Stony Point, Capture

of, July 16, 1779. While the Americans were building a fort at Stony Point in May, 1779, Clinton ascended the Hudson, captured it and increased its strength. Washington detailed General Wayne to regain this position. With 1,200 men he undertook the task. Not a gun was loaded. The troops depended solely upon a bayonet charge. They got so near the fort without being observed that with one rush they entered the fort and soon forced the garrison to surrender. The American lo was fifteen killed and eighty-three wounded. The British lost sixty-three killed and 553 taken prisoners. The humanity of the Americans contrasted favorably with the reckle brutality of the British in their surprises. Storrs, Richard §., born in 1821, was pastor of the Church of the Pilgrims at Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1846 to 1894. He was one of the most eloquent pulpit orators in America. He wrote ‘Early American Spirit,” ‘‘The Declaration of Independence and its Effects,” and a life of St. Bernard.