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Chapter 13:
The war in the southern States.
1778-1779.
The plan for the southern campaign of 1778 was
prepared by
Germain with great minuteness of detail.
Pensacola was to be strengthened by a thousand men from New York.
On the banks of the
Mississippi, near the channel of
Iberville, a considerable post was to be established by the commander in
West Florida, partly to protect property and trade, but more to preserve the communication with the
Indian nations.
1 From the army at New York men were to be detached, sufficient for the conquest and permanent occupation of
Georgia and
South Carolina, where the
American custom of calling out the militia for short periods of service was to be introduced.
The
Florida rangers and a party of Indians were to attack the
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southern frontier, while the
British agent was to
bring down a large body of savages towards
Augusta.
A line of communication was to be established across South and
North Carolina, and the planters on the sea-coast were to be reduced to the necessity of abandoning or being abandoned by their slaves.
Five thousand additional men were at a later date to be sent to take
Charleston; and, on the landing of a small corps at
Cape Fear,
Germain believed that ‘large numbers of the inhabitants would doubtless flock to the standard of the king, whose government would be restored in
North Carolina.’
Then, by proper diversions in
Virginia and
Maryland, he said it might not be too much to expect that all
America to the south of the
Susquehanna would return to its allegiance.
2 Sir Henry Clinton was no favorite of the minister's; these brilliant achievements were designed for Cornwallis.
During the autumn of 1778, two expeditions were sent out by
Prevost from
East Florida.
They were composed in part of regulars; the rest were vindictive refugees from
Georgia and
South Carolina, called troopers, though having only ‘a few horses that were kept to go plundering into
Georgia.’
Brown, their commander, held directly from the governor of
East Florida the rank of lieutenantcolonel, so that the general was prevented ‘from reducing them to some order and regulation.’
3 One of these mixed parties of invaders summoned the fort at
Sunbury to surrender.
But when
Colonel Mackintosh answered, ‘Come and take it,’ they retreated.
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The other corps was stopped at the
Ogeechee.
On
their return they burned at Midway the church, almost every dwelling-house, and all stores of rice and other cereals within their reach; and they carried off with them all negroes, horses, cattle, and plate that could be removed by land or water.
Screven, a gallant American officer, beloved for his virtues in private life, was killed by them after he became their prisoner.
Roused by these incursions into
Georgia,
Robert Howe, the
American commander in the southern district, meditated an expedition against
St. Augustine.
This scheme had no chance of success.
At
St. Mary's river an epidemic swept away one quarter of his men, and, after slight skirmishes, he led back the survivors to
Savannah.
Immediately after his return, on the twenty-third
of December, three thousand men, despatched from New York under
Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell, arrived off the island of
Tybee; and soon afterwards, passing the bar, approached
Savannah.
Relying on the difficulties of the ground,
Howe offered resistance to a disciplined corps, ably commanded, and more than three times as numerous as his own. But on the twenty-ninth one party of British, guided by
a negro through a swamp, turned his position.
A simultaneous attack on the
Americans in front and rear drove them into a disorderly and precipitate retreat.
With a loss of but twenty-four in killed and wounded, the
British gained the capital of
Georgia, four hundred and fifty-three prisoners, forty-eight pieces of cannon, several mortars, a field-piece, the fort with its military magazines, and
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large stores of provisions.
No victory was ever
more complete; but
Germain was not satisfied, for no Indian parties had been called to take part in the expedition.
4
Flushed with his rapid success,
Campbell promised protection to the inhabitants, but only on condition that ‘they would support the royal government with their arms.’
In this way the people of the low country of
Georgia had no choice but to join the
British standard, or flee to the upland or to
South Carolina.
The captive soldiers, refusing to enlist in the
British service, were crowded on board prison-ships to be swept away by infection.
Moses Allen, the chaplain of the
Georgia brigade, fervid in the pulpit and in battle, after a loathsome confinement of many months, was drowned in attempting to escape by swimming.
The war was plainly to be conducted without mercy, and terror was to compensate for the want of numbers.
Many submitted; but determined republicans sought an asylum in the western parts of the state.
Early in January, 1779,
Brigadier-General Prevost marched as a conqueror across
lower Georgia to
Savannah, reducing
Sunbury on the way and capturing its garrison; and
Campbell, with eight hundred regulars, took possession of
Augusta.
The province appearing to be restored to the crown, plunder became the chief thought of the
British army.
