onel George
Washington was living very quietly at Mount Vernon. His brother
Lawrence had died, and Mount Vernon was now his home. Washington was
very well off: he had a fine estate and plenty of slaves to do the
work on it; but when he died, many years later, he took good care
to leave orders that all of his slaves should be set free as soon
as it could be done.

[Illustration: WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VERNON.]

[Illustration: WASHINGTON TAKING COMMAND OF THE AMERICAN ARMY AT
CAMBRIDGE.]

Congress now made Colonel Washington general, and sent him to
Cambridge, a town just outside of Boston, to take command of the
American army. It was called the Continental Army because it was
raised, not to fight for the people of Massachusetts, but for all
the Americans on the continent, north and south. Washington took
command of the army under a great elm, which is still standing. There,
six months later, he raised the first American flag.[17]

[Illustration: THE NORTHERN STATES IN THE REVOLUTION.]

[Footnote 17: See a picture of this and the other flags of the
Revolution in paragraph 142.]

136. American sharpshooters;[18] Washington's need of cannon and
powder; the attack on Canada; the British driven out of Boston.--Men
now came from all parts of the country to join the Continental Army.
Many of them were sharpshooters. In one case an officer set up a board
with the figure of a man's nose chalked on it, for a mark. A hundred
men fired at it at long distance, and sixty hit the nose. The
newspapers gave them great praise for their skill and said, "Now,
General Gage, look out for _your_ nose."

[Illustration: "NOW, GENERAL GAGE, LOOK OUT FOR _your_ NOSE."]

Washington wanted to drive General Gage and the British soldiers out
of Boston, but for months he could not get either cannon or powder.
Benjamin Franklin said that we should have to fight as the Indians
used to, with bows and arrows.

While Washington was waiting, a number of Americans marched against
the British in Canada; but the cold weather came on, and they nearly
starved to death: our men would sometimes take off their
moccasins[19] and gnaw them, while they danced in the snow to keep
their bare feet from freezing.

At last Washington got both cannon and powder. He dragged the cannon
up to the top of some high land overlooking Boston harbor. He then
sent word to General Howe, for Gage had gone, that if he did not leave
Boston he would knock his ships to pieces.