan, a native of York, after being aide-de-camp to Washington and commissary general, was finally transferred to the command of the Dragoons; and in almost every severe action of the war where cavalry could operate, we meet with the fearless "Moylan's Dragoons." Dr. Edmund Hand, who came to Canada with the Irish Brigade, as surgeon, was appointed lieutenant colonel in Thompson's regiment, and on the first of March, 1776, raised to the full rank of colonel, from which, on the first of April, 1777, he was promoted to be "brigadier general." Colonel Butler, a sound shoot of the Ormond tree, and his five sons, displayed equal zeal, and merited from Lafayette the compliment, that whenever he "wanted anything well done, he got a Butler to do it." So actively did these gentlemen exert themselves, that, on the 14th of August, 1776, a great part of the Pennsylvania Line arrived in the camp at Cambridge, which enabled Washington, by the beginning of September, to put his plans for the siege of Boston into execution.

While in camp at Cambridge, the commander-in-chief planned the expedition against Canada. This was to be undertaken in two divisions; that of Arnold to penetrate by the Kennebec and the forests of Maine; that of Montgomery to advance by the Sorel and St. Lawrence. Both were to unite at Quebec.

CHAPTER VI.

THE CANADIAN EXPEDITION DEATH OF MONTGOMERY BURIAL REFUSED TO HIS REMAINS BY THE BRITISH -RETREAT OF THE INVADING CORPS-THOMPSON, SULLIVAN AND GATES IN COMMAND-ADVANCE OF BURGOYNE- - STARK'S VICTORY AT BENNINGTON SURRENDER OF BURGOYNE,

IT was not without deep reflection, that General Washington, at Cambridge, ordered the advance of two invading divisions into Canada. The one was placed under Arnold, a brave soldier assuredly, but one who cast away the jewel of fidelity, and left a figure in the annals of that glorious war, over which his country would long since have drawn a veil, were it not useful to perpetuate the infamy of treason, for the terror of the venal, and the warning of the weak.

The head of the other corps was not a braver, but a much better, man—a soldier without reproach, as well as without fear. Richard Montgomery was then in his 39th year, having been born in Ireland in 1736. He had distinguished himself, at the age of twenty-three, in the second siege of Louisburg, and served as colonel under Wolfe at the capture of Quebec. After spending nine years in Europe, he emigrated to New York, and made his home at Rhinebeck, Duchess county. He had married a lady every way worthy of him, the daughter of Chancellor Livingston, and looked forward to a life of peace spent in the pursuits of agriculture. In accepting the appointment in June, 1775, he wrote, "The Congress having done me the honor of electing me brigadier general in their service, is an event which must put an end for a while, perhaps forever, to the quiet scheme of life I had prescribed for myself; for though entirely unexpected and undesired by me, the will of an oppressed people, compelled to choose between liberty and slavery,

must be obeyed." Major General Schuyler, having fallen ill at Ticonderoga, the sole command devolved on Montgomery, who certainly conducted it with rare judgment. Fort Chambly and St. John were successively taken. Montreal was captured, and, in the midst of a Canadian winter, he pressed on his men towards Quebec, where Arnold's party were already arrived. On the 1st of December, Montgomery took the chief command. An eye-witness has graphically sketched his first review of his troops. "It was lowering and cold, but the appearance of the general here gave us warmth and animation. He was well-limbed, tall, and handsome, though his face was much pock-marked. His air and manner designated the real soldier. He made us a short, but energetic and elegant speech, the burden of which was in applause of our spirit in crossing the wilderness; a hope our perseverance in that spirit would continue; and a promise of warm clothing; the latter was a most comfortable assurance. A few huzzas from our freezing bodies were returned to this address of the gallant hero. New life was infused into the whole corps. It was the last day of that memorable year 1775, before the arrangements for assaulting Quebec were complete. In two bodies, Arnold's towards the suburb of St. Roque, and Montgomery's by the river bank, they advanced to the attack. It was the night of the 31st of December. The Saint Lawrence was floored with ice; the shore, the pine woods, the distant fortress, all wore the white livery of winter in the north. The divisions were to communicate by rockets, and Arnold was already at the Palace Gate, when a severe wound obliged him to yield his command to Morgan. Montgomery had reached Point Diamond, by a road guarded by an outwork of two guns. At daybreak, perceiving the Americans so near, the Canadian militia, in whose charge the work was, deserted their post, but a New England sea-captain, who had slept in the work, before leaving, applied a match to one of the loaded guns,

Mass. Hist. Coll, vol, i,