From jealousy of concentrated power, congress kept the military departments independent of each other.
At the request of the delegates from South
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Carolina,
Robert Howe was superseded in the south-
ern command by
Major-General Benjamin Lincoln.
In private life this officer was most estimable; as a soldier he was brave, but of a heavy mould and inert of will.
Towards the end of 1776, he had repaired to
Washington's camp as a major-general of militia; in the following February, he was transferred to the continental service, and passed the winter at
Morristown.
In the spring of 1777, he was completely surprised by the
British, and had a narrow escape.
In the summer he was sent to the north, in the belief that his influence with the
New England militia would be useful; but he never took part in any battle.
Wounded by a British party whom he mistook for
Americans, he left the camp, having been in active service less than a year.
He had not fully recovered when, on the fourth of December, 1778, he entered upon the command in
Charleston.
Collecting what force he could, the new commander took post on the
South Carolina side of the
Savannah, near
Perrysburg, with a force which at first scarcely exceeded eleven hundred.
As neither party ventured to cross the river, the
British, who were masters of the water, detached two hundred men to
Beaufort.
Moultrie, sent almost alone to counteract the movement, rallied under his standard about an equal number of militia.
These brave volunteers, who were supported by but nine continentals, though they were poorly supplied with ammunition and though their enemy had the advantage of position, fought for their own homes under a leader whom they trusted, and on the
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third of February drove the invaders with great
Chap. XIII.} 1779. Feb. 3. |
loss to their ships.
The continental regiments of
North Carolina were with
Washington's army; the legislature of that state promptly called out two thousand of its people, and sent them, though without arms, to serve for five months under
Ashe and
Rutherford.
The scanty stores of
South Carolina were exhausted in arming them.
In the last days of January, 1779, they joined the
camp of Lincoln, whose troops thus became respectable as to numbers, though only six hundred of them were continentals.
Meantime the assembly of South Carolina, superseding
Rawlins Lowndes by an almost unanimous vote, recalled
John Rutledge to be their governor.
They ordered a regiment of light dragoons to be raised, offered a bounty of five hundred dollars to every one who would enlist for sixteen months, and gave large powers to the governor and council to draft the militia of the state, and ‘do everything necessary for the public good.’
The
British, having carried their arms into the upper country of
Georgia, sent emissaries to encourage a rising in
South Carolina.
A party of abandoned men, whose chief object was rapine, put themselves in motion to join the
British, gathering on the way every kind of booty that could be transported.
They were pursued across the
Savannah by
Colonel Andrew Pickens with about three hundred of the citizens of Ninety-Six; and on the fourteenth of February
were overtaken, surprised, and completely routed.
Their commander and forty others fell in battle, and many prisoners were taken.
About two hundred
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escaped to the
British lines.
The republican govern-
ment which, since 1776, had maintained its jurisdiction without dispute in every part of the commonwealth, arraigned some of them in the civil court; and, by a jury of their fellow-citizens, seventy of them were convicted of treason and rebellion against the
state of South Carolina.
Of these no more than five were executed: the rest were pardoned.
On hearing that
Lincoln from ill health had asked of congress leave to retire,
Greene, who was impatient of his position as quartermaster-general, requested of the
commander-in-chief the southern command.
Washington answered that
Greene would be his choice, but he was not consulted.
The army of
Lincoln, whose offer to retire was not accepted, was greatly inferior to the
British in number, and far more so in quality; yet he ventured to detach
Ashe, with fifteen hundred of the North Carolina militia, on separate service.
This inexperienced general crossed the
Savannah at
Augusta, which the
British had abandoned, and descended the river with the view to confine the enemy within narrower limits.
Following his orders, he encamped his party at
Brier creek, on the
Savannah, beyond supporting distance.
The post seemed to him strong, as it had but one approach.
The
British amused
Lincoln by a feint, while
Lieutenant-Colonel Prevost turned the position of
Ashe, who seemed never to have heard of military discipline or vigilance; and on the third day of March fell upon his party.
The few con-
tinentals, about sixty in number, alone made a brave but vain defence.
By wading through swamps and swimming the
Savannah, four hundred and fifty
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of the militia were able to rejoin the
American camp; the rest perished or were captured or returned to their homes.
So quickly was one-fourth of the troops of
Lincoln lost.
The British captured seven pieces of cannon, and more than one thousand stand of arms.
After this success,
General Prevost proclaimed a sort of civil government in
Georgia.
