and willing to fight if fighting must come,
however, and we have his statement when he heard of how the people of
Boston were laboring under unjust British measures, "I will raise a
thousand men," said Washington, "subsist them at my own expense and
march with them, at their head, for the relief of Boston."

At last it was seen that no other way to escape slavery existed than to
fight. And Washington was one of the first to devote his life and
fortune to the Revolutionary cause.

When the American Congress met on June 15, 1775, Washington was chosen
as Commander in Chief of the new continental army. The flame of
revolution had run through the colonies. The British had killed and
been killed by militiamen at Lexington, and had fallen back before the
hail of lead from the squirrel rifles of angry farmers at the bridge at
Concord. From stonewalls, fences, trees and haylofts, the Americans had
picked off the British redcoats as they retreated back to Boston, and
had proved themselves to be foemen that could not be despised. The
battles of Bunker Hill and Dorchester Heights followed. Bloody war was
begun.

No better man for command of the American army could possibly have been
chosen than Washington, and very probably no other could have brought
the revolution to a successful end. His firm and great nature were
known to all, and with this he possessed great military skill and a
thorough knowledge of the country where he would have to fight.

But his heart may well have sunk when he took command, for no worse
scene of confusion and inefficiency can be imagined than that of the
American army when it was first mustered together. Washington, on July
3rd, 1775, took command at Cambridge, Massachusetts, of about sixteen
thousand raw recruits, badly fed, badly quartered, with no uniforms to
speak of, little equipment and a rebellious disregard of all discipline
that was increased by the fact that they were fighting against the
unjust discipline of the British Government. The American forces had no
organization, and the work fell upon Washington, as Commander in Chief,
not only of fighting an enemy far superior in numbers and composed of
well-disciplined and well-equipped veterans, but of organizing his own
army almost in the course of battle, and manufacturing the material for
victory after the gage had been cast and the conflict entered.

But the resolute will and the firm hand brought order out of chaos, and
the British wer