nished by Congress. Not half that
number of men were actually obtained. The Continental army was larger in
1777 than in any other year, but the highest number it reached was only
34,820. In addition to these about 34,000 militia turned out in the
course of the year. An army of 80,000 would have taken about the same
proportion of all the fighting men in the country as an army of
1,000,000 in our great Civil War. Now in our Civil War the Union army
grew with the occasion until it numbered more than 1,000,000. But in the
Revolutionary War the Continental army was not only never equal to the
occasion, but it kept diminishing till in 1781 it numbered only 13,292.
This was because the Continental Congress had no power to enforce its
decrees. It could only _ask_ for troops and it could only _ask_ for
money. It found just the same difficulty in getting anything that the
British ministry and the royal governors used to find,--the very same
difficulty that led Grenville to devise the Stamp Act. Everything had to
be talked over in thirteen different legislatures, one state would wait
to see what another was going to do, and meanwhile Washington was
expected to fight battles before his army was fit to take the field.
Something was gained, no doubt, by Congress furnishing the money. But as
Congress could not tax anybody, it had no means of raising a revenue,
except to beg, borrow, or issue its promissory notes, the so-called
Continental paper currency.

[Sidenote: The British plan for conquering New York in 1777.]

While Congress was trying to raise an adequate army, the British
ministry laid its plans for the summer campaign. The conquest of the
state of New York must be completed at all hazards; and to this end a
threefold system of movements was devised:--

_First_, the army in Canada was to advance upon Ticonderoga, capture it,
and descend the Hudson as far as Albany. This work was now entrusted to
General Burgoyne.

_Secondly_, in order to make sure of efficient support from the Six
Nations and the Tories of the frontier, a small force under Colonel
Barry St. Leger was to go up the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario, land at
Oswego, and march down the Mohawk valley to reinforce Burgoyne on the
Hudson.

_Thirdly_, after leaving a sufficient force to hold the city of New
York, the main army, under Sir William Howe, was to ascend the Hudson,
capture the forts in the Highlands, and keep on to Albany, so as to
effect a junction