CHAPTER X.REVOLUTIONARY WAR(continued), 1780.
Sir Henry Clinton left the South, believing that the revolutionary spirit there was so nearly quelled that but little apprehension need be felt regarding it. And as if to strengthen this opinion, a decided victory was gained very soon by Lords Cornwallis and Rawdon (afterwards the Earl of Moira), over the combined American forces, under Baron de Kalb and General Gates, at Camden.
General Gates had been sent by Washington, with a strong force from the North, for the relief of the southern provinces. The season was unhealthy; they marched through a barren and disaffected country, were greatly in want of food, and eating unripe peaches and green corn which soon produced disease, their numbers were sadly weakened and thinned. In the meantime De Kalb, with the Delaware and Maryland regiments, marching south with the same object, suffered equally, collecting their own supplies on the march—lean cattle from the canebrakes and Indian corn, the only grain of those regions.[32]
The approach of Gates raised the hopes of the patriots of South Carolina, and Colonel Sumter, who had fled with his partisan-band to North Carolina, on the late triumphs of the British, returned with his fearless followers and made successful attacks on the British posts; while Marion, another bold leader, issuing from the swamps of the Lower Pedee with a number of only half-clad men, began to attack their outposts with equal success. These partisan-bands having joined Gates, he advanced from Clermont, about thirteenmiles distant from Camden, on the 5th of August, with the intention of surprising the British camp; while Cornwallis, who had, on his junction with Rawdon, assumed the command, was advancing from Camden with the design of surprising the Americans. The next morning by break of day the two armies encountered each other. Although the Americans greatly outnumbered the British, Gates’ militia, which were new to the field, on the first charge of the British bayonets threw down their arms and fled, General Gates and Governor Casswell being fairly carried off the field by the fugitives, whom they could not rally. In vain did the better disciplined and more experienced regiments of Maryland and Delaware sustain their ground with firmness, and even compel the enemy to retire; they too, being attacked in flank and De Kalb their leader mortally wounded, were broken and fled. The pursuit lasted for twenty-eight miles; every corps, says Hildreth, was scattered; men and officers, separated from each other, fled singly or in small parties through the woods. The road was strewn with killed and wounded. Arms, knapsacks, broken-down wagons and dead horses scattered the road for many miles. Of the Americans, 900 were killed, and about the same number taken prisoners, many of whom were wounded. The British lost only between 300 and 400 men.
A few days afterwards disastrous news reached Gates, and about 200 men, the collected fragments of his late considerable force, now assembled in the Valley of Wateree in North Carolina, about eighty miles from the scene of their terrible defeat. This was, that Sumter, having fled with his followers to the same district, had been pursued by the rapid and merciless Tarleton, in whose furious career more than half his cavalry had broken down. Coming with the remainder in hot speed upon the camp of the partisan leader, who, believing himself safe, had relaxed his guard, he had been surprised, his prisoners released, 300 of his own men captured, and 150 killed, while he himself narrowly escaped with his life.
The Carolinas might now be considered subdued, for no organised American forces remained within them. To make the subjection more complete, and to awe the spirit of insurrection which had shown itself on Gates’ approach, Lord Cornwallis adopted measures of extreme severity. Orders were issued to hang every man nowfound in arms, who had formerly taken British protection, and several such persons having been discovered among Sumter’s followers, they were accordingly hanged on the spot. The property of all such as had left the province to avoid the British rule, and of all that held commissions under congress, was declared to be sequestrated, and Gadsden and forty other of the principal inhabitants of Charleston, suspected of having corresponded with their friends in arms, were put under arrest and sent prisoners to St. Augustine.
