Elsie's Vacation and After Events

ladelphia being their present destination. It had grown cloudy and by bedtime a steady rain was falling, but unaccom

he first to leave her berth, and having made

ing and the clouds

was coming toward her, holding out his hand with an affectionate s

lied, putting an arm about her and bending down to

t up because I wanted to come on deck and look about.

are nearing Cape Henlopen. By the way, do you remember what oc

. "Won't you please

hey could find in Chesapeake Bay, concluded to blockade Delaware bay and river and reduce to submission the Americans living along their

addressed to the first magistrate demanding twenty live bullocks and a proportionate quantity of hay and of vegetables for the

cried Lulu. "I hope t

ll among them some of the old soldiers of the revolution, and you may be sure they were ready to do their best to repel this second invasion by their old enemy. One of these was a bent old man of the name of Jonathan M'Nult. He lived in Dover,

dy to take part in the throwing up of batteries and trenches, or to fight 'for their altars and their fires'-de

rised Beresford, and for three weeks he refra

e militia to its defence. On his arrival he reiterated the refu

he 6th of April, sent Captain Byron, with the Belvi

t, then sent a flag of truce, again deman

the refusal; then Byron sent word that he was sorry for the mise

Colonel Davis is a gallant officer,

cannonade and bombardment and

an eminence. Davis's militia worked it and succeeded in disabling t

eight hundred eighteen and thirty-two pound shot, besides many shells and Congreve rockets. The heavy round shot

ont's at Wilmington, and they picked up and sent back the

Americans to sell them their balls which they had picked up, and the Americans answeri

ied to land to steal some of the live stock in the neighborhood; yet without success, a

men were sent on shore for water; but a few of Colonel Davis's men, under the command of Major George H. Hunter, met and drove them

e about it, papa," said Lulu.

ear enough to have a di

med; "and I'm sure the rest will w

be nothing to hinder," the

point from which we can se

we leave the breakfast

miss Max?" was

quite lonely and homesick this morning. However, he will

l proud of him," she said, slipping her hand into

his, "I have no doubt he will. I think, as I am sure his sister Lu

, and I hope to live to see him an admiral; as I'm sure you wo

ad the bestowal of such prefermen

Grace, when Lulu gave them in a few hasty sentences the information her father had

e breakfast-table to the deck in time to catch a

Raymond, exclaiming, "O sir, will you not point out Fort

ware River, a few miles below Philadelphia, Fort Mifflin on the other side of the river on Great an

ish there in the Revolution

er, the Americans were defeated. They retreated to Chester that night, marched the next day toward Phi

laware River to prevent the British ships from ascending it, and also

on the 11th of September, and, as I have said, the British pu

chevaux de fri

es with iron-pointed wooden spi

redoubt called Fort Mercer, which, and also Port Mifflin on the Mud Islands, I have already mention

ld make it very difficult, if not impossible, to keep his army supplied with provisions;

of war. As we have just been doing, he sailed down the one bay and up into the other, but was prevente

fered to take upon himself the task of opening a passage for their vessels through the chevaux

sault upon the unfinished works, and the Americans spiked their cannon, set fire to the barracks, and fled; the English demolished the works on the river front, and Ham

tack Forts Mifflin and M

dred picked Hessians, crossed the Delaware at Cooper's Ferry, and marched to the attack of Fort Mercer. The Americans added eight miles to the ex

their appearance, fully armed for battle, on the

They were informed that there were twenty-five hundred of the Hessians, while of themselves

nce made preparations for defence, and while they were thus engaged a Hessian officer rode up to the fort with a flag and a drummer, and insolently proclaimed,

d him, 'We ask no quart

his commander and the Hessians at once fell to work b

ct, making them with the greatest activity and eagerness, feeling that with them s

ished but they placed grea

onade, and at a quarter before five a battalion advanced to the at

ad frightened the Americans away. So with a shout of victory, and the drummer be

ere, a sudden and galling fire of musketry and grape-shot poured out upon them, from

and drove them back to

tacked the fort on the south side, but they also were driven back,

first fire. Mingerode, his second in command, was wounded also, and in all the enemy le

g batteries in the river galled t

he fort, was out with a detachment examining and restoring the palisades, when he heard a voice

the fort, afterward to a house close at hand, occupied by

im till he died, 'It is finishing a noble career early; but I d

George the Third, papa?

