struggle of the seven years' contest had been decided in favor of the
Americans.

[Sidenote: First Campaign.]

The scene is now transferred further south. Charleston had, it is true,
already been attacked, but without favorable results to the English;
on the other hand, Arnold and Montgomery had vainly essayed to assail
British power in the Canadas. New York was the objective point of
those who had now come to be regarded as the invaders of our soil. Its
splendid harbor and its central position afforded a good standpoint. The
concentration of the troops of Howe, which had evacuated Boston, the war
ships commanded by his brother, Lord Howe, and the forces under Clinton,
which had been occupied in futile operations in the South, enabled
the British to force Washington out of New York, and to occupy it
themselves.

[Sidenote: Numerical Force of the Contestants.]

The whole British force engaged in this enterprise was scarcely less
than twenty-five thousand men; the American force did not exceed twelve
thousand; and the contrast in discipline and equipment still further
increased this inequality of strength. Then came the retreat across New
Jersey, succeeded by one of the most brilliant strokes of the war. This
was the midnight and midwinter crossing of the Delaware by the American
general and his troops, the forced march upon Trenton through the snow
and cold, and the surprise and utter defeat of the Hessians at that
place on Christmas morning.

[Sidenote: Valley Forge.]