These extreme measures, however, failed of their intended purpose. A reaction, as was sure to be the case, followed. The people, who had been awed into subjection, were now exasperated to revolt. Marion again had a ragged but formidable band under his control among the swamps of the Pedee, and Sumter presently collected a new force with which he harassed the north-western districts, and in which he was aided by volunteers from the mountains. Both were now commissioned as generals, and a guerilla warfare was kept up by them.[33]
Nor was the public reaction confined only to the men—it raised the women of South Carolina into heroism. They gloried in being called “rebel-ladies,†refused their presence at the scenes of gaiety offered them by the conquerors of their cities, and occupied themselves instead, in visiting and relieving the sufferings and wants of the wounded soldiers, and encouraged their husbands, sons, or brothers, still to be “rebels,†and die, if it must be so, rather than submit to the British. Nor was this noble patriotism confined only to the South. Mrs. Willard assures us, eloquently, that patriotism glowed in the hearts of women throughout all parts of the country, and that they displayed great activity in collecting materials and making clothes for the soldiers. In Philadelphia, a society for this purpose was formed, at the head of which was Martha Washington, the wife of the commander-in-chief. All this was as it should be, but not more than we have a right to expect from the daughters of a parentage so worthy as was that of many an American. The earth’s best blood was in their veins. The daughters of those pilgrim-mothers who left their native land to establish purer and moreChristian homes in the American wilderness, could not so belie their ancestry as to fail in the charities of womanhood.
But we now come to a dark passage, which forms a strong contrast to the patriotism of the above.
The utmost gloom hung over the American affairs in the North. France had once more, it is true, under the influence of La Fayette, who now returned to America, sent over a fleet and a considerable number of troops, to co-operate with the republicans; but nothing as yet had been done. So doubtful indeed did it appear, towards the autumn of 1780, whether the army could even be maintained for another campaign, that Washington was anxious, while he had yet any forces under his command, to strike some decisive blow, and he accordingly proposed to Count de Rochambeau, the French general, who lay with his troops at Newport, to make an attack on New York. In order to concert this proposed plan, Washington went to Hartford, and during his absence a scheme of treason, in the very bosom of the American camp, came to light, which fell like a thunderbolt on the country, and which has so much interesting detail connected with it, that we must be allowed to give it somewhat fully, and in doing so we will principally follow the excellent American historian Hildreth, and the Annual Register of 1781.
In September, a plot was laid for betraying the important fortress of West Point, and other posts of the Highlands, into the hands of the enemy, the traitor being no other than Arnold, the most brilliant officer and one of the most honoured in the American army. Arnold, however, with all his fine qualities as a soldier, was a man of an overbearing and reckless spirit; he had in many cases shown great want of integrity and disregard of the rights of others; nevertheless his valour and his many brilliant achievements had cast his faults into the shade and placed him in command at Philadelphia. There, however, as we have already mentioned, his conduct had given rise to much dissatisfaction. He occupied the best mansion in the city, and lived in so expensive a style as to become involved in debt, to free himself from which he entered into mercantile and privateering speculations. This mode of living and these speculations led to the interference of congress, and the sentence of a reprimand from the commander-in-chief. His debts and moneydifficultiescaused him to request, but in vain, a loan from the French minister. The same causes had already led him to open a correspondence with Sir Henry Clinton, though how this was first commenced, and through whom carried on, is not known. When, however, he was satisfied that the treacherous purpose he had in view would be satisfactorily entered into, and in order to enable him to accomplish it most effectually, he solicited from Washington the command in the Highlands, and Washington, who, spite of Arnold’s faults, had confidence in him, and who was glad to show this after the humiliation he had just laid upon him, placed that important trust in his hands.
The peculiar circumstances of these highland strongholds at this crisis must be borne in mind. The failure of the French fleet with regard to the attack on New York having overthrown all prospects of active operation on the side of the Americans for the present season, Washington stationed his army for the winter in these very posts, on each side of the North River, where, besides security, they had an opportunity of watching the motions of the British and repressing any incursions from New York. In this arrangement, the strong and very important post of West Point, with its neighbouring dependencies and one wing of the army, were intrusted to the custody and conduct of General Arnold.
In order to arrange the terms of the bargain, an interview was necessary with some confidential British agent, and Major André, with whom Arnold had already carried on a correspondence under the feigned names of Gustavus and Anderson, volunteered for this purpose. The outlines of the project were that Arnold should make such a disposition of the wing under his command, as should enable Sir Henry Clinton to surprise their strong posts and batteries, and throw the troops so entirely into his hands that they must inevitably either lay down their arms or be cut to pieces on the spot. Nor was this all; other consequences followed: the remainder of Washington’s army would thus he laid open to the joint attack of the British forces both by land and water, so that nothing would remain for the American cause but slaughter, rout, dispersion and final ruin. Such a blow, it was deemed, would be irrevocable. Independent of the loss of artillery, magazines and stores, such adestruction of their disciplined troops and of their best officers must be immediately fatal.
