CHAPTER XCII.

1777.

In January, 1777, when Commodore Hotham was cruising in the Chesapeake, the prisoners that fell into his hands were humanely treated and readily exchanged. In February, the Phœnix man-of-war came to Yorktown with a flag, and sent ashore a party of prisoners, among whom was Colonel Lawson, who had been long in captivity, and who was exchanged for Colonel Alexander Gordon, of Norfolk, a Scotch tory, who had been arrested in 1775 and released on parole. Captain Lilly, in the brig Liberty, captured off the coast of Virginia the British ship Jane with a valuable cargo. Captain Pasture, in the Molly, a small craft, returned from the southward with a supply of gunpowder. The schooner Henry was captured by the British man-of-war Seaford.

When the assembly again met in May, 1777, George Wythe was made speaker of the house of delegates; the oath of allegiance was prescribed; a loan-office was established, and acts passed to support the credit of the Continental and State paper currency. Benjamin Harrison, George Mason, Joseph Jones, Francis Lightfoot Lee, and John Harrison were elected delegates to congress, Richard Henry Lee having been left out. There were no little dissension and animosity in congress between the delegates of the movement party and the moderates; and, added to this, it was believed that an old grudge, harbored in Virginia against Mr. Lee for the prominent part he had taken many years before in disuniting the offices of speaker and treasurer, followed him to Philadelphia. The charges alleged against him by his enemies in Virginia were, first, that he had altered the mode in which his tenants should pay their rent from money to produce, with the design of depreciating the currency of the country; and secondly, that he had favored New England to the injury of Virginia; thirdly, that as a member of the secret committee in congress, he had opposed laying their proceedings before congress—it being thereby intended to insinuate that in so doing he had wished to conceal the embezzlement of the public money.

A letter from Richard Henry Lee to Mr. Jefferson, dated at Philadelphia, November 3d, 1776, contains the following paragraph: "I have been informed that very malignant and very scandalous hints and inuendoes concerning me have been uttered in the house. From the justice of the house I should expect they would not suffer the character of an absent person to be reviled by any slanderous tongue whatever. When I am present I shall be perfectly satisfied with the justice I am able to do myself. From your candor, sir, and knowledge of my political movements, I hope such misstatings as may happen in your presence will be rectified." Early in June, 1777, as well on account of his health as for the purpose of rebutting the charges circulated against him, Mr. Lee returned home; and having been elected to the assembly from Westmoreland, he repaired to Richmond and demanded an enquiry into his conduct.

Mann Page, Jr., and Francis Lightfoot Lee, owing to the proceedings of the house of delegates against Richard Henry Lee, condemning him in his absence without opportunity of defence, addressed a letter from Philadelphia, dated June tenth, to the speaker, tendering the resignations of their seats in congress.

The demand made by Richard Henry Lee for an enquiry into his conduct was acceded to, and the senate on the occasion united with the house of delegates. Several persons were examined, and Mr. Lee was heard in his own defence. It appeared that he had first proposed to make the alteration in the payment of his rents from money to tobacco at a fixed valuation, as early as August, 1775, when the tenants on account of the association could not sell their produce, and when but little paper currency had as yet been issued for the war of Revolution, and, consequently the alteration could not have been proposed for the purpose of depreciating a currency which did not then, to any sensible extent, exist. When in March, 1776, the alteration in the rents was actually made, very little paper money had yet been issued. And it appeared that in August of that year the tenants of Loudoun County themselves petitioned the convention to have their money-rents changed to produce. The truth was, as Mr. Lee declared, certain evil-disposed men hated him for the same reasons on account of which he was devoted to destruction in the British camp, which were, because he had faithfully served his country, and, in concert with other generous friends to human liberty and the rights of America, had contributed to the defeat of the enemy and to the raising of America triumphant over its cruel and vindictive foes.

