The Life of George Washington, Vol. 3 (of 5)
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Such importance was attached to this object, that Lincoln, after
Woodford had entered Charleston, detached a part of his regular
troops, to throw up some works about nine miles above the town, on
Wando, the eastern branch of Cooper, and on Lamprere's point. The
militia, it was hoped, though unwilling to enter Charleston, might be
drawn to these posts.
[Sidenote: April 14.]
[Sidenote: Tarlton surprises and defeats an American corps at Monk's
corner.]
After the fleet had entered the harbour, Sir Henry Clinton turned his
attention to the country on the east of Cooper, to acquire the
possession of which it was necessary to disable the American cavalry.
This service was committed to Lieutenant Colonel Webster, who detached
Tarlton with the horse and a corps of infantry to execute it. He
succeeded completely. Conducted in the night through unfrequented
paths to the American videttes, he entered the camp with them, killed
and took about one hundred men, and dispersed the residue, who saved
themselves on foot in a swamp. Near fifty wagons loaded with military
stores, and about four hundred horses, fell into the hands of the
victors.
This decisive blow gave Lieutenant Colonel Webster possession of the
whole country between Cooper and Wando; and closed the only route by
which the garrison could have retreated.
The besiegers had now commenced their second parallel, and it became
every day more apparent that the town must ultimately yield to their
regular approaches. An evacuation was proposed, and Lincoln is
understood to have been in favour of that measure; but the
remonstrances of the principal inhabitants, who entreated him not to
abandon them to the fury of a disappointed enemy, added to the great
difficulty which must attend such an attempt, especially when opposed
by the civil government, deterred him from adopting the only course
which afforded even a probability, by saving his army, of saving the
southern states.
Soon after the affair at Monk's corner, Sir Henry Clinton received a
reinforcement of three thousand men from New York. This addition to
his strength enabled him to detach largely to the aid of Lieutenant
Colonel Webster, after which Lord Cornwallis took command of the
troops on that side of Cooper River.
[Sidenote: April 20.]
Upon this change of situation, Lincoln called another council of war.
Notwithstanding the multiplied difficulties attending an evacuation of
Charleston, he appears to have been still inclined to it. But a number
of fortunate circumstances must have concurred to render a retreat
possible; and the attempt was effectually prevented by the opposition
of the civil government. The opinion seems to have prevailed, that the
escape of the garrison would be followed by the destruction of the
town, and the ruin of its inhabitants.
The council advised that a capitulation should be proposed, and that
the town should be surrendered on condition that the garrison should
be at liberty still to bear arms, and that the inhabitants should be
secured in their persons and property. These propositions being
rejected, hostilities recommenced.
The besiegers had completed their second parallel, and had begun the
third, when Colonel Henderson made a vigorous sally on their right,
which was attended with some success. That this was the only sortie
made during the siege, is to be ascribed to the weakness of the
garrison. General Lincoln deemed it necessary to reserve all his
strength to man his lines in the event of an assault, or to force a
retreat, should he determine to evacuate the city.
In this state of things, General Du Portail, who had been directed to
join the southern army, was conducted by secret ways into the town. He
perceived the impossibility of defending the place, and repeated the
proposition for attempting a retreat. This proposition was again
rejected; and it only remained to defer the surrender as long as
possible, in the vain hope that some fortunate occurrence might bring
relief.
[Sidenote: The garrison of fort Moultrie surrender themselves
prisoners of war.]
Every day diminished this hope, and added to the difficulties of the
besieged. The admiral took possession of Mount Pleasant, which induced
the immediate evacuation of Lamprere's point; soon after which the
garrison of fort Moultrie, amounting to about two hundred men,[22]
surrendered themselves prisoners of war. On the same day, the cavalry
which had escaped the disaster at Monk's corner, and had been
reassembled under the command of Colonel White, of New Jersey, was
again surprised and defeated by Lieutenant Colonel Tarlton at
Lanneau's ferry.
[Footnote 22: After the fleet passed the fort, Colonel Pinckney and a
part of the garrison were withdrawn.]