Re-enforced from the South Carolina militia, of whom
Rutledge had assembled great numbers at
Orangeburg,
Lincoln, who had neither the means of conducting a siege, nor a soldiery that could encounter veterans, nor the command of the river, undertook to lead his troops against
Savannah by way of
Augusta, leaving only a thousand militia under
Moultrie at
Perrysburg.
The British general had the choice between awaiting an attack, or invading the richest part of
Carolina.
His decision was for the side which
promised booty.
On the twenty-eighth of April, when the
American army was distant five days march,
General Prevost, this time supported by
Indians, crossed the river with three thousand men, and drove
Moultrie before him. The approach of the savage allies, who spared neither child nor woman, and the waste and plunder of the plantations, spread terror through the land.
Many of
Moultrie's militia left him to protect their own families.
Timid planters, to save their property, made professions of loyalty; and sudden converts represented to
Prevost that
Charleston lay defenceless at his mercy.
After two or three days of doubt, the hope of seizing the wealthy city lured him on; and upon the eleventh of May, two days too late,
he appeared before the town.
While he hesitated, the
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men of
Charleston had protected the neck by sudden
but well-planned works; on the ninth and tenth
Rutledge arrived with the militia, and
Moultrie, with all of his party that remained true to him, as well as a body of three hundred men whom
Lincoln had detached, and who had marched forty miles a day. While the
British crossed the
Ashley,
Pulaski and a corps were ferried over the
Cooper into
Charleston.
The besiegers and the besieged were nearly equal in numbers; the issue of the campaign might depend on the slaves.
No sooner was the danger of
South Carolina known in the
camp of Washington, than young
Laurens was impatient to fly to his native state, and levy and command a regiment of blacks.
Alexander Hamilton recommended the project to the president of congress in these words: ‘The negroes will make very excellent soldiers.
This project will have to combat prejudice and self-interest.
Contempt for the blacks makes us fancy many things that are founded neither in reason nor experience.
Their natural faculties are as good as ours.
Give them their freedom with their muskets: this will secure their fidelity, animate their courage, and have a good influence upon those who remain, by opening a door for their emancipation.
This circumstance has weight in inducing me to wish the success of the project; for the dictates of humanity and true policy equally interest me in favor of this unfortunate class of men.’
Two days later, the elder
Laurens wrote to
Washington: ‘Had we arms for three thousand such black men as I could select in
Carolina, I should have no doubt of success in driving the
British out of
Georgia, and subduing
East Florida before the end of July.’
To this
Washington
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answered: ‘The policy of our arming slaves is in my
opinion a moot point, unless the enemy set the example.
For, should we begin to form battalions of them, I have not the smallest doubt, if the war is to be prosecuted, of their following us in it, and justifying the measure upon our own ground.
The contest then must be, who can arm fastest.
And where are our arms?’
Congress listened to
Huger, the agent from
South Carolina, as he explained that his state was weak, because many of its citizens must remain at home to prevent revolts among the negroes, or their desertion to the enemy; and it recommended as a remedy, that the two southernmost of the thirteen states should detach the most vigorous and enterprising of the negroes from the rest by arming three thousand of them under command of white officers.
A few days before the
British came near
Charleston, young
Laurens arrived, bringing no relief from the north beyond the advice of congress for the Carolinians to save themselves by arming their slaves.
The advice was heard in anger and rejected with disdain.
The state felt itself cast off and alone.
Georgia had fallen; the country between
Savannah and
Charleston was overrun; the
British confiscated all negroes whom they could seize; their emissaries were urging the rest to rise against their owners or to run away; the
United States seemed indifferent; and
Washington's army was too weak to protect so remote a government.
Many began to regret the struggle for independence.
Moved, therefore, by their insulation and by a dread of exposing
Charleston to be taken by storm; and sure at least of gaining time by protracted
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parleys,—the executive government sent a flag to ask
of the invaders their terms for a capitulation.
In answer, the
British general offered peace to the inhabitants who would accept protection; to all others, the condition of prisoners of war. The council, at its next meeting, debated giving up the town;
Moultrie,
Laurens, and
Pulaski, who were called in, declared that they had men enough to beat the invaders; and yet against the voice of
Gadsden, of
Ferguson, of
John Edwards, who was moved even to tears, the majority, at heart irritated by the advice of congress to emancipate and arm slaves, ‘proposed a neutrality, during the war between
Great Britain and
America; the question whether the state shall belong to
Great Britain or remain one of the
United States to be determined by the treaty of peace between the two powers.’
