It made the Ironsides of Cromwell invincible." Five hundred voices, nearly all untrained, were chanting a hymn.

They were the voices of farmers and frontiersmen, but the great chorus had volume and majesty, and Robert was not one to depreciate them.

Instead he was impressed.

He understood the character of both New Englanders and New Yorkers.

Keen for their own, impatient of control, they were nevertheless capable of powerful collective effort.