The Storming of Stony Point by Theodore Roosevelt   http://ia800302.us.archive.org/9/items/hero_tales_from_american_history_dl_0905_librivox/herotales_07_lodgeroosevelt.mp3   In their ragged regimentals Stood the old Continentals, Yielding not, When the grenadiers were lunging, And like hail fell the plunging Cannon-shot; When the files Of the isles From the smoky night encampment bore the banner of the rampant Unicorn, And grummer, grummer, grummer, rolled the roll of the drummer, Through the morn! Then with eyes to the front all, And with guns horizontal. Stood our sires; And the balls whistled deadly, And in streams flashing redly Blazed the fires; As the roar On the shore Swept the strong battle-breakers o'er the green-sodded acres Of the plain; And louder, louder, louder cracked the black gunpowder. Cracked amain!  - by Guy Humphrey McMaster. Major General Anthony Wayne by Trumbull and Forest [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons ONE of the heroic figures of the Revolution was Anthony Wayne, Major- General of the Continental line. With the exception of Washington, and perhaps Greene, he was the best general the Americans developed in the contest ; and without exception he showed himself to  be the hardest fighter produced on either side. He belongs, as regards this latter characteristic, with the [...]

  Kings Mountain by Theodore Roosevelt   http://ia800302.us.archive.org/9/items/hero_tales_from_american_history_dl_0905_librivox/herotales_06_lodgeroosevelt.mp3   Our fortress is the good greenwood, Our tent the cypress tree; We know the forest round us As seamen know the sea. We know its walls of thorny vines, Its glades of reedy grass, Its safe and silent islands Within the dark morass.  - By Bryant     The close of the year 1780 was, in the Southern States, the darkest time of the Revolutionary struggle. Cornwallis had just destroyed the army of Gates at Camden, and his two formidable lieutenants, Tarlton the light horseman, and Ferguson the skilled rifleman, had destroyed or scattered all the smaller bands that had been fighting for the patriot cause. The red dragoons rode hither and thither, and all through Georgia and South Carolina none dared lift their heads to oppose them, while North Carolina lay at the feet of Cornwallis, as he started through it with his army to march into Virginia. There was no organized force against him, and the cause of the patriots seemed hopeless. It was at this hour that the wild backwoodsmen of the western border gathered to strike a blow for liberty. When Cornwallis invaded North Carolina he sent [...]

  Bennington by Henry Cabot Lodge     http://ia800302.us.archive.org/9/items/hero_tales_from_american_history_dl_0905_librivox/herotales_05_lodgeroosevelt.mp3   We are but warriors for the working-day; Our gayness and our guilt are all besmirch'd With rainy marching in the painful field; There 's not a piece of feather in our host (Good argument, I hope, we shall not fly), And time hath worn us into slovenry. But, by the mass, our hearts are in the trim, And my poor soldiers tell me, yet ere night They'll be in fresher robes. - By Henry V By UpstateNYer (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons The battle of Saratoga Is included by Sir Edward Creasy among his fifteen decisive battles which have, by their result, affected the history of the world. It is true that the American Revolution was saved by Washington in the remarkable Princeton and Trenton campaign, but it is equally true that the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga, in the following autumn, turned the scale decisively in favor of the colonists by the impression which it made in Europe. It was the destruction of Burgoyne's army which determined France to aid the Americans against England. Hence came the French alliance, the French troops, and, [...]

  THE BATTLE OF TRENTON by Henry Cabot Lodge   http://ia800302.us.archive.org/9/items/hero_tales_from_american_history_dl_0905_librivox/herotales_04_lodgeroosevelt.mp3 And such they are — and such they will be found: Not so Leonidas and Washington, Their every battle-field is holy ground Which breathes of nations saved, not worlds undone. How sweetly on the ear such echoes sound I While the mere victor's may appall or stun The servile and the vain, such names will be a watchword till the future shall be free. - By Byron   IN December, 1776, the American Revolution was at its lowest ebb. The first burst of enthusiasm, which drove the British back from Concord and met them hand to hand at Bunker Hill, which forced them to abandon Boston and repulsed their attack at Charleston, had spent its force. The undisciplined American forces called suddenly from the workshop and the farm had given way, under the strain of a prolonged contest, and had been greatly scattered, many of the soldiers returning to their homes. The power of England, on the other hand, with her disciplined army and abundant resources, had begun to tell. Washington, fighting stubbornly, had been driven during the summer and autumn from Long Island up the Hudson, and New York [...]