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Page 62
The children crowded around Grandfather, and looked earnestly into his
face. Even little Alice opened her sweet blue eyes, with her lips
apart, and almost held her breath to listen; so instinctive is the
reverence of childhood for the father of his country. Grandfather paused
a moment; for he felt as if it might be irreverent to introduce the
hallowed shade of Washington into a history, where an ancient elbow
chair occupied the most prominent place. However, he determined to
proceed with his narrative, and speak of the hero when it was needful,
but with an unambitious simplicity.
So Grandfather told his auditors, that, on General Washington's arrival
at Cambridge, his first care was, to reconnoitre the British troops with
his spy-glass, and to examine the condition of his own army. He found
that the American troops amounted to about fourteen thousand men. They
were extended all round the peninsula of Boston, a space of twelve
miles, from the high grounds of Roxbury on the right, to Mystic river on
the left. Some were living in tents of sail-cloth, some in shanties,
rudely constructed of boards, some in huts of stone or turf, with
curious windows and doors of basket-work.
In order to be near the centre, and oversee the whole of this
wide-stretched army, the commander-in-chief made his head-quarters at
Cambridge, about half a mile from the colleges. A mansion-house, which
perhaps had been the country-seat of some tory gentleman, was provided
for his residence.
"When General Washington first entered this mansion," said Grandfather,
"he was ushered up the stair-case, and shown into a handsome apartment.
He sat down in a large chair, which was the most conspicuous object in
the room. The noble figure of Washington would have done honor to a
throne. As he sat there, with his hand resting on the hilt of his
sheathed sword, which was placed between his knees, his whole aspect
well befitted the chosen man on whom his country leaned for the defence
of her dearest rights. America seemed safe, under his protection. His
face was grander than any sculptor had ever wrought in marble; none
could behold him without awe and reverence. Never before had the lion's
head, at the summit of the chair, looked down upon such a face and form
as Washington's!"
"Why! Grandfather," cried Clara, clasping her hands in amazement, "was
it really so? Did General Washington sit in our great chair?"
"I knew how it would be," said Laurence; "I foresaw it, the moment
Grandfather began to speak."
Grandfather smiled. But, turning from the personal and domestic life of
the illustrious leader, he spoke of the methods which Washington adopted
to win back the metropolis of New England from the British.
The army, when he took command of it, was without any discipline or
order. The privates considered themselves as good as their officers, and
seldom thought it necessary to obey their commands, unless they
understood the why and wherefore. Moreover, they were enlisted for so
short a period, that, as soon as they began to be respectable soldiers,
it was time to discharge them. Then came new recruits, who had to be
taught their duty, before they could be of any service. Such was the
army, with which Washington had to contend against more than twenty
veteran British regiments.
Some of the men had no muskets, and almost all were without bayonets.
Heavy cannon, for battering the British fortifications, were much
wanted. There was but a small quantity of powder and ball, few tools to
build entrenchments with, and a great deficiency of provisions and
clothes for the soldiers. Yet, in spite of these perplexing
difficulties, the eyes of the whole people were fixed on General
Washington, expecting him to undertake some great enterprise against the
hostile army.
The first thing that he found necessary, was to bring his own men into
better order and discipline. It is wonderful how soon he transformed
this rough mob of country people into the semblance of a regular army.
One of Washington's most invaluable characteristics, was the faculty of
bringing order out of confusion. All business, with which he had any
concern, seemed to regulate itself, as if by magic. The influence of his
mind was like light, gleaming through an unshaped world. It was this
faculty, more than any other, that made him so fit to ride upon the
storm of the Revolution, when every thing was unfixed, and drifting
about in a troubled sea.
"Washington had not been long at the head of the army," proceeded
Grandfather, "before his soldiers thought as highly of him, as if he had
led them to a hundred victories. They knew that he was the very man whom
the country needed, and the only one who could bring them safely through
the great contest against the might of England. They put entire
confidence in his courage, wisdom, and integrity."
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