. . . . . 18

CHAPTER III
HOW PALMETTO LOGS MAY BE USED . . . . . . . . . . . 36

CHAPTER IV
THE PATRIOT SPY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

CHAPTER V
OUR GREATEST PATRIOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

CHAPTER VI
A MIDNIGHT SURPRISE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

CHAPTER VII
THE DEFEAT OF THE RED DRAGOONS . . . . . . . . . . 90

CHAPTER VIII
FROM TEAMSTER TO MAJOR GENERAL . . . . . . . . . . 105

CHAPTER IX
THE FINAL VICTORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

CHAPTER X
THE CRISIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

CHAPTER XI
A DARING EXPLOIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

CHAPTER XII
"OLD IRONSIDES" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

CHAPTER XIII
"OLD HICKORY'S" CHRISTMAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

CHAPTER XIV
A HERO'S WELCOME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

* * * * * *

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

PRONUNCIATION OF PROPER NAMES . . . . . . . . . . . 231

BOOKS FOR REFERENCE AND READING IN THE STUDY OF
AMERICAN HISTORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

{1}

HERO STORIES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY

CHAPTER I
THE HERO OF VINCENNES

Early in 1775 Daniel Boone, the famous hunter and Indian fighter,
with thirty other backwoodsmen, set out from the Holston settlements
to clear the first trail, or bridle path, to what is now Kentucky. In
the spring of the same year, George Rogers Clark, although a young
fellow of only twenty-three years, tramped through the wilderness
alone. When he reached the frontier settlements, he at once became
the leader of the little band of pioneers.

One evening in the autumn of 1775, Clark and his companions were
sitting round their camp fire in the wilderness. They had just drawn
the lines for a fort, and were busy talking about it, when a
messenger came with tidings of the bloodshed at Lexington, in
far-away Massachusetts. With wild cheers these hunters listened to
the story of the minutemen, and, in honor of the event, named their
log fort "Lexington."

[Illustration: A Minuteman of 1776]

{2} At the close of this eventful year, three hundred resolute men
had gained a foothold in Kentucky. In the trackless wilderness,
hemmed in by savage foes, these pioneers with their wives and their
children began their struggle for a home. In one short year, this
handful of men alo