ge of the following
history. Seldom was the American chief in a condition to indulge his
native courage in those brilliant achievements to which he was
stimulated by his own feelings, and a detail of which interests,
enraptures, and astonishes the reader. Had he not often checked his
natural disposition, had he not tempered his ardour with caution, the
war he conducted would probably have been of short duration, and the
United States would still have been colonies. At the head of troops
most of whom were perpetually raw because they were perpetually
changing; who were neither well fed, paid, clothed, nor armed; and who
were generally inferior, even in numbers, to the enemy; he derives no
small title to glory from the consideration, that he never despaired
of the public safety; that he was able at all times to preserve the
appearance of an army, and that, in the most desperate situation of
American affairs, he did not, for an instant, cease to be formidable.
To estimate rightly his worth we must contemplate his difficulties. We
must examine the means placed in his hands, and the use he made of
those means. To preserve an army when conquest was impossible, to
avoid defeat and ruin when victory was unattainable, to keep his
forces embodied and suppress the discontents of his soldiers,
exasperated by a long course of the most cruel privations, to seize
with unerring discrimination the critical moment when vigorous
offensive operations might be advantageously carried on, are actions
not less valuable in themselves, nor do they require less capacity in
the chief who performs them, than a continued succession of battles.
But they spread less splendour over the page which recounts them, and
excite weaker emotions in the bosom of the reader.

There is also another source from which some degree of disappointment
has been anticipated. It is the impossibility of giving to the public
in the first part of this work many facts not already in their
possession.

The American war was a subject of too much importance to have remained
thus long unnoticed by the literary world. Almost every event worthy
of attention, which occurred during its progress, has been gleaned up
and detailed. Not only the public, but much of the private
correspondence of the commander in chief has been inspected, and
permission given to extract from it whatever might properly be
communicated. In the military part of this history, therefore, the
author can promi