As to the second charge, that Mr. Lee opposed the laying the proceedings of the secret committee of congress before that body, for the purpose of concealing embezzlement of the public money, it was well known that he had no sort of connection whatever with any commercial business, and, therefore, could not propose to himself any advantage from any such source. But it was very probable that those who themselves entertained designs of peculating upon the public funds, would be glad to get Mr. Lee out of their way. To lay the proceedings of a secret committee before congress would be to defeat its very object and contradict its name. The third charge was that he favored New England at the expense of Virginia and the South. It was known that America could be conquered only by disunion. Mr. Lee called on his accusers to show that he ever had in a single instance preferred the interest of New England to that of Virginia. Indeed, he knew not in what respects their interests conflicted. New England and Virginia had both exhibited a fixed determination against British tyranny, and their guilt was alike in the eyes of the common enemy. The majority of the other colonies had entitled themselves to some hopes of pardon from the tyrant by vacillating conduct. Among the Middle and Southern States there was, in Mr. Lee's opinion, much enmity to Virginia, owing to jealousy of her wisdom, vigor, and extent of territory; but he had ever discovered, "upon every question, respect and love for Virginia among the Eastern delegates." It was his consolation, that "the malignants, who would represent him as an enemy to his country, could not make him so." He gave his enemies credit for more address than he had supposed they possessed, in making use of a good principle—rotation in office—for his ruin; and he believed that the act, limiting the term of service to three years, was framed expressly to fit his case; and thus a malicious slander, uttered in his absence, appeared likely to be successful.[684:A] Mr. Lee had been superseded early in the session while absent—a flagrant injustice against which no reputation could be safe. John Banister, although not very fond of Mr. Lee, said of his speech on this occasion: "Certainly no defence was ever made with more graceful eloquence, more manly firmness, equalness of temper, serenity, calmness, and judgment, than this very accomplished speaker displayed on this occasion; and I am now of opinion he will be re-elected to his former station instead of Mr. George Mason, who has resigned."[684:B] Mr. Lee is said to have shed tears while speaking on this occasion. The enquiry being ended, the senate withdrew, and in compliance with a resolution of the house, the speaker returned Mr. Lee their thanks for the faithful services which he had rendered his country while in congress. The speaker added his own testimony, and said: "Serving with you in congress, and attentively observing your conduct there, I thought that you manifested in the American cause a zeal truly patriotic; and as far as I could judge, exerted the abilities for which you are confessedly distinguished, to prosecute the good and prosperity of your own country in particular, and of the United States in general." Thus Mr. Lee's vindication of himself was triumphant.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XCIII.

1777.

In the battle of Brandywine, which took place on the 11th of September, 1777, Sir William Howe again proved victorious; but the action was well contested, and the loss on both sides heavy. The Virginia brigades, under Wayne and Weedon, particularly distinguished themselves. General George Weedon, before the Revolution, had been an inn-keeper at Fredericksburg. The third Virginia regiment, under command of Colonel Thomas Marshall, (father of the chief justice,) which had performed severe duty in 1776, was placed in a wood on the right, and in front of Woodford's brigade and Stephen's division. Though attacked by superior numbers, the regiment maintained its position until both its flanks were turned, its ammunition nearly expended, and more than half of the officers and one-third of the soldiers were killed or wounded. Colonel Marshall, whose horse had received two balls, then retired to resume his position on the right of his division, but it had already retreated. Among the wounded in this battle were La Fayette and Woodford. The enemy passed the night on the field of battle. On the twenty-sixth the British entered Philadelphia.

On the fourth of October occurred the battle of Germantown, in which the American forces, by a well-concerted plan, attacked the enemy at several points early in the morning. The British were at first driven back, precipitately, toward Philadelphia, but at length made a successful stand at Chew's house, garrisoned by five companies of the fortieth regiment, under the command of Colonel Musgrave. Lieutenant Matthew Smith, of Virginia, having volunteered to carry a flag of truce to Chew's house, was mortally wounded, and died in a few days. The Americans being thrown into confusion in a dense fog, Washington, when victory had seemed to be almost within his grasp, was eventually compelled to retreat. A British officer afterwards declared in parliament that Sir William Howe had received information beforehand of the intended attack. The ninth Virginia regiment and part of the sixth were made prisoners. Colonel Matthews, after penetrating to the centre of the town with his regiment, was made prisoner. Major-General Stephen, who commanded the right division of the left wing, was cashiered for misconduct on the retreat, and intoxication. The loss of the enemy was heavy; and congress expressed its approbation of the plan of the battle and the courage displayed in its execution, and the thanks of that body were given to the general and the army.