The investment of the town was now complete; the advances were rapid;
and it became obvious that the place could be defended only a few days
longer. The besiegers had finished their third parallel; and by a sap
pushed to the dam that supplied the canal with water, had drained it
in many places to the bottom. The garrison, fatigued and worn out with
constant duty, was too weak to man the lines sufficiently; their guns
were almost all dismounted; most of the embrasures demolished; their
shot nearly expended; their provisions, with the exception of a few
cows, entirely consumed; and the approaches of the besiegers so near,
that their marksmen frequently picked off the men from the guns, and
killed[23] any person who showed himself above the works.
[Footnote 23: Colonel Parker and Captain Peyton, two valuable officers
from Virginia, fell in this manner.]
In this state of things, the garrison was summoned, a second time, to
surrender; on which a council was again called, which advised a
capitulation. In pursuance of this advice, General Lincoln proposed
terms which were refused, and hostilities recommenced.
The besiegers now advanced their works in front of their third
parallel, crossed the canal, pushed a double sap to the inside of the
abattis, and approached within twenty yards of the American works.
Preparations for an assault by sea and land were making. With less
than three thousand men, many of whom were militia, lines three miles
in extent were to be defended against the flower of the British army,
assisted by a powerful maritime force. Convinced that success was not
possible, the citizens prepared a petition to General Lincoln,
entreating him to surrender the town on the terms which had been
offered by the besiegers.
[Sidenote: General Lincoln capitulates.]
This proposition was made and accepted; and the capitulation was
signed on the 12th of May.
[Sidenote: May 12.]
The town, and all public stores were surrendered. The garrison, as
well the citizens who had borne arms as the continental troops,
militia, and sailors, were to be prisoners of war. The garrison were
to march out of town, and to deposite their arms in front of their
works; but their drums were not to beat a British march, nor their
colours to be reversed. The militia were to retire to their homes on
parole, and their persons and property, as well as the persons and
property of the inhabitants of the town, to be secure while they
adhered to their paroles.
These terms being agreed on, the garrison laid down their arms, and
General Leslie was appointed to take possession of the town.
The defence of Charleston was obstinate, but not bloody. The besiegers
conducted their approaches with great caution; and the besieged, too
weak to hazard repeated sorties, kept within their lines. The loss on
both sides was nearly equal. That of the British was seventy-six
killed and one hundred and eighty-nine wounded; and that of the
Americans, excluding the inhabitants of the town not bearing arms, was
ninety-two killed, and one hundred and forty-eight wounded.
From the official returns made to Sir Henry Clinton by his deputy
adjutant general, the number of prisoners, exclusive of sailors,
amounted to five thousand six hundred and eighteen men. This report,
however, presents a very incorrect view of the real strength of the
garrison. It includes every male adult inhabitant of the town. The
precise number of privates in the continental regiments, according to
the report made to congress by General Lincoln, was one thousand nine
hundred and seventy-seven; of whom five hundred were in the hospital.
The unfortunate are generally condemned; and the loss of the garrison
of Charleston so maimed the force, and palsied the operations of the
American government in the south, that censure was unsparingly
bestowed on the officer who had undertaken and persevered in the
defence of that place. In his justificatory letter to the
Commander-in-chief, General Lincoln detailed at large the motives of
his conduct, and stated the testimony on which those delusive hopes of
substantial assistance were founded, which tempted him to remain in
town, until the unexpected arrival of the reinforcement from New York
deprived him of the power to leave it.
The importance of that great mart of the southern states, which had
become the depot for the country to a considerable extent around it;
the magazines and military stores there collected, which, from the
difficulty of obtaining wagons, could not be removed; the ships of
war, which must be sacrificed should the town be evacuated; the
intention of congress that the place should be defended; the
assurances received that the garrison should be made up to ten
thousand men, of whom nearly one half would be regular troops; the
anxious solicitude of the government of South Carolina; all concurred
to induce the adoption of a measure which, in its consequences, was
extremely pernicious to the United States. In the opinion of those who
were best enabled to judge of his conduct, General Lincoln appears to
have been completely justified. The confidence of his government, and
the esteem of the Commander-in-chief, sustained no diminution.
