ог THE REVOLUTION: OR, THE War of Independence, ILLUSTRATED BY THRILLING EVENTS AND STORIES BY THE Olà Continental Soldiers. BY HENRY C. WATSON. WITH ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS BY CROOME. NEW YORK: JAMES MILLER, 779 BROADWAY. HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by LINDSAY & BLAKISTON, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. IN presenting the "Camp-Fires of the Revolution" to the public, a few remarks may be necessary, or, at least, will not be mal à propos. The "battles, sieges, fortunes," of the war in which American Independence was secured, may be found detailed in history, with all possible accuracy, and elaborate criticism. But the sufferings of the ill-furnished soldiers during the long and dreary winters of that period, and their means of whiling away the time when forced to gather around the camp-fire and watch when they had not the conveniences for sieeping, are not to be found on the dignified page of nistory. Yet are they worthy of being noted; and, by the aid of the few remaining heroes of that terrible struggle, when "Saxon met Saxon," -those few remaining links which chain us to the past, we may imagine the extent of their (iii) suffering, and the means they made use of to draw their attention from its severity. It is thought, a work upon the plan of the "CampFires of the Revolution," will bring the doings and the scenes of the "trying time" more vividly before the mind than the common history. Here we have the incidents of various battles, and the exploits of chieftains, told as if by eye-witnesses, and in the familiar, easily comprehended language of the farmer and mechanic soldiers of the American army. No later achievements of a more dazzling character should .withdraw the admiration and the gratitude of the American people from those iron-nerved patriots who, destitute of most of the requisites of an army, conquered only because they were determined to conquer. Their history affords the brightest examples for the imitation of those who would be truly brave and patriotic. |