f revolution with the same spirit
that Hampden did in England, and whom he resembled in genius,
patriotism, and character. He had been chosen major-general four days
before his death, but fought at Bunker Hill as a simple volunteer. On
the 2d of July, Washington took command of the army, and established
his head-quarters at Cambridge. The American army amounted to
seventeen thousand men, of whom twenty-five hundred were unfit for
duty. They were assembled on the spur of the occasion, and had but few
tents and stores, no clothing, no military chest and no general
organization. They were collected from the various provinces and were
governed by their own militia laws. Of this material he constructed
the first continental army, and under innumerable vexations and
difficulties. No man was ever placed in a more embarrassing situation.
His troops were raw and undisciplined; and the members of the
Continental Congress, from whom he received his commission, were not
united among themselves. He had all the responsibility of the war, and
yet had not sufficient means to prosecute it with the vigor which the
colonies probably anticipated. His success, in the end, _was_ glorious
and unequivocal; but none other than he could have secured it, and not
he, even, unless he had been sustained by a loftiness of character
almost preternatural.

The English forces, at this time, were centred in Boston under the
command of General Gage, and were greatly inferior in point of numbers
to the American troops who surrounded them. But the troops of Gage
were regulars and veterans, and were among the best in the English
army. He was recalled in order to give information to the government
in reference to the battle of Bunker Hill, and was succeeded in
October by General Howe.

[Sidenote: Death of Montgomery.]

The first campaign of the war was signalized by the invasion of Canada
by the American troops, with the hope of wresting that province from
the English, which was not only disaffected, but which was defended by
an inconsiderable force. General Montgomery, with an army of three
thousand, advanced to Montreal, which surrendered. The fortresses of
Crown Point and Ticonderoga had already been taken by Colonel Ethan
Allen. But the person who most distinguished himself in this
unfortunate expedition was Colonel Benedict Arnold, who, with a
detachment of one thousand men, penetrated through the forests,
swamps, and mountains of Maine, beyond the s