ved his orders from Washington
in the beginning of October. Of his operations at the South we shall
have occasion to speak hereafter.

CHAPTER LII.
WASHINGTON IN PHILADELPHIA.--INDIAN WARFARE.--CAPTURE OF STONY
POINT.--RAVAGES IN CONNECTICUT.--REPULSE AT SAVANNAH.

About the beginning of December, Washington distributed his troops for
the winter in a line of strong cantonments extending from Long Island
Sound to the Delaware. General Putnam commanded at Danbury, General
McDougall in the Highlands, while the head-quarters of the
commander-in-chief were near Middlebrook in the Jerseys. The objects
of this arrangement were the protection of the country; the security
of the important posts on the Hudson, and the safety, discipline, and
easy subsistence of the army.

In the course of this winter he devised a plan of alarm signals, which
General Philemon Dickinson was employed to carry into effect. On
Bottle Hill, which commanded a vast map of country, sentinels kept
watch day and night. Should there be an irruption of the enemy, an
eighteen pounder, called the Old Sow, fired every half hour, gave the
alarm in the day time or in dark and stormy nights; an immense fire or
beacon at other times. On the booming of that heavy gun, lights sprang
up from hill to hill along the different ranges of heights; the
country was aroused, and the yeomanry, hastily armed, hurried to their
gathering places.

Washington was now doomed to experience great loss in the narrow
circle of those about him, on whose attachment and devotion he could
place implicit reliance. The Marquis Lafayette, seeing no immediate
prospect of active employment in the United States, and anticipating a
war on the continent of Europe, was disposed to return to France to
offer his services to his sovereign; desirous, however, of preserving
a relation with America, he merely solicited from Congress the liberty
of going home for the next winter; engaging himself not to depart
until certain that the campaign was over. Washington backed his
application for a furlough, as an arrangement that would still link
him with the service; expressing his reluctance to part with an
officer who united "to all the military fire of youth an uncommon
maturity of judgment." Congress in consequence granted the marquis an
unlimited leave of absence, to return to America whenever he should
find it convenient.

Much of the winter was passed by Washington in Philadelphia, occupied