If a presentiment of woe falls like a great cloud over the sensitive and occult spirit at the approach of evil, we may well understand why the mind of Washington at this moment was overcast by gloom and apprehension. A few hours after he had gone to Hartford, under great depression and anxiety, the necessary steps were taken for the accomplishment of this stratagem of evil. The British sloop-of-war Vulture, with Major André on board, having already ascended the Hudson, and lying now some few miles below King’s Ferry, a boat was sent off by Arnold at nightfall, which brought André on shore and landed him on the west side of the river, just below the American lines, where Arnold was waiting for him. It was morning before the arrangements were completed, and then Arnold persuaded André to enter the American lines and remain secreted all day in the house of one Smith, the person who had brought him on shore. In the meantime the Vulture, having attracted the notice of the American gunners, had found it necessary to change her position, and probably from the dread of discovery, though the true cause has never been really known, Smith refused to take André back to the ship at night as he had engaged to do.
On the second day, therefore, towards sunset, laying aside his uniform, which he had till now worn under a plain surtout, assuming an ordinary dress, and being furnished with a pass from Arnold, in the name of John Anderson, he set out on horseback, with Smith for a guide, and having passed through a remote part of the camp, and all the guards and posts, in safety, they crossed King’s Ferry and spent the night with an acquaintance of Smith’s. The next morning, the guide having conducted him safely across Croton River, left him to pursue the rest of his journey alone. He had now to pass through a district some thirty miles above the Island of New York, known as “neutral ground,†a populous and fertile region, infested by bands of plunderers, called “Cow-Boys and Skinners.†The “Cow-Boys†lived within the British lines, and bought or stole cattle for the supply of the British army. The rendezvous of the “Skinners†was within the American lines. They professed to be great patriots, making it their ostensible business to plunder all whorefused to take the oath of allegiance to the State of New York. But they were ready in fact to rob anybody, and the cattle thus obtained were often sold to the “Cow-boys,†in exchange for dry goods brought from New York. By a state law, all cattle driven towards the city beyond a certain line were lawful plunder, and a general authority was given to arrest suspicious travellers.[34]
In passing through a place called Tarrytown, André was stopped by three young men, John Paulding, David Williams and Isaac van Wert, on the look-out for cattle or travellers. His passport at first seemed to satisfy them, and they allowed him to proceed. He had not, however, gone many yards, when one of them on recollection was so forcibly struck by some peculiarity in the stranger’s manner or countenance, that he peremptorily insisted on returning with his companions, and examining more strictly. This second thought on his part was fatal to André. André, not used to, or not prepared for such an encounter—or, as he himself said in his letter to Washington, too little versed in deception to practise it with any degree of success—offered his captors a considerable purse of gold, a valuable watch, or anything which they might name, if they would suffer him to proceed to New York.
His offers were rejected; he was searched, suspicious papers were found in his boots, and he was carried before Colonel Jamison, the commanding officer on the lines. The papers found upon André, who still maintained the name of Anderson, a supposed inhabitant of New York, were found to contain precise accounts of the state of the forces, ordnance and defences of West Point and its dependences, with the artillery orders, critical remarks on the works, the amount of men on duty each day, together with interesting particulars, which had been laid before a council of war by the commander-in-chief. Although these papers were in the handwriting of Arnold, Jamison, unable to believe that his commanding officer was a traitor, forwarded them by express to Washington at Hartford, and sent the prisoner to Arnold, informing him of his assumed name, his passport, and that papers of a very suspicious character had been found upon him. Circumstances favoured Arnold in various ways. Major Talmadge,who had been absent, returning at this moment, retained André, though the letter went forward to Arnold, and the express, with the papers themselves, sent to Washington, missed him on the road, he being then on his return to Hartford. Washington’s aides-de-camp, who preceded him, were breakfasting with Arnold when Jamison’s letter arrived. Pretending that it was an immediate call to visit one of the forts on the other side of the river, Arnold rose from table, called his wife up stairs, told her sufficient to throw her into a fainting-fit, mounted a ready-saddled horse, rode to the river-side, threw himself into a barge, passed the forts, waving a handkerchief by way of flag, and ordered his boatmen to row for the Vulture. Safe on board, he wrote a letter to Washington, declaring that the love of his country had been the ruling principle of his life; but the main purpose of the letter was to ask protection for his wife, whom he declared innocent of what he had done.[35]
When André found that Arnold had escaped, and that no means of delivery remained for himself, he wrote a letter to Washington, avowing his name and character. The imputation of treachery and the dread of appearing in the base light of a spy, appeared worse to him than death. Strange, that a noble nature, such as André’s unquestionably was, had not perceived from the first that the whole transaction was base, and that he was the tool of a second Judas. The burden and shame, however, of the consequences of his act bowed him down to the very dust, and he now besought of Washington that to whatever fate a rigorous policy might doom him, a decency of treatment might be observed which should testify that, though unfortunate, he was branded with nothing dishonourable, and that he was involuntarily an imposter. André was examined before a board of officers, and upon the very story which he himself told he was pronounced a spy, and as such was doomed to speedy death.