In the mean time, at the north, Burgoyne, with a well-appointed army, had advanced from Canada, in order to open a communication between that country and New York, and to cut off New England from the rest of the States. Washington, in a letter to General Schuyler, gave it as his opinion that Burgoyne would, eventually, receive an effectual check; that his confidence of success would precipitate his ruin; that his acting in detachment would expose his parties to great hazard, and prophetically adds: "Could we be so happy as to cut one of them off, though it should not exceed four, five, or six hundred men, it would inspirit the people."

After capturing Ticonderoga, Burgoyne moved toward the Hudson, encountering continual obstructions in his route through a wilderness, and harassed by the American troops. A strong detachment was overwhelmed by Starke and his countrymen near Bennington, in Vermont. After a series of engagements, in which he suffered a terrible loss, Burgoyne was at length, on the 17th day of October, 1777, thirteen days after the battle of Germantown, forced to surrender at Saratoga to Gates, who had shortly before succeeded Schuyler. Among those who distinguished themselves at Saratoga was Daniel Morgan, with his Virginia riflemen. He was a native of New Jersey, son of a Welshman, and removed in his youth to Virginia, about 1755, and made his living for a time by driving a wagon. In Braddock's expedition, when about twenty-two years of age, he served as a private, and was wounded. There is a tradition of his having been severely whipped on a charge of contumacy to a British officer.[687:A] For some years after he was twenty years of age he was addicted to fighting and gambling; and the reputed scene of his combats, in Clarke County, retains its name of Battletown. When the revolutionary war began he was appointed a captain, and in command of a troop of Virginia horse he marched thence in the summer, with extraordinary expedition, to the American army at Cambridge, Massachusetts. Washington, who knew him well, and had strong confidence in his bravery and patriotism, detached him to join the expedition against Canada; and he exhibited his accustomed courage at Quebec; and when Arnold was wounded the command devolved on him. When Montgomery fell, Morgan was taken prisoner. While in the hands of the British he was offered the rank and pay of a colonel, but he indignantly rejected them. Exchanged in the following year, he rejoined the army; and in command of a rifle corps rendered signal service at Saratoga.

On the thirtieth day of October Gates' victory was celebrated at Williamsburg by a feu de joie, joyful shouts, ringing of bells, and illuminations; and all prisoners, except deserters, were discharged from confinement; and a gill of rum was issued to every soldier. The troops were reviewed by General Nelson, by the speakers of both houses of assembly, and by many of the members. Governor Henry, by proclamation, appointed a day of thanksgiving.

In December the American army encamped at Valley Forge, on the Schuylkill, near Philadelphia. The winter was one of extraordinary rigor; the soldiers destitute of clothing, and the hospitals filled with the sick. To aggravate Washington's troubles a cabal formed a design at this time of supplanting him, and making Gates commander-in-chief. But Washington stood unshaken: the angry billows dash in vain against the ocean rock, and fall in empty murmurs at its base.

In May, 1778, the American frigate Randolph, (so called in honor of Peyton Randolph, president of congress,) carrying thirty-six guns and three hundred and five men, sailed on a cruise from Charleston. The Yarmouth, British man-of-war, of sixty-four guns, discovered her and five other vessels, and came up with her in the evening. Captain Vincent hailed the Randolph to hoist colors, or he would fire into her; on which she hoisted the American flag, and immediately gave the Yarmouth her broadside, which was returned, and in about a quarter of an hour the Randolph blew up. Four men escaped upon a fragment of the wreck, and subsisted for five days on rain water alone, which they sucked from a piece of blanket which they had picked up. They were rescued by the Yarmouth.[688:A]

