Excerpt from The Capture of the Block House at Toms River, New Jersey, March 24, 1782: Read at the Memorial Service at Toms River, May 30, 1883 The last parallel had been run, the last ditch had been dug, the last midnight assault had been made successfully on the ramparts surrounding the little Virginia village where Lord Cornwallis was environed by a gallant and a valorous foe. The starry emblem of a young republic's future glory and the white banner of the fleur-de-lis of France had been planted on the shattered batteries, the surrender of the British force had been signed in the trenches before York, the conquered had been hurried to their winter prisons, and the conquerors had returned to their huts on the heights of Morris. County and the shores of the Hudson. Washington and Rochambeau had joined with De Grasse, and, reinforcing the youthful Lafayette, they had ended by one great effort the power of Great Britain in Virginia, and had retired into quarters to await through a long, dull winter the effect of this reverse on the plans for the future in the council of King George, and the first dawn of that peace which they began now to discern. Let us look away from the quiet Quaker City where Washington was spending the winter conferring with Con gress and endeavoring to prevent the colonies from relax ing in their preparations for the next campaign; from the metropolis on the great harbor where Sir Henry Clinton, confined with his army within narrow military bounds, in no cheerful mood was waiting to know the pleasure of the British ministry; from the tr00ps in camp elated with their great success on Southern soil; and from the prisoners of war in Pennsylvania and Maryland, striving as best they could, to submit to the privations of their lot. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.