rse.... It would, in
my opinion, be imprudent to throw an army of ten thousand men upon an
island, against nine thousand, exclusive of seamen and militia. This,
from the accounts we have, appears to be the enemy's force. All we can
do at present, therefore, is to endeavor to gain a more certain
knowledge of their situation, and act accordingly."

The British posts in question were accordingly reconnoitred from the
opposite banks of the Hudson, by Colonel Gouvion, an able French
engineer. Preparations were made to carry the scheme into effect,
should it be determined upon, when news was received of the unexpected
and accidental appearance of several British armed vessels in the
Hudson; the effect was to disconcert the plan and finally to cause it
to be abandoned.

Some parts of the scheme were attended with success. The veteran
Stark, with a detachment of twenty-five hundred men, made an extensive
forage in Westchester County, and Major Tallmadge with eighty men,
chiefly dismounted dragoons of Sheldon's regiment, crossed in boats
from the Connecticut shore to Long Island, where the Sound was twenty
miles wide; traversed the island on the night of the 22d of November,
surprised Fort George at Coram, captured the garrison of fifty-two
men, demolished the fort, set fire to magazines of forage, and
recrossed the Sound to Fairfield, without the loss of a man: an
achievement which drew forth a high eulogium from Congress.

At the end of November the army went into winter-quarters; the
Pennsylvania line in the neighborhood of Morristown, the Jersey line
about Pompton, the New England troops at West Point, and the other
posts of the Highlands; and the New York line was stationed at Albany,
to guard against any invasion from Canada. The French army remained
stationed at Newport, excepting the Duke of Lauzun's legion, which was
cantoned at Lebanon in Connecticut. Washington's head-quarters were
established at New Windsor, on the Hudson.

We will now turn to the South to note the course of affairs in that
quarter during the last few months.

CHAPTER LIX.
THE WAR IN THE SOUTH.--BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN.

Cornwallis having, as he supposed, entirely crushed the "rebel cause"
in South Carolina, by the defeats of Gates and Sumter, remained for
some time at Camden, detained by the excessive heat of the weather and
the sickness of part of his troops, broken down by the hardships of
campaigning under a southern sun. He awa