Sir Henry Clinton used the utmost efforts to save him, but the manly and frank behaviour of André, and the amiable character which he bore, pleaded for him more than all these, or than the letter which Arnold wrote to Washington on the same subject, threateningthe severest retaliation if the life of André were taken. The public heart sympathised with him, but martial justice demanded his life, and his last prayer that he might be shot rather than hanged was denied. And it was right so far, that if it be justifiable to take human life, and this were a crime of which death was the penalty, the quality of the offender should make no difference; on the contrary, perhaps, even in proportion as his nature was pure and generous, so could there be the less excuse to him of a dull perception between a base and a noble action; and the intended treachery of Arnold was base in the extreme.
The day after the sentence was passed, Oct. 2nd, it was carried into execution, and the dignity and composure of the criminal is said to have excited the utmost admiration, while it melted all hearts. The sympathy which André excited in the American army, says the British chronicler of this event, is perhaps unexampled under any circumstances. It was said that the whole board of general officers shed tears at the drawing-up and signing the report, and that even Washington wept upon hearing the circumstances of his death. All those about him treated him with the most marked attention, with the greatest kindness and the most scrupulous delicacy.
There is a touching pathos in the whole sad history, and a calm dignity in the behaviour of all parties, the offender and the offended, which elevate humanity and are deeply affecting to contemplate. Nor as regarded Arnold, the willing Judas of American liberty, was this noble Christian dignity compromised. Washington sent Mrs. Arnold to her husband at New York, who was himself obliged to confess his obligation to the commander-in-chief for the kindness and protection which she had received from him, as well as the many obligations she was under to the gentlemen of his family. The clothes and baggage which he had sent for were likewise forwarded to him, but as regarded all other matters, his letters and himself were passed over without the smallest notice.[36]Somewhat later, however, when he had published an address to the inhabitants of America, calling upon them to “surrender to Great Britain, and to be no longer the tools and dupes of congress and France,†his name was publiclyplaced by the executive power of Pennsylvania at the head of a list of ten traitors, who were summoned to surrender by a given day, or to be subjected to all the pains, penalties and forfeitures of high-treason. Beyond that, Arnold was dead to the country; the magnitude of his offence placed him below her recognition. For himself he received £10,000, and was made a brigadier-general in the British army. He was also authorised to raise a corps of cavalry and infantry among the disaffected, who were to be clothed and fed like the other troops in the British service, and to whom a bounty of three guineas per man was given, besides payment at full value for horses, arms and accoutrements. All these being intended as strong baits in opposition to the distress, want of pay, hunger and nakedness of the republican army.
As regarded the treachery of Arnold, Washington took immediate measures to protect his camp and works from its consequences; but it did not appear that he had any party in the army; no defection followed, and the example tended probably rather as a warning than otherwise.
During these events in the north, the two hostile parties in the south had not been inactive. General Gates, who had not sustained in South Carolina the reputation which he gained by the surrender of Burgoyne, was superseded by General Greene. Both Lee and Steuben were ordered to the south, as well as Kosciusko, who acted as engineer.
