forty-six families of Tories.

After destroying the lighthouse at Beaver-Tail and leveling the battery at North Point, the vessels, as fast as they were loaded with stores and ordnance were moored off Brenton's Point to receive the troops, who burned the barracks they had left. Before sunset of October 25, 1779, Rhode Island was relieved of its detested foe, which had left nothing behind but the utter desolation it had wrought during its occupation of nearly three years. The suffering of the inhabitants was extreme, particularly during fhe following winter, which was so cold that for six weeks Narraganset Bay was frozen over, and the ice extended seaward to Block Island and as far as the eye could reach.

The next year the murky cloud, which had so long hung over Narraganset Bay, was lifted, and the bright sunlight succeeded on the arrival, July 10, 1780, of Admiral de Ternay, with a fleet of forty-four armed vessels and transports bringing into Newport over five thousand French troops, commanded by Count de Rochambeau. The following day the army landed, and was put in possession of all the defenses of the harbor; and on the succeeding night the city was ablaze with a brilliant illumination in honor of its guests, among whom were some of the most distinguished noblemen of France. Soon British tyranny was forgotten, and "the wounds inflicted by Hessian ruffianism were healed by the balm of French politeness."

Washington, who came to Newport, March 6, 1781, to confer with Rochambeau about an active campaign, had a most notable reception by the citizens of Newport and the officers and troops of the French army. The splendid ball then given, and its gay assemblage of fair women and brave men, was a brilliant episode in the revolutionary annals of Rhode Island.

From various memoirs, particularly that of the Count de DeuxPonts, we learn most of the details of the operations of Rochambeau's army in Rhode Island. Soon after its arrival, the British fleet of twenty ships threatened to force a passage through the the main channel into Narraganset Bay. To guard this entrance, Rochambeau threw up batteries, armed with twelve pounders, on Brenton's Point, while the French navy occupied others on Conanicut Island; but these latter were abandoned, July 27, 1780, as they were accessible on all sides to British assaults. When the reports of Sir Henry Clinton's intention to attack the allied forces were confirmed by information received from General Washington, the French commander, with the aid of the Rhode Island militia, repaired and remodeled all the works.

thrown up by the British when they held Rhode Island; and added others, particularly redoubts on Coaster's Island, and a strong work on Rose Island* armed with forty pieces of heavy artillery. With such a powerful battery to defend the right of the line of seven heavily armed French ships, and the guns and mortars of Brenton's Point to protect its left, the whole presented a formidable array of land artillery and naval broadsides to guard the main entrance to the bay. Till the departure of Rochambeau, June 10, 1781, he, with the assistance of many officers of engineers, continued to strengthen all the batteries, particularly those on Goat Island which had not been destroyed upon the British evacuation. Among the new works thrown up by the French was a battery on Hallidon Hill (see Plate I, Fig. 3) as this height commanded, at short artillery range, all the batteries at Brenton's Point and on Goat Island. It was then called Fort Chastellux, after the Chevalier de Chastellux, one of Rochambeau's Mareschaux de Camp. After the Revolution it was known as Fort Harrison, being on the Harrison farm, and since, it has acquired the name of Fort Denham from some local association. What remains of it is situated in front of the " Thorp " cottage. Other batteries on the southern shore of Rhode Island were built during the Revolution, of which the remains of one are still visible on the "Ocean Drive," near the southwest extremity of the island, at Winans' cottage.

[TO BE CONCLUDED].

General GEORGE W. CULLUM,

Corps of Engineers, (Retired) U. S. Army.

This small island, called Conskuit by the Indians, was purchased, in 1675, by Peleg Sanford from the Sachem Mausup.

THE BICYCLE AND ITS ADAPTABILITY TO MILI

TARY PURPOSES.

(Continued from the September-October Journal, Vol. VI, No. 2.)

PART III. THE MILITARY USES OF THE BICYCLE.

Unless some radical and entirely unforseen improvement takes place, it would appear that the fire-arms of the present day have reached about the maximum state of efficiency in the small caliber bullet of the magazine and automatic machine guns, and in the shrapnel and shell of the quick-firing field piece. It would therefore seem that the most promising field for increasing the efficiency of troops now exists in the matter of improving their marching capabilities; and it is to this end that under suitable conditions the employment of the bicycle has been recommended.

We may state as a principle, that it is proper to make use of any means of transportation that will facilitate the necessary movement of troops between two points-either by increasing the rate of march, or by decreasing the amount of work performed in marching,-so long as such means do not tend to compromise the safety of the troops moved. This rule applies equally to a single soldier or to an army corps, and whether the method adopted be the railroad, the steamboat, horsed or horseless carriages, horseback, or the bicycle.

Let us apply this principle to the bicycle.

The following have been suggested as some of the possible uses of this machine in military transportation:

I.

2.

For orderly, messenger, and signal work.

For the "service of security and information."

3. For the rapid movement of large bodies of troops. These were the first uses that the military bicycle was put to, and it is in these rôles that the advantageousness of its employment is most generally conceded. In garrison and in permanent camps there can be no longer any doubt as to the value of the bicycle messenger. The economy of time and work is too evident for denial.

In the field the employment of bicycle estafettes has been found valuable for the purpose of keeping up communication between. the head and rear of marching columns, carrying despatches, preserving touch with troops marching on parallel roads, etc.