out to the British king by his

e means lov

g of the Hessians; the war was waged by the king of England because the Americans refus

se by the river," continued the captain, "and I suppose is st

ked Mrs. Whitall was urged to flee to some place of safety, but declined to do

the walls. At length one, a twelve-pound ball from a British vessel in the river, just grazed the walnut tree at the fort, which the Americans used as a flag-staff, and crashed into he

d up her work and we

rought into her house and she left her work to wait upon

equal kindness, but scolded the Hessians fo

ce; "but, oh, I don't know how she could dare to stay in

," replied the captain, "and the path of duty is the s

he British attack Fort Mifflin at the same time

y was the signal for the British vessels in the river to

hrough the passage in the chevaux de frise which Hammond had

two frigates, and a galley. All these came up with the purpose to attack the fort, but were kept at bay by the Americ

from Fort Mercer, the American flotilla was able to turn its attention entirely upon the British fleet, which now ope

of the fort, very vigilant and brave, thwarted all their e

ied to fall down the stream to get beyond its reach. But a hot shot struck the Augusta and s

els went on until three o'clock in the afternoon, when the

chevaux de frise, and for a short time the American

because the river was the only avenue by which prov

ying between Fort Mifflin and the mainland, and began throwing u

e and patient. Lieutenant-Colonel Smith was

t was defended by only a wet ditch. There was a block house at each of its angles, but they were not strong, and when the Americans saw the British take possession of Province

n help them, and didn't

bably have been saved. Burgoyne's army had been defeated and captured some time before this, and there was then no other formidable enemy in that

the rescue might have rendered such assistance as to enable Washington to

d, and would not even return Morgan's corps, whic

y indignant at the slow and reluctant compliance of Gates, and by plainly express

e troops forwarded by Gates to assist him in carr

er to Putnam to set those troops in motion for Whitemarsh where W

ss being so slow, and officers under him so perverse, wanting their own way

't my eldest daughter feel something like sympathy with them in their wish

dly; "and yet," she added, lifting it again and smiling up into his eyes, "I do think if you had be

ide and leaned up lovingl

returned, laying his hand tenderly on her head,

second attack upon Fort Mifflin, hav

ptain answered; then we

t it was with intense anxiety he now watched the progress of the enemy in his desi

nd help them with his sol

sick, within reach of the enemy; leave the British troops in possession of the fords of the river; make it difficult, if not impossible, for the troops he was

had to fight it out themselves

the night and gone away quietly w

tish yoke; and these men were too brave and patriotic to try it; they were freemen and never could be slaves; to them death was prefe

of the fort; a large floating battery with twenty-two twenty-four pounders, which they brought up within forty yards of an angle of the for

t one little fort!" exclaimed Rosie. "It is rea

und shot poured upon them," said the captain, "and it must hav

some of those wicked fellows!" ex

and their fort," replied the captain. "And the British los

g the artillery, was killed on the first day by the bursting of a bomb. The next day quite a

had gone intending to write a letter,-scattered the bricks, a

d Bank, and Major Thayer of the Rhode

up, and the garrison were compelled to keep within the fort. All that night the British threw

opened with terrible effect, yet they endured it, and made the enemy suffer so much from their fire that they began to think seriously of giving up the contest, when one of the men

and. Two others-the Vigilant and a hulk with three twenty-four pounders-passed through the narrow channel on the west sid

intense anxiety, when a signal bugle sounded and instantly all the ships and batteries poured

sighed Grace. "Could

early over the American battery; and there were musketeers stationed in their tops who immediately shot down every man who showed himself on the platform of the fort. Our men displaye

He and the remaining forty stayed on in the fort until midnight, then, setting

es of cannon, from twelve to thirty-two pounders, were made against the works on Mu

and was presented with a sword by the Rhode Island Assemb

mmodore-Talbot do himself gre

He was a very brave man and did much good service during the war, principally on the water, taking vessel after vessel. In

exclaimed Lulu with enthusias

as one of the many men of that period of w