Laurens, being called upon to bear this message, scornfully refused, and another was selected.
The British general declined to treat with the civil government of
South Carolina; but made answer to
Moultrie that the garrison must surrender as prisoners of war. ‘Then we will fight it out,’ said
Moultrie to the governor and council, and left their tent.
Gadsden and
Ferguson followed him to say: ‘Act according to your own judgment, and we will support you;’ and
Moultrie waved the flag from the gate as a signal that the conference was at an end.
The citizens of
Charleston knew nothing of the deliberations of the council, and seemed resolved to stand to the lines in defence of their country; parleys had carried them over the only moment of danger.
At daylight the cry ran along the line: ‘The enemy is gone.’
The
British, having intercepted a
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letter from
Lincoln,—in which he charged
Moultrie ‘not to give up the city nor suffer the people to despair,’ for he was hastening to their relief,—escaped an encounter by retreating to the islands.
The
Americans, for want of boats, could not prevent their embarkation, nor their establishing a post at
Beaufort.
The
Carolina militia returned to their homes;
Lincoln, left with but about eight hundred men, passed the great heats of summer at
Sheldon.
The invasion of
South Carolina by the army of
General Prevost proved nothing more than a raid through the richest plantations of the state.
The
British forced their way into almost every house in a wide extent of country; sparing in some measure those who professed loyalty to the king, they rifled all others of their money, rings, personal ornaments and plate, stripped houses of furniture and linen, and even broke open tombs in search of hidden treasure.
Objects of value, not transportable by land or water, were destroyed.
Porcelain, mirrors, windows, were dashed in pieces; gardens carefully planted with exotics were laid waste.
Domestic animals, which could not be used nor carried off, were wantonly shot, and in some places not even a chicken was left alive.
A thousand fugitive slaves perished of want in the woods, or of fever in the
British camp; about three thousand passed with the army into
Georgia.
The southernmost states looked for relief to the French fleet in
America.
In September, 1778, the
Marquis de Bouille, the gallant governor-general of the
French windward islands, in a single day wrested from
Great Britain the strongly fortified island of
Dominica; but d'estaing, with a greatly increased
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fleet and a land force of nine thousand men, came
in sight of the island of
St. Lucia just as its last French flag had been struck to a corps of fifteen hundred British troops.
A landing for its recovery was repulsed, with a loss to d'estaing of nearly fifteen hundred men.
Early in January, 1779, re-enforcements under
Admiral Byron transferred maritime superiority to the
British; and d'estaing for six months sheltered his fleet within the bay of
Port Royal.
At the end
of June,
Byron having left
St. Lucia to convoy a company of British merchant ships through the passages, d'estaing detached a force against St. Vincent, which, with the aid of the oppressed and enslaved Caribs, its native inhabitants, was easily taken.
This is the only instance in the war where insurgent slaves acted efficiently.
At the same time, the
French admiral made an attack on the island of
Grenada, whose garrison on the fourth of July surrendered at discre-
tion.
Two days later, the fleet of
Byron arrived within sight of the
French; and though reduced in number, sought a general close action, which his adversary knew how to avoid.
In the running fight which ensued, the British ships suffered so much in their masts and rigging, that the
French recovered the superiority.
To a direct co-operation with the
United States d'estaing was drawn by the wish of congress, the entreaties of
South Carolina, and his own neverfail-ing good-will.
On the first day of September he
approached
Georgia so suddenly that he took by surprise four British ships of war. To the government of
South Carolina he announced his readiness to assist
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in reducing
Savannah; but as there was neither har-
bor, nor road, nor offing to receive his twenty ships of the line, he made it a condition that his fleet, which consisted of thirty-three sail, should not be detained long off so dangerous a coast.
South Carolina glowed with joy in the fixed belief, that the garrison of
Savannah would lay down their arms.
In ten days the
French troops, though unassisted, effected their landing.
Meantime, the
British commander worked day and night with relays of hundreds of negroes to strengthen his defences; and
Maitland, regardless of malaria, hastened with troops from
Beaufort through the swamps of the low country.
On the sixteenth, d'estaing summoned General
Prevost to surrender to the arms of the king of
France.
While
Prevost gained time by a triple interchange of notes,
Maitland, flushed with a mortal fever caught on the march, brought to his aid through the inland channels the first division of about four hundred men from
Beaufort.
