ensure domestic happiness, and fill, with silent but unceasing
felicity, the quiet scenes of private life.




CHAPTER II.

Colonel Washington appointed commander-in-chief of the
American forces.... Arrives at Cambridge.... Strength and
disposition of the two armies.... Deficiency of the
Americans in arms and ammunition.... Distress of the British
from the want of fresh provisions.... Falmouth burnt....
Success of the American cruisers.... Measures to form a
continental army.... Difficulty of re-enlisting the
troops.... Plan for attacking Boston.... General Lee
detached to New York.... Possession taken of the heights of
Dorchester.... Boston evacuated.... Correspondence
respecting prisoners.


{1775}

The attention of Colonel Washington, for several years after his
marriage, was principally directed to the management of his estate. He
continued a most respectable member of the legislature of his country,
in which he took an early and a decided part against the claims of
supremacy asserted by the British Parliament. As hostilities
approached, he was chosen by the independent companies, formed through
the northern parts of Virginia, to command them; and was elected a