peller making eighty-five revolutions to the minute, fought the storm's fury.

Could the vessel make headway against that hurricane? Those on shore who could get a glimpse of that terrific battle were sure that she was losing. It was heartbreaking progress. After two hours, the Calliope had made less than four cable-lengths, For five hours the vessel made only half a knot an hour.

The Trenton was still in the mouth of the bottle-like harbor. She had signalled "fires extinguished," and was helpless, waiting for the end upon the rocks-at best upon the sands, where the furious seas were pounding. But, as the Calliope fought her way past in the narrow channel-there was only fifty yards of open water between the Trenton and the reefs-the blue-jackets of the doomed Trenton, led by RearAdmiral Kimberley, gave a ringing cheer-and the Calliope made a desperate way out to the open sea. That cheer rings yet in the hearts of any one who reads the story of Apia Bay.

The Trenton and the Olga then fouled each other, drifting toward the reefs. Captain Schoonmaker, of the Vandalia, tried to beach his ship beside the Nipsic on the sands, but failed to get such a safe place; and the gallant captain lost his life, after endeavoring to get a rope ashore for the rescue of his men. He refused to accept a life-preserver, which would have given him a bare chance. The crew took to the rigging as the Vandalia foundered, and many were rescued by the Trenton, which was blown atop of her; but forty-three of the Vandalia's sailors were drowned. The Trenton pounded on the Vandalia all through the night, and was badly broken. Only one man of her crew was lost-a most miraculous escape. The Olga, Captain Von Ehrhardt, was beached.

The scene when the second morning broke, on the seventeenth, has been described. It was then that the gallant Kimberley ordered the Trenton's band to parade and play "Hail Columbia." The Nipsic, thought to be a total loss, was salvaged from the sands, and was saved to be of use to the navy until 1912, when she was sold.

MASSACHUSETTS AT VALLEY FORGE

X.

WASHINGTON'S LETTER ON THE CONDITION OF THE TROOPS

\HE act of July 5, 1776, prescribed that a chaplain be appointed to each regiment in the Continental Army, and that the allowance be increased to $33 33 per month. The act of May 8, 1781, limited the number of brigade chaplains to a number equal to the number of brigades, and provided that every chaplain deemed and certified to the Board of War to be supernumerary, be no longer continued in service, but be entitled to have their depreciation made good, and to the half pay of captains for life.

Chaplain Enos Hitchcock was in the Third Massachusetts Continental Infantry, Colonel Ebenezer Learned of Oxford or Framingham, Lieutenant Colonel William Shepard of Westfield, Major Ebenezer Sprout of Middleborough, during the year 1776. He then became chaplain of the Tenth Massachusetts, to Aug. 27, 1778, when he was brigade chaplain of Brigadier General Paterson's Massachusetts brigade. This brigade then included the following Massachusetts regiments: Twelfth Tenth and the Eleventh. Another chaplain of record was David Avery. His service was brigade chaplain in Colonel Paterson's Massachusetts Fifteenth Continental Infantry. He remained on the rolls of this regiment throughout the year 1776. On the 15th of February following Avery joined the additional Rhode Island regiment of Colonel Henry Sherburne, until Aug. 15, 1778, when he became brigade chaplain, resigning March 4, 1780. Including Rev. Enos Hitchcock, the Eleventh Massachusetts Regiment had forty-one officers at Valley Forge, winter of 1777-78.

In proportion to her population, Maine province was largely represented at Valley Forge. The army of Washington that went into winter quarters there numbered about eleven thousand, In the number were thirteen full regiments from Massachusetts, one being an artillery organization, not counting the additional Massachusetts infantry regiments of Colonel William Raymond Lee, Colonel David Henley's, Lieutenant Colonel Calvin Smith's who commanded there the detachment from Colonel Thomas Nixon's Massachusetts regiment; also, exclud

ing Captain Caleb Gibbs's infantry company of Washington's Guards, eighty-seven picked members of which were Massachusetts veteran, model soldiers, drilled by Major Gibbs, under the personal supervision of Baron Steuben.

Tupper's regiment had four of its eight companies almost exclusively of men from Maine province, then a part of Massachusetts. In all, in this regiment, there were seventeen officers and two hundred and fifty-three privates from Maine. Through the labors of Mr. Nathan Goold of Portland, and Rev. Henry S. Burrage, president of the Maine Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, a memorial was unveiled in the grounds of the Pennsylvania Vally Forge Park Association on Oct. 17, 1907. The bronze tablet bears the following inscription:

To commemorate the officers and men from that part of New England now known as the State of Maine who served in Massachusetts regiments in the Continental Army under Washington at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-8 sharing the hardships there endured, this memorial is erected by the State of Maine under the auspices of the Maine society of the Sons of the American Revolution, 1907.

In memory of the officers and men from Massachusetts and its Maine province who served at Valley Forge under Generals Henry Knox, John Glover, John Paterson and Ebenezer Learned, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has erected a military monument within the camp grounds occupied by them between Dec. 19, 1777, and June 19, 1778. This cenotaph was dedicated on Nov. 18, 1911.

