Page:Charles Lee Papers 1873 Vol 3.djvu/282

This page needs to be proofread.

THE LEE PAPERS. 263

Even the unhappy business of Fort Washington, which was attended with such abominable consequences, and which brought the affairs of America to the brink of ruin, (when the circumstances are well considered) did honour to the officers and men, devoted to the defence of this worthless and ridiculous favourite. The defence of Red-Bank, by Colonel Green, and Mud-Island, by Colonel Smith, forced a confession, even from the most determined infidels on this point, of the British officers, to the honour of American valour. I have often heard them allow, that the defence of these two places were really handsome things—that no men could have done better ; which, from unwilling mouths, is no small panegyrick. The victory gained by Stark, at Bennington, and the capture of Mr. Burgoine's whole army, by Gates and Arnold, are, above all, convincing arguments of what excellent ingredients, in all respects, the force of America is composed. The detail of what passed lately on Rhode-Island is not yet come to my knowledge ; but, from all I have been able to collect, the men and officers exhibited great valour and facility, as did their General, discretion, calmness, and good conduct. Upon the whole, I am warranted to say, what I always thought, that no disgrace or calamity has fallen on the arms of America through the whole course of the war, but what must be attributed to some other cause than to the want of valour, of disposition to obedience, or to any other military defect in the men, or the general mass of their officers in their different ranks ; and I solemnly declare, that was it at my choice to select from all the nations of the earth to form an excellent and perfect army, I would, without hesitation, give the preference to the Americans. By publishing this opinion, I cannot incur the suspicion of paying my court to their vanity, as it is notoriously the language I have ever held. I have been told, that one of the crimes imputed to me, is my entertaining a high opinion of the British

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.