Sir Henry Clinton was aware of the impression his conquest had made,
and of the value of the first moments succeeding it. Calculating on
the advantages to be derived from showing an irresistible force in
various parts of the country at the same time, he made three large
detachments from his army;--the first and most considerable, towards
the frontiers of North Carolina; the second to pass the Saluda to
Ninety-Six; and the third up the Savannah towards Augusta.
[Sidenote: Buford defeated.]
Lord Cornwallis, who commanded the northern detachment, received
intelligence, soon after passing the Santee, that Colonel Buford, with
about four hundred men, was retreating in perfect security towards
North Carolina. He detached Lieutenant Colonel Tarlton with his
legion, the infantry being mounted, in pursuit of this party. That
officer, by making a movement of near one hundred miles in two days,
overtook Buford, in a line of march, at the Waxhaws, and demanded a
surrender on the terms which had been granted to the garrison of
Charleston. This was refused. While the flags were passing, Tarlton
continued to make his dispositions for the assault, and, the instant
the truce was over, his cavalry made a furious charge on the
Americans, who had received no orders to engage, and who seem to have
been uncertain whether to defend themselves or not. In this state of
dismay and confusion, some fired on the assailants, while others threw
down their arms and begged for quarter. None was given. Colonel Buford
escaped with a few cavalry; and about one hundred infantry, who were
in advance, saved themselves by flight; but the regiment was almost
demolished. Tarlton, in his official report, says that one hundred and
thirteen were killed on the spot, one hundred and fifty so badly
wounded as to be incapable of being moved, and fifty-three were
brought away as prisoners. The loss of the British was five killed and
fourteen wounded.
Tarlton gives a very different account of the circumstances which
preceded this massacre. He says that the demand for a surrender was
made long before Buford was overtaken, and was answered by a defiance;
that, on overtaking him, the British vanguard made prisoners of a
sergeant and four light dragoons, in the presence of the two
commanders, who immediately prepared for action; that as he advanced
to the charge, when within fifty paces, the American infantry
presented, and were commanded by their officers to retain their fire
until the British cavalry should be nearer.[24]
[Footnote 24: Lieutenant Bowyer, an American officer who was in the
engagement, near the person of Colonel Buford, in a letter which the
author has lately seen, states this affair in a manner not much
conflicting with the statement made of it by Colonel Tarlton.]
The American officers who survived the carnage of the day, generally
assert that flags passed after being overtaken, that they had received
no orders from Colonel Buford when the charge was made, and that the
fire of their troops was retained until the enemy was upon them,
because they did not think themselves authorized to give it. The facts
that Buford's field pieces were not discharged, and that the loss was
so very unequal, are not to be reconciled with the idea of deliberate
preparation for battle, and justify the belief that the statement
made by the American officers is correct.
After the defeat of Buford, scarcely the semblance of opposition
remained in South Carolina and Georgia. The military force employed by
congress was nearly destroyed; the spirit of resistance seemed
entirely broken; and a general disposition to submit to the victor
displayed itself in almost every part of the country.
The two other detachments saw no appearance of an enemy. They received
the submission of the inhabitants, who either became neutral by giving
their paroles, not to bear arms against his Britannic Majesty, or took
the oaths of allegiance, and resumed the character of British
subjects.
To keep up this disposition, garrisons were posted in different
stations, and a series of measures was pursued for the purpose of
settling the civil affairs of the province, and of giving stability to
the conquest which had been made.
[Sidenote: Sir Henry Clinton takes measures for settling the
government of South Carolina and Georgia.]
[Sidenote: June 3.]
So entirely did the present aspect of affairs convince Sir Henry
Clinton of the complete subjugation of the state, and of the
favourable disposition of the people towards the British government,
that he ventured to issue a proclamation, in which he discharged the
militia who were prisoners from their paroles, with the exception of
those who were taken in Charleston and fort Moultrie, and restored
them to all the rights and duties of British subjects; declaring, at
the same time, that such of them as should neglect to return to their
allegiance, should be considered and treated as enemies and rebels.
