a
number of his men, and forced him to fall back some distance from the
field of action. This mortifying experience had no effect whatever on
Wayne's courage or self-reliance, but it did give him a valuable lesson
in caution. He showed what he had learned by the skill with which, many
years later, he conducted the famous campaign in which he overthrew the
Northwestern Indians at the Fight of the Fallen Timbers.

Wayne's favorite weapon was the bayonet, and, like Scott he taught his
troops, until they were able in the shock of hand-to-hand conflict to
overthrow the renowned British infantry, who have always justly prided
themselves on their prowess with cold steel. At the battle of Germantown
it was Wayne's troops who, falling on with the bayonet, drove the
Hessians and the British light infantry, and only retreated under orders
when the attack had failed elsewhere. At Monmouth it was Wayne and his
Continentals who first checked the British advance by repulsing the
bayonet charge of the guards and grenadiers.

Washington, a true leader of men, was prompt to recognize in Wayne a
soldier to whom could be intrusted any especially difficult enterprise
which called for the exercise alike of intelligence and of cool daring.
In the summer of 1780 he was very anxious to capture the British fort at
Stony Point, which commanded the Hudson. It was impracticable to attack
it by regular siege while the British frigates lay in the river, and the
defenses ere so strong that open assault by daylight was equally out of
the question. Accordingly Washington suggested to Wayne that he try a
night attack. Wayne eagerly caught at the idea. It was exactly the kind
of enterprise in which he delighted. The fort was on a rocky promontory,
surrounded on three sides by water, and on the fourth by a neck of land,
which was for the most part mere morass. It was across this neck of
land that any attacking column had to move. The garrison was six hundred
strong. To deliver the assault Wayne took nine hundred men. The
American army was camped about fourteen miles from Stony Point. One July
afternoon Wayne started, and led his troops in single file along the
narrow rocky roads, reaching the hills on the mainland near the fort
after nightfall. He divided his force into two columns, to advance one
along each side of the neck, detaching two companies of North Carolina
troops to move in between the two columns and make a false attack.
The rest of the force