The WashFrench alliance was signed in Paris on the (5th of February. the inoton still at Vallev Forge (Pa.), was in position to attack te co-opera to fleet French a of British in Philadelphia, and the arrival

EVENTS

with him against that city was expected monthly. It became impracticable for the enemy to continue there, ami the evacuation of the place was decided on. Just previously to the event Howe resigned the chief command and was succeeded by Sir Henry Clinton. The British army moved out of Philadelphia on the 18th of June to make its way by land back to New York. It was pursued by Washington. On the 28th was fought the battle of Monmouth Court House, where General Lee (who had been exchanged) so comported himself that he was court-martialed and retired to private life. The British effected their escape to New York, and Washington encamped in New Jersey to bide the progress of events. Here, on the 13th of July, he received the welcome intelligence of the arrival off the coast of Virginia of a French fleet under the Count d'Estaing. consisting of twelve ships of the line and six frigates, and bearing a land force of 4,000. In the resulting correspondence between the two commanders it was resolved to begin at once joint operations against New York, and Washington forthwith broke up his New Jersey camp, crossed King's Ferry into our county, and descended to White Plains, where he spread his tents about the 20th day of July. From this place, whither he had retired from New York island under such perilous circumstances in the fall of 1770, he wrote to a friend in Virginia: "After two years' maneuvering and the strangest vicissitudes, both armies are brought back to the very point they set out from, and the offending party at the beginning is now reduced to the use of the spade and pickax for defense.