of patriot leaders came also Daniel Morgan of
Virginia. Little is known of the early life of this remarkable man.
He would rarely say anything about his family. It is believed that he
was born of obscure Welsh people, in New Jersey, about the year 1737.

At seventeen, Morgan could barely read and write. He was rude of
speech and uncouth in manners, but his heart was brave, and he
scorned to lie.

The next two years did wonders for this awkward boy. He grew to be
over six feet tall, with limbs of fine build, and with muscles like
iron. In some way he had found time to study, and was regarded by the
village people as a promising young fellow.

Stirring times were at hand. The bitter struggle between the French
and the English in the Ohio valley was raging.

Morgan at once enlisted in the Virginia troops, and served one of the
companies as a teamster. An incident revealed the stuff of which the
young wagoner was made. The captain of his company had trouble with a
surly fellow who was a great bully and a skillful boxer. It was
agreed, according to the unwritten rules of the time, that the matter
should be settled by a fight at the next stopping place; and so when
the troops halted for dinner, out strode the captain to meet his foe.

{107} "You must not fight this man," said Morgan, stepping to the
front.

"Why not?" asked the officer.

"Because you are our captain," replied the young teamster, "and if
the fellow whips you, we shall all be disgraced. Let me fight him,
and if he whips me, it will not hurt the name of the company."

The captain said it would never do, but at last yielded. Morgan
promptly gave the bully a sound thrashing.

After the defeat of Braddock, in 1755, the French and the redskins
wreaked their vengeance upon the terrified frontier settlements. A
regiment of a thousand men was raised, and Washington was made its
colonel. With this small force, he was supposed to guard a frontier
of two hundred and fifty miles.

Morgan enlisted as a teamster. It was his duty to carry supplies to
the various military posts on this long frontier. This meant almost
daily exposure to all kinds {108} of dangers. It was a rough, hard
school for a young man of twenty; but it made him an expert with the
rifle and the tomahawk, and a master of Indian warfare, which was so
useful to him in after years.

During one of these wild campaigns on the frontier, a British captain
took offense at something young Morgan had s