Early in this month congress received despatches containing a treaty between the king of France and the United States of America. In consequence of Burgoyne's surrender and of the treaty with France, the British army (under command of Sir Henry Clinton, who had relieved Sir William Howe,) evacuated Philadelphia in June, 1778. Crossing the Delaware, they marched for New York. Washington pursued them across the Jerseys, and on the twenty-eighth of June occurred the battle of Monmouth. The result was not decisive; many died from heat and fatigue; the Americans remained on the field of battle, where Washington passed the night in his cloak in the midst of his soldiers. It was during this action that General Charles Lee retreated before the British, who had turned upon him. He was met by Washington, who reprimanded him, ordered the division to be formed, and, with the aid of artillery under Lieutenant-Colonel Carrington, checked the enemy's advance. General Lee was arrested, tried, and convicted of disobedience of orders, of making an unnecessary and disorderly retreat, and of writing disrespectfully to the commander-in-chief, and suspended from the army for one year. Recent developments strengthen the suspicion long entertained that he acted traitorously. It is strange that, conscious of this, he should have remained among those whom he had endeavored to betray. He had previously been signally serviceable in the American cause; and at the time of his suspension there were not wanting divers leading men who thought him hardly dealt with. But a man is never better than his principles, and General Lee's were bad from the beginning. La Fayette said that Washington never appeared to better advantage than in this action, when roused by Lee's misconduct.

Colonel Richard Kidder Meade, the father of Bishop Meade, was one of Washington's aides-de-camp. The following anecdote relative to him is taken from the Travels of Anburey, who was a lieutenant in the British army, and in 1779 a prisoner of war in Virginia, and visiting the lower country on parole: "On my way to this place I stopt and slept at Tuckahoe, where I met with Colonel Meade, Colonel Laurens, and another officer of General Washington's suite. More than once did I express a wish that the general himself had been of the party, to have seen and conversed with a character of whom, in all my travels through the various provinces, I never heard any one speak disrespectfully as an individual, and whose public character has been the admiration and astonishment of all Europe." *  *  *  * "The colonel (Meade) attributed the safety of his person to the swiftness of his horse at the battle of Monmouth, having been fired at and pursued by some British officers as he was reconnoitering. Upon the colonel's mentioning this circumstance it occurred to me he must have been the person that Sir Henry Clinton's aide-de-camp had fired at, and requesting to know the particular color of his horse, he informed me it was black, which convinced me it was him; when I related the circumstance of his meeting Sir Henry Clinton, he replied he recollected in the course of the day to have met several British officers, and one of them wore a star. Upon my mentioning the observation Sir Henry Clinton had made to his aide-de-camp,[689:A] the colonel laughed, and replied, had he known it was the commander-in-chief he should have made a desperate effort to take him prisoner."

The name of Richard Kidder is said to be derived from a bishop of Bath and Wells, who was from the same stock with the Meades of Virginia. Andrew Meade, first of the name in Virginia, born in County Kerry, Ireland, educated a Romanist, came over to New York, and married Mary Latham, a Quakeress, of Flushing, on Long Island. He afterwards settled in Nansemond, Virginia, and for many years was burgess thereof; from which it appears that he must have renounced the Romish religion. He was prosperous, affluent, and hospitable. He is mentioned by Colonel Byrd in his Journal of the Dividing Line run in 1728. His only son, David Meade, married, under romantic circumstances, Susannah, daughter of Sir Richard Everard, Baronet, Governor of North Carolina. Of the sons of David Meade, Richard Kidder Meade was aide-de-camp to General Washington; Everard Meade aide to General Lincoln. Richard Kidder, Everard, together with an older brother, David, were educated at Harrow, England, under the care of Dr. Thackeray. Sir William Jones, Sir Joseph Banks, and Dr. Parr, were at the same time scholars there.

In June, 1778, Colonel Arthur Campbell wrote to the Rev. Charles Cummings, of Washington County: "Yesterday I returned home, the assembly having adjourned until the first Monday in October. The acts passed, and a list of their titles, I here enclose, together with an address of congress to the people of America, for you to publish, agreeable to the resolve. I wish you could make it convenient to preach at the lower meeting-house in this county, if it was but a week-day, as the contents of the address are of the most interesting nature, both as to the moral and political conduct of the good people of America. Providence is daily working out strange deliverances for us. The treaty with France is much more advantageous than the wisest men in this country expected. The Indians the other day were unexpectedly discomfited on Greenbrier. I think the overthrow was something similar to what happened in this county about two years ago. I must give you the intelligence at full length, as the most hardened mind must see and admire the Divine goodness in such an interposition."

