CHAPTER XX. NORTHERN OPERATIONS.-SPRINGFIELD BURNED.-ARRIVAL AT the north, little was effected by either army during the spring and summer of 1780. The British, from New York, made two incursions into New Jersey, in the month of June. Upon the first of these occasions nothing was accomplished, but upon the second, the village of Springfield, garrisoned by a continental force, under Greene, was destroyed. The main American army remained in the vicinity of its previous winter-quarters, occupied only in opposing a check to the marauding expeditions of the enemy. Such was the destitution at the camp, that some of the troops were driven to open expressions of mutiny. Great expectations were formed upon the reported approach of a French fleet and army; which arrived in the month of July, at Newport, then abandoned by the British. Six thousand troops, under Count Rochambeau, were brought over, and preparations were made by Washington for active operations against New York. Unfortunately, the British, having received accessions to the naval force on the coast, were enabled to blockade the French fleet in the harbour of Newport. The whole army of auxiliaries, together with a body of American militia, was, therefore, kept idle, being necessarily employed in defence of the shipping in harbour. Between the lines of the British and Continental armies, above New York, an intervening space, occupied by neither, formed a convenient resort for lawless depredators, who took advantage of the distracted state of affairs, for purposes of private plunder. To cut off the supply of provisions from the British army, cattle were made liable to seizure, upon the road to New York, within certain limits, in this debatable ground, and arrests of suspicious characters were permitted and encouraged. On the 23d of September, three New York militia-men, named Paulding, Williams, and Van Wert, were watching the road near Tarrytown, from a place of concealment. They stopped a solitary horseman, who, supposing them to be of his own party, announced himself as a British officer. Discovering them to be Americans, he made large offers of reward if he might be allowed to pass. These were refused; and, upon searching his person, papers were found concealed in his boots. He was carried by his captors before the American Colonel Jamison. The papers secured were found to contain plans of the fortifications at West Point, with the numbers of the garrison, and descriptions of the defences. Notice was immediately dispatched to Arnold, who commanded at that post, and also to Washington, then on his return from Hartford to head-quarters. The former, upon the receipt of the intelligence, instantly hastened to the river, and, taking his barge, went on board the British sloop-of-war Vulture, which lay at anchor a little below the forts. A scheme of treachery was now apparent, and the whole plan was soon exposed by the confessions of the captive at Tarrytown, who proved to be Major André, adjutant-general of the British army, a young man universally admired for talents and courage, and beloved for his amiable and gentlemanly disposition. It appeared that Arnold had, for some time past, been in communication with Sir Henry Clinton, and that the command at West Point had been solicited and obtained by him, with the sole object of its surrender to the enemy. To treat with him for this purpose, André had proceeded up the Hudson in the Vulture, and a meeting was effected. From some unforeseen difficulty, he was unable to return on board, and was compelled to pass the night at a house within the American lines. Attempting to make his way to New York by land, in disguise, and bearing a pass from Arnold, he was arrested in the manner before related. Upon a trial by court-martial, he was condemned as a spy, and suffered death, in accordance with the severe requirements of martial law, notwithstanding the vehement exertions of Clinton for his release, and the general sympathy in his behalf, awakened by his high character and noble demeanour. Arnold's disaffection appears to have resulted, principally, from pecuniary embarrassments, the consequence of his own reckless extravagance. He thought himself neglected in some early military appointments, and, subsequently, the partial disallowance of an unreasonable claim upon congress, made by him in relation to the expenses of the Canadian expedition, mortified and enraged him. He had also been tried by court-martial for alleged peculation in his management of public funds, while in command at Philadelphia, and had received a reprimand from the commander-in-chief. No officer in the American army exhibited more remarkable abilities as a commander than Arnold, and in personal prowess and courage, he was, perhaps, unequalled by any of his associates. His important services had induced his countrymen to look with leniency upon failings which would have endangered the popularity of another. In proportion to the former complacency of the community, was their indignation at this exhibition of unprincipled depravity— an indignation destined to be immeasurably heightened by the subsequent conduct of its object, who devoted his brilliant talents to the service of the enemy, in active warfare against his countrymen. The autumn passed away with no farther warlike incidents of much public importance. A savage guerilla contest desolated portions of the Carolinas; and at the north-west, the exasperated Iroquois still continued to send out war-parties for the plunder and destruction of the frontier settlements. In October, the valley of the Mohawk was desolated by a mixed party of whites, under Johnson, and Indians led by Brant and the Seneca half-breed, Corn Planter. A letter, written by Brant on this occasion, speaks with indignation at cruelties practised by his associates, particularly the Butlers, whose names are connected with every atrocity in the con duct of this predatory warfare. EZRA STILES.