Introductory 35 



their fighting abilities upon one another in dueling, 

 and, as a rule, were afflicted with conscientious scru 

 ples whenever it was necessary to cross the frontier 

 and attack the enemy. Accordingly, the campaign 

 opened with the bloodless surrender of an American 

 general to a much inferior British force, and the war 

 continued much as it had begun; we suffered dis 

 grace after disgrace, while the losses we inflicted, 

 in turn, on Great Britain were so slight as hardly 

 to attract her attention. At last, having crushed her 

 greater foe, she turned to crush the lesser, and, in 

 her turn, suffered ignominious defeat. By this time 

 events had gradually developed a small number of 

 soldiers on our northern frontier, who, commanded 

 by Scott and Brown, were able to contend on equal 

 terms with the veteran troops to whom they were 

 opposed, though these formed part of what was then 

 undoubtedly the most formidable fighting infantry 

 any European nation possessed. The battles at this 

 period of the struggle were remarkable for the skill 

 and stubborn courage with which they were waged, 

 as well as for the heavy loss involved ; but the num 

 ber of combatants was so small that in Europe they 

 would have been regarded as mere outpost skir 

 mishes, and they wholly failed to attract any atten 

 tion abroad in that period of colossal armies. 



When Great Britain seriously turned her attention 

 to her transatlantic foe, and assembled in Canada 

 an army of 14,000 men at the head of l!ake Cham- 

 plain, Congressional forethought enabled it to be 

 opposed by soldiers who, it is true, were as well dis- 