The Rev. Charles Cummings, by birth an Irishman, resided for some time in the congregation of the Rev. James Waddell, in Lancaster, and probably studied theology under his care. Mr. Cummings married Miss Milly, daughter of John Carter, of Lancaster, and in 1773 settled near where Abingdon now stands. His meeting-house was of unhewn logs, from eighty to a hundred feet long and forty wide. Mr. Cummings was of middle stature, well formed, of great firmness and dignity. His voice was of great compass, and his articulation distinct. At this time the inhabitants, during the summer months, were compelled to take shelter in forts for protection against the Indians. The men went to church armed, taking their families with them. The armed congregation, seated in the log meeting-house, presented a singular spectacle of frontier life. Mr. Cummings, when he ascended the steps of the pulpit, deposited his rifle in a corner and laid aside his shot-pouch. He was a zealous whig, and was chairman of the committee of safety of Washington County, formed as early as January, 1775. He was a Presbyterian of the old stamp, a rigid Calvinist, and a man of exemplary piety.

After the battle of Monmouth Sir Henry Clinton occupied New York. The arrival of a French fleet under D'Estaing reanimated the hopes of the Americans. Arthur Lee argued unfavorably of the removal of D'Orvilliers and D'Estaing's appointment. Washington took a position at White Plains, on the Hudson. About this time Colonel Baylor's regiment of cavalry was surprised in the night by a British corps under General Gray. Of one hundred and four privates forty were made prisoners, and twenty-seven killed or wounded. Colonel Baylor was himself dangerously wounded and taken prisoner.

In the year 1778 the town of Abington was incorporated. Virginia sent General George Rogers Clarke on an expedition to the northwest. After enduring extreme sufferings in marching through a wilderness, he and his hardy followers captured Kaskaskias and its governor, Rocheblave. In December, 1778, Hamilton, British lieutenant-governor of Detroit, under Sir Guy Carleton, governor-in-chief, took possession of the post (now the town) of Vincennes, in Indiana. Here he fortified himself, intending in the ensuing spring to rally his Indian confederates to attack Kaskaskias, then in possession of Clarke, and to proceed up the Ohio to Fort Pitt, sweeping Kentucky in the way, and finally overrunning all West Augusta. This expedition was ordered by Carleton. Clarke's position was too remote for succor, and his force too small to withstand a siege; nevertheless, he prepared to make the best defence possible. At this juncture a Spanish merchant brought intelligence that Hamilton had, by detaching his Indian allies, reduced the strength of his garrison to eighty men, with a few cannon. Clarke immediately despatched a small armed galley, with orders to force her way and station herself a few miles below the enemy. In the mean time, early in February, 1779, he marched, with one hundred and thirty men, upon St. Vincennes: many of the inhabitants of the country joined the expedition; the rest garrisoned the towns. Impeded by rain and high waters, his little army were occupied for sixteen days in reaching the fertile borders of the Wabash, and when within nine miles of the enemy it required five days to cross "the drowned lands" near that river, "having to wade often upwards of two leagues, up to our breasts in water." But for the unusual mildness of the season they must have perished. On the evening of February the twenty-third they reached dry land, and came unperceived within sight of the enemy; and an attack being made at seven o'clock, the inhabitants of St. Vincennes gladly surrendered it, and assisted in besieging Hamilton, who held out in the fort. On the next day he surrendered the garrison. Clarke despatching some armed boats up the Wabash, captured a convoy, including forty prisoners and £10,000 worth of goods and stores. Hamilton, and some officers and privates, were sent to the governor at Williamsburg. Colonel Shelby about the same time attacking the Cherokees, who had taken up the tomahawk, burnt eleven towns and a large quantity of corn, and captured £25,000 worth of goods.

The assembly of Virginia afterwards presented to General Clarke an honorary sword, on the scabbard of which was inscribed: "Sic semper tyrannis;" and on the blade: "A tribute to courage and patriotism, presented by the State of Virginia to her beloved son, General George Rogers Clarke, who, by the conquest of Illinois and Vincennes, extended her empire and aided in defence of her liberties." In his latter years he was intemperate.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XCIV.

1779.

