At Savannah, Ga., six members of the “Council of Safety” broke open the public magazine, before receipt of news from the north, seized the public powder and bore it away for further use. Governor Wright addressed a letter to General Gage at Boston, asking for troops, “to awe the people.” This was intercepted, and through a counterfeit signature General Gage was advised, “that the people were coming to some order, and there would be _no occasion_ for _sending troops_.” Such is the briefest possible outline of the condition of public sentiment throughout the country, of which Washington was well advised, so far as the Committee of the Continental Congress, of which he was a member, could gather the facts at that time. Meanwhile, Boston was surrounded by nearly twenty thousand Minute Men. These Minute Men made persistent pressure upon every artery through which food could flow to relieve the hungry garrison within the British lines. Neither was the excitement limited to the immediate surroundings. Ethan Allen, who had migrated from Connecticut to Vermont, led less than a hundred of “Green Mountain Boys,” as they were styled, to Ticonderoga, which he captured on the tenth of May. Benedict Arnold, of New Haven, with forty of the company then and still known as the Governor’s Guards, rushed to Boston without waiting for orders, and then to Lake Champlain, hoping to raise an army on the way. Although anticipated by Ethan Allen in the capture of Ticonderoga, he pushed forward toward Crown Point and St. John’s, captured and abandoned the latter, organized a small naval force, and with extraordinary skill defeated the British vessels and materially retarded the advance of the British flotilla and British troops from the north. These feverish dashes upon frontier posts were significant of the general temper of the people, their desire to secure arms and military supplies supposed to be in those forts, and indicated their conviction that the chief danger to New England was through an invasion from Canada. But the absorbing cause of concern was the deliverance of Boston from English control. CHAPTER IV. ARMED AMERICA NEEDS A SOLDIER. The Second Continental Congress convened on the tenth day of May, 1775. On the same day, Ethan Allen captured Ticonderoga, also securing two hundred cannon which were afterwards used in the siege of Boston. Prompt measures were at once taken by Congress for the purchase and manufacture of both cannon and powder. The emission of two millions of Spanish milled dollars was authorized, and twelve Colonies were pledged for the redemption of Bills of Credit, then directed to be issued. At the later, September, session, the Georgia delegates took their seats, and made the action of the Colonies unanimous.