I hope has got the other ten which completes the company."

When the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed, the soldiers
received the news with great enthusiasm, and felt that they had
at last an independent country of their own to fight for and, if
need be, to die for.

The British army arrived and encamped on Staten Island. It was a
finely equipped force of twenty-five thousand men with a fleet of
ships to support it, and was in every respect better and stronger
than the half-trained militia that made up most of the American
army. The battle of Long Island, late in the summer, ended in a
defeat for the Americans, and Washington's skillful retreat at
night across the East River from Long Island to New York was all
that prevented a greater disaster. Many of the men in Captain
Hale's company had been recruited along the Connecticut shores,
and there is no doubt that these sailors under his command were
very useful that night in getting the troops safely back to New
York.

After this the condition of things became very serious, for the
British had got possession of Brooklyn Heights, which commanded
the city over East River, and they might cross at any time and
attack it. Washington ordered companies of rangers, or scouts, to
be formed to keep a sharp watch on the enemy's movements, and
Captain Hale accepted an appointment in this body of picked men.
It was commanded by Colonel Knowlton, who was also a Connecticut
man and had been a ranger himself in the old French-and-Indian
War. He was a brave officer, and when he lay dying in the battle
of Harlem Heights he said, "I do not value my life if we do but