The second division followed a few hours later; and when both had arrived, the
British gave their answer of defiance.
Swiftly as the summons had been borne through
South Carolina, and gladly as its people ran to arms,
it was the twenty-third of September when the
Americans under
Lincoln joined the
French in the siege of the city.
On the eighth of October the reduction
of
Savannah seemed still so far distant, that the naval officers insisted on the rashness of leaving the fleet longer exposed to autumnal gales, or to an attack, with so much of its strength on land.
An assault was, therefore, resolved on for the next day, an hour before sunrise, by two feigned and two real attacks.
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The only chance of success lay in the precise exe-
cution of the plan.
The column under
Count Dillon, which was to have attacked the rear of the
British lines, became entangled in a swamp, of which it should only have skirted the edge, was helplessly exposed to the
British batteries, and could not even be formed.
It was broad day when the party with d'estaing, accompanied by a part of the Carolinians, advanced fearlessly, but only to become huddled together near the parapet under a destructive fire from musketry and cannon.
The American standard was planted on the ramparts by
Hume and by
Bush, lieutenants of the second South Carolina regiment, but both of them fell; at their side
Sergeant Jasper was mortally wounded, but he used the last moments of his life to bring off the colors which he supported.
A French standard was also planted.
After an obstinate struggle of fifty-five minutes to carry the redoubt, the assailants retreated before a charge of grenadiers and marines, led gallantly by
Maitland.
The injury sustained by the
British was trifling; the loss of the
Americans was about two hundred; of the
French thrice as many.
D'Estaing was twice wounded;
Pulaski once, and mortally.
‘The cries of the dying,’ so wrote the
Baron de Stedingk to his king, Gustavus the Third of
Sweden, ‘pierced me to the heart.
I desired death, and might have found it, but for the necessity of thinking how to save four hundred men whose retreat was stopped by a broken bridge.’
He himself was badly wounded.
At
Paris, as he moved about on crutches, he became the delight of the highest social circles; and at one of the theatres he was personated on the stage, leading a party
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to storm.
The
French withdrew to their ships and
sailed for
France; the patriots of
Georgia who had joined them fled to the backwoods or across the river.
Lincoln repaired to
Charleston, and was followed by what remained of his army; the militia of
South Carolina returned to their homes; its continental regiments were melting away; and its paper money became so nearly worthless, that a bounty of twentyfive hundred dollars for twenty-one months service had no attraction.
The dwellers near the sea between
Charleston and
Savannah were shaken in their allegiance, not knowing where to find protection.
Throughout the state the people were disheartened, and foreboded its desolation.
The permanence of the power of the
British in the
southern Atlantic states depended on their treatment of the negro.
Now that they held
Georgia and
Beaufort in
South Carolina, they might have gained an enduring mastery by emancipating and arming the blacks.
But the idea that slavery was a sin against humanity was unknown to parliament and to the ministry, and would have been hooted at by the army.
The thought of universal emancipation had not yet conquered the convictions of the ruling class in
England, nor touched the life and conscience of the nation.
The
English of that day rioted in the lucrative slave-trade, and the zeal of the government in upholding it had been one of the causes that provoked the
American war. So the advice to organize an army of liberated negroes, though persisted in by the royal governor of
Virginia, was crushed by the mad eagerness of the
British officers and soldiers in
America for plunder!
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In this they were encouraged by the cordial ap-
probation of the king and his ministers.
The instructions from
Germain authorized the confiscation and sale not only of negroes employed in the
American army, but of those who voluntarily followed the
British troops and took sanctuary under British jurisdiction.
5 Many of them were shipped to the markets of the
West Indies.
Before the end of three months after the capture of
Savannah, all the property, real and personal, of the rebels in
Georgia, was disposed of.
6 For further gains, Indians were encouraged to catch slaves wherever they could find them, and bring them in. All families in
South Carolina were subjected to the visits of successive sets of banditti, who received commissions to act as volunteers with no pay or emolument but that derived from rapine, and who, roaming about at pleasure, robbed the widely scattered plantations without regard to the patriotism or the loyalty of their owners.
Negroes were the spoil most coveted; on the average, they were valued at two hundred and fifty silver dollars each.
When
Sir James Wright returned to the government of
Georgia, he found several thousands of them awaiting distribution among their claimants.
The name of the
British grew hateful, where it had before been cherished; their approach was dreaded as the coming of ruin; their greed quelled every hope of the slave for enfranchisement.