-In 1777, the Rev. Ezra Stiles, D. D., a native of North Haven, and formerly a tutor in the college, was chosen president of the institution, and remained in office until his death, May 12, 1795. He was one of the most learned and patriotic men of the age. He appears to have been one of the first persons in the country who anticipated and predicted the independence of the American colonies. In 1772 he wrote to a friend:-"When Heaven shall have doubled our millions a few times more, it will not be in the power of our enemies to chastise us with scorpions." In 1774 he addressed one of his English correspondents as follows:-"If oppression proceeds, despotism may force an annual congress; and a public spirit of enterprise may originate an American Magna Charta and Bill of Rights, supported with such intrepid and persevering importunity as even sovereignty may hereafter judge it not wise to withstand. There will be a Runnymede in America." The Rev. Richard Price, in allusion to a letter received by him from Dr. Stiles, just at the beginning of the Revolution, assures us that he "predicted in it the very event in which the war has issued; particularly the conversion of the colonies into so many distinct and independent states, united under congress." He published several ordination, funeral, and other occasional sermons, and the "History of the three Judges of King Charles L.-Whalley, Goffe, and Dixwell."-Hollister's History of Connecticut. CHAPTER XXI. REVOLT OF THE PENNSYLVANIA TROOPS. ARNOLD'S EXPE- THE year 1781 opened unpromisingly for the Americans. A dangerous disaffection in the camp at Morristown broke out at this period in open revolt. The causes of complaint, were unpaid arrearages, and a dispute respecting the terms of enlistment. The regiments from Pennsylvania claimed their discharge at the end of a three years' term, although, according to the representation of their officers, the whole period of the war was included in their engagement to serve. Thirteen hundred men, defying the authority of their commanders, one of whom was killed in the attempt to reduce them to obedience, marched off, under arms, in the direction of Philadelphia, with the expressed purpose of compelling compliance with their demands. General Wayne in vain attempted to recall them to a sense of duty, and was forced to content himself with procuring such supplies for their use on the march as should preclude the necessity for plundering the inhabitants. At Princeton, commissioners from congress, and from the state authorities, held a conference with the malcontents, and, after some discussion, the main points in dispute were yielded by the former. Several messengers, sent by Sir Henry Clinton to persuade the mutineers, by handsome offers, to enlist in the king's army, were seized and hanged as spies. A similar outbreak among the New Jersey troops, was quelled by force-two of the ringleaders being shot. These movements had the effect to rouse congress and the states to a sense of the necessities of the army, and a large sum of money was promptly raised, in specie, for part payment of arrearages. Early in January, Arnold, who had received, as the reward of his intended treachery, the sum of ten thousand pounds, and a commission as a brigadier-general in the British army, commenced active operations in Virginia. He passed up James river, with a consider able force, and after plundering Richmond, and doing much damage by the destruction of buildings, together with valuable public stores, he entered upon the occupation of Portsmouth. A great effort was made to outnumber and overpower this detachment. La Fayette, with a body of troops from New England and New Jersey, was dispatched against it; and the French fleet, then free to put to sea, made sail for the Chesapeake, for the purpose of cutting off retreat. This movement was anticipated by the British squadron, which took possession of the bay, after an engagement with, and discomfiture of the enemy. The command of the continental army at the south, previous to this period, had been conferred upon General Greene, in place of Gates, recalled. The small force under his command, consisted of but two thousand men, notwithstanding endeavours made, during the early part of the winter, to procure recruits from Virginia and elsewhere. Against a detachment of about one thousand of these troops, under General Morgan, while on their march into western South Carolina, Cornwallis dispatched Tarleton, with a force about equal in numbers. His own plan was to intercept communication between the divisions of the American army, by marching northward from his camp at Winnsborough. Hotly pursued by Tarleton, whose movements were always rapid and prompt, Morgan made a stand at the Cowpens, in the present county of Spartanburgh, near the North Carolina border. Deceived by a pretended or apparent retreat of the advanced lines, the British rushed to the attack without due precaution for the preservation of order, and when they found themselves coolly withstood by the continentals, who poured in a heavy and destructive fire at closequarters, their line was broken, and a complete rout ensued. More than half of the entire force were taken prisoners or killed. The battle was fought on the 17th of January, 1781. Marching with great celerity, Morgan gained the fords of Catawba on the 29th, his object being to take his prisoners to a place of security in Virginia. Immediately after the battle at Cowpens, Tarleton, with the remainder of his detachment, effected a junction with Cornwallis. Strengthened by reinforcements from Charleston, under |