.

He received his commission as captain in the new army in January, being
still in Colonel Webb's regiment, which now became the Nineteenth of the
Continental Army. For a few weeks he followed the routine of his earlier
months there, doing all that was possible to assist his brother officers
in perfecting the discipline of the raw troops, deepening their
patriotism, and proving himself a soldier as devoid of fear as he was
rich in all manly qualities. Not a word of regret can be found in his
diary. Acknowledging in a letter to a former pupil, Miss Betsey
Christophers of New London, that the novelty and glamour of camp life
had worn off, he asserts, with intense ardor, that nothing would tempt
him to "accept a furlough" or shrink in any manner from any of his
duties as a soldier. And so the weeks passed on.

During the winter heavy cannon from Fort Ticonderoga had been brought
through the snows over the Green Mountains. The cannon were placed on
Dorchester Heights which commanded the British camp, thus compelling the
British general to choose between attacking the American army and
evacuating the city. In a letter written in April, 1776, to his
half-brother, John Augustine, Washington wrote thus regarding this time:

The enemy ... apprehending great annoyance from our new works,
resolved upon a retreat, and accordingly, on the 17th (March)
embarked in as much hurry, precipitation and confusion as ever
troops did ... leaving the King's property in Boston to the amount,
as is supposed, of thirty or forty thousand pounds in provisions
and stores.

Washington's victory in this maneuver, his first great success,
tremendously cheered the hearts of all patriotic Americans. Congress
gave him a vote of thanks, also a gold medal--"the first in the history
of independent America"--in commemoration of the event. Here again we
catch a glimpse of the delight that must have thrilled the hearts of all
his officers, not least among them that of Nathan Hale. But Washington,
proving himself in these earlier events, as he was to, year after year,
through successive discouragements, "the first in war," turned toward
New York as his next base.

CHAPTER V

HALE'S ZEAL AS A SOLDIER

In the letter just quoted, Washington wrote further:

"Whither they [the enemy] are now bound,... I know not, but as New
York and Hudson's River are the most important objects they can
have in view ...