Washington looked upon the early part of 1779 as more fraught with danger than any preceding period of the war, not on account of the strength of the enemy, but owing to the spirit of selfish speculation, money-making, and stock-jobbing that prevailed, the depreciation of the paper currency, the States employing their ablest men at home, the idleness and dissipation of men in public trust, and the dissensions in congress. The demoralizing influences of war were making themselves manifest.[693:A]

Colonel George Mercer, of Stafford, who had been compelled to resign the office of stamp collector before the commencement of the revolutionary struggle, retired to England. George Mason, who was related to him, in October, 1778, addressed him a letter, in which he said: "If I can only live to see the American Union firmly fixed, and free governments well established in our western world, and can leave to my children but a crust of bread and liberty,[693:B] I shall die satisfied, and say with the Psalmist: 'Lord! now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.' God has been pleased to bless our endeavors in a just cause with remarkable success. To us upon the spot, who have seen step by step the progress of this great contest, who know the defenceless state of America, and the numberless difficulties we have had to struggle with; taking a retrospective view of what is passed, we seem to have been treading upon enchanted ground."

Washington, in compliance with the resolutions of congress, had ordered the removal of the convention troops of Saratoga, then quartered in Massachusetts, to Charlottesville, Virginia. Congress, whether from distrust in the British prisoners, or from reasons of state, resolved not to comply with the articles of the convention, allowing the prisoners to embark for England on parole, until the convention should be ratified by the English government. Burgoyne had sailed for England in May, and from that time the command of the British troops of convention, quartered at Cambridge, had devolved upon General Phillips. Colonel Bland, with an escort, conducted the prisoners of war to Virginia. Upon their arrival, in December, at their place of destination, on Colonel Harvey's estate, about six miles from Charlottesville, they suffered many privations, being billeted in block-houses without windows or doors, and poorly defended from the cold of an uncommonly rigorous winter. But in a short time they constructed better habitations, and the barracks assumed the appearance of a neat little town. In the rear of each house they had trim gardens and enclosed places for poultry. The army cleared a space of six miles in circumference around the barracks. A representation of the barracks is given in Anburey's Travels. The officers were allowed, upon giving parole, to provide for themselves lodging-places within a circuit of a hundred miles.[694:A] Mr. Jefferson exhibited a generous hospitality toward the captives; and his knowledge of French, his taste for music, his fine conversational powers, and his fascinating manners, contributed not a little to relieve the tedium of their captivity. Governor Henry afforded them every indulgence in his power; and the amiable disposition of Colonel Bland, who commanded the guard placed over the convention troops, still further ensured their quiet and comfort. General Phillips, described by Mr. Jefferson as "the proudest man of the proudest nation on earth," occupied Blenheim, a seat of Colonel Carter's; General the Baron de Riedesel occupied Colle, a residence belonging to Philip Mazzei, Mr. Jefferson's Italian neighbor; and the Baroness, whose romantic sufferings and adventures are so well known, has given, in her Memoirs, an entertaining account of her sojourn among the picturesque mountains of Albemarle. Charlottesville at this period consisted of a court-house, a tavern, and about a dozen dwelling-houses.[695:A]

Anburey has given a graphic picture of the manners, customs, and the grotesque scenes that he witnessed at Charlottesville and in its vicinity.

Violent dissensions convulsed congress; some of the members were suspected of treasonable designs. Early in May, Richard Henry Lee wrote from Philadelphia to Mr. Jefferson, hoping that he "would not be blamed by him and his other friends for sending his resignation to the assembly, and averring that he had been persecuted by the united voice of toryism, speculation, faction, envy, malice, and all uncharitableness," so that nothing but the certain prospect of doing essential service to his country could compensate for the injuries he received. But he adds: "It would content me indeed to sacrifice every consideration to the public good that would result from such persons as yourself, Mr. Wythe, Mr. Mason, and some others being in congress. I would struggle with persevering ardor through every difficulty in conjunction with such associates."

In 1779 the legislature rejected a scheme of a general assessment for the support of religion. Patrick Henry was in favor of it. The glebe-lands were also declared to be public property; and thus was destroyed the last vestige of a religious establishment in Virginia. During the Revolution, the loyalist clergy of Virginia who remained, found themselves in a deplorable condition. The prohibition to pray for the king was strictly enforced upon them by the incensed people: some ministers omitted the obnoxious petitions; others abandoned the churches and offered no prayer in public; while a few appeared disposed, if possible, to resist the popular tide, but were compelled eventually to succumb to it. In 1775 Virginia contained sixty-one counties, ninety-five parishes, one hundred and sixty-four churches and chapels, and ninety-one clergymen of the establishment. During the interval of the war part of the parishes were extinguished, and the greater number of the rest were deprived of ministerial help; but few ministers were able to weather the storm and remain at their former posts; the others having been compelled to seek precarious shelter and support in other parishes. Some of the churches, venerable for age and connected with so many interesting associations, were left roofless and dismantled; others used as barracks, or stables, or lodging-places of prisoners of war; and the moss-grown walls of some were pulled down by sacrilegious hands, and books and vessels appurtenant to holy services pillaged and carried off.

