No man could
dare as greatly as he did without incurring the risk of an occasional
check; but he was an able and bold tactician, a vigilant and cautious
leader, well fitted to bear the terrible burden of responsibility which
rests upon a commander-in-chief.

Of course at times he had to learn some rather severe lessons. Quite
early in his career, just after the battle of the Brandywine, when he
was set to watch the enemy, he was surprised at night by the British
General Grey, who attacked him with the bayonet, killed 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, in 1794, 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 had always prided
themselves on their prowess with cold steel. At the battle of Germantown
it was Wayne's troops who, falling on with the bayonet, first drove the
Hessians and the British light infantry; and 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, the great leader of men, was prompt to recognize in Wayne a
soldier to whom could be entrusted 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 were 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 an attacking column had to move. The garrison was six hundred
strong. To deliver the assault Wayne