2
CHAPTER
I. A FRONTIER FARM
II. AN INDIAN RAID
III. THE REDSKIN ATTACK
IV. THE FIGHT AT LEXINGTON
V. BUNKER'S HILL
VI. SCOUTING
VII. IN THE FOREST
VIII. QUEBEC
IX. THE SURPRISE OF TRENTON
X. A TREACHEROUS PLANTER
XI. THE CAPTURE OF PHILADELPHIA
XII. THE SETTLER'S HUT
XIII. SARATOGA
XIV. RESCUED!
XV. THE ISLAND REFUGE
XVI. THE GREAT STORM
XVII. THE SCOUT'S STORY
XVIII. THE SIEGE OF SAVANNAH
XIX. IN AN AMERICAN PRISON
XX. THE WAR IN SOUTH CAROLINA
XXI. THE END OF THE STRUGGLE
PREFACE.
MY DEAR LADS:
You have probably been accustomed to regard the war between England and her colonies in America as one in which we were not only beaten but, to some extent, humiliated. Owing to the war having been an unsuccessful one for our arms, British writers have avoided the subject, and it has been left for American historians to describe. These, writing for their own countrymen, and drawing for their facts upon gazettes, letters, and other documents emanating from one side only, have, naturally, and no doubt insensibly, given a very strong color to their own views of the events, and English writers have been too much inclined to accept their account implicitly. There is, however, another and very different side to the story, and this I have endeavored to show you. The whole of the facts and details connected with the war can be relied upon as accurate. They are drawn from the valuable account of the struggle written by Major Steadman, who served under Howe, Clinton, and Cornwallis, and from other authentic contemporary sources. You will see that, although unsuccessful,--and success was, under the circumstances, a sheer impossibility,--the British troops fought with a bravery which was never exceeded, and that their victories in actual conflict vastly outnumbered their defeats. Indeed, it may be do