The Minute Boys of York Town   By: James Otis (1848-1912)

AMERICAN HISTORY STORIES FOR BOYS

THE MINUTE BOY SERIES

By Edward Stratemeyer and James Otis

The Minute Boys of Lexington The Minute Boys of Bunker Hill The Minute Boys of the Green Mountains The Minute Boys of the Mohawk Valley The Minute Boys of the Wyoming Valley

THE MEXICAN WAR SERIES

By Capt. Ralph Bonehill

For the Liberty of Texas With Taylor on the Rio Grande Under Scott in Mexico

DANA ESTES & COMPANY Publishers Estes Press, Summer St., Boston

[Illustration: "IT WAS A SIGHT WELL CALCULATED TO STIR THE BLOOD OF A BOY FROM VIRGINIA."]

THE MINUTE BOYS OF YORK TOWN

JAMES OTIS

Author of "The Minute Boys of Long Island," The "Minute Boys of Wyoming Valley," "Boys of '98," "Teddy and Carrots," "Boys of Fort Schuyler," "Under the Liberty Tree," etc., etc.

Illustrated by

L. J. BRIDGMAN

[Illustration]

BOSTON DANA ESTES & COMPANY PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1912 BY DANA ESTES & COMPANY

All rights reserved

THE MINUTE BOYS OF YORK TOWN

PRESS OF THE VAIL BALLOU CO. BINGHAMTON, N. Y.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. TWO YOUNG VIRGINIANS 11

II. SILVER HEELS 30

III. UNCLE 'RASMUS'S ADVICE 49

IV. THE TOWN OF YORK 70

V. OUR PRISONER 89

VI. A DISAGREEABLE SURPRISE 109

VII. MORGAN, THE SPY 128

VIII. THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SAUL 147

IX. SUSPENSE 166

X. NEWS OF SAUL 185

XI. A DESPERATE VENTURE 205

XII. SAUL'S OPPORTUNITY 223

XIII. THE SIEGE 240

XIV. AN UGLY SITUATION 258

XV. FORAGING 276

XVI. PREPARATIONS FOR FLIGHT 294

XVII. OUR BLUNDER 310

XVIII. TRAPPED 329

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

"IT WAS A SIGHT WELL CALCULATED TO STIR THE BLOOD OF A BOY FROM VIRGINIA" ( Page 227 ) Frontispiece

"THAT WE MIGHT PEER BETWEEN THE LEAVES" 26

"HE ... TOUCHED HIS HAT IN REGULAR MILITARY SALUTE" 76

"I SPRANG FORWARD" 90

"WITHOUT THE SLIGHTEST WARNING I FOUND MYSELF IN THE CLUTCHES OF A MAN" 119

"HALT, OR I'LL FIRE!" 138

THE RELEASE OF SAUL OGDEN 233

"A GENERAL DISCHARGE ... WAS COMMENCED BY THE AMERICANS" 289

THE MINUTE BOYS OF YORK TOWN

CHAPTER I

TWO YOUNG VIRGINIANS

When Uncle 'Rasmus loses his temper because of some prank which we lads of James Town may have played upon him, he always says that no good can ever come of that in which "chillun an' women are mixed."

It had never entered my mind that there was in such a remark any cause for anger on my part, until that day when Saul Ogden repeated it, shaking his head dolefully as Uncle 'Rasmus always did, and speaking in the negro dialect so faithfully that one, not seeing him, might well have supposed his skin was black.

Of course you remember the engagement at Spencer's Ordinary, which place is the same as if I had said Spencer's Tavern, on the 26th of June in the year of Grace 1781, when Lieutenant Colonel Simcoe of the Queen's Rangers, and Lieutenant Colonel Tarleton with his Legion of Horse, began to "prance" around here, as Uncle 'Rasmus would put it, and we Virginians were disturbed in more ways than one.