[
468]
Chapter 23:
The southern campaign.
Battle of Guilford court-house.
January—March, 1781.
Morgan's success lighted the fire of emulation in
Chap. XXIII.} 1781. Jan. 18. |
the breast of
Greene, and he was ‘loath it should stand alone.’
The defeat at the Cowpens took Cornwallis by surprise.
‘It is impossible,’ so he wrote on the eighteenth of January, to his superior,
Sir Henry Clinton, ‘to foresee all the consequences that this unexpected and extraordinary event may produce.
But nothing but the most absolute necessity shall induce me to give up the important object of the winter's campaign.
Defensive measures would be certain ruin to the affairs of Britain in the southern colonies.’
Instead of remaining in
South Carolina, as he should have done, he without orders and on his own responsibility persisted in his original plan of striking at the heart of
North Carolina, establishing there a royal government, and pressing forward to a junction with the
British troops on the
Chesapeake.
Morgan divined his thoughts, and on the twenty-fifth
[
469]
wrote to
Greene the advice to join their forces.
Chap. XXIII.} 1781. Jan. 30. |
Receiving this letter,
Greene, attended by a few dragoons, rode across the country, and on the thirtieth arrived in
Morgan's camp at Sherrald's ford on the
Catawba.
Leaving Lord Rawdon with a considerable body of troops to defend
South Carolina, Cornwallis, having formed a junction with the corps under
Leslie, began his long march, avoiding the lower roads, there being so few fords in the great rivers below their forks.
On the twenty-fifth, he collected his army at Ram-
sower's mill, on the south fork of the
Catawba.
Here he resolved to give up his communications with
South Carolina and to turn his army into light troops.
Two days he devoted to destroying superfluous baggage and all wagons except those laden with hospital stores, salt, and ammunition, and four reserved for the sick and wounded, thus depriving his soldiers even of a regular supply of provisions.
The measure, if not in every respect an absurd one, was adopted many days too late.
Then, by forced marches through floods of rain, he approached the river, and prepared to force a passage as soon as the high waters should subside.
Arriving in
Morgan's camp,
Greene agreed immediately with him that the plan of Cornwallis must extend to a co-operation with the
British troops in
Virginia, and he entered full of hope on the great career that was opening before him. To his forces on the
Pedee he on the thirtieth sent orders to
prepare to form at Guilford court-house a junction with those under
Morgan, writing to
Huger: ‘I am not without hopes of ruining Lord Cornwallis if
[
470]
he persists in his mad scheme of pushing through the
Chap. XXIII.} 1781. Jan. 30. |
country.
Here is a fine field and great glory ahead.’
1 On the same day ‘the famous
Colonel William Campbell’ was asked to ‘bring without loss of time a thousand good volunteers from over the mountains.’
A like letter was addressed to
Shelby, though without effect.
To the officers commanding in the counties of
Wilkes and
Surry,
Greene said: ‘If you repair to arms, Lord Cornwallis must be inevitably ruined.’
He called upon
Sumpter, as soon as his recovery should permit, to take the field at the head of the South Carolina militia; he gave orders to
General Pickens to raise as many troops as he could in the district of Augusta and Ninety-Six, and hang on the rear of the enemy; and he sought out powerful horses and skilful riders to strengthen the cavalry of
Washington.
Meantime parties sent out by
Morgan brought in near a hundred British stragglers.
He had sent his prisoners beyond the
Yadkin on their way towards
Virginia, when on the first day of February Corn-
wallis with a part of his army passed the
Catawba at Macgowan's ford.
The dark stream was near five hundred yards wide, with a rocky bottom and a strong current, and was disputed by
General Davidson of
North Carolina with three hundred militia.
By forsaking the true direction of the ford, the
British escaped a direct encounter, but forty of their light infantry and grenadiers were killed or wounded; and the horse under Cornwallis was struck while in the stream, but reached the shore before falling.
The other division passed the
Catawba at
Beattie's
[
471]
ford, and the united army encamped about five miles
Chap. XXIII.} 1781. Feb. 2. 3. |
from the river on the road to
Salisbury.