Until this year the British arms had been chiefly directed against the Middle and Northern States; but they were now turned against the South. Georgia soon fell a prey to the enemy, and South Carolina was invaded. In May a squadron under Sir George Collier anchored in Hampton Roads, and General Matthews took possession of Portsmouth. The enemy destroyed the public stores at Gosport and Norfolk, burnt Suffolk, and destroyed upwards of a hundred vessels, including several armed ones. The Virginia navy had been reduced previously, and many of the vessels ordered to be sold, and from this time the history of those remaining is a series of disasters.

Upon the approach of six hundred British infantry upon Suffolk, the militia and greater part of the inhabitants fled; few could save their effects; some who remained for that purpose were made prisoners. The enemy fired the town, and nearly the whole of it was consumed: hundreds of barrels of tar, pitch, turpentine, and rum, lay on the wharves, and their heads being staved, the contents flowing in commingled mass and catching the blaze, descended to the river in torrents of liquid flame, and the wind blowing violently, the splendid mass floated to the opposite shore in a conflagration that rose and fell with the waves, and there set on fire the dry grass of an extensive marsh. This broad sheet of fire, the crackling flames of the town, the lurid smoke, and the occasional explosion of gunpowder in the magazines, projecting ignited fragments of timber like meteors in the troubled air, presented altogether an awful spectacle of the horrors of civil war. The enemy shortly after, laden with plunder, embarked for New York.

While Sir Henry Clinton was encamped near Haerlem, and Washington in the Highlands on the Hudson,[697:A] Major Lee, of Virginia, surprised in the night a British post at Paulus Hook, and with a loss of two killed and three wounded, made one hundred and fifty-nine prisoners, including three officers. Soon after this a fleet, commanded by Admiral Arbuthnot, arrived at New York with re-enforcements. D'Estaing returned to the southern coast of America with a fleet of twenty-two ships-of-the-line and eleven frigates, and having on board six thousand soldiers. He arrived so unexpectedly that the British ship Experiment of fifty guns, and three frigates, fell into his hands. In September, Savannah, occupied by a British force under General Prevost, was besieged by the French and Americans, commanded by D'Estaing and Lincoln.[697:B] In an ineffectual effort to storm the post the French and Americans suffered heavy loss. The siege was raised, and D'Estaing, who had been wounded in the action, sailed again for the West Indies, after this second abortive attempt to aid the cause of independence. The condition of the South was now more gloomy than ever.

Clinton, toward the close of the year, embarked with a formidable force in Arbuthnot's fleet, and sailed for South Carolina. In April, 1780, Sir Henry laid siege to Charleston; and General Lincoln, undertaking to defend the place, contrary to his own judgment, and in compliance with the entreaties of the inhabitants, after an obstinate defence was compelled to capitulate.[698:A] Shortly after this disaster Colonel Buford's regiment was cut to pieces by Tarleton. Georgia and South Carolina now succumbed to the enemy: it was the bending of the willow before the sweep of the tempest. In June, General Gates was appointed by congress to the command in the South. Having collected an army he marched toward Camden in South Carolina, then held by the enemy. While Gates was moving from Clermont toward that place in the night,[698:B] Cornwallis marched out with a view of attacking the American army at Clermont. Thus the two armies, each essaying to surprise the other, met unexpectedly in the woods, at about two o'clock in the morning. At the first onset the American line was thrown into disorder; but a body of light infantry, and in particular a corps under command of Colonel Porterfield, of Virginia, maintained their ground with constancy. This brave officer, refusing to give way, fell mortally wounded. The battle was resumed in the morning, and Gates' army was utterly discomfited: the militia fled too soon; the regulars fought too long. The fugitives retreating in promiscuous disorder, were pursued by the unrelenting sabres of cavalry; and the horrors of the rout baffle description. Thus Gates, verifying General Lee's prediction, "turned his Northern laurels into Southern willows." The defeated general retired to North Carolina to collect the scattered remains of his army. In August, Sumpter was overwhelmed by Tarleton; and for a time the British army were in the ascendant throughout the South.

