ASY

he thought good hopes of receiving reinforcements. These did not come and he was obliged to defend himself with inadequate forces. The enemy began a siege, and on the 10th of April summoned the garrison to an unconditional surrender. This was promptly refused and both sides opened a heavy cannonade, which was continued till May 11. By this time the enemy had completed his third parallel and the situation of the defenders had become hopeless. A second demand for surrender was made and Lincoln felt obliged to capitulate.

General Lincoln's career was an unfortunate one. Obliged to contend with insufficient forces against a strong position at Savannah and an overwhelming enemy at Charleston, failure and defeat attended his efforts, but he retained the confidence of those in authority and the esteem of the army, and was looked upon as a brave and able soldier.

Exchanged in the spring of 1781, he joined Washington on the Hudson, and took an active part in the siege of Yorktown and the final British defeat. In the articles of capitulation, the British were given the same terms as they had given the Americans at Charleston, and Lincoln was selected by Washington to receive the sword of Cornwallis as a recompense for having had to give up his own.

With the remainder of General Lincoln's career we must deal very briefly. He served the Government as Secretary of War from 1781 to 1783, and in 1787 was selected to command against what was known as the Shay Rebellion in Massachusetts. This he speedily put down, almost without bloodshed. He acted afterwards in several public positions, and died in his native town of Hingham, May 9, 1810.

It may be of interest to complete this story with an anecdote of an amusing character in which General Lincoln was incidentally concerned. While at Purysburg, on the Savannah River, a soldier named Fickling, who had several times attempted to desert, was sentenced to be hanged. As it happened, the rope broke twice and a cry for mercy was raised in the ranks. The general being applied to said, "Let him run. I thought he looked like a scape-gallows." He gave orders that the fellow should be drummed out of camp and threatened with death if he ever attempted

to return.

Meanwhile the surgeon-general had sought his quarters, under the impression that Fickling was quietly reposing in his grave. Midnight found him busily writing, when, hearing a footstep, he looked up and saw before him the miserable wretch whom he supposed dead and buried. He sprang up hastily in alarm, thinking that a spectre stood before him.

"Whence come you? What do you want with me?" he ejaculated. "Were you not hanged this morning?" "Yes," said the man in a hollow voice, "I am the poor wretch that was hanged."

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Keep your distance! Tell me what brings you here," cried the scared surgeon.

"I am here to beg for food. I am no ghost, doctor. The rope broke twice and the general pardoned me." "Oh, if that is the case," said the relieved surgeon, eat and be welcome; but the next time you are hanged do not intrude into the apartment of one who has every right to suppose you an inmate of the tomb."

DANIEL MORGAN, THE RIFLEMAN OF

THE REVOLUTION

DURING the disastrous campaign of the self-willed General Braddock against the French and Indians in 1755, there was in his army a young Virginia wagoner of hasty temper and independent spirit, who was little inclined to submit to military discipline. Though a boy of nineteen, he was a man in strength and spirit, and when a British officer insulted him he promptly knocked him down. This was an offence of the deepest dye and the hot-tempered youth was sentenced to the inhuman punishment of five hundred lashes.

The lashes were administered by the drummer of the corps. The unlucky culprit was by name Daniel Morgan, a name destined to become much better known. The lashes may not have been heavily laid on, for he had the composure to count them, and always asserted that the drummer was one short in his count, adding jestingly that "George the Third still owed him one lash." He got ample satisfaction out of the British for the four hundred and ninety-nine in Revolutionary times, though it is to his credit that the British officers who fell into his hands as prisoners were always kindly and generously treated. He did not hold them responsible for the cruelty of Braddock and his lieutenant.

Daniel Morgan was born in New Jersey in 1736, of parents so poor that he got no education and was obliged to work as a day laborer. This he continued after his removal to Virginia in 1755, afterwards becoming a wagoner, and it seems to have been in this capacity

that he took part in Braddock's campaign. Later on he served in the milita, and in 1758 was made an ensign.

After his return home to the village of Berrystown, he was fond of wild adventure and had some narrow escapes from the Indians. He was so pugnacious that he was frequently engaged in quarrels, and became notorious as a boxer and fighter. So much indeed was he given to pugilistic encounters, that the village became known, from his exhibits of pugnacity, by the name of Battletown.

Morgan was often overmatched in these fights, but his unconquerable spirit usually brought him out victorious. He never knew when he was whipped, and would return again and again to the contest until he rarely failed to defeat his antagonist. In after years, when his contests were on the battle-field, the same spirit animated him. Defeat he seldom knew, and when he did his retreat was sullen, stern, and dangerous. This the notorious Colonel Tarleton learned to his sorrow.

By 1775, when the first shots of the Revolution were fired, Morgan had married and was cultivating a farm, which he had purchased in Frederick County, Virginia. Patriotism at once impelled him to the front. A rifle company was raised in the vicinity, Morgan was chosen as its captain, and he marched away in haste to join the army then besieging Boston. He wanted to repay the lash which he owed George the Third.

By order of Washington, the commander-in-chief, Morgan and his men soon after joined the disastrous expedition against Quebec, under Arnold and Montgomery, and took part in the bold attempt to storm that fortress, in which Arnold was wounded and Montgomery fell dead. Morgan's daring valor