‘I waited that night,’ writes
Greene, ‘at the place appointed for the militia to collect at till past midnight, and not a man appeared.’
On the second and third of February the
American light infantry, continuing their march, with the
British at their heels, crossed the
Yadkin at the
Trading ford,
2 partly on flats and partly by fording, during the latter part of the time in a heavy rain.
After the
Americans were safe beyond the river and
Morgan had secured all water craft on its south side, it rose too high to be forded.
To the
Americans it seemed that
Providence was their ally.
Cornwallis was forced to lose two days in ascending the
Yadkin to the so-called
Shallow ford, where he
crossed on the seventh.
On the night of the ninth he encamped near the Moravian settlement of
Salem, where, upon the very border of the wilderness, gentle and humble and hospitable emigrants, bound by their faith never to take up arms, had chosen their abodes, and for their sole defence had raised the symbol of the triumphant
Lamb.
Among them equality reigned.
No one, then or thereafter, was held in bondage.
There were no poor, and none marked from others by their apparel or their dwellings.
Everywhere appeared the same simplicity and neatness.
The elders watched over the members of the congregation, and incurable wrong-doers were punished by expulsion.
After their hours of toil came the hour of prayer, exhortations, and the singing of psalms and hymns.
Under their well-directed labor on a bountiful soil, in
[
472]
a genial clime, the wilderness blossomed like the
Chap. XXIII.} 1781. Feb. 9. |
rose.
3
While Cornwallis rested for the night near
Salem, at the distance of five and twenty miles the two divisions of the
American army effected their junction at Guilford court-house.
The united force was too weak to offer battle; a single neglect or mistake would have proved its ruin.
Carrington of
Virginia, the wise selection of
Greene for his quarter-master, advised to cross the
Dan twenty miles below
Dix's ferry at the ferries of
Irwin and
Boyd, which were seventy miles distant from Guilford court-house, and where he knew that boats could be collected.
The advice was adopted.
To carry it out,
Greene placed under
Otho Williams the flower of his troops as a light corps, which on the morning of the tenth sallied
forth to watch and impede the advance of Cornwallis, to prevent his receiving correct information, and by guarding the approaches of
Dix's ferry to lead him in that direction.
They succeeded in keeping Cornwallis for a day or two in doubt.
Meantime the larger part of the army under
Greene, without tents, poorly clothed, and for the most part without shoes, ‘many hundreds of the soldiers tracking the ground with their bloody feet,’
4 retreated at the rate of seventeen miles a day along wilderness roads where the wagon wheels sunk in deep mire and the creeks were swollen by heavy rains.
On the fourteenth, they arrived at the ferries.
Greene first sent over the wagons, and at half-past 5 in the afternoon could write ‘that all his troops were over and the stage clear.’
[
473]
So soon as Cornwallis gained good information, he
Chap. XXIII.} 1781. Feb. 14. |
pursued the light troops at the rate of thirty miles a day, but he was too late.
On the evening of the fourteenth,
Otho Williams brought his party, which on that day had marched forty miles, to the ferries.
The next morning, Cornwallis made his appearance there only to learn that the
Americans, even to their rearguard, had crossed the river the night
before.
The safety of the southern states had depended on the success of this retreat of two hundred miles from the
Catawba to the north bank of the
Dan. On the march from Guilford court-house,
Greene scarcely slept four hours in as many days; and his care was so comprehensive that nothing, however trifling, was afterwards found to have been overlooked or neglected.
‘Your retreat before Cornwallis,’ ‘wrote
Washington, is highly applauded by all ranks, and reflects much honor on your military abilities.’
‘Every measure of the
Americans,’ so wrote a British historian, ‘during their march from the
Catawba to
Virginia, was judiciously designed and vigorously executed.’
5 Special applause was awarded to
Carrington and to
Otho Williams.
In the
camp of Greene, every countenance was lighted up with joy. Soldiers in tattered garments, with but one blanket to four men, without shoes, without regular food, without pay, were proud and happy in the thought of having done their duty to their country.
