before Boston. It was Knox, who, with
heart-breaking labor, took to the American front the guns captured
at Ticonderoga. Throughout the war he did excellent service with the
artillery, and Washington placed a high value upon his services. He
valued too those of Daniel Morgan, an old fighter in the Indian wars,
who left his farm in Virginia when war broke out, and marched his
company of riflemen to join the army before Boston. He served with
Arnold at the siege of Quebec, and was there taken prisoner. He was
exchanged and had his due revenge when he took part in the capture of
Burgoyne's army. He was now at Valley Forge. Later he had a command
under Greene in the South and there, as we shall see, he won the great
success of the Battle of Cowpens in January, 1781.

It was the peculiar misfortune of Washington that the three men, Arnold,
Lee, and Gates, who ought to have rendered him the greatest service,
proved unfaithful. Benedict Arnold, next to Washington himself, was
probably the most brilliant and resourceful soldier of the Revolution.
Washington so trusted him that, when the dark days at Valley Forge were
over, he placed him in command of the recaptured federal capital. Today
the name of Arnold would rank high in the memory of a grateful country
had he not fallen into the bottomless pit of treason. The same is in
some measure true of Charles Lee, who was freed by the British in an
exchange of prisoners and joined Washington at Valley Forge late in
the spring of 1778. Lee was so clever with his pen as to be one of the
reputed authors of the Letters of Junius. He had served as a British
officer in the conquest of Canada, and later as major general in the
army of Poland. He had a jealous and venomous temper and could never
conceal the contempt of the professional soldier for civilian generals.
He, too, fell into the abyss of treason. Horatio Gates, also a regular
soldier, had served under Braddock and was thus at that early period
a comrade of Washington. Intriguer he was, but not a traitor. It was
incompetence and perhaps cowardice which brought his final ruin.

Europe had thousands of unemployed officers some of whom had had
experience in the Seven Years' War and many turned eagerly to America
for employment. There were some good soldiers among these fighting
adventurers. Kosciuszko, later famous as a Polish patriot, rose by his
merits to the rank of brigadier general in the American army; De Kalb,
son of a German