sion of peace the Northwest, which had been
conquered by Clark, became part of the United States.

THE BATTLE OF TRENTON

And such they are--and such they will be found:
Not so Leonidas and Washington,
Their every battle-field is holy ground
Which breathes of nations saved, not worlds undone.
How sweetly on the ear such echoes sound!
While the mere victor's may appal or stun
The servile and the vain, such names will be
A watchword till the future shall be free.
--Byron.

In December, 1776, the American Revolution was at its lowest ebb. The
first burst of enthusiasm, which drove the British back from Concord
and met them hand to hand at Bunker Hill, which forced them to abandon
Boston and repulsed their attack at Charleston, had spent its force. The
undisciplined American forces called suddenly from the workshop and the
farm had given way, under the strain of a prolonged contest, and had
been greatly scattered, many of the soldiers returning to their homes.
The power of England, on the other hand, with her disciplined army and
abundant resources, had begun to tell. Washington, fighting stubbornly,
had been driven during the summer and autumn from Long Island up the
Hudson, and New York had passed into the hands of the British. Then
Forts Lee and Washington had been lost, and finally the Continental army
had retreated to New Jersey. On the second of December Washington was
at Princeton with some three thousand ragged soldiers, and had escaped
destruction only by the rapidity of his movements. By the middle of the
month General Howe felt that the American army, unable as he believed
either to fight or to withstand the winter, must soon dissolve, and,
posting strong detachments at various points, he took up his winter
quarters in New York. The British general had under his command in his
various divisions twenty-five thousand well-disciplined soldiers, and
the conclusion he had reached was not an unreasonable one; everything,
in fact, seemed to confirm his opinion. Thousands of the colonists were
coming in and accepting his amnesty. The American militia had left the
field, and no more would turn out, despite Washington's earnest appeals.
All that remained of the American Revolution was the little Continental
army and the man who led it.

Yet even in this dark hour Washington did not despair. He sent in every
direction for troops. Nothing was forgo