a large body of the enemy to approach without discovery within two hundred yards of his quarters. Peril of capture was imminent. He had barely time to leave the house and spring upon his horse before the British swarmed around it. He succeeded in leading off his troops in the face of the enemy, though sixty of them were killed and wounded on the field. One of his aides was captured and his baggage and papers fell into the hands of the enemy, as also three small pieces of artillery.

In July, 1777, Washington sent Lincoln north to the army under General Schuyler, then engaged in the task of opposing General Burgoyne in his southward march from Canada to the Hudson River. Taking his station at Manchester, Vermont, he organized the New England militia as they arrived and engaged in a series of operations in the rear of the British army.

A detachment of five hundred men, under Colonel Brown, on the 13th of September, surprised the enemy at the Lake George landing, seized two hundred boats, and liberated a hundred American prisoners. Nearly three hundred of the enemy were taken prisoners, while Brown lost eight men killed and wounded. This successful enterprise in Burgoyne's rear was of great importance and contributed greatly to the glorious American victory.

Detaching other parties to work on the British line of communications, Lincoln now joined the main army, then under General Gates, to whom he became the second in command. He took an active part in the operations leading to the defeat and capture of the British army, but in the sanguinary conflict at Bemis's Heights, on October 7, met with a disastrous mishap. At one o'clock in the morning General Lincoln

marched with his division to relieve the troops that had been engaged and to occupy the battle ground, the enemy having retreated. In this duty he had occasion to ride forward to reconnoitre, when an unexpected movement of the enemy brought him suddenly within musket shot of their lines. Before he could withdraw a volley was poured upon him and his staff, he receiving a dangerous wound by which the bones of his leg were badly fractured.

He was carried from the field and for some time it was feared he would lose his leg. For several months he lay in the hospital at Albany and it became necessary to remove a considerable portion of the main bone. His firmness and composure under this painful operation, in those days before anesthetics were known, were phenomenal. Colonel Rice, one of his aides, says:

"I have known him, during the most painful operations by the surgeons, while bystanders were frequently obliged to leave the room, to entertain us with some pleasant anecdote or story, and draw forth a smile from his friends."

For several years the wound continued in an ulcerated state, and its final result was a shortening of the limb, which left him permanently lame.

Lincoln's wound kept him out of service for the greater part of a year, it being August, 1778, before he was in condition to rejoin the army. His coming was a pleasure and in some sense a relief to General Washington, who esteemed him as a man and had a high opinion of his talent as a soldier. He was in need of some one to command in the South, which was just then threatened by the British, and in Lincoln he saw the man for the place. Congress agreed with him

in opinion and the newly recovered general was sent to command in chief the Southern department.

It was a difficult task. Opposed to him there were veteran troops and officers of experience, but on his arrival at Charleston, in December, 1778, he found himself without an army and without supplies. The one had to be made and the other collected, and the whole department put in a state of defence. Only a man of unusual energy and ability could have succeeded, in view of the formidable obstacles which the new commander had before him.

The British forces were already in motion. About the 28th of December General Prevost, with a fleet and some three thousand troops, arrived off Savannah, of which he took possession after routing a small body of Americans under General Howe. General Lincoln made all haste to face the enemy with what troops he had collected, taking post on the river about twenty miles from the city, but it was late in February before he was strong enough to begin offensive operations.

In April he marched to Augusta for the protection of upper Georgia, but learning that Prevost had taken advantage of his absence to march on Charleston, he hastened in that direction. On reaching its vicinity he found that the enemy had withdrawn from before it the previous night, but had left a body of troops intrenched at Stone Ferry. These Lincoln attacked, and a hot contest ensued, in which each party lost about one hundred and sixty men. But the works proved too strong and his artillery too light, and learning that a British reinforcement was at hand, Lincoln withdrew.

The momentous event of General Lincoln's command in the South was the unsuccessful and sanguin

ary attack upon Savannah in October, 1779. Count D'Estaing was in the vicinity with a French fleet and three thousand troops, and Lincoln joined the latter with about one thousand men, with the purpose of seeking to regain the city.

Fortunately for Prevost, he was reinforced and felt strong enough to attempt a defence of the place, but the allied army of Americans and French began a regular siege, with strong hopes of success. As it proved, however, the cannonade failed to produce the effect desired and, as the Count could not stay long on the coast, an assault was determined upon.

This took place in the early morning of October 9th, D'Estaing and Lincoln leading their united troops. A second column led by Count Dillon missed its route in the darkness, and the intended co-operation failed. The allies rushed forward through a terrible fire from the enemy, forcing the abatis and planting two standards on the parapet, but here they met the garrison massed in overpowering force and were driven back with heavy loss. In this unsuccessful attack the French lost seven hundred, the Americans two hundred and forty men. Among the slain was the brave Polish soldier, Count Pulaski.

The capture of Savannah proving hopeless, Lincoln sought to put Charleston in a state of defence, though Congress failed to send him all the reinforcements and supplies he demanded. General Clinton appeared with a fleet and army from New York in February, 1780, landed a powerful force, and on the 30th of March encamped before the American lines.

A successful defence of the city, in view of the great superiority of the British forces, seemed impossible, but Lincoln decided to make the attempt, having what