The people received the Declaration of Independence with joy. Pictures of the king were destroyed, and his coat-of-arms was torn down from public buildings and thrown into the patriotic bonfires. The leaden statue of George III, which stood in Bowling Green, in New York city, was run into bullets.

But the joy of the Americans was soon turned into anxiety. About the time of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, General Howe landed a large body of English troops on Staten Island, near New York, and a few days later his brother, Admiral Lord Howe, came with reinforcements.

The battle of Long Island was fought near Brooklyn, on the 27th of August, 1776. In this battle the Americans were defeated, and Washington withdrew his troops from Brooklyn, and left the whole of Long Island in the hands of the British. The Americans were not strong enough to hold New York, and it was soon evacuated. Fort Washington, above New York, with two thousand Americans, was captured by the British, who soon crossed the Hudson. Washington was obliged to retreat, step by step, across New Jersey into Pennsylvania.

The American cause seemed on the verge of ruin. It was necessary to strike some blow to hearten the people. The English government had hired a body of Hessian soldiers, men from that part of Germany called Hesse-Cassel [hess-cas'-sel], to assist in subduing the Americans. Fifteen hundred of these were stationed in Trenton. Washington crossed the Delaware River, above Trenton, on the night of Christmas, with twenty-five hundred men. The river was so full of floating ice that it took Washington all night to get over with his men. The Hessians were, as Washington expected, stupefied by their Christmas revelries of the night before. The Americans surprised them at eight in the morning. About a thousand prisoners were taken.

A little later the British advanced upon Trenton and put Washington in great danger, because he could not retreat across the river in the presence of the enemy. He saved himself by a bold move. Building up his campfires, so as to deceive the enemy, he moved around the British force and attacked and captured Princeton, in their rear. This forced the British to fall back to New Brunswick, and left the most of New Jersey in the hands of the Americans.

In 1777 General Burgoyne was sent to force his way down from Canada, through Lake Champlain and Lake George, to the Hudson. He was expected to capture Albany, and make a junction with the British forces about New York. The effect of this would have been to cut the United Colonies in two.

Burgoyne compelled General St. Clair to evacuate Ticonderoga, and captured the artillery and all the stores which St. Clair was trying to move. He then went to Skenesborough, now Whitehall, at the south end of Lake Champlain. At length he reached the Hudson at Fort Edward, having gained complete control of Lake Champlain and Lake George.

From Fort Edward, Burgoyne sent out a force of his hired German troops into what is now Vermont, to capture stores and horses. But the militia of western New England, who like almost all men in a new country were accustomed to the use of firearms from childhood, gathered under the lead of General Stark, and at the battle of Bennington utterly defeated the detachment sent out by Burgoyne.

The whole Northern country was up now. The ranks of the army under General Gates, which opposed the march of Burgoyne, were quickly filled by militia pouring in from New York and New England. In a hard-fought battle at Bemis's Heights, the Americans won a decisive victory, Burgoyne was soon hemmed in on every side by the increasing American force. He tried in vain to get back to the lakes. His retreat was cut off in every direction, and on the 16th of October he surrendered his whole army. This victory delivered the American cause from the greatest peril, and brought joy without measure to the people.