In December, 1777, when Washington moved the army from Whitemarsh, Pa., into Valley Forge for the winter, his adjutant general, Timothy Pickering of Salem, Mass., completed a roster showing composition and strength of the Massachusetts regiments then at Valley Forge. On Dec. 29, 1777, Washington addressed to the Massachusetts authorities a letter of that date, enclosing Colonel Pickering's roster of the Old Bay State brigades commanded, respectively, by Brigadier General John Glover, Brigadier General John Paterson, in person, and Brigadier General Ebenezer Learned. The original roster is now filed in Massachusetts Archives, Department of the Secretary of State, vol. 198 pages 378-382, together with the original letter of Washington, penned at Headquarters, Continental Army, Valley Forge, Dec. 29, 1777. The following is a copy of the letter:

Gentn.-I take the liberty of transmitting you the Inclosed Return, which contains a state of such of the Massachusetts Regiments, as are in the Army immediately under my com

mand. By this you discover how deficient-how exceedingly short they are of the complement of Men, which of right according to the establishment, they ought to have. This information I have thought it my duty to lay before you, that it may have that attention which it s importance demands; and in full hope, that the most early and vigorous measures will be adopted, not only to make the Regiments respectable but compleat. The necessity & expediency of this procedure are too obvious to need arguments. Should we have a respectable force to commence an early Campaign with, before the Enemy are reinforced, I trust we shall have an opportunity of striking a favourable and an happy stroke; But if we should be obliged to defer it, It will not be easy to describe with any degree of precision, what disagreeable consequences may result from It. We may rest assured, that Britain will strain every nerve to send from Home and abroad, as early as possible All the Troops it shall be in her power to raise or procure. Her views and Schemes for subjugating these States, and bringing thern under her despotic rule will be unceasing and unremitted. Nor should we, in my opinion, turn our expectations to, or have the least dependence on the intervention of a Foreign War. Our wishes on this head have been disappointed hitherto, and I do not know that we have a right to promise ourselves from any intelligence that has been received, bearing the marks of authority, that there is any certain prospect of One. However, be this as it may, our reliance should be wholly on our strength and exertions. If in addition to these, there should be aid derived from a War between the Enemy and any of the European powers, our situation will be so much better: If not, our Efforts & exertions will have been the more necessary and indispensable. For my own part, I should be happy, if the idea of a Foreign rupture should be thrown entirely out of our Scale of politics, and that it may not have the least weight in our Public measures. No bad effects could flow from it, but on the contrary many of a salutary nature. At the same time, I do not mean that such an Idea ought to be discouraged among the People at Large.

There is one thing more to which I would take the liberty of soliciting your most serious and constant attention; to wit, the cloathing of your Troops and the procuring of every possible supply in your power for that end. If the several States exert themselves in future in this instance, and I trust they will, I hope that the supplies they will be able to furnish in aid of those, which Congress may immediately import themselves, will be equal and competent to every demand. If they do not, I fear-I am satisfied the Troops will never be in a situation to answer the Public expectation and perform the duties required of them. No pains-no efforts on the part of the States can be too great for this purpose. It is not easy to give you a just and accurate idea of the sufferings of the Army at large-of the loss of men on this account. Were they to be minutely detailed, your feelings would be wounded, and the relation would probably be not received without a degree of doubt and discredit. We had in Camp on the 23d inst. by a Field return then taken not less than 2898 Men unfit for duty, by reason of their being barefoot & Otherwise naked. Besides this number, sufficiently distressing of itself, there are many Others detained in Hospitals and crowded in Farmers Houses for the same causes. In a most particular manner, I flatter myself, the care and attention of the States will be directed to the supply of Shoes, Stockings and Blankets, as their expenditure from the common operations and accidents of War is far greater than of any other Articles. In a word the United and respective exertions of the States cannot be too great-too vigorous in this interesting work and we shall never have a fair and just prospect for success till our Troops-Officers and Men-are better provided than they are or have been. We have taken Post here for the Winter, as a place best calculated to cover the Country from the Ravages of the Enemy and are now busily employed in erecting Huts for the Troops. This circumstance renders it the more material, that the Supplies should be greater and more immediate than if the Men were in warm, comfortable Quarters.

The Return transmitted comprehends only such Troops of your State, as are at this Camp. I imagine All the Regiments stand nearly upon the same footing in point of deficiency, and from it you will be able to form a pretty just estimate of the Men that will be necessary to fill the whole.

Before I conclude, I would also add, that it will be essential to inoculate the Recruits or Levies, as fast as they are raised, that their earliest services may be had. Should this be postponed, the work, will be to do most probably at an interesting and critical period, and when their aid may be very materially wanted.

In Council Jany 22d. 1778

Read & Sent down

Jno. Avery, Dy. Secy.

I have the Honor to be
with great respect

Gentn

Your Most Obedt. Servt
Go. Washington.

Letters of similar import were sent by Washington between Wednesday, Dec. 22, 1777, and Dec. 29 from Valley Forge to the President of Congress, York, Pa. Their contents were: Lack of provisions; sufferings of the army, also report to the Board of War, York, about starvation; impossibility of collecting supplies; critics of the service. Also to the Continental Congress, and to General Putnam, Fishkill. N. Y., regarding fortifications in the Highlands; return of troops at Fishkill; suffering of garrison at Fort Pitt for want of clothing; draft horses. These letters are in the handwriting of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Harrison, aide-de-camp and military secretary to Washington; in the handwriting of Major Caleb Gibbs of Newport and Charlestown, then commanding a company of Washington's Infantry Guards; or in the handwriting of John Laurens of South Carolina, volunteer aide-decamp and lieutenant colonel; or of Lieutenant Colonel Tench Tilghman of Pennsylvania, military secretary to Washington. These officers were all of Washington's military family at Valley Forge. Some of these letters have been printed in "The Writings of Washington."

BOSTON.

PHILIP REAde.

(To be continued)