In September, Cornwallis detached Colonel Ferguson to the frontiers of North Carolina, for the purpose of encouraging the loyalists to take arms. A large number of the most profligate and abandoned repaired to his standard, and under the conduct of their leader committed atrocious excesses. This roused the country; the militia were out; and a force of mounted backwoodsmen, armed with rifles and their provision at their backs, led by Shelby and Sevier, afterwards first governors of Kentucky and Tennessee, and joined by various partisan corps, marched against Ferguson, who was advancing towards the mountains. On the first tidings of this formidable force Ferguson fled, pursued by 1,000 of the best mounted and surest marksmen out of double that number; and so rapid was the flight and the pursuit, that in thirty-six hours the mountaineer-backwoodsmendismounted but once. Ferguson, finding escape impossible, chose a strong position at King’s Mountain, on the Catawbee River, the boundary line between North and South Carolina. The attack was furious and the defence exceedingly obstinate; but, at length, Ferguson being slain, and 300 of his followers killed or wounded, the survivors, to the number of 800, threw down their arms and surrendered. Ten of the most obnoxious of these were immediately hanged as traitors, an outrage which was soon richly retaliated. After this the backwoodsmen retired as rapidly to their homes, and their victory, when trumpeted abroad, raised the sinking spirit of the South.[37]
Again Marion and Sumter were in the field, and the ubiquitous Tarleton, with his rapid cavalry, was despatched first against one and then the other. Marion was driven back to his swamps; and Sumter, having joined with other partisan corps in an attack on Fort Ninety-Six, defeated and took prisoner Major Wemyss, after which, having received intelligence through a deserter that Tarleton and his troop were out in pursuit, he took up a position on Blackstock Hill. Tarleton, after a severe loss, was obliged to retreat, leaving Sumter severely wounded, and in possession of the field. The close of the year was now approaching, and Sumter being conveyed to a place of safety, his followers dispersed.
On December 2nd, Greene joined the American army at Charlotte and assumed command. He found the troops without pay, and their clothing in tatters. There was scarcely a dollar in the military chest, and subsistence was obtained by impressment; nevertheless he entered at once on active operations; determining, however, rather to harass the British army than, in the present weak condition of his troops, to risk a general action. But it was not the army alone which was on the alert. All the scattered settlements of Whigs and Tories were in hostile array, and pursued each other with almost savage fury. The excitable temperament of the South gave to the struggle a more terrible character than it had in the North. Everywhere were small parties under arms, some on one side some on the other, desperately bent on plunder and blood.
At the close of this year England was satisfied with the progress which her arms had made in America; no ground of any consequence was lost in the North, while in the South, Georgia was entirely subdued and the royal government re-established. The possession of Charleston, Augusta, Ninety-Six and Camden, supported by an army in the field, secured entire control over the populous and wealthy parts of South Carolina. North Carolina was full of Tories, impatient to acknowledge the British crown on the arrival of Cornwallis. The three southern states were incapable of helping themselves, and the North, exhausted and penniless, was in no condition to help them. The colonies seemed almost sinking under the accumulated pressure of this long-protracted struggle. England, in the meantime, assailed by three European nations, and sustaining a war against two hemispheres, America and the East Indies, was putting forth energies and voting supplies on the most immense scale, as if the very demand increased her powers of exertion. The siege of Gibraltar, under its commander Elliot, was going on; great battles were fought on the West Indian and European seas; fleets and armies went to the East and to the West, and the new year commenced with preparations in all these various and remote scenes of action for new enterprise, for new effort.
As regarded America herself, France, in addition to the troops under Rochambeau, sent out a large fleet at the commencement of this year, under the Count de Grasse, which, after having performed certain service in the West Indies, was to co-operate with Rochambeau and Washington on the coast of America.
The state of affairs, however, was most anxious and critical, and calculated to create the most serious alarm. Although the efforts made during the past year, and the late successes in the South, had revived the public spirit, still no sufficient or permanent means had been provided for supplying the increasing wants of the army. The country seemed upon the brink of ruin. Nor can any situation be imagined more painful than that of the American congress at this moment. The enemy had advanced into the heart of the country; they had important militia operations to carry forward, but were wholly without money. Their bills of credit had so completely lost their value, that they had ceased to be a legal tender, and were not receivedeven in payment of taxes. In this emergency their agents, as already had been done, were directed to borrow from France, Spain, and Holland. They resorted to the unpopular measure of taxation, the tax being apportioned among the several state governments, by whose authority it was collected; and in order as much as possible to introduce economy and to prevent disorder, waste, or peculation, they appointed Robert Morris of Philadelphia as their treasurer, a man whose pure morals, ardent patriotism, and great knowledge of financial concerns, eminently fitted him for this important station.