They all were ready to cross the
Dan once more and attack.
After giving his troops a day's rest, Cornwallis
[
474]
moved by easy marches to
Hillsborough, where on
Chap. XXIII.} 1781. Feb. 20. |
the twentieth he invited by proclamation all loyal subjects in
North Carolina to repair to the royal standard which he erected, being himself ready to concur with them in re-establishing the government of the king.
No sooner had the
British left the banks of the
Dan, than
Lee's legion recrossed the river.
They were followed on the twenty-first by the light troops,
and on the twenty-second by
Greene with the rest of
his army, including a re-enforcement of six hundred militia-men of
Virginia.
The loyalists of
North Carolina, inferring from the proclamation of Cornwallis that he was in peaceable possession of the country, rose in such numbers that seven independent companies were formed in one day; and
Tarleton with the
British legion was detached across the
Haw river for their protection.
By the order of
Greene,
Pickens, who had collected between three and four hundred militia, and
Lee formed a junction and moved against both parties.
Missing
Tarleton, they fell in with three hundred royalists, under
Colonel Pyle, and routed them with ‘dreadful carnage.’
Tarleton, who was refreshing his legion about a mile from the scene of action, hurried back to
Hillsborough, and all royalists who were on their way to join the king's standard returned home.
Cornwallis describes himself as being ‘among timid friends and adjoining to inveterate rebels.’
6
To compel
Greene to accept battle, Cornwallis on the twenty-seventh moved his whole force in two
[
475]
columns across the
Haw, and encamped near Alle-
Chap. XXIII.} 1781. Feb. 27. |
mance creek.
For seven days,
Greene lay within ten miles of the
British camp, but baffled his enemy by taking a new position every night.
No fear of censure could hurry his determined mind.
He waited till in March he was joined by the south-
west Virginia militia under
William Campbell, by another brigade of militia from
Virginia under
General Lawson, by two from
North Carolina under
Butler and
Eaton, and by four hundred regulars raised for eighteen months. Then on the tenth, while Cornwallis was on
his march to New Garden or the
Quaker meetinghouse, he prepared to hazard an engagement.
On the fourteenth, he encamped near Guilford court-
house, within eight miles of Cornwallis.
At dawn of day on the fifteenth, Cornwallis, having
sent off his baggage under escort, set in motion the rest of his army, less than nineteen hundred in number, all of them veteran troops of the best quality.
To oppose them,
Greene had sixteen hundred and fifty-one men equal to the best of the
British, and more than two thousand militia, in all twice as many as his antagonist.
But he himself had not taken off his clothes since he left his camp on the
Pedee; and on this most eventful day of his life he found himself worn out with fatigue and constant watching.
The ground on which his army was to be drawn up was a large hill, surrounded by other hills and almost everywhere covered with massive forest-trees and a thick undergrowth.
To receive the enemy, he selected three separate positions: the first, admirably chosen; the second, three hundred yards in the rear of the first, was entirely in the woods; between one
[
476]
quarter and one third of a mile in the rear of the
Chap. XXIII.} 1781. March 15. |
second was the third position, where he drew up his best troops obliquely, according to the declivities of a hill on which they were posted, most of them in a forest.
7 The positions were so far apart that they could give each other no support; so that Cornwallis had to engage, as it were, three separate armies, and in each engagement he would have a superiority in numbers.
Greene had always differed with the
commander-in-chief on the proper manner of using militia, —Washington being convinced that they should be used as a reserve to improve an advantage, while
Greene insisted that they ought to be placed in front; and he now acted on that opinion.
The position selected for the first line is described by
Greene as the most advantageous he ever saw. It was on the skirt of the wood, protected on the flanks and rear, having in the centre a fence, with open ground over which the
British army was obliged to advance, exposed to a fire that must have torn them in pieces, had they encountered troops who would have stood their ground.
Here
Greene placed the two brigades of North Carolina militia, not quite eleven hundred in number, his poorest troops, suddenly called together, ignorant of war, of each other, and of their general officers.