This proclamation disclosed to the inhabitants their real situation.
It proved that a state of neutrality was not within their reach; that
the evils of war were unavoidable; that they must arrange themselves
on the one side or the other; and that the only alternative presented
to them was, to drive the enemy out of their country, or take up arms
against their countrymen.
[Sidenote: June 5.]
With the most sanguine hopes that the southern states would be
reunited to the British empire, Sir Henry Clinton embarked for New
York, leaving about four thousand British troops in South Carolina,
under the command of Lord Cornwallis.
His lordship found it necessary to suspend the expedition he had
meditated against North Carolina. The impossibility of supporting an
army in that state before harvest, as well as the intense heat of the
season, required this delay. His first care was to distribute his
troops through South Carolina and the upper parts of Georgia, so as to
promote the great and immediate objects of enlisting the young men who
were willing to join his standard, of arranging the plan of a militia,
and of collecting magazines at convenient places.
In the mean time, he despatched emissaries to his friends in North
Carolina, to inform them of the necessary delay of his expedition
into their country, and to request them to attend to their harvest,
collect provisions, and remain quiet until late in August or early in
September, when the King's troops would be ready to enter the
province.
The impatience of the royalists, stimulated by the triumph of their
friends in a neighbouring state, and by the necessary severities of a
vigilant government, could not be restrained by this salutary counsel.
Anticipating the immediate superiority of their party, they could not
brook the authority exercised over them, and broke out into premature
and ill concerted insurrections, which were vigorously encountered,
and generally suppressed. One body of them, however, amounting to
about eight hundred men, led by Colonel Bryan, marched down the east
side of the Yadkin to a British post at the Cheraws, whence they
proceeded to Camden.
Having made his dispositions, and fixed on Camden as the place for his
principal magazines, Cornwallis left the command of the frontiers to
Lord Rawdon, and retired to Charleston for the purpose of making those
farther arrangements of a civil nature, which the state of affairs and
the interest of his sovereign might require.
His lordship, as well as Sir Henry Clinton, seems to have supposed the
state of South Carolina to be as completely subdued in sentiment as
in appearance. Impatient to derive active aids from the new conquest,
his measures were calculated to admit of no neutrality. For some time
these measures seemed to succeed, and professions of loyalty were made
in every quarter. But under this imposing exterior, lurked a mass of
concealed discontent, to which every day furnished new aliment, and
which waited only for a proper occasion to show itself.
The people of the lower parts of South Carolina, though far from being
united, were generally attached to the revolution, and had entered
into the war with zeal. They were conducted by a high spirited and
intelligent gentry, who ardently sought independence as a real and
permanent good.
Several causes had combined to suspend the operation of this
sentiment. Many of their leaders were prisoners; and the brilliant
successes of the British arms had filled numbers with despair. Others
were sensible of the inutility of present resistance; and a still
greater number, fatigued and harassed with militia duty, were willing
to withdraw from the conflict, and, as spectators, to await its issue.
To compel these men to share the burdens of the war, was to restore
them to their former friends.
Late in March, General Washington had obtained the consent of congress
to reinforce the southern army with the troops of Maryland and
Delaware, and with the first regiment of artillery. This detachment
was to be commanded by the Baron De Kalb, a German veteran who had
engaged early in the service of the United States.
Such, however, was the deranged state of American finances, and such
the depression of public credit, that these troops could not be put
immediately in motion. They were at length embarked at the Head of
Elk, and conveyed by water to Petersburg, in Virginia, whence they
marched towards South Carolina. Their progress was delayed by that
difficulty of obtaining subsistence which had induced Lord Cornwallis
to suspend the invasion of North Carolina until harvest should be
gathered. No preparations having been made for them, they were reduced
to the necessity of spreading themselves over the country in small
detachments, to collect corn, and grind it for their daily food. In
this manner they proceeded through the upper parts of North Carolina
to Deep River, and encamped near Buffalo Ford in July. At this place
the Baron halted for a few days, in some uncertainty respecting his
future course.[25]
[Footnote 25: Journal of Colonel Williams.]