The zeal and genius of Morris soon produced the best results. A national bank was established, wealthy individuals were induced to deposit here their funds, and by borrowing in the name of government from this bank, and pledging in return the taxes not yet collected, he was enabled to anticipate them, and command a supply. He also made use of his own credit, which was good, and bills were in circulation at one time, bearing his signature, to the amount of £100,000. Franklin also obtained a loan of 4,000,000 of livres from the court of France, which likewise gave its guarantee to Holland for a loan of 10,000,000. Spain refused to lend money unless she received a monopoly of the navigation of the Mississippi, which was steadily refused.[38]
So far a better prospect dawned, but before the effects were perceived to any extent, an alarming revolt took place among both the Pennsylvanian and the New Jersey troops, the causes of which were the exact terms of their enlistment, and the want of necessaries. The Pennsylvanian troops, to the number of 1,300, abandoning their camp, commenced their march to Princetown, where congress was sitting, that they might lay their grievances before it. On their way they were met by emissaries from Sir Henry Clinton, who wished to entice them into the British service; but indignant at this attempt to corrupt their fidelity, they seized their tempters and gave them up to General Wayne to be punished as spies. At Princetown they were met by a committee from congress, which, fearing the effect of this revolt at this moment, relieved their necessities in part, and allowed such as claimed their discharge on a three years’ service, toleave the ranks, which most of them did. To their credit, however, be it said, that when offered a reward for apprehending the British emissaries, they nobly refused it, saying, they wanted no reward for doing their duty to their country against her enemies. The revolters in New Jersey did not, however, come off so well. Washington, determined to put a stop to further insubordination, despatched at once a force on which he could rely, from West Point, under Colonel Howe, which suddenly surrounding the camp of the insurgents, compelled them to submission, and two of their leaders being tried by court-martial and shot, there was no more revolt in the army.
In October of this year, General Leslie sailed from New York, with 3,000 men, to reinforce Lord Cornwallis, and lay for some time at Portsmouth on the Chesapeake, to be in readiness against North Carolina. On the news, however, of Ferguson’s defeat, he proceeded to Charleston, and shortly after—in fact, at the very commencement of 1781—Sir Henry Clinton despatched the traitor, now Brigadier-General Arnold, to occupy Portsmouth and to make a diversion in Virginia, not doubting but that the force of his name and character would attract great numbers to the British standard. The force under Arnold amounted to about 1,700, most of them loyalists, a small corps of 200 having been raised in New York by Arnold himself, together with a considerable number of armed vessels. Arriving in the Chesapeake, and leaving a sufficient force at Portsmouth, Arnold ascended the James River, and commenced a series of ravages on the unprotected settlements. Governor Jefferson called out the militia, but the white population were so scanty and scattered on their distant plantations, and were so much occupied in keeping their slaves in order, that the call was hardly obeyed, 200 only appearing for the defence of Richmond, the capital.
Arnold entered without opposition, and immediately commenced to destroy the public stores, as well as many public and private buildings, after which he retired to Portsmouth, which he fortified and made his head-quarters. A plan in the meantime was formed by Washington to capture him and his army. La Fayette was sent down into Virginia, and at the earnest request of Washington, the French fleet stationed at Rhode Island, with a number of French troops on board, sailed to co-operate with him. The British, however,being apprised of this project, Admiral Arbuthnot sailed from Gardiner’s Bay in Long Island, where he had lain with his squadron all the winter, attacked the French fleet off the capes of Chesapeake, and compelled it to return to Rhode Island. The British squadron entered the Chesapeake, and shortly after, a reinforcement of 2,000 men being sent from New York to Portsmouth, Arnold, happily for himself, was delivered from the imminent peril which had threatened him of falling into the hands of his countrymen. The British frigates ascending the rivers of Virginia, levied contributions upon all the tide-water counties. One of these vessels entering the Potomac, reached Mount Vernon, the home and plantation of Washington, whose manager, to save the buildings from destruction, supplied a quantity of provisions, greatly to the displeasure of the American commander-in-chief when he heard of the fact.[39]