ch stalwart
fellows as Washington had known in his early campaigns. Stark hunters
and bush fighters; many of them upwards of six feet high, and of
vigorous frame; dressed in fringed frocks, or rifle shirts, and round
hats. Their displays of sharp shooting were soon among the marvels of
the camp. One of these companies was commanded by Captain Daniel
Morgan, a native of New Jersey, whose first experience in war had been
to accompany Braddock's army as a wagoner. He had since carried arms
on the frontier and obtained a command. He and his riflemen in coming
to the camp had marched six hundred miles in three weeks.

While all his forces were required for the investment of Boston,
Washington was importuned by the Legislature of Massachusetts and the
Governor of Connecticut, to detach troops for the protection of
different points of the sea-coast, where depredations by armed vessels
were apprehended. The case of New London was specified by Governor
Trumbull, where Captain Wallace of the Rose frigate, with two other
ships of war, had entered the harbor, landed men, spiked the cannon,
and gone off threatening future visits.

Washington referred to his instructions, and consulted with his
general officers and such members of the Continental Congress as
happened to be in camp, before he replied to these requests; he then
respectfully declined compliance. In his reply he stated frankly and
explicitly the policy and system on which the war was to be conducted.
"It has been debated in Congress and settled," writes he, "that the
militia, or other internal strength of each province, is to be applied
for defence against those small and particular depredations, which
were to be expected, and to which they were supposed to be competent.
This will appear the more proper, when it is considered that every
town, and indeed every part of our sea-coast, which is exposed to
these depredations, would have an equal claim upon this army. The
great advantage the enemy have of transporting troops, by being
masters of the sea, will enable them to harass us by diversions of
this kind; and should we be tempted to pursue them, upon every alarm,
the army must either be so weakened as to expose it to destruction, or
a great part of the coast be still left unprotected.... I wish I could
extend protection to all, but the numerous detachments necessary to
remedy the evil would amount to a dissolution of the army, or make the
most important operations of t