Cornwallis[698:C] detached Colonel Ferguson, a gallant and expert officer, across the Wateree, with one hundred and ten regulars; and in a short time tory recruits augmented his numbers to one thousand; and, confident of his strength, he sent a menacing message to the patriot leaders on the western waters. This was, for the South, "the time that tried men's souls:" many of the leading patriots captives or exiles, the country subjugated, British and tory cruelty desolating it, hope almost extinct,—Marion alone holding out in his fastnesses. The spirit of the hardy mountaineers was aroused, and hearing that Ferguson was threatening to cross the mountains, a body of men in arms were concentrated by the twenty-fifth on the banks of the Watauga—four hundred from Washington County, Virginia, under Colonel William Campbell; the rest from North Carolina, under Colonels Shelby, Sevier, McDowell, Cleveland, and Winston. Crossing the mountains they advanced toward Ferguson, who began to retreat, and took up a position[699:A] on an eminence of about one hundred and fifty feet, called King's Mountain. It is situated in the northern part of South Carolina, near the North Carolina line, its sides steep and rocky, a brook flowing at its foot,—the surrounding scenery thickly wooded, wild, and picturesque. It was resolved to pursue the enemy with nine hundred picked men. Near the Cowpens, where Ferguson had encamped on the fourth, and about thirty miles from King's Mountain, the mountaineers were re-enforced by four hundred and sixty men, the greater part of them from South Carolina, under Colonel Williams. Here, at about nine o'clock of the evening, Colonel William Campbell was appointed to the chief command. The mountain horsemen rode on in the night through a rain, with their guns under their arms to keep the locks dry; the leader in front, and each colonel at the head of his troops. In the morning they halted for half an hour to eat a frugal breakfast, and at twelve o'clock, when the sky cleared, they found themselves within three miles of the British camp. They halted, and the order passed along the line: "Tie up overcoats, pick touch-holes, fresh prime, and be ready to fight." At three o'clock in the afternoon of the seventh of October an express from Ferguson to Cornwallis was captured, and his despatches, declaring his position on King's Mountain impregnable, were read to the troops. Galloping off they came in twenty minutes within sight of the British camp. They dismounted on the banks of the little stream, tied their horses to the limbs of trees, and left them in charge of a small guard. The force being divided, the mountain was surrounded. As each column moved on to the attack it was driven back a short distance by the charge of the British, who were soon compelled to wheel, in order to face another column advancing on the opposite side. Ferguson, finding his troops hemmed in and huddled together on the summit of the mountain, fought with desperate valor, and fell, charging at the head of his men and cheering them on. The white flag was now raised. Of Ferguson's force, amounting to rather more than eleven hundred men, two hundred and forty were killed and two hundred wounded; upwards of seven hundred were taken prisoners, with all the arms, ammunition, and camp equipage. The loss of the patriots was thirty killed and fifty wounded. The gallant Williams was slain, as also was Major Chronicle, and several other officers. The battle lasted one hour. A number of the tories were hung on the next day. The sword used by Colonel Campbell on this occasion is preserved in possession of William Campbell Preston, of South Carolina, the orator, his grandson; it is more than two centuries old, and was wielded by the ancestors of Colonel Campbell in Scotland in the wars of the Pretenders. One of the rifles employed at King's Mountain is also preserved. This battle was the turning-point of the war in the South.

Colonel William Campbell was a native of Augusta County, and removed early to the County of Washington. Fame has awarded him the title of "the hero of King's Mountain." Colonel Ferguson was an excellent marksman, and brought the art of rifle shooting to high perfection. He invented a gun of that kind which was said to surpass anything of the sort before known, and he was said to have outdone even the Indians in firing and loading and hitting the mark, standing or lying, and in no matter what position of the body. It was reported that General Washington owed his life, at the battle of Brandywine, to Ferguson's ignorance of his person, as he was within his reach.[700:A] He afterwards, upon discovering the fact, remarked that he was not sorry that he did not know him.

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