On their right were posted two six-pounders, and
Lieutenant-Colonel Washington with an able corps of observation; on their left a like corps was formed of
Lee's command and the riflemen from beyond the mountains.
The battle began with cannonading about one in the afternoon.
The undivided force of Cornwallis
[
477]
displayed into line, advanced at quick step, gave their
Chap. XXIII.} 1781. March 15. |
fire, shouted, and rushed forward with bayonets.
While they were still in the open field, at a distance of one hundred and forty yards, the North Carolina brigade fled, ‘none of them having fired more than twice, very few more than once, and near one-half not at all.’
8 Lee and
Campbell with their troops were separated from the main army, which they did not rejoin till the next day.
Without pausing to take breath, the
British line, which had not escaped without loss, advanced to attack the second position of the
Americans, defended by the
Virginia brigade.
The men were used to forest warfare, and they made a brave and obstinate resistance.
They would discharge their pieces, draw back behind the brow of the hill to load, and return to renew their well-directed fire.
In dislodging some
Americans from their post on a woody height, the ranks of the first battalion of the guards were thinned and many of their officers fell.
9 The brigade did not retreat till the
British drew near enough to charge with the bayonet.
The British army though suffering from fatigue and weakened by heavy losses, pressed forward to the third American line, where
Greene himself was present.
A fierce attack was made on the
American right by
Colonel Webster with the left of the
British.
After a bloody and long-continued encounter, the
British were beaten back by the continentals, and after great loss were forced to recross a ravine.
Webster
[
478]
himself received wounds which in a few days
Chap. XXIII.} 1781. March 15. |
proved to be mortal.
The second battalion of the guards, led by
Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart, broke through the second Maryland regiment, captured two field-pieces, and pursued their advantage into more open ground.
Immediately
Lieutenant-Colonel Washington, who had brought his cavalry once more into the field, made a charge upon them with his mounted men; and the first regiment of Marylanders, led by
Gunby and seconded by
Howard, engaged with their bayonets.
Stewart fell under a blow from
Captain Smith; and the
British party was driven back with great slaughter and the loss of the cannon which they had taken.
10 The first battalion of the guards, although already crippled, advanced against the
Americans.
A severe American fire on its front and flanks completely broke its ranks.
At this moment
du Puy's Hessian regiment, which had thus far suffered but little, came up in compact order on the left of the guards, who rallied behind them, renewed the attack, and in turn defeated the
Americans.
The British army appeared to be gaining the
American right.
The battle had raged for two hours.
Greene could still order into the fight two
Virginia regiments of continentals, of which one had hardly been engaged, the other had been kept back as a reserve; but he hesitated.
After deliberating for some moments, not knowing how much the
British had suffered, he left his cannon and the field to the enemy, and used his reserve only to cover the retreat of his army.
The last as well as
[
479]
the first in the engagement were the riflemen of
Chap. XXIII.} 1781. March 15. |
Campbell, who continued firing from tree to tree till they were compelled to fly by the cavalry of
Tarleton.
After the
Americans were encamped in safety,
Greene fainted from extreme exhaustion, and, on recovering consciousness, still remained far from well.
Although the battle at
Guilford drew after it, for the
British, all the consequences of a defeat, and put an end to their power in
North Carolina, no praise is too great for the conduct of their officers and troops throughout the day. Of the
British, five hundred and seventy were killed or wounded; and their wounded, dispersed over a wide space of country, asked for immediate care.
11 Of the
Americans, the loss was, of continentals, three hundred and twenty-six; of the militia, ninety-three.
But nearly three hundred of the
Virginia militia and six hundred of those of
North Carolina, whose time of service had almost expired, seized the occasion to return home.
The battle of
King's Mountain drove Cornwallis back into
South Carolina; the defeat at the Cowpens made his second invasion of
North Carolina a desperate enterprise; the battle at Guilford courthouse transformed the
American army into pursuers, the
British into fugitives.
Virginia furnished to the army that fought at
Guilford sixteen hundred and ninety-three of her militia, and seven hundred and seventy-eight of her continental troops.
