Charles Carleton Coffin: War Correspondent, Traveller, Author, and StatesmanGriffis, William Elliot
History
Charles Carleton Coffin: War Correspondent, Traveller, Author, and Statesman
Griffis, William Elliot
Coffin, Charles Carleton, 1823-1896
His first instalment, "The Daughters of the Revolution," was published
by Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., in a comely and well-illustrated
volume. It deals with that opening history of the eight years' war
with Great Britain which at the beginning had Boston for its centre
and in which New England especially took part.
In his other books, "Building the Nation," "Boys of '76," and "Old
Times in the Colonies," Carleton had not ignored the work and
influence of the "home guard" composed of mothers, daughters, aunts,
cousins, and grandmothers; but in this story of the "Daughters" he
gave special prominence to what our female ancestors did to make the
country free, and to hand down in safeguarded forms that which had
been outraged by King and Parliament.
How widely popular this volume may have been, the writer cannot say,
but he knows that one little maiden whom he sees every day has re-read
the work several times.
In a subsequent volume of the series, Carleton proposed to repicture
the splendid achievements of the colonial army in northeastern New
York. Here, from Lake Champlain to Sandy Hook, is a "great rift
valley" which lies upon the earth's scarred and diversified surface
like a mighty trough. It corresponds to that larger and grander rift
valley from Lebanon to Zanzibar, through Galilee and the Jordan, the
Red Sea, and the great Nyanzas, or Lakes of Africa. As in the oldest
gash on the earth's face lies the scene of a long procession of
events, so, of all places on the American continent, probably, no line
of territory has witnessed such a succession of dramatic, brilliant,
and decisive events, both in unrecorded time and in historic days,
from Champlain and Henry Hudson to the era of Fulton, Morse, and
Edison.
In the Revolution, the Green Mountain boys, and the New York and New
England militia under Schuyler and Gates, had made this region the
scene of one of the decisive campaigns of the world. Yet, in the
background and at home, the heroines did their noble part in working
for that consummation at Saratoga which won the recognition and
material aid of France for the United States of America. Besides
Lafayette, came also the lilies of France, alongside the stars and
stripes. The white uniforms were set in battle array with the buff and
blue against the red coats, and herein Carleton saw visions and
dreamed dreams, which his pen, like the camera which chains the light,
was to photograph in words. He had made his preliminary studies,
readings, personal interviews, and reexamination of the region, and
had written four or five chapters, when the call of the Captain to
another detail of service came to him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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