Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans Part 7

Was.h.i.+ngton had not boats enough to carry his men across the river.

Corn-wal-lis was sure to beat him if they should fight a battle the next morning.

Cornwallis said, "I will catch the fox in the morning."

He called Was.h.i.+ngton a fox. He thought he had him in a trap.

Cornwallis sent for some more soldiers to come from Prince-ton in the morning. He wanted them to help him catch the fox.

But foxes sometimes get out of traps.

When it was dark, Was.h.i.+ngton had all his camp fires lighted. He put men to digging where the British could hear them. He made Cornwallis think that he was throwing up banks of earth and getting ready to fight in the morning.

But Was.h.i.+ngton did not stay in Trenton. He did not wish to be caught like a fox in a trap. He could not get across the river. But he knew a road that went round the place where Cornwallis and his army were. He took that road and got behind the British army.

It was just like John waiting to catch James. James is in the house.

John is waiting at the front door to catch James when he comes out.

But James slips out by the back way. John hears him call "h.e.l.lo!"

James has gone round behind him and got away.

Was.h.i.+ngton went out of Trenton in the darkness. You might say that he marched out by the back door. He left Cornwallis watching the front door. The Americans went away quietly. They left a few men to keep up the fires, and make a noise like digging. Before morning these slipped away too.

When morning came, Cornwallis went to catch his fox. But the fox was not there. He looked for the Americans. There was the place where they had been digging. Their camp fires were still burning. But where had they gone?

Cornwallis thought that Was.h.i.+ngton had crossed the river by some means. But soon he heard guns firing away back toward Princeton. He thought that it must be thunder. But he found that it was a battle.

Then he knew that Was.h.i.+ngton had gone to Princeton.

Was.h.i.+ngton had marched all night. When he got to Princeton, he met the British coming out to go to Trenton. They were going to help Cornwallis to catch Was.h.i.+ngton. But Was.h.i.+ngton had come to Princeton to catch them. He had a hard fight with the British at Princeton. But at last he beat them.

When Cornwallis knew that the Americans had gone to Princeton, he hurried there to help his men. But it was too late. Was.h.i.+ngton had beaten the British at Princeton, and had gone on into the hills, where he was safe.

The fox had got out of the trap.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON'S LAST BATTLE.

Was.h.i.+ngton had been fighting for seven years to drive the British soldiers out of this country. But there were still two strong British armies in America.

One of these armies was in New York. It had been there for years. The other army was far away at Yorktown in Virginia. The British general at Yorktown was Cornwallis. You have read how Was.h.i.+ngton got away from him at Trenton.

The King of France had sent s.h.i.+ps and soldiers to help the Americans.

But still Was.h.i.+ngton had not enough men to take New York from the British. Yet he went on getting ready to attack the British in New York. He had ovens built to bake bread for his men. He bought hay for his horses. He had roads built to draw his cannons on.

He knew that the British in New York would hear about what he was doing. He wanted them to think that he meant to come to New York and fight them. When the British heard what the Americans were doing, they got ready for the coming of Was.h.i.+ngton and the French. All at once they found that Was.h.i.+ngton had gone. He and his men had marched away.

The French soldiers that had come to help him had gone with him.

n.o.body knew what it meant. Was.h.i.+ngton's own men did not know where they were going. They went from New Jersey into Penn-syl-va-ni-a. Then they marched across Penn-syl-va-ni-a. Then they went into Mary-land.

They marched across that State, and then they went into Vir-gin-i-a.

By this time everybody could tell where Was.h.i.+ngton was going. People could see that he was going straight to York-town. They knew that Was.h.i.+ngton was going to fight his old enemy at York-town.

But he had kept his secret long enough. The British in New York could not send help to Cornwallis. It was too late. The French s.h.i.+ps sailed to Vir-gin-i-a, and shut up Yorktown on the side of the sea.

Was.h.i.+ngton's men shut it up on the side of the land. They built great banks of earth round it. On these banks of earth they put cannons.

The British could not get away. They fought bravely. But the Americans and French came closer and closer.

Then the British tried to fight their way out. But they were driven back. Then Cornwallis tried to get his men across the river. He wanted to get out by the back door, as Was.h.i.+ngton had done. But the Americans on the other side of the river drove them back again.

Was.h.i.+ngton had now caught Cornwallis in a trap.

The Americans fired red-hot cannon b.a.l.l.s into Yorktown. These set the houses on fire. At last Cornwallis had to give up. The British marched out and laid down their guns and swords.

The British army in New York could not fight the Americans by itself.

So the British gave it up. Then there was peace after the long war.

The British pulled down the British flag and sailed away. The country was free at last.

MARION'S TOWER.

General Mar-i-on was one of the best fighters in the Revolution. He was a homely little man. He was also a very good man. Another general said, "Mar-i-on is good all over."

The American army had been beaten in South Car-o-li-na. Mar-i-on was sent there to keep the British from taking the whole country.

Marion got to-geth-er a little army. His men had nothing but rough clothes to wear. They had no guns but the old ones they had used to shoot wild ducks and deer with.

Marion's men wanted swords. There were no swords to be had. But Marion sent men to take the long saws out of the saw mills. These were taken to black-smiths. The black-smiths cut the saws into pieces. These pieces they hammered out into long, sharp swords.

Marion had not so many men as the British. He had no cannon. He could not build forts. He could not stay long in one place, for fear the British should come with a strong army and take him. He and his men hid in the dark woods. Sometimes he changed his hiding place suddenly.

Even his own friends had hard work to find him.

From the dark woods he would come out suddenly. He would attack some party of British soldiers. When the battle was over, he would go back to the woods again.

When the British sent a strong army to catch him, he could not be found. But soon he would be fighting the British in some new place. He was always playing hide and seek.

The British called him the Swamp Fox. That was because he was so hard to catch. They could not conquer the country until they could catch Marion. And they never could catch the Swamp Fox. At one time Marion came out of the woods to take a little British fort. This fort was on the top of a high mound. It was one of the mounds built a long time ago by the Indians.

Marion put his men all round the fort, so that the men in the fort could not get out to get water. He thought that they would have to give up. But the men in the fort dug a well inside the fort. Then Marion had to think of another plan.

Marion's men went to the woods and cut down stout poles. They got a great many poles. When night came, they laid a row of poles along-side one another on the ground. Then they laid another row across these.

Then they laid another row on top of the last ones, and across the other way again.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Marion's Tower.]

They laid a great many rows of poles one on top of another. They crossed them this way and that. As the night went on, the pile grew higher. Still they handed poles to top of the pile.

Before morning came, they had built a kind of tower. It was higher than the Indian mound.