‘The great reenforce-ments,’ wrote Cornwallis to
Germain, ‘sent by
Virginia to
General Greene whilst
General Arnold was
[
480]
in the
Chesapeake, are convincing proofs that small
Chap. XXIII.} 1781. March 15. |
expeditions do not frighten that powerful province.’
12
This display of the magnanimity of
Virginia was due to its great advisers.
‘Your state,’ wrote
Washington to
Jefferson, its governor, ‘will experience more molestation in future; but the evils from these predatory incursions are not to be compared to the injury of the common cause.
I am persuaded the attention to your immediate safety will not divert you from the measures intended to re-enforce the southern army.
The late accession of force makes the enemy in
Carolina too formidable to be resisted without powerful succors from
Virginia.’
And he gave orders to
Steuben: ‘Make the defence of the state as little as possible interfere with the measures for succoring
General Greene.
Everything is to be apprehended if he is not powerfully supported from
Virginia.’
Jefferson made the advice of
Washington his rule of conduct, though accused in his own state of doing too much for the Carolinas.
On the third day after the battle,
Greene wrote to
Washington: ‘
Virginia has given me every support I could wish.’
13
In his report of the day of
Guilford,
Greene hardly did himself justice; public opinion took no note of his mistakes in the order of battle, and acknowledged the greatness of his general plan and its successful result.
Virginia and the whole south confided in his capacity.
On the eighteenth, committing his wounded to the
[
481]
tender mercies of the
Americans, Cornwallis, with the
Chap. XXIII} 1781 March 18. |
wreck of his victorious but ruined army, began his flight; and, as he hurried on, distributed by proclamation news of his victory, offers of pardon to repentant rebels, and promises of protection to the loyal.
He was pursued by
Greene, who was now eager for battle.
On the morning of the twenty-eighth, the
Americans arrived at Ramsay's Mills, on
Deep river; but Cornwallis had just a few hours before crossed the river on a temporary bridge.
No longer in danger of being overtaken, he moved by way of
Cross creek, now
Lafayette, towards
Wilmington.
His rapid march through a country thinly inhabited left no tracks which the quickening of spring did not cover over, except where houses had been burned and settlements broken up. But it taught the loyalists of
North Carolina that they could put no trust in the promises of British generals, or the protection of the
British king.
All
North Carolina, except
Wilmington, was left to the
Americans.
‘From the report of Cornwallis,’ said
Fox on the twelfth of June to the house of commons, ‘there is
the most conclusive evidence that the war is at once impracticable in its object and ruinous in its progress.
In the disproportion between the two armies a victory was highly to the honor of our troops; but, had our army been vanquished, what course could they have taken?
Certainly they would have abandoned the field of action, and flown for refuge to the seaside; precisely the measures the victorious army was obliged to adopt.’
And he moved the house of commons to recommend to the ministers every possible measure for concluding peace.
[
482]
In the course of the very long debate, the younger
Chap. XXIII.} 1781. June 12. |
William Pitt, then just twenty-two, avoiding the question of independence, explained to a listening house the principles and conduct of his father on American affairs.
Then, referring to Lord Westcote, he said: ‘A noble lord has called the
American war a holy war; I affirm that it is a most accursed war, wicked, barbarous, cruel, and unnatural; conceived in injustice, it was brought forth and nurtured in folly; its footsteps are marked with slaughter and devastation, while it meditates destruction to the miserable people who are the devoted objects of the resentments which produced it. The British nation, in return for its vital resources in men and money, has received ineffective victories and severe defeats, which have filled the land with mourning for the loss of dear relations slain in the impious cause of enforcing unconditional submission, or narratives of the glorious exertions of men struggling under all difficulties in the holy cause of liberty.
Where is the Englishman who can refrain from weeping, on whatever side victory may be declared?’
The voice was listened to as that of
Chatham, ‘again living in his son with all his virtues and all his talents.’
‘America is lost, irrecoverably lost, to this country,’ added
Fox. ‘We can lose nothing by a vote declaring
America independent.’
On the division, an increased minority revealed the growing discontent of the house of commons at the continuance of the war.
