II 



CHARLES LEE 



THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 



WHENEVER a great war is going on, it is apt to draw 

 from other countries a crowd of officers who come to 

 look on and give advice, or perhaps to study the art of 

 war under new conditions, or to carve out for them- 

 selves a career for which no chance seems to be 

 offered them at home. This was amply illustrated in 

 the American War of Independence. The war was 

 watched with interest in Europe, not from any special 

 regard for the Americans, about whom people in 

 general knew rather less than they knew about the 

 inhabitants of Dahomey or of Kamtchatka, but from 

 a belief that the result would seriously affect the posi- 

 tion of Great Britain as a European power. A swarm 

 of officers crossed the Atlantic in the hope of obtaining 

 commands, and not less than twenty-seven such for- 

 eigners served in the Continental army, with the rank 

 of general, either major or brigadier. I do not refer 

 to such French allies as came with Rochambeau, or in 

 company with the fleets of D'Estaing and De Grasse. 

 I refer only to such men as obtained commissions 

 from Congress and were classed for the time as Ameri- 

 can officers. For the most part these men came in 

 the earlier stages of the war, before the French alliance 

 had borne fruit. Some were drawn hither by a noble, 

 disinterested enthusiasm for the cause of political lib- 



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