The militia of North Carolina, commanded by General Caswell, were
beyond the Pedee, on the road to Camden, and had nearly consumed the
scanty supplies which could be gleaned from a country that was far
from being productive. The Baron was premeditating on a plan for
leaving the direct road and moving up the country to the fertile
banks of the Yadkin, when the approach of Major General Gates was
announced by the arrival of his aid-de-camp, Major Armstrong.[26]
[Footnote 26: Journal of Colonel Williams.]
[Sidenote: General Gates appointed to the command of the southern
army.]
[Sidenote: July.]
Aware of the danger to which the loss of Charleston had exposed that
part of the confederacy, congress deemed it of the utmost importance
to select a general for that department, in whom great military
talents should be combined with that weight of character which might
enable him to draw out the resources of the country. They turned their
eyes on Gates;[27] and sanguine hopes were entertained that the
conqueror of Burgoyne would prove the saviour of the southern states.
On the 13th of June, he was called to the command in the southern
department, and was directed to repair immediately to the army. He
entered, without loss of time, on the duties of his station; and, on
the 25th of July, reached the camp, where he was received by the Baron
De Kalb with the utmost cordiality and respect.
[Footnote 27: This appointment was made without consulting the
Commander-in-chief. He had determined, if consulted, to recommend
General Greene.]
The approach of this army, and the information that great exertions
were making in Virginia to augment it, revived the hopes of South
Carolina, and brought again into action a spirit supposed to be
extinguished. The British troops having occupied the north-western
parts of the state, the most active friends of the revolution in that
quarter had fled from their homes, and sought an asylum in North
Carolina and Virginia. As the discontents of their countrymen
increased, and the prospect of being supported by regular troops
brightened, a small body of these exiles, amounting to less than two
hundred, assembled together, and choosing Colonel Sumpter, an old
continental officer, for their chief, entered South Carolina. They
skirmished with the royal militia and small corps of regulars on the
frontiers, sometimes successfully, and always with the active courage
of men fighting for the recovery of their property. The followers of
Sumpter were soon augmented to six hundred men; and a disposition once
more to take up arms showed itself in various parts of the state. Some
corps of militia, which had been embodied under the authority of Lord
Cornwallis, deserted his standard, and joined their countrymen.
Perceiving this change of temper, the British general thought it
necessary to draw in his out-posts, and to collect his troops into
larger bodies.
On taking command of the southern army, General Gates directed the
troops to hold themselves in readiness to march at a moment's warning;
and, on the morning of the 27th, put the whole in motion. Disregarding
the judicious remonstrances which were made to him against pursuing
the direct road, he determined on taking the nearest route to the
advanced post of the British on Lynch's Creek, a few miles from
Camden. The motives assigned by himself for passing through this
barren country were, the necessity of uniting with Caswell, who had
evaded the orders repeatedly given him to join the army, the danger of
dispiriting the troops, and intimidating the people of the country, by
pursuing a route not leading directly towards the enemy, and the
assurances he had received that supplies would overtake him, and would
be prepared for him on the road.
[Sidenote: August 13.]
These assurances were not fulfilled; and, the country being still more
barren than had been anticipated, the distress of the army was
extreme. The soldiers subsisted on a few lean cattle found in the
woods, and a very scanty supply of green corn and peaches. Encouraged
by the example of their officers, who shared all their sufferings, and
checked occasional murmurs, they struggled through these difficulties,
and, after effecting a junction with General Caswell and with
Lieutenant Colonel Porterfield,[28] the army reached Clermont,
sometimes called Rugely's mills, on the 13th of August. Possession was
taken of this place without any opposition from Lord Rawdon, who, on
the approach of the American army, drew in his out-posts, and
assembled all his forces at Camden.[29]
[Footnote 28: This valuable officer was pressing forward to Charleston
when that place surrendered. Continuing to advance, he was within one
day's march of Colonel Buford, when that officer was defeated. Colonel
Porterfield still remained on the frontiers of the Carolinas; and had
the address not only to avoid the fate of every other corps sent to
the relief of Charleston, but to subsist his men; and keep up the
semblance of holding that part of South Carolina.]